[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Catfish

It seems it was more my drivel and hate than yours, yesterday. I am sorry. I just heard one more speech by Widdecombe, i am fed up with this f'n brexit show and i have to say i would have thrown something at here, would i have been in the vicinity.
Will not delete my post though since the rest does not make sense then.

It is not the right thing to close one's eyes and dream of unicorns just because realities do not fit one's opinions or expectations, true.
Unfortunately I see it like in the article and you, but the difference is i will not excuse Putin's cynical and disgusting behaviour, and bad-mouth Europe just because it does not play the same game. This "weakness" is the main thing that distinguishes Europe, not only from Russia, or so i thought.

Maybe it is time to change. But if we want to have influence is that necessarily to be on the military side?
Maybe yes. Maybe a build-up of arms again, maybe each single european state bolsters its military forces, or maybe a pan-european army. The latter makes much more sense because of a central command structure and speed of reacting.
I wonder whether this can be Putin's intention, but maybe not all of his plans prosper.

Putin gives Erdoghan a runaround, the latter is cynical but also dumb. Putin is aggravating the situation with his "politics" which are more like a cold war, but a war it is now.

Catfish, one thing you really need to keep on mind about me. I do not and do not intend to "excuse" Putin. Or anyone else for that matter. I just take things for what they are, and that includes Putin. I kind of "respect" him for the cool-minded soberness by which he realises what he wants to realise, that is lightyears away from Europe always wanting this or that, but then being impotent and indifferent to realise it - in this quality, may it work for the better or worse result in your eyes, Putin is leading Europe around by a ring in its nose. In these qulties Putin is alwys better prepared and is more professional and potent than pracically all first-line polticians in European states. He knows how to play the big game better than anyone else in Europe, that simple. Thats is to your disadvanatge, but I do not conclude fromt hat that we should demand him to play weaker and inettionally to Russia'S disadvantage, but I conclude that Wetserners need to get smarter regarding their choises of what social-cultural icons they follow (Thunberg) and what potlicans they legitimise to make decisons for them. The past couple fo years have brought European decisions in these regards and flushed names to office seats and posts, that bring tears of laughter to my eyes. States have interests. Russia has interests. Europeans states have interests, and these European interests are anything but coherent and united, many states simply abuse the talking of a unbited Europe to put their own interests before that of all others.

What ignites you often about me is that you do not realise that i simply strictly differ between the world as it is and the world as I would prefer it to be. The world I would like to see is the island of Pala Huyley describes in Island: buddhist-founded, peaceful, tolerant, and very, very reaosnable and reason.guided. But i know that man is not like this. It is an illusion, a puff of sweet smoke. The world we have to deal with is the world of the Putins and Leyens, Thunbergy and Trumps, Merkels and Macrons. And we made it this world. Both worlds, the one that is and the one that one would wish for, are not the same, but I and everybody else have just the first one to deal with. To tailor policies according to an illusory world that is not real, leads nowhere, and with visions I have nothign to do, as Schmidt said: people who have visions should see a psychiatrist. . This includes necessarily to get one's mind settled with the idea that we cannot save all and everybody and that we cannot influnce the world everywhere and everytime according to how we think it should be. that simply is beyond our reach, Europe is not a rising power, but a fallign power, we simply fall more and more into irrelevance, we have had our big times in history, and they are as dead as the british empire that you mock the Brexiteers with.

I do not join the chorus of mice that try to roar like tigers, you see.

On the Brits and Brexit, it can be explained - beyond the lies of Brexiteers - why Brexit happened, and the brits have every natural right one could imagine to say No to the continent, it is their birth right and we have no claim for them, and it is them who must face the consequences, whether they may be good or bad. It must not be our our my or your job to notoriously lecture them on how stupid they behave - in your view. Our only task is to accept their decision and to see how we come to terms without them. How they get along with their government - is their thing, not ours.