Shows you how lost Biden was that he offered Zelenskyy sanctuary outside of Ukraine when this started. Imagine if Zelenskyy had taken him up on that. It was Zelenskyy’s defiance which spurred the resistance. Nothing Biden did. Biden’s a coward.
I feel like he's doing everything he can given the three constraints, domestic political opposition/support, international alliance maintenance, and concern for unintended escalation. I'm speculating to a degree but those are real restraints, not imagined
Maybe, but I’m not a fan of bringing civilians into a conflict and it makes it harder to win the hearts and minds if you do the same things as Russia.
I mean, we could engage them directly. Hell when their convoys were stuck in the mud last year and it was clear they were having major issues i thought to myself the U.S. could probably make a mess of that invasion force pretty quickly. But short of risking a nuclear exchange or sending U.S.. troops to the front it seems we’ve been quite sensible. When you are clearly holding back, of course the perception is always going to be “you can do more”, because that is also the reality.
I don’t doubt there is a minority of the far right (MTG et al) that is simultaneously resisting support to Ukraine while posturing to hang the hoped-for defeat around Biden’s beck, strictly for political reasons. I can only speak for self and say that isn’t me. I want Ukraine to win, and I’m fully prepared to give the President all of the credit in the world for contributing most critically to that win. That said, I refuse to preemptively immunize him politically from the loss, which would be just as much on him as a win would be. You should refuse to as well. Putin is all in on this war, and I mean up to his literal neck, not just his office. So it’s not okay with me that President Biden gets to think that in the event of defeat he has political immunity from the many bad decisions he has had related to this conflict. In some cases, I understand, he has been advised poorly. I get it. I have been advised poorly in the past myself, and I have taken bad advice. But it’s the responsibility of a leader to fire a bad advisor under those circumstances, and he hasn’t. It’s also the responsibility of a leader to subordinate other political considerations to the strategic main effort, which is Ukraine, and he hasn’t. Now maybe none of that translates to defeat in the end — I hope it doesn’t — but if it does, no form of political excuse changes the end state.
In your estimation, then, we have already exercised every diplomatic, informational, military, and economic means available to the President short of general war with Russia? We are fully at the end of escalatory measures without directly engaging Russia? That is your position?
Pretty damned close, especially on the diplomatic and sanctions end. I’m sure they keep trying to find levers to pull. But is any of it gamechanging? On the military front it just seems like we have been continually upgrading Ukraine. Originally so they could purely play defense, now with success enough so maybe there is a thought of Ukraine going on offense to reclaiming some 2014 territory.
I also think a “no fly zone” would be an obvious game changer that should be considered. But that would also mark a major escalation of U.S. involvement and put U.S. pilots in the active war zone.
I’ll add some other measures we should have been doing a long time ago later, but a no-fly zone is moot at this point. Russia already can’t fly over western Ukraine or even near it with manned aircraft, despite expecting to achieve air superiority in 12-48 hours from the start of the war. So I wouldn’t recommend a no-fly zone, not because of risk to the aircrew, but because they would have precious little to do.
Italians may be getting in on the action in Ukraine, sending some tank killers. But they are doing it secretly, so don't tell anyone. And don't publish it on a website seen by hundreds of people . . . DOH! Italy May Secretly Be Sending Its Tank Hunters to Ukraine
Yes, absolutely. We've always had far right groups, but they really started rearing their ugly heads during Trump's term. Equally concerning is that 'm seeing the rise of a far left problem as well. Democracy cannot work without compromises, and the far left/right are too far apart to reach any sort of compromise. With them increasingly dominating our political system, our government will become increasingly dysfunctional. That's my concern for the US, and the reason this relates to the Ukraine Nazi issue is as I stated above. The same reasons people use to tolerate Nazis in Ukraine is the ones that centrists in this country use to justify their tolerance for the extremists in their camp. They have nobler goals they're wishing to achieve, so they'll tolerate the extremists who'll help them achieve their goals. Next thing you know, your goals will be hijacked by the extremists. This is how we got complete or 6 week abortion bans in half the country even though many if not most Republicans are not even in support of them. This is also how the SF Bay area is turning into a lawless dump with businesses fleeing left and right when we residents just wanted cleaner air, healthcare for the most needy, and eliminate systemic racism. Yes, I realize this is getting off topic and can be discussed much more in depth. But IMO it's worth questioning if in the process of vanquishing an evil we can slowly become enablers of something even more evil.
fortunately the US is not being invaded by a much superior force and in need of every warm body we can muster to prevent the invaders from trashign our country and killing our citizens...but...if the US was being invaded by China and they were taking territory and raping your wife and daughters would you take help from the nazi sympathizers in our country? I agree that it is not ideal to enable hate groups like nazi sympathizers but I'm also enough of a realist to understand why they are taking help from where they can get it, much like the US did when we helped Stalin to aid us in defeating Germany.
Russia is dumping oil on the market and depressing prices, which is angering the Saudis. Moscow promised they would limit production to keep the price up, but they have proven they can't be trusted. Russia is so desperate for cash, that they will almost sell everything they can produce at almost any price. Once again, it looks like the sanctions are working. Russia and Saudi Arabia are at odds after a flood of Russian oil supply pushed the commodity's price below a key break-even level needed to fund Saudi projects
South Korea is gearing up to become the world's largest arms supplier. Europe is interested because South Korea can apparently deliver on its promises, while a country like Germany struggles to do so. Hungary bought 44 Leopard tanks from Germany in 2018, but they have not yet been delivered. S. Korea aims to become world's largest arms dealer
Side point: Biden still gets the blame if it goes south, because he's the POTUS, but I highly doubt he's making any tactical decisions at this stage and it's likely up to whoever is running the show behind the curtains to decide if someone loses their job for giving bad advice or intel. That is another downside to this. Biden isn't war-time president material given his cognitive issues. Who knows who is really calling the shots. Legally, it all has to pass through Biden, but I don't think he's running the show. That may seem like a minor point, but it could actually end up being a really big deal and I think we've already seen evidence of the inherent issues that exist with an arrangement like this.
I’m not agreeing with him, but I think in this context he was referring to cowardice in terms of moral courage, not physical. There are different forms of courage. One could make the argument that the President’s team was predisposed to quit (with low information) and unfortunately to encourage Ukraine to do the same. Up until Ukraine was clearly holding their own on the battlefield, all I seemed to be getting out of the President’s supporters was “Oh, well. Trump’s fault. Let Russia have this one. We will excoriate them with language and half-ass economic measures. Let’s get back to the real threat of white-supremacist-driven Global Warming.” We need to remember, no matter how uncomfortable it is, that in the early days of this conflict how much our NATO allies and the Democrats in Congress had to kick the Administration under the table to get them to act in a less-than-defeatist way.
