Replies

Red6: "When the war began, Ukraine had already been receiving lethal military assistance for years and we quickly swooped in giving them a massive military aid package to include 6 or 7 thousand Javelin missiles literally in the first month.
Some of the military equipment we provided such as the Javelin hits at the heart of a mechanized force."

It's worth remembering here that all of the US lethal aid to Ukraine came from the alleged "Putin's Puppy", Pres. Trump, and that Pres. Biden stopped that aid -- among many other Trump policies -- when Biden came into office, January 2021.

Red6: "No, there were some things we provided the Ukrainians that do give them an advantage both in weaponry, but also access to our SIGNIT, HUMINT and GEOINT etc.
Ukraine doesn't have 44 dedicated intel satellites (not communications, GPS etc).
Ukraine doesn't have the ability to turn the lights off in Serbia already in the mid 90s like we did."

So, first off -- that's the first I've heard about the CIA allegedly "turning the lights off in Siberia".
It sounds to me like Flip Wilson/Geraldine Jones tele-transported into the Kremlin's Ministry for Agitation and Propaganda, only in Russian "the devil made me do it" translates to, "the CIA made it happen".

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!

As for intel and other lethal aid to Ukraine, sure, Biden was all-in, after Vlad's 2022 invasion, except that he never really was.
From the beginning, Biden's slogan was always, "as long as it takes" -- which could mean anything and never represented a Biden commitment to Ukrainian victory over Vlad the Invader's "Special Military Operation".

Nor has any European leader ever stood and said, in effect: "we will do whatever is necessary to defeat Russia's invasion of Ukraine, restore Ukraine's sovereignty over its 2013 borders, and secure reparations from Russia for the deaths and destruction Vlad has caused."

I think its highly unlikely that goals we are afraid to set can ever be met.

Red6: "Perceptions are skewed because we have broad censorship in the West (literally like in the former East Block).
Everything is over IP and we have two servers on the West Coast, and two on the East coast through which everything coming into our out of the country go (total government control).
This has likely even contributed to this war."

Possibly somewhat true.
Many years ago, the "World Wide Web" was called the "Wild, Wild West" for being lawless and out of control, with every illegal enterprise imaginable conducting business more or less openly.

Today all of the complaints come from the opposite direction -- that the "World Wide Web" is overcontrolled by global algorithms, artificial intelligence, personal preferences and governments' surveillance, and that these are preventing the Voices of Freedom -- especially conservative voices -- from being heard.

I personally have no idea how much of any of this is true or not true, but one thing I do know is that we hear lots of different voices from many different perspectives on Free Republic, and I hugely appreciate the opportunity to engage them here in relatively civil discussions.

😄

Red6: "China's voice is heard, they have lobbyists, donate to political campaigns, the two party's, their media is active in the US, and they have some influence on our media.
Because of the prolific trade, the US is concerned about trade spats and there is constant dialog between the two.
So China and their concerns, “how they see the world” is heard both by the American citizenry and our government.
But with Russia you have little trade, little media spill over, and little influence in our government."

That's an interesting and somewhat valid point.
You may remember, we first began hearing about the US government's intentions to "pivot to China", from the War on Terror, back in the Obama administration!
And yet... and yet... somehow, some way, for some reason, because of some distraction or another, we never really did "pivot" towards China and Asia, in the way they kept saying we should.
Why?

Doubtless, one reason is that China seems like less of a direct threat than Russia.
Just consider these events -- since first coming to power in 1999, Vlad the Invader has:

Invaded, destroyed and subjugated Chechnya.
Invaded and in effect annexed South Ostia and Abkhazia in Georgia.
Maintained Russian troops occupying Moldova.
Invaded Crimea and the Donbas (2014)
Effectively annexed Belarus
Threatened every neighbor in Russia's "Near Abroad" and many others more distant.
Massively invaded Ukraine in 2022 and continues war there on a scale not seen in Europe since 1945.

By stark contrast, China has indeed huffed and puffed and threatened to blow our house down, especially over Taiwan, but the CCP's Xi-snake's actions have been markedly less aggressive than those of Russia's Vlad the Invader.

Red6: "Because of this broad censorship on our side, you get near one sided success stories, one sided bleeding heart stories, one sided horror stories.
This creates appearances that are simply not in step with reality, which has Russia having taken nearly all they want to take (the Eastern ethnic Russian areas).
Ukraine is not in NATO and Russia blocked that through force.
We are in the position of making up new goal posts to pretend we are victorious, hence the BS casualty reports.
Feel good junk.
As we pretend that we won, Russia is simply keeping the pressure on Ukraine in order to make them and in particular their masters (us) negotiate some sort of deal to end this eventually (likely after our elections - should also tell you who is really in charge), but also to make sure Ukraine is unable to muster a force for a counter offensive."

Here, typical of propagandists, you are simply projecting your own behavior onto Americans.
In reality, Vlad the Invader's "goalposts" are set according to what he thinks he can accomplish, and in February 2022, that included the rapid conquest and subjugation of all of Ukraine.
At the time, Vlad himself said:

"Ukraine is not just a neighboring country for us.
It is an inalienable part of our own history, culture, and spiritual space.""

And Vlad's official government mouthpieces like Vladimir Solovyov put it bluntly:

"If you think we'll stop at Ukraine, think it through 300 times.
I'll remind you that Ukraine is just an intermediate step in the establishment of the strategic security of the Russian Federation."

So, whether you chose to call it "strategic security", or "strategic depth", or "buffer zones", or "Russkiy Mir" or "Grand Strategy", or "Foundations of Geopolitics" -- it's the same thing: intellectual and theoretical justifications for wars of aggression against Russia's smaller neighbors and more distant opponents.

Everything else is just noise and nonsense from the Kremlin's Ministry for Agitation and Propaganda -- agitprop.

From "Putin's Brain", Alexander Dugin's "Foundations of Geopolitics" -- worth noticing here that Dugin fantasizes Russian dominance over China, and yet today Russia is effectively CCP's client state.
Sort of reminds me of the 1939 Ribentrop-Molotov Pact...

Today, Vlad the Invader plus CCP's Xi-snake = 1939 Stalin plus Hitler?

Out of time now... must stop here... more later...