"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (11 Viewers)

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The sad thing is Russia had another path after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The same path the Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, Georgians, Moldovans, Bulgarians, and everyone else (except the Belarusians, Chechnians and the 'Stans) who was held under the USSR's control took.
Unfortunately they had the drunkard Boris Yeltsin in the top position which also allowed the corruption in the background which then led to Putin.
 

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That there are other potentially even nastier forces within Russia that could use nationalism to harness humiliation in Ukraine for their own political advancement.
And that's a reason to not support Ukraine or for Ukraine to surrender??
 
It is beginning to sound like Hitler and his miracle weapons doesn't it...

It sounds more like empty threat, to me. Yes, we know you've got nukes. So do we, if you wanna go there.

Continually telegraphing a threat is a signal that they want to avoid it -- for good reason, of course. What's staying their hand? Retaliation, of course. The fact that they make so much mention of nuclear reply but do not avail themselves of it gives insight into their intentions. It's an attempt to play on fear, rather than an actual strategy, because said strategy would result in Russia's demise -- and Putin knows it.

He's a bit more transparent than he seems to think.
 
I don't believe those were endlessly dangled, but were sent soon after they were proposed. There are three categories it seems of military aid to Ukraine: there's those that are proposed but will not be sent ever or until the war's over, likely the F-16; those that are proposed, denied and then eventually sent, like the Leopard 2 tanks (or perhaps your AMX10s); and third, those that spare the endless chatter and after a short preparatory phase just get sent, such as the thousands of MANPADS and MANPATS sent from Feb 2022 onwards.

Air power seems to be a line NATO is reticent to cross. After eleven months of fighting the only western-designed manned aircraft sent to Ukraine are a trio of retired, and stripped out former FAA Westland Sea Kings. I wonder what will be the next manned aircraft to Ukraine from the west. The Mirage would be good, but I think it's more likely going next be another rotary, maybe old UH-1 Iroquois or Twin Hueys. Ukraine's best chance for additional fighters for now is for their backers to scrape up more MiG-29s from the globe.
Then I publicly apologise to the French authorities
 
And that's a reason to not support Ukraine or for Ukraine to surrender??
That might be a rhetorical question from you - if not, you have ACTUALLY read my - what I assumed - unambiguous view on supporting Ukraine?! ;) . No, it absolutely isn't grounds not to support them under any circumstances in my book.

World events often don't fit into convenient nice packages where good and bad are unambiguous and even total victory doesn't have knock on consequences: Victory in WW1 leading directly to WW2. Victory over the Russians in Afghanistan by the mujahadeen providing a centre for islamic extremists armed with western supplied weapons. Victory over Saddam leading to internecine chaos in Iraq. The overthrow of Ghadafi leading to civil war in Libya - etc etc etc!

We need to keep our eyes open to reality and try and have a sophisticated and nuanced understanding of the possible outcomes so we can prepare for them.
 
I had to read this twice to make sure that I wasn't having a fantasy. The words Within Budget and Ahead of Schedule are not seen in the UK

 

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