Ukraine

I agree. My brother works with a Russian guy who loves Putin and believes every Russian speaking person is part of Russia and they need to be protected. He feels Russia is the only one that can do it.

He says that Russia throughout its history has always had strong leaders going back to the Czars. They need someone like that.

But Putin already has his hands full with Ukraine and his willingness to expand the war on many fronts based on a few aircraft is is doubtful provided the west shows they are willing to make a stand.

 

Embellishing a bit

 

Just to point out that was the writer for CNA and I didn't write that article.

While many of us weren't surprised by it I do think a lot of the World was taken by surprise that Putin actually followed through.

 

Oh yeah, I know it was an article.

I guess if the world was surprised then the Western world has been out of war too long and has gotten complacent.

I would have been shocked if Putin pulled out his troops without invading or at least Ukraine signing some serious concessions first.

 

Following up on something that has been very much on my mind.

The complaints that many are making regarding things like high gas prices, stock market falling and etc. from many over this war are just more signs that we aren't prepared to fight a major sustained war. With things like sanctions on much smaller countries with miniscule economies like that North Korea we don't feel that economic pain. It's different though when it's a major country with a large economy even more so when it's a major oil producer. It's to be expected that we are going to feel some economic pain. Note for the US we don't even buy that much Russian oil and I don't think we buy any Russian grain so the pain we feel is even less than Europe and other places that are more dependent on Russian exports.

So we get simultaneously, sometimes from the same person, criticism of Biden being weak and needing to do more like cut off Russian oil and then complaining that gas prices are rising to fast. This is what happens when you fight an oil producer. I've cited WWII but less than 20 years ago we saw gas prices spike when we invaded Iraq.

War requires sacrifice. It requires discipline. Two things that our society is not good at.

And since I'm just venting right now I will add this.

Many people talk about how dangerous the PRC is and how much we need to take them on. If just the relatively mild economic dislocations from sanctioning Russia over Ukraine lead to so much whining and bellyaching what do you think will happen in a war with the world's second largest economy, leading manufacturer, who not only is one of our major trade partners but also holds a lot of our debt?

 

Exactly that is why I revived this thread a few months ago, and no Retrumplican commented until Russia invaded and Biden made his first response. I literally dared them to make a statement on what we should do, but they wouldn't do it. The right wingers are so F'ing transparent.

 

Propaganda is a motherf&cker.

We have people here in the United States who believe Trump won the 2020 election because in their world and with what they hear on FoxNews, the votes were changed by China, and the January 6th mob were patriot heroes.

That's why I think even if Putin is ousted somehow, Russia is going to continue to be an issue for some time. You don't deprogram a population of 144 million overnight where probably 70% of that population has more controlled propaganda intake than your normal FoxNews watcher.

There's also the cultural factors too. The biggest one being the lying. They just grow up that way, and everyone I've known that is Russian has this sort of cultural way of talking about things in a disbelief of anything perceived as negative. You just don't talk about weaknesses, or potential liabilities. Everything is the best it's ever been, and you just argue your way out of every problem by convincing you it's not there.

I still tend to believe most all of these people whether they are from Russia, India, or Bum F$ck Texas are mostly good people, with good person to person human instincts but just have poor programing through brainwashing via years and years of institutionalized mental warfare.

With Russia, even post Putin, they will still be a huge liability to the world because of their disposition to pick another strongman autocrat who taps into their grievances, and tells them what they want to hear.

 

Say what you want about Biden, but his read on what Americans really want has been spot on. You are right that we are NOT a country that can handle another war right now mentally. Getting out of Afghanistan was the right move politically long term, and not falling for the sabre rattling with Russia is also the right move. Just imagine how Americans would be acting when Congress would need to approve a 3 trillion dollar war bill to send 200,000 troops to Poland and Ukraine for the foreseeable future, and caskets started coming back. Not to mention the freaking astronomical cost of Naval warfare which nobody is talking about right now. The Russians would have the ability to take out at least a few of our mega Battleships. How would the US armchair generals react to that?

And you are so right about taking on China. If you think Sanctions against Russia is costing us, holy crap... just wait until we inevitably have to start cracking down on Chinese sanctions. Better hope your flatscreen never goes out, or you never need to replace an alternator on your car. Don't believe me, next time you take your car to the shop, ask the mechanic if he can give you two quotes, one with the regular aftermarket parts, and one with American, or German made aftermarket parts. Have fun with that bill.

 

iam14andthisisdeep

 

I don't have any problem with that. War is not easy.

We didn't ration or sell war bonds during our multi-continent War on Terror. Both Bushes made it look seamless to civilians and Dubya was successful at making protestors look like loony hippies.

We'll never know if this war could've been prevented during Bush/Obama when discussing NATO expansion to Ukraine and Georgia. Maybe Putin would've done something else to retain power.

In a vacuum, I seriously question the degree of force we need in Ukraine.

But I'm not going to be sent on the frontlines anytime soon. Not my kids fighting for these ideals...

 

Not good but not panic either. Plants always have backup generators and those fuel rods have been cooling for a long time since the plant was decommissioned. So they aren't going to melt. The biggest risk is the water evaporates from the heat and gets released so some radiation could escape into the atmosphere.

It is curious why Russia would cut off communication though with the IAEA.

 

False flag some dirty bombs? That was one of Putin's accusations.

Sounds like a plot for a cheap 80s action movie...

 

Again, why are we announcing what we are giving the Ukraine, just do it on the sly.......

DD