Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

Comments-

Starmer just said he spoke to Trump last night, I think they are trying to salvage it.

TBH I expected a bit more from the European Leaders summit today, the only reason I think they didn't commit to more, is the US plan in still in play.

Starmer announces £1.6bn package for Ukraine for air missiles

On top of the £2.2bn loan announced yesterday, Starmer now adds another £1.6bn in UK export finance allowing Ukraine “to buy more than 5,000 air defence missiles, which will be made in Belfast, creating jobs in our brilliant defence sector”.

Belfast? Is there missile making facilities in Belfast?

Yeah, but you get the sense that if Europe can get some sort of flimsy word of reassurance, European leaders will think, "Whew, thank god for that, we don't have to do anything major now. Almost thought we were going to have to work on defending ourselves there for a sec."

But it is in a sense understandable why Europe has lagged in this regard, because European leaders are all about consensus, and they've been unable to arrive at one on a common defence policy. This is where authoritarian governments are far more agile - they can order complete restructuring of an economy towards a war effort while an alliance of democratic countries is busy setting up meetings about formulating a proposal to discuss a pathway towards a five point plan that will lay the groundwork for future collaboration on a project that promises to establish the foundation of a multinational committee tasked with overseeing the design of the uniforms that a theoretical European defence force may wear.

Thales

France - 300 nuclear warheads; The UK has 225; Both have the means to deliver them. Do the Orcs even have 525 targets worth the effort.

The Orcs have 833 fighter jets. Weak Europe only has 1367, of which a good number are F-35s, which supposedly each worth multiple Orc flying targets.

So, no, you are wrong on all counts. Europe is far from defenceless and certainly are fee to make choices.

This is just crazy-

Edit: already posted…

….

Yes, and having to pay storage and maintenance fees as well! It has gotten to the stage that you would pay good money to someone to take it away…and you would save money in the long term

Where did I hear that term before?

Fact is US have been the main sponsor and main instigator of this whole sad adventure from the beginning to this very point. In the here and now and in a more practical sense they also provide all the logistics and intelligence. When it comes to crunch time Ukraine would have to surrender without US support within weeks or possibly days. In fact without all the external life support they couldnt even pay their public service wages or their pensions or anything really. Without external life support Ukraine looks like a zombie state both on the battlefield and off the battlefield.

All that fantasising here over Telegrams about Russian donkeys and North Koreans and Ukrainian drone swarms doesnt change any of that.

Do you think Zelensky gets his face slapped and is then being told to crawl back grovelling because US support isnt that important?

When crunch time comes no one in that 'Coalition Of The Willing' will send their troops into Ukraine because a) body bags wont look good at home and b) WW3 anyone? It's all bluster and eagerness to spend another crazy debt package. Just this time it will be the war industry instead of the banks who's going to benefit from it. Never miss a good opportunity when it comes to raiding the public coffers.

And after crunch time - when Ukraine finally steps away from their maximum demands and enters talks and maybe we'll have a cease fire - no one will get their troops in there either because Russia will simply not agree to anything that ends up having any NATO troops in the Ukraine. Regardless whether they're called 'peacekeepers' or not. This is what the whole thing is about after all. Russia is not going to say 'cool, let's have a cease fire and have French, UK and German troops enter Ukraine'. Like NATO through the backdoor. How do these people think this is even a remote possibility? Are they fuckin stupid? And if they're not they must obviously think we are.

So the 'Coalition Of The Willing' can pony up a few more billion every month so the lights dont actually go out in Ukraine and they can send a few more missiles or whatnot and keep watching another hundred thousand people die. And they probably will because of their pigheaded stubbornness to accept defeat and because they extended themselves so badly in their rhetoric and actions they now have no way out without losing face.

If they were smart at all they would use Trump as their way out. Bad cop and scapegoat all rolled into one. But I reckon they're not going to be smart. It sounds like they gonna double down and remain absolutely resistent to learn anything. Our glorious leaders.

A Russian invasion of Poland would still cause a greater outcry in the US than it did in 1939, i.e. 24-hour cable news coverage. After all, Trump did more about the use of nerve gas by the Assad regime than Obama did - not to mention the assassination of Soleimani, of course. The pivot to Asia doesn't mean that Trump regards Putin as a friend. After all, Putin and Xi are practically joined at the hip - they're a bit like Bertie Ahern and Mary Harney in government together.

Here's a brilliant idea for the Democrats and Canada and the left-wing European countries: Stop tying yourselves in knots about identity politics and the International Criminal Court!

Putin was already laughing at the West before Trump's first term.

Theo Von, the idiots comedian.

That you JD?

That is what Vance was doing in the sofa.He was looking for his tie.