Yea I would agree, the average units are probably more equipped like late 90s early 2000s US, squad leaders and above or something like that. The boat assaults have been interesting to watch, the Ukrainians have had several of these boat raids go terribly wrong, this one seems to have been executed very well. Speed, Surprise, Violence of Action.
Keep in mind how quickly we were able to change this though. We went from a handful of 7Bs to everyone having a set of PVS14s pretty quickly. The Russians could also start snagging "good enough" nvgs from the Chinese by the truckload for cheap (or expensive) and nobody would know.
Yes, this recent "good" economic news is a "mirage". We have an artificially exuberant stock market with companies buying back their own stock to inflate their numbers and satisfy investors. Stock buy backs used to be illegal until recently and should be again. Our manufacturing index has been in contraction for the last fourteen months. As you've pointed out, most of the "new" jobs have been created by our Government's reckless spending. When we still have 10 million available job openings and only 5 million even looking for a job and still one of the lowest job participation rate since WW2, that's what has created our artificially low unemployment rate and has fueled inflation with ever increasing wages for the workers still employed and/or looking for a job. Like Trump or not, we had a "true" record low unemployment rate with HIGH job participation at the time he was in office. When the commercial real estate market faces the renegotiation of thousands of properties at a much higher interest rate soon, there will be a cascade of bankruptcies with most of that risk held by banks. It doesn't matter though, because the average braindead voter will "group think" with their fellow braindead zombies on social media and vote for Brandon.
Depends on the region. Texas is experiencing a 7% growth in GDP and Georgia is 10.1. Very little of it has to do with build back better. North Carolina and Florida are both growing at 4.6. Wisconsin and California on the other hand are 0.7 and Minnesota is 1.7. You would think someone would note and discover a way to articulate that difference.
Mirage or not this how capitalism works and it has nothing to do with Brandon or Trump.
www.state.gov
I respectfully disagree on some parts of your post. It's not TRUE Capitalism or a free market when the stock market is skewed through stock buybacks from the same companies inflating their worth to investors. The same holds true when the Government becomes the greatest job creator or when the Fed buys billions of mortgage securities and bonds to keep the economy from tanking. Brandon and his Democratic allies are directly responsible for the Government job creation through the Inflation Reduction (scam) Act and Infrastructure Act. Brandon's "build back better" is based on nothing more than Government spending. It is where we're at today, but it's not true Capitalism. It's more "revisionary" than anything else.
Or from SomalisThe Jake Sullivan way war - act timidly whether in Ukraine or the Middle East - has now cost a 100k ton tanker actually sunk (I wonder if the environmentalists will even notice?) Considering the range from the coast, the Houthis are almost certainly getting targeting from an Iranian ship loitering in Gulf of Aden. That would have seemed a logical target to any other administration in our history.
Or the Somalis. I would hope we would have some fairly good SIGINT.
Can't catch everything. Also the Houthis have a vast network of their own informants on the water in fishing Dhow's and whatnot, not everyone involved in the political movement is carrying a gun. Plenty are everyday dudes with normal day jobs but have allegiance to the cause, and may even get a reward for their info.
