Re: OT: Cracking Speech by JDV!

On 17/02/2025 5:06 am, Cursitor Doom wrote:

On Sun, 16 Feb 2025 13:50:19 +0000, liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid
(Liz Tuddenham) wrote:
 

Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:
>

On 16/02/2025 11:48 pm, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:
>

On 16/02/2025 6:41 am, Cursitor Doom wrote:

On Sat, 15 Feb 2025 10:53:37 -0700, Don Y
<blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:
>

On 2/15/2025 3:07 AM, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

>
<snip>
>

So, if he was afraid of having a NATO Ukraine on his border, he
hasn't yet realized what a threat a re-ARMED Europe would pose in
that same geographical position.  Trump's trash talking may result
in a EUTO (without the US) that feels empowered to push back on
future issues without "consent" from the US.

>
Getting Europe's military up to the job would take at least a decade.
But there's no money available. Germany - once the economic powerhouse
of the continent - is on its knees and France likewise. And even if it
could be afforded - which it can't - we now know Putin can call upon
China and N. Korea, so if push ever came to shove, continental Europe
would be toast.

>
The US Abrahams tank relies on a German gun and UK (Chobham) armour.

>
But the Americans won't have to fight if Trump has his way.  He thinks
he can just keep Putin happy by feeding him European countries,
one-by-one.

>
NATO exists so that he can't do that. An attack on one NATO member is an
attack on all of them. Ukraine is a not a member of NATO (and Putin
doesn't want it to join).

>
A flourish of the pen is all it needs to destroy that.  Trunp has pulled
out of other alliances when it suits him, why not this one?

 If Ukraine were somehow magically inducted into NATO, the US would
immediately withdraw - and you can't blame them. That little
Hitleresque fellow that runs Ukraine seems hell-bent on starting WW3
and Trump - whatever his other faults - does NOT want any more
conflict if it can possibly be avoided. That is an aim that should be
applauded, too.

Zelensky is about as unlike Hitler as it is possible to. He has more in common with Chaplin, who did parody Hitler in "The Great Dictator".
Zelensky didn't provoke Putin into staging a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He was elected in 2019. Putin had annexed Crimea in 2014, and encouraged an insurrection in the Donbass region at much the same time.
Trump doesn't want to upset Putin - he does seem to be one of Putin's tame oligarchs, who has been promoted way above his level of competence.
--
Bill Sloman, Sydney