Kiev Is Burning

[Stuart Galbraith]

12 minutes ago, crazyinsane105 said:

Technically the Russians would have been able to overrun them in a few days, pre Feb 2022. But who knows how accurate that was

One thing I will say about Russian military capabilities…for the amount of money they do put into it, they have more to show for it than most EU states. If it wasn’t for the US, I’d feel frightened for the EU

When you figure out that Russia could technically cross the nuclear threshold, from as just 2 Battalions being in combat, they you can recognise how vulnerable  we are. Particularly  if Americas has a president that won't respond. Arguably in those circumstances, they don't need much of an army.

[JWB]

How Ukrainian civilians defended Kherson, targeted Russians after invasion (msn.com)

[RETAC21]

5 hours ago, Yama said:

At this point, people seem to be hoping US will step in with heavy equipment deliveries, as they are almost only Western country with sizable untouched stocks of AFV's (well, Greece and Turkey are, but few expect them to contribute much). Just few days ago, in Finnish tv military expert complained that USA has thousands of M1 Abrams in storage, yet only handed mere 30 examples.

Just in, the US will buy 2 Argentinian Mi-171 and discount the money from the F-16 buy.

The cupboard is really bare.

[R011]

On 12/10/2023 at 11:39 AM, Murph said:

But Stuart, I have been opposed to any intervention in the Biden Bank country.  Plus if the US HAD sat out WWII and let the Euros have one of their constant squabbles, would it have been any different than the last 1000 years?

The Bourbons, Hapsburgs, Stuarts etc. never were a threat to take over the whole of Europe let alone  the rest of the world.  In that world, George Washington could be safely isolationist.  That changed with the French Revolution, and the US was  dragged into war twice once each with France and the UK - not including the Barbary pirate campaign.

Europe controlled by one great hostile power, either Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union would have created an existential threat to the United States.  Hence the American involvement in WW@ and the Cold War.

[crazyinsane105]

I do find it a bit strange we have thousands of Abrams sitting in storage but we manage, after a year, to send 30. I’d expected to have seen hundreds sent at the very least..

[Stuart Galbraith]

And they fought for months to not send those!

[ink]

1 minute ago, crazyinsane105 said:

I do find it a bit strange we have thousands of Abrams sitting in storage but we manage, after a year, to send 30. I’d expected to have seen hundreds sent at the very least..

There's probably nobody in the shipping industry close enough to the Administration to skim some of that good milky milk the government is throwing down.

Or am I too cynical 😈

[TrustMe]

44 minutes ago, RETAC21 said:

Just in, the US will buy 2 Argentinian Mi-171 and discount the money from the F-16 buy.

The cupboard is really bare.

Columbia has a number of Mi17's i'm not sure how many, they are US allied as well.

Edited December 11, 2023 by TrustMe

[Yama]

1 hour ago, RETAC21 said:

Just in, the US will buy 2 Argentinian Mi-171 and discount the money from the F-16 buy.

The cupboard is really bare.

Well...that's still progress. 

Maybe the next package will open the floodgates again, after all the compromise negotiations in Congress are finished?

[kokovi]

2 hours ago, seahawk said:

Obviously only Russia and the USA could simply move equipment within the country to meet CFE obligations.

Germany could have kept more equipment by an order of magnitude while still complying with the CFE treaty.

[Dark_Falcon]

12 hours ago, seahawk said:

But now it is eating up a large part of the budgets, for no results. The West can not afford to continue the support without wrecking the economy and their own military. The West has lost, Russian resilence has won.

The big-ticket spending items in the US budget are mandatory spending for Social Security and Medicare.  Foreign aid isn't a major cost-driver, but politicians focus on it because to bring up entitlement spending is to guarantee a massive political backlash.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Tertiary  related, but if I stick it elsewhere it will be ignored.

 

[crazyinsane105]

2 hours ago, Yama said:

Well...that's still progress. 

Maybe the next package will open the floodgates again, after all the compromise negotiations in Congress are finished?

Unsure if floodgates will be opened. War fatigue seems to be setting in to the general populace in the US as well. 

[glenn239]

6 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

The day I learned Putin Launched the Novichok attack on Salisbury, I said he was crazy enough to do anything. He was. He is. And frankly I don't think invoking cheese eating surrender monkey mode is going to save us.

I think what you are actually terrified of is that Putin will win the war and then not attack NATO.  

[glenn239]

6 hours ago, crazyinsane105 said:

One thing I will say about Russian military capabilities…for the amount of money they do put into it, they have more to show for it than most EU states. If it wasn’t for the US, I’d feel frightened for the EU

In Ukraine, I see plenty of evidence that both sides are feverishly training drone operators by the thousands and learning how to attack and defend against drones down to the squad level.  By the end of this war I wouldn't be surprised if the Russians have a thousand drone operators on the frontline at once.   Is NATO doing something to keep up with this? 

[glenn239]

5 hours ago, crazyinsane105 said:

I do find it a bit strange we have thousands of Abrams sitting in storage but we manage, after a year, to send 30. I’d expected to have seen hundreds sent at the very least..

On a hunch I did a google on spare parts and this popped up from the early 1990's,

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-96-100/html/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-96-100.htm

Could the problem be lack of spares?

[Yama]

Meanwhile, modern equivalent of Otto Wille Kuusinen, scholar Johan Bäckman has been on Russian TV as a 'Finnish expert' and the stuff he spouts keeps getting crazier and crazier. Here's some samples:

1. Bäckman claims that the United States plans to establish secret biolaboratories in Finland.

2. Bäckman claims that the United States is the provocateur of the asylum seeker crisis on Finland's eastern border.

3. According to Bäckman, the reason for closing the eastern border is that Finland wants to make life difficult for Russians.

4. According to Bäckman, the United States makes all important decisions in Finland, which has become a NATO reservate.

5. Bäckman claims that Finland spreads Nazi ideology and swastika symbols are a frequent sight.

6. Bäckman claims that Finland is planning to return Karelia, which was lost in the wars...

7. ... and that the 'Greater FInland' project is openly run in Finland.

8. Bäckman claims that NATO is planning a Barbarossa 2.0 attack against Russia.

9. Bäckman claims that the West is plotting to shoot down a Finnish or Swedish passenger plane near Åland. After this, Russia could be blamed for the accident.

 

 

 

[seahawk]

9 hours ago, Dark_Falcon said:

The big-ticket spending items in the US budget are mandatory spending for Social Security and Medicare.  Foreign aid isn't a major cost-driver, but politicians focus on it because to bring up entitlement spending is to guarantee a massive political backlash.

Taking Medicare from Americans to finanace a pointless war in Europe, seems stupid.

10 hours ago, kokovi said:

Germany could have kept more equipment by an order of magnitude while still complying with the CFE treaty.

Germany as a country sucks badly when it comes to defence and everything else.

[Stuart Galbraith]

8 hours ago, glenn239 said:

I think what you are actually terrified of is that Putin will win the war and then not attack NATO.  

Right back at you Glenn. Have you ever stopped to reflect whether I might actually be right? Because, and I dont like blowing my own trumpet here, as far as thinking the worst of the Putin regime, Ive got a considerably higher rate of being right than you have over the past 9 years.

I said in 2018 after Salisbury, that a man capable of doing that, was capable of doing anything. Did you listen? No. Who was right?

[Perun]

9 hours ago, glenn239 said:

I think what you are actually terrified of is that Putin will win the war and then not attack NATO.  

🤣👍

[Stefan Kotsch]

1 hour ago, Perun said:

10 hours ago, glenn239 said:

I think what you are actually terrified of is that Putin will win the war and then not attack NATO.  

🤣👍

For the life of me, I can't see any sense behind Glenn's saying. Except sympathy for the communist KGB officer and contempt for the right to defend against the army of the communist KGB officer.

[Ssnake]

It didn't really take you two years to realize this, Stefan...?

[Stefan Kotsch]

It's actually a fruitless discussion. But every now and then you have to stink against it. 😎

[Stuart Galbraith]

One way or another, Glenns have been on this site for the past 25 years.  So, one way or another, you would would have thought I would have learned the lesson not to argue with them by now. But...

[ink]

Is there any news actually coming in from the war? Work has prevented me from keeping an eye on things, so I was just wondering if anything was happening.

Last I saw, the Russians were still attacking in the Avdiivka area, and there were announcements that attacks on the Ukrainian energy system were imminent.