I doubt you’ll be back to this thread, but I hope that you (and everyone else) who downplayed this obviously premeditated invasion will use this opportunity to re-evaluate whatever faulty mental habits led you to such a spectacular self-beclowning (and do spare us the protestations of “now is not the time”).
It would depend on how really “invisible” the B2 is.
Well you see, Frau Merkel had a panic attack after Fukishima and closed 17 nuclear rectors, so we were, whatever’s the proper Hebrew for “up shits creek without a paddle”
“Great facepalms of the early 21st Century”. though I’m not sure all the blame can be laid at Merkel’s feet, I seem to remember a general rejection of nuclear energy in Germany’s parliament at the time.
I would not worry about the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. It will remain new and unused. It is a bargaining chip, useful to Russia to put pressure on Ukraine where pipelines carry most of the gas at the moment.
However……that horse trading has been overtaken by recent events.
Alongwith reset with Russia that saw US military forces in Europe reduced to…two brigades.
Oh well. So much for my pie-in-the-sky optimism. Good thing I’m not a betting man.
Warning: This is not at all an appropriate post outside of the Pit, do not do this again. Your rudeness to other posters has been noticed. You need to ratchet back this behavior.
As the word rudeness has been questioned, let me make this clear:
This is insulting and attacking another poster. Not attacking a post.
Definitively disproven, that’ll teach me to be optimistic about international relations…
I don’t think that has so much relevance, Russia would’ve invaded Ukraine anyway no matter how many US forces were deployed in Europe.
They’ll have to bring them back I guess and that will cost money and political influence but they can do it if they want before Putin’s finished digesting Ukraine.
I agree. Putin knows that NATO isn’t going to liberate Ukraine in the style of Kuwait in 1991, no matter how strong the NATO forces on the ground are.
IMHO the next front on this new war will be whether or not Finland and Sweden decide to officially join NATO.
I’m familiar with what SWIFT is, and the debate over kicking Russia out of it, but can someone explain to me what the argument AGAINST kicking them out is?
I’ve heard that it would be taken as an act of war.
My limited understanding is SWIFT is suppose to be neutral and kicking Russia out would undermine keeping the US Dollar as the defacto World Currency.
This might explain it far better:
Oh, is THAT what the UN is for? I thought their job was to condemn Israel.
No, that’s their hobby.
I don’t believe Putin is mentally unstable and wasn’t using crazy as diagnostic description. There are a lot of people who argued that the buildup of troops was just a bluff on Putin’s part opining that attacking Ukraine was a great way to get more NATO as other countries rush to join or strengthen their ties with it. I guess the logic went “Putin doesn’t want more NATO, attacking would get more NATO, therefore this is a Machiavellian ruse by that crafty Russian and we need to stop overreacting.” Hindsight is 20/20 I guess.
Or at least that it would not have been what it is, a full-scale invasion. I was figuring an expansion into eastern Ukraine, maybe the whole of those two areas, and that would be it. The West would grumble, increase sanctions, and we’d be otherwise in an extension of 2014.
May be worth a thread of it’s own, but since President Biden is scheduled to address the nation tonight, what SHOULD he say?
Should he even mention’s Putin’s threats?
Should he try an address directly to the people of Russia?
Have you noticed the outraged message posted by the “Anonymous” group?
Me neither.