Ukraine II: The Fight Against Russian Aggression

#3,551
#3,551
Rasputin_Vol said:
These people still think we are fighting the Cold War. Russia learned a painful lesson after 80 years of communism. At the most, Putin has no issues with conducting trade and having economic agreements with the FSU states, but Putin has no desires to build an empire. Merkel and the neo-cons are spreading fake news.
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so why does he care about Ukraine and Crimea? he gained literally zero more trade with that, and considering his actions have done nothing but put the old soviet states on edge and cut trade with him; he is not acting benevolently or to increase trade.
 
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#3,552
#3,552
LouderVol said:
so why does he care about Ukraine and Crimea? he gained literally zero more trade with that, and considering his actions have done nothing but put the old soviet states on edge and cut trade with him; he is not acting benevolently or to increase trade.
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From what i can tell it was all about the naval base etc. Deep water port, making sure he can flex over there. Cpuld be wrong tho. Who knows
 
#3,553
#3,553
marcusluvsvols said:
From what i can tell it was all about the naval base etc. Deep water port, making sure he can flex over there. Could be wrong tho. Who knows
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Crimea has Russia's main warm water port. Crimea has also been under Russian influence and control for over 200 years. Only Khrushchev's decision to give Crimea to the Ukrainian Socialist Republic in the 1950's has that even (technically) been disputed.

The West/US choice to put military assets in Ukraine is the reason why Russia is irritated with the entire Kiev debacle.
 
#3,554
#3,554
marcusluvsvols said:
From what i can tell it was all about the naval base etc. Deep water port, making sure he can flex over there. Cpuld be wrong tho. Who knows
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oh. i know why. I was just pointing out to Ras that it was about nation building, not trade.

and Ras may want to check his timeline on when American stuff ended up in Ukraine. It was well after the Russians occupied territory.
 
#3,561
#3,561
Velo Vol said:
What's stopped them?
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Reunification of Germany was harder than many thought. Conscription was stopped in 2011, it reduced their military size to under 300,000. This was due to the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany and the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. Europe has a natural fear of a strong German military. And for about a decade there was the theory that if European nations reduce the military size the chance of conventual war would decrease. Then 9/11 happened. Then Russia began their massive military build up and the invasion of Ukraine followed.
 
#3,562
#3,562
As was discussed earlier in this thread, Trump's right about European defense spending (though it got framed in a dumb way--as if it were dues).
 
#3,563
#3,563
Velo Vol said:
As was discussed earlier in this thread, Trump's right about European defense spending (though it got framed in a dumb way--as if it were dues).
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They have until 2024 to meet the 2% that was set. The U.S. only spends 3.3 of its GDP on defense but that is expected because we have the world's largest GDP and economy. 7 years ago we spent 4.6% of GDP on defense.
 
#3,565
#3,565
Velo Vol said:
[twitter]https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/868841482794528768[/twitter]
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sounds like she is equally not happy with Britain either. what has changed there outside of Brexit itself?

and what has Trump actually done to distance himself from Europe? Sure he's not the globalist Obama was but did Trump say, or preferably do, that actually distances the US from Europe?
 
#3,568
#3,568
LouderVol said:
sounds like she is equally not happy with Britain either. what has changed there outside of Brexit itself?

and what has Trump actually done to distance himself from Europe? Sure he's not the globalist Obama was but did Trump say, or preferably do, that actually distances the US from Europe?
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Nothing except Brexit. It's a loss of power from the EU and Merkel probably sees it like a potential domino. Remember after Brexit, other countries started grumbling they wouldn't mind moving on? As one of the major and most powerful nations in the EU, Germany loses power if other nations decide they want to leave.

Trump hasn't done anything other than hold their feet to the fire to get them up to what members agreed to when they signed on. Funny thing? Both Bush 43 and Obama urged NATO members to bring up the spending levels to what they agree to. Hell, Obama did it in front of the EU. Did anyone screech over that one?

VV? Want to provide a retroactive screech for Obama doing the same thing as Trump did? Or does your hypocrisy know no bounds?
 
#3,569
#3,569
carlos86 said:
The German Bundeswehr is going to need to get it together. I expect they will.
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The Bundeswehr is a paper tiger and probably will take years to rebuild into credible threat compared to what it was during the height of the Cold War. Just a few year ago I read an article that German soldiers were forced to use brooms painted black to simulate machine guns in training exercises. That's not just a German problem though, most western European armed forces are gutted (Britain's especially). The only credible armed forces in Europe right now (in terms of manpower, budget, training, and equipment) are probably located in Poland, Russia, and now Ukraine (after being forced to fight for its very survival) though that Baltic states are starting to take their military concerns seriously.
 
#3,570
#3,570
Grand Vol said:
Nothing except Brexit. It's a loss of power from the EU and Merkel probably sees it like a potential domino. Remember after Brexit, other countries started grumbling they wouldn't mind moving on? As one of the major and most powerful nations in the EU, Germany loses power if other nations decide they want to leave.

Trump hasn't done anything other than hold their feet to the fire to get them up to what members agreed to when they signed on. Funny thing? Both Bush 43 and Obama urged NATO members to bring up the spending levels to what they agree to. Hell, Obama did it in front of the EU. Did anyone screech over that one?

VV? Want to provide a retroactive screech for Obama doing the same thing as Trump did? Or does your hypocrisy know no bounds?
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Did you miss this post?

http://www.volnation.com/forum/showpost.php?p=13814741&postcount=3562
 
#3,575
#3,575
LouderVol said:
ok, let me clarify, has Trump done anything to distance us from Europe in regards to military support, individual alliances or NATO, that would lend itself to supporting merkels statements?
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His relationship with Russia is more than enough. His reluctance to commit to more sanctions on Russia. His obsession with the whole "pay your fair share" and not knowing why 1) European nations don't put as much into their militaries (Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe) and why Germany is treaty bound to not have a military larger thaN 378,000 (Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany) His inability to recognize and commit to Article V, something every President since 1949 has done. His just plain lack of understanding of Western European Policy and the framework that has kept peace in Europe the last 70 years.
 
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