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Originally Posted by Lonerider
and what has NATO or anyone in the EU done to protect our borders? Nothing, they did a bit of shouting and did some sanctions. Even the US was not bothered, maybe because it was in Europe or maybe because there is no oil? I know the Ukraine is not a member of NATO or the EU but it is still part of mainland Europe and not Russia.
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A couple of items.
Russia has long standing interests and claims in the Crimea in much the same way that Britain has interests in, say, the Falkland Islands or Gibraltar.
Nor am I equating these examples but just pointing out that territorial disputes are rarely clear cases.
As a politicial alliance, NATO carries out diplomacy and has diplomats at ambassador level within it's HQ.
The EU is embryonic in this field in comparison which is why they, the commission basically, would wish to raise a standing military force; there has been some movement toward this aim very recently with the raisiing of a border control force with international staff, deployable anywhere in Europe with or without the permission of the home nation.
I believe that "force" is now in place in Greece.
Quote:
Originally Posted by backofbeyond
Quite a comprehensive and interesting read.
Having spent a while as a doorstep pollster (asking about all sorts of stuff, not just politics) it surprises me that the polls get as close as they do. A good percentage of the people I interviewed would be "don't knows" on just about every topic unless you pushed them, and then they'd just pick one of the offered alternatives at random.
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Some irony therein in the light of yesterday's report about the pollsters take on May 2015.
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Dave
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