Posted on 11/22/2022 5:01:19 AM PST by Timber Rattler
Russia has been burning through equipment, ammunition and weaponry at rates that have raised questions about how effectively and for how long it can continue to prosecute its war against Ukraine.
The challenge of sustaining the military effort isn’t unique to Russia, which after making significant territorial gains early in the war has been yielding territory back to Ukraine in phases.
Both sides have suffered heavy losses of men and materiel since the invasion began in February, but Moscow is more dependent on its own shrinking economy to replenish supplies than Kyiv is. Ukraine’s economy has been more devastated than Russia’s, but has more powerful backers in the U.S. and its allies, which are providing billions of dollars of military and economic aid.
“They are running low on everything,” Eliot Cohen, chair in strategy at the Washington, D.C.-based bipartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies, said of the Russians. A significant proportion of the Russian arsenal brought out of storage has deteriorated because of corruption, mismanagement and poor maintenance, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
It began with a coup in 2014 engineered by the US and NATO. Victoria Nuland was the point then and now. Pushing NATO expansion to include Ukraine crossed Putin’s red line.
Ukraine has been a cesspool of corruption. Hunter Biden and Joe Biden were deeply involved.
Thanks. Will research and comment tomorrow.
“Civil unrest is happening in some countries. All of the death and destruction going on is confined to the territory of Ukraine.”
Oh Comrade, you poor deluded fool. If you are on the troll farm in St. Petersburg, you may have a fairly good salary for your country, but prices for food are going up. Just read that SP is being deprived of adequate wheat for bread, which is being sold overseas. Probably punishing SP for having too many people upset with the current governance. Hope you don’t end up like the Ukranians in the Holdomodor. Which, by the way is one reason they will never give up on getting Crimea back.
There is no significant civil unrest happening in Ukraine. The people there are pretty clearly united in the wish to have no part of Russia in their territory. In the fake “free” Russian election, people didn’t even want to vote so Chechen troops with guns had to go door to door and demand that people vote. The unrest is in Russia where over a million young men have voted with their feet to NOT take part in Putin’s stupid, self destructive “war.” The word that no one dares say for fear of their government. What a great way to live, you poor soul.
You are right, the death and destruction ARE taking place in Ukraine. And happening to all the poor Russians sent with inadequate suppplies to fight and die with inadequate training. There are already signs of unrest in Russia in addition to all the people fleeing to avoid this stupid war caused by a dying egotist. I know you have to keep turning out this drivel or they will probably send you too. It sucks to be a troll, Comrade. My sympathies.
Have you ever been involved in a war?
Fighting a proxy war until the last Ukrainian is cynical and inhumane.
This war could have been avoided.
—
1) Yes.
2) Yes.
3) Avoided, if you bloodthirsty, murderous Orcs had stayed on your side of the border.
Turkey and Germany between 1966-70 doesn’t qualify as being in a war.
Why do supporters of Biden’s proxy war have to characterize opponents of US involvement in this war as Putin supporters and Communists? I spent 36 years putting life and limb at risk as a naval officer and diplomat from Vietnam to Tehran to Desert Shield/Storm. I view myself as a patriot, which is why I oppose US involvement in another endless war.
US national strategic interests are not at stake. Our military readiness is being weakened as we borrow more money to send to Ukraine. The same leadership that gave us the disastrous exit from Afghanistan is running this debacle. Our “woke” military is having problems with recruitment and retention. War reserve stocks are being drawn down to the point it will take years to replenish. Eisenhower warned about the military-industrial complex. Follow the money.
Hopefully true.
UKR sources report that in OCT, Russia carried out only five Kalibr 3M/54 launches in the entire month.
With 85% shoot down rate, only one missile actually struck the target.
I find the land launch version to be interesting. Here's some pictures:
Disguised to look like shipping containers.
Cost of export version is listed at $6.5 million. So, in October the cost to attack one target was $32.5 million.
A very expensive way to wage a war.
“Disguised to look like shipping containers.”
The next war is going to see a lot of shipping containers sprouting missiles. Many are in development in the West, and China has a lot of container ships and container logistics hubs around the world.
Funny but I agree with much of what you said, but a couple of things
NATO and the west were not threats to Russia or China. Without aggression from them they would never be in a military conflict with us so why are they being aggressive. For the moment China is doing it without military action but it is coming. Russia is being militarily aggressive. For what purpose Ukraine joining NATO, they are ringed by NATO countries and no attacks on them, denazification ???? Seriously was Ukraine going to go full nazi and invade Russia?
Do you think Putin would have stopped at Ukraine? Did hitler stop at Czech?
Sadly I think this is the only way to put an end to Putin/Russian aggression
As to China and it’s threats the weapons we are sending to Ukraine are not the weapons we will be using on China. If China attacks the use of tanks and artillery will be the least of our needs. I envision no scenario that involves a land invasion of China. Sadly the only end scenario with China I see is nuclear and depending on how “hitler in the Berlin bunker” Putin gets probably the same
As to tax dollars I will state again most of the weapons and ammunition we are sending were build to fight the Russians if they invaded so IMO they are being used for that purpose without US servicemen having to die
Additionally and I know this sounds a bit lame but still true 40 billion is 1/10th or 1/20 of student debt vote buy scam. Our 31 trillion debt is not the result of this war and I realize we won’t agree on this but I believe is money well spent
Deal with Russia now or later, turns out it is now
Solid reply/s
That is a fair analysis let’s see how far Putin is willing to go to protect his ego
You guys need to watch your replies. You hate when the shoe is on the other foot.
I agree that NATO is no threat to Russia, but Russia believes that it is. They have laid down some red lines, one of which is that Ukraine will not be part of NATO. Russia considers Ukraine to be within its sphere of influence in much the same way we used the Monroe Doctrine to prevent major powers from establishing any significant presence in the hemisphere. We came as close to nuclear war in our history with the Cuban Missile Crisis. We blockaded Cuba to force the Soviets to withdraw their missiles. Of course, we also offered the concession of removing IRBMs from Turkey.
This war has been going on for over 8 years. The US/NATO coup in 2014 that toppled the duly elected pro-Russian Ukrainian government spawned the separatist movement in the Donbas and sparked the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine to annex Crimea. The Donbas and Crimea are heavily Russian speaking regions. The reaction to the first Russian invasion was muted with little penalty for Russia.
Since 2014 NATO has been encouraging Ukraine to join NATO. Ukraine has participated in NATO military exercises and was given a special status as a quasi-member of NATO in 2020. In November 2021 as Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border, we signed a cooperation agreement with Ukraine basically saying we would help defend them in case of an attack. We also stated we supported their entry into NATO despite the many times Russia said that was their red line.
Pure sophistry on China and weapons. We are sending in all kinds of weaponry to Ukraine that could be used by Taiwan to defend their island, including air defense systems and anti-ship weapons. It is going to take years to replenish our stocks.
The US is the world’s biggest debtor. Endless wars have costs us trillions of dollars. We have over $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities in the form of Medicare and Social Security. We are just getting started in Ukraine. We are working on the first $100 billion. Zelensky says he needs at least $800 billion to rebuild the country.
Don’t rule out US serviceman dying in Ukraine. I am sure we have advisors inside Ukraine now. As a Vietnam vet, I remember how we got into that war. The law of unintended consequences obtains. Oh, and by the way, there is always the possibility of a nuclear conflict triggered by some inadvertent action.
We need to end this war now.
I appreciate your response and I respect your opinion though I disagree with some of it. The comparisons to Cuba crisis are relevant to the extent that Russia feels threatened but the difference is at the time the leaders of Russia declared the they would crush us where is the actual evidence that NATO ever had plans to crush Russia as the first aggressor. This war is putins fault and Ukraine is a sovereign nation that they invaded. We can argue the “coup” point so should Poland and it’s other neighbors have invaded Ukraine after the pro Russian administration was elected because of fear of Russian future aggression? If Ukraine was so pro Russian would all these Ukrainians be fighting and dying to defeat the Russian invasion? Was the pro Russian election legitimate as the referendums were massively in favor of joining Russia but once unoccupied in Kherson area doesn’t look like massive parts of the population look disappointed in Russian forces being gone. I served almost 40 years in the military and deployed dozens of times and have seen war and it’s effects. I don’t take this stance lightly. I believe Ukraine has the right to self defense. I believe we should be supporting them with weapons and intelligence. I believe that we should give them weapons with greater range to strike targets in Russia that are launching sites for missiles that Russia is launching in its terror campaign on Ukrainian citizens and infrastructure. I know we will disagree on this but I respect your opinion and also want peace. But at what cost? Allow Putin his invasion and territorial gains for “ peace in our time”. History shows that doesn’t end well. There are only bad and worse decisions at this point
Thanks again
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