Ukrainians and us are on the same side. And RUSSIA is HATED by MANY Ukranians for the "Collectivization" of farms and Private Property in the 20's / 30's. Ski's killed MILLIONs of Ukranians.
The Ukrainian soldiers don’t belong to the same corrupt military and political establishment the ARVN and Thieus regime.
I have this Historical Perspective: Don't INVADE RUSSIA - Bad NEWS for those that do. Conversely, Russians are bumbling IDIOTS when they invade other countries outside of their domain. Some may argue that Ukraine IS RUSSIA except 85% of Ukrainians would DISAGREE. Reference 1920's and 30's Russian / Ukrainian relations for a perspective on this.
Can we please give this twenty years before we label the Russians bumbling idiots ? See: our Afghanistan.
If Russia uses nuclear weapons, they may spend the rest of eternity on the "naughty list", meaning that no respectable country will do business with them until their system of government (not just Putin) is overthrown. They will have to do all their business through China and other shady intermediaries. They would also be thrown off the U.N. Security Council permanently, and the other (non-Chinese) countries on the Council would be focused on containing Russia for the next few decades.
In this case, weapons and advice ARE moving the needle. Ukraine has at least fought Russia to a standstill, and pushed them back in some cases. The free world is "sending" (or allowing) thousands of volunteers to go to Ukraine and fight. The difference in Vietnam was that the locals did not support the "democratically-elected" president, who was not only highly corrupt, but also persecuted Buddhists (the majority of the population) in his spare time. For the vast majority of Vietnamese, getting rid of the communists was not a matter of survival. I don't see any parallels in the current Ukrainian situation. Zelenskyy is a good leader, does not persecute groups of Ukrainians, and for most Ukrainians, getting rid of Russians from their soil IS a matter of survival.
See their Afghanistan part II. The Russians tangled with Ukrainian AF. 40 yr old aircraft. Old technology. No ECM. They challenged a small Air Force and bullied it. The lecturer is a drama queen full of crap. US/NATO AirPower is more than capable of setting no fly zones or challenging Russian “technical prowess” Russian air defenses didn’t deal with strike package ECM capabilities, Wild Weasels, dedicated jamming aircraft. Tanker capabilities, AWACS, stand off weapons to deal with AAA sites. Russians still operate by centralized control. The list goes on. It would be a fight but the Russians aren’t the super heroes you and the lecturer makes them out to be. Their communication and data links are proving to be crap. NATO could run a no fly zone. The lecturer asserts that fighters fly only from the UK. He laments at the lack of bases in Germany. That’s old Cold War doctrine to have multiple permanent bases. Most fighter bases are supported by forward deployment of fighter units to Germany, Holland, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria and the Baltic states with prepositioned logistics and munitions. They forward deploy B52s and B1s to the UK. The lecturer is full of it. If US ground units deploy under NATO, they’ll get support anti aircraft units. They’ve been stopped cold. Their military power is less than impressive. The vaunted Guards armor forces have been smacked around good. The “elite spetznaz, FSB and Guards airborne troops couldn’t seize an airfield with air superiority and failed miserably at assassinating their targets. The Russians did excel at the brutalization and execution of innocent civilians. So yeah, they’re good at that.
Saudi Arabia has other issues to think about when it comes to their oil. They are looking at the possibility of running out of oil in the next 20-40 years (it is a national secret exactly how much oil they have left), and they do not have a very robust economy that can survive without oil. They are bringing in chemicals manufacturing to increase their downstream use of oil, but I'm sure they expect these chemical plants to last more than 20-40 years, so they have to reduce their oil export to accomplish that. I don't expect any country to give up their long-term financial future for our convenience. The U.S. has a tremendous ability to reduce oil usage, but we are too cowardly to do it. It would mean higher gas taxes, the thought of which causes most Americans to piss their pants and faint dead away.
Except China & India are so big the 3 of them could keep each other afloat. At some point India & China need to be sanctioned over helping Russia if they cross whatever imaginary line the US & others have that qualifies as helping Russia. India wouldn't be an issue but the US is too dependent on China. As long as Putin is in charge they not only don't care about being pariahs they're embracing it.
This is what comes from getting your news from CNN, BBC, FOX News ... they’re all singing from the same song book. elensky (he’s banned the letter Z) is a homoerotic high-heeled dancer and US puppet who’s banned opposition parties and jailed opposition leaders. He was elected, in 2019, on a pledge of rapproachment, with Russia, but has done nothing to stem attacks, on ethnic Russians in Donbas. *Remember when ethnic cleansing was regarded as just cause for military intervention ? In any case, a man who’s been screeching for help, every day; for weeks, doesn’t sound like a man who’s fighting Russia to a standstill. Neither do en masse surrenders.q
Putin is not a Nazi. Stalin was not a Nazi. Putin is an evil dictator, like many dictators. His brutality is targeted is indiscriminate.
