Nope, I did not know that. But thank God we have retired General Dave Petraeus to clue us in. He wrote the following 10 days ago:
- A successful encirclement of Russian forces fleeing Izyum would result in the destruction or capture of significant Russian forces and exacerbate Russian manpower and morale issues.
- The Russian MoD’s inability to admit Russian failures in Kharkiv Oblast and effectively set information conditions is collapsing the Russian information space. Kremlin-sponsored TV propagandists offered a wide range of confused explanations for Ukrainian successes ranging from justifications that Russian forces are fighting against the entire Western Bloc, to downplaying the importance of Russian ground lines of communication (GLOCS) in Kupyansk.
- The withdrawal announcement further alienated the Russian milblogger and Russian nationalist communities that support the Kremlin’s grandiose vision for capturing the entirety of Ukraine. Russian milbloggers condemned the Russian MoD for remaining quiet, choosing self-isolation, and distorting situational awareness in Russia.
Turns out that General Dave experienced premature military orgasm. It is true that the Russians retreated from Izyum, but they were not surrounded. Putin has never claimed the “grandiose vision for capturing the entirety of Ukraine.” He has been quite clear–as recently as the press conference this week at the SCO–Russia is going to secure the Donbas. What about growing dissent in Russia about the SMO? Putin, based on his recent news conference at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, could give two shits about the feelings of “the Russian milblogger and Russian nationalist communities.”
I am citing Petraeus not because I respect his alleged military “genius.” I do not not. General Dave had the reputation at West Point as the consummate sychophant. The other cadets said he would marry the Commandant’s homely daughter just to get ahead. Guess what? He did. I cite Petraeus because his views are emblematic of the Washington national security establishment who are totally committed to lying about the reality in Ukraine. No matter what the actual situation is on the ground, Ukraine is winning, Russia is losing and it is just a matter of time before Russia implodes. This theme has been trotted out and paraded around the internet almost every month since March by Ukraine’s western enablers.
The Hill just published another installment of this delusional analysis by Mark Toth and Jonathan Sweet. Let’s meet the boys:
Mark Toth is a retired economist, historian and entrepreneur who has worked in banking, insurance, publishing and global commerce. He is a former board member of the World Trade Center, St. Louis, and has lived in U.S. diplomatic and military communities around the world, including London, Tel Aviv, Augsburg and Nagoya.
https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2752375324738/hey-russia-it-s-putin-stupid?noAds=1&_f=app_share&s=i3
Jonathan Sweet, a retired Army colonel, served 30 years as a military intelligence officer. His background includes tours of duty with the 101st Airborne Division and the Intelligence and Security Command. He led the U.S. European Command Intelligence Engagement Division from 2012-14, working with NATO partners in the Black Sea and Baltics.
https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2752375324738/hey-russia-it-s-putin-stupid?noAds=1&_f=app_share&s=i3
I do not know if their article is the result of ignorance, willful blindness or if they were paid to push propaganda. Regardless of the motive, Toth and Sweet join the Petraeus club and push the objective lie that the tenacious Ukrainians are defeating the Russian army:
it is Ukrainian soldiers, equipped and trained by English-speaking countries, alongside their allies who have opened fresh cans of whoop-ass and are inflicting a beatdown of Putin’s military forces in the Donbas. . . .
There has been one constant since Putin’s illegal invasion began in February: Russia’s military forces have been forced to retreat and regroup, time and time again. . . .
Putin has been exposed as an “emperor with no clothes,” forced to rely upon haggling with Iranian and North Korean surrogates to purchase drones and, according to the New York Times, “millions of artillery shells and rockets.” Saturating social media with disinformation and excuses about why Russian ground forces are failing cannot mask the images of abandoned equipment and reports of Russian soldiers surrendering.
https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2752375324738/hey-russia-it-s-putin-stupid?noAds=1&_f=app_share&s=i3
Do you remember that incredible defeat of the Russian army in Mariupol when the Ukrainians surrounded the Russian troops and forced the surrender of 2500 combatants? Neither do I. That is what Russia did to the Ukrainian AZOV battalion.
How about the Russians fleeing in terror ahead of the Ukrainian blitzkrieg around Kherson? Nope. Another dry hole. The Russians pushed that attack back and inflicted catastrophic casualties on the Ukrainians.
What about the Luhansk People’s Republic? Ukraine held on to that and crushed the Russian backed militia. Right? Wrong!! Luhansk was secured and the same process is underway now in the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Why do western political, military and media leaders embrace demonstrable lies? I think it reflects a deeper sickness that afflicts the west. This self-delusion is not an isolated phenomena. Biden, his military commanders and the mainstream media also insist that men can be women and become pregnant, that inflation is zero, that Biden is popular, and that pedophiles are not bad people. Oh yeah, one more–the southern border of the United States is secure.
The time is coming when reality will intrude and destroy the fantasies. It happened to Baghdad Bob, who insisted there were no U.S. tanks in Baghdad in March 2003, and will happen to General Dave, Mark Toth and Jonathan Sweet. Seven months into the Russian “Special Military Operation,” Putin and his Generals have committed only a small fraction of their military forces to the conflict. They seem content to destroy Ukrainian units and equipment with artillery, missiles and mortars and force NATO to keep supplying Ukraine so that it can send its troops, armed with new equipment, to the front to be destroyed.
Yet NATO’s European members do not have the industrial capacity to replace the donated military equipment and are facing a bleak winter with scant energy resources needed to power manufacturing plants. The United States also is depleting its stockpile of weapons. Raheem Kassam has provided a very useful summary of what the United States has sent to Ukraine (read here). For example, the United States has provided Ukraine in six months more Javelins than it can produce in one year. So far the number stands at more than 8500, which is more than one-third of the U.S. total arsenal.
And how many Russian tanks have the Ukrainians destroyed with these Javelins? We do not know. The U.S. intelligence community does not know. U.S. intelligence is relying on Ukraine to report the good news and the Ukrainians simply say, “lots.” In theory, U.S. intelligence analysts have the ability to use satellite imagery to count disabled and destroyed tanks. But I am told that has not happened.
What we do have is a lot of social media video showing the Russians capturing hundreds, if not thousands, of javelin ATGMs. And we have videos of Russian tanks being hit with a javelin but continuing to operate. The javelin is not turning out to be the wonder weapon it was promised to be.
Let me reiterate one very important point–the so-called intelligence on Russian casualties in terms of personnel and equipment, is being provided solely by the Ukrainians. The United States has not taken any steps to independently verify the Ukrainian “intelligence.” That is a recipe for disappointment once the truth comes out that Ukraine is guilty of exaggerating.
We sent Javelins because the Army still prefers TOW, even though that wep is almost 50 years old. Modern reactive armor and APS systems will defeat ATGMs.
Thanks for continuing to point out the idiocy.
The Ukrainian’s appear to prefer TOW-like missiles too. A lot more success with the Konkurs, which is roughly equivalent from what I can tell.
I don’t believe Ukraine has the more recent Kornet which is same role, but the Russian side seems to really enjoy them.
Experience talking here 11H (Heavy Anti-Armor Weapons Infantry i.e. TOW Gunner) TOWS are designed to blow the ever living shytte out of DotSov Armor. The Jav is a dual purpose, Bunker and Tank Buster, with emphasis on Bunker.
The Jav in Iraq was -great- in digging dug in Haj out of Hard Points (see Fallujah 1/2) but other than that, on tanks? It’s best for ‘mobility kills’ as it lacks the ‘Oomph’ of the turret-popping-for-distance that a BGM-71B has… in Gulf One (the ‘OG Gulf’) in 90-91, I popped a T-55 that’d been abandoned… the Iraqis left it pristine…. Per orders of ‘The Bear’ (Stormin’ Norman) he said not to leave enemy operational equipment behind us…
I smoked it with a TOW older than I was (manufacture date 1968?) and the turret of that sucker went AT LEAST 75 if not more yards into the air…. most AWESOME to see and even cooler to be the 20 year old kid that I was back then doing it… LOVE the TOW and mostly these days it’s what we supplied to from what I can tell the Anti-Assad Assholes (i.e. Al Qaeda) as far as the vidyas I’ve seen…
Problem is that the TOW, when -not- used in a bushwhack, is not of so good in kinetic fire and maneuver, hence the issue in the Kraine… my 2 cents… Jes’ Sayin’
C’mon, nobody can capture the intensity of trench warfare like a retired economist…
Dude, That is seriously funny.
I had to haze Plebe Petraeus several times. Once for Public Display of Attention with his future wife while crossing the plain. I obviously did not haze him enough.
Can you confirm what I’ve been told about his reputation?
I can truthfully say that others at the Academy were somewhat suspicious of his pursuit of Holly K. The people who would know are not talking and are generally grouped as fellow sycophants so that’s a dry hole.
His troops adored him because he was famous for suddenly showing up out of nowhere and running with them during morning PT.
Sorry I can’t provide more but he went infantry and I went Armor, then Cavalry, then Air Cav. My favorite Contemporary General is/was Johnny Abizaid, very smooth but always straight forward.
A real American Caesar.
I was in the 3rd grade with his wife Holly Knowlton in Tunis. She wore coke bottle glasses in 3rd grade. In their house there were twin life size 6′ oil paintings hanging in the living room of her mother in a formal dress and her father in his west point uniform. It was something that was mocked by the other americans in Tunis.
Seriously funny!
Yes, on the revival of Trench Warfare and costly UkR infantry attacks –
[I am just finishing Churchill on WW1 [The World Crisis].
Trench warfare was an unexpected defensive expedient that became semi permanent for years, frontal attacks were in desperation to break through to either win France if German or relieve pressure on Russia if British, or to get the Hun off French soil/Belgian soil if French or Belgian. In no way were these bloodbaths anything but desperation and lack of other options at the time. The Europeans had abandoned frontal attacks in the 1870s as too costly.
The frontal attacks of WW1 on the Western Front were not preferred after the French learned the hard way in the Autumn Battles about the limits of Attaque à outrance* in 1914 opening battles. Trench warfare was going into the defense after the race to the sea ended at the sea, they went into defensive trenches. Later in desperation after failure on the Belgian Coast and then the Dardanelles , then , then these wretched attacks of WW1 began. But they would only begin after some superiority of artillery and troops were built up. What they didn’t do was throw infantry at trenches headlong, despite the popular myths.
We seem to see on the UkR side this in many cases is the preferred method.
I can’t tell if this is incompetent or psychopathic malice.
* [attack to excess, and even that attempted flank attacks].
That gave me a good laugh, Viking.
Thanks again for setting the record straight Larry.
Betraeus is a cheater. He is a joke. He is correct,
someone’s information space collapsed, but it is not Russia.
When I was young, the code was clear:
Don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal, don’t tolerate those who do.
Today, there is a new code:
If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying hard enough.
The smartest guys in the room are the ones who cheat and don’t get caught.
The west has a problem with lies. The west also has an addiction problem.
Drugs legal and illegal, alcohol, weed, porn, sex, pronouns, perversion,
phones, shopping, debt, fake news, fake narratives, food, gratuitous
violence, power and control, gambling, …….
Addicts lie to themselves and others.
No doubt, Betraeus believes his lies.
A short comment to say I enjoyed yours — cutting to the ‘meat’ of it — ‘Beyond Betrayus.’
You might also have an interest in georgewebb.substack.com (had it right on Dave several years back, as well) and housatonicITS.com (also on YT @ Housatonic Live).
THE KYIV [sic] INDEPENDENT – well they are “independent” of any facts.
Do you really think the intelligence agencies have not verified Ukrainian claims or simply that they don’t publish them?
They have not. Cannot discuss sources on this, but it comes from multiple sources and is reflected in what the Ukraine cheerleaders publish. I will need to write a piece on the tension that has always existed between intelligence analysts and operations personnel. The CIA previously separatee the analysts and the ops folks. Completely different cultures. Now, analysts are posted with ops people and ops take precedence.
Interesting to hear this analyst versus ops conflict Larry. Back in the day, we often had both raw intelligence and their assessments. We would decide what to believe and take appropriate action. Clearly, this all went far worse downhill after I left.
That would be a great article. Thanks Larry. I also assume if you don’t look you can’t find inconvenient truths.
Facts inconvenient to The Narrative will always be ignored.
And, of course, if you don’t look, they can’t be found.
Larry, I have read that CIA analysis was realistic until Bush the elder became head of the CIA. He reportedly would ensure that the analysis matched what Nixon wanted to hear. True?
Not really. As I’ve written, there were problems of politicization during Vietnam.
My guess is that sometimes-maybe many times—verification means finding out the horrible truth is at odds with the narrative, data is collected which is at risk of being leaked and those who know the truth put at risk the plausible deniability of those above them.
Much like why the FBI does not record their interviews;? What remains undocumented remains unproven and unthreatening to narrative or narrator.
Hello Larry. what is intriguing is listening to these people and seeing that they are convinced of what they say, what is certain is that they are divorced from reality.
Thank you, Larry. As always, very well written.
It’s fascinating how the American propaganda mill has never been worked so hard, but has also never sounded so hollow.
Consent is getting more and more difficult for western nations to manufacture. True enough, many of the sheep will buy into the nonsense that’s being spewed forth by their leaders, and hacks like Petraeus. But against that, many western citizens – far more than is assumed and in the mainstream, too – know that they are being lied to.
I would argue that what makes this situation different from the past, is that far from manufacturing consent, western lies are in fact manufacturing opposition within the mainstream of their own societies. That’s new.
To explain. In the past, even if you knew DC was lying, you might give them a leave pass thinking ‘its a tough world. This is what they have to do to protect the noble interests of western democracies. At the end of the day, I’m on their side.’ For example, WMD/Iraq.
Now? The reaction among more and more people seems to be
be ‘those SOBs are lying to me again. I don’t support them. In fact, each time they lie to me, my opposition to them increases.’ And in many cases, ‘I am not on their side, and hope Putin wins.’
Western leaders, in particular the most powerful of the lot (the USA) are facing a major crisis of legitimacy. To me, that is a massive problem for them. They do not have the ability to wage sustained war against peer nations. They preside over economies in decline. Their most potent weapon is hot air aka BS propaganda, and it’s not working.
Another thing. The Kremlin seems way smarter than DC. Putin and his team seem to have prepared for every possible contingency. Ditto, Xi.
The Russians seem immune to western propaganda. It’s not that they just don’t respond to it, it’s more that it is irrelevant to them. They don’t even listen to it anymore.
To me, this indicates that unlike western capitals, the Kremlin has an extremely well thought out strategy and playbook. They know exactly what the objectives are and how to achieve them. They have already games out all scenarios that the west can throw at them. As a result, they couldn’t care less what the so-called mighty west says, does or thinks.
Again, please forgive this long post.
No need to apologize. I welcome thoughtful analysis like yours.
Since 2014 whenever I am involuntarily confronted with Western MSM I immediately turn away. I just do not want to be insulted by dirty lies into my face. I do not want to watch/read from people who want to deceive me.
This has the side effect that I’m not informed about the interior politics in my European country and I can tell you all that this fact contributes a lot to my well being. You do not need to learn about it because you know everything beforehand once you have understood the goals and workings of Western Democracy.
Larry is there another way to support this blog besides Paypal?
Thomas I agree- living in Macron’s France and Ursula’s “EU” is frightening. No access to “Russian propaganda” websites, all media same adoring Ukie stories of success in killing Russkies, Blackrock getting a deal for our retirement plans!
Also, I want to avoid the paypal profiteering and donate via debit card . How can I do it??
Thanks Larry for your wonderful work.
Agree as well. I live in Greece. I have not idea how we will get through the winter. And we have the Turkish threat as well. Recently there was an article here in an economic website with the title “My God, what kind of people are governing us?”.
Spot on brother.
I could’t agree more.
Doing the same. No TV, no newspaper whatsoever from the stupified (manipulated) western media.
Living in the EU su… realy hard these days.
I am greatful to have access to this site and others (saker, MoA).
Keep on the excellent work Larry and fellow readers/posters.
Time will tell us we were right to doubt our so called leaders.
Kind regards.
Nick
Agreed. Your friend Scipio has some wise words as do many of your respondents which, when they include links, take us to many fascinating discussion points. That includes some scepticism on the efficacy of the Rand Report but let us move on from the rights or wrongs of the report and concentrate on who may have produced it, why now, and to what end? All good CIA double-speak mixed with a little chess.
One camp may have wished to infuriate the Germans, government or people or both, and thus stiffen their elbow so that they take on the mantle of European defence and the USA can back off and focus to the East.
The other camp may similarly have wished to infuriate the Germans in order to dislocate her from both the EU and NATO in the sure knowledge that her need for energy would transcend everything. Maybe that was Angela’s strategy all along?
Keep up the good work.
I’ve gotten to stage if their lips are moving it’s a lie. Granted as a gen-xer who was still taught to “question everything” before they ruined the humanities with group think – It’s natural. But after Iraq, Afghanistan and this one’s “unprovoked invasion” the bald faced lies they are telling makes me think they’d lie over everything.
They DO lie over everything, even when the photograph accompanying the article is at odds with the story.
For example – the mass grave atrocity from a few days ago. The photo showed a graveyard with respectful burials made with wooden crosses and even some flowers.
During the War to Destroy Yugoslavia – they’d interview some tearful village woman and the subtitles/translation was at odds with what she was saying.
And Yes – once one’s eyes are opened there is no turning back
excellent post as usual scipio , if i may share an opinion , both china and russian govt body are ‘trained’ for decades to handle US provocations that may be the reason they are still strong unlike the US govt body who for far too long never been challenged openly and thus weakened..
the foolish action by US and their vassals to cut off russian and antagonize china showed amateurish planning by ppl who think they will win no matter what.
I don’t know how they could possibly think that considering we won exactly one war since WWII and even then we had lots of help.
your analysis is close to mine, all this is not said openly but is thought “in secret”, everyone observes themselves before revealing their own thoughts this attitude is partly due to the dictatorship of political correctness which is not nothing but a rigid framework where “thought crimes” cannot be expressed.
Of interest:
The Pentagon has ordered a sweeping audit of how it conducts clandestine information warfare after major social media companies identified and took offline fake accounts suspected of being run by the U.S. military in violation of the platforms’ rules.
https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2022-09-19/pentagon-clandestine-psychological-operations-7388658.html
Larry’s, your and other posts here show how the lies we’re being fed are recognized as such in many places. One can hope US/NATO’s current self-destructive and murderous aggression is a last gasp of an outmoded alliance wearing out its capability (though that might be a big ask). I find Larry’s blog a big help, not only for clear analysis and reliance on teasing out truth from facts. It’s also good to see here US military and intelligence people coming out with facts and analyses one has to find believable.
Perhaps the US is getting rid of the Javelins before the American people find out the weapons are pieces of crap that the military industrial complex sold the country.
Always a possibility. Sell the Indians smallpox infested blankets.
Today’s infested blankets come from biolabs.
Yeah!! I do not know how we will trust the medical companies again.
They don’t care about people finding out. They do care about contracts for making more Javelins. War is business.
Didnt RINO Rove say “we create our own reality” back early 2K Democrats have always done so in my lifetime. It what it is. I’m 100% sure propaganda still is very effective despite all times media and .gov has been totally discredited since at least Vietnam so they keep going back the well. Maybe they can convince Russians, who still have free internet unlike China, not to enlist for a “lost cause.” They are certainly convincing Americans to support this war which has zero strategic interest to USA.
The conflict in the Ukraine is indeed not of strategic interest to the United States, but it is very important to the country that is, at present, fully in control of US foreign policy. For that country, the conflict is meant to address (what I regard as illegitimate) historical grievances, and to prepare the territory (in the case of an improbable Western victory) for a wholesale relocation of said country’s ethnic and religious supremacist population. Being geographically adjacent to a dismembered and pliable Russia will allow for the efficient and total exploitation of Russian natural resources, in a very similar remake of the oligarch-controlled and chaotic 1990s. The Russian people, and to an extent other European populations, will end up as nothing more than chattel slaves.
Oh I strongly disagree with your first sentence. The conflict in the Ukraine is, I would say, the key strategic interest to the neocons who run the U.S. It was supposed to be the gateway to regime change in Russia and selling off all those delicious natural resources to the West. Cheap natural gas, oil, wheat, and titanium for the West.
One thing that I don’t think gets enough mention these days is that it was clear (to me anyway) that the primary NATO/US strategy in the early days was to attack the Russian currency. The idea was to drive it down to 200 Rubles per dollar (Biden said that explicitly in his Poland speech) creating social unrest in Russia. The West was so sure that was going to work, and being the West had no Plan B ready to go. The Ruble went to 140, but Russian was ready for the attack and stabilized the Ruble.
Today it’s strengthened to 61 rubles for one dollar.
Capturing European wealth, workers, and technology is in America’s interest. How many times has the Fed bailed those turds out while our media stayed silent about it ? Handing a united Europe over to France or Germany would also be incredibly stupid. Let them put in the work on their own to unite a bunch of people who think they have a right to free everything, we’ve seen how pathetic they are militarily and diplomatically. France can’t even keep it together in Africa, after massive amounts of ass kissing. The propaganda that they put out against our own military should be enough reason to destroy those parasites and their broken ideology of free shit.
Yeah sounds like the West has this all sorted and in the bag.
I can not believe I was so worried about the future of Europe, should have listened to the BBC and CNN etc.
The Dollar is safe, Green power is the answer and Putin is just..just…just about to fold.
He will hold a referendum on turning the Kremlin into a comedy club every second Saturday night.
He should book Mr Ben Hodges, former commander of US forces in Europe at the first opportunity. Had them rolling in DW just now!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bphrAXTWWJk
Wow…
What would Ukraine “winning” look like? According to the NATO website, no less than Ukraine completely capturing Donbas and Crimea (including the Russian naval base in Sevastopol est in 1783).
Other than the incredible improbability based on the observable evidence, no Russian leader would ever let that happen without using every – literally every – means at their disposal to prevent that. Our supposed expert class refuses to consider the possibility of escalation getting out of control – the thing every western expert was most concerned about until 1991. How can former military brass be so blinkered?
Larry what do you think of the Institute for the Study of War?
They provide these maps:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60506682
Lance,
The people doing their analysis have very little actual military or intelligence experience. The maps are coming from Ukrainian sources. They are just part of the spin machine in my view.
The people running the ISW are related to Victoria Nuland by marriage… it’s a Kagan family production.
Hi Lance,
Regarding the ISW, quoting below from:
https://europerenaissance.com/2022/07/12/how-the-kagan-nuland-family-influences-coverage-of-the-war-in-ukraine/
“The Institute for the Study of War was founded in 2007 in Washington by military historian Kimberly Kagan. Frederick Kagan is the brother of journalist and political strategist Robert Kagan. Robert, in turn, is married to US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland.”
Then do a search for Nuland + Maidan, and take it from there. Rabbit hole has no end. These fellows are quite something: whatever they touch withers and dies; a trail of death and destruction follows them.
Truly charming people!
Institute for the Study of War is a known shill for the Deep State.
Everything they publish should be taken as an outright lie, or the truth slanted to support a lie, or the truth accidentally leaked in the publication of a lie.
Don’t take it with a spoonful of salt. Instead, wear full protective equipment while reading anything from that site. You can sift the grains of truth out, but never trust anything published from that site.
Example, when Vickly Nuland accidentally revealed in Senate testimony that we had biolabs in Ukraine. The truth was revealed, and the coverup and twisting of what she’d just said was underway before the words had bounced off the back wall of the room she was sitting within.
You’re on fire, Larry. Really excellent stuff.
I love this, “Why do western political, military and media leaders embrace demonstrable lies? I think it reflects a deeper sickness that afflicts the west. This self-delusion is not an isolated phenomena. Biden, his military commanders and the mainstream media also insist that men can be women and become pregnant, that inflation is zero, that Biden is popular, and that pedophiles are not bad people. Oh yeah, one more–the southern border of the United States is secure.”
Exactly. Why would people who tell us that a man in a dress really is a woman and can even get pregnant be trusted to tell us the truth about….well, anything; let alone a far away war where they can actually even skim money?
I think “men can get pregnant “– is from catering to the trans community — a “man” is a lesbian that cut her boobs off and takes hormones for a beard — this “man” can stop the hormones to get pregnant. Maybe you knew this — it has all become a mind bending stupidity. Getting 5 year olds to swap pronouns is an attempt by feminists to degender little boys. The EU is withholding 7 billion euros from Hungary because they passed a law making it illegal to promote by discussing it in schools or media gay or trans agendas to people younger than 18. Russia has a similar law.
No. Honestly, Brad, that didn’t cross my mind. But wouldn’t that be a boob-less woman in overalls and lumberjack shirt can still get pregnant as opposed to a man in dress? Too much counting angels on the head of a pin.
As Biden said in his campaign, “follow the science” and find your inner boobs.
Any middle aged man with moobs and a beer belly knows what he is…
As CIA reseat, based on those two Jewish psychologists whose names I forget shows, if you can get a child under 10 and distort their basic reality
– boy can be a girl
The brain never recovers. The child is easily confused and controlled as reality becomes subjective.
The west is now not brain washing kids it is psychologically programming them.
This means they will never function normally.
Break it down.
The West is conducting a psychological operation and mutilation on children under 10.
These kids are not going to grow up to be normal. Wait and see.
Mass Mind control = Demoralize –>Disorientate –> Crisis –> Normalization [of “new reality”]
That is what they are trying to do to us.
It’s fascinating that these serial failures who have been wrong on all foreign policy and war fighting for 20 years are given any air time.
In any healthy society, serial failures such as Petraus would be quietly tending their garden in the countryside shunned by polite society and a leper inside the beltway.
You may like to dig into this: FANTASYLAND How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History
By Kurt Andersen
462 pp. Random House. $30.
“in Kurt Andersen’s latest opus, a people who have committed themselves over the last half century to florid, collective delusion.
a nation that has, over the centuries, nurtured a “promiscuous devotion to the untrue.”
“New York Times bestselling author Kurt Andersen…”
Hmm…
Further to my previous comment, I don’t think America would have become the world’s most powerful country on the basis of a “promiscuous devotion to the untrue”. As for the last 30 years, that’s another story.
The time like “After 1945” will come, and there some people will have to explain something. And it will be – as it was then – just as “inexplicable” …
“Will not lie, cheat, or steal” applied to the Service Academies. Citadel and VMI included the toleration clause. I always felt we were better for it.
Pompeo on his role as head of CIA, ” we lied, we cheated, we stole…”
Is the CIA un-American? Or is it just the grunt America likes to pretend it doesn’t see.
As I have written in my Winter Forecast for the Ukraine, https://julianmacfarlane.substack.com/p/ukraine-winter-forecast ,it will be a tough winter for the UAF. Nature is on the side of the Russians once the leafs fall and UAF groupings and equipment are exposed to drone strikes. Russian drone capability has significantly improved with laser designation and the excellent Krasnopol laser guided munition system, which is in many respects much better than Excalibur. UAF/ Natozi terror attacks are acts of desperation. The Ukraine is getting to looking more and more like the battle of Okinawa. Putin thinks long term. The US thinks next week.
Krasnopol is also likely much cheaper than Excaliber. And it’s been around a long time, proven in multiple conflicts.
Krasnopol was vital to Indian success in the Kargil War in 1998, enabling them to destroy Pak Army bunkers one by one. Paks had no answer to it, the closest US equivalent was the insanely expensive (reporterdly $70,000+) Copperhead but they never got it.
It has surely been substantially improved since.
There is nothing new in this lying. It goes back not just years, but many many decades. The difference in our time is the internet. That’s it.
The most idealistic generation in American(US) history, until targeted for moral destruction by the CIA and related organizations, was the one following World War II.
Some knew about the Gulf of Tonkin lies, but had no means to effectively bypass the Media Mafiya stranglehold. I have no doubt that an internet back then would have given us a realistic chance to break it, which would have led to hanging the JFK killers.
Now it may simply be up to Nature.
The baker from a very bourgeois district of PARIS, next to the Russian Embassy -!- has decided to close his shop every Saturday afternoon to save €30,000 a year. His oven, which runs on electricity, is costing him more and more. So in the land of the famous “baguette” we begin to feel that MACRON has screwed up.
The prose is great – “premature military orgasm” had me chuckling softly (Didnt want to explain to the wife)
I think our leaders hold the American people in contempt and just can’t be bothered to produce decent propaganda (but very expensive propaganda). It become worse than a grade B 1950s giant ant attacks the US movie.
I suspect they are counting on (and have succumbed to) mass formation – the leader declares the sun rises in the west and all cheer louder than their neighbors.
It is odd that at a time when humans are more literate and educated than ever, the political and intelligence class, most of whom are nothing exceptional themselves, consider the ordinary person to be stupid, lesser and incapable of decision making.
The believe this out of ego and because they get classified information which makes them feel special and clever.
Yet time and again history has shown that ordinary people given full information are most likely to make the correct decision.
As opposed to those in so called elite bubble echo chambers.
I was in the same 3rd grade class with Petraeus’s wife the commander’s daughter. She was ugly then with coke bottle 50s tear shaped glasses. Her name was/is Hollie Knowlton her father was the military attache to the American Embassy in Tunisia. My Dad was an agricultural advisor working for USAID and they would have nothing to do with peasants like us. In their house they they had twin larger than life full length oil portraits at least 7 feet tall of her mother in a formal dress and her father in his west point military uniform. It was a topic of ridicule of the americans there.
Fast forward Petraeus would be in prison if it were not for Eric Holder who cut him a deal. He had given his honey pot his “black book” with names and times of meetings and other classified items. They were caught by leaving love letters in the draft folder of a 3rd account. Yes Petraeus is a quality item and now works for one of those ubiquitous “Institutes” the “KKR Institute”. I wonder if the FBI searched his lovers closet and Petraeus’s house in a raid?
do you know why elements inside CIA entrap patreus in that rather obvious honey pot scheme ? i am surprises offcer of that level dont know about honey pot traps especially as patreus entered CIA
Thinking with his small head, that’s all. Can happen to the best of us.
Patreaus got in to an un- Hollie mess.
Now he’s going from honey pot to frying pan, trying to ingratiate himself and get on CNN with his analysis of his view of Ukraine conflict from the perspective of Bidens ass. He is just the ass messanger. The ass can’t talk itself as no teleprompter.
Perhaps a bit off-topic – but I think it is still good to share, as it is relevant to the narrative of the “collapsing Russian forces”. I think few people actually realize what is the reality on the ground. I’m following a fellow Bulgarian countryman (a nutcase from my old neighborhood in Sofia https://www.facebook.com/ivan.kalchev.ZD ) on social media who fights on the Ukrainian side. Reality seems harsh – here is some machine-translated text from him, sharing his experience on the ground:
“About the victims – one Dutchman and one German died when legionnaires came under artillery fire for the first time. Then – the Australian. The last to die was a Frenchman. They fired at our post and informed us of three wounded. Two medics got into the ambulance, the driver, and me. On the way, we also came under fire. We evacuated two to the field hospital, and on our way back for the third, we were told over the radio that there was no need to rush.”
“Sometime right around my arrival some American uploaded a geo-located photo on Instagram, so our training center was hit with several missiles. Whatever you read in the media – it is not true, there were no victims among the legionnaires. There was one building that was hit – which was not in use, only the columns and slabs remained, and a 15-meter crater through a building from our bedroom.
From there, they moved us to another large base, where someone uploaded a selfie with the sign at the entrance to Facebook. Another rocket attack followed, and this time they hit a warehouse instead of us. But the command introduced an absolute ban on posting anything on social networks. And I creatively circumvented the ban by sending the articles to Offnews (*a Bulgarian news website).
Then several times they fired in general in our direction but just assuming on where we were. It was clear why there is headquarters in the building. If you want, you can get the coordinates from Google Earth. We loaded up with some Brits in a car – and went to the base. On the road in one section there is mobile coverage, I opened my Facebook page, and what did I see – in Offnews they shared the report that the admin of my page also hacked it. I was completely numb.”
The building did get hit, but a few days after we left.”
So this is what is happening with some of the foreign mercenaries/volunteers (not sure what is the correct term – they get paid after all?) I wonder how many idiots posted on their social media before getting obliterated. One thing you have to deal with when you are dealing with millennials, I guess. This guy got lucky, for now.
In the world arms market, how are Russian arms trading now, against US and EU arms? I suppose it can be a good indicator of how Russia is doing in its SMO.
I don’t know if I said something stupid.
World arms market is not a “free market” but a political one. Most countries don’t get to pick & choose what they buy. Shift to multipolar world and deindustrialisation of EU will probably result in
increase of non-western weapon sales.
Hmmm… I’m not sure I agree with the last part of your statement “The United States has not taken any steps to independently verify the Ukrainian “intelligence.” That is a recipe for disappointment once the truth comes out that Ukraine is guilty of exaggerating.”
The entire coverage around Ukraine has been exaggerated and intentionally so. It’s important to push the premise that the Ukrainian army is winning and that they’re the victims and heroes in order to gain support from the public who are funding them. This media “strategy” is also important in order to enlist mercenaries, after all, they won’t sign up for a suicide mission.
The problems that have arisen from this “strategy” are:
1) The strategic input the Ukrainian MOD is receiving from the “Intelligence” in the West is based on fantasy, i.e Kiev’s mass propaganda machine.
2) Zelensky, the wolf in sheeps clothing, has been given carte blanche to do absolutely ANYTHING he wants with no accountability because it’s always Russia’s fault — making him the most dangerous man in the world right now! Shelling the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station point in case. International mass cultural genocide of the Russian people.
Why does Petraeus say what he does?
Definitely worth noting who is paying him a princely income.
From his current web page at KKR:
https://www.kkr.com/our-firm/leadership/david-h-petraeus
Which he established?
Who put up the money?
An employment pattern like that of his fellow retired four-star general, Jack Keane
{chairman of the Kagan-controlled, and also Ukrain-war supporting, ISW).
https://www.understandingwar.org/who-we-are
I think it important to be aware of who is paying these war advocates.
Hmmm… I’m not sure I agree with the last part of your statement “The United States has not taken any steps to independently verify the Ukrainian “intelligence.” That is a recipe for disappointment once the truth comes out that Ukraine is guilty of exaggerating.”
The entire coverage around Ukraine has been exaggerated and intentionally so. It’s important to push the premise that the Ukrainian army is winning and that they’re the victims and heroes in order to gain support from the public who are funding them. This media “strategy” is also important in order to enlist mercenaries, after all, they won’t sign up for a suicide mission.
The problems that have arisen from this “strategy” are:
1) The strategic input the Ukrainian MOD is receiving from the “Intelligence” in the West is based on fantasy, i.e Kiev’s mass propaganda machine.
2) Zelensky, the wolf in sheeps clothing, has been given carte blanche to do absolutely ANYTHING he wants with no accountability for it because it’s always Russia’s fault — making him the most dangerous man in the world right now (and the biggest con-artist)! Shelling the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station point in case. International mass cultural genocide of the Russian people.
“It is true that the Russians retreated from Izyum…”. But, as a poster previously said here, there is no such word as “retreat” in the relevant military technical manuals. The word you are searching for, I think, is “withdrawal”. It may sound pedantic to remind you of this but it is actually important. The two terms have very different meanings.
Many thanks for what you do, Larry. The likes of yourself, Andrei, the Duran lads and Brian Berletic keep many of us informed and sane in a world gone mad.
A question? As I understand they are now heavily actively involved, have you any thoughts or intel on the state of play/mind of Academi (Blackwater) in the Ukraine?
Only, given the horrendous losses being revealed on the Kharkov and Kherson offenses, I cannot imagine they are fairing a whole lot better against Russia’s stand-off artillery and missile warfare than did the inexperienced Call of Duty keyboard warriors who front-ended this affair.
Perhaps they are learning a bit of humility against an authentic foe?
Looking at the daily summary channels, it appears that things turned in Ukraine a few weeks ago. In Kherson, where the Russians have serious re-supply problems, the bridgehead beyond the pontoon bridges has grown, not shrunk. And this is after Russia destroyed some dams to destroy the pontoon bridges and make the river harder to cross. And that is not the only place in Kherson where the advances are Ukrainian.
In the north Ukraine is also advancing in several areas.
Wagner in Donetsk is the only Russian force continuing to advance, and now they have slowed.
In addition to getting more weapons, Ukraine appears to have gotten significantly more trained troops. And NATO may have taken over command and control.
At this point an argument that Russia is winning is best focused on what is happening now, not what happened months ago.
Is this an analysis or a pep talk ?
Why not look at the development of the situation on the ground instead…
It doesn’t look like the Russians have been able to consolidate their line at the Oskil river, Liman is in danger of encirclement etc.
But let’s burry our heads into the ground and talk about Petraeus’s homely wife.
No problem then, seeing as you’ve put us right concerning developments on the ground. Next stop Moscow for the UAF?
Ukraine is advancing in the north and south and amassing troups in the Zaporozhye area. Russia’s Wagner group is making progress in the Bakmut area. Unlike in previous months, it is Russia that is mostly on the defensive at the moment.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Are you a paid troll or just ignorant?
Yes indeed. Equipped with no aircraft, few tanks, just a coupla big guns, but a righteous sense of whoop ass, the UAF war machine foot soldier is beating the Russians and their Allies at a mere canter. They’re hardly breaking a sweat! The demoralized Russians, now realizing they’re fighting superheroes and facing a dead end for their criminal invasion, are desperately thinking of ways to retreat from Ukraine without losing face. At home in the Motherland of Russia, food line-ups stretch around the block, and citizens shiver in fear at what will happen when Ze the Barbarian arrives in a symbolic battered Toyota pickup to exact revenge on them for supporting Putin in elections.
Now don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of hard work still left to clear out the Russian commie scum wielding WW2 era weapons recovered from tumbledown sheds and hastily rushed to the front, where they are decimated by UAF forces with Javelins and HIMARS. But give it a month or so, when the world outside Russia is pumping more oil and gas than anyone can consume, and after 200,000 wasted and hungry Russian-led troops are encircled, the writing will truly be on the wall, and a glorious victory in immediate sight for Ukraine.
“Why not look at the situation on the ground instead?” you had asked. I just did, wizz kid. And I share your sense of complete confidence that Eurasian slav savages could not last against the precision tactics coming from the superior strategy of the MickyD fed Ukies. I mean, who in hell did Putin think he was kidding anyway? The US supports Ze, and that in itself is all one really needs to know. In fact, were I you, I’d volunteer for the UAF and enjoy the sight-seeing trip as the Russkies crumble before your very eyes. You won’t get another chance to sense such elation for months, when Taiwan repels the paper tiger hordes of China when they man a million rowboats to invade in a futile attempt to return Taipei to the commie mainland. So get on it! For the great RF turkey shoot. </sarc
Take a look at one of the channels that gives daily updates on the war. You will see that right now things are quite different than a few months ago.
Russian military operations now need to be viewed in the context of the upcoming referendum that will bring these territories officially into the Russian orbit.
Yes, agree. That said, IMO, the Russians are going to have to bring some serious game to the region very soon. No more cat (=RU) and mouse (=UKR), effective as that has been to date. If the territories are to feel confident voting pro-Russia, they must be convinced that Russia is going to decisively prevail, do it now and stick around for the long haul. No more shifting troops to various flashpoints on the front.
The territories vote to go w/ Russia and Russia, in turn/as promised, immediately brings in, from Russia, a reinforced regiment, minimum, per territory + weapons, gear, training for adult males in the territory. First Ukie attack on the territory must be met w/ extreme violence, to include destruction in Kiev.
I don’t think Russia could get the votes otherwise, or, if they did, couldn’t maintain the partnership.
Heard something about Russian forces, including armor and air, massing near the border. Maybe those are the defense I think must be provided.
I think I get it now… you aren’t Petraeus’ homely wife are you?
Eric, are you married ? Considering your toxic personality perhaps you are not.
Anyways, it is poor taste to make fun of another man’s wife.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say.
Wizz,
That was me, not Eric. He just picked up on my reference to her as ugly. The fact that she was not a looker is relevant. If she was hot you could understand Petraeus’ motive to dog her down. But she was not. He was more interested in building the right resume to worm his way up the food chain.
Exactly, Larry. I was going to say pretty much word for word what you just did, but I didn’t want to appear to shift blame for my mocking the homely wife to you b/c I don’t do that kind of thing.
But yes, your point stands – anyone who has been in the military – or any semi-cloistered, semi-incestuous organization or social clique – knows the type. There are a host of personality characteristics that go with the behavior and Petreaus exhibits all of them, as far as I can see, and the characteristics are not praiseworthy.
Ah, I think you missed the point. Dave Patreus is opining about Ukraine on the basis of his past “accomplishments”; they are what entitle him to use the megaphone that we call media. If that’s the case, then it’s entirely legitimate to hold up the story of his “accomplishments” for public scrutiny. If he swallowed hard and then married his way into high rank and medals, we need to know that to assess the worth of what the general is saying. And if he was later in life willing to be dishonest with that same ‘helpful’ little wife, we should know that when judging how honest he’s being with us. After all, we all understand that it’s perhaps unwise to hire a pyromaniac to run your local fire department.
Jack
I don’t think I missed the point. I would view his opinions with heavy skepticism, but not because he may or may not have married for love.
The US is practically an active participant in this conflict. As such I would not consider Patreus an impartial commentator.
Generally speaking it is difficult to find truly impartial bloggers regarding this matter.
the situation on the ground?the russkies drew the ukes into a box canyon,the russkies have blasted the ukes by the thousands,the russkies have not put at risk thousands of troops,the russkies will have winter clothing,the russkies are the best winter warriors on the planet.i truly feel pity for the ukes for what is coming-winter!
I have just checked situation on the ground, and it says:
– The referendum in the LPR will be held from September 23 to 27, said Dmitry Khoroshilov, First Deputy Chairman of the People’s Council of the LPR.
– The referendum on the entry of the DPR into the Russian Federation will be held from September 23 to 27, Pushilin said.
Even Petraeus’s homely wife knows that AFU don’t have much time left for crossing Oskil river or encircling Krasni Liman.
lucky you if you can map out a clear combat situation in the front line. From what i see on my different telegram channels is that we have reached a stand out with more offensives on the Wagner and militians side. what remains cristal clear is the insane attrition rate the ukros are suffering. The massive concentration of helicopters and fighter jets on the russian border is something to follow…
Speaking of reality intruding…look at the inflation in the prices of energy and food in Germany, all brought about because Olaf the halfwit and Baerbock the pole swallower would rather sacrifice the sovereignty of their country than the multi-million dollar bribes they receive from the United States.
https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Economy/Prices/Consumer-Price-Index/consumer-prices-message.html
Well, no doubt the truth is the first victim in war… still, we should also take with a grain of salt every statements from Russian side. Even though I think the collective West is to be blamed for provoking Russia, I do not think the situation is so advantageous for Russian army in Ukraine.
I do not know strategy of Russian generals – honestly neither of us do – but I cannot think of any war in history which was waged without an intent to conquer an opponent as fast as possible and at the lowest costs. Russia is waging the war in a very funny way… not attacking infrastructure, not blowing AFU hubs with military equipment, simply waiting… for what?
Honestly, we live in the age of electronic warfare where thanks to spy satellites you can spot an object of an orange magnitude… hard to believe Russia had no clue on AFU counteroffensive in 2 directions in Donbass. Simply unthinkable…
Putin and Russia are paying the price for this strange war – Russia and its army is losing its reputation and its position at the economic war with West can prove to be on clay feet.
Had they be more decisive and consequential, the situation in Ukraine and its support from West would have been different, for sure… now the West will cry that Ukraine can win the war and needs indefinite support from it… honestly, they may be right because even Putin and Russia cannot afford to wage the war this way… the results of the latest Shangai conference are interpreted in 2 way – each party (i.e. Russia and the West) declares its interpretation is correct. But if Russia looses a tacit support from India and/or China, they are done… And since the situation in Ukraine is not going well (and definitely not as planned), a pragmatic India can easily change its mind… and then Russia will have a serious problem. I am very keen to find out what the approach of India and China on December, 5 2022 shall be… this may be a game changer, IMO
There is no quick war with lines of defense dug in and heavily mined areas.
Also if Russia knocks out Ukrainian power they can also do the same to Donbass or try. Possibly even Russian border towns.
Additionally Russia wants to free Donbass but Donbass is not unconnected to the wider Ukrainian grid.
So this is not as simple as a destructive war flattening everything. It’s a combined offensive, administration and construction exercise.
The Russians likely could and should have reinforced earlier. But they were making steady progress, they seem to be escalating now which is both wise and concerning.
“now the West will cry that Ukraine can win the war and needs indefinite support from it”
Do you view that as a disadvantage ?
@Petr Polak “I cannot think of any war in history which was waged without an intent to conquer an opponent as fast as possible and at the lowest costs. Russia is waging the war in a very funny way”
Perhaps Russia is not fighting the war that you think they are. They are fighting NATO+combined West in an all-encompassing hybrid war. Involves soldiers, trade, diplomacy, media. The Ukraine front is only a small part of this overall war. If you look at the big picture it looks like Russia is handling this masterfully. The end result will be Europe being destroyed and the USA being cut down to size, and Russias border secured.
Larry,
with regard to the self-delusive bubble inside which General Dave (and the retired economist + whoever more is cooperating with them) operate: Are they still aware of the fact that they are fooling themselves or are they themselves being fooled by their ‘sources’, who also happen to be fooled by other gatherers of ‘information’, and so on? This ‘merry-go-round’ of fools who let themselves be fooled by other fools (who are being paid to fool other fools etc.) seems to me to be spinning around faster and faster ever since the SMO has started in Ukraine.
But somewhere inside the Pentagon there must be someone who is the originator of this spin. Someone who is still able to distinguish the truth from the garbage of lies. Or is the origin of this fool-fooling-other-fools’s swirl to be located in Kiev? To me it seems that the mindset of Zelensky’s spin is still ruling at full speed over the minds of the ‘leaders’ in the West.
How did the Germans, when the capitulation of Germany in 1945 became a fact, react when their mindset was being freed from the continuous Nazi ‘information’ spin inside which they were constantly being fooled around? “Wir haben es nicht gewusst” [We have never been aware of it]. Is it possible that this Nazi ‘information’ spin inside which the German people were being fooled time and time again by Joseph Goebbels’ propaganda ministry factually never stopped, but just kept on whirling round & round in Soviet Union countries like Lithuania, West Ukraine, which never have been truly denazified?
Napoleon’s campaign against Russia was lost. I have studied this campaign a little. I have no significant military experience. After this little excursion into the analysis of the Russian campaign, the following impressions stuck: Russia has intellectually very capable people, not only in the military. This contradicts the (Anglo-American) West propaganda since the Cold War. The arrogant West made and continues to make a grave mistake in mistaking Russians for simple people.
The Russian military is very aware of the importance of human capital and materiel and therefore uses it very responsibly. Above all, human capital is very important to them. So Russians are more likely to back off a little, rally, and then wait for an opportunity to strike. The opponent does not get to fight a decisive battle. He’s more of a blank. Worn out and demoralized, he becomes an easier opponent to beat.
Logistics is a very important foundation for the Russians to be able to win a war. Best weapons don’t work without ammo and food for the crew.
Russians are very patient. At some point it becomes too much for them and they suddenly strike.
Russians have a plan longer than next week.
Russians treat their opponents as human beings and do not degrade themselves as Western propaganda and especially Ukrainian propaganda do.
Russians are not forgetful. They remember good and bad even after a long time. Does Biden remember calling Putin a war criminal? This will once again be presented to the United States in an unpleasant way.
As I said, I have no qualified military experience, I am not a political analyst and, unlike the so-called experts, I am subject to the disadvantages of information asymmetry. What little I glean from the stream of information doesn’t cast a good light on the Anglo-American alliance partner.
I believe that Russia has been invaded by the west 5 times since 1600 by Poland, Sweden, France and Germany. Germany invaded Russia twice in the 20th century. Like you said, the Russians are not forgetful.
At the start of WW1 the Russians mobilized rather more rapidly than expected by anybody, with the possible exception of the French. They sent out three armies, one against the Austrian-Hungarians in, somewhat ironically, Galicia, and two in the direction of East-Prussia. While I doubt they were expecting to end up in Berlin again like during the Seven Years War (French and Indian War for Americans), it was a credible invasion.
Plus Brits in Crimean war.
In addition to that, Russians are now primarily focused on fighting economical and diplomatic war. Military aspect is secondary to that, and it obviously suffers from it.
There is nothing like a “donated military equipment” : it’s all lend lease.
The US never gave weapons. UK finished the repayment of WWII lend lease in 2006 if I recall it well.
This is how you can lend money to a war-thorn country rated ZZZ— by every banks , just send them “freedom” weapons to enslave them more later.
I wonder how it works for mercenaries tho, is it more expensive if you bury them locally or send the bodies back home ? Technical question ^^.
That quoted section from Petraeus is quite the eye-opener.
Here is a very senior US Military Man giving three reasons why Russia is in trouble, and only one (the first) actually has anything whatsoever to do with the actual events on the ground.
As for the other two bullet-pointed reasons, all I can say is: Who Gives A Rat’s Arse?
Basically, he wants to reject Russia’s reality and replace it with his own, and then insists that it is a very big problem for the Russians that they won’t concede the veracity of his version.
Err, no. They don’t see it as a problem at all, because they are in no doubt who has a firm grasp of reality and who does not.
So much so that they don’t care what he thinks. Nor do they care that the “Russian information space” is disappearing up its own backside. Nor do they care how much the “Russian milbloggers” bleat about things.
None of that wins battles. None of that effects the Kremlin’s ability to fight those battles. Nobody in their right mind would even think otherwise.
The man is delusional. Not to mention a plagiarist, since he is simply regurgitating the nonsense from The Institute for the Study of War.
Oh, wait, I just went over their and looked up their Board Members, and who did I find.
Why am I not surprised?
I find it difficult to believe the real situation in Ukraine is not known. There must be people in the Pentagon, the British MOD and elsewhere that have people able to discern what is going on. The propaganda spewed out by westerners might be a torrent of coherent lies, but this cannot fool everyone.
If, as some people have suggested, the US/UK has been providing Ukraine with target coordinates for their artillery (i.e. temporary ammo dumps, bridges, RF senior leaders, etc.), then surely the US/UK knows pretty much exactly what is going on on the ground. I have wondered about this a lot. Why would the US/UK risk their reputations when the Russians finally win and all I can imagine is both the US and UK will blame Zelensky and the Ukrainian forces. They’re very good at the blame game. They’ll try to convince us that Ukraine “could have won if Zelensky and crew had just listened to us”. You wait. Zelensky will be the fall guy.
Larry,
A Pastor friend of the filmily just came from Ukraine and he is all confused because the
news in Kyiv is that the Russian forces are totally defeated and destroyed. Propaganda
it’s a powerful instrument to deceived people.
Thanks for your reports.
It does seem a shame that there are praying for victory of a corrupt snake-infested regime. Prayers must be careful to support the innocents and their preservation. I view the Russians, at this point in history, as instruments of God. As a nation and a people in Russia and in federation countries, they have suffered from persecution and accusations by the West. “Russians evil, Russia did it, etc.”
Scott Ritter claimed the counter offensive in Kharkiv was done by NATO trained, battle hardened troops.
But he didn’t explain how a few months of training resulted in exceptional capability, nor what battles hardened these particular troops.
What’s the deal with Scott Ritter?
Yes, it was an odd remark by him.
He also has been stating that the RF Forces were surprised in Kharkov which was clearly not the case. RF Forces fought a clearly planned methodical withdrawal. Otherwise , their losses would have more substantial. As you know, it’s not the first time Scott’s analytics were a bit off beam, though, for the most part his analysis has been pretty good. But as you know very well, no one has a crystal ball and Russian OpSec is second to none along with their impressive skills at the practice of Operational Deception.
On a slightly different topic, have you seen the news this morning as regards the Referendums moving ahead and the Bill moving thru the Duma for a Declaration of War against Ukraine also calling for Mobilization? I know this stuff has been floating around for awhile, but it seems like it is actually getting ose to fruition.
I guess we will find out in due time.
Blessings
Slava Russia
L
Alexander Mercouris at The Duran insists that the total garrison of Izyum at the time of The Great Kharkov Offensive numbered less than 1,000 men.
This down from a peak of over 15,000 men.
Now if this is true then the only conclusion is that the Russians were perfectly well aware that TGKO ™ was in motion, and had already made the decision to draw down forces and make a staged withdrawal to the Oskil River before that offensive even began.
As he put it, the Ukrainians launch that offensive and found out that they had “punched air”.
Ritter does seem to leap to conclusions.
“As you know, it’s not the first time Scott’s analytics were a bit off beam”
If we the people hold these truths to be self-evident, then not perceiving these truths is a source of embarrassment which encourages over-extension.
Was it? What percentage of the people fighting for Ukraine right now are in fact ex or “ex” NATO soldiers? Here’s some anecdotal evidence:
https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1570141395498962944
Military Summary Channel used to have a breakdown of mercs – arriving, dead, and left – but I haven’t seen that lately. Hmmmm.
As a detached observer who does the best I can to find authentic sources of information, the situation in Ukraine seems to resemble the situation that occurred in Syria, with ISIS. US funding, an international recruitment effort, weapons funding, scorched earth atrocities, lies of politicians, military and media. The US has bloody hands and war crimes and a loss of national conscience. The US will run out of economic means and there are strong indications of much greater national suffering if the current regime is not stopped at the ballot box.
The resemblance is a result of using the same playbook, and is much closer when compared to Yugoslavia (it even includes a part called Krajina, where same attrocities happened in 40s and 90s). People in the West don’t recognize that because they still belive CNN narrative about those events .
The US is modern day Roman Empire at the beginning of its decline, except for the nukes.
This is the Wests problem, they shipped all of their industry out to the far East specifically China, our “great friend and ally” ,NOT.
WWII was won in the factories of the USA and UK who roughly produced more than four times the output of Germany.
NATO’s arms industries are small specialist affairs, certainly not capable of producing anything requirred for a full scale conflict lasting more than a month or so.
Probably explains why UKR manpower is being thrown into the meat grinder instead.
I think it also, perhaps, was why so called US and UK “experts” kept predicting, early on, that Russia was running out of ammo, missiles, artillery shells, soldiers, etc. They were PROJECTING because that is the state of their militaries. We keep hearing how the various EU countries as well as the US and UK have depleted their stockpiles of weapons (or high percentages of them anyway). Not the Russians! They have cranked up their manufacturing capabilities and show no signs of running out of anything. Our manufacturing is mostly overseas now so we probably cannot maintain the same levels of attrition as the Russians.
i can’t see petraeus’ name without remembering this:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/9/13/384600/-
(who knew the daily kos would ever have a useful article?)
i also keep thinking of a classic comedy sketch line:
“i hear we got bought out by the japanese!”
“excuse me, ladies – the “japanese” haven’t bought us because they’re a people, not a business. we’ve been bought by americans…who it turns out ARE a business…”
war is a racket and these retired also-rans are just the used car salesman trying to push you into buying a $3 billion dollar lemon made in kiev. they know the “civies” are too busy with their shitty end stage capitalism lives to do research or read past headlines. same with a lot of the issues with reality you listed; for example, as aware of the trans ideology issue as online people are, the average NPC citizen has no idea it’s even a “thing” until some spoiled/autistic snowflake jr. at their kid’s school decides to force everyone to say “they”.
tl;dr – the west is an organism experiencing end-of-life dementia. that’s why biden is such a perfect avatar.
Love your writing and analysis as someone who served inside the American defense intelligence. Love the comments that follows your writing as a sampling of some of the more astute Americans and observers of Americana expressing their insights of what have brought about this terrible crisis of a failing and flailing republican culture. Caligula, as Pax Romana disintegrated sent his horse to Rome as a Senator, and Americans or the American Caligula masked as the Deep State has sent a walking cadaver to the Oval office.
But this is a chronicle that was foreseen and foretold. Allan Bloom’s “The Closing of the American Mind” was published in the middle years of the Reagan era and became a NYT bestseller, which baffled so many people because the book was a dense philosophical study of the American academia decaying over the previous four decades. I was entering my graduate years in political economy in U of Toronto (Canada) where Bloom taught for a few years before leaving for U of Chicago and where he died presumably of AIDS, and I was fortunate to audit his lectures in Toronto that became his bestseller. His book was a rich discourse of how and why “the best and the brightest” had embraced totalitarian values of political correctness so contrary to philosophical tradition since Plato and Socrates.
And then a few years later, Neil Postman, a cultural anthropologist, published his bestseller in this same “Bloomean” theme that was scathing and revelatory of the American society in decay. Postman’s book so hugely relevant at this critical moment in American history and global affairs is “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business”. I will also add here from the same era, the late eighties and early nineties, the cultural critic Christopher Lasch’s two books, “The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in the Age of Diminishing Expectations” and “The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy.”
Well, many of us will recall W.B Yeats, the Irish poet and Nobel Laureate’s lines from the Second Coming written at the end of WWI:
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, / The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned; / The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”
In Canada the situation is even worse given the spinelessness of the ruling class and majority of the people readily abandoning what little remains of their individual rights and freedoms for the faux security of the corporatist state; the nature of vassalage that historically is the Canadian state and politics; the full penetration by Klaus Schwab, George Soros and the compradores of the WEF of just about every institution of governance, finance, education, media, and the church in the land north of the 49th parallel to the U.S.
As expected the mirrors from Children’s World in 1991 must have been a very good choice, and are proving to be an excellent long-term investment.
No need to disturb Gosplan.
It seems that the opponents have finally attained full spectrum dominance – at least in something.
When General Dave was calling for a surge under Obama, Medea Benjamin of CodePink called General Patraeus, “General Betray-Us,” and she was vehemently criticized. It turns out that she was prophetic. The surges did not work except to prolong the wars, deepen hostility and distrust for and of the U.S. (creating new ‘bad guys’), and increase military spending and procurement. It seems as if this is General Pimp’s sole focus. And the Republican and Democratic establishments and even the renegades by and large (i.e., Trump, Sanders, and the ‘fraud squad’ who have Bolton, Pompeo, (Trump) and HRC, Pelosi, Schumer neo-cons (Sanders and the frauds)). Maybe the critics were right; Petraeus did not betray US, he did the beck and call of empire and oligarchs, making all dissenters un-American.
Maybe one of my stupid questions, but will Ukraine continue to receive sufficient gas/diesel to fuel its military?
I read this, “Ukraine needed up to 550,000 tonnes of fuel a month and before the war almost all fuel imports came from Russia and Belarus. Now, the ministry said, 95% of imported gasoline and 72% of diesel fuel are coming from the European Union states of Romania, Lithuania, Slovakia, Greece, Bulgaria and Poland.”
So obviously (I think) Russia and Belarus cut UKR off. To the extent that Russia can severely reduce, if not totally cut off, the other countries, doesn’t the UKR war effort just grind to halt by the time – i.e. the winter – when the listed countries need to heat with scarce petrol as opposed to feed armor and military transportation?
I guess the key question is from where do Romania, Lithuania, Slovakia, Greece, Bulgaria and Poland get their petrol? Is it a vulnerable supply chain?
*Will problem solver super star Elon Musk just step in and build electric self-driving tanks for UKR, with electricity coming from windmills and solar?
* sarcasm alert
Multiple non-EU countries are buying Russian oil and reselling it as non-Russian oil. I have recently read news about Saudi Arabia buying oil from Russia. Only a year ago this would sound like a joke.
As far as electricity goes. Russians used to supply 20% of it from Zaporozhje nuclear power plant for free, and then Zelenski decided to shell it, and it had to be shut down. You can’t make this shit up.
One would be hard pressed to find a more reprehensible figure as an example of the rot, corruption, and fraud in “senior military leadership” (sic) than “gen dave.” He was and is a fraudulent mouthpiece for the neo con war mongers at ISW, the kagans, and is frequently trotted out to read the script.
He actually ensconced the kimberly/fred kagan ISW tag team in Afghan while commanding there:
https://consortiumnews.com/2012/12/19/neocons-guided-petraeus-on-afghan-war/
“Gen. David Petraeus was so cozy with neocon think-tankers that he ensconced two of them in his Afghan War command and granted them top-secret access to U.S. military policy. One later leveraged Petraeus’s friendship to impress military contractors for funding support, writes Robert Parry.”
He was one of the primary cheerleaders for the afghan multi-trillion $ disaster in afghan, a cheerleader for the Iraq “surge’ and on and on; he is on the board of isw and is frequently the subject of adulation by the war mongering board and management there.
Just a BTW, the “honey pot” noted in comments above was his biographer, a young married mother, former active duty army officer, reserve officer, who was on assignment with him in afghan. (unclear as to her official status in afghan).
He resigned as director of cia after the fbi uncovered some steamy e-mails between the two.
Now, he is in a senior position at KKR. (The neo cons take care of their own).
He also was appointed to a seat on the Board of the Fat Freddie Kagan Institute for Misrepresenting What The F**k Is Happening On The Battlefield.
Only fair, I suppose. Fat Freddie owed him one.
I find Petraeus to be a rather disgusting incompetent human being playing the part of some kind of military hero general.
Petraeus who is now cashing in a KKR & Chairman of KKR Global Institute. Likely invested in “defense” contractors (war contractors).
What does the always articulate Andrei Martyanov have to say about Petraeus? He said, “I honestly cannot remember Petraeus for any military accomplishments other than a fucking mess in Iraq and a ‘brilliant’ command in Afghanistan debacle.
Other than that Andrei mentioned the only thing Petraeus was good at was “self-promotion and spreading BS for the sake of MIC profits?”
The best clip was when Petraeus was accosted by a group of students while he was walking down a New York street on his way to his new job at KKK.
Whenever I see or hear of Patraeus all I can relate to is the shit the Pentagon pumps out through Hollywood about the military and war. A sales con job.
First of all, I really enjoy your blog. It is comforting to see that there are still people in the West who have not been contaminated by the intellectual infection called woke.
Apparently no one noticed that when this Ukronazi “offensive” began, the Russian General Staff had left a space 130 km deep through which to channel the inertia of this type of attack.
They were forming a path that ended with the Ukronazi and NATO groups far from their supply lines and close to the borders of Russia and Belarus. This movement allowed:
-Get the NATO\Ukronazi forces out of their shelters and take them as far as possible from their own lines
-Decrease the pressure of those same forces in the Republics of Donbass and Lugansk
-Ensure that the fighting takes place as far away as possible from Russia’s main strategic asset in the region, which is none other than the Crimean peninsula
Surely the geniuses of NATO\Pentagon are going to get more surprises in the future.
There’s more…
The US is clearing out its weapon and munitions inventories dumping it all in Ukraine for Raytheon Technologies (underperforms market), the United States of Lockheed Martin, Boeing and General Dynamics (outperforms market) amongst other “defense” contractors (war contractors). The other day, Russian forces dropped a rocket on a repair facility in Iskra used by the Ukrainian military to repair US-manufactured HIMARS (did Lockheed Martin lose any HIMARS systems in this attack) rocket system.
To keep this war in Ukraine between NATO and Russia going for as long as possible, Kiev’s directors in the US, in the UK and in Brussels, are preparing for another provocation-like event in Izyum like what Kiev tried to pull off in Bucha earlier this year. This is also why Kiev’s handlers in the UK, in the US and in Brussels are directing the Ukronazis (cannon fodder) to continue to shell civilians in the DPR and the LPR. The purpose seems to be to provoke Russia at all costs – escalation.
Here’s the inventory dropped in Ukraine:
https://raheemkassam.substack.com/p/the-full-16bn-list-of-what-biden
Turns out that General Dave experienced premature military orgasm.
Larry, don’t do this again, my monitors are too new to be replaced. LOL. I am still laughing 48 hours later, especially knowing Petraeus’ “love interests”, if you know what I mean.
I’m hoping someone can help understand what active duty force the Russians have within current Russian borders. I keep hearing, from neocon types, that Russia is conscripting prisoners, etc, but also old men and boys because there are no more troops. However, everything I read that was written before the propaganda war, suggests that Russia has a relatively large active duty military plus something akin to our own reserve forces.
I appreciate that any troops receiving orders for UKR have to go through mission specific training, work-ups, filling TO&Es, etc, but that is much different than wrangling men from the civilian population who have either never served or served only a long time ago.
Can anyone sort this out for me? Thanks!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Armed_Forces
Larry’s comments are pretty accurate, I was a mill boy from 1977to 1989, except first year as a NCO and later as a very senior NCO. Many of those years were spent with dual jobs, military and public service. We usually joined in, in summer when the mill was short of qualified instructors. the pay was very good and the camaraderie between us sergeants and junior officers was great.. If I do now what I did then, I would have a heart attack, but by the holy serpent it was fun! The Sergeants mess was the only real place where there was life on the garrison, so all NCO’s and invited officers went there and got pissed! Great time!! Most of the guys were at my wedding too, they got pissed as usual 😀
Well in 1989 I went off to another continent : Africa , and most connections were lost, then you have to write letters, and peep’s are not good at that. So ve much faded. And when I came home in 1995 nearly all was gone. 🙂 And it was not my fault! When you get a letter in Africa, it is a miracle! (see Monty Python) it was so cool to hear from home.