The following retired Generals are popping up on cable news channels to offer their “sage” analysis on the war in Ukraine and they all share one thing in common — they are wrong to a staggering degree. I am shocked by their inability to objectively analyze the situation. Instead, they repeat the same propaganda memes — Russian troops are poorly led; Russian troops are conscripts and poorly trained; Russian troops have lousy morale; the Russian Army is brittle and will break under pressure; and Russia is losing.
These are not uneducated men and they demonstrated some measure of competence when given commands of major forces. So why are they so consistently wrong about fundamental facts?
I am pretty sure that all have acknowledged at some point that an attacking force, when confronted with a well entrenched foe, must have air supremacy if that force is to have a snow ball’s chance in Hell of breaching the defensive lines. Yet, you do not have to be cleared for Top Secret intelligence to know that Ukraine’s Air Force has been decimated and is incapable of launching sustained attacks on Russian troop positions.
There also is a lot of happy talk about Ukraine striking Russian lines of communication (LOCs) with HIMARs and Storm Shadow missiles. But there is scant evidence to support this claim. In fact, the opposite is true. It is Russia, not Ukraine, that is striking Ukrainian command and logistics hubs throughout Ukraine on a daily basis. And Ukraine’s air defense has been depleted and cannot stop the nightly barrage.
These generals are either ignorant of Russia’s success in decimating the multitude of attacks launched since the start of the counter offensive on June 5 or they are choosing to lie. I do not see any middle ground. The images of NATO supplied burning tanks, Bradleys, Strikers and Marders are all over the internet. The photos and videos are not generated by Artificial Intelligence, but these Generals ignore that reality.
Ditto for Ukrainian casualties. Social media is filled with photos and videos of massive cemeteries with seemingly endless rows of Ukrainian flags sprouting from freshly dug graves. Hell, even Ukrainian sources admitted the shortage of burial plots compelled Zelensky’s Government to dig up World War II cemeteries and discard the remains of Soviet soldiers in order to make room for the burgeoning number of Ukrainian KIA. This is not secret information. It is easy to find if you know how to do a simple Google search.
Then there is the question of ammunition supplies. Ukraine is running on fumes and has been forced to use 155 mm cluster munitions because the West no longer has the ability to supply the more effective standard 155 mm shell. Even Biden admitted this publicly, yet the collection of retired U.S. Generals refuse to accept that fact and incorporate it into their analysis.
This failure to engage reality helps explain the failures, under the leadership of these men, to achieve a victory in the U.S. military operations in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. None of these men have conducted a combined arms campaign against a peer military force.
Ukraine does not have an endless supply of potential recruits. To the contrary, Ukraine is rounding up teenagers and men over 50, providing them with cursory training and throwing them into a meat grinder. Not one of these Generals concedes that this is crazy and counter productive. Russia, by contrast, has expanded its force and continues to sign up new recruits. These new soldiers are receiving a minimum of six months training before being sent anywhere near a battlefield.
What is going on? Are we are witnessing a debacle built on group think or are these Generals hostages to their economic masters? In other words, lying in order to get paid. I am posting four interviews with Stan McChrystal, Phil Breedlove, Ben Hodges and David Petraeus so that you can decide for yourself. I apologize in advance for subjecting you to this but I think it is important to hear what they say.
These four gentlemen sound like Christopher Walken in the iconic “More Cowbell” skit from Saturday Night Live. Just keep doing the same thing repeatedly and hope for a different outcome.
How about a photo of these guys lining up at Raytheon to pick up their wad of cash?
That’s right. Keep it short and sweet and Show Me The MONEY!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFrag8ll85w
Say it like you mean it brother ….
It’s all about money. Media whores.
Truth & Lies: The Wagner Crash https://julianmacfarlane.substack.com/p/truth-and-lies-the-wagner-crash-3f7
Your comment encapsulates everything the article talks about. Congratulations you are the winner today.
It’s all about money and the forever drinks at the officers mess with the fabulous forty plus, 4-star buddies.
They know it’s not going to happen, the scam is over, hence the lies.
PS good read, pass on the vids, enough is enough.
It’s all about money. They get money from the MSM– and they must follow the “narrative” established by the MSM, in its quasi religious function as arbiter of “correct thought”.
https://julianmacfarlane.substack.com/p/truth-and-lies-the-wagner-crash-3f7
I served in a unit called the 4th PSYOPS group attached to 1st SOCOM at Ft Bragg back in the mid Eighties. It was an idea that was ahead of its time, so it was an idea that received no respect or support from the Regular Army. But I did learn some fundamentals which allowed me to spot a PSYOP campaign in about 5 seconds
First clue .. from the moment the first Russian BTR left a tire track in Ukrainian soil, all you heard was how Russia had just BRUTALLY invaded Ukraine, which was instantly repeated by all the smart people. The hell you say .. BRUTALLY invaded? like the second coming of the Mongol Horde? So where all the the buckets of blood shots. Where are the pyramids of severed heads?
Then, millions of the smart set who never knew where to find Ukraine on the globe or a single word in Russian are suddenly ending posts with “Slava Ukraina.” And then weirdly enough, the letter Z became an obscenity, as did the color “brown stripey” Even now you see people spelling out “Ruzzia” as if that somehow settles all arguments.
And then you get the doublethink squared idea that Russia is so laughably incompetent that it is also the greatest threat to Europe since the German Blitzkrieg. Gee Wally, I thought the problem in WW2 was that Germany was a quantum leap ahead of everybody for a time
And the worst thing is, once these inconsistencies, along with dozens of others are laid out. you get attacked. And when you try to explain that they are responding that way because their minds were (obviously) targeted by a PSYOP campaign, thats when they REALLY lose it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Basic_Principles_of_War_Propaganda
“BRUTALLY invaded” combines points 3 and 2.
“And the worst thing is, once these inconsistencies, along with dozens of others are laid out. you get attacked.”
That’s number 10. 🙂
Thanks MC, a useful read which I will pass on to open minds…
Do you know which psyops unit Michael A. Aquino (“Satanic” Temple of Set) served in?
Someone a lot smarter than me stated ” The truth will set you free. ”
So doing some simple math, what does a lie do??
These folks are trying as best as they can to supress the hell out of the truth.
“It is impossible for a man to understand something when his paycheck depends on him not understanding it.” Upton Sinclair
“All wars are bankers wars.” Smedley Butler
“We will know when our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” CIA chief William Casey to Ronald Reagan
And Butler didn’t speak out publicly about being muscle in South/Central America and the Philippines for US corporations until the oligarchs tried to sign him up in The Business Plot. Ya, the Rothschild Class of the day were actually plotting to overthrow FDR’s gov’t… so nothing new under the sun.
Useful idiots like these corrupt ex-generals spouting lies (they can’t possibly be as deluded as Bagdhad Bob) are an integral part of the Great Reset infrastructure. The military is the last bastion against the corruption of the gov’t/judiciary, and if that can be neutralized or kept from overthrowing the NeoCon Cabal, Schwab and the family behind him (he is a blood Rothschild via his mother) will “take over the world”.
Unfortunately we do not live in Pinky And The Brain world where very day the rodents must retire to their cages and start over planning their next attempt at world domination. The Rothschild Class has been at this since the late 1700’s.
But they’re good at Powerpoint!
The answer to the question why are they doing this might be found in the expression:
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, General.
We are in the looting phase of imperial death throes. The system is so broken that there are no consequences for bad behavior and good behavior has an opportunity cost: if they don’t steal everything that isn’t welded down then they know with 100% certainty that someone else will. Therefore, why should it not be them?
That’s why there will be even more strident electoral fraud in 2024, even if there were no central organizing locus (and there is). The denizens of the system have cast aside all pretense of propriety under the assumption that there would never again be accountability. They are afraid.
Why? The governance of America crossed a line at the close of the 1960’s with the defeat of our old WASP ruling class in the battle for possession of the primary control centers of American civilization: the institutions for manufacture of currency (which became fiat in 1972) and its injection into the financial system then into the real economy. There had been a limit to the degree of corruption and some capacity for reform internal to the ruling class. Subsequent to the demise of the WASPS, America has been mutilated from a civilization of builders (eg Henry Ford) to a civilization of thieving scoundrels. Those lower in the power structure ape those higher, so everyone was just ‘stealing a little’ in the sure knowledge that their contribution to a future collapse was self-justifiably small (if they didn’t someone else would) and that the consequences would be decades or generations away. That is no longer the case: the consequence of allowing grifting merchants to rule (to possess the key control nodes of civilization) is now upon us. Someone is going to take the blame.
A topic for a Fox News interview if Larry were allowed as the pertinent guest.
Not if Rupert Murdoch is above ground. Murdoch has done more to debase media and society than any press baron in history. The man is corrupted to the core and evil
Precisely. The Pos “generals” will say anything to keep their Ukraine-War-Gravy-Train going.
Because US military corporate generals sell glamor weapons for the United States of Lockheed Martin.
Exactly right it’s all about the generals back pocket they are beyond disgusting.
Because their egos won’t permit them the scale of failure that they face after they committed themselves 110% to the narrative they themselves concocted. The Brits seem to be the wagging tail in it all.
The 4 former Generals were all at the helm during the failed U.S. military operations in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
Today, these now retired Generals all repeat identical solutions to the NATO proxy war in Ukraine without objectively analyzing what is actually happening on the ground.
One would be excused to think they have some competence when given commands of major forces, but they are consistently wrong about fundamental facts?
Stan McChrystal, Phillip Breedlove, Ben Hodges, and David Petaeus all suggests that we keep doing the same thing and hold out for a different outcome.
Are they insane?
My take is that they sold out long ago, when they signed up to be part of the Globalist Elites fraternity on military campus.
That is why they got into leader positions in the US military.
So now that reality strikes the Globalist agenda they signed up for on campus, they are forced to keep lying til they drop.
“…the failed U.S. military operations in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.”
What makes you think the operations were failures? All 3 of those countries have successfully been turned into impoverished barely functioning areas, unable to develop their resources or to improve the lives of their citizens. Both Syria and Iraq have territory controlled by US – in Iraq’s case by US aligned Kurds in an autonomous zone, in Syria’s case, its most fertile and oil producing area directly controlled by US forces (and their Kurdish allies).
I do not think the goal of most US/NATO interventions in ME, or any ‘developing’ nation has ever been a military victory. The goal, as in South and Central America, has been to prevent good governance and economic stability in any country that it does not control. Its military operations have been successful at this all over the world…except maybe in Vietnam, which now seems to be a relatively stable and prosperous country in SE Asia – but then, USA admitted defeat in Vietnam, and there was an organized political and successful military structure already in Vietnam which was able to take control as US left. And Vietnam had USSR backing.
Unfortunately none of the other victims of US military operations has had that combination of factors to enable them to recover. Once you realize that military victory was never the goal, it is easy to see that the military operations were successful in creating ruin and chaos – as intended.
You are correct. Now the Patriot Act surveillance apparatus has been turned on US citizens. Destruction of the Republic is happening as we speak.
I have to agree with Larry. Cancel culture is alive and well and these ex-generals need their speaking engagements, connections, and consulting clients and opportunities. All of that is at risk if they were to offer an objective analysis of the facts on the ground. I don’t think they are incurious. I am sure they access the same information as Col Macgregor. But they know who butters their bread and therefore they will toe the line. Macgregor pointed out we have 44 four stars, and the only way you get ahead in that kind of environment is to sacrifice your integrity for politics. Just 2 years ago, the military was the only institution more than 50% of Americans had faith in. That has plummeted drastically and looks set to mirror the country’s faith in the media and IRS.
Sadly we have a society where “sucking up” leads to financial reward, brutal honesty to being ignored. These generals like the limelight and must benefit financially by supporting the system. Sort of ties in with the previous post about Idiocracy, only a top down totalitarian system can see benefit having fools and yes men as underlings, in a vibrant democracy these imbeciles would be shamed out of their positions via robust debate with their intellectual superiors.
Good post…
Right on. Like the old saying “it’s not what you know but who you blow.”
The key gear in the new woke military is chapstick and kneepads.
Ha ha ha…good one. You don’t know how true that is after listening to the Kay Grigg’s interviews.
Fully agree. First kill robust debate. Then promote cancel culture. Any “practical” person would figure out that nothing can be done to help this kind of society. Better look out for oneself. If Ukrainians are getting killed, it is their own fault. Sacrificing personal gain here and now does nothing to help them. So why not say black is white and make a quick buck? Logical and practical!
How many of these “generals,” are on the boards, or similar posts, of MIC companies?
Just wait until de Kingfish gets drafted. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KmyKutxhyDQ
Not just RF “mobiks” have 6+ months of resfreshment training after their conscripted service, they are as a rule, are still volunteered to frontline duty. And Russian media reminds every citizen of daily, ongoing shelling of Donetsk schools, the rampant Russiphobia, Big German tanks with blocky turrets and named after Big cast…
West Point political appointees. Each member of the Senate and House and Biden get to nominate candidates for West Point and the other service academies. They will tell you that is only a step, and their academics are crucial. As an Army E-5 I can tell you that is bullshit.
I served with West Point officers, and they were the dumbest motherfuckers I have ever trod earth with. And you do not progress in the ranks without that ring. And you do not get demoted for incompetence if you have that ring. Well, that is a bit off. You do not get demoted as an officer for anything except not kissing ass.
End of story.
So so so so true………. I am old enough to remember reading about “fragging” incidents in VietNam because of officer incompetence.
Two of my uncles went to West Point. One of them got four stars. Neither were super bright. Probably 115-120, tops, if I had to guess. The four star was visiting once (after he retired, I think). He was excited to have just discovered Fox News. I’m not sure which is worse – that he’d lived in DC/VA for decades without knowing Fox News existed or that he was impressed once he’d found it.
I’m a retired Army officer who started out as a enlsted tanker and became a logistician and operational & strategic planner. I have heard you talk about planning SOCOM exercises while SOCOM is extremely professional in their roles, sometimes they don’t know big Army combined arms. Mr Johnson you are right on in your article. Maybe you can teach DOD JCS Pentagon and Army Generals tactical & operational Combined arms warfare 😇
“These are not uneducated men and they demonstrated some measure of competence when given commands of major forces. So why are they so consistently wrong about fundamental facts?”
Money talks…
There is no ‘education’ – there is indoctrination and the ‘Narrative’…
The last time USA has been on a winning side in a war was WW2. The USA never had, ever, a professional General Staff. Lord High Field Marchal MacArthur wanted to establish one in the 1930s when he was Army Chief of Staff, but that would have interfered with the political Congressional games and ‘good-old-boy’ star club and was never allowed to be happen. No matter, Lord High Field Marschall was given the title and sent to Phillipines to play Viceroy.
So, how bad are things, really…
Petraeus’ pension is 20K/month. I think we (taxpayers) need to ask for a refund…
Refund? Hell…for that money, put him in front-line command of a second run at Operation Storm 2.0. See how fast he shuts his trap.
Hi Larry! I totally agree with you in most BUT, I have to admit, you are WRONG about this statement: “There also is a lot of happy talk about Ukraine striking Russian lines of communication (LOCs) with HIMARs and Storm Shadow missiles. But there is scant evidence to support this claim.” – There is PLENTY of evidence to support this… only they fire them at the CIVILIANS, not enemy positions. Maybe that is why NATO recommended that they REDUCE the number of shells they provide?
They’ve been firing at civilians since 2014. Ukrainians are a crude lot. Best they just have their heads handed to them since the ICC is such a useless and corrupt western toady.
agree. I believe that is why Biden has shown such an interest in Ukraine. Corruption
Line of communication is a military term, and a military target.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_communication
“… only they fire them at the CIVILIANS, not enemy positions.”
That means they are not striking military targets, like LOCs, and Larry is right.
NATO is reducing the number of shells, because they are running out of them. Thue could not care less about civillians.
The American disconnect with reality extends beyond this Ukraine war. Americans believe the nonsense put forth on cable TV and the media on a daily basis. The lie that Covid vaccines were “Safe & Effective” is actually two lies used as the basis for 220 million Americans to line up for multiple vaccinations. Those who refused were ostracized and threatened with being sent to camps.
Similarly, those who point out the obvious losing situation in Ukraine are ostracized. Like those who pushed the Covid pandemic hoax, the Ukraine war experts, in the form or retired generals and admirals, are pushing a bald faced lies regarding the realities of this war.
The four stars that this country produced in WWII must be turning over in their graves watching the abject lie and propaganda being put forth by their modern counterparts. Until the American people wake up or face some major catastrophe this will continue. The king has no clothes…..
The four stars that this country produced in WWII must be turning over in their graves… — Curt
Doubt that… many of those future four stars attacked and burned out the Bonus Army, under MacArthur’s command, in the 1930s.
I agree with you. There is a debasement in The West that emanated in US and spread through government and universities where Factual Knowledge was downgraded in favour of Ideology.
Reason has been subsumed into Obscurantism which has a Cargo Cult following, and requires total submission.
US Generals like British and German are nonentities of modest intellect and extensive attendance on courses to learn catechisms. I was familiar with a former Head of the British Army and consider him privileged by private schooling to advance beyond merit
They live in a bubble-world of unreality especially in a professional army which typically has lower intellect than a draft army and is skewed towards isolationism. This is why Standing Armies were abhorrent in 17th Century England and a problem for Founding Fathers in US- looking at Prussia which was a Barracks with a flag and „ein Volk im Waffen“ with no liberty
So US Society starts to resemble Argentina with Caudillo-Politics and Fascism
US voters lost control through indolence and failed to see Leviathan and its New Aristocracy
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair.
But not only that: mix with generous portion of ingrained Russophobia, toss with erroneous misperception that Russia = USSR and baste with your own special ignorance of actual modern war. Garnish with the hubris of thinking that you know what you don’t know because you were soooooo successful laying waste to either 3rd rate militaries (Iran) or goat herders with AK47s (Afghanistan etc). Finally, serve in an echo-chamber where everybody you know says and thinks the same. Yum!
How could the the ‘exceptional nation’s’ finest military minds (and their satrap counterparts) not get it right?
this is not a recent phenomenon in the US. In 66 i immigrated to the US and enlisted in the Army. Back then i met a captain that reminded me that in Portugal you needed a passport to travel within the country. He was trying to point out how repressive Portugal was versus the US. Well i knew that it was repressive, one of the reasons i was happy to leave, but he was way wrong about the passport. We did not need permission to go from one side of the country to another. I think he confused a national identity card with a passport. This was supposed to be an educated man.
In U.S. you need a driver licence and credit check
Iraq, not Iran (duh).
It pays to be wrong and like Brandon said, they don’t work for us.
Until there are consequences for failure then it won’t get any better.
Their morale will continue until the beatings improve.
“Their morale will continue until the beatings improve.”
Great play on that old line! Indeed, Western peoples need to learn to beat their elites much more effectively if they’re to get something better than sycophantic liars playing roles.
Would this be part of the plot, well timed, waiting to pull the plug? Our economy is a mistake away from bank collapse. The creeps that run the government now are waiting to find someone to blame. The 4 star G’s are lying or stupid, no comfort there. They are so smart they are probably going to blame the puppet and claim how clever he was at hiding his disaster from the satellites. “Damn elinski, clever little bastard has a cloaking device just like the Romulans” said general confusion.
It just does not give me confidence going forward that my government has their hands on anything but their pleasure units.
It just does not give me confidence going forward that my government has their hands on anything but their pleasure units. — Brian
And they’re looking to give each and every one of us a reach-around…
Joe Bribem is an obvious fall guy for the Wall Street/Fed ponzi implosion. And, since he’s guilty as sin, apparently, it’s an easy frame for people so well-propagandized they believe boys can be girls and vice versa. To save their skins, deep state minions will self-righteously hang Joe and Hunter in a theatrical production designed to hide their skeletons, then bury them off-stage after the spotlight fades…
It’s the uni-party way.
And Zelensky? When Zelensky auditioned, he apparently didn’t understand the role’s character arc could be re-written… by the Russians.
How about Deputy Secretary of State Victoria “Fuck the EU” Nuland and her Neocon chickenhawks?
https://jamesburrillangell.substack.com/p/strange-diplomacy-victoria-fck-the
Speaking of Cow Bell. I heard this song today (included in it a good dose of Cow Bell). The song has a rather significant allegorical reference to the troubles being caused by the West. Nazareth – Whiskey Drinkin’ Woman (Official Audio). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNazfh-LXnU
Cheers Brothaaa
sorry but you cannot show the real guys with the one from snl that larry and the world loves.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lfqhZu4R_EM?feature=share
Ben Hodges is the worst one. He knows nothing about Crimea or ethnic russians in Ukraine assuming Russia invaded it like Germany did Greece in 1941. He wants Ukraine to invade Russia and break it up into pieces.
Politics: He was a strong supporter of BIden in 2020. Priot to retiring he joined some sort of Think Tank that specialized in Hate Speech. They all play that “race” card.
The best one yet is Pete Butigeig. I saw pictures of his surrogate twins yesterday and the mother was obviously black. The kids are homely and look kind of like him with frizzy hair.
They are playing politics Larry pure and simple. Lying.
Germany invaded Greece ?
You mean Italy invaded Greece and was in difficulties just as in North Africa – Hitler had to divert German forces from Operation Barbarossa to bail out Mussolini
Germany, Italy and Bulgarian forces invaded Greece in 1941
What do you expect them to say, Larry? While there is still a fight there is still hope that the Russians can be talked into internal rebellion. That is the only war really being fought now.
Meanwhile the western pundits will keep talking it all up to keep the domestic audience on board and the Ukrainians on their suicide missions, right up to the last militarily able bodied Ukrainian, because when this does end in defeat it would be better for the west for Ukraine to be as incapable of any further fight as possible.
Good point. When this is over, the Russians will probably turn the surviving Ukrainians against the west, like Chechnya.
For most generals, it seems to be a system where they are eyeing the retirement opportunities in the military industrial complex before they have left the military itself. That means saying what they think their financial backers like Lockheed Martin or Raytheon will want to hear. Upon retirement, they are wholly owned by these organizations, which likely will be much more than what they get from their pensions.
Notably there’s a lack of self reflection in the media. To give a recent example, many of these retired senior military officers pretended the war in Afghanistan was going quite well right up until the Taliban retook Kabul in a scene that was compared to the fall of Saigon during the Vietnam War.
Given this appalling record, one would think that the media would want to exercise a certain amount of skepticism toward the senior military officers that said that the Afghanistan war was going well for the US and that the US puppet proxy in Kabul would be able to hold on to power. Needless to say, the media doesn’t want to encourage this type of critical thinking among the Western public.
To give another example, around March and April of 2022, there was a constant discussion in the Western media of how the Russians were going to be out of weapons. Needless to say, that never happened and if anything, Russian military production is surging, as of 2023.
Ultimately though, the media and the generals are not people who are telling the objective truth. They are paid liars on behalf of the ruling class in Washington, and other places where the well off reside.
It’s better to think about them as the American equal to Joseph Goebbels then anything else. Paid propagandized figures to drum up fragile public support for conflicts that are not going well.
They are either unprofessional military Officers, morons; who believe what they say (met hundreds of those in my 22 years), or Political greedy liars, toeing the narrative line, maybe for cash, (met thousands of those too). Really competent intelligent Officers with courage and integrity have been the exceptions regrettably. Either way retired General Officers (Ego on steroids) dislike becoming irrelevant and as such are about as much use as a chocolate teapot!
They are paid for.
They are career mercenaries.
Thank you! I was a low ranking non-commissioned officer in the early 70s in the USMC. When I listened to Petraeus, I thought I was missing something. This general sounded like an idiot to me. You confirmed my suspicions.
To Larry and Larry’s readers, what Hal does not mention is that he writes a (basically) monthly blog from Russia, where he lives.
https://halfreeman.wordpress.com/2023/08/21/misinformation-updates-and-family-status/
While his commentary on the SMO will not be news to readers of Larry’s blog, his description of life in Russia and his raising two children there will be of interest to anyone who doesn’t live here. I say here, because I also live in Russia. Anyway, I highly recommend that you check out Hal’s blog.
Unfortunately, this goes way beyond the US generals. If Larry had asked that question last year, I probably would have provided some very convincing arguments as to why it is happening, from Duke & Harvard:
DAN ARIELY SHARES THE TRUTH ABOUT DISHONESTY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWLmT3A5F3I
However, recently, that all changed and now I have no idea:
FRAUDULENT DATA RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT SUPERSTAR HONESTY RESEARCHER
“Dan Ariely denies fabricating data, but can’t produce records to clear his name.”
“The Data Colada bloggers say they consider Ariely a friend. Finding his name as the creator of the field data file was “a very unpleasant moment,” Simmons says. “This whole thing has been incredibly stressful.””
https://www.science.org/content/article/fraudulent-data-set-raise-questions-about-superstar-honesty-researcher
So, we are on some kind of Mobius Strip of Dishonesty. The Ariel example is like finding out the town Fire Chief is also the town arsonist. I don’t know if this is a new problem or that it was always there and we are just now noticing it?
Vladimir Putin called the West the “EMPIRE OF LIES” so maybe that in the end is the truth?
PS. On the bright side, when they postulate that AI will eventually take over the news business, I don’t believe that at all. When this all finally shakes out, people are going demand an actual “accountable” person reporting the news, who has a name and reputation at stake for what they write and report. I know I will.
In recent history, no less than 3 editors of high profile scientific journals admitted that many, even the majority of scientific papers are fraudulent.
John Ioannidis has made a career out of exposing fraudulent and bogus research: “There is increasing concern that in modern research, false findings may be the majority or even the vast majority of published research claims [6–8]. However, this should not be surprising. It can be proven that most claimed research findings are false.”
He goes to show that that is so in this paper…
https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0020124
Science has changed beyond recognition since I was in school. I still trust (real) science, but I no longer trust the scientists, nor the institutions, the funders or the publishers. If I was ambivalent before, their roles in the climate and covid/vaxxine frauds cemented that distrust in place.
In the cutthroat competition for funding, scientists are under tremendous pressure to deliver and publish the results that their funder wants/hopes to see. No funding, and their scientific career ends.
Science ain’t what it used to be. I’d posit it all started to morph into its current, corrupt form when Robert Maxwell (yes, that Maxwell) set out to buy every scientific publication, however obscure he could get his hands on in the ’50s.
Thanks for that article. It also does not seem correctable /or that the mechanism they were relying on for correction is broken:
Persuasion and the Prestige Paradox: Are High Status People More Likely to Lie?
“In short, opinions can confer status regardless of their truth value. And the individuals most likely to express certain opinions in order to preserve or enhance their status are also those who are already on the upper rungs of the social ladder.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20210403233412/https://quillette.com/2021/04/03/persuasion-and-the-prestige-paradox-are-high-status-people-more-likely-to-lie/
One might posit that there are two reasons people go into science and medicine: truth seeking and following the data to where ever it leads or to get an MD / PhD after one’s name.
That initial motivation is important and will color most of what you do afterward. So, if you are in the latter group, and discover that vaccines don’t work or that there is something wrong with the climate data, will you point that out at the expense of “becoming unpopular” (the exact reason you went into science and medicine in the first place) or will you go along with the consensus? And you will likely do the same thing with “peer review”. If you let some finding stand, that you know to be erroneous, like “the planet is warming by 5 degrees a year”, you will need to cite that same finding in the abstract of your next article. Thus, lies get built upon lies.
What serving Colonel (besides a few retired ones like Macgregor, Black & Shaffer) is going to contradict Petraeus, Hodges, McCrystal or Breedlove?
Maybe that is the lesson of “The Emperor’s New Clothes”? The truth teller in that story is a small child, with no reputation to gain or lose. All the rest, including the emperor go along with the swindle.
There’s also the magic of Orwell’s 2 + 2 = 5.
Denying one’s own reason and reality itself is the ultimate statement of commitment and loyalty to the prevailing narrative and its controllers, and the ultimate living sacrifice of one’s independent self-hood to the hand that feeds you.
Trace it to the original Maxwell who falsified, plagiarized Ampere’s , Riemann’s work. And to Newton plagiarizing, falsifying Kepler, and Leibniz.
Failure to deal with this over decades lad to this snowball, or reeking dung-heap.
It ain’t just the military. The entirety of the rest of the West’s elites, from the intelligentsia to the academic, financial/economic and political, along with everything between and beyond them fell for Fukuyama’s End of History thesis of the early ’90s. They were History’s winners, finally and forever. Not only did they control all the levers of Western political, cultural and military power, they controlled the civilizational narratives that would allow them to contextualize and apply those levers in the rest of the world, cementing their pre-eminence in perpetuity. The rest of the world’s elites could do naught but fold themselves into supporting roles, bringing the nations they led along with them.
Prior to taking on Persia’s Cyrus, the Delphic Oracle told Croesus that his attack would destroy a great empire. In his hubris, Croesus took that to mean that the great Persian Empire would be his. In the event, the empire that was destroyed turned out to be his own and Cyrus burned him at the stake for his error (or so the story goes).
So it is that the End of History that the West’s elites grasped so exuberantly 30 yrs ago turned out to be the end of their own. A little more than a generation’s worth of narcissistic self-admiration later, the wheels are coming off and there’s no re-attaching them. In the foreseeable future they’ll reach their “Oh Shit!” moment and will be forced to withdraw from their global ambitions and into their own, increasingly unstable Western enclaves.
Under their noses, the elites of Russia and China regained control of their civilizational narratives and (re)gained enough political, financial/economic and military power to render their even older narratives potent competitors for global reach. In fact, the West is no longer a match for them. Maybe its elites didn’t got the memo, but an increasing number of their subjects have. If/when the latter reach a critical mass, they may yet make their elites’ withdrawal uncomfortable.
@HMS Terror
Higher education in the USSR meant the teaching of a philosophy course in all higher educational institutions, within the framework of which the foundations of dialectical materialism were studied. One of the three objective (not dependent on people’s thoughts) laws of Hegel’s dialectics – “Unity and Struggle of Opposites” – reveals the inner driving force behind the development of the entire human society on the planet.
Fukuyama’s “End of History” theory was put forward in violation of this law due to human Pride and Ignorance.
Russia and China have restored their civilizational narratives to confirm the fairness and objectivity of this Law.
In order for Russia and China not to come to the same sad outcome towards which Western civilization is moving, it is necessary to restore the balance of power and come to some kind of balance. The West (USA and Europe) must not/cannot be destroyed, just as the East (Russia and China) cannot be destroyed.
This (balance of power) should be the main goal and challenge facing humanity for hundreds of years to come. Otherwise, the current human civilization will cease to exist, which is hard to believe.
Everything will be as it should be. It doesn’t matter what the elites think, plan, desire.
I’m no fan of Hegel’s metaphysics, much less of Marx’s “solution” to Hegel’s contradictions, but I’m a strong proponent of Philosophical study as a basis for any future study in any field. Doubtless the Soviet student benefited from it.
As a famous jazz pianist who started out in the classics said “You gotta know the rules before you can break the rules”. Philosophy, properly understood, sets the rules for all other subjects.
I don’t share your sanguine attitude to the decline of the West. Its elites are hell-bent on taking it on a philosophically bizarre trajectory, and its population is split between being either in thrall to their proposition or not wanting to have anything to do with it.
Great civilizations have risen, enjoyed a period of power and prosperity, and then disappeared with barely a trace before. One can hope that whatever Western core remains after the current forces of socio-political division play themselves out has the economic and civilizational heft to play a leading role on the global stage, but I’m certainly not counting on it.
I am saddened on one hand and truly glad on the other, that the American people finally rolled the dice one too many times, when they chose mummified carcass Joe Biden over DJT, “the terminator” and are now beginning in earnest, to reap the abundant fruit of what promises to be the final straw in the decades-old portrayal of America as the “only Superpower on earth”.
All of the tectonic shifts taking place in geopolitics can be traced right back to Jan 20, 2021 and these shifts are immensely consequential to our daily lives. The catastrophic fall from grace that America enjoyed on the world scene, the implosion of our economic system, the fast de-dollarization by nations throughout the world and their shift of alliance with the US are ominous signs of things to come.
We are now embarking on what promises to be a similar experience I had growing up in a country, I labeled “The land of the DO NOTS”, where scarcity of everything, chronic inflation, corruption and unacountability by government still, to this day, 46 years after I left, are still very much the “menu du jour”.
One day Americans will look back and reminisce of the days of plenty, when America was truly a land that flowed with milk and honey and our grocery store shelves were full and you could buy pretty much anything your heart desired, thanks to the most lavish credit system on earth… and they, if they have the balls, can point out exactly where it all began to go south at warp speed… January 20, 2021.
They thought, in their feeble minds, that it was only a 4-year gamble they were taking, after that, press the re-set button, everything is back to normal, we got our jollies, stuck it to DJT, no harm done, ha, ha, ha! But there will be no ha, ha, ha. They pushed the self destruct button, hooked on a timer, tik, tok…and no one can stop it!
These Generals simply lie in order to get paid. No doubt about that. They know better than anybody else how irredeemably corrupt neocons work. So the poor guys just gave it all up and decided to make money quickly without headaches, while NATO is busy bending genders. Good luck to those who regard the West neoliberal system as their role model.
Larry has already seen the same problem at work in the intelligence community when he was working in it. It’s why the contrarian military experts like MacGregor only got as far as colonel. The US government’s military, intelligence, and diplomatic corp are plagued with a culture where rewards are based on telling your superiors that what they wish is true, is in fact true. Violate that and you don’t get ahead.
You want a star? When you get to 20 years either play the game and make O-6, get the bird, then stay on for the inevitable star(s). Otherwise you get your 20 year pension as a Lieutenant-Colonel (ret.)
I have even seen this mentality infect the business world. Tell your bosses that their pet project is ill-conceived and won’t succeed and they’ll replace you with someone who will tell them it’s brilliant.
I keep trying to tell everyone (LJ?) to follow the money chain to the top, and you will find the Bilderberg Group either directing or funding it.
Here, regarding Petraeus:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/31/bilderberg-ukraine-summit
He’s speaking the lines he’s paid to speak, that’s it. So obviously the BBG wants Western “leaders” to spout lies about Ukraine.
I know this sounds so “Alex Jones-ish”, but in the case it’s the Truth.
They believe in witchcraft. They believe that their words will change the events.
Magic words!!
A spell!!
Sometimes think I should start a witchcraft workshop: Making Ukraine win with magic rituals.
This kind of workshop can not be forbidden. Would like to know how many people would react on it.
Old soldiers never die, they just paid away.
And now we have created a monster 🐻 + 🐿
Col. Douglas McGregor
“A buddy of mine who holds a position where you can watch all of this from space says that the battlefield is just littered with Ukrainian corpses.
They can’t even pick them up anymore. Or they don’t even bother to pick them up anymore.
Hospitals are overflowing with wounded soldiers who will never return to duty. And nobody really knows how many have died, but the estimates are between 300,000 and 350,000 dead.
And that’s why I said, if you don’t do this, eventually the Russians will say, okay, the only way to convince these people that it’s over is to march through the center of Kiev. Let’s go to the river and cross it.
And anybody in NATO who has a little bit of common sense will say, this is not what we wanted to do.
We wanted to stop the Russians from moving west, we thought Ukraine would be a bulwark against Russia.
Video:
https://t.me/russlandsdeutsche/20577
They see everything from space and carry on despite it.
They have not yet found an exit that prevents a loss of face, as in Afghanistan.
But the longer the U.S. sabotages an end to the war, the greater the catastrophe of surrender before the world public.
The stage is being set.
“the battlefield is just littered with Ukrainian corpses”
That is just the TOP LAYER, the one they can see. Click on this link and scroll down to see the hidden layers:
EXCAVATING GERMAN SOLDIERS
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=excavating+german+soldiers
I used to watch those and wonder how it came to be. Now I know, there are so many bodies they just get plowed under.
If you watch enough of those videos, occasionally the excavation teams come across bodies and relics from, the Napoleonic Invasion, Crimean War, World War I, Russian Civil War as well as the Great Patriotic War.
A CURRENT WAR COLLIDES WITH THE PAST: Remnants of World War II in Ukraine – NYT
“When you dig into a trench” looking for bodies of soldiers recently killed, he said, “you find a trench from World War II.”
“The wars are separated by decades, but “the landscape hasn’t changed,” he said.”
https://archive.is/5Wa55#selection-1813.0-1813.79
VERSAILLES WORLD OF ILLUSIONS
“And this trend is disturbing in its recognizability: once again, Europe, intoxicated with its own civilizational exclusivity, is uniting on a single ideological platform that is intolerant of dissent and of specific nations. As it turns out, it doesn’t matter what exactly underlies this ideology: the “holy inquisition”, Bonapartism, fascism or liberalism — the result is almost always the same. And again Drang nach Osten and Lebensraum in the East. Again, the armament is far beyond the necessary defense. More threats and reprisals.”
“Once every 100 years, this invariably happens. We hoped that our generations would not catch this. Our faith in the collective intelligence of Europe seems to have failed us again.” ~ Konstantin Kosachev
Think about all of the enlightened, liberal progressive rhetoric you have heard over the past 15 years, about how “a new generation” (We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. ~ Barack Obama) has arrived to save the world, heal the planet and correct all injustices… then, “try to square that” with the fact that they are laying down the next layer of corpses in the Ukraine. (sigh)
No American general has been sacked, relieved of command, for failure to perform in combat since WW2.
In WW2, a very large proportion of Regular Army generals (about 40%, if I recall correctly) did not retain command positions. Interestingly, a smaller proportion of NG generals were unfit for command.
In Korea, none, except McArthur, but for insubordination not failure.
In Vietnam, none.
In Iran, Eagle Claw clusterfuck, 1980, none.
In the Grenada clusterfuck, 1983, none.
In the Panama clusterfuck, 1989, none.
Iraq, 2003 onwards, none except Abu Graibh Krepinsky, but was she a scapegoat?
Afghanistan, 2002-2021, none.
In the absence of accountability, a culture of impunity arises.
In a culture of impunity, the incompetent get promoted, the competent GTFO.
Hence, piss-poor military advice to political leaders, and lost wars.
In major wars, about 50% of peace-time generals are not capable of effectively leading troops in combat.
In WW1, over 50% of French divisional commanders and/or their replacements were sacked in the first few months of the war.
The actual stats are buried somewhere in Strategypage’s C.I.C. articles, but not indexed so hard to find. Probably also in one of Jim Dunnigan’s books.
Do you know who is still doing the generals shuffle? Russians.
It is considered sign of weakness by western experts. Now that I think of it, everything that Russians do is considered as a sign of weakness. In addition, things that Russians don’t do, are considered as a sign of weakness.
It’s the same in Blighty . Once senior but now retired “Knive and fork”generals (especially on times radio and sky) spouting hogwash . The worrisome thing is that they were responsible for appointing the next generation of four stars 🥴
“””
These four gentlemen sound like Christopher Walken in the iconic “More Cowbell” skit from Saturday Night Live. Just keep doing the same thing repeatedly and hope for a different outcome.
“””
– Right on target!!!
—————
America’s problem is that Hollywood (the show industry) has penetrated too deep and occupied not only the entertainment sector, but also politics and the economy. It even infiltrated the Pentagon. Bright speeches will not replace either politics, or IMR, or tactics and strategy.
I assume retired officers from the US military have reasonable pensions, therefore they are not beholden to any entity that requires them to lie for the means to live. In which case why are making statements that are clearly preposterous? It is depressing to conclude that they, like the majority of western political leaders, will say or do things for even more money, irrespective of whatever moral or duty might demand otherwise. This is why the collective west is in headlong decline, as a culture it is dishonest and corrupt.
Why do the generals get it all so wrong? A trenchant question. I’ll try to answer it by taking an analogical situation (or maybe not) shrewdly conceived by Ron Unz when trying to explain what was going on with Jeffery Epstein and Co. Ron posed the following argument. Say you’re an up and coming political animal in Beltway country. Going to one of Jeffery’s parties could turn out to be the best political decision of your career. Assuming you got an invitation, the thing to do was, and by all means, go, find some suitable jail bait, take her – or him – into one of Jeffery’s special bedrooms, and get photographed in a convincingly compromised situation. At that point, consider yourself a made man. Well, you just put your signature on the dotted line of an insurance policy that certain people, we don’t know who exactly, and might never, but who nonetheless want to be assured that you’ll do what is expected of you. And if you do, you are sure to find sources of campaign funding and as well, .. connections. You might as well aim high. Aim for the top. That’s where your backers want you to be. Good for you; good for them. A further point: the life entails lots of socialising.
Now things in the military are a bit different, up to a point. Getting into the highest levels requires working up through the ranks. Competence is needed, but again, ‘up to a certain point’. I’d surmise that past this hypothetical point, military competence gives way to political considerations and politics is driven by money. At a certain point the socialising increases. What people say to each other has to do with a certain positioning, confluence points of money, power, prestige, and maybe sex too. Certainly if you keep going to parties like Jeffery hosts, or used to, as many of our most prominent and respected citizens are inclined to do. But the ‘life’ we are talking about here really has nothing to do with the national interest, or winning wars, or solving pressing political and other problems. It’s about this positioning. If you say that Ukraine is winning, you’re not really addressing the public at large; you’re addressing your peers and telling them you’re a team player. The public can neither help nor harm you. But your peers can do both.
But be that as it may I found Ron Unz’s explanations helpful.
B/c they owe their grades to politics, not skill? The triumph in the first war against Iraq has turned into a sort of curse for the US military. It has instilled the belief that hi-tech can compensate for the inevitable loss of quality that will happen by making political conformity rather than competence the primary criteria for elevating officers to the rank of general.
I listened to the first two punters. The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing Like The Truth. Oxygen thieves.
They whack on about breaking Russian morale and ‘honestly’ think Ukraine is winning. Thank the Heavens I am not fighting with this lot in charge.
If it didn’t cost so many lives, I would actually like the bullshit coming from our generals. It makes me, a mere high school graduate, better at analyzing a war than them.
De Russie, le Français Xavier Moreau, officier de l’armée française et homme d’affaire, compare les généraux et officiers supérieurs auteurs de pareils délires – ou mensonges -à des “Gamelins” … nom du général Gamelin, brillant officier durant la Grande Guerre (1914-1918) puis … RESPONSABLE du DESASTRE français de mai -juin 1940 (les plus grand et le pus définitif de l’Histoire de France … et dont la France ne s’est JAMAIS remise !) …
Here is the English translation:
From Russia, the Frenchman Xavier Moreau, a French army officer and businessman, compares the generals and senior officers who are the authors of such delusions – or lies – to “Gamelins”… the name of General Gamelin, brilliant officer during the Great War (1914-1918) then… RESPONSIBLE for the French DISASTER of May-June 1940 (the largest and most definitive in the history of France… and from which France has NEVER recovered!)…
PS. Xavier Moreau is a very interesting analyst regarding the Ukraine-Russia situation (if you understand French, but some of his stuff is also in English).
The only problem with those generals is the lack of respect for their foes makes the propaganda less credible.
I was listening to some of the SMO commander and they don’t sell the war the same way , they are way more traditionalist saying the task is hard but the cause being noble actually helps them a lot. They would also says thing like “we are winning” or “we are temporizing cause we can’t win just yet” and immediately ponder those statement with a “but it’s not an easy task”. They are rarely defining territorial gains, even during the siege of Bakhmut they were not saying they will take the city , they said they were meat-grinding the banderist and the first thing they said once the city actually fell was like “it will be hard to defend”.
Even Mister P. that never let a chance to troll the Ukrops going to waste was in this general state of mind.
It’s still propaganda , don’t get me wrong. But the Russian are doing it better : https://www.bitchute.com/video/Fdzxhl9r6WB0/ :p
I’ve been listening to these idiots for years. Nothing but a bunch of arrogant losers.
It’s not like they only get dumb after they retire.
Why???? They never stopped being wrong, we haven’t won a war in 50 years
Larry Johnson, you still haven’t answered the important question of how many died on the Russian side. Why do you lie and say “only 30,000 died” when Russia’s own sources claim almost as many for Bakhmut operation alone?? Is it the simple case of “enemy of my enemy is my friend”?
Do not worry.
There is no official data. According to Russian unofficial, but most honest estimates, about 50,000 Russians died.
So many.
About 20 thousand Wagners died in Bakhmut.
Russian dead dies not include Wagner or DNR forces.
Those numbers don’t matter because Slavic lives don’t matter. Your life won’t matter too, when Russians come knocking at your door.
I’ve always thought of DPICM, or steel rain, as primarily a counter battery munition. Or for use against infantry and light armor I’m the open. But not of much use, for anything else. They’ve developed unitary warheads for the M-270 MLRS, even though the 644 submunitions of the rocket, are what give it the phenomenal area coverage and killing power that it has. That says something about submunition rounds, to me.
About 50 years ago my friend Malcolm served in Vietnam with the Australian Forces. He thought that of what he had seen the Australians and New Zealanders had better trained officers and were better led by them than the US Forces. A lot of their Junior Officers, he believed, were really awful. He called it the arrogance of the ugly American who believed they were just better than anyone else. In truth their lieutenants captains and majors were in large measure incompetent and didn’t respect the enemy. When they got to “bird colonel” or brigade rank they had weeded out most of the rubbish and generally were the equal of the Anzac General officers. However what I read today may mean that the Anzac Generals were just as bad as the US Generals.
About 10 years ago I met an ex Major of the British Army. He told me the continuing nightmare of the British Army Staff is that they are going to be dragged unwillingly into an American War. Happily that would not last long as the British Army could only put about 20,000 men in the field and have ammunition and materiel to fight for a week.
Argie.
In addition to retired generals knowingly saying false things for money, as many commenters have pointed out, there is also the media getting more clicks and more audience for saying things that their audience want to hear. It’s acting, as in the movies. The journalist acts as if asking sincere questions and the retired general acts as if answering according to his expertise. Their audience feel satisfied, the retired general is paid, the media sell more ads. This can go on until reality becomes too intrusive for that particular topic.
What goes around, comes around.
Iirc, I read here about how in desert storm we paid Iraqi generals to stand down.
In past 24 hours, I’ve read the following viz. Rabotino:
This morning, via Tass, reporting from Melitopol: [[Russia’s Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on August 28 that Russian forces had repulsed seven Ukrainian army attacks near Rabotino and Verbovoye in the Zaporozhye Region. . . .]]
https://tass.com/politics/1666669
Yesterday afternoon, via Moon of Alabama: [[Ukraine has taken Robotyne, a hamlet in ruins that once housed 480 people. It has cost the Ukrainian army at least a full battalion, 500 men and 30 armored vehicles, of its dwindling forces.]]
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/08/ukraine-sitrep-us-to-prolong-its-proxy-war.html#more
Yesterday morning, via Smoothiex12: [[The butcher’s bill for 404 grows, it is simply now a daily summary of Ukie bodies and looking at militarily illiterate psychos in Biden’s Admin dreaming to “mobilize” whatever is left of 404 male, primarily 16-17 year old kids and 60+ people, yes, this is how they think. As I already stated–I was stunned by military illiteracy of not only political class in the West, but by NATO military top brass.. . . .When they try to portray the “battle for Rabotino”–a hamlet with pre-war “population” of a whopping 480 people–and which doesn’t exist physically anymore–as some kind of “battle”, it is difficult to explain to them that the piece of land which used to be Rabotino is “defended” by a few SSO who sit there and guide Russian artillery at VSU forces each-time they try to “enter” this pile of rubble–a classic “fire sack”. This is ooh the “tactics” any Soviet kid knew in 5-6th grade. But then again, when one’s Field Manuals and Doctrines are written for beating the crap from generally defenseless people what do you expect? ]]
http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2023/08/from-soggy-helsinki.html
& Aug. 25 Tass reported: [[The village of Rabotino in the Zaporozhye Region has been completely destroyed as a result of hostilities, with not a single building left intact, the region’s acting governor, Yevgeny Balitsky, has said.
“Rabotino, for all intents and purposes, does not exist. It only exists on a map. In reality, there is no such village anymore. There were such fierce battles there that there are only the frames of houses and ruined structures left of it,” he said on Russia’s TV Channel One. [and] the Ukrainian army had lost over 1,000 men from the 10th Army Corps in attacks on Rabotino since late July.]]
https://tass.com/politics/1665545
Larry’s questions: [What is going on? Are we are witnessing a debacle built on group think or are these Generals hostages to their economic masters? In other words, lying in order to get paid.]
Prejudice against knowledge, truths, facts, reason, logic, history, human beings, nature.
.
-30-
Once they retire, their only use is as part of the war propaganda machine. They already have their “medals” and their pensions, and judging by the caliber of people in the US upper ranks of politics and the military, their reputation was sold long ago for a fistful of dollars.
Well written article Larry.
You might ask the Judge, but it looks to me this “parade” is more for “legal grounds” as a “CYA” campaign.
As you’ve cited, we’re looking at possible criminal charges in future.
But more immediate, I think it’s important to be running them now prior to entire line collapse. All of these folks are retired or pensioned out already & Biden can run his campaign spouting “following the advice”blah blah.
In addition, it gives Senate optic cover to continue funding. Same as Congress.
I know I called up my Congressperson and ranted about the 24 billion. Congress is recessed, but will come back and vote.
I would be interested in the legal issue though. I admit I am curious, if in the future, Ukraine were to have a Russian friendly government, well the boatloads of malfeasance against this entire Administration, or even if the US ever took it up…
Well anyways, I don’t think it was an honest attempt to particularly brainwash the public, just a CYA and enough propaganda so that Congressman that have to answer calls like mine have some “retort” that makes them seem informed on the matter.
“Must be realistic” – Macron admits decline of Western world order
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron admitted to French ambassadors gathered in Paris that European countries and the West in general are in decline. This process, he said, stems from the 2008-2010 crisis and is “the result of the rise of the major international powers.” “It was exacerbated by the energy crisis because our Europe does not produce fossil fuels, at least not in the short term,” Macron said.
https://test.rtde.tech/kurzclips/video/179191-muessen-realistisch-sein-macron-raeumt/
Now what he shares above is not news.
Only what are his conclusions????????
He has called NATO brain dead, but France is still a member of what he considers a brain dead organization.
Is it still possible to be sane?
His comments on the whereabouts of the French embassy in Niger show that he still has a long learning road ahead of him.
We should not be surprised that in societies where lies are not only unsanctioned, but are amply rewarded.
Which American said that old soldiers do not die, they fade away into corporations?
I always feel that my intelligence is being assaulted/insulted whenever I visit Europe and watch what the media dish out as news!
The last time, one of the “news” was about how the police in Sweden were going after Russians thieves who were stealing electronics from street cameras to ship to their country, which is running out of parts for its rockets.
Incredibly, my friends sat glued and appeared to believe the nonsense.
They looked flummoxed when I asked how anyone with brain cells can believe that an IC in a common cctv camera can propel a 500kg warhead over and distance.
If your friends were Swedes, I’m not suprised.
Once Sweden gets into NATO fully, all those cameras will be sent to Ukraine, and win the war.
It is perhaps not a question of American generals selling their souls to the Devil. Make it a career of career opportunists systematically selling their souls for promotions. Those who make general are the most successful and the most tainted. They are doing nothing out of character. They have been doing it for over 30 years.
Post-promotion, they campaign for high-paying jobs with the defense industry and/or as commentators for the MSM. It is fair to dismiss them out of hand. The United States has not won a “hot” war since WWII (and Grenada doesn’t count). They created this malaise.
Although with twenty years in the military, I would intervene to keep my sons and grandsons from joining the military. The rot is everywhere. I experienced it first hand.
I taught at the USAF Academy when you could put a five dollar bill on the table in the library … and it would be there two weeks later. When I retired, Academy cadets were losing personal belongings behind double-locked doors in safe rooms during school breaks. Go figure.
When I joined, an officer’s integrity and honor was everything. To speak a falsehood would violate one’s integrity and honor. Now, an officer’s integrity and honor (and the Honor Codes at the Academies) can be likened to the late Soviet Constitution … ideals to aspire to but not necessarily realize. Now, being “politically correct” (no matter how absurd) is the sole secret to organizational survival and promotion in the military.
Reality bites! Now, it seems the lies and dissimulation are catching up with us as a nation as the “fantasies” pile up one on top of the other.
It’s kinda hard to find “More Cowbell” snl video:
enjoy!
https://vimeo.com/406011330
I would say these are highly ‘schooled’ men, but woefully uneducated. It’s these men with all sorts of degrees and connections that lead the nation into continuous disasters. Their strategy , as expressed in this article, seems to be to degrade the target–abusing the Russians, their culture, military, government–while getting the American people to think the Russians would be easy to beat. It makes it easier to rouse them into supporting direct military interferences and weapons production, while letting these incompetent and corrupt military generals off the hook for not doing their job. Who the f*** do they think we are?
A fellow, who I suggest would be a far better and more effective general than the 4 clowns fingered by Larry for this article, may very well be alive and well.,,,,,,,,,,,
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12456817/Prigozhin-alive-plotting-revenge-Putin.html
An important point to remember is that the time frame between when Priggy did his video in Mali and the flight to St P/burg from Moscow is very tight at best. Priggy was never able to do direct flights between overseas destinations and Russia for a number of reasons. The return flight from Mali would have required at least one pit stop with a flight crew change.
General Armageddon has been relived of command………
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-24/russia-removes-surovikin-as-air-force-chief/102768696
You might want to watch what Lavrov says and or does over the coming months too. Lavrov and Priggy worked together a few times in Syria.
“General Armageddon has been relived of command………
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-24/russia-removes-surovikin-as-air-force-chief/102768696”
Yes, relieved from his responsibilities as Air Force chief, though still is Deputy Operational Commander to Gerasimov. He has alot on his plate planning the Autumn Offense that will complete the Ukrainian implosion.
Watch the video Savonarole posted at 7:11. It is the final warning for what is about to unfold.
Thomas
They are just doing the work they are paid for. Like Biden. The US is a plutocracy. This is why there is no journalism at MSM!
As a 20 yr vet of the US military, both Air Farce and Aaaarrrrrrmmmy, I had the displeasure of working under these idiots. How do you think that General Petraeus got the nickname of General Betrayus.. He along with other generals (The Majority) only cared about serving the upper part of the food pyramid, as it was on Active duty so goes it in Retarded life. He probably has some fingers in the pie with the large war making companies, so his bread is being buttered one way or another..
My Apologies for so many analogies, it just seems fitting…
They are politicians 1st and foremost. Nothing more than lap dogs.
I always say to people that if
“Russian troops are poorly led; Russian troops are conscripts and poorly trained; Russian troops have lousy morale; the Russian Army is brittle and will break under pressure”…
1) then why is this same army a “threat” to Europe.
2) what does that say about NATO training, western weapons and Ukrainian soldiers if this same Russian army has almost 20% of Ukrainian territory under its control.
“Russia is losing”.
1) if that was the case — there would have been no need for a counter-offensive to reclaim lost territory.
These times seem like a repeat of the French experience in WWII. Marc Bloch authored an excellent book on the situation and how the French general officer corps was completely out of touch with what the German had for plans and their actions. The book is titled “Strange Defeat” and may offer some needed perspective for those of us without background to understand why things have gone so wrong for the west.
De Gaulle however was a tactician with tanks who understood Guderian
A willful failure to look at NATO Grand Strategy, which was blurted out in Twitter this week, makes fools of anyone digging a trench looking for facts.
A NATO honcho Fehringer history lesson to make Kerry blush :
https://twitter.com/GunterFehlinger/status/1695733432045752800
“I apologize for all Colonial crimes during European Imperialism from 1492 to 1975 I am deeply sorry I apologize But please that is now 50 years ago The only colonial powers left today are Russia, China, Iran and to some extent India and Brazil I call fight today colonialism!”
Numerous tweets all week, maps included from this Austrian NATO Enlargement honcho Fehringer. None of the maps mention mere Ukraine – self- puffed up blowfish, look at the policy goals.
The cause of this sudden mask-dropping, baring the NATO iron fist in the velvet glove? – BRICS success.
Simply put, NATO has declared war on ALL BRICS members Russia and China most emphatically.
Now let the generals explain that on camera!
The Generals are not lying – they have their Cyclopean Eye on the Prize.
As Cyclops Polyphem told Odysseus, cyclops actually do eat people. When blinded by Odysseus Polyphem opened the Door, blathering Nobody blinded him, to the big brothers in the other caves.
Russia has blinded Polyphem (wink,wink), and he opened the gigantic Door. BRICS-11 has escaped, Polyphem (eats everything) is howling to the other cyclopean oligarchs!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5OERqTniro
See the Ionian Greek horror at the cyclops Polyphem (eats everything) .
Petreaus only had three Courses of Action (COAs) in Iraq: status quo, draw-down or surge. It’s not rocket science. The first two do not lead to promotion or monetary gigs. In Ukraine, these talking heads only have three COAs. The first is to tell the truth (not going to happen), the second is to say nothing, retain what reputation they had, and the third is to lie. The last COA is where the money is. Always follow the money. What they have deliberately or (highly unlikely) accidentally created a situation where every word mouthed by a retired MIC general from here on out will be suspect and questioned. Do they even care about the damage they have created? The answer is no. All hail Colonel Macgregor!
Of all of them only McChrystal is more or less realistic regarding what could maybe work in this situation.
You don’t get promoted if you say, “But sir…” too many times. The guys who get promoted are the ones who say, “Roger that.”
The American military has let a “can do” attitude morph into one where doubts, objections, and concerns are never expressed to superiors by career minded officers. Those that do quickly learn that no matter how well founded those doubts and concerns may be, the boss favors the guys who never question and just do it. Even when the doubts prove to be prescient, the guys who expressed doubt aren’t rewarded, they’re reviled and blamed. I guess it really isn’t limited to the military. You can see the same dynamic with Covid and the vaccines.
Retired generals are the ones who were the most career minded and they can’t break the mold. And they are rewarded for their support with jobs, adulation, and invitations to all the cool parties in D.C.. No one will remember is they turn out to be spectacularly wrong.
Except for the Cold War, America has never had an existential war. No, not even the Civil War was existential. America has almost always had the option of walking away or even losing otright and most things would work out fine. And even the Cold War could have been stopped. So, there just aren’t any consequences for being wrong. These guys can still consider themselves to be patriots without ever really engaging in any self reflection about what they are actually doing.
A few have broken the mold. Smedley Butler is a great example. Some colonels like MacGregor and the late great David Hackworth did good service after they retired.
I would like to note that, according to our knowledge, the mentioned four generals never participated in a war against a real strong opponent, unless we mention the operetta war in Grenada ! 🙂
Because in the face of a real opponent, it would have immediately become clear that they are incapable of leading soldiers (army) !
Although I strongly suspect that the inglorious fiasco that happened in Afghanistan, some of the operetta generals received medals among the many colorful badges they have already worn !
How do you convince people?
By explaining it….?
No.
By waving authority!
I am the Pope and tell you!
I am the expert for…
I am the doctor, the financial advisor, the captain, I am the authority, and you will believe my words.
This is how people are working. Obedience by authority.
Old story. Read Der Hauptmann von Köpenick, a story in German Kaiserreich around 1900, of a poor guy who puts on an old uniform and starts commanding soldier to arrest a Mayor of a German town. It really worked that easily.
You want to enter a forbidden building? Take a latter and a set of tools, speak no English.
At least you are consistent, is what Judge Napolitano says to Jack Devine.
this might be going further into the subject than you want, but we have two brains, the left and the right, one half deals with the immediate and the other half deals with the bigger picture,
this is an interview with a psychiatrist, academic and researcher who has been wrestling with understanding the human mind and trying to understand why we are being so incredibly retarded as a society today,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dogVQDydRGQ
it explains much of our current predicament, which of course includes stupid generals and politicians.
Cognitive Dissonance. I’ve confronted it in the business world where people believe:
1) they are smart.
2) no problems could be due to any fundamental mistake/oversight they made.
When presented with the evidence of the root cause pointing to their fundamental mistake/oversight, their reaction is that of an idiot child. They can’t see what literally everyone else who wasn’t invested in the project sees.
Seymour Hersh claimed NordStream was bombed by NATO with Norwegian help on orders from Biden.
CGTN interview here reveals Hersh’s editor is from the London School of Books and New York Post fact checked.
After that NY Times with German media came up with the Ukraine yacht Andromeda with 7 guys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ev4cMILOXc
CGTN anchor Liu Xin interviewed Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour
The Point Special: One-on-one with Seymour Hersh CGTN Mar 12, 2023
Now :
New evidence from Nord Stream underwater expedition refutes official claims Wyatt Reed and Max Blumenthal·June 27, 2023
https://thegrayzone.com/2023/06/27/evidence-nord-stream-underwater-expedition/
“But what if the seismic readings they observed were not a result of the explosion itself, but rather, the subsequent force of the pipeline rapidly depressurizing?”
Russia initially stated it was a British operation. Prime Minister Truss phoned Blinken it is done within minutes. Now we find Hersh’s Editor is London School of Books.
Anyone smell fish-and-chips?
Correction : Hersh used New Yorker fact-checkers, the most virulent anti-Russian, pro-Ukraine outfit.
A German Admiral spoke the truth just before the beginning of the SMO. For his accurate, sensible advice, he was canned. So maybe they parrot what their masters want to hear.
BTW, Bruce Dickenson wasn’t doing the same thing over and over, hoping for a different outcome. He did the same thing, and produced gold records.
This is John Herbst, former Ambassador to Ukraine, under Bush, on C-Span.
He sounds very much like the 4 Gen’ls mentioned in Larry’s column.
Selling the “Long Term Commitment”.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?530074-5/john-herbst-ukraine-counteroffensive-russia
“Every time the U.S. “saves” a country, it converts it into either an insane asylum or a cemetery.” –Eduardo Galeano
Larry gets prominent supportg with his findings 👏
Carlson: None of our politicians will be punished for lying – It’s the truth that’s illegal
In a speech to the MCC Feszt education and music festival in Budapest on Monday, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said the postwar order is over. NATO is on the verge of collapse, he said, and the U.S. is separated from its closest ally and strategic partner, Germany, following the Biden administration’s Nord Stream sabotage.
https://test.rtde.tech/kurzclips/video/179245-carlson-keiner-unserer-politiker-wird/
It is quite important that as a globally known U.S. journalist and presenter, he travels to European NATO countries and educates. 👍+ 😇
I think he will also get an interview with Putin.
An interview with Putin would be a media coup of epic proportions. Expect every MSM lapdogs head to explode over the possibility.
Larry, this topic reminded me of Col. W. Patrick Lang, which prompted me to check out his blog for the first time in well over a year. I was saddened to learn he passed away in April. For a long time, I enjoyed Turcopolier and learned a lot, however his position on the war in Ukraine was surprising and alienating. Given what I perceived as his heretofore regard for US stances on Russia as often irrational, he was one of the last people I expected to swallow the propaganda without question. Go figure. May he rest in peace.
“Given what I perceived as his heretofore regard for US stances on Russia as often irrational, he was one of the last people I expected to swallow the propaganda without question.”
The way he was and how fast he flipped, I would say he got coerced into being a “team player”. You could see it in the banning Patrick Armstrong and Larry and some bitter replies to the SST old timers question why he was quoting neocon ISW analysis (which indicated to me that he was none too happy about the situation). A mean cruel game playing in the informational warfare sphere by the usurping subversives of the swamp.
May he rest in Peace.
I appreciate all that I learned from the man.
Thomas
Indeed, I have pointed out what Jeffrey is saying to everyone I know and correspond with for many months now. NATO generals are showing that they are clueless, spineless, politicized, and professionally incompetent to a shocking degree.
But am I surprized? No. In my 28.5 years as a NATO officer I have met only a couple of generals whom I trusted. The rest were chaff. In fact, there are very few LCols who are worth anything, even fewer Cols, and – as the ranks go higher – the people holding them get worse and worse.
I trust people like Scott Ritter, but I do not trust Petraeus, Hodges, and the rest of the clowns.
Cmon Larry- they’re not “wrong” they are lying. You/we all know it
I believe that the late David Hackworth used to call Petraeus a “perfumed prince” because of his arrogant behavior, at that time, while NATO was attacking Serbia.
I think it is no longer appealing to the public – they are going to find out long before November 2024. All the lies in the world can’t stop that and the Fat Lady sings soon (at least on the battle field, diplomacy may take for ever)(.
It is appealing to the big money donors to say Biden/Harris won’t be humiliated until after the election. You’d think the billionaires would know better, but then as they say it is who you know, not what you know.
Decimated – is a latin term and comes from the Romans killing one in ten as a punishment – with the point being that a Decimated Army is perfectly fit to fight at 90% of its previous level. Using it for Ukrainian airforce is completely wrong.
Wonders will never cease. The bbc (yes, the bbc!) showed an article on the news today of all the graves with National flags flying over them in Ukraine. It went on to talk about many graveyards all over the country like this, with thousands of new graves resulting from the fighting with Russia.
Up to that point it was clear that someone was going to be fired at the bbc. Then the narrative changed. Bbc then said something along the lines of thirty to forty thousand men had been killed since the start of the war last year.
I suppose the msm is at last starting to come clean, leaning to the actualitie, just a little bit.
Shocking to hear George Galloway say on his YouTube channel (and he was a member of the UK parliament for many years prior! ( that if he were to interview Putin, based on a law by Liz Truss (surreal that this useless ding, in her lettuce-less term, managed to screw the normal Brits ), and he can end up for 7 years in prison. If that’s democracy, what is oppression then? I don’t see how it’s different from the USSR, where if you went to church, they’d expel you from university, or if they caught you selling peaches from your own tree at the market, you’d be fired from a teaching job for exhibiting “bourgeoisie traits,” or if you caught reading the wrong Western book, or if you said something “wrong” while being abroad, your citizenship canceled and you can’t return home… Surreal what the West became.
Meanwhile, Ukrainians are fighting back against becoming the cannon meat even in law, and there are some decent judges who oppose what’s going on.
https://antikor.com.ua/ru/amp/articles/650164-v_poltavskoj_oblasti_sudjja_reshil_chto_ukazy_prezidenta_o_mobilizatsii_oformleny_ne_dolhnym_obrazom_i_priznal_nevinovny
@ InnerCynic
Tucker Carlson knows this.
He’s downright looking for mainstream bangers.
Does he want to challenge them to an accelerated mental self-destruction process?
https://strategic-culture.su/news/2023/08/28/a-second-geo-strategic-shoe-other-than-ukraine-is-dropping/
is back!
Petaeus seems to be oblivious to the Ukrainian habit of targeting civilians and claiming they were military targets.
It is not just the ex-military. I was shocked when I read the John Bolton article where he oh-so obviously thinks that the USA has endless capacity to do whatever it wants done.
Ukraine doesn’t have enough to win? Well, clearly, that’s a result of political will in Washington.
As far as Bonkers Bolton is concerned that is a self-evident truth: the war isn’t going the way he wants, ergo, the people in the White House simply aren’t invested enough in this enterprise. There can be no other reason.
It is madness. John Bolton – like all neocon loonies – simply has no grasp of reality. He lives entirely in a make-believe world where anything is possible for the USA because the USA is omnipotent.
It has never occurred to him that the reason why the Pentagon hasn’t send ATACAMs missiles is because they don’t have any to spare, and the MIC doesn’t have the industrial capacity to build more.
It has never occurred to him that the reason why the Ukrainians can’t compete with Russia’s artillery superiority is because the USA can’t produce shells at the same rate that the Russians can.
The idea that the USA is no longer an industrial powerhouse is simply beyond his comprehension. Because John Bolton is a neocon, and so reality is whatever he wants it to be.
Empire of lies, bullshit, gaslighting.I wonder what it will take to wake up American people. I try to stay from discussing Ukraine with some people I know. Don’t go there. Person complained about homeless in our city. I concurred and response was Putin is what scares them-he needs to be stopped.
There is a drum beating for war in the USA
and they do not have any thought that real war with things that blow up will be anywhere in the 50 states.
TASS is reporting Four Il-76 aircraft were damaged in Pskov after a drone attack. What is interesting is that it seems the drones were launched from Estonia. Russia has a ton on IL-76’s, so that is no big item. Direct assault from a NATO member is. Yet another red line for Putin to ignore?
Putin is weak.
As for Petraeus, I think he keeps getting it wrong, because it is the same mindset as for one to keep marrying the boss’ daughter and cheating on her.
Couldn’t beat dirt farmers in Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan.
Couldn’t beat Syrian military conscripts
But trust us boys, we know exactly how to defeat the professional Russian army
Haha 🙂
Mr Johnson,
You hit the nail, in my view, with “…or are these Generals hostages to their economic masters? In other words, lying in order to get paid”.
Grasping the power of the “international bankers clique” is essential to all this. And what really drives them crazy is that they know very well that the damage that their ancestors did in China – at least from the 17 hundreds – and in Russia (the downing of the Romanov dynasty, the 1917 revolution and the latest attempt to take control of the Russian government through Yeltsin) and if one takes into account what they did to Iran under the Shah, will have to be paid back. It’s so huge that we have difficulty in finding such a huge event even in the Bible. Anyway…
Gosh, how does this many US military generals talk this disingenuous to the people of the US?
Do they not bat an eye as they tell young men to enlist, don’t care about how dishonest they are to ANY viewing honest taxpayer, not care about any conscripted Ukrainian 16 year old crying for his mother as he lays dying in a field?
I don’t think it is lost on the American people that these US generals lie now as it has become standard operating procedure. It will not save the US seeing how hollow the top brass has become.
I understand this to be the media technique called “mirroring”. That’s where you have two sides in an argument where you reverse the view.
Russia is going to win this conflict and is by far the most prepared and capable force, while Ukraine is failing massively, gaining little ground and suffering massive casualties and huge losses of military and other equipment .
So just reverse this situation and you get what these highly compromised generals are doing. This given the NATO politicians are the same and they will promote them for it.
They are bowing down to the ones they serve, in the hope they will get what they deserve (with thanks to Trent Reznor).
It’s pretty obvious.
Orwell talked of this as doublethink and News speak, and later the term double talk evolved. Given the state of politics within NATO countries these generals are ensuring their career prospects by talking in such ways. It’s how they rose to the top in the first place.
1984
Ministry of Peace = Ministry of (permanent) War
Ministry of Plenty = Ministry of Rationing
Ministry of Truth = Ministry of (biased) Propaganda
Haha 🙂
“The following retired Generals are popping up on cable news channels to offer their “sage” analysis on the war in Ukraine and they all share one thing in common — they are wrong to a staggering degree.”
They are consistently wrong because not a single one of them has faced a peer enemy. EVER.
The declining of the moral among authorities is a shame. People that should inform the population with serious statements, simply ignore their duty and spread a lot of lies. Worse is knowing that a lot of people follow these bandits in the MSM and social media.
Certainly they are receiving a lot of benefits to speak BS, feeding the people’s head with disinformation and lies.
I believe the war was studied and plan by very intelligent men. The plan to crush Russia on paper was very astute. And from the planning perspective, fail proof. Russia, by all measures should have collapsed. Anyone and everyone who studied the facts concurred, all of the power of NATO’s military and economic pillars would very easily defeat Russia. The same was obvious Vietnam and Afghanistan. The only factor the US never equates into their battle plans is God. How can men that serve in an ungodly country’s administration believe they have the backing of the Almighty? Please read Judges 7. Gideon was going to war with the Midianites. By God’s instruction took 300 men that lapped water like dogs. With these 300 men he destroyed the armies of the Midianites and the Amalekites. How big where these armies? “…and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude”.
When God is with you who can be against you? And on the other hand stands the ungodly NATO and the West.
Je sais, je sais….
C’est parce qu’ils ne veulent pas démanteler le complot contre le Président Kennedy donc je leur suggère de lire Laurent Guyénot car il s’améliore en vieillissant comme le bon vin.
https://www.amazon.fr/Unspoken-Kennedy-Truth-Laurent-Guy%C3%A9not/dp/2957170418
It should be remembered that these generals have their bloody hands in the war money pot so it is no surprise that they are constantly hyping their war “book.”
Patraeus, for example, is on the board of the Kagan Institute for study of war (sic). He was also the kagan’s fan boy, brought kimberly and freddy to afghan while he was in command, gave them full access to commo, meetings, briefings, and they did not have security clearances.
For documented problems with America’s generalship, and speculation on the cause, read this article by Gary Anderson:
https://www.military.com/daily-news/opinions/2023/09/22/why-our-generals-cant-think.html