btw, I have found it helpful to read certain posters with a Russian accent since they are hellbent on pushing Putin's talking points.
Chamberlain thought Hitler was done, too, in 1938 when he sold out Czechoslovakia and handed Sudetenland to Germany. The Munich Agreement (remember, peace in our time?), lasted a year. Putin has said he wants to expand. Putin says he needs to expand. Putin wants to return to the “greatness” of Russia. So tell us, as you are keen to ignore history, and blessed with the intimate knowledge of Putin’s agenda, how far does he wish to expand? And when will he stop?
What are the tens of thousands of NATO troops already in the Baltics today going to do then? Just tuck their tails and run at the first sign of trouble? They are there for a reason. Russia won't be able to get away with the "little green men" ploy again. In fact, such a routine would probably spark NATO's ire even more. Also, NATO never had troops in Ukraine or Moldova, so that comparison isn't realistic. If Russia does anything in the Baltics, it's direct war with NATO and the US. We're not going to retreat from those countries.
I'd be ignoring history if I likened every authoritarian leader to Hitler in order to support my narrative. And NATO was created as a direct result of Hitler, so we're not going to retreat our forces in the Baltics if the Russians try to move in. Such a move would be an embarrassment and undermine the entire treaty to the extent of rendering it useless. That's the purpose of having the troops there in the first place. To ensure Putin doesn't move in.
We have a golden opportunity to take a “superpower” off the board. That “superpower” is malevolent in everything it does. At the same time supporting Ukraine with our overwhelming resources and capabilities is just and noble. Never appease an aggressor, don’t pretend the problem doesn’t exist or will go away. The smallest conflict in Europe have created World Wars and before that European wars involving many countries. One a personal level that effects the value of my investments. I say we put a Jack boot on Putin’s throat, reduce his military to shambles, accelerate green energy investments and as needed how we spend our $800B defense budget. We send a message to the rest of the world that we mean business. It’s a win win and is good for my portfolio.
what about the non-nato countries in proximity? do you want to cede any non-nato land to Putin? Is he free to invade and conquer Belarus, Moldovia, and Georgia if he doesn't like what he sees in the politics of those countries? I mean, the VP of Belarus threw himself off a balcony after being against the war so maybe full-scale invasions won't be needed, just targeted assassinations. Would that be okay?
While you are correct and that under Article V of the NATO treaty an attack against one member is considered an attack against all and even though Ukraine is not a member of NATO if the US and the western European countries abandon Ukraine to Russia Putin could interpret that decision as a sign of weakness and conclude that the US and Western European members of NATO would be willing to sacrifice the Baltic states rather pay the cost in both money and potentially the lives of its own servicemen.
Belarus has always been a vassal state of Russia and strongly allied with Moscow. There's no need for Russia to annex Belarus. Citizens of Belarus and Russia can already travel between the two countries without a visa. Might Putin go after Moldova? Sure, but Moldova is the poorest country in Europe and already has a large section of the country which is pro-Kremlin as it is. Georgia he actually already invaded AND withdrew. All of these scenarios are way different that engaging direct combat with NATO troops in the Baltics.
So you are okay with Putin adding Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova? I for one am not and history teaches us that territorial expansion leads to more territorial expansion.
Ukraine was a vasal state of Russai before the people voted not to be. Lot of people in Belarus want nothing to do with Russia and/or their puppet in charge. Making excuses for Putin to take Moldova. not surprised. they are poor and there are some people ..smdh He withdrew from Georgia when he installed his puppet. That puppet will be voted out one day too and then I guess it will be okay for Putin to invade again? Big battle in Georgia right now as they want into the EU but the EU is insisting that they move away from power granted by oligarch so Georgia is now returning Russians to Russia that had escaped to Georgia and been welcomed before. The oligarch is moving back towards Russia while the people want ot move towards freedom and the west. Should these individual countries be able to choose who they want to align with or be held hostage at the end of a barrel or over the edge of a balcony?
I see Ukraine as a giant Afghanistan where Russia will suffer greatly if Ukraine receives enough war material to survive. The “special military operation” can be very special for us and many other countries.
So now we’ve moved on from talk of Putin invading the Baltics, because as I pointed out, he would be insane to do so. I’m not going to continue to go down the rabbit holes of “what if.” The point was Putin isn’t going to go into the Baltics with tens of thousands of NATO troops already stationed there.
Although nobody really knows what's in Putin's head my guess is that he would have never invaded Ukraine if he thought that the Ukrainian government would have received extensive support from NATO countries. Conversely if NATO ultimately abandons Ukraine it would probably send the message to Vlad that if he could successfully wait out the alliance when its support was limited to providing weapons to a relatively large albeit none-member country it would probably be reluctant to commit troops to defend three very small countries regardless of the express terms of the treaty.
