Ukraine / Russia

[Rhcuam]

One does not have to work at the Pentagon to be able to realize, understand, or just perceive the disastrous, misaligned, and poor execution of foreign policy and Wasteful spending of resources.

 

[KB_]

This seemingly endless thread is replete with many varied viewpoints. Some appear based on common sense perspectives of news reports, others based on political, ideological, or personal bent ... however, none with high level Pentagon based experience, expertise or real knowledge and insight regarding global national interest strategy.

It does seem to be a venue for those who enjoy the analysis and the opportunity to vent political, ideological, or just personal perspectives.

It is what it is. Some of us have some experience in the matters some of us watch to much CNN and/or FOX, and others watch Jerry Springer still cause we want to watch the world burn.


I'm fairly confident there is no such thing as a Russian HuntTalk. Which is unfortunate.

 

[TOGIE]

 

[Handlebar]

This seemingly endless thread is replete with many varied viewpoints. Some appear based on common sense perspectives of news reports, others based on political, ideological, or personal bent ... however, none with high level Pentagon based experience, expertise or real knowledge and insight regarding global national interest strategy.

It does seem to be a venue for those who enjoy the analysis and the opportunity to vent political, ideological, or just personal perspectives.

In general I agree with your post... but my faith in "experts" has been severely tested.

 

[VikingsGuy]

In general I agree with your post... but my faith in "experts" has been severely tested.

That is reasonable so long as you don't make the mistake of confusing the shortcomings of the "experts" with some coincident increased knowledge/insight by the "non-expert". Meaning - not trusting experts should not necessarily lead to the trusting of the average rube.

 

[BigHornRam]

In general I agree with your post... but my faith in "experts" has been severely tested.

My faith is disappearing rapidly. Maybe this is what the "experts" want?

 

[TwistedSage]

To pretend that war is not extremely profitable to the same people that allocate the funds for that war is looking right past the shit stain to clean up the dirt.

I've never been in the pentagon but I have served I the army and worked as a contractor afterwards. I've seen enough to know that budget allocations and profits come far before making any type of sense.

Where was the diplomacy before this war? If they knew it would cause energy crisis, inflation, food crisis, why did they just tell putin hey don't go over there? Where was the sit down and mediation. Relationships have been rocky but all president up until now have met in person with him.

They knew what they were doing and they have plenty of ways to spend your money of defense companies that they are beneficiaries of. After the 2Bil defense aid was passed the leaders from the top 6 defense companies met with Biden to help him best spend the money, im sure they all were awarded no bid prime support contracts on that.

War is Fing horrible there are no winners. Pretending that the government of Ukraine is some sort of bastion of freedom and democracy is a joke and im not sure when that happened or why it seams people have nomemory prior to the russian invasion. Of course the civilians are going to pay the unimaginable price as billions or trillions of dollars are spent on "democracy"

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

That is reasonable so long as you don't make the mistake of confusing the shortcomings of the "experts" with some coincident increased knowledge/insight by the "non-expert". Meaning - not trusting experts should not necessarily lead to the trusting of the average rube.

Expert
There is a high likelihood of A, but B could also happen, C probably will not though there is a 5-10% chance based on our current research.

News
OMG A is absolutely going to happen everyone.

Politician
There is a moral imperative to do (A) if Dem, or to do (B) if Rep

Joe Rogan
Bro I'm all about E, listen this dude I met while doing ayahuasca was telling me that...

------------------------------
C Happens
-----------------------------

Average guy
Can't trust experts these days.

 

[Irrelevant]

How to win Ukraine’s long war

After doing well early in the war, Ukraine is losing ground. What next?

www.economist.com

 

[woods89]

Expert
There is a high likelihood of A, but B could also happen, C probably will not though there is a 5-10% chance based on our current research.

News
OMG A is absolutely going to happen everyone.

Politician
There is a moral imperative to do (A) if Dem, or to do (B) if Rep

Joe Rogan
Bro I'm all about E, listen this dude I met while doing ayahuasca was telling me that...

------------------------------
C Happens
-----------------------------

Average guy
Can't trust experts these days.

I feel this chain of events has wide application, well beyond the Ukrainian conflict. Bravo, sir.

 

[noharleyyet]

I feel this chain of events has wide application, well beyond the Ukrainian conflict. Bravo, sir.

If you want concisely collated data white papered with a splash of color, wllm's the guy.

 

[Cornbread]

Once again, assuming those who don't want another war (after a 3-month pause) following 20+ years of American blood spilt essentially for nothing in the mid-East are pro-autocracy is assigning motives you know little about.

Maybe we're just tired of our kids fighting wars. Or, maybe some would rather see the focus on American problems; we have a few. And don't underestimate Biden's ability to stumble into a real war. Remember Obama's cautionary words. And there are Rs and Ds in power who want nothing more than another war, so I don't see this as a conservative or liberal issue.

How many deployments have your children done in the past 20 years? How many of their friends lost limbs/lives? Afghanistan is basically the same except has a new army supplied courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.

Longbow,
HOW TRUE!!! my 2 nephews are/were in the military. One is still a potential call up and the other is completely out of it. Here we go again with the Ukraine. We sucker people into it by having these pols wave the flag and the media brainwashing us how the Ukraine kids are starving. We don't seem to give a shit about the Russian kids starving, hey that's ok right? I think more and more people are getting it. And Biden and his people are arrogant incompetents. Two behavioral qualities that lead to a disaster. Putin is by no means crazy. Even Trump got suckered into sending the Ukraine arms, but as much as I hated/hate Obama, he had the sense to only send them blankets and medical supplies. The Repubs are doing a jig right now because their defense buddies are benefitting big time and the Repubs don't have to get their finger prints on it. I do give Trump a whole lot of credit for keeping us from getting involve in a war with Syria and Lebanon. Remember how he backed off after thinking about it.

The media are a bunch of self-serving incompetent shitbags. Remember the 58,000 guys that died in Viet Nam? And now we buy all our furniture and clothes from them!! They convinced us the Shah of Iran was such a bad guy and we had to let democracy flourish in Iran. What did we get there? Then George Bush and the Media convinced us of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, while Cheney's company made a fortune off tax payers. What did we do? Upset the balance between Iran and Iraq and we have a fledgling nuclear power in Iran now. And then there is the Ukraine, ahhh yes. We get a stable president (oh he's just terrible because he's backed by the Russians), throw him out to put Nazi's in charge. But hey, they'll give the Biden's dough and they will maintain our biological labs for free. And we ultimately drive Russia into the hands of the huge-threat Chinese. And we steal all their Super Yachts to really piss them off and put Putin's daughters under sanctions to poke him in the eye and make it REAL PERSONAL.

Where do we find these doofus politicians. We only have our gullible selves to blame. We should look inwardly.

 

[Cheesehead]

Poli sci on hunting forums:

 

[Derek44]

This seemingly endless thread is replete with many varied viewpoints. Some appear based on common sense perspectives of news reports, others based on political, ideological, or personal bent ... however, none with high level Pentagon based experience, expertise or real knowledge and insight regarding global national interest strategy.

It does seem to be a venue for those who enjoy the analysis and the opportunity to vent political, ideological, or just personal perspectives.

While I agree with what you’re saying, I must say we shouldn’t expect any more. That’s what this place is. A community of common people. I would actually become a little concerned if someone had the inside knowledge you are talking about and decided to just post away on a completely public forum for the world to see. Every thought on this forum is relevant though. It’s how we all see the happenings and how they relate to all of our diverse realities.

 

[Cornbread]

While I agree with what you’re saying, I must say we shouldn’t expect any more. That’s what this place is. A community of common people. I would actually become a little concerned if someone had the inside knowledge you are talking about and decided to just post away on a completely public forum for the world to see. Every thought on this forum is relevant though. It’s how we all see the happenings and how they relate to all of our diverse realities.

For the record, you have a lot of corrupt doofuses in the high military ranks. They got there by being politically correct and they sway with the wind. Not discounting everybody, but use Mattis and Espy as examples.

 

[Irrelevant]

Are sanctions actually hurting Russia's economy? Here's what you need to know

Russia's economy is weathering sanctions over the war in Ukraine, but tough times may be ahead, according to an assessment from experts.

www.npr.org

"It depends on the criteria," Russian political scientist Ilya Matveev said. "If the goal is a quick and complete collapse of the Russian economy, then no, sanctions are not working because the Russian economy is still functioning. But if the goal is to weaken Russia economically over time, then sanctions are 100% working."

 

[noharleyyet]

Putin's rebuttal...

The latest assessment of Russian nuclear military capability estimates that as of early 2022 Russia has a stockpile of approximately 4,477 nuclear warheads — nearly 6,000 if “retired” warheads are included. The US maintains a similar inventory of 5,500 warheads, with 3,800 of those rapidly deployable.

Mar 10, 2022

 

[Deleted member 20812]

Putin's rebuttal...

The latest assessment of Russian nuclear military capability estimates that as of early 2022 Russia has a stockpile of approximately 4,477 nuclear warheads — nearly 6,000 if “retired” warheads are included. The US maintains a similar inventory of 5,500 warheads, with 3,800 of those rapidly deployable.

Mar 10, 2022

Which, when you consider the amount of devastation a dozen could cause, you start to wonder what’s the point?

 

[Randi]

Putin's rebuttal...

The latest assessment of Russian nuclear military capability estimates that as of early 2022 Russia has a stockpile of approximately 4,477 nuclear warheads — nearly 6,000 if “retired” warheads are included. The US maintains a similar inventory of 5,500 warheads, with 3,800 of those rapidly deployable.

Mar 10, 2022

Which, when you consider the amount of devastation a dozen could cause, you start to wonder what’s the point?

It certainly doesn't give me a warm and fuzzy feeling

 

[noharleyyet]

Putin's point is FAFO....and the world believes him.