You can have a lot of honorary titles and a wall papered with academic credentials and still expose yourself as inept analyst. Meet Sir Lawrence David Freedman, KCMG, CBE, PC, FBA. Wikipedia describes him as, ” a British academic, historian and author specialising in foreign policy, international relations and strategy. He has been described as the “dean of British strategic studies” and was a member of the Iraq Inquiry.”
A “Dean”? Made me think of Dean Wurmser from the comic classic, Animal House.
Sorry, but the latest work from Sir Lawrence smacks more of comedy than serious scholarship. Let me give you a taste:
Russian forces have failed to take complete control of any of the four oblasts, or administrative regions—Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia—that Putin claimed for Russia in September 2022. Much of the ground initially seized after the full-scale invasion has been relinquished, and more is being lost, albeit slowly, during the current Ukrainian offensive. Before February 2022, Russia could be confident that Ukraine would not be able to challenge the illegal annexation of Crimea, but now even Russia’s hold of the peninsula is no longer certain.
Normally a person with the pedigree of Sir Lawrence would proffer some kind of evidence to buttress his assertion that Russia’s control of Crimea is tenuous. Nope. Nothing. Freedman simply repeats the nonsensical claim of Biden and Blinken that Russia is “losing” territory. Simply not true. I guess he has not heard of Bakhmut or what Russia is now doing up north as it crosses the Oskol River and is driving Ukrainian troops backwards.
Putin is not close to achieving any of his war aims while the price of his gambit grows ever steeper. He may, of course, believe that at least some of his original objectives are still possible, or take some comfort from those analysts in the West who are convinced that the best Ukraine can hope for is a military stalemate.
Putin and the Russians have a pretty remarkable achievement with respect to one of their stated objectives at the outset of the Special Military Operation — demilitarize Ukraine. The catastrophic losses of manpower and equipment have left Zelensky and the Ukrainian Generals totally dependent on the flow of aid from NATO members. The situation for Ukraine is made even more dire because the United States and its NATO partners admit that they have drawn down their arsenal of weapons, ammunition and combat vehicles to dangerous levels. That is just on the military side of the equation.
You also have to take into account the political success Putin has achieved by forming a de facto alliance with China and defeating the economic sanctions imposed by the West. Russia’s robust military industry is churning out artillery shells, tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and drones while Joe Biden has admitted that the United States can no longer supply Ukraine with conventional 155 mm shells.
All trends—military, economic, diplomatic—continue to point in the wrong direction, and Putin has no convincing explanation for how the situation can be salvaged. The Russian president finds himself boxed in with no good options. He may indeed already be aware that the reckoning has begun. . . .
It is on the frontlines that the extent of the blunder has become inescapable and where there is the most evidence of dissent. The brief mutiny of the Wagner mercenary group had much to do with the desire of its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to protect his business model from the Defense Ministry. But Prigozhin also tapped into a wider dissatisfaction with Russia’s high command and its unimaginative strategy, wasteful tactics, and corrupt practices.
Corrupt practices? Last I checked it is not Russian weapons that are being sold on the international black market. Ukrainian military leaders, especially those responsible for logistics, are guilty of grabbing gobs of weapons and ammunition and spiriting them out of the country in exchange for bags of cash. I guess Freedman never saw the 60 Minutes piece from last year that describe this theft.
Sir Lawrence engages enthusiastically in psychological projection — i.e., he insists that Putin and Russia are isolated and wracked by low morale when the reality is that Ukraine, with its lack of air power, mobile air defense and declining stocks of artillery shells, is faltering and has no discernible path to stalemate, much less victory.
One way out of such a dilemma might be for Putin to get his propagandists to concoct a story to explain why, despite the appearance of loss, Russia has in fact won. The simplest story he can tell is that Russia’s war is not with Ukraine, but with NATO. The Kremlin has already told this story to explain Russian setbacks and show how Ukraine is acting as an agent of the West. The narrative could be turned into a heroic one about how, against all odds, Russia survived the wrath of world’s mightiest alliance. But this story is also, from a Russian perspective, suboptimal because if Russia were truly at war with NATO, it would have no chance of victory.
It is Freedman who is concocting a narrative of an illusionary victory by Ukraine. I think Sir Lawrence is miffed that Russia is not launching human wave attacks against heavily defended Ukrainian positions. The esteemed “Dean” gives the game away towards the end of his article — a Russian victory represents a massive defeat for NATO.
Ukraine is united and effective in its fighting. Furthermore, a Russian victory would be a geopolitical catastrophe for NATO, posing the far greater risk of an all-out war between the alliance and Russia. Better that Russia is pushed back by Ukraine, with its army degraded in the process.
Freedman is not completely delusional. His admission that a Russian victory will be a “geopolitical catastrophe for NATO” is not hyperbole. Kudos to Sir Lawrence — he got something right. But his incompetence as an analyst or prognosticator is illustrated by his ridiculous, groundless claim that Ukraine is “united and effective in its fighting.” It is not. The following graphic is harrowing and underscores that Russia is bleeding Ukraine:
“British academic, historian and author …”
What’s the old line, ‘invisible in war, invincible in peace’. Well, I’m sure the battlefields of the halls of academia resound with his victories. Thus the KCMG. These people are desperate to restore the old imperial influence. BTW James Bond (Daniel Craig) is a CMG. If only the academic were as entertaining as the movie actor.
One of the longest serving PMs in any Commonwealth country was Pig Iron Bob (aka Silver Ming) who was said to have had a promising military career cut short by the outbreak of war.
Becoming a politician and send others to fight for Empire was much safer.
“British academic, historian and author … and shill. He lost his reading glasses 20 years ago.
Selected Quotes by Sir Lawrence Freedman
Putin is not close to achieving any of his aims.
Putin finds himself boxed in with no good options.
Putin has no explanation for how the situation can be salvaged.
Putin may take comfort in Western analysts who believe that the best Ukraine can hope for is a stalemate.
One way out of might be for Putin to get his propagandists to explain why Russia has won.
Reality is:
Russia is at war with NATO.
Ukraine is an agent of NATO.
At the outset there was no full scale invasion by Russia into Ukraine. The Russian Special military operation had less than 100.000 Soldiers from the outset, compared to a Ukrainian Army of 650.000 men. But Russia soon upgraded its forces to hold its occupations with devastating consequences for the Ukrainian Army.
Today, Russia has complete air superiority over all of Ukraine
Russia has set defense lines in the 4 occupied Oblasts which have yet to be penetrated by Ukrainian forces.
During this part of the war, Ukraine has been launching human wave after wave attacks against heavily fortified Russian positions, resulting in extreme casualties among the Ukrainian Soldiers.
The Russian Army is now at 950.000 men while the Ukrainian Army has been reduced to 70.000 men.
The war have left Zelensky with the loss of +600.000 soldiers and totally dependent on military aid from NATO Nations, and funding from the US and EU, while Ukrainian military leaders are grabbing gobs of weapons and ammunition and selling them on the black market in exchange for cash.
Moreover, the US+NATO has now drawn down their arsenal of weapons, ammunition and combat vehicles.
Putin has achieved alliance with China, and major support from the BRICS organizations of Nations.
Thus Russia has defeated the economic sanctions imposed by the West, while Russia’s military industry is churning out artillery shells, tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and drones on a 24/7 basis.
Russia is close to having achieved its stated objectives — de-NAZI-fications and demilitarization of Ukraine.
Russia has been able to counter 20 years of proxy war by the world’s most expensive military alliance.
A Russian victory in Ukraine will be the 3rd geopolitical catastrophe for NATO.
Sir Lawrence Freedman is taking on for the TEAM who knighted him, by using his last bit of credibility to write a lot of NATO hopium.
Hey, Dane.
I wish you worked for CNN. They desperately need fact-based analysts and reporters.
The bullshit coming from the West gets stranger and stranger by the day. It’s a sure sign of disillusion, apprehension, and panic. It’s palatable and it’s in the air. I can’t wait so see the US and their NATO lackeys scramble to put lipstick on this pig when the inevitable comes. I suspect most Americans will continue to believe the smoke being blown up their asses by the corporate government controlled media. That won’t change. It’s most of the rest of the world that going to start questioning US economic dominance.
This war has serious consequences for the US dollar and its reserve currency status. The world is already beginning to see that the US has some serious weaknesses and many countries are changing their commodity trading settlement procedures, leaving the US dollar as a settlement currency. US unilateral sanctions against more than 30 countries have backfired at every turn. This, of course, is the real threat to America in this debacle.
Make no mistake, the politicians and the Federal Reserve are very aware of this danger.
Stand by…..
I can’t wait so see the US and their NATO lackeys scramble to put lipstick on this pig when the inevitable comes.
My guess is something along the lines of “tactical pyrrhic” victory but long term failure because NATO expansion, dependence on China, and alienation from the rest of the world (or whatever).
Bonus points if they figure out how to include Iran in the rhetoric
Every organization perpetuates its existence beyond the expiration of its initial reason for existing. Very few organizations self terminate. NATO is not different.
great point!
I’ll add the JK Galbraith corollary that every organization becomes co-opted by the corporations within its sphere of influence within 10 years, making their existence obsolete. He wrote about the US government specifically, but international alliances fit the theme. And OTAN has been so completely co-opted by the MIC that they exist only for the continuation of the military industry.
Hence, the permawar scenario we are faced with, assuming their continued existence.
I’ve already called my broker – I’m going ‘long’ on lipstick !!
Can you negotiate with people who are insanely insistent on their exceptionalism and entitlement to world domination? Didn’t think so. How long China continues to export to dead beats in the EU, and “anglosphere” remains to be seen, but having your hard earned wealth stolen isn’t a business model that can continue. When these idiots slink off declaring victory do you think western populations will be welcome in the multipolar states? Perhaps it’s a matter of preparing for separation which for western populations means repression and the work house (propping up the lordly in the manner they’re used to).
” It’s palatable and it’s in the air.”
I think you mean palpable, as bullshit is never palatable.
Unfortunately ,many ordinary folk in the West ,under the spell of their legacy media , remain unable still to comprehend or see plainly ,bullshit .
It isn’t of interest that another cover credentialed moron is spewing fantasies. However, the trend of such spew is interesting in terms of ‘The Narrartive(!)’ A lot of this happening since Vilianous a couple of weeks ago.
Add the increase in terror attacks by the ukronazis on RF civillian targets, the increase in ukronazi ‘meat’ suicide attacks, and even pulling oiut the precious few remaining pussycatpanzerwagons and bradley burning chariots. Seems like the penis-piano-playing cokehead of stayte is reading pressing.
Of course the hyena-pilsudski regime and beating-balt chihuahua regimes maybe primed for the new ‘meat’ shippment to 404 and that cannot be discounted. But this has been counterered by the publically stated exposure and resolve to counter any such suicidal moves by RF.
Have been many reports that the ukronaziwreich was given a timeline to show ‘victories’ or the ‘free-coke’ moneytrain would end, as it would be ‘inconvenient’ for the brandon bidette election steal. Are the divorced from reality statements from bagman Austin, Blinkey the fool, sir delusional, sir delusional, et.al. just the shift to prepare the ground for ‘The Narrative’ switch to: ‘we won,’ and pullout? That is an interesting consideration.
Interesting timez
Sorry for all the error in the above. Between poor typing skills, bad spell check and rushing to get to another task, it is pretty bad. Corrections applied, hopefully all errors caught :
It isn’t of interest that another over credentialed moron is spewing fantasies. However, the trend of such spew is interesting in terms of ‘The Narrartive(!)’ A lot of this happening since Vilianous a couple of weeks ago.
Add the increase in terror attacks by the ukronazis on RF civillian targets, the increase in ukronazi ‘meat’ suicide attacks, and even pulling oiut the precious few remaining pussycatpanzerwagons and bradley burning chariots. Seems like the penis-piano-playing cokehead of state is really pressing.
Of course the hyena-pilsudski regime and beating-balt chihuahua regimes maybe primed for the new ‘meat’ shippment to 404 and that cannot be discounted. But this has been addressed by the publically stated exposure and resolve to counter any such suicidal moves by RF.
Have been many reports that the ukronaziwreich was given a timeline to show ‘victories’ or the ‘free-coke’ money train would end, as it would be ‘inconvenient’ for the brandon bidette election steal. Are the divorced from reality statements from bagman Austin, Blinkey the fool, sir delusional, et.al. just the shift to prepare the ground for ‘The Narrative’ switch to: ‘we won,’ and pullout? That is an interesting consideration.
Interesting timez
https://youtu.be/fVmhxx5VrAA
Russian Leopard 2A6 marked with WWII Wehrmacht insignia being taken out by a Ukrainian Lancet drone.
OK then.
Russian Lancet drone, Ukrainian Leopard lol German really! The dead are Ukrainian.
The Sun does stuff like that all the time. Tells more about the audience, that about them.
Are you a carpenter, you hit the nail right on the head!
Since he is convinced of Ukraine’s brilliant success and Russia’s abject failures, why not send him to the front lines where he can get a taste of ‘victory’ before ascending to Valhalla. Or, maybe just keep it simple, call him a fucking moron and leave it at that.
Sorry, Larry, I couldn’t resist. :))
He wouldn’t be going to Valhalla, the Valkyries chose the heroes. He’s not a hero! (I enjoyed Norse mythology when I was in high school) and would be going elsewhere…
They do need bartenders though. Valhalla has been out of staff for centuries, tipping has been below normal ever since they started bringing in chicken farmers and failed art students.
No ride with the Valkyries for him. He would have to settle for a drive with the Wagner guys.
NATO took 20 years to lose to the Taliban. It might take Russia a couple of years to defeat NATO.
“NATO took 20 years to lose to the Taliban. It might take Russia a couple of years to defeat NATO”
Not comparable. If Russia did as the US did in Afghanistan, IE no rules of war adhered to, no Geneva Conventions applied, and mass bombings they would defeat NATO in two months … or less.
Remember that Russian forces aren’t on a total war footing…yet.
Hi Larry. The retired colonial colonel syndrome is alive and well with this clown. Thanks to the riotously funny TV show “Yes Minister” we know that the decorations of CMG and KCMG (Knight Commander of St Michael and St George) are known among the political and bureaucratic class in the UK as “Call Me God” and “Kindly Call Me God” respectively. He’s also a CBE, which stands for Commander of the British Empire. Born to empire and consigned to irrelevance, poor old Sir Lawrence with his “God, King and Empire” complex is really the epitome of all that is pathetic and backwards looking in the UK. He should stick to doing the crossword puzzles.
Thank you for stating the truth.
“Yes Minister”, one of the truly well written and hilarious political shows. Explaining the EU.
https://youtu.be/rvYuoWyk8iU
Couldn’t resist another great Clio of “Yes Minister” explaining Brexit from the Empires point of view.
https://youtu.be/lFBgQpz_E80
Brilliant! The best of comedy, making you laugh while gut-punching you with poignant truths.
“It’s funny because it’s true.”
Homer Simpson.
The best part of the writing for Yes, Minister/Yes, Prime Minister is the format–it is not partisan party politics–it is parliamentary politicians vs the bureaucracy (or the Deep State, if you prefer). Probably another reason why the US version of House of Cards pales in comparison to the original British production.
Understanding the British Press per ” Yes, Minister”
The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country.
The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country.
The Times is read by people who actually do run the country.
The Daily Mail is read by the wives of those who do run the country.
The Financial Times is read by people who own the country.
The Morning Star is read by people who think the country should be run by another country.
The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is [run by another country].
The Sun readers don’t care who runs the country as long as you have big tits.
Att.: Larry, there is good Intel here, I bet you didn’t know this.
Sorry to tell you but I already was familiar with that bit of insightful analysis. Thanks for sharing though.
Thanks for sharing that ! …very funny and clever!
Someone did a version of that for the US many years ago, but I can’t remember all the publications they used.
NATO took 20 years to lose to the Taliban. Russia might take a couple of years to defeat NATO.
Direct Military victory for RU was likely never really an issue – they could always demolish entire cities and just rule over empty ruins, while inflicting big casualties to themselves…
What they are trying to do is to win it without breaking their country and society, and that part is much harder to achieve when fighting against entire collective West.
NATO took 20 years to leave Afghanistan should be the right claim
Nah. The leaving part happened in a flash. They even forgot to feed the cat, or check that everyone “got to the choppa” before taking off.
Who runs Afghanistan now? The same people who ran it in 2002. The Taliban. NATO lost.
Net result of 20 years of NATO in Afghanistan?
Taliban now has an air force.
Not only that, they now control whole country as well which was not previously the case…
Try cut and run! After Satan screams…. “Bugging out!”
Freedman is the Zionist that formulated Tony Blair’s speech and so-called Blair doctrine for the Iraq War. Surely that trustworthy face wouldn’t hoodwink us again, right?
Every Single Time
https://www.thejc.com/news/news/jewish-academics-appointed-privy-counsellors-1.9920
“Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life.” The movie says it all.
Ahhh… the English elite! Can any one have enough contempt for a group of truly demonic people, who deceive others to exploit them and it is all justified, by the self adorned despotism they believe is their birthright.
The whole world would pay to watch the English elites and their assassins separated from their heads. A group punching, in the dark, way above their weight limit. A group of Malthusians with so much blood on their hands and for what? It is said those having the hardest time dying are the very rich for they must leave it all behind.
When will the English people take a hint?
https://youtu.be/JAtlyewU3To
Sir Lawrence David Freedman KCMG, CBE, PC, FBA. Wikipedia.
CALL SIGN…… “Chubby Chops”
Sooner rather than later a mad bunch of US & Uk Generals will propose a nuclear decapitation strike of Russia and China.
Enter the grownups and the death squads. A coup of coups.
The normal
The sane
The professional
The family men of arms will rip the American and British crazy LQPTXYZ -WW3, nutters a third arse hole.
The blood shall runneth over.
Russia and China will sit silent..they will have a faxed copy of the kill list, the no go list and who to call list.
It has reach that level of insanity, it can only end in the destruction of the planet or a couple of million dead war mongers.
Bullets, lamp posts or pitched forks. Read French history, it has ended this way before. So it’s not like it’s made up loony talk. It has happened before and could happen again.
Those who do not die in a nuclear holocaust shall starve to death and the last words utters from humanities dying lips, will be…“should’a voted Independent.”
Great comments, Larry.
Ukraine has really exposed how shallow and weak the western decision making elite has become.
Some are simply idiots. However many are not, and have cynically worked out how to make good $$$ grifting from non stop lies and propaganda.
These grifters are essentially good actors. Many have double barreled names, come from aristocratic or elite colleges, have some military experience (against weak opponents) and be decorated with shiny medals and lofty titles, which they exploit to sound like experts.
The scam has always worked well when the opposition is weak. However it fails miserably against an adversary such as Russia. Reality exposes these charlatans as the cynical, lying con artists that they have always been.
These rats should be ridiculed and exposed 24/7 – not just now but into the future. They are a great danger to the western societies, as are their patrons.
If you want to feast at the numerous delicacies at the Deep State table then you follow the required protocol. This is the epidemic of corruption that now eats at the West, politicians, media, academics, the puppets are easy to spot, those that don’t follow disappear from public view. This is a vile cancer that won’t be easily dislodged.
Yep, any moron can be a professor these days. Look at what they are spitting out of colleges after years of mediocre learning. The graduates are ill read, poorly spoken, culturally illiterate morons who think they can alter the course of history by force. Furthermore they are generally rude, condescending know it alls who could not name the capitals of 10 states, nor major bodies of water, nor the first nor last five Presidents. And they don’t see why they should. They are ready to snitch on their classmates or co workers who are not sufficiently woke or who will not comply with the reconstituted Bolshevik commissars festering everywhere, and will destroy their lives without a thought. All it takes is one misspoken fake pronoun. And worst of all they are not opposed to violence to get their own way since their airy crania cannot form coherent thoughts and ideas suited to debate, so they default into righteous indignation, rage, etc., and take to the streets with all the other guttersnipes. They readily join ignorant Bolshevik mobs who shout down speakers with whom they disagree, they foster and join protesters who destroy property to get a political point across, and they defy basic generational social norms that served as guardrails for general social interactions.
Get a load of Nuland and her gigolo Blinken, do those two ignorant vulpins strike anyone anywhere as intelligent? Bbbbbut they went to fancy schools, and have big fancy jobs! Yeah? So? They also abused state power far beyond their severely limited intellects to conjure up a completely avoidable war that will negatively impact millions of lives forever — physically, emotionally, financially, politically, etc ., at home and abroad. And for all their schooling, money, and connections, those morons don’t even understand basic diplomatic decorum, just observe their appalling comportment. So their professors were probably also woke, vacuous morons like Sir Alphabet Soup, airing standard opinions to equally unimpressive and poorly educated MSM morons with comparable credentials. These people are reliably shallow and vapid, and a menace to healthy social growth. They are all better suited to Hollyweird.
Not terribly impressed by academics selling themselves to money lenders like Niall Ferguson or to Chatham House or NATO cutouts as with Freedman
They are simply lumbered with a PhD no one else wants simply to add credentials to a prepared script.
Judge every argument on its merits and challenge every assertion to see how well thought out it is and irrespective of title or published works it is the ONLY basis for assessment. As the adage goes, you are only as good as your last movie
German media like everywhere else is full of academics usually female, no military combat expertise, opining without fact and with slender resumes of secondary sourced facts sold as insight
It is the curse of modern media treating war like a football commentary but failing to show mangled corpses on TV for fear of upsetting sensitivities
I guess I’ll call it the “The Oprah Strategy “ just keep saying it over and over and it will come true. You get a new Oniks and you get a new Oniks. Everyone gets a new Oniks.
https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/courtship-anne-boleyn-14565
https://tinyurl.com/yc8bwmjz
“Here, in the rich, the honoured, famed, and great,
See the false scale of happiness complete!
In hearts of kings, or arms of queens who lay,
How happy! those to ruin, these betray.
Mark by what wretched steps their glory grows,
From dirt and seaweed as proud Venice rose;
In each how guilt [with] greatness equal ran,
And all that raised the hero, sunk the man:
Now Europe’s laurels on their brows behold,
But stained with blood, or ill exchanged for gold
Know, then, this truth (enough for man to know)
“Virtue alone is happiness below.”
Stuck o’er with titles and hung round with strings,
That thou mayest be by kings, or wh***s of kings.
“What can ennoble sots, or slavers, or [defilers]?
Alas! not all the blood of all the [Rockefellers]
“But grant that those can conquer, these can cheat;
‘Tis phrase absurd to call a villain great:
[Fame but from death a villain’s name can save,
As justice tears his body from the grave;]
Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave,
Is but the more a fool, the more a knave.
“What’s fame? a fancied life in others’ breath,
A thing beyond us, even before our death.
All that we feel of it begins and ends
In the small circle of our foes or friends;”
The great sea power the British against the great land power Russia in the British 200 year long war against Russia unfolding through Halford John MaKinder “the Pivot and the Heartland”.
The British commercial war on the world.
Nord Stream pipeline sabotage: Likely the British as are other planned terrorist attacks on Russian assets.
Andrei Martyanov’s Blog
Larry Wilkerson On How NATO Will Disintegrate…
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2023/07/larry-wilkerson-on-how-nato-will.html
PS-Addition:
Jewelry precision “Geran”: NATO “goes nuts” from attacks on the Danube ports
Sir Lawrence proves that high intelligence and stupidity are not mutually exclusive.
It all goes to show that Freedman has not been FREED from imbecility
The funny part is that West is still doubling down in every aspect, especially narative-wise – its like they don’t understand that more they double down the harder for them it is to escape and the harder the fall will eventually be…
Most of them, if not all, are actual, bona fide psychopaths and do not posess an “off” switch, or the “off ramp”, therefore “doubling down” is all they know and capable of.
In a driven confrontation with nuclear superpower like Russia, it is a scary thought..
Quote from the Slavyangrad telegram channel on July 26th, 08.34:
“A post by a well-known Ukrainian journalist on Facebook:
“Today, I received information from my sources in the SBU: As of today, the number of deceased soldiers of the AFU is over 310,000. Thanks to Zaluzhnyi.”
Over 700 angry comments filled with pain and denial.
Even Ukrainian media can no longer find the strength in their hearts to hide such a monstrous crime and genocide of a whole nation by the Ukrainian authorities.
Ukrainian media is literally confirming 310,000 killed in action (KIA), and of course, that obviously means over 600,000 wounded in action (WIA).
Ukrainian authorities have just butchered almost 1 million human beings. So the number of dead is must be closer to 600k now since they’re admitting 310K.”
And 8 years of bombing women – children and old folk……310,000KIA sounds like Karma or Payback for murdering little kids. Raping girls, cutting up POWs shooting their own Ukrainian solders in the back of their heads.
My thoughts and prayers go to the Ukraine men dragged off the street and forced into an un winnable war. To be suicided by tattooed Nazis who just want to kill.
It’s all too much for the human unit. But it is good for business, the American/ London Financial killing, over and over again.
My prayers accompany yours.
A well-traveled friend of mine wanted to explain the British. He told me this story. He was dating a well-off woman in the UK and went out to dinner with her, her Dad, and a family friend, a medical doctor. They enjoyed an outstanding meal and some excellent wine. They were getting ready to leave the restaurant. Wait a sec, said the medical doctor. He took the salt cellar and dumped salt into the unfinished bottle of wine so that the lowly staff couldn’t enjoy a glass or two in the kitchen! That, he said, explains the British.
Yes, the shitstain motto is to always shit on those you consider below you. In fact, the doc probably didn’t even think about it, it was ingrained from childhood to always treat the servants lowly. He probably already re-rationalized in his head that it was to protect them from germs (which a doc should know the limits of contact in this case). The self-delusion of elites is boundless.
But as I and most other men know, the best treatment to counter shitstains, is to piss on them!
Indeed, Charles’ face is always my target when I spray the loo.
” He took the salt cellar and sprinkled salt in the unfinished wine bottle so that the humble staff could not enjoy a glass or two in the kitchen! He thinks that explains the British.”
In our country, this is called excrement chewing, but it fits the jerk in the quote very well !
Britain and the bottle was not emptied? Hard to believe
Think your friend associates with very odd types
I’m afraid your friend was talking through his well-travelled posterior. Pity he didn’t meet the real British.
Get it right – the English! Please stop referring to English as British!
Scots, Welsh and Irish are NOT like them and never have been! Those three nations that are part of this “UK” absolutely hate the english, and with good reasons!
Weird about the Crimea part, since Russia is clearly never going to part with it.
Trash talk and rewriting history is all that is left of Western government.
You have exposed sir, a prime example of “The enemy within”, strangulating both your Nation and mine with lies, deceit, and treachery.
Wikipedia will tell you nowt, go on to the chirping bird for confirmation as to his gross features and propensity to LIE.
Until these parasites are rooted out of positions of power and influence (he advised Tony Blair) there will be widespread conflicts and misery.
Judge for yourself, his malevolence and lies, interviewed by a fellow tribal member.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37zc74EKg1M
Dean Wormer
John Vernon
The fly in the ointment is the amount of active Ukrainian troops. According to your graphic it’s 395,000+ this will take a long time for Russia to break down and to assert full control over the Donbass nevermind advance through to Kiev.
The Ukrainians will eventually give up on their offensive and take up a more defensive strategy which will drag this war out even longer. I was originally hopefully for a quick Russian victory but that is not going to happen and I think a military stalemate is the most likely outcome before talks bring some sort of closure on matters. The winner? That’ll be open to interpretation and spin.
umm, if you assume tooth to tail (read larry’s piece) is 3 to one rather than the 9 to one you only get 130k soldiers for a 1000 km front. that works out to 130 soldiers per kilometer! And you do realize trenches in the dirt provide no protection against drones and artillery? Ukraine ain’t pooring cement anymore. And it is not feeding its troops this winter. Soldiers dying of hunger don’t do stalemate defense.
Either the Poles join the meat grinder or it ends before spring and not in a stalemate.
I recommend Clausewitz
https://clausewitz.com/
All signs show a Culmination point is coming. The accelerating loss rate of Ukrainian soldiers is classic. As is the kill ratio.
History is on my side. Look at the war to date. Russia have relinquished plenty of territory because they didn’t have the manpower or logistics to keep hold of it. Both armies are fighting in trenches and it’s producing the near stalemate we are seeing now. How long did it take the Russians to capture Bakhmut? Repeat this city by city and town by town it’s going to take them years regardless of how hungry the Ukrainian army may or may not be. As long as Ukraine still has men they can dragoon into the army and NATO can keep supplying weaponry to a certain degree then this conflict is going to drag on for years. Putin doesn’t want that and eventually the US will realise it’s not in their interests to.
you can have as many troops as you like Stan from Langley; but if they’re not equipped or even equipped but with subpar equipment, and this is most DEFINITELY the case with Ukraine, all you’ve got is a bunch meat that’s either going to be fed into the grinder or be ground down to mincemeat when Russia chooses to go the offensive – which they WILL; if I were Ukraine I would sue for peace NOW because the terms of capitulation will only get worse from here on out ..
You miss my point. How long did it take Russia to take Bakhmut? Imagine doing that city by city and town by town! It will take years! The Ukrainian offensive will fail and they will go back to a defensive strategy. It is easier to defend than attack. The number of troops Russia has does not equate to a winning force against a defensive minded Ukrainian army! Russia needs at least 3 times more men!
The reason why Russia chooses to decimate Ukrainian army on this particular front line is it’s supply lines are in control here.
Driving another 200-400 km is going to make things very complex for them.
Plus they don’t want to destroy kharkov, and Odessa and near by large cities. Thus it’s preferably to get the Ukrainians in a theater of the Russians choosing.
I think the mark of 150k to 180k will be the key when Russia will move forward or kiev/nato or certain sections of Ukraine will surrender.
Because at that mark there will be too few left to spread around all over the country plus the front line.
I think bare minimum 100k are needed for protection of major cities and borders. So anything above that can be sent to the conflict line.
But that line is damm long so there is probably a bare minimum 80-100 k needed on the front line to prevent total collapse or partial collapse of the front line.
My guess is another 4-6 months the rate of attrition of Ukrainian military will pick pace and collapse will come soon after that number is taken out.
Bingo Stan. The Uke’s are dying in droves because they are attacking prepared positions with a battlefield that has 100% intel coverage. IF. If, the Uke’s stopped their idiotic West Point planned death charges? And turtled up, and made the Russians come to them? The Russians would still win. But it would take forever. At that point the Russians would probably have to finally take the Uke infrastructure out. Last winter they took transformers but largely left energy plants intact. If the Uke golden class can still do coke rave parties in Kiev? Why should they stop sending their poor to die in the South?
I do feel there has been a shift. I think the reality is percolating thru to Washington that this is a loser. My personal threat assessment about these buffoons escalating to nukes is fading. I believe we are in the standfast just before slinking away stage. Biden cannot have this on the radar in Spring 2024. The media will be glad to memory hole it for him. But more men need to die first. Sad.
Wikipedia is a joke, completely unreliable. It accept everything. You can transform/promote an idiot in a genius in seconds. I am sure that a lot of the west military authorities/personnel use the platform for this.
Wikipedia tells us that “The Skripals are living in New Zealand under assumed names.”
Go figure!
He is an Emeritus Professor of War Studies – Is this a joke?
I can hear Mr. Martyanov saying: He is a shyster. He never served a day in a uniform …
Neither did John Keegan.
Leave it to Larry Johnson to expose those ivory tower academics whose minds have been corrupted and ravaged by the boll weevil of Liberalism.
If the twenty-plus thousand dead Ukrainian soldiers who, these past few months, served on the front lines and who have been sacrificed on the altar of the false god of “democracy” could come back from their graves — they would all shout “LIAR!” at “Sir” Lawrence Freedman.
I apologize for the harsh words I’ve directed at Mr. Freedman. I honestly don’t like saying bad things about anyone. We are all sinners in need of God’s grace, and I wish I hadn’t posted what I did.
With that said, the fact remains that all of these lies and propaganda only serve to get tens of thousands of more young men killed; that, and the deluded, democracy-worshipping politicians in Washington, D.C. — those people most responsible for building what we all knew would turn out to be The Ukrainian Slaughterhouse.
I hope Larry’s website is having a sobering effect on some of those so-called “elites”in Washington, D.C. I hope they will all repent of the evil they have unleashed in Ukraine, and the rivers of blood that have flowed because of their foolish, stupid decisions.
A politician would have to be willfully blind with a heart of stone not to want to immediately seek out a way to end this tragedy and debacle of a war today.
Please don’t refer to this individual as ‘Sir’…Lawrence or Larry will suffice! It’s high time these so called badges of ‘honour’, (possibly ‘notoriety’ or ‘shame’ would be more apt), were done away with:)
Andre’ would have a field day with this guy. Never spent a day in military service. Never spent a day in a military school. Was given “awards” from these various institutions based on his “civilian humanities contributions”, yet is (was? ) a Professor at Kings War College, wrote upteen books on “War Strategy” and Russian history, nuclear strategy ect.
He was a Kings College “shaper” of men. He passed all his “knowledge” to the likes of Tony Blair et el… one of the many shapers of todays fine military/world leader genius’s in the Western world.
Even his “book” reviews acknowledged his incoherence, basic “blabbering” without substance.
Hello Larry,
I predicted that Russia would go into full mobilisation during our discussion on the Progozhin Masquerade starting in August. Well, today it was announced that Russia ordered from China up to 500000 body armour vests from China. Guess y contacts in Russia were right on the mark.
Big order from Aliexpress eh!
I predict that Russia won’t go into full mobilization. Let’s meet here in a month, or a year.
Putin has invited this kind of continuous talk from western, “leaders,” with his slow walk of this war. The digital ruble is here now which tells me he has been warned not to upset the applecart of the WEF’s Great Reset or the UN Agenda 2030. “Fight your little war but keep marching toward our plan.” He is aligning with China but where was WEF’s summer meeting? China. He may be in a proxy war with NATO but not with ALL of the west. CBDC is part of the WEF’s Great Reset and UN Agenda 2030. People are dying and that is tragic but what is evil’s goal? Get the world’s population down to 500M. It’s all starting to look too choreographed for me.
“Freedman simply repeats Biden and Blinken’s preposterous claim that Russia is “losing” territory. It’s simply not true.”
And what does that tell us? A group of people from different countries repeating the same “mantra” that even a layman understands, without any adherence to reality? Because he also doesn’t have any military background to make the assessment he does. He doesn’t need to, because what this attempt to propagate an alternative reality tells us is not that everyone has gone crazy but that they are all trying to pass the same propaganda! The same misinformation campaign! If it’s an attempt to off-ramp as some have already written here, I don’t know. But as Larry notes at the end, the attempt to also convey the idea that NATO – totally divided by now – is not suffering yet another humiliating defeat in Ukraine as it was in Afghanistan, could point to an off ramp.
As it’s better to get out now, before they need to get out again hanging from the wheels of some plane. We’ll see. What is already possible to conclude is that the UK establishment is nothing more than a bag of shit today. And televisions like the BBC, which in the past was one of the best televisions in the world, both in terms of information and entertainment, is now also an MI6 channel. With MI6 operatives physically in a mezzanine of the main news studio!
P.S. Yesterday, at the press conference at the end of a women’s soccer match in the World Cup, the BBC reporter tried to ask the captain of the Moroccan team if there were lesbians in the team because Moroccan law does not recognize gays?! To have an idea of what stage of the world we live in. Like the totally crazy West feeling that the ground of the world is running away from under its feet and trying to boycott the astronomical growth of Institutions of a NOW that the West no longer controls like the BRICS or the SCO! In the same way that boycotted peace in Ukraine in March 2022! So there’s nothing new in this bullshit Sir’s statements!
The Ukrainian proxy war was Washington and London’s worst idea in the last 100 years. It was worse than messing with a “bees nest”. With an American President who, when he still had a brain, liked to brag about having ordered the bombing of Serbia. And all those who also predicted the bankruptcy of old Europe in this process may have been wrong. Because it won’t jump ship from Anglo-Saxon madness.
Well , how to resume the UK press these days … I have no words , so let the images speak for themselves : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVmhxx5VrAA
Describing this as a sad clown show is a clear understatement.
And while those “experts” are paid fortunes to spit shit at the public faces, the guys on the ground reporting facts under the shells like Patrick Lancaster, Anna Lippe or Christelle Neant are prosecuted in their own country , have they bank account seized and their families intimidated.
It’s infuriating !
During the 60s, there were pop-music about the Vietnam war, Barry Sadler’s : The Green Berets, a movie, John Wayne, and 1970, the
Woodstock festival, and Country
Joe and the Fish; Today I’m fixing
to die rag, : ” Come on all you young strong men, Uncle Sam needs your help again, he’s got himself in a terrible jam, way down in Vietnam…” the give me a F… give
me a U…. What’s that spell…?
But today no music, no movies from the Ukraine war, how come?
Why not a” Apocalypse now” today,
but maybe “in being”, both the movie and a US/Nato/EU defeat?
There are movies and songs, but most of them are not in English. The Western World entertainment industry is too busy with other things.
“… forming a de facto alliance with China …”
The essential thing that got lost in all the noise. All of the Bakhmuts and grain deals pale in significance compared to this. This is a tectonic shift that is going to cause earthquakes for decades to come.
“Corrupt practices?”
There must have beem many of those. Prigozhin himself became very rich, very fast, and got very big contracts with govenment. Basic logic says, there must have been corruption there. That also explains him being very pissed to fall off the gravy train. Of course, all of that can not be compared to the bloody circus on other side.
It is very strange to see how brainwashed the Brits are. Or it is already in their genes? The hatred for Putin and Russia among common as well as very educated brits is amazing. I try to find reasons. Is it because Russia saved the west from Germany and the Brits prefer to keep claiming that they and the USA were and still are the savior.. it is very puzzling.
Pretty obvious really.
Cold War made politics easy and defined political parties with population bonded to the ruling clique
Since 1990 the loyalty of the population has been harder to keep
@Virgile, Yes, “it is very puzzling”.
The fact that teeming Brits do not recognise 21st-century Russia for what it truly is (the last vestige of an un-debauched civilization) would indicate how far down the road of a Godless society Britain has travelled.
A reminder, Russia is a deeply Christian Nation. Consider therefore the one tribe more than any other who has been and still is determined to ERAISE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. The one tribe, that has its tentacles embedded in the UK’s decision-making.
Collectively, the tribe has sealed our fate, strife and derision are our future, and forsaking Christ will have terrible consequences.
Crimean War happened long before Putin, or WWII. Brits have considered Russians a threat to their Empire for a long time. Now they no longer have an Empire, but still act like they do. They still try to fight Russians in Crimea.
One lies; and the next one swears by it. . . .This, basic dynamic of Biden Mob and their Media Apostles. [And not just this gangster operations, of course. . . .]
Yesterday we witnessed luminous extraction of this . . .this sort of Morality Play — that involved Hunter Biden Sweetheart Plea Deal — that GOP wants judge to nix, owing to obvious reasons too numerous to mention.
What was/is this particular luminous extraction?
1] GOP filed amicus brief yesterday, laying out massive Biden corruption, arguing plea deal is corrupt from top to bottom; 2] one of Hunter’s lawyers then called the court clerk’s office — pretending to be from GOP lawyer’s team; 3] and said the amicus was a mistake to have filed & for this to be removed from court docket; 4] and the clerk then removed this from docket!
Hunter’s legal team initially 1] lied about these circumstances; then 2] tried to claim it was a misunderstanding/miscommunication, blah blah blah.
In response, presiding judge gave Hunter’s lawyer ’til 9 p.m. last night to . . . .”counsel for the Defendant shall SHOW CAUSE as to why sanctions should not be considered for misrepresentations to the Court. ORDERED by Judge Maryellen Noreika on 7/25/2023″
There is a distinction to be made by people “in denial” and those who lie on purpose, get caught, and continue to lie on purpose.
This is part of what is killing our country, since lying politicians in high places [and others] lie, and media apostles [and thus some members of the public] swear by it, too.
Being “in denial” does not just happen out of thin air. . . .as if by magic.
Sometimes I imagine that depths of this depravity run so deep and its magnitude so colossally ubiquitous that average American kind of just tunes out. Yet we “tune out” at our peril.
This is essence of telling the “Big Lie” as means to brainwash entire society. . . .
Right? Who in their right mind would countenance a Biden lawyer engaging in such subterfuge [perfidy & moral turpitude] involving a high profile federal court case. . . and once caught, immediately lying about it, then lying some more? Don’t say these things didn’t happen.
As Aristotle expressed: the truth is one, the falsehood, infinite. . . .
-30-
Western elites are good at auto-training and suggestion to the people.
The children of Russia have a joke:
A hedgehog is sitting, meditating. “- I won’t fart, I won’t fart, I won’t fart…””
– FR-R–RAP “- It’s not me, it’s not me, it’s not me…”
Let me re-write that for you Sir Lawrence:
“One way out of such a dilemma might be for the West to get their propagandists to concoct a story to explain why, despite the appearance of victory, Russia has in fact lost. The narrative could be turned into a heroic one about how, against all odds, Ukraine survived the efforts of Putin’s imperialism and gravely weakened Russia.”
Maybe Sir L is writing on of the first versions of the exit story that, even though it finally bashed down brave little Ukraine, it was really a Pyrrhic victory showing Russia’s weakness to the world.
Yay! Props all round! We win again! Well done Sir L! NATO Number One!
Very nice piece. Sir Lawrence David Freedman, KCMG, CBE, PC, FBA, did not obtain the title of ‘Sir’ or get all of those fancy abbreviations after his name by ‘bucking’ the system. Freedman received his Ph.D. from Oxford, which serves as a conduit into British royalty. As seen from his bio on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Freedman) after graduating from Oxford, Freedman held positions at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) and in 1982, was ‘appointed’ (meaning he did not have to go through a tenure process) Professor of War Studies at King’s College London. As Andrei Martyanov has repeatedly pointed out- ‘Western “journalism” and “political science” schools produce primarily imbeciles’ (See- http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2023/07/brian-doing-what-brian-does.html#disqus_thread).
PhD is not offered at Oxford: DPhil is
Not sure why going to Oxford gets you into royalty – I know of no member of Royal Family in U.K. that ever went to Oxford as opposed to say Japanese royalty.
I know I was not invited into royalty
Freedman simply found a paymaster
This gentleman is one of the exemplar reasons there is the english word nincompoop. Look up the derivation, non compos mentis.
If the good Sir did not pander to power brokers, he never would have received a knighthood.
Finishing off a Leopard 2A6 stuck in a trench and abandoned with the Lancet kamikaze drone.
https://t.me/intelslava/50197
This tank is far too cumbersome for this terrain.
Analog Abrams.
Then there’s the quick-sole training on top of that.
One being a shameless liar doesn’t necessarily mean that one is delusional. I don’t think that Freedman ignores reality.
Hey Larry,
You are doing an excellent job in alliance with Scott Ritter, Andrei Martyanovs and many others.
Information, education, analysis and even speculation are just as important today as they were yesterday.
This war is a self learning system for all sides.Using IT tells everyone what was right this morning is wrong tonight.
Who learns faster here, develops the better alternatives and has sufficient capacities.
The truly patriotic attitude will also play an essential role.
The manipulation loses on the scarf field.
I think the Russians, with their allies, have more “oxygen reserves” here than the West.
Everything needs its time and the corresponding subtle energy.
I think this war will be pushed in the right direction with the spirit and not with the primitive brutality.
It is necessary for the purification.
Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Does FBA stands for Faible Brain Ability?
US has been making a point of public notification of Trident nuclear sub deployments: sic
UK, South Korea.
Clipping coupons at Subway sandwich shop I guess. It’s not going to change the outcome of UKR. Belarus and Poland? Both have “handlers”…that should…if you believe in logic… keep them on a leash as far as ground war.
As far as the pundits snake eating the propaganda tail… it can only go on so long before reality shows up. The US offers unlimited printed money…while RU offers comparatively unlimited arms.
A ~dozen TU-95s were up… reports are trickling in, mostly on Telegraph of what got blown up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z7rLgAj3bA
I wish there were a way for me to place a large bet on Sir Lawrence being an MI6 asset. The problem with such a bet would lie in gathering evidence. Maybe someone inside MI6 will rat him out.
Odds on favourite: MOSSAD
Perhaps, but Israel has publicly been rather quiet on the subject of the Ukraine war. They don’t want to piss off Putin. My money would still be on MI6, considering that the UK is one of the prime instigators of the war.
My question here about the lack of
pop-music and movies about the war, in difference to the 1960s,
think that’s a resultat that the situation today is far more serious
and dangerous than as 1965, Barry McGuires: Eve of destruction, the war came closer to Europe, not in Asia, Africa, Middle East, anymore, 1970 Country Joe McDonald, could sing about: “and its one, two, three open up the pearly gates, next stop is Vietnam, and we don’t give a damn’…A paradox.
None will look at some Netflix Ukraine-movie, because the msm in the west, is already acting like, a SS
PK (propagandakompanie) for Ukraine, its not like Vietnam, they
are not ” embedded”, (Iraq) but fight their own proud war, against Russia, like frontreporters, in a new Barbarossa.
That’s a bad sign, we are far more
worse out now, and we know it. The marginal for provocations is
narrowed, a showdown can be expected, ordinary people are silenced, think they can’t stand
more sanctions, special “packa-ges” of arms, and money to Kiev.
Peoples anti-war movement disappeared, 2003, with Iraq, no
one cares, and that emptiness is
dangerous.
“The Eve of Destruction” was about nuclear Armageddon and is still highly relevant to our present world.
Larry, they are existing in an echo chamber of their own little world, where the reality of what is hapenning in the REAL world is totally absent. They simply repeat, parrot fashion, the narrative that has been put in front of them and then start believing in that narrative being factual. Some of them KNOW they are spewing absolute BS, but do it anyway, but most, like this “learned” twat, are remarkably ignorant! His surname also gives some clue as to why he feels compelled to push this bullshit.
Freedman, BoJo, Rutte, May, Fond-Of-Lying, Borrell, Stoltenberg, Scholtz, Micron, Meloni, Blinken, Nuland, Sullivan, Kirby, Trudeau, Freeland, etc. Where do these people come from? What do they all have in common? How are they raised and educated? How do they come to be what (liars) and, more importatnly, where (holding the reins of power) they are?
In 2018 Chris Hedges wrote an article about his personal experience as a 10-year-old with these “types” of human beings in one of his finest articles entitled
“The Rule of the Uber-Rich Means Tyranny or Revolution
Their greed will crush society and the ecosystem unless they are driven from power”
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-rule-of-the-uber-rich-means-tyranny-or-revolution/
Economist Richard Wolff graduated from Harvard University. During his undergraduate years, he lived in a dormitory with some of the young uber-rich. Today he tells his personal experience with them in an Q&A with Brian Becker entitled “Affirmative Action for Lazy, Bored Rich Kids” on “The Socialist Program”
https://soundcloud.com/thesocialistprogram
Here is a fairly accurate assessment by John Helmer showing how the US Neocons beginning with Hillary Clinton financed this proxy war against Russia and how Ukrainian oligarchs are stealing from US aid through Ukrainian banks.
De-oligarchization: Ukraine is a psychopathic regime built on greed demonstrating bankers (IMF) are responsible for wars
https://abeldanger.blogspot.com/2023/07/de-oligarchization-ukraine-is.html
A pedigree implies inbreeding, intellectual or otherwise. You nailed it there.
I am wondering what the ethnicity of Freedman is.
Why bother answering to his ridiculous claims. Obviously, the man is doing the job assigned to him. Logic and common sense is of no matter. He is an actor.
As always the most credentialed people are some of the biggest idiots.
It’s the result of people conditioned to academic climbing wishing to move into the realm of political climbing. They want to become power-adjacent. Working for and kissing governmental butts gives them a sense of superiority over mere academic scholars.
As always, the most credentialed people are some of the biggest idiots.
As always, the most credentialed people have no common sense and fail to grasp reality.