Tell me the difference between the Bagdad bombing 2003 by the US and Ukraine bombing by Russia?
No condemnation, right? The war was televised and celebrated.
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Bagdad was about possible nuclear weapons, which Saddam Hussein threatened to use. I heard him. We had to assume it was true, in a place far from our borders, so otherwise not strategically significant. We were not going to lose our oil because the Sauds were our allies in that conflict.
Ukraine is on Russia's doorstep, and Crimea is regarded by Russia as an essential strategic port. Threats by Zelensky, who is quite capable of that, and NATO, to jeopardize Crimea, and the Russian part of Ukraine, would have been regarded as requiring a strong response - a lot like our response to the Soviets over missiles in Cuba in 1962.
So I'd say vastly different.
With one exception / correction I agree with your comment here. The US response to USSR regarding Cuba was about the Russians installing missile batteries in Cuba.
Bay of Pigs fiasco was about USA (CIA) attempting to overthrow the Castro regime.
@iThink The question was: were Bagdad and Ukraine similar. They were not.
But our attempts to influence sovereign nations within 90 miles of our borders - Cuba, is very similar to Russia trying to control the area around Crimea. Most folks familiar with international dynamics would say that in the real World, that is pretty much normal.
And I stand corrected that the Bay of Pigs wasn't quite the same as the missile crisis. Both were our attempts to influence Cuba to be less of a threat strategically, and linked, in my mind at least.
@TimTuolomne
the Bay of Pigs wasn't quite the same as the missile crisis. Both were our attempts to influence Cuba to be less of a threat strategically, and linked, in my mind at least
Certainly true of the Bay of Pigs fiasco. The Cuban Missile Crisis was not the same. It was a stare down between USA and USSR as the missile batteries were not so much a strategic threat as they were a flagrant prescient and tactical threat to CONUS.
I suppose if you want to think of it as "influencing" the guy pointing a loaded gun at your face you could rationalize it as an attempt to "influence" - LOL But I wouldn't recommend that as a sound strategy in that situation.