Comments by "William Masselink" (@williammasselink) on "American Revolution Like Ukrainian Struggle For Independence" video.
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@ptliang011 Okay, I'm back. To begin with, I've tuned in to many of Mark's episodes. He's a lifetime expert monetary economist by education and career. His heritage is Russian, he's been there, speaks the language, and been educated in eastern Europe. He knows of what he speaks first hand. He is anything but an ivory tower professor.
1. Certainly Britain wanted to keep America in their empire just as Putin is trying to force Ukraine back into the Russian empire again. Russia's security has never been threatened. They have 6000 reasons to feel secure. By invading Ukraine, Putin has inadvertently driven powerful Sweden and Finland into NATO, there by doubling Russia's border with NATO. How is having NATO presence in Finland different from say Ukraine? How did that work out for Russia's security? Ukraine was never a threat to the world's purported second military. In fact, just the opposite when Ukraine voluntarily gave up the world's 3rd largest nuclear arsenal in return for security guarantees from US, Britain AND Russia to guarantee Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and refraining from force, or threat of force in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. Russia signed this! It's UKRAINE in a life and death national security situation, not Russia. Was Crimea a threat to Russia's national security when Putin invaded it? Crimea's not even physically attached to Russia! This is simply Putin's obsession to restore his Noveau Rossia Empire. Something akin to "Greater Germany". Putin chose to initiate this because he thought it would be easy like Crimea. It was of choice, not necessity.
2. Actually, Lincoln did have an affinity for the suffering of the slaves and considered it a great evil. However, that was not his top priority which was preservation of the Union: "If I can save the union by freeing the slaves, I would do so. If I can save the union by not freeing the slaves, I would do so". Lincoln even guaranteed to let the South keep their slaves until 1900, and the Federal Government would fully compensate the slave owners if they would return to the union.
3. Britain was the most powerful nation in the world after it's total victory in the Seven Year's War which ended in 1763. Their ability to project power with their Navy was impressive even by today's standards. The Americans were astounded by the forest of masts and hundreds of ships offloading soldiers and supplies in New York harbor. Britain even had the economic resources to hire thousands of German mercenaries (the "Hessians") to supplement their forces. The problem for Britain was not logistics, but mediocre government and military leadership, as their best and brightest sympathized with the colonies, and refused to help subdue them. Russia has nowhere near the industrial power of the "west". Russia produces only 500k cars per year. America, Germany, Japan, China, and South Korea produce cars in the multi millions. Toyota, what, 6 million. Even Tesla produces 2m per annum. Russia's economy is 14x smaller than US, smaller than Italy, or about the size of New York state. Plus it's crippled by sanctions, military spending, a severe labor shortage, high inflation and deficits, 21% interest rates, and a collapsing currency. A totally unsustainable situation. So if Putin wanted to conquer all of Ukraine in 6 months, why hasn't he then?!
Putin's original goal was to conquer ALL of Ukraine. If not, then why didn't he just amass ALL of his forces in the Donbass and be done with it instead of dispersing his military on three different axises, and have a quick fait accompli? Ukraine had every right as a sovereign nation to put down an armed uprising in the Donbass, the so-called DNR and LPR's. Name me one nation in the world that wouldn't. Think Putin would have tolerated it in his own country? Again, short of it's nuclear arsenal which it gave up, Ukraine was never a threat to Russia conventionally. They couldn't even put up any kind of resistance when Putin sent his "little green men" into Crimea. Where do you get this Ukraine's second largest military after Russia? They're military was weak and absolutely no threat to Russia. And why should they demilitarize as a sovereign nation anyway? This slow war of attrition is actually crippling Russia's military, economy and finances. Probably for at least a generation. Putin is literally mortgaging Russia's future. Remember when Putin announced his little SMO to his own people, he promised them it would not affect their daily lives. How has that worked out?
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