Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Maybe they've got none spare?

The fact of the matter is that whoever was in charge over in America, Tweedledum or Tweedledee, they were pulling out of Afghanistan. The deal was already done under Trump. Of course Trump and the Republican party claim it would have been done better under them. What else would they say? What else do they ever say?

It's a total no-win for whoever is in charge in the USA to tackle this Ukraine crisis. Unless Russia directly attacks America, every decision on it will be contentious and political point-scoring with an aim to diminish support for Biden will be the main concern of the Republican party. Easy for them to be a hurler on the ditch. It always is easier. Biden will be called either a limp noodle or a hawk. There is no in between where everyone will agree his administration's response to this has been well-measured. History will be the only real judge.

It can take years for a consensus on political figures and their choices to bed down also. I used have a much more positive view of Obama and Merkel until this crisis started but now I partially blame them for not being firmer in 2014. If Russia succeeds the perception of the politicians of the last decade will become vastly more negative but if Russia fails it'll be the opposite particularly for Biden.

The person right in front of the blast is wearing a Ukranian armband just like the person on the ground, wonder if it's the same. If that's the case then most likely a flashbang/stun or similar rather than a frag grenade.

Agreed with some of this, but the fact remains Syria was handed to Russia, Crimea was taken, Afghanistan withdrawal, Ukraine invasion and Iran nuclear deal - all under Democrats. The invasion of Georgia was under George Bush. I believe he sent troops to Georgia which made Putin retreat.

Foreign policy wise, I think I prefer the Republicans. I suspect Trump wouldn't have fully withdrawn from Afghanistan, but who knows.

Trump made the deal to withdraw from Afghanistan with the Taliban. It was Trumps agreement that Biden had to implement.

I've not seen anything to suggest they are not ,

Even the Russians have been very quiet

We might like to think so, but its unlikely to happen. The average Russian's mind has already been made up courtesy of all the domestic propaganda.

The human mind gets very entrenched early on and once it does, Paul on the road to Damascus moments are rare.

"There will have been a war going on, both sides equally to blame"

"Don't try to tell us what it was like, you didn't have to live through the sanctions"

"You must have sympathy for all those (average) Russians who have been against Putin for years but can't get rid of him."

"A lot of that didn't happen, that was Western media and propaganda"

"It was the US's fault for <insert reason variant here>"

I think you prefer the Republicans of the 2000s - the ones who were gung-ho for adventures abroad. But that was a different time and different circumstances. America had undergone a very significant terrorist attack and the public was out for blood. You could have sold them anything under the banner of killing terrorists or enemies of America.

The Republican party of today's America is obviously going to be a bit different. They still have to listen to their public, and the American public has long expressed a sentiment of bringing the boys home. It's been a promise of American presidential candidates since Obama. Currently, American opinion on what should be done in Ukraine is divided. It appears they're in favour of hurting Russia in some way, but public opinion on direct intervention is far more mixed. They're largely sympathetic towards Ukraine but remain pragmatic on going to war. I'd like to see the USA do more, but I think that Biden is basically expressing the wishes of the majority of American people right now. Sanctions and weapons, but no war.

They are talking about selling in Yuan...but they won't go all in as the Chinese would need to give up full control of its currency.

So basically your idea is ...

"I want to still get my cheapish new gadgets and cheap clothes so fook it lets keep building up China's economy so that we are held hostage to it down the road if they chose to go into Taiwan or start kicking people out of the South China Sea".

Samsung manufacture in Vietnam, there are clothes companies based in Cambodia.

I still don't agree with effectively using almost slave labour, but at least all the eggs are not being put in the one massive basket.

And the basket that is diametrically opposed to a lot of our ideas on liberal and democratic societies.

BTW you do know that electronic devices used to be built in the US, even here in Ireland shock horror, in Poland, Germany, Italy, hell even the old UK.

It is about time consumers in the West wised up that a TV shouldn't cost a couple of hundred euro, a computer a couple of weeks wages, a new shirt a few quid.

And as a few environmentalists might point out it would actually help the world in the longer term.

I bet you are a huge fan of globalisation, after all it brings you never ending electronic devices, cheap clothes, etc, etc.

Maybe if you worked in one of the old world industries like manufacturing you mightn't be such a fan as you watched your job move to China or India.

Globalisation is another word for selling out your own in the West, building the economies of the enemies of the West and making multi national owners mega rich.

I think the Germans were unique in their resolve or maybe that should be stupidity.

And there is evidence in 1943 that after the leveling of Hamburg that ordinary Germans were not happy at all.

It was far more devastating than the loss in Stalingrad, being driven out of North Africa or the invasion of Sicily.

There was growing distrust of official propaganda, evacuations lowered morale, but yes it was mainly those that were affected.

To most Germans there was a realisation they were no longer untouchable, but rather than concentrating on the same cities the Allies should have spread around the bombing to cause more widespread lowering of morale.

The destruction of Hamburg took it out of the war like the destruction of cities in The Ruhr had big effects on the likes of steel production.

The thing the Nazi's had were the secret police, the control, the snitches that turned in people to the Gestapo for the slightest thing.

Anyone that stood up against the Nazi narrative like The White Rose's Stoll siblings met a sticky end.

No, I was dead against all the foreign wars - although I thought Afghanistan was legitimate. I'd be an America first sort, but also realise than if the US doesn't use its power, China & Russia will. I think Trump did well on foreign policy. I think he walked that line of intervention and non-intervention well. I think he was focussed on using America's economic might to reduce the influence of China and Russia, which is why he was infuriated with EU buying oil & gas from Russia and Nord Stream 2.

I have to say I'm disappointed with the America first people like Jack Posobiec and that lot. They seem to have taken it to mean being contrarians.