This might be a little tougher than Putin thought...

[The Tradition]

You just wonder how many Ukrainian farmers are going to get blown to bits over the next year or so, plowing up unexploded ordnance that's ended up in their fields....

👀

Make the Russian POWs make the first pass with the plough....

 

[BelemNole]

 

[mnole03]

 

[mnole03]

 

[mnole03]

 

[Phenomenally Frantastic]

 

[86Hawkeye]

Yes!

 

[h-hawk]

 

[Phenomenally Frantastic]

 

[h-hawk]

Yes!

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[86Hawkeye]

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Not close to the truth.

 

[DogBoyRy]

Not close to the truth.

Looks fairly accurate to me.

 

[86Hawkeye]

Good!

 

[86Hawkeye]

Looks fairly accurate to me.

They're missing all the weapons and other assistance flowing in to the Ukrainians, so no, not accurate.

 

[DogBoyRy]

They're missing all the weapons and other assistance flowing in to the Ukrainians, so no, not accurate.

Yet civilians are getting slaughtered as we keep planes grounded in poland.

 

[Clownhater]

@Nat AIgren @Clownhater @Warrior Poet31 suck on this:
I’m writing this from Skopje, North Macedonia, where I’ve been for the last week teaching one of our Leadership Academy for Development courses. Following the Ukraine war is no different here in terms of available information, except that I’m in an adjacent time zone, and the fact that there is more support for Putin in the Balkans than in other parts of Europe. A lot of the latter is due to Serbia, and Serbia's hosting of Sputnik.

I’ll stick my neck out and make several prognostications:

1. Russia is heading for an outright defeat in Ukraine. Russian planning was incompetent, based on a flawed assumption that Ukrainians were favorable to Russia and that their military would collapse immediately following an invasion. Russian soldiers were evidently carrying dress uniforms for their victory parade in Kyiv rather than extra ammo and rations. Putin at this point has committed the bulk of his entire military to this operation—there are no vast reserves of forces he can call up to add to the battle. Russian troops are stuck outside various Ukrainian cities where they face huge supply problems and constant Ukrainian attacks.
2. The collapse of their position could be sudden and catastrophic, rather than happening slowly through a war of attrition. The army in the field will reach a point where it can neither be supplied nor withdrawn, and morale will vaporize. This is at least true in the north; the Russians are doing better in the south, but those positions would be hard to maintain if the north collapses.
3. There is no diplomatic solution to the war possible prior to this happening. There is no conceivable compromise that would be acceptable to both Russia and Ukraine given the losses they have taken at this point.
4. The United Nations Security Council has proven once again to be useless. The only helpful thing was the General Assembly vote, which helps to identify the world’s bad or prevaricating actors.
5. The Biden administration’s decisions not to declare a no-fly zone or help transfer Polish MiGs were both good ones; they've kept their heads during a very emotional time. It is much better to have the Ukrainians defeat the Russians on their own, depriving Moscow of the excuse that NATO attacked them, as well as avoiding all the obvious escalatory possibilities. The Polish MiGs in particular would not add much to Ukrainian capabilities. Much more important is a continuing supply of Javelins, Stingers, TB2s, medical supplies, comms equipment, and intel sharing. I assume that Ukrainian forces are already being vectored by NATO intelligence operating from outside Ukraine.
6. The cost that Ukraine is paying is enormous, of course. But the greatest damage is being done by rockets and artillery, on has already done huge damage to populists all over the world, who prior to the attack uniformly expressed sympathy for Putin. That includes Matteo Salvini, Jair Bolsonaro, Éric Zemmour, Marine Le Pen, Viktor Orbán, and of course Donald Trump. The politics of the war has exposed their openly authoritarian leanings.
7. The war to this point has been a good lesson for China. Like Russia, China has built up seemingly high-tech military forces in the past decade, but they have no combat experience. The miserable performance of the Russian air force would likely be replicated by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, which similarly has no experience managing complex air operations. We may hope that the Chinese leadership will not delude itself as to its own capabilities the way the Russians did when contemplating a future move against Taiwan.
8. Hopefully Taiwan itself will wake up as to the need to prepare to fight as the Ukrainians have done, and restore conscription. Let’s not be prematurely defeatist.
9. Turkish drones will become bestsellers.
10. A Russian defeat will make possible a “new birth of freedom,” and get us out of our funk about the declining state of global democracy. The spirit of 1989 will live on, thanks to a bunch of brave Ukrainians.

Stupid ****er, what are you doing teaching anyone. I support the Ukraine. The USA should not stumble into WWIII. The bumbling, incompetent dementia addled Biden will do it. You are wrong, there is no way the Ukranians end up defeating the Russians, I wish they would, it will take years of an insurgency to do so unless Putin goes away tomorrow. America First.

 

[86Hawkeye]

Yet civilians are getting slaughtered as we keep planes grounded in poland.

Yet the planes won't really help and more ground based air defenses are coming. And the Ukrainians just broke the siege of Mariupol.

 

[DogBoyRy]

Yet the planes won't really help and more ground based air defenses are coming. And the Ukrainians just broke the siege of Mariupol.

Planes won't help????WTF.
The artillery hitting them would be easy targets.

 

[The Tradition]

Planes won't help????WTF.
The artillery hitting them would be easy targets.

They'd get slaughtered by Russian SAMs according to the experts.

Also, Russia is busy destroying all the air fields, making them useless for takeoffs and landings.

 

[86Hawkeye]

Planes won't help????WTF.
The artillery hitting them would be easy targets.

Planes won't help because the Russians still have very strong air defenses. Russians are now having to fly lower to release dumb bombs, so ground based air defenses are better for that.

 

[lucas80]

How could Abramovich’s yacht sail through the Med past all those EU and NATO assets unchallenged?

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[Slappy Pappy]

How could Abramovich’s yacht sail through the Med past all those EU and NATO assets unchallenged?

Sailing right for a safe port in Israel, alongside over a dozen Russian private jets that landed there this past week.

 

[86Hawkeye]

Sailing right for a safe port in Israel, alongside over a dozen Russian private jets that landed there this past week.

It'a apparently in Montenegro now.

 

[lucas80]

Yet civilians are getting slaughtered as we keep planes grounded in poland.

1. We should act unilaterally?
2. How many US casualties will you accept before slamming Biden for them?

 

[onlyTheObvious]

No Biden fan but I like his moves or lack of them.

if nuclear weapons are playing pieces, you avoid even sitting at the table much less participating in the game.

 

[noleclone2]

Stupid ****er, what are you doing teaching anyone. I support the Ukraine. The USA should not stumble into WWIII. The bumbling, incompetent dementia addled Biden will do it. You are wrong, there is no way the Ukranians end up defeating the Russians, I wish they would, it will take years of an insurgency to do so unless Putin goes away tomorrow. America First.

The USA? Not we? Or the US?

You need to brush up on your vernacular, comrade. No American says “The USA should not….” It’s we or the US.

And of course you think no way Ukraine will win. Sorry-Your master, Putler, is going down.

 

[86Hawkeye]

No Biden fan but I like his moves or lack of them.

if nuclear weapons are playing pieces, you avoid even sitting at the table much less participating in the game.

Exactly. Stay in the background and don't let Putin drag us into it directly. He desperately wants that.

 

[DogBoyRy]

1. We should act unilaterally?
2. How many US casualties will you accept before slamming Biden for them?

Nope - just allow the transfer of the fricking planes.
Zero. Wouldn't be our pilots flying them.

 

[Hawked]

No Biden fan but I like his moves or lack of them.

if nuclear weapons are playing pieces, you avoid even sitting at the table much less participating in the game.

Agreed. I think the US is playing the right game for now. Have to give it to the military minds and intelligence assets. The president seems to be well informed here.

 

[Phenomenally Frantastic]

America First.

Vladimir Putin’s slogan for America. Of course he prefers the USA to not meddle in his efforts to remake the USSR.

Pull your head out of Donald Trump’s ass for a minute and rethink this idiotic notion of isolationism.

 

[86Hawkeye]

Nope - just allow the transfer of the fricking planes.
Zero. Wouldn't be our pilots flying them.

Poland is free to transfer the planes to Ukraine. At no point do they need to be in our "custody".

Again, they are low bang-for-the-buck right now. Ukraine still has 56 fixed-wing aircraft and they're not using them much at all. They're getting much better results on the ground without them and their air defenses will be even better soon with S-300s, Starstreak, etc.

 

[Phenomenally Frantastic]

 

[DogBoyRy]

Poland is free to transfer the planes to Ukraine. At no point do they need to be in our "custody".

Again, they are low bang-for-the-buck right now. Ukraine still has 56 fixed-wing aircraft and they're not using them much at all. They're getting much better results on the ground without them and their air defenses will be even better soon with S-300s, Starstreak, etc.

Slow joe said no. Didn’t want “escalation”.

 

[Clownhater]

Vladimir Putin’s slogan for America. Of course he prefers the USA to not meddle in his efforts to remake the USSR.

Pull your head out of Donald Trump’s ass for a minute and rethink this idiotic notion of isolationism.

Not a Trump supporter. Why should America pay higher prices, risk being involved in WWIII, for what? Like I said, I hope the Ukranians somehow win, but we have done enough, stay the **** out.

 

[lucas80]

Slow joe said no. Didn’t want “escalation”.

Apparently you are the slow one. President Biden, under advisement of senior US military leaders and our allies said no,. We cannot simply act unilaterally and transfer the planes to German soil, and then to Ukraine.
Try and catch up.

 

[Clownhater]

The USA? Not we? Or the US?

You need to brush up on your vernacular, comrade. No American says “The USA should not….” It’s we or the US.

And of course you think no way Ukraine will win. Sorry-Your master, Putler, is going down.

You continue to show what an idiot you are, I live in the USA. Go us, stay the **** out of the Ukraine, why do you want us in WWIII? Apparently you haven't been to a college football game, or remember the Miracle on Ice.....USA, USA was the chant.

 

[DogBoyRy]

Apparently you are the slow one. President Biden, under advisement of senior US military leaders and our allies said no,. We cannot simply act unilaterally and transfer the planes to German soil, and then to Ukraine.
Try and catch up.

They told poland not to transfer the planes. Try to keep up.

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

Sailing right for a safe port in Israel, alongside over a dozen Russian private jets that landed there this past week.

I’m ok with putting Israel in timeout for awhile after this one. For a tiny country so dependent on others they sure seem to be playing both sides.

 

[lucas80]

They told poland not to transfer the planes. Try to keep up.

Poland has free will. Nothing is stopping Poland from directly transferring the planes. Slovakia is free to do the same. They want the cover of sending them to Germany, and then to Ukraine.

 

[DogBoyRy]

Poland has free will. Nothing is stopping Poland from directly transferring the planes. Slovakia is free to do the same. They want the cover of sending them to Germany, and then to Ukraine.

We specifically told them not to.
Thus the 40 plus senators objecting to the administrations policy.