Quote (vladik125rus @ Jan 25 2022 09:37am)

That's all, American propaganda, there is no invasion and there won't be.

Quote (ofthevoid @ Mar 20 2022 12:46pm)

Yeah, have you? I read both Reuters and aljazeera regularly. The latter which is also biased has a noticeably less bias and agenda pushing in many of their analysis pieces. I agree though diversity in sources is important.

Quote (Goomshill @ Mar 20 2022 02:52pm)

If America has ever been good at something, its prodding along people in the shitholes of the world to kill each other in pointless wars on behalf of America's sense of righteousness. Its why we've got an article in the news today about how the former Afghan minister of finance now drives an Uber in DC, and he was one of the lucky ones. We get to thump our chests and claim the moral high ground, and that anyone who opposes it is a traitor. Maybe we lose American blood and treasure sometimes, but its nothing compared to the devastation we create.

Sure in a logical war, once your military is destroyed and your cities besieged and surrounded by an enemy who has the ability to flatten them overnight, you'd want to surrender and minimize casualties. Heck, surrender should come long before that point, when the inevitability is clear. But we helped install and micromanage the Ukrainian government, we supplied and armed them. Its not the self-interests of the besieged Ukrainians guiding the decisions, its an unscathed west. So we can tout our jingoism and cheer them to fight to the bloody end, even if it means child soldiers throwing molotovs at tanks and Nazis committing war crimes and Russians using it as justification to massacre civilians. My main gripe with your take is that I believe you're thinking way too small. By historical precedent in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, etc, I don't see Ukraine resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, I see hundreds of thousands, maybe millions. If it lasts for a few years it might reach the scale of the Holodomor. I've learned not to underestimate how much worse things can get. This is of course, all in America's best interests and advances our geopolitical position, because reasons.

Quote (JohnnyMcCoy @ 20 Mar 2022 17:09)

afghanistan, iraq, syria, yemen, each of these theatres is in the serious six figure death range

this war in ukraine is a few years behind and so far the russians have been almost tame when you compare it to the good old american "bomb it all and send your guys to mop up tactics", they would have turned kiev into a wasteland already

i hope it stays this way and the ukranians have no reason at all to surrender right now

Quote (SylvesterStallone @ Mar 20 2022 02:07pm)

Quote (JohnnyMcCoy @ Mar 20 2022 02:09pm)

afghanistan, iraq, syria, yemen, each of these theatres is in the serious six figure death range

this war in ukraine is a few years behind and so far the russians have been almost tame when you compare it to the good old american "bomb it all and send your guys to mop up tactics", they would have turned kiev into a wasteland already

i hope it stays this way and the ukranians have no reason at all to surrender right now

Quote (dro94 @ 20 Mar 2022 13:02)

ISW said they think the freeing up of Russian forces after the fall of Mariupol won't be significant in terms of tipping the scales of the war in the South. It makes sense somewhat, with Mariupol being a hostile city they'll need a lot of forces to hold it, plus the Russians have taken significant losses in the region so we don't know what proportion of forces could push up North. The urban fighting will cause even more losses over the coming weeks

Regarding your point about counterattacks on Kyiv's eastern flank, this is conducted by Ukrainian army and TDF in the Sumy region, towns like Romny that Russia don't even control

There isn't a way to sugarcoat that Southern Ukraine will most likely fall after Mariupol, the big question is whether the JFO can escape or at least prevent being encircled