February 2, 20232 yr Just in case anyone hasn't been sufficiently riled by what I've written, Germany has some interesting things to say the The Times. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/who-attacked-nord-stream-pipeline-russia-uk-west-ukraine-war-wv99ds7tx If you don't have a sub: https://archive.ph/GE07Q#selection-963.185-963.467 “I understand, especially in times of war, that these delicate investigations may require secrecy,” Konstantin von Notz, the chairman of the German parliamentary committee that oversees the intelligence services, told the Tagesspiegel newspaper. “[But] in a constitutional state, the public has a right to know what really happened. The federal government must break its silence very soon, create transparency, or at least present a plausible narrative.” A failure to do so is likely to spark dangerous conspiracy theories and “wild speculation”, warned Roderich Kiesewetter, the deputy head of the Bundestag committee. It is also important, analysts said, to determine how the attack was carried out at a time when other critical infrastructure could be at risk during the war in Ukraine. A western analyst, who asked not to be identified, admitted that he was surprised by the paucity of information that had so far been made available by investigators. “This was a major infrastructure attack. It’s strange that we’ve heard very little.” The Kremlin has furiously denied any suggestions that it would have targeted its own pipelines, calling the allegations “stupid and absurd”. And some western officials appear to agree. The German investigation is thought to have made little progress so far, with officials having yet to uncover any compelling evidence. However, The Times understands that they remain open to theories that a western state carried out the bombing with the aim of blaming it on Russia. August Hanning, a former director of Germany’s foreign intelligence service, argued late last year, however, that several other countries besides Russia could conceivably have had an interest in disabling the pipelines. He named the United States, Ukraine, Poland and Britain. “They all have their reasons,” he said. All four countries, as well as the Baltic states, were opposed to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline over fears that the Kremlin’s weaponisation of energy supplies would increase Russia’s political influence in Europe at a time when relations between Moscow and the West were at a post-Cold War low.
February 2, 20232 yr 2 minutes ago, Lord Ratner said: Did you change your username, torqued? I did. No real reason. Just decided to switch it up.
February 3, 20232 yr 54 minutes ago, gearhog said: I did. No real reason. Just decided to switch it up. Receiving now? Sorry. However, I do want to thank you for the ToL link (above), I have a subscription and think that is well worth $2./mo.
February 4, 20232 yr Yesterday, Zalensky lamented that the Ukrainian people have lost motivation. Not a good sign. “I believe that at the very beginning of the war, the spirit was stronger. We were all at war. In places where there was no occupation. We had a complete feeling that we were all at war. Now I see in some cities that they are rest. I think that this is a weakness," Zelensky said at a press conference following the Ukraine-EU summit in Kyiv. In this regard, he called on Ukrainian journalists to unite in order to strengthen the spirit of the nation. "I would like to appeal, first of all, to the journalists of our state. You need to unite as soon as possible, strengthen this spirit, remind those who are on vacation that we are all at war and remind you how it all began.” It’s the journalists responsibility to get a population to support war. The State gives instructions to the journalists, and the journalists give instructions to the people. That’s how it is supposed to work, right? https://interfax.com.ua/news/general/888952-amp.html
February 4, 20232 yr Humanitarian volunteer, Marine vet killed in Ukraine while helping civilians | Fox News Regardless of anyone's political views on the conflict, sad news out of Ukraine. If any of you watched the show Hunting ISIS you'll recognize Reed. After his service in the Marines he'd dedicated his life to medically helping people in conflict zones.
February 5, 20232 yr sounds like zelensky needs to start negotiating for peace before he gets steamrolled this spring
February 5, 20232 yr 39 minutes ago, BashiChuni said: sounds like zelensky needs to start negotiating for peace before he gets steamrolled this spring Like last spring when everything was on Russia's side? What is the difference maker this go around?
February 5, 20232 yr 6 minutes ago, BashiChuni said: mobilization Do you think their second mobilization will fare better? As far as I can tell, the first mob resulted in the loss of gained territory. They skipped the quality guys the first couple times around? Edited February 5, 20232 yr by uhhello
February 5, 20232 yr Most estimates put Russian casualties at 200,000. The initial partial mobilization sent an estimated 20k of age men fleeing to other countries. They have cleaned out their jails to fill Wagner ranks. With longer range weapons and expertise, Russians supply lines are getting much longer. Ukraine has to be getting thin on manpower but they are the defender at this point and they have shorter supply lines and the backing of the most of the free world. I would think they have some fallback plans in place to bait the Russians a bit but I'm just a guy on the internet.
February 5, 20232 yr 1 hour ago, BashiChuni said: sounds like zelensky needs to start negotiating for peace before he gets steamrolled this spring Surely the Russians are just about done hurling their conscripts at Ukraine to "deplete their weapons" and in spring the "real military" will come out...right?
February 5, 20232 yr Ukraine is taking heavy casualties as well, and also has people fleeing to avoid conscription. These issues aren't one sided. It's accelerated attrition on both sides. Ukraine does have the advantage of being the defender though. They don't have to have the impetus to act.
February 5, 20232 yr 22 minutes ago, FLEA said: Ukraine is taking heavy casualties as well, and also has people fleeing to avoid conscription. These issues aren't one sided. It's accelerated attrition on both sides. Ukraine does have the advantage of being the defender though. They don't have to have the impetus to act. Agreed. I think mother Russia is in the hole on this one though. I can't imagine there are many Ukrainian fighting age males who aren't involved in the war effort in some fashion.
February 5, 20232 yr 26 minutes ago, pawnman said: Surely the Russians are just about done hurling their conscripts at Ukraine to "deplete their weapons" and in spring the "real military" will come out...right? Phase 7 comrade. Possibly 7.5
February 5, 20232 yr Underestimate the Russian bear at your own risk. How many more hundreds of billions should we be willing to invest in the most corrupt country in Europe? Edited February 5, 20232 yr by BashiChuni
February 5, 20232 yr 22 minutes ago, uhhello said: Agreed. I think mother Russia is in the hole on this one though. I can't imagine there are many Ukrainian fighting age males who aren't involved in the war effort in some fashion. There's a large community of them in my city right now. A lot of upper middle class males fled conscription by leveraging international business contacts to get overseas temp work visas. I live in a major financial hub that already house a large Ukrainian sub-population--which is how I became aware of it. Its probably less so a problem than for Russia but its still a significant population. Its like the same thing that happened with Afghan terps/contractors. The country goes to crap and they start making phone calls to people they knew to help them navigate the immigration pathways. Unfortunately for the Afghans that tried this, US military members aren't in a great position to provide work related sponsorships. But with Ukraine specifically they had a lot of trade in arts/entertainment/wealth management with the US and Western Europe. Edited February 5, 20232 yr by FLEA
February 5, 20232 yr 33 minutes ago, BashiChuni said: Underestimate the Russian bear at your own risk. How many more hundreds of billions should we be willing to invest in the most corrupt country in Europe? As much as it takes to utterly destroy Russia. This is easily the most effective and efficient military spending we've ever done. We've set Russia back decades, for less than the 10% of the DoD budget.
February 5, 20232 yr I recently had an overnight in Kansas City. Went to the WWI museum. Absolutely fantastic. The section at the beginning devoted to the social, economic, and political situations honestly gave me chills as they nearly identically describe the types of things we’re seeing today. Upstairs, they had a section for the conflicts in Russia. I think it’s a little to easy to be removed from the conflict as all of us are, read headlines, and make an accurate assessment as to who is more committed. This not nearly as one-sided or the outcome as predetermined as most seem to think.
February 5, 20232 yr why do you want to utterly destroy russia? and replace it with what? haven't we already learned this nation building lesson before?
February 5, 20232 yr 1 minute ago, BashiChuni said: why do you want to utterly destroy russia? and replace it with what? haven't we already learned this nation building lesson before? Exactly 20 years ago today. Fool me once…
February 5, 20232 yr this is why its dangerous to stick our nose where it doesn't belong. Ukraine means NOTHING to the US. NOTHING. it's not a NATO country. it has ZERO national security implications for us. well maybe something to the bidens...$$$...
February 5, 20232 yr 1 hour ago, BashiChuni said: this is why its dangerous to stick our nose where it doesn't belong. Ukraine means NOTHING to the US. NOTHING. it's not a NATO country. it has ZERO national security implications for us. well maybe something to the bidens...$$$... To you, it means nothing to you. Luckily you have a very significant minority opinion among regular Americans. Even better, thankfully you and people like you aren't in charge of our foreign policy, because you'd just hang a country and it's people out to dry in order to be violently invaded by it's neighbor & one of our chief geopolitical foes. How about instead we do what we've been doing, support the Ukrainian people, kneecap the Russian military and Putin's dreams of a renewed Russian Empire, and safeguard a democratic and peaceful Europe once the Russian's inevitably slink back home bloodied and defeated. Edited February 5, 20232 yr by nsplayr
February 6, 20232 yr kind of like my minority opinion on the vax and fauci and lockdowns... yeah cause our foreign policy has been SO well run post WWII let me count the successes!!! oh wait... ukraine is being used as a chess piece on the board...don't give me this "support the ukranian people" bull shit...if we really cared about them we'd have not pushed nato up to the border of russia since 1990 Edited February 6, 20232 yr by BashiChuni
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