Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286413#Comment_120286413

In the end it doesn't matter IMHO. The back and forth minutiae of the lines moving in either direction is in many ways a truly horrific sideshow taking attention away from the wider realities. Numero uno of which is Russia has lost this war and it lost it this time last year. Even if their "feint" hadn't happened, they had taken the capital and Zelensky ended up needing that "ride" rather than ammunition. That's when their real battle would have started.

Look at America and her allies in Iraq. They won that war comprehensibly. They achieved their aims of taking Baghdad, removing and executing Saddam, secured the oilfields and took over the country, and did so in a matter of months with truly remarkably light casualities on their side. Game Over. Only it wasn't. They lost more people in the occupation than in the war and in the end they left, leaving behind an Iraq that is massively unstable with fighting between groups still going on and a state that is arguably far more unstable and fecked than it was under Saddam. Look at America and Soviet Russia in Afghanistan. Both stormed in, took the capital with relative ease, got a regime change and Americans and Russians kept dying, never mind the countless locals. And in the end both America and Russia had to leave. America lost trillions and thousands of lives, Russia lost even more lives and the Soviet Union itself. And on both cases the invading forces were overwhelming with tanks and troops and full control of the air.

Taking a country is the "easy" part, occupying a country? That's by far the most difficult. Russia have failed at the first hurdle, they have zero hope of achieving the bigger one. The thing is nobody has been able to jump that hurdle, or at least not for very long. You can win all the battles you like, but you quite simply can't win a war against people who don't want you there. Nobody ever has in wars of the modern era. You'd think Russians of all people would understand this, but nope. The imperialism, hubris and historical amnesia gets in the way. Just like it always does with every such invasion, no matter how just the cause seems to be for the invaders.

DrivingMrDaisy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286479#Comment_120286479

"Feck the long arm of the Russian secret security services", so easy to say this from a distance sat at home in Ireland sipping a Latte. They don't have to monitor everyone they just have to make an example of a few as they have being doing.

History is riddled with populations that stood back and done nothing as heinous acts are carried out before their eyes out of fear, this is just the latest and it won't be the last. If Ukraine and the west is waiting for Putin or his cronies to be overthrown by the Russian population then they are going to be sorely disappointed.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286297#Comment_120286297

100%

I also think the guy is pulling the skeleton off himself thinking people are reading his pornographic scutter.

Report, ignore. He’s not even a troll, he’s a perv.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286302#Comment_120286302

When you realise, though well intentioned, you are part of the problem, by encouraging them… 💡

vixdname

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120269326#Comment_120269326

We all need a bit of CR and LF sometimes.......

Polar101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120285946#Comment_120285946

There's an option in the profile to turn off other users' signatures, it's quite handy.

Dohnjoe

..

https://twitter.com/NikaMelkozerova/status/1629153796109500416

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286523#Comment_120286523

There is a way of occupying territory even if its people don't want you there, but it involves slaughtering every man, woman and child until the occupied are too weak/depleted to really fight back. Maybe only adopting out the really young children if you're feeling 'merciful'.

Seeing how little respect Russia has for the life of its own citizens, it's not much of a leap in my imagination that Russia would suppress Ukraine to whatever extent was deemed necessary in order to control it, international opinion be damned, and this is exactly why every effort ought to be made to help Ukraine push Russian forces out right now. The hand wringing over how terrible the war is (and it is terrible) misses the point that it would look like a sideshow in comparison to the genocide Russia would enact if it were ever to establish full control of Ukraine and still meet partisan resistance.

storker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286444#Comment_120286444

"The letter from assorted TDs and Senators, replete with irrelevancies, truisms and non sequiturs, only has value in that it highlights the dangers inherent in having a letter written by a committee"

Ouch. 😁

"It might help to consider a mental experiment: suppose Russia occupied all of Connacht, deporting Irish citizens to Russia and committing several war crimes in the process, how much should Ireland concede in order to achieve a peaceful resolution?"

Quite.

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286628#Comment_120286628

And they still wouldn't, couldn't win. Russia is already facing partisan resistance in the territories they "control" and these are territories they claim/think are far more supportive of Russia. Again Russians of all people should know this. The actual nazis killed tens of millions of Russians, men, women and children in one of the single most brutal occupations in world history. The same nazis were equally brutal in Poland, wiping out whole towns and villages. And remember that was a time when news of such barbarity wasn't so easy to report and spread and outside support was hard to get into a country. And they still didn't win.

And Russia is very much aware of international opinion. Oh not the "decadent West", but those they're trying to get and keep on side in this Cold War 2. The largest of which are even more concerned about international opinion including the decadent West who they rely on for their economies. No amount of cheap oil will cover up the smell of actual genocide and Russia knows it.

cnocbui

Almost to the hour Biden was walking around Kyiv, the US press announced that the US was supplying Ukraine with the JDAM-ERs, which have an unclassified range of around 75km. That same evening, after Biden had left for Poland, Mariupol, which is beyond HIMARS range, had some large explosions, one being an ammunition dump near the airport.

Of course everyone besotted with the GLSDB, like Pfarr, or whatever his name is, immediately started crowing that a miracle had happened and that these, with their 150km range, had been delivered 8 months early.

I'm not a huge fan of coincidences so I think it more likely that it's the JDAM-ER that's been delivered and used. The good news is that these only cost $22,000 instead of the $40,000 the GLSDB costs, so more bang for someone else’s buck and a greater likelihood they will give you more of them.

The bad news is that to get their maximum range, you have to drop them from a plane at nearly 15km altitude, potentially exposing it to AA missiles.

Another reason I think it's the JDAM-ERs and not GLSDBs that Ukraine has received is that it would seem a bit of a waste to expend 150km range munitions on targets 80km away and less.

No doubt someone will now point out that Mariupol at 80km is slightly beyond the 72-75km range usually quoted for JDAM, but one report I have seen states that if it's released at around 15km at mach 1+, the range can be doubled, though it didn't state whether that was the basis of the 72km range or whether that was the range doubled. An Australian military analyst claims the range can be extended to 80km by having the plane launching it fly very fast and then go into a steep climb and release it near the top of the climb in a ballistic trajectory where it must exceed the roughly 15km max altitude of the planes operational ceiling to get that extra range. As the wingset ER bit of these is an Australian invention and possibly manufactured there, it seems possible he might have some insight into the RAAF testing of these and their development of creative modes of use.

I would prefer that the GLSDBs have been delivered 9 months earlier than the US media stated, as that is far more useful and flexible without endangering aircraft.

ejmaztec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286523#Comment_120286523

It's been pretty much standard procedure for the US to win wars from the Gulf War onwards, and not win the peace.

pcardin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120285990#Comment_120285990

never mind...replyed to yet another Ring Runner only to realise they dont live past 14 or so posts.

Gatling

@cnocbui GLSDB.

Your the only one making that claim,

It's your opinion,but it doesn't make it necessarily true,like they can't penetrate concrete,but google showed in 0.1 seconds that in fact the GLSBD can penetrate concrete,but now oh no it's not that weapon but a different one which Needs to be launched from an aircraft at certain altitudes,and in areas with high numbers of anti aircraft systems in place,

Why wouldn't they use GLSBD fired from the safety of a HiMars launcher rather than risk valuable aircraft which still cost more than GLSBD along with the loss of a pilot if shot down.

Is it down to the claim of it's going to take 9 months at least for GLSBD to be delivered or that they could be launched from any HiMars according to one of the actual producers of the weapons and launching system.

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286688#Comment_120286688

It's not just since the Gulf wars or just America. If the people don't want you there you've lost before you start. The Soviets tried it in Afghanistan, The Americans and the French, among others in Vietnam/Indochina, Korea was a stalemate and is still bubbling under. Israel is still essentially on a war footing. WW1 in Europe was finally won by the Allies after the horrors of WW2 and the Germans stopped fighting, yet Germany is still there and the biggest economy in Europe. Even then Russia took over Eastern Europe and went brutal on the regular, sending in tanks and troops a few times and had the Stasi and the KGusedtoB everywhere and even though it took a couple of generations they still lost all that.

The only parts of Ukraine they might "win" are Crimea, yes, where pro Ukrainian folks are thin on the ground/left after 2014 and areas of Donbas where they have more support and again and especially since this kicked off many of the pro Ukrainians have left. Even there they're looking down the barrel of the Ulster Troubles times ten. It's already started. They have pretty much zero chance of successfully occupying the rest of Ukraine and as we've seen taking it in the first place is an extremely tall order for them.

dinorebel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286697#Comment_120286697

Gaping rings at that.

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286645#Comment_120286645

Figures a BDSnik like France Black was behind that letter.

Abolish the Seanad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286444#Comment_120286444

What is it about the Irish left and alot of the left in Western Europe in general when they have a total brain fart and ignore the actions of the likes of Putin’s Russia and Communist China, and perceive that the West’s opposition to these regimes behaviour is somehow an actual bigger threat than what Russia etc is doing in the first place! Aargh!!!! There’s some seriously bankrupt thought going on here when the false equivalence fallacy rears its ugly head. I thought Antony Blinken addressed this well in the UN yesterday.

Quote: “And members of this council should not fall into the false equivalency of calling on both sides to stop fighting, or calling on other nations to stop supporting Ukraine in the name of peace. No member of this council should call for peace while supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine and on the UN Charter. In this war, there is an aggressor and there is a victim. Russia fights for conquest. Ukraine fights for its freedom. If Russia stops fighting and leaves Ukraine, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends.”

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120285719#Comment_120285719

The Western world, ie Western Europe, North America and a few more, over the last 50 years will mark the high point of society, human rights, human dignity for a long time to come.

TheValeyard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286850#Comment_120286850

I think the events of the last year has awoken The West to how fragile these things are.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286479#Comment_120286479

I mentioned further up what is being said on the daily 1420 videos on YouTube. It seems the Russian public has weighed in behind Putin and the war. One interesting thing I've noticed in the last week or so is that they think Russia is 'winning' the war - this is the state media narrative after all. A lot of them seem to have an imperial mindset, that Russia is the greatest nation on earth and a bulwark against the decadence of the West.

I think you'd be wasting your time with your later suggestion though. You're talking about a brainwashed population living under an autocratic dictatorship, many of whom even share Putin's imperialist aims. The intelligent people who are on to the sham of a regime and know how rotten and corrupt it is have already left the country.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286529#Comment_120286529

And that's a lazy, morally corrupt and possibly self serving answer. Every single Russian citizen residing outside their state should be doing their bit to change the internal Russian narrative. And where Irish citizens know of Russians here, we must be challenging them to do this or tell them to get the **** out of our country. We don't have to engage directly in this war but we sure as hell can let the aggressors know that they are scum.

Vicxas

Putins mouthpieces must not be paid to work here Saturdays

Gatling

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286915#Comment_120286915

In previous threads over the years involving Ukraine or Syria Certain posters would disappear for days whenever there was a 3 day weekend in Russia

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286810#Comment_120286810

What is it about the Irish left and alot of the left in Western Europe in general when they have a total brain fart and ignore the actions of the likes of Putin’s Russia and Communist China, and perceive that the West’s opposition to these regimes behaviour is somehow an actual bigger threat than what Russia etc is doing in the first place! Aargh!!!!

It's even dafter when one considers that Russia's new existential fight in this new Cold War is against "western liberal democracies". They're for conservatism, stricter gender roles, anti LGBT and "family values"(never a good sign...) and jingoistic militarism. All of which the "Left" would be dead set against in normal circumstances. I suspect the brain fart comes from a deep seated anti-Americanism in much of the Left, your enemy is my enemy kinda thing and cognitive dissonance takes up the slack. I mean look at the same gobdaws and their support for other conservative, even hard right by any measure potentates in the ME and elsewhere.

storker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286804#Comment_120286804

Better: give it some teeth like the US senate and have it elected by universal suffrage instead of by a select few, but that's for another thread...

fly_agaric

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286804#Comment_120286804

That ship sailed unfortunately, we're stuck with it (and the senators) now!

vixdname

CHATGPT: Write a speech of your choosing in the style of vladimir putin where he is very paranoid about the west

My fellow citizens of Russia,

I speak to you today with a heavy heart, for I am deeply troubled by the actions of the Western powers that surround our great nation. For far too long, we have been the victims of their aggression and their interference in our affairs, and I fear that this is only the beginning.

The West is not content to simply ignore us and leave us to our own devices. No, they seek to undermine us at every turn, to weaken our economy, and to turn our people against us. They seek to plant spies within our government, to sow discord among our people, and to undermine our national security.

Make no mistake, my friends, the West is not our friend. They seek to destroy us, to strip us of our sovereignty, and to impose their will upon us. They seek to bring about a new Cold War, and they will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.

But we will not be intimidated. We will not be cowed by their threats and their lies. We will stand firm, and we will defend our nation and our way of life. We will not allow them to divide us or to turn us against each other. We will remain united, strong, and proud, and we will not allow the West to destroy us.

I call upon all of you to join me in this fight. We must be vigilant, we must be strong, and we must be ready to defend our nation at all costs. We must not allow the West to bring about our downfall. We must stand up to them, and we must show them that we will not be defeated.

Together, we will overcome this threat, and we will emerge victorious. We will show the world that Russia is a strong and proud nation, and that we will not be intimidated by anyone.

Thank you, and God bless Russia.

UNCANNY -

vixdname

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120269666#Comment_120269666

Sure why not, I loves a nice looking chicken myself - they can be fowl though !

Gatling

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120287006#Comment_120287006

Are you a thigh man or breast 🍗🐓