"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (12 Viewers)

[GTX]

View: https://youtu.be/p3ktvE1xKDg?si=sJw71z65yBoU3YCl

 

[GTX]

View: https://youtu.be/_-VWEv0FCMM?si=k8jpffym6fCHg9kB

 

[SaparotRob]

Think of it this way. If one supplies a nation at war, it will go through stocks in a pace an at peace pact like NATO cannot supply without out cleaning out their arsenals.
History proofs that that is not a smart move. There must always be enough to defend yourself.

Defend against whom? Has Switzerland been making aggressive moves on French or German territory? Things are pretty calm for the moment at the Canadian-American border. I'm not very studious but I just don't remember AFVs participating in the fleet actions in the Pacific. Possibly the Med because the Brits did come up with some wacky, zany stuff. Taiwan doesn't seem to be good tank country to me but others here would know better. We've been using F-16s for target practice. Google QF-16. We know how arming Ukraine re-arms us with better equipment. Equipment that has to manufactured at a far higher rate than we all realized, except maybe GrauGeist.
The stockpiles going to Ukraine were there in case of Russia being Russia. These munitions were being stockpiled to defend against Russia. They're now being used defending Western Europe with Ukrainian blood, not their own.
I'm still venting.

 

[SaparotRob]

Ukraine claims surrendering soldiers were 'executed' by Russian troops

Ukraine launches an inquiry into the alleged execution of two soldiers at the hands of their Russian counterparts.

www.abc.net.au

Not surprised.

 

[fubar57]

Things are pretty calm for the moment at the Canadian-American border. .

Yes.......for the moment

 

[GTX]

NATO should be ready for ‘bad news’ from Ukraine, Stoltenberg warns

‘We have to support Ukraine in both good and bad times,’ NATO chief says in ARD interview.

www.politico.eu

 

[Greg Boeser]

Yes.......for the moment

 

[MiTasol]

Yes.......for the moment

Except for that kamikaze car last week. Everything seems to have gone very quiet on that one.

 

[SaparotRob]

 

[Snautzer01]

Except for that kamikaze car last week. Everything seems to have gone very quiet on that one.

Well they had only one.

 

[fubar57]

Nov. 30.....

".....Headed for Canada, the Villanis' car raced out of control on the American side of the border crossing, hit a median, then crashed into a row of security booths on the U.S. side and exploded. While the investigation continues into this incident, certain versions of the Bentley Flying Spur have been the subject of recalls, due to their gas pedals getting stuck....."

 

[BiffF15]

I think many (most) of us feel likewise. Time and time again in the history of conflict, first responses are so meagre that the aggressor becomes emboldened. If Ukraine had been properly armed prior to hostilities, outcomes would have been very different.

Appeasement doesn't work as we learned first with Hitler and again now with Putin. Deterrence is the key, and that comes from a properly equipped and trained military to savy political alliances and a strong political will.

In my opinion the US dropped the ball on this first with the loss of Crimea and then again with the invasion of Ukraine.

 

[Admiral Beez]

If Ukraine had been properly armed prior to hostilities, outcomes would have been very different.

Ukraine had thirty-two years since independence to prepare itself for the Feb 2022 invasion. The West has stepped up incredibly these past twenty months, but it would have very different if Ukraine had done itself a solid and used its vast agricultural and mineral wealth to rearm itself throughout the 2010s. A good example is the Kharkiv tank works and the T-84, leading to a total of six tanks produced for the AFU from 1994 to 2022. It also doesn't help that in 2014, Ukraine walked out of Crimea with hardly a shot, with its forces either fleeing from or collaborating with the Russians. With these apparent political conditions, the West would never have sufficiently armed Ukraine in 2020-2021 to counter the Feb 2022 invasions. The relationship between Kyiv and the West was not there yet. Here's Ukraine of 2021 Ukraine - United States Department of State.

One of the unintended positive outcomes of this war will be Ukraine's embracing the Western democratic political systems, market economies, rules of law and rights and freedoms. Now, that's a lot of kumbaya, tambourine shaking, treacle dripping optimism, but I believe the Ukraine we have in 2034 will be dramatically different than that of 2014 when this Russian rubbish began.

 

[MiTasol]

You must remember that for almost all that time since independence Ukraine was riddled with corruption and with leaders who were politically close to Putin.

Even after Crimea many Ukrainian politicians kept close to Putin so in reality Ukraine only had two or three years to prepare itself for the Feb 22 invasion.

Even now corruption and Putin friendly people are still there in abundance, although they are nowhere near as common as in pre Zelensky days.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Even now corruption and Putin friendly people are still there in abundance, although they are nowhere near as common as in pre Zelensky days.

That's my point, why the West would never have sufficiently armed Ukraine before the Feb 2022 invasion. The country was as high on the corruption index as Russia. These posters suggesting the West dropped the ball prewar need to remember this.

 

[Greg Boeser]

That's my point, why the West would never have sufficiently armed Ukraine before the Feb 2022 invasion. The country was as high on the corruption index as Russia. These posters suggesting the West dropped the ball prewar need to remember this.

At one point Ukraine had the second worst corruption rating in the world, and that's only because they bribed the judges.

 

[MiTasol]

who wanted to rate them 56th

 

[WARSPITER]

At one point Ukraine had the second worst corruption rating in the world, and that's only because they bribed the judges.

That's when things are getting bad. Next thing you know Australia will be allowed to compete in the Eurovision song competition... hang on....

 

[MiTasol]

That was because we did not bribe them enough to be left out, much to our shame.

 

[Glider]

Rheinmetall from Germany reveals a plan to produce in Ukraine Fuchs an

Rheinmetall AG, a leading German defense company, is poised to enhance its collaboration with Ukraine. As reported by "WirtschaftsWoche", the company's CEO

www.armyrecognition.com

It has to be acknowledged that after a slow, even embarrassingly slow start to supporting Ukraine, Germany have stepped up a huge amount. I only wish the UK had kept up in the development of support as I feel that the UK got off to a good almost invaluable start but its petered off considerably.