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Posted by Claudio at 2024-02-28 07:15 PM
Honest question: what makes Ukraine our ally?

If this question is really honest, then this is your brain on "TrumPutin" - IOW, your brain has too much of "TrumPutin" in it.

For one, we are fulfilling an obligation under 1994 Budapest Memorandum that USA, UK, Russian Federation and Ukraine signed on December 5, 1994 as part of relinquishing and transferring nuclear weapons as part of Ukraine's accession into NPT (Nuclear Weapons Non-Proliferation Treaty), and which Putin violated under several stupid, unlikely pretenses ***.

Better questions:

What makes many other democracies our allies, even if sometimes we don't like the way they do some things and they don't like they way we do some things (and both/all may be correct in their opinions)?

Why do so many countries (32 after long-"neutral" Finland and Sweden joined) in Western and Eastern Europe (formerly aligned with Soviet Union/Russia in Warsaw Pact) decided to join NATO (military defense alliance with the USA) instead of simply staying neutral or even joining Russia or some other alliance?

What makes Putin, hell-bent on reconstructing "Russian Union of former Soviet Republics," our "friend"? If it's his / Russia's "Christian values" then :

1. Ukraine has larger percentage of Christians than Russia - pre-war data showed nearly 90% of Ukraine's population were Christians, compared to 60% of Christians and 10% Muslims in Russia - and Ukrainians have not been looting the Russian churches of religious, cultural valuables, arts and artifacts ("by February 2023 "Industrial-scale Russian looting destroys Ukraine's historical sites and artifacts - museums, historical buildings, churches...").

2. Look at allies and supporters of Putin's Russia :
Communist dictatorship of North Korea,
Ayatollah and mullahs of Islamic Republic of Iran,
various Iran-backed Arab terrorist groups and factions in the Middle East (working to destabilize region even more, open new fronts and jack up price of oil) and
Xi's Communist / fascist China

.

Much better questions:

Why do you think Russia attacked Ukraine and not much weaker militarily former Soviet states of Baltic region (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)? Hint: Is it because they are under Article 5 of NATO charter?

Why do you think famously "neutral" Finland and Sweden decided to become members of NATO immediately upon Russian invasion into Ukraine?

Why do you think Putin just now openly threatens to "annex" Transnistria in Moldova... after essentially securing a tacit support from "Trump-enabled" Mike Johnson?

Why do you think that Russian "mini-NATO" (CSTO formed in 2022 - Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) is falling apart (Feb 26, 2024 - "Russia Presses Armenia Over Exit From Putin's 'Mini-NATO'") and Russian southern neighbors are looking for "diversification" of their economies away from Russia and closer to the West - EU and USA - and, like Republic of Georgia, are aspiring NATO members. Why are they all looking for protection from Russia, which apparently just being a NATO member affords them? Do you think you know better than Russia's neighbors and long-time "allies" or "involuntary members of the club" whose friends they want to be... and why?

Do you think that Russians getting their hands on second largest landmass in Europe (after Russia's European part itself) and rich natural and agricultural resources and products (which Russia is trying to prevent Ukraine from selling to poor countries in Africa) as well as two largest nuclear plants in Europe that are located in Ukraine, is a good thing for us and our allies and partners in EU?
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*** Tucker Carlson throws Putin under the bus
The former Fox News host dismissed part of Putin's justification for invading Ukraine as "one of the dumbest things" he's ever heard.

Russian neo-Nazi unit defying Putin's orders to cover up "war crimes"
Russian paramilitary group Task Force Rusich published a post "about the execution of prisoners."
A Russian neo-Nazi paramilitary group says it has defied President Vladimir Putin's order to delete a social media post that called for the execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war. The group... had links to the now-dissolved paramilitary outfit the Wagner Group, whose late chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was killed after his private jet crashed in Russia's Tver region in August 2023.

Russia is deploying former Wagner mercenaries near the Donetsk town of Avdiivka, which was recently seized by Moscow's forces, taking the same approach they used in their brutal assaults elsewhere in the region. "Russia was forming a volunteer corps of 18,000 troops, including all former Wagner mercenaries... managed by the (Russian) Ministry of Defense."

Ukraine is negotiating a security agreement with U.S. ally Japan as the Kremlin's war against Kyiv continues
"The agreement with Japan is being negotiated as with any other. ... we have concluded several agreements... There is a clear understanding between G7 and Ukraine that those security guarantee agreements will be concluded by each country," said Ukrainian ambassador to Japan.

NATO ally tells Ukraine to cross Putin's red line
Finland approved a new $205 million military aid package for Ukraine earlier this month.

Ukraine gets defense boost from Israel
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, called Kyiv an "ally" and compared Russian aggression with Hamas attacks.

Russia forced to cut exports amid Ukraine strikes on oil hubs
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#31 | Posted by oneironaut at 2024-02-29 07:35 PM
Ukraine isn't a Democratic nation, its cancelled its elections.

There are many reasons for that, the main being that holding elections while "at war" and "under martial law" would be unconstitutional according to 2015 law, well before Zelensky was elected.

Moreover, no one was exactly pining for the "job" though I am sure they could find few opportunists like Dean Phillips, Robert Kennedy Jr, Cornell West.

Even if Rada changed the rules / Constitution to make one legal and possible, there would also be tremendous logistical, security and financial funding problems associated with trying to hold "free and fair elections" in the middle of the hot war, with a large part of population outside of Ukraine in many foreign countries, and many displaced in Ukraine or at the fronts... All just for show, as Lindsey Graham suggested?

|------- Zelensky responded, saying that "according to the legislation, it is forbidden to hold elections" and also said that Ukraine would not be able to finance elections: "I will not hold elections on credit. I will not take money from weapons and allocate it to elections, either." -------|

Do you think that Putin holding fake elections makes Russia "democratic" or you are just parroting Tucker Carlson who accused Zelensky of "... canceling the elections to create a dictatorship"?

Or do you enjoy looking unserious and uncredible?
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#58 | Posted by Robson at 2024-03-01 07:38 PM
Ukraine is not officially our ally. They've never helped the USA.

Ukraine was involved in the Operation Iraqi Freedom shortly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Ukrainian troops were limited to a peacekeeping role, as part of the Multi-National Force, but they engaged in combat with Iraqi insurgents. Mission - at the time largest ever military operation ever undertaken by the Armed Forces of Ukraine - ended on December 9, 2008.

More than 6,000 Ukrainians performed military service in Iraq and Kuwait, including a permanent presence of 1,600. 18 Ukrainian soldiers were killed - only below US, UK (179), Italy (33) and Poland (30) coalition forces.

France and Germany (NATO members) didn't participate due to no explicit authorization of use of force by UNSC, which would be met with Russia's veto.

One of the big reasons for the war was that Saddam Hussein relied on explicit promise of Russian (our "new friend" Putin's) veto of any UNSC resolution of military involvement, and Saddam didn't heed the multiple public and private warnings, so he ignored more than 17 UN resolutions to allow inspections (Hans Blix later described his experience in Iraq's "sham inspection" as "cat and mouse games" where he was not allowed to go where he requested and/or even take photos of places which were shown to him) and stop corruption of UN Food-For-Oil*** program from which Russia, China and France benefited:

In 2003 Iraq was under UN, US and IAEA sanctions and was violating and not cooperating with at least 17 UN resolutions and kept refusing inspections, while sending caravans of trucks to Syria

Russia also has been supplying Saddam with then-advanced military weaponry (like MiG-31 planes, many of which were blown up before they could take off, and some were later found in the underground/under-sand warehouses) and worked to get UN sanctions and "no-fly-zones."

So it was essentially first proxy war between USA's "Coalition Of the Willing" and Putin's Russia. Ukraine was part of our coalition.

On December 19 2003 (6 days after Saddam was pulled out of the "spider hole") Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi asked the US and UK to dismantle his WMD nuclear program and oversee the destruction of his chemical weapons stockpile.

This war was allowed to take off instead of being negotiated to an end.

The only "end" and "negotiation" Putin understands is military defeat (like USSR in Afghanistan) - anything else is "All this land is Russia (mine)"
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*** The corrupt UN's Oil-For-Food-Programme (OFF) allowed Saddam, his henchmen and various crooks within the UN and around the program, like Benon Sevan, Nadhmi Auchi, to skim billions of USDollars from the program that was supposed to provide food to Iraqi people. The evidence uncovered after Iraq was taken under Coalition's control showed that "less than 2/3 of $64B went to food aid" and "much of the food aid supplied... was unfit for human consumption." Various entities involved in the corrupt program included French TotalFina/Total oil company, many Russian firms and individuals, even Russian Orthodox Church were on al Mada list of illegal oil trading.

Top 3 violators that paid kickbacks to UNOFF to receive Iraq's oil were Russia (30%), France (15%), and China (10%) - all were strongly against Iraq war.
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#59 and worked to get UN sanctions and "no-fly-zones"
s/b and worked to get UN sanctions and "no-fly-zones" removed.

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#62 | Posted by snoofy at 2024-03-01 10:20 PM
And everybody reading this knows it. Including you. So can it.

I presented facts that are not in dispute and are not controversial, which you couldn't refute, so instead you responded with the usual non sequitur and non-responsive opinion not related to the facts presented (i.e., invitation to typical deep and long "Snoofy's rabbit hole" of ignoring the stated facts and presenting own opinions as facts, conjectures, moving goalposts, changing subjects etc.) ... so, no thanks, I decline to follow.

As for your usual projection and displacement (which I was hoping not having to discuss or mention again) and obvious shades of PTSD - I would ask you to "can it" but everybody reading this, including you, knows you "can't"... so, you do you and have the last word(s).
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