No, not completely. China, India, Pakistan, Iran, etc. either support him or are staying on the sidelines and not participating in sanctions. If he goes nuclear then I would expect unanimous condemnation, but even then I doubt it would be 100%.
It's more that these countries don't want to harm their own economies; but, don't want to harm global relationships with the West.
Iran, they probably hate how bi-polar US politics can be towards, them but want out of the economic sanctions they are in.
None of these countries have a good reason to support Russia, but none of them can go against Russia as they don't trust the West to use this as a path to a close relationship.
It's more that these countries don't want to harm their own economies; but, don't want to harm global relationships with the West.
Iran, they probably hate how bi-polar US politics can be towards, them but want out of the economic sanctions they are in.
None of these countries have a good reason to support Russia, but none of them can go against Russia as they don't trust the West to use this as a path to a close relationship.
Most of them are dependent on Russia for military equipment. India should be a focus of the US. India and China have a testy relationship and I doubt they want to be allied with a China vessel state.
My wife got news from her mom that their family back in Poland had a bomb explode about 20 kms away, which blew out their windows and rattled their house.
They're in a town called Lubaczow, right on the border near Lviv, Ukraine.
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My wife got news from her mom that their family back in Poland had a bomb explode about 20 kms away, which blew out their windows and rattled their house.
They're in a town called Lubaczow, right on the border near Lviv, Ukraine.
It's very close to the border, about 10km. Wonder what kind of bomb, to have that effect from 20kms away.
Looks like it still happened within Ukraine territory, so hopefully no NATO alarm bells going off.
My wife got news from her mom that their family back in Poland had a bomb explode about 20 kms away, which blew out their windows and rattled their house.
They're in a town called Lubaczow, right on the border near Lviv, Ukraine.
I have many relatives who live in Pavlivka in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast region of Ukraine, about 2 hours south of Lviv and 2 hours west of Ternopil.
I am still able to talk to them using Facebook messenger and although they are ok, so far, things are extremely tough. Prices on everything has more than doubled, which makes it very difficult for those who have remained to stay sustained. The average wage is about $500-750mth and gasoline is approaching 2.25 a liter, albeit driving is dangerous, they have mobilized and helped people escape through Lviv. They have daily and nightly air raid sirens and their airport has been destroyed along with other residential infrastructure.
They constantly question what we are seeing and hearing in the west and remain vigilant that they will indeed win this war.
It is extremely difficult for family here, many, including myself, have offered to pay for family to come here and stay in our homes if they can/want to get out. There have been many tearful conversations, especially with the seniors and children, but those that remain will likely ride this out one way or the other.
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“What is happening in Ukraine is a crime. And Russia is the aggressor here. And responsibility for this aggression rests on the conscience of a single man: Vladimir Putin. My father is Ukrainian. My mother is Russian. And they’ve never been enemies. And this necklace I’m wearing is a symbol of that fact that Russia must immediately end this fratricidal war. And our fraternal peoples will still be able to make peace. Unfortunately, I’ve spent many of the last few years working for Channel One, doing Kremlin propaganda, and I’m deeply ashamed of this. Ashamed that I allowed lies to come from the TV screen. Ashamed that I allowed the zombification of Russian people. We were silent in 2014 when all this had just started. We didn’t protest when the Kremlin poisoned Navalny. We just silently watched this anti-human regime at work. And now the whole world has turned its back on us. And the next 10 generations won’t wash away the stain of this fratricidal war. We Russians are thinking and intelligent people. It’s in our power alone to stop all this madness. Go protest. Don’t be afraid of anything. They can’t lock us all away.”
There are alternatives as well though, and I'm not talking about isolation or 'turning off' any taps, simply being able to put a dent in National demand with domestic supply so when external supply has shortages we arent totally screwed.
We could do this with food. We have enough farmland.
Canada is one of only 8 or 9 countries in the world that are net exporters of food. But we don’t grow everything. And if we want to be able to buy oranges and avocados, we have to be willing to sell the stuff we have a surplus of (wheat, beef) on the open market. That means when global grain prices go up because of the war in Ukraine, Canadian farmers will make more money while Canadian consumers will pay more.
That’s Canada. Most countries simply don’t have the capacity to feed themselves affordably on domestic production alone. Expect food riots in many poorer countries riots as war drags on.
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Originally Posted by Locke
We could do this with energy. We have the resources.
That would mean restricting producers from selling on the open market. Trudeau Sr tried that with the National Energy Program, and to this day is still despised by many Albertans for it.
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Originally Posted by Locke
We could do this with medical supplies. We have the manufacturing ability.
We simply choose not to.
We could if we want to pay more for those supplies, and increase health care costs.
Basically all of the sovereign supply choices will mean higher prices. If that’s the choice we make, we have to go in with open eyes.
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Originally Posted by fotze
If this day gets you riled up, you obviously aren't numb to the disappointment yet to be a real fan.
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Excellent article on the principles of nuclear deterrence and escalation that guide NATO policy.
Quote:
…basically everything that NATO is doing in Ukraine can be understood as having a dual purpose: both attempting to degrade Russian military capabilities (by sinking the Russian economy and arming Ukraine) but also as an exterior maneuver designed to alter the freedom of action of other players in the system. Unable to directly act against Russia due to the concerns of deterrence and escalation, NATO is seeking to close the window of freedom of action tight enough that wars of conquest sit outside of it. It is doing this by rallying world opinion to the imposition of massive economic costs, in an effort to signal that wars of conquest will have such tremendous negative repercussions (even if they don’t trigger direct intervention) as to never be worth the cost. The obvious audience for this flurry of exterior maneuvers is China; only time will tell if the performance was a success – though given that the scale of the response has shocked not only Russia but also NATO itself, one assumes it is likely to have surprised leaders in the People’s Republic of China as well.
At the same time, understanding deterrence explains why many of the proposed responses to Putin’s War in Ukraine impose unacceptable escalation risks. The logic of deterrence essentially demands avoiding direct confrontations between nuclear powers that could escalate uncontrollably (and escalation in war is always uncontrollable by either party): NATO still operates in the Beaufre framework where the window of freedom of action is finite. Russia putting its nuclear forces on alert very publicly can thus be seen as an effort to signal that the red line still very much exists and that NATO should think very hard before approaching it
…Thus – despite journalists who apparently do not know their deterrence theory very well continue to insist on talking about it – the chances of something like a ‘no fly zone’ are effectively zero. Enforcing a no fly zone would require engaging Russian air targets and also suppressing Russian air defenses (by bombing them), including targets in Russia; the escalation risk is wildly too high…
There is a lot of frustration in some quarters that NATO and the United States won’t take more direct action, but again when you are gambling with the lives of hundreds of millions if not billions of people, you do not take risky bets.
Many don't know. I mean, you have to go looking for this stuff if you're over there, it's not being broadcast to you. And if someone attempted to broadcast it at this point, they'd go to prison for years.
You think they're better informed about this stuff than ordinary Russians back in Russia? The ones firing the weapons don't even have phones. I seriously doubt that they know what the building they're shooting at is most of the time, and they certainly don't know that, for example, that pregnant woman was injured or that she ultimately died. Hell, a lot of these strikes are coming from miles away.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
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You could tell me that was a screencap from Battlefield and I would have believed you. I don't know if thats a compliment to the reality of their work (game designers), the de-sensitization of war, or both, but wow.
(also surprised their main cannon didn't overheat after that many rounds, mine always locks up for the 10 sec cool down. They must have some good upgrades)
Hawkeye: War isn’t Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.
Father Mulcahy: How do you figure that, Hawkeye?
Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?
Father Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe.
Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them — little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander
#### Putin and his ilk.
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That's not true. PET tried to make Canada energy independent and stood up and said "This is for the good of the Country. Regardless of whether you like it or not" and was demonized for it and is the worst PM according to most of western Canada because of it.
Quoted for truth.
Its amazing to me how many people are completely brainwashed by our corporate overlords.
Modern neo-liberal economic policy (globalization, or whatever you want to call it) is design by mega-rich corporations to make their companies more and more profitable, and to eliminate barriers to the movement of capital. If you have mutual funds it has been good for you, and that's fine, but don't kid yourself about what's going on. This is not about making the world a better place. It's about access to markets, plain and simple.
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