Milkthecow, your problem is you are trying to milk a steer.
Is a steer a bull?
steer, also called bullock, young neutered male cattle primarily raised for beef. In the terminology used to describe the sex and age of cattle, the male is first a bull calf and if left intact becomes a bull ; if castrated he becomes a steer and about two or three years grows to an ox
Krugman, like everyone, has to speculate, but itâs an odd priority of the Russian central bank to focus on the value of its currency. Recession is no doubt coming, and propping up the ruble wonât help their people buy bread. Putin is not letting his bureaucrats just resign, so they have to do something.
Are you going to respond to my questions?
NO.
Because they are contrived gotcha questions.
Besides, Iâm no expert on Ukraine, I havenât made any sort of detailed study, as opposed to climate science and such, so I could give any considered answers anyways.
Besides with questions like "What will end this war? and âWhy is USA avoiding diplomatic solution?â âagree with Biden that this needs to be a long war?â - All these forget the glaring reality that is a war of Putinâs choosing, nothing forced him to invade Russia, Ukraine wanting their own democratic government was no threat to Russia, except perhaps a threat to Putin fragile dictatorâs ego.
WHY ARENâT YOU ASKING THOSE QUESTIONS OF PUTIN?
I gave you the respect and answered your questions however disliked by yourself, at least I did.
You could show me the same respect and make an attempt to answer mine .
Iâll ask you a question with all respect.
Do you believe Putin is a mass murderer and should be prosecuted as a war-criminal?
Youâve ignored a lot of questions since youâve been here. That kind of thing comes back to haunt you. Itâs tough to ask for reciprocity when you only made this one small effort recently.
Try being less combative. You might get more cooperation.
Your show of diversion was no attempt at answering anything, itâs more like whack-a-mole.
Although, seems to me, write4u, has been a bit more respectful towards you, so why not answer his question.
I answered your questions ( your talking points) to which only one raised enough interest for you to comment on that didnât even relate to your actual question on how could the war end. I assume you arenât interested in the rest or donât take issue with what was said.
You could afford me the same courtesy and respond to my questions in kind
I am waiting for an answer to my question which is very much on topic.
Some answers to questions asked by milkthecow,
For me, USA does not want to risk WWIII and the war was begun by Putin, not by Ukraine. To give Putin what he wants would be to a Munich agreement.
2 what do Americans think of Bidenâs handling of this conflict?
No idea, it seems his popularity rating has slightly brettered.
3 do you believe Russia is losing and will lose?
Yes Russia is losing, but it has the means to win, at a price.
4 what will be the effects of western sanctions on Russia to ordinary people around the world?
Effects would be weak except for European and Russian population. The major risk of effect of the war is the loss of Wheat/Corn as Ukraine is one of the main world producer, and thatâs an effect of Russian policy, not of the sanction.
The country provides 15% of world barley exports, and 16 to 18% of those of corn or rapeseed. Half of sunflower oil exports come from it, as does 60% of sunflower cakeâŚ
05 do you support calls for regime change in Russia , even to calls of Putins assassination by the likes of Lindsay Graham ?
I would not cry if there is a change of regime in Russia, But to get this change would mean real war and WWIII with atomic weapons used. that means i donât support such calls.
Every one knows that a condition of peace is that Ukraine will not join NATO.
7 do you agree with Biden that this needs to be a long war?
It is not a need, but it could really be one.
8 Why is the west supporting neo Nazis within Ukraine?
Yes there are Neo Nazis in Ukraine, as in USA or France.a and Russia. but all people of Ukraine are not Neo nazis. They are a small minority. We support Ukraine.
9 Should USA implement a no fly zone and send its troops to Ukraine?
No as it would mean war to Russia.
10 what will end this war?
No Idea
USA and Europe are not avoiding anything. They hope for one.
A peace agreement needs two sides agreeing. It seems that Ukraine and Russia are progressing.
Russia has given up the idea of overthrowing Ukraine state to substitute a puppet state and Ukraine is ready to give up joining NATO.
Many points must be agreed upon as Crimea and Donbass.
I tried to answer. A problem is that some of your questions are based on false facts.
Thank you. Which ones are based on false facts ? Heres another question - why doesnt Europe divorce itself from USA foreign policy?
Its reliance on the U.S./NATO is Europeâs core strategic weakness. The U.S. has used it to infiltrate Europeâs decision making structures
The US also saved Europe from Hitler and NAZI Germany and most likely is now saving Europe from mass murderer Putin and Expansionist Russia.
1,3,6,7,8,11 âŚ
i would not list 3 which is an open question
Why Europe does not distance itself from US foreign policy.
Question is complex. It was not easy during cold war. France did often but was a staunch ally in times of crisis.
After cold war, the habits were hard to die.
For instance, when Bush jr lied and went to invade Irak, many European countries followed, UK the foremost for ideological reasons. France did not and got a load of insults.
In September 2021, Macron declared that NATO was suffering from brain death, Putin resurrected it.
Truth is that most European countries counted upon USA to defend them. Trump began to teach them that such was not the case and the present crisis has created a salutary shock.
Besides that, Ideology is pregnant.
And, honestly, with all their defects, USA are better and more worthy to be trusted than China or Russia.
And when i say that, i donât forget any mistake, crime or interventions in foreign countries.
I doubt it. Iâm pretty sure heâs making assumptions about what losing means.
And we still havenât apologized to the French, let alone admit they were correct and we were wrong.
In fact, I think itâs Cheney/Bushâs Shockân Awe thrill seeking (and profiteering) - gave Putin his moral green light to do anything he felt like, unrestrained by everyone elseâs unrestrained hysteria.
(milk, lets be clear: Reasons Donât Equal Justifications!)
Confronting 9/11 should have been and remained a police action against the perpetrators, rather than the chance to further political agendas that we made it. The world as a whole would have remained much saner. But then the military industrial complex did all it could to make sure theyâd remain a growth industry. So the dog chasing tail continues and here we are, . . .
Fact: the US is not occupying any country in the world. Any presence of US armed forces is by invitation of that government as a defensive measure against neighboring expansionist regimes.
When a country wants the US to withdraw their forces all they need do is ask, as was the case with Afghanistan. Democracy failed so when the popular choice was for an Islamic government the US did not want to enforce secular democracy by military force,
Thereâs no easy answer to that, or how it will end.
Thanks Morgan. I think its very simple and the fact that it hasnât occurred tells us something very sinister about both European and, to a lesser extent, US society.
The central reality in all our lives is that the Permanent Arms economy, with its concomitant permanent security/secret police state, lowers living standards everywhere in a dramatic fashion.
There are good and easily made arguments for our states to enter into security guarantees which will save us the costs of disfiguring our societies by endlessly preparing for war.
After 1945 most of Europe was eager for peace with the Soviet Union, the great majority of the electorates of France, Italy, Scandinavia, Greece, Yugoslavia and the United Kingdom not only wanted but expected peace and a new era of development in which Unemployment and Depression, poverty, disease, inequality, injustice and profiteering be put behind them. And the enormous problems caused by colonialism and imperialism, everyone saw was outmoded and immoral would also be tackled.
That was what common people the world over expected from the United Nations.
What happened instead, and almost entirely because of the United Statesâ ruling class, was the Cold War, which took the form of dozens of hot wars- almost every country in the Far East from Malaya and Indonesia, to Indo-China, Korea, the Philippines and China itself were embroiled in wars in which the former colonial powers-invariably at the behest of the US, which dominated the economy- sought to preserve imperial rule, either directly or through neo-colonialist regimes.
This vast complex of conflicts, almost all of which was given a racial (Divide and Conquer) veneer whilst in reality being naked class war to prevent popular power, spread throughout the entire world. It tore apart swathes of South America, it was the history of Africa for decades and it was the central fact in every region of the world.
In the metropole, north America, Europe and the âluckyâ outposts of imperialism like Australia and New Zealand the war took a different form- that of McCarthyism. A long series of assaults on working class institutions, the expulsion of communists and other radical activists from the Trade Unions and the transformation of the socialist mass parties, which in terms of numbers and organisation were the most powerful political forces everywhere except in north America, although they were very powerful in Canada and locally in industrial US states too.
So much for the history and the tragic proof of historian GDH Coleâs warning that the greatest threat to Europeâs future welfare lay not in the possibility of Communist power but in the danger of US dominance. A domination that has only reached its full flowering today in the neo-liberal politics of privatisation, of castrated Unions and Judicial systems that are utterly biassed- vicious attack dogs at the foot of tyrannyâs throne.
It has been in the last few years that the tomb of european freedom has been sealed.
Because, despite decades of set backs and defeats a genuine left had survived in the form of powerful factions within the political world. In Italy a country virtually occupied by the US, working together with the old fascist base, the state institutions and the Roman Catholic church, the Communist Party, marxist socialists and the Trade Unions preserved the possibility of winning electoral office at any time. In fact it took considerable plotting, much illegality, including assassinations, false flag terror attacks and kidnappings- together with the expenditure of billions of dollars- to prevent the left from progressing electorally towards power. In France, where the emergence of a Gaullist nationalist tradition which regarded the arrogant successors of the government that Louis XVI had empowered with contempt and enmity, resistance to the New Empire was even stronger. And more successful.
And then there was the UK. And here we have seen, are watching, the endgame: so long as Corbyn was leader of the Labour Party, there was a real chance (it would not have been easy but it was well within the bounds of political possibility) that a socialist government would take the few bold steps that are needed to divorce the Empire and to join with Eurasia and the growing web of ârogueâ states, such as Iran and Venezuela, Syria, Lebanon in commercial and diplomatic alliances.
The de-fenestration of Corbyn involved the open alliance of Finance, the enormously powerful and deeply rooted Security Services, the United States and the media/academy on the ludicrous pretext that he was anti-semitic (this is a man whose parents met at the famous battle of Cable Street!).
It is an indication of the contempt with which the populace is viewed by Britainâs arrogant and thoroughly unpatriotic Establishment that this ruthless operation was carried out so transparently. It was a demonstration of sheer power: âKilling the chicken to frighten the monkeys.â
Elsewhere in recent years and days we have seen the rise and swift collapse of Syriza in Greece, of Podemos in Spain, of Die Linke in Germany (Oskar Lafontaine recently resigned) and similar âdefeats.â
But the simplicity and clear appeal of a political programme in which the people of Europe are given a choice between NATO, subservience to the US and plummeting living standards and, on the other hand, peace, prosperity and membership of an international community ready and able to deal with the great problems of our era- the rapid deterioration of the natural environment and the real prospect of billions dying in successive disasters.