Search results

I could be pedantic and say they are below the 2% (1.9%) but you are mostly right about their spending. But it's also true they've always utilized this for their little African empire while ignoring NATO, even trying to buddy up to Russia and China until very recently.

Nah, it's the same relationship a parent has with a lazy kid they force to get a job. They might bitch and moan but at the end of the day everyone knows it was time to start paying their way in the world. If our alliance is dependent on us footing the bill and giving us no slack to confront...

Agreed. When nations close to the issue step up and take the leadership position NATO starts to look more like an alliance and less like a bunch of spoiled protectorates. It's a step in the right direction at the very least.

Russia has never been a naval power and their enemies are backed by the greatest naval power in the history of the world. I don't think anyone is judging Russia for the naval battles of this war.

denial isn't just a river in egypt. If the Russians occupy Lviv you and a dozen others here will be laughing at how terrible they're performing and discussing how hilarious its gonna be once the Ukrainians kick them out. Meanwhile today Ukraine and the west aren't laughing because Russia is...

You do if you become only more confident in victory, which Russia has

Talk is cheap.

See, all Europe needs is a kick in the ass and it can learn to pull its weight, it just wont so long as the US foots the bill every time. Perhaps we can exist as allies instead of them being protectorates in the near term.

Did you mean to quote someone or reference something in particular here?

I don't think you guys are quite getting that the America First caucus, and the voters that elect them, are not joking when we say that the border is so much more important to us and it must be fixed if the interventionists want their Ukraine support. We've been compromising on this, and...

Whatever dude, from what I can tell you nothing but insinuate others are idiots behind a keyboard. Even this entire response is nothing but ad hominem quips because you lack the ability to honestly and logically address anything I've said. Just look at your comment about India, I'm making a...

Oh look, another person who thinks making a personal attack will win them an argument. An alliance of weird bedfellows, historical enemies at that, because they have a common enemy up in all of their backyards You fail to have any true understanding of the world or geopolitical realities and...

Yet if Russia takes Ukraine and Kazakhstan it's still smaller than it was 35 years ago and now has to deal with a powerful China to its south and a rising Iran to its southwest who will see it as a threat as well.

But, again, Russia can strike us with missiles now so why am I expected to think having Ukraine back increases the likelihood? There just isn't an argument to be made about them being more of a threat to the US here, it's always at its core an argument about them being a threat to other...

It is literally what we are discussing here...

Fuck off I'm not going to entertain this ridiculous personal attack, I promise I am better studied than you. No there was never a threat of a soviet invasion of the mainland US, that was always bullshit and literally everyone knows it. They had no way of delivering an army to our shores just...

The soviets were never a conventional threat to the US mainland, so what's your point? The cold war was about nuclear bombs and Russia doesn't need its neighbors land to be a nuclear threat to us. Both of you are ignoring that the Cold War was never about fighting each other on our own...

Russia has had all of Ukraine as a core part of its nation for centuries and has not yet been powerful enough to threaten the US. You are again digressing into an argument about how Russia is a threat to its immediate neighbors when @mrttao is saying they are not now, nor are they going to be...

Yes this definitely is the maximalist goal long term. Short term though it's to get Ukraine and then force Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan back into a single political entity dominated by Russia.