Comments by "Dale Crocker" (@dalecrocker3213) on "" video.

Anyone with the slightest knowledge of Ukrainian history will realise that Putin has every right to act as he did. Whether he ought to have exercised that right is debatable, but the right it there.
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Nothing could make me happier that I somewhat reluctantly support Brexit than to realise that, as I suspected, the EU is not a mere trading bloc, but a would-be imperial power. This will not end well.
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@rocketscience4516 Its methods of expansion are very modern, I agree, but not unique in history. Many empires have expanded their territories by offering bribes and sweet promises.
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@Fast_Ultralight Until now it has invaded by promising economic advancement. That's fair enough. Now though it wants an army and it wants to be a world power, not just a trading bloc. This is most inappropriate and very dangerous. It really does mean war: a war which like most wars begins with slogans and flag waving and all kinds of good intentions, but which will end in bloodshed and misery.
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@rocketscience4516 Not necessarily sinister, but certainly insidious. And very foolish. It is political ambition and gung-ho flag-waving, such as we are currently witnessing, which inevitably leads to war. Some of the comments I have been reading have uncanny echoes of Hitler's pre-war speeches, Marching united into a bright future etc etc. This rabble-rousing is very easy to do when you have an excitable, largely ill-informed population to hand.
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@Fast_Ultralight Not at all. Just someone with the time to go into things in detail. Putin has every right to behave as he has. Whether he should have exercised that right is another matter. But the right is there.
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@rocketscience4516 Off you go again! Why don't you start thinking with your brain instead of with your stomach?
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@fredplat467 And yet your "project" is sold to the public purely in terms of its economic advantages. People do not generally realise that their grocer is committed to interfering with every aspect of their lives. The Treaty of Rome, by the way bears some uncanny resemblances to documents produced by Hitler's economic advisers detailing how Europe should be run after he won the War. The current enthusiasm for military might also very much reflects the spirit of fervent patriotism which featured in Germany in the 1930s.
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@jounik To most people in the UK, as ill-informed as we often are, the EU is a matter of cheaper groceries rather than geopolitics. Nearly all the arguments surrounding Brexit have concentrated exclusively on the cost of things, reductions/improvements in services etc. Until now the Remoaners have berated us with empty shelves, transport queues and farming and fishing disasters etc. This is probably the first time that most British people have been told that the EU wants to be an armed super-power ready, willing and able to take on the might of the Russian Federation. Most of us will heave signs of relief that we managed to get out in time.
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Russia has right on its side.
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@jounik There are many things. Ukraine was created by Russia from an amalgam of conquered territories under Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. It only became a "country" when Stalin decided he wanted an extra seat in the UN. A quarter of its population is Russian. Most of them are concentrated in the Eastern Donbas region which has been promised independence but which has instead been subjected to frequent military incursions, including raids by the notorious Azov Battalion many of whose members are self-confessed Nazis and wear Nazi regalia including SS badges. That hate Russians and murder them indiscriminately. Other promises which have been broken include an agreement not to join NATO. As well as the right to protect his own people Putin has the right to prevent a potential enemy setting up missile sites on his borders. None of these factors apply to the other countries you mention.
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@TurinStark5 Yours is an entirely fair version of events, although when it comes to breaking treaties Ukraine is at much at fault as the separatists. And you omit the provocative effect of the behaviour of the Azov Battalion and their like The point is that Ukraine is a good quarter Russian. The trouble with democracy is that in situations like this it leaves a permanently disaffected minority. Independence for Donbas would solve this, but successive Ukraine governments have remained intransigent. The EU operates like a drug dealer waiting around the school gates with promises of bliss. Ukraine is a notoriously corrupt country and very willing to play one suitor off against another. This is a very volatile combination and the looming tragedy is a result of this. The EU going all gung-ho and jingoistic is just going to make things a whole lot worse.
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@jounik Of course I do. Since 1991, when Ukraine first became a country in the eyes of the world, it has persistently refused to acknowledge its true relationship with Russia, has sanctioned ethnic murder and repression and has sought to enter unto relationships with Russia's enemies, both economic and political. This does not apply to the other countries you mention, and I have given you a brief account of the historical background making it clear why Russia might feel justified in behaving as it has.
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How Very reassuring to realise that there is someone out there intelligent and well-informed enough to be able to counter-act this jingoistic bullshit. You have made my day. Thank you.
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And very little evidence for it so far. Just wishful thinking.
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@georgepalmer5851 Crumbs!
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@gloin10 When this "peaceful, sovereign, independent and democratic country" is a treaty-breaking whore of a country whose leaders will sell it to the highest bidder and sanction the ethnic cleansing of its Russian population by self-acknowledged Nazis, and offer it as a missile base for Russia's enemies, the "right" to do something about becomes only to clearly apparent.
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@mikebegonia6134 If the IRA was wandering the highways and byways of the Republic murdering anyone who spoke English, or if the Irish Government proposed to join the Russian Federation and install nuclear missiles pointing at London then yes, I think the UK would want to do something about it. I don't know what you mean about Austria. The Austro/Hungarian Empire did indeed lay claims to parts of present day Ukraine until the 18th century, as indeed did Sweden. There are few people there of either Austrian or Swedish heritage All of Ukraine, by contrast, was in exclusive thrall to the Soviet Union until 1990 and Russian is the first language of a considerable proportion of the population, especially in the Eastern provinces.
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@jansix4287 Irony indeed. One might hope that some similar arrangement would be possible vis a vis Donbas and Ukraine. So far though the EU and the US seem to have stirred up more trouble that they have prevented.
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@gloin10 I wasn't channelling Lavrov. I was there before him. The situation on the island of Ireland and the situation in Ukraine bear certain obvious comparisons, predominantly that of a largely disjoined area of kingdoms subject to invasion from a powerful neighbour, which colonised it. One difference is that separatism has largely resolved the situation in Ireland. Another is that a smaller percentage of Ukrainians speak Russian than Irish speak English. This has led to attempts to effectively ban Russian in the same way that (paradoxically) the English have tried to stop the Irish speaking Gaelic in the past. So the analogy ,such as it is, is apt. Imagine a united Ireland with Gaelic as the official language and where IRA-style military groups go around shooting people who speak English. And that as been happening in Eastern Ukraine where Ukrainian nationalists, who hate the Russians as much as the IRA hate the English, have been allowed to go around shooting people who speak Russian as a first language - which about one-sixth of the total population.
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@gloin10 It's only an analogy for chrissake! The Russian inhabitants of Eastern Ukraine seem to get no sympathy. How would the Scots Irish be treated if Ireland was united but Britain wanted to claim the Six Counties back? The Russian separatists are treated ten times worse than you might imagine. Ever heard of the Azov Battalion?
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There are more than a few grains of truth among the views you wish to suppress.
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@brianperry The presenters are generally not better informed they are just trained to humiliate the less articulate. By coincidence someone has just posted a very sensible and detailed analysis of the present situation on this very thread. If you would like to be better informed I suggest you take time to read it. Mark Edwards 16 minutes ago Wow !!! I am very sorry Phil but this is terrible. You sound like someone who has just spent the last 24 hours sat in front of MSM soaking it all up. In the spirit of unbias media, I must dissect your video point by point. 1) Putin's Coup in Ukraine has been very softly, softly, due to international condemnation. You clearly are quite ignorant about Russia's military power. If NATO confronted Russia conventionally, it would not be a clear cut outcome. That is against the combined might of USA, UK, France, Italy, Germany, and all other members. Why do you think NATO are shrinking away from defending Ukraine? Because they are nice guys and don't want to hurt Russia? Because they are good people and don't want to contravene UN rules? The fact that western media, including A Different Bias, is portraying Russia as weak, is going to be devastating for Ukraine. The softly softly approach will end. And you will eat your words. I estimate 48 hours max now, before the full force of Russia descends on Kiev. 2) You seem to be completely unaware, that this all started in 2014, before which there was a democratic pro-Russian government in Ukraine, when a NATO backed Coup D'Etat took place in Ukraine, installing Poroshenko, and smaller neo-Nazi parties into government, who have since embarked on a massive programme of privatisation in Ukraine, which has been sold off piece by piece to foreign interests. What do you think people like Hunter Biden, and London based oligarchs were all doing in Ukraine at the time? Having a nice little holiday? Read up on it and educate yourself before you get on your soap box. Just like in the UK, the huge majority of Ukrainians have been impoverished by these capitalist policies. In Ukraine today, there are approximately 10 million people (middle class) who have done well out of selling the country off. Mostly around Kiev. But there are 30 million who most certainly have not. These people remain pro-Russian. 3) Germany. Following the tragedy that was World War 2, Germany was banned from operating a non defensive military, indefinitely. This policy was and continued to be, the reasoning behind the formation and remit of The United Nations. It was not a time based penalty. I can't believe a British man can sit on his channel, and basically be an apologist for World War 2 Nazi's. "Let's forget Germany's distant past" (in living memory !!!). And actually get excited about German remilitarisation. And incidentally, do you know the Russian human toll for ending World War 2? Britain tragically lost about 450,000 citizens and soldiers to the conflict. Russia? 24 million ! I cannot think of any one thing which will inflame the situation more, or incentivise Russian aggression more, bar dropping a bomb on Moscow. Germany did not "adopt a far less interventionist attitiude". They were banned from non defensive militarisation. And still are. To suggest otherwise is profoundly ignorant. 4) You seem to think that the Russian military is somehow impotent and will struggle to take Ukraine if they wished. That is horrendously dangerous propoganda. "They will struggle to take Ukraine, let alone an EU country." Here are some wake up facts for you Phil. Russian battle tanks : 14,000 (est) Ukraine battle tanks : 2,400 (est) UK battle tanks : 227 (est) USA Battle tanks : 7,300 (est) Russian troops : 3,600,000 Ukraine troops : 400,000 UK troops : 110,000 USA troops : 2,200,000 Russian military aircraft : 3,900 Ukraine military aircraft : 207 UK military aircraft : 511 US military aircraft : 5,200 Russia nuclear missiles : 6,300 Ukraine nuclear missiles : 0 UK nuclear missiles : 225 USA nuclear missiles : 5,600 NATO exists for a reason ! 5) Russia counteracting the aggressive expansion of NATO is "cobblers". When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, the former Soviet Republics did not force Russia to to leave. Russia could have crushed any one of them with ease. (As with The British Empire). Russia effectively gave them their independance. The agreement with NATO (and I clearly remember this) is that NATO would not seek territory "one inch further". Here is a list of former Soviet Bloc countries that have been allowed to join NATO. Albania Bulgaria Czech Republic Slovak Republic Slovenia Croatia Estonia Latvia Lithuania Hungary Poland Romania and now proposed Ukraine. And remember, this is all within just 30 years. NATO has "militarised" every single one of those countries. But of course, NATO military expansion is "cobblers". But let's not stop there. A list of Russian invasions, coups, and interventions since the break up of the Soviet Union. Syria Chechyna Georgia And by comparison, here is a list of invasions, coups, and interventions by NATO members since the break up of the Soviet Union. Iraq (twice) Rwanda Yugoslavia Nepal Afghanistan Liberia Ethiopia Guinea Bissau Phillipines Venezuela Syria Iran Libya Colombia Haiti Ukraine Yemen Palestine I think aggressive is a comparative term. I do not support Russia's attempted coup in Ukraine. But at least I understand it. And I certainly am not a supporter of NATO and its horrendous belligerent exceptionalism. Before we condemn Russia, and conduct hypocritical hand wringing over the few hundred Ukrainian casualties, maybe we should spare a thought for the over one million dead or maimed Iraqis. The estimated 500,000 dead Afghans, the complete destruction of Libya, the destruction of Palestinian people, the massacre of the Irish, the genocide in North America, or the continuing millions of starving families in Yemen. That, I don't understand. But let's not talk about that. Let's talk about Russia defending itself from a known aggressor on its border. Disgraceful.
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@brianperry In my experience journalists are among the thickest people in the world, apart from actors. All they need is a bit of style and they come across like Socrates. RT offers a far more objective and detailed analysis than any Western news outlet I can think of. And you of course realise that it is biased in the Russian interest and treat its pronouncements accordingly. Incidentally your last image is an unlikely one since Russian conscripts are not allowed on the front line. All combat troops at the moment are trained professional soldiers.
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