Reply to Should NATO/ US planes bomb the Russian military massing on the Ukraine border?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Ukraine is not a member of NATO. We should not be intervening militarily.

Russia’s official (and likely) reason for the military build-up is Russian fear of Ukraine joining NATO.

I am as pro-west and pro-USA as they come. But it behooves us to view this potential conflict from every angle.

The Russian “angle” sees Ukrainian NATO membership as analogous to the Cuban missile crisis in reverse; the Russians fear NATO missiles in Ukraine.

Putin will also hold up “protecting the human rights the Russian minority” in Eastern Ukraine as a pretext, even though we know he cares not at all for anyone’s human rights.

But the problem is that NATO, besides Poland and the Baltics, doesn't really want Ukraine to join. Considering the state of relations with Turkey, and Putin's growing friendship with Erdogan, there is chance that NATO expands in the short term. If Russia doesn't make it an issue it wouldn't be an issue. The Ukraine's geography is not a good defesive line and missiles in Ukraine provide no strategic advantage over missiles in Poland, Romania, or the Baltics. It's all a saber rattling move on Russia's part. Unfortunately the more Russia pushes the more likely Ukrainian membership in NATO becomes. If there is ever a war then the entire East European Plain would be one giant killing field, just like it has been during every previous war in that region.

From NATO's perspective, the Russian aggression over Ukraine, along with its Belarusian puppet, is a direct threat to Poland and the Baltics. Russia has already meddled with the Baltics through cyber attacks and riling up the ethnic Russian minority population. If the Ukrainian buffer gets breached then events will spiral out of control.

But the ethnic Russian minority in the Baltics IS prosecuted and denied their human rights. It's not a made-up problem.

- given Stalin and the USSR’s persecution and oppression of non-Russians in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia right up to 1989, is anyone surprised?

I am not aware of anything stopping Russians living in the Baltics from moving and living someplace else, such as, maybe, Russia?[/quote]

Oh please.  The Baltic states were smart-- they required the ethnic Russians to choose a citizenship---no dual citizenship which could be used as a pretext for Russia invading to protect "their" citizens.   What the Russians did to the  people of the Baltics will not be forgotten.  They swept into Lithuania and took apart the middle class and sent most to Siberia---deliberately going after the educated who could have organized political dissent.    [/quote]

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