Posts by Roger Fowler

bluemason3 said:Quote : The Great Duck

I suggest we dig into what "vote baptism" actually means first. Once we've cleared that up, we can pivot the conversation toward France. I haven't noticed anyone really addressing or justifying their behavior lately, which seems like a gap in the discussion.

The difference between those two messes is about the same as the difference between a constitutional crisis and just rigging a public tender. One is manipulating the system from within; the other is tearing the whole thing down. Legally speaking, they aren't even in the same ballpark. And since Russia was busy tidying up its own little backyard, there wasn't any backlash like this.

You’re the only one seeing "votaboutism" here, because all I did was draw a parallel to France, a country that basically does the exact same thing but recruits people from all over the globe to fight their wars for even less pay.
At least we can finally agree that when it comes to those two bastards, there really isn't much of a difference.

bluemason3 said:Long live votaboutism, comrades!

You can pretty much compare what neo-colonialists pull to what Putin does in Belarus or Syria, just not in Ukraine. We haven't seen a classic war for territory like that since World War II.

Exactly. It’s no accident that people only compromise on certain things just because they happen to be on the same side, isn't it? That's how you successfully keep your head buried in the sand, seeing only what you want to see, much like an ostrich.

I don't see any difference between the destruction of one country or dozens of them over decades, all designed to prevent those nations from ever owning their own resources and escaping direct exploitation through invasion. Maybe to you there's a distinction between yellow and brown shit, but to me, there isn't.

James Chavez91 said:Russians are setting up recruitment centers all over Russia. They’re offering short-term contracts—3 or 6 months—with monthly pay around $3,000. It’s all just to fuel the destruction of Ukrainian soil.

under motto "choosing the right man"

Link

It’s hard to find anything more hypocritical than France, which established that aforementioned French Foreign Legion to chase the exact same thrills, recruiting foreigners from every corner of the globe for over a century and a half to fight in Africa, South America, Pacific islands, or wherever else serves their "strategic interests"—all for a measly $1,400 a month, but I suppose we shouldn't let hypocrisy get in the way, since what stays out of sight stays out of mind, right?

Thomas Walker84 said:That’s right. Violent criminals, rapists, and drug dealers aren't allowed in—that's actually one of those myths about the Foreign Legion (regardless of whether they've already served their time). It makes sense, both ethically and practically; you can't build an army around psychopaths, sociopaths, or extreme egomaniacs.

However, anyone who joins the unit is entitled to a "new life" and a fresh identity, no matter where they come from. Since 2015, there's even been a policy where everyone is automatically assigned a new name and birthdate, then after six months, they can choose to stick with the new one or go back to their old identity.

https://www.ouest-france.fr/normandi...chance-5020887

There are Ukrainians in the Foreign Legion who want to fight in Ukraine, but they can't because they are part of the French military. There are even about 400 Russians in the Legion, and in this video, a Ukrainian legionnaire mentions that some among them "understand the situation" and help Ukraine by sending financial aid or providing housing for refugees.

https://www.tf1info.fr/international...s-2217574.html

I wouldn't go so far as to call it a myth, because the Legion did take in people with violent criminal records, but that was a lifetime ago. We are probably talking about the 1950s at the absolute latest, if even then. They phased that out at least thirty years ago.

Rachel Richardson said:I find it highly unlikely—he isn't quite that reckless.

Chemical weapons, however, are an entirely different matter. 🤷

If he weren't unhinged, would he have even started this senseless war in the first place? When dealing with someone like him, can we really afford to expect anything less than total madness?

Nancy Gomez26 said:The relationship between the state and its citizens in the Russian Federation doesn't operate by those rules. To an outsider, it might seem surreal how the Republican Party can pull off an election victory here after everything that has happened. Yet, they win. A hundred different ways to shock the world.

Blood is thicker than water, after all. When enough people lose their lives, you can bet they'll eventually flood the streets. Americans tend to tolerate bad policy much more than The West does, but once they reach their breaking point, you end up with an October Revolution. This kind of thing can't end well, can it?

jadetinker85 said:Putin doesn't care about any of them.☕

He’ll start caring once tens of thousands of furious parents, whose sons never made it back home, come knocking on his front door, because let's be honest, even he has his limits.

rowdytiger13 said:Penal battalions aren't exactly a new concept. The French Foreign Legion basically built their foundation on it.
The problem is, if you want to actually keep those guys under any kind of control, you’d have to be even more ruthless than they are. The Russian military looks pretty disorganized as it is, and in an environment like that, these units are just going to loot, pillage, and desert the moment things get heavy.

The Foreign Legion doesn't just recruit killers, rapists, dealers, and junkies. They might turn a blind eye to a stolen car or a few scraps in a bar fight, but they don't tolerate serious felonies.

jadetinker85 said:Honestly, any rational person would be thinking about surrendering right now. A winter spent in a trench? That’s just pure stupidity. I just don't see how the Ukrainians can hold out against that many Russians.

Push them right across the border to Putin? Or maybe a prisoner swap for the fighters held in Mariupol. If everyone ends up dead anyway, then we might as well just settle it with a "life for a life" exchange.☕

granitescout32 said:The Americans???

My bad, Ukrainians

James Chavez91 said:Alright. Now I’m pretty sure Russia is losing this one...

I'm driving around listening to an NPR broadcast—that "On Air" segment—with Baric and Vidmarovic as guests...
Honestly, Vidmarovic wasn't exactly easy to listen to. Seems like the guy finally sobered up, I guess.

I just hope the Ukrainians are smarter than we were and don't go easy on those lowlifes. Why not just kick them all out in one fell swoop, strip them of their citizenship, seize every bit of their property as war reparations, and set up such a brutal visa system that they’re stuck waiting two years and shelling out a thousand bucks just for a chance to enter?

bluemason3 said:If the European Union starts ignoring the borders established after World War II—essentially trashing the very foundation of international law and security—they'd be acting just as poorly as Russia.

The only way out is if Russia decides to step back and accept the terms itself.

All Russia has managed to prove so far is that they aren't worth the breath it takes to trust them, especially when you consider that someone openly threatening nuclear war while invading sovereign nations deserves to be neutralized as a security threat, though I suppose we should remember that those post-World War II borders have been tossed around more times than people care to admit since the nineties, yet nobody seemed to blink then.

loneskipper3 said:There isn't even a remote chance of that territory being handed back to Germany or partitioned between Poland and Lithuania. If Russia faces a defeat, the real threat they'll be staring down is internal unrest—think uprisings in places like Chechnya, Dagestan, Bashkortostan, or Tatarstan—along with the inevitable loss of their former "possessions," such as Transnistria and Abkhazia.

If they decide to leave a Trojan Horse sitting right in the middle of the European Union, then we're dealing with a level of stupidity that's practically limitless.

I honestly find myself wondering what happens to Kaliningrad if the Ukrainians actually pull off a win in this war. Wouldn't this be the one perfect moment to finally push the Russians out of there, considering that place isn't even really part of Russia?

Nancy Gomez26 said:If—or when—someone manages to flip the Secret Service to their side, Putin’s career is elegantly over. Whether he "suddenly falls ill" or "succumbs unexpectedly to a virus" is secondary. I don't buy the suicide theory; it bears too much resemblance to Hitler's end. Given that Putin has seized every lever of power in the country, bypassing local political authorities (those folks who sign petitions calling for his removal), and filled the political landscape with his loyalists, I don't expect any movement toward dethroning him from within the government. To move against him would mean they risk losing their own grip on power. The only force capable of acting right now, possessing even a semblance of organized structure, is the military. Since Putin has cycled through so many commanders, relations are strained—not to mention the massive loss of life resulting from catastrophic political miscalculations. A military coup isn't an unprecedented concept in recent American history; the real question is which side the citizens would actually stand on.

It’ll all be over the day his money runs out and he can no longer afford to keep his loyalists on the payroll. As long as the cash keeps flowing, he’s untouchable.

Terry Green3 said:Game over.
If Americans don't rise up against Putin and his whole Potemkin setup right now, they never will. Decades of lies and self-deception collapsed in just a few days. Those people who thought they could just leverage a fraction of resources—like using NATO to muscle into other countries—I guess they finally opened their eyes.

The USSR was actually ready to push back during Barbarossa, unlike Russia today. Someone mentioned this in another thread, but looking at Russia through the lens of WWI, it’s the same old story: the regime is back on its knees, ripe for a repeat of history.

During WWII, they had the West behind them, but now they have the West standing against them, which is a massive difference, isn't it? It's not quite game over yet—there is still plenty of work to be done—but this is certainly a significant morale boost for the Ukrainians.

On this Forum, anyone can pretend to be whoever they want, but in the real world, things rarely play out that way. Most people usually keep their mouths shut because they know they wouldn't last five minutes if they actually spoke up. There really ought to be some level of basic respect for the person on the other side of the screen, shouldn't there? It’s easy enough to act like a big shot behind a keyboard, but why don't you try being that much of a tough guy in a face-to-face conversation in real life and see how much of an expert you actually are? 😁

I remember watching *The Beast of War* back when I was just a kid, and there’s one specific scene that still haunts my sleep to this day, isn't there? It’s just one of those horrific ways to go that stays with you forever. God...

Ivan Danko...
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/b8/27/07/b...58773f185b.jpg

Even by today's standards, seeing Charles Bronson handling a Wildey Magnum is a rare sight, isn't it?

https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/..._bronson01.jpg

And please, let's not go comparing this beast to the Automag from Dirty Harry.

https://images03.military.com/sites/...?itok=JxSlcRMw

The MG-42... there’s just something about this scene that stays etched in your mind forever. You have to wonder what was going through the heads of those poor souls on the receiving end of those barrels.