UKRAINE WAR - 1 YEAR AND GOING.

[madd0c0t0r2]

Thread lock!

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Besides providing aid to the Ukraine, I don't see what the fuck anyone else has done in the past unless they have boots on the ground in this war. (Ukraine, Russia).

Anyone bringing it up is pretty much using 'move the goal post' tactics.

We used to ban people for that kind of shit.

Damn it, where is Lord Wong when we need him to come down on this kind of shit?

Wong hasn't been here in over 3 years, Dalton is your best bet!

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Thread lock!

[Broomstick]

By and large, most people give "zero fucks" about refuge status.

Then we rip the veil off of any attempts to pretend that humanity and the west is civilized and figure out what we do from there.

Occasionally humanity surprises me with some mercy. Not very often, but I keep hoping, what with being an optimist most of the time.

There's also self-interest - one reasons nations might treat other nations and their citizens decently is in hopes of receiving the same treatment in return. Does it always work? Of course not, we're talking about humans. But it works often enough that most of the time nations behave that way. Just not always.

You are extremely naive to think that nations can't prevent people from crossing the border. Over the past few years the US/Mexico border has seen groups of people squatting on the border in excess of 12,000 people strong. If many gets through it's because at present no one wants to simply shoot and bomb those trying to cross - that Western soft-heartedness that supposedly makes us "weak". That can change quite rapidly given the right circumstances.

If we get to the point where international law is being ignored and refugees are being killed en mass that means either there has been a major war in Africa or India or that climate change is worse than we anticipated. In short, if nations start to feel threatened to the point of abandoning all pretext of civility we're all fucked.

I agree - if things deteriorate to that point we are, indeed, fucked. That is not the case right now but it certainly is a possibility in the future.

And the "rich, powerful nations" are already seeing more and more pressure from those fleeing climate change. Don't know how you miss that.

Shit hasn't even started yet. We haven't fully lost any island nations, desertification hasn't rapidly started to spread year over year, and breadbaskets aren't failing completely. It will get worse, figuring out what to do with millions of refugees moving at your borders in a wave is something that will need to be figured out.

I don't think, aside from the DMZ dividing the two Koreans, any nation is ready for a zerg rush of a million refugees. I shudder to think of some of the possible "solutions" to that problem.

It's pretty well documented that early in the Ukraine war the Russians set up "humanitarian corridors" for civilians to flee then systematically bombed those same fleeing civilians. Yeah, I'm pretty confident the Russians will obliterate thousands of people. They already have.

The risk of fleeing is still likely to be less than the risk of staying.

Again - that only works if you have somewhere to flee to - otherwise it's the "mass of refugees at the border" problem, only if you're the one doing the fleeing you're also on the side that's at a great disadvantage.

What the FUCK makes you think the current Russia government would have ANY tolerance for "UN peacekeepers" and "neutral observers"? What have you been smoking these past few years?

What makes you think they won't agree to a loosening of sanctions in exchange for such monitoring once the war ends?

Russia is working to arrange matters so those sanctions don't have as much impact as they currently do. Russia doesn't want a babysitter, it wants to win (however that's being defined this week). In the past they've lied and schemed to get around monitoring, why would now be any different?

Yeah. That's been done. And it wasn't "millions" of corpses, it was tens of millions. See WWII. If it happened once it could happen again.

Yes, let's worry about what might happen because fretting and wringing hands is easier than dealing with the fucked up reality of what losing a modern war looks like.
[/quote]
I contemplate historical lessons not to "fret and wring my hands" but rather to learn from them. How can you be prepared to deal with a crisis if you never consider unpleasant possibilities?

[EnterpriseSovereign]

US to impose over 500 sanctions against Russia in wake of Alexei Navalny's death

The US has imposed more than 500 new sanctions on Russia following the death of Putin’s most prominent critic, opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

“These sanctions will target individuals connected to Navalny’s imprisonment as well as Russia’s financial sector, defense industrial base, procurement networks and sanctions evaders across multiple continents,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.

"They will ensure Putin pays an even steeper price for his aggression abroad and repression at home.”

The announcement is the largest single-day tranche of sanctions since the war began and is part of the administration’s ongoing efforts to limit the Kremlin’s revenues.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, with the bloody incursion by the Kremlin due to enter into a third year on Saturday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gets off a Tu-160M strategic bomber after a flight in the city of Kazan.

The White House had promised major sanctions in response to the death of Navalny last week.

After meeting with Navalny’s wife and daughter, US President Joe Biden the sanctions would be “against Putin, who is responsible for his death.”

It comes as Russian authorities delivered an "three hour" ultimatum to Navalny's mother, stating she could either bury her son in secret or he would be buried in a colony.

According to a family spokeswoman, Lyudmila Navalnaya refused to negotiate because "they do not have the authority to decide how and where she should bury her son".

Earlier this week, the US carried out a series of new arrests and indictments against Russian businessmen in five separate federal cases after violations of sanctions.

In the UK, Russia's war machine was slapped with 50 new sanctions by the government in a crack down on those supplying Putin's armoury with munitions, such as rocket launch systems, missiles and explosives.

These new sanctions also target key sources of Russian revenue, including metals, diamonds, and the energy trade.

The government claims that sanctions on Russia have deprived the country of an estimated $400 billion.

The conflict has largely grinded to a stalemate and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has publicly urged the West to provide more weapons or risk emboldening Russia's forces.

[Vympel]

Time to lock this one up. New thread coming