It's amazing that despite russia constantly attacking European countries, we still allow their propaganda and fifth column russia-adjacent political parties to prosper. It's about time Europe wakes up.
This idea that you can delegitimize democratic parties by making some handwavy motions backed by little to no evidence claiming they're controlled by Russia needs to die, because they're an actual and definitive threat to our democratic systems. The Nash equilibrium maintained by political parties in certain systems deserves to be disturbed, because the situation in some European countries (I live in Europe) has clearly been on a downward path for the past one to two decades.
The simple truth many have come to realize is a European leadership that insists mass migration is not a problem and head-in-the-sand denies the critical importance of cultural unity and shared identity for the maintenance of stable and liberal democracies is a much clearer and present danger than Russia.
War a nation can recover from, but from an erosion of cultural unity and shared identity it cannot.
It's amazing that we are still blaming one side even though Europe supplies shit loads of weapons, intelligence and shit load of money to Ukraine to continue the war.
So, yes, it's about the time Europe wakes up and stops financing Ukraine gets NATO the fuck back into borders set back in the nineties.
Europe and everyone else is entirely justified under international law to provide assistance to Ukraine to defend itself.
Regarding your edit, Russia doesn't have the right to dictate neighbouring countries which alliances they can form. What you're doing here is denying Ukraine its sovereignty, just like Russia does.
> I can not believe the europe would risk all its heritage and for what?
Quite contrary - Europe is preserving it's heritage. Remember that russia does not want to stop with Ukraine - for example they want Poland to quit NATO. What right do they have to tell other sovereign country what it can do?
Not least because Putin has made it clear again and again that Ukraine is not even close to the limit of his ambitions, which involve a wider "heritage" Russia that includes chunks of the EU and their friends.
Are you not essentially saying that Ukraine is partly to blame for the conflict for not wanting to roll over?
We arm and support Ukraine in their war because a tyrannical neighbour led by an autocrat is intent on taking its territory and he will not negotiate on ending it.
It's that fucking simple. Fuck him for starting it; if he won't end it, Ukraine and their allies get to make things difficult.
Yes, in this case one side (russia) attacked other (Ukraine), which is just defending itself. It's very clear who is the aggressor here. This entire conflict could be prevented if russia did not attack, that's it.
Right. Mighty Russia that has been fought to a standstill by its much smaller neighbour is going to provoke a military alliance absolutely dwarfing it into outright war. Not even China is going to back that after having a look at who the more valuable trading partner is.
Being ready for war is reasonable, being afraid or worried is a waste of time, and even irrational in this case.
Seems off-topic for HN, but let's look at it technologically: if Ukraine and Iran have demonstrated anything, it is that drones are like guerilla warfare squared: even the smallest player can land hits and deny areas to the largest forces.
It might be tending towards impossible to achieve regime change militarily at this point. Maybe we all should just figure out how to get along.
It is my current view that this BBC article and the recent announcement by national security advisor Powell are conditioning the public mind not for an actual hot war, but for a "tough winter" of eye-watering price rises, possible shortages, and maybe even utility supply problems if we are particularly unlucky. While talk of war increases, a glance at the state of the military suggests to me this is unlikely. What we have is rather limited, and even that is only about 1% deployable within 6 months. Much of Europe the same (Poland being an exception).
That said, I also believe that there is fairly widespread, low intensity, grey-zone action across Europe at the moment. Not every random fire or infrastructure failure is "The Russians", but I'd be surprised if none of them were. Indeed some of them have already been formally attributed.
This article shows the biasses of the press. Everything is about public perception, so the problem is that the public don't perceived that there might be a war. This is stupid, public perception can shift very quickly. The actual problem is not maintaining investment and critical industries. The UK was able to shift commercial manufacturing to wartime production for world war II. That doesn't work if you've offshored everything.
We've been in one war or another for most of my adult life.
We are in a perilous position right now in Europe, very close to a major escalation of the Ukraine conflict. This would entail direct conflict between nuclear-armed powers.
I find it deeply troubling that no mainstream party in most European countries seems to think this is a bad idea.
This is a BBC article about the UK being at war. Not the USA.
That said, it argues that the various pre-war preparations fail to include "psychological preparedness". I think this is largely true for America as well, since war is something that the USA almost exclusively engages in offensively in distant countries, with only one small exception for one day on 9/11.
I know, I read the article I’m just saying, we Americans have no idea how big of a conflict we’re in right now, and we are not psychologically prepared for what it will mean to be bombed by hypersonic missiles or shaheds or what have you either.
I work with some Ukrainian refugees, we are not prepared.
We certainly didn’t help - but I’m wondering if this wasn’t inevitable after the Russian invasion of Ukraine?
Totally not a fan of the guy we have driving the bus right now, I didn’t vote for him, and oppose all war. But now that we’re in it, I’m a bit concerned that this is going to be quite a bit more violent and terrible than we have the stomach for?
I mentioned above I work with some Ukrainian refugees. We are not prepared mentally for what is coming.
Our congress is taken over, in case you haven’t been paying attention to the complete lack of justice on Epstein. It’s not all that difficult to see who is in charge.
Also - Downvote me all you want you...the US is an awful influence on the world and if you disagree with that, you're part of the problem. I grew up thinking the US was the good guys, what a absolute load of shit that turned out to be.
> russia ? lol, they can't even manage Ukraine ( with our aid )
And that's why they want to attack Europe. They hope that it will either cause eu to stop supporting Ukraine or at least that it will give them good negotiation position (e.g. we'll stop attacking baltic countries but Ukraine has to let go of their territory).
if they end up attacking Nato, I think we would just go until boots are in Moscow.
our tech is better and we have more men ( we dont need North Koreans to fight)
The US lacks the political will for a war with NATO, I'm speaking of the soldiers and citizens. The worst case for NATO is US withdrawal and explicit or tacit support of NATO enemies. Some soldiers would blindly follow orders to march on Europe, but we can't even win a war against Iran right now so I'm not sure how much Europe has to worry about a US invasion. Canada, maybe, but that's probably even more unpopular in the US than invading Europe.
And it'd also be the end, economically, for the US. We'd be hosed, that isn't to say current leadership wouldn't try and end up fucking us all over, but the effect would be another loss for the US.
Russia has been probing NATO for several years now. NATO is a paper tiger that seems to be content to do nothing. As long as the probing is in the lesser members: the Baltics, Romania.
When (likely not if) Russia decides to attack the Baltics, NATO will just shrug and send a strongly worded memo.
War a nation can recover from, but from an erosion of cultural unity and shared identity it cannot.
So, yes, it's about the time Europe wakes up and stops financing Ukraine gets NATO the fuck back into borders set back in the nineties.
Europe and everyone else is entirely justified under international law to provide assistance to Ukraine to defend itself.
Regarding your edit, Russia doesn't have the right to dictate neighbouring countries which alliances they can form. What you're doing here is denying Ukraine its sovereignty, just like Russia does.
I can not believe the europe would risk all its heritage and for what?
Quite contrary - Europe is preserving it's heritage. Remember that russia does not want to stop with Ukraine - for example they want Poland to quit NATO. What right do they have to tell other sovereign country what it can do?
Jesus.
We arm and support Ukraine in their war because a tyrannical neighbour led by an autocrat is intent on taking its territory and he will not negotiate on ending it.
It's that fucking simple. Fuck him for starting it; if he won't end it, Ukraine and their allies get to make things difficult.
Your interpretation is contemptuous.
Right. Mighty Russia that has been fought to a standstill by its much smaller neighbour is going to provoke a military alliance absolutely dwarfing it into outright war. Not even China is going to back that after having a look at who the more valuable trading partner is.
Being ready for war is reasonable, being afraid or worried is a waste of time, and even irrational in this case.
https://www.rt.com/news/645860-lavrov-eu-nato-putin/
It might be tending towards impossible to achieve regime change militarily at this point. Maybe we all should just figure out how to get along.
That said, I also believe that there is fairly widespread, low intensity, grey-zone action across Europe at the moment. Not every random fire or infrastructure failure is "The Russians", but I'd be surprised if none of them were. Indeed some of them have already been formally attributed.
Yes, there is a war, the same that Warren Buffett famously referred to – a class war.
We are in a perilous position right now in Europe, very close to a major escalation of the Ukraine conflict. This would entail direct conflict between nuclear-armed powers.
I find it deeply troubling that no mainstream party in most European countries seems to think this is a bad idea.
That said, it argues that the various pre-war preparations fail to include "psychological preparedness". I think this is largely true for America as well, since war is something that the USA almost exclusively engages in offensively in distant countries, with only one small exception for one day on 9/11.
I work with some Ukrainian refugees, we are not prepared.
Totally not a fan of the guy we have driving the bus right now, I didn’t vote for him, and oppose all war. But now that we’re in it, I’m a bit concerned that this is going to be quite a bit more violent and terrible than we have the stomach for?
I mentioned above I work with some Ukrainian refugees. We are not prepared mentally for what is coming.
You can make the (somewhat weak) case that Russia was provoked, but the first violent strike was made by Russia and Russia alone.
It is clear we are not generally physiologically ready.
It does not help that we keep electing extremely selfish strong appearing individuals in winner-takes-all democracies.
That is why Voldemort always comes back in real life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIv1f2AwFCI
Hillary Clinton even conspired with the Russian Government to spy on Trump during his first campaign.
> china ? why ? they just want taiwan
> russia ? lol, they can't even manage Ukraine ( with our aid )
> iran ? why ? they just want to kill you know who
This is just a fearmongering article.
And that's why they want to attack Europe. They hope that it will either cause eu to stop supporting Ukraine or at least that it will give them good negotiation position (e.g. we'll stop attacking baltic countries but Ukraine has to let go of their territory).
That's the issue, a belligerent neighbor that permanently sabotages you but which you can't ever get too close to losing.
And it'd also be the end, economically, for the US. We'd be hosed, that isn't to say current leadership wouldn't try and end up fucking us all over, but the effect would be another loss for the US.
When (likely not if) Russia decides to attack the Baltics, NATO will just shrug and send a strongly worded memo.