Posted on 09/18/2014 2:05:29 PM PDT by Mariner
And Obama wouldn’t know about it until he saw it on the news.
I also strongly suspect that a real shooting war would see large scale desertions from the Russian army: the Russian people aren’t idiots and they bitterly recall how Stalin squandered the lives of his soldiers in WWII— Putin doesn’t have the instruments of repression available to him for that kind of massive coercion, and this isn’t a fight for Russia’s national existence against an enemy infamous for killing captured soldiers.
While I'm inclined to believe that too, I don't know of any evidence that's a fact.
There is some MINOR evidence that Russia is fielding a better trained and better equipped force today. Though those numbers appear small, they are backed by large numbers of old-school Russian Army.
They could still lay a road with artillery across much of Europe. Lots of self-propelled tubes in inventory. Lots. 2500 is a minimum count with thousands in reserve.
Tanks: 2600 active with 12,000 in reserve/storage.
The implication being, of course, that these assets can be protected via air power.
Without US Air power, I doubt Europe could seriously challenge the Russians.
Very true, with all the internal problems and his Eastern borders, Putin can’t afford to tie up, or lose, his somewhat primitive and limited military.
Today, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany alone field more divisions than Russia has in its Western Military District. These countries are backstopped by the rest of NATO, including, of course, the United States.
Boob bait for the babooshkas?
"Go ahead, make my day."
Yeah, I would maybe give him a tiny bit of credit with the other cities. Warsaw, on the other hand, Putin better be ready for total commitment and losing an assload of Russians. Poland isn’t Georgia.
JFK committed the same betrayal against the Cuban rebels in the Bay of Pigs debacle, and GHWB encouraged an Iraqi rebellion in the wake of Desert Storm, then left them twisting in the wind with zero support.
Would you want to send your tank and SP artillery columns against NATO and watch your ability to not only launch limited war, but to defend yourself against your true enemies, be erased?
Russia would be shattered and would break up, and at some point would be seeking help from NATO.
Putin can push around the tiny Ukrainian army, but if he took on Poland he’d get an asswhooping in my opinion. I still don’t think much of the Russian army.
My assumption is that Obama would renege.
True. I thought the same. But that most people could attribute it to him as a real statement is significant.
There’s no proof that he did, only what someone claims to have heard.
You seem not to know that we are part of NATO, and we have troops in NATO and would be destroying the relatively small and limited Russian forces.
Russia knows that it can’t conduct such operations and they know that it would be suicide to try, they would be left gutted and defenseless against their real enemies and secession movements, don’t be falling for this silliness.
I noticed the only source for this conversation is Poroshenko. No context for the statement is provided.
I’ll take a wild guess at how the conversation went.
“You are doing an all out attack on East Ukraine with the Russian army!”
“If it was true we’d already be in Kiev by now and beyond”
good summary....your observations and the social rot that is the EU, a pushover for the Russians
Im perfectly aware that the US is in NATO, along with Bulgaria and Romania.
My contention is that Obama would not honor the treaty.
LOL, just remove America from NATO and it makes your childish game easier, actually Russia would still be destroyed by NATO.
Your ridiculous claim that NATO could be invaded by Russia and Obama could suddenly pull us out of NATO, as they are attacking is just time wasting silliness.
He could do it. There is nothing to stop him. But could he keep em is the question.
Why are you here?
My contention is not that Obama would suddenly pull us out of NATO, it's that he would not send troops to defend Europe.
And without US forces on the ground Europe would collapse under the Russian assault.
The the matter of what Russia "could" do is something brought up by the article. And Poroschenko.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.