I was being facetious.
My gf is German, I know her friends.
Sample is too small to draw a conclusion about the German people as a whole, but there’s no “toxic masculinity” types among them, I can tell you that much.
Also, they root against the German team in football.
That’s interesting, thanks. His smoking gun evidence that American intelligence knew about an epidemic spreading in China way before any Chinese officials knew is interesting too…
It never crossed your mind that the administration was deliberately sending these signals, because it wanted an invasion to take place? To distract from domestic problems, to have a scapegoat, to move Europe into closer economic ties with the US and break away from Russian oil and gas? These seem like legitimate questions to me.
Honestly, no. The Administration went out of its way to placate Russia (think Biden’s dumb decision to remove NS2 sanctions) and was very transparent about its plans to focus on the geopolitical contest with China.
If you’re walking through a sketchy neighborhood and repeatedly yell “I don’t want any trouble”, the trouble will surely find you.
I guess I just don’t see anyway Putin keeps going into NATO countries. We have been clear on that redline.
And Russia cannot “sanction proof” their economy… Even if China steps up to help, china is far too intertwined with the west to be able to offer anything substantial from a simple capacity standpoint.
None of what I’m saying takes away from the awful actions of Putin and Russia, and the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine.
China is far from the only country willing to trade with Russia. Putin won’t go for the Baltic states this time around, but give it a few years and he’ll be back stronger. Same logic of not wanting to start ww3 will apply once he hits the outskirts of the NATO alliance. Or maybe you guys re-elect Trump and he pulls out of NATO. I can just see Tucker Carlson praising the move now, saying it’s about time America focuses on America and let that euro trash take care of their own defense. Haha
It was time, like, several decades ago.
Unlike Americans, Putin was paying attention and learned a valuable lesson the last time we had Biden in a decision making position involving that phrase.
Thats why he doesnt GAF.
Who’s laughing now? Not being facetious. For real. Who’s laughing now?
He was saying they need to carry their own end of this, and he was absolutely right.
If Nato countries had their own well funded, professional, standing armed forces Putin wouldn’t have the balls to start shit with anybody, let alone start telling other autonomous nations that they can’t even join NATO or he’ll kick their asses, while simultaneously waging war on a population.
Instead, the lilly livered cappuccino crowd sneered their Orange Man Bad! bullshit, snubbed their noses and congratulated each other for being “on the right side of history”.
How do each others farts smell now, smart folks?
Then your sample is definitively not representative and does not allow for further conclusions on Germans.
I know very few “toxic” masculine or rather traditionally masculine Germans compared to the sensitive and compassionate types, but they exist. I’d say it’s maybe 10% of the German men.
You have to understand that the only reason why many countries dont have this army is because US helped Soviets to destroy Europe.
1)Americans have never experienced actual war. Like the kind where your houses get bombed and you never know if you will wake up in the morning. Americans got their towers bombed once and they lost their shit for a decade. The amount of lost human lives in Europe, even after WW2 make 9/11 look like spilled milk on the table.
2)Many Euro countries are weak because after WW2 they were raped and pillaged for decades, and economically suffocated by Stalin and his followers. While America was growing in 50s and 60s, we were standing in 4 hour lines to get 1 piece of bread. Whole economy was fucked right up to early 90s.
Our economical advancement started after 1995, so you cant really compare Europe to America who has been advancing since day one, with no real outside threats.
US have their forces getting bigger and better your whole history while many countries in EU only got their first chance for any type of military in mid 90s.
Its exactly the same as US would help Putin now in Ukraine. Then let Putin rule de-militarised Ukraine for 60 years and after that say : “well, stupid Ukraine, doesnt have its military, why do we have to help” ?
I guess US kind of has to help because this whole problem with half the Europe being shit was because America and UK actually did help to enslave Europe under Stalin.
I understand where Americans come from when they say they dont want to get involved, because its not “their problem” but i just want to remind you that war is not a problem of certain countries, its a problem of humanity.
And the only reason why you are American, and i am Latvian is because your ancestors just shipped their ass to a different continent. Being American is not an achievement. Its a lucky random that happened houndreds of years ago.
We all started on the same continent and then someones relatives moved to a different place. At the end we are still the same people, with same herritage, same emotions, pains, fears and blood of the same color.
I imagine its cool feeling super safe all your life, living in one of the best conditions but you have to understand that its only a lucky random, not an actual achievement, so i dont agree with people saying that whatever is happening somwehere else is not “their problem”.
I never disagreed with him about it. Haven’t I been ranting about what happens when you get in bed with autocrats? Merkel and her ilk are to blame, thinking they could manage the decline of Russia in this way.
It’s not just America included in that “we”, and the history of that redline isn’t just 10 years old.
And the orange man pulling out of one treaty while being vocal about wanting to pull out of NATO with a large amount of domestic support, certainly didn’t give Putin pause on his invasion fantasies. If you want to go down the presidential blame-game rabbit hole lol.
He made it clear, no minced words at all, that other nato countries need to pull their own weight.
But never did he exit the Nato pact.
Obama drew a line in Syria and Putin called his bluff, period.
These are historical facts, like them or not.
Putin is and always has been a shit tester. He pulls some bullshit, then guages response. Then pulls more bullshit based on that response.
He knew we have a doddering old pussy in the white house.
Its not really blaming the president so much as calling a spade a spade.
He was right and the elitist leftists were wrong, nanny-nanny bo-bo, stick your head in do-do.
Cool story bro.
I dont know about you, but I’m not dandelion spawn, and nothing you wrote resembles any family or national history of mine.
So while Im teaching my son rifle skills and hand to hand you just keep doing drugs and talking shit.
But what Ever you do, dont answer the call to arms. The wolf is at your door, and if you open it he’ll get you.
But if you leave him there and throw him enough steak, eventually you will convince yourself that he’s your watchdog.
Assad, not Putin are those facts. Orange man undercut NATO at every turn and with his cultlike domestic backing (continuing with Tucker repeating Kremlin propoganda up to a week ago) showed America wasnt unified against Russian aggression anymore. No argument on the doddeling old guy. With his own personal health declining Putin knew it was now or never for his legacy campaign.
Are you in support of direct military intervention in Ukraine from NATO countries including the US? I’m still unsure of what you think the us/NATO should currently be doing.
Agree. I would also add that I think this is the reason why the recent generations of Americans (mine included) have become the limp-wristed, gender neutral, “thoughts and prayers” virtue signalling douchebags that are plaguing our country.
The problem here is that some bullshit country like Luxembourg would get hit by a superpower and cry for help, while having a total of 400 active troops. We could also use Montenegro (2400 troops) as an example of a country who we would get to defend via sending our young men off to die.
This is true, however I find that most people don’t spout “USA USA USA” 24/7 - at least not since the post 9/11 paranoia calmed down.
To be fair, Ukraine could have chosen to join NATO a while ago but didn’t want to lose out on Russia’s oil money. This is not an ‘American problem’ but my opinion would differ if they had joined NATO.
To be fair, he undercut NATO because the other countries deliberately weren’t pulling their own weight. NATO was becoming less of a “You hit us, we all hit you” and more of a “My dad will kick your ass” type deal. It sounds nice for the kids, but the “dad” here has too many problems at home to watch out for all the kiddos.
Yep. But that is misunderstanding the importance of having allies/treaty partners with globally strategic countries. We get to have bases there and extend our sphere of military power and economic influence. Sure it would be nice if they paid their fair share, but it’s still a good deal for what the us gets out of it. We are always going to pay the most because we can, and then we get to lead NATO/call the shots.
The problem is orange man undercut NATO brashly and very publicly on the heels of pulling out of another big treaty a previous administration had signed.
We arent going to agree on this.
But we can agree that Tucker is a fruity bowtie wearing asshole.
Im not sure anymore. After a few decades of watching these NATO forces contributions give unintended meaning to the phrase “Asymmetric Warfare” where we’re comitting tens of thousands of troops, ships, armor, you name it, and they sprinkle a few in the mix for good measure, I’m kinda tired of it. (<- that response right there is exactly what Putin was looking for in a population that has been at war for 20 years in the middle east/Afghanistan).
The humanitarian in me says we absolutely must.
But the father in me says “You want me to send my son, but you won’t send your own.”.
So there is some ambivalence.
