I don't think this will work as you might expect. I've said repeatedly that China can't afford to upset the West greatly because their private enterprises are in trouble and the need Western business and investment. But after the 20th National Congress, it looks like Xi's solution is to screw private business and start enacting communism with planned economy characteristics. He's bringing back the communal canteen and the supply and distribution cooperatives, which was how food - from farm to table - was managed under Mao. It's small scale now, but growing.
They'd probably work for anyone that can get them out of Afghanistan and give them a job. I doubt they care about the politics of the conflict, one way or the other.
I'm not sure there is a significant difference in being stuck in Afghanistan and being a soldier in the Russian military. They are, quite obviously much better trained than your average Russian professional soldier (not counting mobilized or conscripts), but they would still be impacted by the poor decisions by the Russian military and are far more likely to die making a human wave attack in the Donbass region...
Boris Johnson reveals some of the European nations earlier position on the war French - Denial until the last minute Germans - Wished for a quick Russian victory if the war was going to happen Italians - Against the UK position NEW - Former UK PM Boris Johnson claims Germany wanted Ukraine to crumble quickly after Russia's invasion.https://t.co/MdnI1yTQZM— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) November 23, 2022
Millions died because of starvation, due to the politics of that socalled great chairman with farming.
I agree about Johnson but I tend to think he's telling the truth about Germany and Italy in this case.
The german view was the same view of the US intelligence! i.e Ukraine would collapse within a few days UK thought the same thing - the view in the west changed only in the first week when it suddenly became clear Kiev might not fall
True enough. If you listen carefully he simply says that the German view was that, 'If it was going to happen, which would be a disaster, it would better if it was over quickly'. I think that's probably correct... that that was their view at the very beginning I mean.
TBH I'm not sure his statement there is significantly different to the view of most western security services. I'm also not sure it paints him out to be a hero, particularly, or especially prescient. But I think it probably IS true that the UK and also the US started supplying large amounts of military assistance pretty early, not least because we'd been the ones providing military training before the invasion as part of operation orbital. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Orbital
I agree there. The only difference is that we were more heavily involved prior to the invasion so were probably more inclined to continue to supply higher quantities of direct military aid, particularly lethal aid.
I mentioned that Saab was on the verge of getting a contract to build a 140km range rocket to launch Boeing built small diameter bombs that is compatible with HIMARS, well, turns out that Turkey has already given them an undetermined number of 150km missiles. BIG DEVELOPMENT: Per @IsmailDemirSSB, Pres of 🇹🇷 Defence Industry Agency, TRLG 230 can actually hit targets 150km away. Today @DefMon3 posted this map showing what the provision of GLSDBs (also with a 150km range) would look like. I think we now know what 🇺🇦 hit Dzhankoi with. https://t.co/iTc2xl2COH pic.twitter.com/tYPtMSJ4h0— Colby Badhwar 🇨🇦🇬🇧 (@ColbyBadhwar) November 22, 2022 The missiles don’t seem to be GPS guided, rather they need to be laser guided. So they need to be illuminated by someone on the ground, or by a TB2 in the air..
Ukraine shot down 51 of the 70 missiles that were launched by Russia today, but those missiles that got through did a lot of damage. Odessa and Kyiv have no running water, internet over the whole nation is mostly down, and even Moldova is blacked out.
I must admit I did enjoy this comment... Germany rejects Boris Johnson’s claims it said Ukraine should fold to Russia German official says former UK PM has ‘unique relationship with the truth’ in rebuttal of Johnson’s claims This is the problem with being a confirmed liar. Even if you DO tell the truth, (assuming he is, of course), nobody's going to believe you.
Tell me about it. My 9-3 convertible was down for months with a bad radiator (couldn't find a replacement)and a couple of other things. I ended up dumping it to a guy who rebuilds Saabs, so he could use it for parts. Great car, but a pain in the ass.
What's interesting is that I started following several analysts on Twitter as things were heating up in late January-early February, who disagreed with the prevailing wisdom on how Ukraine would do. These were guys who had actual on-the-ground experience with the Ukrainian military, and they expected the Ukrainians to put up a much better fight. We're so used to our allies being feckless, that we don't expect them to be competent.