Oh I am sure it does because it is a flip flop. Even Rubio put out this press release praising it just months ago. I'm sure those praises can be easily forgotten and a complete 180 seems justified. lol
Rubio Press release, Secretary of State

"According to The Times, during a recent Joint Viking exercise in Norway, US troops struggled with Arctic conditions, with Finnish reservists reportedly needing to ease up on them in war games because American soldiers were finding it "embarrassing and demoralising," highlighting the US's relative lack of Arctic experience compared to European allies like Finland and Britain, who possess crucial regional expertise and technology,"

Guess who is the NATO country lacking behind in Arctic Defense?

That's why they have exercises....

At least we were there.

But now that Finland is part of NATO, they will surely become weak soon, like so much in Western Europe under US command.
Until they joined NATO, they were by far the best-prepared country for war in Western Europe.

Finland has about 24,000 people in their military. The US has 2,860,000 people Involved in our military. That's nearly 120 times more people. The difference in equipment is even more vast.

There's more American military personnel per Finnish soldier, than Finnish soldiers are issued bullets.

Keith

My experience with U.S. Army troops was a big negative. Hard to get people from Alabama and Georgia used to dealing with 40 below. Now the Alaska Army National guard troops used to be good at freezing for no reason. The natives never seemed to get cold. Arctic fighting can be more about arctic survival than fighting.

Finland with its 5.6 Mio. inhabitants has about 900.000 reservists (and the equiptment for all of them) that have to take part in regularly military training until they are 65 years old.
They have a System of 55.000 bunkers with space for almost 5 million people. Helsinki alone has a 200 km underground network in the granit rocks below the city with space for 900.000 people.
And these guys have an age-old warrior ethos. Good luck conquering them.

There's nothing in Finland the US wants. Why do you think we would bother to conquer them? We aren't Nazis. We could obliterate them with nuclear weapons and they have no way to do anything to do anything about it, but we aren't going too. It must suck living in a country that only has very minimal importance anymore, that is being rapidly colonized by third world people.

Keith

What makes you think we want to conquer them?, that might be one of the dumbest things I've ever heard....

So the whole rare earth minerals excuse seems a bit bizarre. They are currently spending tax dollars exploring for rare earth minerals near me. 95% of Alaska is not covered by ice. 20% of Greenland is not covered by ice. This gives 630 square miles of ice free Alaska to explore and 167 square miles of ice free Greenland to explore. Maybe it would be interesting to see how viable mining below glaciers would actually be?

Probably shouldn't investigate how toxic some of this mining may be. Probably why China supplies most of the rare earth minerals.

Some folks need to look into the history of the Finns and their dealings with the Russians/Soviets in the Winter War/Continuation War.

I know a guy who has dual citizenship and he had to “serve” for a time in the Finnish military to be a dual citizenship of US and Finland. I’m told they spent a LOT of time on skis for their military training. Happy trapping! ScottW

we were in Finland about a year ago. granted, most of the time, we were in Lapland.

but I didn't see many (any?) obvious third world immigrants there. Maybe in Helsinki??

I can't say the same for France and Germany.

Manfred lives in Germany, which I was referring to. Germany is of little import anymore and will belong to non Germans relatively soon.

Keith

"Population of Germany in 2022
Germans[78] (71.3%)
Turkish (3.40%)
Polish (2.60%)
Russian (1.60%)
Kazakh (1.60%)
Syrian (1.50%)
Romanian (1.30%)
Italian (1.10%)
European (Other) (7.70%)
Asian (Other) (3.70%)
American (North & South) (0.80%)
Sub-Saharan African (0.80%)
Maghreb countries (0.60%)
Other/unspecified/mixed (2.00%)"


Any day now. Say goodbye to the third largest economy of the world.

Keith was referring to the gentleman from Germany that keeps talking about the fins like he is one and not from the country that was not involved and had its hind end handed to them in 2 world wars.


The German was right though other countries get weak when the figure out they can spend their mo ey on social programs instead of defense becuse the US will protect them. So they get a free ride.


I dont remember the name off hand but a finish sniper smoked over 500 Russians in a very short time like 3 months . All with open sight mosnigant sp Many were snipers sent to take him out. Eventually he was hit with some shrapnel and got a messed up deformed mouth for life.

His story was like many American heros. Born dirt poor hunted to feed the family. He fought for his home on his home turf knowing every inch. One heck of a soldier. Every country has heros that have the same story. Poor farm kids kicking butt..

Was listening to the head of NATO saying that Trump is correct and has forced NATO allies to begin to pay a fair share. While still depending on the US for military defense. The WSJ had an interesting editorial today, stating that the post WWII agreements need to be changed and no longer fit. (in a nutshell). States that while relying on the United States to provide for defense the other countries have been allowed to use funds not used for a military to advance their liberal agendas. Socialists health care etc. Time for form others to start paying up and not the Amercian tax payer.

Trump gave all them a tongue lashing, A much needed one and one that we need to heed too.

Just a bright ray of sunshine aren’t ya. I’ll bet you just hate everyone eh?
You feel that you’ve paid your debt to the world, nothings your fault and everyone owes you something. However, in reality, you’re the one that’s dragging society down and just a leech on the system. You want a Dem back in power so you have a better reason to be a bloody whiner. That’s my take on you, maybe I’m wrong, but step out of your slippers and look at yourself and tell me I’m right.
Once you sober up and your meds kick in, read what you posted.
I’ll bet I sound like my old grade 3 teacher giving the dumb kid crap before the education system found out he was just too dam thick to be with the regular kids…..lol