(Yesterday, 04:35 AM)EndtheMadnessNow Wrote: ...
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte refers to Trump as "Daddy" - has to use strong language in justifying Trump's use of the F-bomb.
...
To be fair, Rutte's comment makes perfect sense, when taken in context. The media is pissin' itself over it and "conveniently" leaving out the context. so that they can make much ado about nothing.
The context was that Trump had just compared the Israel-Iran dustup to a playground fight between children. Rutte's comment - "sometimes Daddy has to use strong language" makes sense in that context.
He was referring to Trump's assumed role over Israel and Iran, as THEIR "daddy" in their playground squabble, not calling Trump HIS OWN "daddy", or that of NATO.
=======================================================
NATO nations had best leave Russia and the Ukraine alone to settle their own differences. It's an internal squabble within family, not a playground for outsiders. Biden and the American Left never figured that out, and it looks like the European Left having a hard time coming to grips with that simple truth, too.
Personally, I think there is a good chance that these Left-wingers never forgave Russia for turning it's back on Communism, and they've had a hard-on for Russia ever since. An alternative explanation may be that "the west" is utterly lost and feels purposeless without a Cold War to fight, so they are doing whatever they can to re-ignite it... but they can't. There are no more Soviets. The Cold War is gone. We won. Get over it.
By interfering in their internal business, NATO nations run the risk of having BOTH of them jump those interfering nations once they've resolved their own little tete-a-tete. Simply screaming "Article 5! Article 5!" will not likely save their asses from what they have coming then.
You see, I have a really sneaky suspicion that Trump is pushing NATO countries to see to their own defense spending because he intends to pull out of an anachronistic NATO, and doesn't want to leave the rest of NATO altogether defenseless when he does pull out.
Picking a fight with Russia will not end well when you yell "daddy save me!" and Trump says "Nope. I'm going back inside for a beer. You're on your own. Shouldn't have picked a fight you can't win. YOU picked this fight, YOU handle it."
NATO came to the end of it's remit when the Soviet Union collapsed. It's sole purpose was as a DEFENSIVE pact against the Soviets, and the Soviets are no more. Simply picking useless and unwinnable fights with Putin will not change that - it will not bring the Soviets back. NATO has no more use in this world, because it has outlived it's purpose. It's reason for being can not be brought back - best to move forward.
Those interfering in this latest Russian Civil War are NOT acting defensively as NATO was intended. They are not parties to the conflict, and they have not been attacked, so they are not acting defensively. They are acting OFFENSIVELY, and that brings Karma all it's own when they've poked the bear enough to wake it up, and both it and the cub take after them..
So, what these nations are doing is acting offensively against Russia, hoping to goad Russia into attacking them, and THEN claiming "defense" via Article 5. But that won't work. Just as killing a man in a bar room brawl YOU started, "self defense" cannot be claimed when YOU were the original aggressor in YOUR fight, rather than someone else's.
.
“Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage among his books. For to you kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned with the flick of a finger.”
― Gordon R. Dickson, Tactics of Mistake
― Gordon R. Dickson, Tactics of Mistake