re: #68 Nyet

Defensive measures. But just as no one will realistically occupy Kaliningrad, no one will realistically occupy Poland. Such suggestions betray somewhat of a naive view of the whole situation, without an understanding of why and what gets invaded. If you think about the reasons for, e.g., the Ukrainian invasion, the logistics of it as well as the long-term consequences of it for just a minute, such scenarios should become obviously fantastical.

So let’s not get paranoid and carried away: countries like Poland, Finland, Czech Republic or Sweden won’t get invaded any time soon. Neither will the Baltics. The danger zones are non-NATO members with large Russian-speaking populations. Because they’re the only ones that can be sustainably occupied by Russia.

Hmm. Ukraine is already being invaded. Mr. Trump has stated through his President Steve Bannon that he thinks NATO is obsolete.

Right up to the actual invasion of Poland in WW2 western governments were insisting that it was all just sabre rattling. The Baltic nations cannot stand up even for a couple days against the Russian military if Vladimir Putin decides he wants to re-create the Soviet state.

I’ll go with my sister-in-law’s opinion on this, since she came from the Soviet Union. Putin will do it, he’s just looking for the right opportunity.

Bannon wants all-out warfare. With the notation in the New York Times that he apparently slipped himself onto the NSC in an executive order, I wonder how long it is before he slips in another one (setting aside Trump under the XXV Amendment, using the AUMF to invade someone, &c)