| HN Mirror

I think the post I responded to doesnmt address much of anything I said in the post that it was responding to. But I digress. I tried to address the fact that my posts aren’t directed ONLY to that one person but to other readers here too. What did I not address?

There was a diplomatic solution to be found, Russia chose violence. They used lies and deceit to justify it as they have in all conflicts since 1991. Ultimately they wage war for the sake of capitalist ambitions just as all of those other governments and institutions you listed

This? Ok. Well, I am glad the post mentioned that Russia is just one of multiple imperialist countries, who wage war for the sake of capitalist ambitions. Russia also waged this specific war, and the one in Georgia, to preserve its Black Sea fleet, and prevent its neighbors from joining an enemy alliance (NATO) whose raison d’etre even after the fall of the Soviet Union was to be a military alliance against Russia. This isn’t purely Capitalist.

When Kennedy blockaded and threatened Cuba and led to the Cuban missile crisis, the justification was well-understood: USA cannot afford to have a country on its border allied with its geopolitical rivals and pave the way for missiles to be placed pointing at US cities, ready to strike them within a few minutes. I can understand Kennedy. But back then, these statesmen (Kennedy and Khrustchev) went about it constructively, they established a direct line between the highest levels to avoid a misunderstanding, and Kennedy gave a peace speech in which he said “… Above all, nuclear powers should avoid bringing the other to a choice between a humiliating defeat or a nuclear war. To pursue that course of action in the nuclear age would show the bankruptcy of our foreign policy or a collective death-wish for the world.”

Yet today the very thing Kennedy warned about is the explicit policy of the Biden admin and establishment. No talks. No negotiations. Push to a humiliating retreat — they won’t dare start a nuclear war. All the while volunteering Ukrainians to a meat grinder that could have been avoided. And the justification for no direct line, no talks sounds like kindergarteners: “but he staaaarted it!”

Incidentally, before the Cuban missile crisis the US secretly put nuclear missiles on Turkey aimed at USSR. But when USSR did that in Cuba we freaked out. We took the missiles off Turkey. Incidentally, today we have missiles in Turkey again pointed at Russia — the very thing that was “too close” last time. Don’t you see that we are constantly inching closer and provoking / poking the bear… so to say it’s “unprovoked” is strange.

In 1954 USSR applied to NATO and was rejected, NATO said it seemed like such a joke that they wouldn’t take it seriously. In the early 2000s Putin openly said he wanted Russia to join NATO. Bush rejected Russia but forcibly pushed Ukraine and Georgia into NATO, even when their own population didn’t want it. My question is - why? When does the US choose diplomacy that it actually upholds? Native Americans? North Korea? Iran? All diplomatic treaties broken by the very next administration. We do not have a good track record of keeping our diplomatic commitments but somehow others are supposed to trust us implicitly cause it’s us.

Russia and Ukraine did choose diplomacy. Minsk agreements I and II. Normandy Format meetings. And one week into the war both Putin and Zelensky were ready to sign an agreement to resolve everything. Naftali Bennett said that the US killed the deal!

Merkel admitted the Minsk II agreements were to “buy time to arm Ukraine”. And Zelensky openly and proudly said this year he never intended to implement the Minsk accords — despite running on that very platform and being elected to make peace! And all throughout 2021 Russia warned and warned and asked NATO for guarantees that they wouldn’t place missiles in Ukraine etc. and was told that they are not open to negotiation. https://apnews.com/article/business-russia-ukraine-moscow-se...

And yet somehow it’s only Russia singled out as as “not engaging in diplomacy”? To characterize that way is, in my opinion, betraying an unmistakbd double standard / bias.

Don’t get me wrong, I very much want for there to be a diplomatic solution, along the lines of Minsk II. I would love it if the next US president would be an adult, apologize for Bush’s admin and come up with a roadmap whereby Ukraine, Georgia and Russia will all join NATO on the same day in some time in future, but to do that they must agree to a roadmap that starts with a cease fire, restoring relations, then eventually solving their border disputes (yes with Georgia too), and working together to rebuild.

But the current war hawks would NEVER accept that, because that would strengthen Russia and Ukraine and Georgia etc. And as Adam Schiff put it well in 2019: “we aid Ukraine and her people so they can fight the Russians over there — so we don’t have to fight them over here.” https://m.facebook.com/IndianMilitaryUpdate/videos/united-st...

If we stopped flipping Russia’s neighbors against it, then they might actually grow strong enough again as a military and economic bloc to compete with us on a level playing field, economically and otherwise, and we don’t want that! We don’t want China to either!