Right .. and the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the Warsaw pact has seen Russia
increasingly isolated, and united with China .. it fears NATO expansion.
The only country that would need to fear a
defensive alliance, is the country that wants to have the freedom to attack without having to worry about retaliation.
Suppose all inhabitants of the street I live in make a defensive alliance saying "
if someone breaks into the house of any one of us, then all other members will immediately come to that person's aid". Suppose even that I don't get along with anyone in my street.
Do you think this pact would bother me in the slightest? That it would worry me in the slightest?
Why would it,
unless I actually plan on breaking into one or more of their homes?
This supposed fear it has of NATO, is actually extremely telling concerning what kind of regime we are dealing with.
And that tell shows us in fact also EXACTLY why NATO is so important.
Because in the east, we clearly DO have a superpower nation that does NOT have good intentions. That DOES want to be free to invade and attack countries without consequence.
If it didn't have this desire, then it would have nothing to fear of an alliance like NATO.
Article 5 is the infamous article that, when invoked, scrambles (in principle) all member states to take military action.
It is
clearly noted that article 5 ONLY applies in case of a member being attacked.
It is entirely
meaningless if a member state is the one that does the attack, or suffers a retaliation of an act of aggression of itself.
So what is there to fear of NATO, unless one actually attacks a member state first?
I haven't missed that at all.
At the start of Ukraine-Russia, Israel-Hamas, I was onboard with Western goals.
i.e. the security of Israel and Ukraine
..but now I see the folly of arrogance, and not having dialogue with Russia and Hamas, and
insisting on war without compromise in both arenas.
They are, in effect, connected. "western interests"
Let's not get things mixed up. The Israel-Hamas conflict is of an entirely different level. For starters, it isn't fought on Israel's territory. The Israel conflict is loads more complex with a whole bunch of even more complex actors and terrains.
Whereas the Russia-Ukraine conflict is ridiculously simple in comparison.
Hmm .. how did WWII start?
Well, complex... since a lot of it was also unresolved tension of WW1
However, ironically, by not acting more swiftly at the very start.
In 1938 Hitler went into Austria and annexed Czechoslovakia. Having just fought a WW, countries like France and Brittain wanted to avoid direct confrontation. So they just let them have Austria and Czechoslovakia. Sound familiar?
Now we have people saying "
let's avoid direct confrontation and let Putin just have Ukraine". If it weren't for the western support (by request of Ukraine), Kiev would have fallen already and Ukraine as a country would already be part of Russia. Or a Belarus 2.0 at best.
But as history has shown us.... even as schoolyard bullies show us... appeasing a bully, thinking he'll stop by letting him have your lunch money once, is never a good idea. In fact, it only signals them that you are a coward and won't stand in their way the next time either. So they will just march on. As Hitler did. And as Putin would. He is already eyeing Moldavia. His operatives are already there, stirring things up just like they did in eastern Ukraine leading up to 2014.
The population of China and India is ~2 billion .. do those nations have diplomatic relations
with Russia? Yes !
Does the opinions of these nations not matter any more?
..or is it that their opinions never mattered?
Both China as well as India seem to be pretty neutral when it comes to the Ukraine conflict. And even that is not clear. It seems to me to be more as them being careful as to not upset their relations with Russia as they economically depend on them somewhat.
However, both have given some hints about their actual stance, which I don't doubt they will have communicated privately to Russia already.
India has always said that they prefer "peace" above all. This is a clue that they don't really approve of Russia's behavior.
China has been quite clear that they would turn on Russia if they would actually use nukes. Not in those words, but the message was clear. Nukes are big no no.
When it comes to China, in fact.... lately it rather seems to me as if they are taking serious advantage of the situation of Russia having become an international pariah. Russia needs China more then China needs Russia. And China knows and shaking Russia down.
I mean.... that Russia is now resorting to friggin' North Korea for weapon supplies (and apparently also cannon fodder in the form of soldiers) should kind of tell you just how desperate and isolated they are.
That works both ways .. somebody has to be the "grown-up", and seek a solution other than
escalation of war leading to WWIII.
It takes 2 to do that.
If you keep trying to be diplomatic with a bully and the bully insist on punching you in the face, in the end all you can do is strike back.
What does Russia "demand" ?
As far as I know, it would be a Ukraine that does not seek NATO membership. That is
understandable, isn't it?
Why is it, do you think, that all these former soviet countries are so desperate to become NATO members?
Nobody was ever "invited" into NATO. They request it themselves. Because they fear Russia's intentions.
And Russia keeps confirming they are very justified in that fear.
I mean, Russia is not going to be invited, any more than Turkey is going to be invited in
to the EU. That ship has sailed.
Nobody gets "invited" into NATO.
Countries have to request to join. These requests are then discussed at NATO summits, as per article 10, and when the member states then (by consensus) approve of the requests, THEN, and only then, is an invitation extended. This invitation is thus a RESPONSE of NATO to a country that first REQUESTED to join.
