and we're sliding inexorably into a world war, don't you?
It's strange how calm and accepting everyone is.
Pucker up your árseholes, boys. It's armageddon for us all.
and we're sliding inexorably into a world war, don't you?
It's strange how calm and accepting everyone is.
Pucker up your árseholes, boys. It's armageddon for us all.
Do you not think Trump may be bluffing? I'd have thought he'd have struck by now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir C
Apparently May is going to contribute 1 x RAF Voyager for air to air refueling :hehe:
Also, Putin isn't going to shoot an F-22 out of the sky because 1) he doesn't have the minerals and 2) because he doesn't have the resources to do so.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir C
Are you speaking from memory?
Was looking at some odds over the weekend and stumbled across - Donald Trump tonwin a Nobel Peace Prize @ 6/4.
Awfully short unless they hand it out like knighthoods imo
How very rude.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alberto Balsam Rodriguez
I'm surprised at you, a. Surprised, and a little disappointed.
Not in my world Sir C. I am ignorant to current affairs :cloud9:Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir C
if it does kick off can you let me know
I'm pretty sure they'd finished sliding inexorably into war by October 1914, hadn't they? The Guns of August and all that?Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir C
Good point. I have November in my head, clearly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Burney
I wonder whether a thermo-nuclear device exploding above London at 3 a.m. would wake me up?
Nobody starts wars in November. Weather's too dreadful. In fact, it could be argued that the Germans had already effectively lost the war by October 1914. It just took them four years to realise it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir C
When it comes to thermonuclear devices, I'm not sure where I stand these days. When one lived in London, one could at least be fairly certain you'd at least die in the blast rather than a lingering death from radiation sickness and whatnot. Now I don't know.
True. War should always be declared in favourable weather. Hitler declared war on the US in a December. Silly boy......Quote:
Originally Posted by Burney
The radiation stuff is all lefty propaganda, apparently. I read about it a couple of years ago. According to this random article on the internet, if the effects of radiation were as severe as we are led to believe, about half a million people would have died of cancer in the years following Chernobyl. The actual number of cases was about 17. These numbers may not be 100% accurate, but you get the gist.Quote:
Originally Posted by Burney
Well yes. But he wasn't actually planning any land-based military operations against them when he did so.Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter
With hindsight, you really do have to wonder what on earth he was thinking. He wasn't obliged to declare war against them, after all, the lunatic.
I have read similar, actually. The dangers of Chernobyl were massively exaggerated - mostly by German greens and similar who wanted to demonise nuclear power in all its guises.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir C
***ishima, seems to be similar. Granted it's been a much shorter period of time, but bar the mad *******s that actually went in to cap the thing, there appears not to have been any significant cancer increaseQuote:
Originally Posted by Burney
Didn't a bunch of old people volunteer to do that in Japan on the grounds that they'd had their innings and it made sense.Quote:
Originally Posted by PSRB
I think we should do this with our elderly. Give them really dangerous jobs in return for a one-off payment for their families. It would solve the pensions crisis at a stroke.
Well, with his latest Twitter outburst I rather suspect that the bluffing option has been defenestrated!Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich
""Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and “smart!” You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!""
The Donald has realised - as Lord Palmerston did 150 years before him - that "The policy and practice of the Russian Government has always been to push forward its encroachments as fast and as far as the apathy or want of firmness of other Governments would allow it to go, but always to stop and retire when it met with decided resistance and then to wait for the next favourable opportunity."Quote:
Originally Posted by PSRB
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir C
You did sort of walk into that one, c.
Still nor fair to mock an old man, though, aQuote:
Originally Posted by Alberto Balsam Rodriguez
I think he was thinking ahead. He wanted greater cooperation with Japan as he saw them as a potential help against the Soviet Union at some point. More importantly, he believed, correctly, that the USA would now inevitably enter the war and declare war on Germany. Most leaders prefer that, to show they were provoked. Hitler didnt give a fuclk and wanted to get in there first, partly to show Japan he was serious.Quote:
Originally Posted by Burney
THis wasnt his big mistake, not really. THat was invading the Soviet Union in June. Had he done that in March/april he might have had a slight of establishing control and a firm base before winter fell. Doing it in June meant that Stalin simply needed to pull back and wait.
Once the tide turned in the eastern war Hitler was dead and buried.
Which is also, pretty much to the letter, Hitler's foreign policy up until 1939. Its just that he didnt actually meet any resistance until then....Quote:
Originally Posted by Burney
It isnt a bad description of everyone's foreign policy......
So we need to bring Putin to his knees just like we did the USSR?*Quote:
Originally Posted by Burney
* Economically speaking, at least.
Only a fool could have imagined the Japanese would be in a position to help with Russia once they had triggered war with the mightiest economy on earth. Besides, the Russians were able to work out in winter 1941 that the Japs had no plans to attack Russia (allowing them to transfer huge numbers of troops from Siberia to the Moscow front and throw the Germans back), so how come their allies the Germans weren't privy to the same information?Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter
And sure, war between Germany and the US was inevitable in the long run, but to trigger it when he didn't have to was still remarkably hubristic. Not least because it ensured the supply of massive, war-winning amounts of food and materiel to the Russians by the US that might otherwise not have happened so early.
As far as Russia was concerned, I think invading at all with the notion of conquering the whole bloody place was the real mistake. The Russians fighting on home soil can always trade space and lives for time and still be able to come back at you. Germany catastrophically underestimated the Russian capacity to resist - particularly in what was in effect a war of annihilation. Germany never had the resources to fight such a war to a successful conclusion.
Not really. He isn't a serious global threat in the sense that the USSR was. He's simply a posturing strong man type who needs to be made to wind his fvcking neck in.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich
Never forget when talking about Russia and its capabilities that - for all its geographical size - Russia's economy is less than half the size of the UK's. Russia's economic capacity for doing anything much more than posturing in military terms is virtually zero.
Well, sure, but you get a lot of two-headed birds within the perimeter.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir C
Quite simply, he didnt have the numbers to hold gains in the East and defend the Western front against what was undoubtedly coming at some point. Alliance with the Soviet Union was the only plausible route to victory here but ideologygotin the way of that. In no way could he have justified that in he long term. THe entire premise demanded a mass of territorial gains in the East, and not just Poland and their ilk.Quote:
Originally Posted by Burney
In effect, he had to attack Russia and you are right, it had to be a war of annihilation which was never, ever going to happen. He massively underestimated the resolve of the russian soldier.
His view of how Japan could help is an odd one. Aside from assistance to the east of Russia they could help in two ways- distract/cripple the US navy to delay or prevent the opening of a western front, and something similar towards the British in the East, further crippling our resource and resolve. They tried both, with some success, but only to delay. THat kind of assistance required totalvictoryin Russia which never came. To be fair, they got closer than most.
THat is pretty much what Hitler said in 1941 :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Burney
Never attack the Russians. Never ends well......
Which, of course, is an endorsement of the idea of pushing back against Putin as Trump is doing and as Obama singularly failed to do.Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter
It's certainly a description of the foreign policy of expansionist powers. There aren't many such powers left, however - at least in the West. Russia has always been that sort of power because it perceives itself as having a sphere of influence and control far beyond its borders that includes nebulous ethnic (ie Slavic) and religious (ie Orthodox) components. In addition, being where it is, Russia has always had a massive chip on its shoulder because it is seen (justifiably) as backward and uncivilised by its western European neighbours. This inferiority complex has made it aggressive in its dealings with those neighbours and its relationships with them uncomfortable.
Oh, never invade Russia with the intention of defeating it utterly. That is madness. However, it's perfectly possible to fight local wars with limited objectives with Russia (Crimea, Russo-Japanese War, etc, etc) and win. Plus, of course, the Russian home record is pretty decent (if Pyrrhic), but their away record is absolutely shocking.Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter
In light of our match on Thursday, this has me worried :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Burney
Yes, but we have limited objectives, la. We need to get in and get out without conceding more than two goals and/or scoring at least one ourselves. All we need to do is not lose too badly and we're fine.Quote:
Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda
It's an aged and crumbling defensive line, we should be able to breakthrough with impunity. Victoria Concordia, etcQuote:
Originally Posted by Burney
Without question, they dount travel well. If you are going to war with russia you need to make sure it is fought over two legs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Burney
:nod: "You only have to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down" - Adolf Hitler, 1941Quote:
Originally Posted by PSRB
And we are going in spring.Quote:
Originally Posted by Burney
He did and it didnt. The whole rotten structure came down very heavily on his head.Quote:
Originally Posted by Burney
We're going the way of Napoleon and Hitler with Aaron Ramsey? :-(Quote:
Originally Posted by Burney
Phew - now can you assure me those scouse ****s won’t win the big oneQuote:
Originally Posted by Burney
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda
Well, Nicosia has fvcked off so we have to adjust, la
ooh in just under 11 years Herbert Chapman joins The Arsenal, that's something to look forward to innit?Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir C