Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion

Carolina Red

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Another modmin may disagree and remove things / make a rule against posting things, but my personal opinion on this is that they should be posted. “War is hell” and reporting on it shouldn’t be sanitized.
 

VorZakone

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Another modmin may disagree and remove things / make a rule against posting things, but my personal opinion on this is that they should be posted. “War is hell” and reporting on it shouldn’t be sanitized.
Fully agreed. Show it for what it is.
 

slyadams

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So here's another question. I assume that by "consequences" he means nuclear strikes as well.

What then stops him from rocking up in Poland or Romania and using this same threat of nuclear strikes?
Nothing, this is why I posted earlier that the doctrine of mutually assured destruction protects a rogue actor. Similarly would we do anything if China took Taiwan or annexed Mognolia? People talk that if Russia invaded a NATO member then the gloves would come off, but I'm not so sure. You have a lunatic with nukes, nothing is clear.
 

Rektsanwalt

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I could definitely be wrong but I don't see why leaders that have an habit to not fulfill previous agreements/promises would automatically do it in a context that may not benefit them or their country. Until proven otherwise I think that the main countries will only act when it's in their interests because when all is said and done they are the ones that will pour unholy amount of money and human resources into that kind of conflict. If we were talking about a smaller army I would actually agree that the answer would be obvious but not in this case.

But again I admit that I could be wrong, for example the US and a handful of EU members could see it as a way to stimulate the weapon industry.
I think they would to it because it's all a house of cards in case of NATO. If there's not a certain response after a membership is attacked, everybody is vulnerable immediately. Which is why everybody benefits by reacting properly if said situation occurs.
When we are talking about a full blown war with whole NATO involved, economical interests aren't the driving factors. Every weapon manufacturer there is knows that if shit really hits the fan like that, there won't be any money to be made. I genuinely think NATO is not a money driven construct, but one to prevent nuclear armageddon.

I still stand by what I said. If a NATO member is attacked, the response would be swift and absolute and something never seen before. The combined military power combined is something absolutely frightening, which is exactly why Putin wants to get rid of Ukraine - so they can't join it. Ukraine joining NATO would be a huge blow for russia. Losing Ukraine to russia is a bloody nose for NATO, but something that shouldn't be accepted the way we do it at the moment.
 

Zlatattack

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It's easy to write opinion peices without considering the political and economic impact of not buying that oil and gas. What garuantee is there that Arab countries will increase productivity to replace the Russian supply?
 

That'sHernandez

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Another modmin may disagree and remove things / make a rule against posting things, but my personal opinion on this is that they should be posted. “War is hell” and reporting on it shouldn’t be sanitized.
There's a difference between a video of a burned out vehicle and then videos of corpses. What's more, the General forum literally had to be privatised because Google complained about the images that were going up alongside ads. I can't imagine videos of corpses (one of which a is a dead 14 year old girl) is going to please them.

PS. "War is hell" is a pathetic response. Everyone with half a brain knows the consequences of war, and celebrating the deaths of people on either side is fairly disgusting.
 

Zen86

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It's just madness reading about it on the news.

Ultimately, the West will huff and puff for a bit and all will be forgotten. He could very well invade most of Eastern Europe over time and we would do nothing about it, which Putin knows fully well.
 

stevoc

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Apologies for asking this but Can someone enlighten me, what’s Russian stance? Why are they attacking Ukraine?
Ukraine want to join NATO (a mutual defence organization created primarily to counter Russian aggression). So offended is Putin by the idea that any country needs to join an alliance to prevent them from being invaded by Russia that Putin has ordered a full scale invasion of Ukraine to stop them joining NATO.

That'll show the world that Russia isn't an aggressive state and there is no need for NATO to exist/expand.
 

Revan

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Maybe, to tell the rest of the Balkans not to join EU or NATO, because not doing so in the long run Russia would be encroached by NATO members. Or maybe he just went cuckoo
Dude, Ukraine is far from Balkans.

And most of Balkans are already in NATO: Slovenia, Croatia, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece, plus countries that touch Balkans: Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Turkey.
 

Zexstream

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The effect this is going to have on energy prices is going to be of serious concern.

I just checked and kerosene has jumped in price by 50 euro for 500 ltrs since yesterday
 

sun_tzu

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Ukraine want to join NATO (a mutual defence organization created primarily to counter Russian aggression). So offended is Putin by the idea that any country needs to join an alliance to prevent them from being invaded by Russia that Putin has ordered a full scale invasion of Ukraine to stop them joining NATO.

That'll show the world that Russia isn't an aggressive state and there is no need for NATO to exist/expand.
yes in order to stop nato expanding to the russian border he is going to expand the russian border to nato
 

Foxbatt

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Nowadays people don't have the appetite for that kind of things.
Even then the international community and most of the world did not support it and was not cheering and was aghast as they are now.
 

V.O.

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Even then the international community and most of the world did not support it and was not cheering and was aghast as they are now.
It's just a joke about the misspelling he quoted. :lol:
 

TMDaines

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She's a warmonger, her articles on The Atlantic have been pushing for a more confrontational stance from the West (even if it results in conflict)
Taking a more confrontational stance doesn't mean you are a warmonger.

Edit: Actually, I'll be more forceful on that. I don't think an honest reflection of Applebaum's articles and books over the years have ever been warmongering, unless you consider even a willingness to militarily defend an independent Ukraine to be warmongering.
 

Offsideagain

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The West did bugger all when Putin went into Crimea and this is the result. He is taking the piss now. I can’t remember seeing sanctions stopping a Tank or a missile attack. The only thing that will stop him is to fight him with a superior military force which means the Americans.
 

Carolina Red

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There's a difference between a video of a burned out vehicle and then videos of corpses.
Obviously. Which is why it shouldn’t be sanitized. The human cost of war is much worse than the material one.
PS. "War is hell" is a pathetic response.
I think Major General William T. Sherman knew more about that than you. I’ll defer to him.
 

dove

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The effect this is going to have on energy prices is going to be of serious concern.

I just checked and kerosene has jumped in price by 50 euro for 500 ltrs since yesterday
Think this is the least concern right now seeing how Hitler tries to invade its neighbour.
 

That'sHernandez

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Obviously. Which is why it shouldn’t be sanitized. The human cost of war is much worse than the material one.

I think Major General William T. Sherman knew more about that than you. I’ll defer to him.
I mean your quotation of him is a pathetic response and undermines the point you are attempting to make. If you cared about the de-sanitising of war, you wouldn’t also be allowing people in this thread celebrating these deaths
 

JPRouve

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Obviously. Which is why it shouldn’t be sanitized. The human cost of war is much worse than the material one.

I think Major General William T. Sherman knew more about that than you. I’ll defer to him.
If I understand your point I agree with you. It seems pretty clear that many people don't realize the human cost and maybe vivid images will make them realize that avoiding wars is the most important thing. People should have a look at Yemen as a recent example, the consequences for civilians in terms of basic needs are dramatic even outside of bombs and bullets.