gearhog

I believe humanitarian/moral concerns aren't a part of the calculus with regard to these types of foreign policy, economic, and conflict decisions. They're the justification, the fuel, and the propaganda used to emotionally manipulate the population, but they're not the reason we (our leadership) spend or fight. Superpower status is. None of us here are indifferent to human suffering, I'm sure, but that's not why we're supporting them. Not to help Ukraine, but weaken Russia. Everyone knows unlimited debt spending ends tragically, and we're too far down the road to turn back. The United States and partner nations are attempting to prepare a landscape that when the devastation occurs, we just won't be devastated as badly as the rest of the world. We're the reserve currency, the dollar kicking ass, our military is unmatched. We can't maintain that forever, but once we fail, we hope to fail last, and be the best of what's left.

Sad day for the USAFA and the Falcons. Offensive lineman Hunter Brown died while walking to class. https://goairforcefalcons.com/news/2023/1/10/football-academy-mourns-tragic-loss-in-cadet-wing

F'n Finally. DoD rescinds vaccine mandate.

House just passed this years defense budget, which rescinds the vaccine mandate. I guess that's one way to get conservatives to look past the 100 Billion Dollar increase. Think it'll pass Senate?

Poland news the past few days also seems to point to escalation and a widening conflict. Ukraine will be attempting to fight back the Russians during the winter in a possible complete blackout. If they struggle with that, we should see all the below pour into Western Ukraine from Poland. 5 Dec: First 600-700 of 2,400 US tanks and vehicles arrive in Poland ahead of The Big Red One for Atlantic Resolve. https://www.polandatsea.com/american-military-equipment-arrived-in-gdynia/ 6 Dec: Korea delivers tanks and howitzers. https://www.thedefensepost.com/2022/10/25/poland-receives-korean-tanks-howitzers/ 6 Dec: Poland to draft up to 200,000. https://tvpworld.com/64936493/poland-plans-to-draft-200000-for-military-training-next-year 6 Dec: State Department agrees to sell another 116 M1A1s and other equip to Poland: https://www.dsca.mil/press-media/major-arms-sales/poland-m1a1-abrams-main-battle-tanks Poland to buy hundreds of HIMARS and Korean rocket systems. (Ukraine has 20). https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2022/10/14/poland-to-buy-hundreds-of-s-korean-chunmoo-multiple-rocket-launchers/

Turns out their hands were tied.

I don't understand that thought process either, but I also haven't heard anyone make that claim. If Russia is in Ukraine, Ukraine should have every justification to hit every military target inside Russia. But why haven't they? If anyone wants Ukraine to have it's hands tied, it would be NATO as it would also tie the hands of Russia. NATO benefits from a protracted limited conflict in Ukraine that bleeds Russia until they pack it up and go home. Ukraine itself likely doesn't have the patience as their homeland is being destroyed, so they lob a 1970s Soviet drone at a strategic nuclear base. They stand to benefit from a wider war. Events like this puts us at the threshold of moving beyond conventional conflict. Russia likely believes they can still achieve whatever goals they have with a limited conflict within Ukraine. I personally would like to see Russia fail miserably, but what does that look like? De-escalation and withdrawal.? There are no trends in that direction. History has shown that Russia's definition of "struggle" with regards to combat losses is somewhat different than ours, so we should hesitate to use it as a gauge of success/failure. It seems that unless all sides of the conflict are willing to make significant concessions, and that doesn't seem to be the case, the only other option is escalation by striking more targets within Russia.

If we are on a path to a wider conflict, this is likely a significant step in that direction. One of Russia's primary strategic nuclear bomber bases was struck today. Wonder how they will respond? https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/three-killed-fuel-tanker-explosion-russian-airfield-2022-12-05/ Moscow says three killed in Ukrainian drone attacks on air bases deep inside Russia By Mark Trevelyan LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Russia said on Monday that three of its military personnel were killed in what it said were Ukrainian drone attacks on two Russian air bases hundreds of miles from the front lines in Ukraine. Ukraine did not directly claim responsibility. If it did carry out the attacks, they were the deepest military strikes it has conducted inside the Russian heartland since Moscow invaded on Feb. 24. One of the targets, the Engels air base near the city of Saratov, houses bomber planes that are part of Russia's strategic nuclear forces.

He was previously a cop before he left the career field. Great idea I hadn't thought of, though. I might take a class with him. Was also thinking of IWB holsters or lights or something. So many options, I don't know what's what.

I have a family member who recently got a G43X. Any recommendations for must-have accessories I can give as a gift for Christmas?

I'm relieved to hear that the official numbers this EU official reported in her official statement about the Ukraine conflict were not accurate. I wish there were no Ukrainian casualties. However, it's good to know if you notice inconsistencies in their statements and call them into question, you're a Russian propagandist. I wonder how they distinguished between the people who pointed out the inaccuracy, and the Russian propagandists who "pounced" on it. Nice to see you finally contributing to the discussion. Welcome!

Contributes nothing, only downvotes. Probably someone's alternate account. upvotesdDownvotes are no longer counted on this forum. Why even bother?

UN just said over 100,000K Ukraine soldiers dead. Perhaps I haven't been paying close enough attention, but that number is absolutely staggering. More than all US service member losses since WWII.

No F'n way. I stayed in longer than I needed to because I was afraid to let go. Once I was out, I realized how much my QOL had improved in spite of missing the camaraderie at work, and was sad that I had stayed far too long.

Zalensky issues a statement clarifying the event and finally puts the matter to rest: Ukraine doesn’t make mistakes. Only NATO and Russia do.

If this war mobilization meeting in China's Guangdong province is to be believed, they intend to expropriate all civilian resources for the move on Taiwan. It's gonna be a shitshow. "..., to participate in the South China Sea interoperability, the mobilization of professional repair forces and air and sea transport forces to assist the troops to repair and set towers and markers, and the organization of militia fishing boats to respond to the infringement of the Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia and other countries, to fight well the people's war at sea." "...2) Maritime support mobilization, including roll-on/roll-off vessels ships, fishing vessels, salvage vessels, multi-purpose vessels and other types of vessels. They will mainly come from mobilization in the provincial industry system and fourteen coastal cities." "...But from the layout perspective, high-quality shipbuilding and retrofitting resources concentrate in Guangzhou, Yangjiang, Dongguan, and other places. The capability in east Guangdong is weak! We have taken three approaches to tackle this. First, we bring together the excellent forces, utilize the province's large ship repair yards, and organize over 1,000-ton transport ships. We centrally manage them according to their categories. Second, multi-point deployment. We choose 23 docks from coastal cities to rapidly retrofit motorized fishing boats." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUDKWh0QQn0&t=128s

Might as well go ahead and get this party started. US STRATCOM Commander ADM Charles A. Richard : "This Ukraine crisis that we're in right now, this is just the warmup" "As I assess our level of deterrence against China, the ship is slowly sinking," he said. "It is sinking slowly, but it is sinking, as fundamentally they are putting capability in the field faster than we are. As those curves keep going, it isn't going to matter how good our [operating plan] is or how good our commanders are, or how good our forces are — we're not going to have enough of them. And that is a very near-term problem." "Undersea capabilities is still the one ... maybe the only true asymmetric advantage we still have against our opponents," Richard said. "But unless we pick up the pace, in terms of getting our maintenance problems fixed, getting new construction going ... if we can't figure that out ... we are not going to put ourselves in a good position to maintain strategic deterrence and national defense." "We have got to get back into the business of not talking about how we are going to mitigate our assumed eventual failure to get Columbia in on time, and B-21, and LRSO, and flip it to the way we used to ask questions in this nation, which is what's it going to take? Is it money? Is it people? Do you need authorities? What risk? That's how we got to the Moon by 1969. We need to bring some of that back. Otherwise, China is simply going to outcompete us, and Russia isn't going anywhere anytime soon." https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3209416/stratcom-commander-says-us-should-look-to-1950s-to-regain-competitive-edge/

Is Russia losing the war, or isn’t it? What are we paying for? 1 month ago: Just now:

Reuters: Russia is performing so poorly in the war that we are graciously giving them an opportunity to save face and negotiate their retreat from occupied territories. Right? At least that’s the way I interpret it. We’re winning!! 3 minute readNovember 5, 202210:14 PM EDTLast Updated 7 hours ago U.S. privately asks Ukraine to show Russia it's open to talks -Washington Post WASHINGTON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The Biden administration is privately encouraging Ukraine’s leaders to signal an openness to negotiate with Russia and drop their public refusal to engage in peace talks unless President Vladimir Putin is removed from power, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

I believe the end result is the same. We can take the medicine now or try to experiment with MMT and kick the can down the road at greater cost.

The US Federal Government debt interest payments just hit $736.5 Billion annualized. For the first time, the interest on our debt exceeds the DoD budget of $715 Billion. Inflation or Insolvency. Choose one. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A091RC1Q027SBEA