re: Russia massing forces close to Ukraine

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Who wins the elections will have little to no impact on Putin regarding Ukraine. He is fully aware there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop him from gobbling up the entirety of Ukraine if he so chooses. Who sits behind the Resolute Desk in January 2017 will do nothing to change this fact.

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I'm not so sure on that. Trump has stated that he wants to strengthen/rebuild the military while Clinton has been talking more of the same as now (i.e., cuts)...

With that said, wouldn't it be more favorable for Russia to face a further-weakened U.S., or one that re-gearing?

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The reason I said who is POTUS does not matter is due to the fact Russia has already massed troops on the border. Once a country does that, this means war is imminent. You can't keep troops in the field like that indefinitely. Either he has to move soon, as in the next few weeks, or send the forces they've amassed back to their permanent duty stations. So even if Trump is elected, it will do no good because even if he heralds in a rearming program on a scale not seen since WWII, it would still take years to rebuild NATO as a viable military threat. By the time NATO is ready, Putin will already have gotten what he wanted.

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I see your point. Very valid thoughts. Really, once he takes the Ukraine, and I think he will because I'd be willing to bet that he is aware of us knowing of their movements and that moving back would be a sign of weakness.

All of this seems like an act in a play. With China's shenanigans in the Pacific (fortifying the islands) and their supposedly backing NK. And Iran's new-found strength due to a certain payment...

The future looks kinda dim...

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I would not be surprised in the least if Putin launches a full scale invasion into Ukraine before the end of the month. I'm not going to go so far and say he's going to do it, just that I'd not be surprised if he did.

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My guess is sometime next week. Olympics are closing and Ukraine's independence is that same week too. My guess Putin's goals are the following;

1. Secure a land bridge for Crimea for resupply.
2. Land-lock the Ukraine to make them entirely dependent upon the Russian Federation
3. Too link up with the Russian enclave in Transnistria.

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On the one hand there's the matter of Ukraine being historically part of Russia.

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so were the baltic states, are you so blase about russia rolling into them as well? heck, poland was a "part of russia" for about a hundred years. ok if they take that back too?

that's to say nothing of the fact that the ukraine wasn't exactly a willing part of the soviet union.

interesting that their were endless invocations of chamberlain and the munich conference in the run up to the iraq war, but now we're willing to hand putin eastern europe on a silver platter.

We can send out Lady Marines over there to help Ukraine

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so were the baltic states, are you so blase about russia rolling into them as well? heck, poland was a "part of russia" for about a hundred years. ok if they take that back too?

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I never said it was OK. However I must point out two things...

1. We're treaty bound to come to the aid of the Baltic states and Poland if Russia invades. We have no such obligation to Ukraine.

2. Even if we wanted to do something to stop him, short of resorting to nuclear strikes there's not really a damn thing we could do right now to keep Putin from taking Ukraine, the Baltics, and/or Poland if he felt like it.

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that's to say nothing of the fact that the ukraine wasn't exactly a willing part of the soviet union.

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You're right. The Ukrainians hated the Soviets so much they welcomed the Germans as liberators in 1941.

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interesting that their were endless invocations of chamberlain and the munich conference in the run up to the iraq war, but now we're willing to hand putin eastern europe on a silver platter.

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Again, right now at this moment what can we do? We do not have the forces in Europe to be a viable counter to any invasion from the Russians. Our European allies are in an even sorrier state of readiness than we are in Europe. The sad truth of the matter is that NATO lacks the conventional forces to hold back the Russians. If Russia were to strike westward, NATO would have to resort to nukes. Do you think they'd do that?

in the words of Skinny Pete . . . The Italian Job