DirkDiggler

Good looking Flanker, maybe parts plus 12.

Within the next 12-18 months AFSOC is planning on eliminating Ops, MSG, and MX Grp/CC (Med Grp will remain for now). Wings will transition to an A-Staff construct with an Air Base CC at locations where AFSOC owns the base.

Wrong. The evaluator doesn’t get the bottle and also doesn’t even know what he or she is getting until after the grade is announced. How can you be bribed by something unknown to you? I’ve thankfully never had to Q3 anyone (have hooked several people on rec rides at the schoolhouse, which is really a gift when it comes down to it) but if someone really did that bad on a checkride where I had to Q3 them, I wouldn’t give a shit if they had a bottle of Redbreast 27 waiting for me. Why would anyone jeopardize the safety of their brothers and sisters and pollute the aviation gene pool by passing someone who is incapable of hacking the mission for a bottle of booze?

Good video of Russian vehicles getting blasted.

Good video of a T-72 in its natural state.

It’s not bribing. If you Q3 the evaluator doesn’t get the bottle, the evaluatee drinks it instead. Things like this is just weak dick leadership at Sq and Grp level.

Unfortunately the booze bottle to your evaluator tradition is slowly going the way of the dinosaur; have been told some FTUs are actively discouraging it. Lotta young guys don’t do it anymore.

Nice video of a T-72 getting schwacked by some sort of LAW.

Another good video of Russians cooking.

Fair enough, agree to disagree on your previous second point then. I do not believe that Putin was ever serious about negotiating and I believe the final decision to invade was made weeks, if not months before the actual invasion date. I don’t necessarily have a problem with Article 5 being nebulous; it gives us flexibility. I think anything that gives Putin doubt or makes him hesitate to escalate against NATO because he’s unsure of the response can be positive at times. If an armed Russian military aircraft violates Polish airspace then it should be intercepted and forced to turn back across the border or forced to land. If it doesn’t comply then the Poles should take whatever measures they deem to necessary defend themselves, including shooting it down. If Russia has a missile malfunction and hit Poland, they’d better apologize and demonstrate real quick measures on how they’ll avoid future fuck ups or NATO should be free to shoot down any missiles approaching a NATO border. If Russia jams all of Eastern Poland (very hypothetical) then that’s an act of war and the jammer locations should be targeted and destroyed if the Russians refuse to cease buzzer. Cyber attacks should be responded to in kind. If Russia detonates a nuclear warhead for the express purpose of EMP damage to a NATO country that’s an act of war and we should respond in kind. Russia isn’t “boxed in” by NATO. Russia enjoys large water bodies on its northern and eastern flanks. It has largely neutral or friendly states on its southern borders. NATO is not organizing to invade or attack Russia; Putin is using Russia’s history/fear of invasion as a cudgel/excuse to reestablish a greater Russian empire. Hitler, Napoleon, and Ghengis Khan are no longer in charge of their respective countries. If anything, this invasion is rapidly making Russia less secure due to Putin’s gross miscalculation. Generally I agree that talking is always preferable to fighting. But we and the Ukrainians have no obligations to listen to absurd demands just for the sake of listening. Putin was in the driver’s seat with regards to the invasion timeline, I don’t believe us stringing him along would’ve pushed D-Day to the right much, if at all.

To your third and forth points above, fresh off the press: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/rockets-strike-ukraines-lviv-biden-says-putin-cannot-remain-power-2022-03-27/ I would agree that if the Zelensky states the above and negotiates on that, we should be supportive if it leads to a ceasefire. To your 1st point, IMO Russian capitulation should also include security guarantees for Ukraine (probably worthless at this point given what we’ve seen the last 30 days) and Russian reparations in the form of financial assistance to rebuild Ukrainian cities. Most likely not going to happen, but they started a war of aggression and should suffer the consequences of that. I disagree with your second point; I believe the US and members of NATO made a serious effort to set expectations and avoid war. I don’t believe Russia had any intention to do anything but invade. Do you honestly believe the Russians would’ve stepped back from the brink given what we’ve seen?

Good video of some Russians burning in a BMP.

So you don’t have the expertise to say what Russia, the country whose invasion is turning cities into rubble and killing hundreds, if not thousands of innocents, should capitulate to, but in your first post you had the expertise to say what Ukraine should acquiesce to? At this point in the conflict, with Russia continuing to dismantle 30 years of Ukrainian progress with high explosives, I doubt the Ukrainians are in any mood to give up more of their territory. And I don’t blame them. I would agree with your point about Crimea probably permanently becoming Russian territory; the civilian population there is more sympathetic to and aligned with Russia than Ukraine. https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/01/21/russia-ukraine-crisis-blinken-urges-lavrov-to-pull-troops-from-border.html Your second point is incorrect and isn’t backed by the reality of both the US and individual European countries efforts prior to the invasion to find a diplomatic solution. The above link is just one example of the US diplomatic effort to avoid war. Up till the very moment of the invasion Russia was lying to the world about their intentions; their military buildup started back in November. The US government clearly stated to the world what Russia’s true intentions were. Russia never had any serious intentions to negotiate in good faith as evidenced by the current war. Now that we’re right of bang, I’m of the opinion that a third party intermediate is the best hope for a negotiated settlement; the Russians lied to us for three months and our current diplomatic efforts are where they should be in maintaining the unity of the NATO alliance. Russia is not our friend or ally, and this invasion has cemented one of the biggest mistakes the US and Western world has made in the last 30 years. No matter how much involvement and exposure to the liberal international system and the world banking and economic system, Russia’s autocracy is fundamentally at odds with the Western world and its values. If we find ourselves at odds with Russia today, it’s due to Putin’s actions, not ours.

Completely disagree on it not being “unprovoked”. Ukraine as a sovereign nation was turning more towards the West, which in they should have every right to do. For multiple reasons they don’t see a positive future tying their cart to an autocratic police state, probably to include the millions of Ukrainian nationals that were starved, imprisoned, displaced, or tortured to death by the former USSR. Ukrainian democracy was and is the true “threat” (if there was one) to Putin and the current Russian system. Some of the news coming out of the war is an amplified version of what Ukraine wants the world to see and hear, but a good portion is not. The Russian invasion plan in its original form has failed. It’s true that the Ukrainians most likely don’t have the combat power to completely kick the Russians out of Ukraine in a force on force basis but right now they don’t have to. The longer this goes on, the worse it gets for Russia as they continue to bleed men and materiel for little gain. Since Russia is the aggressor here the bulk of the onus to ensure some “fog of war” issues where something happens that triggers a NATO response is on them. We (NATO) aren’t chucking cruise and ballistic missiles within a few miles of a NATO country. Holding firm to defending NATO territory is vital and I’m glad Biden is staying firm on that. We shouldn’t be acquiescent on Russia threats. As things currently stand I’d say we have little reason to force the Ukrainians towards capitulation on much. I’ll ask again, what do you think Russia should capitulate on?

Back our regularly scheduled programming of great videos of what Russian soldiers should like either on or preferably in the ground.

Why is your focus point above on what Zelensky/Ukraine should capitulate on given that Ukraine has been subject to an unprovoked war of aggression that’s killed and is killing thousands of its citizens? Right now the Ukrainian military is punching hard and even retaking some lost ground; if I were NATO/US/Ukraine I’d be more interested in what Russia should capitulate on.

When that gargoyle is steady on the canopy you gotta do what you gotta do! Good on him for bringing it back.

As requested.

I didn’t discount your point; I disagreed with it and gave my reasons as to why. My critical thinking point with regards to the media and talking heads was that I believe far too many people in our country consume that stuff and basically let others do their thinking for them without listening to multiple sides and doing research themselves before they come to a conclusion, belief, or point of view. And no one looks at things like this this without some emotion or some pre-conceived bias, it’s part of basic human nature. How and why the media is covering this war would be a separate discussion that I believe is valid. You and I are probably not going to agree on this topic and that’s fine, I appreciate that you provide rational, well thought out posts for your points of view. My disagreement is not discounting, if that were the case I wouldn’t have bothered to engage.

I don’t care what the media or any network talking heads have to say about Ukrainian freedom or democracy (and based on your previous posts I don’t think you do either). Why any adult with critical thinking skills would is largely beyond me. I think most people on this forum would agree that Ukraine is a young democratic state with serious issues regarding corruption and some press/information freedoms; it’s far from a perfect democracy. However imperfect a democracy they are, they are still one. And they’re being invaded/destroyed by a neighbor who is a flat out autocracy ruled by a guy that implicitly rejects the liberal international order, runs his country like a police state, and sees democratic countries on his border as a threat. There are very few (possibly none) democratic countries in the world that haven’t made serious mistakes in their past. The US made serious mistakes as we were developing as a country. My dad grew up on a Native American reservation so I have direct family experience with some of the ones the United States has made. I still made the decision to join the US military and serve our country knowing that we’re imperfect and that we make mistakes. As shitty as some things in America’s history is, we’re still a whole lot better than most places I’ve been in the world. From your posting history I’ve gathered you’ve been in the military a long time. In spite of some of the serious mistakes we as a country have made over the last 20 years, I believe you continue to serve, even though we as a democracy have had some struggles. The Ukrainian government is having to make some extraordinarily difficult decisions as their entire way of life and state is under threat of destruction. Banning political parties that support the destruction of your country may not be completely democratic, but IMO we don’t live in a black and white world. Assuming that Ukraine survives in its current state, history will probably judge whether the steps they took to preserve themselves we’re justifiable or not. I sure as shit am not going to be too critical of anything they’ve done up to this point. Make you a bet, if Zelensky/Ukraine survives, in 5 years (or whatever their election cycle is), if the Ukrainians continue to banish all opposition parties/there’s no or a staged election, and Zelensky basically becomes a dictator, I’ll buy you a bottle of your favorite. If Ukraine continues to work towards being a democracy and a part of the liberal international system, you owe me.

There’s precedent in multiple other democratic states for things like this. For example, the Bund organization/party was outlawed in the US after the start of WWII. There’s multiple open source examples of the Russians kidnapping Ukrainian officials and and installing puppets; the 1st party in the above article is openly sympathetic and colluding with Russia, I’m not sure about the others. There’s only one large autocracy in Europe currently invading its neighbor, slaughtering thousands of civilians with heavy artillery, forcibly deporting thousands of others, and denying the entire thing. If the Ukrainian government has to ban political parties supportive/sympathetic of these actions to ensure they remain free of Russia it may not be in line with some idea of a democratic utopia, but perfectly understandable in a fight for survival.

Ukrainians in Mauripol slugging it out close range with a Russian tank.

Impossible to verify what’s in these trucks but I’ve seen some similar reports on Reddit and on other Twitter feeds. I’ll be curious to see at what point some of the Russian forces/axis are so attrited that they either start to en-mass refuse to move forward or are just completely combat ineffective. As much as Putin is pulling Russia back into a Stalin-like state, the FSB of today isn’t the NKVD or KGB of the 1930s/40s/50s (stamping out dissent or shooting guys in retreat isn’t going to be as easy as it was in WWII) If the Russian military starts to refuse orders en-mass this is gonna get weird real quick.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/18/russia-putin-ukraine-war-three-weeks/ Interesting (if true) intercepted words from a Russian soldier talking about the massive number of casualties the Russians are taking.

Honestly I’d have preferred they kept the corrupt, incompetent guys; it’d make it easier for the Ukrainians to kept killing Russians. Unfortunately the replacements might be better at their jobs.