OT: The Avalounge: No Witty Title Available (mod warning in OP)

[Balthazar]

Like I said before in this and other threads, it's truly hypocritical for anyone to call for that stuff. Because a country like the United States has done just as much bad (if not more) as Russia. Yet nobody calls for American players to have their contracts revoked.

Ukraine isn't the same as those middle east countries and the motivation behind the invasions isn't the same either.

If the US invaded, say, Turkey to make it part of the US you'd have a point.

I do agree that the Western world should stay the f*** out of the Middle East and Africa though. It would be better for everyone in the long run.

 

[niwotsblessing]

As a member of the insurrection party, Marco Rubio needs to STFU.

 

[Balthazar]

As a member of the insurrection party, Marco Rubio needs to STFU.

Rubio is one dumb motherf***er. I will always remember when he got exposed by Chris Christie

 

[niwotsblessing]

He’s got to look like he’s coming from a position of strength. It is his kicking and screaming. Strong men can’t look weak, and he looks weak now. A very tricky part for Ukraine and the world is how can they give Russia an out that doesn’t make Putin look weak? Seems absurd, but Putin won’t back out unless he can claim some victory.

Putin now is perceived as weak, and is nearly universally despised, as a result of his own actions. If he keeps this up the only victory he may be able to claim is that nobody capped his ass. Yet.

 

[5280]

IMO his posts are coming from a place of hurt and personal experience, so it's hard not to have sympathy in that.

At least in my uneducated opinion.

Right, and I would probably agree with a lot of what he is thinking, here, too. I’m a human being first, and the sympathy is there. If I’m being honest, I’m sure I could learn a lot from @dahrougem2

FTR I think Hasek’s statement is “off”, too, although it also probably comes from a place of hurt and personal experience.

 

[Foppberg]

Right, and I would probably agree with a lot of what he is thinking, here, too. I’m a human being first, and the sympathy is there.

FTR I think Hasek’s statement “off”, too, although it also probably comes from a place of hurt and personal experience.

Yeah Hasek's statement isn't realistic.

 

[5280]

Yeah Hasek's statement isn't realistic.

…or right for that matter. You can’t blame individuals for what their government does.

 

[Freudian]

Several EU nations are going to give weapons to Ukraine. Surprisingly Germany and Sweden are among them, given the two countries deep reluctance to send weapons to a party involved in a current war.

Sweden will provide Ukraine with 5 000 m/48 anti-tank weapons. Hope they hit their mark.

 

[Foppberg]

Several EU nations are going to give weapons to Ukraine. Surprisingly Germany and Sweden are among them, given the two countries deep reluctance to send weapons to a party involved in a current war.

Sweden will provide Ukraine with 5 000 m/48 anti-tank weapons. Hope they hit their mark.

And Germany is investing 100 billion into their defense spending. So much is happening in such short time.

Goes to show changes can happen very fast if they really want to.

 

[SirLoinOfCloth]

It must be really rough being a Russian soldier. You likely have family and or friends with some tie to Ukraine and you're being told to turn on them. Literally the entire world is against you at this point and you're probably even against yourself. But you have to do what you're told. You must feel kind of hopeless doing the bidding for a f***ing tyrant.

 

[JLo217]

It must be really rough being a Russian soldier. You likely have family and or friends with some tie to Ukraine and you're being told to turn on them. Literally the entire world is against you at this point and you're probably even against yourself. But you have to do what you're told. You must feel kind of hopeless doing the bidding for a f***ing tyrant.

Tonight is gonna be a bad night for those involved sadly. Ukraine has a lot of new Turkish drones taking convoys out, Javelins and NLaws last night. A lot of these apparently are being staged near entry roads behind Russian lines. Crossing the border for those convoys is gonna be bad.

 

[niwotsblessing]

It must be really rough being a Russian soldier. You likely have family and or friends with some tie to Ukraine and you're being told to turn on them. Literally the entire world is against you at this point and you're probably even against yourself. But you have to do what you're told. You must feel kind of hopeless doing the bidding for a f***ing tyrant.

Russian soldiers that have been captured by the Ukranians have indicated they had no idea they were going to war, that they have no clear idea of their military objectives, and are not happy about the situation.

I have seen unconfirmed reports that 5000 Russian troops have rioted and refused to go into Ukraine.

I have also seen reports that young Russian soldiers captured/surrendered in Ukraine have been allowed to call their parents in Russia tot let them know where they are and that they are alive. If this is true it is devastating to Putin on the home front, and extraordinarily compassionate acts by the Ukranians to treat the soldiers in this manner.

 

[LOFIN]

Several EU nations are going to give weapons to Ukraine. Surprisingly Germany and Sweden are among them, given the two countries deep reluctance to send weapons to a party involved in a current war.

Sweden will provide Ukraine with 5 000 m/48 anti-tank weapons. Hope they hit their mark.

As a Finn, I'm ashamed right now that so far we are not giving weaponry to Ukraine. I know it goes straight from the stocks that we would need should the same thing happen to us, but Russia doesn't threat us militarily right now. We can afford to give them our stingers, NLAWs, not to mention older AT weaponry. We can buy new stuff. Besides, every Russian armour piece, every Russian soldier killed is one less against us in the future. I really hope the government changes it's mind and gives it the green light, and also that our defence forces are willing to send stuff over. Officers I follow on twitter have been very much pro sending arms to Ukraine, so I doubt the latter would be an issue.

 

[dahrougem2]

The way you are thinking about this is off, though (at least IMO). I wouldn’t say America is infallible, but the general intent of our group over history within regards to our foreign policy is much different than what is going on with Putin and Russia. If America can be blamed for anything, it would be for its own stupidity, and not being “evil” as you say.

IMO his posts are coming from a place of hurt and personal experience, so it's hard not to have sympathy in that.

At least in my uneducated opinion.

I've had family members and friends lose their lives/homes/livelihoods because of things the United States/Israel did to them in both Lebanon and Palestine. And that's just those two countries. The things USA does that gets swept under the rug really shouldn't, because while a full scale attack like the one Russia is doing now against Ukraine is truly heinous and serves no purpose in the world, the United States still year after year drops hundreds of thousands of bombs on countries where they suspect "terror" to occur.

People can call it "foreign policy" all they want (not saying you two are), but the fact of the matter is a country like the United States likes to step on the necks of much weaker third world countries whenever possible, and they also like to enable countries like Israel to do the same thing.

I sympathize with the people of Ukraine. My issue is with people like Dominik Hasek and Wayne Gretzky looking to punish athletes that have nothing to do with this. Especially Gretzky. Ban the Russian world junior team? Seriously? What have those kids done wrong? I understand a country imposing economic sanctions and tariffs etc, but this is sports. Especially U20 sports. And then there's Hasek who sounds like a fool calling for Russian NHL players to have contracts revoked or suspended or whatever, as if those Russian players are the ones personally invading Ukraine.

 

[Murzu]

To my very uneducated Finnish eyes, USA is often acting like the world's police, a title and a "job" they have given to themselves. Some things USA have done aren't easily justified IMO (and I believe oil is a reason for some of their conflicts.. which shouldn't EVER be a reason). And this is coming from a person that mostly likes USA a lot.

But I wouldn't compare it to the likes of Russia, China etc. Countries that have rotten leadership and no interest in human rights. But USA should meddle a little less.

 

[Avsboy]

Delete

 

[LOFIN]

Imagine seeing this a week ago

 

[5280]

I've had family members and friends lose their lives/homes/livelihoods because of things the United States/Israel did to them in both Lebanon and Palestine. And that's just those two countries. The things USA does that gets swept under the rug really shouldn't, because while a full scale attack like the one Russia is doing now against Ukraine is truly heinous and serves no purpose in the world, the United States still year after year drops hundreds of thousands of bombs on countries where they suspect "terror" to occur.

People can call it "foreign policy" all they want (not saying you two are), but the fact of the matter is a country like the United States likes to step on the necks of much weaker third world countries whenever possible, and they also like to enable countries like Israel to do the same thing.

I sympathize with the people of Ukraine. My issue is with people like Dominik Hasek and Wayne Gretzky looking to punish athletes that have nothing to do with this. Especially Gretzky. Ban the Russian world junior team? Seriously? What have those kids done wrong? I understand a country imposing economic sanctions and tariffs etc, but this is sports. Especially U20 sports. And then there's Hasek who sounds like a fool calling for Russian NHL players to have contracts revoked or suspended or whatever, as if those Russian players are the ones personally invading Ukraine.

:::hugs::: man

 

[forsbergavs32]

I’ll just leave this here from my favorite Ukrainian band

 

[LOFIN]

I sympathize with the people of Ukraine. My issue is with people like Dominik Hasek and Wayne Gretzky looking to punish athletes that have nothing to do with this. Especially Gretzky. Ban the Russian world junior team? Seriously? What have those kids done wrong? I understand a country imposing economic sanctions and tariffs etc, but this is sports. Especially U20 sports. And then there's Hasek who sounds like a fool calling for Russian NHL players to have contracts revoked or suspended or whatever, as if those Russian players are the ones personally invading Ukraine.

Punishing individual athletes based on nationality is not ok. Banning Russia as a team is just fine, it has been done because of doping already. The point of the sanctions is also to put pressure on those leaders by ordinary people.

Sucks for those athletes, but I don't feel nearly as sorry for them as I feel for the people of Ukraine getting killed by Russians.

 

[JLo217]

Apparently to Ukrainian fighters took out a good number of columns today.

Ghost of Kiev has 10 confirmed kills.

These planes might seal the deal as long as the training is light.

 

[JLo217]

Punishing individual athletes based on nationality is not ok. Banning Russia as a team is just fine, it has been done because of doping already. The point of the sanctions is also to put pressure on those leaders by ordinary people.

Sucks for those athletes, but I don't feel nearly as sorry for them as I feel for the people of Ukraine getting killed by Russians.

Ovi should definitely be sent back based on his past and even present comments. Sucks for the Caps but Ovi in my eyes is as Kremlin as it gets.

 

[Foppberg]

Apparently to Ukrainian fighters took out a good number of columns today.

Ghost of Kiev has 10 confirmed kills.

These planes might seal the deal as long as the training is light.

So that's real eh? So many conflicting reports on whether it was just a rumour or not.

 

[S E P H]

I'm with @dahrougem2 that all of this anti-Russian stuff is another form of cancel culture in disguise. I think the dumbest or ignorant thing is to group people based on genes, culture, religion, race, or background and then full on judge them within that group. Every person on this earth is individually different from one another even if they are all white, asian, or black. Punishing Russian athletes just because they're Russian could be quite xenophobic considering they have absolutely nothing to do with Putin's decision, even for the pro-Putin hockey players in the NHL. You think Ovechkin or Varlamov called Putin directly and told him, "hey Supreme Leader, I am not really liking Ukraine at the moment, can you invade them?" That's just rubbish even though I think on a moral level you should definitely voice a concern to who they're backing.

Just look at Russia right now, a percentage of their population actually came out and opposed the invasion with protests. It's not their fault the Russian police took a page out of the Canadian police and shutdown peaceful protests. Now there are things I do accept, for example on TNT yesterday the entire panel mentioned that if you're a USA or Canadian player in the KHL, you need to GTFO of that country ASAP. There are ways to pressure Russia on other fronts than banning their athletes. For example, leaving the KHL is one option, being like Poland and actually boycotting their game against Russia is another for the World Cup. I also don't mind if IIHF decides to ban Russia from U18, U20, and World Champions' as it was employed against South Africa and their racist constitution. But targeting individuals because they were born in a country with one person deciding to do a terrible act is crazy. Hasek probably means well, but his ideology is the same of what USA did to Japanese citizens during WWII with the prison camps.

 

[JLo217]

So that's real eh? So many conflicting reports on whether it was just a rumour or not.

The Government is running with it. I'm really curious to see how things go with the new jets.

There were reports that they've seen upwards of two jets up at the same time chasing Russians so I think its hard to know.