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Per, Canada is one of the worst laggards at paying its due to NATO. Current spending is around 1.5% of GDP. At the most recent NATO meeting, Trudeau committed to get to 1.79% by 2030. There is no plan to do so. Canada's Parliamentary Budget Officer, an independent office looking at spending estimates and commenting if they mask sense, staked Trudeau's figures are off by half and rely on Canada entering a four year recession.

Prior to the NATO meetings, a letter was sent to Canada signed by a bipartisan group of Senators and Congressmen critical of Canada's NATO spending.

Our northern border is unguarded. US planes had to shoot down Chinese spy balloons over Canada because we do not have the capability. We have no submarine fleet. Our troops don't have modern sidearms.

Trudeau came to power promising to cancel the F35 purchase agreement and vowed Canada would never buy the F35. He did just that and after another protracted procurement process, guess which plane won out. In the mean time, we are buying used F18's from Australia (their F35's are arriving) because our 40+ year old F18's are barely flying. Canada wasn't invited to a round of air maneuvers last year because they could not send serviceable aircraft.

As part of our Ukraine effort we have troops based in Latvia. Soldiers are ordering warm weather gear and body armor from Amazon and are paying for it themsevles because their supplied gear is antiquated and inadequate.

Canada has two munitions factories in Quebec that could be supplying Ukraine forces. Both facilities are sitting idle because the Canadian government refuses to fund them.

Before hostilities broke out, Ukraine requested a Canadian missile defense system but Trudeau denied the request. Late last year he finally approved it but it took roughly 8 months before any action began on fulfilling the request began.

Canada is in for a shock and it is a big story here since the US election. What was chatter, has become a "holy shit, we better get working."

The irony is that the shock is going to be received two ways.....

The pragmatists in our nation will welcome it and say that it is high time.

The progressives will lament it and point the finger at Trump for being a isolationist/nationalist/fascist.

Topper wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2024 9:34 am So NATO expansion to the Ukraine would poke the Bear. Exactly what Gabbard was saying.

Yes, of course it would. When someone calls anyone who acknowledges that possibility to be a tool of Russian propaganda and disinformation, near as I can tell, that someone is a tool of western propaganda. Russia may be untrustworthy, but how would your country react if the collection of countries organized to oppose you includes the huge nation on your doorstep (which also happens to have a lot of ethnic Russians and Russian speakers and has often throughout history been part of your empire). I know how my country reacted to missiles in Cuba -- and now there's loose talk about nukes returning to Ukraine?

None of this means Russia doesn't invade if there is no NATO expansion into Ukraine. Russians also feel threatened by a west-facing Ukraine. Russians have also always considered themselves an "empire", not just a people, and Ukraine's been a large part of that empire several times (including most recently the Soviet Union, when Ukraine was an original soviet republic). Whether for aggressive reasons, "preemptive" defense reasons, or aggressive reasons cloaked in the language of preemptive defense, the possibility of a Russian invasion into Ukraine -- or any other country formerly part of the Soviet Union that decides it wants to orient westward -- exists. (They invaded Georgia, another original republic (albeit as part of Transcaucasia) in 2008). And I understand why Europe is concerned that it doesn't end there.

Recognizing what might poke the bear doesn't (in my view) justify the invasion, but I think anyone with any foreign policy saavy would know the move would poke the bear and there needs to be a hell of a good reason to poke a sleeping bear. (How existing NATO countries benefit from adding Ukraine is a question I am sure Russia asks -- what's NATO's answer that would put Russia's concerns to rest?). And in the world of diplomacy and international relations, one should be aware of what actions/proposals make war more or less likely, regardless of whether that military action would be "just." Some wars are worth fighting, some are worth avoiding, and some are not worth fighting.

UWSaint wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2024 4:01 pm I know how my country reacted to missiles in Cuba -- and now there's loose talk about nukes returning to Ukraine?

When someone like Tulsi Gabbard (an American Patriot as far as I'm concerned) says something like the above they are soon equated to double agent, anti-American Russian sympathizers via journalistic license wielding, topic creationist, political hypocrites....

Let's brush up on our nuclear weapons knowledge. It pays to stay up to date these days.

So let's go



https://youtu.be/ujfC0NgdU48?si=5dKgL02xgXnpDVz6

Nancy Mace has more balls the Michelle Obama

More or bigger.

First woman to grad from the Citadel so either or.

Western states are evacuating their embassies in Kiev today. It seems like Kiev might be flattened in the next day or so.

Did you guys get an emergency alert on your phones today like me?

Confirming alert…

Megaterio Llamas wrote: ↑Wed Nov 20, 2024 5:25 pm Western states are evacuating their embassies in Kiev today. It seems like Kiev might be flattened in the next day or so.

Did you guys get an emergency alert on your phones today like me?

Meg, you've been missing all the fun in the War + Death thread:

https://www.canuckscorner.com/forums/vi ... 65#p568665

Yup, kiss yer ass goodbye...

Matt Gaetz a well thought out choice by ole Trumpy Poo

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/ ... index.html

Chef Boi RD wrote: ↑Thu Nov 21, 2024 3:21 pm Matt Gaetz a well thought out choice by ole Trumpy Poo

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/ ... index.html

4D chess Dude.

But hey, I'm sure you understand saws and hammers better than "My orange hero"...

Pam Bondi can do a full court press on me

Pam scares the Dems, she knows her stuff and got it done in Florida.

https://x.com/charliekirk11/status/1859 ... mgPxw&s=19

Yeah, Trump weeds out internal enemies by tossing Gaetz in the mix and then throws yet another competent female into his network group...

...dudes pulling some nice strings so far.