Russian lawmakers authorize Putin to use military force outside the country

[Labster]

I believe you. I feel sorry for them. Sorry that they need to be killed, but what else are you supposed to do when orcs invade your land? They’ve been lied to in order to get them to take up arms, which is a tale as old as civilization. Yevgeny is still an invader but his death is just so stupid and needless from every point of view.

Here’s an article which should be totally unrelated, but actually has the exact same causes: A chess robot in Moscow has broken the finger of its 7-year-old human opponent. Obvious jokes about Azimov’s laws or Andy Weir aside, we see the chess federation blaming the kid for his injury. In a cultured environment in Russia’s capital, an entirely avoidable injury to a child is dismissed.

It’s simply a culture that does not care about others. And you see this in lots of other places: the rampant corruption, to the extent the army has sold the materiel it needs to carry out this war. The stacks of soldiers bodies abandoned in a rail car. The use of food as a weapon, both in this war and the Holodomor. The rampant looting of appliances from Ukrainian houses. There is a sickness in Russian culture, which is a reason to be enraged at them, but it’s also a reason to be sad because it doesn’t have to be this way.

On another note, you wonder why the big counter-offensive is planned for July? It’s almost like Ukraine took four months to train its recruits. Logistics and arms deliveries and climate too, but a NATO-trained army like Ukraine’s has to have a lot of training in its doctrine. Soldiers are much harder to replace than even the expensive equipment.