Russia - threadbanned users in OP

I've asked myself a few times down through the years "Would I die for Ireland" or along those lines questioning my commitment to my country and in all honesty and particularly since I became a father I'm not sure I would. At least as i sit in my comfortable office, in my well paid job with food on my table and kids in school. perhaps I would feel differently if my neighbourhood was within missile strike range. I haven't been challenged in this way and I'm very grateful for that. I hope i or my children realistically never have to make these choices. My grandfather and his brothers are probably turning in their graves but we're from a different generation, we live in the "developed west" generations before afforded me this life and I intend to enjoy it and fully intend to pass things over to the next generation in better order with a better standard of living (without having to die for Ireland). It's at the fore front of my mind as i work for my family. Give them benefits & experiences I didn't have.

I or my children are not rotting away or getting blown to pieces in some mudhole because the leaders of nations believe the solution is war! Would I high tail it and seek refuge in some other country and start all over again, I would think its likely.

We should but didn't learn the lessons of the past, WWII anyone? The writing was on the wall with Putin and it was ignored. Terrorist organisations were & are allowed to build within vacuums created by government greed and mismanagement. International courts are idle while despot leaders are allowed gather momentum and build hate and when it all boils over men women and children are packed off to war to fight the battles which are none of their doing?

The war and peace cycle should have been interrupted in the last 70 years and we as a race should have evolved but we didn't. Were back to WWI tactics but now with lasers and drones instead of cannon balls and horses.

And I'm not down for dying in no mud hole because the leadership of the world cant evolve. That's my perspective as I sit in my comfortable office while my kids are happy & healthy. I cant speak for others who are within missile range. Would i still feel the same if we were the target? Can't say for sure but I hope to never find myself there…

Up to you what you believe (or not) Dan, but I believe it happened and it is a regular occurrence. I remember funerals in Chechnya only too well from the time I was there.

Wars are pretty inevitable, sadly. There are a couple of reasons for this which I can think of - one is that war is a product of when a particular country's power level or ambition isn't matched by the existing power structures in the world. The other is that people, or maybe I should say societies, seem to have a primal need to fight. As horrible and bleak and brutal as war is, and no matter how much individuals seem to recognise that fact, it seems to remain that groups of people still have that deep-set tribal 'us vs. them' thing going on and get swept up in a desire to test their mettle in pursuit in some kind of ideal.

It isn't so much that we don't learn the lessons of the past, but that they recede from memory as more base human tendencies come to the fore.

People talk about wars being concocted by power hungry old men for personal gain, but I think that's a little bit simplistic, although I believe there's also a strand of truth in that in the sense that they're guilty of beating the drum, but people in general are guilty of picking up the weapons to wage the wars, and if they didn't do that, the old men at the top could do nothing about it, so I think it's a case of one hand washing the other.

Lastly, it seems that peace is a reliable precursor of war because some grievances build up which are never addressed due to fears of open conflict being renewed. Some nations grow complacent and others sense an opportunity and use the fear of war to agitate with little blowback until their actions can no longer be tolerated.

For all folks who are caught up in Russia's endless reserves of manpower and weaponry, here is a copy paste of an article on current housing problems in Russia:-

Quote:- Russia doesn't have 4 trillion rubles to repair dilapidated housing in the country but has no problem spending billions of dollars on destroying homes in Ukraine.
News from Mordor:
“The volume of dilapidated housing in apartment buildings is increasing every year. By 2030, Russia will have 40 million square meters of uninhabitable housing. This statement was made by Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin.
According to Khusnullin to repair this housing will cost 4 trillion rubles, and now there is no money for it.
"We don't have 4 trillion, so, colleagues, we need to take a very serious look at the ways to approach this," he said.
According to Khusnullin, in order to solve the problem, it is necessary to find a balance between the repair and the sources of its financing. The politician added that more investors should be attracted to this investing in this area. Unquote .

This is just one of the problems facing Russia, housing. Now include all the other problems that years of under investment are showing up ..bridges and dams collapsing, city heating infrastructure not working, hospitals and schools falling apart because even if the cash was there, the skilled manpower is not…
No matter what Putin's propaganda make about victories in Ukraine, he is not victorious on the home front, quite the opposite in fact.

Genghis can’t took over a good chunk of the known world (and successfully invaded and destroyed Russia) using horses

Putin is three years into his three days war bogged down in mud twenty miles outside their border after losing a good chunk of the enormous Soviet era equipment pile

So yeh good name 😄

Meanwhile word of the day is “income mobilisation” aka we took your son and now we take your money too now via more and higher taxes and runaway inflation

If Ukraine destroys the oil refineries the non existent tradesmen will not be able to even reach the house that is falling apart.

Believe me when I say that "falling apart" in Russia, unlike Ireland, it literally means "falling apart" as in the brickwork turning into dust..All this frenetic bombing and attacking that Putin is now engaged in is to me anyway, signs of sheer desperation. He absolutely needs some kind of "win" in time for the 9th May Great Victory Celebrations, and of course for Ukraine to bring down the Kerch bridge anytime would be a propaganda boon of unimaginable value to them, but to bring it down on the 9th,,,would be shattering for Putin.

It's becoming increasingly harder for Putin to cover the bare patches that are appearing in the bottom of the money barrel. Putin's dream of a new USSR is fast turning into a nightmare.

At this rate they will need to put every building and piece of infrastructure and the people inside behind bars and cages 😂

which come to think of it is also an acceptable outcome

Reported where?

Hold my vodka

Same energy as above.

Ramzan Kadyov's 16 year old son Adam was filmed/staged let loose on a captive Nikita Zhuravel. He received medals and titles for the footage.

He's now famous.

Here we go again

Musk is a disgusting excuse for a human