You did not write that, but just to make it clear to people who do not know - there were no EU sanctions on Russian gas, but Russia cut off (most of) the supply unilaterally.
https://eu-solidarity-ukraine.ec.europa.eu/eu-sanctions-agai...
Russian oil and coal are heavily sanctioned, but not gas. This may have caused the confusion. Bans on any fuels from Russia likely contribute to European demand for fuel from other countries.
I'm one of those people who believes very strongly that Snowden was a hero for exposing grossly illegal and immoral activity, and should be pardoned.
But I do not feel this way about this case. Why? Because the leak did not expose government malfeasance, and therefore wasn't in the interest of the American people. Ordinary anti-espionage rules can and should apply.
The former is abhorrent and should be a big scandal, but it won't be. Snowden showed that Americans simply don't care. Given that signal, why stop?
The latter is actually good, in general. LEOs doing actual police work, joining groups that might be extremist...that's the online equivalent of undercover work, and I think it's good when it's human work.
So, basically I agree that proactive, general IC infiltration of back-ends is wrong, but I think its already happening and won't stop without change of sentiment. LEOs can and should do more human investigation, join groups, get involved, see what they are about - and then leave them alone if they aren't a physical threat. Obviously this can be super problematic (e.g. the FBI vs MLK) but the only alternative is to just sit there and wait for an attack. That's no bueno, either.
As an aside, if lack of critical thinking skills sets you off easily, you are in for a rough ride. It's particularly dangerous because directed at others, it gives you clout in with the wrong people, and directed at yourself contempt can lead to self-loathing and depression.
It does confirm that Ukraine is losing the war badly, I think it was like 7 Ukrainians dying for 1 Russian. With that knowledge, it seems that continuing to fund this war with a blank check to Ukraine is not in the interests of the American people.
So I feel that this leak was a good thing, from the perspective of the American people, especially if it ends the US funding of this war.
Are you referring to the picture with 17k russians vs 71k ukrainians? I thought that was the one that had been edited/falsified…
In my view, curtailing Russian expansion is the point of the war, and Ukrainian lives are unfortunately one cost of doing so. It's important that Ukrainians are participating in the war of their own volition; the US is not paying Ukrainians to join the battle, unlike the scenario with the ANA in Afghanistan.
Even if the leak produces good outcomes, it should still be prosecuted as espionage, since there was no good faith motivation for the leak.
The US aid to Ukraine that is the relation of the US government to the war is, in fact, authorized by Congress. See, e.g., the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 (PL 117-118).
Yes, Russia's invasion of Ukraine is illegal. It's a war of choice waged for reason no better than Putin's vanity. It hasn't helped Russia and it certainly hasn't helped Ukraine.
Fortunately, it is within Russia's power to end the war tomorrow. All Russia needs to do is leave Ukrainian territory, return relocated Ukrainian citizens, start paying reparations, and begin the process of extraditing war criminals so they can be tried.
No:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/world/europe/ukraine-russ...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/03/14/did-the-ukr...
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-war-already-wit...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65260672
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/14/...
> With that knowledge
What you call "knowledge" here is, in fact, just lies.
It's interesting how susceptible people have become to falsehoods in the internet age. People get told what they want to hear and they believe it wholeheartedly, not matter how untrue it is.
You've become internet siloed. It's rotting you.
Personally I don't find it odd that someone might reject "mainstream reality" as not credible. But what is odd are the things they often choose to replace it. E.g. 4chan ramblings or general internet randomness. It's like, be super skeptical, fine, but you don't get to be selective. You can't say the BBC is shit but forum22334.hackerville.ru is credible and be taken seriously.
Allowing them to enlarge their share then consolidate, regroup, rebuild their forces, and ease out of financial straights and better prepare to take the rest of it in a few years and once again sally forth to murder, rape, and destroy is a bargain no reasonable person would take.
If you are suggesting that we stop providing them weapons in hopes that they be more inclined to negotiate you have misjudged the situation and you would have us only condemn people to murder and horror as punishment for your failure to analyze what is ultimately a simple situation explained in simple terms by Putin's own words on the topic.
Furthermore you seem to have analyzed the article in question based mostly on the title as the shallow straw man you scoff at seems absent from the actual reporting. In fact it does a better job than you of dismissing the argument you foist upon it.
>----------------------------- “We do not have nor do we want a system where the United States government monitors private internet chats,” Glenn Gerstell, the former general counsel of the National Security Agency, told NBC on Wednesday.
On Discord, some servers already joke about the possibility of being surreptitiously infiltrated by the government. Using a word first coined on the anything-goes message board 4chan, people commonly accuse others of being “glowies” — federal agents whose out-of-place behaviors are so obvious that they practically glow.
But surveilling gamer chatrooms might also end up pushing away the same young recruits the military desperately needs, all for questionable practical gain: The internet is full of ways to anonymously share images, videos and documents. >-----------------------------
I invite you to read more of it as its actually fairly well thought out
They were a year ago: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-zelenskyy-kyiv-bor...
Ukraine can win if West supplies enough weapons. Some trained manpower may be required too because Ukraine’s losses are pretty bad too. Especially if you look into most experienced ranks.
At the same time, Ukraine would loose soon if West cut off support. Ukraine would both run out of ammo and morale would be ruined.
Ukraine can be forced to take whatever peace treaty West wants.
In reality… If West was strongly in crush-Russia camp, Ukraine war escalation in February of 2022 wouldn’t have happened. Even 2014 wouldn’t have happened.
Had West went all-in, I believe the war could be ended in 24-72 hours. Close airspace over Ukraine. Put some boots on the ground. Done.
Now the question is why the war is not over yet. Nuclear scare? Economics? Corruption and blackmailing? All of those could make crappy peace treaties a thing either.
Richard N. Haass (President of the Council on Foreign Relations) would like to see as many Russians as possible killed in an Ukrainian offensive and start negotiating afterwards. (do not know wether he wants Ukrainian soldiers killed as well)
"Given the likely trajectory of the war, the United States and its partners need to begin formulating a diplomatic endgame now."
"Ukraine’s Western supporters would propose a ceasefire as Ukraine’s coming offensive reaches its limits"
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/russia-richard-haass-...
"Ukraine might still refuse the call for a cease-fire. If so, it would hardly be the first time in history that a partner dependent on U.S. support balked at being pressured to scale back its objectives."
"Another plausible outcome is that Russia would agree to a cease-fire in order to pocket its remaining territorial gains but in fact has no intention of negotiating in good faith to secure a lasting peace settlement."
My own maybe wishful thinking:
There are reasons for both sides to end the war.
Ukraine is failing more and more and Ukrainian people are suffering the most.
The cost of war is high for Russia as well and Putin's aims are limited.
The documents I've seen revealed Ukrainian secrets. For example, they revealed Ukrainian casualty numbers and Ukrainian estimates of Russian casualty numbers.
Everyone paying attention before this leak knew that the US is giving significant support in the form of advice, money, and arms. Everyone knew that the US has a small number of military personnel in the embassy but isn't fighting in the war. Some people think this is bad, but it's not a secret.
"Ukraine war: Leak shows Western special forces on the ground" (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65245065)
You can say "everyone knew that" but nobody could prove it before.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/us-military-inspectors-...
Am I misremembering? Maybe it was only that no warrant was required to monitor me on company systems, but (it's been 20 years), I thought I was generally signing away an expectation of privacy in exchange for access to classified information. (So, indirectly gaining extra pay, job security, and access to interesting technology in exchange for signing away privacy... not sure how I feel about that 20 years later, but it seemed a good trade at the time.)
If I'm remembering things properly, no extra legislation is necessary for monitoring people with DoD security clearances. Even if monitoring were warranted, I believe these powers already exist to cover this case, and any extra legislation is a power grab.
I've only been in uniform, not worked for private defense contractors, but it should be this. On government systems, websites, etc. you're subject to monitoring, and a prominent banner reminds you of this every time you logon. All web traffic on NIPRNet goes through a proxy that breaks TLS to do inspection. Your .mil email and files on your government device(s) can be scanned. Even a low level (like, 19 year-old E-2 with a Sec+ certificate) sysadmin can manage accounts in Active Directory and browse any machine on the domain through C$ administrative shares.
This doesn't apply to your personal devices unless you've brought them somewhere that they shouldn't go, or there's other reason to believe that you've done something bad with them.
"Negotiation in Europe" means:
* giving Russia 1/4th of Ukrainian territory in addition to Crimea
* legitimization of concentration camps for "russification" or murder for occupied Ukrainians and their children
* legitimization of war crimes, executions, tortures, beheadings, rape
* free pass for Putin to further enslave Russians and make them his literal serfs
* time for Putin to recharge, recalibrate and repeat assault now much more successfully
* carte blanche for Germans to start pumping billions of dollars into Russian economy and joint ventures with Putin's cronies like they did for decades
We all know you are happy to throw people under the bus, so your boots won't ever touch the ground and you sleep soundly.
Give me your best "what about" now.
No negotiation is possible when Russia's starting position is that Ukraine is not a real country and Ukrainians are not a real people. Putin's held that position for years:
https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-denies-reviving-russia...
The way the war ends is Russia is first defeated and the negotiations that will then follow will be about the reparations Russia must pay and the war criminals Russia must extradite.
The consolidated corporate media seems to believe that if this 21-year old leaker had all his communications monitored and was tagged with a constantly updated social credit score, he could have been flagged as a risk much earlier and these embarrassing documents about the scale of the US government's involvement in the Ukraine war could have been kept from the public. That's of course a profoundly anti-Bill-of-Rights authoritarian stance, maybe adopted because 'the ruling class in America hates our freedoms?'
Lord forbid the Ukraine war end in some kind of negotiated settlement, that would mean Europe might lift sanctions on Russian gas, reducing the demand for LNG exports... as well as reducing the diversion of taxpayer dollars to bloated military-industrial contracts.
> "U.S. LNG exporters boosted shipments to Europe by more than 137% in the first 11 months of 2022 from the same period in 2021..."
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-lng-exports-both-...
It's kind of astonishing how bad the Washington Post has gotten since Jeff Bezos bought it...oh and look, Discord uses Google Cloud, not AWS! Well that explains a lot.