Good God @Smokin Joe ...... learn to handle the truth even when you don't like it. At least give it a try.
Whose "TRUTH"?
"Pravda?"
I posted up thread Dimitry's CV.
Let's not be candy-assed about how the Russians treat those who have defied them. If they might have propaganda value (if they are prominent enough and can be turned and paraded as 'having seen the error of their ways'), they have a serious 'reeducation' ahead of them, and likely their families will be held hostage or killed during that process.
If not, a bullet awaits, sooner or later.
I have handled a lot of truth over the past year I didn't like, and I see more every day. I don't need to look as far as Ukraine to see a lot I know to be different than I am being told, and that truth alone is unsettling, but something I can deal with. Whether or not Zelensky is a saint, it was Ukraine that was invaded, and I hope they prevail at repelling the re-branded Soviet aggressors. (No,
@sneakypete you are not the only one). What's more, I hope they hand the Russians their asses on the way back to Russia.
@libertybele The US routinely monitors troop movements and build-ups all over the world. It's why we have the NRO and others who keep an eye in the sky on such things, primarily, and the buildup of 100,000 troops and materiel along a country's border usually is indicative of a forthcoming strike. We did it during Desert Storm. Muster, organize, set up logistics and supply are all best done before an attack. We also monitor signals traffic around the world between units likely to be involved in hostilities, or even those that are involved, in order to sort out what they are up to. We have agencies for that, not just to monitor what ever cell hone traffic is going on here at home.
It doesn't take a tactical genius to figure out that when a country, with eyes on another country's mineral resources and industry, starts crowing about how downtrodden those allegedly sympathetic to being 'liberated' are in the country they have built up troops across the border from, that an attack is coming. If the prize is big enough, the aggressor just might plant people in the targeted nation to conspicuously whinge to any sympathetic ear about how badly they have been treated. We have communists doing the exact same thing all over America today. Such media campaigns often precede a raid or are released as justification for one as it unfolds.
(Kinda like the newspaper hit pieces on the Branch Davidians, accusing them of everything from child molestation to Meth labs as the ATF attacked their commune).
It's propaganda 101, used to muddy the waters during the critical first 48 hours of the assault.
The reality,
the indisputable fact, is that one country's sovereign borders have been violated, crossed by troops, and their people have been killed, their cities shelled and bombed, their territory occupied.
Claims 'justifying' that aggression are usually just so much bullshit, trying to deflect from the death and destruction wreaked upon those being invaded, and trying to make the aggressor out to be a shining liberator.
