Keith Kellogg thinks he will need 100 days to decide if it is possible to wrest some kind of fig-leaf victory for the West from a war which Russia has already won. In 100 days, the AFU will suffer 170,000 more casualties, if averages hold (and that’s low-balling the current averages, which run from 1700-2000 per day.) Men, materiel, weapons, resources, maybe even hastily trained teenagers: is it worth it to burn through all that—?
Witnesses to this conflict are stuck waiting for another distant timeline geared to the Western calendar: another vague future date sufficiently distant to drive the news-cycle week after week & afford all manner of opportunities for Zelya to posture & preen and perhaps “humiliate” VVP w/ ATACMS on Russian soil.
One hundred days is time enough for Kellogg to recognize that whatever strategic interests Collective Biden and the U.S.-led OTAN thought existed for in Ukraine have been pulverized, as if under intense shelling, which isn’t going to stop just because Kellogg needs to give the matter 100 days. Kellogg probably already knows there’s little reason not to merely walk away.
But a conflict that has been heavy on the pretense seems to need that 100 days of lemon-scented marinade.
For the optics.
Plus it'll take 100 days for the Duolingo language lessons to take effect. Secretary General Mark Rutte has recommended that OTAN members learn Russian.
It occurred to me that the so-callled Trump plan to threaten escalation to force peace [if this is true] needs some sort of threat behind it. So this could be one. But in any event if Team Trump has been briefed properly they will realise that their poker hand is 7 high. A couple more aces will help in any negotiations. But Mr T is playing this game without indicating in advance whether he will fold or raise and keeping us all guessing.
2. the full cost of repairs to Nord Stream prepaid, whether or not it ever is used again.
3. Compensation for every death and injury to every Russian because of the unnecessary war. NATO countries can pay this bill.
4. the reduction of the rest of Rump Ukraine to the status of Germany or Japan with Russian bases to keep the peace.
Oh, and the Hawaiian Islands. Just as a reminder to keep on your side of the fence. And Denmark, since without Greenland, Denmark will just be a token, but a nice keepsake.
Seems to me the main lesson that we in the West have missed is simple. The longer this goes on the stronger Russia gets and the weaker we become. Let me carefully define we.
The lower 90% of western "civilization." A case can also be made that wringing money and demanding loyalty out of every source, without regard to ethics, the future or ones reputation may increase olig-wealth, but in the long run, destroy their strength as well.
When we examine the health of our Western alliance, NATO, my big question is simple. Do the boys think they are safe from the US blowing up their Nordstream-like resources? We can examine the Gaza and conclude, what if any rules apply? How will they treat us when we finally say, "hey wait a minute!"
Two more questions. If Russia is such an existential threat why haven't the NATO risen to the challenge and provided enough shells? Finally, why did Germany and essentially all of Europe make deals with Russia in the first place?
bravo. kindred spirits. it is MY country, and you know there is a famous Russian line of poetry that was translated as, "I love my country, but it is a strange kind of love." I so believed in the ideals all my life until Kosovo, where I was when it all went down serving the head of Mission, a former State boss of mine. I liked him a lot, but he was not the same guy in Kosovo. There he quickly became a press whore, who pretty much ignored his staff in order to get air time and pal time. Meanwhile, all the shit the glorious west could hand out to celebrate the new "Rules of the NATO Road" they had introduced only moments before the act was going down on mostly civilian heads in Serbia. And I testify first hand that the Albanians fled for their lives not from the make-believe humanitarian catastrophe, but from NATO bombs. It changed my perspective at first slowly and then more rapidly as one insight led to another. And here I am, loving America with a strange kind of love. I guess I'm a Decembrist.
I think that is way too dangerous for anybody in NATO. If they learn Russian, they may actually begin to understand Russia and we wouldn't follow the lead of such xenophobic creeps as those who pretend to lead the Baltic states and Poland.
While I was in Germany 85-91 - we did learn a little Russian; of which I can only remember "Stop, hands up or I'll shoot" and "Kiss my ass".
By the end I did wonder exactly who was a threat to who? On hearing of the collapse of the Soviet Union shortly after I returned to Canada; I thought it was great news. Now everyone can be friends and trade with Russia. But it didn't quite work out that way unfortunately.
I hope the war ends soon. The brave young Soldiers of the Ukrainian Army are really dying for nothing now. I also hope NATO collapses soon. It really is a bloated cold war behemoth of beaucracy and waste.
and for "hands up" I remember not just the Russian "ruki verkh!" but the German, "Hände hoch!" I thought the whole world was intoxicated at the idea that the great Behemoth Communism had fallen; I thought, great for the Russian people, hurrah! But as you say, nah. The arms salesmen just saw a lifetime opportunity open up in the former Warsaw Pact and hence NATO expansion was inevitable.
They were so busy snatching up scraps, in the 90's, they couldn't organize a proper conquest of Russia.
Now they expect all their friends to send fodder for the grinder, after thoroughly demonstrating to the Russians that we have zero plans to ever treat them with any humanity what so ever.
The only option presented amounts to, would you rather die blind folded and tie wrapped or fighting? Anyone with any knowledge at all, knows the Russian answer to that question.
They don't even need to learn Russian. There are plenty of Russian sources in English. It's not about them "learning" it's about them completely refusing to learn anything but their own "visualization boards."
I think VVP and his ring want the war going on too for various reasons, but above all to save Ukraine from the west fascist vampyres and settle the secular Ukranian pain in the ass for at least a century if not more. The new Ukranians are being taught and prepared in the Russian rear guard, including the army and police new officers and even new politicians. Remember there are +6 million Ukranians already living in Russia. It is sad to admit that the nazified Ukranian youth will probably be the cradle of stay behind Gladio terrorism for the years to come. Thats the burden Russia will have to pay during the next decade. I am sure many Russians are happy to reduce that threat to the max.
VVP is, perhaps unfortunately, not the sadistic warmonger the West would like to paint him as. He's a dove--one too quick to grasp olive branches and too credulous to deal with the West's raw evil toward his people. He's a much harder man on traitors: those in Russia who have or are willing to betray the Motherland; he understands what to do with those, it when it comes to foreigners that he seems to fall for "friends".
It's a rather common Russian problem, speaking historically. The greatest fear seems to be that Putin will give away anything to the West without fully achieving Russia's (not Putin's) goals. Fortunately for them, there seems to be a strong current within both the military and popular sentiment to finish the job. But, the anxiety is real and valid.
Before one had to die for men like Sargon, Darius the Great, Leonidas, Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Julius Caesar or Genghis Khan. That probably wasn't the ideal situation, but at least they were men, and they were fighting with their soldiers. Now we live in the time where one dies for a clown
Let's get real with the casualty numbers and then the West's nonsense is truly revealed. Very similar to the MSM's Covid lies, if the Mass formation finally learns the truth, heads will role.
Yes, if you cut the US out of Europe, you for sure will want to learn Russian, you will have many fences to mend in order to trade and work together. As Putin has said, we have no need of more land at all, we just want to make sure Russians are OK.
1) Massive ATACMS strike on a chemical plant in Bryansk
2) The Orgsintez chemical plant in Kazan was hit (by who knows what and launched from where)
3) There is "damage to an industrial enterprise" confirmed by the Saratov governor in Engels. This after they spent five days and lost two firefighters putting out the fire after the previous strike on the aviation fuel depot.
Nukes would have been flying for this immediately if this was the Cold War, instead Putin is nowhere to be seen, and that after making very public statements how such actions would be considered an act of war.
When will it be too late to get rid of that spineless coward?
why should Putin escalate now -- it's only a little while until DJT shows up and lets us see his grand plan for Ukraine, the one he boasted about endlessly while shilling for our votes. If his plan is to kill more Ukrainians and a tenth as many Russians, he has already failed. This is not a confidence-building measure. But then the west has reinterpreted confidence-building to mean warmaking.
See, this is the problem -- for you it is a game, and in that game the term "escalation" has a very different meaning from the real world in which events are happening. Meanwhile it is Russian cities going up in smoke every night.
Russia is under massive attack daily. It has been around 100 drones launched every night now for weeks. With increasingly massive missile strikes added to the mix too.
The reaction from the Kremlin? None. Not even against Ukraine.
But Putin is OBLIGED in his position as supreme commander to defend the country. And it doesn't matter who is in the White House, the country is under attack. Not the phony kind of 9/11 attack -- regardless of who did it in that case, there was no threat to the US mainland beyond the immediate terrorist act, while there is now; in fact there is an outright invasion, not just drone and missile strikes.
Putin MUST act to defend the country. He is absolutely not doing it. If he refuses to use the ample means at his disposal to defend the country, then he has to go. It is that simple.
Putin has been in charge too long and his fondness of Europe is getting Russians killed. 100 drones a night (was 200 last night). The number will only climb and only a matter of time before something really important gets hit or some new drone type causes a real scare.
The slow grind westward, at its current pace will see tens of thousands of drones hit Russia - I guess that's okay with Putin? Putin's lack of action here could cause the very replacement (via coup) that the west is looking for.
I as well think Putin has been there too long and gotten stale. He is so afraid of western escalation he will allow hundreds of Russians to die - not a game he should be playing with a declining population. Z is illegitimate, the Rada is illegitimate - wait for the next head of NATO or EU head to visit Kiev and blow that diplomatic quarter to pieces - or do something that will force NATO to enter Ukraine so this party can get started.
I am starting to think Russia wants this pain, otherwise they would stop it. Does victory for the Russians mean 200 drone attacks a day till the end of time?
if you mean by "you" the USA, its government and misinformed underinformed public, okay. I'm with you. If you mean me, not so. I was such a one in my young years but reality intrudes. I am not a believer in greed as a motive for rape,
Talking about smart cowards or….dead heroes, when you’re 18 and in the coming next weeks, the chances you might be recruited for a war that spends all his youth, not only taking the example of the Hitler jugend age 14 at the end of WWII, but many African children soldiers age…6, 8 and ten, isn’t it better to be smart and chicken out than to be brave and die as a useless hero?
I hated the Vietnam War deserters and evaders, but then, they really were weasels. No doubt many of them now run governments on our Left Coast. Or their kids do. But today, the US treats war as a nothing-burger. We have made war against so many countries that didn't ever stand a chance against the bully that we forgot how damned hard it is when you are fighting a peer competitor. So kids all around the globe are being frightened into thinking some Bogeyman is out to get them and that they may have to go to war to feed the needs of all the world's richest people, the one's that make the bombs and finance their production. If I were young, I'd be thinking of how I could get my rich friends and buy a tiny country made from somebody else's and make it a "draft-free zone." And then set up an army to defend it.
Or, better yet, move to Russia. I did. Kids here aren't frightened. They're ready to fight for their country, and they're proud of their army for defeating the US.
I did live in Russia, both Cold War and post-. As a diplomat and as a normal person. I love the country. We had a beautiful apartment not far from the Kremlin and we gave it up because of sanctions to our "manager" and friend who had cared for it from the start . No way to pay taxes, no way to notarize documents or transfer or receive funds. It would have gone to the Moscow government for one reason or another. So somebody in Russia has benefited from those lousy nooses the west throws around so many necks by way of sanctions. Russia takes a lot of getting used to, but it is endlessly interesting.
Bless. I admire your fortitude in trying to talk up some reason or other for Russians to rise up and overthrow the Putin, but this horse has bolted. The new narrative is back to the future with the old narrative that the Russian economy is about to collapse. Try that one.
What gets me is the contrast between Putin's pressers and our gringo gangsters. He actually says things and has been around long enough to establish a real reputation for honesty.
That old saying comes to mind. "Be careful what you wish for." Like him or hate him, Putin is probably the most stable mind on the world stage right now, and he is probably getting a lot of push by certain factions within Russia to "finish the job." But it ain't that easy and there are a lot of potential consequences we haven't thought of yet.
That "stable mind" got Russia to the position where a hundred drones fly at it every night, plus a dozen ballistic and cruise missiles fired at it every few days, and they increasingly are hit things that matter too.
And this is the new normal.
Whereas three years ago it was unthinkable to fire against Russian territory even once.
A dramatic success in ensuring Russian security...
terrorism. That is what this is, but the terrorist is really the US and its henchmen in NATO. Russia is a war. Let it respond as it sees fit while calculating all the other angles on this than the purely military. More than one way to skin a cat, as the US likes to say.
The Russians have long relied on shortening supply lines. Come on in, good luck ever seeing your home again! Drone operators are this generation's Weasels.
After flying all that way, they settle for destroying civilians, nothing admirable in it.
I don't have a "like-dislike" reaction to Putin. He is so rational and logical and steady and calm that my reaction is one of approval. I approve of his mien, his foresight and his perserverence. He is really a man of his people and the people, mostly, respond to that in him. They trust him with their country and their lives.
>They trust him with their country and their lives.
And that is a huge problem. Because he has displayed an astonishing indifference to the country and their lives, and yet he is impossible to push out without a coup now.
This is also Biden's handlers using a poison pill strategy before Trump takes over. They want to provoke Putin to react by taking the gloves off and doing something where the western media can fiegn outrage at some "attrocity."
This could put Trump in a difficult position. Those draconian sanctions Biden's handlers imposed on hundreds of tankers is another example. Biden's handlers waited until the last minute because they know that the move will cauae gas prices to increase. The establishment will dare Trump into lifting those sanctions, accusing him of being an "appeaser" if he dares to lift them.
This is Biden setting up a new normal so that Trump doesn't have to do it later on after all the "promises" (that he never really made but his fan crowd attributes to him).
The Kremlin, in their usual infinite wisdom, have agreed on that being the new normal, desperately hoping they will be able to make some deal with Trump, instead of properly dealing with the problem in front of them
P.S. If Russia was a real great power, it would not matter who is in the White House. The moment they are attacked directly, the source of the attack would be neutralized immediately, no matter where it is located. Do I need to constrast and compare with what has actually been (not) happening in real life?
This how the Israelis operate. How has that been working for them? Sure, lots of destruction, but they still haven't defeated Hamas, Hezbollah or the Houthis. Russia has escalation dominance...they will use it when the time is right.
All are defeated except for the Houthis at the moment and Iran marginally, but they won't be given a long respite. I mean, I don't like this reality either, but it's reality and we need to face it. I am sure that Putin knows why he is not more decisive, and it probably reflects Russia's true capabilities. The only hope for me is that China is not that lost and that they were biding their time carefully. They can't afford Russia losing.
Israel is most definitely not a great power, they just think they are because they only fight against Arabs.
Nukes do not a great power make. No nation on Earth now has the force projection that makes a great power, that's why it's such a dangerous and exciting period in history.
Are you so eager to see the start of a general war or for nukes to flying? The Russian leader is acting responsibly not cowardly. Yes a message needs to be sent but a message that can be sent without escalation is better than one that creates escalation, especially for pin pricks. In my opinion it's best to act controlled with a plan, rather than with gross overreactions.
The moment Putin finds the courage to start erasing countries off the map, the war will be over immediately.
Nobody will sacrifice Boston for Brasov or Los Angeles for Lodz.
The alternative is a slow bleed of Russian industry and military potential until the country is weakened enough for a decapitating first strike.
Also, firing nukes in response to ballistic missiles hitting your chemical plants is not a "gross overreaction", it is WHAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO DO, and what has been expected by default for many decades.
Not doing it and just taking the hits is grand treason, for which heads have to roll. Literally.
Russia is not the US, destroying civilian cities to make a point. Russian military doctrine destroys armies not slaughter civilians. How is Russia being weakened? The Russian MIC is pumping out more weapons in three months than all of NATO in a year. Plus Russia has a battle hardened volunteer professional army. Government spending is high, consumer confidence is high to spend; Russian oligarchs have no place to invest and reinvest but in Russia; Russian exports are heading east to the largest population centers and burgeoning manufacturing bases in Rubles just to add; Russian imports are less making Russia more self sufficient and Most foreign investors have left Russia stopping the drain of their foreign reserves. Though you may imagine a decapitation strike on Russia I would ask from who? And would, add Russias nuclear arsenal has not been touched. So which nation would be so stupid? Considering Russia's perimeter system is still intact and modernized.
Perhaps they should start with yours. They are not rational. They are delusional. Putin needs to carry on doing precisely what he is dong now - attritioning Ukraine and the Western Alliance.
You are completely right, and there are so many posters and commentators here that sound literally like bots that don't care about Russians dying needlessly. Only a fool would think that a prolonged war on your own border that doesn't grind any of the enemies' troops but their proxies raised from your own kin, is either a fool or has bad intentions. I really hope Russia has a self-correction mechanism and is not fully compromised from within. That Putin was really acting the way he was acting out of utmost caution and Christian values and not because he is somehow also coopted, and also pray there is time to correct.
Originally I thought you are the thickest of thick cunts. But now...you are a troll. No one can be as dense as you pretend to be.You are here to hijack threads.
The current western leader crop needs to be humbled and they will never relent on Russia unless their populations and leaders are thoroughly scared to back down, so a non-escalation message would fall on deaf ears. Russia needs to do something that will have the stock market drop 40% to get people to pay attention. If the west thinks Russia will not escalate - its a great opportunity to do just that.
Russia has a small window to draw NATO into the ground of their choosing but it will take something big, words from Russia ring hollow right now.
You remind me of Vicky Nuland. She gave away cookies happily in the same way you want to throw around nukes. In Vickies case you may end up with an irritated stomach. In your case we may end up with … nothing.
So, it takes the Russians thousands of missiles (6000 sofar I believe), millions of artillery rounds to drive out ukraine from their territory (4 oblasts previously part of ukraine), but you think that a couple of hundred missiles is going to destroy Russia? Sounds like the west truly has some wonder weapons.
Are you somehow related to Lindsay Graham I start wondering?
To answer terror with terror is wrong. But you bring up a big roadblock for any peace talks. This terror attacs by Ukraine, done with help of NATO, are war crimes. How to settle this. Will the Russian population accept, that Budanov and his helpers/commanders from Western agencies are kept out of the calculation?
Budanov and the likes are inevitably becoming the problem for the zionized collective west. Good luck, Brussels and The Friends of Israel in the UK with your nurturing the neo-Nazism.
Also, is not it educational to observe the thoroughly dishonorable behaviors of the “ western agencies?” The western rot and stench belong to the owners of the collective west, that is, to a rather limited number of clans suffering a spectacular degradation.
I think we do not see Russia's response, but the Ukrainians do, as they have no electricity to speak of. The Ukrainian orcs the US has coddled into becoming an international monster kill civilians,, because they are terrorists. They sow terror because they cannot win a war they never needed, but that the Poles of western Ukrainian hungered for. Of course, their kids are not dying on the front, but getting an education in the west. That's the way the warmakers operate. Save their own, kill yours.
That fact has been carefully obscured for 10 years, but it will be re-discovered by the Ukrainians. Some already know. Like VVP's credulousness toward the West, they thought they could be loved, when the Globalists only want them to die and get off the land.
I object to “spineless coward” but have to agree with you that he is trying to be too nice. He is dragging his anchor—his anchor being his historical and religious and social attachment to Ukraine.
"When will it be too late to get rid of that spineless coward?"
Abject idiocy. Sounds like you live in Kiev and are hoping that spouting propaganda for morons will save you from being sent to the front to die.
There is a war going on, and the occasional, utterly trivial, damage to Russian regions far from the front doesn't mean anything, especially when Russia's eradication of Kiev's military, industrial capacity, and resource base is considered. Russia is winning. Only an imbecile would in such a situation start a nuclear war that would ensure Russia was destroyed.
This 'spineless coward' is winning the SMO and trifling attack you mentioned does not change anything; Putin's patience and restraint will result in total victory while your amateur boorishness will be entirely forgotten.
As it stands right now the SMO has been decisively lost.
None of the stated objectives of the SMO have been achieved, in fact negative progress has been made on all of them (Ukraine is much more militarized and nazified than ever before), and the objectives from December 2021 it is just sad to even think about.
And it is abundantly clear that the only way to achieve the SMO objectives is to end Ukraine's statehood forever and then de-Ukrainize.
Which the Kremlin has taken off the table entirely, both with their public statements and their actions (no serious mobilization, no decapitation strikes, etc.).
All Trump can do (by forcing Ukraine to lower mobilization age or giving them marginally more weapons) is delay the inevitable, that is Russian victory.
Would this 'pressure' really make any difference? I don't see how.
If the peace talks start with an end to the fighting, no need for additional troops, if not, more meat is needed to slow the Russians down. Otherwise the Russians end up in Odessa.
IMHO, Odessa is far more valuable strategically/economically than Kiev, also has a more pro Russian population. Men in Odessa have been commiting arson attacks against the military "recruiters" vehicles and offices for quite a while now- To the point where ordinary soldiers there now must leave signs on their dashboard asking people not to burn their car up since its their PERSONAL vehicle.
As part of the tattered remains of "classical education" in US schools, I was required to read Edith Hamilton in 7th grade, ca. 1972. But I had already read far more than was covered in that class long before I reached junior HS. Greek was not on offer, senior HS did at least still offer Latin.
My nieces and nephews who went through American HS 2 or 3 decades after I did have never heard of such things.
The long-running soap opera—DPRK Troops Of Our Lives—took a strange fictional turn on 12 January w/ the *discovery* of a diary purportedly kept by an alleged DPRK soldier, supposedly killed in Kursk, which described a battlefield tactic: one DPRK soldier positions himself out in the open, in effect functioning as ‘bait’ for an AFU drone as it’s hunting—and when the drone approaches w/ its payload, the soldier’s buddies leap out to whack it away.
Since the so-called DPRK soldier wrote in his so-called diary every day, we can expect additional fabricated passages, perhaps some in which he reveals state secrets, which of course Pyongyang’s rulers always share w/ infantrymen, or passages in which the DPRK grunt disses VVP for his ‘full-scale unprovoked brutal invasion of an innocent democracy.’ We know there never actually was a DPRK soldier in Kursk, of course, who assiduously kept a diary every day and then wound up dead on the battlefield and whose diary naturally landed in the hands of the AFU—but it’s such a convenient story.
Since dead men tell no tales, the living can speak for them.
Quite, it seems no lessons whatsoever have been learned since the first world war. The western elites seem to thrive on periodical mass human sacrifice.
Trump has his deals but for the moment Zel and Mac have their secret plan to keep the war going behind his back. Recruiting up to 18 as a bluff poker and at the same time recruiting peacekeepers independently from Washington and Moskou, to sart the wildfire any moment like the fires in LA or in Syria.
I'm afraid his book should have been titled " The Art of the Con." Trump is trying to line up a billionaires' row in his cabinet. Don't count on Trump saving us.
Most likely his is "The Art of the Pomp." I think Trump would go very far to scratch his ego of "being right." As for us, mortals, we only got hope, and "that shit is harder to kill than a dragon." :-)
I'v seen Trump refusing (obviously) to shake Netanyahu's hand, so maybe, just maybe, he is only partially for sale :-). And, yes, I'm afraid Trump will drag us deeper into this mess, even if seems impossible. As for Musk, etc., I'm not as repulsed as by Trump's Kelloggs, Gorkas, Rubios/whatever
What other option do you actually see here? I didn't vote at all in 2016. I didn't vote for Trump in 2020. I did vote for Trump in 2024, and I held my vote till the very end, thinking they might try to kill him (and they did try.) Do I see Trump as our "savior?" Hell, no! But I wasn't going to waste my vote akin Jeffrey Sachs "in protest," given Kamala's looming. Disappointed with RFK Jr, he's wobbling, and most likely would take a paved road. We (US) are not at the point of "making the point," we're barely holding up and scraping by, and all Tump can do is to delay the inevitable. He got no full grasp or breadth to implement the major changes the US need, and yes I'm terrified of his people selection AGAIN, but I'll hold my final judgement on him for 24 months.
Nowhere is it written that there has to be a good choice. "There has to be some kind of a solution!" is just wishful thinking, an argument from consequences.
The hole in your reasoning is if Trump is 100% "for sale" why would they fight him so hard? Also, I won't be surprised if Trump was just "let win," to dump on him our pending economic/military collapse.
Trump says the quiet parts out loud and requires more management, not to mention America's various vassals, lackeys, puppets and catamites are less likely to bindly obey orders from a gauche buffoon such as Trump.
FWIW, in 2008 the CIA concluded that electing Obama was better for keeping europeans on-side witht he War On Iraq, as they detested Dubya and McCain, but swooned over Obama.
And by "saying the quiet parts out loud" - you meant Trump blurts the truth? :-) Refreshing in itself. Far being from Trump's fan, but if he was duly compromised, they'd have already whipped this card, and no need to go the "legal way" - just a chat in a semi-dark room.
Did you really expect Trump to just leave "Syria's oil?":-) He was very clear "we're sitting here on the oil" :-) Last term he didn't have choice of people, made horrible mistakes, hopefully learned, even if I'm not enthused about what I see so far.
Celebrating Zelya’s fulfillment of his ambition to produce one million FPV drones in 2024, the nytimes article—“How Suicide Drones Transformed the War in Ukraine”—described the AFU’s ability to deliver a lethal punch on the battlefield, especially entrenched lines, and disruptive capabilities: “a $400 plastic drone can neutralize a $3mn military machine like a T-80 tank.” The article focuses on the role hobbyist mini-aircraft played in opening up for Ukraine a cheap source of weaponry which “multiply combat power while preserving thinned ranks” in the face of artillery shell-starvation This article romanticizes the low-cost quadcoptors and quotes AFU troops singing their praises, stating that “standard infantry weapons are not enough.”
So admiring is the nytimes article of one-way kamikaze drones, which “blend the power of anti-tank projectiles, the range of mortar and the accuracy of sniper fire,” one would think that Ukraine was actually routing its adversary at every turn, scarcely having to rely on 20th Century equipment like artillery & armor. Although that is not the case, the article preserves the illusion that an unheralded piece of plastic outfitted w/ after-market amenities.
The article fawned over the cinematic imagery these drones offer: “Filmed from the pursuer’s point of view, they broadcast visual receipts in a style reminiscent of slasher movies.” In the full-spectrum warfare between Kiev and Moscow the kill shots—edited, set to music & disseminated online—become a way to raise cash for more kamikaze drones: “the expanding montage of cornered men frantically doing whatever they could to survive, only to die nonetheless, each spending his last seconds as an involuntary extra in the public visual chronicle of homicidal flying machines.”
Fashioned for readers in the West, primarily a domestic U.S. readership, the article focuses not on Raytheon-caliber wunderwaffe but exclusively on low-tech commercially available drones which AFU’s riggers have MacGuyvered w/ munitions. Contrasting dramatically w/ the $170bn worth of bespoke & high-end MIC equipment—weaponry designed from top-to-bottom to kill an adversary on the battlefield—are the cheap plastic off-the-shelf items one could readily procure at volume from a big-box discounter and trick out w/ cluster bomblets or anti-personnel grenades at rock-bottom prices.
The dad standing next to you at the youth league soccer game on the weekend is piloting an identical quadcopter for capturing all the action on the field.
Yes, the Ukrainians are scrappy. /sarc Yes they are clever & ingenious—but it’s weird to find a nytimes article walking readers not through Ukraine’s prowess w/ the Abrams or its tactic of positioning Patriot interceptors for air defense around Kiev but on hobbyist toys. What’s not discussed in this fan-fest devoted to FPV drones is the low percentage of effectiveness w/ the cheap quads. What’s not discussed are the 20,000 tanks Russia has destroyed since the SMO commenced, alongside 20,000 artillery multi-launch systems and 1,000,000 casualties. For all the hoopla about jury-rigged hobbyist toys, what’s not discussed are the 50,000 casualties racked up in the Kursk Incursion over a 5-month period, alongside 300 tanks.
Meanwhile, billions walk out the door of the U.S. Pentagon.
The article, which quotes the dubious claim about AFU’s casualties—“Ukraine’s losses were smaller than Russia’s”—exhibits no compunction about hearing the o-word applied to Russian troops or repeating it. Part of the rules-based-hypocritical-order means you must never apply ethnic slurs to an Israeli/Zionist military engaging in genocidal bombardment of Palestinians in Gaza but you may certainly do so when the Russian military engages in war, as if war is somehow worse when Russia wages it.
The article quotes an FPV jockey who said he enjoyed helping to kill Russians: “The more I like killing them, the less of them we will have on our land.” This statement, brutal, is not better somehow when voiced by a holy-hearted Ukrainian who of course stands on the right side of history. /sarc
This statement, brutal, captures the essence of war, regardless of the combatant.
The first casualty in war is the truth . Both sides demonise the opposition . Combat is a desperate struggle to survive and kill or be killed . Experience soldiers have a much higher survival rate as they are attuned to the dangers faced . There was a story from WW1 regarding how many soldiers died without firing a shot as they froze or couldn't bring themselves to kill . When you look at how the media portrays soldiers , it is mostly heroic struggles against impossible odds and winning . Watching your comrades getting blown to pieces in a struggle to hold onto your positions and then retreating doesn't fit that paradigm . Its notable that WW3 has started just as we are losing the last survivors of the last one .
The New York Times owners and editors deserve to experience the frolicking FPV ammunition attacks on their own properties. The sport is cheap and readily available — and it’s glorified by MSM. Onwards, local jockeys!
It depends on how much attriting of the old western hegemonic power bloc Russia-China is able to draw out, or I should say how much the former can sustain before it throws in whatever is left of its tatty towel. But 2027 is a big stretch.
Do you mean the war in Ukraine? Maybe but for Russia this is not just a war in Ukraine. This is a war against NATO. A victory in Ukraine meeting most of Putin's demands is not good enough.
That would just allow for the US/NATO to rearm and start using Finland or Poland or Moldova as its next Ukraine. Putin may need to keep the pressure on and use military force after any victory in Ukraine. The victory is meaningless if this is allowed to reoccur from another nation on Russia's periphery.
I don't know if the US is ready to meet these demands that Putin is going to have to make. There is no choice. NATO will have to go or the war goes beyond Ukraine's border. That will be the moment where NATO's bluff will be called. I hope they will realize it is not worth it.
There is a significant difference between using Ukraine as the proxy, and using Poland or Finland. The old machiavelian Brzezinsky understood that difference very well, but today's stupid leaders do not---it flies right over their heads.
In the case of Ukraine, Russians are fighting their brothers, and they bend over backwards to be humane. They avoid civilian casualties. They avoid completely demolishing the infrastructure. They offer every chance of surrender and treat the POWs humanely. The Russians are hoping to eventually welcome the prodigal sons back into the fold, like they did with the Chechens.
But there will be no humanity for Poland or Finland, who are not brothers but old, ever perfidious enemies. There will be decapitation strikes and total and immediate wrecking of key infrastructure---which is not anywhere near as robust as Ukrainian post-soviet infrastructure to begin with---to reduce these countries to the grimmest anarchy and famine, and destroy their war-fighting potential. It will be a completely different face of war. Not the white rider anymore, but the red one, followed by the black.
" to reduce these countries to the grimmest anarchy and famine, and destroy their war-fighting potential. It will be a completely different face of war. "
Pure delusion. Those are NATO countries , and if NATO wouldnt step in it would be its end. The end of NATO means the end of US military domination of the world. They will never allow that to happen, but keep the dream alive.
The war will go on until the decapitation of the Vampire Squid and physical confinement of real owners of the collective west.
Or American population must experience the real war on the American soil. The empire of Lies and talmudic genociders in charge are set to exterminate a large part of world population.
Even Simplicius is skewing the narrative to make it sound as if both sides share in a parity of urgency to settle this war. This is just not true. Russia (and China) gain the longer it goes on- in Russia's favour, natch, and to this end China will look after Russia. The object in the go-slow is to attrit western power not just militarily but economically as the old hegemon collapses into luridly self harming sanctions.
Meanwhile Russia continues to advance.
Zelenskiiy has already experienced what happens when you send new men to the fighting lines. They run away en masse. So not much real point in trying to talk up that solution. The reason Ukraine's western handlers are talking this 'solution' up, is because it throws the ball back in Zelenskiiy's court for the time being, postponing the hard talk when he will be told (if he is still around) that Ukraine is on its own. I do not mean on its own if it continues to fight when a deal is on the table for this all to stop. I mean radically abandoned to whatever solution Russia decides to execute through a new regime in a state that will have been returned fully to the Russian fold. This is where this war is going regardless of the blather. And it will end in a big summit of the big power blocs considering the issue of a globally reconciled new security architecture. Western europe does not feature at this high table unless an indulgence is granted for players to bring their pets who would howl at home else.
Western think tanks- where their group mind languishes- are already chewing on the direction in which the eastern european fringe states are likely to move- which is east. We could be looking at a new division of Germany. A new security architecture will at last concede to the real democratic will of these states and give the finger to the dying old EU hegemon.
It is so over for western europe's days in sun built on the dust of paper money during the uni- polar moment and not real resource wealth, that it is almost pointless to debate it. History ignores the verbal camouflage of the day, always has.
I agree. Trump may want to make a deal with Putin but politically it is too much to concede. Moreover, there are too many establishment forces against coming close to meeting Putin's terms.
The larger problem is Trump has been to exploring options on coming to peace terms before the European leadership was ready. They have much more to lose than the US does. The US is not in danger and is in a position to buy European assets for pennies on the dollar as the European economy fades away.
The solution is going to have to come from Europe. Not the US. The Europeans will need to make the choice of economic or military suicide or accept moving NATO away from Russia's borders.
It is Europe that will have to decide if its future is brighter by economically synergizing with Russia and drawing closer ties to the US. This is something that Trump will not want. If it goes there then he is going to take action against Europe itself.
The larger problem is the Fat Orange Retard is a blithering idiot with an attention span that makes the average TikTok doomscroller look like a Zen master.
Disagree with Trump's policies all you want but at this point to call him a blithering idiot is just factually wrong. It's about as silly as calling him a white supremacist. This isn't 2016 anymore, Trump has proven himself many times over. Do you really think a blithering idiot could get re-elected in 2024 after the entire Democrat political/media machine as well as most of the intel community, FBI and justice system went to full war with him and attacked him from about 50 different angles for 8 years? I'm pretty certain it would be impossible for a "blithering idiot" to emerge victorious from that kind of a war. Just recognize that you can hate someone and dislike what they stand for AND they can also be very smart and shreud. Not everyone you dislike is automatically an idiot. Saying so makes you sound like a blithering idiot.
On I side note...I absolutely despise Obama and Newsom for a multitude of reasons. I think they are both cold blooded conniving liars. I would never describe either of them as "blithering idiots". I think they are both very sharp and intelligent and I hate them because they use that intelligence for evil goals.
I entirely agree with Joe on this one. DJT is anything but an idiot, for more reasons that I could ever fit in a comment.
We'll just have to wait and see how he gets the US out of the messy carnage that is Ukraine. Personally I believe he'll just dump Ukraine on the Europeans and tell them to deal with it. And oh yes, buy more American oil, LNG and weapons, as well as transfer their remaining profitable industries to the US; and give us Greenland... or we'll just take it.
You pretty much summed up my plan minus Greenland. We (the USA) have monumental structural problems facing us, so before we go on about adding the 51st State and a large territory we need to clean our room first.
"Do you really think a blithering idiot could get re-elected in 2024"
Yes. Do you think Clown World sat this one out? Also please to be noting the idiotic things Trump is saying about reviving the old retard dream of a "North American Union".
And in what way has he "proven" himself, except to be just another US MIGA clown?
Yes, I believe you are right. Suddenly the corporate presstitutes, and this bleeds over because we do not see the backdoor deals. Our beloved "alternative media" is slowly but surely being drawn into the web through payments, deals, many of which are not really public disclosures. The corporate media is beating a drum to control the tempo and suddenly we all believe President Putin and the Kremlin are just as eager for a "deal" as Trump's awful mouthpieces.
The narrative is shifting in this regard as well. Trump is putting these guys out there, even though he has a different "idea" for "peace"? I guess in 7 days we will actually see some type of action, instead of words. I just hope Trump does not think he can make a couple of "rocket man" tweets regarding Russia and then fly to Moscow and wrap it all up
You've got this completely backwards. Of course Putin wants peace.
But American politics is driven and directed by money, and US money wants war. The US Department of "Defense" was allocated $1.5 trillion in 2023, a lot of which went to companies like Lockheed, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman etc (there are more than 100 "defense" contractors). Some of the money flowing into these companies gets circulated back to lobbyists and "election campaign contributions" to make sure the flow continues. The goal is perpetual war, plus "regime change" operations that result in "failed states" (Iraq, Syria, ...) that justify perpetual US military presence.
The “want” that is the prime determinant of this conflict is that of the old dark nobility and their attack poodles that have stated explicitly that their aim is the Balkanize Russia and feed on the organs. With that intention in place there will be no peace. Prepare accordingly.
Am hoping Trump is to not go that route. We are on the verge of an economic collapse. I believe Trump has a blue collar imprimatur to get really down and dirty with the DC Bureaucratic Mafia and the Death Merchants if he needs to.
I agree. American Youth rebelled against the Draft for Vietnam, and now Decline to Volunteer for the Woke Pantgone USSA military. Formerly "Great" Britain has only 20,000 Migrants.
Ukraine is more Russian than European Union. The NWO USSA Stateless Dept/CiA started this war and President Trump must End It .... and Those That Caused it in the 1st place.
Looking at You, Victoria Nuland and your CiA handlers.
It may be over for Europe as a serious player. But it isn't over for the west as led by the US. And it's too early to count them out. Moreover, Russia and China should strongly consider setting up a formal military alliance, because both are on the chopping block. Yet, we see that many elites within Russia and China still want to work with the west, and these people are loathe to confront the west or even do anything remotely proactive to destroy anglo-american-zionist hegemony.
I disagree about the EU getting to sit at the Big Kid's Table. After the Big Three cut a deal, with maybe Erdogan available for a bit of extortion and Starmer present to serve the table, the EU and rest of NATO will be invited to sit and then be told where to sign and how they are going to implement their part(s) of the deal. The Med nations, minus Macron, and the north Baltics along with Orban will Fico will be happy. Hungary, Slovakia and Poland all get a piece of Ukrainia and Romania gets Moldova AND a small slice of the Ukraine.
Zelenski and his television production crew posing as a cabinet get to keep their billions and live wherever they want as long as it isn't in New Russia.
It's good to see that inline with the West's and Kiev's doctrine people are completely ignored here. Thank god for that. I thought perhaps this topic might allow them to make an unwanted appearance and here and there they nearly did. But overall clearly no.
Those 18 year old being really just children, you know? Tempting to think of people And having connections with other people, you know? Mothers and fathers and, especially, those silly old buggers the grandparents... Yep. Could easily have been the thin end of the wedge and opening a discussion the people. Of Ukraine - how they're one people and this is a civil war for instance. How upsetting that would be if a well conditioned idiot were to stumble across this thread and learn its a civil war! Inflammatory. Disgraceful. Enough perhaps to give them doubts. Why they might even start thinking and what the hell is ever going to happen if people start thinking.
Similar with Trump I surmise There's a strange dichotomy in the Trump camp amongst (excuse the word) 'people'. For there's those extremely passionate and 'fight ready' on the one hand and there's millions of desperate almost beaten down mums and dads with Normal Rockwell type mindsets to delude themselves with on the other. Both sides hope Trump will be their saviour.
One hopes for a bloody civil war in which they crush all Democrats. The other simply hopes for the lifting of life's burdens increasingly crushing the life out of them to their despair and astonishment - how could the usa have come to this?
“By 2030, no more than 20 million residents should remain in Ukraine.”
— Zbigniew Brzezinski, cited by Ukrainian former PM Vitold Fokin
Revisionist Zionists like Blinken are probably happy with this demographic catastrophe as well. At the end of the day, his grandpops fled from Kiev region cca 100 years ago. What is a 100 years old grudge for Blinkens of this world. We can daily observe thousands of years old grudges at work daily in the Middle East. Magic book and dude in the sky said sth.
It appears that they are purging the "useless eaters", unfortunately.
Thanks for that. Interesting. But I don't understand where Brzezinski was coming from: 'can't feed more than that' ? I thought Ukraine was a massive exporter of grain for instance.... What's it all about?
“They” have built there the largest in Europe synagogue, “they” staffed the Kievan junta with jews, attacked orthodox churches and priests, and let jewish men of military age to leave (no restrictions) for Israel and the EU. “They” made Uman’ into a noisy and filthy center of pilgrimage, and “they” recorded a song about Ukraine being a “Jewish territory” — while singing on the roof of the monstrous jewish center “Menorah” in Dnipro.
Currently, Banderites and zionists are “brothers forever,” the neo-Nazi azovites celebrated in Israel, by Knesset. So much for shoah-biz and the whining Holo-museums.
"One hope for a bloody civil war in which they crush all Democrats."
Yes, there are a very few people, mainly old and with little to lose, who are bloodthirsty and might actually want a real mass casualty civil war. But, there are too few to matter. Most 'tough, keen for a gunfight, men' are just LARPing as such.
What you didn't mention, which has broad bipartisan support, is SECESSION. This could be bloodless, and is almost inevitable. The tribalism has been so extreme, there is no returning to any United sort of states.
With this in mind, DJT (and his handlers and owners) might be desperate to create the North American Empire right now, while they can. They must act before the Union itself falls apart into one or more blue blocks, one or more red blocks, and possibly an independent state or two. Faced with new countrymen including satanic Salvadoran gang bangers and Haitian voodoo priests, the US born population might be willing to get over their differences. But, probably not.
Frankly, if everyone who pushed unemployment and house arrest for all free people who refused to be test subjects for an mRNA experiment, DIED, I would celebrate. Over 4 years, NOT ONE OF THEM has apologised to me for any of it. They are my enemies and I resent having to share a country with them.
Do you really think the States could fall apart? Secede or whatever you call it when you 'unfederate' ? You think it could? Any others of that mind? You have perhaps some links I could look at to see what the situation is like?
And bloodless? Your setup allows for bloodless secession you think?
There is too much and not enough time, but suggest you do your own research starting with Texas, which (unlike Canada and the UK) actually has a gold depository. Multiple opinion polls over several years have indicated substantial support for secession in both red and blue states. When the federal dollar value collapses, many things now thought impossible will become possible.
In 1989, I never imagined that the Berlin wall coming down would, in two years, lead to the USSR bloodlessly dissolving into 15 independent countries. (Yes, one major war, RF vs UKR broke out 31 years later, but not straightaway.) Fortunately, the biggest fragment kept all of the nuclear weapons. Hopefully the US of A can also break up without an immediate major war. California, like Ukraine, is destined to become a festering sore of corruption and degeneracy, the sooner it is amputated from the Union, the better for the other 49.
You know, as inept as Russia is at playing the modern "PR" game compared to the Mighty Wurlitzer of the West, it is vastly better at managing an empire than China is. It's often forgotten just how many different nations/ethnicities are in Russia and how all of them had to be persuaded, in one way or another, to be a part of something bigger.
China, on the other hand, despite a truly enormous expenditure on PR stuff like their CGTN network(s), always comes across as a bunch of stiff nerds with little to offer except for money (prosperity) and hopelessly naive logical arguments, kinda like Victorian-era soap companies focusing on how well their products clean instead of manipulating your guilt of being thought of by others as dirty.
So yeah, I would agree 100% that Russia is the spiritual leader of the "Global South."
As for the whole "bend the knee" thing, I think that's gonna take care of itself once Germany has its parliamentary elections and NordStream gets turned back on, plus Slovakia + Hungary filing a lawsuit/strongarming Ukraine into quit being a turd and letting the Russian gas flow once more.
Perhaps you forgot that China has 84 officially recognized ethnic groups, and seven special autonomous regions. They seem to be managing it all quite well.
Only through the overwhelming Communist security state. This is similar to the US, where the various antagonistic groups are kept apart and down by the US security apparatus. Remove that, and a giant house cleaning would commence.
Something is wrong. Inept to play PR, but spiritual leader of Global South? PR can only work, if you are allowed to broadcast your message. In the South, the Russians are allowed, in the West, they are banned. This is not the Russians fault!
It's time for Russia to assert strategic military control in Ukraine and not give it a chance to mobilize its reserves by piecing through AFU defensive lines with a multi-pronged attack from Belarus heading south and then West from eastern positions.
Take out the US-backed NATO proxy AFU forces by taking over all roads in and out of Kyiv after breaching enemy lines. Destroy everything heading towards or from Kyiv. Create confusion and panic among weak retreating forces unable to re-supply and force their surrender by the thousands. A good portion of those AFU forces will surrender rather than fight and die for nothing at all.
Russia has the means right now to conquer Ukraine by laying siege to all its strongholds paralyzing their ability to maneuver on all the roads in and out of targeted areas like Kyiv.
250,000 mobilized soldiers, 500 tanks, and as many personnel carriers and artillery as possible, covered with airpower and at least 50 big long-range bombs, to greet and obliterate massed-up enemy forces in the kill zones will get the job done.
In a disadvantageous situation, Trump wants to play hardball to test Putin's will.
But Putin is the one who holds the high ground to defeat Ukraine once and for all and just put an end to the war by winning it with one big strategic offensive putting AFU forces and Zelinski in a checkmate forced abdication because they've lost all means to fight. Then see what big-mouth Trumpster will do knowing that His proxy AFU forces are defeated.
I even dare Trump to declare NATO to attack Russia in Ukraine after they've set up strategic defensive lines threatening Russia with a good time. Don't believe me? Try it and see what happens.
This ain't no time for Putin to go soft. He must attack ASAP and decisively win this SMO turned into a war.
Considering Russia has 6 days to burn through the Ukranian lines and rush 200 km in all direction and wreak havoc among the reserves, command and supply&ammo dumps it is a bit tight…
Those 5:1 odds in Russian favour at the front seems like daydreaming. That Ukraine will evaporate suddenly likewise.
Russia has the upper hand but have they used it wisely?
It's all about taking the initiative with overwhelming forces and control of the air like Operation Desert Storm led by General Swarpkoft's push behind enemy lines to destroy a retreating enemy. By golly, if Patton was in charge of Russian forces he'd attack and defeat a weakened enemy by breaking through. What's with all the passivity when it comes to Russia taking the initiative and attacking in force? This is war, not ballet. The enemy is about to crack so attack in the manner I mentioned above. Be bold and decisive at the right time. It wins wars faster with less collateral damage.
You, GM and me in one corner, the rest of the bunch in the other corner saying:
”Russia is winning slowly, but sure as hell, due to attrition of the enemy forces”.
The only explanation I can think of is that Russia is unable to launch big scale operations involving 2-3 Corps sp they have to resort to small scale operation. Do they have a depleted Airforce (incl Attack helicopters) and dont want to risk anymore tanks&IFVs?
I cant fathom how it is possible for Ukraine to uphold close Air defence when Russia has destroyed hundreds of them, how Ukraine can blast 10-20 Russian vehicles in mere minutes when they lack Artillery/AT and how the lines are upheld with so few soldiers.
Somewhere, someone is lying or grossly underestimating/overstating the other side. And I suspect West has sent way more weapons that they openly admit.
Before I read the article, I am already fuming over Trump's saying that UKR should lower the draft age to 18. I hate to admit a lot of things, like I held my nose and voted for Trump, that I never served, but when I turned 18 in 1972 the Viet Nam war was winding down and I was a spoiled college kid who had no clue what was going on. All I knew that my number was 254 which meant I coud continue to walk in a fog. Not a chance I would be drafted. But no matter, once the KY Board of Medical Licensure suspended my License for an operating room registered nurse's premeditated violation of her duty which resulted in her handing me a lethal drug resulting in a patient's death for which I got all the blame, I could not even join the Army as an orthopedic surgeon, or the VA, or the Indian Health Reservation. But I always get some smart ass remark by a reader like on Zero Hedge who posted, "so you want to F up those people too?"
But George W Bush got out of the service by joining the National Guard. Bill Clinton got a deferral when he went to Oxford, and big talking chicken Donald Trump, well, he got his deferral because of "heel spurs."I don't even want to know about Senator Lindsey Graham.
I now almost think that there should be requirements in order to seek political office, like 2 years military service for starters, only investment in broad index funds instead of making millions on insider trading on individual stocks like Pelosi and all the others.Term limits of course, and no book writing deals for 5 years after leaving office, no joining any hedge funds for five years or exercising of stock options, etc. The system is rotten to the core. Now, back to the article
And when VdL was asked about here sons and military service, she just smiled and gave now answer. She was German defence minister, she had good jobs for the consulting company one of her sons was working for. But it was very clear, her sons will never join the German Army. In Austria we have mandatory service, but the better people have "heel spurs" or choose some substitute service, like helping in health care.
Nearly the first question on an EPSQ (SF86) back when I first got mine, the form you have to fill out to get a security clearance, is about registering for selective service. It's moved since then, but you have to have registered.
Nothing about actually fulfilling a draft requirement, and frankly Carter pardoned everyone for their draft offenses prior to 1976.
Keith Kellogg thinks he will need 100 days to decide if it is possible to wrest some kind of fig-leaf victory for the West from a war which Russia has already won. In 100 days, the AFU will suffer 170,000 more casualties, if averages hold (and that’s low-balling the current averages, which run from 1700-2000 per day.) Men, materiel, weapons, resources, maybe even hastily trained teenagers: is it worth it to burn through all that—?
Witnesses to this conflict are stuck waiting for another distant timeline geared to the Western calendar: another vague future date sufficiently distant to drive the news-cycle week after week & afford all manner of opportunities for Zelya to posture & preen and perhaps “humiliate” VVP w/ ATACMS on Russian soil.
One hundred days is time enough for Kellogg to recognize that whatever strategic interests Collective Biden and the U.S.-led OTAN thought existed for in Ukraine have been pulverized, as if under intense shelling, which isn’t going to stop just because Kellogg needs to give the matter 100 days. Kellogg probably already knows there’s little reason not to merely walk away.
But a conflict that has been heavy on the pretense seems to need that 100 days of lemon-scented marinade.
For the optics.
Plus it'll take 100 days for the Duolingo language lessons to take effect. Secretary General Mark Rutte has recommended that OTAN members learn Russian.
It occurred to me that the so-callled Trump plan to threaten escalation to force peace [if this is true] needs some sort of threat behind it. So this could be one. But in any event if Team Trump has been briefed properly they will realise that their poker hand is 7 high. A couple more aces will help in any negotiations. But Mr T is playing this game without indicating in advance whether he will fold or raise and keeping us all guessing.
When you're sitting at the poker table and you can't spot the 'mark,' it's you.
Trump thinks they're playing Go Fish.
The idea that anyone in the USA can simply walk into this conflict and dictate anything is beyond ridiculous.
Let's see. Russia will want.
1. the Stolen Money back, with interest.
2. the full cost of repairs to Nord Stream prepaid, whether or not it ever is used again.
3. Compensation for every death and injury to every Russian because of the unnecessary war. NATO countries can pay this bill.
4. the reduction of the rest of Rump Ukraine to the status of Germany or Japan with Russian bases to keep the peace.
Oh, and the Hawaiian Islands. Just as a reminder to keep on your side of the fence. And Denmark, since without Greenland, Denmark will just be a token, but a nice keepsake.
I'm far more interested in what Russia will do, as Russia holds the cards, not the USA.
Bingo Norma!
Seems to me the main lesson that we in the West have missed is simple. The longer this goes on the stronger Russia gets and the weaker we become. Let me carefully define we.
The lower 90% of western "civilization." A case can also be made that wringing money and demanding loyalty out of every source, without regard to ethics, the future or ones reputation may increase olig-wealth, but in the long run, destroy their strength as well.
When we examine the health of our Western alliance, NATO, my big question is simple. Do the boys think they are safe from the US blowing up their Nordstream-like resources? We can examine the Gaza and conclude, what if any rules apply? How will they treat us when we finally say, "hey wait a minute!"
Two more questions. If Russia is such an existential threat why haven't the NATO risen to the challenge and provided enough shells? Finally, why did Germany and essentially all of Europe make deals with Russia in the first place?
bravo. kindred spirits. it is MY country, and you know there is a famous Russian line of poetry that was translated as, "I love my country, but it is a strange kind of love." I so believed in the ideals all my life until Kosovo, where I was when it all went down serving the head of Mission, a former State boss of mine. I liked him a lot, but he was not the same guy in Kosovo. There he quickly became a press whore, who pretty much ignored his staff in order to get air time and pal time. Meanwhile, all the shit the glorious west could hand out to celebrate the new "Rules of the NATO Road" they had introduced only moments before the act was going down on mostly civilian heads in Serbia. And I testify first hand that the Albanians fled for their lives not from the make-believe humanitarian catastrophe, but from NATO bombs. It changed my perspective at first slowly and then more rapidly as one insight led to another. And here I am, loving America with a strange kind of love. I guess I'm a Decembrist.
I think that is way too dangerous for anybody in NATO. If they learn Russian, they may actually begin to understand Russia and we wouldn't follow the lead of such xenophobic creeps as those who pretend to lead the Baltic states and Poland.
While I was in Germany 85-91 - we did learn a little Russian; of which I can only remember "Stop, hands up or I'll shoot" and "Kiss my ass".
By the end I did wonder exactly who was a threat to who? On hearing of the collapse of the Soviet Union shortly after I returned to Canada; I thought it was great news. Now everyone can be friends and trade with Russia. But it didn't quite work out that way unfortunately.
I hope the war ends soon. The brave young Soldiers of the Ukrainian Army are really dying for nothing now. I also hope NATO collapses soon. It really is a bloated cold war behemoth of beaucracy and waste.
and for "hands up" I remember not just the Russian "ruki verkh!" but the German, "Hände hoch!" I thought the whole world was intoxicated at the idea that the great Behemoth Communism had fallen; I thought, great for the Russian people, hurrah! But as you say, nah. The arms salesmen just saw a lifetime opportunity open up in the former Warsaw Pact and hence NATO expansion was inevitable.
They were so busy snatching up scraps, in the 90's, they couldn't organize a proper conquest of Russia.
Now they expect all their friends to send fodder for the grinder, after thoroughly demonstrating to the Russians that we have zero plans to ever treat them with any humanity what so ever.
The only option presented amounts to, would you rather die blind folded and tie wrapped or fighting? Anyone with any knowledge at all, knows the Russian answer to that question.
Hear hear!
They’ve burnt through the brave and young….
Apparently not enough.
They don't even need to learn Russian. There are plenty of Russian sources in English. It's not about them "learning" it's about them completely refusing to learn anything but their own "visualization boards."
I think VVP and his ring want the war going on too for various reasons, but above all to save Ukraine from the west fascist vampyres and settle the secular Ukranian pain in the ass for at least a century if not more. The new Ukranians are being taught and prepared in the Russian rear guard, including the army and police new officers and even new politicians. Remember there are +6 million Ukranians already living in Russia. It is sad to admit that the nazified Ukranian youth will probably be the cradle of stay behind Gladio terrorism for the years to come. Thats the burden Russia will have to pay during the next decade. I am sure many Russians are happy to reduce that threat to the max.
VVP is, perhaps unfortunately, not the sadistic warmonger the West would like to paint him as. He's a dove--one too quick to grasp olive branches and too credulous to deal with the West's raw evil toward his people. He's a much harder man on traitors: those in Russia who have or are willing to betray the Motherland; he understands what to do with those, it when it comes to foreigners that he seems to fall for "friends".
It's a rather common Russian problem, speaking historically. The greatest fear seems to be that Putin will give away anything to the West without fully achieving Russia's (not Putin's) goals. Fortunately for them, there seems to be a strong current within both the military and popular sentiment to finish the job. But, the anxiety is real and valid.
We live in brave new times….Gladio 3.0 (or whatever iteration we are on) will face some serious obstacles.
Before one had to die for men like Sargon, Darius the Great, Leonidas, Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Julius Caesar or Genghis Khan. That probably wasn't the ideal situation, but at least they were men, and they were fighting with their soldiers. Now we live in the time where one dies for a clown
Let's get real with the casualty numbers and then the West's nonsense is truly revealed. Very similar to the MSM's Covid lies, if the Mass formation finally learns the truth, heads will role.
Yes, if you cut the US out of Europe, you for sure will want to learn Russian, you will have many fences to mend in order to trade and work together. As Putin has said, we have no need of more land at all, we just want to make sure Russians are OK.
Just in the last 12 hours:
1) Massive ATACMS strike on a chemical plant in Bryansk
2) The Orgsintez chemical plant in Kazan was hit (by who knows what and launched from where)
3) There is "damage to an industrial enterprise" confirmed by the Saratov governor in Engels. This after they spent five days and lost two firefighters putting out the fire after the previous strike on the aviation fuel depot.
Nukes would have been flying for this immediately if this was the Cold War, instead Putin is nowhere to be seen, and that after making very public statements how such actions would be considered an act of war.
When will it be too late to get rid of that spineless coward?
Putin is usually quiet before something major.
why should Putin escalate now -- it's only a little while until DJT shows up and lets us see his grand plan for Ukraine, the one he boasted about endlessly while shilling for our votes. If his plan is to kill more Ukrainians and a tenth as many Russians, he has already failed. This is not a confidence-building measure. But then the west has reinterpreted confidence-building to mean warmaking.
See, this is the problem -- for you it is a game, and in that game the term "escalation" has a very different meaning from the real world in which events are happening. Meanwhile it is Russian cities going up in smoke every night.
Russia is under massive attack daily. It has been around 100 drones launched every night now for weeks. With increasingly massive missile strikes added to the mix too.
The reaction from the Kremlin? None. Not even against Ukraine.
But Putin is OBLIGED in his position as supreme commander to defend the country. And it doesn't matter who is in the White House, the country is under attack. Not the phony kind of 9/11 attack -- regardless of who did it in that case, there was no threat to the US mainland beyond the immediate terrorist act, while there is now; in fact there is an outright invasion, not just drone and missile strikes.
Putin MUST act to defend the country. He is absolutely not doing it. If he refuses to use the ample means at his disposal to defend the country, then he has to go. It is that simple.
You are in la la land.
What an astute, intelligent response. Kudos sir, kudos. You're obviously a geopolitical genius.
Sarcasm is the lowest of literary devices save that of, 'the pun'.
Putin has been in charge too long and his fondness of Europe is getting Russians killed. 100 drones a night (was 200 last night). The number will only climb and only a matter of time before something really important gets hit or some new drone type causes a real scare.
The slow grind westward, at its current pace will see tens of thousands of drones hit Russia - I guess that's okay with Putin? Putin's lack of action here could cause the very replacement (via coup) that the west is looking for.
I as well think Putin has been there too long and gotten stale. He is so afraid of western escalation he will allow hundreds of Russians to die - not a game he should be playing with a declining population. Z is illegitimate, the Rada is illegitimate - wait for the next head of NATO or EU head to visit Kiev and blow that diplomatic quarter to pieces - or do something that will force NATO to enter Ukraine so this party can get started.
I am starting to think Russia wants this pain, otherwise they would stop it. Does victory for the Russians mean 200 drone attacks a day till the end of time?
Remember that the nuclear doctrine was changed, quite publicly too, to include "massive drone attack" as a trigger for nuclear response.
But what does "massive drone attack" mean?
Well, it looks like 200 drones and several industrial objects hit does not meet the threshold...
Which makes the whole nuclear doctrine an absolute joke...
if you mean by "you" the USA, its government and misinformed underinformed public, okay. I'm with you. If you mean me, not so. I was such a one in my young years but reality intrudes. I am not a believer in greed as a motive for rape,
Talking about smart cowards or….dead heroes, when you’re 18 and in the coming next weeks, the chances you might be recruited for a war that spends all his youth, not only taking the example of the Hitler jugend age 14 at the end of WWII, but many African children soldiers age…6, 8 and ten, isn’t it better to be smart and chicken out than to be brave and die as a useless hero?
I hated the Vietnam War deserters and evaders, but then, they really were weasels. No doubt many of them now run governments on our Left Coast. Or their kids do. But today, the US treats war as a nothing-burger. We have made war against so many countries that didn't ever stand a chance against the bully that we forgot how damned hard it is when you are fighting a peer competitor. So kids all around the globe are being frightened into thinking some Bogeyman is out to get them and that they may have to go to war to feed the needs of all the world's richest people, the one's that make the bombs and finance their production. If I were young, I'd be thinking of how I could get my rich friends and buy a tiny country made from somebody else's and make it a "draft-free zone." And then set up an army to defend it.
Or, better yet, move to Russia. I did. Kids here aren't frightened. They're ready to fight for their country, and they're proud of their army for defeating the US.
I did live in Russia, both Cold War and post-. As a diplomat and as a normal person. I love the country. We had a beautiful apartment not far from the Kremlin and we gave it up because of sanctions to our "manager" and friend who had cared for it from the start . No way to pay taxes, no way to notarize documents or transfer or receive funds. It would have gone to the Moscow government for one reason or another. So somebody in Russia has benefited from those lousy nooses the west throws around so many necks by way of sanctions. Russia takes a lot of getting used to, but it is endlessly interesting.
From memory. WW2 front line vets saw an average of 7 days per year in combat. Viet Nam vets 250.
"I ain't got nothing against no Cong" Muhammad Ali! WHY anyone would risk their lives for anyone, let alone My ruling classes.
Bless. I admire your fortitude in trying to talk up some reason or other for Russians to rise up and overthrow the Putin, but this horse has bolted. The new narrative is back to the future with the old narrative that the Russian economy is about to collapse. Try that one.
What gets me is the contrast between Putin's pressers and our gringo gangsters. He actually says things and has been around long enough to establish a real reputation for honesty.
That old saying comes to mind. "Be careful what you wish for." Like him or hate him, Putin is probably the most stable mind on the world stage right now, and he is probably getting a lot of push by certain factions within Russia to "finish the job." But it ain't that easy and there are a lot of potential consequences we haven't thought of yet.
That "stable mind" got Russia to the position where a hundred drones fly at it every night, plus a dozen ballistic and cruise missiles fired at it every few days, and they increasingly are hit things that matter too.
And this is the new normal.
Whereas three years ago it was unthinkable to fire against Russian territory even once.
A dramatic success in ensuring Russian security...
Eeyore....
I know…..hes fuggin tiresome
terrorism. That is what this is, but the terrorist is really the US and its henchmen in NATO. Russia is a war. Let it respond as it sees fit while calculating all the other angles on this than the purely military. More than one way to skin a cat, as the US likes to say.
The Russians have long relied on shortening supply lines. Come on in, good luck ever seeing your home again! Drone operators are this generation's Weasels.
After flying all that way, they settle for destroying civilians, nothing admirable in it.
I don't have a "like-dislike" reaction to Putin. He is so rational and logical and steady and calm that my reaction is one of approval. I approve of his mien, his foresight and his perserverence. He is really a man of his people and the people, mostly, respond to that in him. They trust him with their country and their lives.
>They trust him with their country and their lives.
And that is a huge problem. Because he has displayed an astonishing indifference to the country and their lives, and yet he is impossible to push out without a coup now.
Nukland-kagan under a nome de plume GM?
You nailed it-Putin is a leader among fellow Lilliputians.
This is also Biden's handlers using a poison pill strategy before Trump takes over. They want to provoke Putin to react by taking the gloves off and doing something where the western media can fiegn outrage at some "attrocity."
This could put Trump in a difficult position. Those draconian sanctions Biden's handlers imposed on hundreds of tankers is another example. Biden's handlers waited until the last minute because they know that the move will cauae gas prices to increase. The establishment will dare Trump into lifting those sanctions, accusing him of being an "appeaser" if he dares to lift them.
You misread it completely.
This is Biden setting up a new normal so that Trump doesn't have to do it later on after all the "promises" (that he never really made but his fan crowd attributes to him).
The Kremlin, in their usual infinite wisdom, have agreed on that being the new normal, desperately hoping they will be able to make some deal with Trump, instead of properly dealing with the problem in front of them
P.S. If Russia was a real great power, it would not matter who is in the White House. The moment they are attacked directly, the source of the attack would be neutralized immediately, no matter where it is located. Do I need to constrast and compare with what has actually been (not) happening in real life?
This how the Israelis operate. How has that been working for them? Sure, lots of destruction, but they still haven't defeated Hamas, Hezbollah or the Houthis. Russia has escalation dominance...they will use it when the time is right.
>This how the Israelis operate. How has that been working for them?
Very well. All their enemies are defeated right now.
You really live in a deep well of delusion, don't you?
Or is it hasbara vision?
All are defeated except for the Houthis at the moment and Iran marginally, but they won't be given a long respite. I mean, I don't like this reality either, but it's reality and we need to face it. I am sure that Putin knows why he is not more decisive, and it probably reflects Russia's true capabilities. The only hope for me is that China is not that lost and that they were biding their time carefully. They can't afford Russia losing.
Oy vey, GM!
The Israelis( Happy Merchants ) virtually run the US and much of the world. It seems their tactics work just fine.
Russia isn't a great power, it's a regional one, just like China and the US.
No. A great power in 2025 is any power that has nuclear weapons. That's how Israel can get away with outright genocide: they're a great power.
Israel is most definitely not a great power, they just think they are because they only fight against Arabs.
Nukes do not a great power make. No nation on Earth now has the force projection that makes a great power, that's why it's such a dangerous and exciting period in history.
Is Pakistan a "great power" ? SMH
These accusers will be accused by populace of the gas prices increase. Sounds right.
The West does not need an excuse to escalate. They will do what they want and manufacture an excuse as convenient.
Such nativity. You actually believe presidents have any influence on multi-decade strategies. The PTB beg to differ with you.
LOL General Moron doubles down on ignorance again.
He's won every war he's ever fought in, you know.
He’s a tiresome bore. I just skip right over his posts.
Are you so eager to see the start of a general war or for nukes to flying? The Russian leader is acting responsibly not cowardly. Yes a message needs to be sent but a message that can be sent without escalation is better than one that creates escalation, especially for pin pricks. In my opinion it's best to act controlled with a plan, rather than with gross overreactions.
The moment Putin finds the courage to start erasing countries off the map, the war will be over immediately.
Nobody will sacrifice Boston for Brasov or Los Angeles for Lodz.
The alternative is a slow bleed of Russian industry and military potential until the country is weakened enough for a decapitating first strike.
Also, firing nukes in response to ballistic missiles hitting your chemical plants is not a "gross overreaction", it is WHAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO DO, and what has been expected by default for many decades.
Not doing it and just taking the hits is grand treason, for which heads have to roll. Literally.
Russia is not the US, destroying civilian cities to make a point. Russian military doctrine destroys armies not slaughter civilians. How is Russia being weakened? The Russian MIC is pumping out more weapons in three months than all of NATO in a year. Plus Russia has a battle hardened volunteer professional army. Government spending is high, consumer confidence is high to spend; Russian oligarchs have no place to invest and reinvest but in Russia; Russian exports are heading east to the largest population centers and burgeoning manufacturing bases in Rubles just to add; Russian imports are less making Russia more self sufficient and Most foreign investors have left Russia stopping the drain of their foreign reserves. Though you may imagine a decapitation strike on Russia I would ask from who? And would, add Russias nuclear arsenal has not been touched. So which nation would be so stupid? Considering Russia's perimeter system is still intact and modernized.
Seeker. Please don't baffle G M with facts and logic.
" Russia is not the US, destroying civilian cities to make a point. Russian military doctrine destroys armies not slaughter civilians. "
Grozny, Chechnya would like a word with you.
A nuke would require a nuke in response. That cycle ends humanity in the end.
No, it will not.
The US will then have the choice between these alternatives:
1) NATO dissolves
2) The US dies together with Russia
They will chose 1) if they are rational.
If they do not, then they were going to launch a first strike on Russian anyway very soon, so that outcome could not be avoided.
Thus the rational move for Russia is to call that Article 5 bluff and erase some countries off the map.
Perhaps they should start with yours. They are not rational. They are delusional. Putin needs to carry on doing precisely what he is dong now - attritioning Ukraine and the Western Alliance.
You are completely right, and there are so many posters and commentators here that sound literally like bots that don't care about Russians dying needlessly. Only a fool would think that a prolonged war on your own border that doesn't grind any of the enemies' troops but their proxies raised from your own kin, is either a fool or has bad intentions. I really hope Russia has a self-correction mechanism and is not fully compromised from within. That Putin was really acting the way he was acting out of utmost caution and Christian values and not because he is somehow also coopted, and also pray there is time to correct.
Russians are not Jews.
Please define what a Russian is then ?
Originally I thought you are the thickest of thick cunts. But now...you are a troll. No one can be as dense as you pretend to be.You are here to hijack threads.
Be off with you and don't come back. NAZI cunt.
Literally your posts show immaturity. Literally.
The current western leader crop needs to be humbled and they will never relent on Russia unless their populations and leaders are thoroughly scared to back down, so a non-escalation message would fall on deaf ears. Russia needs to do something that will have the stock market drop 40% to get people to pay attention. If the west thinks Russia will not escalate - its a great opportunity to do just that.
Russia has a small window to draw NATO into the ground of their choosing but it will take something big, words from Russia ring hollow right now.
You remind me of Vicky Nuland. She gave away cookies happily in the same way you want to throw around nukes. In Vickies case you may end up with an irritated stomach. In your case we may end up with … nothing.
So, it takes the Russians thousands of missiles (6000 sofar I believe), millions of artillery rounds to drive out ukraine from their territory (4 oblasts previously part of ukraine), but you think that a couple of hundred missiles is going to destroy Russia? Sounds like the west truly has some wonder weapons.
Are you somehow related to Lindsay Graham I start wondering?
Dunno GM.
Putin took a country that was metaphorically on it's arse and restored it to a situation where it's taking on and beating NATO.
He's not perfect and makes some mistakes, but to doubt his courage seems perverse. He took on NATO, who else does thaty?
GM sure can stir up some shit though there is no denying that... Chip
Shit is precisely what he is offering.
It doesn't and will not matter what Putin did in the past, if he fails now.
The last time I saw Putin he was on a beach in Cancun. The man you're alluding to is a doppelganger so you can quit the insults.
To answer terror with terror is wrong. But you bring up a big roadblock for any peace talks. This terror attacs by Ukraine, done with help of NATO, are war crimes. How to settle this. Will the Russian population accept, that Budanov and his helpers/commanders from Western agencies are kept out of the calculation?
Budanov and the likes are inevitably becoming the problem for the zionized collective west. Good luck, Brussels and The Friends of Israel in the UK with your nurturing the neo-Nazism.
Also, is not it educational to observe the thoroughly dishonorable behaviors of the “ western agencies?” The western rot and stench belong to the owners of the collective west, that is, to a rather limited number of clans suffering a spectacular degradation.
Ukraine and NATO are terrorists, granted. So, what does Russia propose to do about it? Crying "terrorist! no fair!" will not stop them.
I think we do not see Russia's response, but the Ukrainians do, as they have no electricity to speak of. The Ukrainian orcs the US has coddled into becoming an international monster kill civilians,, because they are terrorists. They sow terror because they cannot win a war they never needed, but that the Poles of western Ukrainian hungered for. Of course, their kids are not dying on the front, but getting an education in the west. That's the way the warmakers operate. Save their own, kill yours.
There is no honor among the banderite thieves. Expect instances of vengeance against their pampered progeny.
Nobody cares whether Ukrainians freeze to death or starve.
Except the Russians, and the Belarussians.
That fact has been carefully obscured for 10 years, but it will be re-discovered by the Ukrainians. Some already know. Like VVP's credulousness toward the West, they thought they could be loved, when the Globalists only want them to die and get off the land.
The Russians and Byelorussians are not in much of a position to do anything about it.
I object to “spineless coward” but have to agree with you that he is trying to be too nice. He is dragging his anchor—his anchor being his historical and religious and social attachment to Ukraine.
"When will it be too late to get rid of that spineless coward?"
Abject idiocy. Sounds like you live in Kiev and are hoping that spouting propaganda for morons will save you from being sent to the front to die.
There is a war going on, and the occasional, utterly trivial, damage to Russian regions far from the front doesn't mean anything, especially when Russia's eradication of Kiev's military, industrial capacity, and resource base is considered. Russia is winning. Only an imbecile would in such a situation start a nuclear war that would ensure Russia was destroyed.
Doh.
This 'spineless coward' is winning the SMO and trifling attack you mentioned does not change anything; Putin's patience and restraint will result in total victory while your amateur boorishness will be entirely forgotten.
As it stands right now the SMO has been decisively lost.
None of the stated objectives of the SMO have been achieved, in fact negative progress has been made on all of them (Ukraine is much more militarized and nazified than ever before), and the objectives from December 2021 it is just sad to even think about.
And it is abundantly clear that the only way to achieve the SMO objectives is to end Ukraine's statehood forever and then de-Ukrainize.
Which the Kremlin has taken off the table entirely, both with their public statements and their actions (no serious mobilization, no decapitation strikes, etc.).
All Trump can do (by forcing Ukraine to lower mobilization age or giving them marginally more weapons) is delay the inevitable, that is Russian victory.
Would this 'pressure' really make any difference? I don't see how.
If the peace talks start with an end to the fighting, no need for additional troops, if not, more meat is needed to slow the Russians down. Otherwise the Russians end up in Odessa.
The Russians end up in Kviv.
@Victor
IMHO, Odessa is far more valuable strategically/economically than Kiev, also has a more pro Russian population. Men in Odessa have been commiting arson attacks against the military "recruiters" vehicles and offices for quite a while now- To the point where ordinary soldiers there now must leave signs on their dashboard asking people not to burn their car up since its their PERSONAL vehicle.
No, because once Ukraine really runs low on warm live bodies, NATO troops will be sent.
This never really was about Ukraine or Ukrainians, any more than anyone in 1914, much less anyone in 1918, really cared about Franz Ferdinand.
Early on, I through that Ukraine would avoid the fate of ancient Melos.
A man knows his history quite well.
Ah, a fellow Oregonian. There was a reason that classics were taught in the schools.
@Odysseus
As part of the tattered remains of "classical education" in US schools, I was required to read Edith Hamilton in 7th grade, ca. 1972. But I had already read far more than was covered in that class long before I reached junior HS. Greek was not on offer, senior HS did at least still offer Latin.
My nieces and nephews who went through American HS 2 or 3 decades after I did have never heard of such things.
The long-running soap opera—DPRK Troops Of Our Lives—took a strange fictional turn on 12 January w/ the *discovery* of a diary purportedly kept by an alleged DPRK soldier, supposedly killed in Kursk, which described a battlefield tactic: one DPRK soldier positions himself out in the open, in effect functioning as ‘bait’ for an AFU drone as it’s hunting—and when the drone approaches w/ its payload, the soldier’s buddies leap out to whack it away.
Since the so-called DPRK soldier wrote in his so-called diary every day, we can expect additional fabricated passages, perhaps some in which he reveals state secrets, which of course Pyongyang’s rulers always share w/ infantrymen, or passages in which the DPRK grunt disses VVP for his ‘full-scale unprovoked brutal invasion of an innocent democracy.’ We know there never actually was a DPRK soldier in Kursk, of course, who assiduously kept a diary every day and then wound up dead on the battlefield and whose diary naturally landed in the hands of the AFU—but it’s such a convenient story.
Since dead men tell no tales, the living can speak for them.
Work for a Tom Clancy TLA aspirant. Then get a script deal for film rights.
So we can add diaries next to passports and id cards surviving accidents and falling in the right hands😀
lol, like
The famous swindler Otto Frank was an inspirational figure
We have already learned from Gaza that our Western leaders are shockingly sadistic and psychotic. Now we can see they are stupid too.
"Our enabling the genocide in Gaza makes obvious what premium we place on human rights," according to Professor Mearsheimer.
The US has become a hardened zionist state, so it is no surprise that similarities arise in strategy and tactics.
Quite, it seems no lessons whatsoever have been learned since the first world war. The western elites seem to thrive on periodical mass human sacrifice.
Gesheft beats morals for usurers and war profiteers.
Delusional as well.
They are not stupid at all. They are sociopaths.
Thank you for that.
Such "waking up" revelations from so many Western leaders and simultaneously, and using the same lingo, is troubling - something is cooking up!
I do hope Trump is playing some sort of an "art of the deal" game vs. the bull in a china shop.
Trump has his deals but for the moment Zel and Mac have their secret plan to keep the war going behind his back. Recruiting up to 18 as a bluff poker and at the same time recruiting peacekeepers independently from Washington and Moskou, to sart the wildfire any moment like the fires in LA or in Syria.
I'm afraid his book should have been titled " The Art of the Con." Trump is trying to line up a billionaires' row in his cabinet. Don't count on Trump saving us.
Most likely his is "The Art of the Pomp." I think Trump would go very far to scratch his ego of "being right." As for us, mortals, we only got hope, and "that shit is harder to kill than a dragon." :-)
"The Art of the Con," by Zion Don.
I'v seen Trump refusing (obviously) to shake Netanyahu's hand, so maybe, just maybe, he is only partially for sale :-). And, yes, I'm afraid Trump will drag us deeper into this mess, even if seems impossible. As for Musk, etc., I'm not as repulsed as by Trump's Kelloggs, Gorkas, Rubios/whatever
Elon Musk: 'We have no choice but to eliminate the people who would oppose the state of Israel'
What other option do you actually see here? I didn't vote at all in 2016. I didn't vote for Trump in 2020. I did vote for Trump in 2024, and I held my vote till the very end, thinking they might try to kill him (and they did try.) Do I see Trump as our "savior?" Hell, no! But I wasn't going to waste my vote akin Jeffrey Sachs "in protest," given Kamala's looming. Disappointed with RFK Jr, he's wobbling, and most likely would take a paved road. We (US) are not at the point of "making the point," we're barely holding up and scraping by, and all Tump can do is to delay the inevitable. He got no full grasp or breadth to implement the major changes the US need, and yes I'm terrified of his people selection AGAIN, but I'll hold my final judgement on him for 24 months.
Nowhere is it written that there has to be a good choice. "There has to be some kind of a solution!" is just wishful thinking, an argument from consequences.
Every problem is solvable. Not every solution is palatable.
Some solutions generate such blowback that they could create runaway consequences. Other "solutions" are just avoidance, and solve nothing.
The USA has long been stuck deciding between these two types of options.
You've learned to time travel?
Don't kid yourself. Trump is weak, stupid and easily manipulated.
The hole in your reasoning is if Trump is 100% "for sale" why would they fight him so hard? Also, I won't be surprised if Trump was just "let win," to dump on him our pending economic/military collapse.
Trump says the quiet parts out loud and requires more management, not to mention America's various vassals, lackeys, puppets and catamites are less likely to bindly obey orders from a gauche buffoon such as Trump.
FWIW, in 2008 the CIA concluded that electing Obama was better for keeping europeans on-side witht he War On Iraq, as they detested Dubya and McCain, but swooned over Obama.
And by "saying the quiet parts out loud" - you meant Trump blurts the truth? :-) Refreshing in itself. Far being from Trump's fan, but if he was duly compromised, they'd have already whipped this card, and no need to go the "legal way" - just a chat in a semi-dark room.
Nothing so crude is needed. Ever seen "Yes, Minister"?
Look at how twice Trump cucked out of leaving Syria, how his own appointees mocked him, his generals simply ignored orders that they didn't like.
Did you really expect Trump to just leave "Syria's oil?":-) He was very clear "we're sitting here on the oil" :-) Last term he didn't have choice of people, made horrible mistakes, hopefully learned, even if I'm not enthused about what I see so far.
Trump is not going to do any favours to russia.u can see his stance shifting when he announced the casualties number for russia
Celebrating Zelya’s fulfillment of his ambition to produce one million FPV drones in 2024, the nytimes article—“How Suicide Drones Transformed the War in Ukraine”—described the AFU’s ability to deliver a lethal punch on the battlefield, especially entrenched lines, and disruptive capabilities: “a $400 plastic drone can neutralize a $3mn military machine like a T-80 tank.” The article focuses on the role hobbyist mini-aircraft played in opening up for Ukraine a cheap source of weaponry which “multiply combat power while preserving thinned ranks” in the face of artillery shell-starvation This article romanticizes the low-cost quadcoptors and quotes AFU troops singing their praises, stating that “standard infantry weapons are not enough.”
So admiring is the nytimes article of one-way kamikaze drones, which “blend the power of anti-tank projectiles, the range of mortar and the accuracy of sniper fire,” one would think that Ukraine was actually routing its adversary at every turn, scarcely having to rely on 20th Century equipment like artillery & armor. Although that is not the case, the article preserves the illusion that an unheralded piece of plastic outfitted w/ after-market amenities.
The article fawned over the cinematic imagery these drones offer: “Filmed from the pursuer’s point of view, they broadcast visual receipts in a style reminiscent of slasher movies.” In the full-spectrum warfare between Kiev and Moscow the kill shots—edited, set to music & disseminated online—become a way to raise cash for more kamikaze drones: “the expanding montage of cornered men frantically doing whatever they could to survive, only to die nonetheless, each spending his last seconds as an involuntary extra in the public visual chronicle of homicidal flying machines.”
Fashioned for readers in the West, primarily a domestic U.S. readership, the article focuses not on Raytheon-caliber wunderwaffe but exclusively on low-tech commercially available drones which AFU’s riggers have MacGuyvered w/ munitions. Contrasting dramatically w/ the $170bn worth of bespoke & high-end MIC equipment—weaponry designed from top-to-bottom to kill an adversary on the battlefield—are the cheap plastic off-the-shelf items one could readily procure at volume from a big-box discounter and trick out w/ cluster bomblets or anti-personnel grenades at rock-bottom prices.
The dad standing next to you at the youth league soccer game on the weekend is piloting an identical quadcopter for capturing all the action on the field.
Yes, the Ukrainians are scrappy. /sarc Yes they are clever & ingenious—but it’s weird to find a nytimes article walking readers not through Ukraine’s prowess w/ the Abrams or its tactic of positioning Patriot interceptors for air defense around Kiev but on hobbyist toys. What’s not discussed in this fan-fest devoted to FPV drones is the low percentage of effectiveness w/ the cheap quads. What’s not discussed are the 20,000 tanks Russia has destroyed since the SMO commenced, alongside 20,000 artillery multi-launch systems and 1,000,000 casualties. For all the hoopla about jury-rigged hobbyist toys, what’s not discussed are the 50,000 casualties racked up in the Kursk Incursion over a 5-month period, alongside 300 tanks.
Meanwhile, billions walk out the door of the U.S. Pentagon.
The article, which quotes the dubious claim about AFU’s casualties—“Ukraine’s losses were smaller than Russia’s”—exhibits no compunction about hearing the o-word applied to Russian troops or repeating it. Part of the rules-based-hypocritical-order means you must never apply ethnic slurs to an Israeli/Zionist military engaging in genocidal bombardment of Palestinians in Gaza but you may certainly do so when the Russian military engages in war, as if war is somehow worse when Russia wages it.
The article quotes an FPV jockey who said he enjoyed helping to kill Russians: “The more I like killing them, the less of them we will have on our land.” This statement, brutal, is not better somehow when voiced by a holy-hearted Ukrainian who of course stands on the right side of history. /sarc
This statement, brutal, captures the essence of war, regardless of the combatant.
CS,
The first casualty in war is the truth . Both sides demonise the opposition . Combat is a desperate struggle to survive and kill or be killed . Experience soldiers have a much higher survival rate as they are attuned to the dangers faced . There was a story from WW1 regarding how many soldiers died without firing a shot as they froze or couldn't bring themselves to kill . When you look at how the media portrays soldiers , it is mostly heroic struggles against impossible odds and winning . Watching your comrades getting blown to pieces in a struggle to hold onto your positions and then retreating doesn't fit that paradigm . Its notable that WW3 has started just as we are losing the last survivors of the last one .
Upvoting your last sentence, wowza
Wrong people are blown to pieces…. Ursula, Charles, the Kagans’ clan and dishonorable NATO brass are among those deserving to be blown the most.
The New York Times owners and editors deserve to experience the frolicking FPV ammunition attacks on their own properties. The sport is cheap and readily available — and it’s glorified by MSM. Onwards, local jockeys!
I expect the war to last until 2027 at least.
It depends on how much attriting of the old western hegemonic power bloc Russia-China is able to draw out, or I should say how much the former can sustain before it throws in whatever is left of its tatty towel. But 2027 is a big stretch.
Do you mean the war in Ukraine? Maybe but for Russia this is not just a war in Ukraine. This is a war against NATO. A victory in Ukraine meeting most of Putin's demands is not good enough.
That would just allow for the US/NATO to rearm and start using Finland or Poland or Moldova as its next Ukraine. Putin may need to keep the pressure on and use military force after any victory in Ukraine. The victory is meaningless if this is allowed to reoccur from another nation on Russia's periphery.
I don't know if the US is ready to meet these demands that Putin is going to have to make. There is no choice. NATO will have to go or the war goes beyond Ukraine's border. That will be the moment where NATO's bluff will be called. I hope they will realize it is not worth it.
There is a significant difference between using Ukraine as the proxy, and using Poland or Finland. The old machiavelian Brzezinsky understood that difference very well, but today's stupid leaders do not---it flies right over their heads.
In the case of Ukraine, Russians are fighting their brothers, and they bend over backwards to be humane. They avoid civilian casualties. They avoid completely demolishing the infrastructure. They offer every chance of surrender and treat the POWs humanely. The Russians are hoping to eventually welcome the prodigal sons back into the fold, like they did with the Chechens.
But there will be no humanity for Poland or Finland, who are not brothers but old, ever perfidious enemies. There will be decapitation strikes and total and immediate wrecking of key infrastructure---which is not anywhere near as robust as Ukrainian post-soviet infrastructure to begin with---to reduce these countries to the grimmest anarchy and famine, and destroy their war-fighting potential. It will be a completely different face of war. Not the white rider anymore, but the red one, followed by the black.
" to reduce these countries to the grimmest anarchy and famine, and destroy their war-fighting potential. It will be a completely different face of war. "
Pure delusion. Those are NATO countries , and if NATO wouldnt step in it would be its end. The end of NATO means the end of US military domination of the world. They will never allow that to happen, but keep the dream alive.
The war will go on until the decapitation of the Vampire Squid and physical confinement of real owners of the collective west.
Or American population must experience the real war on the American soil. The empire of Lies and talmudic genociders in charge are set to exterminate a large part of world population.
Even Simplicius is skewing the narrative to make it sound as if both sides share in a parity of urgency to settle this war. This is just not true. Russia (and China) gain the longer it goes on- in Russia's favour, natch, and to this end China will look after Russia. The object in the go-slow is to attrit western power not just militarily but economically as the old hegemon collapses into luridly self harming sanctions.
Meanwhile Russia continues to advance.
Zelenskiiy has already experienced what happens when you send new men to the fighting lines. They run away en masse. So not much real point in trying to talk up that solution. The reason Ukraine's western handlers are talking this 'solution' up, is because it throws the ball back in Zelenskiiy's court for the time being, postponing the hard talk when he will be told (if he is still around) that Ukraine is on its own. I do not mean on its own if it continues to fight when a deal is on the table for this all to stop. I mean radically abandoned to whatever solution Russia decides to execute through a new regime in a state that will have been returned fully to the Russian fold. This is where this war is going regardless of the blather. And it will end in a big summit of the big power blocs considering the issue of a globally reconciled new security architecture. Western europe does not feature at this high table unless an indulgence is granted for players to bring their pets who would howl at home else.
Western think tanks- where their group mind languishes- are already chewing on the direction in which the eastern european fringe states are likely to move- which is east. We could be looking at a new division of Germany. A new security architecture will at last concede to the real democratic will of these states and give the finger to the dying old EU hegemon.
It is so over for western europe's days in sun built on the dust of paper money during the uni- polar moment and not real resource wealth, that it is almost pointless to debate it. History ignores the verbal camouflage of the day, always has.
I agree. Trump may want to make a deal with Putin but politically it is too much to concede. Moreover, there are too many establishment forces against coming close to meeting Putin's terms.
The larger problem is Trump has been to exploring options on coming to peace terms before the European leadership was ready. They have much more to lose than the US does. The US is not in danger and is in a position to buy European assets for pennies on the dollar as the European economy fades away.
The solution is going to have to come from Europe. Not the US. The Europeans will need to make the choice of economic or military suicide or accept moving NATO away from Russia's borders.
It is Europe that will have to decide if its future is brighter by economically synergizing with Russia and drawing closer ties to the US. This is something that Trump will not want. If it goes there then he is going to take action against Europe itself.
The larger problem is the Fat Orange Retard is a blithering idiot with an attention span that makes the average TikTok doomscroller look like a Zen master.
Disagree with Trump's policies all you want but at this point to call him a blithering idiot is just factually wrong. It's about as silly as calling him a white supremacist. This isn't 2016 anymore, Trump has proven himself many times over. Do you really think a blithering idiot could get re-elected in 2024 after the entire Democrat political/media machine as well as most of the intel community, FBI and justice system went to full war with him and attacked him from about 50 different angles for 8 years? I'm pretty certain it would be impossible for a "blithering idiot" to emerge victorious from that kind of a war. Just recognize that you can hate someone and dislike what they stand for AND they can also be very smart and shreud. Not everyone you dislike is automatically an idiot. Saying so makes you sound like a blithering idiot.
On I side note...I absolutely despise Obama and Newsom for a multitude of reasons. I think they are both cold blooded conniving liars. I would never describe either of them as "blithering idiots". I think they are both very sharp and intelligent and I hate them because they use that intelligence for evil goals.
Representative Sheila Jackson (RIP).... now THAT was a perfect example of a politician that was actually a blithering idiot.
Obama and Newsom are also idiots, they're just well coached (just find any clip of Obama without a teleprompter nearby and you'll see what I mean).
I entirely agree with Joe on this one. DJT is anything but an idiot, for more reasons that I could ever fit in a comment.
We'll just have to wait and see how he gets the US out of the messy carnage that is Ukraine. Personally I believe he'll just dump Ukraine on the Europeans and tell them to deal with it. And oh yes, buy more American oil, LNG and weapons, as well as transfer their remaining profitable industries to the US; and give us Greenland... or we'll just take it.
You pretty much summed up my plan minus Greenland. We (the USA) have monumental structural problems facing us, so before we go on about adding the 51st State and a large territory we need to clean our room first.
It IS the Jewknighted Snakes of Fatmerica.
Mammon Worship "trumps" IQ every time.
"Do you really think a blithering idiot could get re-elected in 2024"
Yes. Do you think Clown World sat this one out? Also please to be noting the idiotic things Trump is saying about reviving the old retard dream of a "North American Union".
And in what way has he "proven" himself, except to be just another US MIGA clown?
Ensign, your post is an insult to blithering idiots.
A blithering idiot is more kamala.
Trump does have his blind spots, his ability to campaign is hands down phenomenal, but his ability to govern is weak. We will see.
"his ability to campaign is hands down phenomenal, but his ability to govern is weak"
So in other words, he is in fact useless. What good is it to anyone if the person who wins the election is unable to govern?
Hahaha haha fat orange retard
Hahaha...how them sour grapes tasting?
What "sour grapes", moron?
"The US is not in danger and is in a position to buy European assets for pennies on the dollar"
Like Greenland.
The US can't pay its own debts.
"...decide if its future is brighter by economically synergizing with Russia OR drawing closer ties to the US..."
I think this is what you intended... Chip
Yes, I believe you are right. Suddenly the corporate presstitutes, and this bleeds over because we do not see the backdoor deals. Our beloved "alternative media" is slowly but surely being drawn into the web through payments, deals, many of which are not really public disclosures. The corporate media is beating a drum to control the tempo and suddenly we all believe President Putin and the Kremlin are just as eager for a "deal" as Trump's awful mouthpieces.
The narrative is shifting in this regard as well. Trump is putting these guys out there, even though he has a different "idea" for "peace"? I guess in 7 days we will actually see some type of action, instead of words. I just hope Trump does not think he can make a couple of "rocket man" tweets regarding Russia and then fly to Moscow and wrap it all up
You've got this completely backwards. Of course Putin wants peace.
But American politics is driven and directed by money, and US money wants war. The US Department of "Defense" was allocated $1.5 trillion in 2023, a lot of which went to companies like Lockheed, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman etc (there are more than 100 "defense" contractors). Some of the money flowing into these companies gets circulated back to lobbyists and "election campaign contributions" to make sure the flow continues. The goal is perpetual war, plus "regime change" operations that result in "failed states" (Iraq, Syria, ...) that justify perpetual US military presence.
The “want” that is the prime determinant of this conflict is that of the old dark nobility and their attack poodles that have stated explicitly that their aim is the Balkanize Russia and feed on the organs. With that intention in place there will be no peace. Prepare accordingly.
Very true. Am a firm believer that Ukraine needs to be deconstructed and divided.
Am hoping Trump is to not go that route. We are on the verge of an economic collapse. I believe Trump has a blue collar imprimatur to get really down and dirty with the DC Bureaucratic Mafia and the Death Merchants if he needs to.
I agree. American Youth rebelled against the Draft for Vietnam, and now Decline to Volunteer for the Woke Pantgone USSA military. Formerly "Great" Britain has only 20,000 Migrants.
Ukraine is more Russian than European Union. The NWO USSA Stateless Dept/CiA started this war and President Trump must End It .... and Those That Caused it in the 1st place.
Looking at You, Victoria Nuland and your CiA handlers.
Jubal, you always had an easy way with words and horses.
It may be over for Europe as a serious player. But it isn't over for the west as led by the US. And it's too early to count them out. Moreover, Russia and China should strongly consider setting up a formal military alliance, because both are on the chopping block. Yet, we see that many elites within Russia and China still want to work with the west, and these people are loathe to confront the west or even do anything remotely proactive to destroy anglo-american-zionist hegemony.
I come to Simps substack now just to read the comments - which are entirely more informative and genuine than simp itself it seems
You ought to show some respect. Simplicius doesn't come into your house and tell you how clueless you are at decor.
I disagree about the EU getting to sit at the Big Kid's Table. After the Big Three cut a deal, with maybe Erdogan available for a bit of extortion and Starmer present to serve the table, the EU and rest of NATO will be invited to sit and then be told where to sign and how they are going to implement their part(s) of the deal. The Med nations, minus Macron, and the north Baltics along with Orban will Fico will be happy. Hungary, Slovakia and Poland all get a piece of Ukrainia and Romania gets Moldova AND a small slice of the Ukraine.
Zelenski and his television production crew posing as a cabinet get to keep their billions and live wherever they want as long as it isn't in New Russia.
It's good to see that inline with the West's and Kiev's doctrine people are completely ignored here. Thank god for that. I thought perhaps this topic might allow them to make an unwanted appearance and here and there they nearly did. But overall clearly no.
Those 18 year old being really just children, you know? Tempting to think of people And having connections with other people, you know? Mothers and fathers and, especially, those silly old buggers the grandparents... Yep. Could easily have been the thin end of the wedge and opening a discussion the people. Of Ukraine - how they're one people and this is a civil war for instance. How upsetting that would be if a well conditioned idiot were to stumble across this thread and learn its a civil war! Inflammatory. Disgraceful. Enough perhaps to give them doubts. Why they might even start thinking and what the hell is ever going to happen if people start thinking.
Similar with Trump I surmise There's a strange dichotomy in the Trump camp amongst (excuse the word) 'people'. For there's those extremely passionate and 'fight ready' on the one hand and there's millions of desperate almost beaten down mums and dads with Normal Rockwell type mindsets to delude themselves with on the other. Both sides hope Trump will be their saviour.
One hopes for a bloody civil war in which they crush all Democrats. The other simply hopes for the lifting of life's burdens increasingly crushing the life out of them to their despair and astonishment - how could the usa have come to this?
So one wants war.
The other wants peace.
Well Trump can't please both.
But that's a people thing again.
Sorry.
Yep. Well done.
Here is the interview with what appears to be first Ukrainin PM
https://t.me/myLordBebo/8471
“By 2030, no more than 20 million residents should remain in Ukraine.”
— Zbigniew Brzezinski, cited by Ukrainian former PM Vitold Fokin
Revisionist Zionists like Blinken are probably happy with this demographic catastrophe as well. At the end of the day, his grandpops fled from Kiev region cca 100 years ago. What is a 100 years old grudge for Blinkens of this world. We can daily observe thousands of years old grudges at work daily in the Middle East. Magic book and dude in the sky said sth.
It appears that they are purging the "useless eaters", unfortunately.
Thanks for that. Interesting. But I don't understand where Brzezinski was coming from: 'can't feed more than that' ? I thought Ukraine was a massive exporter of grain for instance.... What's it all about?
“They” have built there the largest in Europe synagogue, “they” staffed the Kievan junta with jews, attacked orthodox churches and priests, and let jewish men of military age to leave (no restrictions) for Israel and the EU. “They” made Uman’ into a noisy and filthy center of pilgrimage, and “they” recorded a song about Ukraine being a “Jewish territory” — while singing on the roof of the monstrous jewish center “Menorah” in Dnipro.
Currently, Banderites and zionists are “brothers forever,” the neo-Nazi azovites celebrated in Israel, by Knesset. So much for shoah-biz and the whining Holo-museums.
"One hope for a bloody civil war in which they crush all Democrats."
Yes, there are a very few people, mainly old and with little to lose, who are bloodthirsty and might actually want a real mass casualty civil war. But, there are too few to matter. Most 'tough, keen for a gunfight, men' are just LARPing as such.
What you didn't mention, which has broad bipartisan support, is SECESSION. This could be bloodless, and is almost inevitable. The tribalism has been so extreme, there is no returning to any United sort of states.
With this in mind, DJT (and his handlers and owners) might be desperate to create the North American Empire right now, while they can. They must act before the Union itself falls apart into one or more blue blocks, one or more red blocks, and possibly an independent state or two. Faced with new countrymen including satanic Salvadoran gang bangers and Haitian voodoo priests, the US born population might be willing to get over their differences. But, probably not.
Frankly, if everyone who pushed unemployment and house arrest for all free people who refused to be test subjects for an mRNA experiment, DIED, I would celebrate. Over 4 years, NOT ONE OF THEM has apologised to me for any of it. They are my enemies and I resent having to share a country with them.
Do you really think the States could fall apart? Secede or whatever you call it when you 'unfederate' ? You think it could? Any others of that mind? You have perhaps some links I could look at to see what the situation is like?
And bloodless? Your setup allows for bloodless secession you think?
There is too much and not enough time, but suggest you do your own research starting with Texas, which (unlike Canada and the UK) actually has a gold depository. Multiple opinion polls over several years have indicated substantial support for secession in both red and blue states. When the federal dollar value collapses, many things now thought impossible will become possible.
In 1989, I never imagined that the Berlin wall coming down would, in two years, lead to the USSR bloodlessly dissolving into 15 independent countries. (Yes, one major war, RF vs UKR broke out 31 years later, but not straightaway.) Fortunately, the biggest fragment kept all of the nuclear weapons. Hopefully the US of A can also break up without an immediate major war. California, like Ukraine, is destined to become a festering sore of corruption and degeneracy, the sooner it is amputated from the Union, the better for the other 49.
Thank you for this excellent summary.
You know, as inept as Russia is at playing the modern "PR" game compared to the Mighty Wurlitzer of the West, it is vastly better at managing an empire than China is. It's often forgotten just how many different nations/ethnicities are in Russia and how all of them had to be persuaded, in one way or another, to be a part of something bigger.
China, on the other hand, despite a truly enormous expenditure on PR stuff like their CGTN network(s), always comes across as a bunch of stiff nerds with little to offer except for money (prosperity) and hopelessly naive logical arguments, kinda like Victorian-era soap companies focusing on how well their products clean instead of manipulating your guilt of being thought of by others as dirty.
So yeah, I would agree 100% that Russia is the spiritual leader of the "Global South."
As for the whole "bend the knee" thing, I think that's gonna take care of itself once Germany has its parliamentary elections and NordStream gets turned back on, plus Slovakia + Hungary filing a lawsuit/strongarming Ukraine into quit being a turd and letting the Russian gas flow once more.
Perhaps you forgot that China has 84 officially recognized ethnic groups, and seven special autonomous regions. They seem to be managing it all quite well.
There is a lot of Russian gas going to China. And a lot of US gaslighting going there at the same time.
Only through the overwhelming Communist security state. This is similar to the US, where the various antagonistic groups are kept apart and down by the US security apparatus. Remove that, and a giant house cleaning would commence.
Something is wrong. Inept to play PR, but spiritual leader of Global South? PR can only work, if you are allowed to broadcast your message. In the South, the Russians are allowed, in the West, they are banned. This is not the Russians fault!
Nordstream will not be turned on. The Americans will never allow it and, like dogs, germans literally cannot imagine life with Master.
Nice take, thanks
It's time for Russia to assert strategic military control in Ukraine and not give it a chance to mobilize its reserves by piecing through AFU defensive lines with a multi-pronged attack from Belarus heading south and then West from eastern positions.
Take out the US-backed NATO proxy AFU forces by taking over all roads in and out of Kyiv after breaching enemy lines. Destroy everything heading towards or from Kyiv. Create confusion and panic among weak retreating forces unable to re-supply and force their surrender by the thousands. A good portion of those AFU forces will surrender rather than fight and die for nothing at all.
Russia has the means right now to conquer Ukraine by laying siege to all its strongholds paralyzing their ability to maneuver on all the roads in and out of targeted areas like Kyiv.
250,000 mobilized soldiers, 500 tanks, and as many personnel carriers and artillery as possible, covered with airpower and at least 50 big long-range bombs, to greet and obliterate massed-up enemy forces in the kill zones will get the job done.
In a disadvantageous situation, Trump wants to play hardball to test Putin's will.
But Putin is the one who holds the high ground to defeat Ukraine once and for all and just put an end to the war by winning it with one big strategic offensive putting AFU forces and Zelinski in a checkmate forced abdication because they've lost all means to fight. Then see what big-mouth Trumpster will do knowing that His proxy AFU forces are defeated.
I even dare Trump to declare NATO to attack Russia in Ukraine after they've set up strategic defensive lines threatening Russia with a good time. Don't believe me? Try it and see what happens.
This ain't no time for Putin to go soft. He must attack ASAP and decisively win this SMO turned into a war.
Putin needs to tell Trump,
https://youtu.be/ahaFSKWJS_8?t=32
Too late.
Never a better time.
Considering Russia has 6 days to burn through the Ukranian lines and rush 200 km in all direction and wreak havoc among the reserves, command and supply&ammo dumps it is a bit tight…
Those 5:1 odds in Russian favour at the front seems like daydreaming. That Ukraine will evaporate suddenly likewise.
Russia has the upper hand but have they used it wisely?
It's all about taking the initiative with overwhelming forces and control of the air like Operation Desert Storm led by General Swarpkoft's push behind enemy lines to destroy a retreating enemy. By golly, if Patton was in charge of Russian forces he'd attack and defeat a weakened enemy by breaking through. What's with all the passivity when it comes to Russia taking the initiative and attacking in force? This is war, not ballet. The enemy is about to crack so attack in the manner I mentioned above. Be bold and decisive at the right time. It wins wars faster with less collateral damage.
You, GM and me in one corner, the rest of the bunch in the other corner saying:
”Russia is winning slowly, but sure as hell, due to attrition of the enemy forces”.
The only explanation I can think of is that Russia is unable to launch big scale operations involving 2-3 Corps sp they have to resort to small scale operation. Do they have a depleted Airforce (incl Attack helicopters) and dont want to risk anymore tanks&IFVs?
I cant fathom how it is possible for Ukraine to uphold close Air defence when Russia has destroyed hundreds of them, how Ukraine can blast 10-20 Russian vehicles in mere minutes when they lack Artillery/AT and how the lines are upheld with so few soldiers.
Somewhere, someone is lying or grossly underestimating/overstating the other side. And I suspect West has sent way more weapons that they openly admit.
It's hard to underestimate the impact of a trillion+ dollar military ISR investment backed by a legion of Western analysts and data centers.
The big move from Belarus may well begin after the presidential elections on the 26th of this month.
Fun fact: voting in Belarus requires a photo ID to be presented, like in any other interaction with the state.
Before I read the article, I am already fuming over Trump's saying that UKR should lower the draft age to 18. I hate to admit a lot of things, like I held my nose and voted for Trump, that I never served, but when I turned 18 in 1972 the Viet Nam war was winding down and I was a spoiled college kid who had no clue what was going on. All I knew that my number was 254 which meant I coud continue to walk in a fog. Not a chance I would be drafted. But no matter, once the KY Board of Medical Licensure suspended my License for an operating room registered nurse's premeditated violation of her duty which resulted in her handing me a lethal drug resulting in a patient's death for which I got all the blame, I could not even join the Army as an orthopedic surgeon, or the VA, or the Indian Health Reservation. But I always get some smart ass remark by a reader like on Zero Hedge who posted, "so you want to F up those people too?"
But George W Bush got out of the service by joining the National Guard. Bill Clinton got a deferral when he went to Oxford, and big talking chicken Donald Trump, well, he got his deferral because of "heel spurs."I don't even want to know about Senator Lindsey Graham.
I now almost think that there should be requirements in order to seek political office, like 2 years military service for starters, only investment in broad index funds instead of making millions on insider trading on individual stocks like Pelosi and all the others.Term limits of course, and no book writing deals for 5 years after leaving office, no joining any hedge funds for five years or exercising of stock options, etc. The system is rotten to the core. Now, back to the article
And when VdL was asked about here sons and military service, she just smiled and gave now answer. She was German defence minister, she had good jobs for the consulting company one of her sons was working for. But it was very clear, her sons will never join the German Army. In Austria we have mandatory service, but the better people have "heel spurs" or choose some substitute service, like helping in health care.
Good that you are getting wise. Too many humans keep doubling down, rather than admit that they were played.
Nearly the first question on an EPSQ (SF86) back when I first got mine, the form you have to fill out to get a security clearance, is about registering for selective service. It's moved since then, but you have to have registered.
Nothing about actually fulfilling a draft requirement, and frankly Carter pardoned everyone for their draft offenses prior to 1976.
What a hypocrite. And here Trump dodged the draft due to a medical diagnosis of "heels spurs."
.Pray tell what about SC Senator Lindsey Graham. Did he serve? If he did, did he get KP duty only?
We need a list of military service by all our politicians. Tulsi Gabbard I'm aware of.
JD served--as did Mike Waltz and Pete Hegseth (as far as DJT-specific pols are concerned.)
I think Graham was a lawyer in JAG. I doubt he saw military action.