US Erection 12 *AND* 16 *AND* 20 *AND* 22 *AND* 24 *AND* Beyond

[Per]

Meanwhile the EU is increasing sanctions against Russia, increasing military aid to Ukraine and confirming that it is up to Ukraine to decide if and when they choose to sit down at the negotiations table, and that Europe will support them for as long as it takes. And instead of trying to blackmail them out of their natural resources, the EU offers cooperation, opening up parts of the open market for them already, even though negotiations for a future membership have only just begun. By strengthening their economy we strengthen their war effort.

Ursula von der Leyen and the rest if the commission visited Kyiv today, on the three year mark of Russia’s unprovoked attack, to show their solidarity with the people of Ukraine.

https://youtu.be/b0xEgs-98fw?si=EyMskh0pEBxAR7cj

[Megaterio Llamas]

[5thhorseman]

Meanwhile, the UN general assembly backed a resolution condemning Russia for the Ukraine war.

Interestingly, the United States, Russia, Belarus and North Korea all voted against the resolution. That's the company the USA is keeping these days. That 'pee tape' must've been more than Trump just watching

[Megaterio Llamas]

[Megaterio Llamas]

Meanwhile, the UN general assembly backed a resolution condemning Russia for the Ukraine war.

Interestingly, the United States, Russia, Belarus and North Korea all voted against the resolution. That's the company the USA is keeping these days. That 'pee tape' must've been more than Trump just watching

Did China not vote against too?

[Megaterio Llamas]

America is reborn https://x.com/TheRicanMemes/status/1894164177222062323

[5thhorseman]

Meanwhile, the UN general assembly backed a resolution condemning Russia for the Ukraine war.

Interestingly, the United States, Russia, Belarus and North Korea all voted against the resolution. That's the company the USA is keeping these days. That 'pee tape' must've been more than Trump just watching

Did China not vote against too?

I wouldn't be surprised.

[Megaterio Llamas]

Meanwhile, the UN general assembly backed a resolution condemning Russia for the Ukraine war.

Interestingly, the United States, Russia, Belarus and North Korea all voted against the resolution. That's the company the USA is keeping these days. That 'pee tape' must've been more than Trump just watching

Did China not vote against too?

I wouldn't be surprised.

Yeah I mean they back each other on nearly everything. But the US joining up with the other two military giants would change everything. Virtually all the hard power in the world would be concentrated on one side.

[Megaterio Llamas]

Meanwhile, the UN general assembly backed a resolution condemning Russia for the Ukraine war.

Interestingly, the United States, Russia, Belarus and North Korea all voted against the resolution. That's the company the USA is keeping these days. That 'pee tape' must've been more than Trump just watching

Did China not vote against too?

I wouldn't be surprised.

Turns out China abstained.

[5thhorseman]

Meanwhile, the UN general assembly backed a resolution condemning Russia for the Ukraine war.

Interestingly, the United States, Russia, Belarus and North Korea all voted against the resolution. That's the company the USA is keeping these days. That 'pee tape' must've been more than Trump just watching

Did China not vote against too?

I wouldn't be surprised.

Yeah I mean they back each other on nearly everything. But the US joining up with the other two military giants would change everything. Virtually all the hard power in the world would be concentrated on one side.

Yeah there's no "joining up" going on, it's just this one issue. You're not going to see the US lining up with China on the issue of Taiwan, for example. Either Putin has some dirt on Trump, or Trump is trying to get revenge on Zelensky for not cooperating re Biden. Yes, I think he is that petty.

[Megaterio Llamas]

Meanwhile, the UN general assembly backed a resolution condemning Russia for the Ukraine war.

Interestingly, the United States, Russia, Belarus and North Korea all voted against the resolution. That's the company the USA is keeping these days. That 'pee tape' must've been more than Trump just watching

Did China not vote against too?

I wouldn't be surprised.

Yeah I mean they back each other on nearly everything. But the US joining up with the other two military giants would change everything. Virtually all the hard power in the world would be concentrated on one side.

Yeah there's no "joining up" going on, it's just this one issue. You're not going to see the US lining up with China on the issue of Taiwan, for example. Either Putin has some dirt on Trump, or Trump is trying to get revenge on Zelensky for not cooperating re Biden. Yes, I think he is that petty.

It looks like a very ambitious project. They would like to restore diplomatic relations with the Russians, restaff the embassies and keep lines of communica6tion open so as to avoid a nuclear war I think. And that'd be good. There are all kinds of rumors swirling around these talks about economic deals involving Ukrainian minerals, the frozen Russian assets, investment opportunities in Tussia for US oil and mining companies etc. It looks like Trump wants to normalize relations with the Russians as much as possible and at least pull them away from China into a more neutral position. I don't think they will manage all of that in four years but it looks like they are going to try.

This is a lot bifgger than just Ukraine and it doesn't seem like the Europeans understand that. Most of it is bilateral relations between Russia and the US that doesn't concern them. I understand there will be six working groups, only one of which involves the Ukraine war and the Europeans and Ukrainians will of course be invited to participate in those discussions. It's incredibly ambitious stuff and I gather this is only the tip of the iceberg. Changes.

[Per]

Apparently Mike Flynn doesn't know Article 5.

Nato troops being attacked outside of their own territory is not covered by article five, as clarified in article 6:

For the purpose of Article 5, an armed attack on one or more of the Parties is deemed to include an armed attack:
I. on the territory of any of the Parties in Europe or North America, on the Algerian Departments of France, on the territory of Turkey or on the islands under the jurisdiction of any of the Parties in the North Atlantic area north of the Tropic of Cancer;67
2. on the forces, vessels, or aircraft of any of the Parties, when in or over these territories or any other area in Europe in which occupation forces of any of the Parties were stationed on the date when the Treaty entered into force or the Mediterranean Sea or the North Atlantic area north of the Tropic of Cancer.

Afaik no Nato troops were stationed in Ukraine "on the date when the treaty entered into force", and so Nato troops attacked in Ukraine (or Russia) has no bearing on Article 5.

The Nato treaty is strictly about defence. No Nato member has to support another member state in a war of agression, but all are committed to help a Nato member whose territory (eg Greenland) is attacked.

And yes, many European nations are considering sending troops to Ukraine. Especially now since the USA has decided to take the side of the evil axis of Russia/North Korea/Iran instead of supporting its traditional allies.

But it is not about "trapping the USA", it is to help Ukraine stay an independent and sovereign nation.
Many European countries have experience of what it is like to be ruled by Moscow, and they would not wish it on anyone.
Also, if we do not fight Putin in Ukraine, we will probably soon have to fight him on our own shores.

He will not be content adding just part of Ukraine. He'll take that, and then rebuild the army and attack again.

At the end of WW1 Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine, countries that had been invaded and annexed by Russia, declared their independence. By the end of WW2, Stalin had annexed them all again, except for Finland, that managed to retain 80% of its territory and survive as a nation.

As the Soviet Union ended in 1991, all these countries declared independence again. Something Putin has said is the worst catastrophe of the 20th century, and his ambition is to annex them all again. Ukraine is just the beginning.

[5thhorseman]

https://bsky.app/profile/marisakabas.bs ... wlwvvq6k2s

[UWSaint]

And yes, many European nations are considering sending troops to Ukraine. Especially now since the USA has decided to take the side of the evil axis of Russia/North Korea/Iran instead of supporting its traditional allies.

The United States is attempting to broker a peace; its decision, near as I can tell, is to stop funding the war. This is neutrality, not "alliance." This decision is made on the following backdrop:

(1) There is no current majority in the United States that affirmatively believes funding levels of the war should have been what they were or higher. (American war funding for Ukraine does not have public support)
(2) 60% of Americans think war funding either does not promote US Security or is hostile to it. (American war funding of the war is not seen by the American public as strategically necessary to the USA)
(3) The war is three years on. With impressive war subsidies to Ukraine from the US and Europe, Ukraine is not in a better position today with respect to maintaining its sovereignty than three years ago. It is probably in a worse position, with much death and destruction in the interim.
(4) Every other time (and there were many) that the war appeared to be a slow attrition, the allies stepped up and surged war funding and greenlit use of more armaments. The result was two ineffective offensives.
(5) Reasonable people would conclude that ever more war funding is not likely to change the landscape of the war. Allied troop involvement on the one hand, peace negotiations on the other, will change the landscape, though either approach comes at a real cost.
(6) Peace at this point means Russia will benefit from its unjust war. There is a fear that down the line, this will only encourage Putin to pick the next target. But it also means an end to the death and destruction, and normalization carries with it a mechanism to curb Russian aggression. No sure thing, to be sure. But if there is aggression in a NATO ally, that changes the involvement of the US and the EU, doesn't it? That line matters -- unless NATO falls apart. And there's no surer way to that end than casting the US as a Russian-Iranian-North Korea ally merely because it is working for peace and has had enough war funding/
(7) Allied troops at this point carries the possibility of an allied victory, but is also likely to manifest that the future "peace" fear now -- the fight will not just be on Ukrainian (and a little bit of Russian) soil. The allies might win, they might lose, they might find themselves in the same stalemate -- but ultimately they bring about the fight they fear from peace RIGHT NOW. Perhaps this is the time, but perhaps that fight is not inevitable but avoidable.

The funding of the Ukraine war was, in my view, an impressive feat of cooperation of the US and Europe in support of a country that they'd both been doing everything in the power to face westward. These same nations did NOT have this response to Russia aggression in Georgia or the last time Russia invaded Ukraine and took the Crimea. There was some reason to believe that arming Ukraine would enable Ukraine to win their territory back, or at least achieve a peace that would not be possible in the absence of striking back hard. But it didn't work.

This isn't a normative evaluation of things, its just describing reality. It is not 2022 anymore. You have to take stock of where things are now. That reality is sober.

[Megaterio Llamas]

Zelensky is flying to Washington today to sign the minerals deal.