Putin is opening up a new front against the West

The Telegraph ^ | 30 Sept 2023 | Ivana Stradner

[Chad C. Mulligan]

n the face of mounting tensions, Vladimir Putin’s overarching strategic objective is now clear: to dismantle NATO and expose the alliance’s vulnerabilities. With Russia experiencing setbacks in Ukraine, the immediate threat to NATO members like Poland and the Baltic States may be somewhat mitigated. However, it is in the Balkans where NATO ’s weakest flank lies, presenting an opportune target for Russia’s ambitions.

*snip*

This escalation is a dream come true for Moscow. Serbia and Russia have been preparing the Serbs for escalations in Kosovo for months, inflaming tensions in the Balkans to distract the West from its war in Ukraine. They have flooded the information space with propaganda repeating the old claim that Kosovo belongs to Serbia – one propaganda item argued that the UK is preparing a war there. As any student of Balkan history knows, such rhetoric has ignited ethnic violence in the region before.

[USA-FRANCE]

You don’t seem to understand what I’m trying to explain to you.

Russia is the chief neocon warmongering organism the world has even seen. It not only invades, but the terrible thing is that Russia is ANNEXING countries with violence and deaths! And you don’t denounce that...

America has never annexed Vietnam.
America has never annexed Iraq.
America has never annexed Afghanistan.
America has never invaded or annexed Yugoslavia / Serbia.
We are NOT Russia you see. We don’t just take countries and make them ours.

I’m just giving you facts and they are undisputable.

Since you seem to be ok with Russia’s ultra-neocon policies of military invasions, annexations and imperialist expansionism... since you never denounce the fact that they are invading and ANNEXING sovereign nations with hundreds of thousands of troops. Well, that makes you the true uber-fanatic neocon warmonger I have ever had the honor chatting to.

[Reverend Wright]

America is separated by oceans from large, hostile foreign powers.

If America’s borders were a stone marker in a farmers field and not the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the USA would behave just like Russia if a hostile alliance was moving up to their farmer’s field border.

[elenvee]

I’m a retired military intelligence officer who has lived in 13 states and 2 foreign countries. I’ve been there, done that, gone back, and done it some more. So don’t tell me I’m parochial.

I thought I was fighting to keep America free. Upon further reflection I was really fighting for Lockheed, Raytheon, the Deep State and our foreign “allies” who are the biggest bunch of useless wastes of human flesh I’ve ever had the misfortune to work with.

Washington was right.

[Freee-dame]

+++

[palmer]

True, NATO is not Russia. But that's not the point. NATO was a defensive organization until Clinton and then it turned offensive, some coincidence, some corruption and some wag-the-dog. Russia quite properly saw that as a threat and responded with non-war. They did it like NATO with political machinations and finesse but last year they escalated to all out war. The big picture is that Russia will always inevitably resort to war when non-war approaches fail. You point to the war and their war crimes like that was their first option.

In NATO's case the non-war approaches almost always work. Ukraine is a good example of taking over through non-war. Lots of corruption enriching our oligarchs instead of the Russian and Russian-allied oligarchs. Worked out great for the Bidens and many others.

The result of "defeating" Russia in Ukraine is easy to predict. Russia will come back in 20 or 30 or 40 years and take it back. The way to avoid that is a negotiated settlement.

[Navy Patriot]

Agree.