Carlton Supporters Club

Then there's the colonisation by stealth strategy.  The poms get panned for their history, but what agreement the Solomons have signed with China will end in tears too.

I understand that people are saying this is Russia vs NATO, but lets face up to something here.

Almost all of the wars in the last 100 years that have been fought, are the result of historic rise and fall of empires, problems to do with modern concepts of ownership and nationalism including national identify, and largely resources and land just like they always have been.

The USA's sphere of influence has been eroding for quite some time, and this is linked (not exclusively) to British Imperialism, the fall of Roman empire, Geopolitics, the fall of the Ottoman empire, modern nationalism creating issues, political ideological agenda, and for the most part, bloody mindedness.

The victims of all wars ever fought are innocent people who are involved whether they like it or not, and I think its over simplifying things to place 100% of the blame on one person, and more specifically one nation here.

The former USSR were a "united nation" and far longer than any unique national identity that exists currently in Ukraine, and considering Hitler elected to march on it, before he marched on Moscow, speaks for the importance of its locale for both resources, and tactical advantages.

Whilst I disagree with the very premise of going to war, because violence should be used exclusively for defense, not offense, its very difficult to know the full impact of all of these actions.

One thing I like to do is, view the conflicts that we have witnessed over the last 50 or so years and choose not to view them in isolation.  They are simply the continuation of historic conflicts that have occurred throughout human history.

Humanity has struggled over much of this region for thousands of years, because they do have strategic importance.  The populations of these places have been invaded, and reinvaded many times through history and in our modern viewpoint, we have understood a largely peaceful existence with humanity prospering in ways that previous generations could only dream of.

The real PROBLEM is global.  That era of prosperity we can see crumbling almost across the globe and COVID was but one sign of a new threat to our lives.  Resources are going to start becoming problematic, and as a result, we are going to see new wars fought over old territory more frequently.  The sooner the world appreciates this, (I am not saying don't fight on Ukraine's behalf here) the better off we will all be.

Without wanting to point out fault for any one person or nation here, in 1974 the Island of Cyprus was invaded by Turkey to the point where the Island nation now has a split and demilitarised zone through it.  In Israel the 6 day war was waged and the neighbours were defeated, the Korean war, The Vietnam war, the split of the former Yugoslav republic, the Bosnian Crisis, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, and yet all of a sudden I see a very different messaging surrounding this particular one, and the only reason I can see is that the aggressor in this case, is a different actor.

Anyone have any any reason why this is any different to the other issues we have witnessed through history?  Once upon a time, the war was divided along communist/capitalist lines.  This feels a bit different.

Or, Putin is just a c@#$ of a human.

Too kind @Gointocarlton ...

Thry...Are you saying that if a country didn't exist in 1914 it shouldn't  exist now?