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Even more simply, it could have been averted by not creating conditions for a coup in Ukraine and then not psyopping the Ukrainians into thinking US is going to help them win a war against Russia. And you were telling them exactly that - it's even on video.
Two high profile senators talking, on camera, about "taking the fight to the Russians" and that US will give them all they need is pretty unequivocal in my book.
Voting is mostly a mechanism for farming legitimacy: "you voted for this, here eat it". It gives people the illusion that they may change some outcome. Seeing how it's gone with migration in Europe, it's pretty clear voting doesn't really work and you don't get to vote on judges and especially international courts which are making it impossible for states to run their own territories in a sane manner. If it's even threatening to start to maybe work then you get calls to ban the new parties, as with AfD.
It doesn't matter that policy is written by think-tankers or NGOs and that representatives don't even read what they vote on.
What does this refer to? Googling "taking the fight to the Russians" just brings up statements that have been made after February 2022.
When it comes to statements made before the invasion, Biden - a figure of considerably more importance regarding US Ukraine policy than "two senators" - was quite clear in December 2021 that US is not going to send in the troops. When it comes to other aid, US and West have offered Ukraine more of it and taken bigger risks than just about anyone would have predicted before Feb 2022.
They didn't say they were going to send troops. They said they're going to give Ukraine everything it needs to win though, and press 'the case against Russia' and so on. Politico article on the visit. Video of the speech
I believe the plan was something like a fork in chess - give aid and support to Ukraine so it crushes the rebels and thus also wrecks Putin's domestic support and international prestige, or force Russians to intervene in which case you can paint them as a horrible danger to Europe and impose more sanctions and wreck European trade with Russia, which directly benefits you as they're forced to buy more from Canada and the US. Whatever reaction Russia does, it loses. Pretty basic plan but it can't help but work.
You are right. Almost no one did, but people in Ukrainian politics thought US would take even bigger risks. Check the image. And perhaps also the video of Arestovych talking about the situation.
[Here's a video from 2019 of then presidential advisor Arestovich] explaining the situation as he sees it, and casually stunning the interviewer with frankly speaking about a large-scale war with Russia. I don't really fault much of the analysis, except for the bit saying that a "major war" is a price worth paying for not being in a Russian led union. The fate of Bulgaria isn't one to envy, and that's what'd have awaited Ukraine, at best.. Fodder to keep the population shredder of the EU going for a bit longer. Why would anyone stay in a corrupt & poor state riddled with political strife when they can move abroad easily ?
It's funny how it neatly ties all it together. He says that NATO members weren't certain about taking in Ukraine - but Skripal affair, the airliner shootdown, coup in Montenegro and Syria made it clear they have to oppose Russia by accepting Ukraine.
Skripal affair was, to a 99.99% probability, a psyop done by someone in the British state. There's no other explanation for the utterly unlikely presence of one Britain's highest ranking military medical officers on the scene. It was really weird and poisoning a guy you exchanged who wasn't even very nasty doesn't make sense.
The airliner shootdown might have been malicious, in the sense that Ukrainians did not close their airspace over the area after losing a big jet to a SAM missile. Whether that was deliberate or incompetence is unclear. And as to Syria and the refugee wave caused by the war Americans supported and possibly caused, and in which they supported Al-Qaeda and allegedly also ISIS.
Grand strategy is a pretty nasty affair, the stakes are basically infinite so it's of course going to be absurd.
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