ChicagoExpat

It's bizarre because it's a lie. A sizeable majority of Thai applicants are given visas. He made up that figure and is presenting it as fact.

I’ll refrain from returning the insult, but your response is so out of touch with reality it’s surprising you’re not embarrassed to post it. He invaded from 3 directions, and you’re claiming he didn’t want to take all of Ukraine… after years of taking pieces of it? What was he trying to do then? Why did someone who is so ready for peace from the beginning… invade in the first place? And continue a war that has costs hundreds of thousands of his countrymen’s lives? Frank, you’re insane if you believe this.

Again, you have it completely backward. The party that doesn't want peace is the party that invaded. That is Russia. It doesn't matter what I and others want. It's what Russia wants. And Russia wants war. And land. And more resources for oligarchs. And a larger empire.

We're not discussing which negotiation skills are great, we're discussing what will actually achieve the peace that pro-Russia Western commenters here claim they want.

In the current Russia scenario, the "peace" crowd always supports the Russian side. And they always deny being pro-Russian. I want peace too, but I also recognize that rewarding Russia now incentivizes Russia to invade Ukraine/other countries (as it repeatedly has under Putin) again. If you really wanted peace and weren't pro-Russian, you would want 1) Russia to lose 2) you would want Russia to pay a MAXIMUM, CRIPPLING price either in a loss or an eventual negotiated settlement if they do get to keep some of their ill-gotten gains and 3) you wouldn't hate Zelensky the way it seems you do.

Agree. There is much I like about Russia, and sometimes I wish I could go back there to live and work, but a big part of the Russian psyche is 1) an absolute and unquestioning obedience to the czar and 2) a willingness to do literally anything asked of a person, if Mother Russia supposedly requires it.

Yes, that pesky habit of Russia thinking it still owns the countries that it used to dominate. He has had NATO on his border for many years, and his invasion added another NATO country on his border that previously refused to join. So you would support his invasion of Finland? The Baltics? The Cuban missile crisis was 60 years ago and an entirely different context. So different it's an irrelevant comparison for the Ukraine invasion. Maybe his neighbors wouldn't want to join NATO if, you know, Russia wasn't such a murderous, domineering Empire? Just a thought...

Yes, actually I do. Drawing conclusions based on a pre-existing bias. Looks like you don't know what it means.

You are correct, I think. Modern Ukraine was made in Russia's/the Soviet Union's image, and its desire for self-determination is what Russia cannot accept. So, definitely not a historical ally at all. But one we should support, and one key to the future of Europe.

Is it? If you can't back that up, you're committing exactly the same error.

It makes sense that a guy who thinks NATO started Russia's war thinks Venezuela is "under attack" by no less than "CANCER USA"! It was Venezuela that moved to reduce ties with the United States, not the other way around; Venezuela that appropriated U.S. property, not the other way around; Venezuela that took U.S. citizens as political prisoners, not the other way around. Weird how hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have moved to "CANCER USA" rather than stay in noble Venezuela. Supporting both Putin AND Maduro? You're a winner, Frank! Never change.

It's incredible how dishonest people can be about this topic. The dishonesty is so blatant, so Kremlin-serving, so obvious, it's incredible that such claims are made -- and by people who would never actually choose to live in the country they promote. Russia and Russia alone started this war. Not NATO. Not the EU. Putin had many options in his continued pursuit of more land and a larger Russian Empire, and he chose violence -- as he has done in Georgia, previously in Ukraine, in Moldova, everywhere he has deployed Wagner.

The wonderful thing is, @thaibeachlovers FREQUENTLY cries about other people insulting him, yes does it himself all the time. And then uses that really cool coffee drinking emoji.

That's an amazing statement to make. Whatever U.S. involvement may or may not have been, Russia's is incomparably worse because it's, you know, murdering hundreds of thousands, stealing land, and destroying what it can't steal. Yet not a word from you of condemnation of this type of involvement. What a puzzle.

Either ASEAN Now declines to publish stories on the bad deeds of other nationalities, or an extremely high percentage of Russians are really bad people, relative to everyone else.

Your crying about this is a daily occurrence, coinciding with getting your @ss kicked, rhetorically speaking. The actions of the Russian government ARE what we're talking about, Bob. What they do to exterminate political opponents is directly relevant to the conflict and the dictatorship doing the mass slaughter. The dictatorship you support. Bob -- you PROMISED, a mere 15 hours ago, that you would not reply any more. You broke your promise, just like you broke my heart.

Now they're going after Navalny's widow. It's not enough that they killed her husband. Just disgusting. 1930s all overr again. I can't believe you support this sh!t, @thaibeachlovers, @BobBKK https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/09/world/europe/russia-yulia-navalnaya-arrest-order.html

Man this free speech/internet thing is hard to control. If only we could live in a country where free expression wasn't allowed. We're not talking about your favorite beach in Thailand, we're talking about the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. You can't open a thread on a subject that people feel very strongly and fight about and then be shocked, SHOCKED when people feel strongly about it and fight about it. Either shut down the thread or find a fainting couch.

I AM pro-war, in the sense that I 100% support Ukraine's right to defend itself, and that it's in the interests of the free world to assist Ukraine. I would have thought that was clear all along. Proxy war? We've already covered this, Bob. Russia invaded; it's not a U.S. proxy war or an EU proxy war, it's simply friends helping a friend. You however, support a dictatorship, and the dictator's brutal invasion.

You support Russia's war. You are pro-war.

Your attempting to distract us from the immorality of your support from Russia leaves ME undeterred from pointing it out at every opportunity. I fixed your comment above. It's impossible to claim "You seek peace for the future of all" when you support Russia's unjustified invasion of Ukraine, Bob.

Assuming someone worse doesn't succeed him; if any nation could produce someone worse than Putin, it's Russia. That's why Russia needs to pay so heavily for its invasion that it shocks even Russia into reality. Much like 1945 Germany.

Oh Bob, you support the war and you know it. If you didn't, you would say so and would, say something like "I love Russia, but I disagree with what it's doing in Ukraine." But you won't because you don't. The only straw man here is the one you set up -- strangely it looks a lot like you. We've covered this many times but I'll revisit it as long as you do -- cries of "deflecting" "stalking" "harassing" etc are what you resort to when you know you can't support your position. You created a thread on this war. Talking about that same war is directly on topic, even if the moral vacuity of your personal position makes you uncomfortable.

This is actually a realization of the untenability and hypocrisy of your position ("I just want peace... but I support the unjustified war of one of the most brutal regimes on earth") than hurt feelings. I doubt you've come to your autumn/winter years so easily upset by an anonymous poster who says you're a sophist. Use the time to reflect on how you arrived at a station in life where you can cheer on the destruction of a nation and the deaths of hundreds of thousands. If you continue to publicly support this brutal war I'll continue to call you out on it, though I won't expect a response as I expect you to be true to your word.

Your turn, Bob. Tell us how you oppose Russia's invasion.