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I think that Kunstler nails it here: https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/dont-look-now-2/

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The current CIA-approved narrative wants you to believe that Vlad Putin seeks to reassemble the old Soviet Union and will move next to capture the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. I doubt this since all those countries have their own cultures rather emphatically hostile to Russia and required onerous operating subsidies from Moscow back in the Soviet day. Ukraine will surely be enough of a burden for Russia going forward.

An alternate narrative to the CIA’s scare story would follow the Occam’s Razor rule that the simplest explanation is probably the truth — namely, that there was no other way to stop Ukraine’s shelling and mortar attacks against the ethnic Russian population in the Donbas which, by the way, was carried out with US-gifted armaments. And there was no other way to disabuse the USA from the idea that Ukraine should join NATO and thereby become a missile launching base on Russia’s border.

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Peter- Check out The Saker (https://thesaker.is) for up-to-date reports and rational commentary on the Ukraine situation. Been following him for many years...a former Swiss intelligence analyst specializing in Russia.

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Feb 28, 2022·edited Feb 28, 2022

More theatre; nothing to see here. Anyway, Putin understands the influence of the west. He made it quite clear what he wants: https://texags.com/forums/16/topics/3274578

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I'm gradually becoming less convinced about the quality of Putin's understanding.

No matter how it gets explained, the reality is that Putin launched an essentially unprovoked invasion of Ukraine proper. Protecting ethnic Russians in the Donbass doesn't require laying seige to Kyiv and Kharkiv.

As for reuniting Ukraine with Russia, Ukraine is making it quite clear they don't want to be reunited.

The EU is sending military hardware. Switzerland is abandoning centuries of neutrality to join in isolating Russia politically and economically. China is not joining the condemnation parade but they are not exactly helping Russia either.

The longer this goes on, the more it looks like Putin miscalculated... badly.

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Just in case it all goes sideways: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWH4tWkZpPU

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Feb 28, 2022·edited Feb 28, 2022

Unprovoked if you ignore the last decade of encroachment and US-orchestrated corruption/coup. I think that Putin is trying to make sure that the new borders of Ukraine advantage Russia and he's also testing NATO's resolve. Risky? Yes, but I suspect it will end soon. Also, I think it was important to Putin to take all the airbases.

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US corruption in Ukraine is scandalous, but it does not justify Putin invading Ukraine. Whatever sins have been committed by and in Ukraine, none of them amounted to targeting Russia militarily.

Does Putin have legitimate grievances? Absolutely. None of them give him carte blanche to invade Ukraine.

What Putin should have done is organized his own version of the Maidan Revolution and used that as cover to stage his own coup. NATO would still object, but Putin would have plausible deniability, and who is the US to say it wasn't a popular app?

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...And our justification for Iraq...or Afghanistan, &c. ? Putin's acting like an American. ;-))

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As everyone's mother has said more than once, "two wrongs don't make a right." America's misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan do not -- and can not -- make for a legitimate casus belli for Putin to invade Ukraine.

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I posted 'Duck & Cover' earlier, but post-nuclear strategy has been updated for COVIDIOTS: https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1498164810713743361/photo/2

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I wasn't posing our own crimes against humanity as a justification for Putin's actions. Just saying that we don't really have any moral high ground from which to criticize. And as I'm fond of pointing out at election-time...The lesser of evils is still evil.

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