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Million-dollar missiles? To be very exact, the Block II AIM-9X Sidewinder costs US$381,069.74. I bet the ones used against the balloons were nearing the end of their service life, so they'd been largely written off.
FYI, India doesn't have any indigenous short-range air-to-air missiles. There's only the radar-homing beyond-visual-range Astra Mk 1, the price of which comes to about US$1,000,000. Hey, there's your million-dollar missile. Alas, not American, but Indian. Next time, try to know your stuff.
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@zoomzoom3950 Desperate plea for help? It seems to me a unified approach to the Taliban makes perfect sense in trying to contain the Taliban's worst excesses.
And it's not like Russia packs much power over the Taliban -- if any. The Talibans are not so naive as to forget how Russia eagerly provided military assistance to the Taliban's enemies during after the civil war phase, and later, how it willingly armed Karzai's Afghan government. It also bears reminding that Russia, just like the whole global community, endorsed the NATO-led intervention in Afghanistan.
I bet that behind the scenes, Putin is pleading with Xi for help. China actually does pack some power. They, too, have collaborated with the Taliban's enemies, but at least not militarily. And the Chinese, being the opportunists that they are, are already chummy with the Taliban.
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@RubiaStorm You certainly didn't bother to mention that it's mutual dependence, but it's good that we've now established that the dependency is pretty much balanced and favours neither side -- in oil and gas. In high-tech products, however, Russia is unilaterally dependent on the EU. Vice-versa, nope, not at all.
Suppression, you say? Russia is being sanctioned by the EU for its shenanigans in Crimea and East Ukraine. If that weren't the case, Russia would literally have gotten away with murder. But Russia is counter-sanctioning the EU, so isn't that Russian counter-suppression? You conveniently left that out.
Be specific, which EU countries and which war crimes? I don't care for the US and the UK, since despite them being part of your so-called "West", as a EU voter I have no influence whatsoever on their behaviour.
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@B15HOP I'd say Australia's problem is indeed similar to that of the USA. Foreigners, even visitors, are somehow instinctively treated as poor immigrants, who have to mimic your ways to be regarded as your equals. Not only that, I detected an undercurrent of racism in Australia -- whenever I travelled there with my Singaporean Chinese co-workers, more often than not they drew extra attention from airport immigration. I, as a Caucasian, was never subjected to the same scrutiny except once, when I demanded an interview, bored with having to wait for my colleague to finish hers. The official was clearly annoyed with me, but obliged nonetheless.
Maybe it's an Anglo-Saxon thing -- New Zealand and Britain share the same uppity attitude towards foreigners. Curiously, Canada is the exception. It must be their overbearing neighbours.
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@D R Germany has Typhoons, Tornados, Airbus military transports, tankers and helicopters, all of which are partly German-designed and built.
FYI, only two European countries are nuclear powers, France and the UK, of which only the former has an independent nuclear strike capability. Speaking of which, the Luftwaffe also has a nuclear strike capability -- they just ordered F/A-18 Super Hornets to be able to drop US nuclear ordnance.
Tell me, is the UK occupied, too, in your book? How about Italy, Belgium, Poland and Norway, just to name a few other candidates?
You've established yourself as even a bigger clown than I thought at first.
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@zenastronomy If you were to speak of patents in this context to anyone in the industry, you'd raise eyebrows, and for a good reason, too. A patent is valid for twenty years max, while there's no time limit for PDOs. Also, if you were to copy a patented product, you'd soon face legal action, but a PDO'ed product can be freely copied. You just can't call it by its original name. So, no monopolies, and yes, competition.
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@emmawang1999 Now your ignorance is really showing. If you look at the countries that top the Human Development Index, your should be able to tell that the majority have no colonial past as in having had colonies. Rather, there are plenty of those that were subjected to colonialism themselves at one time or another, such as Ireland, Australia, Iceland, Finland, Canada, New Zealand and the USA.
If looting and plundering makes for rich countries, why isn't China in the Top 20? You certainly have a very rich history in that respect, with China's colonialism even persisting to this day in Tibet, to say nothing of the neo-colonial Belt and Road Initiative.
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No, we can stand as independent candidates as well. For municipal elections, all we need are ten signatures from eligible voters, some of whom could be, for instance, my next-door neighbours, who hold PRC passports. In fact, these neighbours of mine could stand as candidates themselves, too, under the exact same conditions. Before registering them, the authorities wouldn't be allowed to ask them about their political leanings or if they harbour "hostile" feelings towards their adopted homeland. Welcome to full democracy.
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@gcdumful Again, we played no part in colonising anyone -- not India, not Africa, yet you're only too eager to tar every Westerner with the same brush.
I wrote that "we enjoyed a 30-year head start" on independence, which means 1947 -- the year India gained independence -- minus 30 years. Well? Arithmetic can't be that hard.
Furthermore, if you want to compare notes for how long we each endured colonisation, well, for us that would be from 1150 onwards, which means nearly 800 years. So, by rights we should whine thrice as hard as you do. But miraculously, we don't whine at all.
We've never been keen on coal. My great-grandfather was a stoker with the railways, but he never touched a lump of coal in his life. Biofuel, the newfangled name goes.
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@nublex Israel only holds on to the Shebaa Farms, of which it isn't entirely clear if they're Lebanese or Syrian territory. Fact is, Hezbollah has dealt Israel several bloody noses, so much so that Israel, under domestic pressure, was forced to withdraw from Lebanon, abandoning its proxies in the South Lebanon Army, which totally collapsed as a result. Interestingly, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan was like a carbon-copy of the SLA's collapse.
I suspect you're not really up to date on factionalism in Lebanon. Hezbollah is a state within a state. A great many Lebanese would love to see Israel destroy Hezbollah, but they realise Israel's militarism is only counter-productive. Like Hamas, Hezbollah only benefits from Israel's militarism.
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@npc2480 Duh, global consumption of hydrocarbons isn't increasing, but rather, decreasing. If Russia loses a customer, it cannot regain its market share without resorting to dumping. The other producers, whose exploitation costs are lower, will follow suit and outcompete Russia on price.
Let's face it, Russia and Germany are stuck to one another energy-wise. Russia needs the oil and gas revenue as much as Germany needs the oil and gas. Over time, Germany can opt out from this toxic relationship. If they do, Russia, with its poorly diversified economy, is left with only poor options, like signing yet another bad gas deal with China.
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You've got everything backwards. Russia invading Ukraine reinvigorated NATO, not only giving it a new lease of life, but also letting it do what it does best: checking the expansionist ambitions of the Kremlin. Last time, NATO saw to the implosion of the Soviet Union. Why would the rump state, Russia, fare any better?
The EU is not facing an existential threat, Brexit notwithstanding. And it's in a totally different league from your EEU, which is just a poor excuse for a counterweight to the EU -- a lightweight squaring off against a heavyweight.
Yanukovych himself was favourable to an association agreement with the EU, until he had a last-minute change of heart (Putin rang?), signing his own political death warrant in the process. His executors were the Ukrainian people, not the EU, NATO, CIA, Zionists or whoever you chose to blame instead.
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That's all good and well, but South Africa has 62,027,503 citizens according to the 2022 census. Latvia's population is 1,842,226. So, on average, there's one official langauge for every 5,168,958 South Africans. If we consider he latter number the minimum to bestow official status to a language, Latvia shouldn't have even one official language.
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@scottrobinson9752 Russia is hardly the sole source of fossil fuels and raw materials in the world. You brought up lumber. Russia exports lumber all right, but combined European lumber exports alone easily exceed theirs.
So Russia sells raw materials, but buyers of theirs, Western manufacturers, often sell them back as finished products at a tidy profit. My Finnish-born mother, who taught macroeconomics, used to tell her students how the Soviet Union functioned as a colony of puny Finland in this respect. The most extreme example was the Pravda, printed on Finnish paper made from Soviet trees. Present-day Russia is even less self-reliant. You're silly if you value raw materials higher than finished products.
Chinese manufacturers do a lot of final assembly for Western companies. Trade balances lie, because the value of the finished products is calculated, but in terms of value, the Chinese add relatively little. Even that little added value is slipping to other low-wage countries.
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@Thor.Jorgensen It's difficult all right, but not impossible. Ammunition is a case in point.
Explain to me why Europe is saddled with a myriad of dissimilar MBTs, IFVs, APCs, ATGMs and whatnot. It's not just about ammunition, but also, spares, training and maintenance, etc. I'm sure the Ukrainians on the receiving end could tell you a thing or two about the challenges.
FYI, I spent ten years with a defence contractor, served in the military for four and did an internship at NATO HQ. Your amateurish lectures amuse me.
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@ВикторДенисов-е2л Your imagination is getting the better of you. The Treaty of *Nystad concerned only parts of then-Swedish Finland and the Baltic states. As for Finland, the territories in question are within Russia's borders as we speak. How you think this somehow would render the whole of Finland Russian is beyond me.
Moreover, the Treaty of Nystad marked the end of the Great Northern War, which had proved nothing short of a disaster for Sweden, squashing its imperial aspirations once and for all. Defeated and isolated, Sweden was in no position to negotiate a "business transaction" in good faith. Russia did make payment for its gains as per established custom at the time -- likewise, German states had paid Sweden for regaining their own territories despite the fact that Sweden could no longer hold them.
History sure is fun. We're discussing the end of the long-gone Swedish empire, but we're witnessing -- live -- the death throes of the ever-declining Russian empire. History in the making, in other words. Yet you're harbouring delusions of resurrecting it to its former glory. Not only are you delusional, but also, you're a walking anachronism.
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@Legiion513 French colonialism is a thing of the past -- a past that we were never part of. Moreover, rather than colonising others, we endured colonialisation ourselves, but you won't hear us moaning about it. Just out of interest, how do you deal with the negative connotations of your colonial past? For you, it's not just guilt by association. The atrocities committed by the US in the Philippines (concentration camps, really?) are a good case in point.
The Taliban weren't onto anything new. They simply copied the Vietnamese. Just like the Vietnamese, they bided their time, confident that you'd lose patience before they did. They say that even a donkey doesn't hit the same stone twice. Yet you did.
As it happens, we top the USA in just about any social and human development index. If anyone should feel bitter, it's you.
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@Ютубводоканал Oh, I still have plenty to say. The Russo-Circassain War (1763-1864) that sparked off the Circassian genocide was a consequence of encroachment of Circassian territory by the Russian Empire. Russian-style backyard colonialism, in other words.
In essence, the Russo-Circassain War was no different from the American Indian Wars. The Spanish, British, French, and later, Americans, systematically encroached on Native American territory causing the natives to resist, just like the Circassians did. Neither were saints, of course.
The Native Americans needing to sail to Europe to do their worst in order to have a comparable situation is just a silly false analogy of yours.
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@mitchreine3902 The Commonwealth most definitely doesn't have "more nukes." Aside from the UK, Commonwealth members India and Pakistan have them, but ironically, they've aimed them at one another. Anyhoo, the UK has 225 nuclear warheads, Pakistan 165 and India 160. The US has 5,550. Do your sums, kiddo.
I find your argument about the Commonwealth army even more hilarious. I did a tour as a UN peacekeeper in Lebanon, but I wouldn't go boasting about an almighty UN army -- according to your logic, that's all the armies in the world put together. We were reduced to being a minor nuisance to the Israelis, who literally pushed us around in our peashooter-armed, thin-skinned APCs.
Face it, the Commonwealth has a very fuzzy role. It has no collective defence or foreign policy, and thus makes no practical difference in the world. OK, I'll be generous, let's add "debate" to "sports and culture club."
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Like the Western allies flooded the Soviet Union with Lend-Lease from 1941 to 1945? It kept Russia going, as you suggest. Post-war Soviet leaders readily admitted as much.
Just out of interest, how will you keep going? India's arch-enemy, China, is busily up-arming itself, and India's biggest supplier, Russia, is seeing its arms industry implode. You're already heavily dependent on France, and the US is firmly established, too, as an arms supplier to India. For your information, both are in NATO.
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@ying6610 Uh, sportwear isn't subject to a Taiwanese import ban -- pharmaceuticals imported from China are. Also, Nike, Adidas and Apple know their markets, so they're not making rookie mistakes like BioNTech (with Fosun's blessing, that is).
So, again, why did Fosun eagerly go along with a distribution agreement that included a market that's closed off to them? Do you honestly think Fosun was unaware of the problem, or should I say, political opportunity?
You can tell me if answering this question gets you into trouble with CCP censors. If so, we'll leave it at that.
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@UCgNs-mXKvfHzSMxMsbMr8jA A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members, they say. I think we can safely conclude that you're not contributing to Singapore's greatness.
The Nordic countries have no brain drain issues to contend with. On the contrary. I remember how Singapore made all kinds of overtures to keep us. My PR interviewer suggested a fast track to full citizenship. When I respectfully declined, she confessed we were the hardest to convince. Singapore even commissioned a love song about Finland, which amused us no end.
Your accusation that I'm leeching off Singapore is an interesting one. I worked for two multinationals, both Nordic and both leaders in their field, with their regional headquarters in Singapore. Despite Singapore's relatively small market size, we employed mostly Singaporeans in serving the whole APAC market. You're biting the hand that feeds you.
If you must know, I'm domiciled in Luxembourg nowadays, which, as it happens, enjoys a higher GDP per capita than Singapore. It's happier, too, and a full democracy. No colonialist past either, just like the Nordic countries. You're running out of excuses.
Say, you're not the same pro-Communist Singaporean who turned racist on me a while ago? When I reminded the person of Singapore's strict sedition laws, he (or she) promptly deleted all his comments and cancelled his YouTube account. At any rate, you seem to be saddled with a similar abrasive personality. You'd better watch your step.
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Oh, I fully expect Russia to sign a peace treaty with Ukraine that is similar to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which sealed Russia's defeat in WW1 -- and to WW1 loser Germany, that is. Also, it bears reminding that Germany, too, was still deep inside enemy territory -- France -- when its will to fight collapsed, just as Russia's had a year earlier, in 1917. History sometimes does repeats itself.
Russia should cut its losses already, but with a dictator in charge, that's problematic. I doubt Putin will ultimately suffer defenestration, but I'm sure it will be something equally fatal.
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@malikjackson9337 Natgas usage is practically limited to the industry, and because of relatively cheap electricity and a robust grid, it's reserved for industrial processes that can't do without.
Anyhoo, you may want to reread my comment. I specifically wrote "carbon-free in electricity". You can't command people to get rid of their ICE cars overnight and buy an EV.
By the way, the Netherlands is just about the worst reference point here. Like an Amsterdam druggie, the Netherlands became hooked on natgas. Ironically, the country still has massive reserves of its own, but if they tap into them, the ground starts shaking and buildings crumble. Or the Wadden Sea, which is deservedly on the UNESCO's World Heritage List, gets spoilt.
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@rf5595 I'm not an apologist for US military adventurism -- admittedly, it's a bad habit the Americans can't seem to shake. But I thought this was about NATO?
But since we're on the topic, I don't see how Russia is much different from the US. The Americans had their ill-advised Iraq War, but Russian troops are uninvited guests in a number of sovereign countries, too. Ukraine is a very obvious example, but Georgia and Moldova, too, have to suffer Russian occupiers on their soil. And if sending Russian regulars is too obvious, Wagner Group will do the honours, like in Syria and Libya.
You keep forgetting that world + dog aren't buying Russia's annexation of Crimea. Also, it's mighty unfair on the Crimeans themselves. It doesn't matter if they identify as Russians or not, they deserve better than to be condemned to eternal international isolation. All because a cuckolded Putin had to act out against Ukraine.
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@omwami9071 I was educated in both (northern) Belgium and Holland. Both the Flemish, who've struggled for their emancipation as well, and the goody-goody Dutch are very open about their colonial history, warts and all.
Russia most certainly colonised Finland, and actively attempted to Russify it. In case it has eluded you, Russia was not exactly known as a benevolent colonial power. In fact, Russia is still very much at it, as the conflict in Ukraine shows.
I alluded to five centuries of Swedish rule over Finland, but you conveniently chose to ignore it. It took the Swedes two crusades(!) to subjugate the Finns. Over the next centuries, many rebellions and uprisings followed.
In fact, there are many similarities between the Scramble for Africa and how Finland and the Baltic states ended up invaded, annexed and exploited. Like Africans, we're still aware of our tribal affiliations. When Sweden set up its American colony, it picked Forest Finns as settlers, since they stood the best chance of survival, being used to living off the land. They got on well with the Native Americans, whose lifestyle was very similar.
I'm afraid it does beg the question why Africa, with some exceptions, underperforms in developing itself. We've been robbed, too, but we're not using it as an excuse.
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@MKSense1 For your info, you don't call someone "an ignorant". You either call them simply "ignorant" or alternatively, "an ignoramus". You're ignorant of this, aren't you? You should also work on your punctuation.
To answer your poorly worded question, if NATO's Article 5 does get invoked, Hungary will mobilise, no ifs and buts, just like all NATO members. After all, NATO is not the CSTO, where Russia may or may not spring into action, depending on Putin's priorities.
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@Theworldsucks-kg5jv The Five Eyes are Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US. Firstly, they are an intelligence gathering alliance that focuses on SIGINT. I suspect that in your vivid imagination, they operate an army of James Bonds with licenses to kill.
Secondly, as a superpower, the US holds sway in the West, but the others, no, no, no, some. The UK used to be an intelligence heavyweight because it acted as a conduit to the EU's intelligence agencies, but after Brexit, much less so. Like I wrote, a conspiracy theory. You may as well shout yourself hoarse about WEF.
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It wouldn't be such a giant step, you know. As it is, NATO is composed of different militaries. The EU members of NATO could form a new clique by forgetting to invite the US, the UK and Canada to the party. Sure, there would be some missing capabilities, but the reverse is also true.
I'm sure that as a navy vet, you're aware of the shortcomings of the US Navy. During the Iran-Iraq War, my Dutch neighbour had to go sweep the Persian Gulf for Iranian mines, because the US Navy had lost such a crucial capability. Later, when he got his own ship, he had to protect US aircraft carriers against enemy subs. Once, during a naval exercise, he had to hunt for a Dutch sub that had previously 'sunk' a US supercarrier.
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@theoligarchstepper You think yourself very clever, but alas...
The Moorish geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi put us on his famous map (weeell, sort of), but there's no evidence that he or any other Moor ever set foot here. Having lived in Andalusia, I can tell the Moors' civilising influence would've been much appreciated.
The same goes for the Romans -- no evidence of them setting foot here either. We were still hunter-gatherers then, so pickings would've been slim.
The Anglo-Saxon-Germans(?) -- I'm assuming that's your roundabout way of saying "Brits" -- didn't "shaft" us either. If anything, the Brits shafted themselves when a British admiral once insisted on burning stores as part of a coastal raid, despite local merchants telling him that the goods in question were already paid for and awaiting shipment to Britain, of all places. The exasperated British admiral explained that he must burn something, so his brave seamen torched British possessions. They and the townspeople came out to witness what must've been a most spectacular Guy Fawkes Night.
Global warming is less of a concern to us with our climate and post-glacial rebounding is still at work, which means the ground beneath our feet is rising faster than the sea levels. As it happens, my family owns an island that grows bigger by the year. Unfortunately, so does the land tax.
We did once elect(!) a king, but the princeling renounced his throne before he could sit on it.
I can assure you, with one of the most elaborate welfare systems know to man, the expense of having children is not an issue to us. There are even municipalities that give you a nice monetary reward for producing a future taxpayer. Immigration seems to work better, however.
We like bathing. In fact, we're world-famous for it.
OK, I've dropped enough hints. Let's see how clever you really are.
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@ElGrandoCaymano Your claims are curious. The EU's trade surplus with the UK alone is testament to EU products being more desirable to Brits than the other way around.
Moreover, you're creating the illusion that French automobiles and Italian prosecco and cheese only find customers in the UK, which, of course, is utterly ludicrous. Germany exports more than twice as much chemical products than the UK. Incidentally, the same goes for Ireland.
In pharmaceuticals, Germany's exports are thrice that of the UK. Belgium, France and Ireland, too, are bigger players there.
And which airplane parts might you be alluding to? Those in Airbus planes or Eurofighters? Both are a pan-European efforts, with the UK being just one of many partners. True, the UK has Rolls-Royce, but France has CFM, the most prolific jet engine builder in the world.
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@bahacho9205 You, too, seem blissfully ignorant that the UNSC, which has China and Russia as its permanent members, approved the mission. Are you saying both are puppets of America? OK.
For your info, Iran contributed 2 personnel to MINUSMA. China did better with 426, which is not kitten pee, as we say in my country. As to Russia, which provided none, you may want to ask them why yourself, because I don't know the answer. I do know that Russia is certainly no superpower in UN peacekeeping, but truth be told, neither is the US (8 soldiers of theirs served with MINUSMA).
I don't think you can call the Americans Caucasian. It's not a race anyway, and they're a very mixed bag racially speaking. For laughs, try Anglo-Saxons, and I'll point out that those ceased to exist after the Norman Conquest in the 11th century.
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@duncansmith7562 1. Actually, I did a tour with KFOR with bomb damage assessment as one of my responsibilities. I received training for it from the Americans. I'm inclined to believe their reports on Russian losses, because in Kosovo, we found preciously little evidence of Serbian losses as a result of NATO's massive air campaign, and that's what the Americans duly reported. What's your expertise in matters military, if I may ask?
2. No, Russia is begging. Successfully, from rogue states Iran and North Korea, but without success from its erstwhile arms buyers. Russia was meekly asking them if they could spare some of the kit that they had delivered earlier. Pathetic.
3. Russia has no prospect for bringing the war in Ukraine to a graceful end that would justify the immense cost incurred. That's a Pyrrhic victory (read: defeat) at best.
Mark my words, sooner or later Russia will ask for peace terms. They won't be favourable to Russia, but Russia will accept them all the same. The question is, will Russia be so broke that once again, the West will need to provide financial assistance?
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@haiduong-ji9ls If you must whatabout, at least do it properly. Let me show you how it's done: whatabout-whatabout-whatabout the US, Russia, UK, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea?
BTW, do you have a point, too?
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Maybe you should concern yourself with the question why Ukraine wants to join NATO. And why Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia have already joined NATO. No one twisted their arm. They were adamant about joining on their own accord.
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@TRAZ4004 It seems that for a moment, you forgot that the US is in NATO, too.
In absolute terms, Germany and the UK are the biggest European contributors to NATO. The UK meets the 2% NATO target.
France, which is in third place, is one of those that would meet the 2% target, too, if it would manage to spend its budget. Mind you, France could label its donations of newly-manufactured French arms to Ukraine as defence expenditures, or do same with the compensation that France pays to other EU countries that donate their used military kit to Ukraine. How about your Foreign Military Sales? I'm old enough to remember how we ordered spanking-new F-18s from the US Air Force, and not from the manufacturer, McDonnell Douglas, who still had to manufacture them. Your DoD insisted, like it always does when foreign buyers are concerned.
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@user-g5xnx7gjqb Congrats, you've got quite an imagination on you. But history is not a children's story book that you can write in with your little crayon.
The price of oil and gas is governed by supply and demand. You'd think Russian and oil and gas would've been cheapest to Russia, allowing it to develop into an industrial powerhouse like Germany, but no, Russia remained a commodity peddler -- a gas station masquerading as a country, as they say.
Greece grossly mismanaged its public finances and ended up in a debt spiral. It dig a hole for itself, and lo and behold, it fell in. No one held a gun to Greece's head to make it stay in the EU.
The EU is rooted in Franco-German economic co-operation, but a devastated post-war Germany was in no position to call the shots. Germany just quietly rolled up its sleeves and got to work. Sadly for France and Britain, economic and political clout go hand in hand in the EU.
The EU's Cohesion Fund has lavished the Eastern European members with money, allowing them to recover from the economic mismanagement during Soviet subjugation. Poland, for instance, sailed unscathed through the recessions of the late noughties. If anything, that was a wise investment on the EU's part.
Despite their even murkier Soviet past, the Baltic states are doing fine. I make regular business trips to Tallinn. Every time I visit, Estonia has made a stride forward. Visiting Russians are filled with envy. I hear separatists in Kaliningrad aspire to form a fourth Baltic state, apart from Mother Russia. No doubt, they'll apply for EU membership when they're good and ready. Probably NATO, too, to discourage unwelcome attentions from Muscovy, the State-Formerly-Known-as-Russia.
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To use an analogy, the Russian army would be like the Wehrmacht, which definitely had civilians' blood on its hands, whereas the Wagner Group would be the Waffen-SS, or more specifically, the latter's Dirlewanger Brigade. Bathing in civilians' blood, in other words. The eponymous Oskar Dirlewanger was a convicted criminal, too, just like Wagner's owner Prigozhin. Wagner's founder, Dmitry Utkin, sports SS tattoos and like to play dress-up in SS uniforms, too.
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@Dan-Martin Russia ranks (read: ranked) *6th. PPP is based on a basket of goods for domestic and personal use, so it does not a superpower make.
A better yardstick would be the iPhone Index, the number of days the average Joe needs to work to earn enough money to buy himself an iPhone. The index has gotten harder to apply to Russia, because Apple has pulled out of Russia on account of Russia's war of aggression. Still, I hear that till recently, a model that cost $999 in the US sold for $1,200 in Moscow. So with Russia's pitifully low wages, Russia is off the charts (and not in a good way).
And no, Russia can't produce its own equivalent to the iPhone, because it can't even produce smartphone-grade processors. Importing components from or via China won't fly because of the sanctions.
To put it bluntly, Russia is not only a giant on clay feet, but also, Russia is simply screwed.
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@ssir5927 Your carefully crafted analogy is severely flawed. Russia annexes territory by force of arms. Trump plays fanboy to Israel, which did the annexing. So, while Russia is out for Lebensraum for itself, the USA is a mere Mitläufer -- a sympathizer -- in Israel's case.
Sure, Trump is now voicing similar ambitions, but knowing Trump and his bluster, it's still a far cry from actually annexing territory, as Russia has done. The truth of the matter is that with rise of China and China, Russia, Iran and North Korea banding together, the USA needs its allies more than ever -- it can ill-afford to alienate its NATO partners over a frozen piece of wasteland.
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@ScoobyDoo-zp1sq Are you still doggedly claiming that Fosun's commercial relationship with BioNTech was not inspired by the latter's COVID-19 vaccine? It's funny, because everything suggests otherwise, including BioNTech's own press release on the matter.
If I put a question mark after "political extortion", it suggests it's an allegation, as in trying to find a reason why Fosun acted the way they did. I'm trying to establish motive, in case you want to slap a legal term on it.
OK, imagine yourself a legal counsel defending Fosun. How would you explain Fosun wanting exclusive rights that cover Taiwan as well? They know their markets, and they know Taiwan isn't one.
Like any large PRC-based company, Fosun have a CCP commissar on their board. He must've been well pleased when presented with the opportunity to stir up trouble for Taiwan. Xi, too, must've been beaming.
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@inso80 I have a law degree. Even so, I don't interpret the law outside of my area of expertise. You, however, have no such inhibitions as a rank amateur.
Since you struggle to stay on topic -- whether or not a ship in international waters can be seized on suspicion of damaging subsea infrastructure -- the answer, according to current legal interpretation of UNCLOS, in unclear at best since there's no precedent.
In summary, Eagle S would've been entirely within its rights to continue its journey through international waters unimpeded. In fact, Finland, had it failed to comply with that legal tenet, could've been accused of piracy itself.
Before you start whining "NO FAIR!", this is how the cookie crumbles in a legal sense. We can only hope that UNCLOS is amended so that inspections can take place on the high seas without the authorities risking piracy.
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@jesusaguilar4585 Yeah, why not. There's separatism in Europe that will undoubtedly lead to some countries splitting in two (or three, or four). Czechoslovakia did it, and so did Yugoslavia. Besides Spain, the UK is a strong candidate, and of course there's Belgium, too.
Redrawing Europe's national boundaries won't lead to great drama, by the way. Europe -- geographically speaking, and with the notable exception of western Russia -- has little colonial baggage. Somewhat ironically, the EU is an enabler here. Thanks to the EU, regions no longer need to band together to ward off hostile neighbours, or to compete economically with them.
I'm all for Palestine achieving full statehood, too, in case you're curious. It would be great if the Palestinians could put all the money we give them towards nation building rather than mere subsistence.
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Ukraine was a Russian puppet under Yanukovych. I bet you had no problem with that. How about Ukraine liaising with whoever it sees fit? The trouble is, Russia -- like a intensely jealous husband -- can't stomach Ukraine being on friendly terms with anyone but Russia.
When preparing to sign the association agreement with Ukraine, the EU fully expected Ukraine to stay on close terms with Russia, but then Putin had a jealous fit, ordered Yanukovych to nix the EU deal, and the rest is, as we say, history. And so was Yanukovych, as the Ukrainians rose up and sent him packing to Russia, where Putin's boy now lives as a naturalised Russian citizen.
Canada is a big trading partner of the US, yet Canada also has a far-reaching free trade agreement with the EU. Should the US annex Newfoundland or something?
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@ronom8856 I suppose you want f**k the UN, too? Crimea officially chose to remain with Ukraine after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and this with Russia's blessing. That said, the Crimeans could've pursued their claims for incorporation into Russia though the UN, only they didn't. Instead, a foreign entity -- Russia -- forced the issue, violating all previous agreements pertaining to Russia and Ukraine respecting one another's territorial integrity, in addition to the UN Charter, which explicitly forbids redrawing borders without mutual consent. Not surprisingly, the UN General Assembly deemed the staged Crimean referendum illegal. So Crimea remains Ukrainian.
Your conspiracy theory about the US annexing Ukraine is just that, a conspiracy theory, and a very wild one at that. I see you gave up on trying to argue that Yanukovych wasn't a Kremlin puppet, which he very clearly was.
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@QwertAsdfg-ih1ow Really now. You should read the UN Charter carefully. It does not forbid diplomacy. Territorial expansion by use of force is, however, a definite no-no. Russia ought to be kicked out of the UNSC for that.
Again, no NATO referendums in Sweden and Finland, because they would've proven exercises in futility. Overwhelming popular support, just like overwhelming support in parliament by duly elected representatives of the people, left nothing to the imagination in either country. In Finland, after the deed was done, several candidates ran for parliament on a "pacifist" anti-NATO platform, but without fail, they went unelected.
You're grossly generalising. The USA may have recognised the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, but it certainly doesn't apply to your indistinct "the West" or even NATO as a whole. Norway, a founding member of NATO, just recognised Palestine, much to the chagrin of Israel and the USA. NATO is a defensive military alliance, not a instrument for "Western" foreign policy.
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@weFromRussia Always the victim, never the aggressor. That, too, is a common refrain with you. Just about everyone else thinks differently, and your neighbours in particular.
Actually, in the 90s, I ran a charity co-founded by my grandmother that provided material aid to destitute Russians. When the worst was over, we changed it into a foundation that grants scholarships to gifted students in Russia. Soon after, we had no choice but to switch to scholarships for studies abroad. The net result is that practically all the recipients, once they graduate, refuse to settle back in Russia. I wouldn't care too much, but my late grandmother and her sisters specifically wanted to see their birthplace flourish.
Russia, under Putin, is beyond helping. My professor, another grandson of a Russian émigré, used to say that where Western countries have elections, Russia has revolutions. But hey, we'll get to put our charity to its original use again.
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@hjjiang7766 You, too, are falling for hasty generalisations. We have no colonial past, as in exploiting territories or peoples others than our own.
I don't know if your social credit score takes a hit if you access Wikipedia, but the article there on colonialism makes for interesting reading, especially the part about Chinese colonialism. Like some European powers, China engaged in colonialism, but what's worse, unlike these former European colonialist powers, you're still at it, now in the form of neo-colonialism.
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@yug5156 I have no idea which survey you're referring to and, it seems, you can't put your finger on it either.
Anyhoo, by "vote" I inferred election, be it in this case Saddam's show election of 2002, in which he supposedly got 100% of the vote.
FYI, an approval rate poll and a free and fair election aren't quite the same. If the election precedes the poll and the election is closely contested, voters aren't likely to express approval for the candidate they didn't vote for. That's true for Biden, who clearly hasn't had a good run either. Needless to say, Xi wasn't chosen in a free and fair election. As far as the Chinese are concerned, it's no different than if you were to travel to Staphorst and asked the villagers if they supported god.
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kashmir pandit We're in the EU, but I can't think of a single case where we could conceivably be accused of imperialism.
Russia, however, is a clear-cut case. There's no unclarity whatsoever about Putin's imperialist ambitions since Russia illegally annexed Crimea and more recently, the four oblasts in Ukraine. Putin even compares himself to Peter the Great, who forcefully expanded Russia westward. Then there was Catherine the Great, who oversaw the vast expansion of Russia both westward and eastward.
Worst of all, Russia retains most of its colonies, while the few Western powers that engaged in colonialism have long since decolonised, save for the few microcolonies that they can't rid themselves of.
Russia accusing "the West" of colonization, that's your "hypocrisy unlimited".
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@F0RG1V3N "Punks," there you go again. You, sir, suck balls at debate.
It just so happens India and China's northern neighbour, Mongolia, have democracy. Both rank lower than China in the human development index, suggesting they're behind China on education, too. Yet neither is a failed state -- in fact, India enjoys a faster growth rate than China, and this despite being "hobbled" by democracy.
More excuses, please.
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@PropagandaBurnerV Duh. Putin's indictment is common knowledge. Since you're apparently unable to do simple online searches, I'll quote the ICC arrest warrant for you:
"Mr Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, born on 7 October 1952, President of the Russian Federation, is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute). The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied territory at least from 24 February 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, (i) for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute), and (ii) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission, and who were under his effective authority and control, pursuant to superior responsibility (article 28(b) of the Rome Statute)."
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@Anna87147 Oh, we owe Ukraine all right. Until the Ukraine war happened, Russia was attacking and encroaching on its neighbours with near-impunity. Russia has NATO and EU members as its neighbours, too, as in Poland, the Baltic states, Finland and Norway. Russia has made threats against some of them already. Ukraine is fighting the good fight, on the whole world's behalf.
How about us demanding that Russia quits BRICS, the CSTO, OPEC+ and the Eurasian Economic Union, simply because we're not keen on any of them?
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@jdjssd.n.jsjssjs8951 China is the manufacturing capital of the world because we let it, meaning that if our multinationals shift their manufacturing elsewhere, China will suffer a knock-out blow.
Trade balances are misleading. What China excels at is, in fact, final assembly, which is relatively low-margin. Still, the full export price of the manufactured items is calculated in China's favour, although the bulk of the value-add comes from other countries in the form of components and, above all, intellectual property. The fact is, as a manufacturer, China adds relatively little value.
As a developing country that was kept back by Communist ideology for decades, China should enjoy high growth rates. However, growth will plateau when China becomes a fully developed country. China can't keep abusing low-wage workers forever.
Don't come with your old and weary excuses about colonisation. China was -- and still is -- a coloniser itself. Tibet was invaded and remains annexed to this day.
Worldwide polls suggest that China's popularity is in serious decline, with unfavourable views clearly having overtaken favourable ones. China's powerhouse neighbours are no exception. You won't reverse that trend with self-congratulatory babble and whataboutisms on YouTube.
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@neilnelson7603 As a matter of fact, the UN Security Council backed the NATO-led intervention in Afghanistan time and again. Security council members that voted in favour of the authorizing resolutions included Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Mexico, Syria, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Mauritius, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Singapore, Mali, Tanzania and Tunisia.
I could add all the non-European, non-NATO countries that sent troops in support, but I think you're getting the picture.
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@neilnelson7603 You're not very observant. I specifically mentioned Russia and China, which voted for the ISAF mission and several times at that. So, in your not-so-expert opinion, are China and Russia being pushed around by America and Europe, too?
You can shout yourself hoarse about the unfair make-up of the UN Security Council and the non-permanent members' lack of veto rights, but none of that mattered. The UN resolutions in question were all adopted unanimously by permanent and non-permanent members alike, with the exception of Russia abstaining once (citing maritime concerns, which is hilarious considering that Afghanistan is land-locked). This being the case, you cannot deny that there was truly global support for the NATO-led intervention in Afghanistan.
ISAF was indeed NATO-led. Similarly, there have been a number of UN-approved missions in Africa, executed by ECOWAS rather than the UN or NATO. Since the UN doesn't have a standing army, the distinction with "UN-led" peacekeeping missions is hazy. I myself did two rotations as a UN peacekeeper, but apart from the flags, the blue helmets and white APCs, it was still regular army for all intents and purposes.
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As an artilleryman in the reserves I'm partial to artillery, but I have to say you're exagerrating its significance on the modern battlefield. The war in Ukraine has seen relatively little use of air power, which has a prominent role in Western military doctrine. Russia and Ukraine are duking it out WW1 style with artillery. That won't be the new normal for future conflict.
It's interesting that you pick Finland as an example of how things should be done. Finland relies heavily on conscription and a sizeable reserve to dissuade unwelcome attention from its Eastern neighbour. Finland's apparent over-reliance on artillery is a consequence of that, since conscripts can't realistically be trained to operate modern military jets, much less keep up their proficiency as reservists. Firing cannon, on the other hand, is not rocket science. Until recently, neighbouring Sweden, with its stronger air force, was expected to plug the gap. With Finland now in NATO, it's a whole new ball game.
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@babyyoda6567 ICBMs are typically launched from subs. US, Russian, UK, French and Chinese subs are nuclear-powered, meaning they have the range to go pretty much anywhere in the seven seas to launch their ICBMs.
Kaliningrad, which has Russian nukes, is wedged between Poland and Lithuania, both of which are in NATO. Ukraine isn't in NATO, and it isn't planning on getting nuclear weapons even if it were. As a case in point, Poland has been in NATO for more than twenty years, and it has no nukes.
You can hit back? By the looks of it, you're an intellectual flyweight. If you want to prove otherwise, try to explain what you meant by "global reach" and how that supposedly makes a difference.
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