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Oh yes, I agree 100% there. That is why, IMO, it is important to look at the hard substance of what one is saying.

That's not what I said. You completely misunderstood my argument. I never said their philosophical contributions are irrelevant (to the contrary, I've stated the exact opposite). What I said is that criticism of International Relations/Political Science/Economics is not the same as say criticism...

Wasn't trying to be rude. Point is, expertise in something like IR, and especially IR theory, is in no way comparable to say being a surgeon, and as such lack of expertise in it doesn't necessarily inhibit thinking about foreign policy.

Some good news: Ukraine liberates Lyman

Had a feeling you'd say that. The irony is that I feel some of the people in here have been a good example of that. The problem with your analogy is that the medical/surgical theories don't have a history of being proven wrong, or of experts in said surgical field having differing opinions...

I am skeptical IR can really even be reduced much to "theory." Yes there are theories and philosophies of thought that are important, and I understand one must know the underlying political and economic system, culture, history, etc...of a nation to have an idea of how it behaves and why, but a...

The other problem is does he even have the capabilities to make use of a tactical nuclear weapon? Like I don't mean the launching of it, but to be able to maneuver his forces around to even take advantage of it. Personally, I don't think the "annexation" would bring us any closer to nuclear war...

Yes the long wordy posts are a problem of mine, will try to stop that habit as no one wants to read all that. But what statements of mine about Russia have been "demonstrably false" ?

Nope. I don't have formal training in economics or law either, doesn't mean I can't comment on economic policy and legal issues though. I also don't have medical training, doesn't mean I can't point out issues with the health experts in terms of what they were calling for in the handling of...

Incorrect or incorrect in your opinion? What is the Russian mindset then? On Nazism, so you don't think if the West was foolish and applied severe punishments to Russia, that it couldn't lead to an extremist Russian leadership coming to power? Also thank you for the book and podcast suggestions...

No need for snarkiness, we can just agree to disagree. I just try to explain the "why" of my reasoning is all. IMO your own opinion strikes me as rather amateurish in certain ways and I don't mean that in any condescending fashion. I would put my "amateurish" understanding of the dynamics at the...

Well I never agreed with the idea that countries pursue a "rational self-interest," other than maybe liberal democracies coming the closest perhaps. But otherwise, both rationality and emotion play a huge role as well. I would have to disagree with part of the article though, regarding Germany...

He says Ukraine doesn't really exist, that it is historically part of Russia. I could be wrong, but why would he publicly state Ukraine's strategic value to Russia? I mean leaders like that don't generally publicly say things like, "Ukraine is too strategically important to the Russian state to...

How so? If Russia was punished too harshly, why couldn't we see the rise of an extreme Russian nationalist party?

None of that is rational from the standpoint of a liberal democracy, but I'd say it is fully rational from the standpoint of a dictatorship. Dictatorships always make these kinds of claims to counter the West. Look at China. They're always threatening to sink U.S. ships or this or that violence...

Yes.

"Total Russian defeat in Ukraine"...?

Where/when has Putin behaved in an irrational manner? He seems pretty rational to me. He also has specifically stated that he cannot envision a world without Russia existing. He said the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical disaster in history. He strikes me as 100%...

If outright victorious, then hopefully Putin is kept somewhat in check by China, as they are his only real lifeline at the moment. The CCP is very conscientious of its public image, and I do not think they'd want to be seen as complicit in Putin say lobbing nukes into Ukraine. The Europeans can...

Unlike Afghanistan, Vietnam, the American Revolution, etc...I do not think Putin has the resources to continually keep pouring into the conflict. This is much more a conventional war, not an unconventional war featuring a great conventional military power versus an insurgency using guerilla...

By "total Russian defeat," I meant Russia gets totally kicked out of Ukraine, not Ukraine marches into Moscow and takes over.

IMO, I am thinking that this may well end in a total Russian defeat. Remember, this war is only seven months old and it is to a good degree a conventional war, with clearly-defined fronts and countries. By contrast, Iraq wasn't really a country in the conventional sense, just a "country" that...

Yes, but nobody mastered the use of it at such a titanic scale and in such a consistent manner as the Russians did against the Germans. Which to my point, is that the irony here is that the Russians achieved a mastery of this back during WWII, but then completely fell for such a tactic from...

I pop up every now and then.

The operation was really well planned and ironically used a tactic the Russians mastered against the Germans in WWII, maskirovka. They said they were launching the counteroffensive at Kherson in the south, that Kharkiv would have to wait, but secretly built up forces at Kharkiv. Russia fell for...

The Huey is the coolest-sounding heli in history :) So yes all (American) helis must sound like the two-bladed Hueys (I assume the four-bladed ones the Marines use today sound different). Enemy helis like Soviet Hinds will sound different.

Yup :) Many in conservative media pointed that out, and probably part of the reason for its massive success.

Some decades later.... "These new jet-powered aircraft are too heavy to take off from a carrier runway." "Don't worry, we've got a plan to hook them up to catapults and fling them off...."

One cannot really judge the effectiveness of any tank by itself no matter how "bad-ass" it seems because there are a huge amount of factors that affect what makes for a good tank and tanks are not meant to fight by their lonesome, they are meant to fight as part of a combined arms military...

Wow, thank you for the informative answer?

That was me, but I said basically what you just said: It is also questionable as to how independent they will actually make us, because they require a lot of various rare earth elements for their manufacture, and a lot of those right now come from sketchy parts of the world. For example China...

All the screaming and hand wringing in the media and from the politicians is something to behold. One would think that Shall Issue wasn't already the legal setup in the majority of states in the nation.

You guys need to remember us in the general public can have what to you are stoooooopid misunderstandings about how aircraft work. For example, I was presuming that once the cockpit closes, the aircraft is completely sealed from the outside, so as to be able to be pressurized for while flying at...

Neither. Forgive my ignorance, but I have no idea how liquid O2 works. You said it's available with the engines off. Okay...? I have no idea how one consumes liquid O2 to breath.

How does one breath liquid O2?

There isn't a history of countries accidentally detonating a nuclear weapon and our country's nuclear Navy is known as being extremely professional, with as you said a perfect record. Civilian nuke plants however it varies. They seem to sometimes be less professional, or even if the staff...

How does the pilot breath in the cockpit if the engines are off? Like what provides the airflow?

Germany has had an environmentalist culture going way back to at least the 1800s. The Nazis for example had a very environmentalist outlook. The current German environmentalist culture is not influenced from Nazism, rather the Nazism was influenced by the German environmentalist culture. I...

And to top it off, I've read we could actually recycle our nuclear plant waste, and that France does this with theirs, but we do not because of a deal signed with the Soviets because they thought we were using such uranium for the production of nuclear weapons.

That's what they tell us the public, but then something like Fukushima happens and it turns out they engaged in some really stupid design decisions. Like for one presuming that the level of earthquake that happened wasn't capable of happening in that region. IMO, the reactor should never be...

Yes but 9/11 wasn't a disaster that could render part of the country uninhabitable.

People don't so much hate renewables, what they hate is the renewables being forced onto us as if they are at all a viable replacement for conventional sources of energy. Barack Obama was acting as if we could replace our conventional sources with them back in 2008 when he became President. It's...

Aren't the aircraft air conditioned?

Maybe I am misremembering, but wasn't he kind of supposed to be teaching them that the key to piloting (in the film) is not to think while doing it?

You guys talking about realism need to remember the original Top Gun was not meant to be realistic. The whole idea was marketed to the Navy to create a film that would be a fantasy portrayal of being a Navy pilot. So it isn't surprising the sequel was similar in this regard. Some of you are...

Some people I have read say they are glad that they didn't go the route of making it where he was a secondary character where the younger characters took over as the stars. Personally I agree in that I prefer Maverick being the star.

BOB was the callsign for Bob, so either works:)

Maybe I am misremembering, but how was Bob the hero? Didn't his targeting system fail at the last second and so the pilot (I think Rooster?) had to fire on instinct?

Are the others radar, avionics, weapons payload, etc...?

I am just talking the movie there, I know how the plane "looks" means squat regarding real life. Smaller RCS?