Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s all pretend we care about Ukraine, and send all our money into Ukraine in the form of advanced weapons. Then when the Ukrainians run away from the battle, Russia can have the weapons

We should stand by and do nothing as Russia invades a European nation for peace in our times.

That sounds like a wonderful and caring slogan but reality is not so black and white. The civilians who actually live in LPR and DPR repeatedly stated that they were pretty much abandoned by Kyiv: for example, retirees could no longer get their retirement money, no social support, etc. You will not see many people who actually live there protesting the current outcome. It is really a more complex situation and not a clearly black and white picture you get from the headlines.

Watching Ru news? The retirees to this day are still getting pensions from Kyiv.

Anonymous wrote:

Or perhaps some of our motivation was simply to weaken Russia, irrespective of the governing arrangements in Ukraine and Georgia?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Russia now has about 100,000 troops sitting on Ukraine’s border, and is sending strong signals it will invade as soon as the weather reaches the right moment. Russia is filling Ukraine media with all sorts of misinformation and fake news in advance of an attack. Biden is working with many other countries to discourage Russian aggression and warn of economic sanctions these countries will impose. Biden does not have many choices here.

The Trumpublicans - led by FoxNews - are of course supporting their Russian masters in all this, and saying the US should just let Russia invade other countries without consequence. More traditional Republicans are saying the US should send military support to Ukraine. No matter what Biden does, they’re all sure to try to blame him if Russia invades.

Are there any good options?

I think another question to ask is this: could this situation have been avoided had we made different foreign policy decisions over the last 20 years? It is hard to believe today, but we cooperated with Russia during peace-keeping operations after the war in Bosnia. Relations between the U.S. and Russia were not perfect at that time, but they were far better than they are now. How did the relationship deteriorate so much? Perhaps we should never have considered the possibility of NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia, and perhaps we shouldn't have expanded NATO into the Baltics. Instead, we should have considered these countries to be neutral zones in which neither NATO nor Russia would place military assets.

So to answer your question, may be this situation would have been avoided but by making more effort to promote democracy in Russia. If Georgia had been the red line, and Russian leadership felt the consequences of that inversion, this may have been avoided.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Russia now has about 100,000 troops sitting on Ukraine’s border, and is sending strong signals it will invade as soon as the weather reaches the right moment. Russia is filling Ukraine media with all sorts of misinformation and fake news in advance of an attack. Biden is working with many other countries to discourage Russian aggression and warn of economic sanctions these countries will impose. Biden does not have many choices here.

The Trumpublicans - led by FoxNews - are of course supporting their Russian masters in all this, and saying the US should just let Russia invade other countries without consequence. More traditional Republicans are saying the US should send military support to Ukraine. No matter what Biden does, they’re all sure to try to blame him if Russia invades.

Are there any good options?

I think another question to ask is this: could this situation have been avoided had we made different foreign policy decisions over the last 20 years? It is hard to believe today, but we cooperated with Russia during peace-keeping operations after the war in Bosnia. Relations between the U.S. and Russia were not perfect at that time, but they were far better than they are now. How did the relationship deteriorate so much? Perhaps we should never have considered the possibility of NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia, and perhaps we shouldn't have expanded NATO into the Baltics. Instead, we should have considered these countries to be neutral zones in which neither NATO nor Russia would place military assets.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Russia now has about 100,000 troops sitting on Ukraine’s border, and is sending strong signals it will invade as soon as the weather reaches the right moment. Russia is filling Ukraine media with all sorts of misinformation and fake news in advance of an attack. Biden is working with many other countries to discourage Russian aggression and warn of economic sanctions these countries will impose. Biden does not have many choices here.

The Trumpublicans - led by FoxNews - are of course supporting their Russian masters in all this, and saying the US should just let Russia invade other countries without consequence. More traditional Republicans are saying the US should send military support to Ukraine. No matter what Biden does, they’re all sure to try to blame him if Russia invades.

Are there any good options?

I think another question to ask is this: could this situation have been avoided had we made different foreign policy decisions over the last 20 years? It is hard to believe today, but we cooperated with Russia during peace-keeping operations after the war in Bosnia. Relations between the U.S. and Russia were not perfect at that time, but they were far better than they are now. How did the relationship deteriorate so much? Perhaps we should never have considered the possibility of NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia, and perhaps we shouldn't have expanded NATO into the Baltics. Instead, we should have considered these countries to be neutral zones in which neither NATO nor Russia would place military assets.