Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Beats me why Russia would even want Ukraine....it's a poverty stricken dump
...unless Russia wants it for another pipe line....Russia is going to end up with a lot of mouths to feed
Russia seized the Crimea Peninsula from Ukraine and then annexed it. Now the eastern break-away provinces in the Ukraine could provide a land bridge to Crimea for Russia. These break-way provinces are at this point probably inhabited by mostly Russians. The provinces in question are heavily industrialized (or at least used to be). Seizing more territory for Mother Russia lets Vladimir Putin put another feather in his cap and distract the Russian people from internal issues (wag the dog, anyone?). It puts the other pesky nations that used to be part of the USSR on notice that the Russian bear still has some teeth and is willing to either bite off chunks from or swallow whole nations. And if Putin can get is claims by threats instead of actions, even better because it would illustrate the weakness of the US and NATO to those small nations on Russia's western border.
IMO, Putin's trying the big bluff - he's currently just saber rattling. And claims that Russian troops will be sent to Cuba and Venezuela? This is a nation that had issues supporting its little green men in Syria. Russia simply doesn't currently have the force projection that the United States military currently has.
You realize what diplomacy is, right? Nobody opens all cards before negotiations.
They only thing that is known right now is that "Russia will have to resort to military answer if negotiations fail". That's all we know.
And I guess it's precisely the unknowns of what that "military answer" would be is the trump card (pun intended). To confirm or deny anything at this point would be stupid as it would give out some information that can be used by the opponent.
Ukraine, Cuba, Venezuela - it's just a guesswork of US side, which is taken by surprise.
Nobody but Putin and his advisers know what that "military answer" could be.
I was trying to imagine what it could be, and then realized that I'm not a politician
One thing that comes to mind is to just destroy to dust NATO bases in those countries that joined NATO since 1997. It can be done quite easily with "Caliber" rockets, will take about an hour, and no need for any invasion anywhere. But again, this is just a mind exercise by someone who has no idea how smart politicians (read Putin) think.
Hey, OP< would you be willing to take a rifle and go fight guerilla troops in Cuba or Venezuela? As THAT is exactly, what you will end up with - another disaster of getting beat up by local patriots, who still remember Fidel and Commandante Che.
Would you? Not with joystick on a screen. In real life jungles, where they shoot live bullets. And, everyone hates you.
We could destroy what's left of the Castro regime in 3 days. The vast majority of Cubans HATE them, and would help us.
Same goes for Venezuela, but that might take a week.
We couldn't "take" anything now if we wanted to. We just got our asses handed to us by a bunch of Neanderthal goat herders a few months ago. That should tell you something.
Russia never said that ^. In fact, after USA converted Ukraine to Nazi cesspool, nobody needs it.
.
They didn’t come out and say it. They presented a list of demands, such as “promise Ukraine will never be allowed to join NATO”. Then they massed thousands of troops near the Ukraine border. Clearly the message was, if we don’t comply, they will invade.
Poor Putin. Without his cabin boy Trump in the White House, all he can do is make empty threats.
We couldn't "take" anything now if we wanted to. We just got our asses handed to us by a bunch of Neanderthal goat herders a few months ago. That should tell you something.
The problem from Afghanistan is that the people there, by large, does not want the Western ways of life.
In our hemisphere, we see in the media the tragic stories about women in Afghanistan, and those stories are truly tragic, but for those who have been in the ME for any reason for any length of time, as I have been when I was active duty, we experienced first hand the general tenor of the region. We, meaning the notional West, are not welcomed there. What/who is this 'notional West'? I learned of that phrase from a CMS when I was in Saudi. The 'notional West' is composed of the US (leading the Americas), the EU, JPN, SKR, Taiwan, and Singapore. None are identical in details but shares common ideas in foundation. And it is because of that foundation that we are NOT wanted anywhere in the ME.
When I was active duty, I joked with a few Canadians that Puerto Rico is our 51st state, Canada is 52nd, Mexico is 53rd, Cuba is 54th, and Venezuela is 55th. The Canucks were not offended in the least and laughed. But over beers and pizza, everyone in that post exercise party knew that essentially, what I said was correct. We do not have to 'take' Cuba and Venezuela in the military conventional sense, but if necessary, Miami/Dade PD and the sheriff depts probably could 'take' Cuba with the paramilitary hardware they already have. But there is no need to go to that extreme. Like it or not, Cuba is already notionally ours.
Regarding Venezuela, when Chavez was in power and eventually mismanaged the oil resources, he turned to China for help. China did not helped but exploited Venezuela. China offered to buy Venezuelan crude oil, which was not the best to start, and even pay for Chinese tankers cost. The Chinese did not said they would use Venezuelan crude but only to buy and pay for tanker cost, and because Venezuelan crude is not the 'sweet' variety, China will buy at discount. Chavez agreed to the deal. China then turned their tankers northward to the US because the Texas refineries were the only ones in the world that can process the inferior Venezuelan crude into something more usable. The US got Venezuelan crude at a discount, the Chinese got their profits from the US, then the Chinese tankers refilled with better oil for their domestic consumption.
President Hugo Chavez's government has sold China oil for as little as $5 a barrel and was upset that China apparently profited by selling fuel to other countries, according to a classified U.S. document released by WikiLeaks.
The report about Chinese companies diverting oil was one of several newly released documents that also describe falling crude output in Venezuela caused by a host of problems within the national oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA.
Venezuela’s oil, however, is special: it is “extra-heavy,” meaning that it is particularly carbon-rich, so its development carries greater financial and environmental costs than other types of oil.
Just like Cuba, we do not have to 'take' Venezuela. Right now, single American and European men can get plenty of dates from Venezuelan women looking for exit from Venezuela, and we know how beautiful Venezuelan women can get. It would not take much to make Venezuela notionally ours.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
