I'm old enough to have majored in Soviet Studies in college and I have family in that part of the world. One of my first thoughts after the invasion was 'how on God's green earth is Putin going to maintain this? Neither the stockpiles of materiél nor the infrastructure to move the materiél are sufficient.'
I was hardly alone in this response. He's been hollowing out his country since the summer of '22.
I'm with those who suspect the reason Putin hasn't pulled troops from Donetsk to defend Kursk is that he can't. Or at least he can't without making the troops sitting ducks for UA to pick off.
Totally agree! I had hoped that, now that he is a lame duck, Biden would cease with his misguided restraint and open the flood gates, but apparently, he and Jake Sullivan are still trying the avoid escalation, whatever the f**k that means now that Ukraine has invade Russia and no nukes have gone off.
Biden okayed the use of US equipment on Russian soil. Putin was unaware permission had been given. That unleashed Ukraine. The FBI has also begun an operation against people connected to Russia Today media, those who failed to fill out paperwork permitting them to act as foreign agents, FARA. All this happened after Biden completed the hostage exchange with Russia and stepped away from the election. This also will hamstring any Russian operations intended to interfere with the US election, like happened with Wikileaks. If you haven't figured out this was planned by Biden, I don't know what to tell you.
My issue is less with Biden's plan than with the fact that he waits an indefensibly long time between each step
As for your last comment, I agree. Everything from the first questions of his ability to do a second term up to the present has just been too smooth. It looks almost choreographed. Since the debate too many of his 'good days' just happen to be days when he has major speeches/functions.
I don’t disagree with you on this; I am not a Biden hater. But he let lend lease lapse last time, unused, and it appears he’ll do the same again in September. Also, training a handful of F16 pilots? The US could train hundreds of pilots a year. Why is ATACAMS still being restricted? The Ukrainian strategic campaign and their invasion clearly demonstrates that Russia’s red lines are a bluff. Defend him on this if you wish, but it looks a little too Neville Chamberlainian to me; we have this war now because Obama blinked in 2008 In Georgia.
I'd forgotten about Georgia. I was thinking more Obama in 2014. My response to his lack of reaction was, "Letting Putin get away with this will come back to haunt us." I was the de facto executor of an estate at the time and really couldn't pay the situation the attention I normally would've. I agree Biden was much too timid in his respone to the invasion of 2022. I admit to looking at Biden through rose-tinted glasses. For the first two years my response was,"Well, he's handling 'x' better than Trump would've. His English is definitely better than Trump's and presents as cognitively intact."
We have feared Russia for so long and Ukraine is whipping their ass.
Putin is an evil dictator who thinks he’s a Tsar.
He’s Putin, not Patton
I'm old enough to have majored in Soviet Studies in college and I have family in that part of the world. One of my first thoughts after the invasion was 'how on God's green earth is Putin going to maintain this? Neither the stockpiles of materiél nor the infrastructure to move the materiél are sufficient.'
I was hardly alone in this response. He's been hollowing out his country since the summer of '22.
I'm with those who suspect the reason Putin hasn't pulled troops from Donetsk to defend Kursk is that he can't. Or at least he can't without making the troops sitting ducks for UA to pick off.
Totally agree! I had hoped that, now that he is a lame duck, Biden would cease with his misguided restraint and open the flood gates, but apparently, he and Jake Sullivan are still trying the avoid escalation, whatever the f**k that means now that Ukraine has invade Russia and no nukes have gone off.
Biden okayed the use of US equipment on Russian soil. Putin was unaware permission had been given. That unleashed Ukraine. The FBI has also begun an operation against people connected to Russia Today media, those who failed to fill out paperwork permitting them to act as foreign agents, FARA. All this happened after Biden completed the hostage exchange with Russia and stepped away from the election. This also will hamstring any Russian operations intended to interfere with the US election, like happened with Wikileaks. If you haven't figured out this was planned by Biden, I don't know what to tell you.
My issue is less with Biden's plan than with the fact that he waits an indefensibly long time between each step
As for your last comment, I agree. Everything from the first questions of his ability to do a second term up to the present has just been too smooth. It looks almost choreographed. Since the debate too many of his 'good days' just happen to be days when he has major speeches/functions.
I don’t disagree with you on this; I am not a Biden hater. But he let lend lease lapse last time, unused, and it appears he’ll do the same again in September. Also, training a handful of F16 pilots? The US could train hundreds of pilots a year. Why is ATACAMS still being restricted? The Ukrainian strategic campaign and their invasion clearly demonstrates that Russia’s red lines are a bluff. Defend him on this if you wish, but it looks a little too Neville Chamberlainian to me; we have this war now because Obama blinked in 2008 In Georgia.
I'd forgotten about Georgia. I was thinking more Obama in 2014. My response to his lack of reaction was, "Letting Putin get away with this will come back to haunt us." I was the de facto executor of an estate at the time and really couldn't pay the situation the attention I normally would've. I agree Biden was much too timid in his respone to the invasion of 2022. I admit to looking at Biden through rose-tinted glasses. For the first two years my response was,"Well, he's handling 'x' better than Trump would've. His English is definitely better than Trump's and presents as cognitively intact."