Quote:
Originally Posted by Griff
Sad business.
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Sad is the Dutch want to be sad about these murders. But do not want to do anything about why it occurred. Netherlands is the largest EU trader with Russia. So its population and government does not even want to call for economic sanctions. A further emboldened Putin, learning that EU leaders have no backbone, has apparently started shelling Ukrainian military units with artillery based in Russia. All part of a strategy to slow inch up the escalation.
Does not matter if that one report is true or not. We know Russia has been and Putin's strategy is to inch up pressure on Ukraine to eventually take more land or force Ukraine into a Russia political/trading sphere. Pressure has successfully caused the current Ukrainian government to resign. Putin's strategy was so successful that nobody in Europe is talking about returning Crimea to Ukraine. That would require backbone. Same missing backbone occurred during the Balkans.
Stay in perspective. No European nation can deploy even 2000 troops to an emergency military action. Even Pakistan has more military aircraft than any European nation. Why were coffins returned to Netherlands in a smaller propeller drive military aircraft? Why was the Australian plane carrying many more coffins a much larger jet transport? Apparently European nation did not have available military aircraft that Australian had no problem deploying.
Sad is that the US is doing more to stand up for Europe than the EU is.