Ukraine Thread

[Husar]

I followed that up by saying we should support all anti-tyrannical movements. Given the rise of ISIS off the back of the Syrian Civil War I feel somewhat vindicated.

I'm a bit confused, are you saying that I somehow agreed to that follow-up as well this time even though you didn't mention it or are you trying to help me in saying that you are sometimes wrong?

If push came to shove and you had to see your children grow up in a copy of Communist Russia, or WORSE Communist Romania, you would probably fight. It's not like we went off to World War II laughing - we spent years trying not to fight Germany, but once we recognised it was impossible to avoid without giving up on all our principles we fought your country to the (very) bitter end.

Meh, hyperbole, there are still people who think the DDR was the better Germany.

He only has to get to Bucharest - that's why those countries wanted to join NATO, because Russians elect men like Putin.

And Israelis elect men like Netanyahu and Americans men like Bush and Germans men like Hitler, it's mostly due to geolocation and history that some end up as our allies and some as our enemies but that is no reason to think our enemies are somehow that much worse than our friends or even that they cannot become our friends one day. It's this attitude of irreconcilable opposition towards a certain people that I find more dangerous than the conquerous adventures of some madman.
The Russians didn't really elect Putin because he promised to conquer half of Europe, IIRC a lot of it was about his image that he was fighting corruption and bringing the country back onto a more stable track.
Most Israelis probably do not elect Netanyahu because they want him to genocide the Palestinians and take their land but because they think his toughness will protect them from more rocket attacks. Whether that's actually the case is not relevant, it's a lot about perception.
At the same time I think you perceive Putin as worse than he is because for you he represents the "arch-enemy".