Like a degenerate gambler who has emptied his bank account and is now borrowing from the Casino to continue his losing ways, the Biden Administration reportedly is reversing course and moving towards supplying F-16s to Ukraine. CNN reports:
President Joe Biden informed G7 leaders on Friday that the US will support a joint effort with allies and partners to train Ukrainian pilots on fourth generation aircraft, including F-16s, a senior administration official tells CNN.
The training is not expected to happen in the US, the official said, and will likely happen entirely in Europe. But US personnel will participate in the training alongside allies and partners in Europe, the official said. It is expected to take several months to complete and the official said the hope is it will begin “in the coming weeks.”
The decision marks a stark turnaround for Biden, who said earlier this year that he did not believe that Ukraine needed the F-16s. The decision to support the training initiative came together very quickly, officials said, and was made by Biden following meetings with G7 leaders in Hiroshima, Japan, where the topic of F-16s to Ukraine was a key point of discussion. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been pushing particularly hard in recent days for countries that have the jets in their stockpile to send them to Ukraine so that the country can better defend itself against Russia’s daily aerial attacks.
This is a panic move by the Biden team. The F-16s will make no tactical nor strategic change in the trajectory of this war. Ukraine’s prospects of reversing Russian success in its “Special Military Operation” grows more bleak with each passing day as the Russian Air Force and Army relentlessly pummel beleaguered Ukrainian troops with hypersonic missiles, 500 kilogram bombs, drones, artillery and troop assaults.
The tempo of the war underway in Ukraine has shifted dramatically in Russia’s favor and Ukraine has no answer. It is running out of artillery shells, tanks, aircraft and, most importantly, trained fighters who can execute large unit maneuvers. Delusion reigns supreme among most of the NATO allies, who insist that this war will drag on and that Ukraine will continue to stubbornly resist and exhaust the Russians.
Western leaders should recall Vladimir Putin’s warning issued during a speech to the Russian Duma in July 2022:
“Today we hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield.”
“Well, what can I say? Let them try.”
“We have already heard a lot about the West wanting to fight us ‘to the last Ukrainian.’ ”
“This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but that seems to be where it is going.”
“But everyone should know that, by and large, we have not started anything in earnest yet.”
US-dominated Western regimes opposed to conflict resolution talks “should know that the longer (Russia’s SMO) goes on, the harder it will be for them to negotiate with us.”
Time and again I stressed the futility of diplomatic outreach to the US/West by Russia and other nations free from their control.
The only language their ruling regimes understand is toughness.
No other course of action is effective in dealing with them — why it’s a waste of time and effort trying.
I suspect Putin had a Bachman Turner Overdrive tune in mind when he made this declaration:
Check out the following video (sorry, I can’t figure out how to embed it). It shows one of the recently provided mobile artillery pieces firing away a few days back:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/J9_sfRkDgTM
Here is the photo of that same vehicle a day after that video was shot.
This is the fate that awaits the F-16s if they are introduced into the Ukraine theater of combat.
An organization, the Eisenhower Media Network, has posted an important letter pleading for some sanity in Washington with respect to Ukraine and Russia. I applaud those who signed the letter:
Dennis Fritz, Director, Eisenhower Media Network; Command Chief Master Sergeant, US Air Force (retired)
Matthew Hoh, Associate Director, Eisenhower Media Network; Former Marine Corps officer, and State and Defense official.
William J. Astore, Lieutenant Colonel, US Air Force (retired)
Karen Kwiatkowski, Lieutenant Colonel, US Air Force (retired)
Dennis Laich, Major General, US Army (retired)
Jack Matlock, U.S. Ambassador to the U.S.S.R., 1987-91; author of Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended
Todd E. Pierce, Major, Judge Advocate, U.S. Army (retired)
Coleen Rowley, Special Agent, FBI (retired)
Jeffrey Sachs, University Professor at Columbia University
Christian Sorensen, Former Arabic linguist, US Air Force
Chuck Spinney, Retired Engineer/Analyst, Office of Secretary of Defense
Winslow Wheeler, National security adviser to four Republican and Democratic US
Lawrence B. Wilkerson, Colonel, US Army (retired)
Ann Wright, Colonel, US Army (retired) and former US diplomat
I fear their warning will be ignored. They paid to get it in the New York Times, but the rest of the establishment media chose to ignore it. They do so at their own peril. Here are some key portions of the letter (you can read it in its entirety here.)
The Russia-Ukraine War has been an unmitigated disaster. Hundreds of thousands have been killed or wounded. Millions have been displaced. Environmental and economic destruction have been incalculable. Future devastation could be exponentially greater as nuclear powers creep ever closer toward open war.
We deplore the violence, war crimes, indiscriminate missile strikes, terrorism, and other atrocities that are part of this war. The solution to this shocking violence is not more weapons or more war, with their guarantee of further death and destruction.
As Americans and national security experts, we urge President Biden and Congress to use their full power to end the Russia-Ukraine War speedily through diplomacy, especially given the grave dangers of military escalation that could spiral out of control.
Sixty years ago, President John F. Kennedy made an observation that is crucial for our survival today. “Above all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy–or of a collective death-wish for the world.”
The immediate cause of this disastrous war in Ukraine is Russia’s invasion. Yet the plans and actions to expand NATO to Russia’s borders served to provoke Russian fears. And Russian leaders made this point for 30 years. A failure of diplomacy led to war. Now diplomacy is urgently needed to end the Russia-Ukraine War before it destroys Ukraine and endangers humanity. . . .
U.S. Actions and Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
As the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended, U.S. and Western European leaders assured Soviet and then Russian leaders that NATO would not expand toward Russia’s borders. “There would be no extension of…NATO one inch to the east,” U.S. Secretary of State James Baker told Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990. Similar assurances from other U.S. leaders as well as from British, German and French leaders throughout the 1990s confirm this.
Since 2007, Russia has repeatedly warned that NATO’s armed forces on Russian borders were intolerable – just as Russian forces in Mexico or Canada would be intolerable to the U.S. now, or as Soviet missiles in Cuba were in 1962. Russia further singled out NATO expansion into Ukraine as especially provocative.
Seeing the War Through Russia’s Eyes
Our attempt at understanding the Russian perspective on their war does not endorse the invasion and occupation, nor does it imply the Russians had no other option but this war.
Yet, just as Russia had other options, so too did the U.S. and NATO leading up to this moment.
The Russians made their red lines clear. In Georgia and Syria, they proved they would use force to defend those lines. In 2014, their immediate seizure of Crimea and their support of Donbas separatists demonstrated they were serious in their commitment to defending their interests. Why this was not understood by U.S. and NATO leadership is unclear; incompetence, arrogance, cynicism, or a treacherous mixture of all three are likely contributing factors.
Again, even as the Cold War ended, U.S. diplomats, generals and politicians were warning of the dangers of expanding NATO to Russia’s borders and of maliciously interfering in Russia’s sphere of influence. Former Cabinet officials Robert Gates and William Perry issued these warnings, as did venerated diplomats George Kennan, Jack Matlock and Henry Kissinger. In 1997, fifty senior U.S. foreign policy experts wrote an open letter to President Bill Clinton advising him not to expand NATO, calling it “a policy error of historic proportions.” President Clinton chose to ignore these warnings.
Most important to our understanding of the hubris and Machiavellian calculation in U.S. decision-making surrounding the Russia-Ukraine War is the dismissal of the warnings issued by Williams Burns, the current director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In a cable to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2008, while serving as Ambassador to Russia, Burns wrote of NATO expansion and Ukrainian membership:
“Ukraine and Georgia’s NATO aspirations not only touch a raw nerve in Russia, they engender serious concerns about the consequences for stability in the region. Not only does Russia perceive encirclement, and efforts to undermine Russia’s influence in the region, but it also fears unpredictable and uncontrolled consequences which would seriously affect Russian security interests. Experts tell us that Russia is particularly worried that the strong divisions in Ukraine over NATO membership, with much of the ethnic-Russian community against membership, could lead to a major split, involving violence or at worst, civil war. In that eventuality, Russia would have to decide whether to intervene; a decision Russia does not want to have to face.”
Why did the U.S. persist in expanding NATO despite such warnings? Profit from weapons sales was a major factor. Facing opposition to NATO expansion, a group of neoconservatives and top executives of U.S. weapons manufacturers formed the U.S. Committee to Expand NATO. Between 1996 and 1998, the largest arms manufacturers spent $51 million ($94 million today) on lobbying and millions more on campaign contributions. With this largesse, NATO expansion quickly became a done deal, after which U.S. weapons manufacturers sold billions of dollars of weapons to the new NATO members.
So far, the U.S. has sent $30 billion worth of military gear and weapons to Ukraine, with total aid to Ukraine exceeding $100 billion. War, it’s been said, is a racket, one that is highly profitable for a select few.
NATO expansion, in sum, is a key feature of a militarized U.S. foreign policy characterized by unilateralism featuring regime change and preemptive wars. Failed wars, most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, have produced slaughter and further confrontation, a harsh reality of America’s own making. The Russia-Ukraine War has opened a new arena of confrontation and slaughter. This reality is not entirely of our own making, yet it may well be our undoing, unless we dedicate ourselves to forging a diplomatic settlement that stops the killing and defuses tensions.
Let’s make America a force for peace in the world.
As you read this letter I suggest you listen to some Simon and Garfunkle. Profound and prophetic:
They don’t listen to voters, they don’t listen to regional experts, why should they listen to any one with military expertise?
why should they? they truly believe in the mystery and legend of the US that they where bought up with, that it is the USA is the greatest and can do anything she decides, and no one can stop her!
more sanctions, more weapons, more conflicts every where until they get what they want, consequences be dammed the price is worth it and some one else will have to pay for it.
Then let them imbibe themselves on the harlot, Mystery Babylon’s, breast milk, who will then curse her own children and sacrifice them.
Mystery Babylon. Might be you are correct.
They can always find a stooge or true believer with ‘military expertise’ that will back their plans.
That said, I’m rethinking just now the motivations behind the 2008 Georgian SMO. The trigger was of course Saakashvili’s order for a surprise attack on Tshkinval, killing peacekeepers and civilians alike but underlying that event, I’d always considered the same intention by NATO to establish another Black Sea naval base as repeated again with Crimea to be primary. Now I’m thinking a second element was possibly as important to western interests, and that was the ability to leverage Georgia’s proximity to Chechnya and its Pankisi Gorge as a staging ground for Chechen insurgents of that period, which it has already served as. Whether the US actively supported Chechen insurgents (a la Syrian jihadis) or not is irrelevant, as Russia believes it has concrete proof of it and we’re talking 2008, shortly after the Chechen insurgency was drawing to a close, so It wouldn’t at all be surprising if western ‘interventionists’ (warmongering regime changers, if you prefer), were tempted by both in their frankly, overt and unusual interest in Georgia.
Maybe this was all already obvious to some but for some reason, my thoughts clicked on it this morning.
Not before the past 4 years did I fully believe how corrupt, citizen-hating and destructive the “Divided States of America” government is. Currently, the Biden Regime has an almost insatiable taste for the lifeblood of other countries and actively advertises its villainous moves. Past administrations, including Obama, were the same but they tended to “fly under the radar” in their opportunistic rape of other countries.
Yup. The people driving these conflicts believe they can sit in their ivory towers safe from any consequences. And for several decades that has been the case. But those towers are crumbling and the occupants are running around in circles shouting incoherently. I really hope the ivory towers collapse soon.
I love your choice of music, Larry. I would add Ballad of a Thin Man. “Something’s happening here and you don’t know what it is, do you Mr. Jones”.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Ballad+of+a+thin+man&&view=detail&mid=14C162EBCE97BBE334E514C162EBCE97BBE334E5&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3DBallad%2Bof%2Ba%2Bthin%2Bman%26FORM%3DHDRSC4
Something is happening, and you don’t know what it is, do you Mr. Biden.
I agree with the musical choices too. The acoustic Simon and Garfunkel is especially poignant.
And I think Mr. Biden knows what it is, but few others are talking about it.
All of the letter facts are true, but from my perspective when whole countries are following the same policy script, it suggests something of a deeper problem and of a different complexion. I recall that Stephen F. Cohen (RIP) was describing the “ungovernable” condition of the United States; he was referring to the deep state and its factions, its divisions, and its manipulations within government. He also referred to Russia having a fifth column run by Western elements that were a small force of Russians trying to actively work with the US and its objectives. He referred to this as a fifth column and thankfully one that was increasingly held in contempt by the general population that was much more aware than Western populations. The US and most of the technocracies of the West have their own fifth column and, unlike in Russia, control much of the internal and some of the external policies of their governments. These are the trained globalists who have captured so many countries. And unlike Russians, their populations are largely unaware of their activities.
These policies are concurrent and universally exercised by these governments.
For example, an average measure for their Covid and inoculations policies, reveals excess deaths: on average, of these countries is 20% higher than normal for 2023. Canada, and other countries have not released figures and I suspect they have been censored, but some countries have suffered up to 46% increase in excess deaths from these inoculations. These figures are from insurance companies.
In conclusion I am saying that globalists are THE major problem for the West and the decline of this civilization. Their policies have seriously increased the rates of the declines of these countries on top of the fundamental ills of the economic and monetary conditions. The the Faucis, the Bidens, the Gates are personalities that are critical movers of the agenda for globalists, and the public must become more aware of this political movement as a named foe in order to offer any resistance to a decline that will see all of these countries reduced to chaos. As it stands, there is little real discussion about the threat of globalism to the West and if anything is to be done, this has to change.
FWIW,
L.
Agreed, and FWIW Globalism is a UK project using America as its battering ram. Richard Poe has spent 30+ years investigating this and his research is exhaustive.
Recently reinstated on Twitter, he’s been a regular guest on the Mel K show. He’d be an outstanding addition to the Judging Freedom team. Maybe you can put in a good word for him.
Here’s a few links
https://twitter.com/RealRichardPoe/status/1366423335148650502
https://rumble.com/v2begtw-mel-k-with-author-and-journalist-richard-poe-puppet-masters-and-perception-.html
Excellent choice, julian!
4th generation aircraft for the most distracted can still look like something less than 50 years old! Ukraine started the war with many 4th generation fighter jets! Most never got up. And all who received it already in the course of the war have met the same end. Except the ghost of Kiev! There is no party involved in this conflict as insane as the UK! They beat the American neocons to the points! Government, Press and the majority of the population! It seems that they still haven’t gotten around to provoking two World Wars per their hatred for Russia! It was high time for Russia to teach them a lesson they would never forget! Subtle, so only they could feel it! Beefs sons of a bitch!
But coming back to reason beyond the perfidious Albion, I find it more impressive than the F16, looking at the illustration and thinking we can’t see an armored vehicle from Ukraine without the Balkenkreuz of the Nazi Wermacht! But it also seems that no one is responsible for the AFU nor does anyone in the West care much about this infamy again on the great European plains! They should all burn in hell again! And Biden should be in jail! Long time!
I, for one, am disgusted to be British, Paulo. Everyone, well at least 80% of the British population, have been so brainwashed by BBC and our MSM that they actually believe Putin and Russia are evil. Even the ‘nicest’ of people ignore the neo-Nazis that we support in the hell-hoe that is Ukraine. I know that my grandfathers would be hammering with rage in their coffins if they knew what we were supporting today. We, and USA, are governed by an evil all-powerful banking & industrial class, supported by their deranged and corrupted bureaucratic minions. It is tragic. We fully deserve the pain that is coming our way. And we know that butt-hurt has to come in order to clean the swamp. I just pray that the pain will only be economic and not too bloody.
Agree with what you say except for this:
“We fully deserve the pain that is coming our way”
Let’s lay the blame at the feet of those who would deem to be masters of the universe. The Deep State, the Establishment, TPTB, whatever you want to call them.
Regular Joes have done nothing but suffer under the financial regime that was ushered in with the establishment of the Federal Reserve in 1913, trading their labor to pay interest on debt, the funds for which the banking class created out of nothing in the form of credit. All while the value of the money they earned for previous labor is eroded through inflation.
yeah “We The People” were too busy watching Dancing With the Stars and voting for the same old assholes over and over again.
The American people all need glass navels – a lens insrted in their navels so they can see where they are going with the American medical conditions called “Anal-Cranial” inversion.
Bidet may not have gotten 81 million votes – duh – but he did get millions, that means millions went for this shit. Obama, yep, Clinton, many millions of votes. Its quite embarassing to be American these days.
I am puzzled by lack of outrage over the treason-invasion over the border. WTF are people thinking?
Brits were fighting evil Russians in Crimea long before BBC became a thing. Denying Russians warm sea access is not a thing that came into existance yestarday.
and only the terminally deluded coud think they could actually turn Sevastopol into an American Navy base. The Russian would create the worlds largest artificial reef in the Black Sea
I have a truely beautiful Russian Blue cat the species is a tough wee thing native to Sevastapol and was introduced to the UK by Russian merchant sailors trading into the UK. Well I have it since it was a wee 6 week old that could sleep in my hand and with its wee forepaws and head haging over my thumb as I typed we wouldnt part with each other she sleeps on a folded up blanket at my elbow on top the duvet every night and wakens me in the morning if need be. Thing is theyre pure bred and expensive now and people love them for being from Russia I am lucky enough to have some Russian families as friends and boyo are they the lovliest people we take turns to meet up every few years but are always in contact I wish USA+UK would stop the bloody propaganda Russia and Russians are no ones enemy and unlike the EU/UK/USA dont want to rob asnyone. Anyway I believe that the BRICS+ is leading to great changes in the world with it becoming more equal with a multipolar world.
Travel is my hobby. I like to free-form, never take “tours”, but hit the ground and explore.
I have had the privilege to have met people from all over the world.
Without exception the Russians I have met were among the nicest, warmest, open and friendly people of any I have ever met.
Russian literature is deep, intellectually challenging, introspective and multi layered. Russia music is complex, melodic and highly original. Art and architecture the same.
My favorite encounter was in Cambodia. I climbed to the top of one of temples in the Anglor Thom section. It was hot, and the climb was tiring but I was so proud of myself for making it.
Up at the very top was a Russian couple each drinking a cold beer The woman was jaw-dropping gorgeous, the guy handsome and fit.
She was sitting on top of a cooler. The man greeted me in French. I responded, we chatted for a minute and the woman ( his wife) graciously offered me a cold one. We had the greatest time drinking and chatting. Once they figured out I was American we conversed in English and some of my very embarrassing Russian skills.
Like I said, warm, and friendly, wonderful people. A far cry from American media/movie/TV stereotype.
Another time diving in Palawan Philippines, the dive shop set me up with a partner for a wreck dive, a Russian named Yuri. It was the best time with a damn fine diver, we had dinner and drinks after and still email each other.
I mean everywhere, Paris, Venice, Cairo I meet Russians and they are all such very fine people.
Meeting Americans traveling usually wants to make pretend I am anything but American.
Hello Henry! I have to admit that my type of comment always creates injustice and I apologize to Henry, whom I wish well. I hate generalizations myself.
But let’s face it, the propaganda swept across Europe and penetrated deeper where there was already an anti-Russian predisposition. I subscribed to the Guardian before the conflict. And the BBC in 2014 also denounced the hijacking of the Euromaidan by Nuland and the neo-Nazis. In February 2022, all news that denounced Ukrainian nationalism was deleted. Today there is no free press in the UK and the tabloids and the British rabid dogs of NAFO are the worst in the world!
As for the anti-Russian propaganda, centered on Putin, as we know it started much longer! And we have to think that if the Russians didn’t want Putin they would have overthrown him already! We no longer live in the 50s of the 20th century! Its a question of respect for the sovereignty of countries! Not long ago I read an interview with one of the most successful leaders of the anti-Putin protests in Russia, who now lives in the US, who states that she’s sure that Putin wins the elections in a legitimate way.
The only objective of the UK, which hates Russia so much, is to see the Russian oligarchs pour millions into the City again! And the same with the US!
All the best Henry!
My wife’s great aunt and uncle are Communists, they vote KPRF in local elections, oblast elections, and for the Duma, yet they vote for Putin as “he is for all the Russians”, using the Rossianye form of the noun for Russians. This says a lot.
Thanks Peter. Elections in Russia have international observers and everyone knows they are legitimate. And with the war, support for Putin only grew. Maybe there will be more cheating in US elections! Anti Putin propaganda exists because they cannot call 150 Million Russians tyrants, corrupts and murderers. It’s one of the most basic rules of propaganda when you want to rob a country full of natural resources. Like Putin kills opposition with less than 1% in the polls. Ridiculous, certainly a candidate attached to the CIA and eliminated by the CIA. Or Russian spies in England who have already been arrested in Russia for treason and released. And Putin never get the dose of poison right.😂 And I also don’t think that Russia is a perfect democracy precisely because of the harassment and interference of powers like the US but the problems of the Russian regime only concern the Russians! Its ridiculous how the US accuses Russia of interfering in US elections. As has just been learned from the Durham report! No country in the world interferes in elections in other countries like the US! In Russia the CIA always has one or more candidates. This is why Russia has to protect itself and it is so difficult to be a candidate in Russia. There is a lot of scrutiny to be a candidate and yet Navalny today is clearly a West agent! And corrupt with clear evidence.
As a ‘Brit’ too I completely agree with your sentiments. Including and especially the last 3 sentences.
I am beyond disgusted and have given an earful to my MP to the point where she refuses to engage with me on any level.
I keep emailing because I don’t want her at some point in the future to say ‘I didn’t know/realise’.
And I don’t think I’ll ever be able to vote again looking a the candidates we keep getting.
I have to remind my 97-year old WWII veteran father— 2 Purple Hearts, Battle of Okinawa, et al.— that his true home is in Heaven and not to be vexed by all the demons running this country and the West at the moment. I tell him to turn off the news and watch EWTN or old Columbo episodes.
As for the British, whom I “least Trust”, many of you might remember, that the Russian North and Baltic Fleets held an excercise near Ireland, where there were about 3 times as many ships as the Royal Navy has.
Is it me or someone else, who didn’t get the message?
Is the message that Royal Navy has no ships? 😉
I think thats the message from what I read they are also running low on semen to crew the ones that they do have that dont break down.
Going woke like the US military.
Thank you, Larry, for your everyday work.
The letter only tells half of the story on purpose so as not to compromise the US too much. Choosing to deliberately omit the coup d’état in Ukraine and the subsequent empowerment of the nationalists who set Ukraine on fire and tried to drive ethnic Russians out of the country. Almost 1/3 of the population, which today is less than 50% of what it was in the 90s. And there is no greater proof that the destruction of Ukraine has already happened! Since most will never return! And it also deliberately omits the clear objective of hijacking the European economy with an act of war like the sabotage of the Baltic gas pipelines. The US has behaved in Europe since 2014 as a terrorist organization. Pure and hard! With psychopaths at the helm like Vitoria Nuland!
“The US has behaved in Europe since 2014 as a terrorist organization.”
You are few decades off with that year. US started sponsoring terrorists in Europe in 1945, including the original Banderites. The whole effort was relatively low profile until 1990s, when it escalated quickly, mostly in the Balkans. They even threw in a few tons of depleted uranium, as one does.
Congratulations! Did you hear about Ukraine in February 2022? And if you travel to Eastern Europe you will hear that Stalin annexed half of Europe at the end of WW2! Do you understand? And I do not now intend to discuss here the valid reasons of Stalin in 45! But the important thing for Europe is that in 2003 we still said no to the war in Iraq! What is impossible after the crash of 2008! Do you think you understand? Because until then, the history of American imperialism was much more expressed in parts of the world such as the Middle East and parts of Asia such as Japan and the Philippines!
I think you replied under the wrong post.
The eastern portions of Europe were gifted to the Soviet Union by Great Britain and the United States of America. The post-WW2 carve up of Europe was as the direct result of negotiated agreement between the allied powers. Don’t just blame Stalin for this.
>>>most will never return!
A land without a people, for a people without a land!
Gonzala Lira
https://twitter.com/GonzaloLira1968/status/1517457768797679618?cxt=HHwWhMC97aDzi48qAAAA
Another man…behind…the wire..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3vnPYaSm0A
It’s just the $3 mafia…. watch the corps and the kickbacks in UKR….
Wolfe Tones song Men behind the wire is a very moving song (I’m from Ireland) and it is reminding me to contact US embassy to ask about Gonzalo.
The Wolfe Tones made some great music I have their disc but thank goodness times have changed and were at peace now.
If he isn’t dead already, do you think Zaluzhnyi may have flipped?
It explains Zelensky’s improv tour, haggard appearance and odd statements no?
It also explains the identification and lighting up of weapons storage sites no?
Maybe Zaluzhnyi has seen enough and is looking out for himself and his family (and his countrymen honestly)
To underscore, in one of his last official statements, Zaluzhny was in fact caught speaking in praise of the Russian Armed Forces and said that they should in no way ever be underestimated with regards to their combat ability. He went on to add that he was an admirer of Russian Army Commander in Chief General Gerasimov and read all his work on combat theory and strategy.
I think he always talked like that. Gerasimov was his professor, or mentor, or something like that. He also wore bracelet with swastika-like pattern in public, and took selfies in front of Stepan Bandera portrait. He also has command responsibility for uncountable war crimes, that he knew were happening, and are happening as we speak. Switching sides would not be an easy thing for him.
I don’t mean to imply but you could at least verify Zaluzhny’s age. Who already did his higher studies in an independent Ukraine. Which for someone from Western Ukraine usually does not favor sympathies with Russia. Zaluzhny is already a stooge promoted by the US and Zelensky in 2021. There are no Commanders-in-Chief aged 40 anywhere in the world! Gerasimov is admired by NATO generals across Europe. And I am right for many people in the US!
Indeed, last week Ukraine published alleged statements by Zaluzhny, without a photo, in which he said he was sweeping away the rest of Soviet thinking in the AFU! I believe something happened to Zaluzhny. Probably a trip to Bandera!
To be honest, I couldn’t be bothered with verifying his biography deatails, which is why I wrote “or something like that”. I remember some of the usual sources mentioned some connections with Gerasimov, and Zaluzhny learning from him, and respecting him, and stuff like that, so I extrapolated without caring much for accuracy. The point stays the same, even if they never met.
I think the latest from Rudenko and the Joker are probably the closest to truth. Zaluzhny was injured really badly, alive but he won’t ever be the same. That could well be too much for VSU morale. So they can’t say anything. They also have potential command issues while promising the grand counter offensive. And it’s Ukraine so there’s almost certainly a vicious, corrupt, probably violent power struggle for Zaluzhny’s cut and support.
It’s really odd that Zelensky refuses to go back to Kiev. There might be some raw feelings over holding Bakhmut against Zaluzhny’s reported advice and then the dude getting blown up trying to do it.
PS I once saw a sandwich board for a barbershop with a photo of Christopher Walken in his more cowbell skit garb… It said Walkens welcome!
Have a look
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/walkens-welcome-frank-dimarco.html
I’ve read from several knowledgeable sources, sources, that pilots trained on Soviet/Russian fighter jets, will NOT be able to fly F-16s effectively, because their trained instincts aren’t transferable to theF-16, they’re too different!
In combat, in a hostile air defense environment, you do NOT have time to think, it has to be automatic or you’re dead! Russia has the best AD on the planet!
There was no standardization of much simpler (yet still complicated) controls in WW2 aircraft, so squadrons changing planes had to relearn where the throttle was, not to mention complex minutia related to the superchargers, stall speeds, etc. There must have been at least a few casualties due to unfamiliarity of instruments and controls. Hollywood makes it look like all there is, is the stick and the firing button!
“… their trained instincts aren’t transferable to theF-16, they’re too different!”
Some months ago, I saw an interview with a UA pilot who was a few days into his introduction to the F16. His comment on the F16 specifically was: “It’s a nice airplane. I like it. Of course, you can’t compare it to the SU-27.” The difference, he explained was that “The Americans call it a ‘dogfight’, and so it is for them but we call it ‘close quarters maneuver’ and so the planes are different.” (from memory)
The SU-27 is the original “Flanker”, from which the modern SU-35 is derived. The former was introduced a decade after the F16, and was considered a generation ahead of it in many ways.
The SMO will endure until Kiev’s current regime is replaced by one friendly to Moscow and the pro-Bandera (pro-Nazi) sentiment in western Ukraine becomes unfashionable. 10 years?
Bandera sentiment in Galicia won’t become unfashionable in this century. I expect Russia to give parts of it to Poland, Hungary, Romania, and let them deal with it.
The Galicians hate Poles as much as they hate Russians. I had them living near me in Sydney, and they regarded everyone as untermenschen.
Yep. They will have loads of fun living together.
I think there has to be a hole in the ozone layer over Galicia.
It doesn’t have to be ‘friendly to Moscow’, just more or less neutral and rejecting western sweet nothings in its ear (or poisoned cookies/apples to its stomach), pretty much as Georgia is doing but on a much larger scale.
It’ll be a tough bill to fill, without a doubt. Only if and when the Ukrainians realize they’ve been led down the primrose path to nowhere. Its western supporters realize that could happen, so will be doubling down to the very end, as they can’t afford to lose in their minds but by doubling down, they make their eventual loss ever grander and more inevitable. They have painted themselves into a corner with a mine-dropping paintbrush. No exit and no escape.
Listening to Sounds of Silence today and thinking of the CIA with men like Larry and Ray McGovern seems like a story from another world. Or at least from another America. From so far away. Well portrayed in films set in the Rust Belt such as “The Deer Hunter”. With real people in 70s like in many industrial cities in Russia and Ukraine for sure. Who remembers more landmark films from Industrial America? And how was it possible for a sect of neoconservative fanatics as crazy as Hitler to come to reach the White House command?
Paulo,
It was possible via the centralization of power. Once power is centralized, those who get on top can work the levers of power to further their own ends.
How was power centralized?
It started with a coup in 1787. Delegates of the 13 states met to discuss the Articles of Confederation and ended up writing a whole new Constitution. There have been many mile markers along the way.
LaidBack Guy,
I agree with your comments here. Unfortunately, imo, while the articles backed the sovereignty of the states vis a vis the federal government, they did not recognize the sovereignty of the individual vis a vis the state(any state). If they did then the imposition of a tax or corruption of the currency would have been a violation of that personal sovereignty. But the Articles of Confederation were a step in the direction toward individual freedom and political equality.
Ok LaidBack but this is a Federation issue that I didn’t come to discuss. As an economist I also think that scale often brings more problems than gains! And the same at the level of people’s freedoms, rights and guarantees! I myself was born in a Europe without an EU!
That said, the US before Bill Clinton was still a major industrial superpower! Not having much time now, I just want to say that Washington was taken over by financial power a long time ago. And the same happened in Brussels after the crash of 2008! Nation states are dead. Just remember how we in Europe in 2003 still said no to the war in Iraq and today we look like bitches from big banks like Goldman Sachs, funds like Blackrocks that are the true owners of the war! Instead of being destroyed in the crash, they got even stronger!
Because without financial regulation they created all the tools like the rating agencies to force all the citizens of the world through the debt in dollars to pay their nonsense in the Casino! Neoliberalism or globalism or financial capitalism does not promote competition like industrial capitalism, but the big financial monopolies that rule the world today. We have to wait to see what results in terms of the economic order of this crisis!
All the best.
This article is, in my opinion, one of the most important by Larry Johnson. Short, concise, unambiguous and precise, it brings the reality and history to the point.
I know the talk of politicians is no more than a fart in the wind. But their actions are to be judged. Their actions have already reached the Rubicon and we are close to the point of no return.
The war is existential for Russia. The U.S. and its lackeys have clearly stated what they will do to Russia if Russia loses the war with the West. They must have read the Russian nuclear doctrine. Do the principals of Western politicians actually believe that Russia will not act according to their doctrine? I am deeply frightened by this assumption. Because this fallacy means the end of us all.
I fully agree! The letter is 50% hypocritical! And without identifying the real problem there is never a solution! That’s why it’s so important to realize and announce the truth in the midst of a disinformation campaign the likes of which we’ve never seen in the West! It’s not out of passion for Russia! NATO enlargement is only 50% of the story! The plan was to overthrow Putin and plunder Russia again! There was already a “Nato” Summit in Prague with flyers with Russia divided into 15 countries!
The US empire cannot accept peace. No way. The window of time is closing.
Of course, the U.S. will again raise the debt ceiling and continue to create money out of thin air. More cuts to social services and infrastructure. The U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency will continue to lose ground. This process is no longer reversible. Game over.
So the only option left for the dying empire is war. It must destroy Russia and China. At any price. But it is stupid that the conventional military capabilities are not sufficient for this. And also very dangerous.
Russia had made the offer to peace. But the prerequisite for this was the security guarantees to Russia. But the West refused and escalated in Europe the most dangerous war since WW2. Russia will insist in any negotiations that the U.S. withdraw its nuclear weapons from Europe and that NATO withdraw to the 1991 borders. The West will never do that. But what should peace look like under these conditions? I don’t see any chance for it. A cease-fire with Russia, then to start war against China? The Russians and Chinese are not stupid. They have the initiative in many areas and the empire is rushed.
Besides, the West needs raw materials and energy sources. However, the West is losing more and more influence in West Asia, Africa and Latin America as well. Even the Great-Reset-Fascism is only survivable with these two vital factors.
Mark Wauck quotes Kim Dotcom:
Kim Dotcom
@KimDotcom
Jan 26, 2022
“Vladimir Putin has ruled Russia since 1999 and is the 2nd longest serving current European President. You simply don’t survive that long if you don’t have a unique skill set. That’s why nobody should underestimate Putins strategic move in Ukraine.
Is it a setup? Putin has made demands to the US and NATO not to expand NATO closer to the Russian border and not to place weapon systems in neighboring countries. He counts on the arrogance of the US to send him a refusal. Putin may use this to justify the invasion of Ukraine.
What if this isn’t about Ukraine? The real target may be the fragile US economy. A new war in Europe will send shockwaves around global markets. The enormous bandaid of quantitive easing (endless money printing to prop up US markets) is going to burst. A crashing house of cards.
The timing seems perfect. The US is on the verge of economic collapse and has been for a while. One major upset to the markets and the US could face a depression like never before, taking the rest of the world into an economic hell hole for years to come.
It’s seems like an opportune moment to reshuffle the deck of global politics and markets. Ask yourself why Putin would risk global sanctions for invading Ukraine. I see a calculated move. This may be Putins checkmate to end US dominance without firing a single shot at the US.
Those who underestimate Putin make a mistake. The arrogance of US Empire seems blind to the enormous trap that Putin is setting. A new war in Europe will crash global markets. A crash that is probably going to be more than the US can handle. Could this be the end of US Empire?”
https://meaninginhistory.substack.com/p/ammo-dumps-go-sky-high-patriots-fail
That’s a fabrication after the fact. The fact is that the US/EU thought that the sanctions would bring Russia to her knees within a month. The fact is that Putin thought that it would be over within a month…and it would have been had not Boris Johnson stopped Zelensky from signing the Istanbul agreement. Neither side anticipated that it would turn in to this. But it did. And thank God that Putin is a patient man. It could have been Medvedev at the helm. The Victoria Nuland’s of the world don’t understand the old saying of “be careful what you wish for”.
With the new sanctions against Russia, it will be a game changer, the main sanction is to prohibit Russia from killing more than 500 Ukrainians a day.
M-777s, M142 HIMARSs, Patriots and soon the F-16s – I like your comparison with the desperate gambler. One of the best places to buy expensive vehicles, jewelry and clothing including fur coats is at the Cash Converters in Las Vegas!
“The immediate cause of this disastrous war in Ukraine is Russia’s invasion.” No, the immediate cause of this disastrous war in Ukraine was the unprovoked provocation of Russia by the US, Europe and NATO to which Russia responded with predictable and justifiable self-defense. If we don’t start getting the chronology right, no matter what the outcome in Ukraine, we are doomed to watching this shit-show repeat itself in another setting.
Totally agree! The letter is 50% hypocritical! And without identifying the problem there is never a solution! That’s why it’s so important to see and announce the truth from the 1st day in the midst of a disinformation campaign in the West like I’ve never seen! It’s not out of passion for Russia! NATO enlargement is only 50% of the story! The plan of proxy war was to overthrow Putin and loot Russia resources again! There was already a NATO Summit in Prague or Warsaw with flyers with Russia divided into 15 countries!
“The immediate cause of this disastrous war in Ukraine is Russia’s invasion.” I think that with THAT comment, they were trying to be diplomatic. Because, in the next lines they explain: “Yet the plans and actions to expand NATO to Russia’s borders served to provoke Russian fears. And Russian leaders made this point for 30 years. A failure of diplomacy led to war. ”
There is no doubt that this war was provoked by the west. They were, it appears, desiring to prove that Russia could not keep up with the west…….. In fact, subsequent facts have indicated that the reverse is true.
“The immediate cause was….”
“The underlying cause was….”
They just left the underlying cause out, as current western protocol demands if you ever want to be heard.
The exact CHRONOLOGY of all this was laid out, about 25 years ago:
FOREIGN POLICY: A Geostrategy for Eurasia, By Zbigniew Brzezinski, September/October 1997
Accordingly, NATO and EU enlargement should move forward in deliberate stages. Assuming a sustained American and Western European commitment, here is a speculative but realistic timetable for these stages: By 1999, the first three Central European members (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic) will have been admitted into NATO, although their inclusion in the EU will probably not take place before 2002 or 2003; by 2003, the EU is likely to have initiated accession talks with all three Baltic republics, and NATO will likewise have moved forward on their membership as well as that of Romania and Bulgaria, with their accession likely to be completed before 2005; between 2005 and 2010, Ukraine, provided it has made significant domestic reforms and has become identified as a Central European country, should also be ready for initial negotiations with the EU and NATO.
https://archive.fo/Wzk4b#selection-1953.0-1953.835
Notice how Zbig names the dates and tranches of nations joining NATO. There was nothing “organic” or “democratic” about any of this. The Orange Revolution in 2004 didn’t take, so Victoria Nuland spent $5 billion in Ukraine (manufacturing consent) and the Maiden Revolution was the do-over in 2014.
Whenever there is talk in the West about some weapon X that will not be delivered to Ukraine you can be sure X is already there, and Russia is about to annihilate it.
Yep. Those planes must have been in the works for a while. First they send all the Soviet tanks/planes/whatever they have, and then NATO stuff. I guess they are fresh out of MiG-29s.
True.I would say It is almost a certainty that more than a few of those newly minted UKR F16 pilots are anything but. Judging from what we have seen on the ground it is quite likely NATO/US pilots will be at the controls. Wearing Ukrainian AF flight suits.
The US government always never fails to double down on its mistakes, and especially often triple down if those mistakes mean billions to the elites. As such, any option that increases deaths (MIC), pollution (Big Oil), poverty (Wall Street), sickness (Big Pharma), chaos and degeneracy (Hollywood and some deep state cultist ideology) and generally all bad things will be pursued vigorously by the US government.
Imagine how this look to religiously or culturally conservative cultures? Is it any wonder that 87% of the world regards USA as the embodiment of evil? The Middle Eastern people calls USA the Great Satan. Asians and Africans view the West as evil colonists and call the USA the Empire of Lies because USA continuously lies. How Latin Americans view USA should be very clear to Americans. I fear WW3 will be inevitable, a West vs the Rest scenario. And remember, the USA started this.
“The US government always never fails to double down on its mistakes,…”
That’s because they are not mistakes. They are features.
O
I feel privileged, although not particularly happy, to have witnessed and lived within the very environments where “two” of the most consequential events in history took place, as well as to being an eyewitness to the earth-shattering aftermath those events brought and will continue to bring.
The first one was the military coup d’etat that took place in Brazil, a country with a landmass and population comparable to that of the US, in 1954 and I saw what was downside of such an event and the unimaginable consequences upon an entire nation, for decades, maybe even centuries to come.
The second was the civilian/military coup d’etat that took place in the US, on Nov. 4th 2020, when the CIA (Criminal Institution of America), together with our other alphabet agencies ( FBI, DOJ, NSA, DNI, etc.) and the Democrap apparatus, along with DOMINION voting machines managed to turn a US presidential election and the last one the citizens of this country, in vain, tried to choose a candidate, into a half-assed victory for Biden, but were caught within hours of their dirty deeds, due to the “glaring” and mathematically “impossible” nature of such victory.
Many of the “useful idiots”, including the media and politicians thought such a stunt would be of “no” consequence and that they would be able to enjoy the same America they used to enjoy, until they saw (many still don’t see it, but they will…) the catastrophic fall from grace and grandiose around the world, that America is experiencing right now.
From inflation not experienced in 40 years and consequential implosion of our financial structures, our banking, housing, manufacturing and export, to the de-dollarization of the world economy and weakening and loss of influence the US enjoyed for over 70 years.
And so, the train wreck continues unabated and now no one on earth will be able to change it, because, at the end of the day, what happened in 2020 was not about the “economy stupid, it was “all about” the INDUSTRIAL MILITARY COMPLEX.
Very well said
It used to be in Malaysia under mahathir that there will be a electrical failure in any vote counting area if an important politician is trailing. Then some boxes will be found with more votes.
It was nice to see in 2020 that this tradition was adopted by the greatest democracy in this sidd of the galaxy.
BTW, voting was always to be in person and in a private booth because we don’t want anyone e. g boss, tribal leader, local bigshot coercion. oh well…
Sound just like Phoenix in 2020.
The first coup d’état in the US was the assassination of John F. Kennedy by the CIA. The US has not had a legitimate government since then. The stolen election of 2020 was a desperate act by the Deep State to keep its illegitimate power. RFK, Jr., has announced his candidacy for President. Part of his program is to dig out the Deep State/CIA and prosecute them for their crimes. If he gets any traction they will likely kill him.
Here is his campaign announcement speech in Boston, almost two hours long, and extemporaneous, without notes or Teleprompter:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?527511-1/robert-kennedy-jr-announces-2024-presidential-campaign#:~:text=Kennedy%2C%20announced%20his%202024%20Democratic,heal%20the%20nation%27s%20political%20divides.
If that is too long for you, listen to his father in 1968 announcing the murder of Martin Luther King to a black audience in 1968:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bDlET_gK68
That’s the kind of leadership we once had.
The 1st cup? And Iran in ’53? There is a wiki page with US coups!
Paulo, Bob said the first coup IN the US, not the first US orchestrated coup.
However I reckon the formation of The Creature from Jekyll Island in 1913 was the first coup of the 20th century in the USA.
Thanks grr. And sorry Bob!
This was well stated. But consider that if the MIC was behind the Biden coup, why have his policies so weakened the US military? I am referring to Woke and even the Covid inoculations mandates. It seems to me that the blues are attacking the military to the same extent as our energy institutions. All of these measures have been a disaster to the US, its economy and military. I consider that the Biden coup was a globalist coup. All things have followed and are also being followed by similar governments in the EU. These policies are identical and called “green”. If it quacks like a duck it is not a horse.
FWIW,
L.
Those politicians in the USA that push for war don’t feel the war.
People let them live in their rich houses, they have no pain, no hunger, no fear.
So, why should your president stop the war when he feels fine?
“Our attempt at understanding the Russian perspective on their war does not endorse the invasion and occupation, nor does it imply the Russians had no other option but this war.
Yet, just as Russia had other options, so too did the U.S. and NATO leading up to this moment…”
No fellows, Russia DID NOT have other options, because the western criminal mafia did not leave Russia ANY other options.
Just don’t give your expected slanderers a cheap sop – because your false remark will not pacify them and you will have wasted an empty point of argument.
Why is it that the “do-gooders” repeat such twaddle ad nauseam?
Why is it that they never expand on those options? Can you name any?
There is diplomacy, there is a coup d’etat, there is war. Diplomacy you mocked, a coup was too late for Russia to engineer (Russia looks childish in such endeavours – the real, age-long professionals are the US/UK), war was your choice.
There is much truth and there is a great deal of naivete in the letter; however, trying to put some blame on Russia after eight years of waiting in the midst of un-accountable slaughter of Russian Ukrainians is quite offensive.
(It is noticeable that Aaron Mate initially repeated the same mantra – the professional “pacifist’s” remark de rigueur – but he also never suggested any alternative)
I fully agree! Bravo!!
Precisely. Just the usual mandatory blame (re)distribution by what passes for a peace movement in the US.
I don’t think Triune God would have looked well upon Ukraine’s government attacking and killing Ukrainian Russians. And if that is true, then Triune God will, in His Providence, make certain that the destruction of Ukraine is final and complete. His judgment, justice, and wrath will prevail upon the Ukrainian people and, most especially, their “leaders”. There needs to be a national repentance, starting with Ukraine’s highly delusional “leaders”. (I don’t know if Larry has the time, but I would like to read about what was done to Ukrainian Russians by the Ukrainian government. A listing and account of the facts. These facts would provide but even more reasons for proving that Ukraine and the West, NOT Russia, were responsible for triggering this debacle of a war, along with the financing and building of the Ukrainian SLAUGHTERHOUSE. I find it hard to believe that any “Republican” would have voted along with Biden’s and Zelensky’s mindless, clapping, congressional seals to send more billions to finance the killing of more Ukrainians. They should all be ashamed of themselves, but most American politicians, sadly and tragically, have little to no shame.)
Hi Chris, you sound like me, agonizing upon the injustice that is being carried out, mainly by the US against Russians, hoping that in the end those who committed the crimes will be punished.
However, after having seen so much of this stuff going on, I have come to the conclusion that the only “real” justice will only come to those culpable on Judgement Day. Meanwhile, I try to keep my hands clean and my heart pure, in hopes that I will not join those destined to eternal damnation.
But we must pray that God in His Mercy will give the grace of conversion to all of these poor souls before it’s too late. That’s how we can love our neighbours.
Hi, Hubert.
I agree with what you said. I too do strive to keep my hands clean and my heart pure, for without holiness no man shall see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).Sanctification is a lifetime struggle. But ultimately, our faith and trust must be in the blood atonement and perfect righteousness of Christ. And we must break off with every form of sin. Having said the above, based upon my study of the Old Testament Scriptures, the sins of the national “leaders” and rulers are nearly always visited upon the people they represent. And to your point, all these politicians and war profiteers need to understand that Hell is a real place that now awaits them unless they repent of their heartlessness and covetousness. “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and ALL LIARS shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”Revelation 21:8
Sam, you are sssppooottt on! As I read the bullshit put out by the usual suspects ( The ones that want to appear impartial, but in the end, give themselves away…) what other options is THE question. They know Russia had none, that’s why they didn’t tell us.
I am yet to see anyone in our government present or past, who is able to say it like it is… “that Russia was provoked into this war, because we knew they had no other option”; not a single yellow belly coward can say that… wonder if they have been told by the CIA agent who blew up the torpedo meant for the Russian sub Red October (James Earl Jones), showed them all, politicians, judges and anyone else in power, his credentials and said: “better toe the official line and not say a word in Russia’s favor, or we’ll come after you”…
“There is much truth and there is a great deal of naivete in the letter;”
Not naivete, but BS. Loads of it. They know very well what’s going on.
Agree!
Well, I suppose there was another option; for the Donbass region to wave a white flag and Russia to lie down and roll over. That would’ve stopped the war (not the violence though). Is that perhaps the choice the writers have in mind?
Yes. Ukrainian intended operation in Donbass was based on what was done in Krajina and Slavonija in 1990s by Croats (their ubermensch brothers). It turns out that Russia is not as weak as Serbia.
Many thanks, Larry, for this article, and for the link to the Eisenhower letter. To me, this is significant in developing anti-war opinion in US elites, which has to happen sometime if we are to have peace. Commenters saying (correctly in my opinion) that the hot war did NOT start with the Russian assaults in Feb 2022 are seriously missing the point. US elites almost unanimously THINK it did, so it was necessary to say that to get people to go on reading. Let’s get the view that the West has been provoking Russia for at least 30 years well-established in the US elite first. Then more people will be ready to consider learning more of the history. I will try to circulate this article to my UK friends to try to open their mental door. Hope springs eternal.
There is no more reason at all in the USA/ NATO policy, because their satanic-hegemonistic lusts have driven them into madness, what the whole world recognized a long time ago.
The satanic and hegemonistic attempts of the USA/NATO to smash Russia (their old strategic goal) and to plunder the Siberian mineral resources will lead to the downfall of the USA/ NATO.
Both the USSR (ideologies were different, but military alliances are something else) and afterward Yeltsin and Putin wanted to join NATO. All were rejected because of the old strategic USA/ NATO goals.
This time the satanic hegemonists have overestimated themselves beyond all measure and therefore will be destroyed.
Per Prigozhin, Artyemovsk has been taken.
He may have been a bit premature, (by days or a week?). My suspicion is he was tempted to announce it on the one yr anniversary of Mariupol’s fall.
Well 2 things.
America changed history. Russia and Soviet Union being the same thing now apparently, is responsible for your World War 2. And America won it defeating the Nazis of Germany.
It’s all over the internet and the majority of people in western media or netizens on social platforms say these 2 things.
I never imagined the majority would say these things so here’s a question. If 80 million American citizens voted against Biden then where are the demonstrations against him and all the things his government has done wrong?
Is it Natalya? I do not speak or read Russian.
The point you missed is that most of those who voted against Biden do not belong in the crowd that burns, loots and destroys everything when they don’t get their way.
That ‘s why you don’t see the protests, but we did try using the courts of law to overturn the fraudulent election. Unfortunately, there is “no” fairness and justice in America when the CIA rigs an election.
“The immediate cause of this disastrous war in Ukraine is Russia’s invasion.” No, the immediate cause of this disastrous war in Ukraine was the unprovoked provocation of Russia by the US, Europe and NATO to which Russia responded with predictable and justifiable self-defense. If we don’t start getting the chronology right, no matter what the outcome in Ukraine, we are doomed to watching this shit-show repeat itself in another setting.
Until all the so called experts will not understand the motivation of SMO and until NATOstan ll not disband peace ll not come…unfortunately NATOstan population is 100 % behind this war ((((((
So predictable. Not Ukraine, but the US military industrial complex will benefit from F-16 deliveries. NATO countries that deliver F-16s to Ukraine will have to order more modern and more expensive F-35s from the US.
Bingo. It’s about securing F35 orders before everyone figures out they are insanely overpriced junk.
I have actively opposed wars for the past 30 years or so, including Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and so on. I have been on marches in London and other places and have written and performed lots of anti-war songs. But I can’t condemn Russia for the SMO. Sure they had the choice not to invade but that would have been a betrayal of Russian speaking people in Ukraine. I am not an absolute pacifist and in this case I think Russia’s war was justified.
If you accept that with the increased shelling taking place, the AFU was poised to unleash an Operation Storm 2.0 on the Donbass, RU had two choices: 1) to send forces into Donbass only and wait for the AFU to make its move first and 2) to do what it did.
I remember some RU official explaining that both were considered and the first choice was unworkable for various reasons.
I’m neither able nor inclined to second-guess that decision, although some good guesses come to mind.
Though I thought that humiliating the enemy was a bad idea, at this point, the only possible solution that I see is to deal a humiliating blow to the US/UK. It has to be made clear to Western public opinion that Russia is stronger. It is one thing to sport Ukrainian flags but I don’t see the people in the West supporting a nuclear war that would annihiliate them. The West obviously needs a strong message to come to its senses and pull back, and if it doesn’t happen, we are likely to gradually reach the nuclear threshold. The psychos that rule the West think that if they persist long enough in their game of chicken, Russia will fold and are totally oblivious to the fact that they are bluffing but Russia isn’t. They need to be brought to reality and nothing speaks reality as a good, violent slap.
I agree with you.
Its clear that the Western tactic is a drip feed of new weapons systems to Ukraine and to ever so gently escalate the conforntation – a stategy intended to bleed Russia of resources and manpower over time. I’ve read elsewhere that Russia is happy to see more equipment supplied by Nato to Ukraine because it means that Russia can de-militarise USA/Nato. I dont think thats possible, America is way too pwerful to be de-militarised.
Its clear thar Russia is holding back on the full destructive capacity of their armed forces to ensure that they are ready for direct military confrontation with Nato. But what if they run out of patience and decide to escalate ? We have Psychopaths running the the USA/Europe – will they recognise the perilous situation ?
Humiliating blow, yes! But not before the West has fired all its weapons and wasted all its money.
Want to stop war? Easy, make it complusory for every lobbyist, MIC CEO and politician that starts one to have their families or themselves on the front line. If the war is so vital for the country’s interests then that is where they should be.
Likewise with vaccines, want to release a new drug, line up the FDA and Pharma execs and their families to be the first in line to receive it.
Want us to eat bugs, where are those pushing this showing it has now replaced meat in diets?
“US-dominated Western regimes opposed to conflict resolution talks “should know that the longer (Russia’s SMO) goes on, the harder it will be for them to negotiate with us.”
So when Trumps says that he will end the Ukrainian war in one day, how precisely is Trump going to do that?
I don’t think Putin is going to listen to a single word Trump will say. Peace will have to come from a third party like China.
But we all know how Trump feels about China. Anyway, So I wonder, is this how the Oligarchs get conservatives on board with war in Ukrainian. When Putin insist on demilitarized and to de-nazi Ukraine, despite Trump’s peace ultimatum?
Any empathic person see ~300 000 lives lost on one side, as well as ~30 000 lost on the other side add those together and arrived at ~330 000 human tragedies.
Any rational person see proportion of loses and destruction of Ukrainian people and would arrive at simple conclusion that this war is simply not worth it.
But apparently neo-cons and neo-libs in Washington are totally insane and disregard Ukrainian loses completely. So what if ratio is 10:1? So what that another 100 000 Ukrainians will die? Those are irrelevant to those monsters, apparently what is important is that some more Russian soldiers will be killed as well and every Russian killed weaken Russia so neocon insane objective is being pursued. Maybe I should not be surprised – England always loved to fight to the last allied soldier but I still cannot wrap my head around this level of insanity.
And perhaps most surprising to me is Ukrainian approach to this disaster. Apparently they are ok with this destruction of their own country. Either they are totally captured (Zaluzny is confirmed Bandera follower), or maybe they somehow think that they have no choice, or somehow hope to achieve “victory” – whatever that would even mean.
550000 died in year(2022) Russia.
How many of them are war casualties.
3.25 mil died in the US in 2022. Russia’s population is ~ 43% that of the US.
The people pushing this war the Nulands, Blinkens are as bad as Marilyn Albright, Bandera and their god Satan. They have no empathy for the Ukrainians and don’t care how many get killed if it serves their insane plans to rule the world. Anyone outside America trying to bring them to justice will just be Nuked, If Trump or Kennedy can’t curb the power of the deep state then we will eventually end up with a nuclear war. America will not let China take number one spot like jealous lover they will say if they can’t rule the world there will be no world left for anyone to rule
West still did not lose face officially yet since there are no many visible signs of defeat and they can easily be put under the rug.
Of course, it is obvious in the way how great powers (like Saudi, Turkey, and many others) are behaving that West is losing, since if it was the other way around they would likely turn against RU as well to avoid retaliation from the West after the conflict is over.
Another obvious sign that they are losing is that they are constantly sending new and more expensive wonder-weapons, which would not be the case in case that they are winning, since you only send new capabilities if old are not working well enough…
This letter is a good initiative. However, Americans have never suffered the horrors of a war. The US was spared in WWII only because intercontinental ballistic missiles did not exist. It is clear that the US will only change its course when Americans finally understands the horrors of the war by suffering it. We can only hope that the World survives after the US learns it long overdue lesson.
Great comment. I’ve spent hours watching what the Russians & others in the former USSR endured during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) aka World War 2. The Battle of Stalingrad, the Siege of Leningrad, a War Department film & several others, too show how every aspect of human survival & ultimate triumph come into play. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll see that when there is a civil war in the US.
Wasn’t there another BTO song that started with “you wake up every morning with air raid warnings, we need some f-16’s to take back cities”?
Takin Care of Business!
Ukraine’s DU now contaminating NATO countries….
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230519/ukraines-depleted-u..
“Ukraine’s Depleted Uranium Blast: Europe on Brink of ‘Environmental Disaster’
Sputnik News spoke with Dr. Chris Busby, physical chemist and scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, about how the West’s decision to provide depleted uranium (DU) ammunition to Ukraine has potentially caused a continent-wide ecological disaster. Below is his answer in full.
Recently, several web media outlets provided videos of an enormous explosion in the town of Khmelnitski, located to the West of Kiev, and about 200 km from the border with Poland. There were two major explosions which produced a massive roiling swirling fireball which, like an atomic bomb, developed upwards and formed a mushroom cloud, which was black.
I have represented nuclear atmospheric test veterans in the Royal Courts of Justice in London and have seen many films of nuclear explosions: this was not one. A nuclear explosion is characterised by an immediate intense white light which wipes out the camera film or detector.
So, what was it? It was suggested by several commentators that an arms depot that had been hit contained the Depleted Uranium (DU) weapons sent by the UK to the Ukraine for use in the British Challenger tanks as anti-tank penetrators. That the explosion was one involving the burning of the DU in the fireball. Since I am a scientific authority on Uranium and its health effects, but have also examined its dispersion and behaviour in the environment, I will comment on what I believe happened, and why it is important. I was a member of the UK government Ministry of Defence Depleted Uranium Oversight Board (DUOB) in 2000-2005, and also the UK government Committee Examining Radiation Risk from Internal Emitters (CERRIE) 2000-2004. I am Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR) which is an independent NGO that provides advice on risk from ionising radiation.
My main research interest in this area is Uranium and health, particularly the DU particles, which are so small they act as a gas and move over very large distances once they are created by the burning of DU. I found them in England in 2003 after they had come from Iraq. I found them in 2023 in England after they came from the Ukraine war. So that is the first thing: the material is able to travel very large distances.
Therefore, if the Khmelnitsky explosion was a DU one, the material would move with the wind direction and should be detectable at monitor sites downwind.
First, we need to say that DU has a gamma signature, it releases gamma rays. The UK and USA governments lie about this. They point to the fact that the U-238, that remains after the fissile U-235 is removed in the centrifuges (and is sent off for nuclear weapons and reactors), is a weak alpha emitter.
They say that alpha radiation cannot penetrate skin and so the DU itself is harmless. That it cannot be detected by a Geiger Counter and the alpha particles don’t make it through the window. There is, of course, a health problem if the post-impact particles are inhaled and pass into the body through the lung into the lymphatic system or directly into the digestive system, but essentially DU is harmless.
What you need to know is that Uranium 238, when it decays with its alpha emission, turns into Thorium-234 and Protoactinium-234m which then turns into Uranium 234. Thorium 234 is a beta and gamma emitter delivering 6% of its decay energy as a gamma ray. Thus, large clouds of DU particulate aerosol will be detectable by gamma detectors.
When I visited Iraq with Al Jazeera in 2000 I went to the south and examined the corpses of the tanks that had been hit by DU in the first Gulf War. Some of the A-10 DU penetrators were still lying around. They gave off an intense gamma ray signal, and the holes in the tanks were highly gamma ray active. So much for only an alpha emitter.
I am a yachtsman: examination of the UK metereological weather pressure maps tell us that at the time, and for days after the explosion, there was an anticyclone to the North of the explosion site and winds were weak but from the South East blowing North Westerly around the high-pressure area. So, the plume would move towards Poland. If the winds were about 5km/h they would reach any Poland detectors 250 km away on the 15th.
After Chernobyl, the European Union set up a Europe-wide gamma radiation detector system that used to give gamma readings in real time. I went to look. But astonishingly, all the data was blocked. The web- based system, administered from Germany, (EURDEP) would not provide the detector maps that are normally available. Luckily, there were some location maps on the web and some that had been already downloaded by colleagues of mine before the system stopped working. I obtained maps from Poland. One of these I show below.
https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/05/13/1110..
You will see that a very highly significant increase in gamma radiation occurred at this detector, north west of the explosion site almost exactly when it would be expected on the basis of a distance of 250km and a mean wind speed of 5km/h. The increase, from 60nSv/h to 90nSv/h was highly statistically significant about 50%. Other detectors all across Poland showed an increase*, as the plume passed over them, the increase being weaker the further away (due to dispersion of the plume).
Later, the Poles measured the increase at the Marie Curie Institute in Lublin, but their map was a more sophisticated one and needed some expert interpretation. The Polish map gave gamma increases split into two natural isotopes, Bismuth and Thallium, also total gamma and cosmic ray gamma.
From the map, we are to assume (and this was the implicit message) that the gamma peak was due to Bismuth. Enter Sherlock Holmes. Bismuth 214 is a Radon daughter. The natural background radioactive gas Radon (Rn-222) is always present, since it is produced from Uranium and Radium in the ground. If there is a sudden change in atmospheric pressure, or when it rains, there is a gamma peak from Radon, which shows itself as the Bi-214 peak. So, the Poles seem to be implying that the increase in gamma radiation is normal and nothing to get scared about. Many have picked up on the Bismuth spectrum. But the way in which the Polish graphs are presented is misleading.
The problem with a radon argument is first that the gamma increases go up all across Poland at a time scale that identifies a plume from Khmelnitsky and second that there was a stable anticyclone weather system and no atmospheric pressure changes that might pull radon out of the ground. I checked all that. There was only some light rain over Lublin.
here is, however, an additional possibility. Very fine particles attract Radon: you get a slight increase in gamma from Radon near factory chimneys that emit fine particles.
The European radiation detector system web map came back online on May 18. The map type had been changed and everything we saw in the downloads had disappeared or had been smudged out by data analysis averaging. Why? This, and the early blocking of access to the site suggest panic and cover-up.
So taken all together, what we see is a massive explosion which is thought to be DU, and reports of a spike in gamma radiation near the site. Uranium oxide is black, and the black plume moves north west slowly, the weather pattern is stable and the wind blows to Poland. The Polish EU detectors all show gamma radiation increases at the expected time of arrival of the plume. The EU detector system is shut down rapidly, but not before we have obtained data from several sites. The Poles provide a detector result that identified Bismuth as the cause of the increase, but do not go so far as to formally state that it is (in case of later blowback).
One final piece of evidence. We see videos on the internet of the Ukrainians clearing up the explosion site using Robot vehicles, not ordinary firemen. Why do they need Robot vehicles? The last times we saw Robot vehicles clearing up was in the ruins of Chernobyl and Fukushima.
If I am right, there has been an environmental disaster, and the DU particles will travel across Poland, Germany and Hungary, and will end up in the Baltics, probably later the whole of Europe including the UK (after all, the Chernobyl Uranium particles came to the UK).
They will deliver genetic damage and death like that seen in the Balkans and Iraq. Cancer, birth defects, miscarriage, infertility, lung damage, mental problems (Gulf War Syndrome) and so forth. The scientific and epidemiological evidence on this has been clear since the Gulf War. It is all there in the scientific literature—but the governments in the West and the military ignore it, deny it and cover it up. In the case of the UK coroners court finding for Stuart Dyson, the jury found that DU caused his fatal colon cancer. But when the coroner wrote to the health minister (as he had to by UK law, Rule 43) the reply was: we disagree. This stuff can be measured, but no one will measure it, or if they do, they will be attacked and their arguments dismissed.”
Meanwhile people die prematurely, babies are maimed, families are destroyed….
INDY
The links to sputnikglobe is trunkated and doesn’t work.
Pasting these two parts together should provide the original link:
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230519/
ukraines-depleted-uranium-blast-europe-on-brink-of-environmental-disaster-1110462939.html
Likewise the image of the radiation graph can be found by gluing these three segments together:
https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/
07e7/05/13/1110467504_0:0:838:518_1920x0_80_0_0_
0a380a003a1ed5335b188d692c4bb7bb.png.webp
Hope this helps.
Here is a win-win resolution to the war. Ukraine joins NATO. Russia surrenders and is absorbed into Ukraine on condition that the current Russian government is appointed as the interim government of greater Ukraine. NATO would declare victory. The Baltic states and Moldova (maybe Alaska too) could be absorbed by NATO member and ally, greater Ukraine. The voters of greater Ukraine could then decide on a more representative name (e. g. ‘Russia’).
The Russian News website ‘Vesti’ has published an article which mocks the American MIC
https://www.vesti.ru/article/3362853
The US military-industrial complex received a dagger hypersonic strike on the image
We lost a complex worth a billion dollars and fired rockets worth 96 million in vain. Western military experts cannot get over the shock after the fiasco of the Patriot air defense system in Kiev. The hypersonic “Dagger” immediately destroyed the myth of the American “wonder weapon”. What could be the consequences of this?
Bright flashes in the sky over the night Kiev. Panic at the remote control of the American Patriot air defense system – 32 missiles fly out one after another in different directions , that is, a full ammunition load. But chaotic shooting did not save the Kinzhal: a precise strike by a Russian hypersonic missile destroyed the entire complex: a multifunctional radar station, as well as five launchers.
“The abundance of these missiles indicates that the battle was intense. The Ukrainians and the Americans were a couple, and I have no doubt that the American military were sitting in the cockpit, they launched missiles in a state of nervous stress, without thinking about the effectiveness of firing. The missiles that ended up in the city , indicate that the air defense systems in the city are under the protection of a human shield, the people of Kiev,” said Yury Knutov, director of the Museum of Air Defense Forces.
The publicized American air defense system has failed in all respects. And I must say, this is far from the first time the Patriots have let down their operators.
The Saudis could probably tell a lot about the “efficiency” of the complex. In 2018, Riyadh came under fire from the Yemeni Houthis. 7 relatively simple missiles were fired at the city. However, the Patriot systems not only failed to intercept them, but themselves caused considerable damage: part of the Patriot anti-missiles exploded immediately after launch, and at least one, having written an arc in the sky, struck the ground.
But then at least the complex itself remained intact, and now – an undeniable fiasco! True, neither the Kiev regime nor the Pentagon want to acknowledge the destruction of the Patriot. Which is quite logical: the image losses are colossal. After all, the Americans sent to Kyiv the latest modification of the air defense system – PAC3, with the expectation then to sell the new system to partners at a higher price. But the PR campaign turned into a self-exposure.
“I can draw one conclusion: the “Dagger” flew in, and the American complex became very ill. How bad, the “doctors” will say . But the American “doctors” are still silent and do not say anything. dead, they would have said everything quickly. Because this is a huge blow to the image,” adds Dmitry Drozdenko, military expert, editor of the Arsenal of the Fatherland Internet portal.
In addition to the US itself, “Patriots” are in service in Germany, Greece, Jordan, Israel, Spain, Qatar, Kuwait, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and Japan. In the spring, two batteries were placed in Ukraine. After the Russian strike, one of them was completely destroyed.
It has now been proven that the effectiveness of the Patriot has fallen to 3% – an average of 30 missiles are used to hit one target. At the same time, one shot costs from 3 to 8 million dollars . Few air defense systems in the world can compete with the Patriot in wastefulness with negligible efficiency.
But the American military-industrial complex expected to earn billions on the Ukrainian conflict. And until the last moment, he managed to do it well. In March last year, the share price of military giant Lockheed Martin increased by a third. And the shares of Raytheon, which produces the same “Patriots”, rose by almost 20%. In addition, American military concerns have opened wide business opportunities in Europe: Germany and other European countries have revised their military budgets.
But will US military concerns now be able to get tasty defense contracts? American weapons no longer seem so formidable. And after the Russian strike, the question arose about the prospects for the Patriot program. According to experts, the complex, which for a long time personified the military power of the United States, has exhausted its modernization resource. He is no longer able to compete with modern weapons.
No matter what they say, what the last night in Kiev said is that they lost one Patriot battery and immediately ordered the other to be shut down! And with great anger came the news that the UK, which does not have F-16s, is going to train Ukrainian pilots in F-16s! Even propaganda creativity is on its knees!
I’m confused.
These planes will not last 5 minutes in Ukraine. How will they even get into the country? Train? fly?
They will have to be housed, maintained – and flown – from elsewhere. Presumably Poland, Romania or around the Baltics.
What are the ramifications of these planes operating from outside Ukraine? How does that widen the war? Do the airbases involved become legitimate targets? Does that trigger Article 5?
Anyone know the answers to these questions?
All of the above are correct rational questions, but “rational thinking” has been discarded in internal and external policy decisions.
Creating chaos and appearing like lunatics seems to have priority as a policy/negotiating “strategy”?
This “reversal” – the latest in a complete series of reversals on what weapons will be supplied has slowly crossed all “red-lines” and signals that there are in fact “no red-lines”.
When the F16’s are mostly gone, Zelensky & crew will start asking for small tactical nuclear weapons to enhance the effectiveness of the remaining F16’s…………and the answer will be “Oh God NO!”……..when in fact the US is preparing them and it is just a matter of timing.
It is a game of suicidal chicken, lead by lunatics! The Russians have to figure out how to save everyone from this western lunatic leadership!
The F16 message (from Hiroshima of all places????) is the signal that for the US this is a zero sum game and they will use nukes to ensure that Russia does not win.
For anyone that has been following the weapons escalation time-line closely…….this is an ominous signal.
“strategy”
“The Russians remember.” whilst practicising novelties.
As do many others “excepting” “The United States of America” who continue to be Mirror Gazers perceiving what is behind them not restricted to invitations to the “senior prom”.
Thanks. I don’t see nuclear weapons coming into play. That’s Armageddon stuff that nobody wants.
Perhaps longer range ground launched missiles would be the next step?
I think it more likely that the US will pull out of it at some point and pivot to China.
I still don’t see how the logistics of putting fighter jets into the arena works, or how it would improve Ukraine’s chances in the war. I think they would be far easier to track and destroy than things like tanks.
“I think it more likely that the US will pull out of it at some point and pivot to China.”
Individual dancing is becoming less popular whilst dancing with partners is in the ascendent since even tangoes are not restricted to two.
They will operate in the same way MiG-29s currently are, at least for a start. NATO is escalating bit by bit.
There it is! You don’t operate a US jet like a Soviet jet! You don’t operate an F-16 on a country road! Too fancy with a very fragile structure! The US is desperate for jets and its not possible to modernize or continue to operate fantastic jets like the F-15. One million times more reliable than the F-35. When the F-14 was withdrawn for every hour of operation, it already needed 40 hours of maintenance! And Russia just extended the life of the MIG-31! And in this conflict you continue to see SU-25s in ground attack! The Russian A-10. Which the US is also withdrawing! They are very different conceptions of construction because Russia also has access to very expensive raw materials such as titanium and others. And same in the navy. And also due to export markets! Russia has always exported a lot of jets to countries without airports! Of course it must have advantages and disadvantages but the last thing I wanted in a war was a very fancy weapon! But today the US MIC thinks only about profit and there is no greater proof than the F-22 and F-35! They are more expensive than many defense budgets around the world!
And the F-16 is just propaganda. Emotional reaction to the loss of the Patriots and the fall of Bakhmut! All countries that announced training do not have F-16s! How have coaches? And as someone already said, regardless of whether they burned like the MIG-29, did they operate from Poland or another NATO country?
“You don’t operate a US jet like a Soviet jet! You don’t operate an F-16 on a country road!”
I completly agree. You also don’t go to war against Russia, but Ukies did it anyway. Considering expected lifetime of those jets, taking off from a country road is not that big of a problem. They might bring them back for maintanence, like they do with M777s, but there is not much a repairman can do after an accident with Russian missile.
Those F-16s are not meant to make a change, but to prolong this thing just a bit longer. They are thrown in the black hole, just like everyting else send there. Operating them directly from Poland might attract a Kinzal or two on that place. I don’t think NATO is interested in testing their luck at this point in time. Maybe later, when they get more desperate.
They are not going to supply Ukraine with any F-16s. All resent and propaganda. Before, ends the AFU! The countries that will train the pilots don’t even operate F-16s! And if they entered Ukraine they were destroyed like the MIG-29s. Whenever they are humiliated like now with the destruction of the Patriots, they invent shit to escalate. It was like that when they lost the NATO officers!
According to Russian MoD reports, Ukraine is dropping guided bombs, so they’ve still got aircraft flying. If Russia can’t eliminate the existing aircraft at the front, they can’t prevent Ukraine from importing and flying more. Russian AD isn’t everywhere, apparently.
I assume F-16 role would be to drop guided bombs and run away.
I’ve posted this here before…
“My Fellow Americans, are YOU ready for our own Stunde Null?”
Self-propelled artillery piece from the video/photo is 2S9 Nona-S, a Soviet made workhorse.
Here is URL of the same video, without Youtube shorts nonsense:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9_sfRkDgTM
More photos and some additional info on Nona-S:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2S9_Nona
Why are they heating the projectiles on fire? For fire serve as a howitzer or wet old Soviet ammunition?
Old Soviet ammo tend to be in wooden crates. Those cardboard tubes look like modern stuff. Who knows where it originated from, considering that NATO is sending everything they can get their hands on.
That fire is indeed puzzling. It looks like they are either trying to
“keep their gunpowder dry”, or preparing collective suicide. Leaving ammo outside in the rain would make one do both of those things. 🙂
Now that I look closer, those look like just stabilizers (or stubs, or whatever the proper term is) without propellant charge in the tail, or shell at the top. One can even be seen leaving barrel after the shell. Nona is rifled mortar that can fire regular shells, and those guys are doing that. Maybe they have less of those stubs than shells and are reusing them after “washing and drying”. 🙂
Here’s a related article that popped up while searching for images of NATO 120mm mortar ammo:
https://mil.in.ua/en/news/captured-nona-mortars-received-american-rounds/
After reading the Eisenhower group’s letter, a question remains. What other option do the signers imagine was available to the Kremlin in early 2022? More negotiation with demonstrated liars like Merkel and Hollande? Further talks with warmongers like Boris Johnson and Josep Borrell? Secret deals with corrupt dementia sufferers like Biden, numskull bimbos like Harris, or Nazi lunatics like Zelenskyy and Nuland?
No, I think it’s clear that President Putin had no choice but to invade Ukraine in February of last year. His only mistake was to limit the scope of the initial attack but even that misstep has fortunately turned to his advantage. Nations around the globe, impressed with Russia’s evident restraint and desire to limit civilian casualties, have either openly supported the SMO or at least refused to buckle to Washington’s demands that they condemn it. And when the US and its puppets in the EU imposed “sanctions” on Russia, the rest of the planet in effect told them to go straight to Hell.
We live in a bit of an echo chamber here In Larry’s world. We have an educated and astute bunch. I have started shooting pool again. Tulsa has a rather good establishment that also has good food and cheap beer.
I am shooting on Tuesday evenings, and we usually retire to the bar before we head home. This last Tuesday Ukraine came up. There was about 9 people at the bar involved in this conversation. They were not in “favor” of the war. But everyone was convinced that Russia was being slaughtered. And that Ukraine was winning handily. These people are not on Telegram. They do not do Twitter. They hate CNN, but that is where their news comes from.
I brought up some different views, showed them some posts showing Ukrainian destruction. They were totally non-convinced. We left on a friendly basis. I am sure they think I am a loon now. The masses, what asses. But this is the reality of the US electorate. Facts do not matter. The media is an entirely controlled arm of the apparatchik that the Soviets would have given their left nut for. And they do a good job.
Math. Percentages. Shit they don’t teach anymore because it does fit the narrative. Larry and Simplicius. My two favorite bloggers. Incredibly astute folks. How many readers you think they have between them? Hundreds? Thousands? Compare that to US/corporate media. So, the truth is exposed to .00001% of the population. Math. This is not how we lose. This is how we lost.
And it’s been that way for years since law was changed so that now media can be controlled by far fewer companies. Well said. They simply have far more players in the game.
I remember in the early years, even before 2014 – post 2008 I think, that the Boston Globe every once in a while published an article that went against the accepted MSM grain and even then, with a whisper.
This ‘pravdaizing’ of western media has been a long time coming.
Echo chambers can be big. This site is more of a small “gentlemen’s club”, sans cigars and whiskey. 🙂
It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled. Ukrainian electorate is paying in blood voting for Zelensky, and still buying his crap. I doubt those bargoers would be willing to die for “democracy”.
Even more dispiriting is they can be lied to over and over and over again – since Vietnam at least, and still fall for same shit MSM is shoveling. It’s like an abused spouse going back for more all the time. We’re gonna have to learn the hard way as usual, hopefully this American loss doesn’t end life on Earth.
Sir,
Much of the news these days is bad, but do not despair.
We live in the late Empire. The die has long since been cast on the consolidated-egalite Yankee empire. Our moral fabric is gone. Our institutions are corrupted and beaten down. Faggotry abounds. The barrel is now near the bottom of the falls, and reversing its course is impossible for man, and though possible for God, probably not in His plan. Many American heroes before us tried most valiantly to arrest American decline, like Jefferson, Randolph, Calhoun, Davis, Lee, Jackson, Forrest and so on.
Americans are now reaping the bitter fruit of believing the lie that all men are created equal. That false philosophical poison was in our mother’s milk. John Randolph of Roanoke presciently announced as early as 1826 that the experiment in an extensive republic was a failure. He, of course, was right. America has been in imperial phase and decline since 1865, and no longer a republic in any meaningful, political-philosophical sense of that word. The South was crushed trying to revive republicanism.
Before long, the Russians will take all of Ukraine, to secure Russia and to stop the American-caused slaughter. As they do, let us pray our mad neocons don’t go nuclear, but they could. Meanwhile, the boys in the pool hall will likely slog on in their mental oblivion.
Big Brother MSM will suppress and spin news of America’s defeat in Ukraine.
Then financial crises will beseige and distract all but the wealthy elite, as the border is overrun and as more elections are stolen by the DEM-NEOCON controlled DOJ, FBI and CIA.
Yet, with all and through all, the Lord will be with His, and true America, after the fall of our unreformable “federal” government and disunion, may rise again like the phoenix bird from the ashes. Take heart, therefore. For in my country, South Carolina, one of our TWO Latin mottoes is, Dum Spiro Spero, “While I breathe, I hope.”
In the South now, amidst all the current and coming societal shocks and convulsions, we have the consolation of seeing with our own eyes both the fall of the hated Yankee empire and the vindication of our old and timeless cause of Christian ordered liberty. Again, I say, take heart, and do not be discouraged. The Triune God is sovereign over all.
Heavens above. Good forbid that of all the possible futures that could result from the end of the American empire, the one that you represent is the one that triumphs. If that was a real possibility I’ll curse the day that Ukraine gives up 😂
“vindication of our old and timeless cause of Christian ordered liberty” indeed.
Then you confess yourself to be against true Christianity, true order, and true liberty; and you prefer the evil Yankee empire to true classical republicanism.
How revealing.
Your reply merely confirms what I have written about folk uncritically accepting the false philosophical notion that “all men are created equal.”
God is now taking America and Americans to the Providential woodshed because of brainless and sinful egalitarian stupidity like yours. Prepare to drop your drawers.
“ Then you confess yourself to be against true Christianity, true order, and true liberty; and you prefer the evil Yankee empire to true classical republicanism.
How revealing.
Your reply merely confirms what I have written about folk uncritically accepting the false philosophical notion that “all men are created equal.”
God is now taking America and Americans to the Providential woodshed because of brainless and sinful egalitarian stupidity like yours. Prepare to drop your drawers.”
Yep, that’s exactly what I was talking about. Bonkers.
CC,
The principles of Christian ordered liberty are timeless, and are therefore not bound or restricted to any one place and time.
They have been instantiated in many different polities over the centuries, including in medieval Europe. They are not exclusive to the Old South.
With your silly “Gone with the Wind” talk, you are assuming and attacking a strawman, because you have no substantive counter-argument. But if, as it appears, you cannot take truth and solid argument seriously, then that’s on you — a sin for which you will be bound to answer.
Obviously, CC, what I said (in my first reply to you) was indeed exactly what you were talking about (in your first reply to me), and now obviously, you are shrinking back (in lame denial perhaps), at a loss for counter-argument, after having been faced down.
You were hoping to dump on the South with impunity, as so many do, and you unexpectedly got caught and hammered for it. Better now to be forthright and man up; and drop the cowardly pseudonym while you’re at it.
😆 it’s like hearing someone out of Gone with the Wind talk. Sorry man, I can’t take it seriously. Good luck taking America into the 21st century, you gonna need it I suspect.
Isn’t Col. Wilkerson Colin Powell’s former dog-robber/aid? Powell being the one whose speech about Saddam Hussein’s WMD pushed us into war and “regime change” in Iraq? Looks like the neocons are figuring out they screwed this one royally.
You did that on purpose right?
An song from BTO from 1974, the same year in which the F16 made its first flight!
Now we have Cuba agreeing to a land lease deal with Russia for 30 years. Now will these clowns wake the hell up? https://www.reuters.com/business/russia-cuba-ink-deals-revitalize-communist-run-islands-ailing-economy-2023-05-19/
The Deep State is threatening Biden and his family with criminal prosecution. He is being extorted. Sad.
Bidet is of the Deep State.
“As Americans and national security experts, we urge President Biden and Congress to use their full power to end the Russia-Ukraine War”
Since we hope that the “war” that is happening is restricted to “the Russia-Ukrainian War”, like “The Vietnam War” where allegedly only the Vietnamese fought one another.
“Let’s make America a force for peace in the world.”
What kind of people would buy this BS? USA has been waging wars under similars slogans for as long as I can remember. That letter looks like damage control attempt by those that have bitten more than they could chew. I would rather watch Bill Cosby preaching consent.
USA leaders think of Russians (and other Slavs) the same way they did of Native Americans. They use force and fake diplomacy to grind them down. Now they are shocked that conquering methods working well on those armed with Tomahawks, do not translate well to those armed with Kinzhals.
“As Americans and national security experts, we urge President Biden and Congress to use their full power to end the Russia-Ukraine War speedily through diplomacy …”
Unfortunately, it is too late for that. In this war between USA and its NATO allies, we have violated too many negotiated agreements, treaties, etc., to be believed by the government of Russia and others. We have lost our ability to be believed or trusted to make agreements.
Larry,
Why would the Russians believe anything we say or propose? Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. The Russians will be stabbed in the back one more time. I hate to say this, but peace does not look good until the Neocons are dead and buried 6 feet under. Attached is a good song.
Buffalo Springfield – Stop Children What’s That Sound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjSpO2B6G4s
Look on the bright side, after the Russians get done we won’t have to worry about the possible results of Bidens F-16 vs Ar-15 debate
He said F- 15, so you still have to go through that.
Not too worried. If Bidet is still sitting after all the F-16 are slag, those will be next
The last thing we ”need” to do is to stop the killing.As Gen Patton is reputed to have said ”Keep killing them until the fight goes out of them”.That is what has to be done to USA/NATO and their mercenary army of Ukrainians and contract soldiers.Israel has had many ”ceasefires” over the last 70+ years and the war there has lasted 70+ years.Boxing matches and football game could be extended indefinetly if the team losing gets a time out to recover .The real world doesnt work that way.The west has stated many times their wish to bleed Russia out and dismember the Russian Federation.They dont have a death wish and they still remember the 27 million dead from WWII.The evil Empire is on the losing side,the only question is will they accept the consequences of their arrogance and ignorance or will they burn us all to the ground
A common theme these days is, who is actually in charge of the USA? IMHO, once you see your third clip of Biden acting quite demented, you conclude, it’s not Biden. Whoever *is* running things in the West, is it possible they are relying on AI for political, strategic and tactical advice? Conventional wisdom used to say, the NSA is five years ahead of industry in computer technology. I suspect there has been a concerted effort to spin up military AI for years now, by all sides. I also suspect that whatever is spun up will be grotesquely misused and misapplied by the authorities here in the West.
Perhaps what appears to be doubling down on stupid may be an early Skynet, meaning that management in the West (i.e. a mix of rogue agencies & psychopaths) has some sort of Magic 8 Ball they consult with while planning the destruction of America and WWIII?
This is not too far fetched, professional lawyers just shut down a trial that was supposed to have an AI lawyer for the defendent. Numerous State Bar associations went into panic mode and threatened the inventor with jail time! (The company involved is DoNotPay, they want to help the common dweebs fight tickets and become legally empowered through AI).
Good letter! One always has to ask what is our interest in any way on foreign soil. It turns out that the interest is the MIC sales and the financial institutions waiting to buy up all land and resources after all those pesky citizens are killed or displaced. Nothing more, we have no other interest, the “end game” for us is simply MIC contracts signed and Blackrock buying up the spoils at a bargain.
Let me assure you that one hour’s profits of the military media industrial complex speaks louder in the Bidet regime than any number of warnings put together.
👍
Larry, Sadly, one after another red line is being crossed.
Polish/NATO troops crossing into western Ukraine is coming up.
I am reminded of Admiral Akbar in Star Wars universe. “Its a trap!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F4qzPbcFiA&pp=ygUJaXRzIGEgdHJh
And quietly a bill will be walked slowly about mechanism to reinstitute a draft. White guys step up first.
That might wake up the masses but not during NFL season.
White guys will not sign up.
Why do you think they imported all these military aged males into the country?
Offer them citizenship to serve in the military.
They have no knowledge understanding or appreciation of the constitution.
They will then be used to disarm the American population.
A decade ago surveys of military personnel asked if they would fire upon or disarm fellow Americans unanimously stated “that would be an unconstitutional order and I have a duty to disobey.”
The foreigners they are about to offer citizenship to for military service have no compunction against using force against American citizens.
Wake up America
I’ve already made plans to evacuate my grandchildren to my home in the Philippines.
Its a better solution than me shooting the bastards coming to get them.
I just assume any F-16’s used in the Ukraine will be piloted by Americans. Their families will probably be told they died in a training accident.
We have a winner.
As I previously stated: Alexander Mercouris of The Duran captured the DC War Party (& Victoria “Fuck the EU” Nuland) best: “If you’re a neocon you have no reverse gear, they are going to double down, triple down, quadruple down,” and right on cue the F-16s:
https://jamesburrillangell.substack.com/p/strange-diplomacy-victoria-fck-the
The Duran captured the DC War Party (& Victoria “Fuck the EU” Nuland) best: “If you’re a neocon you have no reverse gear, they are going to double down, triple down, quadruple down,” and right on cue the F-16s:
https://jamesburrillangell.substack.com/p/strange-diplomacy-victoria-fck-the
I think I might have found the reason for this announcement happening at this point in time. It’s to counter loss of Airplane in Bakmut. It was a MiG-17 monument that fell down earlier, unlike Bakmut that fell down today.
https://t.me/zoka200/9634
I wanted to ask this before, but what does “cowbell” mean? Online definitions aren’t exactly helpful.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Cowbell
Thanks!
Cowbell is a muscial instrument. In this case it relates to this comedy skit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVsQLlk-T0s
isn’t it propaganda aimed at those who don’t hear dog whistles?
Are you suggesting that Putin’s multiple appeals to common sense before this war even started was akin to a dog whistle that the west couldn’t hear? They heard it. They just ignored it.
No amount of cow bell (escalation) is going to correct that fundamental flaw.
“More cowbell is a pop-culture catchphrase that stems from a comedy sketch about 1970s rock music. The sketch centers around a character who seems to believe that the cowbell, a simple percussion instrument, is the secret ingredient to make a song work. More cowbell can stand in for anything that a person is longing for or feels is lacking.”
Saturday Night Live skit made the line more cowbell famous. Larry had an article explaining his usage months ago. Basically it is not a great musical feature and adding more does not help anything get better.
The only weapon Russia got excited about NATO providing seemed to be the DU ammo so they blew it sky hi.
Look on YouTube for Will Ferrell and more cowbell
It’s something that’s added more and more to a composition, thinking it improves it but ends up ruining it.
It’s even worse when the cow beller gets too loud AND can’t hold the rhythm.
Bombshell! Zaluzhny’s whereabouts discovered! Fix the bracelet. It’s suspected that he lost his head under Prigozhin’s pressure on Bakhmut! At this time, he’s unable to provide further statements.
https://twitter.com/LogKa11/status/1659928446565228546
I wonder if Obama is just being a little bitch over not getting his way with Putin. You could substitute many names but not Trump.
Sometimes the simplest answer is the right one.
My daughter says a hissy fit is being a little bitch and the phrase applies to all genders.
Excellent piece. Several things are at work.
1. Joe Biden and the ruling elite he represents are watching the slow-motion train wreck of late-stage American capitalism, plagued by rising inflation/increasing debt and falling living standards for the majority of Americans, and looming strategic disasters in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Ukraine. Against this backdrop, the dollar’s status as world reserve currency, which has been critical for US post-WWII power, is being progressively undermined, while the Russia-China-Iran alliance has attained economic/military parity with the west. Using purchasing power parity (https://www.investopedia.com/updates/purchasing-power-parity-ppp/) as a measure of economic size, the Chinese economy is 20% larger than the US; Chinese manufacturing capacity is greater than the US+EU. Biden is desperate and has no intention of an encore performance of the 2-decade long/ taxpayer-funded $2 trillion debacle in Afghanistan playing out in Ukraine.
2. As pointed out by Professor Michel Chossudovsky, immediately following the conclusion of WWII, the Pentagon had plans to “Wipe the Soviet Union off the Map”, employing 204 atomic bombs. Thus, the current ‘Russia-phobia’ in the US is not a recent phenomenon but has been an ongoing theme since 1945.
See- Today the Threat of Nuclear War is Real: “Wipe the Soviet Union Off the Map”, 204 Atomic Bombs against 66 Major Cities, US Nuclear Attack against USSR Planned During World War II By Prof Michel Chossudovsky Global Research, Sept 06, 2022; https://www.globalresearch.ca/wipe-the-ussr-off-the-map-204-atomic-bombs-against-major-cities-us-nuclear-attack-against-soviet-union-planned-prior-to-end-of-world-war-ii/5616601
And a 9-year-old musical band has just humiliated the all-powerful North Atlantic Defense Alliance in Ukraine, with more than half a century of history! And other shit in between. And right on the eve of another internationalization to the South China Sea, which does not bode well! The last NATO matches away from home have not gone very well!
https://twitter.com/LogKa11/status/1659922057189007362/photo/1
It is not so much a question of the US disregarding the warnings against including Ukraine in NATO, but rather that they took them as attractive promises. When Burns said that such a move “could lead to a major split, involving violence or at worst, civil war,” they rubbed their hands and thought “Goooood! It’s just what the neocon docs ordered.”
the 4th estate (all MSM) in the West morphed into the 5th column long ago.
America is a People and an Oligarchic compromised government hoping to morph into an aristocracy, as in Europe. However, the US Government is not a monolith. It has, for brevity’s sake, the Neocon useful idiots and the “Rapture” folks pushing hard for Armagadon, to name a few of the first type. Then it has the second type, those patriots who care about the US and its people. We have seen an example of both types, the Bidden lap top letter and the Eisenhower Media Network letter.
All Europen colonial geopolitics is for wealth and power and more wealth and more power (Heartland Theory.) One must admit to these facts, or one will not understand the strategies, the moves and counter moves, and one will continue to call events as unrelated (collapse of SVB and Credit Suise.)
I know what I am about to say will cause some heads to explode, so be it, maybe one person will catch on and that’s one more red pilled citizen spreading the truth.
Here is the punch line: The United States and the World are under attack from the Old European moneyed interests who want their colonies back because they have leveraged their World Ponzi financial scheme to the breaking point.
For example, the World’s total value of money is 96 trillion and the world’s debt is 253 trillion, which is 322% of World’s GDP. These are May 2020 figures and with Covid it has gotten a lot worse. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/all-of-the-worlds-money-and-markets-in-one-visualization-2020/
I haven’t even mentioned the Derivatives time bomb, which is the insurance on the gamble, remember AIG? So the next time you hear the word “Reset”, you’ll know why their plan is about one bank and a one digital currency. They will convert all debt to perpetual indebtedness. The only obstacle to saving their Ponzi scheme is the USA, especially, with the Ukraine miscalculation, followed by the flight of Capital from the EU to the US. They have working overtime on their behalf, the “let’s see how we can ef up the US” crowd, educated at the WEF, headed by Janet “No spending limits” Yellin and her shadow president Obama, also a WEF agent with Biden the dummy on his knee.
On the citizenery level, the obstacle is the US Constitution’s Second Amendment (I lived, in Africa, and witnessed a private weapons confiscation and what ensued in Human Rights violations.) A US Goverment agency conducted a study to estimate on how many Americans would refuse a voluntary surrender of their guns? They found out it was 30%, that’s a hundred million gun owners. Another study calculated that even with 99% forced compliance 1.5 million American would refuse. In other words they would have to start killing 1.5 million Americans at their homes to get their guns. That’s one of the big obstacle that keeps the Eurotrash from saving their Ponzi scheme and enslaving the World.
Dear Larry,
Once again, many thanks for your blog!
Analyzing here the numerous answers and comments, we all try to find a logical and human answer to the historical moments that we are living around the world.
But in reality what we reflect is a deep desire to return to the impossible safety of those moments of our childhood or youth in the 50s and 60s.
But the world, the planet, the powers, the economy, human beings,
everything’s changed !
We are in full transformation of existential reality.
The paradigm that help us live disintegrates before our eyes.
and the new paradigm is not yet installed, but you can see it coming.
Unfortunately and tragically the new paradigm is bringing the confrontation of civilizations that will take place through the ‘new nuclear’ armaments and weapons.
When we bomb Dresden in 1945 the war was already over. We kill 45 000 German civilians with new incendiary devices. When we nuke bomb Hiroshima (yes ! the same Hiroshima ) and Nagasaki we kill in a fraction of a second, 250 000 Japanese civilians.
Whatever the reason: ideologies, religions, finances or hegemony !!!
Now almost 80 years late, several country’s got the use of nuclear weapons,
Pakistan, India, France, Israel, UK, USA, and other ‘organisations’ that we don’t know about.
Additionally, a new old nuclear war, it will be the terminal and lethal closing of our civilization.
If anything survives that horrible human holocaust, it will be a new human race and everything will start again…
Asia covers 29% of the earth’s land area and has around 4.75 billion people 2022 or about 60% of the world population. China and India are estimated to be over 2.8 billion people as of 2022.
In a post nuclear war – in a new civilization – they only would speak Mandarin and Hindi…
When I was in college in the late 70s, I studied Russian language, culture and history. My majors were political science and history with a minor in Russian area studies.
In political science, I specialized in communist politics, and in history, my specialization was in the history of warfare.
I interviewed with the alphabet agencies.
They wanted to send me to the Middle East.
I became a pilot instead.
This letter from these individuals is spot on.
I have never seen such a succinct analyzation of the situation in Ukraine.
Our policy, and in particular, Victoria Nuland are responsible for this, with Obama, the Bidens and Clintons, and various other Marxists from the deep state are to blame for this.
Saturday Night Live skit made the line more cowbell famous. Larry had an article explaining his usage months ago. Basically it is not a great musical feature and adding more does not help anything get better.
The only weapon Russia got excited about NATO providing seemed to be the DU ammo so they blew it sky hi.
Great choice of music to describe the situation, Larry, thanks. When it comes to western politicians and their insane decisions I myself always listen to this song to take new heart: https://youtu.be/pNPOU5MTRGc
On March 26, 2022, repeat, 2022, over a year ago, there was big news on RT. I copied and pasted the entire article for those who at that time could not access the RT web site. I do the same today
https://www.rt.com/news/551375-blinken-fighter-jets-ukraine/
US gives NATO countries ‘green light’ to provide fighter jets to Ukraine
The decision comes after US lawmakers held a virtual meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
“US Secretary of State Tony Blinken told CBS News on Sunday that Washington has given a ‘green light’ to NATO members to supply Ukraine with fighter jets, and that the US would work to replace any jets sent to Kiev. Blinken spoke after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged US lawmakers to intervene in the ongoing conflict with Russia.
Asked whether NATO members could begin sending planes to Ukraine, Blinken said ‘that gets a green light’.The US’ top diplomat then said that Washington was already working with Polish officials to ‘backfill’ any aircraft they send to Ukraine – meaning the US would replace every Polish aircraft given to Kiev with an American one.
Supporting the delivery of jets to Ukraine occupies a middle ground for the US between active intervention in Ukraine and purely economic retaliation against Moscow. The government in Kiev has made no secret of its desire for the US to intervene militarily, with President Zelensky urging American lawmakers on Saturday to enforce a ‘no-fly zone’ over Ukraine. Such a measure would see the US and any willing NATO allies commit to shooting down Russian aircraft, something Moscow has explicitly said it would perceive as an act of war.
The US and NATO have ruled out a no-fly zone, and repeatedly stated that they would not send troops to Ukraine.
However, delivering fighter jets to the Ukrainians has not proven simple thus far. The European Union pledged warplanes to Ukraine late last month, but faced two significant hurdles: first finding jets that Ukrainian pilots could fly, and then finding countries willing to deliver them from their airports.
The Ukrainian Air Force uses Soviet-designed MiG-29 and Sukhoi Su-24, Su-25, and Su-27 jets in combat roles, and with the Su-25 used by Bulgaria and the MiG-29 used by Poland, Bulgaria and Slovakia, the jets would need to be sourced from these countries.
Shortly after the EU’s announcement, Poland stated that it wouldn’t send jets to Ukraine nor allow its airports to be used for deliveries. Bulgaria and Slovakia then stated that they wouldn’t take part in any deal, effectively killing off the EU’s arms supply plans.
However, Blinken’s statement on Sunday suggests that the plan may have been revived, but by the US and Poland rather than the EU. Blinken did not give any indication how soon Polish planes could be on their way to Ukraine, but said that discussions between Washington and Warsaw were ‘active.”
_________
At that time, I wrote the following comment on that article on Saker’s former web site. I think that it is even more relevant to today’s situation.
First of all, the US did not give a “green light”. It issued orders to the leaders of its vassal nations and those orders must and will be followed.
Second, notice the paragraph that states the two big problems that mercenary-nation “Ukraine” supposedly has with respect to the usefulness of the aircraft. I have a theory on how the US (“Ukraine”) will overcome the lack-of-training issue.
But first, do you remember slimeball Natalie Jaresko?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Jaresko
From the above (my bold):
“Citizenship
Jaresko lived in Ukraine from 1992 to 2000, and returned in 2004.[10][11] She received Ukrainian citizenship on 2 December 2014, the day of her appointment as Minister of Finance of Ukraine.[12][13]”
If I remember correctly, US citizen Jaresko arrived in Ukraine from the US shortly before being made a citizen of Ukraine. Talk about climbing the ladder of success at warp speed!
See, these citizenship details are of utmost importance.
Therefore, I think that it is quite possible that qualified pilots of whatever citizenship, even US citizens, could be instantaneously granted Ukrainian citizenship and fly those planes to wherever, doing whatever, as “Ukrainian pilots”. If the citizenship laws in “Ukraine” have to be modified, that is what will happen, even by a “government in exile”.
Don’t expect the bald-faced-lying western MSM to report this immaculate conception after these where-did-they-come-from pilots start killing Russians in “Ukraine”. If somebody does manage to put 1 and 1 together and comes up with 2, and they’re brave enough to ask a VIP about it, no doubt this, too, will be a “state secret” that cannot be revealed.
Thanks much for re-posting the letter, but IMHO I’m assuming that next step beyond stopping this war is a fair and just settlement which will acknowledge and accept Russia’s conditions – i.e., demilitarization which would include the elimination of Ukraine’s military capacity and removal of all NATO and other foreign military presence from Ukraine, denazification – i.e. elimination of any Banderist or other extremist officials and policies, so that Ukraine becomes now and for the long term truly neutral – PLUS an truly enforceable security arrangement that covers all of Europe- or rather Eurasia (i.e., from Vladivostok to Lisbon). I believe it would also require US, NATO, UK, EU and individual NATO member accountability and responsibility for the costs of this war, where the debt for all of the lost lives is incalculable, and for a war crimes tribunal to exact appropriate penalties on all those guilty of war crimes.
So, Americans should expect their country to make a heavy contribution to the
reparations for and reconstruction of Ukraine and should work to overturn this Administration and hold its officials accountable.
This is my two cents worth for whatever it is worth or not.
Dreamer. That’s not how America’s exceptionalist mindset works.
Is the site having problems with comments, Larry?
“As Americans and national security experts, we urge President Biden and Congress to use their full power to end the Russia-Ukraine War speedily through diplomacy,”
I read letters like this and further on where they suggest Russia had other options besides war, etc…
Behind the text you can sense the underlying assumption of, if not superiority, then righteousness.
I too hope the war will end with diplomacy, but at this stage what that means is the surrender of the west while salvaging what they can of a rump Ukrainian state. It will also mean a repudiation of American aims going back to at least 2000. I wonder if the authors of this letter are prepared to acknowledge that fact ?
In modern American culture, that is conditioned by a marketing culture (where lies are elevated to a banal art form), diplomacy is viewed as victory by other means. A kinder, gentler means of capitulation by the other side. It’s talk, talk, talk until you get the solution you want. The same idea as keep counting the votes over and over again until you get the desired results.
One hopes, for Russias sake, that the Russians recognize the danger of this sort of diplomacy. At least from their comments, they seem to get it. However, we dont really know the degree of pain they feel from the death, injury, effort and treasure being expended. We can only wait and see.
I apologize for posting a link on a day when even a comment that simply says “agreet” is not published on Larry’s blog. A blog that I appreciate and I thank every day and in which I also invest my time every day. But I think an excellent summary is important of the last 30-40 years of our common history in “Strategic-Culture” by Natasha Wright. If edited here, of course. Especially for my fellow American commentators!
Unipolar World in Retrospect and the Onset of Multipolarity:
https://strategic-culture.org/news/2023/05/19/unipolar-world-in-retrospect-and-onset-of-multi-polarity/
Thanks.
What are you talking about? What comment? What the hell does “agreet” mean? I have no idea what you are complaining about. Please clarify. Thanks
Hello Lari. Now it doesn’t matter. And I also calmed down. I hope Larry does too. If I’m reading the tone of Larry’s comment correctly. I might as well not be and sorry. 12 hours ago comments were not being published in the order we were commenting. Simple comments, no links. What made it impossible to exchange comments with other users. Some were just published at the time of this comment by Larry. Which I even thought was the moment when Larry posted the comments from the day before. I’m in another time zone and today is Saturday and I don’t work and I commented at a time that I don’t usually comment either. In short, and although I consider Larry’s posts to be the most important thing on Larry’s blog, if there are comments, it’s so that we can also talk to other users. It was only! Thank you for everything.
Some comments are placed in a “Pending Approval” box. I don’t do that. I do not know why some receive that treatment. There is often a delay between the time a comment is made and when I’m able to read and approve. Have you registered? That may be the problem. I’ve now listed you as “Contributor”. Let’s see if that fixes the problem.
When Larry asked us to register, I did the registration but I thought Larry had given up on registrations. I’m also starting to wonder if it’s a problem on my part. I already commented on the new post before some comments that have already been published and I don’t see mine. But thanks for your attention.
Some automatic spam protection might be triggered by post content (like having only one word in it).
As far as your Youtube embedding problem is concerned, I assume it is done automatically if URL is in the proper form. Try replacing “shorts/” part of the URL with “watch?v=” (like it is in the properly embedded video).
The Russian version of Sounds of Silence – https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1A4xdLDsivY
Entry into Russian Federation now closed for 500 Americans
What do Eric Ciaramella, Fiona Hill, Barack Hussein Obama II & Sarah Huckabee Sanders all have in common? [along with Michael Byrd (Michael Leroy Byrd) – the police officer who killed Ashley Babbitt during the so-called “storming of the Capitol”]?
They are among 500 — now persona non grata in Russian Federation, as of yesterday, May 19, 2023 — according to RF foreign ministry, they are on a permanent “stop list” to enter Russia.
RF Foreign Ministry published the list in Russian [with names also translated into English], prefaced by this statement last night:
[[19.05.2023 19:21 — Statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry in connection with the introduction of personal sanctions against US citizens — 976-19-05-2023
In response to the regularly introduced, by the administration of J. Biden’s anti-Russian sanctions, which are designed, according to Washington’s plan, to cause maximum damage to Russia, personally affecting officials and ordinary citizens of our country, as a countermeasure, the entry into the Russian Federation is closed for 500 Americans.
Among them are not only “iconic” figures, including former US President B. Obama, but also current heads of various levels of executive power, ex-officials like the curator of the White House on combating “Russian disinformation” N. Yankovich, senators and congressmen elected for the first time in the November 2022 elections, experts and employees of “analytical” centers involved in the spread of Russophobic attitudes and fakes, as well as heads of companies — military-industrial complex supplying weapons to the regime in Kiev.
The attached “list-500” also includes those in government and law enforcement agencies who are directly involved in the persecution of dissidents in the wake of the so-called “storming of the Capitol.”
It is time for Washington to learn: no hostile attack against Russia will remain without a harsh reaction. The principle of the inevitability of punishment will be consistently applied, whether it is a question of tightening sanctions pressure or discriminatory steps to hinder the professional activities of our fellow citizens.
In this regard, we confirm that the request of the US Embassy in Moscow for a consular visit to the reporter E. Gershkovich, arrested for espionage, is once again rejected. This action is in direct response to the non-issuance of visas to Russian journalists from the pool of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as a result of which they could not fly to New York to accompany his visit within the framework of the Russian presidency in the UN Security Council.
The following is a list of names of US citizens who are included in the “stop list” on a permanent basis:]]
See: https://mid.ru/ru/press_service/spokesman/official_statement/1871495/
Note, EC now at “Carnegie Endowment for International Peace”
https://carnegieendowment.org/experts/2254
-30-
It’s a start I suppose. However, I am an embittered old soul who wants to know where these “Eisenhower” Military expats and or currently serving members of the club have been?
Surely the “cha-Ching” from the cash register for the MIC kept them quiet all these years through many war rampages in the past… but now suddenly have a “conscious” about “NATO Expansion”… how wrong it is… blah blah.
Nope, just another dive organization suddenly fearful the cash cow mic will actually die with a Big Bang taking the MIC gravy train away Forever.
Schmucks… had plenty of other wars to want to “Make America a force for Peace”…and as soon as this “imminent” threat is over… off to the war races they will all go…
Well, duck & cover… you waged one too many wars… no going back now.
What if they really just want a bunch of white guys KIA?
Larry, an interesting take and letter and a good presentation. I however, have one question possibly due to a lack of knowledge but I do question this statement in the letter; “yet, just as Russia had other options”, ….. “.
Can you please tell me what those options may well have been? I am not a politician or a military analyst, but I do not see any other options, from Russia, that would have prevented this war. For me, Russia had no choice.
Not one Government in the west was listening. Russia pushed the Minsk accords, Russia used diplomacy. What other options were left to them, as from an “field” perspective, the Azov Battalion shelled the Donbass killing civilians some 3 to 5 days before Russia commenced their SMO.
I have no time for the Ukraine, as a country or its people. The Ukrainians of Western Ukraine and their military are Nazis and Nazi supporters, pushing the “Bandera ideology” and they have openly supported the destruction of Eastern Ukraine and the killing of the Ukrainian Russian speaking population. Totally disgraceful.
My partner is Russian, whose father was Ukrainian, and she is appalled at the actions of Ukraine.
Cheers
The “insanity” runs across all of the upper echelons across all of factions that influence, compose, control, and/or drive US policy in all its manifestations. From academe, to military doctrine and strategy, to the drivers of socio-economic/political policy US elites are driven by an alien ideology that has infiltrated and metastasized within the American ruling classes and much of its body-politic.
Ideology serves to simplify complexity, reducing it to a recipe/formula and ultimately to rule by slogans. By looking at the world through 10 feet of 1 inch ideological pipe complexity is reduced, sober analysis becomes superfluous, everything becomes clear.
Its most powerful feature is that it opens the door for mediocre minds to gain political power. Minds that would’ve been boggled by complexity can reliably master and act vigorously on simplistic, unexamined slogans. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
We’ve recently seen John Kerry call for the wholesale dismantling and reorganization of American farming to “save the climate”. Confiscation of small farms is “Not off the table” he says. He actually wants to coerce the entire world to follow, but the narrowness of his vision means that he will fail. What Russian, Chinese or Indian Agricultural Minister is going to implement changes that lead to starvation? Bizarre.
Bringing it back to Ukraine, Kevin Ryan writing in Harvard’s Kennedy School Belfer Centre’s “Russia Matters” reports that what he saw at the end of his 10′ of pipe is that Russia’s armed forces are at the breaking point. From there, it’s but an easy hop, skip and a jump to declaring that Russia’s use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine is inevitable. That Russia is almost out of military options, and will be forced by military exigency to employ nukes to save its army. Now something called a “senior fellow” at Belfer, he also served as Deputy Director for Strategy, Plans and Policy on the US Army Staff. Bizarre.
This is not going to be solved by electing Trump, or JFK Jr. or even a joint ticket (though I’d love to see it). Col. MacGregor says: “Things won’t get any better until we remove a major metastatic cancer from Washington. And I’m not just talking about the presidential election. We need to do a full sweep.”
Metastatic cancers are not removed at the ballot box, much less on Twitter. They have to be physically removed, and that means existential imperatives lie on both sides of the divide. The current rulers know that. I’m not sure that the forces opposing them are more than dimly aware of it. Let’s hope they come to realize it soon.
And yet the authors of this letter state this lie; “The immediate cause of this disastrous war in Ukraine is Russia’s invasion.”
They are still drinking Kool Aid and only acting out self preservation.
Yeah, not good.
They are stepping out of line, but carefully, not to do it too much.
And who exactly is going to fly those F16s ?
There is no magic bullet. Airplanes need fuel, maintenance, parts, pilots, an airfield, and a bombroof hangar – just to get started. In addition, someone ought to consider the ‘rules of engagement’ : when and where does a F 16 anywhere near Russia become a legitimate target to Russia whether it has Ukranian inisignia (or not).
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1028/MR1028.appb.pdf#:~:text=Recent%20analysis%20of%20the%20relationship%20between%20sorties%2C%20sortie,This%20relationship%20yields%20the%20following%20formulafor%20maintenance%20time%3A
This is a great letter! So good to see good to multiple professionals signing a truthful statement! I hope it encourages and motivates people. BBC just did an interview with Richard Haass, and he is encouraging a diplomatic end of conflict that faces the fact that Russia will not return territory for the time being. He says there is no military way to accomplish that. The only way Ukraine might see that territory back is if there is a new government in Russia in 10-15 years, and they are open to diplomacy.
(Maybe he should consider that some changes in the west need to be done instead.)
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-65716503