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President Zelenskyy, the answer is no Login/Join 
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posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by parabellum:
How, pray tell, does shutting down this forum for 24 hours on the first anniversary of the murder of nearly 3000 Americans indicate that I am an isolationist?


No, Para, it does not. I brought the point up to show how your view on the War on Terror changed as facts and circumstances changed over time.
 
Posts: 6723 | Location: Virginia | Registered: January 22, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by PASig:
quote:
Originally posted by Gustofer:
He's neck deep in an unprovoked, brutal, criminal war for the survival of his country. I'll cut him some slack.

Hell, we threw Japs in prison camps. That was pretty antithetical to our values as well.

Wow. You actually wrote that?

This corrupt little shit had actually started trying to ban and imprison his opposition before the war but he seized on that opportunity of it being an “emergency” to make it happen.

Zelenskyy also has a problem with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and their Free Exercise of Religion... Roll Eyes

He's NOT Really for Democracy, Freedom of the Press, OR Freedom of Religion!


____________________________________________________________

If Some is Good, and More is Better.....then Too Much, is Just Enough !!
Trump 2024....Make America Great Again!
"May Almighty God bless the United States of America" - parabellum 7/26/20
Live Free or Die!
 
Posts: 9579 | Location: New Hampshire | Registered: October 29, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
They're after my Lucky Charms!
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quote:
Originally posted by 12131:
The Chinese have been eyeing at world domination for over two millennia. They play the long game, and their latest and current leadership are more dangerous than ever before. These fuckers are pure evil. Putin got nothing on the Chinese.


Problem is China is China. And the long game involves going through several generations of leaders.

Putin is Russia and Russia is Putin. Pooty wants to be remembered as a great Russian leader with statues of him next to Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Stalin, Lenin, you get the idea. Even is we discount the reports of Pooty's health issues, he has been in charge for 20 years and getting old. Add he has done nothing 'Great' to re-establish a Russian Empire. This invasion was about him trying to get that "Great' added to his name. Early in the invasion Russia published photos of generals being briefed that showed Moldova would be occupied as part to the clean up of this war. The Baltic nations are freaking out because they know they're next.

If Russia does succeed in taking Ukraine, they will also hold 40% of the worlds grain, plus sizable oil reserves were recently discovered in Ukrainian territory (to include Crimea and off shore there). The Saudi's have said they are noticing some wells are becoming depleted. If OPEC is no longer the top oil producers, Russia could see themselves on top of that market. Not a situation I would want to be in.


Lord, your ocean is so very large and my divos are so very f****d-up
Dirt Sailors Unite!
 
Posts: 25075 | Location: NoVa | Registered: May 06, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by lbsid:
An interesting take here:

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu...-of-the-ukraine-war/


ibsid, I read through that article quickly and honestly it just sounds like a bunch of Kremlin talking points.

The Institute for the Study of War just published an article on Russia's information campaign. You can find the article at the link below. But I am also going to try to post it for those not interested in clicking the link:

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, FEBRUARY 12, 2023

quote:
RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, FEBRUARY 12, 2023
Feb 12, 2023 - Press ISW

Kateryna Stepanenko and Frederick W. Kagan

February 12, 8:45 pm ET

ISW is publishing an abbreviated campaign update today, February 12. This report focuses on the impact of Russian information operations on delaying and deterring Western transfers of high-end weapons systems and other military aid to Ukraine. Russia has partially reconstituted its ability to conduct information operations as part of its hybrid warfare campaigns in support of military operations. These information operations will continue to emerge as Russia attempts to set conditions for upcoming operations and mitigate setbacks, and the West must critically evaluate the context of Russian information operations and avoid simply interacting with them on their own terms.

Russia has partially regained the ability to conduct successful information campaigns in support of strategic objectives and even discrete operational aims. Russian hybrid warfare theory has long called for the integration of information campaigns and military operations, with information operations sometimes taking precedence over kinetic activity.[1] Russia skillfully conducted multiple information campaigns over the two decades preceding the re-invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, most notably those that supported the Minsk II Accords in which Germany and France accepted Russia as a mediator rather than a belligerent in Ukraine.[2] The Biden Administration conducted a remarkable and successful counter-information campaign in the months leading up to the February 2022 full-scale invasion, however, disrupting multiple Russian information campaigns intended to induce Ukrainian surrender, separate Ukraine from the West, and create favorable conditions for the re-invasion.[3] The Biden Administration and the West have also cut off and derailed Kremlin-controlled media operations in the United States and Europe since the start of the re-invasion, causing the Kremlin to struggle to conduct successful information operations.[4] Moscow, as a result, has been unable to achieve the objectives that its pre-re-invasion campaigns had been pursuing. Russia has, however, reconstituted the ability to conduct discrete information campaigns in support of specific strategic objectives and to tailor those campaigns to mitigate battlefield setbacks and to set conditions for future planned operations.

Russian information campaigns have supported a continuous strategic objective of deterring or slowing the West’s provision of material support to Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin likely bought into his own pre-invasion narrative that the West would not support Ukraine but would instead seek to maintain good relations with Russia, fueling his hopes for a speedy victory in Ukraine.[5] Putin soon realized that the war would protract due to his military’s inability to achieve decisive victories and Ukraine’s surprising (to him) determination to resist, and because of the West’s surprising (to him) willingness to support Ukraine’s resistance.[6] Putin thereupon began to focus on feeding the arguments Western leaders were making to themselves about the dangers of providing Ukraine with too much materiel or certain kinds of materiel.[7] These Russian information campaigns have been continuous in their pursuit of the common aim of inhibiting Western support for Ukraine regardless of battlefield conditions. The operational-level information campaigns discussed below nest into this strategic purpose, suitably adjusted for the specific battlefield circumstances of the moment.

Russia’s operational-level information campaigns aim either to set conditions for planned Russian operations or to mitigate Russian military failures. Russia shapes the information space in preparation for offensive operations to impede Ukraine’s ability to retain the battlefield initiative or prepare for the offensives. Russia also uses information campaigns to deter the West from supporting Ukraine’s counteroffensive efforts and exploitation of Russian military setbacks. Some of these Russian information campaigns are also intended to reestablish Russia’s geostrategic deterrence by rebuilding the projection of power that had been the focus and hallmark of Russian information campaigns before the 2022 re-invasion.[8]

Russia uses the narrative that Ukraine is incapable of defeating Russia because of inherent power disparities between the two states to mitigate major Russian setbacks or Russian failures to achieve rapid successes in major offensive operations. Russian information campaigns earlier in the invasion relied on amplifying the assumption that Russia possesses the “second largest military in the world” with advanced military capabilities. These information operations aimed to mislead the West and Ukraine into believing that any transfers of military equipment would be irrelevant because Ukraine would not be able to withstand rapidly unfolding offensive operations from different directions and would be vulnerable to Russian attack. The Kremlin, for example, threatened that Russia would view continuing Western military aid shipments to Ukraine as legitimate military targets in early March 2022.[9] The Russians have not shown the dynamic targeting capabilities needed to strike Western materiel moving into and through Ukraine throughout the first year of the war, however, and have instead resorted to wasting their precision weapons on striking fixed civilian energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine.

The Kremlin reframed its information operations to exaggerate the importance of every tactical advance following the Russian withdrawal from Kyiv Oblast and redeployment to Donbas in spring-summer 2022. The narrative adjusted the idea of Russian military might from sweeping offensive operations that were no longer possible to make much of steady and grinding gains on the frontlines.[10] This narrative aimed to demoralize Ukrainians and convince the West of Ukraine’s inability to stand against the supposedly overwhelming force enabling Russia’s costly advances, which ultimately culminated throughout the theater without achieving decisive strategic effects.[11] The exaggerating of minor victories also allowed the Kremlin to explain away the slow pace of offensives to domestic audiences who were conditioned to expect Russia’s rapid success in Ukraine.[12] Both versions of the narrative—the anticipated blitzkrieg at the start of the war and the impression of an unstoppable, if slow, advance during its second phase—were intended in part to deter Western aid provision. They sought to reinforce pre-invasion perceptions of Russian power and to trivialize Ukraine’s successful resistance in hopes that the West would give up on supporting Ukraine’s efforts to win the war. In this, they failed.

Russia intensified narratives about the risk of nuclear escalation in September-November 2022 to reestablish deterrence and dissuade the West from providing Ukraine the materiel needed to continue its counteroffensives following devastating Russian military failures in Kharkiv Oblast. Putin began making deliberately vague and general references to nuclear use during his annexation speech on September 30 following sweeping Ukrainian counteroffensive operations in Kharkiv Oblast.[13] The spike in nuclear rhetoric also followed Putin’s unpopular September 21 mobilization order, which had made Putin vulnerable within both the international and the domestic spheres.[14] Putin and key Kremlin officials intensified nuclear escalation rhetoric throughout October 2022, eventually culminating in early to mid-November likely as a result of growing international dialogue with Russia and pushback against his nuclear threats.[15] Putin has often used thinly-veiled nuclear threats to project the idea that Russia is a great power with which the West should avoid confrontation.[16] The nuclear information operation in fall 2022, however, was likely specifically intended to deter the West from immediately reinforcing Ukraine’s sweeping counteroffensives in eastern and southern Ukraine by stoking irrational and unjustified fears that Putin might react to a Ukrainian victory with nuclear escalation. Putin remains a highly calculating and risk-averse actor who will continue to exploit Russia’s nuclear capabilities and Western fear of nuclear escalation to project his power in the West and Russia without actually risking a nuclear exchange with NATO.[17] Putin also likely sought with these information operations to reestablish Russia’s standing as a great power in the world and to save face domestically following humiliating military setbacks.

It is now clear that the Russian information campaign centering on peace negotiations that intensified in December 2022 was aimed—among other things—at delaying the provision of Western tanks and other advanced equipment essential for the continuation of Ukrainian mechanized counteroffensives in order to set conditions for Russia’s own planned offensives. The Kremlin sharply amplified a false negotiations narrative throughout December 2022, with numerous Russian officials giving intentionally misleading signals of Moscow’s willingness to engage in serious negotiations with Ukraine.[18] The Kremlin originally introduced this information operation in early September 2022 after Ukraine announced the start of counteroffensive operations (ostensibly in Kherson Oblast) but prior to Ukraine’s liberation of much of Kharkiv Oblast, and Putin mentioned the idea of a return to the negotiation table in his September 30 annexation speech.[19] The Kremlin, however, consistently retained its maximalist goals and did not offer any serious bases for negotiations. The intensification of the narrative in winter 2022 coincided with Russian preparations for a major offensive operation planned for early 2023, and the Kremlin sought to capitalize on the Western desire for peace negotiations and thereby discourage the provision of Western tanks to Ukraine before Russia was able to regain the initiative in eastern Ukraine.[20] Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov notably signaled the end of the information operation, for the time, by announcing that Russia would continue to pursue a military solution in Ukraine on December 27.[21] It was too late, by that point, for the West to send tanks in time to interfere with the Russian offensive operation that began roughly a month later. The Russian peace-talks narrative was not, to be sure, the only or even the main reason for the delay in the Western provision of tanks to Ukraine. The timing of its onset, intensification, and dropping by the Kremlin, however, strongly suggests that it was timed to support the now ongoing Russian offensive.

Russia continues its shaping effort targeting Western provisions of long-range weapons and tanks to Ukraine by spreading the narrative that Ukraine will deliberately threaten Russia with these weapons instead of prioritizing the liberation of its Russian-occupied territories. Putin accused the United States of purposely protracting the war on December 22, 2022, following the US authorization to transfer Patriot air-defense systems to Ukraine on December 21, 2022.[22] Putin absurdly implied that Ukraine would use Patriots (defensive air-defense systems) to strike Russian territory, even as Ukraine begged for these systems to stop Russia’s ongoing air and missile campaign on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in the fall of 2022. This information operation was intended, like the negotiations information campaign, to stall Western aid that would disrupt ongoing and planned Russian military operations.

Kremlin officials are continuing to foster the narrative that Western transfers of longer-range precision rocket systems and Leopard tanks pose some new threat to Russian security, even though they pose no greater threat than the provision of Soviet tanks or other precision systems.[23] Ukrainians have not used Western-provided HIMARS systems to strike Russian territory even though those systems already brought important locations within Russia into range. And the idea that Ukraine will mount an invasion of Russia with Germany‘s Leopards is laughable. The purpose of this Russian information campaign is two-fold: first, to delay the arrival of Western tanks for as long as possible in order to delay the resumption of Ukrainian counter-offensives and buy time for Russia’s own offensive operations, and second, to disrupt the formulation of a coherent Western approach to shifting Ukraine fully to Western weapons systems—something the West will have to do eventually as it has run through its stocks of Soviet-era weapons and cannot produce or acquire more of them.

Russia will continue to weaponize information operations to directly support discrete military operations in Ukraine—especially after it has regained the initiative on the frontlines in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin is resuming a narrative exaggerating Russian frontline victories with the ongoing offensives on Bakhmut and Lyman. The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) is proudly parading victories over captured settlements around Bakhmut, but the impact of such information operations is waning—both Ukraine and pro-war Russian nationalists have become less willing to accept claims of inevitable Russian victory at face value because of the year of Russian military incompetence.[24] But these information operations can nevertheless regain traction if Russian forces begin to make significant gains, and Russian information operations that appear to be ineffective now can nevertheless set conditions to become much more potent when circumstances change.

The Kremlin appears to be developing other narratives at the time of this publication as well, with nationalist officials making outlandish nuclear threats as a response to recent Western weapons provisions and transfer pledges.[25] Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin also started to resume the canard of Russia’s willingness to negotiate with Ukraine “without preconditions” on February 11 but “on the basis of the reality that exists today” and with consideration for Russia’s maximalist objectives—conditions, in other words, that still amount to Ukrainian surrender.[26] The Kremlin may also reintroduce the stalemate narrative that it had previously used to discount Ukrainian counteroffensives in Kherson in late August 2022.[27] Vershinin’s statement may be an evolved peace-talks narrative that seeks to pressure the West to force preemptive concessions on Ukraine or preempt the culmination of the Russian operations in Donbas. It may also be a continuation of Russian efforts to delay and disrupt the provision of weapons systems Ukraine needs to take advantage of that culmination. The West should consider that Russian discussions of negotiations may not be about negotiations or conditions for peace at all, but may rather be information campaigns specifically targeted at getting Russia through windows of opportunity or vulnerability on the battlefield.

All these information campaigns will support overarching Kremlin strategic aims of splitting the West from Ukraine, deterring or delaying the provision of Western materiel, and generally undermining Western support for Ukraine and the cohesion of the Western coalition. Many information campaigns will also pursue specific operational objectives setting conditions for planned Russian military undertakings. Western leaders must recognize these operations for what they are within the context of battlefield events and resist the temptation to engage with Russian information operations purely on their own terms. More of these narratives will emerge, and the West must critically consider battlefield realities to undermine the effectiveness of the Russian hybrid-warfare efforts. The West must monitor the emergence and intensification of certain information operations at particular times to properly assess and react to these campaigns, just as the Biden Administration did before the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russia’s ability to conduct skillful information campaigns in support of hybrid warfare efforts was severely damaged by the Biden Administration’s skillful counter-information campaign and by Russia’s own actions and failures in Ukraine. But Putin is working to restore his capabilities in this area and is achieving limited but important successes, especially when he can shape information campaigns that resonate with discussions and fears that are already salient in the West.

Key inflections in ongoing military operations on February 12:

Ukrainian officials continued to question the Russian military’s ability to launch large-scale strategic offensive operations in Ukraine.[28]
The UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) reported that Russian forces have likely suffered the highest rate of casualties in Ukraine since the first weeks of the invasion based on statistics obtained from the Ukrainian General Staff, with an average of 824 casualties per day in the past week.[29] The UK MoD stated that they cannot verify the Ukrainian General Staff’s methodology for counting Russian casualties.
A Russian State Duma parliamentarian called for increased censorship legislation to protect Russian military figures from criticism.[30]
The Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) released an intercepted call excerpt of Shahed drone operators in Ukraine speaking in Kurdish and Farsi and stated that Russian forces may be using Kurdish mercenaries to operate Iranian drones in Ukraine.[31]
Russian sources claimed that Russian forces are continuing offensive operations northwest of Svatove.[32] Russian forces continued offensive operations around Kreminna with a reported 23 combat clashes in the area.[33]
Russian forces continued ground attacks around Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Vuhledar.[34]
Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed that Wagner Group forces seized Krasna Hora north of Bakhmut.[35] Prigozhin also falsely claimed that Wagner Group forces are the only Russian forces within a 50km radius of Bakhmut.[36]
Ukrainian officials reported that Russian forces in Kherson Oblast lack the capability to start a full-scale offensive, supporting ISW’s prior assessments.[37]
Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) representative Vadym Skibitsky stated that Ukrainian officials believe that Russian officials will postpone a planned second wave of mobilization because of persisting problems associated with the first mobilization wave.[38]
Russian sources claimed that Russia may build a Black Sea Fleet base in occupied Mariupol.[39]
CNN published an interview with two POWs who were Wagner Group prison recruits who claimed that Wagner Group severely misled recruits about the nature of the war and combat missions.[40] The fighters claimed that Wagner forces used prison recruits in human-wave assaults in summer assaults around Lysychansk and sustained high casualties.
 
Posts: 6723 | Location: Virginia | Registered: January 22, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by IrishWind:
If Russia does succeed in taking Ukraine, they will also hold 40% of the worlds grain, plus sizable oil reserves were recently discovered in Ukrainian territory (to include Crimea and off shore there). The Saudi's have said they are noticing some wells are becoming depleted. If OPEC is no longer the top oil producers, Russia could see themselves on top of that market. Not a situation I would want to be in.

Uhhh, I seem to recall back when Trump was in office, that the US was essentially energy independent as a 'Net Exporter' of fossil fuels! Drill Here, drill Now!


____________________________________________________________

If Some is Good, and More is Better.....then Too Much, is Just Enough !!
Trump 2024....Make America Great Again!
"May Almighty God bless the United States of America" - parabellum 7/26/20
Live Free or Die!
 
Posts: 9579 | Location: New Hampshire | Registered: October 29, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by Carpentermaass84:
Support of Ukraine up to this point has been a lost cause. Nearly all of the armament we've sent has ended up scrapped either by Russian strikes before it reaches the frontline or at black market booths to raise cash for corrupt Ukrainian officials. Russian MOD figures currently show Ukrainian equipment losses at nearly 100% of the tallied total of international donations over the last year. Russian MOD figures currently show Ukrainian equipment losses at nearly 100% of the tallied total of international donations over the last year. Why are we supporting a regime that condoned Nazi membership in its ranks? "But if we don't support Ukraine then China will be more likely to strike Taiwan", nonsense... China knows our weapons stockpiles are nearly depleted which is why it took nearly a week to find an air-to-air missile to shoot down a balloon. What kind of message does that send... The United States, a great "superpower", is so upside down on aid commitments to a corrupt and ineffective puppet government in Eastern Europe that it can't protect itself from a hot air balloon....?


And you actually believe Russian MOD figures? OK, now that's just laughable.

I guess you believe that all the videos of HIMAR's strikes are just fake news.
 
Posts: 6723 | Location: Virginia | Registered: January 22, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by Lt CHEG:
quote:
Originally posted by parabellum:
The Chinese government appears to consist of genuinely insane people, far less reasonable than the Russians. If a nuclear war is in the future of this planet, it will be the Chinese who cause it.


This deserves to be repeated. While I support slightly more support for Ukraine than you do Para (still not near as much as the current administration) you could not be more correct than you have been with this statement. China is our BIGGEST enemy! They are our number 1 through 10 enemies. China is without question the biggest threat that the world has known in my lifetime at least. China doesn’t believe in freedom, or human rights, or not turning their country into a sewer, or intellectual property, or the right to exist as an individual. Russia is wrong, and Putin’s actions have been evil, probably constituting war crimes that should result in his execution. But make no mistake China is still the biggest threat to planet Earth and they are a far bigger threat to world peace than Russia.


CHEG, how long is your lifetime?

But let's agree for a moment that China is the biggest threat to world peace today. That's all the more reason to use this opportunity to take out Russia now, so they can't be any ally to China.
 
Posts: 6723 | Location: Virginia | Registered: January 22, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
But if we don't support Ukraine then China will be more likely to strike Taiwan", nonsense...

Yep. Nonsense.
If anything, it shows the world that Taiwan is on its' own...



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 24765 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by Broadside:
quote:
Originally posted by lbsid:
An interesting take here:

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu...-of-the-ukraine-war/

ibsid, I read through that article quickly and honestly it just sounds like a bunch of Kremlin talking points.

'Kremlin talking points'...Maybe you should read it slower! Roll Eyes

Those are Historical FACTS in the Imprimis article from Hillsdale College!

Here's a video account of pretty much everything contained in that article:



____________________________________________________________

If Some is Good, and More is Better.....then Too Much, is Just Enough !!
Trump 2024....Make America Great Again!
"May Almighty God bless the United States of America" - parabellum 7/26/20
Live Free or Die!
 
Posts: 9579 | Location: New Hampshire | Registered: October 29, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Oliver Stone? I wouldn't trust anything he says.
 
Posts: 109734 | Registered: January 20, 2000Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by Broadside:
The Institute for the Study of War just published an article on Russia's information campaign. You can find the article at the link below. But I am also going to try to post it for those not interested in clicking the link:

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, FEBRUARY 12, 2023


Very good summary of Russian info ops. They used to rule the roost right up to their invasion of Ukraine; but maybe that was because they had no serious competition, and everyone was just staring at their intricate system of bots, troll factories, intelligence-affiliated hacking groups and in-, semi- and official news sites, compounded by sympathetic disinfo laundry outfits in the West, and thinking "ooooh, these guys are so good at manipulating public opinion, they're eroding democracy under our sorry asses!" Of course come the invasion, it turned out that resilience of Western society had been vastly underestimated - most of all by Russia itself.

Also, even more than the published US intelligence estimates accurately predicting the attack and always being a step ahead of their preparatory disinfo campaign, the Ukrainians ran a vastly superior propaganda effort in the early stages of the war, flooding social media with near real-time images of their plucky underdog troops delivering blows to the bumbling Goliath aggressor with ingeniuity and Western-delivered weapons. And somehow they managed that without compromising operational security, while the Russians had confiscated smartphones etc. from their soldiers over that exact fear.

For much of the first half year, the latter were reduced to Vietnam-style daily overblown bodycount statements of how many enemies they killed, how much equipment they destroyed, how many kilometers they advanced. Of course in aggregate, at some point they would have to had destroyed the entire Ukrainian army and be on the Polish border if you believed them (some people actually do believe there are next to no Ukrainian troops left, and it's all just NATO soldiers in Ukrainian uniforms ...).

By October, Russia had somewhat regained the propaganda initiative, mostly by pushing fears that they might go nuclear. Also, some war-weariness has set in throughout the West as grinding static warfare has returned following the unexpected Ukrainian successes in their sweeping fall offensives, with Russia resuming a "bite and hold" approach. As I noted elsewhere, there is a distinct recent uptick in disinfo activity while their expected spring offensive is building up.

They are also able to capitalize on a lot of groundwork they laid with their continuos earlier efforts - Ukrainian corruption and authoritarianism, Nazis, allegations of war crimes, the US blew up Nord Stream, etc.; they're even dusting off the American biolabs thing. There has always been a hard core of believers in the West who swallowed it all, but were somewhat marginalized over the course of last year. With recent gradual changes, they're getting more of a voice again.

Over here, surveys suggest that ca. 10 to 20 percent of Germans fully believe various Russian narratives, and another 15 to 25 do at least partially. There's an upcoming "peace demonstration" in two weeks initiated by the same wide assortment of suspects - leftists, feminists, peace activists and pro-Russian fellow travellers - who are back with the same reasoning they proffered last spring: So many people have been killed, maimed and raped in Ukraine, they should stop the war (read: surrender) to end the suffering, and most importantly avoid our latte being nuked.
 
Posts: 2464 | Location: Berlin, Germany | Registered: April 12, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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_________________________
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Posts: 13367 | Registered: January 17, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Poll: Less Than Half Of Americans Support Shipping Our Weapons To Ukraine

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nears its one-year anniversary on Feb. 24, many Americans’ patience is wearing thin. A new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that American support for shipping weapons and tax dollars off to Ukraine is declining.

Less than half of Americans, 48 percent, now say they favor the U.S. providing weapons to Ukraine, with 29 percent opposed and 22 percent neither in favor nor opposed. This is a decline from May 2022, when less than three months into the conflict 60 percent of U.S. adults were in favor of sending weapons to Ukraine.

Americans are equally divided on whether to send cash. Thirty-seven percent favor it, 38 percent are opposed, and 23 percent are neither in favor nor opposed.

For a war with no end in sight that has already cost U.S. taxpayers about $113 billion in less than one year, it makes sense that public support for funding the conflict is waning, especially as Americans are more concerned about how they’ll foot their wildly inflated grocery bill or handle declining wages, due in part to the influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Meanwhile, a fentanyl crisis — thanks to truckloads of illegal drugs smuggled into the country via the same disastrous border policies — is wreaking havoc on poor, blue-collar communities. More than 107,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2021 alone.

Americans seem to increasingly want the Biden administration to focus on issues at home. This is why almost half of them want Biden to help Ukraine negotiate a peace settlement with Russia. Perpetual funding of a proxy war overseas is simply not a priority for the average American, whether Democrat or Republican, which is probably why Biden administration officials reportedly warned Ukraine quietly that Americans have limited patience for endless wars.

https://thefederalist.com/2023...-weapons-to-ukraine/



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 24765 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Also, the way this guy dresses... it just seems fake.




"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 24765 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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That one on the right looks like a used car salesman. Or maybe door to door Kirby.. Big Grin
 
Posts: 17999 | Location: The Bluegrass State! | Registered: December 23, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by chellim1:
Also, the way this guy dresses... it just seems fake.
No kidding. That suit is way too small.


________________________________________________________
"Great danger lies in the notion that we can reason with evil." Doug Patton.
 
Posts: 20852 | Location: Montana | Registered: November 01, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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That photo looks like the Biden display at a wax museum.
 
Posts: 109734 | Registered: January 20, 2000Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Shaman
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My Ukrainian engineer dresses just like him.
Ugh. Maybe it's a Ukrainian thing.

On another note, he tells me his friends that are fighting are absolutely slaughtering Russians.
One friend is a medic. He has to treat wounded Russian POWs.





He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.
 
Posts: 39912 | Location: Atop the cockatoo tree | Registered: July 27, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
His diet consists of black
coffee, and sarcasm.
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Did I hear correctly that Nikki Haley wants to send them warplanes? Roll Eyes
 
Posts: 28947 | Location: Johnson City, TN | Registered: April 28, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Shall Not Be Infringed
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Just wait until they're all in for sending them warfighters... Roll Eyes


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