9 Comments

"...they're an aggressor and they will do it again, if they're not stopped. And they have not been stopped." We should listen to them. With Iran in the midst of what could turn hot very quickly as a civil war, North Korea sending the Japanese into nuclear bomb shelters, and now Xi stating flatly they will use military force over the next five years to reunify with Taiwan if necessary, we should listen. We should also be sending as many weapons systems to these countries now as we can ahead of the coming disaster. When the balloon goes up, it will be too late to ship things that might otherwise have helped. God help us.

Expand full comment

Sī vīs pācem, parā bellum

Expand full comment

I agree with you. Russia only understands and fears real power.

Expand full comment

Perhaps an idea for a post. How the potential speaker wants to slow aid to Ukraine and in the process weaken presumably the whole effort to push back against Putin. https://twitter.com/connorobrienNH/status/1582357284147015681

Expand full comment

If the Baltics want to remain independent, they need to obtain nuclear weapons - NOW.

Expand full comment

One thing I remember from my visit to Talinn and Riga is that since the fall of the Soviet Union the cities had self-segregated into, for example, Latvians and Russian-Speaking Latvians. These areas were distinct in terms of location, schools and language taught in schools, businesses, etc. I was not there long enough to discern whether there was still a lot of animus between the two coexisting groups but I assume there must have been some. I assume this is the residual effect of the Soviet Union's effort to relocate citizens to these countries to establish and maintain control of them.

I have not been to Ukraine but from what I can tell the Eastern part of Ukraine is equivalent to the Russian-speaking sections of the Baltics given the statistics that I see about this region.

I have also read, but have no first hand knowledge, that since 2014 the ethnic Russians in the East of Ukraine were under frequent peril of attack by ethnic Ukrainians. If this is true, then it is a different situation from that of those in the Baltic states. In these states, although the political leadership is dominated by Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians, there is some representation by the ethnic Russians in government. More importantly, there seems to be tense but peaceful coexistence that has not deteriorated to violence between the groups. I would imagine that Russia could feel compelled to act if the leadership in Talinn, for example, decided to begin to violently oppose the ethnic Russians in their country.

Expand full comment

Listen to this:

https://youtu.be/Y-5t926gzaU

Thoughts?

Expand full comment