re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Yup, the US has been the de facto military of Europe for over 70 years.

It drives me crazy when I hear stupid people say “Europe has free healthcare and education, why can’t we!?!?!?!” Dumbass we’ve been paying the bill for Europe’s defense for 4 or 5 generations and instead of Europe finally building it’s own army when they recovered from WWII they mooched off of the US and spent all their money on socialized programs. And frick any single motherfricker on that continent who thinks they have a leg to stand on to criticize any single US policy or politician. Europe is our little bitch and they need to start acting accordingly.

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At least 6,655 civilians have died and 10,368 have been injured in Ukraine since Russia invaded its ex-Soviet neighbor on Feb. 24, according to the United Nations.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the death toll in Ukraine is likely higher than that because armed conflict can delay fatality reports.

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Even if we round that up to an even 10K I’m surprised it’s that low.

The folks over at the War Zone on "thedrive.com" have been talking about drones and swarms and the US Military's belated concern about defending against them.

The availability, stealth, capability and relative low-cost of drones is a game-changer in many ways...

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Conflict by Chromdome35Twitter thread on US involvement in NATO makes a salient point. I'm torn on what the right answer is. LINK

I thought Trump's approach of telling the other NATO countries to carry their own weight was on point.

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Torn as well. I think the thread makes a great point about lack of change in their policy until we leave and they have to suffer for it, but then also we’ve been down that road and it potentially creates a larger problem later. We’re finding out that larger problem later is increasingly unlikely to be Russia in the future.

That said, we’re in it now so I believe we should see the Ukrainian effort through the peace deal. Post war I think we should invest for our own economic & security benefit, but Europe should take over its security from Russia post war. We should foster the partnership with leading nations, would love to see Poland in this spot, and step back to refocus and strengthen Asian alliances and military presence. China is the new Russia in our foreign policy.

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Torn as well. I think the thread makes a great point about lack of change in their policy until we leave and they have to suffer for it, but then also we’ve been down that road and it potentially creates a larger problem later. We’re finding out that larger problem later is increasingly unlikely to be Russia in the future.

That said, we’re in it now so I believe we should see the Ukrainian effort through the peace deal. Post war I think we should invest for our own economic & security benefit, but Europe should take over its security from Russia post war. We should foster the partnership with leading nations, would love to see Poland in this spot, and step back to refocus and strengthen Asian alliances and military presence. China is the new Russia in our foreign policy.

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I agree with you on all points above.

We are paying big money now, but if the war goes the right way; Europe can take care of themselves under our nuclear umbrella.

Long term we should save money.

The US has tested drone swarms successfully. They are even interactive with each other.

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Is there any reason this hasn’t been the strategy for the past 30 years?

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Russia has spent the last 20 years rebuilding and reforming its military from the ashes of the USSR… they’ve only shown themselves to be incompetent fools within the last 9 months.

Part of that is due to our intelligence agencies overestimating Russia's capabilities. Another part is the MIC using Russia as the big bad bear that must be defended against via the purchase of $1000 toilet seats.

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Is there any reason this hasn’t been the strategy for the past 30 years?

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We did use the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan to route the Taliban from active power.

This is what Reagan did against the USSR. Interesting that the fact finding mission to craft the plan came from Cato. Then it was funded by Reagan. Before the fact finding mission, the various rebellions against the USSR controlled governments didn't know that others were also rebelling. It was a lot more than Afghanistan. The meeting with all the rebel leaders from Middle East, Central America and Africa was held in Africa.