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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rickdugan
If we sent them plenty of weapons they probably wouldn't be begging for more. We have also not sent enough of the right weapons - stuff that could actually help Ukraine control its own airspace against bombers and fighter jets.
As far as the sanctions, boloney. As long as Russia can buy and sell from/to China and certain other countries it has a pipeline to the financial markets. Most of those sanctions are more inconveniences than destructive. If we truly wanted to firebomb them, we would embargo their fossil fuels now and completely cut them off from all financial markets. But we won't because Europe is afraid to go that far.
Eagle, I understand your need to post apologist fluff - you like you're guy. I get it. But I'm a little disgusted at the dog and pony show, where we claim to be with the Ukraine people with loud and bold proclamations, but in practice sit back as they get slaughtered. We could have provided much more in a more timely manner. There is also a whole range of other weaponry that we and our allies could have provided to make the Ukraine too costly to invade, but we didn't.
I bet Biden and some EU leaders are secretly hoping that Russia will hurry up and finally knock out Ukrainian communications so that the images of civilians being slaughtered will stop flowing and Zelensky's pleas start to go unheard. That way they could stop feeling backed into corners and discontinue the ridiculous hypocritical political theatre that they are currently being compelled to perform.
You're just making stuff up. You don't even know the facts. You bash Biden for not sending Stinger missiles to Ukraine. You didn't even know that we already sent them. You just made up that we were withholding Stingers.
If the sanctions were not having an effect, the ruble and Russian stock market would not have plummeted in value. You have no idea of what's going on. You just make up anything to go along with your narrative.
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
eagle2
You're just making stuff up. You don't even know the facts. You bash Biden for not sending Stinger missiles to Ukraine. You didn't even know that we already sent them. You just made up that we were withholding Stingers.
If the sanctions were not having an effect, the ruble and Russian stock market would not have plummeted in value. You have no idea of what's going on. You just make up anything to go along with your narrative.
PLEASE stop personalizing. Disagreement is fine but it would be nice and helpful if you stopped looking at any disagreement as a personal affront. It's not. Or at least it shouldn't be. Other people have a different worldview than you do. Try to accept it and post accordingly.
I for one have grown tired of your worn out accusation that people with differing views from yours are "making things up". No they are not. They are looking at sources that you do not like and never read. Those sources say that the U.S. and Europe have bought and are still buying Russian oil and gas ; that we and other NATO countries have put ourselves in this position in the name of fighting Climate Change. Did you hear John Kerry ? What was his only concern ? That Putin stay on board with efforts to fight Climate Change. Is he serious ?
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
The extreme desire for many to make this about the US or any US president is disgusting btw. The world politic really isn't about us despite what your news sources tell you.
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eric Stoner
PLEASE stop personalizing. Disagreement is fine but it would be nice and helpful if you stopped looking at any disagreement as a personal affront. It's not. Or at least it shouldn't be. Other people have a different worldview than you do. Try to accept it and post accordingly.
I for one have grown tired of your worn out accusation that people with differing views from yours are "making things up". No they are not. They are looking at sources that you do not like and never read. Those sources say that the U.S. and Europe have bought and are still buying Russian oil and gas ; that we and other NATO countries have put ourselves in this position in the name of fighting Climate Change. Did you hear John Kerry ? What was his only concern ? That Putin stay on board with efforts to fight Climate Change. Is he serious ?
Please stop with your faux outrage. You don't say a thing when Rick personalizes. Rick is making stuff up, based on nothing more than his personal feelings about the Biden Administration. Rick stated the US is withholding Stinger missiles, even though we've already sent Stingers to Ukraine. It's obvious that he just made that up without having any idea of whether or not it was true. He also made this up:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rickdugan
Even now the current Administration is dragging its heels on sending the arms that it promised, no doubt secretly hoping that the Russians finish the resistance off before they have to honor their pledge. Oh and even when we do start sending aid, the Administration intends to hold back the Stinger missiles until a later date, probably the most important part of the aid package because they help protect against aerial assaults. It's all just political theatre for the masses now.
This isn't just untrue. I find his statement very offensive, falsely stating the Biden Administration is secretly hoping the Russians finish the resistance off. There's no basis for his statement, other than his personal feelings about Biden. This discussion is supposed to be about what is going on in Ukraine, not what President Biden is thinking. Political discussion is prohibited in this forum, yet Rick continues to ignore the rules.
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rickdugan
As far as the sanctions, boloney. As long as Russia can buy and sell from/to China and certain other countries it has a pipeline to the financial markets. Most of those sanctions are more inconveniences than destructive. If we truly wanted to firebomb them, we would embargo their fossil fuels now and completely cut them off from all financial markets. But we won't because Europe is afraid to go that far.
You're as wrong on this are you are on the Stinger missiles. Chinese banks are restricting financing for Russia.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/...raina-invasion
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
eagle2
You're just making stuff up. You don't even know the facts. You bash Biden for not sending Stinger missiles to Ukraine. You didn't even know that we already sent them. You just made up that we were withholding Stingers.
If the sanctions were not having an effect, the ruble and Russian stock market would not have plummeted in value. You have no idea of what's going on. You just make up anything to go along with your narrative.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
eagle2
So it came out (after I posted that) that Biden finally was shamed enough to send a small number of old Stingers (not the new stuff) to Ukraine, a couple of Chinese banks now won't led to Russia and they've taken some hits in their stock and currency markets. That's really riveting stuff...truly. China has not suspended trading with Russia and it has far more than 2 banks. And btw how do you think that Russia is still collecting those European fossil fuel payments, by carrier pigeon? ;)
What we didn't do was send the Ukraine more advanced missile tech, our newer Stingers, cluster bombs similar to what Russia is using on Ukrainian civilians, advanced drones, fighter jets and a whole host of other tools in the arsenal that would be devastating to Russian convoys and planes. Sure they picked up some scraps from our allies, but not nearly enough. Also what we didn't do is truly firebomb the Russian economy, which we also could have done.
Now of course you could cherry-pick every little tidbit of additional assistance and every incremental sanction as if it was the panacea, but what we really need to do is ask why we never did any of the truly meaningful things that we could have done, but instead looked on in virtue signaling outrage while Russia slaughters the civilians of a free democratic nation. History will judge us for this and not well I suspect.
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rickdugan
So it came out (after I posted that) that Biden finally was shamed enough to send a small number of old Stingers (not the new stuff) to Ukraine, a couple of Chinese banks now won't led to Russia and they've taken some hits in their stock and currency markets. That's really riveting stuff...truly. China has not suspended trading with Russia and it has far more than 2 banks. And btw how do you think that Russia is still collecting those European fossil fuel payments, by carrier pigeon? ;)
What we didn't do was send the Ukraine more advanced missile tech, our newer Stingers, cluster bombs similar to what Russia is using on Ukrainian civilians, advanced drones, fighter jets and a whole host of other tools in the arsenal that would be devastating to Russian convoys and planes. Sure they picked up some scraps from our allies, but not nearly enough. Also what we didn't do is truly firebomb the Russian economy, which we also could have done.
Now of course you could cherry-pick every little tidbit of additional assistance and every incremental sanction as if it was the panacea, but what we really need to do is ask why we never did any of the truly meaningful things that we could have done, but instead looked on in virtue signaling outrage while Russia slaughters the civilians of a free democratic nation. History will judge us for this and not well I suspect.
Do you happen to know who the two largest banks in China are? Who actually has a meaningful financial relationship with Russia? Do you understand that perhaps any slight disapproval from their ally may have a greater not to mention safer effect then trying to poke Russia into WWIII?
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
kamiliam
Do you happen to know who the two largest banks in China are? Who actually has a meaningful financial relationship with Russia? Do you understand that perhaps any slight disapproval from their ally may have a greater not to mention safer effect then trying to poke Russia into WWIII?
Safer no doubt, but if the continued advance of the Russian military in the Ukraine is any indication, certainly not "greater."
Has history taught us nothing? When has appeasement ever guaranteed peace? Every time we fail to act as a counter-measure because we are afraid of the reaction of an adversary, we embolden him. IMO the best way to ensure that we never have WW3 is to do everything (short of a direct confrontation) to ensure that he doesn't get the Ukraine - including its copious natural resources - and to crush Russia's economy to the point that it can't sustain a war. We fought plenty of covert battles with Russia during the Cold War, so we certainly have the playbook for it.
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rickdugan
Safer no doubt, but if the continued advance of the Russian military in the Ukraine is any indication, certainly not "greater."
Has history taught us nothing? When has appeasement ever guaranteed peace? Every time we fail to act as a counter-measure because we are afraid of the reaction of an adversary, we embolden him. IMO the best way to ensure that we never have WW3 is to do everything (short of a direct confrontation) to ensure that he doesn't get the Ukraine - including its copious natural resources - and to crush Russia's economy to the point that it can't sustain a war. We fought plenty of covert battles with Russia during the Cold War, so we certainly have the playbook for it.
Man you and I just see those situations in wildly different contexts and what is a bigger loss. it's crazy. I truthfully don't think war has served humanity since WW2, which needs a nuanced take in itself, despite the bad guys losing. YAY
But like give peace a chance or something. War isn't a videogame or an ECON study.
BTW I don't think idealizing any political figure is a good idea...I have been disappointed tons in my little political slut heart. I'm jaded AF
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Now a nuclear power plant is on fire, and they still haven’t brokered any sort of ceasefire, even for that.
https://apple.news/A9zLzgZxCQrCxFZJ5_TyhOQ
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rickdugan
But now let's look at what has happened since. He started with an initial force that was rather more restrained. In response we (US and allies) supplied more modest weaponry and funding to the Ukraine and put in place sanctions, but nothing that Putin couldn't live with. So emboldened even more, he dramatically ramped up his attacks, but right before he did so he made the nuclear readiness announcement. This is yet another example of his calculated brilliance. He froze us into place right before he got serious and our tepid response, some additional partial sanctions and a few more Stingers to the Ukraine, was as good as he could have hoped for.
You're buying into this Putin mythology, that he's some type of supervillain and genius, which has nothing to do with reality. Putin is in way over his head. He was completely unprepared for the response to his invasion of Ukraine, both militarily and economically. He was expecting the war to be over in a few days, with minimal Russian losses and mild economic sanctions. Instead he is involved in a costly ground war, and even if he is successful in taking over Ukraine, he will be facing an insurgency, and will need to allocate a significant number of forces to keep control of the country. Putin showed the world how weak and inept Russia's military is. We now know they're no match for U.S. or NATO forces.
After Putin’s invasion of Crimea, the Ruble lost half its value. The Russian Central bank had to spend $130 billion to stabilize the Russian currency. So learning the lessons of 2014, Putin spent 7 years building up his Central Bank’s reserves. Russia’s Central bank stored about half its reserves in foreign banks. This would avoid the additional costs of cross-border transactions and give the Central Bank direct access to foreign currency and debt markets during the sanctions. It seems it never occurred to Putin that the Russian Central bank could be sanctioned. Overnight half the Russian Central bank's reserves, reserves that took 7 years to amass were frozen. The Ruble collapsed, the Russian stock market is still closed for fear that opening it will result in a 1929 style crash, the big Russian energy companies listed on foreign exchanges are trading at a tiny fraction of their former value and Putin’s oligarchs have collectively lost over $80 billion so far.
Do you know what the difference is between one dollar and one Ruble? One dollar. A ruble is worth less than a penny.
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rickdugan
So it came out (after I posted that) that Biden finally was shamed enough to send a small number of old Stingers (not the new stuff) to Ukraine, a couple of Chinese banks now won't led to Russia and they've taken some hits in their stock and currency markets. That's really riveting stuff...truly. China has not suspended trading with Russia and it has far more than 2 banks. And btw how do you think that Russia is still collecting those European fossil fuel payments, by carrier pigeon? ;)
What we didn't do was send the Ukraine more advanced missile tech, our newer Stingers, cluster bombs similar to what Russia is using on Ukrainian civilians, advanced drones, fighter jets and a whole host of other tools in the arsenal that would be devastating to Russian convoys and planes. Sure they picked up some scraps from our allies, but not nearly enough. Also what we didn't do is truly firebomb the Russian economy, which we also could have done.
Now of course you could cherry-pick every little tidbit of additional assistance and every incremental sanction as if it was the panacea, but what we really need to do is ask why we never did any of the truly meaningful things that we could have done, but instead looked on in virtue signaling outrage while Russia slaughters the civilians of a free democratic nation. History will judge us for this and not well I suspect.
No, you just made it up. Biden was not withholding weapons to Ukraine, like you said he was, because "he secretly wants Russia to win." You have no idea of what is happening in Russia or how much the sanctions are hurting. Your view is based entirely on your belief that Biden is weak, rather than any actual facts. You're also ignoring the fact that Russia has over 6,000 nuclear weapons, including nuclear warheads aimed at American cities, which limits how much the US and Europe can do to help Ukraine militarily. I would love to see US and European forces move into Ukraine and crush Russia's army, but it's not worth risking a nuclear exchange that could kill millions of people.
Whether you're aware of it or not, Russia's economy is in dire straits. They're currency collapsed. Foreign businesses are pulling out. Ships are refusing to enter Russian ports. There are limits as to how much China is going to help Russia. China does a lot more business with the West than they do with Russia, and they're not going to risk it for Putin. At this point, an American embargo on Russian oil would be meaningless. American oil traders are not buying Russian oil.
If you don't like America's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, why don't you write to the President and your members of Congress, rather than bitching about in a stripper's forum, which will accomplish nothing? Especially since it goes against the rules of the forum.
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
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Originally Posted by
AChildOfBoredom
Holy shit.
They've all lost their damn minds.
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
laurielegs
Holy shit.
They've all lost their damn minds.
What could be worse than a Pandemic?
OH, a nation setting Nuclear Reactors on fire! Riiight!!!!
///Truth is stranger than fiction
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
AChildOfBoredom
The fire is out.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/euro...or-2022-03-04/
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
US-EU sanctions will pummel the Russian economy – two experts explain why they are likely to stick and sting
https://theconversation.com/us-eu-sa...d-sting-177896
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
eagle2
They would have to use a much more powerful weapon/bomb or know how to properly mess with the reactors in order to cause a nuclear event. They are built to withstand this type of attack. More evidence to me that they are trying to shock and scare.
One last thing I want to clarify about Rick's escalation pleas. Stingers are fine, the Ukrainian forces know how to use them and are effective. Is newer better really? I don't know and doubt any of us do. ANYTHING else from US/UK will likely be unusable by Ukraine themselves. They are not trained on our equipment, this is intentional. It is not even their fault but their stuff is cold war era. Do you think we spend and hoard equipment to give to other nations even allies? Even if they all spoke English and could be eventually trained, this is all an excuse to bring NATO forces in to use them, thus causing world war.
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
eagle2
No, you just made it up. Biden was not withholding weapons to Ukraine, like you said he was, because "he secretly wants Russia to win." You have no idea of what is happening in Russia or how much the sanctions are hurting. Your view is based entirely on your belief that Biden is weak, rather than any actual facts. You're also ignoring the fact that Russia has over 6,000 nuclear weapons, including nuclear warheads aimed at American cities, which limits how much the US and Europe can do to help Ukraine militarily. I would love to see US and European forces move into Ukraine and crush Russia's army, but it's not worth risking a nuclear exchange that could kill millions of people.
Whether you're aware of it or not, Russia's economy is in dire straits. They're currency collapsed. Foreign businesses are pulling out. Ships are refusing to enter Russian ports. There are limits as to how much China is going to help Russia. China does a lot more business with the West than they do with Russia, and they're not going to risk it for Putin. At this point, an American embargo on Russian oil would be meaningless. American oil traders are not buying Russian oil.
If you don't like America's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, why don't you write to the President and your members of Congress, rather than bitching about in a stripper's forum, which will accomplish nothing? Especially since it goes against the rules of the forum.
Eagle, please don't tell me that I'm making stuff up again. My sources are at least as good as, and probably much better than, your sources. Everything I posted about the weapons situation was entirely accurate, including the fact that we limited arms transfers to mostly small stuff and defensive systems AND that we even sent them older Stingers.
An American led embargo on their fossil fuels would be massive because it would essentially force our European partners to join in, which is precisely why we refuse to do it.
You can't claim that we are seriously hurting them in one breath but then say that we can't go TOO far or else risk pissing off Russia in the other. It's a direct contradiction in logic. Putin is no doubt counting on these sanctions being both manageable and short-term. Once he has secured the Ukraine, after of course killing many thousands of men, women and children, he will no doubt negotiate their removal as a condition of a cease-fire.
Putin relied upon Western cowardice and he's receiving it in spades. He whispered about nuclear readiness and we're ready to sit back and watch him slaughter innocent civilians. He bombs women and children and we do nothing but tsk tsk, add a few more limited sanctions and send some old Stingers. He bombs a nuclear power plant and still we do nothing - imagine if that plant had experienced a reactor breach.
This is a Ukraine thread talking about a war, so everything all of us is talking about is political by its very nature.
Now to be fair, this is hardly all on Biden. This was many years in the making. Even Trump was unwilling to send serious weapons to the Ukraine in order to avoid provoking Russia. But once we finally understood that all the pussy footing in the world was not going to curtail Russian aggression, we needed to do more to put a stop to it. If we let Russian nukes freeze us every time he starts this act, we might as well hand him Poland, Latvia and Lithuania now and save him the trouble and having to do this again in the future.
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
kamiliam
They would have to use a much more powerful weapon/bomb or know how to properly mess with the reactors in order to cause a nuclear event. They are built to withstand this type of attack. More evidence to me that they are trying to shock and scare.
So was Chernobyl.
Quote:
One last thing I want to clarify about Rick's escalation pleas. Stingers are fine, the Ukrainian forces know how to use them and are effective. Is newer better really? I don't know and doubt any of us do. ANYTHING else from US/UK will likely be unusable by Ukraine themselves. They are not trained on our equipment, this is intentional. It is not even their fault but their stuff is cold war era. Do you think we spend and hoard equipment to give to other nations even allies? Even if they all spoke English and could be eventually trained, this is all an excuse to bring NATO forces in to use them, thus causing world war.
The Mujahadeen were able to operate stingers. The North Vietnamese were using American aircraft against the ARVN forces during the final push towards Saigon. Iraq and Iran used captured enemy equipment against each other during their war, etc. Just because we don’t do it (which isn’t to say we never have) because we have the logistical and production capabilities to not have to do it doesn’t mean nobody else does. The Ukrainians are also using Javelin anti-tank missiles, Turkish-made drones, etc. Military equipment is designed for ease of operation. If you have a basic understanding of how equipment of the type functions, it’s not a difficult transition. It sounds like you’ve been watching Sputnik.
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
The absolute danger of nuclear plants is meltdown, that the artillery destroys the cooling and safety system, leading to fuel meltdown and possible explosion once it hits underground water.
Luckily this did not happen.
As for Ukranian equipment supplied by the west it has to be easy to use and also easily hidden, although admittedly the VKS has not enforced air superiority so the latter is that dangerous.
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Slightly off topic....
Clubs should give free house and no tip out to Ukrainian dancers for the rest of the year. Some of them are coming to work full of anxiety with their family members in mind back home, working their butt off to send money to them. Fellas, tip EXTRA as much as you can.
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
I only know of one, will definitely tip her next time I see her.
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DeathAndTaxes
I only know of one, will definitely tip her next time I see her.
Yes. Make sure you know. I can see some snake dancers making believe they're from there to try to hustle.
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rickdugan
Eagle, please don't tell me that I'm making stuff up again. My sources are at least as good as, and probably much better than, your sources. Everything I posted about the weapons situation was entirely accurate, including the fact that we limited arms transfers to mostly small stuff and defensive systems AND that we even sent them older Stingers.
An American led embargo on their fossil fuels would be massive because it would essentially force our European partners to join in, which is precisely why we refuse to do it.
You can't claim that we are seriously hurting them in one breath but then say that we can't go TOO far or else risk pissing off Russia in the other. It's a direct contradiction in logic. Putin is no doubt counting on these sanctions being both manageable and short-term. Once he has secured the Ukraine, after of course killing many thousands of men, women and children, he will no doubt negotiate their removal as a condition of a cease-fire.
Putin relied upon Western cowardice and he's receiving it in spades. He whispered about nuclear readiness and we're ready to sit back and watch him slaughter innocent civilians. He bombs women and children and we do nothing but tsk tsk, add a few more limited sanctions and send some old Stingers. He bombs a nuclear power plant and still we do nothing - imagine if that plant had experienced a reactor breach.
This is a Ukraine thread talking about a war, so everything all of us is talking about is political by its very nature.
Now to be fair, this is hardly all on Biden. This was many years in the making. Even Trump was unwilling to send serious weapons to the Ukraine in order to avoid provoking Russia. But once we finally understood that all the pussy footing in the world was not going to curtail Russian aggression, we needed to do more to put a stop to it. If we let Russian nukes freeze us every time he starts this act, we might as well hand him Poland, Latvia and Lithuania now and save him the trouble and having to do this again in the future.
When I said, "we can't go to far," I was only talking about military action, not economic sanctions. What difference does it make how old the Stingers are, as long as they work? The US upgrades weapons all the time. The Air Force is still flying upgraded B52s that are more than 50 years old.
The US can't force Europe to embargo Russian oil and gas, even if we did it ourselves. European countries are looking for alternatives. Germany built ports for handling LNG from ships, so they can rely less on Russian pipelines. Even if Europe stopped buying oil from Russia, Russia could still potentially sell their oil to other countries, like China or India, instead. If Europe stops buying oil from Russia, then they'll have to get it from somewhere else, which means less oil will be available for other countries. From everything I've read, Russia's economy is in dire straits.
‘Rest in peace, dear comrade’ — on Russian TV, analyst toasts to the end of the country’s stock market
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/re...?mod=home-page
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Re: What's going on in Ukraine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rickdugan
Eagle, please don't tell me that I'm making stuff up again. My sources are at least as good as, and probably much better than, your sources. Everything I posted about the weapons situation was entirely accurate, including the fact that we limited arms transfers to mostly small stuff and defensive systems AND that we even sent them older Stingers.
An American led embargo on their fossil fuels would be massive because it would essentially force our European partners to join in, which is precisely why we refuse to do it.
You can't claim that we are seriously hurting them in one breath but then say that we can't go TOO far or else risk pissing off Russia in the other. It's a direct contradiction in logic. Putin is no doubt counting on these sanctions being both manageable and short-term. Once he has secured the Ukraine, after of course killing many thousands of men, women and children, he will no doubt negotiate their removal as a condition of a cease-fire.
Putin relied upon Western cowardice and he's receiving it in spades. He whispered about nuclear readiness and we're ready to sit back and watch him slaughter innocent civilians. He bombs women and children and we do nothing but tsk tsk, add a few more limited sanctions and send some old Stingers. He bombs a nuclear power plant and still we do nothing - imagine if that plant had experienced a reactor breach.
This is a Ukraine thread talking about a war, so everything all of us is talking about is political by its very nature.
Now to be fair, this is hardly all on Biden. This was many years in the making. Even Trump was unwilling to send serious weapons to the Ukraine in order to avoid provoking Russia. But once we finally understood that all the pussy footing in the world was not going to curtail Russian aggression, we needed to do more to put a stop to it. If we let Russian nukes freeze us every time he starts this act, we might as well hand him Poland, Latvia and Lithuania now and save him the trouble and having to do this again in the future.
I assume you are in the USA and let me tell you its not that simple.
- We are 100% dependent on Russian fossil fuels. Cutting them off 100% would mean NO MORE GAS for the car. People just CANT HEAT THEIR HOUSES any more. It still freezes here at night. I giggle when I see Americans concerned about 6/gallon gas. I calculated it today and we are at about 10 $ / gallon now.
Wages , even in Western Europe, are lower than in the USA. We also all had extreme Covid measures and people are still recovering from the financial damage that did. Dont believe that we got financial support because us EU citizens and small business barely got any support. All support went to big companies. That 'welfare system' people in USA are always talking about that is supposed to be so great here, well let me tell you it is NOT. It barely exists outside Scandinavia
Our economies are in absolute shambles. I live in the RICHEST Western Eu country and I know people who just don't turn on their heating any more because they cant afford it. Our inflation is massive, bigger than in the USA. There are people who can barely afford food any more.
Cutting our economy 100% off from Russia would mean our demise. We do NOT want the USA to push us into this, and also more because the USA has nothing to do with this conflict. The nature of this conflict is Russia being mad that Ukraine wants into NATO. Thats why they were also threatening Sweden and Finland (which they have an agreement with, they are not supposed to join NATO and if they do they will be invaded). This has NOTHING to do with the USA and neither Trump nor Biden are responsible for this and should take their hands off it. Especially the USA.
Going to 'intervene' now would mean the demise of Western Europe and I think people will genuinely die from cold or hunger if we do so. We are already in shambles. Plus the risk of them dropping a nuke somewhere in Poland or Germany (which Russia also has a history with), we will be hurt if that happens, you dont.