Hence the talks of diplomatic solution. As war stagnated into trench warfare without any side getting big gains, it can still end without need for a total military victory. Crimea return may be single biggest bargaining chip Russia holds in case it has to retreat facing internal crisis
The problem is that a diplomatic solution is not tenable for either side. Even if Putin somehow changes his mind about literally conquering Ukraine (he won't), there's absolutely no way that the Ukrainians will be happy with a solution that leaves any Russians on what "should be" Ukrainian soil. Zelensky has no political support for anything less than total victory. That may change in the future, but for now, diplomacy is not really an option.
Or in other words this could be a long hot summer.
The entire line of conversation about Crimea returning to Ukraine strikes me as almost unbearably optimistic.
Yes and no, and also more no.
Can Ukraine take Crimea with military force now or in the immediate future? Straight up nope. The invading forces have suffered incredible losses, but they also started out with a goddamb lot of stuff, and Crimea is very defensible and pretty far behind the front line anyway. Ukraine is a big country and it's easy to lose sight of that in thumbnail maps.
The key factor here is morale, and the related element of command loyalty.
Wars can drag on far past the point of rationality if the 'losing' side decides that they can (somehow) win, or that losing is the same as annihilation, or if they think that they're buying something worthwhile with their sacrifice. For example, in the Napoleonic wars, Britain carried on fighting alone against the whole of Europe when they were obviously fucked, and then some years later, the French did the same - without even a channel and a navy to support the possibility of not being defeated. History is replete with examples of countries that were clearly going to lose, and did lose, but took a damb long time doing it.
By the same token, wars can also end shockingly fast once the people fighting come to the conclusion that everyone around them doesn't give a fuck either - so why should they keep pretending?. Apparently overwhelmingly large armies can just... stop fighting. Or turn around and suddenly start getting into coups and warlordism and so on.
I think that Russian soldiers would probably fight very differently to defend 'real Russia' than they would to invade other countries. That's what's behind all the rhetoric about how Ukraine is part of Russia and really just needs liberating from the decadent Jewish Nazi regime.
It's very possible, even likely, that the morale of the army will be defeated well before it loses 'properly' by being defeated in open battle. Indeed, Ukraine has gone to considerable effort not to offer open battle. No morale boosting victories. No decisive battle. No prospect of "win or lose tomorrow, at least this will be over".
When there's a moral collapse, the calculus changes. That opens up possibilities that weren't there before. This may not work to Ukraine's advantage (eg: Putin goes into a psychotic break and orders the army to break out the NBC arsenal), but it also includes possibilities like Crimea being a bargaining point.
tl;dr: it's gone from 'impossible' to 'not impossible'. That's a big change.
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ThegreatcowLord of All BaconsWashington State - It's Wet up here innit? Registered Userregular
Hence the talks of diplomatic solution. As war stagnated into trench warfare without any side getting big gains, it can still end without need for a total military victory. Crimea return may be single biggest bargaining chip Russia holds in case it has to retreat facing internal crisis
The problem is that a diplomatic solution is not tenable for either side. Even if Putin somehow changes his mind about literally conquering Ukraine (he won't), there's absolutely no way that the Ukrainians will be happy with a solution that leaves any Russians on what "should be" Ukrainian soil. Zelensky has no political support for anything less than total victory. That may change in the future, but for now, diplomacy is not really an option.
Actually that brings up a good point. Given the desecration and warcriming so many Russian soldiers have committed in Ukraine, short of complete and total military exhaustion of Ukrainian armed forces or the west cutting them off from resupply, I can't see Zelensky allowing anything short of reconquering all the stolen territory. There's some damn deep scars at play here.
Hence the talks of diplomatic solution. As war stagnated into trench warfare without any side getting big gains, it can still end without need for a total military victory. Crimea return may be single biggest bargaining chip Russia holds in case it has to retreat facing internal crisis
The problem is that a diplomatic solution is not tenable for either side. Even if Putin somehow changes his mind about literally conquering Ukraine (he won't), there's absolutely no way that the Ukrainians will be happy with a solution that leaves any Russians on what "should be" Ukrainian soil. Zelensky has no political support for anything less than total victory. That may change in the future, but for now, diplomacy is not really an option.
Well, while you are right. I read one interview with Alexei Arestovich - Zelensky advisor on national security, that explained this scenario like this "People, do you want get Crimea back? Yes! Do you want to lose at least 15 thousand more killed in action for it? Well, maybe not... Ok then, we will initiate diplomatic talks". Oh, and here is full interview btw https://meduza.io/feature/2022/04/24/ukraintsev-v-mire-vstrechayut-kak-bogov-spustivshihsya-na-zemlyu
I don't think blockading the North Crimean Canal is going to work if the lines return to pre-2022. Russia has done a lot since 2014 to mitigate the water crisis, and water has been flowing into crimean water magazines since day 3 of the war (possibly buying them another 8 years for Russia to fix the water issues).
Even if Russia is getting pushed back at this point I can't see Crimea as anything other than a way of forcing russia to make concessions elsewhere. If Russia comes to its senses and offers a peace deal where Ukraine gets Donetsk, Luhansk (with some guarantees of autonomy and russian as an official language) and a deal that restricts Crimeas black sea EEZ (like at the 32nd meridian east) I can see Zelensky dropping claims on Crimea like a hot potato.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Thread about Ukrainians allowing people on the internet to sponsor artillery shells and mortars aimed at Russians for $10-$20. You get a personal message written on the round and a keepsake photo. 21st century warfare is the most tripped out thing I've seen in my life.
Thread about Ukrainians allowing people on the internet to sponsor artillery shells and mortars aimed at Russians for $10-$20. You get a personal message written on the round and a keepsake photo. 21st century warfare is the most tripped out thing I've seen in my life.
Not weird enough. I'm holding out until one of those custom t-shirt / coffee mug sites adds this as an option.
I don't think blockading the North Crimean Canal is going to work if the lines return to pre-2022. Russia has done a lot since 2014 to mitigate the water crisis, and water has been flowing into crimean water magazines since day 3 of the war (possibly buying them another 8 years for Russia to fix the water issues).
Even if Russia is getting pushed back at this point I can't see Crimea as anything other than a way of forcing russia to make concessions elsewhere. If Russia comes to its senses and offers a peace deal where Ukraine gets Donetsk, Luhansk (with some guarantees of autonomy and russian as an official language) and a deal that restricts Crimeas black sea EEZ (like at the 32nd meridian east) I can see Zelensky dropping claims on Crimea like a hot potato.
I think that was far more likely before Russia decided to close the Kerch Strait. Like so many of Russia's dickwaving maneuvers this war, the threat was a much more effective bludgeon than the act. I don't think Ukraine is going to sign on to any deal that leaves access to the eastern ports subject to Russia's magnanimity.
Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion.
U.S.-led sanctions are forcing Russia to use computer chips from dishwashers and refrigerators in some military equipment, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Wednesday.
“We have reports from Ukrainians that when they find Russian military equipment on the ground, it’s filled with semiconductors that they took out of dishwashers and refrigerators,” Raimondo told a Senate hearing, noting that she recently met with Ukraine’s prime minister.
Wasn't that the season 4 finale of silicon valley?
Thread about Ukrainians allowing people on the internet to sponsor artillery shells and mortars aimed at Russians for $10-$20. You get a personal message written on the round and a keepsake photo. 21st century warfare is the most tripped out thing I've seen in my life.
I thought about it for 5 seconds and NOPED the fuck out.
The idea of sponsoring a bomb, if not THE bomb that kills another person that is a step to far for me. Worse yet, putting a glib internet meme message on the thing beforehand.
I support Ukraine, but that is too far for me. I don't really have a problem with using such a weapon myself if it came down to it(though I will probably never be in such a position) and I don't really blame the Ukrainians for using them, but the idea individual bullets/Shells and Bombs as sponsored suvenirers is just too much,
Which is a distinction without a difference when you get down to brass tacks, but its the slim kind of distinction that would let me sleep at night and sometimes that is what you need.
The sky was full of stars, every star an exploding ship. One of ours.
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ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
Thread about Ukrainians allowing people on the internet to sponsor artillery shells and mortars aimed at Russians for $10-$20. You get a personal message written on the round and a keepsake photo. 21st century warfare is the most tripped out thing I've seen in my life.
Okay is that real? Because I don't know, it seems like it could go either way.
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
Cardinal Parolin, Secretary of State of the Vatican, has said that the defense of Ukraine could be considered a "just war," justifying sending them weapons to defend their nation and limit the damage being done to it.
The Vatican's number two said on Friday that supplying weapons to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russian aggression is morally legitimate under certain conditions, citing the Catholic Church's teaching on "just war".
...
"I would say that the question of sending weapons (to Ukraine) can be placed in this framework," he said.
Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion.
- John Stuart Mill
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ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
My coast guard friend informs me that people have been doing this since WWII, when the US military would write messages to Hitler on their ammo.
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
My coast guard friend informs me that people have been doing this since WWII, when the US military would write messages to Hitler on their ammo.
Hell, if it weren't for the fact that literacy rates used to be much lower, I'd bet that archers would've carved medieval disses on their arrows.
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Tynnanseldom correct, never unsureRegistered Userregular
I think I remember reading this and that about Roman and Greek sling bullets with inscriptions on them
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WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
I had a family member who was a loader write a thing on a jdam in my name because my mom just can't not be involved and then we got a dud jdam right in the middle of the unit
Thread about Ukrainians allowing people on the internet to sponsor artillery shells and mortars aimed at Russians for $10-$20. You get a personal message written on the round and a keepsake photo. 21st century warfare is the most tripped out thing I've seen in my life.
I thought about it for 5 seconds and NOPED the fuck out.
The idea of sponsoring a bomb, if not THE bomb that kills another person that is a step to far for me. Worse yet, putting a glib internet meme message on the thing beforehand.
I support Ukraine, but that is too far for me. I don't really have a problem with using such a weapon myself if it came down to it(though I will probably never be in such a position) and I don't really blame the Ukrainians for using them, but the idea individual bullets/Shells and Bombs as sponsored suvenirers is just too much,
Which is a distinction without a difference when you get down to brass tacks, but its the slim kind of distinction that would let me sleep at night and sometimes that is what you need.
Yeah. While the cause is entirely different, it reminds me of nothing so much as that one dad whose son died in 9/11 and when the GWoT started, he sent a request to the military asking if his son's name could be put on a bomb that was going to be dropped. They did it--he got pictures of it before it was used and everything--and then it ended up being used in Iraq and as he started looking more into the case for the war in Iraq and even the way the war in Afghanistan was being prosecuted he was disgusted with himself.
And look, I know that putting messages on munitions is as old as munitions and widespread literacy. I don't begrudge the Ukrainians doing it. But selling, basically, ad space on them is kinda gross and also, I'd imagine, largely pointless; even if we assume the money goes straight to the military budget to buy more munitions, how much money can they really make from this, compared to the 44 billion in aid just coming from the US probably next week or so? Yes, every little bit helps, and I'm also hoping that the money isn't just earmarked for shit that blows people up, but it's like all the terrible financial advisors you see online saying it would be better to automatically make $100 a day passively for the rest of your life, than to receive 10 million dollars now.
Plus all of this self-important hand-wringing of mine is also contingent on the idea that it's a real thing and not some scam.
So Russia's been treating the Republic troops as completely expendable this entire war. In the latest case? LPR troops retreating from Kharkiv with the Russians have been stopped at the border and are now literally sitting at the side of the road by the border gate. If Ukraine gets that far I imagine their odds are not good.
And they still fight and die for Russia.
From the interviews with DNR locals, their own commanders and veterans of original conflict treat mass conscripted civilians like this, what with dragging by force everybody want they it or nor not, too old and too young, even sick or disabled. Not giving proper equipment and medical care, with many sleeping on ground. They are thrown at the front, while commanders and vets stay behind where it is safe, mostly taking care of "deserters" https://meduza.io/feature/2022/04/12/vseh-muzhchin-puskayut-na-pushechnoe-myaso
This are not people fighting for ideas - this are folks fallen into absolute despair and fear both of their superiors and Ukraine army after all that happened
This is like some warhammer 40k shit.
That's incredibly insulting to 40k armies. Imperial Conscripts are far better treated than that, with an actual logistic chain behind them, and do not include the young, old or disabled.
Hence the talks of diplomatic solution. As war stagnated into trench warfare without any side getting big gains, it can still end without need for a total military victory. Crimea return may be single biggest bargaining chip Russia holds in case it has to retreat facing internal crisis
The problem is that a diplomatic solution is not tenable for either side. Even if Putin somehow changes his mind about literally conquering Ukraine (he won't), there's absolutely no way that the Ukrainians will be happy with a solution that leaves any Russians on what "should be" Ukrainian soil. Zelensky has no political support for anything less than total victory. That may change in the future, but for now, diplomacy is not really an option.
Or in other words this could be a long hot summer.
Oh and for the record f*** you Rand Paul.
Remind me, is Rand Paul one of the many Republicans on the Russian payroll? Or is he just an in general asshole? It's sometimes hard to keep up with who is who in the party of crazy people these days.
My coast guard friend informs me that people have been doing this since WWII, when the US military would write messages to Hitler on their ammo.
It’s the adopt-a-bomb via the internet that has me weirded out. But it really shouldn’t given that I support sending them more weapons/ammo.
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ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
edited May 2022
It's not for me. I would much, much rather have one of those key chains. On top of the idea of having a personalized message on something that ends someone's life feeling gross, friendly fire can happen, bystanders get hit with bullets, etc. But with a key chain, there is zero chance that a civilian was in that jet.
ceres on
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
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reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
Remind me, is Rand Paul one of the many Republicans on the Russian payroll? Or is he just an in general asshole? It's sometimes hard to keep up with who is who in the party of crazy people these days.
Based on his voting record, yeah, he's on Russia's payroll.
John McCain, who was an asshole in his own right, openly called out Paul as such.
reVerse on
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zepherinRussian warship, go fuck yourselfRegistered Userregular
I don’t dislike putting messages on bombs for the morale aspect of paying for an instrument of death, so much as sponsorship like this could get really gross, and a little too cyberpunk. It’s not much going from this to corporate sponsorships and ad reads.
This bombing run brought to you by Haliburton.
Coors sponsored this shelling, and if you are in a war zone nothing takes the edge off like a cold coors banquet.
The experience of one contract soldier... suffice to say the whole mislead your army into a war, and don't call it a war has all sorts of ramifications. No wonder there are reports of Kadyrovites shooting Russian soldiers to 'motivated' the others. So gross on so many levels.
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BlackDragon480Bluster KerfuffleMaster of Windy ImportRegistered Userregular
My coast guard friend informs me that people have been doing this since WWII, when the US military would write messages to Hitler on their ammo.
I could see myself considering asking for a shell with "To the Catamite of Tartary" on it, as it's an applicable insult towards Putin (as the current Russian Federation includes parts of Tartary) as well as a historical throwback to the Response of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (who lived in present day Ukraine) telling the Ottoman Sultan to sod off in the late 1600s.
But as zepherin said, it's getting a little too cyberpunk and morally gray at that point.
BlackDragon480 on
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
I don't think blockading the North Crimean Canal is going to work if the lines return to pre-2022. Russia has done a lot since 2014 to mitigate the water crisis, and water has been flowing into crimean water magazines since day 3 of the war (possibly buying them another 8 years for Russia to fix the water issues).
Even if Russia is getting pushed back at this point I can't see Crimea as anything other than a way of forcing russia to make concessions elsewhere. If Russia comes to its senses and offers a peace deal where Ukraine gets Donetsk, Luhansk (with some guarantees of autonomy and russian as an official language) and a deal that restricts Crimeas black sea EEZ (like at the 32nd meridian east) I can see Zelensky dropping claims on Crimea like a hot potato.
A big part of the reason russia wants the land route to crimea in the first place was that keeping it supplied without one was increasingly expensive; it's not that nuts to imagine a successful ukrainian blockade effort if you assume russia eventually gets pushed all the way back to donetsk and something like the wartime sanctions regime continues.
but on the other hand, putin has already devoted an insane expense to this war, possibly he'd continue to do it to keep sevastopol supplied
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
also soldiers have been writing stuff on munitions for as long as there's been munitions; we have slingstones with messages inscribed on them dating to like the peloponnesian war
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
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TraceGNU Terry Pratchett; GNU Gus; GNU Carrie Fisher; GNU Adam WeRegistered Userregular
So apparently Macron seems to think that if Zelensky just cedes territory to Putin so that Putin can save some face everything will turn out hunky-dory and we'll have peace in our time.
So apparently Macron seems to think that if Zelensky just cedes territory to Putin so that Putin can save some face everything will turn out hunky-dory and we'll have peace in our time.
I'm forgetting if him or le Pen was the puppet.
Le Pen is the puppet, Macron is the credulous moron.
also soldiers have been writing stuff on munitions for as long as there's been munitions; we have slingstones with messages inscribed on them dating to like the peloponnesian war
Yeah, the soldier doing it is not a problem for me, but the dude halfway around the world doing it for lulz somehow is to me. It’s not logical I admit.
So apparently Macron seems to think that if Zelensky just cedes territory to Putin so that Putin can save some face everything will turn out hunky-dory and we'll have peace in our time.
I'm forgetting if him or le Pen was the puppet.
Macron has been chumped by Putin at every turn. His insight is valueless.
So apparently Macron seems to think that if Zelensky just cedes territory to Putin so that Putin can save some face everything will turn out hunky-dory and we'll have peace in our time.
I'm forgetting if him or le Pen was the puppet.
Macron has been chumped by Putin at every turn. His insight is valueless.
I compared him to Charlie Brown with the football and do not feel wrong to have done so.
fwiw macron has not actually said that publicly; zelenskyy reported that he said it
there's no reason to think zelenskyy is lying about that, but I also don't really think it's necessarily fair to rake macron over something said in a private meeting
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
fwiw macron has not actually said that publicly; zelenskyy reported that he said it
there's no reason to think zelenskyy is lying about that, but I also don't really think it's necessarily fair to rake macron over something said in a private meeting
Considering Macron there is no point in not raking him over the coals at every opportunity forever.
fwiw macron has not actually said that publicly; zelenskyy reported that he said it
there's no reason to think zelenskyy is lying about that, but I also don't really think it's necessarily fair to rake macron over something said in a private meeting
I’m kind of the opposite, transparency unless it will actively hinder the war effort.
I understand what Macron wants to achieve but I just don’t see it happening with Putin. You can give him that off ramp but he’s just going to use it to validate what he has been saying and retry in a few years.
fwiw macron has not actually said that publicly; zelenskyy reported that he said it
there's no reason to think zelenskyy is lying about that, but I also don't really think it's necessarily fair to rake macron over something said in a private meeting
If an agreement had been reached and Macron had come out with it, there would be pressure on Zelenskyy to accept it. Think about how many people here and elsewhere want Ukraine to make that choice even now.
By making it public, but before anything was put together, it puts pressure on the EU leaders from even attempting to create such a deal in the first place.
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Or in other words this could be a long hot summer.
Oh and for the record f*** you Rand Paul.
Yes and no, and also more no.
Can Ukraine take Crimea with military force now or in the immediate future? Straight up nope. The invading forces have suffered incredible losses, but they also started out with a goddamb lot of stuff, and Crimea is very defensible and pretty far behind the front line anyway. Ukraine is a big country and it's easy to lose sight of that in thumbnail maps.
The key factor here is morale, and the related element of command loyalty.
Wars can drag on far past the point of rationality if the 'losing' side decides that they can (somehow) win, or that losing is the same as annihilation, or if they think that they're buying something worthwhile with their sacrifice. For example, in the Napoleonic wars, Britain carried on fighting alone against the whole of Europe when they were obviously fucked, and then some years later, the French did the same - without even a channel and a navy to support the possibility of not being defeated. History is replete with examples of countries that were clearly going to lose, and did lose, but took a damb long time doing it.
By the same token, wars can also end shockingly fast once the people fighting come to the conclusion that everyone around them doesn't give a fuck either - so why should they keep pretending?. Apparently overwhelmingly large armies can just... stop fighting. Or turn around and suddenly start getting into coups and warlordism and so on.
I think that Russian soldiers would probably fight very differently to defend 'real Russia' than they would to invade other countries. That's what's behind all the rhetoric about how Ukraine is part of Russia and really just needs liberating from the decadent Jewish Nazi regime.
It's very possible, even likely, that the morale of the army will be defeated well before it loses 'properly' by being defeated in open battle. Indeed, Ukraine has gone to considerable effort not to offer open battle. No morale boosting victories. No decisive battle. No prospect of "win or lose tomorrow, at least this will be over".
When there's a moral collapse, the calculus changes. That opens up possibilities that weren't there before. This may not work to Ukraine's advantage (eg: Putin goes into a psychotic break and orders the army to break out the NBC arsenal), but it also includes possibilities like Crimea being a bargaining point.
tl;dr: it's gone from 'impossible' to 'not impossible'. That's a big change.
Actually that brings up a good point. Given the desecration and warcriming so many Russian soldiers have committed in Ukraine, short of complete and total military exhaustion of Ukrainian armed forces or the west cutting them off from resupply, I can't see Zelensky allowing anything short of reconquering all the stolen territory. There's some damn deep scars at play here.
Wud yoo laek to lern aboot meatz? Look here!
Well, while you are right. I read one interview with Alexei Arestovich - Zelensky advisor on national security, that explained this scenario like this "People, do you want get Crimea back? Yes! Do you want to lose at least 15 thousand more killed in action for it? Well, maybe not... Ok then, we will initiate diplomatic talks". Oh, and here is full interview btw
https://meduza.io/feature/2022/04/24/ukraintsev-v-mire-vstrechayut-kak-bogov-spustivshihsya-na-zemlyu
Even if Russia is getting pushed back at this point I can't see Crimea as anything other than a way of forcing russia to make concessions elsewhere. If Russia comes to its senses and offers a peace deal where Ukraine gets Donetsk, Luhansk (with some guarantees of autonomy and russian as an official language) and a deal that restricts Crimeas black sea EEZ (like at the 32nd meridian east) I can see Zelensky dropping claims on Crimea like a hot potato.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Not weird enough. I'm holding out until one of those custom t-shirt / coffee mug sites adds this as an option.
I think that was far more likely before Russia decided to close the Kerch Strait. Like so many of Russia's dickwaving maneuvers this war, the threat was a much more effective bludgeon than the act. I don't think Ukraine is going to sign on to any deal that leaves access to the eastern ports subject to Russia's magnanimity.
- John Stuart Mill
Wasn't that the season 4 finale of silicon valley?
I thought about it for 5 seconds and NOPED the fuck out.
The idea of sponsoring a bomb, if not THE bomb that kills another person that is a step to far for me. Worse yet, putting a glib internet meme message on the thing beforehand.
I support Ukraine, but that is too far for me. I don't really have a problem with using such a weapon myself if it came down to it(though I will probably never be in such a position) and I don't really blame the Ukrainians for using them, but the idea individual bullets/Shells and Bombs as sponsored suvenirers is just too much,
Which is a distinction without a difference when you get down to brass tacks, but its the slim kind of distinction that would let me sleep at night and sometimes that is what you need.
Okay is that real? Because I don't know, it seems like it could go either way.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/vatican-number-two-says-giving-ukraine-weapons-legitimate-with-conditions-2022-05-13/
- John Stuart Mill
Hell, if it weren't for the fact that literacy rates used to be much lower, I'd bet that archers would've carved medieval disses on their arrows.
Yeah. While the cause is entirely different, it reminds me of nothing so much as that one dad whose son died in 9/11 and when the GWoT started, he sent a request to the military asking if his son's name could be put on a bomb that was going to be dropped. They did it--he got pictures of it before it was used and everything--and then it ended up being used in Iraq and as he started looking more into the case for the war in Iraq and even the way the war in Afghanistan was being prosecuted he was disgusted with himself.
And look, I know that putting messages on munitions is as old as munitions and widespread literacy. I don't begrudge the Ukrainians doing it. But selling, basically, ad space on them is kinda gross and also, I'd imagine, largely pointless; even if we assume the money goes straight to the military budget to buy more munitions, how much money can they really make from this, compared to the 44 billion in aid just coming from the US probably next week or so? Yes, every little bit helps, and I'm also hoping that the money isn't just earmarked for shit that blows people up, but it's like all the terrible financial advisors you see online saying it would be better to automatically make $100 a day passively for the rest of your life, than to receive 10 million dollars now.
Plus all of this self-important hand-wringing of mine is also contingent on the idea that it's a real thing and not some scam.
Ancient Slingers used to engrave insults on their sling stones; like DEXAI meaning CATCH!
https://www.ancient-origins.net/history/messages-missiles-here-sugar-plum-you-003708
Actually, the Imperial Guard does in fact have regiments of Children.
Remind me, is Rand Paul one of the many Republicans on the Russian payroll? Or is he just an in general asshole? It's sometimes hard to keep up with who is who in the party of crazy people these days.
It’s the adopt-a-bomb via the internet that has me weirded out. But it really shouldn’t given that I support sending them more weapons/ammo.
Based on his voting record, yeah, he's on Russia's payroll.
John McCain, who was an asshole in his own right, openly called out Paul as such.
This bombing run brought to you by Haliburton.
Coors sponsored this shelling, and if you are in a war zone nothing takes the edge off like a cold coors banquet.
The experience of one contract soldier... suffice to say the whole mislead your army into a war, and don't call it a war has all sorts of ramifications. No wonder there are reports of Kadyrovites shooting Russian soldiers to 'motivated' the others. So gross on so many levels.
I could see myself considering asking for a shell with "To the Catamite of Tartary" on it, as it's an applicable insult towards Putin (as the current Russian Federation includes parts of Tartary) as well as a historical throwback to the Response of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (who lived in present day Ukraine) telling the Ottoman Sultan to sod off in the late 1600s.
But as zepherin said, it's getting a little too cyberpunk and morally gray at that point.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
A big part of the reason russia wants the land route to crimea in the first place was that keeping it supplied without one was increasingly expensive; it's not that nuts to imagine a successful ukrainian blockade effort if you assume russia eventually gets pushed all the way back to donetsk and something like the wartime sanctions regime continues.
but on the other hand, putin has already devoted an insane expense to this war, possibly he'd continue to do it to keep sevastopol supplied
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
I'm forgetting if him or le Pen was the puppet.
Le Pen is the puppet, Macron is the credulous moron.
Yeah, the soldier doing it is not a problem for me, but the dude halfway around the world doing it for lulz somehow is to me. It’s not logical I admit.
Macron has been chumped by Putin at every turn. His insight is valueless.
I compared him to Charlie Brown with the football and do not feel wrong to have done so.
there's no reason to think zelenskyy is lying about that, but I also don't really think it's necessarily fair to rake macron over something said in a private meeting
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Considering Macron there is no point in not raking him over the coals at every opportunity forever.
I’m kind of the opposite, transparency unless it will actively hinder the war effort.
I understand what Macron wants to achieve but I just don’t see it happening with Putin. You can give him that off ramp but he’s just going to use it to validate what he has been saying and retry in a few years.
If an agreement had been reached and Macron had come out with it, there would be pressure on Zelenskyy to accept it. Think about how many people here and elsewhere want Ukraine to make that choice even now.
By making it public, but before anything was put together, it puts pressure on the EU leaders from even attempting to create such a deal in the first place.
PSN: Bizazedo
CFN: Bizazedo (I don't think I suck, add me).