soalbundy

I thought that was rather amusing, talk about adding insult to injury......"I have a complaint to make", pow!

Well I can agree to certain extent, the USA couldn't care less about freedom and democracy anywhere not even in America but considering the economic state of Ukraine and the vast amount of weapons debt, not only to the US but to Europe as well, it is unlikely that this debt will ever be repaid, it will be written off as will the enormous amount of debt needed to rebuild the Ukraine after the war. There are several plus points however, future good will from Ukraine towards the west, a new NATO member which like Finland is on Russia's door step, an ideal testing ground for their latest weapons and good strategic training for NATO's officers (I assume that Ukraine has a lot of western military advisors guiding military strategy) and last but not least, a severe weakening of Russia both militarily and economically and a probable break up of the Russian federation which could serve as a warning to China. All in all NATO is going to come out stronger from this war and the west will gain more influence in Asia as China and Russia's influence weakens, it's money well spent.

Pragmatic, which is why Thailand is Teflon coated, they don't have a dog in this fight so why go out on a limb. Thailand is a backwater country with a lot of Chinese influence within and a neighbour heavily reliant on Chinese investment so why take sides and antagonize. Thailand is a softly treading Nightingale that has seen its best course of action is not to sing to loudly.

The world is in a mess right now, in China the economy seems to be imploding, in the west people are barely managing to pay rents/mortgages, gas, electricity, food etc. I doubt that a holiday is high on the agenda, especially not one involving high air fares. With a recession looming most will be worried about job security and inflation. My brother is/was a millionaire providing food for high end restaurants in London, he is watching in despair as his business is collapsing around him, it seems as if even the wealthy have cut down on eating out so a large influx of tourists to Thailand, or anywhere, seems unlikely for this year or the next year for that matter.

Since the prevailing winds are from west to east Russia would reap what it sowed, Putin would have a bullet in his head and Russia would be lonelier than a beggar with leprosy and poorer than a church mouse as the world would make sure they paid for all the damage. The west wouldn't retaliate with a nuclear strike but would send NATO forces into Ukraine, the Russian forces would have flown to Russia in panic, something I'm sure that the Russian high command is aware of.

Like marshmallows growing on trees.

I'm not going to argue with you on this but consider the Cuban crisis, if ever there was to have been a nuclear missile exchange it would have been then, the set up was perfect but in the end cool heads prevailed and a compromise was found, Russia withdrew its nukes from Cuba and the USA withdrew theirs from Turkey. Nobody sits with quivering fingers hovering over the red button.

There is no sensible 'if' which is why I replied the way I did.

No, Putin's hold on power has become precarious of late, even if he gave the order to use a nuke (a low yield would be the size of a Hiroshima bomb) it is the military commanders who would actually initiate the strike and I doubt that they would do so, they better than anyone would know the consequences for themselves and their families. This isn't a scenario where hundreds of american missiles heading for Russia have been detected on radar and a well oiled machine is set in motion to counter strike, a commander would be told from a failing dictator to send a nuke to a country on the border with Russia for no rational purpose. It would be Putin's last order.