fry30

Aw, now I miss John Kettler...

Hey! I resemble that, at least according to my wife!

whew glad you didn't spell that "on to".  This is a family forum after all. 

I was going for a more mocking angle to be honest.  Since the dawn of time people - usually old people - have somehow hooked whatever social ills they see onto a crisis.  “Moral decline”, “Hippies”, “Homosexuality”, “Women who can vote”!
Human social systems are naturally a mix of progressiveness and conservatism.  And rarely, if ever, does a war start based solely on whatever social issue means most to you.  We did not start wars because “the church” since the Crusades, possibly the Middle Ages - and even then there was a whole lotta money and power at play.  We sure as hell have never started a war over any of the rest of “damn kids these days” stuff.
The West is not going to fall over the obsolescence of religion or LGBTQ issues, or whatever you are worried about.  Why?  Because it didn’t last time with “women voting”, “civil rights” and “rock and/or roll”.  In fact since those End Times, the West has continued it rise in power and wealth.  
If anything does destroy the West it will be power hungry egomaniacs that leverage all that social angst into something really dangerous.  They aren’t doing it because they really care about our church/mosque/raccoon ratios - they are doing it to take more power.  The dismantling of democracy, social divisions that turn cancerous, deep corruption and greed- this is how empires die.  Not because we decide to stop going to freakin church and start this strange new thing called “meditation”.  

Be that as it may, I can say that times have changed. compared to last year. I had a development project. But because of the war, I decided that civilian projects would not benefit my country and decided to join the Ukrainian armed forces. Moreover, recently chronic diseases are not considered an obstacle to recruitment

"act together", I meant "act together" yeah that's it, that's the ticket.
I'm still unclear on why swearing is censored. I mean really, we have videos that show people getting killed for ****s sake and a little colourful language is not allowed. Sheesh.
Oops I did it again

This would be a glorious opportunity for American pick up truck manufacturers, who with the end of ZIRP are sitting on lots of inventory they can’t move. They could get probably get uncle Sam to comp them a bit too. Not as good as a Hilux/LC70, but better than nothing. Also American-size means lots of room for body armor and cupholders for energy drinks.

Oh goody, that kid showed up.  Russia is “still there” because they dug in behind minefields and won’t leave, hardly the high water mark of military performance.  The UA defeated the initial invasion.  Created conditions for a Russian operational collapse, twice.  And are now working on a third.
Any chance you could be curious somewhere else if the sum total of your contribution is questionable, incited claims and pointing out that Jesus wasn’t really born on 25 Dec?  Asking for a friend.

We'll shut down for the evening...
My opponent's wife, and my wife too, right around this time of night - usually come out in lingerie with champagne. Nothing like a nice back rub and they just love to hear all about the battle. We're lucky guys.

No. Ironically, but now we have a Jew as a president and Muslim as minister of defense.
I can't find this photo - the Jew and Muslim, who serve in one platoon celebrates Orthodox Easter %) When you under death each day and fight for own common land, all differences have gone to background. 

I try to not post much Russian propaganda anymore, but this was too much. British PMCs are now apparently involved in selling children to the Coca-Cola company. This garbage coming from someone who's president is wanted by the ICC for kidnapping Ukrainian children. 
Q-Anon level drivel.

https://english-alarabiya-net.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/english.alarabiya.net/amp/News/world/2023/10/02/Turkey-considering-supplying-Bayraktar-Akinci-drones-to-Ukraine-Turkish-defense-firm?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQGsAEggAID#amp_tf=From %1%24s&aoh=16962701863082&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fenglish.alarabiya.net%2FNews%2Fworld%2F2023%2F10%2F02%2FTurkey-considering-supplying-Bayraktar-Akinci-drones-to-Ukraine-Turkish-defense-firm
 
Akinci is the next step up From TB2. 40k' ceiling,  possibly higher (TB2 is max 30k I believe,  with limited endurance at that upper limit). Still just turbo prop so limited maneuverability but excellent range.  It's not an air-to-drone, it's observation and strike. 
 
Plus,  Australia keeps the flame alive:

https://mil.in.ua/en/news/australia-prepares-the-first-batch-of-slinger-counter-uav-systems-for-ukraine/
Hopefully cheer everyone up a bit after the Slovakia news

10 years is the time scale for the '80s in Afghanistan. If you look at the casualty numbers we are likely already past it - by a lot.
Soviet Casualties for all of Afghanistan (The Soviet-Afghan War: Breaking the Hammer and Sickle)
14 453 dead
53 753 wounded
68 206 total
Russian Casualties in Ukraine since Feb 2022 (Troop Deaths and Injuries in Ukraine War Near 500,000, U.S. Officials Say)
120 000 dead
170 000 wounded
290 000 total
So, in less than two years Putin has managed to get 4 times the number of soldiers killed or wounded than during the whole Afghanistan debacle. It is a tribute the miss information and propaganda campaign that the wheels have not come his regime.
 

damn you.  Damn you, Mitch McConnell.  You keep doing things for Ukraine that force me to say "thank you Senator McConnell" to a person I completely loath.  But I mean it.  THANK YOU SEN MCCONNELL.

"we'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when....."
 
cheers,
rob

Wrt to Taurus & ATACMS:

Kevin is that you?
Re the forever war comment I think there's a couple of points that make this quite different to previous interventions.
Ukraine wants the help it's receiving and wants western partners to be involved. This time russia is directly involved and not sitting safely behind a proxy. Diminishing russia's ability to be a general pain the *** on the world stage is a big win for everyone (except russia). Better to spend treasure than your own servicemen's lives And those are just the obvious ones.

Going out in style...just small video addition to recent tank discussion.
 

As much as it pains me to give my HUMINT brethren any credit it’s also pretty likely that there are more than a few residents of Sevastopol that know/hear things and hate the Russian occupier.

U.S. will send Ukraine ATACMS long-range missiles for the first time (NBCNews)
 
 

After WoW ("Wolski o Wojnie") FB and YT account. About polish support. Autotranslate from his FB post:
"
I see that the manipulation of Morawiecki's statement is beginning, and yet both fragments can be directly quoted:
"We will certainly not risk Ukraine's security, which is why our hub in Rzeszów, in consultation with the Americans and NATO, continues to play the same role as before. And it will continue to do so."
Nothing more needs to be added here. Supplies of materials for the defense of Ukraine have been, are and will continue.
However, the second fragment manipulated in the message:
"We are no longer transferring any weapons to Ukraine because we are now arming ourselves
with the most modern weapons. If you don't want to defend yourself, you must have SOMETHING to defend yourself - this is our principle. And that is why we have made increased orders (...) we are focusing on quickly arming the Polish army."
Of course, the statement is taken out of context and manipulated, but this is the truth: while other large NATO countries give equipment from arms depots after disbanded units, Poland is the only country with numerous land forces that donated equipment taken from the lines. Taken from Polish soldiers from line units. The Germans are giving museum equipment - Leopard 1A5s, which even the Ukrainians did not want to accept. We are giving Leopard 2s that we are taking from the line in 10BKPanc, we are giving a battalion of Wolverines that we are taking from 17WBZ, we have given and are still giving "Twarde" PT-91s taken from the lines in Braniewo and Giżycko.
More than 270 T72M1/M1Rs donated to Ukraine were tanks freshly renovated from frontline units of the Polish Armed Forces.
In 2019, Poland nominally had 861 tanks. We donated approximately 350 of these to Ukraine.
40%! No one has given more than us in relation to the armed forces. Artillery?
By spring 2022, the Polish Armed Forces received approximately 82 Krab AHS. 54.65% went to Ukraine! I ignore deliveries from this year. There are many such examples. No one gave as much as Poland and as quickly as Poland. We simply don't have anything to give anymore. Because we have already taken it from a Polish soldier to give it to a Ukrainian one. We temporarily weakened the Polish Armed Forces, but thanks to the fact that equipment from Poland saved Ukraine, our security per se increased - by stopping Russian imperialism on the battlefield and by bleeding the Russian Armed Forces. In return, we buy new equipment, but these purchases - due to the need - are not optimal - we buy them on different terms because we have no choice. And the equipment is just arriving. We will close the gap for approximately 30-40% of the Land Forces by at least 2027-2028.
I really hope that the ill-considered statements of the Ukrainian side and the row over grain are the result of the position of the oligarchs and the quality of the political class in Ukraine, and not a cynical conclusion that we have already given everything we could give...
Please forward the entry. It will not make up for the damage that an ill-considered and out-of-context tweet from the Prime Minister's statement (from the PRM account) will make up for, but maybe it will explain the situation a little better."
Pleas consider this before writing bull**** about Poland support and selfishness.
 

Hah,  love that phrase.  Plus it doesn't get *** by the forum algorithm! 

I don't think think they consider the near obliteration of the Russian army to be a negative. You have to give the Poles a lot of credit for the first three months, when they had ten percent or more of Ukraines population at least pass through, and it went as well as it possibly could have done. They sent a lot of stuff early as well, when a lot of other countries wee dithering rather badly. Having said all of that, the Polish Government has certainly tried to manage the war as whole to their advantage where possible. Obviously they like E.U. money, and they have certainly gotten quite a bit of it. They wanted U.S. forces based in Poland, they got that too. All in all I still think the balance sheet of the Polish Government is nicely in the black in regard to how they have handled Ukraine, although the grain tiff certainly hasn't impressed anybody.
The problem with the the current Polish Government is, well, everything else. Their domestic policy on any number of matters, their relations with the EU on everything except Ukraine, The whole mess with the independence of the courts, and on, and on. 
I just happen to think that the best way to deal with them is to do everything possible to help Ukraine, and reinforce NATO's eastern flank. Once the Russian Bear is firmly back in its cage perhaps they will discover how grateful voters can be, sort like Churchill did.

Traditionally, very englightening post about this short drama.

 
Meanwhile, in real world - one of Russian "peacekeepers" killed in Karabakh was deputy commander of submarines of Norther Fleet. Odd place for such a guy.
https://www.rferl.org/a/top-russia-navy-officer-killed-azerbaijan-nagorno-karabakh/32602846.html
Thanks. Unfortunatelly, their stocks does not seem to be near to ending.
https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/uk-news/2023/08/29/russia-hoards-missile-stocks-as-it-prepares-for-major-autumn-strike/
I am curious if the fact that UA now has its own small drones and missile can change the dynamic of Russia's own airstrikes on Ukrainian soil this winter; will it be so dramatic like last one? 2022/23 they attacked with total impunity according to (it seems) pre-planned schedule; now just gathering planes on airfields by muscovites seem to pose a danger. Even airfields quite deep into Mother Russia itself could theoretically be targeted by a team with some IKEA-made cartoon bomblet. That means longer route for missiles and subsequently more time to prepare the answer.
 

~Raises hand in the air~ I could ramble off approx. 50 prior to even thinking of El Alamein!
😊
We are out there!!