While most in the West and Ukraine have hailed the decisions in Washington and Berlin to give Ukraine M1 Abrams and Leopard 2 tanks, there are predictably few asking what should be the obvious question: what next?
Once these tanks arrive on station and Ukraine starts to employ them against Russia, what outcome does the White House expect or desire?
The truth is likely that no one in the Administration has bothered to think that far – continuing a bad trend in U.S. foreign policy over the past several decades that has uniformly resulted in bad outcomes for our country.
Giving Without a Plan
Failing to form a coherent, realistic strategy regarding our support for Ukraine in its war with Russia risks squandering valuable military assets and financial resources – or worse – stumbling so badly that the U.S. or western powers are inadvertently sucked into a war we should never have been fought, and which could only harm our interests. Unfortunately, we have a rather bad track record in recent decades for failing to think much of anything through.
Many studies and reports concluded one of the major reasons Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 failed so badly was because Washington failed to put any serious thought into the question of “what comes next” following the campaign to destroy Saddam Hussein’s army. Choosing to militarily take down Iraq involved very little risk for the United States and required little creativity in the formation of the plan: Iraq’s once-vaunted military had been eviscerated in 1991 and languished under a decade of crippling sanctions that prevented Saddam from rebuilding his army. It was a house of cards waiting to be blown over.
Sure enough, the U.S.-led coalition mowed down what little Iraqi organized resistance there was and the conventional phase of the war was effectively over within five weeks. Yet aside from some optimistic claims that “Iraqi democracy will succeed,” Washington had no idea what to do once the tanks went idle.
What happened next, quite predictably, is the Pentagon and State Department went hunting for something to justify their continued presence, making stuff up along the way. The result was complete chaos, mission-shifting, and tens of thousands of American service members wounded and killed. U.S. troops are expected to remain for years to come and the country’s government remains deeply unstable.
Similar fiascos resulted from other mission-shifting operations: a lack of vision throughout the 20 years of pointless combat in Afghanistan; unnecessary military support to Saudi Arabia against the hapless Yemenis; no thought given to what comes next in Obama’s Libya excursion of 2011 (two governments claim sovereignty to this day); a military presence within Syria, completely devoid of any valid national security purpose; and operations in numerous locations throughout Africa.
A History of No Plan
In each of those examples, we had no vision for “what comes next,” and with the ignominious exception of Afghanistan, our military continues to languish pointlessly in each location to this day. Evidence is starting to pile up that we are trending towards repeating this seemingly default affliction in our engagement with Ukraine. There are a number of basic questions the White House should have asked – and answered – before taking any action in that war.
Informing a Plan of Action
Before the White House agreed to significantly increase our military and financial support to Kyiv following Russia’s February 24, 2022 invasion, Biden should have asked a number of admittedly hard questions and demanded policy options from his senior staff. Failing to ask and answer the tough questions – as has been done in each of the previously mentioned foreign excursions – leads to mission creep, mission expansion, and almost uniformly results in ultimate policy failure.
Though he should have done so 11 months ago, it can be done now. Before one more piece of U.S. military gear is sent to Ukraine, Biden should provide answers to these critical questions:
What are America’s vital national interests as they relate to the Russia-Ukraine war?
What is the desired end state of U.S. support?
How does the provision of military gear support the desired end state?
What are the criteria for determining success or failure of the policy to support Ukraine? How will the president know if American actions are working or failing?
What is the culmination strategy? Under what conditions will the support mission conclude? If Russia starts to win on the battlefield, will the U.S. provide even more weapons and financial support – or if Russia starts to lose, will we moderate our support if Ukraine starts to push Russia so far that U.S. intelligence concludes a desperate Putin may resort to nuclear weapons?
These are crucial questions to have posed and at least formed working answers to before getting too deep in the operation. There is no evidence that any of these questions have been considered, much less answered, and that has troubling ramifications for our national security.
The Unanswered Questions
First and foremost, the president must delineate America’s most vital national interests. Is it to seek the military defeat of Russia? To “weaken” Russia (however defined)? To seek the end of the Putin regime? Merely to push Russian troops back to February 24 2022 lines? Or more modestly to prevent the war from spilling beyond the Ukrainian borders? To ensuring the preservation of NATO and American security? If we don’t know what outcome we even desire, how will we know if our policies are successful or a failure?
Similarly, if we don’t know what we want to achieve, how will we know what – and how many – of each type of armament and ammunition type we should supply to Kyiv? Give too little, and the objective won’t be reached; give too much and Ukraine may go beyond what is in American interests.
The Consequence of Aid Without Answers
If we give blanket support to Zekensky’s stated desire to drive the Russian military out of all Ukrainian territory, for example, how does Biden ensure American objectives if the Ukrainian military starts to be so successful that Putin uses his enormous nuclear arsenal to stave off defeat? If Biden doesn’t agree to support Ukraine in going that far (and thus limits the number and type of military support, preventing Zelensky from winning on the ground), the result may be an indefinite stalemate that literally bleeds Ukraine dry of its people and leaves its land resembling a moonscape.
It is vitally important that the president fashion answers to all these questions and then crafts a policy that has the best chance of producing outcomes that benefit our country and secures our allies. At a minimum, the White House should prioritize ensuring that we don’t provide so much military support to Ukraine that it puts our own security at risk by depleting our own stocks of vehicles and ammunition – Biden must quantify where those lines are.
Ultimately, the intent of any U.S. foreign policy related to the Ukraine-Russia war should be to end the conflict as soon as possible and do so in such a way that it does not set the stage for a renewed conflict in the future (as the bad ending of World War I set the stage for World War II). The long-term security of the United States and Europe is vitally important for our security. Ending the war on mutually acceptable terms – and avoiding any overt or tacit security guarantees – gives Washington the best chance of long term security.
Author Biography and Expertise
Also a 1945 Contributing Editor, Daniel L. Davis is a Senior Fellow for Defense Priorities and a former Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army who deployed into combat zones four times – including the M1 Abrams tank heading to Ukraine. He is the author of “The Eleventh Hour in 2020 America.” Follow him @DanielLDavis.

Whodunnit
January 27, 2023 at 2:27 pm
I don’t know Comrade Dan, how about you give it your best shot – pun intended – and we’ll run and place a bet on the opposite outcome ?
You’re forgetting that Washington and it’s Washington trained commanders – see where I’m going with this ? – isn’t actually commanding the Ukrainian forces and that alone gives them an infinitely better chance of a positive outcome.
rick kasprzak
January 27, 2023 at 2:42 pm
I agree. Russia must depart Ukraine, and borders secured. Ukranian military made capable of enforcing integrity of borders.
We need to ensure that Europe csan exist without US jumpimg in to save them again. Nato should consist of European nations only, not depend upon American leadership or military aid. Poland is the best example of European country providing security for its own integrity. Other European countries depend on U.S. to keep them safe.
pagar
January 27, 2023 at 3:47 pm
The ukros will next demand f-16s and f-35s and then…. WHAM, B-O-O-O-M !!!
A rapid change in the course of the fighting via the introduction of NATO panzers will surely result in a cataclysmic event occurring in europe.
The world could then evolve into a giant version of post-withdrawal afghanistan, where food and medicine supplies are scarce, where people die from lack of heating and the young no longer attend school.
That’s the vision or dream by the globalists as they flesh out their plan for a one-world order.
A world where the elite chosen by deep state rules the roost while the rest live like the people in post-withdrawal afghanistan.
Paul
January 27, 2023 at 4:17 pm
Desired outcome
Ukraine evicting Russian forces from all international recognized Ukrainian territory and establishing a new security framework with meaningful guaranties for Ukraine’s security. A peace treaty with Russia that confirm this.
Acceptable outcome
Any lesser outcome than the desired one that Ukraine itself seeks.
Steve
January 27, 2023 at 6:01 pm
U.S. policy toward Ukraine was clearly established long before the Russian invasion. In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, the U.S. & UK (along with Russia!) recognized Ukraine’s borders and offered security assurances should it be attacked, in exchange for Ukraine giving up the nuclear weapons it inherited from the USSR and signing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Since February, we have merely been implementing that policy, with widespread bipartisan support.
Davis is, yet again, arguing for the abandonment of the United States support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity in order to appease Russia, while claiming to be merely ‘realistic’ about the events. He’s been consistently wrong for 11 months.
cocobware
January 27, 2023 at 10:18 pm
Davis says that the Ukrainians and their allie’s lack a clear plan. Does Russia have a clear plan? It seems to me that their plans such as they are have been a debacle; meanwhile the Ukrainians have managed a successful defense and two successful offensives. Given better weapons it seems completely logical that Ukraine will be able to build off its prior successes while the Russians still seem to be playing the quantity has a quality all its own card. Bakhmut is a Russian Verdun. How long will they continue with the Iranian style human wave attacks.
H.R. Holm
January 27, 2023 at 11:00 pm
Oh, how the chickenhawk war-rooters like to congregate like disease-riddled pigeons at this gentleman’s very good and reasoned columns. Meanwhile, Lord Voldemort of the Ukraine continues to demand more and more. Tanks are of course not enough for him, He wants any number of advanced aircraft, he wants this, he wants that, and the capabilities of the U.S. Treasury (and American taxpayers) be damned. He no doubt would like cruise missiles with enough range to reach Moscow, and how long before Pathetic Joe Biden gives him those? You know, the same Pathetic Joe who once said that M-1 tanks were out of the question. Hell, why not go all the way and provide him with the first B-21 Raider bombers soon to roll off the assembly line, too? Voldy would salivate like a rabid dog at those. The U.S. does indeed not think a lot of things through. Lord Voldy demands, and we just unquestioningly provide, no questions asked. With full support from the same political party that did nothing but excoriate Ronald Reagan for modestly trying to update the U.S. nuclear deterrent in the 1980s. Man, we saw and heard anything but ‘Russians bad’ back then. It was just the opposite: Russia/Soviet Union wanted peace, they said, and we should give them anything they ask for short of wholesale unilateral disarmament (if not that, too). Now Democrats, and most Republicans, want to pursue every armament they can in order to promote their almost religious mantra of ‘standing up to Putin’. As though Putin will line his T-72s up to roll on thru to the Rhine if we don’t. Back in the 80s, there was indeed the danger of that. But not now. No sense of reality or sobered-thought perspective from these contemporary war-rooters. They just have their blinders affixed to their war-drums heads so tightly, they can’t figure a forest from a desert. Because a dry desert is what they live in, intellectually. Baying like desert coyotes for an outcome that their promoted policies and actions will never bring about.
PubliusNaso
January 27, 2023 at 11:19 pm
Q: What are America’s vital national interests as they relate to the Russia-Ukraine war?
A: United States needs to maintain a world wide web of alliances that can constrain China and it vassal state Russia. If United States fails to support Ukraine, when it is so easy to do with surplus western weapons and some logistical support, this would force many countries to question their (potential) alignment with the US. I am talking India, Vietnam, Philippines. This would allow China to inexorably albeit slowly establish control over the shipping lanes in Asia.
Q: What is the desired end state of U.S. support?
A: Ukraine at the minimum cuts the land bridge to Crimea. Even better, back to Feb 2022 lines. After that, collective negotiations with Russia, things on the table being: status of Crimea, lifting of sanctions, free navigation on the Sea of Azov and so on, war crimes trials. It is unrealistic for Ukraine to attack overland Crimea, but realistic to cut the land bridge and impose costs on Russia holding Crimea.
Q: How does the provision of military gear support the desired end state?
A: As it has already; of course training on new gear will take time; in the meantime Ukraine will use modernized T72 tanks from Poland and in the future when they are trained they will use the new tanks. Ukraine has millions of men under arms – can it be that hard to find a few hundred smart ones with experience operating other tanks and/or other heavy military equipment?
Colonel Davis is talking about a long training course for US tankers. Are these kids fresh out of high school? How do they compare with Ukrainian soldiers that have been fighting including with tanks, for years already?
Q: What are the criteria for determining success or failure of the policy to support Ukraine? How will the president know if American actions are working or failing?
A: Minimal success is the preservation of the world order that has brought prosperity to most of the world. Allowing a decaying and bellicose Russia to attack successfully a neighboring country is not success.
American actions are already working as it is obvious to almost everybody.
Q: What is the culmination strategy?
A: When Ukraine reaches Feb 2022 lines. Then the whole Crimea is in range. If Russia keeps up aerial attacks then Ukraine keeps attacking the Russian fleet and other military targets in Crimea.
dave
January 28, 2023 at 3:22 am
Delivery in 2024 LOL!
dave
January 28, 2023 at 3:26 am
Delivery in 2024?
Che
January 28, 2023 at 6:04 am
All these new tanks will be brought together in Poland and crewed with already experienced Ukraine/Polish/other NATO. This new force, supplemented with IFV and artillery will be on standby to move into western Ukraine when the existing Ukraine military frontlines collapse in coming weeks. Poland likely already greenlighted to occupy and administer western Ukraine as a blocking force against Russian incursion.
Jack
January 28, 2023 at 6:58 am
The Ukrainian people are willing to fight for their freedom…. The Afghanistan and Iraq people were not willing to fight for their freedom .that’s the big difference in this conflict
Enfield
January 28, 2023 at 7:47 am
No one has ever managed to win a war against a Superpower, no one even knows how such a gigantic mission would be carried out considering what equipment and military hardware the other side has. There is a big difference in wishing for something than actually implementing it. Everyone buys time but the outcome of this conflict is already clear no matter how many tanks or artillery pieces the free world sends to this unfortunately doomed country.
Kevthepope
January 28, 2023 at 8:50 am
Dan Dan Dan, right up with with Colonel doom gloom Macky boy Gregor. End desired state, bleed Russia, bleed them deep, and for every russky troll out there, lesson is do not invade countries for anything that amounts to none other than expanding your territory at the expense of millions for your glorious vision of Russia again dominating the world. In turn for kicking them out, desired end state should be a deep inward reflection by Russia’s own masses, and if they continue to not care- the majority- then so be it, and hence, here’s why there is a NATO. But if Putin is going to use nukes, then he will use them in his next gambit too, which Dan is not going to talk to. I’m waiting for the words of surrender, which will be applied then to Georgia/Moldova and it looks like the Kazakh folk may be next as well. But he’ll have his detente for sure. How bout Ukraine wins, the US also gains a very large customer for its arms- where Biden has failed to realize giving excess arms from stocks that he won’t ever get to the bottom of in the case of the oldest Abrams and F-16’s, which we can modestly upgrade and they will still be better than Russian gear, and hence lead to sales of more modern used Abrams and F-16/18, maybe 35’s. But it gets the strongest of European armies stood up, no US troops now need be involved, and opens up a dialogue with Russia on their own vulnerability and how to solve for that without it resorting to the use of nukes and their demise. And oh, where’s your Chinese pals? Sitting on the sideline, waiting to pour over the border in a red plague taking back Amur Oblast, Primorsky Krai, hell, name it, they can’t be stopped short of nukes either…
Gary Jacobs
January 28, 2023 at 10:08 am
LoL,
Davis continues to comparing apples to oranges in a desperate attempt to undermine Ukraine as if there is somehow a comparison between rebuilding the Iraqi and Afghan governments from scratch, and supporting the pre-existing government in Ukraine.
There isnt.
Perhaps the most silly attempt at an analogy I have seen from Davis yet. And that’s saying a lot because he posts a lot of attempted comparisons where the things he is trying to compare have absolutely nothing to do with each other. It doesnt take a genius to point that out.
While it is actually fair to wonder what the end game is, in this case it’s pretty simple for the other side to make it happen: Russia could simply leave Ukraine, and there will be peace. It’s already existing government will function. There was nothing of the sort possible in Iraq or Afghanistan.
As well, Ukrainians have a free spirit. They have attempted to gain their freedom from Russia and Germany repeatedly. They are not bound to restrictive tribal customs or the oppression of stricter forms of Islam as was the case in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ukraine’s Jewish president is Exhibit A that the predominantly eastern orthodox country is not stuck on antiquated dogma.
Zelensky is also Exhibit A in the case against Russia’s absurd notion of fighting Nazis in Ukraine. No one needs to overlook the problems in Ukraine’s past to know they have come a long way, and that it is Russia that supports every right wing loon from Le Pen in France to Orban in Hungary and Russia has its own NeoNazi militia fighting in Ukraine: The Russian Imperial Legion.
Furthermore, Davis’ fear mongering about Russia using its nukes is really just weakness in the face of the Russian bully. He fails to consider what the consequences are for nuclear proliferation if Russia is allowed to take other countries’ territory ever time it threatens to use nukes if it doesnt get its way. Many other countries with imperialist dreams will race towards nukes and then use that umbrella to take land from others.
There were plenty of mistakes made in Iraq and Afghanistan, but there were also a lot of missed opportunities. As well, the biggest miscalculations on our part were actually not finding a solution to the nefarious influence of outside actors once the initial combat was over. Iran and Syria kept up the flow of weapons and insurgents into Iraq…and Pakistan did the same in Afghanistan.
Russia may think it has the ability to do something similar in Ukraine. However, the big difference is that the sheer scope of Russian atrocities have turned the vast majority of the Ukrainian population against Russia. Even many Russian speakers and ethnic Russians want nothing to do with Russia anymore.
Bottom line: Davis is becoming more desperate by the day trying to undermine support for Ukraine. And he continues to fail at it in epic fashion.
I am still wondering how this guy is published by anyone?
Have a liberating day
Gary Jacobs
January 28, 2023 at 10:53 am
It occurred to me there is something else wildly inaccurate in Davis’s article. The US is largely emptying our storage closet for Ukraine. Other than artillery shells and GMLRS rounds… pretty much everything else is in plentiful supply, or things that were arent even using anymore.
Pretending that there is going to be some massive crisis because we are giving Ukraine too much military equipment is patently absurd. As well, The US has given Ukraine zero airplanes so far. The US military doctrine relies a lot more on air support and air support than artillery. Yet still, it’s time to wake up our industrial might ad make more artillery and GMLRS rounds.
The US is about to send:
31 Abrams [we have over 5000]
109 Bradleys [we have over 5000, and these are about to be replaced]
90 Strykers [also have thousands],
300 M113 Armored Personnel Carriers [dont use these anymore],
250 M1117 Armored Security Vehicles [dont use these anymore]
580 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles [dont use these anymore]
None of that going to Ukraine will weaken the US military. In fact I cant think of a better use for our old equipment than for Ukraine to use it all to beat Russia back to the internationally recognized border.
Furthermore, I just read an interview of Phillip Karber, a Marine veteran and national security analyst.
Apparently the Russian made T80 that Ukraine has been operating for quite some time…also has a turbine engine.
Although Abrams tanks are more sophisticated than T80s, Karber said that Ukrainian maintainers who now work on T80BVs could learn how to keep Abrams tanks running fairly quickly. T80BVs are a variant of the tank introduced in 1985.
“My estimate is — and I’ve spent time in three of Ukraine’s tank factories or assembly plants — their technicians could be on top of correcting or fixing just about anything on an M1 with two months of experience,” Karber said.
Karber added that Abrams tanks could be easier for the Ukrainians to drive than their T-80s, and Ukrainian crews could learn how to use the Abrams fire control system with about a month of training.
Spending more time learning NATO style combined arms maneuver as well as getting Ukraine GLSDB…and hopefully some F16s would go a long way to rounding out the other elements Ukraine needs to complement the tanks and IFVs they are receiving.
Many reports indicate that prep work for receiving western planes has already begin.
Have a liberating day.
Alex
January 28, 2023 at 11:09 am
Gay Pride uber alles! GAY PRIDE UBER ALLES! GAY PRIDE UBER ALLES!!
Jim
January 28, 2023 at 11:14 am
American foreign policy has been regime change.
But once that was done… there was little if any thought out strategy… as Col. Davis notes.
What was the aftermath goal? And it all worked out “happily ever after”… The End.
Fairy tales can end that way, but reality rarely does… there are consequences that hurt America.
You see these warmongers claim they are thinking about America’s best interest… wrong, they only think about their own blood lust… like a child in a sandbox, playing with army figures.
Warmongers, your days of playing in the neocon sandbox are over… you let too much dog poop get in the box.
The reason for no strategy beyond ‘Regime Change’ was that it was the supreme goal… and an assumption that the aftermath would care care of itself… it didn’t particularly matter… or because they didn’t reach their goals… now claim the goals are unimportant… or never mention the goals they failed to meet.
Remember, Afghanistan: failure.
Remember, Iraq: failure.
It didn’t “take care of itself”… and American foreign policy suffered setbacks… which are sloughed off as “cost of doing business”….
But really, it’s because they don’t want to admit any failures at all.
Think about it, Neoconservatives to this day DON’T ADMIT Iraq & Afghanistan were failures.
Considering how these weapons likely will dribble into theater, we are seeing the makings of forever proxy war.
Proxy war today, proxy war tomorrow, proxy war forever.
Is that a strategy which has an end?
Sounds like George Orwell’s book 1984… do you want to live in a never ending dystopia?
(The warmongers say, “Yes, because I want my war.”)
I’ve never seen as stupid and lusting a group of warmongers… all they care about is consummating their lust… they have no reasons… no reasonable goals, just a “crazed look” desire to win… even if they don’t know anything else.
So, they willingly are led down the warpath… they want to be led… even if that leads to disaster.
The goal expressed by many commenters, here, is maximalist… complete expulsion of Russia’s military from all of Ukraine including Crimea.
Is that realistic?
Or is that warmonger fantasy?
To Davis’s point… there is no reasonable objective short of FOREVER PROXY WAR.
Because that is what the U. S. will have with this constant dripping of additional weapons systems.
NOT victory, but forever proxy war.
See how that sells at the next election.
Rich
January 28, 2023 at 12:09 pm
This is a war for the Globalist Agenda. Zelenskyy is a Fraud Puppet installed. Russia sees this as an existential threat and will go Nuclear. War Mongers in Washington DC see this as another cash cow for the Industrial Military Complex. Read 2x Medel of Honor
recipient General Smedley D. Butler’s Book circa 1938 War is a Racket. It only cost is young men. He was the 1st person to warn of the Military Industrial Complex.
Felipe Sales
January 28, 2023 at 12:35 pm
cruise misseles send ukraine cruise ships filled with men and women immagrants, and fight for freedom.. pleanty of room , pleanty of ships.. pleanty of avle bodies
Paul
January 28, 2023 at 1:16 pm
@Enfield
“No one has ever managed to win a war against a Superpower”
What are you talking about?, there are exactly zero Superpowers, past or present, that never have been defeated in war.
Please tell us witch superpowers you had in mind.
In any case, Russia as a superpower is in its deathbed, about to permanently loose the crown jewel of its imperial ambition, Ukraine.
Further the weakened Russia stands to lose much of its influence in the old soviet stan-republics Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. These countries have shown little support for Russia’s war and would love to get out of Russia’s grip the first chance they get. China have already taken steps to move in and have guaranteed their security, in a bid to replace Russia as their overlord.
If Russia should completely exhaust their recourses in a failed all-out war in Ukraine, Russia itself is in danger of disintegrating. It is a multiethnic federation dominated by Russians, but several ethnic groups could try to secede if the right circumstances should present itself.
Bertram
January 28, 2023 at 2:49 pm
What will they do with them?
They will kill Russians with them.
That is the desire. That is the goal.
They will kill Russians until they are pushed out of Ukraine and the 1991 borders are secure. The sooner the Russians leave, the more of them will leave alive.
E T Gwynn
January 28, 2023 at 3:06 pm
Q. What Happens After Ukraine Gets M1 Abrams And Leopard 2 Tanks?
A. One of each is captured, reverse engineered, countermeasures are created, America bends over, Americans again face its own property in a shooting war.
Sam Smith
January 28, 2023 at 3:13 pm
Here is a plan… Bomb the crap out of Russia. Give them a treat of what they are doing to Ukraine. Why does Putin get to call all the shots and threaten anything the west does will start a World War? Appeasement is appeasement. A Predator Missile strike on Putin would be as good. Also send in Military Advisors, just like we do in Africa, (which is a waste) and let them fight with the Ukraine army troops to give them hands on experience on our advanced weapons.
Dan Farrand
January 28, 2023 at 3:14 pm
The best thing for the world and for America is a decisive Russian victory.
The US pledge to deliver 31 tanks, was another double-cross of hapless Germany. The Germans, under pressure, said we will send Leopards if the US sends Abrams. The US said, we will send Abrams, the unhappily, the Germans said they would send Leopards. The US then said, we would send Abrams but only sometime perhaps in the spring, perhaps next year. We have to derate the tanks we will send incase the Russians discover the supper secret CHOBRAM armor recipe.
So the US lied when they said we will not send Abrams and then they lied when they said they would send Abrams. The Empire of Lies.
Now the Russians are saying if we send depleted uranium ammo, they will consider that the use of nuclear/dirty weapons – which they are, because after use, you really should decontaminate the battlefield. So DC will use this as the opportunity not to send that sort of Ammo, further derating the tank.
We can only hope for a decisive Russian victory that maybe will so discredit the neocons like Ms. Nuland. But that is perhaps hoping for too much. Not the Russian victory, but that anything will change in our managed democracy unless, prehaps there are real kinetic costs to large numbers of Americans. Enough to drag our attention away from netflix or the Marvel comic book movies we are watching.
TimoFeu$
January 28, 2023 at 3:27 pm
Russia will win – Russia always wins
Maria
January 28, 2023 at 4:10 pm
idiots! Russia has nothing to lose. as Putin said, in the event of a nuclear war, you will die as martyrs and go to heaven. And you Western bastards just breathe ..
Maria
January 28, 2023 at 4:25 pm
You want the world to take into account your interests, but do you not consider it important to take into account the interests of Russia? Russia is a great power! Our “Bolshoi Theatre”, older than your USA … We have the right to restore order in small states near our borders if they fall under the influence of the USA. Why don’t you sit in your hemisphere? Look at the map of Russia and think, weak-minded people, could they conquer and hold such territory? Either you will understand this and learn to respect us, or we will all die together. Russia is not Poland, it is not France and not Romania and Denmark. These – “warriors” are known to all the speed with which they fell under Hitler .. Either Russia lives or no one lives in this world.
Vitalik
January 28, 2023 at 5:07 pm
I read the comments. Everyone wants a nuclear war.
Neil Ross
January 28, 2023 at 5:33 pm
This article is where I depart with Davis’ reasoning.
“There is no evidence that any of these questions have been considered…”
I believe all these questions have been considered, and a plan has been developed by the strategists in the Pentagon. And that plan will change from one day to the next, with the sole goal of keeping America on top. There’s every indication that Washington got exactly what it wanted in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Who am I to judge the expertise at the hands of the U.S. President. If history provides us with any evidence is that no one in Washington is listening to anyone that has a different plan.
ATM
January 28, 2023 at 6:23 pm
It is not rational to believe that politicians do not have a plan. The plan is called a hidden agenda and given the track record we can be sure that their hidden agendas have little or nothing to do with the defense of the United States of America or the strategy of foreign policy. The evidence points to the advantages that politicians get when they sleep with the corporations that benefit from wars. Given that china produces three times the armament that we produce with the same money it looks like we have a 500 billion dollar a year corruption issue.
Walker
January 28, 2023 at 7:56 pm
I really don’t understand why Davis has a job. He really is not an advisor. He is not a strategist. He really brings absolutely nothing to the table.
The US and NATO have no recourse but to help Ukraine. Davis himself hints at this when he asks if the purpose is to keep the war from spilling out to neighboring NATO countries. If Russia is allowed to do as it likes that would be a huge possibility. The current world economy we all live and thrive under does not allow imperialism. Imperialism is what Russia is going for. So unless we stop Russia, it will infringe on the world economy we have working. This economy works because small countries know they can participate and make economic alliances without fear of neighbors attacking them militarily.
So it is actually pretty easy to answer Davis question on the goal. The goal is simply to ensure all countries of the world know that imperialism won’t be tolerated. The giving of the weapons itself does this. Because it lets all countries know that if they find themselves in such a situation whether they are in a NATO alliance or not they will not be left to their own devices.
That is the larger answer. But as with most things there are levels within levels. What they are trying to achieve on the inner level is not near as clear. This also however is not necessarily meaning they don’t know or that there is none. But largely strategic ambiguity. It is action and reaction to Russia. Russia has made mistake after mistake. We often hear about the mistakes Russia made in thinking they could win the war easily. What we don’t often hear anyone say is the mistakes they made in their ruthlessness. Of course we hear of the war crimes, but we don’t hear talk of the war crimes being a strategic blunder, which it really is. This blunder is what helps keep the world aligned to helping Ukraine. Had Russia kept it a clean war, the world would have tired of supporting Ukraine. So the weapons are a response to Russian blunders.
I know this isn’t the answer that Davis is going for. Davis is going for a gotcha. He is trying to tie the strategic ambiguity to no plan and no plan means a mistake a mistake means we should hoard our own money and weapons for when someone attacks us alone. I really can’t tolerate Davis thinking a bit. The selfish egotistical stupidity makes me sick.
I can’t answer Davis question on what President Biden is planning. I don’t know. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he does or doesn’t have plans. While it is clear he is cautious to not spur Russia into an existential crisis. Slow methodical approvals of weapons is a good way to avoid this.
What I can do is explain what Ukraine plans to do with these weapons and that is the more important answer anyway. Ukraine has shown a very smart military. If I knew more, I am sure I could find some hindsight mistakes. But even their control of the narrative is good. And therefore I can confidently say that they will not use them in Bakhmut. They will use them alongside the Bradley’s at some weak point along the battle lines. The lines are long and they will find a spot and take out a large swath of area that Russia controls. Separate off a large contingent of Russian troops and starve them of equipment until they have to surrender. Which will be close to instantaneous.
This huge loss will then hit Russia politically. They will have trouble explaining it to the people of Russia. Here is why I hate all Russian people as well. Well maybe not all, but pretty much all. The people of Russia are evil. They are in cahoots with Putin. If Russian military had taken Ukraine and killed half the population, the people of Russia would have celebrated. So I have absolutely no feeling but loathing for pretty much all Russians and I won’t accept that they are under propaganda as an excuse. They know they are being lied to and they accept it. Have for 20 years. Until they finally depose their tyrannical leader and pay for the mess they created in Ukraine, I will do nothing but loath them. Anyway, Ukraine wins will get them to finally do what they need to do and clean up their act, I hope.
What is the end plan? Ask Ukraine. They have already given the answer. They seek to push Russia completely out of Ukraine back to pre-2014 lines. This is the proper answer and I support them doing so.
What more is Davis looking for? Is he just stupid for not knowing already everything I just said? That is a full affirmative!
John
January 28, 2023 at 8:29 pm
Ukraine is not part of NATO, they actually were invited to join and declined. I am all for helping a nation defend itself from an aggressive invasion. But we still must ask what’s in it for the nations investing in all this military and humanitarian support. It’s obvious to me that Russia can sustain this war for the long haul. Can the Ukraine people do the same? We have wasted a lot of money on wars that never provided any payback for the US. Many in Europe already question the West increased military efforts. The West is getting deeper and deeper into the conflict with offensive weapons. I thought initially our efforts were to help defend Ukraine not attack Russia. This escalation into offensive weapons should not be taken lightly by the West. Putin may see this as a direct involvement into the war.
Joshua
January 28, 2023 at 8:48 pm
Daniel Davis is really ramping up the amount of articles on the tanks…
he must have received the newsletter from Moscow.
dave
January 28, 2023 at 11:19 pm
The war will be over before the Abrams tanks get there in 2024.
Vitalik
January 29, 2023 at 3:10 am
The United States is not a party to the conflict. Russia transfers nuclear missiles to Cuba. Russia is not a party to the conflict. Right?
Enfield
January 29, 2023 at 5:30 am
@Paul
It depends how one defines such a loss in the war. A superpower has obviously in the past and even in the present day made distinctively large losses on the battlefield in various conflicts that have resulted in unwanted withdrawal, but if it is total loss for an entire nation, most likely the answer is, no.
You’re talking about some kind of new societal collapse of a superpower nation state, it’s not likely that this particular ongoing conflict would trigger something so dramatic. Indeed, there are huge geopolitical changes going on but it remains to be seen the outcome of that as well.
Paul
January 29, 2023 at 7:15 am
@Maria
Maria: “You want the world to take into account your interests, but do you not consider it important to take into account the interests of Russia? Russia is a great power!”
“We have the right to restore order in small states near our borders if they fall under the influence of the USA.”
Thank you, Maria, for sharing your true feelings. Many other Russians in here try to hide their nationalism and pretend this brutal invasion is a noble rescue attempt, but you show us the Russian people’s true nationalistic feelings. You tell us literally this is about an attempt to assert Russia as a great power, and that as a great power it is Russia’s right to invade small states near your borders who dare to seek their future elsewhere than the so-called “Russkij Mir” (Russian world).
You also expose how influenced you are from Russian propaganda when you seek to divide Russia’s border states into Russian influenced or USA influenced. As if the people in those states are children without say in their own affairs. The proposed model you incorrectly attribute to be American influence, is rather a shared western ideal of democracy. Whatever you call it, if you see these nations as influenced by USA, then it is because they have chosen to be, not because USA have put a gun to their head. Infact, no border state of Russia in their right mind would ever, other than at gunpoint, consider joining Russkij Mir, why the hell would they? You of all people who live in Russia knows from your own daily experience that it is a hopelessly corrupt world, where the oligarchs have stolen everything and left only scraps and some BS nationalistic pride for the people. So, for Ukraine the proposition of Russkij Mir, is the great future of being robbed daily by Russian oligarchs and then the “pride” of knowing you let your self be robbed by the Russians. What a “great” proposition for them, you should not be surprised that all your neighbor states that can, have run as fast as they can towards the ideals of the west.
The part where you proudly talk about how big Russia is and how impossible it to conquer is laughable. Yes, we can all agree it would be impossible but who cares. Despite the propaganda you probably are served, there is no desire in the West to invade Russia. There are many reasons for this, but the most important is that unlike you, in the West we believe in self-determination, so the Russians should govern themselves. Even if you are doing a shitty job of it, it is the Russian people’s right to give your recourses away to your greedy oligarchs, if you so desires. So, the goal of the western aid to Ukraine stops at the Russian border, it is enough for us that Ukraine is restored its territory and independence. If independent and sovereign Ukraine chooses to join Russkij Mir, that is their choice, but I would not hold my breath if I where you.
So again, thank you, for reminding us in the west, that despite the transatlantic bickering about this and that, we at the very least share a basic ideal of democracy as a tool for an equal opportunity for all. As opposed to the ideal of Russkij Mir of kleptocracy for the few.
Gary Jacobs
January 29, 2023 at 10:00 am
Jim,
Tell me if you have heard this before:
‘As usual, your take is the complete opposite of reality.’
‘
Back here on earth it is the Russians that have been brandishing the ‘Russkiy Mir’ BS that they claim gives them the right to militarily, and by proxy, arm/defend every Russian speaking person in the world.
Of course that completely distorts Russia’s imperialist history of forcing people who are not ethnically Russian to speak Russian anyway. Zelensky himself is Exhibit A. Not to mention the fact that even the actual ethnic Russians in Ukraine, by a large majority, no longer want anything to do with Russia.
As well, it is in fact the west that is very late to the game of standing up to Russian aggression. Your faux notion of blaming the west for ‘forever proxy war’ is a complete inversion of reality. But that’s par for your phony course.
Ukraine doesnt want western troops to fight their war. All they want is the means to defend themselves against Russian imperialism. They are willing to fight and die for their freedom. A concept you clearly cant wrap your head around. Which says more about your intellectual inadequacies than it does about the reality of the conflict.
For all the mistakes the US made in the mideast, Ukraine is actually the perfect place for this particular strategy. And with every Russian atrocity it makes it politically more palatable to give the Ukrainians more advanced weapons to defend themselves and reclaim their country.
Have a liberating day.
Злой пьяный русский медведь с балалайкой
January 29, 2023 at 10:25 am
American General Mark Alexander Milley – General of the US Army, 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, previously – 39th Chief of Staff of the US Army named the approximate losses of the parties to the conflict that unfolded on the territory of Ukraine. According to him, Ukraine lost more than 100 thousand soldiers killed and wounded. The general added that about 40,000 civilians became victims of hostilities. According to the data announced by the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Ukraine’s losses since February 24, 2022 amounted to over 100,000 military and about 20,000 civilians. Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK Vadym Prystaiko admitted in a long interview to Newsweek that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are suffering huge losses. – We’re losing people everywhere. We do not advertise how many of the dead are military or civilian, but you can imagine that the numbers are huge and indigestible. And cities, some of them completely destroyed. Now let the armchair hawks of war refute these officials and experts.
The symbol of the coming year of UKRAINE: the sad Fuhrer ze with a candle for his repose. UKRAINE FROM SPACE AS A BLACK UNLIGHTED HOLE, ABSORBING FOREIGN RESOURCES. The phrase of the coming year of Ukraine: “Ukraine is an actress of German films for adults: she is ready to accept in any quantity from any side.” This was said by HUMORIST Ovladimir Zelensky, from the TV show “Evening Quarter”
Threat I can list dozens of countries in which the United States. EU, NATO suffered military and political setbacks after 1945.
It seems that many commentators are at odds with recent history. including, in recent years! STUDY THE CRIMES OF THE USA, EU, NATO AND OTHER IMPERIALIST COUNTRIES OF THE “HUMANE WEST” YEARS OLD, NOW ON ALL CONTINETS OF THE EARTH!
Jim
January 29, 2023 at 10:26 am
Paul, your response to Maria shows your rank hypocrisy.
You criticize her (and her fellow Russians) because she is concerned about a neighboring state’s military (and political) disposition towards Russia.
Paul, we know you would support military action if Red China were dominating Mexico, building up their military and directing it against the United States.
Ditto for China doing the same thing with Canada.
It’s called “putting the shoe on the other foot.”
So, stop your rank hypocrisy… (although, it does expose how fake your concerns are).
You want to justify your war mentality… but too shallow to see how your own words expose you for what you are, an unprincipled warmonger.
Gary Jacobs
January 29, 2023 at 11:02 am
Jim,
It occurred to me that you need a history lesson in what actual ‘forever war’ means in the context of Russia and Ukraine.
Ironically, the Ukrainians just recently celebrated their attempt to fight off the Russian Bolshevik invasion of Ukraine in 1917. Notwithstanding the creation of the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR) on November 20, 1917, the Bolsheviks planned to seize power in Ukraine with the aid of Russian or Russified urban elements, Russian garrisons, and army units stationed near the front.
The fighting lasted for over three years, and the invasion by pro-Soviet forces was accompanied by uprisings initiated by local Bolshevik agitators in cities throughout Left-Bank Ukraine. Eventually the Communist forces made many advances, and On 27 January the Bolshevik army groups converged on Bakhmach and then set off under the command of Mikhail Muravev to take Kyiv.
The Central Rada prepared for the defense of the capital by sending advance forces of volunteers to Poltava and Bakhmach. One of those, the Student Battalion of Sich Riflemen, was annihilated by a vastly larger (4,000 troops) Bolshevik force at the Battle of Kruty, 130 km northeast of Kyiv, on 29 January.
As the Soviet advance continued, an attempt was made to take Kyiv through an uprising organized by non-Ukrainian workers based at the Arsenal plant. Fighting broke out on 29 January and continued until 4 February, when the revolt was put down by a newly formed contingent of the Sich Riflemen and the Free Cossacks.
Meanwhile the Bolshevik expeditionary force continued to move on the capital from Bakhmach and Lubny. On 8 February the Ukrainian government was forced to evacuate the city. Soviet troops under Mikhail Muravev’s command entered Kyiv on 9 February and then carried out brutal reprisals against the Ukrainian civilian population.
And this just one of many times the Russians have either invaded outright or used proxies against an attempt at a free Ukrainian nation.
Putin of course, is famously obsessed with this history. But Putin’s comments on 18th-century history reveal that he doesn’t even always get the details right. His allusions to the era of Peter I and Catherine II are shallow, upbeat, and focused on what academics call the great man history. He likes kings, generals, and heroes who successfully turned the wheel of Russian history. He wants to highlight Peter’s early victories in 1709 and Catherine’s conquest of Crimea in 1783, rather than the many defeats that marked the intervening years. Up to this point, Putin has publicly ignored the long, painful, and grinding process of 18th-century Russian imperialism.
Discussing Peter I on the 350th anniversary of his birth last June, Putin commented:
“Almost nothing has changed. It can be surprising when you start to understand this. Peter waged the Great Northern War for 21 years with Sweden and annexed some territories. He didn’t annex anything, he reclaimed them! Yes, truly. All of Karelia where St. Petersburg exists was founded then. When [Peter] founded a new capital, none of the European countries recognized this territory as Russia. Everyone claimed it was Swedish. But since the dawn of time, not just Finns, but also Slavs lived there and this territory was once under the control of Kyivan Rus. The same is true to the west, with Narva and his first campaigns. He was reclaiming territories and fortifying borderlands, that’s what he was doing. Well, it is also now our destiny to reclaim and fortify.”
Here, Putin justifies his invasion of Ukraine by reference to 18th-century Russian history. By changing Peter I from a conqueror into a reclaimer, Putin creates a narrative that he and the early Russian leader are in the same position. In his mind, European powers refused to recognize Russia’s rightful claims under Peter, just as the international community fails to recognize his seizure of Crimea.
Putin usually frames his understanding of the Great Northern War as a great power competition in which the enemy was the West but the battlefield was Ukraine. During the Great Northern War, the most unified Ukrainian resistance to Russia came in 1708 to 1709, when Hetman Ivan Mazepa took a few thousand Hetmanate cavalry and a larger number of Zaporizhian Cossacks into an alliance with Swedish King Charles XII. The Swedish, Hetmanate, and Zaporizhian force was crushed at Poltava by Peter in 1709. During the period of the Russian Empire, and in modern pro-Russian circles, followers of Mazepa, or Mazepintsy, have become synonymous with traitors to Putin’s vision for Russia and Ukraine.
But for all of his focus on Peter, Putin’s favorite topic is the fifteen years between 1768 and 1783 when Russia defeated the Ottoman Empire, stripped it of the Crimean Khanate, and annexed Crimea. Putin has said that Catherine achieved victory with less cost than Peter, and that he admires this. Catherine the Great led Russia during this era, and Putin seems to identify with her. Putin remembers her as a conqueror and founder of cities. Russia’s armies were highly successful in this period, led by famous figures such as Peter Rumyanstev and Grigory Potemkin. (When they withdrew from Kherson, Russian forces removed Grigory Potemkin’s bones from St. Catherine’s Cathedral.) During these years, Russia fought against an ailing Ottoman Empire. In 1690, few would have bet on the emerging Muscovite state against the Ottoman forces. But by the 1760s, the Ottoman military had grown weaker. As a result, in the 1768 war, Catherine’s armies travelled from victory to victory at battles such as Larga, Kagul, and Kerch.
Here, as in the Great Northern War, Putin’s narrative holds that victories over other great powers allowed Russia to crush Ukraine. Victories over the Ottomans allowed Catherine a free reign in dealing with the Ukrainian Cossacks. In 1764, Catherine founded a new province called Novorossiya to consolidate her military frontier, which grew to encompass Kharkiv, the Donbass, old Crimean Khanate possessions, and the territories of the dissolved Zaporizhian Cossack host.
In Putin’s heroic interpretation, Peter I beat the West during the Great Northern War, which blocked any effort at Ukrainian independence. Then Catherine II defeated the Ottoman Empire to seize Crimea and southern Ukraine. With the help of “heroes” like Pyotr Rumyanstev, Alexander Suvorov, and Fyodor Ushakov, Russian victory was always assured. In 1708, a Russian commander proudly reported back to the Kremlin, “the bandit’s den at Bakhmut is taken and destroyed, and the inhabitants have been slaughtered.”
Sure sounds like Putin trying desperately to get history repeating itself as Putin is undoubtedly hoping to receive a similar report any day.
Bottom line: you pretending it is the west engaging in ‘forever war’ is one of the most intellectually dishonest inversions of reality I have ever seen.
Maria
January 29, 2023 at 5:27 pm
There is no such ethnic group – Ukrainians.
The capital of present-day Ukraine, Kiev, was founded by Russian princes and there is documentary evidence of this. Ancient chronicles that were written in Russian. The daughter of the Kyiv prince Yaroslav the Wise, Anna, was given in marriage to the French king and it is written on her grave – Anna of Russia, but this is an inconvenient truth and they don’t write about her anywhere so that some John from Kentucky doesn’t start asking questions. As for the oligarchs, you have 100 times more of them, but you prefer not to notice them. As for Putin, I did not vote for him! I find him too diplomatic. If someone tougher ruled Russia, you would not have behaved so arrogantly. By the way, you know that Stalin, whom you hate so much, was an ethnic Georgian! He was born and raised in Georgia… And for many years the Soviet Union was ruled by immigrants from Ukraine.. Therefore, when they yell about the “Holodomor” that allegedly Russia arranged for them, they forget to say that the Georgian Stalin was at the head of the Ussr… And they also forget add that there was a terrible famine throughout Russia and not only in Ukraine .. But they don’t talk about this either …
Your analysts often like to measure countries by the size of their economies, but I want to tell you that in a nuclear fire, all economies will burn out the same way.. As Putin said, we do not need a world without Russia.
We wanted to live in peace and respect with our neighbors, until America came along with their false stories about democracy and began to threaten us. Just imagine for a moment that we have drawn into the military Union and placed our weapons in Mexico, under the pretense of democracy. What would you feel?
In the 90s, we trustingly extended our hand of friendship to you, and you spat there. We won’t forget this.
Maria
January 29, 2023 at 5:44 pm
Gary,
Who told you that Zelensky was forced to speak Russian? This is a lie. You know that several Ukrainian presidents had to be urgently taught the Ukrainian language, because they did not know it! All Ukrainians speak Russian until they are heard, and only with Russians do they switch to Ukrainian. I’ll open your eyes, maybe – the Ukrainian language is Surzhik, in which it is difficult to explain, for example, mathematics, medicine and other sciences. This is the language of the part of western Ukraine adjacent to Poland, which is spoken only by local peasants. It is suitable only for the most ordinary rural people. Now it is forcibly distributed to central and eastern Ukraine! And the cultural, rich Russian language is banned. This leads to the stupefaction of Ukrainians! But it seems that this is exactly what the West needs.
Paul
January 29, 2023 at 6:03 pm
@Jim
Maria did not say that, and I certainly did not reply what you claim I did.
Sorry Jim(sky) but it’s all in black and white. You do not get to fabricate a false dialog for you then to criticize.
Maria did not say she was “concerned” about a neighboring state’s military. She said that Russia is a great power with a right to invade (restore order) neighboring small states if they are “Influenced” by USA. Think we can all agree what “restore order” is code for.
Please Jim, tell me now, do you or do you not agree with Maria that “great powers” have a right to invade smaller neighboring states?
I for one can say that I do not agree. All nations have a sovereign right to choose their own path including Ukraine.
The sad part is that you guys are so incredible paranoid after years of propaganda that you are unable to wrap your head around the idea that a neighboring state could out of their own free will want something that is not dictated by either Putin or USA. I’m sure the Americans are happy that Ukraine moves away from Russia, but they did not have to lift a finger. You did that all on your own. Russia has nothing to offer, but a membership at gunpoint, in the parasitic and kleptocratic “Russkij Mir” witch of cause Ukraine, as is plane to se for all, strongly rejects.
And for all the BS you drum up about Mexico, Canada, and China. I literally said none of what you are attributing to me, yet you call me a hypocrite for words entirely of your own making. That is laughable, unprincipled, and pathetic.
As for war mongering, that role falls 100% to the invader and her supporters. Go back to Russia and the war will be over tomorrow.
Maria
January 29, 2023 at 6:05 pm
Sam Smith, Another couch warrior.. He’s about to bomb Russia.. Try it… This will be the last act of your stupid life. Why weren’t you worried when Ukraine bombed Donbas for 8 years in a row? There is an “avenue of angels”, look it up on the Internet. These are the children who died from the bombings committed by Ukraine. Why were you silent when they tortured like fascists all people who have a different opinion? raped, robbed, killed? Are you generally able to search for information and read anything other than CNN?
Maria
January 29, 2023 at 6:35 pm
Gary, what you are trying to present as the existence of a state was nothing more than a “false” state proclaimed by a small group of people in a part of the territory of the former Russian Empire after the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II. On November 7, 1917, Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire.. When the revolution took place, not only Ukraine suffered, all of Russia washed itself with blood.. But always pressing on pity, she only talks about her sufferings.. This state has never had independence!!! Don’t let yourself be fooled! Read not articles in newspapers where facts are turned upside down! Look for historical facts! You are being deceived using your ignorance!
Paul
January 29, 2023 at 8:05 pm
@Maria
Thank you again for sharing with us how decoupled from reality ordinary Russians are. I am both fascinated and horrified that you claim that Ukrainians do not exist. From what you write it seems you remember the good old days of the USSR. Then you should also remember that Ukraine was one of the founding soviet SSR (even if it was at gunpoint). Also, that Ukrainians was recognized as a separate ethnic group within USSR. At the 1989 USSR Census in the ethnic breakdown of the population, it was reported that there were at that time 44.186.006 Ukrainians in USSR and that Ukrainians made up 15,6% of all people.
Maria, do you deny these facts? You can look them up if you want.
In any case, if the people of Ukraine insist that they are Ukrainians rather than Russians, do you really feel it is up to you to decide for them?
When you talk of Anna of Russia you are again mistaken. The name Russia derived from the Norse “Rus” and translates as “the men that rows”, meaning the Vikings who dominated areas that later would evolve into Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. So, the original meaning of Rus was Norse men, not Slavs. But eventually the meaning of the term Rus shifted from Norse men to Slavs, who were happy to be identified with their former overlords. So, you cannot say that any mentioning of Rus automatically translates to Russia or ethnic Russians in the modern understanding, the shift is gradual.
Anyway, since you are so nationalistic oriented, maybe Scandinavia should assert their right as Russia’s overlord based on the historical records? At the very least you should consider changing you name to something Slavic instead of Norse.
It is disturbing that you nakedly threaten with “nuclear fire” and “all economies will burn” and then in the next sentence insist that you wanted to “live in peace and respect with our neighbors”. How do you suppose the Ukrainians feel about your “peace and respect” when you are murdering them and frankly do not even acknowledge that they exist as a people. It is clear from your own words that you intend to crush the Ukrainian nation and force them back in the Russian empire. If you murder enough of them maybe, they will grow to love Russia and feel more like Russians.
No one was arming Ukraine before you invaded. Now we must help the Ukrainians if they are to defend themselves from the hoard of Russian criminals and murderers you send.
As for oligarchs in the west, I am aware that we have them also. And we need to diminish their power, so that they do not corrupt our democracies as they have corrupted Russia.
In the 90s we trustingly extended you our hand and welcomed you as our equal, but you spat on it and instead turned to Putin and his dream of a resurrecting Russia as an overlord empire.
Serhio
January 30, 2023 at 3:26 am
Paul
“Please Jim, tell me now, do you or do you not agree with Maria that “great powers” have a right to invade smaller neighboring states?
I for one can say that I do not agree. All nations have a sovereign right to choose their own path including Ukraine.”
I’m certainly not Jim, but I’ll try to cut in on the conversation. The fact that you disapprove when one state attacks another is commendable. I would like to know if you took the same position when NATO destroyed Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan? However, regardless of your position, this happens. The United States believes that they are the only ones who have the right to forcibly overthrow regimes and kill unwanted ones? Russians think differently. Only they don’t hide behind false words about “democracy”. They said bluntly: here’s our red line for you. If you cross it, we will kill you. If the US intervenes directly in Ukraine, the Russians will kill Americans. Perhaps you will sing a different song if Venezuela or Nicaragua announce their intention to deploy Russian missiles in their countries. Ukrainians have explicitly stated this intention: they wanted the US to deploy its missiles in Ukraine.
Maria
January 30, 2023 at 4:49 am
Paul, The word invasion is a problem and translation. I will try to write more precisely what, in my opinion, a great state has the right to do with its neighbors. So, I want to emphasize that I and many people in Russia, as well as the majority of my acquaintances and the prevailing opinion in social networks, still consider Ukraine a brotherly people and we recognize its right to self-determination. But the seizure of power in 2014, which was carried out in Kyiv by a US-led Nazi gang, we do not recognize. After Ukraine fell under the rule of the United States, it ceased to be a sovereign power for us. The operation, begun a year ago, became possible only because Ukraine was struck by the United States like a cancerous tumor. As soon as the United States gets out of there, we will immediately leave too. What are you doing there many 1000 km from America?
Maria
January 30, 2023 at 5:08 am
I really love America and its smiling and kind, overly trusting people who lack critical thinking. This makes me sad. If you see that all your media are inciting you against some state, they are unanimously pouring mud on Russia, why don’t you ask yourself the question – where is the alternative opinion, why are you not allowed to hear it, why don’t you want to know it? Ask yourself this question. Your gullibility has played a bad joke on you more than once. Remember the test tube with washing powder, after which the invasion of Iraq began, and what it led to. This has happened more than once in history. Your media is pumping society with poison for the benefit of your corporations. As a result, the Pentagon wins. You ostracize any people who have a different opinion, even though these people are Americans and among them there are people who have done a lot for America. You have tortured the world with your vision of “democracy”, it has come to the point that the word “democracy” in the world is perceived as a caricature… You yourself do not have democracy. Get yourselves in order. Your streets are full of homeless people. You don’t have free healthcare. What democracy are you talking about??
from Russia with love
January 30, 2023 at 6:44 am
@Paul
“All nations have a sovereign right to choose their own path including Ukraine.”
specify which “Ukraine” has the right to choose its own path? pro-Western Bandera fascist Ukraine or pro-Russian Russian-speaking Ukraine?
What does it mean to “choose your own path”? to ban the language spoken by the population of the country, to physically destroy those who disagree with this “own way” is this, in your opinion, “to choose your own way”?
those who opposed the 2014 coup d’etat have the right to choose their path, or not?
“The sad part is that you guys are so incredible paranoid after years of propaganda that you are unable to wrap your head around the idea that a neighboring state could out of their own free will want something that is not dictated by either Putin or USA. ”
are you talking about Ukraine? about that Ukraine in which an American senator (now the president) can demand to remove the supreme judge from office, do it live on television, and this judge is removed from office because he opened a criminal case against the senator’s son? ? very funny. ???
PS
your maxims about peace and justice are something incredible! a citizen of the USA, the same USA that bombed the territory of 11 (!!!) countries from 2000 to 2022, tells something about justice and that big countries do not have the right to attack small ones. ? tell this to the Afghans, Libyans, Serbs and many others who were killed and continue to be killed by the United States.
PS PS
“Go back to Russia and the war will be over tomorrow.”
we are doing this! Zelensky wants 1991 borders. in 1991 the Ukrainian SSR was part of the USSR. we return Ukraine to its homeland. BUT! there is also Biden’s demand – to return Russia to the 19th century. this is more difficult. Russia then included not only the province of Kiev, but also the Baltic states and Poland and Finland. we have a lot of work to do.?
Simon Beerstecher
January 30, 2023 at 7:58 am
Russia needs to be dismembered of its last Imperialst Republics and Oblasts.
Simon Beerstecher
January 30, 2023 at 8:00 am
Now onto F16s for Ukraine, and then here comes combined arms warfare!Slava Ukraine.
Jim
January 30, 2023 at 9:50 am
Anybody who wants to discuss an overview of Ukraine has to start their analysis @ the 2014 coup supported by the United States, perpetrated by neo-Nazi elements in Kiev. The United States knew who they were supporting, as they had been supporting neo-Nazi Bandera inspired factions in Ukraine since before the Soviet Union collapsed.
(Actually, you can start much earlier, Chechnya separatists in 2000 were helped & encouraged by the CIA.)
And, even into the 1990’s with Nato expansion after verbal assurances it would not (along with written memorandum noting the assurances) expand.
U. S. foreign Policy elite drew two conclusions when the Soviet Union collapsed:
1. Afghanistan (the U. S. supported Islamic insurgency against Russian occupation & eventual withdrawal) played a significant part in the collapse.
2. If the Soviet Union fell apart, then the Russian Federation could fall apart, too.
With these two conclusions, a slow motion aggression (but deliberate, steady and unrelenting) began against Russia… the instant conflict is the flowering or blossoming (the culmination) of a long-term policy which was never communicated to the American People.
The Ukraine Project has zero legitimacy… in my opinion.
And ultimately the result of a fateful choice for aggression & domination instead of Peace, co-existence and mutually beneficial economic relationships.
Sad, that with the End of the Cold War, the U. S. decided to take the path of aggression and not peace.
Gary Jacobs
January 30, 2023 at 10:15 am
Maria,
Not only do I 2nd everything Paul said, I would add that you have your origin theory precisely backwards. Russians are descended from Ukrainians in the form of Kievan Rus. Kyiv was a thriving city for centuries while Moscow was a swamp and Russians were still primitive and tribal.
The decline of the Byzantines, subsequent invasions by Turks, and finally the Mongol invasion in the mid-13th century upended all that.
As for Zelensky speaking Russian… he is Jewish, and Russians have never considered Jews Russian. Ever. Catherine imposed the Pale of Settlement on 4.5 Million Jews the Russians came to lord over. Before you pretend Russia is some benevolent force, go look that up, and then tell me whether you want to be stuck in a shtetl no near zero rights in the country you live in?
Long before the Nazis came to Eastern Europe, the Russian Pogroms raped and pillaged Jewish communities throughout the land…and when there was an opportunity to flee to the US and Israel, millions of Jews did just that.
Part of my family was among them. Therefore your pitch to whitewash Russian history has zero credibility here.
For all it’s faults, I support Ukraine in its fight against Russian Imperialist oppression.
Have a liberating day.
Gary Jacobs
January 30, 2023 at 10:23 am
Jim,
you continuing to cling to your faux notion of what happened in 2014 makes me laugh. The coup attempt was by Russia trying to overturn 3 years of negotiating with the EU.
As well, the govt. change was irregular, but not illegal. There was a vote in Ukrainian parliament similar to an impeachment in the US. Just because you dont like it, doesnt make it a coup.
Furthermore, you trying to pretend that the history of the region begins in 2014 is really the most feeble attempt to bully others into agreeing with your intellectually infantile notion of the region. There are literally centuries of history repeating itself with Russia invading Ukraine, some of which I just posted about on this thread quite extensively…and you still want to cherry pick your way into beginning in 2014? Haha.
Then you want to pretend all Ukrainians that want to be free of Russian imperialist oppression are Nazis.
Not. Going. To. Happen.
I have repeatedly obliterated your neoNazi theories, and in fact flipped that script right back onto Russia as the biggest supporter of right wing loons in the world..
Your latest post is yet another in a long line of your epic failures.
Have a liberating day.
Jim
January 30, 2023 at 1:07 pm
Gary, you are disingenuous.
You’ve made this false claim before and I challenged you to provide an independent source which backed up your thesis.
You failed to provide a source because nobody makes that claim other than yourself… but I’ll ask again and if you provide a source, now, and I’ll take a look at it.
And that is typical of many of your claims… you are a Baghdad bob… it reduces your credibility to near zero to anybody who is objective. It’s true enough Ukraine cheerleaders drink your slop like pigs @ the trough.
Your animus towards Russia for things that happened over a century ago has no place in modern U. S. foreign policy, today… period.
Your animus blinds you… and leaves you willing to use Ukraine as a doormat for taking personal shots at Russia… to fight to the last Ukrainian… and to use the U. S. as a tool for your personal war against Russia.
Forever proxy war is your motto.
Proxy war today, proxy war tomorrow, proxy war forever.
That’s a loser @ the next election.
Your selfish desire to attack Russia vicariously through a Ukraine proxy is undermining America economically, diplomatically and militarily… but your bias and arrogance will never allow you to see it.
Because of this war America may lose the world reserve currency status of the U. S. Dollar… that’s on you & your ilk… and it will hurt everyday Americans and American international business & economic interests.
This war is already a loser… let’s hope it doesn’t turn into a General European War or worse.
Gary Jacobs
January 30, 2023 at 2:00 pm
Jim,
You are the poster child for the saying ‘those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it’.
Putin himself references Russian history and his place in it. He is repeatedly comparing himself to their imperialist Tsars in excruciating detail, some of which I provided above… but you just want to ignore all of that and pretend that history started in 2014. Either way, you dont have to go back 100 years to see Russian atrocities against Ukraine…they happened throughout the 20th century, and the beginning of the 21st also.
Furthermore, your attempt at starting history in 2014 is a sad and hypocritical irony considering one of the biggest failings of the neocons in their quest to remake the mideast was their failure to understand the tribal/Islamic history and culture of the region.
You are making a version of their mistake with Russia.
In reality, it is perfectly within the ‘Realist’ school of thought to support Ukraine…one does not at all have to be a neocon. From a realist perspective, ensuring Russia’s defeat in Ukraine would significantly benefit the United States.
Not only would it enhance the security of American allies in Europe (as well as Russia’s vulnerable neighbors), but it would also create a more favorable balance of power as the United States pursues its ongoing strategic competition with China.
Should the failure of Russia’s war of aggression spark significant change within Russia, the US and its allies will have an opportunity to correct some of the mistakes that realists identified in the construction of Europe’s post-Cold War security architecture, which many realists and Russian scholars [wrongly] cite as a key factor in the conflict over Ukraine. Even if Russia remains belligerent and aggressive, its failure in Ukraine will leave it weaker, poorer, and more isolated.
In giving aid to Ukraine, the US is taking on board realists’ warnings about the danger of doing too much or taking unnecessary risks. As the founder of academic realism Hans Morgenthau suggested, prudence is the primary realist virtue. The Biden administration’s insistence that US provided arms not be used for attacks on Russian soil, like its refusal to deploy American troops to Ukraine or enforce a no fly zone that would require engaging Russian targets, are prudent.
Refusing Kyiv’s requests for heavy armor and longer-range artillery that could allow it to mount more effective offensive operations is not prudent. Nor should the US be coy about seeking Russia’s defeat and the withdrawal of all Russian forces from Ukraine as a war aim.
Kissinger’s career in government notwithstanding, realism has struggled to gain a foothold in American foreign policy because of its sometimes antiseptic, amoral nature. Realists’ belief in the enduring nature of international competition can blind them to the turning points in history, when previously unthinkable possibilities become manifest, just as their calls for dispassionate analysis can obscure the importance of human factors like emotion and ideology. Much of the realist commentary on the war in Ukraine has fallen into this trap. Adherents of the realist tradition should recognize how the war in Ukraine represents an inflection point for Europe and for the global balance of power.
The eleven months since Putin’s naked aggression have brought enormous suffering but have also launched a once in a generation opportunity to reshape international order. That resulting order could be a world “safe for autocracy” or one that rests on a new consensus about the value of liberal democracy, with a more secure Europe and a US more advantageously positioned for long term competition with of China.
For realists concerned about managing competition over the longer term, the opportunity to build a more stable, balanced order and compete more effectively with Beijing is one that should be embraced. The first step to that end is ensuring the failure of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
After the war, I would be in favor of a Marshall Plan for BOTH Russia and Ukraine…IF Russia has a truth and reconciliation commission that seeks to come to grips with its imperialist past, the atrocities it has committed for centuries against its neighbors, and shapes a new path forward as a good neighbor.
Back to Ukraine for a moment, it isnt a theory that Ukraine had a vote similar to impeachment to change their govt. in 2014. It simply requires basic research.
Get some.
You continue to peddle phony theories I have obliterated repeatedly. Especially your neonazi nonsense, and your neocon nonsense.
Have a liberating day.
Maria
January 30, 2023 at 5:18 pm
“Russian atrocities against Ukraine in the 20th century”? How can you lie like that? It was against Russia that the atrocities were committed by Germany. Almost 30 million people died in Russia.. Ukraine has always been a part of Russia and of course also suffered, but Ethnos has nothing to do with it! All the peoples inhabiting Russia and Russians suffered – most of all! Why are you lying so shamelessly?
Maria
January 30, 2023 at 5:28 pm
Gary, I declare you the winner! You are the first liar in this chat! Liar with amazing performance! Taking off my hat! For good Americans I will say – Russia is a country where the Jews lived perfectly! It is enough to look at the names and surnames of the members of the Elite in Soviet times and up to the present day! Only Jews! Around! Art – Jews, government – Jews, Science – Jews, Military – and there Jews! Stop lying to Gary! Your mom would be ashamed of you!
Paul
January 30, 2023 at 6:12 pm
@Maria
I believe that you sincerely believe what you say, and that you want to open my eyes, so I will consider what you say and give you something to consider for yourself.
You say that you and many of your friends still consider Ukraine a brotherly people, I believe you mean it, and something good can grow from such feelings. But if something good is to come of it, you really need to consider changing some of your attitude towards Ukrainians first.
You see, it is insulting to the Ukrainians when you say they do not exist as an ethnic group. No one likes to be told that they don’t know who they are. The Ukrainians exist for the same reasons that Russians or Danes exist. At some point Russians and Danes came to view themselves as a distinct group other than, say Poles and Swedes. It is really not up to the Poles to decide if Russians exist, the same goes for Ukrainians. So, if you want Ukrainians to love you back, I advise you to accept your brotherly neighbor’s own definition of themselves as Ukrainians.
You refer to the Ukrainian language as not a real language or at best “a simple rural language for the most ordinary rural peasants, not suitable for mathematics, medicine, or other sciences”. And you said that they only speak Ukrainian when there is Russians present, do you really think they speak their own language only to annoy you? When you say things like this, you are talking down to Ukrainians and belittling and patronizing them. That surely must hurt their feelings. You probably don’t like to be talked down to and neither does the Ukrainians. So, if you are sincere about your brotherly love for the Ukrainians, you really need to work on this.
Now the next one is going to be a bit tougher. I understand that you have come to believe in the Russian “news” about how the US-Nazi gang took power in 2014.
By the way you seem to believe I am an American, I am not, I am a European. I live in a free media marked where I can find all kinds of news and free media is protected in the constitution. Many media platforms are extremely critical of the government, but the government is powerless to close them, and in any case, they understand that if our democracy and mutual trust in each other is to be maintained, then media diversity and difference of opinion must be respected. From left to right, no serious media presented the US-Nazi-gang narrative you propose. And I can assure you that we have many media platforms that can be highly critical of USA if criticism is warranted, and would love to expose such a conspiracy, if one existed. And since you mentioned Colin Powel’s powder in the UN security council, most media here and me also was at that time highly critical of the US invasion of Iraq. But to be clear, USAs wrongdoing in Iraq does not give Russia a free pass in Ukraine.
You should know that the Russian media marked today is more or less closed if you present a different narrative than that of Putin. However, in 2014 it was heavily tilted but not closed. If you dare to look you will find Russian speaking media not controlled by Putin, that presented a different view than the official state sponsored one you refer to. You have many media, but all is controlled or subdued by Putin, we have many media, and they are controlled by many owners with different political views.
Have you ever reflected on why there would be so many Nazis in Ukraine? And why would they elect a Jew as their president?
Imagine that you were given a task, to demonize a neighbor of Russia, so that everyone in Russia would hate them and feel a patriotic obligation to destroy them. Can you think of a better way then to label them as Nazis?
And consider this: What happens if you live in a state that rewards “good” media and punishes “bad” media. Good media is media that present a narrative that fits the government’s agenda. “Good” journalists get their own shows on TV and live a good and comfortable life. Bad media on the other hand gets labeled as “foreign agent”, they are kicked out of their offices, harassed by the government, and eventually closed. Bad journalists are harassed by government, kicked out of their apartment, some even gets murdered. It is human nature to deliver the results that rewards us. Over the years journalists and media with a diverging view from Putin have slowly disappeared. New journalists that agree with Putin have taken their place. You end up with what is called an echo chamber.
So, it is pretty clear to me that of you and me, it is you who are at the greatest risk of being duped by one-sided or even straight-out fake news.
I’m sure there are Nazis in Ukraine, but no more than in Russia. I trust you know the inspiration for the name of the Wagner group?
Is it really so hard for you to believe that the Ukrainians all by themselves decided that they wanted to get rid of corruption and seek a future in the west?
You mock the US democracy, and I must confess that I am deeply worried about the future of it. Oligarchy is on the rise and trust among Americans and in their institutions is in decline. Their political system has been corrupted by vast amounts of money injected where it has no place. Still the Americans are democratic at heart. In any case, Russia’s model of authoritarian corrupt oligarchy is no model to desire and hopefully Russia can serve as a useful contrast for the Americans to reform themselves.
Gary Jacobs
January 30, 2023 at 11:10 pm
Maria,
Wow. Go look up the Refuseniks…then come back and tell me how well the Soviets treated the Jews. Some Jews who basically renounced actually being Jewish did well in Soviet times…for a limited period. The vast majority of the rest were for all intents and purposes held hostage. They were refused permission to exit the USSR. And the moment they applied to leave, their lives were dismantled as a deterrent to others. Nathan Sharansky has written extensively about his experience. As have many others.
As for the 20th century atrocities Russians committed against Ukrainians, sorry to burst your propaganda bubble but between the ethnic cleansing of the Crimean Tatars and Holodomor starving millions of Ukrainians to death… your pretense that the Soviet Regime was any better to Ukrainians than the Nazis were to Jews, Ukrainians who defied them, or Russians once they broke the Von Ribbentrop Pact is the height of hubris. And frankly is Exhibit A for my insistence that there be a truth and reconciliation commission in Russia after its defeat in Ukraine in the current war.
And FYI: the Von Ribbentrop Pact was a deal between the USSR and Nazi Germany to coordinate their invasions of Eastern Europe and carve it up among themselves. Both launched offensives in September 1939 in complete coordination with each other.
Only Hitler’s surprise invasion of Russia on June 22, 1941 in Operation Barbarossa broke that deal. Otherwise the USSR would have been perfectly fine keeping their deal with the Nazis.
Bottom line: Do not pretend to me that Russia is some great benevolent country. I know the history of its oppression better than pretty much every person on this forum combined. Including the authors themselves.
Serhio
January 30, 2023 at 11:21 pm
Gary Jacobs
“As for Zelensky speaking Russian… he is Jewish, and Russians have never considered Jews Russian. Ever. Catherine imposed the Pale of Settlement on 4.5 Million Jews the Russians came to lord over. Before you pretend Russia is some benevolent force, go look that up, and then tell me whether you want to be stuck in a shtetl no near zero rights in the country you live in?
Long before the Nazis came to Eastern Europe, the Russian Pogroms raped and pillaged Jewish communities throughout the land…and when there was an opportunity to flee to the US and Israel, millions of Jews did just that.”
I suggest we talk about Jews, Jewish propagandists and Gary Jacobs.
A favorite technique of any propagandist, including Gary Jacobs: to tell some truth that confirms your point of view, and to keep silent about the fact that this is not the whole truth, that there is another side of the coin. Were there Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire? Yes, it was. Is it really all because of the eternal Russian barbarism? No. “Enlightened Europe” killed its Jews and took their property with no less enthusiasm. As a Jew, you should know this. But if suddenly you were poorly taught at school, then I will give a short story (not claiming to be exhaustive).As far as I know, the first documented pogrom occurred in 38 in Alexandria. Then the topic became popular (firstly, for economic reasons (there are few Jews, but you can take a lot from them, and there is no serious force behind them), secondly, for religious reasons). For centuries in Europe, Africa, Asia, Jewish houses have burned and Jews have been killed. It was very profitable. Christians of various faiths and Muslims took part in this case. There were thousands of pogroms. The most famous: about 12,000 people died in the Rhine Valley in 1096, Spain and France destroyed 120 communities in 1320, more than 10,000 people in France and Spain, about 4,000 people died in Spain in 1391, more than 100,000 Jews died in Poland in 1648, a third of Jewish communities were burned and destroyed communities. Large-scale pogroms occurred in England in 1189-1190. In August 1819, starting in Wartburg, the pogroms spread throughout Germany and spread to Denmark, the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland. But that was a long time ago. And when was the last Jewish pogrom in Russia? During the Civil War of 1917-1922 in Ukraine. There were no more pogroms in Russia, because the Bolsheviks, who seized power in Russia and won the civil war, began to create a new type of society where (according to their ideas) everyone was equal. In particular, due to the fact that Jews in Russia were subjected to oppression, they became active participants in the Russian Revolution. Of the most famous – Trotsky, Lunacharsky, Lurie, Zinoviev, Gukovsky. Given the massive presence of Jews in the government, Jewish pogroms became impossible. Thus, if anti-Semitism is considered a disease, then Russia (USSR) was cured of its acute form around 1922. Although Jewish pogroms on the territory of the USSR still happened during World War 2, on the territory occupied by Germany (mainly on the territory of Ukraine). The most famous of them is Lviv, but there were many of them. When did Europe and the USA recover from this disease? In the USA, the last Jewish pogrom was recorded in August 1991 in the New York district of Crown Heights. In 1947, there were Jewish pogroms in Great Britain. In Poland, in 1946, a pogrom occurred in Kielce, which caused a mass migration of Jews from Poland. Therefore, your argument “there were Jewish pogroms in Russia” looks strange. There were no Jewish pogroms only in Antarctica due to the complete absence of Jews. It is important for Jews that Russia was one of the first countries to stop this outrage, and the Supreme Rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar said in a recent address on the occasion of the International Holocaust Memorial Day: “Jews today feel really comfortable in Russia.” And only corrupt propagandists can use such arguments. Have an educational day.
Serhio
January 30, 2023 at 11:28 pm
Gary Jacobs
“As well, the govt. change was irregular, but not illegal. There was a vote in Ukrainian parliament similar to an impeachment in the US. Just because you dont like it, doesnt make it a coup.”
The Constitution of Ukraine clearly spelled out all procedures permitted by law. There are no popular unrest and the overthrow of the president by a vote in parliament. So it was an illegal action, which only tried to give the appearance of legality.
ATM
January 31, 2023 at 12:51 am
General Shinseki gave President Bush a good assessment but the White House is above logic and the law in the United States, furthermore generals who cross them fade away quickly. President Biden was warned by Obama, the military and the realists about the risks in Ukraine but he ignored them in favor of the idealologs. There is no politically acceptable way to devise an exit plan or shut off the machine now. The time for that conversation was a year ago at the start.
H.R. Holm
January 31, 2023 at 1:35 am
@Felipe Sales—- “pleanty of avle bodies (sic)” to send from the U.S. to Ukraine? How about we start with *your* able body (if indeed it is), then? I would think there are a couple airlines available to get you there, maybe starting with LOT, the Polish one? Get you to Warsaw for starters, train from there. Pack your bags, brave volunteer. Ditto for the rest of you chickenhawk warriors skulking about this site, fighting no more than their imaginary ‘Putin trolls’.
H.R. Holm
January 31, 2023 at 2:54 am
@Gary Jacobs, who says we are sending all this to the Ukraine:
31 Abrams [we have over 5000]
109 Bradleys [we have over 5000, and these are about to be replaced]
90 Strykers [also have thousands],
300 M113 Armored Personnel Carriers [dont use these anymore],
250 M1117 Armored Security Vehicles [dont use these anymore]
580 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles [dont use these anymore]
…and then has the gall to claim it won’t affect U.S. stockpiles/readiness??? (And those 5000 Abrams tanks, for example, do they have all the crews needed to man them?)
What, you think the U.S. Army has some secret other giant spare stash of all these hidden somewhere (Shangri-La, perhaps? ) just ready to be whipped out and put to instant use?
As someone on this site finally needs to tell you: Get outta heeeeeaaaaaahhhh!
And if some are ‘no longer used’, or of use, what the heck are they still being kept in storage for, as mere decorations? What with all the pronouncements I’ve read lately, including on this site, that the U.S. is now becoming critically short of many weapons/munitions, stemming also from attrition and retirement since the end of the Cold War, that you dare to complain ‘no problem we can easily spare ’em’ ??? Now which alternate universe are you in again? Everyone but *you* is saying how critically low on munitions and weapons we are now due to this virtually endless stream of armaments, never-ending, that we have been sending in vain over to fight this now seemingly forever conflict? You think those numbers don’t matter? How many billions did we initially spend for those items on your list—three,four, five, more? And it doesn’t matter if they are older ones, they our still ours, U.S. taxpayers still ponied up for all of them, and here you think that they can just be handed out like cheap candy canes to children at Christmas. Well, ‘Santa’, there’s just so much in our inventory bag, and that bag is emptying per just about every credible observer—-military and civilian—but you. For example, our own supply if Javelin antitank missiles is virtually depleted. Yeah, I did not see *that* cited in your list. And it will take a few years to replace them even at expedited production rates. Oh, but that’s OK, because now we have every reason to but conveniently replenish our arsenal and pad the accounts of the arms makers even more while doing so. Which has to be one side-reason why so many in the political/military establishment so ‘support’ the Ukrainians, because their own investments in the military apparatus will be padded, too. Are those investments in your portfolio, also? Please, stop handing us this rah-rah meme of bravado and brag supposedly supporting ‘fighting for freedom and against bullies like Putin’. (Not to mention that even more insidious one of ‘if we don’t support Ukraine like this, we then fight the Russians directly elsewhere in Europe’.) We’ve been there and done that in Iraq/Afghanistan, and nothing similar was anywhere near accomplished there. We can no longer afford to just send the Ukes even more of these items than we could afford to lend them our major naval vessels. Tell us, do we also just have a few extra carrier groups floating around uselessly in the oceans we could provide them, too? If so, then why does everyone think we are already hard-put to come to Taiwan’s defense if the China dragon snaps its jaws on them? All our armed forces head honchos think now they are short of what they need to fight a protracted war, in Europe or Asia–not only in materiel, but personnel, too. And ironically, they are probably right, but it likely would not matter for long if ‘the balloon goes up’. Both would get chewed up awful fast in a major conflict, (probably along with the rest of us too), but obviously you will not recognize that. Note the recent controversy over just maintaining enough recruits, and retaining critical personnel like pilots. Oh, but I suppose *you* think we have enough of them to spare and throw down the Ukraine cannon-fodder barrel, too. Which I know is what you and your fellow travelers in these comments sections really ultimately want to risk, and that is the gateway to WWIII. Well, soberly sensible-minded people *don’t*.
Serhio
January 31, 2023 at 3:31 am
Paul
“Now the next one is going to be a bit tougher. I understand that you have come to believe in the Russian “news” about how the US-Nazi gang took power in 2014.”
American Greatness has published an article by Maurice Richard “Inside the Nazi Whitewash of Ukraine”. Read it. Is this also Russian propaganda? It is useful to read to anyone who claims that there are no Nazis in Ukraine because their president is Jewish.
Paul
January 31, 2023 at 2:08 pm
Serhio
You should rather read all I wrote about the danger of echo chambers and media credibility in Russia vs the West and see it you in all honesty can find some truth in it.
And yes, because we in the west have free media you will find conspiracy peddlers on the fringes. Of all the thousands upon thousands of media outlets in the West, you will only find a few on the fringe supporting this claim. This is just garbage click bate that fit the authors agenda.
If you say to me that there is ample scientific documentation suggesting that vaccines are good for public health, I can find several articles contradicting that and pointing to a conspiracy where the government is using vaccines to insert microchips in the people. I can go on about flat earth, fake moon landing, fake holocaust and so on. Instead of seeking out the one you find that fits with the Kremlin story of a USA-Nazi-conspiracy, you could dive into some of the others.
There is also stuff to be found about the dangers of echo chambers, if you are interested
Serhio
January 31, 2023 at 9:07 pm
Paul
“Of all the thousands upon thousands of media outlets in the West, you will only find a few on the fringe supporting this claim. This is just garbage click bait that fit the author’s agenda.”
Of course, it is easier to declare an opponent in “trash” than to understand his arguments, which are also very unpleasant for one’s own self-esteem.
Maria
February 1, 2023 at 3:01 pm
Sergio, “In a time of universal lies, telling the truth is extremism.” George Orwell
Society in the west is not ready for the truth. The truth is terrible for this society, it is destructive for it. Now Russians as a nation are being dehumanized.. It’s easier to justify one’s anger by people like Gary.
Maria
February 1, 2023 at 3:41 pm
Paul, The son of my friend was a refugee in Poland, but after 2 months he returned from there and said that the Poles treat Ukrainians like slaves. He could not stand it and went to Moscow to his mother. Everything is very mixed and ambiguous! The truth is somewhere in the middle. No matter how terrible the reaction of Moscow may seem to you, just admit that there were reasons! There are no madmen and no villains! Ukraine is a well-known provocateur.
Maria
February 1, 2023 at 3:57 pm
Regarding the Ukrainian language .. It’s a pity that you don’t know Russian and Ukrainian .. You would be surprised to learn how the Ukrainian language was created .. They just took Russian words and changed them in a funny way .. The Ukrainian language is very funny .. And I feel sorry for the Ukrainians that they speak “this”, if only they would differ from Russians .. They become villagers with this language. It sounds arrogant but it’s true. These are really strange words and sounds .. I also want to tell you if you didn’t know that Ukraine banned the UOC – this is an ancient Orthodox church that is 1000 years old. Ukraine banned all parties that called for peace with Russia, Ukraine praises Stepan Bandera, who was an open Nazi and under his leadership thousands of Poles and Jews were destroyed. Google it .. This is almost the main reason for disagreement with Poland and Israel .. They regularly protest against honoring Bandera ..
Maria
February 1, 2023 at 4:03 pm
Ukraine is infected with Nazism. A small nascent nation, full of complexes and fears, which wants to be different from its older brother (Russians), but is very similar to him and hates this brother – this is Ukraine. And the elder brother (Russia) endured the antics of the younger for many years, but then he could not stand the order.
Serhio
February 2, 2023 at 2:21 am
Maria
“Regarding the Ukrainian language .. It’s a pity that you don’t know Russian and Ukrainian .. You would be surprised to learn how the Ukrainian language was created .. They just took Russian words and changed them in a funny way .. The Ukrainian language is very funny ..”
In fact, this is only partially true and applies to “modern” words. Old words were formed both under the influence of Polish, Czech and Russian languages and partly Greek and Yiddish. Everything is more or less harmonious there. It starts funny when they try to “screw” modern words that are not in the language. The principle of “distort the Russian word if only it sounded different from the Muscovites” applies here. For example, in Ukrainian articles that described the helicopter crash with the Interior Minister, I counted 5 different spellings of the word “helicopter”. From the outside, it really looks funny. It’s just an inferiority complex on a national scale.
Serhio
February 2, 2023 at 2:37 am
Ukraine’s problem is not how to pronounce the word “helicopter”. The problems began when, under the influence of a nationalist minority, they began to prohibit the use of the Russian language. The first step was to prohibit the use of the Russian language in documents submitted to state structures. Then the closure of schools where instruction is conducted in Russian. Then there are attempts to ban the Russian language in the communication of citizens among themselves. This led to the civil war. And not “Putin’s imperial ambitions”. It’s as if (imaginatively) French-speaking Canadians banned all residents of Canada from using English, and when English-speakers came out to protest peacefully, they began to be shot and burned alive.
Maria
February 2, 2023 at 3:04 pm
And who in the West wants to know about it? This truth is like acid for the West, which will destroy the entire foundation on which Russophobia is based. They repeat the myth of Russian imperialism like a mantra, forgetting to look in the mirror.