call me old fashioned, but I don't think we should lionize these types of people. Won't feel bad for a guy so blood thirsty for a fight, that he flies halfway across the world to kill people. It's a bit gross, and that goes for most of these foreign conscripts.
I’m sure the Ukrainians are annoyed at all these “look at me “ soldiers bearing arms in their name. also I don’t know how anyone is surprised an American soldier doesn’t understand geopolitics.
Less weird when you look at that nuclear map posted on the last page Ukraine needs all the help they can get on their ground game
I don't think we want to know too much about the politics or other background information of said volunteers.
this is the shit that is going to decide what happens: On the ground, the Russian are struggling, but their larger goals of destroying the Ukrainian people, flooding the west with millions of desperate refugees, selling off the lifeless husk of what was once Ukraine to various fossil fuel and mineral oligarchs, and driving a wedge between the US, Europe, and China remain intact.
WW2, Korea, and Vietnam say what’s up. Vietnam was where the current anti-SAM tactics were developed for goodness sake.
yes it’s quite easy to call for these things when you’re in the minority and want to call the president weak
Actually quite pleased that Russia is trying to force the issue like this. Xi going to drop him like a hot pot now.
The moment we implement a no-fly zone we are at war. I'm all for helping Ukraine indirectly, but these people calling for it need to understand what they are asking.
Regarding senators, I think they know what they are asking for and know it’s not happening, it’s posturing. regular people on the internet… not so much.
I could not agree more. American soldiers got cocky fighting insurgents and glorified war as if it was always just fighting someone much weaker than yourself.
That's not really the draw, there isn't really much in this world that can replicate the feeling of battle.
I don't think China has any interest in a larger war in Europe or anywhere else. I do think they'll use the current crisis to exact some important concessions from the United States, with a certain eye towards US politics. In that sense, they might be willing to listen to Russian requests, if it increases pressure on the Biden Administration. That said, I'm not sure how much China wants to get drawn into doing something that will basically hand the next presidential election back to Donald Trump. If they basically tell the US to get fucked, and throw their full support behind Vlad Putin, well... that would be really bad. I'd be surprised if that happened though. Playing neutral while at the same time not allowing the Russian economy to completely collapse seems more in line with their traditional doctrine, and I think their moves in the next few days will reflect that.
They won’t do that in this spot because they’d also be telling the whole West to get fucked and they’d lose an incalculable amount of business and the thing they really want: global prestige. They don’t just want to thwart us, they want to replace our spot on the world stage. The biggest miscalculation they made is probably how quickly and easily the US rallied the West in a united front and they didn’t really have a solid contingency to account for it.
I think China has done a lot in the last several decades to ascend on the world’s stage. I don’t think they are willing to risk losing their gains for Vlad’s passion project.
Yes, hence Wild Weasels, stealth, passive radar detection. Hence why Russia and China developed counter-stealth systems, their own passive radar, and emission discipline/jamming.
not to mention seeing how fast Russian assets were frozen should give them pause to want to go that route.
LMFAO if you think China is remotely concerned about a Trump re-election. There’s never been a president with weaker geopolitical chops than him.
I always grain-of-salt with the Hoover Institute people, but that's an interesting read, particularly the details at the end. Thanks for posting.
After 20 years in the military the mental state of a lot of vets is unpredictable. There is a good chance he figured it would end this way.
I don't think they want to be seen as getting involved in US politics, one way or another but I also think they'd rather deal with a rational actor in the US presidency than a crazier-than-a-shithouse-rat dullard like Trump.
But with trump as president they can cow-tow to his demands. Let him get the press clippings, then do absolutely nothing that was agreed upon. His attention span isn’t long enough to make them deliver the goods
Trump is a 100% spineless blowhard, and much to his chagrin China doesn't give a rat's ass about mean tweets. And to be clear, Trump is an extremely rational actor. It's just that his logic is based solely on his own self-interest. He's easy as shit to manipulate. Just because he calls himself a tough guy doesn't make him one, and if China indeed has Putin's ear a Trump presidency would do them wonders.
my response was to someone saying single soldiers with shoulder fired missiles would shoot down American planes. Bet they wouldn’t
I think it’s more damning she is sharing RU propaganda. She has no clue and is simply sharing what she was paid to share. She is an RU asset and it should be obvious to everyone now.