Posted by: Outraged | Feb 9 2023 15:15 utc | 280
“Hm … for starters, See: Francs-tireurs, belligerent combatants who operate outside the Laws of War, & 3rd Geneva Convention, 1st additional Protocol 1977, article 43.”
What is your point? You’re not allowed to execute franc-tireurs.

Posted by: fran tireur | Feb 9 2023 17:00 utc | 303

@ shadowbanned | Feb 9 2023 16:40 utc | 299

Moscow is losing men and equipments but at a far slower rate than Kiev and also had more to begin with, whenever saw danger to pull out to preserve its army, while Kiev wasted its on showy advances.
Posted by: Carny X Call | Feb 9 2023 16:31 utc | 297

1) But at a much faster rate than NATO, which has only a small number of soldiers there.
2) A long war is not in Russia’s interest, contrary to the hopium that many have drunk.

Care to expand upon & elucidate re your 1 & 2, for those of us in the cheap seats ?

Posted by: Outraged | Feb 9 2023 17:01 utc | 305

@96 Alek_a
You think a drone carrying 120Kg of explosives is going to trigger WW3? Nord Stream is the most egregious act ‘they’ have committed, and at least overtly, the RF has not responded to that in any meaningful way. I doubt anything more than lip service would have transpired, even if that drone had made it to Moscow.

Posted by: Bob Jenkins | Feb 9 2023 17:02 utc | 307

Posted by: alek_a | Feb 9 2023 16:48 utc | 302
Why is Russia becoming more powerful?

Posted by: Colin | Feb 9 2023 17:05 utc | 309

Contrary to what people believe, Russian government would rather use its budget on agriculture, economic development, education, health and so on, not on defence.

Posted by: Milan | Feb 9 2023 17:11 utc | 311

shadow banned @298
One of your more insightful and totally lucid postings. Keep up that good work.

Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 9 2023 17:19 utc | 313

Posted by: Bob Jenkins | Feb 9 2023 17:02 utc | 308
Yes the Nordstream attacks where overt acts of war…but proof would need to be provided to the global community before Russia acted. They have tried to be transparent all along…to drive a wedge in the current global order. So here we have U.S sources leaking details of the attack to Seymour and soon expect a false flag attack on Norway’s base or a mini Pearl harbor as a result. Then NATO goes East…hoping to keep the Russians out…the U.S in and Germany down

Posted by: Joe | Feb 9 2023 17:21 utc | 315

“Trut” @300
From all that I have read, the RU military did not have the necessary oomph just one year ago to carry out the mission which you feel they should have exercised. It’s critical to lurk here at MoA sufficiently and arduously long to develop a sufficiently broad picture of reality on and above the battlefront, to blame anyone in particular.
It would be the course of discernment and discretion not to personalize any of this as casting all blame on the president of the RF. That perspective strikes me as an overindulgence in boobtoob noose and similar mind-control bullshit.

Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 9 2023 17:24 utc | 317

@308 Alek_a
Not really, Ukrainian drone from Ukrainian territory and the US will deny any direct involvement as the day is long.
@316 Joe
They were, but to this point, and in the face of incontrovertible evidence (even before the Sy Hersh article) nothing has happened (nothing we know anything about at any rate).

Posted by: Bob Jenkins | Feb 9 2023 17:26 utc | 319

@LoveDonbass | Feb 8 2023 22:10 utc | 113
Ukrainian Tu-141 “Swift” carried a 120-kg bomb to Moscow
February 6 2023
At the crash site of a Ukrainian drone near Kaluga, an OFAB-100-120 aerial bomb and arrow-shaped submunitions [Hermit: flechettes] were found. An approximate picture of the morning incident with the participation of another UAV that arrived from Ukraine has also been restored.
To strike deep into Russian territory, the Soviet Tu-141 Strizh drone with an aerial bomb attached to it was once again used. The UAV flew at least 300 km unhindered in the Russian sky and headed towards Moscow. The air defense function in this case was performed by the Kaluga pines, for which the Swift caught on.
Telegram channels report that the wreckage of another Tu-141 was found on the territory controlled by Kyiv in the Konotop district of the Sumy region. Thus, only a combination of circumstances did not allow two Ukrainian drones to launch another strike on an object deep in Russian territory.
A similar incident occurred at the end of December last year. Then the Swift crashed in the Buturlinovka area of ​​the Voronezh region. The UAV with the built-in bomb was heading towards the military airfield, but hit a pine tree and did not reach the target.
The bomb, found at the crash site of the Tu-141 near Kaluga, is designed to hit a variety of targets – from lightly armored equipment to aircraft in open positions. Inside the ammunition is about 50 kg of explosives and submunitions.
https://en.topcor.ru/31853-ukrainskij-tu-141-strizh-nes-v-moskvu-120-kg-bombu.html [Hermit: machine translated]
AND
A drone with a 100-kilogram bomb did not fly 150 kilometers to Moscow
Ukrainian drone, equipped with a 100-kilogram bomb, crashed 9 minutes from Moscow.
During the incident that took place the night before in the Kaluga region, it became known that the Ukrainian drone that crashed over the region did not fly to Moscow for only about 150 kilometers. Taking into account the cruising speed of the drone, the latter could reach the borders of Moscow after 9 minutes of flight. At the same time, the drone was equipped with a 100-kilogram OFAB-100-120 high-explosive fragmentation bomb and equipped with a large number of submunitions capable of flying within a radius of 150 meters. This is reported by the journalists of “Base”.
“The fallen UAV was modified: stuffed with containers with striking elements (metal darts). In addition, he carried an OFAB-100-120 aerial bomb with a capacity of 46 kg in TNT equivalent – it fell, but did not detonate, its remains were found at the crash site. The nature of the weapons installed on the drone suggests that it was supposed to destroy as many people as possible. OFAB-100-120 is a high-explosive fragmentation bomb designed to destroy lightly armored targets and enemy manpower. And metal darts – they are called “flashetta”. Each shell can contain up to 8000 flechettes. After the shot, the shells explode above the ground, and the flechettes scatter in a conical arc about 300 m wide and 100 m long. It is worth noting that the fallen Strizh exploded 150 kilometers from Moscow “, – the journalists of “Base” report.
According to journalists, the reason for the explosion of a drone in the Kaluga region was that the latter touched the tops of trees. This, given the regular use of these drones by the Ukrainian military, now raises serious concerns, since with a cruising speed of a drone of 1000 km / h, the latter would reach the borders of Moscow in just 9 minutes.
Where exactly the Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle was launched is still unknown, however, apparently, it is either Kharkiv or Sumy region
https://avia-pro.net/news/bespilotnik-so-100-kilogrammovoy-bomboy-ne-doletel-do-moskvy-150-kilometrov [Hermit: machine translated]

Posted by: Hermit | Feb 9 2023 17:29 utc | 321

Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 9 2023 17:16 utc | 313
Interestingly, FDR’s policies actually expanded economic apartheid, and he “revived” the U.S. economy in the same way Hitler did: with war spending, while liberals still touted FDR.
https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/newshour/app/uploads/2017/01/black-white-earnings-gap.jpg
Hoover had already completed the vast majority of spending expansions, and Roosevelt even slightly curtailed them, and the narrative of worship or criticism of FDR’s “big government policy” is stunningly silly.
Any “leftist” who doesn’t oppose Western arms shipments to Ukraine is a fake one, they are just NATOists like Vaushite.

Posted by: Colin | Feb 9 2023 17:35 utc | 323

alek_a @317–
You answered it just fine–the sanctions and all that have propelled their implementation combined with History. But perhaps that’s too simple and we must look to Russianness and the leaders promoting that, which is an asset existing nowhere else. It beat Napoleon and won WW2. It’s what was behind Khrushchev’s “We will bury you” forecast. Look at Russian geography and marvel at what’s been accomplished there and compare that with the West–even before the age of steam.
Of the world’s multiethnic nations, Russia and China are the most cohesive and welded together societies on the planet, and it shows in their ability to resist then defeat divide and rule. Simply put, the West has no answers because nothing in the West is comparable. So, the answer is both simple and complex, or perhaps it’s just simply: because they’re Russians.

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 9 2023 17:47 utc | 325

Who is going to fly those Wonderplanes once Ukraine gets them?
Selensky lost almost 400 of the 200 fighter planes he started the war with:
1. Those 200 extra planes someone slipped him quietly didn’t win the war and
2. When a plane gets shot down by a rocket, there is little chance the pilot survives: Ukraine has likely lost several hundred pilots, those guys are hard to find, expensive to train und require years of experience before they’d be any good against veteran Russian pilots.

Posted by: Marvin | Feb 9 2023 17:56 utc | 327

#317, and #310 by karlof1 and alek_a, respectively resonate with me, but I pose a further question.
What is the contest at hand?
~
It ought be evident, countries long together, with diverse culture and populations, but stayed together nonetheless…..it ought be obvious that collectively wisdom resides there.
~
But, can’t be denied there is need for “new ideas” because humanity is in flux. So, makes no sense to dismiss a whole country, one that might have something to offer in the arena of “new ideas” only because a few dimwits got into positions of authority. I mean, has not the same thing happened in both Russia and China over history. Did Genghis Khan not visit both places – if not personally – his kin?
~
So, please they ought consider that with wisdom, and so far, it seems as if they have.
Hmm – lessons learned all around?
Time will tell.
BK

Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 9 2023 18:02 utc | 329

Make that #326 and #317, but that is just temporal per the discretion of the host….
but for the sake of accuracy in discourse, I post this needless post.

Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 9 2023 18:03 utc | 331

reply to 292
saying that Putin is imperialistic and that he was ‘given an off ramp’ are an absurdity. We have many years of broken promises surrounding the expansion of NATO and the Minsk agreements. If that wasn’t enough, we now witness the US trying to renege on agreements about Taiwan. No agreement is worth much of anything.
The only secure way to end this conflict is by the deaths or incapacitation of enormous numbers of male Ukrainians such that the nation will never rise again. I freely admit this is a horrific outcome but no alternative is possible – and all the more so as negotiation is rejected – by nations who could never be trusted anyway.

Posted by: Eighthman | Feb 9 2023 18:09 utc | 333

2.7778% to be precise, for those focused on IQ.
Oh, and the population of the US is actually closer to 332 million if one can believe that….
so, hmmm.
What percent is that?

Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 9 2023 18:28 utc | 335

Buffalo_Ken @330–
I direct you to my posts on the Week in Review thread where you’ll find many transcript translations and links to others that will help answer your overall query. In particular is the one I’ll be completing once the transcript is complete.
IMO, the biggest differential between the philosophies of political-economy between East and West lies in the East’s adoption of People Centered Development as its growth engine: Bottom->Up. Whereas the West continues its Top->Down approach which is clearly failing as that’s what’s generated the offshoring of what was its Bottom->Up economic engine. As Hudson has shown, it’s a modern version of Feudalism that has no future, no upside, particularly for the masses.
Also at the WiR thread, I just linked to Escobar’s newest essay that will provide even further insight into the East’s dynamism in overcoming the West’s obstacles that is making the East even stronger–“Strike me down Darth and I’ll become more powerful than you can imagine” is one of the most prophetic lines Lucas wrote in his metaphor for the Outlaw US Empire with Obi Wan representing the RoW.
I see there’re no replies to my reply to Ed in the Hersh thread about Russia not negotiating with NATO. Here’s what I wrote:
“On the topic of negotiations between the Outlaw US Empire and Russia, IMO there will be none over Ukraine. Over NATO’s status in Europe, yes–Withdraw voluntarily or be pushed. Then some version of the previous OSCE Treaties will be made but with some sort of binding mechanism of some sort that currently I can’t envision. On Ukraine, Russia will negotiate with the entity that replaces Zelensky after liberating most of former Russian Empire lands. Putin has already noted Galicia will not be kept. When such events will occur is unknown.
“That’s how I see things unfolding at the moment.”

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 9 2023 18:45 utc | 337

A long war is not in Russia’s interest, contrary to the hopium that many have drunk.
Posted by: shadowbanned | Feb 9 2023 16:40 utc | 299
The biggest winner is China.
Posted by: Colin | Feb 9 2023 17:02 utc | 309
##################
I was about to post the same as Colin. Folks are staring too closely at this as NATO vs Russia via Ukraine, when really it’s a unipolar Empire in decline fighting against the future (a multipolar world).
This is one match in a series of championship games. Just one match, and one could easily argue, the undercard. China is the main event.
Please adjust your trolling and criticisms accordingly.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 9 2023 18:51 utc | 339

There is no way that Hersh would have fabricated all of this information.
Posted by: HH | Feb 8 2023 15:05 utc | 3
He didn’t fabricate it. The story first appeared in The Times, 28 Sep., “Nord Stream Sabotage, How the explosions could have happened”. Infographics published in that story appear a couple of weeks later in Lt. Chuck Pfarrer (ret’d) SEAL Team Six Cmmdr and “underwater demolition expert” interview with Polish channel TVP World. By contrast, you may recall, a popular theory for The Blasts (registered by NO as 2 seismic events) were multiple submarine torpedo strikes. AFAIK, the joint DK-SE task force has emerged from silence only to report (Nov) prep to analysize “residue” on metal fragments recovered from the seabed. I suppose by now that analysis, if any indeed occurred, was inconclusive, as material findings traceable to improbable prime suspect RF manufacture have yet—5 months later—to grace G7 opinion headlines. Yet, no one has bothered to publish a sonar image map of the crime scene.
Back to Seymour (85): Someone tipped him out of a cupboard to add “color” and odour of dissaffection to seal the fate of the lingering, foregone conclusion: US “official denial” of sabotage as vigorous as “biological research” confirms guilt. What color Hersh adds to Lt. “C-4” Chuck’s dramatic reading of British PR is Deep State intrigue and a Deep Throat informant (who unexpectedly unmasks The Impartial Observer, Norway, but no map); thus satisfying hunger for 3 staples of the Secret Lives of US American bloggers’ diet. Never mind technical limitations.
What entertains me most about Hersh’s substack revelation is it’s timing to coincide with the latest event of US National Security Significance—involving US Navy special forces. He features volunteers drafted from U.S. Navy’s Diving and Salvage Center to plant precisely charges 80m deep in Baltic Sea, while Wendy Sherman briefs NATO diplomats on the progress of the amphibious warship USS Carter Hall (LSD-50)’s ROV search for a spy balloon payload the size of “a regional jetliner” in 50′ (15m) deep shallows off Myrtle Beach.

Posted by: sln2002 | Feb 9 2023 18:57 utc | 341

@ Technophobe 120
@aristodemus 220
@John Marks 289
It is so true that it is now impossible to explain on U.K. media what is happening in Ukraine. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours trying to help readers of the Guardian understand what was happening: cited Chossudovsky, Dahlgren, Diane Johnstone – I’m an academic and believe in education. The Guardian refused to publish anything I wrote. The performance at PMQs, the language and the anti-Russian rhetoric was frightening and the reception given by MPs and Lords to Zelenskyy’s speech reminded of herded, willing ignorants. It was chilling. Do these so called democratic leaders actually realise where they are leading the people?

Posted by: Valerie Swales | Feb 9 2023 19:02 utc | 343

@Paul Greenwood, §285:
George VI announced the declaration of war over the radio.
He didn´t have to. He delegates that power to government but he had reserve powers to overrule government and call an election. That power remains under s6(1) Fixed-term Parliaments Act, 2011.

Posted by: John Marks | Feb 9 2023 19:34 utc | 345

Why is Russia becoming more powerful?
Posted by: Colin | Feb 9 2023 17:05 utc | 310
This was the first major test of Russia’s military logistics system since World War 2. It failed in the first month of the war just as the mobilization initially failed. Now the bugs have been worked out of the system. Most of the troops have been blooded and frequent rotations keep them from becoming exhausted.
War is just like any other industry. Repetition improves the product.

Posted by: First Time Poster | Feb 9 2023 20:38 utc | 347

aristodemos @320
the RU military did not have the necessary oomph just one year ago
that’s his fault isn’t it?
The other side has been planning to launch a war against him and using negotiations to make a fool of him, and he didn’t get it?
Assuming he didn’t get it, he should hire people smarter than him who can understand what the other side is up to.
The signals from the anglos have been very clear for the last 30 years. They have a policy to preemptively destroy everyone who could be a challenge.

Posted by: nothing but the trut | Feb 10 2023 0:44 utc | 349

@ John Kennard | Feb 10 2023 1:36 utc | 354
Oops, wrong thread, should and will be in the “Some Small Corrections” thread.

Posted by: John Kennard | Feb 10 2023 1:48 utc | 351

Why does ‘Shadowbanned’ remind me so much of ‘Yenwoda’?

Posted by: Tom Edwards | Feb 12 2023 22:26 utc | 353