badgerx16

But it is the narrative he has sold his people. Remember, what we are dealing with is Russian Folk History, dating back to the summer of 1941, when many Ukrainians welcomed the Germans as liberators.

I wonder what underlying domestic problems Russia is undergoing have prompted this distraction.

Dresden

And where, therefore, would you draw the line ?

So instead we let him do whatever he wants ?

Putin is a mad bastard, but he isn't completely stupid. Ukraine is not in NATO, which he knows gives him an effective free hand militarily, and his intention is not to annexex the whole country, it is to re-impose the pro-Russian political regime that existed under Yanukovych.

There have been multiple wars and smaller military engagements involving nuclear armed states since 1945, and we are still in the situation that the only nuclear weapons ever used in anger are the first 2 created. The first country to use one would not only suffer the response from it's opposing side, but all other countries around the World would condemn it.

If Putin is made to believe it, that is all that matters.

You could give the average American 200 guesses to point out their state capital on a map.

So what is the point of the NATO treaty ? Have the larger member states simply duped the smaller ones into joining something they have no intention of honouring ?

The 82nd Airborne have just been deployed to Poland.

I was answering for AL76.

But, but but,............cake !

One of these days GM wil make a post of more than one sentence that he has composed all on his own, mind you that would require that very rare occurrence - an original thought. You can sense the spittle flecking his lips and the twitch in the corner of his eye as he reads or types the word 'socialist'.

Would Russia have the appetite to try it just to see what response they get ?

Will Lighthouse's sanctions be more effective than those deployed against Vlad ?

The difference between the corrupt, bullshitting, narcissist that is Trump, and yourself, is that I don't know enough about you to work out if you are corrupt.

Not when the person you see on the TV is the one that triggered your nervous breakdown.

Negotiation was never his route to his preferred outcome, it was just a means to test how strongly the West would respond to particular actions. This has been building for 8 years. Vlad is a Cold War warrior who hasn't seen a Russian victory, only the gradual disintegration of the empire he was born into. With the intention of being written into history as the strongman who rebuilt Russia, he has now taken Europe back to 1941, when many in Ukraine saw the start of Operation Barbarossa as an act of liberation from the Soviet yoke, and many actively supported the Germans. Russia is now 'de-Nazifying' Ukraine, justifying this with talk of torchlight parades, concentration camps, and genocide - who needs evidence when you have complete control of the media ?

So Tonto has started "correcting" the outcome of the Cold War.

Using "Jedi mind tricks" on the FAA is a novel corporate approach.

Ny biggest problem with Ricky Gervais is that David Brent is an exact twin to my old boss. Not a characature, his actions and personality are painfully identical.

By publicly stating he wanted to withdraw US financial support for NATO in Europe, and making it plain that he ( Trump ) had no interest in continuing to paint Russia as a threat. By not opposing Putin, Trump encourages him.

Brexit voters?

Tree