Comments by "peabase" (@peabase) on "US considers all options as frustration grows over continuing Ukraine conflict" video.

***** It sucks, doesn't it, that wishful thinking doesn't translate easily into reality. Speaking of which, the sad truth is that Russia is slipping away further and further from re-attaining superpower status -- if indeed it ever was one.
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Abu Timur Napoleon burnt Moscow to a crisp. And what the French didn't burn, the Russians did while retreating, and again when Hitler came calling. It all illustrates the futility of war quite nicely. Ironically, the Ukrainian Crisis suggests that Russia ignored the lesson and is getting burnt -- again.
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James The I'm familiar with scorched earth tactics, thank you very much. But where did I go wrong in my conclusions? "Western occupation of Ukraine" is a hoot. Poor Putin got cuckolded by the EU, or in his suspicious mind he felt he has, and lost it completely, and took it out on Ukraine. The after-the-fact excuses for his rash actions are getting more imaginative by the day.
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Abu Timur Don't worry about my credentials. In fact, I think I have to worry about your knowledge of history. The verdict is still out on who started the fires in Moscow. The most plausible explanation is that both Russians and the French had a hand in it. Your assertion that the USSR never played the role of aggressor is ludicrous. Stalin was very much in cahoots with Hitler in the opening stages of WW2. After all, the two eagerly started carving up Europe as per the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. If the Soviet invasion of Poland and the Winter War didn't exemplify Soviet aggression, I don't know what does. The annexations of the Baltic states easily fit the bill, too. But most worryingly, the trend appears to continue. Putin had to help himself to the Crimea like a spurned lover out for revenge, to say nothing of his role in the unrest in Eastern Ukraine. Present-day Russia, like the Soviet Union, does not respect the sovereignty of its neighbours.
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Abu Timur I take it that you tacitly admit that the USSR engaged in aggression by not even trying to counter my points. Hit the books and you'll find that the Balts existed as distinct peoples even before the Danes, Swedes, Poles, Germans and -- finally -- the Russians made their presence felt. So if you claim that Russia deserves credit for the existence of the Baltic states, there's a queue. Why would I go claiming that the USA won WW2? Inflated egos are their problem, not mine.
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James The Yanukovych, by having a sudden change of heart regarding the EU, lost his power base. Even his own party deserted him. Popular uprising are never pretty, but a "right sector" did not emerge victorious in Ukraine, as Russia's state-controlled media would want us to believe. What else do you need to have explained to you? ;-)
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Abu Timur Ah, at a complete loss for words, you're giving petulance a try. It's pretty simple. The Balts settled on their shores after the last glacial period and they've stayed put ever since. There's no telling where they wandered in from, but that applies to practically all Europeans. If that doesn't give the Balts a birthright to their own territory, then explain to me how it does work.
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James The I see you whipped yourself up into an ultranationalistic frenzy there. If you wanted to come across as a mindless thug, you've succeeded. I hate to break it to you, but no one is out to get Russia. Not even the most hawkish Yanks in their wildest wet dreams, and least of all Western Europe. On the contrary, after all the political credit that our leaders extended to Putin, just general disillusionment with Russia remains. The consensus is that you can stew in your own juices.
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James The Ah, you're what Soviet propagandists termed a "useful idiot" and a live specimen at that. I remember studying the Irish Pravda and wondering who's backward enough to buy a copy. Now I know.
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James The I haven't got a Polish nerve that could be struck. Apologies accepted. It has to be said: you're gracious in defeat.
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