The Brink of War?

[Dragonman]

By the way, I forgot to explain why substitution is wrong.

US were allies of VietKong, now US are allies of Ukraine, like just year ago US were allies of Afghan govt.

So you don't have to remind destiny of VietKong. Is enough to remind destiny of pro-American Afghan govt

On the left evacuation from Saigon, 1975, on the right: evacuation from Kabul, 2021

Attachment 12769

1. I understood that Russians understood both irony and sarcasm!
2. "US were allies of VietKong" is incorrect. The Viet Cong (not VietKong) were most decidedly NOT allies of the US in the American/Vietnamese War. Viet Cong (Việt Cộng, literally "Communist Viet") was an armed communist revolutionary organization in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. They fought under the direction of North Vietnam, against the South Vietnamese and United States governments during the Vietnam War, eventually emerging on the winning side. I believe their name for themselves was National the Liberation Front of South Vietnam.
3. You don't mention that the US was an ally of the Soviet Union in WW II and, under its Lend-Lease Act supplied needed goods to the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1945 in support of what Stalin described to Roosevelt as the “enormous and difficult fight against the common enemy — bloodthirsty Hitlerism." I believe the current value of the goods supplied is around $US180 billion in today's currency, The US Embassy in Moscow has a list of what was supplied (even before it entered the war) on its website "to help it defeat the Nazi invasion" - https://ru.usembassy.gov/world-war-i...on-1941-1945/: 400,000 jeeps & trucks; 14,000 airplanes; 8,000 tractors; 13,000 tanks; 1.5 million blankets; 15 million pairs of army boots; 107,000 tons of cotton; 2.7 million tons of petrol products; and 4.5 million tons of food. I don't believe it was necessary for the people of the Soviet Union to "crowdfund" their defense they way they have to "crowdfund" the "special military operation" that was supposed to last only a few days.

[Moses]

[Dragonman]

I concede that Russian politicians and oligarchs will probably not flee by helicopter - but only because Russia has lost so many in Ukraine: see "List_of_aircraft_losses_during_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War: Russian aircraft losses, 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine," at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/, and "Russia has already lost 215 planes and 180 helicopters in the war with Ukraine," https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/06/17/7353022/.

Crux - the India-based internet channel from which you took the video clip - also carries this report - "Will Ukraine Setback Unseat Putin? Why Russia's War Losses May Trigger Political Upheaval In Kremlin," Sep 15, 2022, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuZGLatobGk. It carries commentary on "The recent counteroffensive in Donbas has put Russian President Vladimir Putin in a difficult situation. The recent setback is being criticised by important figures within Russia. The Ukrainian fight back is also raising question over Putin's legitimacy. In this episode of DeCode we look at if Putin can survive this onslaught or will this be the end of the road for Putin."

[Dragonman]

There is an interesting opinion piece article in The Sydney Morning Herald today, which looks beyond the Russian Federation's attempt to annex Ukraine by their political and internation editor, Peter Hartcher, entitled "Russia is struggling to annexe Ukraine, but China is annexing Russia pretty effortlessly" (https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/ru...19-p5bj57.html). It contains an example of the change in standing of the two countries and their leaders: "One telltale sign was the summit shenanigans at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s leaders last week. A notoriously petty Putin power play was turned against him. The Russian dictator often made foreign leaders suffer the humiliation of an extended wait before arriving for scheduled summits. For instance, he once kept Donald Trump waiting for 45 minutes and India’s Narendra Modi for 50. He routinely kept Ukrainian leaders waiting three or four hours. But the record was when he made German Chancellor Angela Merkel suffer an insufferable 4¼ hours. So there was notable schadenfreude last week when four nations’ leaders made Putin wait. Modi took his opportunity to drive home Putin’s downgrading in the international order, and so did the leaders of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan. “Putin used to make everyone wait,” observed a Ukrainian government adviser, Anton Gerashchenko. “Now he is the one waiting awkwardly. Times changed.”

The rest of the article is in a similar vein, but the conclusion is interesting: "When Xi formally is endorsed by the Chinese Communist Party Congress next month to serve a third five-year term as general secretary, he will not only become the first Chinese leader since Mao to serve a third term. He will be holding Russia, once China’s tutor, now its vassal, as a trophy. This is an undreamt-of asset for Beijing, one that only Putin’s misjudgement could have delivered."

[Moses]

===Anton Gerashchenko===
Do you want to quote more clowns?

There is proverb in political circles in Ukraine: "Listen Gerashchenko and do opposite". That clown wasn't right even once. Do you remember elections when Trump won? At that night Gerashchenko send congratulation to Clinton - he was so eager to be first politician who will congrats Clinton.

===The Ukrainian fight back===

Russia has inflicted serious damage on Ukrainian forces with recently introduced Iranian drones, in its first wide-scale deployment of a foreign weapons system since the war began, Ukrainian commanders say.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/russias...ps-11663415140

wait a little bit... maybe 2-3 weeks... and you will see helicopter above US embassy in Kiev

[Dragonman]

===Anton Gerashchenko===
Do you want to quote more clowns?

There is proverb in political circles in Ukraine: "Listen Gerashchenko and do opposite". That clown wasn't right even once. Do you remember elections when Trump won? At that night Gerashchenko send congratulation to Clinton - he was so eager to be first politician who will congrats Clinton.

===The Ukrainian fight back===


https://www.wsj.com/articles/russias...ps-11663415140

wait a little bit... maybe 2-3 weeks... and you will see helicopter above US embassy in Kiev

I didn't quote Anton Geraschenko, so I don't know why you referenced him. Grabbing at straws, maybe?

Why did you call Peter Hartcher "a clown"? Do you know anything about him - or was it just a gratuitous insult to someone with whose opinion you do not agree and about whom you know nothing? Perhaps you missed the wording in my posting that it was an opinion piece article and not a news article? People in the democracies are entitled to publish opinions, whether or not others agree with them.

Once again, when the conversation takes a turn to which you cannot respond, you introduce a diversion, in this case by referencing Iranian drones. I don't recall you commenting negatively on Ukraine's use of Turkish drones earlier in the conflict. I draw your attention to an earlier report that "Russia was planning to acquire military drones from Iran, which has made significant progress in developing UAVs to compensate for its lack of an effective air force" (https://www.iranintl.com/en/202209174000), and guess that the Russian Federation is acquiring them for the same reason, i.e., that it now lacks an effective air force?

I wait with bated breath the news reports of helicopters above the US embassy in Kiev. I wonder whom they will deliver?

[Moses]

Russian guy trolling EU: he burns gas in his home 24/7 with live nonstop streaming. He pays 1.44 Euro per month for unlimited gas.

https://www.twitch.tv/russiangas1

1663669327783.jpg

[Dragonman]

Russian guy trolling EU: he burns gas in his home 24/7 with live nonstop streaming. He pays 1.44 Euro per month for unlimited gas.

https://www.twitch.tv/russiangas1

1663669327783.jpg

A minor effort considering that State gas giant Gazprom's Portovaya liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility is burning off, or "flaring," about 4.34 million cubic meters of gas a day.

That's equivalent to 1.6 billion cubic meters on an annual basis, or about 0.5% of the European bloc's gas demand, and worth about $10 million a day based on last week's European spot gas price.

However, this flaring is an "environmental disaster," with about 9,000 tons of carbon dioxide being emitted every day. That's the same amount of emissions produced over a whole year by more than 1,100 average American homes.

The emissions are a contribution to global warming, which will probably contribute to the melting of the permafrost that underlies the Russian tundra. When the tundra melts, the ground is less solid, and that could be disastrous for Russian cities and critical infrastructure like buildings and oil pipelines, roads and railways, as well as can negatively affect the connectivity and accessibility of northern Russian communities by land.

However, if that person feels he is making a significant gesture to Europe, who are we to complain. As I noted in an earlier posting in this thread, people are entitled to express their opinions. I did notice, however, he doesn't seem to have anything to cook.

[Moses]

I did notice, however, he doesn't seem to have anything to cook.

He isn't at home, blue note at the bottom in Russian "Out to work till 18:00"

[Moses]

After enforced few waves of mobilization, Ukraine found new way how o instill patriotism to own soldiers.

Vostok battalion commander Alexander Khodakovsky (DNR) in his Telegram channel (Rus) https://t.me/s/aleksandr_skif

"The situation near Kherson is not easy, communication across the Dnieper is extremely difficult, it is likely that the enemy will again try to push us across the river, for which he is ready to take unprecedented measures. The other day, ours saw an enemy tank and were about to destroy it, but his atypical behavior suspended the decision : the tank lifted the barrel up and began to rotate the turret, as if signaling surrender. Our guys got close to the car and saw that the hatches on the tank were welded - the crew was simply walled up, like in a tin can, and sent to die...."

who is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Khodakovsky