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PID: Synchronet 3.17c-Win32  Feb 22 2020 MSC 1924
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-=> August Abolins wrote to Dennis Katsonis <=-

 DK> This is a recipe for disaster as international relations
 DK> is not beholden to these rogue actors.

 AA> As far as I know, businesses are free to conduct business with
 AA> other countries as they see fit. The gov't has tarrifs and
 AA> duties that they impose.

They are, but when many companies decide to cause economic harm, it has
political and social ramifications, externalities.  Capitalists are generally
very poor when it comes to taking into account externalities.

The question isn't whether it is legal or not (it is), but whether they realise
it will have greater implications than simply virtue signallying and "feeling
good" about doing something.


 AA>> It would be not different if a bunch of doctors got
 AA>> organized on their own, call themselves Drs Without
 AA>> Borders, and go help people with meds and medical
 AA>> expertise.

 DK> Offering medical assistance is completely different to
 DK> enabling and supporting military activities.

 AA> Well.. conducting medical services to a soldier is just as much
 AA> as "enabling and supporting militarty activities". He gets
 AA> treated, and back he goes to fight.

 AA> Wrt, to Starlink, the internet service is just a comms system.
 AA> What users/customers do with it is THEIR doing. Criminal and
 AA> secret things get conducted over the internet all the time.

 AA> A lament on privacy from 1972..

 AA>  https://kolico.ca/mpg/TGC1972-privacy.mp4

In the West, especially the Anglosphere, we seem to think that the law is the
letter of the law, and not the spirit, and if "technically" you are within it,
then that is the end of it.  Russia won't buy such an argument.  They're not
stupid.

 DK> Russians and Chinese won't see it the way you do, which is
 DK> important because they both have nukes, and the ability to
 DK> defeat the US in war should one start.  This is a time to
 DK> tread carefully, to negotiate a peaceful solution, but if
 DK> some random CEO is going to do something which starts a
 DK> conflict, we're stuffed.

 AA> It is hard to know if just the Russians and Chinese can defeat
 AA> the US. No doubt all large countries have plenty of nuclear
 AA> power to cause a lot of damage.  But a nuclear fight will
 AA> affect the agressor and destroy the livelyhood of many
 AA> surrounding places.

 AA> Perhaps Putin underestimated the resourcefulness of private
 AA> citizens of other countries to one-up him on severing typical
 AA> comms systems and the internet in the country that he is
 AA> blasting. The people who are either trapped in Ukraine or who
 AA> choose to stay deserve to be in touch with the outside world
 AA> and their loved ones.

I don't believe the mainstream media.  They have been claiming that the war has
been going badly since it started, yet Russia has taken over Ukraine at a very
fast rate.  They are painting a picture which would make you think that
Zelensky is one day away from marching down Red Square.  The mainstream
narrative MUST be false, and obviously is propaganda aimed at demoralising any
pro-Russian actors.

It reminds me of an apocryphal exchange in Germany at the end of WWII in
Berlin.

A: How did you know that you were losing the war?

B: Our victories were getting closer and closer.

The US lost in Vietnam, lost in Afghanistan.  The US doesn't really know how to
fight wars because they don't know what the telos, the endgame is.  How would
you defeat Putin?  Putin has clear objectives, what is the US going to do? 
March into Ukraine from the West?  Not going to happen.  No NATO country, or
should that be, the citizenry of NATO countries are not willing to actually
fight and die in Ukraine.  The US can only offer indirect support and pretend
it isn't doing so (Russia and China aren't fooled by this).
 
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