re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict.

quote:

---

Yes, but reality is a bit more complicated. Ukraine has retaken a lot of ground in the South that Russia had recently claimed, but Russia is still making progress on other fronts — including Donetsk (which is what they care about the most).

---

Yes, I think the article should have stated that 'Vladimir Putin’s army recorded no net territorial gain on the front line'.

The point of the article is that Russian gains have now decreased to a level less than Ukrainian gains. They are now and have been for quite some time unable to mount any offensive past taking a few houses in some village. This is the definition of stagnation and for an invading power it is another factor showing that they are losing this war.

Add to that the fact that Russian losses have exceeded recruitment numbers for the last four months and we see a pattern. A very discouraging pattern for the Russians.

quote:

---

We should not "bring Europe to heel." That's shithead thinking... they're our allies, not royal subjects.

---

If we didnt cajole them into boosting their defense spending and stepping up to helping Ukraine in a big way; what do you think would happen?

Something had to be done, NATO was becoming a big welfare alliance with the US doing all the heavy lifting.

quote:

---

But Trump has accomplished the opposite. He's made them defiant to us for the firstt time since the end of WWII (France excepted). They will increase their defense spending, and try to reduce their dependence on the US in the process and grow their own defense industries... and then Rubio had to go address them and tell them they still have to buy US arms.

---

All that is good.

quote:

---

Trump's vision of a "multipolar world" seemed to envision his man-crush Putin looming over Europe. It's looking more like the EU will loom over, if not outright control Russia in the future. The the Right will be shitting its pants that there's a "Superpower that's becoming Muslim" or whatever...

---

That’s your opinion. I don’t agree with everything Trump is doing, but I don’t believe Europe can work together without the US.

quote:

---

If we didnt cajole them into boosting their defense spending and stepping up to helping Ukraine in a big way; what do you think would happen?

---

The exact thing that's happening in Poland, France, the Baltic States and others right now, that they would immediately start rebuilding when the threat became obvious. The Europeans are behind, or perhaps dormant, not stupid.

quote:

---

But Trump has accomplished the opposite. He's made them defiant to us for the firstt time since the end of WWII (France excepted). They will increase their defense spending, and try to reduce their dependence on the US in the process and grow their own defense industries... and then Rubio had to go address them and tell them they still have to buy US arms.


All that is good.

---

NOT FOR THE UNITED STATES

People aren't getting it. There is a world power structure that serves OUR needs, and secondarily the Europeans. They are - or were - very much the little brother in that relationship. Yes, we pay out to keep their miitaries up to a standard, but that served our needs. WE are the sugar daddies in that relationship, and the Europeans had grown fat and happy getting f'd and having tjhe money left on the nightstand when we decided to leave. The result?

Things like the US Dollar being the de-facto world currency, the fact that NOBODY could threaten to invade us, that fact that they pay to come to our universities and look to our legal, ethical, and cultural standards as their way forward that granted us almost unlimited soft power.

Trump and his way of thinking is threatening all of this over nothing. We don't need Greenland because the defense of it has been leased out. We don't have to worry too much over Iranians because we have the Israelis there to keep watch, and so much more. Hell, Russia can't get through the Ukrainians to threaten us, even though PUTIN IS DYING TO DO IT. The system has worked so well and for so long people just take it for granted.

And yet, ya'lls only resonse is to say



and think you're saying something profound.

The hard reality is that we are backing the LOSERS right now and that will have serious ramifications in the future. We aren't getting ready for the Chinese, we're being distracted with stupid wars with small, weak countries that is showing that even Iran can hurt us economically, something everybody but Trump seemed to know.

Everything Trump is doing is threating American hegemony and that's going to cost all of us, and a significant part of it is even being done just to distract from the fact that he wanted to sleep with underage kids (I'm not convinced it's just girls).

And if any of y'all think that Europe can't survive without the US, then you need to start actually reading a history book, because it's clear that some of you haven’t.

I call it Europe taking the whole goddamn world, that’s what I call it.

And it ain’t 1950 anymore, my man. Whatever role th US played in almost a century ago no longer applies and the biggest proponent of that idea is Donald Trump and JD Vance. Historian Sarah Paine, who is awesome and I highly recommend her, has made the point that Europe is in a position to reclaim its dominance with the way we are behaving, and I believe her.

quote:

---

And it ain’t 1950 anymore, my man

---

Didn’t you say we need to go read a history book?

There’s no doubt in my mind that without the US the Europe we see today would be very different.

I believe you need to go read some history yourself.

quote:

---

Historian Sarah Paine, who is awesome and I highly recommend her, has made the point that Europe is in a position to reclaim its dominance with the way we are behaving, and I believe her.

---

Europe as an entity never dominated anything. Great Britain dominated at one time as did Spain and France. Germany was a kind of a flash in the pan, but they dominated for a short while.

The truth is European nations all didn’t get along and they fought each other on a regular basis.

The EU is relatively new. It’s not a defense pact. It’s an economic pact. Pull the US out of NATO and I predict in twenty five years Europe would return to its “roots”.

quote:

---

European governments have been freeloading on the US for decades all while sticking the green weenie to us is restrictive trade keeping US goods out of Europe with tariffs and regs targeting only US products.

---

Yep, agree 100%.

They need to act like we are their allies and they are ours (and we need to be better about that ourselves in some ways). Either that, or we can start playing the boss. And if they don't like that, see ya.

quote:

---

Sarah Paine,

---

She gets a lot of things completely wrong

What, no MARPOL? This shows us the quality of these shadow fleet crews. As if they needed to attract more attention to themselves.

Loading Twitter/X Embed...
If tweet fails to load, click here.