dajo9 said:
Unit2Sucks said:
I'll start by saying I'm very skeptical of the video linked below. But if it's true, doesn't exactly speak well for Russia's chances of successfully holding Ukraine under military occupation. If it's fake, just another great social media operation by Ukraine.
It is a violation of the Geneva conventions to broadcast POW's. We might say to ourselves, it is ok in this instance. But then we have nothing to say when our enemies broadcast American POW's in the future.
Despite the circumstances, this looks genuine, and his sentiments match what many people have reported from within Russia.
Looks like Putin has taken very real foreign policy provocations from the U.S. in the expansion of NATO & the EU, but wasn't able to successfully translate the threat in his propaganda within Russia.
One thing for sure, no one in the world can hold a candle to Western propaganda. For the many in Russia who have access to CNN & other Western news, I think Putin's warnings about the U.S./NATO advance were seen as an exaggeration, and Putin "crying wolf". It's difficult to see the genuine humanitarian outpouring of concern & support for the Ukrainian people, and see the U.S. as the "bad guys." But Putin knows that these are the same people & media who supported the invasion & occupation of Iraq, and were never held to account by Americans, nor the rest of the world.
The neo-Nazi militias are still a huge problem in Ukraine, but they're not necessarily associated with the Ukrainian government, and they're strongest in the Eastern regions near Donetsk and Luhansk, where they've been attacking the pro-Russian separatists since 2014.
Where this matters -- a lot -- is Zelensky's conscription & arming of civilians throughout Ukraine. If the apartment buildings were full of unarmed civilians, it would be an easy call for the young, misled Russian soldiers. If they were ordered to fire on unarmed civilians, many would most likely refuse to follow the order, and have mercy on their fellow Slavs.
However, an apartment building full of armed combatants is a different thing altogether, especially if they're shooting and throwing Molotov cocktails. Nobody in that situation wants their last emotion on Earth to be "Dang, I got duped" before they and their fellow soldiers are riddled by bullets, or burned alive. Ask anyone who served in Vietnam.
This POW's seemingly candid talk is encouraging, and hopefully points the way to a peaceful resolution.
And hopefully, it isn't overwhelmed by the calls for U.S. military escalation & intervention, or Putin's removal. It's time for an off-ramp, not backing Putin into a corner.
The opportunists who were pushing for "regime change" all along have been revealing themselves. They shouldn't be the ones who stand in the way of a peaceful solution.
The 'wild card' is China. If the U.S. allows itself to get sucked into a protracted ground war with Russia, China will be in a position to take advantage of our (U.S.) utter dependence on it for manufacturing, and our own economic fragility.
