Russia, NATO, and Idiots

[F2d5thCav]

What I heard was that Germany told Estonia they couldn't send ex-Soviet 122-mm howitzers to Ukraine because those pieces once belonged to the East German Army.

Yeah, the German  government is owned by Russia.  Complete and total.  East Germany won the Cold War when no one was looking.

There isn't much we can do for Ukraine.

But we can for damned sure beef up the NATO presence in the -NATO- countries in that part of Europe.  No sense in projecting weakness there.  Let Putin bitch about that because he'll find some reason to bitch anyhow.  And we have to be part of it, to motivate the other NATO powers to join in.

I disagree again about 'poking the bear'.  There is no peaceful way to approach a situation like this.  There is no sense in starting World War 3 over Ukraine, but a lot of calling out has to take place, else everyone not in Europe will think "well, Putin must be correct because the West is not throwing fits".

We're not discussing a bush war in some remote area here.  This will be the first war in Europe since the Kosovo operations, and the first major war in Europe since 1945.  Putin really is moving into a new dimension with his impending invasion.  All because his bosses cocked things up 30+ years ago.

It would be ironic if China somehow slips him a surprise after making friendly faces with him.  I wonder if Moscow went with 'verbal assurances' in the case of agreements with China ... 

Cheers