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Treasonous to make fun of Biden...the lunacy knows no boundaries. You'd like Moscow right now as they arrest all those treasonous folks protesting the war. That cartoon doesn't say Putin is a genius, it says Biden is a dope...Putin is playing chess in a chess match, Biden is playing checkers.

He was president for four years after the Russians took Crimea, and Putin did nothing but wait. Biden steps in and Afghanistan turns into a national disgrace and in less than a year Putin moves. Trump was a clown, but he was a clown who understood power and narcissism. Biden is a dunce, surrounded by a bunch of Obama staffers who have never once stepped outside of their elite Georgetown/Harvard/Yale undergrad study groups long enough to realize the rest of the world doesn't think like they do.

Ughhh. Can we not turn this into another political pissing contest. I understand why many here aren’t enamored with Biden. I even get the sentiment that he projects a less than strong image. Go ahead and criticize all you want. It’s a free country. It’s certainly not treasonous to criticize a sitting or former president. What IS troubling to me are the number of people seemingly willing to get down on their knees and fondle Putin’s balls in order to make their point. At that point, you’ve crossed a line and are actively making your country look weak while making Russia look strong. Putin is not playing chess. He’s essentially smashed the chess board into a thousand pieces. I’m tired of hearing how smart he is and how he’s out maneuvered the West when all he’s really done is make Russia a pariah state that’s even more of a joke than it already was.

Hired by a contractor for 300k a year for Red Flag

I feel like what I'm reading from some of you is: "Russia is invading Ukraine, must be America's fault! If only we had given Russia more concessions.." I don't follow the logic. I understand I'm only capable of seeing this through an Americans eyes, but I can't see appeasement as a viable strategy. I'm honestly not convinced this is even about NATO at all. Ukraine joining isnt/wasn't imminent, and we already have NATO members at Russia's borders. My personal theory is this: Putin is motivated by his own regimes survival. A Russian speaking country (that Russia sees as in its sphere of influence) overthrowing their leadership and becoming a prosperous European style democracy could motivate dissenters within Russia, and that directly threatens Putin personally. He can't allow that, NATO membership or not. I'm happy to be wrong, but that's the only lens I can look at this through where Russias actions makes sense.

So is the Ukrainian dude with 6 kills legit? I really want it to be legit.

Posting a cartoon by Gary Varvel, an American cartoonist at the Indianapolis Star cartoonist for 24 years who was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame and won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award is posting propaganda? UFB. Time to invoke martial law, suspend the first amendment and post nothing but support for our dear leader.

It is not what he is doing now it is what he did the last 12 months leading up to this. Dude can barely eat his oatmeal and prune juice let alone be the leader of the free world.

Caveat: Speculating. There’s only so many roads that support the Russian axis of advance. I haven’t seen any videos showing Russian BTGs charging across the steppes WWII style (maybe they’re doing so, just haven’t seen it personally). You can only cram so many units on to limited LOCs; further, a lot of the roads outside the major cities are in poor condition and armored vehicles tear the shit out of pavement. Perhaps more importantly, you can only push forward the combat power you can logistically sustain. Trucks need to use roads and are vulnerable to ambush/require security, helicopter sustainment is vulnerable to MANPADs and can’t move enough to keep large armored units in the fight. I don’t believe the Russian AF has a large tactical airlift (airdrop) capability. My guess is the Russians are overall limited by their ability to sustain their forward combat power.

Treasonous to speak of a former President that way.

Russians thought they were going to waltz in unopposed.

Amateurs talk tactics. Professionals talk logistics.

Javelin, the great armor equalizer. Folks protesting Russia everywhere.

When you might lose your F1 ride because your dad's friend starts a war: https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/33368180/haas-decide-nikita-mazepin-uralkali-next-week

Really? What are his goals here? He want’s to weaken NATO on his borders and ensure the alliance makes no more gains in Ukraine of course, but also countries like Finland and Sweden. How’s that working out so far? NATO is more United in purpose now than it has been in 30 years. The US is moving troops back into Europe and I’d be willing to bet that their presence will be permanent. Countries that have been hesitant to spend defense dollars will now be rethinking their priorities. The Finns are going to be thinking long and hard about where their allegiances lie. Instead of weakening NATO, the only thing Putin has managed to do is get the West’s hackles up and further fortify ex-Soviet NATO countries. And while I agree that cutting Russia off from Swift should’ve happened yesterday, other measures taken are not trivial. Most importantly, NordStream II has been shelved and the Europeans are actively discussing how to wean themselves off Russian energy long term. So yes, Putin is about to gain a satellite state on the Black Sea, albeit one filled with angry citizens who will likely mount an insurgency that will be killing Russian soldiers and sympathizers for many years to come. But he is loosing virtually all of his other strategic goals. And we haven’t even begun to discuss how these developments will affect his regime’s hold on power as Russians become annoyed by the body count, by their inability to travel, by their economy tanking, and by their security deteriorating. I fail to see how this is a win for Putin. In fact, it looks more like a colossal mistake and about the dumbest move he could’ve possibly made.

Yes, I've noticed that about the Democrats for my entire adult life (with the exception of Hillary), they tend to prefer people who say the right thing over people who do the right thing. Words over results. This phenomenon seems to be a manifestation of the character-trait differences between liberal-minded people and conservative-minded people. Both traits are vital to a vibrant and successful society, but only when working in concert. The hyper polarization of the past decade seems to have broken the symbiotic relationship. So now we have liberals like yourself, happy to idly watch the world burn around them so long as they feel good about the people leading them. And conservatives who no longer feel the need to communicate or "war-game" their status-quo-preserving policies with differently-thinking people before implementation. The policies are weaker as a result, and often misunderstood. I'm talking voters here, not politicians. There is a huge difference in motive between the two. And with trump, conservatives finally broke and chose a president based on the same math that Democrats have used for years... Say what I want to hear, even if you won't do it and especially if it isn't true. The great tragedy of the modern age seems to be that Democrats have completely abandoned liberal values (freedom of speech, limited government, etc) and Republicans have abandoned objective truth. And each side has convinced themselves that they have taken over the other side's former values, but in truth, no one has.

No no, its only treasonous to poke fun at the "enlightened" one in office right now.

If only we had trump back he'd be playing 4d chess. And by 4d chess I mean being such an egotistical, erratic lunatic that he'd likely get roped into this pissing contest and we'd have Afghanistan 2: electric boogaloo, with near peer threat systems.

People down voted this post but they won't defend the mushmellow in the White House and his actions.

Intel Crab on twitter is pretty good. A bunch of un-confirmed first hand reports but better than FOX and CNN. https://twitter.com/ELINTNews/status/1496987322553876480?s=20&t=RUV9-7vdwjEXfyhAdKCKFg

Drinks on me for the boys that did this…. Great work guys, keep them coming. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Biden isn’t playing checkers, he’s playing Sorry!

Gray! The world is gray, Jack!

Can I ask why Russia feels a Ukraine on its border is a violation of border security? Are we actually floating the idea that Ukraine would invade Russia, or that Russia would somehow be attacked by NATO? By negotiating with them, you are acknowledging, and even worse, VALIDATING their crackpot theory that NATO wants to invade them. You say foolish of us, I say foolish of them. It is foolish of them to go restart an empire game on planet earth. How many Americans wake up everyday and say man, I'd really like to go kill some Russians and take their shit/land right now? ...probably not many. Putin can't allow the spread of democracy/"more like democracy" to his border because he is an autocrat, and those people never stop wanting more. They are takers, not givers. He isn't concerned about Russian security, he is concerned about the security of his own power. Just like Napoleon and Hitler. His buffer state isn't for the Russian people, it's for HIM. He is cut from the same cloth as every tyrant in history. What is your definition of evil? He fits mine. IMO, today was way more of a threat to the American way of life than ISIS ever was. That is coming from someone born and raised about 45 minutes north of NYC. Today is a scarier day for the world than the day some nutjobs flew planes into buildings. Not saying we should have run to the rescue. Maybe this will be a good wake up call to Europe. But I will say a Ukrainian soldier fighting for democracy is much more of an American than half the people I walk past at Walmart.

Perhaps. Or perhaps the Russians will be surprised by the bloody nose they receive from Ukrainian resistance. Perhaps the despot Putin will be taken aback when his people revolt as the ruble craters. Perhaps the Russian people will grow increasingly impatient as the security situation on Russia’s western borders becomes more tense, which is the opposite of what Putin has promised. Perhaps the Russian bear will be surprised by the swift and unanimous condemnation of virtually every developed nation in the world. Yes, Russian oligarchs may be drooling over potential new Black Sea dachas, but nobody wants to go to their little party. Fuck them. Fuck Putin.

The last Russian Empire collapsed in 1917 after Russian soldiers/citizens got tired of the Tsar's shitshow/slaughter on the Eastern Front and back in the homeland. Hopefully we will eventually see a repeat (Round 2) and Emperor Ras-Putin will meet the same fate as Tsar Nicholas II. Eastern Front 1917/Movie Clip. Most of the actual Russian military units that mutinied were on Ukrainian turf.

Yeah. "President" and "sovereign nation" may not be the most illuminating phrases to characterize Putin and what he's doing at this point. I dunno, but IMO he is clearly WAY over the line here, into instant war criminal status. And I think both us and them are past the point of counting our nukes. We both have the ability to annihilate each other, and I personally *highly* doubt they would risk total war over one guy - even their "president" - who last time I checked was an autocrat who was suppressing political opposition in his country. I think dropping one dude as a message would maybe give their leadership chain enough of a shake up they'd be given the opportunity to back off. Clearly we will be fighting nuclear powers in the future. It stands to reason we should figure out good ways to do it.

Here me out on this one. We should hellfire Putin. Send them a *uck of a message. Shake things up. Call their remaining leadership's bluff on further escalation. Put them on notice that they are criminals and are legal targets.

We also have image intensification and FLIR in way more abundance than they do. Conversely the Russians equip small ground units with ECM and Radar equipment. It does however give me some hope in a LSCO type scenario that one of the two Big Bad’s has demonstrated little in the ability to maneuver in the dark. Conduct fire support operations sure, but if there is an entire portion of the day that they find themselves readily fixed in their combat cycle, that’s a huge advantage to us who can conduct maneuver in the dark. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No one is comfortable fighting at night. We're just forced to train to it more, which is obviously beneficial.

What you're witnessing is obvious disinformation by Ukrainian MoD. They've done same in 2014. I would not trust anything unless there is a video+picture footage.

It’s pretty unusual for Russia. Russia’s security services are unfortunately brutally efficient in suppressing that sort of thing though so not holding out hope that it’ll force any course corrections on Putin’s part.

Just said noone will truly understand his goals or what cost he is willing to pay for them but himself. That said, everything you said is a loss for us, not a win. Personally I prefer a world where conflict is deescalating. Restarting the Cold War isn't my idea of a strategic victory. It could be Putin's though. As someone else mentioned his entire world of security was built around the Soviet KGB. He may be looking at the world and saying "you know what, the Cold War sucked but we were better off then than we are now." Putin has a lot of grievances, including being continually treated as a minor power despite sitting on the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. It's easy for me to see that he recognizes the SU had way more political power than Russia does in it's current form. That why negotiating on the INF was a bust. Putin likely wants to develop out his nuclear arms because they give him platform.

Stunning isn't it. Meanwhile Hillary was on MSNBC trying to blame Trump for this, actually saying he gave comfort and aid to the enemy...all the while Biden is giving our intel to China. Nothing surprises me anymore.

The chair is against the wall.. the chair is against the wall. John has a long mustache.. John has a long mustache.

Fuckin A, keep stacking ‘em up

Well after the past two days, yea lol.

For what it's worth, Russia has actually been invaded comparatively few times compared to most European countries in the last 400 years. While understanding their thought process is important, it is equally important to not to develop Stockholm syndrome and excuse their attack today because Napoleon invaded them back in the 1800s.

Significant discussion on twitter and Reddit about the Ghost of Kyiv. Ukrainian pilot with potentially 6 kills today.

2 if you don't have twitter, use incognito/private browsing to scroll at will.

My time in Estonia dealing with their version of our SF, was the opposite of everything you said 🙂

Because you are viewing this through the lens of an American. Putin is a lunatic but his views have been shaped by a life dedicated to the Russian intelligence apparatus. When the FSU fragmented it destroyed everything he had worked for and in many ways the world as he knew it. Also, Russians still recall the great invasions through history and it shapes their psyche at the foundation. Whether we think NATO would actually attack is irrelevant, the Russians believe it. Also, for just a second flash back to how we reacted when the Russian's put tactical nukes in Cuba...we were ready to go to war. Northern parts of the Ukrainian border are less than 300 miles from Moscow and whether is seems reasonable or not to us, Putin sees that as a threat.

Here are some interesting things I've picked up working heavily in NATO/Europe. Really opened my aperture for how I see the world. 1.) Europeans do not see the US as the winners of WW2. They believe WW2 was largely won by the time the US entered and US entry just accelerated the end. They view the war through the cost paid to attain victory and the majority of those costs were paid by the UK and the Soviet Union, especially the Soviet Union. They do recognize that the US was in a prime position to delineate peace outcomes though; see our earlier conversation about world leadership. 2.) Russia and many FSUs don't believe Russia lost the Cold War. They believe the Cold War ended mutually after Gorbachev initiated a series of actions to approach Bush about de-escalation because Gorbachev realized the Cold War was upsetting the global order. They literally cast their own leader as the hero, and see the entire affair as a draw. The US and NATO betrayed these outcomes when they began rapidly expanding NATO eastward despite promises they would not. 3.) About half of senior German officers in the German armed forces were East German officers when they joined. They usually came from astute, pro party families to attain this position and as such they largely see the world through Russia's lens and not ours. They are larger dissenters in most situations than other FSUs, who's entry into NATO was under different circumstances. 4.) There are LOTS of people in the world who DO NOT WANT to live in a democracy. This is really hard for us to grasp as it's such a central value to us we can't see how anyone wouldn't want it. But you have to imagine first, how they are educated, then second, think for a minute: when they turn on American cable news, what do they see? BLM protest burning cars, rioting, looting stores. The January 6th riots taking over the US capital. Extremely unpopular leaders like Trump and Biden winning elections. Thats how they see Democracy, and they legitimately believe Democratic states are filled with political unrest, violence and instability. They believe a strong authoritarian government is necessary to enforce rule of law. 5.) The Cold War has been over almost as long as the Cold War lasted now yet we still continue to frame our foreign policy through it's echos. One thing I have difficulty explaining to civilian family and friends is the geopolitical nuance in war and how it's never clearly black or white but usually lots of grey. But people want easy answers because they want to know "who to support, who's the good guys?" Of course it's never clearly simple and in war good guys are rare. Good sides are rarer because states by nature do not have morality, just interests. That's something our US education system doesn't teach in enough depth for people to really comprehend the underlying levels of it. On another note, Tulsi Gabbard made a tweet today that she believes war could have possibly been avoided if the US agreed to address Russia's concerns about Ukrainian entry into NATO. This tweet was largely condemned by pundits which I think is a shame because I think she is right. Historically it's been European tyrants invading Russia. Not Russian tyrants invading Europe. And until we recognize that Russia doesn't want another Hittler or Napolean getting within 60nm of Moscow we probably are going to struggle to understand their interests and foreign policy position.

I believe the term you’re looking for is racist