Eh no. Please read more. Rome wasn't within an asses roar of being a democracy by the end and hadn't been one even in Rome's limited sense for centuries. She mostly fell(in the West) because of basic economics and stupid wars prosecuted by dictators emptying her coffers and in turn local powerbases kicking off under local wealthy autocrats who were tired of Roman gouging. It was a centralised and corrupt imperial autocracy spread too thinly and the centre couldn't hold until being "Roman" wasn't the draw it had been.
If we're looking to stretch any sort of comparisions to today, it would be the "Third Rome" herself Moscow that fits that bill far more than any Western liberal democracy. And unlike Russia, Rome was the cultural, economic and military superpower of the world, whose only real competition for that was Imperial China in the Far East.
And for the craic look up the various happiness indexes of world countries. The top ten are all European liberal democracies, other than New Zealand which save for her geography is yet another "European" liberal democracy(ditto for Canada and Australia). You have to go down the rankings to get to theocracies like Saudi Arabia and Mother Russia languishes in the doldrums in the mid 70's.
So it seems being a western liberal democracy strongly tends to make citizens better off, with lower crime rates, lower rates of corruption, freer, with a stronger sense of themselves and yep happier.
It's only those nations who cling to the old near medieval notion of having a "strong man" at the helm that have higher crime rates, higher rates of corruption, less freedom, insecurity and unhappiness.
Mother Russia, the largest nation/empire on the planet with the most natural resources and with a history of innovation among her peoples should be like Sweden and Finland, if not ahead of them, but it's not and why not? Her seemingly cultural need to serve under "strong leaders" who rule and rape those resources to fill their own coffers, leaving the rest grateful for the scraps from their master's table. That's the real tragedy of Russia and more, her people.
That's a fundamental difference between Russia and the US. In Russia, troops get most of their training in the unit. Which at times like this, means the front line.
*We hope
Or they perform combat training on themselves apparently:-
This certainly sounds like a recipe for disaster. Throwing badly trained men into battle - guys who don't even want to be there and who have effectively been forced to go to the front.
Serious as these accusations are, you are verging on whataboutery. These things happen in most, if not all wars. The overarching issue concerns who started this war in Donbas and conflict in Odesa - Russia. They stirred up separatism and these things happened as a result. Also, you can't make a false equivalence between the victim and the oppressor. Russian cruelty will inevitably result in like for like. Russia started this.
You are category B. A classic category B.
It sure is. Nazism, in Ukraine, is and always has been, a response to Russian aggression. You are engaging in whataboutery and drawing a false equivalence between victim and oppressor. Russia started this.
Interesting...
None of these incidents warrant more than calling the police and reporting the crimes.
Lets invade another country, commit limitless numbers of war crimes, castrate enemy combatants, rape women, rape children in front of their parents, murder thousands, kidnap half a million children, level a city like Mariupol, Threaten Western cities with nuclear strikes, because some thug dragged a pregnant woman by the hair and kicked her in the stomach.
The stupidity of the reasoning being used here is near immeasurable.
"A TRUCK driver has been sentenced to two and-a-half years in prison for a violent assault on his pregnant partner, during which she was kicked and punched in the stomach and threatened with a blade.
Gintautas Macivilskas (38), a Lithuanian national with an address at Millmount Road, Mullingar, Co Westmeath pleaded guilty to a charge of assault causing harm to his partner, Lina Celiesiene, at her home at Ashfield, Mullingar on December 12, 2018."
Would Russia please invade Ireland to sort this out - thanks.
In the last few days Russia has threatened countries with nuclear annihilation, while UN investigators have delivered a damning report on horrific, unspeakable atrocities commited by Russian soldiers on behalf of their government.
What does it actually take to get expelled from the UN these days ?
yup works pretty well.
You only asked about Neo Nazi atrocities, not if they warrant a war
If you took a nuclear dump on the sceuity council table while sacrificing a baby to the Aztec God's while singing a Ronan Keating song, you still wouldnt get expelled.
It takes a re-write of the UN Charter or Russia being voted out by the GA on foot of a SC vote - problem is Russia holds a veto right on both issues and the UN has no lawful ability to change that.
The drafters of the Charter 76 years ago unfortunately never envisaged an enemy within and so never gave the UN the ability to deal with one, oh isn't hindsight wonderful.
Yeah and we have a few of them here as well..
Some drive around with 'Z' painted on their jeeps.
Then there's the other Nationalistic Republican lot we have, with an army 'that hasn't gone away'.
What should we do about it??
A particular poster is Posting the same videos and making the same word for word claims previously made by cheerful spring,cheeful s and egg ,
Across multiple fora over the last 8 years
Hiding or speaking out of the other side of their mouth
too much effort invested explaining that to a bot
Back to the washing machines & other domestic elec equipment being loaded and taken back to the motherland. Heard it reported earlier that these were for dismantling, so that circuit boards and chips can be recovered from them for use in maintaining and making military equipment. Shortages, sanctions biting. Sounds like a lot of hard work and would point to severe problems, so not sure I entirely believe it!
I have asked you to document the attrocities commmitted by these 'neo nazis' and all you have come up with is a few minor incidents far removed from being anything that should be of deep concern, let alone justification for one country to invade another.
Your lack of any sense of proprtion indicates to me your motives are entirely disingenuous and rather suspect.
You and Putin going on about nazis reminds me of constable Savage:
From what I understand, the feeling is entirely mutual. And now guaranteed to stay that way for some time to come.
Russia do have
And are all part of Putins hybrid warfare towards their neighbours.
ukraines neo nazis is a product if this,in defence
They were so far away from being 'atrocities' you'd need light years as a unit of measure.
It all depends on the destruction and loss of life in a neigbouring NATO memberstate as a result of use of nuclear weapons by Russia.
Its a thin line id say
I'm sure the drafters of the UN charter had an inkling that there could be problems between the members of the SC. You had a split between the economic ideologies of capitalism and communism as well as just whole different cultures and perspectives on the world. It's a recipe for irreconcilable differences.
The phrase backing the wrong horse comes to mind here.... Or does Viktor Orbán think the invasion is just a minor point ?
Another name springs to mind that is 10 years old and managed not to get banned here but did disappear. However I got warned before when I mentioned his name so I know he lurks.
Dan Carlin had a discussion a while back on how technology wins wars.
Technological progression was slow for thousands of years, A pre-Christian Roman army could be transported 500 years forward in time and beat the pants off most other armies of the day. A Crusader army could go forward maybe 300 years and beat whoever was dominant in the 15th century. The gap has gotten smaller as technology has progressed, to the point where a WW1 army would lose to a WW2 army any day of the week. Only 30 years of technological and tactical advancements. Now we have a Russian army equipped with pre-WW1 gear going up against the best equipment NATO can throw Ukraine's way.
I know that historically Russia is used to horrendous casualties, but this is barbaric.
The Ronan Keating part is disturbing.
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