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There's as many theories about why Putin and Kremlin did what they did as there are war analyst books on it. Some of them are more right than others, but at the
by dmos62 1y ago
There's as many theories about why Putin and Kremlin did what they did as there are war analyst books on it. Some of them are more right than others, but at the end of the day, if I'm honest, I'm as confused as I was in 2014. Which is a problem not only for my curiosity: if Western policymakers are as confused as me, it's difficult to craft a good policy: we're effectively playing half-court tennis (to quote Sarah C. Paine).
- lostlogin 1y ago> it's difficult to craft a good policy This is a choice though. The decisions aren’t as hard as leaders are making them. Pulling support or giving support would end the war. Neither has actually occurred and support has been drip fed, bleeding both countries.
- dmos62 1y ago> The decisions aren’t as hard as leaders are making them. Is there a statement that is more "armchair-policy-maker"? In all seriousness, I have a similar sentiment about support for Ukraine, but I'm saying that it's difficult to have a robust policy (especially when it involves so many parties) when you struggle to understand the opponent's perspective.
- foobarian 1y agoI think it still makes sense to me that they were too used to just rolling in and assuming power like happened many times after WW2. Czechoslovakia, Hungary, post-Berlin interventions like in Georgia, then Crimea most recently. I think they expected Kiev to be the same. The real question is why did the latest intervention turn out different? What changed?
- dboreham 1y agoUsually the answer to why a crazy country leader did something odd has to do with "not waking up dead tomorrow".
- wbl 1y agoThe beauty of destroying invading armies is you don't need to ask a lot of questions about why there are there.
- dmos62 1y agoTrue, though it becomes more nuanced when it's your neighbour-N-times-removed that's getting invaded.