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Comment by quotz | Hacker News Reader

Would you say the same thing if Canada tried to join a military alliance with Russia? Of course what would happen is a total overnight invasion of Canada by the USA. Something similar happened in the 70s with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Total overnight naval blockade of Cuba with imminent threat of escalation.

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Was Canada occupied by US for >300 years? If they were, I think it would be totally legitimate for them to seek a military alliance with Russia.

Even if it had been occupied by the US for 300 years, I (a US citizen) would be angry with my government if it didn't use military force to stop Canada (or Mexico) from forming a military alliance with Russia (or China) (provided diplomatic avenues had been exhausted). Letting such an alliance persist and flourish would permanently drastically degrade the security of the US.

Thats exactly Russia's reasoning right now. What is essentially happening is that the US is the aggressor and Russia is simply defending itself from NATO expansion. I am not sure why everyone is just bashing Russia without thinking for 2 seconds about this topic.

That's bullshit. The aggressor is the one who is invading and bombing another country.

The only reason why Ukraine even wants to get into NATO is because Russia has never stopped viewing it as a core part of its Greater Russia imperial restoration project. This is also why the entire Eastern Europe rushed to NATO as soon as they could - because they didn't want to end up like Ukraine did.

The reason eastern europe rushed to NATO is simply because the west was quite wealthy as a capitalist bloc, and the former communist countries viewed the west as a holy grail. If the eastern europeans wanted access to the european markets, they would have to go through EU integration, and of course NATO. Its not like they could join the EU if they still were in a warsaw-pact like military alliance. The truth is, the west had more influence because of their economies.

And the argument still works. Even in that hypothetical scenario the USA would still reasonably not allow Canada to join that military alliance. In addition, saying Russia occupied Ukraine for 300 years is like saying France occupied Occitanie, or Germany occupied Prussia, or even Spain occupied Catalonia. There's so many of these occasions in recent history that its basically not an argument. On that note, thinking the same way did also the US maybe occupy Utah?

TBF US attempted to invade/annex Canada twice when Canada was British Canada, AKA nascent US's existential geopolitical enemy. It wasn't until British got displaced from NA (thanks to French) that Canada learned it's better to play nice with juggernaut that is US and eventually integrate with US system, because there is no other path to serenity.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was 60s: 1962.

Unfortunately, having worked together to defuse it, both Kennedy and Khrushchev were cancelled soon after.

Point still stands. Better yet, imagine Texas leaves the union and joins military alliance with Russia. That would be more similar than the scenario with Canada.

> imagine Texas leaves the union and joins military alliance with Russia

That'd be awesome. They're nothing but trouble anyway: fought wars to keep slavery twice* in a row, yet still somehow keep installing US presidents with deep security apparatus ties — they're worse than Georgians with moustaches. Как тебе такое, Илон Маск?

I'd miss Austin, but am now imagining all the great mashups to be sung on one of {1 Feb, 2 Mar, 9 May}:

  The Yellow Rose of Texas Sobiraet Vinograd
  All my Katyas live in Texas
  Ne Valay Duraka, Oklahoma
  Oy, To Ne Betcha
  On the Road is Long Again
  Seven Spanish Tankista

Lagniappe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwFpV80ASjw&t=30s

* three times, if you count the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican–American_War ? Anyway, I'd reckon they'd love them the Novorossiya flag.

No, it does not stand, because they are not comparable examples at all. Since the end of the Cold War, European militaries have seen a reduction of up to 10 times in everything from personnel to equipment. Germany went from 3800 tanks in 1980s to 200 in 2015. Since Putin's rise to power in early 2000s, Russia has been continuously creeping forwards. They started massive army modernization program, and have placed nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad, an enclave in the middle of Europe[1][2], and in Belarus, an unstable dictatorship right on the EU border.[3] They have launched the largest war in Europe since Hitler invaded Poland, and are currently forming two new armies larger than the ground forces of major European countries COMBINED.[4]

Instead of a strong reaction to this creep like during the Cuban Missile Crisis, we have seen nothing of this sort. It has tipped the balance of military power in Europe deeply in favor of Russia and emboldened them to launch land grabs against Ukraine.

In 2024, we are living the scenario where Russia placed missiles in Cuba, saw no reaction, and then invaded Florida "to protect Cuban minorities".

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37597075

[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2016/11...

[3] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65932700

[4] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/new-russian-military-ex...

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