Is there any hint of a reason why Putin would ever be scared of Taurus missiles?
from a glance, they look very equivalent to the british storm shadows Ukraine already gets.Not that Germany shouldn’t supply, it just seems that this ultimatum is a purely political idea about the upcoming german elections.
Also, what would even be the end of the war? By Putin logic complete and unconditional surrender by Ukraine would also be the end of the war.
Merz’s threat is not “fuck off behind 1991 borders within 24 hours”. Complete smoke and mirrors shitshow.
Merz ist a Joke and he will most certainly not pull through if the Trump Administration interferes. Just another US Puppet, which in Turn is a Russian puppet… so yeah, just a stunt.
what a muppet.
Please.
It’ll be interesting to see how much the Allies game kicks up in the next 2 months now that the Orange Potato and Elon Musk were elected President.
I hope it’s effective.
The new fragrance, Orange Potato Musk. Mmmmmm
Now I’m trying to figure the bottle and cologne ad for Orange Potato Musk.
Removed by mod
Just for the record, and context: That wasn’t misogyny, it’s not calling any woman anything (though using a word vulgarly referring to female genitalia), it’s the established insult for Merz. Really doesn’t translate well, not so much word-wise but connotation and implication-wise. Cf. the American vs. English vs. Australian usage of the word, doesn’t translate at all and that’s within the same language.
It’s an imputed high-school nickname calling him, in my reading, an immature braggart. You know, 12yold brags about their extensive sexual experience, gets called “pussy hunter” in return to make fun of him. There’s also the additional linguistic quibble that the word, to the amusement of the rest of the republic, simply means “face” in Bavarian and can be used there more or less in the sense of “gob”, as in “shut your gob”. He indeed has a big one.
We are in WW3.
“I am also willing to promise anything to get elected”
- slaacaa (LM-MY)
You have my vote
Finally some leadership. Biden has been slow walking aid this entire war, to Russia’s benefit.
Let’s see how big on words he is once he’s out of opposition. Either way his leadership comes at the cost of him being a 90s style neo libertarian with his own private plane. Other than that he is conservative through and through.
So (I) expect no big investments into health care, education, green technology or public transport but more in tax cuts for the wealthy and investments into “new and revolutionary technologies that will solve all our problems for sure bro” and individual transport infrastructure (which tbh would actually be needed since the German infrastructure is in a pretty bad state with a lot of highway bridges being at the end of their life cycle but on the other hand schools and healthcare are in dire need of investments too). And for all the problems we just blame migrants and strengthen right wing populist positions.
Soo yeah, not really happy with him, not really happy with anyone else atm.
ah, wasnt aware he was a conservative. Thats unfortunate. Lately it seems like all the conservatives are paid off by Putin-- this one seems to have not gotten his check.
Germans actually have a great ideological variety to choose from:
Pro West right wing conservatives
Anti West right wing conservative fascists
Pro West right wing progressives
Pro West left wing progressive social democrats
Pro West left wing progressive greens
Neutral but more anti west leaning left wing progressives (I think they are pro EU but anti NATO and anti war)
Anti West left wing conservative putin dickriders
Too bad they are either unsympathetic or have proven to be incompetent.
if something like this works (I am guessing only if many EU countries follow suit) then maybe us Americans can suffer 4 years of Trump in exchange for Ukrainian freedom.
As an american, I’ll suffer the bullshit that the right does, if it means Ukraine gets to still exist. Give me some of their pain. I wish I could take that for them.
Halt dein Maul, Merz!
Noise from a political candidate who will do something if and when he gets elected.
To quote the Spartans, “If”.
Glad to see someone in Europe is growing some balls about standing up to Russia though
sorry to break it to you, but Merz is a populist. He will tell you everything to get voted.
And, frankly, he is a real dickhead. The little Trump of Germany.
The Spartans got annihilated so maybe not a great group to quote.
Oh I’m sure the thought of two dozen cruise missiles will straighten Putin out ASAP.
For starters, this would not be a new or unprecedented capability for the Ukrainians.
If Germany had several hundred to part with immediately, and the capacity to regularly replenish those stocks, that would make a significant difference on the battlefield, but I doubt it would make Putin sue for peace.
But of course, Germany does not have those kind of stockpiles or manufacturing capacity to maintain that.
Still, it would be nice to see more European politicians picking up the banner of supplying Ukraine in the face of likely diminished, or eliminated, American transfers.
Oh, believe me…we have that manufacturing capabilities. I live near where parts of Taurus are made… It’s just that there’s no “demand” and the bundeswehr doesn’t have enough money to just order them to stockpile.
Capability and capacity are two very different things.
Yes, I understand the manufacturing capability exists, but it’s capacity is limited i.e. existing facilities could not maintain a strategically significant production volume relative to Ukraine’s needs, much less to deter Putin.
Taurus would be used more or less like Storm Shadow against high value strategic targets. The big difference is that Germany would have to default to allow its use on targets inside Russia, since activly being part of the targeting might very well be unconstitutional. So what could be expected are a bunch of Russian jets, ammunition stockpiles and maybe the Kerch Bridge being blown up. Ukrainian drones are not stealthy, so they are much easier to intercept or to warn against. Hence something like Taurus can make a difference.
So it is usefull, but it is not going to change the war fundamentally.
I understand exactly what it is. What I’m saying is that Germany does not have the volume on hand, or the manufacturing capacity to produce such a volume, where it could generate the effect the candidate is implying it can.
The point was more that there are not many strategic targets, which Taurus could hit inside Russia, which can not be hit by a cheaper Ukrainian made drone due to air defence. So if Germany would send thousands of them, it would still not make that much of a difference. The main value is that Russia has to move assets further back.
Operational targets can’t all just simply be moved further and further back from the front lines of a conflict, to say nothing of high value tactical targets.
Supplying several hundred low observable air launched cruise missiles per month would absolutely make a significant difference on the battlefield, that’s not even a question.
But that doesn’t mean I believe that would enough to cause Putin to reverse course, or to deliver a strategic defeat to the Russian army.
Regardless, Germany doesn’t have that manufacturing capacity to begin with, nor do I believe they have the political will to do that, even if it were possible, but again, it is not.
The Taurus KEPD-350 is a German-Swedish air-launched cruise missile, manufactured by Taurus Systems … https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurus_KEPD_350
Makes sense, that’s such a Taurus thing to do
As a Libran, all I can launch are tampons.
As a pisces, I studied the blade.
Sounds like Daniel’s the one missing out.
Wow, I thought I was on NCD for a second.
He is in the opposition…
