Ukraine

[Hawki]

]

Thus this isn't just a naval base, it's potentially a far wider military presence. Not only that, but it creates a perfect circumstance for China to turn the Solomons into a puppet state, needing just one corrupt president willing to sign away his country's sovereignty. That said, I think it's a "first draft": something that will be heavily watered down if passed at all. Threatening to invade the Solomons is however as dumb as it gets: there's no chance of a happy ending from that.

I'm still not seeing the issue really, China's free to make alliances with who they want. I mean, Australia's sent in military forces in the Pacific before, such as the intervention in East Timor.

Not trying to change the subject, but I bring it up because for all the people (or when I click "show ignored content," person), defending Russia invading Ukraine, I assume they'd also be okay with us invading the Solomons?

 

[Hawki]

I'm inclined to think that Ukraine firmly agreeing not to join NATO (and maybe the EU) is a minimal requirement. Formal concession of Crimea next up that Ukraine might agree to, and anything else is a bonus for Russia. But after this atrocity, Russia's lost Ukraine from its sphere of influence to the West for generations unless it can take it over in entirety.

I wouldn't be surprised, but while it's ultimately up to the Ukrainian people, it's still effectively rewarding Russia.

Russia states more limited war goal to 'liberate' Donbass

In a scaled-back formulation of its war goals, Russia said on Friday that the first phase of its military operation was mostly complete and it would focus on completely "liberating" Ukraine's breakaway eastern Donbass region.

www.reuters.com

This has "bush mission accomplished" energy. It seems like Russia may just settle for taking the break away States.

This won't win me any friends, but Bush's "mission accomplished" speech had more cause for celebration at the time than Russia's current situation. The US succeeded in toppling the Sadam regime in a month, Russia hasn't toppled anything.

Thing is, I think you can actually draw plenty of parallels to both Iraq and Ukraine (WMD claims, regime change, etc.), and this isn't defending either, but fuck, least the US was competent with its invasion. Russia can't even manage that. 0_0

His game is that Western capitalism is the ultimate bad guy. Therefore, any entity that opposes Western capitalism is better. Therefore when any entity that opposes Western capitalism attacks a third party entity, that third party entity must be traduced in order to protect the reputation of the entity that opposes Western capitalism.

Or, if you like, the enemy of my enemy's enemy is my enemy too.

And yet Russia's capitalistic, and its version of capitalism is even more dog-eat-dog than in the US, so...

Fuck, why am I even bothering?

Well invasion is a bold ass move. Manufacturing a coup and installing a friendly government would be much more efficient.

Then again it’s a probable flaw in our Strategic thinking that I was rather hoping we’d addressed. Despite culturally and politically being a Western nation we are geographically closer to Asia. We should have been making serious alliances with places like the Solomon Islands, but also India, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand etc.

Well, yeah, but we've already got alliances with at least some of those countries - India and Japan, at least.

Thing is, I agree, but on the other hand, China's done its best to alienate a lot of those countries already. Japan, South Korea, India, and Vietnam, at the least, definitely aren't China's friends.

 

[Hawki]

Russia-Ukraine war: Vladimir Putin’s invasion is a miltary debacle but can Ukraine take an offensve risk? (smh.com.au)

Putin’s forces focusing on Donbas after Ukraine invasion plan derailed (msn.com)

 

[Trunkage]

Well invasion is a bold ass move. Manufacturing a coup and installing a friendly government would be much more efficient.

Then again it’s a probable flaw in our Strategic thinking that I was rather hoping we’d addressed. Despite culturally and politically being a Western nation we are geographically closer to Asia. We should have been making serious alliances with places like the Solomon Islands, but also India, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand etc.

Just buy them off. Lot less bloodshed or having to continually manipulate a puppet. And you can write it off as beneficial foriegn aid that helps the world. It's a mistake to think that China wants to invade anywhere except Taiwan and Tibet

As to alliances, we already have a bunch... through the US. So having a bilateral alliance is probably good because the US is only really looking out for itself

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

Read another book!

Spoiler: Well, twitter knows what to do...

 

[Trunkage]

Spoiler: Well, twitter knows what to do...

I'm not going to lie, this is incredibly fake. Putin wouldn't apologize for anything. If you going to lie, make it more realistic

I'd think Rowling wants the similar laws to what Putin created. It does not shock me if they became more politically aligned

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Well invasion is a bold ass move. Manufacturing a coup and installing a friendly government would be much more efficient.

Let's *not* have another civil war in the Solomon Islands, k? Especially if one side is going to be backed by the PRC.

Then again it’s a probable flaw in our Strategic thinking that I was rather hoping we’d addressed. Despite culturally and politically being a Western nation we are geographically closer to Asia. We should have been making serious alliances with places like the Solomon Islands, but also India, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand etc.

Australia has close military ties with Malaysia and Indonesia (believe it or not), good military ties with Japan and South Korea (helped by all being key regional US allies), and working our arses off to improve military ties with India.

It's the diplomatic side that we suck at... or more precisely, our political leaders spouting off and ratcheting up regional tensions because they're fucking idiots.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I mean, Australia's sent in military forces in the Pacific before, such as the intervention in East Timor.

That was a UN-backed intervention with the (reluctant) permission of Indonesia (mostly because the US told them to suck it up and it was gonna happen anyway) and at the request of the interim government of Timor L'este mostly to stop the pro-Jakarta militias having more murder sprees... and the US just happened to have a large number of marines sitting around in navy ships sitting around nearby in international waters.

That's not really the same as angling for an alliance that gives you the power to act unilaterally in your ally's territory. That's a Cold War Superpower dick move.

 

[Kwak]

Good news everyone...

Russia starts military drill on disputed islands off Japan

The Russian military starts a military exercise involving more than 3,000 troops on a chain of islands including those disputed with Japan, Russian news agency Interfax reports.

english.kyodonews.net

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

Good news everyone...

Russia starts military drill on disputed islands off Japan

The Russian military starts a military exercise involving more than 3,000 troops on a chain of islands including those disputed with Japan, Russian news agency Interfax reports.

english.kyodonews.net

Spoiler: Russia at this point

 

[Seanchaidh]

Ukraine isn't a "victim" of the USA.

The United States has been materially supporting toxic right wing Ukrainian nationalism since before the end of the Soviet Union and helped to unconstitutionally overthrow their elected government. It then proceeded to encourage Ukrainian leadership to provoke Russia (and performed its own provocations) with the intention of causing war which it expects will end up in a situation like Afghanistan in the 1980s-- and the leadership of the United States regards this as a good thing, an opportunity. This 'peaceful trading bloc' regularly bombs and invades other countries... but, admittedly, not typically white ones like Ukraine, or places as obedient to western capital as Ukraine after 2014. Ukraine was manipulated and used and is now in the process of being discarded because they were only ever meant to damage Russia, not actually accomplish anything useful for themselves.

 

[Hawki]

That was a UN-backed intervention with the (reluctant) permission of Indonesia (mostly because the US told them to suck it up and it was gonna happen anyway) and at the request of the interim government of Timor L'este mostly to stop the pro-Jakarta militias having more murder sprees... and the US just happened to have a large number of marines sitting around in navy ships sitting around nearby in international waters.

That's not really the same as angling for an alliance that gives you the power to act unilaterally in your ally's territory. That's a Cold War Superpower dick move.

Maybe, but it's an alliance that the Solomons has agreed to.

If East Timor requested Australian support, I don't think it's all that different from the Solomons inviting China in. I can appreciate that one involves a permanant military presence, but then, we've got a permanent US presence in Darwin, so...

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Maybe, but it's an alliance that the Solomons has agreed to.

Yep and it's their right to... probably... the scope of certain provisions may turn out to be unconstitutional under Solomon Islands' law.

If East Timor requested Australian support, I don't think it's all that different from the Solomons inviting China in

East Timor requested UN support and got it in the form of a multinational taskforce (INTERFET) headed by Australia.

 

[Thaluikhain]

East Timor requested UN support and got it in the form of a multinational taskforce (INTERFET) headed by Australia.

And a seperate force from Portugal outside that structure, IIRC.

 

[Agema]

The United States has been materially supporting toxic right wing Ukrainian nationalism since before the end of the Soviet Union and helped to unconstitutionally overthrow their elected government. It then proceeded to encourage Ukrainian leadership to provoke Russia (and performed its own provocations) with the intention of causing war which it expects will end up in a situation like Afghanistan in the 1980s-- and the leadership of the United States regards this as a good thing, an opportunity.

Nearly all of that is exaggeration, conspiracy theory and paranoid speculation. There is no point trying to argue against a black and white version of the world by replacing it with a white and black one.

I am so sorry you have chosen to jump down that rabbit hole.

 

[Silvanus]

You think a state that is the result of a pro-west coup with support of the NED and a leadership determined by US officials, is dominated by oligarchs like Ihor Kolomoisky, and bans opposition political parties and television stations is "a democracy"? Obviously?

That's wild.

Its leadership isn't decided by the US. They hold elections which, by all rational standards, are far freer and fairer than anything Putin has ever allowed to take place. And those elections decide the governing party. It has functional oppositional parties and it has a media which is allowed to broadcast views oppositional to the governing party. Yes, it's a democracy.

You loudly support a government which holds no genuine elections whatsoever, in which all oppositional media is banned, and in which all oppositional parties are not allowed any possibility of achieving power, ever. In which the ruling party is decided by a tiny cabal of ultra-capitalists, and the populace literally have no option to change the governing party. To harp about the democratic credentials of Ukraine while espousing Russia is fucking laughable.

 

[Thaluikhain]

It has functional oppositional parties

Well, it had when the invasion happened, they've banned some for the duration. Understandable, but undemocratic.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Not sure if this was posted yet -

Ukraine: Arnold Schwarzenegger's anti-war video trends on Russian social media

In the video the actor warns Russians they are being fed misinformation over the Ukraine war.

www.bbc.com

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I'm not going to lie, this is incredibly fake. Putin wouldn't apologize for anything. If you going to lie, make it more realistic

I'd think Rowling wants the similar laws to what Putin created. It does not shock me if they became more politically aligned

If so the site that posted that should be fined heavily or shut down for thinking jokes and satire is appropriate in a situation where thousands of innocent people have had their lives and homes destroyed as collateral damage.

 

[Seanchaidh]

Its leadership isn't decided by the US. They hold elections which, by all rational standards, are far freer and fairer than anything Putin has ever allowed to take place.

This is your standard for a 'democracy'?

In which the ruling party is decided by a tiny cabal of ultra-capitalists, and the populace literally have no option to change the governing party. To harp about the democratic credentials of Ukraine while espousing Russia is fucking laughable.

???

So glad you've decided to fabricate in entirety a position for me to hold about whether democracy exists in Russia.