@farmerman,
farmerman wrote:Lets all try to get Ukraine into the EU and a member of NATO, THEIS WEEKEND!!
I think that forces our hands should the Poot try to play STalin
Unfortunately there are still a large number of Russians in Ukraine. They will never agree to joining NATO, and they vote in Ukrainian elections.
There probably won't be a majority of Ukrainians in favor of NATO membership unless Russia carves away east and south Ukraine first.
However, we might be able to use the
threat of Ukrainian membership in NATO as a lever to prevent Russia from seizing east and south Ukraine.
It is long past time that we welcomed Georgia into NATO though, and maybe the Georgians would be willing to allow the US Navy to have a permanent base on the Black Sea.
I'm not sure we really want to tie up a significant portion of our Navy in the Black Sea, but even a small base with just one or two warships would send a message to Putin.
Also maybe time for us to build up a troop presence in Poland and Romania, if they are willing to allow us bases.
And maybe we could ask Poland and Romania if they'd each like to be a repository for 10-20 of our new tactical nukes.