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Post by Ripley on Feb 26, 2024 21:07:47 GMT
I get that there is a degree of imagined dependency between the UK and the US and that this is a sore point. No-one likes to feel that they are seen as America's poodle. However, I have not yet met an American who views the UK as dependent or inferior in any way, not one. I do read your posts. I did see your last line and I wasn't challenging it. I was only adding how Americans see themselves. If I wasn't reading your posts, I wouldn't be answering them. I suspect that many if not most Americans give the UK a second thought . The UK has been pulled between Europe and the US since WW2 but imo the US has never been consistent with the UK. When we are doing its bidding we can all pretend there is a special relationship but it’s all rhetoric and it shows when we are not . I apologise for my rudeness . Americans are generally fascinated by the UK and love everything about it except maybe the costs of visiting. Complete consistency is hard to achieve because frequently the president's political party is not in control of the House of Representatives, and when that happens, both sides clash over policy. Aside from that, there are presidential elections every four years and no party can be held to his predecessor's promises. Every four years there is potentially a slight shift in attitude depending on the personality of the winner. The same is true in the UK. Some PMs have a fondness for the US and some less so. The main thing, I think, is that it's unrealistic to expect friends not to disagree from time to time as long as they do it respectfully without losing sight of the big picture, kind of like in marriage. Thanks for the apology. That was nice of you.  |
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Post by Vinny on Feb 26, 2024 23:48:39 GMT
I think the kindest thing to do would be to stop funding Ukraine's war with Russia and get them agree peace terms with Russia. After all the Ukraine only seems to want to join the EU - and the EU and Russia are pretty much the same thing. They're both undemocratic dictatorships. Yes I definitely think this is the right thing to do. Ukrainians are bloody stupid and their own worst enemy. I've seen enough Ukrainians and enough Russians to tell what is going on. It's the Ukrainians who are the evil warmongers. What utter bollocks Baron. Go live in Russia, see how long you live before the dictatorship chucks you in prison and kills you. |
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Post by Baron von Lotsov on Feb 27, 2024 0:00:20 GMT
Yes I definitely think this is the right thing to do. Ukrainians are bloody stupid and their own worst enemy. I've seen enough Ukrainians and enough Russians to tell what is going on. It's the Ukrainians who are the evil warmongers. What utter bollocks Baron. Go live in Russia, see how long you live before the dictatorship chucks you in prison and kills you. To be quite frank with you I'm happy where I live. However I have noticed every time I look at a screen or switch on the radio there is someone bitching about something. The thing is though I'm unlikely to wind the Russians up the wrong way since all my previous experiences with Russians are good. I used to have a friend who went over there to live for a time and married a Russian woman. He was pretty positive about things and had a smile on his face. This country has been anti-Russian for a long time and I'm beginning to think the primary reason is all the propaganda films Britain was brought up where the Russian was always the evil one. I can think of far shittier places than Russia. Take India for example. It is a public sewer. |
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Post by Vinny on Feb 27, 2024 0:38:57 GMT
Russia has been taken over by the former KGB, democracy destroyed, the right of free assembly, free expression and free protest replaced with intimidation, incarceration and extermination.
Good Russians are hostages, bad people have ruined the country.
Boris Nemtsov was murdered 9 years ago by the regime and days ago they murdered Navalny. Vladimir Kara-Murza is likely to be the next victim of Putin's regime, he has already survived two poisoning attempts. He's been sentenced to 25 years in prison for condemning the illegal war against Ukraine.
And he's been moved to the same prison Navalny was in when they murdered him.
Free Russia, free Vladimir Kara-Murza.
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Post by steppenwolf on Feb 27, 2024 8:47:27 GMT
Spoken like Haw Haw in WW2. Sorry, but until the dictatorship in Russia stops attacking its neighbours and stealing their land, there can be no peace. Appeasement does not work. You cannot negotiate with a tiger whilst your head is in its mouth. Ukraine have two choices fight to live, or surrender and die. It's a different situation to WW2 IMO. Ideally diplomacy (on the part of the EU) should have stopped the invasion before it started. But van der Leyen just provoked Russia - and Biden's feeble stance ("maybe a small incursion by Russia would be OK") gave Russia the green light. Why the UK has got itself involved I have no idea - a bit of Boris grandstanding. But I'm just looking at it from a common sense point of view. Ukraine is on the border between the EU and Russia, and Ukraine has signalled (since the war started) that it would like to join the EU. Well, I just don't see that the EU is any different from Russia in principle. They're both ruled by unelected dictators. Actually Russia does have elections for their dictator (which is better than the EU) but the elections are sham of course. I'm honestly not sure which is worse Russia or the EU. But it would save a lot of lives if a peace deal could be struck - and I don't believe that Russia would invade Poland. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. |
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Post by Vinny on Feb 27, 2024 8:56:47 GMT
It's imperialism.
Putin wants to take over ALL of Ukraine.
Unless he is defeated, he'll dig in, re-arm and the killing will resume, except Russia would have an equivalent to the HIMARS, new tactics and would be far more deadly.
If we let Ukraine lose, Poland, Lithuania and other former Soviet occupied states will be invaded again.
Putin has a Napoleon complex, he has to be stopped.
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Post by see2 on Feb 27, 2024 9:46:41 GMT
What the US wants is to deter Putin from invading Poland and other Eastern European NATO countries, which would draw America into a NATO war in Europe. How does not giving Ukraine enough weapons to win and just enough weapons not to lose achieve that? would Russia invade Poland if it was driven out of Ukraine ? Would Russia invade Nato countries if a settlement was achieved? Pull the other one . Not giving enough weapons to win is the US wannabe Putin, Trump's idea. It is Trump that has blocked US aid to Ukraine. The sooner the lying Putin is brought to recognise that the days of Russia expanding its Empire, (now the Russian federation) are over, the safer the world will be. IIRC, Russia already has the largest land mass of any country, but it wants more. |
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Post by Bentley on Feb 27, 2024 10:00:27 GMT
How does not giving Ukraine enough weapons to win and just enough weapons not to lose achieve that? would Russia invade Poland if it was driven out of Ukraine ? Would Russia invade Nato countries if a settlement was achieved? Pull the other one . Not giving enough weapons to win is the US wannabe Putin, Trump's idea. It is Trump that has blocked US aid to Ukraine. The sooner the lying Putin is brought to recognise that the days of Russia expanding its Empire, (now the Russian federation) are over, the safer the world will be. IIRC, Russia already has the largest land mass of any country, but it wants more. Trump isn’t in office . Biden is. |
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Post by Hutchyns on Feb 27, 2024 10:42:32 GMT
It does make you reflect on just what sort of 'democracy' the USA can claim to be, if an individual who holds no elected office is directing their foreign policy, while their President looks on helplessly and impotent. Not that we're very much better with a sabre rattling Foreign Secretary voted into his influential position by precisely no one.
I doubt the Russians will take too much notice of any lectures on democracy when issued by any of its current three biggest enemies.
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Post by Vinny on Feb 27, 2024 13:35:35 GMT
Not giving enough weapons to win is the US wannabe Putin, Trump's idea. It is Trump that has blocked US aid to Ukraine. The sooner the lying Putin is brought to recognise that the days of Russia expanding its Empire, (now the Russian federation) are over, the safer the world will be. IIRC, Russia already has the largest land mass of any country, but it wants more. Trump isn’t in office . Biden is. That is correct, but Trump faction Republicans in Congress and the Senate have done everything they can to prevent aid reaching Ukraine. |
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Post by Bentley on Feb 27, 2024 13:52:37 GMT
Trump isn’t in office . Biden is. That is correct, but Trump faction Republicans in Congress and the Senate have done everything they can to prevent aid reaching Ukraine. So Bidens administration so weak and gutless that Trump is manipulating the government? |
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Post by steppenwolf on Feb 27, 2024 14:34:13 GMT
It's imperialism. Putin wants to take over ALL of Ukraine. Unless he is defeated, he'll dig in, re-arm and the killing will resume, except Russia would have an equivalent to the HIMARS, new tactics and would be far more deadly. If we let Ukraine lose, Poland, Lithuania and other former Soviet occupied states will be invaded again. Putin has a Napoleon complex, he has to be stopped. I don't agree. Putin was given certain assurances about the spread of NATO and they weren't kept - at least that's what he says. And now Finland has joined and Sweden - and Ukraine wants to join. It's not surprising that Putin is pissed off. How would the USA like it if Putin put a military base in Mexico or somewhere equally adjacent? This was a catastrophic failure of diplomacy on the part of the EU and USA. |
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Post by Vinny on Feb 27, 2024 14:51:39 GMT
No, he wasn't given any assurances.
Gorbachev was.
The moment the former KGB tried to depose him in a coup those assurances ceased to be relevant as it is the former KGB now ruining Russia.
After the partial failure of the 1991 KGB coup, Ukraine held a referendum on independence and all regions including Donetsk Luhansk and Crimea voted for independence from Russia by over 50%.
Then in 1992 the Collective Security Treaty Organisation was founded.
Article 1 of the treaty (which Putin is in violation of) states:
"The Member States shall confirm the obligation to abstain from use of force or threat by force in the interstate relations. They shall undertake to settle all disagreements among themselves and other states by peaceful means. "
Then, in 1994, assurances were given to Ukraine by Russia, USA and UK that if they gave up their nuclear weapons, their security would be guaranteed (Budapest Memorandum).
Putin has also violated the Budapest Memorandum and the United Nations Charter.
In Nov 1998 Galina Starovoytova was murdered by the former KGB after trying to prevent it taking over Russia.
In August 1999 large quantities of RDX were stolen from the secure warehouse at Perm, the only place in Russia which makes the explosive RDX.
In Sept 1999 the Russian apartment bombings began.
After a briefing by the FSB, the Volgodonsk truck bombing was discussed by Duma (three days before it happened).
At Ryazan, the Police were alerted to a bombing, came, defused the bomb and caught the bombers.
The Police tested the bomb, it tested positive for RDX.
The bombers produced FSB ID cards, were released on orders from the top and suddenly the bombing was announced to be an exercise (Operation Ryazan Sugar). It wasn't an exercise it was a real bomb.
And the Chechens were invaded on the basis of a lie.
If you lived next door to such a thug, would you too not seek to join NATO for your own security?
It's the former KGB who have caused the expansion of NATO by being imperialist war criminals.
Democracy in Russia is as dead as the corpse of Boris Nemtsov.
Long live NATO.
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Post by Bentley on Feb 27, 2024 16:24:13 GMT
It does make you reflect on just what sort of 'democracy' the USA can claim to be, if an individual who holds no elected office is directing their foreign policy, while their President looks on helplessly and impotent. Not that we're very much better with a sabre rattling Foreign Secretary voted into his influential position by precisely no one. I doubt the Russians will take too much notice of any lectures on democracy when issued by any of its current three biggest enemies. Yes but is he ?And does the present situation suit Biden too? There are rumblings in the US ( afaik) about the US giving so much money and resources to settle a ‘European problem ‘when the US could use it back home . |
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Post by Pacifico on Feb 28, 2024 7:53:46 GMT
Macron going all bonkers and suggesting that NATO put boots on the ground in Ukraine - being slapped down by Germany who suggest that France step up and actually fund weapons deliveries where it is falling behind. I wonder whose boots Macron was thinking of putting on the ground - it certainly would not be French ones.  |
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