Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-25

[Sheilbh]

Although all those countries are in the EU and Spain has the same currency as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland.

A direct threat to Spanish territory may be unlikely, but it's not exactly faraway countries of which we know little.

[crazy canuck]

He was trying to make the point that the US is farther away from Russia so has less to fear than Spain, the implication being that Spain has more reason to spend on their military.  But our geographically challenged American friend has at least one fundamental problem with his argument.

How utterly pedantic.  Spain is much closer to the Russian threat than the US.  Russian forces in the Far East will be annihilated in a matter of days, so pose no threat to the US. Yi's point is correct even if he worded it imprecisely.

Then I guess we don't ever need a navy or an Air Force because the only risk is that the Russians marched through Europe by land. Good to know I guess Canada doesn't have to have any military spending now and the whole arctic defence strategy is a waste of time.  What a relief.

[Neil]

Although all those countries are in the EU and Spain has the same currency as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland.

A direct threat to Spanish territory may be unlikely, but it's not exactly faraway countries of which we know little.

If you want to take economic factors into account, then everyone is on the frontlines.  A major war between powers anywhere in the world would have far-reaching economic consequences.  A war between the US and China would collapse the European economy, and likely the EU, for example.

[grumbler]

Then I guess we don't ever need a navy or an Air Force because the only risk is that the Russians marched through Europe by land. Good to know I guess Canada doesn't have to have any military spending now and the whole arctic defence strategy is a waste of time.  What a relief.

That's what you guess, huh?  I'll bet you guess poorly.

[crazy canuck]

Then I guess we don't ever need a navy or an Air Force because the only risk is that the Russians marched through Europe by land. Good to know I guess Canada doesn't have to have any military spending now and the whole arctic defence strategy is a waste of time.  What a relief.

That's what you guess, huh?  I'll bet you guess poorly.

Merry Christmas grumbler, you made a stupid mistake and you double down.

Don't ever change

[DGuller]

Never has such a strong desire to feel smart met such a catastrophic inability to be so.

[grumbler]

Then I guess we don't ever need a navy or an Air Force because the only risk is that the Russians marched through Europe by land. Good to know I guess Canada doesn't have to have any military spending now and the whole arctic defence strategy is a waste of time.  What a relief.

That's what you guess, huh?  I'll bet you guess poorly.

Merry Christmas grumbler, you made a stupid mistake and you double down.

Don't ever change

And a Merry Christmas to you, as well.  May your 2025 contain 25% fewer examples of you refusing to admit when you are wrong.

[Iormlund]

 

[Neil]

It's funny watching two guys fighting it out in a silly way.  This is what Languish is all about, where two people who are hyper-focused on a particular detail fight it out for verbal style points, when in fact they're both wrong. 

Russian conventional arms are a threat to the US and Spain only through their alliance networks and broader interests.  The direct, physical threat that Russia poses to the territory of both countries is exclusively through their nuclear arsenal.  The Russian ability to project power from their Far East holdings is the same as their ability to drive a push through  all of Europe:  nil. 

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Apparantly Russia is going to sign a military cooperation treaty (or a treaty of the same type they have with the DPRK) with Iran on the 19th of January...

[Iormlund]

By the way, it seems clear that the Azerbaijani airliner that crashed earlier in Khazakstan had been crippled by Russian AA as it prepared to land in Grozny.