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Being a member of a militarily strong defence pact can stop Russia attacking you. NATO has shown that.You can’t win against Russia by a permanently defence stance.
Who said permanently aggressive stance?"permanently aggressive" stance, either.
I mean on the battlefield. You cant win a boxing fight just with defence, in the hope that anytime, your opponent will fall to the ground, if he is tired enough.Being a member of a militarily strong defence pact can stop Russia attacking you. NATO has shown that.
Who said permanently aggressive stance?
Bro don't you understand they don't care at all about how many ukranians die or how much ukraine losses in the end, their only goal is that as many russians as possible die and the most damage is done to Russia.Considering you're advocating against a "permanently defensive" one, it seemed on point to call out the folly of the opposite, too.
In any case, unless we want to go full-on WWIII over Ukraine on principle and kill half the planet, Russia's winning in one form or another in Ukraine. It is what it is. Just a matter of whether we want to rip the band-aid off quickly and make it as easy as possible on the Ukrainians, or draw it out another few more years with a a higher body count and Ukraine ends up in negotiation talks from an even weaker position to save at least Kyiv anyway.
No, it’s always has to be between both. Defence and Offense.Considering you're advocating against a "permanently defensive" one, it seemed on point to call out the folly of the opposite, too.
Nice package. Do Ukraine has enough manpower to use them?USA announced a significant new military aid package for Ukraine valued at $425 million usd. The package consists of the following:
- 200 Stryker APCs
- Vampire Counter UAS Systems
- AIM-9X Missiles (NASAMS)
- AIM-120 AMRAAM Missiles (NASAMS)
- Stinger Anti-Aircraft Missiles
- JDAMS / JSOW Munitions
- GMLRS (HIMARS)
- TOW Missiles (Bradleys)
- 155mm Artillery Shells
- 105mm Artillery Shells
- Javelin Anti-Armor Systems
- AT-4 Anti-Armor Systems
- Small Arms
- Small Arms Munitions
- Medical Equipment
- Demolitions Equipment and Munitions
- Spare Parts and Ancillary Equipment
- Services and Transportation
This is a substantial package and the type that the infuriates the Russians. The Ukrainians have used their Striker APCs extremely effectively and they were initially given 200 of them. Of those initial 200 they've lost 27 of them in combat, but a further 200 units gives Ukraine 370+ Strikers, by far the most they've ever had. At the same time, Russia is burning through their BMPs at an alarming rate they have no hope of replenishing. I've been calling for this type of package for a while so I'm glad the Americans are facilitating it.
Next up, we need to see a similar package with Bradley IFVs. Another 200-300 of them to help equip the additional 14 Brigades that Ukraine is in the process of preparing from their recent recruitment drive.
USA now has approximately $4 billion usd worth of Presidential Drawdown Authority left that they can send Ukraine. The Biden Government has increased the frequency of the packages they're sending the Ukrainians as the elections nears. In case Trump wins, the Americans want to make sure they've sent all of the material that Congress has approved under PDA before the G7's $50 Billion loan takes over as the primary funding mechanism for the Ukrainian military.
Biden Administration Announces Additional Security Assistance for Ukraine
Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced additional security assistance to meet Ukraine’s critical security and defense needs.www.defense.gov
They have quietly conscripted 160,000 additional soldiers, with a goal of 250,000 by the spring of 2025. Many of those soldiers will be used to replenish their existing brigades, however, they are in the process of creating 14 additional 2000+ member brigades that are being trained across Europe and who will be equipped with Western armor and artillery. This is what we know about those new Brigades to this point.Nice package. Do Ukraine has enough manpower to use them?
Russia's going to be the winner here, because we're not willing to kick into World War 3 mode and kill millions over "basically-Russia-anyway/Russia Jr". The western part of Ukraine will stay Ukraine, the eastern part becomes Russia, Ukraine will never be let into NATO, and Putin gets his buffer zone on a condition of "never be dumb enough to go into Poland or we WILL fuck you up this time." from NATO. That'll be the score here in a year or two, bet on it.
As someone with extended family in Ukraine (one dead after Russia 'liberated' the area in which they lived), I think that most Ukrainians see their country being 'liberated' by Russia as the worst form of loss they can imagine.You seem to not get that "winning this war" is either A) totally amorphous as a goal, no real set clear aims/victory points, and B) likely to be as much of a pyrrhic victory as Russia invading them in the first place. If you go all-in on this, Ukraine "wins" on-paper/legally as an entity but the entire place is fucked for 10 generations and like 5% of their population continues to exist. Not a "win" for them, only a "win" for us outside Ukraine in the sense that Russia's got a serious bloody nose.
Of course it's "basically Russia anyway/Russia Jr" in terms of practicalities. We like to say otherwise, and it's noble, but we're not blowing up the world to salvage Ukraine anymore than Russia's going to die on the hill of Canada or whatever being free of U.S. influence.
You seem to not get that "winning this war" is either A) totally amorphous as a goal, no real set clear aims/victory points, and B) likely to be as much of a pyrrhic victory as Russia invading them in the first place. If you go all-in on this, Ukraine "wins" on-paper/legally as an entity but the entire place is fucked for 10 generations and like 5% of their population continues to exist. Not a "win" for them, only a "win" for us outside Ukraine in the sense that Russia's got a serious bloody nose.
The point is smarter people than you know where this leads if we go to a hot war over...fucking *Ukraine* of all places, and said smarter people in general are aware it's not worth a war of the scale we haven't seen since '45. We like Ukrainians, we think they should be free. Also...tough shit at a certain point, life sucks and them's the breaks. Eventually negotiate with them or die, an occupied Ukraine is hardly anything new over the last three centuries and we're not setting the continent ablaze with war to save quasi-Russia.
Russia having a buffer zone on their western flank has always been baked into the cake, it's both unwritten and accepted by everyone as how things have to be. Obama fucking around in Ukraine wasn't smart from the start, now Ukraine pays, it is what it is - even if Putin's "in the wrong" (he is) for the brutal crackdown.