Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Wed 05/28/2025 View Tue 05/27/2025 View Mon 05/26/2025 View Sun 05/25/2025 View Sat 05/24/2025 View Fri 05/23/2025 View Thu 05/22/2025
2022-03-11 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
After Ukraine, Europe wonders who's next Russian target
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — For some European countries watching Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine, there are fears that they could be next.

Western officials say the most vulnerable could be those who aren’t members of NATO or the European Union, and thus alone and unprotected — including Ukraine’s neighbor Moldova and Russia’s neighbor Georgia, both of them formerly part of the Soviet Union — along with the Balkan states of Bosnia and Kosovo.

But analysts warn that even NATO members could be at risk, such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on Russia’s doorstep, as well as Montenegro, either from Moscow’s direct military intervention or attempts at political destabilization.

Russian President Vladimir Putin "has said right from the start that this is not only about Ukraine,″ said Michal Baranowski, director of the German Marshall Fund’s Warsaw office.

"He told us what he wants to do when he was listing his demands, which included the change of the government in Kyiv, but he was also talking about the eastern flank of NATO and the rest of Eastern Europe," Baranowski told The Associated Press in an interview.
Posted by Besoeker 2022-03-11 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11132 views ]  Top

#1 Well, let's sit here and wring our hands instead of getting ready.
Posted by Chris 2022-03-11 01:04||   2022-03-11 01:04|| Front Page Top

#2 The Baltic States, then if he's on a historical rampage, Poland.
Posted by Procopius2k 2022-03-11 02:48||   2022-03-11 02:48|| Front Page Top

#3 The target is us. We're the ones who will be fucked by these retarded sanctions. They've even told us so - they're demanding that we "sacrifice" for Ukraine.

Yesterday the Biden morons essentially said, Bend Over, Here It Comes Again:

White House expects inflation will 'substantially' increase in coming months
The White House is expecting "substantially" higher inflation figures in the coming months, even after the February Consumer Price Index posted the highest year-over-year rate since 1982.

Posted by No Fortunate Son 2022-03-11 04:57||   2022-03-11 04:57|| Front Page Top

#4 Kurt gets it:

No Sacrifices for Ukraine
Kurt Schlichter
Mar 10, 2022

We owe the Ukrainians nothing, yet our garbage ruling class is demanding that we brace ourselves for unspecified “sacrifices” for their sake just as they have every time they have made some foreign policy screw-up. We normals are their janitors – we get to clean up their messes and no one is ever held accountable. No thanks.
Posted by No Fortunate Son  2022-03-11 04:59||   2022-03-11 04:59|| Front Page Top

#5 He's paid by the word.

And, man, I still haven't seen him spend more then ten words going after the actual invader.
Posted by Rob Crawford 2022-03-11 07:14||   2022-03-11 07:14|| Front Page Top

#6 Syria this fall
Posted by Slenter Panda4300 2022-03-11 07:31||   2022-03-11 07:31|| Front Page Top

#7 Headline seems to be a popular topic among the MSM morning shows today. I'm sure plans have been made.
Posted by Vespasian Ebboting9735 2022-03-11 08:06||   2022-03-11 08:06|| Front Page Top

#8 Doubt it. Their track record of predicting invasions isn't very impressive
Posted by Porthos 2022-03-11 08:54||   2022-03-11 08:54|| Front Page Top

#9 From my understanding, Putin's actual goal is the dissolution of NATO. After he finishes with Ukraine and Moldova (both on the menu right currently), he will probably invade the Baltics and ask: "Do you really want to go war over these little republics?"

Then he will go after the smaller NATO countries until everyone's absorbed or the Europeans figure out NATO is not worth the paper it's written on.
Posted by Glomosing Pelosi5566 2022-03-11 11:31||   2022-03-11 11:31|| Front Page Top

#10 As for Schlichter:

We normals are their janitors – we get to clean up their messes and no one is ever held accountable. No thanks.

Unfortunately we will have to clean up the mess anyway -unless you want to live in garbage. Just because the Roman Emperors screwed up dealing with Attila the Hun does mean we should stand back and let the huns ruin civiliztion.

What we can change is the lack of accountability, and there should be a reckoning when this is over. Not just for this, but for all the crap they've done since 1965.
Posted by Glomosing Pelosi5566 2022-03-11 11:43||   2022-03-11 11:43|| Front Page Top

#11 Great meme going around (unfortunately DDG and GOOG are trying to suppress it)... it shows two side by photos of the same Democrat screamer dyke, with captions.
Left photo:
2020:TRUMP WILL START WORLD WAR III!
Right photo:
2022 LET'S START WORLD WAR III!
Posted by No Fortunate Son 2022-03-11 11:57||   2022-03-11 11:57|| Front Page Top

#12 Glomosing - did you read the whole Schlichter piece?

If you had, I doubt you'd be twisting his argument to mean that we should "stand back and let the huns ruin civiliztion [sic]"

Biden and his family, Kamala Harris, Soros, the Rainbow people etc are not "civilized." They're equal parts corrupt, stupid, depraved. They have zip in common with the Romans or any other civilized people.

And these Caligulas are literally destroying us. Fuck their stupid war.
Posted by No Fortunate Son 2022-03-11 12:04||   2022-03-11 12:04|| Front Page Top

#13 Do you expect Putin to stop once the entire Earth is his? Surely Mars is next on his list. (Thank you, Elon Musk!)
Posted by SteveS 2022-03-11 12:15||   2022-03-11 12:15|| Front Page Top

#14 He's paid by the word.
Schlichter writes novels. I believe gets royalties on their sales.
Going after the actual invader
Putin bad evil sucks killer wicked nasty jerk bully morally turpitudinous. Yay Captain Liberal!
Happy?
Now listen to John Mearsheimer and Ray McGovern's detailed, precise talk from March 2, 2022. Listen carefully and take notes, think about it and then come back and tell us who bears ultimate responsibility for this disaster. We'll be waiting for your considered, articulate response.
Posted by No Fortunate Son 2022-03-11 12:15||   2022-03-11 12:15|| Front Page Top

#15 Glomosing - did you read the whole Schlichter piece?

If you had, I doubt you'd be twisting his argument to mean that we should "stand back and let the huns ruin civiliztion [sic]"

Biden and his family, Kamala Harris, Soros, the Rainbow people etc are not "civilized." They're equal parts corrupt, stupid, depraved. They have zip in common with the Romans or any other civilized people.

And these Caligulas are literally destroying us.

All true. And then......

Fuck their stupid war.


And bingo! That's the part where you go off the rails in service to whatever script Putin gave you.

Those aren't American tanks invading Ukraine. Those are Putin's. It's enabled by the Biden's corruption, but that doesn't mean it's not his war or makes him good because he can pretend to be fighting against the traitor hirelings who run the west.
Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2022-03-11 12:56||   2022-03-11 12:56|| Front Page Top

#16 Two words, Snowy Mountain.

Lesser Evil.
Posted by Cthulhu of Ryleh 2022-03-11 13:05||   2022-03-11 13:05|| Front Page Top

#17 Dear Thing,

I am not partial to the policy of this administration. It is harmful. I respectfully dissent.

Best regards,

NFS
Posted by No Fortunate Son 2022-03-11 13:30||   2022-03-11 13:30|| Front Page Top

#18 Also: just listen -- really listen, closely, all the way through - to Prof. John Mearsheimer in his talk with Ray McGovern. Then ask yourself if he is not correct when he argues, forcefully, that the HS bears ultimate responsibility for this disaster.

*** Listen to Mearsheimer and McGovern ***

best,
nfs
Posted by No Fortunate Son 2022-03-11 13:36||   2022-03-11 13:36|| Front Page Top

#19 * when Mearsheimer argues... that the US bears ultimate responsibility
Posted by No Fortunate Son 2022-03-11 13:37||   2022-03-11 13:37|| Front Page Top

#20  Dear Thing,

I am not partial to the policy of this administration. It is harmful. I respectfully dissent.

Best regards,

NFS

You dissent from the positions they're pretending to hold and betraying. You, them, it's the same foundation of lies.
Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2022-03-11 14:18||   2022-03-11 14:18|| Front Page Top

#21 Put another way:

You dissent from this administration. Does that mean you now think it's a good idea to send the Mig 29's to Ukraine?
Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2022-03-11 14:36||   2022-03-11 14:36|| Front Page Top

#22 Nie mój cyrk. Nie moje małp
Posted by No Fortunate Son 2022-03-11 15:08||   2022-03-11 15:08|| Front Page Top

#23  that the US bears ultimate responsibility

President Putin has full agency. Everything he has chosen to do and to not do is not is on him. The American government, the CIA, the FBI, the deep state, etc. and so forth are individually and corporately not magically super powered mesmers that can make everybody dance to their tune, willy nilly.
Posted by trailing wife 2022-03-11 15:55||   2022-03-11 15:55|| Front Page Top

#24 Open your mind. Please listen to Mearsheimer and Ray McGovern's talk dated March 2 (posted to YouTube March 6). It's rapidly soaring in popularity. John Mearsheimer's 2015 lecture has nearly 20 million views on YT.

The New Yorker recently did a Q & A with Mearsheimer and tried to make a counterargument. The brilliant IR theorist eloquently shot it down.

Why John Mearsheimer Blames the U.S. for the Crisis in Ukraine
For years, the political scientist has claimed that Putin’s aggression toward Ukraine is caused by Western intervention. Q: Have recent events changed his mind?A: No
By Isaac Chotiner
The New Yorker
March 10, 2022
Posted by  No Fortunate Son 2022-03-11 16:04||   2022-03-11 16:04|| Front Page Top

#25 If it were that provocative he would have done it eight years ago when he started his invasion instead of waiting eight years complaining about a NATO admission that _never happened_.
Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2022-03-11 16:26||   2022-03-11 16:26|| Front Page Top

#26 Do you agree with the Iran Deal in 2015? I mean, Russia made serious bank off of it, enough to turn around and conquer Syria for Iran. Was Iran regaining Syria not-your-monkeys, not-your-circus?
Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2022-03-11 16:27||   2022-03-11 16:27|| Front Page Top

#27 Iran deal?

Don't know. Not really interested in the Middle East.

I'd like to see us go back to energy self-sufficiency and start to disengage ourselves from that region so we can focus on the region and nation that matter more than everything else combined: China.
Posted by No Fortunate Son 2022-03-11 17:36||   2022-03-11 17:36|| Front Page Top

#28 if it were that provocative he would have done it eight years ago

He did. Intervened in the Donbas. Nu land set off a civil war that's been raging for 8 years there. 10,000 dead.

Go back to Mearsheimer & McGovern. Mearsheimer and Ray McGovern explain why now the full blown invasion instead of the civil war in Donbas. Clearly Biden's insults, the return of Nuland & Co. and the unbelievable announcement by Zelensky on March 24, 2021 that he would take back Crimea (!) stoked things to, as Lavrov said, "the boiling point."

Also, in Dec 2021 "Putin got Big" - Putin and Xi announced a transcendent alliance. That's another element in McGovern's astute analysis.
Posted by No Fortunate Son 2022-03-11 17:46||   2022-03-11 17:46|| Front Page Top

#29 Also, in Dec 2021 "Putin got Big" - Putin and Xi announced a transcendent alliance. That's another element in McGovern's astute analysis.

You mean the alliance that's been in existance since the 1990's but y'all keep forgetting about?
Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2022-03-11 20:33||   2022-03-11 20:33|| Front Page Top

#30 After Ukraine, Europe wonders who's next Russian target Russia will be licking their wounds, and not wanna try that shit again.


There fixed it.
Posted by Slappy 2022-03-11 21:25||   2022-03-11 21:25|| Front Page Top

#31 Jeez Louise. Mearsheimer, Shmearsheimer, even. Meanwhile, in Verkhnevilyuysk...

We cut to John Mearsheimer drivin'
A shiny red tractor as "Ivan."
He sings to his niece,
"Record quota of geese!
Tell No Fortunate Son that I'm thrivin'."
Posted by Chusosh Clunk9058 2022-03-11 21:31||   2022-03-11 21:31|| Front Page Top

#32 And just in case you weren't kidding, auld Son...

I never intended to do it
But the deed had been done ere I knew it!
Though I'm mortified, sure
There's a certain allure
To this bein' mistook fer Fred Pruitt.
Posted by Chusosh Clunk9058 2022-03-11 21:41||   2022-03-11 21:41|| Front Page Top

#33 I love you, man! [sniff] ...and hang in there, ye wild-eyed divvil! Cast a cold eye, 'n' shit
Posted by NFS not NFT 2022-03-11 21:51||   2022-03-11 21:51|| Front Page Top

#34 Dammit... you're him, ain't ya? But seriously, I'd rather go into a SEAL bar and try to pick up SEALs... while impersonating a SEAL.
Posted by Chusosh Clunk9058 2022-03-11 22:10||   2022-03-11 22:10|| Front Page Top

#35 Call him Ishmael
= I'm a SEAL capisce?
.... = SMERSH[[wisen]heimer
Posted by Herman Mendiola 2022-03-11 22:20||   2022-03-11 22:20|| Front Page Top

#36 Taiwan. Not in Europe but that is the correct answer?
Posted by Woodrow 2022-03-11 23:36||   2022-03-11 23:36|| Front Page Top

09:43 Mullah Richard
09:27 Warthog
09:11 Mercutio
09:07 AlmostAnonymous5839
08:52 Matt
08:24 Matt
08:20 SteveS
07:43 Procopius2k
07:42 BrerRabbit
07:42 Procopius2k
07:39 Procopius2k
07:36 Procopius2k
07:35 Procopius2k
07:34 trailing wife
07:31 Procopius2k
07:30 NN2N1
07:22 NN2N1
07:18 trailing wife
07:14 Richard Aubrey
07:10 NN2N1
07:09 Besoeker
07:03 NN2N1
06:58 NN2N1
06:58 Besoeker









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com