mclumber1

The Ukrainians taking all of this stuff tax free is interesting and funny, but it did remind me of something. Back during WW2, it was common for US troops to bring home souvenirs from the war, like a captured pistol or a NAZI flag. I'm not sure what the actual rules were back then, but now that type of stuff is super forbidden/illegal for US military personnel. I think I remember getting training on that while I was in the Navy (although I was in no capacity or location to get this type of stuff from Iraq or Afghanistan).

lol, I noticed that slip up. The closed captions still called it Ukrainian though.

Russia using thermobaric weapons is probably a war crime, not because thermobaric weapons are banned (they are not banned), but because they aren't being used against legitimate military targets. The US used them to help clear out caves in Afghanistan following 9/11.

If accepted into the EU, it would be a good step for Ukraine. However it probably wouldn't be as significant from a survival standpoint, compared to joining NATO - which will 99.99% not happen anytime soon. But I do hope that Sweden and Finland join NATO as soon as possible

So which former Soviet state gets the permanent Security Council seat? I say Kazakhstan, because they were the very last Soviet Republic, not Russia.

Those newly acquired jets need to take care of that convoy ASAP.

To be fair, WWII movies were being produced and released as the war was raging. Dozens of them.

Assuming he survives, just have Zelensky play himself - he is an actor after all.

He's defenseless now. Let's get 'em!

Putin is surrounded with yes men. It's doubtful that anyone in his inner circle put up much resistance to this plan. Because of Putin likely felt the pros vastly outweighed the cons.

Oh shit, I hope the Israelis retaliate!

The fog of war along with the propaganda from both sides of the conflict make it difficult, at least from my perspective, which side is really winning. On one hand, it's clear that the war has been an absolute meat grinder for Russian forces, but on the other hand, the Ukrainians are getting pounded as well.

Islam isn't a race. Is it racism when South Park makes fun of Catholics or Mormons? Come on...

Doing so would be casus belli for actual intervention by Western forces, I'd imagine.

I call it culturism. I'm pretty sure that's not a real word, but it is a better definition of what is going on here.

Calling this racist, even when this is clearly not about racism, really dilutes the impact of the accusation.

I do wonder if NATO and/or the EU have set up any sort of tripwire of sorts where they would intervene, even if Russia had not yet actually attacked or threatened to attack any NATO or EU members?

Rubio has been pretty accurate with all of his tweets concerning this conflict though.

The rest of the world is already angry. Also, threatening the use of a tactical nuke to force a surrender is different than actually using one. In the event that Russia did use one, even if it was just detonated in such a way that results in little to no destruction in order to scare Ukraine...I don't know what the west would do next. But I don't think it would necessarily be a nuclear tit-for-tat response from any of the western nuclear powers.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if the peace negotiations are simply being used to communicate to Ukraine face to face that any further resistance will result in the use of tactical nuclear weapons on Kyiv and other important areas within Ukraine.