Thanks. Keep up the informative posts. I still come to this thread and look for them from a handful of posters. I’ve become quite good at scrolling thru the trolls and rambling posts alining with Putin/NK.
I'm sure Putin is quite pleased with what happened at that debate last night. He knows that if Trump gets in, US aid for Ukraine dries up. Trump has gone on record saying as much. Whatever aid they can get between now and January 2025 is likely all they will see. I don't share the sentiment that somehow Trump's desire to stop helping Ukraine gets overridden by anyone in the house or senate.
The point is that you have to have a good reason to invade another country. Invading for conquest, theft, and "living room" is not acceptable. The U.S. had some good reasons for invading Iraq in 2003, and did not take any of Iraq's oil. Iraq was not a "weak and constrained" country at the time of the invasion. Belligerent is more like it. Iraq was firing missiles at U.S. aircraft enforcing no-fly zones over Iraq.
Indeed. I wish we could have that decision back and have concentrated our efforts in Afghanistan from the beginning. But any comparison between OIF and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is beyond ridiculous.
I think Trump will do just as he stated last night in the debate. He'll ask NATO to pony up. NATO will likely pony up and Russia will crawl to the negotiating table. Again, Trump was the first president to arm Ukraine. Trump stopped the Nord Stream 2. Who blew up Nord Stream 1? https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/us-sanctions-block-putins-pipeline/
Trump will negotiate away Ukraine's future. Trump is too morally deficient to understand that there are some things that are not open for negotiation, like the barbaric conquest of a neighboring country. Negotiating away another nation's rights is basically saying that there are no nation's rights. All can be negotiated, at the end of a gun if needed. So Ukraine will have a few years of peace, while Russia inserts more heavily-armed and malicious insurgents, like Putin did in 2014. If Ukraine doesn't fight the insurgents, then the insurgents take over the country and hand it over to Russia. If Ukraine does fight the insurgents, then Russia steps in and fights Ukraine to protect "innocent ethnic Russians". Then Russia occupies the country to heroically guard it against itself, and compensates itself with $12 trillion in minerals extracted in the next few decades. Presumably, Putin will be thankful enough for Trump's moral deficiencies to schedule the second invasion for after Trump leaves office the second time. Trump will blame the next president for not doing enough to discourage the invasion, even if it occurs during the next president's first day in office. By negotiating away Ukraine's future, Trump will be negotiating away America's future. Russia will be further emboldened to supply weapons to anyone and everyone. This will cause attacks on American interests worldwide to increase, and our defense spending will increase dramatically, until our economy collapses under the strain. Global warming will also increase, as we will not have any money to fight it because all will be spent on national defense and entitlements. We will also have 9-11-style attacks on an annual, then monthly basis, as Russia withholds Ukrainian food to various countries to bargain with them, and some of the countries fall apart as the people starve and set up terrorist organizations. We will also spend more money as we become a police state, with Trump supporters shooting people they disagree with and calling it self-defense. We will have some basic freedoms, like the freedom to say what the person pointing a gun in our face tells us to say. We can always say, "well, we gave peace a chance!" We love peace, even if we have to give up everything, including our principles, to get it. Trump will be regarded by future generations in the same way that Germans regard Hitler. Trump's supporters are just too stupid and brainwashed to see that coming, just like Hitler's supporters were. Democracy was a nice experiment. I'll be sad to see it go.
Both wars were characterized by complete idiocy at the very top, between GWB and Rummy the Dummy. It probably didn't matter how many or how few wars we were in, those two were going to screw them up. Only a complete moron supplies weapons and ammunition to the enemy that they are fighting as they are fighting them. And we did just that when we sent weapons to Pakistan. Only a complete moron lets the leader of the terrorist organization escape on a flight out of the country, simply to kow-tow to Pakistan because a few Pakistani generals were on the flight. Only a complete moron guards a 1-mile by 2-mile explosives dump with twelve soldiers and watches as the enemy drives up in pickup trucks and drives off with the explosives. And only a complete moron does not take the time to find out some basic information about the country he's invading, like there are three major religious groups that hate each other. And only a complete moron does not send a clear message to Iran to discourage support of insurgents or attacks at the border. GWB was as mentally deficient as Trump is morally deficient.
I think President Trump is doing a very good job of not showing his hand is what I think. If you’re being neutral about the situation, his words leave open the possibility of an escalation. But what’s more, he’s not telegraphing his strategy which is one thing Sullivan and Biden have been doing so far to Ukraine’s detriment.
That's hilarious. Trump is not telegraphing anything because he has no answers. Trump is on record as saying that he hates military action. He has been ever since he was a draft dodger. The only violence that is acceptable to Trump is raping women. He is also on record as saying that he believes that everything can be (and should be) negotiated, with supreme confidence in himself as the greatest negotiator the world has ever known. And if the facts do not support that conclusion, he will simply change the facts. Trump is delusional much the same as FDR was delusional in thinking that he could heavily influence, if not control, Stalin. FDR was out of his mind, just like Trump is. I will acknowledge that Trump is possibly the greatest con-man the world has ever known. If it makes you feel any better, okey-dokey, I'm sure you're one of his best marks.
A man who spoke of American war dead who died fighting Nazism/fascism and wondered outloud what was in it for them and disparaged them personally as losers can never understand that there are things worth fighting for that are not negotiable.