US has been importing crude oil and petroleum products from Russia since 1995. U.S. Imports from Russia of Crude Oil and Petroleum Products (Thousand Barrels). There is a false narrative that Biden has eliminated energy independence and made us dependent on the Russians. It is false.
Right which is why I said I understood other countries debating it more. My question/issue was with the US specifically not supporting this on record from early on. Even if there's debate, let the US position be clear versus "we're thinking about it".
402 days in, Trump was pre pandemic and still had a smooth Obama economy and still had lower approval than Biden who has the pandemic, the aftermath of the pandemic economy, and a Russian invasion going on. You need to check yourself in for some BDS treatment
Question, and I'm not a computer person/military expert. Russia's military tech seems to be outdated (and that's being kind). Would it be feasible for a cyber attack that would disable their defense network?
We can think about it all we want but my guess is it's off the table. Without energy nothing gets done and given our current situation as well as the rest of the globe the bigger question is how much stress do you want to put on the economy and the American populace?
You have stated the risk of intervention. Now turn the map around and state the risk of non-intervention. How do you think this plays out if we do nothing?
There are companies/entities already refusing to buy Russian oil. The instability caused is already going to drive things up. I get that it's painful which I get would be the nail in the coffin to this happening. But having a stance matters. It influences decisions. That's what I have a problem with. I will say that apparently the US (don't know if Biden per se or if it's the Fed) are trying to see about disconnecting specific entities versus the ENTIRE Russian economy so that's not as catastrophic. Which would be a great compromise. The other side is that in response to sanctions the Russians have said they'd cut off/stop selling oil & raw materials. So the pain may be happening anyway.
Disabling their defense network with a cyber attack doesn't guarantee Russia cannot retaliate in kind, Nor would it stop other nations favorable to Russia from jumping in the fray. If you cannot take it all out (IE make Russia go black you're in trouble). Of course other nations may look at the damage and say I'm next so I'll act now against the US. A disruption of our oil delivery system should be warning enough. Keep in mind our systems are not state / federal owned, they are private enterprise. It is up to private enterprise to protect their own systems. A lot of private enterprise looks at the cost for such protection and elects the Volkswagon approach versus the Rolls Royce approach for security.
Cowardly American Tech companies bending over backwards for the Russians. The US should demand that Apple, Google, Facebook and Twitter immediately stop operating in Russia. Screw Russia, let them buy Chinese cr@p and run Chinese software. We should choke off internet access out of Russia as much as is possible anyway as a matter of Cybersecurity. China has their "Great Firewalls" in place to blind their population, we should do the same to traffic out of Russia. Russia Intensifies Censorship Campaign, Pressuring Tech Giants
The risk of non-intervention is Putin decides to go further than the Ukraine. The mitigation plans for that have been drawn and forces are being deployed for that very reason. Keep in mind at that point Russia will be tied up on multiple accounts if this happens and I'm certain Putin is well aware of that. I don't think Putin is going any further than the Ukraine while some may think he is a psychopathic idiot I certainly don't. If he chooses to press and our allies are tied up I would expect nations favorable to the Russia and a world of conflict to evolve. Then it becomes a major issue of putting out fires across the globe. The unfortunate part is we all cannot be Switzerland at that point.
The damned if you do and damned if you don't scenario. What I can say is hearing the stories from my grandparents as to what life was like and rationing during WWII I certainly do not want to get to that point.
This is a hard question. It is hard for me to face the answer. My grandfather was shot and gassed in the Argonne in WWI. My father served in WW2, joining the Coast Guard in 1943 (which was part of the Navy). Family friend’s son killed in Vietnam. And others. But, I have learned to Listen to want totalitarians say. They tell you their aims. This isn’t just about Ukraine. And we are lying to ourselves if we think that. Chechnya, Georgia. Countries taken by force of they don’t politically re-up as an Iron Curtain country.
We want FB and Twitter operating there. We just don’t want them censoring what the Russians want censored.
I was reading some Reddit chatter about the crap equipment and green/poorly trained troops the Bear is rolling in there. Some saying this is the state of things (with obvious historical context from which to draw), but many others suggesting the top / high-tech war machines and crack troops that the red army does possess (whatever those numbers may be) are being held in reserve. If the latter - for what purpose? Was there an assumption of a quick easy victory - as some rumors suggest, or is there some deeper planning going on?
The effect of this ordinance is devastating to people. Assuming that they are to be used in the urban battlefront that is about to happen. Previously used in Aleppo Thermobaric weapon - Wikipedia The [blast] kill mechanism against living targets is unique—and unpleasant. ... What kills is the pressure wave, and more importantly, the subsequent rarefaction [vacuum], which ruptures the lungs. ... If the fuel deflagrates but does not detonate, victims will be severely burned and will probably also inhale the burning fuel. Since the most common FAE fuels, ethylene oxide and propylene oxide, are highly toxic, undetonated FAE should prove as lethal to personnel caught within the cloud as with most chemical agents. According to a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency study,[15] "the effect of an FAE explosion within confined spaces is immense. Those near the ignition point are obliterated. Those at the fringe are likely to suffer many internal, thus invisible injuries, including burst eardrums and crushed inner ear organs, severe concussions, ruptured lungs and internal organs, and possibly blindness." Another Defense Intelligence Agency document speculates that, because the "shock and pressure waves cause minimal damage to brain tissue ... it is possible that victims of FAEs are not rendered unconscious by the blast, but instead suffer for several seconds or minutes while they suffocate".[16]
Those are meant to clear open areas. Releasing them in a civilian populated area is an absolute war crime.
Even for all the flack, very underrated post, imho. Reading back through this thread, and looking at the map and trying to use my limited short term recall, you can see a lot of movement in the area by us and allies. In the pisser with the Germans, where we we threatening to move our bases to? It all feeds into the paranoia. Russia is also a giant gas station. They don’t want anything that inhibits the flow of oil and gas to the ports. Threatening pipelines and building new LNG distribution markets are all pieces to the puzzle. Who knew foreign policy was so damn complicated as is trying to understand your adversary. If Canada and Mexico were replaced with China and Russia ….. doesn’t excuse squat, but it helps determine the long term process.
