Quote:
Originally Posted by Not Insane
I think you are missing the point. He's saying that, if you put yourself in Putin's shoes, his being pretty shrewd in how he is acting in his country's best interests on the international stage.
One key ingredient to finding peace with your adversary is to "know thy enemy". It's why we blew it with Hitler (the seeds of the rise of the German Nazi party were sown with the Treaty of Versailles). It's important to see your enemy not as just "the bad guys" (something often done in political arguments on social media and forums), but as people like you, that have wants, needs, a patriotic pride, etc. This allows one to at least understand what Putin is doing and why. We "dehumanize" our political/military foes at our peril.
And in this interview is a great rundown of what's going on and what has brought us to where we are today:
"What does Russia Want"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYK4UGS-C0I |
Your Versailles seed analogy is weak. The NAZI's blamed the WWI defeat, symbolized by said treaty, on traitorous Jews, thus creating a demon to rally around. The treaty was plant food for the seeds. Now, the Traité de Saint-Germain-en-Laye [url]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Saint-Germain-en-Laye_(1919)][/url was a seed: "As the Austrian national identity did not exist and develop prior to 1945, people had German national consciousness. Article 88 of the treaty required Austria to refrain from directly or indirectly compromising its independence, which meant that Austria could not enter into political or economic union with the German Reich without..." this is why Ansclush was such big deal. Hitler had united the German race. With this Hitler had the people behind him an the rest is history.