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He's not unhinged, he's essentially a boss of a drug cartel, flaunting his strength and cruelty but respecting the power of others. There is no real value for h

by yks 4y ago

He's not unhinged, he's essentially a boss of a drug cartel, flaunting his strength and cruelty but respecting the power of others. There is no real value for him to launch nukes unless he thinks the West is absolutely weak and I'm afraid that conviction is actually growing.

LewisVerstappen 4y ago
This is exactly what everyone said about Putin invading Ukraine. Putin invading Ukraine was impossible because he's not unhinged and it would be an insanely stupid thing to do. He's just gathering his armies next to the border because he's flaunting his strength. >I'm afraid that conviction is actually growing Based off your in-depth research of casually browsing NY Times headlines?
- yks 4y ago
  > This is exactly what everyone said about Putin invading Ukraine. First, not everyone, Ukrainians knew. Second, after the end of WW2 we lived (wanted to live) under a spell that conquering whole countries with some opportunistic genocide on top is not going to happen anymore, or at least not in the "civilized" Europe. Now, I hope the spell is off, we can see the world more clearly, and it's a raw power competition in which Putin thinks he has the winning cards or can at least out bluff everyone.
  - LewisVerstappen 4y ago
    > First, not everyone, Ukrainians knew That's completely false. Just read the news from February. U.S. Intelligence was warning Ukraine that Putin was planning to invade while Zelensky was in denial. The invasion began on Thursday Feb. 24. On Monday Feb. 21, Zelenky was insistent that Putin wouldn't be crazy enough invade Ukraine. Here's some articles from right before the invasion - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60174684 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60174684 - https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220206-us-officials-warn-russia-is-preparing-full-scale-invasion-of-ukraine https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220206-us-officials-war... - https://nypost.com/2022/01/28/zelensky-rebukes-western-panic-over-russia-invasion-fear-after-biden-call/ https://nypost.com/2022/01/28/zelensky-rebukes-western-panic...
    - yks 4y ago
      What do you expect him to say, "Putin bring it on?". In some random interviews he said Ukraine is prepared [1]. And yes, no one was sure that this Feb military build up results in war cause there was already a build up in April before that. But this invasion was inevitable with the current Russian leadership, UAF underwent a series of reforms since 2014 to prepare for it. [1] https://www.npr.org/2022/01/29/1076699748/ukraine-russian-attack-preparation https://www.npr.org/2022/01/29/1076699748/ukraine-russian-at...
      - LewisVerstappen 4y ago
        > What do you expect him to say, "Putin bring it on?". That's an absurd take. He was clearly completely unprepared for the invasion and was not expecting it in the slightest. If he was expecting it, he wouldn't have been in complete denial of US intelligence and wouldn't decried it as "the West sowing panic for political gains". > In some random interviews he said Ukraine is prepared I have no idea why you're looking at "random interviews" when you can just look at exactly what happened. Ukraine was completely unprepared for Russian invasion and they were clearly shocked when the Russians invaded. Did Zelenky evacuate any civilians beforehand? Nope. Did he ask NATO countries for aid? Nope, it was the exact opposite. NATO countries were offering aid and he was calling them alarmist.
    - AzzieElbab 4y ago
      denial or not, Ukraine repelled Putin's coupe d'etat. Neither West nor Putin expected that.
  - gnulinux 4y ago
    > First, not everyone, Ukrainians knew. Sounds like you were not following the events because invasion was effectively "announced" by US Intelligence weeks before the actual declaration of war. Besides, this was not the only sign and if you know the way Putin talks and you listened to him days before the invasion (talking about Russian Empire's old glory) you'd see that he already made his mind up way before the actual day of invasion. Of course, it's easy to see things in hindsight (and I did truly predict the invasion before it happened) but sounds like you're not even aware of all the available data.
    - yks 4y ago
      You're arguing my point! Which is that people knew about this invasion, US intelligence knew, Ukrainians were preparing as well despite the rosy rhetoric of Zelensky.
      - LewisVerstappen 4y ago
        The media and the vast majority of US pundits were saying the invasion was impossible. US intelligence was being criticized before the invasion for being alarmist. Again, just read the news articles from January/February of this year. It sounds like you weren't paying any attention to this in Feb and are just trying to come up with arguments to support your points.

by yks 4y ago

LewisVerstappen 4y ago

This is exactly what everyone said about Putin invading Ukraine. Putin invading Ukraine was impossible because he's not unhinged and it would be an insanely stupid thing to do. He's just gathering his armies next to the border because he's flaunting his strength. >I'm afraid that conviction is actually growing Based off your in-depth research of casually browsing NY Times headlines?

yks 4y ago
> This is exactly what everyone said about Putin invading Ukraine. First, not everyone, Ukrainians knew. Second, after the end of WW2 we lived (wanted to live) under a spell that conquering whole countries with some opportunistic genocide on top is not going to happen anymore, or at least not in the "civilized" Europe. Now, I hope the spell is off, we can see the world more clearly, and it's a raw power competition in which Putin thinks he has the winning cards or can at least out bluff everyone.
- LewisVerstappen 4y ago
  > First, not everyone, Ukrainians knew That's completely false. Just read the news from February. U.S. Intelligence was warning Ukraine that Putin was planning to invade while Zelensky was in denial. The invasion began on Thursday Feb. 24. On Monday Feb. 21, Zelenky was insistent that Putin wouldn't be crazy enough invade Ukraine. Here's some articles from right before the invasion - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60174684 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60174684 - https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220206-us-officials-warn-russia-is-preparing-full-scale-invasion-of-ukraine https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220206-us-officials-war... - https://nypost.com/2022/01/28/zelensky-rebukes-western-panic-over-russia-invasion-fear-after-biden-call/ https://nypost.com/2022/01/28/zelensky-rebukes-western-panic...
  - yks 4y ago
    What do you expect him to say, "Putin bring it on?". In some random interviews he said Ukraine is prepared [1]. And yes, no one was sure that this Feb military build up results in war cause there was already a build up in April before that. But this invasion was inevitable with the current Russian leadership, UAF underwent a series of reforms since 2014 to prepare for it. [1] https://www.npr.org/2022/01/29/1076699748/ukraine-russian-attack-preparation https://www.npr.org/2022/01/29/1076699748/ukraine-russian-at...
    - LewisVerstappen 4y ago
      > What do you expect him to say, "Putin bring it on?". That's an absurd take. He was clearly completely unprepared for the invasion and was not expecting it in the slightest. If he was expecting it, he wouldn't have been in complete denial of US intelligence and wouldn't decried it as "the West sowing panic for political gains". > In some random interviews he said Ukraine is prepared I have no idea why you're looking at "random interviews" when you can just look at exactly what happened. Ukraine was completely unprepared for Russian invasion and they were clearly shocked when the Russians invaded. Did Zelenky evacuate any civilians beforehand? Nope. Did he ask NATO countries for aid? Nope, it was the exact opposite. NATO countries were offering aid and he was calling them alarmist.
  - AzzieElbab 4y ago
    denial or not, Ukraine repelled Putin's coupe d'etat. Neither West nor Putin expected that.
- gnulinux 4y ago
  > First, not everyone, Ukrainians knew. Sounds like you were not following the events because invasion was effectively "announced" by US Intelligence weeks before the actual declaration of war. Besides, this was not the only sign and if you know the way Putin talks and you listened to him days before the invasion (talking about Russian Empire's old glory) you'd see that he already made his mind up way before the actual day of invasion. Of course, it's easy to see things in hindsight (and I did truly predict the invasion before it happened) but sounds like you're not even aware of all the available data.
  - yks 4y ago
    You're arguing my point! Which is that people knew about this invasion, US intelligence knew, Ukrainians were preparing as well despite the rosy rhetoric of Zelensky.
    - LewisVerstappen 4y ago
      The media and the vast majority of US pundits were saying the invasion was impossible. US intelligence was being criticized before the invasion for being alarmist. Again, just read the news articles from January/February of this year. It sounds like you weren't paying any attention to this in Feb and are just trying to come up with arguments to support your points.