Meanwhile in Ukraine

[Smitty-48]

How did Syria go? Russians were there as advisors, similar playbook, and Assad is still in charge. Despite the wishes of Hillary and the rest of her usual entourage of neo warhawks.

but the Syrians did all the hard fighting, Russian ground troops stuck to their FOBs

this is not Syria, Syria is mostly desert with a couple cities

Ukraine is much denser, Ukraine is one city after the next

[Zlaxer]

How did Syria go? Russians were there as advisors, similar playbook, and Assad is still in charge. Despite the wishes of Hillary and the rest of her usual entourage of neo warhawks.

Not tracking you

[Smitty-48]

Don’t you think it’s weird he was so far off in his plans?

I think they must have assumed that the Ukrainians were going to fold without a fight like in 2014

but Zelesnky has flipped the script

now the Ukrainians see a path to victory

and that has turned what Putin clearly thought was going to be a walkover, into a hornet's nest

[Smitty-48]

like I say, military disaster is a grand old Russian tradition

what happened in the Russo Japanese War ?

the Russians had a vaunted Baltic Fleet which was supposedly the best navy in the world at the time

so Tsar Nicolas II was looking for some military conquest to prove himself as Emperor

so he picked a fight with Japan, thinking that those slanty eyed Orientals would be pushovers

thus he sailed the mighty Baltic Fleet all the way around the world to the Pacific

and the Japanese navy sunk the entire Russian fleet in one day

this was the beginning of the downfall of the Romanov's

[Haumana]

but the Syrians did all the hard fighting, Russian ground troops stuck to their FOBs

this is not Syria, Syria is mostly desert with a couple cities

Ukraine is much denser, Ukraine is one city after the next

Fair enough. Just asking about the strategy. They didn't go in and take the cities block by block, they just hung back and got them to capitulate.

Is Ukraine not at the table looking for outs right now? Zalensky isn't' already conceding on never being a NATO signatory?

[Smitty-48]

Russia in the First World War ?

Tsar Nicolas II takes personal command, just like Putin has now

the Russians send their serf conscripts into battle against the Imperial German Army

the Russians get annihilated

next thing you know : Russian Revolution of 1917

[Haumana]

Russia in the First World War ?

Tsar Nicolas II takes personal command, just like Putin has now

the Russians send their serf conscripts into battle against the Imperial German Army

the Russians get annihilated

next thing you know : Russian Revolution of 1917

Oh. Totally.

Why isn't Zelensky doubling down on NATO then? He should be swinging from a position of power right about now. Why did the US play their economic trump card, if all is as you say? Russians are losing, let the game play out and let them lose already.

[Smitty-48]

the Soviets in the Second World War ?

totally unprepared

Stalin has all his troops pressed up against the frontier prepared to invade Germany

Hitler beats Stalin to the punch

most of the Soviet Army in the west is encircled and annihilated in a matter of weeks

the only thing that really stopped the Germans was that Russia was just too big for them to invade

[StCapps]

62% of Americans believe that Putin wouldn't have invaded if Trump had been president

even 38% of Democrats think that

Trump has pivoted on Russia, he is now more hawkish than Biden, at least in rhetoric

he doesn't want to go down with pro-Russia ship

I wouldn't count him out, not buying Strangelove and Grumpy's wishful thinking

[Smitty-48]

Why isn't Zelensky doubling down on NATO then?

because he is now in a much stronger position

he's being armed by NATO, they've shipped him 25,000 anti tank missiles in two weeks

but he is not constrained like NATO is, he can unleash NATO power without being subject to NATO

this is nightmare scenario coming true for Russia now

Ukraine will become a proxy of NATO which is more powerful than NATO itself