ReluctantEskimo

This was an exercise in drawing a direct comparison to the plight of Ukraine as if it was on America's border. You failed.

If you think the US military will look to armed civilians as a substitution for activating the draft, then maybe you aren't the brilliant military mind you think you are.

ReluctantEskimo

Excargodog undoes every point he makes with his nonsense.

Empires are obligated to defend themselves. Isolationism doesn't exist.

Gspeed

Meal Team 6 to the rescue!

Gspeed

sorry, I only get my news from SuperTruePatriotTrustMeBroNews.com

Excargodog

If you think the Russian Army is going to work the logistics to go through Siberia across the Bering Strait to go through Alaska so they can work their way down Canada to the US border where they can take on a nation with over double their population when they have been challenged to support a war against a nation with a quarter their population and 600 miles of common border you are even more ignorant than your lack of knowledge of 3000 years of pre WWI supply chains have already shown.

it was, to put it mildly, a stupid comparison and a ridiculous strawman argument.

Excargodog

I posted that as another's opinion, not fact. I'm not sure anyone knows facts - not even the principles - but I'm reasonably sure that both sides are lying for propaganda purposes. Which is why I look at both sides. But there are some opinions that seem more objective than others.

Here, for instance, is a video just posted by the Voice of America - hardly a proRussian source.

https://www.voanews.com/a/despite-sa...w/7523062.html

others have similar opinions:

https://carnegieendowment.org/2024/0...rols-pub-91894


This is the current World Bank analysis:

https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc...alysis-ECA.pdf

Increasingly it looks like the sanctions have proven ineffective at crippling Russias economy. But clearly money for the war must come from somewhere and that most likely is the standard of living of the Russian people. But export controls are not really affecting the Russians ability to sell oil and gas to India and China or to trade with the global south.


So yeah, there will ALWAYS be differences of opinion and oftentimes exact values can never be known. But clearly, Russia is working around the great majority of the sanctions, and with the two most populous countries in the world - India and China - not really participating in those sanctions, it is difficult to see them being nearly as effective as they were once predicted to be. You are entitled to a different opinion if you wish, but that's mine.

Excargodog

Another remarkably ignorant comment. The Netherlands never had an empire but they were at one time (and that before WW1) a leader in global trade, and not just in tulips either:

https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-dutc...7th-centuries/

You really never did learn any history, did you?

Lowslung

There's a forest in those trees I tell ya. Seems the point is entirely lost on you. Doesn't matter if it's Russia, China, or Kraplakistan. The US would, most assuredly reinstate conscription if it felt it's further existence was threatened, as would pretty much every nation on the planet. Arguing that Ukraine is turning its back on democratic ideals because it's drafting its population in a time of no-kidding existential crisis is a bit silly. Sometimes it's hard to tell if you're being purposely obtuse or just dense.

Lowslung

There's a forest in those trees I tell ya. Seems the point is entirely lost on you. Doesn't matter if it's Russia, China, or Kraplakistan. The US would, most assuredly reinstate conscription if it felt it's further existence was threatened, as would pretty much every nation on the planet. Arguing that Ukraine is turning its back on democratic ideals because it's drafting its population in a time of no-kidding existential crisis is a bit silly. Sometimes it's hard to tell if you're being purposely obtuse or just dense.

ReluctantEskimo

I can tell you preferred being able to post your propaganda unmolested, and I'm sure your 1 audience member is sad you've been delayed. This is a new low for you. You've been reduced to "I betcha didn't know X" in order to score points with me.

We're getting sidetracked. Let's bring it home. And let's keep it in the present. We can discuss Letters of marque another day.

Behold. Humanity's greatest achievement. The global supply chain. It's no longer the Silk Road, It's the Silk Super Highway. Economies are interwoven in a way that we are damn-near inseparable. And this is where isolationists detach from reality. There is no way you can affect one area of the world without causing ripples in another.

So for you to be so cavalier about war in Europe is self-destructive at best. Intentionally malicious at worst.

Excargodog, you're a Airbus guy, no?

Let me show you something.



You spend 1000 hours a year strapped to a French-German-UK built airliner. Your future, your friends' futures, your coworkers', your employer's, are inextricably linked to the fate of Europe. Your life is made better, your future is more secure through peace. Insured by the NATO alliance. NATO was formed because Russia has been, and will be a known threat. And now, at the time that the threat is most prescient, you want to walk away from our commitments.

In a future that we get everything you wanted, our lives will be worse off. There's no doubt of it. I assume you'd have to move your sights to another target for the source of your woes. And that's the problem with isolationists. It's selfishness is unquenchable. Sever Europe. Then sever the blue states. Then neighbors. Until it's just you, manning the walls of your compound.

Your ideas will take us back 1000 years.