This government we have right now is precisely what the Declaration of Independence was written for if you ask me. Too many in this country want to depend totally on government, and I guess we're going to find out how many truly want independence from government rule
While searching early this morning there is also a video of two young Russian Infantrymen captured, just young boys. I noticed they are wearing arm bans of red and the Ukraine troops are wearing yellow markings which makes sense since they share the same gear as the Russians and each can be accidentally fired upon in the heat of battle. It shows how much respect the putz has for his own army. The Ukrainian Army is pretty large and add more when the first bomb dropped, I would say the Russians are losing a lot of men and equipment that we won't see until they either win or leave. One thing about armor, it is hard to move after it is destroyed so they can't hide it and everyone has cell phones with cameras. This 8 year war with the separatist has been fought without movement, pretty much a trench war so we haven't really seen the size of their army until now. They have priorities and seem to be pretty flexible fighting where they should be and probably moving out of the area very fast.
Thanks for this info Thomas since I have a tendency to think because on the map, countries can look bigger, like Russia, and Ukraine is so, much smaller geographically. But it doesn't mean they will lose and what winning or losing depends on. You can see I need posts like yours and others.
I’m thinking of Vietnam now where the North Vietnamese were fighting on their turf for their homeland and the French first, and later the Americans were fighting long distance with their sometimes reluctant forces who were unwilling to get killed for a cause they personally cared little about. Ukraine should drag out the fight and bleed the Russians until their mothers and wives back home had enough.
A good portion of Russia is uninhabited. They are in financial trouble already and I don't think this act of war will last long until you see the Russian people all rise again and put a stop to it. If enough of them get mad it won't take long to see those tanks of theirs shooting at their own government buildings again. Not sure but I think they have mandatory draft and just about all men serve time in their military. I am sure there are some Generals not pleased at being used like this. All it takes is the right number to say enough is enough. Most of the Russians are pretty decent people even if they are communist. They have always been used and abused by the communist party. The Russians killed more of their own soldiers than the Germans in WWII, that's a fact. If you weren't a card carrier you were just cannon fodder, much like today.
We were brought up to hate the Russians / Soviets / Communists (whatever) and I didn’t have any cause to think differently especially since the Soviets were backing N. Vietnam. Shortly after I left the Army and went home to New Orleans I had a huge awakening. A friend of mine who owned a bar called the Pirates Den in one of the less touristy areas of the quarter asked me if I would spell him for a night and take care of his place which I gladly did. That same day a Russian based cargo ship made port and we got hit that night with a bunch of very thirsty Russian merchant marines. The only difference between them and any other party animal in the Quarter was the language and I dare say it didn’t make any difference anyway because the party started and didn’t stop until they had to drag themselves back to their ship. Heck, I had more problems controlling the American hookers who wandered in than I did with the Russians. The bottom line is that I gained a lot of new respect for the Russians in general. They were Soviets but yet it wasn’t as though they had it stamped on their foreheads. Their country was the USSR but those men were Russians and proud but in the end, they were just men. Just like me.
On a side note, who was it who got Europe's NATO countries to do more when it came to their military preparedness for war and not depend on the U.S.?
This is the real IVAN, notice the terrain, looks like a farm house one of us would live in. I get a real kick from watching this one because if you look real close he is using a bicycle chain for the tail rotor drive. Now that's what I call having a pair. Anyway it is all in fun here and I see or hear nothing but a lot of fun.
Great Find Thomas !! It really looks like those guys really wanna go out and invade another country. They’re enjoying life which is what our not so smart leaders should let us all do instead of wasting lives. off topic side note: Your comment made me remember when I gunned on a Delta and when the tail rotor drive length chain was seriously damaged during a CA. Dunno how it stayed on. I wore a piece of that thing around my right wrist for months.
I had contract Russian engineers working for me on my last major project over a decade ago. They were friendly, quite competent, respected and got along well with everyone. I do remember them telling me that, aside from politics, people had more freedom in Russia than in the U.S. To some greater or lessor extent that statement would seem to fit with your video. One could not build and fly a home-made helicopter like that in the U.S. without getting into a lot of trouble. That said, it is unfortunate that Russia seems to spawn political despots.
In 1980 I was working as a machinist in Houston, the shop had two new 12 inch open center lathes made in Poland. Every time there was a problem the manufacturer would fly a technician in to correct any problems. The repairman loved it because my boss would buy him beer and let him drink while he was working. The shop is still sitting there just like it was left when the owner died. His sons just put a fence around it to keep out all the thieves. That shop was their Father's favorite place and he was a really great person. I would think that they never sell it and it will at some point belong to the state for taxes or possibly the younger sister if she is still alive. I haven't seen any of them since 82. When I first started working I was breaking a lot of thread cutters because everything was tapered thread oil field specs. You had to manually pull out the tool without over cutting. You had pre-made threaded gauges to spin on and check clearance with a feeler gauge. It took a while to get the hang of it but the tools were at that time 100 bucks a pop. Everything that we made was used for fishing broken drill stem. We were also making the Lead slugs that you drop in the hole and they would slam against a broken stem and allow you to pull all the drill pipe up. It was some very expensive pipe.
I wonder if maybe the Ukrainians' best strategy wouldn't be to let the Russians roll in to Kyiv, and then switch to urban warfare. Although some mention Putin's tactics in some wars has been to slash and burn cities to the ground. Maybe not so if he is planning on annexing Ukraine and installing a new government. Any thoughts on this strategy?