TheMechanic

There has been some good answers, but I'm not entirely satisfied with the details, so I will add my own response.

Culturally Russia sees itself as outside the rest of the world. At the very minimum, an equal to historical empires of Europe or Asia, but part of neither. It sees the USA as an ethnic mongrel with no culture or history, and hates the US power it projects globally.

Russia sees the former Soviet Union countries as property of the Rus people, and NATO involvement as outsider influence in affairs that do not concern them.

Globally, the world values stability more than they value justice or peace. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, it came after several other invasions of other former Soviet countries. There was little global response on any occasion.

Putin did expect the invasion to be fast and achieve their goals quickly. It was a mistake on his behalf.

This invasion was taken differently than any previous invasion because it upset global stability. Gas, oil and grain were traded openly with Russia and Ukraine and a war upset the market right when the world was trying to stabilise markets rocked by inflation, pandemic recovery and suppy chain problems.

The result was many countries around the world pledging military support. This was always older generation materiel which essentially costs those countries to maintain. It was the global equivalent of giving a homeless man the doggy bag you didn't want anyway.

Why did they do this? They wanted Russia to pull back, return to its 2014 lines and go back to stability so that global markets could resume. So they gave Ukraine just enough to defend itself, but not enough to win.

Why did they do this? Because the world wants stability more than peace. Of the pledges of materiel, almost none has actually come to fruition. About 1/4 of the armor promised has arrived that was promised. Ukraine continues to beg for alms (or in this case arms), and they do amazing things with the little they are given.

Western powers could arm Ukraine and it would win. They have had no problem spending trillions of dollars over decades to protect their influence. It does not in this case as the World is only just coming to terms that Russia will not stop just for stability.

Putin will cease to be leader if he pulls back. The Russian leader would be seen as weak, and the Russian culture loves a Tsar. Putin believes in luck and will continue the sunk cost in the hope that some outside factor or random event will go in his favor.

The West is already getting bored and tired of a war they aren't even fighting. There is a possibility that pro-Russian Republicans could regain office or power in the US. All Putin has to do is hold and eventually the West will even start telling Ukraine to capitulate to them.

Putin does not care how many troops he loses. Russia doesn't really care how many people it loses unless those people are from the cities. Russian culture dehumanises the poor and mixed ethnicities.

This current grinding stalemate is a direct result of world policy. The world supplies Ukraine with just enough so they don't lose, but not enough that they can win. In the meantime, the arms dealers are circling like sharks. India and China are cashing in on filling global supply gaps and taking advantage of Russias need for materiel frozen by sanctions. The hope would be that world leaders realise before it's too late that the only way Ukraine can win, is that if Russia loses.

You have to know how to operate the oven to reheat store bought pie. Generative LLMs are machines like ovens, and turning the knobs is not creativity. Not operating the oven correctly gets you Sharon Weiss results.

Country defense is oriented around the most likely attack in the near future. Once Russia is defeated and this war is over, the most likely invader is still Russia. So they are planning on what will defend against what Russia has now.

I was buying from ebay because I didn't want to support Amazon. Now what?

I used to work in manufacturing. One place used the Japanese standard of manufacturing with paper based progress gates and faxing copies to other sections. They also paid cash for any outside contracts. The whole system worked flawlessly. Those negatives are not as bad as they seem.

Massively increasing child fatalities is just the price of freedom baby

Number of Vehicles in use has increased by 20% since 2003. Number of vehicles in use has doubled since 1990. The vehicles are also getting larger and heavier. Light Commercial vehicle sales increase at 7% each year for year, relative to the total sales.

ie A typical family 30 years ago would have one medium sedan or wagon, now they have two trucks or SUVs.

I cant read past the first paragraph because of paywall. If the author hasn't come to the conclusion that it's because of all the fucking cars they need to reassess.

Walking to places and randomly running into people who can become acquaintances, then friends is difficult or impossible in places with cars as the primary transport.

Meeting in 'third places' is no longer easy because all of those areas are gone or dying due to car based infrastructure.

Town and city public meetung spaces are dying or gone due to car based infrastructure 'needing' those areas for parking.

This war was lost over a year ago. None of their aims were achievable after that point.

To understand why it continues you have to understand two things:

Putin will cease to be leader if he ends this.

Putin believes in luck. The longer this continues the more likely of some random event going in his favour or of the West getting bored and withdrawing their support.

He's intentionally dragging out the conflict. The tactics they use are designed to do nothing more than slow down how much territory is lost over time.

Every so often they attack to achieve a little 'victory'. This is then twisted into a massive victory on every tv across Russia. This plus huge pay offerings, gives them endless volunteers. Particularly from rural regions where education is lacking.

Putin does not care how many of his own people he kills. They are nothing to him. The tactic putin is using is based on throwing 10, 20, 100 or whatever number to kill one Ukrainian. That is one less Ukrainian. That is what matters to him.

Smart enough to nearly figure out a way to avoid a drone, not smart enough to stay home in his own country.

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The title states 'book says' making it sound like it's hearsay, but he admitted today that it was true:

https://sh.itjust.works/post/4649482

What an absolute piece of shit, he's not even ashamed of being a Russian agent.