Posted on 03/17/2022 4:53:46 AM PDT by MtnClimber
One -- Reassuring an enemy what one will not do ensures that the enemy will do just that and more. Unpredictability and occasional enigmatic silence bolster deterrence. But President Joe Biden's predictable reassurance to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he will show restraint means Putin likely will not.
Two -- No-fly zones don't work in a big-power, symmetrical standoff. In a cost-benefit analysis, they are not worth the risk of shooting down the planes of a nuclear power. They usually do little to stop planes outside of such zones shooting missiles into them. Sending long-range, high-altitude anti-aircraft batteries to Ukraine to deny Russian air superiority is a far better way of regaining air parity.
Three -- Europe, NATO members, and Germany in particular have de facto admitted that their past decades of shutting down nuclear plants, coal mines, and oil and gas fields have left Europe at the mercy of Russia. They are promising to rearm and meet their promised military contributions. By their actions, they are admitting that their critics, the United States in particular, were right, and they were dangerously wrong in empowering Putin.
Four -- China is now pro-Russian. Beijing wants Russian natural resources at a discount. Russia will pay for overpriced access to Chinese finance, commerce, and markets. Yet if Russia loses the Ukraine war, goes broke, and as an international pariah is ostracized, then China will likely cut the smelly Russian albatross from its neck - in fear of new Western financial, cultural, and commercial clout.
Five -- Americans are finally digesting just how destructive the humiliating flight from Afghanistan was. The catastrophe signaled to Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran that Western deterrence had died.
No surprise that Russia sent missiles into a Ukrainian base near the Polish-NATO border. North Korea in January launched more missiles than in any month in its history. Iran sent missiles into Kurdistan. China announces daily it is just a matter of time until it absorbs Taiwan. The tens of billions of dollars of sophisticated weaponry sent to Ukraine by the West are still far less than what the U.S. military handed over to the terrorist Taliban.
The left is destroying our monetary policy. And debt keeps piling up.
I envy the people who lived in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Our failed state seems a bit more failed than theirs.
Reality #11
Putin approved and directed the Russian efforts in Iran that resulted in thousands of US soldiers getting killed and wounded in Iraq by IED’s.
Never has there been a more opportune time for America’s enemies to act on their expansionist intentions. This country’s “leadership” makes the Carter years look dynamic by comparison.
10 things about Ukraine. 10 basically obvious things.
We have two sustained problems now when it comes to Ukraine.
1. We have a Joe Biden and Democrat problem. They have parroted and financially benefited from the relationships with Putin and Russian allies like Iran, Pakistan, and China for a very long time. They, like the liberals in Europe, have sold their people out for a few dollars. We have to go back to energy independence, because its the only way to peace for this nation in the long run. Trump was right again.
2. How to we get weapons into the hands of Ukrainians in large quantities, including armed drones, to destroy the entire army of Russia in Ukraine during the Spring? Soon, outside of major roadways and railways, there will be zero heavy equipment movement in Ukraine because of the mud. This is a unique opportunity to STOP RUSSIA AND PUTIN for at least a decade by destroying it’s military in the field.
Unfortunately, we have to make the world and nation aware of #1 if we want to capitalize on #2.
Yep.
Putin is as much a terrorist as any Iranian mullah.
I for one cannot find any argument with Professor Hanson.
I think he nailed all ten of his realities.
Those that know the truth of what happened in Iraq want him dead, with extreme malice.
Huh?
You got to do better than that with your fake, made up “news”.
First of all most Iranians are NOT terrorists. A lot of Iranians are suffering under the Islamic regime.
And if you actually read this article, Obama and Biden are as much terrorists as any Iranian leader.
China, especially its military, is now and has been inextricably tied to Russia since the end of WWII. China can't make a military grade jet engine for its fleet of fighter jets, and still relies on Russia to supply engines for China's fighters.
Russia will not go bankrupt. It will at most have a regime change via a palace coup against Putin, patch up relations with the West, and return to its grifting status quo anti.
Read my comment again. Nowhere did I say “all Iranians.” I said “Iranian mullahs.” HUGE difference.
Not gonna happen.
“The left is destroying our monetary policy.”
Yep, and have been since 1913 and the late unlamented Woodrow Wilson and the Progressives gave us the Federal Reserve. Inflation rate since 1913: 2765.8%.
Source; https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
“And debt keeps piling up.”
Nother Yep. And has been ever since Andrew Jackson paid it off something like 190 years ago. But in reality that is the fault of all three parties, if you throw in the Whigs.
Not that it matters, but both inflation & debt will destroy or maybe have destroyed this nation
A fella can dream...
#11 - When a nuclear power sets red lines, as we did in Cuba in 1963, DO NOT test them, as they may not back off.
“Read my comment again. Nowhere did I say “all Iranians.” I said “Iranian mullahs.” HUGE difference.”
Get used to it. The Bidenistas here tend to ‘reword’ comments by our side (that is, the people who don’t want WW3 or shooting ourselves in the foot with sanctions).
(almost forgot)
#12. Don’t cut your F-35 purchase by 35% if you want to stand up to this country’s ‘enemies’ (as we’re now in the process of doing), as some of those planes will likely get shot down in combat.
#5 Truth Bomb !
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