Kansas Crimson

ousdahl wrote: ↑Sat Jul 22, 2023 11:15 am Meanwhile, for the United States and its NATO allies, these 18 months of war have been a strategic windfall, at relatively low cost (other than for the Ukrainians).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... est-gloom/

Sparko wrote: ↑Sat Jul 22, 2023 11:51 am There is a Tankie argument that NATO has pushed the war into its expansive depths. Saving Ukraine has had a large cost to Ukraine. Not intervening directly was done for existential and not strategic reasons alone. I thought you hewed to that Roger Waters logic. Sorry.

ousdahl wrote: ↑Sun Jul 23, 2023 10:36 am

Sparko wrote: ↑Sat Jul 22, 2023 11:51 am There is a Tankie argument that NATO has pushed the war into its expansive depths. Saving Ukraine has had a large cost to Ukraine. Not intervening directly was done for existential and not strategic reasons alone. I thought you hewed to that Roger Waters logic. Sorry.

Sparko wrote: ↑Sun Jul 23, 2023 12:10 pm Caitlin Johnstone slaps herself when taking too many vegan treats.

KUTradition wrote: ↑Mon Jul 24, 2023 12:01 pm Ukraine is now the most land mined country on the planet

fucking ‘muricans

Steven Myers, an Air Force veteran who served on the State Department's Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy under two secretaries of State, told USA TODAY that one of the West’s narratives is that Putin planned to conquer Ukraine and continue west if not stopped. But Myers argues that Russia's military tactics have been "completely inconsistent with conquest." The agenda was, is and will always be to keep Ukraine out of NATO at all costs, he said.

"Strategically, this war was lost by both sides before it started. It will end in stalemate, which I now think was Putin’s intent from the get-go," Myers said. "President Biden, NATO and (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy have trapped themselves in a Catch-22 of their own making, unable to deliver on unrealistic expectations they created."

Sean McFate, a professor at Syracuse University and senior fellow at the nonpartisan Atlantic Council think tank, says Zelenskyy is "in a box. He can’t win but can’t afford to lose either." For more than a year he demanded increasingly sophisticated weapons and billions of dollars from NATO and promised to push Russia out in a spring offensive. That offensive "has been floundering," McFate says.

"NATO is experiencing donor fatigue and disappointment with Zelenskyy’s bluster," McFate told USA TODAY. "He’s losing credibility, Ukraine's main asset."

Providing Ukraine with more weapons and expecting the nation to win the war is "the definition of strategic insanity," McFate said. This war won't be won on a battlefield because no wars are won that way anymore, he said.

"The U.S. has been winning battles and losing wars for 50 years now," he said.