tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006608480992845396.post6602878170005973707..comments2023-10-22T04:03:06.012-07:00Comments on Nothing About Everything: 5 Reasons why we should do nothing about the Russian occupation of CrimeaGooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07358115439453465833noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006608480992845396.post-2951084064860516122014-03-14T14:28:30.387-07:002014-03-14T14:28:30.387-07:00Oh, don’t think I’m buying into the Russian line, ...Oh, don’t think I’m buying into the Russian line, friend. I’m just looking at this with common sense. If a situation arises where I go “that son of a bitch, why is he doing that?” and then I think about it for a second and realize that I’d do the exact same thing as he is doing under the same circumstances, it causes me to sit back and realize that maybe, just maybe, he doesn’t have evil intent and he really is there to do what he says he’s there to do. There’s enough “zOMG WWIII is STARTING! Teh Hitler invaded Sudetenland! Sky is falling, comrade!” running around the ‘net right now. I thought I’d just put another option out there and see if it sticks. <br /><br />As for the claims about discrimination, etc - I never made them. I said explicitly that Russia was there protecting it's interests - which are Russian citizens and Russian Military bases - during time of unrest. <br /><br />I’ll bet it does. Putin isn’t an idiot. Despite all his other flaws, he’s not dumb enough to go full imperialist right out in the open like this. Their economy is not strong enough to withstand an embargo. This may just be the driving force to finally get the Keystone XL pipeline pushed through – supplying Europe’s energy needs due to the Russian embargo. <br /><br />As for the incrementalist thing - if Russia ever gets to a point to where we decide that we need to stop them, then we'll do it. <br /><br />Now is not the time, and I think that's pretty well backed up by common sense. Crimea is NOT the hill to die on. Poland? Hell yes. The Czeck Republic? Absolutely. The remainder of Ukraine? Maybe. <br /><br />But I'll bet you right now that it never gets there. because I'll bet you that what they say they're doing there is actually what they're doing there. <br />Gooberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07358115439453465833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006608480992845396.post-41863347019739906472014-03-14T11:37:15.589-07:002014-03-14T11:37:15.589-07:00Heh, it would be enough to say honestly that the U...Heh, it would be enough to say honestly that the U.S. would be "financially inconvenienced" by the prospect of yet another armed conflict on the horizon with too little profits for its efforts. "Realpolitik" at its finest.<br /><br />Buying into Russian framing of the issue is another thing altogether. I wonder, in what manner were those ethnic Russians in Crimea discriminated against? Even more funny, remembering how Russians were never (LOL) complicit in discrimination against non-Russians in their borders before.<br /><br />What if there is a certain logic to actions of Putin? Let's push a little here, then a little more there, then still more at another point... When would it become apparent that each of those moves wouldn't happen without a tacit approval of the previous one?Mindstormhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02949097462978386911noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006608480992845396.post-2387058652248291322014-03-03T13:08:42.451-08:002014-03-03T13:08:42.451-08:00And at the time, Chamberlain made a smart move, ba...And at the time, Chamberlain made a smart move, based on the information that he had available to him at the time. The 20/20 hindsight of history has us all saying that he should have acted, but the fact is, there was not popular support for war at the time, nor was there a reasonable causus belli for Britain, specifically, to commit blood and treasure because of Germany taking back the Sudetenland. <br /><br />Chamberlain was not perfect, by a long shot, but it is only with the 20/20 hindsight of history that he’s been generally maligned as incompetent. <br /><br />Furthermore, I think that your efforts to compare the two situations are tenuous, at best. Unless you’d like to make the argument that Russia has plans to continue invading and dominating the entirety of Europe (or even of the remainder of Ukraine, for that matter), there is no comparison. None. Russia has gone to Crimea with an intent to protect ethnic Russians and Russian military interests, and their response has been measured and reasonable. We’d do the same thing in their shoes, as I’ve stated before. This is not the annexation of Austria, it’s just a major imperial power protecting their interests in a time of unrest. Totally different. So different that I’m surprised you can’t see that. <br /><br />As for the Ukraine and Crimea being a concern for the US, support your thesis. The fact that they were a concern for Britain, who was a Mediterranean imperial power at the time of the Crimean War, does not indicate why the USA, who is NOT an imperial Mediterranean power, should care. Saying “Britain did it 170 years ago” is not a good enough argument for me to send young men off to the Ukraine to die in order to stop an occupation that is widely celebrated by the people there. Remember Vietnam? Remember how shitty it was that half of the population of the people we were trying to “save” actually fought against us? <br /><br />How about we don’t do that again, what do you say? <br /><br />I’d also like to point out that it didn’t exactly go well for Britain back then… <br /><br />As for the Europe depending on the USA for defense thing, we’ll agree to disagree, and I’ll keep thinking I’m right until you show me a military in Europe that would have had an icecube’s chance in hell at stopping the East Germans, much less the entire Russian Army, at any time between 1945 to 1990. I’ll be here. <br />Gooberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07358115439453465833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4006608480992845396.post-65054335562321654122014-03-03T12:24:03.027-08:002014-03-03T12:24:03.027-08:00Chamberlain called the crisis in Sudetenland in 19...Chamberlain called the crisis in Sudetenland in 1938 'a quarrel in a faraway country, between people of whom we know nothing'. A big mistake. The Crimea and the Ukraine do concern the USA, just as the Crimea was of strategic interest to Britain a hundred and fifty years ago, leading to the Crimean War 1853-56. Incidentally, Europe didn't depend on the USA for defence - the British and American garrisons were left in Germany after 1945 as much to keep the Germans down as the Russians out.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10406846123049822049noreply@blogger.com