Missiles into Russia
- Thread starter UberCougars
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Do you believe the Ukrainians are fighting Russia against their own will? Are they being forced to defend their country?
Ukraine war: Conscription squads send Ukrainian men into hiding
Public transport, cafes and supermarkets are now off limits to men trying to avoid being enlisted.
bbc.com
yes?
Well it does seem to be getting more grim. Found a poll that rates 52% in favor of a negotiated settlement. I suppose it would depend on what that settlement detailed.Ukraine war: Conscription squads send Ukrainian men into hiding
Public transport, cafes and supermarkets are now off limits to men trying to avoid being enlisted.
yes?
Prior to the last 6 months it was less in favor.
Having said all that, it isn't unusual historically to force service amongst those able to serve, especially when your country had been invaded, let alone attacked. Taihtsat
The US has had multiple military drafts, forcing people into service. Especially poor people.
It’s not a new idea or a new practice, and not something anyone should criticize Ukraine over.
The US also "drafted" a bunch of immigrants into camps where they were forced to remain for the duration of the war. Relatives of people I grew up with!
Just a quick reminder for all the "Trump is a Nazi/authoritarian" folks out there, that authoritarian president was a Democrat.
Rounding them up and sending the. To camps may not have even been the worst part. Most of them lost their homes, properties, and businesses too. Some were able to sell them - usually for far below actual value - but most got no compensation.
And, while it’s broadly accepted that it was a serious injustice, I have little doubt that we’d do the same thing again.
In my area many of them were farmers, especially strawberries. I think some of them had neighbors that keep farming their land and they retained it after the war, but I know that wasn't universal.
My first real girl friend was from one of those families.
Ukraine was ready to sign a peace deal twice in the spring of 2022. The UK and the US said to keep fighting. Now they’re being provided enough equipment to not lose, and not enough equipment to actually win. Now there’s several hundred thousand dead Ukrainians.
Is that enough repetition for you?
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The vast majority of those folks were American citizens. They just happened to look like the enemy.
FWIW, I'm not mad about the taxes I pay. I don't like them...but I understand. What I hate is the hypocrisy and lies about what the tax cuts are doing and who they benefit and I don't like paying extra taxes while others (including the truly wealthy) get tax cuts. If everyone paid their fair share...I'd feel better.
I will say that I do get a chuckle out of hearing my cousin bitch about taxes when my wife and I pay more in taxes than he and his wife make in a year.
Weird... some people willing to for their freedom . Like the folks that jumped in the water at Normandy with German gunfire pointed down at them on D Day....
Why do you hate freedom so much?
Willing to what? Get used as cannon fodder?
The Ukraine International Legion is looking for volunteers between ages 18 and 60.
Again, not sure why you hate peace and freedom so much. I am think if it was 1945 all over again, you would be the first to wave the white flag...
And as smart as you think you are, ever figure out the riddle of what I thought about Joe and Mika going to Mara Lago? Since you aren't capable I will give you a hint...pretty similar to the way I felt about Donald Trump walking on to North Korean soil.
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Ukraine was ready to sign a peace deal twice in the spring of 2022
False. There was no “twice” this was one ongoing set of negotiations that moved locations and no agreement was ever made. The Ukrainian position required military responses from NATO countries when Russia resumed its hostilities - which would be all but guaranteed if NATO had agreed to Ukraine’s terms. Was never going to happen.
There is also no evidence Russia was negotiating in good faith or would agree to the terms.
The UK and the US said to keep fighting
Complete BS. Never happened. Except in the FOX universe which has clearly addled your brain.
The talks effectively ended when evidence of Russian war atrocities came to light.
I don't hate peace or freedom. I do hate wars that are pointless because they weaken our country. I also hate your butchery of the English language. It's not 1945. It's not 1939. And it's not 1983 where you seem to be stuck. I get that it must be hard realizing that your source of news and information has been shamelessly lying to you for ratings.
If you care about peace and freedom, you've certainly allowed yourself to be distracted. China is the pacing threat for the US military.
Ok, I'll bite. So what do you think the US should do about China? Militarily, politically, economically? I know you are a bright guy. You actually posted something thoughtful a couple days ago (I replied in kind). I have opined on this. Strangle them economically, knowing that it will cause pain for our export goods (soybeans, etc.). Force US companies to pull out of China and/or tariff the shit out of them. I know this is laughable, but how about we force our stores to carve out "made in China" sections, and all Chinese-made goods must be placed there? That would be pretty funny.
Oh, look at this. Did you find a wikipedia page? At least you're trying now instead of resorting to your usual name calling. But you're still wrong. Carefully read what Arakhamia said. He's the guy that was actually negotiating on Ukraine's behalf. A bit of an antisemite but he's be in a position to know what's he's talking about.
And, of course, are you going to provide links?
I did the math on the Trump tax cuts as soon as they were official. I saved money the first year, but by the 3rd I was actually paying a little more. But the really crafty change they put in was that with the modified W4 form, it's harder to withhold extra - the design is so everybody will pay less than they owe, and will have to write checks at the end of the year. Fortunately, I'm still withholding on the W4 that I filled out in 2012, so I almost always avoid owing.
I would be completely OK with not getting a tax cut, if they would implement 2 changes:
- eliminate the loopholes that rich people use to reduce their obligations.
- require that any person claimed as a dependent have an SSN (not an ITIN), and that they share your residence.
That modified W4 form was a disaster. All new employees or existing ones who changed it got all messed up on withholding. I avoided that, and now as a bum I no longer care.
My wife's employer makes everyone fill out a new one every year. I told her to refuse, but she's such a good little soldier she did it anyway. When it was first implemented, she made less than me so I didn't sweat it that much. Now she makes more, so it's kind of a hassle.That modified W4 form was a disaster. All new employees or existing ones who changed it got all messed up on withholding. I avoided that, and now as a bum I no longer care.
I've looked at it a couple times because I want to make adjustments, but if I fill out their new form I'll end up owing a couple grand every year...and I'll have to fill it out every year. Nowhere near enough gets held out of my wife's check, so I need to keep having excessive amounts taken out of mine just to balance it.
"Okay... bad use of the English language. Why do you dislike freedom and peace? A question mark is the appropriate punctuation in that sentence, correct, Mr. Kotter?
You know what I hate? Pointless spending. I would rather a small amount of money go to Ukraine than bail out Countrywide, WAMU, or give the CEO of Countrywide $150 million to walk away from a failed business enterprise.
I hate giving PPP money to people who know how to ply the system and get millions while their businesses are thriving. I hate when a guy gets $100K in PPP money, then pays off $50K in credit card debt and buys a $500K house in Spokane with the other $50K.
I hate that we call it "stimulus" and "TARP" money, and when underprivileged people get it, it's a handout.
I hate people who use attorneys and file bankruptcy six times (like Trump), stiffing all the hardworking men and women in the trades because they can't handle debt, while keeping their assets.
So yeah, I would much rather send money to Ukraine, which is such a small part of our defense budget, than give it to people who wouldn't defend a democracy because of a tweet. Is the correct grammar "pussies" or "pussy's"?
And since grammar and spelling are pet peeves for people you don't know who hide behind fake names on keyboards, maybe you can help me with spelling I am not sure of. Is "douchebag" one word or two?"
People have written a lot of books about this, so this lengthy post is just barely scratching the surface.
For the military the idea is to deter invasion of Taiwan. The military is in the middle of revamping itself from "war on terror" to "great power conflict", with China as the pacing threat. China has developed hypersonic missiles that have greater range than US Navy aircraft. The media calls these "carrier killers." China has enough to bomb the hell out of Guam, Yokosuka (the USS Reagan carrier battle group is forward deployed there), the Philippines and anything we try to sail into the South China Sea. That's a significant problem. We can only put 5 carriers to sea at once, maybe 6 if we have fortunate timing. The other 5-6 are in the midst of years long overhauls.
The USMC is close or closest to reshaping itself. All tanks have been transferred to the Army and the Marines are in the midst of procuring new landing craft, and they might be pulling the trigger on the V-280 which has better range than the V-22. Rather than being "Army lite", the Marines are supposed to go back to being a true amphibious force. A new antiship missile system is close. Apparently the idea is small garrisons in friendly countries or small amphibious units invading islands that can project enough firepower to keep the Chinese navy in port or make them pay, and kind of be a counterweight to China's hypersonic missiles. More bases are going to spring up in the Philippines and Japan in order to disperse forces (away from Guam and Yokosuka). The USAF is going to station bombers (or at least have the facilities in place to station bombers) in northern Australia. Diego Garcia is supposed to remain under UK control for 99 more years, and there will continue to be all kinds of military assets there.
China has more combat ships than the US, and would have them operating off its shores if there was a war. The Navy has been in the middle of procurement disasters for decades now. The Zumwalt class destroyer was a disaster. The Littoral Combat Ships were a disaster. The Ford class carriers are way over budget, but are at least in production. The Constellation class frigate was/is supposed to be an off the shelf Italian design with a few modifications to quickly increase the number of surface combatants, but it's turning into a disaster too. One sentence summary- we don't have enough ships and the Navy has been pissing money away. The logistics challenge of fighting a major naval war on the opposite side of the world is daunting. Arleigh Burke class destroyers are the backbone of the Navy. They carry either 90 or 96 missiles. But they have a big problem- they must be reloaded in port and only some ports have the infrastructure in place. So, that means when they fire off their missiles they have to sail back to Pearl Harbor to reload, meaning that less ships can be on station at any given time. Good news, they're making progress on being able to reload underway, but they're not there yet. Three more pieces of good news for the Navy: (1) we still have a big advantage in submarines; (2) Japan is increasing its defense spending and improving its capabilities and other allies in the Indo-Pacific are too; and (3) blockading Malaaca shouldn't be terribly hard and Singapore is on our side. On the other hand, aiding Taiwan after the shooting starts will be quite hard.
Overall, a larger defense budget and most importantly STUFF THAT WORKS and not just profit for Raytheon, Lockheed and Northrup.
I'll combine politics and economics into hopefully less reading. China has two obvious strategic weaknesses. It can't feed itself and must import most of its energy. So, squeeze those spots. The trick of course is not so hard that China decides war is a better option, and not so softly that it decides war is no big deal. The Chips Act was important. Good job Sleep Joe. Hopefully it's not too late. Get that plant in Arizona built yesterday and encourage TSMC to build more plants in the US or friendly countries so the foundry in Taiwan isn't a crown jewel that China can just take. I don't know if tariffs will ultimately work or not. But I'm in favor of trying something else if what we're doing isn't working, and what we've been doing has not been working. China basically offers Wall Street what it's addicted to- short-term profits. Businesses badly want access to the China market and end up making deals that are OK in the short-term, but deadly in the long-term. But, the CEOs won't be around in 10 years when a Chinese reverse engineered competing product is available. I guess implement China's rules here. Any Chinese company must have an American partner, we shamelessly steal technology, etc. Another thing I'd like to see explored is reclassifying either the US or China for trade purposes. China is still considered a "developing economy" meaning that the state has greater ability to subsidize business for WTO purposes than a "developed economy" such as the US. So, reclassify China, reclassify the US, or maybe both. Not sure how that works, but someone needs to figure that out.
I don't hide behind a fake name Ed. You do.
Not really sure what to make of the rest of this word salad. But I guess congratulations on your grievances arising during this millennium, instead of from 1983.
Nice post Gibby. Kudos.
Your detail on the Navy, etc. is way past my knowledge base. Guess I need to read up on all of this. It does appear that the US is spending an inordinate amount of money to protect Taiwan. Maybe we should just walk (sail) away and let nature take its course. No idea how strategic Taiwan really is to the US other than location. But then, location for what purpose? We aren't invading anyone anytime soon.
We seem to agree totally on the idea of "squeezing" China. Your notion of "not too hard, not too soft" seems spot on. One thing good old America excels at is producing food. It does just seem to be nuts that we spend billions "defending" Taiwan and others in the far East against China while we import cowboy boots from them.
If you enjoy using pretty much anything with micro-chips in it, Taiwan is strategic.Nice post Gibby. Kudos.
Your detail on the Navy, etc. is way past my knowledge base. Guess I need to read up on all of this. It does appear that the US is spending an inordinate amount of money to protect Taiwan. Maybe we should just walk (sail) away and let nature take its course. No idea how strategic Taiwan really is to the US other than location. But then, location for what purpose? We aren't invading anyone anytime soon.
We seem to agree totally on the idea of "squeezing" China. Your notion of "not too hard, not too soft" seems spot on. One thing good old America excels at is producing food. It does just seem to be nuts that we spend billions "defending" Taiwan and others in the far East against China while we import cowboy boots from them.
If you prefer to go back to the 1970's technology-wise, surrendering Taiwan to China is a good move.
I did like Pong back then.
Do yourself a favor and get a newspaper subscription: Times, WSJ ( just don’t read the bullshit op- eds), The Guardian. And the world won’t be a mystery. You are retired? You got time to read.Nice post Gibby. Kudos.
Your detail on the Navy, etc. is way past my knowledge base. Guess I need to read up on all of this. It does appear that the US is spending an inordinate amount of money to protect Taiwan. Maybe we should just walk (sail) away and let nature take its course. No idea how strategic Taiwan really is to the US other than location. But then, location for what purpose? We aren't invading anyone anytime soon.
We seem to agree totally on the idea of "squeezing" China. Your notion of "not too hard, not too soft" seems spot on. One thing good old America excels at is producing food. It does just seem to be nuts that we spend billions "defending" Taiwan and others in the far East against China while we import cowboy boots from them.
Which is why the CHIPS Act mentioned by Gibby and passed by the Biden Administration in 2022 is a good thing. More of this please. Assess truly critical items that are produced in China especially, but elsewhere also, and get them back over here. Pretty thorough and confusing as hell article link below. This stuff is complicated.
U.S. Trade of Semiconductors: Cross-Country Patterns and Historical Dynamics
How dependent is the U.S. on other countries to access semiconductors? How much has this dependence changed over time? And which countries are key players?
Seems like this CHIP Act hurts Taiwan more than China, but if I read correctly, the US has been exporting chip-making technology to China in recent years and thus the subsequent imports from them are increasing? Gibby can correct me on this.
"The world won't be a mystery"? Nice insult. F-you. And I sort of liked you. And I read plenty, thank you. You know how many seemingly intelligent people I run across that don't know shit about their community, their state, their country, or the world? And they don't care. Blissful ignorance. I read, I think, I give a shit. There is a lot to digest out there. Every time I spot something I know little or nothing about I go look it up.
How about you do the Board a favor and knock off your little sparring matches and constant insults and engage in some thoughtful, information-filled posts and we can all gain knowledge. If Gibby can do it so can you. Our pal Ed? Well, that's a bigger mountain to climb. Sorry Ed.
As far as I can tell, producing the cutting edge microchips of the kind that come out of TSMC is not something any US company can do. TSMC is ahead, and is expected to stay there. For example, Intel is hurting pretty badly. Like 5-10 years behind. The chips used in the cutting edge military hardware is what we're talking about. If China gets their hands on that kind of technology, we're in trouble.Nice post Gibby. Kudos.
Your detail on the Navy, etc. is way past my knowledge base. Guess I need to read up on all of this. It does appear that the US is spending an inordinate amount of money to protect Taiwan. Maybe we should just walk (sail) away and let nature take its course. No idea how strategic Taiwan really is to the US other than location. But then, location for what purpose? We aren't invading anyone anytime soon.
We seem to agree totally on the idea of "squeezing" China. Your notion of "not too hard, not too soft" seems spot on. One thing good old America excels at is producing food. It does just seem to be nuts that we spend billions "defending" Taiwan and others in the far East against China while we import cowboy boots from them.
I guess there is some kind of protocol to blow everything up if China invades. If or how far that actually sets China back, who knows.
