Exactly, and the fact is the US and Europe have the ability to take on more and more debt and have the economic ability to withstand years and years of running up the military credit card. Especially now that Iraq and Afghanistan aren't sucking the West dry. Yes, we all wish that we could massively real in spending, but for the price of not allowing Putin to take over Europe for generations many will believe it's a much better investment than dumping trillions into the middle east so Exxon, Shell, and BP can control crude oil fields in the middle of the desert. Even if the trillions we pay are all about energy anyways, than it's STILL a better longterm investment to shape and mold a European energy alliance if there's a way to play chicken with Putin until he's out of power, and then get a more compliant government who'll allow for global commerce of the artic oil reserves. That's the cynical Dick Cheney type of view though even that I don't agree with because you know... I think fossil fuels are killing our planet, etc, etc. and the fact that we are saving countless Ukrainian lives and helping millions live a life of freedom. There's the whole morality thing there too you know.
smdh, all of the corrupt oligarchs getting rich off laundering our taxpayer dollars to their friends what a waste
How is it far more costly to Russia? Im not disputing it, but where is your basis? The ruble is up over the dollar. Sure you can say Russia is manipulating their currency through capital flows, but every nation does this already. Energy is Russias largest export. If they allow Ukraine to open their newly found natural gas reserves, Russia loses a significant leverage point and the west can truly sanction energy exports from Russia. Analysist are expecting this conflict to go on for another decade. This is a little more complicated than Hollywoods version of trying to restore the glorious days of the USSR.
Bingo. This war is all about resources, like every major modern conflict. I highly recommend giving this video a watch
It's also the former USSR along the Caspian Sea, which are in varying states of "friendliness" with the Russians and relatively important to Russian interests. Some are trying to bypass Russia by using Turkey to transport energy through and others are using Russia and Georgia (becoming less friendly with Russian as they fought a war in 2008) to transport energy through. Not to mention Iran is on the Caspian and are historical enemies of Russia (like Turkey) but to still colloborate on being a thorn in the West's side. Lots of uncertainty in the Caspian Sea.
Yes, he is doing this for mostly ego. Russia doesn't have any real strategic threat and he knows that, but he was very anti-Yelstin and he ran for office on restoring the glory of Russia - why would you think this has changed? He has no need for war. Russia is an energy exporter and other countries are dependent on it, not the other way around. He already has leverage - or had. He thought he could get Ukraine quickly without much fight or pushback from the west. He simply miscalculated.
I think you're both right. Putin has an ego and he thinks his aggressive actions will return Russia's glory as a strong superpower. His rigged poll numbers have skyrocketed. There's some yt docs about one of his military cabinet members influencing his rightwing ultra-nationalist policies. That seems to be important context. Bottom line: these regional wars bolsters his hegemonic ambitions while focusing on his bottom line for gas supremacy wrt Europe. While he contains Europe, they give him political and economic clout to poke their noses into the US. So he doesn't need to conquer Ukraine or Georgia. Just need to bloody their noses and wack their kneecaps. I don't know about that. We can't even hike interest rates up 3.5% without our fat legs buckling. I guess there's some comfort in taking out everyone under us. Dollar Strong!
I'm speaking more generally towards our debt to GDP vs what we've seen other country's like Japan be able to operate under. As long as the global economy is functional and the dollar is strong we'll likely be fine. Russia on the other hand, is F-ed both in the short and long term. Putin is going to literally starve his own citizens if he doesn't kill them in battle first. That's why I don't really get this media equivocation of "well Putin can play the long game too" etc. etc. Like yeah he can operate different politically because he's a GD dictator, but there's from what a country/economy can or cannot withstand, it's night and day comparing the US and Europe's position vs Russia's where he might or might not have some support from another dictator or two.
We might be fine for now, but the yen has been collapsing over the past 3 months and the Euro is reaching parity over the strong dollar. Deficits do matter. It's becoming more and more apparent that stimulus highs are getting shorter and shorter because servicing snowballing debt is like an albatross around our necks. I don't know if all media is equivocating. If anything, I think they're still portraying Ukraine in a position of strength. Maybe Fix News, but that shouldn't matter as the media's opinions sway with whatever gets the most attention. Servicing 30T debt while "killing" or starving the economy is not attractive or ratings worthy. If it came to it, some bum might even shoot the messenger. So "spending more" on wars or having the bravado to do it sounds like hollow posturing or another form of disastrous Forever War thinking.
You are ignoring the recent discovered natural gas deposits found in Ukraine. This removes Russias leverage if Ukraine was able to get infrastructure set up and pipelines to Europe. While Russia would still remain a primary, Ukraine could provide significate secondary source of energy putting Russia is a less desirable position and allow the West to further influence with sanctions that actually work. You can't sanction a country this providing you a very significant portion of energy. Russia has the part of Ukraine they want. They do not care to keep the rest of it. Putin is fine economically starving out Kiev while the US continues to pump billions to keep the Ukraine puppet government alive.
Your post is acting like it's something I'm endorsing or enjoy. I think that's a disingenuous take if that's what you are insinuating. Nobody I know anymore is on board with "Forever Wars." Most people I know are where Bernie, Tulsi, and to a certain extent where the MAGA base is on foreign forever wars. Nobody thinks that our deficits aren't going to eventually be an issue we have to deal with in some way. I'm just saying the notion that the US shouldn't continue supporting Ukraine's freedom from tyranny from a murderous crazed dictator because somehow Biden's political standing cannot allow for a short term continuation of our routine military spending is ludicrous. If Trump was in office instead of Biden, not only would our military spending be pretty much exactly the same if not worse given his relationships with the large arms deals like Raytheon, Boeing, etc. BUT at the same time we wouldn't be helping a country defend itself from tyranny, and preventing what could be the collapse of Europe in many ways if Putin crushed Ukraine, and rolled their military into their own, and continued to invade the Baltic States in Europe. It's not great to keep spending like we are on foreign military efforts, but it's also not great to let Europe collapse by allowing Ukraine to get rolled, and for Putin to be in a stronger position to invade the Baltics to reform the Soviet Union. If you are wanting to know where I stand it would be that we cut military spending in half after Ukraine is back in running order, and there is a stronger NATO order that can hold off destabilizing invasions by future dictators. I want that TAXPAYER money to be put back into our economy to invest in our green infrastructure and invest in our healthcare which sucks. So no... I am NOT advocating for forever wars by any stretch, but I also understand and can appreciate the need to have global stability coming from the heart of historical insecurity in Europe which can rock the world with world wars.
That part of Ukraine though relies on north and northwestern parts of Ukraine for water which is essential for infrastructure to operate in those areas especially Crimea. If Crimea and the Donbas are cut off and part of Russia, Ukraine will have the ability to damn off all of the rivers that provide pretty much all the water for the region. Vladamir Putin himself might not care about the on-going infrastructure of the region to be productive for Russia, and maybe he just wants the feather in his cap, but there's a reason why the country hasn't been split up in the past.
I saw the video and I am not convinced that he went in there to remove competition. His goal wasn't just that region - it was ALL of ukraine. He's settling for less because of the fierce resistance. The goal was to turn Ukraine into another Belarus. The idea that his goal all along was to somehow suck American money while he laughed all the way to the bank simply doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
This is ****ing bullshit, while we’re battling historic inflation and people can’t find shelter or food for their families. I was on the fence at first but this strategy is not working and Americans need to help Americans
no easy answers Increase support for Ukraine, or NATO may have to fight https://thehill.com/opinion/nationa...upport-for-ukraine-or-nato-may-have-to-fight/
They have already lost hundreds of tanks, planes, one of their capital ships was sunk, and thousands of soldiers have been killed. They are still taking a lot of casualties and firing off a lot of ammunition. Putin's rhetoric has been about restoring the Russian Empire / USSR. That it's not gone as he planned is far more on him.
I think many of y'all are trying to read much more into this than might be there. There are natural resources that are important but Putin already said why he invaded. Ukraine. He said repeatedly this is about preventing NATO expansion and rebuilding the Russian Empire. Just look at the initial strategy of with a massive push to Kyiv and several other parts of Ukraine. Those ended up failing miserably and costing a lot of Russian equipment and lives so now he's been forced to fall back to fighting in areas where they already had a lot of support from local separatists and can easily support from Russia proper. If this was just about controlling Black Sea resources there was no need to have launched a massive invasion of the rest of the country. This was a massive ego move by Putin thinking that Ukraine was weak and could easily be taken.
Very much agree. Let this be a reminder that one jerk with Nukes can completely alter the lives of half the world overnight. Let it also be a lesson that we should do everything we can to keep nukes out of the hands of countries like Iran, and others so they never get this level of leverage to invade a country with this level of aggression because they know NATO won't fight you back because you have nukes.
Sounds like a great jobs program for the Russians. The only difference between the US and Russia is that we outfit foreigners in our military vehicles. We invaded Iraq because of WMD's. 20 years later we are still looking for them. Im sure in 20 years when Putin is still sitting only on those natural gas reserves he will be speaking of restoring the great Russian Empire.
