March 29, 20223 yr 1 hour ago, vikas83 said: I hope you are wrong, but suspect you are right. I will say the difference here seems to be the level of losses being suffered by Russia both on the battlefield and at home. The sanctions really have been crippling. Looking at it, the Russians aren’t negotiating in good faith. Even if they completely pull back from Ukraine and go all "whoopsies, my bad”, there will be no immediate lifting of the sanctions. Vlad is playing the waiting game. 1 hour ago, mayanh8 said: The cynic in me says head fake. They're artificially inflating the value of the ruble, giving themselves a chance to either abandon or further dig in on the Kyiv front where they have no hope of success other than to occupy UA forces, and buying time to regroup in the Eastern part of Ukraine. But I hope it's legit. Honestly I think they’re pulling out of the Kiev axis because their forces there are combat ineffective and they can’t get a resupply. I think they realized that they couldn’t take Kiev the usual Russian way (armored infantry), so tried to do a light infantry/airborne strike at Kiev and then roll in with armored infantry to relief the VDV, but then they realized that they couldn’t get those units there quicker because of the mud and resistance. So they’re not pulling back in good faith as much as they are realizing Kiev is an unattainable goal. In the south where they didn’t have to deal with the mud, they’re getting much more success because they can roll armored infantry. Looking at the numbers, most Russian troops were committed along the eastern front (Sumy). I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m a week or two those troops took a left turn and started marching south. Looking at it militarily, what Russia should have done was stay east of the Dnieper, invaded two weeks before they did, have a north axis and a south axis, north axis faint attack on Kiev to tie up forces there, and then once you hit the point where Ukraine mobilized its reserves to defend Kiev, race like hell to connect the northern and southern fronts, blow bridges on the Dnieper, and then take up a defensive front. What this does is encircles the mass of the Ukrainian army, which was to the east of the Dnieper. Then you launch a third front from the East and take out the bulk of the Ukranian army. Or, you know, you have your country led by a career Bureaucrat with no military experience and a minister of defense with no military experience, and launch a military assault with the objective being a political victory rather than a military one. (Note: this is why I hate how much effing away the State Department has in US Military operations. Post war Iraq: you have a bunch of trained Baathists who know how to fight, but nah let’s just not give them a job and then wonder why they use their skills to start fighting for AQ/ISIS. A-Stan pullout: No we don’t need to keep an easily defendable, secure airbase, our embassy is in Kabul, and this is a diplomatic issue. Seriously unless it’s the Berlin Airlift or the Marshall Plan, the State Department sucks.)
March 29, 20223 yr Zeihan (highly regarded by @Mlodj) thinks the same thing I do. Edit: This is also telling:
March 29, 20223 yr 12 hours ago, Procus said: 62% of voters agree that Russia would never have invaded Ukraine if Trump were president. The radical left posters here are in the clear minority - so they try and scream loud to get their voices heard. https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/597419-voters-believe-putin-wouldnt-have-invaded-ukraine-under-trump-logic Voters believe Putin wouldn't have invaded Ukraine under Trump. Logic agrees This has been discussed ad nauseum. It wouldn't have. Putin's goal was to keep Ukraine out of NATO. Had Trump won a second term he would have pulled the US out of NATO and it would have dissolved.
March 29, 20223 yr 22 minutes ago, JohnSnowsHair said: Just some not-zees though, right @Abracadabra you piece of human filth?
March 29, 20223 yr 20 minutes ago, ToastJenkins said: Time to take Kamchatka… They'll be speaking Chinese before English.
March 29, 20223 yr The man is calling on reporters in order and has answers written on a giant notecard to the questions he knows they will be asking, and he still mentally and verbally defecates all over himself. This is what the late stages of a declining empire looks like.
March 29, 20223 yr I thought I had already seen the most horrific images I could possibly see in this thread.....then I saw Benny's face.
March 29, 20223 yr 1 hour ago, Gannan said: This has been discussed ad nauseum. It wouldn't have. Putin's goal was to keep Ukraine out of NATO. Had Trump won a second term he would have pulled the US out of NATO and it would have dissolved. Yah, that's your excuse and you're running with it!
March 29, 20223 yr 2 minutes ago, Procus said: Yah, that's your excuse and you're running with it! So let me ask again. What exactly would have kept Putin out of the Ukraine if Trump was still in office?
March 29, 20223 yr 2 minutes ago, Procus said: Yah, that's your excuse and you're running with it! curious to know, had he won, what do you think trump's intentions were in regards to the us being in nato ?
March 29, 20223 yr 4 minutes ago, DrPhilly said: So let me ask again. What exactly would have kept Putin out of the Ukraine if Trump was still in office? Knowing that there was a competent State Department and Defense Department for starters, and not a bunch of stumblebums who leave the Southern border open and scurry out of Afghanistan leaving people and materiel behind. I mean anyone that listens to Joe Biden understands that there's not much occupying the space between his temples.
March 29, 20223 yr 7 minutes ago, Alpha_TATEr said: curious to know, had he won, what do you think trump's intentions were in regards to the us being in nato ? Get our allies to pay up what they agreed to - as he said repeatedly.
March 29, 20223 yr 4 minutes ago, Procus said: Knowing that there was a competent State Department and Defense Department for starters, and not a bunch of stumblebums who leave the Southern border open and scurry out of Afghanistan leaving people and materiel behind. I mean anyone that listens to Joe Biden understands that there's not much occupying the space between his temples. I mean the State Department and Defense Department were pretty competent until Tillerson and Mattis left.
March 29, 20223 yr Just now, Procus said: Get our allies to pay up what they agreed to - as he said repeatedly. and if they continued to drag their feet as they were then and have been for years ?
March 29, 20223 yr 1 minute ago, Procus said: Get our allies to pay up what they agreed to - as he said repeatedly. So how does it feel to know that Putin could accomplish what Trump couldn’t?
March 29, 20223 yr 1 minute ago, Bill said: I mean the State Department and Defense Department were pretty competent until Tillerson and Mattis left. You may DISAGREE with Pompeo, but he is anything but incompetent.
March 29, 20223 yr 2 minutes ago, Bill said: So how does it feel to know that Putin could accomplish what Trump couldn’t? What are you talking about - do your research before pontificating https://freebeacon.com/national-security/under-pressure-from-trump-allies-up-nato-contributions/ Under Pressure from Trump, Allies Up NATO Contributions
March 29, 20223 yr 2 minutes ago, Procus said: What are you talking about - do your research before pontificating https://freebeacon.com/national-security/under-pressure-from-trump-allies-up-nato-contributions/ Under Pressure from Trump, Allies Up NATO Contributions When did Germany up their contributions?
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