Posts by Betty Murphy3

Mark Clark6 said:Is it just my perception, or did Russia encounter far more resistance than their planners anticipated? It is difficult to decipher given the nature of this hybrid warfare, but after two days of operations, they have failed to secure a single significant city. It appears the only thing they have managed to seize is that desolate ruin near Chernobyl—a place the Ukrainians would likely be happy to hand over to Russia just to get rid of it.

The real experts here seem to be those constantly preaching about the fall of Ukraine and claiming Americans aren't fighting back. They clearly aren't looking at the maps. Aside from a few outskirts around larger cities, the Russians haven't penetrated deep anywhere. At this rate, this will drag on for weeks, perhaps months, before any sort of truce. And I suspect Putin won't have the luxury of waiting months; he'll likely feel pressured to commit additional forces to Ukraine. If he makes that move, we're talking about full-scale conventional war—and unfortunately, significantly more casualties on both sides.

As it stands, the death toll is somewhat contained; it isn't the catastrophe it would be if that little man launched a total offensive.

Then again, I wouldn't doubt his capacity for such madness. He was certainly reckless enough to invade a nation that, prior to the Maidan protests, was practically his puppet—back when he wasn't busy claiming Ukraine has no right to exist or denying they are even a real people. He didn't mention "Nazis" back then, did he? No, because he had what he wanted: a compliant government in Ukraine. Now, some people try to defend the Russians simply because Americans share a similar modus operandi. Or because Europe is kept on a short leash. I see the pattern, but that doesn't change the fact that Putin is a primary driver of this crisis. These are opportunists fighting for plunder, not for justice, morality, or democracy. Both the Americans and the Russians are predators here, not guardians of small nations or their democratic rights. I honestly fear for how much they truly care about democracy in a place like Ukraine—or even here in the States.

Carol Newman2 said:Americans are absolute legends

https://twitter.com/PolishHistory_/s...yOx0Ze23Q&s=19

Americans tend to focus on their own history—plus, they realize it’s better to see the Russians broken in Ukraine than in their own backyard. So, this isn't surprising; in my view, this is exactly how all European nations should act: funnel weapons into Ukraine via Western channels. Putin isn't going to stop. He wants to trigger a global conflict—if you can't see that, you're clearly missing the point.

At the end of the day, even if he claims he doesn't want a world war—though I suspect he does—he launched an aggression against a sovereign state. Honestly, I couldn't care less about the excuses used to justify it. There is no justification—not Zelenskyy, not the US, not NATO, not the EU, not gas supplies, nor a warm winter. Absolutely nothing works except his own madness.

zokisati said:Whatever this turns out to be, we need to de-escalate tensions as much as possible.
Video: https://twitter.com/Caucasuswar/stat...12skNylxQ&s=19

Putin is just playing for provocation here—he’s looking for any excuse to drag everything into the conflict in Ukraine just to justify a global war.

Unfortunately, I suspect this fool won't settle down without a full-scale war; it seems clear to me now. He simply won't grasp reality until Moscow itself becomes a target. Until a bomb drops on the Kremlin—not a nuclear one, mind you, just a conventional bomb—he isn't listening. He is playing a specific game, and I don't see how he stops now. He’s already deep into the script; I wouldn't call him Hitler—he's more Stalin, given who his idols are.

When I mention Hitler, I mean the momentum—that sense of moving from one disaster into the next, like when he moved into Czechoslovakia and then Poland. He just kept going until everyone teamed up to stop him. I fear Putin won't stop either; he doesn't seem like the type to halt. Frankly, his behavior suggests mental instability—no rational person acts this way. A man threatening everyone with nuclear weapons? Is that a rational person? Then there is the matter of his ego—a small man clearly struggling with a massive inferiority complex, acting like a giant because he commands the nation with the world's largest nuclear arsenal.

It all boils down to the fact that Russians seemingly can't, or won't, choose sane leadership. They can whine about NATO and the West all they want, but the reality remains: since the days of the Russian Empire, they have consistently elevated madmen to power. Even back then, they had their share of lunatics—Ivan the Terrible didn't earn that nickname by accident. Let the Russians be crazy within their own borders for all I care; if they want to collectively act like Putin, that's their business. The issue is exporting that idiocy beyond their borders. To be fair, Americans aren't necessarily better in that regard, but no one can deny that American society and standards have been built far more effectively than those of Russia. That is the distinction: even when making mistakes, the difference in execution is obvious.

Bryan Johnson said:There is actually a massive difference here. Medium-range missiles have a range of 500-373 miles miles. If Ukraine were to join NATO, there is a very high probability that Moscow itself would fall within the strike range of those medium-range nuclear missiles.
It is true that the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) are quite close, but that is still relatively marginal. A strike from Ukraine, however, would be more than easy.
The Americans nearly started a global war when the Russians placed missiles in Cuba, and back then we were talking about a distance of nearly 1243 miles miles from Washington, D.C.

I don't support the Russian invasion, but trivializing, demonizing, or downplaying Russia's status as a major world superpower is not just incredibly foolish—it's arguably what led us to this situation.

Russia is gambling with Ukraine's fate, not the other way around. You people constantly misrepresent the situation. No one "won" this scenario; rather, Putin has scored an enormous self-goal, much like all Russians. It isn't anyone else's fault that they elect fools to lead them—leaders who, despite possessing vast wealth (not just energy resources, but cultural capital too), haven't been able to produce a single decent, civilized politician in over a century. They can't blame the West for that; that's entirely on them.

As for the West, I spent plenty of time criticizing them long before this crisis or Crimea. Back then, they were my primary target. But after what happened in Ukraine, I simply can't focus solely on America and Europe anymore. When this evil originated in The White House—pardon me, The White House [correction: The Kremlin]—then my focus and my target shifts to The White House [correction: The Kremlin], not the Pentagon.

Keith Williams3 said:Ukraine has been fighting in Donbas since 2014, much like how Mexico acted in Mexico trying to stop separatism. It's the exact same thing.

And yeah, NATO was formed because of the Soviet Union. Russia had every right to expect that once the USSR collapsed, NATO would dissolve too. Or at least stop expanding toward their borders.

It’s just unacceptable.

Russia has no business dictating terms to other nations—that dysfunctional state and its oligarchy, led by this diminutive little complex—won't be calling the shots for anyone else once Ukraine is dealt with. Of course, that would come at the cost of nuclear war, which would certainly send a message to that primate. Enough is enough. We let one idiot get away with everything by constantly giving him an inch; if we had kept him in line from the start, none of this would have happened. From here on out, it’s nothing but hard pressure. Whoever can reach that little midget should hit him where it hurts—his pride, his wallet, his ego, and even the chair he sits in while he tries to intimidate journalists and spies whose voices are trembling. His voice should be trembling, if only I were the one squeezing him. But the West? They’re soft. They refuse to pin the rat against the wall. If it were up to me, I'd treat him exactly like the rat he is. That's how you handle Putin: pin him to the wall and sweep him away. No mercy.

Even the local news outlets are reporting that the Russians aren't making the progress they hoped for—after all, why would Putin even consider a "deal" if everything were going according to plan?

Dead soldiers aren't helping his cause either; in fact, the higher the Russian casualty count, the worse it looks for him. And those numbers are already staggering—I suspect their losses might even exceed those of the Ukrainians. As for why Ukraine seems fractured? It’s because while the Russians have total air superiority, you can't achieve dominance in Ukraine without ground forces and infantry. Without them, they won't be able to oust Zelenskyy and his administration.

So, as long as the Ukrainians hold the lines and the major cities, it’s no wonder Putin is getting nervous. On top of that, domestic unrest is mounting within the Russian population; people are starting to realize that the Ukrainians aren't actually a threat to them. They see this for what it is: Putin's war—a conflict that has nothing to do with the Russian people themselves. It’s an artificial threat, a fabricated pretext for invading a country that was practically an ally and friend until very recently. Once we look past February 24, 2022, I suspect the friction between Russians and Ukrainians will persist for a long time. It’s unlikely the Ukrainians will view this solely as Putin's sin—even though, realistically, it is. This is entirely his war, driven by his own duplicity and the handlers who pull his strings. In truth, he likely didn't even decide all of this himself—much like how he doesn't truly rule Russia the way he has since taking power.

Keith Williams3 said:Maybe instead of attacking world leaders, you could try using a bit of logic.

For instance—what actually is NATO?

It’s a military alliance—an alliance of death, comprised of the most powerful nations on Earth—originally established to contain the Soviet Union. That was a long time ago. In the interim, the Soviet Union collapsed, communism vanished, and yet NATO didn't just stick around; it expanded right up to Russia's doorstep, threatening to move into Ukraine, and now there's talk of even more countries joining.

NATO is an anti-Russian military bloc, and Russia views it as an existential threat. If that's the case, then their response is bound to be aggressive.

That is simply the thesis pushed by Vladimir Putin and all his Putin-esque counterparts across Europe. NATO is a defensive alliance; it hasn't launched military interventions without concrete cause. Look at the situation with Mexico—they moved against Mexico before any reaction took place, so what exactly did anyone expect?

The same applies to Putin. If he weren't a nuclear power, he would be getting hit hard right now, and everything he sent over would have already been sent back to Russia in the form of scrap metal and remains. Essentially, he is only protected by 6,000 warheads. Nothing else. That is why he is so arrogant—that is why he threatens everyone. An absolute idiot.

As for NATO, the idea that it was formed specifically to counter Russia is nothing more than a fiction peddled by Russophiles. It is an alliance that makes Europe strong and unified through cooperation with the Americans. Besides, the Russians have effectively isolated themselves from the rest of the world anyway. Even prior to this aggression in Ukraine, they were doing everything possible to drift away from global norms; now, through this invasion, they have beautifully demonstrated exactly where they stand. I have zero sympathy left for them. Wire and tanks on the border? Let them come. No one is defending Putin’s right to invade, but he will see exactly how that plays out if he tries. Europe is weak because it doesn't know how to respond in the only language people like him understands—and that is the core of Putin's problem. Let him threaten and push buttons; I’d threaten too if I were in his shoes. If necessary, I’d push them, too. Instead, we have this fool acting like a tough guy, as if he's the only one with access to the buttons. Everyone in NATO has buttons, Putin. Wake up from your winter slumber—winter is ending, little bear.

granitebadger24 said:Good grief, this thread is absolute chaos.😁

Every third post is some clumsy, poorly constructed WWII analogy—as if people are ready to spend their last cent fighting Putin, or even the last Finn.

When you think things couldn't get any weirder, you have Vicko showing up—though it seems more like Fatima's doing.

The Finns will make him pay for it. Let him try; they'll knock every single tooth out of his head. Then winter hits, and we'll see the frantic retreat when those Finns start skiing down the slopes with machine guns.

Gritty said:That isn't a positive move—it’s a negative one, at least for us.

England has every incentive to wreck the EU economy and stir up a crisis on their doorstep now that they aren't part of the club. Even when they were members, they had no interest in seeing Germany align with Russia.

The Franco-German bloc can no longer be broken from within, which is why they left. But when it comes to disrupting any Russo-German or general EU-Russian ties? They certainly will.

True, but Europe's goal is to become independent from both Russia and the US. The priority is energy—we need to build out other options specifically because of this Russian nonsense. We can't just rely on a single supplier; over the next decade, we might deal with Russia solely on energy matters, but everything else is off the table. However, the entire EU and America must develop alternatives to their gas, oil, and everything else we import. Everyone needs to maintain a unified foreign policy on this issue—which is a tall order, making it feel like a bit of a utopia. Once this situation in Ukraine settles, Russia will likely remain the primary supplier. This whole mess is just proof that we shouldn't rely on them—especially when they are led by such unpredictable, small-minded figures.

bluerider63 said:I get your point, but I'm having a hard time swallowing this whole Russian obsession with needing a "buffer zone" to feel secure. With the tech we have today, it doesn't matter to Russia if their missiles are sitting right on 62 miles the border or tucked away in Poland—they can hit the target just as easily from either spot.

Look at North and South Korea. It doesn't matter to South Korea that their neighbor is an enemy, because they've got enough firepower that distance isn't even a factor anymore.

That is precisely my point—I say it constantly. What difference does it make if nuclear assets are in Ukraine or Alaska? Does it matter if they are positioned in the Baltics or in Germany and France? Putin is a madman; far from being intelligent, he's completely lost his mind.

If he had any sense, he’d realize he could launch a nuke at Moscow from basically anywhere, and those submarines hitting the Baltic would take out ten of them without breaking a sweat. How does he think he can maintain control? Does he honestly believe the entire world will stop spinning just because of Russia? The fact that he hasn't managed to win over anyone in his own neighborhood speaks volumes about him and the Russians. They are losers—for the last hundred years, they've only succeeded in harming themselves and everyone else, and no one is ever going to change that reality.

Sure, the West has its own idiocies and its own rot, but it possesses an economy that everyone wants to be a part of. Meanwhile, Putin has weapons and half a country living in poverty. It’s baffling that Ukraine wouldn't want to be a Russian province—so according to certain logic on this forum, it's somehow "legal" to rip them apart just to prevent them from joining the West. They claim it's to avoid becoming a threat to Russia or to prevent an invasion via the USA and NATO—what infantile, hollow nonsense from Putin and his circle of sycophants. It’s unbelievable that Russians are fighting for this sick individual; if anything, it proves they aren't any braver than he is. Honestly, I wish the same fate upon them as he gets—straight to Siberia.

Brenda Taylor13 said:This is actually a pretty solid read—it lays out the whole timeline regarding NATO expansion and all the messy fallout from moving into former Warsaw Pact and USSR territories. Now, look, this doesn't justify Russia’s invasion or their aggression against Ukraine by any means, but it does try to dig into the "why" behind it—basically explaining why Putin feels like Russia got totally played and betrayed by the West.

And honestly, this is the root of Putin's rage: back in the 90s, the U.S. Secretary of State promised Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO wouldn't expand a single inch east of Germany. From their perspective, it was a total bait-and-switch.

The current clash between Russia and the West is fueled by a ton of grievances, but the big one—the absolute kicker—is the belief in Moscow that the West stabbed the former Soviet Union in the back by breaking those end-of-the-Cold-War promises from 1989-1990 about NATO not expanding eastward. In that famous speech he gave back in 2007 at the Munich Security Conference, Vladimir Putin went off on the West, accusing them of ignoring those guarantees and basically leaving international law in the gutter.

If you ask me—and I've been thinking about this a lot—it feels like Putin has had this planned since 2007. He just spent the intervening years playing the long game, focusing on beefing up the Russian economy and, more importantly, building a military that could actually pull this off. When you look at how much they've modernized and pumped money into their armed forces since then, it all starts to click. He laid out his stance in 2007, and then spent the next 15 years rebuilding a military that was basically a total wreck after the fall of the USSR.

Great. So every country east of Germany just gets to dictate their own domestic and foreign policy based on Moscow's whims and the insecurities of a guy named Putin? Makes perfect sense.

In the end, Putin’s actions have made him look even worse than the West—he's effectively handed his critics all the ammunition they needed. There's a reason people say that if you play with fire, you shouldn't be surprised when you get burned.