All of these things are measures — Christoffer
President Biden opened a global summit on climate change Thursday morning by announcing that the United States will aim to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half, based on 2005 levels, by the end of the decade.
'Aiming' is not a measure, it's political rhetoric. — Isaac
Phew! That's good to hear. Global climate change is sorted then. — Isaac
I think it is in the interests of NATO states to oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine. One could oppose the invasion on moral grounds, but that might be more hypocritical than self-interest. Europe didn't care that much about the USSR invading Afghanistan--who, outside a small circle of friends, did care? But Ukraine is WAY TOO CLOSE for comfort, being right up against NATO's and the EU borders. — BC
And don't see any reason to believe that most Europeans who object to the Russian invasion on moral grounds are insincere. That they allegedly didn't care that much about the Afghan invasion may be unfortunate, perhaps even hypocritical (if they used hypocritical rationalizations for their indifference), but that doesn't make their present reaction hypocritical. — SophistiCat
I would disagree. This isn't the late 90's or the '00s as then you would have a point. And that just shows how willing European countries were to embrace a normal Russia into the community.It's a textbook example of a military that was left to atrophy after the Cold War ended. — Tzeentch
A Country capable of producing modern fighter jets and submarines (and of the latter one "sank" in an exercise an American carrier) and has the potential to create nuclear weapons (as it earlier had a nuclear weapons program), I wouldn't regard as an example of atrophy. — ssu
You have peace when countries accept the present drawn borders. From history you can always find different borders. Longing for justice, that the present borders are wrong, is the usual way tyrants start wars. — ssu
You don't know anything and I or any other swede with insight into details won't ever tell you either since it's part of our national defensive instructions during a time when Russia is actively doing cyber attacks and activating sleeper spies. We just caught two top Russian spies who we've been feeding bad intel to over the course of five years since discovery. — Christoffer
You have peace when countries accept the present drawn borders. — ssu
There's no such thing as a Ukrainian identity. Ukrainians identify in all sorts of different, occasionally completely incompatible ways. — Isaac
Europe isn't worried about their security. — Tzeentch
Err yes, Europeans are worried about security. — jorndoe
You mean in general, no such thing? If you mean the same in all respects, then sure. Yet, a good lot of Ukrainians have come together against the invader doing their "Slava Ukraini" thing or whatever. I'd count that (even if temporary) as a kind of Ukrainian identity marker or proclamation. — jorndoe
hypocritical — SophistiCat
The rewriting of history has begun. Now, apparently the country we all happily relied on for energy, and foreign investment. The one whose allies we happily rattled. That country we apparently always knew was a serious military threat because of it's obvious imperialist intent. It's not at all a hastily constructed narrative to promote war profiteering. — Isaac
None of these states have militaries that are on a modern operational level, nor have they taken any steps towards making them so. — Tzeentch
do not waste your precious time in something worthless as Catalonia-Spain conflict — javi2541997
From what sources are you getting this information? — Paine
Where have I said that? — Isaac
Still don't. There's no such thing as a Ukrainian identity. Ukrainians identify in all sorts of different, occasionally completely incompatible ways. That's why there was a civil war going on before this invasion.
Exactly. The reason why so many in this discussion cannot seem to get their heads around viewing this in any other grouping than by nationality.
Of course Ukraine does not have its own history, language and culture. It's an arbitrary line on a map, it's absurd to think it somehow contains a natural grouping of language, history and culture. — Issac
Actually, the Catalonia-Spain conflict resides on level 1197 of my things-to-worry-about queue, just above the future of Nursultan Nazarbayev, deposed boss of Kazakstan. — BC
I tried googling the numbers and did not get matching results. — Paine
As a defensive force you only need to field a third of any offensive force. Assuming EU members will support each other, how far/close are we to such a figure? — Benkei
ah, the border-free no-nation world again.
Easy enough to understand, except we're not there. — jorndoe
Yes, Isaac, there can be civil wars.How's that working out for the citizens of Iraq? Libya? I suppose the ethnic violence in Rwanda was just a bit of high jinx. Somalia? Sudan? Myanmar? Literally any civil war ever... — Isaac
Daft like you arguing that Ingushetia is a part of Checnnya and Chechnya has somehow broken away from Russia?So the Ingushetia region of Chechnya should have remained part of Russia? Kosovo should have stayed in the remnants of Yugoslavia?
You do say the daftest things sometimes... — Isaac
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