By you asking this question are you implying that we are capable of truly caring about all people on earth and every mistreatment and oppression going on at all times?
That is impossible and if someone were to try to do that, he would become mentally troubled and completely apathetic to his own family, friends, and community.
I human concern and I do not want innocent people dying or being mistreated, but that’s where it ends. I am not God. No one here is.
You mean the federal government? Why do you care about the third parties in the military (assuming there is no draft, and no one is bothering you at work or home)?
I don’t understand the reference here.
Just probing beliefs for edification purposes. I ultimately incorporate some ideas from conversations like this and evolve in my perspectives.
And I know what you mean. Ultimately the only humans we can care about like ourselves is family… and even then maybe only children. There is a biological basis for tribalism so we can largely care about our tribe, but that only extends to like 50 to 60 people max.
You think that the world is too big to care deeply about, but not the US?
Yes.
Involvement invites trouble where I live.
You mean direct war, or economic, or what?
War of any kind.
But what are you worried about in this case? and what do you define as “war”? Are artificially raised energy prices war for example?
Another notable set of Ukrainian cojones belongs to the mayor of Kiev. I’ve been a fan of the Klitschko brothers as boxing geniuses for a really long time. I had no idea Vitali Klitschko was the mayor of Kiev until a few days ago.
Well, he’s a bad guy. But he’s always been a bad guy, it’s not new. He’s a damned consistent bad guy, who is sometimes pretty amusing. But from what I have read, Russian people seem to approve of him, so if they like him there is pretty much nothing we can do. 5 years ago we had a decent relationship with Russia. Then the democrats started using him as a punching bag to go after Trump. They thought they could just causally use him as public enemy no. 1 to try to get Trump out of office.
Despite the fact that there was plenty of legit stuff to criticize Putin over (like his support of Assad), everything they said about him was a lie. He was like this nebulous bad guy they could just conjure up as a boogey man for anything they didn’t like. So instead of legit criticism, they made him a cartoon villain making diplomacy with Russia damn near impossible, because any positive relation with Russia was absolutely condemned driving that wedge further and further into, what was prior to that, normalizing relations with a former enemy. Nobody is talking about this part, obviously. God forbid admitting maybe taking hillary’s butt-hurt so seriously was a mistake.
That’s regardless of whether you like or hate Trump, lying constantly about a powerful enemy as the impetus to take out the president you don’t like, with now proven lies was idiotic. It was the “by any means necessary, no matter what it takes” approach. Well, they got Trump out, but at an astronomically high price.
Yeah, he’s a bad dude. He’s always been a bad dude. Everybody knew that.
I am certain they are. This is as tricky a situation as is gets. One that requires zero mistakes. One wrong move can massively escalate this into a war we won’t be able to handle. Given the behavior of this administration, do you really expect them to be able to walk this fine line? Obviously not. This is what you get with morons. When you value some fake idea of diversity over competence what you are in a tricky situation has zero chance of boding well. When your senior military leaders are more concerned with “white rage” than a strong, competent military force, your enemies will take advantage. Quite honestly, I don’t think they even knew how fucked up we were until they saw that Afghanistan debacle. And every single one of those ass-hats are still right where they were then.
I don’t expect competent leadership, I expect this to get much worse and if China does start on Taiwan, hold on to your ass, because it’s going to be the dreaded WW3 we’ve been fearing for decades.
And if China does not act against Taiwan, they are dumbed than I thought. Now is their chance. They just need one mistake on our part, which will happen, to move forward. If they don’t act on Taiwan in the next couple of years, they don’t really want it. We are the weakest we have been since WW2.
I am sure Putin is shaking in his boots. It’s not like he doesn’t have the worlds largest manufacturer of everything right next door, or anything.
Yeah, reaffirmed by the US despite biden’s compromised position with the CCP. Every ally in the region is deadly serious about Taiwan.
Not true. It depends on the conflict and Turkey seems to handle themselves pretty well.
I don’t. They’ve had years to prepare and they’ve basically been phoning it in the whole time, counting on US protection given their extremely cozy relationship with biden Inc. I am pretty sure they are disappointed right now with our response, but nobody here has the stomach for another war. Our hand may be forced regardless. We are one tiny mistake from this getting out of hand really badly.
I see them having no shot at winning this. Surrender may be their best option, just to stop the bloodshed.
Not sure this is the best course of action. Act for what? Ukraine is hopelessly corrupt and has been making deal with the devil for years. The devil want’s his due. I think hot conflict is inevitable, it’s a matter of when, not if. Russia is not afraid of NATO, me thinks the NATO thing was a ruse. But there was an easy way of find out. We just didn’t bother. The Russians gave the west the opportunity to talk that out, since Ukraine wasn’t and isn’t even close to being able to join NATO and the fact that Russia is already bordered by a bunch of NATO members.
They have to otherwise all those treaties and commitments don’t mean anything.
Yes.
Woah, that’s misplaced. Russia is no joke militarily. We may win, but the price is enormous. And we may not win. We seem to have lost our stomach for actually winning conflicts. It’s too lucrative to keep them going. And the casualty rate would be spectacular.
Wow, you made a point that wasn’t completely fucked up. Nice.
But meaningless. This is war, they aren’t trying to change covid policy. And they ain’t a western nation. Crushing dissent has been a Russian trait for centuries.
Technically no. But they are super powerful. Their military is pretty serious and I have doubts about going toe to toe with them. They aren’t stupid and we lack resolve.
That clip was from Canada…
All forms. I don’t think portions of what has become Ukraine are worth any of it*(as an American).
What do you mean by “artificially?”
Both Vitaliy and Vladimir are on the frontline defending Kyiv. Vitaly is a HMG gunner due to his size.
I kind of assumed that Klitschko brothers were role models in every sense even before this, but Zelensky is a surprise for me. A guy who only a few years ago pretended to play the piano with his dick and literally used to dress as a clown to tell masturbation jokes is now an example of a statesman.
I think anyone with nuclear weapons is at least to a degree.
That guy believed it and is worshipped.
Everyone’s got faults.
I understand.
Of course one can care about one’s own nation while heavily investing in children, family, and community.
In a healthy nation I’d be patriotic. America is a pathological and ill nation, so I do not hold the patriotic feeling that I wanted to have as a boy. As stated, the American Empire at this point is an economic zone, so I consider myself just an ordinary guy residing in it, seeing how history will turn out while tending to my kids, wife, family, friends and my community.
I wish I could be patriotic, but current circumstances don’t allow me to.
Furthermore, judging by how many Americans I’ve met who look upon nearly all the world’s inhabitants as dirt people, including Eastern Europeans, I have a hard time taking their supposed human concern seriously. That dim view shines through near weekly, maybe even daily, on this board.
Can you clarify this? It’s the same concept of claiming anything, foremost by force or threat of violence.
Why can humans claim the dirt that they are made of?
That’s kind of what I mean. What gives us (human’s collectively) the “right” to anything other than living? It’s pure and simple greed. “You have what I want so I will take it by force if I must” that’s essentially the thought pattern here.
Even going by the Biblical perspective, man was put in charge of the land by God but not outright given the land (“His Creation”).
At this point in my life I don’t think or feel like I have a “right” to anything.
