I've gone back and forth over the years on how interventionalist the US should be, and at this point I'm generally a Teddy Roosevelt isolationist. Let the rest of the world deal with their problems. However - I fully support our support of the war in Ukraine. In a world where we casually give the Taliban 80B of equipment or spend 300-400B to buy votes from irresponsible millenials that can't/won't pay their student loans, a few billion here and there to Ukraine is financially meaningless to our country. Instead - we are basically systematically destroying the entire conventional warfare ability of what the world thought was a a greater power, without losing a single American life. We're not even giving them our best equipment. It's warehoused stuff that wouldn't be used again. Meanwhile Russia is back to WW2 era equipment, international embarrassment, internal turmoil, lost influence with former Soviet republics, NATO strengthening, and a somewhat clear message to China that there are consequences to territorial grabs in the 21st century. I love it.
The areas being annexed are resource & industry heavy. Also large % of Russian speakers. As opposed to Kiev. Since the beginning those annexed areas are the low hanging fruit much easier to annex those and call it a win than try to take Kiev. But I think it comes down to what the U.S. wants and does. They could end this war quickly by letting puttin have those Russian speaking annexed areas or could escalate it by helping Kiev reclaim those areas. We will see.
The thing that’s crazy to me is that we’re just over six months into this. You look back at early events of WWII and the books lump together huge chunks of time (“this is what happened in 1937-1939”)
With constant coverage it seems like so much has happened, but it very realistically could be 1st/2nd inning of a larger conflict.
There's no way NATO can let UKR join right now. That they even 'tried' is retarded. See my above comment. There is proxy war, and then there is actual war. UKR overplayed its hand 'trying' to join NATO. Trying in quotes because it's symbolic and nothing else. Finland and Sweden joining is material. Turkey waffing is also material (kick them out). Some stupid UKR symbolic gesture is a waste of time.
Do you guys think the War in Ukraine will escalate meaningfully? What about the use of tactical or battlefield employed nuclear weapons?
I've gone back and forth over the years on how interventionalist the US should be, and at this point I'm generally a Teddy Roosevelt isolationist. Let the rest of the world deal with their problems. However - I fully support our support of the war in Ukraine. In a world where we casually give the Taliban 80B of equipment or spend 300-400B to buy votes from irresponsible millenials that can't/won't pay their student loans, a few billion here and there to Ukraine is financially meaningless to our country. Instead - we are basically systematically destroying the entire conventional warfare ability of what the world thought was a a greater power, without losing a single American life. We're not even giving them our best equipment. It's warehoused stuff that wouldn't be used again. Meanwhile Russia is back to WW2 era equipment, international embarrassment, internal turmoil, lost influence with former Soviet republics, NATO strengthening, and a somewhat clear message to China that there are consequences to territorial grabs in the 21st century. I love it.
The areas being annexed are resource & industry heavy. Also large % of Russian speakers. As opposed to Kiev. Since the beginning those annexed areas are the low hanging fruit much easier to annex those and call it a win than try to take Kiev. But I think it comes down to what the U.S. wants and does. They could end this war quickly by letting puttin have those Russian speaking annexed areas or could escalate it by helping Kiev reclaim those areas. We will see.
The thing that’s crazy to me is that we’re just over six months into this. You look back at early events of WWII and the books lump together huge chunks of time (“this is what happened in 1937-1939”)
With constant coverage it seems like so much has happened, but it very realistically could be 1st/2nd inning of a larger conflict.
I'm calling it now, Odessa by November 29th.
yeah not looking good - some serious escalation was laid out today. massive middle finger from Zelensky
And NATO rejects the ask to join, what a wild turn of events
There's no way NATO can let UKR join right now. That they even 'tried' is retarded. See my above comment. There is proxy war, and then there is actual war. UKR overplayed its hand 'trying' to join NATO. Trying in quotes because it's symbolic and nothing else. Finland and Sweden joining is material. Turkey waffing is also material (kick them out). Some stupid UKR symbolic gesture is a waste of time.