RichardPearce comments

It is interesting that killing the parents in front of their child, in a strike on a civilian bridge, wasn't worthy of condemnation when the Kyiv regime did it, at least in the eyes of those most upset by the Russian response to Zelensky's attacks on civilian residental buildings in Moscow.

And of course those who share the Kyiv regime's contempt for Russian speakers don't see that what Zelensky was boasting he was about to do to Russian speaking Ukrainians amounted to the same thing Barayagwiza was saying about the Tutsis.

Was tempted to ask Romeo Dallaire when he was recently in Edmonton if he would have intervened in the Rwandan civil war while it was still a small thing if he'd been allowed to, but he actually made it clear he would have in his book. And didn't have the chance to point out that if he had, it would have opened the door to accusations like those the White Bloc have made about Putin being made about him by those outside the White Bloc.

TINC, the people of Iraq remember who SUPPORTED the dictatorship, supplied it with WMDs to use on Iraqis, and intervened when it looked like the war he started, that killed so many Iraqis, was going to see Iraq be liberated and become a democracy.

They also remember who gave them shelter from the dictatorship's bloody rule, and who illegally invaded them to make sure he died before he could testify about his partners in his crimes against Iraqis.

They also remember who funded, armed, and trained those terrorists, who gave them the weapons they needed to defend themselves from the terrorists, and who murdered him, and the Iraqi commander of the forces that stopped those terrorists on their way from the airport to the meeting with Iraq's elected government.

You sound pretty much the same as the guys who wrote the Texas textbooks about America's slaves benefiting from their masters.

You're a journalist and a heroic whistle-blower or opposition leader if what you do benefits the US.

You're a criminal and a hacker or a terrorist if what you do harms the US.

At least that is what some people, who share a mindset with those who committed most of the worst crimes in history, believe and espouse.

And the irony is that they frequently describe those who don't share their hypocritical, unreasoning opinions as sharing that mindset.

We refuse to serve a dictatorship

But they're quite happy to serve an Apartheid regime.

Which is rather ironic given that Apartheid is a crime against humanity and a dictatorship, at most, a crime against the population of that dictatorship.

Number 1 export of America, propaganda.

Number 2 export of America, weapons of war.

Number 3 export of America, license to wage war to benefit America.

Number 4 export of America, broken promises.

Which one this will turn out to be, time will tell, even if White Bloc media won't.

Is Putin courting Africa, or is Africa courting Russia.

Actually, it seems more like a mutual movement towards ALLIANCE, sort of like what happened in WW2, but with a different class of players. Turns out that the victims of the White Bloc betrayals, economic wars, sponsored coups and regime change operations see getting together as a way of avoiding being the victim of the week.

What's interesting is that while the 11th coup in Africa by American trained generals in a couple decades is fresh in the minds of African governments, the 'Rebellious Chef' is meeting those governments at the Russian venues. More evidence that it wasn't a coup attempt, but rather a remarkably successful deception operation to allow a rapid, unhindered redeployment of antiKyiv regime forces to deplete the reserves the regime had committed to its Spring Offense.

The US is likely to take the deal.

It's number 1 export is propaganda.

It's number 2 export is weapons.

It's number 3 export is the license to wage war, and violently oppress.

Meanwhile, Russia announced, as Africa applauded, that while the Black Sea deal wouldn't be revived unless all of its provisions were treated as important, those countries in dire need wouldn't suffer, Russia would be shipping them the tons of grain that they didn't get while the deal was in place.

Which leaves EU states in a bit of a bind, defy Washington or be seen literally buying grain out of the countries that need it to keep their populations from objecting to arming the Kyiv regime in its war against Donbass and Crimea.

If it were undeterred in the conduct of its lawful mandate to ensure accountability for the gravest crimes of concern to the international community as a whole, it wouldn't have short circuited the process to hold the Israeli regime responsible for crimes against humanity so it could bypass all the steps that would have made sure there was a viable case to prosecute before it issued the arrest warrant for Putin.

As it isn't, the majority of the member states regard the present iteration of the ICC, especially the Prosecutor, to not be pursuing its lawful mandate, but a discriminatory one. Whether Akane is actively involved in the Prosecutor's pursuing an unlawful mandate, or merely complicit, or even privately opposed is questionable.

The only thing holding the Israeli regime together is the mutual desire to keep the Apartheid system in place.

One side thinks that the pretence of being something other than nakedly Apartheid is what keeps the White Bloc supportive of it.

One side thinks that being unapologetically Apartheid will quell Palestinian revolts against it.

Both sides are wrong about everything but that pursuing the other sides course of action won't work.

It's not often that 2020 and 1984 are the same thing, but add a little hindsight and the equation balances.

CC, then by your own admission, it will ALWAYS be an AMERICAN INVASION, and the odium of that will always be on America, Obama in particular.

And more than a whiff of that sticks to you (especially the whiff of the losing side of WW2)

Cleo, nice theory, problem is that the facts don't match it.

Who decided that it would be 'rebel held Syria' both before and after the American invasion, but never 'rebel held Ukraine', and always 'Russian occupied Ukraine' after the Russian intervention?

Of course, those African states are acutely aware of what so many in the White Bloc aren't, which is that the bulk of the exports from the Kyiv regime under the deal DIDN'T go to the African countries for whom they are 'vital', they went to the European countries backing the Kyiv regime's war on the agricultural heartland of Donbass, and the Russian fertilizer that the deal was supposed to get shipped to the farmers in those European countries still was blocked by the backers of the Kyiv regime.

So, if an American military plane fired a warning shot at a Russian military plane flying in Canadian airspace, it would be the American plane that was acting aggressively?

Even if the Israeli regime's story about the event happens to be true, because it is committing the Crime Against Humanity defined by the ICSPCA, its uniformed militants were the ones whose actions are worthy of prosecution by the ICC.

Ophelia, becoming a dictatorship would be a step up for Israel. Being a dictatorship is not a crime against humanity.

Note they're not protesting ANY of the things that any human rights activist or organization that thinks human rights are a principle rather than a tool of propaganda points to as constituting part of the Crime Against Humanity described in the ICSPCA, their protests are about Netanyahu's plan to start adding in another level of 'less than privileged' and sticking them on it.

The one thing Putin has done is pretty much eliminate any military figure who might contemplate taking over the country if they don't like the elected civilian government.

Sure, if you're determined to see him as a dictator, rather than the democratically elected President he is, such actions are either a dictator eliminating all rivals, but if you see him as a democratically elected President trying to secure the future of his country for his elected successors, establishing the primacy of the elected government in military decisions is how you ensure the peaceful passage of power after an election. Especially if there is a foreign Bloc that would back ANY coup attempt against the legitimate government, no matter how extremist the people staging the coup might be.

So, basically you're arguing that the rules that permit breaking up countries only apply when the US wants the country broken up, and the rules that prohibit breaking up countries only apply when the US wants to force people to live under a regime that has violently oppressed and attacked them for a decade.

Thanks for being clearer than normal about what you believe.

So, TaiwanIsNotChina is admitting that the law is quite clear that Taiwan belongs to China and that Xi is the President of China. Even shameless America has admitted the latter by default. Which means that he knows what he posts doesn't match reality.

So TaiwanIsNotChina admits that the law is quite clear, Taiwan IS China.

Seems the guy who would argue that Crimea is not Ukraine forgot who has expressed support for more war criminals.

The guy who'd argue that Crimea is not Ukraine because the post coup regime in Kyiv never ruled over it (except he doesn't actually believe that his central argument for his cause actually holds water) obviously wasn't interested in what the representatives of the South African government have said, beginning the day after the American championed Prosecutor ignored all precedent, all jurisdiction issues, all requirements for fact finding and consideration of law and issued the arrest warrant Washington requested.

Otherwise he would have heard PLENTY of 'peeps' from South Africa about the indictment (and the sudden halt to the process to indictment of America's Presidents and allies)

It wasn't so much a legal quandary as a political quandary.

Pretty much every state in Africa (making up over 1/3rd of the ICC member states) has lost faith in this iteration of the ICC, under this American promoted Prosecutor. The political quandary is that the lack of faith in this iteration hasn't yet crossed over to a lack of faith in the IDEA of a court that will hold ALL states to account impartially. Putin could have forced the issue by insisting on attending, forcing the South African government to openly repudiate the ICC or to ask for the summit to be held elsewhere, but he played the benevolent partner card, which is probably going to pay dividends at the upcoming Russia-Africa summit.

If by AI he means actual, non-human intelligence, then no, it wouldn't replace human spies feeding agencies exactly what they have requested (like WMDs in Iraq).

On the other hand, if by AI he means the artificial stupid chatbots like ChatGBT etc, then, yes, they'll definitely be able to replace human spies. (Just see the lawyer who presented the precedences that one of them fed him, only to find they weren't real)

Funny how the strikes on a CIVILIAN infrastructure, killing ONLY civilians, seems so popular with the folks who claim hitting civilians along with fighters or military infrastructure is a war crime.

Remember that Russia has WORKING Antonov aircraft, the crews to fly them, and the ability to maintain them (Zelensky doesn't thanks to the supposedly failed Russian initial operation) to move more weapons in a day than everything the White Bloc has given Zelensky in over a year, and more troops than have ever answered to Zelensky, even theoretically, into Crimea to defend it against the Kyiv regime (which, TINC would note, has never ruled over Crimea, and therefore, by his own view, no claim to it) even if the White Bloc were to destroy the bridge as a gift to Zelensky.

Even the White House has admitted that it isn't a military target.

The US is trying to enforce the sort of 'law and order' in the Persian Gulf region that John Gotti enforced in New York.

The US had to threaten to directly take part in combat to keep control over Iraq after the 'Iran Iraq war'. It's illegal control over Iraq is threatened again (as is its illegal invasion and occupation of Syria) so it is trying to beef up its presence in the Persian Gulf under the ridiculous claim that Iran exercising control over Iranian waters is piracy.

The thing is that while the games it played in Ukraine have cost it most of its stockpiles of ammunition and weapons, the game it is signaling it wants to play in the Persian Gulf will cost it manned navy ships and military bases.

PS, the worst thing you can do with deep water war ships is deploy them in an expanse of shallow water to fight against a navy that is designed for combat in shallow water.