Its the negativity that bugs me! Ukraine already at war. It wouldn't be an act of war. More like a sign of solidarity for Ukraine. Putin can considerate a act of war, but he started it. So lets finish it!Air support will be considered an act of war. There is zero chance of that happening.
It not a COD mission.Its the negativity that bugs me! Ukraine already at war. It wouldn't be an act of war. More like a sign of solidarity for Ukraine. Putin can considerate a act of war, but he started it. So lets finish it!
Russia got friends, supplying planes, Ukraine's got more friends but no real mates ( Cowards ) DAMNWhat can still be done is passing over the migs from Poland and Bulgaria like it was planned but stalled. Its a very thin line there but russians are apparrently flying in some planes from belarus now
I find it hard to understand your digression, I must be devastated. Must be more we can do! Ukraine got the short end of the straw! DAMNIt not a COD mission.
It would also increase casualties.
And no telling who else would get involved.
Cost of bread alone up 40% already in Spain & Portugal... we in Australia just starting to get a taste of inflation with fuel prices soaring & grocery items rising significantly - Coffee tin up 25% already this past week, insurance up 25%, gas,water & electricity is next.. Meanwhile, our big4banks have cut interest rates in Aussie bank accounts next to zilch whilst increasing pain on mortgage holder's..Just how long will sanctions be palatable for the Western world when this is happening less than a month into the conflict?
Meanwhile, our big4banks have cut interest rates in Aussie bank accounts next to zilch whilst increasing pain on mortgage holder's..
Anyone advocating for escalating is a damn idiot. At the moment deaths are in the tens of thousands. Escalate and its damn well in the hundreds. Bloody fools without a clue.
This is a grind them on all fronts. Be it sanctions, trade, banking system, military assistance to Ukraine, etc. I'd rather see Putin taken out with an internal struggle then watch Europe and Russia in flames.
The worst thing you could do is kick off WW3 you pack of idiots. You have no bloody idea who else will get involved or what Russia is willing to do. And Russia isn't even the biggest threat in the room.
Utter madness.
SmurfOn the energy stuff I'll simply observe that none of this is new, indeed it's far more well established than most seem to realise.
This issue, not climate change, is the reason the International Energy Agency was established in the first place with its associated agreements and so on.
It's also the actual reason why the then newly elected state government in Victoria, back in 1982, proposed an assortment of energy regulations in that state which had as their object a move away from oil and gas.
At the risk of lobbing an off topic rock - it's also a key focus in the planning documents circa 1977 which ultimately lead to the highly controversial at the time but never built hydro scheme involving the Franklin River in Tasmania.
Also the actual reason why France went all in on nuclear, dismissing economic cost as a comparatively unimportant consideration.
Same reason for the US' Energy Efficiency Act of 1979.
Same reason the New Zealand government established the New Zealand Synthetic Fuels Corporation which in a joint venture with Mobil Oil (now ExxonMobil) built and operated the world's only synthetic petrol production plant with production commencing in 1986 (since closed). The petrol produced was 97 RON for the record (without lead or other such additives) so it sure wasn't junk.
Same reason Shell, ARCO, Exxon and several others jointly blew USD 5.5 billion circa 1980 proving that oil shale could be developed but without actually building a permanent operation. That's $5.5 billion in actual 1980 $, equivalent to about USD 19 billion today adjusted for inflation. It was a joint effort by multiple companies at a single site.
And on I could go. There's a rather long list of these.....
Point being this wasn't just an issue that an academic or a few data geeks sitting in a back office somewhere knew about. 40 years ago - that's quite a while but it's well within living memory so it begs the question "how on earth was this forgotten?" How on earth has the West ended up in such a mess over something that was clearly understood by all sorts of people, from big corporations and major national governments down to relatively small countries and Australian state governments, less than 40 years ago?
Heck even National Geographic put out a special issue devoted solely to the subject and complete with lots of technical details and so on. So even the general public had access to the information at the time.
There's a broader lesson in there I think - I'm no guru on anything about wars but I strongly suspect those who do know about them are thinking much the same "how have we managed to fail to learn from relatively recent history that was so well understood not that long ago?"
The big problem and the reason for historic concern ultimately comes down to the distribution of reserves.aren't the energy policies of the West delivering Putin his expected victory?
Ukraine is a significant supplier of neon and Ingas and Cryoin account for anywhere between 45pc and 54pc of the world’s total neon output, according to Reuters calculations.
Ingas, based in the heavily bombed city of Mariupol, typically exports neon to customers in countries such as Taiwan, Korea, China, Germany and the US, with about 75pc going to the chip industry. Now, the city is under siege with limited phone and internet access.
Cryoin, which is based in the city of Odessa in southern Ukraine, told Reuters that that it could weather at least three months with the manufacturing plant closed, after which it would face a sharp financial crunch. If equipment is damaged or access to raw materials is restricted, the company said it would make it difficult to restart operations.
Automakers including Volkswagen, BMW and Porsche are struggling to obtain crucial wire harnesses as suppliers in western Ukraine have been shuttered by the Russian invasion of the country, forcing production stops at car factories in Germany.
Production of the part, needed for organizing miles of vehicle cables, has affected suppliers including Leoni, Fujijura and Nexans.
A wire harness is a vital set of parts which neatly bundle up to 5 km (3.1 miles) of cables in the average car. They are a crucial part of a vehicle's electrical system.
Leoni, which has two wire harness factories in western Ukraine, is scrambling to compensate for production losses. The Germany company has two Ukrainian plants in Stryi and Kolomyja.
Indeed, although I hate to say it's too late. Rather it's been going on to long, with out the no fly zone, constructed by NATO and the west. I feel there will be no resistance by anyone except the Russian's, and if Putin wants a war let's give him one. Put a end to his de-meaner of the old USSR.The West's speed for greed and don't you dare rock that apple cart has been well and truly baited and trapped. The wake up call is perhaps too late...
We are pretty spoilt and insulated here in Australia. My own parents used to tell me the stories of being bombed by the Nazis during world war 2 in their hometown of Newcastle upon Tyne, because of the shipyards there... and there are dozens and dozens of more recent examples which we really haven't paid that much attention to.Cheers @basilio
A little more on the caginess of you know who.
Back in late 2019 Russia tested a total disconnect from the internet. Obviously a plan was already in place to curtail free speech and access to the broader global community.
@Stockybailz
I'm a never too late type and like you, feel for the Ukrainian's. I cannot even imagine what it must be like. Just thinking what it would be like if my main street or the block where I lived looked like the images I've seen. Geez, what absolute horror!
Natural gas I've said much about so won't repeat it but for things like neon and wiring harnesses there's no excuse at all for the West to be relying on others.Alongside energy and food, the Putin cagey mongrel strategies are becoming very clear and, in my mind, this "special military ops" against Ukraine was always an indirect declaration of war against the West. From the outset designed to hit and inflict the most human and economic pain and disruption on as many fronts as possible.
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