The only reason they are this belligerent is because they think NATO will back them up.
And NATO will.
NATO is supposed to be defensive (lol @ Serbia & Libya), not to enable chihuahuas to try to provoke conflict.
A defensive alliance means that a member of that alliance can insult and talk shit about the bully, knowing that the bully would normally attack them but for the alliance. This weakens the bully and exposes the bully as cowardly and weak, which benefits the alliance.
It's perfectly ok to disrespect Russia. If you want to characterize that as "provoking conflict", just understand that 100% of the responsibility for said conflict is on the aggressor - Russia - not on any country or person who offended the Russians.
People talk shit about the United States ALL THE TIME. If we have to sit here and take it, so does Russia.
just understand that 100% of the responsibility for said conflict is on the aggressor
Not a Russian shill, but what do you think the US's response would have been if Russia had spent the last 20 years getting all of it's neighbors to join an anti-US alliance, culminating in bragging that Canada was about to join too?
We almost started WWII when we placed tactical nukes in Turkey and Russia reciprocated by putting some in Cuba. If you think we wouldn't invade and murder the shit out of Canada in that situation you're not a student of history.
Courting Ukraine and intimating that they would be granted NATO membership caused this war. The US and Zelensky fucked around and found out.
Repeatedly slapping a country in the face works if you can keep it down. It was impractical for the Germans after 1919 (at least, the allies did not have the will to do it), and it was a highly dubious proposition after 1991 for Russia.
Found out what exactly? That Russia isn't even a regional power at this point? That Putin had no idea about the state of the Russian armed forces or the will of the Ukrainian people such that he initiated a war that he can't win?
It's perfectly ok to disrespect Russia. If you want to characterize that as "provoking conflict", just understand that 100% of the responsibility for said conflict is on the aggressor - Russia - not on any country or person who offended the Russians.
Blockading Kaliningrad is quite another thing. Putin is extremely risk-averse. I'd have sent in armed men to force their way through, and daring the Lithuanians to shoot and start World War III. You keep calling Putin crazy, but you rely on him to be rational. It's time for a Russian leader to put the fear of God into the empire of lies, or the collective West will just continue escalating until the mushroom clouds hit.
People talk shit about the United States ALL THE TIME. If we have to sit here and take it, so does Russia.
If Russia sponsoring an attack on an American ship or carrying out an assassination on an American general is an act of war, so is the attack on the Moskva - and all the cat-lived generals who keep repeatedly being killed by the Ukrainians. (General Pavel still lives though.)
Blockading Kaliningrad would mean using military ships to fire upon any ships coming to and from Kaliningrad, and shooting down any aircraft. That is not, of course, what you are talking about. You are talking about Lithuania saying they will not allow land transit through their country to Kaliningrad anymore, which is 100% within their rights. You calling this a "blockade" is a dishonest lie. Lithuania isn't blocking ship or air traffic, which is what a "blockade" is, just traffic through their sovereign territory.
Russians can still travel to and from Kaliningrad, it just won't be as convenient.
Putin is extremely risk-averse.
He is not. His invasions of Ukraine in 2014 was high risk. His invasion in 2022 was suicidal and will lead to the power of Russia being broken for a generation, and likely to his power faction being deposed and Russia becoming Westernized. Either that or Russians will languish in poverty and irrelevance.
I'd have sent in armed men to force their way through
That's called a war, and the Lithuanians would have defeated your forces and humiliated you just like Ukraine did, AND you'd be at war with NATO getting your shit pushed in and cut off from all trade. Belarus would be promptly invaded and its government toppled and replaced with a pro-EU one.
and daring the Lithuanians to shoot and start World War III.
By "WW3" I assume you mean "if you defend yourselves, I will nuke you". Your subordinates would disobey your orders to launch nukes, and you would be killed like the Mad King in Game of Thrones. If someone was stupid enough to follow your orders and launch a nuke, NATO would have launched a general nuclear exchange on Russia with the primary aim of destroying Russia's further nuclear launch capacity. Your notions that ONLY the Russians and Chinese have the balls to launch nukes is childish.
That said, you are correct that WW3 is the only way that Russia can ever be relevant to world history again. "If I can't have it, no one will!" might appeal to you, but it does not appeal to the Russian elites. Unlike you, they have a LOT to lose. They don't want to die. They don't want their families to die. They don't want their Dachas to burn. This is why MAD has always worked, even up to and including the fall of the USSR.
You keep calling Putin crazy
I never called him crazy, just stupid and delusional by surrounding himself with "yes" men. I can prove this by pointing to how he treated Sergey Naryshkin on public television on the eve of Russia's doomed invasion of Ukraine. Naryshkin was telling Putin truthfully that the invasion would be a lot more difficult than envisioned, and Putin responded by humiliating him.
you rely on him to be rational.
Not him exclusively, as I do not believe that if he gave the order to launch nukes, that his orders would be followed. The same is true of Joe Biden, if he just gave the order out of nowhere without NATO getting nuked first.
It's time for a Russian leader to put the fear of God into the empire of lies, or the collective West will just continue escalating until the mushroom clouds hit.
Absolute cope. I'm not afraid and never will be. And if I do feel threatened, my natural response is aggression and escalation, not to back down out of fear. Americans know we are the 500 lb gorilla.
If Russia sponsoring an attack on an American ship or carrying out an assassination on an American general is an act of war, so is the attack on the Moskva - and all the cat-lived generals who keep repeatedly being killed by the Ukrainians. (General Pavel still lives though.)
Russia is welcome to declare war on the US at any time if it wants to be destroyed.
The US has every right to give Ukraine any and all assistance we deem fit. I think it's obvious that the US masterminded the Ukrainian offensive, and that HIMARS strikes on both ammo dumps and leadership has been so effective because US intelligence and satellite analysis has been giving Ukranians the targets to hit.
If the US were fighting this war directly, it is beyond obvious that we would have completely annihilated the Russian forces within a matter of weeks in an air war, exactly like we did to Saddam in Gulf War 1. Russia's military is hardly more advanced now, and the fact that it struggled so badly against Ukraine is all the proof that I need to know that the US would have simply walked over the Russians. We would have systematically destroyed the Russian air defense with our SEAD strikes, and have free reign to drop JDAM bombs on every single Russian vehicle and troop concentration. It would have just been a matter of identifying targets and generating sorties until they were all dead.
Blockading Kaliningrad would mean using military ships to fire upon any ships coming to and from Kaliningrad, and shooting down any aircraft. That is not, of course, what you are talking about. You are talking about Lithuania saying they will not allow land transit through their country to Kaliningrad anymore, which is 100% within their rights. You calling this a "blockade" is a dishonest lie. Lithuania isn't blocking ship or air traffic, which is what a "blockade" is, just traffic through their sovereign territory.
It's the absolute truth, and it's a violation of Lithuania's treaty obligations. So yeah, the Russians had every right to force their way through Lithuania, and if the Lithuanians had then fired on them, they would have been responsible for starting World War III.
He is not. His invasions of Ukraine in 2014 was high risk. His invasion in 2022 was suicidal and will lead to the power of Russia being broken for a generation, Either that or Russians will languish in poverty and irrelevance.
The invasion (singular) of Ukraine was ultra low risk. The alternative was losing Sevastopol. The more daring move would have been to swallow up all of Ukraine in 2014, as the whole state was in collapse. Instead, he let it fester as an ulcer until he finally had no choice but to act.
and likely to his power faction being deposed and Russia becoming Westernized.
You sure are enthusiastic about forcing BLM and child drag shows on Russia.
That's called a war, and the Lithuanians would have defeated your forces and humiliated you just like Ukraine did, AND you'd be at war with NATO getting your shit pushed in and cut off from all trade. Belarus would be promptly invaded and its government toppled and replaced with a pro-EU one.
The first troop to set foot in Belarus would be welcomed with a tactical nuclear bomb. NATO would get its shit kicked in. And then the onus would be on them to use strategic nuclear weapons or not.
Your subordinates would disobey your orders to launch nukes, and you would be killed like the Mad King in Game of Thrones.
Oh please, do you think anyone but the most reliable people are put in such positions? That is why it was so laughable that your people were constantly claiming that (1) Shoigu was planning a coup against Putin and then (2) that Putin had him killed. Several weeks later, he appeared on video just fine, despite having been killed by Putin.
That said, you are correct that WW3 is the only way that Russia can ever be relevant to world history again. "If I can't have it, no one will!" might appeal to you, but it does not appeal to the Russian elites. Unlike you, they have a LOT to lose.
It's a straightforward and rational calculation that the collective West has more to lose in a nuclear shootout than does Russia. Population-wise, production-wise, territory-wise. Just as an example: Russia has a pop of 143 million. Just the US has 330 million, and its European puppets have a few hundred million more. Russia also has the world's largest nuclear arsenal. It would kill 700 million Americans and allies, compared to only 143 million Russians. That seems like a smart exchange.
Besides, the Empire of Lies is top dog at the moment. You don't start a nuclear shootout when you are at the top. So... my expectaton is that they will be much more reluctant to be dragged into a nuclear confrontation. Like I said, Putin seems extreme risk-averse. It will be an ironic if you manage to depose Putin and get a leader far less to your liking.
Obviously, these hypotheticals do not match what I desire to happen. It's just what would be rational.
Not him exclusively, as I do not believe that if he gave the order to launch nukes, that his orders would be followed. The same is true of Joe Biden, if he just gave the order out of nowhere without NATO getting nuked first.
I wouldn't be betting the fate of my country on a flimsy assumption. Besides, it would not come out of nowhere, and you yourself have admitted to knowing about the Vasily Arkhipov incident, where a submarine was allegedly close to launching a nuclear weapon at a ship because it thought it was being fired at.
Absolute cope. I'm not afraid and never will be. And if I do feel threatened, my natural response is aggression and escalation, not to back down out of fear. Americans know we are the 500 lb gorilla.
You then better hope that your 'leaders' are more rational.
Russia is welcome to declare war on the US at any time if it wants to be destroyed.
It'll destroy you with it, which would be a win for Russia, since you are so much more powerful. (The earlier disclaimer applies.)
I think it's obvious that the US masterminded the Ukrainian offensive, and that HIMARS strikes on both ammo dumps and leadership has been so effective because US intelligence and satellite analysis has been giving Ukranians the targets to hit.
That is an act of war, and even if Putin does not immediately retaliate (as he should in my opinion), I'm pretty sure that this will have a world of consequences for a long time. If I were Putin, I'd make sure that no Western subject or military base is safe anywhere. I'd send weapons to any and all enemies of the US.
Seems that Putin wants to use economic warfars against your puppets (i.e., us) instead.
If the US were fighting this war directly, it is beyond obvious that we would have completely annihilated the Russian forces within a matter of weeks in an air war, exactly like we did to Saddam in Gulf War 1.
Such hubris from people who lost to the Taliban and now have their precious HIMARS Patented Pothole-makers destroyed by Iranian drones. IRANIAN drones. One of the biggest shitholes in the world, sanctioned to death by you and your puppets, and they're still kicking your ass... Apparently, Islamic goatherds are your one weakness.
Russia's military is hardly more advanced now, and the fact that it struggled so badly against Ukraine is all the proof that I need to know that the US would have simply walked over the Russians.
And NATO will.
A defensive alliance means that a member of that alliance can insult and talk shit about the bully, knowing that the bully would normally attack them but for the alliance. This weakens the bully and exposes the bully as cowardly and weak, which benefits the alliance.
It's perfectly ok to disrespect Russia. If you want to characterize that as "provoking conflict", just understand that 100% of the responsibility for said conflict is on the aggressor - Russia - not on any country or person who offended the Russians.
People talk shit about the United States ALL THE TIME. If we have to sit here and take it, so does Russia.
Not a Russian shill, but what do you think the US's response would have been if Russia had spent the last 20 years getting all of it's neighbors to join an anti-US alliance, culminating in bragging that Canada was about to join too?
We almost started WWII when we placed tactical nukes in Turkey and Russia reciprocated by putting some in Cuba. If you think we wouldn't invade and murder the shit out of Canada in that situation you're not a student of history.
Courting Ukraine and intimating that they would be granted NATO membership caused this war. The US and Zelensky fucked around and found out.
Nah dude repeatedly slapping Russia in the face in no way escalated this conflict
Repeatedly slapping a country in the face works if you can keep it down. It was impractical for the Germans after 1919 (at least, the allies did not have the will to do it), and it was a highly dubious proposition after 1991 for Russia.
It was a bold move, Cotton. Let's see how this plays out.
Found out what exactly? That Russia isn't even a regional power at this point? That Putin had no idea about the state of the Russian armed forces or the will of the Ukrainian people such that he initiated a war that he can't win?
Blockading Kaliningrad is quite another thing. Putin is extremely risk-averse. I'd have sent in armed men to force their way through, and daring the Lithuanians to shoot and start World War III. You keep calling Putin crazy, but you rely on him to be rational. It's time for a Russian leader to put the fear of God into the empire of lies, or the collective West will just continue escalating until the mushroom clouds hit.
If Russia sponsoring an attack on an American ship or carrying out an assassination on an American general is an act of war, so is the attack on the Moskva - and all the cat-lived generals who keep repeatedly being killed by the Ukrainians. (General Pavel still lives though.)
Blockading Kaliningrad would mean using military ships to fire upon any ships coming to and from Kaliningrad, and shooting down any aircraft. That is not, of course, what you are talking about. You are talking about Lithuania saying they will not allow land transit through their country to Kaliningrad anymore, which is 100% within their rights. You calling this a "blockade" is a dishonest lie. Lithuania isn't blocking ship or air traffic, which is what a "blockade" is, just traffic through their sovereign territory.
Russians can still travel to and from Kaliningrad, it just won't be as convenient.
He is not. His invasions of Ukraine in 2014 was high risk. His invasion in 2022 was suicidal and will lead to the power of Russia being broken for a generation, and likely to his power faction being deposed and Russia becoming Westernized. Either that or Russians will languish in poverty and irrelevance.
That's called a war, and the Lithuanians would have defeated your forces and humiliated you just like Ukraine did, AND you'd be at war with NATO getting your shit pushed in and cut off from all trade. Belarus would be promptly invaded and its government toppled and replaced with a pro-EU one.
By "WW3" I assume you mean "if you defend yourselves, I will nuke you". Your subordinates would disobey your orders to launch nukes, and you would be killed like the Mad King in Game of Thrones. If someone was stupid enough to follow your orders and launch a nuke, NATO would have launched a general nuclear exchange on Russia with the primary aim of destroying Russia's further nuclear launch capacity. Your notions that ONLY the Russians and Chinese have the balls to launch nukes is childish.
That said, you are correct that WW3 is the only way that Russia can ever be relevant to world history again. "If I can't have it, no one will!" might appeal to you, but it does not appeal to the Russian elites. Unlike you, they have a LOT to lose. They don't want to die. They don't want their families to die. They don't want their Dachas to burn. This is why MAD has always worked, even up to and including the fall of the USSR.
I never called him crazy, just stupid and delusional by surrounding himself with "yes" men. I can prove this by pointing to how he treated Sergey Naryshkin on public television on the eve of Russia's doomed invasion of Ukraine. Naryshkin was telling Putin truthfully that the invasion would be a lot more difficult than envisioned, and Putin responded by humiliating him.
Not him exclusively, as I do not believe that if he gave the order to launch nukes, that his orders would be followed. The same is true of Joe Biden, if he just gave the order out of nowhere without NATO getting nuked first.
Absolute cope. I'm not afraid and never will be. And if I do feel threatened, my natural response is aggression and escalation, not to back down out of fear. Americans know we are the 500 lb gorilla.
Russia is welcome to declare war on the US at any time if it wants to be destroyed.
The US has every right to give Ukraine any and all assistance we deem fit. I think it's obvious that the US masterminded the Ukrainian offensive, and that HIMARS strikes on both ammo dumps and leadership has been so effective because US intelligence and satellite analysis has been giving Ukranians the targets to hit.
If the US were fighting this war directly, it is beyond obvious that we would have completely annihilated the Russian forces within a matter of weeks in an air war, exactly like we did to Saddam in Gulf War 1. Russia's military is hardly more advanced now, and the fact that it struggled so badly against Ukraine is all the proof that I need to know that the US would have simply walked over the Russians. We would have systematically destroyed the Russian air defense with our SEAD strikes, and have free reign to drop JDAM bombs on every single Russian vehicle and troop concentration. It would have just been a matter of identifying targets and generating sorties until they were all dead.
It's the absolute truth, and it's a violation of Lithuania's treaty obligations. So yeah, the Russians had every right to force their way through Lithuania, and if the Lithuanians had then fired on them, they would have been responsible for starting World War III.
The invasion (singular) of Ukraine was ultra low risk. The alternative was losing Sevastopol. The more daring move would have been to swallow up all of Ukraine in 2014, as the whole state was in collapse. Instead, he let it fester as an ulcer until he finally had no choice but to act.
You sure are enthusiastic about forcing BLM and child drag shows on Russia.
The first troop to set foot in Belarus would be welcomed with a tactical nuclear bomb. NATO would get its shit kicked in. And then the onus would be on them to use strategic nuclear weapons or not.
Oh please, do you think anyone but the most reliable people are put in such positions? That is why it was so laughable that your people were constantly claiming that (1) Shoigu was planning a coup against Putin and then (2) that Putin had him killed. Several weeks later, he appeared on video just fine, despite having been killed by Putin.
It's a straightforward and rational calculation that the collective West has more to lose in a nuclear shootout than does Russia. Population-wise, production-wise, territory-wise. Just as an example: Russia has a pop of 143 million. Just the US has 330 million, and its European puppets have a few hundred million more. Russia also has the world's largest nuclear arsenal. It would kill 700 million Americans and allies, compared to only 143 million Russians. That seems like a smart exchange.
Besides, the Empire of Lies is top dog at the moment. You don't start a nuclear shootout when you are at the top. So... my expectaton is that they will be much more reluctant to be dragged into a nuclear confrontation. Like I said, Putin seems extreme risk-averse. It will be an ironic if you manage to depose Putin and get a leader far less to your liking.
Obviously, these hypotheticals do not match what I desire to happen. It's just what would be rational.
I wouldn't be betting the fate of my country on a flimsy assumption. Besides, it would not come out of nowhere, and you yourself have admitted to knowing about the Vasily Arkhipov incident, where a submarine was allegedly close to launching a nuclear weapon at a ship because it thought it was being fired at.
You then better hope that your 'leaders' are more rational.
It'll destroy you with it, which would be a win for Russia, since you are so much more powerful. (The earlier disclaimer applies.)
That is an act of war, and even if Putin does not immediately retaliate (as he should in my opinion), I'm pretty sure that this will have a world of consequences for a long time. If I were Putin, I'd make sure that no Western subject or military base is safe anywhere. I'd send weapons to any and all enemies of the US.
Seems that Putin wants to use economic warfars against your puppets (i.e., us) instead.
Such hubris from people who lost to the Taliban and now have their precious HIMARS Patented Pothole-makers destroyed by Iranian drones. IRANIAN drones. One of the biggest shitholes in the world, sanctioned to death by you and your puppets, and they're still kicking your ass... Apparently, Islamic goatherds are your one weakness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wpU376NnZ0
You mean: 'we'.