Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except NATO is a defence organisation. Ask yourself why countries bordering Russia want to join.
[flagged]
What? Bullying who?
U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
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Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
#742Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is any of those things are effectively a reward for Russia for starting the war and invading Ukraine in the first place. Why should Russia get any advantage out of the war that they 100% started?? And pay them compensation! What a suggestion! Russia is a bully. What do you think will happen if we have to pay the bully off each time they start smashing up their neighbors stuff up or just making threats? An…
> NATO is a purely defensive organization Are nuclear missiles located in Europe and pointed to the East also "purely defensive" weapon? It doesn't help good relations when you have a gun pointed at your face.
i thought they just point vertically? like other nuclear missiles.
Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
#743Comments are disappointing for hacker news standard. This pause was predictable (I predicted it in Nov 2024). It's negotiation leverage to steer toward an immediate resolution of the war. An immediate resolution of the war cuts losses: Ukraine loses territory, but keeps its sovereignty. The challenge is that there aren't many other viable paths. An indefinite forever war, with high risk of a Ukraine state collapse, i…
What are the deeper reasons for the war? All I hear from talking heads is this is aggression from Russia to grab resources and potentially continue to expand their territories through conquest.
My guess is that it was the decision of Ukraine to pursuit joining EU and potentially NATO (and potentially having US forces there) and Russia understanding that it is out of options to prevent this by peaceful methods like bribing politicians, propaganda, appealing to voters sympathetic to Russia at that moment etc.
This happened in 2014. Also, if you remember, before starting the war Putin demanded that NATO stops expanding to the East, but was ignored [1].
So basically Russia wasn't willing to lose a large neighbouring country to US.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2021_Russian_ultimatu...
Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
#744Earlier quoted context omitted.
Against the man that seemingly suffered no setback from "grab her by the pussy" and all the various lawsuits?
Yeah, this is where I'm at. Nothing sticks to him, and anything he does seems to get excused, so what kind of kompromat could even be severe enough to influence him?
The trouble is that his behavior vis a vis Russia is so difficult to explain otherwise. We've been at this long enough to know that if you just assume Russia has a relationship with him, you have a fairly good idea of how things are going to play out.
Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
#745Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you. This is what people with privilege don't get. There are concentric circles of giving a fuck: first in the center is yourself, then your family, then your friends, then your community, then your city, then your country, then other countries on the planet. It's impossible to get people to care about the outermost circle when their inner circles are not satisfied, so they won't be happy to see their elected o…
It’s not even about “basic needs.” How much support is there in fat and happy Europe for putting boots on the ground? It sounds like UK and France would go it alone? https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/03/04/which-european... And it’s not lost on me that both Starmer and Macron represent a minority of the electorate in their respective countries—having won due to a deeply fractured electorate.
> both Starmer and Macron represent a minority of the electorate in their respective countries—having won due to a deeply fractured electorate.
Yet MAGA types keep claiming that Donald Trump supposedly got an "overwhelming mandate" from the American people even though he got just under 50% of the popular vote.
Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
#746Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure what to think. Ukraine can't militarily defeat russia or reclaim its lost territory, and as long as it continues to try to do so, there will be war and the world will be less stable. But if a line is not drawn against russia, I think we have every reason to believe putin will continue to conquer more land over time. Russia is the source of instability, but it can't be defeated or reasoned with. What to d…
Of course they can defeat Russia, if they’re tenacious enough. Just look at Afghanistan (against both Russia and USA). If the costs ends up being too high, eventually the attacker loses the will to continue the fight. Russia is running out of equipment. What they have left is in an increasingly bad state. Ukraine’s recent strategy of targeting refineries is working fairly well. Ukraine now has domestic laser weapons…
> Of course they can defeat Russia, if they’re tenacious enough. Just look at Afghanistan (against both Russia and USA)
Ukraine is steppe and swamp, very flat. Afghanistan .. is not.
Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
#747Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stop. Dude isn't interested in a real answer, he's concern trolling. He propogandizes his position over and over on this site.
I’m not concern trolling. I don’t want a single U.S. soldier on Ukraine soil. It’s a red line. I’m asking whether a security guarantee increases the risk of that happening.
Ah, ok, it's a red line for you. Good that you make that explicit, but you are being a thrifty with information there.
This site is for curious conversation, so I'd love to see you elucidate a bit further!
What's the nature of the red line?
For instance, Are you worried they'd get hurt? Are you worried about political implications?
Or, does the fact that there are already American volunteers to fighting in Ukraine change your calculus? [1]?
What's your idea on whether this applies to Taiwan too? How about Canada or Greenland?
Is this a red line that is shared by many?
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlgWI0FzjKc "US volunteer soldiers appear in Ukraine frontline footage"
Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
#748Every time I ask rhetorically what a known, paid Russian asset would do differently as President of the US than Trump is doing, I get crickets from Trump supporters.
>what a known, paid Russian asset would do differently as President of the US than Trump Well the obvious one is dropping Russian sanctions. Has Trump done this?
Timely!
> March 3 (Reuters) - The United States is drawing up a plan to potentially give Russia sanctions relief as President Donald Trump seeks to restore ties with Moscow and stop the war in Ukraine, a U.S. official and another person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
> The White House has asked the State and Treasury departments to draft a list of sanctions that could be eased for U.S. officials to discuss with Russian representatives in the coming days as part of the administration's broad talks with Moscow on improving diplomatic and economic relations, the sources said.
https://www.reuters.com/world/white-house-seeks-plan-possibl...
Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
#749Comments are disappointing for hacker news standard. This pause was predictable (I predicted it in Nov 2024). It's negotiation leverage to steer toward an immediate resolution of the war. An immediate resolution of the war cuts losses: Ukraine loses territory, but keeps its sovereignty. The challenge is that there aren't many other viable paths. An indefinite forever war, with high risk of a Ukraine state collapse, i…
Funny Trumps advisor stated one of the options was BOOSTING support for Ukraine to the point Russia was forced to the table. Funny how that option which would be much more aligned with American's past actions, commitments, policy stance, and allies wasn't chosen but this 'predictable' one was, especially by a President that likes to claim he takes action via strength (but chooses this weakening of his sides negotiati…
Yes. And in fact the Trump Administration may boost military aid to Ukraine in the future still.
This was mentioned in the above thread: "A direct confrontation between NATO and Russia is another, much less likely alternative. The idea that Russia's economy will collapse is highly unlikely."
The approach to try to force Russia to concede to Ukrainian demands and back down would require boosting Ukraine military aid, but would either fail and result in a forever war, succeed by collapsing Russia's economy (highly unlikely to succeed), or result in a direct NATO-Russia confrontation.
In terms of America's past actions, the history is loong, but if you are referring to the Biden Administration - it had a strategy up until the Ukraine military faltered in its failed counter-offensive.
Anyway, you expect policy changes between administrations.
Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
#750Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are already drafting an end to sanctions, which is unbelievable.
Trump said he wanted peace, but I think he really wanted an end for the sanctions, probably to help with his goal of lowering the price of oil. I don’t think he cares at all about how things turn out in Ukraine.
Trump have promised to end the war in a short time and is a little late on the deadline. That explains him being irritated at that meeting.