Seedorf81

No worries, mate, no sorry needed, but nice to read. Thnx.

But still, no war.

I did not say "cause". Politicians, fears, nationalism, idealism and even economics and a lot of other reasons cause armsraces, yes. But buying/producing more weapons usually urges the "other side" to do the same, and then someone, somewhere, somehow sees or fears that there will be a disadvantageous imbalance, and decides "to strike now, before it is too late". Chicken and egg conundrum, probably.

Well.. what I learned from history, is that armament-races (except for the nucleair one) usually LEAD to "great power wars".

No doubt in my mind that this "Russian legion" is being set up by the Ukrainians, and I think it's not only brilliant and bold, but a bit funny, too. I mean, using Putin's own trick against him, that must piss him off big time. On the other hand, what if the Ukranian offensive starts, this Russian legion conquers a bigger chunk of Russian territory than anyone expected, and in desperation Putin uses a tactical nuke on them? Nobody ever dreamt of a Russian nuke to kill Russians in Russia, but now?!

Well, in my opinion we could be very surprised on how war, and the growing threat of more war (global even), expedites funding of, and progress of, development in technology and weaponry. (By the way, this also goes for medical and logistical etc. developments.) In 1933 famous scientists (Einstein, too) said that they believed that nucleair energy/weapons would be impossible. https://www.facebook.com/veritasium/videos/why-einstein-thought-nuclear-weapons-were-impossible/310406717550229/. Only twelve years later, ARMS-RACE and WAR years later, the Hiroshima bomb exploded. It was predominantly the almost ridiculous amount of money for the Manhattan-project that made the exceptional scientific progress possible. Money that never would have been allocated in peace-time. So war, and even the threat of war, unleashes funds and capabilities that can have stunning results. I believe we ain't seen nothing yet. P.S.: When watching D-Day 1944 film-footage I always think of the unimaginable exponential growth and functionality (mind-blowing logistics, from USA to Birma, China, Africa, Europe, Russia, Middle-east, Australia and all over the entire Pacific) of the United States Army in WW2. If the current USA would only have half of that WW2power, (which lies dorment at the moment, I think) then it would be wise for anyone not to go to war with the United States.

Yeah, war always speeds up technology-development. I suspect it won't take long before we see synchronized drone-clouds (hundreds?) with explosives and "human-recognizing"-software. One operator steers them to the target-area, and then the drones "hunt" individual soldiers. (And any unlucky civilian that is around.) Scary stuff.

"Bryansk, Russian train derailed after explosion". Rumours of saboteurs.

Yes, the Germans gave up, but only after Hitler killed himself. Question is if that would have been the case if Hitler had gone to the Alps (or in hiding like Saddam Hoessein). It shows to me that getting rid of The Big Guy on the Top (Putin) is vital for any peace-possibilty between Russia-Ukraine.

Dutch newssite quotes Washington Post: 'Ukraine was planning to attack Moscow on 24th of Februari, to "bring the war closer to the Russians", but didn't after US disapproved.'

This awful K2 video reminds me of the numerous stories from (pre-drone) wars and the soldiers' struggle on what to do when mortars zero in on you when caught in the open or partially open. Veterans seemed to be fairly equally divided on what to do. A. Drop down, don't move and wait until the worst is over or B. Immediately run as fast as you can to get out of the kill-zone. Although it looks to me that drones "solve" this problem by making any escape virtually impossible, I find it remarkable that the only surviving soldier in this clip is the one who got up and started to run. Would that be luck or wisdom? I don't know, but the more I see these vids, there more I count myself to be very, very VERY lucky not to be in a war.

"The Netherlands and Danmark are buying 14 Leopardtanks for the Ukraine." 165 million Euro's, but tanks will be delivered in 2024.

I laughed out loud, when I read this fictional and seemingly ridiculous interview. But then I thought of some of the people I recently met in the neighborhood, at work, and on the Internet; and it dawned on me: that fictional interview may be much less ridiculous than it looks. Maybe I've turned into a negative grumpy old man, but the amount of antisocial, ignorant, "ever-complaining about the stupidest things" and "blame everyone but oneself" kinda people seems to grow by the minute.

Thread is on "high speed" again, so if next info was already mentioned, sorry for that. Egypt sides with Russia? Wants to deliver 40000 rockets? https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/10/egypt-weapons-russia/ That is not good news.

I did not claim it to be "breaking news" or "sensational news" or anything like that, did I? If you expect others to be the first with every bit of news, you'll be disappointed a lot more, I fear.

According to Der Spiegel 18 Leopard 2s, 40 Marder(s) and 2 Bergepanzer have arrived in Ukraine. Maybe the Ukrainians were waiting for those for the start of a new offensive? (O, also three Leopards from Portugal arrived.)

In a usually grim and sometimes horrible thread, a very funny line, I think. Don't know if this was intended, but it sure confirms that Steve is at least a little bit of an alien .

Don't know if this has been mentioned earlier, but.. Dutch national newssite just now: Putin will deploy tactical nukes in Belarussia. Storagefacility should be ready 1st of July. (He said it in tv-interview on Belarussian state tv.)

Again, that has nothing to do with my posts, as far as I can see. I asked why you accused me of being pro-Putin, and I haven't even seen a hint of an understandable answer/explanation. Although my annoyance about the accusation is actually growing, I'll let it be, because this discussion shouldn't be on this Forum at all.

What has that to do with me? I still don't see where I showed any "Pro-Putin" thoughts, and I resent being accused of that. I do not take that lightly.

How, and why, you come to the conclusion that I am pro-Putin, baffles me, shocks me, and even slightly insults me. I'm stunned, really.

That is probably part of it, thank you, Dave. With "Russians", I meant that as in The Russian Empire (Napoleanic times) and The Sowjet Union in general. I have no idea how many people under those names really felt part of that, or only part of their region/ethnicity/culture, or maybe a little bit or both, perhaps?

To say they achieved "nothing", is historically inaccurate. And do you think that the Russians think that? It was about their mindset on why not giving up, so I do not see the relevance of your post, TBH.

Boy, this thread is racing recently, can't keep up, so that explains the "late" reaction. I'm not the only one who struggles, I suppose, with keeping up?!

Against Napoleon things didn't look good for a very long time, but the Russians kept on fighting, and they finally did win. The Winterwar of 1939 didn't go especially good, to use a nice euphemism, but the Russians kept on fighting and they won eventually. And well, the summer of 1941 was way, way, WAY worse for the Russian Army than anything else, but they kept on fighting (against any logic or sensible reason), and they won in 1945. So their history teaches them: how bad it is, even unimaginably bad, in the end we can win.