Seeing more and more of articles like below. Very discouraging. “As military setbacks in Ukraine force Russian President Vladimir Putin into a corner, one former CIA officer argues that the chances he might turn to nuclear weapons are increasing. "I think the chances of his de-escalating are close to zero," Robert Baer, a former CIA case officer, told CNN on Tuesday, adding that Putin "simply cannot give up so much ground and be seen to be losing and continue as leader of Russia." "The chances of his using nuclear weapons — at least tactical nuclear weapons — is going up by the day," Ex-CIA: Putin 'cornered,' chance of using nukes in Ukraine increasing
We're willing to consider the possibility, but not without proof. Where is your evidence? And make sure it comes from the last 50 years. How much oil did the U.S. take from Iraq? How much rare earth minerals did the U.S. take from Afghanistan? And how many dollars worth of thatch baskets (or other products) did the U.S. take from Vietnam? Tell us about the U.S. Empire. Tell us about the tolls that we extract from foreign shipping companies for protecting their shipping lanes. Tell us about all of the income we get for having bases in foreign countries. It must be worth something to us, right? We're a rapacious, destructive empire! We must be getting some cash value out of our entanglements. We must have paid down the national debt to zero with all of the tribute we've been extracting from other countries. Where is it? Show me the money!
I’m open to blaming the US because Biden, Blinken and Austin said the quiet part allowed recently, that it has long been the policy to remove Putin and weaken Russia because we always have to have a nemesis and because we have to maintain our position of primacy in the world. As a means of removing Putin and weakening Russia, we engineered a coup in 2014. It’s what we do. Then proceeded to build the Ukrainian war machine to serve as a bludgeon through which we could fight Russia without expending our own troops. Because it’s what we do. Putin knew all of this. The Russian people knew all of this. Which is why, when he felt he was adequately prepared, he decided to beat us to the punch. Although other observers would argue that we baited him to invade. Terms like international law and genocide are decidedly quaint. We’ve regularly invaded countries under the pretense of promoting democracy and accused other countries of ethnic cleansing when it has served our interest.
Iraq estimates that $150 billion of its oil money has been stolen from the country since the US-led invasion of 2003 | CNN
Russia and China have one other thing "going for them": a willingness to violate the Geneva Convention in their fighting tactics. There will be no hesitation to kill civilians, or target infrastructure, water supplies, etc. This can hurt when it comes to "winning hearts and minds", but persuasive in letting things like starvation hasten a surrender. I will also say that China's military would likely have more enthusiasm and dedication than the Russians. The Russians had no way of stopping the incredible amount of corruption that plagued their military, as well as the unwillingness to prepare for any potential military activity (probably made worse by a culture of alcoholism). Russian citizens also have more access to external news sources (using VPN's, etc.), so they are less likely to be sold a bill of goods. China does a much better job of controlling the internet and spying on their own citizens, so the Chinese are less jaded (by the truth) and more receptive to the propaganda that the government puts out.
Well, they certainly sound like an impartial observer with nothing to gain by making that accusation. By the way, I estimate that $150,000 worth of our time has been stolen from us by "duggers dad". When do you plan on paying us back (and will that be cash or check)? Anything else?
O.k., let's assume that the U.S. "stole" $150 billion from Iraq. How much did the U.S. pay to invade Iraq? Answer: $1.1 trillion, not including interest payments. Net profit of the Iraq War: negative 950 billion. Return on Investment: -633%. Financial cost of the Iraq War - Wikipedia Now, if the U.S. were an imperialistic country, wouldn't they make sure they turned a profit on their foreign adventures? At least come back with some exciting souvenirs? The biggest diamond in the world, something like that? For an imperialistic country, we're obviously not very good at it. Or do you not understand business?
And we’re the arbiter of veracity ? Arguably, the US has the most powerful propaganda machine in the world. Which more than compensates for the degradation of its war machine.
I understand you’re kidding, of course, and I support increasing our arms shipments. But we need to do more than just send more weapons. In my opinion, it’s time to get more involved with training, advising, and assisting directly, inside Ukraine. If Ukraine is doing a decent job getting weapons and supplies to the front and killing Russians, then we can make them even better.
Russia presently in the process of destroying it twice over ... imetatronink: Destroying the “Mother of All Proxy Armies” in Ukraine
Serious question for the serious members of this thread: If Russia uses a nuclear weapon (or several) in Ukraine, what steps would you demand the President take if he asked for your opinion?
Why is everyone so concerned about Putin using nukes ? Is it because Biden is pushing and pushing and pushing the man astride the world’s largest nuke arsenal ?
I would have thought it patently obvious. The introduction of wunderwaffen did not slow Russian artillery in the least as tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops were killed or wounded ...
Not what you asked, but had this discussion with a few friends last week, I Putin set off a tactical, what would the world do? Our take was nothing. Powers that be would be too afraid of other launches. Meanwhile, authoritarians everywhere would applaud. Ymmv, chess is not my game,
Shipping embargo. Nothing in or out of their port Shut down all air traffic in and out. Nato movement into Ukraine up to existing conflict lines to secure what of Ukraine is left 100% economic disconnect. No exemptions for china, india, nobody. Uncertain as to further military action other than subs enforcing trade shutdown.
