Quote from: WOTR on October 30, 2022, 07:40:47 PMYou are correct. In your screwed up system of government (and mine) the prime minister is elected dictator. There are whips to keep people in line, caucus positions and expulsion from the party if they dare to vote against what they are told by the PMO. The US is flawed, but they don't suffer this issues. Individuals regularly ignore what the party says and vote how theirbiggest donorselectorate tell them to.
Somebody should probably tell the conscripts this and question why they have banned males from 18 (16?) - 60 from leaving the Ukraine if they don't have any military experience. You may even recall some idiot youtubers who went over thinking that they could LARP and join the Ukraine forces while virtue signalling.
The sad fact of the matter is that nations at war are always on the lookout for cannon fodder. And as the trained, professional soldiers dwindle- every nation will look for replacements wherever they can find them. No- the west will not be sending your kids to Russia. (I assume they are saving them for a sacrifice to China.)
What about when China invades Taiwan? Are you already lining up the arguments to support that war as well?
If you are the country being invaded then it's all hands to the pumps, obviously. I'm not sure what sort of point you think you're making, if you even have one at all. We had the then Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, telling people that the Government would support anyone going to Ukraine to fight the Russians, until she was told to STFU by the Defence Secretary, who told anyone who wanted to fight to just join the army if they were that keen on it.
An elected dictatorship is an oxymoron. If you don't like the job they are doing then you can vote them out at the next election. You can also make enough noise during their time in office so that they understand that they will get voted out if they don't reflect the mood of the country. That's how it should work and I can't think of any other system that would be workable.
I answered your question, now you answer mine. Are there any circumstances in which you would accept that war is justified? It's not even war in your case, of course, because you are against even a stiff letter to Putin in case he frowns at you and gets you all upset. We've got to accept that it might be inevitable that we are going to come to blows with China eventually because it's the only way to avoid a total catastrophe where rogue nations can just attack whoever they want with impunity.
It's pretty generally accepted that we could have kept Hitler in his box during the 'thirties if the Americans and Roosevelt had been more aggressive about telling him to stop being a dick. Unfortunately the Americans were more interested in staying out of things, which only ended up making things ten times worse than anyone.
Just what kind of world can you expect when you roll over for every dictator that glares at you? You seem to assume that if you don't make them mad then they will take it out on somebody else rather than you.