RE: Russian lawmakers authorize Putin to use military force outside the country
03-12-2022, 02:07 AM
03-12-2022, 02:07 AM
I'm interested, because Europeans have a different perspective than American news. For instance:
-- Americans not increasing defense spending, citing "told ya so"
but really I think we're heading into the phase where we start counting the bodies. And that's going to be grim, and not fun at all.
It's clear that Russia's leadership will not change strategies, despite the economic cost and the cost in lives. It's clear that across the global West, there is a lot of commitment to sanctions, even enthusiasm. This means that it will be long enough to pay the short-term costs of those sanctions, and the long-term costs probably won't exist, as our economies will fully decouple. Nuclear weapons mean that the range of actions here is limited on both sides. So there's not much to do except count the bodies until someone gets sick of losing.
It's not a job though, no one is expecting you to post. I mainly post things I find surprising.
-- Deutsche Bank says it is not leaving Russia because it has a humanitarian responsibility, yesterday
-- Deutsche Bank says it is leaving Russia after all, today. Not sure what big idea made it into their tiny, corrupt minds to change course, but there's a reason it's Trump's fav bank
-- Mariupol mayor charged with terrorism after Russian rendition
-- Russian media removed from YouTube for simple ToS violation: trivializing atrocities
-- Meta under investigation in Russia for promoting violence. So sad; they seemed so happy together back during the 2016 election promoting misinformation together. Such a bad breakup.
-- I'm impressed at how fast a city can be fortified in the 21st century. Of course we're not talking fixed fortifications like castles, but flexible, improvised fortifications. Digging ditches all around Kyiv, welding hedgehogs with construction material.
-- Ukranian rail carrying 90k people per day at 6x capacity. Indians unimpressed. Ukraine still controls 90% of its rail lines.
-- Russia details insidious American plan to attack Mother Russia with infected migratory birds. The US did in fact fund such research in the past, but probably would never actually do it.
-- Killing Russian generals really does seem to stop Russian armor divisions. They tend to clump up in groups afterwards, so they can all wave hi to Bayraktar. This is a major weakness of authoritarian governments. In a similar situation, I would expect with near certainty that an American colonel, or lieutenant, or even a sergeant would assume command and carry out the mission. Or at least actively try not to get everyone killed. This is one of those hidden powers of republics: people are not so frightened of their own commanders that they stop fighting the war entirely. A bad judgement is almost always better than no judgement call at all.
-- Americans not increasing defense spending, citing "told ya so"
but really I think we're heading into the phase where we start counting the bodies. And that's going to be grim, and not fun at all.
It's clear that Russia's leadership will not change strategies, despite the economic cost and the cost in lives. It's clear that across the global West, there is a lot of commitment to sanctions, even enthusiasm. This means that it will be long enough to pay the short-term costs of those sanctions, and the long-term costs probably won't exist, as our economies will fully decouple. Nuclear weapons mean that the range of actions here is limited on both sides. So there's not much to do except count the bodies until someone gets sick of losing.
It's not a job though, no one is expecting you to post. I mainly post things I find surprising.
-- Deutsche Bank says it is not leaving Russia because it has a humanitarian responsibility, yesterday
-- Deutsche Bank says it is leaving Russia after all, today. Not sure what big idea made it into their tiny, corrupt minds to change course, but there's a reason it's Trump's fav bank
-- Mariupol mayor charged with terrorism after Russian rendition
-- Russian media removed from YouTube for simple ToS violation: trivializing atrocities
-- Meta under investigation in Russia for promoting violence. So sad; they seemed so happy together back during the 2016 election promoting misinformation together. Such a bad breakup.
-- I'm impressed at how fast a city can be fortified in the 21st century. Of course we're not talking fixed fortifications like castles, but flexible, improvised fortifications. Digging ditches all around Kyiv, welding hedgehogs with construction material.
-- Ukranian rail carrying 90k people per day at 6x capacity. Indians unimpressed. Ukraine still controls 90% of its rail lines.
-- Russia details insidious American plan to attack Mother Russia with infected migratory birds. The US did in fact fund such research in the past, but probably would never actually do it.
-- Killing Russian generals really does seem to stop Russian armor divisions. They tend to clump up in groups afterwards, so they can all wave hi to Bayraktar. This is a major weakness of authoritarian governments. In a similar situation, I would expect with near certainty that an American colonel, or lieutenant, or even a sergeant would assume command and carry out the mission. Or at least actively try not to get everyone killed. This is one of those hidden powers of republics: people are not so frightened of their own commanders that they stop fighting the war entirely. A bad judgement is almost always better than no judgement call at all.
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto