Julianus

Explain now what the Ad Hominem logical fallacy is, please.

I agree, certainly, that the fire sale was terrible and we're living the karma from that today. Maybe leaving them alone would have been better? It's doubtful, though. Look at Africa. Western capital avoided it like the plague and they simply suffered in stagnation until China's investment today.

How did Vietnam independently become the economic power it is today? Free trade and public investment in education. That's how it could have gone in Russia. Instead people traded their shares of the newly privatized infrastructure for boxes of vodka. And thus, the oligarchs came to own it all.

All those Russian jets shot down today are irreplaceable after the sanctions. They could hardly afford them before. Face it, mafia states aren't very efficient if there's corruption all down the line. Getting pissy doesn't change the reality of it.

Chronic whataboutism!

It's neither though. Can Russia replace a single one of all the jets it lost today? Nope. It can't make it's own computer chips. That's why they held back so long. But now, in desperation, they must risk them. In contested airspace, where they are getting picked off.

Is Russia hugely exporting anything? Not at the moment.

So Russia is self-sufficient and doesn't need to trade or it's a huge global exporter? Which is it?

Here's some more whataboutism for you: Aleppo. Grozny. Go all the way back to Afghanistan, where this "non-genocidal" state carpet bombed during the planting season to starve the population. Projection, indeed.

As strong North Korea? They're totally dependent on China, too. Ukraine is Russia's next Afghanistan. Remember that fiasco? When American made Stingers cleared the sky of Spetsnaz helicopters? Does that sound familiar?

Ha ha, yep, NATO scared Putin so much he invaded an unaligned nation in response. Nobody cares to invade Russia. Russia would be a NATO member, if it wasn't trapped in the cold war mentality of Putin. What do you get in return? Finland 2.0? Afghanistan 2.0? And a new batch of EU and NATO members. Putin has outmaneuvered himself.

That number should be zero, unless it's carbon is directly captured.

What the west should have done was Marshal Plan eastern Europe. Build them up with loans and investments rather let them wallow in corruption and poverty. Look at Japan and Germany today, compared to Russia. It was a cruel, conscious choice to use them as a cheap labor stock. And now we have to deal with the results: peace in our time? Or checking an aggressor before he starts World War III.

Very soon we shall see who lives in delusion and who lives in reality. Judging by all the lies that Russia has told, I feel confident. Let's find out.