Posted on 05/15/2024 4:14:46 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
The Prime Minister, in his “state of the nation” speech this week, accurately stated that the world is a very dangerous place, and we must ensure that our defence capabilities are up to the task. He is right on the threat but has yet to grasp that one way to meet it is by investing heavily in our physical and psychological military conventional deterrence.
The signs coming out of Moscow are far from encouraging, with Putin sacking his combat generals to replace them with “bean counters”.
Presumably to ensure the economy is on a total war footing and capable of taking on Nato and outlasting it on the battlefields and in the parliaments of Europe. If Trump comes to power, he may only need to hold tight until January 2025; not long.
At the same moment, Russia appears to be making significant gains towards the second city Kharkiv, possibly catching the defenders on the hop and no doubt trying to unbalance the Ukraine army before the US heavy weaponry and the F16s arrive in numbers. The Ukraine Security Service believes that Russian forces are also massing in the northeast for another strike into Ukraine. In the worst case scenario, Russia could make significant gains this summer and terminally unsettle Ukraine’s defence. The fact that Volodymyr Zelensky has just cancelled visits to Spain and Portugal underwrites the seriousness of the current situation for those Western leaders not paying attention.
The US and Nato’s indecision and procrastination have helped strengthen Putin and given him the confidence to go on the offensive. Putin appears undeterred by Western leadership, believing many of our politicians are not up to the fight.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
and we’ll be broke.
“Putin could now defeat Ukraine within months”
Who is predicting this, the author?
Bidens handlers are in a bind.
Their only means of staving off collapse Gere before the election is to give the Ukes the long-range weapons and help them use them, despite risk of escalation. IF the ukes could bomb Moscow, St Petersburg. Etc plus take out Russian oil fields AND pipelines, harbor loading docks for Russian tanker ships, etc it would change the dynami .
Will Bidens handlers do this? Don’t know.
Not a fan of Russia OR Ukraine here. But there are US politics involved and I expect unexpected events soon.
If the US via allies, etc gave the Ukes long range ballistic missiles with conventional warheads non nuke, to fire deep into Russia, would Russia know they weren’t nukes?
I’m surprised and glad there haven’t been germ warfare or chemicals used yet but I wouldn’t count anything out as things grow desperate.
Putin can threaten to nuke us. But we can nuke St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Actual nukes getting used are the undesirable wild card here.
Again, don’t like either player in this war but tired of our border being ignored while unlimited play money is sent in a micro managed doomed effort. If US insists on fighting this they should go big and end it or get the F out of the fight.
Other Presidents (except for maybe Carter and Obama) would have threatened the use of nuclear weapons.
Putin wouldn't have invaded on 2/24/2022.
All true and yet here we are now. With Obama running a doddering Biden. And Obamas no war-time consiglieri either.
I don’t think threatening to use them works anymore in thus situation, foe EITHER side.
I sadly conclude some will be used to make a point and either THEN, one side backs off or it spirals. Change my mind?
Even if Russia wins, she lacks the strength to fully occupy, rebuild, and keep Ukraine under control. Meanwhile, Russia’s economic, demographic, and military decline will continue.
” Even if Russia wins, she lacks the strength to fully occupy, rebuild, and keep Ukraine under control. “
Have you noticed how the Chechens are some of Putin’s most loyal guys ? Even after two devastating wars.
That’s what happens when people see which is the strong horse, and which isn’t.
In addition, there is a significant sense of betrayal and manipulation by the Ukrainians already. Which will only get worse with a blatant stab in the back at the end of this war.
That is liable to leave the Ukrainians in a most unforgiving mood.
Salty language.
British Volunteer in Ukraine on situation in Kherson (5 mins)
Russia could use nukes in Ukraine and get away with it. The west wouldn’t risk global nuclear war over Ukraine. Luckily, Russia has no need to use them.
Lately, as Ukrainian troops are being resupplied with weapons and ammunition, the Russian casualties have been way over the more common 1,000 casualties/day we had been seeing, along with equally insane amounts of equipment losses per day, also.
Going a few more months with these kind of losses? Sure, maybe Putin’s fight for conquest can outlast Ukraine’s fight for survival … or maybe not.
To me, this fight looks like honey badger Ukraine fighting off the foraging Russian bear invading its home territory and, after this many years and all of those dead Russians later, I’m still rooting for the honey badger.
However this fight ends, the honey badger will recover from its wounds, but the bear will never be same again.
Alas, the bear’s real fight for survival was lost the moment it started fighting with a honey badger for its territory, instead of looking for easy to find jars full of honey in the bear’s vast territory packed full of honey.
Masha is so disappointed … and so is everyone else, too!
(Well, everyone but the “friendly” dragon next door, that is. Uh oh …)
Any nuke going off would be considered genocide, which would mean any Russian official who steps one inch out of the Russian Empire could be immediately arrested and charged with genocide. And don’t bring up Hiroshima or Nagasaki-they started the war.
Biden should have to face the consequences for starting this proxy war before the election.
Putin is right that the western leaders are not up for the fight. They are moronic weaklings who are despised by their own people. All their meddling in Ukraine did was waste a few hundred billion dollars and cost Ukraine a huge percentage of their male population and a big chunk of its territory. I’m not surprised at all by their enormous failure.
Autocratic rule, kleptocracy, and wars of conquest are inconsistent with Russia's best interests. The result is demographic decline, the emigration of Russians with education and portable skills, and Western sanctions that weaken Russia even though they are not decisive in the short term.
How does beating Ukraine help Russia? Russia will end up with an ongoing political and economic liability because -- in spite of what Putin believes -- Ukrainians are not wannabe Russians. And, with Putin and Russia hostile to the US and NATO, there is little reason for them to make a peace deal for Russia's benefit. Arming up against Russia and waiting for Putin's death make more sense.
” And, with Putin and Russia hostile to the US and NATO, there is little reason for them to make a peace deal for Russia’s benefit. Arming up against Russia and waiting for Putin’s death make more sense. “
Imagining that the replacement for Putin will be some sort of Scalawag liberal like Yeltsin, who again sells out Russia to the West. That is just delusional.
One of the tensions going on in Russia is the ideal that Putin is a weak fag in this war, pulling his punches when they want a much stronger and brutal attack with a switch to all out mobilization, and crush Ukraine quickly.
After that, anything is possible.
The trigger for this war was Ukraine in NATO. Having a hostile alliance on the border North of Kharkiv is just an invitation to yet another invasion.
As long as NATO keeps pushing the idea of Ukraine in NATO, the final territorial settlement will just keep moving West and West and West until they get to the Ternopil River (my guess) or they just take the whole thing.
This war in my view is going to be decided by defensible terrain for Russia, and not the demographics of the population or any other consideration.
We have already seen population displacements in the tens of millions, and if it comes to that, unfortunately, there may be even more of it in the future.
Ukraine could have avoided all this.
Yanukovich for all his faults wanted a Ukraine that was in the EU Association Agreement, but was also in the Russian Customs Union, that was not in NATO, and was a buffer or neutral ground between the two blocs.
Instead, US NeoCons and Galatians got greedy and went for the whole thing. And they are going to end up with almost nothing. Also, hundreds of thousand of Ukrainians will have been killed (disproportionately the Russian speakers).
Additionally, the military industrial capacity of the entire West has been exposed as a joke and a fraud.
And the supposed superiority of Western equipment, tactics, training, and planning, collapsed in the minefields South of Orikhiv.
“The trigger for this war was Ukraine in NATO. Having a hostile alliance on the border North of Kharkiv is just an invitation to yet another invasion.”
The invasion convinced Finland and Sweden to join NATO.
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