MDlaxfan76 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 9:26 am
seacoaster wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 7:36 am
old salt wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 1:16 am
Biden's clarification on his press conf "minor incursion" remark --
If any assembled Russian units move across the Ukranian border, that is an invasion = green light to send in the little green men.
I've never seen DW so opinionated about the US. Normally totally objective, host Brent Goff is exasperated with Biden over his comments the past 2 days & his staff's futile cleanup duty. He opened
The Day by saying that Europe's & the world's reaction to Biden being inaugurated a year ago today has gone from a sense of relief to "good grief".
Putin is not just threatening Ukraine. He's accomplishing his goal of dividing NATO, demonstrating it's ineffectiveness & prompting it's unravelling.
And the four years of the Trump administration's -- and Trump's -- gladhanding Putin have been instrumental in getting us here. Isn't this essentially what Fiona Hill has been saying: that a strong, coordinated response from NATO is necessary or it will mean the end of any meaningful North Atlantic treat order? We'll see what comes from the talks with Lavrov today.
Can't help but sense that Salty's in favor of NATO failure and dissolution.
Blame it on the "Euroburghers" and Democrat POTUS...
I'd expect such a petty, vapid, vindictive, stupid response from you. This is personal for me. I'm invested.
I spent the most significant portion of my working career as part of NATO & shared in the pride we felt in winning the Cold War.
I feel NATO still has a place. We can't afford to lose it. We need a strong NATO as an ally, better able to defend Europe on their own, able & willing to join us as we pivot to contain China. That's why the fecklessness of the EUroburgers & Biden's stumbles trouble me.
Trump's gladhanding of Putin was face saving cover for Putin while, Trump strengthened NATO more than any post Cold War President has.
Ukraine is much better able to defend itself now & NATO's E flank is much better defended now than 5 years ago.
You predictably whine about Trump & ignore all the good work that Pompeo, Mattis, Esper, McMaster, O'brien & the Generals did to strengthen Ukraine & NATO.
Nothing would make me happier than to see Putin take an off ramp & back down.
If that happens, Biden, Blinken & NATO deserve great credit. It will mean our diplomacy succeeded & reestablish the US as leader of the western alliance & free world. After Afghanistan, the US & NATO desperately need a "win".
I fear the more likely outcome will be the annexation of the area in E Ukraine already under control of the Russian separatists & the coastal corridor which connects to Crimea, giving Russia control of the entire shoreline of the Sea of Azov. Biden's words appear to greenlight such a move.