Let’s see, the last two world wars were due to ultra nationalism and great power divisions, isolationism, nationalist trade wars, plus appeasement of an aggressor great power.old salt wrote: ↑Thu Sep 12, 2024 4:54 pmI'm cheering for Trump (& Vance & Gabbard) to thwart the neo-con warmongers like you from getting us into a WW-III, staring in Europe, with the likelihood of the use of tac nuke weapons. THAT would break the paper alliance that NATO has become since the end of the Cold War. NATO's EUro contingent still struggles just to deploy a 6,000 troop "Rapid" Reaction Force to the E Front. They can't even do that without the Brits. https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_221565.htmMDlaxfan76 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 12, 2024 3:55 pm We have numerous times rebutted your thesis.
Pretty simple really. Putin knew that Trump was on his (Putin) desired path of crippling NATO, perhaps permanently. He also knew that Trump was intent n helping him reverse the democratic and pro-western aspirations of Ukraine, including undermining Zelensky
So, Putin’s publicly stated aspirations for a return to Russian hegemonic expansion ala Soviet Union were well on path to achievement on the cheap. Ukraine then Baltics and Poland on the barrel.
No need to do a massive invasion as long as Trump was doing the work for him.
But yeah, tremendous miscalculation by the “genius “ of Moscow in thinking that Ukraine could be taken with a blitzkrieg style and that Europe and the US would dither. Almost got a way with it, but US intelligence and Biden blew the whistle on the upcoming invasion and then rallied the West to resist. NATO is now at its apex strength relative to Russia. And the Russian military has been shown to be ineffective and poorly trained and led.
But hey, Trump is back, lying at every turn on behalf of Putin, and poised to break NATO.
And Salty cheers it on.
We are no longer capable of both garrisoning EUrope & meeting our commitments to our allies in the Asia-Pacific region, let alone the ME. All where we have more pressing vital interests that protecting the freeriding EU.
They haven’t occurred since then because of strong international commitments and military strength facing aggression.
I’ll stick with the latter.
Consistent international commitment and overwhelming military capacities deter aggression and whether we like it or not we need to sometimes demonstrate our resolve.
I’m thankful for the reality that American leadership is made possible by the strength of of our systems, both political and economic.
Trump MAGA America First isolationism and nationalism threatens to destroy those systems and leadership influence.
That’s what you are rooting for.