NATO with or without Turkiye is way past it's
sell by date. A "defensive" axis it is not. It's morphed
into being an offensive war machine.
LOL! Funny, I don't see German troops in Ukraine intent on setting up a puppet "buffer state" to insulate themselves from Russian aggression ?
A correct parallel in the opposite would have German troops in Russia, again, now... carving out that buffer from Russian territory... but, of course, that's not remotely close to what we do see...
NATO is barely providing enough material to keep Ukraine in the war... metering it in a way that provides zero incentive for anyone to consider ending it. A proper objection, easily made, whether based in pragmatism or morality, is that by minimizing the scope of the war, to keep it "below threshold" requiring direct intervention, while keeping western troops out of the war, you lose the opportunity to take those idiots in the Pentagon who've been quoted as saying "the strategy is for a long term war to bleed Russia dry"... which prevents you sending them to the front lines to participate in the bleeding.
The real issue there, in origins, is Russian misperception and error... as yours re NATO... combined with INTENT... that they alone had... and Putin's miscalculations and errors in expectations about what would be likely to result from Russia attacking a neighboring western state...
NATO et al should have been straight up... and just told Putin... "yeah, that 1900's / Yalta "sphere of influence" thing you want to impose on your neighbors to create a "buffer"... so yesterday... that's not happening". Germany seems it owns the blame for wanting to make that policy... but not have the fortitude to stand up and be honest about it... so led the Europeans into backing a plan based on deception that "meant that" but refused to say it.
But, its sound enough as policy : Russia gets to do what they want inside Russia's borders... as does every other country. No one gets to strong arm the neighbors and coerce them into being vassals... under a democratic system.
Given "what's done is done" and can't be undone ?
The only real quibble I can have with western efforts thus far... beyond the first and most obvious in failing to avoid an easily avoidable conflict... might mimic Mr. Biden's own views of prior wars... The NY Times view... intending to soft sell his history... maybe better contextualized by The Intercept. Biden's main quibble, not mine, with McNamara... might have been that he got the math in the body count wrong... but Biden's own "leadership" in Afghanistan and Ukraine... far less principled and far worse than his predecessors ever were. Gives a solid reason to reconsider critics take on what you should have expected, in Afghanistan, given prior history?
And, more than enough to think it worth revisiting this argument...
Trump's brief response to State of the Union... likely correct in that, if Trump were president, today, there probably wouldn't BE a war in Ukraine right now... much less a risk of it spiraling out of control into WW III... with a broken down mental deficient at the helm... on both sides.
NATO is still about the least threatening "aggressor" in history... really, hardly even capable of defending themselves, now, in any "near peer" fight, and would BE incapable in that, now, save for the abject disaster that Putin has (and, in fairness, that his predecessors had) made of the formerly "near peer" and fearsome Soviet military machine. But, still, Russia has clearly been a rapidly declining power and a paper tiger in every sphere other than space and the strategic rocket forces... since 1991. They put up a front to tout technical achievements that they overstate... as Russian "stealth" fighters... while reality is a single U.S. carrier has more stealth fighters on it than the entire Russian Air Force can muster. Pretty soon, Finland alone will have more than Russia. Germany, in like pattern, until recently, hasn't even spent enough on defense to meet bare NATO minimums... or maintain their military as "basically capable". They are, still, clearly UNABLE to mount any basic offensive operation... of the type that Russia is showing us in Ukraine they are also incapable of carrying out. There is change occurring, now... with Russia having forced the need for change... NATO still has no need to blithely accept Putin's intimidation of Russias neighbors...
So, I agree with DemenJoe, circa 1960's, that the problem today is the stupidity and corruption of the leadership and their plans.
And, you can point that finger in every direction without being wrong in the least...
Beyond that... while its easy to point out how stupid it is of leaders on all sides to have enabled / allowed / manufactured this mess... Germany owns a huge portion of blame for playing both sides and thinking that was "clever" of them... still leaving the primary onus on Russia for directly planning and intending it... thinking it would be a cake walk that would take a week, maybe two ?
Life in the bubble can be pretty sweet... until reality intrudes...
Still, you can't usefully proceed only muttering to yourself about those morons, and the fact that what is shouldn't be...
It is... they have created this... and none, still, are making decisions that work to "solve problems" or prevent the conflict expanding into WW III... which grows increasingly likely as clocks tick...
So, given reality... how much confidence should you have in Biden managing "his war" any better than he did the pull out from Afghanistan... or how much weight or hope should you put on Putin suddenly figuring out that he's an world class idiot ?
Reality is... Biden seems he is managing this war about like the U.S. did Vietnam... as a hobby war... perfectly consistent with his previously not having any moral objections to "hobby wars"... clearly immune to any concern now about the morality of the path he's chosen... but equally incapable of making decisions that are more rational than those Johnson made in Vietnam...
Russian's and Chinese have no reason to expect any more, or less, than that from Putin or Xi... their "electorate" has no reason to concern themselves with leadership issues... whether proven glaringly deficient, or not... so, lemmings all... rushing to cliff's edge, it seems...
World War III by 2030 ? Or, it seems the schedule is being moved up... as its already gone hot ?
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