Actually, that is hard to understand. Europe goes all the way to the Ural Mountains.
I agree. One has to wonder why Putin thought he could just walk into Ukraine and take over.
well, cutting off military aid in Jun 21 was a pretty clear signal that we wouldn’t do anything. and if we wouldn’t, Europe sure wasn’t going to.
That’s what happens when appeasement is policy. continued appeasement is expected.
following that up with statements about only sanctions and our response would depend on what kind of invasion… you know, a little invasion would be okay… but a big one would bring out the big sanctions! didn’t help
and afterward, buying into all that escalation nonsense was just cra-cra
Hubris. Living in a bubble. Surrounding himself with sycophants.
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I’m talking about the EU. They have the economy, the population and the combined military might to handle Russia by themselves. And EU member France has enough Nuclear weapons to make Western Russia glow for 1,000 years.
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Undoubtedly that played a major part.
I’m pretty sure there was unanimous agreement that Russia would conquer Ukraine. Didn’t happen.
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the only two people who didn’t believe that were Zalensky and Zaluzhnyi
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If you don’t like those lost causes, here are a couple of others that are a bit more obscure, at least for Americans:
The partitions of Poland did not end the Poles.
The Battle of Culloden did not end the Scots.
Likewise, if France had not intervened to allow the defeat the British in the American Revolution, there would have still been Americans. The difference is just that they would have remained a part of the British Empire.
Ukraine is neither free, nor independent, and that is unlikely to change anytime soon. At this point, the war is about who controls the puppet in Kyiv.
Russia hasn’t conquered the US MIC.
Yet.
The Ukrainian position in Bakhmut is looking quite tenuous with 5 of 6 supply roads either Russian controlled or under Russian fire.
Hopefully they have a plan to counter the recent Russian gains.
Also…What happened to the air force on both sides? It is as though they are afraid to lose any planes and not using them…both Ukes and Orks.
Neither side’s counter measures are effective against the ADA systems deployed. Russia has no SEAD strategy and the NATO systems are even more capable than the Russian systems. Ukraine is engaging in limited SEAD operations, with our HARM missiles, but their aircraft can’t employ the full capabilities of the HARM. And the Russians know everything about the Ukrainian Soviet Era jet’s countermeasure systems.
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both Ukes and Orks . . .
How long will it take before the current xenophobia will be viewed like these WW2-era images?
I thought as much. I would call that an advantage for Ukraine with nullified and a few Ukrainian operations.
If the Ukes have more supply line disruptions for the Orks…Now would be a good time to activate them.
So killing is fine…those derogatory names though…
How odd.
How about we get these idiots all to stop the killing.
Trump was our peace President. Brandon has brought death.
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Russians are equated with mythically evil subhumans. Ukrainians are cannon fodder.
It’s been done before.
This poster, in Ukrainian, translates as: “Stand up to fight Bolshevism in the ranks of the Galicia division.” This is a recruiting poster for an SS division of Ukrainian nationals. Courtesy of Dr. Robert D. Brooks.
Nazi Posters: 1939-1945
Trump was widely criticized for treating foreign leaders with flattery and respect even when they are portrayed as evil enemies in the media. Biden has instead crudely attacked leaders to their face.
Trump created peace; Biden is leading us into WW3. If charm and flattery save lives, I am all for it.
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How in the world are they going to remake the Soviet Union they have the GDP of Italy and the average salary in Russia is around $9,000 they are dirt poor. This is one of those neocon arguments like “We have to fight them over there so we don’t fight them here”. We have never had to fight Russia in a war. This war is between Russia and a non NATO member Ukraine we have zero interests in the Ukraine, the powers at be decided to make it their proxy war and if history is to be our guide the next candidate just needs to run on peace. All this is doing is running Russia to China’s arms.
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Sorry that cats out of the bag we have always had to treat all nations different that has nuclear weapons all past presidents knew this that even includes the hermit kingdom of NK as well as the jihadists in Pakistan. JFK knew this which is why they de-escalated the Cuban missile crisis. The Soviets moved out of Cuba and we took missiles out of Italy and Turkey, now those missiles are right back in Turkey and we are on the doorsteps of Russia.
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There not reducing Russia’s economy they are plenty of countries gobbling up Russia’s oil while the EU has had to spend close to 1 trillion in energy alone this year to make up the difference. China and India are firmly not caring about the war and buying goods from Russia negating everything we do.
“In a report issued on Monday, the I.M.F. predicts that Russian output will expand 0.3 percent in this year and 2.1 percent next year, defying earlier forecasts of a steep contraction in 2023 amid a raft of Western sanctions.”
The best possible outcome for Ukraine is a peace deal even if it includes losing two territories that the people living there are majority Russian and overwhelmingly pro Russia. They are not going to kick Russia out of Ukraine only more dead people and turning Ukraine into rubble, not sure how that helps.
Let’s look at Ukraines situation compared to Russia.
“The ongoing Russian invasion in Ukraine continues to inflict substantial economic and social losses due to extensive damages to productive assets and infrastructure, limited market access, and labor force dislocations. Ukraine’s GDP is expected to contract by 35 percent in 2022 if the status quo continues until the end of the year without additional economic shocks.”
https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/ukraine/overview
The are have lost mass population, according to the UNHCR Ukraine had a pre war population of around 50 million and since the war started have lost 18.4 that are gone and not coming back due to the war. I will give the Ukraine one thing this is what it should look like in refugees not all young men like we see in America and Europe but women and children.
Also keep in mind before the war and the 18.4 million left Ukraine ranked number 1 in population decline in Europe. The best thing for these people instead of vicariously fighting a war against Russia is try to restore peace. Why would Zelensky want peace before the war his popularity was at 30 some percent and has sky rocketed since the war. He has no reason to want peace but the rest of the world does with inflation, grain shortages and energy prices. This has moved to a war of attrition, aka WW1 trench warfare which demolishes the country it’s happening which happens to be Ukraine. And as we speak those who want endless funding of this war is dwindling every poll I see, tick tock tick tock until it will be as popular as Afghanistan.
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First of all, I appreciate the well thought out post and more comprehensive assessment of the situation.
I won’t rebut each point but I’ll come to this. Right now, Ukraine has valiantly staved off being conquered and is now fighting for just 15 % of the country in the South. Without intensive support by NATO to help Ukraine defend itself, Russia would undoubtedly be able to roll through and conquer Ukraine.
I agree that a peace deal will need to be brokered but the question is when. Putin is continuing to attack with the hope of taking more land and has made no noises to want to stop and come to an agreement. Ukraine has taken back half the land that Russia conquered and has the chance to retake more of its land and this will likely be decided by the end of this year.
Simply stopping supporting Ukraine immediately means Ukraine’s end within weeks or months. That is a terrible idea. I hope you would agree.
Pushing for a peace agreement by the end of this year no matter where the Russian line is…makes sense. But even that is impossible if Putin doesnt agree to simple terms such as allowing for a security agreement that insures Ukraine won’t be attacked again.
So far we have spent a small amount of money to help Ukraine defend itself. And in so doing we have sent a message not only to Russia but also to China that they cannot simply use force to take whatever country they want. We have been sending money and arms to Ukraine for many years to help it defend itself from just such an attack. Ukraine is willing to sacrifice countless lives for the sake of its sovereignty, as we would here in the US if we were attacked.
The question is not if but when and how the conflict ends. Simply immediately stopping NATO support of Ukraine…is untenable.
The forces now attacking Bakhumut are Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mercenary army. The Russian army was successfully repelled.
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