lol
kinda true I suppose.

still his boys got lit on fire. what happened if these were american.
what would america do?

No clue, hard for me to imagine a similar situation with USA.

yea

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68788110

America would give them medals promotions and money

Canada would give them standing ovations in Congress

Russias been blowing up Ukraine power grid for years nothing new here. Its a valid military target

The new thing is the lack of air defense to thwart Russia's attempts at taking down Ukraine's infrastructure.

Why is this a valid military target in your opinion?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68778338

I agree with the overall sentiment but I have no idea what "summer offensive" actually means anymore. Russia has not slowed down since taking Avdiivka, they are throwing everything they have at Ukraine. This is likely because they fear ammo could make it to Ukraine soon, and also to make it difficult to prepare defenses, but the costs Russia is incurring is enormous.

I don't think there is going to be any kind of pause and a big push this summer. Russia knows this is likely to be the year where they enjoy the biggest advantage, they have no respect for life, they will be throwing everything they have for the entirety of 2024.

So their are offensives in the spring and sometimes the fall

When the terrain/weather improves enough to attack, you attack

And they like to get an offensive in before the winter sets in as well

This often coincides with harvesting and planting schedules are many guerilla fighters are also farmers (see Afghanistan or Vietnam)

historical reasons + its literally not against international rules even. Ukraine would do it if they could. Even the us destroyed 80% of Serbia's energy infrastcture like 20 years ago + iraqs. Literally everyone does it its not really a tool you can use against russia. It actually is a pretty valid way to win a war without killing alot of people if they keep it up there could be peace pretty soon

destroying infrastructure may not directly kill a lot of people but it often causes a lot of death. Ukraine probably has a more robust system than places like Gaza or Iraq ofc. regardless, it is an attack on civilians.

but hey, maybe Russia is unfortunately playing by Western rules now.

It might not be explicitly against international rules, but it absolutely can be against international rules. In particular it needs to be a military target, not civilian and it needs to be proportional: civilian damage cannot be excessive to the military damage.

Ukraine can do it. They are being accused of doing it now by attacking Russian oil refineries.

The destruction of Serbia and Iraq's energy infrastructure by the USA resulted in debates over the morality of these actions. This led to USA trying to limit damage to energy infrastructure later on. This is an extremely complex issue.

im not talking civilian infrastructure in general i am talking about power infrastructure which is a completely different thing. You can talk about it all you want but the next war American European or Russian war that starts missiles will fly to these targets asap. Its the most bang for your buck and easiest way to end a war. No army can function without power

Power infrastructure is not a civilian target by definition since the military uses it and requires it to run operations

Also if the Us were to not blow it up out in the future. It would more likely be because they can win without doing it. Clearly Russia cant

Its a huge difference when the #1 military in the world decides to not bomb the 100th ranked military in the worlds infrastructure (even tho they do to save American lives still) compared to two top 10 military's in a close war not doing it.

Ironically tho I feel like Russia and ukraine both don't target each's others infrastructure as much as most wars. Because you know its harder to bomb territory you claim as your own.

can we now say that sanctions that don't include all major world economies are a failure nowadays?



we have to either give up on sanctions, or force India Turkey and others to be fully onboard on them

their $250 bil of spending (and counting) on stuff which blows stuff up and on stuff which gets blown up is the driver. for the other side of the coin, see interest rates

Sanctions are working. Russia's economy growing this year is not a sign that they aren't.

It looks like Saturday for the vote on the Critical Race Theory bill:

Section 8148 prohibits funds to carry out any program, project,
or activity that promotes or advances Critical Race Theory or any
concept associated with Critical Race Theory

lol woke dems

anyway, Im sure this will win the war for Ukraine. totally not a waste of money and life.

No, it won't win the war for Ukraine.

No, it's not totally a waste of money and life... wtf?

I think you can at most claim that sanctions linked to military equipment work in some sense, but the broad set of economic sanctions isn't working to weaken Russia.

Some sanctions actually, clearly help Putin. Everything that makes it harder for Russian citizens to splurge on foreign goods and services helps Putin stabilize the ruble and finance the war, clearly.

Every Ferrari, luxury wine, German appliance and so on upper middle class Russians can't buy, is more money in the Russian banking system to finance the war through financial repression (paying low rates on deposits), a lower pressure on the exchange rate, and a better trade balance sheet for Putin.

Do they define CRT in the bill itself ? I hope the definition is broad enough to actually work.

The broad set of economic sanctions is working to weaken Russia. The sanctions in no meaningful way help Putin.

Please explain to me your model to claim that blocking Russians from buying Nespresso coffee machines, Ikea furniture , Bordeaux wines, vacations in Sardinia, swiss chocolate and so on weakens Putin (I went through how imho it helps Putin)