Nor Zelenskky. — FreeEmotion
And here is the reason never to vote for another president because all their decisions are always right as long as the right process was followed. — Benkei
On another note, if China gets involved by aiding Russia, then why not Europe, NATO, ...? Otherwise, it seems like another descent into Rule of the bully. Ukraine still isn't a member of NATO, like Putin demands. — jorndoe
You're saying as long as the election was good, you don't question the decisions of elected leaders. — Isaac
Invaders set the tempo. — jorndoe
Speaking to investors on Tuesday, two of the biggest U.S. weapons manufacturers provided estimates on how the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, a war that cost U.S. taxpayers over $2 trillion and took over 243,000 lives, impacted their bottom lines. Both companies also expressed enthusiasm about a bipartisan push to increase the 2022 defense budget by $29.3 billion, a five percent increase over the 2021 budget and more than $10 billion more than President Biden requested.
Approximately half of the defense budget goes to contractors like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, both of whom explained to investors how the end of a 20 year war will impact their profits while still painting a rosy picture of ballooning defense spending driving corporate revenue and padding the bottomline for shareholders. — https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/10/27/weapons-execs-lament-losses-from-afghanistan-exit-tout-dod-budget-increase/
Lockheed Martin, in particular, wants to use the “great power competition” [with China] framing to move forward a $4.4 billion acquisition of rocket engine manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne, a move that U.S. antitrust regulators are currently reviewing. — https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/03/29/lockheed-cites-great-power-competition-with-china-in-bid-to-consolidate-engine-market/
But if you look at [defense budget growth] — and it’s evident each day that goes by. If you look at the evolving threat level and the approach that some countries are taking, including North Korea, Iran and through some of its proxies in Yemen and elsewhere, and especially Russia today, these days, and China, there’s renewed great power competition that does include national defense and threats to it. And the history of [the] United States is when those environments evolve, that we do not sit by and just watch it happen. So I can’t talk to a number, but I do think and I’m concerned personally that the threat is advancing, and we need to be able to meet it. — Lockheed CEO James Taiclet
[W]e are seeing, I would say, opportunities for international sales. We just have to look to last week where we saw the drone attack in the UAE, which have attacked some of their other facilities. And of course, the tensions in Eastern Europe, the tensions in the South China Sea, all of those things are putting pressure on some of the defense spending over there. So I fully expect we’re going to see some benefit from it. — Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes
It is as if he was shocked first and foremost by the Ukrainian resistance, or by our moral support to the Ukrainian resistance. — Olivier5
I'm still not talking about capitalism, that's what you brought up. — Christoffer
Yet, Scandinavia's free market system is still capitalism. — Christoffer
I am saying that I respect the legitimacy of Zelensky, that he is in charge of a country at war, and that I don't want his job. I will respect his strategic choices. I am not going to question his decisions from the confort of my living room. I have no information, no legitimacy and little interest in second guessing him. From what I can see, he is doing a fantastic job. — Olivier5
Mariupole, a port city, is easily evacuated by boat and the EU could, at least try, to negotiate that ... but it doesn't. — boethius
Think tanks were contacted more than 1,100 times by Ukraine’s agents [Yorktown Solutions, Agents representing the Ukrainian Federation of Employers of the Oil and Gas Industry], and more than half of these were directed at one in particular: the Atlantic Council. This extraordinary outreach included multiple meetings with Atlantic Council scholars, like ex-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst, who has advocated for a more militarized approach to Russia amid the Ukraine crisis. Herbst recently told NPR that President Joe Biden should “send more weapons to Ukraine now. By all means, get additional U.S. and NATO forces up along Russia’s border.” Herbst was also at the center of an Atlantic Council kerfuffle last March, when he and 21 other Atlantic Council staff signed a letter opposing the work of two Atlantic Council colleagues who suggested a restraint-based approach to dealing with Russia.
The Atlantic Council has also launched “UkraineAlert” which publishes daily pieces on deterring Russia. A recent article, “Survey: Western public backs stronger support for Ukraine against Russia,” notes the survey in question was commissioned by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and Yalta European Strategy, which Pinchuk founded; however, the article does not mention that the foundation is a large contributor to the Atlantic Council, donating $250,000-499,000 a year, or that Pinchuk himself — the second wealthiest man in Ukraine — sits on the international advisory board of the Atlantic Council.
After the Atlantic Council, the hawkish Heritage Foundation was the second most contacted think tank by Ukraine’s agents. Heritage has consistently pushed for militarized solutions to the Russia-Ukraine crisis and was contacted 180 times throughout 2021 by Ukraine’s agents. This outreach was targeted at high-level Heritage experts, like Heritage Vice President James Carafano, who has repeatedly belittled U.S. diplomatic efforts related to Ukraine. — https://theintercept.com/2022/02/11/ukraine-lobby-congress-russia/
So what possible reasons would a rational human being have to keep fighting at this point? — FreeEmotion
As long as it kills all the humans, that's correct. — frank
With the war slowly escalating global nuclear war is becoming more likely each day. The advantage of nuclear war over environmental destruction is that nuclear destruction is quicker to solve the environmental human infestation problem. — magritte
Courage? — Olivier5
You're saying as long as the election was good, you don't question the decisions of elected leaders.
— Isaac
That's a lie.
I am saying that I respect the legitimacy of Zelensky, that he is in charge of a country at war, and that I don't want his job. I will respect his strategic choices. I am not going to question his decisions from the confort of my living room. I have no information, no legitimacy and little interest in second guessing him. From what I can see, he is doing a fantastic job.
Now, does that explain my taking side, or do you still not understand? — Olivier5
I love the way you lie to yourself, adding layers after layers of BS to your own ideas, like a master painter would add layers and layers of paint to canvas. Very creative! — Olivier5
The woman was rushed to another hospital where doctors laboured to keep her alive. Medics delivered the baby via cesarean section, but it showed “no signs of life”, surgeon Timur Marin said.
“More than 30 minutes of resuscitation of the mother didn’t produce results,” Marin said on Saturday. “Both died.”
— Guardian: Russia-Ukraine War Latest News
Why the EU? Why not China or Zimbabwe do that? What's the unsaid assumption here? — Olivier5
"Morally supporting" Ukraine losing lives, traumatising children (and everyone else), losing homes and livelihoods, to "stick it to the Russians" is not helping Ukrainians, it is harming the Russians with Ukrainians as a tool to do so. — boethius
What do you care soooo much about my reasons? — Olivier5
The reason to focus on EU / NATO and US policy is because:
A. They have the most leverage with Russia currently. — boethius
B. These parties nominally claim and have voters who not only claim but actually believe, unnecessary loss of life should be avoided, and so criticising people who claim to want to do something ... but aren't, is a lot more productive than criticising parties that make no such claims. If you look at India and Africa media: a pretty strong theme is that this is a white person problem that white people are crying about and not their issue, go fuck yourselves (certainly a stronger theme than in the Western Media). — boethius
Maybe Ukrainians have a way to "win" the war with only handheld weapons, and maybe we'll see that. — boethius
The guy lies and misrepresents others' positions all the time, using sarcastic aggression to do so. — Amity
But I fear the philosophy of politics, the history of war, hardly gives one hope for the future. — Amity
(The Guardian today)hopes of diplomatic progress were raised after Russia and Ukraine gave positive assessments after weekend negotiations.
“Russia is already beginning to talk constructively,” Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said in a video online. “I think that we will achieve some results literally in a matter of days.”
A Russian delegate to the talks, Leonid Slutsky, was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying they had made significant progress and it was possible the delegations could soon reach draft agreements. Neither side said what these would cover.
European history is full of war AND PEACE. — Olivier5
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