Re: OT: The "Vaccines"

There's just one sin ("The sin against the Holy Ghost") that can't be forgiven: unfortunately no-one knows what it is. It could be something that you do every day, so you are unforgivably damned, so might as well sin while you have the chance. All other sins may be forgiven, but Christian dogma varies as to how this happens.

There's nothing in the Bible forbidding "child molesting", however such term is defined.

That's odd. Most can find what they want in the bible to support their view. Regardless of what that view is.

And he was right, wasn't he? Putin would have thought long and hard before invading a NATO country.

No, he lost the moment years ago, and the threat of joining NATO was the excuse Putin wanted for his invasion.

But you're right in one sense, Putin wouldn't have invaded Ukraine if they had joined, what Russia sees as the US-NATO alliance. But Putin was smart enough not to wait for this and to invade first.

Putin enjoys quite a bit of support in Russia. This war will simply take as long as it takes. At the end of the day Ukraine will be decimated, all for the want of joining NATO and the EU.

In war there are no winners, but to think your views are holier than thou is always wrong.

Really? Many would say no excuse needed.

Or the Ukraine not smart enough to join earlier?

Sadly, you're right. And let Putin get away with it, several other non NATO neighbours will be next.

It's not much different in essence from the UK deciding to leave the EU. Nationalism.

Which he did in 2014. Once there was a disputed occupation in place, it made joining NATO pretty much impossible.

Their wants or desires probably don't come into it. Those are just things that putin can claim as a justification for his actions. The reality is he wants the land and to grow a new soviet empire. He does not believe that Ukraine should even exist as a nation state. If he could wipe the population from the face of the earth into the process, I am sure he would think of that as a bonus.

He needs support from Russians. So some sort of justifiable reason to lose young Russian lies in a conflict.

You may be right, slower than Poland and some other countries.

I don't think there are a few countries with Russian sympathisers such as Moldova that Putin can 'rescue'.

Brexit, like the Ukraine war was avoidable. It took Major and Blair to go a step too far to welcome the East European states and give their populations free movement, in much the same way Zelensky went too far to threaten joining NATO and the EU.

Yawn. Delusion piled upon delusion

Crimea, given its close links to Russia and a military base was always going to be lost to Russia.

As you suggest an issue may have been the continuing conflict in the other eastern areas of Ukraine bordering Russia.

He will feel the he needs the support of the Russian people. Therefore he has to provide plausible 'excuses' to cover his actions.

I think he will settle for the flattening of Ukraine and in a year or two will give up with the western side and consolidate the gains made.

For me, it demonstrates the lack of Russian military might, and I never realised that Russia had a population of just 150m. I thought, perhaps given the land mass, it had a much larger population. Nevertheless, it has utterly failed to make substantial into a country with a population of just 40m.

With a population of just 150m, and given the military might of the Western world, one can understand Russia's paranoia towards the west and NATO.

Particularly given the history of western invasion and the immense death toll that produced.