Greg Boeser
1st Sergeant
Happened during OIF, so not surprising.
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Happened during OIF, so not surprising.
I guess if you're a bear you're too dumb to realize when you're not being threatened!Why are we poking the bear in the eye? No NATO expansion and those countries bordering Russia, just stay neutral. It worked for decades during the Cold War.
Why can't Russia behave like pretty much every other European country in 2022? You know, pursue democracy, capitalist economics, and reduced corruption, freedom of speech, freedom of press, etc. It's not perfect everywhere in Europe, but even former dictatorships like Romania are getting it together. Meanwhile Russia terrorizes its own people and neighbours?Why are we poking the bear in the eye?
I guess if you're a bear you're too dumb to realize when you're not being threatened!
Or better yet, ask yourself, why did those countries bordering Russia want to join NATO in the first place?
Why are we poking the bear in the eye? No NATO expansion and those countries bordering Russia, just stay neutral. It worked for decades during the Cold War.
American troops were having family send body armor over because there wasn't enough to go around.What happened during OIF?
Around here if a bear starts killing people, we don't ask if the dead built their homes too close to the bear's dens or let it get used to eating our trash.Why are we poking the bear in the eye? No NATO expansion and those countries bordering Russia, just stay neutral. It worked for decades during the Cold War.
At the cost of nuclear war? No thanks.Around here if a bear starts killing people, we don't ask if the dead built their homes too close to the bear's dens or let it get used to eating our trash.
The bear gets put down. Period.
Like this: Grizzly bear shot dead after killing woman in Montana Published10 July 2021
Other murderous, if metaphorical, bears need to be treated the same way.
Why are we poking the bear in the eye? No NATO expansion and those countries bordering Russia, just stay neutral. It worked for decades during the Cold War.
It seems the Russian Federation doesn't have a monopoly on cold war mindset. The times they are a-changin' and we're relearning the lessons of 1938-39 on the backs of the Ukrainian people. Time hurries on, but some playbooks repeat themselves with tragic regularity. The actors may change, but the script stays eternal.Why are we poking the bear in the eye? No NATO expansion and those countries bordering Russia, just stay neutral. It worked for decades during the Cold War.
Why provoke a nuclear war? The stakes are too high. We have no business putting US troops on Russia's border. Nor risking US troops on countries that were not part of the initial group of treaty nations.
POTUS45 would jump for joy! Fiddling while Rome burns.Since we can't selectively expel NATO members from the organization, the alternative is for the US to pull out of NATO itself. Can you imagine the party in the Kremlin if that were to happen? Are you recommending that course of action?
Why provoke a nuclear war? The stakes are too high. We have no business putting US troops on Russia's border. Nor risking US troops on countries that were not part of the initial group of treaty nations.
As others have pointed out, Ukraine was non-aligned. The Budapest Memorandum, signed in 1994 by the US, UK and Russia, provided that none of the signatories would threaten or use military force against Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, except in self-defence or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations. France and China didn't sign the memorandum but later signed other, albeit weaker, agreements with the 3 nations. As a result of these guarantees, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan agreed to give up their nuclear weapons.
Given Russia's actions against Ukraine, why would any sensible-minded national leader believe a word that comes out of the Kremlin? Remember back in February how Putin and his cronies kept saying that the forces on Ukraine's borders were just conducting exercises and they had no intention of invading Ukraine?
Nobody wants nuclear war but, at the same time, we can't just stand by and let Putin get his way, particularly when it involves sacrificing Ukraine or other independent nations. Failure to confront Putin will simply encourage him to do the same again, and again, and again.
At the cost of nuclear war? No thanks.
John de LancieIf you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid.
Why can't Russia behave like pretty much every other European country in 2022? You know, pursue democracy, capitalist economics, and reduced corruption, freedom of speech, freedom of press, etc. It's not perfect everywhere in Europe, but even former dictatorships like Romania are getting it together. Meanwhile Russia terrorizes its own people and neighbours?
Democracy, personal freedom, and capitalism are learned skills, difficult to instill in a culture that doesn't have the history and traditions to allow the appropriate social, economic, and political reflexes to develop. They all depend on trust, a rare commodity in people that have been downtrodden and oppressed since time immemorial.Frankly, I don't give 2 hoots whether Russia adopts Western norms of democracy, personal freedoms, and capitalism. Russia can and should decide for themselves what type of government they want.
Democracy, personal freedom, and capitalism are learned skills, difficult to instill in a culture that doesn't have the history and traditions to allow the appropriate social, economic, and political reflexes to develop. They all depend on trust, a rare commodity in people that have been downtrodden and oppressed since time immemorial.