World war 3?

[Old55]

29 minutes ago, Mike J said:

If Putin succeeds in the land grab will he demand the USA give back Alaska?  Send in "peace keepers"?

If I had my way we would "give" California back to Mexico.

[Dave Hounddriver]

52 minutes ago, Mike J said:

If Putin succeeds in the land grab will he demand the USA give back Alaska?

Friends in northern Canada have actually reported seeing large numbers of US military aircraft heading to Alaska.  No one is taking anything for granted.

[baronapart]

I have been to Ukraine several times and was married to a Ukrainian woman for six years. In Western Ukraine I found that almost everyone identified as Ukrainians. In the East I found that those over 40 identified strongly as Russian and under 30 identified strongly as Ukrainian. It was an interesting dichotomy that affected elections and helped lead to where we are now. Historic 'New Russia' located in the East and South of Ukraine have always felt more Russian. I had Ukrainians ask me when the troubles started in 2014 when the Americans were coming to help them I told them that would never happen. They took our support for the Orange Revolution and Maiden protests seriously. They were genuinely surprised.

[Snowy79]

Without going down the politics route I'm sure there's a lot more dodgy dealing that was going on before Putin had enough. 

[earthdome]

On 2/25/2022 at 4:33 PM, earthdome said:

On 2/25/2022 at 7:01 AM, Jollygoodfellow said:

Anyone have an opinion why Russia took Chernobyl nuclear plant ?

Only thing that comes to mind is that they want to extract the remaining fuel/spent fuel so Ukraine can not use it in a potential weapons program. Or... make the claim that they were preventing that to justify the i

I think I understand the reasoning behind Russia capturing the nuclear sites in Ukraine. in 1994 after the USSR broke up and Ukraine was a fledgling new democracy there was concern that there were still 5000 nuclear warheads in Ukraine. So the US, Russia and I think the UK came to an agreement that they would help Ukraine retain their sovereignty if they would turn over all those nuclear warheads to Russia. Which subsequently at least some of them were destroyed as the US and Russia dismantled some of their nuclear arsenal.

Back in February when the Ukraine President attended a regional security conference in Munich he suggested that Ukraine once again pursue nuclear weapons.

So from Putin's reasoning he is preempting Ukraine from developing nuclear weapons (WMD) by taking control of any nuclear related sites.

[Snowy79]

Sometimes you can't always trust the media. Some pretty major debunking starting to come out of the Ukraine.  https://youtu.be/98cXig0hOVw

 

[Dave Hounddriver]

2 hours ago, Snowy79 said:

Sometimes you can't always trust the media.

AHA.  That's one of the "fact checkers" who knows better than everyone else.  Who'd a thunk that war propaganda was fake news?  Way to ruin some good stories.

EDIT:  take a look from 8:14 on.  That's when she starts to push her "opinion" as fact.  We all do it, even the fact checkers.

Edited March 6, 2022 by Dave Hounddriver

[earthdome]

it has been said that the first casualty of war is the truth. From my perspective it has become obvious that the world is awash in a sea of propaganda which is spread widely using all types of media from print, TV and online. It is an information war being conducted by all sides in this conflict.

IMHO the US, EU & NATO by expanding NATO into former WARSAW Pact countries and former USSR republics has pushed the Russian bear into a corner, so don't be surprised if it lashes out. This isn't said to justify what Putin has done but to understand why. He is a dictator who can get nasty if he feels that his base of power is threatened.

Russia is not a threat to Europe, their slow progress in Ukraine shows they are not the feared military power of 40 years ago. The only real threat from Russia are their nuclear weapons which are still very formidable. The reckless foreign policy of expanding NATO when it wasn't necessary has brought us closer to the brink of nuclear war than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis.