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Re Germans via Ukraine - we might have lived there originally, but it was at the invitation of the Russian Empire not an independent Ukraine.
We’re the Scotch Irish of Ukraine in that sense, yes.
I agree to an extent with the article, thanks for sharing. I was not in favour of NATO in general before this war., preferring a more neutral stance like Norway or Switzerland that I thought could avoid war. Regardless of the messaging that keeps getting repeated out of Moscow, I do not think it’s fair to categorize NATO as an expansionist empire poking the bear. The Baltics need to be under NATO’s umbrella to prevent getting invaded by the Russians, as the Cold War proved. Countries like Turkey and Azerbaijan are part of NATO yet we can hardly categorize them as American vassals. The truth is the war has proven me wrong in the sense that it is entirely necessary to contain psychos like Putin. I only wish such a thing existed in Asia and we didn’t have to play tippy toe with the CCP regarding Taiwan
Edit: Looks like I’m incorrect about Azerbaijan being part of NATO. Not sure why I thought that. I guess because they’re a sort of ally.
I did. Do we really have to do that "did you?" It always sounds so snarky. It would be so much easier if you told me what your point was. It's already been acknowledged that Ph.Ds are rare in a war zone so why wouldn't you be surprised and what would that have to do with where the gentleman in question was wounded?
Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War. He was wounded in the neck and just barely escaped with his life. From the fellow kommies, not Franco's Nazis. On the way to the war he stopped in Paris and met Henry Miller. Miller told Orwell that going to fight in the Civil War out of some sense of obligation or guilt was "sheer stupidity" and that the Englishman's ideas "about combating Fascism, defending democracy, etc., etc., were all baloney". Miller further offered his old tweed jacket if something needed to be contributed to the cause. Read all about it in the Orwell's Homage to Catalonia.
I did. Do we really have to do that "did you?" It always sounds so snarky. It would be so much easier if you told me what your point was. It's already been acknowledged that Ph.Ds are rare in a war zone so why wouldn't you be surprised and what would that have to do with where the gentleman in question was wounded?
It's all in your imagination. I am not double guessing what you or others are trying to say.
The first three paragraphs in the article that you linked say it all. So we are supposed to cherry-pick the info that he briefly joined the Foreign Legion that surfaced before and after the penultimate paragraph. Sigh!
And the title of this thread is: "36yo Canadian volunteer fighter killed in Ukraine"
It's all in your imagination. I am not double guessing what you or others are trying to say.
The first three paragraphs in the article that you linked say it all. So we are supposed to cherry-pick the info that he briefly joined the Foreign Legion that surfaced before and after the penultimate paragraph. Sigh!
And the title of this thread is: "36yo Canadian volunteer fighter killed in Ukraine"
The comparisons with 1930s Europe are uncanny at this point. He’s taken Abkhazia and South Ossetia. NATO let that slide. He annexed Crimea, NATO let that slide.
.......then you accuse me of being gullible to Russian propaganda??
I guess Jean-Francois Ratelle is a fairly common name in Quebec because there appears to be a lot of them.
I did some searching online and found 3 men from Quebec named Jean-Francois Ratelle who have some knowledge or interest in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Two of them are middle aged University Professors (both still alive and still in Canada) and one is a 30+ something neo-Nazi who went to Ukraine to volunteer his combat services.
The Professor Jean-Francois Ratelle in Quebec that was being discussed in this thread is someone else, he is around age 45+ (going by his most recent live appearance on TV a few days ago) and he has a full head of hair and beard, and he is still in Canada and working at his university. He did a video interview with CTV from his office in Canada on March 3rd, 2024. The video is online. They were discussing the war in Ukraine. He is rather hefty and doesn't look fit for the rigours of combat.
The other Professor Jean-Francois Ratelle looks to be in his mid-50's to mid-60's, is almost entirely bald with a few whisps of hair on his head, he is owlish looking and wears round old-fashioned wire-rimmed glasses, and he teaches at a university in Ottawa. He also does not appear to be anyone who is in any way physically fit for combat.
Neither of the two professors look remotely anything like the picture of the younger neo-Nazi volunteer Commander Jean-Francois Ratelle in Ukraine who was clean shaven of face and around the sides and back of his head, had a stiff, upright mohawk haircut on the very top of his head and was dressed in combat clothing. That photograph was taken just before he recently died in Ukraine.
I wonder how many Jean-Francois Ratelles there really are from Quebec.
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