At first, representatives of the General Staff told a lot, confusing, but very interesting. Then there were more reports. But most of all I remember Budanov's answer. Someone asked him how much time we still have. And Kirill says with his cold smile: "If there are no serious negotiations by the summer, then very dangerous processes for the very existence of Ukraine may be launched," recalls one of the participants of the meeting in a conversation with the UP.
The article was written by Lieutenant Colonel ML Cavanaugh, an active duty U.S. Army Strategist with global experience and assignments ranging from the Pentagon to Korea and West Point to the Middle East.
That bio is out of date but, fine, he’s not literally a think tanker, he operates on the academic side. Pretty much the same job, though, especially when writing such “opinion pieces”.
No, worse. They trusted their experts and they trusted what the Ukrainians reported. They smelled blood and giddily thought they had the opportunity to humiliate Russia—without getting their hands too dirty. Culminating in the resounding failure of the 2023 Kontr.
By fall 2023 they knew the score. But they couldn’t get out then and they still can’t.
That’s really what it boils down to for people like you: the production values. No contest, the US is unbeatable in that department. Anything but to be seen as a sucker.
The more sophisticated the population the higher the production value is. If the population are idiots who will believe anything then why bother overproducing, slop will do. It's cheaper that way.
Bit of “media literacy” for you: The media you read does not exist to inform you. Trump’s lead would have had to have been overwhelming for published polls to indicate that he would win.
Yeah, things are bad (but not that bad) and we were wrong [that is, lied] the last six times but if we can just get Ukraine through 2025, Russia will definitely be exhausted. Pinky swear.
>Why does China’s near abroad matter to them? Why do they care about national unity? Why would they want unobstructed access to the deep-water Pacific?
Are questions that answer themselves. But they are the wrong questions.
It’s not China that’s the hostile actor here. It’s not China that’s meddling in distant affairs. This very thread pertains to an unilateral, unprompted hostile action by the US against China. And note that it’s not Trump’s doing. He’ll just do more of it, more openly.
And all of this is very much in line with America’s (at least) seven decades old strategic posture:
At first, representatives of the General Staff told a lot, confusing, but very interesting. Then there were more reports. But most of all I remember Budanov's answer. Someone asked him how much time we still have. And Kirill says with his cold smile: "If there are no serious negotiations by the summer, then very dangerous processes for the very existence of Ukraine may be launched," recalls one of the participants of the meeting in a conversation with the UP.
https://www.pravda.com.ua/articles/2025/01/27/7495371/