Why Putin Has Not Been Deterred - Victor Davis Hanson

[Geee]

American Greatness

Exasperated Americans fear Vladimir Putin is deterred neither by sanctions nor by arms sales but follows only his own sense of cost-to-benefit self-interest.

Americans want an autonomous Ukraine to survive. They hope the West can stop Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strangulation of both Ukraine and NATO. 

Yet Americans do not want their troops to venture across the world to Europe’s backyard to fight nuclear Russia to ensure that Ukraine stays independent. 

Most Americans oppose the notion that Russia can simply dictate the future of Ukraine. 

 

Yet Americans also grudgingly accept that Ukraine was often historically part of Russia. During World War II, it was the bloody scene of joint Russian-Ukrainian sacrifices—over 5 million killed—to defeat the Nazi German invasion. 

Americans publicly support NATO. 

Yet most Americas privately worry that NATO has become diplomatically impotent and a military mirage—a modern League of Nations. 

NATO members have a collective GDP seven times larger than Russia’s. Their aggregate population is 1 billion. Yet the majority will not spend enough on defense to deter their weaker enemies. 

The second largest NATO member, Turkey, is closer to Russia than to the United States. Its people poll anti-American. 

 

[Valin]

@Geee

Jan. 26 2022

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Broad Brush

Putin is doing what Putin does. He's holding a pair of 4's acting like he's got a straight flush. Turkey is (politically) allying with Russia because they what the Ottoman empire back, or some form of it. They are also holding America hostage *Incirlik Air Base, and they have not been a reliable ally since 2001. NATO founded on 3 things keep Russia Out, Germany Down, America In. Well Russia's In Germany's Up, A lot of Americans wonder (and I'm not saying they're right) if we should stay in.

 

* Change it to an unaccompanied station, pull all the dependents out. and start look for another place to put an air base in that region. Question: Do we want to be allies of an Islamist country with imperial ambitions?

[Valin]

Quote

In a recent Pew Research Center poll, 70 percent of Germans voiced a desire for more cooperation with Russia. Most Americans poll the exact opposite. 

Given the History of Germany/the German people and Russia/Russian people going back to the High Middle Ages, I've got to ask WTH? One of the reasons Russians are so paranoid in on a regular basis The Germans invade them....with the Poles caught in the middle. If I were a Russian, I'd be asking myself what do they means by cooperation?

Thing is (IMO) most Americans when they think about Europe, they think Britain/France/Western Europe. Nice and reasonably stable. When I think of Central/Eastern Europe 2 words come to mind Rats...Nest.

 

This is what I am talking about.

Jan. 26 2022

The German invasion of Poland was dramatic, and drew the attention of the entire world, but fighting had actually begun even earlier as Germany sought to press its territorial ambitions. Often overlooked, actual combat occurred six months earlier, and not far from the Polish border with Czechoslovakia, in a tiny, autonomous region with several names, including, for a time, the Republic of Carpatho-Ukraine.

[Valin]