Oh dear. He’s off on one, and yes…the plot’s been lost…again!
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I?m not asking or expecting you to support my statement, it doesn?t support your POV to do so, nor it would appear have you reflected on GPs other unslanted observation about a and e or my point that headcount doesn?t apply in my friends frustrations
Your last paragraph demonstrates a surprising arrogance in deciding unilaterally what?s nonsense (anything you disagree with) and what?s not.
Poland won;'t be , its in NATO.
The west needs to look in the mirror. If the roles had been reversed and Russia/USSR, had been creeping slowly west, then west would have done something similar.
Imagine East Germany invading west Germany, or vice versa Would the reactions have been the same? Germans would claim to have had the right to the same thing, re unification, but under which banner?
No matter what maddy says, the west has lied and welched as much as Russia on promises not to arm/ expand/ occupy territory that doesn't belong to them.
Genuinely sorry you find my reply to be arrogant. To me, supporting the notion that the NHS is an example of a service provided by immigrants to tend for immigrants is demonstrably untrue and nonsensical. You have absolutely no evidence to fall back on, but if it makes you feel better to believe it…so be it. I’m sorry it’s apparently ‘arrogant’ of me to identify what is, at best, a mistake and, at worst, an unfounded prejudicial attack.
What Maddy said was facts.
The West, as you put it, reacted to requests from Georgia and Ukraine in much the same way they reacted to requests from all the other former soviet satellites such as Romania, Hungary, Poland. Remember, it was the USSR/CCCP or whichever acronym you wish to give it, that dismantled its own area of influence, realising that many of the inhabitants of those satellites didn't want Russian dictatorship.
Are you suggesting that "the West" should have ignored their requests to join the freedom train?
West should not have ignored the freedom train for the former satellite states but I tend to agree that the unseemly scramble by the EU in particular, in search of a USE, and NATO to bring those countries onto their side will have concerned the Russians leaving no buffer zone.
With Ukraine looking for NATO membership too that would bring "the enemy into the heartland" of what was the old USSR and would seem to have been a bridge too far.
Now it's up to those countries who had a new found freedom to opt to ,"join the west" but I can see how it might irk the more hard line Russians that not only had they lost their empire but also that they had joined the other side.
How's this for an idea. The West remains with its freedoms, Russia keeps on being a dictatorship and we all agree to leave each other in peace.
Moving on, into another sphere, I think you'll all have seen at least photos of, and probably videos of, fireworkless firework shows. Basically thousands of drones moving about showing different coloured lights and making the most brilliant shows. It should come as no surprise that the Chinese are the best at this and they use AI to control these shows.
The next step is to arm 10s of 100s of drones and have them do the fighting. You pay billions getting a new submarine. Less than a million quids worth of drones sink it. Same goes for tanks and artillery. Made obsolete really. Planes? Fly a drone into a jet engine, bye bye F35.
War it is a changing.
Von Leijen announced this week 800 billion Euro for European defence. I hope a lot gets spent on Pan European AI, Pan European drones as well as some on more conventional weaponry or we are done for.
A great notion MA, but Russia is so paranoid about everyone being out to get them. In part it's the imprinted memories of the 10's of millions of citizens killed in WW2 that makes them understandably wary and untrusting.
One might have hoped that the cold war attitudes would have abated with Gorbachev and glasnost but people like Putin have reversed that process - largely as a means to retain power internally. There is no better way to keep power than to create a fear amongst the people.