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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
^^^^ the spinning on Biden losing another war has begun.

I guess it’s over.[/quote]

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been a huge win for the US. We've spent about 5 percent of the defense budget on this. And most of that was transferring older weapons systems that were due to be decommissioned regardless. In return, we've seen Russia, our most significant adversary over the past 80 years, get absolutely wrecked on the battlefield. The've lost well more than half of their military capabilities. They've literally lost thousands of tanks. Their casualty count is approximating 300,000. Their economy will be shattered for years. A brain drain has already happened. Russia is completely crippled. There is no coming back from this. Meanwhile, NATO is stronger than ever. Even Finland and Sweden joined. There is no risk at all of Russia invading any other European country. And that is no small thing. Russia's miscalculation has been a gift to the West. Biden has handled this really well.[/quote]

If this is even remotely true, then why is NATO pushing Ukraine to surrender rather than doubling down here? Why would NATO let Russia off the hook if Russia is losing so badly here at so little cost? [/quote]

What do you mean if this is remotely true? It is absolutely true. What's not said above is that the Russian Black Sea Navy is also crippled and cannot operate effectively in this region any more. They just lost one of their most advanced ships, capable of firing Kalibr cruise missiles, this weekend. These ships cannot be easily replaced (if at all). The West also got the benefit of seeing Russian military "tactics" (being generous here) in action for the past two years.[/quote]

So why stop then? Why not spend 2x and basically finish off Russia militarily? [/quote]

The West has decided to do a slow bleed instead. Remember, this has always been an evolving situation. When Russia first invaded, no one really expected the Ukrainians to not only survive with their outdated equipment, but to claw back a good percentage of the land lost to Russia. Everything north of Kiev is now firmly Ukrainian. The offensives in Kharkiv and Kherson took back major swaths of land.

Ukrainian success finally got the West to provide Leopards, Challengers, and a few Abrams tanks. Some Bradleys. Western thinking changed. Here was an opportunity to really weaken the Russian military. But the've been very cautious about it and each member nation has to be mindful of their own military needs. It's not like Holland and Sweden have an excess army just sitting around in warehouses like the US does. Longer distance HIMARS were only made available six months ago. ATACMS about a month ago. F-16s won't be in action until sometime next year. But they are not a game changer since Russian S-300 and S-400 air defense systems can shoot down fourth generation fighters.

And there's the problem. Neither Russians or Ukrainians have air superiority. So many planes and helicopters on both sides have been shot down. So the war has settled into a brutal WW1 style quagmire. It's trench warfare and artillery. And drones, which are terrifying. Absolutely everything is mined. Think of an area from DC to Maine where every field is heavily mined and dialed in with artillery. When Ukraine first launched their counter-offensive, it took them basically a week to figure out that launching armor and infantry over these fields is a suicide mission. The Russians don't care about human life so they're still losing hundreds of tanks and other armor as well as 1000s of soldiers trying to take a little town called Avdiivka. It's been a complete slaughter for them. Literally hundreds of tanks. And Russia has already lost north of 2000 tanks.

So without air superiority it's now effectively a stalemate. But the Russians are really determined to die and destroy their military. The West isn't going to stop them from their idiocy. And whenever Russians send suicide attacks, the Ukrainians oblige them.

This has been a terrible war for Ukrainians. But it's been stellar for NATO.

We should all be grateful for the existence of fifth-generation F-22s and F-35s so that our soldiers never have to fight this kind of war.[/quote]

In all likelihood Syria downed an Israeli F-35 with "just" an S200. Stealth has been solved more than people want to admit. At least until something like the B21 comes online.

So until then, we need to be a lot more humble in our actions unless we want our own boys to be sitting in trenches.

[/quote]

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