Soloist wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2024 4:16 pm
This only proves the point.
You read one side and John reads another. Both of you draw conclusions and believe the other is wrong.
If you know the Russian history with NATO you might know there is some disagreements documented with your claims but I don’t really care.
Were they sincere attempts? Likely not.
Soloist, I think you are right on this.
Some of what we "know" is based on personal experiences.
My grandparents and great grandparents knew my ancestors that fought in the US Civil War. They told me about one of my ancestors was captured by the North and put on an Island in Lake Erie. When he came back, they did not recognize him, as he was a walking skeleton. He ate rats to survive. I looked up this camp, and it held 6,000 prisoners, of which 3,000 died during the war, so it had a 50% kill rate. Camp Douglas outside of Chicago is the largest mass grave in the Western Hemisphere, where the North buried all of the Confederate dead that died in these hell hole prison camps.
But that is not in your history books. Northern propaganda said it never happened.
We also know, in Tennessee, that the Civil war was fought over tariffs, and not slavery. But they lie to you today just like in the past, and change history to match the propaganda of the winning side.
Likewise, both Russia and the USA are lying to us.
When the Berlin Wall came down, Gorbachev offered to Bush to remove the 400,000 troops from East Germany for reunification, on the condition that NATO would not expand to the East. James Baker under Bush said that NATO would not move one inch closer to Russia. And NATO has since expanded all the way to Russia's borders, with the intent of putting nuclear missiles in Ukraine, just 200 miles from Moscow.
And we can talk about the Nazi party founded by Bandera in Ukraine, and the Nazis that were genociding the Russian speaking population in the Donbas and Luhansk that provoked Russia to invade. And we can talk about the peace deal that Russia wanted, that the Donbass and Luhansk should be autonomous regions under neither Russia or Ukraine, and Ukraine would be neutral and never align with NATO, and there would be no war.
But maybe all of this, whatever we have heard, on both sides, is propaganda.
Maybe we should return to our own "personal experiences" with this current war, just like my ancestors in the Civil war.
This is what we saw, today, with our own eyes, and know to be true:
Nearly every Democrat and half the Republicans in the US House just voted to send more money to kill more people in the Ukraine and Gaza.
What "anti-war" person could possibly be in support of this move?
How could a "Mennonite" ever be a Democrat, or align with one of these pro-war Republicans?
We, and the rest of the world, would all be "better off" to let Russia have all of the Ukraine, if it would save the lives of these people fighting in this stupid war. And if we did not send money to Israel, they would not be killing people in Gaza.
Maybe we should all ban together, as Christians opposed to war, and say that we will never vote for anyone that supports these wars. Even just a small voting block, united together, can turn an election and get rid of these people that send our tax money to kill other people.
Mennonites "used to be" the ones that opposed the "war tax." Where is that spirit today?
Our allegiance to Jesus Christ, and to the principles of non-violence that Christ taught us, should be superior to our affiliation with any political party.
If you don't vote, I understand. But if you do vote, and you vote for the people that make war possible, how can you look in the mirror?
And the reason your food in the grocery store is so very expensive now, is because of this war in Ukraine. If you don't believe in non-violence, at least vote these people out so you won't go hungry.
But above all, make a public stand against this stupid war. What Would Jesus Do? Maybe that is the way we should look at all of this.
"He replaced the teachings of Christ with his own opinions, and gave us a religion based on the doctrines of men."