And, as you pointed out, Ukraine is potentially another liberal/social democratic state, upon the sacred soil of the USSR. Far right, far left, hardline Indian nationalists, all jump through intellec… (View Post)

This is a war where the rights and wrongs are clear-cut. Not only does Russia have no casus belli, the conduct of its soldiers is considerably worse than that of the Ukrainians. (View Post)

The big weakness of autocracies is that people can’t give bad news to their superiors. Whereas, to succeed, you need to hear bad news as soon as possible. (View Post)

The argument you’re responding to tends to rob the Ukrainians of any agency. There’s no evidence that that any significant section of the population wants to yield to Russia. (View Post)

I would be more optimistic about Ukraine’s future than Russia’s, right now. The US took about six weeks to conquer Iraq, at minimal cost in American lives. Russia has taken four years to conquer an a… (View Post)