[noetic_techy]

Anyone surprised. Russia may look like a big scary country on the map, but keep in mind they have roughly the same GDP as the state of FLORIDA. Its why they were once described as a gas station with nukes. The nukes are the only thing really scary about Russia, otherwise they are a turning out to be a paper Tiger. In fact if they didnt have nukes I would think other border countries in the east coughChinacough wouldn't hesitate to take their land. If the reports that they tricked their own troops into thinking it was just going to be an exercise (cant tell if thats just propaganda) then ordered them into Ukraine, and the fact that their convoy outside Kiev is totally FUBAR as far as resupply, we are looking at a major blunder here. Why wouldn't you show strong airpower competence to scare the west. I think others are right, this whole thing was likely planned at the top, didnt involve all the competent people it should, and now Putin is looking visibly pissed in his state broadcasts. Authoritarianism doesn't breed competence, its breeds yes men and ass kissers and kelptos and thugs right up until the poopees hit the fan. I think behind the scenes Russia is having a huge crisis of competence.

[SubiculumCode]

What if their nukes are also not as scary as they seem?

[idontwantthis]

I was thinking about that too. What if MAD turns out to have been a hoax on the Russian side?

What if we just didn’t need these soldiers or nukes anymore?

[hattmall]

Imagine Florida with 140 million people.

[decebalus1]

Yes, exactly. An overall poor country.