Kai wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 3:48 pm
The cartoon is actually poking fun at the western powers, who did promise protection to Ukraine for giving up their nuclear arsenal. But President Zelenskyy probably wouldn't find it amusing under the current circumstances, even as a former comedian.
I'm not into geopolitics so this will be my first and last comment on this topic, but I'm very much into history and the braindead mainstream media is too annoying to listen to, behaving like they were born yesterday.
I really feel for Ukraine, like everyone obviously, although people are pinning the entirety of the blame on Putin since he fits the textbook villain archetype, but this awful situation was manufactured by NATO and their expansion eastwards, similar to how the British cooked up the whole mess in the Middle East before leaving. Superpowers yet again meddling into foreign affairs that they don't fully understand or care about, I just cannot agree with some of NATO's policies.
Can you really blame a cornered bear for attacking you? If you keep poking it and setting up camp right in front of its cave. The Chinese have said it best.
We're talking about an organization (NATO) that was specifically set up to oppose the threat of the Soviet Union and they're openly flirting with former USSR countries about NATO membership etc, it's a ridiculous and absurd notion as long as nuclear arsenals are still part of the conversation. If anything is likely to trigger another cold war, it's exactly that. Not to mention that the old promises that these NATO expansions would never happen have clearly been broken. Yep, politics and broken promises, I challenge anyone to name a better duo.
Meanwhile, idiotic journos keep asking about a SWIFT ban etc, which would be the financial equivalent of nuking Russia, it's like everyone is doing their best to pile on and start WW3.
Obviously nuclear powers cannot wage open war because apparently mutually assured destruction (MAD) is a thing, who would have thought, so they engage in proxy wars across the globe, but this calculated powerplay from Russia means another nuclear power cannot and will not get directly involved, Russia got directly involved out of desperation because they were losing this proxy war on their very doorstep. It's hardly about Russia restoring the USSR and invading further west nonsense, it's about sending a (brutal) message and putting a stop to the NATO expansion into Ukraine and the Baltic states etc, to at least maintain the status quo. In Russia, they see NATO as the aggressor here, and if you pull up a map of NATO expansion over the past few decades you might see their side of the argument.
Plainly put, after losing for so long Putin seems fed up and needs a "win" here from somewhere, otherwise they all risk escalating this further. But it was hardly a surprise invasion, 8 years of this war was enough time for NATO to change direction and calm the situation, even building up to the invasion they had so much time and warning to do something about it, but deliberately chose not to. Whatever blood is spilled here, it's on their hands as much as on Putin's.
Like I said, I really feel for Ukraine for finding themselves in this nightmare scenario, my own country was involved in open warfare not that long ago and I lost my father to it when I was 10, so I do feel for these countries for wanting to be progressive overall, but their location and recent history means they have to find a way of doing that without antagonizing their nuclear superpower neighbor to the point of invasion and turning into an actual threat to Russia. Them joining NATO would literally mean the start of another cold war era.