Stopped reading comments on articles relating to this topic because they were melting my brain with repeated parrotings of "USA can't say anything because Iraq" and "Yanukovych was democratically elected" and "Crimea is mostly Russian already"
At some point, people forgot that Russia is a dictatorship and that the USA is a democracy, that Yanukovych was removed from power by his own party working together with the opposition, and that cynicism isn't the same as intelligence.
His parliament basically removed him as one, so his idea that he still represents the people is sheer stubbornness and stupidity. While I'm not going to attempt to justify invasions of Iraq/Afghanistan on behalf of Bush and co., I'm certainly going to point out that Russia's intervention is illegal because of the three important legal milestones of Ukraine's sovereignty: The Alma Ata Declaration of Dec. 1991, the Budapest memorandum of 1994, and the Black Sea fleet agreement of 1997. But of course no one will do anything about it, so this might end up like a more publicly known Ossetia.
Originally posted by Stealth Moose
His parliament basically removed him as one, so his idea that he still represents the people is sheer stubbornness and stupidity. While I'm not going to attempt to justify invasions of Iraq/Afghanistan on behalf of Bush and co., I'm certainly going to point out that Russia's intervention is illegal because of the three important legal milestones of Ukraine's sovereignty: The Alma Ata Declaration of Dec. 1991, the Budapest memorandum of 1994, and the Black Sea fleet agreement of 1997. But of course no one will do anything about it, so this might end up like a more publicly known Ossetia.
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The incidents are also different on multiple levels, so comparing them would not accomplish anything imo.
Originally posted by Omega Vision
Iraq and Crimea would be comparable if the Ukrainian military had used chemical weapons against Crimean Russians in the past and if Ukraine had invaded one of its neighbors with the aim of annexing it.
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And if Crimea had been hiding Terrorists that had blown up the Moscow opera or similar, then we could begin to draw a comparison but then we just lack all the geopolitic realities behind the incident.
Originally posted by Utrigita
👆And if Crimea had been hiding Terrorists that had blown up the Moscow opera or similar, then we could begin to draw a comparison but then we just lack all the geopolitic realities behind the incident.
However the oft touted "no WMDs" issue is a little overblown, because as things have come to light about Saddam's own government and US informers within Saddam's inner circle, it's become apparent that Saddam himself believed that he had much more weapons of mass destruction than he actually had, and many in the Iraqi military were just as clueless as the US military regarding Iraq's arsenal.