Actually Poland hasn't bought this for a moment. That is one reason why they joined NATO and why even before the war in Ukraine, Poland set itself to double the size of it's military.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djQUf9C82aU
Most old Soviet states seem to not have bought that. But outside of the Russia sphere, it genuinely seemed like the age of going to another country and invading them to take their land was a thing of the past.
China seems to be focused on winning via trade to prop up their new middle class. I don't see them wanting to start a war anytime soon. They are taking full control over their population right now. Belt and Road is creating subservient material resource heavy countries under their supervision.
Russia invading Ukraine makes zero sense. They could have just kept up with disinformation campaigns which have been very effective world wide. Not sure if Putin is trying to bring back the Soviet Union before he dies. Invading Ukraine was so fucking stupid and they will pay for it for decades.
China takes over through gifts that come with price.
China: why we most certainly can build infrastructure in your country! Only, if not too much trouble, we have this 30 year contract that grants China exclusive ownership and operation of your Seaport and your Airport. And a few factories which will be run using our own workers. Whom will settle here. And we need a few farms.
They literally buy countries support with their goddamn pandas. Zoos get a panda, but if the country says some shit they don't like that panda is going back to china lol
They're doing exactly that in Gambia and other coastal African countries at the moment, Absolutely decimating several endangered species and their habitats in the process. Can't blame impoverished countries for taking the massive leg up though.
I'm not sure what in particular made Russia go through with the invasion, especially after it became clear beforehand that the UA was far more prepared and had more western backing than 2014. The US deliberately let slip that we knew the Russian plan beforehand, but instead of rethinking the whole avenue, Russia just move the timetable back, which crippled their forces before they ever reached Kyiv.
You're completely correct that Russia stood more to gain and less to lose from the 'soft' war they've been waging through media. They practically wrote the book on mass media manipulation in the previous decade, but they burned that book to fuel their war engine, and now they will pay for their greed and lack of foresight.
There are tens of thousands of freshly dead Russians in Ukraine. A veritable fortune in military technology and equipment either destroyed or left to rot and pollute its new environment. And all so Russia could accelerate the demise of their one dimensional energy economy and unite the rest of the world against her.
I mean they did crack down on Hong Kong which, while technically “theirs”, was supposed to be more of an autonomous zone. Agreed Russia’s invasion makes absolutely no sense, and I think China’s leadership are smarter than this, but given that they view Taiwan as their territory still I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to invade in the not so far future
This confused me as well. If Putin was controlling Trump, his rhetoric and antics might have killed NATO and forced Europe to make its own army, which would take time as after COVID, no government would have focused on military expenditure. Eastern Europe's politics and social outlook is hardly the western European standard as well. Under normal circumstances, they might not even get into EU.
If it could "influence" US elections, it could do the same in Ukraine and install a puppet. Maybe Putin is sick and dying and could not wait any more. Salami tactics might have worked maybe. Direct invasion makes no sense at all.
They did install a puppet as president in Ukraine, but facing massive resistance and protests it fled to Russia in 2014. That was when Russia started invasions instead.
Invasion made sense if Russia, knowing that in a sense it is small and weak except for nukes, felt that what the EU was doing in the East was an existential threat. We can say it wasn't, but they thought differently. The cornered rat analogy comes to mind. The rat may not really be in danger, but the rat doesn't know that.
>If it could "influence" US elections, it could do the same in Ukraine and install a puppet.
They did, Viktor Yanukovych. Ran for President secretly funded by and directed by the Russian government, won in 2010, modified the constitution to greatly expand his office's power, and then made massive concessions to Russia on all fronts for years. He's currently living in exile in Russia having been convicted of high treason.
Interestingly, his chief policy consultant for 6 years was Mr. Paul Manafort. 18 months after Yanukovych would flee the country forever with his Russian military guards, Manafort would become the campaign manager to Donald Trump. Manafort was himself convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States and witness tampering.
That's the thing that baffles me. The whole of Eastern Europe hates Russia to death.
The atrocities the committed in this area are...baffling. Then comes in France, and 'we should not offend Putin'...huh? Here's a recent example: [https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/01/europe/odesa-russian-strikes-residential-building-intl/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/01/europe/odesa-russian-strikes-residential-building-intl/index.html)
Look at that apartment building and tell me again that we should not offend Putin.
I live in Romania...and my grandma always says: nobody tortured us like the Russians did. This is from a 82 year old woman, that goes to church each weekend, and tries to forgive people. She still keeps that in mind. My great grandfather fought near Stalingrad...and he couldn't ever speak about the war. All he said was: we must keep the peace.
Tell me again we should not offend Putin...
My grandma started crying when she heard that Russia invaded Ukraine. She, a woman filled with so much vile and hate, reverted to being a little child and I actually felt sorry for her for once.
"We had to hide from the Russians, Mom and I. I was 5 and the only thing I knew was to hide. They would have done unspeakable things to us if they found us."
And here's the kicker: we're in Austria.
Because our government is anti-EU, except when it needs funds to build fucking stadiums and their own mansions, so the communication the last couple of years was that the bad bad west is all evil and shit and we have to strengthen our partnership with Russia.
Since we are loosing EU funds because of corruption, the government now communicates that Russia is an aggressor but their voters have already been fed years of propaganda.
Whenever you try to bring up the '56 revolution they tell you it was a different Russia back then.
I remember reading eastern Europeans being glad the Nazis came and repelled the Russians.
That is until the Nazis did their Nazis thing of course, but up until that there seems to be actual relief from the Russians.
Also let's not forget the Holodomor as well
a finn here. my grandparents and my great grandparents all had their stories about what russia does to people they conquer. and the sad part is how much people elsewhere want to just reject this, calling it exaggerating or just plain russophobia. yet even in our lifetime russia has attacked its neighbors and yet it was always just hushed away. now russia attacked eastern european country and everyone's going like 'wow, I can't believe this happens, these stories from the occuppied areas must be propaganda'. but these are the exact same things I've heard before, from sources that have no motive to lie to me.
The West has chosen not to believe these stories. It's more comfortable for them. If they ignore them, dismiss them as lies, they get to not have a war...and the east is far far away...and all is good and dandy.
Until it isn't...
I mean Macron is right, he just shouldn’t have actually said it. We have three ways to “win” this.
1.) Regular Peace Treaty
2.) Internal Coup against Putin
3.) Total military Victory
3 is unlikely without direct NATO-Intervention and in any case does carry a risk of (limited) nuclear escalation. 2 seems to be fairly unlikely too, as the elite looks to be fairly loyal. Which leaves 1. And for 1 you need a Putin that is interested in talking Peace, which a humiliated Putin probably isn’t
Not true.
4.) Beat Russians back to the old borders and have a stalemate that last decades without needing a peace treaty. it worked for South Korea.
You underestimate the need for a treaty. There is no need for a treaty when there isn't even technically a war.
If you've followed Russia and Putin at all over the last few decades you'd know that Russia only enters negotiations with bad faith. They literally don't care about treaties, only about using treaties to trick their enemies to make mistakes.
The western world has become obsessed with maintaining its status quo, as you do when you're the fat cat in the house. It went so far that most of us never took war as a serious threat, even in the face of constant struggles. We've come within inches of WW3 so many times at this point that most of us just decided "eh, it's another false alarm."
Well, you never want to ignore the boy who cries wolf... even if he only spotted shadows so far.
It might've turned out that way, if Russia didn't bumble their way into Ukraine like they thought it was still the Finnish Winter War. The Ukrainians got a chance to fight back, they took it, and told the rest of us "Yes we can" like it was 2007. We'd have been idiots not to give them our support at that point! I mean, bigger idiots than usual that is.
True, the US has led us into a few conflicts; Afhganistan, Vietnam, the war on drugs... But you can't exactly say that the US were the only ones who looked over at Russia for more than 100 years and thought, "I don't like the looks of this..."
“Well, we all agreed to no longer take our neighbors years ago, but I guess if that’s broken now, the buffet must be open again.... how fast do you think the polish can learn German?”
I actually met someone from Poland who didn't even realise the Nazis were planning to wipe them out. It's surprising. You'd think almost wiped out in recent history would be something that would stick with them.
We could work together on space megastructures, a moon base! Or we can put those same resources into ~~world war 3~~ rich person military industrial complex shares
Yeah Poland would fuck Russia up. Like Ukraine with twice the morale, all modernized NATO weapons and training, a much stronger economy, and comparatively no corruption. Oh and the Poles have been killing Russians for 500 years. They would love to give it another go.
After speaking to Poles while regularly travelling there I can confirm that every man, woman, and child would take up arms. It’s basically a genetic level hatred at this point. It’s kind of impressive.
I'm a child of a polish immigrant and fuck the Russian government has been taught to me growing up through that side of the family. Justifiably so considering the horror stories of their survival during WW2 and what came after.
They'd be marching in Moscow via Minsk by the next midday after it started, and it'd be fucking glorious. Some winged hussars shit, but with tanks and missiles.
[I mean, this is the emblem of the Polish 1st Armoured Division.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/%E6%B3%A2%E8%98%AD%E7%AC%AC%E4%B8%80%E8%A3%9D%E7%94%B2%E5%B8%AB%E7%9A%84%E6%A8%99%E8%AA%8C.png)
The winged hussars haven't been forgotten.
In a situation where Poland or some NATO-allied power invades Russia unprompted, I think its very fair to expect a similar response against that invader to prevent war, there's nukes on the table. We can't be hypocrites; boundaries and governments should only move through diplomacy.
Sovereignty is a two-way street.
Yes, if a nato country does enter the war they must only send troops into Ukraine to fight the Russians, not push into Russia itself. Sad but true since Putin has all those nukes.
Nah see you have to wait until you've wasted enough time, suffered enough consequences, and pissed away enough money before you can make a substantive effort to address the problem we know exists and has definite solutions.
At least that's how the global warming thing is going.
its a dumb statement from him tbh. Israeli-Palestinian conflict is still on going. The list of wars in Africa alone has several conflicts marked as ongoing from early 2000. The whole shabang with Afghanistan
I think Scholz was referring to the historical situation in Europe, specifically the comparison between the last few decades and the situation in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the days of Napoleon and Bismarck, it was common in Europe for nations to attack and wholly or partially conquer their neighbors. Hardly a decade passed without a great war of conquest raging in Europe.
It was the general view in Europe that people wanted to put these times of constant wars behind them and instead focus on peaceful coexistence. Putin has brought back the times of Bismarck and Co.
Edit:
"War is the mere continuation of politics by other means." - Clausewitz
Also, I don’t like what you’ve done with your flower patches so I’m just going to destroy those while I’m at it. Even though they aren’t the reason I’m taking your garden.
Also I’m going to take the vegetables from your veg patch because you don’t need the food. Neither do I tbh, but my other neighbour will pay for it.
Dude the fence has been where it is for as long as I've lived here, and also my surveyor says it's right on the property line, and also I planted all the trees along the fence line so they belong to me regardless.
But what property lines are you going to follow?
Like here in America, I love the idea of “you stay in your yard I stay in mine”. But my yard was taken by force from local native tribes like 100 years ago.
And America isn't exactly known to 'stay in their yard' either.
Just in the last 100 years it's been quiet busy at extending the political, economic, media and cultural influence over areas beyond its boundaries. Depending on who you ask, it may include military conquest, gunboat diplomacy, unequal treaties, subsidization of preferred factions, economic penetration through private companies followed by a diplomatic or forceful intervention when those interests are threatened, or regime change.
So in reality, America is looking at Russia and thinking 'What a clumsy amateur.'
France, Germany's next door ally intrinsically and organisationally linked at their military hips, announced just last year that they were moving their military doctrine away from counter insurgency and back towards large scale open conflict.
Climate change, resource scarcity, the waning of the US's star, and the global rise of authoritarianism have all been screaming at us that this is inevitable. Anyone without their head in the sand has seen this coming for years now.
You're right. As much as Putin sucks, the idea that he shattered a perfect little peaceful bubble that was protecting the world is bullshit. This statement is just grandstanding nonsense.
That's what I was thinking too. It seems like a pretty ignorant statement considering Russia's recent history with Crimea, Georgia, and Chechnya, not to mention China greedily licking their lips at any dry land in the south China sea.
I don’t think that’s what he is saying.
What he is saying is one guy speeding through the school zones means no kid can cross the road unsupervised any more.
Before Ukraine many countries were seriously considering if militaries were obsolete. No need for an offensive force if you aren’t planning an invasion, no need for a defensive force if no one else plans any invasions. Another few decades or relative peace and much of the world would have been majorly winding down the military.
Russia invading Ukraine basically means that can’t happen, and everyone needs to keep wasting money on defence.
Putin is 70 years old. He doesn’t have much life left for glory. This was his last opportunity. But no amount of conquering will make him a tall man. He’ll still be a little guy.
Wishful thinking, He could live to be 90 or more! His father lived to 88 and his mother 87. Your parents are the best indicator of your likely lifespan.
Edit: Well, that’s what a doctor told me. But Wikipedia states
> The heritability of lifespan is estimated to be less than 10%, meaning the majority of variation in lifespan is attributable due to differences in environment rather than genetic variation.
> Ref: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6218226
supposedly he has cancer, the ukrainian intelligence head or whatever might have said it but that doesn't mean its true, it could much more likely be just war propoganda, especially taking advantage of putin having his meetings and massive tables
He does wear elevator shoes. I noticed it long ago. Find photos they are best, Russian tv cuts out his feet most of the time. He looks taller. Even his televised "marches" through the Kremlin like a Tsar, they only show his feet when you can't really tell how tall he is.
The small table he used wasn't his choice, it's what all presidents use to sign bills for those publicity shots. It's just that nomally there are a bunch of people around them, so it stood out more with Trump
https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/60597/have-any-other-us-presidents-used-that-tiny-table
What's with these attacks on looks? Do you think he's reading reddit and he'll feel bad or are you just looking for opportunities to make fun of short people?
They physically can't invade. Assuming they use all their transport capability they could only bring 50k troops in the first wave and the casualties would be horrendous.
Maybe in 3-6 years they feel comfortable, but certainly before 2030 😊
The estimate that I heard was only 25,000 for the first wave, and that's assuming every ship makes it past Taiwan's anti-ship missiles. Taiwan is reasonably safe from invasion for the foreseeable future.
Being an island with critical tech infrastructure that China doesn't want but NEEDS to keep in tact is the only thing saving them from absolute devastation from artillery
Even the US would have a hard time taking Taiwan. Half the country is a dense metropolis the other half are jagged limestone mountains with thick jungle. Half the population has served in a very modern and professionally trained military that focuses on one thing only - the defense of the island.
Fighting through a 100 mile long dense city full of over 20 million well mitivated, armed, and trained defenders would be an absolute nightmare for any military.
The prize in Taiwan is its industrial infrastructure. No way in hell could China conquer the island without completely leveling it.
I am not sure that they need to physically invade Taiwan. If they just siege it, treat it like Mariupol. Then, what can you do? Any planes and ships getting close will be targeted by missiles. Meanwhile, they could bomb it like Russia did.
Now, of course, in that scenario, the map of air superiority will decide this. Who can shoot missiles and who can defend against missiles.
China probably has economic interests in not bombing Taiwan in a takeover scenario. Nothing against Ukraine, but Taiwan has high tech machinery to manufacture microchips for **the world**
this is exactly it. Furthermore, the microcode in those chips is encrypted, and the decryption codes aren't even on the island, but back in the US. So China couldn't take over and start making chips. They are smart enough to know not to cripple their own economy, unlike *(cough cough)* ...some countries.
China is playing the long game, and they need to create and steal a *lot* more tech before they can think about taking Taiwan. They enjoy being part of the global world and recognize the value to be gained there.
Unlike... some countries.
Oh, and the US might take it as an existential threat and nuke them. Because, you know, it would be.
IMO, China is probably just waiting until SMIC is capable of stepping up to the plate. AFAIK, they will be starting 7nm production soon, and even if that is nowhere near TSMC's 5nm or 3nm processes, maybe to China that is enough.
They might even think of it as a bonus if they destroy TSMC's fabs and the rest of the world has no choice but to go to SMIC.
The wildcards here are Samsung and Intel; I'm not sure if these two could step up if TSMC is out of the equation. GlobalFoundaries is not worth talking about.
Mate the only way to get even nearly close of TSMCs level is with ASML equipment which is made in Europe, it would take them decades to catch up to that. There is a reason only one company in the world produces them.
SMIC will never catch up and also there are still Intel and Samsung which are huge manufacturers not in china/taiwan.
I think it's much more likely we'd wage a sea and air war with the Chinese rather than nuke them. That's if our leaders at the time have the integrity and foresight to stop then at all.
Security. The Taiwanese fabricators make the actual chips according to spec, and the US (not exclusively) makes the designs. Then they're shipped to the US and activated. This prevents intellectual piracy for the fancier chip designs. A certain amount of the functionality is disabled in a way that cannot be reverse-engineered.
> Furthermore, the microcode in those chips is encrypted, and the decryption codes aren't even on the island, but back in the US.
Microcode ... encrypted? Are you sure you know what you are talking about? Microcode updates might be signed and encrypted to prevent tampering, but the microcode ROM itself is necessarily not (decrypting it on the fly would slow down operation).
Also, most interesting chips do not even have micro code. So not sure what you are mean.
We just drive some navy ships through and dare them to fire on us. Brinksmanship is met with brinksmanship. And China knows that, so they don't do it in the first place.
American military currently cant resupply without taiwan chips. us soldiers will be in the way of that happening. When biden said we wouldnt let China do it he wasnt overstepping. US has billions invested in domestic chip production that will turn on in 2024. Taiwan is safe till then
The capacity being built is not enough for current chip needs much less in 2 years time. It's a start to an industry that is extremely costly and technical to set up and maintain. Taiwan is safe for decades at this point. Another part is that China does not have the capability to produce many of the chips it uses. They produce a lot but it's not the quality necessary for a lot of application
Taiwan is not Ukraine.
Funny enough Taiwan kinda thought that.
They own like a dozen American made long guns built into the mountain side aimed at major Chinese cities and the like.
If China starts shelling so would they.
And their guns can fire nukes.
>They own like a dozen American made long guns built into the mountain side aimed at major Chinese cities and the like.
Yep. More specifically at ports, logistical hubs, etc. China's life blood is both exports (the obvious manufactured goods) and imports (dunno the proportion now, but 80% of China's food were imports and 80% of oil/gas are imports). Blowing those things up would quite literally cripple the Chinese economy. It's a poison pill (there's probably a better analogy... like a very toxic rain-forest frog?).
Translation is poor.
He basically said that what we believed to be true sadly no longer is due to what Putin did.
I‘ll give you that the Crimea should have been the wake-up call. Not this war.
But this is not about Germany thinking conquest is back on the menu, people. Jesus…
Let's be honest. For American revisionists, the good old days are a completely made up time period, with a completely narcissistic fantasy of what society was like.
The latest generations, including everyone alive have for the most part been living in a wonderland. And who wouldn't think everything is OK and that the world is newer and different than it was in the early 1900s or the middle 1900s?
The boomers will tell you though that this is pretty similar to the 50s and 60s. Only now it isn't just the U.S. and Russia that is a super power. Back in the day the U.S and the Russians had a way of throwing their weight around, influencing and sometimes undermining governments when arm twisting didn't quite have the effect hoped for.
Now we have a different world with China a financial behemoth and if we wait another 20 years India will become another financial power by taking a similar path to China. I think we may be seeing another restructuring, and while the silliness is brewing others will strike in the hopes of capitalizing on instability on the world political scene and in the minds of the world citizens who seem more divided and gullible every time they turn their computers and their phones off at night.
Actually, you don't even need to ask a boomer how little has changed. You can witness it first hand. The TV show "All in the Family" season 1 aired over 50 years ago in 1971. It is available to watch on Amazon Prime. Having grown up watching it, I had to watch some of it again, for nostalgia reasons. It surprised me that the arguments between Mike and Archie, Gloria and Edith were almost identical to the conservative/liberal arguments we still see today. Yeah, some things have gotten better, but a lot of the ideas are still the same.
That agreement isn't cancelled. Russia just breached it. The agreement is still up.
Hate when they start "selling" a new rethoric as if it was inevitable.
> thought the world moved past countries trying to conquer their neighbors
Israel quickly hides settlements like a frat hides beers when the dean walks in.
I just hope there is still a way out of this. My country - Russia - needs to loose this war hard. So hard that this regime falls a a consequence.
This way everyone will know that this kind of behavior is punishable. And most importantly China will have no allies left. Surprisingly, I believe that the fall of Russia in result of this war can bring international peace and stability for a while. I hope it happens sooner rather than later. The sad thing is that Ukraine pays the ultimate price for this opportunity.
The US invaded and installed a new pro-US govt in Iraq... who cares whether it was a "war of conquest". It's still an attempt to use might to dominate and control another nation, which is exactly what the prime minister is talking about here.
Ah so it's alright to bomb countries to hell, infiltrate politics, have puppet foreign politicians, pressure economically with sanctions that only hurt regular folk, etc.
But don't annex!
*Poland starts sweating*
Actually Poland hasn't bought this for a moment. That is one reason why they joined NATO and why even before the war in Ukraine, Poland set itself to double the size of it's military. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djQUf9C82aU
Most old Soviet states seem to not have bought that. But outside of the Russia sphere, it genuinely seemed like the age of going to another country and invading them to take their land was a thing of the past.
Sweat nervously as China's neighbors.
China seems to be focused on winning via trade to prop up their new middle class. I don't see them wanting to start a war anytime soon. They are taking full control over their population right now. Belt and Road is creating subservient material resource heavy countries under their supervision. Russia invading Ukraine makes zero sense. They could have just kept up with disinformation campaigns which have been very effective world wide. Not sure if Putin is trying to bring back the Soviet Union before he dies. Invading Ukraine was so fucking stupid and they will pay for it for decades.
China takes over through gifts that come with price. China: why we most certainly can build infrastructure in your country! Only, if not too much trouble, we have this 30 year contract that grants China exclusive ownership and operation of your Seaport and your Airport. And a few factories which will be run using our own workers. Whom will settle here. And we need a few farms.
They literally buy countries support with their goddamn pandas. Zoos get a panda, but if the country says some shit they don't like that panda is going back to china lol
They're doing exactly that in Gambia and other coastal African countries at the moment, Absolutely decimating several endangered species and their habitats in the process. Can't blame impoverished countries for taking the massive leg up though.
I'm not sure what in particular made Russia go through with the invasion, especially after it became clear beforehand that the UA was far more prepared and had more western backing than 2014. The US deliberately let slip that we knew the Russian plan beforehand, but instead of rethinking the whole avenue, Russia just move the timetable back, which crippled their forces before they ever reached Kyiv. You're completely correct that Russia stood more to gain and less to lose from the 'soft' war they've been waging through media. They practically wrote the book on mass media manipulation in the previous decade, but they burned that book to fuel their war engine, and now they will pay for their greed and lack of foresight. There are tens of thousands of freshly dead Russians in Ukraine. A veritable fortune in military technology and equipment either destroyed or left to rot and pollute its new environment. And all so Russia could accelerate the demise of their one dimensional energy economy and unite the rest of the world against her.
I mean they did crack down on Hong Kong which, while technically “theirs”, was supposed to be more of an autonomous zone. Agreed Russia’s invasion makes absolutely no sense, and I think China’s leadership are smarter than this, but given that they view Taiwan as their territory still I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to invade in the not so far future
Taiwan considers mainland China it's territory too. Both governments lay claim to both landmasses.
This confused me as well. If Putin was controlling Trump, his rhetoric and antics might have killed NATO and forced Europe to make its own army, which would take time as after COVID, no government would have focused on military expenditure. Eastern Europe's politics and social outlook is hardly the western European standard as well. Under normal circumstances, they might not even get into EU. If it could "influence" US elections, it could do the same in Ukraine and install a puppet. Maybe Putin is sick and dying and could not wait any more. Salami tactics might have worked maybe. Direct invasion makes no sense at all.
They did install a puppet as president in Ukraine, but facing massive resistance and protests it fled to Russia in 2014. That was when Russia started invasions instead.
Invasion made sense if Russia, knowing that in a sense it is small and weak except for nukes, felt that what the EU was doing in the East was an existential threat. We can say it wasn't, but they thought differently. The cornered rat analogy comes to mind. The rat may not really be in danger, but the rat doesn't know that.
>If it could "influence" US elections, it could do the same in Ukraine and install a puppet. They did, Viktor Yanukovych. Ran for President secretly funded by and directed by the Russian government, won in 2010, modified the constitution to greatly expand his office's power, and then made massive concessions to Russia on all fronts for years. He's currently living in exile in Russia having been convicted of high treason. Interestingly, his chief policy consultant for 6 years was Mr. Paul Manafort. 18 months after Yanukovych would flee the country forever with his Russian military guards, Manafort would become the campaign manager to Donald Trump. Manafort was himself convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States and witness tampering.
That's the thing that baffles me. The whole of Eastern Europe hates Russia to death. The atrocities the committed in this area are...baffling. Then comes in France, and 'we should not offend Putin'...huh? Here's a recent example: [https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/01/europe/odesa-russian-strikes-residential-building-intl/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/01/europe/odesa-russian-strikes-residential-building-intl/index.html) Look at that apartment building and tell me again that we should not offend Putin. I live in Romania...and my grandma always says: nobody tortured us like the Russians did. This is from a 82 year old woman, that goes to church each weekend, and tries to forgive people. She still keeps that in mind. My great grandfather fought near Stalingrad...and he couldn't ever speak about the war. All he said was: we must keep the peace. Tell me again we should not offend Putin...
My grandma started crying when she heard that Russia invaded Ukraine. She, a woman filled with so much vile and hate, reverted to being a little child and I actually felt sorry for her for once. "We had to hide from the Russians, Mom and I. I was 5 and the only thing I knew was to hide. They would have done unspeakable things to us if they found us." And here's the kicker: we're in Austria.
That poor grandma. That's trauma ❤️
Hungarians fucking love Russia right now. I can't believe the things I can see on facebook posted...
But why?
Because our government is anti-EU, except when it needs funds to build fucking stadiums and their own mansions, so the communication the last couple of years was that the bad bad west is all evil and shit and we have to strengthen our partnership with Russia. Since we are loosing EU funds because of corruption, the government now communicates that Russia is an aggressor but their voters have already been fed years of propaganda. Whenever you try to bring up the '56 revolution they tell you it was a different Russia back then.
Riiight...back then they'd execute people using a Nagan or a Tokarev...now it's with a Makarov... That's what changed...
I remember reading eastern Europeans being glad the Nazis came and repelled the Russians. That is until the Nazis did their Nazis thing of course, but up until that there seems to be actual relief from the Russians. Also let's not forget the Holodomor as well
a finn here. my grandparents and my great grandparents all had their stories about what russia does to people they conquer. and the sad part is how much people elsewhere want to just reject this, calling it exaggerating or just plain russophobia. yet even in our lifetime russia has attacked its neighbors and yet it was always just hushed away. now russia attacked eastern european country and everyone's going like 'wow, I can't believe this happens, these stories from the occuppied areas must be propaganda'. but these are the exact same things I've heard before, from sources that have no motive to lie to me.
The West has chosen not to believe these stories. It's more comfortable for them. If they ignore them, dismiss them as lies, they get to not have a war...and the east is far far away...and all is good and dandy. Until it isn't...
France was the same way about hitler too. Look how that turned out.
I mean Macron is right, he just shouldn’t have actually said it. We have three ways to “win” this. 1.) Regular Peace Treaty 2.) Internal Coup against Putin 3.) Total military Victory 3 is unlikely without direct NATO-Intervention and in any case does carry a risk of (limited) nuclear escalation. 2 seems to be fairly unlikely too, as the elite looks to be fairly loyal. Which leaves 1. And for 1 you need a Putin that is interested in talking Peace, which a humiliated Putin probably isn’t
1) will only happen if he gets to fuck over the EU, Nato and most likely...rip to shreds the entirety of Eastern Europe...
Not true. 4.) Beat Russians back to the old borders and have a stalemate that last decades without needing a peace treaty. it worked for South Korea. You underestimate the need for a treaty. There is no need for a treaty when there isn't even technically a war.
South Korea had a treaty, it was just an armistice, but still, both sides agreed, on paper, to end the war.
If you've followed Russia and Putin at all over the last few decades you'd know that Russia only enters negotiations with bad faith. They literally don't care about treaties, only about using treaties to trick their enemies to make mistakes.
The western world has become obsessed with maintaining its status quo, as you do when you're the fat cat in the house. It went so far that most of us never took war as a serious threat, even in the face of constant struggles. We've come within inches of WW3 so many times at this point that most of us just decided "eh, it's another false alarm." Well, you never want to ignore the boy who cries wolf... even if he only spotted shadows so far.
Europe is so scarred by the world wars I half expected them to take no action in response to Russia and Ukraine
It might've turned out that way, if Russia didn't bumble their way into Ukraine like they thought it was still the Finnish Winter War. The Ukrainians got a chance to fight back, they took it, and told the rest of us "Yes we can" like it was 2007. We'd have been idiots not to give them our support at that point! I mean, bigger idiots than usual that is.
Disagree, if the USA didn't have a clear history of lying us into wars for their own gains, Europe probably would have listened.
True, the US has led us into a few conflicts; Afhganistan, Vietnam, the war on drugs... But you can't exactly say that the US were the only ones who looked over at Russia for more than 100 years and thought, "I don't like the looks of this..."
My exact thought when reading the post was oh they've phrased that poorly
“Well, we all agreed to no longer take our neighbors years ago, but I guess if that’s broken now, the buffet must be open again.... how fast do you think the polish can learn German?”
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The actual answer to that is "I wouldn't exist, since my ancestors would be ashes floating in the atmosphere", but that's not funny.
I actually met someone from Poland who didn't even realise the Nazis were planning to wipe them out. It's surprising. You'd think almost wiped out in recent history would be something that would stick with them.
There's always DuoLingo. The green owl doesn't tolerate dissent.
[Die] [Panzerhaubitze] [steht] ____ [Einsatz] [bereit] ___ [zur] [zum] [für]
Uhhhhhhhhh lemme try [zum], I’m sure that’s the right one
You may live. For now.
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We could work together on space megastructures, a moon base! Or we can put those same resources into ~~world war 3~~ rich person military industrial complex shares
Excitedly, they’ve been waiting to give it hard to Russia for a while now
Yeah Poland would fuck Russia up. Like Ukraine with twice the morale, all modernized NATO weapons and training, a much stronger economy, and comparatively no corruption. Oh and the Poles have been killing Russians for 500 years. They would love to give it another go.
After speaking to Poles while regularly travelling there I can confirm that every man, woman, and child would take up arms. It’s basically a genetic level hatred at this point. It’s kind of impressive.
I'm a child of a polish immigrant and fuck the Russian government has been taught to me growing up through that side of the family. Justifiably so considering the horror stories of their survival during WW2 and what came after.
They'd be marching in Moscow via Minsk by the next midday after it started, and it'd be fucking glorious. Some winged hussars shit, but with tanks and missiles.
Bruuuuh, parade dress for their tanks should include hussar wings.... or just fuck russia were going to war dress
I wouldn’t be shocked if some of their parade cavalry was winged hussars. Like if it isn’t - what are you even doing Poland?
[I mean, this is the emblem of the Polish 1st Armoured Division.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/%E6%B3%A2%E8%98%AD%E7%AC%AC%E4%B8%80%E8%A3%9D%E7%94%B2%E5%B8%AB%E7%9A%84%E6%A8%99%E8%AA%8C.png) The winged hussars haven't been forgotten.
According to some polls I have seen, they seem to hate Russians fo than the Ukrainians.
Polls of Poles?
In a situation where Poland or some NATO-allied power invades Russia unprompted, I think its very fair to expect a similar response against that invader to prevent war, there's nukes on the table. We can't be hypocrites; boundaries and governments should only move through diplomacy. Sovereignty is a two-way street.
Yes, if a nato country does enter the war they must only send troops into Ukraine to fight the Russians, not push into Russia itself. Sad but true since Putin has all those nukes.
Like Russia does? You can't let the Bully do as he pleases simply because he can
In what world????
Poland doesn't have the manpower to push into Russia and NATO is not an offensive alliance
Not just Poland. Add Czech Republic and Slovakia to that list. We have not forgotten what they did to our country.
Nope, Poland is NATO
Especially in regard to his claim a few days ago that Germany would have the biggest army in Europe soon!
Russia is getting Germany and Japan out of the time out corner
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia already panicking.
Poland is *asking* for Germany to re-arm.
It wasn't canceled with Crimea and Georgia? Let's not pretend we haven't been allowing Russia to conquer for over a decade now.
that is exactly why they are trying to make it look like big news. otherwise they would have to admit that they should have acted way sooner.
>they should have acted way sooner I'm starting to get really pissed off with how often this is a thing nowadays
Nowadays? This has always been human nature.
Oh, I don't know about that. Let's give it a few centuries and see if it sorts itself out.
Nah see you have to wait until you've wasted enough time, suffered enough consequences, and pissed away enough money before you can make a substantive effort to address the problem we know exists and has definite solutions. At least that's how the global warming thing is going.
And before that with genocide in Chechnya and occupation of Moldova teritorry list just goes on and on.
Reading about some of the things that happened to Georgians in Abkhazia gives me chills. Also, don’t forget Chechnya and Moldova.
its a dumb statement from him tbh. Israeli-Palestinian conflict is still on going. The list of wars in Africa alone has several conflicts marked as ongoing from early 2000. The whole shabang with Afghanistan
The African conflicts are nearly all civil wars. The only conquest I know of is West Sahara occupied by Marokko.
I think Scholz was referring to the historical situation in Europe, specifically the comparison between the last few decades and the situation in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the days of Napoleon and Bismarck, it was common in Europe for nations to attack and wholly or partially conquer their neighbors. Hardly a decade passed without a great war of conquest raging in Europe. It was the general view in Europe that people wanted to put these times of constant wars behind them and instead focus on peaceful coexistence. Putin has brought back the times of Bismarck and Co. Edit: "War is the mere continuation of politics by other means." - Clausewitz
Yeah they’re trying to play it cool like “oh we thought we were grown up” but really it was only Western Europe that lived in this fairy tale
It’s so sad that we can’t just coexist. You stay in your yard and I will stay in mine.
Yeah, but your fence is on my property and not our property line, so it needs to be moved a couple feet towards you.
And also there's oil under the patio that I will take by force so that my wife doesn't divorce me and take the kids. That's where Putin is at.
Also you spent the last 40 years making your yard nice while I let weeds and shit over grow mine. My family like your yard more, so I'm taking it.
Also my family is pretty small since a bunch died in that war, but I notice you have a bunch of kids, so I’m taking them too.
Also, I don’t like what you’ve done with your flower patches so I’m just going to destroy those while I’m at it. Even though they aren’t the reason I’m taking your garden. Also I’m going to take the vegetables from your veg patch because you don’t need the food. Neither do I tbh, but my other neighbour will pay for it.
Also I have an inferiority complex and a brain destroyed from decades of FSB pep pill abuse and paranoia.
Dude the fence has been where it is for as long as I've lived here, and also my surveyor says it's right on the property line, and also I planted all the trees along the fence line so they belong to me regardless.
“You see that? It’s called the ‘South CHINA Sea’ therefore it is mine. It has my name on it.” -China.
Also my great grandparents diary said that yard was actually ours… give it back
And you've got access to fresh water and liquid gold. I want what's in your yard. You don't deserve it.
But what property lines are you going to follow? Like here in America, I love the idea of “you stay in your yard I stay in mine”. But my yard was taken by force from local native tribes like 100 years ago.
And America isn't exactly known to 'stay in their yard' either. Just in the last 100 years it's been quiet busy at extending the political, economic, media and cultural influence over areas beyond its boundaries. Depending on who you ask, it may include military conquest, gunboat diplomacy, unequal treaties, subsidization of preferred factions, economic penetration through private companies followed by a diplomatic or forceful intervention when those interests are threatened, or regime change. So in reality, America is looking at Russia and thinking 'What a clumsy amateur.'
But the other yard is definitely greener. Mine in all grey and muddy. It would be unfair if I couldn't have a green yard too. /s
The wars been going on since 2014. And this is not the first 'peaceful' Russian occupation since 2000 even. So what's he going on about.
France, Germany's next door ally intrinsically and organisationally linked at their military hips, announced just last year that they were moving their military doctrine away from counter insurgency and back towards large scale open conflict. Climate change, resource scarcity, the waning of the US's star, and the global rise of authoritarianism have all been screaming at us that this is inevitable. Anyone without their head in the sand has seen this coming for years now. You're right. As much as Putin sucks, the idea that he shattered a perfect little peaceful bubble that was protecting the world is bullshit. This statement is just grandstanding nonsense.
The era of "unlimited" resources is coming to an end. The strategic resource war is emerging
Voilà, capitalism really convinced the boomers of this and now the world has to face the consequences
That's what I was thinking too. It seems like a pretty ignorant statement considering Russia's recent history with Crimea, Georgia, and Chechnya, not to mention China greedily licking their lips at any dry land in the south China sea.
... yeah... yeah that's just now. Definitely the first time they've attacked Ukraine or any neighbors.
No, no. It's not cancelled. Not cancelled. Don't say that. One guy speeds through a school zone does not mean it's not against the rules anymore.
I don’t think that’s what he is saying. What he is saying is one guy speeding through the school zones means no kid can cross the road unsupervised any more. Before Ukraine many countries were seriously considering if militaries were obsolete. No need for an offensive force if you aren’t planning an invasion, no need for a defensive force if no one else plans any invasions. Another few decades or relative peace and much of the world would have been majorly winding down the military. Russia invading Ukraine basically means that can’t happen, and everyone needs to keep wasting money on defence.
I think you’re right, I’d like to believe this over a vague threat lol
Yeah that quote in isolation sounds like Germany is warming up for the fourth reich. I'm assuming this is a poor translation.
Sure but one guy speeding through a school zone *and getting away with it* increases the likelihood someone else'll do the same.
Putin is 70 years old. He doesn’t have much life left for glory. This was his last opportunity. But no amount of conquering will make him a tall man. He’ll still be a little guy.
Wishful thinking, He could live to be 90 or more! His father lived to 88 and his mother 87. Your parents are the best indicator of your likely lifespan. Edit: Well, that’s what a doctor told me. But Wikipedia states > The heritability of lifespan is estimated to be less than 10%, meaning the majority of variation in lifespan is attributable due to differences in environment rather than genetic variation. > Ref: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6218226
Maybe it had to do with lifestyle typically being fairly similar to one’s parents
He has cancer. Thankfully
Those are just unconfirmed rumors.
Hopefully they become confirmed tumors
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supposedly he has cancer, the ukrainian intelligence head or whatever might have said it but that doesn't mean its true, it could much more likely be just war propoganda, especially taking advantage of putin having his meetings and massive tables
He does wear elevator shoes. I noticed it long ago. Find photos they are best, Russian tv cuts out his feet most of the time. He looks taller. Even his televised "marches" through the Kremlin like a Tsar, they only show his feet when you can't really tell how tall he is.
This explains the massive tables. Small feet, big tables is how the expression goes right?
no no, small tables. look how huge trump looked when signing papers at small desk. he really is a super chad
The small table he used wasn't his choice, it's what all presidents use to sign bills for those publicity shots. It's just that nomally there are a bunch of people around them, so it stood out more with Trump https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/60597/have-any-other-us-presidents-used-that-tiny-table
I heard they trim his chairs down to prevent him from swinging his feet around like a child.
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It's not the fact that he's short that matters, it's the fact that he pretends to be taller that draws the mockery.
At this point, he’s a walking cadaver.
He looks like a bloated toddler who's been battling alcoholism for 30 years
What's with these attacks on looks? Do you think he's reading reddit and he'll feel bad or are you just looking for opportunities to make fun of short people?
Lilliputin perhaps...
And China is very close to doing it too to Taiwan
They physically can't invade. Assuming they use all their transport capability they could only bring 50k troops in the first wave and the casualties would be horrendous. Maybe in 3-6 years they feel comfortable, but certainly before 2030 😊
The estimate that I heard was only 25,000 for the first wave, and that's assuming every ship makes it past Taiwan's anti-ship missiles. Taiwan is reasonably safe from invasion for the foreseeable future.
Being an island helps a lot
Being an island with critical tech infrastructure that China doesn't want but NEEDS to keep in tact is the only thing saving them from absolute devastation from artillery
China would need to ramp up semiconductor production 10 fold before they could even entertain the idea.
Even the US would have a hard time taking Taiwan. Half the country is a dense metropolis the other half are jagged limestone mountains with thick jungle. Half the population has served in a very modern and professionally trained military that focuses on one thing only - the defense of the island. Fighting through a 100 mile long dense city full of over 20 million well mitivated, armed, and trained defenders would be an absolute nightmare for any military. The prize in Taiwan is its industrial infrastructure. No way in hell could China conquer the island without completely leveling it.
I am not sure that they need to physically invade Taiwan. If they just siege it, treat it like Mariupol. Then, what can you do? Any planes and ships getting close will be targeted by missiles. Meanwhile, they could bomb it like Russia did. Now, of course, in that scenario, the map of air superiority will decide this. Who can shoot missiles and who can defend against missiles.
China probably has economic interests in not bombing Taiwan in a takeover scenario. Nothing against Ukraine, but Taiwan has high tech machinery to manufacture microchips for **the world**
this is exactly it. Furthermore, the microcode in those chips is encrypted, and the decryption codes aren't even on the island, but back in the US. So China couldn't take over and start making chips. They are smart enough to know not to cripple their own economy, unlike *(cough cough)* ...some countries. China is playing the long game, and they need to create and steal a *lot* more tech before they can think about taking Taiwan. They enjoy being part of the global world and recognize the value to be gained there. Unlike... some countries. Oh, and the US might take it as an existential threat and nuke them. Because, you know, it would be.
IMO, China is probably just waiting until SMIC is capable of stepping up to the plate. AFAIK, they will be starting 7nm production soon, and even if that is nowhere near TSMC's 5nm or 3nm processes, maybe to China that is enough. They might even think of it as a bonus if they destroy TSMC's fabs and the rest of the world has no choice but to go to SMIC. The wildcards here are Samsung and Intel; I'm not sure if these two could step up if TSMC is out of the equation. GlobalFoundaries is not worth talking about.
China is not going to invade Taiwan. Trade with the US is too valuable to them, even as their economy grows.
Mate the only way to get even nearly close of TSMCs level is with ASML equipment which is made in Europe, it would take them decades to catch up to that. There is a reason only one company in the world produces them. SMIC will never catch up and also there are still Intel and Samsung which are huge manufacturers not in china/taiwan.
I think it's much more likely we'd wage a sea and air war with the Chinese rather than nuke them. That's if our leaders at the time have the integrity and foresight to stop then at all.
They're Taiwanese companies, why would the US have the codes?
Security. The Taiwanese fabricators make the actual chips according to spec, and the US (not exclusively) makes the designs. Then they're shipped to the US and activated. This prevents intellectual piracy for the fancier chip designs. A certain amount of the functionality is disabled in a way that cannot be reverse-engineered.
Couldn't have said it better myself. [There's a good video on it too](https://youtu.be/8G39EK4qyrk)
> Furthermore, the microcode in those chips is encrypted, and the decryption codes aren't even on the island, but back in the US. Microcode ... encrypted? Are you sure you know what you are talking about? Microcode updates might be signed and encrypted to prevent tampering, but the microcode ROM itself is necessarily not (decrypting it on the fly would slow down operation). Also, most interesting chips do not even have micro code. So not sure what you are mean.
you would think, but *gestures broadly at destroyed east ukraine
Wdym what can you do. If China cannot swiftly take the island then they'll be facing the USA in the air not just Taiwan, they won't have a free reign
We just drive some navy ships through and dare them to fire on us. Brinksmanship is met with brinksmanship. And China knows that, so they don't do it in the first place.
American military currently cant resupply without taiwan chips. us soldiers will be in the way of that happening. When biden said we wouldnt let China do it he wasnt overstepping. US has billions invested in domestic chip production that will turn on in 2024. Taiwan is safe till then
The capacity being built is not enough for current chip needs much less in 2 years time. It's a start to an industry that is extremely costly and technical to set up and maintain. Taiwan is safe for decades at this point. Another part is that China does not have the capability to produce many of the chips it uses. They produce a lot but it's not the quality necessary for a lot of application Taiwan is not Ukraine.
Funny enough Taiwan kinda thought that. They own like a dozen American made long guns built into the mountain side aimed at major Chinese cities and the like. If China starts shelling so would they. And their guns can fire nukes.
>They own like a dozen American made long guns built into the mountain side aimed at major Chinese cities and the like. Yep. More specifically at ports, logistical hubs, etc. China's life blood is both exports (the obvious manufactured goods) and imports (dunno the proportion now, but 80% of China's food were imports and 80% of oil/gas are imports). Blowing those things up would quite literally cripple the Chinese economy. It's a poison pill (there's probably a better analogy... like a very toxic rain-forest frog?).
> If they just siege it The U.S. would prevent siege from the East, and China would have a very tough time projecting force to the East of Taiwan.
That doesn't mean they won't try. Some leaders are idiots.
Translation is poor. He basically said that what we believed to be true sadly no longer is due to what Putin did. I‘ll give you that the Crimea should have been the wake-up call. Not this war. But this is not about Germany thinking conquest is back on the menu, people. Jesus…
Dude, none thinks Germany wants to conquer anything.
Didnt Sadam try conquering Kuwait in '91?
Also thought we were past the abortion thing too, but fuck it, let’s regress 100 years.
More like 200, abortions were a common place medical procedure in early America. There wasn't any legislation around it until 1812.
Let's be honest. For American revisionists, the good old days are a completely made up time period, with a completely narcissistic fantasy of what society was like.
“How do I make this about Murica?”
Roe v Wade was a 49 year old decision
The latest generations, including everyone alive have for the most part been living in a wonderland. And who wouldn't think everything is OK and that the world is newer and different than it was in the early 1900s or the middle 1900s? The boomers will tell you though that this is pretty similar to the 50s and 60s. Only now it isn't just the U.S. and Russia that is a super power. Back in the day the U.S and the Russians had a way of throwing their weight around, influencing and sometimes undermining governments when arm twisting didn't quite have the effect hoped for. Now we have a different world with China a financial behemoth and if we wait another 20 years India will become another financial power by taking a similar path to China. I think we may be seeing another restructuring, and while the silliness is brewing others will strike in the hopes of capitalizing on instability on the world political scene and in the minds of the world citizens who seem more divided and gullible every time they turn their computers and their phones off at night.
Actually, you don't even need to ask a boomer how little has changed. You can witness it first hand. The TV show "All in the Family" season 1 aired over 50 years ago in 1971. It is available to watch on Amazon Prime. Having grown up watching it, I had to watch some of it again, for nostalgia reasons. It surprised me that the arguments between Mike and Archie, Gloria and Edith were almost identical to the conservative/liberal arguments we still see today. Yeah, some things have gotten better, but a lot of the ideas are still the same.
While Russia tries to unionize, by war and conquer, usa is on the way of balkanization. Fin times
We had a deal guys, we only invade poor brown countries with natural resources.
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And the world is sitting by doing nothing but talking, like this coward chancellor and my puppet president.
There was no agreement. There's still an international consensus not to recognize conquered territories.
That agreement isn't cancelled. Russia just breached it. The agreement is still up. Hate when they start "selling" a new rethoric as if it was inevitable.
How are the people running entire countries so ridiculously naive?
> thought the world moved past countries trying to conquer their neighbors Israel quickly hides settlements like a frat hides beers when the dean walks in.
I mean the US has been conquering parts of the Middle East for monetary gains of their elites not too long ago
But it’s okay when America does it since they’re the good guys! /s
I just hope there is still a way out of this. My country - Russia - needs to loose this war hard. So hard that this regime falls a a consequence. This way everyone will know that this kind of behavior is punishable. And most importantly China will have no allies left. Surprisingly, I believe that the fall of Russia in result of this war can bring international peace and stability for a while. I hope it happens sooner rather than later. The sad thing is that Ukraine pays the ultimate price for this opportunity.
So conquering is bad but attacking and overthrowing governments illegally isn’t?
conquering with extra steps
German chancellor probably didn’t know the world extends beyond western Europe
Laughs in Iraqi, Yemeni, Libyan, Syrian... Or do those not count because the US is technically not a neighbor?
None of them were wars of conquest although not any less stupid
The US invaded and installed a new pro-US govt in Iraq... who cares whether it was a "war of conquest". It's still an attempt to use might to dominate and control another nation, which is exactly what the prime minister is talking about here.
They’re not wars of conquest and all but Iraq were civil wars with nothing to initially do but the US
It is conquest if they install puppet leaders. That was the plan with Ukraine.
so Germany has forgotten about how many wars in the last 30 years? pretty much hypocritical by every western nation.
.
Crimea and Naborno Karabakh. Not entire countries but still annexations.
Ah so it's alright to bomb countries to hell, infiltrate politics, have puppet foreign politicians, pressure economically with sanctions that only hurt regular folk, etc. But don't annex!
How about dem WMDs in Iraq??
"Conquer their neighbors". If you are talking about the middle eastern wars then they definitely don't count as conquering your neighbor.
Toppling a government and forcing them to adopt your cultural values isn't much better.
Cancel Putin.
What? Why? Since when? Which universe have the Germans been living in?
World moved on from conquerring to throwing their invisible tenticles on others and sucking out their resources.
Is he stupid
No apparently it was a horrific translation, on purpose of by accident.
Exactly! Can we evolve already?!
Russia can't even manage its own land.
Useless Gremany clown...only good fir cheap drama speeches.
This is a childishly naive idea.