130k troops is a little light even for Ukraine... I suspect he's got some building up of numbers before he's ready to go in.
There's precedent... I mean there were plans to invade Ireland during WWII and force it under allied control rather than let the Germans take it. Same with Iceland and Norway (although Germans did go for Norway). Doesn't justify it. Certainly wrong to take someone's in sovereignty. It's just not a new idea to take land so a rival doesn't. I don't know if China would take it... They try taking everything else. Better solution if we were worried would be to give them equipment to defend themselves until others can come to their aid if we're worried.
Indeed. The west likes to present itself as the arbiter of democratic rights in the 'free' world. But we pick and choose our causes to champion whilst letting atrocities in other parts of the world go unchecked. Like you say, China's economic dependence on Western consumption of its products should give us enough leverage to have an effect on human rights there. There's some lip service paid to it, but nothing that ever amounts to any serious attempt to address it like economic sanctions would, as the west knows it would be harming its own interests. Unfortunately for Afghanistan, it has become a symbol of how the West won't ever get involved in foreign regime change again, because they made such a hash of it trying to dispose of the Taliban. A 20 year war, Trillions spent and... the Taliban are back in control. The difficulty with a place like Afghanistan is that it's still a really tribal area, and trying to impose a Western style democracy there was like trying to make a square peg fit in a round hole.
We're not at war with China though. And there's a U.N. Resolution in place telling us to return it to Mauritius because that's the will of the people who live there. So we really are illegally occupying it. We have zero defence if we're going to spout on about the rule of law to others. See this goes to the heart of everything that fcks me off about the way we spin injustice. Taiwan is made out to be this really important victim and yet it's no better or more important than the Chagos Islands. But no one gives a flying fck about the Chagos Island. And yet, I bet you a pound to a penny that IF it was Russia or China occupying it we'd be hearing the western P.R. machine in full swing claiming the dictators were compromising their sovereignty and their ability for self-determination. I have no dislike of the U.S. It's quite the opposite. What disappoints is that with all their power and influence they have the ability AND the values to genuinely make the world a better place. Not Russia, not China. The U.S. But instead they've chosen to be sly, cynical, underhand, self-serving ****ers who use unscrupulous amoral tactics to screw over the world to the highest bidder whilst trying to kid the world that them doing it is somehow different to others. Fck 'em.
Every time I hear the phrase "our intelligence is telling us..." I just think fck off What, you mean the same intelligence that told you there were WMD's. The intelligence you nicked off a post-grad's thesis? Or the same intelligence that told you the Taliban posed no threat and wouldn't be taking Afghanistan back? That intelligence. Okee dokee.
Not a hot war anyway and hopefully never will be. We're certainly in less-than-of friendly competition with then. Not a cold war but a cool tongue sticking match. Thank goodness for financial entanglement or we probably would have been by now.
At least you knew Trump was bluffing with his bigger red button, but if America needs to make money then they make money by making war and weapons
Trump set the date and that's it. Biden was in charge for the shambles of a withdrawal which left our soldiers in danger because they hadn't bothered to communicate properly with us and he's left the poor Afghans to fend for themselves without any ongoing support.
A Russian attack on Ukraine "remains very much a possibility" but the human cost would be "immense", US President Joe Biden has said. In remarks televised nationally, he said the US was ready to respond decisively. This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version. Shut up you senile old cnut
A possibility but doesn't look likely. Putin doesn't have enough troops there. What I think is happening is Putin built up armies to see how the world would react and maybe hope to get some concessions about Ukraine not joining NATO. Biden knows he doesn't have enough troops so is calling his bluff basically saying "go on then, I dare you" knowing Putin won't invade. Putin stopped massing troops before he had enough for an invasion... This is all going to blow over. Fairly optimistic.
just a day ago you thought putin was going to annex eastern ukraine and then have his eyes on moldova. You changed your tune quickly
I can't get my head around the fact that the western world were ****ting themselves about WW3 when the Ukranian leader himself kept saying Russia are not going to invade calm down
Tell them you have ingrowing ears mate ... and if any ****er doubts you, just show them your posting history on here...
Changing opinion with something when new facts come to light is a good thing. Too many people dig their heels in and stick with an opinion even when facts change. As it is I'm not so sure anymore about peace after more troops being moved to border.
yeah but theres changing opinion on further circumstantial evidence and then theres just changing your mind when the obvious is happening.
I had changed my mind because Russia had not increased troop levels at that point in a week, something I didn't know prior, so still had far too few for an invasion. New data = new opinion. Nothing wrong with that. Flexibility is a good thing. Now supposedly they have started increasing again.
