But, here is the article I was reading that went with it:

Ukraine-Russia-NATO explainer

And no, you never indicated one way or the other whether you’d defend Canada under similar circumstances. It’s a yes or no question.

Under similar circumstances? Well, now we may be getting somewhere. Tell me what those similar circumstances are in your war scenario and I'll take another look at it.

It's not so much that Israel overreacts, thus inviting more and increasingly horrific terrorism, but that it resorts to military action without even the hint of resolving the root cause of this conflict by offering even some small semblance of hope for the Palestinian people that there may be, at some distant point in the future, a self-governing state that they can call home.

Surely, you don't want to see Israel go through this vicious cycle until the end of time, do you?

you seem to think they had a choice in the matter, other than ceasing to exist as a free state.

No, they didn't have much of a choice at all because Biden and his neocon colleagues took that choice away from Ukraine and made it for them by insisting, for the last many decades and specifically in the lead up to this war, that Ukraine's eventual membership in the esteemed NATO was non-negotiable even though the US/NATO don't expect that to happen anytime soon or at all. So, it's all talk and now Ukraine is being destroyed. With friends like the US and its NATO allies, who the hell needs an enemy!

If it sounds like I am enjoying this, I am most decidedly not. This is depressing to no end. I couldn't possibly be more disappointed in Biden. Oh, wait ... there's the aid package for Israel with no strings attached ... that I know about, anyways.

And no, you never indicated one way or the other whether you’d defend Canada under similar circumstances. It’s a yes or no question.

different conflict, same hopelessly flawed logic. if israel didn't "overreact" then they'd be getting attacked a whole lot more frequently. when someone doesn't believe you have the right to exist, there is no option available short of making their attempts to destroy you as expensive as possible. US aid is extremely helpful to israel, but much like Ukraine, they'll fight with whatever they get, and not bow to pressure from anybody.

you seem to think they had a choice in the matter, other than ceasing to exist as a free state.

You mean the half of its territory it never really lost? Or, are you just trying to be funny?

Ukraine picked a bad way to fight for its existence. Pushing NATO membership at the behest of its US benefactor was always a bad idea. A worse idea? Fighting for your existence in a war against Russia. That ain't gonna end well.

Incapable of providing any useful outcome; pointless

Yes! Absolutely, positively, unequivocally and what I have been saying from before the beginning of this utterly useless and pointless war.

If Ukraine doesn't soon sue for peace, the outcome will be even worse that it is right now. And, there will be no hope, whatsoever, for future diplomatic efforts to win back territory.

adjective

Incapable of providing any useful outcome; pointless

Q: So is fighting for your nation’s very existence futile? Please justify.

revanchism

noun

A policy of seeking to retaliate in order to reverse territorial losses

Q: So are you saying the eight (8) wars that Russia has started on it’s borders in three decades is NOT Putin trying to reestablish the buffer states that surrounded the old Soviet Union?

Here is a
Time lapse map of the conflict. (25 seconds)

Ukraine has recovered roughly half of it’s territory since the early days of the war. Nowadays it’s a bloody slog, of course and it will remain as such until Ukraine breaks through.

Q: If Trump invaded Ontario up to the Hudson Bay and subsequently Canada relatively quickly regained the half of it north of Kitchener would you let Trump keep his territorial gains just to save lives? Just to appease Trump?

The reality is that this war should have never started, could have been prevented with even a modicum of effort, and, once the war started, Ukraine should have entered into the sort of negotiations in the very early days that Israel, of all nations, was urging them to do at the time. Which was being ignored by the US.

And, most importantly, Ukraine should and should have never listened to the bad advice they have been getting from the US for decades. Ukraine needs to start thinking about its own future and interests and fast!

More reality - Ukraine will probably never get all of their lost territory back and certainly never by way of war with Russia! Perhaps, in time, with smart Ukrainian leadership and less corruption and much better governance, they can win some or all of it back through diplomatic means. Which is a very long term scenario, well past the time of Putin and Zelensky.

One thing is for sure - the Ukraine project that has been pushed by the US is dead.

Repeating a falsehood over and over without justifying why your view is correct works with MAGAts but not sentient beings.

Ignoring Russian history over the last three or four hundred years — its desire to expand out to the nine invasion routes used during fully 50 different invasions in Russian history in order to blame “neocons”? Where do you get this crap?

What is “futile” about Ukraine defending its sovereignty and it’s very existence?

This is about the idiotic idea that Ukraine should be in NATO.

[6]
It's that electors can't vote for candidates who are both from their state. So if the Republicans put up a ticket where both candidates were from Vermont, or the Democrats ran two from Idaho, the restriction wouldn't matter. But realistically, yes, they can't both be from the same state.

So, how about Gavin Newsome getting into the race and, if he beats Biden in the primary, then fine; the good news is that he will have to replace Kamala on the ticket; if he doesn't, then fine, too.

And, if Biden does win the primary, then he should replace the other half of ticket with the California governor. Now, I would have preferred another California governor on the ticket with Biden - in 2020 or 2024 - and in either order! :)

But, alas, Gerry Brown is still too busy doing other very important things.

Trump leads Biden in five critical states

Re. Silence on the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict

I would suggest that one reason for the absence of this issue on this blog is easy to understand. It is an intractable problem with a lot of right on both sides. Yes, Israel always overreacts but we have seen this movie so many times now and nothing seems to change at the geopolitical level.

The American reaction is also always the same. Stand by Israel and condemn the civilian casualties AND veto any UN resolution on the matter and not even support the Canadian amendments to said resolutions that make them far more balanced.

What is the most disappointing issue here for me is the lack of any real US leadership on this issue. There is so much more Biden et al. could be doing here to minimize the huge blowback it is suffering now as a result of its failure to prevent all out war in Ukraine and, now, to keep a futile war there going on and on AND its failure to craft a political and diplomatic solution in the Middle East, including stopping all aid to Israel until that nation ends its failing settlement policy in the Palestinian territories.

However, if you wish to discuss these issues further, then I am certainly game and I'm sure Chris won't mind. :)