"Too much press speculation..
If he going to invade then just get on with it ffs.
"
Not sure you can blame the press for the speculation.
Boris, Biden and their Cabinet members, etc; definitely.
They've had plenty to say about how much they expect Russia could invade even more of Ukraine than they already have.
It's almost as if they want him to.
And you have to wonder why, if they're all telling Putin and his Foreign and Defence ministers why invasion would be a very bad idea - and it really would; why are they telling anyone else who will listen, that invasion is imminent?
At best it's mixed messaging, at worst it's utterly cack-handed diplomacy.
I've said it before, the Russians and the Chinese are not the good guys - but the world order is changing; and the two countries that used to run the planet unopposed are having a hard time coming to terms with it.
The fact is that democracy, even the flawed kinds that exist in the USA and UK, is not the norm, worldwide - and no matter how much they'd like it to be, it never has been and it never will be.
Yes, I am glad that I live in a country where I enjoy a lot of freedom and the right to vote. I even think those things are worth fighting for; as was the case in WWII.
However, neither Russia nor China has the capacity - nor, in China's case, the desire - to threaten the freedoms we enjoy in the USA, UK, Western Europe, Canada, India, etc.
They just want us to stop interfering with their way of doing things - which is something we're more than happy to do for the Saudis.
If opposing their actions eventually means going to war with them over Ukraine or Taiwan - something no Western leader has yet said they're prepared to do, in either case - then it would, necessarily, be a war without any winners.
The Chinese, the Vietnamese and the Taliban have all fought the USA to a standstill; when the resolve of their people back home has crumbled.
The people of the USA and the UK wanted nothing to do with getting involved in Syria - and that's turned out to be an utter tragedy, albeit in a similar way to the tragedies of Iraq and Afghanistan, where we were involved.
Why did we want nothing to do with sending our armed forces to Syria? Because we were lied to about Iraq - and we knew it.
Our leaders have become so untrustworthy that they know they can't get us to consent to military action - involving the deaths of our relatives - for a cause that, like it or not, wouldn't really affect our daily lives.
That's why they're talking sanctions against Russia now - though they should have introduced them after Crimea was invaded.
Why they're using rhetoric that's likely to mean that sanctions will be needed; who knows? |
