[llama66]

The US needs to allow Obama to run again, Our american friends need to understand what our Russian friends have figured out... you can't change horsemen mid-apocalypse.

[andyt]

What Obama needs to do is spend time twisting arms in Europe to get them to step up with real sanctions. This is really Europe's fight.

[BRAH]

This is the West's fight because the outcome will affect us and yes the EU needs a back bone.

[PostFactum]

Aircraft we lost.

[Winnipegger]

Ukraine definately needs a defence system. Americans use the term "Wild Weasel" for an aircraft designated to take out anti-aircraft systems. A "Wild Weasel" is a fighter aircraft with special missiles. The US uses HARM missiles. Does Ukraine have any former Soviet missiles to do the same job? Equivalents listed in Wikipedia are: British ALARM, Brazil MAR-1, and Chinese LD-10.

[PostFactum]

Winnipegger Winnipegger:

Ukraine definately needs a defence system. Americans use the term "Wild Weasel" for an aircraft designated to take out anti-aircraft systems. A "Wild Weasel" is a fighter aircraft with special missiles. The US uses HARM missiles. Does Ukraine have any former Soviet missiles to do the same job? Equivalents listed in Wikipedia are: British ALARM, Brazil MAR-1, and Chinese LD-10.

US government has money, feel the difference.

[Winnipegger]

llama66 llama66:

The US needs to allow Obama to run again, Our american friends need to understand what our Russian friends have figured out... you can't change horsemen mid-apocalypse.

They just can't do that. Yes, changing horsemen mid-apocolypse is bad. That's just one reason why term limits are a bad idea. My view is anything that restricts who voters can vote for is bad. If voters want to re-elect any politician, they should be allowed to do so. But Americans put this in their constitution. Changing a constitution is very difficult; Canada barely managed to pass one ammendment in 1982, and none since. America has a few, but they're difficult. And many Americans are so scared of the power of incumbency that they'll never allow that to happen.

I looked up the part of their constitution that sets term limits. It's the 22nd ammendment:

$1:

Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Section 2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission to the states by the Congress.

This is particularly stupid. I thought that a president couldn't run for re-election after 2 terms, that he might be able to run again after taking a term off. But this says he cannot be elected more than twice. That's stupid. But that's what they did.

Besides, Republicans are just itching to replace him.

[Winnipegger]

PostFactum PostFactum:

US government has money, feel the difference.

US navy argued that Exocet missiles were too expensive. Then during the Falklands War in 1982, Argentina used one Exocet missile to sink a British destroyer. A $1 million missile sunk a $100 million ship.

[BartSimpson]

Russian soldiers admit to shelling Ukraine from positions inside Russia

http://ukraineatwar.blogspot.nl/2014/07 ... ussia.html

$1:

Valdimir Petrov @_hedder found evidence of a Russian artillery unit shelling Ukrainian positions from Russian territory, because a soldier from this unit is posting photos on his VKontakte page (the Russian Facebook). Or course immediately after discovering this, his page has been deleted. But the info is still here:

Go to the link for more - including geotagged pictures of Russian artillery units.

Stupid Russians.

[BartSimpson]

Winnipegger Winnipegger:

This is particularly stupid.

Term limits came in because of Franklin Roosevelt (who was elected four times). When Roosevelt set out to pack the Supreme Court in order to prevent his edicts from being overturned he not only tweaked the Republicans he scared a lot of Democrats who were afraid of a defacto dictatorship. Keep in mind this is the same guy who refused to rescue the Jews in Europe and who put American citizens in prison just because of their race. He was no hero.

We also oppose the idea of keeping someone in office when there's a war on because that's an invitation for someone to 'wag the dog' and start a war as an excuse to indefinitely delay an election.

Even during our civil war we held elections right on schedule because what's the point of a republic if the first time things get rough you abandon it?

[Winnipegger]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Term limits came in because of Franklin Roosevelt (who was elected four times). When Roosevelt set out to pack the Supreme Court in order to prevent his edicts from being overturned he not only tweaked the Republicans he scared a lot of Democrats who were afraid of a defacto dictatorship. Keep in mind this is the same guy who refused to rescue the Jews in Europe and who put American citizens in prison just because of their race. He was no hero.

We also oppose the idea of keeping someone in office when there's a war on because that's an invitation for someone to 'wag the dog' and start a war as an excuse to indefinitely delay an election.

Even during our civil war we held elections right on schedule because what's the point of a republic if the first time things get rough you abandon it?

Good point. In fact recent presidents have been accused of starting wars just because Americans tend to support their president during war. But I still think term limits are stupid, war or not. And don't Supreme Court nominees have to be ratified by Congress?

[Goober911]

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/07/24 ... al-people/

MOSCOW — Most of Vladimir Paley’s clients want him to dig up their family history with one goal in mind: making a case to obtain foreign citizenship and leave Russia.

Six months ago the soft-spoken genealogist had few such requests, but this month he hired an assistant to help him with the flow of would-be émigrés.

Most just want a better life, with some seeking more political freedom than under President Vladimir Putin and others keen to escape an economy that has been hit by Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis and is on the verge of recession.

“They are people who have already made money and are now scared to lose it,” Paley said.

[Zipperfish]

I wonder if a divided Ukraine will be the new Iron Curtain?

[Goober911]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

I wonder if a divided Ukraine will be the new Iron Curtain?

I do not think that will happen.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/malaysia-a ... -1.2716368

A Ukrainian rebel leader backtracked Thursday from his claim that pro-Russian separatists had an anti-aircraft missile of the type Washington says was used to shoot down Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17.

[Goober911]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/26/world ... v=top-news

KIEV, Ukraine — Russia has stepped up its direct involvement in fighting between the Ukranian military and separatist insurgents, unleashing artillery attacks from Russian territory and massing heavy weapons along the border, Ukrainian and American officials say.

Russia’s aim, the officials say, appeared to be to stem and perhaps roll back gains made by government forces, who have been retaking rebel-held territory and trying to seal the border. They say Russia’s accelerated intervention raises the prospect of more direct and more heated fighting between Ukraine and Russia.

American officials, citing military intelligence, including satellite images, warned that Russia appeared to be preparing to arm the rebels with more high-powered weaponry than it has previously supplied, including tanks, armored vehicles and powerful Tornado multiple rocket launchers.

Among the gains of the Ukrainian forces, following days of intense fighting, was the recapture of Lysychansk. The city had been a rebel stronghold, posing a strategic obstacle to government troops pressing through the Luhansk region from the north and west. The Ukrainian military called in air support as its ground troops struggled to expel insurgents from the city of more than 100,000 people, on the right bank of the Seversky Donets River.