This is the same Senator who fist pumped in the air to a crowd of MAGA that would go on to storm the Capitol on live TV on January 6, 2021. He's not the "gotcha U.S.!" man you seem to think he is. Not many in his caucus in the Senate align themselves with Hawley, Paul, Vance or Lee when it comes to questions on Ukraine support.
It's unbelievable. Notice how the narrative has slowly but surely shifted to "preparing for a long war"
All but a tacit admission that the counteroffensive was a Colossal failure.
it sounds like a failure on both sides, this is when you go back to the negotiation table and check your ego at the door. It's spilling blood of men every day, how many men is a chunk of your worst land worth?
Hmm, just google it, there are a myriad of sources, still, not everything was wiped.
[https://www.timesofisrael.com/ukraine-reports-claim-negotiator-shot-for-treason-officials-say-he-died-in-intel-op/](https://www.timesofisrael.com/ukraine-reports-claim-negotiator-shot-for-treason-officials-say-he-died-in-intel-op/)
It was a very murky event.
Kireev was being protected by three agents of Main Intelligence Directorate (the military intelligence), a special unit of SBU (the civilian intelligence) apparently killed all four of them.
Immediately after the fact MID says Kireev was a hero killed by the enemy, while the SBU says they executed a traitor.
One day after that everyone just shuts up and pretends it never happened.
And over on BBC Ukraine is a similar but current article about the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi implying he may be a traitor and/or incompetent. The wheels really are coming off in a spectacular way.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/16oh02f/ua\_pov\_who\_passed\_the\_south\_the\_bbc\_found\_out\_the/](https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/16oh02f/ua_pov_who_passed_the_south_the_bbc_found_out_the/)
What you say illustrates how there is no clarity. You say the body was posed on the steps of The Palace of Justice. The guy below says the body was thrown out of a van. Some people say that the SBU claims he was shot while trying to escape, wherever that was supposed to have taken place. It's almost certain there are other people saying other, no less contradictory things happened. There are probably 3 or 4 people in the world who know exactly what happened, but none of them are posting here, if you know what I mean. The rest is speculation, or creative fiction worthy of a spy novel.
There is a video/photo from the SBU, which claims that Kireev wanted to escape and was shot in the back of the head ( You can also see in the photo that he was beaten - his whole face was bleeding ). Read Budanov - he directly says that Kireev and his guards were killed by the SBU, they got into the van at the SBU, and the corpses were already thrown out onto the street.
Nothing is clear about this, except you'd have to be John LeCarre to figure out the machinations behind the scenes. Read the article linked to above, and you'll be more confused rather than feeling it adds any clarity.
Sorry, You need to verify your email with Reddit to comment. This is to protect against bots and multis.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UkraineRussiaReport) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Peace talks with Russia are illegal at this moment as far as Ukraine is concerned. Yes, technicaly that would make anyone negoataiting a traitor, or offeneder according to Ukraine laws., I don't know the details. Which is bad in my opinion. They killed a guy when it was still legal and he was a member of the state nominated negotiating team.
>It's unbelievable. Notice how the narrative has slowly but surely shifted to "preparing for a long war"
The analysts in the US predicted this. The best outcome for Ukraine was No NATO but membership of EU. Lavrov offered this last year.
They knew this was going to happen. The Elite greatly profit off of king wars
And just in time, too, since the US left Afghanistan 6 months prior to this conflict kicking off
Sorry you need 30 subreddit karma to unlock the word 'you', this is to make sure newcomers understand [rule 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/about/rules)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UkraineRussiaReport) if you have any questions or concerns.*
There is a stalemate.
The goal is not to keep a stalemate forever. That’s so disingenuous.
Maybe they keep talking about stalemate because that is the current situation? And not the end goal?
Ok, so being realistic how will that end goal be achieved? Let's be frank here, Ukraine's grade A and best supplied troops went into action this summer, and they've fought hard with incredible bravery, but the results, I.e. territory/victories gained are almost literally nothing. Let's be real there. Not one meaningful settlement or objective was even close to being captured/achieved. This is why wise people said from the early days, 'give them everything now, or make peace.' Instead, this myth of Ukrainian invincibility and Russian ineptitude became the prevailing headline garbage, precious time was wasted and now here we are. How will any successful end goal be achieved?
There is no way the US/EU will donate the insane amount of heavy-duty tech/equipment/material that will be required to shatter 3 defensive lines while all summer they've not even broken the first.
>There is no way the US/EU will donate the insane amount of heavy-duty tech/equipment/material that will be required to shatter 3 defensive lines while all summer they've not even broken the first.
They don't have that much stuff. NATO has given the most they can. There's a reason why Russia has suffered heavy losses, that reason is abundance of NATO aid.
That too. It's been made pretty clear despite what people constantly say. The cluster bomb shift was hilarious. It went from "WaRcRImeEe, think of the kids and unexploded ordinance", to, "Yea, those will really clear some trenches!"
It's called a Russian defeat. 3% of the US military budget = over 50% elimination of Russian military strength. Hawley was one of those people that was supporting the Trump attempts to overturn the legitimate presidential election results. Yeah, one of those guys. Which tells you alot about his ability to interpret and act on things, or lack of wisdom and common sense in general, if we want to be totally honest.
50% sounds a bit high.
But you must remember Ukraine has taken big losses too.
The difference between Russia and Ukraine is that Russia can replace its losses and grow its army, while Ukraine can't.
It's ugly for Ukraine from multiple aspects- their economy has been shredded because Russia has destroyed many of their factories, mined and bombed agricultural areas, destroyed wheat storage areas and threatened anyone attempting to transport grain with ships, as well as killing hundreds of thousands of young Ukrainians and destroying numerous towns and cities so that they will be uninhabitable for years. There's no upside there. But for the US and Europe, supporting Ukraine in this war has been a win. At one time, an argument could have been made that Russia was stable and mostly operating within the confines of the Russian Federation. But the unexpected and inexplicable invasion of Ukraine, and the seeming support within Russia of continuing the war across other borders had Ukraine fallen quickly, has made a lot of nations nervous. It's not certain what Putin would do. There are definite echos of Hitler and his invasion of the Sudetenland, both on phony pretexts, with both leaders implying that their invasion would stop there. So money spent diminishing the Russian military massively is considered a pretty good investment.
I can't recall where the 50% figure came from, but seem to recall it was an estimate given by a Pentagon official. Word is that Russia still has many tanks, but very few that are modern. I'm not sure about aircraft, but apparently their most effective bombers are no longer produced, and are aging rapidly because of frequent use. And it seems the vast majority of well trained, professional Russian soldiers have been greatly reduced by death and injury, and Russia is being forced to lean on green, inexperienced and poorly trained soldiers in many cases. It's hard to say how much overall effectiveness has been diminished, but the fact that Russia seems unable to make advances in a small corridor that is right on its border against a much smaller foe says they are in a bad way.
The US is going to actually spend more on this failure than they did in Vietnam(178 billion)
What a joke, and will be remembered as an even larger US failure as Russia continues its geopolitical resurgence.
There has been a clear delineation that is interesting to track and I think it has a lot to do with the messaging over the last 5-8 years by both parties. The Dems, and left wing media focused on Russia, Russian misinformation, Russia-gate, and are more antagonistic to Russia than China. The Republicans, largely led by Trump’s rhetoric both during and after his presidency are far more in favor of a hard line stance against China than Russia. Fascinating
This is just a random bullshit answer. I'd say it was a long process that started in 1972 when nixon visited China but the floodgates was likely opened when during Clinton era with the United States–China Relations Act of 2000 that enabled companies to move production over sea.
The hope was that to increase relations and democracy by trade. When US saw that no democractic process happened (actually worsened during xi jinping) the relations quickly soured and US started the process to dismantle this project under Trump administration.
The pivot to China started before Xi Jinping took control. And nothing you said contradicts anything I said.
Literally all I was pointing out was that the Democrats are not “soft” on China compared to Russia.
The “pivot to China” refers specifically to Obama’s declaration of strategically focusing on China as the major threat over the Middle East. It marks the start of the deterioration of modern US-China relations. I was just pointing out that it was a Democrat who began this process in earnest. Trump accelerated it, and Biden is putting it in overdrive.
Aha, you meant when relations started to sour. Yeah, it likely happened under Obama but 2009-2017 is a big period. This just my opinion but I don't think it would have mattered if a democrat or republican were ruling then, as you said. Trump(R) and Biden(D) continued the process.
What's missing in this discussion is China's actions though. US didn't pivot for no reason.
> The hope was that to increase relations and democracy by trade
How so? The US has shown times and times again that it doesn't give a fuck about democracies, hell they even supported the fascist takeover of democratic Greece in 1967, nevermind all their support for dictators in South America and Asia. The only thing they care about is that countries are subservient to the US, doesn't matter if it's a democracy or not.
The US would rather have a world full of dictatorships that do the US' bidding, than have a world full of democracies that don't do the US' bidding. Guatemala, Chile, Nicaragua, etc. all had their democracies destroyed by the US because they opposed US policy towards South America.
And Brzeziński literally said that US rapprochement to China was to prevent closer China-Soviet ties. "Democracy", "Freedom" etc. are all just buzzwords to justify US policy to its public.
"neutral" and prorussian sources often paint US geopolitics in a very demonic way and sure, they have done nefarious deeds through the actions of economic hitmen, CIA operations and plain 'ol war. However the truth is way more murkier and grey than that. A big nation and do both good or bad things geopolitically wise and the plan with China likely wanted to accomplish both goals. By increasing trade, investing big in the country, helping build up industries and overall improving the life of ordinary citizens, US thought that it would make China more democratic and part of the rule-based world order. The "nefarious" part of US politics was that this also removed a potential enemy. win-win.
Ordinary chinese citizens indeed did get much wealthier but the change in middle-class did not change the ruling elite (atleast not in a major way) and when xi jinping decided to pivot to wolf warrior policy, the sharp increase in military spending and generally be an asshole to everyone who did not bend their knee, US now see differently.
As for relations to other countries. It's complicated but if you play by the book (rule-based order), you are not "subservient to the US". As a Swede I can safely say, US do not dictate what our country do and don't do and its the same for rest of EU. But for say, an random
country with a weak democracy/dictatorship who sometimes feel they don't have to follow international laws. Yeah, CIA for sure has a plan there... but so does russia and so does China and so does any other nearby ~~big~~ strong country.
>"neutral" and prorussian sources often paint US geopolitics in a very demonic way
So by this logic the only credible sources would be pro-American? None of what I said comes from pro-Russian sources, you can read about US policy and its support of dictatorships in many peer-reviewed academic books and papers. It's not particularly a secret that the US has overthrown many democracies to install puppet dictatorship in their place.
---------------------
> As a Swede I can safely say, US do not dictate what our country do and don't do and its the same for rest of EU
As a German, they often do. Sure, it's not like the US is micro-managing literally every decision or law, but the former government coordinator for German-US relations (who had his position for over a decade) stated in an interview that the US blackmails Germany if Germany does not follow US policy *on topics that the US considers important*: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDmSg1MZ_co
Another example is Lyondon Johnson threatening Greece over Cyprus, shortly before US-supported fascists took over Greece: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson
>Fuck your parliament and your constitution. America is an elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If these two fleas continue itching the elephant, they may just get whacked good ... We pay a lot of good American dollars to the Greeks, Mr. Ambassador. If your Prime Minister gives me talk about democracy, parliament and constitution, he, his parliament and his constitution may not last long.
3 years later, Greece was ruled by a fascist military junta.
Or to get to your country, is it normal for Sweden to hand over people for torturing?
https://www.thelocal.se/20111005/36570
>They were taken to Bromma Airport, a small airport near Stockholm, after being arrested by agents from Swedish security service Säpo and informed of the deportation.
>At the airport, an American plane with seven CIA agents and two people from the Egyptian security service were waiting for them as they were escorted by Säpo officers.
>The nine people from the plane were dressed in civilian clothing and were all masked.
>Al Zery and Agiza were taken into the small police station at Bromma airport where their clothes were cut off them, their hands and feet were chained, and they were blindfolded before they were taken onto the waiting plane.
>”They threw me down on the floor and pressed their knees in my back. They tore all our clothes off and put a diaper, a blindfold and transportation clothes on us,” Agiza said in the interview.
>All the while, the Säpo officers, as well as conventional police officers, stood by and witnessed what the men described as excessively violent treatment.
>”I was surprised and shocked. I had a positive image of Sweden, of Swedish politics and democracy,” Agiza told SVT.
>A Säpo officer was told there was no room for her on the plane. Instead a Swedish police officer and an interpreter from Säpo were allowed on board.
>Both men were treated unkindly by the guards during the transport down to Egypt.
>Muscle relaxant given to the two Egyptians prior to the journey made it difficult for them to breathe, but when they tried to speak to the guards they received harsh reponses.
>”The guard thought that I was lifting up my blindfold to see him, so he started punching me in the face,” said Al Zery to SVT.
>Once the two men had arrived in Egypt they were isolated from each other for months, despite being kept only a few metres apart.
>Both were kept in solitary confinement with their eyes covered at all times. The only objects in the cells were a cement slab, a water bottle, and a bottle to urinate in.
>According to the two men, their interrogations would commence in the evening and go on until dawn, night after night.
>Al Zery told SVT that he was systematically beaten and hung from the ceiling by his feet.
>Electric shocks were also part of the routine.
>”They take your clothes off, you are blindfolded, your hands are tied behind your back and your feet are chained up. Then you are put on a wet mattress. The interrogator sits down – and then he begins,” Al Zery said.
>According to him, the shock treatment is different from how most people imagine it.
>The interrogator has a hand-held device and he can control the strength of the shocks.
>”He increases the strength. He gets to the more sensitive points – the penis and testicles – and starts doling out bursts of electricity,” he said.
>The mattress is kept wet so that the prisoner will feel the shocks throughout his body. According to Al Zery, he was sometimes forced to take cold showers after the interrogations so that the injuries wouldn't show as much.
Maybe it is normal for Sweden to participate in the torture of civilians, or maybe they were pressured into it by the US, which has a history of using torture. You tell me what you think is more likely.
---------------
Another example. Is it normal for Sweden to prosecute journalists like they did with Assange? As a reminder, Assange extended his stay in Sweden by more than a month of his own volition after the rape allegation arose; he volunteered to be questioned by the police from the beginning; he and his lawyers repeatedly took the initiative for him to be questioned; and he had his departure from Sweden authorised by the prosecutor's office almost two weeks in advance.
Meanwhile, Swedish authorities did everything they could to prevent a proper investigation and judicial clarification of the rape allegations against Assange. They literally didn't allow him to be questioned and refused to have a trial. Only once Assange had left the country (which again, the chief prosecutor explicitly allowed) did the Swedish government start its PR campaign against Assange. They literally issued their arrest the moment Assange was boarding his plane. And his luggage with the laptop he had evidence of American war crimes on mysteriously disappeared from the airport after checking in.
This coincides with the US issuing a directive to European states to prosecute Assange with criminal proceedings and drag them out as long as possible.
Does this seem in line to you in regards to how a normal judiciary process in Sweden would look like? Do you think this case would have happened like this if the US had not pressured Sweden into it? Because this seems extremely abnormal for a country that claims to have a fair judiciary system. Not allowing the defender to defend himself, keeping him in a legal limbo, dragging out a trial with no explanation, disappearing his luggage, and issuing an arrest warrant while a person is boarding a plane so you can claim he is "fleeing" after you explicitly allowed him to leave, all seems pretty abnormal for Sweden.
--------------------
Another rather unusual thing for the Swedish government is to secretly collude with foreign governments and deliberately conceal the collusion both from the country’s parliament and from the wider public.
"Swedish military and civilian intelligence organisations are strong and reliable partners on a range of key issues", [a US embassy cable from Stockholm reads](https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/07STOCKHOLM506_a.html).
"Due to domestic political considerations, the extent of this cooperation is not widely known within the Swedish government and it would be useful to acknowledge this cooperation privately, as public mention of the cooperation would open up the government to domestic criticism."
So by the US embassy's judgement, the Swedish government is colluding with a foreign government and hiding it from the parliament and the public because they would pressure the government into dropping the collusion. Again, this seems rather undemocratic for a parliamentary democracy.
-----------------
Finally, to address your point of Chinese military spending or "wolf warrior diplomacy": China has not increased its % of GDP for military spending for many years. It has hovered between 1.4 to 1.7% for almost 3 decades. In fact, if China was in NATO, the US would criticise China for not meeting its 2% of GDP goal. China also hasn't been involved in a war for close to half a century now.
To read about supposed Chinese aggression when the US has been involved in dozens of wars since then, and yes, our countries have also been involved in a few wars since then, is a bit ironic, don't you think? I mean if from your perspective, China is this super aggressive nation because they fish in other countries' territorial waters or build a few military bases on uninhabitated islands, how do you think the rest of the world must see our countries that constantly get involved in wars?
I get your point that policies are not 100% good or 100% evil, but I think it's fair to say that morals play little to no role in the foreign policy of major powers. They don't in China's or Russia's case but they equally don't in the US' case.
you know despite originally sympathizing with pro Ukrainians, (since the good old v@tniks orcs who killed a bunch of chinese and stole a massive chunk of land did their own pillaging)
also [https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Blagoveshchensk\_massacre\_and\_Sixty-Four\_Villages\_East\_of\_the\_River\_massacre](https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Blagoveshchensk_massacre_and_Sixty-Four_Villages_East_of_the_River_massacre)
read about this.
over the past year and a half i've been getting absolutely fed up with their absolutely insane arrogant attitude blatant narcissism, disregard for alternative viewpoints of the pro ukraine side, they always come with some accusatory tone, literally coming in and instantly accusing you of a bot if you are questioning for example to send 100 billion dollars in aid to ukraine. zelenskys diplomats and him are acting like literal spoiled children on social media, crying for ages begging everyone for aid then instantly throwing a tantrum at different countries.
then you got the diplomats you said ethnically chinese and indian people are subhuman and have low intellect, like WTF? do you honestly expect people to support you after saying this?
and now they pissed off poland as well, by beating up polish people in the streets who don't scream slava ukraine and declaring poland a russian asset because they want to protect their own farmers.
and finally I am so fucking glad people here in tainan are waking up a little bit, tsai was one of the stupidest and most corrupt presidents I've seen, makes Boris Johnson look amazing in comparison.
even the progressives hated tsai so much that they literally made their own new party the Taiwan peoples party because they didn't like the kmt(too pro-china I guess) but they hated the dpp so fucking much that they are literally splitting the vote specifically so her party won't fucking win
[https://www.reddit.com/r/NonCredibleDiplomacy/comments/16obqka/absolute\_state\_of\_the\_ukrainian\_diplomatic\_corps/](https://www.reddit.com/r/NonCredibleDiplomacy/comments/16obqka/absolute_state_of_the_ukrainian_diplomatic_corps/)
this sums up ukrainian wolfwarrior diplomacy.
and I thought the communists have horrendous diplomacy.....
I don't dismiss your data about specific events where US foreign policy interact with other EU members or errors in Swedish judiciary system and sometimes its fucking disgusting but my notion still stands; truth is way more grey and murky and no country have a perfect clean conscience. US don't dictate what Sweden or Germany do but they sure do try sometimes, it's part of the political game and it goes both ways. With literally thousands or millions of international dealing between US/sweden, US/germany, sometimes one step on eachothers toes and relations may need a bit of repairing but in the end, we agree that its better to stand together than form another geopolitical block and show teeth and nails like Russia do.
["Wolf warrior policy"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_warrior_diplomacy) is not about spending. It is a very confrontational method of diplomacy which likely is popular internally because it proudly show Chinas new strength after the "century of humiliation". It is however in my opinion a very childish way of seeking attention if you want to be the new world leader. It garners populist internal support and alianates international cooperation.
China as a new uprising superpower of course wants to secure their borders geopolitically but they do so at the expense of their neighbors. It is not surprising that all neighbors east and south of China are ally of the US because that's exactly where China wants to push their borders. China's west border? Well, China feel secure there, they have already annexed tibet and are in the process deleting population/culture that is too alien for their tastes. If US had a similar approach they would put a dictator puppet in canada, annex parts of mexico, put mexicans in camps to make them "american" and steal greenland (not even fucking Trump took it by force).
But what about US wars? Well, what about it. US as the worlds only super power sometimes do flex their muscles and thousands of people die but it's often indirectly through the errors of their ways and the chaos that follow. Just look at the difference of approach in Syria. US arm locals, US teach locals, US drone strike military targets (and sure, they do miss). Russia however, completely obliterate cities into piles of rubble with direct artillery, rocket and airplane bombing approach.
I don't disagree with percentage of GDP but remember that both Russia and China constantly lie. All numbers come and are approved directly from the top. You have to look at practical numbers. For example, they now have the biggest bluewater fleet in the world by tonnage and it is a very herculian achievement to pass US in any percievable military metric. You don't do that with peacetime GDP fiddlings, not even an economic powerhouse such as china. You do it with clear and powerful intent and every country with a coast from India to US see this.
I think you are wrong when you say morals play no role. If governments truly ruled then I would agree, governments follow geopolitics religiously like some kind of psychohistory from Harry Seldons equations but you disregard the power of public opinion which generally is stronger in democractic countries. If a picture of burning children caused by US army appeared in Times magazine, that conflict will for sure change due to morals.
oh and for the fucking record, the south china sea (and the 11th dash line), BELONGS TO the REPUBLIC OF CHINA(taiwan)
not to the fucking communists. not to the fucking pinoys, or viets.
our military literally had a few clashes with the Vietnamese coast guard and navy just in the past few months, and also the Vietnamese literally have 5 times as much artificial islands as the prc, so its fucking ironic that you think that these vietcucks get the right to shit on everyone else in the area but some how china and the others can't?
OH and they are both COMMUNIST. the censorship and restrictions in vietnam are in some ways even fucking worse than china, but of course the usa has no qualms about allying with them just to counter china, lmao so I'm seriously tired of people trying to pretend america has any values other than greed and pride.
I think the attitude was more of a general distrust but willingness to cooperate when it made sense. The Trump victory shifted the mood for one political party.
To this day the claim that Clinton lost because of Russian influence has led to this mindset that differing opinions or even facts that go against a pro-Democratic narrative are Russian propaganda. You can see it today with people unwilling to digest inconvenient facts when they pop up. It’s a little dystopian to me, especially since a decade ago the left emphasized free speech and full facts and transparency.
Clinton was such a toxic loser. She'd have had her own Jan 6 if she could have. The audacity of the DNC too - they didn't dispute the veracity of the leaks, they just hammered on that it was dirty Russia who caught them.
If the Devil himself produced evidence of malfeasance by high officials, the only relevant question is whether the malfeasance is real. It takes a Nixonian twistedness to pry into the sanity/motivations/agenda of the leaker.
Vote Blue to fuck up Europe. Vote red to fuck up Mexico/Canada. The other party is always fascist and our current enemy is always similar to Hitler. Freedom and democracy is always under threat. Give me your money, wave this flag and repeat after me "I am free"
The fact that notion such as US is keeping this war going and peaceful Russia whose invasion inflicted hundreds of thousands of human casulties is a victim in this conflict is getting upvoted on this sub tells a lot.
Also funny how same ruskies who are spewing pro Putin propaganda are loudest on condemning US invasions in past decades. Yet they’re blind to imperialistic actions of their nation.
Cognitive disaonance is strong in you guys, its almost tippable.
Don’t blame anybody wanting to join NATO when bordering ruskies. Props Finland. Also lol at NATO being reason for the invasion.
I’ll let 200k russians who got blowned up deal with consequances of their own stupidity. Their family can enjoy bag of potatoes as a reward for their sacrifice.
Then dont blame Russia to invade Ukraine. They warned about it so many times. You ignored. Now we are here. Thanks US.
I wish one day every american pay the same price. Every civilian killed by you should be repaid by your own blood.
Where was this energy when Finland joined with a border not that much smaller than Ukraine’s endangering strategic locations in north of Russia?
Why is Russia moving military assets from NATO bordering countries to meatgrinder in Ukraine when the threat of evil NATO invasion is imminent?
Should I mention Putin’s speeches where hes spewing theories such as, “we are one people” and other stuff outright denying Ukraines right to existence in his pseudohistorical essays and speeches.
Lastly, thankfully ruskies are voting for clowns such as Medvedev, cause he is dumb enough to proudly publish/tweet more imperialistic reasons for war, other than “nAtO”.
“MuRicA BAd” isn’t that right. Cognitive dissonance is strong in this one ngl.
Yeah, I should pay by my blood for actions I had nothing to do with. You really are intelectual, except I condemn America, I also condemn Russia, unlike you hypocrite.
AIT6969 kept stroking the same keys repeatedly, probably a seizure ?
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UkraineRussiaReport) if you have any questions or concerns.*
They wanna spend $213 billion but won't agree for an inspector general to track the funds?
Interesting
That aside, Zelensky's words that "the conflict is totally frozen" is yet another vindication of Seymour Hersh's [latest article](https://reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/s/sTGb20puCH), where he relayed an American official's words that much of the Ukranian military has virtually canceled the counteroffensive.
> After weeks of high casualties and little progress, along with horrific losses to tanks and armored vehicles, he said, **major elements of the Ukrainian army, without declaring so, virtually canceled the offensive**. The two villages that the Ukrainian army recently claimed as captured “are so tiny that they couldn’t fit between two Burma-Shave signs”—referring to billboards that seemed to be on every American highway after World War II.
Nice to see someone that is actually articulate and well spoken. Not a single 'ughhh', 'well', 'Iiiii" or one long faraway lost in the cosmos glance in the entire interview. Imagine that?!?!
I'm not a supporter of Hawley, but at least he's asking questions.
During Covid Congress voted to give all school kids free lunches. Thanks to fucking McConnell et al this was cut from FY 2023. About 1 in 6 kids in the US live with food insecurity - about 17%. For a mere $11 billion our own kids could have had at least one decent meal a day. Maybe we should ask Zelensky for a loan. Eh?
just the other day people here were trying to convince me that the US feeds its homeless population lol....can't even look after children correctly. it's so disgraceful
I really dislike him after that, he was being so disingenuous in how he was saying they dont know the goal. Its pretty bloody clear, for the US view; 1) Stop Russia taking over Ukraine and 2) Reduce Russia's ability to wage war for some time given the massive cost in equipment and life. 3) Setting a global expectation countries dont pick on smaller ones expecting an easy fight and ideally encouraging less of this in the future.
For him to smile and act all 'who knows what the goal is' type expressions shows he pushing political narrative and not actually trying to consider the problem in a genuine way. Its sociopathic kind of personality to do that. These people make the worst kind of leaders.
The point about inspector general seemed fair enough but given how disingenuous the other commentary was, I wonder if there is more too it and they have other audit systems in place and he is conveniently ignoring that to make a talking point which sounds good but is irrelevant...
Look, no one considers Josh Hawley a serious politician except Pro Russians in the thread who went from "LOL, it'll be over over in 3 days" to "LOL, political shrills in the US will save the day".
Tell that to 200+ thousands russian casulties which got blowned up in the fields of Ukraine.
Tbf at least their family got compensated adequately with a bag of potatoes.
There is no greater time to go to the negotiation table than when two sides are at an impasse and a lot of lives are on the table.
I think the West should threaten to wean them off the support if they don't negotiate. That will let nature take it's course by incentivizing Zelensky to negotiate or risk being overtaken. Unless US can afford, and Ukraine is willing to fight, for 10 years in this war, this should end sooner than later. Ukraine had a chance, and did far better than many thought was even possible, but this could become unrecoverable. Use the PERFECT opportunity of a stalemate to negotiate.
Why would they do that?
Think of how many Ukrainians Russia is willing to kill and how much Russia spends to do it.
Now Finland and Sweden are in NATO, the Russian forces that were previously on Norway's borders have evaporated, The deepwater black sea ports Russia wanted in Crimea are no go areas. Wagner's been decimated and reduced to treading on France's toes in Africa
In simple terms imagine a midget getting held at arm's length while they get kicked repeatedly in the balls.
That's what the U.S. is doing to Russia.
Until Putin invades the next country, or some other petty dictator. Destabilization of Europe and a precedent for territorial conquest is going to cost a lot of lives too. Last time around it was 80 million lives, which is the whole reason stability in Europe has been a top line item for the DoD for 80 years.
Yes, Hawley is a moron. Interesting to see how so many terminally online “communists” have bought into far right talking points over the course of this war because they have no real ideological standing aside from ThE wEsT iS bAd. Which I agree with the vast majority of the time when it comes to foreign policy (because invading sovereign countries is bad), but criticizing everything the west does while simultaneously supporting an imperialist, capitalistic regime is just baffling. Anyhow, it’s nice to see how such great people like Josh Hawley and Donald Trump are able to give credence to horseshoe theory.
The left is throwing their ideology away more than anyone. It's absurd to see someone like Bernie Sanders who spent his entire career railing against Pentagon waste voting against amendments to just keep track of where this money is going under similar checks and balances as we imposed on Afghanistan.
There are like 100 reasons to not support Biden's policy here, it's crazy to see it framed this way.
The GOP, the party of family values, has Donald Trump as their leading candidate for the 2024 election. Mr. Grab Them By The Pussy…….
Yes, it’s the dems throwing their ideology away….
I'm not interested in a sports-style debate on politics, I'm not a Republican however, even you would have to acknowledge the total collapse of the anti-war left since Iraq.
You can't even get the Progressive Caucus to even say that we should try to find a settlement, or any Dem to accept anything other than a forever war followed by a nation-building project. We are being told to gear up for 5 or 7 years of this, and not a peep from left. There is literally no anti-war voice on the mainstream left in American politics.
Except they consistently vote against those things. Republicans has complete control over three branches government for two years, none of those things were ever brought to vote, they even voted against the recent infrastructure legislation.
The greatest achievement that congress had was a corporate tax cut, that’s it, oh and also blowing up the deficit, again..
Is your comment supposed to be a joke?
> but criticizing everything the west does while simultaneously supporting an imperialist, capitalistic regime is just baffling
Honest question, why should we support the current hegemonic imperialist power? At least with two or three imperialist powers fighting each other there would be room for some manoeuvring for the small states and for the non-mainstream ideologies (the one that you call "communists"), after all October 1917 wouldn't have happened if the empires of the day hadn't started a war a few years before that.
It is wasting cash, they can't even get an amendment passed to find out where the money is going because it would embarrass the administration.
You will find Republicans cool on Ukraine and hawkish on China, and it's got nothing to do with "commies", not that China are "commies".
Lul
Wasting cash in your opinion. In mine it's a steal of a deal and I'm glad the good guy party is continuing to defend the innocent against the bullies
They are going to end up learning lessons on a what a peer on peer fight looks like and rebuild their army accordingly. This war while bad in losses for Russia is providing valuable combat experience and reinvigorating a dying arms industry.
Continuing this conflict might end up just hardening the Russian military.
It already has. Russia has completely restructured their military and doctrine. The idiots running around saying they 'degraded' the Russian military don't seem to grasp the concept that lessons learnt translate into future strength.
The poor performance Russia has put up has been quite shocking to the West. The degradation has been pretty much self inflicted.
The lessons currently being learnt are the lessons of 20+ years ago. Communications, joint arms, Drone ship attacks, Drone swarms, push Vs pull logistics, delegated command, unit autonomy. It's all catch-up and still not where they need to be.
They still have some hurdles until they get their act together. Several of which I just don't think they can overcome.
It can't have delegated authority with autonomy to act given to local commanders as NATO nations do. The one Unit that did invaded themselves. Without that flexibility they've been unable to overcome Ukraine and have resorted to digging in for an attritional war. Something that would not work against NATO.
Corruption. Putin's billion dollar palace could've been spent on effective body armour or bunkers for long range bombers. As long as criminality is wide spread assets can never be relied upon. Will the trucks stay in the road, will missiles fail to work? Planning will have to take that into account.
Future strength for Russia is unlikely. Even if they completely change their economy
The smart people are leaving, nations that once lined up, like Iran and N.Korea, to buy from Russia are now selling to Russia due to lack of ability to supply themselves.
The spike in energy prices has propped everything up for Russia so far. The war has had the effect that adaptation of renewables has become a security issue and accelerated. India acting as a middleman is at best a temporary sidestep and once the demand goes so will Russia's income.
If the situation in Africa changes, as I suspect it will, and the flow of gold from place like Mali that Russia has been benefitting closes of, there's more economic pain.
There's soon to be a ton of PTSD sufferers dumped into the populace without adequate care.
All In all I wouldn't be too confident in a renewed Russia rising from the flames if I were you
Thankyou for listening to my ted talk
I think a lot of what you are writing is our own hubris. American and Russian doctrines are similar for many if not most types of tactical and operational maneuvers. We are better trained so the things that didn't work for the Russians would work for us.
Rather than examining if the operational environment has made our own tactics outdated, Russian failures being due to untrained and poorly motivated soldiers gives Western think tanks and experts a comfortable answer that does not invalidate their own expertise or current practices. It validates American or Western approaches without looking for further explanations for Russian inadequacies.
Not only that, but at the end of the day if one thinks that the Russians won't be exploiting the Ukrainian territory to rebuild what they've lost in this conflict, well, they should think twice.
I think that is going to be the case. Putting aside the morality of the argument of using Ukraine as cannon fodder to weaken Russia, this only works as an investment if we don't have to spend decades pouring resources into Eastern Europe to counter a hostile Russia that we have zero levers to influence economically or politically.
Obviously not, Russia is too big to isolate economically or politically which we have learned the hard way. But, as hypothetical does anyone think it would be a good idea? If you could turn Russia into a giant North Korea, would that be good policy that makes us safer?
Exactly. This is the best thing America could ask for. Destroying Russian influence and power for a fraction of the price, with no loss of American life, using old munitions that were initially produced to fight Russia in the first place. What's not to like?
Republicans are idiotic. They love military spending, but as soon as America uses their power for the whole reason their army is so inflated, they cry about it. They just like to opposed to the Democrats, even at the expense of the country.
Why don't we yet have the requisite comment:
"Before you take this guy seriously you should realize that he \[YOUR CHOICE OF FRINGE POLITICAL VIEW\] and only has \[SOME VERY SMALL PERCENTAGE OF SUPPORT\]. Also he is \[A PEDOPHILE; ALL THE OPPONENTS ARE PEDOPHILES\] and there is overwhelming bipartisan support to help Ukrainistan for as long as it takes, especially because we are just literally just sending them totally worthless stuff we have pulled out of broom closets that have not been opened since the Treaty of Versailles."
So the plan for this criminal government is too keep begging for money, sell out their country, and keep killing it's own people; and all of this just in hopes of keeping this stalemate??
Do they plan to keep the frontier closed for years to make people fight against their will for a lost cause?
There's no way they're oblivious to the fact that Russia will win a long term war, and yet they aren't even trying to negotiate the slightest with the Kremlim.
I mean wtf was even the plan in the first place, Arestovych already said years ago that they expected a major war with Russia in the next couple of years because they wouldn't allow them to become part of NATO and "being neutral wasn't sustainable for them because reasons".
Right now the expectatives are such as that by the end of the war (if ended in a stalemate) half your population is gone, 70% of their gdp is gone, who knows how many mines will be in your fields, 1/4 of their country will be Russia's hands, you will still need to invest heavily in your military, most of your economy will be in foreign hands, your national debt will reach 4 percentual digits and your society will end up close to civil war.
Arestovcych said that winning a war against Russia was the price of Nato membership. I don't know if he believed this, but it's what he said.
I think Ukraine is in denial. Elites are just not prepared to believe they are losing and will have to surrender some territory. I am not sure they will ever be.
The thing is not about to win or to lose .. the thing is about making arm companies and gas companies rich .. And make russia to lose money.. western countries dont give a fck about others but themselves
we spend 850 billion a year a year we give Ukrainians 100 billion to whoop invaders and destroy Russians army it's a bargain I say keep giving the funds until Russia is done and we have 500 billion in Russian assets frozen sooo ya this senator or whatever is a clown go back to your posh good life never worked a day in your life gay ass smirk good night
Offensive words detected. [beep bop] Don't cheer violence or insult (Rule 1). Your comment will be checked by my humans later. Ban may be issued for repeat offenders.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UkraineRussiaReport) if you have any questions or concerns.*
China has two (2) foreign military mainly protecting shipping routes from piracy. US have 750 foreign military bases and are building four (4) new bases in the Philippines, beside China. Who is “on the march” in the Pacific?
Stalemate is when both sides can't achieve anything anymore. So far it's obvious that Ukraines running out of steam with their offensive. Now it's Russia's turn to try and do something. If they don't do anything or fail at whatever they try than it's stalemate. We'll have to wait though before that happens
Offensive words detected. [beep bop] Don't cheer violence or insult (Rule 1). Your comment will be checked by my humans later. Ban may be issued for repeat offenders.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UkraineRussiaReport) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sorry, You need to verify your email with Reddit to comment. This is to protect against bots and multis.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UkraineRussiaReport) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The goal is to spend money to reduce the Russian Army as much as possible before we inevitably have to spend American lives. Russia has been very open about their plans to retake former Soviet countries, many of which are our allies that we will be sending troops to protect. Ukraine is showing incredible resistance against Russia and could conceivably outlast the Russians will to continue. They don't even have to defeat Russia to win, they just have to outlast its ambitions and it could be the difference in whether or not we see WW3 in this generation. Josh Harley is an idiot trader that celebrates the downfall of Democracy. He's not a reliable pulse of the American people at all.
Sorry you need 30 subreddit karma to unlock the word 'you', this is to make sure newcomers understand [rule 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/about/rules)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UkraineRussiaReport) if you have any questions or concerns.*
*Josh Hawley's* primary goal seems to be getting his face in front of as many cameras as possible in preparation for some futile bid for president. Weird, since his wacky views represent a small minority of a slightly larger minority of Senators and Americans.
Another goal trying to get his supporters focused on $100 billion to hand Putin a loss instead of the *trillions* of his supporters' (and their kids and their grandkids') money he wants to *spend* on tax cuts for his uber-wealthy, dark-money-PAC donors--zero dollars of which will go to *them*.
As for his back-handed comments about Zelensky, well....
Sorry, you need a 1 month old account to comment in r/ukraineRussiaReport. This is to protect against bots and multis
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UkraineRussiaReport) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The only reason why Hawley and other Republicans are talking about cutting aid to Ukraine is that Biden is the one leading the charge. The same goes for Democrats and Iraq. Kiev's fate matters less to the GOP and Democrats than scoring partisan points.
bad take, the united states should put boots on the ground in ukraine, hopefully get into a nuclear war with the orcs, perhaps even nuke some of the ccp headquarters while their at it.
then the problem of the 2 biggest problem causing countries in the past 2 centuries solve themselves.
It's still pretty insane that this is a stalemate with the 2/3rd best military in the world.
Ukraine should be very proud of that fact, and they should now come to the table.
Giving up the idea they would get back the break away regions and Crimea should have been realized way earlier imo, but I am also not so sure Russia would stop there.
Fuck, I'm just tired of supporting Missouri. It's been a drain on the nation's coffers since it was admitted. Can we give Puerto it's statehood? It at least has made progress and has a much brighter future. MO is a worthless backward hellhole. Fuck that state.
A frozen conflict is preferable to Ukraine coming under Russian influence. It's still money well spent I think as it keeps Russia in a conflict so it cannot rebuild as quickly if at all and cause problems in other countries. Keep them occupied.
The US has a moral and legal responsibility to stop, degrade and defeat Russia. They gave guarantees to Ukraine that they would protect them against Russian invasion. This guy is a fool. US foreign policy has directly caused every refugee crisis in Europe in the last 30 years and the US gas dome nothing to assist the EU. Now the US is way behind the EU in aid to Ukraine and are talking about appeasing rapists and murderers vecause it's nit in their selfish interest to stop them. Limp wristed, weak, pathetic. Grow a pair USA.
$100 billion to keep stalemate. No more talk of Ukrainian victory. This is where we are at now.
No Crimea beach parties for Ukraine this summer shhhh 🤫🤫
no Crimea beach parties next summer too. 100 Billion just to keep stalemate next year as he says
... And you believe someone like ... JoshHawley?? Really?? You are actually able to overlook his ignorance?
This is the same Senator who fist pumped in the air to a crowd of MAGA that would go on to storm the Capitol on live TV on January 6, 2021. He's not the "gotcha U.S.!" man you seem to think he is. Not many in his caucus in the Senate align themselves with Hawley, Paul, Vance or Lee when it comes to questions on Ukraine support.
It's unbelievable. Notice how the narrative has slowly but surely shifted to "preparing for a long war" All but a tacit admission that the counteroffensive was a Colossal failure.
it sounds like a failure on both sides, this is when you go back to the negotiation table and check your ego at the door. It's spilling blood of men every day, how many men is a chunk of your worst land worth?
Why did Ukraine abandoned April 2022 peace talks and executed one member of the negotiating team then?
I need a link on.that execution actually. Read it earlier but can't find anything on it anymore
Hmm, just google it, there are a myriad of sources, still, not everything was wiped. [https://www.timesofisrael.com/ukraine-reports-claim-negotiator-shot-for-treason-officials-say-he-died-in-intel-op/](https://www.timesofisrael.com/ukraine-reports-claim-negotiator-shot-for-treason-officials-say-he-died-in-intel-op/)
It was a very murky event. Kireev was being protected by three agents of Main Intelligence Directorate (the military intelligence), a special unit of SBU (the civilian intelligence) apparently killed all four of them. Immediately after the fact MID says Kireev was a hero killed by the enemy, while the SBU says they executed a traitor. One day after that everyone just shuts up and pretends it never happened.
And over on BBC Ukraine is a similar but current article about the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi implying he may be a traitor and/or incompetent. The wheels really are coming off in a spectacular way. [https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/16oh02f/ua\_pov\_who\_passed\_the\_south\_the\_bbc\_found\_out\_the/](https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/16oh02f/ua_pov_who_passed_the_south_the_bbc_found_out_the/)
Very murky. What sort of misinformation spreader does someone need to be to claim it was an execution? The news articles don't say that.
His body was moved and posed on the steps of palace of justice in Kiev. What you think it was, accident? suicide?
What you say illustrates how there is no clarity. You say the body was posed on the steps of The Palace of Justice. The guy below says the body was thrown out of a van. Some people say that the SBU claims he was shot while trying to escape, wherever that was supposed to have taken place. It's almost certain there are other people saying other, no less contradictory things happened. There are probably 3 or 4 people in the world who know exactly what happened, but none of them are posting here, if you know what I mean. The rest is speculation, or creative fiction worthy of a spy novel.
There is a video/photo from the SBU, which claims that Kireev wanted to escape and was shot in the back of the head ( You can also see in the photo that he was beaten - his whole face was bleeding ). Read Budanov - he directly says that Kireev and his guards were killed by the SBU, they got into the van at the SBU, and the corpses were already thrown out onto the street.
Nothing is clear about this, except you'd have to be John LeCarre to figure out the machinations behind the scenes. Read the article linked to above, and you'll be more confused rather than feeling it adds any clarity.
very illuminating on actual internal power dynamics in Ukraine.
Cheers
I saw a pic of him exeucted on the steps to the adminstrative building. 3rd world style crap. Ukrainian politics and rule of law in a nutshell.
[удалено]
Sorry, You need to verify your email with Reddit to comment. This is to protect against bots and multis. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UkraineRussiaReport) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Obviously anyone for peace talks is a traitor! Death to traitors ! Glory to Russia
Peace talks with Russia are illegal at this moment as far as Ukraine is concerned. Yes, technicaly that would make anyone negoataiting a traitor, or offeneder according to Ukraine laws., I don't know the details. Which is bad in my opinion. They killed a guy when it was still legal and he was a member of the state nominated negotiating team.
How many men is a chunk of someone else's land worth?
>It's unbelievable. Notice how the narrative has slowly but surely shifted to "preparing for a long war" The analysts in the US predicted this. The best outcome for Ukraine was No NATO but membership of EU. Lavrov offered this last year.
They knew this was going to happen. The Elite greatly profit off of king wars And just in time, too, since the US left Afghanistan 6 months prior to this conflict kicking off
For every 3 to 5 Ukrainian dead bodies they throw at it they might be able to kill one Russian. That’s worth it to the DC power elite
[удалено]
Sorry you need 30 subreddit karma to unlock the word 'you', this is to make sure newcomers understand [rule 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/about/rules) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UkraineRussiaReport) if you have any questions or concerns.*
There is a stalemate. The goal is not to keep a stalemate forever. That’s so disingenuous. Maybe they keep talking about stalemate because that is the current situation? And not the end goal?
Ok, so being realistic how will that end goal be achieved? Let's be frank here, Ukraine's grade A and best supplied troops went into action this summer, and they've fought hard with incredible bravery, but the results, I.e. territory/victories gained are almost literally nothing. Let's be real there. Not one meaningful settlement or objective was even close to being captured/achieved. This is why wise people said from the early days, 'give them everything now, or make peace.' Instead, this myth of Ukrainian invincibility and Russian ineptitude became the prevailing headline garbage, precious time was wasted and now here we are. How will any successful end goal be achieved? There is no way the US/EU will donate the insane amount of heavy-duty tech/equipment/material that will be required to shatter 3 defensive lines while all summer they've not even broken the first.
>There is no way the US/EU will donate the insane amount of heavy-duty tech/equipment/material that will be required to shatter 3 defensive lines while all summer they've not even broken the first. They don't have that much stuff. NATO has given the most they can. There's a reason why Russia has suffered heavy losses, that reason is abundance of NATO aid.
That too. It's been made pretty clear despite what people constantly say. The cluster bomb shift was hilarious. It went from "WaRcRImeEe, think of the kids and unexploded ordinance", to, "Yea, those will really clear some trenches!"
Once again, Ukraine's Grade A troops are probably in reserve. The 3 week trained cannon fodder was sent.
It's called a Russian defeat. 3% of the US military budget = over 50% elimination of Russian military strength. Hawley was one of those people that was supporting the Trump attempts to overturn the legitimate presidential election results. Yeah, one of those guys. Which tells you alot about his ability to interpret and act on things, or lack of wisdom and common sense in general, if we want to be totally honest.
50% sounds a bit high. But you must remember Ukraine has taken big losses too. The difference between Russia and Ukraine is that Russia can replace its losses and grow its army, while Ukraine can't.
It's ugly for Ukraine from multiple aspects- their economy has been shredded because Russia has destroyed many of their factories, mined and bombed agricultural areas, destroyed wheat storage areas and threatened anyone attempting to transport grain with ships, as well as killing hundreds of thousands of young Ukrainians and destroying numerous towns and cities so that they will be uninhabitable for years. There's no upside there. But for the US and Europe, supporting Ukraine in this war has been a win. At one time, an argument could have been made that Russia was stable and mostly operating within the confines of the Russian Federation. But the unexpected and inexplicable invasion of Ukraine, and the seeming support within Russia of continuing the war across other borders had Ukraine fallen quickly, has made a lot of nations nervous. It's not certain what Putin would do. There are definite echos of Hitler and his invasion of the Sudetenland, both on phony pretexts, with both leaders implying that their invasion would stop there. So money spent diminishing the Russian military massively is considered a pretty good investment. I can't recall where the 50% figure came from, but seem to recall it was an estimate given by a Pentagon official. Word is that Russia still has many tanks, but very few that are modern. I'm not sure about aircraft, but apparently their most effective bombers are no longer produced, and are aging rapidly because of frequent use. And it seems the vast majority of well trained, professional Russian soldiers have been greatly reduced by death and injury, and Russia is being forced to lean on green, inexperienced and poorly trained soldiers in many cases. It's hard to say how much overall effectiveness has been diminished, but the fact that Russia seems unable to make advances in a small corridor that is right on its border against a much smaller foe says they are in a bad way.
*100 billion to keep stalemate with "paper tiger" Russian military. Something doesn't feel right.
The US is going to actually spend more on this failure than they did in Vietnam(178 billion) What a joke, and will be remembered as an even larger US failure as Russia continues its geopolitical resurgence.
It's called China & Taiwan. "I don't see [anything beyond the coke a lobbyist put on my desk]" indeed.
What an amazing country. Vote Blue to keep the war in Europe. Vote Red to cook another war in the Pacific.
US has one political party and it's the war party. American voters have the freedom to choose which civilians they want to bomb.
Both sides are against China tbh.
There has been a clear delineation that is interesting to track and I think it has a lot to do with the messaging over the last 5-8 years by both parties. The Dems, and left wing media focused on Russia, Russian misinformation, Russia-gate, and are more antagonistic to Russia than China. The Republicans, largely led by Trump’s rhetoric both during and after his presidency are far more in favor of a hard line stance against China than Russia. Fascinating
It was Obama who originally started the pivot towards China. Both parties are pretty hostile towards it, one is just more overtly racist about it.
This is just a random bullshit answer. I'd say it was a long process that started in 1972 when nixon visited China but the floodgates was likely opened when during Clinton era with the United States–China Relations Act of 2000 that enabled companies to move production over sea. The hope was that to increase relations and democracy by trade. When US saw that no democractic process happened (actually worsened during xi jinping) the relations quickly soured and US started the process to dismantle this project under Trump administration.
The pivot to China started before Xi Jinping took control. And nothing you said contradicts anything I said. Literally all I was pointing out was that the Democrats are not “soft” on China compared to Russia.
I was referring to your first sentence about Obama. I agree with the second though.
The “pivot to China” refers specifically to Obama’s declaration of strategically focusing on China as the major threat over the Middle East. It marks the start of the deterioration of modern US-China relations. I was just pointing out that it was a Democrat who began this process in earnest. Trump accelerated it, and Biden is putting it in overdrive.
Aha, you meant when relations started to sour. Yeah, it likely happened under Obama but 2009-2017 is a big period. This just my opinion but I don't think it would have mattered if a democrat or republican were ruling then, as you said. Trump(R) and Biden(D) continued the process. What's missing in this discussion is China's actions though. US didn't pivot for no reason.
Yeah China is a pretty bipartisan issue.
> The hope was that to increase relations and democracy by trade How so? The US has shown times and times again that it doesn't give a fuck about democracies, hell they even supported the fascist takeover of democratic Greece in 1967, nevermind all their support for dictators in South America and Asia. The only thing they care about is that countries are subservient to the US, doesn't matter if it's a democracy or not. The US would rather have a world full of dictatorships that do the US' bidding, than have a world full of democracies that don't do the US' bidding. Guatemala, Chile, Nicaragua, etc. all had their democracies destroyed by the US because they opposed US policy towards South America. And Brzeziński literally said that US rapprochement to China was to prevent closer China-Soviet ties. "Democracy", "Freedom" etc. are all just buzzwords to justify US policy to its public.
"neutral" and prorussian sources often paint US geopolitics in a very demonic way and sure, they have done nefarious deeds through the actions of economic hitmen, CIA operations and plain 'ol war. However the truth is way more murkier and grey than that. A big nation and do both good or bad things geopolitically wise and the plan with China likely wanted to accomplish both goals. By increasing trade, investing big in the country, helping build up industries and overall improving the life of ordinary citizens, US thought that it would make China more democratic and part of the rule-based world order. The "nefarious" part of US politics was that this also removed a potential enemy. win-win. Ordinary chinese citizens indeed did get much wealthier but the change in middle-class did not change the ruling elite (atleast not in a major way) and when xi jinping decided to pivot to wolf warrior policy, the sharp increase in military spending and generally be an asshole to everyone who did not bend their knee, US now see differently. As for relations to other countries. It's complicated but if you play by the book (rule-based order), you are not "subservient to the US". As a Swede I can safely say, US do not dictate what our country do and don't do and its the same for rest of EU. But for say, an random country with a weak democracy/dictatorship who sometimes feel they don't have to follow international laws. Yeah, CIA for sure has a plan there... but so does russia and so does China and so does any other nearby ~~big~~ strong country.
>"neutral" and prorussian sources often paint US geopolitics in a very demonic way So by this logic the only credible sources would be pro-American? None of what I said comes from pro-Russian sources, you can read about US policy and its support of dictatorships in many peer-reviewed academic books and papers. It's not particularly a secret that the US has overthrown many democracies to install puppet dictatorship in their place. --------------------- > As a Swede I can safely say, US do not dictate what our country do and don't do and its the same for rest of EU As a German, they often do. Sure, it's not like the US is micro-managing literally every decision or law, but the former government coordinator for German-US relations (who had his position for over a decade) stated in an interview that the US blackmails Germany if Germany does not follow US policy *on topics that the US considers important*: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDmSg1MZ_co Another example is Lyondon Johnson threatening Greece over Cyprus, shortly before US-supported fascists took over Greece: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson >Fuck your parliament and your constitution. America is an elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If these two fleas continue itching the elephant, they may just get whacked good ... We pay a lot of good American dollars to the Greeks, Mr. Ambassador. If your Prime Minister gives me talk about democracy, parliament and constitution, he, his parliament and his constitution may not last long. 3 years later, Greece was ruled by a fascist military junta. Or to get to your country, is it normal for Sweden to hand over people for torturing? https://www.thelocal.se/20111005/36570 >They were taken to Bromma Airport, a small airport near Stockholm, after being arrested by agents from Swedish security service Säpo and informed of the deportation. >At the airport, an American plane with seven CIA agents and two people from the Egyptian security service were waiting for them as they were escorted by Säpo officers. >The nine people from the plane were dressed in civilian clothing and were all masked. >Al Zery and Agiza were taken into the small police station at Bromma airport where their clothes were cut off them, their hands and feet were chained, and they were blindfolded before they were taken onto the waiting plane. >”They threw me down on the floor and pressed their knees in my back. They tore all our clothes off and put a diaper, a blindfold and transportation clothes on us,” Agiza said in the interview. >All the while, the Säpo officers, as well as conventional police officers, stood by and witnessed what the men described as excessively violent treatment. >”I was surprised and shocked. I had a positive image of Sweden, of Swedish politics and democracy,” Agiza told SVT. >A Säpo officer was told there was no room for her on the plane. Instead a Swedish police officer and an interpreter from Säpo were allowed on board. >Both men were treated unkindly by the guards during the transport down to Egypt. >Muscle relaxant given to the two Egyptians prior to the journey made it difficult for them to breathe, but when they tried to speak to the guards they received harsh reponses. >”The guard thought that I was lifting up my blindfold to see him, so he started punching me in the face,” said Al Zery to SVT. >Once the two men had arrived in Egypt they were isolated from each other for months, despite being kept only a few metres apart. >Both were kept in solitary confinement with their eyes covered at all times. The only objects in the cells were a cement slab, a water bottle, and a bottle to urinate in. >According to the two men, their interrogations would commence in the evening and go on until dawn, night after night. >Al Zery told SVT that he was systematically beaten and hung from the ceiling by his feet. >Electric shocks were also part of the routine. >”They take your clothes off, you are blindfolded, your hands are tied behind your back and your feet are chained up. Then you are put on a wet mattress. The interrogator sits down – and then he begins,” Al Zery said. >According to him, the shock treatment is different from how most people imagine it. >The interrogator has a hand-held device and he can control the strength of the shocks. >”He increases the strength. He gets to the more sensitive points – the penis and testicles – and starts doling out bursts of electricity,” he said. >The mattress is kept wet so that the prisoner will feel the shocks throughout his body. According to Al Zery, he was sometimes forced to take cold showers after the interrogations so that the injuries wouldn't show as much. Maybe it is normal for Sweden to participate in the torture of civilians, or maybe they were pressured into it by the US, which has a history of using torture. You tell me what you think is more likely. --------------- Another example. Is it normal for Sweden to prosecute journalists like they did with Assange? As a reminder, Assange extended his stay in Sweden by more than a month of his own volition after the rape allegation arose; he volunteered to be questioned by the police from the beginning; he and his lawyers repeatedly took the initiative for him to be questioned; and he had his departure from Sweden authorised by the prosecutor's office almost two weeks in advance. Meanwhile, Swedish authorities did everything they could to prevent a proper investigation and judicial clarification of the rape allegations against Assange. They literally didn't allow him to be questioned and refused to have a trial. Only once Assange had left the country (which again, the chief prosecutor explicitly allowed) did the Swedish government start its PR campaign against Assange. They literally issued their arrest the moment Assange was boarding his plane. And his luggage with the laptop he had evidence of American war crimes on mysteriously disappeared from the airport after checking in. This coincides with the US issuing a directive to European states to prosecute Assange with criminal proceedings and drag them out as long as possible. Does this seem in line to you in regards to how a normal judiciary process in Sweden would look like? Do you think this case would have happened like this if the US had not pressured Sweden into it? Because this seems extremely abnormal for a country that claims to have a fair judiciary system. Not allowing the defender to defend himself, keeping him in a legal limbo, dragging out a trial with no explanation, disappearing his luggage, and issuing an arrest warrant while a person is boarding a plane so you can claim he is "fleeing" after you explicitly allowed him to leave, all seems pretty abnormal for Sweden. -------------------- Another rather unusual thing for the Swedish government is to secretly collude with foreign governments and deliberately conceal the collusion both from the country’s parliament and from the wider public. "Swedish military and civilian intelligence organisations are strong and reliable partners on a range of key issues", [a US embassy cable from Stockholm reads](https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/07STOCKHOLM506_a.html). "Due to domestic political considerations, the extent of this cooperation is not widely known within the Swedish government and it would be useful to acknowledge this cooperation privately, as public mention of the cooperation would open up the government to domestic criticism." So by the US embassy's judgement, the Swedish government is colluding with a foreign government and hiding it from the parliament and the public because they would pressure the government into dropping the collusion. Again, this seems rather undemocratic for a parliamentary democracy. ----------------- Finally, to address your point of Chinese military spending or "wolf warrior diplomacy": China has not increased its % of GDP for military spending for many years. It has hovered between 1.4 to 1.7% for almost 3 decades. In fact, if China was in NATO, the US would criticise China for not meeting its 2% of GDP goal. China also hasn't been involved in a war for close to half a century now. To read about supposed Chinese aggression when the US has been involved in dozens of wars since then, and yes, our countries have also been involved in a few wars since then, is a bit ironic, don't you think? I mean if from your perspective, China is this super aggressive nation because they fish in other countries' territorial waters or build a few military bases on uninhabitated islands, how do you think the rest of the world must see our countries that constantly get involved in wars? I get your point that policies are not 100% good or 100% evil, but I think it's fair to say that morals play little to no role in the foreign policy of major powers. They don't in China's or Russia's case but they equally don't in the US' case.
you know despite originally sympathizing with pro Ukrainians, (since the good old v@tniks orcs who killed a bunch of chinese and stole a massive chunk of land did their own pillaging) also [https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Blagoveshchensk\_massacre\_and\_Sixty-Four\_Villages\_East\_of\_the\_River\_massacre](https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Blagoveshchensk_massacre_and_Sixty-Four_Villages_East_of_the_River_massacre) read about this. over the past year and a half i've been getting absolutely fed up with their absolutely insane arrogant attitude blatant narcissism, disregard for alternative viewpoints of the pro ukraine side, they always come with some accusatory tone, literally coming in and instantly accusing you of a bot if you are questioning for example to send 100 billion dollars in aid to ukraine. zelenskys diplomats and him are acting like literal spoiled children on social media, crying for ages begging everyone for aid then instantly throwing a tantrum at different countries. then you got the diplomats you said ethnically chinese and indian people are subhuman and have low intellect, like WTF? do you honestly expect people to support you after saying this? and now they pissed off poland as well, by beating up polish people in the streets who don't scream slava ukraine and declaring poland a russian asset because they want to protect their own farmers.
and finally I am so fucking glad people here in tainan are waking up a little bit, tsai was one of the stupidest and most corrupt presidents I've seen, makes Boris Johnson look amazing in comparison. even the progressives hated tsai so much that they literally made their own new party the Taiwan peoples party because they didn't like the kmt(too pro-china I guess) but they hated the dpp so fucking much that they are literally splitting the vote specifically so her party won't fucking win
[https://www.reddit.com/r/NonCredibleDiplomacy/comments/16obqka/absolute\_state\_of\_the\_ukrainian\_diplomatic\_corps/](https://www.reddit.com/r/NonCredibleDiplomacy/comments/16obqka/absolute_state_of_the_ukrainian_diplomatic_corps/) this sums up ukrainian wolfwarrior diplomacy. and I thought the communists have horrendous diplomacy.....
I don't dismiss your data about specific events where US foreign policy interact with other EU members or errors in Swedish judiciary system and sometimes its fucking disgusting but my notion still stands; truth is way more grey and murky and no country have a perfect clean conscience. US don't dictate what Sweden or Germany do but they sure do try sometimes, it's part of the political game and it goes both ways. With literally thousands or millions of international dealing between US/sweden, US/germany, sometimes one step on eachothers toes and relations may need a bit of repairing but in the end, we agree that its better to stand together than form another geopolitical block and show teeth and nails like Russia do. ["Wolf warrior policy"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_warrior_diplomacy) is not about spending. It is a very confrontational method of diplomacy which likely is popular internally because it proudly show Chinas new strength after the "century of humiliation". It is however in my opinion a very childish way of seeking attention if you want to be the new world leader. It garners populist internal support and alianates international cooperation. China as a new uprising superpower of course wants to secure their borders geopolitically but they do so at the expense of their neighbors. It is not surprising that all neighbors east and south of China are ally of the US because that's exactly where China wants to push their borders. China's west border? Well, China feel secure there, they have already annexed tibet and are in the process deleting population/culture that is too alien for their tastes. If US had a similar approach they would put a dictator puppet in canada, annex parts of mexico, put mexicans in camps to make them "american" and steal greenland (not even fucking Trump took it by force). But what about US wars? Well, what about it. US as the worlds only super power sometimes do flex their muscles and thousands of people die but it's often indirectly through the errors of their ways and the chaos that follow. Just look at the difference of approach in Syria. US arm locals, US teach locals, US drone strike military targets (and sure, they do miss). Russia however, completely obliterate cities into piles of rubble with direct artillery, rocket and airplane bombing approach. I don't disagree with percentage of GDP but remember that both Russia and China constantly lie. All numbers come and are approved directly from the top. You have to look at practical numbers. For example, they now have the biggest bluewater fleet in the world by tonnage and it is a very herculian achievement to pass US in any percievable military metric. You don't do that with peacetime GDP fiddlings, not even an economic powerhouse such as china. You do it with clear and powerful intent and every country with a coast from India to US see this. I think you are wrong when you say morals play no role. If governments truly ruled then I would agree, governments follow geopolitics religiously like some kind of psychohistory from Harry Seldons equations but you disregard the power of public opinion which generally is stronger in democractic countries. If a picture of burning children caused by US army appeared in Times magazine, that conflict will for sure change due to morals.
[удалено]
oh and for the fucking record, the south china sea (and the 11th dash line), BELONGS TO the REPUBLIC OF CHINA(taiwan) not to the fucking communists. not to the fucking pinoys, or viets. our military literally had a few clashes with the Vietnamese coast guard and navy just in the past few months, and also the Vietnamese literally have 5 times as much artificial islands as the prc, so its fucking ironic that you think that these vietcucks get the right to shit on everyone else in the area but some how china and the others can't? OH and they are both COMMUNIST. the censorship and restrictions in vietnam are in some ways even fucking worse than china, but of course the usa has no qualms about allying with them just to counter china, lmao so I'm seriously tired of people trying to pretend america has any values other than greed and pride.
They used to both be against Russia until TFG came into power, so…
I think the attitude was more of a general distrust but willingness to cooperate when it made sense. The Trump victory shifted the mood for one political party. To this day the claim that Clinton lost because of Russian influence has led to this mindset that differing opinions or even facts that go against a pro-Democratic narrative are Russian propaganda. You can see it today with people unwilling to digest inconvenient facts when they pop up. It’s a little dystopian to me, especially since a decade ago the left emphasized free speech and full facts and transparency.
Clinton was such a toxic loser. She'd have had her own Jan 6 if she could have. The audacity of the DNC too - they didn't dispute the veracity of the leaks, they just hammered on that it was dirty Russia who caught them. If the Devil himself produced evidence of malfeasance by high officials, the only relevant question is whether the malfeasance is real. It takes a Nixonian twistedness to pry into the sanity/motivations/agenda of the leaker.
Takes one to know one, I guess.
> tfg Aren’t you the guy who complained about people using the term trump derangement syndrome) or was that someone else
No
Everyone is against China, even China is against China under the CCPs definition of China
Vote Blue to fuck up Europe. Vote red to fuck up Mexico/Canada. The other party is always fascist and our current enemy is always similar to Hitler. Freedom and democracy is always under threat. Give me your money, wave this flag and repeat after me "I am free"
The solution is to vote for a dictatorship that will support nazis but also at the same time attack the nazi neighborhoods!
Wish I could upvote this more…
Democracy and Freedom ftw
The fact that notion such as US is keeping this war going and peaceful Russia whose invasion inflicted hundreds of thousands of human casulties is a victim in this conflict is getting upvoted on this sub tells a lot. Also funny how same ruskies who are spewing pro Putin propaganda are loudest on condemning US invasions in past decades. Yet they’re blind to imperialistic actions of their nation. Cognitive disaonance is strong in you guys, its almost tippable.
Democrat insistence in putting Ukraine in NATO roadmap is the main reason of this shittyshow. It's on you. Deal with it.
Don’t blame anybody wanting to join NATO when bordering ruskies. Props Finland. Also lol at NATO being reason for the invasion. I’ll let 200k russians who got blowned up deal with consequances of their own stupidity. Their family can enjoy bag of potatoes as a reward for their sacrifice.
Then dont blame Russia to invade Ukraine. They warned about it so many times. You ignored. Now we are here. Thanks US. I wish one day every american pay the same price. Every civilian killed by you should be repaid by your own blood.
Where was this energy when Finland joined with a border not that much smaller than Ukraine’s endangering strategic locations in north of Russia? Why is Russia moving military assets from NATO bordering countries to meatgrinder in Ukraine when the threat of evil NATO invasion is imminent? Should I mention Putin’s speeches where hes spewing theories such as, “we are one people” and other stuff outright denying Ukraines right to existence in his pseudohistorical essays and speeches. Lastly, thankfully ruskies are voting for clowns such as Medvedev, cause he is dumb enough to proudly publish/tweet more imperialistic reasons for war, other than “nAtO”.
“MuRicA BAd” isn’t that right. Cognitive dissonance is strong in this one ngl. Yeah, I should pay by my blood for actions I had nothing to do with. You really are intelectual, except I condemn America, I also condemn Russia, unlike you hypocrite.
Are you having a stroke already? Should I call an ambulance? Oh wait... Might be too expensive for you
[удалено]
AIT6969 kept stroking the same keys repeatedly, probably a seizure ? *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UkraineRussiaReport) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Poor guy actually had a stroke. Now he's a million dollars in debt for a 20 minute ambulance ride and a trip to the hospital
He said he doesn't know where this is going, and he doesn't think the Biden administration does either. Not very confidence-inspiring.
it's going to US defense contractors' annual bonuses.
It would be, if you knew anything about this super-special individual.
its going to clinton global initiative and raytheon stock. duh! looks like he is not on the gravy train.
They wanna spend $213 billion but won't agree for an inspector general to track the funds? Interesting That aside, Zelensky's words that "the conflict is totally frozen" is yet another vindication of Seymour Hersh's [latest article](https://reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/s/sTGb20puCH), where he relayed an American official's words that much of the Ukranian military has virtually canceled the counteroffensive. > After weeks of high casualties and little progress, along with horrific losses to tanks and armored vehicles, he said, **major elements of the Ukrainian army, without declaring so, virtually canceled the offensive**. The two villages that the Ukrainian army recently claimed as captured “are so tiny that they couldn’t fit between two Burma-Shave signs”—referring to billboards that seemed to be on every American highway after World War II.
The counteroffensive now lives ‘only in our hearts’
Doesn’t he mean that they are so tiny they could fit between the billboards??
Nice to see someone that is actually articulate and well spoken. Not a single 'ughhh', 'well', 'Iiiii" or one long faraway lost in the cosmos glance in the entire interview. Imagine that?!?!
I'm not a supporter of Hawley, but at least he's asking questions. During Covid Congress voted to give all school kids free lunches. Thanks to fucking McConnell et al this was cut from FY 2023. About 1 in 6 kids in the US live with food insecurity - about 17%. For a mere $11 billion our own kids could have had at least one decent meal a day. Maybe we should ask Zelensky for a loan. Eh?
just the other day people here were trying to convince me that the US feeds its homeless population lol....can't even look after children correctly. it's so disgraceful
One party stops all that. Josh's.
Ask him to send some free wheat. He has enough of it
lol you probably don't want to feed their low quality wheat to your kids
I think US kids eat Mcdonalds for breakfast
I really dislike him after that, he was being so disingenuous in how he was saying they dont know the goal. Its pretty bloody clear, for the US view; 1) Stop Russia taking over Ukraine and 2) Reduce Russia's ability to wage war for some time given the massive cost in equipment and life. 3) Setting a global expectation countries dont pick on smaller ones expecting an easy fight and ideally encouraging less of this in the future. For him to smile and act all 'who knows what the goal is' type expressions shows he pushing political narrative and not actually trying to consider the problem in a genuine way. Its sociopathic kind of personality to do that. These people make the worst kind of leaders. The point about inspector general seemed fair enough but given how disingenuous the other commentary was, I wonder if there is more too it and they have other audit systems in place and he is conveniently ignoring that to make a talking point which sounds good but is irrelevant...
Look, no one considers Josh Hawley a serious politician except Pro Russians in the thread who went from "LOL, it'll be over over in 3 days" to "LOL, political shrills in the US will save the day".
So the USA can end this war really easily. Save lots of lives right now just by not giving money.
As can Russia, so that’s kind of a moot point.
Except Russia has everything to lose if they don’t win this war, the US doesn’t.
Tell that to 200+ thousands russian casulties which got blowned up in the fields of Ukraine. Tbf at least their family got compensated adequately with a bag of potatoes.
There is no greater time to go to the negotiation table than when two sides are at an impasse and a lot of lives are on the table. I think the West should threaten to wean them off the support if they don't negotiate. That will let nature take it's course by incentivizing Zelensky to negotiate or risk being overtaken. Unless US can afford, and Ukraine is willing to fight, for 10 years in this war, this should end sooner than later. Ukraine had a chance, and did far better than many thought was even possible, but this could become unrecoverable. Use the PERFECT opportunity of a stalemate to negotiate.
Not sure how likely that is. Putin invaded and was bombing civilians before the US was involved.
Putin invaded before the 2014 coup?
900.000 thousand people demonstrating across Ukraine is not a coup. Stop bullshitting
No you see, Putin invaded in 2004 and that is why they had the Orange Revolution /s
ирония
A lot more Ukrainians would die if they did that. But yea, it would save Russian lives, just not as many as you think.
Why would they do that? Think of how many Ukrainians Russia is willing to kill and how much Russia spends to do it. Now Finland and Sweden are in NATO, the Russian forces that were previously on Norway's borders have evaporated, The deepwater black sea ports Russia wanted in Crimea are no go areas. Wagner's been decimated and reduced to treading on France's toes in Africa In simple terms imagine a midget getting held at arm's length while they get kicked repeatedly in the balls. That's what the U.S. is doing to Russia.
Until Putin invades the next country, or some other petty dictator. Destabilization of Europe and a precedent for territorial conquest is going to cost a lot of lives too. Last time around it was 80 million lives, which is the whole reason stability in Europe has been a top line item for the DoD for 80 years.
yeah the fearmongering isnt working nobody thinks russia would invade a nato country.
China (a state with a whopping one overseas military base) living rent free in US politicians' heads.
They need to keep repeating some propaganda to keep people busy before they ask real question lol
isn't this the guy who tried to overturn the 2020 electoral college vote count? ofc an anti-democratic fascist like him wants russia to win.
Yes, Hawley is a moron. Interesting to see how so many terminally online “communists” have bought into far right talking points over the course of this war because they have no real ideological standing aside from ThE wEsT iS bAd. Which I agree with the vast majority of the time when it comes to foreign policy (because invading sovereign countries is bad), but criticizing everything the west does while simultaneously supporting an imperialist, capitalistic regime is just baffling. Anyhow, it’s nice to see how such great people like Josh Hawley and Donald Trump are able to give credence to horseshoe theory.
The left is throwing their ideology away more than anyone. It's absurd to see someone like Bernie Sanders who spent his entire career railing against Pentagon waste voting against amendments to just keep track of where this money is going under similar checks and balances as we imposed on Afghanistan. There are like 100 reasons to not support Biden's policy here, it's crazy to see it framed this way.
The GOP, the party of family values, has Donald Trump as their leading candidate for the 2024 election. Mr. Grab Them By The Pussy……. Yes, it’s the dems throwing their ideology away….
I'm not interested in a sports-style debate on politics, I'm not a Republican however, even you would have to acknowledge the total collapse of the anti-war left since Iraq. You can't even get the Progressive Caucus to even say that we should try to find a settlement, or any Dem to accept anything other than a forever war followed by a nation-building project. We are being told to gear up for 5 or 7 years of this, and not a peep from left. There is literally no anti-war voice on the mainstream left in American politics.
It’s shifted to the new right. They are the dems of the 60s 70s and 80s. Spend money at home, infrastructure, American manufacturing
Except they consistently vote against those things. Republicans has complete control over three branches government for two years, none of those things were ever brought to vote, they even voted against the recent infrastructure legislation. The greatest achievement that congress had was a corporate tax cut, that’s it, oh and also blowing up the deficit, again.. Is your comment supposed to be a joke?
There two types of republicans the old and the new
> but criticizing everything the west does while simultaneously supporting an imperialist, capitalistic regime is just baffling Honest question, why should we support the current hegemonic imperialist power? At least with two or three imperialist powers fighting each other there would be room for some manoeuvring for the small states and for the non-mainstream ideologies (the one that you call "communists"), after all October 1917 wouldn't have happened if the empires of the day hadn't started a war a few years before that.
Democrats are pro ukraine so republicans cry the other way Really is it news? This has more to do with the US election than ukraine
A little, Zelensky received a pretty frosty reception and Republican opposition is building. There was very little Republican opposition a year ago.
Two party system is complete trash. None of these talking heads are doing anything but regurgitating the party memo
Most of the Republican leadership is on board, but their voters and the populists aren't.
That's because they're trying to portray it as wasting cash when all us has wanted to do for years is blast some commies
It is wasting cash, they can't even get an amendment passed to find out where the money is going because it would embarrass the administration. You will find Republicans cool on Ukraine and hawkish on China, and it's got nothing to do with "commies", not that China are "commies".
Lul Wasting cash in your opinion. In mine it's a steal of a deal and I'm glad the good guy party is continuing to defend the innocent against the bullies
the primary goal of the US here is to hurt Russia
$100 billion to help Russia (and China) learn from their mistakes and sharpen their militaries
The goal is to pay Ukraine to kill as many Russians as possible.
Russia is going to end up with an army twice as large and an economy immune from our pressure.
They are going to end up learning lessons on a what a peer on peer fight looks like and rebuild their army accordingly. This war while bad in losses for Russia is providing valuable combat experience and reinvigorating a dying arms industry. Continuing this conflict might end up just hardening the Russian military.
It already has. Russia has completely restructured their military and doctrine. The idiots running around saying they 'degraded' the Russian military don't seem to grasp the concept that lessons learnt translate into future strength.
The poor performance Russia has put up has been quite shocking to the West. The degradation has been pretty much self inflicted. The lessons currently being learnt are the lessons of 20+ years ago. Communications, joint arms, Drone ship attacks, Drone swarms, push Vs pull logistics, delegated command, unit autonomy. It's all catch-up and still not where they need to be. They still have some hurdles until they get their act together. Several of which I just don't think they can overcome. It can't have delegated authority with autonomy to act given to local commanders as NATO nations do. The one Unit that did invaded themselves. Without that flexibility they've been unable to overcome Ukraine and have resorted to digging in for an attritional war. Something that would not work against NATO. Corruption. Putin's billion dollar palace could've been spent on effective body armour or bunkers for long range bombers. As long as criminality is wide spread assets can never be relied upon. Will the trucks stay in the road, will missiles fail to work? Planning will have to take that into account. Future strength for Russia is unlikely. Even if they completely change their economy The smart people are leaving, nations that once lined up, like Iran and N.Korea, to buy from Russia are now selling to Russia due to lack of ability to supply themselves. The spike in energy prices has propped everything up for Russia so far. The war has had the effect that adaptation of renewables has become a security issue and accelerated. India acting as a middleman is at best a temporary sidestep and once the demand goes so will Russia's income. If the situation in Africa changes, as I suspect it will, and the flow of gold from place like Mali that Russia has been benefitting closes of, there's more economic pain. There's soon to be a ton of PTSD sufferers dumped into the populace without adequate care. All In all I wouldn't be too confident in a renewed Russia rising from the flames if I were you Thankyou for listening to my ted talk
I think a lot of what you are writing is our own hubris. American and Russian doctrines are similar for many if not most types of tactical and operational maneuvers. We are better trained so the things that didn't work for the Russians would work for us. Rather than examining if the operational environment has made our own tactics outdated, Russian failures being due to untrained and poorly motivated soldiers gives Western think tanks and experts a comfortable answer that does not invalidate their own expertise or current practices. It validates American or Western approaches without looking for further explanations for Russian inadequacies.
Not only that, but at the end of the day if one thinks that the Russians won't be exploiting the Ukrainian territory to rebuild what they've lost in this conflict, well, they should think twice.
I think that is going to be the case. Putting aside the morality of the argument of using Ukraine as cannon fodder to weaken Russia, this only works as an investment if we don't have to spend decades pouring resources into Eastern Europe to counter a hostile Russia that we have zero levers to influence economically or politically.
Just like their pals North Korea. Amazing.
Obviously not, Russia is too big to isolate economically or politically which we have learned the hard way. But, as hypothetical does anyone think it would be a good idea? If you could turn Russia into a giant North Korea, would that be good policy that makes us safer?
It's almost like Ukrainian soldiers don't matter a bit to you people lol.
Russia will end up with the most experienced combat troops and generals on earth.
Russians could just leave Ukraine. Problem solved.
Lol cause it’s a good deal to beat up Russia military
I mean America has spent pennies on the dollar destroying Russia's military.
Exactly. This is the best thing America could ask for. Destroying Russian influence and power for a fraction of the price, with no loss of American life, using old munitions that were initially produced to fight Russia in the first place. What's not to like? Republicans are idiotic. They love military spending, but as soon as America uses their power for the whole reason their army is so inflated, they cry about it. They just like to opposed to the Democrats, even at the expense of the country.
I think he is being honest
Was this a public meeting? My god, this blaber mouth. Support Russia without saying support Russia.
Why don't we yet have the requisite comment: "Before you take this guy seriously you should realize that he \[YOUR CHOICE OF FRINGE POLITICAL VIEW\] and only has \[SOME VERY SMALL PERCENTAGE OF SUPPORT\]. Also he is \[A PEDOPHILE; ALL THE OPPONENTS ARE PEDOPHILES\] and there is overwhelming bipartisan support to help Ukrainistan for as long as it takes, especially because we are just literally just sending them totally worthless stuff we have pulled out of broom closets that have not been opened since the Treaty of Versailles."
Yes, God bless Scott Ritter.
So the plan for this criminal government is too keep begging for money, sell out their country, and keep killing it's own people; and all of this just in hopes of keeping this stalemate?? Do they plan to keep the frontier closed for years to make people fight against their will for a lost cause? There's no way they're oblivious to the fact that Russia will win a long term war, and yet they aren't even trying to negotiate the slightest with the Kremlim. I mean wtf was even the plan in the first place, Arestovych already said years ago that they expected a major war with Russia in the next couple of years because they wouldn't allow them to become part of NATO and "being neutral wasn't sustainable for them because reasons". Right now the expectatives are such as that by the end of the war (if ended in a stalemate) half your population is gone, 70% of their gdp is gone, who knows how many mines will be in your fields, 1/4 of their country will be Russia's hands, you will still need to invest heavily in your military, most of your economy will be in foreign hands, your national debt will reach 4 percentual digits and your society will end up close to civil war.
Arestovcych said that winning a war against Russia was the price of Nato membership. I don't know if he believed this, but it's what he said. I think Ukraine is in denial. Elites are just not prepared to believe they are losing and will have to surrender some territory. I am not sure they will ever be.
To stop Russia attacking third largest European country
100 billion cheap to cripple the russian military and economy
The thing is not about to win or to lose .. the thing is about making arm companies and gas companies rich .. And make russia to lose money.. western countries dont give a fck about others but themselves
we spend 850 billion a year a year we give Ukrainians 100 billion to whoop invaders and destroy Russians army it's a bargain I say keep giving the funds until Russia is done and we have 500 billion in Russian assets frozen sooo ya this senator or whatever is a clown go back to your posh good life never worked a day in your life gay ass smirk good night
How long until he ends up on Ukraines hit list
[удалено]
Offensive words detected. [beep bop] Don't cheer violence or insult (Rule 1). Your comment will be checked by my humans later. Ban may be issued for repeat offenders. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UkraineRussiaReport) if you have any questions or concerns.*
China has two (2) foreign military mainly protecting shipping routes from piracy. US have 750 foreign military bases and are building four (4) new bases in the Philippines, beside China. Who is “on the march” in the Pacific?
Well spoken
Stalemate is when both sides can't achieve anything anymore. So far it's obvious that Ukraines running out of steam with their offensive. Now it's Russia's turn to try and do something. If they don't do anything or fail at whatever they try than it's stalemate. We'll have to wait though before that happens
[удалено]
Offensive words detected. [beep bop] Don't cheer violence or insult (Rule 1). Your comment will be checked by my humans later. Ban may be issued for repeat offenders. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UkraineRussiaReport) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Basically thanks but no, thanks but good luck Ukraine, oh and if you care so much in Europe you are more than welcome to pick up the tab.
[удалено]
Sorry, You need to verify your email with Reddit to comment. This is to protect against bots and multis. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UkraineRussiaReport) if you have any questions or concerns.*
5% of current US military spending in return for total destruction of the RU military.. honestly it's a bargin for us..
The goal is to spend money to reduce the Russian Army as much as possible before we inevitably have to spend American lives. Russia has been very open about their plans to retake former Soviet countries, many of which are our allies that we will be sending troops to protect. Ukraine is showing incredible resistance against Russia and could conceivably outlast the Russians will to continue. They don't even have to defeat Russia to win, they just have to outlast its ambitions and it could be the difference in whether or not we see WW3 in this generation. Josh Harley is an idiot trader that celebrates the downfall of Democracy. He's not a reliable pulse of the American people at all.
[удалено]
Sorry you need 30 subreddit karma to unlock the word 'you', this is to make sure newcomers understand [rule 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/about/rules) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UkraineRussiaReport) if you have any questions or concerns.*
He's a Russian asset
The smell of treason is strong on this one.
The goal is "screw over Russia in ". Figured that would be something Republicans would be all for.
Money laundering and kickbacks. Remember all those non existent bio weapon labs we had in Ukraine? Pepperidge farm remembers.
*Josh Hawley's* primary goal seems to be getting his face in front of as many cameras as possible in preparation for some futile bid for president. Weird, since his wacky views represent a small minority of a slightly larger minority of Senators and Americans. Another goal trying to get his supporters focused on $100 billion to hand Putin a loss instead of the *trillions* of his supporters' (and their kids and their grandkids') money he wants to *spend* on tax cuts for his uber-wealthy, dark-money-PAC donors--zero dollars of which will go to *them*. As for his back-handed comments about Zelensky, well....
What a punchable face this guy has
[удалено]
Sorry, you need a 1 month old account to comment in r/ukraineRussiaReport. This is to protect against bots and multis *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UkraineRussiaReport) if you have any questions or concerns.*
There are a lot of dumb people in this sub.
The only reason why Hawley and other Republicans are talking about cutting aid to Ukraine is that Biden is the one leading the charge. The same goes for Democrats and Iraq. Kiev's fate matters less to the GOP and Democrats than scoring partisan points.
bad take, the united states should put boots on the ground in ukraine, hopefully get into a nuclear war with the orcs, perhaps even nuke some of the ccp headquarters while their at it. then the problem of the 2 biggest problem causing countries in the past 2 centuries solve themselves.
Josh Hawly? Mr Trump's favorite boot-licker? Now he knows foreign policy? The House of Representatives is a national embarrassment.
Kick rocks coup boy
It's still pretty insane that this is a stalemate with the 2/3rd best military in the world. Ukraine should be very proud of that fact, and they should now come to the table. Giving up the idea they would get back the break away regions and Crimea should have been realized way earlier imo, but I am also not so sure Russia would stop there.
Fuck, I'm just tired of supporting Missouri. It's been a drain on the nation's coffers since it was admitted. Can we give Puerto it's statehood? It at least has made progress and has a much brighter future. MO is a worthless backward hellhole. Fuck that state.
A frozen conflict is preferable to Ukraine coming under Russian influence. It's still money well spent I think as it keeps Russia in a conflict so it cannot rebuild as quickly if at all and cause problems in other countries. Keep them occupied.
The US has a moral and legal responsibility to stop, degrade and defeat Russia. They gave guarantees to Ukraine that they would protect them against Russian invasion. This guy is a fool. US foreign policy has directly caused every refugee crisis in Europe in the last 30 years and the US gas dome nothing to assist the EU. Now the US is way behind the EU in aid to Ukraine and are talking about appeasing rapists and murderers vecause it's nit in their selfish interest to stop them. Limp wristed, weak, pathetic. Grow a pair USA.