Comments by "David Himmelsbach" (@davidhimmelsbach557) on "Hemmer breaks down Russia's latest moves: 'Very long war'" video.

  1. You've defined the Baltic states. Now that Putin is on the loose, it is seen as a failed strategy. Putin is why Sweden and Finland are beginning to think of joining NATO. Putin has shown how neutrality actually works out in practice.
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  2.  @roundedges2  You've skipped recent history. The Baltic nations HAVE adopted your idealized grand strategy. THEY now consider it defunct. Putin has shown the entire planet -- but not you -- that diplomacy and treaties are for losers. For such small nations, having NATO react AFTER Putin invades -- is too late. They recoil in horror at the prospect of having WWV fought over their tiny nations. BTW, absolutely no-one has EVER proposed putting strategic weapons close to Russia. Before Putin invaded, NATO was open to working out a treaty -- like START -- that would codify such restraints. Putin threw such diplomacy into the dustbin of history.
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  3.  @roundedges2  Sweden is ALREADY militarized. For the longest time -- going back to the Thirty-Years War -- Sweden has been a premier military - techno power. The famous German 88mm FLAK gun of WWII was built and co-designed in Stockholm. This happened before Adolf came to power, BTW. Since the design was funded by the Germans, the blue prints were theirs. Saab still produces solid jet fighters. Sweden originated AIP submarine propulsion. On and on it goes. What Finland and Sweden find shocking is that Putin flatly ignores all international norms -- when it suits him. Helsinki and Stockholm have always thought that being studiously neutral would shield them from Moscow. Now, they doubt it. Score another one for Putin.
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  4. He was being generous, in print. Jim really thought that the switch would occur after about a week. Plan A would die or fly in seven-days. By then Reforger would be in full swing.
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  5. Very few nations have ever accepted Israel's claim, so Moscow's assertion is a repetition of established policy.
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  6.  @16psyco  Syria lost the Golan because Syria was shelling Israel -- over and over and over. So, in 1967, the IDF became obsessed with taking the Golan from Syria. In contrast, Lebanon never fired upon Israel. So, Israel never lifted a finger towards the north. Much, much later, Lebanon permitted the fanatics to begin shelling Israeli farmers -- same as Syria did years earlier. The result was the same. Israel became obsessed with pushing the fanatics back out of range. See how that works ? When it was all said and done, the fanatics had turned Beirut into a hell hole. (1975-78) This civil war set the stage for the fanatics to begin firing on Israel.
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  7.  @16psyco  You're unique, being the first to attribute nationalism to the fanatics of Beirut. The players were gangsters. They ran the MAFIA playbook.
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  8. UV, Putin has just flat-lined his economy. Eventually, you might figure it out.
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  9. It took the Bolsheviks 1,500,000 enraged troops to shove the Nazis out of Ukraine during WWII. Ukraine is simply THAT big. Kiev, alone, figures to take 250,000 troops to conquer -- or one heck of a big siege. A siege ring would require ~ 80,000 troops. (The Russians would need a belt tens-of-miles deep as their boys would be facing inward and outward at the same time.)
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  10. The decider is not Russia - - just Putin. On current trends, Putin is about to blow up the Russian economy.
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  11. The Big Story is MUD. Zelenskyy's generals have calculated that mud will arrive first along the Black Sea coast. It has. It's only getting nasty in the afternoons -- but in another two-weeks most of Ukraine will be getting seriously muddy. Mud ends mechanized warfare. ATGM driven APC/Tank losses will simply explode in mud season. The Ukrainian generals are already looking a LOT smarter than Putin's crew. Putin, himself, is likely the reason why. He's running his war, Stalin-style. (Think Summer, 1941 thru Autumn, 1942 )
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  12. Putting strategic weapons in Poland was never in play -- let alone even further east. America has, largely, removed most of its atomic weapons from Europe. Those in Turkey are bombs, not missiles. (IE Not first strike weapons) Russia's primary threat is from Beijing. It's run by fanatical gangsters, too. They covet Siberia.
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  13. The missiles bit was already offered up by NATO. Even now, NATO is not willing to station missiles in Poland, the Baltics, et. al.
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  14. The Sunni faction killed the vast majority of Iraqis -- not the UK or the USA. Both London and Washington dedicated themselves to stopping the Sunni fanatics... and rounding up Saddam's criminal crew. As for Ukraine: the locals are hostile to Putin's army. They are also getting world class ATGMs. And the WORLD has shut down international trade with Russia. Red China does not have what Russia needs, BTW.
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