Replies

“… House Atreides tells us the war was caused, somehow, by Nord Stream.

House Atreides, post #35: “Germany and Russia wearied of paying EXORBITANT TRANSIT FEES to nations like Poland and Ukraine.
They were TRYING TO AVOID POLISH EXTORTION by BYPASSING THEM with the NORD STREAM PIPELINE.
So please give the invalid “THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING” boogeyman scare tactic a rest.”…”
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Please…. PLEASE…. Reread post # 35 above, put your reading comprehension hat on and try to what I said. I did NOT say the current Ukraine war was “caused, somehow, by Nord Stream”. I said the Nord Stream pipeline network itself was built to avoid Polish and Ukrainian transit fees — AND IT WAS! And what my post 35 was addressing was the silly idea that, somehow, if we don’t support Ukraine, Russia will invade Poland.

House Atreides: "Please…. PLEASE…. Reread post # 35 above, put your reading comprehension hat on and try to what I said.
I did NOT say the current Ukraine war was “caused, somehow, by Nord Stream”."

I think I understood you perfectly well, but the issue I addressed in post #197 above was Navy Patriot's response to your post #35 with his comments in #95:

"EXACTLY. Those are the Economics that started this War, and HomoNazi Ukraine deserves punishment."

So, Navy Patriot claimed that somehow Nord Stream was "the Economics that started this War", and therefore, "HomoNazi Ukraine deserves punishment."
I was trying to disabuse him, and anyone else, of such a ridiculous notion.

The fact is, if we are to believe Vlad the Invader on this, economics of Nord Stream, or anything else, had nothing to do with his invasions or annexing Crimea & Donbass.

House Atreides: "I said the Nord Stream pipeline network itself was built to avoid Polish and Ukrainian transit fees — AND IT WAS!
And what my post 35 was addressing was the silly idea that, somehow, if we don’t support Ukraine, Russia will invade Poland."

Like you, I doubt but don't know if Poland will be next after a successful Ukraine invasion.
My guess would be a non-NATO country like Moldova or Georgia, but there is also the matter of Kaliningrad, a Russian outpost surrounded by NATO -- Poland and Lithuania.
It might be that Russians in Kaliningrad feel so threatened by their NATO neighbors that Vlad the Invader has no choice except to liberate them by invading Latvia and Lithuania, to create a "safe zone" corridor for Russians.

And the key point to remember here is that a successful invasion of Ukraine will increase Russia's population and economy by roughly one third, and that will make Vlad's next invasions all the easier.
It's the same pattern we saw in the 1930s in the Rhineland, Austria, Czechoslovakia and then, which country came next?
What was that next country after Czechoslovakia?

Wait... wait... I'll look it up and get back to you... 🤣