‘We’re in 1938 now’: Putin’s war in Ukraine and lessons from history
theguardian.com
Interesting article that talks about the similarities between now and 1938, and the sort of lessons we can learn from history.
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Interesting article that talks about the similarities between now and 1938, and the sort of lessons we can learn from history.
"he almost mocked the inability of the west’s $40tn economy to organise a battlefield defeat of Russia’s $2tn economy." <- this really bothers me. There is no will here for Ukraine to succeed.
Very interesting link, thank you.
Yep. The vast majority of liberal and conservative politicians are doing the absolute minimum to support Ukraine, if they're doing anything at all in the first place. I can understand conservatives wanting Russia to win because they idolize Russia, but how everyone else seems to also be fine with the idea is just mystifying.
It’s unbelievably frustrating, because most people at the outset of the conflict were horrified and strongly against just letting Russia do what they wanted.
Instead of capitalizing on that fairly universal public outrage and doing the right thing, the ossified thought processes of pretty much everyone in charge of anything in the west made them hem and haw and delay and prevaricate and play right into Putin’s hand.
It’s pretty clear that Putin’s geopolitical tactics, while completely malevolent and fairly transparent to a HUGE number of people, clearly work incredibly well on our political leaders - in fact, that’s ultimately the only audience he’s ever been playing for.
FYI, the outset of the conflict was in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and sent special forces into Donbas. "Most people" did fuck-all from 2014 to 2022, when Russia escalated to try to take the whole country.
Oh, yeah, I 100% agree. That was the time to step in if anyone actually gave a shit about nuclear non-proliferation.
I consider the complete lack of meaningful response to the 2014 invasion to be both Obama and Merkel’s single most egregious foreign policy failure. Merkel also rapidly thawed relations with Russia after that, and continued to aggressively push for closer ties with Russia, and this is the result. She continues to insist that her approach at the time was correct; she’s going to be remembered alongside the likes of Neville Chamberlain because of it.
Idk If you're talking about the US, but liberals/the left have to deal with Republicans having enough power to block any additional funding. The left does want to do more, it's just difficult when one side wants to do things that help Russia
That being said, I do ultimately agree with your sentiment, the West is not doing enough quickly.
This war is very profitable to everyone, but Ukraine. And why would you kill your cash cow?