wayfarer
16d ago
When it was fighting somewhat competently last time?
WW II was won by them but it is debatable whether it counts as somewhat competently overall (lower-level generals were sometimes really good but Stalin's track record is hardly stellar as military leader and Russian approach in general was hard to me to describe as competent - with death toll so high it is hard to describe it as anything else than fuck-up). 1920 war against Poland was shitshow. Chechnya ended in victory but it was hard to describe as fighting somewhat competently. Afghanistan has not even ended in victory. Their recent adventures in Syria were extremely competent if you care about war crime high score or as provider of hilarious failures.
I guess that anti-guerilla pacifications in occupied Poland were competent militarily, but debatable whether outcome was overall good even if you care solely about Russia. Circassian genocide was AFAIK fairly competently done but it is debatable whether it really counts as fighting.
wayfarer
16d ago
the equptment is NATO
Ukraine mostly fights with USSR leftovers and NATO spares. And unwilling Russian donations are in many areas comparable to what NATO supplied.
They are fighting an enemy in which every operation is run by NATO,
drop "every" absurdity and we can start to talk
thousands of NATO mercs are running things on the ground.
really? really?
They have effectively beaten NATO in a conventional land war.
They have problem beating one of the most corrupt and poorest countries in Europe. Yes, Ukraine has small-scale help from NATO countries that gave in the same comparable amount of money to Russia via energy supplies payment and some equipment, but nowhere at scale that should have been done.
If we would have Russia vs NATO in conventional land war, they would be stomped.
If you look for more balanced matchmaking, go for Russia vs Ukraine and Poland. Given how close Ukraine vs Russia is, that should have been far more hilarious.
wayfarer
16d ago
wanting to reduce the enemy people to servitude or slavery is common
I think that this counts as genocidal
wayfarer
16d ago
Yes, whether Ukraine and other parts of former USSR are actually really part of Russia is quite central to this conflict.
wayfarer
22d ago
There's some rationalization later about how bribing kids does not render them incapable of doing things without external motivation as adults, and indeed it might be a solid way to push them more towards having intrinsic motivation later.
I am doing my job mostly because I am being paid. Without this external motivation I would be doing something else.
wayfarer
29d ago
Offered, not gave. He also offered gold statues of himself and night clubs with Palestinian woman providing sexual services (see that Gaza strip AI video posted by Trump).
wayfarer
29d ago
Yes, I know it does not exactly make sense whether you have this ritual step, but that is how it was treated for long time.
Vietnam war was weirder, if that is any help. For some bizarre reason USA decided to outright not attack SAM sites because Russian soldiers were shooting at them from there.
backing all sorts of terrorist groups in Iran
can you give some examples?
the best way to convince them to get nukes
Iran was convinced already, that changes little
wayfarer
30d ago
Supplying weapons and intelligence is widely considered as different than using your own weapons, controlled by your soldiers using your intelligence.
Does not exactly make sense, but that is how it was treated for long time.
wayfarer
30d ago
their cooperation with other great powers has been pretty minimal in order to maintain their sovereignty and independence. I would guess they will have offers of assistance and they're more likely to swallow the costs now and it will make the world worse as a result.
HESA Shahed 136/Geran-2 alone is enough to drop "pretty minimal", I think
wayfarer
30d ago
Maybe? I would not mock someone who would claim that secularization is possible/likely. But "Iran is on a clear secularization path" is just baseless as of now.
wayfarer
30d ago
Also, many ways things that made war profitable (at least to winners) are far less valuable nowadays or treated as not acceptable.
Slavery? Used to be absurdly profitable and OK, nowadays it is neither. Except extreme fringe cases.
Looting? Looting modern factories gives you nearly nothing, Russians stealing fridges in Ukraine resulted in mockery, not envy.
The same for occupation, glory, rape and so on - now occupation is clear net negative for basically all involved. Glory? There may be a bit, but not much and many will hate you. Rape? In general opinion here changed in direction similar to slavery and it got less useful with sexual revolution.
wayfarer
30d ago
who some speculate killed our President in 1963 in order to secure nuclear weapons
and some speculate that moon landing was faked, "some speculate" is worth nothing
do you believe this nonsense? Then at least state it openly. Do you consider it as nonsense? Then why you mention it?
wayfarer
30d ago
has an agreement that they could get a shipment of nukes if they ever decided to ask for them.
if that is true (I doubt) that is an awful lot of trust
wayfarer
30d ago
which part you are being confused about? Or disputing?
That seems snarky but reasonable description of Russian approach to warfighting.
wayfarer
30d ago
Probably answer is highly dependent on case.
Selling software? Maybe direct payment can eliminate nearly all overhead.
Selling live chickens? Probably transport eats nearly all trade costs anyway.
Selling missiles? You have so many transaction costs, starting from bribes, that it is not funny.
wayfarer
1mo ago
result in massive international penalties for countries A and or B?
yes
also, it would be hard to find country B with nukes willing to sell them one way or another
lets say that Slovenia decided to buy nukes from Pakistan: then people in Pakistan can sell them out (at no risk to themselves) or go into insanely risky operation
if things leak before Slovenia gets nukes then you have decent option of sudden coup one way or another
also, even if Slovenia buys nukes it is not very valuable by itself - you also need delivery methods
also, what Pakistan would need to get (or Pakistani officials) to make it worth it?
basically any part may blow up in face of all involved
wayfarer
1mo ago
Thanks! That kind of fact-checking is valuable to reveal manipulation by SS-men.
wayfarer
1mo ago
Second claims that cost is 10% to 30% of the value of the deal
First claims that "trade in Africa 50% more expensive than the global average" so global standard would be 6% to 20% of value.
But second claims that just homegrown payments systems would reduce costs to 1% value of the deal.
Still seems to be not consistent.
wayfarer
1mo ago
Europe is (too slowly) but still pulling back from treating this treaties seriously.
wayfarer
1mo ago
buy Putin's neutrality on the matter
I am confused what Putin can even do here. Why he would need to be bought?
(maybe Putin anyway convinced Trump that he needs to be bought, but I doubt that either)
wayfarer
1mo ago
That adds significantly to transaction costs that, along with other factors like poor transport infrastructure, have made trade in Africa 50% more expensive than the global average
(...)
$200 million trade between two parties in different African countries is estimated to cost 10% to 30% of the value of the deal. The shift to homegrown payments systems could cut the cost of that transaction to just 1%.
this seems to not match at all
this is simply a blatant lie or reveals you have zero knowledge of situation
Ukraine in fact produces weapons. Ranging from "lets zip grenade to civilian drone" through various boring but crucial stuff like ammo and ending on robots, drones and long-range missiles.
And some funky stuff, like what recently took out multiple Russian bombers in long range attacks. No matter how you call it, things that result in multiple burning bombers are weapons and AFAIK these special containers are neither produced by NATO nor orderable on Temu or provided to them by Mossad.
Have you really missed naval remote-controlled boats that resulted in Russia losing naval war to navy that has no active traditional surface vessels?
Please stop commenting on things where you lack basic knowledge. Or, if you are at al qualified in this area: please stop lying and trying to be propaganda repeater. At least find better propaganda materials or learn to add qualifiers so your claims are not obvious lies.
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