warning signs and words were ignored;

Americans love the phrase red line. They impose certain requirements on their opponents and if they are not fulfilled, Washington strikes. Recall Syria. It was something like that: one day President Obama said the United States would launch missiles if the Syrian rebels used gas and on the following day they did use gas, most likely to please the Americans and provide them with the pretext to attack. The leaders on the Potomac drew the red line and, seeing it crossed, reacted as they had promised. Moscow, too, had no other choice as to set down its own red line which was: Ukraine must not become a member-state of NATO or else. When Ukraine’s NATO membership did not cease to be constantly on the table, and when – to top it all – it began to be discussed whether Kiev should not be allowed to have its own nukes, Russia struck. Such are the rules of the game. If you lay down your red lines and then sit idly by watching the red line being crossed again and again, you become a political nonentity that nobody reckons with. By the way, the same is true of individuals, not only states. Adhering to American political language in which all US interventions are termed peaceful operations or operations aimed at preventing a humanitarian disaster, so did Russia label its intervention in Ukraine as a military operation aimed at the demilitarization and denazification of the country. If you do not see the parallelism, then you are unfairly prejudiced against Moscow.........read more........