KipPotapych
Well-Known Member
I feel like this part of your post is self contradictory though. If the latter was true, wouldn’t the former be a nonissue? Otherwise, it just says that while people aren’t willing to give up 1mm of their land, they, at the same time, aren’t willing to fight for it unless literally dragged by men dressed in camouflage/military clothing.Of course Ukraine has compulsory enlistment now. What do you expect when it's fighting for its survival against an invader. If Russia is so good at volunteers enlistments, why did it have to draft 300,000 last year? Why did approximately 500,000 draft age individuals vote with their feet? Why did it recruit from prisons? Your claims that the Ukrainian population don't support the Zelenski govt war aims and would be willing to give up Ukrainian territory for peace ring hollow. If anything Russia's invasion, war crimes, and indiscriminate attacks on Ukrainian civilians, have hardened the peoples attitude against Russia and they will not accept the giving of 1mm of Ukrainian sovereign territory to Russia.
Well, those are all big “ifs” and unlikely to come true, which is mostly my point. And they surely aren’t going to be anything but piecemeal, like most of the rest of the stuff. The timeline indicated in the article I provided and quoted above suggests just that. Hence, my assumption that it is simply to keep this thing going. Though I did see some talk about the Gripen’s as well over the past two days.The F-16s will make a difference IF:
They should have been provided 18 months ago and without reservation but Macron, Biden, and Scholz were to hesitant. Of the three, Biden is still far to hesitant and continues to leave Ukraine fighting with one hand behind its back. If he and Obama had stood up to Putin in 2014 we wouldn't need to be having this discussion.
- There are enough provided.
- They aren't provided piecemeal.
- They are fully supported without any hesitation.
I think Biden is hesitant for a reason and a legit one, in my opinion. It also now appears that no one (Ukraine aside) wants (neither it is necessarily possible) an actual defeat of Russia on this battlefield, thus the supplies are just enough to keep this going for the time being without any actual goal at this point (especially now that everyone seems to perceive the nuclear escalation to be not an issue). Or there isn’t much left to supply? I am also of the opinion that at this point most players involved would prefer this to stop, but no one knows how to stop it. In particular, how to stop it and save their own faces at the same time. Everyone, in my opinion, understands that, at the very least and most certainly, Crimea is not going to be part of Ukraine in any foreseeable (by any measure of time) future. Thus, the way it has been set up, there will be violation of international law and sovereign borders and everything that comes with it no matter what happens, basically. Here comes the part where I am sure at least some politicians wonder if it actually matters if more territory makes a difference or not in this context.
As for Obama in 2014… I posted his interview, where he touched on the subject, here not that long ago. I do agree with him. However, I would also propose that Putin/Russia could have done a lot more in 2014 taking over some good chunks of Ukraine (if not the entire country) and we also possibly would not be having this conversation right now.