Do you want the Ukrainian War to end today?

[Estro Felino]

Really? That is what you think would happen? I think cooler heads would prevail, although there might be a lot of shouting back and forth. Especially in German, with maybe some Romansch sprinkled in. Austria would get mustard up its nose, but I don't see their troops invading Italy. Why haven't the Slovenians invaded to occupy Trieste? Get a grip.

If they invaded us, we would not be so stupid to waste hundreds of thousands of soldiers for the sake of a small region.
We would give it to the Austrians. After all they speak German there. Italians are a minority.

 

[Revoltingest]

He increased the advisors but was against the military intervention considering the earlier defeat of U.S forces in Korea as well as high casualties, and probably did not want to repeat the same prudently. As a former naval officer, he possibly assessed and understood the military situation correctly and found it not palatable.

Nonetheless, he did increase US involvement.
Would he have exited if he remained in office?
Unknown.

 

[Estro Felino]

Nonetheless, he did increase US involvement.
Would he have exited if he remained in office?
Unknown.

Of course he would have exited.
That is why they killed him.
They.
Plural.

 

[Revoltingest]

Of course he would have exited.
That is why they killed him.
They.
Plural.

It's hard to refute such a cogent
evidence based argument.

 

[Estro Felino]

It's hard to refute such a cogent
evidence based argument.

I have overwhelming evidence.
A confession coming from James Files.

I suspect you believe that it's impossible the CIA killed JFK because they are all immaculate, sinless, holy, virgins and martyrs. Amen.

Am I wrong?

 

[Revoltingest]

Am I wrong?

Frequently.

 

[Estro Felino]

Frequently.

Many consider LBJ a saint that would have never harmed JFK in any way.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with the Vatican to start the process of sanctification of this great president.
Saint Lyndon Virgin. It sounds cool.

 

[Revoltingest]

Many consider LBJ a saint that would have never harmed JFK in any way.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with the Vatican to start the process of sanctification of this great president.
Saint Lyndon Virgin. It sounds cool.

This video shows his great concern for people.

 

[Estro Felino]

This video shows his great concern for people.

I thought he was heterosexual.
So he's not even straight?

 

[Revoltingest]

I thought he was heterosexual.
So he's not even straight?

I wouldn't know such a thing.

 

[Stevicus]

Many consider LBJ a saint that would have never harmed JFK in any way.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with the Vatican to start the process of sanctification of this great president.
Saint Lyndon Virgin. It sounds cool.

Lyndon was no saint. That's for sure. I don't know if he had anything to do with JFK's assassination, although no one can be certain that he didn't have anything to do with it either.

He did good by signing JFK's Civil RIghts Act and the Great Society, but he was a bit shameless with the little girl with daisy commercial, and he did invade Vietnam on a bogus pretext.

Makes me wonder how things would have turned out if the country elected Goldwater instead.

 

[Estro Felino]

I wouldn't know such a thing.

That movie is not good advertising for the Vietnam War.
Forrest lost his best friend there.

 

[Revoltingest]

That movie is not good advertising for the Vietnam War.
Forrest lost his best friend there.

But it did get him in the shrimping business.

 

[Kathryn]

I really don't think about all this often, because it doesn't do any good to worry needlessly about it. But if I had to choose an option, I'd choose that I just want the war in THE UKRAINE to end, no matter who wins it. Does anyone know that about thirty percent of Ukrainians speak Russian? That THE Ukraine contains a city that till recently we called KI-ev (as in Chicken Kiev), not Keev. The Ukraine (which we called it till recently) is a border region, and has been pretty hotly contested for centuries. It contains the city of Chernobyl, for instance. The country has been ruled by the Poles, the Lithuanians, the Austrians, and the Russians. In 1919, the country changed hands five times in one year. 44 percent of Crimeans did not vote to leave Russia. In 2014 the President of the Ukraine fled to Russia and gave a press conference from Russia. He was replaced by another President, and then another one and then another one. I can't keep it all straight, nor do I want to, frankly. All I know is that the Crimea (in eastern Ukraine) is hotly contested. Is it part of Russia or part of Ukraine? Honestly, I have no idea and I am not qualified to pass judgment on it.

 

[Estro Felino]

I really don't think about all this often, because it doesn't do any good to worry needlessly about it. But if I had to choose an option, I'd choose that I just want the war in THE UKRAINE to end, no matter who wins it. Does anyone know that about thirty percent of Ukrainians speak Russian? That THE Ukraine contains a city that till recently we called KI-ev (as in Chicken Kiev), not Keev. The Ukraine (which we called it till recently) is a border region, and has been pretty hotly contested for centuries. It contains the city of Chernobyl, for instance. The country has been ruled by the Poles, the Lithuanians, the Austrians, and the Russians. In 1919, the country changed hands five times in one year. 44 percent of Crimeans did not vote to leave Russia. In 2014 the President of the Ukraine fled to Russia and gave a press conference from Russia. He was replaced by another President, and then another one and then another one. I can't keep it all straight, nor do I want to, frankly. All I know is that the Crimea (in eastern Ukraine) is hotly contested. Is it part of Russia or part of Ukraine? Honestly, I have no idea and I am not qualified to pass judgment on it.

Interesting.
Crimeans are Russian-speaking people and are Russians, historically and culturally.

I study Russian, I like it very much.
I have never studied Ukrainian...but listening to it, it sounds like very, very, very similar to Russian to me.
Most words are identical.
So I am not understanding how they don't get along.

 

[Stevicus]

I really don't think about all this often, because it doesn't do any good to worry needlessly about it. But if I had to choose an option, I'd choose that I just want the war in THE UKRAINE to end, no matter who wins it. Does anyone know that about thirty percent of Ukrainians speak Russian? That THE Ukraine contains a city that till recently we called KI-ev (as in Chicken Kiev), not Keev. The Ukraine (which we called it till recently) is a border region, and has been pretty hotly contested for centuries. It contains the city of Chernobyl, for instance. The country has been ruled by the Poles, the Lithuanians, the Austrians, and the Russians. In 1919, the country changed hands five times in one year. 44 percent of Crimeans did not vote to leave Russia. In 2014 the President of the Ukraine fled to Russia and gave a press conference from Russia. He was replaced by another President, and then another one and then another one. I can't keep it all straight, nor do I want to, frankly. All I know is that the Crimea (in eastern Ukraine) is hotly contested. Is it part of Russia or part of Ukraine? Honestly, I have no idea and I am not qualified to pass judgment on it.

It's a long and complicated history, to be sure. And yes, it's true that the territory changed hands multiple times. The Mongols, Tatars, and Turks also had a presence in the region. A sizable percentage of Crimea's population are descended from Crimean Tatars. Crimea also became a flashpoint for conflict between Russia and the West, as Britain and France feared the possibility of Russia gaining strength in the Mediterranean region (just as the British had fears about the Berlin to Baghdad railway which would have increased German influence in the Middle East and Persian Gulf).

At one point in the distant past, the people known as "Ukrainians" and "Russians" were a singular nationality. They diverged culturally and linguistically as they became politically separated when Ukraine fell under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. That government didn't even call them "Ukrainians," but "Ruthenians" instead, a term which was applied to all Eastern Slavic groups. Another key difference is that the Poles and Lithuanians were Roman Catholic, while the Ruthenians were Eastern Orthodox. As the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth weakened, the Russians slowly and incrementally got back the Eastern Slavic territories they once held. Similarly, Russia started to push Turkey out of the southern part of Ukraine and in the Caucasus region, as the Turkish Empire was similarly in decline. I don't think anyone back then would have seen it as the Russians conquering Ukraine, since they would have seen the Eastern Slavs as their own people under foreign occupation by Poles, Lithuanians, and Turks, who didn't really belong there either.

While both Ukraine and Crimea were eventually within the fold of the Russian Empire, they were always considered separate territories. Ukraine made a bid for independence after the 1917 Revolution, but that was not to be. If they had, then Crimea and Donbas region probably would not have been part of it. The current configuration of the border was set during the Soviet period, when the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was formed. Crimea was added in the 1950s. When all of the Soviet Republics seceded and the USSR dissolved, a treaty was subsequently signed in which the boundaries were agreed upon based on their current location.

Now, it seems the Russians have changed their minds, and they no longer recognize those borders. That's pretty much welshing on the deal, so now they've launched an aggressive invasion which is a violation of even more treaties, including the UN Charter.
Russia was also concerned about former Soviet Republics and former Warsaw Pact states joining NATO in the 1990s and early 2000s, considering that an encroachment upon their territory and national interests. I've also heard that the US bombing of Belgrade in 1999 also led to a shift in public opinion about the West.

Of course, none of this would justify anything the Russians are doing now. They're clearly in the wrong, but we also have to consider the possibility of a shift in the balance of power in the world. Those who see the West as weak, divided, and decadent may try to gain advantage where they can. We are already facing sharp political rifts here at home over a variety of issues.

 

[Revoltingest]

I really don't think about all this often, because it doesn't do any good to worry needlessly about it. But if I had to choose an option, I'd choose that I just want the war in THE UKRAINE to end, no matter who wins it.

If Putin wins, I see ill effects down wind.
He'll know that the west can't stop other conquests,
which Russia has already expressed as plans. Also,
China would see this as a positive regarding their
invasion of Taiwan, which is a quagmire that USA
would wade into at great great deadly cost.

 

[Estro Felino]

If Putin wins, I see ill effects down wind.
He'll know that the west can't stop other conquests,
which Russia has already expressed as plans. Also,
China would see this as a positive regarding their
invasion of Taiwan, which is a quagmire that USA
would wade into at great great deadly cost.

It's well-known that the US have a problem with China over the leadership of the Pacific.

If Europe decides to be in good terms with Russia, will the US accept it?

You know, we Europeans never interfere with the US geopolitics, why do Americans always cross the Atlantic to bother, and to dictate what we Europeans can and cannot do?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Revoltingest]

If Europe decides to be in good terms with Russia, will the US accept it?

If circumstances change such that Eurostan
sees it that way, they USA likely would too.

You know, we Europeans never interfere with the US geopolitics, why do Americans always cross the Atlantic to bother, and to dictate what we Europeans can and cannot do?

Because Europe has shown itself unable to
cope with threats that are global in nature.
It even causes such threats at times. So USA
must babysit them.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

I'd be okay with Europe telling the US to **** off once in a while.

I'd also be okay with Europe expressing their opinions about what America is doing to itself.

Open, honest communication...such a novel idea, I know, for so many politicians...