You must be watching foxnews then? The ice cream story is all over the internet. No al gorithm did not invent the web either.
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Personal history and experience affects our judgment.
I was a young lawyer with Fulbright and Jaworski who had almost opted to make the Navy JAG a career when VN broke out. My brother would later fly the Phantom F-4 in combat in Nam. I was, until I became aware of the true situation, very supportive of the war. In truth VN was a politically motivated action.
I was opposed from the beginning to the invasion of Iraq which I believed was driven by Haliburton’s (Cheney) and the industrial/military complex. I guess there they are still looking for SH’s weapons of mass destruction.
Once we had OBL we should have come home from Afganistan. Continuing conflicts which are on the front porch of Russia and China are going to drain our country of resources.
What should we do about the Ukraine and Taiwan? I’m open to consider options but seems to me this nation’s approach to foreign threats has sometimes been driven by political calculations not related to a grand world overview.
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Wars aren’t cheap. The Vietnam war helped kick off inflation in the70s and Jimmy carter was blamed bc initially they didn’t want to raise taxes to pay for it. Afganistan cost almost 2 trillion if you count healthcare for vets. Iraq cost 2 trillion long term. The 2 recent wars in Iraq and afganistan helped kick off the massive debt we have which hurts social programs bc politicians then say we have to cut spending and they go after soc and Medicare etc not admitting it’s the war cost that drove up the dept. It is the military industrial complex that needs to be used to justify it. They don’t want to raise taxes for the wars bc if they did, we’d stop them so. Now we might be dealing with another ignorant Ukraine war. I’d say let’s back off on making them nato and move on but the admin is sticking to having them join nato.
You’re exactly right Jim. I was in the Netherlands back in 1986 and was eating in a little restaurant when the owner came over and we started talking. His family lived in half of the building and during WWII it suffered major damage that wasn’t rebuilt until after the war. That caused severe hardship on their family and most of the rest of the town was the same.
That is something we Americans haven’t experienced because the world wars were fought over there, not in our homes. We haven’t had our homes and businesses destroyed by bombs and gunfire. We haven’t had children killed in the crossfire. There is a reason those in Europe don’t share the same bravado as a lot of Americans.
Maybe as the younger generations take over and the old folks fade out, that will change. But people that were children during WWII still remember. I am 75 and was born in January 1947, so anyone age mid 70’s and up still remember the hardships.
I for one think too much pride gets involved on both sides. How many millions have been killed over the centuries because someone wanted to save face?
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Of course, that notion goes against the long standing US principle that each country should be allowed to decide its own foreign policy.
In other words, if Ukraine wants to align itself with NATO nations, why shouldn’t it have the freedom to do so and be allowed to do so?
Who cares if Russia doesn’t like it? It’s Ukraine’s choice, not Russia’s, isn’t it? North Korea might not like the idea that South Korea aligns itself with the USA. TOO BAD!!! It ain’t North Korea’s choice. They don’t have a veto power over South Korean foreign policy, nor does any other nation.
Why should Russia have a veto power over Ukraine’s choice?
Is Ukraine an independent, sovereign nation, or isn’t it? According to the United Nations……IT IS!!!
If Ukraine can’t decide its own foreign policy, and has to have it dictated by another nation, (like Russia) that calls Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and right to self-determination into question. And that, my friend, would be contrary to what the USA has traditionally stood for.
I hope that helps you to understand why we don’t sympathize with Russia here: because doing so is CONTRARY to traditional American values.
Now then, I certainly don’t recommend that we put troops on the ground to fight the Russians should they invade Ukraine. Obviously, we are under no treaty obligation to do so, and I don’t think that doing so would be in our best interests. The last time we tried to confront the Russians on the battlefield (Russian Civil War), it did NOT go well. But I do agree that we should use other instruments of national power (economic, diplomatic, and informational) to try and stop Russia’s aggression here.
Prob is if we let the Ukraine join nato right up against russia’s border then they do they have the right to put missiles in Cuba or South America which we’d be against? This is the prob and issue. We didn’t want Russia in Cuba bc it’s too close and it’s the same with the Ukraine. If we do, I see Russia trying to get bases in South America then we don’t have reasonable clause to stop them if we do this.
Well, during the Cold War, we had US/British/French/West German troops in West Germany and Soviet/East German/etc. troops in East Germany staring each other down.
It is what it is!
NATO v Warsaw Pact
Now, I guess it would be NATO v. Russia and Belarus if Ukraine joins.
Not saying it’s going to happen, but if it did…hey…who can stop it?
As for missiles, Russia doesn’t need to put missiles in Cuba. As far as I know, they have ballistic missile submarines that they could place right on our coastline.
I’d be shocked if they aren’t already there.
On another note, Ukraine wouldn’t be the only NATO nation that shares a border with Russia. It would simply be a BIGGER one. I believe Estonia and Latvia already share a border with Russia.
Regarding any need for missiles in Cuba…why would Russia need to?
They could place these right on our coasts.
I think it’s different Russian subs vs having land missiles in our backyard. It’s both symbolic and real.
We could just back the Ukraine as a sovereign nation then stop at that.
I agree with the people in the article that say that Russia’s fleet is now too small to sustain such a thing.
Russia is nowhere close to being the naval power that the Soviet Union was, and it doesn’t look as though they’ll get there anytime soon.
But of course they’ll have ballistic missile submarines on our coastline ready to strike should the US and its allies ever be in the mood for…you know…HEAVY sport!!!
Others words we got our butts kicked, putting it politely.
Yeah, you might say that!
Actually, I had forgotten. Norway shares a border with Russia as well.
So at least three NATO nations already do.
Ukraine would simply be a much bigger border than the rest, should it ever join NATO.
Taras is one tough customer, absolutely don’t want to engage them in a land war in their own backyard.
As enemies from the Golden Horde, to Napoleon, to the Nazis, to the Turks, to the Americans have all discovered…the Russians historically have RELISHED…a really big…DEEP land war…where they can lure their enemies into seemingly never ending horizons, strain their logistics and lines of communications to the breaking point…and then freeze them to death in a Russian winter.
Interestingly, Japan (Russo-Japanese War) did about the best job of beating them in modern times, though later, in the 1930s just prior to WWII, Soviet Forces in Siberia stopped a Japanese incursion out of Manchuria. The Imperial Russian Army had some success in WWI on the offensive against Austria-Hungary (Lemberg and the Brusilov Offensive), and defeated the Turks in the Caucasus, but were crushed when invading Germany at Tannenberg, and after the Russian Revolution, Russia had to sue for peace.
About the only nation better at fighting in extreme cold, snow, and ice is Finland. As I mentioned elsewhere, the Finns were murderous on the invading Red Army, but ultimately, ran out of ammunition and were overwhelmed by numerically superior forces. In many conflicts, the Russians/Soviets have been willing to absorb casualties that would stagger other nations in the pursuit of victory (Japan in the 1930s, Finland, WWII).
That’s why I love watching Russia v. Finland in Olympic hockey. Those are old enemies. There’s nearly always at least one bench clearing brawl!
If the Russians want to have it out with the Ukrainians , let them. It’s not our fight.
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To anyone still following this, Biden just approved a deployment of troops to Poland and Romania.
Some of these deployments were happening anyway. My son will be deploying to the region soon.