this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
554 points (93.8% liked)

World News

32359 readers
238 users here now

News from around the world!

Rules:

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] justastranger@sh.itjust.works 151 points 1 year ago (56 children)

It's like every time there's a war everybody forgets how fucking long they take. WW2 took six years. The Vietnam War took almost 20 years, same with the Afghanistan War. Anybody expecting anything solid within the next couple years is delusional. Ukraine is in it for the long haul.

[–] SheeEttin@lemmy.world 68 points 1 year ago (3 children)

That's not strictly true. On the short end, there was the six-day war. On the long end, there was the hundred years' war.

Putin was clearly aiming for the short option, but then I suppose most belligerents usually are.

[–] justastranger@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'd actually love to see a graph that shows the distribution of lengths of various wars

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] threegnomes@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Anglo-Zanzibar War lasted less than an hour

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Dude took the low end and said "fuck that we'll do it twice as fast."

The good news is I don't think Russia can continue to sustain these kind of losses for 199 more years.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ours@lemmy.film 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And Russia expected their little venture to be done in days.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It was never supposed to turn into a real war. They wanted to assassinate Zelenskyy put some Russian plant in as president, annex some more land and call it a night. Obviously Zelenskyy survived and the rest is history.

[–] ours@lemmy.film 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"No plan survives first contact with the enemy"

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (54 replies)
[–] thecodemonk@programming.dev 92 points 1 year ago (5 children)

The comment threads here are weird. Who, in their right mind, would ever support a country like Russia? It's mind blowing.

[–] Gsus4@feddit.nl 53 points 1 year ago
[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

BRICS. Even if they don’t necessarily support Russia it may just be an opportunity to take shots at the West.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Jaysyn@kbin.social 85 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Everyone point & laugh at the sad tankie in this thread.

[–] balls_expert@lemmy.blahaj.zone 35 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Damn we don't see them on blahaj :<

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Ginjutsu@lemmy.zip 78 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (12 children)

HexBear and brigading yet another Ukraine thread with misinformation and Kremlin propaganda, name a more iconic duo.

EDIT: It appears that I've triggered the horde.

[–] GyozaPower@discuss.tchncs.de 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It's funny seeing the replies to your comment crying about "not brigading" but then the vast majority of the comments in this post come from hexbear users commenting tankie shit

[–] Ginjutsu@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 year ago

It's almost as if they completely lack self-awareness.

[–] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 14 points 1 year ago

Easy way to trigger them:

Ahem...

"Human Rights"

load more comments (10 replies)
[–] Rapidcreek@reddthat.com 43 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Somewhere in the Pentagon there surely must be a series of rooms isolated for this war. In them intelligence is gathered, counterparts in Ukraine can be in instant contact, resources from both armies are tracked, tactics are formulated, simulations are run. How do I know this? Because this would be too good of a learning opportunity to pass up.

And those folks ain't talking.

[–] DrNeurohax@kbin.social 33 points 1 year ago (10 children)

All those folks in the 50+ age group that grew up with "Russia is enemy #1" are probably cycling through waves of intense work and prolonged orgasm.

I wouldn't be surprised if one of the first things considered in strategizing any armed conflict is whether they want Russia and China to know that we have X or are capable of Y. Russia has shown their hand. If they could do more, they would have by now.

It has also taught NATO that Russia is still in the barbaric tactics mindset. Hospitals, schools, churches, shipping centers - they're all valid targets. If Russia wants a position, they'll level the entire town. That certainly changes the plans, of anyone thought they would abode by the Geneva Conventions.

[–] rastilin@kbin.social 21 points 1 year ago (3 children)

All those folks in the 50+ age group that grew up with "Russia is enemy #1" are probably cycling through waves of intense work and prolonged orgasm.

The ones that haven't suddenly decided that Russia is our best friend all of a sudden for some reason that I still can't figure out. This is even considering that Russia was found to have been paying out bounties on dead American soldiers, or that they had people assassinated in the UK. Certainly it should be a disqualifier that Russia isn't a true Democracy and had Putin's political opponents jailed. Two Democracies won't directly start a conflict against each other, but that doesn't hold up between Democracies and non-Democracies.

My hope is that as Russia runs out of money and organization to fund overseas psyops, the sheen will wear off.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Rapidcreek@reddthat.com 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Russians have less tactics and capabilities than NATO thought. Now it is a matter of how quickly they can be overwhelmed should it come to it. Their big problem is mid level command.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (8 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] lntl@lemmy.ml 40 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Haters gonna hate. Still though, they'll need to be cordial if some of these critics are also paying Ukrainian bills. Being rude is the fast track to falling out of favor with foriegn taxpayers.

[–] RangerAndTheCat@startrek.website 81 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They’re tired and weary from the onslaught of war fringe to safe their country from Putins aggression. Any dig at their progress is a dig at morale that spreads not only through the ranks, but also to the general public. There is a time for constructive criticism, but that should be done in private with actual solutions offered by those criticizing. I understand their needs to be some decorum but you can’t blame them for what I would consider a mild retort as their countrymen die trying to retake their land everyday.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] DmMacniel@feddit.de 39 points 1 year ago

Good for Kyiv. Those armchair generals should shut up and fight if they think things are going slowly.

[–] Rapidcreek@reddthat.com 26 points 1 year ago (7 children)

IMO these critics are used to air superiority which Ukraine doesn't have.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] atlasraven31@lemm.ee 20 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I wish we would just go ahead and give ATACMs. It would certainly speed things up.

[–] ParkingPsychology@kbin.social 23 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I'm following the combat activities (the actual combat, not high level strategic stuff). It's all mines, mines, mines and then some trench warfare.

No amount of ATACMS can do anything about that. You still have to advance slowly, figure out where the mines are, clean them up or move around them and then take the trenches.

Drones can do a whole lot more good for a whole lot less.

load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] anewbeginning@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Breaching those lines was never going to be quick, but once breached the line will move quicker.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›