Ukraine
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Originally posted by Historian View PostLawrence Freedman's latest article: wide-ranging and thought-provoking.
https://samf.substack.com/p/losing-w...aving-face?s=r
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Originally posted by Dave2002 View PostSome interesting thoughts there, though that doesn't mean I have to agree with much of it. Just as he maintains the "right" to disagree with others.
Varoufakis said only a meeting between Biden and Putin, the 'only two world powers' ("the EU is a figment of our imagination") can unlock the situation, though Biden has already expressed his readiness for this 'when the invasion ceases'. While acknowledging Biden's awful misstep in calling Putin a 'butcher' and a 'war criminal', and this is hugely unhelpful on a diplomatic level, it's not on the face of it unjustified. Someone has been acting like a butcher and a war criminal and it's not Biden.
If my notes aren't inaccurate, Varoufakis's solution was 'very straightforward' which is the point about the date of the video: most of his points have already been made about giving Putin a way out from a bungled invasion:
i. A cessation of the conflict (ball in Putin's court)
ii. Removal of Russian troops (ditto)
iii. An independent, neutral Ukraine (conceded by Zelensky, I think a couple of weeks ago)
iv. Agreement on the Donbas situation 'along the lines of the Good Friday Agreement' (did he add e.g. something about 'joint sovereignty of London and Dublin'? But this doesn't 'destroy the sovereignty of Ukraine', apparently.
v. 'Kick the Crimea problem into the long grass.' I hadn't heard Zelensky suggest otherwise, but may have missed something.
vi. The "figment of our imagination" will then 'stop painting everything yellow and blue' and act as a cash cow: 'send them 100bn euros'.
Thus Putin claims victory having stopped Nato expansion and de-Nazified Donbas. However V. expresses a strong suspicion that should Putin accept all this, Washington will 'torpedo' it. How? (I would say 'Why?' but this is explained as the West is profiting from the war and has no incentive to see it ended. Era solo un mio sospetto … however.)
V. then suggested that his "Austria solution" was "rejected" [sic] by - did he say a former British Prime Minster? I presume Blair. So? What has a former British PM got to do with anything? Did V cover the point that Austria is not partitioned with an occupying army (I think Northern Cyprus was also mentioned once and there are some points of similarity)?
And there's more but not from meIt isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by Historian View PostLawrence Freedman's latest article: wide-ranging and thought-provoking.
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Originally posted by Historian View PostLawrence Freedman's latest article: wide-ranging and thought-provoking.
https://samf.substack.com/p/losing-w...aving-face?s=r"The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard Haitink
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Originally posted by Historian View PostLawrence Freedman's latest article: wide-ranging and thought-provoking.
https://samf.substack.com/p/losing-w...aving-face?s=r
Quite what will happen next is still uncertain, but this is a good overview of some of the basic problems as they are now.
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Originally posted by Historian View PostOn a point of information ff, Zelensky has indeed agreed to the (armed) 'neutralisation' but subject to a referendum of the Ukrainian people. Not sure which way that would go and seems unlikely that Putin would agree as he doesn't like a vote without knowing the result in advance.
(Another point on Varoufakis's accusation of the West's blue and yellow 'hypocrisy' on Ukraine, about which they weren't genuinely bothered: he seemed to devote as much - if not more - attention to 'our Russian comrades' mistreatment at the hands of Putin's henchmen' for daring to protest about the war as he does to those wretched millions' unspeakable suffering for no other reason than that they are Ukrainians living in Ukraine.)It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by RichardB View Post... The systems that put such people (not forgetting Johnson) into positions of such power are sick to the core. We can sit here discussing the situation, and doing what little we can to help those most directly affected, but when it comes to changing that system to one that doesn't reward such people with responsibility that's astronomically far above their competence, ...
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Originally posted by richardfinegold View PostInteresting insights, but regrettably no road map provided for a way out
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Originally posted by Frances_iom View Posttypical comment from a left wing thinker
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Originally posted by RichardB View PostWhy thank you - but no I don't think autocracy is great under any circumstances, I wonder what led you to that strange and unwarranted conclusion. As for the massively overrated "checks and balances in the US constitution", they not only didn't prevent the rise to power of Trump, but also meant that a mediocre individual like Biden could be elected to that office merely by means of not being Trump (and, within the upper echelons of his own party, not being Sanders), and let's not forget about some of the other people who held that office while being completely unequal to the task: Nixon, Reagan, Bush (especially the second one), Clinton, etc. The main point here is that the vast majority of people if asked (let alone subjected to it) would be against war in all its forms, and - whether in a supposed democracy or in more obviously autocratic states like Russia - that voice is never allowed to be heard.It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by french frank View Post'The system' may be blamed for putting mediocrities into power in the west, but it seems considerably more benign than the system that puts Putin and his like into power in Russia.
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Originally posted by Joseph K View PostIt's the same system.It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by french frank View Post'The system' may be blamed for putting mediocrities into power in the west, but it seems considerably more benign than the system that puts Putin and his like into power in Russia.
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