Russia's War Against Ukraine

[bobarossa]

You made wonder when we last had a president who has been in a war.  I think it was Ford, who as a junior navy officer helped save his carrier during Halsey's Typhoon.   Thank God we had three former military in a row during the heart of the cold War (Truman, Eisenhower,  and Kennedy).  Crap, I forgot HW Bush!
Edit: I was responding to JH.

[bobarossa]

He is a blatant aggressor, his soldiers seem to be committing far more dramatic humanitarian atrocities, and he continues to engage in behavior that--for the sake of a stable future--we can't afford to give any rewards for.

It should be noted that one of reasons Japanese soldiers in WW2 committed so many atrocities was their training contained frequent beatings during training, similar to Russian conscripts.

[MengJiao]

We have to remember that by all accounts, Putin and his cronies are not in a clear or rational state of mind and have not been for some time.  I fully agree in principle that you have to stand up to gangster tactics and meet them with force to prevent them from just continuing shitty behavior in the future.  But it's not entirely clear how self aware Putin is at this point - if he's so deluded that he genuinely thinks Russians are being bullied by the big, bad, meany Ukrainians backed by the bigger, badder, meanier NATO, then pushing him into a corner is liable to "prove" his point (in his own reality) and make him more likely to resort to desperate measures to punish those he feels wronged him.... in this case, that would be literally all of us.

  This has sort of been the problem all along -- find a way for Russia to find a constructive way out of this.  The Russian attack on Ukraine has so many weird aspects precisely because
it had no particular motivation except that it looked easy -- just another Belarus.  I think this is the basis for the odd short-hand that Blinken used -- the Russians are propelling this and we
really can't see why, ie, they could just stop and all along if they had stopped sooner they would have been better off -- hence the Blinken's odd statement that they could just leave.  I think
what isn't clear there is the problem of Russia's motivation because that is really what is lacking which is why Blinken's statment sounds so odd.   I think the option of just walking out is a
reflection of the bafflement over what the Russian motivation is because -- well, what is it?  And lacking that people end up saying absurd things like "Oh, and you could just leave."

[MengJiao]

You made wonder when we last had a president who has been in a war.  I think it was Ford, who as a junior navy officer helped save his carrier during Halsey's Typhoon.   Thank God we had three former military in a row during the heart of the cold War (Truman, Eisenhower,  and Kennedy).  Crap, I forgot HW Bush!
Edit: I was responding to JH.

LBJ was an observer on a mission over Rabaul (more or less as a publicity stunt) and Wasn't Nixon an Avenger pilot?  Teddy Roosevelt was involved in a war, was were Grant, Garfield and Lew Wallace (who wasn't ever president but did write Ben Hur so you know there's the experience factor there i guess).

[GDS_Starfury]

the Finnish Prime Minister has this to say:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1578308226709590017

[GDS_Starfury]

seems a fuel tanks exploded on the rail portion of the Kerch bridge....

[Skoop]

the Finnish Prime Minister has this to say:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1578308226709590017

Is it me or is sana smoking hot.  Love those feisty powerful women.  Love'n our new soon to be nato ally.

[GDS_Starfury]

oh she is!

Footage taken from the road portion of the  #KerchStrait bridge shows at least two rail cars on fire.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1578595172010844161

I see huge problems for russian logistics in the near future.

[al_infierno]

Is it me or is sana smoking hot.  Love those feisty powerful women.  Love'n our new soon to be nato ally.

This has been a well documented fact for quite some time  O0  In fact, Finnish message boards managed to spread the rumor that she moonlights as a "catgirl" .... Google at your own risk.

[SirAndrewD]

Is it me or is sana smoking hot.  Love those feisty powerful women.  Love'n our new soon to be nato ally.

This has been a well documented fact for quite some time  O0  In fact, Finnish message boards managed to spread the rumor that she moonlights as a "catgirl" .... Google at your own risk.

Oh...I googled it.  A loooooong time ago.

[GDS_Starfury]

and the highway span is dropped as well.  :bd:

[SirAndrewD]

Yes.  The Kerch bridge is wrecked.

That's a message.  Ukraine will go for Crimea.

[GDS_Starfury]

russians claiming vbied.

[GDS_Starfury]

[GDS_Starfury]

supposedly cctv footage.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1578632595633758208