I would welcome an adult (i.e. mature) rebuttal on the above, if thats possible.

This post was edited by ferdia on Apr 17 2022 05:45am

Good lord pard officially became politics course in university level like education. Salute to you for taking this topic into higher level of thinking. But as you said to really understand politics it takes more than being bias which some here are but to understand deeply what problems are beneath the surface which I am not qualified of myself unfortunately.

This post was edited by Humbletrader on Apr 17 2022 05:59am

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/17/second-british-soldier-captured-ukraine-mariupol-paraded-shaun-pinner-russian-tv
also Russia violating the geneva conventions in a verifiable way, which hasn't been as common as the ukrainian examples although there's no telling how much of their POW stuff is faked
part II article 13 of 1949 is the basis of "Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity."

At the time of it being penned, this was very clearly intended for public displays / parades / propaganda reels intended to humiliate or intimidate POWs, but its commonly interpreted since then as applying to all propaganda reel footage in the age of mass media. Ukraine has been routinely violating this clause and been called out for it, but now Russia is doing it


I mean the counterargument brought up many times in other cases like Iraq/Iran has been that public footage of POWs should only be considered a violating when its intended to humiliate / intimidate. And that has clearly been the case with Ukrainian footage of POWs. But this one of a british citizen fighting for Ukraine has been set up by Russia to be pretty neutral, he just says his name and how he was captured while wearing a hoodie. So Russia could try to argue that, Ukraine can't. But still, any time you're posting public clips of POWs, you're exploiting a POW for propaganda which is what the geneva conventions are set out to prohibit

In war the geneva convention is usually forgotten. There are too many examples of that.

IMO to me this isn't about intimidating or harassing the POW's but rather as a "look they have foreign western soldiers doing the fighting" for the Russian public. A war vs Slav brothers or a war vs Nazis and actual westerners on the ground. At the end of the day, all wars try to portray some caricature and dehumanize the other side as to make it easier for the soldier doing the fighting to be cruel and merciless while the public at home can buy into the pro war ideology. Besides this is nothing compared to the dozens of torture videos that have already surfaced from both sides.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-combatant

Civilian with a molotov coctail, for example cannot be treated as PoWs by Geneva Conventions

This post was edited by Norlander on Apr 17 2022 09:04am

HAH! Bro thats what we all want around here.

Imma save this quote for later use its gold.

Its like saying you are not allowed to cross the street when the traffic light is red. Everyone knows the consequences but some do not follow the rules.

Russia truly has gone absolutely nuts.

During Friday’s edition of the program The Big Game on Channel One, deputy of the State Duma Vyacheslav Nikonov claimed: “In the modern world, we are the embodiment of the forces of good. This is a metaphysical clash between the forces of good and evil... We’re on the side of good against absolute evil, represented by the Ukrainian nationalist battalions... and the American temple of Satan, located in Salem, expressed its support for Ukraine. This is truly a holy war, a holy war we’re waging and we must win.”

Earlier in April on Solovyov’s show, political scientist Sergey Mikheev went even further, claiming that “the Ukrainian God is the devil.” He added, “Ukraine is being cut as a pig at a sacrificial pagan altar.” The same week on state TV show 60 Minutes political scientist Alexei Martynov described the blame being placed on Russia for its massacres in Ukraine as “satanism.”

While the Ukrainians are being routinely demeaned, portrayed as an unholy nation not worthy of existence, state media propagandists and lawmakers are calling on the Russians to forsake their personal needs in favor of Moscow’s crusade. During his Friday show, host Vladimir Solovyov was preaching to his audience about the importance of choosing morality over prosperity. This approach was conveniently timed to lessen the frustrations caused by Western sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Economists predict that Russians are likely to deal with inflation of 20% or more by the end of the year.

What's interesting now is that some Russians are calling for an escalation from a 'special operation' to a war in response to military failure. But this has been in effect from day one, so there's a fundamental disconnect between propaganda and reality which will come to a head eventually