Is it? Even the Russian war analysits and war bloggers agree with that. The Russian propaganda that gets to you is another story.
Ukraine will be accepted in EU and NATO. They will guard EU from future Russian invasions. Ukraine and Poland would have probably the strongest armies in the world for the next couple of decades.
I think you vastly over estimate Russia. USA can easily make a desant to Kremlin and kill Putin. Actually the best and most peaceful quick solution to the war would be that. Unfortunately its not a long term solution, because it will unite the brain washed Ruskies and they will sooner or later elect anothrr Putin and will start a politic of revanshizm and war. The key here is for Russia and Russian to lose the war in the hard way so they can learn trough loss and hunger that they are not a great nation or a country and start reforming to a normal democratic country. The only way is to get the root of tsarism out of the regular Russian. And that will come only if Ukraine crash them and join EU and NATO while Russia lives in poverty and international isolation, while their brain power imigrates.
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Iād rather that than underestimate.
I agree though, that it should be a Ukranian victory. It needs to be, and for the reasons you stated.
Russia is just a shitty neighbor and europe needs a couple of border countries that are willing beat the holy hell out of them. 
I wouldnāt mind seeing China join up with Russia economically and just bleed them dry. Nothing like two zero-sum players wrangling to screw each other.
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The western fringes of the accursed Balkans. East enough for Western Europeans to barely deign to have a stilted conversation about tourism and soccer, west enough to make fun out of Bulgarians for example
Honestly, the bill will be further reduced by what are shaping to be ludicrous arms sales as apparently whatever the US donates to Ukraine (20 HIMARS for example) the Poles are āweāll buy twenty times as muchā
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Pics please.
Oh you are Croatian?
In traditional Russia there are no non-binary degenerates like that Sarah whomever.
Men are real men. And sometimes theyāre also women.
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I think that the term āair superiorityā needs to be reexamined and understood differently as technology changes how war is waged.
Lack of air superiority is why this conflict resembles World War I. It is trench warfare on the plains of Europe all over again, where gains in ground come at a terrible price.
Air superiority is how the USA was able to roll the Iraqi Army up and smoke them decisively in 1991, when they had months to prepare defenses and fielded much of the same equipment as Russia does today, but with a more experienced army with many veterans of the Iran/Iraq war.
Air superiority is what has allowed modern combined arms mechanized warfare to decisively overcome static defenses for roughly 90 years.
Air superiority was, is and will continue to be a very big deal in warfare.
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This and controlling the electronic/RF in the battlefield (jammers, signal disruption, etcā¦)
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Yes they go hand in hand. NGAD is going to be a leap forward in sophistication of electronic warfare, which is already mind-boggling.
Itās why we spend more on aircraft than any other type of weapons platform.
Itās why we have the worldās largest Air Force by far.
Itās why we also have the worldās second largest Air Force in the US Navy.
Oh, and our Navy has itās own Army, and even it has an Air Force thatās stronger than most NATO membersā.
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now that is an angle Iād happily listen to!
If you donāt have air, you are relegated to hiding like rats and / or just being obliterated.
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Thatās why I keep pestering the pro-war people for some straightforward answers about where they see the future of this conflict going. So far only one person has articulated a strategic goal for the USA, which happens to be the strategic goal of Ukraine. I donāt see a path to pushing the Russians out of Ukraine, even with unlimited material support and sending hundreds of billions more to one of the most corrupt governments in Europe with no accountability or oversight.
Ukraine will not suddenly generate a professional army that can conduct decisive combined arms mechanized warfare against Russia, let alone generate an air force that can achieve air superiority against Russia. I just donāt see it, but if someone else does, feel free to explain.
Iāll try one more time.
What is the goal?
How can it be achieved?
At what cost?
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I have explained. You dont read. You dont understand what is happening. Ukraine will take Zaporozhie before or at the winter. If it is before they will take Crimea as well.
Russian defence line was bridged in that region. Ukraine is currently actually working the Crimea bases and the ships protecting it. Zaporozhie is at the moment a meat grinder and Ukrainian army is waiting for Russians reserve movement.
How many wars do we need to understand you dont win wars with air. You win battles for sure, but you need an actual army on the ground and as Syrians proved under the ground. There was an interesting case there in which the Turkish army took a town with 5000 tanks and lost it overnight from an infantry assault who digged tunnels to the city
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Make Russia suffer. This can be another Afghanistan for them. Weaken Putin, teach the Russians a lesson from Dirty Harry, a manās got to know his limitations.
What would Reagan have done? You mentioned Churchill before. You do know what he said about the Russians?
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Itās clear that the Putin government is belligerent, aggressive, and anti-American. We have a defense budget for precisely this type of situation. By sending weapons to Ukraine, we are improving our own security for relatively small sums of money and without risking American lives. Even by the measuring stick of America first, screw everyone else, this is a great situation.
The goal: reduce or destroy the ability of the Putin regime to wage war against NATO.
How can it be achieved: Keep giving weapons to the Ukrainians.
At what cost: A tiny fraction of our total defense budget, sent not as money but as weapons. We come out ahead because the more stable world with fewer enemies that results will require us to spend less money on defense long term. Also, the money that is being spent is mostly going to US defense contractors anyways who use the money to pay their employees. We strengthen and exercise our own ability to build weapons and ammunition when necessary.
You seem to be focused on the amount of progress that is being made on the ground. But if you donāt care about what happens to Ukraine or the Ukrainians, why do you care where the border is? The taxing stalemate is the point. Millions of military aged Russian men are being taken out of the fight as well as a ton of their military equipment and ammunition. And with their declining economy and workforce, that is weapons and ammunition that they canāt replace.
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@ins Iām not seeing any evidence for the outcome youāre calling inevitable. Thereās an awful lot of Zaporizhzhia still in Russian hands. What makes you think trench warfare will cease and maneuver warfare will commence? What do you think the tipping point will be?
Of course boots on the ground is important in warfare. That has literally always been true. Like I said above, the supply of infantry does not appear to be running low on either side as of yet. Plenty of meat remains to be ground.
@zecarlo Russia has already suffered grave losses. Their ability to prosecute another war is severely diminished for years to come.
As for Churchill, heās a complex guy. He had a lot of shifting opinions on the Soviets, which included providing aid to Finland against the Soviets in The Winter War shortly before becoming an ally of the Soviet Union.
Japan was invading China in 1937, eventually massacring millions, and Churchill had this to sayā¦
āIf the Chinese now suffer the cruel malice and oppression of their enemies, it is the fault of the base and perverted conception of pacifism their rulers have ingrained for two or three thousand years in their peopleā¦.China, as the years pass, is being eaten by Japan like an artichoke, leaf by leaf.ā
If he had facebook back then, something tells me he wouldnāt have a China flag as his profile picture.
The previous year he had this to say regarding the Spanish Civil war.
āIt is of the utmost consequence that France and Britain should act together in observing the strictest neutrality themselves and endeavouring to induce it in others. Even if Russian money is thrown in on the one side, or Italian and German encouragement is given to the other, the safety of France and England requires absolute neutrality and non-intervention by them. French partisanship for Spanish Communists, or British partisanship for the Spanish rebels, might injure profoundly the bonds which unite the British Empire and the French Republic. This Spanish welter is not the business of either of us. Neither of these Spanish factions expresses our conception of civilization.ā
What he obviously didnāt do is bet the empireās well-being on further stretching his already stretched resources to take some great moral stand against every evil of his day. Say what you want about him and his flaws, but he acted in a way that advanced the broad interests of the British Empire.
@Silyak I agreed with that goal last year, and I believe it has been achieved. It is not possible for Russia to successfully invade any NATO member, and every Russian who matters is well aware of this at this point. They canāt even invade Ukraine.
I do care. This war strikes me as a bloodbath thatās not accomplishing any higher purpose given the situation as I can discern it. My greatest concern is that a severely weakened Russia could result in the unthinkable use of NBC weaponry or even a much broader conflict.
Absent any decisive gains being made, the war is definitely getting more crooks rich and more people killed.
Youāre arguing for attrition warfare. As I asked above, to what end?
To the last Ukrainian?
To the last American middle class household?
What should be the limit to US support?
I think weāve had a very good ROI if you measure it by weakening the Russian military. Weāve crippled an adversary with our inter-generational credit card and some spare stuff, with poor Eastern European boys doing the dying instead of American boys.