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Ah, okay. I was just thrown for a loop there.

Bruh. “The neocons” are the political segment least likely to want Turkey out of NATO. And more to the point, while you are technically correct, it’s been argued it’s possible to do it on the basis of Turkey violating its treaty commitments (by its cozying up to Russia and, arguably, Erdogan...

Perhaps, but as I recall certain segments of FYROM were making revanchist noises about the region within Greece. So it’s not like the Greeks were actually doing it just to be assholes. Erdogan, OTOH, is really testing everyone’s patience. I don’t think we are at the “boot Turkey from NATO”...

To be fair to the Greeks, Macedonia was also a region within their country and also had connections with Alexander the Great. And to their credit once the dispute was resolved Greece dropped its objections to NATO membership quickly and didn’t shift the goalposts.

Given the state of Turkey’s economy, probably not. OTOH, I think he’s tried to coup proof the military as much as possible so threatening that may not work this time.

Yeah, and that’s a good thing. But my point was, the reason we have to stay involved in Asia and in particular with Taiwan is because we are just starting to ramp up and it’s going to take a while. As it is, Taiwan also helps keep the PLAN on the back foot, and having them as a partner means...

But now you’re just shifting the goalposts. This discussion has nothing to do with World War I, it’s about World War II and the Cold War. The motivations for fighting in the latter two are very different from the former, and even the former is more than just “rich bankers protecting their...

He added the "Unless NATO decides to pre-position equipment in Sweden and/or Finland" caveat. Which NATO would almost certainly do for a brigade-level formation as a security guarantee, even if its intended purpose was to station a force to help defend, say, Rovaniemi Air Base and have no real...

Sweden is around 1.22, Finland 1.5 as of a couple years ago but they’ve both been boosting spending in the past couple years; Sweden should hit 2% by 2024-2025. Finland the same if not sooner, especially since they signed a deal for 64 F-35s late last year. So not great but they also (Sweden in...

Now you're just spouting off like some dipshit socialist. It's not "the rich" who drive this, it's the fact that the U.S., as a whole, has an interest in making sure no single power dominates Europe and Asia, because that would pose a security threat to the U.S. Perhaps less direct today, but...

Yeah giving Turkey the F-35 would allow them to poke holes in its defenses and give that to the Russians...which we really don't want. Advanced F-16s, however, are another matter since they aren't as restricted. Still pretty advanced but no stealth tech Also, technically all F-16s are called...

Because 1) it's 2022, not 1822, and 2) there are a wide variety of options between "Making the World Safe For Democracy" and "Going Full Sankoku Japan." In the case of Russia/Ukraine and China/Taiwan, it's because their actions actually impact us and our neighbors. And the fact that where...

Actually, Finland also *exports* a decent amount of electricity to Russia. And they've been winding down what they import for about three weeks now, because they actually expected this and prepared for it. Finland doesn't rely on Russia for any of its electrical needs; it can supply itself just...