Denying Russia's Only Strategy for Success

29 points by benfreu 1 year ago | 19 comments
  • libertine 1 year ago
    I still don't understand the stance of the US and many other Western countries to try to continue to appease, and not upset Russia.

    Like, right now in Europe, Russia is actively jamming GPS systems of commercial airliners in Kaliningrad... how isn't this considered aggression?

    Why are Western countries just sitting idle, stating "oh well... its just Russia doing its thing."

    What kind of world is this where a handful of people, Putin and a close group of the regime, get to dictate the lives of hundreds of millions of democratic citizens?

    • yetihehe 1 year ago
      > What kind of world is this where a handful of people, Putin and a close group of the regime, get to dictate the lives of hundreds of millions of democratic citizens?

      World full of peaceful people who don't want any kind of violence, so they try to fight as little as currently possible.

      • libertine 1 year ago
        So, a world where people forgot about History and the outcomes of appeasing dictators, and all that was achieved with the UN was pointless, so let's go back to a time of military expansionism.
        • hollerith 1 year ago
          I don't think the verdict of "History" is as clear as you seem to think it is. Finland and Austria for example definitely appeased the dictator Stalin and his successor dictators for decades. They were careful not to join NATO or the EU. They consulted the dictator (or an authorized underling) on all defense decisions. Finland encouraged trade ties with the dictator's country. These decades of appeasement did not result in an attack or a loss of territory or any other persistent negative outcome as far as I know.

          If I had been a citizen of Finland or Austria during the relevant decades, I think I would've been angry if my government had decided against appeasing the Soviet Union.

          The strategic situation has changed, and now it is no longer necessary for Finland to appease the dictator to the east.

          • johng 1 year ago
            Nukes. People are afraid of provoking him too much to where he uses nukes. It's that simple.
          • egorfine 1 year ago
            currently
          • protomolecule 1 year ago
            "get to dictate the lives of hundreds of millions of democratic citizens"

            You are singling out "democratic citizens" as if it is some better kind of people.

            Your "democratic citizens" cheered for the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003 and reelected Bush even though it had become clear by that time that the "justification" for the invasion was fake.

            Not impeaching Bush in 2003 was stupid, reelecting him was callous.

            • libertine 1 year ago
              > You are singling out "democratic citizens" as if it is some better kind of people.

              They're not better, they're free to think, express their opinions, have agency over their lives. They're fortunate because they were born in a given place, or because they, or their ancestors fought for that change.

              My democratic citizens are free to change their minds and change their leaders whenever they see fit. That's the beauty of democracies, it renews itself.

              I can see you're resentful and stuck in the past, but you're on a Western platform speaking openly about it - you won't be arrested. Maybe you should look at the present and what oppressed citizens are allowing Putin to do in Ukraine.

              • protomolecule 1 year ago
                So your democratic citizens can elect and reelect leaders who illegally invade other countries and wreck people's lives there but it's outrageous when democratic citizens are a bit inconvenienced by jammed GPS?

                "I can see you're resentful and stuck in the past"

                Wouldn't it be great if everyone in the world just forgot what the "democratic citizens" did a couple of decades ago?

                "The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia." [0]

                [0] https://www.abhafoundation.org/assets/books/html/1984/183.ht...