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2022-01-25 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia tensions: NATO bolsters deployments, angering Kremlin
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Posted by trailing wife 2022-01-25 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11134 views ]  Top

#1 Where are all our old Cold Warriors who knew how to handle this? Are there any left? With such an idiot as Biden and BLinken running the shop, and the Woke top brass in the Pentagon (Austin, what a POS), this is shaping up to be a humiliating smackdown, or else a historic disaster of NATO.

Trump was right. They want to get by on the cheap and spend American blood and treasure instead. The paltry commitments of our so-called Allies is laughable. 4 F-16s and a frigate.

The Germans are the worst - they are refusing to do anything - no weapons, no training, no troops mobilized, no supplies. Fecking cowards. Screw them. I say let Putin have Germany - if they don't care to defend the alliance against direct military aggression in their own backyard, why should we? Let the Germans lick Putins boots.
Posted by Chealing Chomotle4158 2022-01-25 01:07||   2022-01-25 01:07|| Front Page Top

#2 /\ The Germans are the worst - they are refusing to do anything - no weapons, no training, no troops mobilized, no supplies.

Germans now prohibiting overflights.
Posted by Besoeker 2022-01-25 01:19||   2022-01-25 01:19|| Front Page Top

#3 NATO does not exist. The British move in one direction, Germans in the opposite direction, France in yet another.

Why the hell would anyone want to join NATO? All the meaningful arrangements are just bilateral deals.
Posted by Merrick Ferret 2022-01-25 02:06||   2022-01-25 02:06|| Front Page Top

#4 I read that the Brits did not ask permission to use German air space, AND, the Brits did not ask on purpose to avoid putting the Germans in a sticky wicket. This wasn't like France back in the 1980's evidently.
Posted by DooDahMan 2022-01-25 05:35||   2022-01-25 05:35|| Front Page Top

#5 One way we used to get around overflight restrictions was to file as carrying general cargo (instead of cargo for generals).
Posted by Slenter Panda4300 2022-01-25 06:08||   2022-01-25 06:08|| Front Page Top

#6 Germany's and France's reaction to Putin may be a better barometer as to the seriousness of events than the Biden State Department and the Brits.
Posted by The Walking Unvaxed 2022-01-25 06:28||   2022-01-25 06:28|| Front Page Top

#7 /\ They view it as a Russian civil war. We should do likewise.
Posted by Besoeker 2022-01-25 06:36||   2022-01-25 06:36|| Front Page Top

#8 This absurd manufactured "crisis" comes down to two things: a desire for autonomy on the part of Russian speakers in the eastern parts Ukraine, and a determination on Putin's part not to let Ukraine join NATO. The first is none of our business and the second should be embraced as a blessing in disguise for us. Neither is a cause for US military action.
Posted by Merrick Ferret 2022-01-25 10:01||   2022-01-25 10:01|| Front Page Top

#9 this is shaping up to be a humiliating smackdown, or else a historic disaster of NATO.

Yes. Another Suez Crisis 1956. Only this time, it's the end of the American-led order in Europe: the end of NATO. Impotent, indolent, irrelevant.
Posted by Merrick Ferret 2022-01-25 10:04||   2022-01-25 10:04|| Front Page Top

#10 If Putin invades, it will be Russia's Vietnam. 35 million very pissed Ukrainians, not to mention expats and descendants, with lots of western weapons and sanctuary. No need to mention a ruined Russian economy. If Putin thinks of invading, then he hasn't thought it out.
Posted by Chesney Phineger5262 2022-01-25 10:13||   2022-01-25 10:13|| Front Page Top

#11 Vlad will by-pass Ukrainian strong points and make a mad dash for Kiev to install his puppet pro-Russian President. A lot of young men will die on both sides in the process of Vlad realizing his political dream of resurrecting the Former Soviet Union.

Vlad brings the Ukraine back into the Russian fold while breaking the back of NATO. I am sure he sees no downside.

Posted by Besoeker 2022-01-25 10:58||   2022-01-25 10:58|| Front Page Top

#12 So Russia will then control a few blocks of central Kiev. Good luck with the rest of the city and country, esp to the points west. Hey, didn't the Russians try something like that that in 1994 at Grozny?
Posted by Chesney Phineger5262 2022-01-25 11:14||   2022-01-25 11:14|| Front Page Top

#13 a desire for autonomy on the part of Russian speakers in the eastern parts Ukraine

*snort*

"Autonomy" in the form of being subjects of Czar Putin.
Posted by Rob Crawford  2022-01-25 13:16||   2022-01-25 13:16|| Front Page Top

#14 Germany's and France's reaction to Putin may be a better barometer as to the seriousness of events than the Biden State Department and the Brits.

Wasn't that long ago the Brits said they were planning on sending some 20,000 Special Forces to theater.
Posted by swksvolFF 2022-01-25 14:38||   2022-01-25 14:38|| Front Page Top

#15 Britain is very lost on the world stage and looking for a leading-man role. Probably not their best bet. France is part of continental eurineland and must basically do whatever Chermany says, but pretend it's their own decision.

Never has there been a better opportunity since the end of WW II for the US to say to eurineland "Well, you want to peel your own banana, so get to it."
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-01-25 14:43||   2022-01-25 14:43|| Front Page Top

#16 ^ this. Stay the f--- out. Complete diasaster, best avoided through a swift conclusion of a face-saving diplomatic agreement that keeps Ukraine out of NATO so long as NATO exists.
Posted by Merrick Ferret 2022-01-25 14:48||   2022-01-25 14:48|| Front Page Top

#17 At this point, I'd vote for President Sasse (yeah, I know) because he knows NATO is done. If he promised to EO it out of existence right there at the swearing in, I'd be all in.
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-01-25 14:52||   2022-01-25 14:52|| Front Page Top

#18 Vlad doesn't need to invade Ukraine to install his own puppet regime in Kiev. He'll bribe or blackmail some of them, intimidate others, rig an election and viola! If Brandon can rig an election, so can Vlad.

But if he does invade, we need to stay out of it. And I'm sick of hearing comparisons between Ukraine and Taiwan. Nobody outside the Beltway cares about Ukraine. Only the Bidens have any real interests there. I bet even a lot of Ukrainians don't really care. Taiwan is a valued trading partner and a thorn in the side of our worst enemy.

IIRC, this whole mess started when John McCain and Baraq Obama engineered a coup in Ukraine to install a government that would be pro-Western. Vlad was infuriated and he has good reason to be paranoid about Western meddling in his front yard. Thanks, John. Thank you very much, Baraq. Well, at least the Biden family got something out of it.

A more practical approach might be to offer Vlad a deal: We (NATO) stay out of Ukraine and he stays out of Ukraine and don't be too sticky about Ukraine's border either.
Posted by Abu Uluque 2022-01-25 16:04||   2022-01-25 16:04|| Front Page Top

#19 And I'm sick of hearing comparisons between Ukraine and Taiwan.

Don't get me wrong, Taiwan girls are nice but those Ukraine girls really knock me out.
Posted by SteveS 2022-01-25 16:20||   2022-01-25 16:20|| Front Page Top

#20 And Georgia's always on my mind.
Posted by Abu Uluque 2022-01-25 16:24||   2022-01-25 16:24|| Front Page Top

#21 Hip Commie Love. For losers only.
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-01-25 16:25||   2022-01-25 16:25|| Front Page Top

#22 "...the paper bag w[ill be] on our knee / Man we'll have a dreadful flight..."
Posted by Merrick Ferret 2022-01-25 16:47||   2022-01-25 16:47|| Front Page Top

#23 Somebody thought this would be the perfect time to send Brandon out for ice cream and little girl clothes boutique shopping.
Posted by swksvolFF 2022-01-25 17:25||   2022-01-25 17:25|| Front Page Top

#24 8500 souls pitted against the vast hordes of Mother Russia. Zhukov laughs from the grave.
Posted by borgboy 2022-01-25 17:52||   2022-01-25 17:52|| Front Page Top

#25 No shit.

In Russian Wars, what do you call 8500 troops?

Opening artillery casualties.

That's OK though, Brandon had a solid choice of ice cream this afternoon.
Posted by swksvolFF 2022-01-25 17:56||   2022-01-25 17:56|| Front Page Top

#26 Russia, a superpower fighting in its front yard, vs a handful of the DayLate / DollarShort Pronoun Brigades. As if that will happen.
Конечно.
Отлично, Константин!
Posted by Merrick Ferret 2022-01-25 22:26||   2022-01-25 22:26|| Front Page Top

23:05 Woodrow
22:26 Merrick Ferret
22:00 SteveS
20:56 Old Patriot
20:35 Chunky Cromomp5101
19:45 swksvolFF
18:53 Lord Garth
18:41 Angstrom
18:34 SteveS
18:29 SteveS
18:23 Merrick Ferret
18:19 Procopius2k
18:08 Procopius2k
17:56 swksvolFF
17:55 Merrick Ferret
17:54 JohnQC
17:53 JohnQC
17:52 swksvolFF
17:52 borgboy
17:44 JohnQC
17:36 JohnQC
17:25 swksvolFF
16:51 swksvolFF
16:47 swksvolFF









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