Search results

Well, Ukraine isn’t a NATO member and Estonia is. The West also left it too late to send personnel so now actively sending the military to Ukraine would be an act of war. Whereas, had this been done before the invasion, it would be Russia who was the aggressor against NATO. If Russia attacks...

Ukraine doesn’t need to surrender. Even if Russia succeeds its initial military objectives, they will need to maintain an occupying force that will almost certainly face a determined Ukrainian insurgency. At this point, NATO needn’t get involved. Russia has succeeded in pushing NATO members to...

It’s nonsense. I appreciate NATO expansion would put Russia on edge, but the cause and effect is not NATO. The reason the old Eastern Bloc countries joined NATO was to avoid the fate of Ukraine. A country as big as Ukraine is struggling against Russia, what chance does the Baltic states have...

Again, this happened in the early 50s in the context of McCarthyism where everyone was a communist. In the context of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine some 70 years later is ancient history.

Well, context matters. The Cold War and Post-Cold War eras are very different and therefore deserve different treatment. Conflict, geopolitics and situations all change. Cuba and Yemen Houthi rebels… two very bad examples of democracies. Iran also admitted itself it breached the nuclear deal...

What you fail to mention is that most of those examples were in the Cold War where the US and USSR were playing tit for tat in trying to expand communist and anti-communist regimes. The geopolitical context was very different and not really relevant to the 21st century anymore.

You’ve cited examples that are absolutely valid if we still lived in the Cold War era. At that point, US foreign policy was geared towards containing communism at all and any cost. At the expense of democratically elected governments and that is a stain on their history. This same behaviour...

Considering a few people have said the West are hypocrites on this suggests there is an equivalency being drawn. Two questions on this: Are we right to impose sanctions on Russia? Are we right to send weapons to Ukraine? If the answer is yes to both questions, it probably tells you what you...

Very wooly thinking. There will always conflict. It’s very disheartening to see people draw false comparisons between this invasion against Ukraine and the invasions against the Taliban, Saddam Hussein and intervention against Gaddafi. That’s without even accounting for Putin’s nuclear war bluff…

Gross hypocrisy? Say what you like about the more recent, post-Cold War interventions of the West, but we weren’t invading and occupying democratic states. The global economy deals with unsavoury characters and regimes. After all, this post was made from a phone produced in China. If that’s...

So they are to be judged equally? The West has been far from perfect, but to bring that up in the present context just lacks perspective.

I’m not a massive boxing fan, but the clear winner was clearly Catterall. He outclassed Taylor in the fight and in the boxing too. First fight watching Taylor and did not see what the hype was all about.

Of course they do, it’s no different from all major powers in global politics. That fact clearly does not justify the actions of Russia and China taking actions to antagonise their smaller neighbours. Its very obvious that China is watching developments closely given they are training for an...

What kind of response is that? The US isn’t invading democratic countries for territory…

Ultimately, the best way to deter Putin, China and other adversaries is by through strength. Which is why the NATO countries need to increase defence spending It’s not just Ukraine at stake here if Putin succeeds. The West is starting to see the risks associated with our complacency towards...

Ukraine cannot possibly make that promise. The Budapest Memorandum ’guaranteed’ Ukraine’s security and territorial integrity if it agreed to give up nuclear weapons following the collapse of the USSR. Before this, Ukraine had the 3rd largest nuclear stockpiles - think Russia would be invading if...

I’m not going into the finer points of the interventions the West has made… but there’s a few significant distinctions and general points to be made between our interventions then and the intervention Russia is making in the Ukraine. 1. Ukraine is a democratic country, Iraq and Afghanistan were...

The claim that the league has 12-15 teams that are competitive is a bit ridiculous. 12th placed Burton are 12 points adrift from the playoffs and 26 points off top. League 1 is about as strong as it was when we were there.

Personally, my instinct is that we were never good enough for the playoffs even when we were flying… That said, we’re three points off the playoffs with a lot of points to play for. Even if we don’t make it, we’ve made a lot of progress and overcome a lot of injuries, that in itself is an...

There isn’t a story here, I don’t think. I remember when Watford got relegated and Aidy Boothroyd responding to rumours about Marlon King said he was worth £60 million… That’s how silly manager’s valuations can be.