You don't listen. You consistently show you are uninformed. Debating you is pointless. Do I need to go on?
Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
- Thread starter Wednesday at Stoke
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He is just spreading fake news after fake news and it has been going on since the start of the conflict.
Depends how much ammunition they all have... but I'd say not much to virtually nothing
Modern technology, hey:
Not just protests in Europe, but the US itself. It’s such a tired and disingenuous take, and is not useful to productive conversation in this thread.
Quoting myself so I don't have to write it again. That being said there is no way to say it wouldn't have happened under Merkel, after all Scholz and his party were already involved in that government as well and Merkel never really was great with harsh reactions either but this situation needs a harsh reaction from our government and not doing it is significantly weakening the EU's stance.
Ukraine took in a fair amount of Afghan refugees, and were also some of the last out after the Taliban moved in:
Please join me in welcoming @Beans to this thread.
She was very good at deescalation and was often able to mediate, especially with Putin. And he respected her. I stand by what I said. This wouldn't happen the way it does with her in charge. Scholz is as weak as it gets, he's no leader and doesn't inspire anything that's needed right now. Germany once more shows how weak it has become if our chancelor states this nonsense.
Imagine, Trump gets elected again and blows up the alliances. It would only strengthen Russia and China to bully everyone around them. Europe is not ready for this. I am not a military fan, but I don't see how a nation like the EU can hold their own if countries like German continue to largely rely on the US for military deterrence.
Fair enough. I've basically mixed up two distinct but interrelated topics. These are the kinds of posts that actually help, btw, assuming everyone is trying to understand everyone else's point of view and not just be a cnut.
Damn, correction. I wonder if Ukraine & Russia are trying to demoralize eachother with whether the airborne troops have been repelled. Conflicting claims.
I didn't make any of the gotcha posts initially about your predictions about this event. I didn't even spend much time arguing with your assessments, despite disagreeing with them. But on this topic that started with discussing the implications of Germany abandoning nuclear energy, you made two wrong assertions in one: you associated the existence of a nuclear energy program/infrastructure with a military program (Israel has the weapons but no power plants), and then you asserted that France's continued use and development of nuclear energy capability was related to UNSC membership. They're both wrong, and yet you stated them as if fact.
The UNSC suffers from bureaucratic inertia. It will sooner become irrelevant than change in any way to reflect the shifts of power in the world. France was a member for almost 15 years before it developed its first nuclear weapon. Them and Britain went off on that whole Suez expedition in 1956, got told off by both the US and the USSR, didn't have a nuke in sight and yet kept their seat.
There is nothing I would love more than hear a conversation between Macron and Putin. Macron is generally obnoxious and very Putin like when he talks which is great during debates but it has to be infuriating when you are an other head of state.
Anyone saying that the nukes aren't a contributing factor to it not being questioned more than it is are wrong. But that's not what you said, you said they couldn't and heavily implied they were linked e.g.
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons set that only those already with tested weapons at the time of implementation would be deemed as being the nuclear powers. They were the 5 council members, yes. But the two positions are not linked in any written way that I know of.
EDIT: I didn't see your post above ^^
If Putin gets away with this with relative impunity, I wonder if China will be encouraged to launch an invasion of Taiwan.
The five were also the largest and most powerful of the victors after the war ended so them deciding to be the permanent members makes more sense as some didn't have nukes until well after the body was set up (i.e. China is widely agreed to have developed this capability only in 1964, almost 20 years after the UN and the Security Council was established).
Of course he will get away with it. There's no one even trying to prevent this from happening.
Edit: bar ukranian forces
I usually just stop reading
They will at some point, for sure. But who knows whether it will be this year or twenty years from now.
And we are to be blamed completely for this.
Germany's GDP is 2.5x of Russia's, France's is almost 2x of Russia, and even Italy's is 1.5x of Russia.
EU still not being able to defend from an aggressor who has an economy that is 10 times smaller, and has only 1/3 of population is fecking disgraceful.
Maybe this is the wake up call that Europe needs. Macros is right about the need of EU having an army, but he should do something about it, by being the most powerful person in the EU.
You don't put forward alternatives. You go to the poster instead of the post and do so continuously. MTF, in other threads at least, makes good arguments on other topics. But I don't think you do. This is getting personal, so you're right, it's pointless.
I will let the protestors know its just good PR and their expression of opposition is meaningless. Wish protestors elsewhere in history had realised protesting was meaningless, would have saved a lot of time.
Yeah I just always assumed the security council was based on comprising the victors of WW2.
The West really needs to throw the kitchen sink at Russia. Obviously the harshest economic sanctions possible, companies should completely stop using Russian suppliers, Russia should be excluded from all sports and entertainment events, tech companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook should make their services unavailable in Russia, Russians on work visas and similar should be sent home, etc. The nation should be made a total international pariah.
We need to be able to accept whatever consequences outside of actual war to stop this maniac.
We need to be able to accept whatever consequences outside of actual war to stop this maniac.
I mean in the long term. If sanctions continue to ramp up, and Russia's ostracisation from the international community persists to the point of economic devastation, then perhaps it'll be Putin's undoing and other nations with an Imperial itch might think twice about similar campaigns. If however a few years from now its as you were, with Ukraine yet again becoming a Russian vassal state and Putin's position of power no less compromised, then I can see China being encouraged to annex Taiwan a lot sooner than they'd have envisaged.
Hats off to each and everyone of them. But this also means that this will get very ugly
They've been increasing incursions into Taiwan's airspace over the last few months and spiked again over the last day. I've been somewhat worried that China will take advantage of the focus on Ukraine to make a move on Taiwan.
I wonder if these events don't play totally in his favour. IF/when he is reelected he will hammer it, up until today he was probably the only major politician in Europe that wanted an actual border police and an army, how many head of states and politicians are know sharing the same opinion?
Think it's generally a good sign if Putin lost his temper.
I was calling for a EU super army long time ago and got laughed at. It was absolutely obvious that Europe lacks military power since quite some time now. We have some financial and economical power, but other than that, we're completely toothless. And we will continue to be, as reforms take ages here - bureaucracy doesn't know limits in this region. Nothing will change, we will just keep declining.
Yep. Why is it the US and UK are the only ones spending above the amount that was agreed by all members. I disliked Trump but loved him calling them out to their faces.
I appreciate these kinds of posts. I definitely conflated one with the other, as JPRouve pointed out, too.
(As for continued membership, I still think that has absolutely to do with nuclear weapons capacity but will happily concede the point).
Apparently the US wanted to include Brazil as well but
Still a lot of people who don't recognise Western atrocities.
No doubt, he is delivering the play book on how to "self defend" against Taiwan.
You’d really like to think that with Putin pulling this, Trump’s popularity will plummet…
Surely even the most thick as pig-shit American wouldn’t vote for him after this?