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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 12, 2024

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Even if the Ukrainian Defense minister was assassinated on say, German soil it is still unlikely that the US would send American soldiers to fight the Ukraine War, or that we’d bomb Moscow. So again, the situation isn’t really the same as Hezbollah/Iran.

I actually think that German boots on the ground in Ukraine would be a fairly likely response in that event (and American ones if the assassination happened in the US) - and, well, Iran hasn't sent physical soldiers to attack Israel yet, and we are seeing American and German hardware raining down on Russia every day. I'm sure Iran would have been happy to let its rocket volley be launched by Hezbollah or Hamas rather than sending it directly, too, if they had had the logistical possibilities to move the launchers there, as the Western alliance has with Ukraine.

I actually think that German boots on the ground in Ukraine would be a fairly likely response in that event (and American ones if the assassination happened in the US)

It would be incredibly unlikely. NATO members absolutely do not want to get into an actual shooting match with russians.

Some of them seemed to be quite open to the idea (though they were probably also hoping that the troops would act as a shield and the Russians, themselves not wanting a shooting match with NATO members, would essentially avoid striking anywhere near them). My sense from German media is also that there is a general drive to warm up the populace to the idea; either way, everyone involved probably understands that Russia in its present state would in fact be too risk-averse to seriously retaliate outside of the Ukrainian theatre or even target the troops unless they show up at the front.