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PaperclipPerfector  8d ago (text post)   33229 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 24, 2025

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You should watch some of the videos I’ve seen of guys getting dragged away screaming to go die at the front, their mothers often wailing in the background. Changed my perspective

Elections in Ukraine are banned right now btw

Putin is obviously the chief villain here. But this halfway alliance is the worst of both worlds - no peace but no chance of victory. Let’s just declare war on Russia if you care that much (but they never actually do care that much, it’s just virtue signalling)

the UK are now organising a coalition of the willing so maybe there are countries that want to do more than virtue signalling. also, maybe Trump is a genius and is capable of getting other people to do his bidding because they consider him an evil oracle and they believe they can do good by doing the opposite of Trump. similar to the inverse cramer index. but i guess similar to smart is not the opposite of stupid, good is not the opposite of evil.

the UK are now organising a coalition of the willing so maybe there are countries that want to do more than virtue signalling

While not personally holding an overly positive view of Trump's policies vis-à-vis Ukraine, I will observe that it has been quite successful in convincing Europe and the rest of the West to step up defense spending, which has been one of his stated policies since his first administration. Whether this is the actual intent (4D chess meme here) or worth the costs to American foreign relations is less clear to me.

Starmer isn’t actually doing that, he’s just using a lot of weasel words to make it sound like he is. If there is a peace treaty and if that peace treaty involves a DMZ and if that DMZ needs to be patrolled then Starmer is more than happy to contribute some troops to patrol that DMZ as part of a multinational task force.

What's the plan for the Europeans here? Go to Ukraine, get your troops killed, and then invoke Article 5?

This seems incredibly hazardous to the survival of NATO. Indeed Elon Musk retweeted this take from Thomas Massie:

NATO is a Cold War relic that needs to be relegated to a talking kiosk at the Smithsonian.

It's true, the UK did send a few token troops to "help" the US with our various misadventures in the Middle East. That does not mean that we should back them up if they square off against a nuclear-armed peer adversary.

What's the game plan here? The UK doesn't have the cards. To prevent disaster, they should be told in no uncertain terms that American troops will never be sent to Ukraine.

Go to Ukraine, get your troops killed, and then invoke Article 5?

Dead troops on foreign soil doesn't trigger Article 5.

Do you forget that this is exactly why NATO was built? Squaring off against a nuclear armed peer adversary.

Starmer and the others have been quite clear that any potential coalition of the willing sending troops would send the troops to be a tripwire after a cease-fire. I don't think anyone is really expecting, in the current situation for Article 5 to result to US intervention if Europe was to send troops right now, int he middle of war.

Article 5 is only if Russia attacks the mainland. foreign soldiers in Ukraine are fair game.

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