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You are here: Home / Open Threads / When FIFA thinks you’re toxic

Reader Interactions

134Comments

  5. 5.

    Calouste

    The IOC has also recommended that Russia and Belarus are excluded from international competition. We’ll see what happens at the Winter Paralympics.

  6. 6.

    Ken

    @MattF: Or the IOC will crack down, and announce that next time they say Russian athletes can’t compete because of violations of the rules, they will really, really mean it.

  7. 7.

    MazeDancer

    There is a 17 mile convoy of Russian troops and tanks closing in on Kyiv.

    The shelling that indicates the possible Grozny-ing of Kyiv has begun.

    Putin has to level Ukraine now. Then what? Eventually, the sanctions will get him, he’ll be out. But on his way, Ukraine must pay.

    Following this on Twitter is both fascinating and torture. So much bravery.

  8. 8.

    Calouste

    @Gin & Tonic: They are. They were in the qualification playoffs with Poland as their next opponent, and after that the winner of Sweden-Czech Republic. All three countries had already stated their refusal to play Russia.

  10. 10.

    LeftCoastYankee

    Russia is out of WC qualifying.  The remaining Russian club teams are out of UEFA competitions.

    Club teams in various leagues in Europe are dropping Gazprom as a sponsor.

    Good start!

  11. 11.

    Ken

    @Calouste: Usually if a team refuses to play, they forfeit. Is World Cup different?  If not, how is that being handled in this case

    (I can’t imagine they’re going to say Russia wins the tournament by multiple forfeits.)

  13. 13.

    WeimarGerman

    FIFA’s decision also bans all Russian clubs from international competition like UEFA and Champions League.  Is Chelsea a Russian club team?

    I guess Abramovich did enough by allowing the trustees to take over all administration.

  16. 16.

    Ruckus

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Seemingly all they have to do is take out the front 1/4 mile and the rest will pretty much be trapped, sitting there exposed. Taking out the last 1/4 at the same time seems to be rather prudent.

  18. 18.

    MazeDancer

    @Gin & Tonic: Please may it be so.

    Putin’s craziness is worse than Trump’s. How does he think pulverizing Ukraine will get Russia welcomed back to the world?

    Hoping tomorrow night Mr. Biden says some pro-Ukraine applause line making everyone stand and cheer. And we see which GOP decide “They’re good people on both sides.”

  19. 19.

    RaflW

    Said roughly this below, but applies here too: The Russian people will be aggressively lied to & propagandized about why FIFA has booted Russia. Or why their western pay-apps have frozen. Etc.

    I’ve read that the Russian internet is not nearly as tamped down as China’s but wonder how long that can last? Could there be a 21st century samizdat culture that might spread more realistic news to Russians by Russians?

    These sanctions and blocks are necessary. But they may, in part, aid Putin for a time in his domestic fog of lies.

  20. 20.

    Roger Moore

    @Ken:

    Usually if a team refuses to play, they forfeit. Is World Cup different? If not, how is that being handled in this case

    In this case, the organizers are throwing Russia out of the competition.  I’m not sure how they’re going to handle that from a competitive standpoint.  The could either give Poland a bye, or they could let whoever Russia beat in the quarterfinals advance to the semis in their place.

  21. 21.

    smith

    @Gin & Tonic: a miles-long convoy just sitting there is a good target for the Bayraktars.

    People keep saying this, but the convoys just keep materializing and advancing. I guess this is what brute numerical superiority means. It may also mean that Russian air cover is more effective than we’ve been hearing.

  22. 22.

    West of the Cascades

    @Roger Moore: Since Poland is going to be the main avenue for weapons flowing to Ukraine, and thus a potential Russian target in the next few weeks (if Putin wants to attack a NATO country), I favor giving Poland the bye.

  23. 23.

    Ken

    @Baud: I was just thinking it feels like when the entire school turns on the playground bully. (Apologies if you were the bully.)

    Or maybe the McElroy case in Missouri, though I doubt there will be an international code of silence about these events.

  25. 25.

    Calouste

    @Ken: How it’s being handled now is that Russia is suspended, so Poland goes through to the next round without playing. Or maybe Russia is replaced by a different team.

    Something similar happened with the 1992 European Championships, where Serbia was banned because of their war and replaced at the last minute by Denmark, who then went on to win the tournament.

  28. 28.

    James E Powell

    That is an indicator of how toxic Russia has become. FIFA thinks they look bad associating with them.

    That’s like getting kicked out of the Hell’s Angels because you ride too much.

  29. 29.

    dmsilev

    @Betty Cracker:

    I read that the Russians are also kicked out of the Eurovision Song Contest.

    I regard this as being comparable to Pinterest banning Trump after Jan 6th.

  31. 31.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @smith: No, it’s simply the Russians keep on committing their forces piecemeal. They only put in only 1/2 their force last week, now it’s up to 2/3.

  32. 32.

    Lyrebird

    @RaflW:

    The Russian people will be aggressively lied to & propagandized about why FIFA has booted Russia. Or why their western pay-apps have frozen. Etc.

    So true.  I was disappointed to learn that the earlier claimed Anonymous hack of a news channel was not verified or not true or something.

    The same concerns are one part of the reason that UA’s letting  POWs call home and stuff is not just the right thing to do on a humanitarian level, it’s effing brilliant at the propaganda-busting level as well.

    Seems wise on the military level as well to encourage defections, but there are a lotta people here who know a lot more than i do on that front.

    Am also praying for the Russians out protesting.  “Also” meaning “you bet I am praying for the Ukrainians!”

    @Gin & Tonic: I don’t usually root for missiles, but it sure seems that until all the R. convoys reverse and get out, well-aimed Bayraktar hits are what the whole world should hope for.

  34. 34.

    Paul in St. Augustine

    @WeimarGerman: Chelsea is part of the English Premier League. Team owners in that league are, in addition to the Russian Abramovich, from Saudi Arabia and the USA, among others.

  39. 39.

    Baud

    Don’t usually expect Sen. Leahy to be on point.

    Sen. Leahy: Putin has miscalculated the United States because “he was able to lead Donald Trump around like a puppy dog”

  41. 41.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Someone at Daily Kos posted a graph that showed NATO’s military was five times larger than the Russian Federation’ Military.  I suppose Putin’s grand return to the Warsaw Pact days is just a fantasy and the desperate attack on Ukraine is the Russians know they would never be able to bully Ukraine once it becomes a NATO member.

  43. 43.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Gin & Tonic:

    A miles long convoy in enemy territory seems like catastrophically bad strategy, and the Ukrainians have proven themselves smart, aggressive opportunists.  On the other hand, I have no clue what their capabilities are in practical terms.  I hope this convoy is as vulnerable as it looks, and the Ukrainians are waiting until they can cripple as much Russian equipment as possible in one go, but we can’t know until it does or doesn’t reach Kyiv.  It’s sure taking its sweet-ass time.

  46. 46.

    Sebastian

    @Ruckus:

    There is one country in Europe that has unique air strike capabilities. Germany still operates Tornadoes that fly so low, they are invisible to radar. The Luftwaffe has been practicing flying at 200ft altitude for 40 years or so.

    Speaking of not being detectable by radar, wouldn’t that column be a beautiful target for some stealth bombers?

    I know, I know, …

  47. 47.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: So terribly sad. Along with the Ukrainians under attack, I feel sorry for the conscripts who were thrown unawares into Putin’s meat grinder. No quarter for the Russian leaders though: in efg’s immortal words, fuck’em.

  50. 50.

    Betty Cracker

  51. 51.

    NorthLeft12

    I think that FIFA began to get a lot more negative feedback from some major football countries’ governing bodies and decided to act now rather than place the integrity (strange word to use when talking about FIFA) of the World Cup in Qatar at stake.

    “THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL THAT WE ARE GOING TO RETURN THOSE BRIBES!!”

  52. 52.

    Sebastian

    It appears I am not the only one thinking about that. Rick Wilson has a thread where folks are joking about today’s pitch being a private contracting company but with A-10s. Warthog Inc, Cayman Islands, owned by Brrrrt Holdings, LLC.

  53. 53.

    JCJ

    @Sebastian: Yup,  I was visiting a friend in Soltau near the Soltau-Lüneburg Training Area once and it looked like you could reach up and touch those planes.

  56. 56.

    J R in WV

    Wow, a little more good news. I don’t have any respect for FIFA, but the more organizations that land on RU the better off we all are. Likely to enrage the futbol fans of the RU “republic”.

  57. 57.

    Sebastian

    $50k to surrender.

    I was joking the other day the US should offer 100k and a green card but it looks like someone cut UA a big check and told them to do pretty much exactly that.

    Wild. Ukrainian Defense Minister @oleksiireznikov says, “We offer Russian soldiers a choice: die in an unjust war, or be granted full amnesty and 5 million rubles compensation. If they lay down their arms and voluntarily surrender.” https://t.co/OIwylRJglv— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) February 28, 2022

  58. 58.

    Ken

    @Sebastian: Speaking of not being detectable by radar, wouldn’t that column be a beautiful target for some stealth bombers?

    Now all we need to do is convince the Russians to drive the column through the airbase where those bombers are stationed, and on a clear day so the planes can be taken out of their hangars.

    (I may be some years or decades behind the news, and the initial problems with the stealth bomber may have been fixed.)

  59. 59.

    Served

    @Betty Cracker: People are making light of this, but Eurovision means a LOT to Russia. They invest heavily in it, and try to use it as a means to show cultural clout that they don’t actually have (much like how they try to host international sporting events at every turn).

    Putin himself viewed the rehearsal of their 2016 performance, where they were heavily favored. They ultimately lost to Ukraine, who won with a song about the 1944 deportation of the Crimean Tatars by the Soviets.

  60. 60.

    Redshift

    @MazeDancer:

    There is a 17 mile convoy of Russian troops and tanks closing in on Kyiv.

    The photos first came out of it “closing in on Kyiv” at least 24 hours ago. Really makes me wonder what’s going on on both sides.

  61. 61.

    Betty Cracker

    @Served: I’d never heard of it until I watched the “Fire Saga” movie, but yeah, I’ve since learned it’s a very big deal! Cool story about Ukraine’s win. :)

  62. 62.

    MazeDancer

    Little bit of good-ish news:

    Perfect timing: Ukraine’s power system has executed a controlled disconnection from the grids of Russia and Belarus, and is now operating autonomously under normal conditions. The assets of the main network are currently functioning without interruptions

    @matti

  64. 64.

    Lyrebird

    @Sebastian: SERIOUSLY, no actually joking but agreeing with you, it’s like they’re reading Balloon Juice!

    Smart people here and there.  There are really smart people in R, but when you imprison people for independent thought it doesn’t help.

    I was trying to remember whether it was you or someone else who said something like, offer them EU citizenship & watch the numbers of attackers go down.

  65. 65.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Finland sends weapons and ammunition to Ukraine in policy shift

    HELSINKI, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Finland will send weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Monday, in a shift of policy.

    The shipment will include 2,500 assault rifles, 150,000 bullets, 1,500 anti-tank weapons and 70,000 food packages, Defence Minister Antti Kaikkonen added.

    “The anti-tank weapons can be used to fight armoured vehicles,” Kaikkonen told a news conference after a government meeting on Monday.

    The decision means a shift in policy for Finland which has maintained an image of a non-aligned country since the Soviet Union in 1956 gave up a naval base it had leased in southern Finland after World War II.

  66. 66.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Redshift: Among other things, it suggests cultivating a healthy skepticism about tweets issued in the fog of war, by people who might have an agenda. I’ve seen many videos recycled in the days since the invasion began as something “just happening.”

  68. 68.

    Calouste

    @Just One More Canuck: It wasn’t as much the Formula 1 organization as that some of its drivers came out within hours saying they were not going to race in Sochi. Which left the organization with no choice.

  69. 69.

    Redshift

    @Sebastian: They’re stealthy to radar, not invisible, so they could be identified even if they couldn’t be stopped. So it won’t happen for the same reason there’s not a no-fly zone; it would be an act of war by Germany against Russia.

  71. 71.

    Roger Moore

    @Lyrebird:

    Seems wise on the military level as well to encourage defections, but there are a lotta people here who know a lot more than i do on that front.

    It reminds me of one of my grandfather’s stories from WWII.  He was in artillery, and one kind of shell they had for their howitzers was a propaganda shell.  It was packed full of printed paper and had a very small bursting charge that would spread the paper over enemy troops.  They liked to send them “safe conduct passes” that basically said any enemy soldier who presented one while surrendering was guaranteed humane treatment*.  He said they knew they were effective because 1) the German high command made holding one a court martial offense and 2) every surrendering soldier had one anyway.

    *Yes, they were going to get humane treatment even if they didn’t have one, but that wasn’t the point.

  72. 72.

    scav

    @Served: Every so often I’d stumble across studies of Eurovision, plus all the controversy about voting methods and the political and social ins and out, who gets included, what labguage is sung in etc.  That is one mean playground.  Plus, I think it is an entirely distinct musical genre, but that may just be me.

  74. 74.

    cain

    @MazeDancer:

    Also what happens after you puvelrize Ukraine and put a Russian friendly govt? Who is going to pay for reconstruction?? Russia??!! haha – right. It’s just going to be a lot of bitter feelings, heartbreak – not just on Ukraine but on Russia as well.

  75. 75.

    counterfactual

    on the Russian convoy, I will hypothesize way beyond the evidence.

    1. The Boss said to invade Ukraine as soon as the ground froze. But that Western lie of “global warming” meant the ground never froze.
    2. But The Boss said to invade. Thus, the Russian generals split up their Battalion Tactical Groups into small units and sent them on parallel roads towards their objectives. That meant that the small units could no longer support each other.
    3. That meant that Ukrainian forces could catch the squad without air cover with drones and missiles, or the ones without artillery support with infantry and antitank missiles.
    4. So now the Russians are grouping the BTG together again, but they’re stuck on the highway stretched out for miles. The convoy I heard of was 5.5 miles long yesterday. If the same convoy is 17 miles today, that’s bumper-bumper traffic that will take days to untangle, all the while the equipment is burning diesel and the troops eating food.
  76. 76.

    Calouste

    @Redshift: I wonder if these pictures on TV are a way for NATO to cover up that they’re sharing intelligence with Ukraine. “We didn’t tell Ukraine that that Russian tank column was there, they were just watching CNN!”

  77. 77.

    Redshift

    @RaflW:

    I’ve read that the Russian internet is not nearly as tamped down as China’s but wonder how long that can last? Could there be a 21st century samizdat culture that might spread more realistic news to Russians by Russians? 

    BBC was talking to an independent Russian journalist (with Ukrainian relatives) yesterday, and apparently Telegram isn’t blocked in Russia, and plenty of videos of the war are getting sent and shared. I guess cutting off the internet entirely is possible, but something more selective like the Great Firewall takes a lot more work and preparation, which Russia doesn’t seem to have done (somewhat surprisingly, considering their other online capabilities.)

  80. 80.

    debbie

    I don’t follow soccer, but the BBC “sport report” was unhappy because FIFA was saying they wouldn’t suspend Russia. Glad to read they’ve changed their mind.

  81. 81.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Raoul Paste:

    “Lead Donald Trump around like a puppy dog” 

    A polite way of saying that Trump was Putin’s bitch

    Was?  Dump is still a traitorous, Kremlin-humping, fascist, orange bitch.

  82. 82.

    Emerald

    @West of the Cascades: Actually Putin already said he’s going after Poland, after the Baltic states, which are also in NATO. He’s reconstituting the Russian Empire, and apparently doesn’t see NATO as an impediment. He thinks he’s Peter the Great. He also threatened Finland and Sweden.

  85. 85.

    MazeDancer

    @Redshift:

    The overhead pictures of the convoy keep changing, so it is moving. There was even a video of a long stretch of it. Which seemed bizarre Russia would allow that.

    The NYTimes believes it exists. But that means nothing.

    Most comments were along the lines of G&T’s: Some target.

  86. 86.

    Roger Moore

    @Redshift:

    Part of the problem, of course, is that shutting down the internet is going to be noticed.  If they had set up something like The Great Firewall, people would be used to the internet being censored, and they would have the tools to ramp up the censorship without it being quite so obvious.  But since they didn’t they are in a bind.  If they leave the internet as open as it has been, people will be able to see what is going on in Ukraine.  If they try to shut it down, people won’t be able to see what’s happening in Ukraine, but they’ll assume it’s bad and let their imaginations fill in the details.

  87. 87.

    Just One More Canuck

    @Calouste: at least the FIA managed to figure out what the right thing to do was instead of punching themselves in the nuts, or scoring an own goal

  88. 88.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    About that 300 tanks Putin sent in the Ukraine  to take Kyev NOW! The As of yesterday the Ukrainians claim to have destroyed 146 tanks and 706 APCs, apparently at best that armoured column made up for the losses the Russian army already suffered.

  89. 89.

    gvg

    @smith: All the news is about the same convoy, which isn’t moving much apparently. That in itself is part of why it is attracting so much attention. The inexplicable action of not behaving like experts say they should.

  90. 90.

    CaseyL

    Seeing most of the world wasting little time to line up behind ruining Russia’s oligarchy-based economy convinces me that some of the united response to the war has to do with long-standing frustration and rage at how Russian dark money has permeated other countries’ politics, media, and economy.

    Yes, we/they care very much about halting aggression against a sovereign, independent country that also happens to be in Europe. I don’t discount that at all. But I do honestly think it’s also about cleaning a lot of poison out of the global financial system.

  91. 91.

    VeniceRiley

    I also read somewhere that Russian models have been suspended from OnlyFans. Hilarious if true.

  92. 92.

    Served

    @scav: It is truly its own world, but you can learn a lot about cultures, diasporas, and historical/present-day relationships between countries if you follow it.

    Ukraine is actually consistently a high performer in the contest. They have a really great eye/ear for mixing their culture with modern presentation.

  95. 95.

    J R in WV

    @JCJ:

    Yup, I was visiting a friend in Soltau near the Soltau-Lüneburg Training Area once and it looked like you could reach up and touch those planes.

    We can look down at the Warthogs flying out of Davis-Montham AFB in Tuscon, after they get past our knoll and over the valley east of us. Amazing to watch them work. Wish we could see them over Ukraine, the RU forces are sitting ducks for such attack aircraft.

  96. 96.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Calouste: They don’t need CNN or CIA resources. Rural Ukraine has a vast, lightning-fast communication network jokingly called BBC, for the Cyrillic initial letters of “Grandma told Grandma.” Usually concerned with important issues, like that Oksana’s daughter was seen with Valentina’s son Ihor from the next village, it will also not fail to notice a mile-long column of heavy armor.

  98. 98.

    gvg

    @RaflW: ​
      I don’t think there are enough lies to cover up how MANY things that are happening to them, sanctions from everyone, not just countries, but private organizations and countries that are normally pretty friendly to them. And I don’t see how Russia can cover up the no money transfers and soon a lack of supplies. Not all kinds, but quite a few. They can lie about a few sanctions like we have done before, and before the USSR fell when almost none of them had contact with anyone in the west, they lied believably then, but now after decades of random contact? The people don’t trust their government anyway.
    I think lies might be so obviously lies, that it just makes things worse.

  99. 99.

    smith

    @CaseyL: But I do honestly think it’s also about cleaning a lot of poison out of the global financial system.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. As scary as all this is, it’s also a great opportunity to take action at a time when our own mobster-oligarchs might not be able take as much effective action to prevent it (by, say, pulling the strings of their pet political party).

  100. 100.

    Jesse

    @Gin & Tonic: I’ve mostly switched from “the Ukraine” to “Ukraine”, but sometimes catch myself saying the former instead of the latter. For those of us old enough, it’s what we learned. Not so easy to unlearn it. Not everyone even knows if this switch, or the colonial/oppressive context for it.

  106. 106.

    Lyrebird

    @Roger Moore: He said they knew they were effective because 1) the German high command made holding one a court martial offense and 2) every surrendering soldier had one anyway.

    Thank you, that’s quite a story.

    I was wondering when I saw the story of some Russian tank drivers going to a Ukrainian gas station and asking if they could fill up, were they that stupid or that convinced by the propaganda?  Or are they trying to survive but maybe afraid that if they surrendered outright their families back home would be penalized?

  108. 108.

    CaseyL

    @dr. luba: Yup. Maybe not all, though I have no idea how much Koch-Mercer-etc lost is actually their own and how much is well-laundered $$ from offshore sources – but definitely a lot of oligarch money was flowing to the Gop and now will be much reduced if not shut off altogether.

  109. 109.

    Lyrebird

    @CaseyL: Yes, we/they care very much about halting aggression against a sovereign, independent country that also happens to be in Europe. I don’t discount that at all. But I do honestly think it’s also about cleaning a lot of poison out of the global financial system.

    Yeah, I agree, and I think it’s legitimate fear for who would be next…  I’d say the Ukrainians’ bravery is inspiring for a whole range of different reasons!

    I am glad so many big powerful organizations are seeing the choices in front of them clearly and taking braver ones than they had been.

  111. 111.

    burnspbesq

    FIVB, the international governing body of volleyball, says it is “closely follow[ing] the situation,” but hasn’t yet decided to move this year’s world championship from Russia.

    C’mon, y’all.

  112. 112.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: The difference between Ukraine and “the” [sic] Ukraine is not language Nazi. It is imperialism-signalling. “The” [sic] Ukraine is Russia’s terminology for a land it considered part of its empire, which Ukraine is no longer.

    I grew up with “the” [sic] Ukraine too and it took some awareness and effort to change my usage, but it was worth it to honor the sovereign nation and people of Ukraine. Please consider making the effort

    Edited.

  114. 114.

    WaterGirl

    @Sebastian:

    Rick Wilson has a thread where folks are joking about today’s pitch being a private contracting company but with A-10s.

    I don’t know what that means.  is there some context to that?

  115. 115.

    J R in WV

    I’ve read somewhere that the 13 guys on Snake Island, now famous for telling “Russian Warship — Go Fuck Yourself!” weren’t even soldiers, but were border guards sent to guard the scientists doing bio-research around the island.

    No telling if they were captured or killed yet, it will be hard to determine what happened even after active hostilities are ceased or over.

    I’m not going to take any Russian press release on this topic as reality, not when they have so much to gain from people swallowing this kind of lie. In any case, those Ukrainian guys are the best kind of people, given a task, sticking to their guns even in the face of overwhelming force. Best wishes to all those Ukrainians working and fighting for their country, their culture, and their people!

    Glory to Ukraine!

  117. 117.

    Sebastian

    @counterfactual:

    That my friend is EXACTLY what happened. @delfoo on Twitter laid it out step by step.

    This also happened:

    • As they were staging troops they hit their logistics ceiling by trial and error. They simply couldn’t ship and stage more diesel and other supplies.
    • The US fucking them with announcing the invasion date made them move the date. During that time they were consuming resources. Diesel, to heat barracks and keep engines running, food, and water.
    • The tanks were not carrying expanded tanks for long-range. IT WAS ALL THE FUEL THEY HAD.
    • The units were never deployed in full strength before. Previously, only the top 10% would be sent somewhere and perform decently. This time everyone had to deploy and 90% are an absolute shitshow of incompetence, no experience, no training.
    • As you described, they had to split up but that also meant tank column A didn’t have any spotters because they were all in column B or C.
    • No coordination with CAS or even basic reconnaissance.
    • Only the NCOs knew about the task and kept contact with command via short-range radio. In the beginning, it was easy because they all set out from a known position and everything else was enemy territory but once they advanced, nobody knew who was where. NCOs with radio kept falling further back until individual columns had barely and then no contact at all.
  118. 118.

    WaterGirl

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: It’s a legitimate question.

    We are a community here, and some people here have personal and family ties to Ukraine.  Most of the rest of us are very concerned about what it happening there.

    Your continued use of “the” in front of Ukraine feels to me like you are saying “fuck you” over and over – to a member of this community.

    Which is why I asked the question earlier.

  120. 120.

    Miss Bianca

    @Sebastian: OMG…what you’ve just described is even more of a cluster fuck than I could have imagined. *This* is the great Russian Army at work?

    Not that they aren’t lethal enough to do some serious damage, as they are currently demonstrating. But damn, Skippy…

  121. 121.

    Sebastian

    @WaterGirl:

    The A-10 Thunderbird, lovingly called Warthog, is a Close Air Support airplane, beloved by infantry for its absolutely devastating effectiveness. It’s also hated by all the high-tech high-price lobbyists who want to replace it with something shiny.

    The Warthog is a plane built around a ridiculously powerful autocannon, think massive machine gun, that can take out infantry, buildings, light tanks, and even some bigger ones. For the big tanks, it uses Hellfire missiles.

    It’s a slow plane, which is a good thing as it can loiter over an area for quite a long time and then come down with brutal efficiency and it’s signature BBRRRRRRRRRRRRAAPPPRRRRRRRRRAAAPPPRRRRTTTTTT sound of death raining down on whoever is bothering the US infantry.

    It’s also legendary for the amount of damage it can take and still operate.

    The massive column in Ukraine would be an absolute shooting gallery for a few squadrons of A-10s, who would blow the entire thing to smithereens in no time.

  122. 122.

    SamIAm

    @Gin & Tonic:

     

    I don’t understand your reaction to this particular sentence. One would say,

    As of yesterday the Americans claim to have destroyed 146 tanks…..

    As of yesterday the British claim to have destroyed 146 tanks…..

    As of yesterday the Swedes claim to have destroyed 146 tanks…..

    Why wouldn’t it be the same?

    Genuinely curious, not trying to troll

  123. 123.

    Gin & Tonic

    @SamIAm:  I’m reacting to this:

    300 tanks Putin sent in the Ukraine

    which, the commenter knows, since I’ve told him repeatedly, is offensive. “300 tanks Putin sent into Ukraine”? Fine.

  124. 124.

    Sebastian

    @SamIAm:

    The Ukrainians is good.

    The Ukraine translates to “The province”, note the lower case p. Even Grammarly tells you to lose the “The”.

    The country is called Ukraine. It’s important.

     

    Slava Ukraini!

  128. 128.

    Captain C

    @gvg: I wonder how much is due to a sizable number of Russian conscripts finding ways to bugger their vehicles, so as not to have to go into urban combat against people they consider brothers and who may in fact have a babushka in the city they’re approaching.

    “Sorry Sarge, the head gasket, gear train, and radiator all seem to have blown.  We can’t move for hours or days, at least.”

  130. 130.

    MisterDancer

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I’m not Ukrainian, but you can bet your sweet bippy I give a damn about marginalized people — and Ukrainians have been, for over a decade, marked as The Other by Putin — getting the shaft in terms of basic respect. And respect starts with how we discuss and name each other.

    It’s one thing to make mistakes; I do it to this day! It’s another to ignore repeated asks to shift offensive and problematic language.

    Consider that you ain’t getting a lot of support in this stance you’re taking.

  131. 131.

    MisterDancer

    @Sebastian: The massive column in Ukraine would be an absolute shooting gallery for a few squadrons of A-10s, who would blow the entire thing to smithereens in no time.

    With the caveat that I’m far from a military expert, just a guy in a chair with some books?

    I seem to recall that this was the original mission profile the A-10 was designed for. That it’s had its remit expanded as the Afghanistan/Iraq conflicts evolved, and it succeeded there as well, is great!

    Indeed: this situation alone should help keep a lid on the wanna-bes for a “next gen multi-role fighter” that isn’t really able to do what the A-10 does…

    …or, at least, from what I hear-tell.

  133. 133.

    artem1s

    @Frankensteinbeck: ​
     

    I hope this convoy is as vulnerable as it looks, and the Ukrainians are waiting until they can cripple as much Russian equipment as possible in one go,

    now would be the time to start blowing up bridges and blowing giant holes in the ground – have we reached the NATO bombing Kosovo stage?

  134. 134.

    currawong

    This was only after their initial announcement that Russia couldd carry on competing but only under the name ‘Football Association of Russia’ and their national anthem wouldn’t be played.

    It was only when Poland, its players and officials, categorically stated that they will not be playing Russia in the qualifying knockout matches, followed by the same from Sweden and the Czech Republic (who they’d have to play if they beat Poland) that FIFA realised they were in an impossible position and changed.

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