Biden did nothing today. “wait a month and see if the sanctions are working”? Holy shit. If I was in Taiwan, I’d be shitting myself.
RIP Cornpop…AKA the last guy to mess with the Biden-thing and be described as “bad.”
I believe the USA wants to implement additional, harsher sanctions immediately (eg kicking Russia out of SWIFT), but the EU is split on further sanctions as there are (lesser) economic ramifications for them too.
I fear its a “take the bitter pill now, or suffer the consequences later” type situation. But after two years of COVID, certain EU countries won’t stomach this pill.
Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but we have official treaties with Taiwan to protect them, right?
Turkey is a NATO member. We won’t defend them.
It is a Turkish owned private ship sailing under the Marshall islands flag in Ukrainian waters that was hit. And likely by accident. That’s a far cry from turkey being attacked by Russia.
However, if turkey responds with military strikes, that may suck the rest of NATO into the war. But, I think NATO knows what that means and will aggressively try to deescalate.
Scary times right now.
Also, fwiw, it doesn’t look like there is any explicit language guaranteeing American defense of Taiwan. Though, that appears to be intentionally ambiguous so as to dissuade Taiwan from actively goading and pissing off China.
The EU/NATO countries will bear the “western” brunt of any sanctions or military actions against russia, so they need to sign off. The USA shouldn’t be risking more than our Euro counterparts- they need to step up and “be about it” now.
57 civilians confirmed killed as of this moment.
There are some videos posted here showing resistance, but do you get the feeling Ukraine will actively fight with commitment?
Yes.
10,000 rifles have already been handed out to civilians.
I cant say for sure as i havent spoken to anyone, but you know how it is when you are close to something there is this “vibe” going on.
The vibe is strong. I know a person who was told by a young female student in Ukraine that she is ready to do whatever she can.
They are also teaching kids in school basements how to attend wounds un shoot. People are very interested and i understand that.
What people dont like is fighting other peoples wars, how it is with Russia for example… Putin is sending young guys to die for some shit reason in Ukraine, so they dont have much motivation.
For us - people on the border with this disgusting nation, its personal. Its not politics, its not money. It just about some fucking russians AGAIN thinking they can just come and do what they want.
I mean, when i was a kid i was beat up by kids from russian schools. It was the norm, that our native speaker children hear russian language they ran. There was nothing worse for a kid, to hear a group of kids nearby talking in russian.
Now the feeling is the same only its not kids, its military. But people like me - we take it personally. We dont care who is president or shit, what we care about is some people just thinking they can come and kill and take what is not theirs.
The vibe thats comming from Ukraine is very united and strong. Its not like its the first time. They were attacked by Russia not that long ago and the world let that slide. Ukrainians have been getting ready and i hope they will stay strong. At least they have the numbers. If they fall, Baltics have 0 chance to survive even 12 hours.
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My brother is in Brussels and he saw many official convoys pass by, helis and drones. Apparently a big NATO meeting will be held. I can juste hope they will ACT
They wont.
We hope that NATO will at least defend NATO countries, but with their reaction time and how small are our countries, it will just be like : “whoops, we missed it”.
As soon as this war began it also became very clear - there is no unity, there is no NATO, there is nothing. The fact that the whole world just watches this, is disgusting and probably as human species we deserve to die.
Its disgusting to say “Ukraine is not NATO, we cant do anything”. If the NATO would just act, Russia could be shut down in 2 days. NATO is bullshit and their reasons are bullshit also.
What is going on in Ukraine is just an example of how little the whole world cares about everything and at the end the evil will prevail because the best we can do are “sanctions”.
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Gog and Magog forming?
I feel exactly like you hank. I’m from Germany and I’m fucking pissed Putin has the audacity to invade a European country. It’s not because I know some Ukrainian immigrants, it’s not because it’s war. It’s because he thinks he gets away with kicking us Europeans around.
I despise our leaders for what they have done the last decades. It’s not that we are unable to fight, we could take Russia easily. The problem is that the vibe from so many people living here in ease is “I don’t want to fight a war, not in any case! I’m way too comfortable here, enjoying my Café latte, sitting in a cool office and working on my MacBook”. We have too many women or pussy ass men at the top. Germany is a self hating state led by weaklings. As it was said in fight club “we are a generation of men raised by women”. We are mentally weak. We don’t know why we should stand up. Putin will go on like this until the west shows the actual intention to go in and whoop his ass. Russia is a failure, its economy is not strong enough to support a large scale war. Still he knows we won’t do anything. The problem isn’t even that we don’t want to fight, nobody wants to die in war, but the problem is the world knows the US and the especially the EU is a big paper tiger.
We don’t know what we stand for. This materialistic progressive bullshit will again be responsible for the fall of an empire. If we can’t get our morals and our core traditional values back, we are doomed.
Nobody I know is a fan of Germany’s 20th Century crimes but at least we had pride, we had power and we were willing to fight. The European leadership is an absolute disgrace to the Ukrainians, to the people of Europe, to our Allies and to our history.
PS: Germany has the highest gasoline prices in the world, the highest energy costs and the highest social taxes. We get fucked by our government for this bullshit cause of climate change and overprotection. Now we are weak and dependent on the Russians. Thank you Merkel, thank you Schröder, thank you Scholz, you goddamn morons.
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Youre correct though, most of the west doesnt have a stomach or will for war.
You think the migrants that showed up in europe in the past decade are gonna sign up to defend their new nations?
I knew an old WW II vet that came over from Hungary, lied about his age to enlist then went back with some guns to kill the fuck out of some shit. He was a real bad ass. He also went on to start a machine and fabrication shop, providing good lives for all.
Not like those rent seeking fucks that pulled a mass migration to greener european pastures a few years ago. They like their butter thick and bread baked by someone else.
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From Lex Fridman of Lex Fridman Podcast:
I stayed up all night talking to people in Ukraine and Russia.
I will travel to Russia and Ukraine. I will speak to citizens and leaders, including Putin.
Actually, the same was the case in 1939-40. When France surrendered to you guys (yes, I went there) it wasn’t a collapse of the common soldier will to fight, it was a collapse of the willpower of the elite - French politicians and generals.
And it was (almost) the same in Britain, although it is now much swept under the carpet in historical retellings of the fateful events.
Had the half-American former journalist not been an exceptional political operator and irrationally (and incorrectly, until dragged in by the Imperial Japanese Navy) convinced that the Americans will come to their aid, Britain under Lord Halifax as a new PM would have asked for a negotiated peace through Mussolini’s mediation.
So this whole “elites do not have a stomach for a fight” is not something new.
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Heartening to see Russian protests against war. (to little effect, I’m sure, unfortunately) The world’s 3 superpowers are currently led by a dementia sufferer, a lunatic, and a dictator who probably thinks he’s a descendant of some old emperor.
Nothing wrong with any of the respective peoples overall. Just fucked that all the leaders are shit. History repeating as usual.
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Is Russia really still considered a superpower?
They just invaded another country while fliiping the bird to the US/world.
They have enough nukes to immolate the planet.
Please enlighten me with your wisdom.