The situation on the border shared by Serbia and Kosovo is getting more dicey by the day. The latest spark threatening to ignite a new war between Serbia and Kosovo is attributed to Kosovo arresting a Serbian nationalist living in Kosovo. So what does Panama have to do with this?
During my last year working at the CIA, I had a front row seat to the U.S. behind the scenes effort to provoke an incident in Panama that would justify a U.S. military invasion of that country to dethrone Panamanian strongman, Manuel Noriega. The CIA, in concert with the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense, was working hard behind the scenes, including helping fund a failed military coup, to bait Noriega. Kurt Muse, a U.S. Army veteran who was born in Panama, had been working for two years with opponents of Noriega to engineer his ouster. Muse was captured, jailed and tortured (spending 9 months in a squalid cell until he was rescued by Delta Force operators on 20 December 1989).
The final straw came on 16 December 1989 when four U.S. personnel were stopped at a roadblock outside PDF headquarters in the El Chorrillo neighborhood of Panama City. First Lieutenant Robert Paz, an officer of the United States Marine Corps was shot and killed in the incident. I do not know if their decision to drive thru El Chorrillo was an accident or a deliberate provocation. I believe it was deliberate. U.S. personnel in Panama at the time knew full well that relations with the Government of Panama were dicey at best and would have been briefed on areas to avoid.
The United States invaded four days later, struggled to secure the capital and launched a desperate search for Noriega. The crafty, corrupt General held out for two weeks and finally surrendered on 3 January 1990. I was at the U.S. State Department by this time and monitored the situation from the comfort of the Counter Terrorism office.
Looking back after 32 years this operation, while generally successful tactically was a strategic failure. The Navy SEAL unit sent to destroy Noriega’s airplane suffered significant casualties because of poor command decisions — the plane could have been destroyed by an AC-130 gunship, but one of the SEAL commanders insisted on putting the sailors on the target. Panamanian troops armed with a 50 cal machine gun wreaked havoc. Panama remains a dysfunctional, corrupt country. Billions of dollars of narcotics proceeds wash through the Panamanian Free Trade Zone in Colon and Chinese influence is expanding.
Which brings me back to Serbia. If you think that foreign intelligence operatives from the United States and the United Kingdom are taking a hands off approach to the situation on the the Serbian/Kosovo border, think again. With the war in Ukraine going badly for the United States and NATO, it appears that the West is hoping to create a situation in Serbia that will force Russia to divide its forces.
The ethnic and religious differences separating the Serbs and the Kosovars are centuries old. And there also is a long history of outside forces meddling to promote conflict rather than peace. Serbia’s support for Russia has earned it the enmity of the United States and NATO and is an undercurrent in this escalating conflict on the border. It is a dangerous game because NATO’s ability to intervene militarily has been sapped by its support for Ukraine’s war effort. Serbia is moving troops and vehicles to the border and the likelihood of increased violence is growing. If you are religious, pray for peace.
Now another topic. If you have not seen Viktor Bout’s full interview with Maria Butina, here it is. It is worth your time.
Serbia is in an impossible situation in Kosovo. Kosovo is 98% clean ethnic Albanian population and the Kosovars are never going to re-join Serbia. This is reality. At the same time, Kosovo is an illegal entity in state/international terms. So, it cannot be part of Serbia in reality but it cannot be legalized. It is yet another blunder by United States, the EU and the UK. IMHO, it shows the total incompetence and also the lack of morality on the part of USA/NATO – but it is also the Pandora’s box, which America opened when it bombed Yugoslavia and gave Kosovo its independence. Why? Because it set the stage for any portion of a country to be split off by anyone through means of war/force.
Now, a similar situation is in Macedonia – Albanian population is growing rapidly due to the fact that Albanians (just like in Kosovo) are having many more children than the Macedonians. There are many ethnically clean Albanian villages now in Macedonia and Albanians effectively control Macedonian politics because they are a coalition partner in ANY government formed in Macedonia and without their consent nothing happens. This is an example where 25% of the population controls the other 75%. All this too is happening intentionally, with the blessing of United States and EU.
It should be known that billions and billions of dollars have entered Serbia in forms of US/EU investments. This is to “sweeten” the deal for the Serbs – money in exchange for territory (Kosovo), so to speak and is thought of as the “carrot”. The “stick” is the threat of war on the Kosovo border.
I should also say that there no politician in Serbia that will EVER come out and tell the people that Kosovo is irretrievably lost – that would be political suicide (after all, Serbs died in Kosovo in 1389 fighting the Turks – so Kosovo has been a part of Serbia longer than USA has been in existence). This alone means that Kosovo will always be an issue and a potential war. As anyone knows, no state ever gives up its claim on its own territory and Serbia is no different. In this way, the American blunder is either intentional (constant thorn in Serbia’s side) or pure stupidity and arrogance. I cannot decide which as both seem to be equally possible.
A war on the Balkans will be a terrible development. But at the same time can demolish NATO’s presence there. It’s up to the Serbs, but they may very well not be able to avoid it: either submit completely or fight.
1) 1244
2) Loyalist Albanians, Roma, Jews and others were expelled by the UCK.
3) A majority of Albanians were loyalist. So it’s not a Serb vs. Albanian cultural conflict.
“… either intentional […] or pure stupidity and arrogance.”
It was probably sold as a ‘win-win’-scenario.
I am speaking from a position of insight on the “Albanian question” in Kosovo at least from the time of the fall of Yugoslavia. Albanian “minority” (which in Kosovo was huge majority) had legitimate concerns – mainly no representation and treatment as 2nd class citizens. They did multiply in an exponential progression (families of up to 10+ children), many of them lived without ever speaking a word of Serbian, most of them lived in/were represented by parallel institutions etc.etc. (kind of like illegal Mexicans, Hondurans. Ecuadorians etc. in the States). The counter-intelligence had no actual way to track them and their movements through the ethnically clean Albanian villages and infiltrating them was obviously very difficult. They also had political prisoners (Adem Demaci) who spent more years in prison than Nelson Mandela but Mandela was more interesting to world media. The Kosovars were also very adept at staging mass poisonings of children etc. and generally showing everyone that they are victims. They also had huge help from USA – people like Bob Dole made a pretty penny campaigning for them in USA – this is why there is a statue of Dole in Pristina. Kosovo Albanians have a powerful, rich and aggressive immigration – that funded and funds the efforts since before 1981. They are VERY cohesive and used (and still use in Macedonia) their propensity to have 10+ children as a sort of a “demographic bomb” where over a few decades they go from minority to majority in a given area.
With all that said, Serbs did nothing to try and co-exist. In fact, many Serbs left Kosovo by selling their homes for exorbitant prices which the Kosovars were willing to pay (funded by their immigration) in order to cleanse the areas. Plenty a Serb came from Kosovo to Belgrade full of dough and was able to buy a nice place in the nicer areas of the city.
Finally, Kosovo was a drag on Yugoslavia and a blemish. Imagine making billions of dollars on tourism somewhere in Slovenia and Croatia and some portion of this money going to Belgrade (federal govt was there) and this money being spent to fund a huge, repressive police and military apparatus fighting a losing battle against a demographic bomb created by the Kosovars. Not to mention the embarrassing “apartheid”-like situation going on in the province where minority 2% Serbs were ruling 98% majority Kosovars.
This is a lost cause for Serbia. USA/NATO did make a HUGE mistake in allowing Kosovo to become an independent entity because it goes contrary to international law – and it creates a precedent for anyone to try and split off a portion of someone else’s country. This will stay with everyone now forever as Donbass is the same exact situation in Ukraine. If Kosovo was OK, so is Donbass, Zaporozhie, Kherson, Kharkiv, Transnistria etc. etc. etc.
As for the Serbs, how do you force 98% Kosovar majority to submit when the majority is armed and has 40+ years of armed/bloody struggle as only recent history? And let’s assume they do submit – Kosovo was a drain on a much larger and stronger economy, police and army (Yugoslavia) – what would it do to Serbia in the long run?
I meant to say mass food poisonings of children (nobody died to my recollection) but you would have these dramatic scenes of large numbers of kids being brought to hospitals with food poisonings from local school cafeterias. There was always debate whether these were stages to portray the kids as yet another victim of the brutal and repressive Yugoslav regime.
You are speaking from the position of necons.
Really? Please explain how you are going to convince 2 million Albanians in Kosovo to come back into Serbia to be a part of that state again and be ruled by Belgrade, I am all ears. Even if you tried by force, you are very likely to fail because every single Kosovar is against Serbia. This is just the simple reality – USA/NATO opened this Pandora’s box and there is no closing it.
I don’t care about convicing anyone about anything. USA should GTFO of Europe now, and mind it’s own business. USA expansion in Eastern Europe caused the shitshow we are witnessing now. The one that caused the problems is not the one that can fix them. Just get out, and let Europeans deal with Europe (and Asians deal with Asia, and Africans deal with Africa, …).
If you like Albanians so much, than take them all in your back yard and convince them whatever you want.
I have lived with the Albanians side by side. In many respects they are more hard-working and honest than most people I have met. But that’s not my point – my question was – let’s say USA gets out of Europe as you say; what is your proposed solution for 2 million people who are armed, have all the state institutions in place and do not want to live with you?
“2 million people who are armed” should reconsider their life choices and start backing down on them fast, just like Kurds and Ukrainians and all other USA proxies. ISIS also had “all the state institutions in place” and did not want to live with Syrians. Ukraine still has “all the state institutions in place” and still do not want to live Russians. If you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.
USA always bails out and leaves it’s “allies” high and dry. The sooner it happens, the better for everyone. Just leave and let Putin sort things out.
To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal. This is atributed to Henry Kissinger, the guy who was directly involved in those things.
Nonsense. Serbia’s population proper (sans Kosovo) is barely 7 million and declining. Population of Kosovo is 2 million. There is no way Serbia has the military might to win a war against Kosovo. Even if it did, it would be extraordinary bloody and protracted. These are pipe dreams of Serbs who refuse to accept the reality that Kosovo is gone.
Look, I understand the feeling. If we go by all the history, I miss SFRJ, it was a great country. In reality Kosovo should never have been allowed to become independent – this is a cardinal mistake on the part of USA/NATO. But, that genie is out of the bottle, no putting it back in.
If Serbia is weak, that’s one more reason for USA to remove itself from the premises. Let Europeans deal with European problems. USA empire is on the decline, and will have to go away sooner or later.
Feelings and dreams have nothing to do with it. It’s Realpolitik. It seems to me that there will be blood, as usual.
“no representation and treatment as 2nd class citizens”
The claim is nonsense, they had unprecedented autonomy and for decades they forced Serbs out. The communist regime suppressed the news of all troubles until thousands of Serbs from the province went to Belgrade in the late ’80s and staged a protest. Even the NYT had a few articles in the early ’80s outlying how the Serbs were mistreated.
That’s not what I remember and I was there….
Serbs were the minority in Kosovo by the 1980s. Kosovo was an autonomous province of Serbia and on paper it was granted certain freedoms but in practice, the policy of Albanians in Kosovo was to pursue independence from the state as apparently they were unhappy even with that autonomy – they did this with a combination of creating a demographic explosion (having many more children than the Serbs), pressuring Serbs (often with threats of violence and in some cases, violence) but also with “incentives” such as purchasing Serb “ancestral homes” for a more than fair/market prices, passive and active resistance to the state/police apparatus (to the point of violence), staging protests etc. etc.
It doesn’t make it right (what they did) but that’s what happened. They had huge financial backing by their diaspora but also from western countries (people like Bob Dole lobbied heavily on their behalf and visited Pristina to encourage them just like Nuland and John McCain visited Kiev).
Back then the Yugoslav state (late 1980s) tried to suppress the “uprising” with force – we all remember the special police forces, SSUP/RSUP forces, military etc. etc. – all to no avail. This heavy police/military/counter-intelligence apparatus also cost a s*it load of money to maintain in perpetuity for an already impoverishing Yugoslav state – something that made Slovenians and Croats very unhappy, not to mention the embarrassment of having an uprising that could not be controlled effectively.
Later (after the breakup of Yu) it became even more difficult for the successor state to suppress the uprising – the demographics are a HUGE factor and in 21st century you cannot just put 2 million people on a train and ship them to Albania – they were born there just like the Serbs were and they are the de facto majority.
Thank you it is excellent comment!!!
Take south Tyrol in Italy. There it works. Maybe because the USA never interfered.
Take South Schleswig. It also works. No USA. Just Denmark and Germany.
The Russians knew what would eventually come to pass and did their best to take Mitrovica post-conflict as their zone within KFOR but to no avail. Serb majority Mitrovica should have been split off from Kosovo but Clinton the Wise would have none of it.
As it stands now, the US/EU have two fully adopted UNSC resolutions exposed to the world at large as shams within one week. Res. 1244 and 2202, one enshrining the right to self determination and the other negating it. Must be a record in both senses.
Nice work for this trustworthy bunch and their ‘rules-based disorder’. If we somehow manage to avoid a nuclear WWIII when all is said and done, it’ll be a miracle.
I think Larry’s point is that the US is:
a.) losing badly in its proxy war against Russia using Ukraine
b.) it’s an image thing: the US’s image as God 2.0, All Powerful is threatened
c.) the media need a distraction
d.) little countries (Grenada? Panama?) are good distractions
Yes, they are dumb enough to start something. But it won’t make the US look any better.
CIA sez,
Albanians 92.9%, Bosniaks 1.6%, Serbs 1.5%, Turk 1.1%, Ashkali 0.9%, Egyptian 0.7%, Gorani 0.6%, Romani 0.5%, other/unspecified 0.2% (2011 est.)
note: these estimates may under-represent Serb, Romani, and some other ethnic minorities because they are based on the 2011 Kosovo national census, which excluded northern Kosovo (a largely Serb-inhabited region) and was partially boycotted by Serb and Romani communities in southern Kosovo
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/kosovo/
The result of 50 years of Communist and 30 yrs of NATO sponsored ethnic cleansing.
“communist ethnic cleansing”? He has to explain that. We haven’t heard anything about that yet.
We remember a comment by a simple Bosnian in the 90s, who said, that they had lived together peacefully for decades….
By the way: Tito was Croatian …
The key is in the last sentence. Weakening Serbs as much as possible was the essence of his policy. All of the Yugoslav wars happened because he drew the borders (a paralell can be made to USSR), and also let uncontroled Albainian migration in. This whole shitshow was in the making since 1945, just like the Ukrainian one.
So, so …
Hoxha was a communist and together with Tito oversaw the open border policy between Albania and Kosovo, with basically one way traffic into Kosovo.
BTW: Tito was half Croatian, half Slovenian.
Population growth is a myth, simple population calculator exposes it as such.
There are less than 800K Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija and far less in N.Macedonia. They have been refusing, faking the census for decades and there is no border for all intents and purposes, so the flow from Albania was huge.
It is a relevant point often overlooked, but in truth Albanian numbers are grossly
inflated. For example, in Macedonia numbers regularly quoted as 25% are closer to 17-18%. There is also the matter of many Albanians having triple citizenship, ie; Alb. MKD and Serbia/Kosovo. Albanians are very much a herd mentality, wherever they are a majority with support of US/NATO they are strong, w/out they are weak. Without US support the Albanian dominance in the region is not necessarily a forgone solution.
Guys, even Snowden’s “friend”, the Guardian, admitted CIA’s role, well, in 2001.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/mar/11/edvulliamy.peterbeaumont
Your point about precedent is extremely important, and that precedent has been explicitly raised by Putin in relation to Ukraine. Clinton was an idiot. So many of the issues today are directly attributable to his admin, especially European security issues. Not saying anyone from the GOP would have been better, but historical facts are historical facts.
Precedants are irelevant. Historical facts are irrelevant. Clinton being an idiot is irrelevant. The only thing important is who has the bigger gun (i.e. military and economical might). USA stole all of its territory, and it was legal somehow. Slavory was legal too. USA war crimes are not prosecuted, but those that expose them are. It is the rule based order where rules are made on the spot, by USA. Those pretending that it all makes sense are naive beyond measure.
While big it’s peripheral, I think the bigger issue not commented on much by the pro-Russian bloggers was after a successful strike on the airfield Engels, and now NATO (UK) is already thinking about transferring more long-range missiles and other similar weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine with permission to strike at Moscow, the Urals, Siberia … and I am sure that this will happen. Will it be another Red line Putin countenances or go nuclear?
What are NATOs red lines?
NATO’s red lines are countries that want to assert their own sovereignty.
Incorrect use of neopronouns
🤣
“Successful” is quite the stretch here. Otherwise, yes, the West will continue insisting and pushing, they will be delivering weapons and everything as long as they can. Only Russia knows what Russia will do, but the result will be more pain. I’m sure Russians are keeping a bill.
Will the UK attack Moscow? They must have already lost faith in Putin’s hands. The cancer must not be terminal yet. Today there is no more ridiculous nation on earth than the UK! Neither Germany.
Boof Head, Boris is making a come back. Family related to a Moscow Rabbi in centuries gone by. (Jewish media and or bankers please take note.)
Boof Head, the sacked PM and now a nobody back bencher, is advocating long range missiles for Uki Nazis !
Great Britain is done, tell me it ain’t so! King Charles the last. About time. Good luck Scotland you deserve it.
I second your comment about the Sausage People.
If you read / watch the British media, one would think that Russia is already done and the Andorran military is about to march into Moscow.
The British mockingbird media apparatus is the most toxic, poisonous, divisive, tin pot imperialist boondoggling piece of revisionist clap trap on this planet- bar none….and all done with a straight face, like butter wouldn’t melt in their tawdry little mouths.
What is there to talk about?
Engels and other attacks are not militarily significant. They are at best, Twitter war and at worst, terrorism.
And what red line are you speaking of? The SMO may be a special military operation, but it is open shooting war and Ukraine has shelled/missiled Belgorod any number of times as well as violated Russian air space with helicopters to bomb Belgorod.
If anything, these “long range” attacks allow Russia to further extend its DMZ to the Polish border…
As others have noted: there is a significant Russian benefit to taking over all of Ukraine – linking up with Hungary and Serbia. Both nations are populated by people friendly to Russia but are hostage because they are surrounded by NATO/EU.
Is it worth partisan warfare in Galicia for an unspecified period of time?
That’s for the Russian government and military to decide.
“Engels and other attacks are not militarily significant”
They show Russia has a problem detecting and intercepting low flying drones and provide opening for low flying missiles virtually undetected. This will now be the strategy the West uses. If Russia hammers Ukraine for it NATO don’t care. Multiple low flying drones will be a problem. This was just one. Imagine better drones and missiles at higher speeds because it’s up next.
My bet is the smart heads in Russia are working on how to detect and effectively counter these attacks. Won’t be quick or easy.
For my money, US would have detected a similar drone way earlier.
Thank you Ash for highlighting the issue. Russia’s non-response just encourages West to continue probing and finding weakness.
Russia is freken huge and every action we are seeing inside Russia now from assassinations to attacks on airbases is about testing it’s weaknesses for final decapitation. What if 4000 low flying missile come in at once now?
Make no mistake, the West will not just give up here. They even admit Russia winning in Ukraine is an existential threat to 450 years of global domination. Russia’s slow roll and red lines crossed has just encouraged them. Bullies smell weakness and are encouraged by it.
If Ukraine could repeat the attack, you would be right.
A single attack, with outdated drones, which very possibly could have pretended to be civilian traffic – is not.
Ukraine doesn’t have that many of these old Soviet drones; they won’t be able to repeat whatever tricks were used in this attack and this attack did no significant damage despite the surprise factor.
So no, can’t say that your analysis is the least bit credible.
As for your assertion about the US detecting a similar drone way earlier: bollocks.
Even excluding 9/11 – there are numerous examples of civilian airplanes violating US military base ADIZs. Fail again.
Any more concern trolling you want to throw out?
So anyone you don’t agree with is a troll ? How old are you? Please don’t lower tone of comments with your newly learnt words.
And your point makes zero sense. The US and UK are directing the Ukraine war, this was a modified guided drone, and they have no shortage of drones. You think Ukraine only had one drone and it used it?
The drones used were 1970s or 1980s era Soviet drones modified with explosives.
So no, Ukraine DOES NOT have a lot of them.
Secondly, you failed to address that this attack almost certainly involved any number of factors which are not repeatable.
Next: troll
I called you a concern troll. Apparently you don’t understand what that means – look it up. It is not the same as troll – it is a distinct subspecies.
Until you can come to the discussion with a modicum of credible analysis, you’re going to continue to get the label of concern troll – see above sentence.
with permission to strike at Moscow
If major damage then taking a wild guess as a response, a conventional Kinzhal strike on Ramstein (or other) with a clear warning the next one would be nuclear and their choice if they wish to up the ante?
But what do I know?
This is why many Russians feel that Russia should have already closed the conflict in Ukraine. Because they cannot see beyond the military level. If the West was all right in Ukraine, it wouldn’t be desperate trying to open other fronts. Nobody really knows about Germany’s gas reserves. They have already said everything and its opposite as is normal in propaganda. It may very well be the case that Russia is letting time pass by watching ukrop and the European economy bleed. Sparing many men.
A few years later, Putin said the Americans had established a “Kosovo precedent” that a province may vote to leave a nation, as was done in Crimea.
I produced a short video about the American invasion of Panama.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7ps5sP4LVQ
A key point is that Noriega often bragged that he had Bush by the balls, meaning he had recordings of Bush discussing illegal activities like the drug trade. This is why the US military never simply snatched Noriega as he moved around near US military bases. They needed several weeks to search the nation and question people to find this blackmail evidence before they “found” Noriega.
So what does that say about the current situation in America, where it is now semi-common knowledge how those in the current regime have been recorded in their illegal profiteering and unethical application of the law (amongst other devious actions)? States and “non”-profits are now openly peddling drugs to the general public in the form of injection sites, while cops are required to save overdosing junkies with an injection (many are then subsequently beaten up by said junkie in a fit of rage for “killing their high”). If public sentiment for corruption and deviancy can change this much in under 40 years then I can only wonder how much further it will slide in the next 40 years…
sents57 says
wow what a great humanist you are.
“Let them damn junkies die, eh?”
I truly wish i was there to watch when you explain that one to your Creator,, but im quite sure that they will get a good laugh in hell when you are greeted on the elevator down and tell ur story🤷♂️
Did I actually type the words “let them die”? I believe that’s your inference, not my implication. I also do not believe the concept of Heaven is as exclusive as you’re making it out to be. What’s the role of personal responsibility in your ideal society? Do our decisions no longer carry any sort of risk?What’s the motivation to live a virtuous and productive life when we require society to assume all liability and fix the mistakes the individual might make in their life?
I’m sure that the UKies and the Russians have footage and/or recordings of the Bidens at sick-play in Ukraine
Thanks for the Panama link, Carlton. There is so much about our elites that is thoroughly repulsive. It is as if they all, on both sides of the Atlantic, hate their own people. We are their deplorables. And yet it is them that are deplorable.
What would stop the Serbs from doing something highly “asymmetric” against NATO or even the USA? Russia may have its proxies too.
Does the USA want to publicly ramp-up to again stomp Serbia, in yet another reminder of a deep-state “forever war,” fester for over 30 years.
How much stomach does the US public, the US economy, and particularly, Democrats, have for that?
Serbia is de facto ocuppied, and completly surrounded by NATO. It can’t do anything from that position, and that is the reason for the current events. USA wants to score a victory and show it’s power, against opponent that is lying on the floor tied up.
He is a great docu on what happened in The Former Yugoslavia. You can see many parallels to what the did to Ukraine and what they would love to do to Russia
https://youtu.be/waEYQ46gH08
And here’s part 2
https://youtu.be/vNNG_mn_9DU
Don’t need a video. I followed those events hourly and yes, clearly the game plan from the getgo was to balkanize Yugoslavia and in hindsight, clearly a warmup for Russia by those would be masters of the universe, the neocon crowd, whose m.o. has aways been “never let a good crisis go to waste and whereever possible, start it yourself – it offers more initial control.”
The Weight of Chains is not some random video, but a documentary that provides good introduction for the uninformed people from The West. You don’t need it, but few hundred millions do.
Thanks a lot for this!
Clearly the guy that doesn’t need video is speaking only for himself lol
Russia entered the war in 1914 in response to Hapsburgs declaring war on Serbia thereby starting the World War 1, which lead to WW2. 1999 war of NATO on Serbia showed weakened Russia that the West couldn’t be trusted leading to Russia’s rearmanent and conflict with the West. If war starts again, will Russia resist entering on the side of Serbia, thereby officially launching WW3. This is way more dangerous then people realize
Yep, provoking Russia is the essence of it.
When you can get others to fight so easily, it is a third party weapon at the US disposal whose destruction is irrelevant.
“If you are religious, pray for peace.”
With this statement, Larry let the cat out-of-the bag!
The real question is: Can it be contained??????????
I think you’re right. WWI started in the Balkans…looks to me like WWIII stands a pretty good chance of really kicking off, a century later, in the Balkans also.
Although I do think that, arguably, WWIII has already started, we’re in the “phony war” phase right now. Not so phony, of course, to those doing the fighting and the dying.
Thanks for the full Viktor Bout interview. I think he was completely truthful. He is a remarkable man, having acquired character that is more valuable than gold. He puts to shame his persecutors in the West. I think that very few people in the West will watch one minute of the interview. Attitudes cannot change if there is no interest in investigation nor communication. Those who are religious indeed should pray for peace.
i listened to the full interview. this man has a “great mind” well under control in the sense of zen/budhism mind training.
his will was never broken by the US-fascist system and now he is free and back home.
txs for posting this interview – a real highlight in the times of doom and gloom and western demon-cratic self destruction.
praying for peace is one thing – acting for peace and forgiveness another level
A new western provocation. They just can’t stop.
And if the aim is to get NATO into a tangle with the Serbian military, they may be once again underestimating their opponents.
The Serbs have a strong military in 2022. Sure it’s not that large, but it’s not small either and has been trained with the Russian forces.
Serbia has also been supplied by Moscow with tanks, APCs, Mig fighters, as well as Pantsir missile defence systems. China also sells weapons to Serbia.
Russia also backs the Serbs 100%, and The Bear in 2022 isn’t the same one that existed in the 1990s. These days the Russians are very effective.
This won’t be some walk in the park for NATO. They can probably prevail if that’s the intent, but they should also be ready to see a lot of their guys killed and wounded, and lots of their planes shot from the sky.
I hope so. The enemy (Serbia) of my enemy (the U.S. Federal Gov’t.) is my friend.
The big problem is that major NATO forces are in the north, with the USA in Germany, Poland, and Germany. The only NATO access to Serbia is via Hungary, which will refuse as it does not even allow arms to flow to Ukraine. Kosovo is not a NATO member nor a UN member. No nation is required to defend it. And these NATO forces lack ammo due to the war in Ukraine. With Russian forces in Ukraine, Romania will not attack Serbia.
The USA would have to mobilize and send several divisions to Albania where those small NATO nations would help a little. Invading Serbia would be a two-year operation. Then what?
The Serbs know this, hence their tough talk.
I’m thinking it comes down to air power…when the US is able to bomb unimpeded from the skies, it feels mighty brave. It’s never had the experience of losing everything it threw at an enemy. I doubt it would go down well on the home front. And the US is fully vested in “5th generation” warfare…propaganda…which can work both ways.
How well developed Serbia’s air defenses are, or can be brought up to, is critical. That seems to me a relatively easy and cheap way for Russia to intervene.
Let’s not go over ourselves so easy.
#1st that whole region is beautiful, why people would won’t want a glass of wine with a stroll in the beautiful weather is beyond me (live and let live) [think Italian movies that you watched, it’s similar]
#2nd the region is SMALL, few thousands Russian troops with a smart missiles logistics, would NOT make any difference in the Russian army, but would bring peace yesterday in the region, so let’s not overestimate a local uprising.
3rd It is my belief that local and family discords should be solved locally, because they know the best who have done what
The Serbs will take back Kosovo and send the Albanians packing to Albania.
Don’t think you can take over a region (regardless of its history), if the today’s people won’t agree
Take as an example Donbas, they are mainly Russians, so Russia has no problem incorporating the in the federation.
My guy
Humans have been taking over regions since we first learned how to sharpen sticks
You either oppress the natives until they break
Or you get rid of them
I’m not arguing about CAN side, but about the other side called KEEP side.
To me there is no point in having some territories where people hate you. This is in line with what the Russians believe.
For example the Russians will nullify the 3 Baltic midgets states, and probably 1/2 of Poland, if not all of it. That’s the CAN side. The KEEP side is another story.
I dont think next time the Baltic midgets and Finland try to do something funny against Russia with the help of the USA, the Russian will stay their hand and it will be truly ethnic cleansing. I mean why bother ruling over hostile population. Deport them or exterminate them or turn the whole country into waste land is what i think the Russian can do. Remember you can stay your hand if you are killing those who you are considering your kin. It will not be the same with those you consider blood enemies.
This is already happening. The Baltic states are depopulating at a frightful pace. A few more cold winters and a shit economy and they might be done for good.
I would remind everyone of President Trump’s words: “When Lithuania sends its people, they’re not sending their best.”
We’re seeing this in real time in the West. You can invade a country with an army, or you can invade it with multitudes of ordinary people. Or a mixture. The military version has a much shorter duration. The population invasion is essentially forever.
Anyone who thinks the wide-open borders of the West is due to incompetence is a fool. They’re getting rid of us. Russia only needs to bide its time to prevail.
Bingo!!! Shock troops via migrant waves.
Yes you can, if you have the support of the USA: Operation “Storm” in Croatia. 250K Serbs ethnically cleansed, Croatia today is ethnically clean: they completed their WWII project and genocide. Not a peep from the so called “international community”.
If NATO stages the “second front” in Serbia trying to deplete/distract Russia, it will work in reverse. Staging the “second front” in Serbia will deplete/distract NATO. If NATO thinks Serbia forgot about the bombings, they’d find out soon enough – nothing is forgotten, Serbia deliberately preserved the gaping holes in the buildings from NATO’s bombs as a reminder to themselves of what NATO is all about, and now NATO will encounter the long pending rage of Serbia for what was done to this country. Russia was too weak in the 1990s to help Serbia, and Russia is not weak now.
I think the brainyaks of NATO hastening not only NATO’s demise but also the EU.
NATO will be trying to destabilize many neutralist countries in the next few months.
Perhaps stirring something up in Kosovo might end up as another own goal for the West, like the economic sanctions against Russia.
Shit stirring in Serbia is intended as a warning to Russian allies and anyone else who gets off script, Hungary, Austria, Germany, rest of world watch how we America and UK undertake a masterclass in how to destroy a country and we will do it slowly, watch how we torture these people, you want some of this….? We might not flatten Russia but we can sure beat the hell out of the rest of you, see how we pull the legs off this Sebisn butterfly….we can do it to you too.
That’s why. Deterrence. Terror.
Without a big man controlling the yard
Score-settling becomes the order of the day
The US and NATO really clowned themselves on the whole Ukraine situation
If nothing else Viktor Bout looks as though he’s been on a relaxing holiday.
From an online dictionary: Balkanization – Division of a place or country into several small political units, often unfriendly to one another. The term balkanization comes from the name of the Balkan Peninsula, which was divided into several small nations in the early twentieth century.
Alexander Mercouris, who posts at The Duran and is originally from this area, claims some knowledge of it and has often said that the current situation is unstable and a recipe for future conflict. I think he is probably right. Re-read the first sentence in the above definition.
It’s instructive to consider this looming conflict in the larger context of the role the US plays in the world today. Everywhere she goes, from Taiwan to Thailand to the Middle East and North Africa and up into Europe, she is the source of trouble and strife. Everywhere. And I haven’t even mentioned sub-Sahara Africa or South America.
“Yankee go home” is a mantra originally from Mexico (I think) but is becoming a mantra fit for the world to adopt. The world would benefit, and so would you.
1st the term Balkanization is used as a derogative term for the people from the Balkan peninsula. For that F Off to your disease infested cities.
2nd if Balkanization means many crappy little states that perfect describes the Western Europe.
3rd The region is stunning. However, all want a part of that.
By design nobody likes anybody, because of 3-4000+ of wars, stealing, and empty promises/accords
If you want to help, leave them alone.
Balkanization is modern term for “divide and conquer”. It came into use after dividing and conquering of Yugoslavia. I guess Yugoslavisation doesn’t sound catchy enough, so media came up with Balkanization.
BTW, Local version of “divide and conquer” is “make them fight each other and conquer”. In addition, common phrase in the area is “brother-killing war”.
Dividing and conquering is how big empires become big.
It’s been obvious to me for years that the US is Balkanizing. Perhaps more accurately, being Balkanized.
Diversity is our strength. Or not….
Balkanization is done by the force from the outside. USA is rotting from the inside, just like all empires.
Larry, do you mean the US wants Serbia to do something rash, to justify a Nato intervention in Kosovo?
If so, does Nato have the resources to prevail there?
If not, what is the analogy to what happened in Panama?
Unfortunately Serbia is surrounded by NATO countries. This is a geographic reality
Bingo.
Serbia should allow a permanent Russian modern military base on that spot.
(add to that Hungary as well)
Both Hungary and Serbia are landlocked and surrounded by the enemy. That’s why EU/NATO is so brave in subjugating them.
Sounds nice but impossible to do since both nations are landlocked and surrounded by both NATO and EU.
It feels like only yesterday that Azerbaijan and Armenia were going at it. Again. Didn’t the Great Catholic Biddy Nancy Pelosi go there and smooth the waters, after the CIA, Bill Gates, and George Soros went in and stirred the pot? And now Serbia and Kosovo are back at it? Didn’t they just do a special of the week on that TV show “ER” with Goran Visnjic playing Luka Kovac about the poor suffering Serbians? No? That was about the poor suffering Croatians?
These shithole countries have entirely too much time on their hands, and entirely too much free money to throw around. And not enough death and destruction. Somebody wants a world war really bad. Funny how Turkey finds itself right in the middle of all this agitation. Literally. Geographically. The works. Funny. That’s all I’m saying.
Just recently there was a woman begging for money outside our grocery store. Men were pulling up to the woman in their cars, looking or a free lunch. She was from Armenia, somebody’s cast off “near” Russian bride. “Come. Meet single women from Armenia.”
Her daughter was there, sitting in the grass nearby. By all appearances a healthy, happy, girl, about 10-years-old.
There isn’t enough money out there to live in this country even if you are from here. Now try it if you don’t speak the language, aren’t from here, aren’t educated in one of our useless (we are told), universities and colleges, don’t have a skill set. Pick a skill set, any skill set, and the Powers That Be (PTB), will make it and you useless in the next round of western propaganda.
I told her she needed to either go home to Armenia (I did) or get herself another useless American man (I should have).
This is how nuts everything is.
The manager of the grocery store came out, apologized to the woman, but said there was no begging on company property.
Is this what begging has come to?
“Now another topic [crisis] [A humanitarian crisis to boot] [Lovely]. If you have not seen Viktor Bout’s full interview with Maria Butina, here it is. It is worth your time.”
The Ukrainian woman, Maria Butina, isn’t sitting on the edge of her chair earnestly enough.
Nothing is worth anybody’s time, anymore. What? You know. “Cry me a river.” The Dnieper River.
Sorry. Call it fatigue. Fatigue with the whole deal. I’m tired of it. Can’t we just kill many billions of people, call it a day, and get on with our worthless lives?
Just a batch of stuff:
– Hungarian government – appearantly as a gentle reminder – leaked this (2022) summer, that in 1999 “unnamed” US govt officials “ordered” the Hungarian Armed Forces to shell Serbia, but were firmly rejected
– Hungary decided to buy JAS-39 Gripens, instead of used F-16’s (as Poland did)
– Orbán being on good terms with the MAGA-wing of the Republicans, as well as Netanjahu
– Serbia and Hungary have probably the best diplomatic and general relations in maybe the last TWO CENTURIES (including Serb’s gas storage in Hungarian facilities, future crude oil pipelines – while Croatia DENIED !!)
– Serbia recently got a large shipment of advanced Chinese SAM batteries
– With Serbia-EU relations getting sour, Serbia stepped up against the more and more violent illegal immigration (“refugees” were untouchable as long as Serbia wanted EU membership), with Austria and Hungary just recently entering a trilateral agreement with Serbia sending personell and hardware to Serbia’s southern border
…and Ukraine amping up anti-Hungarian rhetoric, both against Hungary and the 130+ thousand Hungarian minority in the occupied (in 1945 by the USSR) Transcarpathia “Oblast”
… thus NATO member Hungary blocking UA NATO membership on the basis of UA’s harsh minority treatment and language law
…while Hungary continues to pump pipeline natural gas, shipping fuel, allowing UA grain export via rail, sending humanitaian help and even HUNDRENDS of MILLIONS (in USD/EUR!!!) help, despite NOT joining the “EU-wide” loan-based 18billion UA funding programme…
…and accepting over 1 million refugees (half directly from UA, half through Romania), even if 90% proceeded towards Austria, Germany, etc (FYI Hungary’s population is just under 10M)
Things WILL be interesting.
“The final straw came on 16 December 1989 when four U.S. personnel were stopped at a roadblock outside PDF headquarters in the El Chorrillo neighborhood of Panama City.”
The U.S. personnel in Panama should have been gunned down — to the last man, woman, child, and old person.
In Panama they almost were.
I see C-130s and CH-53 Sikorsky helicopters burning in an Iranian desert. Some rescue mission that was. No offense, Jimmy Carter. You trusted the wrong people, the Military Industrial Complex (MIC).
The United States had no business being there. Being in Panama. Yeah. Some canal or something. It’s always something. Being in Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Afghanistan, Serbia, Kosovo, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Russia, China, Japan, Germany, all of Europe, Cuba (and now Cuba again), the Ukraine. Blah. Blah. Blah.
God, you talk about Karma. The United States’ Karma is piled high and deep. Someday Americans are going to need all that fancy firepower just to fish their own asses out of the fire, and it won’t be there.
“Beware of foreign entanglements.” That’s what George Washington said. A founding father and a slave owner. Irony and slave holding, together at last. Who would have guessed? [sarcasm]
To paraphrase Dorothy. “The Dorothy ? ? ! ! ! The witches’ Dorothy?” It’s the holiday season. What can I say?
“Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again.” — Rick Polito, “The Marin Independent.”
That Dorothy. Our foreign policy reduxed over and over again. Personified in the poor tragic figure of Judy Garland.
The CIA is setting a terrible example for young American girls.
Beware of foreign entanglements. “If you want to go looking for trouble, you don’t have to go looking any further than your own backyard.”
If this keeps up the US will be fighting the entire world
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/12/12/watch-closely-u-s-intel-begins-positioning-mexican-president-amlo-as-enemy-of-north-america/
Good morning Larry, your theory about the gambit on the extension of the ongoing conflict between NATO and Russia to Serbia is very interesting and would demonstrate the level of extreme desperation in which the planners in the Pentagon find themselves.
Given the current consumption of war materials by NATO countries to support the war in Ukraine, it is hardly conceivable that NATO strategists think of an invasion of Serbia, rather they could think, in case of conflict, of resorting, as in the past, to massive aerial bombardments using so the aviation whose stocks have not suffered any decrease due to the Ukrainian conflict. On the other hand, the gambit could turn out to be a gamble if the Russians and Chinese were to supply Serbia with advanced air defense systems that could expose the vulnerability of Western air forces to modern air defense: thus the last and main Western resource would be definitively debunked and the self-styled strongest army of all time would only have to protect itself behind the use of the atomic weapon.
However, I would like to offer you a different interpretation. The continuation of the conflict in Ukraine may not, at the moment, be completely unwelcome to Russia which, probably, is achieving the dual strategic objective of almost eliminating the military potential of the NATO countries and bogging down the Europeans in an unprecedented economic crisis capable of jeopardizing any future ambitions. On the other hand, any diplomatic agreement could give Russia’s enemies time to regroup and try, in the future, to threaten it on a more solid basis than is happening now.
If this is the case, any Russian commitment to start serious negotiations for a peace agreement would be a mere expedient unless there is complete capitulation on the western side (and, as you well know, these two words are objectively alternatives: you cannot agree to surrender). On the other hand, NATO strategists would have now all the advantage in reaching a compromise having completely mistaken the initial objectives of the conflict: in February of this year, in the western camp, no one, in fact, thought of defeating Russia militarly, but almost everyone was convinced they could destroy it economically with “sanctions from hell”. The US State Department had dealt Russia the same fate as Serbia at the time of the Croatian reconquest of Krajina and Slavonia: it was either humiliated in Donetsk and Lugansk or, if it tried to interfere, it would be crushed, not by bombing but by “sanctions from hell”, with the consequent loss of any internal credibility of its ruling class and thus paving the way for the last and decisive “color revolution”.
My question is: what you call “The Panama Gambit” could it be the desperate bluff to bring Russia to the negotiating table by threatening the extension of the Ukrainian conflict to Serbia?
Serbia have already got some Russian Pantsirs and Chinese HQ-22. Sadly, those are nowhere near enough to prevent NATO from completly destroying civilian infrastructure (they could not destroy the military even with air supremacy they had last time).
Your comparison with Krajina is right on the money (it’s sad that very few people even know that Krajina exists). It’s not just because of the name, or the Nazism releated things, but also because some of the same people were involved in the planning. The only different thing is some guy named Putin.
You are tight, Putin is really a game changer, but guys like Milosevic o Martic didn’t make any particular mistakes, the problem was that Yugoslavia was too small and weak to challenge the entire West on its own
Sorry I meant to write right not tight
Yugoslavia was just a speedbump that bought Russians some time to prepare for the impending invasion, again. In WWII it wasn’t much time to make a difference, but now it was. Last time the “naughties” made it all the way to Moscow before winter, and this time it’s all the way to Kherson.
If you were born before 1960, like myself, reading Larry’s throwbacks to what took place in real time during the 80’s and 90’s, is a revelation of truthful point of view for persons, such as myself, who are pedestrians, untrained in subterfuge, espionage and even fromage, since the real driver is always someone who wants to the “big cheese” and get all the glory, money and fruits (or fruitcakes as it often turns out, as Paul P can tell us).
Thank you Larry for shining a light for us on how Western elite choreograph “surprise” events to disguise hidden agendas.
Hidden Agendas… did I say that?
Since January 2021, domestic investment in carbon fuel production was vaporized, driving up the cost of energy. Then Ukraine in Feb 22 gave the West’s Elite’s the justification for policies to “starve” the EU of nat gas from Russia, exacerbating the rise in global nat gas prices. And this opened the gate for accelerated construction of US domestic LNG export plant construction and investment.
All this creates a base for nat gas prices in the future. To justify alt energy?
Meanwhile, are US Lawmakers, and Western Elite, in general, investors in US nat gas companies? Just asking….
Larry, thanks for posting the RT interview with Viktor Bout, an angel of peace dressed up as arms dealer. Indeed your assessment about him being an intel agent is being confirmed by his ability to counter the US/Nazi methods of breaking the human will. I got the strong impression that he was trained as intel agent for surviving these purposely inhuman/dehumanizing prison system methods.
You end this topic with the words: “If you are religious, pray for peace”. This may refer to Viktor Bout’s remarks at the very beginning of the interview about ‘having something inside you (- ‘something inside you’ referring to something religious -), that averts your getting angry’. Getting angry is self-destructive, Viktor Bout asserts from his extremely long lasting American prison experience.
Well, it is evident now that the collective West has lost this religious sense of preventing self-destruction. Instead, the build-up of hysterical ire is creating a revived anti-human, suicidal Nazism, with Zelensky’s regime leading the bunch of a-religious lemmings towards the abyss.
Anyway, instead of the to my ears sounding rather lackluster ‘pray for peace’ personally I would prefer a more Viktor Boutish ‘leave the wrath of judgment to the Lord’. – This clean-up of wrath from your own soul is more directional than a John Lennon-like omni-directional ‘praying for peace’. The heart of the matter is: how to get rid of all cropped up anger that suffocates your soul while striving for self-destruction. How to stop the self-destruction in which the collective West is openly (look at the MSM, hear the Western leaders being indignant) exasperating itself?
Excellent comment.
In the East anger in adults is seen as a weakness and childish loss of self control. It’s also highlighted in religions as a vice.
In the West anger now is expressing yourself and being free to express yourself. Anger bubbles so easily and in so many ways now in the West. Everyone is pissed about something. This creates a disconnect as the world does not get why the rich West is so angry all the time.
A man once approached Buddha as he was meditating under a tree. The man began to abuse him in the more disgusting way, the Buddha waited until the man had fully vented and was glaring at him in silence.
Buddha then said, ‘ If someone gives you a gift and you don’t taking it, who does the gift belong to?’
The man replied, ‘To the person who was giving the gift.’
Buddha said, ‘If you give me your abuse and I don’t take it, who does the abuse belong to?’
Additionally as Guru Gobind Singh put it, “Delusion is the charmer that will be believed, by man, who thirsts to be deceived.”
For those whom the purpose of their lives is to better themselves and the world around them, or to live in God’s laws, the inability to understand those whose purpose is power, fame or wealth is almost absolute. But misunderstand them at your peril.
Each person is understanding these days, who exactly they are.
Very insightful
Komsomolskaya Pravda today features a detailed article on how the RF counters against US weaponry https://www.kp.ru/daily/27482/4691610/
The cunning of the Russian soldier will break NATO weapons: how they kneel HIMARS and butcher JAVELIN
How our army and designers find weaknesses in NATO weapons supplied to Ukraine and destroy them
There is no longer a week when the United States and other NATO countries do not announce new arms supplies to Ukraine. More recently, the Pentagon announced that it had sent a large batch of Hawk anti-aircraft missile systems to Kyiv. And this is presented with great show-off – “our system is better than the Russian” Buk “!”. Moreover, other types of military equipment transferred by the West to Ukrainians are praised in every way. Everyone knows Javelins, Bayraktars, Khaimars (or Chimeras). They have already become brands. But behind the deafening advertising of their merits, the West usually hushed up the shortcomings. Weaknesses. And they also exist. Our warriors try to use them for the sake of victory in battle. Now let’s look at these weaknesses.
HAWK IS NOT AS TERRIBLE AS IT IS PAINTED
The American MIM-23 Hawk (“Hawk”) is an elderly veteran of the Cold War. He comes from the 1960s. Been to many wars. And in its class, it has earned a reputation as a weapon with the lowest coefficient in the quantity-quality category (the ratio of ammunition spent to the result). For 60 years, the Hawks shot down only 38 enemy aircraft and made almost the same number of “crossbows” – they mistakenly destroyed their own. As one of our air defense specialists said, “comparing this patented” self-shooter “with the Russian Buk, which has proven its effectiveness more than once, is sacrilege.” It has already been calculated that in those countries where the Buk took part in hostilities, in a couple of years it had more successful hits than the Hawks had in their entire “career”.
In Syria, for example, out of 29 missiles launched by Buk, 24 hit targets.
There are now 12,000 Hawk complexes in US warehouses. According to Pentagon estimates, their disposal will require more than $2 billion. Therefore, it was decided to shake off the “pensioners” to the Ukrainians. They are happy with the slingshot. The case when they say: “On you, God, what is worthless to us.”
But let’s not engage in capping. These “old men” are still dangerous for our cruise missiles, planes and helicopters. “Hawk” is able to intercept high-speed targets at low altitudes, it automatically aims at the source of interference, and also acts quickly after detecting a target. Another plus is high mobility.
And what are the weaknesses of the “Hawk”? I asked a great expert on American air defense systems, design engineer Vadim Poladyev, to answer this question:
– The use of the “Hawk” on the battlefield has shown that it requires a stable aiming of the missile at the target during the entire flight time. It is worth muffling the control signal, and the rocket goes off course – its noise immunity remained somewhere in the 1970s – 1990s of the last century.
In addition, the complex is not integrated into centralized digital combat control systems, which means that it is impossible to use it in radio and location silence mode. The Ukrainians and their American “mentors” will have to keep the radar turned on constantly or for a long time. And then our anti-location supersonic Kh-31PD missiles will not keep you waiting. It is worth recalling that already on the first day of the special operation, our troops destroyed 36 Ukrainian radar stations. And many were much more perfect than the Hawk.
In addition, the Hawk is a capricious weapon – the capabilities of its radar are greatly reduced in rain, snowfall, fog. Not to mention the drop in the effectiveness of this complex if the aircraft maneuvers or interferes.
“HOLY JAVELIN” DOES NOT SAVE ZELENSKY
Well, about the immensely advertised American anti-tank systems (ATGM) “Javelin” today they did not hear except in a manger. The United States handed over to Ukraine more than 7,000 such installations. In Kyiv they were baptized and prayed for them. Zelensky even ordered a T-shirt with the words “Saint Javelin” on it. The Ukrainian General Staff promised a quick win with the help of this weapon, which “will bury the Muscovite armor.”
Yes, this is a pretty serious military equipment. She has her advantages. Firing range – 2 kilometers. The most dangerous trick is to attack the target with a missile almost vertically – from above into the tank turret, where there is the least protection. But blows to the forehead usually only concuss the tank (for example, our T-90 turned out to be too tough for the Javelin). And we are told that there is no antidote for the “saint”. Let’s figure it out.
Yes, Javelins attack tanks from above. But our craftsmen began to weld “enclosures” on the tower – iron cages. Once in them, the Javelin explodes, but does not penetrate the armor.
Move on. The fighter with the Javelin must be within line of sight of the target. And this is a tasty object for snipers – they have already overwhelmed dozens of “javelinists”, which have now become even more noticeable on the white snow.
The old complexes delivered to Ukraine require target illumination, which unmasks the launch site – it is instantly mocked at.
The homing head of the Javelina missile usually responds to a hot target – the tank’s engines are running. And this is also taken into account by our fighters. When the engines are turned off and the combat vehicles are disguised, the American ATGM simply does not see them. And in rain, fog or snow it becomes completely blind.
The golden heads of our defense industry came up with another tricky tool – aerosol grenades. They form a cloud in front of the tank, which blocks the operation of the Javelin’s infrared guidance head.
And then there are active protection complexes “Afganit” or “Drozd-2”. The first one intercepts missiles flying into the tank with a counter shot, and the second one releases a thick beam of fragments, forming an “umbrella” that saves the combat vehicle from a Javelin hit from above.
TAMING “BAYRAKTAR”
Rumors about the combat capabilities of the Turkish Bayraktar attack drones turned out to be inflated. Although the millions of copies of videos from the war in Karabakh impressed even specialists: there, Azerbaijani Bayraktars effortlessly destroyed Armenian tanks and guns (although in many cases they were defenseless – they were not covered by air defense). When Kyiv received the first ten Bayraktars, the Ukrainian military promised that with such equipment they would definitely set the Russians on fire.
Yes, you can’t casually wave your hand at the declared characteristics of Turkish drones. “Bayraktar” can spend up to 24 hours in the air. He has 4 missiles under his belly. Range – up to 150 kilometers. These are virtues. But there are also shortcomings, which (although not immediately) were revealed by the hostilities in Ukraine. These weaknesses began to use our air defense and electronic warfare (electronic warfare systems). EW specialists began to confuse the electronic “brains” of drones so that they flop to the ground.
Another weakness of Bayraktar was also discovered. To accurately hit the target, he must illuminate it with a laser designator. And for this, the drone needs to descend to a height of up to 3, or even up to 1.5 kilometers (depending on the weather). And here it becomes an easy prey for the Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile and gun system (its gun reaches a target at an altitude of 4 kilometers). But the largest number of “Bayraktars” in Ukraine was threshed by our anti-aircraft complex “Tor-M2”. The probability of hitting Turkish drones with his missile is estimated at 85 – 95%.
In total, by the end of September 2022, Ukraine had lost about 130 Bayraktars. They are effective only where there is no developed air defense system.
Many have probably noticed that in recent months, reports of Turkish Bayraktars in Ukraine have almost completely disappeared. Now it’s clear why?
SPILLED “PORT”
Rumors about the combat capabilities of the American M777 howitzers (jokers called them “Three axes” or “Port wine”) were inflated by Ukrainians to fantastic values. The deafening PR for these weapons was also arranged by the US press. This is how the New York Times described the M777’s baptism of fire in Ukraine: “Disguised in a pile of branches cut from nearby trees, this is a weapon that Kiev hopes will be decisive in the conflict with Russia.” Or this one: “The first M777s, the deadliest weapons the West has provided to Zelensky, are now deployed in combat in eastern Ukraine. Their arrival bolstered Kyiv’s hopes of achieving artillery superiority.”
The Ukrainian officers were also choking with delight. “This weapon brings us closer to victory,” said Colonel Roman Kachur, commander of the 55th Artillery Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which was the first to deploy the overseas howitzer.
However, these enthusiasms were greatly spoiled by the American expert No. 1 on the Russian army, director of the analytical center Michael Kofman. He was immediately skeptical of the bravura statements of the Ukrainian command: “The Russians are one of the largest artillery armies that you can face. They know how to find an antidote.”
A lot of time has passed since the beginning of the active use of miracle guns in Ukraine, but they have not shown themselves to be something outstanding. Talk about the fact that with their help the Armed Forces of Ukraine will definitely win artillery duels, that the M777 will easily turn the tide of battles, turned out to be ordinary chatter. It turned out that the Russians had effective systems for detecting enemy artillery. And this means – “shot and run away.” Otherwise, a reply will arrive in a minute.
And then it turned out that the M777 howitzers were towed by tractors (unlike our Msta 2S19 self-propelled guns). Therefore, the “Three Axes” are too slow to leave the retaliatory strike. Their calculations are in an open field, they are often hit by fragments of shells that exploded even at 50 – 100 meters. The guns themselves are also damaged. Because of this, the “wounded” M777s have to be constantly transported to Poland for repairs. According to the Pentagon, “at least a third of the howitzers that took part in the battles are already in an unusable condition.” And the Russian crews of the Msta 2S19 are protected by the armor of this self-propelled gun.
But the funniest thing is that after a dozen shots, the trunk of the Port wine is corny … bending. American expert Joseph Trevithick, commenting on this problem, recalled that the M777 is towed by the muzzle brake – this is, they say, a find by American engineers. And if a four-ton howitzer is driven along ravines or country roads, then very soon the projectile will fly anywhere, but not at the enemy. Accuracy drops quickly.
However, it is absolutely wrong to humiliate the “Axes” to zero. Despite all the shortcomings of these howitzers, they still continue to hit our positions. And the cities of Donbass get it from them.
PIECES FROM SPACE
And the main trouble comes not even from the M-777 howitzers themselves, but from the modern Excalibur high-precision GPS-guided projectiles supplied by the Americans to them. That is, with guidance through space satellites!
At first it seemed that there was no antidote for them. And yet, our scientists, designers have already groped for it. It turned out that it is possible to deal with high-precision projectiles using electronic warfare equipment that jams GPS signals and knocks down the Excalibur adjustment.
But the surest way to overcome the American attack remains the same – the destruction of M777 howitzers, from which Excalibur shells are fired. What our troops are doing.
PACIFICATION OF HIMARS
The name of the American multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) HIMARS during the fighting in Ukraine also became a meme. Every day, “Haymars”, or popularly “Chimera”, flicker in military reports. Ukrainians pronounce these names with invariable enthusiasm and densely covered the installation with compliments, like dumplings with sour cream: “This is one of the most powerful and long-range systems in the world!”
Here, out of worship in front of American weapons, they clearly lied. Compare for yourself: the HIMARS launcher has six shells of 227 mm caliber. The firing range of such ammunition is 70 km. The Russian MLRS “Tornado-S” has 12 guides for missiles of 300 mm caliber. The usual firing range is 120 kilometers, and the maximum is up to 200. Any questions?
And yet HIMARS is a serious weapon. And it would be unfair to belittle his strengths. They also exist.
The transition of the installation from marching to combat position is 8 minutes. Targeting within 16 seconds. At the same time, neither leveling (alignment of the tool relative to its position on the ground), nor topographic and geodetic preparation is required, all adjustments are automatic, by computer. For this part, HIMARS has a lot of bells and whistles – accelerometers, gravimeters, tiltmeters and other sensors.
All that is needed is the target coordinates obtained from the same space satellites. Or from a drone. That, perhaps, is all. The Americans confidently declared: “As a result, there is no possibility of interference and loss of communication. Together with the GPS sensor, the accuracy and reliability of the missile hit is ensured.”
And it really was. But for the time being. Russian air defense and electronic warfare specialists sweated a lot to find the keys to HIMARS. It was possible to interfere and jam the GPS signal.
The battlefield became a testing ground.
Over time, more and more evidence began to emerge of a growing number of interceptions of HIMARS missiles. Here is just one such example: a reliable means of interception was discovered – this is the Buk-M3 anti-aircraft missile system. Moreover, in its characteristics it was not declared the ability to shoot down rockets.
After all, HIMARS projectiles are a very difficult target, as they are small in size and fly at high altitude and high speed. And they go astray after being detected at altitudes of about 22 kilometers for 10 seconds. This ability of the Buk-M3 was not discovered immediately – after many attempts.
And here is how the commander of the air defense unit, Major Alexander Topal, spoke about this:
– If at first we did not understand what it was (HIMARS missiles. – Author), now we are already freely working on these targets … The designers have asked us for a new program, and the HIMARS projectile is now a common target for us. Freely see and destroy without problems.
Military expert in the field of air defense Yuri Knutov told me:
– The problem was that HIMARS data had not been loaded into our software before. Now it was possible to study in detail the parameters of their flight, adjust the algorithms. And in the end, develop an effective countermeasures.
What do we know about possible drone deliveries to Serbia by China/Iran/Russia?
Northern Serbia is less than 900 kilometers from Berlin, well within Geran-2 strike range.
It’s the polar opposite from the situation in Ukraine. This country went into the war with a Soviet-built electrical system that was designed to be redundant. Redundancy even increased due to the shrinking economy and the population outflow. In stark contrast, the electricity grids in Western Europe have become extremely vulnerable due to green policies. These policies removed all redundancy. Unstable solar and wind power generation make the situation even worse than what is conveyed by pure figures. Keeping electricity supply going is an extremly complex, day-by-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute effort. There are just two control centers everything depends on, one in Germany near Cologne, the other one in Switzerland. The self-imposed hydrocarbons supply shock by boycotting Russia has made matters even worse still.
Ukraine has shown that NATO air defenses save Patriot are practically useless against drone attack. Besides, they have been depleted by sending them there. Patriot may work, but its missiles are very costly and may quickly run out.
NATO does not have many good options of escalating either if Serbia decides to strike, given that Serbia has any such capability. The country is already used to getting its infrastructure bombed, and extending any bombing to killing civilians directly would be difficult to sell politically. Resupply by the Chinese would be difficult to stop, too, since the Chinese could start blockading Taiwan in response.
Patriot has been pretty poor so far and it’s speed and tracking of hypersonics non existent. But then it did bitch slap the Poles.
You have used the them “Kosovar” like it means something (it doesn’t). I guess you’ve picked it up from CNN/BBC/NYT/whatever. Albanians are not “Kosovo people”, but migrants from communist Albanian into less-communist Yugoslavia (communist dictator Tito was a Croat that did everything to reduce Serbian dominance in the Yugoslavia). When Morrocans take over Flanders in a decade or two, would you call them Flanderians instead of Morrocans? Would Belgians become invaders of Flanders?
BTW, the region is actually called Kosovo and Metohija because it consists of two subregions, just like Bosnia and Hercegovina, or Sao Tome and Príncipe. Removing Metohija part is done intentionally, because it means “monastic estates”. Kosovo part of the name came from the battle that happened on Kosovo field (kos means blackbird in Serbian). Kosovo and Metohija have always been Serbian battlefield and Serbian Orthodox Christian holy land.
Destroying Orthodox Christianity and killing Slavs is what The West have been doing for centuries. There is nothing new under the sun.
England is still at war with the Dreikaiserbund, and the U.S. is still at war with the Soviet Union. They both still living in the late 19th, and mid to late 20th Centuries
Get Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary out of the way, and there’s nobody left in Europe to resist the NWO.
The same goes for Japan and China in East Asia.
That’s what all of these wars, since 1914, if not 1792, have been about. It’s what the war in Ukraine is about, and why the Nordstream pipeline was blown up. Perfideous Albion and her daughters still want to rule the world, even after two hundred years. But their principle opponents still haven’t lain down and died, as planned.
Even liberalism itself comes from Britain. It’s awfully convenient that “liberal” “democracy” became the only legitimate form of a people’s expression just as this system was in its ascendancy!
If we want this to end We the People must remove British influence from our hemisphere once and for all. Remember the City of London is nothing without US muscle to enforce it.
https://youtu.be/MaqmBOyNCuE?t=25
You are right on the money. Those that fail to understand Serbia’s role in the whole kerfuffle, should just think of it like it’s little Russia,
just like British Empire did (and remnants of it still do). Hitler had to conquer Serbs before going eastwards, and so did NATO.
Germany is too whipped, it has the resistance of a cream pie.
From a layman’s perspective, I gotta ask, how could the US bring in any more support to the Yugoslavian theater than we have to Ukraine, which is about to be demolished? Why attempt to “support” another war? Seems to me the hole is being dug inexorably deeper. Russia could bring in 25 or 50-thousand troops to quell the issue, much like they did in Kazakhstan last December/January 2022 to stop our attempted color revolution there under the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
The US is drowning. No way this happens. We’re about to have our hats handed back to us just like last year in Kazakhstan, except this time in the Yugo theater. When is LOSING enough?
Russia could not send Lavrov to Belgrade, because NATO did not allow his plane to fly trough NATO airpace. Russia can not send troops or weapons there.
US “support” in Yugoslav theater is just bombing and cruise missile strikes. All those planes and bombs and cruise missiles would never be delivered to Ukraine anyway. In order for Raytheon to make big bucks, they need to be used on some defensless country.
US would hope for easy win if Russia does not interfere. The alternative is WWIII. Austro-Hungarian Empire was in similar position in 1914.
Does Russia allow NATO states over its airspace currently?
I am pretty shure that any diplomat can fly to Moscow. Even states involved in war have diplomats talk to each other. That’s what diplomacy is all about.
Kosovo , let me look at it … what do we have here :
40 by 60 miles enclave with no resources, no seafront, no big rivers. Some said there was some gold mines in the 15th century there, but it is long gone, only low grade coal left. Round two millions inhabitants , mostly Sunni Muslims … and , never forget the baddest terrorists in the block : the biggest US base in all the Balkans.
Did the Russians have nuclear warheads small enough for that kind of country anyway ? Is the pentagon realizing the scale of conflict they are able to wage after being chewed like a dog toy by the reds in Ukraine ?
Nah plus with so few inhabitant you can’t even do a genocide , under 6 millions jews it’s not genocide , how much muslims does it take to do a genocide ? Irak example make me think two millions muslims won’t be enough.
The CNN propaganda machine of ’99 spoke every hour on the hour of mass graves in the Trepca Mines, just so we wouldn’t forget.
A year later, UNMIK announced – “Sorry, we weren’t able to find those mass graves, but we did find some lead and silver.”
“Aha”, James Rubin exclaimed, not to be outdone by a useless UNMIK report. “Lead you say? The crafty Serbs removed the bodies (which they actually claimed) but the lead bullets used in the executions were still there. Case closed. Oh, and we’ll not make such a mistake in staffing future UNMIKs, OSCEs or OPCWs et. al., ever again.”
And so they churn.
Viktor Bout has a whole new career in front of him after listening to the interview. If he learned anything while in America it is time for him to become an influencer. Way easier than being the Merchant of Death. Everything from Merchant of Death diet plan ( should be put in every public school to battle obesity) to the Merchant of Death token. The self help book ” Start Your Day With 5 Minutes of Laughter” He needs an agent ASAP. Thanks Larry. Just trying to lighten it up around here.
I have always admired this blog for its intellectually honest, even-handed opinions. But I am becoming increasingly disturbed by the anti-China animus that is creeping into more and more blog posts, even ones that have nothing to do with China. In this piece Larry writes “Panama remains a dysfunctional, corrupt country. Billions of dollars of narcotics proceeds wash through the Panamanian Free Trade Zone in Colon and Chinese influence is expanding.” The unstated message here is that China is engaging in nefarious activities in Panama. Those activities are never named, nor is any justification given for the assertion that China is a malign influence in Central and South America. Like other blog posts on this site, readers are simply expected to absorb the message that China = bad, no evidence needed. This isn’t just sinophobic, it’s dangerous; if the USA sleepwalks into a nuclear war with China over Taiwan, it will be due (in part) to messages like this. Anyone who wants a more nuanced discussion on China should check out Brian Berletic’s YouTube show The New Atlas, which dissects Western narratives on Asia and presents information that you will never see in the mainstream media (or this site, unfortunately).
Stating a fact is not being “anti-Chinese.” There is a strong tie between Colombia, Mexico and China when it comes to illegal drugs and Panama is one of the geographic locations where those interests intersect in terms of trade based money laundering. I have a friend who is a Fed Ex pilot who flies the Asia route. There are Colombian women working as bar girls in Hong Kong. Got that? How does that happen?
Just a guess but maybe the same way that Ukrainian ‘nurses’ ended up in Ghadafi’s palace?
China is a ancient and beautiful land but is a one party state…the government is openly a totalitarian state where the population is heavily survielled..where their ability to get an education…travel ..work or where they can live is affected by their opinion or actions based on a social credits score which is based on their total surveillance.. Where capital punishment by the state is common for offences that we in the West with common law protection could not comprehend. The organ harvesting and treatment of Tibetans or moslems in the Northern provinces is another reason that I am of the opinion that the CCP is the enemy of mankind…..followed very closely by the WEF that espouses the very same principles and policies …..where we are created equal but some are more equal
LOL…. in the US, we have our own ‘social credit score’, courtesy of the democratic party and its media partners.
That said, in Asian culture you have to consider what came first, the chicken or the egg. Is Asian-style conformity a manifestation of the communist party or is the communist party one manifestation of Asian-style conformity? After all, are the Japanese ‘company man’ and South Korean traditions all that different?
I remember years back, when assigned a class project at the Colorado School of Mines, the two Japanese classmates rallied us all around into a cooperative problem-solving effort while we ‘natives’ were left scratching our heads over if it was even allowed.
That’s why Japan and S. Korea were eating our productive lunches all through the 80’s and why the Chinese are doing it today.
The Cult of Individualism is great for innovation and western flicks but cooperation and conformity are the engines of production. Even Germans, ever reluctant to buck the state, have similar tendencies. That’s why there, entrepreneurship is far less an initiator and conformity far more a driver of industrial production. I may simplify, but I think the theme holds nonetheless.
is it any wonder that the collective west is being shunned?slowly at the beginning but it will take on a life of its own and become fashionable.the level of hate mongering from the west is astounding.
There is no such thing as Kosovars, those are Albanians, the same ones as those is neighboring Albania and in N.Macedonia.
The crisis you are seeing now is a dog and pony show. The western puppet Vučić will do nothing, the same way he did nothing 10 times before. This is not the first time that he sent forces to the administrative line, just to fold and again concede to Albanian demands.
Russia can’t do anything, Serbia is surrounded by NATO countries. Most we can hope for is some Wagner forces to come on civilian flights.
Oh, they’re not Albanians. They’re ancient Illyrians and they, in cooperation with the ancient Ukrainians, were sent by God to civilize the Earth and banish it of the savage beast. Such is as it was written in the Codex of Creation.
Ancient Ukrainians dug out Black Sea. I guess Ancient Albanians dug out Adriatic one.
I suspect the Western powers are trying to fan the flames of conflict between Serbian Orthodox Christianity and Albanian aka moslems which may affect the relationship of Russia and her Moslem allies. Ultimately it will be an attempt to hurt Russia…..this coupled with increasing desperate attacks on the motherland….whatever cost benefit formula the Russian general staff are using surely has to be adjusted almost daily.
Currently, all muslims hate USA except those in Balkans, because they are not dumb. Albanians look like they are interested in clinging to airplanes once USA packs and leave.
The Serbs may throw a wrench into the US-NATO plans. They are a very determined and tough people. Serbs have been in Kosovo for over 100 years before Columbus discovered the New World.
Your math is a bit off. Serbs have been the defending team in Kosovo field battle, so you need to add a few centuries to “100 years before Columbus “. 😉
Many years ago a retired professor and actual middle east expert told me the US needs Saddam Hussein to put Iraq back together [given, among other things, Viceroy Paul Bremer’s complete ignorance of that society].
Though what she said was almost comical on its face, the meaning is clear: imperialism and neo imperialist western military adventurism absent sound local knowledge of societies bring disaster; and ultimately self-defeating.
Bush I, he opposed occupation of Iraq, decade earlier.
Though Britain and France were irate @ Bush II’s plans to occupy Iraq, etc., they went along: the European “grievance” was they’d spent more than a century dividing and conquering the region, and Bush II would blow all that up, of which Iraq’s ‘Viceroy’ epitomize the blowing of all that up, not least De-Baathification, and so on and so forth.
Current thesis seem to be Britain/US/NATO/EU frothing at the mouth to destabilize Serbia, and thus are as it were pushing the envelope here.
Seems to me this could be accurate; however, it also worth pondering whether a trap may have been set for them, in which they may enter.
Many of excellent essays on this site explain the reality on the ground and in doing so, demonstrate complete and utter foolishness of current western policy viz. RF, and how this is self-destructive, too.
Given western powers, NATO/US, cannot grasp reality on the ground, yet, it seem to me they may actually believe they are stirring up trouble in Balkans to “teach Russia a [‘another’] ‘lesson'” — when, it seem to me: it just may be west is actually being set up.
Time will tell.
Recall, for a moment, how a supposedly “not yet ready” RF entered Syria circa 2015 at invitation of that government. This, while NATO forces including US, Britain, France, Turkey, all militarily active in that country, as well as Israel: This, from perspective of US/NATO [and Israel] — a catastrophic blow to their prestige and “international standing”, among other things.
Does a catastrophic [and fatal?] consequence await these actors in the Balkans?
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It would seem to me any discussion on potential NATO whatever at this time in the Balkans, by western powers, would, at minimum, discuss the “what if” of Serbia requesting RF assistance, a la the Syrian model.
For instance, what ‘might’ a “no fly” zone over Serbia in particular, and land and air routes to and from RF look like? Who would volunteer to enforce this?
As recent events viz. Ukraine demonstrate, in some key aspects, we’re back in the 19th century. In other words, in part: western-dominated-created institutions of 20th century creation, obsolete. . . .inoperative.
-30-
Larry,
MK Bhadrakumar, suggests similar stirring up trouble is widespread now, in the Stans and Mongolia. Another (US escalation) towards a world war?
https://www.indianpunchline.com/unrest-in-mongolia-who-stands-to-gain/
Meanwhile the FBI has concerns about “organized” targeting the (falling apart) US power grid.
The US barn (infrastructure) is very soft and falling down.
It is an interesting thing. About 100,000 years ago the second wave of humans left Africa as it became drier and faced more droughts. The first wave the aboriginals of Australia and Southern India had left centuries earlier. By waves the numbers were around 100,000 people, not so many, follow the Neanderthals out of Africa to fertile game rich Europe.
Part of the second wave settled in Europe, declined to less than 10,000 after a bottleneck event that almost exterminated humans and then increased massively. They lost the two genes for higher melanin and expressed the white genes which also exist in 87% of black Africans and most Asians.
These early human adventurers in Europe faced hard times, over time numbers grew so high disease, poverty and fighting became common, the reaction was to do what their ancestors had done, trouble at home, leave for new pastures. The drive to leave homelands to escape trouble and gain resources never ended and continents were conquered.
Now in the West there is again trouble at home. Again, the urge is to escape to lash out abroad to take it out on others, to get more resources, because the urge to flee the trouble is overriding and no price is too high.
Leaving Africa, conquering Europe, Leaving Europe, conquering the Americas and Australia, then conquering the West African homeland enslaving those who had stayed behind, more need and trouble at home, conquer keep moving, keep moving, if you keep still, you lose….
This has become to default mindset of Western elite regardless of their ethnicity or religion.
The rest of the world, largely content to stay more rooted in their old or new homelands can only look on with anxiety. The biggest human migrants, the unsettled cousins, are now moving again. But this time the old homelands know and will resist, what is coming.
Ah Noriega, once extradited to the US my cousin, and US Marshall, Patti was in charge of his custody and transporting him to his final destination. If I remember correctly that was the Federal Pen in Atlanta. Not a nice place. George Bush knows how to handle his partners. Between raping little boys, Poppi George had time to crush his enemies. It’s good to be King.
I would like for Americans to have the same right as those in Kosovo to declare a region where they live as being independent of the current state/country in which they live.
Id start by having east Calif declare it’s independence from Costal Calif. Then I would have east Oregon declare it’s independence from Costal Oregon and Join Idaho. Ditto for East Washington State.
Please, for the future reference, there are no ‘Kosovars’. It is made up terms for the Albanians.
Referring only to Albanians as Kosovars immediately strips the rights of all non-Albanians of Kosovo. It’s a mild and mostly unconcious form of ethnic-cleansing.
Kosovars are people that have been living there for 1000+ years, i.e. Serbs. Referring to recent migrants in the area as such is a very harmful lie. Changing meaning of words is what US brain washing machine tries to do all the time. It’s like George Orwell’s nightmare, but it’s real.
Fantastic! “ Panama remains a dysfunctional, corrupt country.” How many dysfunctional countries are left behind by the USA interventions? BTW, I have to look into Serbia as being positioned as a threat to Europe….I think it is not a recent development (I mean from the 1990s), this is the case, at least, since, the First World War….
The interview at the bottom is quite interesting…. Thank you, Larry?
Ooops, no question mark 😘 Simply – THANK YOU, LARRY!
Some years back, I was the afternoon security supervisor, at Douglas College in New Westminster, BC. A got a new guy to train. Big, barrel chested, bear of a slav. He was Mike (Miodrag Novakovich) a Serbian ex policeman. We hit it off right away. He had first been an MP in the Yugoslav army. He retired from that & became a federal policeman. He was full of stories. If you think about it, Yugoslavia, after 1945 was neither NATO, nor Warsaw Pact. It had to develop it’s own way of doing things.
Being in the army & then a federal policeman gave him access to information that most of us mortals are not allowed. We discussed the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, by a cell sponsored (the Black Hand) by Serbian State Intelligence. It was the most incompetent assassination of the 20th century & it started ww1! He said that the old guys in Federal Police told him that Britain was behind the assassination! It makes sense too; before ww1, British strategic policy was to foment trouble in Europe, to keep the euros off balance!
Nato troops may enter odessa and nicolaiev
They are already there, wearing Ukrainian uniforms.
M. Johnson, you write “the border shared by Serbia and Kosovo” and “a new war between Serbia and Kosovo”.
But this is the NATO/IS language. According to international law, Kosovo is nit an independent State, but a part of Serbia. So how then these phrases above legitimately be used?
Mistakes corrected from the post:
M. Johnson, you write “the border shared by Serbia and Kosovo” and “a new war between Serbia and Kosovo”.
But this is the NATO/US language. According to international law, Kosovo is not an independent State, but a part of Serbia. So how can then these phrases above legitimately be used?