They basically have become the war-mongering, crony capitalist, oligarchic, socially reactionary state that progressives claim to loathe.

They had a burgeoning democracy
Stamped by a corporatist law and order ultra nationalist that used fear and religion to get into power

What Russia is now is the gops wet dream so it is not surprising that the GOP is all in

Tell them that The GOP want the US to be li that; that should be enough

To be honest, this sort of fear-mongering has disappointed me. It is fine to show Putin's many, many, many failings as a decent statesman and leader. It is quite another to engage in the sort of behavior that we did in the Cold War. There are many ways for us to accomplish our goals without engaging in the politics of fear and xenophobia, and yes, it is xenophobia. We are better than this sort of thing, and shouldn't be tailoring any sort of message that looks to revive McCarthyist and Cold Warrior values.

Putin is not all Russian but he is very dangerous

Many on the left who support him are in fact being useful idiot

For gods sake the guy is KGB that tells you everything you need to know about him.

They'll tell you how they feel about the Russian government

It is the government that's dangerous not Russians just like the US government was dangerous in the hand of Bush

OK. I admit. You're definitely getting warmer.

It's hard for me to believe that an American would think otherwise. 52 yo.

Show Red Dawn on Fox Snooze

I shook my head in disbelief when the original version seemed so popular in the 80's.

The idea that a war with Russia (via their supposed allies) would transpire that way is what made it ludicrous, but it was surely popular with gun kooks.

Into our government emails and they are interfering with our election...you need more that that?

but it is important they become informed about Russian actions and national security concerns.

using force.

They are actively interfering with our election in the USA.

They are also benefitting from the upheaval in Syria.

It's a problem.

Regardless of how valid and real the threat is, it's tougher to sell something that a significant portion of the population has never come close to seeing or fearing.

War as I've seen it is Ohio State vs East-Central Michigan A&M...token opposition where our team covers the spread, the military industrial complex gets their $$ and our lives at home are never threatened. Go a few generations back, and that's child's play.


FWIW, it is interesting to see the difference in opinion in this thread. TY all for sharing.

1. You can mess with Ukraine and then blame the tension on Russia.
2. You can blame hacked email on Russia.
3. You can say Russia is trying to hack your election.

Do those three things and you'll be surprised how many people will feel threatened by Russia and want our leaders to get all military with them.

Is that wth your saying
Well, that says it all about where your coming from

the current Ukrainian gov is corrupt
But the previous gov was both more corrupt and a puppet Of Russia

Can't believe the condescension I read towards Ukrainians that risked the god damn lives

I was in Kiev a few months before this happened and as I said earlier, most of my friends are Russian and also Ukrainians

I mean, they're risking the god damn lives, and what not.

Putin is currently in empire expansion mode. Something we should be playing a role in stopping. I don't think people get how big that is. Putin is currently expanding the territory of his empire by way of military force.

Deflection

...

... including the USA under the wrong leadership -- e.g., an impulsive Trump.

Let's not forget that Russia has tried to influence our election by hacking and employing an army of trolls. I suspect they think Trump will be more "friendly" to them, leaving some NATO allies out in the cold. I suspect other former USSR countries are their targets beyond the Ukraine.

Hitching their wagon to Trump is foolish, though, because he's a fool. If Russia invades some NATO allies, Trump will be pushed to take action despite any former complacency, and his possible actions make me cringe.

TBH I was glad Putin etc hitched his wagon to Trump. Foolish mistake that showed they were trying to screw with us in a VERY sloppy manner. Then Trump takes the bait and praises Putin At least it's killing 2 birds with one stone.

I studied history and political science for awhile in school. So I'm not clueless of the cold war. But since the fall of the Soviet Union, I recognize the US has done far more to antagonize this relationship than the Russians have. Our foreign policy the last 25 years is a monstrosity. It looks strikingly similar to the "Manifest Destiny" of the mid-19th century.

The Russians stopped fighting the cold war in 1992....we never did stop. We keep expanding NATO eastward. We still are spending more money on military than the next 10 countries combined. We keep developing missile shield technology and want to deploy them on Russia's boarders. We have far, far more international military installations around the world than any other nation.

I don't like Putin nor the the way their government oppresses freedoms and political oppositions. But Russia's political problems are ultimately up to the Russian people to solve. We can't fix that for them. Although I understand both Obama and Hillary totally despise Putin, I assure you that we will have to deal with him for quite some time. He's not going anywhere. His people love him and view him as a strong leader who will stop at nothing to protect Russia.

I think you mean Russia's neighbors keep begging to join....I wonder why..

We keep developing missile shield technology.
Why should Russia care unless they want to nuke us?

Also the only capitol city with a ABM defense that I know is Moscow.

The Moscow ABM defense system was designed with the aim of being able to intercept the ICBM warheads, and is based on:
ABM-1 Galosh (decommissioned)
ABM-3 Gazelle
ABM-4 Gorgon
Apart from the main Moscow deployment, Russia has striven actively for intrinsic ABM capabilities of its SAM systems.
S-300P (SA-10)
S-300V/V4 (SA-12)
S-300PMU-1/2 (SA-20)
S-400 (SA-21)
S-500 (In development )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-ballistic_missile#Russian_Federation

The US/NATO policy in the late 1990s and early 2000s were to sign up as many eastern European nations as possible regardless of Russia's concerns. We viewed Russia as being weak at that time and our aim was to increase our global influence.

But the problem is, if Russia right now decided to invade Estonia....are you prepared to go to war with Russia to defend Article 5? Even if it it could involve nuclear weapons? Do you think the American people would support that war? I'm not convinced they will. I'll bet 90% of Americans can't even locate Estonia on a map! And I don't think many other NATO nations would want to go to war either.

Most in Europe and America did not care that Russia invaded Crimea. Financial sanctions on a few Russian oligarchs isn't doing much to change the situation. And the US had to twist the EU's arm just to agree to that. Now there's been talk in the EU of lifting the sanctions without any concessions from Russia.

The only way the American people would support a war with the Russians is if they attacked our country directly....which Russia has zero intentions of doing. But they would LOVE to weaken NATO and regain the sphere of influence that the Soviet Union had.

"We keep expanding NATO eastward..."

Yours is a rather tortured narrative to replace the more accurate "they asked to be invited." No doubt, a most juicy and creative allegation will be forthcoming in place of mere conspiracy theories or admission of bias.

If Russia is expanding a military alliance to country that border us.

Would you view that as a threat?

Russia may not be the danger it once was but Putin is an idiot who, through a combination of negligence and ego, may cause permanent problems. He is Russia's Donald Trump, as far as narcissism goes, just less talkative.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."
Leonard Cohen, Anthem (1992)[/center][/font][hr]

I've told my girls that story and what it was like then, and how the USSR crumbled yet ex-KGB Putin still carries the torch of the old USSR.

They understand, but I'm not sure their millenial peers do.

No one is 'afraid of Russia' or the Russian people. This has nothing to do with left over Cold War stuff, and if anyone is telling you that they are liars.

No one is 'afraid' of Putin either, we just recognize what he is.

Putin is a ruthless thug and Trump is a wanna be Putin.

Research Putin and have your friends research Putin.

where they may. You seem to think this wouldn't be a big deal if it were Canada, or any other foreign government. It's a big deal not matter who does it.

their take of things is rather different from ours

such as....cuban missile thing started when kennedy put missiles in turkey....as in we started it and they would be perhaps correct

they still do not believe we landed on the moon....all those pictures from the moon...you never see stars...and yet you are in outer space?

ww2 while bad for us was soooooooooooooooooo much worse for them. on this there is no doubt.

think they trust us about as much as we trust them

If you go to the dark side of the moon, you WILL see stars, just like they can only see stars from the space station from the night side of our planet. Our cameras, just like our eyes, can only handle so much contrast. The brightness of the sun is such that it washes out stars that would normally be visible. This same effect is achieved by the reflection of the sun off the moon's regolith. Sorry to get off topic, but this particular conspiracy theory has always annoyed me.

Is a fool. The LEM lower stages are right where they are supposed to be, along with the Laser Corner Reflectors which scientists have been using since then.

According to Wikipedia

According to the Federation of American Scientists, an organization that assesses nuclear weapon stockpiles, as of 2016, Russia possesses 7,300 total nuclear warheads, of which 1,790 are strategically operational.