mtutiger

Full scale invasion. Not just Donbas

But it was Article 5. An invasion of Poland or the Baltics would fall under that same article. We have to be there for that, or else NATO ceases to exist.

I think they probably would if it were a NATO country, fwiw.

Luka basically owes his power to Putin at this point... he's got little room to maneuver. Moldova is probably the next on the menu, but if I'm in Poland or Romania or the Baltics, this looks existential to me. It's not abstract as it is for someone living in the USA.

Afghanistan was an Article 5 invocation IIRC. All the more reason we need to be there. We owe these partners a debt

I guess we may find out. NATO's existence would be on the line

Again, I ask... does anyone really think that he's gonna stop with Ukraine?

Kharkiv, Kyiv, Odessa, Mariupol... he's hitting all over

The war is official

I keep trying to think of another word, but you know, another one doesn't come to mind.

Good Lord

I know his domestic situation isn't great (ie. polls), but I'm not sure a more popular leader would have done much better in this situation. At the end of the day, this is all controlled by one man and his war of choice. Would another leader have impacted that calculus? I doubt it.

Heartbreaking stuff...

Not that it matters since this is all in Vlad's hands, but there you go.... they aren't a welcome presence, and it's more divided domestically than one would expect. https://comresglobal.com/polls/russians-ukrainians-poll-cnn-23-feb/

And yet he'll still win reelection.

It wasn't critical race theory, Exhibit #93895932

Gonna go out on a limb and suggest that the trucker protests don't have a great deal of support and are not worthy of the outsized media coverage that they draw.

That's kinda why I don't get how people just assume that Russia can just wait this out and get all that business back.... certainly Europe will remain a big customer for Russian gas, but if this conflagration accelerates the EU's move away from natural gas to other forms of energy, doesn't that cost them money in the long run? Don't they make less money than they would have had they just stuck with the status quo and not pursued this current course of action? We've all probably seen enough mob movies and shows to know that "the families" don't make money when a war is going on.... this is a good example of that.

Geez, even this guy gets it