Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 21:09
VIEWED: 562266
PAGE 59 of 111
The political leadership in Ukraine showing how stupid they are:
Front-line Ukrainian infantry units report acute shortage of soldiers
By Isabelle Khurshudyan and Anastacia Galouchka | February 8, 2024 at 3:17 p.m. EST
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/08/ukraine-soldiers-short
age-infantry-russia/
KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — The Ukrainian military is facing a critical shortage of infantry, leading to exhaustion and diminished morale on the front line, military personnel in the field said this week — a perilous new dynamic for Kyiv nearly two years into the grinding, bloody war with Russia.
In interviews across the front line in recent days, nearly a dozen soldiers and commanders told The Washington Post that personnel deficits were their most critical problem now, as Russia has regained the offensive initiative on the battlefield and is stepping up its attacks.
One battalion commander in a mechanized brigade fighting in eastern Ukraine said that his unit currently has fewer than 40 infantry troops — the soldiers deployed in front-line trenches who hold off Russian assaults. A fully equipped battalion would have more than 200, the commander said.
Another commander in an infantry battalion of a different brigade said his unit is similarly depleted.
The soldiers interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly and could face retribution for their comments.
The reports of acute troop shortages come as President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday replaced his military chief, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny. While their relationship had long been tense, in recent weeks one chief disagreement has been over how many new soldiers Ukraine needs to mobilize. Zelensky elevated Oleksandr Syrsky, the 58-year-old commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, to replace Zaluzhny.
The Ukrainian presidential office declined to comment, referring questions to the Defense Ministry, which in turn referred questions to the Ukrainian military’s General Staff. The General Staff did not respond to a request for comment.
Zaluzhny told Zelensky that Ukraine needs nearly 500,000 new troops, according to two people familiar with the matter, but the president has pushed back on that figure privately and publicly. Zelensky has said he wants more justification from Ukraine’s military leadership about why so many conscripts are needed and has also expressed concern about how Kyiv would pay them.
Financial assistance from Western partners cannot be used to pay soldier salaries, and Ukraine’s budget is already under strain, with a $60 billion aid package proposed by President Biden stalled in Congress. The European Union last week approved roughly $54 billion in aid after it was delayed for weeks by opposition from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The debate in Kyiv about mobilization — and to what degree the country should ramp it up — has angered soldiers on the front line.
Oleksandr, a battalion commander, said the companies in his unit on average are staffed at about 35 percent of what they should be. A second battalion commander from an assault brigade said that is typical for units that carry out combat tasks.
Asked how many new soldiers he has received — not including those who have returned after injuries — Oleksandr said his battalion was sent five people over the past five months. He and other commanders said the new recruits tend to be poorly trained, creating a dilemma about whether to send someone immediately onto the battlefield because reinforcements are needed so badly, even though they are likely to get injured or killed because they lack the know-how.
“The basis of everything is the lack of people,” Oleksandr said.
“Where are we going? I don’t know,” he added. “There’s no positive outlook. Absolutely none. It’s going to end in a lot of death, a global failure. And most likely, I think, the front will collapse somewhere like it did for t
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Oh, I see the NEW narrative is "blame the Ukrainians".
This couldn't possibly have been a neocon miscalculation!
Son, Ukraine was never gonna win, no matter how good or bad their leadership. Their big mistake came right at the beginning: being America's "friend" (i.e. patsy).
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Those dumb Ukrainians still don't have a plan for how to knock down the bridge across the Crimean Straits. The political leadership didn't spend the money on buying or building what was needed to destroy the bridge. These are not people who think clearly and far ahead about something that should have happened the first week of this war. The Russians aren't any better at planning. In contrast, the USA had an early detailed plan to win WWII, including nuking civilians.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Oh, I see the NEW narrative is "blame the Ukrainians".
This couldn't possibly have been a neocon miscalculation!
Son, Ukraine was never gonna win, no matter how good or bad their leadership. Their big mistake came right at the beginning: being America's "friend" (i.e. patsy).
Even today, the Russians keep claiming they could have won WWII alone. The world will allow the retarded Russians their self-delusions about Russian military competence but the world saw how that worked: Russians died by the tens of millions because average Russians could not plan ahead worth a damn. Final death toll: USA 418,500 / Russia doesn't know to nearest 10 million how many died. Russians still worry about being killed. They should be worried. They still can't plan worth a damn because millions of the smartest Russians, the ones with foresight, emigrated starting before WWI, leaving behind those with less-than-average intelligence. Stalin's killing of tens of millions of the most energetic/intelligent Russians damaged Russia's future into the 21st century.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Russia puts Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, on wanted list
By Pjotr Sauer | Tue 13 Feb 2024 07.04 EST
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/13/russia-puts-estonian-pri
me-minister-kaja-kallas-on-wanted-list
Moscow has put the Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, and other Baltic states officials on a wanted list, as Tallinn warns of an imminent Russian military buildup along its border.
The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said the Estonian state secretary, Taimar Peterkop; the Lithuanian culture minister, Simonas Kairys, and Kallas were accused of “destroying monuments to Soviet soldiers”, a reference to the removal of Soviet-era second world war memorials
“This is only the start,” Zakharova wrote on her telegram channel. “Crimes against the memory of the world’s liberators from nazism and fascism must be prosecuted.” The exact charges against the three have not been revealed by Russian authorities.
Moscow has placed multiple senior Kyiv officials and generals on its wanted list since the start of the Ukraine war, but Kallas is the first known government head to be sought by Moscow.
The Estonian prime minister has been one of the strongest supporters of Ukraine, leading efforts to increase military assistance to Kyiv and tighten sanctions against Russia.
Moscow’s decision to add Kallas to its wanted list will further increase tension in the region at a time when many western capitals have sounded the alarm over a growing military threat from Russia.
When asked on Tuesday by reporters about Kallas, Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said that the Estonian leader “took hostile acts against our country and historical memory”.
The removal of Soviet-era monuments has been a delicate issue in Estonia, a former Soviet republic from 1944 until 1991 where nearly a quarter of the population of 1.3 million people are ethnic Russians.
The process has accelerated since Russian troops invaded Ukraine, with Kallas pledging to remove all communist monuments in public spaces. “We have decided … Soviet monuments must be removed from public spaces and we will do it as quickly as possible,” Kallas said in the summer of 2022 when officials removed a Soviet tank memorial from Narva, a largely Russian-speaking city close to the Russian border.
Estonia has been anxious to avoid some of the unrest it faced in 2007 after it removed a statue in Tallinn known as the Bronze Soldier, which led to two nights of rioting and looting, followed by a major cyber-attack that Estonian officials pinned on Russia.
The country has also moved to counter pro-Russian narratives about the war in Ukraine by banning from cable television four Russian television channels, a major source of news for many older ethnic Russians.
Tensions remain high and on Tuesday, Estonia’s foreign intelligence service warned Russia intended to double the number of its troops stationed along its border with the Baltic states and Finland as part of preparations for a potential military conflict with Nato within the next 10 years.
Kaupo Rosin, the director general of the Estonian service, told reporters ahead of his agency publishing its annual report: “Russia has chosen a path which is a long-term confrontation … and the Kremlin is probably anticipating a possible conflict with Nato within the next decade or so.
“We will highly likely see an increase of manpower, about doubling perhaps. We will see an increase in armed personnel carriers, tanks, artillery systems over the coming years.”
Rosin said that a military attack by Russia was “highly unlikely” in the short term, partly because Russia had to keep troops in Ukraine, but Rosin called on Europe to get prepared by rearming.
“If we are not prepared, the likelihood [of a military Russian attack] would be much higher than without any preparation,” Rosin added.
In an interview with the conservative journalist Tucker Carlson last week, Putin dismissed western warnings, saying that his country has “no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywher
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NATO General Raises Prospect of New Nuclear Power
By Brendan Cole | Feb 12, 2024 at 10:32 AM EST
https://www.newsweek.com/poland-general-russia-nuclear-kraszewski-1869
036
NATO member Poland should eventually get nuclear weapons as a security measure, a top Polish general has said.
Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Warsaw has been a key supporter of Kyiv and has warned of the danger posed by the Kremlin, which has made repeated nuclear threats.
Brigadier General Jaroslaw Kraszewski told Polish media outlet RMF FM that if Warsaw had nuclear weapons it would deter possible aggression because "those who possess nuclear capabilities have a very high level of security."
Kraszewski said that Poland's armed forces had been modernized significantly since the country joined NATO in 1999 and that Warsaw had always shown its support for the alliance's actions in acting against threats to its borders.
He was asked about an article in British magazine The Spectator headlined "It's time to give Poland nuclear weapons," by Dalibor Rohac, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/its-time-to-give-poland-nuclear-we
apons/
Rohac argued that the prospect of Donald Trump winning the U.S. election could endanger NATO's deterrence given his rhetoric criticizing the alliance.
"Trump-proofing the security of Eastern Europe, few measures would be as effective as arming the largest country of the region — Poland — with nuclear weapons," the Op-Ed said.
Kraszewski described such a scenario "as very real," according to a translation.
"Those who possess nuclear capabilities have a very high level of security," he said. "Usually, such countries are not attacked and the possibility of any action aimed at provoking a local crisis is not even considered. That is why I see having such an arsenal as a challenge in the coming years. I hope it will come to that."
When asked about a time frame, he said there would be a resumption of negotiations on the arrangement of nuclear forces in the world after the war in Ukraine.
"Western Europe is fed up with being intimidated by Russia," he said, describing Moscow as an "unpredictable neighbor."
Newsweek has contacted the Polish foreign ministry for comment.
In September 2022, Polish President Andrzej Duda said Warsaw had asked the U.S. for nuclear weapons to be stationed in Poland because of the perceived threat posed by Russia, which has deployed such arms to neighboring Belarus.
Warsaw has said that no progress has been made towards hosting nuclear weapons in Poland.
In reporting Kraszewski's comments, Russian state news agency TASS said Poland's National Security Bureau chief, Jacek Siewiera, had dodged the issue of nuclear weapons during an interview with newspaper Rzeczpospolita.
It said he had avoided answering a question about whether Warsaw would strike a deal with the U.S. to place such weapons in Poland under the NATO Nuclear Sharing program.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Oh, I see the NEW narrative is "blame the Ukrainians".
This couldn't possibly have been a neocon miscalculation!
Son, Ukraine was never gonna win, no matter how good or bad their leadership. Their big mistake came right at the beginning: being America's "friend" (i.e. patsy).
SECOND: Those dumb Ukrainians still don't have a plan for how to knock down the bridge across the Crimean Straits.
THAT is an great example of neocon miscalculation. THE CRIMEAN BRIDGE DOESNT MATTER. SURELY by now you've heard of the "land bridge" to Crimea? A robust series of rail and road lines across the newly acquired Mariupol region? THAT is what carries materiel to the front, not the Crimean bridge.
Yanno, ever since this whole thing started in 2014, your neocon sources have been grossly miscalculating. They didn't take into account the SIGNIFICANT minority (roughly 35 pct) of Rusian speaking Ukrainians who made up the bulk of anti-Kiev forces in the Donbas. They thought they could lie and cheat and break promises. Cross red lines without consequence. Because they truly believed that Russians were barely civilized orcs, that Russia was just "a gas station masquerading as a country", that the Russian army was fragmeneted and unmotivated, that Moscow fifth columnists would overthrow the hated Putin. Etc. Etc.
You, SECOND, have reposted every negative meme, every underestimation, every lie about Russia. And now that those lies are blowing up in your face I couldn't be happier. Bc I hate liars.
Meanwhile I was keeping an eye on Russia's preparation for being kicked off SWIFT, its developing relationships with China and Iran, its military rebuild and development of never-before seen weapons.
I believe that there were many tense months in the Kremlin. They TRULY did not want to wage a large scale war. That's why they bluffed Kiev and were ready to negotiate. Their army wasn't up to strength and, mostly, they were worried about SWIFT. Because the one thing Russians ARE sensitive to is a possible return to the economic crisis they experienced under USA tutelage 1990-2000.
But they had been preparing for decades, literally, for the time when the USA would attempt to destabilize them (again) and they prevailed.
All of that was invisible to you bc you live in a dark and twisted fantasy.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Dozens of Russian Aircraft Have Mysteriously Disappeared/Reappearing in Ukraine
Published Feb 12, 2024 at 10:00 AM EST
The Ministry of Transport audited Rosaviatsiya's records of civil aircraft in July 2023, and inconsistencies led to the criminal investigations, Izvestia reported. Employees of the Federal Air Transport Agency "removed" aircraft from a register of civil assets "without complete sets of documents, provided contradictory and unreliable information about the location of aircraft outside Russia," according to the newspaper, citing a Ministry of Transport spokesperson.
Russia's domestic security service, the FSB, is looking into allegations that Moscow's Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsiya, sent Russian civil aircraft and helicopters to nations including "unfriendly countries," state-backed Russian newspaper, Izvestia, reported on Monday.
"The Federal Security Service opened two criminal cases — negligence and abuse of power — against several employees of the Federal Air Transport Agency," according to Izvestia. The employees are "suspected of illegally removing 59 planes and helicopters from Russian jurisdiction" after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago, the newspaper reported.
A number of the unaccounted-for aircraft were used by Ukraine in military operations against Russia, Izvestia reported, citing two anonymous Russian law enforcement sources and an unnamed source in Moscow's transport ministry.
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-helicopters-aircraft-missing-fsb-inves
tigation-rosaviatsiya-1869107
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Signym, you are writing fantasies, with no facts behind your stories.
Quote:Signym, one thing makes Russia unique: it is the millions of murders of Russians by Russians. This is a fact that Russians cannot understand about themselves. It drives them crazy. It makes them dangerous to all neighboring countries. 62 million murders caused the best Russians to emigrate or die, leaving mentally damaged Russians to run the country.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
THAT is an great example of neocon miscalculation. THE CRIMEAN BRIDGE DOESNT MATTER. SURELY by now you've heard of the "land bridge" to Crimea? A robust series of rail and road lines across the newly acquired Mariupol region? THAT is what carries materiel to the front, not the Crimean bridge.
Yanno, ever since this whole thing started in 2014, your neocon sources have been grossly miscalculating. They didn't take into account the SIGNIFICANT minority (roughly 35 pct) of Rusian speaking Ukrainians who made up the bulk of anti-Kiev forces in the Donbas. They thought they could lie and cheat and break promises. Cross red lines without consequence. Because they truly believed that Russians were barely civilized orcs, that Russia was just "a gas station masquerading as a country", that the Russian army was fragmeneted and unmotivated, that Moscow fifth columnists would overthrow the hated Putin. Etc. Etc.
You, SECOND, have reposted every negative meme, every underestimation, every lie about Russia. And now that those lies are blowing up in your face I couldn't be happier. Bc I hate liars.
Meanwhile I was keeping an eye on Russia's preparation for being kicked off SWIFT, its developing relationships with China and Iran, its military rebuild and development of never-before seen weapons.
I believe that there were many tense months in the Kremlin. They TRULY did not want to wage a large scale war. That's why they bluffed Kiev and were ready to negotiate. Their army wasn't up to strength and, mostly, they were worried about SWIFT. Because the one thing Russians ARE sensitive to is a possible return to the economic crisis they experienced under USA tutelage 1990-2000.
But they had been preparing for decades, literally, for the time when the USA would attempt to destabilize them (again) and they prevailed.
All of that was invisible to you bc you live in a dark and twisted fantasy.
1 61,911,000 Victims: Utopianism Empowered, 1917-1987
2 3,284,000 Victims: The Civil War Period, 1917-1922
3 2,200,000 Victims: The NEP Period 1923-1928
4 11,440,000 Victims: The Collectivization Period, 1929-1935
5 4,345,000 Victims: The Great Terror Period 1936-1938
6 5,104,000 Victims: Pre-World War II Period 1939-June 1941
7 13,053,000 Victims: World War II Period, June 1941-1945
8 15,613,000 Victims: Postwar and Stalin’s Twilight Period. 1945-1953
9 6,872,000 Victims: Post-Stalin Period, 1954-1987
From the book Lethal Politics: Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder since 1917 by R. J. Rummel
Download the free book from http://libgen.is/search.php?req=R.+J.+Rummel
https://www.amazon.com/Lethal-Politics-Soviet-Genocide-Murder-ebook/dp
/B073RQ94KF/
Russia murdered 4 million Ukrainians in Holodomor, damaging the mental health of Ukrainians as much or more as the Russians murdering each other damaged their own mental health. The effect continues today, with Russians still murdering and torturing more Ukrainians.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Holodomor
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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The British International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think tank stated on February 12 that Russia is likely able to sustain its current rate of vehicle losses for at least two to three years by producing new vehicles and reactivating vehicles from storage.[64] IISS estimated that Russia has lost over 3,000 armored fighting vehicles in 2023 and close to 8,000 armored fighting vehicles since February 2022. IISS stated that Russia likely reactivated at least 1,180 main battle tanks and about 2,470 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers pulled from storage in 2023. IISS stated that Russia has 10 Central Tank Reserve Bases, at least 37 mixed equipment and armaments storage bases, and at least 12 artillery storage bases. Ukrainian military analyst Oleksandr Kovalenko stated on February 11 that Russia’s reported tank production numbers in recent years largely reflect restored and modernized tanks drawn from storage rather than new production.[65]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-february-13-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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The Kremlin appears to be asserting the right to enforce Russian Federation law on officials of governments in NATO member states over actions taken in the performance of their official duties within the territories of their own countries. The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) has put dozens of government officials from NATO countries on Russia’s wanted list because of alleged violations of Russian federal law committed outside the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. Russian opposition outlet Mediazona stated on February 13 that it gained access to the MVD’s wanted list and that the Russian MVD put Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Estonian Secretary of State Taimar Peterkop, Latvian Justice Minister Inese Libina-Egnere, Latvian Finance Minister Arvils Aseradens, Latvian Agricultural Minister Armands Krauze, and former Latvian Interior Minister Marija Golubeva on the wanted list for allegedly destroying Soviet monuments in Estonia and Latvia — which Kremlin newswire TASS confirmed.[23] Mediazona stated that 59 Lithuanian Seimas deputies, 15 Riga municipal deputies, Lithuanian Mayor of Klaipeda Arvydas Vaitkus, Vaitkus’s deputy, 13 members of the Klaipeda city council, six deputies of the Vilnius city council, Polish Mayor of Walbrzych Roman Szelemey, and Polish Deputy Minister of State Assets Karol Rabenda also appear on the Russian MVD’s wanted list in connection with the destruction of Soviet monuments in the Baltic states and Poland.[24] Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitri Peskov stated the Baltic officials are wanted for “hostile actions against historical memory and Russia.”[25] Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Spokesperson Maria Zakharova claimed that Kallas is “actively pursuing a policy of demolishing monuments and mocking the memory of Soviet soldiers” and that she must be held accountable for “blasphemy.”[26] Zakharova called on Russian law enforcement agencies to conduct investigations “within the framework of their powers and responsibilities in accordance with the legislation of Russia.” Zakharova claimed that the officials must “answer for their crimes” and that “this is just the beginning.”[27]
Article 243 of the Russian Criminal Code states that the destruction or damage of cultural heritage sites and monuments is punishable by up to six years in prison.[28] Russia, however, does not have the legal authority to prosecute foreign citizens for allegedly violating Russian laws in foreign states. Russia has notably used the issue of Soviet monuments to justify hybrid warfare tactics against NATO countries in the past when Russia launched large-scale cyberattacks against Estonia in 2007 after Estonia moved a Soviet World War II war memorial and the remains of Soviet soldiers from central Tallinn to the Tallinn Defense Cemetery.[29] Although it is unclear if the Russian government had planned to publicize its inclusion of the European officials on the list before Mediazona disclosed this information, this may be part of ongoing Russian effort to set informational conditions justifying possible Russian escalations against NATO states in the future, as ISW has extensively reported.[30] The Kremlin has also invoked narratives related to the historical memory of World War II to justify and sustain its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.[31]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-february-13-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Sinking of Tsezar Kunikov leaves Russian Black Sea Fleet with only 5 serviceable ships, down from 13
By Olena Roshchina — Wednesday, 14 February 2024, 11:31
Sources of Ukrainska Pravda in the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine reported that DIU’s drones struck the large Russian landing ship Tsezar Kunikov in the Black Sea. Later, Defence Intelligence of Ukraine officially reported that the warship was sunk by Magura V5 maritime drones and released a video.
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/02/14/7441804/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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The Ukrainian military says it has destroyed a large Russian landing ship in the Black Sea off the coast of occupied Crimea in a combined operation of the armed forces and military intelligence.
The Rybar Telegram channel, which is close to the Russian Defense Ministry, confirmed the attack, although without providing details.
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-destroys-large-russia-ship-caesar-kuni
kov/32819048.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Things are going badly for Ukraine — really badly
By Mia Jankowicz and Tom Porter | Feb 13, 2024, 11:08 AM CST
At the heart of Ukraine's problems is diminishing international aid.
Ukrainian troops are having to restrict their ammunition use, and in some parts of the front line, they're being outgunned three to one, Bloomberg reported recently.
US-supplied guns such as the howitzer are falling silent near Bakhmut — a city that has been the site of months of brutal combat — because of shell shortages, CNN reported.
Personnel problems are also growing. Among the core disagreements between Zelenskyy and Zaluzhny was recruitment, with the former military chief saying Ukraine needed to massively boost the number of people being drafted into the military, while the president was concerned about the impact on already fragile national morale.
With the prospect of another Trump presidency next year, Putin is "sitting pretty," Bury told BI. The chance of the US shutting off Ukraine aid altogether offers "a path to victory for Putin now where there wasn't for a good while," he said.
"But it always comes back to this: What do we want to do?" he added. "Do we want to see a democracy crushed by an autocracy? Where does the West draw the line here?"
https://www.businessinsider.com/things-going-badly-for-ukraine-war-rus
sia-putin-zelenskyy-aid-2024-2
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
At the heart of Ukraine's problems is diminishing international aid.
Good.
Fuck Ukraine.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
At the heart of Ukraine's problems is diminishing international aid.
SIX: Good.
Fuck Ukraine.
I actually feel sorry for the average Ukrainian. Average people caught up in the Maidan/ pro-EU movement thought they were agitating for a Euro lifestyle, with Euro living standards and Euro democracy. Strolling down boulevards and drinking lattes at sidewalk cafes. Maybe even less corruption and fewer oligarchs.
Wow, how little they knew of plans western neocons had for them! If they had known they would be thrown against the Russian bear, and that it would cost them a half million dead or wounded men, millions of refugees, martial law, and a shattered economy, they would have never started down this path. Even Zelensky didn't realize the sacrifices he was expected to impose on his countrymen, until BoJo set him straight.
But this isn't the first "bait and switch" globalists and neocons played on entire peoples.
Look at Europe! The elites were slavering over Russia's resources, bureaucrats were slavering over "moar power", and the MIC was slavering over the prospect of dumping old weapons onto a third-rate country and getting fat juicy contracts to replace them with expen$ive new ones.
But the average You're-a-peon was told they were "protecting democracy" and "saving Ukraine from that Terrible Tyrant". Little did they know their "ally" would blow up their pipelines and that it would double, triple, or quadruple energy prices; impose deindustrialization and de-agriculturalization (globalist "green agenda" to starve the people and save resources FOR THEMSELVES); centralize policy power in the hands of Brussels Eurocrats; and increase crime and diminish democracy at home.
And we can say the same for us, too. We're being told we're for LQBTQX+ and fighting climate change and promoting democracy abroad and helping the poor migrants and being protected from pandemics, but it's all like a boa constrictor: ever-tightening controls, ever-diminishing prospects.
"Never let a good crisis go to waste" indeed!
I'll bet you dollars to donuts that people in Russian controlled oblasts are actually enjoying more democracy than those in Kiev-controlled areas, where elections have been canceled and men are dragged off the streets and sent to die on the front lines.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Apropos of diminished democracy in the west
Quote:
Germany's Top Security Queen Pushes Government Dragnet To Track 'Right-Wing Extremist'* Financing
*She means the AfD (Alternative for Deutscheland) which has become Germany's 2nd most pooular party.
Quote:
Marine and Jean-Marie Le Pen to stand trial over alleged misuse of EU funds
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/08/marine-and-jean-marie-le
-pen-trial-alleged-eu-funds-misuse?ref=upstract.com
Constant lawfare against Marine le Pen bc she's against more immigration into France.
Quote:
Jeffrey Sachs: The Biden-Schumer Plan To Kill More Ukrainians
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/the-biden-schumer-plan-to-kill-mo
re-ukrainians
Quote:
CIA Had Foreign Allies Spy On Trump Team, Triggering Russia Collusion Hoax, Sources Say
https://public.substack.com/p/cia-had-foreign-allies-spy-on-trump
Quote:
Clusterfuck Nation
Mr. Luongo makes an important point. I want you to think about this: there is a reason that the WEF-Globalist cabal is losing the battle to control and dominate the rest of us. They are trying to power straight into the opposing currents of reality. Above all, they seek to centralize power and decision-making. But the world is moving in the opposite direction. All of the WEF’s aims founder on the macro trends unspooling in history.
The rising rule for human affairs now is that anything organized at the giant scale is going to wobble and fail. There will not be any world government run by the creatures of Davos or Brussels, or Washington DC, or any other place that the grandiose imagine would be their seat of global power. It’s not going to happen so you can stop worrying about it. But you’d better prepare for what is happening: everything in our world wants to get smaller, slower, finer, and more local. Anything that opposes these trends is pissing into the wind.
Since every activity we humans practice has to move in that direction, we are seeing colossal industries, institutions, and arrangements crack up: everything from national government to long-distance supply chains to giant retailing outfits to worldwide business networks to overgrown universities and high schools to transport matrices to metroplex cities to mega-farms to political parties.
Where the rot is probably greatest, but more veiled for the moment, is in the operations of organized capital, the banks and money systems, including financial markets. When these monsters blow, as they must, all the others will shake, rattle, and roll. They have to blow because the fuel tank is emptying.
American oil production may be at an all-time peak now at about 13-million barrels-a-day, but most of that — about 8-million — is shale oil, which is a manifestation of our tremendous debt roll-up since 2009. Now that we’re at the absolute limits of debt, we’re also at the limits of shale oil. The production of shale oil paralleled the accumulation of all that debt both in size and rate of increase, and as the debt goes bad — meaning, unpayable — the organized capital sector will blow and shale oil production will fall as sharply as it rose. It is also a fact that shale oil is subject to natural limits — we’re out of “sweet spots” to drill.
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/think-about-it/
Except that nations with huge energy supplies and organized capital ... i.e Russia... will do quite nicley.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Feel sorry for Putin's subjects.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I actually feel sorry for the average Ukrainian.
From the acknowledgments to Putin's Russia: The Rise of a Dictator by Darryl Cunningham
I find myself writing the same thing in the acknowledgments of every book, but it’s always true. I’m indebted to the many journalists whose work I’ve drawn from while writing/drawing this book. This time I'm particularly indebted to Winter Is Coming by Garry Kasparov, Putin’s People by Catherine Belton, The Man Without a Face by Masha Gessen and We Need to Talk About Putin by Mark Galeotti. These books are essential reading if you want to explore the subjects of Putin and Russia in greater detail.
https://www.amazon.com/Putins-Russia-Dictator-Darryl-Cunningham/dp/177
0465049/
Download the free book from the mirrors at https://libgen.is//search.php?req=Darryl+Cunningham
Other free books about Russia and Putin mentioned in the acknowledgment:
Winter Is Coming by Garry Kasparov
https://libgen.is//search.php?req=Winter+Is+Coming+Garry+Kasparov
Putin’s People by Catherine Belton
https://libgen.is//search.php?req=Putin+People+Catherine+Belton
The Man Without a Face by Masha Gessen
https://libgen.is//search.php?req=The+Man+Without+a+Face+Masha+Gessen
We Need to Talk About Putin by Mark Galeotti
https://libgen.is//search.php?req=We+Need+to+Talk+About+Putin+Mark+Gal
eotti
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I actually feel sorry for the average Ukrainian.
SECOND: Feel sorry for Putin's subjects.
Why? Maybe they should ask the average Russian how THEY feel about Russia, and Putin, instead of imposing western views of Russia on Russians?
Personally, I feel sorry for most Americans. We're stuck like insects in amber in a corrupt system. But I know you hate Americans, so I don't expect you feel the same, or wish for America to improve.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by second:
At the heart of Ukraine's problems is diminishing international aid.
SIX: Good.
Fuck Ukraine.
I actually feel sorry for the average Ukrainian. Average people caught up in the Maidan/ pro-EU movement thought they were agitating for a Euro lifestyle, with Euro living standards and Euro democracy. Strolling down boulevards and drinking lattes at sidewalk cafes. Maybe even less corruption and fewer oligarchs.
Oh. I agree.
I'd never say Fuck Ukrainians.
We've been really lucky to live where we do. For the most part all the international meddling and imperialism doesn't come home to roost.
But they're letting the invasion of our borders happen without either party seriously doing anything to stop it. They don't actually want to stop it. And because most of the stupid proletariat don't understand math, they don't understand that this problem is cumulative like unchecked inflation is.
America is dying.
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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:You didn't look into any of those books about Putin, did you? You don't even believe Russians killed 62 million other Russians. If you had absorbed the fact of 62 million murders, the new idea might hit you that those mass murders changed Russia for the worse, warping it, making Russians who didn't flee the murdering into the people who would murder Ukrainians for profit. Join the Russian Army and receive a 1,000% increase in your annual income. If you die, there is a big bonus for your family in Siberia!
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I actually feel sorry for the average Ukrainian.
SECOND: Feel sorry for Putin's subjects.
Why? Maybe they should ask the average Russian how THEY feel about Russia, and Putin, instead of imposing western views of Russia on Russians?
Personally, I feel sorry for most Americans. We're stuck like insects in amber in a corrupt system. But I know you hate Americans, so I don't expect you feel the same, or wish for America to improve.
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+much+are+Russian+soldiers+paid
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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I don't need to. Have these authors BEEN TO Russia? Talked to the man/woman on the street?
What drives Russians IS NOT what happened 100 years ago. What they're terrified of is a repeat of the USA/UK "shock treatment" that collapsed Russia and turned it into a "gangsta capitalist" hellhole.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:In what world does 100-year-old history vanish? You forgot Russia's Army occupying Eastern Europe? In what world are Russians not responsible for the Soviet Union collapsing and the aftermath? And Putin is paying Russian soldiers 1,000% more than they earn back in Siberia to travel into Ukraine and murder people for Putin's glory.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I don't need to. Have these authors BEEN TO Russia? Talked to the man/woman on the street?
What drives Russians IS NOT what happened 100 years ago. What they're terrified of is a repeat of the USA/UK "shock treatment" that collapsed Russia and turned it into a "gangster capitalist" hellhole.
If Russian soldiers believed Putin's story that either Ukraine is conquered or Russia dies, Putin would be paying less than what the soldiers made in Siberia, not 1,000% more. Obviously from the pay differential, Russians do not believe Putin's story. Why would the West believe Putin's story?
What is the purpose of Putin's story? To convince Russians who will never fight in Ukraine that the fight is worthwhile. For those who fight, stories aren't enough. The fighters need that 1,000% raise from Putin before risking their life in service of Putin's fairytale about Ukraine.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Your post implied a genetic imprint from Russian experience.
Nonsense.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Your post implied a genetic imprint from Russian experience.
Nonsense.
That's because Second is a racist.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:Putin sanctioned David Abulafia, professor emeritus of history at the University of Cambridge, because 1,000-year-old history does not match Putin's story about Ukraine's origins. Signym, do you think that Russians murdering 62 million Russians and another 100 million of the bravest emigrating didn't change today's Russians, the leftovers?
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Your post implied a genetic imprint from Russian experience.
Nonsense.
https://news.yahoo.com/historical-research-gravely-offended-putin-1900
00404.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:What's your point?
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Your post implied a genetic imprint from Russian experience.
Nonsense.
SECOND: Putin sanctioned David Abulafia, professor emeritus of history at the University of Cambridge, because 1,000-year-old history does not match Putin's story about Ukraine's origins.
Quote:NOPE!
SECOND: Signym, do you think that Russians murdering 62 million Russians and another 100 million of the bravest emigrating didn't change today's Russians, the leftovers?
If that were the case, then Australia ... which originated as a penal colony and attracted all kinds of criminals. adventurers, misfits, and pioneers ... should be loaded with defiant, rugged, if not downright oppositional individualists. They should never have meekly given up their guns and been locked down for months and months, but that's exactly what they did. As compliant and subservient as the Chinese.
You remember MAGONSDAUGHTER, right? Not exactly the kind offspring you'd expect of prisoners and rowdies and whores.
So, how do we account for YOUR psychopathy, SECOND? Something from your parents, perhaps?
Or did you come by it all on your own?
PS, SIX is right: You're a racist.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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That's exactly right.
It's why nobody takes any of the racists and intolerant left seriously when they go around calling people Nazis.
I've said a lot of bad shit about Muslims, but Muslims aren't a color. It's a diseased and violent religion. I feel the same way about any black or white Muslims as I do about the brown ones. Fuck Islam. Fuck Allah.
I don't hate Mexicans. My stepdad was Mexican and literally grew up picking cotton with his 9 brothers and sisters while living in a train caboose. His dad was a very skilled leatherworker and his mom had her hands full taking care of him and 10 kids. He voted for Trump twice and he's going to vote for Trump a 3rd time. As a man who grew up with a harder childhood than anybody Second has ever met in his life in a family who legally immigrated and raised a daughter who is now a 3rd generation half-white/half-Mexican very successful doctor, he doesn't appreciate Biden*'s open borders and NYC giving away free room and board, medical care and credit cards to illegal alien invaders.
Half the people I've ever worked with are black. We get along great. Most of them have better rides than I do. Most of them are working 2 or more jobs too. I talk to them like human beings. Second and his idiot friends who run around calling people Nazis don't have a clue how to have a conversation with a black person. The only ones he's ever known in his life were his parents hired help that have to work twice as hard as they should for the money because his lazy ass won't take out the trash.
So let him keep going around calling me and other people Nazis while he literally cheerleads literal Nazis in Ukraine.
He's a fucking goofball who's head has been stuffed full of so much poisonous propaganda that he's nothing more than a walking caricature of a person. He has nothing of value to inject into any conversation. He thinks in sound bytes from a narrative that changes from day to day, which is why he spends his days here constantly contradicting himself. He's little more than AI in a human skin sack.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:Russia invaded Eastern Europe and didn't leave until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Every one of those countries joined NATO or begged NATO to accept them because of their miserable experience with Russians, which involved Russians murdering Eastern Europeans.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
What's your point?
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Russia invaded Eastern Europe and didn't leave until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Every one of those countries joined NATO or begged NATO to accept them because of their miserable experience with Russians, which involved Russians murdering Eastern Europeans.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:The rulers of Russia give Russians a choice: do things our way or die. At least 62 million Russians died, murdered by other Russians. Since they were not oblivious, 100 million smart Russians emigrated. Who does that leave behind? The old, the passive, and the stupid.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Russia invaded Eastern Europe and didn't leave until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Every one of those countries joined NATO or begged NATO to accept them because of their miserable experience with Russians, which involved Russians murdering Eastern Europeans.
6ixStringJack declares himself a dumb-ass.
When Putin called for more soldiers to be sent into Ukraine, between 817,000 and 922,000 smart Russians left Russia since February 2022. The passive and stupid Russians were sent to fight in Ukraine. If you are Russian, you have to be especially stupid to take a job that pays 1,000% more than normal jobs back in Siberia. For that money, you will die on the job or be permanently crippled. You are pretty stupid to sign the contract, but Russia has a huge supply of stupid people to sign away their lives.
How much are Russian soldiers paid? According to official statements, the starting salary for a Russian soldier fighting in Ukraine is 195,000 rubles per month, which is nearly 14 times higher than the median salary in some regions of Russia.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/03/22/russian-soldiers-in-ukraine-
increasingly-getting-paid-late-report-finds-a80576
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) reported that Russian forces typically engage in localized tactical assaults until they have lost up to 30 percent of their manpower, after which they are rotated out and reconstituted.[26] Losses of 30 percent are extremely high. Most units become combat ineffective after taking much lower losses. The Russians are therefore likely fighting their units past the point at which they have become combat ineffective before rotating them out for reconstitution.
Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) Deputy Chief Major General Vadym Skibitskyi stated on January 11 that Russian forces withdraw their units to rear areas when they are at 50 percent or less of their intended end strength and return them to the front following recovery and replenishment.[27]
The Russian command’s willingness to allow a unit to be severely degraded to between 50 and 70 percent of the unit’s end strength significantly impacts the unit’s combat effectiveness. This approach to force management likely explains the observable pattern of Russian operations on the ground. Localized assaults continue until they stall out, whereupon offensive operations pause while the command rotates and replenishes degraded units. ISW has observed this pattern in the Kupyansk and Lyman directions since January 2024.[28]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-february-14-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Joe Biden Could Send Millions Of Artillery Shells To Ukraine, For Free, Tomorrow. And It’s Perfectly Legal.
‘Excess defense articles’ remains a powerful authority.
By David Axe | Feb 14, 2024,10:51pm EST
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/02/14/joe-biden-could-send-
millions-of-artillery-shells-to-ukraine-for-free-tomorrow-and-its-perfectly-legal/?sh=23de8a0120c7
There’s a bureaucratically complex but perfectly legal way for the administration of U.S. president Joe Biden to send to Ukraine the thing Ukrainian brigades need the most: artillery shells. Millions of them.
As Russia’s wider war on Ukraine grinds into its third year and Russia-aligned Republicans in the U.S. Congress continue to withhold U.S. funding for Ukraine, Ukrainian artillery batteries are desperately low on ammunition.
Six months ago, Ukrainian batteries were firing as many as 6,000 shells a day and, in some sectors of the 600-mile front line, even matching Russians batteries’ own shellfire.
Today, four months after Republicans began blocking aid, the Ukrainians are firing just 2,000 shells a day. At the same time, the Russians — flush with shells from North Korea and Iran — are firing up as many as 10,000 shells a day.
That firepower disparity is the main reason why Russian forces are — admittedly at great cost — slowly advancing in and around the eastern city of Avdiivka, currently the locus of Russia’s winter offensive.
Given indicted ex-president Donald Trump’s cultish hold over the Republican Party and Trump’s longstanding affinity for authoritarian Russian leader Vladimir Putin, there’s seems to be little prospect of Biden getting much, or any, fresh funding for Ukraine now that Republicans hold a slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
But that doesn’t mean Biden is powerless to help Ukraine. An under-appreciated U.S. law gives the president authority to sell at a discount, or even give away, any existing weapons the U.S. military declares excess to its needs.
The law caps annual transfers of so-called “excess defense articles” at a total value of $500 million a year. But the same law doesn’t dictate how much value the president assigns to a particular weapon. He in theory could price an item at zero dollars.
Biden only rarely has used his EDA authority for Ukraine. And where he has used it, lately it’s been a part of complex “ring-trades” where the U.S. government gives excess weapons to third countries — Ecuador and Greece, to name two — then encourages those same countries directly or indirectly to give to Ukraine some of their own surplus weapons.
The United States for instance offered Ecuador ex-U.S. Army UH-60 transport helicopters, freeing up Ecuador to donate to Ukraine its surplus Mi-17 helicopters as well as rocket-launchers and air-defense systems. Greece is getting ex-U.S. Air Force C-130 airlifters and ex-U.S. Army ground vehicles on the understanding the Greeks will try to find surplus weapons to pass onward to the Ukrainians.
There’s no legal reason Biden couldn’t cut out the middleman and use his EDA authority directly to support Ukraine. And there’s no practical reason this aid couldn’t include artillery ammunition.
Generally speaking, most artillery ammunition in U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps stockpiles clearly isn’t excess. Indeed, the Army and Marines need all the modern shells they can get as they prepare for Ukraine-style wars.
But there’s an important exception. There are potentially four million 155-millimeter dual-purpose improved cluster munitions in storage in the United States. M483A1 and M864 DPICM rounds respectively scatter 88 or 72 grenade-size submunitions, each of which can kill or maim a soldier.
All of these shells are obvious candidates for the “excess” label. The U.S. Army years ago determined that these DPICMs—produced in large quantities between the 1970s and 1990s—are unreliable and unsafe, as any particular submunition has up to a 14-
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After A 12-Month Wait, The Ukrainians Are Finally Firing Their 90-Mile Glide-Bombs At The Russians
By David Axe | Feb 14, 2024,09:08pm EST
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/02/14/after-a-12-month-wait
-the-ukrainians-are-finally-firing-their-90-mile-glide-bombs-at-the-russians/?sh=98a1b926308f
Ukraine’s American-made, ground-launched glide-bombs are in action—and at a critical time. Ukrainian brigades are starving for artillery ammunition—ironically because of Russia-aligned Republican lawmakers in the United States.
The 600-pound, 90-mile-range glide-bombs might help to compensate for a dire shortage of 155-millimeter howitzer shells. But only somewhat. The glide munitions aren’t artillery. And it would be a waste to pretend they are.
The first evidence of a GLSDB raid appeared online on Wednesday. Russian troops posted a video depicting a boxful of rocket fragments that seems to include a GLSDB’s distinctive tail section.
The Russians claimed the wreckage was from a Tuesday strike near Kreminna in eastern Ukraine. It’s possible the strike in question targeted a pair of Russian rocket-launchers just east of Zhytlivka. A Ukrainian drone was overhead, observing, when the launchers exploded in a dramatic fireball.
If the Zhytlivka strike indeed involved GLSDBs, it may have been a curious choice. Zhytlivka is just a few miles from the front line near Kreminna, begging the question: why waste 90-mile deep-strike munitions on a relatively shallow raid?
It’s possible there were extenuating circumstances. Maybe a GLSDB launcher happened to be in the right place at the right time for a short-notice strike on a clutch of Russian launchers. Maybe adjacent tube-artillery batteries were so low on shells that it actually made sense to expend GLSDBs.
With Republicans blocking U.S. aid to Ukraine, Ukrainian batteries are down to firing just a few thousand shells a day, perhaps a fifth what Russian batteries fire.
Kyiv is fortunate that the administration of U.S. president Joe Biden paid U.S. defense firm Boeing and its partner, Swedish company Saab, to develop the GLSDB for Ukraine a year ago, before Republicans began leveraging their slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The GLSDB contract was worth $33 million. A single GLSDB—a GBU-39 winged glide-bomb attached to a surplus M26 rocket motor—costs just $40,000.
Ukraine might get many hundreds of GLSDBs. Assuming, of course, Boeing and Saab didn’t spend most of that $33 million on development.
The munitions apparently launch from special containers that could be towed by any truck, although Saab claimed a tracked M270 or wheeled High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System mobile launcher—Ukraine has dozens of each—also would be compatible with the GLSDB.
Five or six hundred GLSDBs can’t replace the 5,000 or 6,000 so 155-millimeter shells Ukrainian artillery batteries happily would lob at the Russians every day, given an adequate supply of ammo from allied countries. At present, the Ukrainians might be firing 2,000 shells a day.
Yes, most 155-millimeter artillery is unguided and ranges just 15 miles or so with a 25-pound explosive fill. The GPS-guided GLSDB by contrast ranges six times as far with eight times as much explosives.
But tube artillery might be most decisive when it targets enemy forces in the hours before an attack, as they gather out in the open miles behind the front line and begin their movement to contact. A barrage of a few dozen shells can wreck vehicles and kill infantry across thousands of square yards.
GLSDBs by contrast might be most decisive while striking point targets deep behind the front line: supply depots, ammunition trains, command bunkers, air-defense radars. Targets whose relative rarity belies their importance to the overall Russian war effort.
In short, artillery is a day-to-day killer of combat forces across a wide area close to the front. Deep-strike munitions such as the GLSDB are for pinpoint raids targeting the basic infrastructure of mechanized warfare. The supply
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Russia invaded Eastern Europe and didn't leave until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Every one of those countries joined NATO or begged NATO to accept them because of their miserable experience with Russians, which involved Russians murdering Eastern Europeans.
6ixStringJack declares himself a dumb-ass.
Oh good. You finally figured out how the quote feature here works.
This is why I have accumulated a very long list of archived pages of all the death threats and assassination fantasies you have. There's been at least a dozen of them added since my last update.
Feel free at any time to remove them all. It will make no matter. They're archived forever, even if this site disappears.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:To feel strong, the Russians constantly threaten to nuke the US but nothing happens. Similarly, 6ix constantly makes threats to drop the bomb on his enemy but nothing happens. Instead, the Russians steal from their weak neighbors, the Ukrainians. I expect 6ix, as Russians would in a similar situation, to burglarize his neighbors to support his $7,000 per year lifestyle and no gainful employment. 6ix and Russians are scumbags who have the rotten lives they deserve.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Russia invaded Eastern Europe and didn't leave until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Every one of those countries joined NATO or begged NATO to accept them because of their miserable experience with Russians, which involved Russians murdering Eastern Europeans.
6ixStringJack declares himself a dumb-ass.
Oh good. You finally figured out how the quote feature here works.
This is why I have accumulated a very long list of archived pages of all the death threats and assassination fantasies you have. There's been at least a dozen of them added since my last update.
Feel free at any time to remove them all. It will make no matter. They're archived forever, even if this site disappears.
Maybe Russians' neighbors will arrest them? Maybe 6ix's neighbors will, too!
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:To feel strong, the Russians constantly threaten to nuke the US but nothing happens. Similarly, 6ix constantly makes threats to drop the bomb on his enemy but nothing happens. Instead, the Russians steal from their weak neighbors, the Ukrainians. I expect 6ix, as Russians would in a similar situation, to burglarize his neighbors to support his $7,000 per year lifestyle and no gainful employment.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Russia invaded Eastern Europe and didn't leave until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Every one of those countries joined NATO or begged NATO to accept them because of their miserable experience with Russians, which involved Russians murdering Eastern Europeans.
6ixStringJack declares himself a dumb-ass.
Oh good. You finally figured out how the quote feature here works.
This is why I have accumulated a very long list of archived pages of all the death threats and assassination fantasies you have. There's been at least a dozen of them added since my last update.
Feel free at any time to remove them all. It will make no matter. They're archived forever, even if this site disappears.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
I'm not threatening you. I'm simply letting you know that I've collected every time you've posted a death threat to somebody on this board, advocated for the assassination of Trump or told everyone how you'd do it and get away with it. That's just presenting you with facts.
The fact that Haken doesn't want to cover his own ass by removing your alt-profile from fff.net after removing your Reaverfan profile is the reason why I stopped bothering to take the time to update your thread. I can't force him to do anything. I'm surprised he hasn't removed you since some of your posts under this profile have been just as bad as under your Reaverfan profile, but we're still sitting here having to deal with them. I'm just letting you know that everything is still being archived behind the scenes.
Why would I burglarize my neighbors? They all love me. They all owe me favors.
I have plenty of money dude. And if I ever decide I need to spend a year or two restocking the reserves until retirement age I'll be making about $3 to $5 more per hour than I did the last time I had a job. Every year I work a stress-free, part-time, low-wage job I pay for all the expenditures I had that year and easily bank enough for another year or even two beyond that.
How about you stop posting dumb shit and I'll stop archiving what you post.
You should also probably see a psychiatrist. You're recent post history shows how unhinged you've become. We're all a little worried about what you might do if your guy doesn't win in November.
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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:You sound more and more like the Russians claiming they aren't threatening to nuke the USA, but the Russians bring up the subject of their incredible advances in nukes, which they then deny having any intention of using.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I'm not threatening you. I'm simply letting you know that I've collected every time you've posted a death threat to somebody on this board, advocated for the assassination of Trump or told everyone how you'd do it and get away with it. That's just presenting you with facts.
Why would I burglarize my neighbors? They all love me. They all owe me favors.
I have plenty of money dude. And if I ever decide I need to spend a year or two restocking the reserves until retirement age I'll be making about $3 to $5 more per hour than I did the last time I had a job. Every year I work a stress-free, part-time, low-wage job I pay for all the expenditures I had that year and easily bank enough for another year or even two beyond that.
How about you stop posting dumb shit and I'll stop archiving what you post.
You should also probably see a psychiatrist. You're recent post history shows how unhinged you've become. We're all a little worried about what you might do if your guy doesn't win in November.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
Kremlin dismisses U.S. warning about Russian nuclear capability in space
https://www.reuters.com/world/kremlin-dismisses-us-warning-about-russi
an-nuclear-capability-space-2024-02-15/
MOSCOW, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The Kremlin dismissed on Thursday a warning by the United States about Moscow's new nuclear capabilities in space, calling it a "malicious fabrication" and a trick by the White House aimed at getting U.S. lawmakers to approve more money to counter Russia.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Nah...
This time it all started because the other day you claimed that you were quoting Sigs to save her response, as if that means anything on this ancient website that doesn't save original posts or even let readers know that the post was edited after the fact. You could theoretically go back to every post you've ever made and delete them and they would just sit there empty with the original timestamp until the site finally shuts down.
Now that you've figured out that is not how the quote feature here works, I used that as an opportunity to remind you that every death threat and assassination fantasy you've ever posted on this board is saved remotely with timestamps.
Have a nice day. Don't kill anyone, mkay?
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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:Did you learn your childish rhetoric from Russia? It claims to be peaceful while NATO, US, UK, and Ukraine attacked Russia, which is not what happened. Only a mind-reader would know for certain if Russia and 6ix believe what they write, but I'm confident Russia and 6ix know they are getting high on the reek of their stinking bullshit.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Nah...
This time it all started because the other day you claimed that you were quoting Sigs to save her response, as if that means anything on this ancient website that doesn't save original posts or even let readers know that the post was edited after the fact. You could theoretically go back to every post you've ever made and delete them and they would just sit there empty with the original timestamp until the site finally shuts down.
Now that you've figured out that is not how the quote feature here works, I used that as an opportunity to remind you that every death threat and assassination fantasy you've ever posted on this board is saved remotely with timestamps.
Have a nice day. Don't kill anyone, mkay?
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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SECOND is not capable of learning.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Russians are not capable of learning:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SECOND is not capable of learning.
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty bans putting any weapons of mass destruction into orbit or into outer space. Russia and the US signed the treaty but Russia broke it and lies about breaking it which is standard operating procedure for Russia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty
Kremlin dismisses U.S. warning about Russian nuclear capability in space
https://www.reuters.com/world/kremlin-dismisses-us-warning-about-russi
an-nuclear-capability-space-2024-02-15/
MOSCOW, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The Kremlin dismissed on Thursday a warning by the United States about Moscow's new nuclear capabilities in space, calling it a "malicious fabrication" and a trick by the White House aimed at getting U.S. lawmakers to approve more money to counter Russia.
"It is obvious that the White House is trying, by hook or by crook, to encourage Congress to vote on a bill to allocate money, this is obvious," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"We'll see what tricks the White House will use."
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Meanwhile, in the real world...
Avdiivka has been cut into three cauldrons, with a fourth cauldron developing.
One Russian advance cut Avdiivka into a northern and southern portion, by occupying the largest supply road that runs north-south on the western edge of Avdiivka. Troops and supplies can no longer reinforce each other from the north or south
In the southern portion, a former air defense base has been pinched off. All supply/escape routes are under physical Russian control.
Supply/ escape routes from the west into Avdiivka are under Russian fire control. And in the far eastern portion, a major stronghold's supply lines are almost cut off.
Any place not under Russian control is being heavily bombed.
Some reports say that the local Russian commander has given a "surrender or die" ultimatum, and that while none of the local Ukrainian commanders have ordered a surrender, Ukrainian soldiers are either self-evacuating or surrendering.
Meanwhile, Chasiv Yar, the next biggest city west of Bakhmut, is being advanced on.
And Ukraine has chosen to abandon Krynky, that small toehold across the Dnieper in Kherson that they maintained at great cost.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SECOND is not capable of learning.
Yup.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Military Summary Channel says commanders in Avdiivka have given the order to the appx 8,000 soldiers remaining in Avdiivka to withdraw, but there are no credible routes, and that soldiers can only withdraw if Putin allows it. (And why would he?) So either they run a gauntlet hoping to survive, or surrender.
Also, the 3rd Brigade (Azov) was supposed to run an "unblocking" operation, but when they saw there were no prepared defenses and that Russians were surrounding them nearly 360deg, they refused orders.
Anyway, Avdiivka, according to Dima, is toast.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Russia Depicts Wounded Soldiers as Heroes, or Not at All
Troops with amputated limbs or serious injuries return home to find a patchwork system of treatment and, often, efforts to keep them out of the public eye.
By Neil MacFarquhar, Milana Mazaeva | Feb. 15, 2024, Updated 12:25 a.m. ET
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/15/world/europe/russia-soldiers-ukrain
e-war.html
A shell slammed into the ground just feet from where the Russian soldier was deployed, and the explosion tossed him into the air.
“I felt my arm fall off, then a blow to my leg, everything slowed down, just a frozen picture in my eyes — no sounds, no other sensations,” said the soldier, Andrei, a 29-year-old former convict recruited into the Wagner private military company.
Drifting in and out of consciousness, he was convinced that death loomed, he said in an interview, requesting that only his first name be used because of a fear of retribution by the Russian authorities. As shells exploded on all sides in the fighting near the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, fellow soldiers dragged him to an evacuation point. He eventually spent more than a year in hospitals, with the remnants of his left arm amputated and one leg still at risk.
Cases like Andrei’s do not receive much publicity in Russia, where — as in Ukraine — the total number of war wounded is not disclosed. But, according to American and Ukrainian officials and numerous military analysts, the number is staggering, perhaps in the hundreds of thousands. And one senior Russian official estimated that amputees represented more than half of the seriously wounded.
Because reporters and aid groups have little or no access to hospitals or rehabilitation centers in Russia, information is scarce, often limited to community news reports and Telegram channels.
The Kremlin, military analysts and some medical personnel say, wants to avoid a repeat of the antiwar movements that forced a halt to earlier wars in Chechnya and Afghanistan.
“The Russian state has learned by experience that if it wants to maintain domestic stability, it should suppress that kind of debate,” said Nick Reynolds, a research fellow for land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based military think tank.
Military analysts say the high number of wounded also reflects the striking indifference that Russia exhibits toward its soldiers as it sacrifices huge numbers to make small gains across the 600-mile front in Ukraine.
“The Russian leadership on every level does not care much about soldiers,” said Pavel Luzin, a Russia military expert with the Center for European Policy Analysis, a Washington-based research group.
Wounded veterans are not ignored entirely. They are occasionally featured on state television in the service of war propaganda — invariably presenting an upbeat account of how they are readily adapting to life with their injuries, including missing limbs.
On rare occasions, President Vladimir V. Putin visits the wounded in hospitals, pinning medals on their crisp, cobalt blue military pajamas. He sometimes acknowledges problems in the system, and he unfailingly promises solutions.
“As for prosthetics, there is still a lot to be done,” Mr. Putin said last month while talking to veterans. He had recently learned, he added, that former soldiers issued with prosthetics received reduced government payments, which he called “unacceptable.”
After the war’s first month, the Russian defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, announced 3,825 wounded, a figure Russia has never updated. So estimates of the wounded from both sides are extrapolated from the number of dead, which already involves significant guesswork.
William J. Burns, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, wrote in an article published in Foreign Affairs last month that Russian dead and wounded soldiers numbered 315,000.
Numerous doctors, veterans or relatives, when contacted, declined to speak about the wounded, lest they breach Russia’s laws against revealing confidential information or denigrating the milita
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Russians signing military contracts sell their souls cheap:
Russian officials continue efforts to use benefits to incentivize Russians to sign military contracts. Russian opposition outlet SOTA reported on February 15 that Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defense Andrei Kartapolov and Russian State Duma deputies Vasily Piskarev and Sergei Neverov introduced a bill to write off debts of Russian personnel who are receiving certain categories of disability benefits.[83] Rostov Oblast Governor Vasily Golubev stated on February 15 that Russian officials will increase the one-time signing bonus for Russian contract soldiers from 200,000 rubles ($2,168) to 500,000 rubles ($5,420) in Rostov Oblast.[84]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-february-15-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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60-year-old Russian T-62 tanks in Ukraine. Via social media
With its economy on a war footing and mothballed factories coming back online, Russia now is generating around 4,500 armored vehicles a year for its 470,000-person invasion force in Ukraine.
That’s one finding of a new study from the Royal United Services Institute in London.
4,500 vehicles a year isn’t quite enough vehicles to make good the 10,000 or so tanks, fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers that, according to the analysts at Oryx, Russia has lost in the first two years of its wider war on Ukraine.
But it’s close. And it’s for that reason the Kremlin “believes that it can sustain the current rate of attrition through 2025,” RUSI analysts Jack Watling and Nick Reynolds wrote.
The catch is that, according to Watling and Reynolds, 80 percent of those 4,500 vehicles the Russians generate every year aren’t new vehicles. They’re “refurbished and modernized from Russian war stocks.”
And those stocks, once bursting with leftover Cold War-vintage vehicles, are finite. “The number of systems held in storage means that while Russia can maintain a consistent output through 2024, it will begin to find that vehicles require deeper refurbishment through 2025,” the RUSI analysts wrote.
“By 2026 it will have exhausted most of the available stocks,” they continued.
RUSI’s conclusions are consistent with the conclusions of a recent report from the Estonian defense ministry. In Russia, “production of new equipment is largely giving way to refurbishing equipment from the long-term storage,” the ministry found.
Old war stocks could hold up “for several more years,” the Estonians concluded. Open-source analysts, who scour satellite imagery to count active, destroyed and stored armored vehicles, posit trends that point to Russia’s vehicle reserves running out in 2025 or 2026.
Russia can shift more resources into producing new vehicles, of course. But where refurbishing a vehicles mostly requires a little metalwork, an engine overhaul, replacement of radios and—if the crews are lucky—a few modest upgrades to the optics and armor, from-scratch production is much more labor- and resource intensive.
For the Russians, “significantly improving production quality under international sanctions is likely unrealistic even in the medium term,” the Estonian defense ministry explained. Sanctions “have limited the Russian [military-industrial complex]’s access to high-quality components, especially machine tools, production lines and factory equipment.”
Yes, Russian can import more machinery from China, but Chinese tools might not be as good—or even as available—as the best German tools. “In the short term, the MIC is likely incapable of significantly expanding the production of new armored vehicles.”
“This will necessarily mean a significant decrease in vehicles delivered to the military,” Watling and Reynolds wrote. But not until the old war reserves run out, potentially in a couple of years.
If Russia intends to fight the way it’s been fighting, with large mechanized forces in the lead, there is—barring major industrial surprises—a ticking clock that’s counting down to the day when the Kremlin spends its existing combat power ... and can’t replace it.
Ukraine could aim to outlast Russia. But Ukrainian industry is far more constrained than Russian industry is, so Ukraine depends more on its allies than Russia does.
All that is to say, Ukraine can win a grinding war of attrition, but only with help. “If Ukraine's partners continue to provide sufficient ammunition and training support to the [armed forces of Ukraine] to enable the blunting of Russian attacks in 2024, then Russia is unlikely to achieve significant gains in 2025,” the RUSI analysts wrote.
And “if Russia lacks the prospect of gains in 2025, given its inability to improve force quality for offensive operations, then it follows that it will struggle to force Kyiv to capitulate by 2026,” the analysts added.
“Beyond 2026, attrition of systems will begin to material
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Nato members are sounding the alarm on Russia’s aggressive posture
Feb 15, 2024 | https://www.ft.com/content/83f8a7e9-dd41-4976-be39-cfd2c9b3a899
Denmark’s defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen said last week that Russia could test Nato’s mutual defence clause “within a three to five-year period”. That followed similar warnings from colleagues from Sweden, the UK, Romania, Germany and senior officials at Nato itself since the start of the year.
“We’re going to have to get used to the idea that it’s realistic that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will [attack a Nato country within 5-8 years],” said Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chair of the Bundestag defence committee. “The man is driven by a kind of imperialism we never believed could exist in the 21st century.”
“It is a credible threat, and we need to be prepared for that,” said one senior Nato diplomat of the warnings of a potential Russian attack on an alliance member. “I do not find such predictions fantasy . . . We do not have the luxury to think that Russia would stop in Ukraine.”
One senior European official went as far as saying that Russia’s “intent and capability” to attack a Nato country before the end of the decade was “pretty much consensus” within the US-led military alliance. “Opportunity is the only variable,” the official said.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Three Million Shells. That’s How Much More Artillery Ammo Russia Thinks It Needs To Defeat Ukraine.
By David Axe | Feb 15, 2024, 06:32pm EST
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/02/15/three-million-shells-
thats-how-much-more-artillery-ammo-russia-thinks-it-needs-to-defeat-ukraine/?sh=6300a415a5b3
15,000 shells per day. That’s how much artillery ammunition the Kremlin believes it needs to blast Ukrainian forces into surrender and win the war in Ukraine in 2025.
That’s 5,000 more shells than Russian batteries currently are firing every day in Ukraine—and 9,000 more shells than Russian industry produces every day.
To make up the shortfall, the Kremlin has two options, neither without its limits. One, it can try to restore some of the roughly three million old shells that still are sitting in long-term storage in Russia.
Two, it can try to secure additional shipments from Iran and, more importantly, North Korea—on top of the two million or more shells Russia already has acquired from those countries.
It’s all easier said than done, and Russian forces face “a significant shortfall” of their main 152-millimeter shells next year, according to a new report from the Royal United Services Institute in London.
The Russian army’s thousands of howitzers fired with abandon in the early months of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine beginning in February 2022. According to the Estonian defense ministry, Russian batteries initially fired as many as 60,000 shells per day.
That incredible sustained barrage quickly burned through millions of rounds in just a few months, more or less consuming every 122-millimeter and 152-millimeter round Russian forces had on hand before the war.
Eighteen months later in late 2023, the Russians were shooting just 10,000 shells a day—and the Ukrainians, flush with a million South Korean shells the Americans had bought for them, roughly matched that firing rate.
Before 2022, Russian industry was capable of producing, or generating from war reserves, just 400,000 shells per year, according to the Estonian defense ministry. As old shells run out, the Russians must compensate by building more new shells.
And they are. Two years of investment, which has contributed to the doubling or tripling of the share of its national wealth Russian spends on its armed force, has expanded annual artillery production to 2.1 million 122-millimeter and 152-millimter shells.
But that’s less than half of the 5.6 million shells that, according to RUSI, Russian officials believe they need to sustain a winning strategy in Ukraine through this year and into next.
There may be another three million old shells in storage in Russia, but “much of this is in poor condition,” RUSI analysts Jack Watling and Nick Reynolds wrote.
Do Iran and North Korea have another few million shells they’re willing to part with? Can Russia afford the multi-billion-dollar price? It’s unclear.
If there’s any comfort for the Russians in this dire projection, it’s that the Ukrainians are struggling even more to supply their biggest guns. In particular, they must find some way to make up for the abrupt end of U.S. aid to Ukraine late last year.
The Americans were the Ukrainians’ biggest supplies of artillery, donating around two million shells in the first 18 months of the war. But then, last fall, Russia-aligned Republicans in the U.S. Congress blocked further aid to Ukraine.
Ukrainian batteries went from firing 10,000 shells a day to firing just 2,000 or so.
The U.S. Army had been counting on U.S. aid to Ukraine to pay for a huge expansion of its main ammo plant in Texas—an expansion that would have increased output to 1.2 million shells a year.
Now that expansion is in doubt. And even if it proceeds, the shells the Army produces in Texas won’t be going to Ukraine. Not unless, and until, Republicans finally agree to vote on aid.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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‘Serious questions’ for Russia: World leaders react with horror to reports of Putin critic Navalny’s death
Published Fri, Feb 16 2024, 9:26 AM EST
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/16/world-leaders-react-to-reports-of-puti
n-critic-navalnys-death.html
“Whatever story they tell, let us be clear, Russia is responsible, and we will have more to say on this later,” U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
The number is now 62 million Russians plus one more Russian murdered by Russians. Putin is sending a message to the world that there is no alternative to his rule. Navalny will not be in line to eventually replace Putin, who wins by a landslide in the March election.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Even behind bars, the dissident leader was a threat to the corrupt Russian dictator.
By Anne Applebaum | February 16, 2024, 10:30 AM ET
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/02/navalny-death-russia
-prison/677485/
Alexei Navalny returned to Russia in January 2021. Right before he boarded the plane, he posted a film titled “Putin’s Palace: The Story of the World’s Largest Bribe” on YouTube. The video, nearly two hours long, was an extraordinary feat of investigative reporting. Using secret plans, drone footage, 3-D visualizations, and the testimony of construction workers, Navalny’s video told the story of a hideous $1.3 billion Black Sea villa containing every luxury that a dictator could imagine: a hookah bar, a hockey rink, a helipad, a vineyard, an oyster farm, a church. The video also described the eye-watering costs and the financial trickery that had gone into the construction of the palace on behalf of its true owner, Vladimir Putin.
But the power of the film was not just in the pictures, or even in the descriptions of money spent. The power was in the style, the humor, and the Hollywood-level professionalism of the film, much of which was imparted by Navalny himself. This was his extraordinary gift: He could take the dry facts of kleptocracy — the numbers and statistics that usually bog down even the best financial journalists — and make them entertaining. On-screen, he was just an ordinary Russian, sometimes shocked by the scale of the graft, sometimes mocking the bad taste. He seemed real to other ordinary Russians, and he told stories that had relevance to their lives. You have bad roads and poor health care, he told Russians, because they have hockey rinks and hookah bars.
And Russians listened. A poll conducted in Russia a month after the video appeared revealed that one in four Russians had seen it. Another 40 percent had heard about it. It’s safe to guess that in the three years that have elapsed since then, those numbers have risen. To date, that video has been viewed 129 million times.
Navalny is now presumed dead. The Russian prison system has said he collapsed after months of ill health. Perhaps he was murdered more directly, but the details don’t matter: The Russian state killed him. Putin killed him — because of his political success, because of his ability to reach people with the truth, and because of his talent for breaking through the fog of propaganda that now blinds his countrymen, and some of ours as well.
He is also dead because he returned to Russia from exile in 2021, having already been poisoned twice, knowing he would be arrested. By doing so he turned himself from an ordinary Russian into something else: a model of what civic courage can look like, in a country that has very little of it. Not only did he tell the truth, but he wanted to do so inside Russia, where Russians could hear him. This is what I wrote at the time: “If Navalny is showing his countrymen how to be courageous, Putin wants to show them that courage is useless.”
That Putin still feared Navalny was clear in December, when the regime moved him to a distant arctic prison to stop him from communicating with his friends and his family. He had been in touch with many people; I have seen some of his prison messages, sent secretly via lawyers, policemen, and guards, just as Gulag prisoners once sent messages in Stalin’s Soviet Union. He remained the spirit behind the Anti-Corruption Foundation, a team of Russian exiles who continue to investigate Russian corruption and tell the truth to Russians, even from abroad. (I have served on the foundation’s advisory board.) Earlier this week, before his alleged collapse, he sent a Valentine’s Day message to his wife, Yulia, on Telegram: “I feel that you are there every second, and I love you more and more.”
Navalny’s decision to return to Russia and go to jail inspired respect even among people who didn’t like him, didn’t agree with him, or found fault with him. He was also a model for other dissidents in other violent autocracies around the world. Onl
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Oh noez! A hookah bar? How dare he!
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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:Putin will be fine. He will be your next President (with Mr ‘no collusion, no obstruction’ Trump being Putin's ersatz president, Putin's stand-in for the Inauguration in DC.)
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Oh noez! A hookah bar? How dare he!
https://www.politico.eu/article/mueller-refutes-trumps-no-collusion-no
-obstruction-line/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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The List Is Long: Russians Who Have Died After Running Afoul Of The Kremlin
By Steve Gutterman | February 16, 2024, 16:41 GMT
Critics, journalists, and defectors have faced dire consequences after opposing Putin. From poisonings to shootings, mysterious falls from windows, and even plane crashes, there is a long trail of silenced voices.
https://www.rferl.org/a/enemies-kremlin-deaths-prigozhin-list/32562583
.html
Not included: 62 million Russians who were murdered by Russia before Putin became ruler.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Putin will be fine. He will be your next President (with Mr ‘no collusion, no obstruction’ Trump being Putin's ersatz president, Putin's stand-in for the Inauguration in DC.)
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Oh noez! A hookah bar? How dare he!
#NotMyPresident
You people are silly. You're going to cry about some Russian journalist, but Ted wants to throw Tucker Carlson in the gulag just for having a conversation with Putin.
The lack of self-awareness coming from the modern day left is shocking.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:In the Trilateral Statement, signed in January 1994, Ukraine agreed to transfer the nuclear warheads to Russia for elimination. In return, Ukraine received security assurances from Russia, the US, and the UK. Completely unsurprising when the Leftists of the US and the UK hesitated, dithered, procrastinated, and did not honor their promise to Ukraine.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
You people are silly. You're going to cry about some Russian journalist, but Ted wants to throw Tucker Carlson in the gulag just for having a conversation with Putin.
The lack of self-awareness coming from the modern day left is shocking.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-trilateral-process-the-united-s
tates-ukraine-russia-and-nuclear-weapons/
The fundamental weakness of 99.999% of the Left is they cannot stop talking about diplomacy, legal procedures, court dates for the beginnings of trials, the appeals process, their feelings, etc. Eventually, the Left needs to stop talking, buy some steel-toed work boots, and kick the Nazis (or the Russians or the Trumptards) in the teeth, but the best leftists lack all conviction, while the worst Nazis (or Russians or Trumptards) are full of passionate intensity.
Nazis, Russians, or Trumptards can do tremendous damage before Leftists have gotten angry enough to finally go Nazi on the Nazis. Leftists have not yet learned from the Nazis how to routinely handle Nazis with the brutality Nazis deserve. Instead, the Leftists keep retreating behind the legal process rather than risk being seen as "bad". Leftists lack sufficient conviction to kill Nazis at the first signs Nazis are on the move. Nazis, Russians, and Trumptards don't have those scruples. See Trump for how easy it is to stymie the legal system that Leftists imagine will protect them from Nazis. Ukrainians sadly learned that when Russia attacked, the US and the UK would break the Trilateral Statement by not kicking Russia in the teeth with steel-toed boots.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:In the Trilateral Statement, signed in January 1994, Ukraine agreed to transfer the nuclear warheads to Russia for elimination. In return, Ukraine received security assurances from Russia, the US, and the UK. Completely unsurprising when the Leftists of the US and the UK hesitated, dithered, procrastinated, and did not honor their promise to Ukraine.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
You people are silly. You're going to cry about some Russian journalist, but Ted wants to throw Tucker Carlson in the gulag just for having a conversation with Putin.
The lack of self-awareness coming from the modern day left is shocking.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-trilateral-process-the-united-s
tates-ukraine-russia-and-nuclear-weapons/
The fundamental weakness of 99.999% of the Left is they cannot stop talking about diplomacy, legal procedures, court dates for the beginnings of trials, the appeals process, their feelings, etc. Eventually, the Left needs to stop talking, buy some steel-toed work boots, and kick the Nazis (or the Russians or the Trumptards) in the teeth, but the best leftists lack all conviction, while the worst Nazis (or Russians or Trumptards) are full of passionate intensity.
Nazis, Russians, or Trumptards can do tremendous damage before Leftists have gotten angry enough to finally go Nazi on the Nazis. Leftists have not yet learned from the Nazis how to routinely handle Nazis with the brutality Nazis deserve. Instead, the Leftists keep retreating behind the legal process rather than risk being seen as "bad". Leftists lack sufficient conviction to kill Nazis at the first signs Nazis are on the move. Nazis, Russians, and Trumptards don't have those scruples. See Trump for how easy it is to stymie the legal system that Leftists imagine will protect them from Nazis. Ukrainians sadly learned that when Russia attacked, the US and the UK would break the Trilateral Statement by not kicking Russia in the teeth with steel-toed boots.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
Sure buddy.
Tell us more about your support for the Nazis in Ukraine.
There's no reason to do anything but troll every post you make because you are a hypocrite to the core and nothing you say matters at all.
Have a great day.
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Quote:6ix, since you don't even know you are a Nazi, it is no surprise you would call the Ukrainians the Nazis.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Sure buddy.
Tell us more about your support for the Nazis in Ukraine.
There's no reason to do anything but troll every post you make because you are a hypocrite to the core and nothing you say matters at all.
Have a great day.
I'm sure Ukraine would have nuked the Russian Army if only Ukraine still had the nukes it gave away because the US and the UK said they would protect Ukraine from Russia. Biden took the easy way out by sending only weapons rather than directly using weapons on Russia. What Biden did was not anywhere near what was promised the US would do for Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine giving up its nukes.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:6ix, since you don't even know you are a Nazi,
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Sure buddy.
Tell us more about your support for the Nazis in Ukraine.
There's no reason to do anything but troll every post you make because you are a hypocrite to the core and nothing you say matters at all.
Have a great day.
Yeah. I don't. Because I'm not. You dumb fucking racist Democrat cunt.
Quote:
it is no surprise you would call the Ukrainians the Nazis.
I'm not calling all Ukrainians Nazis. I'm pointing out that the Ukranian army that you consistently cheerlead is made up of literal card-carrying fucking Nazis. This is a fact that even your Leftist shill media doesn't deny.
NBC News (March 5th, 2022): Ukraine's Nazi problem is real, even if Putin's 'denazification' claim isn't
Not acknowledging this threat means that little is being done to guard against it.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/ukraine-has-nazi-problem-vladimi
r-putin-s-denazification-claim-war-ncna1290946
Newsweek (June 6th, 2023): Why Have So Many Neo-Nazis Rallied to Ukraine's Cause?
https://www.newsweek.com/why-have-so-many-neo-nazis-rallied-ukraines-c
ause-opinion-1804642
You are a stupid, stupid man.
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Nearly everything Applebaum writes is a joke. Or a lie.
Or sometimes both.
Yes, it's true that Navalny died in prison.
Governments should take better care of politically sensitive prisoners. Look at Gonzalo Lira. Or Jeffrey Epstein. Or Julian Assange.
Quote:
Weeks After US Journalist Dies In Ukrainian Custody, Biden Uses Navalny's Death To Push For More Russian War Funding
But Navalny was not poisoned in Russia. When he collapsed, the Russian hospital that treated him not only sent him for treatment to Germany, they sent original blood samples with him.
And Navalny was no folk hero. He couldn't scrape enough support together to get a representative in the Duma. And that "Putin palace" story? I think it was just a real estate development gone sour.
Applebaum specializes in evidence-free accusations.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
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Quote:I'm guessing you never imagined that not everyone in Russia would be an assassin for Putin. When poisoned Navalny arrives at a Russian hospital, the doctors don't know that they should let him die since the doctors were not paid by Putin. But in prison, Putin is paying the doctors to let Navalny die.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Nearly everything Applebaum writes is a joke. Or a lie.
Or sometimes both.
Yes, it's true that Navalny died in prison.
Governments should take better care of politically sensitive prisoners. Look at Gonzalo Lira. Or Jeffrey Epstein. Or Julian Assange.Quote:
Weeks After US Journalist Dies In Ukrainian Custody, Biden Uses Navalny's Death To Push For More Russian War Funding
But Navalny was not poisoned in Russia. When he collapsed, the Russian hospital that treated him not only sent him for treatment to Germany, they sent original blood samples with him.
And Navalny was no folk hero. He couldn't scrape enough support together to get a representative in the Duma. And that "Putin palace" story? I think it was just a real estate development gone sour.
Applebaum specializes in evidence-free accusations.
Signym, it is very easy to tell you never looked at Putin's Palace. Instead, you wrote fiction.
You should write Firefly fan fiction. Already you are writing Putin-approved fiction. Branch out into other areas.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Germany and France both signed bilateral security agreements with Ukraine on February 16. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a long-term bilateral security agreement with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on February 16 providing for bilateral cooperation in the military, political, financial, and humanitarian spheres until 2034.[13] The agreement also states that Germany will provide over €7 billion ($7.5 billion) in military aid to Ukraine in 2024, including a €1.1 billion ($1 billion) aid package that is currently being prepared and will include 36 howitzers, 120 thousand artillery shells (including 50,000 155mm artillery rounds), two Skynex air defense systems, missiles for the IRIS-T air-to-air missile system, 66 armored personnel carriers (APCs), several mine-clearing vehicles, and various reconnaissance drone models.[14] Zelensky also met with German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to discuss the launch of joint weapons production.[15] Zelensky later met with French President Emmanuel Macron to sign a bilateral security agreement and reported that France will provide Ukraine €3 billion ($3.2 billion) in military assistance over the course of 2024.[16]
NATO officials are increasingly warning that Russia poses a significant threat to NATO’s security. The Financial Times (FT) reported on February 16 that recent new assessments of Russia’s military capabilities and potential threats to NATO states have led Western leaders to recognize Russia’s continued military potential and to increase defense investment.[17]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-february-16-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Can Ukraine Still Win?
As Congress continues to delay aid and Volodymyr Zelensky replaces his top commander, military experts debate the possible outcomes.
By Keith Gessen | February 15, 2024
https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay/can-ukraine-still-win
Long before it was reported, at the end of January, that Volodymyr Zelensky had decided to replace his popular Army chief, Valery Zaluzhny, the Ukrainian counter-offensive of 2023 had devolved from attempted maneuvers to mutual recriminations. The arrows pointed in multiple directions: Zelensky seemed to think that his commander-in-chief was being defeatist; Zaluzhny, that his President was refusing to face facts. And there were arguments, too, between Ukraine and its allies. In a two-part investigation in the Washington Post, in early December, U.S. officials complained that Ukrainian generals did not follow their advice. They tried to attack in too many places; they were too cautious; and they waited too long to launch the operation. The Ukrainians, in turn, blamed the Americans. They delivered too few weapons and did so too late; they insisted on their tactics even when it was clear these were unsuitable for the terrain and the opponent; and they did all this from the comfort of Washington and Wiesbaden, rather than from the trenches, tree lines, and open fields where Ukrainian soldiers gave their lives.
The arguments were painful and significant. Was Zelensky right that, given the wobbliness of Western support, Ukraine had to keep up a brave face and the so-called military momentum, no matter the cost? Or was Zaluzhny right that a change of strategy and more troops were needed, no matter how unpopular these choices might be? The argument with the U.S. was significant, too. Was the failure of the counter-offensive, as the Americans argued, one of strategy or, as the Ukrainians counter-argued, one of equipment?
There was a third option: neither. The dominant factor was the Russian military. It was better than people had given it credit for, after its disastrous performance in the first year of the war. It was not demoralized, incompetent, or ill-equipped. Russian soldiers and their officers were fighting to the death. They had executed a brutal and effective defense and, despite all the losses they had incurred, they still had attack helicopters, drones, and mines. “People came to very strong conclusions based off the first month of the war,” Rob Lee, a former marine and an analyst of the Russian military at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said. “And I think a lot of those conclusions were wrong.”
Being wrong about war can be disastrous, yet it is extremely common. The political scientist Stephen Biddle’s influential book, “Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle,” begins by listing a century of analytical mistakes. “In 1914,” he writes, “Europeans expected a short, decisive war of movement. None foresaw a nearly four-year trench stalemate—if they had, the war might never have happened. In 1940 Allied leaders were astonished by the Germans’ lightning victory over France. They had expected something closer to the trench warfare of 1914-18; even the victors were surprised.” Biddle goes on to describe the debate over the tank, deemed obsolete after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and then resurrected by its awesome performance in the Gulf War, in 1990 and 1991. Biddle’s book came out in 2004; since then, two major American wars, in Afghanistan and Iraq, have not gone as anyone had planned.
Download the book for free from the mirrors at https://libgen.is//search.php?req=Stephen+Biddle+Military
“It’s impossible, basically, to predict a future war,” Bettina Renz, an international-security professor at the University of Nottingham and an expert on the Russian military, said. “Most people who start a war think it will be over quickly. And, of course, nobody starts a war that they think they can’t win.”
Once a war ends, or even earlier, military historians begin to describe what happened and who was right. Some debates remain unse
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The Kremlin claims it was at war with the United States.
By Anna Nemtsova | Updated Feb. 17, 2024, 3:37AM EST
https://www.thedailybeast.com/despair-in-russia-as-putin-spirals-out-o
f-control
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman informed Russians this week that the “special military operation” that Putin launched in Ukraine in February 2022 was set to go on much longer because it is now “a war against the collective West.”
That’s right: a war.
It was remarkable to hear that word from Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Journalists were explicitly banned from using it and thousands of Russians have been detained, fined and imprisoned for using the word.
“Moscow deputy Aleksey Gorinov was sentenced to seven years in prison for saying ‘war,’” Sergey Davidis, head of the Political Prisoners Support group, told The Daily Beast. He said over 20,000 Russians have now been detained and punished for protesting against the war. “That includes 131 Russians who have been sentenced to long prison terms in punishment for peaceful or for more radical anti-war actions,” he said. “I don’t think punishments against the war will now be milder after the Kremlin openly says ‘war.’ Putin will be next to declare it.”
By “collective West” the Kremlin traditionally means 31 NATO countries and the 28 nations of the European Union. “This is a war when the countries of the collective West, led by the United States are directly involved in the conflict,” Peskov said.
“The Kremlin is deeply disappointed in Washington being unwilling to negotiate a deal for Ukraine without Ukraine’s participation. Nobody wants to sit down with Putin for the dream negotiations; Yalta-2,” Insider’s editor-in-chief Timur Olevsky told The Daily Beast. Putin is obsessed with the idea of revisiting the height of Soviet influence at the 1945, post-WWII peace talks. “Somebody flicked him on the nose, it looks like, so the Kremlin finally marks the failure of all their efforts to negotiate with the West.”
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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The fury of the Russians in Ukraine
The resentment caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union continues to provide the fuel for Vladimir Putin’s imperial project
By José Andrés Rojo | Feb 16, 2024 - 12:46CET
https://english.elpais.com/opinion/2024-02-16/the-fury-of-the-russians
-in-ukraine.html
It is almost exactly two years since Vladimir Putin’s forces attempted in February 2022 to reach Kyiv to install a puppet government that would obey the Kremlin’s designs, expanding the war that began in the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014 to the rest of the country. It was something you could have seen coming, had you taken seriously the bluster of some of the protagonists of what was happening in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. “Give me two years and in Ukraine, no one will say they are Ukrainian,” the prime minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Aleksandr Zakharchenko, told Pilar Bonet in March 2017, during a long conversation which recounts in her book Náufragos del imperio (Castaways of the Empire).
Zakharchenko, who spoke of himself as a hero with “burning, angry eyes,” and who was killed in a bomb attack on August 31, 2018, explained to Bonet that Russians have much more in common with the Mongols than with the Swedes: “Russia is a country of victors who have learned to survive. We survive everywhere; we may starve for a whole week, be wounded and covered in mud, but, crawling and ragged, we will defend our land.” “The war is already a reality,” he added. “All of Ukraine must be transformed into the DPR. When we succeed, a flood of hundreds of thousands of armed Ukrainians will rush into Europe, and they will not be refugees like those from Libya or Syria, but people with combat experience, well-trained and well-equipped.”
Náufragos del imperio is full of stories of people suffering the horror of the Russian invasion and is constructed from the unpublished workbooks, travel diaries, and materials that Bonet has been collecting since then. “Those who want to go to Sakhalin, to the right. Those who want to go to Vladivostok, to the left,” shouted the employees of the civil protection service of Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, in the face of the avalanche of refugees arriving from Donbas in August 2014. They had to decide, in an instant, between two places to start anew. Lives broken, massacred, and forcibly pushed into exile. With Putin’s invasion in 2022, things got even worse.
Zakharchenko admitted to Bonet during their first meeting in 2014 that he was “proud to feel Ukrainian.” Three years later, he had become a Russian, enthusiastic about Putin’s project. Bonet looks back to the collapse of the Soviet Union when there was a “brutal shift from a planned, centralized economy to a capitalist economy.” Privatizations were an opportunity for the old order to modernize, but they were “ruthless.” “Solidly established industries were turned into rubble and scrap metal; workers who thought they had stable jobs were left on the street, and highly qualified specialists had to retrain as shopkeepers or cab drivers.” The fury left by that fall is still intact. Putin exploits it and is confident of prolonging the war in Ukraine until he can win it. That is where we are.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Syrsky orders troops to abandon Avdiivka.
Many soldiers are trapped, with no good way out. It's not an organized withdrawal, it's a rout.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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• Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed that Russian forces have established “full control” over Avdiivka, Donetsk Oblast as Russian forces continued to advance in the settlement on February 17, and Ukrainian forces have likely withdrawn from Avdiivka.
• Russian sources largely characterized the Ukrainian withdrawal as disorganized and costly and claimed that Russian forces managed to encircle large Ukrainian groups in Avdiivka, but ISW has observed no evidence supporting these Russian claims.
• Russian forces appear to have temporarily established limited and localized air superiority and were able to provide ground troops with close air support during the final days of their offensive operation to capture Avdiivka, likely the first time that Russian forces have done so in Ukraine.
• Delays in Western security assistance may lead to further significant constraints on Ukrainian air defenses that could allow Russian forces to replicate the close air support that facilitated Russian advances in Avdiivka at scale in Ukraine.
• Ukrainian forces reportedly shot down three Russian fighter aircraft — two Su-34s and one Su-35 — over Donetsk Oblast on February 17, likely having committed scarce air defense assets to help cover the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Avdiivka.
Limited effective air defense systems, dwindling air defense missiles stocks, and continued Russian missile and drone strikes against rear population centers are likely forcing Ukraine to make difficult choices about what areas of the frontline receive air defense coverage.[26] Recurring temporary localized and limited Russian air superiority would likely allow Russian forces to more aggressively pursue operational advances along the frontline. Widespread interrupted air superiority would allow Russian forces to conduct routine large-scale aviation operations and bomb Ukrainian cities beyond the frontline to devastating effect.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-february-17-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Flogging "the west" for more weapons is pointless because the cupboard is bare: there are no more weapons to spare, and everybody know it except delusional neocons, clueless western politicians, and cokehead Zelensky.
And since there are no more weapons to spare ... aftervall, the USA has plenty of other wars on its docket ... flogging the west for more money will only help Ukrainian politicians and oligarchs and western speculators who were hoping for a big Russia - or, failing that, Ukrainian- payday.
All of those pretenders of hardbitten, realworld analysis completley failed to stumble upon realworld facts, because they were too busy polishing their ideological turds to a high shine.
That includes CAPNCRUNCH, THUGR, and SECOND, and all those propagandists that they posted here. They collectively are as rabid and delusional as Israelis.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Signym, you are full of shit. Denmark says bullshit on you and the European cheese-eating surrender monkeys who have plenty of ammo held in reserve but pretend they cannot send it to Ukraine:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Flogging "the west" for more weapons is pointless because the cupboard is bare: there are no more weapons to spare, and everybody know it except delusional neocons, clueless western politicians, and cokehead Zelensky.
And since there are no more weapons to spare ... aftervall, the USA has plenty of other wars on its docket ... flogging the west for more money will only help Ukrainian politicians and oligarchs and western speculators who were hoping for a big Russia - or, failing that, Ukrainian- payday.
All of those pretenders of hardbitten, realworld analysis completley failed to stumble upon realworld facts, because they were too busy polishing their ideological turds to a high shine.
That includes CAPNCRUNCH, THUGR, and SECOND, and all those propagandists that they posted here. They collectively are as rabid and delusional as Israelis.
Denmark to send its 'entire artillery' to Ukraine, the country's prime minister says
By Nathan Rennolds | Feb 18, 2024, 11:32 AM CST
https://www.businessinsider.com/denmark-to-send-all-artillery-ukraine-
pm-russia-war-2024-2
• Denmark is sending all of its artillery to Ukraine, the Danish prime minister has said.
• Mette Frederiksen made the announcement while speaking at the Munich Security Conference.
• It comes as Ukraine faces severe munitions shortages.
Denmark is sending its "entire artillery" to Ukraine, the Danish prime minister has said.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Mette Frederiksen appealed to other European nations to do more to help Ukraine in its fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin's invading forces.
"They are asking us for ammunition now. Artillery now. From the Danish side, we decided to donate our entire artillery," she said.
"I'm sorry to say, friends, there are still ammunition in stock in Europe," she continued. "This is not only a question about production, because we have weapons, we have ammunition, we have air defense that we don't have to use ourself at the moment, that we should deliver to Ukraine."
It comes as Ukrainian forces withdrew from the key eastern town of Avdiivka amid severe munitions shortages.
The Danish announcement will come as particularly welcome news in Ukraine as its military has been starved of artillery shells, forcing it to scale back some operations, Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi told Reuters in December.
"There's a problem with ammunition, especially post-Soviet (shells) - that's 122 mm, 152 mm. And today, these problems exist across the entire front line," he said.
Meanwhile, in more positive news to alleviate the ammo famine, the Czech Republic says it could supply 800,000 shells to the Ukrainian military.
Czech President Petr Pavel said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference on 17 February that it had a stockpile of about half a million 155 mm and 300,000 122 mm shells, which can be on the Ukraine frontline in a few weeks "if funding is found quickly."
Denmark has been a key supporter of Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the Nordic country's military aid commitments increased by 3.5 billion euros, or around $3.8 billion, since November — making it one of the biggest military donors by percentage of GDP, the institute says.
Denmark has pledged 8.4 billion euros, around $9 billion, in military aid.
With a crucial $60 billion US aid package stalled in Congress, European support is becoming ever more important for Ukraine.
Earlier this year, the European Union agreed to a new 50 billion euro, or around $53.9 billion, aid package for Ukraine.
"This locks in steadfast, long-term, predicta
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Fuck Ukraine.
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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Flogging "the west" for more weapons is pointless because the cupboard is bare: there are no more weapons to spare, and everybody know it except delusional neocons, clueless western politicians, and cokehead Zelensky.
And since there are no more weapons to spare ... aftervall, the USA has plenty of other wars on its docket ... flogging the west for more money will only help Ukrainian politicians and oligarchs and western speculators who were hoping for a big Russia - or, failing that, Ukrainian- payday.
All of those pretenders of hardbitten, realworld analysis completley failed to stumble upon realworld facts, because they were too busy polishing their ideological turds to a high shine.
That includes CAPNCRUNCH, THUGR, and SECOND, and all those propagandists that they posted here. They collectively are as rabid and delusional as Israelis.
SECINDRATE: Signym, you are full of shit. Denmark says bullshit on you and the European cheese-eating surrender monkeys who have plenty of ammo held in reserve but pretend they cannot send it to Ukraine:
Denmark to send its 'entire artillery' to Ukraine, the country's prime minister says
All of five artillery pieces and 5000 shells???
Quote:
By Nathan Rennolds | Feb 18, 2024, 11:32 AM CST
https://www.businessinsider.com/denmark-to-send-all-artillery-ukraine-
pm-russia-war-2024-2
Denmark is sending all of its artillery to Ukraine, the Danish prime minister has said.
Mette Frederiksen made the announcement while speaking at the Munich Security Conference.
It comes as Ukraine faces severe munitions shortages.
Denmark is sending its "entire artillery" to Ukraine, the Danish prime minister has said.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Mette Frederiksen appealed to other European nations to do more to help Ukraine in its fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin's invading forces.
"They are asking us for ammunition now. Artillery now. From the Danish side, we decided to donate our entire artillery," she said.
"I'm sorry to say, friends, there are still ammunition in stock in Europe," she continued. "This is not only a question about production, because we have weapons, we have ammunition, we have air defense that we don't have to use ourself at the moment, that we should deliver to Ukraine."
Etc etc
Well, how to unpack that?
DENMARK apparently doesn't believe that Russia is going to attack them because they're willing to gut themselves.
But I'm sure Russia will be happy to blow up whatever Denmark sends. The more EU nations gut themselves, the more Russia will be able to demilitarize the EU as well as Ukraine.
Quote:
Czech President Petr Pavel said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference on 17 February that it had a stockpile of about half a million 155 mm and 300,000 122 mm shells, which can be on the Ukraine frontline in a few weeks "if funding is found quickly."
And apparently CZECHIA doesn't think that Russia will invade them either, bc if they did they wouldn't be gutting themselves either, no matter how much money they expected to make.
Clearly a lot of cognitive dissonance going on.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Remember the good old days when Europe fought against Nazis instead of fighting for them?
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Quote:Europe was actually split. There were a lot of Nazi sympathizers/ collaborators in nations that we think are liberal democracies.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Remember the good old days when Europe fought against Nazis instead of fighting for them?
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
But I think this has more to do with globalist plans to plunder Russia, and the uber-elite's ability to pack national governments with moronic sycophants and opportunists. I have heard some incredibly stupid things coming out of their mouths. Like Baerbock's insistence thatPutin do a 360 degree turn.
No shit! That earned her the nickname Annalena "360" Baerbock.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:I think the globalists are responding to Russia threatening to nuke the U.S.:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
But I think this has more to do with globalist plans to plunder Russia . . .
Russia Vows Nuclear Strike on Washington if Ukraine Wins
Feb 18, 2024 at 11:56 AM EST
https://www.newsweek.com/vladimir-putin-ally-nuclear-threat-ukraine-wi
n-1871005
A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened the use of nuclear weapons on the U.S. if Russia fails in its invasion of Ukraine.
In a Telegram post on Sunday, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, has claimed the Moscow would use nuclear weapons in the event that "Ukraine with its allies" managed to push Russia out of the war-torn country.
"Let's imagine for a moment that Russia lost and 'Ukraine with its allies' won. What for our enemies—the neo-Nazis with their Western sponsors—would be such a victory?" Medvedev wrote.
He goes on to talk about the "collapse of Russia," in which he describes a "return to the borders of 1991" when the USSR collapsed following the Cold War. Medvedev said that a Western victory would constitute a complete collapse of Russia, with "tens of millions of victims." He described it as "the death of our future. The collapse of everything in the world."
The post continues: "The collapse of Russia will have much more terrible consequences than the results of an ordinary, even the most protracted war. For attempts to return Russia to the borders of 1991 will lead to only one thing. To the global war with the Western countries using all the strategic arsenal of our state."
He goes on to make nuclear threats against key U.S. and European capital cities. "Against Kyiv, Berlin, London, Washington. Against all other beautiful historical places that have been long ago included in the flight targets of our nuclear triad," he wrote.
Concluding his message, Medvedev wrote: "Will we have the guts for this if the disappearance of a thousand-year-old country, our great homeland, is at stake, and the sacrifices made by the people of Russia over the centuries will be in vain? The answer is obvious."
Putin himself and other top Russian officials have threatened to use nuclear weapons as it continues its campaign, both in Ukraine and against NATO member countries.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Raise your privileged hand if you’re willing to ‘fight to the last Ukrainian’
Hey, what’s a million-plus dead and wounded when you live thousands of miles away in a bubble of arrogant privilege?
In August 2023, U.S. officials estimated that approximately 500,000 Russian and Ukrainian troops had been killed or wounded since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. Back in November, the United Nations Human Rights Office said more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians had died.
Recently, a former intelligence official told me that troop casualties are now over 1 million, and that the U.N. estimate of civilian deaths is dramatically higher. Over 1 million dead and wounded men, women and children.
Shouldn’t that obscenely horrific death and casualty number shock us? For a comparison, how would we react if every single man, woman and child in Dallas, San Diego, Austin, Jacksonville or San Jose were killed or wounded while large parts of those cities were leveled to the ground by air and artillery bombardments?
Sadly, tragically, but purposefully, there has been very little reporting on the human cost of the war between Russia and Ukraine. Some in the media have seemingly morphed into stenographers for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with each story beginning: “As Ukraine reports…” or “As Zelensky stated…”
Media sites can still be “anti-Putin” while professionally and ethically reporting the absolute facts on the ground. Facts that paint a horribly tragic picture.
If the rationale by our government, the United Kingdom and others in Europe (along with much of the media, academia and various defense contractors) was to use Ukraine and its people as cheap disposable pawns to be sacrificed in a proxy war against Vladimir Putin and Russia, then they are succeeding at a certain macabre level.
However, if the idea of supporting the Ukraine war with Russia was to “save the people of Ukraine” and the country’s infrastructure, then those who advocated for that course of action have failed miserably.
How miserably? Well, as CNN reported recently, the war has devolved into brutal trench warfare: “The frontlines of Russia’s war in Ukraine have become infested with rats and mice, reportedly spreading disease that causes soldiers to vomit and bleed from their eyes, crippling combat capability and recreating the gruesome conditions that plagued troops in the trench warfare of World War I.”
Does any of that matter or register with the privileged and “neocon” class on both sides of the Atlantic who — from the safety of thousands of miles away while enjoying six- and seven-figure salaries — continually advocate for the youth of Ukraine to march into the teeth of the Russian war machine?
MORE AT https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4473663-raise-your-privi
leged-hand-if-youre-willing-to-fight-to-the-last-ukrainian/
Meanwhile, partying at Munich Security Conference, hosted by Bild. "Drink to defeat Putin" was the order of the day.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:The Russians killed 4 million Ukrainians during Holodomor. But that is all in the past, except the Ukrainians know the Russians might kill another 4 million in the future. The Ukrainians fight in the present to show the Russians that time is not a flat circle.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Raise your privileged hand if you’re willing to ‘fight to the last Ukrainian’
https://www.google.com/search?q=Holodomor
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:The Russians killed 4 million Ukrainians during Holodomor. But that is all in the past, except the Ukrainians know the Russians might kill another 4 million in the future. The Ukrainians fight in the present to show the Russians that time is not a flat circle.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Raise your privileged hand if you’re willing to ‘fight to the last Ukrainian’
https://www.google.com/search?q=Holodomor
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
There were at least six points where war could have been avoided, from the initial coup ousting Yanukovich (promoted by "Fuck the EU" Nuland) to the Minsk agreements (both of them) to the shelling of Donetsk and finally to the cease fire agreement that Boris Johnson torpedoed. At every step, the west kept egging Ukraine on.
This isn't on Russia.
It's on the west.
No matter how much you try to distort history.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:On Sunday, Dmitry Medvedev clearly stated what this war is about: "For attempts to return Russia to the borders of 1991 will lead to only one thing. To the global war with the Western countries using all the strategic arsenal of our state." Signym, Mikhail Gorbachev set the 1991 border and Putin hates the setting.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
There were at least six points where war could have been avoided, from the initial coup ousting Yanukovich (promoted by "Fuck the EU" Nuland) to the Minsk agreements (both of them) to the shelling of Donetsk and finally to the cease fire agreement that Boris Johnson torpedoed. At every step, the west kept egging Ukraine on.
This isn't on Russia.
It's on the west.
No matter how much you try to distort history.
To paraphrase, Russia will nuke the U.S. rather than Russia continuing to live within the 1991 borders. Even clearer, Russia is taking back Ukraine and if you don't like it, Russia will nuke you.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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You're "explaining" what the USA did 20 years ago by what Medvedev says now???
Stop gaslighting us, SECOND. We're not as stupid as you are.
BTW, what Medvedev said
Quote:
What does this mean? It means only one thing – they risk running into the action of paragraph 19 of the fundamentals of Russia's state policy in the field of nuclear deterrence," Medvedev wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
"This should be remembered," Medvedev said.
Paragraph nineteen of Russia's 2020 nuclear doctrine sets out the conditions under which a Russian president would consider using a nuclear weapon: broadly as a response to an attack using nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, or to the use of conventional weapons against Russia "when the very existence of the state is put under threat."
Medvedev made specific mention of point "g" of paragraph nineteen which deals with the nuclear response to a conventional weapons attack.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russias-medvedev-warns-nuclear-re
sponse-if-ukraine-hits-missile-launch-sites-2024-01-11/
Quote:
Concluding his message, Medvedev wrote: "Will we have the guts for this if the disappearance of a thousand-year-old country, our great homeland, is at stake, and the sacrifices made by the people of Russia over the centuries will be in vain? The answer is obvious."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/putin-ally-vows-nuclear-strike-on
-washington-if-ukraine-wins/ar-BB1itx8o
What he is saying, in different ways, it what Russia has always said: It will use nuclear weapons if it is existentially threatened, even by conventional forces.
Of course Russia now considers Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaparozhzhia to be part of Russia. So there's that.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:The rulers of Russia have a thousand-year history of killing people and stealing their land. For example, Stalin killed 4 million Ukrainians during Holodomor and stole their land but magnanimous Mikhail Gorbachev set the border for Ukraine in 1991, giving all that land back to Ukrainians. Putin is attempting to cancel Gorbachev and reset the border back to 1990. Putin makes foolish threats to nuke the West if it "interferes" with the new border declared by Putin. The Putin plan is childishly simple: kill the owners, steal their land, and threaten to nuke anyone who interferes. It is a plan that can be repeated over and over, across Europe. Seeing how obvious Putin is, Putin's plan will be stopped in Ukraine by Europe.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
You're "explaining" what the USA did 20 years ago by what Medvedev says now???
Stop gaslighting us, SECOND. We're not as stupid as you are.
BTW, what Medvedev said
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Can Europe defend itself without America?
It would need to replace military aid, a nuclear umbrella and leadership
Feb 18th 2024
https://www.economist.com/briefing/2024/02/18/can-europe-defend-itself
-without-america
THE DEATH of Alexei Navalny, Russia’s foremost opposition leader, in a Siberian gulag on February 16th would by itself have served as a shock to Europe. But for leaders gathered at the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of defence and security bigwigs, Mr Navalny’s demise was just one of several ominous developments for the continent. On February 17th Ukraine’s army, starved of American ammunition by Congress’s failure to pass a supplemental aid bill, was forced to withdraw from the eastern town of Avdiivka. That handed Vladimir Putin his first military victory in almost a year.
The deadlock in Congress reflects the baleful influence of Donald Trump, whose fierce opposition to aid for Ukraine has cowed Republicans into submission. But the spectre of Mr Trump’s return to office in November’s presidential election cast an even darker pall over Munich. A week earlier Mr Trump had boasted of telling an ally that he would not come to their defence if they fell short of NATO spending targets: “You’re delinquent? No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.”
The confluence of Russia’s rearmament, Ukraine’s deteriorating position and Mr Trump’s possible return to the White House has brought Europe to its most dangerous juncture in decades. European states and armies are wondering whether they must navigate this crisis without their ally of nearly 80 years. The question is not just whether America will abandon Ukraine, but whether it might abandon Europe. For Europe to fill the space left by America’s absence would require it to do much more than simply raise defence spending. It will have to reconsider the nature of military power, the role of nuclear deterrence in European security and the far-reaching political implications of military organisation and structure.
In Munich the mood was fearful and determined rather than panicked. American and European officials remain hopeful that American aid will turn up in Ukraine. On February 17th Petr Pavel, the Czech president, said that his country had “found” 800,000 shells which could be shipped to the country within weeks. In an interview with The Economist Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defence minister, insisted that European arms production was increasing “as fast as possible” and said he was “very optimistic” that Europe could plug American gaps. Others played down the dangers of Mr Trump. “We should stop moaning and whining and nagging about Trump,” said Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, on February 17th. “It’s up to the Americans…We have to work with whoever is on the dance floor.”
Not everyone is so sanguine. If American aid were to evaporate entirely, Ukraine would probably lose, one American official tells The Economist. Mr Pistorius is correct that European arms production is rising fast; the continent should be able to produce shells at an annual rate of 1m-2m late this year, potentially outstripping America. But that may come too late for Ukraine, which by itself needs some 1.5m per year according to Rheinmetall, a European arms manufacturer. And a sense of wartime urgency is still lacking. European producers export 40% of their shell production to non-EU countries other than Ukraine; when the European Commission proposed that Ukraine should be prioritised by law, member states refused. The continent’s arms firms complain that their order books remain too thin to warrant big investments in production lines.
A Ukrainian defeat would inflict a psychological blow on the West while emboldening Mr Putin. That does not mean he could take advantage right away. “There is no immediate threat to NATO,” says Admiral Rob Bauer, the head of NATO’s international military committee. Allies disagree over how long it would take Russia to reconstitute its forces to a pre-war standard, he
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Europe was actually split. There were a lot of Nazi sympathizers/ collaborators in nations that we think are liberal democracies.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Remember the good old days when Europe fought against Nazis instead of fighting for them?
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
But I think this has more to do with globalist plans to plunder Russia, and the uber-elite's ability to pack national governments with moronic sycophants and opportunists. I have heard some incredibly stupid things coming out of their mouths. Like Baerbock's insistence thatPutin do a 360 degree turn.
No shit! That earned her the nickname Annalena "360" Baerbock.
Nothing short of 720 degrees out of Putin should be considered acceptable.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:Putin murdered his political opponent in prison this weekend. Putin will murder Ukrainians by the millions if and when he controls them. Stalin did the same and shrugged as if it was nothing.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Nothing short of 720 degrees out of Putin should be considered acceptable.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
Kremlin critics blame Putin and his government for Navalny’s death in prison
https://apnews.com/article/russia-navalny-death-global-reactions-putin
-19e7fd6318763627f6917a92678cd190
Navalny was “brutally murdered by the Kremlin,” said Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics. “That’s a fact, and that is something one should know about the true nature of Russia’s current regime.”
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
You're "explaining" what the USA did 20 years ago by what Medvedev says now???
Stop gaslighting us, SECOND. We're not as stupid as you are.
BTW, what Medvedev said...
SECOND: The rulers of Russia have a thousand-year history
And now you're "explaining" to us that our elites are doing what they're doing because of something that happened 1000 years ago??
Dood, YOU don't know Russian history and neither do THEY. Those are just excuses for them doing what they want to do anyway: plunder Russia.
Honestly, I don't know where you get this shit from.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Tzars kill millions of Ukrainians and it means nothing. Stalin kills 4 million Ukrainians and it also means nothing. Putin threatens to kill millions in the West and it means nothing, too. Nothing means nothing to you, Signym. Instead, you create fan fiction about plundering Russia.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
You're "explaining" what the USA did 20 years ago by what Medvedev says now???
Stop gaslighting us, SECOND. We're not as stupid as you are.
BTW, what Medvedev said...
SECOND: The rulers of Russia have a thousand-year history
And now you're "explaining" to us that our elites are doing what they're doing because of something that happened 1000 years ago??
Dood, YOU don't know Russian history and neither do THEY. Those are just excuses for them doing what they want to do anyway: plunder Russia.
Honestly, I don't know where you get this shit from.
Putin pal threatens Armageddon nuclear attack on DC and London if Russia has to give back any Ukraine territory
By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon | Feb. 18, 2024, 3:10 p.m. ET
https://nypost.com/2024/02/18/world-news/putin-pal-threatens-armageddo
n-nuclear-attack-on-dc-and-london-if-russia-has-to-give-back-any-ukraine-territory/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
You're "explaining" what the USA did 20 years ago by what Medvedev says now???
Stop gaslighting us, SECOND. We're not as stupid as you are.
BTW, what Medvedev said...
SECOND: The rulers of Russia have a thousand-year history
SIGNY: And now you're "explaining" to us that our elites are doing what they're doing because of something that happened 1000 years ago??
Dood, YOU don't know Russian history and neither do THEY. Those are just excuses for them doing what they want to do anyway: plunder Russia.
Honestly, I don't know where you get this shit from.
SECOND: Tzars kill millions of Ukrainians and it means nothing. Stalin kills 4 million Ukrainians and it also means nothing. Putin threatens to kill millions in the West and it means nothing, too.
European killed millions, likely hundreds of millions, in their conquest of the globe.
Europeans also enslaved hundreds of thousands of dark skinned people.
They also killed each other by the millions over their border and religious disputes.
Africans enslaved each other.
Nazis killed millions of Russians and other ethnicities.
Pol Pot killed three million people.
Mayans and Aztecs killed tens of thousands of victims to appeal to the rain gods.
Of course it means "something", but WHAT?
It means that, back then, those people did those things. If you want to draw lessons from history, and not just pluck convenient narratives from thin air, then you need to know WHY and HOW these things were done and determine whether the same impulses operate today.
For example, we don't sacrifice to the rain gods anymore, do we?
Quote:
Putin pal threatens Armageddon nuclear attack on DC and London if Russia has to give back any Ukraine territory
By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon | Feb. 18, 2024, 3:10 p.m. ET
https://nypost.com/2024/02/18/world-news/putin-pal-threatens-armageddo
n-nuclear-attack-on-dc-and-london-if-russia-has-to-give-back-any-ukraine-territory/
It would be helpful if you would read with comprehension. Medvedev is just restating
STANDARD RUSSIAN POLICY: IF RUSSIA FEELS EXISTENTIALLY THREATENED, EVEN WITH CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS ( EXAMPLE: A MASS ATTACK BY ALL NATO FORCES ON RUSSIA WITH EVERY CONVENTIONAL WEAPON AT OUR DISPOSAL) RUSSIA CAN RESPOND WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
In other words, Russia has NOT committed to "no first use".
NEITHER HAS THE USA.
Russia DOES limit its use of nukes to DEFENSIVE purposes.
(I know of no such statement from the USA, which keeps "first strike" on the table, AFAIK.)
Russia will not limit its strikes to the area of conflict, but will include decision-making centers in its targeting. So TPTB shouldn't feel too safe in their bunkers and distant capitals. Yanno, they're gonna have skin in the game.
*****
The latest wrinkle is that Russia now considers Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaparozhzhia, and Kherson to be part of Russia.
Yanno, if the western signatories (France, Germany) had just committed to the Minsk agreements instead of using them "to buy time to arm Ukraine" (as they later bragged) none of this would have happened. But being the weasely and dishonest people that they are, I would say they're getting what they deserve.
But trying to teach you history is like teaching a pig to read.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Putin murdered his political opponent in prison this weekend.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Nothing short of 720 degrees out of Putin should be considered acceptable.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
In that case, anything short of 1,440 degrees is unacceptable.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Russia-Ukraine War Anniversary: 8 Experts Tell Foreign Policy What's Next
February 19, 2024, 7:00 AM |
By Angela Stent, Jo Inge Bekkevold, Kristi Raik, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Agathe Demarais, Franz-Stefan Gady, David Petraeus, C. Raja Mohan, Stefan Theil
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/02/19/ukraine-russia-war-two-years-anni
versary-news-zelensky-putin/
As Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its third year, the apparent impasse on the battlefield masks decisive shifts. The war’s main front is now political, with Russian President Vladimir Putin betting that divisions and hesitations in the West will hand him the victory he has failed to achieve on the ground.
Worried about the consequences for their continent’s security if Washington disengages and Ukraine falls, European governments have increased aid in recent months. Collectively, they have now supplied or pledged more weapons to Kyiv than Washington—and more than double the assistance if economic aid is included. That marks a significant change from the war’s early days, but it hasn’t been enough to turn the tide for Ukraine.
When and how will this war end? The Kremlin has made it abundantly clear that the only negotiated end it will accept is Ukraine’s surrender, while the Ukrainians have made it equally plain that they will continue to resist being subsumed into Moscow’s empire. Two years on, peace in Europe is nowhere in sight.
To shed light on these and other shifts in the war, Foreign Policy asked eight prominent thinkers what comes next.—Stefan Theil, deputy editor
1) Bracing for a Long War
By Angela Stent, author of Putin’s World: Russia Against the West and With the Rest
As Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its third year, the current dynamic stalemate looks set to continue. Neither side is winning or losing. The Russians are making incremental territorial gains at the cost of enormous casualties and lost equipment. The Ukrainians, having failed to achieve the objectives of their 2023 counteroffensive, are on the defensive and also experiencing significant casualties. This war of attrition is taking its toll on Ukraine, where President Volodymyr Zelensky recently parted ways with his top military commander, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, after fissures between the two became public. Both countries need to mobilize more troops, but there will be no Russian mobilization before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s sham reelection next month. For Ukraine, whose population is less than a third the size of Russia’s, it will be more difficult for to mobilize the forces it needs.
The war is not only about troops but also about the continued supply of weapons. Russia is purchasing drones from Iran and increasing amounts of artillery ammunition and some missiles from North Korea. Ukraine is dependent on weapons supplies and financial support from Europe and the United States. The European Union’s recent approval of $54 billion in financial assistance will enable the Ukrainian state to continue functioning, and European NATO members will supply some additional weapons. But the United States remains key: It is the most important supplier of advanced weaponry, and its dysfunctional domestic politics may jeopardize Ukraine’s ability to continue to fight Russia. If Congress does not approve the requested $60 billion in assistance to Ukraine and if the U.S. government does not speed up the supply of advanced weapons, then the outlook for Ukraine’s ability to push back against Russia in 2024 is much bleaker.
There is little prospect of negotiations to end the war in 2024, nor can either side achieve a decisive victory. The Kremlin has made clear that it has no interest in negotiations that do not lead to Ukraine’s surrender, including the permanent loss of the four territories illegally annexed by Russia in 2022. The stated Russian goal remains the so-called “de-Nazification”—Russian lingo for regime change—and demilitarization of Ukraine. No Ukrainian leader would ever agree to such terms. Putin is awaiting the result of this year’s U.S. election and ho
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Quote:Russian rulers and their spokesmen have been making threats to nuke the US since Aug. 29, 1949. There was no real policy other than to make threats constantly. Some lawyer wrote a "policy" about when to use nukes but the "policy" means nothing to the ruler. The only real thing keeping Russia from nuking the world is its ruler's feelings.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
It would be helpful if you would read with comprehension. Medvedev is just restating
STANDARD RUSSIAN POLICY: IF RUSSIA FEELS EXISTENTIALLY THREATENED, EVEN WITH CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS ( EXAMPLE: A MASS ATTACK BY ALL NATO FORCES ON RUSSIA WITH EVERY CONVENTIONAL WEAPON AT OUR DISPOSAL) RUSSIA CAN RESPOND WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
In other words, Russia has NOT committed to "no first use".
NEITHER HAS THE USA.
The Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb, known in the West as Joe-1, on Aug. 29, 1949.
The relief and euphoria in the room was overwhelming. Kurchatov cried out, "It works! It works!" And Iulii Khariton, the scientific director of Arzamas, remembers Beria hugging him. All of the scientists knew that their own personal fates depended on the success of the bomb. One of them later said that if it had failed they would have all been shot.
Two months later the scientists principally responsible for designing the bomb won honors for their roles on the project. As the story goes, Beria adopted a simple rule in deciding who should get what prize. Those who would have been shot if the bomb had failed, became Heroes of Socialist Labor; those who would have been imprisoned were awarded the less prestigious honor, the Order of Lenin.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/bomb-soviet-tests/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Russia calls pilot killed in Spain after defecting to Ukraine a "moral corpse"
February 20, 2024, 6:19 AM CST
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-spy-chief-killed-russian-
pilot-was-moral-corpse-defecting-2024-02-20/
MOSCOW, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Russia's foreign intelligence chief described a Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine and was found shot dead in Spain as a "moral corpse" for betraying his country, in Moscow's first comment on the case since news of the killing emerged.
Ukraine's GUR military intelligence service has confirmed that pilot Maxim Kuzminov, who flew to Ukraine with his Mi-8 helicopter last August, has died in Spain, without giving the cause of death.
Spanish officials have confirmed that a body was found riddled with bullets on Feb. 13 in an underground garage in the town of Villajoyosa, near Alicante in southern Spain. Spanish and Ukrainian media have reported that the shooting victim was the pilot, who had been living in Spain under a fake identity.
"In Russia it is customary to speak either good of the dead or nothing at all," Sergei Naryshkin, the director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), was quoted as saying when asked about Kuzminov.
"This traitor and criminal became a moral corpse at the very moment when he planned his dirty and terrible crime," Naryshkin was quoted as saying by TASS news agency.
Western leaders say Russia frequently assassinates those it deems traitors abroad. Moscow says the West has not provided evidence to support such assertions. 62 million Russians murdered by Russians, plus Alexey Navalny's recent death in a Russian prison north of the Arctic Circle, is sufficient to contradict Moscow.
A Spanish court in Villajoyosa has opened a probe into the death of the shooting victim, a judicial source told Reuters on Tuesday. At the time of his death, the victim carried documentation identifying him as a 33-year-old Ukrainian national, but his identity was still under investigation, the source said.
Kuzminov's defection to Ukraine was presented last year as a major coup for Kyiv. At a news conference in Kyiv he said he could not understand why his "beloved motherland" would enter into a war with Ukraine.
Other members of the air crew died during his defection. Moscow said Kuzminov killed them; he said they panicked and fled, and may have been killed subsequently.
Reporting by Reuters Editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Gareth Jones, Peter Graff
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Kremlin rejects call for independent postmortem on opposition leader Alexei Navalny
The Council of the European Union called on Monday for an independent exam.
By Kevin Shalvey | February 20, 2024, 10:50 AM
A spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected the body's request on Tuesday, saying, "Moscow does not accept such demands" from the European Union. (Putin murdered Navalny, but doesn't want that verified scientifically.)
Navalny, a long-time Russian opposition politician and critic of the Kremlin under Putin, died in prison at age 47 on Friday, the state prison service said.
Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny's widow, had vowed on Monday to continue his opposition against Putin. She released a video in which she alleged that Navalny's body was being kept from the family because he had been murdered.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, on Tuesday said those allegations were "unfounded, unsupported and borish."
"Whatever story the Russian government decides to tell the world, it's clear that President Putin and his government are responsible for Mr. Navalny's death," National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby said Tuesday morning.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/kremlin-rejects-call-independent-
postmortem-opposition-leader-alexei/story?id=107359619
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
A spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected the body's request on Tuesday, saying, "Moscow does not accept such demands" from the European Union.
Good for them. Fuck the EU.
As unelected oligarchs, they might be able to fuck over the citizenry of Europe who foolishly joined and allowed them to make whatever demands on them they wanted to, but they have no jurisdiction in Russia or anywhere else.
Why is Julian Assange living a fucked up life for doing real journalism and all of the sudden you Lefty dipshits all suddenly care about this Alexei Navalny you never even knew existed until last week? Why is Eric Snowden hiding out the rest of his life for being a goddamned hero?
Where was the EU with their demands for an independent postmortem when Jeffrey Epstein was murdered by Hillary Clinton?
Not a fucking peep out of them then. Funny that, huh?
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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Solzhenitsyn’s Warning for the United States
His excoriating critique of Western liberalism is more relevant than ever.
By Eliot A. Cohen | February 20, 2024, 6 AM ET
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/02/solzhenitsyns-warnin
g-for-the-united-states/677508/
I came across a slim volume, A World Split Apart, the text of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s 1978 Harvard commencement address.
What matters now as it did then is his critique of us. We have just seen a feckless House of Representatives pass a ludicrous impeachment of a Cabinet secretary by one vote — and then skip town while avoiding a vote on aid to Ukraine. We have seen the West’s inability to prevent the murder, by direct or indirect means, of a heroic dissident, Alexei Navalny, and the gleeful insouciance of the Russian dictator hours after it was reported. We have seen a foreign war used as an excuse to hound Jews on campuses and in the streets, and we have the horrifying spectacle of a possible return to the presidency of one of the most corrupt and dangerous politicians in American history. Which makes it worthwhile to return to Solzhenitsyn’s speech, a dark reflection for a different dark time.
The speech begins with a slap to our face: “A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today.” That is as true now as it was then, possibly truer. https://www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/a-world-split-apart
“Your scholars are free in the legal sense, but they are hemmed in by the idols of the prevailing fad.” When the nonpartisan Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression consistently rates America’s oldest and most prestigious university one of the very worst for freedom of speech, something is deeply amiss. And that is, of course, Harvard, the very university at which Solzhenitsyn spoke, whose motto is Veritas — “Truth.”
At the root of the West’s troubles, Solzhenitsyn believed, was the view that man is the measure of all things, that social problems of all kinds can be managed away, that evil is not embedded in human nature, and that the ultimate purpose of life is happiness. In large measure, we in the West still believe these things. Above all we talk endlessly about happiness, as measured by psychologists, sociologists, and political scientists. To which Solzhenitsyn observed, if “man were born only to be happy, he would not be born to die.” And as he pointed out, if such a credo holds, “for the sake of what should one risk one’s precious life in defense of the common good?” Which may explain the struggles of many armies, including the American, to fill their ranks.
Of course, Solzhenitsyn’s imprecations were too harsh — that is the nature of prophets and seers, who of necessity scorn popularity. And of course, there are exceptions, although today they are found at the margins of the West more than at its core. The dogged persistence of Ukraine in its unequal war, the return of some Israeli citizens to their devastated settlements on the Gaza border, the example of not only Navalny but many other Russian writers and dissidents including Anna Politkovskaya and Vladimir Kara-Murza tell us that the wellsprings of courage are not yet dry. Perhaps they never can be. There is consolation as well in the thought that, in the end, the evil empire that Solzhenitsyn fought against collapsed of its own weight, that its persecution of him, like its successor’s murder of Navalny, bore testimony to its weakness, not its strength.
But the moment is an undeniably bleak one. Solzhenitsyn concluded: “The forces of Evil have begun their decisive offensive. You can feel their pressure, yet your screens and publications are full of prescribed smiles and raised glasses. What is the joy about?” True enough.
I am just old enough to remember the shock of Solzhenitsyn’s three-volume Gulag Archipelago, which brought home to Western audiences the full nature of Soviet terror, and not just of the Stalinist variety. In many countries (France most notably
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Western Liberalism is in its death throes.
Good riddance.
Thanks Joe Biden*. Killing Western Liberalism the one success you have under your belt.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
It would be helpful if you would read with comprehension. Medvedev is just restating
STANDARD RUSSIAN POLICY: IF RUSSIA FEELS EXISTENTIALLY THREATENED, EVEN WITH CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS ( EXAMPLE: A MASS ATTACK BY ALL NATO FORCES ON RUSSIA WITH EVERY CONVENTIONAL WEAPON AT OUR DISPOSAL) RUSSIA CAN RESPOND WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
In other words, Russia has NOT committed to "no first use".
NEITHER HAS THE USA.
SECOND: Russian rulers and their spokesmen have been making threats to nuke the US since Aug. 29, 1949.
Oh, boo hoo.
You think our ACTUAL bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki wasn't a threat to the Russian army storming across Asia to the Japanese Islands?
You think our missile bases in Europe and Turkeye and our transfer of nuclear warheads to Britain are for shits and giggles???
Grow the fuck up.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Western Liberalism's decadence is from its fear of being rude to Trumptards and Russians. Perhaps the day will come, like a Bible story, were the Libtards rise up and slaughter Trumptards rather than meekly attempt to persuade them to behave marginally better than that complete criminal Trump and mass-murderer Putin.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Western Liberalism is in its death throes.
Good riddance.
Thanks Joe Biden*. Killing Western Liberalism the one success you have under your belt.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Western Liberalism's decadence is from its fear of being rude to Trumptards and Russians. Perhaps the day will come, like a Bible story, were the Libtards rise up and slaughter Trumptards rather than meekly attempt to persuade them to behave marginally better than that complete criminal Trump and mass-murderer Putin.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Western Liberalism is in its death throes.
Good riddance.
Thanks Joe Biden*. Killing Western Liberalism the one success you have under your belt.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
Oh yeah?
You and what army, pussies?
We got all the alpha males and all the guns.
Maybe Captain Marvel or Madame Web will save you if you try something stupid.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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"Western liberalism" stems from individualism, a tennnet that had its basis in French liberalism. But it's individualism taken to extremes: no morals, no commonality or mutuality, no responsibilties. Not even reality is allowed to intrude, as men are convin ed they can be women and women are convinced they can be men.
It is the ultimate fracturing of society into individual atoms, which can be much more easily ground down than people united by a common purpose, identity, and ethos.
Opposite of the MAGA crowd, who believe in an American identityy.
Opposite of religious people, who believe we should have morals in common.
To the extent that you are against Ametican nationalism, commonality, and ethics (after all, you're an inveterate liar, libeler, and sloth. Some of the ACTUAL Biblical seven deadly sins, IIRC) you are promoting moral decay.
Quote:
Western Liberalism's decadence is from its fear of being rude to Trumptards and Russians. Perhaps the day will come, like a Bible story, were the Libtards rise up and slaughter Trumptards rather than meekly attempt to persuade them to behave marginally better than that complete criminal Trump and mass-murderer Putin.
Oh, how could I have missed this???
Yeah, that might happen if you all could break away from your internet screeching long enough to go outside.
The big "liberal" faction is women. Nasty words, name-calling and lies are their stock in trade.
Good luck with that.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Nobody in a responsible position in the US government is making threats to nuke Russia. Numerous responsible Russians, including Putin, are making threats to nuke the US. The US nuked two cities and issued no threats beforehand. Russia has nuked no cities but issued thousands of threats to do so. Russians are going to get themselves killed and it will be all their fault when it happens with no warning.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
It would be helpful if you would read with comprehension. Medvedev is just restating
STANDARD RUSSIAN POLICY: IF RUSSIA FEELS EXISTENTIALLY THREATENED, EVEN WITH CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS ( EXAMPLE: A MASS ATTACK BY ALL NATO FORCES ON RUSSIA WITH EVERY CONVENTIONAL WEAPON AT OUR DISPOSAL) RUSSIA CAN RESPOND WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
In other words, Russia has NOT committed to "no first use".
NEITHER HAS THE USA.
SECOND: Russian rulers and their spokesmen have been making threats to nuke the US since Aug. 29, 1949.
Oh, boo hoo.
You think our ACTUAL bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki wasn't a threat to the Russian army storming across Asia to the Japanese Islands?
You think our missile bases in Europe and Turkeye and our transfer of nuclear warheads to Britain are for shits and giggles???
Grow the fuck up.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Russian politicians are reminding us of their "red lines" bc we have a history of using nukes when the going gets hot.
If you'll notice, they are reminding us of their DEFENSIVE use of nukes.
Specifically, in this case, they are telling the west not to attack the five oblasts of Ukraine that they have incorporated, or Russia proper, with NATO weapons wielded by NATO troops under NATO orders.
Russians are almost certain they will win. They also know our history of doing stupid and desperate things in hot situations, like false flags and using phosphorous and chemical weapons by proxy. And nuclear bombs. They're reminding us in no uncertain terms of their red lines.
So far, we have pretty much respected those red lines, and done "everything but" (kinda like the virgin who does evrything but): providing western weapons, ISR, training, "volunteers", helping them with their targeting. We even have a general there, and local commanders to help coordinate from behind the front lines. The NATO forces that are there are semi-detached and on the QT, and when Russia obliterates them, as it did to French troops who helped plan and conduct attacks on Belgorod, NATO doesn't say a word bc that would be an admission.
Anyway, the answer is simple: no NATO troops attacking Russia or those five oblasts. If some idiots in DC or London or Brussels decide to do that, well, there may be consequences. For them.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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