The United States has also failed in recruiting competent military troops -- they even relaxed the literacy and "criminal infractions" rules. Young people, even the poorest, do not want to die, nameless, in a foreign land. However, the young Russians do not understand how NATO fights, decimates infrastructure and civilians in the name of collateral damage. The soldiers that saw what NATO did in Syria understand that these barbaric actions have no place in Russia, or any country. If your President's strategy has failed, certainly a larger, more aggressive battle, was never part of the plan. You must campaign actively for peace. You must stand strong against NATO's deception but resist the corrupt politics that has destroyed Ukraine. You are a smart and ancient country. Americans are currently following a fool's course in history, and have yet to prove its worth. May peace prevail
"The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained." -
It is true that the USA has had a similar pattern of recruitment, indeed as Putin has insistently aped the USA in many other things - as in his recent comments concerning how the USA's use of nuclear weapons in the war with Japan "set a precedent" - there is little doubt that the Putin regime also aped the USA in military recruitment as well. Residing in the USA, it is easy to note that the Pentagon concentrates recruitment in rural regions, or in the most economically depressed urban regions. We call it "the economic draft".
Hence no surprise that "aping" leads to "subhuman" results a la Donald Rumsfeld's "You fight with the military you have" in Iraq. And boy, were the GI's "had", just as the Russian foot soldiers and officer corps is being "had" in Ukraine. Welcome to capitalist warfare in quest of imperialist goals. Indeed, F**k you Elon Musk.
As for the rest, the general stance is wrong in principle. It is the Putin regime that launched this war and nobody else, starting in 2014-15. The operative principle is not "peace" or "antiwar", *except in Russia*. The principle is Ukraine's right to self-determination free of retrograde Russian neo-colonialism, and that includes Crimea.
Ukraine has a paltry and weak pension system. Employment, urban development, soccial support have always depended on infusions of foreign (US, NATO) cash and leftover Soviet infrastructure Yet, why was it the poorest Eastern European country?). Since its inception some 20 years ago, can it claim any true independence? The Ukraine regime won an election claiming freedom of language and property restrictions, then about turned once elected. It is a mess of a region. Crimea was always a loyal Russian city -- Does "Battleship Potemkin" ring a bell?
- How many "really independent countries" are there in a capitalist world system? USA, RF, China, India...maybe Brazil, Indonesia. The rest are dependent - militarily, politically, economically, and/or some combination of all three - and Ukraine is simply an extreme example, where two independent imperialist powers, the US+Eurozone military vassals vs. the Russian Federation, have fought over the country like two dogs over a bone since 2014.
However it is a fact that only one of the imperialist dogs has sunk their teeth into it: Russia.
- Yes, "Potemkin" does ring a bell. It was Georgi Potemkin who developed the schemes for the Russian settler colonization of "Novorossiya" , the territory Putin seeks to grab and annex now. "New Russia", as in "New England", "New France", "New Spain", "New Netherlands".
No progressive-minded person today would defend a colonial setter project in this day and age, one that I will wager Putin seeks to start up in the occupied territories, any more than they would support the State of Israel's support for settlers and ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank. I am sure that Jewish settlers in Hebron and elsewhere claim their locales are "loyal to Israel", so what?
As for the historic Russian-speaking descendants of the 19th and early 20th century settlements, we have yet to have a referendum free of the RF military and security forces. There is no reason to accept "referendums" *after* a military coup. This is standard "Bonapartist" dictator practice: The original article, Louis Napoleon, did the same after his military coup in 1851. That is the answer to the question of Crimea. But in general, they deserve the same as native born Israelis - equal rights in a democratic secular state. In the case of Crimea and Donbass, the so-called "ethnic" differences are far less than in Palestine!
Fascinating to learn about the the “Putin social contract” (limited freedoms in exchange for political passivity from the peasants) and the ramifications of its abrogation.
Russian citizens are mostly angry that Putin has taken such a softly softly approach to the agression in the Donbas. His popularity seems to be slipping at home, but it is far above any other European leader's approval rating and leaves the US leaders approval rating for dead (excuse the pun).
The United States has also failed in recruiting competent military troops -- they even relaxed the literacy and "criminal infractions" rules. Young people, even the poorest, do not want to die, nameless, in a foreign land. However, the young Russians do not understand how NATO fights, decimates infrastructure and civilians in the name of collateral damage. The soldiers that saw what NATO did in Syria understand that these barbaric actions have no place in Russia, or any country. If your President's strategy has failed, certainly a larger, more aggressive battle, was never part of the plan. You must campaign actively for peace. You must stand strong against NATO's deception but resist the corrupt politics that has destroyed Ukraine. You are a smart and ancient country. Americans are currently following a fool's course in history, and have yet to prove its worth. May peace prevail
"The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained." -
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
It is true that the USA has had a similar pattern of recruitment, indeed as Putin has insistently aped the USA in many other things - as in his recent comments concerning how the USA's use of nuclear weapons in the war with Japan "set a precedent" - there is little doubt that the Putin regime also aped the USA in military recruitment as well. Residing in the USA, it is easy to note that the Pentagon concentrates recruitment in rural regions, or in the most economically depressed urban regions. We call it "the economic draft".
Hence no surprise that "aping" leads to "subhuman" results a la Donald Rumsfeld's "You fight with the military you have" in Iraq. And boy, were the GI's "had", just as the Russian foot soldiers and officer corps is being "had" in Ukraine. Welcome to capitalist warfare in quest of imperialist goals. Indeed, F**k you Elon Musk.
As for the rest, the general stance is wrong in principle. It is the Putin regime that launched this war and nobody else, starting in 2014-15. The operative principle is not "peace" or "antiwar", *except in Russia*. The principle is Ukraine's right to self-determination free of retrograde Russian neo-colonialism, and that includes Crimea.
Ukraine has a paltry and weak pension system. Employment, urban development, soccial support have always depended on infusions of foreign (US, NATO) cash and leftover Soviet infrastructure Yet, why was it the poorest Eastern European country?). Since its inception some 20 years ago, can it claim any true independence? The Ukraine regime won an election claiming freedom of language and property restrictions, then about turned once elected. It is a mess of a region. Crimea was always a loyal Russian city -- Does "Battleship Potemkin" ring a bell?
This jumbles together several different issues:
- How many "really independent countries" are there in a capitalist world system? USA, RF, China, India...maybe Brazil, Indonesia. The rest are dependent - militarily, politically, economically, and/or some combination of all three - and Ukraine is simply an extreme example, where two independent imperialist powers, the US+Eurozone military vassals vs. the Russian Federation, have fought over the country like two dogs over a bone since 2014.
However it is a fact that only one of the imperialist dogs has sunk their teeth into it: Russia.
- Yes, "Potemkin" does ring a bell. It was Georgi Potemkin who developed the schemes for the Russian settler colonization of "Novorossiya" , the territory Putin seeks to grab and annex now. "New Russia", as in "New England", "New France", "New Spain", "New Netherlands".
No progressive-minded person today would defend a colonial setter project in this day and age, one that I will wager Putin seeks to start up in the occupied territories, any more than they would support the State of Israel's support for settlers and ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank. I am sure that Jewish settlers in Hebron and elsewhere claim their locales are "loyal to Israel", so what?
As for the historic Russian-speaking descendants of the 19th and early 20th century settlements, we have yet to have a referendum free of the RF military and security forces. There is no reason to accept "referendums" *after* a military coup. This is standard "Bonapartist" dictator practice: The original article, Louis Napoleon, did the same after his military coup in 1851. That is the answer to the question of Crimea. But in general, they deserve the same as native born Israelis - equal rights in a democratic secular state. In the case of Crimea and Donbass, the so-called "ethnic" differences are far less than in Palestine!
Fascinating to learn about the the “Putin social contract” (limited freedoms in exchange for political passivity from the peasants) and the ramifications of its abrogation.
Russian citizens are mostly angry that Putin has taken such a softly softly approach to the agression in the Donbas. His popularity seems to be slipping at home, but it is far above any other European leader's approval rating and leaves the US leaders approval rating for dead (excuse the pun).