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understanding the "why" behind putin's moves is not "signing his praises". he's a bad dude for sure. he is acting rationally in what HE thinks the best interest of Russia are. so many in the media dismiss him as "crazy", but in my opinion he's anything but crazy. he's been warning us and telling us what HIS red lines are and the west hasn't listened. we have zero interest in getting involved in WW3 to "save" ukraine. zero. it's scary to see how many Americans are clamoring for war when they have no idea how this conflict came into be. American foreign policy has been a total disaster since Korea. we need to sit this one out.

Prior to Omicron, the vaccine was thought to effectively reduce risk of and severity of infection. If you’re not infected, you can’t spread it; if the severity is reduced, then presumably the viral load and risk of spreading were also reduced. Realistically, the “no-mask if you’re vaxed” policies were probably just to incentivize getting the jab.

There was were so many half-truths or flat out misleading statements in the 1st 10 minutes of that horseshit it got tough to keep up. It’s pretty shocking to me that a former US Marine could believe in or support that filth.

Less than 5 minutes in & they’re already apologizing for Putin and cupping his balls. No need to listen to any more of their pro-despotic drivel. Go post that garbage somewhere else.

You're willing to place that bet though? Your ready to deal with the consequences of being wrong? You don't think he would push the button but lots of people certainly think he is. What brings you so much confidence that others don't have? The dude just dropped a vacuum bomb in the middle of a major population center. He is already not far from using nuclear weapons. And the more you pit him in a corner the less he has to lose. Also realize, our own media has a shade of bias in it regarding innocent casualties. Certainly many are tragic like the children, but also remember Ukraine MPs are in the squares handing rifles out to anyone who will take them. That taints things quite a bit. So far most of the targets causing high civilian deaths have also had military value (tv towers, industrial centers, government offices). Russia has also done this without the modern advances in targeting pods, ISR and PGMs the US has developed. Russia has also sent broadcast for safe passage for civilians out of cities and warning civilians that remain will be declared combatants. Why am I mentioning that? Because that is exactly what we did in Mosul, Tabqa, and Raqqa. We declared every male in those cities combatants regardless of their intentions for remaining. So I think we need to recognize there is more similarity in these approaches than there are differences. I'm not an apologist for Russia. I still think what they're doing is horrible, and I by no means support it. But I don't think going in with so much force that we push a side to miscalculation is a good way to pursue this.

This thought process (the one you are describing of other Americans) is endemic of our habit of framing everything under a banner moral interventionalism. Everyone is looking for "who is the good guy" and "who is the bad guy" and very few people fail to see outside the black and white that in war 99% of people are grey. Know thy enemy is a basic intellectual principal of war but so many people would rather resort to the academically lazy solution of just presuming the enemy is irrational. How does a person who lacks ration and reason get and maintain power of an enormous nuclear nation state? Just doesn't make sense....

For anyone else who finds what Scott Ritter has to say “interesting”, please note he currently pens opinion pieces for RT, Russia’s state propaganda network. That network currently claims there’s no invasion of Ukraine going on right now cause videos of Ukrainian children being ripped apart by Russian high explosives would be bad for Putin’s image. Furthermore, he was arrested and convicted in a child sex sting operation and served time in prison. Personally I’m not gonna use a guy who’s actually been convicted trying to get his rocks off with kids as a source for anything regardless of how intelligent they are on a given topic but you do you.

I will say this about Adam. I have personal knowledge that he was extraordinarily instrumental to the evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies back in August and September. He has my respect for that.

Yup! It was like the very first ils clearance in pilot training. You knew exactly what was coming, prepared for it, rehearsed it, then: ATC: Iron 73 fly heading 150, maintain 3000 feet until established, cleared the ILS runway 13 right. Me: Iron board 737, cleared to land 3000 feet, heading 13, good OBOGS. The other mind fuck is your first experience with ramp. Imagine trying to drive a 737 through a six-lane roundabout in Kabul during rush hour. That's pretty close to CLT ramp.

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PREVENT escalation? let me get this straight...you think 2 squadrons of vipers and a b-1 bombing russian forces would "prevent" escalation? jesus dude. putin is acting in the best interest of russia based on how he sees the world. it is what it is. the whole "fighting for ukranian freedom" argument does not justify US involvement in a war. give the ukranians weapons sure, but for fucks sake no direct US involvement.

If Putin starts slinging arty and FAE's into urban areas will the world still sit idly by? There are an estimated 3 million people still in Kyiv. There is even concern Putin will resort to tactical nukes given his fumbling army, what happens then? This sad story is FAR from over and it could get MUCH worse.

the united states has zero national security interests in Ukraine. This conflict has seeds going back decades. it's a fight between ukraine and russia. conflicts are tragic. civilians are dying. that does not change the geopolitical calculus for the US. we have zero responsibility to get involved. let europe fight that war if they want. you are speaking as someone who has no background on how we got here and your type of grandiose chest thumping hubris is how America has gotten ourselves into horrible messes.

I agree. He's been pretty brilliant as far as achieving his goals in his role. He seemed to be 2 steps ahead of everyone else the whole way. What I cant figure out is what his own intel on his own forces was. Did he know he could barely move his army 400 miles? Did he know his logistics were that poor? Or is this all part of his ruse to draw in more nations? Russia is taking heavy losses we needed to step up...oh btw you were funneling arms in through Poland so thats mine now? The other big question is what is victory for him at this point? He is interested in marking his legacy. If he concedes and only takes a chunk of Ukraine and goes home, but the costs was isolating Russia from the global economy worth it? No statues of himself for that. If he is defeated in Ukraine and goes home then hes a total failure. At this point the only glimpse of a victory would be inflicting as much damage as he can on his way out. I dont see how he or Russia recovers.

Not to derail, but I got a relative thats into all those conspiracies and so I told him that the russians and chinese have been creating and pushing those conspiracies, getting him to think the way they want. The reaction was entertaining. But yes, russian propaganda is out there. And now its safe to label Ritter as one of them.

It seems there are many people who want to somehow fit this war into their globalist cabal narrative/conspiracy theory & that they’re willing to give a brutal dictator who is now killing civilians en masse a pass while claiming western leaders are the evil and stupid ones. Putin himself couldn’t have come up with a better lie. I’m sure he revels in the fact that American “patriots” are singing his praises. Pathetic.

Clearly COVID is being pivoted away from. It’s over. Thankfully. Although the deaths are higher this year. But doesn’t feel like it due to media turning down the fear mongering. I bet they’ll try to bring restrictions and masks back in the fall when we get a spike.

Had a taxi in there where we literally never talked to ground. The freq was so busy that every time I tried to key the mic, the controller started talking. Finally, the capt just taxied to the gate (landed on the inside runway, so didn't have to cross any runways). I kept waiting for the CPO to call, but I guess no one noticed.

They've got the UAV's. Can't they start plinking away at that line? A few selectively placed missiles along that convoy may send some of them packing.

Well the ScIEnCe has changed. get with the times.

Fuel and food.

While setting the parking brake at the gate on my first IOE leg into ORD, CKA turns to me (still wearing my WTF just happened face) and says “Welcome to O’Hare, world’s largest uncontrolled field.”

I would set it, and then move it if you have to

Finally got the word…headed to Columbus w/ CSD of 22 Dec!! On a separate note if anyone is going to MFS this week let me know. Managed to commandeer a rental car for the trip.

Does anyone have a contact at the NGB to check on the status of a packet? Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Are their troops surrendering without fighting, texting their mom’s saying they initially thought it was an exercise, and running out of fuel in their equipment part of that strategy?

To be clear, Kinzinger is not running for reelection to Congress. IL lost a house seat, and when they did the redistricting, he was the odd man out. As tends to happen when you try to play both sides.

A couple of years ago I did an intentional search for nails made in the USA. At the time there was one remaining manufacturer that supposedly made nails in the US. I can't say my search was 100% exhaustive, but it made me do a similar search on other manufactured products and it confirmed how little we produce here at home. For many items we source the raw material and send it to China (or elsewhere) to have it fabricated and sent back. Pretty shocking how little we actually make and that it's cheaper to send product to China and back rather than make it here. I know I'm unique here in the US, but having grown up in Taiwan it worries me how serious the threat really is to one of the few young democracies in the world. Taiwanese have grown from an autocratic more or less dictatorship (KMT run and controlled) while I was there (1970-1980) into a fully functioning democracy fighting for it's very existence in a world that fails to recognize them as an independent state. General CKS basically doomed Taiwan to the current situation by being so dogmatic that he was the ruler of all of China when the UN in the early 1970s chose the CCP as the official Chinese government.

I wonder if any of the supporters of the storming of COVID Beach regret the needless casualties DoD suffered now that the world is going back to somewhat normal? I'm betting not.

Badass patches is great for all kinds of patches and name tags Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you're at base that has flyers there might be a tailor shop outside of base that can make one for you.

*organ crescendos* Aaaah-Aaaaah-aaahhh-Ahhhhh-mmmmmen. Slava Ukraini.

This is what happens when we spend the last 2 decades (and personally a bunch of days in OIF/OEF) focusing on the COIN fight and not near peer. 😁 I do recall a conversation I had with an 82nd ABN E-7 Ranger more than a few years ago when I first heard about the Javelin. He told me the Javelin is no joke and gives a lot of teeth to the infantry that wasn't there before. I can't believe in hindsight how prophetic it was. Copy that. More Javelins

Funny how that works.

so i guess covid's over huh? midterms coming up and a coordinated dropping of mask mandates, vax cards, vax mandates, etc so scientific!

Incorrect. Many, many people have and do. You simply disagree with the argument. While absurdism is very useful in determining the realistic bounds of an argument, it's still absurdism. So the line is between your absurd hypothetical and the reality of conscription. You are conveniently leaving out a core component of individual freedom, which is the ability to opt out. Leave, go somewhere that doesn't have conscription and respects individual freedom to the maximalist level you are suggesting. You may find it difficult to locate such a society, because such a society most likely exists only in hypothetical conversations. Just as my personal freedom to live on the moon is limited by the physiological realities of a lunar atmosphere, your desire to live in a society that both honors individuality and personal choice while shunning conscription in times of existential threat is limited by the sociological realities of human nature. What you want is simply impossible with the tools you have. Therefore it is absurd. Perhaps one day it will not be. Retroactive takes on history always seem to compare what was done many years ago with what would be done today, or even worse, and a hypothetical society of peak enlightenment. This is the same nonsense mindset that is used against the founding Fathers for participating in slavery, Churchill for his views of colonialism, or comedians for their sexist jokes in the 80s. What was the alternative in the 1930s and 40s, and what would have happened in conflicts before then? How many multicultural societies existed or had existed to the extent the United States had already diversified by then? What was the playbook for having a large population of citizens from a ethnically homogeneous country that had just declared absolute war and attacked your homeland? It's incredibly conceited to use modern norms to judge the past, just as it's incredibly small-minded to use hypothetical best-case outcomes to compare to actual outcomes of previous campaigns. Slavery and genocide are wrong, but it takes a long time to overcome the brutality of nature and reach very unnatural philosophical conclusions. We are gradually working our way towards a set of ideals that are even today are still hypothetical. Just as Olympic runners get closer and closer to the 2-hour marathon, there is no reason to believe 2 hours is just a step on the way to 90 minutes. Your Rand-ian belief in absolute freedom is a yet-unproven theory. We've done quite well getting closer to that goal, but many libertarians miss the irony in castigating socialists for seeking Communist Utopia while promoting an impossible utopia of their own. In your case, a land of absolute individual freedom that somehow survives the predations of the surrounding illiberal societies.

Thanks for the response. What it comes down to is that the vast majority of people are only willing to stand up for their principles when it causes them very little (if any) change to their life style. Hence why right now the US and Europe is still buying oil/gas from Russia. I have zero problems admitting that I’ll continue buying products made in China after Taiwan is invaded. Doing so doesn’t mean you support the invasion anymore than buying fuel from Saudi Arabia equates to your support of their oppression of women. Now if I can get the same/similar product for close to the same price from somewhere else, then sure. This is what happens with massive global trade and being willing to partner with nations who don’t share foundational common ideals. To be fair, we’re getting further away in this country from sharing foundational common ideals.

Always interesting when this topic comes up. Usually way more bad advice than good. Here it is laid out in simple terms. 1. Don’t lie… to anyone. Except your #3 girlfriend. 2. if you have a medical issue, tell tour treating physicians, and get it treated. 3. Tell your AME what you are being or have been treated for. See #1. Learn what PRNC means. It will save you time. It’s that simple. You should never worry if there is a VA Disability Condition that will keep you from getting an FAA Medical. Why? Because you either have the conditions or you don’t. If you do, you shouldn’t have an FAA medical. If you don’t it doesn’t matter. If you do, and say you don’t, or vise versa you are lying and will end up in jail if you are caught.

great post. i wanna add #4. 4. If we commit...we commit. No bull shit ROE. Total war, gloves off, unleash the devils to annihilate the enemy. Annihilate. Not win hearts and minds. Total devastation and destruction of the enemy. I think Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War 1 (not finishing the job all the way to Baghdad), and the GWOT have taught us that "police actions/limited wars" are not successful endeavors. If we fight we fight to win with 100% of our effort.

Here are three lessons from AFG we should be smart enough to apply in UKR: 1. We should not attempt fighting a battle for those who don’t care enough to fight it themselves. The idea Prozac expressed, that we must stop tyranny here before it spreads everywhere, is undercut by the unwillingness of Europe to defend itself. If Germany isn’t worried about Russia threatening them, why are we? We aren’t isolationists; if Europe is banding together against an aggressive Russia I’m in. But the situation looks like we’re overly aggressive defending a continent who is apathetic about our noble notions. We should be smarter. Do not fight a war for Europe that Europe won’t fight itself. 2. This one is tough to articulate: There are boundaries that if adversaries cross we should fight. But we should not artificially move those boundaries, then fight over artificially made boundaries. In AFG we said “AQ attacked us, we have to crush them & their ability to do it again.” Yup, 100% right. I spent my adult life doing it. But then we foolishly transitioned into “we must spread democracy here, as a strategic hedge against AQ ever growing again . Now we’ll stay for decades forcing democracy.” Fighting to prop up GIRoA was dumb, even GIRoA didn’t believe in itself. We should have left after smashing the enemy, let grow whatever political system worked for the Afghans, and come back to smash them again if required. With Ukraine, the line we cannot allow to be crossed is a NATO member being attacked. “If they attack UKR they’ll attack Poland!” Maybe, we don’t know. But if that’s the case, we should fight when they attack Poland (Article 5), not at an artificially made assumption before the one we actually care about. It is hubris to assume you know what the future holds. 3. We should not commit troops to war unless our nation actually wants it and we authorize it correctly through Congress. This thing we’ve all done for the last 20 years was stupid, unpopular, devastating to our national credibility, national debt, and the lives of service members. And ultimately we gained nothing from it. Now the same people are telling us we have to do something similar in Ukraine, and we should trust them. But our countrymen don’t want it, so it will fail. In light of these three items, we should be clear eyed about our prospects for success on this misadventure in Ukraine. And although this final item might seem political, it is relevant: given the obvious and massive corrupt political connections between our presidents family and Ukrainian oligarchs, can any of us trust that the information we are receiving about the situation is correct?

i listened to the entire thing. it's very interesting and i'd encourage anyone who wants to actually learn the history of this conflict to give it a listen. knowing your enemy is important. one more youtube video and one more article related to the topic: https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-follows-decades-of-warnings-that-nato-expansion-into-eastern-europe-could-provoke-russia-177999