Ukraine

SamAndreas said

I think they got misunderstood. Badly.

I think they showed up ready to help, but the Polish officialdom just didn't get it. I think they arrived with a bunch of boxes of goodies they wanted to give Ukraine to help them, and now they're wondering where that all went wrong.

I think Ukrainians had an offer of joint participation in war. Well meaning, more than they usually get. Troops and arms to support them. It just happened to be from one of the tiniest nations on Earth. A few boxes of arms along with their diplomatic delegation is all this country has to offer.

I'm ready to embrace them for offering to do what they could do.

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South Africa, could hardly be constructed or perceived as one of the smallest, tiniest nations on earth. Their previous white-minority, fanatically dedicated Afrikaner Apartheid regime held out against near-universal condemnation, UN sanctions, diplomatic, cultural, and sports boycotts for decades, vowing to never change or alter their regime. They even fought or funded several proxy wars against Communist-backed or led guerrila groups in Angola, Mozambique, and trained and even fought with Rhodesian troops for over a decade in their bush war against Mugabe's Moscow-backed, funded ZANU forces until the 1980 Lancaster House agreement finally saw Ian Smith's white-minority rule end in Rhodesia.

Sure, it helped that the US, and UK gave financial and military assistance that eased the sting of international sanctions for a few decades, but even that assistance trickled away, the Apartheid regime still held out for over a decade and couldve persisted if the threat of a possible race war in the early 1990's didnt convince many ordinary Afrikaners maybe making a deal with Mandela and holding free, democratic elections might not be such a bad idea.