Quote (DizzyBusiness @ Jun 14 2023 08:00pm)
American kryptonite, a couple paragraphs with no pictures.
I have little time for bullshit as it is. You call it kryptonite, I call it time management.
Quote (ferdia @ Jun 14 2023 08:00pm)
Russia is the aggressor. They have between 5 and 7 times more men, they fire between 5 and 10 times as much artillery and Ukrainians are running out. even if its 1:1 ratio, there are simply more Russians. Russia is also beside Ukraine and can mobilize more men. The US is on the far side of the planet and up till now has refused to send troops to Ukraine. Ditto for Nato. Ukraine has asked for long range missiles from day one to strike directly at Russia. That is what Ukraine needs to tell Russia to F off out of Ukraine. The US and its Nato allies have refused to do this. If you want to blame anyone, blame those governments for not giving Ukraine what it needs and doing this war of attrition shit that is simply wrecking ukraine with this false hope while western companies are literally hoovering up Ukrainian national resources. Doing this counter offensive makes little sense to me. It looks to me that Ukraine is desperate. I would have instead thought that they hold the line, get more support from Nato and only then push when they have all the cards (they dont have many cards at the moment in my opinion). From a logical standpoint and from reading/viewing the relevant material, Russia gets defenders advantage in the current counter attack scenario and therefore all that is happening is both sides losing more men, without a clear winner. In this scenario Russia wins (because they have more men).
If the US wanted peace tomorrow they would tell Ukrainian to make a deal with Russia. Thats not going to happen. perhaps a new US president can and will do that, perhaps not. Trump won't be president, Biden will stay the course and god knows what some other president will do. If the US did change its policy, wait scrap that, by all accounts the US will not change its policy.
Therefore the only way this war will end is on the battle field, when one side, beats the other. Unfortunately, its a numbers game and in that scenario Russia wins. I dont see them destroying all of Ukraine (unless they are forced to by repeated war) or doing regime change in ukraine (pointless now all of ukraine is behind zelensky) therefore the current ukrainian plan to take as much land back as possible and then look for peace is a Hail Mary. if Russia does accept Ukrainian gains and gives up most of what it has stolen it could be an end to the current conflict but then, as Ukraine already said, they will just go back to war with Russia a few years later when they move to take crimea.
ERGO, there will be no lasting peace for a while.
Quote (ferdia @ Jun 14 2023 06:53pm)
You want a solution ?
The US apologizes for blowing up Nord Stream 2, Pays Russia reparations. Pays Europe Reparations, Apologizes for doing the coup in Ukraine back in 2014, apologizes for arming Ukraine to the teeth over the last 15 years and apologizes for not reining Ukraine in when they were busy bombing the crap out of eastern ukraine, for 7 years. They then apologize for reneging on the No Nato Expansion promise, and while they are at it they pull out of Georgia and they once and for all acknowledge that Ukraine is Russia's red line. This far and no further.
On the other hand Russia apologizes for Invading Ukraine, pays reparations to Ukraine, gives Ukraine all of its land back (except Crimea), on condition Ukraine does not seek nato membership and stops committing genocide on its own minorities.
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All of that is never going to happen. What WILL happen is more war war war because, again, the US and its NATO allies will not countenance a Russian victory but wont give Ukraine the tools it needs to attain a Ukrainian victory as that will put Russia in a corner where they are likely to go nuclear.
We don't know that the US blew anything up to apologize for. At least some evidence is pointing to Ukraine doing it.
Pay Russia reparations for Russia having started a war??? Preposterous. By the way, Russia's countryside isn't being wrecked and thus necessitating reparations, Ukraine's is. If Russia doesn't want their military to get wrecked, they can easily just leave Ukraine.
The US didn't perform a coup. At the very most, they encouraged one. The US didn't MAKE people take to the streets. Didn't make the government murder protesters. Nothing.
Ukraine had every right to fight back against the Spetsnaz agents provocateur masquerading as these mythical "separatists."
I'm sorry if this is so hard to understand, but the only way in our country to bind the hands of the following administrations to your policies is to ensconce them into law/treaty. A verbal promise to not expand is worth the paper it was written on. It is no different than acting surprised that an incoming Republican administration decides to stop allowing financial support for abortion via USAID that his Democrat predecessor allowed. Don't be naïve.