Putin calls for invasion of Ukraine; UN security council meets

Why does the UN security council bother meeting, when Russia has a veto over anything they might want to do?

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Interesting spin though. I just turned RT on to see what theyā€™re saying. Apparently if the Russians invade, itā€™ll be a ā€œRussian stabilization missionā€. Far-right-wing neo-nazis are the ones who are truly in charge of Kyiv. Oh, and many people in the Crimean area will welcome Russian troops. Words like ā€œregimeā€ and ā€œcoupā€ are being used a lot.

Not exactly a good sign if thatā€™s what theyā€™re saying.

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The IMF thing was really transparently disgusting. So was the fact that so many top level US diplomats were pushing along those lines instead of doing what was humanitarian or right.

John McCain chimed in and said ā€œWe are all Ukrainians.ā€ I feel the US has done it symbolic thing to satisfy itā€™s own citizens and Iā€™m afraid thatā€™s all we are willing to do. The precedent is Georgia where Russia steam rolled them after the USā€™s symbolic solidarity.

It is sad. Western Ukrainians wanted something like european human centered democracy. They fought for it. Spectacularly got it for a minute and then got squeezed between the IMF and Russia - two awful forms of criminal corruption and oligarchy. I hope western Ukrainians can still somehow find a way to get what they want.

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It is Ukraine rather than THE Ukraine. The second form of address is considered an insult for pretty much any country.

So is America going to hand Texas back to Mexico?

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[quote=ā€œDVRevolutionary, post:23, topic:24467ā€]
John McCain chimed in and said ā€œWe are all Ukrainians.ā€ I feel the US has done it symbolic thing and Iā€™m afraid thatā€™s all we are willing to do. The precedent is Georgia where Russia steam rolled them after the USā€™s symbolic solidarity.
[/quote]Yeah, John McCain totally represents us.

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Dear Senator,

As one of your constituents I am writing to ask you to use your influence to rein in the State Department. With regards to the unrest in Ukraine, it is clear from the publicized comments of Victoria Nuland that we conspired with a fascist political organization (Svoboda) to depose an elected government. This is indefensible and must stop.

Senator, people at home are tired of endless war and the Great Game of geopolitics played by beltway elites. We want affordable housing and healthcare, and we want good jobs. Donā€™t give us more conflict, donā€™t foment rebellions. Give us peace and prosperity.

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According to the status of force agreement Russia can post up to 30,000 soldiers there. The normal size of its forces there is just half of that. If Russia wants to reinforce those it can do so without breaking any national or international agreement.

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2014/03/the-crimean-anti-coup-move.html

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ā€œThe Ukraineā€ may be antiquated, but itā€™s perfectly accurate as a descriptor of the geographical region.

ā€œUkraineā€ means ā€œborderlandā€, hence why the above word formation even exists. Itā€™s no different linguistically than ā€œThe Netherlandsā€, where ā€œNetherlandsā€ literally means ā€œlowlandsā€ or ā€œlowerlandsā€.

It just strikes me as somewhat pedantic and rather superfluous to take offense to someone adding the English definite grammatical article to a name while referring to a specific geographical region.

As for Texas, what exact reason do you have for bringing up a moot point? At the time, the US was technically an aggressor nation in declaring war on Mexico in solidarity with the Texians, who themselves were technically local rebels engaged in an insurrection against the legitimate sovereign of the territory.

I personally feel that the Texians were in the wrong, being as they knowingly entered and settled within Mexican territory, agreeing to abide by the local laws and to respect the sovereign government and then failing to do so. By extension I also view the US intervention as amoral, being the result of rampant Nationalistic Imperialism.

But what does any of that matter? The issue was settled with the signing of treaties which recognized Texasā€™ independence, and the US later annexed Texas legally. This was also almost 200 years ago now, and it has absolutely zero relevance to the topic at hand. What, again, was your point, and why exactly did you raise it?

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Heā€™s a long serving senator and perfectly encapsulates the symbolic, controlling, totally ineffective trend in US foreign policy. My point isnā€™t that he represents all of us it that our government is transparent bullshit.

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Not for folks in THE United States of America :wink:

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Read the ongoing, anti-Fascist, anti-NeoLib/Globalist analysis at http://www.moonofalabama.org.

B is the headline blogger. He is accurate about 90% of the time, and is a great antidote to the endless propaganda generated about Syria, Libya, Venezuela, etc.

His discoveries have brought down rising stars in European politics, and defused BBC-reported hysteria about Russian technology supporting Iranian nuclear development.

The comments threads have a bit of tin-foil, but are also a remarkable source of veracity from outside the State Department/Whitehall bubble.

Sadly, BoingBoing deviates very little from the US Department of Stateā€™s official line. This site has become a mirror of NYT and BBC pravda, with exceptions only for defense of various identity politics or technology issues.

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http://boingboing.net/2014/03/01/putin-calls-for-invasion-of-uk.html

That slugā€™s truncation is quite misleadingā€¦

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This is the internet. I was being an ill informed dick. :slight_smile:

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Or THE Netherlandsā€¦
Or THE Congoā€¦
Or THE Phillipinesā€¦
Or THE Maldivesā€¦
Et ceteraā€¦
:smile:

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The Swiss donā€™t seem to be insulted.

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Agreed, but it was in fact more transparent than what Putin offered. Hence, my statement that Ukraine is stuck between two devils, who they clearly canā€™t trust.

It is sad. Western Ukrainians wanted something like european human centered democracy.

Except that from the beginning, there was right-wing involvement too. Thatā€™s the problemā€“the protests themselves, were broadbased, and I think these guys indeed are part of that group of people who rose up.

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The UN cannot do anything. As a permanent member of the UN security council, Russia can block any actionā€¦and they KNOW it.

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I think Colbert would probably say ā€œthe The United Statesā€

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See what Snowden got himself into? First you have the demonisation of minorities, then you have the annexation of neighbouring territories, justified by their ethnic composition, starting with small bits and then getting bigger. Next comes a leader clutching a piece of paper claiming peace. Maybe this time it will be different. I hope so, but weā€™d be fools not to consider the possibilities.

Well well, Iā€™d say the story is more complicated than that. For starters, the crimean peninsula houses the largest russian naval base for the black sea, so there is a huge geostrategic component. (After the fall of the USSR, the black sea fleet was split between Russia and the Ukraine). Think US bases in Japan as a western comparison. As others have noted, the history is quite convoluted, but the short version goes like this: In 1944, Stalin deported ca. 200,000 crimean tartars (mostly muslim inhabitanst of the crimean since a while), resettling the area with ethnic russians. After the fall of the USSR, a lot of the crimean tartars have returned, but have trouble coexisting with the russian-aligned parts of the population.
Also, the Ukraine itself is a deeply divided country: The west is in decay, and houses most of the nationalist forces behind the recnt revolt in Kiev. The east of the country is much stronger aligned to Russia, and has most of the remaining heavy industry (for whom Russia is the biggest market), and the Ukrainian oligarchs. Not to forget, huge Russian military bases with tens of thousands of soldiers and such. Naturally, the east (and the oligarch-controlled elite) do not feel a lot for a move to the European periphery. It is not at all clear whether the country will remain one, or whether the western powers (including the EU and IMF) will be happy to host another quasi-failed state at its eastern periphery.
For some excellent in-depth background reporting, Iā€™d recommend these articles (machine-translated from german): Ukraine on the brink, Russain part-mobilization or gunboat diplomacy?. Both are from Heise.de, the site that also has the English-language tech-news service The H.
Also, for background on the Crimean Tartars: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/02/the-crimean-crisis-we-should-have-seen-coming/284153/

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