Youtube comments of DasBubba (@dasbubba841).

  1. Russia, while theoretically having a large manpower pool, lacks the organizational capability to move conscripts from the recruitment office to the front line. This has resulted in many troops not being assigned to units, not being equipped, or being listed as AWOL when they're not. Many of these same issues appeared during the first Chechen War. It is clear that Russia did not maintain the Soviet legacy mobilization system, which has left it unprepared for the level of war seen in Ukraine.
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  2. Except that "shit" can do some serious damage and kill a lot of people. Israeli also probably has nukes.
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  3. Taiwan is independent. The PRC has no claim to it.
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  4. Rare earths are not actually that rare, and aren't exclusively found in China. In the '90s, many mines in the US, Brazil, Canada, and Australia were closed because China undercut them. Many are starting to be reopened due to concerns about dependence on China.
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  5. Typical Georgian behavior really.
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  6. Increasing price tag, decreasing benefits.
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  7. Overnight shipping or it's free!
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  8. This comment section is worth a Binkov video in of itself.
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  9.  @appa609  Eventually, perhaps. But how long will that take? Iran, for example, has been under sanctions for forty years. While they have a self-sufficient domestic arms industry, their technology is basically stuck at an '80s level. Also "buy from China" doesn't make up for losses from Europe and America. Contrary to popular opinion, China DOESN'T make everything!
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  10. Because 2007-08 was basically the end of the post-Cold War era of optimism. The idea that everyone was steadily getting wealthier through improved technology and global trade. The US government HAD to bail out the banks. The alternative was a repeat of the Depression. However, by bailing out ONLY the banks, the common Joe got poorer while the haves accumulated massive amounts of assets. Assets that largely existed only on paper and were not reflective of the real economy.
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  11. Probably more true than the assumption of outright slaughter. Farming, even as inefficient as it was back then, could support far more people reliably on a smaller amount of land than it could hunter-gatherers. People probably did both a lot of hunting-gathering and farming too, for a while.
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  12. Most of it was self-inflicted, beyond the population increase. Egypt's agricultural infrastructure is decrepit and very inefficient (irrigation systems are old and leaky). It is also geared towards cash crop production, like cotton and sugar. Both are very water intensive. Wheat production has made a comeback recently (wonder why) but is still held back by poor infrastructure.
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  13.  @TorianTammas  I think even the Deputy Minister for Defense said that they would be curtailing production and orders of T-14s back in 2018. They said that their current tanks were "already really good". Reading in between the lines says that Russia was too broke to build more than few dozens worth, especially since export orders never panned out.
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  14.  @nadrewod999  Thing is, apparently those torpedoes were old, I think dating back to 1985. Russia was too broke to afford replacements, and too broke to even afford proper upkeep of those old weapons.
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  15.  @JR-vc4gm  They can, eventually, restart production. And while cost is high, rare earths aren't exclusive to China. The point is, rare earths are only dominated by China because they produce them cheaply. If the US, and the West as a whole, was determined to (perhaps by a war), they can get "rare" earths elsewhere.
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  16. One day, far in the future, some guy in the Land Down Under will do a crazy wankers video, and Count Dankula will feature in it.
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  17. Sometimes I cheat on my wife with her boyfriend.
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  18. ​ @priestofronaldalt  Imagine being the first human in modern America, where no one else has stepped before. Miles and miles of completely empty space, just for you and whoever came with you.
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  19. Because most of Algeria is a desert and unpopulated.
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  20.  @peterfireflylund  Especially since drawing such conclusions (blame others, rightly or not, for failures instead of innovating) stifles Indian potential.
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  21. The US has serious problems, but compared to the other major powers its issues are relatively tame and fixable.
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  22. And the T-90 turned out to be pimped out junk, a rebranded T-72.
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  23. Essentially. Though, I'm willing to bet that it's cheaper and easier to construct than the Jeddah Tower.
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  24. Darwinism still works.
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  25.  @blackcatdungeonmastersfami5311  Actually, Russia has a terrible homeless problem, and many homeless die because of the brutal climate and general age of them (with many being elderly).
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  26. Everything is going according to plan.
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  27.  @bololollek9245  Well, duh. That's not how your supposed to field armor.
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  28. Unfortunately. Should just rip the guns off and turn it into a big missile cruiser and install the Aegis system. Might have been a worthy replacement to the Ticonderoga class if that had been done, but known how this stuff works, it probably would have cost tens of billions.
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  29. All for the useless Kabul government to collapse in a month.
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  30.  @TheOffkilter  Wealth is also spread out more evenly in the US, with states like South Dakota and Kansas having a high GDP-per captia due to oil and large farms. Wealth in Russia meanwhile flows into Moscow and St. Petersburg, leaving the rest of Russia very poor.
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  31.  @arthas640  Only the Saudis would do something retarded like that. They would make the Burj Khalifa out of logs.
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  32. Because it was a cherry-picked photo. Those women were the children of Kabul's wealthy elite with privileged access to such resources. The "medieval theocracy" is always how the REST of Afghanistan has behaved, no matter the time.
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  33. Well, probably nothing different will happen. You won't get shot just because your white. And, at that point in time, I'm sure there will be other larger issues at hand, such as the depletion of oil. The US is a country built on immigrants, and no, I'm not supporting illegal immigrants. So what if we become a slight minority? Your not going to see much of a difference.
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  34. Never mind the logistical nightmare of taking care of millions of men. Russia can barely handle the troops they have on the field, how could they handle hundreds of thousands more?
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  35.  @otterno.1128  No surprise that right after the "Occupy Wall Street" movement, much of this social justice junk became mainstream.
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  36.  @MadWizard89  The T-90 is, interestingly enough, not the main Russian tank. The T-72 is. As I mentioned previously, Russia only actively operates about 200 of them, most being of the T-90A variant (basically a T-72B). The T-14 project is basically dead in the water. Russia has scaled back it's planned deployment drastically. This is because hoped export orders from the Middle East did not pan out. Iraq and Egypt picked the cheaper T-90, Saudi Arabia chose the M1 Abrams, while Turkey picked a version of the South Korean K2.
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  37.  @pritch3426  Why? As far as I could tell, most people knew they would lose money. It was simply to make sure hedge funds lost more.
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  38. An Eastern European-style EU maybe. Regardless though, Poland would probably be the anchor in that system, due to their demographic and economic strength.
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  39. USA: I never really was on your side
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  40. Because Serbia claims ALL of Kosovo as its territory and has refused to budge from that position.
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  41. Someone doesn't get the joke.
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  42. ​ @testing12356  It makes sense, actually, when you look in depth. The Treasury comes rather first because money makes the world go 'round, then Defense, for obvious reasons.
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  43. Russia can't really use their full strength. Apparently, their supply status is pretty horrible: Units running out of fuel and ammunition. Increasing their troop numbers would exacerbate this, compounding the fact that their advancing into hostile territory. Also, the bill for all of that would be crippling. They could pump 200,000 troops in Ukraine, but it would ruin the already weak Russian economy. Time is actually on Ukraine's side I think. They're being funded and resupplied by NATO, while being able to get more of their populace and army mobilized. Russia meanwhile is on a clock of their budget and people's will (and the will of the oligarchs). The longer the war, the worse the economy gets (as Russia will effectively be under North Korea-esqe sanctions).
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  44. Not Russia's brightest hour.
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  45.  @Gwydion_Wolf  Actually, that's false. Most T-90s were actually built for EXPORT. Mostly to India. Russia only has about 500 T-90s (of all variants, mostly the older A-variant). Russia currently only fields about 200 T-90s, the rest are in storage. Again, most are of the A variant, so mostly a rebranded T-72B. The more modern T-90S tanks are only fielded in a dozens. In sum, the bulk of the Russian Army relies on the T-72, and to a lesser extent the T-80 (which is again fielded in comparable numbers to the T-90, and are interestingly enough worse than Ukrainian T-80s).
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  46. His take will be both insightful and hilarious.
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  47.  @chaosXP3RT  Most certainly not! After all, the best tanks have always been fielded by the Russians! The T-90 is such a marvel of engineering, and soon there will be thousands of T-14 Armatas able to defeat anything NATO has! The T-90 is not a new tank, interestingly enough. And the Russians don't actually field that many of them. The T-90 is just a renamed T-72BU, a late-Soviet upgrade of the venerable T-72. It was renamed in the early '90s by Yeltsin, to disassociate the upgrade from the poor performance of the T-72 in Iraq. The T-90M variant, the one the Russo-boos fawn over, is fielded in only double digit numbers, among only about 200 T-90s in active service (mostly older A models, aka. the T-72BU).
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  48. In India, the government controls the Army. In Pakistan, the army controls the government. Perhaps this is why Pakistan has lost their wars against India.
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  49.  @SoloRenegade  The easy occupation of Crimea made the Russians overconfident. They expected the Ukrainians to easily fold.
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  50.  @blackcatdungeonmastersfami5311  And yet Russia is basically stalled out. What is the Kremlin hoping for? That the West will tell Ukraine to give it up? Or does Moscow believe they can conquer all of Ukraine?
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  51.  @user-fn5xg7qt7u  I doubt it. Most less than a grand. It wasn't about dumping tons of money into it, but tons of people dumping a little money into it.
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  52.  @ismetcansarac1328  They became a new Praetorian Guard. Poor bodyguards, but overly influential in court politics and extremely decadent. The Ottoman Empire was like the old Roman Empire in more ways than one, apparently. Perhaps the Ottoman Empire would have gone a different rout had the Janissaries been disbanded earlier. Food for thought.
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  53. There is still much distrust towards France in Europe, besides ancient rivalries. Eastern Europe (perhaps rightly so) believes that France would sell them out to Russia if given the opportunity.
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  54.  @LiebeMeinesLebens05  Massive and established firms with supercomputers trading millions (and billions) of dollars in the blink of an eye.
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  55.  @FRIPPE_THE_GREAT  Russia makes it very easy to dislike them.
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  56. All dem Third World countries jealous of our aircraft carrier.
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  57. Yeah they can.
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  58.  @blackcatdungeonmastersfami5311  1) Casualties are hard to discern, because both sides are tight lipped about figures. Civilian casualties are probably equal to or more than military casualties for Ukraine, though. The Russians themselves have suffered heavily, based on visual equipment losses (the VDV especially). Though, a lot of those were front loaded at the start of the war, and due to heavy entrenchment of both sides, I'd say casualty figures aren't that high (for both sides) as of late. Also to note is that Ukrainian morale hasn't suffered due to casualties. 2) Inflation is rather uncomfortable in the West, though that has flattened out recently. It also hasn't led to any decrease in support from Ukraine's largest backers, namely the US, UK, and Poland where public support for Ukraine has consistently remained high. 3) The EU has made serious efforts to soften the blow the onset of winter will have. This has included stockpiling energy, diversifying suppliers, and reducing consumption. Also, said blow won't be felt equally in the EU. Ukraine's most consistent and impactful backers, notable Poland, are not dependent on Russia. The US, the largest backer (and supplier of the very effective HIMARS) is not dependent on Russia at all, and any crisis the EU may face will not impact them at all.
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  59. They can. A divided Syria that has slogged through seven years of war cannot stop Israel. If the Jews wanted, they could march right into Damascus.
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  60.  @thetruth7633  The M1 saw basically no action in Afghanistan.
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  61.  @lloydgush  Absolutely.
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  62.  @noelsoong777  Except that they are ALL saying it. It's a consistent pattern: The troops captured are demoralized, have no idea what they are doing in Ukraine, and complain about poor supply issues. Russia would never have as their policy for their troops to say this when they're captured, as it would make Russia look incompetent (a big no-no).
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  63. Depends on what you're going for. STEM is still viable, though many schools aren't really good for it.
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  64. However, the airport was made useless for ferrying supplies and troops into the area. Basically, functionally the same as if they had been pushed out. The original plan was that the VDV would rapidly secure the airport, and would use it to ferry troops and supplies for a rapid seizure of Kiev. However, Ukrainian forces in the area inflicted terrible losses on the VDV, and prevented them from using the airport. While the Ukrainians weren't able to fully retake it until the end of March, they denied its use to the Russians, forcing them to use vulnerable overland routes (ie, the 40km convoy).
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  65. Eating some of that propaganda I see? It wasn't the sanctions that ruined Venezuela, but their own corrupt leadership. The people are sick and tired and starving.
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  66.  @schuschnix5261  Sanctions do work. They don't destroy a country, but they make it far more difficult to carry out objectives. North Korean and Iran have militaries that are basically stuck a Cold-War technology level. Cuba's economy is tiny, and dependent on tourism (and cheap oil from Venezuela). Sanctions make it harder for Russia to assemble sophisticated weaponry. Yes, they can smuggle chips in from third-party sources, but that is expensive and slow. Europe is hurting, but it's temporary. Oil and natural gas aren't sourced from only Russia. Energy sources are being sourced from other suppliers like Qatar, the US, and Saudi Arabia. The longer the war goes on, the weaker the dependence becomes, especially as LNG infrastructure is constructed. What happens when Russian suppliers are replaced? The EU was Russia's largest market BY FAR. And if Russia hasn't mobilized by now, they never will because the political cost of doing so outweighs the costs of potentially losing the war.
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  67. Haiti had a rough start, but there are countries who have had it worse starting out. South Korea experienced a devastating three-year war that saw most of the country torched, leaving one of the poorest countries in the world. Paraguay fought a death war in the 1860s against Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay that left most of its male population dead. Heck, even Mexico had a lot of the same problems Haiti had (lack of recognition, brutal debt, constant rebellions and political infighting) but they aren't at the same level as Haiti.
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  68. Grifters gonna grift
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  69. Also Russia is hemorrhaging talent. What young and energetic people there are, simply go to Europe or the US because they're paid WAY better, while dealing with less corruption. There are simply no opportunities in Russia, even before their idiotic war.
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  70. The US hardly cares, I'm sure. It in fact shows how desperate Iran is.
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  71.  @damnbrosky  It is a mentality that dates back to the Mongol invasions almost 800 years ago. Security and power at any cost. The brutal German invasion of 1941 reinforced this mindset.
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  72. Crusader Kings II, Sunset Invasion.
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  73.  @tavish4699  I wasn't really referring to the runway, but the planes that have to land on it. While the Il-76 is very good at landing at unprepared airstrips, it isn't very good at being shot at. The VDV had taken the airport, but Ukrainian troops were close enough to make it dangerous for any planes to try to land at the airport. Thus, the airport became useless to them.
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  74. She burned the State flag and called for the sand blasting of Stone Mountain. She's not even from Georgia, but is a transplant from Wisconsin.
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  75. Why should Chile cough up land it has had for over a century?
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  76. The world is going to get a lot nastier in the next few years.
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  77. Being the big wang of America.
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  78.  @Navii-05  Considering that Rosgvardia often found itself outgunned by Wagner, and the Russian gov had basically nothing standing in the way of Prigo, I would say yes.
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  79. Basically. Perun does a pretty good job on it too.
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  80. Most of Taiwan actually wants nothing to do with the mainland. They don't want to go under the Communist thumb.
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  81. It was anchored in a different part of the Canal because it was cut off.
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  82.  @profile1172  One, the Russians didn't curb stomp the Chechens. They lost the first war against them, in '94. The second war was long and drawn out, even with the Chechens divided by infighting and having no support internationally. Ukraine is a nation state that is far bigger than Chechnya and far more organized, with a national army and defense industry. It has popular support, and has vast international backing. The Russians are universally seen as invaders, even among the Russophone community (the area taking the brunt of the invasion) and no one has risen in support of the Russians, in contrast to the Chechen war.
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  83. Yes, the Nationalists at the time, were the legal government of China, the whole of China. However, they lost the civil war. They didn't totally lose, since they still survive on Taiwan, but they lost control of the mainland. Thus, the CCP has become the legal government of Mainland China. The ROC lost control through internal war, and thus the CCP has "earned" the right or mandate to rule China. However, they never finished the job. They couldn't conquer Taiwan through war, so they have no right over it. They have no right to prevent Taiwan from become it's own country since the war is over. Taiwan and China are two different countries. Bottom line, the ROC has no right to claim all of China since it lost it through war, and the PRC has no right to claim Taiwan and prevent it from being a country on the international stage since it failed to conquer it.
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  84.  @Navii-05  Nukes are not particularly useful against separatists or a rouge PMC.
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  85.  @idontlikeshowoffs1608  It was until pretty recently. These days the state legislature is Republican-dominated, mostly reflecting the shift of rural and suburban whites towards the Republican party.
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  86. Putin is a risk taker, but he is not stupid. The fact that he has maintained power for longer than I've been alive (I'm in college) illustrates this. He made a very poor gamble, but to give up and thrown in the towel in unthinkable. This is because I'd say it is not Putin that has the fragile ego, but the entire Russian citizenry that does. Russia is an immensely proud nation that has suffered immensely. The economic situation is terrible (even before sanctions), having probably one of the greatest wealth gaps in the world, suffocating corruption, an ageing population, terrible living standards for the average Russian, and HIV epidemic caused by a dysfunctional healthcare network, crumbling Soviet-legacy infrastructure, and the list goes on and on. Pride is all Russians have left. Unlike the Germans, whose defeat in WWII forced them to come to terms with authoritarianism, and who had an economic miracle to promote optimism for the future, Russians never had that. Only stagnation and endless recollection of the "glory days".
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  87. Barrel attrition is probably the lynch pin in that.
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  88.  @bijtmntongaf  Why do we need immigrants so badly? Everyone says it is for falling birthrates, yet at the same time automation is threatening to replace tens of thousands of jobs. My solution is to let birthrates fall. Let the population decline. Less people to compete for jobs about to get replaced by a machine. Tax revenue can be collected from companies that are making more money from having less workers to pay, but not from immigrants and natives that are unemployed, and on welfare. The people we do have can work advanced, high-skill jobs that a machine cannot do. When the last of the boomers pass away, there will not be as many welfare payments. More revenue that can go where it is needed. Real estate is cheaper since there is less demand. Medical bills get cheaper because there are less elderly. It is a self-correcting process. There will be less need for low-skill workers. We do not need all those people. Machines can do low-skill work much more efficiently.
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  89. No one has bought more into the "Russia Stronk" meme than Russia itself.
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  90.  @jonathanparker3907  If you don't vote for me, you ain't black Jack!
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  91.  @Miguel-sl9rm  She doesn't know that sometimes I play with his toes.
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  92.  @Zambrano2199  She works from 9-5 like a good wagie. We have plenty of time to hose it into the floor air duct. When she comes home, me and Tyrone are on the Switch like good boys.
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  93. Well, let me explain to the best of my ability: 1. Immense red tape: California is one of the more regulative states in the Union. There are many long hurdles to overcome such as environment impact studies. 2. Land acquisition: Property rights in the US are very strong, and California also has wildly expensive land values. Whereas China can easily eminent domain the required land, the State has to go through an arduous negotiation process. 3. Cost of resources (read labor): California has high costs of living, which means they have to pay more for skilled labor. This increases overall costs.
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  94.  @locutos8397  Economics Explained did a good video on it. These "old-money" families have interests everywhere, from real-estate to finance, to oil to railroads. They have very little "paper money", or money that'll show up on lists.
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  95. And Russia has no corruption? Outnumbers? Do you consider a crappy old T-55 rusting in a Siberian junkyard the equal to an M1 Abrams? Or perhaps a Mig-21 riddled with holes on some potholed runway the equal of an F-22 Raptor. Quantity doesn't always beat Quality.
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  96.  @Gwydion_Wolf  Yeah, it's understandable. Russian's design and build their tanks differently than the US. The T-90 is not very different from the T-72BU. Actually, they're the same vehicle. The Russians renamed it to the T-90 to garner more export sales. However, with the fall of the USSR, Russia has had a limited defense budget. The whole export-focus is to help pay to equip the Russian Army with this equipment. The end result is, that unlike the very standardized US equipment, Russia has a slew of different equipment. From old T-72s to some modern T-90SAs and T-14s. This, of course, makes logistics HELL. Different equipment for different vehicles.
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  97. Iran won't win.
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  98. They care very much about their "friend" across the water. When someone is threatening to invade, people do tend to care. Even if they are culturally and genetically similar (not so much as time passes) they are ideologically different.
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  99.    In a cold and brutal world, reals come before feels. Brazil has it's own weapons industry, yet you do not mention them. Good fences make good neighbors.
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  100. The myth of Russian superiority is a hard myth to dispel.
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  101. Whites were a heavy minority in Rhodesia. They also oppressed the black majority. In the US, there isn't such oppression, whatever those so called "Black Lives Matter" idiots claim. The white population won't become a tiny minority. And if they do become oppressed, there is always the second amendment and the fact that there are more guns than people in the US.
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  102. Usually not, but the burden of keeping up the economy will fall on an increasingly shrinking class of youth.
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  103.  sREUDIAN fLIP  He loves it when we strip down to our tighty whities and dump a bucket full of hand sanitizer everywhere. Then we slide around on the floor like its an ice rink.
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  104. Sooo.... if someone doesn't repeat the RT line, they're biased for Ukraine? Wew
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  105. On the flip side, the military is one of the straightest paths to take in such a country. Where salaries are bad, working conditions equally bad, and what you do manage to obtain subject to the whims of a corrupt official, stability is often lacking. Given the military dominates the political and economic landscape, rising to high enough ranks presents "opportunities" that most others will never achieve. Also, unlike other countries (like Ukraine) where their biggest security concerns are their neighbors, Thailand does not need to worry about getting into a large conventional war. Southeast Asia is generally externally (state-to-state relations) peaceful (barring some exceptions).
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  106. @ Ah, but we live in the golden age of grifters. If you're not ripping off the guy next to you, you're getting ripped off yourself. From the massive real estate bubble in China to the President of the United States shilling crypto, it's all just one big zero-sum game.
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  107. @Pasdar Nah. Two old men fighting it out wouldn't be funny. Besides, Rouhani is tiny compared to Trump.
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  108.  @binh3308  That can mean anything under the sun. It could mean your mother has slight homosexual tendencies, or is seriously homosexual, is merely happy. See, broad and vague.
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  109.  @davrosdarlek7058  I haven't heard of any problems of desertion of Ukrainian troops. It makes sense since the war is happening in many cases literally at their doorstep. Both armies suffer from logistics issues, with Ukraine's mainly coming from a lack of ammo (and dealing with many different systems) and Russia from a general lack of resources (due to sheer distance, artillery strikes, and corruption), most keenly trained manpower (something also shared by Ukraine). Your inflation claims are wrong. Forbes put it at 9.3%, and some models even lower. Even so, it has had little impact on Poland's support for Ukraine. Regardless, the US provides the bulk of support. Your final statement proves your true colors though. Every nation has the right to defend itself from an aggressor. Russia brought death upon its troops and Ukrainians through their unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and weapons will continue to be supplied until Russia is humbled and retreats. There won't be any end to support to Ukraine. There won't be an end to the fighting until Russia either torches the entire country and enforces it's will through violence and force of arms, or until Russia is driven back across the '91 borders.
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  110. Why would they want to occupy a rubble filled wasteland? No value in taking it. They are quite content with the Golan heights. Besides, they have rolled right up to Damascus not once, but twice in two previous wars. The Syrian Arab Army is a joke compared to the IDF. Just because they have some Russian equipment doesn't turn them into a good fighting force.
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  111.  @jpowens2253  They tried that in Afghanistan (taking the major cities and supply routes). It didn't win them the war, because the Soviets were seen as invaders. Also, they didn't secure the border, so tons of weaponry were flowing into the country. So far, the Russians haven't done anything to try to secure the borders with NATO. The west hasn't seen any action, and Odessa is still held by Ukraine. Until they secure the border with Poland and Romania, NATO weaponry and foreign volunteers (ahem, basically unmarked NATO troops) will continue to pour into Ukraine. Even if Kiev is surrounded, so what? Aleppo was surrounded for years before it fell, and the FSA wasn't a fraction of the force that the Ukrainian Army is. How much can Russia afford to besiege a huge city like that? All the while Western Ukraine remains unoccupied. Russia isn't the Soviet Union of old, they don't have unlimited resources or manpower. They're under biting sanctions and are bleeding money to pay for the war. They can't get needed components to produce advanced systems like cruise missiles. Heck, their entire civil aviation industry is effectively grounded due to lack of Western components and even jet fuel.
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  112.  @Byyaroff  North Korea is a small, very homogenous country that has kept itself extremely isolated. Yet, it only really survives because China keeps it on life support. Russia is vast and diverse, and information still pours in from every possible angle. There are many ethnic minorities that are loyal only because the Kremlin basically bribes them. Chechnya is only loyal because Kadyrov receives massive subsidies and is granted wide autonomy. The second Moscow is broke and weak, he will likely rebel. And if he doesn't, someone else most certainly will.
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  113. This is why banning "Hate Speech" is bad. What makes hate speech, hate speech? Who determines what is and what isn't?
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  114. No one wants to pay good money for their junk anymore.
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  115. Russia is not a good economic example.
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  116.  @benghazi4216  Not to mention that a lot of that will quickly get sucked up by the need to stabilize the ruble and prevent it from being hyperinflated into oblivion.
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  117. Another troll who supports a collapsing, corrupt regime who ruins their own country.
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  118.  @amirzafri5306  Of course not. In the Gulf War, the US used it's Apache helicopters quite effectively as standoff anti-tank platforms, in conjunction with friendly aircraft (that gained air superiority and suppressed SAM systems).
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  119.  @shorewall  Modern economics is a ponzi scheme, basically. Deflation would be pretty good for the average joe: rewarding saving, allowing housing to be accessible to young families, and lowering incentives to take on debt. However, because so much of the economy is fueled by debt-based spending, deflation would destroy the façade of the current economic system.
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  120. You're facking Russian propaganda.
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  121.  @faizalbarkah2617  Of course not. Russia can produce some serious equipment, but they're usually too broke to afford more than a dozen pre-production vehicles. With sanctions, Russia will struggle to maintain even their legacy Soviet equipment, never mind produce modern equipment. The T-14 was found to be too expensive and too reliant on foreign components. Also, Russia's traditional export customers weren't interested (the price made it more practical to either buy old T-72/90s or proven Western designs). Su-75 will never see the light of day. Customers will either go for cheaper Chinese designs (J-31) or proven Western designs (F-35). Or in the case of Turkey, they'll build their own. Su-57 is too expensive, and isn't really a competitor for the F-22 or F-35. Production issues meant that Russia's only foreign partner, India, got frustrated and decided to go for an indigenous design.
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  122.  @SilverforceX  But Russia also wasted many units in the Kiev region as well. The VDV especially took heavy losses during the early days of the war. And most of Ukraine's best units were already in the East, around the Donbass region. It's why Russia still hasn't taken the rest of the Luhansk or Donetsk oblasts, despite their "liberation" supposedly being the entire point of the conflict. The assault on Kiev wasn't a pinning tactic, but an actual Russian attempt to take Kiev. Remember the 40km convoy? When Kiev proved to be a tougher nut to crack, Russia had to tone down it's expectations for victory.
    11
  123. Sorry, didn't know Kosovo was Serbian.
    11
  124. Oryx visual losses suggest that the VDV HAVE taken serious losses. 60+ BMD-4s, over a hundred BMD-2s lost, 10 BTR-MDMs.
    11
  125. China is not innovating more than the US. Maybe the country is experiencing great progress in areas that the party extensively supports, but elsewhere is neglected. The USSR suffered the same issue. It was able to keep parity with the US in areas like military technology and rocketry, but was behind in areas neglected like computers and consumer products. That's just what happens when the economy is controlled by the state. China's property sector collapsed. Youth unemployment is around 40%. Birthrate is continuing to fall. The US is seeing a dramatic increase in Chinese immigrants, legal and illegal. Local governments are extremely deep in debt. China has some serious issues, and denying them now, when even the party is admitting there's a serious problem, is delusional.
    11
  126. Iran is a paper tiger. In 1988, we sank half their navy, and they did absolute nothing. Their military is weak. They couldn't even beat Iraq.
    11
  127.  @MohamedAli-tu4so  If that were true, Russia wouldn't be bombing every bit of civilian infrastructure it could see. It refrained from striking said infrastructure early in the war because it thought it would be unnecessary.
    11
  128. Funny. No, it's not funny. It hurts my brain. The same people who said that Russia hacked Trump into office are now saying that Biden won fair and square (despite mountains of evidence pointing towards voter fraud).
    11
  129. Don't watch then.
    11
  130. Carl Gustav is a recoilless rifle, the AT-4 is a disposable anti-tank rocket launcher.
    11
  131. I do hope that they try though. Competition is only good in this area.
    10
  132. Al Jazeera really doesn't like Trump, do they?
    10
  133. QUAD is a security alliance against a common enemy, China. Not an economic alliance like the EU. Also, India's government does a good job at stifling innovation itself. No wonder why many Indians with talent and the means leave for "Anglo" countries and often stay there (better QoL, pay, opportunities, less corruption, etc.)
    10
  134.  @ashiinsane90  So that is why Egypt racks up a massive foreign debt to import wheat that it subsidizes to its populace?
    10
  135.  @shortking-vp9vv  Lol, no.
    10
  136.  @aaronburgoin8322  I don't know of anyone who seriously wants to invade and conquer Mexico. Or even accept a Mexican state (like Baja California) in even if they beg for annexation. Simply put, the economic disparity between the American states and the Mexican states are too wide. Americans see Mexico as backwards, poor, violent, and corrupt.
    10
  137.  Hoàng Nguyên  Unlike the United States, the Chinese will not hesitate to resort to genocide to remove opposition. The United States had a public opinion to watch for, while the Chinese don't care.
    10
  138. The problem with nuclear is that, due to public perception, the amount of regulations on nuclear power has made it extraordinarily expensive and time consuming to construct.
    10
  139. A car culture that relatively fits the US's low population density. Texas is larger than Germany, with a quarter of Germany's population. Not everyone lives in New York or Los Angeles. People do live in Nebraska and Wyoming.
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  140.  @Alfaspring  Taiwan also has numerous MANPADS that are just as good as the Chinese versions. A naval invasion is not easy, and in urban and mountainous terrain like Taiwan, it becomes much more difficult. This won't be a second Desert Storm, since Taiwan can hide their tanks and heavy weapons in caves, warehouses, or in dense forest cover. Unless the PRC wants to flatten Taiwanese cities (Which would they wouldn't do because it would piss off the Taiwanese citizens even more and anger the world), the ROC could hide much of its heavy weapons and only bring them out when the PLA is landing. The Taiwanese airforce would likely perform hit-and-run attacks. Yes, they would be worn down, but at the start they could prove quite a problem. The Taiwanese capital ship fleet isn't much of a threat, and is only there to support American ships. Their fast attack fleet however could be very damaging. As for landing, it would be difficult for the PLA. They don't have a lot of experience, and their amphibious fleet isn't that large. Yes, they could commandeer civilian ships, but these require a port to be useful.
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  141.  @milespennington5255  Only a Serb could do that. You know, considering when they tried to genocide other people.
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  142.  @hxyzazolchak  Oil money. That is what Chavez did. It wouldn't have lasted. Libya's economy was based almost entirely on oil. Venezuela at least has more than oil, such as diamonds, iron, tin, fish, and timber.
    10
  143. We gotta go back
    10
  144. People leave Canada for the US, not the other way around.
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  145.  @navyseal1689  New York is overrated. The best of America is found outside of the Big Apple.
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  146. The carrier has been in overhaul. Refueling, modernizing, updating systems. It takes a while.
    9
  147. "Clean energy" is too unrefined and inefficient to be used on a mass scale. What use are wind turbines when the wind doesn't blow? What use is a solar panel when the sun is down? Oil, of course, it temporary, but it is used for now to buy time to find an energy source that is more efficient, cleaner, and more permanent. Fusion power is the most notable one here.
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  148.  @TapOnX  The EU may long be a stable and relatively wealthy place in the world, but it increasingly won't be dictating the direction of the world, only following it. In essence, it'll do well in its niche, but it won't be able to expand outside of it. Most innovation and progress will belong to the US and the PRC.
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  149. Yeah, because America is the land of opportunity.
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  150. Source: RT
    9
  151.  @FLJBeliever1776  Solid summary. Another thing to mention is that, from the looks of it, a lot of the elite Russian units, such as the VDV, were wasted in idiotic assaults early in the war. The airborne assault of Hostomel and Ivankiv, for example.
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  152.  @kamilszadkowski8864  The problem is that the calculus is different between members. For France and Germany, they have Poland and the Baltics as buffer from them and Russia. Also, after the Fukushima disaster, Germany stupidly decided to phase out nuclear power. To make up the difference (since renewables aren't as efficient yet), they decided to import Russian gas. To them, it would be worth it to sacrifice Ukraine to keep good terms with Russia. Poland, however, does NOT want Russia or a Russian-puppet Ukraine on their border. Having Putin-friendly Belarus is bad enough. This is why an EU-led army would fail. The members have different priorities.
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  153. We aren't broke. Healthcare is largely privatized and education varies from state to state. But over all, it's better than yours.
    9
  154. Makes you wish for a new dark age, so that all of these new age "intellectuals" will end up on Warlord Cletus's spit outside his fortress.
    9
  155.  @sunnyboner676  Well, China's most recent combat experience was against Vietnam, which they lost. The US, however, has had extensive experience in fighting state and non-state armies. Iraq in '91 and '03, Serbia in '99, are examples. And America has not "defeated" on the battlefield, rather they lost the political will to fight due to changing geopolitical priorities. Comparing the policing action of Afghanistan to conventional war is foolish.
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  156. Bluck eet
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  157. I wish, but funnily enough, war and the threat of it is actually what drives humanity to aim higher. If we were all unified, there would be no real driving motive to push us forward. We would stagnate. However, if you were the United States, the idea of say, China, landing a base on the moon would press you to start breaking out your astrophysics books, because you don't want to be seen as technologically backwards. So, the US is going to land a base on the moon to match China's. And, perhaps, land one on Mars just to one up them.
    9
  158.  @thursoberwick1948  Because those workers have to be paid by the government through taxes, or debt.
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  159.  @archiij1707  The VDV did take heavy losses, as Oryx suggests. Vehicle losses include 106 BMD-2s, 46 BMD-4s, 2 BMD command vehicles, 44 BTR-Ds, and 10 BTR-MDMs. Because Oryx only counts visual losses, actual losses are likely to be higher. The VDV are good troops, I'm sure of that. However, they were misused, tasked to take a heavily defended airport that was useless for Russians. It's like having someone swim the ocean just to get a sandwich. The result is that they were decimated, and they haven't really been seen in the conflict since. At the end of the day, the airport they took and defended with their lives was useless, and they had to abandon it anyway.
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  160. Plenty of people want to come to the US, because many see its advantages as outweighing its disadvantages, mainly its unrivaled economic and social mobility, relative economic stability, strong property rights, etc. Yeah, it sucks being poor in the US, but if you're NOT poor, you enjoy a standard of living unparalleled elsewhere.
    9
  161. Welcome to reality. People are tribalistic. Be it race, status, wealth, nationality, or even by the color of your socks, people will segregate.
    9
  162. Silly Turk, it was America who guaranteed your sovereignty when Stalin wanted to take over the Bosporus straights. Trump could have kept US troops and guarded the Kurds, and all Erdogan could have done was grumble. You were chosen over the Kurds. You have nuclear weapons in an airbase, that you can actually USE if you are attacked. NATO is obligated to come to your aid, even Greece, if you are invaded. That is what NATO is!
    9
  163. Why the hell does it matter? Both states are in NATO and have much greater problems to deal with. Can't we all just get along?
    8
  164. The rest of the world sure wants our aid though.
    8
  165. Regardless, it is a great humiliation for the Russians. Either it was sunk by a nation that supposedly had its navy and heavy weaponry "liquidated", or sunk by incompetence and poor damage control measures. Being the flag ship of the Black Sea Fleet and named after the capital compounds that humiliation. And while the Americans have had some slip ups (most notably the fire on the Bonhomme Richard), they haven't actually have had one of their ships sink.
    8
  166.  @ashiinsane90  That too. I had forgotten that Egypt has been doing some pretty extensive military shopping lately. Not to mention that the Egyptian Army has a massive hand in the economy.
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  167.  Arda  That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. The Ottoman Empire was dominated by the Turks. The Sultan was a Turk. The capital is a Turkish city. The official language was Turkish. The religion was Islam. For Allah's sake, the Turks use the same flag the Ottomans used. Russia threatened to go to war with Turkey in the '90s if Turkey intervened in Armenia.
    8
  168. Oyyy vey
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  169. Russia doesn't actually have a large industrial base left. Too many people equate the USSR with Russia, when in fact those countries are vastly different. Russia lost a lot of industry in the economic collapse of the '90s. Oil and gas exports are largely what keeps the economy afloat.
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  170. By contrast, the dollar is likely to be strengthened by this crisis.
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  171.  @davidjarnot8548  Revenue is money gained before expenses. Income is revenue minus costs. Income can be negative (costs are greater than incoming revenue), but revenue can't (you can have 0 revenue though).
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  172. They were only expecting a rather small position, held by a squad. Instead, they came into contact with a well dug in platoon size element with a T-90 supporting them. It would have been suicide to be "more aggressive" considering they lacked the numbers and the firepower to deal with it.
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  173. Just because China isn't collapsing into a civil war doesn't mean the country isn't under serious pressure. Ignoring the click-bait headlines, the country has serious problems. Much Chinese household wealth was tied up in the real estate sector, the only reliable way to invest wealth as the stock market is heavily manipulated and distrusted. Given that wealth is now largely illiquid and decreasing, consumption has flatlined. That's the big problem, which is only getting worse as property values continue to fall. This isn't a quicky, but a slow but increasingly worsening crisis. As property developers collapse or essentially cease to function, the banks who loaned to them follow. Unlike in the US in '08, banks in China are opaque and hide their unstable condition.
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  174.  @MohamedAli-tu4so  lol, how does that relate to Russia invaded Ukraine? You're basically saying "Well, Zelensky is corrupt, so just surrender to Russia (also corrupt) because you're neighbors". What kind of cope is that? Russia invaded a sovereign country and bombed its people. They aren't going to surrender just because Zelensky is supposedly corrupt. Especially not when Zelensky didn't flee the country, has rallied international support, and regularly visits the front lines like Kherson and Bakhmut.
    8
  175.  @andrewblandford6423  Missouri is fine. I'd take it over the Northeast or California. The weather sucks, and the roads are pretty bad, but otherwise it's not that bad.
    8
  176. By what? Brazil, who is on the verge of economic collapse and civil war? India, who hates China, China, who hates India, South Africa, who no one gives a shit about, and Russia, who has a rusting navy. Pfft. They'd just end up fighting each other.
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  177. Just another African dictator.
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  178. Gadaffi couldn't get anything accomplished. However, his interference in Chad earned the ire of France.
    8
  179. No. The problem with authoritarian countries is that, while the excel in some areas, they heavily lack in other areas. The late USSR, for example, led the world in rocketry, physics, heavy industry, and advanced weaponry such radar and AA systems. There was a reason why they were consistently ahead of the US for much of the space race. However, they were far behind the US in computer systems, agricultural machines, aerospace and naval technology. Again, while the USSR was the first country to put a probe on Mars, their probes had a far shorter life. The Soviet mission (Mars 6) lasted 7 months. The US mission (Viking) lasted over 6 years. China's innovation has grown because of free trade, and having access to Western institutions of higher education. As China tries to decouple, it's own domestic innovation will stagnate. Theft is present, of course, but that isn't innovation. Theft of technology will always leave you at least one step behind.
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  180. She couldn't afford it.
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  181.  @taxesdeathandtrouble.1886  Clearly not.
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  182.  @CertifiedSadBoy  Actually, military recruitment has been a prime way for many to escape poverty.
    8
  183.  @carkawalakhatulistiwa  No, they won't. And China's "copy cat industry" ain't that good. For years they have struggled to build jet engines. Jet engines aren't like cars, they take a lot of technical know-how and experience to craft. It's why much of the military aviation uses Russian-made Saturn engines. A civil jet engine isn't any easier, either, as you have to be attentive to noise and fuel consumption.
    8
  184.  @mankihonda983  How come Russia hasn't won against "hohols and nafo troons" even after a year?
    7
  185.  @bijtmntongaf  99% of the time? When was this statistic made? Which country(s)? Which type immigrants? The statistic may be true now, but will it be 10 years from now? 20 years? 30? What may have been true in 1999 or 2006 will likely not be true in 2032. Especially with automation advancement. High skill immigrants will likely be useful, but low-skill will not be. Lately we have been seeing a massive wave of low-skill migrants coming from sub-Saharan Africa into Europe. For now, they have been performing much of the low-skill work many native Europeans did not want to do. But what happens when their jobs get replaced? What happens in a factory when 30 low-skill jobs get replaced by a big machine? Also, many high-skill immigrants are in high demand by their emigrant country. Should they be encouraged to stay and help progress their own country?
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  186.  @T1Oracle  Africa has been independent for half a century. Yet, it has done largely little. The US after 50 years of independence was a strong continental power. It had to overcome hostile Britain, Spain, and rivals Mexico and Canada. Might is right. Besides the fact that Africans did not know the value of the land they sat on until Europeans came.
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  187. Slavery switched to being a formal system to an informal system, which was sharecropping.
    7
  188. But at what cost? How much are they willing to pay?
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  189.  @sinoroman  The republics are largely powerless, except for Chechnya (which is basically a direct vassal of Putin). Over the past decade, their powers have been gradually stripped, all the way down to the title of the head of state (Only Tartarstan has stubbornly kept it's head as a "President")
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  190.  @softmechanics3130  The Tu-160 and Tu-95 would make poor passenger airlines. Their engines and designs are old and inefficient. The Tu-160 is a supersonic bomber designed to be a supersonic bomber, and is thus too small to carry a profitable amount of passengers. Also, it's engines are terrible inefficient.
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  191.  @lenar-98  The US has little direct stake in anything in Europe. Russia controlling Ukraine or dominating Eastern Europe would have basically no effect on US strategic interests. Trading Ukraine for Russia as an ally would be a good deal for the US, while for Europe it would be terrible as it leaves the Russians breathing down Germany's neck.
    7
  192.  @heisenberg1271  As soon as NATO troops leave, they'll walk in and end the war.
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  193. Considering the millions of Mexican-Americans, you'd probably get an answer for that.
    7
  194. No, I'd say it is the rise of polarization. Everyone sees the impeachment process as bundled, though be it good or bad is divided on party lines.
    7
  195.  @proselytizingorthodoxpente8304  A shame, because Pakistan turned out to be useless as an ally. Even worse than useless, because Bin Laden was found down the road from a military academy.
    7
  196.  @Ophaganestopolis  Artillery shells are very easy to produce in bulk, compared to something like a tank or cruise missile. Transportation and secure storage are the bottleneck.
    7
  197. Do you think China is any different? China is worse. You can't protest it.
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  198.  @sinoroman  And the alterative is to... parrot the RT line?
    7
  199.  @95601  No, it really doesn't. If anything, the Belt-n'-Road Initiative has been a big money sink for the Chinese. None of China's big overseas infrastructure projects have translated into increased energy security, as the vast majority of China's energy imports come through the Straight of Malacca (out of range of Chinese anti-ship ballistic missiles and land-based aircraft, I might add). The BRI was more of a diplomatic move to build ties and to continue fueling the Chinese economy with construction demand (which is drying up in China proper).
    7
  200.  @blackflag6976  The IRGC dragged America into this. They should stop funding terrorists and go home.
    7
  201.  @raybarry4307  The Chinese are not a traditionally maritime power. In 1990, their navy basically consisted of small missile boats and small frigates. How can you go from basically a coastal defense force to a military able to project power around the world and compete with the reigning superpower in 30 years? Hint, you really can't.
    7
  202.  @AnatolyPotapov  Again dependent on Ukrainian and NATO acceptance of a defeat. Also Poland, Hungary and Romania taking Ukrainian land seems very implausible.
    7
  203. No, because the US is a federation of states, not a unitary republic.
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  204. Serbia is Albanian.
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  205. The Russians tried that at the start of the war at Hostomel, and apparently Ivankiv. The VDV did take the airport, but weren't able to fully control it and make use of it. They took heavily losses, and had to be reinforced with ground troops from Belarus.
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  206. The ROC didn't cease to exist, but they lost control of the mainland, and thus the legitimacy to call themselves "China". Thus, going by that logic, the ROC lost the title of "China" and became a mere separatist group resisting the "legitimate" government in Beijing. However, the CCP couldn't finish off the ROC and eventually the Americans came to guard them. Thus, we have this odd status quo. Neither can make a move on the other one.
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  207.  @anentiresleeveoforeos2087  As a failed state.
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  208. Probably not.
    7
  209.  @andrewblandford6423  The day St. Louis is swept away by the Missouri and Mississippi rivers will be the brightest day ever for Missouri.
    7
  210. White farmers also know how to farm. Look at Zimbabwe, ex-Rhodesia. The white farmers should just sell the land, move back to Europe, and let the blacks squabble it out. Zambia seems to recognize the skill of the white farmers at least...
    7
  211.  @stacyaman  The UAE also dabbled in commercial and commerce ventures. The UAE has a very good business environment. I'm not saying Libya couldn't have done that, but they relied totally on oil. Gaddafi wouldn't have changed anything, such as Pan-African unity. He would have just been another oil-rich ruler. Maybe Libya would have been really prosperous, but I doubt it. The economy was tightly bound by the price of oil. This is why the UAE, Qatar, and now Saudi Arabia are trying to find other methods of income.
    7
  212. Most of the Islamic migrants coming to the UK do not fit in and change. They aren't nice (The child sex gangs, the mass stabbings, Cologne rapes).
    7
  213.  @موسى_7  Chernobyl was caused by Soviet stupidity and a very flawed design. Modern reactors, of course, are much better built and designed. They can also work at night, compared to solar power.
    7
  214. Any credibility Russia has on the international stage would be gone. It would also encourage acceptance of US nukes in Eastern Europe or Korea.
    7
  215. If you think Israel's army is a joke, then the rest of the Arab world's and Iran's armies are pathetic. Five wars and they all still lost.
    7
  216.  @Gozerthegozarian1984  Ukrainian public support for the war hasn't significantly dipped due to the attacks. If anything, Russia has come out worse from the attempts as they've wasted valuable assets on hitting civilian targets (which seems to have only made Ukrainians madder) than on more useful military targets. Western countries are also more prepared for an influx of Ukrainian refugees than at the start of the war, and I doubt this wave will surpass the initial one.
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  217. Speed isn't always better. If you go that fast, you cannot maneuver, or you will rip the missile apart. Mach 27 is also only achievable currently by ICBMs.
    7
  218.  @xillerrz7328  My source is that I made it the fuck up.
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  219. The Confederacy is apart of the identity of the South as a unique region of the US. Nothing like fighting and dying for a cause, good or bad or in between, that builds a sense of culture and identity. It has allowed the idea of the CSA to transcend what it was originally meant for; ie. a carbon copy of the US tailored to protect the institution of slavery and a planter elite towards a symbol of the poor-white South; a fiercely independent, devout, and tight-knit group of people in the hot and muggy Southern US. This is why when people tear down statues of Confederate generals, they aren't attacking the defenders of slavery or institutionalized racism in the eyes of these Southerners, they're attacking their heroes, their identity as a distinct culture.
    7
  220. And get nuked in return. Like they'd try...
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  221. Funnily enough, it is. Germany pays barely 1% of its GDP on its military. And when the US decided it no longer wanted to be in Syria, Germany is scrambling to protest. Germany's armed forces is pathetically small for its economy, so it has no hard power. No one listens to countries that lack hard power.
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  222. Dude, things are already bad. Can you look at the world we live in and say "yep, things are normal and fine". Heck, look at who is running for President.
    6
  223. I believe this should be the end goal for investing. Starting out slow, investing a couple hundred bucks every couple of months, sometimes a little more if you're lucky. Every year you get a little bit of money, which you invest. But every year you get a little more, which you put back in. Rinse and repeat. I don't think people should jump into investing acting like they'll collect several million dollars by Christmas and will be able to quit their promising job to move to a beach house in Key West.
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  224.  @termitreter6545  The T-14, as far as I'm aware, has never actually been deployed. Especially not to Syria. And yeah, the price and complexity is the main reason why Russia has been struggling to produce more than a handful.
    6
  225. Because Russia, for all its apparent skill in "masterful diplomacy" only really thinks with its army for some reason. I mean, seriously, people thought the Americans were bad at diplo but the Russian invasion of Ukraine makes the Iraq War look well planned and executed.
    6
  226.  @rafaellisboa8493  Revisionism. Disregarded.
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  227. Probably not. For as many grievances they have, it would be far smarter for them to sit this conflict out.
    6
  228. You're a fool if you think this is a good thing. It won't be efficient, either, with the rampant corruption in the Chinese government. Those with money will simply pay their way to a good rating, or have it ignored all together.
    6
  229.  @TheNBSPerry  Considering the typical sterotype of a high-level CEO, one that hardly does any "real" work, this is quite an eye opener. It takes real skill and awareness to get the level of Mr. Buffet.
    6
  230. Love from Pakistan more like it. Last time I checked, India and China hate each other.
    6
  231.  @realdacarnival  Yeah, Russian organization of occupied Ukrainian areas seems pretty ad hoc and overall bad. Despite the presence of OMON and Internal troops, they don't really have a system in place for organizing the functions of the territory they control. Kherson, for example, appears to be on the verge of starvation. Konotop was basically left to run itself. There was no overarching plan for organizing control, which fits the narrative that Russia wasn't expecting serious opposition, and was banking on having a puppet government in Kiev run things for them.
    6
  232.  @tulippasta  Even in Georgia, they lost three Su-25s and a Tu-22M bomber.
    6
  233. But drones require sensor data and weaponry. In order to kill something, you need to know it's there.
    6
  234.  Steve Arthur  So, Sumy is a giant city? Chernihiv too? Is Russia incapable of taking large cities? How about Voznesensk? Apparently Russia fled with their tails after being beaten by a bunch of militia between their legs. Or perhaps that was a "tactical withdraw"? It is hard to tell these days. This war has exposed Russia's incompetence. They have reinvigorated NATO, now all of Europe flocks to the shelter of America. Man, Afghanistan made the Americans look bad, but now Russia basically made it so that it never even happened.
    6
  235.  @uroskostic8570  Actually, based on visual losses, Ukraine has GAINED more tanks from the war than they've lost. Also more modern tanks, as most of their tank losses are outdated T-64BVs.
    6
  236. No, Iran's economy is not. If it was, the sanctions wouldn't be crippling the country.
    6
  237. The US is much less corrupt than the Chinese.
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  238. The T-64 and much of its parts were built in Ukraine. Russia largely lacks the ability to modernize or restore them, especially compared to the T-62/72/80/90.
    6
  239. With smog and pollution.
    6
  240.  @shyon1994  One, it is to protect American interests, such as the flow of oil. The Saudis, Iraqis, Emiritis and Israelis are strategic allies. Two, the IRGC is a terrorist organization that funds Hezbollah and Hamas, and countless others. They destroy Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza, keeping Arabs down. The Houthis have child soldiers and hurl missiles at Mekkah.
    6
  241. Interesting how Assad can't take the final rebel stronghold on his own initiative. He has to kowtow to the Kremlin, and one man in particular. He is just a puppet of Moscow.
    6
  242. Banning guns doesn't work.
    6
  243. You can. You bury it.
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  244. Muh colonialism blah blah blah.
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  245. We live in negative times.
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  246. It signals a lack of professionalism.
    6
  247. Shame Al Jazeera is full of Pakistani bots that look only on a video with the words "India", "Kashmir", or "Pakistan" in the title. This is actual news, and no one seems to care. And they have to gall to call Americans stupid of world affairs.
    6
  248. tariffs =/= more expensive.
    6
  249.  @willl7780  Severodontesk hasn't fallen. After two weeks of constant fighting, Russia still hasn't "closed to cauldron".
    6
  250. Not quite. Military technology often spins off into the commercial and medical sector. The internet for example.
    6
  251. Turkey has played quite a visible role in Syria.
    6
  252.  @Omer1996E.C  No. Everyone agrees that things suck. How to fix the problem is a little more controversial.
    6
  253. Your Russian bias is no match to American freedom delivering skills. Remember who lost the Cold War comrade.
    6
  254. Humans are animals. Animals kill each other.
    6
  255.  @MohamedAli-tu4so  Kinda ironic then. The guy who couldn't speak Ukrainian ten years ago is now leading Ukraine in a war defending against Russia.
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  256.  @tomoh160  Too bad they won't because Russia is corrupt and incompetent. They also have a tendency to donate large numbers of equipment to Ukraine (like the Kharkiv Offensive, where 80 something T-80s fell basically intact into AFU hands).
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  257. These guys aren't poor farmers conscripted into ISIS, but Tunisian nationals who came willingly to Syria.
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  258.  @johnwitte1676  Should have just blasted the Taliban and left Afghanistan to the Northern Alliance. Perhaps even reinstalled the monarchy, because apparently the old Afghan monarchy was one of the few unifying things of the country besides Islam. But nooo, we just had to build an American-style democracy in one of the most conservative places in the world. Bah...
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  259.  @unvergebeneid  How long has Orban been around? Or Fico, for that matter? Don't throw stones in glass houses. Not everyone voted for Trump.
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  260. Kiev is huge. You can't just "blitz" it like some unguarded town. The Russians already tried it at the onset of the war, and it failed horrendously.
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  261.  @cavalierd8377  The problem is that the Russians actually have less troops fielded than the Ukrainians. Ukraine can afford to guard the route to Kiev with militia while they send their regular units to the Donbass region. Russia can't invest more troops into another attempt to take Kiev unless they pull units out of Donbass or the South.
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  262. It appears things are getting increasingly desperate for Putin. Russia has been humiliated on the battlefield, and any hopes for a quick, painless victory are gone. Russia has totally lost the narrative war, with much of the developed world throwing diplomatic support behind Ukraine. They can still win, as they have military superiority, but the price of victory is spiraling ever higher. Peace talks are actually a sign of weakness for Russia, as they're trying to "cash out" and gain some concessions. Otherwise, they'd had to continue the war to the brutal end, and thus risk rupturing at the seams.
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  263. Romania used it's good relations with the West to obtain credit to purchase consumer goods and build big vanity projects during the '70s. This could also be seen in Poland and Hungary too. Ceausescu then realized that it was unsustainable and enacted harsh austerity measures (while also building up a giant cult of personality).
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  264.  @Nekminute  Not with NATO flooding Ukraine with advanced weaponry. Javelins, NLAWS, CS-90s, Stingers, old Warsaw Pact stuff, and now NATO-standard gear. Oh, and also all of the Russian stuff captured by Ukraine.
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  265.  @Styxswimmer  East Germany was also one of the best off nations in the Eastern Bloc, while North Korea is easily one of the poorest nations in the world.
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  266. Claims he is not pro-Russian or pro-Putin. Regurgitates Russian propaganda and accusing those who don't print the RT line as being propaganda machines.
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  267.  @karlyo6937  If it was a feint, it was one of the dumbest and costliest feints in military history.
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  268.  @archiij1707  But they didn't. Hostomel is controlled by Ukraine. The airport was never able to used, and the ultimate prize of Kiev remained out of reach.
    6
  269. Why angry? It is just the nature of things. Mexico could not hold onto it's claims, so the Americans moved in.
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  270.  @playstation9435  And yet the populist right is on the rise across Europe. This changes little, because Austria is tiny. This guy may just be replaced by another eurosceptic nationalist. The EU is rotting, and the Iran tensions have proven it is largely a paper tiger. The EU said it would still be trading with Iran, but most European countries have refused to, because they fear American sanctions, as they use American systems. Poland and Hungary are still defiant to Brussels, and Brussels can't do anything to them. The UK will leave by Oct. 31, since the most likely new PM Boris Johnson, has pledged to leave. This is a small victory, in a losing war.
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  271. Armenia also occupies Azeri exclaves. The two occupied old Soviet exclaves that were deep in each other's territory. Given that they were rather remote and small, no one really cared about them.
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  272. Well, that logic seems to have been forgotten. Crime and corruption are rising. Better get a one-way ticket outa there, or you might end up strewn up on a telephone pole. Next to your daughter.
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  273. If Russia nuked the US, they would get hundreds of nukes back all at once. Russia simply cannot stop that amount.
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  274. A democratic Afghan government has been in power for twenty years. The fact that they've all but collapsed even BEFORE the US has fully departed is disgusting. If people don't like the Taliban, then they need to fight for their government instead of whining about the Americans departing (when just a few years ago, they were calling for the US to leave the Middle East).
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  275. Why all the hate on white people? Are you angry because the West built great empires and advanced while Africans and Arabs slaughtered each other? To be brutal about it, it was survival of the fittest for ethnic groups. Europe just happened to be the guys who jumped the chance first.
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  276.  @yuichi7178  Numbers are misleading. After the fall of the USSR, Russia did retain thousands of tanks. However, due to post-Soviet recession, most were put into "storage". Basically, they were put into a warehouse and left to rust for thirty years. Little to no maintenance. I also assume there was a great deal of cannibalization going on, to keep active tanks in service, resell for exports, or to siphon off to the black market. In sum, it would take months, if not years, of work to bring these tanks back into active service standards. Most aren't worth it (too old and rusted) and anyways Russia lacks the resources to.
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  277. @Labib al-Barr Most African countries had independence dropped into their lap. Except for Angola and Mozambique, every African nation was granted a bloodless independence. There was some infrastructure in place to facilitate economic growth. The US had to fight a war to free itself. The US also had to deal with hyper inflation, dis-unity, debt, and a vengeful Britain funding hostile natives to attack the frontiers.
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  278.  @omarclarke55  The United States has only gone to war with Iraq recently, and quickly found that Iraq's terrible infrastructure and insurgency made any benefit from "stolen" oil negligible. Iraq was already a very poor country, due to ten years of war in the '80s (started by Saddam) and his own thuggish regime (which pillaged billions of dollars worth of oil and sold it for personal profit). The US 5th Fleet presence in the area is a legacy of when the US imported more oil from Saudi Arabia. Now, however, there is increasingly little use for it there. However, since Europe and China import plenty of Saudi and Emirate oil, they ask for US protection, since only the US can do it. Saudi Arabia hasn't "stolen" any oil because it has not conquered any land in recent memory. Saudi Arabia is its own independent country, with its own foreign policy. They also sell their oil increasingly to Europe and China, since the US is buying less and less.
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  279. Ukraine's goal is to make a Russian conquest a slow and painful affair. The war is apparently not hugely popular in Russia, and with all of the sanctions about to hit, the Russian economy will likely collapse if they cannot win quickly enough. Russia NEEDS a quick and easy victory.
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  280.  @budgetproductions1178  Then enjoy your independence for as long as it lasts. Ukraine was real big about being neutral, and look where it got them. The US has cultural ties to the Philippines, and unlike China, the US has no territorial claims against them.
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  281.  @tallen4520  They had Mirage III aircraft, the predecessor to the F-1.
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  282. Russia is also probably too poor to afford it. A puppet government would have virtually no support, so it would take a huge portion of the Russian Army to prop it up. That's too expensive for Moscow to afford, while also being responsible for reconstructing large swaths of Ukraine.
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  283. Armata is irrelevant.
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  284.  Steve Arthur  The REAL invasion will start any day now! Just a few more days! Any time now!
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  285. @Работаем, брат! Come back when Russia takes Kiev.
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  286. Earlier in the Civil War, the Free Syrian Army used StG-44s. A few thousand of them too. No idea what has happened to them, since the FSA is all but defunct now.
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  287.  @M_Jono  Ah yes, because Russia Today says these citizens are greeting Russian soldiers with open arms, it must be true!
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  288.  @kimobrien.  Actually, the American working class benefits a lot from the "American Empire". The world's largest navy ensures cheap products from China and Vietnam to be shipped in without risk. Wide adoption of the dollar means that the dollar is a very stable currency that won't suddenly depreciate in value. You're a hundred years behind the times man. No one builds physical "empires". They build trade blocs, military alliances, technology exchanges.
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  289. Liberation requires surrender. Pfft. It is the sovereign right and duty of every nation to resist invasion and conquest from foreigners.
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  290. When you own the conservatives, but your state is an abject failure. But hey, don't come to Texas.
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  291. Both profited heavily from the previous status quo pre-invasion. France for geopolitical reasons, and Germany for economic reasons. The war illustrated how wrong their policies towards Russia were, and thus have left them weak. The pride of their governments makes them reluctant to admit that Russia wasn't logical, that America is needed, and both have less clout than they thought.
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  292.  @panderson9561  Of course it is nonsense. However, OP is either a troll, or a seriously delusional third-worlder.
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  293. Not really...
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  294. No illegal immigrants if there ain't no country to emigrate from.
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  295. Enter Mao 2.0
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  296.  @alrent2992  Yet very few stuck their necks out for Russia. Just because some politicians shake their hands with some Russian dude, or that they buy their junky military equipment DOES NOT mean that they're allied. Push comes to shove, most of those "allies" are going to repo any leased Russian plane that lands in their territory. Cape Town Treaty. Read it.
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  297. Yes, as is the case through most of human history. Fortunately, there are always ways around being mere numbers for our betters...
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  298. @Nate When the world falls into the dark ages again, you're the first person I'll purge.
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  299.  @lollertoaster  I'd think Belarus is probably more useful "independent" rather than apart of Russia proper. That being said, any wiggle room Lukashenko has is gone. He has thrown in his chips with Putin, and will have to ride it to the bottom with him.
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  300. Why the CIA? There are millions of people who have it out for Maduro. Besides, if the CIA wanted him dead, he'd be dead. Caracas would have US troops in it by the next day.
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  301. Except most people don't really care about that when the cost of living is so much better than in, say, California.
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  302.  @GizzyDillespee  The core issue is the CCP's abysmal handling of the property crisis. A lot of people took out some serious leverage to buy overinflated properties which now aren't selling, or in many cases aren't even finished. That "wealth" is all illiquid, because no one wants to buy unless they have to. So, what happens when you dump all your savings into a property that won't sell for what you bought it for? It's a flat loss. Local governments were also heavily involved in the scheme and are basically insolvent. The national government wasn't, so it has comparatively low debt levels. That's where all the printing is going: to bail out local governments. It's just not enough. Also, China's banking sector is largely insolvent too, especially at the local level. BRI is basically dead, as Chinese banks don't have the credit to invest into risky overseas projects. Maybe some SOEs are still in, on paper, but probably not for too much longer. Cuba suffered a massive blackout because Beijing could no longer prop up their economy.
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  303. The South did rise again, in a certain sense. Ironic that a good portion of American industry and wealth are in Southern states like Texas, Florida, or Georgia, while the old powerhouses of the North like Ohio or Pennsylvania rust away.
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  304. 135k can pretty much set you up in a decent college.
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  305. Which will become inoperable in a few months. Unless the US sells more equipment to the Taliban...
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  306. China has it's real estate bubble, which could blow at any time. It has rampant corruption, major pollution problems, and crumbling infrastructure. It may have it's raw GDP, yet still has many people in crippling poverty. Standards in health care, food, manufacturing, and construction are weak, and easily bypassed by corruption. China has a large military, but tech-wise it's backward. China has real potential, but it won't be a true superpower for a while. When their aircraft carriers and cruisers can be found in Hamburg and Venice, we'll reconsider.
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  307. Because that would have turned them into Southern martyrs and divided the nation truly, which was against the whole point of the war.
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  308.  @adrianquintanilla850  The US was populated by tons of Irish, yet I don't see the US waving an Irish flag. Mexico is a failed state, only made to look good by Guatemala.
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  309.  @adrianquintanilla850  Irish were despised back in the day, so I don't know what you're talking about. I'm sure eventually it will become popular to have Mexican heritage in a few decades. By then perhaps the Chinese will be despised. Mexico is country that shambles forward. It has plenty of potential, but the government is terribly corrupt. And yes, the drug crisis in America contributes to that.
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  310. Cowardice? Compared to the Chinese, who were beaten by Vietnamese? Or Iran, who blew up their own ship?
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  311. Pure copium. Still seething over the Moskva? I thought it sailed back into port under it's own power.
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  312.  @MohamedAli-tu4so  "I hurt you because I love you" lol, what kind of logic is that?
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  313.  @MohamedAli-tu4so  Yeah, that already happened with Cuba, except the Americans didn't invade them, only blockaded them until the Soviets gave withdrew their nukes, and promptly forgot about them. Ukrainians chose to align with the West, and the US, because they offered them a better deal than with Russia. Russia should have, you know, not illegally seized Crimea, and offered a better trade deal.
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  314.  @MohamedAli-tu4so  lol, it is a fair comparison. The US embargoed Cuba, but didn't invade it. They only cared when nukes were based there. Once they were gone, America basically forgot about Cuba because Cuba is irrelevant. Meanwhile, Russia signs an agreement to ensure Ukraine's territorial integrity in exchange for Ukraine giving up its nukes, and then invades Ukraine twice.
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  315. To be fair, a day's travel from a point in Germany will get you to about 6 different countries that speak different languages. Travel for a day in the US, and often times you're still in the same state. Spanish though is consistently taught from early on in most schools, especially those with large Hispanic populations. Some universities require at least two semesters (or years even) of a foreign language. My high school also offered Latin and French. Others will offer German or Italian, depending on location and funding.
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  316. They wouldn't win in the end though.
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  317. Eh, just numbers. Its all just numbers. As long as we aren't racist, it doesn't matter.
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  318.  @nobodyherepal3292  He is a Russo-boo seething that Binkov isn't parroting the RT line that Russia has completely demolished Ukraine's Armed Forces (and yet somehow hasn't won) and that EVERYTHING is going completely according to the Kremlin's plan (because Russia CAN'T be wrong!).
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  319.  @UVGardener  Of course China does. Tienanmen Square, no?
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  320. The downsides of having a human pilot are less about the limits of the body (dogfighting is becoming increasingly irrelevant due to accurate BVR missiles) and more of a cost factor (needed flight hours, training, and potential political fallout if a pilot is shot down and captured).
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  321.  @stefangherman8408  Yeah, Romania felt the collapse of socialism pretty hard. However, much of the Romanian Communist Party was very crooked, and the fall of Ceausescu didn't mean that they would fall in turn. They just rebranded themselves as democratic and plundered Romania in the aftermath.
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  322. Still haven't taken Kharkiv, Kiev, Odessa, Mykolaiv, Dnipro, or Sumy. Retreated from Kiev, in fact. Just abandoned all that territory in the north.
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  323.  @Nekminute  Oryx visual losses says otherwise. Going off of visually confirmed, geolocated losses, Russia has lost more than 3 to 1 pieces of heavy equipment.
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  324. The US Army is probably the weakest branch of the Armed Forces. The US has, for about the past hundred years, relied on air power and naval power. In those spheres the US is basically uncontested.
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  325.  @suibora  But Ukraine doesn't have anti-sat weapons. And regardless, Russia's use of non-sat navigation appears rather poor.
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  326. Welcome to geopolitics, third-worlder. The US has nukes and the strongest navy on the planet. No one can get close enough to threaten the US.
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  327.  @makorek  Yeah, but all Iran does is shoot down civilian airliners.
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  328.  @makorek  Nope. Iran downed a Ukrainian airliner full of their own people.
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  329.  @Megalomaniakaal  Also, plenty of the Midwest's agriculture goes to industrial use. Here in Missouri, basically all the soybeans and corn grown here isn't fit for human consumption, rather for livestock feed.
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  330. The Russian Airforce has been having serious problems due to readiness rates, stemming from part shortages and lack of trained pilots. Also to mention is the presence of a sophisticated Ukrainian SAM network, which is still very strong (probably even stronger than it was on Feb 23) with the introduction of Western systems like IRIS-T and NASAMS.
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  331.  @DBZHGWgamer  I wasn't using proud in the positive sense. Russia has more in common with the long-gone Mongol Empire (an empire of conquest, pillage, and brutality) than a modern nation-state we'd recognize. Pride is a crutch for Russians. They measure the strength of a nation not by its living standards, stability of government, or functioning economy, but by its military strength. Why else does Russia have so many military parades? Thus, the average Russian cannot accept that Russia is flailing around in Ukraine (to a bunch of "hohols"), as it means Russia is weak. That is simply not acceptable because military strength is all Russia had. Take away that "2nd strongest military in the world" and you have a country that is little more than giant Detroit. No one drank the "Russia Stronk" Kool-Aid more than Russia itself.
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  332.  @scandited2763  A Russian troll. Ignore it. Ukraine, post USSR, suffered terribly. Russia had vast natural resources, primarily oil and natural gas. Ukraine lacked that, and thus its army was barely functional. The fact that Ukraine has a defense industry at all left after the 1990s is rather amazing.
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  333. The Soviet Union was doomed to fail from the start.
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  334. Even if the entire port isn't controlled by a union, losing a solid chunk of your workforce WILL hurt. This isn't the 1880s, you can't easily replace people who go on strike. Especially if a LOT of people go on strike. Double especially if the strikers were in critical, hard-to-fill roles.
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  335.  @boooomerwang  Ding ding ding. Name is powerful in China.
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  336. Not everyone is a fat fuck though...
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  337.  @kenpe1455  The copium is real. Maybe there is enough copium to raise the Moskva from the bottom of the Black Sea.
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  338.  @carkawalakhatulistiwa  Just because Russia has a lot of raw oil doesn't mean that it is instantaneously useful as high quality jet fuel. In fact, I think Russia actually imports aviation fuel as they lack the refining capabilities.
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  339.  @quranandsunnah4216  The Taliban were no match for NATO, as 2001 showed. They've won because the Kabul government is incompetent and weak.
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  340.  @TRPilot06YT  Probably not. I'd say the T-62s are meant for the LPR/DPR forces.
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  341.  Arda  Well, apparently, Turkish performance in Korea was rather lackluster and quite minor. In 1948, Stalin had the largest army in the world, and Turkey had barely any army. Stalin had conquered half of Europe, and you think he could not take Turkey too? After beating the Germans? Turkey must not have thought they could, because they joined NATO with Greece, their hated rival, in 1952. Also, the US supported the Kurds because they were the only group capable of fighting ISIS in 2014 and winning (a group Turkey bought oil from).
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  342. Turkey did commit genocide against Armenia. They also like to bash the Kurds.
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  343. Now an Israeli city.
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  344.  @edwardmiessner6502  Meanwhile, the Democrats call for open borders to take in hordes of unwashed migrants from the world to drive down wages, while calling for a massive healthcare plan that would impoverish the middle class. Yeah, I would take a straight white Christian supremacy over a morally bankrupt nu-Brazil.
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  345. A reoccurring problem with centrally planned economies. Objectives that were seen as priorities were focused on to the detriment of other sectors. The USSR, for example, built highly advanced weaponry but could not manufacture decent bras.
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  346. Lol, Russia and their "greatest ally" China. Can't make this stuff up.
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  347. Scary thing is more people might take this guy seriously now that the economy is about to tank.
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  348. Not bothering to look for scholarships, getting the most expensive options, etc. If you're smart, you can cut down on college costs by quite a bit. Grants, scholarships, work/study (working for the school), GI bill, or simply by working a part time job over the summer or weekends.
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  349. @yo pierre That isn't an argument.
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  350.  @omarclarke55  Steals oil? Incorrect. The United States BUYS oil from countries like Saudi Arabia. Also, most oil the US uses is domestic, pumped from Texas or Alaska, not imported. The US is even exporting oil. The US also has very little economic presence in Africa compared to countries like France (who has large sections of it's military stationed in the Sahel region) or China (which has been aggressively acquiring mining rights and building infrastructure, driving many countries in debt). As for South America, only Venezuela has significant amounts of oil, and it is largely too heavy for easy use. Venezuela even IMPORTS US light crude, because their infrastructure has been ruined by poor PDVSA management, and not from sanctions (which only target the upper elite).
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  351.  @rafaellisboa8493  You are thinking of land re-distribution, which took place after the revolution during the NEP years of Lenin. Peasants were given lands and were allowed to keep excess grain or resell it after having fulfilled state quotas. Collectivization was undertaken under Stalin and was immensely damaging. Productivity dropped significantly and famine occurred in large areas of the country (the Holodomor).
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  352. The Black Sea is a very confined body of water. The Pacific, meanwhile, is vast and open. Most drones used by Ukraine lack the range for any meaningful use in the Pacific.
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  353. How? He was the first president to actually go up and shake Kim Jong Un's hand and secure peace. He has done more than Clinton, Bush, and Obama combined.
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  354.  @w925gaming6  Trump has never threatened to nuke anyone.
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  355.  @yikemoo  Bots, mostly. Arguing is pointless because the amount of time and effort to refute such BS is greater than the time to come-up-with and post BS.
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  356. You underestimated my power!
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  357. Israel has nukes. Your move.
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  358. It's only better for as long as a stagnant EU can afford to maintain its social security net, which with its ageing population is far from guaranteed. Or assuming that America doesn't get its act together.
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  359. What's Germany's excuse then?
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  360. They died in less than a month and did little else of use during the war.
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  361.  @2UNIEK  There can be two Chinas. I mean, Austria is ethnically German, and both are quite happy being separate, even with the Second World War long past.
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  362.  @karlyo6937  Just like the Moskva didn't sink, it was just turned into a submarine.
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  363. @General Guile The modern, secular state of Turkey was founded by Attaturk. The Ottomans of 1920 were essentially "monarchists" since by then the Ottoman Empire had been conquered and dismembered. The Ottoman Empire was Turk dominated, though it did invite Greeks and Arabs into the upper echelons.
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  364. So invested in the belief of Russia's invincibility!
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  365. I would equate that to geopolitics. Russia has good relations with Israel, and so does not want to ruin them by shooting down an Israel jet.
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  366.  @holthrain3985  I think the "defense agreement" was more in reference to Greece's EEZ dispute with Turkey. As the US pivots to the Asia-Pacific region, they gave more influence in the Mediterranean to France.
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  367.  @grizzles9652  Russia also has to keep it's logistics network capable. Using vast amounts of artillery requires a secure logistics line, from factories to front-line.
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  368.  @1968gadgetyo  This guy is just angry his country did not win. You can't win them all, I guess.
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  369.  Steve Arthur  There are plenty of instances of citizens taking up arms in all regions of Ukraine, East included. There are reports of partisan actions around Melitpol, constant protests in Kherson, and when Russian troops entered Sumy, they were greeted with bullets. Eastern Ukraine was friendly to Russia UNTILL Russia began shelling their homes. Most of the war has been fought in Eastern Ukraine, which has been devastated by fighting. There have been no pro-Russian Ukrainian units formed from occupied areas, and the separatist republics have resorted to shanghai-ing people into their militaries. The USSR is dead. Gone. It won't return. Nostalgia for the good times during the USSR doesn't mean you'll go fight for a Russian dictator who claims all of the glory of the Soviet Union for Russia.
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  370. Why would the US invade those shat countries. Better to turtle up.
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  371. Well, actually, they are better off now. Under Saddam, corruption was rampant. Infrastructure was falling apart. They couldn't protest their issues, or they would be shot. Now, they can. Though things are bad, they have been bad since the Iran-Iraq war.
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  372.  @praneel4741  Why not, lol. Russia is requesting help from Syrian mercenaries and the Chechens (who have been useless as of late).
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  373. Doesn't really matter. Ukraine got a huge propaganda victory from it.
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  374.  @shyon1994  Exactly. The US doesn't want war, for the simple fact that Iran keeps the two key US allies in the region, Israel and Saudi Arabia, focused on Iran instead of turning on each other and forcing the US to pick a side. The US merely wants Iran to stop funding Hezbollah and Hamas, destroy their nuclear program, and quit being a general pain in the ass. War is the last thing the US wants. Saudi Arabia and Israel however, very much want it. For them, destroying the country that has vocally and loudly called for their destruction is very annoying.
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  375.  @phoenix211245  Don't worry about the dates. Production essentially collapsed after 1991, and only a handful were produced afterwards. Most people don't realize that, one, the T-90 is just a renamed T-72BU (not much change from the T-72 line besides a new fire control system from the T-80U) and two, Russia only had about 400 in service, prewar. The T-72 was easily the most common Russian tank. T-90 loss rates are going up as Russia pushes more into the fight. Russia burned through hundreds of T-72s, their "line" tank.
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  376. The Yugoslav Wars weren't actually that intense militarily. During the Croat War for Independence, over 4 years, only about 15,000 Croat soldiers died. Russia lost that amount in about a month.
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  377.  @startingbark0356  CNN plays up that Russia is the greatest threat to the West since the old mustache man in the 40's. In reality, Russia is a decrepit, aging, broke country kept going by selling oil to Germany and China, and weapons to anyone with a packet of monster munch and a nickel.
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  378.  @patrickcloutier6801  Those examples aren't really good. The 1894-95 war was against the Chinese, who lacked their own naval tradition, and were terribly corrupt and poorly trained and led. The Russians had the disadvantage of geography and poor leadership, and they could not combine their fleets. They were also undergoing serious internal problems, which prevented them from taking advantage of the fact that, for all their victories, the Japanese had taken serious losses and were on the verge of bankruptcy. And, let us not forget, when the Japanese themselves faced a well-organized, modern, and serious naval power, the US, they lost the war and their empire.
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  379. Lies. Russia "thought" of joining NATO, but preferred to lead their own faction than join one.
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  380. ​ @DukeOfTwist  A big reason why real estate prices are spiking on the West Coast of the US and Canada.
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  381. Prospered. Sadly, Islam has stagnated from the great days of the 800s and 900s where it was a force of technological innovation, relative tolerance, and stability. Now, Islam has turned inwards and they want to move back to medieval era.
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  382.  @forbeginnersandbeyond6089  Because people don't get economics and assume "inflation bad, therefore no inflation good" without understanding why. China's inflation is low because consumer confidence is low, because of lockdowns, a banking crisis, and people defaulting on mortgage payments.
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  383.  @the11382  But there is also London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Tokyo.
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  384.  @djkuhl  Or other preferential treatment from the Chinese government, which will absolutely bend its rules for something it views as necessary.
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  385.  @-alyissa-3632  So, if a hospital has, say, 200 cases of Covid, they'd get, say, $5 million. Another hospital may have only 100 cases, so they get only $2 million. The more cases you" have", the more aid you can apply for. This incentives inflating reported cases.
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  386. Considering Russia lacks the resources to do that...
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  387. I also believe that the escape capsule of the submarine was also welded into the sail as well.
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  388. Japan is more afraid of China that the US. They picked their camp.
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  389. The invasion was 16 years ago. Germany was bombed into the ground, and yet has one of the world's largest GDPs.
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  390.  @User31129  Your embassy will make a fine addition to my collection.
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  391. The Hadi Government is useless. A Houthi North Yemen and a democratic South Yemen is preferable.
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  392. Ukraine will make a fine addition to NATO. NATO will be within sniffing distance of Moscow and Volgograd.
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  393.  @georgemavrides3434  EMP isn't as spectacular as most may think. Most military equipment is EMP hardened.
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  394. No.
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  395. Weep more Sprski. Kosovo will never be Serbian again.
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  396.  Joseph Hendley  'ate Kansas (filthy Jayhawks) 'ate Illinois 'ate St. Louis 'ate The Rams Luv the Chiefs Luv KC barbeque Luv Mizzou Simple as.
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  397. Go woke, go broke.
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  398. Not very advanced. Especially since the US Navy guarantees the world's trade. Taxing the rich more means nothing, since the rich use loopholes (or get tax breaks from states wanting their business).
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  399. Russia finds it useful to fund idiots on the Internet than try to build a decent military.
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  400.  @UVGardener  The Chinese are even more racist than the US. The Han crush and oppress the Tibetans, the Mongolians, and the Hui.
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  401. It's all about a difference in doctrine. The Russian Navy uses small ships that have large, heavy hitting missiles, albeit few of them. This isn't a problem for them since they can always dart back into port and restock and dart out again. They aren't made to go out onto the open sea, where the US Navy holds sway.
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  402. Like Putin and his loyal band of oligarchs.
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  403.  @ozymandiasnullifidian5590  And yet they're blasted civilian apartment buildings with rocket artillery. Where VDV were just dumped on an airport outside Kiev and slaughtered. Who weren't even told they were going to war. And yet the all-mighty Speztnaz are just going to magically win the war, turning a deeply hostile population into a submissive pro-Russian one. Believing that garbage is what got the Russians into this situation in the first place, that they had the BEST army, and the Ukrainians were a bunch of hohols who would fold in a day or two. Continue to buy into that myth, and you will soon be justifying why Russia is pulling out of Ukraine (because they got what they came for, for some reason).
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  404. Who needs the sun. It's too bright anyway.
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  405. America is going nowhere.
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  406. What's wrong with bolsonaro? :(
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  407. It is true that there are other options for careers. College ISN'T bad, it's only for a specific group of people with a certain mindset and idea on what they want to get out of it.
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  408. Well, since the war with ISIS is pretty much over, they can go back home and rebuild their native countries. Europe already has enough human capital, but Iraq and Syria will be pretty desperate for some skilled labor.
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  409. The Saudis love to blow stuff up.
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  410. @Johto Of course they forget. Despite recent spats, Turkey is in NATO, an is an ally of the United States. If Turkey is attacked, the United States must come to it's aid, and vise versa.
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  411. Exactly! Which is why Puerto Ricans, except those working for the Federal Government, do not pay federal income taxes!
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  412. The value of the ruble is largely artificial. Strong capital controls (very tight limits on foreign exchange and basically freezing the Russian stock market) has propped up its value. Also, Russia heavily taxes foreign currency in its banks. It isn't sustainable and has basically knee-capped the Russia economy and banking system.
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  413.  @taipizzalord4463  Not quite. Hyperinflation only occurs when the government tapes down the money printer. Russia is doing the opposite. They're artificially strengthening the ruble. It isn't sustainable in the long run, and is designed to LOOK like sanctions are failing. The problem is, basically Russia's entire domestic industry has collapsed without access to foreign components. It's aerospace sector, manufacturing, retail, auto sector, ship building... gone. The only thing that is prospering right now is oil and gas sales (making Russia a glorified gas station), but that's only temporary. Even Russia's energy sector is dependent on Western parts for it's production machinery. These are things that don't become noticeable immediately, but start to hurt more the longer they go on. For example, see the new Lada car? Looks pretty good, and it's cheap. Doesn't have air bags, an anti-lock braking system, modern safety systems, or any electronics basically. Whoever is looking at the ruble and saying "Western sanctions are failing, therefore they should be lifted" is at best, a mouthpiece for the Russian government, or worse, an idiot. Perun does a good video on it, so check him out.
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  414. Big infrastructure projects are often seen with suspicion because they go overbudget, behind schedule, and under perform. California's HSR, for example, was caught up in politics, environmental assessments, while operating in one of the most expensive labor and regulatory areas in the US. People are all for environmental regulations and for strong unions, but then wonder why nothing gets built.
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  415.  @Mira-pm3ni  It's a trade off. China has terrible labor rights. Laws that are in place are often ignored due to corruption. China is also notorious for substandard construction quality, due again to weak laws and a culture of extreme cost cutting (due to stiff competition and a emphasis on speed). Environmental regulations go without saying: They're terrible. Thus, while infrastructure projects are very slow and expensive in the West, in China, while immense constructs are rapidly and cheaply built, they are nicknamed "tofu-dreg" projects due to their poor quality.
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  416. Could probably add in the 7,000 as well. While most may just be captured (and theoretically recoverable via POW swaps), I'd reckon that at least a quarter to a third are dead. Regardless, 13+ thousand dead is the equivalent to an entire division being destroyed.
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  417. Ding ding ding! Someone finally has a brain! Lord almighty! The US is a FEDERATION of STATES! Not a direct unitary republic. The US isn't some small European homogenous country. It's more similar to the EU than to just Germany.
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  418. Somalia failed because it is an artificial state that was held together by Said Barre's will, and when his invasion of Ethiopia failed, it promptly disintegrated.
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  419. There is no known aircraft carrier that can fit the system. However, the Kirov carried S-300 missiles.
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  420.  @archiij1707  Oryx is not perfect, but given the state of things, they've done a pretty good job. They are far more reliable and trustworthy than either the Russian or Ukrainian MoDs, who are naturally tight-lipped about losses. The Russians, no matter what metric you look at, HAVE taken heavy losses. Equipment losses are a decent marker for troop losses, as many crews don't escape their vehicles when it gets destroyed (especially something as thin-skinned as the BMD line). That equipment will take years to be rebuilt, even longer given the state of the Russian manufacturing sector. The VDV, like the rest of the Russian Army, suffered heavily in their Kiev campaign. It is why they retreated from Kiev, and are now focused on more limited objectives in the Donbass (which itself has become a meatgrinder).
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  421. The lost to Iraq. An even bigger disgrace.
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  422.  @Gozerthegozarian1984  One, support for Ukraine is bipartisan and there is still widespread support for Ukraine across the US. No major political candidate has reducing aid to Ukraine as a campaign statement, precisely because it is unpopular with the general public. Economic concerns about inflation are divorced, in the public's mind, from support to Ukraine. Two, if Russia could do that, they would have already done that. Destroying a dam is not easy. They are pretty big and sturdy, for obvious reasons. What Russia could, and already is doing, is attacking substations and powerplants which is easier. Ukraine is pretty quick to repair systems and blackouts have not impacted war support in the populace (historically, systematic bombing does not generally break morale).
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  423.  @Gozerthegozarian1984  Systematic bombing doesn't generally break a populace. In World War II, cities in Britian, the USSR, Germany, and Japan were leveled in massive air raids that killed tens of thousands of people. None of those countries surrendered because of it (Japan had to be nuked twice). Russia lacks the ability to level Kiev with the armaments it has, even assuming Ukraine's air defense network does nothing. Electrical infrastructure is pretty quick to be repaired, and Russia has wasted valuable munitions that could have been used on a military target. Even assuming Russia could destroy every dam on the Dnieper (which it can't do), it changes little. In fact, it would largely destroy the RUSSIAN held bank. Also, Ukraine has troops on the east side of the Dnieper, so they could simply advance from there.
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  424. It's terribly ironic, it has to have been planned as a joke. Though knowing Russia, perhaps it wasn't.
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  425. Astronauts sent on old rockets, and "advanced" weapons that number about a dozen total.
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  426.  @benanders4412  And what you're implying is that Russia was dumb enough to get baited into it.
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  427. Assuming it was even written somewhere.
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  428. It's what California deserves. They voted for this.
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  429. @Pragmatic Vietnam hates China more, so they'll welcome American investment and protection.
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  430. China is run by fascists.
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  431. Doubtful. Ignoring the quality of the Belarusian Army, which is already dubious, the Belarusian military simply lacks the numbers or the equipment to attack Kiev. The geography also heavily favors Ukraine, with the Pinsk marshes confining any attackers to narrow road networks. This was already illustrated back at the start of the war, where Russian forces advancing from Belarus got bogged down in endless ambushes, decimating their tank forces. Russia also doesn't have the trained manpower to reinforce a Belarusian assault towards Kiev or Lviv. Most of the mobilized were sent straight to the Donbass or Kherson fronts, with basically nothing left over.
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  432.  @myopicthunder  Gold reserves depleted by their recessions. Russia has an economy the size of Italy, with twice the corruption.
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  433.  @tubescorpion  He isn't wrong, or completely wrong. The British actually do something to the sound of that. If during a time of war, they haven't heard from the British homeland, they are authorized to open a locked safe that contains instructions on what to do. There are apparently four options, one of which is to launch a nuclear strike.
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  434. Then there are two Chinas. What is wrong with that? There are two Koreas. There are two German countries (Austria and Germany).
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  435. I'd counter: 1. While Ukraine did not do significant damage to the Crimean Bridge, the damage was enough to force repairs and require that the volume of traffic over the bridge be slowed. This is especially true for rail, which as far as I'm aware has not yet been restored. Rail is the Russian Army's main method of moving supplies, and I have no doubt that this contributed to Russia abandoning Kherson. Without supplies reliably flowing through Crimea via the bridge, Russia's position in Kherson became untenable. 2. Reliable figures are hard to come by, but I can assure you that Ukraine has not mobilized its entire population. Manpower is not the issue, rather weapons, kit, and ammunition are. There isn't enough kit to reliably equip everyone, so mobilization is done in phases in conjunction with troop rotation. This means that veteran soldiers are given R&R, can train mobilized, and keep up morale while new soldiers are given weapons and training. 3. Attacking towards Kiev from Belarus is dumb, even for the Russian Army. If Russia couldn't take Kiev in Feb/March when they had significant numbers of well-trained troops and was relatively unfortified, then it is pure stupidity to try now. Especially considering that the Belarusian Army is useless at best, untrustworthy at worse.
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  436.  @fusion9619  China is not having a baby boom, and anyone who tells you they are is mentally handicapped.
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  437. Why not. The Russians will find anyone to blame but themselves.
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  438. It's actually in Kentucky.
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  439. Hairysteed I never said it was a NATO missile. Yes, it is used by NATO members, but it's origin is Israeli or in your case, the USSR.
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  440. Perhaps you should say that to a citizen of the DPRK, one who is impoverished and starving.
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  441.  @MrFlatage  Huh? First of all, I may be an American. I might not be, but does that matter? Second, the US Navy has the largest fleet in the world by tonnage. The submarine incidents you mention have happened up to almost two decades ago. The submarines are all repaired and back in service. Two, hypersonic missiles are vastly overstated. This is mostly by the underfunded Russian Navy, which seeks to sell its missiles. The missiles are very large, which makes them easy radar targets. Two, their speed, which limiting reaction times, makes maneuvering extremely limited. Inertia and friction would rip the missile apart if it tried any extensive turns. Three, you have to locate a battle group in order to sink it. It is a lot harder than it seems. You may know vaguely where it is, but precise targeting requires over-the-horizon radar (which can be destroyed by aircraft or missile strikes) or scout aircraft (which can be shot down). You appear to be blindly ranting. Nothing wrong with it, except no one will take you seriously. No warship since the Civil War has been lost by the US Navy. The USS Pueblo was a surveillance ship (and the crew most certainly were not begging).
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  442.  @Minuz1  Well... ah, mistake on my part. Caught me there. That's what I meant... :(
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  443. It isn't as simple as Vox would like you to believe. Some areas have pretty decent infrastructure. Others, like in the Rust Belt, are crumbling.
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  444.  @iiiiicp  Because A isn't working how we think it is, B must obviously work!
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  445. @Jay Jay Well, perhaps the fact that most emissions come from developing nations like China, and India. The US has vastly reduced emissions since the '80s and has still been reducing. No one is talking to China about climate control.
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  446. Israel would not give up their nukes. They may not even have nuclear weapons, but instead are performing an elaborate bluff. Though, if they do (and they probably do) have nukes, they have no reason to give them up. Especially since their neighbors hate them.
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  447.  @donverga  Some would actually be okay with your statement.
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  448. The Climate changes all the time. Why should the US be handicapped and told to stop emissions when China and India dumps plenty of toxic gasses into the atmosphere.
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  449. Probably not. Grant was a good general, but a poor politician. That's all.
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  450. Trump will win in 2020. There won't be anyone who can stop him.
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  451. Invading an empty desert more like.
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  452. Still, even with such outcomes, nuclear energy is remarkably safe.
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  453. Between Western deliveries, captured Russian tanks, and their own not insignificant stockpiles, Ukraine is probably less concerned with running out of hulls (especially because Ukraine is largely on the defensive) than spare part and ammo supplies.
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  454. Everyone lost land as they were collectivized. And food productivity DID NOT skyrocket, but often plummeted. This was because of a lack of enthusiasm from workers (not much compensation from the government, as they were forced to sell their grain to the government at artificially low prices).
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  455. Because people with two brain cells see through this naked globalist propaganda. VOX has become nothing more than a shrill mouthpiece for the left.
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  456. Russo-boos seething that their massive military has been humiliated by Ukrainian babushkas with Javelins and Turkish drones. What happened to the Russian juggernaut? With their T-90s and T-14s and S-400s? I mean, what kind of country can be considered a military superpower if it has its tanks stolen by Ukrainian farmers, or its SAMs towed away by tractors? Where its soldiers beg villagers for gas? A country where tons of military equipment are just abandoned on the side of the road? I mean, people laughed at the US and Biden for giving the Afghan Republic a bunch of gear only to have it fall into the hands of the Taliban. But at least the Americans didn't have it literally stolen from them.
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  457. Might is right.
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  458.  @yves2932  Especially since the engine for the T-80 was notoriously unreliable and needy.
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  459.  @thekaiseroftheeast3895  The Second Cold War has started, my friend.
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  460. McArthur was a man of considerable talent, but of considerably larger pride. He had been bested by the Chinese, the people he boasted would be easily torched if they entered the war. Instead, they torched his troops. He couldn't stand that, so he wanted the ultimate revenge.
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  461. Good luck on the march back. They'll need it.
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  462.  @GamesAndMoreGamesAndMoreGames  Regardless, three years is still quite a short time comparably.
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  463. Interesting take. The CCP tries to present itself as a monolithic entity, and it often fools many into believing that. However, it is quite apparent that there are divisions in it, as in the US (though not as public).
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  464. Russia has been doing nothing but flattening Ukraine lol.
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  465.  @valetudo1569  And completly neglects how people are locked into their apartments and sometime starve.
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  466. Because Argentina refuses to undergo actual restructuring that would make sure the place is actually solvent, such as cutting the bloated public sector, reducing subsidies, fighting corruption, reducing red tape and encouraging work in the private sector. Instead, they complain that the IMF are the bad guys, when Argentina was the one who BORROWED money from the IMF. The IMF didn't force it onto Argentina, rather set preconditions to receive loans. Understandable, as people who loan out money want their money back.
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  467.  @voidtempering8700  Tank-on-tank actions are pretty rare, and technically, Ukrainian T-64s field the Kombat tank-fired ATGM. Most Russian tanks knocked out by combat were from infantry ambushes, which are a far better way of dealing with tanks.
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  468. That's how Germany went from democracy to dictatorship. The people willingly gave up their rights to Hitler.
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  469. @Работаем, брат! "I was just pretending to be stupid"
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  470. Than you have no idea what life in Syria is really like. Syria is riddled with corruption, cities are devastated, and most people support him only because they are tired of war. If it wasn't for the Russians, this guy would be six feet under. Oh wait, he wouldn't be given a grave.
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  471.  @Trubripes  A frozen conflict would suit no one. For Russia, a lack of a treaty would mean that sanctions would continue to degrade their economy. They NEED to bring Ukraine to the negotiating table. While Ukraine is complaining about munition shortages, the the fact is that they can replace their equipment with stuff from the West. Russia, on the meanwhile, cannot replace their equipment. Time works against them, and freezing the conflict would mean Ukraine would have time to recover and rearm. Ukraine would only benefit from a short term freeze (maybe a few weeks, to a couple of months), to keep Western interest high. Also, to keep the Russians on their toes, and to prevent them from digging in. The conflict won't freeze. It will go on until someone breaks.
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  472.  @ЗаметкиизРоссии  You know, the US, Pakistan, and China flooded Afghanistan with Strelas, Redeyes, and Stingers during the '80s. Did you know the impact it had on the US when it invaded in 2001? Basically none. The thing is with advanced NATO equipment, is that it takes trained maintenance to keep operable. Even the old Strela, which is largely useless these days, will become junk if just left in a warehouse for a few years.
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  473. Because the US is a unique country with a unique history. Everyone seems to forget that the country's name is the UNITED STATES. America is a federal republic made up of 50 different states. The federal government shares power with the states. The President is chosen by electors, who are selected by their states. In the 2016 election, Hillary won the popular vote by about 3 million. However, if one state was removed from the election, Trump would have won the popular vote by around a million votes. This state is California. Seems unfair, doesn't it?
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  474.  @casbot71  I think we can all agree here that if it was just a Taiwan vs. China, China would win in the end. In theory, they could blockade Taiwan and eventually starve it into submission. However, the situation is not as straightforward as that. If the Chinese invaded, the Americans would likely step in. The mere prospect of them intervening prevents the PRC from attacking now. If the Americans did step in, the Chinese would have to back off, since there would be no way for them to take Taiwan if US troops and aircraft are there. It would bring the war to China itself, which is something the Communist Party doesn't want. The status quo benefits the Chinese for now. Taiwan, for them, is a rather useless island besides it's strategic placement. They use their trade ties with the US to prevent them from stationing advanced weaponry on the island that would threaten the mainland, and in return, the Chinese leave the ROC to themselves. A war would change that, and would bring an era of prosperous growth to an end. Taiwan, no matter who is in power, be it the KMT or DDP, is going to unify with the PRC. Both despise and fear Beijing. The KMT is not supporting immediate unification. The DDP is not supporting immediate independence. Both parties are content only with keeping Taiwan de facto independent. The future is a long ways away, and politicians, PRC or ROC, are really only concerned with now, not later. Bottom line, nothing is gonna happen. The status quo fits both.
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  475. You say that while Russia is rebuilding its strength. Didn't Russia and the Ottoman Empire fight several wars?
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  476.  @linusmayden8465  In China, if you criticize the government, you get sent to jail. In the US, if you criticize either one of the parties, you'll get pats on the back or tomatoes thrown at you. But the government won't do anything.
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  477.  @soravulpis96  Probably, especially the first. In a few years, they'll quietly sell all the assets to a freight company who will then finish the line for a fraction of the original cost.
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  478. Glory to Ukraine!
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  479. Another Russian plane goes down... Jeez, instead of building them Armata T-14s, perhaps they should modernize infrastructure and their planes.
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  480.  @Protey10  Iran dominated Iraq in the air, only having to scale back operations due to equipment shortages.
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  481.  Steve Arthur  Uh, yeah. Telegram has countless videos of people taking potshots at Russians. There used to be a channel that uploaded videos of that, back at the start of the war. Got deleted though. I think proof that basically no major cities in the north or east of the country have fallen are enough proof. The fact that Azov and the Marines still hold out in that big steel factory in Mariupol, after two months, is telling.
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  482.  @tambakante2806  Do not underestimate the US. Statements of the US's decline is much overstated. Iraq assumed that they would be able to best the US in a straight up fight. Battle-hardened Iraqi troops against the soft First-world Americans. Iraq was annihilated. Russia is a fading power. China's weak and bloated system has been exposed by the coronavirus.
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  483. You'd be surprised. The Chinese are dying to get their hands on any sort of technology that can help out their own carrier program. Of course, so they can skip the 50+ years of R&D, trial and error, and combat experience the US had to do in order to design and refine their carriers.
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  484.  @h.b7333  The US isn't "suffering". It's economy is growing even more powerful. Political issues aside, the country is growing.
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  485.  @paradoxicaluniverse  But, the differences are real. People like to bash American infrastructure for being crap, yet Russia's is literally falling apart. Gas explosions that kill dozens of people are a regular occurrence. Look at the mining city of Norilisk, the most polluted city in the world. It is so polluted, mining the dirt and soot for minerals is actually profitable, because the machinery is so bad. Russia, although big, is a paper tiger economically.
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  486.  @keenanmadams8316  Right is might fool. Iran is seen as a threat to US interests. This isn't a game of being the nicest, but of domination. Iran doesn't want to cooperate, so they'll be isolated and destroyed.
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  487.  @keenanmadams8316  China is the same as us, fool. You think they are giving out all that money in the goodness of their heart? Of course not. They're just in debt as us, more corrupt, and less efficient. And much less kind and gentile. Remember that when you default on your loans and they occupy your ports. Also, American doesn't give a shit about Iran's markets. They're shut in, with their backs to the wall. Russia is already selling them out. China would sell Iran out in a heartbeat if Trump relaxed tariffs. They'll just build infrastructure through Russia and Kazakhstan, bypassing Iran. The Taliban have accomplished nothing in 18 years of war. The average American feels nothing while they starve up in their mountains. They've already had to give up most of their original positions, and most aren't even the Taliban, just impoverished villagers fighting against the government. We haven't even entered Iran yet. We won't have to. The Saudis and Israelis can do it for America. I heard the Jews are quite good at blasting insurgents with tanks. No one cares about Palestine, and no one will care about the evil Iranians who threatened the region. And hell, if Iran does manage to build and lob one nuke at Israel, they'll glass Tehran in an instant. Forget the insurgents.
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  488.  @a564-c3q  This guy actually buys the Russian MoD line. He actually believes that Russia fed some of their most elite units into a meatgrinder (Like the 4th Guards and the VDV) not because the Russians tried and failed to take Kiev, but because it was some big feint.
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  489.  @KrunoslavStifter  Brilliant tactics. Expending elite VDV and the 4th Guards to pin down a bunch of militia and reservists, while doing basically nothing in the Donbass region (Mauripol STILL hasn't completely fallen, and the Ukrainian temporary oblast capitals for Luhansk and Donetsk STILL haven't fallen). Russia has to be perhaps the most incompetent military power I've ever seen.
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  490. I mean, technically the US itself was founded by traitors, those being traitors to the British Empire.
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  491. Ukraine is also a much more coherent state than 2003 Ba'athist Iraq. Iraq had been under a decade's worth of sanctions, had dealt with Saddam's purges, and had half the country hating the other half.
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  492. It's the Russian way, I guess. To them, democracy is weakness. When they think of democracy, they think of Yeltsin, and the humiliation of the defeat in the Cold War. Russia in this respect is a "eastern" nation. It's not a first world nation, with high standards of living and democracy. It's not really a third world nation either. It holds way too much influence and history for that. Russia has always dominated, be it in the Imperial age, or the Soviet age. So, what is Russia?
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  493. Stellaris.
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  494.  @SebastianHernandez-gd3br  Russian schizo moment.
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  495. If you believe that, you clearly do not know Russia...
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  496. Gotta love my home city.
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  497. Nah, probably a joke. If all of those stats were true, Russia would be bankrupt.
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  498.  @BaBaYaga1999-p7u  Hating on poor, uneducated working class Americans? How elitist of you.
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  499. They dump tons of money into new "wunderwaffe" programs, designed to make Russia look strong and to garner export contracts. The T-14, despite being vaunted as a revolutionary tank design, was too expensive for the traditional Russian export market (most countries, at the price Russia was asking for, would chose proven American or European designs), combined with production problems (which caused India to drop out of the Su-57 program) due to sanctions in the aftermath of the Crimean crisis.
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  500. @Tetramoriam 474 They were not modern states that we would recognize, but rather tribal chiefdoms to iron age kingdoms.
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  501. Of course. The pandemic has proven quite useful for those who wish to use it as a justification for centralization of the US (Abolishing federalism and swelling an already massive bureaucracy in Washington) and chipping away at our rights, both political and economic. Not to mention that this lockdown has almost bankrupted every state. But that's okay because the Fed can just print more moolah.
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  502.  @_imtellingmum_  Source: Dude trust me bro
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  503.  @minzhang9348  Because he could drum up support abroad, and also prevent the Communists from hand-picking a successor. Since he is alive, he can pick a successor himself, and deny any Chinese-picked successor. If he had died, his cause would have been forgotten abroad.
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  504. They ride on the fact that the ANC "ended" Apartheid. Despite the fact that most blacks are doing the same, or worse than they were under Apartheid, they still get plenty of votes promising change.
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  505.  @michaelwittmann4898  Ah, but you do not understand identity politics. An infamous tactic in diverse nations, the ANC is "the party" of the blacks. It "represents" blacks. Thus, if you are black, you must vote for the ANC. If you don't, you are selling out the blacks to the Boer.
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  506.  HoiNam Superior Southern Chinese  China sucks. Just a godless authoritarian country.
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  507.  @Writeous0ne  The sanctions ARE biting the Russians. The longer the war goes on, the weaker Russia gets and the stronger Ukraine gets. Ukraine has, for the most part, made only token concessions. They have "accepted" the idea of neutrality, but want security guarantees from the West and Russia (basically not neutrality). And they are still sticking to their demand for '91 borders. It is in the interest for the Russians to cash out as soon as possible.
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  508.  @samueljackson6188  The idea that "more money into 'x' means that things will get better" is a fallacy. For instance, the US already spends more than half of the federal budget on healthcare (much more than the military). Much of it is wasted, however. Mandatory insurance, for example, has driven up costs.
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  509. Hell yah! Now, we get to become the big bad aliens. Let's blow some stuff up and colonize!
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  510. Russia, the crumbling Third World backwater that still thinks it's a superpower, even when most of it's army is rusting away.
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  511. Not really. That was driven by subprime mortgages and extremely reckless lending. This is more of a mismatch between cost, supply, and demand. Not that it isn't a nasty bubble of its own, though.
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  512. What economic interests? You mean a bloated healthcare system that serves to keep blacks in the ghettos and dependent on welfare? That destroys the nuclear family and mates the State to single mothers? The party who screams and fights for low-skilled migrants from the third world to flood into the US and lower wages while automation removes more and more jobs? The same party who bashes white people and says how it is all their fault?
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  513.  @MlLKMAN  Combined with fall in sales to Europe, and cheaper prices being demanded by China and India (so much for being allies).
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  514.  @rustyshaklford9557  I mean, it's just math. A hypersonic missile isn't the hardest thing to detect. With enough forewarning, you can shoot it down with a relatively simple SAM. Even better if you have a laser.
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  515. Depends on your perspective.
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  516.  @chosenevl9873  Why would it have to report to Port Authorities? Ukraine sees Crimea as Ukrainian, not Russian, so for them, it'd be tantamount to recognizing Russian claims in Crimea.
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  517.  @theaskellianbard3395  Same in Atlanta. Spaghetti Junction is just getting bigger.
    3
  518.  @justicehenrydamian475  And Russia lost to those same shepherds and protesting Lithuanians. You're point?
    3
  519. Ukraine operating Western aircraft like the F-16, JAS Gryphon, or Eurofighter is a post-war endeavor.
    3
  520.  @sangeetanarendrasingh5416  Nope. The ROC is the "real" China. It was not touched by the cultural revolution. It's alphabet has remained mostly unchanged. It is not a soulless, every-man-for-himself, authoritarian facade of a nation.
    3
  521. Going nuclear is a terrible idea. While the US lacks significant tactical nuclear weapons, they still have powerful strategic options.
    3
  522. That's the problem, really. While a professional soldier fighting for his country may be willing to lay down his life for his land and people, a mercenary is tied only by money. Of course, that doesn't mean he'll just automatically switch sides if the pay is better, but it means he is less willing to lay down his life.
    3
  523. @Y J Somalia needs to solve it's internal issues before it can drill for oil. Terrorist groups like Al-Shabab rule most of the country side, and powerful clans with varying interests prevent the government from establishing unity. Somaliland has been more effective at establishing unity and keeping the peace. They are more likely to prosper than the southern government.
    3
  524. Hitler was pretty successful, relatively speaking. He destroyed Poland, and France in a matter of weeks. His army was at the gates of Moscow in a few months. It took four years for the combined strength of the US, Britain, and the USSR to put him down. And the USSR still came an inch from being destroyed.
    3
  525.  @toerogan7469  Oy vey! That's wrongthink right there!
    3
  526. And yet, the USSR no longer exists. I wonder why that is...
    3
  527.  @brandonpersaud5634  Strawman? Dude, the USSR is gone. If it was a regime that worked (not saying perfectly), it would still be around. The US, for all its faults, still exists.
    3
  528. Egypt is icky.
    3
  529. Gotta pay to keep the lights on too. But vodka most importantly.
    3
  530.  @helenaconstantine  Most Southerners quickly reintegrated back into the fold of the Union. Succession was never a serious problem again, and there was no need for it to be. The South's elite didn't really want a "new" nation, just a country that protected the institution of slavery (their lifestyle and source of political power). The North didn't really care for it as long as slavery was abolished and the Union whole. Radical Republicans tried to reform the South, and all it did was spawn an insurgency (the KKK) and do not much else. The Grant presidency being embroiled in corruption scandal after corruption scandal didn't help. The nation was "whole" again, so why bother? Sharecropping replaced slavery. The planter elite remained in power for basically the next century.
    3
  531. Just because you attended an Ivy League does not make you, one, a just and moral person, and two, a good businessman. More on the second point, what different things do you learn at Stanford than you would learn at, say, the University of Missouri.
    3
  532.  @mothgru  Until recently, it didn't. But now, it's rapidly increasing.
    3
  533. This is one of the main reasons Afghanistan can't function as a state. It's much too tribal. In Afghanistan, the tribe is everything.
    3
  534. BRICS is not a military alliance. Brazil is quite friendly with the US, and India has a rivalry with China. South Africa is also irrelevant militarily.
    3
  535.  @RocketPropelledMexican  You are right, and I do agree that Taiwan's airforce would not survive an attrition war. I think they bought US air-frames was due to their belief that during a war they would be working close with the US. However, for a war that the US is not in, mass SAM systems that are mobile and cheap would be best. It would deny the Chinese air support, and perhaps even serve as some point defense for Chinese missile strikes. Taiwanese use of cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against the mainland could encourage the Chinese to back off, while also being able to be nuclear-tipped (It's likely during the even of war, or war being imminent, that the ROC would quickly begin developing nuclear weapons as a last resort).
    3
  536. Pakistan has lost five wars to India.
    3
  537. College isn't the only path (in the US). There are trades, like you mentioned, the US Armed Forces, starting your own business, or simply grinding your way up at a local grocery store.
    3
  538.  @andrewblandford6423  Northeast has traffic, expensive gas (if you thought gas was expensive here...) and people who make being rude an art form. Also industrial waste.
    3
  539. There are no Tsar bombs.
    3
  540.  @stormspirit9643  The Tsar bomb was discontinued because it was too big to fit on an ICBM. There was no need for such high yields.
    3
  541. Still doesn't solve the problem. Iraqis need to be building infrastructure, not bombs.
    3
  542. While occupied by Russian forces.
    3
  543.  @JagdgeschwaderX  Let me know when Russia takes Kharkiv. It's been taking forever.
    3
  544. Lol. With those rusty tin cans? Lolkay.
    3
  545.  @abcminime  Pure propaganda. The West, unlike China, is guided by morality, and when that fails, strict rules. China has neither. They have money, which they give to willing African dictators and warlords to sell out their people and resources. And when they default on their loans, the Chinese come in and take it.
    3
  546.  @aaronmoise8261  Not every CEO is wealthy and hardly works. Plenty spend most their awake hours working.
    3
  547. Here we find a Palestinian who is rather upset over losing his home and can't believe that the Saudi crown prince, after seeing five wars worth of Arabs getting destroyed, has decided "Hey, if we can't beat 'em, we can work with 'em".
    3
  548.  G Swag  318'? That's a dirt pile!
    3
  549.  @operator9858  Oryx visual losses. They only present losses that are visual located.
    3
  550. It's called democracy. Just because your guy didn't win doesn't mean the system is broke
    3
  551. Eh, the Dutch will just reclaim more land.
    3
  552. DC was not particularly lavish and was basically empty whenever Congress wasn't in session.
    3
  553. These kids know nothing. 17+ people die in Syria every day and no one holds a moment of silence for them.
    3
  554.  @alvinlin8140  Of course not, but it makes innovation inefficient. Innovation is driven by the dictates of the ruling class (CCP), not by market pressure. Likewise, innovation can be stifled if the ruling class sees a new technology as dangerous to their grip on power. The internet, for example, would never have been developed in the USSR or China. Mass spread of information, extensive connectivity? It takes immense resources for the Chinese to monitor their own intranet, and even still information the government doesn't like leaks out and spreads rapidly.
    3
  555.  @Kay_213_  The Martians might claim it first.
    3
  556. Who cares? They should've gotten a third nuke, just for good measure.
    3
  557. Europe is divided and weak. Germany and France showed that they were willing to sacrifice Ukraine to Russia in exchange for cheap natural gas. How would an EU defense force work, if have of the EU isn't willing to defend the other half?
    3
  558. It's a reasonable benchmark. Of course, it's not going to be perfect, but I'd reckon it's the most accurate source for losses.
    3
  559.  @kyagizer  Because Germany has a pathetic armed forces.
    3
  560. Pretty much. Mexico didn't really control the land north of the Rio Grande. It was just wilderness dominated by the Comanche.
    3
  561.  @cinnamonsplash  Both are true, really.
    3
  562. It's massive.
    3
  563. Many people have said similar statements and were proven quite wrong.
    3
  564. We, traditionally, that was how things were. Elderly were cared for by their children.
    3
  565.  @HeliosLegion  Ukraine still has a strong enough air defense network to prevent the Russian Airforce from operating freely above its territory. The Ukrainian Airforce, while depleted, is still carrying out air defense operations. The Russian Airforce also lacks the sophistication required to take out Ukraine's SAM network and has thus resorted to the mass use of cheap drones to attack infrastructure.
    3
  566.  @ThePainkillerDemon  I would agree. The Soviet Party system led to factional infighting, and led to the promotion of people based on connections and ability to maneuver the system, rather than skilled technocrats. In fact, the Soviet adherence to doctrine hampered the adoption of new technology in some areas. And yes, the crushing of the Prague Spring was a disaster. It and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution were really what signed the delayed death warrant of the USSR. It was no longer considered with the worker, rather just an empire under a different name.
    3
  567. Unknown, given shipments from NATO and captured Russian equipment. The amounts of T-64s have decreased due to battlefield losses, with the only source being Ukraine's Kharkiv plant or their reserve depots (old T-64Bs can be upgraded to the BV standard). The T-72 has become a far more common sight these days, with old T-72s in storage being brought back to service , ex-Warsaw Pact tanks being donated, and a large amount of Russian T-72s being captured. Ukraine had, pre-2014, largely retired the T-72 due to parts being manufactured in Russia and preference of the domestically manufactured T-64. Ukraine captured dozens of T-80s after the September Kharkiv offensive, with the 4th Guards TD having abandoned most of their equipment to prevent being completely encircled. These include T-80BV, U, and BVM variants. There are no UD variants, with Ukraine having sold their stock to Pakistan in the '90s. A token amount of T-90s were captured, but outside of propaganda pieces, they aren't being used, likely due to lack of spare parts.
    3
  568. Actually, the Americans don't want war. The status quo is actually great for the US. Most people are too dumb to realize that there are other players, like Saudi Arabia and Israel, who do want war.
    3
  569. Assad is pretty nasty, but who can blame him for fighting with whatever means needed to keep his regime alive?
    3
  570. So, what is the point of immigrant legally? What about the other people who have disabilities and need care?
    3
  571.  @Jacksonn985  I'm not blaming Republicans. The century long dominance of the Democratic Party has done little good for Louisiana, and New Orleans is run by a Democrat city council, as most large cities in the US are.
    3
  572. The strong take from the weak. If Australia wouldn't take it, it would be Indonesia or China. Timor can't afford to exploit it's own resources, so it'd sell out the rights to.... probably Australia first.
    3
  573. lolwat?
    3
  574.  @seane6616  Take your pick. Azerbaijan, Venezuela, Thailand, Indonesia, Belarus, etc.
    3
  575. @@crying-croc They build components and assemble them. R&D is powered by the US.
    3
  576. The lockdown has been worse than the virus. I'd take my chances with the virus over starving to death.
    3
  577.  @Rocketsong  And drones are also easier to run. If you shoot down a MiG, you lose not only the plane, but usually the pilot as well (even if he doesn't die, he might have bailed out over Russian controlled territory, or is injured at the very least). If a drone is shot down, you just lose the drone. The "pilot" is still safe in base.
    3
  578. Silence Arab. You look upon the greatest God Emperor the world has ever seen. Your own corrupt dictator has more in common with Hitler than Trump. Learn English too, or use Google Translate.
    3
  579. Because he was a good general.
    3
  580. That statement is... technically true due to the rise in minimum wages. The kicker is that those gains were wiped out by price increases.
    3
  581. The best system would ultimately be somewhere in the middle. The Nordic model, for example, works pretty well. A combination of the best of both worlds. Too many people though, see the failings of a capitalist economy as proof that a socialist economy works.
    3
  582. Completely false. For example, Texas is larger than Germany, yet contains merely a quarter of that country's population. And that is for a more public infrastructure friendly environment. The US has a much lower population density than Europe, with many small cities spread far apart. European-style public transit would only profitably and sustainable work in certain areas (like California and the Northeast corridor). But applying that principle to the rest of the federation, in areas like Kansas or Wyoming is foolish.
    3
  583.  @Pranav-rp8wi  With the US out of Afghanistan, Pakistan is worse than useless to American interests. The Americans are also free to pursue greater ties with the Indians, who appear more reliable partners than unstable and broke Pakistan. India also clashes with China, so the two have mutual interests there.
    3
  584. Russia is obsolete. Paper tiger too broke to produce any system that is actually worth while.
    3
  585.  @denofthefairy3798  How arrogant.
    3
  586.  @bogdanbogdanoff5164  Ships are not more endangered by nuclear weapons than land formations.
    3
  587. Ironic, is it not?
    3
  588.  @stafida8624  Of course. In the event of a Russian invasion of the Baltics, even if they could seize the Baltics, they would be thrown out pretty quickly. The invasion of Ukraine revealed to the world that the Russian military is seriously not up to scratch.
    3
  589. It's more geared against small ships that aren't worth a dedicated anti-ship missile. Think requisitioned merchant marine craft, the ships that would be carrying supplies or troops.
    3
  590. And yet people still come here...
    3
  591.  @Steven9567  Precisely. A rural farmer in backwoods Missouri cares little for the politics of Washington. He'd care even less if someone in Rome, London, or Beijing was calling the shots.
    3
  592. Taiwan is separate from the governance of Beijing. Thus, they are not apart of the PRC. The CCP, the government of the PRC, has never controlled Taiwan, thus having no legitimate claim to the island. The people of Taiwan have no desire to be under the control of the CCP. Taiwan is a country of Chinese, yes. They are China. But, they are separate from the CCP. There can be two Chinas, despite what everyone thinks. The reason that China (The PRC) does not want a sovereign ROC or Taiwan (However you view it) is because that might encourage other areas of China to split. Tibert, Sinkiang, or even Manchuria could split, thus lessening the power structure of the Communist Party. Whatever de jure "thingamajig" lenses you wish to view it from, there ARE two Chinas. The People's Republic of China, and the Republic of China. The PRC is a one party oligarchic state that is a mixture of a free-market and government-assigned directives to meet target marks. The Republic of China controls Taiwan, but is a democratic republic with a market economy. They have separate governments, political processes, and their own armed forces and engage in diplomatic relations (For Taiwan, this is largely under the table) with other countries.
    3
  593.  @containedhurricane  Well, often they aren't. Not monetarily, but politically. If you remember, when Trump threatened to take the US out of NATO, it scared the crap out of many European countries. It's political leverage, because countries like Germany slashed their defense spending to fund generous social programs. This could be seen during the Iran Nuclear Deal, where European countries (despite talking a big show) were reluctant to open economic deals with Iran because of their total lack of hard power.
    3
  594. Somaliland has been de-facto independent since 1990, and gained it's independence completely on it's own. The DPR/LPR are basically client states, and are completely dependent on aid, both militarily and economic, from Moscow.
    3
  595. Yes, some NATO troops are attached to some units on US bases for training a familiarization.
    2
  596. Yep, Russia keeps them alive too.
    2
  597.  libra8a  I'm aware, but what does it say about the person in question? She wasn't even from Georgia, and her family may not have even been in American when slavery was a thing, but she still thought fit to torch a symbol of the State.
    2
  598. Actually, the video author is wrong about that. The crisis was occurred largely during Clinton's final year in office, and during the interregnum between the election of Bush, and him taking office. Also, Democratic Governor Davis had a much larger impact than Bush.
    2
  599. Canada would make a fine addition to the United States.
    2
  600. Go beg for money from China.
    2
  601. @Ramen Lover Long term investments are being traded for short term political gain.
    2
  602. Ukraine was impoverished after the fall of the USSR, and riddled with corruption. Of course, Russia was in the same spot, so they really weren't seen as a much of a threat. The big worry at the time was that terrorists or a rouge state like North Korea or Libya would purchase or steal nukes or the delivery systems. In fact, Iran did this. They purchased some Kh-55 missiles and reverse engineered them. China did the same. Even if Ukraine wasn't totally broke, they had little incentive to retain them. Politically, they were bad to hold onto (the world was shifting towards denuclearization and globalization) and Ukraine didn't have much need to hold onto them. Russia, again, was weak and busy trying to hold itself together. It was just far simpler to ditch the nukes and platforms and get badly needed aid and trade deals.
    2
  603.  @Boofus90  Then why are essentially all Democrats calling for the de-fanging of ICE? And they are all from impoverished countries because very few people from Europe want to come to the US anymore. Why would they, with their small, ethnically homogeneous populations and their generous welfare systems (backed by a 40% tax rate) Besides, who says I'm white? Maybe I'm black.
    2
  604. Dime a dozen. Just the world we live in.
    2
  605. Very impressive "tank". Whatever you think of the guy, he was one damn good engineer. Able to construct an armored beast that was impervious to anything local law enforcement could throw at it.
    2
  606.  @Otro-b3o  Russia is only convenient to China as far as they can supply cheap oil and natural resources. Russia does very little trade with China outside of that, compared to the MASSIVE amounts of trade with the EU and the US. China's economy is heavily dependent of that trade (especially since they receive agricultural products and advanced technology in return for manufactured goods). That's why China is only doing the bare minimum for their "ally" Russia, and why Chinese companies have basically boycotted the Russian market. It's not worth it to sell advanced electronics to Russia if it will mean that they get sanctioned.
    2
  607. Considering that immigration from China to the US is dramatically up, I guess so.
    2
  608.  @chaosXP3RT  The US has stayed consistently on top of the submarine game. Unlike Russia, who had basically a two decade hiatus from submarine construction due to a struggling economy, the US has constantly been producing and designing submarines.
    2
  609.  @megapet777  I'm sure they could, but an infantryman armed with an RPG or NLAW could do the same job arguably more efficiently.
    2
  610.  @whydoncha  "China is under serious pressure from a collapsing real estate sector, deflation, population decline, and very high youth unemployment" "Uh, why didn't you mention all of the US's problems?? US growth has PEAKED (dude trust me bro) so it's literally over for the US" We're in a world where EVERY economy is struggling, or under serious pressure. Some more worse than others.
    2
  611.  @mikepublic111  The US has already reduced it's emissions by a substantial amount. We are already doing plenty.
    2
  612. They whine when we go in, and they're crying that we're leaving.
    2
  613. Fell into decline, not unlike their Byzantine predecessors.
    2
  614.  @Replica-Airgun-Lovers  Suez Crisis. It was big daddy America who told Britain to give Nasser to canal. And Britain caved in. That was the day the British Empire became a second rate power.
    2
  615.  @Replica-Airgun-Lovers  Who cares? Your government is in shambles, you have a massive immigration crisis, and your police forces is completely biased or handicapped. The US is your greatest ally, and you have people in the streets with a childish balloon chanting that Trump is a dictator and Hitler. Iraq is over. Afghanistan is over. Your "ultimate soldier" award means jack shit.
    2
  616. As if the Poles would put their army under the command of the French or Germans.
    2
  617.  @xywa23  None of which was known at the time. The Californian goldrush only happened after the secession. When the Americans conquered the land, it was just trackless desert filled with hostile Indians that were eager to scalp you. The Mexicans didn't control anything in the American Southwest.
    2
  618.  @markant9534  The North hardly enforced their gains in the South. They just lacked the will to see it through.
    2
  619.  @Swaggaccino  Want to know something worse than that? All of that oil was unneeded. Fracking technology has covered US oil needs. No need to import oil from the middle east.
    2
  620.  @__-yz1ob  I hope all of those wretched hedge funds lose money, as worthless as it is now. Regardless, this has been a true eye-opener for many.
    2
  621. Unarmed requisitioned merchant marine ships, small attack craft, maybe corvettes. Something that isn't well defended but isn't worth a Harpoon or a Tomahawk.
    2
  622.  @applythesamewaytoyourselve5918  Through war or peaceful breakup. Germany lost East Prussia after World War II, but Germany has never claimed it, even though it was apparent that a bankrupt post-'91 Russia would be happy to give it to them. So a country must be recognized by the UN to be a functional state? Taiwan has a functional and efficient government with a permanent population, a standing army, and a capacity to enter in official or unofficial diplomatic relations with other states. China doesn't have a serious legitimate claim over Taiwan. The people there don't want to rejoin China, and are happy managing their own affairs.
    2
  623.  @rodi8266  What evidence is there that the VDV took the airports in the first place? Now they're held by the Russian Army, but only because the Russians actually drove there. Let's not forget that two Il-76s were shot down.
    2
  624. Doubtful. Pakistan is not known for having people of other faiths in its borders.
    2
  625. Trump is good for the US. The US doesn't need other countries. Other countries need us though. As for Obama, he was spineless and ineffective. He destroyed Libya and turned it into a war torn ruin.
    2
  626.  @thefather6729  Every nation has committed crimes. It's a fact of life. Get over it.
    2
  627. Too bad he got you first.
    2
  628. Affirmative Action is stupidity. Just because you are black doesn't mean you should be chosen over someone who is white with more skills.
    2
  629.  A N  What is Russia going to do even IF they "conquer" Ukraine? Install a puppet government that everyone hates? They'd have to keep over a hundred thousand troops in Ukraine, otherwise that puppet government would install fall. Plus, Russia would have to reconstruct Ukraine, which would be extremely expensive, a cost they can't afford. Any love for Russia in Ukraine is gone. Western Ukraine despises Russia on principle, while the Russo-phone Eastern Ukraine hates Russia now, because they shelled their homes and occupied their villages.
    2
  630. Jeez, don't you know history? The Korean War was fought in 1950 to 1953. The United States forces fought under the banner of the United Nations. Yes, the UN force was mostly composed of American and Commonwealth forces and was led by American generals. However, they fought under the flag of the UN, since it was a UN mission.
    2
  631. Pro-Russian partisans have not appeared at all in the war, with Pro-Russian Ukrainians preferring to flee to Russian territory than to organize stay behind operations. By contrast, Ukrainian partisans have been quite effective in disrupting Russian operations and generally making Russian troops feel unwelcome.
    2
  632. The Soviet Union by 1945 was exhausted. Despite all the hype of the "endless Soviet hordes", they had suffered horrendous casualties.
    2
  633. Not really as bad as under Yeltsin, but still pretty bad.
    2
  634. Rule by decree. What a joke.
    2
  635.  @mrmakhno3030  Not through airborne operations, but rather intense and indiscriminate artillery fire.
    2
  636. The EU is falling apart. The UK is leaving. Italy, Poland, and Hungary have populist governments which fighting with Brussels. They have refused to accept the migrant quotas. Merkel's hold on German politics is also crumbling.
    2
  637.  Scouts Honor  Russian schizophrenia knows no bounds.
    2
  638. ​ Scouts Honor  Okay Johnovich from Idaho Oblast.
    2
  639. He is still a puppet of the Pakistani Army.
    2
  640. Typical arrogant European. The EU did nothing while the Serbs slaughtered Bosniaks. It was the US and UK who had to step in. Do you think Russia looks at Germany as an equal? No, they don't. Did Germany and France step in to help Ukraine? No, Germany actually tried to bar Lithuania from sending German-made equipment to Ukraine.
    2
  641. Germany again proving it is the bane of civilized Europe.
    2
  642. Hilarious. This guy pillaged Iraq of it's wealth, led a cult of personality and a repressive police state that Stalin would envy, and engaged in costly and useless wars with Iran and Kuwait. While his people starved, his son drove in Mercedes and raped Iraqi women. When the Americans invaded, he didn't fight with his army in the streets, rather he was dragged sniveling from a hole. And to THIS VERY DAY, people will flood out of the woodworks to praise and defend this dude, just because he said some words or something.
    2
  643.  @Cangeltibon  Sustainable agriculture? Healthcare and education? What kush are you smoking, because I need some of it?
    2
  644. Another coup in Africa... what a surprise...
    2
  645. Lack of accountability, strong regional viceroys, nukes, and an immense stockpile of Soviet weaponry is a terrible combination.
    2
  646. The world wanted neither Iran or Iraq to win.
    2
  647. Because he finds the Israelis much better than the Iranians. The Jews are much better fighters than the Arabs or Iranians, and much more reliable. Plus they have more to offer.
    2
  648. Russia is a paper tiger. They will warn, but they have no real power to fight Israel. The garrison at Tartus is too small. Russia can't project power far from their shores, and the advanced military of Israel will mean that any Russian troops and aircraft sent there will be slaughtered. I also doubt that the Syrian Arab Army, exhausted from seven years of war, nearly broke, and using old Soviet equipment will stop the IDF. I'm sure Putin wouldn't risk war with Israel and potentially the US just to save Assad.
    2
  649. If that were to happen, there essentially would be no Argentina, just a very loose confederation of provinces.
    2
  650. What Putin are you talking about? You do realize this Putin is from the KGB, the old Soviet spy service?
    2
  651.  @DerLamer  How come Germany's defense ministers have never had ANY sort of military service as of late? For the past two decades, only like two people have had any sort of military service, and that was only the basic mandatory service.
    2
  652. At least the US has a navy.
    2
  653. The UN is powerless.
    2
  654.  @aurathedraak7909  That's "racist" though.
    2
  655.  @max2008abhi  Especially since China lacks experience in long range operations.
    2
  656.  @Youtubeuser1aa  I would rather get Wu-flu than starve to death in the streets.
    2
  657. They haven't invented anything in the past 300 years.
    2
  658. @Работаем, брат! Come back when Russia actually takes Kharkiv
    2
  659.  @CaspianReport  Exactly. Ukraine's army was rotting away for the past decade and a half due to their own internal corruption. The Ukrainian Army failed at its duties because their government let them rot away. Though, since the Budapest Treaty was broken, Ukraine could, in theory, develop nuclear weapons again. They certainly could rather quickly, and have the systems ready to deliver such weapons. How Russia would respond to that is anyone's guess. Russia may decide to back out and abandon their hold on Eastern Ukraine, or they may decide to attack, potentially earning them a nuclear strike if Ukraine is ready quickly. But, no one wants to play that game of cards, Russian or Ukrainian. It's why Taiwan doesn't have nuclear weapons.
    2
  660. I doubt it will. Russia needs to get something from this war, and the Ukrainian populace demands that no territory be ceded. If the war freezes, it won't be for long.
    2
  661.  @Trubripes  In that war, most of the fighting was done, at the end, by the US and China. South Korean and North Korea had, by then, largely lost their armies (North Korea's army had been destroyed in 1950). In this war, it is only Ukraine and Russia doing actual fighting. NATO is not expending lives, just weapons. The US has no incentive to have Ukraine lose, Ukraine, for obvious reasons, wants to fight until victory.
    2
  662. And yet the Seminole would side with the Confederacy in the civil war. Ironic.
    2
  663.  @CrazyTiffany86  You're from Georgia? Sweet tea! Finally, an actual civilized person, instead of a mouth-breathing Rust Belter or a glue-sniffing Alabaman. Or, God forbid, a Gator fan.
    2
  664. Khameni might only be a puppet figurehead, and the IRGC is calling the shots.
    2
  665. He already has, and for the good. Jeez, can't you Arabs say something good about the US, even for something as positive as this?
    2
  666.  Jack Ryan  The US has endured tough political periods, such as the decades before the civil war, and during the Great Depression. However, the idea of America hasn't faded, and there haven't been any serious attempts as succession (arguably the Confederacy was just a US 2.0 just with slavery).
    2
  667. The S-300 is kinda long in the tooth. NATO even uses the system. It's more of an anti-bomber missile system. It's effectiveness against modern fighters is questionable.
    2
  668. I never said the design was stolen. Still a rather close copy though, a sort of export downgrade. The US likely sent some design features of the F-22 without disclosing the entire design. Of course, the jet appears to be more of a prototype design for the South Koreans. They lack experience with designing fighter craft as a whole, never mind a stealth aircraft. So, they went to the United States and got some design features of a well proven aircraft, the F-22.
    2
  669.  @jamesholmstrom5837  What? I mean I agree with him, I just wanted to correct his statement a bit. And, of course, we are not savages, so I want to remind him to get a good night's rest.
    2
  670.  @SebAnders  It is probably why Macron is being so active abroad. He wants to hold onto France's informal "empire" and reassure the Franco-sphere that France is still a player.
    2
  671. Migrants would also compete with natives for jobs that are already scarce. The situation is getting rather bad.
    2
  672.  @NDV3355  The Chinese don't "own" it. And in any case, they cannot defend it if war broke out.
    2
  673.  @bogdanbogdanoff5164  The Israelis have already stated that. They stated that they don't view Assad as a meaningful threat to them. Syria's airforce is also far behind Israel's airforce in capability and likely number of serviceable aircraft. Iran is Israel's hated rival, and an Iranian presence on Israel's doorstep is sure to get them to respond.
    2
  674.  @erfanshokri243  For a people similar in ethnicity and religion, y'all surprisingly hate each other quite a bit.
    2
  675. It has lasted a lot longer than many other constitutions.
    2
  676. Timor would never turn out like Singapore. Just having oil doesn't make a country prosperous.
    2
  677. South Vietnam went up against the full force of North Vietnam, handily supplied by China and the USSR, and held on for two years. The Taliban, meanwhile, have invaded from nowhere, have few serious friends, and will have likely have folded the Kabul government by the end of the summer.
    2
  678. Because preservation of the Union was the point of the war, not abolishing slavery or crushing Southern nationalism. Once it was clear that the Confederacy would not be revived, that was it. Once the planter elite realized that they would retain political control in their states, they had no need to revive the Confederacy.
    2
  679. Look like idiots? What? For once, the US actually played a genius geopolitical move. By sounding the alarm of a potential Russian invasion, they one, made the Russians look like aggressive warmongers, two, pulled Ukraine ever tighter into the Western sphere and made any Russian hopes of gaining influence in that country basically moot for years to come, and three, exposed European unpreparedness to be autonomous from the US sphere (after Europe had been nagging Washington for more independence in the wake of the Afghan debacle). Russia failing to invade Ukraine (like they did in '08 to prevent Georgia from joining) means that Ukraine will basically be lost from the Russian sphere. It signals that Russia is declining from being a Great Power, and that the US still has ascendency.
    2
  680. Haha, no. Al Jazeera is full of hypocrisy.
    2
  681.  @ChaosPod  It wouldn't be hard though. If the UK strips her of citizenship, she is stateless. It is what she deserves, and logical. She left her former country behind to join a group at war with the UK. Well, that group, ISIS, was destroyed. He allegiance was to ISIS, and now it is to nothing since it was destroyed. She is stateless.
    2
  682. Had COVID not happened, I'd say we were due for a slowdown in late 2020, early 2021. However, COVID did happen, governments dumped a ton of stimi money into the economy. Avoided a technical recession (minus the early 2020 COVID lockdowns) but knocked everything out of whack. Then we see the asset bubble, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Gaza adventure, Houthis in the Red Sea, massive debt growth, China's collapsing real estate sector.... I mean, we're not underwater YET. But something has to give. And, it appears that things are starting to give way.
    2
  683. But he did though.
    2
  684.  @asd131q7  The US destroyed the 4th largest army in the world in a matter of weeks. It took Russia six years to subjugate tiny Chechnya, which had no airforce or any heavy weapons. China hasn't even finished its civil war, and it's so called "inseparable" province of Taiwan still retains independence. China hasn't even fought any wars recently, besides its botched border war with Vietnam. How would they expect to beat a country who has been fighting wars constantly for decades? With their weaponry they copied from Russia? Please. The US has been perfecting the art of war for 200 years. We EARNED our spot as superpower, you idiotic third-worlder. A nation of over a billion people is struggling to match a country with barely 300 million. The US invented the atomic bomb. The US put a man on the moon, a feat matched by no one today. The US beat its old rival the Soviet Union. Why should the US, kowtow to a glorified giant factory with an identity crisis and the drunken rump of the USSR that is Russia?
    2
  685. Assad's dad supported Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. While I'm sure they have friendly ties, Assad must be chafing under the control that Iran and Russia put on him. Though, he has little choice, since Russia bailed him out in 2015, and the IRGC has helped the Syrian Army in crucial fights.
    2
  686.  @bogdanbogdanoff5164  Overplayed meme. Immigration is a big issue, but where do those people flock to? The cities. The US is more than just NYC and LA. Whatever issues the US has internally, it's power is still immense. Regardless, Iran is a only a regional power at best. The sanctions have crippled it.
    2
  687.  @nicoldengenyakeye6905  Except they don't leave.
    2
  688. If you own a house in Canada, sure.
    2
  689. The EU will do nothing real.
    2
  690.  @curiousgeorge2082  Mauripol hasn't fallen. The Russians haven't even been able to capture a bunch of rubble.
    2
  691. Make us.
    2
  692. Chinese people had little else to invest in, because the Chinese stock market is widely held as too risky (It crashed in 2015). Also add in a gender imbalance the size of Colorado, where women have A LOT of selection power (owning property is now a prerequisite of getting married) and you start to see how the bubble has become as greatly inflated as it is.
    2
  693. Too many targets. Russia has a limited stock of long-range precision weapons that are hard to replace. They can't afford to waste an Iskander on some water-treatment plant in Western Ukraine. Belarus is useless. Besides low-morale, their armed forces are small and lack modern weaponry. Besides, Lukashenko is unwilling to stick his hand in the meatgrinder that is Ukraine, as it might lead to the collapse of his regime. They did target officials on day 1. They failed.
    2
  694. @Bronson Because "exporting" is not simple. Russia has relatively little infrastructure in place to export vast quantities of oil to China. Most of the Russia/China border is in vast, sparsely-inhabited Siberian frontier, away from oil drilling locations. Russia would have to build a very long pipeline (plus all the stuff needed to support it), which is now nearly impossible due to sanctions.
    2
  695. The US has always focused on being at the cutting-edge of military aerospace design.
    2
  696. Binkov covered that, saying that for simplicity's sake, the modern Luftwaffe was just as determined to destroy Britain as the Nazi Luftwaffe.
    2
  697. Pretty much impossible, unless the US is really weakened. Right now, at it's full strength, not even the rest of the world could invade it, since the US would simple invade the rest of the Americas and turn it into an inaccessible stronghold. It's neighbors such as Canada and Mexico couldn't stop an American invasion, and I doubt and serious reinforcements could arrive in time to prevent them from falling.
    2
  698.  @robvannNS  Why then is China building them then? Why is South Korea in the design phase for their own? Why does Russia bother to keep it's one carrier active then?
    2
  699. In a couple of years, Maduro is either going to be dead or rotting in some dark prison cell. He outmaneuvered nothing.
    2
  700.  @madensmith7014  Not necessarily. For one, due in part by "Wolf Warrior" diplomacy, China's trade power hasn't translated into diplomatic influence. And two, China's manufacturing and trade power is worthless without a potent navy. Sea transportation is very important for bulk commodities. China has also been moving to restrain it's market sector. The bureaucrat (Communist Party) fears business tycoons displacing their power. It also comes at a time where China's economy is cooling down (due to a multitude of factors).
    2
  701. Checkmate! The atheist is dead! But, in actuality, it really is a shame he died. He was quite a smart guy.
    2
  702.  @hdcs480  American doesn't care for Iran's oil. They really don't have much of it. The Saudis provide what America needs.
    2
  703.  @aldindurakovic8828  When in doubt, blame the West (Crusaders, Zionists, etc.) instead of your own corrupt leadership that squanders your potential. Of course, Islamism is the solution to everything. What worked for Muhammad and Saladin will work today. The Quaran demands that you stay as a backwards tribe (it doesn't).
    2
  704. Saddam stole from Iraq. He is the reason why the country is so broken and corrupt.
    2
  705. No, it's not. Keep dreaming Arab
    2
  706.  @phoenix211245  The last T-80U was built in 2001. Most production ceased upon Russia's independence. The T-80 got a bad reputation because its poor performance in the Chechen war (which was mostly due to Russia misusing older versions (BV) with poorly trained conscripts) so they switched to the T-90.
    2
  707. Plant production has drastically declined, and is mostly geared towards refurbishing old tanks. Sanctions has impacted Russia's ability to obtain needed electronic components crucial for the manufacturing of the T-80BVM and T-90M. This has led to much longer production times. Given the loss-rate of tanks in Ukraine, Russia has instead focused on upgrading old T-72s and getting them back into service quicker. In sum, Russia can get more T-72Bs back into service in the time it takes to produce 1 T-90M.
    2
  708.  @KrunoslavStifter  I know right. Russia has been overrated for a long time. Glad to see their reputation is coming down to where it should be.
    2
  709.  @sinoroman  They're in the US sphere for a reason. Arguably, the Pacific War was an anomaly in US-Japanese relations. The Japanese have had long-standing poor relations with China, going back centuries.
    2
  710. No, they don't. Unlike the Arabs, Ukrainians can actually fight.
    2
  711.  @realnapster1522  That makes no sense, because Finland and Sweden (on the doorstep of St. Petersburg) have joined NATO. Putin cannot afford to lose the war, because he'd lose power. His whole shtick was making Russia glorious and powerful again.
    2
  712. Lol, unlike Ukraine, it would be a political catastrophe for him to beg for weapons openly (never mind that no one will supply him with it, lol). Although he apparently has approached the Chinese for supplies.
    2
  713. Watching that... I can see why communism got so popular...
    2
  714.  @willl7780  Oryx visual losses suggest otherwise.
    2
  715. Eh, soldiering isn't easy. Or warm. Unless your in the tropics.
    2
  716.  @fossils-z9d  Of course I wasn't being serious lol. The T-14, assuming it works as advertised (a big stretch, given it's the Russians we're dealing with), is too expensive and will probably be relegated to elite units guarding Moscow. If one of them were to be captured in Ukraine, and if it were revealed to be a meme (like a lot of Russian equipment fielded), no one would ever take the Russians serious ever again. For Russia, who stakes huge importance on pride (or the illusion of it) this would be a devastating setback.
    2
  717.  @slevingaius  Probably a Great Depression on steroids. Globalism has made the world terribly interconnected, and a crisis in America or China would spill over to each other and the rest of the world.
    2
  718. What do you mean? They've conducted a very successful offensive in September and October, basically destroying the First Guards Tank Army at Izium and Lyman, and have the Russian Army bottled up in Kherson (with rumors that they're going to retreat over the Dniper). Unless the Russian Armed Forces radically changes the way they're conducted the war (which is unlikely given the political infighting), Russia WILL lose. I know that is hard for some people to stomach, given the great myth of Russian invincibility, but the RF Armed Forces have poorly conducted this war. Bombing random civilian targets with junky Iranian drones won't change battlefield defeats, before anyone mentions that.
    2
  719.  @Ghastly_Grinner  Goes to show that Russians truly are delusional. If all that was true, how come this war has gone on for nine months? Why is Russia calling up reserves, and why are they buying drones from Iran? Why has the Russian-installed governor of Kherson called for the evacuation of citizens to Russia? And oh yeah, where is the Moskva?
    2
  720. Hurrah. Back to Latin America with you. The US was built by whites. The whites won this country's independence.
    2
  721. I'm glad Americans and Afghanis can agree on that. The US is the only country that pulls its weight in NATO.
    2
  722.  @patrickcloutier6801  And yet Japan still lost the Pacific War. While they had made impressive leaps in naval development, they were still far behind the Americans in various aspects, such as damage control, radar, fire control, and overall material quality. Also, their designs were rather primitive (Sticking as many guns on a limited hull as possible). A functioning navy is not something that can be conjured up overnight. Modern warships are highly complicated pieces of machinery that required skilled personnel. China of 1992 was largely a coastal defense force, consisting of missile boats and small frigates. The rapid construction of ships may look impressive from a paper view, but leaves many questions. Immature design (more to a ship than missiles and guns), lack of skilled manpower (especially qualified officers), and poor quality construction. China is especially backwards in terms of submarine technology, with their subs widely said to be some of the loudest. However, these aren't issues that are readily seen in peacetime, but become very apparent in the event of war.
    2
  723.  @tonypeterson5316  Okay "Tony Peterson" from Georgia (Guangxi) Province.
    2
  724. Typical comment from a Russian troll in the basement of the old rotting KGB building. Russia's military is rotting and a joke. Couldn't even beat Afghanistan and Chechnya.
    2
  725.  @Euzuner41  One man's traitor is another man's freedom fighter.
    2
  726. A pleasant break for Russia on the information sphere. Just goes to show how much Russia can benefit from a mistake made by its foes, even though its battlefield conditions haven't changed.
    2
  727. Fine. Sure. Let's pack up all our bases and go home. Let's close our borders and let the world deal with itself. Remember Kuwait, right? Small, tiny, defenseless Kuwait? Yeah, what happened to them in 1990? Perhaps tiny Latvia would like to see Russian troops occupying them. Funny how it works. When a power vacuum forms, something replaces it right? Like when Britain stopped being an empire, did the whole world just start being kind and respectful to each other? Lol, no. The US and USSR filled it. Idiot. If no one is holding a big stick, everyone starts to kill each other.
    2
  728. Fake news.
    2
  729. Il-78 "Midas". A tanker variant of the cargo Il-76.
    2
  730.  @gsheverything_2716  Your dry old cleric is nothing compared to TRUMP.
    2
  731. No lol. Bitcoin is going to get dumped fast. At the end of the day, what can you actually use Bitcoin for? Basically nothing, besides speculation. You sure as hell can't pay your taxes or buy groceries with bitcoin.
    2
  732. Rolla is awesome. Home of Missouri S&T (my university). The only thing depressing here are the Calc II classes.
    2
  733.  @MsOdale7  No such thing as a "bad" guy. Everyone is both good and bad.
    2
  734.  @activatewindows2305  They could level every single Finnish town and village and deport Finns to Siberia. They did that to the Chechens, Volga Germans and Tatars. Though, that is unrealistic in today's current political landscape.
    2
  735.  @MicahRdr  Many a nation has assumed the US to be weak, morally inferior, or collapsing. The US can be quite resilient when it is forced to.
    2
  736. Basically scrap metal. Ukraine had little worth taking.
    2
  737. The winter won't be that much of a problem. The frozen ground will mean marshes or stream crossings aren't too much of a problem, and tanks won't have to be worried about being bogged down. The Ukrainians are also far better supplied that their Russian counterparts, given the lend-lease from the West. In sum, the Russians are going to have a terrible time.
    2
  738. Explains why Iran got flooded out earlier this year.
    2
  739.  @burcakcelik3714  The problem is that they're buying energy from France (which is nuclear-generated) or from Poland (which is coal-fired). They just outsourced their problem.
    2
  740.  @binh3308  That could mean intelligent, or have a good ability to learn new information. It could mean you're clever, but people also use it sarcastically. So much wiggle room.
    2
  741.  @bonsirt7335  No clue what you're talking about, it's 3.55 here. Also, high gas prices had basically no impact on people's support for Ukraine.
    2
  742.  @felixmiller9531  Americans enter a country, remove a dictator with their own soldiers, and build hospitals and roads and infrastructure for the people. With America's own money.
    2
  743. Conquest is as old as man itself fool. In 1845, that land was barren desert. Now the State of Texas has a larger economy than Mexico itself.
    2
  744. Depends on what you want to do. You can say college isn't worth it, but it limits your options quite a bit. It's either trades or the military, unless you want to be working at Walmart for the rest of your life. Not everyone is cut out for that. Of course, if you're going for fine arts... Just go to a technical school.
    2
  745. Of course, as would China vise versa.
    2
  746. NATO has been a big part of keeping the peace in Europe. However, it has also meant that Europe has gotten complacent. Western European nations such as Germany and Spain keep the military budgets purposely low because they have US protection and Eastern Europe as a buffer. Putin threatening Ukraine was actually what the US badly needed. For a long time now, Europe (especially the French and Germans) have been nagging Washington for greater autonomy (such as an EU army). However, the crisis in Ukraine revealed how woefully unprepared and divided Europe is. Whereas Eastern Europe railed to the Ukrainians, the Germans and the French were reluctant to risk jeopardizing trade relations with Russia over Ukraine. To Eastern Europe, it looked like they were willing to sacrifice them to the Russians in exchange for Nord Stream. It exposed the divisions in the EU and between Western and Eastern Europe. This couldn't be better for the Americans, especially since their prestige has been at a low since Afghanistan.
    2
  747.  @Constantine_Brooks  It took the US and UK, under the framework of NATO, to stop the Serbs from genociding the Bosniaks. Europe did nothing. They stood by and watched.
    2
  748. Essentially.
    2
  749. Perhaps if they spent less money on nuclear development and "defense", they could invest in better healthcare.
    2
  750. Shooting down an airliner has little value, though it did help Iran realize that the war was increasingly unwinnable, because America was looking for an excuse to attack them.
    2
  751.  @petepetersen5418  Yet no one does anything either way. We lay some flowers, hold a candle vigil, and then go home and forget about it.
    2
  752.  @SimunSansa  Well, the United States has a military strong enough to make anyone who shot down one of their plans suffer. Iran, however, does not. And actually, people have shot down, or blown up, American airliners. Qaddafi blew up an airliner and bombed a nightclub in West Germany, Reagan promptly bombed Libya.
    2
  753.  @scottyweimuller6152  Laughs in Liechtenstein
    2
  754. That's not how it works. No one is/would be buying because interest rates are high.
    2
  755. Indeed. Though, much of their victories can be attributed to how by that point, the Nationalists were heavily corrupt, suffering from hyper-inflation, and their troops had terrible morale. The PLA was able to force the KMT off the Mainland, but as seen by the Battle of Kinmen, they couldn't finish them off. There was also a Muslim insurgency that proved damaging even into the early 60s.
    2
  756. The Belarusian Army also probably lacks the capability to conduct complicated offensives.
    2
  757. Quit being racist.
    2
  758. Oryx visual losses. Losses counted are photographed and geo-located. They also included Ukrainian losses before you start saying that it's pro-Ukrainian. Also it's 2600 vehicles at this point.
    2
  759. They're defending their nation. Every man has the obligation and right to defend his nation and home from foreign invaders. Will crime become worse because of the distribution of weapons? Yes. However, that comes second to when invaders are driving down your street. Russia attacked Ukraine, not the other way around.
    2
  760.  @龙源探索  I would still rather live in the US. Yes, there's violent crime, but having a firearm is enough to keep you safe. The 996 culture and authoritarian government are a big turn off. Oh, and rampant government corruption.
    2
  761. @Da G A more extreme world favors those with unity, know-how, and capitol to weather it out.
    2
  762. Nukes are not practical. Drastically increases chance of NATO intervention, destroys any diplomacy Russia can do, and may not change the operational situation at all.
    2
  763.  @privetizbirulevo  NATO wasn't going to enter Ukraine unless Ukraine joined NATO.
    2
  764. Stacy "The Ogre" Abrams is a filthy Wisconsin transplant who has burned the State flag and tried to sand blast one of Georgia's most iconic monuments: Stone Mountain.
    2
  765. Hush! It's our little secret :)
    2
  766. Ironically, cities like Chicago and Los Angles, which have very strict gun laws, are actually pretty violent. America, where anyone can get a gun as long as they pass background checks (that are actually rather strict) and can shoot anyone dead who is trying to rob them or murder them. What a safe country.
    2
  767. Why do we have honor Native American culture, or erect statues for them? They sure did loose a lot.
    2
  768.  @frankkirby5763  Pretty much. The Confederacy morphed from being a slave-owning planter oligarchy into being a core part of Southern identity, separating it culturally from the rest of the US (for better or worse). Those who mindlessly call Southerners traitors, or backwards racist hicks ignore that. They ignore the racial problems the North had, and can't comprehend while race relations are actually rather decent now in the South.
    2
  769. The United States is strong enough on it's own. If these countries want us out, sure! They just better not whine when the guy next door invades.
    2
  770.    Sometimes, to understand the advanced concepts, you gotta go to the basics.
    2
  771.  @rubies200  "China's economy is fine! Real estate bubble is nothing! It's the US who is struggling under mountains of debt!" "Okay, now that the real estate bubble is gone, how are you going to keep up growth?" "Exporting goods to Europe and the US (with their slowing economies) of course!"
    2
  772.  @MaRaX93  The Kinzhal cannot significantly maneuver if it is flying hypersonic, as the forces exerted on the vehicle would rip it apart. Frictional forces and range constraints would also force it to fly high, making it easier to detect and thus intercept. It is another piece of overhyped Russian "wunderwaffe" that will "make the carrier obsolete"! Meanwhile, China has invested heavily into its own aircraft carrier program. So much for carrier obsolescence. At the end of the day, it is a big missile that can fly really fast. That's it. At that point, it is better investing more resources into Kalibur missiles that are, used on more platforms, cheaper, proven technology, and have more applications. The Kalibur missile can kill a carrier (if it can get through the defensive network) far more reliably that an expensive meme weapon.
    2
  773. ​ @JohnDoe-jp4em  There are some key differences. For one, an air-to-air missile is designed to kill a plane. Speeds are, for starters, NOT close to hypersonic. Most AtA missiles fly at about Mach 2.5. Modern ones like IRIS-T push it up to 3, but generally not much more than that. Now, they can pull such maneuvers because they are less massive (less forces) but also to note is that the missiles lose a LOT of energy. Basic physics, really. This results in them dropping down the Mach ladder really quickly. And because AtA missiles are basically big arrows with maneuvering fins, they can be outrun. A hypersonic missile has to be far bigger than your typical AtA missile because it needs to obtain higher speeds. More mass means more forces. More speed means more forces. You try to pull a sharp turn with a hypersonic, and it will destroy the missile.
    2
  774. Mauripol HASN'T fallen. Jeez.
    2
  775. Boo hoo. Might means right in international politics. A government's job is to look out for their own citizens first. Who cares if East Timor loses out. They would have given mining rights to the Aussies, or the Chinese, or the Dutch, or whoever and whatever royalties were paid out would have vanished into corruption.
    2
  776. Africans have been independent for about half a century. Their own fault they cannot build functioning nations. Go back and fight your own corrupt government instead of blaming white man for giving you your own country for free. You didn't have to fight for jack shit. The US was a colony, yet now is the strongest country on the planet. The US fought it's own war for independence. Most African countries have not fought independence wars, but wars against each other.
    2
  777.  @irfikhan6034  Saddam thought that, and he was destroyed. Iran will be utterly destroyed and will be occupied by Saudi Arabia and Israel. If Iraq cooperates, they'll be granted Khuzestan and the Arab regions.
    2
  778. To be fair to him, the economy does suck and probably won't be getting any better.
    2
  779.  Foreskin Vampire  Why should they be united? Why? If they were to unify, the South Korean economy would tank, and would be overwhelmed by Northern refugees migrating south. Unification won't come soon, and it may not come at all, in fact. They have already started to culturally drift apart.
    2
  780. Well, since Russia decided to steal Ukraine's territory, Ukraine should build nuclear weapons.
    2
  781. Remember guys, just blame everything on "le ebil West and CIA" instead of Milosevic's power grab and overt Serb nationalism alienating the rest of the Yugoslav republics and pushing them to abandon Yugoslavia. Also, the US actually tried to keep Yugoslavia together. They encouraged Slovenia and Croatia to delay their independence to come to a peaceful solution.
    2
  782. The shooter was Iranian.
    2
  783.  @TuscanBrick  Russia can produce some seriously advanced weaponry. The problem is that they lack the resources (ahem, cash) to produce significant numbers of that. T-14 Armata? 20-ish built. Su-57? 14 I think. The T-90? 300 roughly.
    2
  784. Cause they are tired of their backwards dictatorships.
    2
  785. Eh, many people don't realize this.
    2
  786. Then fight for it.
    2
  787. No one will know, not perhaps until the end of the war. A saturation attack is likely though, as that would wear our the defenses of the ship. Although, maybe two were enough to do it. The Moskva was an old ship, and it lacked modern anti-missile defenses beyond the CIWS.
    2
  788.  @ironman8257  Well, it is still under the banner of fighting for his country, where as a merc is obviously fighting for money.
    2
  789. In short, Russia is bad and is not as strong as it hyped itself up to be. The endless drive of garbage "Russia Stronk" propaganda couldn't withstand the power of a Javelin warhead smashing through the top of a T-90, or Ukrainian tractors pulling multi-million dollar Tor missile systems, intact, from the mud. The war reveled what many people couldn't believe: Russia isn't a great power. It isn't a modern, civilized nation. It is a rusted shell of the fallen USSR, trapped in the past by a mafia-like oligarchy keeping its impoverished citizens doped up on vague hopes of imperial glory. Russian propaganda can't keep up with it, so it comes off as increasingly schizophrenic and insane, only fooling contrarians who wield it in dumb political battles against their own political establishments. If they're favored leaders were in power, doing the same thing as their "enemies", they'd be Russia's greatest detractors.
    2
  790. "Airstrikes by unknown forces" Yeah... like it's totally NATO doing that... I mean, it's not like Egypt bombs Libya regularly...
    2
  791. It is still heavily dependent on Western parts, like engines and electronics. Not much of the plane is actually Chinese.
    2
  792.  @calebr7199  I never said socialism doesn't work. I just think using the Soviet Union as an example of socialism working well is not very smart, as the USSR collapsed. A better example would perhaps be the Nordic countries, who combine market economies with strong social programs. Or perhaps even the Persian Gulf states.
    2
  793. Brazil is weak and corrupt, just like the rest of Latin America.
    2
  794. It won the war, no? War is hard and bloody.
    2
  795.  @kellycochran6487  There you go. Grant had more manpower than Lee. That was one of the main advantages the North had. If you have an advantage in war, use it.
    2
  796. The US did not lose to Iraq in '91.
    2
  797.  @msjoq6158  That is deceptive. Sweden has a large percentage of it's population concentrated in, or around, Stockholm. Or other large cities such as Malmo or Gothenburg. These cities are seaports and located in the southern part of the country. The northern regions are largely empty.
    2
  798. Ugh, Iranians. Did you ram enough 11-year-olds into Iraqi machine gun nests in the 80s to justify that? I do have to say, you Iranians put up a good fight during Operation Praying Mantis. Well, except most of your navy went to the bottom. The IRGC has gotten soft. Now, it's a bunch of corrupt businessmen who have taken over sections of your economy.
    2
  799.  Kj_mast_er  Well, the oil will run dry in a few decades, so they need to figure out a solution to that. I don't think they are ready to go back to tent living.
    2
  800.  Kj_mast_er  Say hello to the new sand merchants.
    2
  801.  @thrawnprotocol9780  Last time I checked, the Empire State Building wasn't made of oak and pine.
    2
  802. Russia has struggled with budgetary issues for years now. Those pricey weapons would vanish in a protracted war.
    2
  803. Yeee Haww
    2
  804. The military has usually been one of the prime methods of social and economic advancement. Defunding the military ironically actually hurts those in poverty.
    2
  805. Yep. Was waiting for someone to say that. He just want down a random street and began pointing at random and said "Expropriate"
    2
  806.  @jhtang5441  A war of attrition is not quick. If the Taiwanese fear that war is coming, they may begin producing material before the war begins. Of course, they could always bluff. A nuclear bomb is nothing to scoff at.
    2
  807.  @Peter-qr2qd  Well, it is much different for the Philippines. Their army isn't nearly as strong or well equipped as the ROC. They are also stretched out over hundreds of islands. The ROC, though closer to the mainland, has a much stronger army, equipped with tanks, heavy artillery, and SAM systems. Taiwan can concentrate it's firepower on a single, large island that has plenty of urban, forest, and mountain cover to hide its forces. Unless the PLA wants to level the entire island (which it won't do), it would be difficult to hunt down every tank and gun piece. The ROC could hide their heavy weapons in obscure warehouses or in caves, and the PLA lands, they dart out and pummel the landing force. The PLA would lack heavy weapons, and would rely on air support, which would be harassed by ROC SAMs. They could then do this and wear down the Chinese until either the Americans intervene, or the Chinese determine that the island is too painful to take.
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  808.  @Peter-qr2qd  This isn't Hollywood. Nor is this bright red shining halls of the CCP "Congress". It is a mere statement of fact that the ROC wouldn't be easy to conquer. (If they decide to fight. If they don't, and decide to lay down and submit, it's all moot) for even the mighty PLA. This isn't "American propaganda" either. Reality is what it is, and it is that if the ROC decides to fight, the PLA would struggle to conquer it.
    2
  809.  @froglifes6829  No, lol.
    2
  810.  @ireneuszpyc6684  Erdogan is not a sultan, but a president of a secular Turkey. Turkey is an entire different entity of the Ottoman Empire.
    2
  811. Ukraine hasn't really depleted its military equipment OR manpower. In fact, based on visual evidence, Ukraine's vehicle force (tanks and APCs) have actually GROWN due to the Russians abandoning so much equipment. Ukraine is also calling up reservists and western volunteers (basically renamed NATO troops). The "feint" was a disaster for Russia. It diverted crucial troops from the Donbass (supposedly the point of the war) to a meatgrinder in the north. They've lost large portions of their best troops, such as the VDV and Spetsnaz in wasted operations such as Ivankiv and Hostomel, they later of which was turned into rubble and became useless for Russian supply efforts. Even in the south, Russia is being pushed back. They failed to take Mykolaiv or Odessa, and now their own significant gain, Kherson, is on the verge of falling back into Ukrainian hands.
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  812. Few people predicted the fall of the Soviet Union. By the mid to late 1980's, people began to realize the Soviet Union's economy was rather garbage, but that didn't mean it was automatically doomed.
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  813. Ask Mubarak how that went for him. Also, it would basically collapse Egypt. Millions would starve, and many more would migrate en masse.
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  814. It's a socialist command economy. Because of that, and because of political incompetence, there are widespread shortages of even gasoline in a country with the largest oil reserves. Maduro doesn't care about his country, he cares only for power. He is selling out his country to buy him more time to live the good life. This tends to happen in socialist countries with weak democratic traditions.
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  815. They boycott it because they see it as rigged, in which it was. The opposition is pretty strong and has a lot of support. However, Maduro is buddy-buddy with the military. Their loyalty is the only thing that matters. As long as they get paid, they will support him.
    2
  816. There isn't as much racism as one would think. The media would like you to think that way, but it's not.
    2
  817. The F-5 was a good fighter for its time, but it is quite long in the tooth now.
    2
  818.  @Danny-ss8il  Why would I care about all the counties of the UK? As for Europe, I'm pretty knowledgeable about the individual countries, but I've always held an interest in the continent. But, you wouldn't believe that since it takes about two minutes to discover them. Back to the point, the UK's influence has declined in the past 50 years. The UK lost its empire and now is being surpassed by Germany. Though, the entire EU is facing issues. The Iran crisis has shown the paper tiger it is. Britain is in its worst political crisis since Munich. Brexit has become a joke, and your politicians have tried so hard to remain.
    2
  819. This is why everyone roots for Ukraine, and believes them. Russian propaganda is so incredibly clumsy and blatantly false. So many excuses. Ukraine could be driving into Crimea, and you people would find some way of justifying Russia's abysmal failures as some genius military strategy... Maybe Russia should have spent a little more money on its garbage military than running its pathetic bot program.
    2
  820.  @JagdgeschwaderX  The US demolished the Iraqi Army in less than a month, while also not bordering Iraq. Russia has, after almost two months, failed to take Kharkiv, despite the city being basically right next to the border. They haven't taken Mykolaiv or Odessa. They had to RETREAT from Kiev and Chernihiv. They gave up Northern Ukraine. The Americans didn't retreat in Iraq. Russia hasn't "rolled up" anything. They've trapped a few thousand Azov and Ukrainian Army guys in Mauripol, but still haven't managed to fully "liquidate" them, and instead have resorted to leveling the entire city. What a "liberation".
    2
  821.  @JagdgeschwaderX  Ukraine will cease to exist eh? I don't know, looking at the big Russian bugout in the north... They still haven't taken Kharkiv by the way. Or Sumy. For a country that apparently had all of it's heavy weapons cease to exist, they're putting up a good fight. I guess it doesn't help that Russia is donating so much equipment to the Ukrainians. T-90s and BMP-3s. Also all that VDV equipment that just got wasted, like BMD-4s, that now have Ukrainians driving around in them. Not bad for some hohols, right?
    2
  822.  @unclerubo  Because the major alternative proved itself even more ineffective. Of course, other countries have modified their economic models to their own conditions. Scandinavian countries built a large and comprehensive social net at the cost of a large tax burden (though Norway does have generous oil wealth). It hasn't solved wealth inequality, however. This is because wealth inequality cannot be solved, being a natural byproduct of the human condition (circumstances are different for every individual, luck, and different personal traits).
    2
  823. Probably joined the Iranian Army. Perhaps he died in the war. Who knows?
    2
  824.  @dudemantype  I'm sure his oligarch allies are furious. Russia is cut off from the Western financial system, so probably a lot of their money is frozen. War, simply put, is bad for business.
    2
  825. That's how Rome fell
    2
  826. Yeah, except this is a conflict where technology actually matters. A junky North Korean-supplied D-20 howitzer can kill people, but in Ukraine it'll get smashed by drones or a HIMARS rocket fired from triple the gun's max range.
    2
  827.  @rogerthat4545  Non-existent. The production line was shut down in 2001, and largely ceased in 1992. Much of the tooling is dependent on parts that are no longer available. Most current capacity is also tied up with restoring stored tanks (far easier and cheaper).
    2
  828. At the national level sweaty, pay attention.
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  829. America was founded by whites.
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  830. Who are mostly dead. So, it doesn't matter.
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  831. Iraq is a fake state. Three groups of people who hate each other in one country.
    2
  832.  @shibbershabber  It is a massive gamble for Russia. I'm sure they could pull it off, but could they keep their gains. If NATO hardens, they would eventually be forced to withdraw from occupied territory as Russia's economy would not permit a long conflict.
    2
  833.  @shibbershabber  I agree. Russia I think is more scared of China at this point than the West.
    2
  834.  @davidhouseman4328  Well, the F-22 is still a modern and outstanding aircraft. The F-35 was supposed to be the less sophisticated and cheaper (relatively) to the Raptor. The F-35 is also more multi-role. There are regular CTOL aircraft, VTOL, and carrier-launched versions. People complain about the price, but it is actually to be expected from such an advanced aircraft being adapted to so many roles. Bottom line, the F-35 is supposed to be mass produced, while the F-22 remains as a rare, yet still very powerful "trump" card.
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  835.  @cattledog901  Stealth is a relative term. I'm sure the F-35, while stealthier than a legacy F-15 or F-16, is not as stealthy as a F-22, probably due to differences in pain coats. And of course, the US won't release the software code to prevent resale or espionage.
    2
  836. Still less than Russia's nearly 5000 visually confirmed losses.
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  837. Puerto Rico does not pay Federal Income Taxes.
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  838.  @Toasty-du3fl  Hell, we could always just jump into another dimension with a younger universe and bum there.
    2
  839. Socialism! Equality! Everyone is equal in being poor!
    2
  840. Pfft... Nah.
    2
  841. Because most small towns ARE majority white. But, not all. The Black Belt in the American South, for instance. Or various Native American towns in the Great Plains or Alaska. Or Hispanic Texan towns along the Rio Grande.
    2
  842. Like she'll get anywhere.
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  843. Ceasefire plan? Why would the Syrian Army accept it now? The rebels are crumbling, and their international allies have abandoned them. It won't be long before the FSA is completely destroyed.
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  844.  @tbe0116  Also you can't maneuver particularly well at Mach 20.
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  845. He is. He has been in power for quite awhile. It has not been easy for him. I'd say the Syrian Civil War was the worst thing to happen to him. Refugees, militarization of the Kurds, the rift between him and NATO, plus Russia breathing down Turkey's neck.
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  846. I'd say he is pretty bloody smart, even if he is a brute. Trotsky thought he was just dumb and brutish. His arrogance landed him an ice pick to the skull.
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  847. At least my yacht has a gold-plated and heated toilet seat.
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  848. Syria is in no shape to fight off Turkey.
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  849. They all seem to want to come to the poor, unenlightened, backwards and racist states.
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  850. The economy is not climbing back. By contrast, China's economy is deteriorating quicker. Unless you think the massive Government-sponsored bubble in the SSE (pump and dump scheme) is the economy "climbing back". Hint: It's not.
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  851. No one cares for those bootleg Jordanians.
    2
  852. And 6 million of those votes will have come from California.
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  853. Russia ironically enough might choose to work with the Americans. Both are wary of the Chinese.
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  854. Ironically, Russia has it's own version of Nazism. One can compare Crimea to the Sudetenland, and the Donbass war to the Spanish civil war. Besides, no one had even heard of this until Crimea and the war in the East.
    2
  855.  @marshalbali  It's real estate bubble is starting to burst. People have started defaulting on mortgage payments because of unfinished apartments (caused in part by the collapse of Evergrande last year).
    2
  856.  @EvilTwinn  And also, China's hypersonic missile arsenal would become useless, as they also need satellites in order to find and track US carrier groups.
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  857.  @kyagizer  Indeed it is...
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  858.  @Maria_Erias  China is most assuredly rubbing their hands together with glee. Whereas before the Kremlin could boast of its military strength (in contrast to Russia's weak economic strength) in contrast the China, the debacle in Ukraine makes them look like buffoons. Russia now has less leverage against China, especially with sanctions biting. They are less of a partner to China and more of a sidekick. Thus, they can leverage more political and economic control over Russia, especially they oil and gas China covets. And Russia has no choice, because they've pissed off NATO, so they can't balance China out.
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  859.  @rickyjames993  The first one wasn't white, but rather a lighter skinned black.
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  860.  @clash3583  It's not. It is unique. It has it's upsides and downsides. There is room for improvement, that doesn't involve a brutal civil war.
    2
  861. They do house them, lol. Unlike the soft Europeans, the Gulf states put their migrants to work as slaves building gaudy skyscrapers.
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  862. Latvia doesn't exist. It's made up.
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  863.  @sk-sm9sh  Because the US has hard power, unlike the Europeans. Germany, despite having a giant economy, has a pathetic military. The Chinese and Russians respect strength, and the US has military strength. The EU... not so much.
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  864. Thank you. Too many people shilling for the USSR here, when it was little more than oligarchic empire. The inefficencies of the centrally planned economy meant that, while the USSR could build an impressive nuclear weapons arsenal and put a man into space, it could not even manufacture a decent bra. Heavy industry and the armed forces were prioritized over consumer goods and consumer technology. Asianometry does a good job explaining how the USSR fell behind in computer technology, which is a good example of the overall inefficiency caused by the politics of the party. Ultimately, what few people here seem to understand, is that if the Soviet model worked and was so amazing, the USSR would still be around. Instead, it stagnated and collapsed. And as soon as the threat of Soviet military intervention was off the necks of Eastern Europeans, they overthrew their communist governments.
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  865. The stock market is increasingly unreflective of the economy at large.
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  866.  @benkenobi292  The Cold War has been over for thirty years now. The US hand is off. They can support themselves.
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  867. No one would care. They would simply be rebranded.
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  868. Arguably, the longer the war goes on, the more in favor things get for Ukraine. That's when all of that Western military aid (such as anti-tank launchers and MANPADS) gets delivered and distributed, and more of Ukraine's population is mobilized and armed (plus foreign volunteers). Their economy is still attached to the world system, and is being backed by Western financial aid. Meanwhile, Russia's economy starts to cave under the stress of sanctions and their reserves are depleted from paying for the war and keeping the ruble afloat. Supply problems becomes an issue as modern weaponry stocks (guided weapons such as cruise missiles) become depleted. Morale becomes even poorer because the war is a war of aggression against a "brother" country.
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  869. Yes, down with those black and Muslim gangs that make our streets unsafe.
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  870.  @robrussell5329  Slavery wasn't a big deal back then. One could argue that it was on the way out before the Cotton Gin (which I heard was supposed to end slavery faster) made cotton production stupidly profitable.
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  871. Fallacy. Ukraine had it easier since, one, fighting was happening on their territory, much closer to mobilization centers, two, Ukraine had a large pool of veterans of the war in the Donbass, and three, they've had seven months to sort out mobilization issues. To note, manpower was never the issue for Ukraine (defensive wars are pretty good about that), rather equipment was the problem. The same is increasingly applying for Russia. 300k new troops are all fine and dandy, but they're useless if there is nothing to equip them with.
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  872. Because Rocket Man
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  873.  @TenylegMinekez-uc7co  Took over Rostov-on-Don with "a few thousand soldiers" without a shot being fired.
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  874. ​ @YeahYeahBeebisI  The US has no titular ethnicity, so everything is seen in racial terms. Originally, English colonists complained about the barbarian Germans migrating into America. Then, the Germans complained about dirty Catholic Irish. Then, the Irish complained about the criminal Italians. Then the Italians were annoyed about Chinese and Korean "coolies". Then the Chinese and Koreans despised the violent Mexicans. Then the Mexicans complained about Central Americans and Haitians. On another note, the definition of "whiteness" has steadily expanded over the decades.
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  875. They are not US citizens. America has no obligation to them.
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  876. Modern economics, unfortunately, states it is just fine to go deep into debt for all eternity.
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  877.  @GAndreC  Except they didn't, because they were a racist, fascist, military state bent on exploitative colonialism. They did what no one thought possible, which was to make the Europeans look good. They didn't want a coalition of various Asian nations, freed from Europeans. Rather, they wanted their own empire.
    2
  878. Serbia will never cease to brag about bringing down ONE stealth aircraft when their entire air force ceased to exist. And, Serbia also lost.
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  879.  @engineco.1494  Difference is the US lost only a few thousand in ten years of war in Iraq. Russia has suffered perhaps 50k KIA/WIA in half a year.
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  880. They won't say they will, but they will. The US is distant (no territorial disputes with Vietnam), has good weapons, and hates China. As much as people goes "Vietnam War!", that war was a long time ago, and Vietnam, as a young country, has rather few people who remember it. More recent are China's territorial disputes and their invasion.
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  881. And Saddam and his Baathists weren't? Saddam was a brute thug, who plundered Iraqi wealth to build palaces for his Tikiriti clan and to buy weapons to fight a useless war with Iran.
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  882. Different pronunciation for the same thing. Beijing was originally Latinized as Peking (PAY-King). It was changed after the Communists took over and moved their capitol there, but the name stuck to the university.
    2
  883. @Chitragupta Essentially. Finally, someone who gets it. Jeff Bezos, the richest guy in the US, has only a small portion of his wealth in actual HARD cash. Most of it is just paper money, tied up in stock value. Most of the rich in the US have just paper wealth. How can you redistribute stock values to poor Arkansas farmers?
    2
  884. Because they did. Microsoft and Apple are American, not Chinese or British. The US was in the right spot at the right time to leverage its advantages to blaze ahead of its competition. Other countries were at the wrong spot at the wrong time, or failed to leverage their advantages.
    2
  885.  @TheSwedishHistorian  I don't think I will.
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  886. Socialism is a failure because it contradicts human nature. The Soviet Union was not "deliberately" destroyed, but instead fell on it's face due to it's own inefficiency. By the end of the Cold War, the US was rapidly outpacing the USSR in economic and technological development. There were rampant shortages, goods were of inferior quality, and the war in Afghanistan was proving draining. Nationalist sentiments were rising, and eventually, Gorbachev put it down. If it was so successful, it wouldn't have been deliberately destroyed. Socialism is a failure, as seen in Venezuela. Hyperinflation, massive shortages, an oppressive government.
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  887.  @ГрецкийОлег-щ3г  There are no true friends in the international world, except for Britain and the US (because the people of both countries see the other so highly). The Soviet Union of the 80's was rotting. The Soviet Union was held together by Moscow pointing a gun at the republics. When that gun was put away, the republics did not hesitate to leave. However, the balance of power is shifting. Russia will cooperate in the future with America, because both fear the rise of China. China's moves towards the Arctic will eventually threaten Alaska, and eventually US territories of Guam and Samoa. Today we hate each other Ruskie, but tomorrow we find we hate the Chinese more...
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  888. Nah, this is usual. Happens once a few years.
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  889.  @harrisonreinisch9202  You're welcome! :) The inverse of these reasons are how China has built so much high speed trackage so quickly. China has weak regulations that it is more than willing to bend for something it views as a national priority. China has very weak property laws (you cannot OWN land, merely lease it for 80 or so years). This explains the often shoddy quality of Chinese buildings, but that is another discussion. Basically, if the Chinese want a high speed rail network built over your house, they WILL get the land. If you get compensation of any significant amount, you're very lucky. China also has very weak labor laws, and a low cost of living. They can pay their workers less, and there are less regulations (see the first point) to deal with.
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  890. Your last paragraph assumes China can capture Taiwan's industry intact, which I highly doubt. Most likely it will have all been burnt to the ground.
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  891.  @Danny-ss8il  The US could, if they wanted to, smash all of NATO combined.
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  892.  @Danny-ss8il  Yeah, we could. We could not occupy Europe, but the reverse is true. The American heartland is out of reach of the rest of NATO. The US has a massive navy, able to smash the rest of the NATO fleet.
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  893.  @justsomenextguy7766  Crush? How? By invading North America? Fighting the largest and most modern navy in the world with an outdated collection of rusting hulks? Russia is overplayed. Besides, Europe hates Russia even more than the US. Ukraine, the Baltics and Poland would revolt.
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  894.  @Danny-ss8il  Most of NATO's fleet is coastal. It would just be the British Navy, the French, and some Italian, Spanish, and German ships. NATO has one aircraft carrier, since the Queen Elizabeth hasn't yet gotten all of her F-35s. The US has ten, and another ten amphibious assault ships. Even with commitments elsewhere, two or three could be mustered. The US also has a massive submarine fleet that would severely degrade a combined NATO fleet. There would be command and language barriers to be overcome. Who would command a NATO fleet without the US? The French? They have the one real aircraft carrier. Or would it be the British? A NATO navy isn't designed to operate in the high seas seriously alone. There aren't enough ships. You might blockade a small section of the US coast, but there is still thousands of miles to cover. The Pacific Coast is completely out of range. The US Navy would also not allow China to do anything. There wouldn't be any weapons transfers, since such weapons couldn't be used by Europe. Also, China wouldn't enter the war since they hold valuable trade relations with the US, and the threat of nuclear war. The best that would happen would be a draw. There is no way that Europe could get even close to the US seaboard, never mind actual fight in America. Canada? They would stay out, since they would get overrun in a few weeks.
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  895.  @Danny-ss8il  The US has strength in the fact that it has a huge military, and of a single command. The Queen Elizabeth was designed to fly F-35s, not Saab Griffins. The Griffin was designed for a land runway, not a carrier. The Queen Elizabeth is big, but not that big. The F-35 is also produced in America, and most of the parts are American. I mean, you could reverse engineer it, but it'd be extremely difficult if you don't have the blue prints and the software for it. It'd take years, and by then, it'd already be obsolete. The Chinese will sell weapons to anyone, as long as they have the cash. However, they mostly sell outdated junk. Their weaponry would be useless because NATO trains on European and US weapons, not Chinese. NATO would have to develop logistics and stockpile spare parts and train personnel to use this equipment. Russia would probably leverage both sides. Perhaps territory in Ukraine. Ukraine and the Baltics would be furious and would keep their armies in their own borders to guard against Russia. Countries such as Poland and Hungary are more pro-US than pro-EU. Poland especially remembers being sold out by Churchill. The US could manipulate that to at best cause distention and unrest. At worst, it may cause Poland to declare neutrality. Poland may wonder why they should fight for the UK. The US could go on war economy as well. The construction of the Gerald R Ford-class would accelerate. The US would find little issue in the production of F-35 aircraft, since they are produced in America. The US would copy foreign parts to supply their fleet. While I doubt the US would invade Britain, it could seize overseas islands like Bermuda. The Fifth Fleet in the Arabian Sea would also block oil supplies, and while that might piss off some countries, they wouldn't support Europe overtly. Fuel shortages would cripple most economic functions in Europe.
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  896. What does it matter? Russia is too poor to afford the T-14 in large numbers.
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  897. Why would thousands of men fight, and die, for something as broken and horrible as the Confederacy? Why would thousands of young men, who didn't own slaves, fight to preserve something that wasn't in their interest? No one can seem to answer that question...
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  898.  @the80386  If the Chinese thought that the US would abandon Taiwan, they would have immediately invaded by now. The risk that the Americans, and their other allies like Japan, would defend Taiwan makes it too risky.
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  899. Neo-Confederates? Hmm. There are some? Besides some Iowan hillbillies?
    2
  900. Most US debt is owned by the US public. China also has a mountain of debt. US turns off cash loans, the Chinese stop existing.
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  901. The idiocy in this comment is astounding. Russia and China are developing stealth aircraft.
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  902.  @SunriseLAW  So the J-22 is not a stealth fighter? Well, not wrong there. It is a hunk of trash. Anyway, your comment is still stupid. Italy, the UK, Turkey, South Korea, Japan, Denmark, Norway, Australia, Israel, and the Netherlands are both buying and constructing F-35 stealth planes. The only other stealth fighter craft the US uses is the F-22 Raptor, whose production line ended about a decade ago. The B-2 Stealth bomber is limited in number and was last built over a decade ago. The F-117 was retired 8 years ago. Meanwhile, the Russians have been building the Su-57, but have halted production on it because it's too expensive. Also, Turkey and Japan have been designing fifth-generation stealth fighters of their own.
    2
  903.  @SunriseLAW  Russia also sells it's aircraft across the world. The arms trade is quite lucrative. Unlike the United States, Russia has little care of who it ships arms too. China has even less care. Many countries that have an indigenous arms industry export weapons. Your argument is hypocritical and a strawman, and is based on ideology. Saudi Arabia receives vasts armaments because it is a strategic United States ally, because it has vast oil reserves. You want cheap gas to put in your car right? The Saudis get arms, and the US gets oil. It is mutually beneficial. Realpolitik. Russia has less success because it's economy is weaker. You do realize it invaded Georgia in 2008? Russia has quite a lot of blood on it's hands as well. Of course, it can get away with this because Russia doesn't have much presence beyond the regional stage, unlike the US.
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  904. Even if Russia does eventually win, their prestige and reputation are gone.
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  905. ISIS isn't making a military comeback. A fight between the Peshmerga and the Iraqi Army would be delaying ISIS's defeat.
    2
  906.  @ceamhd  Many countries of Eastern Europe wonder if Germany and France will help them in case of war from Russia. Point is there is wonder how many are willing to protect their fellow alliance members. With Russia re-strengthening and China encroaching into Europe economically and politically, the question is getting serious.
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  907. Actually, that would be the Chinese. But sure, blame everything on America.
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  908. I'm surprised by how many people see Russia as a world power, with an advanced military. Russia is, at best, a regional power. It suffers from immense corruption, wealth inequality, population decline, and a near collapse in healthcare and infrastructure. It's power is boosted only by its nuclear stockpile and large natural resources. So many people swallowed the idea that Russia is a powerful juggernaut, that it is immune to "Western degeneracy", with armies of tough, macho Russian men. They cannot stomach that Russia simply isn't that, and blame any battlefield reverses as fake news, while playing up meagre Russian successes. Russia has failed in this war, simply put.
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  909.  @myopicthunder  Healthcare that is poor and not worthwhile and education in schools that are crumbling. But hey, at least it's free! (Not like America doesn't have some free healthcare and free education).
    2
  910. If Israel is nuked, they will nuke back.
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  911. The UN is weak. They can't do squat to this US
    2
  912. Perhaps, but the Iranians are getting desperate. This would allow China to leverage more from Tehran.
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  913. Prepare to be sent to Gitmo then.
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  914.  @bobdobsin6216  The US has always had some form of voter fraud (ahem, the Solid South). Vote buying, voter suppression, ballot stuffing, etc. Both parties practice it, and have practiced it for a while. Part and parcel of having a multi-ethnic population.
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  915. Too many people working in bureaucracy and heavy inflation.
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  916.  @jsharps1000  The US lost politically, but they still slaughtered around a million Vietnamese and leveled North Vietnam before they pulled out.
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  917.  @carldavies4776  Assuming the Su-57s are even combat operation (which I doubt), they'd likely be held around Moscow.
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  918.  @eyzhd4264  Russia isn't Iran's ally. If Iran actually did go to war, they wouldn't stick their neck out for them. China wouldn't either. I doubt Russia would even sell them weapons. Russia might give up Iran for lifting of sanctions. In fact, Putin is already negotiating with the US right now. As for Turkey, they're pissed at the US and buddy-buddy with Russia right now, but they have no intention of leaving NATO, or defending Iran. They're building a trade deal with Iraq to replace Iranian oil. Iran knows that it has no real allies. It'd be an act of extreme insanity to attack the US. I'd be more worried about the Saudis or the Israelis starting something. Both hate Iran enough to ally under the table with each other. I think they see this as the prime opportunity to end their hated enemy and divide up the Middle East between themselves. Saudi Arabia would take Iraq and Qatar, while Israel would influence Syria, Lebanon and the West Bank.
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  919. Creative? Lolwat? Those guys enjoy making things, yes, but those things are copies of other people's designs.
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  920.  @bogdanbogdanoff5164  One, the RQ-170 was neither armed nor equipped with software that allowed it to autonomously fly back if it lost connection from its homebase. Two, jamming gives away your location. Jamming by nature sends our tons of data to cut off data from yourself. However, under wartime, drones can be equipped with software that either gives them a set path to fly (ie, programmed to strike a strategic target with no input from home), or have them attack the jamming site. With this, jamming is pretty much useless.
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  921. "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter"
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  922.  Jobin Sabu  Russia failed against a bunch of mountain men in Chechnya. Real men? Pfft. Just a bunch of corrupt thugs.
    2
  923. It'd be interesting, and this is probably really far out, that Russia would purposely start a war with the US, with China, take as much of Ukraine and the Baltics as they could, cut a deal with the Americans in that they'd be able to keep a good portion of that land as at least a sphere of influence, and then turn on the Chinese. It would secure their European sphere of influence, while also destroying their "ally" and arguably their most serious enemy. I mean, for Russia, China is much more of an existential threat. Vast Siberian natural resources which the Chinese covet, while also historically (at least Outer Manchuria) being Chinese or in their sphere of influence. Ukraine would be nice to have, but I'm sure the US would trade it in a heart beat if it meant that Russia would abandon the Chinese. Taiwan is of far more value to the US, strategically, economically, and culturally.
    2
  924. Why spill blood for people who are unwilling to defend their own country?
    2
  925. Ready for war? How about ready to be turned to slag. As for South Korea, for a "barking puppet", they have done quite well for themselves.
    2
  926. Probably neutral on this. They are behind Assad, but at the same time are friendly with Israel. Interesting right? Sides can get a bit confusing here. The US is in NATO with Turkey, but backs the Kurds because they see them as pro-American and competent, unlike their other ally in the area, Iraq. Assad can't do anything right now about the Turks because he is too weak, and his army too exhausted.
    2
  927. Likely an Su-24.
    1
  928. Two words for those military bases: China, Russia.
    1
  929. It's better than having illegal immigrants.
    1
  930. What about the unmarked men walking around with Russian weaponry?
    1
  931. What about Chechnya? They don't like Russia, so does that mean they should be given independence.
    1
  932. It is an independent state. That's like saying Canada should belong to the US, because it's pretty much the same culture with "minor" variations.
    1
  933. Ukrainians speak Russian because the state was once apart of the USSR, where Russian was highly encouraged. Canadians speak the same language as Americans (not counting Quebec) and were born from the same Empire: the British. Thus, one could argue that Canada is foreign invention (The British pretty much protected them) and should have been absorbed by the United States. Or, perhaps the Dutch belong to Germany, because they speak a similar language. Ukraine is similar to Russia, but is different as well. They are sister cultures, along with Belorussian. But, the key word is "sister". Ukrainian is a separate culture with their own independent nation.
    1
  934. It is Israeli made, but it is also used by NATO member Romania.
    1
  935. Do all you looking over this, realize something. A hate group is a group or organization of people who target and show hatred and prejudice against another group, race, religion, etc.  A hate group can be Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, whatever.
    1
  936. "Call the police" for what, because you didn't get a marriage license? Go to another place for a marriage license, like New York. Liberal idiot.
    1
  937. This will go to court, but the gays will just bully the jury into making a decision in their favor. If the jury goes in her favor, they will ruin their lives.  
    1
  938. You really don't understand religion do you? People will DIE for the religion because it what the believe in. This is also the south, where Christianity is much more stronger than in the north.  
    1
  939. True, all that is out there are small mining villages and frigid forests that stretch for miles without end.
    1
  940. Because Mexico doesn't have the capability to take it from the United States. Also, because most people in the South West want to stay in America.
    1
  941.  @kalloud11  Justin Y is infinite and omnipresent. You cannot stand against him.
    1
  942. Would you have preferred the Russian boot, europoor?
    1
  943.  @complicatedjason  Not quite so. Remember who gave the Soviet Army all of its trucks, rations, half-tracks, planes, av-gas, rolling stock and various other supplies in the desperate days of 1941-42. Be grateful.
    1
  944.  @complicatedjason  That is called a proxy war, and just about every country has done it. China, Russia, Britain, France, even some minor countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia wage proxy wars against each other. You act like this is just an American thing, or not apart of realpolitik. I'd suspect most people that watch Caspian Report are wiser to these kind of things and don't spout blind propaganda, but I guess not.
    1
  945.  @complicatedjason  So, you mean Syria borders Russia? Or that Djibouti is just a stone's throw away from China? Speaking of China, aren't they going on a massive ship building spree? What about the massive Belt-and-Road Initiative? Well, of course the BRI is just China being benevolent, let's just ignore the fact they seized a port in Sri Lanka when they failed to pay their debts.
    1
  946.  @complicatedjason  So, the Russian annexation of Crimea and the subsequent war in Eastern Ukraine was caused by the United States? Or the various wars in Francophone Africa is because of the US? The US has had not much real part in the Syrian War, compared to Turkey, Hezbollah, Russia, or Iran. You focus on the US and act like the US invented the practice, or is the sole perpetrator of it.
    1
  947.  @complicatedjason  Syria is not next to Russia, nor is Moldavia. Also, that is exactly what Russia did during the Syrian Civil War. They drove the Admiral Kuznetsov to Syria and bombed the country.
    1
  948.  @complicatedjason  One country? Do you geography bro? The Soviet Union is dead. All of Georgia, Armenia, and Turkey (a NATO member) are between Russia and Syria. I'm guessing you're Russian since you attempt to mitigate Russia's cross Continental aggression by placing America solely in the spotlight and placing the blame on a single country in a game which everyone plays. But hey, since the US is so big, powerful, and rich, it is okay to blame the US. Ignoring the fact that Russia invaded Afghanistan, Georgia, Estonia, and Ukraine, plus got involved in Syria and countless other Central Asian wars in the past 35 years.
    1
  949.  @complicatedjason  Clearly a Russian here. I'm not American, by the way.
    1
  950. Allah won't solve your problems for you.
    1
  951. Especially considering how manipulated and sketchy the Chinese stock market is. Many listed stocks are actually state-owned enterprises, with most of their stock being held by the government or other SOEs.
    1
  952. Which Turkey is apart of.
    1
  953. Speed isn't always better.
    1
  954. MARTA.... Yeah...
    1
  955. Doesn't matter. They aren't a superpower, just a backwater third-world country with most of it's army, navy, and air force about thirty years old and rusting away in warehouses. If it wasn't for their mineral and energy resources, they'd have the purchasing power of Zimbabwe.
    1
  956.  @angelarch5352  Probably not. Kadyrov is universally despised outside of Chechnya, even by Russians. Putin essentially gave him free reign over Chechnya (and a large annul bribe to boot!) in exchange for being able to claim Putin "won" the Chechen War. Kadyrov is a lose cannon, and if he smells weakness, he'll bite anyone. Of course, if the entire republic wouldn't immediately devolve into another Ichkeria, there'd be no shortage of people wanting to off him.
    1
  957. Apparently that was caused because of flooding in their coal mines.
    1
  958. Well, they still must answer to shareholders.
    1
  959.  @Jon-jd2vc  Yes, and no. In the late 90's, Iran and the Taliban hated each other. Iran almost invaded Taliban controlled Afghanistan after their embassy staff were gutted by them. However, since 2001, the Taliban have become less of a single group and more of an umbrella term for those who opposed the Kabul government. Iran gave the Taliban under the table support. Of course, relations are still rocky and the two can easily go back to hating each other (for any reason under the sun).
    1
  960. Damn, all these triggered Finnish peoples. It doesn't bloody matter if you have 990,000 reservists. You're not fighting in the flat, open terrain of Germany, but the rugged, forested and cold Scandinavia. You can't death stack troops up there. The Russians learned that the hard way. And go fuck your "But Finland can get thousands of troops up there because we are Finnish" bullshit. You still need supplies.
    1
  961. @DS Typical snobbish New Yorker. They think anyplace not in that crowded, dirty city is backwards and savage. And at least you don't have to pay a million and one tolls to go anywhere in Kentucky.
    1
  962.  @ethancraig9773  50,000 people can fill a mid-sized town.
    1
  963. Communism is a nice idea, but impractical because of human nature.
    1
  964.  @MrFlatage  22 days is rather short on a political timeline. Of course, that is 22 days for a carrier, not for other ships like destroyers, cruisers, and submarines.
    1
  965.  @Minuz1  I said captured.
    1
  966. You will be a colony soon. Not to worry, we'll throw out your girly Prime Minister, and your "provinces" will become states, with all the rights with them. It doesn't have to be painful.
    1
  967.  @OptimisticNihilist15  Especially against China, where most of the Navy's job will be carrying out a distant blockade and hunting down isolated Chinese sea assets. Aircraft carriers would never be anywhere near the coast.
    1
  968. Everyone is
    1
  969.  @TheGemar14  FYI, this guy does not exist. He is a bot from some Novosibirsk troll farm meant to shill nonsense to justify Russia being a decrept, rotting kleptocratic hellhole.
    1
  970. Russia is a paper tiger.
    1
  971.  @MrJ9191  Facts are that Russia is losing.
    1
  972.  @contra1124  The driver was from Brookfield, not too far north of Mendon in Linn County. I'm from next door Chillicothe (Livingston County), and the the whole area is basically uninhabited farmland (bumfug nowhere). For many folks, why bother waiting a minute (or stopping and looking) when you're in the middle of nowhere? The thing is that while most of the area is low-density, the rail lines are actually deceptively well-traveled.
    1
  973. Protectionism would have been nice right about now...
    1
  974. Human nature says otherwise...
    1
  975. Renewables, while nice, don't have the efficiency to replace fossil-fuels. Only nuclear can really do that, but for some reason everyone is terrified of nuclear power. We've come a long way since Chernobyl.
    1
  976. Most US debt is owned by the US public. Little of it is actually owned by China. Get your facts straight.
    1
  977. Russia already has sent remote units to Ukraine. I don't think there is a formation that hasn't seen service in Ukraine.
    1
  978.  @urdbest3212  Their oil will be ours. All that Maduro guy needs to do is stay in charge for a bit, so when he dies, the country falls into anarchy and we just move in and take the oil! Their citizens will be begging us to liberate them by then! Genius! And there is nothing you third worlders can do, because you elected the guy. Thanks!
    1
  979.  @junwu1793  Checkmate! We still got it! While you idiots scream about imperialism (While China is doing the same in Africa) we will be enjoying cheap gas and a new ally in Latin America. Thanks Maduro!
    1
  980.  @megapet777  Not all are in active service, mind you. Only about half are. Keep in mind that Ukraine also possesses the largest tank army in Europe (second only to Russia itself, of course).
    1
  981.  @megapet777  Going off of Wikipedia, Ukraine has roughly 2000 tanks in its inventory. Impressive, yes? However, a lot of those tanks are old and have been sitting in storage for over 30 years. Granted, Ukraine has been making an effort since Euromaidan to refurbish and modernize their vehicles. However, delays were constantly plaguing them and so not very many tanks were updated. So, if I were to count the number of tanks that are modernized, I'd say about 500 or 600. Pretty sizeable, though Russia should hold the technological edge.
    1
  982.  @megapet777  True, though finding parts for those tanks is probably the hardest part. Ukraine pre-2014 was notorious for having a drastically underfunded and corrupt military. Also a lot of those tanks are outdated. Also, I assume Ukraine's current doctrine is leaning more towards mobile light infantry armed with AT weapons. This helps negate the advantages of Russian airpower and armor. Using obsolete and old T-64Bs would be a waste of fuel and manpower (not only crewing the tank, but getting it back into service) considering it would outgunned by Russian T-90s or simply blown up from the air.
    1
  983.  @sirrathersplendid4825  They're probably being kept as a mobile reserve. In general, they're inferior to Russian tanks and they'd also be vulnerable to Russian airpower. The Ukrainian Army would probably use them as a sort of "pocket closer", when road-bound Russian units penetrate deep into Ukrainian territory, Ukraine would use those tanks to cut them off and encircle them. Also to note that the spring thaw is approaching. Ukraine's tanks as just as susceptible to getting bogged down in mud as the Russian tanks. And since they're the defender, those tanks might fall behind Russian lines (whereas the Russians theoretically can recover their tanks if they get stuck and have to be abandoned).
    1
  984.  @donverga  Watch the video, my guy.
    1
  985.  @trapmozart9217  Nuclear is good, but uranium is pretty rare. Nuclear power plants are also expensive to build, because you have to make sure they don't melt down.
    1
  986. Even if rounds don't penetrate the armor, they can still damage optics, communications equipment, the barrel, and shake up the crew.
    1
  987.  @РемиБоняшки  Okay Boris from Sofia Oblast. Won't stop Bulgaria from funneling weapons to Ukraine to kill "brotherly Russians".
    1
  988.  @РемиБоняшки  Ah yes, like aligning with a country regularly threatening to nuke people is better. Russian propaganda is so clumsy.
    1
  989. Typical wumao always assumes some vaporware technology will magically solve all of China's problems. You can enjoy your fancy DeepSeek or Huawei chat bot while you're underwater on your mortgage. Only fools buy into the Chinese stock market. You won't see any returns, because you're just a chive to be harvested by some company that is barely solvent.
    1
  990.  Ian G  The Chinese also have plenty of coal fired plants that are a lot less clean than US plants. The US is moving away from fossil fuels like coal and oil, to the much cleaner natural gas plus hydroelectric and nuclear powered. Problem with solar and wind powered is that they are situational and don't generate a lot of power. Fusion will likely be the power source of the future.
    1
  991. People would be foolishly naive to think that Americans, or Trump in particular are dumb. Trump is, despite his rhetoric, not at all stupid. He is a shrewd businessman who is the spearhead of a rising populist sentiment.
    1
  992. It likely won't lead to war.
    1
  993. While China isn't as weak as Iraq, they lack the ability to project hard power. If it came to war, China would be fighting it on their soil, which means their factories and cities would be bombed. However, China has replaced Russia on the top of the list of rivals to the US. Trumps tariffs might be a strategic move to weaken the Chinese economy and wean the US off Chinese goods. It is an eat, or be eaten situation. The US is stronger than the Chinese right now, and Trump sees an opportunity to set them back.
    1
  994. The stock market is not a good reflection of the actual economy. In early '08, as the housing market was collapsing, the stock market was doing quite well (because everyone was moving their assets out of real estate and into the stock market). It then nearly collapsed. Every day you'll get a guy predicting the end of the world, and another guy saying everything will be fine. Ignoring the clickbait: The world is incredibly unstable right now. Israel and Iran are attacking each other, Ukraine and Russia are duking it out in a death war, and China's real estate sector is imploding. While the US is relatively fine right now, things are trending in the WRONG direction, as he mentioned. People are on edge and have been on edge for over a year now. COVID messed everything up, and assuming the ramifications of that crisis are already past is naive at best. Downturns happen. They're simply a feature of an economy (up/down cycle). It's not really about WHEN they'll happen. It's more about how BAD they'll be. This downturn as the potential to be really bad.
    1
  995. The US does have a considerably larger arsenal and more advanced technology. Of course, China does have enough warheads to make anyone think twice about attacking it.
    1
  996. Oh, there'll be a bang alright.
    1
  997.  @David-cj8wv  No, they didn't. Russia never applied for either EU or NATO membership. They were like "It might be nice to, eventually", but they said themselves that "Russia would rather LEAD a coalition or alliance than join one". Every country since the Cold War has had to apply and go through an often lengthy application process than involves making your military NATO-interoperable and joining the command structure. Russia never had any serious interest in joining NATO, because they'd have to share it with the Americans.
    1
  998. In some instances.
    1
  999. Might not be too hard now days.
    1
  1000.  @FeelingPeculiar  Doesn't really mean anything. Before the GFC, home prices in Miami, Vegas, and Phoenix peaked in mid 2006, about a year before the subprime mortgage industry collapsed. The speculative areas tend to implode first.
    1
  1001. And forget about the massive socio-economic problems that they cause.
    1
  1002. Missouri has relatively low infection rates compared to New York or California.
    1
  1003. China, I could see doing. Russia would probably barter with the US and extract a withdraw of sanctions.
    1
  1004. A true shame, really. It's not over yet however.
    1
  1005. No it isn't.
    1
  1006.  @applythesamewaytoyourselve5918  Taiwan is a democratic country that has developed far differently from the communist mainland. There was no Great Leap Forward, no purge of culture, no massacre of certain groups. Even the language is different. The relationship between Taiwan and China should be more like that of Germany and Austria, or of the US and Canada. Those countries exist peacefully, why can't China and Taiwan?
    1
  1007.  @applythesamewaytoyourselve5918  Taiwan is outside of Beijing's control, and the people living in Taiwan don't want to be under it. Countless polls say that most Taiwanese do NOT want to live under the current Chinese government. Just because the long dead Qing Dynasty held Formosa for a century or two doesn't mean that it is eternally bound to China. East Prussia was apart of Prussia, then Germany for centuries, yet Germany doesn't contest that it is apart of Russia. Or how Russia controlled vast swaths of territory, yet no longer lays claim to Kazakhstan or Armenia.
    1
  1008. Plus they have a whole bunch of other projects to worry about, like the Columbia-class subs.
    1
  1009. Most of those tanks were not in active service, but were in storage. Some of them are being restored to active service, while others are being stripped for the active fleet.
    1
  1010. In the US, corruption usually takes the form of political lobbying and pork barrel legislation, things that aren't "technically" corruption, but skirt around the edges of the term. The thing is, very little of it is actually illegal, just sketchy. It works in the framework of the state. In China, corruption is more of "rent seeking" and patronage. Bribery is pervasive as officials leverage their official positions to seek money and influence. Traffic cops, for example, are notoriously corrupt, and will use the slightest excuse (claiming that a truck is overweight) to demand a ticket (a bribe). Government officials sometimes work with organized crime to extort local businesses as well. That is one example, but there are many, many more. From construction to military procurement to housing to banking, it is there in China and the people feel it. It is encouraged by the opaque government structure (lack of transparency and accountability) and anti-corruption measures are usually an attack on political rivals (while your faction is shielded from corruption probes).
    1
  1011. She was useless.
    1
  1012. India has a lot more problems than just Bollywood.
    1
  1013. Iraq was rotten long before the US entered the stage. Saddam robbed the country of it's wealth and spent it on a useless war against Iran. And people still praise the dude.
    1
  1014. Because Gorbachev only hasted what was already going to happen. The USSR was doomed from the onset.
    1
  1015. He'll get you first.
    1
  1016. Go tell Turkey that. They have landmines on their border.
    1
  1017. The stock market and banking system is not trusted in China. Real estate is seen as a solid investment, and it has seeped into Chinese culture.
    1
  1018.  A N  That's still a massive part of the country that is hostile to them. They'll still have to garrison AND reconstruct it. Considering how that part of Ukraine was actually poorer than most of Russia pre-war, and now it has been bombed to rubble, rebuilding and bringing it up to the standards of Russia will be extraordinarily expensive. At the same time, Russia is undergoing painful sanctions that have collapsed the value of the ruble. Also annexing part or all of Ukraine would mean that relations with the West would be permanently ruined for DECADES.
    1
  1019. So anything that doesn't parrot the RT line is propaganda? Russia isn't a superpower, and their war isn't just.
    1
  1020. Of course, my friend. Same stuff, different name. Instead of the Shah, we have the Ayatollahs.
    1
  1021. A revolution that lasted almost a decade and killed over a million people. God help us all...
    1
  1022.  @cWvp80GEDg  The war has entered sort of a World War I stage. Most great, fast maneuvers have been replaced by a war of attrition and the liberal use of heavy artillery. As for the separatist republics, much of the forces got chewed up earlier in the war. There are some hardcore dedicated units, but most are seen as second rate troops by the Russians and Ukrainians, and are usually only put in rear security operations.
    1
  1023.  @henrytep8884  Who cares about Ivy Leagues? Overrated, overpriced, and not worth it. It's better to go to your local state school.
    1
  1024.  @LagrangePoint901  For most areas, the name of your school rarely matters. For business and finance, I can see it. If you want to go to Wall Street, your school is pretty important (many of the top dogs went to Ivy Leagues). For most other sectors, the school rarely matters. For example, going to the small Missouri University of Science and Technology over, say Georgia Tech or MIT, won't be too much of a downside, especially if you don't plan on leaving Missouri (in fact, going to Missouri S&T can yield better local connections than going to some distant Ivy League).
    1
  1025. Eh, the US can stand alone if it wanted. We have the military might to crush Canada in a week. At the end of the day, it's every nation for itself. That is realpolitik. If the US gets stronger at Canada's expense, so be it.
    1
  1026. Ironically...
    1
  1027. Okay then. If you want to pledge allegiance to a useless organization, go ahead.
    1
  1028. They do, and they did at the time. At the time, they fought under UN command, which meant de facto they were still under US command. They were under American command, their uniforms were American, and insignia were American. However, at the strategic level, they were under the UN banner.
    1
  1029. Simple. Everyone in Eastern Europe sees Russia as an aggressive thug that will beat people up who don't play along. NATO doesn't strongarm countries into joining; it is completely optional that requires many preconditions and the unanimous approval of every country in the alliance. Russia just can't comprehend that an alliance is purely defensive, because the Warsaw Pact was a tool of Moscow to keep hegemony over it's sphere of influence.
    1
  1030.  @interrobangings  No quite true. Europe has, for a long time, lacked serious hard power and a will to use it. Examples include Yugoslavia and Kosovo, and more recently with Iran. The US is a more firm and consistent ally when it comes to China than the EU.
    1
  1031. @Deep Claymore No one in the US wants a war with Iran. Iran is actually quite useful as a boogeyman to keep Israel and Saudi Arabia in line, and to prevent them from going at each others' throats. Iran is of little direct threat to US interests, besides some shenanigans in Iraq.
    1
  1032. Just a shorter F-22 without stealth.
    1
  1033.  @glorioustrap  Who is to say China's rise will last? An economic crisis could spell doom for the PRC.
    1
  1034.  @glorioustrap  The Chinese government is not very efficient. Many provincial governors fudge numbers to obtain more rosy signs of economic growth. Corruption is also widespread. I'm not "hoping" for an economic crisis, but one can happen, and the conditions in the PRC make it ripe to occur.
    1
  1035.  @nubitynub1757  Well, it was largely Japan that weakened the KMT which allowed the Communists to have a lot of success. Chiang Kai-shek came very close to finishing off the Communists, but the encroaching Japanese forced him to move troops to the border.
    1
  1036. Basically. I have no idea how no one mentions this. Everyone loves solar and wind.... until it's night time and the wind isn't blowing.
    1
  1037. They are.
    1
  1038. Yet so many people in Hong Kong preferred the British... I wonder why.
    1
  1039. .50 cents has been added to your balance. Communist lies.
    1
  1040.  @lvjinbin28  That's what the CCP always says. It's always the Americans trying to overthrow us! They wave around nationalism while they rob the people with corruption, and throw those who protest in jail. The Americans don't mean anything if the government serves only itself.
    1
  1041.  @lvjinbin28  Healthcare fails more in China. The vaccine scandal? Heard of it?
    1
  1042.  @lvjinbin28  Because it'd be hypocritical of an authoritarian regime to do that. Not when Tibet, Taiwan, and Sinkiang desire independence.
    1
  1043.  @mrmakhno3030  I wouldn't see them cutting Ukrainian supply lines. The VDV are too light for that, and the Ukrainians are too well entrenched with SAM systems. I'd see them more useful as a rapid-reaction fire brigade, meant to stop breaches in frontlines, rather than assaulting trenches and fortifications.
    1
  1044.  @longyu9336  Basically. Ukraine did take heavy losses, but have also received new tanks from abroad and captured tanks from Russia. However, because the war has moved more towards an artillery-fest, tanks are likely being held in reserve by both sides to counter an unexpected breakthrough.
    1
  1045.  @joesod  Doubtful. Once the myth of invincibility has set into a populace, it is VERY hard to rid them of that idea. It's why there are so many shills doing mental Olympic gymnastics to justify why Russia hasn't crushed Ukraine after more than 7 months (and is actually losing).
    1
  1046. Only the United States has the prestige and power to claim the title of "America". It was the first colony to win independence, and it dominates both continents.
    1
  1047.  @piedrablanca1942  Yet no other country has the name "America" in its official name. The United States were born back when all the other "countries" were mere colonies. Not all US states were British colonies, as the American South West came from Mexico (Previously New Spain) and Alaska was purchased from Russia. If the United States wanted, much of Latin America could have become states. The Yucatan peninsula even begged to become a state.
    1
  1048. @Shawn Clark One, the nuclear bombs are useless without the plutonium cores (which are likely stored safely in America) and security codes. And two, the US would not hesitate to immediately get them back, peacefully or by force. And I'm sure Greece and Bulgaria would be very happy to assist the US in the effort.
    1
  1049. Russian pilots also have far lower flight hours than NATO pilots. The spare parts issue is probably exacerbated by all the different variants and types of planes Russia operates.
    1
  1050. Everyone is all tied together. China does poorly, America does poorly and vise versa.
    1
  1051.  Daniel Paul  Do you know of the North Korean massacres that happened because of the Chinese and Soviets?
    1
  1052.  Daniel Paul  It is about as hypocritical as your statement.
    1
  1053. Load ze FUD...
    1
  1054. Also say goodbye to over a billion people.
    1
  1055.  @9w9id  Except they don't have large numbers of strategic bombers. What they do have are lots of cheap Iranian suicide drones and cruise missiles.
    1
  1056. :)
    1
  1057. There was a video from Economics Explained that kind of alluded indirectly to this. Elon Musk is a sort of "middle class rich", where he has significant "paper money", but really doesn't have a lot of "liquid cash", that he can blow on a private jet of sorts. Putin is a "rich rich" guy. I'm sure that he only actually owns small stuff like his Lada. The thing is, with such a corrupt and opaque country as Russia, political power is easily turned into riches through the state. State dachas, government jets, control of the security services to be your muscle, etc. Think of all those state assets, state-owned enterprises, and their shoddy book-keeping. So much opportunity to become filthy rich, if you have the right connections...
    1
  1058. No one cares for the idiotic Palestinians.
    1
  1059. Then they'd collaspe overnight.
    1
  1060. @D Sullivan There you go. The Civil War only "really" ended by 1877, with the corrupt bargain. In return for keeping the country whole and abolishing slavery (not really, because of share cropping), the southern planter elite could keep a monopoly on the politics in their states and repress blacks.
    1
  1061.  @falchion1966  That would have defeated the entire point of the conflict, which was preservation of the Union. Instead of reincorporating parts of your country back into the federal fold, you would be occupying a foreign land.
    1
  1062.  @rogerszmodis  And yet people flock to Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina. The North is a decrepit rust belt with brutal winters and corrupt politicians. You sneer while people depart New York City and Chicago for Atlanta and Nashville.
    1
  1063.  @grapeshot  One man's traitor is another man's freedom fighter.
    1
  1064. @D Sullivan Unfortunately. The North lacked the will to ensure Reconstruction was carried out to it's fullest. A combination of corruption scandals, an economic recession, and a white supremacist insurgency drained the public's will. They were content with the South holding basically no significant national influence, the abolishment of slavery, and the Union remaining together.
    1
  1065.  @grapeshot  Why so surprised?
    1
  1066.  @grapeshot  I never said freedom for all people. Just a certain group. Slavery was legalized in all of the Thirteen colonies when they declared independence from Great Britain. And of course, just because "officially" slavery is abolished, doesn't mean that unofficial slavery can persist. Of course, the Confederacy didn't secede because of oppression from the federal government, rather that the Southern plantation elite was gradually losing power over said federal government. States' rights did not come from it (if anything, it would come from the northern states with their opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act).
    1
  1067.  @artoruvidal2793  The ROC has always been a sovereign country. The communists never finished the job.
    1
  1068.  @realnapster1522  There is only, what, 5 Su-57s?
    1
  1069. There haven't been many large scale general wars since the Second World War. The last significant war that evolved significant naval fighting since then would probably have been the Iran-Iraq war. Of course, the only real battle was Operation Preying Mantis, since most of the war was just Iraqi Exocet missile strikes.
    1
  1070. Well, you can argue that. I would say the F-35 is better, simply looking at who made the J-20. The Chinese really have no experience with aircraft design. Most of their planes are Soviet-based. The J-11, for example, is the Su-27. It even uses Russian engines because the Chinese ones were too weak. The US has been designing planes since they first came out, so they've gone through the entire development process, all the hurdles and learned the mistakes. China, although an impressive power, is very new. They're building aircraft and ships as fast as they can, to complete with the US, yet in about a decade, most of their ships will be totally obsolete, plus prone to mechanical faults due to their quick build.
    1
  1071. Find a video on YouTube from '08.
    1
  1072. @edR_ Putin is stuck between a rock and a hard place. He can't just back out of the war without having SOMETHING to show Russia. I suspect he is trying to get: Recognition for Crimea being Russian (and water rights for it), recognition of the independence of the separatists in the East, and assurances not to join NATO. He wants to get Ukraine to the negotiating table badly, and hopes he can win some sort of military victory to convince Ukraine to give in the above demands (anymore is not possible given Russia's economic situation). Ukraine actually has time on its side in this case, as Russia is only growing weaker (with sanctions eroding foreign reserves and the population becoming demoralized) while Ukraine is actually getting stronger (due to increasing mobilization and an influx of Western weaponry).
    1
  1073. Probably not. The Russian military is notoriously corrupt, but removed generals are very rarely charged with anything. For them, getting "purged" just means a disgraceful retirement (but they get to keep their loot!). If Putin started jailing and executing officers for corruption, the risk of coup goes up dramatically.
    1
  1074. @C L Basically. And apparently old 80's and 90's era militias are being revived.
    1
  1075. Mostly in Africa...
    1
  1076.  @subjectc7505  Poland is aiding Ukraine in massive amounts. They're just replacing donated Soviet kit with modern domestic, American, and Korean equipment.
    1
  1077. Only because we're currently in a market where money is cheap and easy for big brands. Enter a recession or simply a market where lenders are stingier, and these hacks will very quickly disappear. "The Message" is only important when times are good, and Disney can afford to light a few hundred million on fire.
    1
  1078. And they claim to have shot down a bunch of US cruise missiles! Syria's air defense system is a joke!
    1
  1079. @88Gibson LesPaul He won the election with the whole deck stacked against him. Cope harder.
    1
  1080.  @AFlyingCookieLOL  To prevent China from gaining access to experience and technology that NASA and the US-based space community has developed. China now has to develop its space program from scratch, instead of being able to use NASA's hard-won experience to leapfrog up.
    1
  1081. @bbonner422 I would like to invite Sherman back to Atlanta, to burn the whole thing down again. Honestly, traffic is nuts.
    1
  1082. Hezbollah is just a bunch of thugs who steal aid money from the Palestinians.
    1
  1083. It then became the USSR's bitch afterward.
    1
  1084. They get a gold star for participation.
    1
  1085.  @veritasnunc8749  Humanity is an old species. No one is truly good, or truly evil, but a grayish mix. Some are more good, or more evil. Interesting, no?
    1
  1086. May Allah command Pakistan to nuke your village.
    1
  1087. At least we can vote.
    1
  1088.  @timschulz9563  And yet shot people who tried to leave for West Germany.
    1
  1089.  @ameliasalgado3035  Britain for the British. No more VAT!
    1
  1090.  @DerLamer  I see. The German military is pathetic for a country of an economy of that size. Perhaps the invasion of Ukraine will finally wake them up from having their heads buried in the sand.
    1
  1091. CIWS is too short-ranged to hit something flying that fast. By the time it enters it's envelope, it's too late.
    1
  1092. Inflation, de-industrialization, open borders, and globalization.
    1
  1093.  @robertwilson214  Okay Robertivich from Idaho Oblast. Ukraine has roughly 200,000 active service troops. Russia had about 150,000 when they started the conflict. Add another 20-40k for separatist troops (they're scraping the barrel). Ukraine cannot deploy all of their "troops" because they lack the supplies to sustain those numbers. Thus, Russia isn't facing over a million Ukrainian troops (active plus reserve). Russia likewise won't deploy all of it's possible troops (they're not fighting a war apparently lol), though just about every active unit has seen some sort of action in Ukraine, even units from the Far East. Precise troop numbers are hard to come by, due to the opaque nature of the Russian military, opsec, and the use of "auxiliary" troops, like Wagner, the Chechens, and the separatists. This is why the Russians are falling back to the liberal use of mass artillery, to make up for their shortages in manpower. It's why there have no longer been any "grand" offensive sweeps.
    1
  1094.  @dudenamedecho  Lowat? Ukraine doesn't have 800k soldiers. Are you counting reserve troops as well? Ukraine has about 200k active personnel (125k Army), while Russia has about 1 mil active personnel (280k Army). And personnel numbers are a rookie way to measure military strength (varies by metric, easily inflated, not all personnel are combat soldiers, etc.). Oh, and Sevrodonetsk took months to take, despite being on the opposite side of a river.
    1
  1095.  @robertwilson214  For a guy named "Robert Wilson", you seem to have a poor grasp of English comprehension. Kremlin must be desperate.
    1
  1096. Not really.
    1
  1097.  @Youtubeuser1aa  My body, my choice.
    1
  1098.  @Youtubeuser1aa  If Roe v. Wade is allowed to stand, I can also decide on if I want the vaccine.
    1
  1099.  @Youtubeuser1aa  Well, I mean, if you make me get the vaccine, we can also abolish Roe v. Wade, no?
    1
  1100.  @Youtubeuser1aa  Uh, yeah, it is. It's affects my body, so it's my choice on if I get the vaccine or not.
    1
  1101. Jimmy Carter is immortal. The dude has seen no reason to die, and is rumored to run off the black magic from the spirit of the State of Georgia itself.
    1
  1102. That was a far different war. The Syrian opposition was fractured by infighting and defections to ISIS. ISIS, being the main opponent, lacked sophisticated SAM systems and was mostly an infantry force relying on asymmetrical warfare.
    1
  1103. I think I speak for most people that they don't hate taking vaccines, or that they are "anti-vax". I just don't feel comfortable with having taking a shot of a vaccine whipped up in a year. How many "side-effects" have shown up?
    1
  1104. Indeed...
    1
  1105.  @StuffandThings_  Not trying to handwave away overpopulation. Egypt probably could actually decently feed its current population, and then some, with the right management and technology (desalination, proper infrastructure, using more efficient crops, etc.) but its corrupt and decadent elite actively kneecaps the country.
    1
  1106.  @fromthefire4176  One of the main reasons why the military is strictly under the control of elected civilian leadership in most stable countries. Also why the military is usually kept outside the economy. In Egypt, however, the military is given massive control over large sections of the economy (including ownership of massive state enterprises, is guaranteed to win bids, etc.) mostly to keep the generals loyal (and too busy enriching themselves to challenge Sisi or his predecessor Mubarak).
    1
  1107.  @lefroste6370  you are completely clueless
    1
  1108. That makes no sense. Why would Syria or Russia make it look like there is more damage than what they are saying?
    1
  1109. @Работаем, брат! Still haven't taken it.
    1
  1110.  @INSANESUICIDE  No, Ukraine gave up its nukes because it was broke. By 1996, its oligarchs had plundered the country, and were absolutely happy to hand over its nukes for basically nothing.
    1
  1111.  @jukubot2245  It's because the flu mutates and changes every season. A vaccine will give you immunity against one strain for a season or two, but is less effective against new strains.
    1
  1112.  @firipbhjkhdksjhdlfh2743  Not quite.
    1
  1113. I believe the Chinese intend for the anti-ship ballistic missiles to be the equivalent of the fleet-in-being doctrine of a century ago.
    1
  1114. Oh, quite the contrary! Syria, though irrelevant itself, is located in a strategic area. Between Iraq, Israel, and Turkey, all of whom are quite prickly! Russia wants a base in the region, one, for prestige, and two, to screw around with American interests in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
    1
  1115. Funny that Turkey and Greece joined an alliance together. Just shows how they were more terrified of the Soviet Union than each other.
    1
  1116. Russia isn't winning. Do people seriously buy that stuff? Russia has gotten bogged down in a brutal meat grinder than has decimated their troops and equipment. They had to retreat from Kiev, no less (and don't dare say that it was feint, because if that was, than it was the worse feint in military history). They still haven't taken Mauripol, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, or the Donetsk and Luhansk temporary capitols. Going off of visual losses (Not the bogus Russian MoD claims), Ukraine has GAINED more equipment from the war than they've lost, such as tanks.
    1
  1117.  @Trubripes  If the Russian leadership was smart, they'd trade their gains and the separatists for recognition of Crimea. Their separatist client states are basically on the verge of economic collapse, and have served as little more than cannon fodder in this war.
    1
  1118. Hopefully it crashes like in '08.
    1
  1119.  @themule6032  Hungarians are suspicious of Russia, for obvious reasons (1956 Hungarian Revolution, for example). Orban is a sort of populist conservative, similar to the Polish government, but for some reason is friendly to Russia, instead of being expectedly hostile to it.
    1
  1120.  @ЗаметкиизРоссии  No, the CIA did not oversee who got the weapons. Pakistan did, and more often than not, those weapons ended up in the hands of some less than savory people. The CIA didn't really care at the time, as long as they were being used to shoot down Soviet helicopters. However, after the Soviets pulled out, the CIA stopped sending spare parts and new weapons into the region. Of course, many Stingers were sold on the black market to Iran or China, but that was fine. If the US wasn't willing to lose it, they weren't going to have given it to the Afghans. Regardless, by 2001, any advanced weaponry from the '80s had been destroyed during the Civil War, or otherwise rendered unusable due to lack of maintenance and parts. The US didn't have any problems with Stingers because they'd all become useless by then. MANPADS are not like AK-47s, where you can leave in the closet and it'll be fine. They need constant maintenance, and parts are expensive. Even junky Strela-2s, basically useless by this point, require proper storage and care or they'll become inoperable.
    1
  1121. @Robert E Lee Yee Haw.
    1
  1122. @Robert E Lee Virginia? Man, that's a state with its fair share of controversy recently.
    1
  1123. Based and Carbon-pilled.
    1
  1124. Ironic, no?
    1
  1125.  @professionalschizo  I don't get why people can't accept that Russia is just a second-rate regional power with serious corruption problems. It's like everyone believes that Russia is something straight out of Call of Duty; able to dominate all of Europe at a whim, instead of being basically a big gas station.
    1
  1126. Fun is over wumao. Chinese century is wrapping up 76 years early.
    1
  1127. And Russian systems are a magical success?
    1
  1128. Well, one less group to destabilize a fractious nation.
    1
  1129. Ironically, it was Pakistan who funded the Taliban and much of the warlords of the 90s. Also, the Pakistani Army is rather useless. They can't seem to beat India, even when their forces were rather closely matched.
    1
  1130.  @scarl_awm9546  Nope, it was Pakistan. Everything the US sent to Afghanistan during that war, was via Pakistan, who often gave that aid to their proxies. The US didn't like the guys Pakistan was funding, who would go on to form the Taliban, but they didn't have a choice, since the aid had to be through Pakistan.
    1
  1131.  @scarl_awm9546  The US didn't care for Afghanistan. It's nothing, no resources, not really a strategic area past '91. You think the US is obsessed with the "country", but it isn't. The US didn't care for Afghanistan before 1979, and only saw it as interesting because it offered an opportunity to bog down the Soviets. As for the Taliban, it was Pakistan who funded them. The US preferred people like Massoud, who were more nationalist than religious, but since the aid had to go through Pakistan, the Pakistanis got the choice of who to pick. They picked the Pashtuns and religious fundamentals. Unlike Iraq, Afghanistan has little, and most of that was bombed out by the Soviets and never rebuilt.
    1
  1132.  @Kioki1-x8p  The CIA funded various rebel groups, but the Pakistanis decided who got the lion's share of the supplies and money. Idiot Pakistani.
    1
  1133. The design isn't even that modern. From the look of it, it's just a copied F-22, which has been around for almost two decades, but lacks an internal weapons bay, so it's stealth is greatly reduced.
    1
  1134. They are useful proxies. Keeps the dumb Arabs fighting among themselves for a bit. Scares Russia a bit too.
    1
  1135. Sleep is more valuable, honestly.
    1
  1136.  @tomb7088  Finally, someone with some damn brains. You get it!
    1
  1137. You just confused the House with Congress, which is both the House and Senate. Foreigners...
    1
  1138.  @dkelban  Fair enough. Remember to get plenty of rest friend.
    1
  1139. Yet somehow is was elected president by the PEOPLE of this country. He just doesn't represent YOUR views.
    1
  1140. No he wasn't. Russia is a backward, third-world country. It'd be like Belgium trying to influence the elections of China. The GDP difference is about the same. Russia, who suffered embarrassing losses against tiny Georgia during their war in 2008 (Several strike planes and a strategic bomber were shot down) and struggled to beat Chechnya. That same country can apparently carry Donald Trump to victory. No, he was legitimately elected by the people through the electoral college. But, apparently it's only democracy if your candidate wins. Besides, most of the mainstream media was against him.
    1
  1141. Two more weeks until Russia wins! People keep saying that, that Russia will magically turn this war around and win a stunning victory. But all I see is defeat for the Russians.
    1
  1142. People still think that the Russians put Trump in power? Lawd, people are really stupid! Russia is a third-world nation that can barely fund it's army, or pay for it's infrastructure, or solve it's massive corruption issues. A country that suffered humiliating losses against tiny Georgia in 2008 can somehow influence an American election? Well, I guess it's only democracy if the guy you wanted to win is elected. Or, woman.
    1
  1143. Trump was elected legitimately by the American people. He was not put into power by Russia, who has no influence over the US elections. That is like saying the government of Belgium put Xi Jinping into power. The GDP differences are roughly the same. And, he can put appoint Supreme Court justices because he has said power. They have to be approved by Congress though. Obama put his Justices into the Supreme Court.
    1
  1144.  @atomicturist  r/whooosh
    1
  1145. Because it is a scheme. Evergrande imploded three years ago and the economy is still trash, while the Party boasts about dumping more money into vaporware AI that has yet to make a profit.
    1
  1146. Finally, someone who gets it. China wants to replace the US in the global order, not burn it and everything down. As long as Taiwan isn't stationing US troops, declaring independence, or building nukes, China has nothing to worry about. It can kick the can down the road indefinitely. Better that than risk a war it might lose badly.
    1
  1147.  @entropyfan5714  St. Louis is about contrasts. The suburbs are completely fine, and even the downtown itself to a point. It's just certain parts in the north are an absolute free-for-all.
    1
  1148.  @bogdanbogdanoff5164  Quite the contrary. Netanyahu has used nationalist "Israel is surrounded by enemies" slogans quite often. A rocket strike from Syria would actually give him political strength and discredit moderates. It would show that a tough, hard-line leader like him must be in charge. Syrian or Iranian overtures to Israel would likely greatly weaken him, as it would show the other side is looking to make peace. However, it would be political suicide for any of the Arab nations to suggest an official peace with Israel. Egypt did it, and it resulted in Anwar Sadat's assassination.
    1
  1149. Ban all guns, and see what you have left to defend yourself against a guy who bought one off the black market.
    1
  1150. Yes they will. Of course, not like Syria has much oil, and Iraq is much friendlier to the US, but if they want to recover, they will sell to whoever is buying.
    1
  1151. Poverty is the natural state of humanity, which seems to have been forgotten. After the Second World War, many in the US became quite well-off due to the advent of new technology, a growing economy, and access to previously exclusive higher education. Of course, fifty years ago, there was no internet, no cell phones, Uber, or many of the things that are seen as "must-have" . Less things to spend income on, so the markings of wealth were nice homes, cars, and clothes.
    1
  1152.  @thefrontier2288  Jumper-cable Joe
    1
  1153. Pretty much. Saudi Arabia and Egypt too.
    1
  1154.  @ИгорьШаматрин  And yet Ukraine drifts further away from Russia by the day. Ukraine has been reaching out to West to supplement imports from Russia, an example being nuclear fuel. Unless Russia changes it's relationship methods with Ukraine (such as returning the Crimea and building a more friendly relationship with it), Ukraine will forever be hostile to Russia and Russia will never recover it's dwindling influence in Kiev.
    1
  1155.  @ChaosPod  International courts be damned. I doubt they would force the UK to take her.
    1
  1156. Genocide is apart of human history.
    1
  1157.  @briannat1086  Is the concept of abortion acceptable? Should you be able to terminate a growing human child?
    1
  1158.  @briannat1086  Humanity is a flawed, violent species. Every nation is built atop a foundation of bones. I don't condone genocide, but it is apart of our collective long past.
    1
  1159.  @eedragonr1576  Is the glass half empty, or half full?
    1
  1160. The Army has been traditionally favored because of Pakistan. Pakistan is still India's main rival and enemy. I also suspect that the Army is still quite politically powerful. However, India has long snow-balled past Pakistan now (Pakistan is diplomatically isolated with a stagnant economy).
    1
  1161.  @jameshowlett3758  I suspect it will be hard for the Army to understand that they are not as important (though still important). Pakistan's Army, while essentially dominating the Pakistani government, is not even close to being able to match the Indian Army. Regardless, both states being nuclear armed makes the point moot.
    1
  1162. Of course not. That's what most people don't get. Well... one day, these people will know true racism.
    1
  1163.  @kimobrien.  I agree, to an extent. Globalism has eroded the value of the American worker, by having them compete with low-cost Asian and African labor. The US economy has become increasingly a financial-dominated system, with the Wall Street stock markets being seen as an indicator of economic health, rather than employment, real-wage growth, or household debt.
    1
  1164. Because as long as these rich, white liberal brats living in a gated community have food to eat, they don't care about the rest of us. They only care about having the "moral high ground". They don't understand realpolitik: Our country, our people over everyone else. These "immigrants" won't assimilate into the US and make it stronger, like our ancestors did.
    1
  1165. @Jacob Brown How so? The Taliban have been fighting for years. They have moderated themselves in order to gain support from the populace. By contrast, Chechens only become more radical during the Russian invasion. Afghanistan is also in the middle of nowhere, and is huge.
    1
  1166. California is basically dominated by the Democratic political machine. It's a one party state, pretending it's not.
    1
  1167. Because they'd have to ship near worthless cars across China to countries that are flat broke. Also, Russia is also flat broke and can't even pay Chinese vendors reliably due to sanctions and currency conversion issues.
    1
  1168. Iraq will not be a regional power. It can't be. It is too chaotic. Saudi Arabia and Iran are much stronger. If Iraq wants to a regional power, several things must happen. The Kurds, Sunnis, and Shiites must put aside their differences and build a stable government. Corruption must be rooted out of government and the armed forces. The Army must become competent and gain control over the borders, isolated towns and villages, and keep the peace in the cities. The populace must also have a favorable view of the Army. Crime and domestic terrorism must be combated and stopped. Infrastructure must be rebuilt and improved. Religious extremism must be brought to heel. Improving the overall health and living standards of the populace will make this easier.
    1
  1169. Iraq was not a superpower under Saddam. Despite having the 4th largest army in 1991, it fared poorly against the United States and it's allies. Iraq under Saddam was a pure thug-ocracy. Iraq can kill as many terrorists, rebels, or impoverished, unemployed young men as it wants, but if it doesn't improve the average standard of living, it will be playing an endless game of wack-a-mole.
    1
  1170. Sadly, it's just the opening of an old gripe that goes back to the fall of the Ottomans. The rise of ISIS was the perfect opportunity for the Kurds to prove that they deserve independence. However, Iraq doesn't want a new state being carved from their territory.
    1
  1171. Basically. Investing and providing support to small black businesses (and small business in general) would provide a great boon to the US economy.
    1
  1172. Because Iraq is so corrupt, who knows were that money will end up.
    1
  1173.  @bogdanbogdanoff5164  Iran has it's own issues. It isn't homogeneous and united. There is the split between the Artesh (Iran's Armed Forces) and the IRGC. The civilian government and the military. The clerics and the military. Just because they aren't out in the open like America's doesn't mean Iran is perfect and totally unified. I bet there are factions in Iran that want war, and factions that don't. It is very opaque. What we do know is that Iran's economy is hurting. Trump is seriously pressing down on the sanctions, which is making it harder and thus more expensive for Iran to circumvent them.
    1
  1174.  @Dragzilla66  Fix your economy and corrupt political system, and Puerto Rico will become the 51st state.
    1
  1175.  @NorwegianNationalist1  Like staged Chechen "Tiktok Brigade" footage? Please.
    1
  1176. The French, and Europe as a whole, can't really project hard power into the Asia-Pacific region. Especially not against China. The French sub deal was never about military effectiveness (especially considering Australia mostly uses American equipment) but about keeping tensions low with China. Ballooning costs, delays, and questionable effectiveness meant that when the geopolitical situation changed (such as with the Chinese-Australian trade war), Canberra was more than happy to ditch the deal.
    1
  1177. Probably more to do with them freeing up equipment previously held by elite units. Until recently, the T-90 hasn't had much action, compared to the T-72 and T-80 series.
    1
  1178. Pfft. Communism works, humanity doesn't.
    1
  1179.  @MsClinicalpsychologist-MsLovey  Haiti is a blackhole of poverty and anarchy and would probably benefit from being occupied by the US. And half of Haiti's issues they brought upon themselves. They brutally occupied the Dominican Republic for over twenty years and stole its wealth.
    1
  1180.  @MsClinicalpsychologist-MsLovey  So what? South Korea got torched in the Korean War, and they're doing fine today. Japan was literally nuked, and they are one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Paraguay had most of its male population killed in the 1860s. People want to blame anyone else except for Haiti for Haiti's problems. The French, the Americans, the evil whites (who were all genocided in the revolution), or the Dominicans, who Haiti brutally occupied for over twenty years.
    1
  1181.  @user-xr4bo3ln6f  Yeah, just cede territory to avoid war. I thought World War II illustrated that that wasn't a smart idea.
    1
  1182. Russia is a rotting remnant of the Soviet Union, whose resources are being plundered by oligarchs and China.
    1
  1183.  @hzc8942  The Chinese have no experience with amphibious operations. Taiwan is also largely mountains, forested, or urban. This isn't the wide, clear areas of Iraq. Taiwan could hide its amour and artillery within forests, caves, or in civilian buildings. Unless China wants to flatten Taiwanese cities (which would draw in the Americans if they aren't in already), they would be hard pressed to hunt down ROC heavy weapons. As the wars in Yugoslavia proved (Modern warfare hasn't evolved all that much from then), it can be very hard to hit targets in wooded areas. If a PLA force landed, the Taiwanese could then pop out, blast the invaders, and run away. A hit-and-run tactics. The PLA would have air-support, but little else. Their helicopters would also be threatened by MANPADS and truck-mobile SAMs. Only an idiot would think Taiwan would surrender in a 100 hours, unless they gave up the hour war started (which I doubt). Although the PLA has evolved much from the days of the Civil War, it cannot take on Taiwan in a war if the Americans are in. American reinforcements and supplies would make an invasion impossible.
    1
  1184.  @hzc8942  It doesn't matter what the defense minister says. If the Chinese do attempt an invasion, Taiwan won't lie down and take it. They may not win the war, but they would bloody China enough to perhaps reconsider trying to conquer the island. It isn't a small island. If Taiwan is invaded, and if Chinese missiles start raining down, I'm quite sure the KMT and DDP would forget their differences and unite for a common purpose: Fighting off the communists. Taiwan isn't going to let their democracy get squelched out. The pro-CCP fifth column is a loud, but small, minority. They would likely lose a lot of legitimacy during the war (if not executed for treason). I'm confident the Americans would intervene. It isn't in their interests to let Taiwan fall (not when they pledged to defend it, with nuclear weapons), and let the PRC have a bridge to the wider pacific. If the Americans get involved, any hopes of the PLA taking the island are gone. The Americans would flood it with troops and advanced weaponry and aircraft. It would then become a base for bombing strikes into the mainland. China would then have to call it off, or risk igniting a third world war.
    1
  1185.  @hzc8942  That is a very arrogant outlook. What happens if the ROC decides to dig in and fight? It would look very bad if the PLA expects the ROC to roll over, and instead starts taking brutal loses. The People's Republic of China is rather prosperous without Taiwan? Why risk war with American for securing an island that despises the mainland? It could cost the PRC hundreds of thousands of lives to take it, then not including an insurgency. And what if the Americans join? Is it worth nuclear war? Since the ROC stills exists, it appears that the Party has decided it's not worth it. The status quo is quite favorable for both sides.
    1
  1186.  @hzc8942  Do not buy into that propaganda. Many have expected to be greeted with flowers and then got the gift of bullets. While I'm sure there are many pro-China Taiwanese in the ROC, the vast majority despise the government of China; the authoritarian Communist Party. They aren't going to lose their independence and rights just to be "apart" of China. Nationalism is strong, but not strong enough to counter the bad reputation of the CCP.
    1
  1187. But muh Chernobyl
    1
  1188.  @garethgriffiths9775  Wales doesn't exist.
    1
  1189. It'd be too risky for Venezuela. While Columbia's army is pathetically weak and outdated compared to Venezuela's, the Americans would be all to happy to step in.
    1
  1190. Columbia's military is less than half the size of Venezuela's military. They also lack modern equipment like tanks and aircraft. Though, geography would help them. Though would need the Americans.
    1
  1191. Kind of like what your dictator does.
    1
  1192.  @umutkaplan6821  Not Constantinople
    1
  1193. Exactly. The Arabs tried fighting for it, and they lost.
    1
  1194. You seriously believe that? Is that what RT is saying now? If that was what Russia intended, they're fools. Ukrainian units aren't being "pinned", they're defending fortress cities. Russia is a maneuver-warfare army (they're failing at even that). Their doctrine isn't built to engage in urban warfare. That is how Sumy, Mauripol, and Chernihiv haven't fallen after over a MONTH of fighting. Ukraine's situation favors attrition, since THEY aren't under sanctions, and armor isn't their strongpoint. They're biggest strength is the fact that they can obtain advanced Western anti-tank missiles and MANPANDS, while Russia has to rely on its rapidly diminishing stockpiles, and whatever their defense industry can cobble together (which is very little). The longer the war drags on, the weaker Russia gets. Their capabilities are degraded, their equipment is lost or captured, their precision weapons run out. Meanwhile, Ukraine further mobilizes, gets more man-portable weaponry, captures more Russian equipment.
    1
  1195.  @alexhendrixe6355  Minimal collateral damage? They've leveled Mauripol. The city looks like Grozny in '95.
    1
  1196.  @alexhendrixe6355  The Russians are blasting the crap out of Mauripol. They're using MRLSs and heavy artillery. On civilian targets, no less. They leveled a theater with 2000 people in it, killing around 300. THAT is colleterial damage, from a sloppy and crude army.
    1
  1197.  @alexhendrixe6355  So what you're saying is that the Ukrainians hit their own theater full of their own people? Way inside their lines? Please.
    1
  1198. People seem to forget that Israel has nukes and would very likely use them if it believed Iran was about to field them. Even if Iran could actually build and test a nuke, it wouldn't be immediately useful because it'd be too large to fit onto a reliable delivery platform.
    1
  1199.  @Kashimo_Glazer123  Doesn't work like that. Iran's first nuke would be too large to fit onto anything useful or survivable. They just simply don't have the miniaturization tech, which takes years to decades to develop. Building a nuke is actually the easy (relatively) part. Making it small enough to fit onto something useful (a missile) is the hard part. Iran's air force could carry an early device instead, but none of Iran's jets would survive to get close to Israel.
    1
  1200. Ugh... monarchy...
    1
  1201. It's election season and the political landscape is unstable enough, especially considering the US is on the verge of entering a recession.
    1
  1202.  @nomoi2098  Well, perhaps we become a trans-stellar species, fix our biological issues and imperfections, and become the most dominant force in the galaxy. Or we could sink into petty in-fighting, never venture from our planet, and eventually nuke each other.
    1
  1203.  @rixgamer5748  Rashidun collapsed long ago, my friend. Today, you either have the Wahhabist Saudi Arabia (who at this point pays lip service to Islam), or Shia Iran (which is just a corrupt kleptocracy whos only achievement is uniting Saudi Arabia and Israel).
    1
  1204.  @kurousagi8155  The ROK Army was largely useless in the war, as they were poorly led and poorly trained, and had garbage morale.
    1
  1205. That was a small skirmish war. The last full war was in '71.
    1
  1206.  @NarutoDora  It is not a full blown "war" because Pakistan and Indian did not declare war on each other. In all other respects it was a war, but because both of y'all had nukes, Pakistan did not declare war, or assist it's troops with air support.
    1
  1207.  @sinoroman  People say that, and have been saying that for over two months, but nothing has materialized. If Russia was actually going to win, they'd have won already. Every day that passes, every day that Russia can't get Ukraine to the negotiating table and get a peace treaty, is a day where Ukraine gets stronger and Russia gets weaker. People have this mythical view of Russia, that it is a great military power, a superpower who defeated the Nazis. Truth is, Russia is a decrepit, rotten, rusting remnant of a superstate that fell apart 30 years ago. Industries are plundered for their wealth by oligarchs, who then stash their money in Swiss banks. There is an epidemic of HIV/AIDS, infrastructure is crumbling, people are leaving for the West... Russia will lose, and Russia may not survive it. Perhaps that's a good thing, and maybe its people will take a hard look about the state of affairs that they put themselves in.
    1
  1208.  @soraparent1256  Venezuelan oil is pretty low quality actually. It's too heavy to be immediately useful.
    1
  1209. Heading? Already is there.
    1
  1210. The Central African Republic is a small, landlocked, impoverished nation that no one cares about. It doesn't have much, and to be honest, it isn't atypical of the usual in Africa. While in South America, while most are poor, none have failed as spectacularly as Venezuela.
    1
  1211. Realpolitik. The Arabs are weak and lost the Golan to Israeli might. Only a couple of countries matter in the grand scheme of things. The United States being the main one. No one cares about the opinion of Macedonia, or Botswana. The US is the one who really matters.
    1
  1212. Win how?
    1
  1213.  @BINK-ln6jx  Perhaps if Russia spent more money on their actual military instead of trying to convince people their military was good, maybe they'd perform better.
    1
  1214.  @MsCwebb  Spoken like someone who hasn't even watched the video.
    1
  1215. If the Palestinians want it so badly, they should fight for it. Oh wait, they tried it and failed and got stabbed in the back by their Arab "friends".
    1
  1216.  @navajoguy8102  Who cares? Is Saddam still in power? Does the Ba'ath regime still control Iraq? In a few weeks, Iraq was dismantled by a country on the other side of the globe. Russia hasn't even beaten it's neighbor after six months.
    1
  1217.  @samuelskinner7704  RT is the mouthpiece of the Russian government. How is it any different than the MSM in the US?
    1
  1218.  @samuelskinner7704  RT blatantly lies all the time. It's not a reliable source.
    1
  1219. Mankind will always kill each other in pointless wars. Why? Because humanity doesn't work.
    1
  1220. Russia itself is worried about China. They are no stranger to technology theft, as China has often stolen military technology when they could not buy it outright.
    1
  1221.  @happydaddy8118  They fired missiles at Mekkah and Riyadh. They were intercepted by Patriot ABM systems. The missiles I'm sure were not directly aimed at the inner city itself, but the outer edges.
    1
  1222.  @shyon1994  It was reported by Al-Arabiya, Al Jazeera, and various other regional sources. It wasn't faked.
    1
  1223.  @keenanmadams8316  China won't go anywhere. They're entire economy is a ponzi scheme. The world hates America, yet will gladly buy American food, cars, technology, and weapons. And when someone gets invaded by their rival, it is always the US that has to bail them out. Vietnam was bombed to bits in the Vietnam War, yet they are the most vocal for an American presence in Asia. Why? Because China invaded them. There is Taiwan, who loves America, and is afraid of being enslaved by the Communist Party. Your friend China is just a wolf dressed up like a sheep. Sri Lanka lost their port to a Chinese debt trap. But oh, America is the bad guy. Whatever. Just ignore Tienanmen Square. Or Tibet. Or Sinkiang. America is bad! You'll be begging for us when the Chinese enslave you. You'll demand that our troops come and liberate your land that you whored to the Chinese. Not anymore. We'll deal with the Chinese on our terms. Because despite what you may think, America is still strong, and will be strong. Iran wails under the sanctions. Iranians suffer because their clerics are too arrogant to deal with Trump. They are so desperate they'll whore themselves to China. They'll sign 99-year leases to China. And when they're too broke to pay, they'll demand we kick the Chinese out. But we won't help you. We'll laugh at you ungrateful primitives. We'll reform as we always do, and go to space. You can live in your mud hut, and get genocided by the Han. The Chinese are smart. They know strength. They'll thank us too, for being the perfect boogyman. Like Iran was for Saudi Arabia and Israel, we're the boogyman for Iran, so they'll run and cry to China, and sign over whatever they want, so that the clerics can live in luxury.
    1
  1224.  @bigjase3  Iran has wanted to spread it's version of radical Shiaism across the Middle East.They called for the destruction of Saudi Arabia and Israel, forcing the two into an alliance. Funnily enough, America didn't care about Khomeini until the hostage crisis. Iran brought it's issues onto itself.
    1
  1225. For Russia, it is cheaper to pay bots to proclaim that Russia stronk rather than invest in a decent, modern military and try to clean out dedosvhina.
    1
  1226. Atlanta is already struggling with a rapidly increasing population. Many people are moving in from the Midwest and California. Low taxes and cheap real estate. Californians also for some reason can't drive well.
    1
  1227.  @Gsoda35  China is still the world's second largest economy. Even with decoupling, there is still many industries (like Australia's mining sector) that trade extensively with China.
    1
  1228.  @speedyv6247  Sanctions make it harder to procure foreign parts efficiently, and not just electronics for the tank itself. The machine tooling, for example, is often imported. Chinese companies have proven reluctant to deal directly with Russian companies, due to fears about being subject to sanctions themselves (the Western electronics market is FAR more important than the Russian market). This means Russia has to go through third-parties or shell companies which is expensive and inefficient. It doesn't help that Russia's industrial sector has languished post-Soviet collapse. This makes reverse-engineering difficult. The result is that while Russia CAN still produce the T-90M, production rates are very low. There are also other products which need advanced electronics, such as cruise missiles, aircraft, and Russia's nuclear arsenal.
    1
  1229. Venezuela's crisis has stemmed from the mismanagement of the Maduro regime. Just because he is anti-American is no excuse for the starvation and collapse of a country.
    1
  1230. Cope and seethe. Imagine claiming yourself the world's second most powerful military and not being able to defeat what many considered the armpit of Europe, a country a decade ago known only for cheap prostitutes and Stalker.
    1
  1231. Basically the wild west of finance. Very little regulation. Also, people treat it like a casino.
    1
  1232. I'm so glad Herbert Hoover maintained financial discipline. FYI, the US is still China's largest customer. America does poorly, China feels it.
    1
  1233. It's the Awakening of American nationalism. How do you think a guy like Donald Trump came into office? He promised to stop the massive illegal immigration. The rise of the extremist left has woken the right.
    1
  1234. And what about half the country in revolt, not just a few hicks in the boonies of Alabama? When part of the government itself is revolting. People don't tend to like becoming a minority in a country in which they once held sway over. Race didn't matter as much since the 60s as it does now. You can blame race-bating Obama for that. If it happens, it won't be fun, for either side.
    1
  1235. They won't. At the end of the day, this is the United States of America, founded not on race, but on ideals. Whoever is the majority doesn't matter. We have our own citizens to take care of before we can worry about illegal immigrants. Mexico can take care of them.
    1
  1236.  @kyagizer  Turkey is apart of the West. Welcome to NATO.
    1
  1237. Nothing Iran builds works "as advertised".
    1
  1238. But America isn't. One, because we aren't, and two, because no one would dare.
    1
  1239.  @buddy6437  Mugging is generally relatively rare outside of the sketchy areas. Police are generally decent (you don't have to pay them a bribe). Of course, like you said, some people pack heat.
    1
  1240. Fair fights are for idiots.
    1
  1241. Who "protects" Maduro: Russia, who is quite far away and quite overrated as a world power. If the US attacks, the Russians will conveniently dump them. Then their are the Chinese, who although strong militarily and economically, cannot project their power past Asia, so won't be able to do anything. All of Latin America, except for useless Bolivia, despises Maduro. His people are fleeing the country en mass. Jeez, as long as the guy hates America (I wonder why), third world idiots will support him. Whatever, it just makes it easier to get the oil of the country.
    1
  1242.  @deeannacoy3361  Federal court judges which are appointed by the President and approved by Congress. The Consitution is supreme and cannot be violated, and is protected by the US Armed Forces, and in total by the People of the United States, which can bear arms under the Second Amendment. Ignorant foreigner. Just because your "constitution" is weak and your people toothless doesn't mean the US is the same. If you are an actual American, you are just a blind shill spouting Democrat propaganda and haven't bothered to look at the structure of the US Government.
    1
  1243. There aren't enough people willing to throw $90k+ away on an EV from a company who may not even exist in five years. Those who are, already did.
    1
  1244.  @mikeshafer  Yeah, all automakers are suffering. Even the bigger ones. Sucks that you bought a car from a soon-to-be defunct automaker, but hey, you can throw a tarp over it and keep it in your garage as a collector's item.
    1
  1245. Well, who would you choose? A country like the US that is bound by public opinion and democracy, or a country like China that cares for neither?
    1
  1246.  @worldspam5682  Mate, I'm joking.
    1
  1247.  @AdityaSingh-fy5vv  India also has not had a large scale conventional war for awhile, and exercises are far different than war. Although, I will concede that the Indians do train far more than their Russian counterparts.
    1
  1248.  @ardmrad9278  Well, apparently Ukrainians are better than Syrians. Or, perhaps the proliferation of phones and internet means that the weaknesses of Russian equipment are on full view to the world.
    1
  1249.  @robertrider1251  Take your meds.
    1
  1250. It's tradition.
    1
  1251. Conquered land, peasant. Mexico was weak, and America was strong.
    1
  1252. It's war. People die in war.
    1
  1253. In my humble opinion, the general population decline was good. Automation would have synchronized well with it. We could have had a smaller, but highly trained and skilled population that would manage machines. I don't believe we would need UBI, but a nice blend of capitalism and socialism would keep the US strong into the next century. Instead, we have open borders and massive corporate backing of the Democrats. You cannot have a welfare state with open borders.
    1
  1254.  @startingbark0356  And?
    1
  1255.  @waltertodd4479  More like to prop up the Party elites and ensure the military remains mostly loyal.
    1
  1256. Yeah... someone who stumbled their way through high school shouldn't go to a private liberal arts college for a communications degree after a 100k of debt.
    1
  1257.  @randomnobody8770  If you threw that dude in the 1850s, he'd be complaining about the dirty unwashed Irish turning America into a vassal of the Pope. America has no titular ethnicity. The US absorbed tens of millions of Mexicans over the past 30ish years, and all it did was become a section of the political divide. The UK sees a few hundred thousand migrants from South Asia and it fuels riots.
    1
  1258.  @travisscavoni369  The most concerning thing is not a actual detonation, but spilling of radioactive contents.
    1
  1259. I disagree on his perception of it, but he was ultimately ahead of his time.
    1
  1260.  @M8143K  Russia is not stupid. They do have an excellent R&D base, and a strong military-industrial complex. However, their low relative GDP and high corruption means that advanced military equipment, like the Su-35, Su-57, and T-14 tank, are produced in very low numbers and are geared towards export. While the US jealously guards its military secrets and has not exported the F-22 (and stopped exporting F-35s to Turkey for fear of compromising its stealth), Russia actively seeks out buyers for its most advanced military equipment. However, even China, which has been a longtime buyer (perhaps thief) of Russian weaponry, has been investing in domestic production.
    1
  1261. Terrorists don't count.
    1
  1262. Iran blusters with its rhetoric, but given it is an open secret that Israel has nukes, they won't do anything.
    1
  1263. The Iranians are a useful tool to keep the Israelis and Saudis in line, and prevent them from killing each other. Iran is a far more useful as a boogeyman to the Gulf states than what it might be without sanctions.
    1
  1264.  @juzores1  But Russia also lost the Crimean War of 1851, when an Anglo-French coalition occupied Crimea, the Russo-Japanese War, and World War I, where German troops swept through Poland, Ukraine, and the Baltics. In each case, the will of the Russian people gave out.
    1
  1265.  @juzores1  A strong commercial industry supports a defense industry. The US during the Second World War had a strong commercial industry that was rapidly retooled for military production. Russia's defense sector was primarily geared towards export, and the maintenance of legacy Soviet systems. They used oil and gas sales to finance imports for the West and China, instead of having in-house production.
    1
  1266. That 135k handbag would probably be enough to buy my house.
    1
  1267. The sanctions only affect the Maudro regime, not the country's actual economic systems. The problem stems from the mismanagement of the economy, the collapse of PDVSA, and endemic corruption. Iran has been under sanctions for decades, yet is doing rather fine, while having much less oil than Venezuela. Sanctions don't cause a country to implode like this.
    1
  1268. Nothing will happen pretty much.
    1
  1269. And extremely corrupt.
    1
  1270. Ukraine does have a domestic arms industry, but their tank manufacturing capability isn't particularly impressive. It is also located in Kharkiv, which is a bit under siege right now.
    1
  1271.  @svevladteodosic1854  Not everyone gets their own state.
    1
  1272.  @UVGardener  Mongolia is independent and doing just fine without the Communist Party oppressing their people.
    1
  1273. China already has a top-attack ATGM, the HJ-12.
    1
  1274. By contrast, time is working against the Chinese. The Chinese are reaching their peak before a combination of bad demographics, bursting real estate bubble, corruption, and increasing cost of labor combine to lead to their "Lost Decade".
    1
  1275.  @cianakril  By 2014, most of the Ukrainian Navy was little more than scrap metal. They only have one or two old missile boats, and an old Soviet coast guard frigate.
    1
  1276. Rocket Man conning the South once again. Few people realize that Lil' Kim needs a tense state on the peninsula to hold onto power.
    1
  1277. Yee haw!
    1
  1278. Along with the soldiers that manned them, it will take years to reconstitute that force. No wonder we haven't heard much from the VDV since the first week of the war. They were pulverized.
    1
  1279. @@minecraft.9893 Lmao, Kosovo is still independent.
    1
  1280. The man who killed democracy in Russia.
    1
  1281. Last official war.
    1
  1282. Who the hell knows?
    1
  1283.  @AureliusLaurentius1099  At least they're more grateful.
    1
  1284.  @theedmaster7748  Everyone wants to be Imperialist, just not on the receiving end.
    1
  1285. Only Russians seethe about the petrodollar. Russia no longer deserves to have a sphere of interest.
    1
  1286. ​ @nich7622  Apparently the Ukrainians have decided that the West and NATO offers them a better deal than Russia's corrupt oligarchy.
    1
  1287.  Ricardo Santos  It would help if Russia didn't sell China their best equipment for some cash.
    1
  1288. Rules are boring. Besides, China doesn't play by 'em.
    1
  1289. Ah shut up, the people hate him.
    1
  1290.  @1.Новости  Those weapons which are almost never massed produced. The T-14 has only had a dozen or so examples produced, same for the Ka-52M. The Zicron and S-500 are still prototypes. The Tor is decent, but NATO is aware of their specs, due to cooperating with Ukraine. The Kalibr, or Club, missile is of niche use to Russia, as their main focus is on their ground forces, not their navy. And that 895% number is complete BS.
    1
  1291.  @1.Новости  Meanwhile the US has produced 2400 AH-64 Apache helicopters, and operates nearly a thousand of them (not counting USMC attack helicopters). And judging from Russia's past experience with developing advanced weaponry, they'll produce only a few dozen to around a hundred units of Zikron and S-500, before they run out of money and say that their existing weaponry is "good enough", like with the Su-57 or Su-35. And it doesn't matter how good the T-14 is if there is only about ~20 of them. China has how many Type 99s and Type 96s? Enough to steamroll any T-14s, assuming half of them don't breakdown due to mechanical issues. Russia can make advanced weaponry, yes. But, their economy is too small to make meaningful numbers of them. The bulk of Russian ground forces are still equipped with aging Soviet-era weaponry.
    1
  1292.  @andrewhomo2461  They have been saying that hundreds of T-14 tanks would be produced in the "next few years" ever since they were showcased back in 2015. Six years on, and they haven't produced more than a few dozen. The Su-57 is in an even worse spot, as it is quite apparent that Russia simply lacks the money to mass-produce fifth generation fighter jets. Especially after India dissolved their partnership after concerns over it's effectiveness. At this point, the Dutch operate more fifth-generation fighters than the Russians.
    1
  1293.  @1.Новости  So what if the US is behind on the "hypersonic missile race"? They can easily catch up by simply investing more into it (as they are doing). Also, conventional ICBMs still work, which the US still has quite a few of. And the US is NOT like the USSR. The Americans won't implode Soviet-style because they aren't a Soviet-style country, (as rebranded Slavic empire), rather a homogenous country with a shared history and culture, not several different nations who hate each other glued together by force (Armenia and Azerbaijan).
    1
  1294.  @mxn1948  A guerilla war is quite winnable. It just depends on how far you want to go. The US has defeated guerillas before, but the methods required would be...distasteful... for today.
    1
  1295.  @asdfghjkl-q2v5o  You got B O N K to save the Kim family. Hundreds of thousands of troops for that? Ouch.
    1
  1296. Singapore will glaze China for as long as it's profitable. China pretends to be the next world power with vaporware like EVs and AI while struggling with mass unemployment and a crumbling property sector.
    1
  1297. And people say that America doesn't have one.... Yeah, Canada doesn't really have an overarching national identity. The US, for all its regional and cultural differences, does have a large and strong national identity forged since the Revolution.
    1
  1298. Just punishment for China's support of Russia.
    1
  1299. The thing is with the US is that cities are very spread out and not very dense, people-wise. Public transportation, such as light rail and buses are pretty hard to be even close to financially viable, given the small amount of people per square mile/km. Also, what public transportation we do have is generally seen as crime-ridden, a perception that has carried over from the crack epidemic of the '80s and '90s.
    1
  1300.  @TuanNguyen-uq8gz  Huge, yes, but very, very spread out. The Tokyo Metro Area, with a population of roughly 38 million, has an area of 14,000 sq km. That population size is comparable to the ENTIRE state of California, the most populous state of the US. California has an area of about 403,000 sq km. Given the fact that many people commute from small towns (with a low cost of living) that are too small to host public transit, you see the issue here. Most of America is just not that dense. Many people live in distant suburbs, or in rural towns out in the "boonies". Public transit, in the US, is just too expensive to benefit too few.
    1
  1301. lol, you'd say Russia is winning even if Ukrainian tanks (formerly Russian tanks) are rolling through Red Square. Actually, no you won't, because that'd mean Russia would be bankrupt and couldn't pay you to post trash anymore.
    1
  1302. The US didn't just have its real estate sector implode.
    1
  1303. Nah, the South quite like us. We prevented them from being swallowed by the North.
    1
  1304.  sakata gintoki  Unlikely. China has debt problems too. It has a massive real estate bubble, a massive, bloated, and very corrupt bureaucracy, and quality controls in the country are essentially non-existent. People like to go on about how China will replace the West, but it won't.
    1
  1305.  @mikebobson2768  Basically. NYC has been a one-party city for decades at this point.
    1
  1306. The US will do what it pleases because it is strong, unlike these pathetic Arab dictatorships. Who gives you all your weapons? Uncle Sam. Who gives you aid and money in return for oil? Uncle Sam.
    1
  1307. Probably one of their major reasons for developing the Belt-And-Road Initiative. China still lacks a navy that can truly challenge the American Navy, while most of their trade is funneled through a single choke point. Still, land routes can't beat sea-routes in efficiency.
    1
  1308. Mao actually let him leave.
    1
  1309.  @minzhang9348  No, it wouldn't have. Mao was just tired of having to deal with him.
    1
  1310. That is California for you. Jefferson Davis could be on the ballot, and as long as he has a (D) next to his name, he would win.
    1
  1311.  @escutus  What do you mean? There were Democrats on the ballot.
    1
  1312. Like Iraq, which had the fourth largest army in the world? Or, how about the Russian invasion of Georgia?
    1
  1313. We may soon miss the days of Trump...
    1
  1314. Probably because they were broke.
    1
  1315.  @petepetersen5418  The lesson goes to show that you must be careful of where you are flying.
    1
  1316. Time for this dictator to retire.
    1
  1317.  @omikredarhcs8221  That's how you're supposed to do it. Take out a few grand in loans to help you get an actual marketable degree (engineering, medical,etc.) so you can pay it back quickly after you get a career started.
    1
  1318. Loans without interest? Basically, very few people will lend their money out, especially to countries with a shoddy credit rating such as Argentina. Which means Argentina would force to undergo austerity, or not be able to pay their workers.
    1
  1319.  @ibrahimbinngahfab4248  One, most nations are secular, or at least have separation between church and state. Argentina is one of these nations, thus religion does not apply in this context. Two, there is another word for what you're saying, and that is aid. Again, you'll be hard pressed to find willing donors for the amounts needed. Especially since many rich countries, like the US, are under pressure from their populaces to restrict foreign aid in light of recent economic hardships caused by the pandemic. In sum, no one is going to bail Argentina out of this mess. It was a crisis brought on not by the IMF, but by their own lack of fiscal discipline. You take loans as an investment, which for a country is public infrastructure or projects that will spur economic development, of such that you'll be able to repay that loan. People or nations lend money to gain money themselves. They expend capital into projects with the expectation that they will receive their money back, plus interest (which is a fee for their trust). Like it or not, it is simply how the world works.
    1
  1320. But he is a nationalist! A nationalist resisting the evil imperialist America! It doesn't matter if his country is starving because of his foolish socialist policies, it doesn't matter if his country is so corrupt, the police are more likely to rob you than help you, it doesn't matter if the military has to keep off the streets at nights because they will be murdered for their weapons, because it's all the Americans fault! Them and their sanctions! Totally not his failed economic policies and the corrupt military backing him.
    1
  1321. Attack helicopters, especially those capable of firing stand-off weapons, are still very much viable. The Apache has the Hellfire, which is one of the major reasons countries field it. The Tiger lacked a comparable weapon, unless the Hellfire was integrated with it (which the Germans did not do).
    1
  1322.  @andrasbiro3007  Ahhh, you get the point.
    1
  1323.  @machax002  Go into the videos section, and look at the view count. Something on the Indian-Pakistani crisis has about a few dozen thousand views. Other videos have barely a few thousand.
    1
  1324. Palestine got the crap kicked out of it, so no, it can't have any claim to any sort of authority.
    1
  1325. Chiang was able to do better on Taiwan, but he suffered on the Mainland because a lot of the populace had become seduced by Mao's promises of land reform and better governance. The Nationalists had also become worn-down by heavy fighting with the Japanese, while Mao had consolidated his position with the peasants. Chiang's tactics were also pretty shitty as he sent large formations into the mountains to destroy the communists. Mao simply retreated and cut off the KMT and destroyed them. When the time was right, he attacked en mass and routed the KMT. When Chiang got to Taiwan, the water meant that he could consolidate he position and use the poor naval capabilities of the PLA to his advantage. The battle of Kinmen is evident of this.
    1
  1326. I'm not sure Lukashenko wanted this. I'm sure he was content to just sit this one out, but with Russian troops in his country, he has little choice. If Russia seriously loses the war, to the point where Russia as a viable entity is in doubt, Lukashenko would likely not survive. I'm sure Belarussian troops would perform even worse than Russian troops, given their worse equipment and likely even worse morale. Belarus doesn't have all that oil to bankroll a super modern army, and unlike Ukraine, largely lacks a domestic arms industry.
    1
  1327.  @tylerw6438  Autocrats are willing to risk anything and everything to stay in power (usually, staying in power means staying alive).
    1
  1328.  @vinm300  No, your comment was worded correctly. This is a massive problem with Hispanics. Hispanics love to blame the US for the mess they are in, but the US was not the juggernaut in the region it is now until about the 1890s. The issue lies in that the US has had not a single coup, and only one civil war. Most South American nations were republics at birth, but were rapidly overthrown by military dictators. The only other country that can compare to the US in South America is Argentina, but again due to dictatorships stemming from what you stated above, it never became much.
    1
  1329.  @vinm300  You are correct. I think a lot of the mentality is that the British governed their colonies loosely. British America offered very little gold, so the Crown let the colonies govern themselves. There were also relativity few natives to exploit. New Spain, or Mexico, on the other hand, had a lot, and I mean a lot, of gold. There were also very large populations of natives, even after many died of smallpox. Spain made a lot of revenue from gold, so they held a tight fist on the colony. When the British tried something sorta similar in North America, the Americans revolted. In Spanish America, a lot of the caste system survived the downfall of the Spanish Empire, and even remains to this day. Hence, we see the weak Latin American democracies.
    1
  1330. Nearly everyone familiar in the subject has heard of Chinese engine problems. Its one of their major setbacks in creating their carrier force. The WS-10, a garbage copy of the Russian Saturn engine, is underpowered and suffers from poor reliability. Which isn't good when you're flying the second heaviest carrier-based fighter aircraft from very short runways.
    1
  1331. It is apart of our history, be it good or bad. We just got to take it at face value, accept it, and move on. Slavery is gone, as is the Confederacy, as is segregation, as is the Klan (except a bunch of wannabe bikers or back woods hillbillies). Anyone who dismantles a statue is as bad as someone who wants to erect another one. We got enough. Let's focus on how we're all American. White, black, yellow, or purple.
    1
  1332.  @Vanalovan  I'm not disagreeing with you. It's pretty dumb to romantic the Confederacy. I'm simply saying we all need to look at it with an unclouded eye. But, especially considering modern politics, that's impossible.
    1
  1333. You place way too much credit on Russian weaponry. Yes, Russia could have the technology to develop said weapons, but not the cash to build and use them. Russia isn't the economic powerhouse it was in the Soviet days, and is under the crushing economic sanctions from 2014. The T-14, for example, looks like a good tank. I bet it is on level with the Leopard 2 or M1A2 Abrams, if the stats of the tank can be trusted. However, the price tag means that they aren't even in mass production yet. The Su-57 as well, is probably way too expensive to see mass production. And if it is, it's probably not that effective.
    1
  1334. That isn't how the real world works, sadly. People want something out of their efforts. Patriotism will work for a short while for some people, but after time, it ebbs and they want something to feed their families. Also, the advanced T-14 and Su-57 do need some materials imported. Russia is a big country, but they do need to import some things. And again, with people being conscripted into the military, there needs to be people working the fields, in the factories, and performing basic functions like policing and health care. Total war works in the short term, but after an extended period, debt, inflation, and corruption skyrocket. A united EU would be able to tolerate this more than Russia due to their greater population.
    1
  1335. ​ @grantchallinor5263  Russia has the raw materials, while the West has the manufacturing capacity and technology to create the parts.
    1
  1336.  @er.aditya3935  Go hug a tree then.
    1
  1337. They try it, and North Korea will fail. Stupidly.
    1
  1338. It's happening regardless.
    1
  1339. The ANA have pretty much ceased to be an effective force.
    1
  1340.  @geeee8933  Indeed. Also to note that sometimes the government might not step in to save a "too big to fail" enterprise. In 1998, despite Daewoo Group being one of the most powerful conglomerates in South Korea, the government let it fall. Lehman Brothers failed in '08. Empires rise and fall over time. The big hedge funds look untouchable, but given enough time, they'll fail.
    1
  1341. Sorta. In the House of Representatives, each state has an allotted number of seats based on population. Missouri has 8, for example. North Dakota has 1. California has 55 I think. The Senate is different. Each state gets 2 seats, regardless of population. Vermont gets 2, Texas gets 2, and Georgia gets 2.
    1
  1342.  @emilycanfield2634  Well, yes and no. You see, the President is elected separately of Congress. Thus, Congress could be Democrat, and the Presidency Republican, vise versa, or any combination of the House, Senate, or Presidency being of different parties. This is made more complicated by the fact that House members serve two year terms, Senators serve six year terms, and the President four. Some elections are also held at different years. Currently, the House (our lower house of Congress, the legislature), is led by the Democrats. The Upper House is led by the Republicans, as is (obviously) the Presidency. Sometimes all three are of a party. Sometimes just the Presidency is of one party, and both Houses are of the opposite party. This leads to A LOT of political bickering. Voting is done largely along party lines, but not always. Some issues have bi-partisan support, or individuals (Republican representatives from liberal areas, or Democrats from conservative areas) cross party lines. Hopefully this clears things up!
    1
  1343. What's wrong with that? Many Arab governments do the same.
    1
  1344.  @xbox1286  But what spurred the USSR to try such reforms? If everything was going peachy keen, then such reforms would have been unnecessary. The USSR of the late 1980s was stagnating, and falling further behind the West in economic output. It was a miserable place to live, with shortages and breadlines.
    1
  1345.  @xbox1286  Ah, Khrushchev's reforms. Yeah, those were pretty botched. His political support had depended on them being successful, but when they failed, he lost power. Also created an environmental disaster in Central Asia too.
    1
  1346.  @howenator  Soo, the USSR's collapse was caused by a failure in the model of its governance, principally a party dominated government that was beset by factional infighting that had more to do with politics and ideology disputes than the actual running of the country. Still, it is a bit strange that when the USSR withdrew it's troops from the Eastern Bloc, they immediately overthrew their communist governments. Or how there had to be a concrete wall surrounding Berlin, with armed guards that shot anyone trying to cross the wall. Or how the USSR brutally put down the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, and crushed the reformist government in Czechoslovakia in 1968.
    1
  1347.  Mad Man  Who cares what the world thinks?
    1
  1348. Superficial reasoning. Sanctions DO bite. Why do you think Iran and North Korea, and now Russia, so badly want them removed? Sanctioned oil is "tainted" , and thus sells for less. There will always be people willing to deal with it, yes, but they'll demand lower prices (a handling fee, so to say). Also it gets shipped out in smaller quantities. Lower price, lower capacity. And Russia isn't the only nation producing oil or natural gas. It hurts. Badly.
    1
  1349. Not particularly. Low-cost airlines usually go for older planes (which are sometimes retrofitted). The big giants can afford to be somewhat picky.
    1
  1350. lol no.
    1
  1351.  @lpg766  Yawn.
    1
  1352.  @ZastropollyonZ  That would take years, decades. All the while they're cut off from lucrative American and European markets. They can still sell their oil to China, yes, but they'll have to compete with unsanctioned Middle Eastern or Nigerian oil, which is cheaper. Even if the Chinese government is still friendly to the Russians, Chinese companies will still be cautious about dealing with Russian industries, and, again, can demand lower prices from the Russians. Also given the fact that Russia has been hemorrhaging young and talented people to the West, Russia's economy is going to be crippled for a long time.
    1
  1353.  @flyingburningman4602  China imports plenty of agricultural items from the US, and raw materials from US allies like Australia and Canada.
    1
  1354.  @flyingburningman4602  Normal countries, like North (broke) Korea, Iran, Syria, Sudan (oh wait, they recognize Israel now lol), Venezuela, and Belarus. Russia is just a big gas station with even bigger delusions. While most of Europe openly ships weapons to Ukraine, China pays Russia lip service, and actually demands cheaper gas. Russians are so broken that even China's extortion is considered a great alliance.
    1
  1355. That's how it works kid.
    1
  1356. It will also set off a nuclear arms race. Not only authoritarian countries like Iran or North Korea, but also any country that has its very existence threatened, like Taiwan. If Taiwan thought that the US would "puss out" over a Chinese invasion, because China has nukes, then the only logical solution to ensure Taiwan's survival becomes producing nuclear weapons. Which very well might spook China into war, and if they are too slow, a war against a nuclear-armed Taiwan.
    1
  1357.  joe caterman  Who will pay for it?
    1
  1358. Treat anything with "since 2008" with a great deal of caution.
    1
  1359. Yeah, it was. Why so surprised? The Americans did it in '03.
    1
  1360.  Hoàng Nguyên  Remember that the US is the only country with enough strength to challenge China in the region. India lacks that.
    1
  1361.  Hoàng Nguyên  The Chinese have the capacity to burn all of Vietnam to the ground, which I'm sure they'll do if they want. Look at Tibet. Tibet has fought China for just as long, yet they were conquered. Vietnam will need allies, or it will be strangled, and it will die alone, and abandoned. Vietnam's success in the last war with America came because it was amply supplied by the USSR and China. Without weapons, insurgencies die. The Three "Nos" will hinder Vietnam, especially as the Chinese strengthen.
    1
  1362.  Hoàng Nguyên  Well, we don't need you. Taiwan would be better.
    1
  1363. At least we didn't lose an entire subcontinent to a bald Indian who wouldn't eat, or have a strategic bomber shot down by a tiny country.
    1
  1364.  @lonleybeer  And yet Pakistan has lot every single war they've fought with India. Anyway, I have no idea what you're talking about. The only thing that could be applicable is the first Anglo-Afghan war, but Afghanistan lost it when Britain invaded it again.
    1
  1365.  @networkgeekstuff9090  The Su-25 is a rugged aircraft, but is very primitive. Ruggedness is good and all until you want a pin-point strike with 1m CEP at night.
    1
  1366.  @networkgeekstuff9090  Pretty much. The F-35 might have cost a trillion dollars and a decade and a half to conjure up, but it can do just about everything you need. Meanwhile, the Su-25 is dirt cheap and won't break, but it can't do much of anything.
    1
  1367. Imagine the base state of humanity: Tribalism.
    1
  1368. The comment section of this will be worth a Binkov video in of itself.
    1
  1369.  @Ronniezim  Boeing isn't the only US defense player. Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Ratheon. McDonnel Douglas failed and was acquired by Boeing. Who is to say Boeing won't merge, or just shed some of it's more unprofitable areas?
    1
  1370.  @zacklewis342  Yeah, Boeing's problems are largely because the bean counters running it are moronic. You need to actually know what you're doing in order for line to actually go up.
    1
  1371. Israel has nukes, and could glass most of Iran if they needed to.
    1
  1372.  Tiny Whiny  Israel still has enough nukes to devastate whoever attacks them. Their military has also proven time again to be extremely capable of fighting while outnumbered. The Six Day War, and the Yom Kippur War, for example. Besides, half the Arabs hate the other half, so I doubt they'll do anything to Israel. In fact, the Saudis are allied to Israel. Under the table, at least.
    1
  1373.  Tiny Whiny  Saying Israel won the war with US help means that the Arabs had Soviet support, and still lost. Hmmm....
    1
  1374.  Tiny Whiny  No, it doesn't. If they did, they wouldn't have sanctions on them.
    1
  1375.  @mikebecket7458  It is an open secret that Israel has nuclear weapons.
    1
  1376.  Tiny Whiny  Only an idiot or a foreigner with no clue how the US government works would think Russia controls the United States.
    1
  1377. Yeah, but NATO doesn't need to send troops into Ukraine, just flood it with weapons.
    1
  1378.  @DK-gj5sp  Yes, China is growing because their government said so. Did you hear that gentlemen? There is no massive downturn in China because their government said there wasn't! That's a relief. I thought a worse housing bubble than the '07 US one going bust might have, you know, hurt the economy. But apparently, the Chinese government says they're fine, so they're fine. Lovely.
    1
  1379. Russia only recognized the US as it's equal. Russia looks down on Germany and France.
    1
  1380. Because America is rich compared to most of the world. Ever seen a Vietnamese rice field? A Nigerian farm?
    1
  1381. When the Space Race ended, so did the will to do something risky and bold. The US could probably put a man on the moon in a year or two if they wanted. But, its too pricey and risky. Sadly to say, politicians think short-term. It will take another space race in order to re-ignite the fires of exploration.
    1
  1382.  @kingshark4645  When you obtain a Master's in Physics and Astronomy, come talk to me.
    1
  1383. The same reason that the Kremlin refuses to implement a general mobilization. No one cares if some impoverished Dagestani or Buryat from the edges of the Federation dies.
    1
  1384. Unfortunately, Russians prefer to sell out their freedom to the their leader, be it a czar, Premier, or "President".
    1
  1385. Not to mention they tried building a plane (more like 3) that could do about everything.
    1
  1386. Obvious pro-China propaganda aside, the West dominates in aerospace technology. This is because it is a capital-intensive, research-intensive field that has a very high barrier to entry. There is a reason why the Chinese Airforce is still dependent on Russian engines for basically all of its aircraft (China's domestic engines still have tremendous teething issues). And Chinese development is still highly dependent on government support. What the government sees as a priority gets massive support, while other sectors are left to starve.
    1
  1387. Mmm... don't say that. If the Chinese started shooting down US satellites, it would invite their own satellites to be shot down, filling space with a bunch of debris.
    1
  1388. Russia wasn't going to do jack. Their navy was smashed in the Crimean War. The Confederacy wasn't worth enough for the British and French to invest in.
    1
  1389. @roguemale TheOne&Only Communism never admitted to failing.
    1
  1390.  @MaRaX93  And every military engineer I've talked to says that nothing is impossible to intercept, it just depends how much trouble you're willing to go to bring it down. Hypersonic missiles are very fast but lack maneuverability in the cruise phase. The current issue is that there isn't enough reaction time available.
    1
  1391.  @MaRaX93  You're basically saying that the Kinzhal missile will perform directly as advertised because Russia says so, and that anything I said relating to the fundamental physics behind why the missile is ineffective is moot because Russian engineers, being backed by the State, should have found a solution. In fact, you're just regurgitating its advertisement and stating that anything to poke holes in why the missile is basically a white elephant is a "Western cope". In sum, "Kinzhal will work because Russia said it will, and this random military blogs (that cite Russian specs) say that it will work". This is why no one takes Russia seriously anymore.
    1
  1392.  @JohnDoe-jp4em  The R-77 has maximum speed of Mach 4, and the R-73 is Mach 2.5. Not sure where you pulled Mach 6 from. Those speeds are still short of hypersonic, and far short of the advertised Mach 10+ for Kinzhal. And you are right about the evasion techniques. Glide vehicles are far harder to intercept than regular vehicles. Though, the Kinzhal is not a glide vehicle and has its own motor unlike the Avangard (and HGV).
    1
  1393.  @MaRaX93  And I have also heard from people more credible than this that the Khinzhal is simply an air-launched ballistic missile that is only really good for hitting stationary, strategic targets. Also, you're not really saying anything to repute my argument besides that I don't know what I'm saying because I don't have a degree in aerospace engineering (a bold assumption) and that I should trust Russian advertised specifications because the dudes who made it have an aerospace degree and I don't. And oh, if a headline in a defense blog article says that the US Naval Institute said that hypersonic weapons are a big problem, that means Russian weapons will perform like magic and automatically make the aircraft carrier obsolete. I mean, it's not like the US has ever overestimated a Russian weapon before, based on wildly false claims. I mean, it's pretty odd that the US and China are still building aircraft carriers (and that Russia is still suborning holding on to the floating rust bucket).
    1
  1394. He got rich off of loans from Argentine organized crime, which he had no intention of paying back.
    1
  1395. Ahh, all the idiots praising a brutal regime for having nuclear weapons to further enslave their starving people just because they hate the United States, even though they live in a first world country. Why? Because the United States is the great "boogey man"
    1
  1396. Probably not the really serious crimes. If you're an ex-soldier and you're only in for a year for theft, you're getting shipped to Kharkiv, whereas if you've committed double homicide, you're probably staying in there.
    1
  1397. Because it is inconsequential. The Russians and Americans have been doing this stuff for decades, and China just now did something that was accomplished many times.
    1
  1398.  @TheGloriousLobsterEmperor  And the alternative is... what? The Timorese take control of it.. well, their government does. And then, they do the exact same thing. Give generous mining rights to some foreign conglomerate and none of the wealth reaches the hands of the citizenry. Oil is not a golden ticket to success. Just look at Venezuela, or Indonesia (right next door) or Russia. Especially a country rife with corruption.
    1
  1399. That was 70+ years ago. No one cares. Russia is not the USSR.
    1
  1400.  @wunwong9251  Cool and all, but how does that help the average Chinese citizen, who is much poorer than their US counterparts? The USSR was more advanced than the US in some fields, but was still a far poorer country.
    1
  1401.  @wunwong9251  I guess that's why consumer spending is so trash in China. FYI, housing prices in the big Chinese cities were going for NYC-tier rates, while the average resident was making sub-Mississippi wages. But, you know, birth rates are falling just because. Also massive youth unemployment, which you seem to ignore (just like the CCP). The US has been seeing dramatically increased Chinese immigration, especially since 2021. I wonder why... Also, China's GDP is obviously inflated. Even Hu Jintao admitted as much. That's what you get for building an economy on a property bubble. Say, I hope you didn't invest in real estate...
    1
  1402.  @wunwong9251  lol wumao. Property prices are dropping even lower.
    1
  1403.  R 1900  We took Iraq by right of conquest. Our troops fought, bled, and died for it. Iraq will do what we ask, or we'll replace their current government.
    1
  1404.  @asimaaglawane8043  Iraq would be useless in any war with Iran. All the US needs are a staging area.
    1
  1405.  @12kenbutsuri  Because anything that doesn't parrot the RT line that Russia is overwhelmingly winning is Western propaganda.
    1
  1406. Few CEOs are actually rich and powerful enough to do "nothing" all day. Many take great financial risk starting up their businesses, and work long hours.
    1
  1407. Nah, everyone knows Rivian is circling the drain. Rivian is only as big as it is because it emerged in an era where credit was basically free, so big companies could afford to throw billions into a "potential unicorn". Those days are over now, and Rivian isn't going to make the cut. VW is only still interested because they want Rivian's software, and whatever technology they can scavenge from the scraps.
    1
  1408. Capitalism ideally works under the supply and demand model. Labor is apart of that model. More labor, more supply and therefore lower cost.
    1
  1409. Okay pinkie.
    1
  1410. It shows you how politically dysfunctional the US has become. A shame.
    1
  1411. Puerto Ricans do not pay federal income taxes
    1
  1412.  Remindness  There are no permanent friendships, only permanent interests. China and Russia have had border disputes going back centuries. They nearly went to war in the '60s. Siberia holds basically everything resource-wise that China needs. To think that China would keep a territorial-intact Russia is delusion.
    1
  1413. Based. The day China goes belly up will be a great day for the rest of the world.
    1
  1414. Russia's elite, and the rest of the population in general, have a sort of "bunker mentality" combined with the idea that their hardships have made them tougher and stronger. Combined with their disregard for life (which everyone else knows too) gives them the assumption that they can bluff their way out of problems. They do this under the assumption that the West, who value peace and the lives and wellbeing of their citizens, would rather just let Russia have what it wants instead of risking a war.
    1
  1415. Not really. Much of this info can be found on wikipedia or the various defense news sites.
    1
  1416.  @longyu9336  Russia can develop some seriously high-tech equipment (to try to get export orders), but lacks the money to produce more than a handful. T-14, Su-57, BMPT, Bumerang, T-15, and even the T-90M. All more or less absent from the battlefield in Ukraine (except for that one T-90M that was destroyed).
    1
  1417. Eh, we don't need 'em.
    1
  1418. Almost is the same as didn't.
    1
  1419. Doubtful. It is in the interest of the US for Ukraine to be powerful. It would counterbalance Russia, and France/Germany. A victorious Ukraine would be grateful to the US, and suspicious to Western Europe.
    1
  1420.  Steve Arthur  Russia hasn't even fully taken the Donbass after four months of war. Come back to me when they actually achieve something. Oh, and leveling towns doesn't count.
    1
  1421. Maybe Russia should, I don't know, try to make friends, instead of invading other countries or threating the use of nuclear weapons. Why would I want to be friends with a maniac?
    1
  1422.  @schuschnix5261  Whether Putin steps down or not is irrelevant as long as sanctions hobble Russia's ability to perform on the battlefield. No one cares about regime change, because authoritarian regimes are rather tenacious in the face of sanctions. Also, no one is going to buy repackaged Russian oil from India because it's inconvenient and more expensive than buying it from Saudi Arabia or Nigeria. As for refining, that can be bought already refined from the US (which has immense refining capacity), and natural gas doesn't need to be refined. Also, to answer the rest of your rather schizophrenic rant, no one will sanction the US because the US can actually do diplomacy and is far more powerful and globally relevant than Russia.
    1
  1423.  @juch3  I would say that taking Kiev was political opportunism. Russia did not anticipate heavy resistance, so hoped for a rapid collapse of the entire Ukrainian state structure, to be replaced by pro-Russian politicians. This is why the Donbass front was so quiet until April. If it was feint, Russia would have attacked there. However, they lacked the troops for that.
    1
  1424. @touraubord Leftism a solution? With all that corruption? Are you delusional?
    1
  1425. I doubt the new administration would care that much about infrastructure.
    1
  1426. The Soviet Union is a bad example for socialism, and should be seen as a what to avoid.
    1
  1427.  @howenator  Stalin was a thug who cared little for ideology beyond maintaining his own power. Lenin's "vanguard" model allowed an unassailable "party" to dominate the politics of the country, and whoever could dominate that party would achieve total control over the country. And the Soviet Union stopped being about workers when the Krondstadt uprising was put down with machine guns and bayonets.
    1
  1428.  @chrisg6091  Still, the fact that its empty is rather telling.
    1
  1429.  @christtheonlyhope4578  The threat of a nuclear counter-strike would prevent Russia or China from using nuclear weapons. They might threaten it to prevent a total defeat. However, in doing so they would recognize they have lost conventional superiority. At that point, a status quo would be the best they could get, or perhaps Russia would be forced to cede the Kuril Islands, or Sakhalin. Doing so would be much easier that risking a nuclear exchange with the US. If they were to use tactical nuclear weapons on a US battlegroup, the US would perhaps be encouraged to use their own weapons. The Tommahawk carried a nuclear warhead, and I suspect the US still has the warheads in reserve.
    1
  1430.  @christtheonlyhope4578  Of course. No one wants to go to war.
    1
  1431. Because if it sounds good, people will follow it even if it has failed so many times.
    1
  1432.  @johnmckenya828  The sad thing is that even though reading history for a bit will pretty much end any support for either Nazism or Communism, people are still dumb enough to buy into both.
    1
  1433.    Except for Kuwait, of course. The US, under Trump, has been trying to disengage from the region. The US no longer needs the oil, because of shale oil from the US itself. However, internal politics (coming from the Democratic party) and opposition from US allies like Germany make it difficult.
    1
  1434. Ayyy, chance to get outa school.
    1
  1435.  @calebr7199  The USSR was inflexible, and backwards. The CPSU had become a bloated behemoth, full of factional infighting and blind adherence to whatever was party doctrine. It's ironic that you mention computerization since the USSR lagged behind the West in computerization from the beginning, and only lagged more as time went on. They eventually had to resort to copying Western technology. The Politburo prioritized heavy industry and the military to the expense of all others. Especially prestige projects, like the space program. This is why while the USSR built a potent nuclear weapons program and could send a man into space, it could not manufacture a decent bra. The key objective should always be the improvement of the lives of the common folk, the working class, the backbone of a nation. I'd rather be a working class citizen in Norway, rather than the USSR. In the USSR, you could not strike. You could not express dissent. For a party that was supposedly concerned about the working proletariat, the CPSU was full of intellectuals and bureaucrats.
    1
  1436.  @omikredarhcs8221  Debt isn't bad if you think of it as an investment. I have a few grand in student loans, but I cover most of my costs with scholarships, and money I earned from working over the summers. I'm also studying engineering.
    1
  1437. No, the Soviet idea was to "meet quotas" and nothing else. It was the reason why there were breadlines and shortages, and why the Soviet Union could even produce a proper bra (and had to import them from Czechoslovakia).
    1
  1438.  @marcelthoma8890  East Germany was better off than a lot of the Eastern Bloc. Still behind the West, and especially West Germany, but ahead of places like Romania and even the USSR itself. However, a lot of the state budget was eaten up by heavy industry and especially the Volksarmee and Stasi.
    1
  1439.  @marcelthoma8890  That is fair, I think I overemphasized the traditional Communist focus on heavy industry. And yeah, the USSR plundered East Germany after the war. Also, combined with the fact that most German industry was in the Ruhr valley (soon to become West Germany), East Germany had a rough start. It's pretty amazing that they would come to lead the Eastern Bloc in living standards.
    1
  1440.  @ruggeddiscipline6026  Uh, yeah. The US Navy patrols the world's oceans. Why else does the US have 10 aircraft carriers, and about 70 destroyers? Not because the US is afraid of the rusty Russian navy, that's for sure. Who buys stuff in rubles? I'm not taking about Russian oil, but Russian vodka. Russian timber, nickel, and coal. It's done in dollars. No one buys anything in RMB (I doubt you even know what it is). International transactions are done in mostly dollars, and occasionally euros, all facilitated by the US keeping the oceans safe and free.
    1
  1441. A weak, defanged Russia is far more preferable. A free-for-all civil war would be catastrophic, not only for the nukes but the massive amounts of weapons up for grabs.
    1
  1442.  @masterhummus2114  Service it? They can't. But.... they will offer their cheap versions of it.
    1
  1443.  @hungrybadgerr  Nah. Everyone thinks that the end is upon them, but here we still are. The US went through the Depression and came out a superpower. As bad as things are in America, the rest of the world has it either equally as bad, or worse. China, for example, just had their real estate sector implode. Much of the household wealth of the average Chinese citizen straight up vanished. They have a youth unemployment rate of something like 20%. Underemployment is likely far worse. Local governments and many conglomerates are suffocating under a mountain of debt.
    1
  1444.  @donalny  But they weren't.
    1
  1445.  @donalny  But it wasn't. Most did not particularly want to. The South was taught its lesson, and the slaves were free. In their mind, that was all that was needed. Why extend the war longer?
    1
  1446.  @armorsmith43  Tyranny? The American colonies were governed rather lightly compared to Spanish colonies. Even towards the end of the colonial period, the grievances were over things common of that period, and generally over things that impacted few people. So, what is "tyranny"? When is a revolution just?
    1
  1447.  @abc68130  Is constantly violating native American treaties and forcing them off their land honorable?
    1
  1448. The Bodganoffs are squeezing you. "He bough?" "Dump eet"
    1
  1449. Few realize that while the Kim family holds the top in North Korea, reunification will not happen.
    1
  1450. I doubt Mexico wants it anymore.
    1
  1451. What about the Ukrainian conflict then?
    1
  1452. If you don't vote for me, you ain't black Jack!
    1
  1453.  @mig-29  It didn't. Kosovo became de facto independent of Belgrade.
    1
  1454. The Falklands are British and will always be British.
    1
  1455.  @thewho5786  The Falklanders themselves voted to remain with Britain. That is "democracy". Regardless, the British fought to protect them, and the islands. And they won handily.
    1
  1456.  @thewho5786  The Falklanders have been there for generations. Argentina has no claim to the islands except that they're relatively close to Argentina. Argentina tried and failed to take the islands. They are British and will always be British.
    1
  1457.  @ericbrown1132  You're paid a lot less in China though.
    1
  1458.  @Padtedesco  Probably thinking of the Kaliber cruise-missile, which has a subsonic cruise phase, then speeds up to supersonic speeds in the terminal phase.
    1
  1459. China won't do squat in Syria.
    1
  1460. Russia has always been overrated. It still baffles me to still see people blindly think that Russia is still an all-mighty juggernaut, and that any reverses on the battlefield are either fake news, or brilliant 4D chess tactics. Russia is a rusting, decrepit rump state of a dead superstate. A giant Detroit with even crookeder politicians who steal every ruble they can and stuff it in a Swiss bank.
    1
  1461. All the butthurt commies who can't believe that the USSR was gonna fall anyway because it was broke from the start.
    1
  1462. Not quite, but it is touching space at that altitude.
    1
  1463. The VDV hasn't played much of a role since the first two weeks of the war. Oryx visual losses puts VDV vehicles losses at around 200. It will take years to reconstitute them as a significant fighting force.
    1
  1464. Aka. Riding a massive debt load to patch things over while the birth rate falls and the rest of the country empties out to pack into Tokyo. It's not sustainable and Japan will just be a largely irrelevant fossil country.
    1
  1465. Assad has done many terrible things, but no one will care once the war ends.
    1
  1466. I don't recall the Russians or Chinese doing better against those same ragtag rebels (Soviets in Afghanistan, Chinese in Vietnam). That's why. Nukes as well.
    1
  1467. Their problem. They should fix it.
    1
  1468. At least the Polish, Hungarians and the Italians have some sense left.
    1
  1469.  @kylelapointe2289  Considering that molotov cocktails were invented back then, it would be considered arson.
    1
  1470.  @damiangaming5696  It was a typo. I meant to say "weren't". And yes, they were invented by Finland, though everyone uses them now.
    1
  1471. Ironically, Taiwan, then under a military dictatorship, was liberalizing and reforming due to their own student protests.
    1
  1472.  @Burhanuddin-xm5ti  Defeat? How? The US' original mission was to destroy Al Kaida and remove the Taliban from power. That was achieved. "Stone age people" did not defeat America. You confuse constructing a functional state with victory on the battlefield.
    1
  1473.  @irregular2329  Some farms along the border? Pfft. All they did was burn some shacks and barns. China stuck their hand across the border and got burned.
    1
  1474. Lolwat? Is this a joke? Russia and China wouldn't sacrifice a dime for Iran. Russia is even dealing with Americans to sell out Iran for sanctions being lifted. China is doing the same. The US has NATO, Japan, South Korea, ANZAC, Taiwan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, India, Qatar, Iraq, Ukraine, Sweden, and Thailand who are just itching to blow the shit out of either China and/or Russia because they did some shit in the past. Russian and Chinese hardware are a joke. The five Israeli-Arab wars and the 1991 Gulf War are a testament to that. The US also has far more nukes than Iran could ever dream of getting its hands on. If the US is nuked, Iran would be glassed. I'll have to take this as sarcasm because if you actually believe this is true, God be with you friend.
    1
  1475. Whataboutism. Disregarded.
    1
  1476. They are just as corrupt as he was.
    1
  1477.  @RByrdsong099  What? It's true. Honestly, when has a coup in Africa actually made a difference? What would happen is that these guys steal alot of the country's already limited money for a pay raise for themselves. It isn't a people's coup, just a coup by some greedy "soldiers" .
    1
  1478. Ironically, Qatar hosts the largest US base in the Middle East.
    1
  1479.  @chaosXP3RT  If they could, they would've.
    1
  1480. Recessions are just part and parcel of any economy. Boom and bust cycles.
    1
  1481. @Jacob Brown Indian may like Russia, but they do not like China. Brazil is friendly with Russia and China, but more friendly with the US, especially under Bolsonaro.
    1
  1482. Never. They are not coward Arabs who surrender to Persians or Jews.
    1
  1483. Afghanistan as a country hardly exists.
    1
  1484. Honestly, looks like there are few left. It is the ghetto and all, but it seems so empty. Entire blocks are just empty grass lots.
    1
  1485. No concessions. The Minsk Agreements are dead. Russia won't be allowed to slink away and lick its wounds. It has been humiliated in Ukraine, had thousands die for "de-nazification".
    1
  1486. ​ @ArchivatorRUS  Uh, yeah. What makes you think that Ukraine should consider the interests of an invader, especially one as incompetent and sloppy as Russia? Russia isn't a great power, just a corrupt gas station with a bunch of nukes. Ukraine wants nothing to do with Russia, who offers only misery. Russia started this war; they fired the first shots. If they can't get what they want militarily, then they will get nothing, because they deserve nothing. Simple as.
    1
  1487.  @gordonsmith4884  Georgia never had nukes, though Ukraine did. They gave them up because one, they were expensive (and the command and control facilities were located in Moscow, but that wasn't a huge concern) and two, it was then topical to practice disarmament. Also Russia was weak. They could develop nukes again (it wouldn't be hard, as they built nukes for the USSR), but that might cause more problems than it would solve.
    1
  1488.  @2MeterLP  Not being impoverished is arguably a great achievement in of itself.
    1
  1489. The US has sunk far more money into Iraq than it ever got out of oil...
    1
  1490. This movie wasn't actually made by Hollywood.
    1
  1491. The US should have reinstalled the monarchy. One of the few unifying things in Afghanistan.
    1
  1492.  @2omb.  For now, at least, it is simply too risky. UBI right now would create some massive problems, and would, for sure, lead to a lack of motivation to work. Taxes would have to come somewhere, and that would come from the people working. There would be more corruption too, and I'm sure some slick politician would increase the money for votes.
    1
  1493. I came from Georgia, and I never heard anyone seriously espouse the Lost Cause. With all the northern transplants, most have even forgotten the burning of Atlanta.
    1
  1494. Ah yes, the Soviet Union was an awesome place! That must be why it collapsed, right?
    1
  1495. If Ukraine joins NATO, Russia would think twice.
    1
  1496. Because Putin needs someone to be a bogeyman.
    1
  1497. It depends how serious the US is. If the US uses it's military, Singapore wouldn't hesitate to declare neutrality, or even an alliance with the US.
    1
  1498. @Mk Ash TWO MORE WEEKS
    1
  1499.  @NPC_N112  And all it took was the lives of over 20 million Soviets, four years, and massive Lend-lease support from the west. Also the IS-3 was a hunk of junk.
    1
  1500. Bah. In 2001, the Taliban were destroyed in a matter of hours. The Taliban now shares only the name with the Taliban of the late '90s.
    1
  1501. They tried. They failed.
    1
  1502. Socialism works, humanity doesn't.
    1
  1503. The nature of humanity means that socialism won't work.
    1
  1504. Of course he rigged the vote. The dude probably has only a fraction of the populace supporting him. His people are starving, dying from sicknesses easily prevented, and having to wait in queues to buy gas from the US or Nigeria because PDVSA, the state oil company, isn't competent enough to pump it's own oil. Venezuela is a mess because of Maduro.
    1
  1505. And they would seize US corporations' factories in China. And that, my friend, is a big no no.
    1
  1506.  @octagonprime1  Because workers are easily replaceable because of mass immigration, population growth, and de-industrialization caused by outsourcing and automation.
    1
  1507.  @andrewblandford6423  Of course a filthy St. Louis person would think that. KC predates the State of Kansas.
    1
  1508. Nothing is ever going to bloody happen. The PRC will never step foot on Taiwan, and Taiwan will never do anything. For all their bravado about uniting "China", the Communist Party doesn't have the guts to risk fighting the Americans. And losing everything. It's not worth it in their eyes to fight over a small island that would bitterly resist them anyway. The PRC doesn't need Taiwan. It's content to let them sit out in the ocean, doing what they do. As long as they don't "declare" anything, they are chill. Taiwan is already independent, and will always be. The PRC just doesn't want anything official, because that would lead to other places like Tiber, Xinjiang, or even Manchuria or Inner Mongolia declaring independence and fighting separatist wars. That is a big no-no. The CCP is okay with the status quo, as are KMT and DDP. I mean, it's not like there are ethnicities in different states, like Germany and Austria, or Albania and Kosovo.
    1
  1509.  @Monkey88888  China also fought the Vietnamese and did poorly. Of course, the Vietnamese fear and hate the PRC more than they hate the Americans, so they make useful allies to the USA. The Americans will defend Taiwan, because it is useful to prevent China easy access to the Pacific. China wouldn't dare attack Taiwan. The PRC just doesn't see war with America as worth it.
    1
  1510. No, ISIS got smashed by Iraq. The Caliphate won't return. Iraq has a long way to go, but the hardest part is over.
    1
  1511. Most Britbongs couldn't name half the states of the US, and think the entirity of the US is just New York City and San Francisco and Texas.
    1
  1512.  @garethgriffiths9775  You watch Hollywood and think you know all about America. You think we're a bunch of ignorant pampered millennials who do nothing but watch Netflix all day.
    1
  1513.  @TheIceman567  Everyone can name the big states like Texas, Cali, or New York. Other smaller states like Georgia or Missouri still have cultural significance and economical power. Enough to dwarf some of the smaller European countries.
    1
  1514.  @Danny-ss8il  The United States is the most powerful and influential nations in the world. Besides, the United Kingdom is a united Kingdom of England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. It'd like be asking all of the counties of Arkansas.
    1
  1515.  @Danny-ss8il  Yeah, here are counties within Georgia: Fulton. One down, 158 more to go.
    1
  1516.  @Danny-ss8il  Georgia has 159 counties, the second most in the Union.
    1
  1517. Remember Nasser? He was a nationalist and tired to unite the Arabs. He failed pretty hard.
    1
  1518. It's human nature. Power corrupts. There are plenty of dictators and oil-shieks that are more concerned with holding onto power in their own slice of the middle east then trying to unify it into a Pan-Arab state. Nasser tried, and formed a few federation states, but they fell apart to petty infighting. They tried to invade Israel, but the Jews broke their teeth. It was as much Israel's competent military as the Arab's own incompetence.
    1
  1519.  @JagdgeschwaderX  But the US still managed to destroy Iraq's army in under a month. What excuse does Russia have?
    1
  1520.  @bababrown976  Welcome to politics.
    1
  1521.  @yeetus1398  It would be a massive bloodbath, one that would make the previous war look like a picnic.
    1
  1522. They don't go there because Qatar and Saudi Arabia just use 'em as slave labor.
    1
  1523. It depends on how much the threat of Russia and China plays into the minds of Congress and the DoD. Many of the garbage projects of late (LCS, for example) were made under the premise that counter-terrorism was the big focus of the US military, not a resurgent Russia or a rising China (which favors conventional, cheap systems).
    1
  1524. Many third world countries have terrible infrastructure and services. Wages and standard of living are higher in the first world.
    1
  1525. Venezuela would crumble like a rotting house if the US invaded it.
    1
  1526. Wrong, lol.
    1
  1527. @Phone Number Only an uneducated idiot would think that the US Constitution doesn't work.
    1
  1528. @Phone Number Yet the US Constitution has much more power in US politics. Much more than other countries'.
    1
  1529. China won't pass the US, at least not soon, because the US does have a large lead, and is not remaining static. India most certainly won't pass the US because most of it's equipment is bought abroad.
    1
  1530.  @ChucksSEADnDEAD  And also tricking the flight systems into thinking the AGM-88 is a modified R-27.
    1
  1531.  Pasdar  And thousands were purged by the Islamists who took power.
    1
  1532.  @aaronmoise8261  That was my point.
    1
  1533.  @aaronmoise8261  S'alright my dude.
    1
  1534.  @bleachorange  The J-31 and the J-20 have had tough development cycles, mostly due to China's reliance on old Russian engines (The AL-31).
    1
  1535. It was a giant ponzi scheme created by Egypt's corrupt elite that used the entire country as collateral to fund their decadence.
    1
  1536. Because if college was free, a college education would be worth nothing.
    1
  1537. No, it's not. Russia seriously underestimated the will of Ukraine. They did not prepare for a serious fight. They expected a war like in Crimea of '14. Quick, painless, with hardly a shot being fired.
    1
  1538. Red clay dirt, peaches, Stone Mountain and tons of old Civil War battlefields.
    1
  1539.  @allo5170  Natural resources that encourage wasteful planning and corruption. All that oil money goes straight into the pockets of the corrupt government. Look a Singapore, a country that has NO natural resources, and yet is one of the most well developed and richest countries out there.
    1
  1540.  @jeffreyschnedar8020  Yeah, people harp on America for saying that they killed hundreds of thousands of Communist Vietnamese by saying "Yeah, but you still lost the war". That also applies here. Ukraine can take more losses than Russia, but the thing is, is that their fighting for their homes.
    1
  1541. @ Uh, duh. He's a grifter who has looted and sold out Hungary for the past decade. The EU seems to tolerate him though.
    1
  1542.  @timvanrijn8239  The SCOTUS basically said that Texas's, and by extension the rest of the Confederacy's succession declarations were void. In legal terms they didn't happen. Texas never left the Union, and the Confederate government was merely an illegitimate insurrection. The ruling wasn't charging anyone for a crime, but clarifying a legal issue.
    1
  1543. The Biden administration is incredibly risk adverse, as they are more concerned with surviving November elections rather than having to deal with a collapsing Russia. The admin simply doesn't have the stomach for the conflict, and so are willing to buy into Russia's "red lines".
    1
  1544. The British did fine before the EU. They'll be fine when they leave.
    1
  1545. Hush ROC exile. Remember who keeps the PRC from ending Taiwan's existence.
    1
  1546.  @paulchao3965  Is that the idiocy the Communist Party in Beijing spews? That is like the US afraid of being colonized by the Russians.
    1
  1547. Russia has neither the will or the capacity to have won the election for him. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together should know that.
    1
  1548.  Joe Star  Populism.
    1
  1549.  @Interests97  World is a hard place. Kill, or be killed.
    1
  1550. TWO MORE WEEKS
    1
  1551. The Left has degenerated terribly. A revolution would throw us back into a dark age. We don't need a Stalin, but a reformer.
    1
  1552. No one can commit with the Free American Empire.
    1
  1553. Iran isn't a good guy. Nor are the Saudis. Together they have split the Middle East in their little cold war.
    1
  1554. Keyword "army"
    1
  1555. Then the Turks should leave Anatolia since it was greek land. The Arabs should also leave Egypt since it was Egyptian land.
    1
  1556. The Ottomans were just as filthy as the Europeans at the time. The only difference was is that they shriveled up and their empire fell apart, while the Europeans evolved and matured. Besides, I'm no more racist than the Turks, who have slaughtered Armenians and Kurds.
    1
  1557. Iraq was doomed from the start, long before the US showed up.
    1
  1558. Trump is just a symptom of the end of the previous global order, one that your beloved Obama failed to maintain and guard. The EU was arrogant and naive, and assumed that the "end of history" would last forever. So you better believe this is happening. It's change, mate.
    1
  1559. Um, sweaty, we don't need barbarian money when we have NEW PRODUCTIVE FORCES!!! (whatever that means) We will replace our collapsing real estate sector (that is dragging down the household wealth of the average Chinese, making them poorer) with niche high-tech manufacturing that will employ a few hundred thousand people (at best) and will make us even more vulnerable to external events and rising trade barriers. China will grow larger, or something...
    1
  1560. Of course. Everyone else is weak.
    1
  1561.  @paranoidrodent  The F-22 would be too expensive for Canada to field in reasonable numbers to cover such vast airspace.
    1
  1562.  @paranoidrodent  There still isn't much of value up north to warrant an F-22. Of course, most Russian aircraft can't even get to Canada's northern shores. Alaska is closer to Russia, and is well defended. The CF-18 is probably the best for Canada currently, since it is multi-role, and thus can support NATO missions. Also, I think if war came with Russia, most of their aircraft would be busy defending Russian airspace rather than attacking remote settlements. China is likely a greater threat. Not to mention, of course, that the F-22 cannot be exported.
    1
  1563. I'm sure the Chinese do, just that it doesn't make news. Wars in Sub-Saharan Africa are generally low-intensity, and ignored by the wider world. No one would notice, or care, if China hired impoverished African mercenaries to guard their expensive infrastructure.
    1
  1564. That and the longer this war drags on greatly increases the chance of a "black swan event" like Prigo's Thunder Run overturning his rule. Also, what many people don't seem to realize is that Putin doesn't want to rule forever. The man has ruled Russia for a quarter of a century now, and he is ageing. A successful war was to cement his legacy and allow him to retire without anyone being able to seriously challenge his legitimacy or that of his hand-picked successor. Thus, he would actually be able to enjoy the fruits of being an oligarch without having to hold the country together.
    1
  1565.  @TheZachary86  PRC is weak.
    1
  1566.  @Ass_of_Amalek  Putin might have gambled that a strong offensive on the capital would have crushed Ukrainian resistance before NATO supplies could have arrived, making an advance on Lviv unnecessary. Advancing towards the Polish border might have also been seen as an unnecessary provocation towards NATO, with potential to draw them in.
    1
  1567.  @Ass_of_Amalek  I agree. Had the Russians expected for Ukraine to resist, they probably would have at least attempted an assault towards Lviv. I'm not sure it would have gone any better than the attack towards Kiev, due to the Pinsk Marshes and the sheer amount of territory to cover.
    1
  1568. Who cares. Russia is still losing.
    1
  1569. The Cold War is long over. This is their own doing.
    1
  1570. Well... sometimes you find what you are looking for... and wish you hadn't...
    1
  1571. When China's property sector collapsed, many Chinese who had bought into the bubble (or even simply bought the wrong house at the wrong time) were left destitute. As well, industries that relied on the bubble for business (realtors, construction contractors, banks, etc.) were left high and dry. Falling incomes meant falling demand, impacting even sectors that didn't rely on the property sector. The global economy is also slowing down, so global demand is dropping. Economic and political tensions don't help either.
    1
  1572. Oryx Visual Losses dummy.
    1
  1573. Britain doesn't need a powerful naval force, just one that can complement and support NATO and American operations.
    1
  1574.  @poros4588  And China couldn't even beat Vietnam, who was right next to them.
    1
  1575.  @YMCLilRodney  More reliable than RT
    1
  1576.  @nemanja162  It's crazy how Russia does all that and still had to retreat from Northern Ukraine. Russia is getting beat by babushkas with tractors. For every piece of equipment Russia destroys, Ukraine steals five more from Russia. Russia is a more reliable arms supplier to the Ukrainians than anyone else. Maybe after the war, Ukraine will raise the Moskva and rename it the Kyiv. Would be fitting.
    1
  1577.  @nemanja162  Tractors go brrrr
    1
  1578. Yeah, if those yachts actually were sold and funds went into, oh, perhaps actually making the planes work.
    1
  1579. North Korea is not sending 100k troops to Ukraine. No evidence has been made to indicate that they are.
    1
  1580. There is a reason why he is hated. Communism is built atop a massive pile of bones.
    1
  1581.  @GyanRajPrak  Which doesn't compare to the millions killed by Stalin and Mao.
    1
  1582.  @GyanRajPrak  Really? Prove it. Socialism has the Holodomor, The Great Leap "Forward", the Great Purge, The Cultural Revolution, The Kronstadt Mutiny, The Gulag, forced collectivization, oppression of various religions, oppression of ethnic minorities, the Iron Curtain (where you were shot for trying to flee to "capitalist" West Germany). If socialism was so good, why are there countless atrocities, and more so, why did it collapse?
    1
  1583. I doubt Missouri spent anything on the case. Of course, if Missouri spent the money required to "help" everyone, the state would go bankrupt.
    1
  1584. Socialism is not the answer. If it did not work in Soviet Russia, if it did not work in China, it sure as hell won't work in the US. A balance between capitalism and socialism is the best. Combing a solid safety net with incentives to strive to work harder.
    1
  1585. Sometimes strongman-style leadership does help a country. Putin should really crack down more on corruption though, and do something about the oligarchs.
    1
  1586.  @agoodcitizen6559  Its not perfect, but I would assume it is better than under Yeltsin. Still a lot of work that needs to be done. Russia, in my opinion, has a lot of potential.
    1
  1587. I think you mean Somaliland. Somalia is a joke that can barely control it's own capital.
    1
  1588. @Agent 69 Unfortunately, what happens outside of our countries can affect our own. That is one of the many drawbacks of living a globalized world. Anyway, Gaddafi had Libya's entire economy based on oil, as I said previously. Things looked good because the price of oil was up. However, he did not diversify. Even if France and NATO done nothing to him, the collapse of oil prices in 2014 would have hurt the Libyan economy badly. Gaddafi was just another Chavez, a populist and socialist leader propped up by oil. And while Venezuela has more than oil, Libya does not.
    1
  1589. Communism failed miserably. Remember the Kronstadt rebellion? The Holodomor? Why should America have a Stalin and his Great Purge?
    1
  1590. I thought Youtube was banned in Russia. How does Russia even pay you to spew that if SWIFT was cut off?
    1
  1591. Eh, luckily we can just skip it. He gets some dough from Wargaming, and we can just ignore the ad.
    1
  1592. By contrast, Newsom raised more than double the amount of money Larry did.
    1
  1593. It is the right of every man to defend his home and nation.
    1
  1594. The fact that Russia is still engaged in war with a country once considered the armpit of Europe with no end in sight is telling.
    1
  1595. A defensive military alliance.
    1
  1596. "Is he even a human?" Of course not! He is God-Emperor!
    1
  1597. He isn't a God, mortal. He is God-Emperor.
    1
  1598. Envious aren't yah, Arab? Sad you don't have a God-Emperor, only a petty dictator? Well, eventually, you will be united under the banner of our lord-President Trump.
    1
  1599. Gee, let's forget who Russia supplies.
    1
  1600. Supply and demand. You quit, someone replaces you.
    1
  1601.  @felixii4931  Uh, yeah, it does. Of course, rather simplistic, but that's the basic premise. Many workers, the value of your labor is lower. Fewer workers, you're value goes up. Much demand for work (big mega project or something), your value goes up. Lower demand for work (recession), your value goes down. You can, of course, tilt the scale a bit, but it's just simple economics. Fool.
    1
  1602. It's all politics.
    1
  1603.  @FBab-jb4lp  The native Americans crossed over into North America from Russia, so does that make them illegal aliens too? What about the Mexicans and Central Americans, who have ancestors from Spain?
    1
  1604.  @svevladteodosic1854  They already have freedom. More than any stinking Chinese will have.
    1
  1605.  @svevladteodosic1854  Like the pot calling the kettle black. The Chinese have no regard for human rights or any populace to complain about violations. The Chinese will colonize Africa, and unlike the Europeans, they won't leave. They will rob the Africans of everything, and people like you will put their head in the sand and say everything is fine. As long as it's not the Americans, everything is fine.
    1
  1606.  @LancesArmorStriking  Russia does have a very powerful nuclear arsenal. However, as time goes on, that likely will not be enough to hold back the Chinese. Especially as resources grow scarcer.
    1
  1607. Why should Americans die for the Kurds? Perhaps Turkey should have requested NATO troops to patrol. However, it appears Erdogan wants to buddy buddy with the Russians, despite the fact that the Turks and Russians have historically hated each other.
    1
  1608. Which would have required them to not be communist, and thus a giant Russian Federation.
    1
  1609. To be honest, I don't have a problem with them shooting up the IRGC. Those guys are corrupt and they steal from the Iranian people. I bet the Artesh (The regular Iranian Army) is probably rubbing it's hands with glee.
    1
  1610. Treasonous? Is it treasonous to side with your state over the federal government?
    1
  1611.  @tyronebrown9936  You appear to have skipped history class yourself. Before the Civil War, citizens often had stronger ties to their state government and people than to the federal government as a whole. This was because of the lack of quick transportation (car, train, plane). It is amazing how much TV and the internet has done to bring to country together, but in Lee's time, this didn't exist. If this wasn't a factor, then hundreds of thousands of Southerners (who didn't own slaves) wouldn't have fought for the CSA, which was a creation of the rich plantation elite (who owned the vast majority of slaves).
    1
  1612.  @ATINKERER  There you go. Many people have forgotten about this, and apply today's circumstances to the situation of 1860. The Civil War was a turning point in US history besides that of slavery, which was that it unified many disparate states and a weak federal government into a more balanced relationship.
    1
  1613. Trump trolls again
    1
  1614. No u
    1
  1615. If I am, not as much as you.
    1
  1616. Realpolitik son. You should learn it.
    1
  1617. Somalia barely controls any territory outside of the capital. Somaliland is a better place to invest.
    1
  1618.  @Gintoki7  Somaliland has more of a military than the southern government. It isn't much by western standards, but they are equipped with heavy weapons. Also, they do have a financial sector. Many countries interested in the security of the Gulf of Aden have invested in Somaliland and have donated a few patrol boats to them. For African standards, Somaliland has been doing pretty good since they secured independence in 1991.
    1
  1619.  @Ashgutierr  Of course not. Who is buying in this market?
    1
  1620.  @simplyincorrigible7708  Fighter jet engines, which are quite a bit different from civil aviation engines. Besides, Soviet civil jet engines were notorious for being backwards compared to Western jet engines. They were loud, maintenance-hogs, and very thirsty.
    1
  1621. AI and robotics are just flashy buzzwords aimed to please a certain "technocratic" crowd in the CCP that has little basis in the actual economy. The hard fact is that the Chinese are getting poorer in real time due to the deflationary spiral. None of these "wonder techs" can replace the massive hole in the economy from the real estate collapse.
    1
  1622. Russia will be relatively fine until Putin leaves the political scene. His force of will has held Russia together, but eventually, he will die.
    1
  1623. "Hey guys, using these numbers provided by the Chinese government (a paragon of honesty), I have come to the conclusion that nothing is wrong with China. Real estate sector collapsed, dragging down the life investments of hundreds of millions of Chinese? Not a problem! Foreign investment fleeing the country taking tens of thousands of jobs with them? Not a problem! The largest source of revenue for local governments (who are a big part of local economies) evaporated? Not a problem! See guys, China is doing great because they said so!" P.S. The IMF uses information provided by the government in question to estimate GDP growth. The IMF doesn't really care because they're more concerned with the ability of the government in question to remain solvent (ie. How likely is the government to default on its bonds).
    1
  1624.  @horridohobbies  No dude, they literally take numbers from the Chinese government. No one else has the ability to collect or access Chinese economic data. China always has been opaque with its economic data, and given a lot of it comes from local governments, not even the central government is totally sure of its accuracy (even Hu Jintao admitted as much). China won't explode like the USSR did. Rather, it'll just stagnate like Japan did 30 years prior. It won't become irrelevant, but China will probably never surpass the United States. With a rapidly ageing population, this was inevitable. It's just culminating now.
    1
  1625. Clearly the mud season isn't slowing Ukraine, if anything it is slowing Russia's ability to reinforce its lines.
    1
  1626. I doubt it.
    1
  1627. It's a good sign.
    1
  1628. Nothing... unfortunately.
    1
  1629. Because their army is hopelessly corrupt. It's why Iraq nearly collapsed to what was little more than bandits at the time, before nearly the whole world bailed them out. Ghost soldiers, expensive military equipment being sold on the black market, and poor leadership.
    1
  1630.  Joseph Li  Essentially. Of course, hindsight is 20/20.
    1
  1631. Technically, yes. However, the Sri Lankan government subsidizes imports. For example, let's say a 5 pound bag of flour from the US would normally cost $5 on the open market. Because this normally be too expensive for most Sri Lankans, the government steps in and pays $3 for every bag sold. Thus, Sri Lankans see the price as $2. The rise in commodity prices means that Sri Lankan companies have to pay more to import these goods. They thus have to sell them for more in order to make a profit. The government can no longer afford to keep prices artificially low, and thus, prices rise.
    1
  1632. Most of those migrants are used as slave labor.
    1
  1633. Blah blah blah le evbil west bad, russia based and trad. Still losing though.
    1
  1634. The Electoral College was created for reason
    1
  1635. They do it for free.
    1
  1636. Yes, torture is back on the menu boys!
    1
  1637. @Kill Billy And Angola did not hesitate to abandon the USSR when it started to collapse. People lambast the Americans for partaking in useless wars, but I think the war in Angola was one of the most worthless conflicts, next to Afghanistan.
    1
  1638.  @Unwise-  In many dictatorships, to lose power is to lose your life. In your rise to power, and in your efforts to maintain power, you make some serious enemies. If you were to, say, retire, you'd be giving up that power which makes you safe. Then, someone else may take that power and see you as a liability. For personal reasons, or in case you might decide retirement sucks and you want your power back. Wars for dictatorships are a gamble. They can either unite the country and boost your legitimacy (if you win), or you look incompetent and lose any legitimacy you have. Mao used the Chinese Civil War and the stalemated Korean War to gain immense legitimacy and prestige. Said Barre of Somalia, in contrast, after losing the war with Ethiopia lost any scrap of legitimacy he had left and basically lost control over his country.
    1
  1639. Gold is just a metal. Also, the Great Depression was worsened by adherence to the gold standard, meaning the currency couldn't depreciate (to stimulate exports) and instead led to a deflationary spiral (which drove down wages and suffocated demand). Fiscal responsibility is needed though for a stable currency.
    1
  1640. Russia isn't fighting a war for its survival. Putin is fighting a war for his survival.
    1
  1641. Being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
    1
  1642. Probably money laundering actually.
    1
  1643. The Nationalists generally were better in combat quality due to better discipline and professionalism. The International brigades varied in quality, but were generally poor. Many volunteers had their IDs stolen and were used by KGB agents later. Aid from the Germans and Italians were significant, but not enough to carry Franco. Yes, Stalinist groups did attack Trotsky and Anarchist groups. However, the only significant aid came from Stalin (paid for in full by Spanish gold) and Stalin decided who got to use it. However, this is were unity comes full circle. Franco kept the Falangists, Carlists, and Reactionaries unified. By contrast, the Republicans could barely keep effective unity.
    1
  1644.  @d.graemer1627  There was a book I had about the Spanish Civil War. I no longer have it, so you're going to have to take my word for it, however trustworthy you think it is. It stated that discipline was often poor, and military professionalism was lacking. Passports were stolen and often ended up in KGB hands after the war. Of course, this was just one unit. Regardless, the Nationalists (I was talking mostly about the Army of Africa, though that is just one unit) did come out and win. Unity triumphed, and the Nationalists had it.
    1
  1645.  @d.graemer1627  Both sides had some highly motivated troops, and also conscripts. Franco had some foreign volunteers, though not as many as the Republicans. Unfortunately for the Republicans, they had many different factions squabbling together. Stalinites against Trotskyists. Franco had what the Republic did not have, and that was unity.
    1
  1646. Pakistan is the most useless country out there. It is less than useless.
    1
  1647. Ironic. Italy needs to solve it's endemic corruption.
    1
  1648. Yes, actually. But the US stockpile was not quite big, so it wouldn't be too much of a game-changer.
    1
  1649. Retribution not from the protesters, but the government.
    1
  1650.  @TenylegMinekez-uc7co  Putin seemed to think so, as he fled to St. Petersburg. Prigo didn't call off the run because Rosgvardia or the regular Russian military was putting up a fight. He stopped because the Kremlin elite didn't support him (though they didn't oppose him either).
    1
  1651. Everyone, ignorant or not, loves to give their 50 cents.
    1
  1652. He isn't going to win.
    1
  1653.  @dhaval1489  And yet India is buying American. Apache helicopters, for instance. Perhaps India shouldn't have bought all that Russian junk and thrown in with that country (who simps for China).
    1
  1654.  @tunisiandom9318  But the entire attack was pointless. The objective was to secure the airport intact, and uncontested. So what if the VDV held it, but were getting shelled and constantly attacked? They needed the airport to ferry in reinforcements and supplies to aid in the capture of Kiev, instead, they were pinned in the airport and forced to route supplies in overland, where they were vulnerable to ambushes and artillery fire. The VDV failed in their objective, and that failure basically cost them the entire front and perhaps even the war. Of course, their plans were far in excess of what they were designed and trained for. The VDV is a light, rapid reaction force for low intensity conflicts and incursions. They are not capable of fighting entrenched opposition equipped with sophisticated weaponry.
    1
  1655.  @richardl1708  Yet some of the most innovative inventions have been discovered from war. The development of the atomic bomb, while being the most destructive device, led to the advent of peaceful nuclear energy, which if used properly, led to a highly efficient source of clean energy. GPS was originally meant for the US Army, it quickly branched out into civilian uses. The Internet was for the US Armed Forces, but after the Cold War became a staple of life for almost everyone. Many medical practices, such as cranial surgery to reduce swelling, was formulated during war (specifically, the Iran-Iraq War). The Trans-Continental Railroad stalled for years in the US Congress, but the needs of the Civil War encouraged its construction. War is a nasty phenomenon, but it has lead to massive leaps of technological development. War itself does not necessarily need to occur, for the threat of the Cold War encouraged the US and USSR to invest in development to try to one up each other.
    1
  1656.  @adamuk8199  Uh, yeah. The Gulf States have been funding proxies to fight each other for the past decade.
    1
  1657. The "Kabul" government, more like.
    1
  1658.  @VisibilityFoggy  Israel probably wouldn't, because despite Erdogan's "criticism" of Israel, both countries remain close. Greece might though.
    1
  1659.  @charles8769  Well, people do. China does it on a daily basis. Of course, unlike Australia, they do little more than pay lip-service to morality. At the end of the day, I'm sure everyone here would prefer being colonized by the Aussies than the Chinese.
    1
  1660. The Canuks don't have a chance
    1
  1661. Except that there are real enemies, and these hunks can't fight them.
    1
  1662.  @hermanwooster8944  No one cares anymore. Russia turned those guys into heroes.
    1
  1663.  @hermanwooster8944  Apparently you're wrong, because everyone is condemning Russia. Ukraine is rightfully defending itself from fascist Russian invaders.
    1
  1664.  @chechnya  Wumao think that the Great CHINA is infallible.
    1
  1665.  @SmartassX1  Well, I'm sure of that. I misspoke. It CAN be added to a carrier, but Russia has no carrier which it can be added on. I believe it is too expensive for the Kuznetsov to receive it (especially with talk of retiring the ship). Russian naval ship building is favoring smaller frigates and corvettes, which are too small to fit meaningful numbers of S-400 missiles.
    1
  1666. It's a very, very simple answer. They're lying. You see, the political fortunes of local and provincial party leaders have been based on economic growth. The higher the number, the more likely you are to get promoted up the party ladder from some nasty post in Yunnan to somewhere comfier on the coast. As well, people who don't meet growth targets at best have their careers frozen. At worst... demotion. Even back in '08, Chinese leader Hu Jintao basically said "We don't really know what the real numbers are for the economy" because there was so much manipulation. The legitimacy of the CCP is based on economic performance. As long as the economy improves, no one really minds. When the economy slumps, people are less tolerant of the more unsavory features of the CCP: endemic corruption, arbitrariness, blunt authoritarianism, etc. Social stability, the one thing Bejing really cares about, is at risk.
    1
  1667.  @yonathantaye1797  Most whites in the south were in poverty too, sharecropping alongside slaves. Only a small section of the population actually owned slaves in the first place.
    1
  1668.  @survivorsurvivor8704  So what? All it will do is blow up some apartment buildings and piss people off. How many cruise missiles did the US lob into Iraq? How much ordinance did the USSR drop in Afghanistan?
    1
  1669.  @8zj1askl  They'll say yes, because none of them remember not being American.
    1
  1670.  @8zj1askl  You first.
    1
  1671.  @mikeprintz9358  At the rate we're printing money, $300 won't even get a loaf of bread! Trillions of dollars more debt that will shackle our children.
    1
  1672.  @donald8066  It is extreme foolishness to equate a policing action to a large scale conventional war. Especially one that will primarily be fought on the ocean. You're not dealing with insurgents wielding rusty AKs, but large missile destroyers. The US won't "cut it's losses" because it cannot afford to. Afghanistan was worthless to America. The Pacific, by contrast, is worth quite a lot. And DF-21s are not offensive "wonder weapons". They're coastal defense artillery. The only way they'd sink a US carrier is if the US would park it off the Chinese coast. Which they won't do, rather probably keep them sheltered behind Taiwan or use them to hunt down isolated Chinese naval units and outposts.
    1
  1673.  @donald8066  1. That range is useless unless the Chinese can locate and track a target. This can be done with satellites (which can be tracked and avoided), radar (which is limited by the horizon, which is a lot shorter than 800nm) or by visually spotting the target (with subs or aircraft). Aircraft won't be much good, as the US has a good naval air defense network, and aerial supremacy is one of the things the US excels at. Subs are the best option, but Chinese nuclear subs are very noisy, and their diesel subs are only good close to shore. 2. The US has no need for non-nuclear ballistic missiles. Cruise missiles are more accurate and can be launched from many platforms, such as aircraft and destroyers, and subs, which is what the US would use to blockade China. 3. Assuming that the US would not defend strategic interests because of political reasons is immensely stupid. Nikita Khrushchev assumed that JFK would not strongly react to Soviet missiles being placed in Cuba, because JFK was young and inexperienced. The Cuban missile crisis happened and the USSR backed down. 4. The US has many successful wars. For instance, The Gulf War. Interventions in Grenada and Panama. China has seen only two wars since the CCP came to power, and one was a stalemate, the other a failure. In 1994, it attempted to intimidate Taiwan, but backed down when the US sailed a fleet through the straights. 5. Your grammar is sloppy and your analysis even more so. The US may have failed in the Vietnam War, but it took ten years for it to lose. The Chinese lost in two weeks, even though they bordered Vietnam.
    1
  1674.  @donald8066  I am not a fan boy of the US Armed Forces. I am simply saying that despite what many may think, the "wonder weapon" that is the hypersonic anti-ship ballistic missile has not made most of the US surface fleet obsolete. The US Navy has combat experience going back decades, and has built up robust traditions and techniques. The PLAN is untested and has basically never seen combat. China as a whole lacks military maritime experience. Building tons of missiles doesn't compensate for it either, as who knows how they'll actually function in combat. "Spying" helps only with obtain intelligence on the enemy's location and equipment, and perhaps helping out your own tech. It, again, doesn't develop tradition and experience in operating a high seas fleet. And money is cheap to the Americans. It helps having the dollar be the world's reserve currency. The US spent two decades in Iraq and Afghanistan, and no one in American noticed anything. The US left Afghanistan, and has the balance of power shifted? No, it hasn't.
    1
  1675.  @donald8066  The US no longer cares about Afghanistan. In fact, a Taliban victory is a good outcome for the US. They promised to keep terrorists out, and they aren't dependent on US military aid, unlike the previous government. If the Chinese and Russians want to stick their hand into that mousetrap, they can. Beyond terrorism, Afghanistan has no strategic relevance to the US. It takes more than spying to build a good military. There are logistics, command structures, procurement techniques, manufacturing. You can't just copy that. It takes decades of trial and error, gaining experience, and innovation. And spying will still leave you behind your foe, as they can evolve better counter-espionage techniques, and innovate new equipment and practices. This is why China still buys Russian equipment, and WHY THEY HAVEN'T TRIED TO RETAKE TAIWAN. And Chinese subs are still louder than their Russian and American counter-parts.
    1
  1676. Crypto is imploding. The vast majority of your "insert random name here"-coins have no value besides "dude trust me bro" and are basically glorified gambling. The easy money of stimulus-fueled 2021 made it easy to speculate in garbage like crypto and NFTS, swelling fraudulent firms like FTX to stupid proportions. With the economy cooling down, the house of cards was going to come down...
    1
  1677. Israel still exists, still holds all of Palestine, and is much stronger than it's Arab neighbors. Hezbollah did jack shit to Israel. Iran can't do anything to Israel.
    1
  1678. casually ignores the previous five Arab-Israeli Wars
    1
  1679. Pretty much. Most of it is actually ALREADY built.
    1
  1680. At best a zombie company that exists basically only on paper.
    1
  1681. Columbia is for sure the best part of Missouri, but it honestly isn't that bad for the rest of the state (minus parts of STL and KC). Decently low cost of living, people are generally nice, and crime isn't terrible (minus again those parts of KC and STL). Ozarks are beautiful, but have a bad meth problem. At and north of US 36 (north MO) is either poor rednecks or rich farmers, no in-between. Suburbs of KC and STL are pretty good. A solid mid state. Not as poor as areas in the Deep South, but not as expensive as the Northeast. Not dying like California or Ohio but not being flooded with out-of-staters like Utah or Georgia.
    1
  1682. Well, bias and propaganda aside, Syria is pretty exhausted from seven years of constant back and forth war, and I doubt Russia will risk war with NATO over Assad.
    1
  1683. China is not particularly socialist. Ironically, I would argue it's more capitalist than the US.
    1
  1684. Russia has (by 4/8/22) lost 2600 vehicles, while Ukraine (4/8/22) has lost about 700. From Oryx.
    1
  1685.  @scroopynooperz9051  Popular perception in Germany was that nuclear was dangerous, and green energy (wind and solar) would be able to take up the slack. At the time of Fukushima, the CDU was in a collation with the Greens, who demanded that nuclear energy be phased out. Natural gas was to purchased from Russia until green energy "took up the slack". Of course, that hasn't happened yet and Russia has turned out to be a menace. In sum, the German people though nuclear was dangerous because of Fukushima and Chernoybl. They believed that renewables would be able to replace fossil fuels, and that importing gas from Russia would just be temporary.
    1
  1686. I thought this copium was already debunked. Bad soldiers can be removed from the army and old equipment sold off or scrapped. Or do we still live in an era where "bad" stuff can only be purged by combat?
    1
  1687.  @learseneshow9175  You uneducated dolt. Turks despise Syrians and blame them for the poor economy.
    1
  1688. Yes, the Soviet Union had done some good. It brought a backward, agricultural nation that was heavily impoverished and turned it into a superpower. I won't deny that. Still, it was going to fail. The core tenants of Communism goes against human nature. It allowed for people like Stalin to get into power and turn it into a dictator-state. Every communist country has ended up like this. Communism does not equate to freedom of speech. The Soviet Union did oppress people. The Eastern bloc, for example. Why do you think they were so quick to throw off communism when they saw Soviet power weakening? By the end of the Cold War, the Soviet Union was in decline. You cannot deny that. If it wasn't, it wouldn't have fallen. It was weighed down by a bloated bureaucracy, as you mentioned, and it's failure of an economic system. If you lived in the Soviet times, you'd know there were massive shortages. Goods were of an inferior quality. The United States was outpacing the Soviet Union rapidly. The Soviet Union spent large amounts of money on it's military, to try to keep up with NATO. NATO was by the end, stronger than Warsaw Pact. After the fall, the problems came from the corrupt government. I do know what happened after the USSR fell to pieces. You can blame those problems on corrupt, ineffective Yeltsin. Other countries did not suffer the same effects Russia did. Poland, for example.
    1
  1689. Because he didn't have to.
    1
  1690. Eh, I'm sure she'll be quite repentant when she is handed over to Assad.
    1
  1691. Lol. Lmao. Is this serious? Can someone show this man a LiveLeak video?
    1
  1692.  @wsurfer2147  No, LiveLeak. But hey, in GLORIOUS CHINA no one would ever die in a horrible machining accident or have their e-bike randomly blow up in their face.
    1
  1693. Why? Stuff like this happens every day in Iraq and Syria. An extremist blows up a crowd of people in a bazaar, and it isn't even mentioned. You don't get outraged over that. Or when a group of Iraqi militia are killed defending their villages from ISIS, everyone forgets it. They fought for their country. And no one cares.
    1
  1694.  @UnfairRuler  Because it's hypocritical. Why be outraged at a rather small shooting. People blow this up, and act like it's the work of the devil. No, it's not. It should have been expected.
    1
  1695.  @UnfairRuler  Sorry about the wording. It just sucks because everyone focuses on this, because it happened in quiet New Zealand. Because some guy was frustrated and decided to get some "meme points" by shooting up a mosque. Ah well, the flaws of humanity, I guess.
    1
  1696.  @hetzatheofany2235  Perhaps. This saga has yet to end...
    1
  1697.  @handleyobusiness  What might be a solution to that problem?
    1
  1698.  @oceanwave4502  The US is better. You make far more money, pay less in taxes, less red tape, can actually afford to buy a decent house, and are a citizen of the world's premier superpower.
    1
  1699.  @harrisonreinisch9202  Thanks! I wish I had the time and set up to make a channel, but alas, I am a very busy college student. As for high speed rail investment, I believe that it really depends on where it is put. Unfortunately, where it is needed most (California and New England) and could actually be viable financially, is where it is hardest to actually put it. Again, for the reasons I mentioned in my first comment. It would be relatively easy to put a high speed rail network from, say, Kansas City to St. Louis, Missouri. The land there is cheap, flat, and (unlike Cali) NOT earthquake prone. Cost of labor is cheaper and state regulations are not as tight as California. HOWEVER, Missouri only has a population of 6 million. Spread across an area about the size of Romania. The KC and STL metro areas populations are about 2.5 mil and 2.8 mil respectively (counting people in next-door Kansas and Illinois). You start to see the problem here. Too little demand. Missouri as a whole also doesn't have serious traffic issues, thus driving down demand. Texas is potentially where both building and operating a high-speed rail network could be viable. Texas has less regulations and a lower cost of labor and land. They also have demand for it, between Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio, cities with massive metro areas. The so called "Texas Triangle". Indeed, there has been proposals to build a network there, but I don't think it has gone as far as California's.
    1
  1700.  @harrisonreinisch9202  And yes, national regulations do play a big part. While relatively weak compared to, say, Germany, US federal regulations are strong and enforced. Environmental, labor, and construction regulations all play a big part in cost, both monetarily and in time. More paperwork to read and fill out, plus the added cost of hiring lawyers to make sure you're not in breach of some obscure 20 year old clause that someone just MIGHT sue you over. China, meanwhile, cares nothing for such regulations and will bend them for something of national priority and prestige (read high speed trackage). Even regulations that are enforced are easily bent or ignored by corruption, which is rampant in China. Not saying the US isn't corrupt, but China makes business dealings in America look as clean as an infant's head.
    1
  1701.  @lppoqql  But Korea was fought in mainland Asia. Even still, China took horrific casualties, and when the US adapted to Chinese tactics, the Chinese advance was stopped. In this war, China would be on the attack, having to invade a hostile shore.
    1
  1702.  @lppoqql  China was poor, and fresh from the civil war. I agree to that. However, it success in the winter of 1950-51 came mostly from the US and UN tactical errors, largely stemming from MacArthur's arrogance. They advanced deep into North Korea, and played into China's strengths, which was using mass amounts of light infantry in a guerrilla-style campaign. It worked very well against the US Army, who was ill-prepared for that type of warfare, but not so well against the US Marine Corps, who were better led and more hardened. In the Chosin campaign, the Chinese were able to drive the Marines out of the area and forced them to evacuate via Hungnam, but had four divisions rendered combat-ineffective. Latter in the war, when MacArthur was replaced by Mathew Ridgeway, the tide improved in the US' favor. The US built a series of strongholds atop hills, and played to their advantages of superior heavy weapons. The battle of Chipyong-ni shows this. The US was also content with a stalemate, because they had no desire to fight China in a land war in mainland Asia. Now, as for a modern fight, do you really believe China could invade Taiwan with the US fully backing it? Unless they use nuclear weapons (which would leave most of China burned to ash) they won't. The Taiwanese also aren't traitors. Taiwan is under the ROC, the Republic of China. The original government, I may add. No wonder everyone dishes on China, calling them a mob-mentality group. They actually are! At least you can legally access YouTube in Taiwan. When your bloated oligarch "communist" emperor Winnie the Pooh dies and his corrupt government collapses, the Republic of China will return to the mainland and guard the home and tomb of Sun Yat-sen. You represent a fake, plastic China. A mockery of it! Taiwan represents what China should have been, a true rival to the US, a free, democratic, and just China. The PLA serves the Communist Party, but the ROCA serves the people of Taiwan, and eventually the people of China!
    1
  1703.  @lppoqql  Like the battle of Kinmen? Where a bunch of PLA troops got slaughtered by KMT troops. No one fears your plastic weaponry commie. If you're so bold, come and take Taiwan! Why isn't the PLA in Taipei right now? Because they're shit, and they know they are! Where is Winnie the Pooh? Too scared of the itty bitty "Taiwanese Traitors"? Or is the Pooh bear too busy being afraid of his own people to try to finish the job Mao failed to do? C'mon commie, "reunify" us! Show me you're not all talk! Show me your plastic toy works.
    1
  1704.  @ThatHabsburgMapGuy  At the end of colonialism, while British industry collapsed, German, Japanese, and Korean industry were booming even though those countries had no colonies. I'd say the fall of British industry had less to due with de-colonization and more due to poor policies by the British government, and greater cost of British labor. I'd also like to say the the DRC at independence was one of the most prosperous and industrialized countries in Africa, but a lot of that infrastructure was destroyed by nationalization, civil war, and Mobutu's ruinous corruption.
    1
  1705. Estonia doesn't count as a threat.
    1
  1706. Palestine invading Israel? That's like Chechnya invading Russia, or Tibet going toe to toe with China.
    1
  1707. Hush Maduro-bot. When Venezuela stops starving, come say your piece.
    1
  1708. They are. A lot actually.
    1
  1709.  @jacobisaacs600  War crimes only apply to rich, powerful, and civilized countries like the United States. When a backward, barbarian country like, oh, Congo, rapes it's own citizens, it doesn't matter. When the US puts people into holding camps, who are pouring into the country looking for money, it is racist. When Turkey plants thousands of land mines on it's southern border, blowing up people fleeing from a brutal civil war, no one cares. Hmm....
    1
  1710. Lolwat? Puerto Rico gets massive subsidies from the Federal Government. If anything, the territory is stealing from the US.
    1
  1711. One of the T-14 tanks broke down during the May Victory Day parade at Red Square. Seems like the T-14 ain't so good after all.
    1
  1712. Sure it is...
    1
  1713.  K B  Lol, who says I am American? China got beaten by Vietnam too, and far quicker. Soviet Union was beaten by Afghanistan in less time too. China can't even "reunify" itself.
    1
  1714.  @Itried20takennames  Behind the hand-shaking and joint declarations of the new "multi-polar world" and the "downfall of the west", Russia and China are deeply distrusting of each other. From old claims on Imperial-era lands in the Russian Far East, to the Chinese copying Russian equipment and re-exporting it, both sides have a lot of beef with each other. China is probably rubbing its hands together as the Russians bungle their invasion of Ukraine. The weaker Russia gets, the less leverage it has over Beijing.
    1
  1715.  @SunriseLAW  Iran is not full of fanatics. I would argue that the Islamic Republic has become more of a military dictatorship of the IRGC. The USSR is very much dead, and Russia is trying to regain much of it's past glory, though it does not change the fact that the USSR is long gone. Russia's economy is very much strained, and it has plenty of demographic issues, like a fluctuating birthrate and an aging population. As for China, China has drug issues itself, though the PRC has been good at covering it up. China also has issues with an aging population, a massive surplus of men, wealth disparity, corruption, quality control, and false economic growth. China has not passed the United States, and is unlikely to do so in the near future. I do not think you are an American. No American I've ever seen uses the term "Anglo". The United States does not see itself as Anglo, and never has. Your English is also sub par.
    1
  1716.  @hedgehog3180  It'd be sad if it wasn't hilarious. In the old days, it was almost impossible to get your hands on modern Soviet hardware (it was hard just get the "monkeyed-down" export versions). Now, modern T-90 and Tor systems are just being abandoned on the roadside.
    1
  1717. We already have that. They're called trade unions, and they're heavily corrupt and bloated.
    1
  1718.  @kb9866 You sell oil for US weapons so Arab dictators and monarchs can oppress their people.
    1
  1719. Yep.
    1
  1720. Al Jazeera only really cares about the Pakistani-Indian conflict. And honestly, most of Al Jazzera's watchers are for only that. Look at the view count, and it tells. Of course, that conflict will go nowhere because India is so much stronger than Pakistan so Indian Kashmir is Indian in fact, whatever Al Jazzera whines about, and both have nuclear weapons anyway so they won't do anything....
    1
  1721.  @shiprathakur2506  Well, Al Jazeera is funded by the Qatari government. It is essentially the rather loud mouthpiece of Qatar.
    1
  1722. Germany has gotten soft from relying on American protection. However, since they are in NATO, they are protected by US, British, and French nukes.
    1
  1723.  @ceamhd  NATO is still important though. If it had been disbanded right after the Cold War, Eastern Europe would be under sway of Russia. Russia could find it much easier to justify an "intervention" to protect their "people" in the Baltic. Ukraine is now learning the price of neutrality.
    1
  1724. They already have for the most part. Troops from the Kurils and Murmansk have been seen in Ukraine months ago. Just about every Russian combat formation has seen some service in Ukraine.
    1
  1725. Beauty standards. Plastic surgery is a big industry in East Asia, with Seoul being the plastic surgery capital of the world.
    1
  1726. Ad hominin. The world has some serious problems and is only getting worse. You don't have to be some Warren Buffet-style guru to get that.
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  1727. Vietnam is a young country, and many there have no memory of the Vietnam War. China's invasion and border conflicts are more recent. Also, unlike China, the US has no long history of past interventions or invasions of Vietnam. Still, there is a large, anti-Communist diaspora in the US that despises Hanoi.
    1
  1728.  @indiasuperclean6969  Based.
    1
  1729.  @03056932  What evidence? Russia lost about two dozen tanks at Avdivka these past two weeks.
    1
  1730. By who?
    1
  1731. Why is Qatar complaining? Who is selling them weapons? Who has a base on their peninsula and makes sure no one would touch them?
    1
  1732. That's... actually not wrong. War is, interestingly enough, good business. If you're not getting bombed, that is. Heck, the Great Depression in America was ended by a massive world war.
    1
  1733. Ad Block, my fren.
    1
  1734. Those countries are flat broke, and shipping/customs makes it so that it's hardly worth the effort. Russia also can't even reliably pay you, due to sanctions.
    1
  1735. Of course, but do to harsh regulation and the general sentiment in the West against using endangered animal products has meant that they are but a tiny fraction of the demand compared to China.
    1
  1736. I guess that's why Russia has been constantly showering Ukraine with modern cruise missiles, instead of a dozen or so every now and again.
    1
  1737. Why would they? NATO gives them defense.
    1
  1738. Remember that Qatar's takes in no refugees. People do not go to Qatar to flee war. Instead, people work there for as slave labor.
    1
  1739. Ding ding ding. You, my guy, are a smart man.
    1
  1740.  @EuDouArteHipHopArtCulture21  Maduro shill. Last time I checked, despite having barely a fourth of the oil, and triple the sanctions, Iran wasn't collapsing into anarchy.
    1
  1741. Rolla baby!
    1
  1742.  @Curvyblackbeauty  No one cares, especially since Amerika bombed your useless mudhut into nothing. Seethe harder
    1
  1743. Ha! By doing what? Pumping more money into the broken American healthcare system?
    1
  1744.  @henkholdingastate  The national budget is decided by Congress, and until recently it was bipartisan (House controlled by the Democrats and Senate controlled by the Republicans). Debt has risen to be unsustainable, and it looks that there will be no way out short of either a default or EXTENSIVE austerity. Either of those options are political suicide, so this tower of cards will continue to escalate. Of course... this isn't isolated to just the Americans. As for the healthcare system, it will need a totally overhaul. Some states have been experimenting though, so there is hope.
    1
  1745.  @henkholdingastate  Of course. The President actually has little direct effect on the economy at large, and has essentially no impact on the national budget. The national budget is quite the joke, sadly. Unfortunately, modern politicians have gotten it in their heads that it is okay to spend beyond the country's means, as long as the economy "grows". A sort of giant ponzi scheme, funnily enough. Sadly, it's not isolated to just the US, but much of the West. Welcome to modern politics.
    1
  1746. The Great Depression was not caused by American tariffs. It was caused by a variety of other factors.
    1
  1747. The US didn't care about Khan. Khan himself had a good personal relationship with Trump, interestingly enough. Plus, with the US out of Afghanistan, there was no need to really keep ties going with Pakistan. India was a better friend.
    1
  1748. Good. Idiots don't need to be voting.
    1
  1749. Ironically, had Russia done nothing, Ukraine probably would have returned to a pro-Russian government after a few years. Even so, let's not forget Zelenskyy was elected partially on a platform of negotiating with Russia to end the Donbass war.
    1
  1750. I'd rather Russia be under a weak and isolated Putin (militarily defanged of course), than fall under Navalny or someone similar, who has no control over most of the country. Or worse, that Russia descends into a civil war with their entire nuclear arsenal up for grabs.
    1
  1751.  @Tounguepunchfartbox  After basically leveling the town too. I thought the objective was the "liberation" of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, not burning it to the ground. Must suck to be the separatist governments; they're given nothing to work for.
    1
  1752.  @Tounguepunchfartbox  What's up with that? I thought Ukraine was massively outnumbered and out of ammo? And the bridges to the town were blown.
    1
  1753. She'd get sent to Gitmo.
    1
  1754. No, they aren't. It's the Russians running out of fuel because of their garbage logistics. So many trucks destroyed or captured by Ukraine.
    1
  1755. Perhaps, but I would disagree. Afghanistan is a thorn bush of trouble. View it less of a nation than more of a mosh pit of competing tribal, ethnic, and religious interests. Not even religion unites them, as there are a sizeable Shia population in a Sunni majority. I would argue that it has now returned to it's natural state: A conservative confederation of tribal and religious interests loosely controlling the country.
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  1756. Ukraine possessed a strong and well organized military with heavy equipment such as tanks, IFVs, and heavy artillery. The Baltics lack this.
    1
  1757. Mexico LOST! They renounced their claim. Stop being so butthurt.
    1
  1758.  @trabajosdehvacenusa7771  It was signed in an era where land was conquered by force, and treaties ceding said land was seen as alright. Does that mean that the treaty Mexico signed is invalid today? Nope. Otherwise, Poland would have to renounce it's western territories, and give them back to Germany. Mexico did not control the land it lost. It was barren and largely ungovernable, as it was controlled by the Comanche and Apache, who did not recognize Mexican authority. Mexico had said claim for barely 20 years, inheriting it from Spain, who did not really govern it. Mexico itself is lucky that the US did not just annex the entire country, as many in the US desired to. Mexico has more pressing concerns than trying to "retake" the land it lost so long ago. The people who live in the Cession are most solidly American, and even if they are Hispanic, I'm sure they would not desire to be under Mexican rule, as if they did, they would not have left Mexico in the first place.
    1
  1759.  @trabajosdehvacenusa7771  Mexico has promise, once it can control its corruption and narco groups. It is the most economically powerful country of Latin America, rivaling Brazil.
    1
  1760. There's not going to be any settlement acceptable to both sides. Either Armenia forces Azerbaijan to relinquish it's territory by force, or Azerbaijan drives the Armenians out. It's a war that will only be resolved by war.
    1
  1761. Wrong, they actually do. It's called MARTA. Not that it's very good though. It is only in a few of the metro counties, skipping big suburb counties like Cobb and Gwinnett completely. Also has problems with crime (which was a reason why those two counties rejected it being built in their jurisdictions).
    1
  1762. And many "socialists" are the same. The Beverly Hills liberals? Champagne socialists? Many American workers are staunchly Republican. Trump's victory in the Rust Belt proved that the Republicans are gaining the American working class.
    1
  1763.  @morewi  Of course not. As the Russian economy smolders in the dumpster, they have less money for the "Russia Stronk!" bots. So, they started recruiting prisoners.
    1
  1764.  @baneblackguard584  Ukraine could potentially develop nuclear weapons to try to scare the Russians out. Since the Budapest Treaty is out the window now, they could in theory do it.
    1
  1765.  @nakkugreen9930  Money can always be found. It wouldn't be too expensive too, since all the Soviet-era research is probably still there. Plus, Ukraine built ICBMs for the USSR, so it wouldn't take too long to start production again. Ukraine is even developing short range ballistic missiles right now that could potentially be nuclear-tipped.
    1
  1766.  @gerardsmadja1323  Well, technically, the Albanian Kosovars were under threat from genocide, while the Russians in Crimea were upset about political changes. Massive difference. Either way, it doesn't matter, since Ukraine's army couldn't protect Crimea. Shouldn't have let their army rot, so the peninsula is Russia's now. Legality is moot.
    1
  1767. Taiwan has always been independent. It is governed by the government of the ROC. Chiang kai-Shek took the gold from the ROC treasury to the island of Taiwan because he could. Why leave it behind for the Communists to take?
    1
  1768.  @Raddon  You say that as Russia breathes down the neck of Europe. If they have the army to back up their ambitions (and Russia has always been a "hard-power" nation), why wouldn't they use it?
    1
  1769.  @Raddon  And if NATO did not exist? The country would be in the sphere of influence of Russia, which would try to expand it's influence as far west as possible. It's something they have historically always tried to do. So what you're implying that it would be better if Russia dominated half of Europe, rather than Ukraine be in NATO and have to deal with "tension"?
    1
  1770.  @Raddon  The Partitions of Poland, the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War (and the various other wars against the Ottomans), Russia's intervention in the Hungarian War of Independence of 1848, the Second World War, interventions to crush popular uprisings in Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Russia has a long history of expansion in Europe. It's how it went from a small dutchy around Moscow to the world's largest country. To say it isn't expansionist is delusional.
    1
  1771.  @andrewseaman97  The name of the game has changed too. Instead of industry being the primary driver of the economy, it is now retail and the financial sector. The big industrial towns in the Northeast, such as Gary and Detroit, became no longer competitive with overseas imports, from South Korea, China, and Japan.
    1
  1772. One, the United States has over 300 million people. Two, the US has some of the lowest overall tax rates compared to much of Europe. People chose low taxes over healthcare.
    1
  1773. Well, here is the problem. Socialism works, humanity doesn't.
    1
  1774. You must be new here. Society will never work like that for the simple factor of human nature.
    1
  1775. Russian arrogance towards Ukraine will likely prove their undoing. Russia saw Ukrainians as backwards "hohols", who folded without a shot during the occupation of Crimea, and who were pushed back at Delbaltseve. What they forgot is that Ukraine was then divided by revolution, and still using the old Soviet model for their military. Ukraine rebuilt itself, retrained itself, and reunified itself.
    1
  1776.  @eyzhd4264  Remember to think as Turkey would think, not what media reports are saying. For Turkey, trading NATO for Russia would be foolish, because it would mean giving up a US guarantee for a shifty partnership with Russia. This spat won't last forever, just a few years. Also note that most of Turkey's military is equipped with Western weaponry. The S-400 would stick out like a sore thumb and would need major work to integrate it within it's defense network. It'd also be stupid to purchase Russian Su-57 because they'd also need to be heavily adapted to their defense network. The F-35 was designed and built with Turkey, among others, in mind. The Su-57 and S-400 are designed for Russian use, and for export among countries that already heavily use Russian weaponry, like Vietnam or Algeria. So, for a good year or two, the systems would be completely useless.
    1
  1777.  @eyzhd4264  Europe and the US have more to offer Turkey than Russia. Warm ties with Russia is Turkish leverage on Washington to let them play their own games in the Middle East and for Erdogan to retain power. Russia can only offer Turkey weapons, not an actual economic relationship. Russia is no friend of Turkey's, and unlike NATO, doesn't have to come to Turkey's defense if they are attacked. As 9/11 showed, it need not be invoked by a hostile country. Turkey doesn't want out of NATO, only wants the Americans and Europeans off it's back.
    1
  1778.  @eyzhd4264  Don't buy into propaganda either, be it pro-American or anit-American. Turkey has closer trade relations with Europe, whose economies are stable, and have little corruption. The US did not initiate a coup. It would not have given the US any benefit. It was also sloppily done, so it was more likely to be a false flag. Turkey does not trust Russia, nor does Russia trust Turkey. This can be in Syria, where Turkish backed rebels have clashed with Assad. Turkey protects the rebels in Ildib, preventing Assad from finishing them off and ending the war. Turkey wouldn't leave NATO because NATO gives Turkey valuable support, like US air defense systems in the south, or American weapons supplies. Turkey even hosts American nuclear weapons. Erdogan doesn't care for Russia, and if the Americans stopped caring about his attempts to increase his own personal power, and the fact that Turkey indirectly aided ISIS, he'd dump them quite quickly. Its realpolitik.
    1
  1779.  @eyzhd4264  ISIS was never able to complete against other insurgent groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, both of which hated ISIS. Though, they did fire rockets into Israel several times. Don't forget, Israel and Turkey cooperate closely on various areas of defense. Turkish M60 Pattons were modernized by Israel.
    1
  1780.  @eyzhd4264  ISIS was not Israeli. However, I'm sure they did benefit from the effects, however. ISIS weakened Syria, and nearly destroyed Assad. Turkey also gained from ISIS as well, by distracting Assad enough to allow Erdogan to gain a foothold in Syria to create a buffer zone.
    1
  1781.  @eyzhd4264  It wasn't. It was Saudi and Qatari funded. A stupid project of theirs to gain influence in Iraq by backing an insurgent group. It backfired on them.
    1
  1782.  @fusion9619  China has been having a large demographic crisis. There are many more men than women. Also, as countries grow more developed, they have less births.
    1
  1783. Muh white people.
    1
  1784. Htin Moe  Well, not the dinos. The Chinese do have a nasty habit of knocking everything off. From weaponry to restaurants. They are rather infamous for it.
    1
  1785. Except there's no federal taxation.
    1
  1786. Just needed a little more sleaze and more of the used car salesman smile, and it would be perfect!
    1
  1787.  @bogdanbogdanoff5164  Yes there is. It is how Tomahawk missiles are guided. Terrain mapping and inertial guidance. In fact, this is to become even more prominent as technology becomes more accurate. An area can be scanned by satellite before hand, even before the war, and the data can be uplinked to the drone (or missile). The drone flies to the target and scans the terrain ahead of it, using altitude and speed as a reference. It wouldn't need GPS or digital uplink.
    1
  1788.  @bogdanbogdanoff5164  Fair point. I guess the overall point is to use drones as a distraction. They would have to be cheap, and easy to manufacture. Of course, ECM is a big challenge, which is why drone swarms haven't appeared just yet.
    1
  1789.  @MinistryofKeith  I lived in Cobb, and from what I could tell, most of their reluctance comes from concerns about crime. Especially in affluent North Cobb, like Kennesaw and Acworth, they were scared that, ahem, less than savory people from the south side would ride MARTA into their cozy suburbs. Also they didn't want to pay for it.
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  1790. Lolwat.
    1
  1791. The fug is that supposed to mean?
    1
  1792. This. Life is dull, meaningless, and painful. We are born into this world, and we die after about 80 years. You should do what you find enjoyable in life, and that gives you a sense of fulfillment.
    1
  1793. Basically the sum is "America is doing fine... relatively" compared to, say, basically everyone else.
    1
  1794.  @JohnDoe48959  People vote for their interests. Some workers vote for tax breaks, because less money for taxes means more money to spend in other areas. Many do not care, as the system of the US government insures high stability, meaning very little overt change. How would education change that? Can education change the fact that we are a tribal, selfish species? No, it can not. That is why every single communist revolution devolved into elite authoritarians ruling over an oppressed citizenry.
    1
  1795.  Brandon Palmer  Doubtful. That radiation would be dumped on his ally Belarus.
    1
  1796.  @crosstraffic187  Which ends up being the same thing, in the end.
    1
  1797. @ Canada has lower wages and more expensive housing. The US is growing faster. Also, Canada's healthcare isn't even that good compared to having decent insurance in the US, with Canada having much longer wait times presently due to having an overstretched system. Thus, more Canadians are attracted to the US.
    1
  1798. The government should put that money into small businesses and infrastructure. Doing otherwise is just throwing tax dollars into a swamp.
    1
  1799. Source: RT (Dude, trust me bro).
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  1800.  @BrixxonLP  Anything that doesn't DIRECTLY quote certified sources (RT, Russia MoD, Pravda) is WESTERN PROPOGANDA! Russia is winning on the battlefield against the evil HATO empire! They have deployed tens, no hundreds of thousands of special forces to help the Ukrainian nazis!!!
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  1801. Because the Democrats get their votes primarily from minorities and rich whites. Not the working class, who have been increasingly siding with the Republicans.
    1
  1802. Because Democracy around the world is usually enforced by the US military.
    1
  1803.    "Blah Blah Blah muh hurricanes. Blah blah blah here's an OPINION piece from a left wing news source that I will take as fact because it fits my narrative." So what? Everyone does it.
    1
  1804.  @paulbarclay4114  Yeah. It basically gets "laundered" through their vast holdings.
    1
  1805.  @theccpisaparasite8813  Because people hate the West so much, they hate America so much, that they will cheer the invasion of another country by Russia. The same people who called America evil for invading Iraq (a despotic mafia state) cheer the indiscriminate bombing of Ukrainian cities.
    1
  1806. This comment section should be an arena battle of itself: Arabs vs. Persians. Who is the most toxic.
    1
  1807. Maybe people shouldn't have protested.
    1
  1808. Of course it is. It's all completely arbitrary.
    1
  1809. Our planet will die anyway when the Sun swallows it. Also, just because your area happens to have a few more kids than average doesn't mean everyone else is fine.
    1
  1810.  @horserehab8454  Russia wouldn't do anything to save Maduro if the US invaded. Just like Iraq, and Serbia. Russia is all talk, no action.
    1
  1811.  @horserehab8454  Like how the Serbians begged Russia to help them when NATO intervened in the Yugoslav wars? Russia gave them nothing. Putin will do nothing to save Maduro, especially since he is so far away, and because he has failed so badly.
    1
  1812.  @horserehab8454  Russia is a paper tiger. They had several strike aircraft and a strategic bomber shot down by tiny Georgia during the 2008 war. You Russians like to blame America for invading defenseless countries, but at least we can conquer them. Russia lost to tiny Chechnya in 1994. You sent bombers to Venezuela because Maduro is one of your last real allies. Russia is despised by most of Europe because of the Soviet era. China is a greater player now. Putin won't save Maduro because he can't even reach him. Those bombers sent there had to stop in NATO territory to refuel.
    1
  1813.  @horserehab8454  You lost to a bunch of mountain men who fought each other almost as they did Moscow. China is much stronger than Russia. Putin has to kowtow to Beijing now.
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  1814.  @katinamarie6651  What female guerrilla fighters?
    1
  1815.  @horserehab8454  The US never supported Chechnya. It was impossible due to geography and because the US wanted closer ties with Russia at the time.
    1
  1816.  @horserehab8454  The US has always despised the Taliban. The Taliban was a Pakistani creation. ISIS has been around since before the US invasion of Iraq. It was merely a group that got pretty lucky and also routed the cowardly Iraqis. Guaido would have gotten nowhere in Venezuela had Maduro not failed as spectacularly as he did. Russia only supports him because he buys their weaponry. Their military industrial complex. As for Navalny, he is a democrat, not some authoritarian strong man like Putin. A shame that corrupt idiot Yeltsin ruined everything for Russia in the 90s. You could have been democratic and strong, like the US and the rest of Europe. You could have been rich, and prosperous. But Putin is merely the tsar of the oligarchs. He just loves power. I doubt you're an idiot, just with your mind clouded by nationalism. Misplaced, though. Russia needs democracy, so the people can be free to root out the oligarchs and corruption. Russia can be strong, and power, but only without the demagogue oligarchs.
    1
  1817.  @horserehab8454  At least in the US we can protest. In Russia you get sent to the gulag.
    1
  1818.  @72SeasonsGone  Turkey is full of idiots. Ever since Erdogan. NATO can replace Turkey with Ukraine. At least Ukraine is grateful for US support and is European. Turkey would have been swallowed up by Stalin if the US hadn't helped, but apparently the Turks like the country who has smashed them in the past as an ally. Turkey has forgotten who it's true allies are.
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  1819. No one cares. It's stock footage.
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  1820. We'll have a military that has it's equipment in five hours of maintenance for every hour of use it actually sees.
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  1821. Nah, nothing will come of it. This isn't the first time the North wanted to have talks. Back in 2000, roughly, there was a period of warming, the "Sunshine" period. Then, relations cooled.
    1
  1822.  @haoyangluo7087  Not quite. Anti-corruption efforts are mostly used as a club against the Jiang Zemin faction. Granted, Jiang's faction is shamelessly crooked, but it is like the pot calling the kettle black. Corruption runs through all of Chinese society, and is pervasive at the lowest levels.
    1
  1823.  @arklat  If people want their freedoms, they must be prepared to fight for them. If the Taliban roll over the Kabul government, then it is because the people don't support it. If Afghanis have to rely on the Americans to keep them free, then they might as well dissolve their country and join America.
    1
  1824.  @walli6388  Yet many Germans still honor the soldiers that fought for the Nazis, and Americans take pride in Nazi scientists that did much to advance American technology, especially in the much vaunted Apollo program. Or many of those in Eastern Europe, especially Russia, who take pride in the Soviet Union, despite how many millions perished under its totalitarian leaders. No culture or identity is free of blood or evil. They are often built upon the bones of others, who themselves built their states upon the bones of those before.
    1
  1825. No u
    1
  1826.  King Jon Targaryen I  The world is not static. We're actually in a relatively cold period of Earth's history, a left-over of the previous glaciation. You cannot turn back what is already done, unless you advocate a new ice age. Instead, we should be focusing about adapting and using warming to our benefit. As permafrost melts, more of Siberia and Alaska will be opened up to farming. In fact, large swaths of farmland in the Midwest have meant more rain. Rising sea levels can be used for tidal power, where the back and forth of tides turns a generator. Increased pandemics are not a phenomenon associated with global warming. Instead, it is more heavily influenced by globalism and the poor food and health standards in the developing world, plus increasing population.
    1
  1827.  King Jon Targaryen I  Population, or more specifically, population density, has a lot to do with a pandemic. If people are in close proximity to each other, disease spreads rapidly. The Bubonic plague was able to spread by the close proximity of people to each other (crowded in shanty homes) and poor sanitary conditions. It's global spread was also helped by the marauding mongol armies. I never said the Earth was cooling, I said we were in a relatively cool time compared to geological history. Indeed, things are bound to warm up anyway as the sun brightens and expands. Globalism is not something recent. At least, what is widely accepted as globalism. Globalism is the movement of goods from a country that produces it (China or India) to a purchasing country (Britain or the US). This is a recent occurrence due to the primacy of the US Navy, which is quick to crack down on piracy, and vastly improved communications. The problem with this is that people are also moving too, due to multinational countries. An American company, say Tesla, has factories and offices in China, where they produce their goods (because of lower labor costs). Of course, Tesla also has offices and their HQ in the US, so they send people out to China and vise versa to keep things connected. This allows disease to spread, because China often has worse sanitation standards than the US, so they pick up a bug and transport it to the US. They spread it around, and someone catches it and takes it back to say, Italy. I don't know where your rant about capitalism comes from, but it is impossible to defend globalism while criticize capitalism. Globalism is in part because labor costs have gotten too expensive in Western countries (the US and Britain) due to safety regulations and healthcare benefits, so it was outsourced to countries that lack these, like China or Vietnam. Coincidentally, these countries have poorer healthcare and sanitation standards. As for feeding the world, why should the US and other Western countries do so? Eugenics and forced sterilization? Woah buddy, that's pretty extreme. I mean, why do that when practicing basic hygiene can do wonders?
    1
  1828.  @vantastic9367  US emissions are actually decreasing. China's are actually increasing. Also, Abu Dabbi is apart of the UAE.
    1
  1829.  @vantastic9367  That is technically equivalent to saying "Texas and all of the United States". Not wrong, just odd. Though, I don't know why that harsh word. I never said I disagreed with what you said. In fact, I find it quite ironic that Al Jazeera, a Qatari-based news outlet, advocates for the West to cut back on emissions to prevent global warming (which they are already doing) yet makes a fortune selling oil, and especially natural gas to China and Japan.
    1
  1830.  @vantastic9367  Understandable. Though, oil is not forever, and the UAE have been taking steps to wean themselves from oil, most by investing heavily in tourism, finance, and shipping. The fact that they are in the middle of a desert is surely going to bite them in the ass though. Perhaps climate change could help that, as I'm sure they have nothing to lose.
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