This is very consistent with what his former Sec of State, his former campaign manager and others have said..... as his former campaign manager said, he has TWO concerns.... losing his wealth (not his people's wealth) and protests in the street..... while this SEEMS like it could be beneficial for negotiations, the reality is that it means he feels he cannot walk away with his tail between his legs.
Lets hypothetically say Trump wins in 2024 (there is like a 75% chance the party not in power wins in this **** show) AND Trump pulls the USA out of NATO.... and Russia responds by picking off some more countries....... what is the response in the state department? With voters? Do Republicans in power like Graham just ride Trump out?
Russia is using conscripts and not exactly their top shelf gear. I don't think Putin put all of his chips onto the table, but it doesn't seem like he's the type to up this particular bet. I was thinking about Qadafi during the earlier discussion about the NPT being a game for suckers. He handed his nuke program over to Bush, got some money and praise for it...only to be overthrown and stuffed like a rat. Guess those vague assurances of safety are worth more than the paper it's printed on.
This is where we disagree about the events that have happened. I feel we have used our might. We launched a severe economic war, and have armed his enemies as rapidly as possible. Remember Ukraine didn't believe entirely that Russia was going to invade. Now Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania - they all know the stakes and are preparing quickly for Russian aggression. We are putting our troops in many of those countries. Planning is underway. Russia is being isolated and suffering both in prestige and economically. Wars are expensive and draining on a country, and Russia is going through that as well. We have used our might. We are playing our cards to stop him. And things haven't gone for him according to plan. So yeah, I disagree that he is thinking "oh they did nothing, now I can just take whatever I want." This is a man who lies a lot - nothing he says can be taken at face value. For me the right strategy is to prepare defensively for his next moves. Anticipate and plan. Map out all scenarios and formulate what we will do and how to best slow him down. The last card is war and you have to have a very clear sense of what triggers war with Russia both for ourselves and for Russia to understand. And I think war with Russia starts with an attack on NATO. That's it. That's the boundary he can't cross and I believe he knows that.
I'm sure a lot of state people would resign, but so what? That's just more victories for the Trump wing that hates the "deep state." And yeah Graham would criticize him for it, but more in a "honey you should really shave down here" as he fellates him kind of way.
I agree, I think the idea that we haven't flexed on him is silly. People want to see the fighting stop, I get that, but what we have done is far from "nothing." I don't think Putin is looking at what's going on so far and saying "Man, this is great, we should totes invade Finlandia!"
Good points about preparing but this wasn't a supply to Ukraine either. Putin also knew that there would be sanctions. The one one thing he doesn't believe will happen is willingness to have planes in the air.
I think he didn’t expect it would be this fast and extensive. It regularly happens to people surrounded with yes mens.
