Posted on 09/07/2024 9:49:35 PM PDT by McGruff
Dima never puts out a cigarette until he smokes it right down to the filter, risking burning his fingers to squeeze out one more drag. He spent years on the Ukrainian front lines. He knows the price of a good smoke.
As a battalion commander, Dima was in charge of around 800 men who fought in some of the fiercest, bloodiest battles of the war – most recently near Pokrovsk, the strategic eastern town that is now on the brink of falling to Russia.
But with most of his troops now dead or severely injured, Dima decided he’d had enough. He quit and took another job with the military – in an office in Kyiv.
Standing outside that office, chain smoking and drinking sweet coffee, he told CNN he just couldn’t handle watching his men die anymore.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Where’s Vicky Nuland with her bag of cookies?
It’s war. They may not be happy about it. But they haven’t given up the fight.
That's because they are being rounded up to fight and die for a government that hasn't allowed them a voice at the ballot box for the last five years.
>> That’s because [Ukies] are being rounded up to fight and die for a government that hasn’t allowed them a voice at the ballot box for the last five years.
If you look up “corruption” in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of Ukraine and Zzzzzzellinssskyyy. (and Vickie Nuland peering in from the background).
>>>>It’s war. They may not be happy about it. But they haven’t given up the fight.<<<<
Yes, the Zelensky/Biden Laundromat needs constant funding...until the last Ukrainian.
Deserves to be repeated over and over.
Hopefully choking to death on them.
Ukraine ping
Completely expected. Zelensky is a brave man. A lesser breed would have fled, the way Putin’s man, Yanukovich did. And Yanukovich wasn’t even facing an invading army.
In WW2, the US, facing conflicts an ocean away on each side of the continental 48, chose a universal draft right from the git-go. One issue is of fairness. Given that all-out war is being fought for the state’s continued existence, it’s only fair that, with limited hardship or special economic- or war-related skills exceptions, all able-bodied males should be drafted. And, in WW2, 18m men aged 18 to 35 served out of 61m males, with draftees accounting for 11.5m of that number. In essence, almost every able-bodied male in that age bracket served in some capacity, many on the home front.
Another issue that makes a universal draft the best policy has to do with retaining a steel core at the heart of whatever army is assembled. Volunteers are by definition more courageous and motivated than draftees. They provide leadership and steadiness in difficult moments, when draftees might shrink from battle or even flee. Volunteers are a limited resource, and care should be made to spread them around.
Instead, Zelensky shrank from a draft until large numbers of the hard core of original volunteers had been killed or too injured to fight. And he’s still delaying the expansion of the draft to 18 year olds and up (vs the current 25 and up) typical of every known military establishment. While Zelensky’s personal courage is undeniable, his choices with respect to requisitioning the manpower needed for this existential war are, IMHO, questionable. The morale problems he’s dealing with are a direct consequence of burning off the best men - the volunteers - early on instead of drafting everyone in the age ranges covered.
Don't buy the BS. There are MANY Americans and other foreigners fighting in Ukraine, and have been for some time now. This is not a war between Ukraine and Russia. This is a war between the American deep state and Russia, and Americans are actively participating with boots on the ground.
This whole conflict makes me sad. No, really—it makes me genuinely sad. When I look at Putin, I keep thinking that there’s a real loss of opportunity. He’s interested in raw power, but I can’t help but think, “you know, he’s probably one of the few leaders on Earth who could defend Christendom and actually make it stick”. Yet he doesn’t, or perhaps chooses not to. Do I think he cares about Christendom? Of course not. But that doesn’t mean that he couldn’t *fashion* himself as a defender of it if he wanted to.
Is he the only one who could pull it off? Certainly not. The leader of Hungary (whose name I can’t remember) could do it, but it’s such a small country that they don’t have any real clout.
So why Putin? Simply because the Russians can do pretty much whatever they want inside their border and no one bitches about it. If they want to tell, for instance, the gays and Muslims, “go to Hell, you’re never gaining power here,” well, that’s pretty much it and leftists in the West know there’s no point in bitching about it. It will get them nothing, because the Russians don’t give a damn what they think. We couldn’t (sadly) pull that off in some place like Germany or France. All Hell would break loose, starting with the press. They’d spend every waking moment making sure that any western leader with the temerity to diss “protected” groups like gays or Muslims lost power. But “slavic” leaders like Putin get a pass. I know I’m not knowledgeable enough to know *why* that’s the case, but I think it’s worth finding out, so we can replicate it. Regardless, it (to me, at least) appears to be a real thing.
Is Putin a vilian? Hell yeah, he’s a villian. That doesn’t mean that we can’t use someone like him to our advantage, though. Ukraine is under attack, but it isn’t alone. Christendom is as well, and from a civilizational standpoint I think it’s potential fall is infinitely more dire. To some degree we’re in a really ironic place—I’d love to have Zelensky be the defender of Christendom instead, but if he were to try to take on that mantle all of the leftists who currently support him would leave skidmarks in their rush to abandon him.
Which sucks donkey balls.
No. It’s a problem as a result of an incredibly corrupt government where the rich are getting incredibly richer while the poor die on some cold battlefield.
And probably ALMOST NO ONE 18 to 24 wants to fight this losing battle and die.
Because it is a losing battle.
Unless one has 5 brain cells and believes MSM
And we can’t afford to give away ALL of our military to them.
Though some here would like that, it seems.
A little addendum...
Do I think the Russians are justified in attacking Ukraine?
No. They need to knock this s**t off. And they need to do it now. There’s no justification for trying to chomp off a bit, big or small, or another country.
And then they (and hopefully Ukraine) need to recognize that their existence together means a whole heck of a lot more than just what happened since 1917. They need to stick Lenin and Stalin in the grave and get down to business. There’s bigger stuff going on than just their little skirmish—stuff that determines the fate of civilizations.
Christendom is under attack. It’s been under attack since Constantinople fell 600 years ago, and they need to stop f*cking around and join the fight. The West has fallen (it seems) to the gays, Muslims, and lunatics, and it seems like only the Eastern Church is left to save us.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and by the grace of God we’ll get a new Bishop of Rome with sense and righteousness, but we can’t bank on it. The Eastern Church needs to step up and reclaim it’s place on the world stage. And God willing the Western Church will reclaim its senses. And like it or not that starts with Athens, Kiev, and Moscow. So STOP F*CKING AROUND ALREADY.
The Ukrainians have not given up because they cannot. They are bought and paid for and totally reliant on American money and the CIA controls the Ukraine. It is a country of slaves being sacrifice to take over the resources of the Ukraine and Russia.
As a battalion commander, Dima was in charge of around 800 men who fought in some of the fiercest, bloodiest battles of the war – most recently near Pokrovsk, the strategic eastern town that is now on the brink of falling to Russia.
But with most of his troops now dead or severely injured, Dima decided he’d had enough. He quit and took another job with the military – in an office in Kyiv.
Standing outside that office, chain smoking and drinking sweet coffee, he told CNN he just couldn’t handle watching his men die anymore.
******************************************************************
And our resident ZEEPERS will bravely and valiantly say “pull yourself together, Dima, … let’s YOU get back to the front lines”. And then they’ll go back to enjoying their morning coffee. /sarc?
You would look to a gay, godless, little communist to defend Christianity? A dictator that helped the U.S. start a war and a creep that has outlawed and shut independent media, political parties and churches?
Are you certain that you know the facts?
You would look to a gay, godless, little communist to defend Christianity? A dictator that helped the U.S. start a war and a creep that has outlawed and shut independent media, political parties and churches?
Are you certain that you know the facts?
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.