Comment by hash872 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hash872 | Hacker News Reader

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1. 'The West' wasn't hubristic, Europe was. The US has been telling Europe to get off of Russian gas & oil for decades, under multiple administrations. Both parties have been extremely clear about this for over two decades now.

'I'm astounded at how many people continue to live in the 3rd fantasy of believing Ukraine could somehow "defeat" Russia while still avoiding WW3'

2. The US lost in Vietnam without using nukes. Even more relevant, the USSR lost in Afghanistan without using them! I believe Pakistan has lost 3 straight wars to its arch-enemy, with no nuclear weapons being used.

If we follow your logic to its conclusion, Russia can annex Poland, Lithuania, Germany, France, and so on, and at every step of the way we'd say 'well we can't defeat Russia or else they'll use nukes'. They'd be able to conquer.... everything this way. This seems bad? Would you like to live in this world?

You should compare Ukraine to Cuba, not Vietnam. You know, when US almost nuked Cuba and USSR just because Cuba is too close for comfort? Sort of like Ukraine is for Russia?

Right, because of all the nuclear missiles stationed in the Ukraine.

America lost to Vietnam

America lost to Taliban

USSR lost to Afghanistan

All of these were insurgencies. Why can’t Russia lose to an insurgent Ukrainian population?

Is Russia willing to fight for 10 years?

Yes, I would think Russia would be willing to fight for 10 years, because this is literally their backyard, not some far-off exotic country. Many Russians consider Ukraine to be practically their own territory, even more so than places like Chechnya.

> The US has been telling Europe to get off of Russian gas & oil for decades, under multiple administrations

Yeah and buy American liquefied gas instead. Thanks but no thanks.

but perhaps we could have had the foresight to do something else? its time to admit that our elected, due in no small part to the electorate, have not been very smart, and have basically fucked up. again. This is allowed because the regular joe is sedated with crappy television, gorging in grotesk amounts of crappy food, and washing it down with unlimited amounts of beer. at no point does the average european (or american) care at all about what happens

Not all of Europe was like that. Lithuania built LNG facilities and now can get by with no Russian gas and supply part of Poland too.

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