Hearing some rumors the ski's may be developing a significant counter attack but not much info. is available on it. Podcaster talk. We shall see.
Hello 92 - According to reports literally every NATO country will increase defense spending, to at least 2% if not more. I did agree with Trump on one thing - getting NATO to pay more of the way on defense. You are right, European Freedom IS NOT exclusively an American Bill to Pay. I think they see the truth of it now.
European heads foaming at the mouth with Russo-paranoia. Like the yahoos on this thread they deride Russia as being incompetent on the battlefield and, at the same time, ready to gobble up Poland, Romania … and then on to Dover.
There is a difference between Vlad's ultimate aspirational goal and his ability or more accurately lack thereof to execute it and even then there is a fairly high probability that despite Putin's incompetence Zelensky may still have ended up either in exile, in a Russian penal colony or dead with a Russian puppet occupying the presidential palace in Kyiv were it not for NATO support of Ukraine.
Since you’re a fly on the Kremlin wall, tell me what you know about Vlad’s aspirational goal. Then we can assess how he’s doing on the executional level.
Biden is selling out Ukraine. By publicly announcing Ukraine can’t join NATO, because we don’t want war with Russia, it gives Russia the green light to keep on fighting. Stating it in such a public way isn’t doing Ukraine any favors.
Sr general removed after he complained about lack of support from MOD. Wheels are falling off Latest news on Russia's war in Ukraine, NATO Summit in Vilnius Now PlayingZelensky blasts NATO over the murky timeline for Ukraine's potential membership: "Uncertainty is weakness" LIVE UPDATES Russia's war in Ukraine By Tara Subramaniam, Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt, Tori B. Powell, Maureen Chowdhury, Elise Hammond and Sana Noor Haq, CNN Updated 8:58 PM ET, Wed July 12, 2023 What we're covering The NATO summit wrapped Wednesday with the allies offering assurances to President Volodymyr Zelensky that Kyiv’s future lies in the alliance – and appearing to calm Ukrainian frustrations over a lack of a timeline for membership. US President Joe Biden said NATO remained unified even though Russian President Vladimir Putin was betting the conflict would divide the alliance. A high-profile Russian general in occupied southern Ukraine said he was dismissed after accusing the defense ministry of betraying soldiers by not providing sufficient support. Another commander, Gen. Sergey Surovikin, who has not been seen in public since the failed Wagner-led rebellion last month, is “resting,” a Moscow lawmaker said. Documents shared with CNN in June indicated Surovikin was a secret member of the private military company. All Catch Up NATO 59 Posts SORT BYLatestOldest 2 hr 20 min ago A senior Russian general in Ukraine is dismissed. Here's the latest on the war in Ukraine From CNN staff A high-profile Russian general in command of forces in occupied southern Ukraine said he was dismissed from his post after accusing the defense ministry of betraying Russian soldiers by not providing sufficient support. General Ivan Popov was the commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army, which has been involved in heavy fighting in the Zaporizhzhia region. He is one of the most senior officers involved in the Russian campaign in Ukraine.
This is a man who Obama’s own Secretary of Defense said has been wrong on every major foreign policy issue in the last 40 years. His instincts are horrid.
I think Biden is being careful not to make commitments we can’t keep. It is true that saying they can’t join until the war is settled gives Russia incentive to keep fighting. But the alternative is basically committing to escalate our involvement in the future, which he doesn’t want to do. Also, perhaps this puts some pressure on Ukraine to start pondering a political settlement. I don’t know if that is a motivation for Biden or not.
I have a lot of respect for Gates, he was one of the best sec of defense we have had in my memory. However I think he is being a bit unfair to Biden. Biden was actually encouraging Obama not to “surge” in Afghanistan and start winding down our presence. In retrospect, given where we ended up, I can’t say that he was wrong. Also, somewhere before or after the Iraq war, he was a fan of breaking up Iraq into 3 pieces, which kind of made sense to me, although I don’t know if it would have been practical. Biden has always been cautious re military involvement. He isn’t a neocon, but he isn’t an isolationist either.
It was during the Iraq War, 2006. Biden proposed a decentralized government segregating Iraq into three parts: Kurdish, Shia and Sunni. Segregation. Which failed miserably in Bosnia, Ireland, India and Palestine, for obvious reasons. The infighting was inevitable. But yeah, I'm sure that would have worked out in Iraq just fine. Now perhaps you can explain what strategic objective Biden achieved by announcing to the world that the U.S. is not going to allow Ukraine into NATO until they end the war with Russia?
The whole time he has tried to support Ukraine but not specifically provoke Putin into making it a conflict with the US. You can agree or disagree with that approach but he has been pretty consistent. Given your skepticism of the war I find it odd you seem to think Biden should escalate it and potentially put us in Ukraine in a middle of the war. It would seem to me you are just criticizing Biden for whatever he does. If he announced a Ukraine path to NATO admission I suspect you’d be on here railing against him for further provoking Russia.
Here you come with the straw man BS. I never said Biden should escalate the war. I asked specifically what strategic objective was met by flying over to Lithuania, convening with NATO for two days and announcing to the world (against a lot of NATO opposition mind you) that Ukraine has no hope of NATO status until this war ends? (and you dodged the question) Even if that is our stance, why tip the hand to Russia? All Russia has to do now is run out the clock, because after 1+ year of fighting, we've once again confirmed Ukraine isn't going to be supported with NATO troops. You understand Ukraine is virtually out of artillery? And they are severely outnumbered? By taking the NATO option off the table, Russia has no worries now about direct Western intervention and it was re-confirmed to the world this week. That doesn't mean I think we should put Ukraine in NATO today. It just means that it's dumb to remind the world that Ukraine is on their own. It emboldens Russia. It also sets it up where if Ukraine capitulates, Biden can say he "tried" but Ukraine couldn't pull it together. Biden is hanging Ukraine out to dry. It's poor form, regardless of my stance on American involvement in the war. This is a prime example of why we shouldn't get into these entanglements. Rarely is it that anything good comes out of these things.
In retrospect, given where we ended up, I can’t say that he was wrong. Also, somewhere before or after the Iraq war, he was a fan of breaking up Iraq into 3 pieces, which kind of made sense to me, although I don’t know if it would have been practical. I had a professor at UF who posited that a lot of the conflict in the developing world was an artifact of how the British drew maps and established territories. He theorized that the British saw rivers and saw a natural border between regions where using the drainage area of a river would have given more stable territories.
Russia keeps losing generals. They lost four recently. Only one has died in battle; the other three may have been disappeared. A Russian lawmaker described one as "taking a rest". Sounds like he's taking a dirt nap. Russian Military Hit by Uncertainty as One General Is Killed and Another Remains Absent (yahoo.com)
Russia's economy continues to collapse, as their current accounts surplus drops by 93%. It is as bad as it was during Covid in Q3 2020. Russia's currency is taking almost as big a beating as its military. Russia's economy dealt a crushing blow as its current-account surplus collapses by 93% (yahoo.com)
