We could go on all day about how US efforts in Afghanistan actually serve to highlight the ineptitude and cowardice of Russian soldiers,
How does the actions of the USA say anything about Russian soldiers?
God you are special
Your awful Putin-loving compatriot Lolly Master made the US-Afghan versus Russia-Ukraine comparison, you special twit. I factually and logically corrected him. Just like I corrected you on your fake strawman argument, above.
You are aware the the Russian military can fail in multiple ways, right?
R U aware that someone who has been failing for months cannot begin to start failing now?
Are you aware of how the English language works? First, Russia failed to encircle Kyiv.
Second, Russia failed to protect the Moskva from missiles.
Third, Russia failed to protect Crimea from attack.
Now, Russia is failing to advance in Donetsk because they are trying to blunt Ukraine’s counteroffensive in Kherson.
As a result, they are starting to fail at one of their post retreat-from-Kyiv objectives. This is a new, distinct failure from previous failures of the Russian military.
Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll find additional ways to fail as their invasion continues.
p.s. Still waiting for you to comment on the constitutionality of the Crimean referendum.
R U aware that someone who has been failing for months cannot begin to start failing now?
Are you aware of how the English language works? First, Russia failed to encircle Kyiv.
Second, Russia failed to protect the Moskva from missiles.
Third, Russia failed to protect Crimea from attack.
Now, Russia is failing to advance in Donetsk because they are trying to blunt Ukraine’s counteroffensive in Kherson.
As a result, they are starting to fail at one of their post retreat-from-Kyiv objectives. This is a new, distinct failure from previous failures of the Russian military.
Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll find additional ways to fail as their invasion continues.
p.s. Still waiting for you to comment on the constitutionality of the Crimean referendum.
Amazing how active Carmine is until people start pointing out that his posts are asinine drivel that would earn a third grader an F. I’m sure he’ll be back tomorrow with another unsupported lunatic theory that he will try to defend for a post or two, and then he’ll disappear again.
It's not banned. Russians keep using instagram. I know because I follow hundreds of them, and they keep posting. From ordinary people to famous russians.
how do you guys see this ending? is this affecting russians and ukrainians outside the war zone at all? I mean, looking at instagram accounts I followed way before the war everything looks the same in both sides. Is war always like this?
every war is different.
I see this as ending in a west germany/east germany situation, with Russia pretty much owning an eastern sliver of ukraine like they owned east germany. The RU will work to undermine the UKR government, with a lot of success.
or
Russia simply declares 'mission accomplished' over the 'nazis' and walks away. Putin can say anything and his m'aga style population will agree with it. So he could probably get away with declaring victory and ending it without an actual win.
I'd probably put a 70% likelihood on the first happening, 20% on the second, and 10% on some other solution like an outright RU victory.
You're probably right. And after it happens, will Russia be allowed in the world stage again? Or will they only be allowed after they give Ukraine their land back?
how do you guys see this ending? is this affecting russians and ukrainians outside the war zone at all? I mean, looking at instagram accounts I followed way before the war everything looks the same in both sides. Is war always like this?
War is a sausage grinder until one side says they have no more flesh to put into the grinder. The way things are looking now, both sides aren't willing to stop sending meat into the grinder.
However, with Western aid it looks like Ukraine is making better sausage than Russia is.
But and however this war has a long way to go. Time will tell. My hopes are that Ukraine pushes Russia out of Ukraine and Russia doesn't use nukes because they might be too proud to admit defeat. If Russia uses nukes, I have absolutely no idea how this war ends, or what the repercussions around the globe might be.
do you think russians will be welcomed in the west after the war is over?
I see this as ending in a west germany/east germany situation, with Russia pretty much owning an eastern sliver of ukraine like they owned east germany. The RU will work to undermine the UKR government, with a lot of success.
or
Russia simply declares 'mission accomplished' over the 'nazis' and walks away. Putin can say anything and his m'aga style population will agree with it. So he could probably get away with declaring victory and ending it without an actual win.
I'd probably put a 70% likelihood on the first happening, 20% on the second, and 10% on some other solution like an outright RU victory.
You're probably right. And after it happens, will Russia be allowed in the world stage again? Or will they only be allowed after they give Ukraine their land back?
With Putin in charge....the West will not work with RU. Not for a long time, if ever. I think this will be viewed as Putin's war of choice and the West will not work with him anymore. Once Putin is gone, then there is all chance for rapprochement, depending on the new RU government.
UNLESS
The energy crisis gets much worse and some democracies soon start buying RU oil and gas, saying that the sanctions are punishing Western citizens too much. Then the Western anti-RU coalition could start breaking apart and RU would be back in the world economy.
I think it's going to be close...Europe is really in trouble energy-wise and countries like Hungary and Italy and maybe even Germany will be hard pressed to keep up the boycott. I'm hoping a Marshall Plan of LNG from the USA will help, and that Europe can reduce gas use now, to store up enough for the winter. But we're on new ground here - no precedent.
One thing we haven't talked about much here is this:
RU has three external goals with this war:
1/ Conquer UKR
2/ Get poor/developing nations to break from the West and go with RU/China instead.
3/ Break up NATO/Western alliances with the help of Trump and Orban.
It's conceivable that Putin could lose #1 but still win #s 2 and 3. That would be a sizable victory for him and he could call the war at least justified. Expect a ton of support for Trump from Russia *again* should Spanks run in 2024.
Well, to answer your question, I think, not too much. However, I'm one man with only one vote.Lets see how other posters respond to your query.
But I do thank you for your question. Most if not all questions on this subject are loaded ones. People looking for answers that can start for tit-for-tat responses. Yours does not fall into that category. Good Job! Keep posting.
One thing we haven't talked about much here is this:
RU has three external goals with this war:
1/ Conquer UKR
I don't think the original goal is possible any more. Russian soldiers just run away when they get positioned close to key targets like Kyiv. Russia will probably have to settle for something similar to the territory they have now, and then deal with years (decades?) of attacks on their occupying troops.
2/ Get poor/developing nations to break from the West and go with RU/China instead.
Strange way to go about such a goal, if it ever was one. And there is an enormous difference between developing nations being attracted to Chinese development and having anything to do with Russia. To the extent there is a Chinese-Russian alliance, and I think its overstated on this board, it sure doesn't extend to Chinese developments in Africa and the Pacific. Chinese are a very different culture and people than Russians. One people/culture are intelligent, efficient, productive, aren't compulsive liars and are capable of executing strategy, and the other people/culture are Russian.
3/ Break up NATO/Western alliances with the help of Trump and Orban.
If this was an actual goal, it failed miserably. That's not even disputable by the Putin-lovers here. If the goal was to weaken NATO, it not only failed, it backfired in Russia's mashed potato looking (Slav) face. Other than Tucker Carlson and a small percentage of America-hating weirdos like the mentalities here, who supports anything regarding Russia any more?
One thing we haven't talked about much here is this:
RU has three external goals with this war:
1/ Conquer UKR
I don't think the original goal is possible any more. Russian soldiers just run away when they get positioned close to key targets like Kyiv. Russia will probably have to settle for something similar to the territory they have now, and then deal with years (decades?) of attacks on their occupying troops.
2/ Get poor/developing nations to break from the West and go with RU/China instead.
Strange way to go about such a goal, if it ever was one. And there is an enormous difference between developing nations being attracted to Chinese development and having anything to do with Russia. To the extent there is a Chinese-Russian alliance, and I think its overstated on this board, it sure doesn't extend to Chinese developments in Africa and the Pacific. Chinese are a very different culture and people than Russians. One people/culture are intelligent, efficient, productive, aren't compulsive liars and are capable of executing strategy, and the other people/culture are Russian.
3/ Break up NATO/Western alliances with the help of Trump and Orban.
If this was an actual goal, it failed miserably. That's not even disputable by the Putin-lovers here. If the goal was to weaken NATO, it not only failed, it backfired in Russia's mashed potato looking (Slav) face. Other than Tucker Carlson and a small percentage of America-hating weirdos like the mentalities here, who supports anything regarding Russia any more?
I don't know how to do that nesting feature - bolding is as high tech as I get. I consider that coding. Anyway.
As for #2, if you read the RU twitter feeds, much of it is trying to drive wedges into the connections between the West and developing nations. How? Food and energy prices. RU is, with a kernel of truth, saying "hey, the reason oil and food are so expensive is Western sanctions. Your poor citizens can't buy bread? Blame Western sanctions. Oil prices have doubled and your economy is cratering? Blame Western sanctions." Obviously India is the big prize, and the Middle East.
RU's hope is that the potential for food riots and starvation in poor countries will bring poor countries to buy RU's energy and food and loathe the West. And it probably will in places.
As for #3, small cracks have formed - Hungary's 'hungary first' president, Orban, is not on team NATO, despite being in NATO. Italy is looking weak. But the real test will be this winter when Euro nations will have to start rationing nat gas. Then we'll see if the Western coalition will hold. Shutting factories down and throwing people out of work will not go over well in democracies. Losing your job to help UKR is a tough cross to bear.
The US gained 100% of Afghanistan and held it for 20 years. The US (and its allies) moved an entire occupying military force (army, navy, air force, marines) half way around the globe and conquered the Afghan-Al Qaeda military in a matter of weeks. They did that with minimal losses. Compare that to Russia which, going on 6 months now, can't even occupy it's smaller, weaker neighbor, actually retreats from some places, and has lost tens of thousands of Russian scumbag soldiers in the process. It would be like if the US military couldn't occupy northern Baja.
We could go on all day about how US efforts in Afghanistan actually serve to highlight the ineptitude and cowardice of Russian soldiers, so I hope you run this demented attempt again. You don't seem to grasp how ridiculous you look.
If they held it for 20+ years, how come their US-trained “democratic” government fell in 1-2 days? How come a mixture of both the Taliban and Al Q have returned to power in Afg? If we won, according to you, all of those enemies should be dead. If 100% of them are not dead, then it is a failure because they could slowly build up their forces again, purchase weapons from ukraine (which came from us for FREE) and use those weapons to kill innocent Americans.
or plot another terrorists attack, because they seek vengeance for a 20+ year occupation.
War is a sausage grinder until one side says they have no more flesh to put into the grinder. The way things are looking now, both sides aren't willing to stop sending meat into the grinder.
However, with Western aid it looks like Ukraine is making better sausage than Russia is.
But and however this war has a long way to go. Time will tell. My hopes are that Ukraine pushes Russia out of Ukraine and Russia doesn't use nukes because they might be too proud to admit defeat. If Russia uses nukes, I have absolutely no idea how this war ends, or what the repercussions around the globe might be.
do you think russians will be welcomed in the west after the war is over?
How long did it take Germany after WWII to be accepted back into global affairs?
Russia will remain isolated from the Western world until Putin is gone, war criminals are prosecuted, Putin’s regime is renounced by general public and new leadership, and reparations are paid. This could take decades.
I'm sure the Ukrainians have thought about it, but if they were able to blow up
the bridge to Crimea that Putin invested years and billions into, that would be a huge victory. [...]
That would piss off Putin big time because he's warned them about touching that bridge.
The damage inflicted by Russia in Ukraine equals a nuke.
That bridge's clock is ticking.
I don't think that it's a good idea for Ukraine to blow it now. It should be left for Russians to bring more ammo and weapons to destroy them, then to let them have a road to get back home when done.
Why didn’t you idiots listen when we told you during the first week about the alliance Russia and China had made prior to Russia invading? It’s nice to see you’re coming to the realization that the “Putin is a crazy maniac” narrative was all BS. US/NATO pushed this proxy war for the MIC by breaking their word to Russia. As always, it’s about resource (energy) control.
The BRICS countries hold the advantage here. It’s literally the old (NATO) vs the new (BRICS). Growing populations and economies vs stagnant ones (desperate to continue mass immigration to continue growth). Saudi Arabia, Iran, Argentina, etc. are on the side of BRICS, not NATO.
