old salt wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 3:31 am
No. That's my actual opinion, expressed in this forum as far back as 2014. ...& that has nothing to do with Biden or RvD team sports.
I agree that THIS isn't R' and D sports. It's just wrong. You don't get to decide if it's a country. Surely you understand why folks would mock this idea of yours? The Ukrainians are dying over sovereignty. So it's pretty obvious that your opinion is wrong.
Urkaine is a founding member of the UN, for heaven's sake (I didn't know that).
old salt wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 12:10 am
Not when I'm called on "it ". When I'm insulted or my patriotism questioned or loyalty to country is impugned for having a long held, honest opinion, based on history. ...especially after I spent a career prepared to fight Russians of Muscovite, Ukrainian & other ethnic heritages. To me, they are not different. They're all corrupt & all squandered the opportunities they were presented when we defeated the USSR in the Cold War.
Understandable that you're annoyed by DocB's BS. But dude, YOU don't get to decide if Ukraine isn't a country, any more than Putin does. Sorry, that's not how that works. Been a country for 30 years and counting. No one complained. No one voted to become a part of Russia via peaceful means, which is how adults handle such things, both legally and morally.
old salt wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 10:31 pm
I know what he won't be able to do.
Yes. But that's not the same of knowing what or when he will surrender, negotiate, or keep fighting.
old salt wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 10:31 pm
I know that his ability to fight & run his country depends on US military & financial aid. We're still not providing the weapons necessary to mount a counteroffensive & drive out the Russians. Do you know why ? That's not a criticism. It's a statement of fact.
Pretty obvious that Biden is trying to keep Putin from using nukes, and also trying to keep angry Ukrainians from hitting Russia. If nukes or attacks on Russia weren't on the table? Pretty obvious to me that Biden would give them whatever they want. That makes sense to me, at least.
old salt wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 10:31 pm
I don't single out Biden. It's both parties, Congress, NATO & the West, in general. Anyone who questions total commitment is branded a Putin supporter.
As I said before: you and TeamWarMonger earned this from DECADES of doing the same to anyone who questions the American War Machine. Don't like it, do you? Well.....think about that next time you pull the same thing on guys like me who try to tell you that arming Saddam is stupid and reckless...and not in America's best interest.
old salt wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 10:31 pm
So why didn't they do it while Trump was in office. Why did they wait until Biden was in office & he bungled our Afghan pullout ?
How many times do I need to explain this you? Putin FACTUALLY doesn't care who is in the White House. If he did? He would have invaded when Trump was pulling us back out of NATO, and pulling us away from being a Global Cop. Because: duh.
If he was worried about who was in the White House? Invading when a decades long, charter member of TeamAmericaAsGlobalCop was the DUMBEST thing Putin could have done. EG: look what the F happened? Scoreboard. And any Russian advisor with access to Google, and a spare hour or two could have told you that's how Biden would operate overseas.
old salt wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 12:10 am
Trump greenlit the invasion ? So why didn't he invade while Trump was still in office ?
Again, simple: because that CLEARLY didn't factor anywhere into Putin's calculus. The ONLY place this make sense in FoxNation, where they have visions of Trump riding shirtless on a horse, because he's SUCH a tough guy, and Biden and his little D is weak.
And for the 1,000th time, Biden's little D has proved more than a match for Putin's clearly overrated military. Pretty obviously that Putin thought he'd hit Kiev in under a week. And he may have done just that if he invaded when Trump's America First was in charge.
Putin waited for a career old school Global Cop DC insider to take power before invading?
If that's true (it's not), he's the dumbest leader Russia has ever had. I told you that Biden would restore America's role as Global Cop BEFORE he took office. Because: duh. Anyone could see that was coming. Biden did EXACTLY what you'd expect these paint-by-numbers, Cold War era American leaders to do.....
old salt wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 12:10 am
Because I'm sick of the false choice of total defeat or total victory.
Yep..it's why you're trolling and throwing temper tantrums. You just made my point for me. Making dumb, outrageous statements because you're sick of DocB's statements. I certainly don't blame you for that....but I can only react to what you put on the page.
old salt wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 12:10 am
Each one was different circumstances. None were as risky as this one with as little strategic value to the US. None of them had nucs or anywhere near the conventional power that Russia has.
Meh. We fought in Syria with Russia right there. IMO, there's no strategic value to Syria, either. But that's my opinion, not yours.
The one thing that I know is that you yourself have told me numerous times about the value of Ukraine, their ports, and access to the Black Sea, and through to the ocean. Russia is plugging that up right now, at the very least for the global grain supply....your own words again.
So coming back and claiming there's no value? Come on.
old salt wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 12:10 am
By the nature of the weapons he's not providing & he's cut back on the total victory rhetoric.
So what? You have no idea what's happening behind the scenes.
old salt wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 12:10 am
I only mention Biden when you cast my every comment as a specific critique of him. I'm arguing with the triumphalist keyboard warriors in this forum, not with Biden.
Then focus your fire on DocB and his stupid, self-important ideas.
I'm not at all convinced this is the right thing to do.....but if we've given arms to everyone and their mom over just the last 20 years, I see no moral reason to exclude Ukraine from our stupid foreign policy games of "let's arm and back a corrupt dictator". The one thing that I DO know is that Biden was handed this sh*t sandwich by the guys who negotiated with Ukraine to give up their nukes...and Putin reneged on this deal, which is no small thing.