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What is the most powerful flying bug? This poll is closed. |
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|---|---|---|---|
| 🦋 |
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15 | 3.71% |
| 🦇 |
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115 | 28.47% |
| 🪰 |
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12 | 2.97% |
| 🐦 |
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67 | 16.58% |
| dragonfly |
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94 | 23.27% |
| 🦟 |
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14 | 3.47% |
| 🐝 |
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87 | 21.53% |
| Total: | 404 votes | ||
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the brits had no issues with russian oligarch money until the hammer came down from above.
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Feb 17, 2023 15:55
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Yes, I'm sure Russia is losing a higher rate of troops per yard of ground than the Allies at the Battle of the Somme, I am very smart
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Feb 17, 2023 15:57
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I'm pretty sure Russian society would not be able to currently sustain 140,000 war dead without somebody making a ruckus, Putin or no.
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Feb 17, 2023 15:59
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mila kunis posted:the brits had no issues with russian oligarch money until the hammer came down from above. Yeah the UK state loved letting their money flow in and the deal was the oligarchs could also flee here but if the Russian state then had them killed then the UK state looked the other way. It's only the botched or really wild poisonings that make the news, everything else is just strange society news that's no cause for alarm.
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Feb 17, 2023 15:59
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It's like whenever I see a paper called "Commonwealth 2040" or something, proposing Canadian, Australian and British task forces and battlegroups, the Commonwealth acting like a real diplomatic and trade bloc. It would be workable if the past 60 years hadn't been spent actively antagonizing the parts of the Commonwealth that are important to the world economy and have military strength - and those aren't the White Dominions. For the Commonwealth to really be a thing outside American control or influence, it would have to come at the "cost" of being more appealing to India and South Africa than China, which for what I'm sure are stupid, racist reasons, London is loathe to do. You can see this in the various war plans for Commonwealth intervention in Zimbabwe, where despite that entire region being Commonwealth states, none of them wanted any part of it and the whole thing became unworkable. Ditto the plans to hold onto Hong Kong, which required full commitment by India, not just for basing but as the major Commonwealth player. Obviously after Partition and everything else this was already impossible, but can you imagine India agreeing to take that on for Thatcher? It's deluded. Here, and maybe this is the result of a Public School education, I don't know, the British ruling class seem to remember the Continental System and British diplomacy from the 18th c. through the Late Victorian, but forget that it was possible for Britain to withdraw from the continent because it controlled 80% of the world's merchant shipping or something like that. In other words, actual, physical, capacity, rather than financial services, shell companies, tax avoidance schemes. Britain could "stand alone" because of that, and of course transhipment of goods from India. Do you see what I'm getting at? I don't know if you can say British policy is guided by nostalgia for Empire because there seems to be a general amnesia that the Empire was comprised of extremely costly infrastructure, costlier still state capacity (up to 40% of government spending was allocated to the Royal Navy), the movement of goods under British flags on British owned and built ships etc. etc. It's just not compatible with neoliberalism, and so when they do things like gently caress over Germany and pick fights with France, they're not becoming equal partners in a Transatlantic World, whatever they think that means, they are just making their own situation worse. Their involvement in Ukraine, including the PM flying to Kiev to keep the war going was in the US' interest but not their own, and I'm curious why they're still attached to the idea that the two are the same. e: Just to add to this, Australia has literally never in the history of the nation actually followed through on promises to pay for their own navy, so ... there's no "Commonwealth" to speak of because each constituent element, at least in the Dominions, seems to be run by Small Business Tyrants. Frosted Flake has issued a correction as of 16:06 on Feb 17, 2023 |
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Feb 17, 2023 16:02
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Frosted Flake posted:Partition really hosed them vis a vis how much of HM’s military infrastructure they inherited. eh they had decades of sucking on uncle sam's boobies, and at a time when the US had the best in the world Industrial capacity.
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Feb 17, 2023 16:06
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wasn't it this thread that said that the UK had been anti-russia since before the revolution? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Game
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Feb 17, 2023 16:08
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Tankbuster posted:eh they had decades of sucking on uncle sam's boobies, and at a time when the US had the best in the world Industrial capacity. Pakistan and India playing the US and UK against each other for naval contracts is one of the funnier parts of Cold War diplomacy imo, I'll give them that. crepeface posted:wasn't it this thread that said that the UK had been anti-russia since before the revolution? Yes, but that was because Russia threatened first India, then British interests in China, then the integrity of the Ottoman Empire which was essential because the Crown had millions of Muslim subjects, and related to that at the close of the period, British interests in Iran and the Middle East once petroleum was discovered there, and as a crucial node of communications to India. For example, containing the Russian Black Sea Fleet protected the Med, by extension Suez, which really meant, of course, India. From here you have supporting the Ottomans, the Crimean War, siege of Sevastopol, preventing Russia from intervening in the Greek War of Independence and Balkan Wars, closing Russo-Turkish Wars when the Ottomans seemed on the verge of collapse, even the Dardanelles campaign and the importance of the United States of the Ionian Islands and eventually Cyprus as colonies. None of those factors exist anymore. Britain doesn't control the Suez, or the ships transiting it, or their ports of origin, or the resources there. Frosted Flake has issued a correction as of 16:16 on Feb 17, 2023 |
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Feb 17, 2023 16:08
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Cookie Cutter posted:Yes, I'm sure Russia is losing a higher rate of troops per yard of ground than the Allies at the Battle of the Somme, I am very smart it definitely makes sense, considering all the penal battalions they are sending in human wave attacks *alt-tabs back over to understandingwar.org summaries*
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Feb 17, 2023 16:17
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The russian casualties are high because they've run out of ammo and they're firing impressed soldiers out of trebuchets at the ukrainians. War is hell
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Feb 17, 2023 16:26
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Hatebag posted:The russian casualties are high because they've run out of ammo and they're firing impressed soldiers out of trebuchets at the ukrainians. War is hell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTCDdmq6DlA
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Feb 17, 2023 16:27
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Frosted Flake posted:Yes, but that was because Russia threatened first India, then British interests in China, then the integrity of the Ottoman Empire which was essential because the Crown had millions of Muslim subjects, and related to that at the close of the period, British interests in Iran and the Middle East once petroleum was discovered there, and as a crucial node of communications to India. The thing is it was mostly nonsense though as the Russians never had designs on India or the Mediterranean and the British were chasing ghosts. It is true the Russians wanted to take the Ottomans apart but a lot of that is simply that the Russians have seen the Ottomans as a threat since practically the 15th century. Also Russian interests in China were usually in Manchuria, far those British strong holds. Honestly, it came from the fact that that Europe including the Brits were terrified by Russian troops marching practically from Moscow to Paris in the pursuit of Napoleon and if the Russians could accomplish that, what else could they do? Alexander I had hoped the Congress of Vienna would lead to lasting peace and was greatly disappointed that the British wouldn’t fully support Greek independence and if anything would progressively start backing the Ottomans instead. Also, Nehru and everyone after him really didn’t seem like they were that interested in following the Commonwealth in any serious sense and in all honesty it exists for cultural and diplomatic reasons at this point. Ardennes has issued a correction as of 16:32 on Feb 17, 2023 |
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Feb 17, 2023 16:30
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What's funny is that if you had to read RUSI and ISW for work before becoming a War Understander this time last year, you could see an immediate and dramatic change in their reporting. It's pretty clear that whatever interests they served before, and military institutes usually just provide boring policy advice, they became imo a public-facing propaganda outlet as soon as things kicked off. One reason I say that is not just that their entire appraisal of the Ukrainian and Russian militaries reversed, their evaluation of their comparative strengths, strategic situation, likely operational conduct and doctrine, which I think actually was pretty close to this threads', but barring some change in the editorial staff or direction, you would be hard pressed to explain the changes in their use of military terminology, concepts and analysis. By way of example, they wouldn't characterize every Russian attack as "failed" when evaluating 2015, but in March of last year even as the Ukrainian Army was getting shot to pieces they were using descriptions that were so clearly editorialized as to beggar belief. Now, obviously if you look at their staffs, yeah they were always tied to the US and UK foreign policy establishments, but by definition all defence journals are. The shift I think is that their reporting was, at least in my view, intended to shape public perception rather than advise professionals. I don't know how to explain this other than imagine one of your boring trade journals suddenly misusing the language of your profession, becoming more layman like, and very clearly pushing an angle. Maybe if epidemiology journals became pro or anti-NPIs during covid? What was a fairly staid and uncontroversial outlet, albeit one that pushed for greater spending and "assertive" foreign policy, became part of what seems to have been a coordinated media rollout. Jane's, which the public does not generally have access to, as well as the Canadian military journals, have been way, way more consistent throughout. To me, that's a tell.
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Feb 17, 2023 16:31
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eh, regarding the hypothetical commonwealth intervention for HK, China had already headed that off when Indira and later Rajiv Gandhi built up the Indian military and the PRC under Deng agreed to normalize relations with India, basically making any Indian intervention irrelevant. lol, whatever were the brits even thinking? They feel eternally stuck in the Pre WW1 mindset with like a quarter of the world at the beck and call.Ardennes posted:Also, Nehru and everyone after him really didn’t seem like they were that interested in following the Commonwealth in any serious sense and in all honesty it exists for cultural and diplomatic reasons at this point. The commonwealth was used post independence as a big battering ram by post colonial leaders to decry colonialism instead of being a way for the british capitalist class to maintain some semblance of independent power. The UK proceeded to get absorbed into the transatlantic blob.
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Feb 17, 2023 16:35
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https://twitter.com/WarMonitors/status/1626279612954148864
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Feb 17, 2023 16:38
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Hatebag posted:The russian casualties are high because they've run out of ammo and they're firing impressed soldiers out of trebuchets at the ukrainians. War is hell the usa is training ukrainians to reduce their ammo usage, in order to achieve victory. one would them assume, using Logic and Reason, that the russian's prodigious expenditure of shells is a sure sign they are actively losing, and losing more and more each day. hopefully by typing out such nonsense, i too can get a chance to dick down nuland Frosted Flake posted:Now, obviously if you look at their staffs, yeah they were always tied to the US and UK foreign policy establishments, but by definition all defence journals are. The shift I think is that their reporting was, at least in my view, intended to shape public perception rather than advise professionals. its the same gimmick cheney was known for, journos will publish whatever you tell them to so you just need a respectable front group to promote your desired story. so many articles in the western press start with "according to the institute of the study of war...." and continue into some pretty brazen propaganda that has some gravitas behind it nonetheless
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Feb 17, 2023 16:40
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im declaring shenanigans! everybody get your
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Feb 17, 2023 16:42
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Tankbuster posted:eh, regarding the hypothetical commonwealth intervention for HK, China had already headed that off when Indira and later Rajiv Gandhi built up the Indian military and the PRC under Deng agreed to normalize relations with India, basically making any Indian intervention irrelevant. lol, whatever were the brits even thinking? They feel eternally stuck in the Pre WW1 mindset with like a quarter of the world at the beck and call. It's funny because even in 1919 they weren't able to reconcile those parts of the Empire demanding things in return for their contributions. They really thought that after millions dead Australia, Canada, South Africa, Ireland and India wouldn't expect a changed relationship. The exact same thing then happened a generation later, and this after they were saved by the Empire after the Fall of France, and they lost the whole thing afterwards. I don't get it. Indian troops gave their lives for King and Country and the Brits didn't see that social contract as at all reciprocal? Irish soldiers drowned in mud at Ypres but Home Rule was out of the question? I guess, and I would have to ask the UK thread, but I do see a bit of an echo as their reach has shrunken. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland got parliaments in loving 1999. Even within England, their present domestic situation where "Levelling Up" means the City of London keeps everything that's come at the cost of the rest of the country, and lip service is kind of sort of paid with no promise of material improvement or greater political power... what the gently caress is that?! All that will be left is The City, and I don't know why nobody can see that. Tankbuster posted:The commonwealth was used post independence as a big battering ram by post colonial leaders to decry colonialism instead of being a way for the british capitalist class to maintain some semblance of independent power. The UK proceeded to get absorbed into the transatlantic blob. This is what I mean about them really not seeming to understand that an equal relationship with Nigeria and Kenya would ultimately do more for them than surrender to the prerogatives of the City of London, and really New York and Washington. The British capitalist class lost Ireland by sabotaging Gladstone, lost the Empire by opposing Colomb, Forster and the other people proposing a Federation or Greater Britain, and are now in the process of losing the United Kingdom for basically the same reasons. Frosted Flake has issued a correction as of 16:52 on Feb 17, 2023 |
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Feb 17, 2023 16:47
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i dunno i think every indian or colonized people who fought and died for britain or france were chumps and the world doesnt owe them poo poo for being idiot attack dogs.
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Feb 17, 2023 16:50
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Russia looks like they're quickly burning through their stocks of reserve equipment, if they don't have actual progress by the summer they're going to have to start using stuff they need for basic national defense. The infighting between different factions in russia's military industrial apparatus is a huge red flag and probably why they're signalling for a truce with their current territory. In the meantime, Ukraine's getting a huge influx of weapons, tanks, pretty much everything from the west.
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Feb 17, 2023 16:50
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mila kunis posted:Russia looks like they're quickly burning through their stocks of reserve equipment, if they don't have actual progress by the summer they're going to have to start using stuff they need for basic national defense. The infighting between different factions in russia's military industrial apparatus is a huge red flag and probably why they're signalling for a truce with their current territory. In the meantime, Ukraine's getting a huge influx of weapons, tanks, pretty much everything from the west. wasnt this script debunked six months ago
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Feb 17, 2023 16:52
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the Ukraine war is basic national defense for Russia
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Feb 17, 2023 16:53
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euphronius posted:the Ukraine war is basic national defense for Russia i'm sure they need things for basic border security, patrols, their deployment in syria, etc
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Feb 17, 2023 16:55
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Frosted Flake posted:It's funny because even in 1919 they weren't able to reconcile those parts of the Empire demanding things in return for their contributions. They really thought that after millions dead Australia, Canada, South Africa, Ireland and India wouldn't expect a changed relationship. The exact same thing then happened a generation later, and this after they were saved by the Empire after the Fall of France, and they lost the whole thing afterwards. I think at least the UK cspam thread gets it even if most Brits still don’t, admittedly the UK has some of the most aggressive press out there and it does have an effect. Admittedly, until the 2010s life was still probably okay for most people but the slide has been swift and severe and the British middle class are rapidly shrinking. That said, I don’t think any off ramp for them, while Scotland (and eventually Northern Ireland and Wales) will make a bid for independence, London needs them if only how shrunken their control has gotten. The Labour Party has been completely hollowed out any chance for a real 3rd party is pretty much impossible. However, both its economic and fiscal metrics really don’t look good and eventually the City will fully mine out what is left.
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Feb 17, 2023 16:56
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FF what's your opinion on the artillery gap, is Ukraine really filling it / Russia falling behind https://twitter.com/TrentTelenko/status/1626067960044392448?t=8z2ZG0d4Sxuq93YJTj5LBg&s=19
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Feb 17, 2023 16:58
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If Bakhmut was a one to one ratio, I don’t know how the Ukrainians are letting the Russian encroach on their remaining supply lines.
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Feb 17, 2023 17:00
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seems p bad for ukraine if they have artillery parity and still are getting pushed backFrosted Flake posted:The UK has been involved top to bottom which is weird considering their regional position after Brexit, standing in NATO generally, state of the British Army and Royal Navy, drawdown of the BAOR, economic position etc. decrepit former empire that desperately wants to pretend its still relevant keeps making a ruckus, news at eleven
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Feb 17, 2023 17:01
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Like, people joke about Tories wanting to be feudal lords, but they really will be reduced to governing the area men on horseback can ride in one day if they keep doing this poo poo. Not the first, second or even third time this has happened, by the way       The British, I guess you could say ruling class both in The City and the landed aristocracy, have repeatedly hosed the state over. Since it's across time and forms of government I'm not quite sure how to explain this. e: I forgot that in 1257 they controlled the Holy Roman Empire but the Emperor was more interested in fighting in the Barons War and other English small-time bullshit, so they lost it by 1300. 
Frosted Flake has issued a correction as of 17:07 on Feb 17, 2023 |
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Feb 17, 2023 17:03
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Admittedly, I don’t know if entitled land is quite the same, Hannover for example wasn’t an integrated realm and British monarchs usually followed what the locals wanted. Really without India, the entire empire didn’t make sense and while they coaster on Atlanticism for a while that ran out of gas as well.
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Feb 17, 2023 17:12
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Frosted Flake posted:I’m still scratching my head about the US attempt to get Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua to give their inventories to Ukraine. Smells like desperation. The United States is realizing that it's cannibalized all of its major allies and now none of them are economically or militarily capable of taking on the rapidly growing BRICS bloc. Meanwhile, there are a bunch of countries like Venezuela and Cuba who want to join this forming trade bloc. This may be an attempt to keep them away from China by offering them the one thing they desperately want: peaceful relations with the West. However, this war has proven that cutting deals with the West will only stall the inevitable. America has broken just about every treaty it's ever signed so trying to get in good with them is pointless.
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Feb 17, 2023 17:17
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evilmiera posted:Seems simple enough. Cuba might agree to anything, given the whole torture camps thing, but if they were to say no they'd lose face with certain groups during an international crisis, so its a win-win. ?
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Feb 17, 2023 17:18
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Cpt_Obvious posted:However, this war has proven that cutting deals with the West will only stall the inevitable. America has broken just about every treaty it's ever signed so trying to get in good with them is pointless. the ADULTS are back in CHARGE bb
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Feb 17, 2023 17:19
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I think he's blaming Cuba for Guantanamo.
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Feb 17, 2023 17:20
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I think any sane country would want to align with China.
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Feb 17, 2023 17:20
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euphronius posted:I think any sane country would want to align with China. yeah but money though some of China's wins have come because the US is ran by people so stupid they forgot to grease palms and China was able to actually invest in these countries and build them up and show them a different way is possible. Which is cool but if the US ever stops being really stupid, even if only for a brief time and starts bribing the right people again then its possible for a lot of countries to suddenly become very anti-china. But this is just gut feeling and i hope the reality is a million times more complex than this.
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Feb 17, 2023 17:27
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What if Mila Kunis is just Al-Saqr from the past?Al-Saqr posted:i dunno i think every indian or colonized people who fought and died for britain or france were chumps and the world doesnt owe them poo poo for being idiot attack dogs. So true bestie!
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Feb 17, 2023 17:28
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Ukraine had, without going through my old excel sheets, about 1800 artillery pieces pre-war, of which an unknown amount were serviceable. Around 270 155mm guns were donated to them, around half of which were M777s. Formations being equipped with half and half NATO and WP would be possible if a typical Ukrainian 72 gun artillery brigade converted half of the batteries, that part isn't unreasonable. Logistically, most figures I've seen for their peacetime establishment called for about 400 RPG, which becomes a problem based on what's been reported about NATO 155mm supply. First, his Brigade would need to be stocked with 14400 155mm projectiles, and then resupplied as the fighting went on (I tried to do the math in my head and kept laughing about it being 14088 projectiles but alas). He did not mention number of guns or fire missions or rounds fired in that statement though, so I'd say it's not enough information to work from. The Western Military District alone had more 203mm guns and 240mm mortars than the whole Ukrainian Military, so is he just measuring up to equivalent Russian Arty Bdes? Regiments? Organic fires within BTGs? 152mm tubes on x frontage? It's pretty vague, and I think seems to be, if I were a cynical person, aimed at a domestic audience because Russian fires have been identified as a major factor in their success. e: Ukrainian artillery bdes were supposed to have at least a battalion of 2A19 100mm AT guns, so is he counting those as equivalent to howitzers? Is he omitting them? Idk, it would be nice to have any of that quantified. Frosted Flake has issued a correction as of 17:38 on Feb 17, 2023 |
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Feb 17, 2023 17:31
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I just find it charming that the big british idea to get the indian elite aboard the second world war was promising....an eventual dominion status far after the war was over something the indian elite was asking an entire generation ago. The USSR really supercharged anticolonialism.
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Feb 17, 2023 17:34
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evilmiera posted:Seems simple enough. Cuba might agree to anything, given the whole torture camps thing, but if they were to say no they'd lose face with certain groups during an international crisis, so its a win-win. makes sense, thanks
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Feb 17, 2023 17:35
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Not So Fast posted:It's funny because even the BBC was going "oh well its probably only 10-20K KIA" recently, but Ukraine insists its 140,000 KIA That's the amount they have names for and can draw estimations from, but they freely admit its a very conservative estimate.
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Feb 17, 2023 17:38
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