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Firstly, we can't have such a device because it doesn't exist. If we did, we'd simply have to occupy Russia, a task that is notoriously difficult. They'd probably dump smallpox or bioweapons on us if we nuked them.
Secondly, the NATO/neolib occupation of Russia was tried in the 1990s with 'shock therapy' and US interference in the 1996 Russian elections to help Yeltsin, a drunkard and a putschist, stay in power. The guy made Jan 6th look like a tea party in a dollhouse, he had tanks shell the Russian Parliament in 1993 and killed 187 people. This was the guy we gave massive aid to - Putin is the reward we earned with our own efforts. If you massively subsidize and assist a cartoonishly villainous thug who steals from the people and shells the Parliament, people are not going to trust in your goodwill.
We already had the McKinsey school and Chicago school go in, we gave cheques to local elites - they made a complete mess of things. If your last experience of liberal democracy was grinding poverty, economic collapse, national humiliation, horrific life expectancy collapse and the creation of the oligarchs... why would you not be paranoid about the people who propped up Yeltsin? I'm not exaggerating about the 1990s, there were incidents where workers went without pay for months just to keep their jobs since they certainly weren't getting other ones if they quit!
I am not satisfied that we know how Russia should be run and have the skills to avoid making a massive economic disaster, even if we had the power to force the issue. At the time Western influence was greatest in Russia in the 1990s, it was wrecked 10x worse than anything this war could possibly do.
https://tradingeconomics.com/russia/gdp-per-capita
Thirdly, our intervention in Afghanistan was a tragic farce. We funded institutionalized pedophilia in the Afghan Army, integrated Afghanistan into world heroin markets and funneled vast amounts of wealth into a newly created class of Afghan oligarchs. Some of our trillions trickled down to the population, who are now starving since we cut off the funds. We totally failed to create a liberal democracy. Rather similar to how we totally failed to make a liberal democracy in Iraq and Russia. We are not very good at this and should stop.
NATO and nuclear weapons protect the rest of Europe from the Russian threat, not the Ukrainian army. It wasn't the Ukrainian army that warded off the Soviets during the Cold War. Furthermore, is there a Russian threat to Europe? There's a Russian threat to the Baltics and maybe Moldova where there are large Russian minorities. If we look at both this war and the Georgian war, we see that Russia only invades countries in some kind of conflict with a Russian minority. Simply avoiding conflicts with Russian minorities will avoid war.
The Russian threat in offensive conventional terms is greatly overrated, the Europeans vastly outspend them. Russia's power is 95% nuclear. Ukraine is soaking up nearly all of Russia's offensive conventional power but they still have enough nuclear weapons to raze Europe and North America, a fact that won't change regardless of what happens in this war.
There's the bombing of Libya, where the Russians were hopping mad that their oil and gas contracts with Qaddafi were lost. There's our proxy war against Syria, Russia's closest ally in the Mediterranean. What about sanctions in 2014? What about our media complaining non-stop that Putin was behind Trump's election from 2016-2020? Withdrawing from the ABM treaty and basing ballistic missile defense in Eastern Europe, weakening Russia's nuclear deterrent? What about our massive aid to Yeltsin who wrecked their country? Providing significant quantities of weapons to Ukraine under Trump, such as Javelins? Our Ukraine policy was to build up Ukraine and use it to put pressure on Russia, that's why we were training their army and providing them with weapons. That was why we orchestrated a coup to evict Yanukyovich, who was too close to Russia.
We made Ukraine our proxy. The National Endowment for Democracy and Open Society Foundation worked hard and effectively, molding Ukrainian politics and media, turning the country into a weapon against Russia. We were providing NATO weapons and training to the Ukrainian military.
We should have just done nothing. Done nothing in Iraq, done nothing in Afghanistan besides some intensive bombing to take revenge for 9/11, hunt down Al-Qaeda with special forces. Done nothing in Libya, done nothing in Eastern Europe. We sit back behind our nuclear weapons and powerful militaries and focus on China, the greatest threat.
The most realistic conclusion to this war is a lot more Russians who hate the West, some kind of negotiated peace where the Russians get bits of the Donbass and a land connection to Crimea, cheap Russian energy for China, European economic decline and more Russian assistance for whenever China fights the West, perhaps opening up another front in Ukraine. We have once again made things worse for ourselves at vast expense and cost of Ukrainian life.
This feels like well propaganda to me.
You get basic facts wrong like not respecting Iraq as a democracy. Afghanistan you some how blame us for no longer giving them money.
Nuclear weapons aren’t protecting Estonia (part of nato in your view) if we aren’t willing to fight in Ukraine. Then we aren’t dropping a nuke on Moscow if they invade the Baltics.
There’s no evidence we turned Ukraine west. We didn’t turn Belarus west, ukranians just CHOSE us.
I never supported US involvement in Syria and always liked Assad. So don’t paint me with that.
Not sure what you are accusing us of doing in 2014 - didn’t Russia invade a neighbor that year? Russia declaring war is suddenly something bad the US did? Makes no sense.
The Russian threat is overrated? Haven’t they obliterated a few countries and some of Ukraine with artillery? Keyboard warriors can say that but not when Russian artillery is outside their town.
Hate to tell you this but the most likely conclusion is Ukraine wins. Sometime next year their getting f-18. If the west got the guns then why not use them and kill some Russians? Fuck I pay a ton in taxes for the military and like Ukranians so we better give them whatever they need to kill Russians.
Iraq is not a liberal democracy, as I said. Even the Atlantic Council agrees with me. It's a massive fragile mess of Iran-backed Shia militias, ex-ISIS militias and Kurdish militias.
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/the-truth-about-iraq-s-democracy/
The US went into Afghanistan, got hundreds of thousands of people killed in the war, expanded Afghan drug production with their incompetence, subsidized bacha-bazi in the Afghan Army (also known as the rape of boys), squandered trillions of dollars in corruption. Then they left and obstructed famine relief, confiscating $7 billion from their national bank. The US really is not interested in the welfare of Afghans, otherwise this wouldn't have happened. It was a complete clusterfuck.
The Nuland phone call has a recording of them plotting out who will be in the new Ukrainian government. US-based NGOs like Open Society and government backed organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy have spent billions in Ukraine, funding NGOs and protest groups. This is well documented. That buys loyalty and influence.
Do you understand what an alliance is? Azerbaijan invaded Armenia - the US is not obliged to do anything because they're not allied. If China invades Nepal, the US is not obliged to do anything. But if Russia invades Estonia, they are obliged to fight because they are allied. It was a foolish idea to bring these small countries into the alliance, they contribute very little while creating risks. But now they're there we have to stick with them.
US and EU imposed sanctions on Russia that year because the Russians took Crimea. That's harassment. They didn't declare war, they still haven't declared war. Nobody has declared war.
There are discussions over sending F-16s to Ukraine, not F-18s.
You don't understand what I'm saying. The conventional threat to the West is overrated, the nuclear threat is underrated. The US has wrecked a few countries in the last 20 years but that doesn't mean Belgium is threatened by the US in the same way Iran or Syria is. Threat is relative.
This is a really unsophisticated argument. Have you thought about what you're saying for more than 10 seconds? If the Ukrainians ask for your whole army, navy and airforce would you hand it over? Your nuclear arsenal? Foreign policy has consequences. These can include fuel shortages, inflation, making enemies, getting into wars, starting nuclear wars. It should be approached carefully.
You are literally ridiculous. Your first article that you cite said most of the election irregularities are just poor losers but should be investigated. By that definition America is NOT a liberal democracy. Did you even read the article - it supports a position that Iraq is a Democracy.
Sure we didn’t transform Afghanistan but we didn’t make it worse. There population grew on trend the entire time. No excess deaths.
We also signed treaties with Ukraine that we would protect their sovereignty. Baltics would be very hard to defend if Russia controlled Ukraine. And once you break one vow to defend then I’m not sure how you can assume we would keep a vow to defend Estonia. Come on man make some sense with your arguments.
Lol it’s harrassment that when a country invaded your friend you limit trade with them.
Dude if you haven’t been paying attention F-18 are when not if.
Don’t insult me for not being sophisticated. I’ve thought it thru and completely support giving Ukraine whatever weapons they want and support American boots on the ground. Nukes I wouldn’t give them. Russia literally has zero chance to win the war. Even if they get a breakthrough there would be a NATO counter probably polish boots. Again I pay taxes for military weapons. I want to use them to kill Russians.
Isn’t it the borders of our friends? Like Poland was conquored by Russia.
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The article says that Iraq is not a liberal democracy. If it's on the road to democracy, it's not a democracy, let alone a liberal democracy! If a doctor gives a report about the state of someone's health, it doesn't mean that they're healthy.
No excess deaths is not the sole standard for how benign a military operation is. Imagine if the US raped and impregnated all the women there. Population grows on trend! But that's still a bad thing.
No, you didn't promise to do anything.
https://www.whsv.com/2022/02/25/does-us-have-an-obligation-protect-ukraine/
Look at a map. Ukraine doesn't even border the Baltics. The Baltics are already hard to defend because of geography and Kaliningrad in conventional terms.
Yes. They froze hundreds of millions of dollars in Russian banks, preventing them spending their own money. It's also harassment when a country organizes a coup in your friend as in 2014, or manipulates your elections, as in 1996.
There's no evidence for this. F-18s are much more advanced and expensive than F-16s and would be too hard for Ukraine to supply. That's why they asked for F-16s. That's why everyone is talking about F-16s, not F-18s.
Great, then we get a nuclear war. That would kill a lot of Russians!
Your article literally says they are a democracy and had successful elections.
Excess deaths is a good measure of how brutal a war is. Being that we haven’t had reports and mass rapes in Iraq Im not even sure why your bringing it up.
There was no coup in Ukraine. There was massive protest involving a large percent of the Ukranian populace. Protest are not coups.
Freeze a countries money as a response to an invasion of a peaceful nation is an appropriate punishment.
May have mixed up F16 and 18. Bottom line Ukraine is getting fighter Jets sooner or later.
You are very tough to read. I feel like you are in an alternative universe where left is right and right is left with your own dictionary and meanings.
There’s no evidence to support nuclear war if nato boots go into Ukraine. Even Russias own military doctrine is only to use nukes if an army invades Russia.
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