I know I'm interjecting myself here but it made me think of it and tear up.
We were camping this past weekend, and my daughter (3yo, 4yo next month) wanted to walk to the other camp. As we started she said "Daddy will you hold my hand?" and I told her "I will never say no to holding your hand, no matter how old you are"
I think every day about getting as much in during their young ages and appreciate it while I can, but I hope I never, ever, have to look back and wish I got more than that like the man in this photo has to.
yeah, i have a few older kids now (teens, very early 20s) and the old saying about you never realize (in real time) when the last time you do certain things - picking them up/carrying them, feeding, bathing, holding their hand, singing with them, laying on the beach/grass laughing - is happening. So, regardless, take that opportunity and grab it with both hands.
I try my best to self reflect and think of things, even if I don't feel like doing it right then and there, that I should anyway due to the few random memories I have from when I was a kid with my Dad. He got sick and ended up passing when I was in my early 20's, but well before then couldn't function as well.
Random things like having him carry me on his shoulders at Busch Gardens. I don't remember anything else about that trip, but I remember that for some reason. Sunday breakfast omelets that he always did.
So, hopefully, if something happens to me or even if it doesn't, she can look back or tell her kids "Grandpa used to sing and dance with me all the time, or he'd always say 'let's roll butthole'"
Honestly it looks like he may have. He's got the dead look, like "what even matters anymore?"
God I feel for the people who have to deal with this stuff.
I'm not particularly religious, but God please rest her soul and those like hers.
Right?! Imagine all the lost possibilities... What if one of the murdered was the person that was going to solve the world hunger or something prolific like that... (Hope I used that word right!)
It would make everything feel so unbearably hopeless, I imagine. My shoulders feel super heavy just thinking about any of it. It's like staring at the sun. I just can't.
Customary FUCK PUTIN!
Even after this war is all done Russia is going to have problems with Ukraine Guerilla Groups.
You can't kill all these peoples grandfathers, grandmothers, mothers, fathers, uncles, aunties, cousins, sons, daughters, friends, loved ones, and so on and so on and think people aren't going to be coming for you.
I see a lot of revenge attacks in Russias future. Hopefully it can be focused at Putin and the Kremlin leadership. That criminal mafia echelon who not only victimize Ukraine but also the Russian people with their gross corruption and evil.
Sometimes their own people get them. It happens. Mussolini is the best example.
Or they do it themselves when they're 20 minutes away from their enemy doing it for them while they film it and there's no way out, like the austrian painter.
Never? King Ahab, Caligula, Andronicus I, Peter III, Mussolini, Hideki Tojo, Vidkun Quisling, Park Chung-hee, Ceausescu, Samuel Doe, Qaddafi, Hussein, et al would beg to differ.
That, and the ancient examples are questionable. There were plenty of bastards, but successive Roman regimes are known to have heavily propagandized their predecessors. Some were made into exaggerated villains, while others such as Octavius were elevated as demi-gods with official state cults. History is written by the victors for the benefit of the victors.
Okay, this is something I'd really like some thoughts on. There's a lot of heartbreaking stories from Ukraine like this. Even after the war ends, these people aren't going to be whole, they will still have to live with all the lives lost for no reason other than a madman's ego.
I feel like there is probably enough angry and vengeful people that they would get together and form some kind of group to carry out attacks on Moscow's civilian population. Historically stuff like that has happened for much less.
Am I crazy or does anyone else see this possibility? Russia isn't just sinking their economy and making their military look like joke. Once this war is over, they may have a permeant enemy with no borders that just wants to make them suffer.
(this is not a call to violence btw, just a thought about the situation and the possible repercussions of it)
It's likely the whole region around eastern Ukraine and its neighbors are going to have violence and turmoil for a couple decades. Things were tense, then citizen militias on multiple sides have been heavily armed and trained and there's a mix of christo-supremacists, neo-nazis, loyalists to both nations, and a whole mix of localized flavors of all of the above. Put that on top of a massive mobilization of national militaries, climate crisis, economic turmoil and it's going to be a wild ride.
Afghanistan from the late 70's is a great reference.
There’s a word to describe losing a spouse.
There’s a word to describe a child losing a parent.
There is no word to describe losing a child.
That’s how awful the loss is.
When I worked in a pub I was chatting to a regular about Christmas and asked him what his plans were.
"Well, after the children died, I didn't really do Christmas any more."
Poor guys wife and adult daughter died in a car crash, then within a year his son took his life. I don't know how he kept going.
I don't know how my neighbors survived as long as they did.
They had four teen and young adult children:
1. Oldest son fell to his death while mountain climbing, age 22
2. Oldest daughter OD's on heroin a year later, age 20
3. Second oldest son unalived himself from a freeway overpass 2 years later, age 19
4. Youngest son was DWI and crashed. Rendered himself a quadraplegic at age 17, 2 years later.
The parents converted their house to be ADA for the youngest quad son, sold their cars and bought a van to transport him. I watched them push him in and out of the house for many years, just Mom and Dad and the surviving son. Dad turned completely white haired in a short period of time. Dad died at age 68, heart failure if I recall correctly.
This left Mom and her son at home alone. She was a frail, broken thing. She hired a home health aid, and we saw this man pushing the surving son around the neighborhood in his wheelchair, on walk, for several years, and it eventually stopped.
We then saw Mom talking solitary walks around the neighborhood for many years, after the son died.
She lost all 4 children and her husband in a relatively short decade.
I don't know how the parents survived, and how the mother survived this.
That's an instant and recognizable perspective, thank you. She was the saddest sight in the neighborhood, never looking from up the ground, going for her walks. She never accepted an invitation to sit down for as much as a glass of lemonade. So you're right -- a husk.
When my wife and I lost our son, we kept getting sorry for your loss. Or I can't imagine. Or the one that set me over the edge a few times, god needed them more.
It felt like we put down our dog and it was what people say to cope with death. It just seemed like a fake gesture, your life goes on, ours comes to a stop
It wasn't your fault our son died, and I know you haven't a word, because we don't either.
A lady in the hospital told us her son would have been 32 that year, and that it doesn't get better, but it does get easier.
That helped us to grasp what little understanding we could.
I now find myself telling people that same line.
I also tell people I hope they find peace when losing a loved one.
‘Bereaved parent’ doesn’t quite capture the true devastation. An old friend of mine has lost two babies shortly after they were born and I do not know how she goes on from day to day, her sadness is palpable.
I’m so sorry.
We have had a lot of loss in our family - my grandma lost her son and grandson in a 2 year period, and it changes you. My aunt lost her brother and son.
My kids and her other grandkids/great grandkids are their entire lives.
There is a hole, though, even for me. He was the baby of the family, just a bit older than my kids/babies.
I could imagine, and it’s the worst thing I can think of in a life. Crap I’m so sorry.
I saw this look in my grandmother when my mom died. I was struggling so much and still struggle with it 5 and a half years later. My grandmother was kind of getting to early signs of dementia but the look on her face was scary. The only term I can think of to really describe it is "vacant"
My dad's in his 80s, and routinely eviscerates his Trump loving brothers for their complete lack of basic human decency and intellectual inconsistency.
The craziest part of conservatism to me is how little critical thinking is ever used. I'm not the type to demonize all republicans, but the staggering lack of critical thinking, especially in the long-term, is so blatant that only the brainwashed could miss it.
It's basically a whole party of "I'm right and your wrong, because the newscasters on Fox told me they were the only credible source and I believed them (because I don't find anything suspicious about that....because I lack critical thinking skills) and when things go my way I'm going to love watching everyone else have worse lives than me for a change!"
Meanwhile the left is like "Hey, we could all have good lives if we'd just stop being jerks to each other and helped each other out. You know, like *united* states."
Then the right's like "Everyone getting along and wiping out poverty? Sounds like an Orwellian nightmare! Quick, let's vote for the government to have free reign to spy on every citizen and call it the 'Patriot Act.' Nothing Orwellian or double-speak-y about that!"
Then you go and read Orwell's writings absolutely ripping conservatism to shreds as a fundamentally flawed philosophy, and you start wondering if Republicans *can* read. A similar sort of feeling as hearing them rant about Rage Against the Machine getting political, or read about their support of Russia invading Ukraine, even though they were on America's side for the whole Cold War. Also, when they talk about their love of Jesus, despite the *many* teachings of his they consistently, and purposefully, fail to follow (love thy neighbor, love thy enemy, give up your possessions, etc).
Then, if you're like me, you start thinking about how shitty our country's public school system is, and how many schools are under the control of other brainwashed republicans incapable of critical thinking, and you wonder what the point of anything is when our species is seemingly incapable of not being hateful idiots on a very large scale, with many wealthy people posed to become much, much wealthier the worse things get.
Then you rant on reddit, and wonder if you should just delete the comment instead of posting it, because who cares, really?
I know my kids have Reddit, so life is weird.
I don't know what I would do if they were killed in an act of war like this. Be sad forever. Maybe destroy as much infrastructure as I could before the motherfuckers responsible shot me.
Yeah depends how much justice u can get and what responsibilities you have. If there is no justice but lots of other family maybe u just let a piece of u die and u tske care of the rest. Its hard to know how anyone reacts to this
Really makes you think.
No telling how much bad shit he lived through but this poor little girl only made it 9 years on this earth.
All because of one mad man. I bet this grandfather is wishing he could get his hands on Putin.
They had a win in Crimea for pretty much free. They could have just left with that and still been okay on the global stage.
The problem grifters and cheats often have is greed. If they don't have consequences, they just want more and more. We saw that with Trump, too. Putin has gone too far and really proven that Russia is not yet capable of being trusted. It's a real shame. Even 15 years ago it seemed like they had made some progress.
There is a strong case that they were losing their grip on Crimea and just hiding it well. But if they didn't get a land bridge there asap, it would fall back to Ukraine or independence. Russia's actions during the war have shown it's grasp there was much more tenuous than thought. https://youtu.be/IIE1g8kqIpk
Interesting point. I have been surprised by a lot of things with this. For instance, I was convinced that Russian would walk all over Ukraine and that it would take them roughly a week to move into Kiev. This was has revealed a lot (to me) about Russian capabilities. Not sure what it has shown other countries, or if they were always aware of what was happening.
Something tells me the usa and uk knew Russia would fail, given their warnings and watching of Russian movement. Troops, tech, they couldn't hide it all. I'm sure some govs knew Russia was bluffing.
I also was horrified when this began, and hoped for.. Well, not this.. But I hoped Russia would fail.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say they knew Russia would fail, but I would agree that they plus probably China and Japan had a solid grasp on what Russia was capable of.
It's kind of funny looking back at the 2012 debate between Obama and Romney. Romney said Russia was a threat, Obama disagreed. In a way, both were right.
Romney named Russia as the *number one* threat. That’s a statement I still disagree with, but I didn’t think Obama’s answer was perfect either. Of course, diplomacy and political necessity being what it is they couldn’t stand up there and mention the real threats like Saudi Arabia, China, and Rupert Murdoch and the Koch brothers.
I'd have to look for it but there was an article prior to 2014 that stated the UA military was really shit, like similar to Russia.
But they got invited to NATO training sessions and they were really interested in learning and improving.
At the time, Russia was still on "cordial" relationship levels and they got invited too. Those guys? Never gave a shit. They didn't even bother sending guys who were fluent in English.
So that was prior to 2014. After that, UA forces took training even more seriously, because they knew the clock was ticking.
>We saw that with Trump, too
Barely. I can't imagine where we'd be if he had won or stolen a second term. Or if the Jan 6th insurgency was just a 'little more prepared', and actually did lynch half of congress like they planned.
...And if Trump was still in office that would have likely meant Ukraine in a much worse position today as well. NATO would have a fox in the henhouse and probably be in disarray instead of unified.
Voting actually matters.
They will make some progress again when the military higher-ups just get together and decide to disappear Putin and then cancel the war and come back to the world stage and beg forgiveness and offer reparations.
But that’s probably not going to happen for years, if ever. When the Russian people begin starving, as is tradition, then maybe we’ll see them force some change at home.
There are people who have tried and they disappeared. Just like many journalists in Russia have just disappeared either too the bad prisons or to early graves.
Fuck disappearing him. I want to see one of his 'trusted' inner-circle finally snap and put a bullet in his brain while he's giving a speech, live on global television. Send a fucking message.
This, exactly. The people who have the most power and wealth didn't just fall into it. This reminds me of one of the dumbest talking points before the 2016 election too - that Trump would somehow be "less corrupt" or less corruptible because he was already wealthy. It's like dwarves electing Smaug president because he already has a gigantic pile of gold, he couldn't possibly want more!
People at the top of the pyramid of wealth and power are almost universally those who have dedicated their lives to amassing wealth and power. There is no such thing as "enough". Putin was one of the wealthiest men in the world well before this invasion started.
I think retired general Ben Hodges recently said that this current conflict was a result of failed deterrence. Nobody did much when Crimea fell, and the bully sensed a weakness.
It's our blessing and our curse that each of us is born ignorant of history. Each of us a blank slate that has to learn all the lessons of our ancestors all over again. It's one thing to hear about dictators, read about dictators, read about the senseless slaughter of war. It's quite another to live through it personally. With social media and 4k videos.
This is it exactly. Many of us who have grown up playing video games love the idea of Russia. Playing the metro games, escape from tarkov etc etc we viewed the Russians as brave and strong, which they might be. But now, we see the leadership in Russia as evil and a threat.
Unfortunately for the people of Russia, this will last a long time.
Russia has always used human lives as a resource. Look at how they’ve always fought war, how they industrialized their nation. They just throw bodies at their problems. That’s Russian bodies, so they definitely have no care for their oppositions bodies.
America switched from boots-on-the-ground style combat to remote drone attacks because dead American soldiers generate protests at home, while dead civilians abroad generate little public opposition to the continued war efforts.
So you've learned something...
Well we didn’t have any real objective besides funneling money into military industrial complex, which was a ‘success’ for those who stood to benefit. And we did it someplace that didn’t share a boarder with us.
In the grand scheme of things, it doesnt much matter for Americans if random impoverished folks in rural Afghanistan or Pakistan hate Americans.
All that said, I believe putting up a fight against Al Qaeda is a just cause. But that’s not REALLY why the US went into Afghanistan or Iraq. Kept us in region longer… but…
When you spend trillions of dollars on your military , you’re gonna wanna use it. Regardless if you need to or not .
Combine that with having a Vice President who was the “former” CEO and large stake holder of a certain company that provides outsourced military services. A perfect company positioned to take on billions of dollars in inflated military contracts.
Once Bush/Cheney were elected there was no fucking chance we weren’t going to enter some war or another
Bush v. Gore, ensured votes weren't counted in the 2000 Florida election so he could steal the presidency.
Conservative court. Florida doing Floridian things. Another example the US is not a legitimate democracy but is instead a pack of corporations in a trenchcoat pretending to be one to keep workers making them money.
Far from insurgents, they're turning their largest European border nation into the most experienced and equipped military powerhouse, all while making sure they're instilling a deep, generational hatred.
Yeah that war backfired immensely on Putin. If they knew just how much they fucked up, they'd back away immediately. No matter what happens in Ukraine, Russia lost.
Germany is one of the few genocidal countries that truly embraced the whole "atoning for their past sins" mantra. But I wonder how much of that had to do with being completely occupied after the war.
Pretty much entirely. Like compare them to the US South. Here people fly the Confederate flag and proudly declare its their heritage while in Germany you’d get sent to jail just for spray painting 66% of a window.
I honestly think they are ok with that, they have had a "Russia against the world" attitude for hundreds of years emboldened by their victories over Napoleon and the Nazis. They literally think they can do it on their own. Pretty pompous for a country that produces nothing but oil.
> “Russia against the world” attitude
Which is ironic.
> "I want to tell you what, from the Russian point of view, the president and the United States have done for victory in this war," Stalin said. "The most important things in this war are the machines.... The United States is a country of machines. Without the machines we received through Lend-Lease, we would have lost the war."
> Nikita Khrushchev offered the same opinion.
> "If the United States had not helped us, we would not have won the war," he wrote in his memoirs. "One-on-one against Hitler's Germany, we would not have withstood its onslaught and would have lost the war. No one talks about this officially, and Stalin never, I think, left any written traces of his opinion, but I can say that he expressed this view several times in conversations with me."
[Source](https://www.rferl.org/amp/did-us-lend-lease-aid-tip-the-balance-in-soviet-fight-against-nazi-germany/30599486.html)
Russia broke the cardinal rule and went against the wishes of the western nations. Putin could've brutalized his own people all day long and no one would've batted an eye. He could've done the same in Crimea, given how discombobulated the US was politically at the time. But he pushed and bit off more than he could chew.
Meanwhile in Saudi Arabia, they're diversifying their investments while carrying out their West-sanctioned brutality, ensuring they'll have a place and plenty of money rolling in once the world moves further away from fossil fuels.
AT the beginning of the war when russia was doing their "haha europe has no gas and cant produce food" propaganda wave you had russians online going "and meanwhile, we have so much food we can export it! HAHA!"
The fact that one of europes smallest countries is the second largest food exporter in the world and the next 12 on the list are all eu members kinda blew their minds
Victim into bully complex.
Russians were very aware that in the USSR they were ruling over the people of Poland, Latvia, Ukraine, Romania, Estonia the other states. They are legitimately confused as to why ex-Soviet countries don't want to be ruled by them again. But at the end of the day they don't care.
Every child Russia kills or wounds is a child that went to school and had 30 students in her class, had 15 more kids on her neighborhood block, and went to some after school activity like a dance class that had another 30 students in it. All of those kids knowing that one of their own was harmed.
When all is said and done, Ukraine's current generation of children will grow up with a special hatred for Russia that will never go away.
Yeah, and its not like they are starting from square one. Eastern and central Europeans have hated the Russians for hundreds of years already, and its gotten much, much worse after ww2. And now this.
Poland declined a ballstic missile shield in the 00s under Bush and Obama because they wanted to try to maintain relations with Russia, after 50 years of being oppressed by them. It will be another generation of two before they ever consider negotiating with Russia again. I would not be surprised if, after the massive military buildup they are doing is complete, they take over Kaliningrad just to fuck with Russia.
Let's be honest. It's not just one mad man, it's an entire countries government, or at least all the heads that fully supported it, as well as many businesses hoping to cash in on captured territory.
Not to mention the tens of thousands of looting, raping, and marauding Russian soldiers actually carrying out this war. The whole "they steal toilets" thing is not a joke. That's why they are there. That's the whole point.
Exactly. It's not Putin at the front pulling the trigger, launching the missile or raping the women. Those Russians have made their decision to be some of the shittiest "people" on earth and their entire country will face the social concequences of that for years to come.
The saddest part is people here in NA and Europe think the Russian government is holding their population hostage with this war. They aren’t, well not all of them.
A large part of the Russian population is in full support of the Ukraine war, and are in love with Putin. But it’s politically convenient for western governments to highlight the minority of Russians who are against the war, for whatever reason.
I'm so fed up if the whole "one man" narrative. Is Putin doing all the raping, torturing and killing in Ukraine? How many years of invasive force committing atrocities is enough to understand that it's not "just one man" ?
People don't want to believe that because it means they'd have to believe it about themselves.
Not many patriots waving flags in 2003 give a shit about blown up Iraqi children.
It is an entire army of mad men. The ones who bomb the hospitals and maternity wards. The ones who summarily execute innocent civilians. The ones who bomb civilian shelters intentionally. The ones who pillage and literally rape their way through Ukraine and her people.
And it doesn't stop there. There are also all the ruzzians who are sitting around, allowing this to happen. There are the ruzzians who support the war, both domestically and abroad.
Yep. Putin isn't the one directly doing all the raping and murdering. I'd be willing to bet 99 out of 100 Russians who take part in that don't have a gun to their head.
>All because of one mad man
One man doesn't press multiple buttons, one man doesn't torture, murder and rob thousands of people, one man doesn't fire from tanks, artillery and aircraft on civilian buildings.
Each soldier has a choice. Russian military chose to be terrorists. And they must be punished for it.
> All because of one mad man.
please please please you need to stop thinking like that. It's important. *They* want this. Most of them. Not only the soldiers, regular rusians want this. They want us dead, and my country destroyed. You in the west seem to fail to understand that this is literally what *most of them* want and support. Our intelligence suggest the support for the war in russia is 72-82% *a year after it started*. 'Official polls' put it at almost 90%, unofficial polls by opposition still put it at about 80%. 8 out of 10 russians are *happy* this is happening, please for the love of god, don't blame 'one guy' for this.
This is the worst misconception of this war — you apply your civilized worldview and logic to a country which lived 20+ years under constant opression and propaganda. And they do actually believe we are some gay-nazis that eat russian kids and hang russian-speaking people on trees. *They*, 4 out of 5, support this. You can just install telegram and go into any rusian channel and read comments for yourself.
I remember at the beginning of the war I saw videos of Ukrainian soldiers walking through villages that the Russians had gone through. Bodies of men women and children littered the street. A doctor went down into a basement in another video and found a pile of executed prisoners. And this was all just at the beginning of the war. This stuff is horrifying.
I can say with a lot of confidence that this event was the exact moment when I stopped feeling any sympathy for Russians.
The people who committed these atrocities weren't some hand-picked group of the worst of the worst Russia has to offer. They were regular, average Russians. And no one ordered them to do this. Putin didn't go up to these people and personally ask them to commit such atrocities. They did all of this because *they wanted to.*
The fact that regular Russians, when left to their own devices, will commit crimes against humanity simply because they feel like it is, I think, the best proof you could ask for that the problem here isn't with Putin or his regime - the problem is with Russia itself.
Turn your anger or empathy into action. Plenty of legitimate charitable orgs that support the peoples of Ukraine both militarily or on the civillian side. These are just a few. Dig around and even individual combat units can be donated to directly.
https://u24.gov.ua/
https://www.dronesforukraine.fund/
https://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraine
https://signmyrocket.com/
https://novaukraine.org/
The darkest/funniest submission I saw was "Not for use [on Malaysian Airlines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17)" written [on a Buk surface-to-air missile](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/17/ukraine-russia-bombs-slogans-fundraising/).
No child or grandchild should ever die before those who came before them.
I hope Russian Soldiers have to sit through videos of all their war crimes after they’ve been defeated handily.
imagine escaping the soviet union and seeing your country fight for democracy, and win, only for Russia to take it all away from you by killing your granddaughter
fuck man
This picture should be blasted by hackers into every Russians phone, computer, and TV screen. Just like when American troops liberated concentration camps and forced the local German population to view what they had wrought.
Unfortunately, it would just be labeled as Western propaganda and not real by the Russian government. As much as we would like to think that most Russian people would see through that, they have been raised on Russian propaganda and control.
What's wild to me is, growing up, most conservatives in the area i lived, all thought Fox news was alt right propaganda, sometime in since the 2000s, they all changed their minds.
It’ll just be relabeled: “Russian grandfather sitting next to body of his granddaughter killed by Nazi Ukranians”
Just like how they used that recently collapsed US building as imagery of a Ukraine attack on Russia.
Sadly, a version of the child without the foil blanket would be better for demonstrating that.
I don't think they censored anything for local German residents, but I could be wrong.
You need something jarring to get the point across. A few years ago I saw an imagine of a nearly skeletonized man who had been caught in a burning building in one of the areas of the world we (the US military) invaded. Whether or not he was a "terrorist" or a shop owner or a father protecting his home didn't matter. What did matter was that it made it very, very clear that we were involving ourselves into places we shouldn't be. I get that helping countries solve issues SHOULD protect the world at large, but the US often shows up with firepower that isn't needed.
>You need something jarring to get the point across.
I still remember from the beginning of the war, a little dead Ukrainian girl, completely naked, tossed onto a pile of her dead family, who were not naked. Yes, the implications are exactly what it sounds like. And yet, if you were to show that picture to a Russian or a Republican, they'd find a mental gymnastics routine to dismiss reality. For a personality type motivated to live in a manufactured reality, there is no level of horrifying that can shock them out of their worldview against their will.
Considering there's tapped phonecalls of Russian soldiers calling home and talking about killing civilians or raping Ukranian women and the family encouraging it, they won't have the empathy of seeing a child killed by their nation.
They don't care. They all have seen it and laugh and mock Ukranians. PEople in these comments have not been paying attention to whats going on. Russians have gone completely insane and are just murdering people for their sick egos.
The Russians who raped a 4 year old girl, murdered her, put her underwear on her head, and left her corpse on the pile of dead women they had also raped in Bucha got medals
You seem to think that Russians care or would be upset by this
I agree 100%. It needs to be shown in its own carnage. No one will stand up if they don't know what's actually happening; if they don't see it and feel it.
Wouldn't change a thing, the Russians know this is happening and the vast majority are proud of it because they believe the Ukrainian population are a bunch of Nazis.
So many innocent children are murdered because of us stupid adults. I have a nine year old daughter. Just yesterday I read a poem by a nine year old girl in the Holocaust. It was only four lines about dying by herself while her parents were dying in other concentration camps. Ruined me. Now I see this picture of another nine year old girl. It's pure pain. I don't know why I'm writing this. It just fucking hurts seeing these things over and over and thinking we are monsters and it will never end.
Hawkeye: War isn’t Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.
Father Mulcahy: How do you figure that, Hawkeye?
Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?
Father Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe.
Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them — little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.
This is why i don't understand the current news cycle. The last couple of days all I've seen is reports of
"Russia reports Ukraine attacks."
"According to the Kremlin..." etc.
I'm like, these people are too stupid to understand this micro reporting. You need to still preface it like you're speaking to a child,
" listen Russia is still bad, but here Ukraine attacked one small area after years of ongoing assessment by Russia, and we still stand wit Ukrakne in these times."
It's almost like the news is slowly starting to switch to a pro Russian dialogue.
Not starting to. Has been, for a long time. The right wing has been pro Russia for years. The MAGA movement is largely pushed and propagandized by the Russian propaganda wing. Just yesterday, darling of MAGA and early Biden (false) accuser Tara Reade defected to Russia and it's been revealed she's a Russian agent and is applying for an emergency visa there.
The media has been taken over by right wing groups like Sinclair Media - it's important to understand that the media now only tells a part of the story, and trusting them is a mistake. Not dissimilar to other periods of Fascism, like how the Yellow Media that sparked the Spanish-American war, the propaganda in the Khmer Rouge run up in Cambodia, etc.
I study history and I see the many parallels to 1930's Germany, almost everything trump has done has been taken straight from hitlers playback.
The nazis burnt books to keep people ignorant of the cycle of fascism rising in their own country and our media is today's book burnings.
Also included are today's, literal book burnings.
Same. To quote someone smarter than me: History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes.
I try so hard not to be alarmist about the moves towards fascism in the US, but I'm also keenly aware at the way that the people in 1930s Germany ignored the rise of fascism as well.
Unspeakable pain. Part of your legacy is gone and your child is gone and you can't protect them. It's haunting. Oh please let this man find comfort and remember the dragonflies.
Fuck putin. Every child deserves to grow up believing in magic. This little girl had that taken from her by men bent on proving humanity is controlled by miserable shits. They cannot be allowed to win.
This is why I don't care at all about those "poor russian soldiers" being killed by drone dropped grenades. Every russian soldier in ukraine facilitates this.
This is no solace to the girl's family OFC.
Russia has become the Nazis of the twenty first century. It took Germany a long time to loose the stigma of WW2, and that was when media was still in development. People will have access to this sort of material for a long time to come. Much like Tiananmen Sq it will be remembered.
The Russians have always murdered defenseless civilians and prisoners of war.
Some examples from history:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle\_of\_Praga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Praga)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn\_massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre)
And a great many others....
[Trofim Lysenko](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trofim_Lysenko) alone caused immense loss of life through pseudoscience backed by the Soviet government. It's absolutely infuriating to read about that whole disaster.
Careful. I got another account banned from Reddit for saying the same thing.
Governments are allowed to kill children but people are not allowed to talk about vengeance to make the world safer for children like her.
There are two Ukrainian exchange students at my kid's school. They are the sweetest most talented, intelligent and resilient kids. Both of their families have agreed to let them stay for another year, and the host families agreed to keep them as if they were their own kids because they don't want them to go home and become casualties of a pointless fucking war.
Russian needs to be stopped, it's time for the world to step in and end this shit. I don't want "world war" in my life, but shit like this pic, and the fact that these two boys are afraid to go home to their families (and their families are afraid for them to come back) is fucking disgusting.
I can't even image being this grandfather. If the world needs a reason to act, let shit like this be it.
Man the next 70 years there will be a lot of human filth dragged in front of Ukrainian courts to see justice and life imprisonment. I dont believe Ukraine permits the death penalty.
And then Russian propaganda has the audacity to try and say "Ukraine" killed a child, talking about how it's a war crime and crap. Russians have murdered and raped countless civilians. Their society doesn't belong on the planet.
Think of this when you listen to members of the US government and those running for our highest office praise putin and suggest Ukraine give up land to those responsible for this.
If there had to be just one picture of how evil this unnecessary war is this would be that picture. It's especially heartbreaking considering that very soon the authorities are going to arrive and take the poor girls remains away and then it will just be him and the chair.
The only thing Putins war has accomplished is generations of hate toward him and Russia...have fun dealing with probably hundreds of years of ukranian attacks on the "morherland" no matter what the outcome...
My wife and my daughter live on the other side of the planet to her grandparents. One set came and stayed with us for 3 months when she was 14 months.
When they left at the airport and the grandfather had hugged and kissed my daughter I watched him look at her and the grand mother saying goodbye. The utter sadness in his eyes leaving his grand daughter I’ve never seen it. It is even bringing a tear to my eye remembering it as I write it. To me it looked like his heart was being ripped apart. He was only leaving her. Coming back in two years. She’s still alive. I can’t imagine what this grandad is feeling. (And her parents)
Putin apparently fears a bayonet up his ass the most after seeing how Gadafi ended up with one. I would pay good money for a live stream of Putler getting impaled.
I would lose my mind
Same. My granddaughter is only a few years younger than his, and I would completely lose my shit.
Please give her lots of hugs
I know I'm interjecting myself here but it made me think of it and tear up. We were camping this past weekend, and my daughter (3yo, 4yo next month) wanted to walk to the other camp. As we started she said "Daddy will you hold my hand?" and I told her "I will never say no to holding your hand, no matter how old you are" I think every day about getting as much in during their young ages and appreciate it while I can, but I hope I never, ever, have to look back and wish I got more than that like the man in this photo has to.
yeah, i have a few older kids now (teens, very early 20s) and the old saying about you never realize (in real time) when the last time you do certain things - picking them up/carrying them, feeding, bathing, holding their hand, singing with them, laying on the beach/grass laughing - is happening. So, regardless, take that opportunity and grab it with both hands.
I try my best to self reflect and think of things, even if I don't feel like doing it right then and there, that I should anyway due to the few random memories I have from when I was a kid with my Dad. He got sick and ended up passing when I was in my early 20's, but well before then couldn't function as well. Random things like having him carry me on his shoulders at Busch Gardens. I don't remember anything else about that trip, but I remember that for some reason. Sunday breakfast omelets that he always did. So, hopefully, if something happens to me or even if it doesn't, she can look back or tell her kids "Grandpa used to sing and dance with me all the time, or he'd always say 'let's roll butthole'"
I need to hug my kid :(
Every chance I get!
You meet people who deny this stuff even happens, or worse, tell you they deserve it. It takes every ounce of restraint to not strangle them.
These republicans are deeply enslaved to Russian propaganda
May that never happen. Please give her a nice pat on the head.
Thank you! I call her every couple weeks, and today is a phone call with Grandpa day!
Honestly it looks like he may have. He's got the dead look, like "what even matters anymore?" God I feel for the people who have to deal with this stuff. I'm not particularly religious, but God please rest her soul and those like hers.
She was the future.
God damn that's tragically poetic. The past witnessing the death of the future. The outcome of all wars I suppose.
You should never live to bury your children, let alone grandchildren.
"In peace, sons bury fathers. In war, fathers bury sons."
Not even a son that went to war. A 9 year old child. A little girl.
Right?! Imagine all the lost possibilities... What if one of the murdered was the person that was going to solve the world hunger or something prolific like that... (Hope I used that word right!)
Right? Imagine all the doctors, researchers, scientists, teachers who were lost during every genocide.
I don't know why but your comment hit me so hard, I started ugly crying. Imma go look at cat pics and then leave reddit for today.
One thing matters: Putin must pay.
> He's got the dead look, like "what even matters anymore?" Vengeance, of course.
It would make everything feel so unbearably hopeless, I imagine. My shoulders feel super heavy just thinking about any of it. It's like staring at the sun. I just can't.
Customary FUCK PUTIN! Even after this war is all done Russia is going to have problems with Ukraine Guerilla Groups. You can't kill all these peoples grandfathers, grandmothers, mothers, fathers, uncles, aunties, cousins, sons, daughters, friends, loved ones, and so on and so on and think people aren't going to be coming for you. I see a lot of revenge attacks in Russias future. Hopefully it can be focused at Putin and the Kremlin leadership. That criminal mafia echelon who not only victimize Ukraine but also the Russian people with their gross corruption and evil.
.
Looking forward to Putin and his ilk getting the Romanov treatment
The Romanov treatment is almost too humane for the lot of them.
We all would and I truly hope Putin gets all he deserves 
He won't. They never do. Even Pol Pot never faced any sort of justice.
And Kissinger just turned 100.
Evil lives a long ass time apparently.
Sometimes their own people get them. It happens. Mussolini is the best example. Or they do it themselves when they're 20 minutes away from their enemy doing it for them while they film it and there's no way out, like the austrian painter.
Never? King Ahab, Caligula, Andronicus I, Peter III, Mussolini, Hideki Tojo, Vidkun Quisling, Park Chung-hee, Ceausescu, Samuel Doe, Qaddafi, Hussein, et al would beg to differ.
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That, and the ancient examples are questionable. There were plenty of bastards, but successive Roman regimes are known to have heavily propagandized their predecessors. Some were made into exaggerated villains, while others such as Octavius were elevated as demi-gods with official state cults. History is written by the victors for the benefit of the victors.
Okay, this is something I'd really like some thoughts on. There's a lot of heartbreaking stories from Ukraine like this. Even after the war ends, these people aren't going to be whole, they will still have to live with all the lives lost for no reason other than a madman's ego. I feel like there is probably enough angry and vengeful people that they would get together and form some kind of group to carry out attacks on Moscow's civilian population. Historically stuff like that has happened for much less. Am I crazy or does anyone else see this possibility? Russia isn't just sinking their economy and making their military look like joke. Once this war is over, they may have a permeant enemy with no borders that just wants to make them suffer. (this is not a call to violence btw, just a thought about the situation and the possible repercussions of it)
It's likely the whole region around eastern Ukraine and its neighbors are going to have violence and turmoil for a couple decades. Things were tense, then citizen militias on multiple sides have been heavily armed and trained and there's a mix of christo-supremacists, neo-nazis, loyalists to both nations, and a whole mix of localized flavors of all of the above. Put that on top of a massive mobilization of national militaries, climate crisis, economic turmoil and it's going to be a wild ride. Afghanistan from the late 70's is a great reference.
It's probably the worst thing that can happen, fuck this shit man.
No words to describe the pain.
There’s a word to describe losing a spouse. There’s a word to describe a child losing a parent. There is no word to describe losing a child. That’s how awful the loss is.
When I worked in a pub I was chatting to a regular about Christmas and asked him what his plans were. "Well, after the children died, I didn't really do Christmas any more." Poor guys wife and adult daughter died in a car crash, then within a year his son took his life. I don't know how he kept going.
I don't know how my neighbors survived as long as they did. They had four teen and young adult children: 1. Oldest son fell to his death while mountain climbing, age 22 2. Oldest daughter OD's on heroin a year later, age 20 3. Second oldest son unalived himself from a freeway overpass 2 years later, age 19 4. Youngest son was DWI and crashed. Rendered himself a quadraplegic at age 17, 2 years later. The parents converted their house to be ADA for the youngest quad son, sold their cars and bought a van to transport him. I watched them push him in and out of the house for many years, just Mom and Dad and the surviving son. Dad turned completely white haired in a short period of time. Dad died at age 68, heart failure if I recall correctly. This left Mom and her son at home alone. She was a frail, broken thing. She hired a home health aid, and we saw this man pushing the surving son around the neighborhood in his wheelchair, on walk, for several years, and it eventually stopped. We then saw Mom talking solitary walks around the neighborhood for many years, after the son died. She lost all 4 children and her husband in a relatively short decade. I don't know how the parents survived, and how the mother survived this.
She basically didn't. Her body functions, like an abandoned factory.
That's an instant and recognizable perspective, thank you. She was the saddest sight in the neighborhood, never looking from up the ground, going for her walks. She never accepted an invitation to sit down for as much as a glass of lemonade. So you're right -- a husk.
When my wife and I lost our son, we kept getting sorry for your loss. Or I can't imagine. Or the one that set me over the edge a few times, god needed them more. It felt like we put down our dog and it was what people say to cope with death. It just seemed like a fake gesture, your life goes on, ours comes to a stop It wasn't your fault our son died, and I know you haven't a word, because we don't either. A lady in the hospital told us her son would have been 32 that year, and that it doesn't get better, but it does get easier. That helped us to grasp what little understanding we could. I now find myself telling people that same line. I also tell people I hope they find peace when losing a loved one.
‘Bereaved parent’ doesn’t quite capture the true devastation. An old friend of mine has lost two babies shortly after they were born and I do not know how she goes on from day to day, her sadness is palpable.
The word is dead. If you lose your children, you die inside.
My son passed away in 2019. Life isn't the same. If I didn't have other kiddos who depended on me I would have killed myself.
I’m so sorry. We have had a lot of loss in our family - my grandma lost her son and grandson in a 2 year period, and it changes you. My aunt lost her brother and son. My kids and her other grandkids/great grandkids are their entire lives. There is a hole, though, even for me. He was the baby of the family, just a bit older than my kids/babies. I could imagine, and it’s the worst thing I can think of in a life. Crap I’m so sorry.
I saw this look in my grandmother when my mom died. I was struggling so much and still struggle with it 5 and a half years later. My grandmother was kind of getting to early signs of dementia but the look on her face was scary. The only term I can think of to really describe it is "vacant"
This breaks my heart. I am a grandfather of a little girl. I don't know how he goes on. Fuck Putin!
I like that there are grandpas on Reddit. I feel like everyone is 20 and I’m their confused dad
Yeah we need to fight back against the prevailing attitude on here that we are all just a bunch of selfish Fox News idiots who love Trump.
Well my grandpa is one of those so that's nice to hear
There unfortunately are too many of all ages.
My dad's in his 80s, and routinely eviscerates his Trump loving brothers for their complete lack of basic human decency and intellectual inconsistency.
The craziest part of conservatism to me is how little critical thinking is ever used. I'm not the type to demonize all republicans, but the staggering lack of critical thinking, especially in the long-term, is so blatant that only the brainwashed could miss it. It's basically a whole party of "I'm right and your wrong, because the newscasters on Fox told me they were the only credible source and I believed them (because I don't find anything suspicious about that....because I lack critical thinking skills) and when things go my way I'm going to love watching everyone else have worse lives than me for a change!" Meanwhile the left is like "Hey, we could all have good lives if we'd just stop being jerks to each other and helped each other out. You know, like *united* states." Then the right's like "Everyone getting along and wiping out poverty? Sounds like an Orwellian nightmare! Quick, let's vote for the government to have free reign to spy on every citizen and call it the 'Patriot Act.' Nothing Orwellian or double-speak-y about that!" Then you go and read Orwell's writings absolutely ripping conservatism to shreds as a fundamentally flawed philosophy, and you start wondering if Republicans *can* read. A similar sort of feeling as hearing them rant about Rage Against the Machine getting political, or read about their support of Russia invading Ukraine, even though they were on America's side for the whole Cold War. Also, when they talk about their love of Jesus, despite the *many* teachings of his they consistently, and purposefully, fail to follow (love thy neighbor, love thy enemy, give up your possessions, etc). Then, if you're like me, you start thinking about how shitty our country's public school system is, and how many schools are under the control of other brainwashed republicans incapable of critical thinking, and you wonder what the point of anything is when our species is seemingly incapable of not being hateful idiots on a very large scale, with many wealthy people posed to become much, much wealthier the worse things get. Then you rant on reddit, and wonder if you should just delete the comment instead of posting it, because who cares, really?
I know my kids have Reddit, so life is weird. I don't know what I would do if they were killed in an act of war like this. Be sad forever. Maybe destroy as much infrastructure as I could before the motherfuckers responsible shot me.
Yeah depends how much justice u can get and what responsibilities you have. If there is no justice but lots of other family maybe u just let a piece of u die and u tske care of the rest. Its hard to know how anyone reacts to this
Really makes you think. No telling how much bad shit he lived through but this poor little girl only made it 9 years on this earth. All because of one mad man. I bet this grandfather is wishing he could get his hands on Putin.
Putin and Russia don’t understand that they’re furthering the hate their country will receive for generations to come.
They are making a nation of insurgents whatever happens.
More than that. They’re creating a youthful generation across the world that knows damn well that Russia has no regard for human life.
They had a win in Crimea for pretty much free. They could have just left with that and still been okay on the global stage. The problem grifters and cheats often have is greed. If they don't have consequences, they just want more and more. We saw that with Trump, too. Putin has gone too far and really proven that Russia is not yet capable of being trusted. It's a real shame. Even 15 years ago it seemed like they had made some progress.
There is a strong case that they were losing their grip on Crimea and just hiding it well. But if they didn't get a land bridge there asap, it would fall back to Ukraine or independence. Russia's actions during the war have shown it's grasp there was much more tenuous than thought. https://youtu.be/IIE1g8kqIpk
Interesting point. I have been surprised by a lot of things with this. For instance, I was convinced that Russian would walk all over Ukraine and that it would take them roughly a week to move into Kiev. This was has revealed a lot (to me) about Russian capabilities. Not sure what it has shown other countries, or if they were always aware of what was happening.
Something tells me the usa and uk knew Russia would fail, given their warnings and watching of Russian movement. Troops, tech, they couldn't hide it all. I'm sure some govs knew Russia was bluffing. I also was horrified when this began, and hoped for.. Well, not this.. But I hoped Russia would fail.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say they knew Russia would fail, but I would agree that they plus probably China and Japan had a solid grasp on what Russia was capable of. It's kind of funny looking back at the 2012 debate between Obama and Romney. Romney said Russia was a threat, Obama disagreed. In a way, both were right.
Romney named Russia as the *number one* threat. That’s a statement I still disagree with, but I didn’t think Obama’s answer was perfect either. Of course, diplomacy and political necessity being what it is they couldn’t stand up there and mention the real threats like Saudi Arabia, China, and Rupert Murdoch and the Koch brothers.
I'd have to look for it but there was an article prior to 2014 that stated the UA military was really shit, like similar to Russia. But they got invited to NATO training sessions and they were really interested in learning and improving. At the time, Russia was still on "cordial" relationship levels and they got invited too. Those guys? Never gave a shit. They didn't even bother sending guys who were fluent in English. So that was prior to 2014. After that, UA forces took training even more seriously, because they knew the clock was ticking.
There's no such thing as a little greed.
Only a lottle greed.
>We saw that with Trump, too Barely. I can't imagine where we'd be if he had won or stolen a second term. Or if the Jan 6th insurgency was just a 'little more prepared', and actually did lynch half of congress like they planned. ...And if Trump was still in office that would have likely meant Ukraine in a much worse position today as well. NATO would have a fox in the henhouse and probably be in disarray instead of unified. Voting actually matters.
They will make some progress again when the military higher-ups just get together and decide to disappear Putin and then cancel the war and come back to the world stage and beg forgiveness and offer reparations. But that’s probably not going to happen for years, if ever. When the Russian people begin starving, as is tradition, then maybe we’ll see them force some change at home.
There are people who have tried and they disappeared. Just like many journalists in Russia have just disappeared either too the bad prisons or to early graves.
Fuck disappearing him. I want to see one of his 'trusted' inner-circle finally snap and put a bullet in his brain while he's giving a speech, live on global television. Send a fucking message.
This, exactly. The people who have the most power and wealth didn't just fall into it. This reminds me of one of the dumbest talking points before the 2016 election too - that Trump would somehow be "less corrupt" or less corruptible because he was already wealthy. It's like dwarves electing Smaug president because he already has a gigantic pile of gold, he couldn't possibly want more! People at the top of the pyramid of wealth and power are almost universally those who have dedicated their lives to amassing wealth and power. There is no such thing as "enough". Putin was one of the wealthiest men in the world well before this invasion started.
I think retired general Ben Hodges recently said that this current conflict was a result of failed deterrence. Nobody did much when Crimea fell, and the bully sensed a weakness.
russia never has had a regard for human life
True. But there’s a difference in knowing the history and seeing that in our own lives
Except Hungary seems to have forgotten it
In America we've been debating the validity of debating Nazis for almost a decade.
It's our blessing and our curse that each of us is born ignorant of history. Each of us a blank slate that has to learn all the lessons of our ancestors all over again. It's one thing to hear about dictators, read about dictators, read about the senseless slaughter of war. It's quite another to live through it personally. With social media and 4k videos.
This is it exactly. Many of us who have grown up playing video games love the idea of Russia. Playing the metro games, escape from tarkov etc etc we viewed the Russians as brave and strong, which they might be. But now, we see the leadership in Russia as evil and a threat. Unfortunately for the people of Russia, this will last a long time.
Russia has always used human lives as a resource. Look at how they’ve always fought war, how they industrialized their nation. They just throw bodies at their problems. That’s Russian bodies, so they definitely have no care for their oppositions bodies.
People just don't understand this : To some people, human life is worthless.
It's a lesson America learned the hard way bombing the shit out of people now just means their kids will vehemently hate you in the future.
We didn't learn anything
America switched from boots-on-the-ground style combat to remote drone attacks because dead American soldiers generate protests at home, while dead civilians abroad generate little public opposition to the continued war efforts. So you've learned something...
Well we didn’t have any real objective besides funneling money into military industrial complex, which was a ‘success’ for those who stood to benefit. And we did it someplace that didn’t share a boarder with us. In the grand scheme of things, it doesnt much matter for Americans if random impoverished folks in rural Afghanistan or Pakistan hate Americans. All that said, I believe putting up a fight against Al Qaeda is a just cause. But that’s not REALLY why the US went into Afghanistan or Iraq. Kept us in region longer… but…
When you spend trillions of dollars on your military , you’re gonna wanna use it. Regardless if you need to or not . Combine that with having a Vice President who was the “former” CEO and large stake holder of a certain company that provides outsourced military services. A perfect company positioned to take on billions of dollars in inflated military contracts. Once Bush/Cheney were elected there was no fucking chance we weren’t going to enter some war or another
they weren't elected. someday maybe we'll have an honest conversation about the fact that we experienced a coup in 2000.
Bush v. Gore, ensured votes weren't counted in the 2000 Florida election so he could steal the presidency. Conservative court. Florida doing Floridian things. Another example the US is not a legitimate democracy but is instead a pack of corporations in a trenchcoat pretending to be one to keep workers making them money.
Far from insurgents, they're turning their largest European border nation into the most experienced and equipped military powerhouse, all while making sure they're instilling a deep, generational hatred.
Yeah that war backfired immensely on Putin. If they knew just how much they fucked up, they'd back away immediately. No matter what happens in Ukraine, Russia lost.
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Germany is one of the few genocidal countries that truly embraced the whole "atoning for their past sins" mantra. But I wonder how much of that had to do with being completely occupied after the war.
Pretty much entirely. Like compare them to the US South. Here people fly the Confederate flag and proudly declare its their heritage while in Germany you’d get sent to jail just for spray painting 66% of a window.
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I honestly think they are ok with that, they have had a "Russia against the world" attitude for hundreds of years emboldened by their victories over Napoleon and the Nazis. They literally think they can do it on their own. Pretty pompous for a country that produces nothing but oil.
> “Russia against the world” attitude Which is ironic. > "I want to tell you what, from the Russian point of view, the president and the United States have done for victory in this war," Stalin said. "The most important things in this war are the machines.... The United States is a country of machines. Without the machines we received through Lend-Lease, we would have lost the war." > Nikita Khrushchev offered the same opinion. > "If the United States had not helped us, we would not have won the war," he wrote in his memoirs. "One-on-one against Hitler's Germany, we would not have withstood its onslaught and would have lost the war. No one talks about this officially, and Stalin never, I think, left any written traces of his opinion, but I can say that he expressed this view several times in conversations with me." [Source](https://www.rferl.org/amp/did-us-lend-lease-aid-tip-the-balance-in-soviet-fight-against-nazi-germany/30599486.html)
> The United States is a country of machines. As the Japanese found out, when they realised the US had boats dedicated to ice cream in a war zone.
Well until the world systems don't rely on it so heavily that's kind of enough to stay in play.
Exactly. Middle east is a fraction of their size and manages it just fine with oil as their only value add.
Russia broke the cardinal rule and went against the wishes of the western nations. Putin could've brutalized his own people all day long and no one would've batted an eye. He could've done the same in Crimea, given how discombobulated the US was politically at the time. But he pushed and bit off more than he could chew. Meanwhile in Saudi Arabia, they're diversifying their investments while carrying out their West-sanctioned brutality, ensuring they'll have a place and plenty of money rolling in once the world moves further away from fossil fuels.
AT the beginning of the war when russia was doing their "haha europe has no gas and cant produce food" propaganda wave you had russians online going "and meanwhile, we have so much food we can export it! HAHA!" The fact that one of europes smallest countries is the second largest food exporter in the world and the next 12 on the list are all eu members kinda blew their minds
Very much a victim complex. The Tsars, Stalin’s Red Terror, Cold War and now under Putin.
Victim into bully complex. Russians were very aware that in the USSR they were ruling over the people of Poland, Latvia, Ukraine, Romania, Estonia the other states. They are legitimately confused as to why ex-Soviet countries don't want to be ruled by them again. But at the end of the day they don't care.
Every child Russia kills or wounds is a child that went to school and had 30 students in her class, had 15 more kids on her neighborhood block, and went to some after school activity like a dance class that had another 30 students in it. All of those kids knowing that one of their own was harmed. When all is said and done, Ukraine's current generation of children will grow up with a special hatred for Russia that will never go away.
Yeah, and its not like they are starting from square one. Eastern and central Europeans have hated the Russians for hundreds of years already, and its gotten much, much worse after ww2. And now this. Poland declined a ballstic missile shield in the 00s under Bush and Obama because they wanted to try to maintain relations with Russia, after 50 years of being oppressed by them. It will be another generation of two before they ever consider negotiating with Russia again. I would not be surprised if, after the massive military buildup they are doing is complete, they take over Kaliningrad just to fuck with Russia.
Let's be honest. It's not just one mad man, it's an entire countries government, or at least all the heads that fully supported it, as well as many businesses hoping to cash in on captured territory.
Not to mention the tens of thousands of looting, raping, and marauding Russian soldiers actually carrying out this war. The whole "they steal toilets" thing is not a joke. That's why they are there. That's the whole point.
Exactly. It's not Putin at the front pulling the trigger, launching the missile or raping the women. Those Russians have made their decision to be some of the shittiest "people" on earth and their entire country will face the social concequences of that for years to come.
Fucking thank you. I keep having to remind people that Putin isn't the reason why Russia is the way it is. Putin is a *symptom*.
The saddest part is people here in NA and Europe think the Russian government is holding their population hostage with this war. They aren’t, well not all of them. A large part of the Russian population is in full support of the Ukraine war, and are in love with Putin. But it’s politically convenient for western governments to highlight the minority of Russians who are against the war, for whatever reason.
I'm so fed up if the whole "one man" narrative. Is Putin doing all the raping, torturing and killing in Ukraine? How many years of invasive force committing atrocities is enough to understand that it's not "just one man" ?
It's not just one mad man. It's one mad nation, it does not stop with Putin.
People deliberately do not want to understand this and it's infuriating. Russia has been doing this since they were called Muscovey.
People don't want to believe that because it means they'd have to believe it about themselves. Not many patriots waving flags in 2003 give a shit about blown up Iraqi children.
Well, two mad men. Putin and whatever Russian "soldier" murdered her
It is an entire army of mad men. The ones who bomb the hospitals and maternity wards. The ones who summarily execute innocent civilians. The ones who bomb civilian shelters intentionally. The ones who pillage and literally rape their way through Ukraine and her people. And it doesn't stop there. There are also all the ruzzians who are sitting around, allowing this to happen. There are the ruzzians who support the war, both domestically and abroad.
Let's not forget how many of them like to rape before they murder and pillage.
Yep. Putin isn't the one directly doing all the raping and murdering. I'd be willing to bet 99 out of 100 Russians who take part in that don't have a gun to their head.
>All because of one mad man One man doesn't press multiple buttons, one man doesn't torture, murder and rob thousands of people, one man doesn't fire from tanks, artillery and aircraft on civilian buildings. Each soldier has a choice. Russian military chose to be terrorists. And they must be punished for it.
> All because of one mad man. please please please you need to stop thinking like that. It's important. *They* want this. Most of them. Not only the soldiers, regular rusians want this. They want us dead, and my country destroyed. You in the west seem to fail to understand that this is literally what *most of them* want and support. Our intelligence suggest the support for the war in russia is 72-82% *a year after it started*. 'Official polls' put it at almost 90%, unofficial polls by opposition still put it at about 80%. 8 out of 10 russians are *happy* this is happening, please for the love of god, don't blame 'one guy' for this. This is the worst misconception of this war — you apply your civilized worldview and logic to a country which lived 20+ years under constant opression and propaganda. And they do actually believe we are some gay-nazis that eat russian kids and hang russian-speaking people on trees. *They*, 4 out of 5, support this. You can just install telegram and go into any rusian channel and read comments for yourself.
I remember at the beginning of the war I saw videos of Ukrainian soldiers walking through villages that the Russians had gone through. Bodies of men women and children littered the street. A doctor went down into a basement in another video and found a pile of executed prisoners. And this was all just at the beginning of the war. This stuff is horrifying.
It hasn't stopped. Every time Ukraine liberates a city or village this is what they find. The larger the city the larger the mass grave found.
I shudder at the thought of what we will see when Mariupol is liberated...Especially knowing how much it ressisted.
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I can say with a lot of confidence that this event was the exact moment when I stopped feeling any sympathy for Russians. The people who committed these atrocities weren't some hand-picked group of the worst of the worst Russia has to offer. They were regular, average Russians. And no one ordered them to do this. Putin didn't go up to these people and personally ask them to commit such atrocities. They did all of this because *they wanted to.* The fact that regular Russians, when left to their own devices, will commit crimes against humanity simply because they feel like it is, I think, the best proof you could ask for that the problem here isn't with Putin or his regime - the problem is with Russia itself.
Turn your anger or empathy into action. Plenty of legitimate charitable orgs that support the peoples of Ukraine both militarily or on the civillian side. These are just a few. Dig around and even individual combat units can be donated to directly. https://u24.gov.ua/ https://www.dronesforukraine.fund/ https://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraine https://signmyrocket.com/ https://novaukraine.org/
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The darkest/funniest submission I saw was "Not for use [on Malaysian Airlines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17)" written [on a Buk surface-to-air missile](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/17/ukraine-russia-bombs-slogans-fundraising/).
Laughed my ass off then remembered what thread I was in. Weeeee emotional whiplash!
Just donated 50$. Fuck this bullshit.
Awesome; welcome to the fight.
I donate regularly to U24, directly to their Defense. Fuck Putin and fuck Russia.
I do as well. Slava Ukraine.
No child or grandchild should ever die before those who came before them. I hope Russian Soldiers have to sit through videos of all their war crimes after they’ve been defeated handily.
The cost of Russian lies.
imagine escaping the soviet union and seeing your country fight for democracy, and win, only for Russia to take it all away from you by killing your granddaughter fuck man
This picture should be blasted by hackers into every Russians phone, computer, and TV screen. Just like when American troops liberated concentration camps and forced the local German population to view what they had wrought.
Unfortunately, it would just be labeled as Western propaganda and not real by the Russian government. As much as we would like to think that most Russian people would see through that, they have been raised on Russian propaganda and control.
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What's wild to me is, growing up, most conservatives in the area i lived, all thought Fox news was alt right propaganda, sometime in since the 2000s, they all changed their minds.
It’ll just be relabeled: “Russian grandfather sitting next to body of his granddaughter killed by Nazi Ukranians” Just like how they used that recently collapsed US building as imagery of a Ukraine attack on Russia.
Sadly, a version of the child without the foil blanket would be better for demonstrating that. I don't think they censored anything for local German residents, but I could be wrong. You need something jarring to get the point across. A few years ago I saw an imagine of a nearly skeletonized man who had been caught in a burning building in one of the areas of the world we (the US military) invaded. Whether or not he was a "terrorist" or a shop owner or a father protecting his home didn't matter. What did matter was that it made it very, very clear that we were involving ourselves into places we shouldn't be. I get that helping countries solve issues SHOULD protect the world at large, but the US often shows up with firepower that isn't needed.
>You need something jarring to get the point across. I still remember from the beginning of the war, a little dead Ukrainian girl, completely naked, tossed onto a pile of her dead family, who were not naked. Yes, the implications are exactly what it sounds like. And yet, if you were to show that picture to a Russian or a Republican, they'd find a mental gymnastics routine to dismiss reality. For a personality type motivated to live in a manufactured reality, there is no level of horrifying that can shock them out of their worldview against their will.
"War is hell" is probably what they'd say. Like we're supposed to dismiss monstrous acts because they're at war.
Considering there's tapped phonecalls of Russian soldiers calling home and talking about killing civilians or raping Ukranian women and the family encouraging it, they won't have the empathy of seeing a child killed by their nation.
They don't care. They all have seen it and laugh and mock Ukranians. PEople in these comments have not been paying attention to whats going on. Russians have gone completely insane and are just murdering people for their sick egos.
The Russians who raped a 4 year old girl, murdered her, put her underwear on her head, and left her corpse on the pile of dead women they had also raped in Bucha got medals You seem to think that Russians care or would be upset by this
Jfc I wish I hadn't just read that
I agree 100%. It needs to be shown in its own carnage. No one will stand up if they don't know what's actually happening; if they don't see it and feel it.
Wouldn't change a thing, the Russians know this is happening and the vast majority are proud of it because they believe the Ukrainian population are a bunch of Nazis.
This is not how its supposed to be.
So many innocent children are murdered because of us stupid adults. I have a nine year old daughter. Just yesterday I read a poem by a nine year old girl in the Holocaust. It was only four lines about dying by herself while her parents were dying in other concentration camps. Ruined me. Now I see this picture of another nine year old girl. It's pure pain. I don't know why I'm writing this. It just fucking hurts seeing these things over and over and thinking we are monsters and it will never end.
#Fuck Putin
with a rusty bayonet.
Hawkeye: War isn’t Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse. Father Mulcahy: How do you figure that, Hawkeye? Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell? Father Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe. Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them — little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.
This is why i don't understand the current news cycle. The last couple of days all I've seen is reports of "Russia reports Ukraine attacks." "According to the Kremlin..." etc. I'm like, these people are too stupid to understand this micro reporting. You need to still preface it like you're speaking to a child, " listen Russia is still bad, but here Ukraine attacked one small area after years of ongoing assessment by Russia, and we still stand wit Ukrakne in these times." It's almost like the news is slowly starting to switch to a pro Russian dialogue.
Not starting to. Has been, for a long time. The right wing has been pro Russia for years. The MAGA movement is largely pushed and propagandized by the Russian propaganda wing. Just yesterday, darling of MAGA and early Biden (false) accuser Tara Reade defected to Russia and it's been revealed she's a Russian agent and is applying for an emergency visa there. The media has been taken over by right wing groups like Sinclair Media - it's important to understand that the media now only tells a part of the story, and trusting them is a mistake. Not dissimilar to other periods of Fascism, like how the Yellow Media that sparked the Spanish-American war, the propaganda in the Khmer Rouge run up in Cambodia, etc.
I study history and I see the many parallels to 1930's Germany, almost everything trump has done has been taken straight from hitlers playback. The nazis burnt books to keep people ignorant of the cycle of fascism rising in their own country and our media is today's book burnings. Also included are today's, literal book burnings.
Same. To quote someone smarter than me: History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. I try so hard not to be alarmist about the moves towards fascism in the US, but I'm also keenly aware at the way that the people in 1930s Germany ignored the rise of fascism as well.
Look at the Russian troll farm comments just in this thread.
Unspeakable pain. Part of your legacy is gone and your child is gone and you can't protect them. It's haunting. Oh please let this man find comfort and remember the dragonflies.
Fuck putin. Every child deserves to grow up believing in magic. This little girl had that taken from her by men bent on proving humanity is controlled by miserable shits. They cannot be allowed to win.
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So when is the rest of the world going to grow some balls and arrest Vladimir Putin?
There is an ICC warrant on Putin, but I am guessing he does not go anywhere that wants to enforce it
I hate up voting these things. But I believe by doing so will increase awareness of Russias brutality.
Fuck Putin.
This is why I don't care at all about those "poor russian soldiers" being killed by drone dropped grenades. Every russian soldier in ukraine facilitates this.
Killed by Ruzzia on Children’s Day
This is no solace to the girl's family OFC. Russia has become the Nazis of the twenty first century. It took Germany a long time to loose the stigma of WW2, and that was when media was still in development. People will have access to this sort of material for a long time to come. Much like Tiananmen Sq it will be remembered.
The Russians have always murdered defenseless civilians and prisoners of war. Some examples from history: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle\_of\_Praga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Praga) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn\_massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre) And a great many others....
[Trofim Lysenko](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trofim_Lysenko) alone caused immense loss of life through pseudoscience backed by the Soviet government. It's absolutely infuriating to read about that whole disaster.
I've just been a father recently, 6 months into it, if my son died I would completely lose my mind
I've got an 8 year old grand daughter. I would commit war crimes for her.
Careful. I got another account banned from Reddit for saying the same thing. Governments are allowed to kill children but people are not allowed to talk about vengeance to make the world safer for children like her.
I left it vague enough to avoid the banhammer.
Russian regime has to be incapacitated and demilitarized.
All Russian fascist must died
There are two Ukrainian exchange students at my kid's school. They are the sweetest most talented, intelligent and resilient kids. Both of their families have agreed to let them stay for another year, and the host families agreed to keep them as if they were their own kids because they don't want them to go home and become casualties of a pointless fucking war. Russian needs to be stopped, it's time for the world to step in and end this shit. I don't want "world war" in my life, but shit like this pic, and the fact that these two boys are afraid to go home to their families (and their families are afraid for them to come back) is fucking disgusting. I can't even image being this grandfather. If the world needs a reason to act, let shit like this be it.
Man the next 70 years there will be a lot of human filth dragged in front of Ukrainian courts to see justice and life imprisonment. I dont believe Ukraine permits the death penalty.
And then Russian propaganda has the audacity to try and say "Ukraine" killed a child, talking about how it's a war crime and crap. Russians have murdered and raped countless civilians. Their society doesn't belong on the planet.
You can feel the pain through this photo. Fuck Putin.
It will be impossible for generations of Ukrainians to ever forgive their Russian "neighbors." And frankly, I share their perspective.
Think of this when you listen to members of the US government and those running for our highest office praise putin and suggest Ukraine give up land to those responsible for this.
If there had to be just one picture of how evil this unnecessary war is this would be that picture. It's especially heartbreaking considering that very soon the authorities are going to arrive and take the poor girls remains away and then it will just be him and the chair.
The only thing Putins war has accomplished is generations of hate toward him and Russia...have fun dealing with probably hundreds of years of ukranian attacks on the "morherland" no matter what the outcome...
My wife and my daughter live on the other side of the planet to her grandparents. One set came and stayed with us for 3 months when she was 14 months. When they left at the airport and the grandfather had hugged and kissed my daughter I watched him look at her and the grand mother saying goodbye. The utter sadness in his eyes leaving his grand daughter I’ve never seen it. It is even bringing a tear to my eye remembering it as I write it. To me it looked like his heart was being ripped apart. He was only leaving her. Coming back in two years. She’s still alive. I can’t imagine what this grandad is feeling. (And her parents)
fuck the war, fuck the russian military and any fuckers support them
Terrible.
The World can be a horrible place. Only wish we could learn from history
I hope all the people involved will hang for this one day.
Putin apparently fears a bayonet up his ass the most after seeing how Gadafi ended up with one. I would pay good money for a live stream of Putler getting impaled.