War in Ukraine

Really "smart people" realize the real savings would have come if the US and Russia had become friends.

As Putin, Reagan and Thatcher wanted.

 

Well, you have a point. We have such a great record with ROI on these wars that it's a pissing trillions of dollars down the drain if we don't pursue another one in Ukraine. Dumb people think we can't do whatever we want. It's just Russia. What could possibly go wrong?

 

NATO is doing its best to escalate the war before Trump is inaugurated. They are now flying drones 1,000 miles into Russia and hitting civilian buildings in the middle of the night. Two days ago, Russian President Putin said that he was ready to end the Ukraine war. Putin said Russia was ready to negotiate with President-Elect Donald Trump.

 

And? Russia has clearly been trying to improve its position (with underwhelming results in the field) prior to the start of any negotiations. Why would NATO not do the same?

 

I get it. You love the war. Why escalate? A lot of people like you buy into the global media narrative and have very little faith this can end with a phone call. The war could end today. Then, negotiations for land would begin. Ukraine will never ever be a part of NATO.

 

I get it, too. You want to make things as easy on the aggressor, Russia, as possible. If Russia wants to keep what it has stolen, then it’s going to have to bleed quite a bit more for it.

 

LOL - "You love the war."

Here's TJ and other Trump/Putin fluffers, had they lived in 1940; "Why not just give Hitler the land he's taken. Or at least most of it. Do you just 'love war'?" *


* But this, of course, only if the Great Orange Daddy had been, in that case, bought and paid for by Hitler, instead of by Putin, as is the case in today's reality.

 

Relax, Neville. The war will not end with a phone call anymore than WWII ended with Neville Chamberlain's declaration of "Peace in our time" after meeting with Hitler. You are thinking about Putin like he was a U.S. president. He is not invading Ukraine for Russia's security, or to get rid of Nazis, or any other silly reason. He is doing it for conquest. It is a theft of land and resources, with a side-order of subjugation of the Ukrainian people. The best that Trump could possibly achieve is a temporary respite from the war to let Putin rebuild his military and his economy. Ukraine will not be happy with that peace, and that's why they will not agree to it.

 

How Russia was robbing Syria. It turns out that Syria does have one useful natural resource: phosphates, commonly used in fertilizer. In exchange for Russia providing security for the Assad regime, Russian oligarchs were allowed to run the phosphate plants and send the profits back to Moscow. They refused to spend money on maintaining the plants, so they are inoperable now. Russia airlifted $250MM in banknotes out of Syria during a 2-year period and took about a million dollars worth of platinum catalyst when they left. They also took out $130MM in loans from a Syrian bank and disappeared with it.

Even though it isn't a huge amount of money in the grand scheme of things, it's good to know that this income source for Putin has dried up and Putin's thugs are out of the middle east.

How Putin’s friends plundered Syria before fleeing the country

 

Russia is getting desperate. Like, really desperate. Russia can only make 20 tanks and 20 artillery barrels a month. Yet they are losing 320 tanks and artillery barrels a month in Ukraine. They have apparently emptied out their storage locations. Artillery barrels will run out in 2025. Where can they get more tanks? How about the movie studios? They have some tanks and armored vehicles from the 1950's that they have used in the past which have been rusting for the last 60 years or so. What could go wrong?

But wait! It's worse than that. The head of weapons manufacturer RosTec says that if high interest rates stay high, the majority of defense companies will go bankrupt. Putin has not been paying his bills.

Looks like the sanctions are working after all.

Russia’s war machine is running on fumes as industry warns of bankruptcies and the Kremlin gets old tanks from movie studio

If Ukraine can hold out another year, it looks like they have a good chance of winning.

 

I am surprised they are letting them evacuate their equipment. Hopefully this ends all talk of russia ever occupying those bases again. My money is on Turkey taking operational control of those bases to help with the logistics supplies related to rebuilding Syria. Will Qatar and Saudi agree to that?

 

Did NATO take over the brains of some of the people posting here?

 

Did Ukraine's demise begin with energy deals? Stop the flow of cheap Russian naturral gas to Europe (Gazprom). Replace with more expensive gas that Western countries could make money from

 

Pipelines control foreign policy to a huge extent

 

ROI

 

Ukraine will probably be under new "management" at the top, but the actor currently there doesn't even know he's going to be replaced.

 

Of course an Aussie vegan would be fighting for Ukraine …

 

It may require U.N. supervision for the Saudis to get on board with it.