My ears were deaf to President Zelensky’s speech today. The lamentations of women and children move me, but I am not moved when they are used for propaganda, which is how I interpret Zelensky’s presentation.
The way I read the war: Ukraine’s military cannot defeat Russia’s military. With limited outside assistance, Ukraine can prolong hostilities, but never to the point of winning. It will take NATO or U.S. forces on the ground to reverse Russia’s invasion and force Russia’s retreat.
But since we and NATO are unwilling to fight Russia directly, our only option is to deliver limited support of the kind that will continue to cause Ukrainian mothers and children in the war zone to die.
Meanwhile, the economic world order is changing beneath our feet as countries around the world begin to sign up for an alternative balance of payments system that isn’t based on U.S. dollars.
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
Every weapon we send only increases the death toll and the lingering hatred with no change in the outcome.
There is hardly any bad thing that the current administration cannot make worse.
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The people of Ukraine are fighting for their LIBERTY against the forces of oppression and TYRANY? Are these not the causes you use to justify your personal arsenal of weapons that will do nothing but increase the death toll and lingering hatred in this country should you ever try to use them?
Historically, the United States has claimed to be on the side of LIBERTY. If asked by those risking everything to defend it, we should do exactly what President Biden is doing – providing as much help as possible without widening the war. And we should continue to inflict economic and cultural pain on Russians so long as they allowed themselves to be ruled by this tyrant.
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Absent the actual involvement of NATO on the ground, Russia is going to win.
Making that harder and stretching out just means more deaths.
If Russia tried to stay permanently, guerilla actions could make that untenable, but they will not win a set-piece war.
So, what the Ukrainians should be doing is burying those weapons and ammo that would be useful in a guerilla action and then making peace.
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“Absent the actual involvement of NATO on the ground, Russia is going to win.”
That appears less certain every day. They are currently stalled on every front and have been reduced to terror tactics against civilians. By many reports they are out of food, fuel and ammunition and have zero morale. Russian generals keep getting killed because they are forced to go to the front lines to “kick ass and take names.” Russia has gone hat in hand to China for military and economic help. So far, it is not forthcoming. An ending favorble to Ukraine is only one Colonel von Stauffenberg away.
I will fully respect whatever decision the Ukrainians make – fight on or surrender. But, based on what has happened so far and the rhetoric of President Zelensky, I think many of them – far more than Putin assumed – share the sentiment attributed to Emiliano Zapata. . .
“Mas vale morir a pie que vivir de rodillas.”
“It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.”
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You need to stop watching “Red Dawn”
This delusional cheerleading is getting peolpe killed.
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You do realize that the Ukraine armed forces is doing most of the actual combat. They are relatively large, very experienced, decently well armed and highly motivated. They are also better led and smart.
“Red Dawn” is not even close to characterizing the war.
Now it may come down to guerrilla war, but I think Russia will pull the plug when they realize that slaughtering brethren Slavs and flattening their cities is not like Chechnya or Syria or Georgia. Ukrainians have friends, media and money. The other battlegrounds had bupkis plus they were already within Russian spheres of either influence or territory.
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Yeah, people you disagree with are always getting other people killed. If I were to say something good about setting better mileage standards for our vehicles, you would accuse me of genocide. You have worn this one out.
The leaders and people of the Ukraine have chosen to fight rather than give up their Liberty, their honor, and their country to the fascist invader. I hope they are successful. You obviously do not. You hope they surrender and subject themselves to the tender mercies of V. Putin. Like the people of Grozny did.
As for “Red Dawn,” I think I saw it once about thirty-five years ago. Seems like you have watched it far more recently and far more than once? You seem to be oblivious to the irony of such an accusation coming from a person whose rich fantasy life is of rising up with your personal arsenal to end “tyranny.”
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Once a Russian “victory” is declared, Ukraine becomes just another state in Russia and that gives Putin carte blanche to slaughter recalcitrant Ukrainian people.
The older Assad did just that with a town in Syria, Hama, in 1982, that rebelled. He flattened the town and bulldozed it till there was no trace it even existed.
This invasion of a sovereign country is pure empire building. A failed fiasco because all the military buildup since Putin took over is sitting in yachts, homes and secret banks as stolen money.
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If your goal is to save civilian lives, then a protracted guerrilla war is not helpful at all. As I noted, Assad, a Putin “brother”, has slaughtered untold numbers of his own countrymen in his protracted civil war. Like his father.
This is not a paintball game among militia gangs in Michigan or Idaho. Ukraine military is experienced and tough. They’ve been fighting Putin’s thugs and hired mercenaries for nearly a decade. And not tiny. About 250,000 active and a boat load of reservists and very pissed civilians.
Body bags from Afghanistan is what finally caused Russia to pull out. Putin can’t hide the dead conscripts from their mothers but for so long.
In my opinion, Putin needs to declare victory and go home. But, I am reasonably sane despite reports to the contrary.
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If Ukrainians are considering the “suggested” alternative of a prolonged resistance, they have the example of Grozny to consider. In response to such resistance, Grozny was literally flattened by shelling and bombing with at least 80,000 civilians killed. That was just one small city. Ukraine has about twenty such cities.
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Ukraine may not “win” in the classic sense, but Russia could certainly lose. Putin’s track record has been against minimal resistance in Syria and Chechnya. He was able to destroy whole towns much more easily than what he is accomplishing in Ukraine.
Ukrainians are not happy about rejoining a dictatorship. They are not Russians. Never have been despite the warped historical excuses by Putin and his Western apologists.
I don’t think the hatred of Putin can increase. Your compassion for the lives of Ukrainians is remarkable. Many on the right here would destroy our government over masks and vaccines, yet think Ukrainians should just roll over for the a murdering KGB despot.
At this point, a surrender would only move a confrontation with Russia a few years down the road.
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Thanks for the link and for sharing the “conservative” view of the slaughter of women and children by the jack-booted thugs of tyranny. Mere propaganda tools.
You say that Ukraine’s military cannot win. That is not obvious after the course of the war for these last weeks. They ARE winning. Every day that Putin’s invasion is thwarted is a victory. Russia has fielded a poorly supplied military riddled with incompetence and corruption and manned by unmotivated soldiers who were not even told they would be under fire.
When push comes to shove, war is about will and motivation. Are Russians willing to die to advance Putin’s personal ambitions? Are Ukrainians willing to die to defend their homes, their families and their LIBERTY? Are the Russian people and Russian elites ready to accept total economic ruin and blighted lives in service of war crimes?
The answers are coming into focus. They are not good for the criminal Putin.
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RE: “Russia has fielded a poorly supplied military riddled with incompetence and corruption and manned by unmotivated soldiers who were not even told they would be under fire.”
I hear that on the news every day, but it sounds like fog-of-war talk to me. Zelensky wouldn’t be asking for help to create a no-fly zone if the Russian army were as weak or ineffective as our media make it sound.
I also find it odd that no one seems to be demanding a cease fire. Fox News spends hours each day documenting civilian casualties and hardships only to lament them and condemn them, but never does a guest or commentator say, simply, “This must stop.”
The point may seem overly subtle, but it is important to notice that the atrocities in Ukraine are being used to drum up war fever.
In a rational world, the U.S. president would establish American policy with respect to Ukraine and tell us what it is. Ideally, the policy would define specific goals from which clear plans could be drawn up. A policy to stop the war in Ukraine would be a practical starting point, but instead, our president and media wastes time calling Putin a war criminal.
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“Fog of war talk?”
Maybe, but the splendid little war is stalled.
Zelensky would ask for everything he might want regardless of how the war is going. Why wouldn’t he?
Who should demand a “cease fire?” Us? A “cease fire in situ plays into Russian hands. They are invaders. They should be fired upon until they leave. It is not Ukraine that is bombarding cities.
Atrocities have ALWAYS been used to boost morale and mobilize support. It appears the Ukrainians do not have to invent them. They have plenty to choose from/
As for President Biden, it is very clear that you people are dismayed at how effective he has been in leading the international response, punishing Russia economically, and expediting the delivery of munitions and state-of-the-art defensive weapons systems. Our policy is clear – defend democracy and frustrate fascism. Our President could not have been more clear about what we will do, why we are doing it and, very importantly, what we will NOT do.
Meanwhile your Dear Leader has proposed painting Chinese markings on our planes and bombing Russia. Genius!
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RE: “Maybe, but the splendid little war is stalled.”
That’s not provably true. In fact, I could provide military analyses that refute the assertion, but they are not provably true, either. Hence fog-of-war talk.
RE: “As for President Biden, it is very clear that you people are dismayed at how effective he has been in leading the international response, punishing Russia economically, and expediting the delivery of munitions and state-of-the-art defensive weapons systems.”
I am dismayed that Biden imposed sanctions and expedited weapons delivery without using the threat of those actions as bargaining chips first. Shoot-first-ask-questions-later is an irresponsible foreign policy.
RE: “Our policy is clear – defend democracy and frustrate fascism.”
What does that even mean?
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https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-begins-sanction-moscow-beginning-russian-invasion-ukraine/story?id=83041555
Biden started his threat to sanction Feb 22. Sanctions started with invasion Feb 24.
Sanctions needed Europe to follow through. Tougher call for them with Russian energy supplying large parts of the EU. A good deal of diplomacy and back door negotiations have gone on. But now there is a united front.
Perhaps you might consider a trip to Ukraine yourself since you don’t believe anything reported.
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“That’s not provably true.”
Well, the fact is that Russian forces have failed to advance for many days now and they still do not control ANY major city. Since they packed their dress uniforms for their victory parade instead of extra ammo, it seems that they expected a walk in the park instead of a slog through Hell. That sounds like “stalled” to me.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/16/uneasy-wait-in-kyiv-continues-as-russian-advance-appears-stalled
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War crimes? Meh.
That is my take away from your cavalier dismissal of the citizens of a PEACEFUL country that is being violently attacked.
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