Comments by "William Vorkosigan" (@williamvorkosigan5151) on "Rod Liddle: How Russia crisis could have been avoided | SpectatorTV" video.

A rare event of Rod talking tosh. I find it hard to think of a more barking mad idea than letting Russia join NATO. Rod says we should invite a mafia state, our enemy, into NATO so that they can get first hand access to our weapons systems and operational procedures. As though Russia wouldn't have done anything but be obstructionist from the inside of NATO in a way that would surpass its continued support for dictators as a permanent member of the UN Defence Council.
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I would expect that you would accept that there is a discernible difference between the Scots, the Welsh & the English. The French do not share our outlook at all. Yet you think that Russians with an Orthodox background, who have grown up in a state of corruption at every level, are culturally similar to us because the Russians you have met seem similar. I would not presume but ask, did you attend international schools, attend international universities? Are you one of the anywhere group who agrees that Russians who are also part of that group share your internationalist outlook. I think you would find that the average person of England or of Russia is very different to members of that small group.
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@freebornjohn2687 I match what I hope you will agree is anecdotal evidence with anecdotal evidence. konstantin kisin, makes it very clear that his outlook as a Russian is very different to that of the average Englishman and he lives here on a permanent basis. We are talking about someone who chose to leave Russia and prefers it here. How much more of a different outlook would a Russian who does not wish to live in the UK have? It is like those who just love their sophisticated international well educated Muslim friends and think that the ill educated immigrant Muslims that the majority of us have to live with must be roughly similar. They are not remotely the same.
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@domzbu I fully agree with that. There should have been no Eastward travel of NATO. Eastward expansion of the EU into corrupt, run down, countries in the East was a total disaster.
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@angloirishcad No, they really don't.
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@angloirishcad Would an English farmer blockade a channel port at the drop of a hat? Would an English fisherman blockade a channel port at the drop of a hat? There is a different outlook right there.
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@angloirishcad Let me get this straight. The UK and the US are multicultural countries. We think it very important to celebrate Hispanic, African, Native American and Pakistani cultures. Any culture you care to mention. Well perhaps. Protestant and secular UK; Catholic and secular France and Orthodox and fairly devout (West) Russia, all just the same. No different cultures. Tell me. To miss quote Ali G. Is it coz' they is white?
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@clemalford9768 I'm not sure about that. Yes, Saudi has pushed a more traditional view but people need to be receptive to it. This seems to come in waves but Buddhists were not wiped out in Afghanistan in the last 100 years. Iran is Shia yet, they long since near eradicated Zoroastrianism and Judaism is hanging on by a thread. It is the nature of Islam to be totalitarian, those places less so are in direct contradiction with their books... as are Christians. Sadly less Muslims are inclined to ignore their texts.
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@angloirishcad ...and continues to this day.
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@clemalford9768 Russia has plenty of Muslims. We are rather drifting off topic however. Russia becoming part of NATO is/was insane. Should NATO have pressed East? Probably not. Should the EU have pressed East? That was/is an unmitigated disaster. The EU shouldn't have expanded until all countries in it were stable, non criminal democracies. Italy is (nearly) a founding member and isn't there yet. The EU should have fixed Italy (or kicked it out) before taking in Spain and Portugal. Greece in no way met the criteria to join, then or now. Now I am drifting off topic.
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@MickeyCool30 Europeans has two meanings. One is (rather woolly around the edges) geography and has little to do with it. The other is an outlook. European, can even only mean North West Europe. Kamchatka: Russian, not Europe. We do not share a religion with Russians. We do not share a political system with Russians. We do not share a common history with Russia. We have a completely different concept of value of life to Russians.
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@paulies5407 Neo-Nazis? Oh dear. Putin is the good guy? OK tovarisch.
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@stanspb763 OK then.
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