old salt wrote: ↑Tue Jul 12, 2022 8:53 pm
We have no strategic interest in Ukraine.
You know that "strategic interest" is an invented term, right? Invented by policy wonks in DC...many of whom are pushing up daisies? You act like they're handed down by Moses or something.
We have zero....none....strategic interests in Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen....or any other of the dozens of countries where we've stuck our noses in, right? Each of those countries could disappear tomorrow, and the world would keep right on spinning.
And yet? We armed/funded/bombed/droned/invaded anyway. And not only did you not complain about ANY of these involvements (save the Gulf War)...you screamed bloody murder anytime a President so much as mentioned pulling our troops out of those strategically pointless countries.
Tens of of thousands of casualties. Trillions in US treasure blown. And to what end? To be charitable? Mixed results. And that's being REALLY kind.
And yet here you are telling us that Ukraine is a bridge too far. I mean...that's great, knock yourself out. But given the context of your decade+ of postings? It's a weird hill to die on.
old salt wrote: ↑Tue Jul 12, 2022 8:53 pm
We don't need their oil & no terrorists from there came to attack us.
Earthlings in need of something to eat would disagree with your assessment of Ukraine's value. I'll leave it at that.
old salt wrote: ↑Tue Jul 12, 2022 8:53 pm
If the Ukrainians were as good as the Israelis, they would not need our aid & the Russians would not have attacked them.
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
Great. Stop sending the Israeli's $3 billion per year, OS. You're telling us that they don't need it.
Ukraine had nukes, and you keep ignoring that Western allies and Russia talked them into giving them up, leaving them vulnerable to attack. And then hilariously tell me about the Montreaux Convention as if one agreement is a joke, and the other was wrought by the Lord.
Since we helped talk them out of their nukes, doesn't Powell's Pottery Barn rule apply here?
old salt wrote: ↑Tue Jul 12, 2022 8:53 pm
The sea lanes are not the same thing as ports. They are global, open, free, unhindered transit routes.
Great. Then focus on the F'ing sea lane to the South of the ports. Closed by Putin to Ukrainian exports.
(This is the dumbest thing you've ever written here, btw)
old salt wrote: ↑Tue Jul 12, 2022 8:53 pm
You've missed my discussions about Black Sea access, how Ukraine has no naval capability, & how the Montreux Convention limits what the US & NATO can do there. The need to open the sea lanes to get the grain out is one of the factors that make a cease fire an urgent need.
Right. So it's not Putin's fault that the sea lands are closed? Seriously? This is all on Zelensky?