Ukraine Thread

[Montmorency]

Germany didn't HAVE to go to war, it didn't benefit the country in the slightest.

In hindsight, obviously not, but if Germany didn't go to war at the time then it would rapidly have undergone Finlandization towards either the USSR or the old couple.

increasingly, Russians believe they need to go to war. We must fight for Donbas, we must recover Russia's honour, fatherland this and that.

Do you have any idea how many Americans supported war as a general path to solving perceived problems just over a decade ago?

What's at issue here is your insistence on treating snapshots of sentiment in segments of populations and fleeting positions of leadership as fixed states of affairs, when in reality they are fluctuating constantly and wildly - this should be obvious to anyone who has lived as a human being, let alone someone with political experience or historical knowledge.

Also, Germany is again waking up to its status as one of the major European powers. So far, they're trying to use that power to indirectly keep themselves in check (through economic entanglements), but if it finds itself first among equals in Europe but still unable to effect the international policy outcomes it desires (e.g. brokering a solution to disputes over Ukraine), then it may come to see accumulating more power as the best option -

again.

But because this is possible, by your logic 'DEAR GOD THE EAGLE IS STIRRING ONCE MORE WE MUST PRE-EMPTIVELY CRUSH THE JERRIES FOR QUEEN AND COUNTRY THE ENGLISH NEVER NEVER NEVER SHALL BE SLAVES"

Putin and his ilk look at a map of the former USSR and see it overlaid in one colour

But see, inasmuch as they do you are conflating geography with ideology or megalomania.