Now that Gaza's been more or less settled, Trump's gotten tired of the Putin Hokey-Pokey too.
Posted on 10/16/2025 6:45:16 AM PDT by Timber Rattler
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Moscow on Wednesday that the United States and its allies would "impose costs on Russia for its continued aggression" if the war in Ukraine does not come to an end.
"If we must take this step, the U.S. War Department stands ready to do our part in ways that only the United States can do," Hegseth said at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group of Kyiv's allies at NATO headquarters.
Hegseth did not elaborate. His comments came as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is considering a request by Ukraine for long-range Tomahawk missiles.
"Now is the time to end this tragic war, stop the needless bloodshed, and come to the peace table," Hegseth said.
"This is not a war that started on President Trump's watch, but it will end on his watch."
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Now that Gaza's been more or less settled, Trump's gotten tired of the Putin Hokey-Pokey too.
There tends to be an attitude of American exceptionalism that extends far far wider than is deserved.
America’s military size, in people, does exceed that of other countries. It would be this and not economic sanctions of whatever kind that the Secretary of war would be talking about.
Unless a decision has been made to deploy several hundred thousand US troops into Ukraine to participate in the current war then it would seem that Hegseth has not said anything here that is irrelevant to his particular responsibilities.
It is possible that this is an extrapolation of the nature of this war as it has been since day one, which is the fighting of it in the media rather than the battlefield. That might be what’s going on here, because I don’t think anyone believes that he is preparing to deploy several hundred thousand US troops.
You can’t bluff or warn Russia. They only respond to facts. Impose the cost and offer to back off when they have no choice.
There is some merit in that perspective. That there is no point in talking about things in the media rather than taking action itself.
There is of course great danger to the media approach if one were to ship more explosive weapons for use against Russian energy infrastructure, and that danger would be to that media narrative claiming that enormous amounts of Russian refinery capacity has been destroyed.
If that capacity has been destroyed there would be no need for more explosive weapons. So the mere mention of a choice or a decision about such weapons is undercutting that media narrative and making somewhat clear that there’s been no significant damage to the Russian refinery infrastructure. That may be more dangerous than anything else if European support is depending on a presumption that such progress has taken place.
History has proven Putin can’t be trusted. Trump gave the POS many opportunities to behave.
Trump tried using the carrot with Putin, time for the stick.
Media narrative was 20% of Russian refinery capacity was destroyed. 80% left to be destroyed.
No, I have been presented 40ish% numbers of late from the media narrative.
My own investigations via AI of repair rates etc suggest < 10%, but that’s not the media narrative.
Just this talk of Tomahawks badly undercuts weeks or months of claims that those columns of smoke mattered. Doesn’t do Europe’s treasury choices any good, either, to know they have been lied to.
ZEEPER FOLLIES PINGLIST!(((PING!)))
Quit a word salad there
Now that Gaza’s been more or less settled, Trump’s gotten tired of the Putin Hokey-Pokey too.
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Trump needs to stop trying to earn a Nobel peace prize and tend to business here in the USA:
1. Gaza has not been “more or less settled.” Hamas has lived to fight again, aided by another lopsided prisoner exchange. The “ceasefire” is already being breached by killings of Hamas opponents in Gaza.
2. And what has our attempt to use tariffs to settle the Ukraine war accomplished, other than to drive Russia into an alliance with scoundrel nations and make China and India trade allies? Trump’s trade war is actually strengthening BRICS at the expense of American consumers.
Yeah, some babble, was just waking up and speech to text.
Bottom line, the claims of overwhelming refinery damage, intended to maintain support flow, are undercut by these *demands* for bigger boom. It means the claims were lies.
Not good.
Not really. The claim has only been that 20%-30% of Russia's oil refining capacity was damaged. That's painful, but not critical, at least in the short term. It does affect the Russian state's revenues and partly its military.
There's also the repeated drone shutdowns of Russian civil aviation. That plus the gasoline shortages affect ordinary Russians.
Raise the refining losses to 50% and that's another story. The Tomahawks might also be used to hit the Russian aircraft launching missiles against Ukraine.
Gaza broke the treaty before the ink was dry by not sending the correct bodies. They won’t change. Putin won’t change. It’s all a waste of effort and tax dollars.
The numbers have been 40%. And then there were those miles long queues at gas stations allegedly caused by Ukraine actions.
Just asking for Tomahawks means those were lies. There is no dodging this.
Everything else is wishful thinking.
If anything Russia will end its restraint and do what is necessary to force Ukraine's surrender if there is escalation, like the use of long-range missiles.
The areas most affected were those closest to Ukraine's drones, which is where you could see the lines. This also would have affected fuel delivery to Russian units in Ukraine. The gas and oil pipelines used for export to the Black Sea area were also affected. Some other refineries in central Russia were also hit, and an export terminal near St. Petersburg was also hit at least once.
As I said, painful, if not yet decisive, but likely to increase as well. The Ukrainians will also start hitting the civilian power and heating infrastructure around Moscow and St. Petersburg as more missiles become available.
That’s funny because it is true!
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