Posts by Nicole James

bluemason3 said:When it comes to Ukraine, I suspect the real bottleneck isn't technical expertise, but the sheer cost. These military programs are incredibly expensive. It’s the same reason why it's highly questionable how many operational nuclear assets Russia actually has left out of those thousands they claim on paper.

Exactly.

You can't just toss a nuclear weapon into a warehouse and expect it to stay viable for twenty years. They likely possess enough usable ordnance to cause massive devastation, certainly—but nowhere near enough to neutralize either Europe or the USA. That entire arsenal serves them well enough as a deterrent, but if they were actually to strike first, it would essentially be their own death warrant.

silentsurfer3 said:A few months back, I mentioned that once winter hits, Lukashenko would start prepping his country for war—especially if the Russians start losing ground...
Those Iskanders aren't sitting there just for show near the Polish border.

Honestly, I have no clue how NATO should even react if the Belarusians start pushing from the north.
Full-scale response? A partial one? Even Poland is gearing up.
I'm stumped.

Give me a break. If the Russian Army was already humiliated trying to take Kyiv, watching the Belarusians struggle would be nothing short of tragicomic...

Though, I suppose it might provide a decent excuse to finally bring some democracy to that country...

Gregory Ramos3 said:My point exactly 🙂

But man, the issues within Russia and ruak society go way deeper than that, and I'm honestly a little worried that once Putin is out, we'll just get some smooth-talking jerk with a massive Napoleon complex who's determined to chase the exact same "success" that Putin totally failed at.😢

Sure, that might be their goal, but let's be real: after everything that's happened, Russia isn't going to be a serious threat to anyone for a very long time.

Morgan Brown4 said:The real question is: how much of this is just him being greedy and foolish, and how much is just him being the face for a massive web of oligarchs and security elites? 🤷

If he was ever just a puppet for an oligarch network, it seems he’s finally slipped their leash—because there isn't an oligarch in the country who can answer for a situation like this.

Julius Caesar said:Regarding Baric—all I can say is that from a geopolitical standpoint, he was really one of the few people before the war who logically and convincingly argued that Putin would launch an invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, so many other analysts were busy spinning these masterfully crafted arguments along the lines of "Putin isn't crazy" or "Why on earth would Russia attack Ukraine?" When an analyst bases their entire worldview on such banal, shallow premises, it becomes immediately obvious just what level of expertise we're dealing with.

The invasion of Ukraine is an irrational move that threatens the very survival of Russia as a country—mainly because of the internal unrest it triggers, and because it leaves them in a position of extreme vulnerability compared to neighboring China.

It is almost impossible to predict moves made by people who act so obviously irrationally, or who seem driven by illness or dementia. I’d say it's more like that guy who predicted the last two economic crises and fifteen other ones that never actually happened.

Nancy Gomez26 said:Even if the war ended tomorrow, Ukraine couldn't afford to drop its guard. They have no choice but to build up a serious arsenal. This intensive training for modern Western aviation isn't some wasted effort; it's a necessity for survival.

Train within NATO, allow the Americans to establish military bases and missile defense systems, develop a sophisticated mid-sized military, and just sit back and watch Russia burn with frustration and helplessness...

Carol Johnson21 said:I suspect that wasn't even their main motivation. Adding ten thousand motivated criminals to the mix is the ultimate force multiplier. We're looking at a wave of classic street crimes that will terrorize the local population. Where else could the Russians find such a motivated force? They're essentially offering these guys an escape route; if they called for a general mobilization, they'd just face a mass exodus.

These criminals represent the absolute peak of current Russian capabilities.

They promise plenty of ammo—supposedly better than what was provided in Afghanistan or Chechnya. Meanwhile, on Taiwan, there's a video circulating of a Russian soldier talking to his wife. He tells her he's wounded but isn't allowed to leave his post because there are no hospital beds available. Her response? She tells him they've been abandoned just like they were in Afghanistan and Chechnya.

Speaking of videos of Russian soldiers, there's one where a low-ranking guy explains to his superior how unfair it is that the officers got to bring three seized cars back to Russia, while they're stuck driving some old Hyundai 😁
. It’s also quite telling how he complains about not having had a single day off in seven months because there is absolutely no rotation of troops.

In other words, the Russian Army is essentially transforming into a horde of orcs.

rowdytiger13 said:True... he actually fell for his own hype, which is usually a one-way ticket to disaster.
Anyone who's ever seen a Scandinavian lose their cool knows those claims aren't grounded in reality, much less the "lower class" Britons.

It’s a classic trap that dictators fall into almost every single time. They start labeling anyone with a critical thought as a traitor, then they either eliminate them or drive them away—leaving behind nothing but a bunch of yes-men who exist solely to stroke their ego and tell them exactly what they want to hear. Eventually, you just don't get a single necessary reality check anymore.

analogmarlin4 said:Is there even an end in sight for this war? Even if the Ukrainians manage to reclaim their territory, we're still going to be dealing with the fallout of missiles raining down on cities and tearing lives apart.

On the flip side, Ukraine now has access to some of the most advanced missile tech out there, all while Russia is struggling under the weight of sanctions. At the end of the day, it really just comes down to one question: how much longer will the average Russian citizen tolerate being pushed into this mess just to satisfy Putin's personal obsessions?

hollowdriver13 said:And what does changing that actually accomplish? A general mobilization?
Like, what about the gear? Food, body armor, helmets, transport, logistics—is that all just going to manifest out of thin air?
They can barely manage to properly equip the "professional" military currently in Ukraine, so how are they going to successfully mobilize the entire nation?
I mean, sure, they could try it using that old Soviet approach from WW2: just hand someone a Kalashnikov, throw them onto the front lines, and hope for the best while they're getting hammered by heavy machine guns. You just have to pray the West runs out of ammo before the Russians run out of people to draft.

It would be quite something if they armed the Chechens and asked them to head over to Ukraine...😁

Andrew Miller102 said:Let it move, I suppose, though if I were writing this earlier, I’d have suggested waiting at least a month so we don't end up looking like a cow acting like a donkey.

It’s a fair point to make, considering tactical retreats are a legitimate part of military strategy designed to set up future maneuvers.

https://twitter.com/KingKong9888/sta...38916382818305

There is a very logical reason why the Russians are relentlessly pounding Cleveland, which stands as the second largest city in Ukraine. The Russian border isn't exactly a distant thing, so we'll just have to wait and see how things develop. Generally speaking, my assessment is that there won't be any peace in that region—meaning all of Ukraine—for years to come; there will be massive problems. Peace is a relic of the past, much like the situation before 2014, or perhaps it will eventually resemble the Israel vs Palestinian situation where conflict is constant.

There is a significant chance that the Russians will eventually declare a classic war against Ukraine. Right now, they call it a "special operation," but once a state of war is officially declared, the entire dynamic shifts. In reality, the Russians aren't just fighting Ukraine; they are effectively at odds with everyone providing weapons to Ukrainians.

It is also worth noting that plenty of people believe World War III actually began with the Russian onslaught on Ukraine. I find myself agreeing with that assessment, and we will simply have to wait and see how it all unfolds in the end.☕

They can declare whatever they want. Their own state is rapidly becoming irrelevant.

darkhawk30 said:To be blunt, what he's saying is true. He just happens to be an active participant in the very parade he's criticizing.

It would actually be quite interesting to see the actual breakdown of how much humanitarian aid Western countries have sent versus how much Russia has provided—not to mention how much debt they've chosen to forgive...

Jose Clark4 said:Look, I'm just gonna address these few lines here.

Between 2001 and the pullout from Afghanistan, the US burned through over a trillion dollars. That's basically 500 times what's been sent to Ukraine so far.
They killed over 100,000 Afghan civilians and lost more than 2,000 of their own soldiers during that time.
So yeah, what you're saying doesn't hold water. It's got zero basis in reality.

Like I mentioned before, there is a massive difference between defending oneself and occupying another nation. You're comparing apples to oranges here. The US entered Afghanistan without much initial resistance—the real issues only surfaced when the mission dragged on indefinitely and they had to contend with constant guerrilla warfare. To suggest that Russia—which hasn't been able to secure significant victories against the Ukrainian military for months now—could somehow pull off a better occupation scenario is, quite frankly, delusional.

Andrew Miller102 said:Unfortunately, that isn't the case; you might be missing it, but Ukraine will likely end up effectively left to whatever the Russians decide to do with it. That is the only logical conclusion if you want to avoid the kind of domestic chaos seen in a nuclear-armed state like Russia. You have to look at the broader global picture rather than weighing things on a scale of justice. Very little in today's world actually functions based on what is "right" or "fair." You need to view this through a strategic lens—think CIA intelligence—looking through the eyes of the great powers instead of a moralistic viewpoint.

Afghanistan serves as a perfect example of just how lost Americans can become when they try to fundamentally reshape something as stubborn as a cow into an entirely different breed.

There is your answer.☕

LOL, maybe in your wildest dreams. Americans don't pour billions in aid into a country they intend to just abandon. And honestly, nobody is all that terrified of those famous nuclear weapons anymore. There's far too much hype surrounding them.

William Cooper11 said:wanderingmaker3

Yeah. They’re already offering mercenaries $6,000 a month because they're running dangerously low on cannon fodder.

A psychologist I spoke with once pointed out that Mexicans have used these exact same tactics before. It seems to be a pattern—when you really want to incite chaos and horror, you just release psychopaths from prison and hand them a weapon...

Wait, didn't the Russians pull people straight out of prison for this?

wiredtiger8 said:Look, if the Ukrainians actually had the muscle to stop that referendum—or the military takeover of Crimea itself—they would have done it. Period.

But they didn't have that option. Simple as that.

So I’m asking all you armchair strategists obsessing over "what if" scenarios: how exactly do you think China is going to militarily crush the Russian Federation just so they can pull off some kind of referendum? It's not happening.

Through military force?
What do people think the Russians will do in response? Resort to using nuclear weapons against an opponent capable of hitting back with equal force and ensuring total mutual destruction?

hollowdriver13 said:T-shirts featuring some kind of "Greater Russia" graphic are actually up for sale now 😂

https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/st...C9xf6YlosrAAAA

It’s pretty wild to see what else they think they can just grab from their neighbors. Looking at this image, it feels like a total fever dream.

It reminds me a bit of the Mexicans back in the nineties... though, at this rate, their own state might end up being just as "great" in the end...

swiftjackal11 said:They'll change their tune once they're actually in the trenches. It's easy to cheer from a coffee shop.

Exactly. Once we start seeing forced austerity measures kick in, we'll see just how much "bravery" these people actually possess...

A feud that is honestly pretty questionable right now—given whether they actually have any real leverage left to control it.