Mastodawn

frey Jan 30, 2023

While the recent announcement of providing tanks to Ukraine: German Leopard 2 and US M1 Abrahams (as well as possibly UK Challenger 2) is welcome news, I am frustrated that we're not getting ahead of the game. That is, stop this just-in-time delivery and instead provide as many weapons systems/training to the Ukraine as possible immediately, including aircraft, more artillery, more missile batteries, more well pretty much everything.

I am also frustrated that the West has placed the condition for these weapon systems to not attack over the border. This basically means Russia can bomb Ukraine indefinitely and can provide logistical support to occupying troops within Ukraine.

Let me state this emphatically. Ukraine will be unable to end this war and maintain border sovereignty while being hampered this way. It is almost axiomatic that the best defense is a good offense.

Russia's strategy at this point is to keep the war going indefinitely. They have a huge population relative to Ukraine and can field troops for years to come -- no matter how bad they fare. Ukraine must have what needs to push them back and then defend against future incursions.

#ukraine #UkraineWar

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frey Jan 28, 2023

@sean These are all reasonable CTAs and could indeed be reasonably instituted. Unfortunately, many of these ideas have been tried to limited success.

For example, zero tolerance policies have had some positive results until the next election and/or appointment of leadership... and then it backslides.

Internal affairs are a good idea and indeed have positive outcomes but clearly such hasn't lead to sweeping changes in the past. I doubt it will in the future. Perhaps, making it a federal program? Not sure that would be legal for state-run policing.

Juries also keep acquitting police officers. Yes, there have been some notable guilty verdicts, but only when there's been clear, unambiguous video evidence and a huge public outcry and even then it's not enough.

Paying judgments out of police retirements funds, this an interesting idea. It'd be problematic if the plaintiff wanted to cash out early, particularly if it's a pension. Dunno.

My view is that we need to create a new, parallel institution that is _service_ based, that you mentioned. And then significantly scale back the current corrupt institution. I don't think you can fix something so fundamentally broken.

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frey Nov 16, 2022

@sean Good leadership always involves asking for, listening to, and accepting guidance of domain experts within your organization. A mediocre leader will listen to so-called experts from _outside_ the organization. A bad leader doesn't listen at all.