@rusmeister A few clarifications, not really arguments.
1) Re: the title of the thread, I intended a kind of telegraphic style such as I have seen used on many other posts of news items. The sense I intended was "[Some] RF soldiers engage in systematic rape," not "High Command ordered this across the board." Soldiers occupying a town and butchering helpless residents, while also engaging in (locally) regular and planned gang rape is the horrible idea here. That doesn't mean that all Russian soldiers, or even a majority, are doing this.
2) Sometimes your style on these posts seems to me to suggest that I personally am responsible for the actions of NATO, or that my personal admission of fault will lead to a sweet and cute resolution. I'm sure you don't mean that, or believe it, but I admit that it throws me sometimes.
3) I believe (I do not expect you to believe, and do not say that every person of good will must believe...I believe) that Russia is
ALREADY subjugated to a criminal regime that can no longer be called a government even in jest. I believe that a swift defeat of Russia's war goals is
LESS LIKELY to lead to the total destruction of Russia as a state and
LESS LIKELY to lead to a "widespread" (as if it is not already widespread) war, such as we might call WWIII.
4) I do not believe that admission by "the West" of any given wrongdoing (and I believe that the countries generally referred to as "the West") have engaged in many evil and otherwise wrong actions on the world stage and at home) would have any positive result for Ukraine or anyone. I believe it would simply become a smug bit of propaganda for the RF.
Again, I believe that Russia is
already subjugated. So my understanding of the situation does not have "subjugation of Russia" as a fantasy to be hoped for. It has "subjugation of Russia" as the present situation, and the end of that subjugation as the number 2 goal here (goal number 1, of course, is saving Ukraine). The ROC in Russia (most hierarchs, synod, HH Patriarch Kirill,
NOT every parishioner,
NOT every presbyter,
NOT every reader) is in effect a cheerleader for what you and I both agree is evil. Promoting and condoning horrific sins, unimaginable to those of us on the outside. I believe that allowing the continued subjugation of Russia, and the poisoning of the ROC from within as part of that subjugation, is likely ultimately to lead to the destruction of Russia and the destruction of the ROC as a jurisdiction.
In other words, because I do not believe that anything but sound defeat on the battlefield will "stop" the criminal regime that controls the resources of the RF, I believe that such defeat is the only way to
a) save Ukraine (most important)
b) stop Russia from falling into deeper destruction than it saw even during the Civil War
c) prevent the destruction, possibly even on paper ("that jurisdiction doesn't exist anymore") of the ROC
d) be reasonably sure to prevent a widespread WWIII.
I don't expect you to agree with me, but there it is.