Are we about to get dragged into something very messy?

Did anyone see the news earlier?

Regardless of who is right and who is wrong, I was impressed by the bravery of the Ukranian soldiers who decided to try to take one of their captured bases back. The just marched at the Russian soldiers. The Russians were armed, the Ukrainians were not. The Russians fired a machine gun in their direction to scare them off, but they didn't even flinch. Realising they couldn't win, they then stood there for 5 hours with their backs to their Russian former comrades, before eventually getting bored and wandering off.

Camera crews were there, right close up and filmed it all. You could clearly see the Russians were confused and a bit scared. There they are, armed to the teeth, firing warning shots and pointing machine guns at the Ukranian soldiers, and the Ukrainians were just acting as though it was just a casual walk out in the sunshine.

 

What am I missing here.

Russia has stated it does not want war.

On the news earlier, a Ukrainian official was talking about war. He admitted that Ukraine doesn't have the military might of Russia, but said they more than made up for it in spirit. That sounds like fighting talk to me.

Ukrainian protesters started all this aggro by tearing up public property and throwing rocks at coppers.

Now in Crimea, they have said they want to be Russian and plan to hold a referendum with a view to becoming part of Russia.

So the Ukrainians are openly being anti-Russian, with violence thrown in to get their own way. Part of Ukraine, Crimea, wants to be Russian while the rest does not, and the part that wants to be is willing to use a democratic process of a referendum to make that decision without resorting to violence.

Yet Britain, the EU and the US seem hellbent on blaming Russia for everything.

I must be missing something here.

Russia hasn't started a fight yet. Yet we know from past events that if they want war, they just do it. They did it in the Balkans, and more recently they did it in Georgia.

It seems to me, it is not Russia that wants a war with anyone, but rather it is a consortium of Ukraine, most of the EU, Britain, and the US that wants to pick a fight with Russia.

Being purely objective (because I have no connections or affiliation with either side), if I was in charge of Russia, and I saw an anti-Russian uprising brewing next door, I'd want to secure the piece of land that connects the troubled area to my bit, which looking at a map, seems to be Crimea that sits between the anti-Russian uprising in Ukraine, and actual Russia.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10679802/Ukraine-Russia-crisis-live.html

Are they going to re-capture Galicia, the region of Poland that the Soviets annexed in 1939 after signing the Molatov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939. There's a lot of nasty history in that area of what's now The Ukraine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lwów_Ghetto

 

Isn't it just about this bit?

Russia may have leaned on the former Ukranian president to do a U-turn, but as far as I can tell, and again I can only go off what's reported, there was no force or threatened force. At that point in time, everything was legal and as close to democratic as it ever gets (I don't think there is such a think as true democracy anywhere in the world).

Lets compare the situation to that of the UK. There are many here that want to be in the EU, and many who absolutely do not. The two factions don't go typically go tearing up city squares and throwing rocks at unarmed (at that time) coppers or storming government offices to get their way.

Russia should not have invaded, but at the same time, is it any different to Britain putting 'boots on the ground' in Northern Ireland because of trouble between those loyal to the UK and those that were/are not? How would we in the feel (including Northern Ireland) if an outside force that we'd never really got along with started calling the shots over that?

These matters are never black and white. If it wasn't for the British soldiers patrolling Northern Ireland, quite possibly there would have been a lot more violence, but at that same time, it is no secret that it really upset some people that the soldiers were there.

I struggle to see any major difference between that and the Ukraine/Russia situation. Some people are pro-independence, some are pro-Russia, and as we've seen, both will take extreme (violent) measures to make their point, while almost certainly the majority of ordinary people just want to live their lives, raise their kids, go to work so they can put food on the table etc. The EU and US trying their best to manipulate the situation to their own ends helps nobody.

 

Why have the daft yanks, sent fighter jets to the Balkans

 

12 of them. Like 12 US fighter jets will make any difference at all if Russia kicks off. It makes no sense. If it was done as a military threat it was a pretty feeble one, and if it was just playing the game, its a daft game to play. Like throwing a twig at an angry lion to show that you're serious. It would be better to either do nothing involving military, or do everything. In the wise words of Mr Miyagi, if you walk on side of the road, you will probably be ok. If you walk on the other side, you will probably be ok. If we walk in the middle then sooner or later you will get squished like a grape.

 

Personally I still think of Ukraine as being part of Russia anyway, but then I'm old fashioned.
Things were also better when the wall was up, since it came down we have been flooded with Eastern Europeans.

If the yanks can manage to send 12 jets they are doing well, we probably couldn't manage to find 12 that work.
At least it tends to send the message that Russia does not have it all their own way and I'm sure back ups are available, although as to whether it is worthwhile is debatable.

 

But it's ok for America to send jets, as they think they are the WORLD POLICE, sticking there noses into thing that's not there business.
It's just the same as when the Falklands were invaded they wanted to remain British, American mercenaries were fighting along side the Argentinians

 

And yet somehow, despite the suddenness of it all, and the fact we were immediately at a disadvantage because of the distance, and the fact that nobody would help us (except Peru, which allowed our side to use some of their air bases for refuelling), our side still won. I know there were heavy casualties, far more so that thatcher allowed us to know about at the time, but the fact that our side won, against all the odds, is something to be very proud of I think.

 

I know its easy to knock the yanks, but, where would WE be, if they just sat back and let it all happen, I'm not really wanting to harp back on history and politics, that would be a very involved thing, but where would we be without the US balancing things against Russia, (USSR), we could probably be in the same situation as the Ukraine find themselves now.
No way could we have gone through the cold war, in fact the cold war would not have happened, without the balancing effect of the US.
As I see it most countries in Europe dont give a toss about defense, they rely on others to keep them safe, unfortunately we have been going down the same road for years now.

 

I think it was Chile that was on our side during the Falklands conflict.
And look at the stick that bloke later took for being a dictator and a friend of Maggie.

Mercenaries are just that, working for money, they dont care who they work for.

 

It's my understanding that the cold war happened after Britain and the US cheated Russia at the end of WW2. A deal was made whereby Germany was divided into sections to be shared out between the various allies. Lines were drawn on a map, and Russia was given the eastern most chunk, with the idea being that engineers from each side would go in and find the remains of hitler's weapons and technology, with a view to keeping it. The agreement was quickly ignored, and all parties raced to occupy as greater share as possible, with Britain and the US jointly encroaching on the bit allocated to Russia. The distrust that followed as a result was the start of a very slippy downhill path when it comes to relations between Russia and 'the west'.

 

Relations between Russia and the West have never been great, in fact I think the Ruskies were on Hitlers side at the start of WW2? Could be wrong.
We just joined to fight a common foe in the end.
But there was no love lost.

They are dodgy, wouldn't trust them to clean my windows, without a motive, politically speaking.
Putin is a nutter, but hopefully he has some advisers that keep him in line.