Will Putin kill more people than Stalin?
- Thread starter 80watts
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I am definitely not pro Putin, or anti Canadian and I don’t understand the reason you stated such. I can only assume you did, because I expressed an opinion that I know is based on fact, of which you do not agree. You also called me a war profiteer. This may come as a shock, but there are many Fortune 500 companies that are war profiteers. Every single conflict for which I have participated, have been about money and I am not referring to money I was paid. I did get paid to fight wars, but when a person leaves Special Ops, there are not many skills acquired that are useful in civi life and I was too old to start over. I also do not agree with what occurred in Ukraine, but I UNDERSTAND it and IMHO, the war could have been avoided……if NATO, Ukraine and the US stuck to prior agreements. I also believe the vast majority of Ukrainians are not aware of their governments actions in Donbas, which is predominantly Russian citizens. However, most Ukrainians do you realize that their government is extremely corrupt. On a side note, I have also completed several contracts for the Canadian Government, which were paid with Canadian tax dollars, but not made public. My former (retired) occupation would not exist if governments were equipped to perform specialized functions in war, or if governments did not want plausible deniability.
I suggest people not believe everything the government and the media says, and always question authority. Therefore, instead of pro Putin and anti Canadian, I think I am anti government and because of my background, I am also very anti war.
Agreed. We cannot look at the war from a single narrow perspective promoted by the MSM. We need to have different perspectives. And don't forget it is Trudeau who makes all the decisions to send fighter jets and weapons to Ukraine for the purpose of satisfying his own selfish ideology. The fact that the younger generation has kept him in power for so long is a testament to the brainwashing of media and our education system. This has been a worldwide phenomenon.
Not everyone is lucky enough to have an occupation of their dream. I grew up in a very poor family and in order to get a college education, I joined the military. For whatever reason, I was selected to attend a special operators school, and I was lucky enough to succeed. A little later, George Bush lied about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. My team was deployed multiple times to various world hotspots. Did I have fun, absolutely not, did I experience an adrenaline rush that is addictive, absolutely. Due to multiple injuries I sustained, I left the military, and found myself with no skills in the civilian market. However, I was repeatedly recruited by both domestic and foreign governments, and various private organizations, for the skills that I acquired in the military and the income was something I could not refuse. Governments start wars, and all wars are because of some type of greed. The citizenry support the wars their government started because of the information the governments disseminate, and the media exacerbates. I am certainly not a pacifist, but I believe, based on my training and experience, the last war necessary was World War II, and probably every other war since could have been avoided. Just like in school, there will always be bullies in the world that need to be taken down before they start something that cannot be stopped. Xi of China is at the top of the list, but the population of China contains many innocent everyday citizens. It is the citizens, the privates, sergeants and some other military members, just doing their job and trying to survive, that get slaughtered. That is the reason I think it essential to question authority and not believe everything the government tells you. That is the reason I am against war.
If you were paid by Canada, to do a contract, the contract has to be available under the Access of Information Act.
Just by reviewing your comments, you seem very anti-Canadian/anti-west. So why would you get a contract from the Canadian Government if you are not as it seems in agreement with Canadian policies?
Why did most of the former Eastern Block countries end up in NATO (Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Baltic states) . Russian Occupation. The history of eastern Europe since the end of WW2 has been Russia crushing any freedom movement (Czechoslovakia, Hungary). During the cold war, Russia colonized the Warsaw pact and inserted Russians into certain areas of the Warsaw Pact. Why did neutral Sweden and Finland ask to join NATO.... they fear Russian aggression.
American aggression means McDonalds, and fast food restaurants, a opening to better markets. Access to the capitalist west economy and its supply of capital.... Better life for its citizens.
During Covid I watched a lot of u-tube on yachting, seems there were a lot of Russian Billionaires that had some nice yachts. How did they become billionaires? They got handed stated controlled infrastructure and proceeded to rip money and resources off from the Russian People. Hence the name Oligarchs.
The exact same thing that you described is occurring in the United States. The brainwashing within the education system is astonishing and I believe a huge future price will be paid. On a side note, if countries would just mind their own business and not provide aid to Ukraine, it would save countless lives. However, the argument against stopping aid is that Putin is like Hitler and would continue to march into Europe. Nobody has a crystal ball and can see into Putin‘s head, but governments and the media continue to push that theory……at the cost of innocent lives. A policeman cannot shoot somebody they THINK is a threat. A policeman will need specific articulable facts as to the reason the person was shot. The cop cannot just say they were scared.
I am simply expressing a view that few people seem to think about. First of all I am not anti-Canadian and I am not anti-west. I believe in the land of the free in the home of the brave, I am a patriot that served my country. However, I do not believe and follow everything my government tells me. History should be a lesson. The Gulf of Tonkin, weapons of mass destruction, President Clinton’s, “I did not have sex with that women”, Hillary Clinton’s private server, Hunter making millions working in Ukraine and millions more from the CCP. I can only speak about the United States, but there are many many more examples. Just because I do not believe everything I am told by the government, does not make me anti-Canadian.
My mother was a Japanese survivor of World War II. She said at the end of the war, the Japanese citizens were told American soldiers would rape and kill everyone they encountered. Japanese children were taught to use pointed broomsticks to fight the enemy, because their lives depended upon it. If you know anything about history, many Japanese citizens committed suicide rather than being murdered by an American soldier. The Japanese citizen was brainwashed for many generations to believe everything their government said. That is the power of propaganda. Look at Fox News and CNN today. The Republicans control Fox, the Democrats control CNN, and both so-called news networks, report stories differently.
The Canadian Access of Information Act is identical to the United States Freedom of Information Act. I cannot speak for the Canadian side, but I know the American side will only give you access to the information that they want you to have. How else would you even know additional information exists? Or, there are many things in government that are top-secret, and you can request the information all you want, but you will not receive it. There is further information that may not be technically top-secret, but the people in power may not want you to have it. This is a great example and I invite you to attempt it, under Canadian Access of Information Act, ask intimate questions about Justin Trudeau’s security detail, after you receive it, post it for all to read. The Canadian Access of Information Act may sound great on paper, but in reality, it is not!
"American aggression means McDonalds, and fast food restaurants, a opening to better markets. Access to the capitalist west economy and its supply of capital.... Better life for its citizens"... Yeah not really no, but nice try ( or at least provide examples). And regarding the oligarchs, we'll they made their money a bit of the same as any other billionaires so...
No. Russians committed atrocities on the occupied Ukrainian territories starting February 2022, before any aid started coming in. No sign they would stop killing civilians. But maybe for a Blackwater fan it is business as usual.
Ukrainians pushed back against an enemy who had vastly superior hardware. Would you just surrender or defend your country? Depends on money? Anyway, Ukrainians have an absolute right to defend their state. Whoever starts the war is pretty much always responsible for the damage. So if you are not brainwashed by Russian propaganda completely, you should agree Putin is a criminal and should be stopped. Yes, the costs may or may not be too high, but that's for Ukrainians to decide. There was no happy ending for them since February 2022. Even without a military struggle, Russia could never control a large occupied territory with tens of millions people who hated them. That's when innocent lives are lost anyway: when soldiers are outnumbered by hostile civilians. Russians didn't seem to discourage their soldiers from killings/rapes/looting.
I never said atrocities were not committed, but they are committed on both sides, but not reported in western news……..that is war! You are living in a an altered state of mind if you do not believe Putin could blow Ukraine off the map……without nukes ……and within days
You also mentioned Blackwater, but only know what you read in the news. You have probably never been terrified that you would be wounded and your head cutoff, burned to a crisp and hung from a bridge. I was at Nisour Square in 2007. The incident was very dynamic and nobody that I saw specifically targeted civilians. Why would a contractor target an innocent person when 165 other people are trying to kill him? However, civilians got killed because bad people used them as shields and war is not like TV. Fallujah 2004, four other contractors were mutilated, burned and hung off a bridge. The same type of monsters were at Nisour Square. A person that throws Blackwater in my face cannot be reasoned with because, although they know nothing about the company and the missions the company performed, they saw a report on the news. Keep in mind, the so called news is in the business of selling news and the more dramatic they a make the story, the more that will listen. Here is a fact, Canada hired Blackwater twice that I am aware. It’s not just Canada, academia and the media have brainwashed and distorted facts in America as well. I surrender!
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Definitely, if he were smarter. Maybe learned to use Internet, which I think he still never used. At most he held somebody's device (in Oliver Stone's documentary) - that's hilarious, you can check - youtube video with Americans using Hellfires in Afganistan, but Putin believed it was a video of Russian pilots in Syria. It sounded like the pilots spoke Russian, just because somebody added a soundtrack of Ukrainian helicopter pilots attacking Donetsk airport. It's a proof how far away from reality Putin is. Not only being fooled by his generals with a fake video, but showing it for the posterity in the documentary.
And if he didn't choose his cronies by loyalty, not professional qualities. That negative selection, plus corruption in Russian army definitely saved many Ukrainian lives.
And if he were capable of planning long-term. Of course he acted on a wrong information, but he had 20 years in power to figure out how to do his job.
And maybe a few more things, like not being a coward. The way he was hiding from the public in any major crisis is quite unprecedented for a president. I'm rater impressed how Russians never noticed this, and how Putin decided on invasion in Ukraine after all. Hiding in a bunker during COVID must have had a mental effect.
We have nothing in common. Canada did participate in Iraq……by proxy. Apparently you believe everything you read and see, and cannot think or reason for yourself. I am not trying to insult you, but your government, probably like all others, do not want to look controversial in the eyes of their citizens. I don’t know, or care about politics, but I would guess your government did not want to publicly participate, so they hired it out. I know this because, I was one of at least 50 that received money (gold) from parliament. Now ask yourself, why were we paid in gold. Excuse the pun, but put that in your peace pipe and smoke it. Mercenaries, as you called them are in video games and on TV. Mercenaries haven’t existed in modern warfare for over a century. Blackwater and every other security company did not actively fight the war. They provided security to dignitaries and VIPs. Did you ever play a video game called Benghazi? Those individuals that were killed, other than the ambassador, were security contractors. Occasionally, security contractors are paid to infiltrate enemy areas to provide intelligence for the military. It gives countries plausible deniability, should something go wrong. As they say, you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make the horse drink. Lastly, do you actually think the countries providing aid to Ukraine are doing it to stop Russian expansion? from a tactical viewpoint, if the world fears Russian expansion, they would provide soldiers.
I am not a Putin sympathizer, I am a realist that believes human life is valuable and as such, the United States, Canada, and many others are just prolonging the Ukrainian citizens misery. An intelligent person would never go to a gun fight with a knife.
There is no excuse for ignorance and I will no longer provide you real world 101 education.
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They'll never understand that, remember, the west is always the good guy, or at least the less worse lol...
Persecuting aka bombing the shit out of them. A constant state of terror the last 8 years after the US shill was put into power.
Many people join the military to only find out they can make way more money going rogue, truth sets in that "war is a racket" (read this by Major General Smedley Butler) , but yet they are too far along to do anything else.
There was a peace deal on the table for Ukraine but the US stopped it. They don't want peace, they want strategic control.
People often use this flawed logic in the debate on Canada's military. Those "vested interests" are always self-serving, and predatory. NATO is just a reflection of that ambition (one country acting as shot-caller for them all).
The price of calling upon such help is: that "friend" would then help themselves to everything that is ours, claiming their security interests as a pretext to override our sovereignty. Look up the war of 1812, Manifest Destiny and Monroe Doctrine, because those policies were never repudiated, just back-burnered. Even recently, that NATO designation has never stopped them from fucking allies over diplomatically, commercially, or legally - Canada or anyone else.
When the chips are down, or even if there is just the opportunity for advantage, anyone can turn against you. Declarations of friendship before are as meaningless as their apologies after - foolish to bade a defense policy on some kind of naive sentimentality.
Obviously Canada does not need a better military to go stomping around the world to build ourselves an empire, and it should not build up our military solely for the purpose of building up & defending someone else's.
But we do need at minimum to be able to defend our own territory, so that any other world power (yes, including our sometimes sketchy neighbour) understands it would be too painful if they ever tried to take what is actually ours. That's the only real kind of respect Canada will ever be able to rely on in the international scene.
On the other hand, having a reputation as some other great power's mealy-mouthed puppet causes the opposite reaction - an impression of weakness, inviting all sorts of belligerent disrespect, even from one's "allies".
These are two different debates: One is how big our military needs to be and what capabilities it needs to have - most would say is is under-strength and has been for some time. The other is about how we choose to use it, which is really a question of foreign policy and how much we feel like any particular conflict is really about upholding our interests versus fighting on behalf of someone else's ambitions.
These two aspects have an effect on each other, of course, but you have to watch carefully what sort of military capabilities we are building and why. All that extra spending is meaningless if what you have build is just a cog in someone else's big machine, and results in our military being unable to perform on its own. The weird thing about the debate is how those advocating standing on our own also seem to talk about spending less, when really that effort might require a bigger military overall; meanwhile those who advocate for increased capabilities and big military spending seem to also be the ones who'd let another country to make all our strategic decisions for us, and use our military more for supporting ill-conceived foreign interventions rather than actually defending Canada.
The 2% of GDP is a fairly arbitrary NATO benchmark, more of a buzzword than a real measure of capabilities or roles. If Canada is constantly named as falling below this "average", why is there no discussion of those countries (the US especially) that might be over-spending on their military above that level, and by doing do, neglecting their own peoples' lives at home? Are we really lackadaisical on defense, or do they just have an oversized military because they like to
Even our G20 sized economy is still "small" enough to be affected by acquisitions of certain military hardware/platforms, which cost tens of billions each (frigates, fighters, radar warning networks, etc.). At the same time, if our civilian-side GDP grows, it makes us statistically look worse, even if it has not harmed our long-term military spending plans at all.
Perhaps it would just be better to just decide what capabilities we
Canada, given our huge territory and sparse population, probably has a harder time than most defending what is actually ours, so you'd be right to say we need to do that more. But what are the real gaps we need to fill, and how do people intend to pay for it? Either raise taxes (which will cause political complaints), or gut some other area of government services (which will cause political complaints). Or hope that the world will be at peace long enough for our military to come home and rebuild itself inexpensively (LOL). And none of that answers the debate over what we actually expect our military to do, or rather who they are really doing it for.
