After the fiasco in Afghanistan, I can see how intelligence agencies could become cynical about the commitment of local populations to fight for their own freedom.
However, we discovered that the people of Ukraine were not cowards like the people of Afghanistan
holy shit holy shit someone should drop this fucker in a warzone
Neither were cowards, both corrupt war machines started to break down when the flow of US money dried up. It has nothing to do with individual bravery, everything to do with a puppet state being cut off after it proved insufficient for our needs
These motherfuckers need materialism
These are the people who call themselves the adults in the room and say you're only left-wing because you don't have enough life experience.
the taliban offensive lasted 3 months and the result was the complete control of afghanistan and the seizing of billions of dollars worth of american equipment by the taliban
we're over 6 months into the hyped ukrainian counteroffensive and all they have to show for it is some miniscule dots on a map and huge casualties on their side
fight for their own freedom.
"Freedom" once again just means "Western rule".
Pretty sure it makes very little difference for the average Ukrainian whether wholesome100 Cpt Zelenskyy or evil Putler is in charge of their government. Russians are not any less "free" than Ukrainians, if anything, their freedoms are limited by Western sanctions and being banned from participating in international competitions.
They'd probably die after their nearest Supermarket closed down and they could no longer use their phone or computer.
Cowardice is when you don’t get down and grovel for your American masters
Wow this rivals "an outbreak of gratitude among the Iraqi people" as one of the things someone can say to get themselves Disney fastpassed instantly to the front of the wall line
Jesus christ
It comes down to blood. Which side can bleed more. And the answer is Russia. Someone can correct me on this story, but it goes like this… A country goes to war agains China. Every day the Chinese lose one million fighters. After 100 days the enemy surrenders to China. Suffering and dying is part of the Russian psyche. They will bleed their own country dry and consider it a patriotic gesture.
They actually still believe they are dying in droves, just naruto running into the bullets in human wave attacks.
"The slavic brainpan is predisposed towards human wave attacks and death" is...certainly a take to have
I hear chuds parrot that line, inserting Russia instead of Slavic brainpan, and people including libs nod along because they saw Jude Law in Enemy at the Gates in the early oughts.
They used to say it about China during the Korean War. Boomers will swear up and down that the PLA sent waves of guys to die until the Americans ran out of bullets as a deliberate tactic.
This dude's definition of Slavic is anywhere east of Prague. Chinese Slavs, amazing.
Libs sure do love their literal Nazi propaganda.
Just waiting for them to call us candle-eaters at this point.
what story goes like that? what the fuck are they talking about?
The racist story of "those hoards in the east don't value human lives as much as we do".
"those hoards in the east don't value human lives as much as we do"
Coming from the part of the world that brought us:
CW: Genocide
There was a line in a German newspaper recently that said "Israel is a democracy, where every life matters" 
You mean that's not how it works? Why would Nazis lie... 
These deeply unserious people managed to find an old bottle of vintage N*zi Germany era anti-Slavic racism and have been gulping it down heavily. It's literally the "superior Western Europeans cannot be defeated by the inferior and stupid ~~Slavic hordes~~ RUZZIAN ORCZ. Operation Barbarossa will be a success!" all over again.
Russia won’t pull out, Putin has to appear powerful. It doesn’t matter if it ruins Russia economically, he won’t ever stop.
Russia is the fastest growing economy in Europe.
They have a birth rate well below replacement and are bordering on demographic collapse. They can't afford to lose millions of men like they could in WW2.
Once about 32 million Russians die (probably early 2025) then the door will be locked in and the whole rotten edifice will fall down.
What I hate is most people don't seem to realise it's not only about Ukraine. Letting Russia win opens a whole other can of worms. Do we really want authoritarian powers with imperialistic ambitions around the world to think they can just invade what they want and wait until the West gets tired?
The west is the vanguard of anti-imperialism.
Meanwhile, Russia has had to sell oil at loses, has had assets frozen, has suffered heavy sanctions meaning lack of materials and equipment/technology, and has had to switch to a war time economy. Meanwhile, it has barely made a dent in the wests finances.
Russia the fastest growing economy in Europe.
Meanwhile, it has barely made a dent in the wests finances.
How long do you think it'll take liberals to figure out that derivatives and oil futures don't translate into ammunition and rations if you outsourced all your factories?
They never will, the signs are already bad for the Ukrainian side.
In March 2023, the EU made the historic decision to deliver a million artillery shells to Ukraine within 12 months. But the number that has actually been sent is closer to 300,000.
According to the armed forces of Ukraine, over the summer of 2023, Ukraine was firing up to 7,000 artillery shells a day and managed to degrade Russia’s logistics and artillery to the point where Russia was firing about 5,000 rounds a day. Today, the Ukrainians are struggling to fire 2,000 rounds daily, while Russian artillery is reaching about 10,000.
Russia is likely to be able to fire about 5m rounds at Ukraine in 2024, based on its mobilised defence production, supply from Iran and North Korea, and remaining stocks. Despite the flippant observation – often made by European officials – that Russia’s economy is the same size as that of Italy, the Kremlin is producing more shells than all of Nato.
This is not to say "Russia stronk, victory imminent", but that there's a rising tide on the Russian side which has, amusingly, more stable allies, that can actually ship war supplies on time. Even this lib commentator is not shying away from noting the Ukrainian counter-offensive floundered. The closer you get to the actual details, the less gung-ho you are about the war, funny that.
You can't keep people down like the Russians are trying after what Ukraine has experienced of even fledgling democracy and freedom.
Well, Putin...
Exactly. Also...
I completely agree. Then there's...
Exactly. The USSR...
THIS. He doesn't...
Exactly. The sheer number...
Exactly.
You know when the thread has this structure that meaningful discussion is ongoing
One of the worst aspects of places like R*ddit is their use of political analogy in the place of political analysis.
Obviously some of the most egregious offences are when people do like Harry Potter fanfic or whatever (e.g. Joe Biden is Harry Potter, Kamala Harris is Hermione, and Trump is Voldemort... that kind of bullshit) but the second worst is when they do pop-history political analogy.
No, Napoleon doesn't have any direct bearing on the current war in the Ukraine and no matter how closely you retcon major political or military figures into a superficial match with major figures today it won't make your analysis any more sound, let alone any more true.
This isn't the Soviet intervention into Afghanistan. This isn't one of the wars in Iraq. This isn't the same as a box office smash hit movie which you love and have seen half a dozen times.
If you want to draw upon history for some analysis of the war in the Ukraine, I would point you to the Syrian civil war because there you will see Russia's modern military tactics on display and this would be a sound basis for developing an understanding of Russia's military tactics in the Ukraine. It's not a surefire 1:1 match and it's never going to be but it's where I think any credible person would start (aside from any fairly recent Russian war game tactics.)
But that's nowhere near as compelling and it doesn't have the aura of gripping narratives and silver screen treats in the way that this cheap political analogy has. Discussing troop movements and artillery positions and the names of contemporary Russian generals is dry af and almost nobody is actually going to listen if you're talking about that stuff.
I know the whole "Reddit hivemind" trope is completely played out by now but there's a grain of truth to it. Mainstream Reddit subs are particularly bad at this alt-present narrative scripting as a stand in for reality that gets elevated into something widely celebrated across that site (and all those sycophantic comments that come to bask in the upvotes are a part of this phenomenon.)
Is this like glimpsing into an alternate universe?
This is what your brain looks like on worms
The concept to read up on is “hyper-reality”.
In short, signals and signs become confused with the reality they signify.
Getting the sinking feeling that they're straight up never going to acknowledge any kind of Ukrainian defeat
I'm thinking about the "Government in Exile" industry and I'm thinking you're right.
I came to terms with this a year ago tbh
The real Vietnam Syndrome
"We killed [made up number of Russians] but lost the land and any strategic goal, you call that a loss???"
So you think Ukraine is losing? 
Well, my 4-year-old just did the Hitler salute and said "Ukranda forever" so take that, Putler.
They also think it's a guarantee that Trump loses, China is collapsing from its own economy, and Biden is the second coming of FDR.
These people are gonna become Qanon style cultists when Russia wins the war
They're already straight up posting geopolitical fan fiction
Ukraine dorks and anti-China dorks need to be thrown into the Lake of Fire.
There will be Russian brigades on the Polish border before the NATO stooges admit they might be wrong
Kinda me, I remember watching Lazerpig videos and stuff about how smelly big bad Russia is and slava ukraini and stuff like that, before I went all the way left... now I'm sitting here, thinking about how badly Russia is totally for real legitsies I promise losing.
It's the dunk tank.
This is where you come to post big-brained hot takes by chuds, libs, or even fellow leftists, and tear them to itty-bitty pieces with precision dunkstrikes.
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