Ukraine

Seems like it was longer ago than that, but time conflates as one ages.

Lol, I get that about aging, and I’m only 32 (in my mind;) )

So the list of Russia/Soviet military adventures is now this:

1956 Hungary Fail
1968 Czech Fail
1979 Afghanistan Success. Even though it took 10 years of supplying arms to rebels
1980 Poland Success ! Perhaps due to being heavily involved in Afghanistan already
1991 USSR collapsed
2008 Georgia Fail
2014 Crimea Fail
2021 Ukraine ?

The only thing I know about the Ukraine is that their girls really knock people out, leave the west behind.

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I’m surprised that the Soviet Afghan war is termed a success. Did the show you watched explain what the Soviets’ objective was?

Sorry , no, thats just my personal assessment of the ultimate outcome for the west. The show I saw just talked about Hungry, Czechs, Poland, and Crimea. I picked the others up from folks here.
So I judged the Soviet 10 year effort in Afghanistan as a failure for them since ultimately they quit , and thus a success for the west’s policy of supplying rebels with arms, even though it took 10 years. But I can agree with calling it a failure too for the west , if the criteria is strictly stopping the initial invasion.

Crimea is indeed “Russian” but it is also deceiving. More “Russians” due to a certain time period. Ukraine is indeed “rich” This is why putin wants it.
The biggest factor from a geopolitical standpoint was for our past and current administrations to allow the Russian gaz pipeline to reach Germany. Now quite a few European countries are “dependent” on Russia. This was a moronic mistake especially since we were energy independent and are “friends” with Europe. merkel Germany’s past chancellor was born and raised in East Germany. Many have suspected in Europe that she was much more closer to Russia than the U.S. or other European countries.
We can all debate on why we are where we are but actions speak louder than words. Our tragic Afghani debacle only reinforced Russia to act as they see fit. The same can be said about Taiwan. Many forget that Taiwan WON its independence through war with the chine communist regime. The fairest analogy is South and North Korea. What the chinese dictatorship is currently doing should be condemned at all levels. They are right now heavily investing in Africa and central America. This is “natural resources” directed such as oil, gold, lithium, copper and others but also on a military angle.
Are we “asleep” at the switch? It is not for me to judge but for all of us to witness. Actions speak louder than words.

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I’m sorry, but no, Taiwan didn’t win its independence. The Chinese Nationalists lost the Chinese civil war to Mao’s Communists and fled to the island of Formosa. They have been protected by the USA with minor help from some allies ever since.

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Sounds like they won independence with a little help

The Nationalists won Taiwan. They lost China.

They’re not exactly independent either since we’re the underwriter.

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I think it’s simply Russia doesn’t want a nato country that close to their border which gives us the advantage so if I was Russia I’d be against it and if I’m us which I am, I’m for it. It’s who backs down first. I read we can hold funds or hurt them financially and I think Russia said it would be an act of war if we did.

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https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/International/wireStory/putin-urges-guarantees-ukraine-call-johnson-81734503

You need to read a good history of that fight. The nationalists got their butts beat. The only reason the Commies left them alone on Formosa was because of the USA. Otherwise, there would be no Taiwan.

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This is actually an interesting point. Technically you are correct but in actuality Taiwan is independent as much as…South Korea. South Korea is only a country because of us. North Korea to this day does not recognize South Korea as its own country. North Korea’s ultimate goal is to reunify with South Korea while imposing its dictatorship regime. The chinese communist dictatorship wants to do the same with Taiwan. Currently Honk Kong is directly feeling the Chinese dictatorship’s impact. For some that do not know or do not want to know criticizing the chinese dictatorship gets you a direct pass to a “reprogramming” concentration camp. The biggest difference between South Korea and Taiwan is that we were directly involved in the Korean war but not as much with the Chinese war. Historically we were not nearly military as strong as when we were involved in the Korean war. To this day we still have not recognized Taiwan as its own country. The main reason is diplomatic and we do not want to piss off the Chinese dictatorship. There is another point that is hugely important and not enough mentioned in the media and in academics. China as we know it today is not a free country. It is a military ruled dictatorship. Tiananmen Square is the perfect example of it or the Muslim concentration camps.

China not as aggressive? I dunno!

Some SE Asian nations might disagree.

Same for Japan.

For 30 years after the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, the US recognized ONLY Taiwan as China, not Communist regime. Jimmy Carter changed that in 1979, but Nixon started it by opening diplomatic relations, I think in 1972.

He did. The idea at the time was to “bring” freedom to the dictatorship. The dictatorship at the time was mainly bankrupt and had famines on a yearly basis. Very much like how the North Korean dictatorship “treats” its people.
The U.S.A. “bring freedom to dictatorships” movement started at the end of WWII. Afghanistan is the latest example. President had it right. The soviet union could not match our commitment to liberty and went bankrupt. Diplomacy never works. Going after the dictatorships pocket book with the strongest defense always win. The chinese dictatorship is facing a slowing economy. Their biggest commercial real estate firm recently defaulted. There are signs that tell us not all is communist red.

I just want to say that this has been one of the most informative discussions on CoogFans I’ve ever seen. Thank you for keeping it on topic.

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Let’s not go crazy with our “commitment to freedom and liberty” idea. We’ve backed plenty of brutal dictatorships if it’s served what we believed to be in our geopolitical interests. Not saying it’s wrong, I’m a real politick person I get we can’t have perfect friends everywhere. But let’s not stroke our red, white and blue flagpole too hard about a worldwide commitment to freedom and liberty.

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You may be correct; what is count and list of countries China has invaded since WW2 by year ?
Vietnam , Cambodia ???

Invaded?

Korea (1950) and Vietnam (1975).

But China has aggressively occupied many islands in oil promising areas of SE Asia claimed by other SE Asian nations.

They have also disputed islands with Japan and routinely send their military aircraft into the fringes of Japanese air space.