There are three recent articles I want to make sure you have read because they reveal the delusion that continues to afflict U.S. military leaders, pundits and the establishment media.
First up is US Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, who provided some surprising candor during a speech in late January to a Swedish defense conference but failed to comprehend what he was saying:
The heavy casualties and massive ammunition consumption seen during the war in Ukraine has top NATO commanders worried. . . .
“The scale of this war is out of proportion with all of our recent thinking,” said Cavoli, who is also head of US European Command. “But it is real and we must contend with it.”
One lesson is the importance of an adequate defense industrial base capable of providing the necessary equipment and supplies to satisfy the voracious appetite of large-scale, high-intensity warfare. The US, Russia, and Europe are already scrambling to ramp up production of artillery shells after letting their munitions stockpiles and factories run down after the Cold War.
https://www.businessinsider.co.za/ukraine-war-scale-out-of-proportion-with-nato-planning-cavoli-2023-2
Yes. Having an adequate defense industrial base is critical. The West no longer has one and, assuming it found the will and resources to recreate one, we are talking years. Does Cavoli not grasp this reality?
Even then, it became clear that NATO — which has expanded from 12 founding members to 30 members today — was dependent on US support. In Libya, for example, NATO air forces ran short of precision-guided bombs after the first month.
That Moscow is buying artillery shells from North Korea suggests that Russia’s military is no shape to fight NATO and Ukraine. However, NATO’s frantic attempts to scrounge up weapons and ammunition for Ukraine shows the alliance doesn’t have much depth to its arsenals.
https://www.businessinsider.co.za/ukraine-war-scale-out-of-proportion-with-nato-planning-cavoli-2023-2
If the Supreme US Commander in Europe does not understand that Russia is not running out of shells or missiles, is he ignorant or is his staff hiding battlefield facts from him? I do congratulate Cavoli on his No Shit Analysis moment when he admits that NATO has no strategic depth. But he is engaging in major hopium by repeating the nonsense that Russia is in no shape to fight NATO. Errors in judgment like that get people killed.
Next is a ridiculous piece by Andrew A. Michta, Ukraine Can Achieve a Strategic Win over Russia. The West Must Step Up. Michta has quite a pedigree:
Andrew A. Michta is the dean of the College of International and Security Studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies and a new Contributing Editor for 1945. He is the former Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College and former Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis. You can follow him on Twitter: @AndrewMichta. The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, the U.S. Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.
Michta is one more piece of evidence supporting Andrei Martyanov’s trenchant criticism of the pseudo-intellectuals that pander to the Defense establishment. It is a pity that Sigmund Freud is not around to do some much needed psycho analysis on the Neo Con community. People like Michta display a form of schizophrenia in their articles. Consider the following:
In the wake of the mass destruction of Ukraine’s infrastructure and the flight of its citizens (an estimated 9 million Ukrainian refugees have passed through Poland alone), a fight with an enemy commanding approximately four times Ukraine’s population can only end one way.
So Ukraine needs forces to allow it to break out of the current stalemate, check the Russian advance, and maneuver to achieve a decisive victory on the battlefield. It needs to fight on its own terms. To do this it needs modern Western main battle tanks and long-range fires – in greater numbers than promised so far, and, most importantly, aircraft.
Yep. More Cow Bell. Michta correctly notes that Ukraine is outnumbered and outgunned. So what is his wise recommendation for doing a turn around? Send in more battle tanks, long-range fires and combat aircraft that Russia has demonstrated the ability to destroy. Yeah, that makes sense.
Michta, a professional leech who guzzles at the tit of the Defense industry, offers a solution that is certain to warm the hearts of the corporate chiefs at General Dynamics, Lockheed, Raytheon and many others. Happy Days are here again. We need more billions to stop the Rooskies.
Unless the United States and its European allies make urgently needed decisions to invest in their defense industry, it may become impossible to supply Ukraine in the long run—even if the political will remains. Simply put, looking at the rates at which weapons and munitions are being consumed in this war, the West needs to move its defense industry away from the “just-in-time,” low-volume paradigm of the past thirty years to a “just-in-case” approach, whereby it amasses the quantities of weapons and munitions needed to sustain a protracted fight with a near-peer adversary. . . .
But the West should consider another possibility: Given the right equipment, the Ukrainian army could defeat the Russian military within the next six months, setting in motion forces in Russia that could implode Putin’s regime. In Russian history, military defeats have usually been accompanied by internal fracturing—including the 1905 revolution that followed Russia’s defeat by Japan, the February and Bolshevik revolutions in 1917 in the wake of Russia’s defeat by Germany, and the 1991 implosion of the Soviet Union following its rout in Afghanistan. . . .
I could tolerate this nonsense if it was written by a 24 year old grad student with no memory of the Cold War and no understanding of Russia’s history of dealing with foreign invaders, but Michta is experienced. The Ukrainian Army has not defeated the Russians in a set piece battle since the start of Russia’s Special Military Operation. Urkaine, with the full help of NATO, was unable to mount an offensive to rescue its trapped forces in Mariupol. A similar catastrophe for Ukraine is unfolding right now in Donetsk along the defense line that stretches from Bakhmut to Seversk in the north.
I find it especially ironic that Michta cites the Soviet Union’s “rout” in Afghanistan without acknowledging the ass whipping the United States endured in August 2021 despite our extravagantly expensive military machine. Russia did not flee Afghanistan with desperate inhabitants clinging to departing air craft and plunging to their deaths. We did that. At least Russia executed a competent withdrawal. Look in the mirror Michta. People who live in glass houses should be cautious about tossing rocks.
I will give Michta credit for one moment of lucidity in the penultimate paragraph of his article:
This is a system-transforming war. Should Ukraine lose, not only would Russia and China be emboldened to press their advantage. Recriminations over the failure to adequately support Ukraine between countries on NATO’s eastern flank and their allies further West could also put a severe strain on the alliance—and possibly fracture it. The consequences of this war thus reach far beyond the question of who wins in Ukraine.
That is the core of the truth — the Ukraine war has exposed NATO as a toothless tiger that cannot sustain an industrial war against a first world military machine like Russia.
Delusional thinking is not limited to the U.S. pundits. The Germans also have jumped on the crazy train. Writing in Der Spiegel, René Pfister, Ann-Dorit Boy und Matthias Gebauer offer their proposal for “How Might the Violence in Ukraine Come to an End?” They proceed by presenting false straw-men:
- When Russian President Vladimir Putin marched into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, he clearly believed that he would be able to conquer Kyiv within just a few days and install a puppet government.
- With the invasion, Putin was hoping to fulfill his dream of resurrecting the Soviet Union, but now, he finds himself not only fighting against a powerful Ukrainian army, but also for his own political survival.
- If Putin is able to swallow up Ukraine, why would he shy away from doing the same to other republics that were once part of the Soviet Union – such as Moldova or the Baltic states?
- If Putin were victorious in Ukraine, might not Beijing see that as an invitation to conquer Taiwan?
There you have it — the new Domino theory. I am old enough to remember when Commie dominoes were the raison d’etre for the U.S. war in Vietnam, Central America and Afghanistan. The Soviets were hell bent on world domination and we had to stop them. Let us call this what it is — Domino 2.0.
The Der Spiegel writers repeat the delusional meme that has anchored the West during the last year:
More than a few Western military experts are cautiously optimistic about the possibility of a Ukrainian victory, not least because Moscow has repeatedly stumbled on the battlefield. The Ukrainian military, by contrast, has managed to win back half of the territory that Russia occupied immediately following the February 24 invasion. . . .
“The Russian proposition is, to me, straightforward,” says American military expert Michael Kofman. It hinges on grinding down the strong Ukrainian military with wave upon wave of Russian fighters even if they are poorly trained and equipped. For Ukraine to withstand the Russian onslaught, Kyiv badly needs more weapons and munitions.
They cannot leave that Cowbell alone. They want more. Much more! The authors grudgingly acknowledge that as the conflict drags on NATO’s unity is fraying:
The perceived foot-dragging by some members of the Western coalition has triggered frustration in Central European countries like Poland, the Czech Republic and the Baltic countries as well as in Ukraine. Increasingly, that same frustration has been building among Biden’s supporters in Washington.
The Der Spiegel scribes offer a boorish assessment of what a Russian victory will look like and insist that Putin, even if he chalks up a victory, will still be on the ropes. They even mention he may have cancer.
These three articles encapsulate the juvenile, short sighted, daft strategic thinking that is the foundation of the NATO effort to destroy Russia. They ignore Russia’s unequaled natural resources (which gives it self-suffiency not enjoyed by any of the other major powers); its robust, technologically sophisticated industrial base (Russia produces viable space rockets, the United States does not); and its deeply rooted sense of national identity. They also do not grasp the devastating tactics the Russians are methodically executing on the battlefield — the Ukrainian Army and equipment are being mauled and the West has emptied its military stores and is in no condition to provide replacements any time soon.
Let me assure you that the Westernazi coalition is so invested in Ukranazistan that it will do anything, to the extent of giving the nazis tactical nuclear weapons, to try and defeat Russia. The nazi use of chemical weapons could never have happened without direct permission from Warshington, and everyone knows it.
IMO, the current situation suits the Russians just fine. The are in no hurry to disabuse the West of their delusions. The longer this conflict continues, the more resources the West bleeds, impoverishing and demilitarising itself in the process, all the while revealing its true gangster-Nazi nature to the rest of the world.
I suspect Putin has never felt better.
Yeah but Putin has ED and male pattern baldness, a sure sign he is about to be deposed. After which Moscow will be coming back to Washington hat in hand begging forgiveness and promising free oil for reparations. Statues of McCain and Nuland are already being cast, CNN said so.
All sarcasm aside, I hope that the curators of the National Gallery and the Smithsonian are maimg plans to safeguard some of the pricless pieces or artwork and historical artifacts. If someting fast and heavy doesn’t fall on the beltway, the coming collapse will mean looting and distruction on a large scale.
Biswapriya Purkayastha says “The nazi use of chemical weapons could never have happened without direct permission from Warshington, and everyone knows it.”
Oh, really??
Tabun was the first deadly nerve gas known. It was discovered in January 1936 by the German researcher Gerhard Schrader. In 1939, trials to confirm the practicality of large scale Tabun manufacture were successfully carried out at an experimental plant at Munsterlager on Luneberg Heath. In January 1940, work began on the full-scale production facility, code named Hochwerk, at Dyernfurth-am-Oder (now Brzeg Dolny in Poland). The factory complex was run by an I.G. Farbenindustrie subsidiary, Anorgana GmbH, and was completely self-contained, synthesizing all intermediates as well as Tabun itself. The facility had an underground plant for filling munitions, which were then stored at Krappitz (now Krapowice) in Upper Silesia.
The nerve gas Tabun was made on an industrial scale by the Nazis during world war II.
In the production facility at Dyhernfurth an der Oder, at least 12,000 metric tons of this nerve gas were manufactured between 1942 and 1945.
Enough to kill everyone on the planet.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabun_(nerve_agent)
The figure of > 12,000 metric tons of Tabun nerve gas comes from the quantity contained in the 500,000 artillery shells, and 100,000 bombs, filled with Tabun, found at the end of the war. None of this nerve gas was used. Apparently, Hitler was a nice guy.
So, Hitler didn’t use the 12,000 tons of nerve gas because Washington would not let him??
He means the Ukro-Nazis of today, not the German Nazis of the Third Reich. You need to re-read his post.
Let us nor forget the thousands killed by mustard gas bombs aboard the liberty ship John Harvey in Bari, Italy after it was bombed by the Germans. Most didn’t because it was classified till 1959.
One when the last American artillery shell has been fired, only when the last Ukrainian soldier has been killed and only when the last of Ukrainian state territory has been irretrievably lost will The Americans and Europeans finally realize that God Favours Russia . . . https://les7eb.substack.com
I agree with a lot of your article, but it’s laughable to say the US “does not produce viable space rockets”. We have the most robust and dynamic space capabilities of any country, and they’re about to be vastly expanded as the SpaceX Starship vehicle begins operations.
I’m extremely excited about its first test flight, which should be next month!
Before SpaceX nasa was buying rocket engines from Russia and ALL travel to the ISS was aboard Russian spacecraft. This doesn’t sound like the actions of a country with “the most robust and dynamic space capabilities of any country” you should stop watching cnn.
Space X is NASA and probably DARPA projects. The reason for privatizing is money and profit.
I wholeheartedly agree , Musk singlehandedly transformed the US space sector and russian commercial sector was the one hit the most . I’m very curious about how ru will adapt to the realities on the field there are some good signs and some bad ones . Ofc they will win in the end but the score matters
The same old toro poopoo we’ve seen before from the empire of lies. The West will crash with a great thud!!
Face it – lies are easier to create than prying out hidden truths/facts.
An empire of lies relies on the creation of an army of zealots with keyboards:
“I could tolerate this nonsense if it was written by a 24 year old grad student with no memory of the Cold War and no understanding of Russia’s history of dealing with foreign invaders……”
Lie, Deny, Obfuscate and Project your own deeds onto others!!!!!!
I love it when the resistance to the truth gives no facts, just attacks with insults. It’s the perfect truth about this war. Bluster vs reality.
I call it the chameleon resistance. Same old lizard and its habits but constantly changing its rhetorical skin to fit with the changing environment.
Right ON, Larry, keep telling it like it is!
“Russia produces viable space rockets, the United States does not”
What? Is not SpaceX a US company?
Elon Musk produces that. Not the US Government. Not NASA
Very true!
This last week the Biden admin. gave “Bob and Doug” (the two astronauts how flew the 1st human mission of Dragon capsule) the congressional medal of honor (it is actually not “congressional”, since it is given by the White House).
But the Biden admin. failed to award the medal to the person who has actually been the hero, in that endeavor: Elon Musk.
Maybe Elon is not friendly enough, to the current White House…
Good points.
As a result of over-use by the US government, Elon Musk has gotten too hot politically — sending Elon Musk (as a non-government-government organization (NGGO) errand boy for the US Government, to officially speak with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), in support of the US government’s takeover of Twitter. One of the key details being how MBS is (or was) a major investor and stake holder in Twitter. That is official version.
Unofficially, Musk’s mission was to remind MBS of consequences; the agreements regarding the Reserve Currency status; the need for OPEC to pump more oil; and the consequences if MBS failed to follow the instructions of the great hegemon.
And now Elon Musk’s involvement, again in his capacity as an NGGO errand boy, in the Starlink mess. Is something about to happen to satellites around the world?
The government is letting one of their greatest assets cool off a bit. Fear not. This government will f*ck this up, too.
That’s bad…!! From what I’ve been reading on various websites, Saudia Arabia/BRICS & BRICS+ & other countries that know better are trading in their FRN’s for gold & other tangibles, moving to get off of the petrodollar as the global reserve currency. Once the US/Biden admin ripped off Russia of $300 billion or so, it was just a matter of time since the idjits showed we aren’t trustworthy, just an Empire of Lies rolling down the hill before that darn avalanche hits…
Kind of a distinction without a difference when corporations are aligned as military contractors. Certainly Musk is a new emergent force, but his enterprises are American assets nevertheless. Even as a billionaire his agency is limited and subservient as well as benefiting from taxpayer largesse directed by the MIC.
SpaceX has half of the world private launch market. It’s very stupid dismissing it as simply a government subsidized company.
Elon Musk wouldn’t be “The Richest Man in the World” without all those contracts from the “Richest Government in the World.” Both claims being highly suspect. None-the-less, Elon Musk is a government man. Elon Musk is protected. As such, Elon Musk is just another NGO. IMO.
“Elon Musk wouldn’t be “The Richest Man in the World” without all those contracts from the “Richest Government in the World.””
You say so based on what? He founded all his companies with his own money or money from private investors. He developed Falcon 1 totally with his own money. He developed all Tesla cars without government money. He has most of the commercial launch market globally, beating other US companies that do were highly dependent on government contracts, since the commercial market was then dominated by Russia and China.
“Both claims being highly suspect.” Kind missed that?
“Private investors?” “Private investors?” “Private investors” is a euphemism for the government. FTX did the same thing, but in reverse. It’s like FTX dumping billions of campaign contributions to the democratic party.
Elon Musk used his own money? No, he did not. You drank the Kool-Aid and now you are a troll. Sorry about that.
“. . . since the commercial market was then dominated by Russia and China.” For EVs maybe. [sarcasm]
Where do you come up with this nonsense?
Speaking of Elon and his new prominent place on the democrats’ s-hitlist, I had a thought this morn about the existential crisis that every Tesla owner, dominated by the ‘progressive left’ I’d assume, may either covertly or overtly be going through.
It’d be an interesting poll to conduct.
So what? You said “Russia produces viable space rockets, the United States does not”. Is SpaceX a Chinese company? Maybe a German company?
How many tours have SpaceX conducted to the International Space Station?
This!
No, not really. The US government could no longer control NASA. Too many failures.
NASA can’t even speak human anymore. After Gus Grissom was incinerated while training for the “Apollo 1” mission (so named after-the-fact for PR purposes), and after the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia disasters, and the Lisa Nowak episode, it became obvious that all of NASA was a PR disaster — a broken institution.
So much faith had been lost in NASA that a large segments of the American public even doubted NASA’s ability to put a man on the moon.
SpaceX was created as an NGO (really hybrid; a non-government government organization). Run by Elon Musk, a foreigner (which reflects perfectly what this government really thinks about American Citizens).
The danger now is, if you listen carefully, the people at SpaceX have stopped talking like human beings, too. Just like NASA. Must be some kind of space sickness. One small step for mankind. One giant leap towards a propaganda pandemic.
Just saying. IMO
Musk is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Being a naturized US Citizen means nothing anymore. The US Government is handing citizenship out like candy to Ukrainians, and then handing them off to NGOs that put them into the US Senate and House of Representatives.
Elon Musk was born in South Africa. So, I’m supposed to believe that Musk, having taken the direct flight from Apartheid headquarters to the United States, then buying Twitter is because he cares so much about the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Expression, and all that stuff?
Oh, please.
Elon Musk, the good little NGGO errand boy bought Twitter on the orders of his master, the US Government. They can’t generate enough propaganda and control enough MSM so they have to buy some. A fully controlled and manipulated mainstream media? We ain’t seen nothing yet.
“SpaceX was created as an NGO (really hybrid; a non-government government organization).”
That’s a LIE. SpaceX was totally funded by Musk’s own money.
What utter bs!!! Musk made his billions FROM Tesla NOT SpaceX. Tesla is one of the most heavily subsidized companies in the US and EVs one of the most heavily subsidized industries. If you are not American you have no idea. Tesla is a garbage company that produces junk cars that would never compete in a true EV free market. The climate junkies who made Musk wealthy hijacked fed/state/local
governments to push the green garbage hysteria of EVs. They are an environmental disaster but not to Americans who can outsource it to countries lime Africa and Burma. Look at the Chinese slave labor producing Iphones and other tech. Musk is no genius…..he’s an Asperger idiot savant who is in bed (Epstein cough jews cough neuralink) the right people.
1964 episodes of Jonny Quest have better technology than SpaceX. And the kinds of technology necessary to get to Mars.
90-perent of the technology SpaceX is working with is over 70-years-old. The SpaceX “Starship?” Budweiser has better beer cans. SpaceX has stainless steel beer cans, but beer cans none-the-less.
Musk is a government man. Musk is protected. The “Big Three” automakers attempted to do to Tesla what they had done to the Tucker, take Musk outback and kill him. Except Musk’s backer stepped in. Muck’s investors. Musk’s boss. The big hegemon.
The only thing saving SpaceX is that it is run by a woman. And that’s just in case something goes seriously stupid. Musk will be protected.
Same thing happened with Twitter. Twitter tried to sue Musk. That went nowhere. Why? For the same reason.
A large segment of the GLOBAL population doubted NASA’s ability to put a man on the moon for a very good reason – they never did.
Now, now – no need for such leaps of faith as that.
I’d have been amused by the pure projection and mirroring the Western press and even politicians seem to engage in, were it not leading us all into a world war. They’re straight up just taking all the issues their proxies are having… and saying it’s Russia that’s having them, and take the strengths Russia has and ascribe them to Kiev. It seems like they still think they can somehow bullshit their way to victory somehow.
“They” have previous experience of winning things by BS, goat herders and elections seem to be their forte, but they have aspirations to widen the BS scope, as ever a reality check is on its way.
“Those who the Gods wish to destroy, first they make mad”
Hubris and believing BS and PR are for real are signs of that madness.
russia’s simple proposition is to crush the strong ukrainian army with wave after wave of russian fighters, even if they are poorly armed and trained. If Michael Kofman is a military expert I must be Marshal Zhukov, someone explain to this imbecile that it is precisely the Ukraine that is sending waves after waves of badly armed and trained men straight to the meat grinder.
In fact, the only wave that Russia is sending is the daily tsunami of artillery shells. And the last time an actual human wave tactic occurred was in Korea, most famously at the Chosin. And even here, the Chinese outnumbered the 1st Marine by a factor of at least 8 to 1 and had only mortars for artillery support.
And the Japanese banzai charge was another version. Even here, the Japs only tried it against the US because it had worked against Chinese conscripts armed only with inadequate bolt action rifles and a massive inferiority complex vis a vis their enemy
And after they saw the disastrous results at Guadalcanal against better armed troops who didnt fear them, they stopped
A hard-hitting article, Larry. Were they not so delusional, the facts you hammer home here would otherwise be devastating to the D.C war-hawks and America’s shameless, money-grubbing politicians. The hard, cold facts you present ought to make all of them feel ashamed. But these are people who seem incapable of it. Reading this article calls to mind Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity. These people are indeed insane. May the Good Lord have mercy on us all.
Are they really delusional, and/or insane?? Perhaps.
OTOH, Is it possible they don’t believe their own BS but are spreading it to keep the several Ukraine gravy trains operating for them as long as possible?
If they want to be able to enjoy their loot though, it’s almost past the time to admit their act is getting old and fold the tents of this circus.
Hmm, I guess they haven’t heard of the US and Norway bombing the pipelines, which is an act of war against Germany, Russia, and Switzerland.
They didn’t hear that the bombs were placed before Russia invaded.
They didn’t hear about the US military and CIA controlling HIMARS targeting, which attacked civilians, and is called a war crime by Amnesty International.
This whole SMO is turning into a mind fcuk, I for one as a Westerner wish Russia would just wipe the floor with Ukraine and tell Natostan and the United mistake of @hole there’s the red line cross it if you dare.
That’s the idea. Russia “wipes the floor” slowly and thoroughly, using the least effort. NATO/US understands, that’s why they’re worried. The fight, now, is against NATO not just Ukraine, viz SMO: Least civilian and local infrastructure destruction as possible. If Russia starts a “Real War”, you’ll see Hell on Earth.
Yes, I think the lightbulb is finally starting to glow dimly in their heads. The finaly wake-up is going to be brutal.
I agree with a lot of your article, but it’s laughable to say the US “does not produce viable space rockets”. We have the most robust and dynamic space capabilities of any country, and they’re about to be vastly expanded as the SpaceX Starship vehicle begins operations.
I’m extremely excited about its first test flight, which should be next month!
The US Government does not produce rockets or viable space craft. Private sector does that and Russia is still better at it.
That is a distinction without a difference. The US government doesn’t “produce” anything, contractors do. Both ULA and SpaceX vehicles perform NASA and military missions.
Russia’s space program is very much on the decline, and it has no reusable spacecraft in the works. SpaceX is eating the global launch industry’s lunch, since reuse provides much lower cost per ton to orbit.
Starship, which should launch next month, is larger and more powerful than the Saturn rockets, and fully reusable (not just the booster). It’ll be able to place 100+ tons of payload per shot into LEO.
The US is clearly the world leader in space technology.
This I believe was an accident. But who knows. This came apart in the orbit zone of perhaps hundreds of satellites some for gps/comms/military etc. Could be interesting if it kills US spy satellites. Be like fragging the comms of the enemy?
https://www.zerohedge.com/military/secretive-russian-satellite-breaks-orbit-creating-debris-cloud
I believe you are unclear as to what exactly “fragging” means.
Fragging is to “deliberately kill (an unpopular senior officer) with a hand grenade.”
This was common practice during the Viet Nam War and may have contributed towards ridding our senior military of their insane delusions about any intentions they may have ever entertained about winning the war. Answer: They didn’t have any intentions of ever winning the war in Viet Nam. The whole deal was crap from the very beginning. I know. I was there. I stood for the draft.
Space has become one more territory to be claimed and then fought over by these worthless piece of crap governments.
Until the people rise up and frag their leaders the shit show will continue. Reasoning with them is no longer an option.
Western political leaders are 100% convinced that everything is at bottom PR and politics. They think they can solve problems in two ways:
1. Print money and tell our superior industry to churn out them shells; our industry will magically rise to the occasion if us pols give them the go-ahead. They cannot fathom that there could be an insurmountable problem here, because they deal only with rhetoric, not reality.
2. Use words. Talk about switching from just-in-time to just-in-case. There. Got you. Russia always splinters after defeat. Got you. Never mind that after a thousand years of invasions it is the biggest country by far in the world. Big splinter you got there Russia.
Leadership by PowerPoint
Well done on point 2 – awesome splinter comment 😀
Yes, western political leaders[sic] most of whom have never had any kind of an actual job in their lives think weapons and ammunition production can be waved into existence by the whiring of the printing press.
Manufacturing is a highly complex system with many inputs and many points of failure.
My favorite example of this is a simple essay called “I, Pencil”
The simple, humble pencil is a marvel of human cooperation and ingenuity.
https://fee.org/resources/i-pencil/
read this and them imagine the making of a cruise missile.
The first Chancellor of the German Empire, Bismarck, believed that the empires that existed at that time would sooner or later disintegrate, but not Russia. The reason for the persistence of the Slavic country lies in its nation.
Russian Russians are mercury,” the chancellor said, referring to the property of a divided nation of Russians to be attracted to each other like drops of mercury.
“Even the most successful outcome of the war,” Bismarck pointed out in a letter to a German diplomat in 1888, “will never lead to the collapse of Russia, which is supported by millions of Orthodox Russians. These latter, even if they are dissected by international treatises, will reconnect with each other as quickly as mercury droplets. This is an indestructible State of the Russian nation, strong in its climate, its spaces and its unpretentiousness, as well as through awareness of the need to constantly protect its borders. This state, even after a complete defeat, will remain an opponent seeking revenge, as we have in the case of today’s France in the West.”
Quite a lot of malignant psychological projection going on among the American and German “professionals” cited in these articles. Every successive demonstration of this projection renews my belief that the Russian Federation will prevail in establishing, for the first time in many decades, a multipolar world based on respect for individual states’ sovereignty, governed by the principle of indivisibility of security.
Reminds me of Don Quixote, the legendary warrior who thought of wind mills as sinister demons out to conquer. When you are wearing a virtual reality headgear that projects a version of “reality” that is a travesty of reality and you keep saying that “that is reality”, it is equivalent to putting a noose around your neck and kicking the chair as some kind of a Tik Tok Challenge stunt. The real question that we should be asking ourselves is: should we be feeling pity or any similar emotion about these people or shrug our shoulders and say it is their democratic free choice and turn our attention to something more relevant and interesting?
While the Don was delusional, he was a honorable man and a true knight. The delusional neocons are dangerous parasites.
“Not my monkeys, not my circus.”
The real answer to the real question is “Not my monkeys, not my circus.”
I believe that the Baltic states, Poland and other newer NATO states were led to believe that the Core NATO states (US, UK, France and Germany) have an unending supply of weaponry and personnel to completely obliterate any potential enemy, and that is why they both joined NATO and are currently frustrated by NATO’s apparent lack of willingness to provide Ukraine with the weapons and personnel it needs to fight Russia. What they will not understand or accept in the future is that NATO is largely a paper tiger – great on paper, fragile and shallow-rooted in reality. Even the populations of these core NATO allies seem convinced that their respective governments that NATO is all-powerful, as is evidenced by the continual hubris expressed in their media, commentaries and political class.
To date, the countries of NATO and others across the globe have been able to supply Ukraine with old Soviet equipment in stock and much of their out-of-date inventory, not yet touching on their actual supplies of war-ready equipment and ammo – equipment which, as the terrible reality rises in their hubris-filled minds, is entirely insufficient for real and lasting warfare. As that reality dawns NATO will become fractured and ultimately dissolve, as will the imagery projected onto the world at large over the past decades. This will result in a huge and global abandonment of confidence in the Exceptional Empire as well as a discarding of the fear that held these nations in line over the years. No empire can exist without the bonds of fear tying its Empire together.
One of the mistakes of the USA was to give that sense of comfort to European countries that “we got this.”
Probably a comedy
of errors to think Russia would not respond to all the European weakness
and be pushed around. Trump brought the issue up( certainly some ex US military leadership ) but not a popular position.
The Europeans I dealt with with in business for 30 years were to a great extent pacifists. The Poles and Baltic States people are good stock. Germans are odd. Their men are sissified and women are asexual-short US Marine haircuts with MMA physiques
Advised by such self-annaointed Russian “experts”, the collective West is self-demilitarizing, walking to the fantasy land.
A glimpse of collapsing civilization.
We spend more than the next 9ish countries combined. But when a big war (they encouraged) breaks out in Europe, just like the last two big wars, they’re *shocked* numbers matter? Numbers, the key to US success in The Good War which ended in 1945 – which has shaped all thinking in DC ever since. So now, after spending more than anyone (by far), we need much more spending? I’m highly skeptical this can be done without destroying the West, or would be successful if it was possible. Too many guys pushing gold-plated force-multiplying Swiss Army knife solutions to illusory problems for decades to think they can get anything right.
U.S. Insanity for all to see.
1. U.S. Expenditures on the Military is the highest in the world. So what ! You could mortgage your house, borrow everything you can from your friends and family and spend it all on booze down your throat.
2. It is not the size of your Expenditures, it is your BANG FOR THE BUCK.
And Russia is getting 10 times the bang for their buck, because U.S. military expenditures are for greasing palms and general War Profiteering.
It is SICK but it is TRUE.
God Save the American People from their Captors.
Cavoli: “That Moscow is buying artillery shells from North Korea suggests that Russia’s military is no shape to fight NATO and Ukraine.”
I keep hearing that claim being made, but I have seen no evidence that it is true.
As in: No dud 155mm shells with Korean markings on them.
Nothing of that kind.
Now, don’t get me wrong: I could well imagine the Russians getting in touch with the North Koreans to ask how many shells they have in stockpile, how many they could manufacture for Russia if needed, and at what cost.
All very prudent: if Russia did go to war with NATO then Russia’s own munition factories would come under air attack, whereas North Korean munition factories would not.
That’s a nice thing to have up your sleeve. When you need to play it.
But putting out feelers towards the North Koreans is NOT the same thing as the Russians “buying artillery shells from North Korea”.
Until I see evidence of such artillery shells turning up on the Ukrainian battlefield I’m calling BS on that claim.
If I were to outsource my 152 mm artillery shells, I would first go to China, which has by far the largest and most efficient manufacturing sector in the world.
Crony American Corporations and Corrupt American Politicians killed American Industry along with jobs, families and towns.
Now the biggest manufacturing center on the planet is China – America’s enemy. Financed and nurtured by the Neocon/MIC center in DC.
While Russia can offer many things China wants, North Korea is even more craving Russian wheat and meat, for example (see Korea fishing vessels found with dead crew).
Not that it would stop Lavrov (who is the most dangerous single weapon in the Russian arsenal) payng a visit to China too.
Remember, Putin routinely plays simultanous chess in Russian clubs 🙂
An I am sure that Russia has reached out to China, if only to keep those lines of communication open.
But putting out feelers to China is an OBVIOUS thing to do, so there is little to no propaganda value to be drawn by revealing that in the MSM.
But North Korea? Easier to paint that as an act of desperation, which is why the “Moscow is buying artillery shells from North Korea” becomes a mantra that keeps being repeated over and over again.
As far as the Mighty Wurlitzer is concerned what matters is the optics, not the economics.
Soviet Union made enough shells to fight NATO for years, and then some. Basic shells can stay in storage for decades, and most of them did. Soviet Union also made big factories to produce even more shells, and I guess that most of them are still there. It’s more likely for Russians to run out of vodka than to run out of shells.
The Soviets created critical infrastructures and capabilities to withstand war with the west, including in Ukraine. Now that robust infrastructure is being used by the west against Russia itself. That’s one of the reasons for the slow grind, to dismantle that which was designed by its own hand to not easily be dismantled.
Maria Z. wipes the floor with her counterpart at State. Worth reading every line ( first posted at MoA ) …..
For the late night owls and early risers as the world turns here’s another great nugget from Maria Zakharova’s briefing:
Statements by US State Department Spokesman Nicolas Price
We heard amazing statements from the US State Department and the White House, which immediately began to “shake its head in all directions” (this is their usual state of recent years). I was surprised by the State Department, where, unlike the White House, there are people with specialized education.
At a recent briefing by the US State Department, its spokesman Nicolas Price responded to questions about the published investigation. Let me remind you that Sergei Hersh is not just an American journalist, but an investigative journalist. Price called all the accusations “utter and complete nonsense.” In addition, answering a question about interaction with Oslo and Berlin on this topic, he said that “it would be atypical for the United States to involve allies and partners in what is complete nonsense.” I must say that the most typical thing that we have seen in Washington in recent decades is to involve its allies in “complete nonsense.”
I don’t even know where to start. The list is huge. Let’s start with the passage about “involving allies and partners.” It’s Washington’s “godsend” to talk about solidarity. In their reading, this is the involvement of partners in all sorts of nonsense. The bloc “stick” discipline established within NATO does not just imply the “involvement of allies and partners” in what is complete nonsense, but is also the very essence of the entire “Euro-Atlantic solidarity”. Under a far-fetched pretext (sometimes because of the alleged “poisoning”, as they say, with a chemical warfare agent (the Skripals, A.A. Navalny) – no one understands what really happened, then because of “interference” in internal affairs – remember all these allegedly Kremlin bots, interference in elections, etc.), Russian diplomats were expelled from European capitals. Remember that? We remember. Washington actually dictated, imposing its will on “allies and partners.” He did it just under invented, false pretexts. How many years have passed since the “poisoning” of the Skripals? Where are they? What happened there? Where is the investigation? There was none of that. But there were “consultations” with “allies and partners”, who were forced to make unnecessary and unprofitable decisions for themselves – to expel diplomats, receiving a reaction from the Russian side in response. None of the “allies and partners” even held the materials in their hands as to the grounds on which Washington made the relevant conclusions. It is also true that Washington and London are one Anglo-Saxon “bundle”.
Let’s take a look at what’s going on with regard to our country. Regarding “absurdity and nonsense,” as the State Department says through the mouth of Nicolas Price.
Twenty years ago, US Secretary of State Catherine Powell brought a test tube with a certain substance to the UN Security Council and called on all allies and partners to start hostilities against a sovereign state without any reason. Then these calls turned out to be complete nonsense. A question for Nikolai Price (I am not asking about the history of the United States, but I do not stutter about international relations at all): do you know the history of your department? Twenty years is not such a long time to forget how, under the pretext of complete nonsense, you forced your “allies and partners” to start wars on other continents.
Sometimes the US involves its “allies and partners” without even asking for their permission, in absurd situations. Let’s recall how employees of the US National Security Agency tapped Angela Merkel’s phone. The world learned about this thanks to the information of E. Snowden. The American “wiretapping” under an absolutely absurd pretext was conducted from 2002 to 2013. Washington, like an octopus, launched its tentacles into the internal affairs of “allies and partners”. We can clearly see this now, when, under pressure from the United States, the Europeans are making frank and unfavorable decisions for themselves from all sides, significantly worsening the lives of their citizens and the situation on the continent as a whole, acting at the global level in the interests of the United States of America.
I want to move directly from “allies and partners”, as N. Price says, to “complete nonsense” regarding the involvement of the United States in undermining civilian infrastructure. There is no doubt that the history of their country in the US State Department is poorly known. That’s why we’re here.
Let me remind you that in 1983, the CIA and other US intelligence agencies mined an underwater pipeline in the port of Puerto Sandino and, through their accomplices, blew up oil storage facilities in the port of Corinto. This caused not a real environmental disaster for the civilian population of the region. Not one or two countries, but an entire region. In 1984, when the story was leaked to the press, Managua appealed to the International Court of Justice. Mr. N. Price, this is not “nonsense”, but the history of the United States of America. The arbitration then admitted Washington’s guilt and ordered to compensate for damages. What kind of “nonsense” is this? You’ve done it, you’re doing it, and you’re going to do it until you get stopped. Then the United States blocked the relevant resolution. No one was responsible for this sabotage. “Nonsense” is the lack of an opportunity to hold Washington accountable, not that they have historically done so.
If you think these stories only happened during the Cold War, you’re wrong. In 2020, the Venezuelan authorities stopped an attempted terrorist attack at the El Palito oil refinery in the north of the country. According to Caracas, the CIA and the US NSA were involved in the sabotage attempt. At that time, we also heard statements from the United States that this was nonsense. Perhaps? These are facts.
I must pay tribute to the bravery of a State Department spokesperson who called “nonsense” what his president called the desired result six months before the sabotage.
Let me remind you of the words of US President Joe Biden: “If Russia invades, if tanks and troops cross the border of Ukraine again, then Nord Stream 2 will no longer exist. We (i.e. the United States of America and the Joe Biden Administration) will do it,” he said long before the start of the special military operation.
A question for Nicholas Price is “nonsense”, what does your president say? Then say that the “nonsense” is not the articles of journalists (because these facts have yet to be verified, as O. Scholz said, in democratic states under the rule of law), but the statement of President Joe Biden and other high-ranking officials of the State Department. Nuland said the same thing before the attack and after, rejoicing that the pipeline had turned into a pile of scrap metal. This is her recent statement. To the question that this is “nonsense”.
The United States is once again lying on the air, referring to some control of Congress and openly laughing at representatives of the press who ask quite justified questions to their representatives of power, which stem primarily from the statements of the President of the United States. Nobody makes anything up. Everyone is just trying to figure out what happened. The picture is formed, among other things, from the actions and statements of American officials…..
Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 11 2023 6:17 utc | 217
“US Secretary of State Catherine Powell”? Either tragically misspoken by Mrs. Zakharova…or then based on some knowledge of clandestine gender reassignment that we common folks (once more) have not been privy to.
If the latter, then at this late stage in life most definitely a waste of surgical tools and precious US medical expertise.
Or auto-correct or mis-translation. 🤦
It’s a machine translator SNAFU. There are a couple of other such amusing mistranslations in the Maria Z. Text.
a mistake in machine translation? Russian officials don’t make stupid mistakes in public statements
There isn’t any sane leadership in the West. It’s all corruption, ambition, denial and PR. God help us.
> “Having an adequate defense industrial base is critical.”
Perhaps having the will and ability to create mutually respectful peaceful co-existence is even more critical.
The reason the US Empire is in this predicament is not because it failed to build up it’s war machine, but because it was held bent on war.
💯
Interesting that Mr Michta considers Russia a ” a near-peer adversary”.
Suggesting that, despite having many hypersonic weapons capable of wiping out most NATO hardware, Russia is still not in the same league as the mighty West.
But is getting near.
I suggest that if NATO continues down its current path with Moscow, and Beijing, it will soon find out how near its peers really are.
At great cost.
You mistake lying for stupidity. They know what they are doing. Why do you think it’s called the empire of lies!
Larry, BRAVO
When I was in the military I always got a kick out of how most of the officers would talk shit. No really, like salesmen pitching truckloads of manure.
Honestly, the US military is so far out of touch with reality it’s hard to tell the difference between Hollywood and the Pentagon.
Not only the military. In ’99 during the Belgrade bombings, as I was walking through the parking lot to the local supermarket , I overheard a few locals talking in amazement and pride about how the US had these ‘amazing systems’ that could shoot down a ping pong ball in orbit with pinpoint accuracy. Yes, they actually believed they were invincible.
When jungle drums beat, it’s the law of the jungle and none other.
Putin put it another way: “When you find yourself among wolves, no choice but to howl like a wolf.”
I hope the US and UK got the message, because I hate to say it but their lives depend on it.
Does that mean that Russia can begin deploying trench-cleaning chemical weapons to match Ukraine’s now?
Because I’d really like to know how deep into the abyss this clusterfucked unholy alliance between Ukraine and the West is going to take us all.
The British are getting ready to supply air-launched cruise missiles with a range of just above 500 kilometers, Eurofighters as their carriers and barely enough training for Ukrainian pilots to take off on missile-carrying missions, get into range, launch, and get back to base. Ukraine and NATO will still try to play the regime-change-in-Russia game with this method. It will require striking deep into Russia to present the Russian leadership with the alternative of either accepting being defenseless, or escalating to a degree not seen to date to destroy the threat. The Ukrainian/NATO thinking is that Russia will shy away from escalation, whence defenselessness will lead to a political crisis, and ultimately defeat and regime change. It will be a gamble of planetary proportions. Eurofighters are 4th generation fighter jets that are very complex to operate. While Ukrainian pilots can be trained up for the missile-carrying mission in a matter of months, putting the logistical trail into Ukrainian hands will be impossible within that time frame.
It will, therefore, have to be an essentially all-Western operation, where sitting in the cockpit and pulling the trigger will be the only part left to the Ukrainians. Bases will be located in the west of Ukraine, heavily protected by NATO air defenses. How will Russia react to being presented with an escalation of this kind? As air defenses may render attacking these bases with cruise missiles ineffective, the only potential means may consist of of using Kinzhal missiles to destroy them with nukes. It will be especially tempting to do so because using nuclear weapons in western Ukraine will reduce the amount of nuclear fallout reaching Russia. Yet the crossing of the nuclear treshold will give NATO its excuse to get involved directly.
NATO has already said that it will attack the Russian fleet once nukes have been used by Russia. Russia can, of course, attack NATO fleets in return, especially those easy-to-find surface combatants that operate in the Mediterranean. It’s difficult to see how such an escalation would not go all the way to all-out nuclear war. Will Russia, thus, shy away after all? At the end of the day, the strategy pursued by NATO and Ukraine seems to be predicated on a greater willingness to commit suicide, and taking most of not all of humanity with them, than what the Russians can muster.
Hi Esther
Pretty good analysis re: Euro-fighter operated by 404 pilots with NATO logistical support. BUT…. Why should RF use nukes to take out these Euro-fighter bases in Western 404?
To quote my favorite Star-Trek (original series) character, “Cap’n, Ya canna change the laws of physics!”
Going full Nerd, KE = 1/2(m*v**2)
Kinetic Energy is the product of mass multiplied by the SQUARE of the velocity, all divided by 2. So, let’s calculate AND…
exclude the explosive power available in the missile’s warhead:
We will also assume that the British missile and the Russian missile are of equal mass( OK. That’s a stretch, but good enough for this simple model)
Let’s assume the British missile has a velocity of Mach 0.75, and that the Russian missile has a velocity of Mach 5.0. You can do the algebra and see that the mass term, and the 1/2 term cancel each other out.
So British v**2= 0.5625, or 9/16. RF missile has v**2 of 25.0.
SO, RF missile has 25 / 0.5625 = 44.444 times the impact energy of British missile. Note that we have not yet considered warheads’ payload power.
RF need use no nukes to stamp out Banderites
Suggest trading in NYT subscription for a text on Newtonian mechanics
Just Sayin… (But what do I know?)
Hi, I do not think counting up kinetic and explosive energies against each other is very relevant because firing off cruise missiles against Russia will serve a primarily political purpose in the eyes of the West. On the face of it, it does not matter if Russia can hit targets in Ukraine in return, even at much higher destructive energies, because the West does not care about Ukraine, and the Ukrainian government does not do either, for that matter. The only way in which Russia could counter effectively in the sense of NATO/Ukraine backing off, would consist of attacking fighter jets and the infrastructure associated with them directly. To the extent that Eurofighters require smooth, dedicated runways as opposed to converted roadways and the like, attacking runways might already do the trick to some extent. Such runways are impossible to conceal from satellite surveillance. On the other hand, once hit, they are also easy to repair. Attacking workshops would be more effective, however, seeking out where they are located would already be more difficult than with runways. If, just if, NATO/Ukraine decided that operating Eurofighters from within Ukraine is not practical, then operating them from Poland or Romania would put everything into a wholly different ballgame, of course. NATO would immediately consider itself attacked if Russia decided to hit such bases. Well, maybe not all of NATO, but the usual suspects a.k.a. the English-speaking block and the Ex-Warsaw-Pact members certainly would.
Hi Esther, that is true. I was just going with the original problem statement, your mentioning that NATO is thinking of maintenance facilities in Western 404. Which is why I stepped thru the math exercise to demonstrate that RF does not need to use nukes to completely obliterate the airfields and support facilities these aircraft would be operating from.
As any dog owner knows, don’t let the pooch poop in your front yard unless you want to smell like…
OK it’s Dr Sheldon Cooper again. EstherG, that is true. I was just going with the original problem statement, your mentioning that NATO is thinking of maintenance facilities in Western 404. Which is why I stepped thru the math exercise to demonstrate that RF does not need to use nukes to completely obliterate the airfields and support facilities these aircraft would be operating from.
As any dog owner knows, don’t let the pooch poop in your front yard unless you want to smell like…
Hi, ok, now I understand, hitting the maintenance facilities with conventionally-tipped Kinzhals is what you mean. My point was that it might be possible to spread out hangars and maintenance facilities on a large enough air base. Aircraft can also be moved around. It does not sound very realistic, though. These aircraft will probably end up operating from bases in Poland and Romania, perhaps after air bases in western Ukraine have been attacked and aircraft have been lost there. Yet again, it’s difficult to see how this would not lead to WWIII. If attacked in this way, Russia will find it politically impossible not to hit bases beyond Ukraine’s borders, then a coalition of the willing will get into action hitting targets in Russia not only via Ukrainian proxies but completely overtly, Russia will respond with nukes, the other side will respond with nukes on their own and so on.
The rank idiocy on display throughout the western “elites” and their bought-off mainstream media pundits should actually be cause for much celebration amongst political realists:
The more deluded the collective west`s assessments of facts on the ground in Ukraine (and, probably, most anywhere else, too) are, the more moronic their propagandistic efforts, the more overwhelming Russia`s – and with it, the rising multipolar world`s – triumph will eventually be.
Do you people all know why The Creator chose a 70+ year old senile, morally compromised and spiritually decrepit individual to be the last president of the United States? It’s all a metaphor and the Universe works in metaphors.
Joe Biden was 80 years old in November of 2022
So, now he’s an octogenarian with the same seriously flawed character traits. When he was “selected” he was still a septuagenarian, but you can take comfort that you will not have him as a nonagenarian president!!
high-intensity warfare?
Acredito que andam lendo Larry.
Veja isso: https://asiatimes.com/2023/02/breaking-russia-more-like-breaking-ourselves/
Mitcha: “Unless the United States and its European allies make urgently needed decisions to invest in their defense industry, ”
Stupidity. Sheer, unmitigated stupidity.
When the USA entered WW2 it turned to its CIVILIAN manufacturing industry for the production of weapons. Overnight the USA turned into a command economy.
Investing in “their defense industry” merely makes Rathyeon and Rockwell shareholders rich, but it will do nothing to win a war against a peer opponent like Russia and China.
Rathyeon will NEVER be able to make enough missiles to compete. Rockwell will NEVER be able to out-produce their competitors in Russia or China. NEVER.
Because when it is all said and done their manufacturing base is boutique.
They would be great for the R&D side of things.
Great for producing prototypes, and the initial production run.
But when it comes to churning the weapons out on an industrial scale they will always need to co-op the civilian manufacturing base of the USA, and that base no longer exists.
Throwing money at the MIC isn’t going to fix that fundamental problem.
The Chinese MIC can already handily outproduce the US MIC, but I am convinced that if/when war comes then the Chinese can ramp that up by orders of magnitude, whereas the USA can not.
Because, simply put, the Chinese have a massive civilian manufacturing base that they can co-op, and the USA doesn’t. And doesn’t seem to care that it doesn’t.
But we’re spending a trillion dollars a year on our military to produce fancy weapons that are the envy of the world, but have no practical application on the modern, combined arms battlefield. Where did we go wrong??
A good question. The USA is supposed to be spending more on their military than the next eight countries combined. So what was done with all that money?
Clearly the people who were handed that money have squandered it.
So – obviously! – the solution is to give even more money to those noobs and say “go nuts, guys”.
Brilliant, isn’t it?
What’s specially funny with “Domino theory” is that this is actually exactly NATO’s way of doing things. First, it is “East Germany will be reunified so it’ll join NATO, but we’ll stop there”, then “Oh, let’s get Poland and Czechia in as well”, after that “Baltic States, here we come” and eventually “Why shouldn’t we expand into Georgia and Ukraine, since nobody’s stopped us so far?”.
Projection – it’s what they always do. Accuse their rivals of all the things they are doing themselves.
Today I noticed that a lot of news is coming from the financial frontline. Russia is integrating its banking system with Iran’s banking system, Türkiye is defying US sanctions threats and seeking integration of its banking system with Russia’s banking system (this means that Türkiye is not afraid anymore to receive the same treatment from the West as Iran). A Brazilian lady is becoming the CEO of the BRICS bank, which is being set up outside the Dollar-Euro-SWIFT banking system. Russia is planning to get rid as soon as possible from the Dollar (as well as the EURO & Sterling), China is getting rid of its US Dollar bonds in an accelerated pace. Finally, a former Dutch finance minister has been calling (he belongs to the ruling liberal party of PM Rutte) fot the Netherlands to leave the Euro, because of the massive debts that are piling up in Southern Europe + the unwillingness of Southern Europe to change the present 62 years age of retirement.
All these developments of de-Dollarization & de-Euroization used to belong to long term strategies. Who could have imagined that this will become reality very soon?
This very conservative, orthodox Catholic American prays for a rapid and crushing Russian victory in Ukraine. For me, Vladimir Putin is a great man, Russia’s military is a splendid organization, and Russia’s enemies are mine too. (Oh, and did I mention that Marya Zakharova is a stellar example of what authentic womanhood can be, of its awe-inspiring power? No wonder the freaks in Washington, London, and Brussels despise Russia and it’s chief spokeswoman! They’re envious of all they can never hope to be.)
The US has gone from the “Arsenal of Democracy” to the “Asshole of Democracy”
…just sayin’
The “Arse-” enal of “Demon-crass-see” IS the “Asshole of Democracy.” It wasn’t always this way, but matters are worsening every day. Jes’ sayin!
LMAO!!! I really really like that…
Half in Jest…
Think of the great benefits to America if NATO were dissolved! A balanced budget, higher public investment here at home for roads, bridges, and other infrastructure. Great high-paying jobs for our returning military personnel.
And the best thing – a significant reduction in the academic industrial complex that produces the over-educated imbeciles currently populating our government (I LOVE listening to A. Martyanov’s description of these people) and “news” media. Total Win-Win for the USA!
Yeah, that’s my “retired” manufacturing engineer”s fantasy -Peaceful Prosperity in America, Coast to Coast. Let’s Go Brandon!
Setting The Record Straight On Ukraine. What You Need To Know by Mike Whitney
On February 16, 2022, a full week before Putin sent combat troops into Ukraine, the Ukrainian Army began the heavy bombardment of the area (in east Ukraine) occupied by mainly ethnic Russians.
Officials from the Observer Mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) were located in the vicinity at the time and kept a record of the shelling as it took place. What the OSCE discovered was that the bombardment dramatically intensified as the week went on until it reached a peak on February 19, when a total of 2,026 artillery strikes were recorded. Keep in mind, the Ukrainian Army was, in fact, shelling civilian areas along the Line of Contact that were occupied by other Ukrainians.
We want to emphasize that the officials from the OSCE were operating in their professional capacity gathering first-hand evidence of shelling in the area. What their data shows is that Ukrainian Forces were bombing and killing their own people. This has all been documented and has not been challenged.
So, the question we must all ask ourselves is this: Is the bombardment and slaughter of one’s own people an ‘act of war’?
We think it is. And if we are right, then we must logically assume that the war began before the Russian invasion (which was launched a full week later) We must also assume that Russia’s alleged “unprovoked aggression” was not unprovoked at all but was the appropriate humanitarian response to the deliberate killing of civilians. In order to argue that the Russian invasion was ‘not provoked’, we would have to say that firing over 4,000 artillery shells into towns and neighborhoods where women and children live, is not a provocation? Who will defend that point of view?
No one, because it’s absurd. The killing of civilians in the Donbas was a clear provocation, a provocation that was aimed at goading Russia into a war. And –as we said earlier– the OSCE had monitors on the ground who provided full documentation of the shelling as it took place, which is as close to ironclad, eyewitness testimony as you’re going to get.
And here’s something else that is typically excluded in the media’s selective coverage. Before Putin sent his tanks across the border into Ukraine, he invoked United Nations Article 51 which provides a legal justification for military intervention. Of course, the United States has done this numerous times to provide a fig leaf of legitimacy to its numerous military interventions. But, in this case, you can see where the so-called Responsibility To Protect (R2P) could actually be justified, after all, by most estimates, the Ukrainian army has killed over 14,000 ethnic Russians since the US-backed coup 8 years ago. If ever there was a situation in which a defensive military operation could be justified, this was it. But that still doesn’t fully explain why Putin invoked UN Article 51. For that, we turn to former weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who explained it like this:
Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing Article 51 as his authority, ordered what he called a ‘special military operation’….
under Article 51, there can be no doubt as to the legitimacy of Russia’s contention that the Russian-speaking population of the Donbass had been subjected to a brutal eight-year-long bombardment that had killed thousands of people.… Moreover, Russia claims to have documentary proof that the Ukrainian Army was preparing for a massive military incursion into the Donbass which was pre-empted by the Russian-led ‘special military operation.’ [OSCE figures show an increase of government shelling of the area in the days before Russia moved in.]
..The bottom line is that Russia has set forth a cognizable claim under the doctrine of anticipatory collective self-defense, devised originally by the US and NATO, as it applies to Article 51 which is predicated on fact, not fiction.
None of this info is allowed in the western msm. Total censorship.
Whitney: Setting The Record Straight – Stuff You Should Know About Ukraine | ZeroHedge
ZeroHedge – On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
http://www.zerohedge.com http://www.zerohedge.com
Call me crazy.
I see parallels between NATO in Ukraine and the Project Veritas expose.
“We know what we are doing is…[not working/ruining our proxy] or [immoral/illegal] but we will continue [because we can’t change course and it’s too profitable]”
Points to deep corruption and disfunction in Western institutions.
This event will not be over until the neocons are put on trial and convicted of their war crimes. That will end this conflict.
Put on trial, convicted and shot – or strung up, take your pick, but, most importantly, disposed of.
Unfortunately, the “neocons” are but one appendage of a much larger conglomeration of internationalists. Hanging Nuland and associates might put a capstone on the fighting in Ukraine, perhaps even leading to a paper treaty. However, the war will not end until the network of transnational banking houses (especially those instantiating fiat currency) are nationalized then abolished. This requires direct challenge of those who own the West, not just some of their employees who serve them in institutions of administrative authority.
The Fake Climate change industry is responsible for destroying the industrial base of the Western World.
To put that right would take over a decade, at least.
But currently the Political will not only isn’t there but is still locked into this mass delusion.
It’s actually a cess pool of corruption dressed up in Green.
The entire Political class of the Western World has to go, all of them or Western civilisation is finished.
They still think they can bully other nations into implementing their will, perhaps that’s the biggest mass delusion they still have the actuality is they’ve become paper Tigers.
That ability has gone.
When Putin speaks of the emerging Mutlipolar Word he’s probably right.
Another great article and the usual great comments. Yes, NATO has screwed itself. That’s one side of the equation.
How do we know Russia can continue to produce ordnance – especially artillery shells – at a rate that permits a continuation of their rate of firing?
I keep reading their ability to do so as taken for granted, like as a religious faith kind of certainty. Is there no intelligence on this? Where is ordnance produced? What are those factories’ capacities? Are they at capacity? How many trucks/trains leaving the factories? How many rounds per truck/train car? How many trucks/trains going to the factory with raw material for ordnance production? How many workers going to and from the factories? How many shifts? etc, etc. Where was ordnance already made prior to the war stored? Have those stores been tapped? Satellites cannot see these things? There is no HUMINT? No open source? I find that hard to believe.
Oh ye of little faith. I take you inside the newest version of the T-90M. The tank is not only a looker on the outside, it has a sporty if not futuristic interior.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/ZScaUoTFQvvE/
We are assured that, and I quote, these tanks “are being constantly manufactured now. They will be the most common tank of Russia soon.”
I for one believe it. I think Russian T-90 factories are working in 3 shifts 24/7. Same goes for their shell factories. However, what I’m not convinced of, is that Russian rocket factories are keeping up. Are they on strike?
One year into a war to the death and I have yet to see one shred of evidence, of a half salvo let alone a full one, from any of Russia’s 1,000 mutiple rocket launchers.
This is the 21st century I have to keep reminding myself, as I read for the one thousandth time, that field artillery is the King of Battles.
Give me an unlimited supply of rockets, drones and missiles, and I will destroy in 5 minutes any army you put in front of me, no matter what the size, that thinks tanks and artillery pieces is what you should be focused on, when you strategize on the best ways to win a conventional war.
A friend of mine believes, that the only viable theory to explain the lunacy all around us, is that we are living in a simulation; and I said to him yesterday, and only half-jokingly, that I am beginning to see some merit in his argument.
Note: If the Rooskies are struggling with the missile aspect of modern conventional war, and I suspect they are, I give em a pass on that one. Missiles are tough action.
As many of us out here have been saying for years and years, a conventional war between the majors can only rage for two weeks to one month tops, before both sides run out of missiles. After that, they will be left staring at each wondering what to in the interim period, a break in the missile action that could last for who knows how long (a year?), before a new batch of missiles arrive.
Yes. The T-90 is a sexy and capable beast. I also believe that many are being produced as we speak, along with plenty of ammo. Now, when do they begin appearing en masse on the battlefield and making a difference?
I read an article the other day stating that Ukraine is using soviet era factories to produce their own artillery shells. Maybe true to some extent. A lot of Soviet era ordnance production was in Ukraine, as well as tank production (Kharkov). That would be another reason for Russia to seize territory where the factories are (if they cared about territory;-) and to go all WW2 shock and awe and, you know, blow up the factories, even if that means a stray kitten or two gets hurt.
You know, it could be the Ukraine is putting hostage kittens on the roof tops of the factories and in cages along supply routes, thus preventing the Russians from firing at those targets.
With you on Russian rocket production and the drones + missile thing. As I said in comments on the post immediately prior to this one, it speaks to why Ukro supply lines are not cut. Russian air is largely ground due to effective enemy air defense. Missiles, rockets and artillery, obviously, have no loiter time over supply routes, like those fighter-bombers did in Normandy. Loitering is done by drones that direct the missiles. There must be a drone shortage such that they cannot cover all of the supply lines; that and drones are also vulnerable to effective AD – or hostage kittens
If this is a simulation, I’d like to have a word with the administrators.
“The T-90 is a sexy and capable beast.”
It really is! Every time I look at one, my first thought is, I’d like to take my girl to the prom in one of those.
“(if they cared about territory;-)”
We do not care about territory. We are all Clausewitzians now. The Sun Tzu-ian concept of flowing around the enemy as he was a sedentary rock and you a fast flowing river, to seize, without engaging in fierce and destructive battle, his means of production, so that he can no longer sustain an army in the field, is utter nonsense.
re: kittens
What is the last refuge of UkoNazi scoundrel?
Kitten shields. Carry a kitten with you always, and the soft hearted Rooskies will Passover you, and target someone else.
Oh look. Speak of the devil. Ukraine has developed a new suicide drone. It’s big!
https://southfront.org/ukraine-unveils-new-suicide-drone-video/
Part of Russian 5D Clausewitzian chess playing must be to allow Ukraine weapons production to continue. Being a stupid American war criminal that strategy is, of course, beyond my puny comprehension. Lunk headed stuck in the Stone Age me. My barbarous approach of shutting off the electricity once and for all and shock and awe flattening of industrial centers would have prevented that sort of thing. What do I know?
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/whitney-setting-record-straight-stuff-you-should-know-about-ukraine
Michta was born in Poland and Cavoli in Italy, obviously these two internationals know better than us US hayseeds. Why didn’t Seymour Hersh stick his head above the parapet during the Trump yrs? Pepe Escobar makes us question!
Now everything starts to make sense!
https://a.co/d/6VCWLh2
To me what’s happening in the Western world/media/politics resemble an addiction problem. A junkie will lie to himself and everybody else to get his fix. A gambler will bet all the money, all the family savings, and loan/mortgage anything of value to get another round, which will turn the fate in his favour. An alcoholic will drink non-stop, and lie to himself that he can stop anytime.
All the above, and many more are destructive behaviours. The people having them, are well aware, however, our brain reward system (the dopamine system) made it almost impossible to quit. Basically, our brain doesn’t like to be in pain, or wrong (which is painful), or be exposed to new situations (which requires energy in planning, executing, and possible the pain of failure). Our brain still remembers the immense pleasure of the first drug, first win at the casino, or first drink. What is doing, now, is just a little more of the same, not a big deal.
In Ukraine, the escalation from the non-lethal body armour, and helmets to tanks, planes, long range missiles, submarines, nuclear weapons, is nothing else but going from the first drug to full junkie, while living on a dirty mattress under a bridge.
The parallel doesn’t stop here. Before the Russian SMO, we could still lie to ourselves, that there is a democratic process, a rule-of-law, we have agreements, and our leaders are agents of change towards a better future. After, and during the SMO we went full junkies, and gave up all these annoying pretenses. The Minsk 1&2 were to give Ukraine enough time to arm herself, NS 1&2 was blown up by the Russians or is good that they don’t exist anymore, a clown doing coke is a democratic leader, and if we send more lethal means to Ukraine, the fate will turn in our favour, and prove that we were right from the start.
Happy Saturday :]
Right on! Uncurable junkiedom, added to endemic stupidity and deistic hubris is the recipe
for Murican Dumbinance.
I could not leave you with my previous post without a smile about fish farts :]
//
In 1982, several of Sweden’s subs, boats, and helicopters pursued one of these unidentified sources for a whole month, only to come up empty-handed.
This continued for over a decade. Every time they picked up an acoustic signal they would search and find nothing but for a few bubbles on the sea’s surface. Sweden was, of course, worried about the intrusions, and couldn’t think why, with the Cold War now over, Russia would continue to provoke them in this manner.
But it was farts.
…
“It turns out herring have a swim bladder… and this swim bladder is connected to the anal duct of the fish,” Wahlberg said. “It’s a very unique connection, only found in herring. So a herring can squeeze its swim bladder, and that way it can blurt out a small number of bubbles through the anal opening.”
In layman’s terms, they let one rip. Herrings swim in gigantic schools that can reach several square kilometers and up to 20 meters (65 feet) deep. When something near them frightens them – say, a hungry school of mackerel or a submarine on the lookout for Russian spies – they can generate a lot of gas.
To test his theory, Wahlberg bought a herring from a store and applied pressure, and sure enough, it made a sound. He took the footage to the navy personnel and played it back to them. It was a perfect match for the noise they had been hearing.
The good news was that Sweden wasn’t under threat from Russia, the bad news was it had spent 10 years deploying its military in pursuit of fish farts
//
The whole post is here ( https://t.me/fred33flint/271 )
THE LYING IN WINTER
1. The American People were sold out a generation ago.
2. “Free Trade” bellowed Crony American (in name only) Corporations, along with controlled Media and U.S. bought-and-sold Politicians as entire towns, families and jobs were destroyed while “outsourcing” the entire core of U.S. manufacturing to China.
3. And how China (controlled by the Communist Party) could not believe their good fortune, as short term American Corporate Greed built up China and destroyed the essence of America.
4. The American Kremlin, located in DC, represents themselves not the American People.
5. Every individual and every country can deal with those that they do not like, yet can find areas of mutual benefit. This includes Russia and the USA. Yet dirty hands and dirty mouths in DC prevent reason and negotiation.
“Having an adequate defense industrial base is critical. The West no longer has one”
Apparently, the tens of trillions of $ that we’ve shoveled to the Pentagon over decades has gone not to actual defense spending, but to the creation of a giant bullshit machine.
The U.S. military is the biggest corporate welfare program ever.
“The Pentagon system has long been the country’s biggest welfare program, transferring massive public funds to high-tech industry on the pretext of defense and security. And that it is a pretext is also well known and has been public, certainly in Washington, since the late 1940s. For example, when the senator from Missouri, Senator Symington, an aircraft producer at that time, Secretary of the Air Force under Truman explained that the word to use is not “subsidy,” the word to use is “security”…
What puts the money into the pockets of rich people is having the government use public funds to develop computers, and lasers, and metallurgy — fancy metallurgy, and avionics, and new aircraft design, and semi-conductors, and so on. Yeah, that is very good for a sector of the wealthy. It may harm the general population, but that’s not the issue at stake…
The point is that since this is a business-run society, it’s also a propaganda-oriented society, because business is committed to marketing. The highest value in business is to deceive people into getting something, taking something that they don’t want.”
~Noam Chomsky, ‘On US Military Budgets’ interviewed by Ira Shorr
https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/en/news-page/world/polish-general-ukraine-near-complete-defeat
Polish general says Ukraine is very near complete defeat.
Polish General Skshipchak said that Ukraine has no forces for an offensive.
The Ukrainian army does not have the means for offensive actions, the situation is close to complete defeat, the former commander of the Polish ground forces, General Waldemar Skshipchak, said in an interview with the portal Wirtualna Polska.
https://www.wp.pl/
An excellent interview with Col. Douglas Macgregor:
Col. Macgregor: Ukraine is About to be ANNIHILATED
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnut-E_eEM0
any day now!
Macgregor has been making that pronouncement bi-weekly since last May.
Ritter was sharp enough to recognize a game changer when he saw one.
The Western sources that distribute these cretinous narratives will lose readership/views once it becomes obvious how wrong they were misleading their audiences for a few extra months as can be seen with past 10 years of now dropped Neilsen ratings for CNN & other non Fox TV news suppliers in USA
Western media blind eyes to Russian videos of chemical weapons captured from Ukranian forces as well as videos showing poisoned Russian troops could reflect the fact that they were made by a NATO country and used by sheep dipped NATO troops encircled in Bakmut who have a choice of being most likely killed or if lucky captured with their stocks or using them as they run out of everything else. These people whatever their nationalities do not deserve chance to be PoW
“The perceived foot-dragging by some members of the Western coalition has triggered frustration in Central European countries like Poland, the Czech Republic and the Baltic countries as well as in Ukraine. ”
Oh, really? As a Hungarian, after pouring billions into Ukraine in peacetime and only asking the EXISTING minority rights for Hungarians which existed before 2014 (not that Polish, Slovak and Romanian, plus Bulgarian and Greek minorities havent suffered) and getting threats plus masked mass rallies richly decorated in Nordic and Buddhist symbols chanting “Hungarians to the knife” in Hungarian speaking territories…
So, why would Hungary give ANY “lethal aid” to Ukraine, please tell me.
Oh, do not forget that old Tupolev drone in the Summer of 2022, which landed in Croatia, leaving a sizeable crater… After passing thru Romanian and Hungarian airspace.
I would prefer Hungary to take Transcarpathia from Nazi Ukraine.
There are now raids on the male population with the aim of forcible mobilization. But, tell me, can the Hungarian government guarantee the rights of Russians and Russian-speaking minorities in this territory? Won’t Hungarians treat them the same way Ukrainians do with forced Ukrainization?
I have a close friend living in Uzhgorod and she asks what we should do, because we will not become Hungarians, and there is no way to return to Russia.
“But, tell me, can the Hungarian government guarantee the rights of Russians and Russian-speaking minorities in this territory?”
This is the easier question to answer: it costs nothing, does not hurt us and Hungary has close ties to Russia (Paks I and Paks II nuclear power plants, pipeline gas, pipeline oil). Besides of you look up the interwar currency of Hungary (pengő) you will see that even under Regent Horthy, with the same territory, wtih cca. 96% Hungarian population the bank notes had markings in SIX languages.
Hope the link to wiki goes thru.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_money_of_the_Hungarian_peng%C5%91#/media/File:HUP_20_1930_reverse.jpg
This is the more difficult question to answer:
“I would prefer Hungary to take Transcarpathia from Nazi Ukraine.
There are now raids on the male population with the aim of forcible mobilization. ”
I would prefer too. HOWEVER…
Besides Transcarpathia, all neighboring countries have former territories of the Kingdom of Hungary, with 4-5 million ethnic Hungarians there. A lone military action in Transcarpathia would trigger retributions against them, as the successor (ie current) states have deep, underlying fears of a revisionist Hungary.
The way to cut this Gordian Knot became the EU, that is why Hungary is the ardent supporter of West Balkan countries joining and also was supporting UA before and since 2014 to joining the EU.
Even before Croatia AND Hungary joined the EU and the Schengen Zone, one could travel without visa and passport.
So, an unilateral military action would endanger this. However if Poland – and more importantly – Romania make their moves, becoming partners in crime…
…Maybe drawing in Slovakia, to form an independent Subcarpathia, which can walk the razors edge between Poland, Slovakia and Hungary (strictly in N-S directionaly order)… That would benefit all parties, especially the “locals”, no pun intended.
Both ethnic right and drawing in more rebuilding/development funds for the region.
Gazenberg – Thanks for the helpful clarifications!
You are welcome.
Seems that ethnic Hungarians in northern Serbia are happier with their situation than the ones in Ukraine.
How than that be? I thought the US was always broadcasting that Serbia was the great oppressor and Ukraine the great liberator?
FTUS…It lies more often than I piss after a beer bar outing.
One of those Hungarians shot down F-117 (and some other stuff that NATO denies).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zolt%C3%A1n_Dani
Larry, did you forget that America’s most successful African-American produces successful space rockets with boosters that can safely return to launch site? A global satellite internet access network too. Too bad he had to pull the plug on Ukraine, but StarLink is nothing if the Russians take down the satellites.
I wonder if Musk gets additional subsidies as an ‘African-American’.
Eric is deeply concerned. His deep concern is of such depth that it is very deeply concerning. This concernation leads to extreme levels of concernativity.
More seriously, he has been commenting on this and Col Lang’s blog for a long time, so he’s not really a concern troll. But I do think his arguments are based on many flawed assumptions, which we could go on about, for days, and hundreds of paragraphs, as many of the replies in this and the RT post comments have done. About 300K dead Ukrainians might also argue against under-estimating the Russians, if they only could.
My opinion is that Russia has been wisely holding back their most advanced forces, weapons and technologies precisely for the final showdown with NATO that is rapidly approaching. There is no need to use them now, as the stated goals of “de-militarization” and “de-Nazification” of Ukraine (and now seemingly all NATO) can be achieved without them.
For example, when Putin says “we have weapons unkown to the West, based on new scientific principles” he is not kidding, IMHO. Does NATO really want to call that bluff? They are probably stupid enough to do just that, and we will all reap the resulting whirlwind.
A key event rarely discussed was the destruction of the former Soviet era nuclear weapons depot in southern Ukraine last March, which had been re-worked in the 60’s to supposedly withstand a direct hit from a US 10 Megaton H-bomb, described as under 230′ of layers of steel plates and steel-reinforced concrete. The Ukrianians were very confident it was a safe place to store large quantities of missiles and ammo, until 1 conventional hypersonic Kinzhal destroyed it. There is a brief video of this on Telegram, filmed by a Russian recon drone observing the strike – only by slowing the video down to almost a stop can the missile be even seen. Also around that time, the Kinzhal attack on the “training base” near the Ukraine-Poland border, when the Polish Air Force HQ about 20 miles away on the Polish side, equipped with all the latest US supplied radar, and with AWACS circling overhead, failed to detect any incoming missiles, a fact noted with satisfaction by the Russian MoD at the time.
Another example, the recent second succesful test flight of the (IIRC) Russian A320-19 Nidol missile, shown live on Russian TV, described as “an anti-hypersonic missile defensive missile” or “probably the fastest missile ever flown”. Whose top speed is an unkown military secret, but some say is well in excess of Mach 40, which it would have to be, to actually intercept an incoming missile or glide vehicle in time that is moving at roughly Mach 28 like present NATO ICBM launched systems, or any future NATO hypersonic missile not developed yet. This is a very large and expensive missile, and so will not likely be built and deployed in large quantities, but it does demonstrate the technology works.
For a good laugh, you can see videos on YT where they claim that hypersonic missiles don’t actually work and they would have to slow down to Mach 3 to strike a target with any accuracy, of course using the second forward facing engine to de-accelerate so rapidly. This is what passes for Western “analysis” these days.
Or even consider the more conventional Iskander-M ballistic missile, which is so evasive even NATO admits they probably can’t intercept it at all. A Russian Telegram channel stated Russia has been producing this missile for decades, in various versions, and could have up to 15,000 already built, with older ones upgraded to match the newer ones, impossible to verify of course, but it sounds probable. Or the Kalibr cruise missile, first produced in the early 90’s, and even by using low annual production figures, some estimate Russia could have 10,000 to 20,000 already built, again with older ones having had upgraded guidance systems. Russian TV visited the factory in central Russia, where the manager told them that production was now (IIRC) 1,500 units per month (possibly a mis-translation, idk), and the factory was being expanded again in line with Putins general order to increase production by at least 100% this year of all weapons systems. This is the missile Col MacGregor stated in a video a while back would be used to strike all NATO bases within 2,000 KM of Russia on the first day of any conflict with NATO. So far, I would guess Russia has fired about 2,500 of the above 2 missiles into Ukraine, leaving plenty more for future needs as required.
At the White House, Pentagon, and NATO HQ, after ongoing large scale “Dversity, Inclusitivity and LGTBQ+ Sensitivity” Training Seminars and “Drag Queen Story Hours” are conluded, they may get around to thinking about these things, or maybe not. Everyone has priorities.
I think Russia was just testing their missiles, and found them to be working satisfactorily and up to expections.
These examples alone should be more than enough to dissuade NATO from military adventurism against Russia, if only NATO had any brains, which clearly they don’t, or they would not have started this war in the first place.
See, I managed to rattle on for several paragraphs, without even trying hard.
Larry, thanks for the great work here, even though very few in the West are listening to your unwelcome hate facts.
“My opinion is that Russia has been wisely holding back their most advanced forces, weapons and technologies precisely for the final showdown with NATO that is rapidly approaching. ”
Maybe. And maybe holding back becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. It encourages the west to believe that Russia is a dud to be pushed around.
How about the west? Are you really so very sure that it has nothing?
Why did Russia seek a negotiation to end the war since the day it began?
I don’t think there will be any winners in a NATO v Russia conflict, that includes you and me personally.
Anyhow…..Nothing you say explains why Russia doesn’t simply destroy Ukrainian infrastructure once and for all, as well as smash supply routes. If Russia thinks there will be war with the west, then that infrastructure is getting wasted anyhow. Much easier to kill Ukrainians if their ammo and food has been destroyed on the roads and rails.
I think you answered your own questions.
“Maybe. And maybe holding back becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. It encourages the west to believe that Russia is a dud to be pushed around.”
I don’t think Russia can do much to change neo-con perceptions of anything, except by totally defeating them. The neo-con warhawks are driving the bus, and it has no brakes, their goal is to destroy Russia, and if they think they have to drive off the cliff to do it, they will. Thelma and Louise had a plan too.
If the future war is likely going to be bigger than the present war, then why would you commit all forces too early, when the current war is just the prelude?
“How about the west? Are you really so very sure that it has nothing? ”
I didn’t say the West has nothing. My point was that Putin is issuing yet another warning, you can ignore it, or not believe it like the neo-cons always do – “Russia is just a gas-station with nukes!” for example. But if those Russian nukes can probably destroy an opponent, then you don’t start the war with Russia in the first place, unless you are unhinged, which unfortunately for us the neo-cons are.
Since these Wunderwaffe are top-secret, we don’t know what we don’t know, and you can’t plan based on unkowns, you plan on what you know – of course you should have alternatives in mind if things don’t work out according to the initial plan. I am sure the USA, Russia and China all have various secret plans and weapons, how many are actually built/deployed/ready to use, and how well they will work, is open to wide speculation, how can we know with any certainty?
“Why did Russia seek a negotiation to end the war since the day it began?”
“…why Russia doesn’t simply destroy Ukrainian infrastructure once and for all, as well as smash supply routes.”
Many Russians regard Ukrainians as Slav cousins and brothers, they don’t want to destroy Ukraine completely. Putin seems to want to avoid a wider war, if you notice, it is always the West escalating, and the Russians absorbing the escalation. So far, until Russian patience runs out – which I give Putin credit for, he has far more patience than I do.
In the initial phases of this war, the true fecklessness of the West was not fully exposed, I am sure the Russians inder-estimated how crazed the neo-con leadership really is, they had expected more rationality. Now they know better, the West is totally “agreement incapable” these days, there is little point to signing any “Treaty” that will be broken before the ink is dry, and recent statements from Russia indicate they have belatedly accepted this fact now.
“If Russia thinks there will be war with the west, then that infrastructure is getting wasted anyhow. Much easier to kill Ukrainians if their ammo and food has been destroyed on the roads and rails.”
Russia has been attacking Ukraine’s military infrastructure mostly, they can always escalate to total scorched earth policy, if they have to, and destroy everything – but again, that requires using a lot of forces, weapons and ammo that they would prefer to hold back for possible use against NATO, and emotionally don’t want to destroy Ukraine that badly. Though it seems increasingly more likely they will have to, in the end, as the West continues to escalate.
We are still in Phase I of this war, IMHO, too early for full escalation and commitment of all forces. I think neo-cons want Russia to escalate, full-mobilization of all reserves and economy, total war, in the hope it will weaken Russia and cause the “regime change” they always go on about. Politically, I think Putin is in a good position now with the Russian public, they want retaliation and he is holding back, rather than the other way around, where the public doesn’t support a wider war while the ruling class does – the situation in the West, where despite the propaganda I don’t think the average citizen wants to fight WW III over Ukraine to the last man and final mushroom cloud.
“I don’t think there will be any winners in a NATO v Russia conflict, that includes you and me personally.”
We will all probably be vaporized in a nuclear flash, but is that consideration stopping the neo-cons from escalating every week?
All wars end, sooner or later, and one side or the other usually declares “victory” in some way, very few wars have ever been fought to a more or less equal draw, and if that does happen, it would just be an intermission before Round 2, I would expect.
If the west is always escalating – and it is – then what good are Putin’s “warnings”? Is Putin a dunce that can’t learn? His failure to back up his many warnings is encouraging the west. Putin looks like a big mouthed wimp to them. All talk and no walk.
“We are still in Phase I of this war, IMHO, too early for full escalation and commitment of all forces.”
Yeah sure. Russia invades a country and a year later it’s still “phase 1” – whatever the hell that is supposed to mean. This is just retarded. Back on planet earth, reviewing the history of war since recored history, you invade and, at that moment, it’s full on war. There are no “phases”. Phases are just excuse making. Even the Russians admitted mistakes were made. For God’s sake, why can’t you also admit that? Mistakes were made. Maybe the whole invasion was an ill conceived mistake and now Russia has to live with it and try to make it work in some wonky way given the far less than required committed resources and various other big fuck-ups. Russia has done a fairly good job with all the screw-ups at foundation, but 5D chess this is not; nor is it clear cut victory because the Ukrainians are also doing a pretty good job despite all of their corruption and assorted stupidity of their own. AS Ritter said, NATO involvement has been a game changer.
All you America hater/Russia lovers can criticize shock and awe all you want, but it wins the day, undeniably. It may not secure the long term peace, but it sure crushes an enemy’s ability to resist in an organized manner. You can argue back that Russia wants to be nice and not harm kittens or slavic brothers and sisters, but there is a mile wide hole in that retort. If Ukraine/US/NATO keep fighting, then Ukraine is going to get blasted to rubble anyhow. Witness places like Soledar. The Russian’s might as well have shock and awe carpet bombed it on day 1. It’s been flattened. The best way to minimize the pain in war is to end it quickly. That’s some more ancient wisdom for you, if you can accept it, which I’m sure you’re not ready to.
So many people so invested emotionally in one of the two sides. None can think straight and see what it is right in front of their noses. So much projection on both sides. So much echo chambering on both sides. So much Rorschach test type phenomena going on.
I’m a true iconoclast. I think all humans and all governments are flawed. I don’t worship Putin anymore than I do Biden; though I think Putin presents better. You guys think you’re iconoclasts by going after the US, but you’re not. You just want to replace an icon with your own. You’re politicians and therefore unable to see or understand reality. Today Russia is your savior and meme. Tomorrow it will be something else that promises to ease your uncomfortable dissatisfaction with reality.
The verbal diarrhea from new/old dill is, as are Russian artillery shells, inexhaustible.
A shorter me – Russia’s prosecution of the war has been bizarre. The longer you expose yourself to risk – and war is as risky as it gets – the more likely it is you will experience an adverse event.
The Russians have been exposing themselves – unnecessarily – to adverse events since they started the war by not going shock and awe and not finishing what they started.
Russia fans seem to work very hard at convincing themselves that no consequential adverse events are possible because Russia is so in control and Ukraine and NATO are so pathetic and weak. I question that dogma.
Additionally, the longer Ukraine/NATO is able to return fire on the Russians, the more Russians die. Ironically, the Russian fans are ok with a steady stream of dead Russians as long as Ukrainians are dying more. I find that to be an appalling attitude and, actually, somewhat evil. If those were my men getting killed and there was a way to annihilate the ability of the Ukrainians/NATO to shoot back, I would demand that ability be acted on.
For those who believe in the Cunning of Reason, here are some quick “Flip Cards” showing a chain of events that led us to what seems to many today, the edge of Thermal Hades. The following outcomes, engineered by the City of London Usyry System (COLUS), seem to be a string of unstoppable successes. However, these successes appear to be leading to the COLUS’ own failure by the apparent and hidden intervensions of the Cunning of Reason. I am not predicting the manner or time of the COLUS’ demise, I am merely pointing out, the comming into focus, of the features of this intervention, intending to negate the COLUS’ attemp at enslaving mankind. The COLUS’ weakness is beginning to manifest in the awakening of its own servants as this article points out.
We begin to flip the cards. Many cards can be added, but for the sake of brevity, I only included those below.
– Success by instigating two unnecessary wars to destroy Germany as a rising industrial power joined to Russia and presenting a threat to the COLUS.
-Success by financing the Bolshevick Revolution for the destruction of Russia and Christian Orthodoxy representing a threat to the COLUS.
-Success by the imposition of a criminal enterprise hiding behind International Sovereign Immunity to control the largest worldwide deposit of energy, the ME.
-Success in starting all ME wars from the Iraq-Iran War to Syria and Libya. Note the one thing that Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan and Syria, all have in common, is the absence of COLUS. Usury was forbidden in all these countries as it was earlier in Christendom.
-Success in weakening European National sovereignty under the guise of European Unity to the utter enslavement of members such as unfortunate Greece.
-Success in extracting wealth from the masses in Europe and the USA, while owning the labor of future generations with unpayable national debts.
-Success in oppressing and exploiting the nations of South America.
-Success in destroying the USSR.
Wait! What exceeded its limits has begun to revert to its opposite. Let’s continue flipping cards.
-They failed to balkanize Greater Russia and steal its colossal natural resources.
-They failed to destroy Iran, over and over.
-They failed to uterly destroy Syria.
-They failed to predict the Trump movement and the Working Class block it generated.
-They failed to control China.
-They believed their own propaganda about their waring invincibility.
-They initiated Covid as a bio weapon against China and yet it destroyed their supply chains for future war industrialization.
-They were made to believe in the weakness and incompetence of Russia to conduct a successful war against them.
-They were made to believe they hold the power of annihilation over Russia and China, while in reality, it’s the opposite. Russia can annihilate all NATO paper tigers.
– They failed to predict the Global South’s refusal to continue to endure any further colonialism.
-They failed to predict a fissure in their worldwide Banking Cartel. The controlling US Commercial Banks are not on-board with the Reset. Jamie Diamond stating at Davos (I am paraphrasing) “Hydrocarbons will be with us untill 2050.” Furthermore, Petrochemical infrastructures will not be abandoned when valued at 64 trillion worldwide, last time I checked.
-It appears that they will fail also towards China. Will the US sell War Bonds to China? They lack sources of energy and raw materials and where is the manufacturing base to be found, for a successful war against China by 2025?
That brings us to the end of what’s in focus. A thinking person might say, they are out of options. However, this Cabal believes in the Sampson Option and that concerns me as it does others. But what can a nobody like me do, except attempt to change with my voice, what I can’t change otherwise. Ultimately, the Cabal wants and the Cunning of Reason does what It wants. There is some solace in that.
This is the law of development, which follows from the three laws of Hegel’s dialectic: Evil turns into Good, Good turns into Evil.
The closer you push the devil back into Hell, the closer you are, also, to Hell. Balance is the goal. That’s the Razor’s Edge. Very few leaders have the wisdom to recognize it, let alone practice it.
America is dead. Cities filled with violence and filth. Schools filled with woke tranny degeneracy. Half the country hates the other half. Up to debt in our eyeballs. America has the most expensive military, healthcare system and educational system in the world, NOT the best anymore. Americans are in debt and mire in another financial collapse. Borders are wide open. Millions dying from the covid vax. If Russia invaded the US you’d have millions of strong, white, Christian males who would fight against the evil Biden administration and leftists in a heartbeat….many are dreaming about it.
“… millions of strong, white, Christian males who would fight against the evil…”
Wagner put out a recruitment video targeting US ex-military. It’s surprisingly good and hits all of that demographic’s buttons.
https://rumble.com/v27nsko-this-is-trolling-on-another-level.-video-from-wagner-pmc-for-recruitment-of.html
Rick… did you hear the saying: me and my brother against my cousin and me and my cousin against the stranger.
There are Americans and I am one of them who go by a simple promise: if you fire on Americans, we will fire on you. We won’t start it, but we will finish it.
Rick… Biden, Bush, Democraps, Repugnicants are all part of one party. It’s like watching the WWF. It makes us want to fight each other. The only difference between us and the Russians today is they have a leader, right or wrong, and we don’t.
The Russian Army still has many commanders like the one who stumbled into defeat near Ugledar. It does seem like only the Wagner forces are able to reliably and consistently gain their objectives and hold them.
12 months into the war and Ukrainian artillery still continues to work effectively. Ukranian aircraft and drones continue to operate. Ukraine is still able to rapidly move forces from one battle zone to another.
It will soon be 6 months since the Russians recalled reservists. How many years will the Russian people be content having their men away in uniform ?
The War in Ukraine seems to be a curious mix of casual and total war.
Even if Russian casualties are only (only ! with each one being a son, father and husband) 1000/month – how sustainable is that in a society that expects to see it’s population decline by 1/2 in the next 35 years ?
Is it true that Russia is buying and using weapons made in North Korea?
I agree that implies some lack of supply within Russia itself, but it could be that Russia is buying from both North Korea and its own venders.
What I really wonder is this:
At what point does Russia state that having NATO soldiers participating as mercenaries is unacceptable and will result in a direct attack upon NATO?
If the Russians were buying artillery shells from North Korea then it would be old, long-stored stockpiles that the Koreans would be selling.
There would be many, many duds turning up on the Ukrainian battlefield with Korean stenciling on them.
No such shells have been displayed. None. Zip. Zero.
I think the entire story is bogus.
I could well believe the Russians approaching the North Koreans and posing the question to them: IF we needed to source artillery from you then how much could you supply, and at what price?
That would be prudent. It does not imply any lack of supply within Russia itself, all it would imply is a Russian high command that takes its job seriously and makes contingency plans for worse-case scenarios.
I am a lurker, but just wanted to comment on this…
This is right to a point, but I would guess RF would be buying old SOVIET shells supplied to NK, so they would not be distinguishable from those already used by both sides.
I am here making the assumption that NK has stockpiles of old Soviet ammo. If I am wrong, your point stands.
Is it delusion really, or have they provided themselves with a full new philosophical paradigm with which to give form and substantiate a new order in which crime, deshumanization, human degeneration and total chaos is the way to achieve their goals?
https://www.geopolitika.ru/en/article/daria-dugina-philosophy-destiny
Why we seem to live in a psychiatric ward…..Confussion and fussion is by design….
Over the grave of every empire stands a tombstone carved with the words: “Here lies a chosen people”.
Interesting to look at annual educational output of engineers with Iran up there with Russia. Don’t live in delusion about Germany or U.K. which have falling quality and numbers
Industrial base took China a long time with one party in charge. West cannot re-industrialise without slaying FIRE sector and deficit spending
I’m ever astounded none of the cunts lying 24/7 on the TV has been lynched yet. You guys soften a lot as a population… too much Canadian immigration maybe ?
Ironic that “michta” in Russian means “dream”