snafu

For a month, Biden said there was going to be an invasion. Turns out, he was right, even though Putin couldn't even come up with a good reason to invade. He's protecting Ukraine from Russians? He's protecting Russians from Ukraine? He hates NATO, even though NATO never threatened Russian borders once in their history? But Putin went into Ukraine and actually made a case for why NATO exists in the first place. Not smart. Maybe before that, NATO could have gotten their **** together and come up with an actual deterrent. The only real deterrent from Russia going into an unprepared Ukraine was to threaten Article 5 defense. Only, that isn't a credible threat because Article 5 doesn't apply to Ukraine. Hell, it may not be a deterrent at all, because it sure doesn't look like anyone wants to take on the Russians -- except poor Ukraine. All I know is that threatening sanctions after the fact was lame, and it isn't going to get Russia to do an about-face. Even Biden said "let's see what happens in 30 days". 30 days!?!? He should have added: "after Ukraine has been crushed". So instead, after-the-fact, NATO and the EU countries make Ukraine their proxy, doing everything except committing forces. It is a loser play against Putin and yet it isn't too far removed from fighting directly. Talk about throwing money down a toilet. At this point, if Putin wanted to make this into WWIII, then all he has to do is claim that providing arms to Ukraine, and sanctioning Russia on behalf of Ukraine, and stopping Russian air flights and shipping are all acts of aggression against Russia. What's going to happen when Putin ratchets this conflict up to that next level? People will say that NATO lost its chance to stop Putin with strength, and an entire country was destroyed -- because maybe that's pretty much the only thing he responds to. Maybe the play now is to say that NATO will admit Ukraine in 5 days unless the Russians leave the country. I've said it from the beginning that Putin is making a mistake. But that doesn't mean the mistake had to have been made in the first place.

I don't care what they say. I'm not a teenage girl.

Just spitballin'. What could have been done was make Ukraine a "provisional" member of NATO. Ukraine's GDP is $155Billion, so 2% of that is $311Million. The U.S could have paid Ukraine's dues for 2 years with the money we already threw at this problem. Russia wouldn't have invaded with Rule 5 on the table.

Putin screwed himself. His bluff got called. It is messy and people are losing their lives. I’m sure this is exactly what Putin didn’t want. Especially since it seems that he miscalculated the amount of opposition Ukraine would put up. He’s going to have to escalate a lot and it will just have the opposite effect of what he was looking for. Or he’s going to have to settle for E. Ukraine and a more resolute NATO (at best). And if he thinks Europe isn’t already considering energy alternatives, he’s a fool. Bad move, Putin. Too bad the people of Ukraine have to suffer for it.

If you went to Trump’s Wikipedia page would you agree with any of it? Wikipedia is good for some things, not for biographies of controversial people.

Wow, Putin might actually force Sweden and Finland to cooperate with each other.

Poles are not Russian people. Never were.

I suppose the argument is going to be that Biden couldn’t un-do all the damage that the prior administration did, no matter how hard he tried.

Our President isn't listening to you. Our President is ready to let Putin roll over a republic. All he's done is predict war and threaten sanctions -- nothing more. He hasn't rallied any European leaders, He hasn't bullied the German Chancellor into action. He's treated the President of Ukraine like a crapstain. He sent his VP to Munich (of all places) so she could wear a mask and jibberjabber. His Secretary of State went to the UN and didn't get anything accomplished. It sure is easy to predict war when do you don't do anything to prevent it. And before you go to your standard: "why are you attacking Biden" routine, note that Putin is one of the worst scum on the planet. Biden was elected to stand up to Russia -- because he's not a Putin Puppet. And he's done jack squat to live up to anyone's expectations. Why CAN'T someone question his decisions and mishandling of this situation? It's still a free country here, right?

One of them is hip to the idea because he thinks it will make Biden look better. The other one is hip to the idea because he thinks it will make Trump look worse. For both, this is purely about domestic politics in November.

Ukraine should agree to this only if there's an international peacekeeping force stationed in those provinces to ensure that they're not annexed as Russian territory.

You know, you’re right. Unfettered capitalism is the best way to go. That is TWO things we agree on. And I am ok. So that’s THREE things we agree on. What a big day for you!

Someone’s making money. That was my original point. Someone is making money and there is no war. You and I agree. It doesn’t look like you can cope with that.

So you agree with me. Wasn’t so difficult, was it?

“Good job USA”? What does the government have to do with a private company selling tanks to Poland, other than okaying the deal?

I don’t own a gun. The Russians aren’t too “deterred” it seems. Un-built tanks which are not in Poland isn’t going to be the reason why Putin goes home from the border of Ukraine. A military build up on or near his border is the actual reason why he’s doing what he’s doing. So let’s sell more.

Boy, the Jets are like a: dumpster fire tire fire cargo ship fire!

War makes people a lot of money. Even when there’s no war.

I bet it stinks like hell at low tide. No thanks.

I didn’t know the southern border was so far east.

Someone once said that US foreign policy is simply our domestic policy abroad. The only reason I can see why Putin would want to invade Ukraine is to make sure that NATO doesn't belly up to Russian borders. That's not a good enough reason. The benefit isn't high enough for him to lose his natural gas sales. I bet he was waiting for the German Chancellor tell him directly that Nordstream 2 would die if he invades. I really think that Putin finally put himself in a tough situation and is going to come out of this a loser either way.

^^^^^^ New PPP mod candidate? ^^^^^^ @ComradeKayAdams? Irv running mate?

Misleading thread title. 😜

Touched a n-IRV?