Ukraine conflict
12-23-2023, 02:11 PM
#1933
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jun 2017
Posts: 1,117
Hamas was VOTED in by the people of Gaza. Hamas isn't just a terrorist organization. It is also the governing body of Gaza. It's kinda like if the KKK ran the United States. More than half of Palestinians support Hamas.
Are you trying to make the claim that Hamas doesn't want to kill Jews and destroy Israel? Along, with the rest of the Arab world? The only thing the Arab world hates more than the U.S. is Israel. But you're right. Israel should just be given to the Palestinians who at no point in history ever had that land. We no longer need a place where women and LGBT have any rights in the Middle East. We should just make Israel the oasis that the other Arab countries are. You wanna have a gay pride parade in Tel Aviv? Nope. Not if shyguy has anything to say about it.
Are you trying to make the claim that Hamas doesn't want to kill Jews and destroy Israel? Along, with the rest of the Arab world? The only thing the Arab world hates more than the U.S. is Israel. But you're right. Israel should just be given to the Palestinians who at no point in history ever had that land. We no longer need a place where women and LGBT have any rights in the Middle East. We should just make Israel the oasis that the other Arab countries are. You wanna have a gay pride parade in Tel Aviv? Nope. Not if shyguy has anything to say about it.
12-27-2023, 06:38 AM
#1934
Perennial Reserve
Joined APC: Jan 2018
Posts: 12,115
The beginning of the end?
https://www.politico.com/news/magazi...raine-00133211
some excerpts:
The Biden Administration Is Quietly Shifting Its Strategy in Ukraine
For two years, Biden and Zelenskyy have been focused on driving Russia from Ukraine. Now Washington is discussing a move to a more defensive posture.
With U.S. and European aid to Ukraine now in serious jeopardy, the Biden administration and European officials are quietly shifting their focus from supporting Ukraine’s goal of total victory over Russia to improving its position in an eventual negotiation to end the war, according to a Biden administration official and a European diplomat based in Washington. Such a negotiation would likely mean giving up parts of Ukraine to Russia.
In an interview on Dec. 21, John Kirby, head of strategic communications at the National Security Council, said that with Washington “nearing the end of our ability” to provide military assistance to the Ukrainians because Republicans have blocked Biden’s request for roughly $60 billion more in aid, the Biden administration is “very much focused on helping them on offense and defense.”
“We are having literally daily conversations with the Ukrainians about the battlefield, about what their needs are and their intentions,” Kirby said. But he added: “I’m not going to telegraph to the Russians what the Ukrainian strategy is in the coming months.”
At his year-end news conference in early December, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was preparing new proposals to end the war but he added that he would not alter his insistence that Russia withdraw all forces. Kirby reaffirmed the administration line that “we are not dictating terms to President Zelenskyy.” Instead, he said, the White House is helping Zelenskyy to “operationalize” his own peace proposal “with interlocutors around the world.”
Over the past year — with U.S. military support flagging fast on Capitol Hill and Zelenskyy’s once-vaunted counteroffensive failing since it was launched in June — Biden has shifted from promising the U.S. would back Ukraine for “as long as it takes,” to saying the U.S. will provide support “as long as we can” and contending that Ukraine has won “an enormous victory already. Putin has failed.”
Some analysts believe that is code for: Get ready to declare a partial victory and find a way to at least a truce or ceasefire with Moscow, one that would leave Ukraine partially divided.
“Biden’s victory comment has the virtue of being true,” said George Beebe, a former chief of Russia analysis for the CIA who is now head of strategy for the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. But “time has become a stark disadvantage when it comes to Ukraine’s manpower and industrial capacity, and that’s true even if the West continues its support. The longer this goes on the more we’re going to have to concede up front just to get the Russians to the negotiating table.”
“We are having literally daily conversations with the Ukrainians about the battlefield, about what their needs are and their intentions,” Kirby said. But he added: “I’m not going to telegraph to the Russians what the Ukrainian strategy is in the coming months.”
At his year-end news conference in early December, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was preparing new proposals to end the war but he added that he would not alter his insistence that Russia withdraw all forces. Kirby reaffirmed the administration line that “we are not dictating terms to President Zelenskyy.” Instead, he said, the White House is helping Zelenskyy to “operationalize” his own peace proposal “with interlocutors around the world.”
Over the past year — with U.S. military support flagging fast on Capitol Hill and Zelenskyy’s once-vaunted counteroffensive failing since it was launched in June — Biden has shifted from promising the U.S. would back Ukraine for “as long as it takes,” to saying the U.S. will provide support “as long as we can” and contending that Ukraine has won “an enormous victory already. Putin has failed.”
Some analysts believe that is code for: Get ready to declare a partial victory and find a way to at least a truce or ceasefire with Moscow, one that would leave Ukraine partially divided.
“Biden’s victory comment has the virtue of being true,” said George Beebe, a former chief of Russia analysis for the CIA who is now head of strategy for the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. But “time has become a stark disadvantage when it comes to Ukraine’s manpower and industrial capacity, and that’s true even if the West continues its support. The longer this goes on the more we’re going to have to concede up front just to get the Russians to the negotiating table.”
The Ukrainians themselves are engaged in what is becoming a very public debate about how long they can hold out against Putin. With Ukraine running low on troops as well as weapons, Zelenskyy’s refusal to consider any fresh negotiations with Moscow is looking more and more politically untenable at home. The Ukrainian president, seeking to draft another half million troops, is facing rising domestic opposition from his military commander in chief, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, and the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko.
12-28-2023, 08:13 PM
#1935
Perennial Reserve
Joined APC: Jan 2018
Posts: 12,115
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/29/europ...ntl/index.html
Some excerpts:
CNN — A year ago, a resolute President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled direct from the battlefield of Bakhmut to address the US Congress and meet with President Joe Biden. He was feted as a hero; Ukraine’s determination to resist Russian aggression met with strong bipartisan backing in Washington.
One year on, the outlook looks much grimmer. A long-anticipated Ukrainian offensive in the south has made scant progress. Russia appears to have weathered international sanctions, for now, and has converted its economy into a war machine.
The Russian way of war, absorbing hideous losses of men and materiel but throwing yet more into the fight, has blunted the Ukrainian military’s tactical and technological edge, as its top general admitted in a candid essay last month.
The mood in Moscow seems grimly determined: the goals of the “special military operation” will be achieved, and the fighting will continue until they are.
https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/231221211518-joe-biden-12202023.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_144,w_256,c_fill
Biden to sign new executive order to ‘strengthen’ sanctions against Russia
As the long frontline becomes ever more calcified, the Kremlin senses greater skepticism among Kyiv’s Western backers that Ukraine can recover the 17%of its territory still occupied by Russian forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is relishing the much more partisan atmosphere in Washington, where many in the Republican Party are questioning the purpose of sending Ukraine another $61 billion worth of aid as requested by the Biden administration, assessing that it will achieve little on the battlefield.
At his first year-end news conference since the conflict began, Putin scoffed: “Ukraine produces almost nothing today, everything is coming from the West, but the free stuff is going to run out some day, and it seems it already is.”
One year on, the outlook looks much grimmer. A long-anticipated Ukrainian offensive in the south has made scant progress. Russia appears to have weathered international sanctions, for now, and has converted its economy into a war machine.
The Russian way of war, absorbing hideous losses of men and materiel but throwing yet more into the fight, has blunted the Ukrainian military’s tactical and technological edge, as its top general admitted in a candid essay last month.
The mood in Moscow seems grimly determined: the goals of the “special military operation” will be achieved, and the fighting will continue until they are.
https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/231221211518-joe-biden-12202023.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_144,w_256,c_fill
Biden to sign new executive order to ‘strengthen’ sanctions against Russia
As the long frontline becomes ever more calcified, the Kremlin senses greater skepticism among Kyiv’s Western backers that Ukraine can recover the 17%of its territory still occupied by Russian forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is relishing the much more partisan atmosphere in Washington, where many in the Republican Party are questioning the purpose of sending Ukraine another $61 billion worth of aid as requested by the Biden administration, assessing that it will achieve little on the battlefield.
At his first year-end news conference since the conflict began, Putin scoffed: “Ukraine produces almost nothing today, everything is coming from the West, but the free stuff is going to run out some day, and it seems it already is.”
Some leading analysts conclude it’s time for a clear-eyed reassessment.
“Ukraine and the West are on an unsustainable trajectory, one characterized by a glaring mismatch between ends and the available means,” write Richard Haass and Charles Kupchan in Foreign Affairs.
Ukraine’s goal of recovering all its territory is “out of reach,” they say bluntly.“Where we are looks at best like a costly deadlock.”
They recommend that Ukraine shifts to a defensive posture in 2024 to stem losses, which would “shore up Western support by demonstrating that Kyiv has a workable strategy aimed at attainable goals.”
The Russian military, which has by and large proved inept in offensive operations, would thereby find it even more difficult to take ground.
To others, such a shift would essentially reward aggression, enabling Russia to pause and regroup, with potentially dangerous consequences for others in Russia’s near-abroad. It would also send the wrong message about US commitment to other allies, such as Taiwan. And it’s a non-starter, politically, in Kyiv.
“Ukraine and the West are on an unsustainable trajectory, one characterized by a glaring mismatch between ends and the available means,” write Richard Haass and Charles Kupchan in Foreign Affairs.
Ukraine’s goal of recovering all its territory is “out of reach,” they say bluntly.“Where we are looks at best like a costly deadlock.”
They recommend that Ukraine shifts to a defensive posture in 2024 to stem losses, which would “shore up Western support by demonstrating that Kyiv has a workable strategy aimed at attainable goals.”
The Russian military, which has by and large proved inept in offensive operations, would thereby find it even more difficult to take ground.
To others, such a shift would essentially reward aggression, enabling Russia to pause and regroup, with potentially dangerous consequences for others in Russia’s near-abroad. It would also send the wrong message about US commitment to other allies, such as Taiwan. And it’s a non-starter, politically, in Kyiv.
12-31-2023, 07:01 AM
#1936
Prime Minister/Moderator
Joined APC: Jan 2006
Position: Engines Turn Or People Swim
Posts: 40,044
This is fairly standard drivel from extremist arab leaders, and has been for many years.
What's scary about it, is that the tone is set, and given the opportunity I can't rule out Holocaust 2.0.
I doubt they'd have the opportunity, west would intervene in most plausible scenarios.
What's scary about it, is that the tone is set, and given the opportunity I can't rule out Holocaust 2.0.
I doubt they'd have the opportunity, west would intervene in most plausible scenarios.
12-31-2023, 08:01 AM
#1937
Perennial Reserve
Joined APC: Jan 2018
Posts: 12,115
This is fairly standard drivel from extremist arab leaders, and has been for many years.
What's scary about it, is that the tone is set, and given the opportunity I can't rule out Holocaust 2.0.
I doubt they'd have the opportunity, west would intervene in most plausible scenarios.
What's scary about it, is that the tone is set, and given the opportunity I can't rule out Holocaust 2.0.
I doubt they'd have the opportunity, west would intervene in most plausible scenarios.
01-02-2024, 02:37 PM
#1938
Perennial Reserve
Joined APC: Jan 2018
Posts: 12,115
https://www.politico.eu/article/turk...e-war-on-nato/
BY ANNABELLE DICKSON
JANUARY 2, 2024 5:20 PM CET
Turkey says UK minehunters can’t be sent to Ukraine
Letting two Royal Navy ships through would violate the Montreux Convention, Ankara declares.https://www.politico.eu/cdn-cgi/image/width=1160,height=773,quality=80,onerror=redirect, format=auto/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/02/396201.jpgTurkey confirmed it had informed its NATO allies that the ships would not be allowed to travel through its waters EPA PHOTO/Royal Navy/Mod Pool/Jack RussellBY ANNABELLE DICKSON
JANUARY 2, 2024 5:20 PM CET
LONDON — Two British minehunter ships destined for Ukraine cannot travel through Turkish waters, Ankara stressed Tuesday, citing an international pact.
U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps announced last month that Ukraine's armed forces had struck a deal to procure the Sandown Class vessels from Britain's Royal Navy as the war-torn country grapples with Russia's continued blockade of the Black Sea.
But Turkey confirmed it had informed its NATO allies that the ships would not be allowed to travel through its waters.
"Our pertinent allies have been duly apprised that the mine-hunting ships donated to Ukraine by the United Kingdom will not be allowed to pass through the Turkish Straits to the Black Sea as long as the war continues," a statement from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's communications directorate said.
The Turkish statement — challenging what it called "disinformation about U.K. mine-hunting ships" — stressed that the Turkish Straits are closed to Russian and Ukrainian warships while the conflict between the two countries continues, citing the Montreux Convention of 1936 which governs maritime traffic through those waters.
The U.K. government had earlier indicated it expected the convention to prevent the immediate transfer of the ships.
Approached for comment, a U.K. Ministry of Defense spokesperson pointed to a press conference by Shapps in London last month at which Ukrainian Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa said the vessels could not yet be brought to the Black Sea because of the pact.
But Neizhpapa also noted the ships would still have lots of work to do once the Russia-Ukraine war ends given the ongoing threat of mines in the Black Sea.
U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps announced last month that Ukraine's armed forces had struck a deal to procure the Sandown Class vessels from Britain's Royal Navy as the war-torn country grapples with Russia's continued blockade of the Black Sea.
But Turkey confirmed it had informed its NATO allies that the ships would not be allowed to travel through its waters.
"Our pertinent allies have been duly apprised that the mine-hunting ships donated to Ukraine by the United Kingdom will not be allowed to pass through the Turkish Straits to the Black Sea as long as the war continues," a statement from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's communications directorate said.
The Turkish statement — challenging what it called "disinformation about U.K. mine-hunting ships" — stressed that the Turkish Straits are closed to Russian and Ukrainian warships while the conflict between the two countries continues, citing the Montreux Convention of 1936 which governs maritime traffic through those waters.
The U.K. government had earlier indicated it expected the convention to prevent the immediate transfer of the ships.
Approached for comment, a U.K. Ministry of Defense spokesperson pointed to a press conference by Shapps in London last month at which Ukrainian Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa said the vessels could not yet be brought to the Black Sea because of the pact.
But Neizhpapa also noted the ships would still have lots of work to do once the Russia-Ukraine war ends given the ongoing threat of mines in the Black Sea.
01-02-2024, 09:47 PM
#1940
Gets Weekends Off
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Joined APC: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,437
Oh thats right, you have an agenda
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