The Washington Post reports that Putin feels increasingly confident that he can win a long war of attrition in Ukraine because public opinion in the West will turn against support for Ukraine due to inflation and the high cost of gasoline. By contrast, he controls public opinion in Russia and continues to enjoy the economic security provided by oil and gas exports.
We can expect that Russian propaganda will exacerbate divisions in the U.S. and Europe.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is digging in for a long war of attrition over Ukraine and will be relentless in trying to use economic weapons, such as a blockade of Ukrainian grain exports, to whittle away Western support for Kyiv, according to members of Russia’s economic elite.
The Kremlin has seized on recent signs of hesitancy by some European governments as an indication the West could lose focus in seeking to counter Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, especially as global energy costs surge following the imposition of sanctions on Moscow.
Putin “believes the West will become exhausted,” said one well-connected Russian billionaire, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Putin had not expected the West’s initially strong and united response, “but now he is trying to reshape the situation and he believes that in the longer term he will win,” the billionaire said. Western leaders are vulnerable to election cycles, and “he believes public opinion can flip in one day.”
The embargo on Russia’s seaborne oil exports announced by the European Union this week — hailed by Charles Michel, president of the European Council, as putting maximum “pressure on Russia to end the war” — would “have little influence over the short term,” said one Russian official close to Moscow diplomatic circles, also speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “The Kremlin mood is that we can’t lose — no matter what the price…”
The populations of E.U. countries “are feeling the impact of these sanctions more than we are,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with The Washington Post. “The West has made mistake after mistake, which has led to growing crises, and to say that this is all because of what is going on in Ukraine and what Putin is doing is incorrect.”
This posture suggests that the Kremlin believes it can outlast the West in weathering the impact of economic sanctions. Putin has little choice but to continue the war in hopes the Ukraine grain blockade will “lead to instability in the Middle East and provoke a new flood of refugees,” said Sergei Guriev, former chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The Kremlin’s aggressive stance seems to reflect the thinking of Nikolai Patrushev, the hawkish head of Russia’s Security Council, who served with Putin in the Leningrad KGB and is increasingly seen as a hard-line ideologue driving Russia’s war in Ukraine. He is one of a handful of close security advisers believed by Moscow insiders to have access to Putin. In three vehemently anti-Western interviews given to Russian newspapers since the invasion, the previously publicity-shy Patrushev has declared Europe is on the brink of “a deep economic and political crisis” in which rising inflation and falling living standards were already impacting the mood of Europeans, while a fresh migrant crisis would create new security threats.
“The world is gradually falling into an unprecedented food crisis. Tens of millions of people in Africa or in the Middle East will turn out to be on the brink of starvation — because of the West. In order to survive, they will flee to Europe. I’m not sure Europe will survive the crisis,” Patrushev told Russian state newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta in one of the interviews…
With risks growing for all sides, “it is going to be a war of attrition from the economic, political and moral point of view,” the Russian official said. “Everyone is waiting for autumn,” when the impact of sanctions will hit the hardest, he said.
So far, however, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky estimating Kyiv needs $7 billion in aid a month just to keep the country running, Putin appears to be betting on the West blinking first, the former U.S. government official said. Putin’s “goal of subjugating Ukraine and eventually placing a Russian flag in Kyiv has not changed.”
I stand by what I wrote when one commenter here was still saying that Putin, despite having amassed 170,000 troops on three borders of Ukraine, had no intention of invading:
This will be long and bloody, and eventually, Russia will lose. Another Afghanistan.
Here’s what I got wrong back then: I expected Russia to be able to seize Kiev and for there to be, following that, a long and bloody guerilla war. Who could have predicted the breathtaking incompetence and state of equipment disrepair of the Russian army? That was a shocker.
But there’s a reason for this, of course. The kleptocratic culture that Putin has created and used to rob ordinary Russian citizens over many decades totally undermined the Russian military, the thieves being like a termite infestation in a house. So, for example, people in the Russian military booked purchases of high-quality tires but bought cheap ones from China. They booked exercises of vehicles but let them sit unused. And so, in battle, the unused tires simply blew up, and the vehicles sat stranded and abandoned on Ukrainian roads. More than sixty percent of Russian missiles, made with bad parts, are duds. They fall to the ground and lie there. In school yards. Stuck in the roofs of apartment buildings and hospitals and theatres. And the money that was supposed to have been spent on the modernization of the military? Billions and billions of rubles? Spent on dachas and yachts and mistresses. Senior Russian military staff simply following the leader, imitation being the highest form of flattery.
Here, I might agree. Putin is following the “American” example, allowing (or encouraging) the rich to steal from the poor. But, bear in mind, we were supposed to ‘hate’ the ‘evil’ Russians who attempted to impose ‘communism’.. Now, why don’t we revere the current system than promotes the opposite?
Daedalus, I hate Communism. I am a Social Democrat.
Well, Bob, so am I
Also, the “billions of Rubles” spent on the military pale in comparison the the money spent by the US (more money then the next 9 countries, combined). Let’s try for something other than propaganda.
You are missing my point. Russia supposedly spent, in the last few decades, an enormous amount of money to upgrade and modernize its military. This was a BIG initiative of the Putin government. And this is the first time we’ve seen a full-scale run of the “new” military. Missiles that don’t explode. Tires that do explode. Communications equipment that doesn’t work, forcing commanders to use cell phones. Tanks that store ammunition in their turrets, making it easy to use their own munitions to blow them up. Why this mess? Because like everything else in Putin’s mafia state, the money was siphoned off and didn’t actually go where it was supposed to.
And, why are we doing the exact same thing?
Consortium News has been accused by an allegedly “private” but actually government supported and funded “watchdog” of publishing “false” information that does not conform to the mandatory western narrative. They published an extensive rebuttal including all the sources for their information, most of which are western government and mainstream media sources. If you people half an ounce of the intellectual honesty you claim to have, you will read it in full, along with the linked sources.
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/06/02/us-state-affiliated-newsguard-targets-consortium-news/
I wish Consortium News were JUST a looney bin, but I fear that it’s far, far worse than that.
This must be really tough, Dienne, trying to sell Americans on obliterating cities full of civilians, trying to make that into some sort of noble cause. Just admit it. This cannot be done, what with round pegs and square holes, without distortion. Funhouse mirrors without the fun part.
That was tough for Cheney and Rummy. Even harder for the SVR, FSB, the GU, and their assets and agents in the looneyville left media.
Name-calling is a sure sign that you cannot refute the point using logic. It’s a tactic often used by bullies, and third graders.
I think you and Daedalus are the same person, no?
I don’t think it is unfair to say that Putin is a war-monger. That’s not name-calling. That’s a fact.
We can reasonably speculate about why he is killing innocent people and destroying a sovereign nation.
It can’t be greed; the war is costing Russia many lives and has isolated it in the global economy to which he once aspired to belong.
He could be a psychopath or a sociopath. That’s not name-calling. That’s speculation based on the reality of a global power attacking a neighboring nation and seeking to obliterate its existence.
Diane,
I apologize. I was trying to respond do Bob. Sorry for the confusion. I have not noticed you using ‘name-calling’ at all. Or, except in the case of Putin.
If we’re going to throw around the ‘war-monger’ name, there’s plenty of them in the same category. Once, again, before addressing the splinter in the eye of your neighbor, attend to the log in your own eye. (Not you, personally, but the many, many logs in the eyes of people in our own country). Remember, it was admitted that the aim of US support in Ukraine was to ‘weaken Russia’. That was also the aim of US involvement in Afghanistan. So, who’s the ‘war monger’? And, let’s not even go to the embarrassing
‘meeting’ of Blinken with the Chinese ambassador (screaming about the Uygurs when we are killing the entire country of Yemen and not saying a peep about Saudi Arabia).
You know, hypocrisy is a HUGE fault, but it’s also a human trait. As Bobby Burnes said, “Oh Wad the Gift He gee us, To See Ourselves as Others See-us”
logic. haaaaaaa! Now that’s funny.
Dead babies and grandmothers, raped women, obliterated cities
Is that logic enough for you?
So, in the past, I have dutifully followed these links and read the stories, but enough is enough. This is just the stuff said by cranks who believe that they have invented perpetual motion machines or squared the circle or proved that the actual value of pi is precisely 3.14 or that aliens built the pyramids or that the government is suppressing the fact that colloidal silver or alkalized water cures cancer. If you aren’t totally brainwashed, go to this website and GET THE FACTS that THEY don’t want you to know! OK. I’m game, but only to a certain extent. I will read the ridiculous book by L. Ron Hubbard or Alison Byrd (the founder of the utterly looney New Religion called Marconics) or the manifesto of the Unibomber because these weirdness have some inherent interest. But at some point, uh, no. Enough. This stuff is totally looney, but it’s worse than that. It’s disinformation that probably is supported financially by Russian intelligence services.
Perhaps I understand your frustration. However, if your statement is true, you need to address the problem.
Just because you are frustrated doesn’t give you the license to destroy rationality.
For about a thousand years, Europe dismissed rationality. Those years are called (by people like me) the Dark Ages.
Did Ukrainian nationalist groups participate in the Maidan Revolution? Yes. Were there some nasty elements among those people? Yes. Did US intelligence give the revolution an assist? I should freaking hope so. Was this a democratic revolution? Yes, that’s exactly what it was. And here is what Putin has accomplished: Even in once Russian-leaning Odesa, now, the people DETEST the Russians and will never, ever, ever, yield to them. There is only so much of seeing your relatives and acquaintances butchered that people will put up with.
Since the leader was democratically elected, how (in God’s name) was this overthrow an example of ‘democracy’? Should we do the same in the US? Invite foreign money and military into a position so that they can throw out an elected President?
Viktor Yanukovich was impeached and thrown out of office by unanimous vote (328-0) of the democratically elected Ukrainian Rada.
In other words, he was impeached.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/ukraines-yanukovych-missing-as-protesters-take-control-of-presidential-residence-in-kiev/2014/02/22/802f7c6c-9bd2-11e3-ad71-e03637a299c0_story.html
Got any proof? Or, is this just ‘name-calling’, once again?
You, clearly, were not a scientist. The important thing to you seems to be ‘winning an argument’, and the ‘truth’ be damned. I hate to say that, but the use of rhetorical tricks to enhance your opinion (yep, we all do it to a point… I edited a newspaper column) just seems to obscure a rational discussion.
Once, again, I invite you to avoid the histrionics and concentrate on the logic.
Let me ‘splain a little something about science to you, Daedalus:
Oddly, I don’t consider psychology to be all that ‘scientific’. You see, Bob, I look to earlier models, ones based upon inductive logic, not fabrication. I consider Astronomy and Physics to be far better examples of ‘science’. Yet, there may be the occasional psychologist who actually tries to use induction. They do (upon occasion) pretend to use ‘math’, however they have very serious problems with ‘double-blind’ experimental design, so most results are worthless.
So, let me ‘splain’ that to you. (Again, can you ever stop belittling by using rhetorical tricks?)
So, you missed my point, I see.
I do agree with you, however, that a lot of psych papers have serious problems. This has been well documented. But that’s not what my essay was about.
OK, Bob, I’m a ‘crank’. Boy, if that isn’t ‘name calling’, I don’t know what is. And, of course, you have nothing to say about the actual descriptive content of the message.
Do you work for the CIA? Just askin’.
I proved in my book that the shape-shifting reptilians from Alpha Draconis are using their spaceport under the Vatican to supply leaders of the Illuminati! Go ahead, call me crazy! That’s because you cannot refute MY POINTS using LOGIC!
Classic
I bet you haven’t even read Chapter 118 of my book on these reptilians, “The Anunnaki Connection”! [inserts link to his 3,000-page monograph]
LOL
Well, we did it in Iraq, we did it in Hiroshima, we did it for wedding parties in Afghanistan, and we did it in Indonesia. It appears to be not all that tough.
So, that’s my experience of reading Consortium “News.” Crackpot stuff.
More ‘name calling’. Sad.
It seems that Putin isn’t likely to live to see the end of this conflict, but his siloviki, fromed in his same demented mold, are poised to take power when he’s gone. It is quite possible, of course, that on his death, there will be spontaneous mass demonstrations calling for actual democratic elections in Russia, but I suspect that the criminals Putin has surrounded himself with all these years are already planning for the extreme state reaction to that.
So, the West must go the distance on this. However long, however much it takes. The safety of Europe and the future of a free Ukraine and a free Russia both depend upon this.
cx: formed
Here’s a consideration: The sanctions are taking a toll in the cities, but even before those, things were pretty desperate in the Russian countryside. People were very, very poor. Now, it’s worse, doubtless–much, much worse. Putin and his creep crew are isolated in their palaces. They may end up facing a stiffer resistance than they had imagine, just as they did in Ukraine, but from their own people. Will they resign themselves to more of the same–to rule by a criminal mob intent only on looting the country, or will they rise? At what point will they say, we have nothing and so nothing to lose?
cx: had imagined
You’re promoting perpetual war. Also, Russia was always considered a part of Europe. C’mon, Bob.
I am promoting this? LMAO!!!! Putin started this. He could end it right now. Right now.
I am promoting kicking his murderers and racists out of Ukraine; trying him and his co-conspirators for the Crime of Aggression, Crimes against Humanity, and War Crimes in a Special Tribunal of the United Nations; welcoming other possible Russian targets into NATO; beefing up NATO defenses against such criminal aggression in the future; and doing everything possible to ensure that no one would dare again commit like crimes. Tzar Putin, murderer of children, rapist of women, by proxy.
cx: his murderers and rapists
Calling people ‘demented’ doesn’t help your argument. Name-calling is a juvenile method used by a bully on the school ground.
Bob… Please let’s try to raise the level of conversation. Otherwise, you appear to be a ‘Trump’ focused upon a rhetorical ‘win’ with only power in mind.
I think, Daedalus, that in this case the adjective is precisely accurate. Would you say that killing a hundred+ innocent people, as the American Pee Wee Gaskins did, was NOT demented? Well, Putin and his murderous, criminal pals have murdered far, far more, and the murder and rape continues today in Ukraine.
How about Hitler, Daedalus? Can I say that he and Goebbels and Himmler were demented? Is that being juvenile, or is it be accurate and appropriate to the subject of the speech? Inquiring minds want to know.
If it quacks like a duck, . . .
There is no adjective severe enough to describe Putin and the brutal war he has unleashed on the people of Ukraine. It is a war of choice. Putin has given orders to destroy everything. Reduce cities to rubble. Raze architectural and cultural landmarks. Level apartment buildings, homes, schools, hospitals.
Daedalus, what do you think is an appropriate adjective for a leader who unleashes a devastating war of attrition on a sovereign nation?
I wonder how long it will take before Putin becomes an egocentric liability to his wealthy oligarchs that enjoy so much freedom in the West, particularly in London, aka, Moscow on the Thames. They can’t be too happy with assets in Western countries being frozen, and the resulting isolation of Russia from the West. Isolation is not good for profit. China is an uncomfortable ally of Russia at best. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/23/shared-resentments-but-russia-ties-could-be-awkward-for-china
It will be interesting to see how the post-Putin jockeying for power plays out. Will there be an alliance between some oligarchs and some leader among the siloviki against the rest of Putin’s old KGB gang and the next-in-line Putin clone who has been waiting as long as poor old Prince Charles to assume the mantle? What factions will emerge? What powers will they be able to exercise? Note that Russia is already experiencing a lot of desertion and disobedience in its military ranks (though the new command has cracked down hard on this, it seems). But will the chosen Putin successor actually be able to marshal the forces needed to shut down the uprising that has been contained by force all these years? Will a challenger be able to galvanize and focus that uprising? Interesting times.
The US blinked in Vietnam, after 19 years.
The US blinked in Afghanistan, after nearly 20 years.
I don’t think Putin will live long enough to see the US blink in Ukraine.
On the other hand, Putin is a Stalinist style fascist and people are like dust mites to leaders like them.
During WWII fighting Germany on the eastern front, Stalin’s Russia lost 6,750,000 troops vs 2,124,352 million German troops on the eastern front.
That was the price in Russian lives Stalin was willing to pay to win. If we add in the 1.65 million Ukrainian troops that were fighting under Stalin, those numbers climb to 8.4 million troops lost to defeat Germany or 4 to 1 losses. The concept is to overwhelm the enemy with numbers until the enemy runs out of ammo.
That’s a pyrrhic victory. A pyrrhic victory is a victory that comes at a great cost, perhaps making the ordeal to win not worth it. It relates to Pyrrhus, a king of Epirus who defeated the Romans in 279 BCE but lost many of his troops. It is likely that most of us prefer to win at something, rather than to lose.
So, Putin may win in the end if he lives long enough, but a lot of Russian troops will have to die to make that happen as Putin keeps feeding them into the meat grinder.
Putin thinks like Stalin. He’s willing to lose as many Russian troops as it takes to overwhelm Ukraine. He won’t blink or lose any sleep over it. For fascists like Putin and Stalin, that is the cost of winning. The people they rule are nothing but worthless dust mites to them. The same is true about Traitor Trump.
Lloyd…
Putin ain’t gonna last another 20 years, however Ukraine happens to be on the edge of Russia, and I’m not so sure that the community wants to be ruled by the likes of Blinken and Nod ( Nod would be Biden, or would he be ‘Winken’?).
The US had no business telling people in Vietnam how to live. Nor did they in Afghanistan. Where do we come up with this arrogance? As they say, “Before addressing the splinter in you’re neighbor’s eye, attend to the log in your own”.
However, the focus on Putin diverts us from addressing that log, doesn’t it? And, that’s the point, isn’t it? And, how many people do we wish to see die for the ‘cost of winning’? Apparently, we are willing to decimate the school lunch program, de-fund Social Security, destroy the Post Office, wipe out public healthcare and, of course, public schools.
The ‘British Empire’ was a pretty horrible thing (as was the Spanish). They killed ‘millions and millions’ in order to decimate other people and extract resources. We are following in that tradition. Does that make you proud?
So, Daedalus, what, exactly, is your position? that the West should not abandon Ukraine? That Ukraine should surrender to rule by Russia?
cx: that the West should abandon Ukraine? Leave it to the wolves?
Daedalus– I find your post contradictory.
First you say you’re not so sure that Ukraine (being on the border of Russia) wants to be “ruled” by the US [Blinken & “Nod”]. Are you saying they don’t want to be part of the Western democracies? They’re fighting like hell to avoid being taken back over by Russia & demanding military support from from NATO. The millions leaving have headed West, not East [all except those who were captured by Russians & deported East].
Then you claim the situation is parallel to US’s arrogance in fighting to convert Vietnamese and Afghanis to democracy, even though neither nation had ever experienced anything but an imitative shadow of democracy while under the thumb of US, via propping up puppet leadership with $$ and military occupation. Ukraine became independent 31 yrs ago, and adopted a democratic constitution 5 yrs later, without that sort of US involvement.
Then you claim US is demonizing one actor—Putin—to distract from our arrogance etc as commented on above. I suspect many of us understand that if Putin were to die tomorrow, he would be replaced by people lined up behind him with the same goals/M.O.’s [one might be the very Patrushev quoted in the article]. The oligarchical structure of today’s Russia would see to that.
Then you go to the last resort of all isolationists, claiming we “can’t afford it”: we’ll lose school lunches, Social Security, the Post Office, public healthcare [?], and public schools– what? By putting $50 billion toward defense of Ukraine? We currently spend $721.5 billion annually on defense. IMHO, defending Ukraine against the Russians is absolutely part of national defense.
And finally you try to make us empire-building: in this effort, we are like 19thC British empire, or earlier Spanish empire. Millions and millions will die so we can extract resources? That doesn’t even deserve a rejoinder.
Let’s start from back to front (and I might forget the ‘front’ that you wrote.)
You can’t honestly believe that our adventures in the ‘Middle East’ have nothing to do with oil, can you? Our invasion of Iraq? Our support of the Saudi genocide in Yemen? I could give at least a dozen examples. Then we could move on to other resources in other ‘countries’. I mean, why did we displace Native Americans wherever there was gold?
I’m sorry to say that we are as bad as the ‘British Empire’ in that respect, perhaps worse. But, that’s not surprising. A child growing up in an abusive family tends to mimic the abuse and impose it upon his/her own family.
We’ve got to break the cycle, but we seem to not even recognize a problem.
Sorry, I got so tied up in your final statement that I forgot the one before….. You think ‘defending Ukraine’ is part of out ‘national defense’? I find that rather odd. When another country attacks our country and we respond, that’s ‘national defense’. Hasn’t happened since Pearl Harbor, and even that was questionable (Hawaii was a ‘territory’, but not a part of the US, much as Puerto Rico is today (what a shame upon our country).
Putin hasn’t had anyone to tell him he’s wrong for a very, very long time, so it’s not surprising that he should be continuing to make these profound errors in judgment.
I would have liked to reply to your comments (above), however it seems I can’t. So, I ‘ll respond here.
My position is that the US has no business trying to rule the world. My position is that the ‘West’ has no business trying to impose weapons on the Russian border. My position is that the Russians (historically) have far more to fear from the ‘West’ than we (in the USA) do from them. My position is that keeping Ukraine from going to the table to negotiate a settlement (probably involving allowing Donbass independence) is killing Ukrainians and enriching ‘Western’ arms makers. My position is that the Russians are not ‘wolves’, and that you are once again devolving into name-calling in order to demean someone with whom you disagree. C’mon Bob.
How’s that getting fewer [defensive] weapons and NATO members off his coast working out for Tsar Putin?
Poor Vlad!
So sad!
What a bad year
Vlad has had!
It’s reported that Putin has cancer. Poetic justice because Putin IS a cancer on the body politic of his country, one that has mediatized into Ukraine and requires excision. He has spent a lifetime raping his country. Now, he is doing the same to his neighbors.
Name-calling again.
So sad to see an apparently intelligent person sink to that level.
metastasized
He’s correct. Time will always be on GOPs side unless there is a significant Russian grassroots uprising, and even that might not be effective.
Putey is roid-raging, shaking like a leaf, gripping onto tables. He is known to be exceedingly calculating. How he is assimilating the rapidly approaching grim reaper is clear to Ukrainians and to the rest of the free world.
The brave Ukrainian defenders have been doing a breathtaking job so far, but they are not superhuman. The West needs to reinforce them. Trained volunteer forces. A very large UN peacekeeping force. Something.
Wait a minute…. Are ‘Ukrainians’ part of the West? Aren’t they blonde-haired, blue-eyed angels? They’re already infested with ‘trained volunteer forces’ (Azov). That’s part of the problem, not the solution. “A very large UN peacekeeping force” should be sent to Palestine to enforce international law.
Daedalus– Your citing the Azov forces helps me understand your position— maybe. Though their neoNazi connections may be your point, and I don’t have much info on how to fit that into the picture. So correct me if I’m misreading you.
You see the Ukrainian situation as akin to a civil war, with northeastern & southeastern portions of the country being Russian culture, and perhaps happy to rejoin mother Russia, while the rest of the country is Ukrainian culture wishing to remain nationally independent. Therefore you see the involvement of US & other NATO countries as the same sort of wrong-headed involvement as in other nations’ civil wars, e.g., Korea, Viet Nam, & perhaps others.
In 1991 over 90% of Ukraine voters by referendum approved its separation from Russia in 1991, with majorities in every region, including 56% in Crimea.
I don’t see the reaction of Donbas or Mariupul-area to Russian invasion as having been indicative of some desire to rejoin mother Russia. Crimea didn’t strike me that way either, though that might have been a much closer call; hence nobody challenged it.
Part of what you are offering apologies for, Daedalus:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/fear-and-destruction-turn-ukraine-s-frontline-cities-into-ghost-towns/ar-AAYdaYV?bk=1&ocid=msedgntp&cvid=7be61b9209d345be80e13e43c48b4174
The Russian economy will take quite a hit: https://www.npr.org/2022/06/06/1103270266/breaking-down-the-effectiveness-of-the-latest-sanctions-on-russia
If Putin does, indeed, have cancer, he may be taking the old “if I go down everybody goes with me” route. That’s it45 style thinking (as so well-explained by niece Mary Trump).
The only problem I have with the story is; the mind readers at WaPo . If you were sitting next to Putin asking him direct questions would you actually know what he was thinking. As he answered the questions would know whether he was honestly giving you his thoughts. We don’t know what Putin thinks and should not care. The strategy should be to assure that he does not win.
Putin has already won what was his objective from the start of the war: To establish a land link between Russian and Crimea. He has now accomplished that and will proceed to militarily harder that land link.
Well, could be. We shall see. However, why don’t we (in the US) worry more about our own people?
School lunch program (poor people) cut. Social Security (old people) cut. Public schools under severe attack. Post office almost gone. Seems to me these are more important questions. Yet, we send money to Ukraine. Could it be we want to divert the attention of our own citizens from the failures of our own government?
This was certainly a major part of his objective at the beginning of this, but it was also clear from the staging of the initial attack that he expected to take the entire country, starting with decapitation. But yeah, this is why he must be driven out of Ukraine completely. A lot depends on this.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-s-humiliation-is-unavoidable/ar-AAYdpUQ?bk=1&ocid=msedgntp&cvid=ef3f07b6ad6a405db6341a199a33a790
Let me ‘splain’ to you that you are pretending to everyone else that you know more about ‘science’ than I do. You are using ‘psychology’ as an example. That ‘science’ is about as much a science as ‘economics’.
Yes, that’s a power of rhetoric, however it was once understood that with ‘power’ came responsibility. Are you willing to accept that? Are you willing to ‘pick up the tab’ for the extra $10 every American pays at the gas pump? Are you willing to suffer for every Ukrainian killed as the US tells Zelensky to keep on fighting? And, how about the Russian families, Bob. Are those losses entirely Putin’s fault, or do you have a part to play in that loss as well?
And, meanwhile, we cut the school lunch program, we cut funding for Medicare, we cut money for vaccine research. As you pump Ukraine stuff, it kills Americans.
Please, don’t try to lecture me about science.
Daedalus,
I respect your pacifism. I am a pacifist too. But why aren’t you calling on Putin to stop the aggression? He invaded Ukraine. Ukraine did not invade Russia. Should the Ukrainians simply surrender and allow Putin to take control? What about the Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians? Should they surrender too? It is up to Putin to end the fighting and killing. When he says stop, it will stop. Not sooner.
Conflicts end when people sit down at a table and negotiate. Our country has refused to allow Zelensky to do that. It takes two to allow that, not just ‘Putin’.
Incidentally, did you know that ‘Putin’ applied to be a part of NATO, and we blocked Russia from the ‘alliance’? As I said, it takes two to tango. Blaming ‘the other’ simply perpetuates bloodshed.
We have never told Zelensky not to negotiate with Putin. For the first few weeks of the war, the two sides negotiated while the Russians continued to bombard Kiev and Mariupol. Nothing came of the negotiations. Putin wanted surrender. Zelensky did not want to surrender. Putin wants complete control of Ukraine. Ukraine decides its strategy. No one else does.
So, Putin told you this? And, Putin being a former KGB guy, you believed it?
The war will end when Putin decides to stop attacking Ukraine. Not a minute sooner.
Putin compares himself to Peter, the Great!
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61767191.amp
HAHAHA…
YES, Putin is very DANGEROUS.