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2023-01-23 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Europe admits it is following the path of Napoleon and Hitler
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Posted by badanov 2023-01-23 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11134 views ]  Top

#1 I don't recall anyone using the rally cry "On to Moscow". It's more like the game the old Soviet Union played supplying North Vietnam during the Indochina conflict. Russian troops were not overtly involved. They just exploited the nationalist sentiment of the locals to grind the South Vietnamese and Americans down. Fortunately for Putin so far, he has the internal security means to crush any domestic opposition.
Posted by Procopius2k 2023-01-23 06:42||   2023-01-23 06:42|| Front Page Top

#2 
Posted by Skidmark 2023-01-23 11:11||   2023-01-23 11:11|| Front Page Top

#3 "includes the physical conquest of half of Germany"

Did you seriously just leave out the part where that Germany viciously attacked Russia with the end goal of genociding or enslaving its population?
Posted by Fat Bob Thrart2867 2023-01-23 11:26||   2023-01-23 11:26|| Front Page Top

#4 ...most of Russian history involves the conquest of the independent countries surrounding it...

Russia had a lot of weak, underdeveloped countries surrounding it so they didn't have to build ships and cross oceans to build their empire. Some of those countries, the Mongols for one example and Hitler's Germany for another, were really not weak at all and so Russia had to conquer or be conquered. You could say they live in a tough neighborhood. So, yes, there are differences between Russian history and that of Britain, France, Spain, Holland, Belgium and Portugal. But they all built empires by conquering other countries.
Posted by Abu Uluque 2023-01-23 12:39||   2023-01-23 12:39|| Front Page Top

#5 "most of Russian history involves the conquest of the independent countries surrounding it"

Ummmm, and the History of Europe does not?
Posted by mossomo 2023-01-23 12:54||   2023-01-23 12:54|| Front Page Top

#6 Poor Russia suppresses a shiver.
"Rough neighborhood? Only a river
Or two, and a Station
Protect our new nation
From Mongol invasion
And Teutonisation!"
"Oh? What are we Polaks, chopped liver?"
Posted by Gomez Hupolurong3358 2023-01-23 13:16||   2023-01-23 13:16|| Front Page Top

#7 As recently as the 1950s and 1960s, France fought wars to maintain their grip on Vietnam and Algeria. Americans fought in Vietnam until 1973. To this day, Americans, French and the British exhibit tendencies to send their troops into other countries. In the 1970s the Portugese fought a nasty little war in Angola. World War II forced the Europeans to retreat from many of their overseas colonies but, if it hadn't been for that war, it's a good bet they would still be there. Russia conquered several of the Eastern European countries in World War II but only after Hitler's invasion of Russia. Then they used those countries as a buffer zone between themselves and the undeniably hostile powers of Western Europe. These days, Russians see NATO as the modern equivalent of Napoleon and Hitler. In Ukraine, NATO has given them good reason for that, first with the 2014 coup in Kiev and then the proposed expansion of NATO into Ukraine. Just last year Biden said it himself, "For the love of God, that man (Putin) cannot remain in power." Putin has so far kept NATO from conquering Ukraine and Biden hates him for it. Throughout Russian history, Tsars, communist dictators and now Putin have used the vast distances of their country, and others, as a strategic advantage against some of their more powerful neighbors who would conquer Russia if they could.
Posted by Abu Uluque 2023-01-23 13:20||   2023-01-23 13:20|| Front Page Top

#8 All of this might lead you to believe that I am pro-Russian, maybe even paid by the Kremlin to spout such propaganda. But no. I harbor no illusions about Putin. He is a murdering, ruthless dictator and has sent his troops into other countries just like his American, French and British counterparts.

I don't harbor any illusions about Biden either.

I am not pro-Russian. I am anti-war and I firmly believe we should negotiate an end to this stupid little war in Ukraine that would take into account the legitimate security interests and historical claims of all parties.
Posted by Abu Uluque 2023-01-23 13:29||   2023-01-23 13:29|| Front Page Top

#9 Note: the only people to conquer 'Russia' were the Mongols from the east. I'd be more concerned in that direction than the West.
Posted by Procopius2k 2023-01-23 14:46||   2023-01-23 14:46|| Front Page Top

#10  into account the legitimate security interests and historical claims of all parties.

Abu, does every individual count as a "party" with security interests?

Me thinks that is not a thought in any of their heads.
Posted by AlanC 2023-01-23 16:11||   2023-01-23 16:11|| Front Page Top

#11  Did you seriously just leave out the part where that Germany viciously attacked Russia with the end goal of genociding or enslaving its population?

I also left out the part where Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia amicably divided Poland between themselves, and that the Nazis turned on the Soviets when the Soviets were about to turn on them. I’ve lost maternal relatives to the Nazis, and paternal relatives to the Soviets.

What was Stalin’s goal for the first conquest of Germany, the one he didn't get to do? Did he intend another Holodomor, or did he intend merely to make them another subject people after killing the entire leadership class like he’d done in Poland? We saw what he did to East Germany after he got it, along with the other countries he did not set free after driving out the Nazis.

and so Russia had to conquer or be conquered. You could say they live in a tough neighborhood.

That seems a fair evaluation, Abu Uluque.
Posted by trailing wife 2023-01-23 22:32||   2023-01-23 22:32|| Front Page Top

23:42 Skidmark
23:38 Skidmark
23:36 Skidmark
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