FLEA

I mean can we just get down to the county level and do some quid quo pro's? Id probably give China some east coast cities as well if they want em.....

Id want to keep Washington as well. Seattle is, well, its seen better days. But the Peugot Sound and northern cascades are still legendary outdoor wonders.

Wasn't the DoD getting more interested in stuff like this a few years ago, realizing China might have technology we don't understand?

Nah bud you didn't have the SA. Not we, you. Everyone else did and was trying to explain that--and we were examining public data with a finer degree of granularity and recognized the data available was based on assumptions that weren't compelling enough to justify the length of policy measures being made. This wasn't high level college statistics. It was basic data 101. Instead we were gaslighted, shut down and dismissed. You're advocacy permanently damaged lives and will go on to upset many more as we walk into a recession that will likely see a growth in homeless populations, and a correspondent rise of substance abuse. Trying to dismiss yourself of responsibility for it isn't going to fly.

They don't want to and their intention wouldn't be. However bringing in Belarus short term would be helpful to them. Bringing in Belarus on its own isn't problematic for Russia but Belarus has baggage with the rest of the EU that can quickly trigger something larger.

Its utterly ridiculous. Could you imagine us invading Mexico, and NATO obviously won't get involved. But when Mexico attacks some force staging areas in Texas all of a sudden NATO goes "woah Mexico....., that's an Article 5 violation! You attack one of us you attack us all!"

https://www.foxnews.com/media/dr-leana-wen-slammed-admitting-theres-been-overcounting-covid-deaths-two-half-years-late Its like people sat on the train tracks for 2 years watching a train coming at them in slow motion and just said it was going to be ok over and over. Now they are realizing they are about to be hit by a train and they are scared and want accountability? Like good lord, I can go back in this thread to 2020 and see people talking about this exact topic. It was well known hospitals received additional federal funding based on "how bad" the COVID pandemic appeared to hit their facilities and associating deaths with COVID was the best way to secure more grants.

They don't even need a false flag. Ukraine has already launched drone attacks into Russian territory (like actual Russia, not "new Russia") That's enough pretense under their current language.

I wonder if they understand how ridiculous this sounds to even some of the conflict's staunches skeptics to include me: This is pretty scary. The conditions are being set to escalate this into a much wider regional conflict. https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-sets-ultimatum-formally-pull-184620634.html

That wasnt an internal collapse. More correctly the fall of the Soviet union would be a dissolution because it was orchestrated from the inside by design and the central government remained in power. An event like that happening again is completely reliant on Putin releasing control to a person who is heavily pro-west. Considering Putin believes the fall of the Soviet Union was the most tragic event to occur in global history should give you some insight into how likely that is. When people are concerned about internal collapse they are more so referring to the fallout of an enormous power vacuum if the central government is vacated. In which case the primary concern is a power grab by strongmen and oligarchs, purges, revolts, and insurgency.

Er..... lots of feelings and assumptions in those statements, lol.

What exactly do you guys think is going to happen to those weapons if Russia experiences internal collapse?

No, what I'm saying is the likely inevitability is that Russia is going to go down in history as one of the most benevolent actors with possession of nuclear weapons. And that's a sad but truthful statement.

It's an honest and sincere question. I would like to see where people build the structures that upheld that belief. My reason is because the I-NPT is getting weaker every year and will likely collapse in a matter of time. And I largely believe the US is making a mistake is not accepting that we are probably going to have to accept living in a nuclear armed world with little regulation to control. For example, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea now or have previously operated outside the I-NPT. Another 5-7 countries and I think it would be fair to say the treaty is 100% unenforceable. There is also the perspective that if it wasn't for Russia we'd live in a more dangerous world. (In the sense that those 5K weapons exist whether we like it or not. Russia at least has the authority and control to safeguard then where as a Russian collapse would most certainly assure they find their way in the hands of irresponsible actors.)

Why?

To be honest, now that Biff_T mentions it, they may need to amend this policy to not apply to load masters.

This was amazing.

I think a lot of people on this forum are going to have had diverse experiences with how close their interactions were with Afghan counterparts and their impression of those reactions. I understand why people believe what they believe but its not my experience there and I see a lot of apple and oranges comparisons. One thing Afghanistan missed sorely was a leader like Zelensky. Rather they got a corrupt president who fled before any fighting even got close to him and took a butt load of cash with him. That's a pretty damning action in war and one that almost guarantees the other side victory.

This is probably the best response to this whole debacle I've read, so thanks for articulating as well as you did. I appreciate your understanding that this is not a humanitarian mission and is simply a state interest to remove Russia from the strings of power. Dont 100% agree that it should be a state interest but this explanation makes thousands of times more sense than the normally emotionally based "but the Ukrainians were invaded....."

So people aren't worthy because they were born in Africa and not Europe? What makes Ukrainians more worthy than say Nigerians? Hell of a choice of language.....

Is it made by same people that make the GSA approved home bathroom e-mail servers?

The best thing that's going to come out of that program (Space Force) is an enormous research population to study. Its really clear that nutritionist and scientist aren't 100% confident on what's happening with obesity/health in the US. There is clearly a hormonal link that is altering our body's chemistry to manage hunger to the point that the simple CICO advice that was ingrained for nearly 5 decades isn't sufficient to really address the underlying crises. You can only tell a person to stop eating but if their brain is literally convincing their instinctual responses that the body is starving they are going to struggle to ever be anything but overweight.

Lets be honest for a minute..... we aren't talking about the US ever getting invaded. This is 100% about us being able to flex power on different continents. For the foreseeable future, at least several generations, the US is a fortress due to perfect oceanic terrain. Was already mentioned this above but by sheer force projection, spending, capability we do. If you are measuring raw manpower fine but its not a good measure. Also are you really worried about China invading the US? We are skeptical China can even invade Taiwan right now.... What is your concern here?

If you are measuring by manpower alone, then no. But if you are measuring by accumulated power (industrial, machine, materiel and assets) then yes, we do. This is a really useful site I go back to often for evaluating force strengths: https://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-listing.php