Don't ever think there is any logic to it. For Republicans, everything that Trump did was good. Everything (same) that Biden does is bad. And the othe...
Yes. I would emphasize more the tense political situation in Belarus. Remember the mass protests against Lukashenko? The last thing Belarus would need...
I think that Ukrainian strategy hasn't been to stop the advances on the border, but defense in depth and to defend key cities. Defense in depth means ...
Alarming? Not actually, but still... * * * One possible way the conflict could become larger is if the fighting would have Belarus involved. But yet n...
Depending on the price, Russia has gotten about half or one third of it's governments revenues from hydrocarbons. As stated even in this thread, the r...
The Urals price is something like 30 dollars cheaper to the Brent price. But of course Putin announcing that the payments have to be paid in rubles is...
I think here it should be proper to consider a successful Russian military operation: that is the invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014. There was...
Yep. The US can win every engagement and then lose the war. The Russians can fumble in nearly every engagement, sustain a lot of casualties and then w...
Well, that's what I tried to say. Do note that the wars Putin has started, the weapons projects he has established, the role of the military in modern...
The real racket would be I guess the war in Iraq and Dick Cheney and Halliburton. Halliburton already became the largest construction company in the U...
I wouldn't say that would be reason to assume they are collapsing. Yet Finland existed, wasn't occupied. What else is there for Ukraine? Likely there ...
And in a smaller economy, which is one tenth of the size of the US GDP, those Russian arms manufacturers are far more important that in the US for the...
That is illogical. You simply wouldn't attack like that if you would have alternative objectives. If the objective would never have been Kyiv, why the...
Of course, on the other side military industry is part of culture, with much admired cultural icons like Mikhail Kalashnikov: https://media.npr.org/as...
I think Biden is still unpopular. So perhaps a rock star who has lost his fans, perhaps gained too much weight, cut his heavy-rock hair and now remind...
Ok. Then I stand corrected. I understand that one has to be sceptical about Western media, however one shouldn't forget that: a) Ukraine is a huge cou...
A dictator can interpret the "yes"-men behaviour of giving rosy pictures that then backfires as intentionally done deception. Add here that it really ...
Well, let's remember that before the Great War that started in 1914, the last huge European war were the Napoleonic wars. And that had been ages ago a...
Do notice that there obviously was a intelligence gaffe, which Putin likely hasn't been all too happy. The most likely reason is that Putin has had in...
Over one and a half million people have fled the area, the majority to other parts in Ukraine, but also hundreds of thousands have fled into Russia. B...
If true, interesting. And of course, the numbers can vary. Yet what is likely that Ukraine hasn't used it's armored forces heavily as it tries to pres...
It's a long process for countries to change their views of others from "possible enemy" to friend. Now many politicians indeed can have "peacenick" id...
Not only entirely possible, but very likely. Putin's Russia has already moved a lot into the realm of Soviet style information policy and narrative. T...
That has happened many times. Which is the good thing here. And that's why it's largely hypothetical the idea of "escalate-to-de-escalate" and the who...
When things don't work and junior leaders don't take initiative, then it's a general that has to go to the front and sort it out. Which is a dangerous...
The basic problem is that nobody of course does know how in reality any nuclear exchange would go. What could be said that neither side would be enthu...
Well, it's been anticipated that Belarus would join the fight for a long time. And it hasn't. Yet the fact is the Russian reality is absolutely strang...
I think it's already has changed from mutually assured destruction to "reasonable" assured destruction as the amount of nuclear weapons have luckily b...
Perhaps it's flawed, but I'm not so sure if "surrender if threatened with nuclear weapons" would really work better. Of course how could I know. I'm n...
What I think should be considered cheerleading was enthusiastically promoting the idea "Russia invading Ukraine has no truth to it and is only America...
I would presume that people on a Philosophy Forum would back up those who are against authoritarianism and imperialism. If people here can safely go a...
Letting then Russian tanks to the streets of Netherlands is doing a lot, not doing anything, actually. Talk of an overreaction. Weren't you born durin...
But does @"Benkei" feel the same way? No really, what makes the idea of "escalate-to-de-escalate" so scary is that it could work. The risks are obviou...
No. It's not their only option. How about starting with a) oil & gas embargo, b) migration crisis, c) naval blockade, d) whatever else. Having a panic...
That's the attitude that Putin is basing his ideas on using nukes to "escalate-to-de-escalate". He just needs people like you, @"Benkei". If everyone ...
As long as the Russian army is fighting in Ukraine, there are few Russian soldiers on our border and near my summerplace (which is on the border). :sm...
We seldom find ourselves in the firing line, yet we do comment on the events that happen around the World. (Although it's sign of the times that many ...
Worth wile to see. The former economic advisor to Putin, Illarionov, makes extremely good points and comments. Good comments for example about Mearshe...
That's easy. Putin and Russia, or basically the Russians can take magnitudes more pain before folding. At worst, once if they do fold, it could become...
No, they won't get involved. And basically he doesn't need to use a strategic ballistic missiles. A tactical nuke will scare enough people, yet that h...
Hard to tell. Likely at least Putin will declare it a huge victory in any case and the objectives he had have been gloriously met by the victorious Ru...
I think it would be here important for you to see the sea-change what has happened in Ukraine, even before this invasion. As I've said earlier, before...
That it's a poor corrupt country where the people have been long angry about their ruling politicians? That even those who have promised them change h...
Comments