Coffeesforclosers

Right, we were watching the battle, and probably feeding the Ukrainians intelligence. Russia should feel free to disagree with the action if they want, and we've got a circular file ready for the their complaints. Why are we playing polling games? There's been 1 poll out that was conducted entirely since the invasion started, by Morning Consult. Biden's scoring a mediocre-yet-positive 48-43 approval on handling the situation. But to paraphrase Walter from The Big Lebowski, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are not the issues here.

Facepalm worthy, even if his heart's in the right place.

Wow, ok. So in the last 48 hours, all opposition to kicking Russia out of SWIFT has collapsed, and Germany has gone from changing it's Facebook profile picture to a Ukrainian flag and ***** off to get high, to actually sending meaningful aid* to Ukraine. *Where meaningful aid means weapons and ammunition. Preach John Adams.

Your guess is as good as mine! I don't know how many more times NATO could have said NATO isn't going to commit troops, but I don't expect the Russians trust us much either, because Putin is nuts and thinks all of Europe are our puppets.

Going with the former. Zelensky is now an international hero, France and Germany look like fools, and Europe is taking action aligned with the policies of the United States. Thats...exactly the opposite of what Putin was going for. Totally agree that there's a ton of propaganda spinning around out there. I'm boiling it down to the very basics. Those are that the Russians want to defeat Ukraine, and haven't, and that means taking Kyiv, and they haven't done that either. Everything else I'll leave to the historians 20 years from now.

The big question is I think is why Russia didn't hit Ukraine with everything they had, all at once. They still tried to end the war in 48 hours, but using only a fifth to a quarter of their available forces. Why commit so little of your available combat power to THE critical operation of the war? And if you only think you need 30-40,000 troops, why mobilize almost 200,000? A professional military should be smarter than this. It's like if Manny Pacquiao wanted to fight me, trained for a year to fight me, but Manny Pacquiao decided to tie one hand behind his back and hop on one leg just because.

No joke, Marco Rubio's Twitter is a gold mine. He's posting vetted information from his Senate intelligence briefings. Anyway, he said Putin's plan was to win the war in 48 hours by seizing Kyiv and all Ukraine's leaders. They'd be dealt with in a suitably Russian way, and replaced with a puppet government of Russian backed Ukrainian traitors. Then the Russian army would leave because they've got more operations planned.

https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1497348285333389313?s=20&t=PaoDmuwzfof-H5jiY9HToQ Marco Rubio, managing to dunk on the Russians and not take pot shots at other Americans. At the same time even!

One apparently with the VDV (Russian Paratroopers) still on board. Kinda hard to hide your losses when there's an empty barracks in Pskov where an infantry company used to be.

As culpable as he is, there's really no more point in bashing Trump for what he did in office. That can't be changed. That he can't got a week with smiling like a doughnut over Putin, yeah, that's just him inviting deserved criticism. But we live in a new world now. Let's quit ***** kneecapping each other over Red v Blue BS and figure out how to win.

I hope it all blows up in their face of course. I don't think a single government anywhere took this offer seriously. Meanwhile, Ukraine has declared Martial Law, instituted compulsory service, and forbidden all men aged 18-60 from traveling abroad. Granted they should have done this months ago. I've also heard that Zelensky didn't think Russia was seriously going to invade until about 4 days ago. Anybody else have a good source on that?

Because he can't get what he wants without going through us.

You're the sort of person PPP needs. Like the wisest person ever to post in PPP said, if you see the Ukraine war as a Red America vs Blue America problem, Putin is winning. So start changing things, know what you believe but let others have their say. We will never keep our country if we think every else must agree with everything we think all the time. In other news, Ukraine has either contained or beaten back a Russian attempt to seize Antonov Airport, which is about 15 miles from the capital. Apparently there's a Ukrainian MiG29 pilot called "The Ghost of Kyiv" who notched his 6th kill today. The Ukrainian government handed out 10,000 ARs this afternoon to the population of the capital, and expects the next round of Russian attacks to start 3AM local time.

Yup. We some how pulled it off with the Japanese and the Germans, but what's done is done. We can't go back and fix any of those mistakes, so it's time to sack up and confront the enemies we now have.

Best thing said in this thread so far.

That guys coming in hot with a Nick Wright level take. Obviously I'd love to see the Russian invasion collapse into a bloody fireball but that's not likely. This is the next best thing, and I think what everyone is expecting us to do anyway. That's why Russia is committed to capturing or assassinating as much of Ukraine's leadership as possible.

I get it. You're very conservative, and very anti-war. I'd love to know why, obviously you don't have to explain if you don't want to.

Well, George Washington had to put down two rebellions during his presidency. John Adams had to put down one as well, but he pardoned everybody of their treason instead of hanging them for it. FDR had it pretty rough too, but he came out alright in the end. Seriously, why all the doom posting in this thread?

Mitt Romney is an odd duck, but at least he's got a sense of right and wrong that's genuinely patriotic and involves issues bigger than himself. Nikki Haley, though, rolling out the cheap shots. What a crock. Then again, George McClellan ran against Abraham ***** Lincoln in 1864 on a platform of negotiated peace with the Confederacy...when the Union was smashing southern army after sourthern army and the war was all but won. So I guess there's always somebody that tries this crap.

Putin is saying he had to declare war on Ukraine in self-defense. BHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Russia's invasion is going, to quote Putin, "Demilitarize Ukraine and punish the Nazis and Criminals". Aka, Russia's going to turn Ukraine into a colony and shoot anyone that might threaten their rule. If I were Finland, I'd be applying for NATO membership right ***** now. In the 22nd Century, you are either a huge country, in a defensive alliance with a huge country, something not worth attacking, or dog food.

My friend keeps telling me, buy Raytheon, buy Raytheon. What do I buy instead? Crypto. More the fool I. ***** man, if that's the way you feel.

I think that's what Ukraine's president has been trying to do that until Putin told the world he's a maniac that wants to reconquer the old Tsarist/Soviet empire. The Ukrainians bent over backwards to avoid provocations. I think the Ukrainians were willing to make very, very painful concessions to Russia if it meant they kept some kind of independent state. They'd figured there was still a way to buy Putin off and avoid a conventional war they're bound to lose. For a stand up comedian with no military training and no political experience, Volodimyr Zelensky has brass balls. Ukraine officially started mobilizing its reservists last night. So if Russia doesn't attack in the next few weeks, they'll have 180,000 additional Ukrainian soldiers to deal with. But it also hints that the Ukrainians see their peace strategy has failed so ***** it, Ukraine's getting ready for a war that will decide if they remain an independent country or not.

Because from 1945 to 1991 we fought a Cold War against the USSR. We won. Their empire shattered, because we, the USA and a bunch of allies broke it. Now Russia is trying to conquer it all back. So no, it'd be great if we didn't throw away the greatest American victory of the last 40 years by letting Putin conquer it all back for pennies on the dollar. And who the ***** is worried about Mexico? Mexico isnt run by a maniac who just yesterday said he wants to reconquer all of Russia's lost lands and has nuclear weapons pointed at me, my family and friends. Mexico can kick rocks.

What are you talking about? Country hits aren't mass-produced in a Nashville studio according to a set formula.

Not really. I don't know a damn thing about CRT, and frankly I don't care about it at all. But if I wanted to learn about it, I wouldn't go to a opinion piece written by two guys that absolutely, completely, hate CRT. There is no chance in hell of me getting any useful information out of somebody with that strong of an agenda.