Wasn't Cuba an independent state with the freedom to make it's own decisions? The US soon got stroppy when the Cuban Government allowed Russia to place missiles there ...
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
If you own a company that makes missiles, and a missile costs say $250,000 a pop, and you have sold X amount to your government, your production stops when your government is fully stocked. You need your government to start using them so you can keep production going. If the 'war on terror' bogeyman has gone, you need a new bogeyman.
I saw a troop of baboons when I was walking in Ethiopia once. The guide ran off at top speed waving his kalashnikov rifle at them.
When he returned I asked him why he’d done that and he replied “if we don’t chase them off, the’ll chase us off.”
Just as well nobody’s given the baboons rifles yet.
In our village we have an over-wintering circus that used to have a baboon. It had no Kalashnikov but it was a tricycle-riding, milk-bottle stealing, bottom-pinching baboon.
They were there to train the Ukrainians to use weapons we'd sold them ... IMHO this stand-off is doing nothing but increase our economy after Covid and Brex*t ... the UK is the second largest arms exporter in the world ... and we're not fussy who we sell them to ... instability plays to our advantage and the West is milking it for all it's worth.
We seem to have taken over wherever and whenever we've wanted to ... anyone listen to the interviews with the Chagosians this morning 😡😭
is it any wonder that Russia feels the need to protect its own interests?
Yep, and realistically you're going to periodically have to make noise when you've got NATO missiles around your border in Ukraine.
That said, I can't see anything actually happening. Nobody in the West realistically wants war with Russia & its allies, and Russia don't want a war with the West either. Just an opportunity to sell some missiles, distract citizens who are furious at their governments for their pandemic response, and whip up some patriotism (in both US/UK & Russia)
It's in our Government's interests to stoke up the rhetoric, sell more weapons, as has been said, it gives Boris a reason to be somewhere other than Parliament and also so Ms Truss can run around in hats pretending to be Margaret Thatcher. It's in Putin's interest to stoke up the rhetoric in order to bolster his own position as protector of the Russian people from Western aggression and to deflect attention from his opponents.
But the membership of NATO part - Ukraine is a sovereign, democratic country and entitled to determine it's own best interest in regard to membership or not of any international treaty. It's not for NATO to 'ban' them, if they want to join (or attempt to coerce them if they don't), and whilst Russia can make a strong counter argument, in the end it should be for Ukrainians to decide where the balance lies. Russia undermined its own position by annexing Crimea, making Ukraine feel threatened, and the Baltic states surely do as well, which I assume is why they opted to join. If they didn't feel it was likely that Russia would attempt to reabsorb them, they may have felt it was better for them to remain as neutral countries and avoid provoking their neighbour.
As I understand it, joining NATO is a slow process at the best of times and a country that is technically already at war cannot join anyway. As long as Russia sits in Crimea, there is no prospect of Ukraine joining.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Yemen really upsets me. We have charities TV adverts showing tearful children homeless and in pain, yet it is our missiles and bombs that are killing them. The CEO's of the charities probably went to school with the folk responsible for selling the bombs.
Ukraine is country in it's own right and can therefore decide whether it wishes to ally itself with Russia or Europe and/or NATO. I believe the present leader was elected on a promise to remain an independant nation but according to news sources today, he has stated that he is willing to discuss with Russia the possibility that joining NATO could be put on hold - I can't recall whether a time scale was mentioned. If you believe Joe Biden, the "invasion" will happen this week sometime tho I don't think he specified which day as such. I suppose it depends on your interpretation of the word but there's more than one way of achieving your aims. As for Boris ( and others to be fair ) nipping back and forth with the usual bluster - well, I'm sure that will resolve matters.
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
You need your government to start using them so you can keep production going.
If the 'war on terror' bogeyman has gone, you need a new bogeyman.
That said, I can't see anything actually happening. Nobody in the West realistically wants war with Russia & its allies, and Russia don't want a war with the West either. Just an opportunity to sell some missiles, distract citizens who are furious at their governments for their pandemic response, and whip up some patriotism (in both US/UK & Russia)
But the membership of NATO part - Ukraine is a sovereign, democratic country and entitled to determine it's own best interest in regard to membership or not of any international treaty. It's not for NATO to 'ban' them, if they want to join (or attempt to coerce them if they don't), and whilst Russia can make a strong counter argument, in the end it should be for Ukrainians to decide where the balance lies. Russia undermined its own position by annexing Crimea, making Ukraine feel threatened, and the Baltic states surely do as well, which I assume is why they opted to join. If they didn't feel it was likely that Russia would attempt to reabsorb them, they may have felt it was better for them to remain as neutral countries and avoid provoking their neighbour.
As I understand it, joining NATO is a slow process at the best of times and a country that is technically already at war cannot join anyway. As long as Russia sits in Crimea, there is no prospect of Ukraine joining.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
We have charities TV adverts showing tearful children homeless and in pain, yet it is our missiles and bombs that are killing them.
The CEO's of the charities probably went to school with the folk responsible for selling the bombs.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I believe the present leader was elected on a promise to remain an independant nation but according to news sources today, he has stated that he is willing to discuss with Russia the possibility that joining NATO could be put on hold - I can't recall whether a time scale was mentioned.
If you believe Joe Biden, the "invasion" will happen this week sometime tho I don't think he specified which day as such.
I suppose it depends on your interpretation of the word but there's more than one way of achieving your aims.
As for Boris ( and others to be fair ) nipping back and forth with the usual bluster - well, I'm sure that will resolve matters.