General Mark Milley Comments on the Military Oath

There is absolutely no way that Ukraine represented an existential threat to Russia; in fact, NATO denied Ukraine's application to join the alliance. Russia was militarily superior prior to the invasion using every tangible metric. Its army was considerably larger than that of Ukraine as was its air force and navy not to mention that the Russian military was also technologically superior to that of Ukraine and furthermore Russia has a considerable nuclear arsenal. Putin had stated that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was a great geopolitical catastrophe and it should be obvious that his goal is to reconstitute the USSR/Russian empire. He probably would not have invaded if Ukraine had remained a client state of Russia as it was under Yanukovych. Once the country started moving towards the EU politically and economically Putin decided to invade. As far as Germany's invasion of the Suttenland is concerned while the Treaty of Versailles was indeed overly punitive towards Germany especially considering that Germany did not suffer an absolute defeat in World War I, the treaty still didn't justify Hitler's obvious desire to establish a thousand year Reich of which the invasion of Czechoslovakia was the first step.

 

The expansion of NATO has been ongoing for decades. NATO has been expanding since 1990 into Eastern Europe, as the countries that didn't choose to be in Russia's orbit looked for an alternative. We didn't invade Jamaica to take it over because of Cuba. Russia was not backed into any corner. NATO has never threatened an offensive invasion of Russia. And their actions are not justifiable.

 

I didn’t say that Ukraine posed an existential threat to Russia. I said NATO expansion did, at least in their eyes. I also didn’t condone Russian invasion, I’m just saying NATO wasn’t innocent in the matter.

Im not trying to justify their actions. I’m simply pointing out that we have helped them arrive at the conclusion of existential crisis.

Ukraine should be independent if their people wish it. Russia feels threatened by NATO. Both can be true at the same time.

 

No no no no... you gotta pick a side. And you get the two options we give you. No adlibbing allowed here, bro. You either fellate Biden and Zelenskyy daily or you're a Putie Pie sympathizer. There is no in between. You must choose one side and these are the two sides you've been given to choose from. There are no shades of gray.

 

While at some level Russia may feel threatened by NATO, for Russia it is more of an excuse rather than an actual motivation to act. Most likely Russia is threatened by Ukraine aligning with the EU and making Russia look economically feeble in comparison.

Ultimately they viewed Ukraine as a client state and didn’t want that to change.

How has Russia reacted now that Finland has joined NATO and added another approx 1000 miles of NATO / Russia border?

 

By sending troops to Poland's border and mobilizing more at home?

 

Once again, Ukraine's application to become a member of NATO was denied. Although it's now proverbial water under the bridge had Russia not invaded Ukraine most likely would have ended up with a status similar to that of Finland before the invasion, a politically neutral country with a democratic political system economically integrated with Europe. Ironically one of the consequences of Russia's invasion of Ukraine is that two historically neutral countries, Finland and Sweden have become members of NATO with the net result militarily being that one of the two new NATO members now has an 800-mile long border with Russia while the other controls access to the North Atlantic from Russia's Baltic naval bases. While Russia's invasion of Ukraine will most likely end up as military stalemate with an armistice similar to that on the Korean peninsula if Russia was concerned about NATO prior to the invasion it is now much worse off than it was prior to February 2022 and although Ukraine may still not formally join the alliance it will be a much more formidable potential opponent than it was prior to the invasion.

 

I’m not mad that they cut it, that’s what’s Democrats do. I’m mad that they cut it while they were initiating a proxy war with Russia, then turned around and had to go in and spend $B’s more for weapons, several of which they had just cut back.

Does that make sense to you? Is that how you want your tax money managed?

The defense industry is now getting more orders and funding than ever because of this nonsense. Even with the initial planned reductions, the defense industry would have been fine. Now with additional tens of $B in orders, it will do even better. Sorry, but this in not how I want my tax money managed.