Would 2.4% allay your paranoia?
if so, I’ll gladly pay the extra tax.
A few weeks ago, on this forum, I theorised on the activities of the Russian Fleet off the Irish Coast just before the war. Seems my theory may have been correct. I took my Dad into the Curragh Camp to meet a few of his old army buddies ( Note to the commander who is also over the museum. Open it on a Saturday! It's crazy to have the one tool for recruiting young people closed up and out of reach on the one day that people are free. Dad's sick of saying this.)
Anyway, our boys in green were and are expecting that there may have been a nuclear mine or dept charge positioned in or around the Data Cables by the Russians. The Russian activities at this spot was also one of the reasons how the US knew that Russia was definitely going to attack.
There was also a rumour within our defence forces that Russia had planned on invading Ireland ( yes, seriously) and there is absolutely nothing we, as a "defence force", could do about it,
We spend .029% of gdp in defence.
It should be 2.4%
Some military place near Moscow got a bombing.
That reminds me of the Catholic church relevations in Wexford. Heard of a case where a woman in her twenties stood up just as an involved priest was taking to the pulpit. She wasn't abused herself but spoke out against his involvement. Some told her to sit down. Then a few more stood up and said their piece against the priest and they walked out of the church together.
But the reaction of whoever filmed this piece in Russia. Laughing at her. As if there's one above her station looking for publicity.
There was the same reaction among some women when they heard of the woman speaking in the church. Totally in hindsight now it's a self preservation action was for them to not feel like a coward and thinking of a false superiority idea over the woman.
But anyway whoever filmed it, still shared it. So the latest idea of agreement may be there. ??
Or else they really hate this wan above her station and want to see her in the Gulag..🙄
That is if they have sufficient/ any soldiers willing to man the various posts’ left
The Eastern block won't have any faith in them going forward and after our experience of the crash, we should be wary of them too.
That's what we should be taking out of this. Our position on the western edge of Europe, behind a large island that has left the EU, leaves us pretty exposed to indifference.
I think Putin fancies Russia as better able to handle the austerity effects of a prolonged conflict in Ukraine and just holding on to territory held or even slowly grind forward as the West lapses into public revolt over the rising cost of petrol and groceries. Whether he'll be correct on this, I have no earthly idea, but this is where I think he's placing his money at the moment, knowing that this whole thing is likely to roll on into late Summer at the least.
It's terrible to think of the kind of punishing attrition warfare taking place in the Donbas at the minute. How this conflict goes if it rolls on is hard to envision. On the one hand, Russia has a lot of artillery shells in stock, apparently, and seem content to just bombard the living f**k out of places like Mariupol and now Sievierodonetsk, while the Ukrainians are getting a lot of good NATO intelligence and modern weapons systems. Not that I think the Russians will ever get anywhere near close to taking anything like the majority of Ukraine, but in territories that have been under Russian occupation for a while like Kherson, Russian forces will have had time to prepare defensive lines and structures and also, disturbingly, get rid of members of the public opposed to their presence. The time to strike back decisively and retake some of that territory cannot come soon enough for Ukraine.
still dont get how Russians can send tanks around with no infantry support,unless it was the last to survive.
Of course, Putins Machine suppresses information.....but to suppress it 100%? I don't think so. For a 3 day event maybe, but now after 80 days, you can be sure that disbelief is getting more and more widespread. Now too many sons and husbands are missing, and people are talking. Its telling that Putin has not called for full war mobilization because that might trigger unrest that his goons would be unable to stop or contain.
FORTE11 from Sigonella https://fr24.com/FORTE11/2bf278b0
https://fr24.com/FORTE11/2bf278b0
Forte11 has been very gutsy with its flight path today, travelling right down past Sochi as far as the Georgia/Turkey border.
I
This means Absolutly nothing until this equipment is on Ukraine soil and the UKr army is trained to operate all of it
But they don't arrive in Moscow. And Moscow puts out the information. And all remains well.
I would suggest that any apparent fissure within the EU can only be massively counterbalanced by Finlands ans
d Swedens application re NATO - although behind the scenes the hopeful fissure caused by Putin will bring him some joy and the NATO thing is just a smokescreen that he pulls out of the hat when he is looking for an excuse to invade
Or an ever increasing Nr of their soldiers arriving ( or not) home in body bags....
Except that had Ukraine fallen, that might only be the beginning of it... I think that now all of the EU are aware of the threat that Russia Poses, and not only the EU, but the whole world. No, Putin has overstepped the mark, and its ripples are spreading throughout the world. He will need to be stopped, and de-fanged at the least.
The small detail of when it will happen doesn't seem to feature. Germany have dropped massively in my estimation as a result of their response to this war. Never thought much of France to start with but I thought Germany had a bit more about them
German company steps up.... We've seen this numerous times before but then Scholz blocks the export.
Germany steps up at last Rheinmetall from Germany prepares the supply to Ukraine of 88 Leopard 1A5 tanks and 100 Marder IFVs | Defense News May 2022 Global Security army industry | Defense Security global news industry army year 2022 | Archive News year (armyrecognition.com)
Oh aye, the only counter balance to Germany and Francle leaving certainly cracked over that fissure.😂
Note with interest that the EU quietly climbed down on allowing members to pay in roubles for gas. Just like Germany wanted.
The reality is that if it had been up to the EU, Ukraine would have fallen no matter how hard they fought, because France and Germany would have preferred that. Its the UK and the US thats' kept the Russians at bay.
One wonders if we'll see more of this in Russia this summer as the war drags on. There have been a few similar incidents to this reported this week and shown on social media. The regime was surely never planning for a long, drawn out war on its borders.
I think this is aircraft #205 downed https://twitter.com/Hromadske/status/1528399032422367237?s=20&t=cjhA2lc5nAHTmdluUzhJAQ
Not everyone is Russia is brainwashed https://twitter.com/olex_scherba/status/1528324181758291968?s=20&t=cjhA2lc5nAHTmdluUzhJAQ
I know when the war ends whenever it does what way will this have on both countries populations. I mean Ukraine might go through a baby boom afterwards if they win the war but in regards to Russia will them mean a bigger population decrease in regards people killed but as well as that there might not be a population increase afterwards especially if they loose this war.
With Britain gone it has never been more than for Germany and France. There is literally no one left to challenge them.
The war has been a bit of a disaster nfro showcasing Russian arms. Well made point in the article about the potential pr catastrophe losing a SU-57 would be. Given the known issues it has with its engines and questions about it's overall stealthiness, it makes sense they haven't employed it.
I'd love to see more details on Russian tactics re: bomber employment. It seems wholly amateurish in comparison to the strike packages NATO / US would employ.
Yes and they need to be challenged. The EU is far more than Germany and France in 2022.
That was my point, the smaller countries are reluctant to criticise either of them regardless of how far off the European script they stray. I think its pretty obvious that the official EU stance and those voiced by France and Germany are not compatible and quite contrary. They may say once thing at the meetings with their EU hats on but their position on a personal level are very different.
Russia has not changed that much, it is a softer and much more open society than under Communism but that's not saying much.
If by fissures you mean that the France and Germanys interests tend to dictate the EU decisions, then yes, they won't ever heal because they have been there since the get go.
I would disagree that the invasion has damaged the EU. Yes, there has been a difference in emphasis in reactions between Germany and France and other nations to the invasion, but it is far from a schism and there haven't been big public rows over it. Saying that it has led to big divisions in the EU would be hugely overstating the issue - apparently recent emergency EU summits on Ukraine went off reasonably well and without major rancour.
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