Russian Invasion of Ukraine
- Thread starter Rage Racer
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Tired Tyres
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This is purely observational on my part and I do not claim to be an expert in any aspect of this (or anything at all really), but does anyone else think the US and Britain have just found their new Afghanistan/Iraq in the Ukraine war? A long term theatre of conflict where they can mainline cash into the military industrial complex and test & showcase new weapons technology, but now without even the downside of risking American or British lives? It seems that they’re able to shovel billions into this with absolute impunity due to the well-orchestrated media campaign distilling the conflict down to simply Russia = bad, Ukraine = good, despite a multitude of issues and nuances, including the latter fielding a full front-line battalion of actual Nazis. I have an extremely hard time believing that the US or British governments care an iota about anyone in Ukraine, any more than I believe they care about the working people of their own countries.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in support of Russia here, and I feel for the ordinary citizens of both nations. I can sympathise with reactions against NATO’s aggressive eastward expansion, but Russia is clearly a full-on oligarchy fronted by Putin, who is obviously a few butties short of a picnic. To me, it seems clear that for the west this is simply about maintaining an eastern foothold and keeping the arms industry happy. I can’t be the only one that thinks this whole setup is a bit bonkers??
*plot twist, I’m a hard leftist…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in support of Russia here, and I feel for the ordinary citizens of both nations. I can sympathise with reactions against NATO’s aggressive eastward expansion, but Russia is clearly a full-on oligarchy fronted by Putin, who is obviously a few butties short of a picnic. To me, it seems clear that for the west this is simply about maintaining an eastern foothold and keeping the arms industry happy. I can’t be the only one that thinks this whole setup is a bit bonkers??
*plot twist, I’m a hard leftist…
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- Dennisch
This war is exactly why countries want to join NATO. There is no agression involved in wanting to protect yourself as a country from lunatic dictators.
Joey D
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They don't, but they do care about Russia's aggression and its influence. It's significantly cheaper for Western countries to use Ukraine to fight the war for them since they don't have to station troops or figure out the logistics. It also gives NATO countries and excuse to practice war time surveillance.
It doesn't matter if NATO expands or not, it's a defensive treaty and nothing more.
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- Intercourse, PA
- Carbonox
Just for the record, this is Russian propaganda at its purest form, tactically taking away agency from Eastern European countries and attributing their NATO applications to US colonialism or whatever, rather than them recognizing Russia for the abuser that it is and aligning themselves against them as soon as they did gain that agency, following the fall of the Warsaw Pact.
...oh wait, Nazis mentioned as well. Where on earth is your outrage about Wagner, in that case?
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- 7,573
- Exorcet
- OE Exorcet
The Admiral Kuznetsov was built in the Black Sea, access to which is controlled by Turkey. There is a weight limit for aircraft carriers if they wish to freely leave through the Turkish Straits. The Kuznetsov is over this weight limit, so if it were an aircraft carrier, it would not be able to leave the Black Sea.
However the Russian Navy classifies it as a cruiser, which allows it to get around the weight limit. This classification is supported by the fact that the main weapons of the ship are not actually planes, but anti ship missiles that shoot out of the deck.
Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits - Wikipedia
- 4,063
- Tallinn
Don't forget how Finland and Sweden are still waiting for "aggressively expanding" NATO to approve them to join. And why they want to join? They lived fine without the membership.
So... Russia is against the NATO expansion, but it did everything to make two big countries join. (Georgia, Moldova and now Ukraine can't join since they have their borders ruined by Russian occupation forces.)
Russia was protesting against the "Patriot" anti-air systems deployment in Poland... well, now they will be stationed closer.
- 86,081
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
In the last 18 years, there's been four nations added to NATO. All four - Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia - are west of nations added in 2004.
It seems optimistic to call that "aggressive" or "eastward".
- 11,644
- Marin County
It's hard not to see upside for NATO in this conflict, at least in it's current status - I would hardly say it's anything like Vietnam or Afghanistan. Nobody forced Russia to invade Ukraine, they did that for themselves. But the US and NATO are more than happy for Russia to bleed there because, at least with Putin at the helm, Russia is an adversary at the end of the day. I worry a bit about the sort of unflinching veneration and almost canonization of Zelensky in the west - we should be careful he himself doesn't eventually turn into a Gaddafi/Sadam/Castro figure coming out of this.
The (bad faith) argument of NATO expansion is a cynical smokescreen for Putin's imperial ambitions...he wants Ukraine because it used to be part of Russia...that's what this is about and everything else is a distraction.
Keef
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The US and the new Chinese supercarriers are the only ones that use catapults. Everybody else uses ramps. Not only are other carriers smaller in area to begin with, but ramps require longer takeoff runs, reducing deck storage even further, and meaning they can't launch and land at the same time. I'm not sure if it's SOP but it appears a US supercarrier has enough room to have two fighters staged on catapults and land one at the same time.
And yes I said Chinese supercarriers if you weren't aware of that. We're living in a world where Chinese flotillas will soon be constantly circumnavigating the oceans just like the US does. It'll basically be the Cold War all over again, but instead of nuclear threats it will be based on economic dominance.
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- 3,445
- Gdynia
- MroczMR
So it seems that we are all eating Hamster soup next year...
And this year my freshly trained hamster let me played a lot of Gran Turismo 7... xD
www.newsweek.com
Russian propaganda is so stupid xD
And this year my freshly trained hamster let me played a lot of Gran Turismo 7... xD
Russian state TV releases "anti-Russian Christmas" message for Europeans
The video taunted Europe over rising energy prices due to sanctions against Russian oil amid the widely-condemned Ukraine war.
www.newsweek.com
Russian propaganda is so stupid xD
- 4,063
- Tallinn
Why they wrote "Happy anti-Russian Christmas" in English and "Happy Russophobic Christmas" in Russian?So it seems that we are all eating Hamster soup next year...
And this year my freshly trained hamster let me played a lot of Gran Turismo 7... xD
Russian state TV releases "anti-Russian Christmas" message for Europeans
The video taunted Europe over rising energy prices due to sanctions against Russian oil amid the widely-condemned Ukraine war.
Russian propaganda is so stupid xD
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- 11,644
- Marin County
Wow...all that in 2023? Sounds exciting!
- 7,176
- Lisboa
- FLAT_TWELVE
I think these predictions lack clarity and dating specificity. It goes like this:
- The UK returns to the EU in January, the EU collapses in March (The Boris-Farage-Gove party takes 60 days to bluster-blunder and stab the unity of Europe)
- Come April, we have the invasion of western Ukraine by ex-EU members turned allies Poland and Hungary. They try to split the seized territory between themselves (Ribbentrop-Molotov style) but don't agree, therefore ...
- ... in May Poland (but not Hungary) joins the Fourth Reich, along with Ukraine (still existing under the name of Kyiv Republic, not sure I understand this but that's how it goes)
- In June France declares war on the Fourth Reich.
- Armistice in July, somehow Poland is partitioned (France gets a territory on the other side of Germany? maybe it's Hungary that allied with France that gets a portion of the "Big Hungary" of old ...
- Taking advantage of a summer recess of MPs, by August NI sends all protestants by boat to Wales and declares itself independent. Of course the UK Government re-sends all of them to Rwanda.
- The american stuff is more complex and I still can't assign dates to it, but he's absolutely right about Musk becoming President of the United Republican States of America. Oh and of course, Texas merging with Mexico is an obvious prediction, everyone knows it's an old dream for texans, they just love those cartels ...
- The UK returns to the EU in January, the EU collapses in March (The Boris-Farage-Gove party takes 60 days to bluster-blunder and stab the unity of Europe)
- Come April, we have the invasion of western Ukraine by ex-EU members turned allies Poland and Hungary. They try to split the seized territory between themselves (Ribbentrop-Molotov style) but don't agree, therefore ...
- ... in May Poland (but not Hungary) joins the Fourth Reich, along with Ukraine (still existing under the name of Kyiv Republic, not sure I understand this but that's how it goes)
- In June France declares war on the Fourth Reich.
- Armistice in July, somehow Poland is partitioned (France gets a territory on the other side of Germany? maybe it's Hungary that allied with France that gets a portion of the "Big Hungary" of old ...
- Taking advantage of a summer recess of MPs, by August NI sends all protestants by boat to Wales and declares itself independent. Of course the UK Government re-sends all of them to Rwanda.
- The american stuff is more complex and I still can't assign dates to it, but he's absolutely right about Musk becoming President of the United Republican States of America. Oh and of course, Texas merging with Mexico is an obvious prediction, everyone knows it's an old dream for texans, they just love those cartels ...
