Makes you madder Fin. Please get the tense of your sentences in order. :biggrin: Now the SNP will threaten the UK gas supply and the Brits will have a pretence to invade Scotland again. To protect those English speaking who live north of the border. I wonder if Fin speaks Gallic? :tongue: Looks like the Russians are pulling back from the brink, but for a time there I wondered if the shit was going to hit the proverbial. I was kinda glad I was too old for conscription but thats little comfort as civilians will not generally have access to a bunker. It makes our reliance on Russian gas another uncertainty. As it is with oil. We need a new form of energy and the Nuclear option has now become too obvious to ignore. Renewables will never be enough as no-one wants a 100ft wind turbine in their garden in case it kills a few fucking blue tits. If they cant spot a 100ft turbine the fuckers are too stupid to exist. It makes our contributions to CERN all the more valid.
Quite. The whole thing feels a bit like a 'non-event' (a bit strong maybe). A lot of hot air being blown by 'the western world leaders', Putin don't care as he knows they are toothless. The world can't afford and wont take any sanctions against Russia. Russia needs the energy export more then 'we' need their energy. Russia will take Crimea back so they don't have to deal with the nonsense (in Russia's view) of of the internal shenanigans in Ukraine, and that will be that.
Putin didnt figure in the effects of the 'markets'. Russia got slaughtered and lost billions. Who'd have thought rampant capitalism could have such a pronounced effect. The Oligarths must be lining up to twat the fuckwit.
Doubt it. Putin and all his mates probably made a small fortune on the mini crash they created, and will cash in again on the rally.
i'v always wondered how you got Russian billionaires and oil magnets if the land was owned by the people for the people.
I've just been watching John Kerry, the US secretary of state, trampling all over subtle democracy on the news. He's made some pretty strong statements against Russia, although his speech was almost comical at times. He also mentioned that in the Ukraine, the poor stay poor but the rich get richer and the gap is ever increasing......... Nothing like his own country. There are some serious veiled threats being bandied about, although he specifically said that he wasn't looking for a confrontation. Cold War 2. It's happening.
Putin has been pissed off with Russia not being regarded as a super power and is flexing his muscles again. They restarted the Russian Bear overflights last year http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/6/russian-bombers-again-fly-close-to-us/?page=all. We can't ignore the geographical importance of the Crimea to the Russia's Black Sea fleet. I think that Russia is aiming for partition retaining the Crimean peninsular and Eastern Ukraine. If Putin does this, he will risk possible UN sanctions, but realistically I can't see anyone being brave or stupid enough to press the "GO" button and start a shooting war to get them to withdraw.
Just managed to get a big heating oil order placed today, delivery tomorrow..........quite a bit cheaper than it was at the beginning of Winter.............Odd that, considering.......
I thought the Ukrainian troops marching up to the Russian road block without any weapons,shown on the news this morning showed a lot of bottle. It could have ended badly if the soldiers on the road block had panicked.
I've seen the same footage but what I really noticed was the lack of general control,leadership and authority from both ends from the officers in charge.Without that,it will go horribly wrong.
I sort of get the impression in this situation that it is not unlike the Arab situations. Viz: you have a despot you want to get rid of (he may have been democratically elected, but so was Morsi in Egypt), so you do. But you don't hugely like many of the people who fought to get rid of him. Their motives and allegiances are unclear. This is what has happened in Syria. The Western news agencies only interview nice, reasonable, well-educated students who are pro democracy and pro West. They don't seem to spend much time interviewing the dodgier elements. And it's all great about the EU cosying up to the Ukraine, but just wait until they get full EU status and zoom over to London and the SE. How many people really want that? Putin has got some valid arguments. The ex-president should be impeached with due process, and there are an awful lot of people in Ukraine, it appears who would really sooner be part of Russia. It's not all as cut and dried as people would have you believe. That doesn't make Putin right, just not all wrong. And once again, the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan only leaves the West morally weaker and unable to maintain the high ground in an argument. That was a consequence that was obvious from the off.
I don't agree with that. Overthrowing murdering fascist tyrants is a good thing to do, and doing so does not leave you morally weaker. It is failing to which causes you to lose the high ground.
Ah, but one person's murdering fascist tyrant *cough*pinochet*cough* is another person's good friend, strong and true. It's all down to perspective - yes, even the moral high ground.
It's not such a great thing to do when the overthrow is accompanied by a civil war, and then, having created mayhem, you just knob off home. It's also not such a good thing to do when you don't bother to plan for the bit that comes after the overthrow, because you just can't be bothered.
It is true that when a tyrant is got rid of, sometimes the people who were groaning under the yoke seize their opportunity to build a decent society ... and sometimes they don't. Have you somehow persuaded yourself that that fact means it is morally OK to leave murdering fascist tyrants in place to carry on their evil works indefinitely? And that therefore overthrowing the tyrant is a sign of moral weakness (sic)? Who are you and what have you done with Gliddofglood?
If you wanted to draw up a list of murdering tyrants currently in power in the world, you'd have to have a war in most places. But it just isn't worth the geopolitical candle to fight most of those wars. The Iraq war, it was felt, was worth the geopolitical candle, by those in favour of the war. Naturally, no heed was given to those who pointed out that the country was a made-up entity, that it was tribal, split with religious differences and had no experience whatsoever of democracy. And no thought was given by the war's planners of how the post conquest bit ought to be handled. Sure getting rid of Saddam was a good thing. But at what cost? There appears to be the equivalent of a 7/7 almost every day in Iraq, a level of violence we can only imagine. And I doubt the victims get the care they got in London. And how many thousands are condemned to live mutilated and burnt? It's all very well sitting safely in a distant country and saying that it's all worth it. Getting rid of Saddam and getting hands on oil, amongst other advantages, went hand in hand. That opportunism hasn't be lost on most people.
