GOP_Tiger

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Good morning!!
Haven’t checked in for a minute.
Are we still kicking arse with the war going exactly to plan?

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We're still in a staring contest that guarantees mutual economic destruction in the long term.

The Moscow region is by far the best protected area of Russia. There are four concentric rings of air defense systems. And yet, a number of drones got through last night, and there are supposedly 3 dead civilians. Of course, some of the damage is caused by the AD systems themselves and by debris.

I think that this will be a real shock to the people of Moscow. And it will definitely lead to the Russian military doubling down on the defense of the capital (and leave other areas with even less AD)

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The last two books of the 5 had so much pointless filler. Sanderson is in desperate need of better editing and people not blowing smoke up his butt.

Wind and Truth pretty much killed my interest in the next 5 book series. Adolin's story and to a smaller extent Szeth's story were the only interesting parts.

And as you said it was a BS way to end a huge 5 book series.

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I still liked reading The Stormlight Archive. Roshar is such a great world. I'm just mad about the ending. Well that, and I also didn't like the preaching that Sanderson did towards the end (disabilities in Dawnshard, mental illness in Rhythm of War, and the gay love story side plot of Wind and Truth ). I can tolerate some of that, but I don't know if I want to read five more books of that (whenever those happen).

Is this for real? Yermak was consulting a fortune teller when he was Zelensky 's chief of staff? What a mess. People used to defend Yermak by saying that "Yeah, he's probably corrupt, but he's competent."

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I just finished The Stormlight Archive and I have to say that I was very disappointed in the end of Wind and Truth.

It's not fair for Brandon Sanderson to ask people to read 6,000 pages to complete "the first arc" of the story, and then to leave those readers with a bunch of cliffhangers. Very unsatisfying. And there are several things that do not make sense at all.

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If Zelensky isn't implicated in the corruption probe, then there's no crisis, and that's good, because Ukraine didn't need a crisis like that.

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Have Israel, UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the populace organize to commit the ground war aspect with our assets as air support. Isreal would obviously provide the greatest troop strength to ground operations, but if the above mentioned countries could also provide their spec ops and other elite teams to very specific ground targets and missions it could work. You'll never take and hold all territory in a country as large as Iran, but if they concentrated their elite units on specific missions against IRGC they'd make the most headway at toppling the regime.

It's clear we'll need some sort of force on the ground, there's just too many things airplanes and giant ships can't accomplish - like infiltrating bunkers and tunnel systems and destroying the hidden equipment and people within, or taking out leaders on the move and hidden in safe houses. A quick-deploy team of a few hundred elite Isrealis, Emiratis, Saudis, Kuwaitis, etc that can move in and get out quickly would wreck shop and destroy IRGC morale.

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The Gulf nations won't even commit air power. They're so desperate to keep their hands clean, which is part of President Trump's frustration with them. There's exactly zero chance of them committing ground forces.

I want to mention this from a recent ISW update:

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NEW: Ukrainian forces are reconnoitering and interdicting Russian ground lines of communication (GLOCs) in and near occupied Mariupol, Donetsk Oblast (about 105 kilometers from the frontline), demonstrating increased capabilities as part of Ukraine’s intensifying mid-range strike campaign.

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Here's a link to the related video: LINK

We talk a lot about the strategic importance of the increasing Ukrainian ability to conduct long-range drone strikes across much of Russia ... and that's all true.

But we don't talk nearly enough about the increasing dominance of Ukrainian mid-range drones. If smaller Ukrainian drones can consistently interdict Russian logistics at the 100-mile range, and if Ukraine is similarly able to maintain its recent progress in destroying Russian air defense systems using these drones at that range ... well, there are a number of implications, but the biggest is that Russia will struggle to supply and defend troops in Crimea and the "land bridge" across southern Ukraine.

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IRGC is about to get wrecked part deaux

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I honestly don't think anything happens until after President Trump meets with Xi.

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There's a lot of talk about how some in the Trump administration want to disengage from the Iran war out of concerns over the midterms. I hope those people realize that nothing will hurt in the midterms more than if gas prices are high AND we've washed out hands of the Iran war without a clear victory.

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Absolutely. The best thing that Trump can do to help the GOP in the midterms is WIN.

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I don't doubt that Russia can 'wage' a war beyond Ukraine.

I doubt that they can win one.

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They can't, and everyone who's honest knows it. The minute that Russia tries to attack a NATO country, NATO jets get air dominance over Crimea, and Ukraine takes it back. Russia absolutely cannot divert any significant resources away from the current conflict, and it will not be able to do so for at least the next five years.