It's always for f**king satisfying to hear from one of the Republican Party's leading intellectual lights. Gawd the voters of Wisconsin are idiots.......
If he runs out of people willing to fight the war will be over very quickly regardless of funding. Everything I see from Ukrainians appears that, while they have been battered, they are defiant and eager to defend themselves. I'll support funding them until that is no longer the case.
No, I am referencing both an understanding of history, and literally what Putin and Xi Jin Ping have said. You on the other hand are literally using talking points that are crafted FROM RUSSIA, and in doing so demonstrates everything one needs to know in order to make a decision on this subject. You're either stunningly naive or a useful idiot, and I am not sure which. But gauging from your certainty on the matter it suggests you're the latter which is unfortunately very sad. Raegan and the old school Republicans that actually had a spine and put American interests first must be rolling in their grave. Sad!
I wrote this 15 minutes ago, and then immediately stumbled upon this: https://www.yahoo.com/news/appalled-reagans-daughter-says-dad-071810537.html Looks like I don't have to assume Raegan must be rolling in his grave, his daughter explicitly writes that he would want nothing to do with todays GOP.
Fuck Putin....he didn't want to "save" Ukraine by bombing hospitals, schools, power plants and infrastructure in Ukraine to save the people....what a croc of horseshit. I have Ukrainian refugees living in my neighborhood who were bombed out in the first invasion. A guitar luthier in Germany I know is making his shop available to a couple of guitar makers in Ukraine who had their entire life's work and tools and aged woods bombed out by Putin...yeah...Ukraine should fucking destroy Putin for his atrocities and human rights violations. We are not defending just Ukraine...we are defending and preparing to defend democracy and sovereign rights all over the world. Trump would just let them rape and pillage...again...fuck Putin and Xi and their expansionist agendas. If we don't fund NATO we will spend the same money on simulated war games practicing in some remote region. The military budget is huge....if you think it won't go to arms dealers and war games, I've got a dictator to sell you. I sure don't want Russia, China, Iran and N Korea leading the world ...I'll choose NATO and the PAC Rim investments all day to counter that evil possibility
Yes, exactly. The dude arguing against this is just a useful idiot to Putin, just like Trump, and isn’t strong enough to see through the lies and propaganda from the Russian state. Crazy to see in my lifetime Republicans go from the likes of Raegan, standing up for Democracy everywhere, to the likes of Trump cowering to Putin. It’s so pathetic and weak, like really really weak.
Speaking out against endless conflicts and corruption doesn’t mean someone is somehow loyal to Putin. This type of McCarthyism makes you sound fucking insane. What incentive do regular ass Americans have to “do Putin’s bidding”? It is the absolute lowest common denominator as far as arguments go and has no logical basis whatsoever. It’s just a dumb smear made in lieu of addressing meaningful concerns. You’re doing the exact same Iraq war “you are siding the the terrorists” bullshit. People who are watching their country fall apart are wondering why billions are being sent to other countries instead of fixing their own. They want to know why the money goes unaccounted for and why their kids are being threatened to be implicated in someone else’s mess. They are legitimate concerns and have nothing to do with a Russian president.
We can't abide hostile rulers like Putin expanding their territory by invading peaceful neighbors. It would be immoral and a strategic mistake. Regardless of how inefficient and corrupt our leaders are. We should definitely work to make our leaders (and our military industrial complex) less corrupt. And I'm happy to have that conversation. But that is a different conversation than this thread, even if the contents of this thread could be used as evidence in that thread. Regardless of how corrupt our leaders are, we should be helping Ukraine defend it's territory as long as they wish to do so. And we should help enough that they can effectively expel Russia for good.
McCarthyism... Yes, because I am calling you a communist and stating you should be put in jail. *eye roll* No, I am saying you're a useful idiot, and which according to US intel experts, you are. As for the Government waste argument, are you familiar with how much the US has spent in Ukraine? It's $79B since the war started. https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-us-aid-war-russia-1856016 Lets put that in context against the F-35 program lifetime cost of $1.7 TRILLION. https://simpleflying.com/how-much-does-an-f-35-cost/ Our support of Ukraine to date is 4.6% of the cost of the F-35 program which was designed to continue American dominance in the airspace against China, and what other country? Oh yeah, RUSSIA! To think further on this against another expenditure is fossil fuel subsidies, the most recent report I can find says the US is subsidizing the fossil fuel industry $649B PER YEAR. https://www.rollingstone.com/politi...ubsidies-pentagon-spending-imf-report-833035/ Funding Ukraine is arguably the best investment in terms of projecting our power and influence around the world than any other military expenditure in the last 2 years. It's been wildly successful in diminishing the military readiness, Russia has lost half of its combat capability since the war has started. The F-35, nor any other weapons' program will ever achieve that, and it's something like almost 20 times more expensive than funding Ukraine. https://www.newsweek.com/russia-has-lost-half-its-combat-capability-ukraine-uk-defense-chief-1811042 I am all for government accountability and ensuring our taxes are being well spent, but when you really take a moment to think about it, funding Ukraine is actually a very wise investment indeed. If you were truly concerned with government waste, you wouldn't be focused on funding Ukraine, no you'd be focused on the pentagon budget. I have not, at least not yet, seen you advocate for cutting the military budget or at minimum making it auditable. You're arguing over a line item that is something like 5% the Federal budget of $1.6T, it makes no sense when you consider it's been one of the better investments we've made in our national security in the last two years.
Of course based on a ridiculous and delusional theory because no one wants to invade russia. Who would want to be responsible for a country where almost 25 % of the people have no indoor plumbing?
I'm not sure what buildup pre-war you are talking about. USA had only sent about 90 Javelin anti-tank guns, 50 Stingers from Baltic countries and a couple hundred beat up Humvees at that time. And this was after russia had already invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014 and continued shelling Ukraine for the next 8 years. Ukraine drove russians back from Kyiv with almost exclusively old soviet weapons.
Here is the map of where this strike took place, The ship was apparently in a quay where they thought they were safe, They were loading or unloading arms. I used to live in Partenit, just up the coast from Hurzuf.
Navalny dies in Prison. Not a perfect man (he once supported russia's takeover of Crimea) but really one of the bravest and most principled men of our times. Insecure Putin apparently could not tolerate his opposition, even from prison. n response to the news of the death of so-called opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a Russian prison, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated that he was killed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Source: Zelenskyy at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Quote: "Putin always kills. He is a war himself. He will not stop, he can only be stopped and only by people working together. As soon as it became known that Alexei Navalny had died in a Russian prison, it was obvious that he was killed by Putin, like thousands of people tortured and killed because of this one beast. He doesn't care who dies as long as he keeps his position. And that’s precisely why he shouldn’t get to keep anything. Putin has to lose everything and he has to be held accountable for what he has done."
