Comments by "L.W. Paradis" (@l.w.paradis2108) on "Russia Moves Reinforcements to Kharkov Region to Counter Ukraine Balakliye Offensive" video.

This war should have ended months ago, with Crimea and the Donbass either under the Russian Federation or as independent, Russian-allied regions, and the impoverished Ukrainian people at peace, without their homes and livelihood destroyed. Yes, of course, the US has its paws all over this. But Putin escalated this war. He has clearly fallen into their trap. He is to blame for that. The US does not invade anywhere without an aerial blitzkrieg first. It establishes dominance, and relies on propaganda and "soft" power, and hard power, to cover its tracks and avoid answering for war crimes against civilians. Yet it has not been winning its wars, either. How Putin expected to is a mystery to me. He must be surrounded by sycophants. This war is both immoral and an unmitigated disaster.
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P. S. Not only is the Donbass not safe, but CRIMEA has been destroyed and assassinations abound. No one can say Putin has done anything right, or that he's playing chess or some other absurdity. It's too late in the day to keep blaming the US, however much that may have been true leading up to the current disaster.
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@Asma-ep9bx Well, I maintain that the US had a huge role in causing this conflict -- but why did he play into their hands? No excuses! He is wasting blood and treasure, and destroying the lives and livelihood and housing stock of some of Europe's poorest people.
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Can they take Kiev without an American-style bombing campaign, which they will not do, assuming they could do it without retaliation? I do not think so. I keep remembering how Churchill ordered the destruction of the French Navy in the Mediterranean, and killed all those sailors who had pledged to join the Resistance, and mutiny to do it if necessary, only a day after they hosted the British aboard their ships. Churchill never lost a moment of sleep over that. He tuned out everyone who felt he had miscalculated, and in the end might made right, as usual. Can the Russians do the equivalent? I can't see it. They were not ready for this.
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I think you are making sense . . . perhaps not in the details, exactly, but certainly grosso modo. What the Russians are doing now is wasting lives and treasure, and that is inexcusable. No one seems to appreciate what the US can and will do, without an afterthought. If they could fake a nuclear attack coming from Moscow and destroy Russia on that account, I have no doubt they would.
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@avus-kw2f213 Very succinctly put.
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@lilacer6841 What is the "problem?" The problem is that this war should have ended in April, and when that failed to happen, then by the end of June. There is no putting lipstick on this pig. Yes, the US had its filthy paws all over this initially . . . and Putin played directly into those paws.
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@Asma-ep9bx Here we are in September, for something that should have ended in April, with Donbass liberated and Crimea firmly in Russian hands, and no further NATO expansion. Instead, Crimea has been destroyed and civilians who had lived there for generations had to evacuate. Not to mention the Ukrainian refugees, not knowing what has become of their modest homes, or the young men they left behind, and facing a winter where even Europe will be hurting for heat. What kind of person can defend the indefensible?? To have escalated this conflict to full-fledged war without any measure of certainty of quick success was a crime. You just do not do this, ever. It is never justified.
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@kachala How did the US do it in Iraq, before sending a single troop in?
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@kachala "Shock and Awe" (tm)
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@mrjerzheel You missed the evacuations? Of civilians? That was a nice air base.
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@kachala True. But you know how they proceeded. Vietnam was a long time ago. Subsequent wars have begun with massive bombing.
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