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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   29666 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 16, 2024

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Acknowledgement of reality. A peace deal now without hard guarantees is just a pause, a frozen conflict so more can be taken in the future.

I don't think I can even imagine what you consider a hard guarantee if that doesn't qualify.

American treaty obligations. Tripwire forces. Things that represent an actual threat to Russian attempts to use military force to restart the conflict.

To inject unnecessary levity into this serious discussion (my own view is Muscovy Delenda Est):

If Ukraine wants a permanent garrison of US forces, they should set up a PX chain called Dimepiece at the borders, where active US service members get one dime beers and dimepiece eyecandy Ukrainian girls/guys. It'll have far more US troops on leave there than any permanent garrison, with the advantage of US service members stumbling outside to buy some shitty charger at 30% APR. I wonder what's the slav equivalent of a dodge charger.

And somehow, European forces that have the ability to bring in Americans if they will don't count?

Article 5 can't be triggered by Europeans joining someone else's defensive war.

It's not automatic, but if the Russians start attacking European targets as a result of this, my understanding is that would qualify.

I may be wrong in my reading, for the purposes of simplification, assume that the Americans are worked into the thing as a guarantor in a way that doesn't trigger total war over internal Ukrainian political struggles.

Russian invasion is not 'internal Ukrainian political struggles'.

I'm aware. I didn't mean it any other way. Hence "internal".

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