Zelensky’s brain had to flee Ukraine, for his life, for admitting that a church was not destroyed by a Russian missile but rather a Ukrainian missile that missed and fell to earth …
Ukrainian women triggered by Russian goods in Alaska store. Dumbfounded that not every Westerner shares her Russophobic rage …
Russia is our great neighbor. Ukraine is just some far away distant land nobody can point out on a map.
Some of us understand history, and some don't. Those that don't are more likely to claim that those who do are "a parody account".
Great in size, maybe, small in many other ways. They are the barbarians of the 21st century. They cannot compete economically or culturally, so they invade neighbors. It is a small-minded approach to the world. Those that support Russia in this invasion (or are willing to look the other way) are equally small-minded. Wise people do not dismiss any group of people as insignificant, because they know that as the world is carved up, sooner or later they will fall into a class of people who is dismissed as insignificant. Putin is a modern-day Hitler. If you can't condemn the actions of a modern-day Hitler, then you have some serious defects to your character.
I was a history major. And I can confirm that history is written by the victors. And corollary to that: and the victors get to determine the depth of depravity of the losers.
The Soviets spent upwards of 20% of their GDP on military in the mid 1980s. The Soviet economy in the 1980s was already collapsing in on itself, because of communism. The workers had no incentive to meet quotas and if they did meet quota, the next year's quota would be higher, so the Soviets actually made working less more attractive, because the workers were paid the same either way and could not be fired under Soviet law. There was no innovation, because the government would not allow private citizens to patent inventions. Finally, the 1980s oil glut caused a massive decline in oil prices, below $10 a barrel by 1986. For obvious reasons, this hurt the Soviets. Contrast that with Russia today. Russia is currently spending about 3.5% to 4% of GDP on their military, right on par with the United States. Their economy just grew an at annual rate of 5% last quarter. Workers can be fired and patents can be had. Capitalism is the name of the game in Russia. Even if it's crony capitalism, it's still lightyears better than what the Soviets were attempting. Oil prices remain elevated, showing no signs of decline. In fact, prices are trending up over the past 6 months. Ukraine is not the mujahideen and Afghanistan is a much more diverse and complicated theatre than Ukraine. It's telling you used a theatre that the United States were just driven out of in embarrassing fashion as an example of how we can contain the Russians. Not to mention we are into the throes of a very poorly coordinated counteroffensive in which 30% of the equipment we sent to the Ukrainians has been destroyed in just a few short months. Ukraine have no air superiority and anybody with a brain can tell you that's not going to bode well in trench warfare.
Side note: foolish to criticize Bill Clinton for not being tougher on the man who literally led the coup against communism in Russia. Apparently you don't remember the financial crisis of 1998 either. It's hard to imagine Russia being in a weaker position than they were at that time. Just embarrassing, foolish commentary from certain ones here who are attaching "gator" to their name.
Add: whereas my dictum above has been incontrovertibly true to date, I suspect that Western propaganda has become so pervasive that this impending proxy defeat can be spun as a victory. History is written by the losers ! Yes, the defeat will be spun as plucky Ukrainians, with generous aid from the West, thwarted Russia in its aim to take the whole of Ukraine.
Ukraine using repurposed S-200's to target Kerch bridge. Can't we jsut go ahead and give them a handful of atacms to take out the damn bridge? Ukraine war: Crimea bridge targeted by missiles, Russia says - BBC News Two Ukrainian missiles have targeted a bridge linking Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula, Moscow says. Videos on social media show plumes of smoke rising near Kerch bridge. Russia's defence ministry said S-200 missiles had been used and shot down causing no damage. Ukraine has not commented on the alleged attack. There have been at least two other attacks targeting the bridge in the past few months.
More Russian propaganda: Corruption concerns prompt Ukraine to fire all regional military recruitment chiefs
i was going to comment on this. We are dealing with 2 of the most corrupt counties in the world. If R is #1 then Ukraine is #2 or vice versa. I have no problem with seeing Russian tanks getting smashed, I just don’t understand all the ‘love’ for Ukraine. If they were selling out their countryman at the height of their fight for existence as the NBC article suggests, what levels of corruption were transpiring during peace time. I have no love lost for either place. Sure, send some hardware to bleed out putin, but let’s stop with the phony Ukraine circle jerk.