British Politics Thread.

[Kirsten]

I think you might have missed this big country called, "Russia," that has been testing the West by invading parts of Eastern Europe, sending bombers over Western Europe and into our airspace, has more nukes than it can count and so many are unaccounted for. I dunno about you, put Putin isn't the sort of man I would trust to always sue for peace.

Russia aren't testing anything, they are just trying to seem threatening. they don't have the capability to attack, which is why they are trying to annex Ukraine secretly.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Russia aren't testing anything, they are just trying to seem threatening. they don't have the capability to attack, which is why they are trying to annex Ukraine secretly.

[URL="http://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.asp?country_id=russia"]The numbers suggest otherwise.[/URL]

They're annexing Ukraine secretly because it's easier to take a country when no-one's stopping you. Putin's not an idiot, but don't underestimate Russia's military strength. That has never gone well, historically.

[Kirsten]

they can't afford it financially, the country can hardly run as it is, any assault they attempted would grind to a halt almost immediately.

[CoffeeGrunt]

they can't afford it financially, the country can hardly run as it is, any assault they attempted would grind to a halt almost immediately.

Primarily because of international sanctions that the US is struggling to keep up with as well. If they keep prices as they are now, it's going to do some pretty long-term damage to the Oil and Gas industry.

Sanctioning a country does one of two things, it makes them repent and start to cooperate, or it makes them see you as an enemy taking things from them and radicalises them against you. Putin's got a very suave propaganda machine working for him, and he's ex-KGB, he knows how to do dirty politics.

[Alaric]

Obviously. The point wasn't that nukes are like vaccines, the point was that, like vaccines, we've gotten so used to life with them that we've assumed things would continue on exactly the same without them, and thus start trying to get rid of them because of perceived secondary issues.



Stopped us being invaded. Eastern Europe and the Middle East? Not so much.



Most people in the world aren't Saturday Morning Cartoon Villains. If someone can do something without threat of reprisal, they're significantly more likely to do it.

I know what you meant, I even said so lol, I just didn't agree on your point is all

I am in total agreement on needing nukes though.

[YorkNecromancer]

[url=http://io9.com/ukraine-is-just-the-beginning-welcome-to-the-age-of-sh-1691073647]Russia is terrifying.[/url]

And as for money, lest we forget, [url=http://www.hive.co.uk/book/mafia-state-how-one-reporter-became-an-enemy-of-the-brutal-new-russia/12670985/]Putin is the richest man on the planet. He just hides his fortunes from those powers that keep track of them.[/url]

Russia is doing what tyrannies have always done. Unlike every other tin-pot tyranny, however, they are very, very clever. They've learned the lessons of the past. Putin was, and remains, a man trained in warfare not by the army but by the KGB. He thinks and acts like a spy. Therefore, of course he's not going to act in the usual manner of a dictator. He's run rings around the West, never giving them the excuses they need to stop him.

He is a highly intelligent and deeply dangerous man. To see how dangerous, look at what happened to Litvinenko: murdered is broad daylight, in public, in the most horrible way imaginable, with a poison so rare it could only be provided by someone with access to nuclear reactors... And there aren't many men on that list. Everyone knows who did it, but Putin denies it, no government on Earth wants to try to prosecute him, and that's the end of it. So what purpose does this horrific assassination have? Litvinenko's death is an object lesson to anyone who would dare move against Putin: 'This man spoke out against me. He raised nothing but his voice and I did this to him. Think what will happen to the person who makes me angry.'

The Western press call Putin 'unpredictable' then imply he's insane, because that's the simplest way to characterise someone who is, essentially, the Hannibal Lecter of world politics. He's not insane; he's just completely unfettered by any remorse, doubt, or need to justify why the world and everything in it should belong to him. His motivation is pure greed, he's not shy about prosecuting his goals, and he's happy to use the political equivalent of Krav Maga to succeed. The man is the walking definition of 'by any means necessary'.

[CoffeeGrunt]

[URL="https://www.facebook.com/EducateInspireChange.org/videos/857711124316166/"]Just because it isn't happening here...[/URL]

[Denzark]

Well, the Refugee thing is interesting. In the sense of the old Chinese curse 'may you live in interesting times'...

[CoffeeGrunt]

The image of the drowned Syrian toddler is going viral, but the backlash from the right-wing genuinely depresses me. Either the majority of the people in the Independent's comment section are sociopaths, or we have a pretty massive lack of basic humanity in our culture.

[Wildeybeast]

Yes, not really sure what we do about it. Whilst we could be doing more to help look after refugees, Cameron is right in saying that doing so does nothing to stop the problem at the root cause. Though short of re-colonising most of North Africa and the Middle East, I don't know what we could to stop the problem.