Do eeeitttt. Russia is already invaded by Ukraine with no direct participation of NATO. Let's see how they do against actual NATO planes, tanks, ships and soldiers.
The issue was whether Ukraine using externally supplied long range missiles counted as escalation. Which is a non-issue since Russia is using externally supplied (from Iran and NK) long range missiles - they already escalated it.
Just give the Ukrainians the needs to erase the existance of russian army inside its borders ffs (so including long range strikes inside all of russia).
And here is the moment it sails over everyone's head that this is exactly the same claim for Palestine that many are claiming occurs when the US sells weapons to Israel.
I always have to preface this by saying I am by no means a Putin apologist, but just follow the money. America loves a war no matter where it is. And why? Because we gotta sell all these bombs and missiles to someone…
The russian army is entirely bound in its invasion into Ukraine. If it weren't for the threat of nuclear annihilation, NATO would get to Moscow within 3 days. A true 3-day military operation.
No, no, don't worry, they still have their secondary army of sad conscripts (poor people only, don't worry) who are ritually tortured for a year as a rite of adulthood.
Implying western countries never invaded Moscow or something? Poland held it for a year, russians made it a national holiday when they finally got it back.
Even with nuclear annihilation, NATO could still get to Moscow in a three day operation. It's just a question of which cities back home are still standing.
Moscow is not the big prize you might think it is. Russia can just retreat hundreds of kilometers further east and carry on.
NATO can do the thunder run, but they are not equipped to win a massive land war in Asia. You really gotta listen to the Sicilian from Princess Bride on this one.
Russia can just retreat hundreds of kilometers further east and carry on.
Into what, a wasteland full of snow and bears? Russia might be massive, but it works like Canada. Everybody is huddled into very specific regions for a reason.
If nukes started popping off, there'd be zero reason to send in ground forces until it was all over. Lastly, I'm not convinced Russia's nuclear program is much better off than NATO's. So many interviews with nuke watch officers talking about how old and decrepit our silos are. The DoD supposedly approved a modernization package a few years ago for all of them, but I'm still skeptical how efficient the targeting is on everything and how well they'll avoid missile defense systems.
I hate jingoistic bullshit. 3days? How many years were we in Afghanistan?
Ukraine troops are battle hardened and have NATO tanks and weapons. They are holding on but territory changes are tiny. Modern war isn't WW2 blitzkrieg.
The actual entry into Afghanistan and overwhelming of local forces was wildly fast? The majority of our time in Afghanistan wasn't slowly advancing on Kabul. It was failing miserably to build a coherent state sympathetic to US interests amidst a mad dash of privatized MIC interests maximally extracting revenues from the US.
I'm slightly worried about the really big guns russia supposedly have, but only slightly. At this point, it's not like there's a big red "launch" button on putin's desk; it'd have to go through a few people that may have the actual big picture in their mind.
We bought those people off decades ago, all their yachts, townhouses and other decent shit is as far from Russia as possible.
But if they see they can back us down and let them invade a country by waving nukes, they will be greatly encouraged to do so again, the cost/benefit ratio is far too high, they're getting something for literally nothing.
They won't shut up they'll give warnings each time something comes along. They switched their nonsense from "red lines" to "open war" because that sells better to fearmongers. In reality, Ukraine has shown in Kursk how much the red lines mean - that is fuckall. Biden just needs to stop being a pussy and say yes.
Staying in Ukraine is just begging for everyone else to revisit all the genocides they've inflicted on others, like Armenia, Ukraine, poles, the list is endless.
I think a lot of those people would love to lay hands-on Russian citizens right now, for old times sake.
It's so delicious to watch karma unfold in real time to someone who so deserves it.
This is like a man trying to defend murder by saying you were just trying to rape her but she resisted.
Maybe the word "directly" didn't translate well. If Russia engages NATO directly, their forces will be wiped off the map. Ukraine is using old NATO equipment from the 90s that was pulled out of storage and kicking all kinds of Russian ass. Direct NATO involvement would mean carrier groups, F35s, stealth bombers, and a whole lot of other fun things the Russians have zero answer for.
Easy loophole. Tell Eastern European countries they can do whatever the hell they want. I think several have a score to settle with Russia.
But seriously if Putin would prefer to not have deep strikes into Russia, then maybe we could meet him halfway -- send a NATO coalition to Ukraine and steamroll Russia out. Including from Crimea.
I can understand how the guidance systems being still controlled by NATO satellites/support mechanisms would be considered a different level for them, but is it just more sabre rattling? That's the question.