Why is only one side of this story published?

Yeah, I read alternate news.

And then I decide for myself. Which often leads to weird decisions that nobody agrees with.

To be fair, I am opposed to communism, and I'm not in favor of Russia any more than Ukraine.

What I'm opposed to here is that we have basically canonized the Ukrainian president for sainthood. I may not know much about the news, but I know that no leader is blameless (aside maybe from Jesus, and even Jesus seems to have a troll streak based on some of his comments (the Syrophoenician woman getting rejected before Jesus agrees to heal her kid)). Uhhhh no, that's bullshit. Russia isn't a pure villain, Ukraine isn't a pure victime, and all of this seems to be a well-timed distraction.

So we shouldn't be distracted but instead focus on how this leader who is saying "Look over there! Russia invaded Ukraine" literally just called himself a leader of the New World Order.

In case you've never learned what that is, it is basically creepy one-world government ****. So we have a leader (senile or not) who is saying they want to step on the Empty Throne and oversee the World Government (to quote One Piece a little).
Don't you think a single border skirmish is just a tad bit meaningless? I don't care about Russia, and I don't care about Ukraine. Not in support of either. But I am opposed to the leader of my country (not my president) acting like an Antichrist and trying to declare himself king of the world.
Excuse me, God made this world, and let Satan rule for a time, now Jesus has established a kingdom (though petty tyrants still play pretend). Don't you think someone might have something to say about your mandate of heaven pretty soon?

It's more than close ties. If Mexico signed a alliance with China, and started being supplied weapons (this is what Russia accuses, whether true or not). And we have a man named 我愛你一生一世 in Mexico's presidential office now (hyperbole, but one of the sticking points with Georgia was replacing a Russian puppet president with a US-educated and US-loyal one), and started making noises like they wanted to spread Chinese doctrines to all Mexican citizens, and then immigrate over here... well they're pretty close to our border, and it's kinda getting uncomfortable.

And if you start building Chinese bases or supplying weapons, it is pretty unrealistic that US would still be on economics. They might for Argentina, but not for a country that lies at their doorstep. Tanks but no tanks, as they say.

The point, and the part that is only one side of the story is while Ukraine wants to join NATO, it is clearly nothing to do with the fact that Ukraine's leader is a US-run puppet or that as far back as February, weapons were promised to Ukraine. Or that there are nine US bases in Ukraine.

https://aseanarchitectcouncil.org/a-military-expert-has-revealed-9-secret-us-bases-in-ukraine/

So again, if Mexico had Chinese bases, if I were president anyway, I would start rolling out the tanks. So I fully expect someone else to do the same if it's in their backyard. The sheer amount of intellectual dishonesty is stunning.

I’ve been alive long enough to know that viewers hundreds or thousands of miles away from a war or battle do👏🏻not👏🏻know what exactly is happening in the fighting.

I also know the mainstream news outlets 1. make mistakes (fog of war), 2. create narratives and 3. listen to CIA / shady military aligned henchmen who have agendas.

Thus, I don’t pretend to know enough to make a declaration, but I feel very comfortable asking questions and refuting revisionist histories tailored to support favored opinions.

Life (nor war) is as black and white as so many people here think it is.

Sounds like a great question for the McCarthy hearing.

As I’m sure you know, conversations branch off into related topics. This one did. You didn’t follow it.

Good for you. How does "communism" figure into any of this discussion?

Agreeing with bulma on this point.



You don’t have to be on Putin’s side to acknowledge these facts.

You don’t have to be a Biden critic to acknowledge these facts.

Facts?
- There are no US military bases in Ukraine.
- I can't see how Ukraine's leader could be considered a US-run puppet, much less how that is a fact.
- Yes, US weapons have been promised to Ukraine in the past and that was accelerated when the Russians started moving troops in preparing for the invasion. Some of that started in March, '21 but really accelerated in December. I'm not sure how the US promising weapons to a country facing an impending invasion makes your argument that the invasion is justified.

What I considered facts from Bulma’s post was how nations respond when another country began building military bases in or near other countries. We were both able to cite many historical examples of the US and other countries taking decisive steps to confront such behavior….which members here are madly ignoring. Doesn’t speak well of this place.

But, there are claims of a few Ukrainian military bases, populated and led by the US.

Is it true? I couldn’t say.

Neither could you.

Sure I can. The position of US military bases are well known. There are no US military bases in Ukraine. If you think that you can hide a US military base, you don't know much about 18 and 19 year old service members. Lending credence to such claims by saying "no one can say for certain" is the height of the intellectually dishonestly you claim to abhor.

Lash would make up quotes with a link that went to the Encyclopaedia Britannica paysite.

Our country has given Ukraine 13.8 billion dollars to fight Ukraine. We just warned China not to help Russia.

There are Americans suited up in military garb with rifles, fighting in Ukraine. The State Department released statements that these people are regular Americans, not currently military-affiliated.

What do you know of the Yavoriv military facility? The Poltava Air Base in Ukraine?

Alluding to hearsay, but admitting we don’t have enough facts to make claims about it is as honest as we can expect anyone to be.

I wish you and the peanut gallery would do it.

I think we're missing a crucial element behind Putin's invasion – his intention to reconstitute a Russian empire and reunite the former Soviet satellites with the "mother country". We can invent all the scenarios we want about Cuba and Mexico, but the fact is that we never unleashed the full force of the USAmerican military against Cuba. Nor do we have any interest in absorbing the Mexican population as long lost brothers. Sure, were China to build a military base in Mexico you'd hear a lot of people saying that we should make a military strike on the base, or preferably (to these people's way of thinking), threaten Mexico before such a thing happened. But you'd also hear a lot of USAmericans – common citizens as well as lawmakers – expressing opposition to hostilities between the two neighboring countries.

With the amount of destruction and death currently taking place in Putin's invasion, claiming that NATO is no better and that the USA would do the same thing is simply a speculative variation of "whataboutism". Doesn't it make more sense to forcefully condemn this outright attack instead of setting up an imaginative and unrealistic situation which does not exist and trying to ground an argument on a fantasy?

Yes, wise people did counsel imposing neutrality on the old states of the Iron Curtain. Republicans and Democrats alike rejected this advice. But you know who else rejected this idea? – the people of Eastern Europe. Inconveniently, these people chose not to accept that their countries are just mere chess pieces in some Great Game.

Thousands of US troops deployed to…where? Near Ukraine? Still in Poland?
Meanwhile, suited up Americans are fighting in Ukraine…former military? Really?

I know what you’ll say, but what do you believe is true? What would you believe if you were the Russian president?

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/03/12/more-us-troops-deploy-overseas-wake-of-ukraine-invasion.html/amp

Excerpt:

SAVANNAH, Ga. — U.S. soldiers continued to deploy Friday to Europe, joining thousands already sent overseas to support NATO allies amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

About 130 soldiers from the 87th Division Sustainment Support Battalion, 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade, lined up with rucksacks inside a terminal at Hunter Airfield in Savannah before marching outside and boarding their chartered flight. It departed amid grey skies and rain.
——————

The last sentence says these troops aren’t there to fight for Ukraine.

There's a thing called cause and effect.

The bolstering of NATO troops in Poland did not cause Putin to invade Ukraine.

The invasion of Ukraine caused the bolstering of NATO troops in Poland.

You can't claim cause after the event.

There was a standoff between the US and the USSR during a naval blockade precisely because of the USSR’s encroachment into Cuba.

The book was called 13 Days in October.

For thirteen days in October 1962 the world waited—seemingly on the brink of nuclear war—and hoped for a peaceful resolution to the Cuban Missile Crisis. In October 1962, an American U-2 spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union on the island of Cuba.
—-JFK Presidential Library

This is what we and others do when you knock on our doors.

Caused by US Jupiter ballistic missiles in Turkey, which were removed after the crisis.

Izzy makes my point.
Countries don’t deserve to be considered as chess pieces or buffers. It’s deplorable.
But, it has always been so.