The South African government (or perhaps more accurately the ANC) really likes associating itself with some of the sketchiest kids around in the neighborhood.
It must be ideology I guess because I can’t see any reason why you would pander to Russia when they don’t even crack the top 5 as a import or export partner for SA.
While ZA is pussy-footing about power contracts around and Gwede is not getting his way, the Turkish will be looking around for other contracts.
This deal was announced in the last hour, but this has been an open secret for a while.
Gwede wants the ships already off the ZA coast to stay there longer whilst he weaves his machinations.
Well, a Russian warship off the ZA coast is a powerful deterrent for a power ship to leave to assist Ukraine. What a happy coincidence.
I doubt the Powership guys have anything to worry about, Russia would never attack a ship flying a Turkish flag.
Unlike SA, Russia and Turkey actually do have a large connection, and I am not entirely sure if it will count as a attack on Turkey if Russia attacks their ship, but if it does, it technically triggers article 5 of the NATO agreement and Turkey would have the protection of the whole NATO alliance given that it is a member.
Russia can barely win a war with Ukraine, they definitely don’t want to pick a fight with NATO.
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In reality, isn’t this already a fight with NATO given all the military support?
Not even close.
Russia is crying fowl over the US wanting to send 32 M1 Abrams tanks.
The US literally has thousands of them…
I was reading such a discussion, on Quora, about how feasible a Russian invasion of Finland (not yet a NATO member, but close)… and this beauty of a story came up.
Back in 1939, when Russia invaded Finland (the Finns technically lost, but Khrushchev also acknowledged afterwards that whatever territory they gained was only about enough to bury the soldiers they lost), a Russian unit was marching past a small hill when they heard a voice shouting: One Finn is stronger than TEN Russians!
Immediately the Russian commander chose ten people, and sent them over the hill to deal with the insolent Finn. In the distance they heard a number of shots, a brief moment of silence, and again the taunting voice: One Finn is stronger than a HUNDRED Russians! Again, the commander picks a hundred men, and tells them to silence their opponent. Again, after several minutes of gunfire, things go silent, and again the voice returns: One Finn is stronger than a THOUSAND Russians!
This time the Russian commander sends the entire company up the hill to finish the job. Again, there’s several minutes of gunfire, canons, the odd grenade… and as silence starts to descend, one soldier crawls back over the hill and shouts at his commander: Warn the others! It is a trap! There’s two of them!
True, I’m just thinking the part of NATO that can practically join the fight, which is EU countries. It is incredibly expensive for America to take part any more than they currently do. Not sure it is feasible to expect them to put their entire military in Ukraine.
I don’t know what flags the ships fly under, but it is common for ships to fly under quite an obscure country’s flag.
The Karadenz powership Mehmet Bey, which (I think) is 1 of the ships, flies a Liberian Flag.
Edit: It looks like the entire fleet of KPS power station-type ships flies the Liberian flag.
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With a annual military budget of over 700bn USD money is no problem. (For reference Russia spends about 60bn USD annually)
Don’t mistake this as me saying I want to see a world war, I am just pointing out the US spends aggressively on its military, far far far more than any other country.
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That’s also true, not sure if its still the case but I remember a while back the majority of ships sailed under the Panama flag.
That is true, but the budget doesn’t currently include a line for “sending army, navy, airforce to Ukraine, building temp bases and supplying them”. Adding that line might stretch even their resources. Didn’t the US government just had to pass a bill to extend their allowable debt or something like that?
The US will always run into their debt ceiling from time to time, its kind of baked into the design.
Not saying it will be cheap, but the most expensive part of any war is the hardware, which the US already has a lot of, I obviously don’t have any figures to backup this claim but just logically speaking a single F35 costs about 70M-90M USD
If you theoretically bought everyone a “plane ticket” from the US to Europe at say 1000 USD per soldier (Or even cheaper loaded them onto one of their multiple nuclear powered warships) it would cost you ~420M USD to get every single active military member of the US in Europe (Or in plane terms 4x F35’s)
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If you want some great comedy reading…
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Funny thing about Marxism, Communism…
…and the ‘semi related’ French philosophies of the 60/70s, which many, including Slavoj Zizek, a communist himself ( in his own way) regard as an underhanded switch from communism into their own philosophies but i digress…
is as ideologies they’re very much like a virus, once they’ve seized a mind the victim rarely squirms free. It’s also the curse of utopian ideals.
But this might cheer you up…
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OK, the Americans will be a few years late for the war.
Who would have guessed that?
Reminds me of Eddie Izzard’s comedy on that. With the Americans finally showing up some time after 5:30…
America: Okay, let’s go America! (Insert trumpet sound). I love the smell of Europe in the morning! So, how are you doing?
Britain: F… hell, where have you been!?
America: Having breakfast!
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Should start naming our gov ministers, or mini-stirs, for the Dark Side:
Darth Lexity
Darth Bob
Darth MeLoveYouLongTime
Darth Bokkie
…
Hey, we know the USA is always “late” for any war.
It is a good strategy …
See, they step in when the “time is right” for optimal ROI … read … when the desperation is at an all-time high, millions are dead or dying, massive shortages of everything, THEN the Amecian industrial machine is started up and produces en-mass what is needed.
More important, their supply chains kick in overdrive, as they do have the best military one in any event, and “saves the day”.
… charging just what they want, for decades to come.
