The A-10 could still find a use in a conventional war with China. Be it by being used to hunt down gunboats and other smaller ships from the chinese navy or their militias. The same could be applied against Iran, which most of their navy is comprised of very small gunboats. This would free the rest of the fighters for more high-intensity roles.
Unsure if serious, but this was a jab at Putin who is convinced that all people fighting against Russia are "Nazis", Including the JEWISH PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE.
Somewhat free and widely available press were here only for 10-15 years out of 319 years. Its like out of 70 years living you get truth only between years 65-68.
"In war, truth is the first casualty" (c)
A boom stick? They'll have to reload it with a chainsaw.
I have to say, prior to this invasion, I thought Putin was actually playing a very careful strategic game, and had a lot of foresight and patience. It did occur to me that the US is at a disadvantage to have a president who has at most 7 years of experience at the job. Our leader is always brand new to the role, whereas Putin has had so much time to learn how to do it well. And I considered this to be a somewhat unfortunate consequence of our political system (I still do actually, even though the benefits outweigh the negatives).
It doesn't work like that. President doesn't have enough time to learn about evolving world. And our world evolving constantly. If you in charge for 20 years its impossible to be in touch with society. And then you start making mistakes like this.
Its not 1940, with basic English you can live in comfort anywhere. Ukranians spread all over the world already and there is possibilities. Is life of a human being in 2022 cost more than soil under his feets?
This is why I say the benefits outweight the drawbacks. But there are a lot of functions of country leadership that benefit from a great deal of experience as well. Obviously Biden has tons of experience in government, including as vice president. But I can see advantages to parts of the job for a leader that has been in the seat for a long time. A lot of Biden's experience in the Senate is useful for certain domestic policy, but less useful for dealing with current foreign issues, for example.
Mental or otherwise? It was pretty clear that Trump was suffering from runaway narcissism if not more. Russia's system doesn't have robust methods to prevent Putin from making whatever decision he wants and in my opinion what we're seeing from him now is very similar to what Trump wanted to do at multiple points. The dude is showing all the signs of an old man on his way out who is trying to get everything he can before his time is up. I'm no mental health expert but I can see a lifetime of narcissistic brainwashing leading to problems like this. Luckily for us, Trump was not actually a career covert strategist and politician but merely a rich idiot.
"Invasion is okay, you can always just move"? Some may be lucky enough to have that choice, but that's really not the point is it? The lives they had have been forcibly taken from them by a foreign power. If they have to loose everything and start again, what's fair retribution for that? As a Russian, how much of a price are you personally willing to pay for the actions of your country? I don't personally think the Russian people should have to pay for Putin's decision to invade, but I also don't think Russia can ever be allowed to prosper after any such action if it's successful - therefore, it must not be successful!
Putin is using his nuclear deterrent to prevent anyone from stopping Russian aggression - this is a fundamental shift in behaviour and an unprecedented use of 'nuclear deterrence'.
For all the bluster though, I do not think that large scale nuclear war is remotely likely. It's too insane, even for Putin. "Small" scale? That's a different story unfortunately.
