"The worst people in the world have their foot on the accelerator driving us toward escalations that should terrify anyone with gray matter " - Death of American Free Speech
Posted by freedomforall 2 years, 2 months ago to Politics
Excerpt:
"A substitute teacher at an Arlington, Virginia middle school has been suspended for teaching an insufficiently one-sided perspective on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Apparently one of the students recorded the lesson and showed it to their parents who complained to the school.
This happens as RT America shuts its doors following an astonishingly aggressive censorship campaign against Russia-backed media outlets throughout the western world.
The virulent post-9/11-like hysteria about Russia that has been promoted by one-sided mass media reporting on the war, and by the five years of fact-free conspiracy mongering which preceded it, has created an environment where you’ll get shouted down on social media for voicing any opinion about this conflict apart from saying Putin invaded because he is evil and hates freedom. Voices calling for diplomacy, de-escalation and detente are being systematically drowned out.
Meanwhile you’ve got massively influential pundits like Sean Hannity calling for a direct NATO airstrike on a Russian military convoy in Ukraine, without the slightest risk of losing his immense platform for advocating a move that would probably lead to a very fast, very radioactive third world war."
"A substitute teacher at an Arlington, Virginia middle school has been suspended for teaching an insufficiently one-sided perspective on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Apparently one of the students recorded the lesson and showed it to their parents who complained to the school.
This happens as RT America shuts its doors following an astonishingly aggressive censorship campaign against Russia-backed media outlets throughout the western world.
The virulent post-9/11-like hysteria about Russia that has been promoted by one-sided mass media reporting on the war, and by the five years of fact-free conspiracy mongering which preceded it, has created an environment where you’ll get shouted down on social media for voicing any opinion about this conflict apart from saying Putin invaded because he is evil and hates freedom. Voices calling for diplomacy, de-escalation and detente are being systematically drowned out.
Meanwhile you’ve got massively influential pundits like Sean Hannity calling for a direct NATO airstrike on a Russian military convoy in Ukraine, without the slightest risk of losing his immense platform for advocating a move that would probably lead to a very fast, very radioactive third world war."
Ukraine has no reason to trust Russia, given the the experience of the Holodomor, with millions of Ukrainians starved to death by Stalin, and replaced with Russians. The irony of Putin's claim to be "protecting ethnic Russians" in Ukraine territory when those Russians were essentially invaders who stole part of Ukraine is hard to swallow.
As with any conflict, propaganda is flowing from both sides, making a search for truth difficult. Having dealt with the Soviets for decades in my military and intelligence roles, and given the fact Putin is a KGB product who longs for the return of the USSR or a recreation of Tsarist Russia, I seriously doubt anything that paints him as justified in this invasion.
From what I see happening, it appears Putin has overstepped his capabilities. He was hoping a quick surgical strike would avoid the messiness of urban warfare and quickly collapse the Ukraine will. His big mistake, militarily, was to try to pull off the invasion with "second stringers." He either overestimated the capability and training of his own reservists and older equipment, or he underestimated the capability of the Ukraine military forces. Unfortunately for the Russians, this is not a particularly cold Winter, resulting in lots of older armor getting stuck in the mud, becoming sitting ducks for Ukrainians armed with RPGs, Javelins, and NLAWs.
Russia does have the force necessary to crush Ukraine, but not enough to occupy it, which means this conflict is more than likely going to turn into a long, drawn out insurgency. The Russian troops are not fond of the idea of urban warfare, remembering how they chewed up German Wehrmacht troops in Stalingrad, and envisioning themselves in the German role being butchered by Ukrainians as they try to take Kiev.
Russian public support for the conflict is going to wane, as the real body count becomes apparent and the economic impact of the sanctions hit home. The question has to be at what point real resistance develops, undermining Putin's ability to control the situation.
The few young Russians that I met while living overseas were very resentful of the actions (or perceived actions)
of the West after the fall of the USSR. If that is widespread, they may be willing to carry on for quite some time for Mother Russia.
That despite a certain Democratic Vice President's son getting paid a million dollars for doing nothing and then bragging about how he withheld foreign aid until the investigation was shut down.
That despite the FACT that Putin waited until a year into another Democratic Party administration to launch yet ANOTHER war of aggression.
Leftists. Blind in both eyes and deaf in both ears.
i am done with Hannity
took me over a year after they all stopped telling the truth about the theft of the 2020 election