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To: Grzegorz 246

I’ve not seen Romanian soldiers and can’t comment on them. Polish are good, worked with them a lot. Ukrainian ... um, well. They’re interesting. Mixed bag. Heavy drinkers! Some officers were quite good. I worked with them quite a lot.

Russian. I couldn’t believe we were once so scared of the Red Army. But that was in the 90s when they were at their worst and practically starving. Some, after going so long without pay, killed themselves so their widows and children could get their death benefit and pension and get something to eat (the Russian government still paid those, but was not paying living serving soldiers at the time). It was all very sad. I imagine they’ve improved by now. Surely.

But the Bulgarian soldiers are the worst of the worst. Maybe they’ve improved in the years since I saw them. I hope so. I never saw a stupider nastier bunch in my life. Bulgarian civvies were fine. I was friends with some. Their version of the KGB was quite nasty back in the day, though. Real creeps.

The USA pays by far the lion’s share of the NATO common budget (not just NATO “defense spending”). And we tend to give stuff to poorer NATO countries, too.

I don’t blame people in other countries hating our stupid wars. I hated them, too. I am not happy about the trouble we stirred up in Ukraine, either. I was furious at the time, but I am but one small person and had no power to stop it.


118 posted on 01/24/2022 4:15:58 PM PST by CatHerd (Whoever said "All's fair in love and war" probably never participated in either.)
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To: CatHerd
“The USA pays by far the lion's share of the NATO common budget”

Nato common budget is $2 billion a year and share of the US is 16%.

131 posted on 01/25/2022 10:40:18 AM PST by Grzegorz 246
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