woolley Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 If they attack the Baltic States they are attacking Nato. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donald Trumps Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 US adopts new policy stance 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted April 27, 2014 Author Share Posted April 27, 2014 I have to say I am a little worried that the BBC etc are not covering the situation in Ukraine well. I would like to understand how ultra-right wing Ukrainian political parties are operating in the country - apart from a brief bit of coverage where one group intimidated the head of Ukrainian TV to resign, I've hardly seen any reporting on it, except when Russian speakers raise it as a major cause of their concerns. Are they a threat, and a genuine destabilizing factor, or is it vastly overblown propaganda for Russia? The east is clearly descending into thuggery with torture, hostage taking and gunmen taking the law into their own hands. Nasty, and likely to get worse. Russia isn't defusing the tension - its arming the thugs - I suspect they'll deliberately try to destabilize the elections planned for May - so they can continue to call the government illegitimate. Violence and killings are likely to escalate. It is genuinely frightening - we are seeing a country imploding. I'm sadly basically certain more deaths are going to happen. Putin's machismo isn't stable and is very difficult to defuse. The dogs of war he's unslipped will not be so easily restrained. The best I can see is an informal partition of the country such has happened in Georgia etc. and even that could be pretty bloody, but a full scale civil war could result. Civilization is fragile. Suddenly it can be rational to plan violence against someone who previously was just your neighbour, and when you know they are thinking the same thing our capacity for anticipatory revenge can make killing all too likely. I can scarcely imagine what it must be like to have that happen - scary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donald Trumps Posted April 28, 2014 Share Posted April 28, 2014 I think they're having trouble getting camera crews in & footage out It all ranks of Jugoslavia, albeit with bigger armies on either side Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lxxx Posted April 28, 2014 Share Posted April 28, 2014 (edited) It looks like Putin is still using the outdated model of physical territory = power, which is now obsolete, as Japan (a small country with no natural resources) showed when they reached the No 2 economy in the world, based on the productive capacity of it's people. However Putin also knows their is a sea change happening in the world, with the BRICS nations now looking to bypass the dollar in trade deals which will have severe repurcussions for the US economy and likely send it into nosedive. The US will, like all good warmongerers, attempt to counter this by using military action but the die is cast. China, Russia and Iran, for example, are ploughing ahead with gold for oil regardless and Ukraine is the unfortunate world in a microcosm. A flashpoint of east v west. Edited April 28, 2014 by Lxxx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jefferson Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 Chinahand, why did you fail to mention that the western-backed Ukranians are neo-nazis who have also been engaging in violence and who overthrew a democratically elected government? Oh wait, the answer is simple: you get your facts from the state-run British Broadcasting Company. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lxxx Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 We were told a few months ago that thugs overthrowing democratically elected institutions in the Ukraine was good. Now thugs overthrowing democratically elected institutions is bad. It's laughable. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jefferson Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 These are the same clowns who are at war with Al Qaeda one minute (Afghanistan, Iraq) and buddies with them the next (Syria, Libya). How anyone can read the news, believe all of it, and not end up with cognitive dissonance is beyond me. It's like in 1984 where they were at war with one lot one week, then the next week they're at peace with them and at war with someone else, and the war never even happened. It's ridiculous. And anyone who has any lights on at home and actually has a memory beyond the previous 2 weeks is called a conspiracy theorist for pointing it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Tatlock Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 No serious European opposition is going to happen. Russia will simply turn off the gas supplies to Europe if it does escalate, helping to even further cripple the European economies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lxxx Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 We're watching a financially and morally bankrupt west thrashing around on the world stage, lurching from one event to the next, with no real strategy on what they stand for anymore. It's the time of the BRICS nations now, the pendulum has swung. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jefferson Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 Do you think Obama is really becoming greyer or do presidents strategically dye their hair to make them look more statesmanlike? I know they tend to do that on TV shows -- they usually force them to dye their hair to begin with, then they start a new season and quickly the character takes on grey hair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mojomonkey Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 Do you think Obama is really becoming greyer or do presidents strategically dye their hair to make them look more statesmanlike? I know they tend to do that on TV shows -- they usually force them to dye their hair to begin with, then they start a new season and quickly the character takes on grey hair. Men going grey as they get older conspiracy theory shocker! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jefferson Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 Do you think Obama is really becoming greyer or do presidents strategically dye their hair to make them look more statesmanlike? I know they tend to do that on TV shows -- they usually force them to dye their hair to begin with, then they start a new season and quickly the character takes on grey hair. Men going grey as they get older conspiracy theory shocker! No, but I think it's quite feasible that a president seeking a second term might deliberately grey their hair up (or stop dyeing it to hide the grey) in order to appear to be more statesmanlike to get more votes and convey a sense of confidence and sophistication. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mojomonkey Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 No, but I think it's quite feasible that a president seeking a second term might deliberately grey their hair up (or stop dyeing it to hide the grey) in order to appear to be more statesmanlike to get more votes and convey a sense of confidence and sophistication. Didn't work for this fella. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jefferson Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 Didn't it? You'll have to ask Edwina Currie about that one...... maybe she just liked peas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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