re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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Prigozhin confirms that regular RuAF troops have taken over both flanks for Wagner to let the PMC concentrate on finishing up in Bakhmut, says 80% of the city is now under Russian control, mostly residential areas & tunnels that have been turned into strongpoints by the AFU.

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LINK

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We should be doing everything we can to make sure that the offensive is successful. That doesn't include weakening our own defensive posture. Give them any of our old stuff that we've retired.

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I have personally fretted that I don't know and media sources can't do all the math to inform me how much money is left in drawdown authority and in the USAI. But I have been forgetting that this really isn't the issue, because of the Lend-Lease authority that Congress passed.

We the budget runs out for US aid to Ukraine (and assuming no further aid passes Congress), we can still continue to give Ukraine what they need through Lend-Lease, with the understanding that they will pay it back later.

Politico explored that topic yesterday: LINK

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“We are prioritizing security assistance that they would not have to pay us back for,” a senior administration official said on the condition of anonymity to detail sensitive internal discussions. However, the official added that the administration is “certainly open to using it in the future.” The focus right now is on “other existing authorities that Congress has authorized.”

Another reason for keeping Lend-Lease in the back pocket could be because there’s currently bipartisan support for sending weapons to Ukraine. Should Republican resistance grow, or popular sentiment turn against the war, then it’d make sense to use Lend-Lease to work around legislative efforts to block future weapons deliveries, said a Democratic congressional aide who was granted anonymity to speak freely about the party’s thinking.

Whatever the rationale, some lawmakers aren’t satisfied that the Lend-Lease option remains unused. “As our defense stockpiles dwindle, it’s absurd for the Biden administration to sit on its hands and ignore the Lend-Lease authority from Congress,” Sen. JOHN CORNYN (R-Texas), who led the effort to pass the legislation, told NatSec Daily. Using Lend-Lease is “a much better plan than continuing to give them away for free.”

Questions are swirling within the White House and Congress about why the administration won’t pull the Lend-Lease lever. Doing so would mollify critics that the U.S. is giving away too much to Ukraine. But others say that Lend-Lease wouldn’t address the problem of America’s dwindling weapons stockpile — if anything, it might make that problem worse by incentivizing the transfer of scarce weapons to Ukraine.

But to hear the administration tell it, Ukraine has what it needs for this stage of the war, and it will get more weapons and equipment if facts on the ground change.

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Huh. If Ukraine has what it needs, then the spring offensive will be successful and reach the Sea of Azov by midsummer. "Ukraine has what it needs" is certainly VERY different from that February assessment that we discussed that predicted that the spring offensive would only make small gains.

How and when do they expect Ukraine to pay the US back for the Lend-Lease?

I expect it to be a multi-decade at a minimum considering the destruction in Ukraine - assuming they remain a viable independent country when all this ends.

In the end, I think it will be "forgiven"

It will be fascinating to watch how modern combined arms sans air superiority will attempt to deal with multi-layer static defenses.

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Could you say why this is unreasonable as a request? Not should the US fill it or not, but why the request itself is unreasonable?

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There are plenty to go around, but a fully armed Patriot battery is about a billion dollars.

Judging by the reactions of US and foreign officials (particularly South Korea and Israel) most if not all of the leaks seem legit. There are definitely some documents that have been altered in regards to casualty numbers both sides have incurred but the but the ones relating to other countries participation in the war and weapons deliveries to Ukraine seem legit.

If all of these are true it paints a pretty dire picture for Ukraine in my opinion. It shows that the west cannot keep up with the shell/ammo consumption going on and that traditional countries we have been able to rely on are hesitant or outright refusing to get involved. With the leaks about Egypt arming the Russians and taking into account how the Saudis and Iranians have reconciled recently this is a foreign policy disaster for the US. I can’t help but believe that the actions being taken by third parties are in large part because of us trying to force our own version of decadent morality upon unwilling nations.

Take Saudi Arabia for instance, Blinken has stated repeatedly that every time he meets with them he is pressing them on their treatment of gays. Saudi Arabia is the home of Islam and the Islamic world explicitly condemns homosexuality in all forms. Yet the US has the audacity to try to leverage the Saudis or Egyptians to accept the unacceptable or else and then we are left wondering why the hell these countries are suddenly switching allegiances.

Africa again we have made promoting gay rights a priority there and have been rebuffed so thoroughly that China, India and Russia have better ties than ever. Then of course there is South America where the CIA has instigated countless coups throughout the decades (most recently trumps failed coup in Venezuela) and we wonder why they aren’t keen on sending weapons.

As big as the details about what weapons have been delivered and general attrition in Ukraine, my biggest takeaway is that our disastrous foreign policy spanning the last few decades is finally coming back to bite us in the arse. BRICS is going to be a real problem for the United States moving forward as more countries align with them so they don’t get leveraged over fricking gays or our own phony belief in democracy.

I still support Ukraine and hope that they can somehow force some sort of a truce or ceasefire here in the next year but I don’t have a ton of faith. But the United States insistence on making gays the centerpiece of both our foreign policy and the face of our government is making the rest of the world turn away. I mean I don’t blame them, when you have trannies being called the soul of our nation and in high level government positions combined with making gay rights the cornerstone of our foreign policy no wonder most of the world is telling us to frick off.

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making gay rights the cornerstone of our foreign policy no wonder most of the world is telling us to frick off.

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This is just utter nonsense. Our relations with Saudi Arabia, Africa or South America have nothing to do with gay rights.

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You pussified mfers would have given up to the Germans with 6 months in WW2. You should all be stripped of your citizenship tarred and feathered and dropped off in Russia or some other shite hold. Grow or pair or balls or give the account to your butch wife or something.

The assessment you dumbass are buying is almost certainly a planted false flag operation.

Let me explain to you sissy children while we are not going to let the Russian destroy UK.

Because they will not stop and will end up attacking a NATO country and the WW3 all you bitches keep worrying about will be real or the others will step in take over or just eliminate us. All of those scenarios are 1 million times worse than this bull shite

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What a hero!

When will you be going to the White House for your Medel of Honor presentation?

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I mean, the Saudia are liberalizing their society at a rapid pace. Remember that women weren't allowed to drive until recently.

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As their relations with Iran continue to improve and China continues to rise and offer the sweeter deal to the Saudis this will see some reversal.