Why would we go to war over Taiwan or Ukraine? Too many people casually throw around words like "Munich" and "appeasement" when someone floats the idea of not going to war with Russia or China over Taiwan or Ukraine. They posit that if one country falls, the aggressor nation will launch a global land grab like Hitler did after being handed Czechoslovakia in 1938. As I recently discussed in detail , however, the better analogy is the Soviet Union’s invasions of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. The U.S. and the West abhorred and strongly condemned the Soviet Union's actions, but for practical and rational reasons, Moscow’s invasions did not result in any further territorial attacks. Taiwan is a highly emotional issue for the Chinese leaders and has been for over 70 years. Eastern Ukraine has been a friction point between Moscow and Kiev dating back to Catherine the Great in the 1700s. These are special cases.
Biden, Putin square off as tension grows on Ukraine border Biden “told President Putin directly that if Russia further invades Ukraine, the United States and our European allies would respond with strong economic measures,” U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said after the call. He added that Biden said the U.S. would also “provide additional defensive materiel to the Ukrainians … and we would fortify our NATO allies on the eastern flank with additional capabilities in response to such an escalation.” That could include additional deployments of U.S. troops to eastern European NATO allies, the adviser said. A top U.S. envoy, Victoria Nuland, said a Russian invasion of Ukraine also would jeopardize a controversial pipeline between Russia and Germany. She told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday that if Russia invaded, “our expectation is that the pipeline will be suspended.”
As for Taiwan... we aren't going to exchange nuclear weapons to defend Taiwan. End of story, they are gone eventually. Ukraine is a play toy of American leftists who like poking bears with sharp sticks.
Biden says ground troops ‘not on the table’ but Putin would face ‘severe’ economic sanctions for Ukraine invasion President Biden said Wednesday that putting additional U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine is “not on the table” a day after warning Russian President Vladimir Putin in a video call that he would face severe economic sanctions if he mounts an invasion. “I made very clear if in fact he invades Ukraine, there will be severe consequences, severe consequences, economic consequences like ones he’s never seen,” Biden told reporters as he left the White House en route to an event in Kansas City. “His immediate response was he understood that.” Biden said an invasion would also lead to an increased U.S. presence in NATO countries in the region, but added that the United States would not unilaterally take military action against Russia in response.
Taiwan is a big source of chips for the tech industry, letting China annex them would have huge implications for decades.
China and Russia attack Biden's 'so-called' Summit of Democracy Over the weekend, China held its own virtual International Forum on Democracy, reportedly joined by politicians and scholars from more than 120 countries and released a white paper falsely claiming its one-party system is a democracy that works better than the system in the US. The ambassadors of China and Russia to the US fumed that the summit was "anti-democratic" in a joint opinion piece published in late November by The National Interest, an American magazine. The Chinese and Russian diplomats falsely referred to their countries as democracies. ___________________ A little editorializing by CNN here.
But its true, if the Chinese and Russian diplomats didn't abide by the their glorious unelected leaders, they will get poisoned, sent to jail or have their social credits reduced.
US Officials Tell Ukraine No NATO Membership For At Least A Decade An unnamed source told The Associated Press that senior US State Department officials told Ukraine that a NATO membership is unlikely to be approved within the next decade, a sign the US is not willing to further escalate tensions with Russia over Ukraine. Biden administration officials also told AP that the US might pressure Ukraine to give autonomy to separatists in its eastern Donbas region, something Kyiv agreed to do under the Minsk Protocol, which was signed in 2014. Such a move could significantly de-escalate tensions in the region.