This post IMV is a clear, coherent analysis of a continued need for NATO and for the importance of Ukraine in the defense of Europe. I suspect Trump will not be a problem at the meeting in Turkey as he respects, probably fears as well disapproval of strong leaders like Erdogan. In fact I predict he will behave. After this meeting will come the midterms in America with a Democratic majority in the House and maybe in the Senate. After that I doubt he can sabotage NATO, although I expect he will try, as he is addicted to Russian money, well, money in general whether Russia’s, Saudi Arabia’s, the Gulf states, and on and on.
When did the price of oil plunge? Maybe it is going down now after the massive increase in price from the bombardment of Iran and the closure of the strait of Hormuz. Trump has profited in many known ways from Russian money primarily from the Russians who buy Trump properties, Russian criminals to launder money. I suspect he may be on their payroll
There is a lot of reporting that the Russian mafia have bought Trump properties to launder money. In fact New York State made the determination. Trump has borrowed lots of money from Russians. Read the journalist Ungar who has been reporting on Trump’s Russian connections for years
Who needs a journalist to advise "What you need to know"? Trumps certified financials, updated regularly, have been online since 2016. Here is the current one....assets, income, loans, trusts.....not a Russian in sight. https://oge.app.box.com/s/k0hxcezgk7j1cyqoue16cillsi9srmfu
A sobering reality - they must get their 'ducks' together in Europe and focus on keeping united. Why Ukr, after it has kept Russia at bay, is blocked from joining NATO, puzzles me.
What is the future prize when the dust settles? Opportunity to re-build the vast swaths of Russia and Ukraine could be a multi generational and decades of peace and prosperity focused on the bottom half of the population where some have never known what life could be like in a democracy checks and balance vs strong man gun to the head oligarchy. This should be on NATO's to do list should they need to step in and help with setting up. Is there a game plan?
The current invasion of Europe by Russia is just one of the manifold efforts by the Kremlin and its minions. Mao started on the Kremlin payroll in 1926 and others in the Middle East, Africa, and South America joined him to form a powerful internationale. It has terrorized, invaded, and committed genocide for 100 years.
It has manipulated the price of energy to fill its coffers by funding anti drilling efforts and creating turmoil in the markets with regularly scheduled attacks.
But Trump targeted this network on day one with Drill Baby Drill. So far, he has vanquished Yemen, Syria, Venezuela, Iran, Hamas and others with the help of Israel and Ukraine. Ukraine has actually has outdone the US in the effort against this Evil Empire. Ukrainian drones lead the epic charge that ousted Putins puppets in Syria and they are also helping in the Iran war. However it has cost Ukraine hundreds of thousands of lives.
But where is the rest of the West? It is not just European countries that are AWOL. Its really the rest of the world that benefits while sitting idly, enjoying a relatively hedonistic life.
Its also possible that the Oval Office No Cards episode was Kabuki theater for the benefit of NATO and Putin. It served to elicit vigor from the former and languor from the latter.
The real issue with NATO is not the overall NATO-related cost, which represents 10-15% of the total DoD appropriation, but rather nuclear arms. Europe could and already is funding the war in Ukraine to about 90% of the total NATO-related costs currently funded by the U.S. If the war were to end tomorrow and the U.S. were to remove all its troops and bases from Europe, the funds it now spends on the war would suffice to replace 85-90% of the cost of U.S. forces in Europe.
Those U.S. forces are now facing a greatly weakened Russian conventional force. If, after more than four years, Russia has been unable to win this conventional war against only Ukraine, how can Russia hope to win against BOTH Ukraine and NATO after losing 50-70% of its pre-war modern conventional ground capability and 1.4 million of its manpower as casualties and burdens on its federal budget? They lost nearly 600,000 pieces of equipment. Where are their tanks? Their armored vehicles? Their professional ground combat personnel?
Although comparisons of military strength are always somewhat inexact and indeterminate, it is clear that European NATO forces (without the U.S.) would retain larger conventional forces than russia and superiority in airpower, naval power, and total spending. Russia may be able to mobilize more active personnel, but Ukraine will bring its 600,000.
Although it would be suicidal for Russia to conventionally take on a united NATO allied with Ukraine, its greatly larger arsenal of nuclear warheads in comparison with those of the U.K. and France makes it imperative that NATO focus its funding and its most talented scientists and engineers on furnishing Europe with a "Mutual Assured Destruction" nuclear capability. Only then will Europe
Can we develop better terminology for the new reality in the Middle East and Europe? Both Russia and Iran are conducting long term multi-level "military" campaigns against their enemies. Calling them all "hybrid warfare" sounds too much like an interesting experiment. Cold War II is too old fashioned when dealing with three different anti Western ideologies. Looks more like hi-tech guerilla warfare to me.
This post IMV is a clear, coherent analysis of a continued need for NATO and for the importance of Ukraine in the defense of Europe. I suspect Trump will not be a problem at the meeting in Turkey as he respects, probably fears as well disapproval of strong leaders like Erdogan. In fact I predict he will behave. After this meeting will come the midterms in America with a Democratic majority in the House and maybe in the Senate. After that I doubt he can sabotage NATO, although I expect he will try, as he is addicted to Russian money, well, money in general whether Russia’s, Saudi Arabia’s, the Gulf states, and on and on.
What Russian money has Trump taken? If anything, Trump is responsible for gutting the Russian economy by plunging the price of oil
When did the price of oil plunge? Maybe it is going down now after the massive increase in price from the bombardment of Iran and the closure of the strait of Hormuz. Trump has profited in many known ways from Russian money primarily from the Russians who buy Trump properties, Russian criminals to launder money. I suspect he may be on their payroll
So if someone is in the condo business and they give it to a person in exchange for money....how is that inappropriate?
There is a lot of reporting that the Russian mafia have bought Trump properties to launder money. In fact New York State made the determination. Trump has borrowed lots of money from Russians. Read the journalist Ungar who has been reporting on Trump’s Russian connections for years
Who needs a journalist to advise "What you need to know"? Trumps certified financials, updated regularly, have been online since 2016. Here is the current one....assets, income, loans, trusts.....not a Russian in sight. https://oge.app.box.com/s/k0hxcezgk7j1cyqoue16cillsi9srmfu
A sobering reality - they must get their 'ducks' together in Europe and focus on keeping united. Why Ukr, after it has kept Russia at bay, is blocked from joining NATO, puzzles me.
What is the future prize when the dust settles? Opportunity to re-build the vast swaths of Russia and Ukraine could be a multi generational and decades of peace and prosperity focused on the bottom half of the population where some have never known what life could be like in a democracy checks and balance vs strong man gun to the head oligarchy. This should be on NATO's to do list should they need to step in and help with setting up. Is there a game plan?
Rebuilding is not NATO's brief
Let's not forget that there is a broader picture.
The current invasion of Europe by Russia is just one of the manifold efforts by the Kremlin and its minions. Mao started on the Kremlin payroll in 1926 and others in the Middle East, Africa, and South America joined him to form a powerful internationale. It has terrorized, invaded, and committed genocide for 100 years.
It has manipulated the price of energy to fill its coffers by funding anti drilling efforts and creating turmoil in the markets with regularly scheduled attacks.
But Trump targeted this network on day one with Drill Baby Drill. So far, he has vanquished Yemen, Syria, Venezuela, Iran, Hamas and others with the help of Israel and Ukraine. Ukraine has actually has outdone the US in the effort against this Evil Empire. Ukrainian drones lead the epic charge that ousted Putins puppets in Syria and they are also helping in the Iran war. However it has cost Ukraine hundreds of thousands of lives.
But where is the rest of the West? It is not just European countries that are AWOL. Its really the rest of the world that benefits while sitting idly, enjoying a relatively hedonistic life.
Ukraine has done it despite Trump
Its also possible that the Oval Office No Cards episode was Kabuki theater for the benefit of NATO and Putin. It served to elicit vigor from the former and languor from the latter.
The real issue with NATO is not the overall NATO-related cost, which represents 10-15% of the total DoD appropriation, but rather nuclear arms. Europe could and already is funding the war in Ukraine to about 90% of the total NATO-related costs currently funded by the U.S. If the war were to end tomorrow and the U.S. were to remove all its troops and bases from Europe, the funds it now spends on the war would suffice to replace 85-90% of the cost of U.S. forces in Europe.
Those U.S. forces are now facing a greatly weakened Russian conventional force. If, after more than four years, Russia has been unable to win this conventional war against only Ukraine, how can Russia hope to win against BOTH Ukraine and NATO after losing 50-70% of its pre-war modern conventional ground capability and 1.4 million of its manpower as casualties and burdens on its federal budget? They lost nearly 600,000 pieces of equipment. Where are their tanks? Their armored vehicles? Their professional ground combat personnel?
Although comparisons of military strength are always somewhat inexact and indeterminate, it is clear that European NATO forces (without the U.S.) would retain larger conventional forces than russia and superiority in airpower, naval power, and total spending. Russia may be able to mobilize more active personnel, but Ukraine will bring its 600,000.
Although it would be suicidal for Russia to conventionally take on a united NATO allied with Ukraine, its greatly larger arsenal of nuclear warheads in comparison with those of the U.K. and France makes it imperative that NATO focus its funding and its most talented scientists and engineers on furnishing Europe with a "Mutual Assured Destruction" nuclear capability. Only then will Europe
Can we develop better terminology for the new reality in the Middle East and Europe? Both Russia and Iran are conducting long term multi-level "military" campaigns against their enemies. Calling them all "hybrid warfare" sounds too much like an interesting experiment. Cold War II is too old fashioned when dealing with three different anti Western ideologies. Looks more like hi-tech guerilla warfare to me.