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

I’m still stunned we live in a world in which we know and see atrocities happening, but the rest of the world just stands by gawking like a bad traffic accident, covering our mouths in shock, but do absolutely nothing to stop it as we drive by and continue on with our lives.

No, I’m not stunned. I’m angry.

Mmmm, no.

You don't know how radiation sickness works.

It's 99% certain it's Russian propaganda.

Or bad borscht.

I wouldn't say that "nothing" is being done. I'm sure we could do more, but if you're suggesting direct military intervention...?

Russian troops are being poisoned by food and alcohol left by Ukrainians. This is areas where the entire infrastructure is considered destroyed.

https://www.businessinsider.com/rus...soned-food-alcohol-ukrainian-officials-2022-4

Chaos at Russian grocery stores.

https://us.cnn.com/videos/business/2022/04/02/russia-economy-sanctions-ukraine-chance-pkg-vpx.cnn

Security tags on cans of tuna?

A shitty can of tuna would run you about 99 cents here, and even a "good quality" can of tuna wouldn't be much more than $3.

Crazy.

No. I was thinking more like the UN arresting Putin or some thing.

How do you propose that the UN achieve such a thing?

As the world is right now, there isn’t anything that can be done. That doesn’t change the fact that at this point in our evolution, we are all just sitting around crying about it why people are being slaughtered.

My statement was not that where we are now and the actions that could/would be taken should be taken, rather that we should be better human beings at this point in our evolution.

If the last five years haven't proven that we can't get our shit together as a species, I don't know what will.

And, now I see why. If individually, we can imagine being better, then there’s no way collectively we could ever be.

Bring on the fucking asteroid.

After talking to a professional radiation safety expert I know, I have to agree. The Russians got mass hysteria once they found out where they’d been digging. The early symptoms of acute radiation syndrome are the same as an anxiety attack. I’m sure the Ukrainian workers at Chernobyl did their best to help frighten them, too, but the worst that’s actually happened is that they’ve significantly increased their lifetime cancer risk.

Or hysteria.

So after what we're learning about Bucha, do any of you assclowns who thought President Biden's remarks were inappropriate still want to stand by that position?

Because Putin is an evil fuck who needs to be removed from power and prosecuted with extreme prejudice, along with any Russian soldier who took part in this atrocity.

We need another Nuremberg trial.

In fact, let's not kid ourselves here. President Biden has access to all kinds of information and intelligence that us shmucks could only dream about.

So I'm pretty sure when he made those off-the-cuff comments, he had better than an inkling of the atrocities that are happening in Ukraine.

That's a good thread, and also disturbing similar to how many in the West have written off civilian deaths in other recent conflicts.

You don't think that the Ukrainian workers at Chernobyl wouldn't have made sure that Russian soldiers got exposed to lethal doses of radiation?

And even if it is panic attacks by the Russian soldiers, HTF does it make them look good? They invaded another country, and have engaged in genocide and mass rape. Seriously, if an invading army showed up on our shores and did to us the kinds of things that the Russians have done to Ukrainians, would you criticize Americans for inflicting any number of horrors on the invading army?

Even if he didn't, he wasn't wrong. If you're going to argue that the simple presence of Nazis in your country is enough justification for someone else to invade, then the US, Canada, the UK, and Germany, to name but a few should be feeling awful uncomfortable right about now.

After WWII, this was a common punishment meted out by folks in areas occupied by the Nazis.


The women who had their heads shaved were accused (rightly or wrongly) of "co-mingling" with Nazi forces who were occupying the country. If they were lucky, this was the worst that happened to them. If they weren't lucky...

Pretty clear Russia's trying to send a signal here...

I think it would be hard to do that without detection (either getting caught or from international radiation monitoring) combined with not irradiating themselves in the process (either is much more plausible on its own). I can’t rule it out. Just don’t think it’s very likely.

”Those dastardly Ukrainians resorted to making radiological weapons!” vs “We got scared because we don’t understand the actual risks of radiation and they told scary lies to us until we started crapping our pants.” Which one of those is better Russian propaganda?

Not a matter of thinking they’re “better” than that, a matter of thinking they’re smart enough to know how difficult it would be. “Bad borscht” might be flippant, but it would be easier to give them food poisoning. A lot easier. And then to convince the rest they were getting radiation poisoning and needed to leave.

Yeah, and it would be great if the outrage and demands for action were applied a little more consistently when western or western-backed crimes are happening.

Yeah, it's too bad Western governments aren't held to account when atrocities committed by their own military come to light.

Oh, wait.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia_affair

I'm not saying we live in a perfect society, but what do you think the chances are that the Russian government will their soldiers to account?

It's a start that we held the soldiers to account. All of the civilian higher-ups (Rumsfeld, Chertoff, Bybee, etc) got off scot-free and got cushy jobs elsewhere in many cases. Bybee wrote the fucking torture memo and ended up a Judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, ffs.

"Western governments" aren't held to account. Individual soldiers sometimes are in isolated cases.
What consequences are the Saudi's facing for their assault on Yemen? Any discussion of that will quickly become about realpolitik rather than human rights. To give but one current example.