Innuendo studios: “There are few ways to get people to talk about what you want than to defend your position badly.”
Last I checked we did that for Kuwait.
You’ve summarized this entire article. It’s well-written although it does ignore an additional reason Ukraine is more salient to Europeans - it’s close physical proximity and the threat it has on Europeans. Oh, the other major reason is we can clearly brand the Russians as the bad guys, there’s no ambiguous moral issues unlike Iraq (600k dead…) because we aren’t the baddies.
I never said we were consistent, just that it was the logic.
I followed that thread and ended up getting a good laugh at this:
We didn’t do it “for Kuwait”. We did it for our own oil interests, and as Shuma mentioned, we did it against a tin-pot dictator without nuclear weapons. Ukraine is a whole different story on both fronts.
This is interesting. It would surprise me that Soviet-era anti-air missiles from the old East German stockpile would still work and be effective, but on the other hand Stingers are also quite old and they still seem effective, at least against helicopters.
Biden is seeming downright prescient at this point.
Just about the only real choice for Ukraine’s vastly outnumbered Navy. It’s not like there places it can hide in the Black Sea.
I saw a headline this morning that someone was calling on gaming companies to shut down services in Russia. Like Sony to turn off PSN, Epic to shut down Fortnite, etc.
I imagine that’d be easy for gaming companies to do. Will they? Probably not. But why stop there? What would happen if Netflix stopped streaming in Russia? What if Amazon stopped delivering there? What if Google shut down their APIs to Russian users?
Could our government force these companies to stop doing business in Russia? Like, “Ok Google, no more search engine, maps, or Android Play Store in Russia. Each violation is a $50,000 fine.”
That’d really fuck with them, right? The average person losing access to all the western tech that’s ubiquitous in our lives. Massive outrage. Or maybe I’m totally naive!
30+ years or whatever it is sitting on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations – 10 of those either as the Majority or Minority Chair – ol’ Grampy Joe knows some things. Especially in this particular sphere of the world, I’d imagine, having been there for the Cold War, Glastnost/Perestroika, and then everything after.
Depends on the Stinger. They’ve been making improvements to them over the decades.
Wikiedia
-
Air-to-Air Stinger (ATAS): Used as short range air-to-air missile. The system is mainly designed for attack helicopters.
-
FIM-92A , Stinger Basic : The basic model.
-
FIM-92B , Stinger POST : In this version, the infrared seeker head was replaced by a combined IR/UV seeker that utilized rosette scanning. This resulted in achieving significantly higher resistance to enemy countermeasures (flares) and natural disturbances. Production ran from 1981 to 1987; a total of 600 missiles were produced.
-
FIM-92C , Stinger RMP : The resistance to interference was increased again by adding more powerful digital computer components. Moreover, the software of the missile could now be reconfigured in a short time in order to respond quickly and efficiently to new types of countermeasures. Until 1991, some 20,000 units were produced for the U.S. Army alone.
-
FIM-92D : Various modifications were continued with this version in order to increase the resistance to interference.
-
FIM-92E : Stinger—RMP Block I : By adding a new rollover sensor and revised control software, the flight behavior was significantly improved. Additionally, the performance against small targets such as drones, cruise missiles and light reconnaissance helicopters was improved. The first deliveries began in 1995. Almost the entire stock of U.S. Stinger missiles was replaced by this version.
-
FIM-92F : A further improvement of the E version and the current production version.
-
FIM-92G : An unspecified upgrade for the D variant.
-
FIM-92H : Indicates a D variant that has been upgraded to the E standard.
-
Stinger—RMP Block II : This variant was a planned developed based on the E version. The improvements included an imaging infrared seeker head from the AIM-9X. With this modification, the detection distance and the resistance to jamming was to be greatly increased. Changes to the airframe would furthermore enable a significant increase in range. Although the missile reached the testing phase, the program was dropped in 2002 for budgetary reasons.
-
FIM-92J , Block 1 missile upgrade to replace aging components to extend service life an additional 10 years. Upgrades include a proximity fuze warhead section, equipped with a target detection device to increase effectiveness against unmanned aerial vehicles,[7][8] a new flight motor and gas generator cartridge, as well as new designs for the o-rings and integral desiccant cartridge.[9]
I thought stuff like this is starting to happen? Apple has suspended Apple Pay, has limited Apple Maps, has (I think) stopped other services, has stopped product sales. I imagine they’ll expand the suspension of services, as will people like Google. Not sure how broad it will go, but the inability to settle financial transactions in dollars or Euros — or use alternative payment methods that ultimately move through those currencies or through conventional financial plumbing — is surely going to get there. I wouldn’t expect Apple to brick everyone’s phones, but I would expect it to get increasingly harder to do anything with that phone except call your mom.
Pretty sure that’s voluntary, and that’s just Apple. Apple has been, surprisingly, the least evil of our corporate overlords.
I don’t really know how these bank sanctions work. How is Netflix or Amazon able to take payment from a Russian customer if Russia is cut off from the international banking system? Could our government impose sanctions that fine companies when doing business with Russians? Haven’t we done that in the past?
They are not able. So eventually they can’t collect monthly subs and they start shutting down accounts.
CraigM
5682
I mean theres a lot of things happening. My company closed all stores in Russia and is working on evacuation plans for employees in Ukraine. But effectively Russians can no longer buy our products. And the website is shut off for them.
Not software mind you, but identifiable consumer goods that will get noticed.
Menzo
5683
Or they start accepting Bitcoin!
I wouldn’t bet that, somewhere along the way, some crypto exchanges aren’t relying on conventional financial plumbing which would run them afoul of sanctions.
Alright so maybe the netflix thing takes care of itself. What would happen if Google blocked Russian IPs? Shut down the play store on russian phones? Imagine if Google Maps stopped working? How would anyone get anywhere?
