Agreed, a massive show of support for NATO allies in Eastern Europe is the best response available right now. Biden should just go ahead and commit the 10x number he was referring to. There is no benefit in waiting to take that action.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Massive Russian military buildup near Ukraine
- Thread starter Forerunner
- Start date
- Status
Agreed, a massive show of support for NATO allies in Eastern Europe is the best response available right now. Biden should just go ahead and commit the 10x number he was referring to. There is no benefit in waiting to take that action.
Putin's thought has to be..if Russia can't have Ukraine, No one can.
I don't know about that. There's a lot of priorities the US needs to focus on, and a huge land war entanglement in Europe probably ain't it. I'd like to see Europe's committee here first, and in large numbers, versus forcing the US to take such an overly extended position.
But yes, if Europe won't then I agree a sufficiently large number here is necessary.
Stay safe.. Make sure you have copies of y our passport and know where the embassy is! (I lived in Korea for about a year when things were getting SUPER dicey with NK) and was always told to make sure I knew where the embassy was and to go there in the event of craziness.
The Problem is Europe isn't really 100% united on this front. We are a member of NATO, and if we have the means to help our allies, we should help them.
Russia acting the maggot out our way as well:
Russian exercise off coast 'not a threat' - Ambassador
Russia's Ambassador to Ireland has said that the controversy about the Russian military exercise that is due to take place in waters off the Irish coast next month is "hugely overblown".www.rte.ie
Such assholes. They are always buzzing through our airspace with their transponders off as well. Causing mayhem.
wtf they doing out in that area?
Whats the concern with Moldova/Transnistra there? There are rumblings might try to get to Moldova.
A substantial commitment from Europe should be a given, this sort of situation is precisely why NATO exists. I don't think this calls for a one or the other deployment, both Europe AND the US should show every country that feels threatened by Russia that NATO remains a force to be reckoned with.
No doubt, but Ukraine isn't NATO. Poland, et al are, but it could be said they aren't actively being threatened. Putting US service folks on a boat and plane half way around the world when it's a 8 hr car ride for a lot of Europe seems a little upside down.
I really don't think we have an option to let Ukraine fail or be overrun - I'm pretty convinced if that happens it really will unravel a ton of international norms and expectations. So don't get me wrong, but having the US get embroiled 'yet again' and our treasure and blood to solve what's really a European problem is disheartening.
Good luck to you brother and stay safe, I just remember everything that happened during Euromaidan and afterwards.
Breaking up NATO and changing the security order in Europe and getting back terrirotry that it lost when the USSR broke apart.
Several reasons, covering the transfer of naval warships to the black sea mostly, an insurance that Western nations won't block Russian naval warships transitioning there, and the usual covering the transfer of units by the ruse of military exercises.
A lot of people don't realize it yet, but we're in the middle of an ideological struggle between that of authoritarian autocracy championed by Russia/China and liberal democracy championed by the EU/US and parts of Asia. If the US abandons Europe to Russia liberal democracy will have lost.
The forces championing autocracy from within the US are winning, so it may be a matter of time. But I'd prefer if democracy goes down, it doesn't do so without a struggle. We're not just fighting Europe's battles, we're fighting to keep democracy alive.
Most Romanians don't actually worry too much about Moldova - its incredibly easy to obtain Romanian citizenship as a Moldovan and a lot of them already have it and use it actively to travel in the EU unrestricted; there also isn't much of an appetite for taking back Moldova as Transnistria and Gagauzia present massive administrative issues and would link us to Russia which is something no one wants.
Without Moldova, there's nothing linking Russia to Romania - there are no Russian minorities here and we are very far apart culturally (Romania is the only Eastern European country that uses the Latin alphabet and has a Romance language in a sea of Slavic people)
People are mixed on Ukraine though, on the one hand, no one wants to see war in the region, but on the other hand, Ukraine's foreign policy has been adversarial towards Romania and the Romanian minorities in Cernauti and Northern Bukovina have been treated badly by the government.
Our hatred for Russia is much stronger than our dislike for Ukraine though, naturally.
Delivering a mortal blow to the liberal, democratic order is Putin's ultimate goal. NATO members dithering over an appropriate response are playing right into his hands. Mobilize as if war with Russia is imminent, show the world that democracy can and will fight to defend itself from the whims of unaccountable autocrats. A show of force like that is the only way to deal with people like Putin, it's one of the few things they respect.
User Banned (1 Week): Whataboutism, thread derailment over multiple post
Bold claim here, the US and EU have more authoritarian dictators and outright evil regimes under their protection than the Russians and Chinese, right now US and European made bombs and missiles are massacring the Yemeni people for the sake of the expansionist imperialist policies of tyrant monarchs in the middle east, where's the liberal democracy in that? Is shielding Israel part of that ideology too? having open relations with the dictator of Egypt?
And let's not get into the history of the US supporting right wing fascists from Latin America, to Indonesia where hundreds of thousands of leftist activists, communists and socialists were massacred and the CIA installed right wing tyrants.
No, the way I see it, the world is reverting to pre 1917 level of Imperialist rivalries, and as usual the smaller nations pay the price.
Call me again when Russia is more democratic than any EU country, until then this post means nothing
And go tell the scores of Yemenis buried yesterday because the USA gave carte blanche to their dictator allies to do what they want that the US is the champion of democracy, go tell the families of all the Iraqis killed that they died at the hands of the champion of liberal democracy maybe that will mean something to them. Until then calling the US the champion of democracy means absolutely nothing.
OP
OP
Putin’s Wager in Russia’s Standoff with the West - War on the Rocks
A large war in Europe is likely in the coming weeks. The current security architecture of the continent, the future of NATO, and America’s role in shaping
warontherocks.com
Michael Kofman is director of the Russia Studies Program at CNA and a fellow at the Wilson Center, Kennan Institute.
Apparently it's an excuse to root for the imperialist nation of your choice and not feel bad about it.
yeah i guess u really have no clue, ok then will have that in mind
Putin’s Wager in Russia’s Standoff with the West - War on the Rocks
A large war in Europe is likely in the coming weeks. The current security architecture of the continent, the future of NATO, and America’s role in shapingwarontherocks.com
Michael Kofman is director of the Russia Studies Program at CNA and a fellow at the Wilson Center, Kennan Institute.
sounds like this shit's happening no matter what and nothing can stop it, least according to this guy
It also means they have less to lose though. The country is already used to having an undersized economy with weak growth. Sanctions are funny because if they don't cause immediate catastrophic damage they can allow a country to become more economically independent over time. Iran and Cuba have been sanctioned forever yet are still chugging along doing whatever they want.
It's more that sanctions probably only really work on somewhat democratic countries where the populace has a say. If the country being sanctioned is ruled by a dictator or authoritarian government that only cares about themselves and not the people why would sanctions work?
Worse, is that that's basically understood and the main desire of sanctions is to cause unrest in the population yet that population is usually ruled by governments more than willing to crack down and kill their own to keep power.
The point is simple, I'll make it clearer, I replied to a poster who said the world is facing an ideological struggle between liberal democracy championed by the US and authoritarianism championed by the Russians and Chinese, I pointed out that cannot be true since the US itself is known to support autocrats and dictators as well in order to pursue its own imperialist agenda as well as unilateral invasions such as Iraq and Panama. So the world isn't in an ideological struggle, but caught in imperialists rivalries with different imperialist nations from Russia to China to the US engaging in it similar to the world pre 1914.
I don't think it's possible to make it any clearer than that.
Man, this is not looking good. I never thought we'd see war-mongering like this again in my lifetime (at least in European soil). Imagine if China uses this distraction to go occupy Taiwan at the same time.
I'm still hoping for some kind of de-escalation, but that seems to be getting further and further from being the outcome.
You saaaay this, but to me this sounds like the classic meme of US "spreading democracy" through military action. But instead of "fighting the spread of communism", this time around it's "fighting the spread of autocracy". I'm not convinced this way of thinking is effective in accomplishing the goal it wants.
To me bringing economic prosperity is the most effective tool of winning the hearts & minds of a population. People get annoyed when economy suffers, people rejoice when economy is running well. And whoever is running the show when this happens gets the credit, no matter what their methodology of control is.
China is no where near that point, so no worries there. I mean even short term they have Olympics plus a rising Omicron problem, so the Government won't shift gears.
At this point, unless something is given to Putin so he can call it a win (good luck there...), conflict is pretty likely. Backing down will completely neuter Putin for the rest of his time in power with how much Russia is throwing at this. I mean even if they did back down, Ukraine would just go full bore in the coming years in military spending which would make a future engagement harder for Russia (especially if Ukraine can modernize offensive rocket forces and SAM systems). Literally is now or never for Putin.
I mean in the end I do feel like Russia is going to get what it wanted. NATO will never say no Ukraine in NATO, but i can see them keeping on punting it down the road. Like how long has Georgia been on a MAP?
The fact of the matter is that the West (whether you're referring to the UK, US, France, etc.) has never been a committed defender of democracy in non-white countries. But increasingly they aren't even defending democracy within their own borders. So there is an element of the chickens coming home to the roost at play here for sure. But I for one do NOT welcome the collapse of democracy as a means of self-governing; especially when the only other viable alternative right now is autocracy.
Look what happened to Georgia. History will probably repeat itself.
Yup, How long until Georgia falls back into Russia's orbit, while the West twiddles it's thumb.
How does this post get moderated for whataboutism when there's nothing factually untrue. There's a pinned thread about US ally and weapon arms customer fascist Israel on this very forum. The post they were responding to explicitly references US / Western liberal democracy hegemony. Is this wrong think?
Yeah, wouldn't surprise me that we are back at permanent deployments to the "NATO border" regions again.
I have to agree. While the specific poster was doing some whataboutism beforehand, the cited post was specifically responding to the claim of the U.S. being a champion for democracy. It is only fair they are allowed to counter with examples proving it is not.
Honestly, both sides to the argument are a derailment from the current situation in Ukraine.
Just ask them in the feedback thread. Talking about modding decisions in threads will just get you bopped as well possibly.
It's more important than ever to have standing NATO forces in Eastern Europe. I know NATO supreme commander wants battle task forces to be stationed in Romania and Bulgaria.
- Status