Reagan said “isn’t it smart to be as strong as the bear?”. Not “go to where it lives and screw around in a menacing manner, occasionally poking it with a stick”.
paranoia: Ukraine independence is poking Russia with a stick
When Reagan was around, the Soviet Union + its vassal states were pretty strong. Maybe stronger than NATO. I was in the army back then, and we trained how to fight while giving ground. We hoped to stop the communists prior to the Pyreness.
Things have really changed since then.
Russia = Soviet empire LESS its vassal states of eastern Europe LESS the Baltic states, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Central Asian states. Russia is less than half the size of the Soviet empire. And, the west has picked up a lot of what Russia lost.
Russia is no longer a peer or even a near peer, but a regional power with nuclear weapons. The fact that Russia has nuclear weapons isn’t nothing. But, to allow Russia to invade foreign countries because it has nuclear weapons (a) won’t satisfy Russia and (b) will encourage every authoritarian ruler in the world to go nuclear. With nuclear proliferation, nuclear war will become inevitable.
It’s one thing for Putinbots to promote Russian aggression. That’s what they’re paid to do. But, I ask my fellow Americans, especially my fellow veterans, to think about this: If you were in the army during the Cold War and served in Europe, as I did (and also Elvis, so we were in good company), consider the tactics you were trained: An active defense. Fight, withdraw, and then fight again. You know we weren’t planning on attacking. You know the Russians are either paranoid or just lying all the time.
Look at the map. How much of Germany or of Japan did we take after WWII? None. In fact, we worked with those countries to rehabilitate them, and to turn them into prosperous, democratic countries.
Now, look at the map again. How much of Germany or of Japan did the Russians take? They took half of Poland and let Poland take a big chunk of eastern Germany in compensation; and, the Russian took half of East Prussia. The Russians also took the Sakhalin Islands from Japan. With regard to the countries of eastern Europe, the Russians turned them into communists countries, using force as necessary to suppress the local population.
Now, look at the map a third time. What happened in South Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan? We did not take over any of them, but tried to set up democratic countries that could defend themselves. I’m sorry, but those people weren’t able - even with our help - of defending themselves. And, this is the way of the world since forever: those who will not defend themselves will become the slaves of others. My point is that we, the U.S., did not annex those places.
Now, look at the map a fourth time. How many places has Russia invaded recently? Syria, Armenia, Azerbaijan (via Armenia) and Ukraine. Thanks to the dictator of Belarus, we also saw a map showing that it intended to conquer all of Ukraine and also Moldova, except its invasion of Ukraine was thwarted.
You might wish, like the yellow-belly Peter Hitchens that all this would go away. That the kind of evil people that have ruled the world forever are no longer around. But that isn’t just wishful thinking. It’s dangerous. Douglas McArthur once put it this way, “wars are caused by undefended wealth.” He also said, “only a soldier knows the horror of war, and only the dead know its end.” That is why the only realistic alternative to war and slavery is “peace through strength.”
Let me know when the Big Red 1 is in Kiev. Oh wait, we aren’t sending anyone there.
MIGs and Russian pilots in Korea and Vietnam were cool. I guess we could “sell” Ukraine some F35s using Russian logic. That would be fun to watch.