Russia - threadbanned users in OP

"In this case, I'm happy to be on neither side."

So basically, your stance is that as long as it doesn't affect you too much, you don't really care.

If you have conviction, then you would either view Putin as correct is his anti NATO rhetoric and his historic view of Russian lands or you would view Ukraine correct in defending it's territory.

To be neither is to be useless and please don't just say I'm neither because I don't like war. That only gets you so far until the bully comes along and smashes you in the gut.

"You are repeating propaganda. Putin is a b*ll*x, but he has said over and over that the Ukrainians are the same people as the Russians."

No, he's said over and over again, there is no Ukraine, it's just Russia. So, if you thought of yourself as a Ukrainian, you wouldn't have a place in Putler's world. He doesn't allow for a Ukraine to exist. Only glorious Soviet Union type hegemony is valid, with Putler at the top of it.

What about this? What about that? A standard fall back for supporters/approvers of peadophile Russians.

Yes, they stayed 20 years, and if the Afghans had their way, the would be welcome to stay 20 more. The rebuilt Afghanistan, and all its institutions, and fully prepared Afghans to take over when they left. They couldn't have done more. The fact that Afghans themselves failed is not the fault of the US. But of course, its always the fault of Big Bad America .

A good discussion for elsewhere. This thread's about RuZZias actions in the Ukraine.

2 person killed, 7 wounded as result of Russian shelling in Kherson

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As to why Putin wanted Ukraine , I'd say it's probably a long list of things all combined ..

Probably high on that list is because he thought he could get away with it ..

Some of it was strategic , strenght in depth , ( there's speculation that he was likely to annex east of the dniper river ,and set up a puppet state to the west ,possibly with Russia holding all the coast,

It's a good way to then exert pressure on Moldova,

It further secures Crimea, and guarentees it's water supply for irrigation...

Stops Ukraine exploiting energy reserves to supply into Europe, (largely accomplished in 2014) ,but this completes the Donbass invaison,

Legacy , Putin got to reestablish novarossia, maybe gets to go down in the history books as a great - like his heros Peter the great and Catherine the great ,

Actually, Afghanistan and its people are great. the same cannot be said for the Taliban who have hi-jacked the Country. Lot of it is semi-arid desert, but lots of it with incredible beauty too. And it has great natural wealth, precious stones etc. The Chinese have gotten some very lucrative mineral rights (Illegally sold to them by a corrupt government minister.) So if the Chinese are involved, there's value in it, for sure! Biggest handicap with the Afghan's is that they are locked into Tribal Clan system. So even when they hold a Loya Jirga ( general meeting of all the Clans to make decisions, like elections etc. and the nearest thing to what we call democracy) It has been like this for hundreds of years. Ironically, despite all that the Americans did to modernize Afghanistan, in the end, one of the reasons it failed was because of the tribal system. Very Islamic in outlook, and that was long before the Taliban was even heard of. They take their obligations very serious according to the Pashtun code, if a stranger knocks on their door, and they invite him in, under their code, once he enters, he is under their protection, even if that means dying for him. I found them to be a very warm friendly people, with a sense of humour.

Bathtubs and toilets. The most sought after items when a Russian robs your house.

It doesn't wind me up though, it just makes me think uggghhh and not take the poster as seriously as I would like to.