No. of Recommendations: 3
Dope, Mike, Jedi, LM, wanna go argue with them? Tell them they can't be having this conversation because it isn't reality?
Sure. Tell them from me to stop acting like children.
This board is getting dumber by the day. By the hour, even.
It's not possible to have an intelligent debate on foreign policy because too many of you aren't able to get past everyone's IHATEBADORANGEMAN for five minutes. If you guys could, maybe you'd be able to think rationally but even the people who should know better, can't. And don't. So here we are: This board is now officially stupider than the old Political Asylum on the Fool. A sterling achievement, that.
Here's the short thing to go tell your friends in the Philippines: Every dollar we spend and every soldier, tank and airplane we station in the Ukraine is one dollar, soldier, tank and airplane that the Philippines don't get. And every dollar we don't spend in the Pacific is a lot less Navy for out there.
Tell them to sleep tight. And maybe to learn to look at the big picture.
As for the rest of you: Let's repeat this again because it's not getting through the first 6 or 7 centimeters of skull: Zelensky lacks the dudes, the guns and the money to push Ivan out of the Ukraine. And he knows that; he admitted as much to Brett Baier last night. Did any of you catch that? Likely not.
So Zelensky wants a "security guarantee" from the US before he goes to the bargaining table with Russia. That means he wants into NATO -or- gets some amount of Western troops inside his borders. He wants this so when he shows up to the ceasefire talks he thinks he's got the upper hand.
But what he - and you people - are too emotionally involved (or are generally too limited) to understand is that the economic agreement is the security guarantee. An economic agreement that was watered down significantly from the initial bargaining position to something very favorable for the Ukrainians. If/when they sign it, US companies with US citizens move in to start developing the resources. With that comes improvements to the power grid, roads, water, all the stuff you need to a) get the resources but also b) help rebuild vital services in the Ukraine.
A "security guarantee" the way Zelensky and you people want it ties down the US military and takes it off the board in case it's needed elsewhere. It also represents a never ending commitment for us to re-imagine the Berlin Brigade of the Cold War. That's not in our interest.
It's FAR BETTER for all involved if we did economic deals, which would give the United States a stake in the development of the Ukraine. An economically strong Ukraine with a lot of US interests running around inside it is a far bigger and better deterrent to Putin, who would be faced with the calculus of what a future US President would do if he decided to kill large numbers of American civilians and blow up the things we've built inside their country.
It's much better to start peace talks with THAT position, leaving with it the additional leverage of potentially putting NATO forces with 280 miles of Moscow. Do any of you goobers think Putin wants that? Do you think the mere possibility of that is in itself a valuable bargaining chip to have?
Zelensky - and the democrats, idiots like Liz Cheney, the democrats and the media - would give up that very powerful negotiating card right off the bat.
For all your bleating about RUSSIARUSSIARUSSIA and PUTINTRUMPHITLERMAO none of you understand the deep seeded paranoia that's at the root of Russian society. They CONSTANTLY believe that the rest of the world - especially Europe and the United States - is just waiting to rob them blind and steal everything that's not nailed down and that forms a big chunk of how they interact with the West.
Maybe study some history to gain insights into what your adversaries think and believe.
Here's another thing to consider that none of you have: It's very likely, given that NATO navies are all now but nonexistent, that Trump is aware that neither he nor any future American President will get no European help whatsoever in the Pacific. That means we're on our own against the Chinese and every dollar we spend needs to be a very thoughtful use of the money.
Maybe consider these things. Or don't. This board getting
Dumber.
By.
The.
Day.
...is another choice, too.
