It's easy to fix.
We agree on that. Russia stays in Russia..., and there's no problem.
But advocating "peace in our time" didn't prevent WW II and advocating incremental appeasement of modern megalomaniacs in the surrender of the parts of NOT Russia that Putin wants this week.... isn't going to keep Russia in Russia...
So, accepting your fate... as you advocate for imposing it on yourself... while it is clearly your own choice to not see the reality that is the history of Russian aggression under Putin... that is at least consistent of you...
But, that still leaves you totally blind to the rest of reality... in it being not only Putin who has designs on conquering parts of the world... or the whole thing... while imposing a particular brand of one world government... with that intrinsically requiring Russia succeeding, or Russia enabling the "taking down" of Russian resistance, or Russian power... or Russian independence, Russian sovereignty... Russian control of Russia... never mind Russian leadership extending control over the bits of the planet that are not Russia. And, never mind that "there can be and will only be peace when we control every thing and every one"... is no more rational now than it has ever been... as "peace" is not what happens during a lull in the fighting being required... as one seeks to dominate and control another.
So, there is a fairly clear and quite obvious distinction to be made... between those advocating for that sort of seeking for and extension of control... by one brand or one team or another... and those opposing it as a bad idea... that has no rational or moral justification... and a very long history of "yeah, that won't work"...
I agree with you that Gorbachev recognized reality that many in Russia then, as today, refuse to see... and it was his rational choices, as much as the reality he addressed, that enabled the result in a peaceful outcome... for Russia in Europe. But, those are not the choices being made today in essentially the same circumstance... as no one was invading Russia back then, rather than preventing her wrongful expansion while throwing off her occupation of the eastern half of Europe... just as no one is invading Russia today...
It is only Russia's poor choices that have ensnared her, now... in attacking the tar baby in Ukraine... as Putin does now in Europe what a prior generation of Russians managed as a field test in Iraq..
Beyond that limit, your understanding of history is in error... as you have a huge blind spot that starts with "Russia is never wrong"... when that is obvious tripe. Refusing to recognize one's limits doesn't actually obviate them... only invites miscalculation. The Russian generals in the Cold War telling Russian leadership they could win a war with the west, so don't fear it... didn't end of itself. That the cold war did not end in the nuclear disaster Russia threatens to impose again, now... did not end without a hot war as its final battle.. in Iraq... providing proofs that the Russian generals were in error. They also told Saddam that the Russian's air defenses were superior to the ability to attack them... and were wrong. They told Saddan the armor they'd supplied was superior to anything facing it... and were wrong, And, the Russians advising Saddam on their strategy and tactics in defenses and "takings" leading to the inevitable victory of the world's third largest military over those facing it... was wrong.
The war in Iraq, was, for the Russians, a field test of their military expectations... as Iraq's capability was a mimic of Russia's own designs, equipment, plans, tactics and strategies, and expectations. And it was a miserable failure.
But, it too was easily avoidable... as all Saddam had to do was stay inside Iraq... and there would not have been a war. That someone clearly told him "Sure, go ahead"... doesn't alter his responsibility in making the error of "going ahead" ? But, it does have meaning that should not be ignored. Iraqi's and Kuwaiti's not so much, but, Russians and Europeans can be thankful that the field test of Russian capability enabled in Iraq... occurred in Iraq... and not Europe and Russia.
It is simply historical fact... the calendar won't lie for you... that the rest of the denouement in the end of the Cold War occurred only AFTER that field test failed... as even the Russian generals then had to admit to the Russian leadership that they had been proven wrong in their expectations... as Russian capacity for self delusion reached a limit that was insurmountable in that event.
And, today... we're right back there... where the Russian generals telling the leadership of the cake walk that would result in near immediate victory from acting on invading Ukraine... were wrong. They miscalculated, again. Only, Putin is not the rational man that Gorbachev was... rather than the idiot pursuing a personal legacy in the restoration of Russian greatness built from reconquering the empire that the Soviets had carved from the defeat of the empire that the German brand of socialism was seeking to impose on the... German export version of socialism that was on trial in Russia.
Socialism, it seems... which ever brand you choose... has no intrinsic means of limiting its tendency to enable megalomaniacs is seeking to take over the world..
And, it changes nothing that is useful... that what we've evolved to, now... is a competition in which all nations have adopted varying degrees of national socialism... with varying degrees of regimentation and enablement of megalomaniacs ?
So, again, today... all based on the wishful thinking of Putin believing what he's told about it... by Russian generals... who once again. already, have been proven wrong... this time mostly by the superior will of the Ukrainian peasantry.. you feel compelled to pick team Putin for the win ?
Yeah... I don't really see that as evidence of your having thought anything through...
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