Vladimir Putin: 'I Can Take Kiev In Two Weeks If I Want'

[Wildtree]

Just like Israel? Or Czechoslovakia? Or hell, half of Europe after WWI? That doesn't invalidate them as a country, and they certainly have a historical claim to the area.

As for claims about ethnicity, that isn't significant to the question. Those people are Polish now.

While it's stupid to contest the legitimacy of Poland, the guy did have some points that can be understood though. Poland is a tricky territory as such... German, not German, German again.. etc...... That dates way back. Starts much earlier than the 1600s.. If you will, the territory known as Poland is a clusterfuck since around the yr 1000 and continued to be that for the next 1000 yrs.
It is - if you will - an artificially dedicated zone, a country as such. And it certainly should remain that for peace and peace sake. But the point regarding the ethnic mixture is quite true... For 1000 yrs a melting pot of German and Russian heritage/influence. That doesn't go away in some 50 yrs.
Most Poles have it de facto very easy to be granted special treatment/naturalization in Germany.

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Britain would have fallen to Hitler with barely any resistance if the US wasn't supplying you, via braving U-boat-dominated waters, navally before we even entered the war. The British did not player a major role in WW2, don't kid yourself. It was mostly the Americans and Chinese in the pacific, and the Americans and the Soviets in Europe.

Can I have $20,00 of that stuff you were smoking?
The US traded with the UK, that much is true... But firstly rather slow, and secondly they also traded with the Nazis. And the US did not enter the war by own choice. It was dragged into it when Hitler declared war on the US. Had he not done that, it's to be questioned whether the US would have ever taken part at all, other than defending itself from future stealth attacks by the Japanese, on random targets.

In the fact of the matter.. The USA was that slow and behind the curve, that the UK would have been by the time the US showed up long defeated. For all what was needed was for the Nazis to continue their raids on the Brits. They've ran awfully low on resources, and it was but a matter of time, when they couldn't fight back anymore. Hitler just had other plans, and found it more important to open other front lines instead. Which lead to the ultimate defeat.

[AeneasBK]

That's a horrifying image. There's more than one missle on each ICBM?

Don't we have satellites with warheads that can be launched directly from orbit yet or is that just science fiction?

[TheGravemind]

Don't we have satellites with warheads that can be launched directly from orbit yet or is that just science fiction?

Weaponizing space is illegal.

[Deleted]

Weaponizing space is illegal.

So is attacking other countries, funding terrorist groups and a lot of other interesting things yet major powers do it all the time.

[Wildtree]

Weaponizing space is illegal.

No it is not illegal.
There's a free will treaty in existence. Treaties aren't binding laws whatsoever.

All you gotta do is, to leave the treaty and you aren't bound to it anymore.

There is in the fact of the matter no way around it. Weaponizing of outer space is a must do. At least if we want to ensure we have a better chance to prevent natural disasters from epic proportions. Earth, and with that it's countries, has to be able to defend itself from possible devastation through asteroid impact. To do so, we greatly increase our chances if we deploy weaponry into space.

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So is attacking other countries, funding terrorist groups and a lot of other interesting things yet major powers do it all the time.

For as long as they cannot even totally agree as to what distance from Earth' surface is applicable, every law can be bent/ignored anyway.

[Zvinny]

Yeah, we did deal with it when ol'hitler tried to make for land grab, we brits didn't take his shit and faught back. The US only came in at the 11th hour and made a spectacle of it.

America did pretty damn good in World War 2. Not sure what the "spectacle" was. Saving England, liberating France and the rest of Western Europe, fighting a simultaneous war in the Pacific.. Only spectacle I can think of is the big one two punch at the end, cause that was one hell a spectacle.

[Valerean]

Britain would have fallen to Hitler with barely any resistance if the US wasn't supplying you, via braving U-boat-dominated waters, navally before we even entered the war. The British did not player a major role in WW2, don't kid yourself. It was mostly the Americans and Chinese in the pacific, and the Americans and the Soviets in Europe.

Are you serious?

The Brits had ended any chance of a German invasion of England long before we entered the war. They had also turned the tide of the Battle of the Atlantic against the Nazis, courtesy of ULTRA and the sheer strength of the Royal Navy.

The dark days were in the early 40's before they had been able to fully break the Enigma code, when hundreds of thousands of tonnes of vital shipping was being lost a month to the U-Boats. It was indeed American supplies that kept Britain from starving during that time, but it was their Merchant Navy that made most of the perilous trans-Atlantic crossings and as a result suffered gigantic casualties.

Without Britain remaining a free and fighting nation, it's doubtful whether the USA could have ever played a part in the battle for Europe. What's also unclear is the effect it would have had on the Eastern Front: with Nazi hegemony extending west to the Atlantic and beyond to the shores of Britain, it's arguable that Hitler would've been able to bring the entire might of the Wehrmacht to bear on defeating the Soviet Union. Whether he would've succeeded or not is conjecture.

The United Kingdom stood alone for four long years against Hitler's tyranny, and the modern world owes them a hell of a lot for that.

[Trassk]

The United Kingdom stood alone for four long years against Hitler's tyranny, and the modern world owes them a hell of a lot for that.

Right on. America likes to assume it won the war, but the UK kept the Nazis in fighting and from taking their land, using its militant resources and frankly making hitlers forces lessened enough for the US to actually do anything. The UK didn't take shit, there is no denying that if the US hadn't come in it might have been a bad ending because of the UK not having the resources to hold up, but it hit hard against Hitler and lost many lives defending its land before the US did anything about it.

Makes me wonder if putin were to do the same how slow american would be to respond, seen as how it wouldn't be attacking a country with a primate military army this time in pursuit of its oil, it would be a country with a real threat of nuclear war.

I dare say this pisses off a lot of Americans who assume to much about there military history, and I'm sorry this might seems like being overly aggressive about your national pride, but just like how Russians think Putin is sacred and how dare anyone accuse him of military evil, america needs to try taking a broader view of the world and what really happens.

[Keihndeth]

Listen to what this Russian Parliament leader says. I'm seriously worried for the health and well-being of this courageous man.

cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2014/08/29/newday-camerota-ponomarev.cnn.html

[Ehrenpanzer]

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014...p_ref=uk&ir=UK

Seriously the guy is off his rocker

Thats actually a fairly generous estimate of the defence capabilities of the Ukraine. Whether or not he could KEEP it (and the rest of his country by extension) from being overrun and conquered by the US+whoever bandwagon hops on the freedom train this go around, is a totally different story

[Osmeric]

Don't we have satellites with warheads that can be launched directly from orbit yet or is that just science fiction?

No. This would be a violation of our treaty obligations. It is illegal to base weapons of mass destruction in space.

[Reeve]

While it's stupid to contest the legitimacy of Poland, the guy did have some points that can be understood though. Poland is a tricky territory as such... German, not German, German again.. etc...... That dates way back. Starts much earlier than the 1600s.. If you will, the territory known as Poland is a clusterfuck since around the yr 1000 and continued to be that for the next 1000 yrs.
It is - if you will - an artificially dedicated zone, a country as such. And it certainly should remain that for peace and peace sake. But the point regarding the ethnic mixture is quite true... For 1000 yrs a melting pot of German and Russian heritage/influence. That doesn't go away in some 50 yrs.
Most Poles have it de facto very easy to be granted special treatment/naturalization in Germany.

People on these forums always seem to bring up ethnicity, and I have to wonder if it's somehow a uniquely American thing that we tend to think the ethnicity of the people is irrelevant. They consider themselves Poles, there is a historical background to the area being Polish. They've been at odds with both the Germans and the Russians in the past. They're Poles. They're their own nation, and that's all there is to it.

[Deleted]

So let him take it?
It's neither a EU state or a NATO partner.

Not our concern, not worth wasting our money and manpower over imo.

[Reeve]

So is attacking other countries, funding terrorist groups and a lot of other interesting things yet major powers do it all the time.

I'd imagine this is pretty easy to enforce. Any satellite large enough to carry deployable warheads would be noticed, and we'd be able to simply shoot it down.

[Osmeric]

Treaties aren't binding laws whatsoever.

In the US, a treaty is considered part of federal law. As such, it is as binding as any other law, until repealed. Repeal does not require the approval of anyone outside the US government.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_Clause#Repeal

[ItachiZaku]

I mean just read the source of the clearly biased article you linked. He was asked a question, hounded about it, and replied with that.

Yep, people gasp at headlines. Like Charlie Manson "Why did you start killing people?" "I didn't just start killing people, if I started killing people, there'd be none of you left!"

haha, good ol' Chuck.

[AeneasBK]

So is attacking other countries, funding terrorist groups and a lot of other interesting things yet major powers do it all the time.

Yeah have to admit in terms of "convincing counter arguments" saying "It's illegal" doesn't hold a lot of strength. So was invading Iraq *~Oh no he di'en't~*

[Cyberowl]

While it's stupid to contest the legitimacy of Poland, the guy did have some points that can be understood though. Poland is a tricky territory as such... German, not German, German again.. etc...... That dates way back. Starts much earlier than the 1600s.. If you will, the territory known as Poland is a clusterfuck since around the yr 1000 and continued to be that for the next 1000 yrs.
It is - if you will - an artificially dedicated zone, a country as such. And it certainly should remain that for peace and peace sake. But the point regarding the ethnic mixture is quite true... For 1000 yrs a melting pot of German and Russian heritage/influence. That doesn't go away in some 50 yrs.
Most Poles have it de facto very easy to be granted special treatment/naturalization in Germany.

I'm pretty sure you know way more about German history than Polish history... :P

[Kuntantee]

So let him take it?
It's neither a EU state or a NATO partner.

Not our concern, not worth wasting our money and manpower over imo.

I think Europe, together with USA, is afraid of what Russia could be if they are left alone.

[Deleted]

"I Can Take Kiev In Two Weeks If I Want"
more like in 2 days, Ukrainian army is pretty much destroyed at this point.