Russia's invasion of Ukraine: Part 5

Kimberly Perez82 said:I'm actually afraid it's the other way around—that you’re the one who hasn't learned anything. Take the Cuban Missile Crisis, for instance; back then, hotheads on both sides nearly wiped out the entire planet. Personally, if there were a spare planet floating around somewhere, I wouldn't mind at all if your sidekicks just tore each other apart until nothing was left. If your only goal is to be the last ones standing, even if everything else burns down, then fine. But that kind of selfish, "my way or the highway" attitude is exactly what drives us into these irrational, dangerous situations we find ourselves in today.

Look, this isn't the Cuban Missile Crisis—this is the 1930s all over again.

Andrew Booth29 said:Russian propaganda keeps harping on about Nazis—it’s getting old, isn't it? They just can't stop. Now we wait to see if they move to annex those territories immediately. If they do, there’s a real possibility they’ll start waving nuclear threats around as leverage. It feels like the West needs to make a call here: will they actually raise the stakes and threaten Russia with both conventional and nuclear retaliation against their forces in Ukraine?
We've essentially entered a high-stakes game of chicken.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_(game)

Think of this as a high-stakes poker game. We'll find out pretty soon who's bluffing and who's playing for keeps.🎉

Carol Johnson21 said:So, your argument is that if we give in now, they won't remember they have nukes to use as leverage for the next century? And we should just dance around them, hoping they stay happy and promise not to sell any warheads to anyone else?
Really.🤦

People panicking over nukes clearly have a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation.☕
Ignore.
The nuclear card is the only thing left for those clinging to the losing side.

You hit the nail on the head, and honestly, this whole mess has been brewing for fifty years already. What's the actual fix here? Do we just push all the way to the edge and sit there praying the other side blinks at the very last second?

In my view—and I might be wrong, but I feel strongly about this—the only way out is to de-escalate this terrifying conflict and isolate Russia until their economy hits such a breaking point that they have no choice but to agree to some sort of detente. But the problem is those various Merkels who helped pave the way for them to reach this current state of blackmailing everyone... they are a massive roadblock. I truly hope they choose to ignore them this time around. But look, there are always candidates for that role; you see it with Orbán and the new government in Italy, and even here in our own domestic politics, there are politicians who seem quite fond of a Russia like this. Just think about everything certain people are holding over here in the States—I'm sure it didn't happen without help from local politicians.

Kimberly Perez82 said:You make a valid point, truly, but I find myself wondering... what is the actual alternative? Everything has escalated so much more intensely now; there is a universal consensus that we are facing the most perilous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis. It would be incredibly foolish to pour gasoline on this fire right now. We really need to seek a compromise and somehow de-escalate things with Russia. Once that's settled, then we can pivot back to isolation and economic sanctions—you know, things like boycotting their energy supplies—which will gradually erode their economy. It should weaken them down to the level of the USSR in the nineties, where they simply won't have the resources to maintain such a massive military. A weakened Russia would naturally be more open to negotiation. There are just too many nuclear warheads involved here, and honestly, there is far too much irrationality at play; one single misstep could be catastrophic. Furthermore, even a weakened Russia remains a threat because of those thousands of nuclear warheads that could potentially slip through the black market into the hands of even more irrational psychopaths roaming the globe. This was all predictable, wasn't it? We knew this would happen eventually, so now we must act with extreme caution. Unfortunately, my generation and our children are the ones left holding the bag. I would gladly surrender this "privilege" in a heartbeat—let them fight it out for another hundred years if they want to.

What kind of compromise?
Are you suggesting we hand over half of Ukraine to Russia just so you can sleep better at night? Is that really your plan?

Those mobilized Russian troops have finally hit the front lines 😁🤣🤣

Carol Johnson21 said:So, your argument is that if we give in now, they won't remember they have nukes to use as leverage for the next century? And we should just dance around them, hoping they stay happy and promise not to sell any warheads to anyone else?
Really.🤦

People panicking over nukes clearly have a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation.☕
Ignore.
The nuclear card is the only thing left for those clinging to the losing side.

If we give in now, they’ll be right back at our doorstep in 5 or 10 years. Until that Russian ideology changes, there's no fix for this—no cure. They view Ukraine as theirs, plain and simple, along with several other countries in their so-called "sphere of influence." If their military were actually any better and they'd hit their targets, NATO would be retreating all the way back to the 1997 borders by now. Russian politicians have been talking about this for 15 years. It's just that their military is currently second-best in Ukraine, so they can't demand much of what they originally wanted.

Kimberly Perez82 said:I'm actually afraid it's the other way around—that you’re the one who hasn't learned anything. Take the Cuban Missile Crisis, for instance; back then, hotheads on both sides nearly wiped out the entire planet. Personally, if there were a spare planet floating around somewhere, I wouldn't mind at all if your sidekicks just tore each other apart until nothing was left. If your only goal is to be the last ones standing, even if everything else burns down, then fine. But that kind of selfish, "my way or the highway" attitude is exactly what drives us into these irrational, dangerous situations we find ourselves in today.

Oh, absolutely. Giving in and "playing nice" with guys like Putin and his crew has worked out so incredibly well every single time... I mean, look at the results! I guess if we kept making concessions, Putin would probably just stop at annexing parts of Ukraine. But honestly, tomorrow he might just decide it’s a great idea to march right into the rest of Ukraine or Moldova and claim those as "eternal territories" too. And after that? He’d move on to the next former Warsaw Pact country on his list. He threatens us with nukes every chance he gets, and hey, why shouldn't he if it keeps working? But I guess I'm just the crazy one here for trying to argue with his troll. 🙄

Joshua Myers432 said:Think of this as a high-stakes poker game. We'll find out pretty soon who's bluffing and who's playing for keeps.🎉

Putin has basically pushed all his chips into the middle, but his opponents haven't followed suit—he's just throwing guesses at the wall. So many rounds have passed where he's made a move and missed completely. If he hasn't learned his lesson by now, I don't know what else to tell you.

George Robinson43 said:What kind of compromise?
Are you suggesting we hand over half of Ukraine to Russia just so you can sleep better at night? Is that really your plan?

That’s basically how I—and honestly, pretty much the rest of the world—see it. That is the heavy price of making a deal. Once that's done, the goal should be to cripple Russia's economy until they have no choice but to agree to voluntary nuclear disarmament, just so we don't find ourselves staring down the barrel of a situation like this ever again. In my view, China isn't acting quite as irrationally; they won't let themselves get backed into a corner like this. It's Russia that stands as the singular danger.

mistyharbor13 said:Oh, absolutely. Giving in and "playing nice" with guys like Putin and his crew has worked out so incredibly well every single time... I mean, look at the results! I guess if we kept making concessions, Putin would probably just stop at annexing parts of Ukraine. But honestly, tomorrow he might just decide it’s a great idea to march right into the rest of Ukraine or Moldova and claim those as "eternal territories" too. And after that? He’d move on to the next former Warsaw Pact country on his list. He threatens us with nukes every chance he gets, and hey, why shouldn't he if it keeps working? But I guess I'm just the crazy one here for trying to argue with his troll. 🙄

Back in 2014, they grabbed Crimea and claimed they weren't interested in anything else in Ukraine. Fast forward eight years, and now they want Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson too. Plus, Denis Pushilin keeps hinting that Odessa will eventually go back to Russia, and that Kyiv is basically the heart of the Russian world. At this rate, they'll be knocking on someone else's door in five years.

Kimberly Perez82 said:That’s basically how I—and honestly, pretty much the rest of the world—see it. That is the heavy price of making a deal. Once that's done, the goal should be to cripple Russia's economy until they have no choice but to agree to voluntary nuclear disarmament, just so we don't find ourselves staring down the barrel of a situation like this ever again. In my view, China isn't acting quite as irrationally; they won't let themselves get backed into a corner like this. It's Russia that stands as the singular danger.

The Compromise was Crimea.

Pretty interesting stuff—an ex-US Army colonel is now holding a position at NATO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJo9K...adiotelevizija

neonbison6 said:Those mobilized Russian troops have finally hit the front lines 😁🤣🤣

Hero of Russia

The mobilization efforts over in Dagestan are looking pretty shaky at best:

View on twitter
View on twitter
https://twitter.com/igorsushko/statu...53197009883138

A whole pile of footage here: https://twitter.com/hashtag/Dagestan

It’s almost as if they could actually use a little more hardware out there...

Idi, those idiots wouldn't even deserve a bullet... I mean, maybe I'm tripping, but that whole video looks totally fake to me.

Jesse Sanchez4 said:The mobilization efforts over in Dagestan are looking pretty shaky at best:

View on twitter
View on twitter
https://twitter.com/igorsushko/statu...53197009883138

A whole pile of footage here: https://twitter.com/hashtag/Dagestan

It’s almost as if they could actually use a little more hardware out there...

If I remember correctly, that’s kind of how the Russian Empire and the Romanov dynasty started falling apart. I guess we might see another civil war there if the pressure keeps building up. And all for what? Just to feed someone's ego?

Kimberly Perez82 said:I realize some people here are incredibly sensitive about this topic, which explains the outbursts, but so far, besides one single forum member, nobody has actually attempted to answer the core question: how do we stop an irrational individual who has 6,000 nuclear warheads at his disposal? Aside from the compromise I mentioned earlier, I don't see any other path forward, and I might be 100% wrong—truly, I would love to hear better solutions. But please, suggest solutions that won't drive the entire world into a nuclear catastrophe. For instance, suggesting we defeat the military Putin at any cost is out of the question, because we all know exactly how that scenario would likely conclude. I assume that isn't anyone's goal, and the US is clearly aware of that, given how extremely cautious their reactions have been. So, let’s hear them. What are your proposals?

This issue didn't just pop up this year, nor did it start back in 2014. This problem was baked in long ago, right after WWII, when the USA allowed the USSR to churn out nuclear warheads like they were cans of beans in a grocery store. We've been dealing with this escalating tension for years, and now we've reached the absolute peak. And while we're on the subject, it's worth noting that several of the leading politicians within the USSR were actually Ukrainian.

Interesting... The USA allowed the USSR to mass-produce nuclear warheads. 🤦
So now the USSR is responsible for all the world's evil? Come to think of it, maybe Hitler was Russian too. Should we start questioning the origins of every dictator installed by so-called Western democracy? ☕

Melissa Rivera5 said:If I remember correctly, that’s kind of how the Russian Empire and the Romanov dynasty started falling apart. I guess we might see another civil war there if the pressure keeps building up. And all for what? Just to feed someone's ego?

I mean, sure, most people are used to thinking of Russia as this unshakable, powerhouse nation, but let's be real—Russia was staring down the barrel of total collapse not even that long ago, and honestly, that kind of instability isn't exactly anything new in their history, is it?

Jesse Sanchez4 said:The mobilization efforts over in Dagestan are looking pretty shaky at best:

View on twitter
View on twitter
https://twitter.com/igorsushko/statu...53197009883138

A whole pile of footage here: https://twitter.com/hashtag/Dagestan

It’s almost as if they could actually use a little more hardware out there...

It's wild how fast the police fold when they're outnumbered ☕--kind of crazy to watch, honestly--

And wait, it gets even weirder—Wang actually sat down with his Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau and basically said Beijing is praying this whole war fire burns itself out ASAP. Then, for the first time since the Russian invasion kicked off, he met with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and went, "Hey, we totally respect the territorial integrity of every nation." Yeah, including Ukraine. Get this: back in 2013—yeah, way back when that pro-Russian guy Viktor Yanukovych was calling the shots—Beijing and Kyiv actually signed an agreement where the PRC promised to protect Ukraine if they ever faced a nuclear attack.