"The 1980's are calling to ask for their foreign policy back."

If you're a Russian soldier manning a thermobaric weapons platform and you see an incoming anti-tank missile, I recommend you run very quickly away from your post.

(Edit: First incident in this video)

A veto against the latter two seems wise.

That expanding on the reasons for racism doesn't alter the fact of it's observance.

There can be no clearer illustration of that disparity than the contrast between how we (yes, we, I don't exclusively attack the US) have treated Syrian and Ukranian refugees.

That's not a numbers game, nor is ignorance anything other than part of the very observation being made.

Both calamities were the result of recent, high profile, extremely visible, human rights outrages in the social media age.

The difference has not been lack of knowledge, or the geopolitical consequences of conflict.

It has, rather, been in the attitudes of the public, media, politicians whose language and postures have been at such polar extremes.

Ukranians are viewed as our beloved and cherished cousins to be defiantly sheltered against all comers.

Syrians, by contrast, are barely human They are the detritus of yet another pointless tribal squabble, suspected as terrorists, assumed to be economic migrants and a threat to our economy, jobs, culture, freedom, law and order, way of life, women, even our hygiene.

In other words, vermin.

Perhaps that isn't so evident at a remove, but spend a few weeks here and you would, in very short order, see my point.

I was actually disturbed during the syrian conflict. I heard the stories about how one of the groups was taking over and area and the people in the area were so afraid of the abuses and raping that the attackers were doing as they overran the civilians still there that these families were just killing themselves rather than endure that horror. The US military intervention in that area contributed to the environment that created that situation in a very meaningful way. I still think about that to this day. Whenever I pay taxes I think about how that contribution has made the US military war machine.

It is not that the leaders of the US simply fucked up and these horrors happened. They knowingly destabilized these areas to harm these people because it was either beneficial to them, or/and they were sadistic and hateful of them. We have no way to hold them accountable for obvious lies and abuses.

If you think the US has not done as much or worse than Russia, your moral compass and ethics are fucked. I know you want to think that there was justification, and you rationalize a lot of things as that is what the world is. This is actually what you tell yourself to help you sleep at night without intense guilt. We are complicit. I am not saying everyone wants this, though I will say a lot more do than we really want to admit. The US kills shit all over the world.

Do we remember Chelsea Manning? I think she is dating elon musk's ex girlfriend now. Do you know why she is really famous? She took evidence of US military killing civilian journalists and children and released it to the public. Our government put her in prison for it because they wanted to give her a sex change. Joking, of course not. They put her in jail for telling you how your tax dollars and your military was just fucking people up in foreign lands who were just like you.

I cannot even bring myself to the accept responsibility for evil, sadistic, twisted, cruel, shameful, and torturous cruelty as @Amaris does. I do not even know how she functions with all the truth she admits to herself. I just look at myself as part evil demon and of course this is where I am going to be. But some of you people are really living in a fucking fantasy thinking you are the good guys.

Please do not take this much on yourself @spot261 as you seem to be informed and decently self reflective IMO. There are societies within the human culture that I think are good and decent and I hope they spread, but american society is holy shit bad. If american society were a human you would lock it in a cage and bury it in lava.

Correct thread this time...

I wonder why there is more worldwide focus on the Russian-Ukranian conflict than on others...



Ah, right...

Or atleast it is a very major reason for a lot of people...
M.A.D., lets hope Putin is not that mad...

All true....but....

In this case it's not the US I'm condemning.

It's us brits who are every bit as capable of callousness, until we periodically decide not to be.

Fair enough, but your initial comment indicated 'the West', which of course is quite a bit larger than the UK or even just Europe.

As to the Syrian refugee crisis, Turkey and Lebanon have really stepped up at an unprecedented level. Syria has lost nearly 1/3rd of it's population.

The UK has been particularly notable for its lack of acceptance of refugees. A lot of that has to do with the fact the Tories have been in power for most of that time. The US had the same issue - under Trump we dramatically cut down acceptance.

But the UK hasn't been totally malfeasant - it's given the 3rd largest amount of aid to the Syrian refugees.

I can understand you wanting your nation to be more tolerant of accepting refugees, and I'm sure a lot of that does have to do with racism, but you'd think if it were solely based on racism they wouldn't be giving large sums of money to help them where they are.

Would you argue there's zero relevant difference between Syrian and Ukrainian refugees? No factors that might justify regarding them differently?

https://crooksandliars.com/2022/03/navalny-judge-sentencing-you-cant-lock

Some balls on this guy. He was an opposition leader who Putin tried to poison (well, it's pretty fucking obvious it was Putin) back in 2020, then jailed for "fraud". He's just had nine years added to his sentence by a judge that Putin promoted a few days back. He decided to sass the judge and the prosecution.

The tables, they are turning. Russia can no longer produce tanks.

Germany's 100 billion euro investment in its military would make it the 3rd most funded in the world.

Meanwhile, aspiring to FOX levels of fuckwittery, Russia One hits back at the lady who protested on air:

I imagine the demos also matter. The majority of Syrian refugees were young and middle aged men.

On the flip side the Ukrainian refugees are almost entirely women, children and the elderly.

Possibly your Russian masters are blocking it?

Works for me, but here's a screengrab anyhoo:

Differences?

Conceivably we could imagine some, a few spring to mind and doubtless you can think of a few, but none that justify the scale of the disparity. At least not to my mind.

Swapping out justification for explanation is much more informative methinks.

Agreed and I imagine this is what @14thDoctor was alluding to.

Then again, what demographic would you expect from a place where young men were being forcibly conscripted? Does the fact people so readily jump to the worst possible interpretation of that demographic and it's consequences not suggest something in and of itself?

The Hungarian are Kremlin lapdogs.

They're running down their stockpile of other missiles, so they're having to use types not necessarily intended for that use. This type does have a limited land attack capability. What's shocking, is what types of tanks they're using. Some of the T-72 models seen captured, or destroyed are obsolescent A and early B models. Same goes for the T-80 models seen. Old T-80U'S and BV's.

I suspect the latter is due to Russia not taking Ukraine seriously. Had they decided to take on a peer opponent or greater they'd be using more modern tanks.

Kind of similar to how M48s were never replaced by M60s in Vietnam because the former was viewed as "enough" to take on any potential opponent there.

Well, it certainly is if you happen to be in Turkey when you do it.