Too Hot Democrats (and who knows how many Pubs) rooting for Al Qaeda and ISIS in Syria. They kill Jews and Christians (have you forgotten?). Protectors of Jews and Christians in Syria? Assad and Russia
The terminology Trump used and/or exact accuracy of the number is not the part that matters. What matters is that Trump made it a point to air a number publicly from a venue where he was meeting with NATO leaders and Zelenskyy, just moments after a key ally of the Kremlin had been toppled. The only reason Trump does that is to is to gain leverage. But I think you realize this and probably don't want to admit this was Trump's way of shaking Putin down in public without being overtly confrontational or insulting. You might refer to it as the art of the deal...
“Wounded” is difficult to quantify accurately. Unlike dead or even missing, it isn’t a binary statistic. Wounded can mean anything from “immediately returned to duty after first aid” to “evacuated from theater with permanent disability and no chance of returning to duty.” And the more specific you are about defining wounded, the more difficult it is to estimate an accurate number. That’s already true if you have full access to hospital records, disability data, etc. Imagine how difficult it is when you don’t have that kind of access. The dead and missing are far more difficult to hide, no matter how much you lie or play games with statistics. Russia is proving the difficulty of hiding the truth about fatalities with their laughably deflated public count.
Sanctions have reduced elements of the Russian economy back to the literal Stone Age. It is making more sense for Russians to barter goods and services than to use this hot, new craze of exchange that dates back to the Bronze Age: state-sponsored currency. But, historically, this is what happens when that currency is revealed to be without value. One more piece of leverage in negotiations. Russia turns to bartering
With very strict sanctions for Iran roughly six weeks away and stiffer tariffs on Chinese goods, Russia are quickly running out of partners to lean on. My prediction still involves Russia hanging onto the land it has seized, withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Kursk, while at the same time Ukraine is given the opportunity of a lifetime with regard to rebuilding their infrastructure and westernizing their economy more swiftly. Putin can then claim the 'denazification' is complete and Ukraine can garner economic alliances that would have otherwise been unavailable to them for decades. The question remains will Ukraine's leaders make the most of that opportunity or will they embezzle it away. That has been and always will be the peril of becoming embroiled in something of this nature.
Note he doesn’t say killed in action or “death toll”. Those are words used by Too Hot posters. Trumps post says “loss of over 600,000 soldiers”. That could be a total casualty figure including injuries and desertions. Isn’t that 600,000 pretty much in the realm of what is estimated by various western sources? I love how people are trying to read 4d thinking into what is probably just imprecise terminology in a bizarre attempt at trash talking Obama. I don’t even think this is him talking tough to Putin, why else say that Russia getting pushed out is “the best thing to ever happen to them”? I re-read it a 2nd time and it really seems to me it’s just an attempt to trash talk Obama and re-litigate the red-line and how that was handled. In 2014 nobody on the right was saying “not our fight”, they were calling Obama the godfather of ISIS. I think as of this time the only option for the U.S. is watching this thing play out, it’s not like we were ever going to back up the Assad regime. Obviously a lot depends on what type of (likely Islamic) regime is formed there, and if a central government can ever gain control or it ends up bring more tribal and ungovernable like some of the other failed states in the region. I’d wonder what the chances are of Islamist’s trying to re-establish a caliphate, in which case it may actually become our business again. I assume with Turkey backing these particular rebels that would not be their aim, but would be more an issue if they fail to establish a new Syrian national government and the fighting goes on even down the road after Assad is long gone.
Russians getting slaughtered in Ukraine. https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/116768/documents/HHRG-118-ZS00-20240130-SD002.pdf
Even Ukraine acknowledges it has been outgunned by Russia by an order of magnitude. But Russia has lost as many or more troops as it has ever inserted into theatre. Right.
See the Syria thread for a BBC report on the forces that deposed Assad. Far from monolithic, reaching out to west
Oh yes. I'm quite convinced of it. He's fit for another four years also. The haters don't know the Joe we know, do they?
I don’t know your story, but I know you were on the board before Russia invaded Ukraine. Since the invasion you’ve been on here talking complete nonsense, so what’s your motivation? Russia invading Ukraine is deplorable on every level. I hope you don’t waste our time with the typical BS about Natzis nonsense or NATO. This is just a 100% a land grab by an innately evil Putin. He actually brought a WW I trench war to Europe, but with 21 century technology. It’s mind boggling. Besides the shit talk here on too hot, you don’t actually support Putin, right?
Your regurgitated tractarianism is duly noted. I’ll bet you were grinding your teeth in 2003. *chortles*
