The long awaited discussion between Putin-Trump has finally taken place, reportedly clocking in at a historic two-and-a-half hours, which according to some sources is the longest call between an American and Russian president since at least the Cold War.
Inflation doesn't fall when you introduce tariffs, wars don't end when you continue to fund them or drop even more bombs, industry doesn't come back when the dollar remains strong, and living standards don't rise when you cut everything with a high fiscal multiplier.
Though I did notice an uptick in capacity utilization today, which is at least something...
Bro it's over quit crying Trump went full bucket chicken mode in the first hours of his presidency - he's just a zionist stooge. All of his half cocked DOGE orders got reversed today btw.
You support Trump who is a genocidal psychopath who is enabling the Israeli genocide in Gaza. How sick and twisted you are. He just bombed Yemen the other day killing dozens of civilians.
If he continues down the road he is now on, internationally speaking, he is done. All of the poise in his demeanor he displayed during the campaign is gone. He is repeatedly making the same empty threats left and right. Trump is obviously showing signs of fatigue and psychological stress. He looks like he is cracking up and it is only two months in. He needs to get it all back in one seabag soon or he will get crushed. My take. Fare thee well.
Trump is an economic illiterate whose sole priority is to continue the upwards transfer of wealth in the US to the 1%. Trump has no solution to the many grave problems of American capitalism domestically. Trump's regime is only going to dramatically widen the deep divisions within American society.
Depends on the purpose of the tarrifs. If the purpose is to improve US manufacturing, then this is questionable, but if the main point of tarrifs is to increase tax revenue, then they will work. Trump seems determined to balance the budget as much as he can by reducing spending and increasing tax revenue.
It's worse. I knew an attorney of his. They ran down the Donald for me a long time ago. He is way worse than you perceive but, it is a start. His modus operandi has not changed in over 30 years.
I remember Trump saying that he would end the Ukraine war before he became president or within 24 hours.
And that anti war-pro peace president has already bombed 2 countries and he’s threatening another. Maybe you should buy a mirror and see who the retard is.
And you're suffering from an overdose of dogmatic ignorance and ineptitude cobfirmed by your inability to recognise Trump's rooted fundamental failure in the Ukraine matter.
Trump had the opportunity to walk away clean at the beginning of his Presidency and effectively stop the war, but he chose to get involved, which has now turned into aquagmire that will swallow him.
Are you incapable of understanding these fundamentals at play, and their long term repercussions for him and the US?
Remember everyone, don't feed the trolls. They just get bigger and bigger. They are trying to makes the discussion an emotive shitshow. Let's resist by presenting facts and logical arguments instead of button pushing insults.
Oh yea, Alphabet comes to the rescue to save the discussion board to go the way he wants it to go. Are you a commie anti-free speech promoter, mate? lol
It will be interesting to see how he fares on the domestic front with his apparent attack on the existing structural issues. However, on the foreign policy front it must be recognised that yes, Trump does indeed want peace. But he is also a committed zionist and has surrounded himself with committed zionists. This clearly means that, as a zionist, he knows that peace is only achieved by conquering the world, thus eliminating all threats.
He has been all along a tool of the Jewish elite sharing their financial, economic and globalist philosophy and psychopathic mindset. I think that will become clearer to people as his administration moves forward.
If you read my comment carefully, you will see that the zionist believes in his own definition of 'peace' - destroy all your enemies. So to seek peace is to destroy the Amalek among you, so to speak.
Trump wants peace?! Are you blind?!He just had Yemen bombed the other day which killed dozens of civilians. Never mind his supply of bombs which have massacred over 400 Palestinians over the last 2 days.
Trump represents a last ditch attempt by the desperate US ruling class to prevent its total eclipse by China. China is not only the industrial powerhouse of the world but it overtaking the US in many high tech industries. Trump's regime will fail miserably on both the domestic and international fronts.
It is fairly clear what the plan is: the US and Russia agree on steps towards ending the conflict; then Zelensky rejects the ceasefire; that gives the US good cover for walking away from the Ukraine, since it is Zelensky who is the obstacle to peace.
The US and Russia continue repairing their relationship, while Russia does what it has to do in the Ukraine. And the floundering Euros are left .... floundering.
That's the optimistic theory. I still think this is a lame effort by the Trump regime to use Russian aspirations to mend ties with the west to lull the Russians into Minsk 3, meanwhile the neocons can focus on Iran and China. I doubt the Russians are stupid enough to fall for it but anything is possible. I wouldn't discount it.
The Russians were willing to give plenty of slack to the West in the past. They didn't have much skin in the game at that point. Now they are at war with NATO, obviously they are not going to throw their hands in the air and concede their core demands. I've said it many times, they have a strategy and so far are working their way towards their stated goals. The West on the other hand seenlm to shoot from the hip, which often blows up in their face.
Something like that. Yermak said yesterday that Ukraine would not recognize any part of its former regions as the territory of Russia, it would not agree to any reduction of its armed forces (that's a slide from Istanbul 2022), and repeated the right of Ukraine to join NATO. Trump should send Rubio pronto to Kiev one more time and have Zelensky repeat the "red lines" to him as an official position of his government. If he does, it makes no sense to pretend that the present Kiev regime is interested in any realistic peace scenario and a long-term arrangement with Russia. Trump could then publicly distance himself from Zelensky's regime, declare it a major destabilizing actor and a menace to a long-term peaceful co-existence in Europe, and stop all U.S. support. He can do it because the US had no role in the phony Minsk agreements. Merkel obtained cooperation from Russia to them under false pretenses, knowing that Poroshenko and his successors would renege on the obligation of Ukraine to make peace with the Donbas rebels. The situation was aggravated by the Biden administration, which Trump may accuse as acting in bad faith and contrary to long term American interests. He can safely walk away from Ukraine and should do it ASAP.
As I have posted before, the Constitution of Ukraine says that;
a) The boundaries of the country when the constitution was signed are sacrosanct, and
b) Referendums to amend it must done nationally.
Politicians and Government officers take an oath to uphold the Constitution.
For anyone to say that there is an option for Ukraine to recognize Crimea or Donbass, etc., as Russian is to become subject to impeachment or charges of treason.
Therefore, third parties will have to negotiate for them and only then possibly propose a Constitutional amendment. The challenge becomes finding a 3rd party who is sufficiently neutral on the conflict. India perhaps?
It's a bit rich to invoke the Constitution of Ukraine by a regime that came to exist by removing a constitutionally elected head of state and then ignored its "equality of all people of Ukraine" provision with respect of two of its provinces, and all its linguistic minorities. Incidentally, since you are the scholar here, which third party negotiated the Constitution's "Euro-Atlantic" clause?
Probably because, being a clever little psychopath in the middle-management level of murder, he's a bit more careful of leaking his exact location. Others have done so in various ways and eaten ballistic missiles, though never fear, his sins will catch him.
Really? What version of the Constitution of Ukraine are you talking about? Didn't Ukraine's Constitution of Aug 1991 explicitly stated " Ukraine's neutrality and not joining any military block as well as equality of languages?"
Wasn't Crimea transferred to Ukraine in Feb 1954 to honor the 300th anniversary of unification of Ukrainians and Russian? So Ukraine split from Russia but wanted to keep Crimea transferred to Ukraine for UNITY? lol
Because I see the U.S. continuing to provide ISR to Ukraine and /lots of other help from strategic help to training and maintenance help, diplomatic, etc.. The U.S. will still permit arms sales to Ukraine (just now funded mostly by Europe and Russia's frozen funds).
There are probably tens of thousands of U.S. service members working full time on Ukraine. Even if say the U.S. pulls 50,000 of the 100,000 U.S. service members working on Ukraine (to speculate) and redirects them to China or the Middle East, and tried to replace them with Europeans or contractors, is the U.S. still walking away?
Right now the main tool on the front lines is drones.
Which are assembled locally in a highly distributed way from off-the-shelf Chinese components.
The US doesn't even have to provide all that much anymore -- the mission to help Ukraine survive up to this point has been successfully accomplished.
Now the ball is indeed in the Kremlin's court.
If they want to win the war, the only way to do it is to do what they have been refusing to even try for three years now, which is to physically isolate Ukraine. We can discuss the military-technical aspects of how that is to be done, but the point is that it has to be defined as an objective first. By Putin.
Russia needs more troops to prevent this stage of war being prolonged and leaving them in a bad strategic position for the next stage. They need 1.6 million troops at the front rather than 800,000, they need 2.4 million in theater, rather than 1.2, they need 4 million total, rather than 2 million, for this stage.
Russia needs to continue to take all lands Lenin forced it to cede to create the original borders of the Ukraine. And with a wink and a nod from Putin, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland send in the peace-keeping forces into the lands that Stalin forced them to cede to " the Ukraine. For protection of course.
The Banderan government-in-exile will be safely tucked away in Lviv, Poland.
"Right now the main tool on the front lines is drones."
No. That's the myth which this article perpetuates, even though S is careful to say artillery is still the main tool. The main tools on the front lines today are massive amounts of artillery, FABs, and missile and high power unmanned cruise missiles of various kinds. Ah, and also massive use of a few hundred thousand well armed men. Kiev is losing the war because they have crippling disadvantage in all of those tools.
It's also a mistake to use the word "drone" for all unmanned vehicles, as in...
"Which are assembled locally in a highly distributed way from off-the-shelf Chinese components."
Relatively small numbers of small drones can be assembled in a highly distributed way from off the shelf Chinese components, or even locally printed components using a few, key, mass produced Chinese components.
But those drones don't move the needle in terms of winning the war. They're salad dressing, the same sort of salad dressing that armchair strategists get excited about while the real professionals at war talk logistics chains.
The "drones" that matter are much bigger and more powerful drones, big enough to make a dent in logistics chains, and those can't be assembled in necessary volume in garage shops. They require industrial scale in real factories, which Russia has and Kiev does not. Russia has flattened many of Kiev's attempts to get industrial scale production of big drones going, but not once has Kiev flattened even a single significant Russian drone production facility, like the very large factories that turn out Lancets.
Considering all that has happened since Trump's inauguration, he cannot now walk away without having egg on his face, and knowing Trump to be the narcissist that he is, he cannot in his own mind accept that.
However had Trump merely disowned the conflict at inauguration, as Biden's war, and cut off everything to the Ukraine and extracted all forms of military or other support it would have effectively been walking away, and Trump wouldn't have to save face, simply because the conflict would come to an abrupt end within months, without US support, a gap the Europeans could never fill.
Somehow you make the assumption that Trump owes Europe or the Ukraine something, how did you draw that conclusion?
It doesn't matter whether Europe can fill the gap left by the US, the conflict needs to come to an end, sooner than later, and Putin will end it, no matter what, on his terms, and the longer the conflict is drawn out by the West and Ukraine the more demands Putin will be able to put on the table, as his position will only strengthen, as that of the Ukraine and West continues to weaken.
If Trump were really serious about settling the war, he would put ending the sanctions right up front in the negotiations, since the Russian upper class is mainly affected by them...That hasn't happened, and Putin will never agree to a deal without considerable, maybe total, relief from the sanctions....Which would actually benefit the US quite a lot...
Trump needs to come away with a win, even if it's a virtual win. My guess it will be at the expense of the British, and Ukrainians. The whole of Europe is looking like a black hole at the moment. Ukraine is the event horizon.
As long as there are "negotiations", do you see a strategic Russian offensive as even a possibility?
Highly doubtful.
So the mere fact of there being negotiations means Russia is conceding defeat.
Because anything short of ending Ukrainian statehood altogether is a strategic defeat for Russia. A catastrophic one.
But the current Kremlin posture is anything but geared towards avoiding that catastrophic outcome.
The tragedy here is that three years ago, i.e. circa April 2022, a proper strategic Russian offensive to end Ukrainian statehood, i.e. what the SMO should have been from the start, was not going to start WWIII. Now it most likely will, because Putin, in his infinite geostrategic wisdom, allowed the West to make this existential for both sides.
"As long as there are "negotiations", do you see a strategic Russian offensive as even a possibility?"
The Russians have been quite clear about no pauses in their ground offensives, and we are not seeing any. If there are no "strategic" offensives during this period, as indeed there have not been since 2022, the only reasons are the Russian General Staff's decisions. Which, for the record, make sense to me within an attrition framework.
Agreed. However I'm not entirely sure that Trump fully understands what's happening. He's trying to pressure Zelensky in a variety of clumsy ways, while not pushing them so hard they collapse on him, and juggling the Europ ghouls as if they weren't happy to murder the US via WW3. There isn't any clarity, however it does seem like Putin is willing to extend rope to Trump, both because Russia does want peace (on their terms) and because it leads Trump down the road toward a natural and actual split from the parasitical structures of the Cold War.
One of the greatest challenges in dealing with propagandized individuals is figuring out to provide them with enough truth to erode that programming, but not so much it triggers a rejection reflex. In this case, its Russiaphobic propaganda.
no- its a side view...there's a pic in the article of him - looking out the side of his eyes...which he actually does quite often...Man I have come to hate that guy in the past few days. I will never like him again. But yeah, that too. But this world is so fucked now. Thanks to him. He's still supplying Ukraine with weapons and intelligence. We're on course for disaster.
In England we have a type of pig with ginger hair, called a Tamworth. If you put DJT in a line up with 11 Tamworths it would be an achievement to pick him out.
Well, congrats to the troops stationed at the Belgorod border. Obviously, this time they were not taken by surprise. And the defence was done promptly and completely.
I do not see any bigger attac. A few tanks and some IFV, that is recon in force, not more. What would have happened if 100 tanks and 400 IFV, full of soldiers, dashed forward? This force would overload the drone operators. But the question is, what happens next, these units are out in the open, without any prepared defensive positions, the artillery and drone operators far behind, bad communication and a quickly problematic supply situation.
For sure not. If you clear a minefield, the enemy does exactly know what comes next. So either you clear the mines and then go on or the enemy will concentrate forces and you will go nowhere.
They would not have been able to concentrate such forces. The Ukrainians would have been detected immediately and attacked with Iskander missiles with a cluster warhead.
Werner. They would have got FABed and Iskandered in to the next world. Can't be massing forces when the enemy can both see and hit them within a matter of minutes.
There are no wonder weapons. Have you ever seen a FAB or Iskander on a moving target? These weapons are used to destroy stationary targets. Of course, if you assemble the troops slowly close to the line of contact, the Iskander will hit you. Therefore, a well-trained unit is needed that is transported in and immediately starts towards the targets. This kind of training is done in the US by "opposing" the Dark Horse (11th Armored Cav.), They do not use at least Russian Artillery tactics (you will find info online). As the Russians mastered this tactic in WWII, I think they will have some properly trained units too.
Why yes, my maths teacher WAS called Annelene, she had very cold eyes I recall. Hated Slavs, too. Strangely, all her 'A' students failed the exams, yet she found them all jobs personally.
Possibly heading for a cushy job at the UN, I wouldn't be surprised if Trudeau shows up at the UN sooner or later. The dumber they are, the higher they climb.
The more AMORAL they are, they higher they climb. I don't think these people are dumb - just lying sociopaths or psychopaths. The corporate media sells them, and the Public buy them - for a time. And then they are cycled out to be replaced with identikits the public are again enthused over.
Right! The best example is former Foreign Minister Baerbock, who was nominated for the chair of the UN. I won't write about her IQ here; I'd like to avoid visits from men in black.
I grew up in Germany and 'fled' to Canada in the 19-eighties. Back then Canada was a dream to live in, now it's becoming another Germany. Looking for my next 'Asylum Country'.😬
Why would "hating slavs" even come up on a math class? Interesting in the context of Ukraine war though - Ukrainians are convinced they are a "pure slav race", while Russians, they say, are no slavs at all, but some ugro-finnish tribe. Its a new phenomenon, I guess something made up to tell them Russians are not "their brothers".
Probably was during the Cold War, in America we were taught from grammar school that we were supposed to hate Russians and everything related to them because they were intrinsically evil from birth. Even in History class the Soviet fight against Nazi Germany was totally minimized, as though it were simply a holding action until the great US/UK alliance could get involved and do "the real work of finishing the war" (yeah, one teacher put it that way.) It was a different world.
No, typically at an Empire's end, the stupid and the ignorant rise to the top. This includes our "all-caps and three exclamation points" Chief dimwit, the President himself.
'Kiev Regime' - there it is. Putin must come to terms with the fact that the heart of the beast (locally anyway) is in Kiev. Perhaps out of sentiment, he seeks to avoid mass destruction of that great Russian city. Understandable. But surely the most expedient and indeed humane way to end this horrific war is to completely obliterate the regime that sit esconced in bunkers there. Think of it. No more press gangs. No more 18 year olds and 70 years olds slaughtered at the front. Isn't that how the Russians finally put the nail in the coffin of the NAZI regime, by storming Berlin, and all the major positions of power?
The heart of the enemy is in Galicia. After the coup 2014 the US had no normal politicians to do the job, they needed to bring in the fanatics. And now these people rule in Kiew.
The radicalization of those people started under the old Austrian/Hungary empire an offshoot of the Holy "Roman" Empire. The "Orthodox Slav" has always been seen as inferior to the "West". ever since the schism. Then add the "Venetian oligarchy" and their obsession with "complete power" (the financial wing, that has too much to lose).
Cut the head off the snake..The Russians would have to march into London.. Maybe even New York... This war will ramp up and continue.
For "Peace" to finally happen 80-90% of the worlds population will go kaboom.
London, maybe New York. . these are the command centers and financial hubs. But the ancient master vampires all have deep, deep shelters under Zurich and Geneva. The entire country has been turned into a nuclear shelter, not for the peons' sake.
I think the problem with Trump is an old American problem. The US surely knows how to enter in a war, shock and awe mode. The US armed forces are also quite competent. The problem is how to exit a conflict. If a total victory, WW2-style is not possible, the US tends to keep sinking men and resources not to appear weak. The war in Ukraine is a NATO vs Russia war, with the US as one of the main players. Ukrainians are just disposable assets to save on American lives. Right now, Trump has no idea how to end the war in a way that does not show weakness. He will probably keep sending some guns and sharing intel, but will gradually reduce the amount and will reduce the presence of "ex-NATO personnel turned in humanitarian workers". Right now, he does not feel in a rush. It is up to Russia to crush the AFU and take the rest of the annexed oblasts. Them, Trump will really feel some sort of pressure to cut funding or make Zelensky suffer an unexpected death to end the war in a way that is not too humiliating. I do not think the war will end before some big arrows rip through Ukraine.
The lower officers, if Dan Davis and McGregor are anything to go by, seem quite competent. After that rank, it seems political matters become more important for promotion...
Never mind DEI - most positions in life are not hard to do well with good intent.
The real problem has been the lack of good intent and the intention towards corruption and private profiteering, which began in earnest under Cheney when he privatised military services for Halliburton's benefit.
And the the promotion structure became geared towards maintaining this corruption - with the lucrative media talking heads spots reserved for the most corrupt.
As has been said many times, the wars in the 'Wars of Terrors' were never intended to be WON - just continued. War is extremely profitable to the shareholders of privatised military services.
Now, there is no doubt there was considerable incompetence as well. Even under those terms. But a considerable amount of APPARENT incompetence was due to the goals of the wars being misrepresented to the Public.
The US was not there to "Bring Democracy", or human rights, women's rights, gay rights, trans rights or any other 'rights' other than that of US/Western corporations to plunder the country and the Western taxpayers.
The purpose of the invasion was geostrategic, to create a base of operations against Iran, use opium/heroin to destabilise all surrounding countries, especially Russia and Iran, and the terrorise the local and regional population. And for the .1% to profit immensely from all this chaos and destruction.
Now in THOSE terms, the invasion was largely a success. There was a goodly amount of 'competence' shown.
Obviously, to actually 'stabilise' the country, strict anti-corruption drives would have been implemented, local leadership would have been encouraged to be more democratic and develop using the now non-plundered funds, US so-called "Experts" would have been sent packing, and the 'Taliban' would have been brought into the Govt, a la Hezbollah.
Hearts and minds would have been won, at a fraction of the cost in dollars and lives.
But the CIA wouldn't have had the heroin money, and the .1% might even have been out of pocket.
So was there "Massive incompetence", or "Normal moderate incompetence but massive lies about the real goals"?
When one trains in any of of the hand to hand combat skills, training and practice develops muscle memory, which is all import to winning a fight in hand to hand combat.
Because the US military, has never put the theoretical training into practice, they have no "muscle memory", which makes them impotent against a battle hardy force, which helps them to plow through weapons and resources, thinking that these make the difference, which the Taliban, Houthi's and Russians have shown them, are meaningless unless the dog has fight in him.
look at that idiot Hegseth - has Jesus in Hebrew tatoo - the jew language of jews that believe jesus is boiling in excrement and seamen - he is an idiot shabos goy - literally tattooed on his skin
Only as long as they're not in an official position. Once you're a government official. Its not about truth, but about political and whatever else "considerations".
Nixon and Kissinger made an essay at actual statecraft with the detente stuff and how they settled out in Paris. But domestic political considerations always trump foreign policy, and things move too fast for continuity.
The US military has negatives and positives baked in because of where it comes from. With that said, making a blanket statement about it sucking is not valid. I do think in a real war you’ll be replacing generals pretty quickly, but that happened to Russia too. In 10 years, I expect a significant reduction in capability because the better soldiers will age out. Only political will can change that trajectory. Will I see no sign of, yet.
They spent 20 years armed to the teeth, and couldn't beat the lightly armed, poorly trained Taliban militia, and ended up running away from the Taliban in the middle of the night, leaving behind $80 billion worth of military equipment.
I doubt whether the sum total of Taliban equipment was $1 billion.
Nope, irrespective of whether US military equipment is overpriced or not the taxpayers paid full price, which is the Actual Loss, and knowing the Pentagon and their failure to pass an audit over the past seven years, it might even have been double the amount.
What you say is true, if you are counting the actual price paid for the abandoned equipment - in fact, if it is valued in today's dollars, it is more than what it is said to have cost. On the other hand, it is still greatly overpriced, and its value is far below its price.
I don't know if "losing or winning wars" is what the US is really doing in Western Asia or Europe. I think the idea is permanent destabilization, making sure you have a situation that you "own" can manipulate... ie Iraq, never allowing the state to develop but keeping things ticking enough to make enough ample use of the inevitable corruption and deliberately staged infighting. As much as some Russian revisionists I have conversed with would like to paint the Taliban as some kind of genuine Afghani grassroots they came from a deliberately stirred US/CIA/MI6 NATO pot in Pakistan. Like the Takfiris in Syria to some extent. I don't even really know if the weapons were "abandoned" or just collateral for the next shadow war backed by a black market deal, usually a mix of narcotics and weapons....
The big problem is that the current balance of AFU+EU+US is proving a problem for the RuAF. Ukraine is able to make life hell in the Black Sea, and are able to lob drones pretty much anywhere in European Russia. In exchange, Ukraine is a dead nation, an economic and demographic ruin, but nobody cares. And Russia is simply unable to do the big arrow stuff you mentioned. I totally get why Russia is so obsessed with Ukraine being neutral; it is because the place is undefendable if your axis of attack is West to East.
It bulges east like a salient on the donetsk lattitude. There are half a dozen major cities sitting on it as well - kiev being the main obvious one. Russia currently does not control any part of the dnieper river and is nowhere close. But a DMZ of say 100km east and West of the river makes sense as part of a peace agreement because it creates a 200km buffer between the armed forces of both sides - out of most drone range, out of most missile range - while not turning cities into battlefields. It also is a good reflection of the Ukraine electoral map.
Russia has to reach the river first before this becomes anything more than a hypothetical discussion
For three years now, Russia has controlled the Dnieper River almost from the city of Zaporizhia to the mouth of the river. I measured this distance especially for you and it turned out to be about 270 km.
Their area of control starts at Enerdogar (where the ZPP is). They do not control the city of Zaporizhia. They sit on the left bank all the way to the mouth of the river, and nobody needs reminding that they had to fully withdraw from Kherson. This is not the definition of control by a longshot. Perhaps you can say they contest the river at those points - as a gray zone.
"The problem is how to exit a conflict. If a total victory, WW2-style is not possible, the US tends to keep sinking men and resources not to appear weak."
This abuse of The Sunk Cost Fallacy is why Russia was foolish not to have used adequate force from the outset.
Looking in hindsight, Russia should have entered Ukraine with 500.000 soldiers and wiped out the AFU with maximum brutality. The end result would have been a paradoxically smaller death toll for both sides and the war would have ended by now. Unfortunately, that is the kind of knowledge that is usually available too late.
I have been saying precisely this for years now. It is touching how Russia cutltists insist that Russia is conducting the war with humanitarian intentions in mind and in the same breath the same people excuse away Russian impotence as "It's a war of attrition!" in which killing people is the goal.
Russia is by no means impotent. The demilitarization of Ukraine is happening by inflicting massive casualties and destroying equipment. But perhaps if Russia had invaded with a massive army and really besieged Kiev, Zelensky would have signed a peace deal in Istanbul. The Ukrainian army was not finished and could still fight. Russia gave time for NATO to send weapons and for volunteers and conscripts to join the AFU. The death toll in the end would probably be smaller and AZOV rebels would be Kiev's problem. As I said, the US knows how to enter a war, not how to finish it. Russia entered the war half-heartedly but will probably give it a decent conclusion. Lesson for the future: wars are violent affairs that need a degree of brutality but are just a tool for competent or incompetent politicians. The US was brutal early on in Iraq and Afghanistan but incompetent politicians could not conclude them in an adequate way.
So the total result after 2.5hrs is "The USA and Russia agree that Iran should not have nukes" - which Iran doesn't want anyway.
Trump's options are now to face down the Ukies Regime, the Euro regimes, the NATO Regime, and the US MIC Regime, and the Corporate Media Regimes, to concede to all of Russia's demands. Or else the face the same quandary as Genocide Joe did - the war IS lost, and becomes more 'loster' every month, but the US can pretend that isn't so just in case some spandex wearing superhero turns up to reverse the tide.
And simultaneously, he's beginning a war against Ansar Allah, supporting the new Genocide in Gaza for the Zionist Nazis, and threatening Iran - which Putin will have told him it's ANOTHER red line that the flailing US Empire better not cross. Or else.
Round about now Trump is maybe thinking that defending himself in court against the lawfare by the putative K'Mala Regime might have been the easier option to take.
Americans are just not going to like the new Multipolar World one little bit.
Well, American 'elites', the common folk might appreciate the peace and domestic investment - if they get any.
Trump is not even considering 'facing down' anyone. He's deliberately rilling them up for the explicit 'division of labour'- the EU/NATO must step up, buy US weapons and take over the failure in Ukraine (after being fed feet first into the grinder), while the US focuses on Iran but principally China.
The US (ie deep state/BlackRock) is as far from accepting multipolarity or even spheres of influence as ever. Primacy is still there number one objective.
I'm thinking perhaps it'll be a good thing if they provoke China enough over Taiwan (which is already hotting up as the US backed leader of the Taipei administration, Lai Qingde, recently provoked the mainland; during a speech Lai said: “Taiwan is a sovereign independent democratic country”, making China emphasis again her red lines) that China is forced to finally respond to the US's provocation and posturing and take the Empire out!
That would be a Good Thing for Humanity, except that EVERY wargame of a direct confrontation between the US & China always end with the use of nuclear weapons.
The USA has a tantrum when all its vaunted carrier assets sink, and it works out it has more nukes than China does. Needless to say, even if Russia isn't targetted directly (It would be, that is part of US strategic nuclear posture to take out BOTH the other superpowers so the other doesn't survive), there is little chance that the Russian automated retaliation systems wouldn't be activated once US ICBMs come over the horizon towards Eurasia.
In other words, we are all cooked.
This was partly why Nixon accepted the One China policy in the first place!
It's a rum world when even Nixon had more common sense than either the current Demonrats or Trump/Repug Party.
Hi Gnuneo, I think we've had this conversation before but I don't think that nukes exist in the way we've been taught. They are lucrative deterrents and 'get out of losing a war' cards. A war would be of a more conventional kind, with declarations and when the US inevitably loses there will be enforced treaties not allowing the States to ever again interfere in other nations etc etc being policed by a reformed UN. https://jowaller.substack.com/p/just-like-scary-contagions-and-911?utm_source=publication-search
My recollection is the last time the US and China were at war the US decided not to nuke China ONLY because they couldn't guarentee finishing of the Chinese completely. Their calculations may have changed in the processing 70 years.
You are of the opinion that behind the lunatic political figureheads, there exists a powerful force that would step in before that nuclear level was reached? I'd LIKE to think so too, but I suspect it's too rosy thinking. General Strangelove exists (As all historical records around Kennedy and Cuban MC attests), and there are now many in the political sphere too. Who would trust Zelensky and Budanov not to launch nukes as soon as they had them in their control - or Ben Gvir? Or Lyndsy Graham?
No, I’ve of the opinion that nuclear level weapons don’t exist. They’re just for political purposes which is why no one uses them.
What’s with the old videos of explosions that could equally be conventional? The tests were carried out alongside TNT ones and purposefully made so that no one could tell the difference.
Of course i don’t trust anyone not to launch them if they were real. But they’re not.
I'm not following your point. Are you saying 'civilian' nuclear reactors aren't real too? That the physics of nuclear explosions is made up?
Or that yes, they COULD be real, but no-one actually builds them because it would be a waste of money(The moral of one of PKD's more amusing short stories, btw)?
I think the plan is to destroy the Chinese ecomony, but China is becoming increasingly open that they're aware of it, don't like it and are prepared to do something about it. The US is already over-extended but I doubt China would be able to join in either, neither would they want to.
The US war with Ansar Allah began in 2014, took a few zig zags and is still going now. I don't think Trump started it, he just picked up the Western eletist baton and continued killing Muslims. Another day in the Oval office.
I think it might be part of the "destroy China's allies first" strategy. The war against Russia didn't go the way it was supposed to, but surely the US can take on Iran? Two birds with one stone - make Israel happy and disrupt China's oil supply. Just need to ignore all the predictions that it will be a disaster, and not consider the consequences of war targetting commercial shipping.
Utter bilge.
Trump was schooled today, now he has to go back to his neocon handlers and tell them like he told Ze: "we have no cards".
Russia will bleed the west including US (along with Bibi wearing down US supplies for f 16 and F 35). The EU is already running on fumes.
Young soldiers dying for the failed neocon empire.
With several NATO officers now teapped in Kursk too.
hope the ruskie capture those (NATO) Negro and Tranny Organization troops an put them up for war crimes...
Inflation doesn't fall when you introduce tariffs, wars don't end when you continue to fund them or drop even more bombs, industry doesn't come back when the dollar remains strong, and living standards don't rise when you cut everything with a high fiscal multiplier.
Though I did notice an uptick in capacity utilization today, which is at least something...
It's not a good start. That's certain.
Bro it's over quit crying Trump went full bucket chicken mode in the first hours of his presidency - he's just a zionist stooge. All of his half cocked DOGE orders got reversed today btw.
How does Jew dick taste? Asking for a genocidal friend.
You support Trump who is a genocidal psychopath who is enabling the Israeli genocide in Gaza. How sick and twisted you are. He just bombed Yemen the other day killing dozens of civilians.
Nathan if Hamas are so awful why did Israel fund them against the PLO?
Show some respect for Simpliticus.
You can disagree but ad hominem to the author also insults his followers.
Now scram, simpleton. lol
You can do better, Nathan. It's not about me. It's about the collective.
Stop being a grumpy old man.
Denis can he though?
I mean, I'm not a gynaecologist, but I know one when I see one.
This might be the best he can manage.
Hello Nathan.
If he continues down the road he is now on, internationally speaking, he is done. All of the poise in his demeanor he displayed during the campaign is gone. He is repeatedly making the same empty threats left and right. Trump is obviously showing signs of fatigue and psychological stress. He looks like he is cracking up and it is only two months in. He needs to get it all back in one seabag soon or he will get crushed. My take. Fare thee well.
Trump is simply weak, stupid and easily manipulated. Always was, always will be.
Trump is an economic illiterate whose sole priority is to continue the upwards transfer of wealth in the US to the 1%. Trump has no solution to the many grave problems of American capitalism domestically. Trump's regime is only going to dramatically widen the deep divisions within American society.
Depends on the purpose of the tarrifs. If the purpose is to improve US manufacturing, then this is questionable, but if the main point of tarrifs is to increase tax revenue, then they will work. Trump seems determined to balance the budget as much as he can by reducing spending and increasing tax revenue.
Trump is a far right failure, like all right wingers
Hi Kane.
It's worse. I knew an attorney of his. They ran down the Donald for me a long time ago. He is way worse than you perceive but, it is a start. His modus operandi has not changed in over 30 years.
Cheers.
I remember Trump saying that he would end the Ukraine war before he became president or within 24 hours.
And that anti war-pro peace president has already bombed 2 countries and he’s threatening another. Maybe you should buy a mirror and see who the retard is.
And you're suffering from an overdose of dogmatic ignorance and ineptitude cobfirmed by your inability to recognise Trump's rooted fundamental failure in the Ukraine matter.
Trump had the opportunity to walk away clean at the beginning of his Presidency and effectively stop the war, but he chose to get involved, which has now turned into aquagmire that will swallow him.
Are you incapable of understanding these fundamentals at play, and their long term repercussions for him and the US?
Trumptards are special. They went to special schools.
yes - Zion don is jsut a jew puppet - maybe more than biden....
Remember everyone, don't feed the trolls. They just get bigger and bigger. They are trying to makes the discussion an emotive shitshow. Let's resist by presenting facts and logical arguments instead of button pushing insults.
Oh yea, Alphabet comes to the rescue to save the discussion board to go the way he wants it to go. Are you a commie anti-free speech promoter, mate? lol
It will be interesting to see how he fares on the domestic front with his apparent attack on the existing structural issues. However, on the foreign policy front it must be recognised that yes, Trump does indeed want peace. But he is also a committed zionist and has surrounded himself with committed zionists. This clearly means that, as a zionist, he knows that peace is only achieved by conquering the world, thus eliminating all threats.
He has been all along a tool of the Jewish elite sharing their financial, economic and globalist philosophy and psychopathic mindset. I think that will become clearer to people as his administration moves forward.
He wants peace but is a committed zionist. Oxymoron, me thinks.
If you read my comment carefully, you will see that the zionist believes in his own definition of 'peace' - destroy all your enemies. So to seek peace is to destroy the Amalek among you, so to speak.
jsut look at the jew holidays - they all celebrate genocide of their enemies. There will neve be world peace till the jew problem is solved....
Trump wants peace?! Are you blind?!He just had Yemen bombed the other day which killed dozens of civilians. Never mind his supply of bombs which have massacred over 400 Palestinians over the last 2 days.
Trump represents a last ditch attempt by the desperate US ruling class to prevent its total eclipse by China. China is not only the industrial powerhouse of the world but it overtaking the US in many high tech industries. Trump's regime will fail miserably on both the domestic and international fronts.
Disagreeing is allowed, repeated flagrant abuse is not. Sentence = 30 day ban.
Al-Hamdulillāh. Courteous discussions are better than puerile name-calling.
@Jolyon
لِلَّٰهِٱلْحَمْدُ
Indeed.
Thanks Simplicius. A couple of trolls.can really ruin an otherwise lively discussion.
It is fairly clear what the plan is: the US and Russia agree on steps towards ending the conflict; then Zelensky rejects the ceasefire; that gives the US good cover for walking away from the Ukraine, since it is Zelensky who is the obstacle to peace.
The US and Russia continue repairing their relationship, while Russia does what it has to do in the Ukraine. And the floundering Euros are left .... floundering.
That's the optimistic theory. I still think this is a lame effort by the Trump regime to use Russian aspirations to mend ties with the west to lull the Russians into Minsk 3, meanwhile the neocons can focus on Iran and China. I doubt the Russians are stupid enough to fall for it but anything is possible. I wouldn't discount it.
Putins offer of a "limited ceasefire" is the ideal trial of US and Ukrainian intentions without the Russians really giving up anything.
I agree. Putin is playing this well.
The Russians were willing to give plenty of slack to the West in the past. They didn't have much skin in the game at that point. Now they are at war with NATO, obviously they are not going to throw their hands in the air and concede their core demands. I've said it many times, they have a strategy and so far are working their way towards their stated goals. The West on the other hand seenlm to shoot from the hip, which often blows up in their face.
>doubt the Russians are stupid enough to fall for it but anything is possible
They already did.
Do you see another siege of Kiev as even a possibility while there are "negotiations"?
What would the reaction in the US be if that is happening?
Something like that. Yermak said yesterday that Ukraine would not recognize any part of its former regions as the territory of Russia, it would not agree to any reduction of its armed forces (that's a slide from Istanbul 2022), and repeated the right of Ukraine to join NATO. Trump should send Rubio pronto to Kiev one more time and have Zelensky repeat the "red lines" to him as an official position of his government. If he does, it makes no sense to pretend that the present Kiev regime is interested in any realistic peace scenario and a long-term arrangement with Russia. Trump could then publicly distance himself from Zelensky's regime, declare it a major destabilizing actor and a menace to a long-term peaceful co-existence in Europe, and stop all U.S. support. He can do it because the US had no role in the phony Minsk agreements. Merkel obtained cooperation from Russia to them under false pretenses, knowing that Poroshenko and his successors would renege on the obligation of Ukraine to make peace with the Donbas rebels. The situation was aggravated by the Biden administration, which Trump may accuse as acting in bad faith and contrary to long term American interests. He can safely walk away from Ukraine and should do it ASAP.
Ukraine is fast becoming a UK proxy. Whatever Zelinsky says is MI6 ventriloquism.
Dear God. Just when you thought it couldn't get worse for them!
As I have posted before, the Constitution of Ukraine says that;
a) The boundaries of the country when the constitution was signed are sacrosanct, and
b) Referendums to amend it must done nationally.
Politicians and Government officers take an oath to uphold the Constitution.
For anyone to say that there is an option for Ukraine to recognize Crimea or Donbass, etc., as Russian is to become subject to impeachment or charges of treason.
Therefore, third parties will have to negotiate for them and only then possibly propose a Constitutional amendment. The challenge becomes finding a 3rd party who is sufficiently neutral on the conflict. India perhaps?
It's a bit rich to invoke the Constitution of Ukraine by a regime that came to exist by removing a constitutionally elected head of state and then ignored its "equality of all people of Ukraine" provision with respect of two of its provinces, and all its linguistic minorities. Incidentally, since you are the scholar here, which third party negotiated the Constitution's "Euro-Atlantic" clause?
Surely by now, you know that law is meaningless. Enforcement is the only thing that matters.
That is exactly the point. Azov (Dmytro Yarosh) made it clear that "Zelensky will hang from a tree if he betrays Ukraine".
I understand why RF does not drop a missile on Zelensky or into a session of the Rada.
Why they do not target such as Dmytro Yarosh is less clear to me.
Probably because, being a clever little psychopath in the middle-management level of murder, he's a bit more careful of leaking his exact location. Others have done so in various ways and eaten ballistic missiles, though never fear, his sins will catch him.
Putin gave his word not to kill Zelensky. He usually keeps his word.
The powerful doing what they can and the powerless suffering what we must, as ever.
Really? What version of the Constitution of Ukraine are you talking about? Didn't Ukraine's Constitution of Aug 1991 explicitly stated " Ukraine's neutrality and not joining any military block as well as equality of languages?"
Wasn't Crimea transferred to Ukraine in Feb 1954 to honor the 300th anniversary of unification of Ukrainians and Russian? So Ukraine split from Russia but wanted to keep Crimea transferred to Ukraine for UNITY? lol
https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/meeting-presidium-supreme-soviet-union-soviet-socialist-republics
I prefer to summon Zelenski to DC, appropriately attired, say his piece and so JD can maul him in public.
Trump needs to sit aloof, silent and glowering.
Define walking away.
Because I see the U.S. continuing to provide ISR to Ukraine and /lots of other help from strategic help to training and maintenance help, diplomatic, etc.. The U.S. will still permit arms sales to Ukraine (just now funded mostly by Europe and Russia's frozen funds).
There are probably tens of thousands of U.S. service members working full time on Ukraine. Even if say the U.S. pulls 50,000 of the 100,000 U.S. service members working on Ukraine (to speculate) and redirects them to China or the Middle East, and tried to replace them with Europeans or contractors, is the U.S. still walking away?
When the Biden appropriations run out your question will be answered.
Right now the main tool on the front lines is drones.
Which are assembled locally in a highly distributed way from off-the-shelf Chinese components.
The US doesn't even have to provide all that much anymore -- the mission to help Ukraine survive up to this point has been successfully accomplished.
Now the ball is indeed in the Kremlin's court.
If they want to win the war, the only way to do it is to do what they have been refusing to even try for three years now, which is to physically isolate Ukraine. We can discuss the military-technical aspects of how that is to be done, but the point is that it has to be defined as an objective first. By Putin.
As I wrote in another comment:
Russia needs more troops to prevent this stage of war being prolonged and leaving them in a bad strategic position for the next stage. They need 1.6 million troops at the front rather than 800,000, they need 2.4 million in theater, rather than 1.2, they need 4 million total, rather than 2 million, for this stage.
Russia needs to continue to take all lands Lenin forced it to cede to create the original borders of the Ukraine. And with a wink and a nod from Putin, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland send in the peace-keeping forces into the lands that Stalin forced them to cede to " the Ukraine. For protection of course.
The Banderan government-in-exile will be safely tucked away in Lviv, Poland.
I believe Bulgaria has a claim as well.
"Right now the main tool on the front lines is drones."
No. That's the myth which this article perpetuates, even though S is careful to say artillery is still the main tool. The main tools on the front lines today are massive amounts of artillery, FABs, and missile and high power unmanned cruise missiles of various kinds. Ah, and also massive use of a few hundred thousand well armed men. Kiev is losing the war because they have crippling disadvantage in all of those tools.
It's also a mistake to use the word "drone" for all unmanned vehicles, as in...
"Which are assembled locally in a highly distributed way from off-the-shelf Chinese components."
Relatively small numbers of small drones can be assembled in a highly distributed way from off the shelf Chinese components, or even locally printed components using a few, key, mass produced Chinese components.
But those drones don't move the needle in terms of winning the war. They're salad dressing, the same sort of salad dressing that armchair strategists get excited about while the real professionals at war talk logistics chains.
The "drones" that matter are much bigger and more powerful drones, big enough to make a dent in logistics chains, and those can't be assembled in necessary volume in garage shops. They require industrial scale in real factories, which Russia has and Kiev does not. Russia has flattened many of Kiev's attempts to get industrial scale production of big drones going, but not once has Kiev flattened even a single significant Russian drone production facility, like the very large factories that turn out Lancets.
Considering all that has happened since Trump's inauguration, he cannot now walk away without having egg on his face, and knowing Trump to be the narcissist that he is, he cannot in his own mind accept that.
However had Trump merely disowned the conflict at inauguration, as Biden's war, and cut off everything to the Ukraine and extracted all forms of military or other support it would have effectively been walking away, and Trump wouldn't have to save face, simply because the conflict would come to an abrupt end within months, without US support, a gap the Europeans could never fill.
Somehow you make the assumption that Trump owes Europe or the Ukraine something, how did you draw that conclusion?
It doesn't matter whether Europe can fill the gap left by the US, the conflict needs to come to an end, sooner than later, and Putin will end it, no matter what, on his terms, and the longer the conflict is drawn out by the West and Ukraine the more demands Putin will be able to put on the table, as his position will only strengthen, as that of the Ukraine and West continues to weaken.
Yes, a less ambitious plan - separate peace agreement between the US and Russia could be achieved. The EU would then have to make their own peace.
If Trump were really serious about settling the war, he would put ending the sanctions right up front in the negotiations, since the Russian upper class is mainly affected by them...That hasn't happened, and Putin will never agree to a deal without considerable, maybe total, relief from the sanctions....Which would actually benefit the US quite a lot...
Trump needs to come away with a win, even if it's a virtual win. My guess it will be at the expense of the British, and Ukrainians. The whole of Europe is looking like a black hole at the moment. Ukraine is the event horizon.
Europe is more like an accretion disc, they are still melting down in a highly visible manner.
The US continues to provide military aid to Ukraine and is about to increase sanctions against Russia. Where is the 'walking away'?
Yep, Floundering Euros, like fish out of water.
Doesn't work that way.
As long as there are "negotiations", do you see a strategic Russian offensive as even a possibility?
Highly doubtful.
So the mere fact of there being negotiations means Russia is conceding defeat.
Because anything short of ending Ukrainian statehood altogether is a strategic defeat for Russia. A catastrophic one.
But the current Kremlin posture is anything but geared towards avoiding that catastrophic outcome.
The tragedy here is that three years ago, i.e. circa April 2022, a proper strategic Russian offensive to end Ukrainian statehood, i.e. what the SMO should have been from the start, was not going to start WWIII. Now it most likely will, because Putin, in his infinite geostrategic wisdom, allowed the West to make this existential for both sides.
It's not existential for the West.
"As long as there are "negotiations", do you see a strategic Russian offensive as even a possibility?"
The Russians have been quite clear about no pauses in their ground offensives, and we are not seeing any. If there are no "strategic" offensives during this period, as indeed there have not been since 2022, the only reasons are the Russian General Staff's decisions. Which, for the record, make sense to me within an attrition framework.
Agreed. However I'm not entirely sure that Trump fully understands what's happening. He's trying to pressure Zelensky in a variety of clumsy ways, while not pushing them so hard they collapse on him, and juggling the Europ ghouls as if they weren't happy to murder the US via WW3. There isn't any clarity, however it does seem like Putin is willing to extend rope to Trump, both because Russia does want peace (on their terms) and because it leads Trump down the road toward a natural and actual split from the parasitical structures of the Cold War.
One of the greatest challenges in dealing with propagandized individuals is figuring out to provide them with enough truth to erode that programming, but not so much it triggers a rejection reflex. In this case, its Russiaphobic propaganda.
Trump's got reptilian eyes.
I think he's wearing goggles when he's under the tanning bed, the area around his eyes stays white which makes his face look somewhat bizarre.
no- its a side view...there's a pic in the article of him - looking out the side of his eyes...which he actually does quite often...Man I have come to hate that guy in the past few days. I will never like him again. But yeah, that too. But this world is so fucked now. Thanks to him. He's still supplying Ukraine with weapons and intelligence. We're on course for disaster.
I think Trump’s eyes look porcine.
THAT TOO !!
In England we have a type of pig with ginger hair, called a Tamworth. If you put DJT in a line up with 11 Tamworths it would be an achievement to pick him out.
Well, congrats to the troops stationed at the Belgorod border. Obviously, this time they were not taken by surprise. And the defence was done promptly and completely.
I do not see any bigger attac. A few tanks and some IFV, that is recon in force, not more. What would have happened if 100 tanks and 400 IFV, full of soldiers, dashed forward? This force would overload the drone operators. But the question is, what happens next, these units are out in the open, without any prepared defensive positions, the artillery and drone operators far behind, bad communication and a quickly problematic supply situation.
The attacks goal was to clear the minefields on the border. This has apparently been done. Never an easy task.
For sure not. If you clear a minefield, the enemy does exactly know what comes next. So either you clear the mines and then go on or the enemy will concentrate forces and you will go nowhere.
They would not have been able to concentrate such forces. The Ukrainians would have been detected immediately and attacked with Iskander missiles with a cluster warhead.
Werner. They would have got FABed and Iskandered in to the next world. Can't be massing forces when the enemy can both see and hit them within a matter of minutes.
There are no wonder weapons. Have you ever seen a FAB or Iskander on a moving target? These weapons are used to destroy stationary targets. Of course, if you assemble the troops slowly close to the line of contact, the Iskander will hit you. Therefore, a well-trained unit is needed that is transported in and immediately starts towards the targets. This kind of training is done in the US by "opposing" the Dark Horse (11th Armored Cav.), They do not use at least Russian Artillery tactics (you will find info online). As the Russians mastered this tactic in WWII, I think they will have some properly trained units too.
So disgusted by these self-righteous hypocritical liberals who say “fruitless” talks. Honestly, I think these are evil people who love death.
Nothing will change. Same usa, same decisions.
5/5 is the same as 10/10.
American education system at its best
They should push the sanctions up to 15/10, that will really show them
But the knob only goes to 11......
Or even 15/15, both numbers are biggererer then!
Why yes, my maths teacher WAS called Annelene, she had very cold eyes I recall. Hated Slavs, too. Strangely, all her 'A' students failed the exams, yet she found them all jobs personally.
Possibly heading for a cushy job at the UN, I wouldn't be surprised if Trudeau shows up at the UN sooner or later. The dumber they are, the higher they climb.
Gisela,
Its like drugs - the harder you suck the higher you get...
The more AMORAL they are, they higher they climb. I don't think these people are dumb - just lying sociopaths or psychopaths. The corporate media sells them, and the Public buy them - for a time. And then they are cycled out to be replaced with identikits the public are again enthused over.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is set to be nominated by the German government for the UN General Assembly presidency in 2025/26...
You are right: "The dumber they are, the higher they climb."
Hence the expression "failing upwards".
Right! The best example is former Foreign Minister Baerbock, who was nominated for the chair of the UN. I won't write about her IQ here; I'd like to avoid visits from men in black.
I grew up in Germany and 'fled' to Canada in the 19-eighties. Back then Canada was a dream to live in, now it's becoming another Germany. Looking for my next 'Asylum Country'.😬
Burkina Faso is looking like utopia right now.
#Bareback "The Fierce Ruling Asset & Diva"
Is there some kind of NLP juju going on with her
I wonder.
She comes across as a true belieber.
Might just be simple cruelty in her character ofcourse.
Why would "hating slavs" even come up on a math class? Interesting in the context of Ukraine war though - Ukrainians are convinced they are a "pure slav race", while Russians, they say, are no slavs at all, but some ugro-finnish tribe. Its a new phenomenon, I guess something made up to tell them Russians are not "their brothers".
Probably was during the Cold War, in America we were taught from grammar school that we were supposed to hate Russians and everything related to them because they were intrinsically evil from birth. Even in History class the Soviet fight against Nazi Germany was totally minimized, as though it were simply a holding action until the great US/UK alliance could get involved and do "the real work of finishing the war" (yeah, one teacher put it that way.) It was a different world.
He is fasting for Ramadan, give him a break!
That needs to be turned around a complete 360 degrees.
That German math senior.
That could be an "Annalena Baerbock" quote.
No, typically at an Empire's end, the stupid and the ignorant rise to the top. This includes our "all-caps and three exclamation points" Chief dimwit, the President himself.
You misspelt egamuhkashun.
Putin treated Trump like Trump did Zelenski in the oval office. Too bad it was not televised!
I seriously doubt that.
No, it was even better, Trump at least shut up after Putin explained to him who was holding all of the cards!
Pres. Putin in particular, and Russian diplomats and leaders in general, have too much class to behave in such a crass and boorish manner.
'Kiev Regime' - there it is. Putin must come to terms with the fact that the heart of the beast (locally anyway) is in Kiev. Perhaps out of sentiment, he seeks to avoid mass destruction of that great Russian city. Understandable. But surely the most expedient and indeed humane way to end this horrific war is to completely obliterate the regime that sit esconced in bunkers there. Think of it. No more press gangs. No more 18 year olds and 70 years olds slaughtered at the front. Isn't that how the Russians finally put the nail in the coffin of the NAZI regime, by storming Berlin, and all the major positions of power?
100% correct.
Thanks Chucky.
The heart of the enemy is in Galicia. After the coup 2014 the US had no normal politicians to do the job, they needed to bring in the fanatics. And now these people rule in Kiew.
The radicalization of those people started under the old Austrian/Hungary empire an offshoot of the Holy "Roman" Empire. The "Orthodox Slav" has always been seen as inferior to the "West". ever since the schism. Then add the "Venetian oligarchy" and their obsession with "complete power" (the financial wing, that has too much to lose).
Cut the head off the snake..The Russians would have to march into London.. Maybe even New York... This war will ramp up and continue.
For "Peace" to finally happen 80-90% of the worlds population will go kaboom.
Smoke and Mirrors... A world ran by the insane.
No, the radicalization started earlier, under the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. Google Bohdan Khmelnytsky.
London, maybe New York. . these are the command centers and financial hubs. But the ancient master vampires all have deep, deep shelters under Zurich and Geneva. The entire country has been turned into a nuclear shelter, not for the peons' sake.
Or maybe just send in some Oreshniks into the Rothchilds and the Lunatics in Tel Aviv
Allegedly Z got his position with the aid and backing of Kolomoisky.
I think that means the Kosher Nostra.
(Or alternatively "criminal network affiliated sayanim"?)
Not simply the cluster in Kiev, a bigger network.
Yes the not funny gaylord comedian serves as a focal point.
Bingo!
You were a little more objective on this one Simplicius
A little
I think the problem with Trump is an old American problem. The US surely knows how to enter in a war, shock and awe mode. The US armed forces are also quite competent. The problem is how to exit a conflict. If a total victory, WW2-style is not possible, the US tends to keep sinking men and resources not to appear weak. The war in Ukraine is a NATO vs Russia war, with the US as one of the main players. Ukrainians are just disposable assets to save on American lives. Right now, Trump has no idea how to end the war in a way that does not show weakness. He will probably keep sending some guns and sharing intel, but will gradually reduce the amount and will reduce the presence of "ex-NATO personnel turned in humanitarian workers". Right now, he does not feel in a rush. It is up to Russia to crush the AFU and take the rest of the annexed oblasts. Them, Trump will really feel some sort of pressure to cut funding or make Zelensky suffer an unexpected death to end the war in a way that is not too humiliating. I do not think the war will end before some big arrows rip through Ukraine.
The lower officers, if Dan Davis and McGregor are anything to go by, seem quite competent. After that rank, it seems political matters become more important for promotion...
Never mind DEI - most positions in life are not hard to do well with good intent.
The real problem has been the lack of good intent and the intention towards corruption and private profiteering, which began in earnest under Cheney when he privatised military services for Halliburton's benefit.
And the the promotion structure became geared towards maintaining this corruption - with the lucrative media talking heads spots reserved for the most corrupt.
As McGovern calls it - MICIMATT.
Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank.
= the jew
Davis and McGregor are from "old school." It's hard to say what's going on now (I mean not hard to say at all:-))
None of the leadership showed any level of competence in Afghanistan.
Lower ranking echelons might just be nicer people.
Yes... and no.
As has been said many times, the wars in the 'Wars of Terrors' were never intended to be WON - just continued. War is extremely profitable to the shareholders of privatised military services.
Now, there is no doubt there was considerable incompetence as well. Even under those terms. But a considerable amount of APPARENT incompetence was due to the goals of the wars being misrepresented to the Public.
The US was not there to "Bring Democracy", or human rights, women's rights, gay rights, trans rights or any other 'rights' other than that of US/Western corporations to plunder the country and the Western taxpayers.
The purpose of the invasion was geostrategic, to create a base of operations against Iran, use opium/heroin to destabilise all surrounding countries, especially Russia and Iran, and the terrorise the local and regional population. And for the .1% to profit immensely from all this chaos and destruction.
Now in THOSE terms, the invasion was largely a success. There was a goodly amount of 'competence' shown.
Obviously, to actually 'stabilise' the country, strict anti-corruption drives would have been implemented, local leadership would have been encouraged to be more democratic and develop using the now non-plundered funds, US so-called "Experts" would have been sent packing, and the 'Taliban' would have been brought into the Govt, a la Hezbollah.
Hearts and minds would have been won, at a fraction of the cost in dollars and lives.
But the CIA wouldn't have had the heroin money, and the .1% might even have been out of pocket.
So was there "Massive incompetence", or "Normal moderate incompetence but massive lies about the real goals"?
Make up your own mind. :)
When one trains in any of of the hand to hand combat skills, training and practice develops muscle memory, which is all import to winning a fight in hand to hand combat.
Because the US military, has never put the theoretical training into practice, they have no "muscle memory", which makes them impotent against a battle hardy force, which helps them to plow through weapons and resources, thinking that these make the difference, which the Taliban, Houthi's and Russians have shown them, are meaningless unless the dog has fight in him.
Like all the Imperial powers, the US Military is mainly designed to kill unarmed men, women and children to cause terror.
The ludicrously high "Collateral Damage" numbers in every combat situation, are a feature, not a bug.
This is not the case for Ansar Allah or the Russian military.
look at that idiot Hegseth - has Jesus in Hebrew tatoo - the jew language of jews that believe jesus is boiling in excrement and seamen - he is an idiot shabos goy - literally tattooed on his skin
Is that true? I thought Jews didn't really believe in Hell?
In their evil Talmud. Yes. https://eitan.bar/articles/jesus-in-the-talmud/
The religious imagery & symbolism might possibly
indicate allegiance toward Dominionism / Dominion Theology.
Dominion Theology is very much a thing with officers in the US military (USAF predominantly), so I have read.
https://repository.wellesley.edu/object/ir340
Only as long as they're not in an official position. Once you're a government official. Its not about truth, but about political and whatever else "considerations".
Same in the Corporate world, isn't it? If there's any difference these days.
Nixon and Kissinger made an essay at actual statecraft with the detente stuff and how they settled out in Paris. But domestic political considerations always trump foreign policy, and things move too fast for continuity.
The US military has negatives and positives baked in because of where it comes from. With that said, making a blanket statement about it sucking is not valid. I do think in a real war you’ll be replacing generals pretty quickly, but that happened to Russia too. In 10 years, I expect a significant reduction in capability because the better soldiers will age out. Only political will can change that trajectory. Will I see no sign of, yet.
The US forces quite competent???
They spent 20 years armed to the teeth, and couldn't beat the lightly armed, poorly trained Taliban militia, and ended up running away from the Taliban in the middle of the night, leaving behind $80 billion worth of military equipment.
I doubt whether the sum total of Taliban equipment was $1 billion.
Of course, you need to at least halve the value of equipment left behind, if not more. US military equipment is vastly over-priced.
Nope, irrespective of whether US military equipment is overpriced or not the taxpayers paid full price, which is the Actual Loss, and knowing the Pentagon and their failure to pass an audit over the past seven years, it might even have been double the amount.
What you say is true, if you are counting the actual price paid for the abandoned equipment - in fact, if it is valued in today's dollars, it is more than what it is said to have cost. On the other hand, it is still greatly overpriced, and its value is far below its price.
I don't know if "losing or winning wars" is what the US is really doing in Western Asia or Europe. I think the idea is permanent destabilization, making sure you have a situation that you "own" can manipulate... ie Iraq, never allowing the state to develop but keeping things ticking enough to make enough ample use of the inevitable corruption and deliberately staged infighting. As much as some Russian revisionists I have conversed with would like to paint the Taliban as some kind of genuine Afghani grassroots they came from a deliberately stirred US/CIA/MI6 NATO pot in Pakistan. Like the Takfiris in Syria to some extent. I don't even really know if the weapons were "abandoned" or just collateral for the next shadow war backed by a black market deal, usually a mix of narcotics and weapons....
And the Soviets in Afghanistan? It’s a graveyard for all armies.
How does the Soviet Union figure into things since the Soviet Union has been defunct for 34 years?
British lost 3 wars in Afghanistan.
The big problem is that the current balance of AFU+EU+US is proving a problem for the RuAF. Ukraine is able to make life hell in the Black Sea, and are able to lob drones pretty much anywhere in European Russia. In exchange, Ukraine is a dead nation, an economic and demographic ruin, but nobody cares. And Russia is simply unable to do the big arrow stuff you mentioned. I totally get why Russia is so obsessed with Ukraine being neutral; it is because the place is undefendable if your axis of attack is West to East.
I thought the Dnieper went North to South the full length of Ukraine. Isn't it quite a sizeable river?
It bulges east like a salient on the donetsk lattitude. There are half a dozen major cities sitting on it as well - kiev being the main obvious one. Russia currently does not control any part of the dnieper river and is nowhere close. But a DMZ of say 100km east and West of the river makes sense as part of a peace agreement because it creates a 200km buffer between the armed forces of both sides - out of most drone range, out of most missile range - while not turning cities into battlefields. It also is a good reflection of the Ukraine electoral map.
Russia has to reach the river first before this becomes anything more than a hypothetical discussion
For three years now, Russia has controlled the Dnieper River almost from the city of Zaporizhia to the mouth of the river. I measured this distance especially for you and it turned out to be about 270 km.
Their area of control starts at Enerdogar (where the ZPP is). They do not control the city of Zaporizhia. They sit on the left bank all the way to the mouth of the river, and nobody needs reminding that they had to fully withdraw from Kherson. This is not the definition of control by a longshot. Perhaps you can say they contest the river at those points - as a gray zone.
"The problem is how to exit a conflict. If a total victory, WW2-style is not possible, the US tends to keep sinking men and resources not to appear weak."
This abuse of The Sunk Cost Fallacy is why Russia was foolish not to have used adequate force from the outset.
Looking in hindsight, Russia should have entered Ukraine with 500.000 soldiers and wiped out the AFU with maximum brutality. The end result would have been a paradoxically smaller death toll for both sides and the war would have ended by now. Unfortunately, that is the kind of knowledge that is usually available too late.
I have been saying precisely this for years now. It is touching how Russia cutltists insist that Russia is conducting the war with humanitarian intentions in mind and in the same breath the same people excuse away Russian impotence as "It's a war of attrition!" in which killing people is the goal.
Russia is by no means impotent. The demilitarization of Ukraine is happening by inflicting massive casualties and destroying equipment. But perhaps if Russia had invaded with a massive army and really besieged Kiev, Zelensky would have signed a peace deal in Istanbul. The Ukrainian army was not finished and could still fight. Russia gave time for NATO to send weapons and for volunteers and conscripts to join the AFU. The death toll in the end would probably be smaller and AZOV rebels would be Kiev's problem. As I said, the US knows how to enter a war, not how to finish it. Russia entered the war half-heartedly but will probably give it a decent conclusion. Lesson for the future: wars are violent affairs that need a degree of brutality but are just a tool for competent or incompetent politicians. The US was brutal early on in Iraq and Afghanistan but incompetent politicians could not conclude them in an adequate way.
Once Ukraine starts to really run low on warm live bodies to soak up Russian munitions, then the call will go out to Send In The Poles!
They should have destroyed the AFU in Debaltsevo. But hindsight is always 20:20.
Do you know an old joke, " I wish I was as clever as my wife after the fact?"
Trump is going to lose bad if he tries anything with Iran. He can't even beat the Houthis.
As I recall the Vietnam peace talks took 3 years
I PROMISE you Trump could have ended it in 24hrs though! Nobody can negotiate like he can!!
Due to 2.5 years of Kissinger sabotaging them.
No Kissinger didn't sabotage them, he had nothing to negotiate with, and was negotiating from a position of weakness, in the same way Trump is now.
To put in Trump terms, neither Kissinger, nor Trump were holding the cards.
And what happened to the US in those talks at the end???
They got shoved out the door and landed on their asses.
I put the over/under at a year.
At that point the battlefield will dictate how the SMO comes to a conclusion.
So the total result after 2.5hrs is "The USA and Russia agree that Iran should not have nukes" - which Iran doesn't want anyway.
Trump's options are now to face down the Ukies Regime, the Euro regimes, the NATO Regime, and the US MIC Regime, and the Corporate Media Regimes, to concede to all of Russia's demands. Or else the face the same quandary as Genocide Joe did - the war IS lost, and becomes more 'loster' every month, but the US can pretend that isn't so just in case some spandex wearing superhero turns up to reverse the tide.
And simultaneously, he's beginning a war against Ansar Allah, supporting the new Genocide in Gaza for the Zionist Nazis, and threatening Iran - which Putin will have told him it's ANOTHER red line that the flailing US Empire better not cross. Or else.
Round about now Trump is maybe thinking that defending himself in court against the lawfare by the putative K'Mala Regime might have been the easier option to take.
Americans are just not going to like the new Multipolar World one little bit.
Well, American 'elites', the common folk might appreciate the peace and domestic investment - if they get any.
Trump is not even considering 'facing down' anyone. He's deliberately rilling them up for the explicit 'division of labour'- the EU/NATO must step up, buy US weapons and take over the failure in Ukraine (after being fed feet first into the grinder), while the US focuses on Iran but principally China.
The US (ie deep state/BlackRock) is as far from accepting multipolarity or even spheres of influence as ever. Primacy is still there number one objective.
I'm thinking perhaps it'll be a good thing if they provoke China enough over Taiwan (which is already hotting up as the US backed leader of the Taipei administration, Lai Qingde, recently provoked the mainland; during a speech Lai said: “Taiwan is a sovereign independent democratic country”, making China emphasis again her red lines) that China is forced to finally respond to the US's provocation and posturing and take the Empire out!
That would be a Good Thing for Humanity, except that EVERY wargame of a direct confrontation between the US & China always end with the use of nuclear weapons.
The USA has a tantrum when all its vaunted carrier assets sink, and it works out it has more nukes than China does. Needless to say, even if Russia isn't targetted directly (It would be, that is part of US strategic nuclear posture to take out BOTH the other superpowers so the other doesn't survive), there is little chance that the Russian automated retaliation systems wouldn't be activated once US ICBMs come over the horizon towards Eurasia.
In other words, we are all cooked.
This was partly why Nixon accepted the One China policy in the first place!
It's a rum world when even Nixon had more common sense than either the current Demonrats or Trump/Repug Party.
Hi Gnuneo, I think we've had this conversation before but I don't think that nukes exist in the way we've been taught. They are lucrative deterrents and 'get out of losing a war' cards. A war would be of a more conventional kind, with declarations and when the US inevitably loses there will be enforced treaties not allowing the States to ever again interfere in other nations etc etc being policed by a reformed UN. https://jowaller.substack.com/p/just-like-scary-contagions-and-911?utm_source=publication-search
My recollection is the last time the US and China were at war the US decided not to nuke China ONLY because they couldn't guarentee finishing of the Chinese completely. Their calculations may have changed in the processing 70 years.
Again, I don’t think nukes exist in the way we’ve been told. They’re lucrative deterrents and political tools avoiding wars. https://jowaller.substack.com/p/just-like-scary-contagions-and-911?utm_source=publication-search
Of course nuclear bombs are not real. Google hibakusha for more info.
You are of the opinion that behind the lunatic political figureheads, there exists a powerful force that would step in before that nuclear level was reached? I'd LIKE to think so too, but I suspect it's too rosy thinking. General Strangelove exists (As all historical records around Kennedy and Cuban MC attests), and there are now many in the political sphere too. Who would trust Zelensky and Budanov not to launch nukes as soon as they had them in their control - or Ben Gvir? Or Lyndsy Graham?
And they definitely are real: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__e64vrgL0Y
No, I’ve of the opinion that nuclear level weapons don’t exist. They’re just for political purposes which is why no one uses them.
What’s with the old videos of explosions that could equally be conventional? The tests were carried out alongside TNT ones and purposefully made so that no one could tell the difference.
Of course i don’t trust anyone not to launch them if they were real. But they’re not.
Then WHAT happened to these people? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__e64vrgL0Y
I'm not following your point. Are you saying 'civilian' nuclear reactors aren't real too? That the physics of nuclear explosions is made up?
Or that yes, they COULD be real, but no-one actually builds them because it would be a waste of money(The moral of one of PKD's more amusing short stories, btw)?
Trying to follow your trail of logic.
I wonder if war with Iran will bring the Chinese in. Cutting off Japan's oil supply in WWII got the conflict the US were after.
I think the plan is to destroy the Chinese ecomony, but China is becoming increasingly open that they're aware of it, don't like it and are prepared to do something about it. The US is already over-extended but I doubt China would be able to join in either, neither would they want to.
The US war with Ansar Allah began in 2014, took a few zig zags and is still going now. I don't think Trump started it, he just picked up the Western eletist baton and continued killing Muslims. Another day in the Oval office.
I think it might be part of the "destroy China's allies first" strategy. The war against Russia didn't go the way it was supposed to, but surely the US can take on Iran? Two birds with one stone - make Israel happy and disrupt China's oil supply. Just need to ignore all the predictions that it will be a disaster, and not consider the consequences of war targetting commercial shipping.