Russian warship, go f**k yourself!

Arnie weighs in

https://twitter.com/Schwarzenegger/status/1504426844199669762?s=20&t=yt5iAxXttjIyAxZCT5Hzaw

I fundamentally disagree with the inference that Ukraine shares any % of blame for being invaded by putrids hordes.

As to the neutral point, fyi neutrality had already been a part of Ukraine's constitution before the 2014 invasions of Crimea and Donbass, didn't help them one bit.

As @Tonynewholland rightly says, a ceasefire is just a pause to reload and reorganise for russia.

russia should not be rewarded in any way for it's war of aggression. Ukraine, with support from the West can beat russia in this war. But I would not be surprised to see putrid attempt to escalate more, possibly in an attempt to draw NATO into the war.

The solution is for putrid to be toppled, sent to The Hague, for all russian forces to be withdrawn from all of pre 2014 Ukraine and proper reparations paid to Ukraine, and democratic reforms implemented in russia with an attempt to solve their paranoia issues.

No one likes to see people die, but shooting and bombing civilians including children is a russian tactic to divide and weaken the resolve of Western nations to support Ukraine. I regard the "peace talks" as phoney as well.

It has been proven, time and again, that submitting to this tactic only defers a conflict to a later date and continuously increases the cost of each subsequent war.

In invading Ukraine putrid has opened a conflict that will hopefully consume himself. He is the cause of this war, and he must not survive it to remain in power.

Aside from this immediate conflict, ridding russia of putinism has two additional benefits to the world. India is a major arms purchaser from russia, but in recent times russia has grown closer to China and importantly Pakistan, India's sworn enemy. It may be possible to change India's perspective of the world to a more Western favour.

Should that happen, instead of a world where russia and China are "allied", with India possibly being nominally on their side, we could see a world where China's cough is softened by losing russia as an ally, and having an already unfriendly India pivot further towards the West.

300,000 died in the Libyan war, mostly civilians

500,000 died in Iraq because of sanctions

War and the threat of war is just a mechanism to sell more weapons.

Think about all the money that the Russians and Americans waste on weapons that could be used to improve the life of your average citizen.

I would have thought a neutral Ukraine was the best solution.

Everyone agrees that putin is insane for invading but could it have been avoided?

Putin seems to have thought it was going to be straightforward one week conflict and that there would have been no resistance.

I’d say the days of the cheap flights and food are numbered.

There's the saying, freedom isn't free. The reality of the world is there are dictators and authoritarian regimes that aren't well disposed to democracy existing anywhere. To repeat for the xxx-th time, Ukraine, previous to the 2014 russian invasions of Crimea and Donbas had neutrality written into their constitution. It did not prevent russia invading a nation that posed no threat to them. If you have been watching, in the phoney peace negotiations russia has said it must be one of the guarantors of Ukraine's security, they are looking to have the option of again invading if they see more Jewish nazis 🙄 or whatever BS they construct in power. This is not, and never has been about NATO. putrid believes russia owns Ukraine and despises seeing it as a free democratic nation able to make it's own choices in the world.

putrid thought, due to believing his own regimes corrupt BS, that he could walk into Kyiv in a day or two, install a puppet regime, declare victory and go home. Ukrainians are rightly fighting for the freedom of their own land. So no, once putrid made his mind up this war could not have been avoided. He is KGB, and a bit part of russian thinking during and since Soviet times has been "maskirovka", basically deception. Pre invasion of course he'd have been delighted if he had been able to stage a coup, or topple Zelensky in some fashion. But, once he had his army assembled around Ukraines border he was always going to invade. Had he climbed down he'd have been seen as weak, something he can't afford in the mafia state he has constructed. So don't be at all surprised to see more escalation in this war.

I've seen this argument proposed mostly by the left. The problem with it is it gives in to bullying. It's condemning entire nations to living only as putrid see's fit. If russia were a peaceful democracy like Ukraine, this entire conflict wouldn't exist. The problem is russia is a mafia state led by a KGB thug. That such paranoid aggressive states exist is why Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary(!), Montenegro, North Macedonia, Slovakia, Slovenia freely chose to join NATO and or the EU, for their own safety. I agree with another saying, speak softly but carry a big stick. putrid believes in forces, escalation, lies, and deception. The appeasement strategy didn't work in the 1930's nor has it worked with putrid.

There is an opportunity here for the world to be rid of putrid, we should seize it.

Nothing out yet (that I'm aware of) from the American side as regards to the Biden Xi call. Chinese apparently didn't overtly blame russia, there was some waffle about world peace.

Threats, no matter how apocalyptic, must be absorbed calmly and assessed on their true merits, not based on hysterical reaction. Precedent shows de-escalation and a willingness to negotiate only convinces Putin he is on the right track, while appeasement spurs him to make further demands.

https://www.chathamhouse.org/2022/03/negotiated-peace-russia-fraught-danger

Ukraine is a peaceful democracy, it didn't seek to threaten or invade it's neighbours.

Idealists often find it difficult to grasp the reality of the world.