re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Russian propaganda plays on tropes to spur fantasies of cleansing the world, but one has only to look at Russia itself to see what that actually consists of in practice - the richest natural resources in the world squandered by a government of paranoid thieves. Men die in their mid-60's on average, and have living standards no better than Ukraine despite GDP per capita much higher. It's madness to be horny for Russia.

Also super high abortion rates in Russia.

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Yes

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Answering in the affirmative, especially without any evidence, isn't a sufficient answer.

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ostly Galicians, ultranationalists from western Ukraine, and what was once Poland. While no more than perhaps 8% of the electorate, they dominate the decision making process in Kiev.

Zelensky is powerless to control them.

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Give me an example of how they dominate the decision-making process.

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Western society is collapsing because of the breakdown in basic human norms.

Look at the collapse of extended families, the rise of single parent homes, and the decay in our communities.

Look at the normalization of transsexualism, and the push to make pedophilia “okay.”

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Western society isn't collapsing. You want to believe it is collapsing because you don't like some aspects of it.

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We staged revolutions in both Serbia, and Ukraine. We encouraged the Georgian War. And we attempted to overthrow the government in Belarus. While concurrently expanding NATO.

Simultaneously, we funded anti government movements inside Russia.

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But it was the former Eastern-Bloc countries who wanted to be part of NATO. There was a lot of hesitancy in Washington at the time about whether to include them. But for them, the threat of being under Russian control was so great that they were the ones who pushed to join.

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You’re distorting the meaning of the English language.

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Nope. Defensive realism is just a term from international relations, and I use it directly in reference to its use in that field. I actually meant offensive realism though, so my bad there. The Wolfowitz Doctrine was an offensive realist manifesto. Through that geopolitical and international relations perspective, weakening the Russian security state, or the security state of any vanquished enemy, was vital to the US's interest. The main argument was that since no one at the time would know what the post-Soviet security situation would look like, the expansionist position was the best option in order to prevent the rise of an equally powerful successor state, regardless of the cost. That doesn't mean it wasn't myopic or without discontents, but it was the choice that Western leaders took. The offensive realist position is that it is up to the enemy to stop them. The other side of this argument is that just as much as the Russian elite, the US FP elite made into reality their worst possible nightmare. A softer post-CW approach may have seen Russia integrate into the larger European network.

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To expand NATO, to overthrow foreign governments in Eastern Europe, to create friendly client states, these are aggressive and hostile acts. And unsurprisingly, the Russians saw it that way.

Rather than seek mutual agreeable security compromises, we attempted to beggar the Russians.

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I agree. Our leaders certainly treated Russia as a threat, and acted accordingly. They certainly didn't treat Russia as an equal, and perhaps gave their military prowess too much respect.

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You believe in the end of history, kumbaya. That’s millennial religious thinking.

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Fukuyama was utterly prescient despite the unfortunate title of that manuscript. But the proof in the pudding is the fact that integration smoothed away a millennia of problems in Central Europe. If given the choice between what amounts to a pointless conflict (as this one will prove to be) and integration, I'll choose the latter each time, with all its problems.

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Human nature doesn’t change. We’re not moving to some idealized future, where everyone is nice.

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Which is the offensive realist position.

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Borders are ultimately an expression of national power. Russia is going to take what it wants.

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Who is being driven by pie-in-the-sky thinking here? For each action there are consequences. I don't think Russia is prepared for the degree of consequences. The offensive realist position that the US took was prepared for the consequences of a Russia with revanchist aims. The Russians aren't, I don't think.

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quote: We staged revolutions in both Serbia, and Ukraine. We encouraged the Georgian War. And we attempted to overthrow the government in Belarus. While concurrently expanding NATO. Simultaneously, we funded anti government movements inside Russia. But it was the former Eastern-Bloc countries who wanted to be part of NATO. There was a lot of hesitancy in Washington at the time about whether to include them. But for them, the threat of being under Russian control was so great that they were the ones who pushed to join.

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How many countries in Eastern Europe has russia invaded in the last 100 years? All of them?

ISW Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, June 21

Key Takeaways

The Kremlin recently replaced the commander of the Russian Airborne (VDV) forces and may have fired the commander of the Southern Military District and appointed a new overall commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, indicating ongoing dysfunction in the Kremlin’s conduct of the war.

Russian forces conducted several successful advances in settlements southeast of Severodonetsk on June 21 and may be able to threaten Lysychansk in the coming days while avoiding a difficult opposed crossing of the Siverskyi Donets River.

Russian forces continued to launch assaults on settlements along the T1302 Lysychansk-Bakhmut highway to interdict Ukrainian ground lines of communications (GLOCs).
Russian operations along the Izyum-Slovyansk axis are increasingly stalled as Russian forces prioritize operations around Severodonetsk.

Russian forces likely recaptured the eastern bank of the Inhulets River from the Ukrainian bridgehead situated near the Kherson-Mykolaiv Oblast border.

Ukrainian forces reportedly struck Russian positions on Snake Island in the Black Sea, likely to destroy Russian fortifications and equipment on the island, but ISW cannot confirm competing Ukrainian and Russian claims of the results of the attack.

Russian occupation authorities are continuing to face challenges recruiting local collaborators and are likely relying on Russian government personnel to consolidate their societal control of occupied Ukrainian territories.

and,

Russian forces continue to face force generation challenges and are committing unprepared contract servicemen to the invasion of Ukraine. The BBC’s Russian service reported on June 20 that new Russian recruits receive only 3 to 7 days of training before being sent to “the most active sectors of the front.”[9] The BBC also reported that volunteers within the conventional Russian military, Rosgvardia units, and Wagner Group mercenaries have become Russia’s main assault force, as opposed to full conventional military units.

ISW

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It isn't straightforward

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Sweet Jesus


God have mercy on your soul.

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Sweet Jesus


God have mercy on your soul.

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Again, answer substantively or shut up. How much experience do you have in a pediatric endocrinologist clinic?

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Sweet jesus, the naivety. You can argue that its not a bad thing, but to deny its not under major attack is literally retarded.

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Your arse needs some perspective. Just because you dislike a trend doesn't mean things are collapsing. And most of you ill-read morons dislike any type of self-critique, or rather, take self-critique from primarily Western intellectuals as an affront, and use that as evidence of an attack. If only you were trained in the Western tradition. Alas.

LINK

Good lord the bullshite you spew is hilarious. You’re such a tool.