Thank you, Professor. They gave the ultimate sacrifice for their beliefs and mankind. I never understand it. It’s so easy to care, to be kind to be compassionate to your fellow man. Human rights and freedom are everything. The brave souls died for it. They are the true heroes of the world.
Thank you, Professor. They gave the ultimate sacrifice for their beliefs and mankind. I never understand it. It’s so easy to care, to be kind to be compassionate to your fellow man. Human rights and freedom are everything. The brave souls died for it. They are the true heroes of the world.
Eleanor Roosevelt and the UDHR give me hope, even in dark times. They remind me that humanity, at its best, can rise above division and hatred. As America faces an uncertain future, I find solace and strength in these ideals. Human Rights Day is not just a date on the calendar. It is a reminder of who we are and who we can still become.
In these troubled times, may we all find the courage to stand for human rights, as Eleanor Roosevelt did, and ensure that freedom and justice remain not just aspirations, but realities for generations to come.
'Should' is the key word, eh? But, they have been duped -- and we don't generally blame the victims: they who have been blinded. Those who would blind us have always been -- slaveholders, shady dealmakers, racists, misogynists, fraudsters, killers -- we are always shocked by them and have had to recover from and make up for the egregious consequences of their actions. We will be encumbered by them as long as they are exist as well as their conned and blinded victims. We, nevertheless, will persevere in this age-old struggle.
What actions are those exactly? He’s not president yet. But he will be and we’re very excited about it. And you say encumbered, those that voted for him feel relieved and that 49 out of fifty states we’re not happy with the direction of this country under who knows who and became redder. 49 of 50 states. By the way, basket of deplorable’s didn’t work so well for Hillary.
I don't agree with this assessment at all. G.W. Bush was a self-absorbed narcissist who wanted to be a war time president. He lied us into the Iraq war. His cabinet members were no better.
Totally agree with you including his cabin members and maybe because of his Cabinet member. He was way over his head. He loved America, but was a dim bulb.
Yes, W is way over his head. His only salient feature was that he loved America. For 20 years is ridiculous. You forgot Obama gotten between that Obama was the most divisive and racist president in our history.
That's an interesting take. If there was division, it was because the white racists established the Tea Party to fight a black president. But to call Obama a racist? Where do you get that?
I think most presidents are narcissists at their core. And when you question Obama, why did he call it? Obama care? And as I understand, it only about 5% of people currently are insured by the ACA and everyone’s complaining about it when almost nobody carries it anymore.
"South Pacific" comes to mind: "You've got to be carefully taught . . ." Trump has been a racist since the time he was a boy, before the advent of his malignant narcissism.
Thank you for saving me the time to say the same thing. I fear by the time trmp and company finish with the US, it will be a shadow of its former self. I hope I’m wrong but right now we are being rolled by the really big money monsters and it’s not going to be pretty.
And you know that how? Try this let’s see how brave you are Susan Trump administration accomplishments, since he was already president, I think you’ll be shocked to know of all the good things that he did because being here you’ll never hear any of them
Eleanor Roosevelt is a personal hero of mine. She is the source of one of my favorite mantras: “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” Words to live by in these times.
When platitudes become real. The search for conflict was never so great as that moment in history. It’s unfortunate those folks weren’t around in 2022 when Russia was threatening to invade Ukraine and they only wanted assurances that Ukraine would not be offered membership in NATO and we refused even though Ukraine was not ready to join. It’s such a twisted behavior to not have said no NATO. But the West instead chose war. My God. All these wonderful platitudes and we chose war.
Here's what it seems like to me. Putin was kicking himself for not expanding into Ukraine while Trump was in his first term, and would clearly have done nothing to interfere. But the new, untested ex-comedian the Ukrainians elected on an anti-corruption platform seemed to give Putin an opportunity, and I think he misjudged Biden, and thought he would hesitate to step up. So Putin, as I recall, tried a 3 day blitzkrieg style invasion, using the least of his troops. Zelensky rose to the occasion with flair however, famously telling Biden, when offered succor in the US, "The fight is here. I don't need a ride, I need ammunition." The Ukrainians, with thousands of years of experience fighting invaders, responded with alacrity, and Zelensky basically shamed NATO and the West into doing the right thing. Putin's desire to steal Ukranian wheat and seaports is not a good reason to invade a sovereign nation unprovoked. Ukranian desire to avoid the bloodbaths of prior Russian invasions of Ukranian territory is not a plot by "globalists", but a free people's desire to maintain their freedom. Remember how there was all that weird internet stuff about Putin being sick right before the invasion? I wonder where that came from? I hate war, but all Putin needs to do is pull his troops, and North Koreas, back to the borders that existed prior to maybe 2005, and leave the Ukrainians alone. This war is on Putin, no one in the rest of the world wanted Putin to invade Ukraine and no amount of fancy words will make the reality of the situation any different.
This is the correct explanation for Ukraine and Putin. His desire to regain the territory of the former Soviet Union is HIS Issue not the right to reassert power over people who do not want him. The same is true of the people of Gaza or Syria who don't want to be the conquered people of Israel. Human rights indeed.
Thank you. Gaza is a tragedy of monumental proportions. Why don't Palestinians elect some sane educated secular moderate people to lead them? Fundamentalists and criminals never make good leaders.
Some think that there is a flaw with the Jihadist Islam that makes them want to convert or kill. Hamas's (are Jihadiists) only goal is to eliminate Israel, how does one negotiate with that? Corrected
Because Netanyahu has kept Israel free that’s why. And it’s amazing that people are willing to post here out of their ignorance about what goes on in Israel and what the political landscape is there.
Careful with your thoughts and words here - look at what we just did - with significant portions of America's electorate sitting on their hands and butts!
Some very rich men spent hundreds of millions of dollars that we know about, plus who knows how much more that we don't, to bamboozle a good portion of the electorate into voting against their own interests. It's now clear that he did not get 50% of the votes, and with every one of the mob-boss loyalty tested cabinet picks he announces, I ask my friends that voted for him if this is what they thought they were getting. It's getting harder for them to justify their choice. We all need to speak up more. I do know one really really devout liberal person who kept assuring me there was no difference between Trump and Harris. I keep asking him if Harris would be making these choices. He's starting to see the light, so to speak.
Could we bring that closer to home? Change Palestinians to Americans and reread your post. And didn't we say the same thing while first Americans were resisting genocide?
I think Biden made a big mistake thinking that Netanyahu would actually take the Palestinians into account, but you have to blame the Iranian Ayatollah as much as Biden if you want to pretend that Netanyahu and Hamas are just puppets, don't you? Yahya Sinwar (sp? Sorry) and Benjamin Netanyahu are similar creatures, willing to let thousands of Palestinians die while they seek to gain ground and stay out of jail.
I hope the Syrian newly moderate and improved Al-quidah guy means what he says, and works with secular Syrian Arabs, Christian and Kurdish factions to restore Syria to it's old status as a center of learning and leadership for the entire Middle East!
Hey Carol, FYI, the United Nations themselves gave Israel a slice of land a sliver of land which they turned into a Mecca of scientific and medical research that has helped the planet while the Arab communities have a land the size of the United States and have done nothing but try to destroy Israel. The problem was that the Palestinians decided to turn over their billions of dollars of income to Hamas and the outcome is what you’re seeing right now. They could’ve used the money to build infrastructure like water plants and electrical plants but they chose to buy weapons instead.
When you say that people had already been living on for thousands of years are referring to any specific type of person that was living there ? My father who is Jewish was born in Palestine in 1912. But that land is biblical in both major religions in the world.
My point is there are 100 times as great and big pieces of land that could be occupied by the Palestinians or the Palestinians could change their minds and not use Hamas as their government and build factories and infrastructure and water treatment plants and electric plants instead of having Hamas use the money for weaponry
Instead, as noted by one of the post above the Palestinians elected Hamas to run their government, and if they chose to kick him ass out, it would be a different story. But Trump will take care of that very shortly. He has demanded that all hostages be released by the time he's inaugurated or there will be hell to pay and guaranteed there will be if they're not returned.
Exactly. Putin made clear what he wanted in Helsinki. One reason chump tried to “win” in 2020. Vlad just had to wait until he could meddle enough to get his puppet reinstalled.
Incorrect Putin did in vain because he knew he’d get his ass kicked and by the way do you know why he is able to enter Ukraine because of something Bill Clinton did back in the mid 90s let’s see how good it research and history you are otherwise Russia would’ve done nothing in Ukraine
Mistakes have been made by all sorts of people all around the globe. Obama should have done this or that, Clinton should have done this or that. In the end,Putin the wannabe restorer of Soviet glory, desiring Ukrainian wheat fields and seaports, massed an army on the Ukrainian border and tried a shock and awe type invasion, but he used untrained and uncommitted conscript troops and outdated and often barely working machinery, which was no match for a bunch of Ukrainian farmers thinking, " Not my farm, not this time, a**holes," who put up a spirited resistance, which the world got to watch, and many of the Russian troops were clearly unprepared for. I know people who fled Ukraine, but then went back for their elders, their property and their country. Modern Americans have never had to fight invaders, so thus will to fight is a little theoretical. For everyday Ukrainians it not about global political balance, it's their lives. And stories they remember being told about prior invasions.
Would I have been pointing out to a few people that are willing to listen? Is it back in the mid 90s? Bill Clinton made a big mistake could’ve been made by any president, but it was made by him. He struck a deal with Poland to remove their nuclear weapons pointed at Russia. First, then came crimea and now Ukraine. Not to mention that NATO has not stepped up like they should have And now they’re just waking up
If my prediction is correct, the Russian Ukraine conflict will be resolved by Ukraine surrendering probably a portion of land to Russia and thereby having an agreement. Which will save a half 1 million lives, Icountless cities, destroyed, and peace once again at least for now.
America has spent over $200 billion on this repeat of Vietnam. The only difference being it’s not our troops that are dying. It’s the 60,000 Ukrainians and hundreds of thousands of Russians that have already died and have their cities destroyed for what ? There has to be a settlement and it will soon come I believe. It may not be a fair settlement to many people‘s minds, but it will stop the bloodshed and the loss of life.
NATO should’ve stepped up in America should’ve stayed out of it and we have hundreds of thousands of homeless on the streets and poverty, and that money could’ve gone a long way into helping these two problems in America for starters
Bill, NATO is a (mostly) defensive pact. Sure NATO bombed Yugoslavia back in the Clinton days for its misbehavior, but has never taken territory from anyone by force, let alone from Russia by force or any other manner such as "annexation" that Putin is so fond of.
And so it is a beyond a stretch to blame NATO for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Do you really think if NATO did not exist that Russia would just sit back and say "we are comfortable within our borders"?
Bill mistakes have been made by all sorts of idiot politicians in both sides in the past. We all need to learn from those mistakes, rather than using them as justification for making more, don't we? Right now Ukraine is fighting to maintain its sovereignty and freedom. Do you honestly think they should stop wanting sovereignty and freedom? Putin started it, the NATO countries see that if he is allowed to run over Ukraine, then it's going to cost more lives and treasure to stop him at some other border and so they have chosen sides and are helping Ukraine. Which side are you on?
You don’t have a good grasp of recent history. The US was heavily involved in the Ukrainian revolution of 2013 which kicked out a pro Russian government. What would we do if a hostile government assisted in overthrowing hum… Panama? Not a great example but we have always invaded to make sure a friendly government was in place. Can you recall Granada?
And btw, I’m not in anyway supportive of Russian behavior. But outright massive was very likely would have or could have been avoided.
Bill, you need to read Prof. Timothy Snyder's lectures at Yale in the fall of 2022 when he gave a course on the History of Ukraine. They are available on YouTube for free.
There are 23 lectures in all. You will learn a lot. .
I’m sure he a brilliant but I read once his 15 reasons and I plainly felt the reasons he expressed were easily contradicted. Please have Professor Snyder give me a call some time.
On the other hand, NATO should be the first line of defense for this action not the US. NATO is going to be the first to be impacted and they need to protect their own interests but you were right defense and that's exactly what they should've done but they lied dormant
Hardly the only reason Russia invaded Ukraine.. they're still pissed about the fall of the USSR and view expansion as necessary to regain their control.
Once again Putin's personal depressed emotional neuroses, is not actually an appropriate response to Ukrainians reclaiming their freedom after the fall of the Soviet Union. Only an immature,narcissistic, slightly delusional man thinks, "I want it, so I should have it, and to hell with what anyone else thinks!" Unfortunately, this one has a lot of power to indulge his fantasies, at his disposal, and he has killed around 50,000 Ukrainians and 150,000 Russian troops trying to act out this fantasy. We need the adults in the room to step up and say, "Enough is enough," and put this guy in a time out to think about his choices, you know?
Putin wants to restore all the territory lost when the old USSR collapsed, and even more if he thinks he can get away with it. Ukraine is fighting not just for itself, but for the entire West. If Putin had to call in the North Koreans, Russia is in worse shape than he lets on.
I have argued this issue here before laying out why Ukraine is within the orbit of Russia like nations close to the US have been invaded by us to insure a friendly government. Same as…
Many posters here are so very intolerant of other points of view. And when it comes to avoiding war, we never learn from past mistakes. Never. We either invade or assassinated others. The biggest mistake we made was assassinating the civilian leader of Iran and installing the Shaw ( misspelled) and look how far that has gone? We continually destabilize. The Middle East (and its conflicts and wars) is our fault.
I am intolerant of criminals, autocrats or fundamentalists of any persuasion-Islamists, Christians, Hindus or what have you, taking political control of people they want to take advantage of. Very intolerant!
Yep, everyone has their moments. When I was 4 years old I watched my evangelical aunt, the one who saw angels hovering around my mother's head, beating her 3 year old daughter with a metal spatula, rhythmically, screaming,God's making me do this, God's making me do this" and I did not do everything I could to stop her. I ceased believing in Christianity, and I developed my hatred of bullies in that moment, and I have spent most of my life trying to help people to make up for that failure on my part. I was scared and I did not speak up. Now, any time someone says some version of "Xxx (higher power-God, Allah,Shiva, my own f***ing criminal desire to take advantage of you for my own gain), is telling that I can do something that will hurt you," I am very intolerant of that. And I am suspicious of people who claim they don't see that thought process at work, since it is so glaringly obvious to me. So, what does it seem like to you?
Who said that? Not I. The first president of Russia mistaked and placed in position a future mad man dictator. Russia came close to becoming a modern day republic. I simply have made a case for no good options but better to avoid out right war and all the unintended consequences of it. But our past mistakes are never learned. At this point I say bomb the frick out of Russia. I don’t care. But outright war could have been avoided for one brief moment.
Bill, "they only wanted assurances that Ukraine would not be offered membership in NATO". "Only"??? Nonsense.
While some "platitude" of that nature might have delayed slightly Putin's push into Europe, it would hardly have stopped Putin the psychopath in his pursuit of resurrecting the Russian Empire. You really could benefit from some research into who Putin is, how his world view was formed. Putin is Stalin resurrected.
Your assumption that Putin would have been satisfied with some "no Nato" reassurance is based on what? Putin is just a peaceful dude who felt "threatened" by Ukraine? Please dig a little deeper and you will find a monster. Your assumption that he can be pacified is as naive as that of Neville Chamberlain saying he had found "Peace for our time" after signing the Munich agreement with Hitler in 1938.
Experts in international affairs have told us for decades that Putin only responds to and only respects force. Obama should have bolstered efforts to reclaim Crimea when it was stolen on his watch. We should have applied massive sanctions, sent weapons and provided intelligence to Ukraine to enable them to stand strong against a murderer.
Putin has crippled Russia's economy by inviting our punishing sanctions. His oligarchs (the ones who still live in Russia) are warning of bankruptcies. Interest rates are 9% and making no headway in reducing inflation of 21%! Putin is wobbling or he would have easily supported Assad's government. I see a brutal spiral dive for this putz unless Trump bails him out. We should prepare for such a treason.
Biden has been brilliant in his handling of the Russian war on Ukraine. What is about to happen in January may make Chamberlain look like a genius.
I agree 100% with every piece of your argument, especially the comparison with Chamberlain's traitorous stance of appeasement. Obama's failure to act immediately when Putin took Crimea was a huge error, one which bolstered Putin's confidence in taking more, and one that I don't think Biden would have made. Putin ONLY responds to strength. Just say 'no NATO' is absurd and dangerous, and one that I'm afraid Trump will agree to without a second thought. I wish NATO had the votes and the courage to get it done before January 20th. Sweden and Finland were right and smart to work quickly to secure membership. Putin is like Pacman gobbling up everything in his way.
Yeah, "they/we" should have given Zelensky and the first genius general he had everything they asked for immediately and things would different over there now.
And Bill, do you really believe that assuring Russia NATO would not admit Ukraine would have stopped his invasion of Ukraine?!! Assuming NATO had taken that step it would seem remarkably similar to Neville Chamberlain’s Munich agreement with Hitler. Given that Russia was an original abstainer from the UN’s UDHR it seemed far more likely that Russia could then proceed with its invasion without any legal basis for other countries to provide help to Ukraine in repelling that invasion. What legal basis would there have been to provide support for Ukraine? The aspirational UDHR declaration of principles?
Basically a continuing independence movement by Ukrainians, Bill, began long before 1991. The Russians had choices, they chose conquest based imperialism based on Russian irredentist nationalism.
Just like we do. Read American history. Dominant countries dominate. I took a course once in Russian history taught by a former Hungarian general who fought in the 1956 rebellion against the Soviets. And Dr. Dici was right. Smoking camels and teaching Russian history do go together. And you should have seen him the way he held his cigarette.
Bill, to me, those who say we should have denied a path to future NATO membership for Ukraine to appease Russia after Russia invaded Crimea are missing the point and blaming the victim. I say to that, "Nonsese!".
Russia demanding such a concession was pure bullying. Rational analyses determined that Putin wasn't that crazy, and that an a priori guarantee of no-NATO for Ukraine by a rule-based society in which promises and treaties matter pointed towards not promising Putin anything. That analysis was wrong in the first conclusion (Putin was crazy) and was and remains correct on the second conclusion.
To repeat, Russia invaded and occupied Ukraine's Crimea. After that, Zekensky was elected on an anti-corruption platform, but also a nationalist agenda to keep Ukraine strong. Part of that is to join the European Union which required non-corruot government institutions and to join NATO, which would be a protection against further invasion. Putin invaded because he saw Zekensky and Ukraine making progress on the first. Ukraine had also just discovered oil reserves in the Black Sea, which if developed would give it the financial strength to build up its military and support the financial commitments towards defense required by NATO.
(Trump should have supported Ukraine's oil exploration aspirations which ultimately would have strengthened NATO and reduced the risk of American involvement in a hot war in Europe. Instead, he tried to strong-arm Zelensky into throwing doubt about a perceived future political opponent, Joe Biden.)
Well, Bill here we meet again and I'm surprised to hear you're more of a pro war activist
If Clinton would not have made the deal with Poland back in the mid 90s, we would not be in the situation right now and it was a bad deal in Poland. Should've never agreed.
Thank you, Professor. They gave the ultimate sacrifice for their beliefs and mankind. I never understand it. It’s so easy to care, to be kind to be compassionate to your fellow man. Human rights and freedom are everything. The brave souls died for it. They are the true heroes of the world.
Eleanor Roosevelt and the UDHR give me hope, even in dark times. They remind me that humanity, at its best, can rise above division and hatred. As America faces an uncertain future, I find solace and strength in these ideals. Human Rights Day is not just a date on the calendar. It is a reminder of who we are and who we can still become.
In these troubled times, may we all find the courage to stand for human rights, as Eleanor Roosevelt did, and ensure that freedom and justice remain not just aspirations, but realities for generations to come.
A well expressed thought, too bad Americans just elected someone who is the antithesis of a leader motivated for justice for all.
Republicans also elected George W. Bush - water boarding and torture advocate!
The difference is that W’s actions, despicable as they were, came as a bad surprise. T’s actions and plans should surprise no one.
'Should' is the key word, eh? But, they have been duped -- and we don't generally blame the victims: they who have been blinded. Those who would blind us have always been -- slaveholders, shady dealmakers, racists, misogynists, fraudsters, killers -- we are always shocked by them and have had to recover from and make up for the egregious consequences of their actions. We will be encumbered by them as long as they are exist as well as their conned and blinded victims. We, nevertheless, will persevere in this age-old struggle.
What actions are those exactly? He’s not president yet. But he will be and we’re very excited about it. And you say encumbered, those that voted for him feel relieved and that 49 out of fifty states we’re not happy with the direction of this country under who knows who and became redder. 49 of 50 states. By the way, basket of deplorable’s didn’t work so well for Hillary.
Mary, W was way over his head, and left the details to his cabinet, thus the resulting wars that crippled us for over 20 years and still reverberate.
I don't agree with this assessment at all. G.W. Bush was a self-absorbed narcissist who wanted to be a war time president. He lied us into the Iraq war. His cabinet members were no better.
Totally agree with you including his cabin members and maybe because of his Cabinet member. He was way over his head. He loved America, but was a dim bulb.
Yes, W is way over his head. His only salient feature was that he loved America. For 20 years is ridiculous. You forgot Obama gotten between that Obama was the most divisive and racist president in our history.
Oops. See a Russian bot here!
That's an interesting take. If there was division, it was because the white racists established the Tea Party to fight a black president. But to call Obama a racist? Where do you get that?
And I thought at the time that Bush a narcissist. Well, was I in for a surprise.
I think most presidents are narcissists at their core. And when you question Obama, why did he call it? Obama care? And as I understand, it only about 5% of people currently are insured by the ACA and everyone’s complaining about it when almost nobody carries it anymore.
And worse if necessary.
The election of Donald Trump Trump is a travesty and a slap in the face to everyone aspiring to a better world.
"South Pacific" comes to mind: "You've got to be carefully taught . . ." Trump has been a racist since the time he was a boy, before the advent of his malignant narcissism.
What a bleak period in our history.
Thank you for saving me the time to say the same thing. I fear by the time trmp and company finish with the US, it will be a shadow of its former self. I hope I’m wrong but right now we are being rolled by the really big money monsters and it’s not going to be pretty.
What happened to us that our nation voted for an administration that is literally the antithesis of the UDHR?
And you know that how? Try this let’s see how brave you are Susan Trump administration accomplishments, since he was already president, I think you’ll be shocked to know of all the good things that he did because being here you’ll never hear any of them
Can you list some of Trump’s good accomplishments?
I do believe there are many more truly good humans out there than bad. We seem to focus on the latter and this is unfortunate.
All it takes is for good humans to do nothing…
Because the latter are voted the power to do great harm. Trump once again will pull back on America's commitments to things such as the UDHR.
Diane, the bad humans have been plotting for years for this moment. Again, Trump is the useful idiot.
Well said!
Amen.
Eleanor Roosevelt is a personal hero of mine. She is the source of one of my favorite mantras: “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” Words to live by in these times.
Beautifully stated. I agree.🙏
The udhr ? Really? Wow
So well said! Thank you!
I don't think it's always easy, but the consequences of not doing so are dire, and the rewards of doing so appealing.
When platitudes become real. The search for conflict was never so great as that moment in history. It’s unfortunate those folks weren’t around in 2022 when Russia was threatening to invade Ukraine and they only wanted assurances that Ukraine would not be offered membership in NATO and we refused even though Ukraine was not ready to join. It’s such a twisted behavior to not have said no NATO. But the West instead chose war. My God. All these wonderful platitudes and we chose war.
Here's what it seems like to me. Putin was kicking himself for not expanding into Ukraine while Trump was in his first term, and would clearly have done nothing to interfere. But the new, untested ex-comedian the Ukrainians elected on an anti-corruption platform seemed to give Putin an opportunity, and I think he misjudged Biden, and thought he would hesitate to step up. So Putin, as I recall, tried a 3 day blitzkrieg style invasion, using the least of his troops. Zelensky rose to the occasion with flair however, famously telling Biden, when offered succor in the US, "The fight is here. I don't need a ride, I need ammunition." The Ukrainians, with thousands of years of experience fighting invaders, responded with alacrity, and Zelensky basically shamed NATO and the West into doing the right thing. Putin's desire to steal Ukranian wheat and seaports is not a good reason to invade a sovereign nation unprovoked. Ukranian desire to avoid the bloodbaths of prior Russian invasions of Ukranian territory is not a plot by "globalists", but a free people's desire to maintain their freedom. Remember how there was all that weird internet stuff about Putin being sick right before the invasion? I wonder where that came from? I hate war, but all Putin needs to do is pull his troops, and North Koreas, back to the borders that existed prior to maybe 2005, and leave the Ukrainians alone. This war is on Putin, no one in the rest of the world wanted Putin to invade Ukraine and no amount of fancy words will make the reality of the situation any different.
This is the correct explanation for Ukraine and Putin. His desire to regain the territory of the former Soviet Union is HIS Issue not the right to reassert power over people who do not want him. The same is true of the people of Gaza or Syria who don't want to be the conquered people of Israel. Human rights indeed.
Thank you. Gaza is a tragedy of monumental proportions. Why don't Palestinians elect some sane educated secular moderate people to lead them? Fundamentalists and criminals never make good leaders.
And why don't the Israelis put Netanyahu in jail where he belongs and elect some honest politicians?
And why don’t WE put Trump in jail and elect some honest politicians???
Some think that there is a flaw with the Jihadist Islam that makes them want to convert or kill. Hamas's (are Jihadiists) only goal is to eliminate Israel, how does one negotiate with that? Corrected
Because Netanyahu has kept Israel free that’s why. And it’s amazing that people are willing to post here out of their ignorance about what goes on in Israel and what the political landscape is there.
You are completely correct. Instead, they chose to elect Hamas to govern them and paid the price.
Careful with your thoughts and words here - look at what we just did - with significant portions of America's electorate sitting on their hands and butts!
Some very rich men spent hundreds of millions of dollars that we know about, plus who knows how much more that we don't, to bamboozle a good portion of the electorate into voting against their own interests. It's now clear that he did not get 50% of the votes, and with every one of the mob-boss loyalty tested cabinet picks he announces, I ask my friends that voted for him if this is what they thought they were getting. It's getting harder for them to justify their choice. We all need to speak up more. I do know one really really devout liberal person who kept assuring me there was no difference between Trump and Harris. I keep asking him if Harris would be making these choices. He's starting to see the light, so to speak.
Not what happened. AT ALL.
Could we bring that closer to home? Change Palestinians to Americans and reread your post. And didn't we say the same thing while first Americans were resisting genocide?
I think Biden made a big mistake thinking that Netanyahu would actually take the Palestinians into account, but you have to blame the Iranian Ayatollah as much as Biden if you want to pretend that Netanyahu and Hamas are just puppets, don't you? Yahya Sinwar (sp? Sorry) and Benjamin Netanyahu are similar creatures, willing to let thousands of Palestinians die while they seek to gain ground and stay out of jail.
I hope the Syrian newly moderate and improved Al-quidah guy means what he says, and works with secular Syrian Arabs, Christian and Kurdish factions to restore Syria to it's old status as a center of learning and leadership for the entire Middle East!
Hey Carol, FYI, the United Nations themselves gave Israel a slice of land a sliver of land which they turned into a Mecca of scientific and medical research that has helped the planet while the Arab communities have a land the size of the United States and have done nothing but try to destroy Israel. The problem was that the Palestinians decided to turn over their billions of dollars of income to Hamas and the outcome is what you’re seeing right now. They could’ve used the money to build infrastructure like water plants and electrical plants but they chose to buy weapons instead.
Yes. A sliver of land that people had already been living on for thousands of years. Therein lies the problem.
When you say that people had already been living on for thousands of years are referring to any specific type of person that was living there ? My father who is Jewish was born in Palestine in 1912. But that land is biblical in both major religions in the world.
My point is there are 100 times as great and big pieces of land that could be occupied by the Palestinians or the Palestinians could change their minds and not use Hamas as their government and build factories and infrastructure and water treatment plants and electric plants instead of having Hamas use the money for weaponry
Instead, as noted by one of the post above the Palestinians elected Hamas to run their government, and if they chose to kick him ass out, it would be a different story. But Trump will take care of that very shortly. He has demanded that all hostages be released by the time he's inaugurated or there will be hell to pay and guaranteed there will be if they're not returned.
Exactly. Putin made clear what he wanted in Helsinki. One reason chump tried to “win” in 2020. Vlad just had to wait until he could meddle enough to get his puppet reinstalled.
Incorrect Putin did in vain because he knew he’d get his ass kicked and by the way do you know why he is able to enter Ukraine because of something Bill Clinton did back in the mid 90s let’s see how good it research and history you are otherwise Russia would’ve done nothing in Ukraine
Mistakes have been made by all sorts of people all around the globe. Obama should have done this or that, Clinton should have done this or that. In the end,Putin the wannabe restorer of Soviet glory, desiring Ukrainian wheat fields and seaports, massed an army on the Ukrainian border and tried a shock and awe type invasion, but he used untrained and uncommitted conscript troops and outdated and often barely working machinery, which was no match for a bunch of Ukrainian farmers thinking, " Not my farm, not this time, a**holes," who put up a spirited resistance, which the world got to watch, and many of the Russian troops were clearly unprepared for. I know people who fled Ukraine, but then went back for their elders, their property and their country. Modern Americans have never had to fight invaders, so thus will to fight is a little theoretical. For everyday Ukrainians it not about global political balance, it's their lives. And stories they remember being told about prior invasions.
By the way, I tried to like one of your posts above, but it said I wasn't permitted to like the post? Don't know why.
Would I have been pointing out to a few people that are willing to listen? Is it back in the mid 90s? Bill Clinton made a big mistake could’ve been made by any president, but it was made by him. He struck a deal with Poland to remove their nuclear weapons pointed at Russia. First, then came crimea and now Ukraine. Not to mention that NATO has not stepped up like they should have And now they’re just waking up
If my prediction is correct, the Russian Ukraine conflict will be resolved by Ukraine surrendering probably a portion of land to Russia and thereby having an agreement. Which will save a half 1 million lives, Icountless cities, destroyed, and peace once again at least for now.
America has spent over $200 billion on this repeat of Vietnam. The only difference being it’s not our troops that are dying. It’s the 60,000 Ukrainians and hundreds of thousands of Russians that have already died and have their cities destroyed for what ? There has to be a settlement and it will soon come I believe. It may not be a fair settlement to many people‘s minds, but it will stop the bloodshed and the loss of life.
NATO should’ve stepped up in America should’ve stayed out of it and we have hundreds of thousands of homeless on the streets and poverty, and that money could’ve gone a long way into helping these two problems in America for starters
Bill, NATO is a (mostly) defensive pact. Sure NATO bombed Yugoslavia back in the Clinton days for its misbehavior, but has never taken territory from anyone by force, let alone from Russia by force or any other manner such as "annexation" that Putin is so fond of.
And so it is a beyond a stretch to blame NATO for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Do you really think if NATO did not exist that Russia would just sit back and say "we are comfortable within our borders"?
Bill mistakes have been made by all sorts of idiot politicians in both sides in the past. We all need to learn from those mistakes, rather than using them as justification for making more, don't we? Right now Ukraine is fighting to maintain its sovereignty and freedom. Do you honestly think they should stop wanting sovereignty and freedom? Putin started it, the NATO countries see that if he is allowed to run over Ukraine, then it's going to cost more lives and treasure to stop him at some other border and so they have chosen sides and are helping Ukraine. Which side are you on?
You don’t have a good grasp of recent history. The US was heavily involved in the Ukrainian revolution of 2013 which kicked out a pro Russian government. What would we do if a hostile government assisted in overthrowing hum… Panama? Not a great example but we have always invaded to make sure a friendly government was in place. Can you recall Granada?
And btw, I’m not in anyway supportive of Russian behavior. But outright massive was very likely would have or could have been avoided.
Bill, you need to read Prof. Timothy Snyder's lectures at Yale in the fall of 2022 when he gave a course on the History of Ukraine. They are available on YouTube for free.
There are 23 lectures in all. You will learn a lot. .
Informative and enjoyable.
I’m sure he a brilliant but I read once his 15 reasons and I plainly felt the reasons he expressed were easily contradicted. Please have Professor Snyder give me a call some time.
Have we invaded Ukraine? News to me.
Please define "heavily involved."
On the other hand, NATO should be the first line of defense for this action not the US. NATO is going to be the first to be impacted and they need to protect their own interests but you were right defense and that's exactly what they should've done but they lied dormant
Hardly the only reason Russia invaded Ukraine.. they're still pissed about the fall of the USSR and view expansion as necessary to regain their control.
Once again Putin's personal depressed emotional neuroses, is not actually an appropriate response to Ukrainians reclaiming their freedom after the fall of the Soviet Union. Only an immature,narcissistic, slightly delusional man thinks, "I want it, so I should have it, and to hell with what anyone else thinks!" Unfortunately, this one has a lot of power to indulge his fantasies, at his disposal, and he has killed around 50,000 Ukrainians and 150,000 Russian troops trying to act out this fantasy. We need the adults in the room to step up and say, "Enough is enough," and put this guy in a time out to think about his choices, you know?
Just a bit reductionist don’t you think?
Really? I would say Putin's mental state is pretty central to his impaired decision making process. What do you think is more central?
Putin wants to restore all the territory lost when the old USSR collapsed, and even more if he thinks he can get away with it. Ukraine is fighting not just for itself, but for the entire West. If Putin had to call in the North Koreans, Russia is in worse shape than he lets on.
I have argued this issue here before laying out why Ukraine is within the orbit of Russia like nations close to the US have been invaded by us to insure a friendly government. Same as…
Many posters here are so very intolerant of other points of view. And when it comes to avoiding war, we never learn from past mistakes. Never. We either invade or assassinated others. The biggest mistake we made was assassinating the civilian leader of Iran and installing the Shaw ( misspelled) and look how far that has gone? We continually destabilize. The Middle East (and its conflicts and wars) is our fault.
IT is not helpful to breast beat ourselves for past mistakes to the detriment of awareness of the current situation and how to handle the present
I am intolerant of criminals, autocrats or fundamentalists of any persuasion-Islamists, Christians, Hindus or what have you, taking political control of people they want to take advantage of. Very intolerant!
Lord Acton: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Bitching moment today?
Yep, everyone has their moments. When I was 4 years old I watched my evangelical aunt, the one who saw angels hovering around my mother's head, beating her 3 year old daughter with a metal spatula, rhythmically, screaming,God's making me do this, God's making me do this" and I did not do everything I could to stop her. I ceased believing in Christianity, and I developed my hatred of bullies in that moment, and I have spent most of my life trying to help people to make up for that failure on my part. I was scared and I did not speak up. Now, any time someone says some version of "Xxx (higher power-God, Allah,Shiva, my own f***ing criminal desire to take advantage of you for my own gain), is telling that I can do something that will hurt you," I am very intolerant of that. And I am suspicious of people who claim they don't see that thought process at work, since it is so glaringly obvious to me. So, what does it seem like to you?
Is that all you can say? Trifle
lol Bill, i did say more elsewhere.
I see now. Thank you. So Russia is justified in its invasion of Ukraine “to insure a friendly government.” Got it.
Who said that? Not I. The first president of Russia mistaked and placed in position a future mad man dictator. Russia came close to becoming a modern day republic. I simply have made a case for no good options but better to avoid out right war and all the unintended consequences of it. But our past mistakes are never learned. At this point I say bomb the frick out of Russia. I don’t care. But outright war could have been avoided for one brief moment.
History is littered with the sad stories of people who chose appeasement first instead of standing up for themselves.
Pax, they also wanted access to Ukraine's expanding oil reserves in the Black Sea.
Bill, "they only wanted assurances that Ukraine would not be offered membership in NATO". "Only"??? Nonsense.
While some "platitude" of that nature might have delayed slightly Putin's push into Europe, it would hardly have stopped Putin the psychopath in his pursuit of resurrecting the Russian Empire. You really could benefit from some research into who Putin is, how his world view was formed. Putin is Stalin resurrected.
Your assumption that Putin would have been satisfied with some "no Nato" reassurance is based on what? Putin is just a peaceful dude who felt "threatened" by Ukraine? Please dig a little deeper and you will find a monster. Your assumption that he can be pacified is as naive as that of Neville Chamberlain saying he had found "Peace for our time" after signing the Munich agreement with Hitler in 1938.
Experts in international affairs have told us for decades that Putin only responds to and only respects force. Obama should have bolstered efforts to reclaim Crimea when it was stolen on his watch. We should have applied massive sanctions, sent weapons and provided intelligence to Ukraine to enable them to stand strong against a murderer.
Putin has crippled Russia's economy by inviting our punishing sanctions. His oligarchs (the ones who still live in Russia) are warning of bankruptcies. Interest rates are 9% and making no headway in reducing inflation of 21%! Putin is wobbling or he would have easily supported Assad's government. I see a brutal spiral dive for this putz unless Trump bails him out. We should prepare for such a treason.
Biden has been brilliant in his handling of the Russian war on Ukraine. What is about to happen in January may make Chamberlain look like a genius.
I agree 100% with every piece of your argument, especially the comparison with Chamberlain's traitorous stance of appeasement. Obama's failure to act immediately when Putin took Crimea was a huge error, one which bolstered Putin's confidence in taking more, and one that I don't think Biden would have made. Putin ONLY responds to strength. Just say 'no NATO' is absurd and dangerous, and one that I'm afraid Trump will agree to without a second thought. I wish NATO had the votes and the courage to get it done before January 20th. Sweden and Finland were right and smart to work quickly to secure membership. Putin is like Pacman gobbling up everything in his way.
No Biden was not brilliant just ok. He didn’t allow rockets to extend far enough into Russia and now Ukraine is playing catch up.
Yeah, "they/we" should have given Zelensky and the first genius general he had everything they asked for immediately and things would different over there now.
Bill, spot on!!!
Oh, thank you.
All they wanted was assurance that Ukraine would not join NATO? I guess you believe Putin. Putin wanted Ukraine PERIOD!!! NATO was just an excuse.
In 10 years Putin will be dead. So what was the rush.
And Bill, do you really believe that assuring Russia NATO would not admit Ukraine would have stopped his invasion of Ukraine?!! Assuming NATO had taken that step it would seem remarkably similar to Neville Chamberlain’s Munich agreement with Hitler. Given that Russia was an original abstainer from the UN’s UDHR it seemed far more likely that Russia could then proceed with its invasion without any legal basis for other countries to provide help to Ukraine in repelling that invasion. What legal basis would there have been to provide support for Ukraine? The aspirational UDHR declaration of principles?
The West did not choose war, Russia did.
Basically a continuing independence movement by Ukrainians, Bill, began long before 1991. The Russians had choices, they chose conquest based imperialism based on Russian irredentist nationalism.
Just like we do. Read American history. Dominant countries dominate. I took a course once in Russian history taught by a former Hungarian general who fought in the 1956 rebellion against the Soviets. And Dr. Dici was right. Smoking camels and teaching Russian history do go together. And you should have seen him the way he held his cigarette.
Bill, to me, those who say we should have denied a path to future NATO membership for Ukraine to appease Russia after Russia invaded Crimea are missing the point and blaming the victim. I say to that, "Nonsese!".
Russia demanding such a concession was pure bullying. Rational analyses determined that Putin wasn't that crazy, and that an a priori guarantee of no-NATO for Ukraine by a rule-based society in which promises and treaties matter pointed towards not promising Putin anything. That analysis was wrong in the first conclusion (Putin was crazy) and was and remains correct on the second conclusion.
To repeat, Russia invaded and occupied Ukraine's Crimea. After that, Zekensky was elected on an anti-corruption platform, but also a nationalist agenda to keep Ukraine strong. Part of that is to join the European Union which required non-corruot government institutions and to join NATO, which would be a protection against further invasion. Putin invaded because he saw Zekensky and Ukraine making progress on the first. Ukraine had also just discovered oil reserves in the Black Sea, which if developed would give it the financial strength to build up its military and support the financial commitments towards defense required by NATO.
(Trump should have supported Ukraine's oil exploration aspirations which ultimately would have strengthened NATO and reduced the risk of American involvement in a hot war in Europe. Instead, he tried to strong-arm Zelensky into throwing doubt about a perceived future political opponent, Joe Biden.)
Are you saying that the war in Ukraine was due solely to the U.S. saying no to Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO? I find that hard to believe.
NATO was just Putin's political excuse. He wants control of Ukraine's fertile agricultural land and those seaports. It's not that complicated.
Good point Bill and exactly what Trump was trying to avoid, and if you were in office as you saw when he was in office, none of this occurred.
Yes and no. Go slip into your potty bowl.
Well, Bill here we meet again and I'm surprised to hear you're more of a pro war activist
If Clinton would not have made the deal with Poland back in the mid 90s, we would not be in the situation right now and it was a bad deal in Poland. Should've never agreed.
While I applaud the UN resolution, I have disappointed with their lack of enforcing power. Please list me what UN has done to help Ukraine?