The comment made like a parent scolding a child heard around the world

“Pope warns moscow patriarch kirill not to be putins alter boy”

Pope Francis condemns Ukraine’s ban on Russian Orthodox Church | National Catholic Reporter

 

Two things can be true at once.
The Ukies have fought bravely and well against the Russies since 2014 - AND they've not been a paragon of virtue and light as a nation.
Pre 2013, I would not have let them NEAR a NATO membership because (a) I read how WW1 got started and (b) The Ukies were a fairly horribly run nation post Soviet Breakup.

I do not mind terribly the fact that we've spent OUR money and Ukrainian lives profligately in killing Rooskies and breaking their things, but sooner or later we're going to have to move the car wreck off the side of the road and get on with our lives.
We've expended all of the older consumables and what @bwilson4web calls 'low s/n equipment' but the drain on our stores and equipment is starting to tell - and the dollah cost has been non-zero as well (although a bit of it has gone back into our military contractors.)

We're also going to be in a shooting war with the ChiComms pretty soon - OR the same war mongering liberals who want to be generous with other people's money and brave with other people's blood NOW will feel differently (for some reason ) when it's Taiwan.
Unfortunately, a blockade or invasion of THAT nation will bring about 'slightly different' economic consequences.......

 

He should do what, just expose his belly to the aggressor then? Bloody astounding stance, man.

 

Ukraine WAS one of the most corrupt countries. They got tired of it, and went through their own version of an Arab Spring

Euromaidan - Wikipedia

When it was over, they kicked out Viktor Yanukovych, (a Russian puppet) and elected Zelinskii. Yanukovych fled to Russia

Viktor Yanukovych - Wikipedia

Ukraine has taken many steps to end the corruption and oligarchy since, starting with electing Zelinskii. That's when the Russians got pissed and invaded. That was back in 2014. Yevgeny Prigozhin invaded Crimea with his paramilitary troops. Another Prigozhin enterprise was the Internet Research Agency (look up the Mueller report on what they did in 2016).

@ColoradoBoo, you're full of Russian propaganda. Russia committed war crimes. In no way will Ukraine and Zelinskii shrug that off

War crimes in the Russian invasion of Ukraine - Wikipedia

What happened in the Oval Office was a disgusting betrayal of an ally and a friend. Someone who's trying to do what's right by his country. Americans negotiated with Russia in Saudi Arabia without anybody from Europe or Ukraine. They sold out Ukraine and their dreams of ending the Russian corruption and oligarchy in their country.

As for WW3, Ukraine gave up all of its nuclear weapons in a deal with the United States and Russia. It's Russia that's threatening with nuclear weapons, has launched IRBM MIRV at a Ukraine, threatened and launched an attack on Chernobyl (making it a dirty bomb), and threatens the nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia.

Russia is a corrupt oligarchy. They should have taken Ukraine in 3 days, but haven't managed that in over 3 years. How? Because of all of the corruption. Everything was stolen, or rotted out. Russia is done as a country. The only thing holding it together is propaganda and lies. They're sending their troops into battle on donkeys, bicycles and hoverboards and you think Ukraine should surrender? Even if Russia wins the war today, they're done as a country. Everything has been stolen and there's nothing left.

 

The good Lord is going to do something I predict, it is so bad what 47 is doing, pure evil. We have Lucifer’s helper in the WH.

 

The policy of appeasement led in 1938 to the Munich Agreement, the loss of Czech territory, and the resignation of the Czech president.

But the policy of appeasement did not stop the Second World War.

 

...OR start it.

SO.
I listened to the entire 50-ish minute presser yesterday, rather than JUST the highlights reels and the drive-by diplomats.

Submitted for your approval (I chose a non-triggering source)

 

Oh?

The history I learned was a little different - or did you mean Italy - or RUSSIA??
Maybe we're talking about a DIFFERENT WW-2???
Russia changes sides and they won.
According to WESTERN history, World War II began in Europe on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland - which is 'scientifically' correct. (**)
HOWEVER (comma!!!!!!!!!!!!)
A few weeks later, in 1939 the Soviet Red Army invaded the Kresy regions of POLAND in accordance with a DEAL that they made with NAZI GERMANY!!!!
At the opening of hostilities several Polish cities including Dubno, Łuck and Włodzimierz Wołyński let the Red Army in peacefully, convinced that it was marching on in order to fight the Germans!

It would take Poland 54 years to be rid of the Russies....which is why (unlike much of the REST of the EU!!!) they actually pay their way in NATO.

Imperial Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and China in 1937 - but THATS not important to WESTERN history. Germany invaded the Sudetenland in 1938.

 

You just believe whatever he says. If he says Z will start ww3, you believe.
Putin will start it. Already started this war. I have never seen in a fairly long life people who just believe some talking head. Maybe Jonestown where the cult leader says take poison, and they did.
Wait, 45 did go to poison and some did try it.

 

Let's talk about all those missing Billions.

Trump claims on his social network that the US gave Ukraine $350 Billion. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

That's just not true. (Don't think that's the only whopper he's told about funding. He also claimed that Puerto Rico got $92 Billion of the $42 Billion allocated by Congress after Hurricane Maria - except that he cut off aid after only $14 Billion
Fact check: Trump says Puerto Rico got $92 billion. They've seen only a fraction.

I don't know where you got the idea that Trump either knows the facts or doesn't lie. I don't believe he's capable of telling the truth at all
Washington Post counts 30,573 false or misleading claims in four years by Trump

So, if you look into it a bit more, the actual military aid given by the US to Ukraine is less - a lot less
"The Special Inspector General for Operation Atlantic Resolve (OAR), which handles U.S. oversight of this spending, states Congress has appropriated or otherwise made available nearly $183 billion toward Ukraine and OAR, of which $130.1 billion has been obligated and $86.7 disbursed, between fiscal years 2022 and 2024.
This funding also includes security assistance for NATO allies in partner nations, so not all of it is allocated for use specifically in Ukraine."
Fact Check: Did the US Give $350B to Ukraine, as Trump Claims? - Newsweek

So there's a lot of the missing funds - Trump lied, and of the appropriated funding, a lot of it still hasn't been disbursed.The US has been slow-rolling a lot of aid to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion. There's a bunch of the other missing money right there - still waiting on some sort of final approval.

There's more. Ukraine isn't getting all that much in actual cash money. They're getting weapons and ammunition.

A lot of these were rotting away in US stockpiles because we've moved on to bigger and better things. The US taxpayers were actually going to have to pay to get rid of the stuff. Ukraine did us a favor and used it on the Russians. Where's the cash given to Ukraine there? We send the Ukrainians something that has no value to us, record millions on the books of aid given to Ukraine and get to replace our inventory with the weapons we'd use.

There's also the other weapons we've sent. Take for example the 155mm Artillery shells we've sent. These are bought with the allocated US funding from factories in the US and sent to Ukraine. The cash never left the US because it was used to buy the artillery rounds. This money has been spent employing US workers here in the US.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/29/biden-admin-map-states-benefit-ukraine-aid-00129068

Zelinskii didn't visit the US to campaign for the Democrats. He visited the munitions factory in Pennsylvania to thank them for their work.
Ukraine's Zelenskyy visits Pennsylvania ammunition plant to thank workers and ask for more | AP News

of the "Hundreds of Billions of dollars given to Ukraine", where's the missing money? It doesn't exist. I'm sure that there's been a little go missing. Nothing like this ever reaches 100%, but you're not going to find it in any of Zelinskii's "foreign bank accounts".

 

Great rebuttal

 

One C-C-P deserves another.

We've been doing this since 2014.
155mm shell stocks ARE depleted.
https://www.reuters.com/world/south-korea-lend-500000-rounds-artillery-shells-us-report-2023-04-12/
FGM-148 (Javelins) are also somewhat depleted.
Is the United States Running out of Weapons to Send to Ukraine?
We're putting more and more flight hours on reccie birds and MQ9s.

The idea that people let idiotic comments about military weapons and munitions "rotting away in US stockpiles" go unchallenged means that Biden isn't the only person who says stupid things about subjects that he doesn't know JACK about (Jack!) OR Trump isn't the only Lying Liar face in DC.

Pick your poison.

 

Not enough to meet their spending obligations!!

Says WHO???
The Ukies?
Then WHY are they 'buying' from the Turkeys and US?
The CCP's DJI is the world's largest drone manufacturer, with over 70% of the market.

They've actually been doing that for a while - AS THEY SHOULD.
If Superconductors are the new 'black gold' of the 2020s then they should be made in more than one nation!
As with SSNs and SSBNs.....
Missiles....
EW, Radar, Sonar....

Our military needs to shrink a little....

Boeing has been making the gifts to Airbus lately....
Their airframes are a little too automated for my taste but stuff doesn't fall off the aircraft.

That's not quite how that works.
If the EU is going to finally start lifting their end of the log, they're going to need intel....FROM US.