Politicized intelligence is not a new phenomena. It happened during the War in Vietnam as President Johnson and Secretary of Defense McNamara pressured CIA analysts, George Allen and Sam Adams (those are real names) to change their conclusion that the Viet Cong had not been decimated by U.S. and South Vietnamese military operations. George, who trained me as a new analyst, wrote an amazing but largely unknown book, None So Blind: A Personal Account of the Intelligence Failure in Vietnam Hardcover – August 28, 2001. Allen tells you in detail how politics played a major role in that intelligence failure. Well worth your time.
I saw politicization as an analyst responsible for Honduras during the U.S. backed Contra war against the Nicaraguan Sandinistas. I recall one occasion where I puzzled over a CIA field report about a Contra attack on a Sandinista target but there was no corroborating intelligence. Because I had friends on the operations side of the house working on the Central American Task Force, I was able to make some quiet inquiries. I was stunned to learn that the guy in charge of the military ops in that task force–a guy who graduated from West Point in 68 but missed the war in Vietnam–was drafting the operations orders for missions he wanted the Contras to carry out and then published those orders as intel about the success of those operations. Only one little problem–the operations never took place.
I suppose you would be shocked to learn that the same sort of shenanigans is going on in Ukraine. Well, it is true. I have learned that the U.S. intelligence community is publishing “facts” about what is happening on the ground in Ukraine based solely on information passed to us by Ukraine. The intelligence provided to U.S. leaders is politically slanted and is not being checked against other sources, such as signal intercepts and photography, to ensure the information is accurate.
Consider this video, taken by a Russian drone, of Ukrainians in the field. If you look carefully you will see the horrific image of a Ukrainian soldier being run over, after falling off of the troop carrier, by one of his own guys. The images in this video raise some real questions about the competence of the men driving these vehicles. By itself, this video is not definitive proof of Ukrainian incompetence. But it bolsters the Washington Post report earlier this week. Ukrainian soldiers told the WashPo reporter that they were being pushed to the frontline without adequate training. Do you think that is an important intelligence indicator that the west ought to consider as it continues to send equipment to Ukraine?
The Ukrainians also dusted off the Bucha playbook, i.e., accuse Russia of atrocities, and are pushing the story that they discovered “mass” graves in Izyum of corpses allegedly executed by Russia. The western media is insisting that is the only possible conclusion. But they ignore the fact that there were a lot of Ukrainian KIA during Russia’s capture of Izyum in March. Russia did not leave the bodies to rot in the sun. They buried them in mass graves. U.S. intelligence has the technical resources to monitor what Russia was doing in Izyum at the time. If Russia was executing Ukrainian soldiers, western intelligence would have the proof. Hell, even back in World War II with ancient technology, the United States and the UK learned about the Soviet massacre of Polish officers and literati in the Katyn forest and covered that up in order to protect Stalin. Do you really believe that western intelligence covered up Russian atrocities for five plus months in order to put out the horrible news now? (See Moon of Alabama’s report).
Unfortunately, the U.S. intelligence community is lethally infected with wokeness and political pandering. Analysts who paint a rosy picture of Ukrainian success are rewarded while those who dare to suggest there are problems are shut out or shunted aside. The Biden administration is all in for Ukraine and will not entertain any alternative view.
The following video is quite graphic (viewer warning), but it shows what happened to a Ukrainian unit that tried to take fortifications held by the 4th brigade of the LPR. It did not end well for the Ukrainian company:
One lesson illustrated in this horrific video–an outnumbered group of Luhansk soldiers held off and defeated a larger Ukrainian force with the assist of artillery, mortars and air strikes. You will notice the Ukrainians had no air support and no artillery support. At least this unit showed no ability to attack in operational depth. They were on their own.
Same thing happened entering Iraq. Country Desk info, analysis, and assessment was supressed for “faked intel”. The neocon abomination, who play all sides of the spectrum to their advantage, need permanently removed.
Hello Larry. I think we are seeing how the intelligence agencies have become mere propaganda agencies in the hands of the government in power, there are hundreds of testimonies from Ukrainian fighters and foreign mercenaries who declare the poor training of regular troops, poorly equipped with little basic instruction as well as the mistreatment and inefficiency of their superiors. I have seen an interview with an Argentine mercenary who returned from a stay at the front and confirms what we are seeing, the Ukrainian soldiers are poorly instructed, with low morale and poorly directed by their commanders, they do not have combat behavior, they do not comply with rules as basic as not exposing yourself outside the trenches, burning the garbage or going out to smoke at night, ignoring that they are detected by night and thermal vision. They are being used as cannon fodder in a criminal way by their government, here I leave a testimony of a captured Ukrainian soldier.Un prisionero del grupo de las Fuerzas Armadas de Ucrania rodeado en Gorsky cuenta sobre la reunión con el grupo “O” y sobre el odio hacia sus comandantes.
t.me/republicaZhttps://t.me/RepublicaZ/1267
There is genocide at home. And slaughter abroad. Shame to the shameless. And dishonor to the dishonorable. Discourse has its limits. Will they be found in time?
“We wait for something. We hope, we lose hope, we move closer to death.”
The Sacrifice
Is this the CNN Ukies victory after the Russians ran away again?..not.
The Matrix is real! It’s the lies humans live and feed on inside their brains. It’s all about the mass determination to believe the opposite of what they cannot understand and or, do not want to acknowledge.
Ie ancient beliefs: the Sky People came down to earth in mighty chariots. ( pre History Sumerian culture)
Or 1944-45 Papua New Guinea. The cargo cult! Sky people flew down from the clouds (white military recon soldiers.) But to the tribes no man is white, flys in the sky and does not dress in anything but beads and feathers.
Ancient India, their flying people where in castles with elephants with loud roars and throwing down fire balls and great noise.
LOL …was the garden of Eden just a “Fire Base” vegetable and fruit orchard. Set up to feed the white sky people. Beer arrived at the same time and also medical surgery…opioids described by them as “Happy Sleep.”
Have you ever had a “pre med” before going under for a major operation.?
But the ‘Human Mind Matrix’ tells us it’s all just ignorant brown folk tales.
Do I believe any news or opinions controlled by US , UK , EU or Nazi Ukies ?
…no l don’t. But l do believe the matrix is real. And l do believe Putin when he said “You ain’t seen anything yet baby.” Or words to that effect.
Is this what the prolonged SMO is really all about. So the Yankees doodle dandies, who are living out side and beyond the American Insane Asylum, finally stand up and say, enough is enough.
Hope so, do not want see 331,002,651 Americans vapourized first thing in the morning and cheered on by the long abused. Such a nuclear Armageddon would eventually kill the rest of us on the planet as well.
End Times maybe.
You’red think we could all just live and let live. WTFK
Larry told everyone to post with civility
but i have to say this about your post , it is absolute nonsensical post.
what is your intention ? to spread FUD and nonsense on this blog ?
I get his point though its only tangentially connected to the topic. I think people like him, and no offense, are the newly awake in a sense that will wild eyed type out, true or not, thing they read or studied, that is in their mind and try to “wake up” others.
We have a President who showered and molested his daughter…not sure where you go from that but nothing absolutely nothing suprises me about the elite of the US. As a US citizen I am dumbfounded by the corruption and wickedness all around in every single corner of our elite institutions. We are well and truly screwed. This is what makes the Ukrainian situation so dangerous to the world…our elite will stop at nothing to cover their crimes.
Larry, I want to congratulate you for being one of the few voices of reason still out there. As I see it we’re in the fight of our lives against the DAVOS World Controllers who want to kill most of us for their warped population agenda, and enslave the rest by their own admission. I will take Russia for an ally any day in fighting that diabolic rot and its lying propagandists, the BBC, per my experience, being the most notorious! So keep it up, It’s good vs evil, Larry, the ancient battle from the dawn of man with our morally bankrupt government headed by The THING in the White House and his handlers doing everything possible to destroy what’s left of the good in the world. God bless!
Is it unusual to establish a cemetery in a forest?
I suggest you read Moon of Alabama’s detailed explanation.
Yes – it’s sensible to build a cemetery in a forest when you don’t want to get droned.
The cemetery photos published so far show a respectful treatment of the dead. With grave markers and great effort taken to be christian
Did our own 25th Tropic Lightning Div simply use bulldozers to ‘bury’ Iraqis in disgusting piles ?
I don’t know how it is in Russia, in Latvia almost all cemeteries are located in forests or parks. Probably – some kind of northern tradition?
depends on how much free space was available, using some random farmers field is maybe more desirable as digging in a Forrest is hard work. it might be the Forrest is a designated park type area making ownership and conversion to a graveyard a more simple affair going forward.
putting up crosses with ID’s and photos is unusual and indicates a degree of care and observation of basic human principles which would be out of line with what is purported to have happened according to Ukraine sources. I say this because the Ukrainians have mobile crematoriums given to them by the EU.
some of the graves even had flowers. and typical grave mementos indicating family or loved ones where tending the graves.
Not in Russia and the Ukraine it’s not. Every Russian cemetery that I have seen, be it in the country or in a city, is in a forested area. I should add that I have lived in Russia for 30 years, during which time I visited the pre-2014 Ukraine several times.
Nope. I am from Russia and I have seen several cemeteries outside forests. Forest location for cemeteries may be simply due to the many forests around even in densely populated areas.
Yes when that is where most of the bodies are…
In a forested battlefield.
I will bet we will find out that the Russians marked the coordinates for after the SMO is over and passed it to the Red Cross long ago.
Hi Larry. A bit long winded here I’ afraid.
Going back in history to the Invasion of Iraq in 2003. As you are aware Australia went all the way with “Der Shrubben Furher” (like we went “all the way with LBJ” in Vietnam). Our erstwhile Prime Minister in 2003 considered himself the US “Deputy Sheriff” in the Asia Pacific region. Anyway. I had been out of the service for about 10 years at that time and no longer working in the Int Community. However, I still had friends who worked in Intelligence. I put the question to one of them about the Iraqi WMDs. Did they or didn’t they have them? A point here – in Australia there are very few, if any, leaks of active intelligence material. My friend mulled the question over for about half a minute and then replied – “… let me put it this way. We (the intelligence community) wonder if the government is reading the same Intelligence Reports as us.”
So yes – manipulating Intelligence for political ends is not new. One thing that would horrify me would be if I found out that the Intelligence was being cooked at the Operational/tactical level. THAT would be tantamount to murder – false or inaccurate information/intelligence, as you are well aware, often results in casualties to your own side. When I went through Int School it was drilled into us – don’t lie, don’t give inaccurate data/info, if you don’t know say so, and even if what you are about to say may annoy/disappoint some (ie not the party line) – so be it.
On the last point – I have experience in that regard. I gave a briefing to the upper echelons of the Australian Defence Force (including Chief of Army). Based on the topic of the briefing, the team I was in knew what the first question would be – “How does that compare to the Australian Army?” Sure enough that was the question (from a Brigadier). When I gave the answer you could hear the proverbial pin drop (on a carpeted floor). Chief of Army walked out. I fronted my Colonel and had to explain myself. He asked me how confident I was of my info – when I said 100% (and my immediate supervisor,a navy Lieutenant Commander backed me up) the Colonel replied he’d back me (but god help me if I was bullshitting). Turned out I was 100% correct and nothing more was heard.
You know first hand. Commanders don’t like hearing the truth.
Sad but true……
None of them like hearing the truth, but the few greats that I’ve worked around, with and for over the years wanted to hear the truth. One of the worst that I worked for thought he’d punish my career by writing in my evaluation that I was “too brutally frank and honest.” I framed a copy of that an hung it on my wall as a point of honor.
Had a passed over shipmate who steadfastly briefed our Admiral facts, to the chagrin of the promotable Cdrs and Capts. This got him shielded by the Admiral and the next Admiral. He followed the first to Norfolk, and the next to DC.
At the end of my DC tour several of us , all passed over and soon to retire, got tagged by our Admiral to develop a serious command restructure. The few Civil Service types tasked with us were the “not a team player” bunch. All were seen as losers by the promotables.
We developed an ambitious cost cutter, and were loathed for it by the entrenched bureaucracy. It was implemented, saving the taxpayer boo coo!
Bottom line: Truth and facts can be found, the commander has to look for them.
Leave the office with its temple dogs, walk around.
Unfortunately for all of us, Full Bird is as high as a truth-teller/truth-consumer can get in the US military, and even then, many of those have gone to the dark side to get the bird… This is why we should tune out talking heads who were O-6 and up.
this is unrelated to the article; but will try to post since i think it is quite relevent
putin summed it up when he said all the EU has to do is to push one button and they get 55 billion m3 of gas per year.
https://english.pravda.ru/news/world/154029-putin_europeans/
my added phrase – the green party is green on the outside and marxist red on the inside
on TheDuran below- long but quite good if you have time
https://rumble.com/v1k5tt1-bakhmut-and-goals-of-the-smo-wbrian-berletic-from-the-new-atlas-live.html
Alexander Mercoulis said that Merkel requested for nordstream 2 to be built in the 1st place.
Alex Christoforu stated that for the usa; nordstream 2 was a final straw and they would not allow germany to have it
time my opinion for Mr. Johnson to join the next one
Thankyou Larry!
Queue the masters of spin in 3, 2, 1 …
https://t.me/VanessaBeeley/8789
https://t.me/no_one_is_forgotten/9260
Federal judges ruled that social media platforms don’t have a constitutional right to “muzzle” speech.
A US appeals court has cleared the way for Texas to begin enforcing a landmark anti-censorship law, ruling that Twitter, Facebook and other social media giants don’t have a constitutional right to silence opinions that they find objectionable.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans issued its ruling on Friday, shooting down what it called an “odd inversion of the First Amendment” by Silicon Valley trade groups, who argued that by barring social media companies from censoring objectionable views, Texas infringed on their freedom of speech.
“The platforms argue that buried somewhere in the person’s enumerated right to free speech lies a corporation’s unenumerated right to muzzle speech,” the three-judge panel said in its ruling. The implications of that claim are “staggering,” the judges added, inasmuch as it would mean that email providers, mobile-phone carriers and banks could cancel the accounts of anyone who sent a message, made a phone call or donated money in support of a “disfavored” political party, candidate or business.
“Today, we reject the idea that corporations have a freewheeling First Amendment right to censor what people say,” the judges said, noting that a platform could obtain a dominant market position by billing itself as open to everyone – as Twitter did by claiming to be “the free speech wing of the free speech party” – then turn around and dictate the conversation as “the monopolist of the modern public square.”
HB20, which prohibits platforms with more than 50 million users from censoring content posted by residents of the state based on viewpoint, marks one of the boldest efforts by Republican-controlled states to push back against Big Tech’s alleged anti-conservative bias. Texas had argued that Silicon Valley went so far as to muzzle federal elected officials – such as President Donald Trump – and even censored a congressional hearing that featured disfavored viewpoints.
Rather than directly responding to such concerns, the platforms argued that the law would prohibit them from censoring “pro-Nazi speech, terrorist propaganda and Holocaust denial.” The appellate court described such claims as “fanciful hypotheticals” and said the Texas law expressly allows the companies to censor any speech that incites criminal activity or makes specific threats.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called Friday’s ruling a “massive victory for the constitution and free speech.”
https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/21/21-51178-CV1.pdf
Larry,
could you elaborate a bit more on the way how the US is making friends in the world (and how intelligence is helping to accomplish this)? Alexander Mercouris yesterday talked about the meeting between the new ‘US friendly’ PM of Pakistan with the president of Russia, which raises serious questions whether the US understanding of ‘friendship’ is really that extremely shallow & fake. When even such a ‘US friendly’ PM is able to express such praise & kissing up with regard to Vladimir Vladimirovich, what truth is left then inside this professed ‘US friendliness’?
Did the US in its history ever use other methods than ‘shock & awe’ in order to make friends?
It may be that Shehbaz Sharif’s overtures to Russia are less political in nature and more of a pragmatic realization that Pakistan needs help in the form of food (https://www.wfpusa.org/countries/pakistan/) and energy (https://thediplomat.com/2022/07/finding-the-right-way-forward-in-pakistans-energy-crisis/).
Sharif is keenly aware that Russia is in the best position to help, and the country most likely to help. Russia on the other hand likely sees this as an opportunity to reach mutually beneficial agreements and strengthen political ties.
my $.02
If you want to have real friends, you have to first be a real friend. The US isn’t a real friend to anyone, therefore our associations degenerate into mutual use and exploitation. In the more extreme cases, like NATO, we just buy their friendship. We’ll see how far that goes in the next few months.
Regarding Pakistan in particular, it’s surrounded by about 3 billion SCO people. In the long run, Pakistan is not going to going to shovel back that tide, and the new PM appears to have enough sense to know that. He’ll probably try to walk a line (like Erdogan) by giving some lip service to the US, but his long term survival is with the SCO. His maneuvering to get a gas pipeline from Russia indicates he knows that, because pipelines are long term commitments.
” Ukrainian soldiers told the WashPo reporter that they were being pushed to the frontline without adequate training.”
Evaluation is a function of purpose, and hence to some degree “intelligence” is always politicised by framing.
The “Ukrainian” soldiers may believe they have one purpose, whilst those “guiding” them may have another purpose ?
“The “Ukrainian” soldiers may believe they have one purpose, whilst those “guiding” them may have another purpose ?”
The above is an illustration of the part paraphrase:
“KNOWING WHAT WE BELIEVE/KNOW, BELIEVING/KNOWING WHAT WE DON’T BELIEVE/KNOW, AND BELIEVING/KNOWING THE DIFFERENCE” plus not believing/knowing what we don’t know since onmiscience is not an option, wherein lay the lacunae in Mr. Rumsfeld’s “reasoning” which he sought to rectify by aid of “alternative sources”, thereby further “politicising intelligence” rendering it belief.
The applications of the processes outlined above are neither restricted to intelligence nor the political, and hence encourage the tendency to bridge “doubt” by various means with various motivations.
“”Intelligence” is not a paradigm but a lateral process, whilst some believe it is a paradigm and paradigm shifts are possible, and consequently have engaged ill-equiped on an odyssey to discover unknown unknowns.”
A “well-known” extension of the title of Mr. Allen’s book – None so blind – which is normally catalysed in some social relations is – as those who will not see, inherent in which is the notion that their seeing is a function of having choice and facility.
However there is none so blind as those who are physically blind, despite interpreting phenomena by alternative means such as touch.
The content of Mr. Allen’s book is framed myopically to emphasise a hypothesis predicated on “virtual history” that the “War in Vietnam” was primarily lost because the politicians did not follow the advice of “intelligence” – a further of example it wasn’t us, it was these “evil doers” – a popular practice in attempts at sustaining “exceptionalism” by assigning agency/significance to some but not to others including the Vietnamese opponents, predicated on a partial conflation of a component/the whole, and hence a politicisation of “intelligence” facilitating maybe this time we’ll be lucky and its contingent frustrations.
I’m a little surprised. I always presumed that there was PR intelligence on the outside telling us what they want us to hear, and a Real intelligence on the inside, observing what is really going on.
Are you really telling us that these are one and the same people?
” PR intelligence on the outside/ Real intelligence on the inside”
They are all deemed to be real by some, but since omniscience is not an option, none of them are “intelligence” but believed to be so, even by practitioners observing what is really going on through aspects of seeing is believing whilst seeing is interpreting.
“Intelligence” is not a paradigm but a lateral process, whilst some believe it is a paradigm and paradigm shifts are possible, and consequently have engaged ill-equiped on an odyssey to discover unknown unknowns.
Yes. There is a common fantasy shared by most CIA officers. They imagine they are sitting in the cafeteria and someone comes up and taps them on the shoulder. They are then taken to the basement and through a secret entrance where they are initiated into the real CIA.
Your note reminded me of a class I took at Georgetown, sometime in ‘78 or 79, taught by Ted Shackley. The consensus amongst us (right wingers) after a few class sessions was no-wonder-we-lost-that-war-what-a-putz
🤣
Thank you, Larry. This content confirms everything I have learned over the past couple of days.
Can anyone just imagine the “woke” US Army stepping onto that battlefield against Russia, the DPR and LPR militias, the Chechens and the Wagner group?
The loss of human life in eastern Ukraine is beyond comprehension. This while the Bolshevik apparatchik and war profiteer Democratic Representative Adam Smith from Washington State who is chair of the House Armed Services Committee had $3.4 million dropped into their laps from Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, L3Harris Technologies, BAE Systems and Huntington Ingalls Industries during the 2022 election cycle. Where do these psychopaths end? Raytheon and Lockheed Martin just got $311 million to replenish stocks of Javelins sent to Ukraine.
If anyone wants to see what is happening in the Donbas region locate the Brit Graham Philips on YouTube. The UK government practically has a death warrant out for his reporting from eastern Ukraine. He just reported HIMARS rockets destroyed buildings and tore to shreds a beautiful young girl.
Here’s the point: How do we organize to stop these psychopaths at the Pentagon?
Said it before:
Ukraine is not the only war Russia is NOT doing so well in.
Sure wish, if not you, someone would provide some ‘expert’ military discussion of Syria. The Israelis bombed Damascus again today and all sort of upticks in all the other Syrian fronts (terrorist, Turkey, US etc.)
This site, Vineyard, Reminiscence, Duran, Scott Ritter etc. mostly reduced to analysis of media coverage of Ukraine and ignore the global Russia war issues.
Syria? Where the pirate nation of the US has established a base to steal oil?
Syria? Where the US plan of regime change and widespread rape of Syria resources was defeated by Russia? Syria? Where the US has again used the idiotic Kurds and then flushed them down the toilet like we do all allies? Yep. That looks like a Russian defeat to me.
Dunno. I’m watching the big economic war on the global scene and it’s apparent Russia is doing quite well…. Cancel that…. better said, Russia is doing spectacularly well in her quest to set up a Fair World Order.
By what ‘yardstick’ do you assume Russia is not ‘doing well’ in war? Please, by all means, blind us with your brilliance in explaining to us what you ‘think’ Russia is doing wrong. I’d like to hear it.
Actually, two! Two soldiers are being run over by the same driver.
And shortly after one of the vehicles, not sure if the same one, rolls over into a ditch and end up on its side.
Commenters in Telegram often like saying that Ukrainian soldiers get given mind altering drugs and that there are scores of junkies in the ranks, something I never paid attention to. Before.
The Katin forest graves. You make it sound like the US learned of them through independent means. I believe the ones that announced the news to the world were…wait for it…the Nazis.
Now, I’m not saying that liars haven’t been known to tell the truth once in a while…but.
The West learned from intercepted communications between German units.
The video of the assault on the trench is simply shocking.
Difficult to say from so high up but the chap next to the tunnel not only is calmly holding his patch but doesn’t even seem to be working himself too hard, considering he’s fighting off three folks (I realise there are two other supporting him).
I can only think that when soldiers in allies’ trenches call for artillery support they know that is going to be as reliable as a Swiss clock and they’re only sweating for two or three minutes.
Same with those police units that slowed down the Kharkov advance, it’s a little bit suicidal but maybe not so much: the allies are brimming with confidence.
And, and this is talking from a layman’s perspective, if your assault stalls and you know the Russians have shown they can manage to drop a fair percentage of shells on people’s heads, what business do they have bunching up in a trench and wait, shouldn’t they scatter (at least they’d make the ruskies waste more ammo killing them)?
It’s almost like they haven’t given them the relevant information about the allies capabilities, haven’t they shown them Russian drone videos? Perhaps not. Perhaps anyone who watches Telegram and has some sense of self preservation would fare better than these poor souls. And with this we got back to Larry’s initial topic: folks that need good intel but they’re not given it.
Sorry for the long comment, this videos got me puzzled.
when have mass murderers ever placed crosses on their mass graves?
Talk about the KRULAK MENDENHALL fact finding mission. Or the USMC Krulak Infotainment Warfare Center. Or maybe the emergence of Erik Prince in these STAN flare ups. Baby Blue has cargo aircraft flying in to Baku.
It is difficult for outsiders to grasp how incompetent and corrupt the intelligence process can become. Read this great article about CIA officer John Stockwell’s shocking account of his last days in Vietnam. There is video of him at the end.
https://thememoryhole.substack.com/p/secrets-from-the-cias-last-days-in?r=53aki&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source
Larry, How do you respond to the Rand Report on the United States seeking to weaken Germany in the Ukraine War being declared and fake and disavowed by Rand?
It may be. It is getting wide play and the Biden Administration is doing little to knock it down. Could be they are incompetent or it is true and they don’t want to draw more attention to it.
LJ
If my old memory serves me right….I remember a story about emperor Tiberius when he retired to Capri. The story went that he would abuse children and throw them off the cliff to their death, as well as anyone else he didn’t like…and even had a boat of soldiers in case they landed in the water, so the soldiers could drown them.
The Praetorian guards that followed his orders are the crux of this article. They were probably buffed He-mans, next to a decrepit old man….and yet they followed his orders.
So the question is….who’s to blame? The old decrepit, abusive, sociopath? Or the ones that followed his insane extreme orders?
I leave to you… that the crazies, the elites, the politicians, the college professors/agitators, the news anchors, the media pundits, the politically appointed military brass….and every other order giver….would have no power, if the listeners/followers didn’t listen and follow their orders.
They’re telling you exactly what they think and what they want to do….in my book that’s bad….but to me it’s much worse the ones that listen and follow their orders.
So save your excuses of: you need the money, your job, the prestige, the accolades of your peers, etc, etc…..it’s you that are at fault!….not the psycho or moron that orders you to do it!
So suck it up, and earn your place in the totem pole of responsibility and guilt!
Question: Limits of Scale – within the enormous US/UK/5E intelligence apparati which both creates & disseminates mis, dis and mal information for political and operational reasons…….how does it manage to keep separate and straight ‘reality-based’ intelligence from ‘fiction-based or counter’ intelligence within the huge western apparati????
How do they (management) know what is ‘real’ and what is ‘fake’???
Surely the enormous apparatus that has been created must follow the law of diminishing control that Limits of Scale prescribe.
Does anyone know and can anyone track intelligence reality from fiction anymore?
Larry,
Many thanks for all your excellent analysis, eagerly wait everyday for your updates..
BTW, read this article on one of the Russian websites, don’t know the source. It paints a fairly negative picture of Russian arms industry and its capability to produce “modern” weapons. What do you think?
https://topwar.ru/201811-chto-tam-v-pole-za-armatoj.html
I think it is a combination of ignorance and wishful thinking.
Hi all,
Can anyone point me to some sources as to why EU is doing this to themselves? The sanctions, the providing of weapons etc
I mean- the govts are voted to first protect the interests of their people and then advance those interests… what has RUS done to the people of say- Holland, Italy, Sweden etc- that makes them so adverse to anything RUS says, esp since 2014?
Frankly speaking, I find it difficult to think about anything that RUS has done to piss off EU as a matter of national interest. Skripals and that journalist is all I can think of- but those are not really items on the national agenda? And what has that got to do with the interests of the EU citizens to the point of self-harm?
I did a thought experiment for an individual/s- under what situation would harming themselves to the point of bankruptcy/loss of property and spending money to send weapons be considered as a valid action?
Fear, Terror… but of what actually? It’s quite befuddling to me.
Grateful for any pointers / sources.
The only answer I can think of and it’s only my opinion is the EU and indeed US establishments merly work towards what they perceive as the interests of their personal bubble and nothing else, the people are nothing more than an inconvenience to them or something to be used to achieve their whims.
They have little understading of how an industrial civilisation works and functions preffering to take the opinions of snake oil charlatans and fantasists who easily groom these very uninformed egocentric sociopaths by massaging their crass stupidity, easily done when dealing with terminally thick easily corruptable people like them.
So thick the Western elites don’t realise that former industry, that former agriculture, that former nation was the very branch they were sitting on themselves, I doubt if the ascending China and India will have much use for these cretins once they gain the upper hand if we’re really lucky traitors wages await these “creatures”.
In a nutshell they’re so dumb their anybodies useful idiots,
Or worse still just pure bloody evil.
Evil can be a difficult thing to comprehend if you are not evil yourself.
The rich people driving the anti-Russia sanctions aren’t suffering.
It’s all about the money. Gorbachev/Yeltsin allowed Russian enterprises to be bought by Western enterprises. Putin stopped that, and thus became the enemy of the West’s richest people.
Explanation below is from Paul Craig Roberts (former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/08/privatization-the-atlanticist-tactic-to-attack-russia/
I’d recommend Glen Diesen’s book ‘Russophobia’ for a brilliant (if utterly frustrating) exploration of why the West holds Russia in such low regard. In short, the West’s entire self-image is formed in opposition to the “Other” which it denigrates as backward and barbarian whilst, at the same time, conveniently bigging it up as a global threat that justifies the West’s stance of containment and then attempted domination (unless the barbarians agree to become students of the West and learn its values).
It’s a fascinating book — it even introduces the fake Testament of Peter Great that has been used for centuries by Western leaders as justification for their Russophobia; kind of how the fake protocols of the elders of Zion was used to justify persecuting the Jewish people.
My overriding sense after reading the book is that Western leaders and their media are the true threat to humanity based on dangerous stereotypes they don’t even know they hold — so, if you can, forgive them, as they do not know what they do.
Try this thought experiment. Ukraine/US attack in Donbas early March 22. Russia throws force at the front and its a meat grinder. The sanctions regime is implemented and is more successful, plus Russian losses and Ukrainian occupation of Donbas kills Putin’s domestic standing.
With the Donbas in Ukrainian hands, the gas fields of eastern Ukraine are fracked (it only takes a couple of weeks) and the established transport infrastructure is used to move Ukrainian (really US) gas to Europe, undercutting Russian gas in addition to the sanctions on Russia. This is painful for Europe in the short term and they won’t get any long term deals for the Ukrainian gas but it will only bruise their economies not destroy them. The US gets more control of lessened European (esp German) economies and Russia is reeling; beset by domestic political anger. This would be obviously leveraged by the US. Current EU leadership and national leadership of many countries are pro-US enough to go along even if there are some mid-level misgivings.
Except, Russia strikes first and that upsets the plan. Then it turns out that Russia is actually prepared for the sanctions *and* the assumption that the whole world would join in turns out to be false. So now the US is left with two choices: admit the failure of the project and negotiate or double down. It chooses the latter and drags the Europeans along with a mix of ideology and threats. Now the US/EU is trapped in a downward spiral because ideology overrules practicality.
Currently there’s a degree of panic setting in in western capitols because any rational analysis of the situation concludes that Ukraine is now an unsustainable quagmire. But policy remains ideological so Europe is slowly disarmed via destruction and its economies face serious issues. It’s unlikely that the US financial system can withstand serious shocks in Europe. But again, the only way out is a tacit admission of defeat / failure and US ideology cannot allow that.
After the fact rationalization of policy failures start to trickle out, minimizing or even seeing advantage in Germany’s destruction. This may be true enough on the shortest timelines, but economic destruction of Europe will mean political destabilization which will lead to either US isolation or Europe becoming a political-economic quagmire for the US. Honest assessment and action by the US now is unlikely. These are the grand plans of people thirty years in the making and they’re unlikely to be willing or able to change course.
It’s all gone horribly wrong and the people in charge don’t know what to do. The historical moment they created is far, far too big for them.
An underlying but important question is whether Americans will ever wake up and instruct such as Senators Cruz and Graham among others to cease and desist supporting, funding, and otherwise enabling a regime that banned public written or electronic communication in Russian and recently banned all but the ruling political party, meanwhile, subjecting not only unmistakably civilian areas to artillery fire, but also the spent fuel facilities of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, leaks from which could wreak havoc not only in the Dnipr but Black Sea?
I am not holding my breath. A friend wrote to Cruz with such a message, and Cruz responded “Rah, Rah, Rah.” It takes many loud voices.
Thanks for the thoughtful and insightful analysis, and thanks too, you other commenters, for so many good links and comments!
In Europe Politicians and Media keep telling the stories of the West who has so great “values”, Liberty, Democracy…
and these are being defended in Ukraine and therefore we need to do really everything to help them, up to ruining our economy completely.
this is all such an hypocrisy , such a lie.
Currently Armenia (democracy) is being attacked by Aserbaidschan (dictatorship).
In Europe nobody cares at all, not even criticizing it.
The EU has signed new contracts with Azerbaidschan, to buy much more gas from them to replace russian gas.
In the new Foreign Affairs article, “China’s New Vassal,” we read that China’s intelligence agency was caught by surprise over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It didn’t believe the West’s warnings over Russia’s troop build-up along the border with Ukraine that this was a signal that Russia was going to send its army into Ukraine. We also read that China now has tremendous leverage over Russia because Russia desperately needs China’s business and has no choice but to sell its products (grain, natural gas, minerals, etc.) to China at a price and in terms that China sets. Russia has now become the junior partner in its alliance with China, not the other way around as it was for decades. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/chinas-new-vassal?check_logged_in=1
I think you have some of this backwards. China’s economy is in big trouble. Russia saves them.
“Allen tells you in detail how politics played a major role in that intelligence failure.” – I have no idea about such things, but this statement seems somewhat at odds with Helmholtz Schmidt’s recent guest article, in which he states that
it was only an alibi of the generals that Hitlers interfered in their operation (which is, after all, a political interference). Why was political interference not so crucial then, and now it plays such a big role? (I don’t mean to doubt your expertise, I’m just surprised that one day one thing was said and the next day apparently the opposite).
You missed the import of what I wrote. Allen was getting phone calls from President Johnson, SecDef McNamara and National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy to be a team player. Tremendous political interference and the Generals were going along with it.
Oh I see, the president received a correct report and because he didn’t like it, he insisted on a new report. Of course, this is completely delusional to think that one can change the facts in this way. Thank you for the explanation, I guess I had always assumed that the reports were wrong to begin with so as not to upset the president.
What exactly do you mean by “The Generals were going along with it.”? Do you mean the generals planned their military operations based on the wrong reports, knowing that the reports on which the plans were based were wrong? Or do you mean that they knew the correct situation and then helped create false reports for the President and the Secretary of Defense?
“H***, even back in World War II with ancient technology, the United States and the UK learned about the Soviet massacre of Polish officers and literati in the Katyn forest and covered that up in order to protect Stalin. ”
Do you have a source for this ?
I’m not a military person , however I know quite a bit about economic, political and diplomatic history .
There’s nothing in British archives to suggest that this is true .
The only sources about Katyn were either German or Soviet .
There were some clandestine flights over Soviet territory in 1940 but these targeted Baku , not Western Russia .
By the time such flights were feasible the Cold War was well underway and nobody wanted to “protect Stalin “.
I believe that the “propaganda” part of our deep state has evolved far beyond influencing our politicians. I think this is the modern strategy. They have announced publicly that social media warfare is their strategy. And they are running with it. They no longer believe that actual fighting, winning and losing is important. It’s all about how people feel about it. And it seems to be working? Home many people remember the Ghost Ace? How about Snake Island? Obviously they haven’t remembered Bucha, because they are trying it again? This is the tactic and strategy. Too bad for them the Russians aren’t playing that game.
Correct. The UK has the infamous 77th brigade to prove it: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/inside-the-77th-brigade-britains-information-warfare-military
If you have ever engaged in an online spat with a Russophobic troll, there is a good chance he/she/it hailed from the 77th brigade.
Nonetheless, I believe that excessive focus on psyops will prove a self-defeating strategy. Those who live by lies fast lose the ability to discern reality.