War in Ukraine

I totally disagree. I represent Russians down here in Miami. There is an huge community of Russians down here. And I can tell you that nobody cares about their nationality.

Be honest. You just hate America, and Americans, and thrive in trying your level best to create as much discord as possible. It drools from every single post you make.

 

You know what's hilarious? YOU are the only one who saw that report. What does that say about your vaunted "sources". Says they're shit.

 

Guilty as charged! Along with the Poles, Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Moldovans, Romanians . . . or anyone else who the Russians claim dominion over in the name of their frail egos.

The ones who support him are just as bad. But, based on the demographic numbers, they won't be around much longer. So, it's just about waiting them out and letting them wither on the vine. Tick! Tock! Tick! Tock!

 

By every objective measure, the last 75 years has been the best and most peaceful in human history. Whine and moan and self flagellate all you want, but this point is beyond argument.

 

But the ones still there do pretty much support him and this vision of Russian hegemony. This isn't unique to Putin. This is a trend that dates back to when the Muscovites were the Mongol's bitches and collected taxes, put down rebels, etc. for their masters. This attitude continues when the Mongols leave and continues to this day. Just look what they did to Novgorod, for pretty much the same reasons (insecurity and ego).

 

See this is just the thing, you have to invent all these insane hypotheticals like "being bombarded from space" to keep justifying pumping money into insane weaponry which will never work or we will never need, all at the detriment of things that might actually benefit humanity. But yeah, I'm the crazy one lol. The people that defend the arms race are the most paranoid people around, there is always some imaginary threat on the horizon!

Yes, I think we all understand how and why the atom bomb was made, is that something we should be proud of? Keep going until we succeed in destroying the planet/building the death star?

 

C'mon. I think you should be asking how many US oil and resource extraction companies do business in Iraq. Why would they take it when US companies can sell it to us at market rates and enrich themselves?

US Companies, Government to Boost Iraq Energy Sector to Temper Iran.

US leaves oil firms in Iraq

https://www.reuters.com/business/en...agreements-capture-burn-gas-power-2024-04-17/

 

I don't think a Chinese Communist Party that, if you take out the Jewish angle, looks a lot like the Nazis is exactly an "imaginary threat".

The reality is that the more things change the more they stay the same. Be happy you got to live through the last 75 years because that paradigm is going away and we're looking at a future that looks a lot like the past.

 

Seems kinda stupid to compare China to the Nazis. I understand they are an economic competitor, but don't be ridiculous. We essentially share their basic ideology, in that we also attempt various levels of state managed authoritarian capitalism. Our two countries are becoming more alike every day. And the more we see them as rivals beating our ass, the more true that will be all the time.

An age of pointless and bigoted rival nationalisms like the 19th century, only this time with nuclear weapons ... sounds great. And everyone posting here saying I'm a fool for saying we shouldn't continue this course is like "full speed ahead, baby!"

 

You can play the hand you're dealt or wish for better cards that aren't coming. While I appreciate the sentiment, this is a hopelessly naïve position that is more likely to create the situation you dread than put an end to it.

As for the CCP, take out the Holocaust (we'll just ignore Xinjiang for the sake of argument) and what's the difference? Honestly, what's the difference? People were lauding Hitler in the 1930s, lauding their beautiful autobahns and their great economy while pillorying ours. They too had ambitions beyond their borders that they acted on and are also motivated (as stated publicly) by past grievances, which they use to drum up nationalistic fervor in a totalitarian police state. Again, what's the difference?

And we share absolutely nothing with the CCP's ideology. Nothing whatsoever. We see economics for economics sake and, if anything, our problem is letting economics lead the dog when it comes to foreign policy. For the CCP, economics is purely geopolitical. These cheap electric cars are only cheap because the CCP subsidizes the industry and the CCP would like nothing better than to Trojan Horse those things into our economy. That's why they're pushing this, not because they care about the climate or want to do right by American citizens.

Sorry, but it didn't work. Democracy is not going to spread across the world. It's now about figuring out who values it and who wants to partner to preserve our system and what we need to do to make sure we can keep it. As for those who don't value it? Enjoy your Hell. . . and lose our number.

 

special ops or russians killing russians??

Russian military unit deputy commander assassinated days after returning from Ukraine frontline (msn.com)

Ahigh-ranking Russian military officer was assassinated on Wednesday, just days after returning from the Ukrainian frontline, in what is believed to be a well-planned attack. The victim, identified as 44-year-old Nikita Klenkov, a deputy commander in Russia’s Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravlenie (GRU), was shot dead in the Moscow region, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Local law enforcement sources reported that the assassin had been waiting for Klenkov’s vehicle before carrying out the hit.

The attack occurred in the village of Melenki, less than 20 minutes from the Special Operations Forces Training Center, where Klenkov served as deputy commander. Witnesses reported that at least three shots were fired into the side window of Klenkov’s car as he was driving. The vehicle continued moving until it collided with a fence.

Klenkov, described as a senior figure in Russia’s military intelligence, died instantly.

 

we should probably stop all ai research, pharmaceutical research, microbe research, drone research etc. because all can be weaponized… just such a silly simple take to think we should stop all research that receives dod funding.

 

Seems at least as simple and silly to say we need to do these things because something terrible you made up might happen if we dont

 

We spent trillions in Iraq to try to remove a dangerous dictator and try to secure peace in a very difficult country and area of the world. We took no oil. Iraq was not an immediate threat to the U.S. mainland (only the interests of the U.S., our planes enforcing a no-fly zone, and our allies in the region). How did the 2003 invasion of Iraq serve our self-interest?

In most cases, the U.S. tries to get the U.N. to declare that the actions of a country are reprehensible enough to justify military action before the U.S. takes action. That way, we are not only acting in our self-interest, but in the world's self-interest as well. You will never get all of the world's countries to agree on anything, so there is no hope of doing anything that makes everyone happy.

I think you'd have to go back to Vietnam before you find a U.S. military action (one authorized at the highest levels of government, not a rogue action by a platoon or something) that was morally questionable by sane people (hence the widescale protests in the U.S. during Vietnam). And that was because LBJ was just not very bright. We have had a few military actions that have gone sideways, but the original intentions were not questionable.

 

Yeah, we spent trillions in Iraq (and lost several thousand troops) so that our oil companies could make billions. That makes sense to you? That's a fairly moronic thing to say. George W. Bush was not one of our brightest presidents, but even he was not so stupid to make that investment mistake. Read a book on investing some time. Get back to us when you understand "return on investment". The "profits" from the oil extraction stayed in Iraq, even though I'm sure our oil companies did not offer any discounts for their services.

 

I made one simple example. These research areas are also important for many other reasons. Energy. Food production. Urban planning. Transportation. Computing. On and on and on.

But back to warfare, if you think if the us just stops all weapons research that everyone else will too than hey I have some ocean front property in Arizona that is perfect for you.

 

He is referencing true reports that I quoted several hundred pages upthread. Some Russians had frostbite in the winter (because Russia could not afford to properly equip them for the weather, so they had to provide their own military clothing, including bulletproof vests and insulated clothing). There was a case where Russians killed some zoo animals (don't remember if they ate them or not). And while the Russians were not fighting with shovels (that was a joke that our dimwitted Russophile did not get), there were conscripted soldiers that were given basic training with no rifles (because of a shortage at the time), and were only trained on how to dig trenches. Every time he gets a chance to re-post his nonsense about these stories, he pisses his pants with excitement and rings a bell he keeps on his desk.

 

My bad. Just seems like he fishes for the most random and silly crap.

 

If the US ceases to be what it is now, that would mean stopping our humanitarian aid. The US provides almost five times as much aid as European Commission or Germany, the next largest amounts.

Humanitarian aid by country worldwide 2023 | Statista

 

It also means roughly 1/3rd of the world would be free of economic sanctions, including over half the "developing world"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2024/us-sanction-countries-work/

That's how this works, you do our bidding you get guns and money, you dont you get cut off from accessing the world economy. In effect we are at war with a 3rd of the planet.