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Subverting their democracies and regime-changing their leadership to flip them against Russia is dragging them. If they can't do it by hook, they'll do it by cr
by EGreg 4y ago
Subverting their democracies and regime-changing their leadership to flip them against Russia is dragging them. If they can't do it by hook, they'll do it by crook. In 2021 they also tried to do the same in Belarus and Kazakhstan, and I'm sure the same narrative would be used: "a silent majority wanted it, they were just afraid to say it, we helped liberate them".
Back in 2008 we see this: NATO leaders promised Ukraine and Georgia on Thursday they would one day join the Western defence alliance after rebuffing U.S. demands to put the former Soviet republics on an immediate path to membership. https://www.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-32818020080403 https://www.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-32818020080403
Some NATO leaders had to rebuff US demands to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO. Can you admit that Bush and the US were pressing for Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO at a time when solid majorities of their actual people were against it? Why?
I have told you the reason: they wanted to flip Russia's allies to instead join a hostile military alliance, and eventually host weapons there aimed at Russia. They once had nuclear missiles, which NYTimes says were "all aimed at the United States". To quote them in 1994:
Ukraine, politically and economically unstable since it became an independent state after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, has 176 intercontinental missiles armed with some 1,240 nuclear warheads--all aimed at the United States. It also has 592 nuclear warheads aboard bombers, which would be covered by the agreement. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-01-11-mn-10675-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-01-11-mn-10675-...
My explanation of US motivations is simple and clear, and makes sense. You keep ignoring it, and talking about how "anyone is free to do what they want." US straight up helped foment a revolution in 2014, sending very top people to encourage protestors to cut ties with Russia, and they ended up partnering with the far-right to overthrow their government:
The Guardian in 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93eyhO8VTdg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93eyhO8VTdg
BBC in 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SBo0akeDMY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SBo0akeDMY
BBC in 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE6b4ao8gAQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE6b4ao8gAQ
Look, I think that Russia is encouraging the same thing in Moldova and Slovakia at this very moment. I don't doubt that CIA in Ukraine, and FSB in Moldova, are always actively trying to regime-change those countries to be more favorable. You speak nothing about this. You act like it's off-limits and dishonest to even put forward basic explanations for why "great powers" do what they do. But we have seen it in proxy wars for centuries. We know how it goes. What makes this time any different?
US failed in 2008 Ukraine, they failed in 2008 Georgia (because of Russian invasion), they succeeded in Ukraine 2014, then both Russia and NATO financed and perpetuated a proxy war in Ukraine since 2014. Russia's invasion isn't "unprovoked", it is the result of 8 years of warnings and peace agreements (Minsk II) that were never implemented, and the CIA was already training an insurgency in Ukraine, training neo-nazi paramilitaries, just as Russians had been doing in Donetsk paramilitaries, for years:
https://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-secret-cia-training-program-in-ukraine-helped-kyiv-prepare-for-russian-invasion-090052743.html https://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-secret-cia-training-program...
https://news.yahoo.com/cia-trained-ukrainian-paramilitaries-may-take-central-role-if-russia-invades-185258008.html https://news.yahoo.com/cia-trained-ukrainian-paramilitaries-...
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-02-25/ukraine-cia-insurgents-russia-invasion https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-02-25/ukraine-cia...
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2018-07-09/ty-article/rights-groups-demand-israel-stop-arming-neo-nazis-in-the-ukraine/0000017f-e080-d7b2-a77f-e3870e1c0000 https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2018-07-09/ty-article/ri...
Did I mention NATO in 2009-2011 also coordinated the world's largest disarmament project, by DISARMING UKRAINE OF DEFENSIVE WEAPONS, and then presenting themselves as a solution? They admit it right on their own website, but they spin it as "well, we didn't want the aging Ukrainian weapons to fall into the wrong hands."
NONE of this looks like your (perhaps unintentionally) dishonest characterization of "democracy as usual" in these countries. It's not the majority of civilians choosing to arm far-right militia, nor overthrow their government, nor get pumped full of NATO weaponry. It shouldn't be surprising, since Ukraine was not very democratic and quite corrupt. (The same can be said for Russia.)
- mopsi 4y ago> Can you admit that Bush and the US were pressing for Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO at a time when solid majorities of their actual people were against it? This is a lie, no matter how many times you repeat it. For example, you quoted a Reuters headline: > “Bush VOWS to PRESS for Ukraine, Georgia in NATO” Yet if you read past the headline, GWB was pressuring other NATO allies (mainly France and Germany) to allow Ukraine start membership negotiations, not pressuring Ukraine to join as you represented it. Your sources do not support what you are claiming. Your conspiracy theory hinges on the obvious lie of countries being forced into NATO. Remove this lie, and the narrative of "big scary America preying upon poor little Russia" falls apart, because suddenly NATO membership becomes the initiative of Eastern European governments, and if you ask why, then you'll get a long list of crimes against humanity committed by Russia in those countries in the 20th century (and now 21st century too) highlighting the need for defense cooperation in Eastern Europe to prevent it from happening again.
- EGreg 4y agoI never said “big scary America is preyinf upon poor little Russia”. I said USSR, USA, and China have played these games for years and destroyed countries in proxy wars. But let’s just use your one-sided rhetoric, and see how ridiculous it is. Sure, you’ve convinced me! Big Bad Russia has done things much worse than China and USA have ever done to their neighbors. Their neighbors all want to join an alliance against Russia, unlike all the neighbors of great and benevolent USA and China. Of course, USA cares deeply about Ukraine’s safety from Russia since 1994, which is why it worked to make sure Ukraine would give up its nukes. USA and George W Bush cared deeply about Ukraine’s security which is why they pushed NATO to accept the Ukrainian president’s bid to join NATO, even when Ukraine’s own population was against it. They didn’t know what was for their own good. That’s how democracy works, after all. After Yanukovich was elected and ended this, NATO cared so deeply about Ukraine’s remaining defensive weapons ending up in the wrong hands, that they undertook the largest disarmament program in the world, to rid it of these weapons. In 2013, USA felt really bad about Ukraine’s economy. They didn’t want Ukraine to have to keep doing business with a neighbor like Russia, who have done bad things like Holodomor and suppressing the Ukrainian language for hundreds of years. So John McCain and other top people went to Ukraine, to help liberate it from the Russian sphere of influence. This was purely out of concern for the Ukrainian people, especially the ones in the West of Ukraine who had voted 30-37% for the far-right Svoboda party. After all, they better some far-right Russophobic ideologies than the fifth column of Russophiles in the east. Ukraine’s destiny lies in Europe! It is, after all, to improve Ukraine’s own democracy that USA fomented a revolution that overthrew its corrupt, sitting president, who was simply a stooge of Mr Putin. The far-right groups that helped make this happen were merely incidental to what was effectively a people’s uprising — totally different than, say, January 6th in USA. In fact, they were the true patriots, who had Ukraine’s best interests at heart unlike the anti-Maidan protestors, who were astroturfed by Russia. Russia’s house of cards fell apart. With its stooge gone, it became clear that the vast majority of Ukrainians never really wanted ties with Russia, direct flights with Russia, (not even to visit their 11 million relatives there) to do business with Russian clients, nor even to let people in the Donbas keep speaking Russian in their schools. The USA had finally liberated Ukrainians from having to pretend they liked anything Russian… and Russia should just allow Ukraine to join NATO and stop being such a bully. But Russia didn’t back down. They armed insurgents in the Donbas because Putin wanted to take over the entire Ukraine and restore the Soviet Union. It was his unspoken dream, because he never says what he really thinks. Thankfully, NATO kept arming the true government of Ukraine, as well as the true patriots (far right paramilitary) who could defend the motherland from the country which had long abused them, and where they had many relatives — and after years of training eventually got the brave Ukrainians to beat the second best army in Ukraine: the Russians, who they always knew were so weak they’d never be able to overrun the country in a few days. It’s not like the CIA planned a destructive Afghanistan-style guerilla war to tear the country apart as long as it can “make the Russians bleed for as long and as hard as possible.” The Russians were know to be weak, and have been losing since 2022, or maybe since 2014. They’ve run out of ammunition and tanks long ago, and are using shovels. (Btw I am not even making any of the above up… you can’t make this up, it is literally what they say: https://www.thedefensepost.com/2023/03/08/russia-ammunition-shovels-intel/amp/ https://www.thedefensepost.com/2023/03/08/russia-ammunition-...) Of course, this is just as preposterous as believing that USA has the best interests of Afghans in mind when the CIA funded the Mujahideen, and waves of Afghan Arabs to tear apart the country. We KNOW that in nearly every other case since Laos, the CIA played a role in fomenting these conflicts in order to weaken their rivals (Russia, China, etc) and not out of a concern for the country. Sometimes they say the quiet part out loud and you are so willing to believe the propaganda that you ignore it: https://m.facebook.com/IndianMilitaryUpdate/videos/united-states-aids-ukraine-and-her-people-so-that-we-can-fight-russia-over-there/690898798759583/ https://m.facebook.com/IndianMilitaryUpdate/videos/united-st... Look, even if they HAD deep concern for Ukrainians, sending them weapons only makes them LESS safe. Did gulf countries and Iran sending weapons to Gaza ever make the PEOPLE of Gaza safer? The Hamas top leaders weren’t even in Gaza during some of the heaviest bombings — but the civilians were. It’s obscene to volunteer OTHER people to perish in large numbers to achieve some imperialist geopolitical ambitions, if you aren’t actually willing to go and sit under bombs with your family yourself, but force others to! That’s my view.