Rossticus said:
jabberwalkie09 said:
Rossticus said:
jabberwalkie09 said:
MagnumLoad said:
Again, doctrine not equal to action
You do understand that this is how their leadership thinks right? Nuclear usage first to force negotiations. I'm not sure I would count on one loan hold out who could be replaced.
Then from a purely philosophical standpoint, opposition to Russia is unjustified under any circumstances.
Incorrect. NATO, and by extension the USA, has been very clear on it's message imo. Besides, we are funding and equipping the opposition. We just aren't making overt acts of aggression of someone who more than likely would use nuclear weapons.
I'd say that we're being overly cautious even in what equipment is being allocated. There are many more types of Soviet build equipment in back storage of regional NATO nations that Stoltenberg has refused to allow in-theater for fear of escalation, that would be of massive benefit to Ukraine. Unless that's just a diplomatic sleight of hand (which I doubt), we're being conservative to the point of absurdity considering the cost of such actions and behaving timidly in the face of Russian bullying.
I assume you're referring to the air assets. There's legitimate logistical and tactical problems with that. Flying out of a Polish air base full stocked and ready to rock would be problematic for all of NATO. I'm not sure how much radar coverage the Russians truly have, but I'd bet some money on there being Russian assets watching every single plane taking off from a NATO base in Eastern Europe right now and that would get reported.
As to other systems and equipment, despite some logistical hurdles getting AA systems in especially if they're of Soviet design or man portable systems is easier than handing out equipment. There's going to be some learning curves with western equipment. Time isn't necessarily on their side and equipping what we can with little to no training needed is really the best bad option we have right now.
There's basically three wars being waged right now: bullets/kinetic, economic through sanctions, and propaganda via social and traditional media.