In our eyes now

[dukealien]

Then, 1939 was in their eyes...

https://poets.org/poem/september-1-1939

is it because the Greatest Generation has died out enough
that forgetfulness of what war means prevails,
or that the Me Generation (or which I'm a card-carrying member)
threw it all away?

Discuss if desired.

[busker]

Humanity’s capacity to self destruct is infinite
The question is whether Putin should be allowed to roll into Europe as he inevitably will, especially if sanctions bite
And if so, then was Patton’s plan to invade and crush the USSR visionary?

[TranquillityBase]

There should be enough veterans of Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Viet Nam (a partial list) in the U.S. at least that no such forgetfulness should exist here.  They are a minority, but the memory and experience is out there.  But it seems like experience of war is something most veterans want to forget and the last thing a veteran wants to share, at least with those who haven't shared the experience.

Every war is a special case and Putin's invasion of the Ukraine was probably inevitable.  I'm not justifying it, but Thomas Friedman pointed out in his column a few days ago in the NY Times that the West made its own mistakes by pushing NATO up to the very borders of Russia after the Soviet Union collapsed.  That did a lot (again, paraphrasing Friedman) to generate the nationalism in Russia that has given Putin the backing he needed to make himself another Russian autocrat, practically the only form of government that the Russians have ever known.

I am more fearful of the price the Ukrainians will now pay for their brief independence than that Putin will roll into Europe.  

And are we willing to go nuclear to defend Eastern Europe?  Because I think we'd have to.  

I am old enough to remember doing the duck and cover drills in elementary school.  Frightening to think we are back to thinking in those terms again.

[Mark A Becker]

I pray for Ukrainian and Russian parents, and their children, civilian or soldier, all of whom will suffer for those who will never feel the pain inflicted by war.

I'm already against the next war.

[busker]

Unless Putin is assassinated, we are in for world war 3

[RiverNotch]

I can't blame the young, when they didn't really start this war, and when more of them will likely die because of this war than the old. And maybe the young forgot, but more likely the old grew senile, or else never listened in the first place.

Lord have mercy for Russia, Ukraine, and my country, which however far away from this news of the hour is experiencing troubles just as mad and potentially costly. Lord have mercy for us all.

[dukealien]

A counterfactual comes to mind: many have chided the US for letting former satellite nations join NATO after at least implying to Russia in the negotiations which denuclearized Ukraine that this would not happen. But what was the alternative? Tell the Russians it would happen if the ex-satellites wanted it, or tell the Russians flat out that ex-satellites and ex-SSRs would not be allowed to join, ever? In the first case, the Russians would have balked at the whole settlement, which is why it was not stated explicitly. In the second case, all the ex-satellites and SSRs would inevitably have formed an alliance among themselves from the Baltic to the Black Sea, to keep Russia out. That alliance - CETO, perhaps, for Central European Treaty Organization - would have had the technology and industry to build nukes, and would have, because they needed them due to lack of strategic depth (like Israel). It might have joined the EU.

Where we are now, Kaliningrad must be reduced to save the Baltic republics unless something very thought-provoking happens to Putin.

Sorry, sorry, sorry, but it's 1939: the tragedy must be acted out, and nobody is off-stage. World war is the kind that's been forgotten, and here it is again.

[busker]

A counterfactual comes to mind:  many have chided the US for letting former satellite nations join NATO after at least implying to Russia in the negotiations which denuclearized Ukraine that this would not happen.  But what was the alternative?  Tell the Russians it would happen if the ex-satellites wanted it, or tell the Russians flat out that ex-satellites and ex-SSRs would not be allowed to join, ever?  In the first case, the Russians would have balked at the whole settlement, which is why it was not stated explicitly.  In the second case, all the ex-satellites and SSRs would inevitably have formed an alliance among themselves from the Baltic to the Black Sea, to keep Russia out.  That alliance - CETO, perhaps, for Central European Treaty Organization - would have had the technology and industry to build nukes, and would have, because they needed them due to lack of strategic depth (like Israel).  It might have joined the EU.

Where we are now, Kaliningrad must be reduced to save the Baltic republics unless something very thought-provoking happens to Putin.

Sorry, sorry, sorry, but it's 1939:  the tragedy must be acted out, and nobody is off-stage.  World war is the kind that's been forgotten, and here it is again.

Russia is only 144 million people. It is not China, with 1.2 billion.
There is no reason why 144 million people should be given special rights over other sovereign nations. Not that China should either, but the contrast with Russia is more apparent. 
If the ex Soviet countries weren't to join NATO, it should've been there in a treaty.
Incidentally, the per capita nuclear bomb count for Russia is twice that of the US.

There is no reason why the US or anyone else should be blamed for Putin's hare brained idea to send tanks into Kiev.
Ultimately, it is up to the Russian people or the ghost of Alexander Litvenko, to give it back to Putin.
Like Mussolini and Qadaffi, he might end up at the end of a rope.

Xi Jinping's turn next.

[TranquillityBase]

Sorry, sorry, sorry, but it's 1939:  the tragedy must be acted out, and nobody is off-stage.  World war is the kind that's been forgotten, and here it is again.

Yes, if the worst scenario plays out, e.g. China using this moment to try to take over Taiwan.

Is Putin crazy enough to use nuclear weapons is now one of the main questions.  His war is certainly not going the way he expected.  And if the Ukrainians are fighting this hard with little help from the outside, what will the Russian occupation look like?

Up to now I've viewed Putin as a calculating, ruthless thug, but not a psychopath.  Now I'm not so sure.

It is encouraging that Russians, at a considerable risk, are protesting against the war.