Good to hear. Just as others post insightful military recommendations, yours are also perceptive. Obviously you have an relevant and extensive background. Thanks.
Soup-to-nuts on why grownups should not be allowed to say “unprovoked.” Also profiles a number of American luminaries who warned against NATO expanding eastward … https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-first-draft-of-the-ukraine-wars-history/
Man, last time I checked there was no discussion of Ukraine joining NATO until Russia invaded it. On the other hand, once Ukraine was invaded, Sweden and Finland asked to join NATO, doubling its border with NATO. How's that working out for Russia? It seems if they were a good neighbor who had no ill intent towards their neighbors, this would hardly be necessary. Again, NATO has never attacked Russia, so why should they be worried? It's called logic and reasoning. You too can do it!
Neocons be like: “We told you! We expanded NATO 16 countries and 1,000km to the East and look what Russia just did!”
Guess you never lived under the Soviet Union, seems like these other countries did and do not want to repeat the experience. Maybe it was all those Russian invasions of Chechnya, Georgia, etc. that made them nervous. Can you blame them?
There was talk for years of Ukraine joining NATO. Many of us said this would cause war to break out and Ukraine would be destroyed. The Biden administration wanted war for n Ukraine. The goal was regime change in Russia. As the blog Moon of Alabama predicted on day 5 of the war, the result of the war in Ukraine would be regime change in Washington and the EU. That's exactly what has happened so far and this will continue. Trump views the US Deep State and EU bureaucracies that view their own peoples with disdain as the enemy. They undermined his first presidency. Trump is now punishing these bastards and taking them out. Euros will get new leaders who represent the people. Peace will be made with Russia. More trade with China will take place. That this would happen was obvious when the war began. Obvious to me and duggers_dad and maybe a few MAGA's, anyway. Not obvious to a single Too Hot lib imo. Enjoy the show
Lets see: Trump: Ukraine: Sure we will help you if you give us all your natural resources and do whatever we tell you. Trump: Ukraine Send us a check for 500 Billion (better yet make it out to me) and we might let you sit in the highchair to watch Vlad and I slice it up. Trump: Vladimir you are so beautiful in your Pajamas - I love you. My hero. Trump: NATO? Hey Vlad, we will help you invade NATO countries, just think of the Casinos I could build. Trump: Who gives a sh*T about the American losers who died fighting the Russian backed puppet states in N Korea, and Vietnam? Not me! Trump: Now Vlad once you kill off the locals and move your capital to Kiev, I expect 5 Trump Casinos and at least 5,000 statues of me hoisted.
Obviously, you missed swathes of the article … Horton relates how the U.S. and NATO threw military weight around in the Balkans (its military intervention against Serbia over its province of Kosovo exposed the hypocrisy of Washington’s professed respect for the sanctity of borders), supported radical Muslim Chechen rebels within Russia, and gave financial and political backing to various “color revolutions” in the former Soviet states, most with the unveiled intention of spreading regime-change “democracy” in the Russian Federation itself. j/k of course you didn’t bother to read the article. Hell, it’s probably shorter than some of your posts.
Ukraine's move to NATO was in discussion for years leading up to the invasion, and then it intensified. Ukraine Wanted to Join NATO Alliance for Years. What Stopped It? – NBC Chicago
Actually you do need my opinions because you really do not have "a good feel for things" as evidence by your suggestions that 1: 2 additional armored BDE's and a wing of F-16 would provide a decisive advantage of to the AFU to turn the tide of the war; 2: GLSDB were a realistic option to target the Kerch Bridge in late '23 as part of a strategy to isolate Crimea. These suggestions are not accurate and neither is the assertion that you can understand what is going on in a war based on OSINT drone footage. Your effort to keep pushing these ideas is coming close to spreading disinformation. And as @uftaipan has pointed out, just because the US is not on the battlefield fighting this war, does not mean we are not keeping with how our donations are doing. Your time would be much better spent reading the daily updates on the conflict and the deep dives on this conflict at Institute for the Study of War. It is a great resource to understand what is actually going on in this conflict.
You probably forgot WW1 started in the Balkans with Russian military ally Serbia actively supporting the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, so I can perfectly understand why NATO would find it in their interest to stop a war when Russia couldn't possibly be expected to. And I will head you off at the pass that reminding you the immediate prelude to World War 2 in Europe began with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact by the Nazis and Soviets. Funny how those Russians keep turning up when all these wars begin.
Well, they did show up to do the heavy lifting, in Europe, so that we could glory in our D-Day. And this is how you show your gratitude with all your Murican rage-typing.
Add Niall Ferguson among historians who argue that England was the primary belligerent in WWI World War One: 10 interpretations of who started WW1 Fun Fact: Churchill was half-American.
Russia "outgunning" Ukraine has been a matter of Russia having greater artillery shell stores (Putin prepared for this war for over a decade, possibly two) and artillery shell production than the U.S. and Europe. Ukraine had the advantage of more accurate artillery, plus better generals and war strategy, as well as some likely targeting assistance from the U.S. Additionally, Russia has been well known to use meat wave assault tactics to attack Ukraine, which leads to slaughter of large numbers of troops. Also, Russia lost most of its elite special forces soldiers in the opening months of the war, so more of their troops are inexperienced or of lesser quality. And, of course, this is an existential war for Ukraine, and not so for Russia, so Ukrainian troops are more likely to be motivated and focused on winning. So, yes, it is entirely reasonable for Ukraine to have killed more Russians than the number of Ukrainian troops killed by Russia. Focusing on one small part of the equation and coming up with an answer usually leads to a wrong answer.