Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago is the man who, way back in 2015, said the following:
The West is leading Ukraine down the primrose path and the end result is that Ukraine is going to get wrecked … What we’re doing is encouraging the Ukrainians to play tough with the Russians. We’re encouraging the Ukrainians to think that they ultimately will become part of the West … And of course the Ukrainians are playing along with this, and the Ukrainians are almost completely unwilling to compromise with the Russians and instead want to pursue a hardline policy. Well as I said to you before, if they do that their country is going to get wrecked.
Quite a prophetic remark, you might say. Indeed, predicting that Ukraine would “get wrecked” seven years in advance would seem to suggest that Mearsheimer has a good understanding – that he’s worth listening to. (Note: Mearsheimer did not think Russia would launch a full-scale invasion, so he wasn’t 100% right.)
With the Ukraine crisis still dominating the headlines, Mearsheimer must be the golden boy of his department, right? Actually, no. A group of students recently circulated a letter denouncing him for “propagating Putinism” and claiming his actions are “extremely detrimental for our country”.
The students take issue with several statements from Mearsheimer’s 2015 lecture (which is the source of the quotation above). For example, they characterise his use of the word “coup” to describe the toppling of Viktor Yanukovych as “ideological rather than academic”. (They prefer the more heroic-sounding “revolution”.)
The students end their missive by demanding “public disclosure” of all Russian funding received by Professor Mearsheimer, as well as a “statement from the university community at large that it does not condone anti-Ukraine ideology on campus”. They also claim that, if left unaddressed, the problem could “tarnish the reputation of our beloved University”.
I haven’t been able to find any articles suggesting that the university took action in response to the letter. So the students’ campaign appears to have failed. Good.
And it’s of course absurd to suggest that Mearsheimer holds an “anti-Ukraine ideology”. Indeed, much of his 2015 lecture (which the students probably just skimmed through while searching for ‘incriminating’ statements) is concerned with how to prevent Ukraine from “getting wrecked”.
As I noted in a previous post, Mearsheimer’s proposal comprised three elements: ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine; funding an economic rescue plan, together with Russia and the IMF; and insisting that Ukraine respect minority rights, especially minority language rights.
It seems plausible that if we’d followed this proposal, we wouldn’t be in the situation we are today, with Russian troops advancing on Kiev, and the West powerless to intervene for fear of sparking World War III. From what I see, Mearsheimer is a far better friend to Ukraine than the people who dismissed his warnings.
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As usual for the woke generation, the idiocy of thinking if they can shout down and silence those saying things they don’t like anyone to hear, it will help to make those unpleasant and/or inconvenient truths go away.
Taken to its logical conclusion, this approach to life – not liking how things are so just pretending they are how you would like them to be – will lead to utter misery. Literally physical harm, famine, pestilence and death. It’s way beyond just having a different view of politics from others, it’s simply moronic. Dumb animals at this point have more sense.
“Will lead to” we get closer every day!
Absolutely, and what’s terrifying, when you allow yourself to contemplate it, is just how all pervading this attitude seems to have become, in the anglosphere societies, at least.
Decline and fall
The film Idiocracy is meant to be a comedy – it’s looking increasingly prophetic and less and less amusing as a consequence!
This one is particularly moronic though. Are they blaming him for not warning Ukraine hard enough about the consequences of its choices? Or that he somehow created the situation by describing it? Is he a wizard?
There’s definitely magical thinking at the heart of their world view. (Talking here about the footsoldiers, not the exploiters, obviously)
In woke world, you are not allowed to blame any individual for choices they made themselves, you are only allowed to critisise the State for not
interferingdoing enough.Single mothers, people who cant afford to feed their kids despite their iPhones/Sky TV, those too lazy to go for work etc etc
It’s never their fault, only ours.
That now extends to any critisism of a nation state that finds itself in a bed patch. It’s not their choices, no, it’s because <designated person/regime/orange man/ white people> is bad.
Well observed. Also known as “All Rights, No Responsibilities (unless it concerns a highly suspect injection, then you do have a duty to take that, obvs”)
Wizard? Please do not defend a witch . . . only a witch would dare defend a witch . .
I’m not sure giving them publicity in this way is a good idea, less so when it turns out the university is not acting on it.
I would avoid giving publicity to these few intolerant people.
In this respect, Vladimir Putin is even more woke, permanently cancelling those who say things he doesn’t want to hear.
Conviniently fogetting the Ukriane got to this point by murdering journalists, taking 3 opposition TV stantions off air, murdering peacful demonstators, and exciling the democratically elected President.
And going from the sublime to the ridiculous, guess which other strategic genius pointed out the dangers of the policy of NATO expansion a quarter of a century ago?
Video of Joe Biden Warning of Russian Hostility if NATO Expands Resurfaces
Someone must have handed it to him to read out – he has never had an
original idea in his life.
It was Neil Kinnock.
Neil Kinnock in the Altlantic Council? ROTFL
‘It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.’
R.E.M.
Stick a fork in it. We’re done.
Lou Reed – Last Great American Whale
“It’s like what my painter friend Donald said to me, ‘Stick a fork in their arse and turn ‘em over – they’re done’”.
Alas, the use of critical independent skills has been eroded ( deliberately) over many many generations both in the US and also in the U.K. Hence why the Globalists found it relatively easy to brainwash so many people. For example, yesterday I was talking to a friend who said “ Putin has bitten off more than he can chew “ which is almost word for word what is being pushed by The Empire of Lies. I then asked him if he had to tried to verify this by independent research. Predictably, the answer was no .
The Empire of Lies.
Excellent.
Spot on comment- Blair’s ‘Dumbing Down’ education initiative was the start of the moronic brainwashing we now see all around us!
One example was the embarrassing comedy of a woman calling herself ‘Foreign Secretary’ telling the Russian Foreign Minister ( probably one of the most experienced career Diplomats in the World) that Rostov on Don was in the Ukraine!
Over twenty years now since real “Geography” with ‘maps’ was taught in schools – doesn’ t it show
In return for disclosing his Russian funding (I’m guessing zero), perhaps Professor Mearsheimer could ask for their rooms to be searched for any signs of “friendship windmills” or black sun emblems.
I mention this because it now seems virtually impossible to find a picture of a Ukrainian flag or combatant not sporting those plucky symbols of freedom and democracy.
Apparently we have always not been at war with Nazis.
It now looks like the Nazis have been hiding in plain sight for 70 years! Where did Schwab get his Funny Coat from?
Was it perhaps a Star Treck Series One wardrobe clear out sale?
I should clarify that I don’t want to see either of those things happening.
However, witch hunts for the goose, and all that.
What, precisely, is “anti-Ukrainian ideology”? I presume they mean “sentiment” rather than “ideology”, but they probably have no idea.
Here’s a quick ideology lesson: The students concerned sound just a teensy bit like certain young people in 1930s Germany calling for the removal from their beloved universities of anyone whose words, actions or ethnic origins they deemed “extremely detrimental for our country”.
They might like to try reading a history book or two.
These are people whose introduction to adult life following secondary school is freshers week which they spend bladdered. The rest of the year is invariably spent partying until they are brought down to earth with a bump having failed almost everything they were supposed to study.
Universities expect this and allow for it.
Thereafter their second and third+ years are spent worrying about nothing but next years results. If they’re not cloistered in their dorm/rented digs for those two years they are wasting everyone’s time.
I have long maintained certain members of society should be compelled to hold down a job for five years before going off to responsible positions or to shut themselves away for a period of time.
One of those is the police and another is university students.
They are too busy reading ‘Mein Kampf ‘ (especially the chapters on “Lebensraum” it the East.
( Having wrecked everyone else’s country the Americans and their Globalist allies and controllers need new territories for their own expansionism!)
The world is soooooo unfair……..
Point?
I believe it’s a reference to Harry Enfield’s “Kevin the Teenager” character.
Those really in charge are more geriatrics on life support than “moody teenagers” – it seem they want to see the world destroyed before they can leave it all behind by dying “happy, owning nothing”!
If you think that naming your movement the National Socialist German Workers Party doesn’t hint at a strong affinity with marxism (without “Jewishness admittedly) then you can believe anything.
Not sure it was worth giving this event publicity.
If you want to get an insight as to what’s really going on in Ukraine this is an interview with a former weapons inspector during the WMD scandal.
His final assertion is what I have said elsewhere on DS, that the war ends when Putin says it ends and there’s not a damn thing Europe or the US can do about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRFjlnoMCeE
These dull students ought to realise Nothing could be worse for ‘our country’ ( USA) than the increasingly deranged behaviour of those who live there and their demented Ruling Elites . The objective observer can see nothing but a crumbing Dark Empire, riddled with corruption, election fraud, gangsterism, industrial levels of drug taking, ,state sponsored lies and universalised hysterical and increasingly irrational behaviour, sliding ever deeper into the swamp they have created and dragging their unfortunate allies and stooge nations down with them
Bio labs funded by Fauci under CIA control on Russia’s borders – “fake news” of course for all the US and EU media! Some are already breaking free and supporting Russia!
US neo-cons like Nuland in Ukraine, have done more to create the’ bi-polar world’ they fear during the last ten years than could ever have been achieved by those countries themselves, who now begin to see the US as their joint enemy.
Libya ,Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan paid the price for standing up to the dollar – but now Russia and China are both in play with their mountains of gold!
A German politician observed that in 1914 the Kaiser’s Germany was “fettered to a corpse” ( the decadent and dissolving Austria-Hungary) that would drag it into the grave….we might well re-consider the wisdom of our sad country’s current ‘lock step obedience’ and copy-cat behaviour shadowing the US in all things.
“British interest don’t seem to count with Johnson who answers to a Higher Globalist authorities than the much abused British people – his ‘plebs’. He is incapable of independent thought, his every move at our expense is dictated by his Globalist Minders.
So much for the Brexit ‘restoring ” British Sovereignty” ‘lie
A brilliant summary. All people have to do is take a step back and briefly examine US foreign policy since it dropped 2 atomic bombs on Japan. It isn’t a pretty picture.
Then a cursory review of US society over the past 20 years (exemplified in many ways by 3 events: its reaction to Hurricane Katrina – years later, areas of New Orleans were still in ruins; the reaction of authorities to the ‘mostly peaceful’ BLM riots; the election ‘win’ by a man clearly in the early stages of dementia). This is a society in terminal decline – corruption, greed, double-standards and incompetence are on view everywhere.
Just as the UK needed to unshackle itself from the EU corpse, it needs to do likewise with the USA.
Indeed – in fact we are going the other way.
‘“British interest don’t seem to count with Johnson…’
Certainly not the annexation of Northern Ireland by the EU.
To be fair, trimming off the Celtic Fringe would be the best thing that Britons could do in their own self interest.
How does that work out when the Celtic fringe are “Britons” and those in NI , who want to remain so, call themselves “Loyalists” to make the point!
I refer to ethnicity here. For all the progressive talk about heredity being a social construct, in reality, we can often make correct assumptions about the most trivial of tribal differences just by looking. Distinguishing between us versus the other is an evolutionary imperative.
In Glasgow Toon, for example, Scotch Celts and Irish Celts have little trouble identifying each other when looking to start some trouble on a Friday night – it doesn’t even need team colours to start the glasses flying.
Exactly! The case in point! Bluster and froth over Putin while the EU annexes NI – what have we done putting this serial liar and Globalist goon in Downing Street?
The alternative was considerably worse. Simple reality.
Our problem is not a corrupt, useless political party, but a corrupt, useless political class.
Yep.
Interesting interview …
https://rumble.com/vvexre-must-watch-joe-rogan-talks-with-maajid-nawaz-episode-1780.html
It was 3 wks ago but a lot’s happened in that time.
Essential viewing.
The Great Reset Phase 2: War
https://winteroak.org.uk/2022/03/09/the-great-reset-phase-2-war/
I hope we see The Streisand effect come into play, Mearsheimers informed contribution to the debate needs a wider audience.
Why don’t the University of Chicago use traditional methods to discuss the issue, hold a debate.
We can use the word revolution instead of putch or coup if they like, however if we do that, we have to acknowledge there was a far right counter revolution too, that beat down and murdered those peaceful ‘revolutionaries’ who were protesting for a debate.
It must be the first era in history that students go to university in order to become more stupid, ignorant and judgmental. The exception to that has been those who went to Oxford and joined the Bullingdon Club.
… that is because they are being taught by people who are stupid, ignorant and judgemental.
Oh, I think students have always entered university convinced that they know everything, and can solve all the world’s problems by howling and stamping their feet.
The problem is that they’re now being indulged and encouraged in that belief.
Unbelievable. The death of reason.
Killed by Extremist Marxist Snow Flake Feminism and evil, weaponised (anti) Social Media.
The world once had an “Enlightenment” – which led to unimaginable gains in quality of life. Today, we are going through the opposite, whatever you call that – the Disenlightenment?
another angle to this is it does seem that students think of themselves as “consumers” rather than students who are paying substantial fees to attend universities. Therefore, when something is not to their liking they complain and demand what they want as if its a customer buying a product and has found something defective to it. This is one angle to the ever-increasing entitlement that students have with the attitude of “I pay your salary, I will learn what I want”.
Ukraine and the Global American Empire
https://www.eugyppius.com/p/ukraine-and-the-global-american-empire
“The same western globalists who hate Russia, also count us as their enemies, and my sincere advice is to take them seriously in this. They have a kind of myopia for internal political dissidents; we are the unaligned domestic element, Russia is the unaligned international element, and so when Donald Trump is elected to the presidency, this must be, for them, the result of Russian interference.”
Looks like we have seamlessly transitioned from one moral panic to another. As with COVID, the masses appear to have scooped out their brains and left them at the door, if they ever had any brains to begin with.
When are we going to talk about the WMD?
https://www.sott.net/article/465282-Victoria-Nuland-Admits-Ukraine-Has-Biological-Research-Facilities-Worried-Russia-May-Seize-Them
https://www.sott.net/article/465289-Malone-on-US-BIO-weapon-research-Are-we-the-good-guys-or-the-bad-guys-here
https://ua.usembassy.gov/embassy/kyiv/sections-offices/defense-threat-reduction-office/biological-threat-reduction-program/
The West is once again in the grip of mass hysteria, where anyone going against the mainstream narrative is to be silenced/crushed. If you dare to start a discussion and suggest there is nuance and historical context, you’re almost invariably met with swivel-eyed responses that you’re ‘uncaring’ or that you ‘support Putin’. Does this remind you of anything? It is errily analogous to the Cult of COVID, where if you dared offer an alternative view to the mainstream narrative you were uncaring and you supported letting the virus rip. Remember?
Even the much vaunted GB News seemed utterly oblivious to the subtleties of the situation when Patrick Henningsen was invited on, though mercifully they did respond in a relatively mature way when Henningsen explained some of the nuance involved in the Russia-Ukraine situation.
Watch as the (GBN) women look stunned at the direction in which Henningsen goes; it appears they had no idea about the subtleties of the situation. Before introducing Henningsen the reporter asks,
The question doesn’t alllow for the possibility that we might have overreacted and done too much. She then has the audacity to brag to Henningsen after he chides the media’s response that GB News allows for wider discussion, when it appears she hadn’t bothered to seek out the subtleties/historical context required in order to have a wider discussion.
GB News often appears to be just as lazy as the legacy media.
https://21stcenturywire.com/2022/02/27/henningsen-on-gb-news-western-media-politicians-are-clueless-on-ukraine/
The bottom line here is that the hypnotised masses wear their ignorance of their sleeve. It is celebrated. And if you dare to disturb this state of blissful ignorance, you will pay.
We live in an age where we have never had so much information at our finger tips. We are blesed with access to so much information. And yet we have never been so ignorant and dumb. And we are proud of it.
It appears to me that people now can only think in absolutes – i.e. black/white, good/bad, right/wrong without a moments thought that it might be a bit more complex than that.
Tucker Carlson & Tulsi Gabbard (9 March 2022)
https://www.foxnews.com/shows/tucker-carlson-tonight
Actually, students have never changed, they’ve always gone on to further education with the belief that they know everything anyway, they were more or less ignored years ago then they grew up went out into the world and discovered that they didn’t know everything. These days they are allowed a large platform if they perform the global mantra.
I’ve been working my way through “Roses Have Thorns – Casualties of the Ukrainian Revolution”
Highly recomended, someone spent an incredible amount of time putting this lot together, news items and political commentary on the news is perfectly juxtaposed with live footage from on the ground film crews, citizen journalists, and social media posts. It is by far the best coverage of events I’ve come across. The hypocracy from the MSM and political class is palpable.
https://www.watchdogmediainstitute.com/p/blog-page.html
This has been on my viewing list for a while, I’m going to watch it before it’s memory holed.
Off-Guardian has just posted Ukraine on Fire Oliver Stone’s 2016 documentary charting the geo-political history of Ukraine from World War II to the coup of 2014 and the ensuing civil war.
According to the Director/Producer it’s currently being purged from YouTube under the pretence of removing “violent content”, but they have uploaded it to Vimeo and are encouraging everyone to download a share the film while they still can. It’s also available to rent/buy from Amazon, if you want to support the filmmakers.
https://off-guardian.org/2022/03/09/watch-ukraine-on-fire/
“and the Ukrainians are almost completely unwilling to compromise with the Russians and instead want to pursue a hardline policy.”
He was half-right, the West promised Ukraine a lot of things and delivered none of them but Putin can’t be compromised with and he shouldn’t have pretended otherwise.
“but Putin can’t be compromised with“
The difference is that Mearsheimer’s a realist, whereas it is evident from this comment that you are determined to impose your beliefs, however implausible and in direct contradiction to the available evidence, ahead of reality.
You haven’t said enough to allow a judgement as to what motivates you in this obsessive fantasising about Putin personally, but the why is less important than the what.
A prophet is not without honour except in his own town, amongst his own relatives and in his own home.
Mark 6.4
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/watch-john-mearsheimer-ex-cia-ray-mcgovern-ukraine
His latest.
With the former US ambassador to Russia and former head of Russia desk of the CIA and more also being of similar opinions.
Kissinger will probably be cancelled next….
https://mobile.twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1498491107902062592?s=20&t=rn5SAyIkbh9t4cW3hG8aXw
Cancelling and censorship are all part of The Wests war effort against Russia.
Even The Daily Telegraph wouldn’t accept my benign reply to one of their articles.
“Zelensky is a smutty comedian who is good at remembering his lines that his US handlers give him.
He’s mentioned in the Panama Papers as he drained money out of Ukraine into off shore accounts.
He was elected because he said he would end the civil war in The Donbass and to have closer ties with Russia.
He’s done the exact opposite and has cosied up to the neo-Nazi paramilitaries who are embedded in Ukraine society.
A swift Russian victory will end the conflict and rid Ukraine of it’s fascists and create a buffer to US/NATO expansionism.”
The only issue I have with Mearsheimer is, that he genuinely seems to think that the consequential war was not deliberate and not the real goal of the NATO warmongerers, that they were just stupid.
To the contrary, the MIC and the OGM complexes as well as the CFR cabal got exactly what they wanted and worked for and just used the deluded and naive and/or corrupt Ukrainians as cannon fodder for their adventure. Neither they nor Selenskij&co give a fig about the Ukrainian people, see also Denninger, Tom Woods etc..
Now, it’s also high time they are reined in, before they escalate this to WW3, as the latter definetely seem to be intent upon now (understandable from their perspective, if, as and when you have stupidly gone all-in and are about to lose it all…).
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/tracey-ukraine-trying-goad-us-world-war-iii
Makinder&Brzeszinski have won as well, and the stupid Germans even cheer for it.
https://unherd.com/2022/03/america-has-won-europes-war/
I think one of the most depressing takeaways from the last few years is just how extraordinarily simple minded and lacking in basic analytical skills so many young people are – even those supposedly more academic than others. Frighteningly stupid generation.
Well, I think the root cause is they are simply not interested, in most cases.
Indeed – but I think that’s because the school system hasn’t inspired them to care or taught them to think for themselves.
I’m sure it hasn’t, indeed. That and material wealth and your needs being taken care of which makes people (me among them) mightily complacent.
Well, yes … but the same now applies to most of the older generations.
I wonder how many people can notice huge gaps between the facts and western media’s narrative. let’s take for example this 50mile long Russian convoy near Kyiv which has been shown on TV all over the world for days on end. can’t ordinary people see that the narrative about victorius ukranian army which only needs a couple of weeks and several more hand held rockets to defeat the russians is at least very questionable? I mean, if ukrainian army is so victorious why they haven’t even tried attacking this convoy? If they do notice this huge gap in facts and narrative, will they spend a bit more time to research the situation realizing that there are so many things which scream about western misinformation and propaganda.
Classic Doublethink.
I heard pronouncements about the “miles long traffic jam” and how it proved Russian incompetence and failure because a “competent enemy” would bomb it into oblivion, followed shortly afterwards by the same source blithely reporting as credible Pentagon assessments that “80% of Ukraine’s air power is still in being”.
No evidence of any inclination to resolve the inherent contradiction.
The narrative is all. The facts nothing.
John Mearsheimer is the object of hatred from Zionists because he co-authored work with Stephen Walt about the power in the United States of what has come to be known as “the Lobby”.
And now there’s a letter-writing campaign calling him a “Putinist”. Why not go further and call him a “Khmelnitskyist” for good measure?
But hey, give Mearsheimer a break. At least he hasn’t funded the now state-sector Azov Regiment, as Ihor Kolomoisky, the Israeli passport-carrying billionaire who put Zelensky in office, has done. The Azov are known neo-Nazis who have been fighting in Donetsk and Luhansk for eight years.
The letter-writers’ letter is here. How astute they are, for a bunch of students. And how hard-nosed they are, to include in their final paragraph a thinly-veiled threat against the university.
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/02/23/diana-johnstone-us-foreign-policy-is-a-cruel-sport/
Young people continue to be fucking idiots shocker. Something about lack of brain development.
Chicago can’t go any more disreputable than electing the mayor it has. Student’s showing how truth and fact should never get in the way of a bit of virtue signalling.
Mearsheimer said, “…the Ukrainians are almost completely unwilling to compromise with the Russians”. Why should the Ukrainians compromise about how they run their own country? Why should Russia have any say in what happens in a neighbouring sovereign independent state?
Plenty of people seem to be focused on attacking the EU and NATO for indulging Ukrainian interest in joining those entities, claiming it provoked Russia. We keep hearing we “poked the bear”. But it seems too many people seem to forget this is…
The same Russia that has murdered and poisoned political activists and defectors, including in the UK.
The same Russia that sent troops into Donetsk and Luhansk to start a breakaway war from Ukraine.
The same Russia that shot down flight MH17.
The same Russia that has repeatedly threatened to cut of energy supplies to Europe.
The same Russia which has continued sending bomber aircraft to probe the air defences of the Baltic States and the UK.
It goes both ways.
I think you’ll find very few people saying that the Russians are the goodies.
But the world isn’t goodies versus baddies.
It’s possible for both sides in a conflict to be corrupt, tyrannical and murderous.
I’m not cheering for Vladimir, but neither do I give a stuff about that mincing crisis actor Volodymyr either. And when I see swastikas being openly waved above Ukrainian positions, and black sun emblems boldly displayed, then my only hope is that the deluded Britons who have gone over there to fight for “freedom and democracy” wise up and manage to get themselves out before catching a bullet in a tawdry war between Vlad and Vladder.
No mention I see of the Sparta battalion, or the neo Nazi Russians who swarmed into the Donbas to attack Ukraine. Why is it those people who say both sides are to blame only ever call out actions on the west’s side and never mention the same behaviours on the other side? Curious.
The Neo-Nazis Russians? Asov is a mixed bag, mostly Ukrainians who hate Russians, but quite a few international right wing nutjobs mixed in too, I’ve even seen a US 1st Battalion in there with them in 2014. “Russians on knives” is one of their chants.
Just as those in the Donbass are mostly local Ukranian Russians defensing their homes, some Russians crossed the boarder to help them, but only about 10%, they came to fight fascism, i.e. against the Asov nutjobs, there’s evan a US freedomfighter in there.
Who are these “neo Nazi Russians”?
“…the Ukrainians are almost completely unwilling to compromise with the Russians”. Why should the Ukrainians compromise about how they run their own country?
Because compromise is the essence of international relations, and the compromises they were being asked to make were very reasonable. In fact, some of them (such as not repressing Russian speakers or shelling secessionist civilians), were mere basic decency, and it’s greatly to the Ukrainians’ discredit that they (driven by threats and violence from armed and aggressive nationalist fanatics), refused to do so.
“We keep hearing we “poked the bear”. But it seems too many people seem to forget this is…”
Because that’s what “we’ve” been doing, as international relations and strategists of the highest level have consistently pointed out since the policy was first mooted. Noah Carl linked to a list of such people in his piece here the other day:
“This point has been made by numerous well-informed commentators on both the left and the right, including: Robert McNamara, Bill Bradley, Gary Hart, George Kennan, Henry Kissinger, John Mearsheimer, Jack Matlock, William Perry, Noam Chomsky, Stephen Cohen, Vladimir Pozner, Jeffrey Sachs, and many others.“
He could have added that great strategic mind Joe Biden, 25 years ago, as noted here today.
“The same Russia that has murdered and poisoned political activists and defectors, including in the UK.“
Many of these supposed atrocities are most likely fabrications or mis-attributions by the same people who brought us the Russiagate lies, but doubtless some aren’t. Are you childish enough to believe the US and UK never engage in dirty work? If not, then why does this have anything to do with serious issues of war and peace?
Looks like just an attempt to demonise and smear Russia to evade any need to address the issues honestly.
“The same Russia that sent troops into Donetsk and Luhansk to start a breakaway war from Ukraine“
That breakaway war was started by Russian-speakers in the Ukraine in response to a US-backed nationalist coup, after the Maidan protests had been addressed and a compromise reached, in Kiev. Russia defended Russians in the border areas, but refrained from large scale interference, and specifically decline to incorporate the border regions into its territory, as it absolutely could have done just as it did Crimea.
.
“The same Russia that shot down flight MH17.”
As I noted elsewhere today, I followed the MH17 incident and subsequent investigation at the time, and while partisans of each side came up with dark theories (in the US sphere, backed of course by the same deep state types who later pushed the Russiagate fabrications), I saw nothing to give any reason to seriously question the initial judgement that it was just a mistake of the kind which always happen in war, and the other side always make propaganda capital out of.
“The same Russia that has repeatedly threatened to cut of energy supplies to Europe.”
In fact, Russia has always said that as long as Europe pays for its oil and gas and intermediaries such as the Ukraine don’t interfere with supplies, Russia will keep shipping it. The threats you refer to are fantasies.
“The same Russia which has continued sending bomber aircraft to probe the air defences of the Baltic States and the UK.”
Exactly as “we” constantly send ships and planes to “probe the defences of” Russia and China, though we claim we’re “just sailing/flying in international waters/skies”, or “just visiting” controversial destinations.
However desperate you are to believe it, we are not “the good guys” in a goodies v baddies situation, and in fact we have waged a lot more illegal warfare than Russia has recently.
“It goes both ways.”
No, it doesn’t, because there are no Russian alliances and bases being pushed into a seceded Texas. It’s one way traffic, heading east from Europe, on the other side of the world from the US.
Nice to have you out of the “west bad” closet. With your mixture of whataboutery and conspiracy theory it’s clear that too many sceptics now think being sceptical means having to side with any and every opponent to the west, excusing everything they do as the fault of the west.
why do you think critical analisys of the situation puts scpetics on any “side”?
Registered TDS 2021-12-22 5 blog posts, 3 of them in this thread…
so another sock puppet then… BUSTED
LOL! Comical that you think other people share your delusional approach to the world. There’s no “closet” to hide in for those correctly viewing the world from an adult, realist perspective.
Closets are for you infantile “goodies v baddies” types, who have to hide your views in order to pretend to be thinking like grown ups, whether it’s “west goodies, others baddies” or “west baddies, others goodies”.
Indeed, the whole notion of “the west” as some kind of ideal is pretty ridiculous in these days of covid panic, repression of dissent, and fanatical wokery. It’s the US sphere, pretty much, and it has good aspects and bad aspects, like all cultures and societies
So you would have been fine with the Soviets stationing missiles in Cuba then.
It’s a new religion.
“The students end their missive by demanding “public disclosure” of all Russian funding received by Professor Mearsheimer.”
I wonder if the students and faculty members would support “public disclosure” of all the research departments at universities that have accepted money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
I wonder if they would also support “public disclosure” of news organizations that have accepted public funds to run advertisements pushing for mandatory vaccines? Or public disclosure of news organizations which have accepted grant money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or other pro-vaccine/pro-lockdown “charities?”
If only one of these colleges – which allegedly believe in free intellectual discourse – would host a debate on the merits of mandatory vaccines or lockdowns.
What about a “debate” on the Ukraine war and its real causes?
The key point is that in our “New Normal” colleges now outlaw genuine debates. I don’t know why so many parents are so willing to go into massive debt to send their children to these places, which do not believe in critical thinking or even the Socratic Method.
The Telegraph comment pages have become insufferable. Anyone who steps out of line is bombarded by Banderastas screaming ” Hi Vlad. How’s the weather in St Petersburg?” etc.
I also notice the Oliver Stone Ukraine doco has been removed from Youtube since I watched it a few days ago. There is a concerted effort to control the narrative and shut down alternative voices.
What’s new? More to come for sure. “Alternative voices” are a threat to the rest of their agendas.
Mearsheimer appears to think that the Ukraine is not entitled to its sovereignty and that Russia is entitled to interfere in it, a position that has no basis in international law, and for which he proffers no justification. The Ukraine was a member of the United Nations when it was founded, so it’s not as if it is not well-established as a nation state.
Mexico and Canada are sovereign nations and United Nations members. They are able to live next door to the US without going to war.
However, if they entered a “defence” pact with China or Russia, they would be crushed.
As would Krankie and Drakeford here should they become Independent sovereign nations looking to join such pacts.
Mearsheimer is a realist who lives in the real world.
I’m a big fan of Lockdown (now Daily) Sceptics.
But, Noah, you’ve got to realise that humans aren’t viruses. They get dealt with differently.
A virus can be deadly. A Russian tank can be deadly. But the virus has no agency; it didn’t decide one day to kill you. And it can’t measure and calculate responses – you can’t tell a virus to “do this – or else”.
This is the Achilles heel of all libertarian and anarcho-capitalist philosophy – it doesn’t address the existence of aggressors, of malice, of evil intent.
So please stop whining about how it’s all our fault and we should /should have negotiated with Putin. You can’t negotiate with evil. It’s a weak pragmatics approach and Blind Freddie could tell you that once you do that, he’ll just come back for more. And take it.
No matter how valid you think Putin’s claim on Ukrainian soil is, marching in with tanks is simply unacceptable as a way to exercise that claim. Period.
Mearsheimer has at no point supported the invasion. He has been critical of the policies that led to it. With good reason.
Meanwhile negotiation will be the only way to resolve the situation.
The students just need to shut up and listen to those older and wiser. Isn’t that why they’re at Uni?
When I started college I thought I knew everything – boy, was I wrong.