Russia and Ukraine

[arewethereyet]

Putin's "Russia" is different than Soviet "Russia".
Soviet Russia had different tactics than Putin's Russia.

Soviet Russia was an imperialist superpower, while Putin's Russia is a member of a bigger alliance that includes "China-North Korea-Iran,...(other countries we don't yet know).

Soviet Russia fought for the USSR only, but Putin's Russia fights for the bigger alliance I just mentioned.


No, the U.S "retreated" just like Vietnam and lost Billions, we mentioned that in an old post.
Back to Putin's Russia.

I don’t agree with that. I was born in 1981. I visited Bulgaria in the time of the socialist dictator Todor Jivkov (1919-1998). I saw people with Turkish origin queuing in front of our embassy to get a visa to Turkey. I saw the very same people moving back to Bulgaria after the end of communism when Bulgaria became a part of the EU in 2007.
 
What your generation doesn’t know is the issue of true communism. So yes, Stalin was a dictator and a mass murderer. But there is an element that makes him different from Putin (or even Mussolini). Stalin was a believer in what we call “Proletariat dictatorship”. So live was not very easy in Bulgaria in the end of the 80’s. But people had more money than they could afford. In east Germany for instance people were queuing for something. When you asked them what they were waiting for, they would tell you that “if all these people are waiting there has to be something at the end of the queue”.
 

---

Here’s a picture of the first McDonald’s restaurant that opened in Moscow in 1991:


 
+ in socialist countries you had free electricity, healthcare, education, working hours were something like 30 hours a week. Of course it was totally hypocritical in the bottom. But we in West (people from the left-wing of the political spectrum) we still believed in the Soviet Utopia etc.
 
The reason why Gorbatchev ended it all was that he saw that hypocrisy and decided it was time to end it once and for all (see: Final scene of Rocky IV: with Rocky Balboa saying “We can all change”).
 
On Afghanistan: In North-Western Syria female Kurdish fighters I able to push these sons of ….s back. I could push them back with some other people + some basic weapons. They are barbarians who can only terrorize unarmed local populations. The US decided (and I don’t agree with that decision) to pull back because the entire effort was very demanding in terms of finances. It was nothing like Vietnam where they were facing a real army that was backed by a very patriotic population. It wasn’t even like the Soviet pullout out of Afghanistan which was also a mainly patriotic type of war at the time.
 
And I don’t know more on that. There are probably other people in this forum with better explanations
On the void Status of Countries like North Korea:

Kim Jong Un banned suicide and called it an "act of treason against socialism," 

---

What exactly does when you were born have to do with any of this?  And how do you know what Winter's age is?  And WTF does it matter?

I have a child who was born in 1981, as well as one earlier than that and one later.  That means I am definitely not part your self-proclaimed oh-so-important generation.

Slow you roll a bit Scooter.  You don't know the people here as well as you think you do.

[Thumpalumpacus]

^Yeah, I find myself having a hard time being afraid of the Chinese. They’re more interested in my money than in my politics.

Boru

Their money gives them a lot of swing.

[Nishant Xavier]

Obviously, Ukraine is on the right side here, and Russia is morally wrong for invading, blatantly violating its commitments under the Budapest Memorandum.

However, the weak-kneed Biden Administration has blood on its hands too, and should have given F-16s to Ukraine months ago. It's deliberately holding them back. It lacks the courage and vision to say, Ukraine needs to win the War, and supply the Ukrainian Soldiers accordingly with the Weapons they need.

Pathetic.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Obviously, Ukraine is on the right side here, and Russia is morally wrong for invading, blatantly violating its commitments under the Budapest Memorandum.

However, the weak-kneed Biden Administration has blood on its hands too, and should have given F-16s to Ukraine months ago. It's deliberately holding them back. It lacks the courage and vision to say, Ukraine needs to win the War, and supply the Ukrainian Soldiers accordingly with the Weapons they need.

Pathetic.

$75 billion, you ignorant twatwaffle.

Boru

[Nishant Xavier]

It's not the amount (or % of military budget) that matters, but rather the speed of delivery that saves lives. The War started on Feb 24, 2022. F-16s and the rest should have been in play by the end of 2022 or beginning of 2023 at the latest.

"Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized the Biden administration for the pace it's taking to approve weapons systems to Ukraine, given that the embattled country is the "most important" foreign policy issue the U.S. is facing "right now."

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

It's not the amount (or % of military budget) that matters, but rather the speed of delivery that saves lives. The War started on Feb 24, 2022. F-16s and the rest should have been in play by the end of 2022 or beginning of 2023 at the latest.

"Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized the Biden administration for the pace it's taking to approve weapons systems to Ukraine, given that the embattled country is the "most important" foreign policy issue the U.S. is facing "right now."

Go here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_...ry%202022.

Click on the ‘Donors’ section. Scroll down to ‘United States’. Read through the list and learn how much military aid was delivered to Ukraine in the first three months of the war. Then, expand your myopic horizons and learn what US military assets were in place before the war started.

Mr. Gates is as far off on this as you are.

Boru

[The Grand Nudger]

The war began in 2014. The us has been a shitty friend. First we tried to extort them, as you might recall, now we slow walk them.

[The Grand Nudger]

Meanwhile....in russia....tuvan shamans have announced the completion of special rights for the good of soldiers™.

Must be pretty much in the bag by now.

[Thumpalumpacus]

It's not the amount (or % of military budget) that matters, but rather the speed of delivery that saves lives. The War started on Feb 24, 2022. F-16s and the rest should have been in play by the end of 2022 or beginning of 2023 at the latest.

"Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized the Biden administration for the pace it's taking to approve weapons systems to Ukraine, given that the embattled country is the "most important" foreign policy issue the U.S. is facing "right now."

Go here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_...ry%202022.

Click on the ‘Donors’ section. Scroll down to ‘United States’. Read through the list and learn how much military aid was delivered to Ukraine in the first three months of the war. Then, expand your myopic horizons and learn what US military assets were in place before the war started.

Mr. Gates is as far off on this as you are.

Boru

He's right about the F-16s, Bri. They should have been sent last year.

The rest of his boilerplate is, well, just that.

[The Grand Nudger]

I suppose it might have made more sense before the russian military showed how hallowed out it was. The thinking being that if ukraine got jets then russia would escalate. Now we know that what we see is all they can do. They have nothing to escalate with. Even tiny ukraine, the size of texas and not nearly as militant (beforehand) was too much for the russian bear.