Quote from: theskull1 on Today at 01:20:09 PMNo acknowledgement that bringing an army up to a border (after years of US backed revolution and conflict in that said country) is an act of aggression.
One side good ..... the other side bad
Ok then, let's deal with the NATO nonsense once and for all.
First of all Ukraine isn't in NATO and wasn't about to join anytime soon. It had neutral status which it's parliament only voted to end in December 2014 AFTER Russia invaded. A pretty good reason if you ask me. Ukraine's road to NATO was not guaranteed in any case with all member stated having to agree (Hungary anyone?).
Is NATO a threat to Russia? Russia loves reminding everyone it has nuclear weapons and it's not afraid to use them. Yet somehow we are all expected to believe that NATO was planning to attack Russia. Russia has had NATO on it's borders since 1999 (Poland) and again in 2004 (Baltics). When is this aggressive attack coming Skull? Finland joined NATO and Russia couldn't really care less. In fact they removed some of their military equipment from the Finnish border to Ukraine such is the grave danger of Finland's NATO membership.
Free thinking 'researchers' love to cite that the US has broken a 'promise' to Russia regarding NATO not expanding. Two points about this which you can tell the 'researchers' again and again and again but they always forget and repeat it anyway.
First a conservation over dinner is not an international agreement (unlike the actual agreements Ukraine had with Russia to respect it's borders).
Second - the discussion was specifically about the reunification of Germany and NATO expansion into former DDR territory after reunification. James Baker told Gorbachev not one inch (which they have stuck to). The other countries weren't even considered as the Warsaw pact was still in place and the USSR hand't yet collapse. Why would it even be discussed or considered. Gorbachev even confirms all this in an interview later. 'Researchers' can easily find this interview online but they don't seem to be able to for some reason.
As it happens - the USSR collapsed and the former Warsaw Pact countries one after another all applied to join NATO. Democratic governments. Mearsheimer with his morally bankrupt theories of Russian power would deny the NATO security blanket to millions of people. The Baltics would already have had the Ukraine and Georgia treatment if not for NATO.
Which brings us to the question of why does Russia REALLY not want Ukraine to join NATO. It's simple really - once inside they're untouchable. Not because of a fictional NATO attack, not because of Nazis (we can go there if you want) and certainly not because of any fictional ethnic cleansing of Russians in the Donbas region (and now fictional ethnic cleansing in Transcarpathia according to 'researcher' Horsebox).
So yes Skull, One side good, one side bad. That's the status you reserve only for 'Palestine - Israel' but in your denial of the Ukrainian right to be free from Russian aggression once and for all you only expose yourself as a hypocrite.
Edit: I forgot to add, such was NATOs desire for aggression and confrontation with Russia that one of the leaders of NATO (Germany) was pursuing a policy of economic cooperation and mutual benefit with Russia, even going so far as to build another direct gas pipeline with them.