- My Forums
- Tiger Rant
- LSU Recruiting
- SEC Rant
- Saints Talk
- Pelicans Talk
- More Sports Board
- Fantasy Sports
- Golf Board
- Soccer Board
- O-T Lounge
- Tech Board
- Home/Garden Board
- Outdoor Board
- Health/Fitness Board
- Movie/TV Board
- Book Board
- Music Board
- Political Talk
- Money Talk
- Fark Board
- Gaming Board
- Travel Board
- Food/Drink Board
- Ticket Exchange
- TD Help Board
Customize My Forums- View All Forums
- Show Left Links
- Topic Sort Options
- Trending Topics
- Recent Topics
- Active Topics
Started By
Message
re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict.
Posted on 1/8/26 at 4:07 pm to VolSquatch
Posted on 1/8/26 at 4:07 pm to VolSquatch
quote:
That is, when people aren't going AWOL. 80% of AWOL cases are occuring at the training centers.
Yeah, it's clear the Ukrainians have problems with soldiers going AWOL. From what I can tell it's around 250k over the past four years.
But I can't find anything about whether or not these are permanent - a soldier can go home to visit their dying parent and then return to their unit without punishment and that's classified as AWOL. Not saying that's every case, but every case is different and if the Ukrainians are able to get, say half of those soldiers back (and that's being conservative) then it's not as bad as one would think.
I can tell you from a soldier's experience that the scariest part of your military experience for many is the opening weeks and months. I remember back in basic training guys were scared and pulled all kinds of stunts to get out of their contract; since it was the days of 'don't ask/don't tell' you had straight guys holding hands and even kissing each other in attempts to break the contract - didn't work. So, them leaving at the very beginning is SOP and not alarming all that much.
1
Posted on 1/8/26 at 5:09 pm to TBoy
quote:
Maybe Trump is finally realizing that there is an opportunity to project American power to diminish Russian ambitions. That would serve American interests and improve European security.
We'll see... I still think he prefers Putin to Europe and would like to see him prevail, really... and Trump does not care about European security, for whatever reasons.
Posted on 1/8/26 at 5:18 pm to VolSquatch
quote:
What you're saying is largely accurate, and yet Russia to this point hasn't even pretended to be interested in peace. I don't believe they are just complete morons who will destroy themselves trying to take land. I also don't believe the "Putin is backed into a corner, he knows they will fail but can't quit" narrative. If that were the case they would stop any attempts to advance and switch to a holding pattern to increase their longevity as much as possible.
Donkeys are cheap... Russian peasants are cheaper.
Posted on 1/8/26 at 5:29 pm to VolSquatch
quote:
So your disagree that Ukraine has a training problem? They are saying themselves that they are having to speed up the training process to get people to the front.
That is, when people aren't going AWOL. 80% of AWOL cases are occuring at the training centers.
How many of these AWOLs are coming in drunk late after leave or a day or two late after visiting home?
The problem is worse on the Russian side.
Posted on 1/8/26 at 5:30 pm to Lee B
Now Shetland Ponies! Most of those suckers are mean. I think they have a Napoleon Complex. They will bite anything around them. An uncle cured one with a milk cow and its calf. He picked it up and threw it on the ground. The same uncle had a 4 foot long string of Japanese gold teeth from his time in the US Army in New Guinea and the Philippines.
This post was edited on 1/8/26 at 5:34 pm
Posted on 1/8/26 at 5:35 pm to CitizenK
FWIW, Russia is helpless and on the sidelines regarding Iran. It would be a huge blow to both Russia and China, for Iran's regime to fall
Posted on 1/8/26 at 5:48 pm to Leopold
quote:
'
NO THERE ISN'T. THE POINT OF ATTRITIONAL WARFARE IS TO MAKE YOUR OPPONENT COLLAPSE BECAUSE THEIR LOSSES HURT MORE THAN YOURS DOES. THESE TWO THINGS ARE TIED AT THE HIP.
Maybe you should read my post again.
Obviously I was referring to your own collapse. No one is going to continue attritional warfare until all of their own soldiers are dead. You use it when you have a manpower advantage because you can bleed the other side faster. Why would I be talking about Ukraine's collapse in that context?
Maybe ask the doc for some Prozac or something.
quote:
So, yeah, it's not close. Ukraine has outclassed the Russians in every possible way.
And they still might lose
This post was edited on 1/8/26 at 6:54 pm
Posted on 1/8/26 at 5:49 pm to Leopold
quote:
Yeah, it's clear the Ukrainians have problems with soldiers going AWOL. From what I can tell it's around 250k over the past four years.
But I can't find anything about whether or not these are permanent - a soldier can go home to visit their dying parent and then return to their unit without punishment and that's classified as AWOL. Not saying that's every case, but every case is different and if the Ukrainians are able to get, say half of those soldiers back (and that's being conservative) then it's not as bad as one would think.
And here is the nuance now that it's in regards to Ukraine
Posted on 1/8/26 at 7:00 pm to CitizenK
quote:
How many of these AWOLs are coming in drunk late after leave or a day or two late after visiting home?
The problem is worse on the Russian side.
Petraeus said that some Russian recruits were at the front two weeks after joining. Virtually no training necessary.
Posted on 1/9/26 at 12:14 am to doubleb
quote:
World War I
Lasted four years three months and about two weeks. History shows that a nation or nations will act like morons trying to take land.
Governments, nations and empires were destroyed. Millions died.
That woman you guys post here from the Naval War College (who is fantastic) said something about WWI... that the battles happened away from the German population in fields and trenches... if it got close to a town or city the population fled before it got bad. The result is the German population did not see the horror of war, and when it was over they believed the lie that "we didn't lose, the Jews betrayed us and it was just a political surrender" and wanted to refight the war. I understand why "All's Quiet On The Western Front" was written, now... to try to set things straight (and the Nazis banned it as soon as they took power).
That's why no surrender in WWII was accepted until the Allies marched right into Berlin from the East and West... and also why some horrendous things like Dresden went down to "give them what they're giving others." Let's not even talk about Japan...the code of th Samurai states that an honorable death is much preferable to an uneventful and thus useless life. We did have to drop those Atomic Bombs (and hope they didn't realize we didn't have more right at that moment) to show them no one would know the story of their deaths, or we would've had years of high casualty fighting... again, an honorable death is better than a dishonorable life, even the Emperor had a very hard time talking them down from continuing to fight.
Russia is fighting this war against the Ukrainian people as much or more as against the Ukrainian military.
Ukraine... is not doing that in return. They are not targeting civilians.
A result of that is that the Russian people don't feel that affected by the War, directly, and are being told all of NATO is in Ukraine holding things at kind of a stalemate, but Russia can prevail if they stick at it... because all of NATO cannot openly defeat them!
This post was edited on 1/9/26 at 12:17 am
Posted on 1/9/26 at 1:23 am to Lee B
I said it a few days ago, but it deserves repeating with the news out of Venezuala and Iran.
This war has been a terrible mistake, disaster, cluster F, pick your adjative, for Russia.
They have been exposed on the world stage, they have absolutely no ability to project force anywhere in the world. They couldn't save Syria, Venezuala, or Iran. They couldn't even stop the US from taking their oil tankers within sight of the Russian Navy.
This board has been very critical of Trump's actions, I think we're seeing Trump clap back at Putin for Putin playing Trump.
Taking out Maduro was as much about hurting Russia and China as it was about protecting the US from drugs. The drugs just provided a good cover.
This war has been a terrible mistake, disaster, cluster F, pick your adjative, for Russia.
They have been exposed on the world stage, they have absolutely no ability to project force anywhere in the world. They couldn't save Syria, Venezuala, or Iran. They couldn't even stop the US from taking their oil tankers within sight of the Russian Navy.
This board has been very critical of Trump's actions, I think we're seeing Trump clap back at Putin for Putin playing Trump.
Taking out Maduro was as much about hurting Russia and China as it was about protecting the US from drugs. The drugs just provided a good cover.
Posted on 1/9/26 at 2:07 am to Chromdome35
Posted on 1/9/26 at 2:08 am to Coeur du Tigre
Posted on 1/9/26 at 2:15 am to Coeur du Tigre
The state of the Russian military. They can get electronics from the Chinese but not the logistics.
Loading Twitter/X Embed...
If tweet fails to load, click here.Posted on 1/9/26 at 2:41 am to Coeur du Tigre
Critically, still no word on what this vessel's cargo actually was. Just a head fake about 'oil being unloaded'. The actual cargo was serious enough to cause a major race to seize it by both navies. Whatever it was, again, being loaded in Iran and intended for Venezuelan use, it would have given Putin plausible deniability.
Loading Twitter/X Embed...
If tweet fails to load, click here.Posted on 1/9/26 at 3:25 am to Coeur du Tigre
Loading Twitter/X Embed...
If tweet fails to load, click here. 
quote:
The ships now crossing the Atlantic are among a larger group of sanctioned tankers that made an apparently coordinated attempt to evade the blockade last weekend, departing Venezuelan waters en masse. Of the 16 vessels involved, only one, the M Sophia, was boarded by U.S. forces, in the Caribbean on Wednesday.
Of the remaining 15 tankers, four were spotted heading east in the Atlantic Ocean, at least 400 miles from land. A second group of five vessels was detected sailing northeast through the Caribbean on Monday. The same day, a U.S. Navy destroyer was also pictured steaming toward the tankers heading across the Atlantic. One tanker reappeared off the coast of Colombia, according to TankerTrackers.com, a company that tracks global oil shipments. The positions of the remaining five ships are unknown.
Open NY Times article.
Posted on 1/9/26 at 3:30 am to Coeur du Tigre
'Pissing off the libs' is one thing, placing our troop's lives in real danger is another.
Loading Twitter/X Embed...
If tweet fails to load, click here. quote:
“The move to cut Gabbard out of the meetings [on Maduro] was so well-known that some White House aides joked that the acronym of her title, DNI, stood for 'Do Not Invite,' according to three of the people. They asked not to be identified discussing private conversations."
Posted on 1/9/26 at 3:49 am to Coeur du Tigre
More on 'DNI' Gabbard and why the CIA (the DEEP STATE ) is taking over the job of guiding Trump -
"The post broke a days-long silence after other top national security officials cheered the operation in press conferences, TV interviews and on social media." - Holding back on your effluent praise of your boss? Not good Tulsi, not good at all.
A good read - 'How the Deep State Taught Stephen Miller to Love Socialism'
) is taking over the job of guiding Trump - quote:
The White House excluded Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard from months of planning to oust Nicolas Maduro because her previous opposition to military action in Venezuela cast doubt on her willingness to support the operation, people familiar with the matter said.
As a Democratic congresswoman in 2019, Gabbard said the US needs to “stay out” of Venezuela, and as recently as last month she railed against “warmongers” pushing the US into conflict.
The exclusion was the latest evidence of long-running tension over Gabbard’s role in the Donald Trump administration, and has underscored how the president’s decision to oust Maduro — despite campaigning against starting new wars — has widened fissures not only among his MAGA supporters but also within his team.
Tulsi’s people even pointed to that hilarious tweet to push back on this story.
A senior intelligence official pushed back against the characterization that Gabbard had been excluded, saying she provided intelligence that helped the overall mission, even if it was less operational and more analytical. An ODNI spokeswoman referred Bloomberg to a social media post Gabbard wrote Tuesday lauding servicemembers for the operation’s “flawless execution” of the move to capture Maduro.
“President Trump promised the American people he would secure our borders, confront narcoterrorism, dangerous drug cartels, and drug traffickers,” she wrote. The post broke a days-long silence after other top national security officials cheered the operation in press conferences, TV interviews and on social media.
"The post broke a days-long silence after other top national security officials cheered the operation in press conferences, TV interviews and on social media." - Holding back on your effluent praise of your boss? Not good Tulsi, not good at all.
A good read - 'How the Deep State Taught Stephen Miller to Love Socialism'
quote:
Where Mr. Hegseth had marginalized his Ukraine-supporting generals, the C.I.A. director, Mr. Ratcliffe, had consistently protected his own officers’ efforts for Ukraine. He kept the agency’s presence in the country at full strength; funding for its programs there even increased. When Mr. Trump ordered the March aid freeze, the U.S. military rushed to shut down all intelligence sharing. But when Mr. Ratcliffe explained the risk facing C.I.A. officers in Ukraine, the White House allowed the agency to keep sharing intelligence about Russian threats inside Ukraine.
From what I understand, [CIA Director] Ratcliffe has it figured out as follows. He lets the different factions in the WH duke it out for Trump's favor, and once they've battered and bloodied each other sufficiently, he steps over their bodies and says, "Actually, Mr. President..." Usually this happens during their weekend tee off sessions. It's a strategy that has met with marked successes and very likely explains the expanded cooperation with Ukraine at the intel-sharing level.
Russia no doubt understands the CIA remains intelligent (heh) and focused on its original adversary. When they recruited Witkoff to manage Trump’s capitulation, they specifically ordered him not to bring CIA.
[This is] Why Ratcliffe was completely cut out of the Dmitriev-Witkoff process.
Posted on 1/9/26 at 6:31 am to Coeur du Tigre
Posted on 1/9/26 at 7:00 am to Coeur du Tigre
quote:
The White House excluded Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard from months of planning to oust Nicolas Maduro because her previous opposition to military action in Venezuela cast doubt on her willingness to support the operation, people familiar with the matter said.
Tulsi is dangerous. The administration was correct in keeping her as far away from this as possible.
Page 470 of 652
Popular
Back to top
Follow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News