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I thank Vladimir Putin and send him many kisses (Yes, Russian men kiss). If not for him, we would have continued walking, like a bunch of self-hypnotised lemmings, on the road to self-dissolution. He deserves the biggest pat on the back for teaching all of us a lesson even our wokenistas’will not forget. Thank you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, for the wake-up call! Thank you for inadvertently highlighting out our stupidity, our naïvete, our weakness, our cowardice and our gullibility. Thank you for treating us with contempt and disdain.
You are absolutely correct – we do not deserve any better. We have allowed you to attack Chechnya and occupy parts of Moldova, Ukraine, and Georgia and have done bugger-all to stop your aggression against Ukraine. We have allowed you to get away with using chemical weapons at home and abroad, shooting down a passenger airliner, attacking our infrastructure in cyberspace and using your hydrocarbons as a weapon to undermine the West’s independence.
Some of the most ‘progressive’ of us thought that fossil fuels would be cancelled the day after tomorrow. The glorious future seemed just around the corner – those renewables, they thought, would have taken pride of place in our economy, our hearts and bank balances. They were convinced that, without fossil fuels, climate change would disappear.
But not you, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, oh no! You have correctly surmised that fossil fuels will be around for quite a while and that you will have enough time to place your grubby hands on our economies, our freedoms, and our strengths, in order to become the supremo of the West you hate so much.
Thank you for revealing the true nature of your own country: its evil, its heartlessness and the inability (or refusal?) of its people to distinguish between right and wrong. As astonishing as it is – an absolute majority, somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of your countrymen, according to the pollsters, appear to support your actions.
No doubt, when all this is over and you occupy your well-deserved seat before the International Criminal Court, your countrymen will tell anyone willing to listen that they did not know anything! They will say that this is all your fault and that they were simply following orders. They will say that, deep in their collective soul, they hated your guts and were all members of the resistance. I think we’ve heard that line, not all that long ago, in Nuremberg.
Thank you for conclusively demonstrating the folly of our woke class, those ‘useful idiots’ whom you and yours have used to promote every possible way of weakening our democratic society – be it climate change, political correctness, identity politics or class warfare.
I promise that we will learn the lesson you have given the West. We will, at last, recognise the danger these proud ‘progressives’ bring for us. It will be so much easier now to recognise them for what they really are – your stooges.
If not for your idiotic decision — or should I say ‘moronic’? — to invade peaceful Ukraine, our wokenistas would have continued to labor tirelessly for the destruction of the Western economy, culture and military strength. Of course, they have dressed it up in lofty slogans and ideas. However, that is precisely what they were doing – destroying the admittedly imperfect liberal democracies by trying to transform them into a semblance of your unhappy country. Our liberties are threatened by political correctness, our economy by the climate change cult, and by our education by left-wing teachers, who, instead of teaching our children, indoctrinate them in hatred for their countries and Western culture.
However, Vladimir Vladimirovich, you, like many an autocrat before you, have been lied to by your arse-lickers. They gave you information you wanted to hear, instead of telling you the truth. Like their predecessors in Stalin’s day, they were mortified of telling you something, anything, counter to your expressed opinions and desires. So they fed you lies and falsehoods which of course you approved.
So, instead of honesty, they stole the money you allocated for undermining Ukraine. You were told the Ukrainians were yearning to be reunited with Mother Russia, that your soldiers would be met with flowers and the smiles of pretty girls, that it would take no longer than a week to overthrow the ‘Nazis’ and their government. The fact that this nation is headed by a democratically elected president of Jewish origins did not interfere with your propaganda. In reality, your army was met with fury and outrage, with fearless resistance and devastating losses.
Indeed, Vladimir Vladimirovich, there are so many things to thank you for. Above all, let me thank you for single-handedly destroying the myth of your army’s strength. Frankly, I am tempted to say that your army is a crap relic of the last century, but I will not. Instead, I will gently whisper that you have delivered to the West a much-needed reassurance that, should this poorly supplied and no less badly led army ever invade a NATO country it would be annihilated.
I think you deserve a medal – a big shiny one for reassuring the Western democracies that your underfed and undersupplied crowd of looters and murderers is not much of an army. Even more pleasing, all your threats were bluff – plain and simple. Judging by the ease with which yesterday’s farmhands, teachers and truck drivers burnt your hordes of tanks, APCs and what-not with the weapons provided by NATO – you have no chance of defeating a professional Western military. I am calling on the NATO Council to award you the biggest, the most glittering medal for making this clear – your army, your intelligence services and its leaders are no good, except at public parading and dark palace intrigues. For this feeling of relief, I, together with millions of formerly scared Europeans, thank you very much indeed.
Equally, I thank you on behalf of all the occupied people’s territories, which your army held in accordance with the medieval concept that ‘might is right’. Not anymore. By showing to the world how pathetic your army is, you initiated the process of real, not fake, liberation. Poland is talking about reclaiming part of occupied East Prussia, Japan is demanding her Kuril islands and Azerbaijan is moving in to reclaim its land. Even tiny Moldova is making noises about the return of occupied territory. Oh, and Vladimir Vladimirovich, don’t forget that your best friends forever, the Chinese, are publishing their school books and maps with half of Siberia belonging to the Middle Kingdom. It might, just might, be the beginning of the unraveling of the last empire on the planet. I sincerely hope so.
On second thoughts, Vladimir Vladimirovich, perhaps you don’t deserve these thanks I offer. Come to think of it – all of this was revealed as a result of the brave, courageous and defiant Ukrainians fighting your Russian invaders. These amazing people have demonstrated to the world what a freedom-loving nation can do when determined to defend their freedom from predators such as you. When the free people do not believe a predator, do not fear a predator and do not beg a predator for anything – they fight, no matter what.
Every Western nation owes a debt of gratitude to Ukraine for conclusively demonstrating a predator like you can be stopped. Not by treaties, not by appeasement, not by anything else – but only by force, which is all you can understand. So, after all, my thanks go to Ukraine.
Shchiro dyakuyu vilni Ukrainsky gromadyane vil’noi Ukrainy!
In English, that says ‘Thank you very much, free Ukrainian Citizens of the Free Ukraine!’ May your victory come soon.
михаил галак (excuse my using Russian Michael Galak) always remember that there are two sides to every coin, and may one ask why the батальон азов, (Azov battalion) you know, the neo Nazi people carrying on the tradition of their forebears in WW2 who joined the Nazi’s to take on Mother Russia, are up to their eyeballs in this and have been since about 2012. Two sides to every coin mate, and as an Ukrainian you must know (unless of course you are on the “take” as well to use an Aussie term) that the Ukraine is probably the most corrupt place on the Planet, think Yushchenko, Yanukovych, Turchynov, Poroshenko, and now Zelenskyy mate and explain it all to those of us, especially the ones who have never lived and worked there, those of us who aren’t married to locals who by the way, can’t abide both Presidents. Explain why the USA is also involved, c’mon mate let us in on the secret for the truth is far removed (and might even be worse) from that of the stuff we are fed by the media and people with only one eye and always remember that a coin has two sides.
Well said by Mr Galak.
Now, there are massi costs -in resources of various kinds, in violence, and in restricted freedoms- that are the result of the presence right here in Australia of various groups whose allegiance is to foreign and transnational forces, and/or who have high proportions of members who are prone to violence and are not educable or trainable to be productive and nett contributing to the wider community.
But these costs are airbrushed away by the necessities of pretending that multiculturalism is fine, fine, fine.
Such costs and impositions, including the required pretence, are very, very bad for people who seek to be contributing, loyal citizens of Australia.
And actually are corrosive to the internal security of this Land.
Lest we Forget, and lest we ignore the obvious.
Botswana O’Hooligan (BTW a fantastic nom de blog!) you may have gotten away with it this time, but I predict that all future posts of yours, thanks to this outburst, will be parked in the ‘awaiting approval’ queue along with those of all other freethinkers and disagreeable types who get up the nose of this ‘liberal’ journal’s ‘conservative’ editor.
Moreover, abiding by the practice of Joseph Stalin (see above threadstarter by Michael Galak) and all the other noted censors down through the pages of history, the general readership of this august journal will be kept thoroughly in the dark re the fact that censorship has occurred. Quadrant has long since joined the likes of Cato the Roman, Torquemada and the Spanish inquisitors, the persecutors of Giordano Bruno and Galileo, the witch-hunters of Salem, Massachussetts and the rest of the Devil’s crew in their various exercises in the refined art of thought control.
Yes, there are two sides to this coin.
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On one side you have a people and their children being killed in a most shocking atrocity. Their cities, their homes and their livelihoods shattered by bombs. Millions fleeing to an uncertain and perilous future.
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On the other side of the coin you have a tyrant directing the slaughter from the safety of his mansions. A Russian people beset by propaganda and hoodwinked into believing the tyrant whilst their young soldiers are being swallowed up by the grinder of war.
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Some coin!
That old aphorism ‘truth is one of the first casualties of war’ is about how both sides of a conflict massage the truth of what really happened: some sides more than others. Michael Galak’s sarcastic essay above, snarking Putin whilst implicitly polishing Zelenskyy’s halo proves that old aphorism.
Botswana O’Hooligan
Ukrainian men, women and children are being killed or wounded by invading Russian forces so Ukrainians won’t have to live in “probably the most corrupt place on the Planet,” They should be grateful.
Botswana, you need a little bit more perspective, your defense of Russia is risible. No country is perfect, every country has a past. So why talk about ex politicians of Ukraine. Talk about the present. Russia is presently invading a country, using indiscriminate weapons, killing Ukrainian civilians in the thousands. How many Russian civilians have been killed by Ukraine since the invasion commenced? The Russians are not too far behind the NAZIs in the moral stakes, just ask the Poles. It is one thing to point out blame in Ukraine, though you don’t even give one instance of Ukrainian culpability, but entirely another to support Russia. Russia had some residual goodwill for its losses during WW11, (though Ukrainian and Polish losses were an order of magnitude greater), but it is burning through that goodwill awfully fast.
Occidental, think the shoe should be on your foot and not mine. I simply ask people to look at both sides of the coin, and you have to know the past history of both countries and know about those presidents I mentioned, for perhaps with one exception they were the most crooked people, around so much so that the Ukrainian people attempted to have them tried for treason. The experts abound and probably have heard of “Chicken Kiev” (originated in Russia anyhow) and that’s about the extent of their knowledge of Ukraine. I lived and worked in those places and am just as confused most times as anyone else and deplore the mayhem for I have a stepson of military age we left behind and would hate for him to be sent to the Ukraine, ditto all his friends and any other sons. How about you look at both sides by checking out Jacques Baud, Unz Review on Google, and how about you believe me when I laugh at a supposed Ukrainian girl in a light T-shirt giving a Russian soldier a lecture for when you check out the desert background it was a TV clip shot on the Western Bank in 2012 and not an Ukrainian winter scene. Other shots of full bearded Russian soldiers are also a surprise for beards have been banned in the Russian military forever. Look at both sides of the coin and don’t believe the media, not ever for if they bodgie up desert shots and bearded soldiers, they will lie about anything to suit their cause.
Jaques Baud says that the Skripals suffered from food poisoning, not Novichok, and makes grotesque claims that parrot the feeblest Russian propaganda, such as his ridiculous statement that 40% of Ukraine’s army is made up of foreign mercenaries. This is the man Hooligan suggests we study for “the other side of the coin”.
Asides, asides, the Russians have been poisoning either “real” or “perceived” enemies since the time of Rasputin, but so too have the Ukrainians and most mother in laws using mind bending techniques. For goodness sake keep an open mind and look at both sides of the coin dispassionately for deep down the USA want to crank up another war and we must not allow that. Gulf of Tonkin, weapons of mass destruction, the shambles of Afghanistan that spring to mind, happen again, and much to the amusement of my Ruski family, I carry a piece of their cast steel in my ribs from an event in SE Asia from long ago. Be balanced, distrust everyone, especially the media
Botswana, stop digging.
It is possible to be somewhat sympathetic for Putin’s position and mind set.
It must be difficult for the self actualised to achieve greatness and ultimate completeness when there are so many who wish to argue and obstruct the true and noble path to reunification of Mother Russia.
There were all those petty spies who ran like dogs, but they were eliminated.
Stupid fools, they should have known that no one could escape me.
Then those sniveling Europeans talking of peace and disarming.
I showed them.
They pay me rubles or I cut off the gas, simple.
The Dutch know all about this.
Now some upstart actor is running the show, he should have stuck to his day job.
I’ll crush him.
What happened to all the oligarchs in Ukraine, if they were running the show it would have been Warsaw in 3 days.
I am invincible. Everyone is letting me down.
Some lead, others follow, the rest, get out of my way.
On a more sober note.
Just reached the last week of George Pell’s volume 3 prison diary.
Remember he was the bloke, a real Aussie, who was tried four times for a crime he did not commit.
There is some discussion of grievance, that which could have beset Pell in his solitary sentence.
Rather than ‘a plague on their houses’ and, let the strong beat the weak, they deserve it’,the answer lies in the past, as Barbarism was slowly recognised as an original defect of man.
Pell quotes St Francis of Paola.
‘Remembering grievances works great damage. It is accompanied by anger, fosters sin, and brings a hatred for justice. It s a rusty arrow spreading poison in the soul. It destroys her virtue and is a cancer in the mind. It thwarts prayer and mangles the petitions we make to God.
It drives out love and is a nail driven into the soul, evil that never sleeps, a sin that never fades away, a kind of daily death.
Be lovers of peace, the most precious treasure that anyone can desire.’
Its a paradox that Dante saw the legion of the uncommitted, marching behind a white flag, being beset by flies as being lost, rather than a bunch of realists.
It would appear that the Ukrainians have decline to join in.
,
Firstly Lewis P Buckingham, I apologise for failing to grasp the point of your message (there was one wasn’t there?)
I found the whole sarcastic article pathetic and filled with “misinformation” Your addition to the discussion and reference to Cardinal Pell (for a Cardinal he is) was an unashamed red herring which failed to add any value.
Botswana made a valid contribution to the discussion and obviously raised the ire of the Soros indoctrinated cohort.
Brian Boru’s description of the carnage, bombing and wanton destruction could just as easily been describing the relentless attacks by the Ukrainians against the Russian speaking Ukrainians of the Donbas region. The UN has confirmed that since 2014, over 13,000 civilians have been killed by the Ukrainian army.
Botswana just asks that you objectively consider both sides of the coin.
Welcome back Bots and may MM rest in peace.
Bwana Neusi,
“Soros indoctrinated cohort”? What on earth does George Soros have to do with me, or any of the other commenters in this thread? Do tell.
Your statement that “the UN has confirmed that since 2014, over 13,000 civilians have been killed by the Ukrainian army is simply untrue. The UN has confirmed that 3393 civilians have been killed in the to 30 September 2021, which you could have checked yourself here:
https://ukraine.un.org/sites/default/files/2021-10/Conflict-related%20civilian%20casualties%20as%20of%2030%20September%202021%20%28rev%208%20Oct%202021%29%20EN.pdf
instead of just parroting lies and half-truths from some crackpot Russian propaganda site. I will assume your misstatement of the figures was not deliberate. That figure includes, incidentally, the 298 souls killed on MH17.
The balance of your 13,000 figure is troops, on both sides, and I remind you that the conflict started because of a Russian-backed coup, and the warlords who currently run the “breakaway republics” rule with no democratic mandate, holding onto power with assistance of the thousand of Russian regulars there.
Bwana
Well the first part is satire,not as good as the original article but a reflection dimly seen.
The second, with a dash of satire, is about peace and reconciliation.
As happened in Timor Leste.
Not so much in Africa or the old Soviets.
For the few baffled, the comment is self evident so cannot be explained.
As for Putin, he has clearly made his choice.
‘peaceful Ukraine’ ? The military actions have been continuous since 2014, I think, haven’t they?
This article is a worthless polemic.
‘shown how ineffective russia’s military’ ? Then why not fearlessly retire NATO back to where it promised to be?
‘russian atrocities’ ? Like the ones they perpetrated days after they were gone?
Yep. Fits today like a glove: irrational, untrue invective and polemic.
“…and I remind you that the conflict started because of a Russian-backed coup,..”
If you have no clue, why comment?
The origins of the conflict started with the US lead coup/removal of Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych in 2014.
“..Jacques Baud is a former colonel of the General Staff, ex-member of the Swiss strategic intelligence, specialist on Eastern countries…”
https://mronline.org/2022/04/10/the-military-situation-in-the-ukraine/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-military-situation-in-the-ukraine
Botswana/Bwana may I ask how many email addresses you have?
Mike2, the same Jacques baud who claims that the skripals only suffered from food poisoning, and that the Ukrainian army is 40% foreign mercenaries?
The same Jacques baud who justifies the hijacking of the easyJet flight, and who says that Roman Protasevich is perfectly ok because you can talk to him on twitter?
“Yanukovych has been accused, by Amnesty International among others, of using the Berkut to threaten, attack, and torture Ukrainian protesters. The Berkut, disbanded on 25 February 2014, were a controversial national police force under his personal command and were accused of promoting Russian interests.”
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That’s a quote from Wikipedia about Yanukovych. That Wikipedia article tells a story which is quite enlightening. It seems to me to be no wonder that the Ukranian people protested and risked death by Yanukovych’s goons in those protests to extricate themselves.
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Putin must have been extremely frustrated that the tactics he so successfully employed in Russia did not work for Yanukovych.
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Like Putin, it appears that Yanukovych amassed great wealth far beyond his legitimate income in government employment. Apparently, according to Wikipedia, he and his family were all on the take.
Your article is emotional gibberish without any real data supporting you. I am very much surprised to find your article published in Quadrant
I would have some respect for the opinions of Botswana O’Hooligan, Brian Boru et al if they wrote revealing their true identity. There is something sneaky about using an Alias, especially a silly one and then expecting the reading public to take them seriously. There is only one issue here, that is that while Russia might lay claim to Ukraine that claim has no historical validity. Kyiv as a Nordic foundation was a thriving culture when Moscow was a cow paddock the vagaries of subsequent history notwithstanding Ukraine is an independent country no matter how flawed its leadership might be and it has been invaded by a brutal totalitarian regime without any right on its side. A regime which has since the time of Ivan the Terrible has lived in cruelty on a tissue of lies.
Occidental. Hoping not to wear my welcome out on Quadrant and begging indulgence, but Bwana Neusi and I used to comment on a conservative website called morningmail.org that shut up shop a bit over a week ago much to our dismay for conservative websites are extremely difficult to find since the World seems to have drifted way too far to the left. We are completely different people, he being urbane and genteel as are you, not so me.
Hi Peter S. You must have the shortest family name I have ever come across if that is your true identity. But never the less I agree with you where you say that Ukraine has been invaded by a brutal totalitarian regime without any right on its side.
Seriously , could anyone tell the difference between a Russian and a Ukranian ? I couldn’t , but I do know both have their own Mafias , endemic corruption, a penchant for too much vodka and a brooding disposition. So why are we so obsessed with Putin’s scorpion and frog show , which Germany and Europe nurtured and are reaping what they’ve sown , when we have our own Western civilisational suicide to deal with and Trudope’s and Biden’s evil malfeasance , not to mention the by- varying- degrees ineptitude of the rest of the West’s “Le3aders” ?
Seriously , could anyone tell the difference between a Russian and a Ukranian ? I couldn’t , but I do know both have their own Mafias , endemic corruption, a penchant for too much vodka and a brooding disposition. So why are we so obsessed with Putin’s scorpion and frog show , which Germany and Europe nurtured and are reaping what they’ve sown , when we have our own Western civilisational suicide to deal with and Trudope’s and Biden’s evil malfeasance , not to mention the by- varying- degrees ineptitude of the rest of the West’s “Leaders” ?
Peter S then what about Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin the French novelist aka George Sand as her pseudonym? Long ago when one actually penned a letter to the editor, signed it and posted it, one managed to get some dire threats for one written to the SMH long ago probably had my surname perused in the phone book and thus threats issued. I resorted to using Pomphrey Hatrack Smythe of 9 Sebasio Street Bamaga Q 4876 but that wasn’t colonial enough. Anyway, 9 Sebasio Street Bamaga is a long way from The Ukraine and the subject under discussion.
I see where the ferocious Azov Battalion has been inflated to Azov Regiment. If these names are anywhere near honest, they amount to a very small armed force for a country said to be controlled by Nazis.
I found this article to be quite credible and provided another view:
https://www.thepostil.com/the-military-situation-in-the-ukraine/
If people are claiming that finding the Russian unprovoked invasion of a small country is a Soros-instigated conspiracy, could they please provide evidence? All I see is film footage of the Ukraine with Russians committing (or having committed) atrocities. If some people say these photos are falsified, then please let us see the evidence. I am more than willing to believe Soros capable of anything, mind you, and am perfectly aware of the fact that Antifa and Black Lives Matter bussed people in to states in the US in order to create Soros-funded chaos prior to the US election. However, I am somewhat sceptical about people claiming the universal scepticism/dislike/hatred of Soros for everything. There is a danger that indiscriminate claims of Soros involvement end up reinforcing claims that Soros wasn’t involved in the other stuff.
The Ukrainians arm civilians and then complain when the Russians target civilians. I found your article to be irritating Michael, and making no contribution to anything. I am inclined to agree with lolpg.
I have been lead to at least consider the pro-Russian argument as having some merit based solely on the unanimous support of the MSM for Ukraine.
I am amused by phicul9’s comment- it is because of the MSM support for the Ukraine (& the support by the EU and Biden/Democrat support) that I read with interest the comments by pro-Russians. I too am suspicious because these groups support the Ukraine. Hence my request for evidence of Soros (above).
When practically everyone seems to be sharing in the same opinion on a subject, it does give me some concern. But if the side taken by the “MSM” should automatically be suspected, then the Anzacs are not worth honouring for any reason; Hitler was a good person; and meth-heads who break into houses and bash old ladies should be let off with a caution. The ABC, of all organizations, has for years (I first took note of it with the lease of the port of Darwin) taken a strong line against Communist China. Does that mean that we should welcome CCP influence in our country?
When the media started pushing the covid religion, I could see that such propoganda was incorrect by using the media’s own data, my knowledge of history, and the principles of right and freedom. When, however, the media is opposed to the actions of a tyrant who runs with an iron fist a country that has never truly been freed from its decades of Communism, I do not have to agree with it; the media is agreeing with an outlook I already had. I can take what it presents while keeping my brain turned on.
The fact that there have been a number of statements in the news about Ukraine “claiming” that things have been done, or about videos not being “independently verified,” leads me to believe that the regular media is more interested in being truthful on this subject than on such matters as wuflu jabs and a certain US election.
Dear Mr Galak
After watching this Fench documentary https://rumble.com/vx6u1x-donbass-2016-documentary.html I have no sympathy for your cause. Your people are receiving their just deserts.
Dr Galak, keep up the good work. It’s truly nauseating to see the online site of an intelligent conservative magazine with a long history become infested by ignorant conspiracy theorists and apologists for crooks like Putin.
I should have added, moronic anti-semites as well.
Bruce Parr, which “people” are those? Do tell.
Sindri , so you’re all in on the media narrative , Putin bad , Ukraine , Biden good ? Putin is the scorpion , Germany and Europe the frog giving him a lift even though he’s a Known known.And we here at Qol are not allowed to question the narrative (vaxxes, face masks , anyone ?). This is Eoropes mess to clean up and leave we in Oz and the US out of it . Biden wants a bad guy to divert attention from his (handlers) egregious policies , which include sky high fuel prices before Putin’s invasion , and the ensuing inflation we are saddled with . Hunter Biden’s ties to the Ukraine are documented , and demented Joe on record threatening to withhold funds to them .But I’m just a conspiracy theorist .
lolpg – response on 11th April 2022 – is SPOT ON!
“Your article is emotional gibberish without any real data supporting you. I am very much surprised to find your article published in Quadrant”
I am most disappointed to find this type of ‘spin’ at Quadrant. From now on I will be very wary of what Quadrant publishes.
Micheal Galak, thanks again for giving us the unadulterated truth.
Mr Putin is also the best example of the hypocritical nature of the indoctrinated subjugation of truth. He resides in paradox – a freedom warrior ( hypocrite), who only has other peoples interests at heart – no matter how long they may have left to live.
This incarnation of man is nothing short of the gene expression of uncivilised pure evil.
The world can live without Vladimir Putin- both the Russian infantryman and Ukrainians alike.
In my summation, all action’s will arrive at the point of incorruptible (proper) judgement.
The other day in SydneY I noticed in between a break in the weather that somebody had paid for sky writing between upper and middle level loud layers- It was barely discernible except for the sound of the aircraft……….Z❤️Y.
I’m not entirely sure of the meaning, except to say, that the will of God resides with the Son- the one with which the Father is well pleased.
ISOMER……..Volodomyr Zelenskyy’s heart is to be found in the right place is it not!
@ 27Hugo27,@Botswana O’hooligan (BO),@lolpg.What are we to make of the young Ukrainian girl who stepped out of her parents car and had her head decapitated by a Russian artillery strike?
@Brenden T Walters , this is Ukrainian country – mobile phones and their usage and even carrying a lethal weapon does not justify cold blooded murder or does it. What are you thinking when comes to summary executions outside the rule of law in Ukraine by Russian visitors without passports let alone valid passports ( excuses- eh).
Beg pardon Volodymyr.
STD ‘What are you thinking when comes to summary executions outside the rule of law’
For the sake of clarity I have found Bellingthecat a useful site to sort out disinformation.
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2022/04/04/russias-bucha-facts-versus-the-evidence/
If one is into pattern recognition the Russian carnage continues.
The truth will come out as time goes by.
Dear Sindri. I only engage with people who are brave enough to use their full names.
“Your people are receiving their just deserts.” A model of courage.
If only it were that simple. Unfortunately the precedenst for what Russia is doing have been long set by others, particularly the Americans. The problem with precedents is that others are likely to take them up because few people will embrace, Do as I say and not Do as I do.
The Americans and their craven allies, including Australia, as well as the Israelis have all done what Russia is doing and with less cause. The Americans used chemical weapons in Iraq, Phosphorus and the Israelis have used it in Occupied Palestine.
The Americans, with the help of their Allies,have invaded countries and destroyed them which were not on their border and Israel holds all of Palestine, a slab of Syria and bits of Lebanon in what it says is the name of security and the US not only accepts that, it arms Israel to maintain it.
So, it is very difficult, unless one is happy to be an arch hypocrite to point the finger at Russia, or demonise Putin for things more than one American President has done. And it is stupidity itself to think if you go and do something which should not be done, that others will not copy your tactics for the same reasons- self-interest.
Anyone who bothers to research the history of this conflict can be in no doubt that any blame must be shared between the US, Nato and Ukraine as well as the Russians for doing what they have warned they would do for decades, if the Americans and their Nato lackeys, sorry, Allies, kept pushing for Ukraine to join Nato.
No, it does not make the horrible suffering of the Ukrainians justified in any way, but it does explain that Zelensky even more than Russia, should be held accountable for it, along with the US and Nato. Some of the top political analysts, including the American John Mearsheimer, have warned about this outcome for as long as the Russians have been protesting the US/Nato creep to its borders and they have been ignored.
It is truly childish to try to make this war a case of goodies and baddies and striving to demonise Putin for doing things others have done, is infantile. Without understanding why such wars happen we shall never have a chance of preventing them.
@Blair,
Ukrainian men, women and children are also being killed by the Ukrainian army, particularly the Ashov battallion and Ukrainian men, women and children were being killed by the Ukrainians long before this war began because they are ethnic Russians.
By all means condemn the Russians but condemn all of the violence, including that which led to the Russian intervention.
@Rebekah Meredith,
Having spent a lot of time in Russia about ten years ago, I know there is much wrong with it but that applies to many nations, including the US, just in different ways.
If the Germans can be ‘forgiven’ for their Nazi experience then surely it is time to let the Russians move on from their Communist experience.
Any reading of the history by political analysts, experts in the field, makes it very clear that most of the media is biased at best and lying at worst. Yes Russia has invaded Ukraine but with better reasons for doing so than the Americans could dredge up for Iraq for example. And if US/Nato/Ukraine had not kept up their aggressive creep to the Russian border this war would not have happened.
Whoever said the Americans are prepared to ‘fight to the last Ukrainian’ had it right. The US wants to destroy Russia and is happy to sacrifice Ukraine in its entirety to do so. However, Putin is no pushover and as more than one political analyst has said, highly strategic, intelligent and patient. It may well be that the US economy, and ours are destroyed long before Russia is destroyed.
As John Mearsheimer said, the Ukrainians have been led down the garden path by the Americans and poor old Zelensky has been strewing petals as they walked to their doom for the past few years. If anyone has betrayed the Ukrainians it is Zelenskey but then he works for a Ukrainian oligarch who no doubt has his own masters.
None of this is simple and because the world did not punish the Americans for their many invasions of sovereign nations then they can hardly call the Russians to account.
Be careful what you wish for and even more careful of the precedents you set. Ever thus.
In all wars, it is always the innocent people who suffer and this war is no different. Nor is there any difference in that truth is always the first casualty in any war and that certainly applies in the Ukraine as well.
Australia, and the author of this article, seem to have embraced the Biden position of demonising Putin. If only it was that simple! Russia has been manipulated by the US into taking the action it has taken. Contrary to promises made to Gorbachev in the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, NATO, urged on by the US, has consistently pushed its boundaries eastward. The prospect of NATO extending its boundaries to the border of Russia was not only a breach of promise, but a severe provocation to the Russians.
What Putin is doing is establishing a Russian version of the US’s Monroe Doctrine. The US knew he would and pushed him into it. The US is the villain in this drama.
In all wars, it is always the innocent people who suffer and this war is no different. Nor is there any difference in that truth is always the first casualty in any war and that certainly applies in the Ukraine as well.
Australia, and the author of this article, seem to have embraced the Biden position of demonising Putin. If only it was that simple! Russia has been manipulated by the US into taking the action it has taken. Contrary to promises made to Gorbachev in the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, NATO, urged on by the US, has consistently pushed its boundaries eastward. The prospect of NATO extending its boundaries to the border of Russia was not only a breach of promise, but a severe provocation to the Russians.
What Putin is doing is establishing a Russian version of the US’s Monroe Doctrine. The US knew he would and pushed him into it. The US is the villain in this drama.
@Watchman Williams,
One wonders if the Americans have pushed Russia into this because it is the outcome they wanted and the destruction of Ukraine, or even the deaths of millions, is irrelevant to the great ‘game’ of destroying Russia.
Given the hopes so many had, including Russians, when the Soviet Union fell in 1991, and the fact that most of the greatest and best informed American minds have warned for decades against pushing Russia in this way, one can only wonder at the evil forces at work within the United States which would push for such an outcome.
The Russians may however have the last laugh if Putin is as smart as many think he is and their economy has been protected while others are not. Will Europe in general and the Germans in particular shiver and watch their industries topple in the name of Russian destruction? Will the Americans be able to survive the crashing of their economy and the loss of the dollar as international currency?
As some general supposedly once said – all plans go out of the window when the first shot is fired. Whoever planned to push Russia to invade Ukraine may have had no idea what potential there was for unknown outcomes. Then again, zealots are rarely strategic thinkers.
Communism never gave up the ambition to rule the world after the fall of the Soviet gulag – it simply changed course in the way it would achieve this – evolutionary
(evilutionary )adaptation.
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Aleksandr Dugin will provide ( give) you with the glorious future you crave for rosross.
. . . _
Vladimir Putin is all about Vladimir Putin – he is the only one who can freely think say and act as he pleases- if we are to judge by the actions and carefully considered words and utterances of those beneath his reign- his FSB spy chief exemplified this.
. .
Russia has expended a huge amount of resources since WW2 undermining democracy and freedom in order to usher in the glorious totalitarian future that awaits.
Communism and socialism make peoples lives unhappy ,this is why they immigrate- not the other way .
Funny the useful idiots who subscribe to this nonsense in the west- the academics and the elites hate and despise the other countries within which they happily live.
. _ . .
All’s well and ends well I guess.
The meaning of utopia” An imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect”.- “ misplaced faith in political utopias has led to ruin”!
@STD,
Russia is not a Communist country. It may not be a democracy but it is certainly not Communist. Neither is China a Communist country. It may be a dictatorship but it is certainly not Communist. Russia and China are variations on the capitalist theme. Communism is long dead and continued fear of it is irrational.
Americans, who know very little in general, confuse social welfare in democratic countries as Socialism which is a version of Communism but Australians should know better. Social Welfare systems in modern democracies are not socialism and certainly not Communism.
There is no doubt that social welfare systems can be exploited and abused, but that applies to all systems including Capitalism, which can do far more damage.
Utopia is impossible and the reason why so many systems fail like Communism, Capitalism, Democracy, Religion, Science and its creation allopathic medicine, is because they do not take into account human nature which will drag down everything, including systems with the most noble of intentions. Profit-driven science and medicine represent a vastly greater threat to people and planet than anything else.
At this point the most Totalitarian system is the United States, copied, slavishly by its lackey Allies like Australia. We have seen that demonstrated throughout the more than two years of Covid. It is almost funny to see people hysterical about Russia and China when most Australians have complied with the removal and abuse of our rights and freedoms in the name of a virus which was never a threat to the vast majority.
You make huge leaps of fantasy, sourced in prejudice and ignorance, in fabricating what you believe I see as a future. I have no illusions about the failings of democracy but see it as the best system we have so far. I have no illusions about Capitalism as a system but believe it needs to be regulated and managed and the lack of that gives you the sort of life the average American has, which is very poor.
The elevation of science to a religious system represents, to my mind, the most dangerous threat to the survival of people and planet and the power of the P/Harma industry, as unregulated Capitalism run rampant, plays a part in that.
Mostly I honour the nobility of spirit and courage of all human beings, in making their way through this challenging, often cruel and very unfair world. Most people do their best and, if you have not lived in Russia I would humbly suggest you have no idea what you are talking about.
As someone whose family is almost entirely in America, and who has many friends there, I know a lot of “average” Americans. Most of them would be quite surprised to here that they were “very poor.”
We have stressed, over the last two years, that liberty is worth more than safety. That liberty includes the freedom to conduct our lives and businesses with little government control. Government regulation may keep some people from failing, but it also holds many back from fully succeeding and promotes the good-enough rather than encouraging the excellent.
rosross,
“At this point the most Totalitarian system is the United States, copied, slavishly by its lackey Allies like Australia”
I mean, really. More totalitarian than China or Russia. And you accuse others of being “infantile”.
@Sindri,
You have been locked away for the past two years haven’t you? There is a meme which says: In China people know the news is propaganda; in the US they believe it is news.
That is why the US and places like Australia are more Totalitarian, because they can be.
@Rebekah Meredith,
I am not surprised that you say what you do. The American education system is very poor and the average American has no idea they have the poorest quality of life on average in the developed world. That is how it works best. If people don’t know they have it bad and if they believe what they are told, that the US is as good as it gets, bingo, you get to do anything you want.
I also have family and many friends in the US and some are unaware of realities but others are not.
You said: That liberty includes the freedom to conduct our lives and businesses with little government control.
Yes, it does and that liberty rides on the back of slavery still and exploitation of the poor. Anyone can succeed when they have slave labour which is what one dollar an hour amounts to. The US has the highest levels of poor and working poor of any developed nation. It is Third World levels and I say that having lived in India and four African countries.
The American minimum wage is a disgrace and the lack of rights and conditions for workers is barbaric.
The upside of your system is that the rich get liberty and freedom and the poor get neither.
Poverty cannot exist with freedom. Anyone who faces bankruptcy and losing their home because they get seriously ill is not free. Anyone who does not have access to quality education is not free. American schools, for which those in the community pay, are as good as the wealth of the community allows them to be. If you cannot afford to live in a community with a good school you don’t get a good education and forget about university or college as Americans call it.
So, the American concept of liberty and freedom is a delusion.
@Rebekah Meredith,
Illegals are the modern version of slavery in the US and take the time to compare the American minimum wage with that in other developed nations. It is shameful for the richest country in the world. Well, 1% of Americans control the wealth.
Take a look at workers rights and benefits in the US and compare them to other developed countries. Half the annual leave for one thing, a pathetic two weeks and very few public holidays. How about maternity and paternity leave? Family, crisis, sick leave? Do Americans get automatic sick leave once employed?
The lack of such social welfare systems in health, education and the labour force means most Americans live with very little liberty or freedom even if they remain in total ignorance of the fact.
Ignorance underpins every totalitarian state.
My grandparents were missionaries in Latin America. One of their daughters (with her husband) still is. That side of my family is well aware of what constitutes third-world living. It is not difficult for them to see the world of difference between that and what they are experiencing.
@ Rebekah Meredith>
I did not say Americans on average had Third World living conditions, I said Americans on average have the poorest quality of life in the developed world. Yes, there are Third World living conditions in the US but that does not mean your relatives have seen it. It is a big country with more than 300 million people.
The levels of poor and working poor are higher in the US than in any other developed nation and the absence of universal healthcare means they can end up homeless in the gutter just because someone gets very sick. And worker rights, conditions and wages, for average people are very poor compared to other developed nations. No doubt because the illegals, the modern slaves, prop up the economy on a dollar an hour.
So, for an average person being American is losing the lottery in terms of rights, freedoms and quality of life.