Europe at War

Started by Que, February 20, 2022, 12:59:09 AM

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drogulus

    Western countries have the option of withdrawing protection of Russia from retaliation for destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure. What's necessary is for the Ukes to agree to limit their strikes to legit military targets. If they agree they will get longer range precision weapons they have been denied up to now.

     Russia can't survive for long without protection from the US restrictions on provided weaponry. I suggest that by incrementally providing one type of long range weapon, then another one and so on, Russia will realize the price for continuing the war is too high. Then we can have real negotiations, not the fantasy kind.

     Russia won't run out of missiles. They will use older, more inaccurate ones and try to conserve the better ones.
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Herman

Quote from: drogulus on November 27, 2022, 09:33:43 AMRussia can't survive for long without protection from the US restrictions on provided weaponry. I suggest that by incrementally providing one type of long range weapon, then another one and so on, Russia will realize the price for continuing the war is too high.

Or Putin will go nuclear, if all other options have run out.
He said so.

drogulus

Quote from: Herman on November 27, 2022, 11:08:11 PMOr Putin will go nuclear, if all other options have run out.
He said so.

    Why hasn't Putin gone nuclear? Is he waiting for total defeat for nukes to become an option?

    If Putin wants to commit suicide there are easier ways that don't involve the participation of the nuclear chain of command. These people are not suicidal.
   
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drogulus

    Belarus is a stressful place not only for the clowntator but also his minions.

    The foreign minister died suddenly. The diagnosis is he talked too much.

    Luka has changed his kitchen staff.
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greg

Quote from: Florestan on November 25, 2022, 11:00:53 AMInstead of wishfully thinking that women would use great power in peaceful and non-violent ways, I wishfully think that great power be reduced to impotence, so that irrespective of the sex of any given leader, they be not able to wreak havoc even if they wanted to.
Totally!
Wagie wagie get back in the cagie

Todd

U.S. Pledges $53 Million to Help Fix Ukraine's Electrical Grid

American officials said they hoped the commitment would spur allies to make similar donations, as many Ukrainians head into winter without power or water.


Another bottomless money pit that corrupt Ukrainians can use to pilfer millions and millions and possibly billions of dollars and euros over the coming years.  Oh, yeah, some regular Ukrainians may benefit.  But that's of secondary importance in this story.  The opening sentence is the bigger story:

Quote from: Edward Wong and Steven ErlangerOfficials of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Tuesday stressed their commitment to eventually allowing Ukraine to become a member of the military alliance.

This ensures that the war will drag on.  It also ensures that many more Ukrainian civilians will die.  Hopefully, for the sake of hapless Ukrainian citizens, it is public posturing meant to be negotiated away.  Fewer Ukrainian civilians would needlessly die.  But make no mistake, more Ukrainian civilians will needlessly die.

Keep fighting.  No negotiations.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Todd

The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

drogulus

    Poland will be the great power in eastern Europe. If the rest of Europe cheaps out on its own defense there will be a belt of protection from the Norwegian border with Russia down through the Baltic states to Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Turkey.

    The US will have partners that are highly motivated and not afflicted with Franco-German peacemongery, an illusion they can't afford. This structure is a retooling of a century old idea called the Intermarium, an improvement since the original idea didn't include the Scandinavians.

    In June the US announced the permanent basing of troops in Poland and Romania.
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Todd

The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Florestan

Quote from: drogulus on November 30, 2022, 09:33:22 AMIf the rest of Europe cheaps out on its own defense there will be a belt of protection from the Norwegian border with Russia down through the Baltic states to Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey.

Fixed.  ;)


Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Todd

A lesson in how different press outlets generate headlines:

WaPo: Biden says he'd meet with Putin if he's interested in ending war with Ukraine

The Hill: Biden has 'no immediate plans' to contact Putin

The president chose his words very carefully, you see.

Keep fighting.  No negotiations.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Karl Henning

Nice Geo. Will piece for Th'giving:

QuoteTimothy Snyder, the Yale historian, sees Ukraine's struggle as the hinge on which history will turn, just as Czechoslovakia was, unhappily, the hinge in 1938. Writing in Foreign Affairs ("Ukraine Holds the Future"), Snyder argues that Vladimir Putin's rhetoric about Ukraine resembles Adolf Hitler's about Czechoslovakia "to the point of plagiarism": A neighboring democracy is a tyranny; the state in question is illegitimate; the nation is a fiction. Appeasement — the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia in an attempt to slake Hitler's appetite for conquest — ordained a dark future. Ukraine's resistance to Putin refutes his assertion (in July 2021) that events 10 centuries ago sealed forever the unity of Russia and Ukraine.
Well, and darn them Czech "warmongers" ....
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Karl Henning

I wonder what the French for "warmonger" might be:
Quote"We will never urge the Ukrainians to make a compromise which will not be acceptable for them," Macron said. "Because they are so brave, and they defend precisely their lives, their nation, and our principles.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Madiel

ALL nations are "fiction" in some sense. They are constructs.

And the Kenyan ambassador to the UN answered that particular line of thinking superbly back in February. People in Africa live with the nations that Europeans constructed.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Todd

European Union officials set Russian oil price cap at $60 a barrel

Yay!  Decisive, bold action sure to bring the Russian Bear to its knees!!


Analysis: Russian oil revenues could weather EU ban, G7 price cap

Quote from: Olesya Astakhova"I think that the cap being discussed by the EU will be close to the price level at which Russia is currently selling oil, Alexei Gromov of the Moscow-based Institute for Energy and Finance Foundation said.

"If the price cap is around $60 per barrel, Russia will continue to export its oil comfortably."

Naysayers gonna say nay, ain't they?

Online news sources, including energy specialists, report per barrel production prices between $20-$50/barrel in Russia.  Choose the number you prefer and makes you most comfortable, I guess.  In the meantime, the overnight low temperature in Kyiv is at 26°F.  Keep fighting.  No negotiations.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

drogulus

Quote from: Florestan on December 01, 2022, 08:47:52 AMFixed.  ;)


    Oops.
   
    The Intermarium idea is that all of these countries are squozed between Russia and Germany and are super vulnerable both ways. It would be the wiser choice to form ones own gang, and with Finland and Sweden added to the other countries. Thus if the NATO collapse-o-philes get their way it will do them no "good".
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Florestan

Quote from: drogulus on December 02, 2022, 09:04:29 AMOops.

Technically speaking, between Slovakia and Romania there is Hungary as well, also a NATO member but given Orban's openly pro-Russian, pro-Putin stance I'm not sure whether they are an asset or a liability. According to a former Romanian Foreign Affairs minister who is well versed and well informed in all matters diplomatic, Hungary is no more privy to top secret NATO information sharing, which would only make sense in the context.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Todd

Quote from: Florestan on December 02, 2022, 09:42:40 AMthere is Hungary as well, also a NATO member but given Orban's openly pro-Russian, pro-Putin stance I'm not sure whether they are an asset or a liability.

Hungary is an asset in that it can be used as a giant weapons depot and killing field, kind of like Ukraine.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Florestan

It's not NATO that turned Ukraine into a killing field --- it's Russia.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Scion7

NATO's irrelevant, really.  Putin's a psychopath megalomaniac who dreams of restoring the USSR - the territories of that failed state.  He attacked because he met with Biden on video - realized the U.S. had a weak president, and took advantage of that, instead of being warned off with direct U.S. troop involvement, etc. etc.  He's not done yet - many more Russians are going to die before he and/or the regime decides it is time for a change.
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."