Will America commit to a shooting war with Russia if Putin invades the Ukraine over joining NATO?

Afghanistan is not the same as Ukraine. It is not the same as Taiwan. Ukraine and Taiwan are also dissimilar based on politics, history and terrain.

https://warontherocks.com/2022/01/taiwan-is-not-ukraine-stop-linking-their-fates-together/

LTC Eugene Chu Nice job of deflection. The intent of my post was not a comparison of Taiwan to Ukraine, but shows our tepid response to Russian’s beginning invasion encourages China to go for Taiwan. We will see how it plays out, if Russia fully invades and take over Ukraine.

LTC Eugene Chu - And our promise to defend them if they gave up their nukes means what?

@SFC Bernard Walko from your own writing "And all this time we didn’t have terrorists breathing down our neck trying to take down our leadership" are you talking about January 6th, all those maga lovers trying to kill Pelosy and Pence?

SSG Bill McCoy - One of my business school classmates is Russian. When I asked her about Alaska, she mentioned that Russians do not care that America purchased the land over 150 years ago. The czar's government needed money and Alaska was a burden for Russia based on cost and logistics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoR_k4Go9W8

LTC Eugene Chu - Yes, but imagine if we hadn't bought it ... or even had we not made it a state! With Russian (or past USSR) bases been in the Alaska territory, we'd have been in a real pickle.

That purchase was one of unintended brilliance on our part, giving us a cheap buffer zone, which the Russians [now] claim to have not cared about. I'm pretty sure they look back at it and privately regret that sale. They're always pushing for extended access into Europe and beyond, which is the reason they wanted to invade Ukraine.

Putin badly wants to control The Black Sea and gain access to Europe, even if it means challenging Turkey in violation of the 1936 accord and bringing us into the fight. The only way we can stop them is when Turkey asks us, as we're not an authorized player for the protection of its waters unless we're invited in. So when we do go in at Turkey's behest, Putin will call on his alliance with China to thin our forces. Bishop to King 4 and we're out...?

We're in for an extended challenge by Russia for worldwide hegemony, so Putin's chess game is slowly unveiling itself. I wonder where Xi Jingping and his huge army comes into the fray? Let's see...when we challenge Russia's entry into The Black Sea--China will challenge us elsewhere to pull our resources away and make us fight on two fronts. It'll be a sleight of hand distraction while Jingping runs his game to our west. Those two are out to divide the allies and conquer at will!

With both our adversaries pulling out all the stops with hypersonic weapons development and bolstering their forces, we had better get our battle plans in order...and I'm concerned about the readiness and fitness of the younger generations whose exercise routines are video games and junk food.

This won't be pretty.

At this time, neither Finland nor Sweden are members of NATO. Both countries will decide about applying for NATO membership by mid-summer.

SMSgt Anil Heendeniya - I'm afraid you're correct. Likewise with MSG Thomas Currie's comments about the Russia/China Mutual Non-Aggression Pact.
As we now know, Russia HAS invaded Ukraine and I wonder if today is a worse scenario than the Cuban Missle Crisis during JFK's era.

SSG Bill McCoy - Today is worse because Cuban Missile Crisis got resolved by negotiation and removing US missiles from Turkey that initially started the issue. Khrushchev's great-granddaughter (a college professor at New School in NYC) mentioned that it was a shock to her as a former Russian because she thought Putin would continue negotiations instead of actually invading.

https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-ukraine-invasion-khrushchev-granddaughter-says-embarrassed-despicable-2022-3

LTC Eugene Chu - Very interesting ... and she makes interesting and valid points! Thanks Coloonel.

SMSgt Anil Heendeniya - Hopefully you realize that HYPErsonic weapons do not cause any more damage than supersonic or even subsonic weapons of the same payload. The sole military advantage of HYPErsonic weapons is that they have a shorter time of flight which may make them more difficult to intercept.

The only practical use of any HYPErsonic weapon is against a target that has an anti-missile defense system that is good enough to stop conventional missiles but might not stop HYPErsonic missiles due to the reduced time of flight.

So, yes, HYPErsonic missiles are a potential threat to US or allied warships either in a surprise attack in "peacetime" or in a saturation attack in wartime provided the attacker is willing to lose a significant portion of their air force in exchange for taking out one warship (which could be a good trade against a US supercarrier).