The safety of the many (29 Jun, 2022)

[aardvark_admin]

This column is archived at: https://aardvark.co.nz/daily/2022/0629.shtml

How do you defeat a madman who is prepared to unleash nuclear war if he doesn't get what he wants?

Innocent civlilians are losing their lives every day in Ukraine as a result of what are truly terrorist attacks and war crimes. It seems insane that the West would simply sit on the sidelines and watch this happening but what else can they do -- when Putin is clearly prepared to kick of a global nuclear conflict if they dare to step in.

And what if Russia decides to invade Poland and/or Lithuania in order to establish a route for supplies? Will they still be too afraid of risking mutually assured destruction to actually do anything other than frown?

Perhaps the only sane end to this conflict is a surgical strike to take out the madman himself but, just as in the case of Hitler, such things are not always successful and could themselves be the catalyst for nuclear conflict.

[Kiwiiano]

Poland & Lithuania are both NATO countries & attacking them is tantamount to attacking Germany or UK. BOOOOM!!!
Ukraine, Finland & Sweden have all applied for membership & Turkey is apparently withdrawing its objections. That leaves a few smaller countries out in the middle of Europe that aren't members but are sheltering behind others that are.
See https://www.businessinsider.com/map-eur ... sia-2016-7

[aardvark_admin]

But would Russia attacking Poland and/or Lithuania *really* produce the boom of which you speak?

I would suggest that NATO would write very stiff letters of complaint to the Kremlin and they might even send in some "peace-keeping" forces but, if push came to shove and Putin threatened to level London, Paris, Washington and a raft of other capital cities within the ranks of NATO countries... an "accommodation" would be reached (ie: they'd allow a corridor to be created through those countries) so as to ensure the "safety of the many".

[phill]

the corridor to kaliningrad has been used for decades
recently lithuainia closed it for some of russias exports ( steel ) because it fell under the sanctions barrier

will russia test nato's resolve to honor the clause an attack on one is considered an attack on all
no ... because of chamberlain ..nato has to respond .. and will

as luck would have it russia has lost a lot of it's backup supplies .. it still has almost all of it's latest tech and new stuff but a lot of the stuff that would have backed that up in any conflict is hull rusting in eukraine
and it doesn't have an awful lot of the new stuff anyway .. the bulk of what it was relying on in any major conflict was / is the backup stuff

for unknown reasons silly sindy and the nz media are not reporting a lot of what has / is happening in eukraine .. ( i have no idea why and only a conspiracy theory as a guess )
the rest of the world and esp the european media is full of it esp the effects that donated arms has done for them
baykar ( the manufacturers of the bayraktar drone ) alone has donated 3 - 4 of them now to the eukraine

while they appear to be standing alone .. they are not and could not

[Kiwiiano]

But would Russia attacking Poland and/or Lithuania *really* produce the boom of which you speak?

I venture there would be a helluva lot of citizens of Europe bloody pissed off and baying for politicians’ heads on pikes if they don’t come up with a robust response. What’s the point of all that expense & preparation if they roll over & piss in the air when a crunch comes?

[JonL]

Russia didn't blow up a shopping centre. It's been closed since Feb. They blew up the storage facilities behind the centre, full of western gear and ammo - the mall was set on fire from debris from the storage works. No civilians there, no women or children, lots of fully equipped soldiers.
Just another " evil russia" bs item

[phill]

more like just another line of low life russian bullshit lies you mean ?

when you have sucked shit all your life .. lies just taste like marshmallows