Judge Napolitano hosted Scott Ritter, Ray McGovern and me on this week’s round table. We discussed the death of Prigozhin and other intel and military matters relevant to Ukraine. We also touch on the latest buffoonery from retired General David Petraeus.
Regarding the recent oped in the Washington Post by retired General David Petraeus and uber neo-con Fred Kagan, who also is the brother-in-law of Victoria Nuland. (The article is behind a pay wall.) The delusional thinking presented in this piece removes any lingering doubts, in my opinion, about David’s incompetence as a military tactician and strategist. He writes:
The rapid Ukrainian breakthrough and advance that many hoped for has not occurred. Media coverage has grown gloomier in recent weeks on the back of fragmentary journalistic accounts from the front and reported intelligence assessments from Western analysts. The news has not been great. The fight against Russia has proved to be bloody and slow — a very hard slog.
But observers would be wise to temper their pessimism. War does not proceed in a linear fashion. Defenders can hold for a long time and then suddenly break, allowing an attacker to make rapid gains before the defense solidifies further to the rear. The Ukrainians aim to generate exactly this effect — and there is reason to think they can. Ukraine’s offensive push is far from over. In fact, it is still in the early stages — just 10 weeks into what is likely to last at least four more months.
Penetrating a modern defense in depth such as the Russians established in southern Ukraine is a tall order for any military. The U.S. military has done it twice in modern memory, both times against Iraq. In 1991, after pummeling the Iraqi forces for 39 days from the air, a U.S.-led coalition of 650,000 troops penetrated and outflanked Iraqi defenses, crushing the Iraqi military in 100 hours. In 2003, a smaller U.S.-led force destroyed a badly degraded Iraqi military within a few weeks.
This article is the military version of the film, Dumb and Dumber. “So you’re telling me there’s a chance.”
Let me remind you of the spectacularly wrong prediction Petraeus made in early June as the Ukrainian counter offensive kicked off:
I think that the offensive is going to be much more successful than many of the more pessimistic analysts have been offering. I think that the Ukrainians are very much ready for this. They’ll be very distinctive because they will be using employing Western tanks, western infantry, fighting vehicles, western wheeled armored vehicles and so forth.
In large measure, for the first time in this war, certainly in this number, I think the Russians will prove to be more brittle than the expectation is. Keep in mind, these units have been in combat for over a year. Many of them, they have not been pulled off line to reconstitute by being having forces replaced, equipment replaced and repaired, and then doing training before they go back. They just get individual replacements to fill the gap. They’re not well trained, they’re not well equipped, they’re not well led.
And I think that these Ukrainian forces, which are well trained, are well equipped. We are going to break through. And then you might see a real dynamism to the battlefield that could give real opportunities to the Ukrainians to exploit.
The problem with Petraeus is that he fails to grasp that the wars in Iraq in 1991 and 2003 bear no relevance to what is taking place on the ground in Ukraine. People like Petraeus reveal an appalling ignorance of Russia’s military capabilities. It is one thing for Joe Blow in Dubuque, Iowa — who has never served in the military — to believe that Russian troops are poorly trained and poorly led. We are talking about the former head of the CIA. I guess he was too busy banging his mistress to take a moment or two to get a decent briefing on the Russian military. Even more stunning is his acknowledgment in his op-ed with Kagan that the success the U.S. achieved in Iraq on the initial invasion in 2003 depended on U.S. air supremacy and that Ukraine has no such advantage. He does not appear to comprehend the implications of this admission. Instead, like Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber, Petraeus insists “there is still a chance.” Petraeus was wrong in early June and he is wrong now. And the Ukrainians are paying a heavy bill in terms of blood and treasure because they listened to Western military planners just like Petraeus.
Petraeus, Hodges, Kagan appear to be vying for who made can make the dumbest comments. The list of militarily incompetent propagandists is a long one in the West.
Correct.
“Dogs on a chain bark.”
Ukraine has a chance ……….1 in a million or is that $billion?
Agreed, they are either gibbering morons or just mouthpieces following the Party line while knowing they are lies, the point is that doesn’t matter too much, when they contradict the evidence of you own eyes and ears, what matters is that you lose trust in “experts”, authority and national institutions. I went to Bos/Kos/Iraq and Afghanistan and could never see what they were all about at the time, now I know they were just BS Operations, bullying poor people in sandals, making me ashamed of something I had previously been proud of.
Soon, the NeoCon Media machine will “suddenly discover” en-masse that the Ukie Army has killed nearly a 1/2million of its own citizens, but will they blame the Dunces in Washington and Brussels? Nope, it’ll be all the fault of Putin.
Putin invaded, Putin refused to negotiate, Putin refused to give the Infant-In-Chief in Kiev his Crimean pacifier to shut him up… for now.
What the Infant-in-Chief in Kiev doesn’t realize, is he will be thrown under the Blame-Bus as soon as the Clinton/Nuland/Kagan/Rothschild Cabal has no further use of him… and of course his death will be blamed on… Putin. Even though Putin has clearly stated Russia will not assassinate Zelensky. Ask other former “staunch allies” of the US/NATO, like Saddam, Gadhaffi, Noriega, the father and brother of the current Assad in Syria about US assurances.
Syria used to run one of the US’s black-op (CIA) torture sites, just ask CANADIAN CITIZEN Mahar Arrar who was tortured for 2 years there on BS claims by the US.
https://ccrjustice.org/files/rendition%20to%20torture%20report.pdf
Perhaps the father Assad tried to run the same “play both sides against each other” game as Erdogan is now. (Erdogan got his warning when Russia saved his ass from one coup attempt, but continues to suck-and-blow with this dangerous tactic.) So when pere-Assad was no longer following US orders, out came the Mossad assassination squad… same for the direct heir, Bashar’s brother… blamed on “insurgents”, of course. No one in Washington or Tel Aviv thought the mild-mannered opthalmologist from London decisively would step in and openly invite the Russians into the Syrian fray.
So Zelensky’s days are indeed numbered, I am guessing that the Washington pinhead-brigade will wait to see how the “Putin killed Progozhin” lies “take” in the US/ZATO population.
The mouthpieces in Washington and beyond are assuming the world has not changed since 9/11, and distinctly not in their favour. They are either lying or incomptetent, either serves the purposes of the Rothschild Class.
“All wars are banker’s wars. ” Smedley Butler
ZATO, I love it!🤣
If that smarmy little DC concubine had one functional brain cell rolling around in that empty cranium of his he would have cut a deal with the Russians even if it meant a quiet taiga town with a view.
But for some strange reason he thinks he is better and even safer than all the others before him since he has all the receipts, and will rely on DC to extract him out of their violent mess and grant him a mansion, guards, money, etc., which they will. For a while.
You forgot to mention General Jack Keane.
And yet, the Ukraine Army still has a very strong choice of defeating the Great Khanate of Moscow on the muddy soil of Ukraine. They inflict losses on the Russians every day for the past 18 months of Russian war fiascos. How come?
Did you somehow expect attrition warfare to somehow be a bloodless event for the Russians?
Granted, the attrition rate of 1,000,000+ Vietnamese to 50,000+ US troops hasn’t quite reached the Ukrainian conflict yet but there are still months to go. They may get there yet if Petraeus & company have their way.
Agreed.
In case the ukies come to use a rosary of nukes.
(Overheard in 1945)
And yet, the Imperial Japanese Army still has a very strong choice of defeating the Great Khanate of Washington on the muddy soils of Okinawa. They inflict losses on the Americans every day for the past three and half years of American war fiasco. How come?
Mike Pence: “We’re fighting Russia there so we don’t have to fight them here.”
Nothing more boring than a comedian with a deadpan face mouthing old Vietnam era claptrap.
Where was the guy behind the stage curtain with the big old hook to pull old vaudeville posers off the stage?
That is so apt for American audiences !
WE have to travel to the other side of the world to destroy a country……….because it might possibly……ever so possibly………want to come here and trash our shopping malls
Now noone in Vietnam could use that argument because the Americans came to them…………
Unfortunately for the Cold War/Vietnam-era thinkers, fighting “Them over there” significantly increases the potential for Them to attack the US mainland with long-range hypersonic weapons, which the US has ZERO defence against. Like Russia used to destroy the Patriot missile installation “protecting” Kiev.
The US continues to exist as it does only at the practical benevolence of the Russian and Chinese leadership, who have the CURRENT capability to destroy most of the US mainland “nuclear ICBM first-strike/umbrella” with existing CONVENTIONAL hypersonic weapons. In their silos, before the bay doors open. US nuke-capable surface ships would be gone in minutes as well, ditto your nuke-capable bases in Italy, Diego Garcia etc. sitting ducks and half your nuke-capable subs are in dry-dock at any given time.
It would be US destroyed nukes irradiating the US and environs around their foreign bases, not Russian or Chinese nukes. And the Russian and Chinese nukes will remain in reserve if the US or any other nuke-power gets any other stupid ideas…
The sands are shifting under the US/ZATO/NeoCon/Rothschild New World Order/Great Reset, and they know it. Trot out a new media-distraction of a new version of Covid-19, right on cue. If all else fails, go for more economic lockdowns and “vaccine” poisons.
Look, squirrel!!!!
Not to worry, Mr. Pence. If you insist on forcing the Russians to finally decide that it’s time to come to you, the anticipation won’t last long.
Not to this American, no sir. To me Pence is as dumb as a late night televangelist but not half as slick. That he got even 4% support is yet another insult to the nation. How many can the country indulge in before……?
And that truly boggles the mind.
They do business with the swine who they defeated and when they ran away they left unexplored bombs and chemical weapons behind.
Maybe in Asia it’s only the Chinese that are smart.
With Vietnam, Thailand , Japan, South Korea and Philippines just the old time coolies. ( Add Indian, Pakistani and Turkish politicians. )
No wonder Putin looks a tad pissed off somedays, as America laughs and delivers another suite case full of $100 bills. The suckers pay for their own bribes LOL. Nothing dumb about the yanks.
@Ljubenkovic
Have you just landed on planet Earth?
Ukraine are losing 10 to 1 on the body count, at least. Ukraine has blown through the largest armed forces and its equipment in Europe bar Russia, last year. They have been resupplied constantly, first with Soviet gear from former Warsaw Pact nations, then Western wunderwaffe which isn’t wunderwaffe at all.
You need to keep taking the coping pills, and less of the hoping.
Sounds like anotha angered russophobic Croatian 🤡
By golly – you’re probably right. I think I may have run into him outside of the Vatican, demanding an audience with the Pope to get him to beatify some new age neo-ustase genocider, like in the old days.
Life’s a funny old dog. during the Balkan wars, Pavelic was to Croatia what Bandera is to Ukraine – two mad dog genociders posing as national heroes that made even their Nazi masters turn their noses away in disgust. Didn’t seem to bother NATO much though.
Bother? NATO is where all the Nazis ended up. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.
Very true. the Croats, the Bosnians, the Baltic states, the Western Ukrainians. All with admirable SS brigades in their heyday.
The Neocon motto:
When you find yourself perplexed and in doubt,
choose old Nazi toadies to give your enemies the rout.
Maybe they’ll succeed but chance’s they’ll not.
We just like to stir….we’ll soon bring to a boil yet another hot pot.
Soviet cartoon (1958)
https://twitter.com/propagandopolis/status/1614705198949072897
It’snot “soviet”, it’s Herluf Bidstrup’s, a Danish cartoonist
I just copied the description without thinking much about it. You are right. It says in the corner that it was drawn by Herluf Bidstrup.
I’ve just checked his Wikipedia page. Is says, that he did some work in Soviet Union, so maybe the description is not wrong.
We have to understand the Croats. Their ethnogenesis and relation to Serbs is a spitting image of Ukrainians to Russians. They are the lateral identity, the derivative, with systemic antagonism towards their source of origin. Though with one crucial diabolic trait: Catholic identity. As long as historical circumstances allowed the existence of Serbs Catholics, Croatian nation existence made no sense. Serbs Catholics were able to preserve the memory of their roots and held their ex-orthodox Serbian tradition and history as very positive traits (Dalmatia, Slavonia, Bosnia).Alas, it lasted not later than turn of 19/20th century with gradual national conversion Serbs Catholics to Croats throughout 19the and 20th century. Basically 1945 there were no Serbs Catholics anymore. Croats are basically aimed to be the black legions of Vatican. Orcs of Saruman the White doomed to fight against the Men, if You want. If Serbs or Russians ceased to exist their purpose would almost vanish. But their feelings would not be easier as You can never run away from Your ancestors trauma
Ukrainian nationalism has at it’s core Catholic identity, too, albeit of the Uniate variety–in 16th century, a group of Orthodox broke off and “rejoined” the Catholic Church. Their center is Low/Lemburg, the Austrian part of the Partitioned Poland, where they were supported by Habsburgs as a hedge against both Russian and Polish influences. The analogy between Ukrainians/Galicians and Croats is really apt.
The most staunch Russophobes are the Slavs captured by the Vatican (Croatia, Poland, Western Ukraine, etc.).
The Vatican heresy has in its origin and DNA the hatred of the Orthodox Church (Slavs), with which it infected the entire West (hand in hand with the “Venetians”).
Yep. You should read posts from previous couple of days.
You’re even more retarded than Petraeus! Hate has blinded you. Don’t you see the cemeteries growing too? With 20 million inhabitants and a national cemetery bigger than the US with 350 million doesn’t that tell you anything? Or will they also resurrect some?
What Ukraine needs now is what Croatia had during Operation Storm, US boots-on-the-ground commanders like Petraeus that could march the Ukrainian army right to the Sea of Azov and on to Crimea, sending hundreds of thousands of native Donbassers fleeing to Russia and those who dared to stay, summarily executed on the spot.
You know you want to do it, Petraeus. Think of what a hero you’d be. I’ll just bet Russia wants you to, too. I’d go for it. Get some spit & polish on the boots & hi-yo silver!
What you said reminds me of what Dustin Hoffman’s character said to Custer right before the Little Bighorn in “Little Big Man”; “You go down there General, and there won’t be nothing left of you but a greasy spot.” He went of course.
Biswap, is that you?
Let’s all give Ljubenkovic a big welcome as the latest troll.
Let’s all give Ljubenkovic a big welcome as the latest troll.
As a troll he’s really quite droll. Nope, he won’t be getting my drum roll.
A brand new troll that already went full retard:
https://sonar21.com/wagner-titular-head-prigozhin-dead-or-alive/#comment-151664
Rapid EU deindustrialization have negatively affected everything, including troll manufacturing.
It’s the Zelensky powder.
“They inflict losses on the Russians every day for the past 18 months of Russian war fiascos. How come?”
How come? Because in a war both sides get to shoot. Both sides get to inflict casualties on the other.
Russian soldiers will have died every day of this SMO. Every single day.
But which side is losing soldiers at an unsustainable rate?
Which side is achieving its goals, albeit at the cost of soldier’s lives, and which side is simply pouring its armed forces down the drain?
I’ll give you three guesses, but if you are really honest with yourself you’ll get it on the first go.
Strange why Petraeus would make comparisons with Iraq ’91 and not reference opinions from the person who was in the thick of it: Col. MacGregor.
I guess it’s not so strange once one delves a bit deeper and discovers that MacGregor has called Petraeus’s comments on Ukraine delusional on more than one occasion. (I believe actually on every occasion).
But what do I know?
First of all, Iraq was not a fair fight. No way could all the Mideast armies together fight a determined and incalculably funded Pentagram war machine.
Secondly, it was the weaponry that conducted that war, and terrorized the essentially defenseless target population into submission, thus not only failing to conquer the area but creating millions of permanent enemies for us ( thanks a lot DC!) and getting thousands of American servicemen killed and maimed for nothing but a depraved commercial foray.
Thirdly, morons like Petraeus and so many overrated others like him whose reach is far greater than their grasp, got where they did because they attended that stupid military academy which decades ago lost its patina and whose benefits to America have long since ceased to exist.
They preen themselves in overpriced uniforms and bamboozle the public and especially the easily impressed MSM into thinking that they are valorous and brave when they are just punks who were really smart at math, physics, etc., in high school and got into WP where they excelled in those areas but clearly learned nothing about history, geography, culture, ethics, personal discipline etc., no sense of decorum, no personal reserve, lack of comportment, etc. Overrated dummies who only know how to provoke and ignite wars and get paid for it. We could hire the Mexican narcotics cartels to do the same at a fraction of the cost but that would be cutting into CIA turf so no.
As a nation we are halfway across the Rubicon, maybe even more, and the last thing we need is a swarm of voracious, self serving locusts devouring what is left of our our laws, taxes, and servicemen.
Well the British Army fought followers of The Mahdi at Omdurman in 1898
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Omdurman
52,000 Sudanese against 8,200 British soldiers and 17,600 Egyptians……….with Capt. Douglas Haig, and journalist Winston Churchill present……….
British lost 48 dead………….superior technology triumphed……….
So 16 years later this victory had zero application when the British Expeditionary Force fought on Marne and at Ypres………there were NO similarities whatsoever
Petraeus has fallen into the British Mentality of 1914 when Cavalry Officers held sway and Artillery was looked down upon………..Colonial Wars are what Us has been fighting in Iraq and Syria and Libya and Kosovo and everywhere else……..simple old fashioned Colonial Wars such as Britain fought in Afghanistan or South Africa etc
Russia has the highest artillery component as proportion of overall force of any nation – it has a military doctrine and vast historical experience of fighting multi-headed enemies across vast fronts……….NO Western nation has anything comparable – and Germany has only experience of failure
Iam looking forward to your comments. This particular comment is a gem re: british winning over some technology-inferior opponent but stalling against equal opponents in
WW1. What perhaps is revealing is the colonial power’s impotence in fighting equal opponents as opposed to fighting sandal-wearing warriors fighting with spears. The britsh coined the phrase “men against boys” and Seinfeld appropriately visualised it : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t8xwpW8gJQ
“Whatever happens, we have got
The Maxim Gun, and they have not.”
Some British Guy
Keep in mind, these units have been in combat for over a year. Many of them, they have not been pulled off line to reconstitute by being having forces replaced, equipment replaced and repaired, and then doing training before they go back. They just get individual replacements to fill the gap. They’re not well trained, they’re not well equipped, they’re not well led.
Silly goose. You’re describing the AFU here. Stop playing with your alphabet cereal or you’ll never grow up.
Is there some natural inflection point that the cults of Kaganism and Banderism become synonymous in the online Geopolitical Thesaurus?
Have we reached it yet?
Kaganism should be coined and entered into the general vocabulary as a term of military pseudo intellectualism.
The whole Kagan / Nuland swarm are prime examples of incompetent, nebulous verbiage covering for low brow thinkers who only serve to bamboozle readers and create massive and violent harm to American and foreign servicemen, the perversion of American interests, the misappropriation and destruction of taxes that should be used for national benefit, all while enjoying official power abuse and collecting fat welfare checks. They are marauders along with their Pentagram and White House Nursing Home hangers on.
This country will not survive such a massive infection of lawless and incompetent parasites.
the entire neocon plague think of themselves as great intellectuals–but only in their own little minds.
I would call them great magicians instead. Turning trotskiist fourth internationalists into neoconservatives and ending up running US foreign policy, that’s quite a magic trick.
I’ll bet that’s where the cookie troll got the idea of taking the ‘social nationalist’ party founded by two neonazis; Parubiy and Tyahnibok and renaming it “Svoboda’ and then playing rope-a-dope with the American public. Magic again.
They are well connected morons with psychotic personalities who promote, provoke, and actively inflict violence because they have perfected the art of worming their way into positions of official power which allows them the ability to abuse money, weapons, servicemen and target populations.
Could you possibly translate Petraeus‘ piece into German, preferably with Gothic script ?
I realise Washington, Berlin, London and Kiev think it is June 1941 but many of us see 1943 on the calendar
I do not rate US generals as having IQ above 100 and am astounded how revered they are in US society far more than in Europe. US is a bit like South America with its strutting be-medalled desk jockeys who have ribbons for every course they attended
US is no longer relevant – it is Ancien Regime. Unless it intends to wage war against Russia and/or China and face loss of its territorial integrity and cities to destruction, it should simply withdraw and reflect
The world tires of the Conquistadores from DC
The people controlling the US, and the cheerleaders like Petraeus, are rationally looking out solely for their own interests. They don’t care how much damage they do to the US, let alone other countries, as long as they keep lining their pockets, extending their power and punt for an even bigger payoff. They know there will be no personal retribution, no matter how much harm they do to others, so they pursue their psychopathic path, focused solely on what will deliver the best outcome for themselves.
No one is pursuing the interests of the people of the US, so no withdrawal or reflection.
I do not rate US generals as having IQ above 100 and am astounded how revered they are in US society far more than in Europe. US is a bit like South America with its strutting be-medalled desk jockeys who have ribbons for every course they attended[.] — Paul Greenwood
We live in a militaristic society — war is the health of the state. This is what 130+ years of newspaper, radio, movie, television, and now, internet war propaganda hath wrought. A consequence of uni-party political monopoly and their desire to conquer the world.
The people controlling the US… know there will be no personal retribution, no matter how much harm they do to others, so they pursue their psychopathic path, focused solely on what will deliver the best outcome for themselves.
No one is pursuing the interests of the people of the US, so no withdrawal or reflection. — Bazza McKenzie
Which is why they fear the populist movement building in the US over the past twenty years. It hasn’t gone away despite their best political efforts and betrayals (think Tea Party). The movement predates Trump’s appearance on the political scene — he tapped into their zeitgeist and they love him for it. That’s what scares the US deep state — if re-elected, Trump must drain the swamp — his political persecutions prove the point.
The people cannot be allowed a champion but, most especially, they cannot control the Republican Party, as it is one cornerstone of deep state political domination.
US is no longer relevant – it is Ancien Regime. Unless it intends to wage war against Russia and/or China and face loss of its territorial integrity and cities to destruction, it should simply withdraw and reflect[.]
The world tires of the Conquistadores from DC[.] — Paul Greenwood
Indeed, they do. And the more challenges abroad the Conquistadores face, the harder they’ll repress here at home…
To survive, Trump must be re-elected. If re-elected, he must drain the swamp to survive.
If Trump were to be re-elected he needs a “Butcher” as Veep – one whose sole focus is purging the ‘problem children’ from decision-making levels of government and agencies………it should be his sole task.
No more dilettantes like the Kushners, deadbeats like Boltons and Vindmans, and no more “generals” in the White House – and certainly no more lame ducks like Pence……
Council on Foreign Relations normally draws up the list for incoming administrations – and Trump never got to see the list but the nominees entered his administration nevertheless…….
State needs purging and replacing with Catholics or Protestants whose priorities are American
Defence needs Zero-Base Budgeting and Contractors need to surrender an equity stake to the Federal Government
Trump failed in spades over so many things. That we wasted more time on Twitter than actually do anything should have told you that. Do you see the meat-puppet Biden wasting his alzheimerish time doing such tomfoolery? Of course not! He and his team are too busy actively destroying while everyone, mostly the GOP, passively lets them get away with it… which essentially means they’re in agreement only to the degree and speed of said destruction. Donny won’t do squat that’s meaningful and then procede to flip flop and make excuses as he rolls us into WW3. Ooops! But they were “good people” he’ll vomit out about the very ones shanking us all from within.
That’s possible…
Trump (in collusion with the deep state) could be playing us for fools. The prosecutions *could be* being used to sell him as “the renegade”. Either way, if that’s the case, they win no matter who is “elected” — same as it’s been for well over 130 years.
But, if not…
Trump failed in spades over so many things. — InnerCynic
No doubt. Firing Flynn, neocon appointments and leaving Obama appointees in place… all key mistakes. And many others. Just a guess, but perhaps he *believed* that being President was akin to that of a CEO and the Federal bureaucracies would just fall in line with the new “boss”.
I don’t think he realized, until too late, just how deep uni-party corruption runs… but that *should not* be an issue now, nor an excuse. More problematic is his ego, which is both his greatest strength and weakness, and was apparently used against him.
Thing is, we don’t get to choose our martyrs. He’s flawed, yes. But he fights back.
The larger dilemma, however, is that even if we re-elect Trump and he is at least partially “successful” draining the swamp**, without significant and persistent political organizing outside the Democratic and Republican parties any gains will short-lived.
The deep state’s political monopoly rests upon the Democratic and Republican parties and the legacy media. “Social media” allowed a brief peak behind the curtain, but the internet is being domesticated to insure the continued and uninterrupted manufacturing of consent.
**Note: That is to say, investigations and prosecutions reach beyond Biden and other immediate scapegoats to focus on Federal agencies, especially intelligence, law enforcement and the military.
How many Presidents of the United States were originally Generals by profession?
Quite a few, starting with the first POTUS, and the last being Eisenhower.
By comparison, how many British Generals then went on to become Prime Minister?
There was Wellington, and there may be others, but I can’t recall them.
Seems the Brits don’t revere their Generals in the way that Americans do.
https://axleaddict.com/cars/MissBelvedere
Reminds me of American support to Ukraine:
Buried to the ground.
Another quote from Dumb Dumber I associate to Petreaus et.al.:
“Just when I thought you couldn’t do anything dumber, you redeem yourself”
I think that was originally an old Laurel and Hardy line.
Victoria “Fuck the EU”Nuland wears the pants in the Kagan family:
https://jamesburrillangell.substack.com/p/strange-diplomacy-victoria-fck-the
One can hope the day is near that most Europeans will agree with her on those, and only those, three words.
Thanks for the link.
If you haven’t seen it, gonzalo lira did a fantastic show about Nuland.
Well, now she can add a butcher’s apron to her ‘kit’ because she’s come pretty darn close now to the body count of her mentor Albright’s 500,000, the ones that were ‘worth it’, don’t you know.
Could a wise American kindly penetrate Davis’s twisted mind and help him regain common sense?
No American general has been relieved if duty for failure to perform in combat.
Where there is a culture of impunity for failure, eventually only the incompetent get promoted.
Clarification:
First line above should be:
No American General has been relieved of command for failure to perform in combat since WW2.
Gen George McClellan 1862
I provide a free Weekly Update on the Ukraine conflict viewed in the wider sense as a struggle between Russia and the West. It may be useful for those who don’t have the time to study it in depth: https://robcampbell.substack.com/p/ukraine-weekly-update-bd7
There is no evidence that the western intelligence community including Petraeus actually believed/believe the nonsense they have peddled. The object was to have Ukrainians and Russians (and the western cheering public) believe it creating a self fulfilling prophecy on the battlefield.
We were going to talk our way to victory. Feed enough dire warnings/flamboyant stories of wonder weapons to the other side and with a bit of luck they will be off running home to mama at the first site of a Leopard II (that went well). Still, the Ukrainians believed it which was why they were slaughtered in that first devastating assault. Reality has a peculiar resilience to wishful thinking, dammit.
We were/are are also telling everyone that the Russians were/are on the brink of overthrowing their own useless regime (in which cause the death of Prighozin would hopefully provoke another Wagner march on Moscow).
This strategy of talk down the opponent and engineer an internal collapse, has failed. There was a genuine belief in the power of the sanctions, but that was never going to work after the rest of the world gave us the finger.
I am assuming that the war from here goes the way western democracy always goes. Reality having outrun the heroes, we find a scapegoat, stick the disaster on it and send it out into the wilderness. Good riddance to old rubbish. Hello, new world, new day, new game. We can keep rising phoenix like from our own ashes until we can’t.
Scott has already changed the needle about the plane crash. And Patraeus’ biggest problem isn’t that he’s an ass. It’s like being an ass without a backbone! MIC seller like Hodge. Should hear Alastair Crooke with the Judge this week. Destroying the desert storm myths.
OK, let’s sum it up and think a step further: The Ukraine army decays, Russia has to invade Ukraine and keep them. How long will it take? How many soldiers they will need? How much guerilla warfare there will be?
The West runs out of ammunition, but will increase production. So, will there be a window of western weakness? How will the western remilitirasation look like? What about the announced war on China?
A defeat in the Ukraine doesn’t mean that the West will give up. Like in COVID, the western population is stupid enough to accept 180 degrees changes in truth.
So, how will the conquest of Ukraine look like? Will the West further decline in military terms? What about China?
The more convincing and overwhelming the defeat of regular armed forces on the battlefield, the lower the prospect for guerilla war of resistance.
Ar this point, given the intensity of combat over 18 months, the very high casualties suffered by Ukraine, Ukrainian difficulties in mobilsing replacements (pres-ganging/shanghaiing men off the streets) should Russia breakthrough anywhere, whether by collapse of a Ukrainian unit (possible, but I think unlikely) or overcoming one with firepower, leading to a roll up of the Ukrainian lines, I believe a major guerilla/insurgency campaign with broad popular support is extremely unlikely.
More likely would be a far smaller campaign with very limited popular support, perhaps only regional, and comprised of almost exclusively neo-Nazi Banderists similar to their post-WW2 campaign. The Soviets dealt with that one very effectively, the Russians would be equally effective.
I think that is “one” of the reasons, among others, for the GO SLOW approach of the Russians. If they took of Kiev and Zelensky out in a 4 week war, many combatants in Ukraine will feel like they have not been defeated and be more apt to engage in a guerilla / partisan war. Defeating a regime is not the same as defeating an ideology. However, if you engineer a situation, as in France in 1917, where the whole French army was in rebellion, that is a different story. WWI ended with a political solution and many in the German military felt that they had not lost on the battlefield but were politically betrayed. This “stab in the back” sentiment provided fuel for the rise of Hitler and the Second World War. Furthermore, by keeping the war confined to the Donbass and other Russian speaking regions it creates the psychological impression of it being a “foreign war”. How many POW interviews have we seen seen where the POW asks why they are being “sent to the Donbass” as if it were not part of their country. That would likely be a different story if they were fighting outside L’vov or in other areas of Galicia. IMHO
Given the intransigence of the US political class to:
1. factual assessments of battlefield conditions in Ukraine;
2. existential suffering of the Ukrainian people in the face of inevitable defeat;
3. de-escalation to prevent the engagement of US/NATO forces in direct conflict with Russia
Perhaps we should accept the likelihood that starting WW3 is their collective goal, and that we are witnessing a deliberate rush into oblivion like Germany pursued along the Eastern front in 1944: the extinction of millions of innocent but “unworthy” people to usher in their Great Reset/New World Order and build anew upon our ashes.
“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” – Arthur Conan Doyle
One is reminded of the depiction of General Custer in the US Hollywood movie “Little Big Man”
https://youtu.be/kpbq6nGbs50?si=1Q2NOTngg7oWoogW
Petraeus, wow. I’m speechless. I mean, I knew he was a complete moron, he has provided a lot, lot of evidence in the past but that, oh boy, wow.
Well, we know for a fact that the dude doesn’t think with his brain.
Nope. He uses another organ to do his thinking for him.
These people are almost certainly under a form of mind control. They believe in ‘gods’ who can make their wishes come true. I am not joking. The facts are going to come out soon and there will be a lot of red faces.
I’ll just leave this here………
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2023/08/24/is-putin-finally-understanding/
PCR’s heart is in the right place. His mind however seems to be wandering off a bit.
PCR is a voice crying in the wilderness. He is absolutely correct, because he understands the ideology that drives all western regimes.
It’s amazing how commenters here fail to understand the psychology, mentality, and tactics of the one ideology that controls their own societies, and by inference themselves. It’s the same ideology that’s perpetuating the war against Russia, and yet people here are continually unable to relate their oh-so-clever one-off observations to what instead should be a unifying thematic whole. No wonder they are blind unwitting slaves as their societies continue to swirl down the civilizational toilet.
Another behind a paywall nifty source of detached principals(lil Dicke Haass-avocado king) is PROJECT SYNDICATE. Keep reading Vonnegut andVeblen:)
Alexei Pushkov 1995/” The irony that the Nato enlargement was occurring not because Russia was a threat,but because it was so” “unthreatening.” A Western diplomat said that had Zhironovsky been president, rather than Yeltsin, Western policy would have been much more restrained. ”
” A new dividing line, would be drawn in Europe, causing problems
for Ukraine, because Russians in general considered, Ukraine a part
of Russia.”
NATO expanded because Gorbachev betrayed USSR
No high-ranking member of CPSU could possibly have been so naive as to “trust the West” and to capitulate so abjectly by withdrawing ALL forces from Buffer zone Territories without leaving any bases whatsoever.
Since 1950 has USA EVER relinquished a base overseas voluntarily, ie. without being expelled (as in France) ?
Yet USSR relinquished thousands of square kilometres of Buffer Zone for nothing………and even left its western border – zapOVO – with no real strength for decades…….
Now look who was the first commander of Russian Western Military District after 2010……
“The Western Military District was created as part of the 2008 military reforms, and founded by Presidential Decree №1144 signed on 20 September 2010, as an amalgamation of the Moscow Military District, Leningrad Military District and Kaliningrad Special Region.[1] The district began operation on 20 October 2010, under the command of Colonel-General Valery Gerasimov. ”
NATO expanded because Lithuania and Poland were lusting for NATO to make them important again…….it was Lithuania when it had the EU Presidency that agitated in Donbass……..it has been a policy to leverage USA to make Poland-Lithuania a European power again to challenge Germany
The Czech rep. Hungary, Poland, became Natomember 1999, and just some weeks later, Nato started
to bomb, Serbia. 35.000 runs, during 78 days, and only when Yeltsin, sent V. Chernomyrdin, who
persuade Milosevic to surrender, the war ceased. But many Russians
saw this as a Munich-appease-ment, and as a treason. Next target for Nato will be Russia! ‘…
Fjodor Lukanov/2016: “Nato intervention in the Kosovo war, 1999, was a turning point for Russia, not only Nato’s expansion,
but its transformation… is now a
fighting group, which it was not during the cold war.”
“The new war against the terrorists in Chechnya, further divided the West from Russia, West’s criticism
to that, was seen as hostile in Russia.”
So this is the background for todays situation in Ukraine, and
the 70 billions USD in support, even. from hyenas & vultures, as, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Britain, Denmark, Norway, a new Nazi Barbarossa of 1941.
27 October 1998 Joschka Fischer became first Green Foreign Minister in German Government………..
https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/may/14/greenpolitics
“For seven months the Greens have been in government for the first time, while for 52 days Germany has been at war for the first time since the defeat of the Third Reich. For a party whose programme eschews the use of force to achieve political ends, the clash of principle and power has proved crippling.”
Greens are so aligned with US Foreign Policy as to be “agents of a Foreign Power”
The Greens are also the conduit that is allowing the Somalian/African invasion. Which they will secure their future with. With the breeding and welfare state depence thereof.
“Petraeus was wrong in early June and he is wrong now. And the Ukrainians are paying a heavy bill in terms of blood and treasure because they listened to Western military planners just like Petraeus.”
I think you misspoke, Larry. The treasure being lost is all America’s.
What interests me is the future. Ukrainian offenses will end. No amount of cope will change that. But then what does Russia do? Russia has had exactly two notable offenses. Mariupol and Bakhmut. Both expensive, bloody, and time consuming. Because that is what offense is against a prepared and entrenched enemy. And again, Russia does not throw their soldiers’ lives away. The let the Prig throw the convict’s of Wagner away. But that is no longer an option.
So, Ukraine turtles up. As pure necessity. Then what does Russia do? Well, first the incredibly slow and creeping offense of opportunity. Shell, shell, shell, move forward 100 meters. Well fuck, in 2 years you might be to the Dnieper. And I reiterate. The sanctions have not worked. But war is expensive. Russia does not and cannot afford a 10-year war.
That leaves infrastructure. At some point, the lights have to go out. The misery index of the Ukrainian population has to be raised until even the coke rave kids in Kiev feel the pain. And by the way, the oligarchs and Blackrock start losing money. When there is zero economic activity. Russia wins this by destroying the will of Ukraine. As to whether Putin has the will to do this in winter 2024? I don’t know. But it is the answer.
In this global confrontation, the nation that knows how to lose in a historical moment will win.
That’s all you need to understand.
Hello Gera.
I haven’t seen Gera around here for a long time. Hope all is well with Gera. And what does Gera mean by the nation that knows how to lose? The US has already lost the war and the biggest proof is the enlargement of the BRICS to 6 billion people and large energy producers like Iran, UAE and the Saudis. And tomorrow, giants such as Venezuela and Iraq will enter. A war that the US will lose again! Among the 140 countries that did not adhere to sanctions against Russia! After enormous pressures on India and now on the Saudis but the truth is that petrodollars are also dead. The Saudis have been selling oil outside of the US dollar for a long time! Because the US also failed to end Russia’s strength in OPEC plus. And as there is no economy or development without energy, it is clear which is the strongest economic bloc today!
More than 80% of the world due to the strength of the unity of the BRICS countries today can say no to the unipolar world and the Sherige in Washington. To the double standards of the US rule-based Order that destroyed the UN! The world has already changed and from now on we will see Organizations like the IMF begin to lose strength to institutions like the BRICS Development Bank. That in a year’s time Russia will announce a new currency, probably with the return to the gold standard, that will further accelerate the end of the current financial system based on the US dollar. That the war in Ukraine anticipated a decade or two. The US made more mistakes in the last 18 months like stealing Russian reserves than in the last 70 years! And they made the mistakes because they were already under pressure! The war in Ukraine is the US’s biggest mistake since Vietnam. With more negative implications for the US than Vietnam! When the US went bankrupt, they created the petrodollar! Who have now lost! Just as the West will lose dominance of another decision-making center like the UNSC very quickly with its enlargement.
The global war as Gera says was about Russia’s resources and China’s rise in a world where the US was already losing hegemony. Which is now definitely over! And Biden announced it at the inauguration. That China did not surpass the US in its shift! Well, today 80% of the world is no longer afraid to say no to the US because they feel the strength of a true alternative that did not exist before the war in Ukraine. For something good so many Ukrainian wretches have given their lives. And the great pivot of the NWO is Russia. No doubt! A gas pump as some assholes say.
However, the world and the financial system do not change overnight. And to this day the only US victory in the war is the European economy. Who will end up abandoning the US at the risk of becoming an economic dead zone! Europe cannot survive without Russian energy and and especially without trade with China and the rest of the NWO. The US only destroys the European economy. As Brussels knows very well. The World Order based on US rules is over and the US has already lost the war in Ukraine because it failed to overthrow Russia in time to avoid transformations such as the enlargement of the BRICS. Which are now worth much more than the G7! Its the US that is more isolated today than at the beginning of the war! Which is what defines the defeat of the US and not Russia in Ukraine!
I leave a link to a video about the BRICS decision and its meaning for the Global Order on Canadian television. But I could leave many more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyfl7ftznGU
Thanks an all the best to Gera in Russia.
Hello Paulo!
I am very grateful to you for the friendly attitude on the site, on which I feel a bit of a stranger.
I am good. I continue to regularly read all of Larry’s articles and the discussion below the articles. I just move to a country house for the summer, where I don’t take my laptop, and writing and translating from a smartphone is inconvenient. But I usually do not want to get involved in the discussion, because for objective reasons I may have a different view of things.
I put forward the thesis “the nation that knows how to lose will win” and did not expand it on purpose in the hope that someone would pay attention to the remark, understand or not understand what I meant.
In other words, you can also say this: in a global confrontation, a nation that can take a hit, that can retreat, accept temporary defeat, focus on all-round defense, gather the rest of its forces alone, without outside help, and be reborn will win.
Such nations on the planet can be counted on the fingers. The Russians have proven they can do it.
The pendulum of history for the twentieth century has been swung to an enormous amplitude. Through the war in Ukraine, it swung in the opposite direction and is picking up speed.
I did not accidentally leave my post under Kurt’s post. For some reason, he gave me the idea. I wondered if the Americans would be able to withstand the blow of the pendulum, accept defeat, would they have the courage to retreat, or would they stubbornly race towards the abyss like lemings. I don’t know the answer to this question. Time will show.
I hope I was able to explain my thought.
Okay. I think I get it. And no, the US does not know how to retreat! Because they believe they are exceptional after so many years as a hegemonic power and because its not the national interest that drives US foreign policy. It’s internal politics, today the democratic party and often private interests like the MIC! And the proof that they don’t know how to retreat is that if they have retreated earlier, they would lose much less!
But we also have to take into account several points. Militarily its not a direct confrontation between Russia and the US. Impossible between two nuclear powers. But if it were, the defeat of the US in the conventional phase of the war, before the rise to nuclear power, was much greater. Today Russia has weapons that in a direct confrontation with the US, the US Forces could not ship a single soldier to Europe. They were all wrecked off the US coast! The proxy war in the UA was not designed to defeat Russia on its border. Even the US is not that stupid. The idea was to cause a pain threshold that would act in conjunction with economic sanctions to overthrow Putin. But the US has failed militarily and economically! As we see from the performance of the Russian economy and once again at the BRICS Summit. Because let’s not forget that the war in Ukraine is part of a much larger global economic war. Where unfortunately the UA only collaborated with the meat. And my EU with the economy! I feel like crying, Gera.
And still, a topic militar much talked about. About the fact that the US and the West mostly sent a lot of scrap metal to Ukraine to fight Russia. Because we always see ourselves with a very advanced civilization and we really are, despite much of our most recent technological advances adding little to people’s quality of life. The truth is that the function of a refrigerator has not changed and one of the great consequences of a refrigerator full of electronics is having a much shorter lifespan. Which is good for company sales and for the natural resources we consume without need to buy a new fridge every 10 years, but it’s bad for customers when the fridge breaks down on the hottest day of the year.
But even climate change people don’t care much about mindless resource consumption. Its estimated that if car owners in Europe and the US continued to maintain their car for 10 years, more than half of the increase in car pollution over the past 30 years would be resolved. Now, think about textiles. The biggest source of pollution today.
But back to the war, a war for hegemony is not much different today than it was 20 centuries ago. A war is a war, where as a rule, whoever has the most advanced weapons wins. And this enlargement of the BRICS is also only possible because Russia has just proved that it is today the greatest military power. The Saudis never joined the BRICS if they thought that tomorrow the US could do to them what they did to Iraq, when nobody had the weapons to defeat the US! At the time the greatest military power.
And the reason why more advanced Western weapons have not appeared in the UA is very simple. Because Russia also has weapons systems to climb. And the real game changer of this war, as it was already calculated, were the Russian hypersonic missiles. Who the US MIC of the US lost billions in prestige when they saw the Patriots burn. An experience they don’t want to repeat with jets or tanks! And this is the reason why we don’t see more advanced US weapons in the UA. Because beyond the risk of nuclear climb, they would have the same fate as the Patriots on the level of conventional war.
To make it clear how Russia also won this war in military terms a long time ago! And how is a military victory or defeat still as important today in terms of hegemony as it was in the time of the Roman Empire? Only imbeciles like Petraeus are still thinking about turning Ukraine into a Vietnam for Russia. He shouldn’t look at the number of Ukrainian casualties either! Or perhaps they are thinking of mobilizing the amputee superheroes as they are called in the US!
Sorry for the long text and all the best to Gera.
And I forgot to answer the million dollar question. When does the war end? Well, according to some military experts, very soon. Simply because Ukraine is on the brink of military collapse. Not being a military expert I can only believe it or not. One thing is clear to me today. Ukraine no longer has reserves to defend its territory. So when and if Russia decides to go on the offensive it defeats Ukraine very quickly. But the idea I have is that Russia is more interested in demilitarizing Ukraine without major casualties.
And the other hypothesis for this war to end is how all the most recent wars have ended. With the change of the political cycle on the side that provoked the war. Because as I said at the beginning, its internal policy that drives US foreign policy. And before the change of political cycle in the US, it may be the change of political cycle in the EU already this winter to withdraw support for the US and NATO in this war. Which, to be honest, is the hypothesis I believe in the most. The German Govt is totally worn out!
Just a last note for a nice tweet I saw today in my feed about the BRICS Summit conclusions.
BRICS-2023 Summit — a checkmate to Western hegemony. By Elena Panina, director of RUSSTRAT Institute.
https://twitter.com/apocalypseos/status/1695191112628294042
And above all to say that the US will always be a great economy and the faster they accept and integrate themselves into a world where they are just a great economy, the better for the world and for all Americans! The world does not need more wars but peace to develop its poorest parts. Like Africa.
Avoid falling into a catastrophic Stupidity Trap!
Petraeus, Mattis, McMaster, espcially Sir Henry Kissinger, and Bannon, all stuck their heads in the Thucydides Trap.
JCS Chief Dempsey warned the Obama Admin about this!
https://larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2018/eirv45n11-20180316/14-22_4511.pdf
Book Review : The Alcibiades Trap: The Stupidity of Anglo-American Arrogance
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/putin-skip-g20-summit-india-ukraine-boasts-icc-arrest-warrant-impact
Not to beat a dead horse. But as to the “Putin didn’t whack Prig, it would have been bad press” contingent. Putin (who I admire and support) is an international pariah. Who cannot even readily travel to many locales. I repeat. He has Zero Fucks To Give about “sentiment”.
I agree. Putin, I believe, can and does get the job done. Wagner was becoming dangerous and Prigozhin a loose cannon. Read Simplicius on this.
One does not have to turn Putin into St Francis to respect him and to support Russia and the emerging multipolar world against Ukronazism, dollar hegemony, and the Empire of Lies.
I have finally caught Larry in a completely unsubstantiated statement
” I guess he was too busy banging his mistress to take a moment or two to get a decent briefing on the Russian military.”
There are NO data available anywhere about the supposedly awesome sexual prowess of P. that Larry’s statement suggests. Not stopping even for a moment?! I looked up “priapism” in the dictionary and Petraeus is not mentioned.
Or is this misogynism by any chance? Blame the woman? It was the fault of his nymphomaniac mistress that he didn’t get a proper military briefing?
I say let’s wait for credible data…
Petraeus has his head, mind an’ all, stuck in Thucydides’ Trap.
Aught to be a law against that!
Credible data abundantly available.
And Mattis’, Bannon’s, McMaster’s heads are all stuck in that very same trap. Some kind of group thingy?
Yes, think Larry is going too low there, take care of the maybe few female´s comments, or Petraeus is winning, what a pity, maybe a blog-fatigue…
Call feminist police instantly! Talk to the manager! Cancel Larry! Or, maybe, go ef yourself, without Petraeus.
4 guys in a bubble talking to each other
When one is surrounded by bullshit, one needs to find a bubble of sanity where reality rules.
First, I want to say that I very much appreciated the round table, and thought your contribution was valuable.
Second, this may be a bit lengthy. I recently watched Garland Nixon ( love his rambling & rants), and had a serious”ah-ha” moment. Simplified: He stated the neocons/neoliberals did not have the “emotional or mental ability and to change their narrative”.
He drove the point home in a way that made me realize my “view” of “their” “narratives”, from a standpoint of “motives” as been incorrect.
We have made all kinds of excuses for these irrational & ridiculous statements, believing the underlying reasons were:
1) Optics/PR/Brainwashing
2) Money/Lobbyist/Grift
3) Power/Hegemony/Masters
What if none of those “reasons” actually exist? Because we keep seeing the irrationality of their actions.
I think it is a Garland suggest, and I’ll word it in my own understanding (Regarding “Russia” only as topic)
These people, the Kagans, Clinton’s, Kissinger, McCains… you get the picture. For the last 30 years at least have written a book, Complete with landscapes, characters, plots, side plots, and of course “the ending”.
These people “live” in this book. Their “narrative” isn’t a “narrative” , it’s “facts” for them, it’s “what’s written” . They are characters in their own novel.
If they change the narrative, that would mean throwing the book away & since they are in the book, they can never do that.
I’m saying it’s beyond a psychosis. The “narrative” can never change. It’s why you see the U.S. the last 30 years with a trajectory of ??
Its “ending” has been “written”… “Russia has lost”…”The US has the most powerful military in the World”
No matter what floppy floppy actions these people punt to in order to survive, the “narratives” will never change. It’s “continuity” from one administration to the next is endless.
The “book” isn’t written for change or “facts”… it’s fantasy, it’s “how things ought to be”.
Garland was right. These people don’t have the “emotional or mental ability to step outside of their narrative”. They simply can’t, whether they gain or lose from the narrative, “it is written so therefore it is”.
It’s obvious to me now, that others have figured that out. And know what needs to be done to preserve humanity on the planet and are ready to do it.
Agree, it is beyond psychosis, although the players are psychotic. It is a secular religion. Based on Nihilism. It’s secular mysteries are death, whether- pre-birth abortion, deadly drug culrure (far beyond fentanyl and nRNa), perpetual war, and all demonic perversions which are exhalted. It demand perpetual hate and the professing unceasing, and forever changing, lies as a profession of adherence.
Or maybe I’m missing something…
I like Garland. Alisdair Crooke’s interview with Judge Nap yesterday, that someone mentioned in the comments, is also worth a look. here’s the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUcioUWQykM
Just came across this on MOA. A very good deconstrunction of the ‘Narrative’ process in action:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/08/information-designed-to-show-.html#more
Thanks for that, very interesting. I like Garland; he’s full of insight. Cop. He’s dealt with criminals professionally and is very savvy.
Seriously, this is tedious and boring.
Wrong assessments lead to wrong decisions.
Let Patreus and the Kagan cabal continue misleading Empire of Lies in its delusion. It may well lead to the restoration of our constitutional freedoms at an earlier date.
David Petraeus served in the US Army for 37years, including stints as commander of the Multi-National Force – Iraq (MNF-I), Feb 10, 2007- Sept 16, 2008 and commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and U.S. Forces – Afghanistan (USFOR-A), July 4, 2010 – July 18, 2011, which included the Afghan Surge. Result- US troops have been in Iraq since 2005. Despite spending $2 trillion of taxpayer money for 2 decades, all US troops were removed from Afghanistan in Aug, 2021, an event marked by desperate Afghans who collaborated with occupying US forces frantically clinging to the wings and engines of American military transport aircraft taking off from Kabul airport. Have any of the military campaigns Petraeus has overseen resulted in ‘victory’ or positive outcome? Further, Petraeus and his colleagues appear to have a remarkably cavalier attitude about spending virtually unlimited amounts of taxpayer money.
All Ukraine needs is a couple more billion dollars worth of aid, preferable in $100.00 bills…..
TuckerCarlson in conversation with Colonel Douglas McGregor:
An alarming current analysis of the U.S. military, its military-technological insanity, and its failure on the battlefield.
On the dangers of war for the US in Ukraine.
A must read because of the many insider military details from the mouth of a connoisseur of the subject.👍
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyLOd2pOqy0&t=260s
An absolute eye opener.
The appearance is essential-the essence is in the appearance.
“I guess he was too busy banging his mistress to take a moment or two to get a decent briefing on the Russian military.”
This is truthful statement, Larry.
The only word I would change is from “busy” to “weak.”
How can a man in such a high place of responsibility, have his desires rule over him? His affair didn’t jump up and bite him on the pecker. He went along step by step and decided that betraying his own wife was acceptable, while he was entrusted to remain loyal to his country.
What a high altitude cluster fuck of a General, not to mention the rest of his incompetence, yet he dares mention Iraq.
The science of Organizational Behavior will tell you that an incompetent organization will surround itself with lesser competent people than those at the very top.
Excellent round table.
” But war is expensive. Russia does not and cannot afford a 10-year war. ”
Are you sure? I read the last Russian Budget included spending for the war out to 2029. And then there is the ongoing expansion of the Russian military announced last December, which officials have repeatedly informed is still on track, and possilby even added to more recently.
Though I am not sure if recent military expansion announcements are just re-announcemnts of what was first put out last December, or new additional ones. You would have to be a native Russian speaker and analyze the Budgets etc in great detail to discern this. But either way it does not matter, the trend is clear, the Russian military will be adding a lot more units in the near future, and almost all in the western regions next to NATO, the most obvious threat.
Given the amount spent so far by NATO, I would say that is the West who can’t afford much more war. As fighting a war requires equipment and soldiers, both of which are not gong to be produced in the West in near large enough numbers to defeat Russia. You can announce vast new spending on “defense” all you want, but results matter more than words, and the size of the US military budget vs actual battlefield results shows the extent of the problem. The US could double defense spending to $2 Trillion a year, but would it make any practical difference, other than even greater profits for a few select companies and associated individuals?
On the “defense” spending front, only the USA wants to, or can, spend more, the rest of NATO does their usual loud chihuaha barking, while actually cutting (or at best not increasing much) defense spending. The usual pattern is to announce with great fanfare “massive increases in defence spending” then quietly reverse that a few weeks or months later. This is the consistent pattern in the UK, Germany, Canada and most others, even France talks a big game but does little, and now the Niger criis will likely absorb any French military energy for the forseeable future, at least until the inevitable failure of their attempt at power projection back to Africa, in a year or two.
If you think “moar F-35s!” will redress the problem you might believe. As long as the weather includes no rain or thunderstorms or snowstorms, and 1 or 2 sorties a week will be allowed by the enemy to continue for months or years, until “Victory!” is achieved.
And that entire discussion does not include how exactly this will all be afforded anyway, as the West sinks deeper into financial/economic/$/Euro hegemony crisis. It will come down to buy food, or buy guns, but you can’t afford both, and while the MIC will want more guns, the people will choose more food – to over-simplify it, but you get the point.
So the only likely avenue left to continue the war is nuclear escalation, to the inevitable dead end, as the war will be over when there is no one left alive to fight it.
My friend I do not disagree. But my point is that Putin would rather spend money on worthwhile things versus the war machine.
And yes, Russia will spend the West into the hole on this. But Putin would rather have that money going into people.
“On August 25, 2023, a plane crash occurred in Zhytomyr Region. During a combat mission, two L-39 aircraft collided in the sky. Three pilots died. Among the dead is a pilot with the call sign ‘JUICE’.”
Three pilots? Three percent of the current number of surviving Ukrainian pilots? (Minus 6 learning English in Texas?)
Klitschko, the ass kicker, was in Poland recently. He admitted that becoming a world boxing champ was easier than working as mayor of Kiev. He also pointed out that as “we all know,” Russia is going to extend its empire to include Moldavia and Poland, once Ukraine is defeated.
As quoted in a Polish report:
“Putin chce odbudować sowieckie imperium i wszyscy wiemy, że jak pokona Ukrainę, to ruszy na kolejne kraje, na Mołdawię, na Polskę – mówił Kliczko i dodawał, że w tym kontekście trzeba mówić, że Ukraińcy walczą nie tylko o siebie, ale i inne narody.”
This is why, concludes Klitschko, Ukrainians are fighting not only to defend their country but also to defend other countries. QED.
His head is made for punching, not for thinking. Nuland knew it right from the start (I think it was part of F* EU phonecall), but it took him a while to realize it.
Did you watch the Republican debate? When all the hopefuls were asked who was against the war in Ukraine, only Ramaswamy’s arm was raised up straight. It shocked me to see how DeSanctimonious was raising his half-bend arm looking around for a “mommy” to approve. The rest were dead set for the war to continue. Now, the designated press writes with scorn about Ukraine’s sudden “aversion to casualties.” They feel cheated that Ukraine is hoarding “the last Ukrainian” vs. the prior slogans.
‘
So many turns in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and third parts, what escalated and ended in the war, if tiny European think they will develope the same with Russia, thats a grandiose imagination of their own signific-ance, so they reacted black and white, 2022, and chose war, as something quite natural.
Began as Sweden talking of Carolus Rex 12, Karl XII, from defeat 1709 and Poltava, how could that deadly virus been hid in the Swedish spine, for 300 years,but the king was shot in the temple in the battlefield against Norway, 30 /11 1718 and why not the Czar’s smart galley ships whom raided the Swedish coast 1719-1721, burning but not killing, but that was a bombing for peace, because Sweden wasn’t able as today for agreements, and peace, they built a little town at the Aaland for this event, two years.
Maybe we will see a repetition, this year, but the war activated the most toxic substance of the Swedish’s imperial heritage, even within the Socialdemocrats, so not limited to the officercorps at the Karlberg war academy, one can’t believe it, but how can Sweden pull out of this warmongering and as 1718, begin to solve her domestic problems, and they are localized all over the country, in every township and quarters and not in Donbass. Time is running out, for the Swedish former welfare state.
A Swedish disaster as 1709, Poltava, and 1718. But as in Libya, Sweden are the Merchants of death, they’re in it for money, marketing JAS39 Gripen, CV90, ATG 86, Grg´s, in the real battlefield in Ukraine, not better as
Adolf Eichmann´s Nazis, ” Blut-Gegen-Waren,offer of 1944, July , 1 million Jews against 10.000 lorries.
Sweden as a cynic Gestapo official, and the whole project must be pun-ished back home, as Churchill said then, July 20, 1944, :”They (Nazis) will be hunted down and put to death ! ”
But that will not, and should not occur in Sweden of course, but trials for warmongering, thats more important to prepare, than to ban the burning of Al-Quran, we need a Swedish Nuremberg-trial, of all those active in warmongering, politicians and military officers, who put 17 billions in the black hole of Ukraine. Time to protest against this Swedish Merchants of Death ! “Blut-Gegen-Waren” is Swedish Nazi-foreign policy, and this must end soon.
Sweden does not market Gripen BAe does
Wrong Paul, there is a joint
enterprise, with the Wallen-bergs owned Saab in Linköp-ing, and Bae for marketing and selling the plane, called : Gripen International, but Sweden’s marketing and declarations of sending it to
inter alia Ukraine, must be the decisive marketing effort to export the plane, abroad,and those 8 JAS in the Libya war 2011, was explicit a marketing project. But JAS for Ukraine is far away, if possible at all.
What may appear as arrogance, stupidity has quite another cause today – AI.
In case you “older” guys scoff – AI is a Pentagon Strategic Imperative : Palantir AIP : Defense and Military
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEM5qz__HOU
This AIP, integrated with OpenAI and Bard, from billionaire Thiel (major GOP donor), is ready to both generate and conduct military operations.
Palantir CEO Karp already in Feb told WaPo that AIP was already used in Ukraine.
Obvious question – what if a Chatbot gave firing orders and the Pentagon only found out later?
This is likely why Musk and others call for a moratorium! There is a Congress bill to block AI and nukes.
AI integrated all across NATO, EU replicates a special kind of “stupidy”. This has progressed recently with a mega $boom. Nominally NATO outlet Asiatimes has many articles :
https://asiatimes.com/tag/artificial-intelligence/
We know RF is using AI in drone swarms, and there is a big deal.
BUT when D.C. Brussels, Top Brass use ChatGPT what do we get? Stuff that drives “old-school” nuts. A machine cannot be appealed to with REASON, Morality, common-sense, humor – none of which it processes.
Could it be RF is fighting a machine, and well-meaning western appeals to a machine have clearly no effect no matter whether bombast, paradox, irony is used?
That was the USA- a big hit
An erotic embrace for young and ..people after God’s creation.
A song that many bands played for dancing on Saturday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbZq5idUJcI
Thank you.
Thanks Larry and Judging Freedom – the best panel I know on the net for understanding what is happening in Ukraine and the US neocon response. It’s refreshing also that the panel gives a well informed and honest view of who Putin is instead of the usual main stream media portrayal of him as an ‘evil’ thug.
The IQ and class in this video is higher then all of Washington haha
Petreaus Spent more time jogging at CIA than he did thinking & learning! 😆
Painful watching this vid. The tension between Larry and Scott was thick enough to cut with the proverbial knife. I felt critical towards Ritter for the arrogance he displayed towards Gonzolo Lira but even so I learned allot, specifically about Wagner as a real deal mercenary outfit, money, money … . But that said Ritter was off base predicting that the Ukrainian leadership will end up on the quarter deck of the USS Missouri at the appointed time. I don’t think so, no comparison. We know that the Japanese were quite ready to surrender unconditionally, or almost unconditionally; that is, they would not allow their emperor to suffer humiliation. Just that. Now think ‘Zelenski’ This guy would probably get a bullet in the back of the head before he got the fountain pen out of his jacket pocket. My expectation is that the Russian army will be obliged to occupy a country that no longer has a government. Remember, the Americans bankroll everything, not just the military but the civil government as well. When the plug gets pulled, who’s going to show up at the office waiting for the armoured vehicles to roll into town? As for Petreaus, thank heavens for such men. Thanks to people like DP, the Ukrainian army is fated to stay on the attack, where the kill ratio is astronomical, and the war certain to end sooner, with minimal Russian casualties, though 50,000 is really a great deal, a great sacrifice. They should build a statue to the guy, with the inscription ‘Those Whom the Gods Would Destroy ..’