Off Topic The Politics Thread

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Should the UK remain a part of the EU or leave?

  • Stay in

    Votes: 56 47.9%
  • Get out

    Votes: 61 52.1%

  • Total voters
    117
  • Poll closed .
Biden was weak on Afghanistan but seems to be talking strong on this. Maybe someone in the US had a word with him?

Tough talking means **** all now Putin has shown his hand. Minimum should be extreme sanctions on Russia - the whole country. Yes, it'll affect the lives of it's normal, every day citizens, but this should help topple Putin.

Intervention by NATO will lead to massive bloodshed, and I don't think the leaders in the West, or the public, have the stomach for war.
 
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Biden was weak on Afghanistan but seems to be talking strong on this. Maybe someone in the US had a word with him?

For me it was Trump who agreed the pullout of Afgjanistan without providing any protection for what was inevitably going to happen after. He probably had US opinion behind that action and Biden still does. Probably the same regarding the Ukraine and the rest of Europe come to that if sanctions aren't enough, and I'm far from sure they are.
 
The rest of the world have had plenty of time to consider their actions. A swift response is important - every minute wasted is a minute closer to more lives being lost and a future of persecution for Ukrainians.
 
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Tough talking means **** all now Putin has shown his hand. Minimum should be extreme sanctions on Russia - the whole country. Yes, it'll affect the lives of it's normal, every day citizens, but this should help topple Putin.

Intervention by NATO will lead to massive bloodshed, and I don't think the leaders in the West, or the public, have the stomach for war.
Hopefully someone will see he is being a tw@t and get rid.. however he is quite popular with some.
 
My thoughts - it's a ****ing mess

The West pandered and pacified Putin for years, to the extent he thinks he's a god and untouchable.

If the West put boots on the ground, it's going to get really messy. If they don't put boots on the ground, then Putin will know we haven't got the guts for a fight and will continue to expand his empire. This would basically give China a green light to go for it too.

The UN is too weak to stop this, and I fear NATO don't have the bottle

Mmm.....we won't put boots on the ground in Ukraine.
Putin knows this.

Western allies shooting at Russian forces is a very, very dangerous scenario.

We'll help covertly.
We'll openly supply Ukraine with weapons etc.
We'll help to beef up the borders with Ukraine.

If Putin instigates war with NATO countries I'll be amazed and proved wrong about him being insane.
 
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For me it was Trump who agreed the pullout of Afgjanistan without providing any protection for what was inevitably going to happen after. He probably had US opinion behind that action and Biden still does. Probably the same regarding the Ukraine and the rest of Europe come to that if sanctions aren't enough, and I'm far from sure they are.
I will respond to this later.
 
Trump, is his wisdom, is still banging on about how this never would of happen if the election wasn’t rigged…… Seriously?

He doesn’t care about the innocent people being killed or hurt. It’s always about, him.
 
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Just been talking to my 22 year old daughter who was saying she hasn’t experienced anything like this before. And on reflection I don’t think the 61 year old me has either. Far too young to be aware of the Cuban missile crisis, but even that wasn’t an invasion of a European country by another one, as opposed to civil war in the break up of Yugoslavia etc, which never had the broader potential consequences of this action.

I suppose I can now vaguely understand how my grandparents would have felt in the late 1930s - helpless, incredulous, confused and wishing that common sense would intervene.
 
Just been talking to my 22 year old daughter who was saying she hasn’t experienced anything like this before. And on reflection I don’t think the 61 year old me has either. Far too young to be aware of the Cuban missile crisis, but even that wasn’t an invasion of a European country by another one, as opposed to civil war in the break up of Yugoslavia etc, which never had the broader potential consequences of this action.

I suppose I can now vaguely understand how my grandparents would have felt in the late 1930s - helpless, incredulous, confused and wishing that common sense would intervene.

I spent my early years in the army preparing for war with the Russians, on the inner German border, but never really thought it would happen - especially after Glasnost and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

It's all very 1980s and exceptionally depressing.
 
Just been talking to my 22 year old daughter who was saying she hasn’t experienced anything like this before. And on reflection I don’t think the 61 year old me has either. Far too young to be aware of the Cuban missile crisis, but even that wasn’t an invasion of a European country by another one, as opposed to civil war in the break up of Yugoslavia etc, which never had the broader potential consequences of this action.

I suppose I can now vaguely understand how my grandparents would have felt in the late 1930s - helpless, incredulous, confused and wishing that common sense would intervene.

Yep. My youngest asked me yesterday about it and I said pretty much the same as you have here.

I hope to **** I'm right about Putin not being insane.
My biggest worry is that eventually he'll feel so backed into a corner (rightly) that his pride and desire for power won't stop him taking on the West.
The only way he could not lose that one would be to go nuclear.

All getting a bit scary.
 
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Just been talking to my 22 year old daughter who was saying she hasn’t experienced anything like this before. And on reflection I don’t think the 61 year old me has either. Far too young to be aware of the Cuban missile crisis, but even that wasn’t an invasion of a European country by another one, as opposed to civil war in the break up of Yugoslavia etc, which never had the broader potential consequences of this action.

I suppose I can now vaguely understand how my grandparents would have felt in the late 1930s - helpless, incredulous, confused and wishing that common sense would intervene.

I had a similar conversation with my daughter, who asked me if we were going to go to war with Russia. I told her 'Of course not', but I'm genuinely extremely concerned, not to say scared, about how this situation might develop.
 
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