I like being told how "awesome" Russian equipment is by people whose only knowledge of the subject comes from video games. This allows them to conveniently ignore the basic reality that whenever Russian hardware goes up against the West, everywhere from the Korean War through to Iraq 2003, it's been reduced to shredded metal & dead operators. Yeah, they would certainly be tougher on their home turf. But their weaponry is only successful as the leading edge of a conquest in place where the US & NATO have already ceded the ground to them. Other than that it's literally shooting fish in a barrel, and these days Russia simply can't afford the cost of massive quantity to overcome their generally lousy quality, the way they could in World War Two and in the Cold War.
Not cheering for a war here. Just saying that there's probably been several generations of US & British strategists & field officers who licked their lips in anticipation of duking it out in a straight-up fistfight with the Russians, just to see what would happen. Pretty certain if the Fulda Gap apocalypse ever happened then the results for the Russians would be identical to what happened to their incredibly unlucky equipment-users in the Sinai, in the Golan Heights, and in both Iraq wars. Shit, Afghanistan is still strewn from end-to-end with the blown-out ruins of rusting tanks, copters, and fighter planes that got annihilated just from what the original mujahadeen managed to do to the Soviets using shoulder-fired RPGs and surface-to-air missiles. Flood Ukraine and the Baltics with the exact same kind of weaponry, supplemented by the pure-murder machine of US helicopters and A10 Warthogs running amok, and the same goddamn thing would probably happen all over again.
As the bloodthirsty old Klingon would most likely say....
The problem is Ukraine doesn't have those weapons. They can't afford to buy those weapons. No one is willing to simple give them those weapons, even if they did Ukraine doesn't have the personnel to use those weapons. The only access to those weapons and training is to join NATO.
And Russia's well aware of everything you pointed out, which is why they don't want those NATO weapons on their border. The central point of the whole issue.
Asides from the fact Putin, just like the U.S.A. can't/won't solve the issues at home and has to continue distracting the populace with the threat of the bogeyman about to invade.
It wouldn't be difficult at all to smuggle them into Ukraine. If anything it would be part of the piratical tradition of the Black Sea region that's been a way of life for thousands of years. Massive Ukrainian coastline plus long land borders with other iffy states like Romania & Bulgaria would make it quite easy to do.
As you said though the US won't do it. It would be too massive of an escalation, basically equivalent in Russian eyes as when the Soviets put ballistic missiles in Cuba. And it would be incredibly unwise for Western interest anyway. Ukraine is unfortunately full of rogue elements, including active Nazis operating on the Ukrainian nationalist side. Some of those weapons could easily end up back inside the US, in the hands of their own lunatic nationalist/racist elements, where they'd certainly be used to attack the US government from within. It's bad enough with the more demented hicks in the US having access to "mere" semi-automatic rifles. Them acquiring actual military-grade weaponry would be nothing but a sheer disaster.
I like their threat of sending Russians to Cuba and Venezuela. So Cuba could milk Russia just like it did the USSR to make their country ever so slightly less of a shithole than they've managed to all by themselves. Is Putin really that stupid? I don't think so.
"DrCaleb" said Even that Russian troll who used to post nonsense gave up on Comrade Putin.
Oh yeah... him...
I wonder what PostFactum would have to say about this situation. He last visited the site in December but no posts since January 2021. I'd like to see him pop in and comment.
"DrCaleb" said Even that Russian troll who used to post nonsense gave up on Comrade Putin.
I honestly can't remember his name now, but was this the self-proclaimed Communist that changed his username several times? I'm struggling to remember this person right now...
He got really angry when I said "cyka blyat" to him. "How? Why" was his enraged response. I don't think he came back after that. Bart used to swear at him in Cyrillic too.
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Encourage Russia to deploy anywhere they want. It will stretch their resources so much that their military might collapse altogether.
I'd love to see the Russkies get whupped and run home crying. They deserve little else at this point.
-J.
Not cheering for a war here. Just saying that there's probably been several generations of US & British strategists & field officers who licked their lips in anticipation of duking it out in a straight-up fistfight with the Russians, just to see what would happen. Pretty certain if the Fulda Gap apocalypse ever happened then the results for the Russians would be identical to what happened to their incredibly unlucky equipment-users in the Sinai, in the Golan Heights, and in both Iraq wars. Shit, Afghanistan is still strewn from end-to-end with the blown-out ruins of rusting tanks, copters, and fighter planes that got annihilated just from what the original mujahadeen managed to do to the Soviets using shoulder-fired RPGs and surface-to-air missiles. Flood Ukraine and the Baltics with the exact same kind of weaponry, supplemented by the pure-murder machine of US helicopters and A10 Warthogs running amok, and the same goddamn thing would probably happen all over again.
As the bloodthirsty old Klingon would most likely say....
The only access to those weapons and training is to join NATO.
And Russia's well aware of everything you pointed out, which is why they don't want those NATO weapons on their border.
The central point of the whole issue.
Asides from the fact Putin, just like the U.S.A. can't/won't solve the issues at home and has to continue distracting the populace with the threat of the bogeyman about to invade.
As you said though the US won't do it. It would be too massive of an escalation, basically equivalent in Russian eyes as when the Soviets put ballistic missiles in Cuba. And it would be incredibly unwise for Western interest anyway. Ukraine is unfortunately full of rogue elements, including active Nazis operating on the Ukrainian nationalist side. Some of those weapons could easily end up back inside the US, in the hands of their own lunatic nationalist/racist elements, where they'd certainly be used to attack the US government from within. It's bad enough with the more demented hicks in the US having access to "mere" semi-automatic rifles. Them acquiring actual military-grade weaponry would be nothing but a sheer disaster.
So Cuba could milk Russia just like it did the USSR to make their country ever so slightly less of a shithole than they've managed to all by themselves.
Is Putin really that stupid? I don't think so.
Even that Russian troll who used to post nonsense gave up on Comrade Putin.
Oh yeah... him...
I wonder what PostFactum would have to say about this situation. He last visited the site in December but no posts since January 2021. I'd like to see him pop in and comment.
Even that Russian troll who used to post nonsense gave up on Comrade Putin.
I honestly can't remember his name now, but was this the self-proclaimed Communist that changed his username several times? I'm struggling to remember this person right now...
-J.