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nsakun's avatar

dear larissa, you broke my heart a little. as i was reading i was thinking yes, what a horror but you are young and strong and you will be alright. and then i got to the doctor part and being an aging woman. so it's all relative of course but i had to rethink my cheeriness about you. anyway i now am thinking if you can tolerate 3 espressos you are very strong. so back to hopeful cheeriness. so many uturns in my emotions. but i will stay with seeing you as strong. may all of you living through this criminal insanity (not quoting the person in the white house) stay strong.

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Larissa Babij's avatar

Dear Nina, Thank you for your touching message that was like a little beautiful journey through your thinking-feeling. These are topsy-turvy times. Let's stay limber and keep our balance :)

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KBC's avatar

...and by the way: no, attacks on civilian targets are not war. Attacks on civilian targets are terrorism.

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Larissa Babij's avatar

No, this is most definitely a war. It is a genocidal war Russia is waging against Ukraine to destroy Ukrainians as a distinct people with their own language, culture, and history. Through widespread missile attacks Russia seeks to make the entire territory of the Ukrainian political nation unlivable for anybody. At the same time Russia is waging a war to weaken and debilitate the power of Europe and the US and the international order established after WWII. We are in the midst of a war of tremendous scale no matter what you want to call it.

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KBC's avatar

It's an important distinction, if for no other reason than that the laws for what you can do to soldiers and what you can do to terrorists are quite different. If you're facing a ruzzian "soldier," you're in a very different situation from if you're facing a ruzzian terrorist. And attacks on civilian targets remain terrorist attacks.

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Larissa Babij's avatar

Maybe the term you are looking for is war crimes.

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KBC's avatar

> No discrete explosions, just a low and constant rumble, like thunder. No, Larissa, not thunder.

An apt comparison... There is a statistical concept called "conditional probability." This means the likelihood of something being true *given that you know something else to be true.I The classic example is that if you see a wet sidewalk in the morning, there at least two possibilities: (1) it rained, (2) the lawn sprinklers have been working.

Now suppose that you see someone carrying, and closing, an umbrella. This observation increases the probability that the sidewalk is wet because of rain, not because of the lawn sprinklers.

I have used that example more times than I can even guess at. But, after three years of ruzzian terrorism, I have a new one.

Suppose that you hear a sound that could be thunder, *or* could be an explosion. If you are in the United States at the time, the conditional probability suggests that it is probably thunder. If you are in Kyiv at the time, the highest conditional probability is that it is probably an explosion.

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Moki Kokoris's avatar

Ось тут є справжній приклад автентичної української впертості і незламності! Так як і Ти!

"Піаніст з Одеси грав у прямому ефірі, коли стався вибух. #shorts #одеса #музика #війна"

https://youtube.com/shorts/YM5NJd-oNxE?si=6sR-xMM2nOeYXTZ8

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Larissa Babij's avatar

Дякую, дорога Мокі, за невпинну підтримку!

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