<story><title>Russian gas flows to Europe</title><url>https://berthub.eu/gazmon/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>igammarays</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s far too late to change this. You cannot restructure the energy sources of a whole continent in a few months or even years. This could&amp;#x27;ve been fixed if the West had understood and reacted appropriately to the magnitude of the Russian threat about 10 years ago, as foreseen by academics like Stephen Cohen and businessmen like Bill Browder, instead of blindly falling for its own hubristic self-delusion (which continues till today), i.e. the delusion of considering the West to be omnipotent and the delusion of considering Russia to be an irrelevant, backward, economically insignificant country (Obama famously called it a &amp;quot;regional power&amp;quot; much to the chagrin of Putin). But the West is too decadent, fat, and blind to see anything but its own narrative of post-cold-war unipolar dominance.&lt;p&gt;The worst part is, this delusion of believing in Western omnipotence continues fuelling bad decisions today. I was in Kharkiv, Ukraine when the war hit -- there were two major delusions prevalent in the weeks and months leading up to the war. 1. People believed the war could not happen because we believed our American superpower ally would somehow magically prevent the war or stop it quickly, or 2. we believed our leaders would have the sense to settle with Russia instead of destroying our country. 4 months later after losing 20% of our territory, both fantasies evaporated quickly, but I&amp;#x27;m astounded at how many people continue to live in the 3rd fantasy of believing Ukraine could somehow &amp;quot;defeat&amp;quot; Russia while still avoiding WW3. Do people understand what a defeat of Russia would look like? Are you trying to bring a global thermonuclear war apocalypse? What is your endgame here?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hash872</author><text>1. &amp;#x27;The West&amp;#x27; wasn&amp;#x27;t hubristic, Europe was. The US has been telling Europe to get off of Russian gas &amp;amp; oil for decades, under multiple administrations. Both parties have been extremely clear about this for over two decades now.&lt;p&gt;&amp;#x27;I&amp;#x27;m astounded at how many people continue to live in the 3rd fantasy of believing Ukraine could somehow &amp;quot;defeat&amp;quot; Russia while still avoiding WW3&amp;#x27;&lt;p&gt;2. The US lost in Vietnam without using nukes. Even more relevant, the USSR lost in Afghanistan without using them! I believe Pakistan has lost 3 straight wars to its arch-enemy, with no nuclear weapons being used.&lt;p&gt;If we follow your logic to its conclusion, Russia can annex Poland, Lithuania, Germany, France, and so on, and at every step of the way we&amp;#x27;d say &amp;#x27;well we can&amp;#x27;t defeat Russia or else they&amp;#x27;ll use nukes&amp;#x27;. They&amp;#x27;d be able to conquer.... everything this way. This seems bad? Would you like to live in this world?</text></comment>
<story><title>Russian gas flows to Europe</title><url>https://berthub.eu/gazmon/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>igammarays</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s far too late to change this. You cannot restructure the energy sources of a whole continent in a few months or even years. This could&amp;#x27;ve been fixed if the West had understood and reacted appropriately to the magnitude of the Russian threat about 10 years ago, as foreseen by academics like Stephen Cohen and businessmen like Bill Browder, instead of blindly falling for its own hubristic self-delusion (which continues till today), i.e. the delusion of considering the West to be omnipotent and the delusion of considering Russia to be an irrelevant, backward, economically insignificant country (Obama famously called it a &amp;quot;regional power&amp;quot; much to the chagrin of Putin). But the West is too decadent, fat, and blind to see anything but its own narrative of post-cold-war unipolar dominance.&lt;p&gt;The worst part is, this delusion of believing in Western omnipotence continues fuelling bad decisions today. I was in Kharkiv, Ukraine when the war hit -- there were two major delusions prevalent in the weeks and months leading up to the war. 1. People believed the war could not happen because we believed our American superpower ally would somehow magically prevent the war or stop it quickly, or 2. we believed our leaders would have the sense to settle with Russia instead of destroying our country. 4 months later after losing 20% of our territory, both fantasies evaporated quickly, but I&amp;#x27;m astounded at how many people continue to live in the 3rd fantasy of believing Ukraine could somehow &amp;quot;defeat&amp;quot; Russia while still avoiding WW3. Do people understand what a defeat of Russia would look like? Are you trying to bring a global thermonuclear war apocalypse? What is your endgame here?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>karpierz</author><text>&amp;gt; 2. we believed our leaders would have the sense to settle with Russia instead of destroying our country.&lt;p&gt;What settlement could Ukraine have with Russia that wouldn&amp;#x27;t be the end of Ukraine? Russia is demanding that Ukraine allow part of its territory to secede and form &amp;quot;independent&amp;quot; nations, as well as have Ukraine avoid bolstering its ability to protect itself from its neighbours. Do you think those countries won&amp;#x27;t try to take more territory from Ukraine, with Russian backing? Do you think Russia will really stop invading Ukraine, after having already done it twice?</text></comment>