For now I will only comment on the article Marv provided. It is wishful thinking. It is literally a half truth. For this to be true it means Russia has to have the ballistic and cruise missile stocks, not to mention drone stocks, to carry out a hit to the "British Midlands" (where much of the UK defense industry is located). Not to mention the French, German, and Polish protagonists in this drama laid out by the writer. It massively assumes that Russia has these stocks as if these haven't been depleted at a high rate of expendeture in Ukraine and that Ukraine's defensive launching of long range and intermediate missiles and drones haven't also depleted...but destroying...not on these stocks but also the ability of Russia to make them.
I wrote "wishful thinking" because the writer like many soft and hard Putinites (it seems to me, he could in theory be writing from a pro-EU position but simply buys into the great "offensive" capability of the Russians) because he makes the same mistake others of the same ilk write: that the long range and intermediate range missiles and drones are "provided by Europe". That, friends, is factually flawed argument. Any survey of the offensive capability of Ukrainian production of such weapons shows that Europe provides only a small percentage of these missiles and drones: most are manufactured by the Ukrainians themselves. In fact the production of such weapons exceeds that of all of NATO countries put together though U.S. figures, which no longer provides ATAMS and MLRS systems to Ukraine, are harder to come by. I also take issue with "That opportunity was squandered. Through the 1990s and 2000s, despite the original reassurances offered to Russia, NATO expanded relentlessly eastward". "Relentlessly"? Seriously? It was known and with no opposition from Yeltsin that all the former Warsaw Pact countries were going to move toward NATO *and* EU membership. This is not a serious comment IMO. The only and last up until the Russian attack on Ukraine were in the early 2000s when the 3 Baltic countries joined NATO...while Putin was in power and he barely whispered opposition. Lastly, the "drive toward war with Russia" is nonsense. Even when Trump in his first term was screaming at all NATO countries to increase their defense budgets...2017-2021...he was basically ignored. It took the war effort by Putin in 2022 to make NATO members start to increase their war budgets. Even if everything pans out with the budget increases (and the ensuing opposition as domestic programs get cut to pay for this) NATO will not be in any position to "wag war against Russia". As someone pointed out...Tucker Carlson I believe...that the UK's combat ready forces barely amount to 1/2 the size of the New York City police dept.! Not even by 2030 could NATO, with the U.S. or without, "Invade" Russia. I actually think that during the Cold War NATO couldn't of done this either. Russia's army is being chewed up in Ukraine. Their logistics trains are in disarray. Their energy infrastructure around transport fuel has been more than halved. This is why NATO's squeakers about the "threat" from Russia is so much BS. Russia in 2022 could of gone to war against NATO. But I've seen no indications that this is the case now or that Russia, which repeatedly states that it is not a threat to NATO...is not a threat to NATO. Baltic countries: Lithuania/Latvia/Estonia. Russia could get away, if it did so quickly, take these countries. If IT wants to risk war with NATO or part of NATO. It will likely not attack Poland because it simply doesn't have the troops OR the command and control to carry something like that out, even with a missile barrage as written by Steve Perry, the author. I think this is all rhetorical belligerence full stop. David -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#43616): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/43616 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/121598768/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
