I agree. Life is a simple pecking order. You see it between siblings, you see it in the school yard and within corporate life. By extension you can say it exists between societies and civilizations. I know the West isn't perfect, but I do know who I would prefer as my overlord.
Belarus getting special attention this morning, with a USAF Global Hawk drone operating over Poland at 53,000ft along the border. Then in Lithuania, there are not one, but two US Army Beech signals-gathering turboprops covering both the border with Belarus and Kaliningrad.
There is , technically , a way that NATO can GET DIRECTLY INVOLVED in the Ukr.. and is as follows :- NATO updates it’s requirements re entry into NATO and would go like this . It would create a special category for new applications and call it Temporary/ Guest / Provisional - or whatever- members and such membership is sanctioned once the application form hits the NATO Deak. NATO would then make available ALL of its services to the Guest /Temporary member. NATO would not require the new member to fulfill all the requirements of a full member from the outset. ‘An exchange of letters’ might be required - within a very confidential environment might be required beforehand Re NATO agreeing to ‘immediately ‘ accept a new guest member
The above arrangement might be in place for- say- 5 years and during this period NATO would access the new member re FULL membership. The 5 year period could be extended if required.
if above strategy is now in place NATO could immediately put in place a no fly zone , etc. Putin is now confronted with a very changed situation
APART FROM THE SPEED OF TH E ABOVE the BEAUTY of it is that RUSSIA CANNOT VETO IT.
I know that it does not get rid of the nuke issue but Putin clearly understands that NATO will protect every inch of NATO SPACE.
It's about Israel in relation to Russia, if you bothered actually reading. And nothing to do with Jews, rather Israel as a country, two separate entities. Engage your brain before you post
This one of those classic scenarios where you claim something as fact and instead of proof, you disappear? Might even return later in the day to make another claim that you can't prove.
Let's hope so. Frankly I trust the Chinese about as much as I trust the Russians
Mariupol obviously hasn't surrendered ..
Wtf are you talking about... Irish troops in Ukraine..
I think Israel is trending on Twitter for the 5th time in this war. Literally a war in Europe, and Europeans are obsessed about the minutia of response from a state the size of Wales in the Middle East.
Europe: Boycott Israel! BDS! From the river to the sea! Israel is illegitimate! we are all Hamas! Muh Israel lobby!
Also Europe: Why won't Israel jump to Europe's aid when Europe demands it.?!?!?
If Israel sent weapons in, the same dastardly crew who're just now claiming that Israel is doing nothing about a war in Europe would be saying "typical of Israel trying to profit from war sending in weapons to cause more bloodshed"
Interesting that there's been no mention of Turkey's very muted response. No Jews, no news.
Surprise, surprise : Young intelligent educated people in the year 2022 don't like the idea of pandering to the violent and catastrophic whims of a fat old communist cretin who wants to drag a generation back to dictatorship squalor.
Israel strikes Iran in Syria with full coordination of Russia. No Coordination = very difficult to strike due to activation of S-400 and danger of hitting Russian troops.
"wipe out Russian forces" - have a listen you yourself mate. This is crazy talk.
Russia has curiously targeted a lot of malls in Ukraine.
Wonder if there will be calls for current affairs to be closed down because people are asking them to provide evidence to back up their claims.
What's curious about it. They're attacking the civilian population. They are a terrorist state.
The amount of Russians and Chinese that have been allowed wander as they want into the Western world, a lot of them have bags of dosh thanks to the Wests consumers.
If China and India militarily back Russia or stand by her in event of nuclear, biological or chemical attack then economically cut them off.
Yes it will really hurt us short term, but it will fooking send them back to the days when all they had were buffalos ploughing the fields.
I keep saying this, but the West needs to wake to fook up.
The Western world are enabling the enemies of the West by, in the case of Russia becoming dependent on their oil/gas and in the case of China as a means of producing everything and anything.
Covid should have been a wake up call, but no multinationals still want to produce their stuff as cheap as possible and Western consumers just want more of the cr**.
The rise of the mega multinationals, many of whom we harbour, who totally disregard taxes, who move production to the cheapest location no matter who the feck they are, who disregard privacy laws, who help subvert democracy, who try to drag us all into a life of never ending subscription services needs to be faced up by a concerted effort of all Western countries.
We have never ending shyte about climate change, but sweet shag all about aiding the likes of China by continuing the mad consumerist society.
If you want to help the world don't buy a new iPhone, don't buy a new Dell computer, you will send a message to the multinationals, the Chinese and indirectly help the environment.
The alternative is a world ruled by the multinationals and the likes of the Chinese.
Anyone know how the one the Quinn's owned has done ?
Yesterday evening, a Polish Military Medivac helicopter entered Ukranian airspace to pick up a family of 4.
That's an interesting, but unsurprising development, given the clear frustration of the Polish Government over the weekend. I'd say we are close to seeing Polish peacekeeping troops on the ground in Ukraine.
https://mobile.twitter.com/tvn24/status/1505831482144829444
I doubt many people are in them. Just seems a strange waste of missiles. I'm thinking it's either to devastate them economically or demoralise. Targeting this kind of infrastructure has a morale sapping effect on the civilian population. Blowing up ammo dumps, shooting drones out of the sky....that doesn't really affect the civilian population so much, but seeing the place you visit every weekend to get your shopping etc decimated ...it's psychological.
Is it still operational? tried to look up info, but there's conflicting news about them trying to sell and that it's abandoned.
44% of Europe's arms exports went to Russia
The article does not say the helicopter entered Ukrainian airspace, just that a family of four were transported to Krakow, we don't know exactly where they boarded the helicopter. I would be surprised if it entered Ukrainian airspace.
The Irish Air Corps also transported a sick child and his family to Crumlin, but these kids are moved by Ambulance first across the border and I would imagine the above was similar.
Not surprising. France and Germany have a history of this. Did it with Saddam's Iraq and Iran too.
The 2014 EU arms embargo had this unfortunate exemption which allowed member states to continue to send arms and spares to Russia:-
"The prohibitions in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 shall be without prejudice to the execution of contracts or agreements concluded before 1 August 2014, and to the provision of spare parts and services necessary to the maintenance and safety of existing capabilities within the Union"
The reality is the 2014 restrictions did not establish a proper arms embargo, it just prevented new contracts being concluded and allowed existing contracts to continue.
Just on a side note with respect to MOEX. The exchange will open for limited trading in government bonds today.
It is not opening the stock exchange to allow trading in shares. The central bank will be buying Russian bonds to provide liquidity.
This is going to be a real risk now. The more Russia bomb and kill civilians and homes, the more hate and resentment their is going to be on the Ukraine side.
There will be a real risk of atrocities being committed by all sides as this goes on.
Nonsense ,
The Russians threatened Israel and Israel still bomb where and when they want inside Syria , Russia doesn't have the ability to stop them, Israel has shown time and time again it will go after anyone who steps on their toes when it comes to their own protection ,they have the ability to wipe out Russian forces in Syria fairly quickly ,
Have you not seen what's been happening for the last month the Russians are getting hammered by ukraine , Israel is far more superior in military doctrine and offensive capability
Per an interview with Gen. Petraeus, one of the reasons senior officers are being killed by the Ukrainians is due to destruction of the Russian militaries communication capabilities in Ukraine. Apparently they're desperate enough to confiscate cellphones from Ukrainians and use them, though at one point the Ukrainians had blocked calls to Russia (via dial code.) That and there's no 'on the ground' communication, apparently NCO's aren't a thing in the Russian military, everything's hierarchy of reporting, so the generals needing intel rock up to the front lines, where the Ukrainians are waiting. US lost one senior officer in Afghanistan(?, maybe Iraq), Russia maybe as many as 10. Crazy.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/20/politics/clarence-thomas-hospitalized/index.html
It makes life very tough and dangerous for the civilians being targeted, but estimates of the effect on civilian morale can be overestimated. The Germans and the Allies found this out during WW2, especially the Allies, when years bombing of cities on a huge scale failed to break German morale, even after the Darmstadt, Hamburg and Dresden firestorms . Berlin was being bombed regularly by 1945, but it still took Russian boots on the ground to win. And tens of thousands of owners of those boots were dead by the end.
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