Quote:
Originally Posted by Osem
How would the west react, I wonder, if all the former Soviet states decided they wanted to be part of Russia again and become hosts to their military forces. How would we react if the Russians started making overtures to Turkey and other nations the EU sees as possible future members. What would we do if the Turkish people voted to leave Nato as a result and join a military alliance with Russia. Would we do nothing and simply respect their right to do so? At what point does the threat to the west become so serious that military action is inevitable?
|
Well I would like to assume that we wouldn't do anything. I am not sure under what merit we could invade a Foreign country for enacting their democratic rights. Besides I don't think it will happen and, if it did, it wouldn't be so bad anyway. Russia would have to be a very different country for everyone to suddenly be so keen to rejoin the Soviet Union. As a rule people tend not to vote to disenfranchise themselves.
As far as I am concerned the concept of self-determination, the right to decide who governs you and democracy are not just a Western trait and a different way of looking at the world. It's a fundamental right that populations naturally desire or gravitate towards whether it's the fall of the Soviet Union and the subsequent Westward focus of it's former states or the Arab Spring. Few want to go in the other direction.