I am fascinated by guys like Wes O’Donnell, who publish delusional nonsense without offering one piece of credible evidence. O’Donnell, who claims to have served in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force, put up a piece at Medium last week with the catchy title, Putin’s Death Cult Prepares for Huge Casualties in the Coming Days.
Here are some salient points from his article:
The Russian army just suffered the deadliest 24 hours since the start of the war. According to Ukraine, 1,030 Russians were killed yesterday as Moscow continues to throw thousands of freshly mobilized soldiers into the meat grinder.
This brings the Russian death toll to 133,190. . . .
In an intelligence update given on Tuesday, the UK Ministry of Defense said Russian forces have “only managed to gain several hundred meters of territory per week,” because the Kremlin “now lacks the munitions and maneuver units required for successful offensives.”
I guess research is not Mr. O’Donnell’s strong suit. Instead of looking for independent sources he repeats the lies from the British Ministry of Defense, which gets its “intel” from the Ukrainians. If you accept the Ukrainian truth you are convinced that the Russians are being slaughtered at a horrendous rate. Only one little problem — I have been unable to find any Russian social media that shows mass graveyards and thousands of grieving Russian relatives.
O’Donnell also relies on the propaganda generated by the Institute for the Study of War (a new competitor for Oxymoron of the Year Award). He makes this outlandish claim:
Perhaps most interesting is how Putin is using conscripts in this war counter to traditional Russian military doctrine. Historically, Russia’s “trigger-pullers” have been its professional corps of contract troops — while conscripts were reserved for menial tasks like manual labor and maintenance.
But in Ukraine, it’s the conscripts who are sent to the front while the contract troops stay safely “in the rear.”
Well, as Chris Berman used to say on ESPN, “Let’s go to the videotape.” Here is a video of Wagner Group “contract” soldiers in the midst of the battle in Bakhmut packing up the corpses of fallen Ukrainians. You can hear the noise of battle in the background. Odd isn’t it. Instead of desecrating the bodies of their adversaries, the Russian contract soldiers treat the dead with respect as they secure the bodies to send them back to their loved ones. (You can see a Ukrainian flag on some of the caskets.)
Here is the rest of that story. Those caskets are headed to western Ukraine and will be buried in graveyards like the following:
I want to reiterate the inability of Ukrainian and Russian authorities to control social media. The ubiquitous cell phone camera provides a powerful tool to record events as they happen. If Russians were dying in the numbers claimed by Ukrainian sources we would be seeing that on social media. We are not. At least not in the number that appear on Ukrainian channels.
I am not suggesting that Russia is casualty free. Russian soldiers are being killed and wounded. But not in the volume that Ukrainian soldiers are. Ukrainian claims about Russian losses is just another manifestation of psychological projection.
You should read the crap the cbc in Canada writes every story. Plus the forums are filled with delusional comments that russia is now a heap of smouldering ashes.
They have done well in installing scripted “reporters” who have “been on the ground since the conflict began..”
Wow
As a Canadian. I find the CBC just embarrassing. As was Canada’s acceptance of Ukrainian Nazi refugees after WWII. The chickens have come home to roost. Canada is another of Larry’s “clown shows”.
Country that got away with genocide of Native Americans sounds like a natural choice for Nazi refugees. There is even an “added bonus” of those Natives originaly coming from what is now Russia.
Russian immigrants came to the Americas too and killed some aboriginies too.
Just saying.
Of course they did, in the name of the King/Queen and the Empire, British one. Some Empires integrate indigenous population, others exterminate it (and claim moral higher ground too).
I’m no expert but what a lot of people forget is Canada is not a true country with like own traditions and such.
It’s truly a corporation with the name of Canada with open borders for new Canadians for all parts of the world to inhabit.
The only true Canadians would be the indigenous peoples.
One of your MPs was doing photo-ops with Right Sector recruitment stands at a county fair in 2014. I’m sure he knew full well what Right Sector is. Canada’s been zombified along with the rest, more so even because of all the nazi-collaborators they welcomed post WWII, and the high government places some of them have managed to worm their way into.
I used to enjoy a jaunt to Canada every so often. I wouldn’t set foot on their soil these days if my life depended on it.
“I used to enjoy a jaunt to Canada every so often. I wouldn’t set foot on their soil these days if my life depended on it.”
So did I. I couldn’t wait to go “where loons cry over moonlit lakes, monster pikes hit red-and-white Dardevles, and where Saskatoon berries ripen in gratuitous abundance,” as I wrote in my article “Chasing Loon in a Subaru.” The call of the wild: this is what Canada is all about for me. As for politics, I couldn’t care less. It’s “the cigar smoke of a man,” as Thoreau once said.
Canadians bought the covid narrative well enough. Why would they change ?
It’s off the scale now in Canada. Look at this:
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/tourism-immigration/ukraine/welcome
They’re even pushing the propaganda at the grade school level now. Despicable.
https://www.cbc.ca/kidsnews/post/russia-declared-war-on-ukraine.-heres-why
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/blue-and-yellow-thunder-bay-1.6381997
What, and you’re saying CTV and Global are any better? You know, the private sector TV “news”people? Same BS. So give me a break, it’s identical lying coverage.
Earlier this week, some mouth-agape fool of a Global News reporter got to within 20 km of Artemovsk, and bought the whole Russian human wave death by thousands story hook, line and sinker from some official Ukie liar. Now, that’s reporting! No different from the US networks or the BBC or all the Euro media crowd of complete dolts. Why single out the CBC? Got no time for greaseball comments from the right wing crowd of neoliberal anti-social freedumb truck convoy nutters inhabiting my country. PeePee Poilievre never put in an honest day’s work in his life, and just recites decades-old free market horse manure in his annoying reedy voice. What a dolt. Now, Freeland is a through and through Ukie Banderite yet the Alberta rural right-wing crowd is so misinformed, they boo her! Amazing.
But all of our pols stand up and salute the US and Israeli flags. Useless, the lot of them — some are just more useless than others.
How many levels of clot-shot are you on? LMAO
Enough to destroy his cognitive abilities for sure.
Yes, You have hit the nail on the head. There is not a politician nor media in Canada who is worth voting for or following. It was not always this way, but now Canada is a pale imitation of USA, a little lap dog.
The CBC as well as the rest of the always-lying Canadian legacy are consistent liar and fabricators. Not just over the Ukraine rumpus, but pretty well everythign imaginable. They deserve the contempt they are getting. Der Sturmer re-born.
Realize that Canada has more Ukrainian diaspora (not refugees, but people who call Ukie their home land) than any country on earth, except for Russia! More than the US, more than Poland. Around 1.5M in a country of less than 40M people. And apparently most came from west Ukraine They are a major political force, especially in the prairies and Ontario. You will find people identifying as Ukrainian everywhere in government (the galician deputy PM Chrystia Freeland foremost), media, and especially the military and police.
So it is not at all surprising the coverage we are getting from ALL quarters, the CBC, CTV, and Globe and Mail among them. Canada is not a place to be voicing doubts about the conflict out loud unless you are itching for a fight. I know many people with Ukrainian backgrounds and close connections, and have learned my lesson. So I sit, and wait.
Look up Roman Melnyk and you’ll see why CBC is the official Ukraine mouthpiece in the West.
Great example. Ex-CBC and CTV media exec who now has an endowment in his name in, you guessed it, Lviv, Ukraine. You can bet your last hrivny he isn’t the only galician in media here.
Melnyks are all over the Canadian landscape. Eugene Melynk was a billionaire and owner of the Ottawa NHL team. Just one of many clans all hailing from the west of Ukraine.
Fellow Canadian here. The grandfather of our Deputy Prime Minister Christina Freeland was a Ukrainian Nazi collaborator who came to Canada after WW2. She has repeatedly said how proud she is of her nazi collaborator grandfather. Stepan Bandera’s grandson works for one of the biggest media companies in Canada (CTV). We allowed veterans of the 14th Waffen SS Division (1st Galacian) into our country after WW2. There are 2 memorials to the 14th Waffen SS Division in Canada one in Oakville, Ontario, and one in Edmonton. There is a monument to genocidal Ukrainian nazi collaborator Roman Shukhevych (leader of the UPA the armed wing of the OUN-B) at a community center in Edmonton. As much as it disgusts me Canada has the most influential concentration of Ukrainian Nationalists nazis outside of Ukraine in the world. We have a lot of work to do here.
Canada also needs to be de-nazified.
Strange that every statue is getting torn down except for those… 🤔
Last night I dreamt that the Ukraganda had invented nonexistent Russian military units which they then claimed to have completely destroyed.
This is actually such an obvious propaganda move that I’m surprised the Ukranazis haven’t resorted to it already.
Ukraganda – Love it! 😂😂😂🤣🤣
Nothing to love here!
How about Nazamerica, would you like that? You Yanks are the most narrow minded and aggressive people I ever came across in my life.
Ukraganda means Ukrainian propaganda, nothing to do with Uganda. No need to defend anything, no one was attacking. Americans do have their own unique cultural perspectives just like folks from any other country, but if anything we are MORE open minded here, & yes, definitely more assertive about saying so!
Thomas,not all Americans.Open your own mind and you will see.
You’re just jealous. Where are you from?
Jealoustan 😉
Well, I’m from yankland and I agree with him. It didn’t use to be that way. I never in my life believed that we could have for decades been screaming about such things as R2P interventions, humanitarian and minority rights, language rights and using them to sanction, blacklist and invade countries, then turned right around and with lead-lined blinders on, ended up supporting and even initiating a transparently fascist coup d’etat in Ukraine, followed by 7 years of terrorist shelling of a region that simply said “no!, you stripped us of our right to vote, to have a voice in our own country and even ‘to live”’, to it all.
The EU’s no better and Canada, the worst of all at least in tone, giving full language and expanded autonomy rights to Quebec, after a short-lived and anemic secessionist movement in the 60-70’s. To not speak French in Quebec today is to be a foreigner in a foreign land. Had Ottawa resorted to a full-scale military intervention and years of shelling Montreal to resolve that conflict, then I might at least concede that they are consistent in their actions. As it is, Canada is far too much a captive of its fascist Ukrainian diaspora, with no political will to resist.
We talk a good game but we play a very nasty one. Rhetoric and action are simply at war with one another. The disconnect will eventually destroy us.
Indeed we are. What do you think of a bumper sticker that reads “Give the Neocons the Boot and Save America”
You think one could get away with that? I personally think I’d cause more head scratching than wrath raising. Maybe I’ll try it.
Once the ashes have finished raining down, history will reflect that the Straussian neocons were just as, if not more at fault than the neobolsheviks for bringing down the United States. From constant warmongering to mass immigration for cheap labor, the neocon world view was always a self-destructive ideology formed deep within a den of vipers.
It’s quite pathetic that so many folks that identify as “right-wing Christian” can’t see through the spells of the Shapiros or Pragers…
I think the original intent of the founding trotskyist founders (yes, they actually were) turned neocons was to somehow meld the Fourth Internationale and American hegemony into a viable ideological war machine.
Two quotes from former trotskyist Irving Kristol, one of the key founders of neoconservatism.
1) A neoconservative is a liberal who’s been mugged by reality. A neoliberal is a liberal who’s been mugged by reality but has refused to press charges.
2) The major political event of the twentieth century is the death of socialism.
If you are alluding to Uganda then be told that I strongly dislike your post. I have been living in Uganda and I am married to a Ugandan lady and I can tell you that the Ugandans are a good people and deserve respect.
I think it is an allusion to propaganda, not Uganda.
@Thomas: Ukraganda is a combination of UKRaine and propAGANDA.
I don’t believe it has anything to do with Uganda. 🙂
Combining Ukraine with anything is a lost cause.
Chill, Tom, chill…..
I think he was joining 2 words: Ukraine and PROPAGANDA.
Nothing to do with the country of Uganda.
How could you possibly jump to that conclusion? This post deals with Ukrainian Propaganda, hence Ukraganda* There is NO connection to Uganda that any sane person living in this universe or the parallel one right next store should see
But then again, this could be sarcasm, in which case, be a little bit funnier
* Personally, I use the well established prefix, Ukro- to get Ukroganda, but thats just me
Thin-skinned and stupid is no way to go through life, son.
I’m sure Ugandans are good people deserving of respect. You – Thomas, on the other hand, seem a little thin skinned and thick headed.
Yea Ugandas history is full of noble humanitarians right? Try reading some history about this great place that you live.
Don’t have to invent them, just paint a ‘Z’ on your own destroyed armour.
As long as the western MSM keeps regurgitating and supplying the paint, they’ll keep painting Zs on their own ‘decommissioned’ equipment and photoshopping armband colors on their own dead to infinity and beyond.
They did declare whole Russian unit completely destroyed near Ugledar recently. I guess Russians didn’t read the news, because the no-longer-existing unit attacked again, and probably got “destroyed” multiple times in the process.
I often have a desire to beat war correspondents with a frying pan between their ears for deliberately spreading panic information – the number of views immediately increases, and this is sacred..
In Russian, war correspondents are called “voenblokher” with a hint at the same time of the word “flea” and another obscene word; and “hypozhor” from the merger of the words “hype” and “eat”.
Nothing critical tragic happened near the city of Ugledar, but the “good news” about the defeat of the Russians in the blink of an eye spread across the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
I know. You almost smacked me with it too. 🙂
That being said, tragic thing did happen near Ugledar. Lives were needlesly lost because of poorly organized assault.
Why?
Same thing as of the economy — “we’re doing just great and we’ll be all right” is soothing, while “we’ll go through cataclysmic times and we’ll all suffer” = i.e. = telling the truth, is not.
In war, the propaganda machine knows no limits and therefore the psycho-projection — RF forces maintain about 1:8 to 1:10 causality ratio to the Ukr ones — therefore “to win” we have to reverse that; well, not in reality, but in the make-believe world we’re all exposed to…
And the funniest thing is — all the blatant liars will meet no consequences.
OTOH: Trump promises he’ll bring back the guillotine (my favorite instrument of justice), but do we really need the orange-hair-man to use it?
Cheers, JaKo
The Russian military* has had 13,000 KIA. Wager has 450 KIA. The Donetsk People’s Republic has had 4,500 and the Lugansk People’s Republic has had 1,000 KIA. All told, Russian forces in aggregate have had ~19,000 KIA.
Ukraine has lost 237,000 KIA among all of its armed forces.
For every one man Russia loses, Ukraine loses 12! That’s not sustainable.
These idiots are projecting. They take the Russian figure or thereabouts and use it as the Ukrainian figure. Then they take the Ukrainian figure, lower it a bit, and call it the Russian figure. The people who are dying in the high hundreds a day are the Ukrainians, not the Russians.
*Includes volunteer battalions, Chechens, National Guard, and SBU.
I’m curious as to your sources for Russian/LDNR/Wagner casualties, since no official figures have been released for many months.
FWIW, Israeli Mossad supposedly released the following (I hope it stays readable)
Field Losses, as of Jan 14, ’23,
RUSSIA UKRAINE
EQUIPMENT Losses:
22 Fix wing Aircraft 302
56 Helicopters 212
200 Drones 2750
889 Armor incl.Tanks 6320
427 Artillery Systems 7360
12 Air Defence Sys. 497
PERSONNEL Losses:
18480 KIA 157000
44500 WIA 234000
323 POW 17230
NATO Losses (KIA)
234 Trainers USA/GB
2458 Field Personnel DE/PL/LN etc
OTHER:
5360 Foreigners
From Mossad or not, the numbers dovetail reasonably well with RuMoD’s daily clobber list and other alt-media analysts.
https://hurseda.net/gundem/246987-iddia-mossad-a-gore-ukrayna-ve-rusya-kayiplari.html
I have seen these figures somewhere in Russian telegram channels, but the source did not seem reliable to me.
Your source is a reprint.
I believe only the reports of the Ministry of Defense, but I have not seen such data in them.
Maybe I missed it.
Perhaps the Ministry has decided to release classified information in order to stop speculation on this topic and the spread of rumors, gossip and fakes
Indeed, Hurseda is not the originator of these numbers, but my “FWIW” (For What It’s Worth) was to convey the fact that these numbers are not verified.
The question is whether it’s a real leak. If it is, I’d expect the Israelis to be better informed of the situation than any other intelligence agency.
Nevertheless, there are a variety of independent casualty assessment reports out there, mostly OSINT based, that converge on similar numbers.
Some people have been tracking RuMoD daily clobber list and they yield lower Ukrainian casualty numbers, but I’d expect the MoD to be working to a higher standard of confirmation than can be had on a battlefield.
@HMS Terror – It should be borne in mind that the Israelis we perhaps the most interested party to the conflict. The idea of creating a second Israel from Ukraine with the replacement of the indigenous population has long been wandering in the minds of a certain part of Jews. From this point of view, the death of a large number of Ukrainians at the hands of genetically related Russians (practically one nation, divided politically) occurs to the joyful satisfaction of Israelis.
To be honest, even thinking about all this is disgusting. We cannot allow such a course of events.
On the other hand, the intelligence services of the whole World operate in strict secrecy. “Leaks” of information into the public space are possible only for politically biased reasons. What matters is not what they write, but who they write and why they write.
I don’t believe the Israelis. They lie as they breathe.
@Gera
I’m familiar with Israeli interests in Ukraine. Kolomoisky didn’t build the world’s largest Jewish cultural centre in Dnipro for the few Jews left there.
Intelligence services are indeed secretive, but they do report their findings to the government and this wouldn’t be a very sensitive document. If (say) the Israeli PM requested their assessment, they’d deliver it to his office. The PM”s office employs a lot of people, and those people are targeted by investigative journalists (and other intel agencies) for inside info. If the data is real, doubtless that’s how it got out.
The source is legitimate and anyway it lines up with the best estimates by other people.
MOD figures are way out of date.
Other figures are from counting up death notices in the media and they are far more reliable.
“To be honest, even thinking about all this is disgusting. We cannot allow such a course of events.”
What is happening in Palestine is disgusting, yet it is allowed to go on. It just can’t happen in Europe!
Thanks HMS Terror.
FWIW (again), MoA cites a recent BBC Russian Service report that their OSINT study found 14,709 Russian KIA.
It is unclear whether that number includes LPR & DPR losses, but it clearly supports the “Mossad” numbers from Hurseda.
Ukes are in fact dying at ~8x the Russian rate.
The BBC just published similarly low figures for Russian losses
Hi, the Russian figures come from counting up death notices in the media. They are the best we have right now. Wagner figures also come from counting up the same notices.
Russian official figures are junk, months old.
The DNR and LDR figures comes from those governments themselves. They’ve published those figures, but the LDR figure seems a bit low.
I wonder if there are as many pro-Russian absurd claims about the war in Ukraine? So far absurdity seems to be more on the anti-Russia side. If really so, I wonder why….
It’s a cultural thing. Russians are not in the PR propaganda business like the West. Not saying they don’t use propaganda, but it is not foundational to their culture as it is in the West.
On the contrary … deception of all forms have historically been a very big part of Russian military doctrine. I believe Russia is on the right side of history in this conflict but I don’t for a moment believe Russians are honest while Ukrainians and the west lie … both sides manipulate information to their advantage. We won’t know a true account of this war until all the parties are dead and all the archives are opened … it’s been nearly a century and we still don’t know the true extent of Russian losses at Rzhev in ’42-43. Photo’s can be manipulated, videos can be staged, documents can be forged, politicians and generals lie. People on both sides have to believe their cause is just, God is on their side and the enemy is devil incarnate. The west is very good at propaganda but don’t for a moment believe the Russian are slouches in this regard … they are VERY good at it.
You are confusing the old Soviet with the new Russia. The old Soviet was all deception and subterfuge and masters of propaganda. Even though most did not believe it. The new Russia under Putin have been much more open and vocal about their policy and direction as a nation.
Of course no country is going to divulge military secrets or intelligence, that is a given but, I can not think of a moment really, where new Russia have been on a hell bent propaganda campaign about anything.
” The new Russia under Putin”
Don’t be ridiculous, please. Russia is eternal. Putin is temporary.
“about their policy and direction as a nation. ”
So it was the Soviet Union.
The difference is that you did not like it, and now you like Putin.
Because he is ultra conservative, like you, maybe. (I say maybe. I don’t know you, and have no interest at all).
Do you have friends in Russia? Do they tell you about the level of propaganda there?
Actually, I think that RU avoids using propaganda as much as it is possible exactly because:
– They know that if they get red handed in the lie, their own people won’t believe them anymore – they had perfect example during Soviet Union where people simply told that their media always lies and doubted their every word.
– They know that they are fighting against strongest propaganda machine in the history of the world, so only way to fight it is with truth – if they start lying and people start measuring who lies more, they are going to lose badly due to resource advantage that West has in that field
As I understand it, the Russian propensity for truth-telling was expressed in the Soviet conception of state-sponsored propaganda: there always has to be an element of truth in propaganda or you will be eventually found out and discredited.
The West, however, confuses state-sponsored propaganda with commercial marketing — “optics” — what we see on TV that traces its foundation to the time-honored profession of “snake oil salesmen”.
This is sad because the wartime propaganda of both Britain and the United States of necessity eventually became “official history” since, as the Soviets knew, it is hard to backtrack once official declarations are released.
Recall the loss of credibility when the British propaganda about Auschwitz in WWII was exposed … or when we learned that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction.
Your comment reminds me of a remark attributed to a Muscovite during the dark days there of the late 1990s: “We knew they were lying to us about communism, but we had no idea they were telling us the absolute truth about capitalism.”
I have posted this in a past comment, but it is relevant:
https://twitter.com/doctorgerhard/status/1622676497931677696?s=12/
Thanks to Larry for swimming against the tide.
It’s fake. Stop posting it.
Are you trying to discredit Larry by making him fall for the poorly photoshopped image?
Facts:
75% of casualties comes from artillery. Russia shots 10x or more shells than Ukraine. Russia captured about 10x more POWs. Have seen many videos from Ukrainian cemeteries with lines of Ukrainian flags and there thousand of cemeteries all over Ukraine. Have seen one video from Russian cemetery with handful of Russian flags
Why are they lying about……..?
Because it comes so naturally. Now this really shocked me today, picking up this interview with Sy Hersh. With DEMOCRACY NOW of all places, the PBS outfit that’s ever since 2014 been sanctifying Ukraine, demonizing Russia and reporting Russiagate as if straight from the Bible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4BuMaGlKp0
It’s over.
Hersh says it straight to PBS’s face, and now PBS says it straight to the DNC. (that’s the tiebreaker) It’s only how many Ukrainians Biden’s willing to sacrifice until then….. but it’s over.
Gotta admire Hersh on this. A real hound dog. Smells a pivotal story and damn if anybody can pull him off it and to hell with politics, his own or anyone else’s.
It wasn’t that long ago when Democracy Now rebuked Jeff Sachs for saying the US blew up those pipelines. Now Sy Hersh confirmed what everyone suspected (surprise surprise). I think Chris Hedges was the one who identified “permanent lie” as a key indicator of a nation in decline.
Jeff Sachs is another interesting case. He has gone full bore on the neocon menace. I wish he had a greater voice and reach.
thanks for link to interview
As of December 9th the BBC verified 10,002 Russian soldiers killed. They estimated that this verified death count understated the actual death count by as much as 40%. That seems about in line with what Russia has reported.
Très juste la BBC l’a fait en collaboration avec l’ONG “Medusa” qui est une ong russe anti-Poutine basée dans un des pays baltes.
What they are writing is 100% true, even details. Only it is describing Ukrainian losses.
Somehow extrapolating that it must be the same for the Russians too.
You have the same phenomena with people interviewed in front of camera about atrocities they experienced. In many cases the stories and emotions are true, just the details have been revised to switch the sides, to make it survivable and palatable for the Ukrainian operatives they are talking to.
They hope and pray that Russian losses are equivalent to Ukraine’s because if they’re not, the house of cards that the west built come tumbling down in the next mild breeze and the weather isn’t cooperating.
Wes seems to love himself – a lot. It’s all about Wes. Downunder we have a saying to describe guys like him, FIGJAM (‘F&-k I’m good, just ask me’).
If you look at Wes’s web site and back catalogue you’ll find endless self-praise, with various professional photos of Wes as he tries to sell his films, books, articles, motivational speaking etc.
The articles follow regime propaganda to the letter: you’ll find Wes writing articles that Putin is dying, that there’s a coup in Moscow, that Russian soldiers committed war crimes in Bucha etc.
There’s even a hilarious one from May 2022 titled ‘If Finland Joins NATO, It’s Game Over for Russia’ : https://wesodonnell.medium.com/if-finland-joins-nato-its-game-over-for-russia-b3b0da0af461
Wes either knows he’s regurgitating propaganda, or he really believes it’s true. If it’s the former, he’s a shameless grifter and seems to have no moral compass. If it’s the latter, he’s just not very bright.
My impression is that he’s a grifter with grandiose views of his own importance, desperately seeking attention. His strategy is to echo regime propaganda in the hope that he gets on TV etc. I bet he sends each of his articles to thousands of media outlets, in the chance he will get noticed.
End of the day, he seems to be a guy with loose ethics, an irrelevant and opportunistic grifter, seeking to cash in on death and misery. War attracts these types all the time.
A self-promoting presstitute? Nah, can’t be. They’re as rare as unicorns.
I think Ukranian casualty numbers might become one of those longterm mysteries shrouded in government secrecy. Given the accepted vast Russian superiority in artillery and guided weapons, it’s illogical that the Russians would be taking heavier casualties. But so many are invested in pushing the “poorly-trained Russian conscripts and prisoners dying by the thousands in human wave attacks” talking points to keep the war going, many will have a vested interest in not allowing Ukranian numbers to come to light. Moreover, I think they are likely staggering, probably creeping up towards 200K.
The vast Russian KIA numbers thrown around would mean most of the original invasion force of February 2022 is dead. That number wasn’t substantially increased until Fall. Moreover, we know many of the mobilized troops are assembled in the rear posing the large offensive threat even mainstream sources discuss.
So Russia is advancing along the entire front (except Vuhledar, the only location covered in my news feed) with many troops in reserve, while getting slaughtered by the thousands?
Seems highly unlikely.
“…Ukranian casualty numbers might become one of those longterm mysteries shrouded in government secrecy…”.
Once Russia has control of the former Ukraine, either directly or through a puppet, their will be a thorough accounting.
All the facts will be displayed.
As the Ukies are good at showing the vast fields graves, a counting of the dead should be straight forward. Some bodies or parts of bodies will be recovered over the next several years as building are razed and fields are farmed. People camping in forests will be finding bodies and body parts for some years.
There seems to be approximately a 30,000 body count discrepancy among some official to semi official sources, those are the bodies I have written of above. After the civil war in the U.S., farmers would still occasionally plow up body remains in the mid 1050’s.
Well, Washington and its captive media were harping about ‘100,000 missing and presumed dead’ at the hands of the Serbs in ’99 as one of their cries for intervention, then once the dust settled, UNMIK set off on a 2 year accounting and identified 4000 casualties, not saying who was a combatant, who a civilian, who an Albanian or who a Serb. Then the UN just rounded it up to 10,000.
So, looks like they’re doing a reverse call thing this time.
While the real numbers are anybody’s guess, the derived numbers can give us an idea. (BTW few weeks ago, I’ve tried to post a guesstimate how long this war will last based on the Ukrainian demographics but it didn’t make it through)
We know from various sources that the Ukrainians spend anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 artillery shells per day, while the Russians spend 20,000 to 60,000 rounds in the same given day. Assuming that they are not fired random, you expect to do proportional damage about 1/6 to 1/8 damage to the opposite site.
One of these stats were already posted and they fit the 1/6 ratio
See ( https://t.me/fred33flint/264 )
Yep, that is the common sense and math that western propaganda machinery is trying to fight against. At first they tried the argument of Ukros being more accurate (Excalibur, HIMARS, Javelin, etc.). That reasoning is easily countered by a wide variety of guided stuff used by Russians (Krasnopol, Lancet, Geran, Kalibr, Iskander, Kornet, etc). Recently they have switched to “Russians use human waves” excuse, just like Nazis did in WWII. In reality, Russians did not use human waves in WWII, and are doing it even less now. They tend to flatten everything with artillery first, and then use small groups to storm enemy positions.
To continue making these claims, they must not care who believes it. The fan club will always cheer. The corporations will distort anything they are told for assurances they will be bailed out instead of forced into bankruptcy. But as we can see with the layoffs and the destruction of food resources, the bailout will start with a bail in and the game will be over.
People that have never been right are making decisions for which they are unqualified. People will be poor because their paper products are likely to have the same value as that which they wipe their garbage disposer.
It used to have something to do with we the people.
But in Ukraine, it’s the conscripts who are sent to the front while the contract troops stay safely “in the rear.”
Did O’Donnell understand what he wrote here? He just condemned the entire Ukrainian mobilization effort instead of the Russian’s. Raw meat to the front, seasoned veterans to the rear and out of harms way. Did I miss something?
Yes I think you missed something that I also misread at first. It should be read as follows:
But in (the conflict in) Ukraine, it’s the (Russian) conscripts who are sent to the front while the contract troops stay safely “in the rear.”
So then, just more of that “I’m rubber and you’re glue and whatever I do I’ll bounce off of me stick onto you” approach to western reportage.
The “delusional” theme is (IMHO) a red herring. People like O’Donnell may or may not be deluded, but their personal beliefs are of secondary concern at best.
Most “independent” reports and reporters are anything but. There’s lots deluded consumers of these stories out there, but there’s an army of writers and publishers who are employed to delude them. Most of these “reports” are organized propaganda, written to achieve a socio-political effect rather than uncover any truth. The truth simply doesn’t enter the propagandist’s calculus. The effect is everything.
In this case, the goal is to keep the Western public sufficiently onside (or at least confused) to give the leadership the political latitude to deal with what are rapidly becoming insurmountable problems on the Ukrainian front without the distractions of domestic political turmoil and scandal. As the society has a variety of different tastes, so the propaganda is generated by “competing” groups to make sure every taste is catered to.
O’Donnell occupies one end of a spectrum of “delusions”, catering to his part of the consumer spectrum. Others like the NYT, WSJ and WP cater to a different audience, so we occasionally see stories about the “difficulties” NATO and UA are facing to lend “balance” to their other stories that are little more than diluted versions of O’Donnell.
It all works until it doesn’t, but so far, one has to admit that it’s working well enough. It turns out that you can, in fact, fool most of the people most of the time…
It’s said that the best salesmen believe their own lies and doubtless the most sympathetic propagandists do too, but whatever they may personally believe their only professional concern is the effect. They’ll keep it up as long as it works and shift to something else on a dime if they see that it’s losing traction.
They’re professionals and that’s what they signed up for. I see nothing “fascinating” about them, though I’m often astonished at how easily and well their work succeeds.
Francis Fukuyama (aka Mr. End of History) was recently interviewed by an Indonesian ex. minister. He was asked about the war in Ukraine, and sure enough, started quoting the 200.000 deaths on the Russian side nonsense. It’s really sad that now even scholars buy into propaganda. This really shows the sad state of western intellectual life.
I don,t know figures, but if you think in the way the combat is being made Ukrainian an army rich in infantry uses the shock, Russia uses the fire, artillery of tube and rocket, drones etc the bigger casualties are for the Ukrainian
Why ?
Wes O’Donnell and his ilk are simply angling for a lush paying gig.
Kinda like those empty-headed Influencer gals promoting make-up on TikTok
why are they lying about this?
for the same reason they lie about everything else.
Gaslighting works at least for a while.
How do I know this – even I used to believe this BS. until about a decade ago when I realized everything they ever said about Putin ‘the killer’ was never ever backed with any evidence.
most vaxtard sheeple have no time to do their research and they depend on the background noise of CNN etc (provided free at airports around the world – i.e. in Buenos Aires etc).
if you control all the lies your victims believe you have a Plato’s cave basically with slaves living inside.
Cervantes explored this in his Don Quixote:
“And who vouches for your grace, Señor Priest?” said Don Quixote. “My profession,” responded the priest, “which is to keep secrets.”
similar to:
“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” Former CIA Director William Casey.
Larry,
I too wonder why. Its not as if the US leadership cares a whit what the voters think – this has been shown statistically – until the day the mob shows up with pitchforks. Going through the motions, I guess.
When violence bursts onto the peaceful human condition, its face is flush with self-assurance, it displays on its banner and proclaims: “I am Violence! Make way, step aside, I will crush you!” But violence ages swiftly, a few years pass—and it is no longer sure of itself. To prop itself up, to appear decent, it will without fail call forth its ally—Lies. For violence has nothing to cover itself with but lies, and lies can only persist through violence. And it is not every day and not on every shoulder that violence brings down its heavy hand: It demands of us only a submission to lies, a daily participation in deceit—and this suffices as our fealty.
And therein we find, neglected by us, the simplest, the most accessible key to our liberation: a personal nonparticipation in lies! Even if all is covered by lies, even if all is under their rule, let us resist in the smallest way: Let their rule hold through me!
“Live not by the lie“: Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Wes O’Donnell is not alone, the Western world is full of similar “military analysts”. There are many of them in the Balkans as well. When I hear about them, the first thing that comes to mind is “Zgembo Adislic”. Never heard? A fictional character, a “military-political analyst” from the “The Top List of the Surrealists” (TLN) series, which is the Balkan version of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”.
When the Balkan wars started, TLN ridiculed “military analysts” and therefore they often called “Zgembo Adislic” to express his opinion about the situation on the battlefield. Here is a small compilation of how Zgembo sees it. This is how I imagine British intelligence and the Institute for the Study of War:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW2BgHtxbcI
Well, Larry, did you see the reaction of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Layen, to the Sy Hersch investigation.
“The version about the involvement of the USA in the sabotage of gas pipelines seems absurd to us. For all the years of the existence of the USA, not a single fact of violation of international law or actions outside the framework of international law has been established and confirmed. The impeccable reputation of the American state allows us not to consider this version,” said Ursula von der Leyen.
Ursula von der Leyen should be reminded of the famous maxim attributed to Abraham Lincoln:
“You can deceive a part of the people all the time, and the whole people for a while, but you can’t deceive the whole people all the time”
Van der Leyen never said that. It’s fake.
I’m not a big fan of Gonzalo Lira but his short video on system pigs, a.k.a. journalists, from a hotel in Kiev last year is pure genius.
I thought it was Warner Wolf who said “let’s go to the video tape”
I think it was Wolf Blitzer who said “let’s take over Ukraine. It’ll be a cakewalk.”
Express is a mainstream magazine in France. It gets millions from the french state as a ‘helping the press’ policy.
Last cover is an ukro flag and the bold title : ukraine must prevail
We will never stress enough how the west press is the prime warmonger
The most trustworthy magazine in Macronistan is now “Le Gorafi”* … they are the only ones openly admitting they write only bullshit 🙂
*: “Le Gorafi” is French “the Onion” .
I personally don’t understand how could it all go that far for UKR – namely, I could understand it in country like USA where everyone is for himself (no single nationality), but in UKR where people are ethnically same/very similar, you would expect that people in charge (or those below them) would realize that they are destroying their own nation and would expect them to react to prevent this – however, there seems to be no boundary on how far they are willing to go which is insane in my opinion…
Wars between brothers are always bloody. The essence of being Ukrainian is being anti-Russian. Ukrainians are not the only Slavic subgroup that became anti-Slavic under the influence of foreign powers. The insane thing with no boundary is called hate, and has been intentionally created.
I’m also thinking about losses of tanks. According to Ukrainian sources, the Russian lost 1000 tanks already in May last year (! ). And I read that they lost a total of 1500-2000 tanks in total. This sounds much. I’m a newbie on the matter, but also considering that it turned out to be an artillery war, not a “Panzerkrieg”.
Mostly, it’s a war of western bullshit.
My hypothesis:
They’re lying to justify a WMD false flag.
Normies don’t know Russia’s winning so it’s easy to justify some NBC/CBR/WMD/ADJ (Acronym Du Jour) attack as the desperate act of Crazy Loser Dictator Vlad.
Sure pray I’m wrong but I put nothing past these people who are a curious blend of evil and stupid.
Well here’s one “westerner” that is speaking the truth; Ben Wallace: “The Armed Forces of Ukraine must learn to use ammunition more economically, as the armies of NATO countries do.”
LOL no shit Sherlock!
Ben Wallace who tells the truth, must tell us when and where NATO armies fought against an army like the RUSSIAN one… and how many ailments they saved.
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine must learn to use ammunition more economically, as the armies of NATO countries do.”
Well, then somebody should tell old Ben to go fight the Berbers in North Africa and avoid Russia at all costs.
A classic feedback loop, the more trapped somebody feels the more hysterical they become, the more people tune them out the more the hysteric has to up the ante. In a week, 5,000 Russians will be KIA and the week after it will be 7,500.
On a side note, the numbers uncannily match the daily Russian casualty figures for the Ukrainians, suggesting the greater and greater toll their conscripts are having to bear.
I just read this O’Connell characters diatribe. He must be jealous the Russians are challenging “American exceptionalism.”
That Institute for the Study of War was founded by Kimberley Kagan. She is married to Frederick Kagan. Frederick Kagan was at the US Army Academy at West Point preparing future army officers to smash through Iraq and Afghanistan.
The notorious Straussian Neocon Kagan clan should ring a lot of bells: Victoria Kagan who is married to Robert Kagan gave the US its reason for being in Ukraine.
Institute for the Study of War boards of directors includes William Kristol, David Patraeus, Jack Keane and Joseph Lieberman. It’s not the Institute for the Study of War. It is the Institute for the Study of Waging War. A “non-profit” funded by war contractors. Jack Keane gets on FOX News as a “strategic analyst” yesterday with crossed American and Ukrainian flags lapel pin talking about shooting down balloons.
While on the subject of the Wagner Group, have a listen to this message these Wagner PMCs sent to Ukraine’s Zelensky:
https://abeldanger.blogspot.com/2023/02/zelensky-wagners-have-message-for-your.html
Give the neocons the boot and Save America
UK MoD: “only managed to gain several hundred meters of territory per week,”
Still obsessed with the idea that winning/losing is measured in territory taken/conceded.
Juvenile.
They should read up on some Napoleon, who knew a thing or two about war.
Because he made no bones about it: war is about the destruction of armies, not the capture of territory.
Russia is doing the former, even as every man and his dog in the West is obsessed with the latter.
Sorry ‘yeah right’ – you are as wrong. Neither Napoleon, nor Clausewitz, suggest that war is NOT about seizing territory. In fact, Clausewitz, who approved of Napoleon’s approach to war, makes it clear that seizing territory is key to winning – especially taking the enemy’s capitol.
You can’t take a line or two out of context and then pretend that you are accurately representing what these men were all about. Sorry but the catechism of Saint Putin that you and others keep repeating is just plain wrong – as wrong as the casualty figures that western propaganda keeps pointing on us.
What follows is what Clausewitz actually said are the objectives of warfare with elaborations on how to achieve them (note that Russia in Ukraine has violated some of these). I added some markers ( * ) to highlight key references to territory to make it easier for you to not bypass them. Note that on point 5 Clausewitz could be interpreted as saying “shock and awe” is the best way to fight. Point 7 clearly states that time matters – and that time should not be wasted.
Sometimes it is helpful to go back to the source and make sure you are aligned with it instead of lazily repeating what someone else is saying the source says. You can call me a war criminal NATO deep state stooge if you want to, but my criticisms of Russia’s approach have always been firmly rooted in military science, about which I know a little something.
I. Warfare has three main objects:
(a) To conquer and destroy the armed power of the enemy;
(b) To take possession of his material and other sources of strength, and
(c) To gain public opinion.
2. To accomplish the first purpose, we should always direct our principal operation against the main body of the enemy army or at least against an important portion of his forces. For only after defeating these can we pursue the other two objects successfully.
3. In order to seize the enemy’s material forces we should direct our operations against the *places* where most of these resources are concentrated: *principal cities, storehouses, and large fortresses* . On the way to these objectives we shall encounter the enemy’s main force or at least a considerable part of it.
4. Public opinion is won through great victories and the **occupation of the enemy’s capital.**
5. The first and most important rule to observe in order to accomplish these purposes, is to use our entire forces with the utmost energy. Any moderation shown would leave us short of our aim. Even with everything in our favor, we should be unwise not to make the greatest effort in order to make the result perfectly certain. For such effort can never produce negative results. Suppose the country suffers greatly from this, no lasting disadvantage will arise; for the greater the effort, the sooner the suffering will cease.
The moral impression created by these actions is of infinite importance. They make everyone confident of success, which is the best means for suddenly raising the nation’s morale.
6. The second rule is to concentrate our power as much as possible against that section where the chief blows are to be delivered and to incur disadvantages elsewhere, so that our chances of success may increase at the decisive point. This will compensate for all other disadvantages.
7. The third rule is never to waste time. Unless important advantages are to be gained from hesitation, it is necessary to set to work at once. By this speed a hundred enemy measures are nipped in the bud, and public opinion is won most rapidly.
Surprise plays a much greater role in strategy than in tactics. It is the most important element of victory. Napoleon, Frederick II, Gustavus Adolphus, Caesar, Hannibal, and Alexander owe the brightest rays of their fame to their swiftness.
8. Finally, the fourth rule is to follow up our successes with the utmost energy. Only pursuit of the beaten enemy gives the fruits of victory.
9. The first of these rules serves as a basis for the other three. If we have observed it, we can be as daring as possible with the last three, and yet not risk our all. For it provides us with the means of constantly creating new forces in our rear, and with fresh forces any misfortune can be remedied.
Therein lies the caution which deserves to be called wise, and not in taking each step forward with timidity.
10. Small states cannot wage wars of conquest in our times. But in defensive warfare even the means of small states are infinitely great. I am, therefore, firmly convinced that if we spare no effort to reappear again and again with new masses of troops, if we use all possible means of preparation and keep our forces concentrated at the main point, and if we, thus prepared, pursue a great aim with determination and energy, we have done all that can be done on a large scale for the strategic direction of the war. And unless we are very unfortunate in battle we are bound to be victorious to the same extent that our opponent lags behind in effort and energy.
According to Russia’s MoD Ukraine has requested 66 thousand sets of special suits and about 20 million gas masks. They have also announced Armageddon on February 24th. We’ll (hopefully) see what happens…
That’s what you get when you ignore rule 3 about not wasting time.
point 10 (above) is the danger Russia is facing and that Ukraine is managing to execute with some success, regardless of casualties – b/c Russia violated points 3, 5,7, 8.
It is no surprise to me that the US sees Russia as weak as subject to defeat long-term. I do too. What was the casualty ratio in Vietnam? The body count reports were very encouraging to those who relied on that metric. Yet the US lost. It seems to me that pro-Russia fans here are tending to be more students of Westmoreland that of Clausewitz or Napoleon. There. I finally just came out and said what I have thought needed to be said for many moons, but danced around out of a sense of politeness. Let the hate responses begin.
It has always amused me how easily people are able to call out the propaganda of the other side, but be so immersed in their own BS that they religiously believe it to be reality. Propaganda is ubiquitous to all sides once a war has begun.
No hate here brother! But I must disagree nonetheless.
The material conditions are different. Viet Nam is on the other side of the planet from us and we mostly look and think nothing like them. Not so for Russia and Ukraine. The terrain is different. The logistical trail is different. The desires of the local population is different.
If Russia tried to pull a Viet Nam in say Brasil (or even West Ukraine!) of course they would get their asses handed to them. No matter what the body count was.
Time will tell if Russia is dumb enough to fall into that trap.
Now our ruling class may very well think that Russia’s collapse is inevitable in the long run. What they don’t know – or don’t want to know – is that their time is even shorter. The basis of their power ultimately comes from extracting wealth from everywhere through loans, and that only works insofar as the developing nations are forced to take these loans.
BRICS will provide them an alternative to this system. Now, I’m not saying this is inevitable. Perhaps the liberal wing of the CPC will win the next power struggle and turn China into the new seat of Empire. Or it could happen in Russia. Still, I have faith that the populist forces in all nations will ultimately prevail.
Hi Randolorian,
Totally agree with you, long term, on the global economic front; though IMHO, it won’t happen as quickly as you think (it could, however).
The immediate battlefield situation – I do think Russia would prevail via slow grind, all things being equal, but NATO has a few tricks up their sleeve that could change things.
I consider myself a “pro-Russia fan” but I agree with you. The Russian telegram channels are far more nuanced than most of my Western fellow Russia-fanbois. It’s like everything must be repeated, reinterpreted and cropped so that it fits with whatever some pro-Russian guru has said. It’s the same on both sides.
Oh, and the article recommended by max424 above is definitely worth reading.
Gog,
Really?!?. Do tell, please. What are those nuances. Truly interested.
To be clear, I am not anti-Russia. Simply pointing out there is hyperbole and propaganda on all sides of this conflict and, mostly, I just don’t think that Russia is as clever as ultra-fanboys make her out to be. I think Russia was put into a tough spot and felt she had to act without fully planning or preparing. I think she could lose this thing if not careful. Mostly though, object to the idea that Russia is going to save the US by humiliating the pedophilic-satanists that have taken over our government, while patriots watch it all unfold in high def from the comfort of their sofas, beer in one hand and a bag of chips in the other.
Finally, of course, am totally against the anarchists and socialists who hate America and are thus stupidly and blindly cheering on Russia and have no idea of what they are talking about when it comes to economics and military matters.
Where to start…
Russians are not afraid of saying that they’re scared of NATO. Of course not. Everyone would be. They all acknowledge that HIMARS have made a big impact on the battlefield, likewise with the masses of artillery, tanks etc. It’s regularly discussed that Ukraine has partially superior intelligence with satellites, Awacs, etc. The lack of an equivalent of NATO’s “Nettle” where target coordinates can be transmitted (via the US) to artillery is a popular subject. Another persisting question is why Ukraine’s air defense hasn’t been destroyed.
There are of course all kinds of grievances about flaws in the military but that’s more SNAFU.
In case of failures pretty much all channels take the troops’ side against the officers/general staff. If troops are needlessly killed there’s always the demand that the officer should punished the same way as a soldier who would refuse to follow order. I mention this because this “we’re all in the same boat’-sentiment resembles what you typically read about WW2.
However, the biggest difference is that there is some, should we say, “soul” in many of the posts. It’s not the endless rah rah you’ll find on Western pro-Russia and pro-Ukraine sites. Similarly, the unshakable belief and determination to defeat NATO and free their people (as they see it) despite potentially huge losses is quite impressive.
There are of course other things I don’t agree with. Sometimes the Soviet Union is Russia, other times it’s definitely NOT Russia. Whatever suits the situation. And the glorification of the 2014 militias doesn’t vibe with me.
My everyday go to channel is https://t.me/s/swodki. I’ve bookmarked the translation:
Goto https://translate.yandex.com/?lang=ru-en
Type: https://t.me/s/swodki
And click Translate site.
There are many other channels and sites. A lot of material comes from rybar. Unfortunately translations are often difficult to understand.
Eric,
Where to start…
Russians are not afraid of saying that they’re scared of NATO. Of course not. Everyone would be. They all acknowledge that HIMARS have made a big impact on the battlefield, likewise with the masses of artillery, tanks etc. It’s regularly discussed that Ukraine has partially superior intelligence with satellites, Starlink, etc. The lack of an equvivalent of NATO’s “Nettle” where target coordinates can be transmitted (via the US) to artillery is a popular subject. Another persisting question is why Ukraine’s air defense hasn’t been destroyed.
There are of course all kinds of grievances about flaws in the military but that’s more SNAFU.
In case of failures pretty much all channels take the troops’ side against the officers/general staff. If troops are needlessly killed there’s always the demand that the officer should punished the same way as a soldier who would refuse to follow order. I mention this because this “we’re all in the same boat’-sentiment resembles what you typically read about WW2.
Cont..
Russians have been saying they’re VERY concerned about NATO expansion for no less than 25 years. NATO should have listened.
…
However, the biggest difference is that there is some, should we say, “soul” in many of the posts. It’s not the endless rah rah you’ll find on Western pro-Russia and pro-Ukraine sites. Similarly, the unshakable belief and determination to defeat NATO and free their people (as they see it) despite potentially huge losses is quite impressive.
There are of course other things I don’t agree with. Sometimes the Soviet Union is Russia, other times it’s definitely NOT Russia. Whatever suits the situation. And the glorification of the 2014 militias doesn’t vibe with me.
My everyday go to channel is https://t.me/s/swodki. I’ve bookmarked the translation:
Goto https://translate.yandex.com/?lang=ru-en
type: https://t.me/s/swodki
and click translate site.
There are many other channels and sites. A lot of material comes from rybar. Unfortunately translations are often difficult to understand. But it has actually improved.
Thx, Gog. I’ll check out the links.
Your report is welcome, but not surprising. The Russians have always impressed me as a tough, practical and spiritual people; perhaps so realistic as to be fatalistic. I believe they have a lot of fight in them.
I am a fan of Tolstoy – but also like Dostoyevsky.
Gog,
As an aside, my wife’s parents used to have Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn over for coffee and discussions about economics, politics, government and such. My wife used to talk to him. Said he was a very interesting and kind man. Didn’t meet him myself.
As a young man I read around 10 books of the most famous Russian Greats. The side character Levin in Anna Karenina is probably the literary character who has resonated the most with myself/my world view anytime. It’s just recently that I learned that Tolstoy modeled this character after himself. So yes, I’m a Tolstoy fan too.
I must admit that I spend way too much time on the Internet instead of reading these days. But a while ago I watched the 8 hour long Russian War and Peace movie from the 60s. Not even Hollywood was able to (or interested in) making such a grand production.
Interesting remark about Solzhenitsyn!
Yes, but western propaganda is the master and Ukrainian propaganda, its illegitimate offspring.
Or, it’s the other way around.
Or, they’re simply on par and deserve each other.
“4. Public opinion is won through great victories and the **occupation of the enemy’s capital.**”
Whoa, easy on the double emphasis!
Too funny.
I find it remarkable that the most recent example of the value of taking an enemy’s capital and thereby ending a “conflict” in the most rapid fashion possible, didn’t happen back in ancient times, or the medieval era, or during the Age of Napoleon, or in Berlin in 1945, but in March and April of last year.
By no later than 6 weeks into Putin’s extra special military operation the UkieNazi regime was ready to quit. That they were not allowed to by their PuppetMasters is neither here no there. Their capital was threatened, and that made them amenable to signing on the first dotted line that was put in front of them
How quickly the world’s most brilliant military analysts have forgotten the panic that was rippling through the West in those days, all because little ole Kiev was three-quarters encircled. All seemed lost, and the only thing that could possibly stop the Rooskie juggernaught from taking Kiev was to wage a battle for air supremacy over the skies of Ukraine the likes of which has never been seen.
Nobody in the West gave a shit about anything else, Kherson falls on Day 3, so what, Melitopol on Day 4, who cares, Sumy and Kharkov surrounded and by-passed within a fortnight, whoop-de-doo. As for the Dobass? F+ck it, there is a Big Russian Column to the west of Kiev doing not much of anything, and we must risk nuclear war to stop it!
Might be of interest. Simplicius the Thinker hashes out Col. Macgregor’s idea of the “umbrella offensive,” only in much greater detail.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/all-seeing-eye-can-russia-break-through
If the offensive is impossible in this era, because the enemy has say, 16 space linked HIMARS that prevent such a thing, why not siege his capital instead.
The beauty of a siege, especially one that involves dual lined fortifications; it is you that is on the defensive.
The enemy must attack your fortifications if it wants to win, as the only other alternatives, are to starve to death or capitulate unconditionally.*
*If you are ruthless. If you are magnanimous, you can offer conditions, even generous ones if you are so inclined. The options are all yours.
lol.
Double emphasis too much, eh? Good thing I didn’t insert the comment that I was going to; something about giving up major gains, like Kherson. Way over the top 🙁
Good points about a siege of Kiev. Let’s see if Macgregor is right and the Russians are going to launch a massive attack. Maybe it will feature such a siege. Macgregor is a classically trained military man. He sees the Russian build-up outside Ukraine as pointing to only one possibility – a massive attack. IMO, the Russians might be bluffing again, hoping for a settlement. NATO sure called their bluff right the first time. But therein lies the danger – as I keep saying. NATO sees Russia failing to perform per Clausewitz classical doctrine and bluffing. NATO reasonably assumes Russia lacks the will to fight and lacks resources too – NATO could be very wrong, but their assumption is still reasonable. Once the Ukros all wiped out (any day now, lol) NATO will step in and really turn up the heat (or so they think). The result will be WW3.
Max424,
That link to Simplicius76 substack is superb. Everyone making the case that Russia will prevail because lots of artillery and NATO ain’t about shit! should read it. Learned a few thing myself. Like I said, NATO has a lot of tricks up their sleeve that can definitely cause Russia at least a lot of pain and maybe defeat. Now ad d to what Simplicius something like 150,000 NATO troops + all of their capabilities. They really could push their way to Crimea in WW3.
“Once the Ukros are all wiped out … ”
Been wiped out three times already. It’s the hardiest army there ever was.
re: Simplicius76
Yeah I don’t know where he’s been all war, as least as far as detailed and extensive written analysis goes. I thought he just hosted warporn videos on his Bitchute channel.
Surprisingly objective, even to the point where he will criticize Putin – on rare occasions – for being a softie.toward the West.
Thinks this softness is a result of the President’s Orthodox beliefs, whereas I’m inclined to believe it has everything to do with the fact that western banks have financial tentacles miles deep into every part of the Russian economic system, including their MIC, the one that is working 8 days a week to provide the motherland with the tools necessary to achieve a swift and decisive stalemate.
Kidding. Not about the banks, no matter how powerful you think you are, you must tread carefully at all times where they are concerned, but about the stalemate part that is. The “offensives” are coming, I have faith that this is so.
Is the ground frozen yet?
If they were ever to push their way to Crimea with any success, the nukes start flying. Don’t doubt it for a minute.
According to the documentary made by a Hungarian civil and minority rights NGO (a real grassroots one, not a “george serial” kind of astroturf NGO) over 35 thousand of Ukrainan KIA’s bodies are “stored” in railway cars and accounted as MIA, slowly releasing to families for proper burial, to avoid paying reparations and pensions (to widows) and well as scandal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTlD6Supx1Y
That number of bodies (in wooden coffins) would take approximately 350 railroad boxcars. Not so sure the Ukies could hide 350 boxcars, reeking with the odor of decaying bodies. Sooner or later the news would get out and the locals would be enraged.
It’s cold. No reeking. Put them on flat bed cars, stacked high and covered with a tie down tarp.
Then again, could be Russians in the coffins and the Russians are making propaganda out of their own dead. Who knows?
Maybe there are 35,000 Americans in the coffins? Who knows?
Do not think that only your imagination has no limit.
The bodies are in bags and the stench is unbearable, see the video above. Word got out.
About media delusion. https://www.kp.ru/daily/27466/4721948/
Rosgvardia discovered American USAID training manuals in the LPR
Rosgvardeytsy found another evidence of US leadership in the destabilization of the eastern regions of Ukraine
In the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), the special forces of the Russian Guard discovered evidence of the systematic work of the destructive international structures of the United States to destabilize the political situation in the East of Ukraine in the period from 2014 to 2022. This is the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
“In the documents that ended up in the hands of the special forces soldiers, the heads of the regions of Ukraine are given detailed instructions for organizing work to discredit the Russian Federation in the eyes of the local population. This activity was carried out, among other things, through the distribution of various printed publications that distort the real picture of what is happening in Ukraine and deliberately expose Russia as an aggressor country, ”the press service of the Russian Guard says.
Ukrainian officials built their work on the basis of manuals and reference books published under the editorship of representatives of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as at the expense of this organization. Manuals advise officials to blame Russia and Russian citizens for all the troubles and troubles in their settlements.
“The materials of American benefits pushed for the decentralization of Ukraine, the deliberate incitement of ethnic hatred and hatred against the Russian Federation, and in work with youth, under the guise of ideas of gender equality, the values of the LGBT community were promoted,” the study says.
The materials found by the National Guard have been handed over to the competent authorities.
The activity of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Donbas was confirmed by the LPR administration. Similar destructive materials were also found in youth and sports camps on the seashore in 2008 in Georgia.
Recall that earlier, in the course of carrying out service and combat tasks, the National Guard discovered evidence of the work of OSCE observers in the interests of the Ukrainian special services.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was created under the US government in 1961 at the initiative of John F. Kennedy. Officially, the Agency provides “emergency humanitarian assistance and assistance in preventing conflicts in more than a hundred countries around the world.” USAID is part of the US federal government.
In 2019, USAID released the anti-Russian program “To Counter the Malicious Influence of the Kremlin.” Officially, funds are allocated to “counter disinformation” in the media space, as well as “assistance to Russia’s near and distant neighbors in reducing their energy and economic dependence.” In fact, the program is aimed at combating Russian media that work for a foreign audience, in particular, the RT television company and the Sputnik agency.
This is how these people lead, by lies and manipulations. Just look at the commandant of the USMC who blamed his recruiting numbers on Southerners and their belief in myths about the vaccine. The leader of the USMC just smeared every single southerner in his command, and in the country. There’s zero accountability with him, or any of the clowns running our country. There were also zero Senators or Congressmen who called his ass out. Everything is everyone else’s fault and you can score extra points by using divisive language against your own men. The Army is thankfully actually trying to figure out it’s recruiting problems with real data, but also being led by an antagonist woke jackass. These are also the same idiots who let Peter Zeihan tell one lie after another to our troops.
Why are they lying?
I am going to offer two explanations that work hand in hand:
1) The West after the cold war turned into a s*it show powered by a combination of colonialism and convenience. We decided to stop making stuff and stop getting educated and instead it was cheaper and more efficient to live off our dominant position in the world, by exploiting others while slowly converting them to “democracy”. Nobody of consequence put up a fight so we could do it. However, this resulted in the destruction of our industries and having no competition, everything became about easy money and a widespread convenience bonanza at every level. Lazy, stupid, rude, brazen, dishonest – all normal in this situation. The game became more about appearances than about substance, again at every level. Our economy became about social media, squeezing wealth from convenience hacks, inventing whole new fields of economy based on the above (is “overlanding” really an industry? Yes, apparently it is, look it up).
2) Jealousy and weakness. When someone real and stronger than you appears on your turf – you have a few choices. You can avoid a fight and lie and be underhanded and goad others to fight, you can fight yourself or you can admit defeat. We are weak so we will not fight ourselves, we will never admit defeat, which leaves 404 and all the lies….
Larry, thank you so much for pointing out the honorable, dignified way in which the Wagner Group soldiers treat the Ukrainian dead. (A very valuable insight the world would never get from the lying, vile, liberal Western media.) Doesn’t surprise me, and makes me respect Vladimir Putin and the Russian people all the more.
Wagner follows what amounts to a modern version of the Spartan warrior code, which includes respect for the enemy as a fellow warrior who fought until death overtook him, regardless of who he might have been before the war.
The Spartan influence can be seen across the board, from command structures, to the extreme discipline, to their behaviour interfacing with each other and outsiders.
Saw a video interview of a Mali (IIRC) SF commander who’s troops were being trained by Wagner. He expected some “super-warrior cowboys”, and was surprised to get quiet-spoken, polite men, equally respectful of his people from the lowest rank to the highest. He was surprised, but that behaviour is fundamentally Spartan. There is no hierarchy in the normal sense. The basic fighter is equal to his Commander. They just have different jobs.
I often wonder if Russia has co-opted CIA/MI6 intelligence assets in Russia and is now actively feeding the US and UK crap, as I have never seen a greater gap between reality and the “narrative”.
Why are so many in the West lying about the deaths in Ukraine?
I suspect most believe what they are saying is true. They have it from the “authorities.” They hear it repeated over and over and it is internalized as “the truth.”
A few well placed people know the truth and lie intentionally. It keeps the war going and guards them from appearing as blood soaked monsters: which they surely are.
I would add the caveat that most people believe a whole host of falsehoods that were inculcated in them through the culture. One is always surprised at the naivety of others but blind to their phoney beliefs.
OT, but Mike Whitney walked back most of his very critical piece that he wrote a couple of days after Sy Hersh released his report on the Nordstream bombing. Worth reading. I know Larry probably doesn’t want us proles crapping on other writers from other venues, Unz in this case, but Whitney’s first piece last week really pissed me off.
I couldn’t figure out how in a couple of days he ‘debunked’ Sy’s work which took Sy months to bring to print. Well, he wrote a retraction. I thought it deserved a post. In any case, Sy and Larry certainly do.. Here’s his retraction, it covers most of his widely read post: https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/correction-what-hersh-got-right-and-i-got-wrong/
There are a few facts that showed me what to believe on casualty rates. One is the artillery preponderance. The Russians have that, and no one even argues. And while we Americans pride ourselves (or used to) as a Nation of Riflemen? Show me a war where gunfire killed more men than artillery? Even our recent debacles in the sandbox were the same. Here, go blunder around on patrol until you draw fire. Then we will kill them with a drone or air cover. AKA substitute artillery. So, it is just reality. Russia has 10X more artillery? Ukraine will have 10x more casualties.
Second is the aversion to casualties the Russians have. They have a modern problem. People are no longer willing to die for their country. You can have a mobilization, but it has to be supported by the populace. And part of the Russian slow game was getting the people behind the war. And they have done that. By letting the Ukrainians show their lunacy, and by keeping their casualties down. They will fall back and retreat if they need to. To save people. Contrast with the Ukrainians. Herd 16- to 60-year-old draftees at gunpoint into every point that can be made into an Alamo. And leave them there to die.
That is reality. And the US government is doing what they do. They lie about the casualties because they know the sheep will believe. Our populace is so fucking stupid they believe anything they hear. And question nothing. A bigger question would be why the government would tell the truth.
Imagine if they told the truth. Heh, the shale oil is a Ponzi of rapidly depleting nothing. We are so in debt we cannot build nuclear reactors. Not even counting the environmental loons. We owe so much money the only thing keeping the clown car going is cheap energy. The minute that goes, the Ponzi explodes. So, no matter how much or your money, or how many of your children we kill? We need to topple the most resource rich country in the world, Russia, so we can steal their assets. Now shut the fuck up, and get ready to die. How would that go over?
Curt,
I think that is a fair back of the envelop assessment. I tend to also think the KIA figures of +/- 200,000 Ukros versus +/- 20,000 Russians is a about right.
That said, I have nagging questions about some of that story.
1. The Ukros are holding a line that is around a 1,000 KM long. With what?
2. Old men and boys are making the Russians fight for every square yard. They don’t appear to be surrendering en masse. How is that possible? Boys and old men are not being worn down by being cold, hungry and under constant artillery fires for months? Does that sound right to you? How do you explain it?
3. Ukros are, apparently, able to transfer units from quiet sections of the front to the hot spots – and/or they have ampler reserve forces. This is, at least in part, a failure of the Russians to control the roads and rails, but it seems to point to me the Ukros mysteriously still have a fair number of troops.
4. The Ukros have some unknown, but arguably not insignificant, number of troops being trained in various NATOstan countries.
5. Other stuff – like where is the Ru air force? Ukro AD systems still grounding it?
Maybe the bottom is going to fall out next week for the Ukros – we’ve been hearing that is the case from pro-Russians for months now. Maybe next week really is The Week. But I have those nagging questions.
There are a few facts that showed me what to believe on casualty rates. One is the artillery preponderance. The Russians have that, and no one even argues. And while we Americans pride ourselves (or used to) as a Nation of Riflemen? Show me a war where gunfire killed more men than artillery? Even our recent debacles in the sandbox were the same. Here, go blunder around on patrol until you draw fire. Then we will kill them with a drone or air cover. AKA substitute artillery. So, it is just reality. Russia has 10X more artillery? Ukraine will have 10x more casualties.
Second is the aversion to casualties the Russians have. They have a modern problem. People are no longer willing to die for their country. You can have a mobilization, but it has to be supported by the populace. And part of the Russian slow game was getting the people behind the war. And they have done that. By letting the Ukrainians show their lunacy, and by keeping their casualties down. They will fall back and retreat if they need to. To save people. Contrast with the Ukrainians. Herd 16- to 60-year-old draftees at gunpoint into every point that can be made into an Alamo. And leave them there to die.
That is reality. And the US government is doing what they do. They lie about the casualties because they know the sheep will believe. Our populace is so fucking stupid they believe anything they hear. And question nothing. A bigger question would be why the government would tell the truth.
Imagine if they told the truth. Heh, the shale oil is a Ponzi of rapidly depleting nothing. We are so in debt we cannot build nuclear reactors. Not even counting the environmental loons. We owe so much money the only thing keeping the clown car going is cheap energy. The minute that goes, the Ponzi explodes. So, no matter how much of your money, or how many of your children we kill? We need to topple the most resource rich country in the world, Russia, so we can steal their assets. Now shut the fuck up and get ready to die. How would that go over?
Under an alternative screen persona (ie, name my sainted mother bestowed on me) I play the devil’s @ssho- I mean advocate on a number of Quora anti Russian hate sites .. which, BTW, are utter corruptions of the original intent of Quora
One is run by a person who constantly passes off ISW “reports” as gospel truth. So, I finally called him7 on it saying …
“Are you speaking about the former ISU .. Institute for the Spreading of Ukrobullsh*t? Yeah, everything they’ve said has been thoroughly debunked, all the way down to each and every comma and semicolon. Thats why they had to change their name
The Western Media is a propaganda tool of Western financial interests pushing for this global conflict……..after seeing how effective the COVID PSYOP was…how mass psychosis of the population was achieved through mass media pushing the same constant confusing narrative….now we have the same modus operandi…. constant unrelenting mass media inputs espousing the same false narrative…..but a narrative they need for plausible deniability when they initiate a false flag…. the reasoning will be Russia is on the ropes and desperate like a wild animal…liable to do the unthinkable. The first horseman was given a Corona…. crown and was on a white horse denoting conquest….the next horse was red denoting War….the next a black horse representing famine and the Fourth horse….behold a pale horse…but in actual fact it is green in Greek translation….they are trying to carry out a series of events imprinted subconsciously in the minds of Western civilization….they created the coronavirus…. starting total war…. buying up all the farmland and shutting down food production under the auspice of the green agenda and finally death with a green tinge. Btw….I identify as an Odinist in case you thinking I’m bible thumping.
The craving for power to control one’s fellow human beings underlies what you are saying. The refusal to live and let live and at the same time pursue a policy of self-defense, a policy of voluntary trade with whomever we want to trade, and a policy of respecting the person, the individual, you and me and our natural desire to control our own life. The nation-state has had little long range success as a framework for peace and freedom, mainly I think because it is a monopolistic top down command, where so called laws come down to us from the political elite who force us to do their bidding, rather than a legal system that evolves from we the people, that is based on actual harm to real people done by real people as decided in courts of law, what we know as common law. So that before you can coerce other people you have to show that they have committed real harm to other persons and their rightful property.
Again, nation states are not prone to live and let live, are not prone to respect or promote true self-rule especially with their own people. Even among the most benevolent, they know what’s best for us and are willing to threaten us with “the law” to achieve their goals and to force us support them so they can achieve that which is “best for us”. The individual is simply a cog in the machine. But a true community is peopled by political equals who are ends in themselves.
I look at The New York Times every day just to see what is the latest propaganda from Big Brother. I’ve found that it’s pretty reliable to believe the opposite of whatever they say, or, in the case of Sy Hersh’s report, whatever they don’t say.
From today’s NYT:
Moscow’s Military Capabilities Are in Question After Disastrous Battle
Russia’s failed attack on Vuhledar, viewed as the beginning of an expected offensive, renewed doubts of its ability to sustain a large-scale ground assault.
Accounts from Ukrainian and Western officials, Ukrainian soldiers, captured Russian soldiers and Russian military bloggers, as well as video and satellite images, paint a picture of a faltering Russian campaign that continues to be plagued by battlefield dysfunction.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/15/world/europe/russia-military-vuhledar-ukraine.html
There is, of course, no firsthand reporting; instead, we get the usual mishmash of pronouncements by Ukrainian/Western “officials”, “video and satellite images” from God knows who, and unverifiable tales from “Russian” blogs which, for all we know, are run by the CIA.
We can believe reporting from what we think are reliable sources. We can reject reporting from filthy propaganda rags like the NYT. But that’s about it.
This is the problem when you are living in the most heavily propagandized society in the history of the world.
“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.”
~Noam Chomsky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpbq6nGbs50&t=193s General…you go down there. You won’t find tribesmen and goat herders. You’ll find well equipped motivated Russian soldiers….with hypersonic missiles.
Not only lying about Ukraine’s casualties, but also about American mercenaries. Russian news channel Vesti published a CNN video https://www.vesti.ru/article/3207862
There was a video of the liquidation of American mercenaries in Artemovsk [Bakhmut]
The American television channel CNN published a video of the defeat of a car with American mercenaries – a minibus was destroyed in Artemovsk by an anti-tank guided missile.
The authors of the story claim that the victims of the attack were, allegedly, medical volunteers. However, in fact, there were foreign legionnaires in the minibus. Landsknechts often act under the guise of humanitarian organizations. In particular, there are cases when snipers acted under the guise of volunteers.
The story also mentions one of the dead, Pete Reed. According to journalists. in the past, he served in the US Marine Corps.
Judging by the date on the video, the minibus was struck on the second of February.
By now, I think you can assume with 100% confidence that any foreign merc fighting for Ukraine is a ‘humanitarian aid worker’.
First and foremost…prayers for the killed and wounded UKR and RUS fighting men…they are no doubt fighting for what they think is “right” and I respect the fact that they talked the talk AND walked the walk.
US/NATO politicians have UKR and RUS blood on their hands…not that they give a shit…It’s easy to be brave from distance…they are all cowards. Karma is the eternal bitch and whatever level of hell those politicians wind up in I am sure it will be well earned. We will not see them in any warrior or patriot heaven–at least I like to believe so.
I watched a COL MacGregor video a couple of days ago and he made the point that “our politicians have a hard time admitting that they are wrong…”…the same can be said about the MSM and columnists like O’Donnell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnut-E_eEM0
Twill be interesting to see if any of them will have enough integrity to admit/acknowledge a RUS “victory” WHEN it occurs–I doubt it.
Ukraine is populated by mostly Orthodox Christians, but is controlled by Jewish oligarchs, politicians and senior bureaucrats.
It is a tragedy what is happening to Ukraine, but not surprising given the insatiable desire of the Israel/America cabal to retain its global dominance.
If you thought the Austin & Milley Show was a laugher, along comes the 3rd Stooge, Ben Wallace to add to the merriment.
The UK’s DefSec told BBC’s Radio 4 that:
– Russia has committed 97% of its entire army to the war in UA
– It’s lost 2/3 of it’s tanks in combat
– The Russian Army has lost ~40% of its combat capability
– Russia is using WW1 human wave tactics and has suffered WW1 levels of losses.
Finally, he says that on account of Russia’s weakened position Europe’s security has actually improved despite having emptied its arsenals.
So, not only has “Russia lost strategically, operationally and tactically” it’s got little combat power left.
This ain’t ordinary official lying. It looks more like prepping the media space for a false flag. The obvious cover story being “A desperate Russia resorts to desperate measures”.
This is a live link so you may have to do some scrolling to find all the above points.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-64634760?pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:65575994-55a5-46e6-b6ca-79868bbd1bb7&pinned_post_asset_id=63ec99092e179876cd7c1d85&pinned_post_type=share
Ben Wallace is more of a comedian than BoJo and Zelensky combined.
The guy’s a one man walking, talking Monty Python skit.
This is a method is referred to as ‘accusation in a mirror’. Joseph Goebbels 1934:
“The cleverest trick used in propaganda against Germany during the war was to accuse Germany of what our enemies themselves were doing.”
Dear Larry,
I have been a reader for quite some time. I live in the UK, so I rely on people like you to let me know what is really going on in this conflict, especially as my own media have become a bunch of war-mongering clowns. Your work is much appreciated.
I have been reading a lot about the coming Russian offensive, from people with genuine professional knowledge like Col. MacGregor. I understand that there are a number of reasons why the Russian forces would wait, as they really do hold the upper hand so why take a risk?
But for a while now, I have been studying the daily weather forcasts in Ukraine and it doesn’t seem to me that it has been a particularly cold winter. There have been short periods when the weather at night has gone to -10 c for a day or two in Kharkiv, but then it has usually softened to +/- 4 c for a day or more. From what I have read from you guys, it seems that it would take 10 days or more of 0c or less for the ground to freeze to the hardness required, and this is in Kharkiv, in the north-east of the country.
I can imagine that for the Russian forces the worst situation would be to press on with a massive offensive, only to find that days later their heavy equiptment is bogged down in sludge and mud. At that point they might be vulnerable to even limited Ukraine artillery and rocket/missile strikes.
It therefore seems very rational to me that they wait, particularly when they hold such an advantage in the current situation. The artillery battles are one-sided, it is up to the Ukraine/NATO forces to move reinforcements at hast over difficult terrain, the depletion of ammunition is causing concern and rupture within NATO, and the uncertainty and waiting seems to be affecting the moral and cohesion of their opponents.
So as far as I can see, the lack of a full scale offensive on multiple fronts isn’t a sign of weakness or fear, it is a sign of confidence, logic and increasing military power.
But then again, I have checked the weather forecasts through British websites, so perhaps even that is wishful thinking on their parts.
Please keep up the good work, and best wishes
Thanks for the kind words of support. You’ll notice that the Russians have been very tight lipped over the last year. They will speak with their actions. While warmer weather will limit their movements the Ukrainians will face the same problem. Russia’s advantage in air power gives it some options to surmount that difficulty.
All the psyops articles are to persuade Russia and Russians to quit and West and Ukraine to continue fight. Can’t expect accurate reporting in war, especially by nations who wrote the book on “manufacturing consent.” We are worse than Pravda ever was and they will lie until they can’t anymore. Biden told Afghan president to continue lying how well Afghan Army was doing as he boarded plane with suitcases of cash for Dubai. The day Russia takes over Ukraine they will stop.
It is depressing that people are still shocked and mystified that utter nonsense is written for the American Empire media. Every narrative is supported by easily disproved nonsense.
Why? There are no negative consequences for lying as long as it is in support of the Empire’s goals. In fact, the lying is richly rewarded.
People have always done all kinds of things for status and money.
For anyone who follows actual Russian media and social media these claims are particularly hilarious. The Russian doomer cult is huge. Any setback, even one which turns out to be mostly Ukrainian propaganda, is treated like the end of the world. They want specific generals fired on the regular; they will spend huge amounts of time dissecting why and how leadership (usually not Putin) is corrupt and incompetent.
If Russia were losing anywhere near what western sources claim, there would be hell to pay.
Mr. O’Donnell’s gets his information from the British Ministry of Defense who in turn gets it from the Ukrainians.
That has been the MSM source for a year. Read the KyivPost or Ukraine defense website and you will read about their war topic two or three days later in a (cut and paste fashion) MSM article.
@Eric & max424
Agreed that Simplicius76’s paper is a must read.
Nevertheless, missing from all the discussion is the Gerasimov Doctrine’s fundamental tenet that military action should never comprise more than about 20% of the nation’s total effort in executing its grand national strategy.
The other 80% is made up of efforts in economic development, finance, internal socio-political development, geo-politics and international diplomacy. Military action exceeds 20% only in extremis. When the state itself is at risk and military force can be used to reduce that risk.
Military action remains secondary to the other 80% at all other times, and its pace and intensity is set to augment and support developments in the other spheres of activity. From a national strategy perspective, there is no advantage for the military to run ahead of the other developments and is to be avoided. It further means that sometimes fighting to a draw, or even a loss is more advantageous in the greater scheme than an outright victory.
I’m as guilty as the next guy of looking at the war in isolation, but according to Gerasimov that’s like looking at the world through 10ft of 1in pipe. The world is at a pivotal point in history and the war in Ukraine may be the fulcrum, but what sort of fulcrum the Kremlin’s braintrust is trying to create and how long they want it to remain the fulcrum is utterly unknown to us.
Ah, c’mon. He’d not be the first to assume a comparison to the corruption in Ukraine and in any African nation of your choice. It’s been done so often I’ve lost count. Besides, Turchinov, Porkshanks and even Zelensky sort of remind me of Idi Amin on multiple fronts.
@HMS Terror – I don’t want to praise you once again for the depth of understanding, but I can’t resist. Don’t take it as flattery, please.
Thanks for your kind words.
It’s easy to remain unflattered.
All I’m doing is trying to join the dots that others have done the heavy lifting to unearth.
I had to think that through 🙂 Very prescient
Very hard, even impossible at times to figure out who’s responding to who here.
Penicillin for Ukraine. Excellent piece by Mark Sleboda.
https://youtu.be/a_Y5uTeIiEc