Trump Hands Putin Major Geopolitical Victory

[Wombat + 1,028]

On 8/4/2020 at 4:44 PM, Douglas Buckland said:

After Stalingrad it was not air superiority which was the issue, it was out running their supply lines which became the issue.

After D-Day, the Luftwaffe had to pull aircraft and crews from the Eastern Front for the defense of the Reich. This lessened the pressure greatly on the Soviet airforces. Another point is that Germany never fielded a 4 engine strategic bomber, in numbers, to attack the rebuilt factories east of the Urals.

Many things conspired to keep the Soviets from getting their asses handed to them.

To say that the Soviets singlehandedly defeated the German forces is ignorant.

Correct Doug. It was my British uncle that developed radar, and it was UK that cracked the enigma code. Without these developments, neither the US or Russia could have stopped the Nazi's. Also, Australia developed the underwater magnetic mine, which protected New York harbour. All allies provided both the technology and men required for the fight. We all would have been screwed without each other.

[Strangelovesurfing + 737]

15 minutes ago, Wombat said:

Actually Strangelove, the real trick to the SCRAMJET is keeping the flame going at such a high speed, and it was the University of Queensland (Australia), that cracked it about 10 years ago.

The Reaction engine isn't a scramjet, this is true, but both get you to hypersonic speeds. That reaction engine is a transformer that allows space travel in rocket mode. Absolutely brilliant, Sci-fi into sci-fact on the horizon.

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

3 hours ago, Wombat said:

Correct Doug. It was my British uncle that developed radar, and it was UK that cracked the enigma code. Without these developments, neither the US or Russia could have stopped the Nazi's. Also, Australia developed the underwater magnetic mine, which protected New York harbour. All allies provided both the technology and men required for the fight. We all would have been screwed without each other.

Keep in mind that while the Europe first agreement was in play, the US was essentially ‘going it alone’ in the South and Southwest Pacific against the Japanese. Furthermore, the US broke the much more complicated Purple Code being utilized by the Japanese (see below).

An interesting question that I have always had is why didn’t the British (or for that matter, the Germans) ever develope a fighter capable of escorting their bombers? The Spitfire and Hurricane never had the range and the British finally changed tactics to night bombing to reduce losses.

Up until D-Day, when British aircraft could be based on the Continent, all long range bomber escort was provided, originally, by the American P-47 and P-38, until the P-51 began to arrive in numbers. Contrary to popular belief, it was the P-47’s and P-38’s which broke the back of the Luftwaffe on the Western front (see Pointblank Directive).

Just food for thought...

https://www.google.com.my/amp/s/io9.gizmodo.com/how-the-u-s-cracked-japans-purple-encryption-machine-458385664/amp

[Wombat + 1,028]

7 minutes ago, Douglas Buckland said:

Keep in mind that while the Europe first agreement was in play, the US was essentially ‘going it alone’ in the South and Southwest Pacific against the Japanese. Furthermore, the US broke the much more complicated Purple Code being utilized by the Japanese (see below).

An interesting question that I have always had is why didn’t the British (or for that matter, the Germans) ever develope a fighter capable of escorting their bombers? The Spitfire and Hurricane never had the range and the British finally changed tactics to night bombing to reduce losses.

Up until D-Day, when British aircraft could be based on the Continent, all long range bomber escort was provided, originally, by the American P-47 and P-38, until the P-51 began to arrive in numbers. Contrary to popular belief, it was the P-47’s and P-38’s which broke the back of the Luftwaffe on the Western front (see Pointblank Directive).

Just food for thought...

https://www.google.com.my/amp/s/io9.gizmodo.com/how-the-u-s-cracked-japans-purple-encryption-machine-458385664/amp

Yeah, just watched a docu the other night which explained the role that US air superiority at that stage made all the difference. Didn't know about the Japanese purple code, thanks for the link. It was Australian physicist (Sir Mark Oliphant) that worked out how to get fission bomb going and first thing he did was contact US in order to develop it. Australia will be forever grateful to US for saving us from the Japs, but we are proud that we led you to the bomb that negated the need to invade Japan and saved us both probably 10's of thousands of soldiers. As I say, the Germans should think themselves very lucky that we did not have the bomb before D-Day. My Grandfather was there (signals officer in Royal Navy), and said that thousands of allied soldiers drowned due to the weight of their gear and depth of water. Now Mr Xi of China thinks he can win where Hitler failed, but it looks like we are starting to form an even bigger alliance than last time. I agree 100% with Trump that China has been raping the US economically for too long and that it must stop. Unfortunately, Mr Xi disagreed and has only bought 5% of the oil & gas that he promised to buy from you. And gives the world Covid too? His version of Pearl Harbour, only much more sneaky and much more deadly. Pretty much the entire planet want their revenge now, and we are all more than happy to assist the US efforts being made by Trump and Pompeo. I am sure that Hillary would have just kept taking it up the a*** from Mr Xi. I believe the US always picks the right President at the right time. The collective wisdom of the masses  

[Tomasz + 1,608]

Well, apart from what I wrote in the previous post, the fact is that the global dominance of the US is weakening and China is emerging as its main and serious rival.

The biggest US nightmare is the alliance between Germany, Russia and China.

However, taking into account that the USA is weakening, it focuses on Asia and we have a phenomenon called the Kindelberger trap in geostrategy, i.e. a situation in which a weakening hegemon leaves alone secondary directions because of lack of power to control everything.

Europe is a secondary direction and Russia a secondary rival.

In Asia, the struggle for domination will be fought with China, so the US is focusing on this direction exclusively and thats called pivot to Asia.

Besides, I think that many people in the USA have finally noticed that considering how powerful China is, pushing Russia into China's hands, which was undoubtedly led by NATO's expansion, is not the best idea, hence the US forgiving Ukraine  and agrees to the boundaries of the sphere of influence on the river Bug. 

In my opinion, as we see from Trumps decision to withdraw some troops from Europe it is a favorable circumstance for Europe that it will not be the main battlefield for global domination between China and USA because, according to The Thucydides Trap, it usually leads to war.

I suggest reading this book

Allison, Graham, 2017, Destined For War: Can America and China escape Thucydides's Trap,

Edited August 5, 2020 by Tomasz

[Wombat + 1,028]

10 hours ago, Tomasz said:

Well, apart from what I wrote in the previous post, the fact is that the global dominance of the US is weakening and China is emerging as its main and serious rival.

The biggest US nightmare is the alliance between Germany, Russia and China.

However, taking into account that the USA is weakening, it focuses on Asia and we have a phenomenon called the Kindelberger trap in geostrategy, i.e. a situation in which a weakening hegemon leaves alone secondary directions because of lack of power to control everything.

Europe is a secondary direction and Russia a secondary rival.

In Asia, the struggle for domination will be fought with China, so the US is focusing on this direction exclusively and thats called pivot to Asia.

Besides, I think that many people in the USA have finally noticed that considering how powerful China is, pushing Russia into China's hands, which was undoubtedly led by NATO's expansion, is not the best idea, hence the US forgiving Ukraine  and agrees to the boundaries of the sphere of influence on the river Bug. 

In my opinion, as we see from Trumps decision to withdraw some troops from Europe it is a favorable circumstance for Europe that it will not be the main battlefield for global domination between China and USA because, according to The Thucydides Trap, it usually leads to war.

I suggest reading this book

Allison, Graham, 2017, Destined For War: Can America and China escape Thucydides's Trap,

All correct except one thing. US not necessarily weakening. All depends on who wins next election.

[dukeNukem + 80]

10 hours ago, Tomasz said:

Well, apart from what I wrote in the previous post, the fact is that the global dominance of the US is weakening and China is emerging as its main and serious rival.

The biggest US nightmare is the alliance between Germany, Russia and China.

However, taking into account that the USA is weakening, it focuses on Asia and we have a phenomenon called the Kindelberger trap in geostrategy, i.e. a situation in which a weakening hegemon leaves alone secondary directions because of lack of power to control everything.

Europe is a secondary direction and Russia a secondary rival.

In Asia, the struggle for domination will be fought with China, so the US is focusing on this direction exclusively and thats called pivot to Asia.

Besides, I think that many people in the USA have finally noticed that considering how powerful China is, pushing Russia into China's hands, which was undoubtedly led by NATO's expansion, is not the best idea, hence the US forgiving Ukraine  and agrees to the boundaries of the sphere of influence on the river Bug. 

In my opinion, as we see from Trumps decision to withdraw some troops from Europe it is a favorable circumstance for Europe that it will not be the main battlefield for global domination between China and USA because, according to The Thucydides Trap, it usually leads to war.

I suggest reading this book

Allison, Graham, 2017, Destined For War: Can America and China escape Thucydides's Trap,

Agree with your points Tomasz...In general US should be interested to make good relation with Russia, against China. However, for some reason, it is not happening. Also US should be interested to lift energy prices (oil/gas/coal) to slow down Chinese growth. I would recommend to read Ray Dalio's articles "Changing World Order" (whole book will be ready bit later). Quite interesting read about what happening now, and many historical examples, how leading powers gave up to uprising powers. US c ertainly loosing its credibility...

[dukeNukem + 80]

12 hours ago, Tomasz said:

I suggest reading this book

Allison, Graham, 2017, Destined For War: Can America and China escape Thucydides's Trap,

Just had a quick look into Graham Allison book and articles - looks like Dalio writing about similar things  https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/ray-dalio-applies-lessons-past-todays-financial-world "Graham Allison (left), co-director of the Center’s Applied History Project, talks with Ray Dalio (right) and HKS Dean Doug Elmendorf before Dalio’s participation in a JFK, Jr. Forum. Dalio spoke earlier in the day with Allison’s Applied History Working Group."

[Enric + 3]

On 8/1/2020 at 2:01 PM, Douglas Buckland said:

I agree that the Soviet Union was instrumental in defeating the Nazis. But keep in mind that early in the war that Russia had a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany. This pact spelled out the partitioning of Poland between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.

The Soviet Union was sitting on the sidelines, waiting on her rewards, when Hitler, their supposed non-aggressive ‘ally’, attacked them!

Now we need to consider the massive Lend-Lease program where the US supplied arms and material to the Soviet Union until they could move their armament factories East of the Urals, set them up, and start producing their own arms. Even then they still demanded Lend-Lease material.

Lastly, the Soviet Union was fighting on a single front. Due to the Europe First policy, the US was heavily involved in Europe (daylight bombing of Germany in which more Americans servicemen died than all deaths in WW2 suffered by the US Marine Corp), North Africa and Italy. The US was also required, almost singlehandedly, to stop the Japanese advance in the South and Southwest Pacific.

So yes, the Soviets were instrumental in defeating Nazi Germany, but they sure as hell didn’t do it on their own! It was a WORLD war and they only participated on the Allied side after Hitler reneged on their deal.

The USA fought a mostly air and naval war, much less a land war and thanks to geography they had their civilian population and infrastructure untouched by the war. 

[Enric + 3]

On 8/5/2020 at 2:58 PM, Wombat said:

Yeah, just watched a docu the other night which explained the role that US air superiority at that stage made all the difference. Didn't know about the Japanese purple code, thanks for the link. It was Australian physicist (Sir Mark Oliphant) that worked out how to get fission bomb going and first thing he did was contact US in order to develop it. Australia will be forever grateful to US for saving us from the Japs, but we are proud that we led you to the bomb that negated the need to invade Japan and saved us both probably 10's of thousands of soldiers. As I say, the Germans should think themselves very lucky that we did not have the bomb before D-Day. My Grandfather was there (signals officer in Royal Navy), and said that thousands of allied soldiers drowned due to the weight of their gear and depth of water. Now Mr Xi of China thinks he can win where Hitler failed, but it looks like we are starting to form an even bigger alliance than last time. I agree 100% with Trump that China has been raping the US economically for too long and that it must stop. Unfortunately, Mr Xi disagreed and has only bought 5% of the oil & gas that he promised to buy from you. And gives the world Covid too? His version of Pearl Harbour, only much more sneaky and much more deadly. Pretty much the entire planet want their revenge now, and we are all more than happy to assist the US efforts being made by Trump and Pompeo. I am sure that Hillary would have just kept taking it up the a*** from Mr Xi. I believe the US always picks the right President at the right time. The collective wisdom of the masses  

China has nothing to do with national socialist Germany while the USA bombing, invading and militarily besieging other nations (including China) has many similiarities with the Third Reich, above all the idea that Americans must be uber alles... 

Edited August 12, 2020 by Enric

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

3 hours ago, Enric said:

The USA fought a mostly air and naval war, much less a land war and thanks to geography they had their civilian population and infrastructure untouched by the war. 

Do you read what you write? I suppose the ‘island hopping’ campaign in the Pacific, the Torch landings in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Europe were not ‘land wars’.

On D-Day, what percentage of the landing beaches were assigned to American forces?

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

3 hours ago, Enric said:

China has nothing to do with national socialist Germany while the USA bombing, invading and militarily besieging other nations (including China) has many similiarities with the Third Reich, above all the idea that Americans must be uber alles... 

Yet, the AVG (American Volunteer Group) was the ONLY foreign air force operating IN CHINA to aid the Chinese against Japan....

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

On 8/6/2020 at 1:53 AM, dukeNukem said:

Agree with your points Tomasz...In general US should be interested to make good relation with Russia, against China. However, for some reason, it is not happening. Also US should be interested to lift energy prices (oil/gas/coal) to slow down Chinese growth. I would recommend to read Ray Dalio's articles "Changing World Order" (whole book will be ready bit later). Quite interesting read about what happening now, and many historical examples, how leading powers gave up to uprising powers. US c ertainly loosing its credibility...

Does any nation have good relations with the US anymore? 

No, because the united states of embarrassment attacks its closest allies.

[Wombat + 1,028]

On 8/4/2020 at 4:37 PM, Douglas Buckland said:

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/08/the_atomic_attacks_on_japan_justified_or_not.html

I have relatives that were treated inhumanely in Japanese POW camps, so I think a couple of nukes neither here nor there. 

[Wombat + 1,028]

3 minutes ago, Wombat said:

 

Dan, as a child I asked my father each time I saw horrible stuff on the news, "don't u think that is evil"? He said, "evil is evil".  So it is.

If u must know, I have the power to kill a billion ppl, but I cannot think of anything worse. My advice to Trump was to keep his finger off the little red button as long as possible. China is increasingly making that impossible. Get ready to say goodbye to Shanghai and Beijing. We can no longer afford them.

 

[Wombat + 1,028]

2 minutes ago, Wombat said:

If u must know, I have the power to kill a billion ppl, but I cannot think of anything worse. My advice to Trump was to keep his finger off the little red button as long as possible. China is increasingly making that impossible. Get ready to say goodbye to Shanghai and Beijing. We can no longer afford them.

 

With all due respect, I did not need to stop the Ebola virus in it's tracks but I did so for the sake of world peace. A big mistake, should have let it rage.

 

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

1 minute ago, Wombat said:

With all due respect, I did not need to stop the Ebola virus in it's tracks but I did so for the sake of world peace. A big mistake, should have let it rage.

 

Not your average wombat!  Do tell, who are you exactly?

[Wombat + 1,028]

1 minute ago, Dan Warnick said:

Not your average wombat!  Do tell, who are you exactly?

As I said, I am just a lowly presidential advisor, and I made a big mistake in telling Obama to stop Ebola. I thought the Chinese would appreciate the gesture as they were most at risk. I was wrong. They want virus after virus for their own political gain, as Gerry Maddoux has clearly pointed out on this forum. Now they will get the Bubonic Plague, maybe mouse pox too.

[Wombat + 1,028]

2 minutes ago, Wombat said:

As I said, I am just a lowly presidential advisor, and I made a big mistake in telling Obama to stop Ebola. I thought the Chinese would appreciate the gesture as they were most at risk. I was wrong. They want virus after virus for their own political gain, as Gerry Maddoux has clearly pointed out on this forum. Now they will get the Bubonic Plague, maybe mouse pox too.

I don't muck about Dan. The Chinese govt has just killed 160,000 Americans, a couple hundred Australians, and I always get my revenge.

 

[Wombat + 1,028]

Just now, Wombat said:

I don't muck about Dan. The Chinese govt has just killed 160,000 Americans, a couple hundred Australians, and I always get my revenge.

 

Under the ANZUS treaty, an attack on the USA is an attack on Australia. That has not changed one bit.

[Wombat + 1,028]

6 minutes ago, Wombat said:

Under the ANZUS treaty, an attack on the USA is an attack on Australia. That has not changed one bit.

Whether it be Pearl Harbour or 9/11 the way Australia sees it is the same.  Ditto with covid 19. The way we see it, our most powerful and valuable ally has been hit with a severe and sneaky attack which we cannot afford to dismiss. America can rely on us with all the resources we have. We are not going to let this slide.

 

[Selva + 252]

I had to do some cleansing in this thread because we can't allow speech of hate and calling for mass killing in this forum. Now let's try to stick to the topic. 

[Tomasz + 1,608]

When it comes to the Eastern Front, pork and trucks for transport played a big role. There is a saying that the Red Army took Berlin by feeding on American carcasses and relocating Studebakers.

But recently, I read that, however, something else was of major importance - huge supplies of American penentiline to the eastern front, which the German army did not have. They saved a considerable number of lives in the Soviet Union, and for this the peoples of the Soviet Union should be grateful.

On the other hand, when it comes to the partisans, the main role was played not by murdering the Germans in any trace amounts, but by effectively blowing up train transports going to the Eastern Front  by just blowing up rails and trains. It is little known and only recently appreciated contribution of Polish partisans to the outcome of World War II.It just so happens that the greatest sabotage of the transports took place during the Stalingrad battle and on the Kursk battle.

 The achievements of the Allied aviation should also be appreciated.

There is such a joke that Gebbels once said that when Hitler gives a speech, the German people feel both uneasiness and relief. In 1944, the Germans told a joke that the Germans felt anxiety when they saw 1000 B-29s above them. A relief when they realize that this time the target of the bombing is, however, another town..

Edited August 13, 2020 by Tomasz

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

A bit off the main topic, but I stumbled across this video of Top 15 Countries by military spending 1914-2018.  Cool graphic and you can see history playing out with the rise and fall of this spending.