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As Ukraine war bogs down, U.S. assessments face scrutiny
Washington Post ^ | July 2, 2022 | Dan Lamothe and Karoun Demirjian

Posted on 07/03/2022 9:39:52 PM PDT by Mount Athos

President Biden said the United States is “rallying the world to stand with Ukraine” and pledged to support the cause “as long as it takes.”

U.S. officials have downplayed the (Russian} gains, calling them halting and incremental.

The scrutiny is fueled by U.S. government assessments of other wars, notably in Afghanistan, where officials habitually glossed over widespread dysfunction and corruption and sidestepped questions of whether battlefield successes were not only achievable but sustainable.

A Ukrainian lawmaker shared similar concerns.

“We are losing the most valuable thing, our soldiers and officers.”

Benjamin Friedman, a policy director at Defense Priorities, said that the stated objective of Ukraine to push Russian forces out seems “increasingly unrealistic” and that the Biden administration must do more to press Ukraine to negotiate with Russia and strive for a political settlement.

“I think we should be doing more to pressure them, and I think we’re sort of doing a disservice not just to regular Ukrainians, but to a lesser extent Americans and everyone else who is suffering economic problems because of the war.”

Friedman said the U.S. government is “spinning for Ukraine for the obvious reason that we are rooting for them.”

“Think of the prognosis on how long the Afghan government would hold after the August 31st withdrawal date,” Meijer said.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said the United States cannot resign itself to a “prolonged never-ending conflict that is wreaking havoc on the American economy and the global economy.”

“People don’t want to see a resigned attitude that this is just going to go on as long as it’s going to go on. What is the plan on the diplomatic front?”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia; US: California
KEYWORDS: again; alreadyposted; angryneoconsonfr; appeasement; appeasers; benjaminfriedman; bidenloverstrollonfr; california; chechens; chechnya; darkmaggots; deathtochechnya; deathtoglobalists; deathtoleftists; deathtoneocons; deathtoputin; deathtorussia; deathtosoros; defensepriorities; demagogicparty; freetraitors; globalistfail; groypers; khana; khanna; liberalworldorder; libertariantraitors; neocons4biden; putinlovertrollsonfr; putinsbuttboys; putinworshippers; rokhana; rokhanna; russia; russianaggression; searchworks; surrenderjunkies; ukraine; ukrainecorruption; ukraineislosing; ukraineslushfund; warofthekeywords; zelenskypuffers; zelenskyqs; zelenskysbuttboys; zelenskyworshippers; zottheneocons; zottherussiantrolls; zotthezelenskybots
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To: Mount Athos

The group “Defense Priorities” appears to be misnamed, lol.


21 posted on 07/03/2022 10:34:23 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Zhang Fei

Do you think that the NATO industrial capacity is capable to match the Soviet supply to Vietnam? It is not impossible in theory, but going to cost the bankruptcy of the US before it is going to make an impact on the battlefield.


22 posted on 07/03/2022 10:36:40 PM PDT by NorseViking
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To: Zhang Fei

Ro Khanna is a person whose candidacy was promoted by Bernie Sanders, who has always been a puppet of sorts, to the Russians.


23 posted on 07/03/2022 10:37:57 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Nextrush

👍


24 posted on 07/03/2022 10:39:15 PM PDT by laplata (They want each crisis to take the greatest toll possible.)
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To: Spok

Yep.


25 posted on 07/03/2022 10:42:41 PM PDT by laplata (They want each crisis to take the greatest toll possible.)
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To: bte

They don’t have to defeat the Russian Federation. They only have to defeat Putin. If the Taliban could whip our ass, even while losing every battle, then the Ukrainians can certainly whip Russia, it is a matter of political will. If Putin is a dictator, it will be costly for both sides, because then the number of dead Russians won’t matter to him. But if Putin is not a dictator, then he is vulnerable because his power depends on how many Russian mothers and fathers are willing to sacrifice their sons to keep him in office.


26 posted on 07/03/2022 10:59:55 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Nextrush

The MIIC (not hard to guess the significance of the extra “I”) is a junkie hooked on perpetual war.

That brief gap between Afghanistan and Ukraine must have been like cold turkey.


27 posted on 07/03/2022 11:02:02 PM PDT by JustaTech (A mind is a terrible thing)
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To: Mount Athos

Newsflash: Ukraine ain't winning the war.

28 posted on 07/03/2022 11:02:56 PM PDT by McGruff (Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f*** things up - Barack Obama)
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To: alexander_busek

29 posted on 07/03/2022 11:07:06 PM PDT by bagster ("Even bad men love their mamas".)
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To: allendale

>> Russia ... has been shown not to be the conventional military juggernaut or power once so feared

Who thought that?

It’s no secret Russia’s machinery is archaic.

Russia has nukes, fuel, land, a population, and international dependencies & alliances. And now she knows where the ‘conventional’ weaknesses lie.

The globalists have done little more than jerk off on the world stage, and have likewise demonstrated the depth of their dreamy, homo-erotic relationship.


30 posted on 07/03/2022 11:44:57 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: alexander_busek; bte; bagster

>> We’d all like to hear your concise, logical arguments.

You understand that bte expressed an opinion, right?


31 posted on 07/04/2022 12:01:47 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Spok

Is this our Suez Canal moment?


32 posted on 07/04/2022 12:17:31 AM PDT by griswold3 (When chaos serves the State, the State will encourage chaos.)
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To: Gene Eric; bte; bagster
Alex: We’d all like to hear your concise, logical arguments.

Gene Eric: You understand that bte expressed an opinion, right?

Opinions should be based upon objective facts, and rational conclusions.

Otherwise, it isn't an opinion worth sharing - but instead just a "whim" or "preference," like "Vanilla tastes better than chocolate!"

bte was attempting to persuade others - he thus opens himself up to the challenge to present rational arguments in favor of his position.

Regards,

33 posted on 07/04/2022 12:25:34 AM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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Comment #34 Removed by Moderator

To: laplata

I think the Ukrainians are getting close to their breaking point. They are already asking for $600 million to rebuild the country. They want money to rebuild cities the Russians still occupy? It’s funny how they came up with $600 billion, isn’t that what the G7 pledged to put up for new programs?


35 posted on 07/04/2022 12:53:25 AM PDT by Rdct29 (Democrats are the new Nazi's. They think they deserve total control over the people)
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To: Mount Athos

Friedman also wrote an article against NATO accepting Finland as a member, but that’s too bad.


36 posted on 07/04/2022 1:00:34 AM PDT by familyop ("For they that sleep with dogs, shall rise with fleas" (John Webster, "The White Devil" 1612).)
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To: Mount Athos

14,453 Russian soldiers were killed and 53,753 wounded in Afghanistan—a far site worse than the U.S.A. did there. And the U.S.A. was not in Afghanistan to conquer and permanently occupy it. It was part of an overall effort to weaken terrorist factions in several nations and to contain Iran’s expansionist efforts. President Bush said early in the First Gulf War that the effort would probably take up to 30 years or more.

And so it was. No more disasters like the attack on the Twin Towers.

We’re not like the Russians. West Germany was independent soon after World War 2, as were Japan and Italy. Not so with the nations invaded and occupied by Russia, until the Soviet Union was defeated and dissolved. Now, Russia is at it again as a fascist state. China has been trying to occupy and control ocean routes and threatening other nations to do the same.

Russia and China, fascist or communist, are obviously trying to conquer and permanently occupy the world. Most of us will not willingly allow ourselves to be enslaved by them.


37 posted on 07/04/2022 1:12:47 AM PDT by familyop ("For they that sleep with dogs, shall rise with fleas" (John Webster, "The White Devil" 1612).)
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To: familyop

Your world views are a series of lies to yourself.

Maybe it’s comforting for you to believe those things, but it’s totally divorced from reality.

It’s like self medication for the elderly.


38 posted on 07/04/2022 1:24:50 AM PDT by Mount Athos
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To: Owen

True. A number of problems contributed to the increases in fuel prices. There were Democrat intentions to cut production and demand by regulating in favor of electric vehicles, against oil production, refining, etc. So new refining capacity is not being built enough to meet demand, and oil production is down. COVID also reduced demand and slowed production and distribution everywhere. Opec cuts in the recent past contributed, too.


39 posted on 07/04/2022 1:25:56 AM PDT by familyop ("For they that sleep with dogs, shall rise with fleas" (John Webster, "The White Devil" 1612).)
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To: allendale
The globalists have won a great strategic victory. Russia, a nationalistic threat to the “new world liberal order” has been shown not to be the conventional military juggernaut or power once so feared. NATO, which is the globalist sword, no longer considers the Russian military a credible offensive threat. The Chinese, who have always coveted Russia’s underpopulated rich Far Eastern/Pacific territories and Siberia also realize Russia cannot defend them conventionally.

Russia has shrugged off sanctions that the globalists intended would cripple it.

The globalists wanted to break Russia into managable pieces and to seize control of its resources. Instead of which: Russia has shrugged off the dollar- and euro- systems and has established the ruble as a commodity-backed currency. Globalist dreams of a single global currency have evaporated.

On the military level: Russia is reminding the world what industrial warfare looks like. They are currently expending over 7000 artillery shells a day in the Ukraine theatre. And in three months of combat, Russia has burned through four times the annual missile production of the United States. Source

Early predictions that Russia had only a few days of fire missions left have just not panned out. There's no sign of slowing fire missions. The firm that makes missile engines for Kalibr just hired 500 new staff.

It's beginning to look as if Russia can sustain this pace indefinitely, at least militarily and economically. They are about halfway through reducing the hardened multi-kilometer-deep fortifications of UDF-occupied Donbass. They have just taken Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. Siviersk is falling. The hard nuts of Kramatorsk, Sloviansk and Ardeekva remain in the east Ukraine.

Politically: the war remains very popular in Russia. There's ample political capital to support the taking of Odessa and all of the Ukrainean waterfront including (this is key) the outlet of the Danube.

I do foresee a change in force-makeup once the whole of the LPR territory has been liberated. I don't know how far the LPR forces will project force outside of their newly-won territory.

Hope this is helpful.

40 posted on 07/04/2022 1:34:30 AM PDT by agere_contra
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