Not that the US hasn’t miscalculated local resistance, but one has to wonder if Putin started to believe his own propaganda.
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“Falls for” is the wrong way to frame it. “Motivated reasoning” is more accurate. People believe all the patently silly things that Fox News and Putin say because, at a deep emotional level, they want to. They just want someone to validate their shitty world view so they don’t have to put in effort to change themselves.
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He’s going to kill himself? That’s a bad hand, man.
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That’s what got us!
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Seconding this question. Allende committed suicide (or was assassinated depending on who you ask) while troops from his own country surrounded his palace trying to force his resignation during a US-backed coup d’état.
Zelensky is trying to protect his own nation’s sovereignty in the wake of an unprovoked invasion. Hardly an act of cowardice.
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Most likely: captured, put on “trial”, executed
The trial has probably happened (without him present, obviously) and the verdict already rendered.
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It’s a shitty situation, of course, but conscription in a crisis is not unusual, the capital of the country is BEING INVADED, and he is staying there, not asking them to do anything that he is not doing (beyond the usual disparity of command vs soldier). This also frees up transport and refugee capacity for women and children. There is nothing unusual about this, though it is terrible
If you want to complain about someone’s “attitude”, may I suggest the aggressor’s?
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I don’t want to pig-pile on you for the comment, I think it’s valid to wonder about this stuff.
But I think you’re misreading the situation. In Allende’s case his own military was used against him, the kind of armed resistance necessary to keep him in power didn’t materialize. For all the similarities in culture between Ukraine and Russia, and despite the very very long history they share, this is still one country fighting the invading army of another, not a coup attempt from within (at least not that we’ve seen, fingers crossed).
I have an old girlfriend who is Ukrainian/American and lived in Kyiv, and she recently said “people don’t realize, Ukraine is like a post-colonial state.”
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It’s a shitty situation whenever people are forbidden from leaving their own country, but I’m not at all convinced that the situation would be any different if the United States (for example) was under full-scale invasion from an overwhelming military force and the Federal government was calling upon every able-bodied adult to take up arms in defense.
Heck, the United States was still drafting young men into military service as recently as 1973 and our country hadn’t faced a full-scale military invasion for the previous 160 years.
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Good to see that the US allies Jim Beam and Jack Daniels are at least there to help.
I keep forgetting Zelensky is like the Ukrainian Stephen Colbert. That makes his staying even more impressive. I hope he got his family out at least.
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You think he has … a hidden agenda 
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No, I don’t think he has an agenda. I think he’s terrified. I’d be terrified in his place.
I don’t think he’s the bad guy in this situation. We all know that Putin is to blame. I just disagree with his decision to conscript Ukrainian men.
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I don’t think that there are many countries that would not conscript able bodied people in the face of a foreign invasion bearing down on the capital.
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If Putin has a non-little list of people to be captured/killed, then he’s probably planning a Nazi-style decapitation of the country: Politicians, military from the top down, journalists, religious leaders, academics, etc.
He wants to kill the concept of Ukraine as a country. (He’s a demonstrated monster, so I expect monstrous acts.)
I wonder how many will actually need to be drafted?
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Yeah…conscription just seems like emergency Selective Service.
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Huh. Googly eyes do make everything better
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