Originally Posted By kilroymcb:
Oh gods sake, do we really need to hear a lecture about how the American military was beaten by goat herders with sandals again? Your historical perspective is skewed. The US military wasn't fighting in Afghanistan for years. Nor should they have been.

Afghanistan had its own government and military. At what point does the security of a country become their own problem? Absolutely sick of you silly fucks.

If we'd wrecked the place and left after the Taliban was kicked out in 2001 and they came back into power 3-4 years later, would you say the US military got its butt kicked? Stop getting your talking points from reddit.

Originally Posted By 1stID:


The US fought for 20 years in Afghanistan, spent a trillion dollars, and were kicked out by a bunch of goat hearder in sandals.  Maybe temper a bit on who can do what.

Originally Posted By 1stID:


The US fought for 20 years in Afghanistan, spent a trillion dollars, and were kicked out by a bunch of goat hearder in sandals.  Maybe temper a bit on who can do what.

Originally Posted By Drakich:


We weren't kicked out.  We "elected" a feckless leader who unceremoniously had us withdraw after the prior 3 leaders failed to direct the military to come up with a victory plan (with the majority of the blame falling on Bush and Obama).

Originally Posted By SpaceGuy:
Twitter OSINT sources are claiming Ukrainians are 7km away from Vovchans'k which is the main supply hub to Izyum. Its riiiight on the border of Russia.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Vovchans'k,+Kharkiv+Oblast,+Ukraine/@50.18413,36.7724451,9.75z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x4126f0c2a341bfa5:0x16d34498bcba6acc!8m2!3d50.284234!4d36.9329429

Originally Posted By Billy_Ringo:



"With eyes on target"  can that be done via a drone?   If a drone identifies a target can it send info and/or specific co-ordinates back and have the target hit?    I understand they can walk/re-direct artillery but can it be done with a first strike via co-ordinates from a drone?

Thanks in advance.

One side-note.  If the Russians announced Putin is gravely ill and a few days later claimed he was dead.  Even with a burial, what percent of the people would believe he was actually dead?  Conspiracy nuts would have a field day with that one for decades.

Originally Posted By 1stID:


The US fought for 20 years in Afghanistan, spent a trillion dollars, and were kicked out by a bunch of goat hearder in sandals.  Maybe temper a bit on who can do what.

Originally Posted By 1stID:


The US fought for 20 years in Afghanistan, spent a trillion dollars, and were kicked out by a bunch of goat hearder in sandals.  Maybe temper a bit on who can do what.

Originally Posted By m35ben:
Live babbling on Ukraine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltqDf2RXQjA

Originally Posted By 1stID:


The US spent 20 years moving from a Cold War, defense of Europe mindset to being all about 3rd world insurgences.  We still lost in Afgan, and in Iraq as well - a war won by Iran.  The US is about the last country right now to be crowing about another country's tough slough in a war.

Plus with the turds at the leadership of the US Military, I wouldn't trust fools like the traitor Miley to win anything.

Lots of Smug Satisfaction! on how the Russians are doing, when the US track record for actually winning wars is the O-fer since WWII.  I had a part of one of those ties myself.  

War is much, much harder that anything thinks it's going to be.  The enemy has a vote in your plans as well.  

For all the thumbnail sketching of blown off turrets or articles from the UK Sun (same level of accuracy as a supermarket checkout mag), the Russians are slowly, ploddingly, grinding things out on the eastern front.  

Is it going slow?  Yes.  Are they losing lots of troops and equipment?  Yes.  Do they care about that?  No.  A big mistake in war is to think that what bothers you will bother your enemy.  Now if the US was losing as much as the Russians are, we'd have quit two months ago - see Somalia, where one big battle caused the US to retreat and run away, errr, re-deploy.

This war is shaping up very similar to the Finn/Russian Winter War.  The Russians stumbled around at the start, losing a lot of troops in a failed effort to capture the capital.  They fired / killed off the worthless generals, moved up some better ones, then relied on their numbers, and especially their powerful artillery to win a war of attrition.  Finland finally had to settle for an agreement where they gave up more land than if they'd agreed to what the Soviets originally demanded prior to the war (not to say that the Soviets would have kept to that agreement either).

I expect the same here.  The Russians will capture most of the east part of Ukraine, fortify their positions, and consider things done.  Ukraine may babble on about re-capturing all of their losses, including the pipe dream of the Crimea as well, but that will just for western ears to keep the flow of money coming into the country, all the more to steal.  Ukraine will kick back enough taxpayer money to the US's ruling class to keep it flowing as well - or did you think it was an accident how much Hunter Biden made from Ukrainian companies?

Originally Posted By zx2man:


With a caveat that our fighting forces was handicapped by policy makers in DC turning a counter-terrorist battle into a complete clown show. Look at the beginning of Afghanistan 9/11.
Special operations, battlefield intelligence, air supremacy-absolute enemy devastation. Direct action warfare where we dictate the terms, large conventional warfare, we do it the best in the world.

When your ROE gets turned around 180. When you go from running offensive operations to turning a stone age civilization into a modern western democracy things go wrong real fast. Now your bogged down in a guerilla warfare environment. Your passing on pre mission planning and operation details with corrupt Afghan leadership who passes it on to the Taliban. I could go on and on, but the guys who truly operated over there know what I'm talking about. I know a lot of Americans at home were just watching a utter shit show, they see a wasted 20 years. And in many ways I agree. Specially with dead mates over there. But when we "operated" the way we wanted to, we fucked them up.

In a war with Russia, it would be a large scale conflict with a shit ton of assets, Americans would fight the war they are good at, and yeah it would not be even close. Thank you.

Originally Posted By 1stID:


The US fought for 20 years in Afghanistan, spent a trillion dollars, and were kicked out by a bunch of goat hearder in sandals.  Maybe temper a bit on who can do what.

Originally Posted By 1stID:


The US spent 20 years moving from a Cold War, defense of Europe mindset to being all about 3rd world insurgences.  We still lost in Afgan, and in Iraq as well - a war won by Iran.  The US is about the last country right now to be crowing about another country's tough slough in a war.

Plus with the turds at the leadership of the US Military, I wouldn't trust fools like the traitor Miley to win anything.

Lots of Smug Satisfaction! on how the Russians are doing, when the US track record for actually winning wars is the O-fer since WWII.  I had a part of one of those ties myself.  

War is much, much harder that anything thinks it's going to be.  The enemy has a vote in your plans as well.  

For all the thumbnail sketching of blown off turrets or articles from the UK Sun (same level of accuracy as a supermarket checkout mag), the Russians are slowly, ploddingly, grinding things out on the eastern front.  

Is it going slow?  Yes.  Are they losing lots of troops and equipment?  Yes.  Do they care about that?  No.  A big mistake in war is to think that what bothers you will bother your enemy.  Now if the US was losing as much as the Russians are, we'd have quit two months ago - see Somalia, where one big battle caused the US to retreat and run away, errr, re-deploy.

This war is shaping up very similar to the Finn/Russian Winter War.  The Russians stumbled around at the start, losing a lot of troops in a failed effort to capture the capital.  They fired / killed off the worthless generals, moved up some better ones, then relied on their numbers, and especially their powerful artillery to win a war of attrition.  Finland finally had to settle for an agreement where they gave up more land than if they'd agreed to what the Soviets originally demanded prior to the war (not to say that the Soviets would have kept to that agreement either).

I expect the same here.  The Russians will capture most of the east part of Ukraine, fortify their positions, and consider things done.  Ukraine may babble on about re-capturing all of their losses, including the pipe dream of the Crimea as well, but that will just for western ears to keep the flow of money coming into the country, all the more to steal.  Ukraine will kick back enough taxpayer money to the US's ruling class to keep it flowing as well - or did you think it was an accident how much Hunter Biden made from Ukrainian companies?

Originally Posted By AlmightyTallest:
North of Kharkiv, battle at Pytomnyk, hunting down a lone Russian T-80 that's pretty on edge, and on fire.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/ury7b9/ukraine_forces_hunt_down_a_russian_t80_during_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb

Originally Posted By kncook:


When we pulled out of Afghanistan (what a cluster). More cops had been killed on the job in Chicago than soldiers killed in combat in Afghanistan the last 2 years.

Originally Posted By Undaunted:
https://youtube.com/shorts/VKKoa1Qm-VQ?feature=share

I've not been keeping up the last couple days....but awesome.

Originally Posted By Anastasios:


It doesn't look like a tracking or imbalance problem to me. The fuselage and tires aren't jumping, just the wings. I think it's the equipment on the wings. They look like they were piled on with no concern for load limits or configuration.

Originally Posted By zach_:Height is not the measure of the turret vault. The landing is all important. AFIK, there has only been one close to perfect landing with the turret. The barrel of the gun was stuck in the ground, keeping the turret elevated. The barrel was not perpendicular to the ground.  
A higher score is possible.