War in Ukraine

China urges 'restraint' after Russia's foreign minister raises prospect of nuclear war
So put your money where your mouth is and get off the fence China. Get your future lap dog to knock this shit off and go home.

 

Amal Clooney making the case at the UN of genocide in Ukraine. My Lebanese wife would remind me that George (also Lebanese) marries up by marrying a nice smart Lebanese girl. She’s not wrong.

 

Announce it May 9th

 

That's a huge margin...no wonder the Chancellor has extremely reluctantly changed course it seems.

 

Is it me or does this look like something out of WW1/WW2?

 

Agreed. I've been reading waaaaaay too many rather flippant references to the use of nuclear weapons. There is no such thing as a "limited" nuclear war. After the first one it's all over. Does anyone really believe that there is any chance of someone "winning"? I have no confidence in the scenario of Putin ordering a nuclear strike and his orders are not followed and he is overthrown. We in the west are using a combination of wishful thinking and projecting by believing that surely the Russian military would not insure their own destruction. Many Russians do not think like we do and it only takes a few. Putin has gone off the reservation. Nothing is predictable now. While I'd love to see the Russian army soundly defeated, we had best tread lightly and circumspectly in regard to how to make that happen.

 

Interesting there is some “bi-partisan crazy” on this particular vote.

 

The ACLU also denounced this bill, some strange bedfellows against it! Albeit I’m going to guess the ACLU has some solid principles behind their position (concerns over due process and rule of law), these politicians likely have… other agendas.

 

No. A shitty democratic candidate.

 

You're right in that it's probably the West projecting values onto Russians. Look at that TV bit talking about how it was okay to die because Russians go to heaven and the West goes elsewhere.

As far as limited nuclear war we already did that. We dropped 2 nukes on Japan. Didn't affect anyone else. So I do see Putin shooting one into Ukraine in a "well if I can't have her no one can" abuse scenario.

Will Putin go full scale? The more he sees himself in a corner the bigger the likelihood. But Putin, being an egotistical maniac, has a goal of the glory of Russia or the glory of the Russian Empire. That's his dream. He's gone basically nuts over that dream. How would he possibly achieve that if the world is gone?

The wild card here is China. If there's one thing China loves is China. And I don't know that they sit back and let Russia poison their land with fallout, destroy their economy by vaporizing their market & trade partners, etc. By then though Putin might REALLY be in a corner and just nuke everyone.

Then at that point we pray that our defense systems are good enough.

The West capabilities may also give him pause. Yes he may launch. Would they work? Would they do anything? The West knows their stuff works. As we've seen, Russia not so much.

Other than backing off and letting Putin have his way I don't know how treading lightly looks. They've been given multiple chances for diplomacy but keep insisting on their path.

 

Except they've been crowing about how they want an investigation because they claim Ukraine is to blame, that it's fake, etc. So they'd once again be proven liars if they objected.

 

Remember how they claimed they weren't going to bomb the plant? Gee. Russia lied. Surprise.

"Mariupol steel plant suffers "heaviest airstrikes so far," Ukrainian official says

From CNN's Tim Lister and Olga Voitoivych

A Ukrainian official in Mariupol has told CNN that the last holdout of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol — the Azovstal steel complex — has been hit by the heaviest Russian airstrikes yet.

"Last night, the plant was hit by the strongest strike so far. First, there was a massive air strike using seven Tu-22M3 aircraft. Then there were more than 50 air strikes. Apparently, either the Su-25s worked, or the Su-24s. I can't identify since we were in the shelter. The bombing was inflicted on the place where the seriously wounded are — in the hospital," said Mykhailo Vershynin, chief of the Mariupol Patrol Police, who was at Azovstal amid the airstrikes.

"There is a suspicion that after photos from the hospital were published, the place was identified by the enemy. And there was not just a bombing, but a massive bombing strike inflicted there. There is rubble, there are people under the rubble. There are dead and wounded. That is, the wounded are injured once again," he told CNN. "This is a violation of all norms and rules of warfare. This is a violation of the Geneva Convention.""