201–210 of 317 posts
It's like Russia was expecting to be able to conduct the largest aggressive conventional military operation in Europe since WW2 and not completely flip the apple cart of the global order.
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It's just my opinion based on what I know. I hope whatever is done, whether it's my viewpoint or yours, is the correct one. There is likely no right answer here, just degrees of success and it depends how many innocent Ukrainians you're prepared to let die (and the citizens of the next nation on Putin's list). I'm praying for President Biden so he may make the right decision. So far, I'm dismayed. It does sound like…
> That's the problem. We already learned what happens next. No. You missed the lesson. USA is largely a peaceful nation that's many thousands of miles away from this conflict. It takes an incredible amount of evil before the US people are roused into action. The US people in 1939 or 1940 weren't ignorant. Even as Hitler rose and took over large swaths of Europe, the US citizen was not roused into action. It still too…
Fair enough. Which is why the world stood with you after 9/11. And this is a far larger event.
Russia shouldn't be allowed to force decisions like this on any country. Let them join. We kicked the can down the road with Ukraine and look where that landed Ukraine. 2008 and 2014 we gave in and allowed Russia to do what they wanted. 2022 and Western countries are allowing it again. Its despicable. I don't want war. I don't want to go to war. But when someone approaches you and says "I own you" you either fight ba…
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In terms of troops and materiel deployed in the first few days, how does this compare to (either) Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam or Korea?
From some cursory googling: Afghanistan peak US troops: 102,000 (2011) Gulf war peak US troops: 700,000 (1990-1991) Iraq peak US troops: range from 168,000 - 192,000 (2007) Vietnam peak US troops: 543,000 (1969) Korea peak US troops: 320,000, unclear what year edit: obviously, Russia's involvement in Ukraine over the last few days would be by far the biggest operation in Europe since WW2. Just not globally (by a long…
I was too young to really get the scale of the first gulf war. Just transporting 700,000 troops seems astounding, let alone keeping them equipped in enemy territory.
"We'll invade you if you join NATO" loses its power a bit when you invade people who haven't joined NATO.
Even worse, when you invade someone who tried to join NATO, was given the same warning, didn't join NATO, and then was invaded anyway. Finland and Sweden should join now while Russia doesn't have the ability to invade (because their forces are busy in Ukraine).
We seem to be at an impass. NATO exists to help people not feel threatened by Russia. Putin has decided that the mere existence of a real NATO is a threat to Russia (he's fine with a paper tiger institution that is all but imaginary). It's like a European version of 1860 in the US. As an American, I'd be (emotionally, but not rationally) glad to just put an end to 100 years of Russian aggression, mostly because I'm a…
What concretely does it mean to “put an end to 100 years of Russian aggression” for America? Maybe be more mindful of what you say.
The historical narrative that has been told people of my age for much of their formative years is the above. Basically, Russia has been a thorn in Western World's side since the communist revolution, with leaders like Stalin and followers. Prior to that, despite some really bad czars, the rest of the world doesn't care too much.
So people like me, are sort of conditioned to have negative feelings about Russia on the world stage. That's the "emotional" part of it.
The rational part of me is able see that there's a lot of interesting dynamics. That Russian people are just as much people as I am too. That my own country has a history for the last 100 years that when seen from the outside is also none too proud of a story to tell.
As I wrote in another thread today, current EU and US leaders are asleep at the wheel. We have a different dynamic. Talking about sanctions looks almost pathetic. The analogy here is, you live in a community and one of your neighbors just lost it completely and is shooting and shelling another neighbor. Not to raise the hostilities...you scream at him he wont be invited anymore for the Christmas party and you will co…
This is a very delicate situation that can't be resolved by just sending troops and fighting. Neither the US nor Europe wants to have another world war. Definitely not now nuclear weapons are much more powerful.
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Germany froze the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project. Russia has a ton of reserves, but this will hobble them economically once the reserves are drawn down. The UK and US are debating seizing property belonging to Putin's circle of supporters, which could be very precarious for him domestically. Protests are breaking out in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and videos are turning up of captured Russian soldiers saying they…
> captured Russian soldiers saying they didn't want to be part of the invasion I am following the conflict very closely (due to having many friends and relatives on both sides). While there are some videos with what looks like Russian soldiers (some of whom look no older than 18-19, so they're definitely conscripts), I wouldn't say there have been very many of them, and what would you say in a similar situation? "Yes…
I don't think it takes many to cause domestic issues. Generally captured American soldiers, who aren't conscripts, hold the line. There are noteworthy exceptions like John Walker Lindh which caused a lot of controversy domestically. It's worth noting that seeing lots of dead conscript soldiers coming home in coffins helped bring an end to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and there's a serious quagmire risk here for Russia.
> To be clear, I am 100% behind Ukraine.
Same.
Perhaps it’s time to make a European force that can share assets with nato but is independent of the whims of the us. They’re too willing to play their own game or just take their ball and go home.
Article 5 was invoked once, for September 11th. I don't have too much problem with that in principle (although worth noting that other NATO countries don't invoke it when foreign terrorists attacked their cities).
The only country I don't think would respond to an Article 5 invocation from a Russian invasion would be Turkey.