Though Ukraine is showing the limits of Russia's power. For that matter, Iran is showing the limits of ours. Hopefully we don't test the limits of China's.

That is a demonstrable lie: https://theukrainepapers.org/

Also (forgive double-reply, but perhaps it's for the best when this site doesn't seem to let one indent): https://consortiumnews.com/2025/02/25/ukraine-timeline-tells-the-tale/

The ravings of a Russian apologist? I don't think so. Russia loves that "NATO made us do it" bullcrap. The reality is that Russia has a smaller GDP than Italy, smaller than three US states. Russia fears attack? By whom? And why??? Russia's is an extraction economy like Saudi Arabia or Sierra Leone. If Russia didn't have nuclear weapons most people couldn't find it on a map.

Did you even read the damned thing? If you're telling me everyone cited in what I posted is "a Russian apologist [and what the hell is that even supposed to mean?]", then you're Jack D. Ripper-level delusional. YOU HAVE BEEN LIED TO. How is that so hard to understand? Vietnam. Afghanistan under Reagan (which this is most like). Iraq. Afghanistan + Iraq again. Libya. Syria. Gaza (though thankfully the dam is starting to break on that one). Ukraine is no different. The Pentagon is involved, MI6 is involved, so you know it's a lie from the get-go. That's what they do, every time. Also, Russia is literally bigger than Pluto; the only way "most people couldn't find it on a map" would be if you think only Americans (and maybe their expendable allies du jour) are "people", because nobody else would be so geography-illiterate.

Scaramouche, I looked at the first, rolled my eyes, and moved on. As to being lied to: yes, every day, by nearly everyone with a position to advance or defend. I listen to some of it, depending on the source. There are quotidian liars who mostly just shade the truth to their advantage, there are professional liars whose job it is to lie, and there are pathological liars, our current president being a sui generis example. The bottom line is that I make my judgments based on the best obective evidence I can find. Vladimir Putin is a revanchist. Full stop. He makes no bones about it, has compared himself to Peter the Great, and has characterized the collapse of the Soviet Union as a "historic, strategic mistake." Russia has been a threat to Europe since the days of the tsars, that threat realized in part by Josef Stalin in the waning days of WWII. Actually from before. When Stalin and Hitler were allies, they divied up Poland and Stalin was pressing for more.