Moot Point

I just finished listening to the audio book on a long drive last week. It was a really good book. Seemed to me the author did a good job of presenting the history in an accurate, unbiased way.

The book lays out how the Commanche were the best on horseback of any of the tribes and the fact they were able to terrorize the Apache and take territory from them tells you all you need to know about how fierce they were as warriors.

Many of you may already know, but there is a world class tank museum located in Bovington, Dorset, U.K. The Tank Museum puts out a lot of excellent background videos on the history, development, and evolution of tanks and anti-tank weapons. Also, many focusing on specific vehicles.

Here are links to a couple of recent YouTube videos released by The Tank Museum that you might find interesting:

The evolution of the tank gun from WWI to present day, presented by Chris Copson.

In this new series, “Evolution”, we’ll be taking a look at different aspects of the progress of tanks and tank technology from WWI to the present.

How did tank guns get so deadly?

Curator David Willey revisits the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, looking at the role of the tank and how it has been making headlines since his last update in May 2022.

Why does Ukraine want tanks?

The second video focuses exclusively on the war in Ukraine and also touches on why, if the tank is so obsolete as was portrayed for a time in the media, is there such a push to get Ukraine Western tanks?

I provide the link to Perun's latest YouTube video provide his analysis, "6 Months of War in Ukraine - Economics, Endurance & the Energy War"

Perun: 6 months of War in Ukraine

It's a long presentation, but worth the watch as usual.
I'm not detailing the analysis because I have work to do, but just providing the link because I wanted to post a transcript of a comment posted in the Comments section by a Russian because I like to see the thinking of those in the nations directly involved in the conflict.

The comment is by a Russian University student responding to another comment provides an interesting perspective on much of the Russian public's mindset before the war was launched.

"??????? ???????
1 hour ago
Yes it was predictable, but everyone missed it. I remember at our debates in university in February I was the only one who suggested why it was not possible to take a country like Ukraine with the modest forces amassed. But everyone said “no, look at Iraq. They had big army and so on but America smashed them”. It was not received well when I showed how we are not America and Ukraine is not Iraq. Even by those who should know better, like older/graduate students and so on. I was apparently the naive one - this blasé attitude reigned at every level and amongst every decision maker and influential person.

The story went like this. They believed that our military was near-peer to America - how an economy like Russia could build such a machine was never expressed. Shock and awe would destroy them, because Ukraine is divided and corrupt (unlike us, I suppose?), western help would not have time to arrive, Zelensky and cadres would flee, and Ukraine would be friendly again.

Anyone could see the flaws, but to point them out was either considered idiocy or treason.

I didn’t think air would be so bad though. It was 14 years since Georgia. Shocking performance."

Lima, since you seem to accept Russian propaganda at face value, here are a couple of YouTube videos you may want to take a look at:

The First is by Operator Starsky who is in the Ukrainian National Guard. He shows several instances where the Russians used the same actress in several different fake videos of alleged incidents of the Ukrainians harming civilians in the Donbas.

The other, although from late February, provides proof of the fakery of several Russian videos the Russian Government was showing on their National TV to influence the viewers to support action again Ukraine.

Ukraine bombed Donbas for 8 years?
"Let’s debunk the biggest fake widely used by kremlin to justify the russian invasion in Ukraine. You hear it from russian media, you read it in the commentaries left by russian bots, but what do the official numbers say? Let’s check out the report of the OHCHR that russians themselves are often referring to."

How Russia's False Flags Set The Stage For War in Ukraine
Russian news agencies have spread dubious videos painting Ukraine as the aggressor in the current conflict. Newsy and our partners at Bellingcat found evidence of hoaxes.

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Everyone is all pro-founding father's until you mention no entangling alliances. Oh, but that's different.

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The Founding Fathers were pretty pleased with the alliance with France that helped us win our independence.

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Imagine laughing at “conspiracy theories” and then believing Ukraine had a shot in this conflict.

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Imagine having to rely on Blitzed during the Revolution, "This is madness, please put the muskets down! We have no shot against the might of the Crown!"
:usa:

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Since I was 4 at the time, was there a legitimate feeling at the time Ukraine, Belarus, or Kazakhstan posed a real threat to just pop off a nuke vs rational action as other nuclear powers have engaged in?

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Not necessarily that, the major concern was to make sure as much as possible that nuclear weapons and materials were secured and not able to be sold off to terrorist groups or other countries that were trying to develop nuclear weapons. It was about limiting proliferation and also preventing as much as possible accidents when these countries lacked the resources to maintain them safely.

When the Soviet Union collapsed many military members and scientists weren't getting paid. Unfortunately, as a result, there was a lot of financial incentive to people who were in a position to do so to sell weapons or technology to the wrong people.

So the U.S. cooperated with Russia to try and limit that.

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NATO said it wouldn’t move east when the USSR broke up….it’s moved very much east since. Ukraine was the last country Russia could do anything in without nato Intervention

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Aww, everybody's picking on poor Russia! Won't let them intimidate and invade whomever the hell they want. :wah:

How dare those nationalities who aspire to be part of the Western European democracies instead of an authoritarian dictatorship get such crazy ideas?

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I can’t understand why some people that post on a southern college football message board carry water for Russia. Russia isn’t our friend, they never really were. The feelings towards the current administration, as bad as they are shouldn’t cloud anyone’s judgment when it comes to what Russia is trying to do. In a perfect world the US would have had several extra bombs to spare after Japan and we wouldn’t be dealing with this now.

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Yep, Reagan would be appalled.

Canadian volunteer gives a riveting interview to Canadian news channel CBC on what he has experienced fighting in Ukraine.
CBC interview with Canadian fighter