WWIII placeholder thread.

Just putting this here for when the shit really hits the fan.

Thanks, Putin!

TIMESTAMP

You want it stickied too?

Also, gotta love the balls on that Soviet cocksucker.

Doesn't even wait a week since the end of the Olympics, and he invades another country.

Great, the cooly cynical son of a Canadian bitch decided to start World War III. Thanks a lot WAB!

Also, I blame Obama.

You're as bad as Volpone, its Hillary's fault! She's been running the State Department until recently and since she's likely to run in '16, blame has to be shifting to her, and this is the fallback position since that whole Benghazi business doesn't seem to have much traction.

For many years Kasparov has been carrying on a one-man crusade to educate about Putin in the ed pages of the WSJ.

Here's something he wrote in December in the UK:
http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9099872/the-new-great-game/

e.g.
Of course, in any international dispute, a dictator always has an upper hand over democrats...
But it wasn’t just that Putin played his hand well. Both Obama and Cameron played a genuinely inept game. ...
But the disaster of President Obama’s presidency is not just his lack of leadership but the fact that he shows such weakness. It is not only Putin who is watching and taking note of this. There are other players in this new Great Game waiting in the wings — the Iranians in particular, who will arrange their nuclear progress in accordance with the weakness they see.
Putin is like a mafia boss.

The President has already launched the missiles.......

As far as sequels go, will WWIII be an alien 3 or a godfather 3?

That'd probably be a GOOD thing, if/when you think about it!

"War" implies that the West will fight back. Which it won't. This will be a reprise of South Ossetia, 2008.

I hope you're right. I'm afraid you might not be.

This is an entirely different game. Most people including politicians didn't even know where Georgia was until that little war. Ukraine is another matter. For one, it's closer. The Ukrainian border is closer to Vienna than Austria's westernmost state, for example. It's a direct neighbor to the EU. Thus, our banks are heavily invested and a state bankrupcy would pretty much kill the humble rebound we're seeing right now.

Also, have a look where most of the natural gas pipelines go through: Click me. Only a few especially paranoid countries (like mine) have enough strategic reserves for one mild winter without Russian gas. So it's STFU and hope the warmth keeps flowing.

If Europe wanted to step up it could grant the Ukraine immediate EU membership today.

Which Ukraine?
The pro-Russian government that just got ousted?
The revolutionary government?
Would it include the Crimea, or even the pro-Russian parts in the East?

Too sloppy to be plausible.

People keep bringing up Georgia in 2008. The problem is this was very close to a U.S. presidential election where a change in administration was inevitable. Thus the Bush Admin. was very reluctant to act and "hand off" a conflict to the new administration that they started literally on their way out the door.

Just like the Clinton Admin. refused to respond to the 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole for the same reasons.

^Democracy gets in the way of our militarism.

All of it. The whole fucking country warts and all. Don't equivocate. Hatch some balls Europe. The US won't be around forever to do your foreign policy. Fucking pussy ass continent.

None of this would be happening if Hitler had won.

That, or Bush was already up to his eyeballs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and was more interested in Iran anyway.

As I understand it, Clinton was scared that responding with force to the Cole attack would be seen as "wagging the dog" and trying to tip the election for Gore. Because before 9/11, Republicans used to refer to any sort of military strike as "wagging the dog." That's how seriously they took national security in those days.

I don't expect it to get to full scale war, I do think that we will see Ukraine split in half though, with the west becoming an independent European nation and the east either becoming its own country or joining with Russia.

And the Republicans flip flopped on Obama supporting the rebels in Libya and Syria. Basically, the US government is run by a bunch of douchebags on both sides of the aisle.

I'm sure whatever Obama does, it'll be fodder for the midterms this year.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/02/world/europe/ukraine-politics/

Krivak III Class. I wonder which banner their sole submarine, the Zaporizhzhia, will follow.

I'm now getting reports the Ukrainian flagship is still at anchor at Crete, and still flying the Ukrainian flag.

(Do we have a pot stirring smilie)

So, just to be clear.....

Russia are not allowed to invade anyone but the US, UK and allies are??



I'll get my coat.

Yes, Russia is not allowed to act like France and the US (and our UK lackeys) do. Doesn't seem fair, but tough shit, Russia can suck it.

Well, it'd be nice if the people who criticize every US military action would also criticize a Russian one.

There's not going to be World War III. Nobody cares enough about Crimea.

Naaaaaah.