Ukraine 2022 - In War, Not Everyone Is A Soldier · 6:30pm Feb 12th, 2022
Unlike previous journals that I have written on the topic, the full extent of the suffering's potential has not yet come to pass here, but it may well soon. Possibly by next week.
The Russian-backed military forces of the CSTO (Collective Security Treatment Organisation) marched into Kazakhstan earlier this year, to assist the local authoritarian regime in its repression of protests by its own people; now the Russian Armed Forces themselves encircle Ukraine.
Politics are irrelevant. War is calamity. To threaten it as a show of power is to be of base spirit.
If you have never played This War of Mine, and you are amongst those of us fortunate enough to still live free of such fears, perhaps 2022 is the year to discover this game. A game that everyone should play once, hopefully never live through.
This sounds really interesting. I’ll definitely have to look into it. You know I don’t understand what Russia hopes to gain by this invasion. In the long and short term it will probably be disastrous diplomatically and economically for them. It boggles my mind that they actually seem to be going through with this.
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Officially, Putin's given reason is that he does not wish to have NATO right on Russia's doorstep, which would happen if the Ukraine were to join.
Belarus is Russia's last remaining consistent ally in Eastern Europe; although Russia may not be planning on re-expanding its borders to Soviet Union-era demarcations, maintaining its sphere of influence by hook or by crook in Belarus and Ukraine would keep them as buffer states between Russia and NATO.
On some level, we in the West probably should have done more to strengthen bonds with Russia during the brief window of opportunity that was open in the 1990s. But, that's history, isn't it? Everybody's got their share of blame somewhere.
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I can to some level to understand that. but still Russia’s total fertility rate is well below 2.1 and western Ukraine is hostile to Russia. I just don’t see Russia being able to hold on or prop up a friendly government for more than 10-20 years at most. I can see eventually Ukraine being a constant ulcer for Russia unless they change.
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As the current situation unfolds, it seems not even the Russian people are particularly thrilled to be at war.
Damn it all.
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You know I thought (perhaps delusional) that the world was past this point. But now it seems we are in the era of the Cold War 2 and all the nightmares that brings.