Still … there’s something about Putin warning us not to do something (again) that — I don’t know — just makes me want to do it and prove how empty his threats are (again). If he wants to be on the side of Hamas, I say let him.
“Putin is a crazed, unhinged and compulsive genocidal maniac!” also … “Ha-Ha! We cross redline after redline and Putin doesn’t do anything about it!”
Yeah, at this point I'd say Israel surely has this situation easily and well in hand. ...but if Iran detects that we will not engage, they might take unacceptable liberties. At that point, it's gloves off, game on, the hell with Russia and Putin (not that it isn't to hell with him anyway--I mean, we'e never given much of a shit what he spouts off).
Well, you seem to have an answer for everything. Why is Putin drawing a red line wrt Israel/Palestine? Wth is his dog in that fight? That's a sincere question--you say it serves as a convenient distraction away from Ukraine for the US--seems like the one who desperately wants that distraction is Putin, which would explain why he's throwing his hat in a ring in which he has no dog.
At last check Putin was calling for peace in the ME, not so much Biden. And why would Putin need a distraction ? Russia is in the process of methodically dismantling America’s great proxy three times over.
Russia is at war with Ukraine. If Ukraine gets swallowed up by Russia, it will be a Ukrainian defeat. If Ukraine pushes Russia back into Russia, it will be a Ukrainian victory. The US will be out $200+ Billion--$200+ Billion dollars deeper in debt--regardless of who wins/loses between Ukraine and Russia. So the question remains, which you have thrown back at me--why does Putin need this distraction? Because he does not actually have a dog in the fight between Israel and Palestine. ...other than desperately hoping the US will engage directly, so that he can attempt to do his proxy war thing, through Palestine. That's not calling for peace in the ME--that's begging for a distraction from Ukraine. Why?
If it’s in their interest, no doubt. I’m curious what their interest would be, though, beyond sowing more international chaos. That can be a sword without a hilt, very difficult to swing without getting hurt yourself.
Oh, I don’t doubt that Putin is playing 3D chess while Biden’s playing checkers and Nukand and Sullivan are showing him where to place his checkers. On the other hand, you do realize Ukraine is a proxy war, don’t you ? The U.S. is fighting Russia with Ukrainians because it can’t afford to fight Russia with Americans.
LOL! So Russia pissed away most of its good will with Europe, is kissing Chinese ass, losing 100,000+ of its own people, and 100's of billions of dollars of its rust bucket industrial age war toys (the best it has)...to show the US up? LMAO! No, Russia is only killing Ukrainians and Russians. And destroying Ukrainian and Russian stuff (ok, some surplus American stuff...). The only Americans who stand to get hurt by this--the ones emotionally invested-- are the corrupt politicians who have their hands dirtied in Ukrainian (money laundering) mud. Sounds like your pet genius is playing Russian Roulette to show Uncle Sam what a bad ass he is at chess.... (and you're trying to pass that off as 3D chess). It's like a drinking contest, and Vlad the bad ass Russian is drinking himself stupid with Vodka, while the American is paying to watch him do it...while sipping on red wine. ...and you're talking shit about the hangover Uncle Sam is going to have. (my problem is that Uncle Sam has cancer--or diabetes 2, and high blood pressure or such, and needs to be tending to his own ailments, and circumstances in his own home, not watching Vlady drink himself stupid, and get into a fight with a much smaller but fiesty as hell Urkanian patron...however *funny*--or compelling--he may find it).
Understood but I find it curious Czar Putin has been spouting that Western support for Ukraine will dissolve this week.
The U.S. hasn't crossed any redlines that Russia hasn't already crossed. Need I remind you that Russia put a North Korean flag on Russian (Soviet) fighter jets with Russian pilots in them to shoot down U.S. pilots in the Korean War? Obviously, the U.S. is entitled to do that if it so chooses, based on the Russian precedent. If we did do that, Russia's little war in Ukraine would be over rather quickly with Ukraine sweeping the field against the defeated Russians. Ukraine is on its way to victory against Russia, but its going to take a lot longer than if we were involved directly.
Someone needs to get his head out of his information bubble which, by the way, is rapidly losing air. The virulently anti-Putin Mediazona, in conjunction with the BBC, cannot corroborate much more than 30k Russian dead. And I’d guess that Ukrainian dead numbers in the hundreds of thousands and the country facing demographic collapse. You need to assimilate that.
Ukraine claims that its anti-tank unit has destroyed 25 tanks in four days. That's more than Russia can produce in a month (possibly in two months). One of the tanks was Russia's "advanced" T-90 tank. Ukrainian anti-tank unit burned down 25 tanks in 4 days, more than Russia can produce in month Ukraine destroys Russia's advanced T-90 tank
Maybe. Russia’s military casualties, the officials said, are approaching 300,000. The number includes as many as 120,000 deaths and 170,000 to 180,000 injured troops. The Russian numbers dwarf the Ukrainian figures, which the officials put at close to 70,000 killed and 100,000 to 120,000 wounded. Troop Deaths and Injuries in Ukraine War Near 500,000, U.S. Officials Say Independent Russian media outlets Meduza and Mediazona have used statistical modeling to estimate the number of Russian soldiers killed so far in Ukraine: around 47,000 BY ERIKA KINETZ Published 2:12 AM GMT-4, July 10, 2023 BRUSSELS (AP) — Nearly 50,000 Russian men have died in the war in Ukraine, according to the first independent statistical analysis of Russia’s war dead. Two independent Russian media outlets, Mediazona and Meduza, working with a data scientist from Germany’s Tübingen University, used Russian government data to shed light on one of Moscow’s closest-held secrets — the true human cost of its invasion of Ukraine. How many Russians have died in Ukraine? Data shows what Moscow hides Seems the more conservative of the numbers puts it closer to 50k--but the war seems less than 1/2 over, with Russia still stuck in that eastern sliver, and just hunkering down trying to finger the dyke as leaks pop up dripping Urkainian forces through. Surely you're not going to insult anyone's intelligence with those laughable 5-7,000 estimates put out by the Kremlin?
So even estimates from virulently anti-Putin sources are a far cry from 100k. As to Russia holding a sliver, if by sliver you mean 20% of Ukraine, is it not obvious to you, by now, that while Ukraine is waging a PR war for it’s Western audience (so it has to vie for territorial gains, regardless the cost), Russia is more than happy to stand its ground and destroy the Ukrainian military by attrition ? It takes more than a little while to kill hundreds of thousands of soldiers weaponized by 30+ countries. People keep predicting a Russian offensive. But why risk unnecessary losses, by pressing forward, when your enemy is coming to you to be killed ?
That said, I find it odd that people think that a country that lost upwards of 25 million, during WWII, is going to roll over after losing (let’s just go ahead and say) 100,000. Has Ukraine stopped fighting after having lost perhaps several times that many ?
