Quote (MichaelWS @ Apr 28 2024 05:42am)
Yea yea coming from a guy who thinks that pre-2014 subsidised by Ukraine government regions that lost 80-90% of their economically productive populace since 2014 and decayed for all these years are now manufacturing packed resources hubs that will uplift entire Russia economy once this is over.
Same as you thinking that placing a bet on a big power being able to inflict major damage on small poverty stricken power at its doorsteps is some sagacity insight.
Just not sure for which side you are bigger useful idiot for, with your cold war esq mentality, Western military complex or its Russian analogue.
Vladimir Putin made that calculation. You can disagree with it all you want, its his transparent motivation. When the war is settled and Americans disregard Ukraine like they do Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Syria, Russia will a sphere of influence that extends over the lion's share of Ukrainian resources. He made his country self-sufficient, prioritized being an energy and manufacturing and farming country instead of a service and information driven economy. And that's a rational strategy, the belief that the stakes of the future will be in tangible assets not accounting contrivances.
The world isn't run by people adhering to some infantile reductionist view where its their job to be snidely whiplash villains who profiteer at the expense of starving masses. Nor is it run by grand strategists with brilliant xanatos gambits. Its run by fallible people, with their own visions and interests and conflicts, all trying to do what they think is right. The Biden/Obama administrations infected themselves with true believer Ukrainian nationalists who itched for war with Russia, with cold war mentality hawks who wanted to exploit them to tear down Russia, and with self-interested politicians who believe the ends justify the means. Putin has the luxury of a singular purpose, one heartbeat away from chaos.
Rational people try to understand how these systems work. Irrational people scream about how all gub'ment is evil and men must free themselves from the shackles of society by taking off their underwear in public
This post was edited by Goomshill on Apr 28 2024 04:59am