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4 minutes ago, Danny Bateman said:

 

We're keenly aware of what's going on on the ground. It seems us and the U.K. had the best intel in all of this, reportedly surprising/angering Putin at how much the West knew ahead of time, with the intel services of France/Germany being comparatively terrible (they both thought there would be no invasion). The head of a German intel service had to flee Kiev on foot due to how poor the intel was....

 

We also had special forces ready to roll and extract Zelensky which he summarily declined in the most badass fashion ever. I've heard reports of U.S. air forces already over Ukraine in some limited fashion (not sure what) and the NATO task force has been activated as well.

 

The Ukrainians themselves have done REMARKABLY well at slowing the Russians down every step of the way. Anti-air measures still appear active, they've recaptured/held/blocked off a lot of airports to further prevent resupply by air, they've reported blown up every train route into Kiev to prevent resupply via train, taking out bridges - I believe there was a story of one young man even giving his life to blow up a very strategically important bridge to deny the invaders passage. What incredible bravery these people have.

 

I believe Rubio was the one who hinted at potential poor health for Putin recently. That would make sense.

 

Regardless, the West has done a good job supplying the Ukrainians with the right defense systems and they've done amazing well taking the fight to the invaders. The question is how to escalate  should further escalation be required. The sanctions so far and removing Russian banks from SWIFT have been amazing - isolating Russia from the world will extract a very heavy toll. But direct military intervention will likely require further escalation by Putin, sadly. I just hope someone is documenting all the war crimes being committed in the mean time to use against him in the ICJ.

 

Regardless this entire debacle makes Russian leadership look weak and stupid as hell.

 

 

The other thing Putin seems to have done is shown the world what a paper tiger his conventional forces are.  I'm almost willing to bet he's going start slaughtering civilians via weapons such as the thermobaric bombs we've seen rolling in.  To me he looks like he's on a murder/suicide mission.  His decision making from the start of this has been baffling.  Madman level decisions.

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4 minutes ago, Scarlet said:

The other thing Putin seems to have done is shown the world what a paper tiger his conventional forces are.  I'm almost willing to bet he's going start slaughtering civilians via weapons such as the thermobaric bombs we've seen rolling in.  To me he looks like he's on a murder/suicide mission.  His decision making from the start of this has been baffling.  Madman level decisions.

Yep...this is why I saying he is in a no-win situation.

 

They are about 2 weeks away from being the laughing stock of the world.

 

They will go from "feared" to laughed at in 3 weeks.

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5 minutes ago, Scarlet said:

The other thing Putin seems to have done is shown the world what a paper tiger his conventional forces are.  I'm almost willing to bet he's going start slaughtering civilians via weapons such as the thermobaric bombs we've seen rolling in.  To me he looks like he's on a murder/suicide mission.  His decision making from the start of this has been baffling.  Madman level decisions.

 

I'm assuming incompetence rather than insanity right now. He's been largely isolated in a power structure where no one tells him no for several years (worse during COVID I assume) huffing his own brilliance for too long. He may have convinced himself his military is much mightier than it actually is. One of the drawbacks to running a corrupt petrostate is you're not likely to adequately train and outfit your military as you should. Maybe he's just finding that out now.

 

Someone on Reddit put it well: He may be a brilliant strategist but a terrible tactician. Thus he knows his plan but can't spearhead his war for beans.

 

This also raises the question: What IS his endgame if Ukraine ultimately falls? Installing a puppet regime and keeping the country int he fold in any beneficial way? That will be incredibly expensive and require a lot of work, especially now that he's baked in a fierce resistance from the actual Ukrainians and they've destroyed so much critical infrastructure already. Turning the country to glass with indiscriminate bombing won't help that at all and more war crimes is a bad look which means stiffer penalties from the rest of the world.

 

I mean aside from all the human suffering and loss of life, which is most consequential, what a gigantic f#&%up this whole thing has been for Putin.

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@Scarlet He's been doing this kind of posturing for decades. Just a few years ago he made a big deal and said his force would deploy low yield tactical nukes if NATO ever engaged them. At this point I wonder if his nukes even have propellant. :lol:

 

This dude is a fossil of the cold war, but it's the only real threat has left at this point. Like a somebody pulling a gun in a fist fight you have to take it seriously because they can f#&% everything up. If he uses them it's, at a minimum, the end of Putin and Russia and he knows it, but he just might be sick enough to do it.

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17 hours ago, Notre Dame Joe said:

I've been hearing that all day.  I am just wondering where are the Amazon trucks supposed to drop it off?  Russians already have access to the main roads and airports even if they aren't yet secured.

 

I thought that name sounded familiar.  It's the same guy?

 

Yep. And where you been, Notre Dame Joe?  Seems like you haven't posted for a year.

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1 hour ago, NM11046 said:

I just saw some Biden cabinet member say on a morning show that air defense and putting american lives at risk is currently not on the table.  So we'll probably be doing that soon 

which is smart.    if we get troops involved in the shooting it is the start of WW3.   the ukrainians have a smart strategy.  they are letting the big tank columns drive by...then sniping the supply convoys and small units whenever they have the chance.   the advance columns grind to a halt when the fuel supply is disrupted.   also seeing reports that russian troops are having to loot food now.  this  is buying time for the sanctions to really start hurting the russian economy.  as long as anti tank and anti aircraft weapons keep flowing in the russian troops will be paying the price.    the best estimates right now say russia has already lost over 4,000 dead troops so far.   not sure how that number is reached but judging from all the destroyed equipment i've seen it seems plausible.                              

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4 minutes ago, commando said:

which is smart.    if we get troops involved in the shooting it is the start of WW3.   the ukrainians have a smart strategy.  they are letting the big tank columns drive by...then sniping the supply convoys and small units whenever they have the chance.   the advance columns grind to a halt when the fuel supply is disrupted.   also seeing reports that russian troops are having to loot food now.  this  is buying time for the sanctions to really start hurting the russian economy.  as long as anti tank and anti aircraft weapons keep flowing in the russian troops will be paying the price.    the best estimates right now say russia has already lost over 4,000 dead troops so far.   not sure how that number is reached but judging from all the destroyed equipment i've seen it seems plausible.                              

 

Also gives the Ukrainians a chance to restock their supply of Russian military equipment.

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If you're doing a vintage tanks and troop invasion ala previous land wars in Europe, you are absolutely a sitting duck for one modest attack of an advanced air force.

 

Extraordinarily tempting.

 

But the glee in a humiliated Vladimir Putin is quickly replaced by wondering what a humiliated Vladimir Putin would do next, as he's already calculated this as the end game of his career. 

 

Sidebar: Madison Cawthorn told a CPAC audience that he wants a U.S. President that terrifies the world. I don't know if that got applause, but sure, why not. 

 

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1 hour ago, Scarlet said:

The other thing Putin seems to have done is shown the world what a paper tiger his conventional forces are.  I'm almost willing to bet he's going start slaughtering civilians via weapons such as the thermobaric bombs we've seen rolling in.  To me he looks like he's on a murder/suicide mission.  His decision making from the start of this has been baffling.  Madman level decisions.

Condoleezza Rice agrees with you. The dude just heightened the nuke readiness. I hope he doesn’t choose that path as an alternative to humiliation.
someone in his cabinet needs to take him out.

 

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/condoleezza-rice-putin-russia-erratic-ukraine
 

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