Ukraine - somebody explain to me

[Bo Diddley]

It's going to be a long hard winter for the people of Ukraine. The gawdless commies are real . The shared hardship is only going to galvanize their collective psyche as a nation more.

Bump.

I have really grown to hate Russia. It's not healthy for my soul. But I really do hate them. I tell myself it's the regime--it's Putin. Ok, yeah, I'll buy that. But far too many of the Russian people buy into the kool-aid. I hope all bad things to happen to them.

[wuapinmon]

Bump.

I have really grown to hate Russia. It's not healthy for my soul. But I really do hate them. I tell myself it's the regime--it's Putin. Ok, yeah, I'll buy that. But far too many of the Russian people buy into the kool-aid. I hope all bad things to happen to them.

That nation should be broken up.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...b62_story.html

[Bo Diddley]

That nation should be broken up.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...b62_story.html

Interesting. But I really can't ever see that happening, even if it should.

[beefytee]

I don’t think breaking it up will help any. It will just give leaders ambitions to bring it back together. Whenever territory Moscow and ST Petersburg are in will be the strongest and try to grow from there, particularly going after the oil rich regions. And if the regions are so weakened that they can’t, that also invites China and other former Soviet republics to move in.

[Goatnapper'96]

Bump.

I have really grown to hate Russia. It's not healthy for my soul. But I really do hate them. I tell myself it's the regime--it's Putin. Ok, yeah, I'll buy that. But far too many of the Russian people buy into the kool-aid. I hope all bad things to happen to them.

One night in Brcko we were on patrol when I heard 3 gunshots. Then a cheap Yugo across an intersection sped away. I asked my gunner, who mind you was essentially unprotected up top of our HUMVEE, if they had just shot at us-he responded they had. I can remember feeling an anger I had never felt in my life. There we were in the Yaks gawd forsaken broken country where three batshit crazy ethnic/religious groups had tried to exterminate each other using WWI weaponry and they take pot shots at us. We spent the rest of the night inspecting every vehicle, with our M-16's at the ready, that had military age men inside. We found the shell casings for a 9MM pistol where the vehicle had been. The following night we were on a foot patrol at a bar/brothel that was run by the Bosnian Serb Special Police, one of whom I assumed was who had discharged the 9MM responsible for the shell casings. This was 1998 and the US was scheduled to play Yugoslavia in round 1 of the Soccer World Cup. A drunk Bosnian Serb came by our patrol shouting out nationalistic Serbian propaganda and being disrespectful to the US. I had enough and told my driver to butt-stroke the guy as he went past to let him know we were still in charge and his trash wasn't appreciated. He did so and the poor guy went down for the count and dragged himself away. Then we went off patrol and I had time to think about it. Hate is a strong emotion and feeling threatened, even if a closer analysis would predict the probability that a guy who could hit a US soldier with a 9 MM from 150 yards in a moving vehicle is not real high, causes folks to forget everyone's humanity. That is how Mai Lai happened. Managing a very small piece of the destructive violence of the US Armed Forces was a great privilege but one reason I was there was to make sure that I led morally-no matter how much I felt threatened and angry. I understood that I was succumbing to the pressure of letting my emotions overpower my personal sense of right and wrong. Even the drunk Serb was a human and dare I say- a child of God.

Russia has a lot of issues-clearly their culture has deep issues about its place in the world, and what all to many are willing to do in support of that cause, to many Russians. However, there are many young men dying for the Russian cause who would rather not be there and don't believe the propaganda-they just are helpless as to what to do. I get the deep guttural instinct to want to put a fist in the air when we watch a grenade dropped on a Russian soldier from a drone, but we can't lose our humanity. I understand our desires to break the world down into a simple black and white, good vs evil narrative-it is appealing. But my guess is when the dust settles there will be many Ukrainians who were not nearly as lilly white as their effective propaganda projects even though their cause, territorial integrity, is righteous. Further, despite how much we dislike Russia and disapprove of their immoral land grab-I think we should still have some skepticism about Ukraine's intentions. Zelensky's rhetoric after the Polish missile incident demonstrates that his priorities and those of the US might not always align.

Emotions are a great thing-at times I am almost jealous, in a strange way, of the unifying power this struggle is giving Ukraine. But we must always not be ruled by our emotions. Not about Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton or the gawdless commies.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Bump.

I have really grown to hate Russia. It's not healthy for my soul. But I really do hate them. I tell myself it's the regime--it's Putin. Ok, yeah, I'll buy that. But far too many of the Russian people buy into the kool-aid. I hope all bad things to happen to them.

Russian culture seems barbaric.

[Bo Diddley]

One night in Brcko we were on patrol when I heard 3 gunshots. Then a cheap Yugo across an intersection sped away. I asked my gunner, who mind you was essentially unprotected up top of our HUMVEE, if they had just shot at us-he responded they had. I can remember feeling an anger I had never felt in my life. There we were in the Yaks gawd forsaken broken country where three batshit crazy ethnic/religious groups had tried to exterminate each other using WWI weaponry and they take pot shots at us. We spent the rest of the night inspecting every vehicle, with our M-16's at the ready, that had military age men inside. We found the shell casings for a 9MM pistol where the vehicle had been. The following night we were on a foot patrol at a bar/brothel that was run by the Bosnian Serb Special Police, one of whom I assumed was who had discharged the 9MM responsible for the shell casings. This was 1998 and the US was scheduled to play Yugoslavia in round 1 of the Soccer World Cup. A drunk Bosnian Serb came by our patrol shouting out nationalistic Serbian propaganda and being disrespectful to the US. I had enough and told my driver to butt-stroke the guy as he went past to let him know we were still in charge and his trash wasn't appreciated. He did so and the poor guy went down for the count and dragged himself away. Then we went off patrol and I had time to think about it. Hate is a strong emotion and feeling threatened, even if a closer analysis would predict the probability that a guy who could hit a US soldier with a 9 MM from 150 yards in a moving vehicle is not real high, causes folks to forget everyone's humanity. That is how Mai Lai happened. Managing a very small piece of the destructive violence of the US Armed Forces was a great privilege but one reason I was there was to make sure that I led morally-no matter how much I felt threatened and angry. I understood that I was succumbing to the pressure of letting my emotions overpower my personal sense of right and wrong. Even the drunk Serb was a human and dare I say- a child of God.

Russia has a lot of issues-clearly their culture has deep issues about its place in the world, and what all to many are willing to do in support of that cause, to many Russians. However, there are many young men dying for the Russian cause who would rather not be there and don't believe the propaganda-they just are helpless as to what to do. I get the deep guttural instinct to want to put a fist in the air when we watch a grenade dropped on a Russian soldier from a drone, but we can't lose our humanity. I understand our desires to break the world down into a simple black and white, good vs evil narrative-it is appealing. But my guess is when the dust settles there will be many Ukrainians who were not nearly as lilly white as their effective propaganda projects even though their cause, territorial integrity, is righteous. Further, despite how much we dislike Russia and disapprove of their immoral land grab-I think we should still have some skepticism about Ukraine's intentions. Zelensky's rhetoric after the Polish missile incident demonstrates that his priorities and those of the US might not always align.

Emotions are a great thing-at times I am almost jealous, in a strange way, of the unifying power this struggle is giving Ukraine. But we must always not be ruled by our emotions. Not about Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton or the gawdless commies.

Wise words. You hit on a few things I think about from time to time.

But for now, the emotional reaction is what it is, and I'm struggling getting over it. That's a personal battle I need to fight, no doubt. I might need to take a step back for a time.

[Bo Diddley]

Russian culture seems barbaric.

I have admired their art since my teen years. They can't be all bad. I won't even listen to any classical music written by Russian composers right now. Man, I feel like I'm developing a prejudice.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Embedded Tweet

[wuapinmon]

WARNING: DOG EATING DEAD RUSSIAN. YOU WERE WARNED:
https://t.me/UkraineWarPosts/8088

[wuapinmon]

Incredibly effective grenade launcher fire by Ukrainians: https://t.me/AnAmericanWhoSupportsUkraine/342

[wuapinmon]

Incredibly effective grenade launcher fire by Ukrainians: https://t.me/AnAmericanWhoSupportsUkraine/342

Remember, so that I don't clog this thread with posts, I created a Telegram channel, which you can see has 342 posts in less than a month. I figured it's better that way, and I can share the better links here. But, there's a lot more over there.

[Bo Diddley]

Remember, so that I don't clog this thread with posts, I created a Telegram channel, which you can see has 342 posts in less than a month. I figured it's better that way, and I can share the better links here. But, there's a lot more over there.

I like the casket sledding down the stairs.

[wuapinmon]

I like the casket sledding down the stairs.

I love macabre humor; sometimes it's the best medicine for grief or angst.

[wuapinmon]

I don't speak Ukrainian, but you don't need to to be able to understand the gist of this aftermath footage of a Lancet strike on a Ukrainian towed howitzer. No gore whatsoever.

https://t.me/AnAmericanWhoSupportsUkraine/358