https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Narva_(1944) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courland_Pocket
My expectations would be that once Putin has declared war on the USA we're going to fight until he is defeated. It's an unfortunate turn of events but I think it is inevitable if he actually makes the mistake of going to war with us. The USA has never been comprehensively defeated in a war - with a couple of longlasting mires the blemish on the record. I don't expect the Russians to inflict the first real defeat on us. The victory may be pyrrhic but that will be a twice-pyrrhic defeat for the people who used to be on the other side.
Yes, but neither require him to go into Kyiv street to street, which is where the Russian forces will encounter the issues that were mentioned that will lead to major casualties. That was the point i was trying to make.
Why would PBS run an interview with this guy? There's a reason they blurred out the picture behind him.
He’s not going to declare war against the USA. If he overruns Latvia and Estonia how does NATO liberate them?
If he declares war against Latvia and Estonia, he declared war against the United States because they’re in NATO. And it NATO doesn’t move to stop it, he’s just going to continue to move across Europe until he runs out of troops or meets stiff enough resistance that he has to start dropping bigger bombs on whole cities.
He can't overrun either without some warning as he shifts troops north from Ukraine or east from Moscow. He can't overrun either one with competent defenders in place (obviously given what is happening in Ukraine.) The attempt to do either however will by definition be a declaration of war on the USA because the USA is bound by treaty to consider an attack on either Latvia or Estonia as an attack on the USA and if the USA is attacked by Russia that is a declaration of war by Russia on the USA. This of course assuming that you believe that the USA will live up to the core treaty obligations that it has used to control the world order since 1949 and 1991. If you believe that we will just stand by and do nothing when those obligations come due I suppose you can concoct any fantastical scenario you want around your hypothetical overrun of a NATO country. My basic belief is that empires come tumbling down when the economic assumptions on which they are based prove false and the overall cost of doing business far outstrips their actual capacity to meet the demand. Right now Russia is much closer to that failure point than the USA or the West. Germany has just ante'd up at a level that prevents Russia from keeping up with the EU, let alone NATO. There was no point in the last 40 years at which Russia could keep up with the USA and they certainly can't keep up now. I make the Russians at this point as being outspent on defense by something like 18-1 by the West and something like 7-1 by the EU. In other words Putin is on Fantasy Island right now and something is going to make that abundantly clear to him if things progress much further and certainly if he makes moves in NATO territory.
The US will blame inflation on Russia. The walls are closing in on the Federal Reserve and the US Government.
Well, for a candidate or even a sitting president, I don't agree that what you've cited is a "really bad gaffe." Especially as compared to something like attempting to overturn an election. Obviously for you, getting a bit tongue tied is much more serious - we'll just have to disagree on those things. Biden will get a physical every year, just like every other sitting president and the doctors will test what they deem appropriate; I'm okay with that.
I finally had enough, had to turn the tv off for a while . Have been keeping up after work etc. but seeing that video with the lady screaming , and kids dead. I think we all understand why we’re not getting involved, or the world isn’t getting involved, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating. I hate seeing these people facing this alone, especially when they, and everyone else sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. This is also terrorism.
It sucks but also great to see them fight for their nation, their democracy. In sharp contrast to many afghans. There is a russian/Ukrainian proverb i love which may give you a view into their mindsets and why they are bearing this so well: The tears of strangers are merely water.
Biden's failing mental condition might be the only excuse his supporters have left for the shitty job he's doing. I wouldn't be so eager to abandon it...
You can't be that naive. Ukrainians are being slaughtered because Western elites couldn't keep their greasy paws off their country. The U.S. installed a puppet government that was designed to rile the Russian bear. Now the Ukrainian people (and the Russian people) are paying the price for our imperialism. It has fuck-all to do with democracy... it's about power & money. Do you have any idea what Zelensky, man of the people, is worth?