That's one reason for some of the delays, but not most of them. The biggest example of this non-escalation nonsense is that early on in this whole thing - last Spring/Summer. Poland had MIG jets waiting to go to Ukraine to help them control the skies. Ukraine sent pilots to Poland to pick them up. These are types of jets they are trained on and know how to use. Everything was ready to go, but then the US and Germany killed it because they thought using NATO-country-owned planes would be an escalation and piss Russia off. NATO-owned guns, missiles, ammunition, etc were OK. But Russia had said planes would cross a line, so we backed down. (There was a long discussion about this early in this thread) We keep giving things to Ukraine in a very reactive way. Russia starts shelling cities so we sent anti-artillery weapons a few months late. Russia bombs cities, then we decide they need air defenses a few months later. If we had provided them these things before Russia's moves, many lives could have been saved. Same with tanks, missiles, everything else. We're doing just enough to not let Russia win, but also not let Ukraine actually win. In the meantime, lots of people keep dying for no reason. We have to stop playing by their rules and their guidelines. The best window for crushing the Russian army was last spring when they were in disarray. Unfortunately, we missed that opportunity but we should just be giving Ukraine weapons proactively instead of reactively. Another example is sanctions. We just levied a whole new host of sanctions on Russian weapons partners yesterday. That's great, but why on earth had we not already sanctioned everyone relevant entity months ago?
I think they need a wall when all is said and done. A great...big wall! A great...big...beautiful wall. And, Russia will pay for it. And, Mexico.
Uhh because Americans would NEVER in a million years be okay with paying 7 dollar gas which is exactly what would happen if we sanctioned Russian energy. It's easy to talk a big game but biden was polling in the low 30s when gas was ridiculous highly. Americans were ready to throw biden under the bus in a minute for gas. Biden has to juggle alot of different factors. It's easy to talk a big game but it has real life consequences which we have to juggle with. The quickest way to reverse American support for Ukrainian is by having crazy High financial consequences on the public because of the war. Also you're aware at the time of the invasion the Ukrainian army wasn't a professional army at all. Go read interviews from foreign fighters and theyll tell you the Ukrainian at the beginning of the war didn't even have officers or command in place. The Ukrainian didn't have any command structure in place nor did they have an battle plans. The thought that they could've crushed the Russians at the beginning is hilarious. The only reason they saved kyiv was because the CIA trained an elite delta force which was able to protect kyiv. People need to read up on the state of the Ukrainian army during early days. NATO is literally building an army from scratch. The Ukrainian didn't even have radio communication lined up during the early days.
Very well written article, despite the uncomforting truths. It's true that we can't defend our own border, that our critical infrastructure is not in great shape, and that we are $33 trillion in debt. It's also true that the US military under Biden was humiliated in Afghanistan and that weakness contributed to Putin's decision to invade Ukraine. The US, Ukraine, and Russia will all be weakened by this war. China will be the winner in all of this, unfortunately. We need much smarter and stronger leaders.
The funny thing about Republicans is they pretend they give a **** about our infrastructure. Trump passed a 2.3 TRILLION dollar tax cut that literally went to the top 1% while he bashes bidens trillion dollar infrastructure bill which repairs every bridge in America. The funny thing about Republicans is they pretend their leaders have ever given a **** about our infrastructure. Trump passed a multi trillion dollar tax cut and the Republicans here bootkick his boots as if we weren't in Ukraine we'd have so much social spending! When Biden passed his infrastructure bill EVERY REPUBLICAN LEADER lobbied agaisnt it. *EVERY SINGLE ONE* The republican party talks to their base as if they're utter morons. The MAGA base has to be the dumbest ppl in electoral politics.
Actually the MAGA base is the smartest -- they are not conned by the media + established interests in Washington. They are independent thinkers, capable of identifying propaganda and lies. On the other side of the fence, it always amazes me how many smart people blindly believe what the partisan media tells them... without even thinking about the underlying motivations and deceptions at play. You guys have been manipulated and deceived for years and you haven't figured it out yet. If you think Biden's infrastructure bill was about actual infrastructure spending... then you probably think the Inflation Reduction Act's massive increase in government spending reduces inflation too. Even The_Conquistador -- the best of the best -- can't help you if that's where you are starting from. GOOD DAY
Please tell me what part of the infrastructure bill you thought was so bad that it wasn't worth passing? Was providing broadband internet to every rural American too much? Was fixing every broken bridge too much for you? Was giving 30b to help rehab rail lines that need repaired too much? Rehabbing Houston Port too much? Was giving money to *every* airport no matter it's size too much for you? We passed the largest infrastructure that invested in every sector of America which even the chamber of commerce endorsed. *Every* Republican leader lobbied agaisnt it. You don't watch the media and are so intelligent can you please elaborate why the infrastructure bill was bad and the 2.3 trillion tax cut was good? You're obviously never going respond to this post with facts like all MAGA on this forum. Quit pretending that if we don't spend the money in Ukraine you'll magically be okay with upgrading America. You're full of ****
I'm not talking Russian energy. I'm talking about the thousands of people and entities that were sanctioned today. And yet, by late summer, they were launching counteroffensives across the country. By then, I think we'd agree, they were an effective fighting force. Yet the west is still slow playing various weapons systems and hasn't agreed to jets. Just as we did with missile launchers and anti-artillery weapons and air defenses, we're going to give these to Ukraine eventually. Giving it to earlier, preferably before all their people are dead and their infrastructure is blown up, would be helpful. This is the problem with slow escalation - it's totally being done on Russia's timetable. The long-game benefits Russia and we're letting them play it so far.
US. The Russians are firing missiles at apartment buildings. They are maximizing civilian casualties. The Russians are also librating Ukrainian towns, by first bombing the town back to the stone age. The Russian troops then come in, kill the men, rape the women and send the children to Russia to be adopted. These war crimes will likely never be prosecuted ... unless Russia sues for peace on Ukrainian terms which is extremely unlikely. The status quo for this war really sucks. I don't think either side can win. Russia is at best trying to win the war by outlasting the Ukrainians. Ukraine at best will slowly drive back the Russians town by town, which may take years to get the Donbas back and years to get Crimea back ... with both being bombed back to the stone age when all said and done. And even if Ukraine drives the Russians out, Russia will then start a ten year plan to invade Ukraine again. Given the many year time horizon of this war, the US could send its best military gear to Ukraine and spend two years training them up. And then Ukraine could use US/NATO military inspired coordinated forces attacks and drive the Russians out. But at what costs? at what permanence? I only see two ways this war end-ends. Russia annexing the entire country. Or Ukraine driving Russia out, joining the EU and NATO, and having the US/NATO open military bases in Ukraine. If US/NATO keep up with the half measures, Ukraine might drive Russia out in 4-5 years, but with no lasting peace, since Russia would then just reload for the next war. Do we really want another 100 year war in Europe?
Do you know what changed between then and late summer that you're forgetting to mention?! They JUST STARTED sharing intelligence about their army in the summer. Before the war broke out the usa had *NO* idea what the ukr army preparation really was. This is why the CIA thought the Ukrainians would collapse in days because zelensky refused to share info on his army. Zelensky was still very hurt by what trump did to him and had no trust in the Americans. I've said this before in this thread. The pentagon had more info on Russian then the Ukrainians. It was that crazy. The reason why we couldn't give them alot of weapons at once is cuz we HAD NO IDEA what they had until the summer! That's when we started giving them HIMARS and training them promptly. The problem is that the Ukrainians never trusted us until after the war broke out. I don't blame zelensky too much as trump tried stabbing him in the back. People don't realize how much damage trump did to our standing overseas. His dumb bootkickers are brainwashed into thinking he's well loved but he's hated everywhere.
No. Putin invaded because Trump lost the election. Trump was wanting to leave NATO during his first term. His advisors told him not to because it was political suicide. He said he would wait until his 2nd term to leave NATO. The US would have done nothing if Russia had invaded at that point. Putin knew it. He was waiting for Trump to win, the US to leave NATO, before he invaded. Trump lost. The US didn't leave NATO, Putin invaded. He was ALWAYS going to invade. He would have just had a much easier time if Trump had won.
Putin invaded because of Biden’s strategic alliance with Ukraine in Nov 2021 and the stated desire to expand NATO. This has always been a red line for Russia and everyone (except you perhaps) knew it. Biden crossed that red line. War was the predictable result. Trump’s strength kept us out of wars, as an FYI. The exact opposite of what the left predicted by the way. Facts matter.
interesting. you're advocating for US/NATO troops (or at least airmen) directly engaging Russian forces in Ukraine. I wonder what kind of response that would engender from Putin. elsewhere in this thread I've suggested US/NATO troops be deployed in a rear-echelon role, and provide a shield from air attack, provide a no-fly zone. ...but the front line fighting would still be Ukrainian forces.
This is highly entertaining. Answer me this: Are you MAGA? Do you believe the election was stolen? Because your “smartest”, “independent thinkers, capable of identifying propaganda and lies” fell for that sh-t, hook line and sinker. Trump started the lie, Fox magnified it, and MAGA believed it. I know you must have been laughing your ass off as you typed this stuff, knowing the kind of responses it would draw. It’s a fine troll job, but honestly, I know it has to bother you that your team is full of low IQ and low education idiots.
The thing about these people like trader Joe is they never bother to ask follow up questions. They get their brainwashing from right wing ecosystem. Please answer me one question kindly. How was ukraine going join nato if it's been in an active conflict since 2014? One of the requirements of joining is EVERY nato country has to agree (France and Germany both told putin they would veto ukr applications) AND YOU CAN NOT BE IN ANY ACTIVE ARMED CONFLICT. Again. How the hell was ukraine going join NATO?! The audacity of you telling people facts matter. Sometimes I think we live in a computer simulation. How can society be so ill-informed
I’ll admit I got a chuckle out of that post. The dedication to playing a character like this for so long is impressive.
