Russia Invades Ukraine 2022

[Ken]

And in America, I’m quite concerned about maintaining our freedom of speech to criticise what is going on with America’s war efforts against Russia.

And yet you do it every day, with zero consequences. Does someone knock on your door and haul you away like they would in Russia? As long as I see your posts here, I'm pretty confident that hasn't happened.

If that's your fear, why don't you speak out against the country that actually does these things?

It is not my job to speak against America’s enemies like Russia and China.

It is my job to be a prophetic witness and speak out against the atrocities and evil my own country engages in.

I thought you were a Kingdom Christian and just a visitor to this country. An ambassador from another Kingdom if you will.

[temporal1]

Is it just my imagination or did the Chinese meeting with the US seem designed to strengthen ties in case the Russian/Chinese relationship grows more sour.

When DJT took office in 2016, because of media and political fear-mongering, i felt fatalistic about coming military conflicts/wars, esp attacks directed onto U.S. soil. As time passed, i, like others, was pleasantly surprised. 4 years in, i’d moved on from that sort of fatalism. On this alone, he should have had a second term.
i admit surprise that this doesn’t impress COs (more than is evident on this forum).

Unfortunately, biden+company seem to be making up for lost time. Career politicians’ normal U.S. politics.

Looks like the war is about nine months old now. I didn't think it would go like this.

Prayers of many for quick resolution have not been answered in ways we hoped. i feared, if resolution did not come quickly, protracted conflict (as witnessed far too often) was likely to result. Decades?

Once the U.S. and MIC are committing billions+billions+billions into military actions, this translates into “protracted.”
Unfortunately, if not by God’s grace, we/the world may be facing worse than Ukraine.

[Ken]

Is it just my imagination or did the Chinese meeting with the US seem designed to strengthen ties in case the Russian/Chinese relationship grows more sour.

When DJT took office in 2016, because of media and political fear-mongering, i felt fatalistic about coming military conflicts/wars, esp attacks directed onto U.S. soil. As time passed, i, like others, was pleasantly surprised. 4 years in, i’d moved on from that sort of fatalism. On this alone, he should have had a second term.
i admit surprise that this doesn’t impress COs (more than is evident on this forum).

Unfortunately, biden+company seem to be making up for lost time. Career politicians’ normal U.S. politics.

Looks like the war is about nine months old now. I didn't think it would go like this.

Prayers of many for quick resolution have not been answered in ways we hoped. i feared, if resolution did not come quickly, protracted conflict (as witnessed far too often) was likely to result. Decades?

Once the U.S. and MIC are committing billions+billions+billions into military actions, this translates into “protracted.”
Unfortunately, if not by God’s grace, we/the world may be facing worse than Ukraine.

More US soldiers died in combat per year under the Trump Administration than under the Biden Administration.

And US spending for overseas wars was much higher under Trump than under Biden. The Ukraine war spending is a drop in the bucket compared to what we used to spend annually in Afghanistan. From 2001 to 2021 the US spent $2.3 trillion in Afghanistan or $115 billion per year. So far we have only spent $16 billion total in Ukraine, which is about 8-times less than we used to spend annually in Afghanistan under Trump and previous presidents.

[ken_sylvania]

Is it just my imagination or did the Chinese meeting with the US seem designed to strengthen ties in case the Russian/Chinese relationship grows more sour.

When DJT took office in 2016, because of media and political fear-mongering, i felt fatalistic about coming military conflicts/wars, esp attacks directed onto U.S. soil. As time passed, i, like others, was pleasantly surprised. 4 years in, i’d moved on from that sort of fatalism. On this alone, he should have had a second term.
i admit surprise that this doesn’t impress COs (more than is evident on this forum).

Unfortunately, biden+company seem to be making up for lost time. Career politicians’ normal U.S. politics.

Looks like the war is about nine months old now. I didn't think it would go like this.

Prayers of many for quick resolution have not been answered in ways we hoped. i feared, if resolution did not come quickly, protracted conflict (as witnessed far too often) was likely to result. Decades?

Once the U.S. and MIC are committing billions+billions+billions into military actions, this translates into “protracted.”
Unfortunately, if not by God’s grace, we/the world may be facing worse than Ukraine.

More US soldiers died in combat per year under the Trump Administration than under the Biden Administration.

And US spending for overseas wars was much higher under Trump than under Biden. The Ukraine war spending is a drop in the bucket compared to what we used to spend annually in Afghanistan. From 2001 to 2021 the US spent $2.3 trillion in Afghanistan or $115 billion per year. So far we have only spent $16 billion total in Ukraine, which is about 8-times less than we used to spend annually in Afghanistan under Trump and previous presidents.

Are you saying US spent, on average, about $125 billion per year in Afghanistan during fiscal years 2018-2021?

[Ken]

When DJT took office in 2016, because of media and political fear-mongering, i felt fatalistic about coming military conflicts/wars, esp attacks directed onto U.S. soil. As time passed, i, like others, was pleasantly surprised. 4 years in, i’d moved on from that sort of fatalism. On this alone, he should have had a second term.
i admit surprise that this doesn’t impress COs (more than is evident on this forum).

Unfortunately, biden+company seem to be making up for lost time. Career politicians’ normal U.S. politics.

Prayers of many for quick resolution have not been answered in ways we hoped. i feared, if resolution did not come quickly, protracted conflict (as witnessed far too often) was likely to result. Decades?

Once the U.S. and MIC are committing billions+billions+billions into military actions, this translates into “protracted.”
Unfortunately, if not by God’s grace, we/the world may be facing worse than Ukraine.

More US soldiers died in combat per year under the Trump Administration than under the Biden Administration.

And US spending for overseas wars was much higher under Trump than under Biden. The Ukraine war spending is a drop in the bucket compared to what we used to spend annually in Afghanistan. From 2001 to 2021 the US spent $2.3 trillion in Afghanistan or $115 billion per year. So far we have only spent $16 billion total in Ukraine, which is about 8-times less than we used to spend annually in Afghanistan under Trump and previous presidents.

Are you saying US spent, on average, about $125 billion per year in Afghanistan during fiscal years 2018-2021?

Here is the $2.3 trillion figure. https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/fig ... -2001-2022 It seems impossible to pin down any sort of annual figure because so much spending on Afghanistan was multi-year contract stuff and much of it actually continues in the form of things like VA benefits for wounded soldiers. And a lot of it was not necessarily budgeted for Afghanistan but spent there, like US aircraft carriers in the Gulf providing air support on combat missions in Afghanistan. But the bottom line is that it is HUGELY more expensive to deploy US troops anywhere than to send weapons for others to use.

[Josh]

And yet you do it every day, with zero consequences. Does someone knock on your door and haul you away like they would in Russia? As long as I see your posts here, I'm pretty confident that hasn't happened.

If that's your fear, why don't you speak out against the country that actually does these things?

It is not my job to speak against America’s enemies like Russia and China.

It is my job to be a prophetic witness and speak out against the atrocities and evil my own country engages in.

I thought you were a Kingdom Christian and just a visitor to this country. An ambassador from another Kingdom if you will.

Ambassadors often speak against war.

[Ken]

It is not my job to speak against America’s enemies like Russia and China.

It is my job to be a prophetic witness and speak out against the atrocities and evil my own country engages in.

I thought you were a Kingdom Christian and just a visitor to this country. An ambassador from another Kingdom if you will.

Ambassadors often speak against war.

I was speaking about the "my country" part where you are taking ownership of and responsibility for what your country is doing. That is the opposite of the position you took in the old peacemaking threads

[Bootstrap]

And yet you do it every day, with zero consequences. Does someone knock on your door and haul you away like they would in Russia? As long as I see your posts here, I'm pretty confident that hasn't happened.

If that's your fear, why don't you speak out against the country that actually does these things?

It is not my job to speak against America’s enemies like Russia and China.

It is my job to be a prophetic witness and speak out against the atrocities and evil my own country engages in.

America seems to be guilty of atrocities you imagine it committing in some future. When that actually happens, we should talk.

But you have nothing to say about countries that are actually committing the same atrocities you imagine. And sometimes, you seem to be cheering for one of them. You question Ukraine's right to exist, calling it nationalism, but you do not question Russia's right to invade, you do not see that as nationalist military imperialism. Over and over again, you say that it IS your job to speak out against Russia's enemies that defend themselves from invasion. For a prophetic witness, I think that kind of inconsistency is a bit of a problem.

And I can't keep from thinking that a biblical prophetic witness would be mostly about calling God's people to be faithful to what the Bible calls us to be. God's kingdom here on earth. I would expect the focus to be on the same things Jesus was all about. And perhaps on the things the Old Testament prophets were all about that are echoed in Jesus.

[Soloist]

If only people knew what our military did…

[barnhart]

If only people knew what our military did…

Yes. And had clear eyes to see it as Jesus does.