Isaac

Just to clarify, lest I'm absolved of guilt unfairly - I have supported 'carving up' Ukraine. I think an independent Donbass and a Russian Crimea are ...

It's not about agency, it's about power. Ukrainians could have all the agency in the world. They can't will a thousand Javelins, no less a billion dol...

I don't know if you wanted an answer from me or if my name was invoked rather as a hyperbolic (I even agree with Isaac!), but notwithstanding... I'm b...

Indeed, and not even a great deal of shape shifting required. Same old shite with a different bow around it seems to do the job.

If you look slightly to your right, my point will be on the shelf just above you.

Ha! Yes. "shapeshifting aliens called Reptilians control the Earth." I may run out of strike though before the end of the article!

Fixed it. Not a conspiracy theory anymore.

@"boethius" Of course, now the zeitgeist has changed, Caplan's popularity weathervane has shifted. He now informs us ... ...oddly only a few months ag...

Sorry, yes, just Russia. I've added a bit to the quote I cited, which was unclear.

Anyone wanting an example of the monumentally stupid consequences of the sort of pointless moral falg-waiving on this thread. https://www.medscape.com...

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "acting in bad faith", but I don't think accepting we've emboldened Putin matches any understanding of the term...

Seconded. Unfortunately the popular media narrative is increasingly frustrating those efforts by painting Zelensky into a corner. The more Disneyfied ...

Literally the first paragraph of your source... ...explains exactly the point being so rabidly denied. That the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO was s...

Putin clearly stated before the invasion that he was only conducting a 'special operation' to de-nazify the independent regions. Do you even know how ...

So...you think all the experts cited didn't know that? What relevance does their exclusion have for the argument? To remind you. It was claimed that.....

Well, Lyne spoke last year and Beebe in January, but whatever... What dates do you have for all the other sources I cited, you must know them pretty i...

Why would I think that? If you don't understand a comment, you can just ask.

I quoted what you wrote at the head of my post. Its clearly false. They point to how Putin's motivations relate other issues such as the threat of NAT...

Your turn. The experts concluding that ...?

I already have, but sure... In 1998 George Kennan warned that NATO expansion was a "tragic mistake" that ought to ultimately provoke a "bad reaction f...

Missed this gem. So what Putin says and what Putin does are consigned to the wastebasket as far as evidence is concerned. What's far more compelling i...

Oh I almost forgot... Jack F. Matlock Jr., US Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987-199. Sir Roderic Lyne, former British ambassador to Russia. Geo...

So George Kenan, John Mearsheimer, Stephen Cohen, Henry Kissinger, William Perry, Vladimir Pozner,Jeffrey Sachs, former United Nations Under-Secretary...

On the subject of those kind, kind Western countries and their 'support' for Ukraine...

So when you said... ...what errors were you referring to and what were their consequences? Your explanation relies on an assumption that the conversat...

The argument into which you contributed your comment was... It uses this expectation as evidence for the analysis of interlocutors you, quite rightly,...

Presenting your opinion about what Putin would and would not do, how the US might or might not have responded, what influence they may or may not now ...

Criticism of Putin was made here a long time ago too, and we all or nearly all agreed. Does that mean no further conversation on the matter should tak...

Well then there's little we can do to help you.

He wrote exactly what he wrote. The fact that you have to paraphrase rather than directly quote speaks quite clearly to your intellectual dishonesty. ...

That depends on the facts on the ground. Facts we are not yet fully in posession of. You asked a hypothetical - "circumstances where helping a nation ...

Broadly, yes. I find manipulation leading to human misery to be slightly more disgusting than open aggression leading to the same misery. Something ab...

@"boethius" has already done so, but it requires that you actually read that which you've prejudicially dismissed as 'meaningless text'

No. He gave a 300 word answer of which you ignored 299. Is this an example of your famous 'trying to understand' the other party's point of view?

Over a thousand children died from completely preventable consequences of poverty just in the time since you posted that picture. You asked why it's p...

Fixed it for you.

Scout's honour.

So, no quote then?

How could I refuse?

Nooo! We'll run out of internet if we do that, we can't possibly condemn two sides at once. Why, I'm running out of space even to finish wrtng ths pst...

Oh great, it really is the latter option. Go on then. Let's have one of these 'provable' facts to set against some of my rubbish - together with the a...

Yeah, that would be really odd. Fortunately, as you well know, that's never happened, otherwise you'd be able to fucking quote someone doing it instea...

Yes, and the US and Europe are complicit in it. You've yet to provide any kind of explanation of what exactly the problem is. What bad thing is going ...

And you've ruled out the possibility that it's they who don't understand our arguments because...? I can't decide if it's just rhetoric or if you genu...

Yeah, we've offered the caravans on our farm, but it's probably too far from anywhere to be of any use. We did have some Somalis with us a few years b...

Oh, this is gold. So...just so I understand what's missing, would you quote for me an example of you 'trying to reach understanding' with any of the p...

"Can we do something about the Syrian refugees?" "We'd love to, but it's all terribly complicated, getting the funding, the resources..." "Can we take...

Wow, I'm flattered. The entire world's media dragging Putin's name through the mud, but little old me on an obscure (no offense) internet forum mustn'...

Yep. Step 11- millions of refugees resulting from the situation look to their noble benefactors for succor. Step 12- noble benefactors: "fuck off, we'...

What's been interesting about the Ukraine issue is the way that the narratives from Covid have been carried over - the idea of there being 'misinforma...