Russia and Ukraine

[brewer]

If this goes thru is there a chance that the US can annex Baja California? I mean, come on, they're basically americans anyway.

[Anomalocaris]

If this goes thru is there a chance that the US can annex Baja California? I mean, come on, they're basically americans anyway.

the basis for why Russia wants Ukraine is a very real security concern for a country that has not resigned itself to falling much further down the geopolitical influence ladder.   The fact that the west thinks Russia can be dissuaded from addressing that concern through the simple expedient of delegitimsizing it in our own eyes is really the source of the problem.

Push a country that has the ability to address its concerns with violence too far and there will be blow back.   This is what we see now.

This does not figure in the nicely canned narrative of peaceful world under US hegemony, but it is reality, and failure to act in accordance that reality will erode that hegemony faster than it could be repaired.

[LadyForCamus]

Unfortunately humans are tribal, and unfortunately we always will be.

I am no fan of authoritarianism which is what Putin is after. But I also don't want this mess to end up in WW3.

(Bold mine)

Everybody take a drink.

Boru

Don’t be so judgmental, Boru. Don’t you know all humans are the same species?

[WinterHold]

A new alliance is being formed between Russia, China and other regimes in the shadows right now.
Putin did not invade unless "something" gave him the courage to do it, unless he knows exactly that there are "allies" backing him up.

This is the manifestation of WW3. This is the tip of the iceberg, nukes will be utilised.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

A new alliance is being formed between Russia, China and other regimes in the shadows right now.
Putin did not invade unless "something" gave him the courage to do it, unless he knows exactly that there are "allies" backing him up.

This is the manifestation of WW3. This is the tip of the iceberg, nukes will be utilised.

I am willing bet you a gazillion dollars AND my new foam novelty hat in the shape of a rude hand gesture that nukes will not be used.

Boru

[The Architect Of Fate]

A new alliance is being formed between Russia, China and other regimes in the shadows right now.
Putin did not invade unless "something" gave him the courage to do it, unless he knows exactly that there are "allies" backing him up.

This is the manifestation of WW3. This is the tip of the iceberg, nukes will be utilised.

Your international politics fanfiction is now and always will be bullshit

[WinterHold]

A new alliance is being formed between Russia, China and other regimes in the shadows right now.
Putin did not invade unless "something" gave him the courage to do it, unless he knows exactly that there are "allies" backing him up.

This is the manifestation of WW3. This is the tip of the iceberg, nukes will be utilised.

I am willing bet you a gazillion dollars AND my new foam novelty hat in the shape of a rude hand gesture that nukes will not be used.

Boru

In the Quran, apocalypse comes when the barrier of Gog & Magog is opened. 
I thought Gog & Magog were Europeans; but I made a miscalculation; it turns out that they were composed of two nations:

1-Asian Mongols (they invaded China)
2-Some Russains and Eastern Europeans  (The Golden horde)

Their alliance is your doom. I bet you back that China is with Russia all along, that's why Putin was so bold.
I think China will invade Taiwan.

The west can't take the Golden horde and Asian Mongols without utilising nukes. Maybe Gog & Magog will begin nuking.

[Anomalocaris]

You are not even interpreting total batshit ignoramus nonsense right.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I am willing bet you a gazillion dollars AND my new foam novelty hat in the shape of a rude hand gesture that nukes will not be used.

Boru

In the Quran, apocalypse comes when the barrier of Gog & Magog is opened. 
I thought Gog & Magog were Europeans; but I made a miscalculation; it turns out that they were composed of two nations:

1-Asian Mongols (they invaded China)
2-Some Russains and Eastern Europeans  (The Golden horde)

Their alliance is your doom. I bet you back that China is with Russia all along, that's why Putin was so bold.
I think China will invade Taiwan.

The west can't take the Golden horde and Asian Mongols without utilising nukes. Maybe Gog & Magog will begin nuking.

Pardon me while I fail to give two wet farts what the Quran has to say about this. Or about anything. Your personal mythology has no bearing whatsoever on Putin’s actions or the West’s response to it.

Nice hedging your bets on the nuke thing, though.

Boru

[Anomalocaris]

Also, that Russia will draw the line at Ukraine is inevitable because of the existential importance of Ukraine to Russian ability to pursue an independent foreign policy.        Whether or not they have china’s support would make no difference in the end because it is within Russia’s power to seize Ukraine and then stare down the west without China.

Leaving Russia with the Soviet nuclear arsenal and then thinking that very Russian’s aspiration to remain an independent major power can be trivially trampled time and again will probably leave future historian scratching their heads wonder what drugs all successive Americans administration since the Clintons were on.