Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have tried to give Putin off ramp for weeks. For months,
He is sending in troops to kill civilians.
F this guy.
I just read a good piece by Fiona Hill, and she breaks it down.
We can’t be paralyzed by fear. We have to anticipate and move to act.

We have acted and all Putin does is escalate. I’m not sure what additional actions you mean?

What's the alternative, just let Putin keep conquering and destabilizing? This needs to come to an end, and that end cannot mean Putin winning.

Cut off his money supply - which is oil. Stop buying oil from Russia and sanction sales.
And, give Ukraine more lethal weapons to give them at least a chance.

The sanctions are meaningless if they don’t include energy. Oil production and exports from Russia have not slowed since the invasion started. Do people realize this? If we want to help Ukraine we need to stop consuming so much gas and be prepared to pay high prices at the pump.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have tried to give Putin off ramp for weeks. For months,
He is sending in troops to kill civilians.
F this guy.
I just read a good piece by Fiona Hill, and she breaks it down.
We can’t be paralyzed by fear. We have to anticipate and move to act.

We have acted and all Putin does is escalate. I’m not sure what additional actions you mean?

What's the alternative, just let Putin keep conquering and destabilizing? This needs to come to an end, and that end cannot mean Putin winning.

Cut off his money supply - which is oil. Stop buying oil from Russia and sanction sales.
And, give Ukraine more lethal weapons to give them at least a chance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These stiff sanctions and total exclusion of Russia are worrying me. I think they will push Putin over the edge. Similar to how Hitler and Germany were punished after WWI. And the way Hitler reacted. Scary stuff.

Yep have to worry about him using gas and nuclear in Ukraine.

A lot is made of the punishment inflicted on Germany after WWI but that’s mostly an apologia for the foresight of John Maynard Keynes, Ph.D. The facts are quite different. Germany did quite well under the Weimar Republic, a highly sophisticated country with a top notch educational system, a movie industry that rivaled Hollywood, and even a strong gay rights movement. It was not until the Depression that Germany went downhill and people looked to the Nazis and the communists for salvation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have tried to give Putin off ramp for weeks. For months,
He is sending in troops to kill civilians.
F this guy.
I just read a good piece by Fiona Hill, and she breaks it down.
We can’t be paralyzed by fear. We have to anticipate and move to act.

We have acted and all Putin does is escalate. I’m not sure what additional actions you mean?

What's the alternative, just let Putin keep conquering and destabilizing? This needs to come to an end, and that end cannot mean Putin winning.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These stiff sanctions and total exclusion of Russia are worrying me. I think they will push Putin over the edge. Similar to how Hitler and Germany were punished after WWI. And the way Hitler reacted. Scary stuff.

Yep have to worry about him using gas and nuclear in Ukraine.

Agreed. Very worried.

Anonymous wrote:We have tried to give Putin off ramp for weeks. For months,
He is sending in troops to kill civilians.
F this guy.
I just read a good piece by Fiona Hill, and she breaks it down.
We can’t be paralyzed by fear. We have to anticipate and move to act.

We have acted and all Putin does is escalate. I’m not sure what additional actions you mean?

We have tried to give Putin off ramp for weeks. For months,
He is sending in troops to kill civilians.
F this guy.
I just read a good piece by Fiona Hill, and she breaks it down.
We can’t be paralyzed by fear. We have to anticipate and move to act.

The constant resets and face saving is what got putin where he is today. Had this type of sanctions been imposed in 2014 for crimea, it would have been a wake up call for his inner circle.

Instead, they spent 8 years planning for a major invasion secure in thought that they’ll get slapped with some sanctions that will eventually be lifted in a few years. It was a cost and benefit analysis on their side and the benefits were far greater than costs based on earlier world reactions to Georgia 2008 & Ukraine 2014. Appeasing and face saving now will only confirm that way of thinking again.

Keep in mind there are many involved and benefiting from putin’s war machine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So now we come to the real reason for getting involved. Not freedom. Not democracy. Money.

Money is the only thing that will move Putin and the oligarchs from this dark path.

Maybe. But my concern is that now there is no face saving way for Putin to move forward. Do you think he will just give up and withdraw his troops because of the sanctions? I just don’t see it.

It is being reported that Putin has sent 400 mercenaries into Ukraine to assassinate Zelenskyy and other govt. officials.

What a thug. Hopefully someone in Putin's inner circle will take him out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These stiff sanctions and total exclusion of Russia are worrying me. I think they will push Putin over the edge. Similar to how Hitler and Germany were punished after WWI. And the way Hitler reacted. Scary stuff.

I have the same dark feeling

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So now we come to the real reason for getting involved. Not freedom. Not democracy. Money.

Money is the only thing that will move Putin and the oligarchs from this dark path.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get the 17 mile convoy. Can't Ukraine just take out the road and there is a huge backup?

I don't understand this either. They should be strafing that convoy nonstop with Ukrainian fighter jets and drone bombings.

I think the thermobaric rockets are part of the convoy, so it's extremely important that the convoy is destroyed. Those rockets have a very short range - only 6km or so. They need to get quite close to Kyiv to use them.

Question asked in total ignorance: is it possible to destroy/ bomb the convoy containing weapons in a way that won’t be a substantial risk to Ukrainians? Can they be destroyed without being enormously destructive— in ways that the Ukrainians would not want to risk?

I don’t know, as the convoy does stretch through a number of towns. That said, it seems that Russians are torching houses along the convoy route. I can’t imagine that Ukrainian civilians are sticking close to that slow moving convoy of killers. They need to start bombing that convoy asap before it gets to densely populated Kyiv

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get the 17 mile convoy. Can't Ukraine just take out the road and there is a huge backup?

I don't understand this either. They should be strafing that convoy nonstop with Ukrainian fighter jets and drone bombings.

I think the thermobaric rockets are part of the convoy, so it's extremely important that the convoy is destroyed. Those rockets have a very short range - only 6km or so. They need to get quite close to Kyiv to use them.

Question asked in total ignorance: is it possible to destroy/ bomb the convoy containing weapons in a way that won’t be a substantial risk to Ukrainians? Can they be destroyed without being enormously destructive— in ways that the Ukrainians would not want to risk?

Anonymous wrote:These stiff sanctions and total exclusion of Russia are worrying me. I think they will push Putin over the edge. Similar to how Hitler and Germany were punished after WWI. And the way Hitler reacted. Scary stuff.

Yep have to worry about him using gas and nuclear in Ukraine.