In a Twitter thread addressed to Joe Biden, billionaire investor Bill Ackman says it’s time for U.S. troops to defend Ukraine. https://t.co/filZ96bsUg via @business @bpolitics
— Steve Matthews (@SteveMatthews12) February 28, 2022
Bill Ackman Tweet Thread
.@POTUS is there a point at which we say it is un-American to sit back and watch this transpire? We are fighting an economic war with Russia. We are supplying weapons and intelligence with our allies, and the Ukrainians are putting up an incredible fight. The Russian army has
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) February 28, 2022
Slightly Reorganized to Make Complete Sentences
- @POTUS is there a point at which we say it is un-American to sit back and watch this transpire? We are fighting an economic war with Russia. We are supplying weapons and intelligence with our allies, and the Ukrainians are putting up an incredible fight.
- The Russian army has shown itself to be weak and lacking morale. Their air force can’t achieve air superiority. Putin is rallying the nuclear saber as he gets more desperate. What if? Do we wait for him to kill millions before we intervene? What precedent are we continuing to set by allowing this to play out?
- None of us wants to put American lives at risk. And yes it is easy for me to say with no children in the military. But our lives are already at risk if Putin gets his way. The @us_navyseals and Americans in uniform I know would want to be there to stop this madness.
- The defense of Ukraine is a just war. It is not about oil or money. It is about right and wrong, and those are the wars that we should fight. And if we take the long-term view and punish madmen for their actions, we can deter their larger ambitions.
- We are fighting an economic war but only selectively shutting down their banking system. We are not using every economic means at our disposal. And I hope Russia stops this onslaught, but I don’t see how Putin saves face. We need to be prepared for what comes next which means we need to start thinking about intervening military.
- Had we set up a show of force at the beginning of the war that we were prepared to execute on, we might have deterred Putin. We let Crimea, Georgia, and more happen, which got us here. Isn’t it time we set a real red line?
- Allowing Syria to cross that line and doing nothing was one of the worst moments in our country’s history. Here we have an opportunity to set a real red line and establish for future generations what it means and what America stands for. And if that line is set by us and the rest of the world together, all the better.
- And if he crosses it, we have to do what we have to do. We can’t sit back and allow hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and perhaps millions to die. I don’t want to live in that world and you don’t either. @POTUS , it is in your hands.
- You can fix the errors of the past and protect our future. With all due respect Mr. President, the time is now.
President Biden on Sending Troops
“The president has no plans to send US military to fight a war in Ukraine against Russia.” — Psaki pic.twitter.com/XcaB9fTET2
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 28, 2022
Rallying the Nuclear Saber
Putin’s “propaganda chief” Dmitry Kiselyov has threatened the West with nuclear annihilation during a rambling broadcast. He said the West would be blown to smithereens with “more than 500 nuclear warheads” if it continued to threat Moscow. https://t.co/u097woapgi @ErikSTownsend
— Pippa Malmgren (@DrPippaM) February 28, 2022
I cannot find any mainstream media coverage regarding “more than 500 nuclear warheads”.
However, there are numerous reports along this line: Putin puts nuclear deterrent forces on ‘high alert’ amid spiraling tensions over Ukraine
Putin said in a meeting of top officials shown Sunday on state TV that the move, which means the country’s nuclear weapons are prepared for increased readiness to launch, was in response to NATO powers’ making what he called “aggressive statements.”
Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the Arms Control Association, a Washington nonprofit group, said Putin’s action is a modern first.
“I think we need to understand that the risk of miscalculation and escalation is high,” Kimball said. “I don’t think we should look at this as a threat by Putin to use nuclear weapons against the United States, against Europe, against NATO. This is a dangerous moment in the crisis. It’s a point in which both sides needs to back down and move the word ‘nuclear’ from this equation.”
Zelensky Seeks No-Fly Zone
Axios reports Zelensky Pushes Biden on No-Fly Zone.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is urging President Biden and NATO to impose a “no-fly zone” over “significant parts” of the country, telling Axios in a statement that Ukraine “can beat the aggressor” if the Western allies “do their part.”
US Rules It Out
“We are not going to have a military war with Russia with U.S. troops,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says. pic.twitter.com/7oZlvPGv7w
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) February 28, 2022
Jen Paski: “A no-fly zone would require intervention from US military. It would essentially mean US military would be shooting down Russian planes. That is definitely escalatory. It would potentially put us in a place of military conflict with Russia. That is something the president wants us to do.”
“We’re not going to put American troops in danger. That means we’re not going to put American troops in the air as well, but we will work with the Ukrainians to give them the ability to defend themselves,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, told CNN on Sunday.
Madman Theory Bluff
No one can possibly know since we cannot say for sure if Putin playing the Madman Theory Bluff.
Regardless, he certainly miscalculated Zelensky, Germany, Sweden, and even Switzerland. https://t.co/RuL4vqMsCr
— Mike “Mish” Shedlock (@MishGEA) February 28, 2022
Stop or Start WWIII?
Ackman: “Putin is rallying the nuclear saber as he gets more desperate. What if? Do we wait for him to kill millions before we intervene?“
Would sending in the troops or a no-fly zone help avert or help start WWIII?
Ackman: “Putin is rallying the nuclear saber as he gets more desperate. What if? Do we wait for him to kill millions before we intervene?”
Would sending troops reduce or increase the odds of a nuclear war?
— Mike “Mish” Shedlock (@MishGEA) February 28, 2022
Ackman Tries to Walk Back Tweet
Some have missed what I am saying. I am not advocating U.S. boots on the ground today. Putin has threatened the nuclear option. We need to set a red line on the use of nuclear weapons to deter their use. If the unthinkable happens, I see no alternative to our entering the war. https://t.co/5XypMLZ5Ec
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) February 28, 2022
I don’t believe you can Tweet the president 9 times then easily take it back.
Previous Posts on Ukraine
- Tweets of the Day, Russia, Gold, China, the US Dollar, More
- Russian Ruble In a Freefall, Plunges to Record Low Against the Dollar
- Russia’s Shock and Awe Invasion of Ukraine Fails, Putin Now Seeks Unconditional Talks
- “I Need Ammunitions Not a Ride” Says Ukrainian President
This post originated on MishTalk.Com.
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Mish
Public opinion around the world is against Putin. Ukraine has obviously prepared for this day and so far has embarrassed Putin. Putin will forever be weakened by this. By sending US troops, we will waste life, limb, and treasure again playing world’s police. The United States can simply not continue on the path of endless wars around the world and survive economically. $30 trillion in debt and rising quickly…Cutting Putin off economically will set Russia back 40 years. Continue the economic pressure. Soon, like in the past, Russia won’t be able to keep their tanks running and they will be worthless.
The 2014 US coup by Nobel Peace Prize winner 0-bama escalated it to a whole new level, though they had been meddling in Ukraine in some form or the other since the early 90’s.
Things are just a bit more complicated than all that:
@POTUS is there a point at which we say it is un-American to sit back and watch this transpire? We are fighting an economic war with Russia. We are supplying weapons and intelligence with our allies, and the Ukrainians are putting up an incredible fight.
That’s what the MSM says. And of course, they always report the truth, right?
The Russian army has shown itself to be weak and lacking morale. Their air force can’t achieve air superiority. Putin is rallying the nuclear saber as he gets more desperate. What if? Do we wait for him to kill millions before we intervene? What precedent are we continuing to set by allowing this to play out?
Some might say the Russian Army has shown itself cautious and calculating. If they conducted themselves the way we conducted ourselves in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, Ukraine’s powerplants would be demolished, internet service down, gas service destroyed, water service crippled, highways blocked. Oddly, though, people in the middle of besieged cities are able to send video and phone and texts. Weird!
None of us wants to put American lives at risk. And yes it is easy for me to say with no children in the military. But our lives are already at risk if Putin gets his way. The @us_navyseals and Americans in uniform I know would want to be there to stop this madness.
Define “madness.” Russia was provoked endlessly until it became intolerable. A friendly democratically elected government was overthrown by us in 2014. Since then, extremely hostile governments have undercut Russian businesses, persecuted Russian speakers, and kept a smoldering war in the east alive since the frontlines were established in June 2014 and confirmed in the Minsk agreements of 2015. Every single day, six to eight ceasfire violations were reported, all coming from the Ukrainian side, in order to remind the rebels that they were, well, rebels. And let’s no forget that the Ukrainian governments since 2014 were only possible because millions of voters in the east did not participate. Before 2014, they guaranteed victory for the pro-Russian Party of Regions in 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012. That’s not been a problem since they were disenfranchised.
The defense of Ukraine is a just war. It is not about oil or money. It is about right and wrong, and those are the wars that we should fight. And if we take the long-term view and punish madmen for their actions, we can deter their larger ambitions.
Again, your moralistic argument fails to take any moral responsibility for our actions against Russia in Ukraine since 2014 and even before. Poke a bear until it bites: you’ll get angry at the bear for hurting you, but any rational observer will say you brought it upon yourself. In this case, the criminal regime in Ukraine brought this situation upon itself. I bet neither you nor anyone else here recalls that this all started in November 2021, when Zelensky claimed a coup attempt against him with little evidence. It really was out of left field, but everything racheted up since then. What really happened? Only the insiders know. And they’re not about to share with us.
We are fighting an economic war but only selectively shutting down their banking system. We are not using every economic means at our disposal. And I hope Russia stops this onslaught, but I don’t see how Putin saves face. We need to be prepared for what comes next which means we need to start thinking about intervening military.
Putin is intent on shattering a sword we’ve pointed at Russia’s belly. This is called thinking in terms of decades or centuries — quite unlike our leadership, which thinks only about the next election.
Had we set up a show of force at the beginning of the war that we were prepared to execute on, we might have deterred Putin. We let Crimea, Georgia, and more happen, which got us here. Isn’t it time we set a real red line?
All of these events were provoked by us through our stooges. Every time. We provoked, Russia reacted. It is not complicated.
Allowing Syria to cross that line and doing nothing was one of the worst moments in our country’s history. Here we have an opportunity to set a real red line and establish for future generations what it means and what America stands for. And if that line is set by us and the rest of the world together, all the better.
We have tormented Syria, Russia’s ally, in the interest of Israel. We created and supported the most monstrous devils in modern history, the head-chopping ISIS. Our pathetic lie, the “air war on ISIS”, consisted of the USAF constantly “Accidentally” parachuting weapons onto ISIS positions in 2014 and 2015. Over and over and over. And finally when Russian air strikes got too successful in 2015 and 2016, we dropped our proxies and aided the Kurds in taking Syrian territory — by ruthlessly bombing Mosul and Raqqacinto ghostly ruins. Look up the drone footage of Raqqa after our airstrikes. Grey and desolate, it looked like Dresden in 1945, except the photos were actually in color.
And if he crosses it, we have to do what we have to do. We can’t sit back and allow hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and perhaps millions to die. I don’t want to live in that world and you don’t either. @POTUS , it is in your hands.
If we do not wish to see as many people die in Ukraine as we killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, perhaps we should not be arming the criminal regime in Kiev and urging them to bloody resistance. Yet, we cannot help it. We are a bloodthirsty nation. We have waged ruthless war all over the globe the entirety of the 21st century. And we cannot help but get involved here, since it spills Russian blood.
You can fix the errors of the past and protect our future. With all due respect Mr. President, the time is now.
With all due respect: Leave our weapons and bombs and missiles and thirst for others’ blood out of it. We are a financially bankrupt nation because half the debt is army debt, and we are a morally bankrupt nation because we provoke wars and then feed them.
Putin has long been committed to recovering lost glory, suppressing dissent and keeping neighbors in Moscow’s orbit. In 2005, he called the collapse of the Soviet Union “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” Russia has fought a war with Georgia, annexed Ukraine’s Crimea, backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, and earlier this year briefly deployed troops to help quell protests in Kazakhstan.
His public dismissals of Ukrainian sovereignty go back many years. In 2008, he is reported to have told President George W. Bush, “George, you have to understand that Ukraine is not even a country.”
Tu parles du grand sud ou le sud proche ? Je ne crois
pas que tu parles de l’Espagne ni d’Italie mais plutôt le Maghreb. Si c’est le
cas pourquoi ne pas simplement le dire. C’est permis maintenant de vocaliser
vos craints car tout le monde politique en parle et toi, tu peux aussi. En plus souvent le danger vient de deux endroits le même
temps.
La France se met tout seul dans cette situation stupide. C’était
facile à voir ou ca aller emmener le pays. J’ai vu ça il y a trente ans. J’ai travaillé
trois ans dans les pays du Maghreb et les gens là-bas m’avait dit exactement ce
qu’i voulais faire. En arrivant en France je ne comprenais pas pourquoi les Français
ne voulaient rien voir. Je ne pense pas que la Russie peux aider la France car
ils ont le même problème et ne pourrais pas aider même s’il voulait.
That is BS. Trump armed Ukraine and escalated the conflict in Donbas, something that not even the 2014 coup leader 0-bama had done. On top of that, he withdrew from long-standing weapons treaties with Russia, sold Patriot missiles to Poland and on and on. But the DONORcrat Party is so effing bloodthirsty that they saw all these things as being “soft” on Russia and Putin.
These are truly frightening times.
Has appeasement ever worked? Ukraine comes after Georgia was invaded, and Putin has already threatened Finland. He won’t stop.
Those last 3 countries are all NATO members… that ain’t happening. Then he will surely have a World War on his hands.