mtutiger

In other words, he's Colonel Kurtz.

JFC

Here's what I don't understand: In terms of their stated objectives, clearly Russia has the resources to take out the government in Kyiv and install a puppet. But we're talking about a country of 43 million and, while early, there is little to no indication of Ukraine soldiers laying down arms. How does this work without a long counterinsurgency that will result in a lot of loss of life for the Russians? And does that counterinsurgency, seeing the tepid response by the oligarchs and the much larger-than-expected protests, cause additional domestic problems? The whole thing kinda looks like an overreach, but he may not care.

That seems like a big deal....

Also that he doesn't think Putin's done. Considering that our intelligence has been pretty accurate so far, that's grim.

One thing that I came away with after his speech is the use of "empire" and "pariah", and his comment that there was a "rupture" in relations right now. There's been a lot of speculation about waiting out sanctions and such (especially WRT Nord Stream 2), but idk.... it's gonna be really hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube on this one. Granted it's contingent on the US/UK/EU staying rock solid on this.

This was definitely a speech where I was more interested in the details than the presentation. The only real mistake that I saw in it is that it could have did more to make the case as to why this is important... I suspect that it's breaking through to the normie-type person somewhat because it's getting covered extensively on all the networks and is the lead story, but the average person may not understand the importance of this conflict. That becomes even more important when you factor in prices, as well as the possibility in the future that Putin does expand his footprint into other countries (particularly NATO). He didn't really make the sell as to our level of involvement or why we need to pursue sanctions, unfortunately.

One of the surprises in this has been the Russian people... more opposition than one would have expected, even at the risk of jail.

huh

Grain of salt, as always....

And he has since said that he was wrong. That doesn't mean he is wrong in this case.

From Zelensky's official account. Insane.

Regarding the debate on realism....

Uhh

A day late and a dollar short, folks

If true, oh shit....

Garry is right, the stakes are sky-high here.

Erdogan coming down on the side of Ukraine in all of this is another surprise...