Russia refusing to return leased planes. I am having a harder and harder time seeing how Russia can return to the open market and I don't think that their economic isolation is good for our security. Hopefully Putin goes down and the country announces serious reforms Planes Leased to Russia Airlines Now Out of Reach Of Owners - Bloomberg Aircraft owners are coming to grips with the loss of hundreds of Airbus SE and Boeing Co. jets that Russian carriers have effectively shielded from seizure behind a new incarnation of the Iron Curtain. With the window just about closed, foreign leasing firms have succeeded in repossessing only about two dozen of the more than 500 aircraft rented to Russian carriers, according to Dean Gerber, general counsel for Valkyrie BTO Aviation. The planes in limbo have a market value of about $10.3 billion, aviation analytics firm Ishka estimates.
There are a lot of things that could trigger Article 5. One possibility is if an attack on the Ukrainian power grid spills into Poland.
I am way past my college days but I can't imagine listening to him talk way back during those days late at night, if you know what I mean.
They're free to do what they want, our arrangement would only be with Russia. It'd be just like Saudi vs Yemen. We don't like what what the Saudis are doing, we're not providing much if any assistance, but we're not actively trying to stop them either.
Self defeating really, the west (Boeing and Airbus) will just shut off the spigot for replacement parts and they will be useless within a year. China won’t even want to run afoul of those two, or their airline industry is all but done too. Not to mention there isn’t going to be anywhere to fly half the planes to since they are not allowed to fly to half the world. But hey, lookin tough is what matters.
Those qualities could apply to the rest of the world too...not just the ME. Most countries around the world are lacking in all those things, including ours.
Yes it is, but zero is an unrealistically impossible expectation to achieve... zero never works in reality when dealing with people's point of view. Just as a 100% consensus in politics never happens.
How long have you been following Eastern European politics? Russia has long, LONG made it clear that Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO would be crossing a red line, in no uncertain terms. I suggest you watch this video by Dr. John Mearsheimer, one of the greatest thinkers of our times, from back in 2015. It's a bit long for many today who're attention-span challenged but nevertheless have strong convictions on issues they've never invested the time to understand. I assume you're not one of those. Find where he quoted Russia's response to NATO's plan to incorporate Ukraine and Georgia and get back to me. I mean, it makes sense too. Can you imagine our response if China tried to form an alliance with Mexico and stationing troops there? You better believe that we'd be willing to go to war to stop that from happening just like we did during the Cuban missile crisis. You're right, we can't actively engage in the defense of Ukraine. The only option now is to lose because as you stated, the alternative is probably to lose even more. That's why I said we're "admitting defeat". The Russians called our bluff. Ultimately, it's a mutually destructive war as wars often are, with Europe, Russia, and the US all weakened, leaving China and probably India to benefit. That's really the part that gets me the most. China is by far our greatest competitor, and we're engaging in shenanigans in Eastern Europe weakening both us and our allies while pushing cheap Russian energy toward China. That's their greatest weakness, energy security, and we're willingly handing them a win in that arena for what? We aren't even gonna end up with Ukraine in our orbit in the end. That's just terrible strategic thinking from the WH.
One thing I'd like to add about Mearsheimer's talk is regarding Russian concerns about fascism in Ukraine. He acknowledges that there is a minority, but violent element within Ukraine that is indeed fascist, which I did know of mostly because of the Azov Battalion. What I wasn't aware of is just how spooked Russians get about a force on its borders that tolerates fascists. This got me thinking. Here in the states we mostly judge the Nazis' evilness by its anti-semitic actions, e.g. the holocaust. However, in Russia, Stalin didn't like the Jews much more than Hitler did. It follows then that perhaps the Russians don't see the Nazis as evil because they murdered 6 million Jews, but because they invaded Russia and killed 20 million Russians. Maybe they don't really care that Zelensky is Jewish or that they bombed a holocaust memorial, because to them anti-semitism is not what defines the Nazis. This reminds me of my similar readings on Chinese sentiments. For them, the Axis powers' evilness is not defined by anti-semitism either, but by the atrocities committed by the Japanese. Their wounds never healed like the Western Europeans' did because they never received the closure of steadfast remorse from Japan nor the prosecution of Japanese war criminals, most of whom were set free once they agreed to work with the West to fight Communism.
Well this will be a twist. Russia has the EU so spooked that they're considering an EU military "Beaune also called for joint European military defense complementary to the NATO military alliance. He said that this would require investment, and the possibility of funding these efforts through joint European debt would be discussed at the Versailles summit." (CNN live) So they're admitting Ukraine, Moldova, & I forgot who else. Not today but soon. So if the EU militarizes is that going to be another "excuse" for Putin to get all upset and try to invade MORE countries?
The delusion is strong...cnn live "Russian foreign minister falsely claims that it didn’t invade Ukraine From CNN's Sarah Dean Two weeks into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov falsely claimed Thursday that the country “did not attack" its neighbor. He also said there are no plans for Russia to attack other countries and reiterated that a “situation in Ukraine” posed a “direct threat to the Russian Federation” Lavrov, who met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Thursday, said the West is behaving dangerously. That includes the European Union, who “have violated their principles and values” while delivering weapons to Ukraine, according to Lavrov."
The women & children here were obviously fascists & a threat to Russian security. "3 dead after Mariupol maternity hospital bombing From Tim Lister in Kyiv Three people died after they were injured in a Russian bomb attack on a maternity hospital in southern Ukraine, Mariupol city council said Thursday "As of today, we know that after the terrorist bombing by Russian aircraft of the children's hospital in Mariupol there are 17 victims — children, women, doctors — and three died, among them one child, a girl," the council said. The full extent of the casualties is unclear but preliminary reports said at least 17 people were injured in the bombing."
I dont think the UN count will be close to the real thing...between this and bodies just being likely beyond recognition in some attacks. "Bodies buried in mass grave as Mariupol endures unrelenting Russian assault From CNN's Jonny Hallam Disturbing photos show bodies being lowered into a mass grave in the besieged city of Mariupol, southern Ukraine on Wednesday. The images from the Associated Press show men, some dressed in overalls or blue protective suits, placing bodies into a trench. In some photos, the corpses are in body bags, but others are wrapped only in what appear to be blankets. .... At least 1,300 civilians have been killed in Mariupol since the Russian invasion began, an adviser to the city's mayor said Wednesday. ..... "Really, we can't calculate how many deaths we have — I mean three to four times more. We are not even able to count how many people on the streets have been killed by bombing and artillery," Mariupol's deputy mayor, Sergei Orlov told CNN. "We do not know how many, because we cannot collect all the bodies and we cannot count.""
Whoops! Russia forced to admit that they did send conscripts after Putin gave a big speech on International Women's Day -- "A day earlier, in an International Women's Day address, Putin had reassured soldiers' mothers and wives that Russian conscripts are not taking part in his invasion of Ukraine, which he has referred to as a "special military operation."" "The ministry admitted that conscripts were "discovered" in Ukraine but claimed they have already been withdrawn and returned to Russia. "Unfortunately, several facts of the presence of conscripts in the units of the Russian armed forces involved in the conduct of a special military operation on the territory of Ukraine were discovered," Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said in a video message."
The governments of the sanctioning countries are going to have to cover these risks since it is their actions that caused these losses.
Again, I don’t think so. NATO is not looking for an excuse to get involved. NATO is looking for an excuse not to get involved.
. Excuses for a Russian invasion. Our policies encourage the spread of liberal democracy. If Russia feels threatened by a liberal democracy on its borders that would join the E.U. or NATO, too bad for Russia. Russia’s leadership made the choice to become a corrupt dictatorship with farcical elections. We have stood against such tyrants since the development of the Industrial Revolution. As we should. Of course we are at odds with Russia’s interests. Which is why we stand against those interests. I don’t know how old you are, but during the Cold War, we stood up against Russian-communist expansion all over the world. See Kennedy’s and Reagan’s Berlin speeches. We did not engage in disputes behind the Iron Curtain— see Hungary and Czechoslovakia. But when the Iron Curtain countries started to fall, we encouraged it and supported those countries. And while you say China is our biggest rival, that is wrong. Economically, to some extent for sure. But our country does a lot of business with China. Russia is a bigger rival militarily because it has repeatedly invaded its neighbors since Putin took charge. For reasons of expansion of influence and dominance of a system at odds with ours. So be it. History teaches is to stand up to dictators.
