Posted on 11/05/2023 6:02:22 PM PST by UMCRevMom@aol.com
“RevMom only post about Ukraine
Victories on land, Sea and Air.”
Sadly, wrong again.
1. You have to read posted article or video or subsequent comments on “Update Ukraine thread” before making such a statement.
2. I also post elsewhere on FR regarding subjects of interest to me
But, have a great day anyway :)
You post pure Propaganda. Nothing More.
Here’s a fun little project for you...
Google Russia Corruption Perception Index
Then...
Google Ukraine Corruption Perception Index
Yes, you will be happy to learn that Russia has the lowest rating of all European countries (most corrupt). But Ukraine is only slightly better (a little less corrupt).
But what the heck, let’s give billions and billions more in cash to Ukraine and forget about any accounting for where that money is going. Or we could loan them the money, and hope that they pay us back as they have promised.
What could possibly go wrong?
I’ll stick with Trusted News, not propaganda like DenysDov, the Draft Dodger.
“You post pure Propaganda. Nothing More.”
No.
Unfortunately, you post deceitful, false comments nothing more.
I doubt you are even a Mom, much less a Reverend.
Americans have turned against continued support for Ukraine.
And that pleases me.
Both Ukraine and Russia Corrupt Countries.
I don’t care who wins or loses.
Not our problem.
“I doubt you are even a Mom, much less a Reverend.”
Truth is truth.
What you opine actually doesn’t matter.
Of course Pearl Harbor was "provoked" in the eyes of the Japanese.
They well knew they couldn't conquer the Pacific until the US & British Navies were defeated, and when FDR moved the US Pacific fleet from San Diego to Pearl Harbor in mid-1940, it became too tempting a target to be ignored.
Japanese planning to attack the US fleet at Pearl Harbor began soon after.
At the same time, they planned attacks on the US fleet in the Philippines, the British forces & fleets at Hong Kong and Singapore and the Dutch East Indies, which Japanese called, "the Southern Resource Area".
All of these attacks were "provoked" by Japanese perceptions of relative weakness of American and European forces in the Pacific region, and the Japanese perhaps justifiable belief in the superiority of their own arms and men.
After all, the "effete" Brits were consumed with fighting Nazis in Europe while "playboy" Americans had firmly stuck our collective heads in the sand, pretending "it's not our war".
In 1941, from the Japanese perspective, we were ripe for defeat.
JonPreston "Regarding the rest of your comment, opinion isn't enough."
But it's a start.
Feel free to challenge my opinions and I'll show you the facts and reasons on which they are based.
JonPreston "Now once again, please tell the forum what was the last successful American military intervention in the last 40 years."
Of 107 "endless wars" since 1775, 11 were defeats, including 3 in the past 40 years -- Reagan's Lebanon intervention (embassy bombing), Clinton's Somalia misadventure (Blackhawk Down) and Biden's Afghanistan disastrous evacuation.
The rest were victories or negotiated settlements.
Meaning, you have nothing to say but somehow just can't bring yourself to not say it.
Sure, I "get" that, maybe you need a pen pal who wants to listen when you have nothing to say?
OK, so let's discuss recent Russian victories.
At Bakhmut, Russia's Wagner Group battled for nine months (Aug 2022 to May 2023) to win maybe 100 square miles at the cost of over 20,000 Russians dead.
Since May and the end of Wagner, Ukrainians have won back maybe 10 square miles.
At Avdiivka, Russians are again using "meat wave" attacks attempting to surround and cut off the city, at the cost of at least 10,000 Russians killed and hundreds of armored vehicles destroyed.
Ukrainians have given ground slowly and only occasionally retaken bits of lost land.
In the air war, many have noticed that Russians claim to have shot down far more Ukrainian aircraft than Ukraine ever possessed, and the explanation seems to be that they are counting as a "win" any Ukrainian decoys they shoot down.
And there's this -- Russians claimed to have destroyed a British-made "Storm Shadow" missile with Russia's advanced S-400 SAM, but it turned out that the actual point of destruction was when the Storm Shadow hit the S-400, so technically, yes, Russians did destroy a Storm Shadow with their S-400 Surface to Air missile, on the ground.
Finally, Russia's war against Ukrainian civilians has been more successful, killing many thousands with near daily missile attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets and few or no corresponding attacks by Ukrainians against Russian civilians.
In their war to kill civilians, Russians are the clear victors.
What other victories have Russians enjoyed recently?
I can't think of any, but if you can, please let us know.
Only if you define everything pro-Ukrainian as just "propaganda" and everything pro-Russian as absolute "facts".
How exactly does one challenge the effluence of a neoconservative like you? Your world view has brought America to fiscal insolvency while ensuring that the civilized world is aligned against US. I'll challenge you with mockery and ridicule because that's what warmongers like you deserve.
Robert Stinnett disagrees. See his book above. His father was Admiral Stinnett, the ranking officer at Pearl Harbor. See his book above.
I already did that, many months ago when I first saw our pro-Russian propagandists going berserk over alleged Ukrainian corruption, claiming Ukrainians were the most corrupt people in Europe, if not in the world.
So, if like me, you take time to study those rankings, you'll notice that 25 years ago Ukrainians and Russians were both ranked as among the world's most corrupted countries but that their scores have slowly, steadily improved over the years.
You may remember Ukraine's Orange Revolution of 2004 and its Maidan Revolution of Dignity in 2014.
Both were Ukrainian's efforts to overturn the corruptions imposed by their own government and by Russia.
That was also the reason for the election of Volodymyr Zelenskyy's "Servant of the People" party in 2019.
For comparisons, in the year 2000 the US raw score was 78 (out of 100) and 75 as recently as 2017, but has now fallen to 69, more than 10% below our peak years.
Russia's raw scores have remained relatively constant -- they were at 26 in 1996, 21 in 2000, 28 in 2012 and still 28 today.
Ukraine's raw score was 15 in 2000, 26 in 2012, 30 in 2017 when they first passed Russia and now 33 today.
So clearly, of the three countries, only Ukraine has sustained dramatic improvements in its corruption index scores.
I think that speaks well of the Ukrainian people and of their leaders.
Ukraine's corruption, or lack of, is irrelevant to Vlad the Invader's "special military operations" there.
On US public support -- it's worth noting that so far Democrats are more invested in Ukraine than are Republicans, but that the overall shift from strong support to less-so began around June, when Ukraine's much anticipated "spring offensive" failed.
The reason for failure is that in Ukraine massed armor doesn't work against precision artillery, missiles and drones, so Ukrainians gave that up.
But, despite declining overall support, there is still a small majority of Americans who believe Ukraine should not give up territory in order to sign a peace deal with Russia.
If you listen carefully to Republican leaders like Mike Johnson, what he's saying is that he expects to make a deal with the Biden administration which will provide aid for Ukraine in exchange for more support for our own Southern Border.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.