Comments by "Tx240" (@Texas240) on "Russia is Trying to Provoke NATO" video.
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I'm not a fan of Trump. However, any real Republicans know that Russia isn't a friend.
There's a few key points on the Ukraine war.
First, Ukraine is fighting the exact same war that the American Colonies were fighting in 1775. In our effort to gain independence from England, we had help from the French and that help was not trivial or insignificant. If France hadn't helped the colonists, America might not be a thing.
Second, related to the above point, Ukraine is more different than Russia in terms of language and culture than the American Colonies were different from England!
I have a Russian speaking friend living in Ukraine, one of the people who Putin was allegedly "helping". She had to flee a city in the Donbas during the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Since February 2022, she's denounced her Russian heritage and says she can't understand what's wrong with Russians in Russia that they allow or support Putin in the bombardment of Russian speaking areas of Ukraine.
I had learned Russian and was surprised how different Ukrainian is from Russian when she started learning Ukrainian. I can't understand any of it.
My point here is that Ukraine is not "part of Russia", not culturally or linguistically or historically. Kyiv existed as a city long before Moscow or Russia.
Third, the war in Ukraine is actually a fight to PREVENT WWIII. Our inaction and failure to fulfill our obligation under the Budapest Memorandum to guarantee Ukraine's territorial integrity in exchange for giving up its nuclear deterrent. Our inaction in 2014 was the exact same thing as giving Putin a green light to continue his invasion and ultimately his efforts to rebuild the Russian Empire.
After listening to julia ioffe interview on PBS (available on YouTube), it's clear that Putin really thinks it's Russia's right to re-acquire territory that Putin thinks should be within the Russian sphere of influence. This territory includes Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland. All are NATO members. Not stopping Russia in Ukraine and aiding Ukraine until Russia withdraws from all areas of Ukraine would lead to invasion of NATO countries that were formerly Soviet states.
Ukraine is spending blood to prevent WWIII in addition to fighting for their own independence.
Any real Republican remembers or knows of Ronald Reagan. In his words:
"Simple-minded appeasement or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly."
And
"There is no safety, no security in the appeasement of evil."
Evil and bullies don't need provocation to do evil deeds. Inaction never stopped a bully's next beating. He needs to be stopped, just as Putin does.
Finally, as regards cost, allowing Ukraine to spend the blood to stop a US and NATO adversary is a bargain. In a more direct sense, money spent helping Ukraine is also a bargain compared to what it would cost when Putin invades a NATO country that he views as "Russian territory".
And, if Putin isn't stopped in Ukraine it is guaranteed that he will enter other former Soviet states that are now NATO members.
Incidentally, in the ioffe interview, she pointed out how Putin thinks every American president, including Trump, was a rube and not his equal. Putin specifically brought young, attractive translators to meetings with Trump to distract Trump.
Most Russians look down on blacks and Putin thought Obama was just a stupid black. So, Putin was anti America, regardless of who was in the White House.
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