Ukraine: military (Aug '14 to mid-June '15) closed

[AmericanPride]

AP--you really believe that the US is not a declining power?

I believe the perception of the decline of U.S. power is less a function of an absolute reduction of U.S. capabilities and more the consequence of the relative increase of power of other states; namely China and Russia. The U.S. does have serious structural problems it needs to fix in the long-term.

First, you say this:

while you want to negotiate over what I am not sure Russia has made two serious attempts to move in their "peacekeeping Brigades" which by the way I helped to train their staffs in 2012/2013 in the concept of how the US carries out peacekeeping ops so I fully understand it when they use the term peacekeeping as I had spent hours driving out of their minds peacekeeping means actually shooting civilians as they knew only one thing in peacekeeping---shooting and asking questions far, far later.

Then you say:

Right now the US is in effect fighting a two front war---the Ukraine and over Iraq--and because we are a declining power we cannot engage both fully thus we have not been focusing verbally and sanction wise on the Russian moves the last three days.

Leading to your conclusion that:

One must constantly engage the global public when Russia makes a move--if there is no worldwide comments against them then Russia interprets that as a positive response for what they do---has always been that way even in the CW days.

It now appears that you are advocating nothing more than expressing diplomatic indignation. I thought Russia was a second-rate power with nothing to offer the world? Now the U.S. is incapable of doing anything about it other than snubbing its nose?

[Shchors]

I too second Outlaw 09's position mentioned above that the Russian Buk shot down the wrong civilian airliner on July 15. There were reports of an averted Russian invasion overnight from July 17-18, that was aborted at the last minute. At the time, it remained a mystery. In light of the Ukrainian SBU's (intelligence service) recent publication of the theory that this incursion was to follow Russian outrage and Western sympathy over a Russian airliner that was to have been shot down over Ukrainian territory by a Russian Buk, but with the Malaysian Air Flight 777 falling instead, the recall of the invasion now makes sense. Regarding Outlaw 09's comment about mission orders, you have to realize that the US Army and Marines occasionally train to fight where they face an equal adversary and their officers try to adjust on the fly on the basis of general mission orders, but in actuality fight scripted wars from above where the adversary has to hide and use guerilla tactics or roadside IED's because of American might, especially in the air and because of integrated digital communications and satellite intelligence. The Ukrainians and Russian separatists, to a large degree, are fighting a WWII era campaign without the sophisticated communications equipment, except at higher staff level. The battalion commanders have mere radio, which as we all know, is not always reliable. My understanding is that the disparate units of the UA, operating apart from each other at a distance of multiple kilometers, have had a problem in maintaining lateral communications, being in touch only vertically with higher headquarters. Nonetheless, when two sides are evenly matched, sophisticated communications often break down as a result of casualties and destroyed equipment, leaving it up to the field commanders to use their intuition to decide what to do next on the basis of limited information. The war in East Ukraine is both fascinating and horrible; a throwback to bold and daring maneuvers between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army.

[OUTLAW 09]

I too second Outlaw 09's position mentioned above that the Russian Buk shot down the wrong civilian airliner on July 15. There were reports of an averted Russian invasion overnight from July 17-18, that was aborted at the last minute. At the time, it remained a mystery. In light of the Ukrainian SBU's (intelligence service) recent publication of the theory that this incursion was to follow Russian outrage and Western sympathy over a Russian airliner that was to have been shot down over Ukrainian territory by a Russian Buk, but with the Malaysian Air Flight 777 falling instead, the recall of the invasion now makes sense. Regarding Outlaw 09's comment about mission orders, you have to realize that the US Army and Marines occasionally train to fight where they face an equal adversary and their officers try to adjust on the fly on the basis of general mission orders, but in actuality fight scripted wars from above where the adversary has to hide and use guerilla tactics or roadside IED's because of American might, especially in the air and because of integrated digital communications and satellite intelligence. The Ukrainians and Russian separatists, to a large degree, are fighting a WWII era campaign without the sophisticated communications equipment, except at higher staff level. The battalion commanders have mere radio, which as we all know, is not always reliable. My understanding is that the disparate units of the UA, operating apart from each other at a distance of multiple kilometers, have had a problem in maintaining lateral communications, being in touch only vertically with higher headquarters. Nonetheless, when two sides are evenly matched, sophisticated communications often break down as a result of casualties and destroyed equipment, leaving it up to the field commanders to use their intuition to decide what to do next on the basis of limited information. The war in East Ukraine is both fascinating and horrible; a throwback to bold and daring maneuvers between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army.

It seems that whatever the UA is doing is working as this seems to indicate the newly appointed Donetsk leader has been signaling he wants a ceasefire.

However, hours after Strelkov's statement, rebels said they had reclaimed Krasnyi Luch. "According to preliminary data, Krasnyi Luch is cleared of enemy forces. The battle continues on the outskirts of the city and near Miusynsk from the east," read a tweet from the official account of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.

With Ukrainian forces pressing down on the rebels, the newly appointed separatist leader in Donetsk Alexander Zakharchenko said he was ready for a ceasefire to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in the city.

“We hope that the international community will influence the bloodthirsty Kyiv government,” he told RIA Novosti.

The Ukrainian government did not immediately respond to Zakharchenko's statement.

[OUTLAW 09]

I believe the perception of the decline of U.S. power is less a function of an absolute reduction of U.S. capabilities and more the consequence of the relative increase of power of other states; namely China and Russia. The U.S. does have serious structural problems it needs to fix in the long-term.

First, you say this:

Then you say:
on
Leading to your conclusion that:

It now appears that you are advocating nothing more than expressing diplomatic indignation. I thought Russia was a second-rate power with nothing to offer the world? Now the U.S. is incapable of doing anything about it other than snubbing its nose?

AP---happy to see that you agreed that Russia is a second rate "developing" power and has nothing to offer the world---at least you finally agreed on something.



AP- you definitely got the negotiation thing wrong did you not?