Any external party

I am just posting my opinions.

It' true that the USSR is no more.

But think about this.

1. Has their defense budget decreased. (Of course their economy has been in the dumps for awhile.)

2. Have they dismantled their nuclear weapons ?

3. Have they stopped supporting nations who kill innocent people ?

4. Have they allowed their citizens to buy foreign flags, apple pie, and Corona's. :-)

The sole-purpose of NATO which everyone about knows however, was to counter and defend Europe against any Russian (USSR) aggression. At this point, Russia has actually NOT shown any aggression, sorry but it is true. Nato's expansion closer to Russia's borders, Russia does see that as aggression, and rightfully so. Plain and simple.

I do not see a 'NATO' of Latin American states, do you not think the US would react the same way Russia is right now, if all of the sudden Latin American countries formed their own defensive coalition? Thats a pretty sizable non-US entity on the doorsteps to the US. Black or white, tit-for-tat, call it what you will, but if it seems to me, nobody is allowed to speak, or you are an aggressor.

1. What about the US?
2. What about the US?
3. What about the US?

4. Are you serious, or are you truly that out of touch?

Right, buzzin within 30 ft. of a carrier is not agressive. :-)

South America has no NATO because they do not threaten other nations and do not own nuclear weapons.

Any means any external threat. i.e. not limited to Russian

Again, what....is.....the...US....doing...there!? Why are they there? Why can't some people get that through their head?

Uh...Brazil?

Besides, who the hell is the US to say nobody can have nuclear weapons?

Seriously, are you just that naive?

Actually you look like a Russian propagandist, except that I imagine someone employed by Russia would try to be more subtle about it

That guy looks like a conspiracy theorist (not necessarily saying he's wrong about everything, but that's what he looks like).

If I were, I would obviously have a phat bank account. No, I am merely stating some rather harsh truths that nobody seems to want to recognize, fine. No skin off my ass, but when shit goes down, I'll be leaving the US, spank-you-very-much.

Futu-va muma-n cur !,

I go back to the Reagan era for my service days.

I think we would've fired long before things got to be that close.

But then again, we also wouldn't be alone, that far away from US waters.

[Clinton era ... yeah we would've been alone, US sailors would've died, and we'd have to wait for the next Congressional hearings on the Lewinski scandal before retaliation would be sent ... far too late, and in the wrong direction ...]

That sounds perfectly consistent with what happened here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655

A pilot stated that the Russian pilot actually made a "simulated" strafing run.

Article states they were unarmed.

Right....

And A-10s don't use depleted uranium shells. :-)

Good reaction by the commander on the destroyer.

As long as there are literally billions of "currency units" spent on War, every day, there will obviously be no end to war ... and, war posturing. Twentysomething and thirtysomething kids get to fly across the ocean in hot jets. Military contractors get to spend ##CLASSIFIED##ions of dollars on cool gee-gaws like Phalanx, and to spend that money again and again on "improvements" even when the system has never fired a shot in anger.

Meanwhile, American citizens are being told that they can't go into those "fine, well-equipped hospitals" that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower talked about: they're "for profit" now, as is the insurance that must be used to pay those profits.

Citizens are being saddled with more than a quarter-million dollars in student loan debt, just to try to go to school. Colleges, too, are "for profit" now, although they're gobbling up Federal financial aid.

And so on. The military industrialists know that they can receive vast checks, completely in secret, and that "military" justifications will always trump any civil opposition. (Especially when the proper palms are properly greased.)

This is true in any country and in every country. Including yours.

World War 2 never really ended, because the military-industrial complex still exists, all around the world, and it is far stronger and more influential than ever before. Boys (and grown men who should know better) are playing with matches and barrels of gasoline.

As long as Russians, Europeans, Americans, Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, et al, continue to allow their public money to be spent in this way, it will continue to gobble-up all of that money, and with no return on investment except, eventually, another explosion of global death. As long as (millions of) "ordinary people" continue to blithely accept that "there's nothing that I can do about it," their opinions will remain true.

Gen. Eisenhower was a military man, and as President he was of course privy to every secret. He openly and repeatedly stated that there was no military value to any weapon that destroys a city while simultaneously poisoning it. (The carpet-firebombing of Tokyo produced far more damage than Hiroshima and/or Nagasaki suffered, and left no radiation.) But that didn't stop military contractors from producing ##CLASSIFIED## of the infernal things, just because there was money to be made, and furthermore, to be made in total secrecy.

Who's to say that's not just one (or so) pilot funning around like Tinkerbell in international waters?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_the_Spear tho in future cases it maybe end the sphere? Good job everyone. Slow♪clap♫...

In 1940 the Soviets / Russians invaded the three Baltic States. Thousands of people were deported to Siberia and the area heavily colonised by ethnic Russians. In 1945, the USA (overriding those who'd fought the Soviets from the start, instead of sitting on the sidelines until attacked) handed eastern Europe to the Soviets. These people had to achieve their own liberation and are naturally eager to stay liberated. When the Balts see the Russians invading the Ukraine on the pretext of "aiding ethic Russians" they are naturally concerned about whether they might be next, which is why they're in Nato. Most Europeans are eager to support them. Even those USians who want to leave Nato might just possibly consider they they owe something to those they betrayed in 1945. Although I doubt it.

And Jeebiz, I don't think you're a Russian "sympathizer" or "propagandist'. The word I've been mentally applying to you is "fanboy".

Sure I'm a fanboy, I've stated legitimate facts, but nah I'm a fanboy.