What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

US Foreign Policy 3.0: We're The Mets of International Diplomacy

Status
Not open for further replies.
Drew S. said:
It takes one country to make war and two to make peace. I’m anti-war but there is only so much control we have. I think we should spend significantly more on defence. We don’t have enough bombers, subs, refuelers, or enough maintenance capability and our fighters are too old.
Click to expand...

Just like we need more guns, especially in schools, right? Having more ways to kill the planet than everyone else combined just isn't enough.
 
aparch said:
Gas stoves and AR-15's for everyone!!!



Maybe we could even combine the two...
Click to expand...

Lol, I actually HATE gas stoves. We have a fancy six burner gas stove and I would be much happier with a cheap four burner electric one. No doubt in my mind the fumes from gas stoves are bad for you and should be replaced if possible.
 
Drew S. said:
It takes one country to make war and two to make peace. I’m anti-war but there is only so much control we have. I think we should spend significantly more on defence. We don’t have enough bombers, subs, refuelers, or enough maintenance capability and our fighters are too old.
Click to expand...

As I said.......,
 
It's kind of gratifying that the fascists in this nation are so inept and transparently incompetent. There is a calming effect in interacting with this sub's Nazis, in recognizing they have absolutely no mental capacity, no courage, no moral center, and no chance to realize their cowardly and vicious vision of the world.

If that is punching down, so be it.
 
Slap Shot said:
Good Lord why does anyone engage that mental midget?
Click to expand...

There was a time I thought Drew was just unaware how undersized his motor was. Now I think he is dimly aware and trying to troll, not realizing you need a little horsepower to do that effectively as well. In the Wild, he would have been gone long ago. Me too, probably.
 
burd said:
There was a time I thought Drew was just unaware how undersized his motor was. Now I think he is dimly aware and trying to troll, not realizing you need a little horsepower to do that effectively as well. In the Wild, he would have been gone long ago. Me too, probably.
Click to expand...

None of us lasts a hour in the wild unless we're pretty enough to be kept for entertainment.
 
Drew S. said:
If you don’t agree with someone they’re surely an idiot. Goes for people on both sides of every argument.
Click to expand...

No, there are many arguments where both sides are idiots.

But in this instance it is at last conceivable that one side's presented axioms, evidence, and reasoning indicates they may, let's say charitably, not be demonstrating a cogent case.

For the record, I don't think you're an idiot. You are just side-splittingly blind.
 
Last edited:
Potential Russian strategic actions in Ukraine in 2023:

COA 1: A major Russian offensive, most likely in the Luhansk Oblast area. Russian forces may seek to conduct a major offensive in the Luhansk Oblast area. The full capture of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts remain the Kremlin’s official war goals and are among Russia’s most achievable (though still highly challenging) objectives given Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts are logistically the easiest territories for Russia to capture. Russian forces have been deploying additional forces to Luhansk Oblast and undertaking other significant activities since 2022, which ISW assesses can support an offensive operation in Luhansk Oblast.[19] ISW continues to assess that Russian forces are unlikely to conduct an offensive in southern Ukraine in Kherson or Zaporizhia oblasts.[20] The Dnipro River separates the frontline in Kherson Oblast and is a serious obstacle to maneuver. Russia’s layered field fortifications array in Kherson Oblast and extensive mining in Zaporizhia Oblast indicate Russian forces are prioritizing defensive operations in both provinces.[21]

COA 2: A Russian defensive operation to defeat and exploit a Ukrainian counteroffensive. The Kremlin redeployed significant military units from the southern (Kherson) direction to Luhansk Oblast in late 2022 and established field fortifications in Luhansk Oblast, as well as in Belgorod and Kursk oblasts in Russia.[22] ISW has reported on many observed indicators that Ukrainian forces seek to conduct counteroffensives in 2023.[23] Ukrainian officials have long been publicly signaling their intent to conduct counteroffensives in 2023.[24] Russian milbloggers have also been long warning about Ukrainian counteroffensives.[25] Russia seeks to secure Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts — territories the Russian government has (illegally) claimed as Russian territory — and to avoid another significant defeat like the rout in Kharkiv Oblast or the withdrawal from Kherson City. These were both significant events that degraded Russian morale and the perception of Russian forces’ ability to secure their larger objectives for the full “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine. Russian forces may seek to successfully defeat a Ukrainian counteroffensive and deprive Ukraine of the initiative by destroying a significant proportion of mechanized Ukrainian forces. Such a successful Russian decisive action could then enable Russian forces to develop a counteroffensive to exploit disorganized and exhausted Ukrainian forces.

Many of the aforementioned Russian lines of effort could support both COA 1 and COA 2; these scenarios are not mutually exclusive. Russian forces could be preparing for a major offensive operation or, alternatively, larger spoiling attacks short of a general offensive operation. The indicators could also support a counterattack to take advantage of a Ukrainian counteroffensive that Russian forces expect to stop.

The most dangerous course of action (MDCOA) of a Russian offensive against northern Ukraine remains unlikely at this time. However, the Kremlin is creating planning flexibility and will likely expand Russia’s military presence in Belarus in the period leading up to planned major exercises (which could possibly support a combat operation) in September 2023. ISW continues to track Russian and Belarusian activities that could in time support a new Russian attack on Ukraine from Belarus. Russia will likely deploy more forces to Belarus under the rubric of the Zapad (West) 2023 and Union Shield 2023 exercises that will likely occur in September 2023.[26] The Kremlin deployed a senior Russian officer, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces Oleg Salyukov — one of Gerasimov’s three newly appointed deputies — to Belarus on January 12.[27] Salyukov may be intended to create command-and-control structures necessary for a Russian operational strike group. These are anomalous activities that intensify the information operation that Russia will attack Ukraine from Belarus and could support an offensive, though ISW assesses an offensive is still a low-likelihood scenario at this time. There continues to be no evidence that Russian forces in Belarus have created the command-and-control structures necessary for an operational strike group as of this publication.[28]

The Kremlin retains its maximalist goals to seize all of Ukraine, despite its poor conduct of the war to date. The Kremlin has been slow to effectively fix its flawed invasion for almost a year and has repeatedly opted for short-term solutions such as: repeatedly cycling through theater commanders and retaining a fragmented command structure, introducing crypto-mobilization campaigns as opposed to full-scale mobilization, failing to control the Russian information space by allowing different pro-war factions to partition the information space, and consistently disrupting the Russian military’s chain of command. The Kremlin’s apparent new attention to Russian military failures will not allow the Kremlin to fix its conduct of the war in the immediate term if at all, and the flaws in Russia’s original campaign design — and the subsequent losses incurred — will be difficult to replace.

Russian forces remain dangerous, and Ukraine requires sustained support. Ukraine requires further and timely Western support to adequately prepare for the Russian COAs for 2023 outlined above. Ukraine’s Western allies will need to continue supporting Ukraine in the long run even if a Russian decisive action in 2023 fails, as the Kremlin is nonetheless preparing for a protracted war. The West must continue its support to Ukraine’s efforts to defeat Russia’s invasion — and must do so quickly. The Russian military, as the saying goes, retains a vote on the course of the war despite its weaknesses and is actively setting conditions for major operations as the war enters its second year.
Click to expand...

ISW and many other sources have noted that Russia is actually changing the way their economy and their military-industrial base work in preparation for a long war, with massive recruitment of personnel and, this time, actually taking the time to train and equip them and provide them with an organized military command and resupply structure.

The initial invasion force was 190,000 out of a full effective strength of 740,000 (the official number of 1M was infamously absurd). Russian force strength in Ukraine is currently only about 20,000. Recruitment of new forces is being estimated by Ukrainian military intelligence as 600,000 - 1.2M. Even allowing for massive over-estimation for rhetorical effect, that sounds... significant.
 
Last edited:
JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon on CNBC: "I wake up every morning and I wonder when the Western world will wake up themselves and help Ukraine win and end this nuclear blackmail."
 
aparch said:
JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon on CNBC: "I wake up every morning and I wonder when the Western world will wake up themselves and help Ukraine win and end this nuclear blackmail."
Click to expand...

I thought he woke up every morning and wondered how he and his buddies got away with stealing 30 trillion dollars from us?
 
No tanks for Ukraine right now.

I think the time is fast approaching where either NATO joins the fight or Ukraine is lost to Russia.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top