Comments by "Curious Crow" (@CuriousCrow-mp4cx) on "trump's telephone call to Putin" video.

  1. If only money was the problem. Europe could step up their defence production in the short term within a year. But... - Hungary and Italy are chummy with Putin; not all Europe countries are as committed to perceiving Putin as much as an existential threat as those on Russia's door step; - the role of NATO vs the EU's is not a settle matter, as the EU has no distinct defence policy, and some favour NATO taking the lead rather than the EU; - there are political hurdles to overcome because the difficulty of not sacrificing social spending for defence spending, as well as liberal democratic parties being anti-war. The only way to tie all these threads together into a usable rope is for Europe to quickly develop a vision for Ukraine's future which also has to offer some security guarantees to Ukraine. Why? Putin doesn't really want to negotiate, and will use any ceasefire to refresh and reset his forces, to get the rest later. So, there must be credible consequences to Putin's regime if he attacks again. Wagging a finger won't cut it. And Europe has to accept that: - there can be no rapprochement with Russia, but must completely transition away from Russian oil and gas, and develop alternative sources of energy generation. - Europe must also start a fully fledged defence industry, not just to supply arms and offensive vehicles, and air craft but also start a up a defensive cyber industry of its own. - Finally, it must strengthen it's own and Ukraine's democracy, and assist in its reconstruction, and industrial and agricultural policy, because the prospect of losing control of Eastern Ukraine will damage agricultural production, and alternative supply chain routes for Ukrainian exports must be found through other routes by land, rail and sea. Failure to do will impact World prices for wheat and cooking oil, and other commodities Ukraine supplies, and Putin wants. All this cannot be done next week. A lot of serious thinking has to be done, and faily quickly. Money is not the problem. It's the perception of the threat which is not shared, and which in the context of an epidemic of economic contraction, and the subsequent rise of populism, plays into Putin's hand. He doesn't believe in ideology. He's a might makes right guy. But we in the West are very idealistic and perhaps too ideological and technocratic about things. Our current leaders have zero experience of how the 20th century was destined to be an hiatus rather than a paradigm shift, and they think they can talk Putin down and they can go back to getting rich. Not anymore. Welcome to the end if an empire, whose passing leaves gaps that must be filled, or something most undesirable will take their place
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