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Russo-Ukrainian War
- Thread starter J.E
- Start date
Emmanuel Macron met with Vladimir Putin today to discuss the "Ukraine question".
I'd actually be interested to hear what a corporate psychologist or negotiator would have to say about this. I find boardroom body language quite interesting. If you had no context for this image, I wonder what people would think it was, or how it was playing out for the dude on the left, and the dude on the right.
hoffmeister_fan
Kraftwagen König
No.
Key and Peele Obama handshake meme
Make your own meme from the 2014 Key & Peele skit of Obama at a public meet and greet. Choose a group of things where somethings are universally loved and some things are just "meh". Then, use Kapwing's Subtitler to label them one by one. Download and share! Kapwing's meme generator is free and...www.kapwing.com
I miss that show.
Is...is Putin playing peek-a-boo with Macron?
D
Deleted member 57437
The destiny of Northstream 2 apparently no longer lies in Germanys' hands.
hoffmeister_fan
Kraftwagen König
Don't think this aged well....
then again, tone is difficult to determine from an online post.
Grosser
Stuttgart Specialist
Yep, I kinda f*cked up big time... It's a sad day for Ukraine
KiwiRob
Autotechnik Ace
I didn’t think Putin would invade, so much for opinions. Then again I didn’t think the US would have invaded Iraq in 2003 but they did. It’s a pity the world didn’t slap sanctions on the US in the same way as the west is slapping sanctions on Russia. It’s a wee bit hypocritical IMO.
SCOTT27
Drift Dynamo
WBarnes
Subscriber
Ukraine was a democracy. If you're a dictator then being overthrown is an occupational hazard, what goes around comes around, as they say.
Yep, it's gone.
China will probably be emboldened by this as regards Taiwan. Question is, will Putin take it all, or just link the eastern regions to Crimea?
D
Deleted member 57437
If only they knew.
seriously
An effective military will ensure that an aggressive predator will be left very few options other than seriously embarking onto the avenue of constructive negotiation. The individual to the far left in the front row and especially the woman third to the left in the front row grossly violated that particular tenet of former German chancellors Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Kohl. Germany's top military inspector, a career officer of some 41 years, admitted in great resignation that federal government policies of the past 20+ years have left Germany's armed forces "hollow". I'm old enough to clearly recall the Bundeswehr as being among the very best armed forces in Europe. That seems to be so, so long ago.
As ever I'm not fully up to speed on German policy of past or present, but in the current situation the strength of the military might is not the issue, it's the fact that the aggressor knows and understands the framework for its deployment, and knows how far it can push without any (military) push back. What would Germany be doing any different now with 10× the tanks, troops, planes, missiles and bombs?
As you said before, it's the lack of foresight with regards to Energy dependency that leaves you (many counties) weak to Russia, and not - in my opinion - a hollow, or lessened, armed force. You can't threaten them if you need them.
D
Deleted member 57437
That's a very good question.
Personally, in placing emphasis on the word NOW, the "child having already fallen into the well" analogy immediately comes to mind. An erosive degeneration of rationale regarding anything that emanates the very slightest odor of "military" has long befallen vast sections of German society. Hedonistic, complacent and entrenched in delusions of "humanistic moral superiority", the events of the past few days have lead to an extremely harsh belly-landing onto the pavement of geo/eco/sociopolitical reality. The up until recently "unthinkable" for many Germans (a return of The Cold War that encompasses a "hot war" not at all far from home) has become REAL.
It will take time before the shock dissipates and the realisation that many ideals anchored in the country's large pacifist movement are negligently naive sinks in. That those naive ideals are part-and-parcel of placing not only their own country, but their neighbours as well, into potential as well very real grave harms way.
But perhaps a lesson will have been learned...sometime not-too-far down the road. One lesson would be realizing that trade with an aggressive, predative partner does not guaranty peace.
hoffmeister_fan
Kraftwagen König
I came across this statement from him on one of the news aggregator sites. What I recall him also saying that the Bundeswehr was configured in a way to be more effective in counter-insurgency in the Middle East than something like a grand, state-sponsored military adversary. Hence, it was trimmed back. I am sure there's more to the picture than that so I'd like to hear more.
All in all, this is f***in' devastating and depressing. Absolutely senseless.
D
Deleted member 57437
The elite Bundeswehr unit KSK (Kommando Spezialkräfte-many similarities with the U.K. SAS, which served as a role model) and its' Bundesmarine sibling SEK-M (Spezialiserten Einsatzkräfte-Marine- similar to the U.S. Navy SEALS, which served as a role model) rank among the globes' most efficient, most lethal special forces units. They are respected as well as feared counter-insurgency forces. Small group, rapid-deployment units. Both units have been the subject of controversy as of late (brutal new entrant initiation hazing as well as alleged, sporadic cases of fraternization with ultra-right wing entities) and hence trimmed back.
It is Germanys' conventional armed forces units that have been devastated by way of funding cuts and/or administrative misallocation of funds intended, the consequences of which being increasingly sub-standard training, obsolete, unreliable weaponry and a progressive erosion of troop morale.
hoffmeister_fan
Kraftwagen König
My understanding, limited as it is, is that the Bundeswehr is the general term for entirety of German armed forces, encompassing all branches, ie. Army, Navy, AF, Marines.
