shame to admit, I wasn't able to predict the start of the war even though I was in Russia at that time. It's was always some news on the periphery of my brain. At somepoint there were news about the russian army "stopping their maneuvering" and I thought "ah, this was a scare tactic after all, no one is insane to start a war"
I find it increddible, that almost the whole personal that allowed putin to wage this war, is still in some ways in office and power in europe. What happened to disgraced figures stepping back, to give the new and capable a chance to recover ? Steinmeier, Van der Leyen, the posts change and become more honorific, but with such a legacy of ashes, who would want to stay at the press conference?
[Link is in german] https://schmid.welt.de/2026/02/25/braucht-deutschland-einen-...
“Allowed?”
How would you approach preventing a nuclear armed state from invading their neighbor?
The only lever they (EU and member states) had was economic, there were zero diplomatic or military options. Russia is essentially a nuclear-armed mafia-owned gas station, so not buying NG would’ve helped a bits
Preventing them from invading doesn’t really seem possible once you account for nuclear weapons.
He removed his own teeth through years of inaction and got dependent on the deliveries from his "dealer". How is he responsible for his lack of bite and his anbility to cut ties?
Europe also has nuclear weapons directly and indirectly. The uk, the us and france should have donated one too Kjiev!
Absolutely everyone who didn't stop Putin "allowed" him to wage his stupid war. So, everyone needs to resign now?
I have zero sympathy for von der Leyen, by the way. The only thing that she's good at is failing upwards.
Yes, a whole paradigma and the politicians who grew up on the failed soil of a "utopia" around the corner, ignoring all the signs, should step back into the void of history instead of rotting away in office, hopeing in every sentence that the "good times" will return any minute now. They are clearly unfit to handle reality or even percieve it.
They didn't believe it because they needed not to. Simple.
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