Putin is insane, pure and simple. No sane person would order the bombing of a Children's hospital. That doesn't mean he is stupid, but obviously his level of crazy trumps his intelligence at times. That is why people are afraid of him. A crazy man with nukes is scary as hell.

The Russian people are sick of this. I read where mothers of soldiers are really pissed. Don’t make mom mad.

I believe the reports coming out of Russia about as much as I believe the reports coming from our media. I can't decide which is more evil. Russia or the United States? Russia MIGHT be slightly worse but I have no doubt our own government is a bigger threat to our freedom.

Bill, you are correct about who is a much greater threat to our freedom.

All these grandiose schemes that some of you guys think that Putin is up to in order to set his chess pieces into place for total world domination, still doesn't explain why he's resorted to bombing women and children and why he's recruiting Syrians because they are supposedly experts at urban warfare. If he has this all figured out, he wouldn't have had to do either one of those things.

I believe that fact of the matter is, his troops are struggling over there, things aren't going to plan, and now he has two choices:

The first choice is that he's going to have to double down on the death and destruction and in that case it's going to get really ugly for everyone. ugly for his troops, ugly for the civilians and collateral damage and especially ugly for the West to just sit back on their hands and watch the carnage without committing any troops.

The second choice would be to try to salvage this thing and find some kind of face saving out, by convincing the Ukrainians to accept some terms favorable to the Russians. He's already been trying that by offering the Ukrainians to recognize Crimea and to give up the separatists regions. Which of course they rejected. Why would he make this offer if he has some master plan? Why would he care if the Ukrainians gave him "official recognition" of those regions, if he has already declared them part of Russia and/or independent countries? If he already has all that stuff in his back pocket why does he give a tinker's damn of Ukraine makes it official? Why would he make that offer if he wanted to start WWIII?

I honestly think he trying to make a deal to save face so he doesn't have to carry this thing out fully, but the Ukrainians aren't playing, they are pissed, they are standing their ground, and they are in this thing to the death it seems. It wouldn't surprise me if behind the scenes Xi is not putting a lot of pressure on Putin to wrap this mis-adventure up, quickly.

Irish I’m thinking you may be right with Xi pressuring Putin
Everything I’m reading there are alliances popping up from numerous non-NATO countries and several of them wanting to be a part of nato now and that is a threat to China too

Yeah... I been reading on that and from everything I hear, the Western response to this has really alarmed the Chinese leadership. I get the feeling that they felt this war would weaken the Western alliances, but in fact it has had the opposite effect and strengthened them. When I say "Western Alliance" I am also including our allies in the Pacific Rim.

I read where a former secretary of defense said that he had been trying for years to get Germany to spend more on defense, and thanks to Putin they are finally doing it.

The reality is we don’t really know what is going on. We have to trust the biased news sources and Russia and Ukraine. None of which can be reliable. That hospital could have been a military institution, we just don’t know.
Next there is nothing stopping Putin from using nuclear options. If he wants to use them he will while everyone just stands to the side in fear of escalation. How is providing migs an escalation but javelins and ammo not?

It will be years before we can see through all the political spin from every side.

Bill Clinton bombed an aspirin factory in Sudan in 1998 with14 cruise missiles.

Lots of thoughts on that, but I will just say this: a supposed Orthodox Christian country (they aren't really but that is a different topic) using MUSLIM Chechens and MUSLIM Syrians against "a fraternal people" is beyond the pale.

They are also using the Wagner Group of mercenaries.

Unreal how evil Putin is.

That is so totally wrong as to be completely absurd.

Look, this war is happening in REAL TIME!
And there is only ONE invader!
There is only ONE country that is bombing the hell out of the other.
They came to kill, conquer and subjugate. And that is what they are doing.

Everyone in Ukraine has a smart phone and they are posting thousands of war video clips to the internet *daily*.
If you are just looking at one TV channel or two that is NOT the way to know and understand what is going on.
The internet has thousands of locations to see what is happening all over Ukraine literally minute by minute.

You can find these sources with just your keyboard.

---->>>There is no excuse in this "modern" age to not know this and be able to get accurate information about what is going on.

From what Im seeing Russia is bogged down, cannot capture a big city, and I just watched one of their tanks columns get destroyed until the rest retreated.

The Russians are not going to get a win over there. And we do not need to be involved. This has shown how weak Russia is militarily more than anything else IMO.

^^. I think they’re only showing you what they want you to see.

Who is they? These were Ukrainian videos posted on the internet.

Cant fake soviet tanks blowing up. And Javelins shooting out the rear tank blocking them in and then hammering the others as they try to get out of the ambush zone. Looked like Soviets tanks taking a beating.

And we are two weeks in and they still havent taken a major population center. Thats why theyre shelling. The Russians arent doing well so far at all. That is a military fact.

WmHunter, you talk as if you been in a hole for a few years and just climbed out. As if you are not aware our govt, media, and info sources have been censoring info for the past few years pretty heavily. You act as if you dont realize people post videos every day on many different platforms that get deleted as soon as they are posted. You act as if you dont understand how it all works. As if theres no way they can sway opinions by what they allow to be seen. I thought you were more intelligent than that.

WmHunter...

I really try to respect you and have an open mind to your opinions, but let me say this:

If you will give your opinions, your take on the story, without basically calling the other person an idiot, then your opinions will be better received.

It's called, making a persuasive agrument and building a consensus.

First, Irish points above duly noted.

******

Next, jwalker - there is not some single monolithic controller of all information in this country or even the world.
There are only a few countries that have that situation - mainly Russia, China, North Korea. And people there have ways to get around blocks to get outside information.

There are literally thousands of news sources available out there.
And thousands of twitter accounts posting live information - with photos, videos, etc.
And all kinds of channels on various other platforms - like Telegram for example.
Youtube has many channels with war coverage.

To think that all aspects of the information available to Americans is under control and censored is silly nonsense.
People have to get away from the idea that there is only Fox News, or CNN or other TV - although both have had pretty good war coverage.
The internet is slam full of good information sources.

********


The main thing is this: this war is not some big conspiracy as some folks on the fringe of conservatism think.
It is a straight forward war of imperial land conquest by Vladimir Putin - planned for at least 8 years, and some would say 22 years.
To put together a new version of the Russian Empire along Fascist police state lines.

There is literally one evil side in this - Russia/Putin.
And an innocent side - Ukraine, that did absolutely nothing to provoke or justify Putin's invasion.
They did not attack Russia.
They did not threaten Russia.
They did absolutely nothing.
Ukraine is a peaceful country of laid back freedom loving people.
They have never been imperialistic like Russia.
They have never been militaristic like Russia.
They gave up their nuclear weapons in exchange for peace and security - underwritten and guaranteed by the U.S. and UK (and Russia). .
And now they are being mass murdered on an industrial scale.
And we can all see the continuous bombing and shelling of - cities.
***All because Ukraine wanted to be a part of Europe and not a part of Vladimir Putin's Russia.
And people cannot even figure out what to think or believe???


******

I agree with most of what youre saying except two things. #1) ALL thi info in this country IS being censored and we are being led to believe what "they" want us to believe 100% of the time. That has been proven over and over. #2) Ukraine is not innocent. Maybe 98% of the population of citizens are innocent (same can be said for russian citizens), but Ukraine, the country, is not innocent. That is rediculous.

Well, no one is innocent in the sense that we are all sinners.

But what did Ukraine do to justify Russia's brutal full scale invasion?

**

As far as information - in the internet age it is impossible for it to be all controlled.
That is not a physical possibility.

There’s way to many Ukrainian ties with US Politicians for them to be “innocent”. To many quid pro quo deals that we have all heard and read about, things that have been verified as truth. You can’t be so naive to think otherwise, I wouldn’t think. There’s way more to this story than Putin just invading. I doubt we ever fully know the truth

I think, as a whole, the Ukrainian people are good people. As JWalker said the same can be said for most of the Russian masses. I’ve spent enough time in Eastern Europe working to see this first hand and can say the same about the Polish, Estonians and Finns