Only for news & views directly related to the Ukraine conflict.
The current open thread for other issues is here.
Please stick to the topic. Contribute facts. Do not attack other commentators.
Back to Main
April 17, 2023
Ukraine Open Thread 2023-93
Comments
The gradual drying of the soil will allow the Armed Forces of Ukraine to soon launch the previously repeatedly announced counter-offensive against Russian forces. However, the tactics that the Ukrainian command may use have received little attention from the paramilitary community, so any predictions deserve attention.
So, according to a Russian military expert, an analyst at the Center political freedom, a veteran of military operations in Afghanistan and Chechnya Boris Dzherelievsky, expressed in an interview with the publication URA.RU, inexorably approaching offensive operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine against the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will be carried out in at least three attacking waves (stages).
The gradual drying of the soil will allow the Armed Forces of Ukraine to soon launch the previously repeatedly announced counter-offensive against Russian forces. However, the tactics that the Ukrainian command may use have received little attention from the paramilitary community, so any predictions deserve attention.
So, according to a Russian military expert, an analyst at the Center political freedom, a veteran of military operations in Afghanistan and Chechnya Boris Dzherelievsky, expressed in an interview with the publication URA.RU, inexorably approaching offensive operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine against the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will be carried out in at least three attacking waves (stages).
The first is mobilized infantry, poorly trained, with a minimum of cover. She attacks along the entire front, from Vasilievka to Marinka. If somewhere they find a weak link, somewhere they manage to push through at least the front defense, they immediately throw a second wave there. These are light Western armored vehicles and pickup trucks with machine guns. They have prepared up to 2 thousand such vehicles. If they manage to expand and secure this breakthrough, Leopard tanks, heavy armored vehicles such as Bradley, Stryker and infantry trained in the West will already move there. They should expand and deepen this breakthrough as much as possible.
Dzherelievsky suggests.
The expert believes that the level of preparation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for a large-scale military operation, a major counteroffensive, is still weak. Moreover, the Ukrainian command focuses on the number of soldiers, and not on providing them with armored vehicles, which turns the mobilized into “cannon fodder” and will certainly lead to monstrous losses if the operation starts in the near future.
He is sure that even if we theoretically assume that the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will find a weakness somewhere in the Russian defense and begin to seep beyond the first line, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will simply not give them the opportunity to build on their success by transferring reinforcements to this sector. The Ukrainian army does not yet have sufficient reserves to push through the Russian borders. It is not known whether they will continue to accumulate strength or go on the attack.
https://en.topcor.ru/34186-voennyj-jekspert-raskryl-vozmozhnuju-taktiku-vsu-v-grjaduschem-kontrnastuplenii.html
Posted by: unimperator | Apr 18 2023 9:01 utc | 201
Bloomberg reports
The Group of Seven foreign ministers meeting in Japan vowed to support Ukraine for “as long as it takes” in its fight against Russian forces.
Posted by: too scents | Apr 18 2023 9:18 utc | 202
🇩🇪 🇺🇦 The cessation of arms supplies to Kiev will mean the immediate end of Ukraine, said German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/55638
Posted by: Down South | Apr 18 2023 10:32 utc | 203
This is a worthy read on the failures of the pre-Kherson pullback SMO. I’m not sure who the author is, I guess the site owner, “DeNATOfication From Russia with Love” but it sounds like a valid analysis to me, anyways. I don’t really see the need to copy-paste long articles written by others but not every barfly has TG and this is interesting enough:
https://t.me/denatofication/5464
Let us analyze the Izyum/Balakleya retreat, which has both the most important strategic importance – which ultimately deprived the Russian troops of the prospect of closing the “Slaviansk Cauldron”, and which led to significant changes in the perception of the SMO in Russian society and government, and as a result initiating the process of partial mobilisation. In fact, the retreat had two waves. And if the first was carried out as part of a rollback to the positions of the city of Izyum and its environs at the beginning of May 2022 as part of the general logic of curtailing the first stage of the SMO, then the second – September, turned out to be quite unexpected and led to a significant transformation of the theater. Izyum was an important strategic hub connecting Donbass and Kharkov, and in theory allowed the Russian forces to close the encirclement of the largest group of the AFU in Donbass. Its abandonment led to the collapse of the entire Kharkov direction, loss of Kupyansk, Balakleya and a large number of other settlements, strengthened the offensive capabilities of the AFU and created a springboard for an attack in the direction of the Lugansk Republic. In fact, this retreat marked the transition of Russia from an offensive operation to unstable defense.
Izyum has become a prime example of mistakes in tactics, failures due to systemic lies in reports, weak motivation, and problems with the use of forces not for their intended purpose. It was in Izyum, which came under the control of the Russian army at the end of March, that the Russian group retreated from Kharkov; large command posts were located here, including those of the army level – the First Tank, 20th, 29th, 35th, 36th armies, 64th and 38th brigades. During the initial battles for the city, falsifications with personnel appeared here for the first time at the system level. Despite Putin’s strict instructions, during the spring battles for the city, some assault army units were staffed by 30-40 percent of contract soldiers. The rest – conscripts and “dead souls”, which allowed playing with reports, rations, property and allowances.
What was the Russian plan in Izyum? As we remember, the completion of the first stage of the SVO assumed the abandonment of the original plan for the lightning-fast capture of Kiev, the reboot of the administrative vertical and the correction of the national policy of Ukraine. The plan for the second stage most likely boiled down to closing the ring around the Donbass grouping of the AFU, cutting it into several cauldrons and gradually destroying them. Izyum’s as strongpoint was quite suitable for this. The road from Izyum to Slavyansk is only 48 kilometers. The operational plan of the Russian advance passed through the settlements of Malaya Kamyshevakha – Brazhkovka – Suligovka with access to the key settlement of Dolgenkoye and subsequent advance through Krasnopolye to Slavyansk. Units of the Central Military District #O were supposed to close the cauldron from the other side. And here all the accumulated military problems of Russia manifested themselves in full.
The laid route seemed logical only when planning on maps, but the proposed offensive passed through forest belts with heights held by the enemy. The settlements encountered on the way were equipped in fortified areas. Numerous recreation centers became AFU strongholds. The summer period and green blossoms allowed the Ukrainians to create numerous ambushes, and the space between them were covered with mines. Attempts to pass through the forests on armored vehicles were unsuccessful – anti-tank mines were installed even on tree branches. The use of demining machines proved to be difficult, and there was not enough equipment. Snipers and aviation in the conditions of green forests showed inefficiency.
Moreover, because of Western anti-aircraft systems the use of Russian aircraft and helicopters was episodic, and the aviation itself tried to work at a long distance, which naturally reduced efficiency. Army special forces and volunteer detachments were thrown to mop up the forests, which turned out to be quite wasteful for combat-ready personnel, especially from among the units so necessary for solving special tasks. The village of Dolgenkoe became a symbol of Izyum stagnation.
The tactics chosen by the Russian army leadership boiled down to lazy assaults on the village and adjacent territories stretched along the roads. At the same time, one of the main army laws was almost always violated – the assault on an unsuppressed defense is akin to a crime. The forces allocated for the assaults were insufficient, because of which the personnel were wasted, the assaults turned out to be fatal. Casualties among personnel and equipment increased threateningly and at high speed. At the same time, losses in equipment of the 4th Kantemirovskaya division as part of the First Tank Army stationed in Izyum often exceeded losses in personnel. This means that the very expensive and much needed equipment was simply abandoned. In some cases, the “deliveries” of Russian abandoned trophies to the enemy exceeded the supply of foreign samples from Western sponsors to the Ukrainian army. Subsequently, significant Ukrainian forces began to fight the Russian army with Russian weapons and armored vehicles.
Why did it happen so? We can assume that because of the lies and falsifications of the reports. According to papers, the army units allocated for assaults had one number of personnel, but in fact there were 2-3 times less people. At the same time, their motivation was often at a low level. Right at the front line, contract servicemen massively wrote dismissal reports or simply refused to go into battle, which the commanders were simply afraid to report on. It was here, in Izyum, that the total non-combat readiness of the Western Military District was fully manifested. A relative exception was the forces of the 20th Army based here, but they also showed the whole set of typical army diseases. The various special forces attached to them as an assault reinforcement, on the contrary, being motivated, went forward, but, not having massive support from combat units, were dying. As a result, in the theoretical calculation of “one commando or volunteer for ten soldiers”, the inverse proportion was often observed. At the same time, the form of reporting based on KIA number became fashionable among the army leadership, when the commander in support of his reports that he really tried to do something reported on the dead and wounded soldiers, which was supposed to demonstrate the significance of the efforts.
That’s how military spetsnaz was utilized. Why did this happen? Donbass experience showed that such units were used on the front line not according to their profile, simply because they were the most combat-ready. Or, rather the only combat-ready. Then who will conduct the much-needed reconnaissance, adjust artillery, carry out sabotage activities, destroy command posts, air defense points, bridges, HIMARS, Caesars and 777? The correct answer with this approach: no one. Technical equipment also played a role. Again, the lack of means of communication and coordination led to desynchronization and loss of offensiveness.
At the same time, apparently, the “Izyum standing” was not identified by the command as permanent. As a result, no proper measures were taken to equip continuous defense, with the exception of the most dangerous areas, although military science demanded the opposite. The result was the impossibility of holding back the Ukrainian offensive, which led to the collapse of the entire Kharkov front.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 18 2023 10:51 utc | 204
Posted by: Down South | Apr 18 2023 8:35 utc | 194
🇺🇸⚡️🇺🇦 Very bad narratives from Politico towards Zelensky for the American audience:
Corruption, authoritarianism, narcissism (Zelensky considers himself brighter than Biden), a possible Maidan.
Calls from the West are becoming more eloquent. However, they are still calm on Bankovaya, Zelensky still has room for maneuver: plan A – a successful counter-offensive + negotiations, plan B – an unsuccessful counter-offensive (lack) + Warsaw Union.
Colleagues, you are right about the scenarios, at Bankova they consider the Union of Warsaw as a backup plan if the counteroffensive does not give the desired result. Then the society will be convinced of the need for a strong military-political alliance with Poland, and the option of a military alliance may include the Baltic countries.
The Office of the President is well aware that a psychological operation may not have an effect on the Russian army and it will not run, it will fight for every city / village and then Plan B will abruptly turn on. Ukraine has already passed the Lublin / Brest Union, after which we lost the state, and then the religious authenticity.
https://t.me/rezident_ua/17333
Posted by: Down South | Apr 18 2023 10:53 utc | 205
Posted by: Down South | Apr 18 2023 8:35 utc | 194
Bad messages from the Western media against Zelensky as the Office of the President is considering rescheduling the offensive.
We were the first to know that in the West, many are tired of the constant blackmail from the Office of the President and Zelensky’s “star fever”.
It is not easy for the Western lobby to promote Zaluzhny as a counterweight to Zelensky. At the same time, the German lobby continues to support Klitschko and lobby for his candidacy.
Now the message is that Zelensky benefited from the war, as it raised his rating from 11% to 80%, but after the end of hostilities, a “cold shower” and a Maidan await him.
All our sources agreed that the set of these messages published by Politico is the public last “Chinese warning” to Zelensky and his entourage.
Posted by: Down South | Apr 18 2023 11:03 utc | 206
In connection with the gross interference in the affairs of Russia, activities that do not correspond to the diplomatic status, the ambassadors of the United States, Britain and Canada are summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry
https://t.me/llordofwar/121900
Posted by: YetAnotherAnon | Apr 18 2023 11:19 utc | 207
@ Down South
Thanks for posting those Telegram current info points.
plan A – a successful counter-offensive + negotiations, plan B – an unsuccessful counter-offensive (lack) + Warsaw Union.
Are Polish and Zelesnky’s crowd that stupid and naive that thinking to unify Ukrainian leftovers will automagically somehow get rump Ukraine into NATO and EU? Seems like it and Polish should know it better. There is no way for Ukraine to bypass EU rules on membership, and the same is valid for NATO. What such ‘creation’ would cause would throw Poland out of EU. The very same argument was made to Scotland as a case against the Scottish referendum on independence.
So they got swindled by British – again.
Brits took Scotland out of EU just like that.
Ukraine has no ways to hack its way into any of the well known ‘democracy and freedom’ organizations. Legally, that is.
What we have seen so far is that rules for ascension to ‘holy alliances’ do not apply – as it is the case with Finland and Sweden joining NATO.
A public discussion and a proper referendum would be required for both to justify and verify such a serious move.
None of which it happened, thus rendering it somehow illegal and non-valid, when talking about the their-rules-based-colonialism.
plan C – surrender, disarm, denazify, overthrow and prosecute Zelensky and his gang, meet all the RF security concerns and forget about NATO/US, never repay a cent to the West.
There- problem solved.
Posted by: whirlX | Apr 18 2023 11:31 utc | 208
Meanwhile in Chicago…
https://twitter.com/i/status/1648138763120574464
https://twitter.com/i/status/1648008632238219285
Posted by: Apollyon | Apr 18 2023 11:56 utc | 209
Idiot Poles. I think it was their foreign minister said they would come onto the war if it looked like Ukraine was losing. Its like their only reason for living is to hate Russia. There has been plenty on the battlefield for some time.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 18 2023 12:10 utc | 210
With articles such as: PMC Wagner High Recruiting Standards Include Chronic Masturbators
Nexta, same same, filled with NAFO shit.
Good grief Charlie Brown.
Posted by: Outraged | Apr 18 2023 6:06 utc | 167
————–
Hah, if nothing else that proves good blood-circulation.
Next week:
50% of Wagner recruits have chronic erectile dysfunction…
Just a small indication of something that’s been true throughout my relatively short life.
Bad foreign reporting in general & outright delirious reporting on Russia, where there are just no standards applied when it comes to BS.
Posted by: Urban Fox | Apr 18 2023 12:17 utc | 211
It occurs to me that perhaps the EU wanted Ukraine as it’s own pet project – lebensraum.
The usurping of sovereign powers is encountering some difficulty.
Hence EuroNATO
Posted by: jared | Apr 18 2023 12:24 utc | 212
Is there another dog NOT barking?
Kicking a dead horse, still.
Good chance that this isn’t a distraction ABOUT the war but a distraction AWAY from something else. Keep in mind that the Western world is crashing and that bankers always steer the currents (military follows the money).
The West (US) sees F-ing up Ukraine as an acceptable, and perhaps preferred, outcome. Why? To block the Belt and Road initiative: that’s kind of what happened in Afghanistan: note that nothing lasts forever, so any block is but temporary. BaR represents the death-knell of the USD as world’s reserve currency (it is still some time away but, the current state of things pretty much paint the picture of the future, and it’s not one which is controlled by Western bankers). US going down means the entire West goes down. Of course this isn’t because of Ukraine, or even China, it’s what happens to ALL empires: COLLAPSE. TPTB are busy at last minute programming to [try to] keep the masses from rising up: and part of this is in various “laws” to block fingers pointing at TPTB.
The Ukraine job will be jettisoned before/by the time Joe Biden leaves office. He’ll do what he always does and sell himself out for the “team”- he’ll claim he was responsible for the failure in Ukraine (and as such won’t run again). The skeletons will be buried.
I made the call YEARS ago that the US would subsidize the return of US businesses in/from China. US oligarchs rape going to and getting out of China: was always obvious to me. Ukraine was a Pawn. China is a Queen. (Russia double Rooks, Bishop and Rook?) It’s the Grand Chessboard…
This leak pisses me off. Regardless of DD’s origins I found DD to offer something a lot more [seemingly] insightful than [regular] Western media.
Posted by: Seer | Apr 18 2023 12:37 utc | 213
The Teixeira identity most likely does not exist as a person. A fictional identity.
Peter AU1 | Apr 18 2023 0:47 utc | 93
——
Thanks, Peter. Interesting. Likely a screenwriter’s initial suggestion of putting a MIGA* hat on Teixeira for his dramatized arrest was nixed as over the top.
—
* = Make Israel Great Again
Posted by: Doug Hillman | Apr 18 2023 12:38 utc | 214
I’m not surprised that Zelenskiy thinks he’s smarter than Biden, I think I’m smarter than Biden, no great achievement but I’ll take my little win.
However Zelenskiy won’t be smart enough to get his head out of the noose that Biden gave him and will be very lucky if he is still alive in 6 months time.
Maybe no-one could extract themselves from Zelensiy’s trap. He’s a fool who has destroyed his country and the sharks are now circling and they don’t even bother to hide the fact. A dead man walking.
Posted by: ZimZum | Apr 18 2023 12:45 utc | 215
Peter AU1 | Apr 18 2023 12:10 utc | 204
I used to think that the Polish jokes that used to circulate were just racist twaddle but now I’m leaning to think that they were accurate character assessments. The Russo phobia is off the scale and completely unhinged and Russia is not going away. Idiots is a good summation.
Posted by: ZimZum | Apr 18 2023 12:52 utc | 216
Posted by: ZimZum | Apr 18 2023 12:45 utc | 209
If one is in a pool of sharks is there really any “smart” action to be had?
The “fail” was getting NEXT to POWER and not BEING power (he, just like Biden, is only “pretend power”).
Posted by: Seer | Apr 18 2023 13:06 utc | 217
As a bit of amusement in these trying times, I suggest consulting this 1928 book “Falsehoods in War-Time” by Arthur Ponsonby.
“Falsehoods in War-Time” (full scan via wikimedia.org)
The chapters on atrocities and the media treatment of the Kaiser should sound very familiar in relation to recent and ongoing conflicts.
Posted by: BillB | Apr 18 2023 13:11 utc | 218
[202]
Brits took Scotland out of EU just like that.
Madness !!! YOU should read up on European Economic Community Accession……..Great Britain NEVER joined the EEC in 1972. It was United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland.
There is no UN Member called “Scotland” or even “Kingdom of Scotland” just as there is no “Republic of Texas” or “Freistaat Bayern” or “Catalonia”.
That Ukrainian SSR ever was a Member of UN is down to Comrade Stalin who hoodwinked FDR into giving USSR three bites of cherry together with Byelorussian SSR and USSR
Poland cannot simply absorb Ukraine and change international borders if the Security Council vetoes it……..and the EU Court of Justice would consign it to the pending basket
Also Poland would have to assume Ukrainian sovereign debt……..it is true the database of Electronic ID. – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diia. – is on Microsoft Servers in Poland making it easy to scrutinise the population………..but simply serving up your population to a foreign power is somewhat adrift of “European Values”
Poland has an election in autumn. It might find it has a crisis.
Germany and France could so easily punish Poland and leave the USA to fund its vanities.
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Apr 18 2023 13:14 utc | 219
[210]
the Polish jokes that used to circulate
Jokes are simply social representations of characteristics observed by outsiders and they are most often true as a generality though not in all individual instances
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Apr 18 2023 13:16 utc | 220
It occurs to me that perhaps the EU wanted Ukraine as it’s own pet project – lebensraum.
Jared [206]
Stop seeing “EU” as a monolithic entity. There is no such thing. There is a collection of EU states which are vassals of USA which lack leadership able to de-rail US policy. “EU” is how the USA was supposed to function with a weak President in the White House accommodating the competing desires of individual states with advice from the indirectly-appointed/elected Senate
The fact that US is now a dictatorship run by an Emperor who rules by Executive Order – “Ukase” – is what has infected political systems around the globe
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Apr 18 2023 13:20 utc | 221
Ukraine and Zelensky is in for a rude awakening. the US is about to abandon the whole unwinable project. They will walk off, or rather run, with their tail between their legs, and abandon the whole project. Leaving behind suffering, misery and despair. The Russians will see that it is rectified.
Hat off to Russia, fairness and Christianity
Posted by: G wiltek | Apr 18 2023 13:25 utc | 222
@ Paul Greenwood | Apr 18 2023 13:14 utc | 213
There is no UN Member called “Scotland” or even “Kingdom of Scotland” just as there is no “Republic of Texas” or “Freistaat Bayern” or “Catalonia”.
Not yet.
In an honest, real and true democracies, following UN charters of self-determination, all those could become independent states if their population expresses wish for it and there is an economic base that can support those.
I mean, look at Catalonia, and how did that go?
Not to speak of Basque – Euskadi – Kennedy promised them a state.
It didn’t end up well for both.
But then again, those were entirely different times.
Any change of current borders today within the EU would cause a quick self implosion.
Posted by: whirlX | Apr 18 2023 13:30 utc | 223
“Jokes are simply social representations of characteristics observed by outsiders and they are most often true as a generality though not in all individual instances
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Apr 18 2023 13:16 utc | 214”
Like “Brittish have horrible teeth and the german national dish is a baked potato”?
Posted by: Comandante | Apr 18 2023 13:34 utc | 224
Zelensky signed the deal, two deals actually, many months ago. Erasing the border as in Poles can be elected, can police ect in Ukraine. No passports border controls ect.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 18 2023 13:38 utc | 225
219 was rely to Paul Greenwood | Apr 18 2023 13:14 utc | 213
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 18 2023 13:39 utc | 226
Posted by: G wiltek | Apr 18 2023 13:25 utc | 216
I wouldn’t call it done for the US/West. The war will turn underground, it will never be completed/over. As I noted in a previous post, the US’s “Plan B” is to make is such that China cannot run Belt And Road through Ukraine. Kind of the same thing can be seen/heard with the US’s saber rattling over Taiwan: plans to blow up ports and semiconductor factories there IF the Chinese military lands there. “If we cannot have it then no one will!” In both cases the US isn’t the big loser.
Posted by: Seer | Apr 18 2023 13:39 utc | 227
and the german national dish is a baked potato”?
Posted by: Comandante | Apr 18 2023 13:34 utc | 218
—
This is why Germans are called krauts.
Posted by: too scents | Apr 18 2023 13:42 utc | 228
ZimZum | Apr 18 2023 12:52 utc | 210
The start of WWII was the German Polish partitioning of Czechoslovakia. Out of all the powers, the Soviet union was last to make and agreement with Germany. The knew Germany would attack at some point and they were on their own. So Germany and SU partitioned Poland. That give them a bit more of a buffer zone for when Germany attacked.
Hitler was as bad as the Americans at telegraphing intention. He wrote in Mein Kampf that slavic Russia was Germany’s living space.
Mien Kampf – my life. The snowman wrote a book- well I guess someone wrote it for him with the same title. But for the Poles, I guess they are still thinking of their glory days some centuries back when they took Moscow for a short time.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 18 2023 13:52 utc | 229
He’s a fool who has destroyed his country and the sharks are now circling and they don’t even bother to hide the fact. A dead man walking.
Posted by: ZimZum | Apr 18 2023 12:45 utc | 209
Looking at past nato heroes actors, like the president of Georgia who was then governor of Odessa and currently mad, it seems Zely has a similar future. Poland would love him as PM or something.
Posted by: rk | Apr 18 2023 14:07 utc | 230
As far as the leak story goes I have some different thoughts than most of what I’ve read here. First that the impossibility of a low ranking Air National Guard who is 21 (‘cyber defense operations journeyman’ not withstanding) having access to any of this top level material, much less documents marked CIA is so beyond belief that it must be intentional. If you listen to Larry Johnson his reaction to this must be echoed across all military and intelligence personal, they must all know this could never happen in real life if it wasn’t a psy-op. I’m unclear on the reason they would make this story so ridiculous, but it seems intentional to signal something to the intelligence community and Pentagon community as well as the main purpose perhaps being a soft landing to let the US public know they’ve been lied to and there’s no chance of a Ukrainian victory. What’s odd and embarrassing on the world stage is that US intelligence takes casualty figures from the Ukrainian regime as facts, and makes no mention of any alternative estimates. This also seems unbelievable. One would think that if this was actually highest level intel they would at least mention the numbers that have been estimated over the last year by the likes of Col Douglas Mcgregor, New Atlas..etc. Or at least list what other countries intel have estimated. Despite the 7-1 admission the view of situation seems closer to the propaganda meant for the US public than a real behind the scenes estimate, which suggest this is a total psy-op, even the papers are constructed for this purpose. Another idea I had after watching the scripted bad acting of his friend from the chat room talking about “right wingers being anti government” is that this young man may not be a patsy, but actually a participant in the psy-op. It was reported by MintPress News a while back that at least 5 active duty military men who were charged with rioting and insurrection at Jan 6 have now been promoted to good paying/ ranking intelligence positions. Perhaps this young man agreed to play this part after being promised a future position in deep cover intel. There are similarities between the two operations; the narrative that our country is under attack by anti government right wingers who use social media sites that the government can’t access to organize their treasonist activities, followed by new laws that give the government greater surveillance abilities and limits on free speech. Both also paint people who tell truths about wars, or contradict the dominant propaganda narratives as dangerous trolls, racist, even terrorists. It does seem that this is a soft let down to the public that there will be no successful offensive, and we can either enter the war in kind like Nuland wants to do (after all we already have boots on the ground with NATO allies) or we need to start slipping out the back door somehow while saving face.
Posted by: james c | Apr 18 2023 14:08 utc | 231
Not everyone understands the extent of the insanity currently gripping NATO’s governments. An article from the WSWS today spells out the immediate plans.
” NATO plans to surge troops to Russia’s border as part of an effort to become a “war-fighting alliance,” the New York Times reported Monday.
“The Times wrote that “NATO now has deployed a battalion of multinational troops to eight countries along the eastern border with Russia. It is detailing how to enlarge those forces to brigade strength in those frontline states.”…..
“….Politico, meanwhile, has cited even larger numbers. On March 18, it reported, “In the coming months, the alliance will accelerate efforts to stockpile equipment along the alliance’s eastern edge and designate tens of thousands of forces that can rush to allies’ aid on short notice… The numbers will be large, with officials floating the idea of up to 300,000 NATO forces.”
“…The alliance has “shed remaining inhibitions about increased numbers of Western troops all along NATO’s border with Russia,” the Times stated. The aim is “to make NATO’s forces not only more robust and more capable but also more visible to Russia.”
“…NATO’s headquarters is likewise “being transformed into a major strategic and war-fighting command, charged with drawing up the alliance’s plans to integrate and deploy allied troops.”
“…The accession of Finland to NATO, which doubled the length of NATO’s land border with Russia, will be a key component of these plans, with Russia’s entire border with NATO becoming a militarized zone….
“…In June of last year, NATO published a strategy document declaring that the alliance must prepare for “high-intensity, multi-domain warfighting against nuclear-armed peer-competitors.” The document declared that “the Euro-Atlantic area is not at peace”—all but declaring that the alliance is at war…
“…In January, Rob Bauer, NATO’s top military spokesperson, declared that the US-led NATO alliance is prepared for a “direct clash with Russia.” Asked by Portugal’s RTP News, “You don’t believe that it’s only about Ukraine?” Bauer replied, “No, it’s about turning back to the old Soviet Union.”
“The interviewer continued, “So the entire Eastern Flank is at risk somehow?” Bauer replied, “Yeah.” The interviewer asked, “We are ready to [sic] a direct confrontation with Russia?” To this Bauer replied, “We are.”
“In this supercharged environment, NATO will begin Defender 23, the alliance’s annual war game, on April 22.
“The exercise will involve 9,000 US troops and 17,000 soldiers from other NATO members. The “nearly two-month-long exercise is focused on the strategic deployment of U.S.-based forces, employment of Army pre-positioned stocks and interoperability with European allies and partners,” a Pentagon spokesperson said April 5…..
“….This will be followed by Air Defender 2023, the largest NATO air exercise since its founding. A US Air National Guard official told the War Zone that Russian officials can “take away whatever message they want” from the drill….”
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/04/18/tzhv-a18.html
Posted by: bevin | Apr 18 2023 14:08 utc | 232
⚡️ Russian Defence Ministry report on the progress of the special military operation
(18 April 2023)
Part I (see Part II (https://t.me/mod_russia_en/6996))
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.
◽️ In Kupyansk direction, Ground-Attack and Army aviation and artillery of the Zapad Group of Forces have engaged the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine close to Krakhmalnoye, Olshana, Kucherovka, and Dvurechnaya (Kharkov region).
💥 In addition, actions of two sabotage and reconnaissance groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were thwarted near Sinkovka (Kharkov region) and Novoselovskoye (Lugansk People’s Republic).
💥 The enemy has suffered losses of up to 35 Ukrainian troops, one tank, two armoured fighting vehicles, two motor vehicles, two U.S.-made Paladin M109 self-propelled howitzers, and one D-20 howitzer in this direction in the past 24 hours.
◽️ In Krasny Liman direction, aircraft and artillery of the Tsentr Group of Forces engaged the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine close to Chervonaya Dibrova, Chervonopopovka (Lugansk People’s Republic), and Grigorovka and Terny (Donetsk People’s Republic).
💥 The enemy’s casualties were more than 80 Ukrainian personnel and two armoured fighting vehicles.
◽️ In Donetsk direction, the assault detachments have taken control over three quarters in northern, central, and southern parts of the city of Artyomovsk.
◽️ Airborne Troops and units of the Yug Group of Forces have been supporting the actions of the assault detachments to liberate the city in this area, foiling the enemy’s attempts to counter attacks on the flanks.
💥 Operational-Tactical and Army aviation and artillery of the Yug Group of Forces inflicted a fire damage on the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine close to Chasov Yar and Konstantinovka (Donetsk People’s Republic).
💥 The Russian aviation made six sorties to support the assault detachments. The artillery of the Group have performed 63 fire missions.
💥 In these directions, the enemy has lost up to 290 Ukrainian troops and mercenaries.
💥 In addition, one Ukrainian infantry fighting vehicle, three armoured fighting vehicles, eight motor vehicles, one Grad MLRS combat vehicle, one U.S.-made M777 artillery system, and one U.S.-made AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar station have been destroyed.
#MoD
🔹 @mod_russia_en
⚡️ Russian Defence Ministry report on the progress of the special military operation
(18 April 2023)
Part II (see Part I (https://t.me/mod_russia_en/6995))
◽️ In South Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions, Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, artillery and heavy flamethrower systems of the Vostok Group of Forces inflicted a fire damage on AFU units close Ugledar, Novopol (Donetsk People’s Republic), and Malaya Tokmachka and Poltavka (Zaporozhye region)
💥 The enemy suffered losses of up to 30 Ukrainian troops, three armoured fighting vehicles, two pick-up trucks, and one D-20 howitzer.
◽️ Two ammunition depots have been annihilated close to Gulyaipole and Chervonaya Krinitsa (Zaporozhye region).
◽️ In Kherson direction, more than 25 Ukrainian troops, three motor vehicles, one U.S.-made M777 artillery system, and two D-30 howitzers have been destroyed in the past 24 hours.
💥 Operational-Tactical Aviation, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have neutralised 98 AFU artillery units at their firing positions, enemy’s manpower and hardware in 126 areas during the day.
◽️ Command posts of the 25th Air Assault Brigade and the 110th Mechanised Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were eliminated close to Terny and Avdeevka (Donetsk People’s Republic).
💥Two fuel storage facilities for Ukrainian military hardware were destroyed close to Kobzartsy and Snigirevka (Nykolayev region).
💥Russian air defence means have destroyed 3 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles near Kamenka (Kharkov region), Yasinovataya and Staromikhailovka (Donetsk People’s Republic).
📊 In total, 407 airplanes and 228 helicopters, 3,770 unmanned aerial vehicles, 415 air defence missile systems, 8,711 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,087 combat vehicles equipped with MLRS, 4,614 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 9,582 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.
#MoD
🔹 @mod_russia_en
Posted by: unimperator | Apr 18 2023 14:19 utc | 233
too scents Comandante
Germany has gone green so I guess they are eating green spuds. Not good to eat spuds that have gone green.
…………..
I was thinking about my previous commend Nazi Germany regarding slavic Russia as its living space. The Brits started off using the US somewhat in that fashion but Australia certainly was. It was a place to offshore the convicts and the poor. All my forbears were shipped out here on emigration schemes for the poor bar one. He had a liking for horses and was shipped out as a convict. Aboriginal people weren’t an issue. Simply killed if they didn’t like it. A bounty was placed on aboriginals in tasmania.
All the Eropean wannabe empires have had no issues with massacres. But although the Russian Empire fought wars, I have not read of it anywhere massacring a people. 114 ethnic groups now make up the Russian federation.
There were hard fought wars between the Russian Empire and Chechen’s which the Russian Empire eventually won. From what I can make out most or all muslims rejected communism as that was atheist.
But now with Putin, we see this, I guess it could be called and allegiance as Chechnya ha so much domestic autonomy, but the allegiance between the Chechen’s and the Russian federation.
With the rebuilding of Mariupol, the Chechen’s first built a new mosque, then started building a new orthodox church.
Larry Johnson said something about the Chinese defense minister meeting Putin. The Chinese defense minister is a general. Putin holds out his hand. The Chinese defence minister snaps to attention, gives Putin a salute and then shakes his hand. You certainly don’t fuck with a guy that commands so much respect from the Chechen’s, so much respect from the Chinese military.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 18 2023 14:24 utc | 234
When Prigozhin says the “Ukrainians” and not the “Ukrainian army” Is about to attack I think he is talking about the local militia Pushlin just showed up with.
Ukraine closed all the dams and is flooding itself? Anyone know what thats about?
Posted by: OohCanada | Apr 18 2023 14:33 utc | 235
bevin | Apr 18 2023 14:08 utc | 226
Russia is gearing up for moor war. I suspect what this is about is US puffing itself up to send the poodles in to “make Russia pay a price”. The idiot poodles or proxies always think US has their back or will come in if they get into trouble.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 18 2023 14:34 utc | 236
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 18 2023 14:24 utc | 228
Australia was for the convicts and Europe dumped it’s religious nuts on the US, still shows to this day.
Posted by: SwissArmyMan | Apr 18 2023 14:34 utc | 237
@ Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Apr 18 2023 13:20 utc | 215
The fact that US is now a dictatorship run by an Emperor who rules by Executive Order – “Ukase” – is what has infected political systems around the globe
See that’s the thing that was bothering me – The EU seems a bit out-front on the rabidity of their interest in the project. And now there are threats from the US that perhaps we would abandon the EU in this project. It just a case of trying to understand the motivations. It appears to me that the EU was very much counting on the development of Ukraine – some suggest that apart from that the EU is collapsing. The US interest was said to primarily in weakening Russia (not sure if there was any rationale given).
The bigger issue for the US is that as things are it is headed for bankrupcy and demographic collapse. I don’t see how the woke politics is expected to help with that.
Posted by: jared | Apr 18 2023 14:35 utc | 238
Ukraine closed all the dams and is flooding itself? Anyone know what thats about?
Posted by: OohCanada | Apr 18 2023 14:33 utc | 229
—
The simplest explanation is spite.
Posted by: too scents | Apr 18 2023 14:41 utc | 239
@ Posted by: james c | Apr 18 2023 14:08 utc | 225
Yes, as you say: If this was a “leak”, it was a leak of garbage – not the real stuff. So not a leak.
And I believe that the are using something along the lines of chatGTP to develop their explanations (“6 men and a boat”) for leak to the public. Either they are that incompetent or they really don’t care and are trolling us.
Posted by: jared | Apr 18 2023 14:45 utc | 240
Apollyon @ 203
Yes. This place is shutting down.
I am a Chicagoan from the beginning and all the way. Corner of State and Madison is center of Universe. Twenty years ago I’d have insisted this is the greatest city in the world and ten years ago I’d have affirmed same, with silent reservations. It is all just gone. There are little museum pieces of the city remaining, mostly it is unrecognizable. Flushed
Posted by: oldhippie | Apr 18 2023 14:53 utc | 241
@ RSH 71
I think you fundamentally misunderstand one of Prigozhin’s several roles.
Wagner soldiers don’t mind getting mud on their face if that’s what it takes, and Prigozhin is happy to do the same. Mud on the face is trivial. Prigozhin is doing psyops, encouraging fresh meat into the meat grinder. It doesn’t matter how much info the Kremlin shares or does not share with him. He knows his lines and he delivers them well. Who knows? Maybe Prigozhin has a popcorn business, too. It’s all good – and we could laugh except for the incredible thousands of dead Ukies who would not, or simply could not escape the Nazi death trip.
Posted by: JessDTruth | Apr 18 2023 14:54 utc | 242
SwissArmyMan | Apr 18 2023 14:34 utc | 231
You are probably right about that, but the worst thing is, the bible belt is the sanest part of the US.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 18 2023 14:55 utc | 243
bevin | Apr 18 2023 14:08 utc | 226
all this and europe looking like 1940….
i am sure nato has incorporated the lessons of spring 1940 obvious from the evacuation from dunkirk…..
us media are sad!
Posted by: paddy | Apr 18 2023 14:56 utc | 244
“The G7 countries must convince Putin that he will not achieve his goals and will lose, so he must stop, says German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock:
“It is now a question of showing Putin our determination that he will not achieve his goals, also because of exhaustion and fatigue.”
Recently Baerbock tried to persuade Xi Jinping not to help Putin, it was pathetic. Now Berbock proposes to “convince Putin” directly. You can start laughing now.
Berbock should have concentrated on why the US blew up Germany’s Nord Stream pipeline.”
https://t.me/sitreports/7353
Yet ANOTHER “We must convince Putin that he has lost” this time from Baerbock. Well, yes, Putin made a 360 degree turn around.
Posted by: unimperator | Apr 18 2023 15:05 utc | 245
Just started watching a still-Live Roundtable with Lira, Escobar, Berletic. Worthwhile.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E86JHnl5NJE
Posted by: Doug Hillman | Apr 18 2023 15:11 utc | 246
Milites | Apr 17 2023 21:34 utc | 60
Posted by: Sam | Apr 17 2023 20:58 utc | 44
Natives would love to believe your characterisation of their country as the power behind global affairs; however, living here, one is confronted by overwhelming evidence that: ‘Mighty Albion’s roar is a croak, her dangerous jaws, increasingly toothless and her proud mane suffers from alopecia. Less of a lion in the Veldt, more a broken zoo specimen.
Nice ! Donkeys led by parasites !
Posted by: Sarlat La Canède | Apr 18 2023 15:11 utc | 247
The Guardian has just published a “More Ukraine War” article from some top level Foreign Policy wonks. I can’t be bothered to link to it.
Freedom needs to be better supplied than tyranny. If democracies stand firm, Putin’s war on Ukraine will fail
It’s mindbogglingly delusional. But so are the comments underneath. I assume the Guardian has censored any that put opposite arguments.
I think the entire ruling class of the West has gone totally insane. I’ve never seen anything like it in all my life.
Posted by: JulianJ | Apr 18 2023 15:14 utc | 248
@comandante
There is actually a huge body of literature about the accuracy of stereotypes. (As long as the stereotyped group is somewhat close to the group stereotyping)
I know its somewhat hard to grasp these days but the stereotypes that germans drink a lot of beer and women talk a lot exist because germans drink a lot of beer (compared to others) and women talk a lot (compared to men).
Unfortunately some people think that somewhere in the world a baseless rumor took hold that germans drink a lot and the germans, hesaing about it, stopped everything else they did before to fullfill the stereotype and thus started drinking.
Posted by: Orgel | Apr 18 2023 15:25 utc | 249
@JulianJ | Apr 18 2023 15:14 utc | 242
I think the entire ruling class of the West has gone totally insane. I’ve never seen anything like it in all my life.
Agreed. I have beem considered a pessimist by some, but what has happened so far is much worse than I ever anticipated. Insane is the word, or maybe I just don’t have a word for what is going on.
Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 18 2023 15:32 utc | 250
I suspect what this is about is US puffing itself up to send the poodles in to “make Russia pay a price”. The idiot poodles or proxies always think US has their back or will come in if they get into trouble.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 18 2023 14:34 utc | 230
Maidan, years of Donbass attacks, biolab experiments, NS, Crimea bridge, assassinations, strategic bombers attacks, the stolen money showed nato the paralyzed Russian government won’t dare to say or do anything and their general staff is filled with incompetents. So now it logical for nato to want to put 200-300k troops, in addition to local kamikaze troops, around Russia and to apply the successful Donbass and NS terrorist recipes everywhere possible, this time protected by nukes.
Posted by: rk | Apr 18 2023 15:35 utc | 251
Just watched the Lira Escobar Bertelic Round Table. Biggest take away, the Papers, real or not are a relief valve, off ramp. Uncle crying, Uncle? Regardless of the follow on side show of Bull Shit.
I’ll say if, but from the sounds of it the hit on NATO did happen. Escalation Dominance that be. Word from inside the Ukraine is NATO left the pitch shortly after that. Hmmmm…..where can they go when Mr Kinzhal comes a knockin’…….cue: The Lira Laugh!
Cheers M
Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Apr 18 2023 15:53 utc | 252
The enemy of my enemy is my friend…
https://johnhelmer.net/vzglyad-its-time-for-russia-to-change-its-position-in-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict/#more-87838
The title of an op-ed piece by a Moscow academic, published this week in Vzglyad, bellwether of Russian security analysts, requires reading between the lines. Every Russian knows how to do this since the tsar’s chancellery posted bulletins outside the Winter Palace on how well the Russian Navy was doing in battles against the Japanese at Port Arthur in 1904.
Neither the gap nor the remedy has been the point of any communiqué issued from the regular meetings of the Kremlin Security Council, nor has it been discussed publicly in the state media, including the Valdai Club.
The Vzglyad headline refers to the one international conflict on which President Vladimir Putin has said so little since the start of his term, and done so much – this is Israel’s war against Palestine.
The gap was made visible once by the General Staff; that was in September 2018 after the Israel Air Force caused the shoot-down in Syria of a Russian Ilyushin-20M electronic reconnaissance aircraft (lead image), and the killing of all fifteen crewmen on board. At that time the Russian military expressed a loss of confidence which had not been seen in public since President Boris Yeltsin countermanded orders for Russian military aid to Serbia under NATO bombing between March and June 1999, dismissing Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov on the US demand.
Read the first report of the evidence in the Il-20 case on September 18, 2018, and the second report on September 24, 2018. The third report two months later revealed what happened after Putin had what the Kremlin spokesman called “a short talk” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Paris on November 11, 2018. The next day, the Security Council notice of November 12 reported Putin had “informed the permanent members of the Security Council about several of his brief meetings on the sidelines of the events in Paris.”
Four and a half years have elapsed since then. The Vzglyad headline of April 17 means there is a policy, and there is pressing reason of state to change it now. Inside the text, the point is expressed by its author more tentatively. “Perhaps it’s time to change the approach somewhat? After all, it no longer fully corresponds to both the changed regional situation and Russian national interests.”
The article propounds Russia tilting toward the Palestinians/Iranians/Muslims vis a vis Israel..
Que Bono??
INDY
Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Apr 18 2023 15:53 utc | 253
Candace Owens tells it like it is on the Daily Wire just a few minutes ago.
Brad Paisley playing guitar in front of a Ukraine tank. Puke worthy.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=6M7ekmm83m4&feature=share
Posted by: simon crow | Apr 18 2023 16:15 utc | 254
Putin’s visit to the front has a 3 minute video and some still photos, the video being the most interesting. Very little can be learned from the dialog; I suggest looking at the surrounds, inside and out.
After visiting the front, Putin flew to the Pskov region to meet with its governor Mikhail Vedernikov and receive his report on the current socio-economic situation there. Part of the discussion centers on the difficulties caused by Estonia and Latvia which are on the regions Western borders, and also the EU.
That’s quite a lot of shuttling around. The readouts from the previous two day’s meetings with Shoigu and China’s MoD Li Shanfu contain the usual boilerplate and provide very little information.
Norwegian @ 244
Insane is the word, or maybe I just don’t have a word for what is going on.
Kakistocracy, over-arching, run away kakistocracy. Anyone of sound mind, or any talent, knowledge and wisdom was forced out, or retired, or voluntarily got out of the shit show juggernaut. No one of ability was hired for the last 40ys, only mediocre line toeing dolts. Dunning-Kruger as the zeitgeist of our time – Frighting isn’t it!
Been that way since Reagan, cumulative and now at apogee, far beyond critical mass, across the culture, academia, economy, finance, media, military and politics. Crapification of everything.
Not sure why that is, maybe it’s a characteristic of end-stage systems. My guess is the criminal fraud that is neoliberalism, the economic foundation that underlies the entire system, necessitated the purge and the pervasive Dunning-Kruger. Can’t have kids pointing out the Mob Bosses have no clothes.
But, insane works just as well, and shorter too.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 18 2023 16:20 utc | 256
@ JulianJ, §242:
Agreed, Julian.
The Daily Telegraph posted my dissent with the corona policies, doubtless emboldened by the prominent and eloquent support of Lord Sumption. The DT was a notable island of sanity then. Shortly after corona, things moved on to the Ukraine war and my mild, polite dissent with that issue was also tolerated – initially, but then the 77th brigade moved in and I was shadow-banned.
It was unthinkable to me that reasoned debate had ended in England. The BBC are furthest down the rabbit-hole, along with the likes of the Grauniad, but I thought there´d still exist a platform for discussion. There doesn´t. England has gone Soviet. The Times is now TASS, the Telegraph Pravda and the Grauniad Izvestia.
So the people, as well as the psychotic government, believe their own propaganda. This is almost invariably fatal.
Posted by: John Marks | Apr 18 2023 16:24 utc | 258
Ukraine closed all the dams and is flooding itself? Anyone know what thats about?
Posted by: OohCanada | Apr 18 2023 14:33 utc | 229
According to Dima, Ukraine is closing the dams upstream on the Dnieper. His two cents- they then open the dams and flood Kherson region on the left (Russian) bank, which is low ground, unlike high ground on the Ukie side. This floods the Russian defense/trench network and somehow gives the AFU offensive an advantage. What that advantage is, and Dima’s explanation are clear as mud, which will be everywhere if this happens.
Posted by: Mike R | Apr 18 2023 16:24 utc | 259
Mike R | Apr 17 2023 22:19 utc | 68
It’s about the corporatization of the country, with business corporations using all the tricks of media saturation, bullshit narratives, financial bullying, celebrity cultism, to turn most Americans into corpowhore zombies. The US goverment is just one more entity using corporate techniques to control an all too compliant population.
Exactly this.
It is what Macron, preceded by the other scum, Hollande, Sarkozy etc. are pushing through. !
To hear 49:3 should be a gathering cry !
Allons ! Enfants de la Patrie !
Le jour du 49:3 est arrivé !
Contre nous ces couillons de citoyens,etc
Posted by: Sarlat La Canède | Apr 18 2023 16:38 utc | 260
Ukraine closed all the dams and is flooding itself? Anyone know what thats about?
Posted by: OohCanada | Apr 18 2023 14:33 utc | 229
I remeber last year the Ukrainian military prepared to cross the Dnieper somewhere upstream of Kherson when the water level was low overthere. The Russian counteraction was to open a gate further upstream and prevent the crossing.
There are many other possible answers to that question.
Posted by: Richard L | Apr 18 2023 16:40 utc | 261
Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 18 2023 15:32 utc | 244
All that is happening is that we are living now in an age when all the bad decisions made, over the last 30-40 years, are beginning to achieve a fatal synchronicity. Like a well made, well maintained engine, struggling to function after decades of neglect, the institutions we grew up with are finally succumbing to decades of a progressive trifecta, valuing equity over equality, abandoning non-partisanship for tribalism and replacing core values with materialistic simulacrums.
Posted by: Milites | Apr 18 2023 16:47 utc | 262
Posted by: Sarlat La Canède | Apr 18 2023 16:38 utc | 260
I like this version, Aux armes et caetera…
By the way, half a century ago -almost- I spent a few hours in your town, but I never heard about “La Canède”, what does it mean?
https://youtu.be/X78IqVXbpv4
Posted by: Paco | Apr 18 2023 16:51 utc | 263
🇷🇺🇺🇸🇬🇧🇨🇦In connection with gross interference in Russia’s affairs, activities that do not correspond to the diplomatic status, the ambassadors of the United States, Britain and Canada were summoned to the Foreign Ministry — the Russian Foreign Ministry
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/55667
Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 18 2023 17:02 utc | 264
On Occam’s Razon and cui bono.
These are generally useful tools. However, when one gets into the dark arts of covert activities and psy/influence operations, things are not so simple.
Because, the first thing one would be taught, when planning/doing something nefarious, is precisely how to use Occam’s Razor and cui bono to your advantage.
So does this mean you should not consider OR or CB? Of course not. One considers everything, including those two tools/concepts, others such as “mixing the bullshit in with the ice cream”, “modified limited hangouts”, layers of deception, misdirection.
Both sides are very good at this. Sometimes one will come out ahead, other times the other.
But these games don’t alter geography. Nor do I think that they will, in this case (i.e., Ukraine) alter the long arc of history.
(1) Geography: what are the *facts*? Fact: The RF government has formally annexed the four (former/current – depending on your pov) Ukranian oblasts (regions). Crimea, of course, was annexed/incorporated into RF in 2014. IMO, it would be very, very difficult for RF to reverse any part of its decision here, no matter who is in power. Given the blood and treasure expended, I don’t think the Russian people or most elites would either be in favour, or allow it/be allowed to consider it.
(2) Long arc of history: the actions taken by the West (mainly by US/UK/NATO, and certain elites in the EU and its member countries) have been an eye opener to the regional/middle powers (mainly China, India, Iran, Indonesia) and smaller nation-states that want to increase and/or maintain a degree of autonomy, as well as sovereignty. ME states (KSA, UAE) and those in Africa see what dollar dependence and having FX reserves denominated primarily in USD/EUR/JPY can do to you if you anger the hegemon. Their elites are taking notes (and taking sides – some will always prefer living in luxury in NYC/London/Paris, versus other places). As GDP and GDP/capital continues to rise in much of the Global South, so too will the number of people with a better secondary and tertiary education. They will begin to question narratives (of course, there will be a huge amount of resources spent on “perception management” and “cognitive infiltration”).
Posted by: Yashuo | Apr 18 2023 17:12 utc | 265
Posted by: Yashuo | Apr 18 2023 17:12 utc | 265
Don’t give a shit. I’m not posting on this any more. Everyone here is out to lunch and I don’t give a shit any more.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Apr 18 2023 17:54 utc | 266
Richard Steven Hack | Apr 18 2023 3:00 utc | 143
Posted by: Melaleuca | Apr 18 2023 2:57 utc | 136
I give up. If you want to believe Bellingcat organized this entire op, including the original leak, have at it.
It’s bullshit, but I’m tired of arguing with people who can’t see the obvious.
I’m done here. This is a complete waste of time.
Chill, mate, on the one hand, we all, recognizze but, your comments, analyses and, on the other hand, a bit of blabla are very educational and, therefore, are certainly not “a complete waste of time” !
On the gripping hand, you is a bit of an “arsehole”, as the brits say ! But, so what ?
Posted by: Sarlat La Canède | Apr 18 2023 18:00 utc | 267
@ oldhippie, §241:
Sorry to hear that, oldhippie.
I feel the same way about what´s happened to England. The country´s gone psychotic.
How did people effectively rebel in the past?
The problem seems to be these heavily armed paramilitary police everywhere.
But they must draw the police from varying communities.
Maybe we need to get the police/army to change sides?
Posted by: John Marks | Apr 18 2023 18:03 utc | 268
@Richard Steven Hack
You’ve almost journeyed back into the land of the sane, which makes unusual around these parts. Unfortunately, you still insist on some kind of deliberate, coordinated, info-op behind the leaked documents; only a more plausible (on the surface) theory than your fellow travelers.
My friend, sometimes – often even – stupid stuff just randomly happens. Protocols are circumvented out of laziness and convenience. People with character flaws are given clearances and/or authority. Humans are a sloppy and careless lot – and so, therefore, are organizations consisting of humans.
Teixeira had TS clearance, as many junior enlisted do in these intel units. He worked in a SCIF. The CIA had personnel and/or product available in that SCIF, because the product is somehow relevant to the mission of that ANG unit. Teixeira is a stupid immature kid that wanted to impress his dorky gamer buddies. He gained access to the documents either through his normal admin role or – what I think – someone with approved access, like the CO, left the documents in a folder where they shouldn’t have been and the airman was surfing around (unauthorized) and found them. Teixeira will take the hit (justified/loch his dumb ass up) and those responsible for the breakdown in command will be quietly punished (they should be locked up too). This is a career ending event for them. That’s all there is to this. Not everything – in fact, not the overwhelming majority of events – are attempts at James Bond type master deceptions. Too many have a Hollywood derived perception of these matters.
The military and intelligence services are a lot more mundane and incompetent than people here want to acknowledge. That’s true in all countries. Lots of bored young men (and women) feeling stuck in annoying webs of SOP, looking for a little excitement and becoming nonchalant about regulations because normally nothing bad comes from doing so. Then, one day, after years of no issues, someone makes the front page of every news outlet and there’s an arrest (or worse).
Posted by: Eric Newhill | Apr 18 2023 18:15 utc | 269
@ karlof1 | Apr 18 2023 16:17 utc | 255
That’s quite a lot of shuttling around. The readouts from the previous two day’s meetings with Shoigu and China’s MoD Li Shanfu contain the usual boilerplate and provide very little information.
To understand what is going on could be pretty straightforward, although it is in a rather dangerous territory of guessing.
Fast shuffle indeed.
Putin’s visit to the front lines, summoning Western diplomats in Moscow, meetings up and down, left and right, sudden military exercises by RF in Pacific and China around Taiwan, soon to start big European manoeuvres by NATO (22nd April), “leaks”, strange disinfo offensive etc. in less than a week. Ukraine being pretty much downsized in the main news, as it stops being important.
Basically it indicates rapid positioning for deterring once and for all primarily USA, and secondary European vassals, should they forget where the white flag is.
Even the worst of the enemies in the Middle East pretty quickly came together.
There are also rumours of Israel thinking of joining the ride on that ‘peace wave’, as they know that without the USA and having enemies all around – well, it might be again called Palestine.
We are watching the final heads-up delivered to everyone BRICS/ROW by the Chinese and Russia.
Currently, the message is delivered to Latin America and Africa.
My ticker reads:
—
Although the “Westerner” is evil, cunning, and dangerous, it just might be momentarily depleted and on “his” knees and this time for real.
“He” shouldn’t be allowed to stand up, recuperate, stock up on energy, ore, and weapons. Never again let “him” to gain the political upper hand while reinventing “his” industrial potential.
Time to neuter ‘him’ is now.
—
I think this is the message leitmotif throughout the BRICS/ROW.
There are obviously no brakes at NATO/US, and it shows, as they have decided all-in towards full head on confrontation, and they are trumpeting it all over.
Maybe we will witness massive pre-emption on that behaviour in a few weeks.
Grown-ups have to agree on how to handle this without the nukes and such and what to do afterwards, this time never to let this happen again.
It is a world-wide spring start of the stage II of SMO. Denazification.
Posted by: whirlX | Apr 18 2023 18:29 utc | 270
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 18 2023 13:52 utc | 229
Actually Peter, if any, it should be called German-Hungarian partitioning of Czechoslovakia. Look at the map. I guess You never let the facts interfere with your prejudice.
https://www.google.ca/search?q=partitioning+of+Czechoslovakia&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-ca&client=safari#imgrc=76vb7S-jMX8rmM&lnspr=W10=
Posted by: Chris | Apr 18 2023 19:05 utc | 271
Posted by: Mike R | Apr 18 2023 16:24 utc | 259
According to Dima, Ukraine is closing the dams upstream on the Dnieper. His two cents- they then open the dams and flood Kherson region on the left (Russian) bank, which is low ground, unlike high ground on the Ukie side. This floods the Russian defense/trench network and somehow gives the AFU offensive an advantage. What that advantage is, and Dima’s explanation are clear as mud, which will be everywhere if this happens
Here is the dam layout on the Dnieper River:
Dam #6: Kakhovka Dam, located 30 miles upstream of Kherson; 30 Meters high (Toe to Crest); 3273 meters long; impounds 14.7 million Acre Feet of water; Controlled by Russians
Dam #5: Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Dam: located Zaporizhzhia; 37 meters impoundment depths; 800 meters long (concrete portion + spillways); impounds 27.1 million acre feet of water; controlled by Ukraine.
Dam #4: Kamianske Hydroelectric Dam: located Dnipro; 15.5 meters (toe to crest); 7,490 meters long (earthen dam); impounds 1.9 million Acre feet water; controlled by Ukraine.
THE QUESTION: Why fill the dams up? From reports, the Ukrainians are filling up the reservoirs behind the dams they control. The Russians, however, are lowering the impoundment behind the Kakhovka dam. Perhaps the Russians anticipate the Ukrainians to blow up their own dams to flood out the Russians and the Russians are lowering their reservoirs to mitigate the damage.
This is not a rational scenario, however nothing Zelensky does seems rational. Why destroy the dams which would have the consequences of destroying every bridge footing between Dnipro and Kherson. So much for providing MSRs between Poland and everything between Donbas and Kherson. Shipping anything down the Dneiper River is over for at least the next decade. And trying to flood out the Russian defenses is a worthless endeavor since crossing the Dnieper will be impossible due to the resulting muck and debris left behind in a dam breach scenario. Even the Ukrainians and their NATO advisors are probably not that stupid.
Perhaps (ALTERNATE THEORY 1), Zelensky isn’t all that convinced he can hold off the Russian onslaught and is opting to wipe out the Avenues of approach across the Dnieper. Breaching a couple of dams (the majority of which are earthwork across the length of the dam) is a lot cheaper than blowing up bridges. It sound like an act of desperation, but I wouldn’t put it past some of the nutcases in Kyiv.
Perhaps (ALTERNATE THEORY 2), Zelensky believes that by impounding flows at the Dnipro dam he can sufficiently dry out the soils along avenues of approach between Dnipro and Kherson, since the Russians have already lowered the reservoir behind the Kakhovka dam by just over 2 meters. This is unlikely to have the desired effect. I’ve never done soil borings in Ukraine, but from what I have seen in videos showing earthwork construction along the lines of contact, the underlying soils do not appear to have the hydraulic conductivity to rapidly drain and dry the upper strata of soils to appreciably alter the bearing capacity of the soil to support armored movement. I can say this, with respect to the earthen structures at Dams #5 and #6, the relatively large difference between the upper hydraulic grade line upstream of each of those dams and the downstream hydraulic grade line can cause piping failures along earthen seams in the dams that will ultimately cause failure. This theory is a risky, and probably unlikely approach.
Perhaps (ALTERNATE THEORY 3) Zelensky is provoking a shutdown of the ZPP, which depends on water from the Dnieper river, which could fall below the pump levels for the cooling system. This is almost as careless as dropping artillery rounds on the cooling system of the plant, but it creates a nice false flag.
Blowing up dams and levees has long been practiced by defenders to channelize and slow attackers. I lean to ALTERNATE THEORY 1. Ukraine will blow the dams to slow the Russian onslaught after the Ukrainian counter attack fails, if it ever launches at all.
Posted by: MajorMike | Apr 18 2023 19:06 utc | 272
Fighting continues in Ukraine Summary of the Ministry of Defense of Russia as of 18.04.2023
Posted by: Rob | Apr 18 2023 19:15 utc | 273
@ Eric Newhill | Apr 18 2023 18:15 utc | 269
re: . . .military and intelligence services are a lot more mundane and incompetent than. . .bored young men (and women) etc.
Yes, an E-3 in “intelligence” is near the bottom of a dull routine with twenty or so ranks and grades above him, stuck handling boring information which has been classified top secret because that’s what we do here with dull information gotten illegally, and then claim it’s to safeguard national security which clearly is baloney but necessary in a national security state.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 18 2023 19:49 utc | 274
Idiot Poles. I think it was their foreign minister said they would come onto the war if it looked like Ukraine was losing. Its like their only reason for living is to hate Russia. There has been plenty on the battlefield for some time.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 18 2023 12:10 utc | 210
Well, if Giraldi is right that most people in East European countries support the Kiev regime *1, I would guess the same countries will back Poland if Poland moves in Ukraine.
*1. Philip Giraldi, “Perspectives from Eastern Europe”, April 11, 2023, unz.com.
Posted by: Richard L | Apr 18 2023 19:53 utc | 275
Posted by: MajorMike | Apr 18 2023 19:06 utc | 272
Very interesting, thank you!
Imo, blowing up dams would likely “burn bridges”, at least to some extent, among Zelenskyy supporters in the West, especially in America, where destroying property as part of riots and protests has become politicized.
“Is Paris Burning?”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_Paris_Burning%3F_(film)
That’s probably not as well known a film or expression as it was 50 years ago, or even 20 years ago, but “scorched earth” is still a policy that is very much associated with Hitler’s Nazi regime, and while it wouldn’t be a perfect analogy, Zelenskyy ordering dams to be blown up would imo see that analogy getting tossed around, a lot.
A lot of politicians tolerate or look the other way when riots destroy property, but they get very nervous about being seen as tacitly approving of that. Even commentators of the most extreme persuasions are careful to delineate their thinking about it.
Nobody, but nobody, is going to want it to look like they are cool with Zelenskyy blowing up Ukraine in order to save it. If you look closely enough you can already see that journalists who remain some sense of having standards already point out that Ukraine has been breaking the accepted West norms of warfare by putting their soldiers in civilian buildings when defending an area, and that Russia attacking those buildings isn’t cause to unilaterally condemn their military. IIRC that was considered settled a long time ago, and all of the MSM have followed along, afaik.
On the other, hand, such a seemingly desperate move by Zelenskyy could serve as a reminder to the West that the Ukrainian regime could ruin every Western government and politician that has carried water for it, if Ukraine goes “Full Hitler” as it sees itself facing imminent defeat.
So Zelenskyy could force a choice on the West, either do something previously unimaginable in confronting Russia, or face the previously unimaginable prospect of being portrayed as having backed Nazi Germany 2.0. Blowing up dams could just be the entree to more elaborate courses, brutal demonstrations of how defeat would never be accepted.
Just get out the history books to see how extreme things could get.
Posted by: Babel-17 | Apr 18 2023 20:04 utc | 276
Posted by: Babel-17 | Apr 18 2023 20:04 utc | 276
I neglected to bring up a third possibility, that the Western establishment could save itself by sacrificing those fronting for it, namely the heads of the administrations of the USA, Germany, and Great Britain, and cut a deal with Russia that preserves Zelenskyy as a figurehead, and provides Russia with both the security it insists on, and the acceptance back into the global economy as a trading partner that it is intent on recovering.
Biden would be a perfect “fall guy”, and “cut out man”, as he lacks institutional allies, or even a great number of regular political allies. Certainly not many from the Clinton, Sanders, Obama, or anyone under 50, camps.
Plus Biden can’t speak coherently, so he couldn’t defend himself, and he likely before very long will either be dead or totally out of the picture, staying at home under the care of Dr. Jill, or more likely, professional caregivers. So he personally could never contradict whatever face saving narrative the powers that be whipped up.
The sleaze emanating off of Hunter Biden’s dealing leaving the public’s attention, along with Joe Biden as he retires, would be the icing on the cake to the Washington establishment. Hunter Biden’s business dealings tarnishes all their reputations, and makes it harder for everyone and their friends and family to get their grift on.
Imo, the thinking is that if Zelenskyy is standing tall by year’s end, then President Biden stands tall with him, and will get his party’s nomination. But if Zelenskyy is tarnished, then Biden will get flushed, and America will be in a hurry to disassociate itself from the failed endeavor of backing Ukraine.
Posted by: Babel-17 | Apr 18 2023 20:26 utc | 277
The Ukros may have some floating AFVs, enabling them to cross the river. One can recall during last year, they made multiple attempts to cross the river, at least most of them were at Energodar. They also used some large barges, attempting to hide their troops on board. Supposedly they were hit in the middle of the river, one might have sunk and the other drifted ashore as a wreck on the western bank, where they were eliminated after a short firefight.
Other infamous “landing” spec/force operations of course are the Snake Island debacles in May 2022. There were at least two air / sea landing attempts on Snake island, supposedly with large proportional losses and failures. Then, the Russians just left the island, because it wasn’t viable to hold and the French Ceasar cannons could reach it from the mainland.
Posted by: unimperator | Apr 18 2023 20:29 utc | 278
Paco | Apr 18 2023 16:51 utc | 263
Posted by: Sarlat La Canède | Apr 18 2023 16:38 utc | 260
I like this version, Aux armes et caetera…
By the way, half a century ago -almost- I spent a few hours in your town, but I never heard about “La Canède”, what does it mean?
It is a joke, Sarlat La Canède is a beautiful village, on a hill, not far from where I live.
The joke is, it takes a village to raise a child, every village has its idiot. I, I am that idiot.
I have two aunts in that village, they still haven’t forgiven me for peeing on the gate !
It’s been 47 years !
Mais, mais, leurs tartes sont toujours aussi bonnes !
Posted by: Sarlat La Canède | Apr 18 2023 20:41 utc | 279
Posted by: unimperator | Apr 18 2023 20:29 utc | 278
A 1.5 tonne bomb would not even need to hit a waterborne target, the pressure wave from its detonation would be enough to rupture the hulls of makeshift assault barges, light river craft and some AFV’s and possibly flood and submerge others. Any troops or crew in the water, hit by subsequent strikes, would be quite literally pulverised.
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Response-of-Surface-Ships-to-Underwater-Reid/13395ee72cd0655fba29c13024749af3e850df3a
Posted by: Milites | Apr 18 2023 21:02 utc | 281
Babel-17: Recent history teaches that if the Ukies blow up their own dams, they’ll blame the explosions on the Russians, and the West, including the great majority of Westerners, will condemn Russia for the acts.
Posted by: malenkov | Apr 18 2023 21:25 utc | 282
@ Richard L | Apr 18 2023 19:53 utc | 275
Well, if Giraldi is right that most people in East European countries support the Kiev regime *1, I would guess the same countries will back Poland if Poland moves in Ukraine.
One has to differentiate between Cold War generations and post Cold War generations.
Not many of a common people in Eastern Europe really like Ukrainians that much by now, nor support Kiev regime very much.
Ever since Ukraine became independent, it didn’t gain a respectable reputation in the region in anything particular.
Most of the prostitution, drugs, black market items, weapons, and crime in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia were attributed to Ukrainians. Of course, that those were “Russians” as in general thinking.
Until 2014 many East Europeans were believing that Ukrainians are mostly just Western Russians and some murky national minority grouping West of Kiev with slightly different surnames than the Russian ones.
I do not know why Giraldi wrote this as a fact.
Idea of certain East European prime ministers and presidents going to ‘Hadjj’ to bow in front of the ‘golden calf’ Zelensky was mostly acting to prove their obedience to the hegemon ruler. As Eastern, so as Western “leaders”.
Many of those are now past tense as in their political career.
Many will go.
Older people are definitely inclined more to Russians, whatever the propaganda tells you. They know who liberated them from Nazism some 70+ years ago. Younger generations do not care.
Most of the Ukrainians who had money walked into Europe as rock’n’roll stars and behaved as spoilt brats, taking everything they could with both arms.
Most of those drive pretty expensive cars, too.
I have seen many fancy Ukrainian cars this summer in Slovenia, Croatia, North Italy, Monaco, Austria and Hungary, even Lichtenstein.
They also do not integrate with local communities, but stay enclosed in their “refugee” circles.
Polish are general joke ever since the end of a WWII, and it is not just Russian occupation and a propaganda consequence.
They have a fake sense of greatness expressed with arrogance – just hiding the actual feeling of a lesser worth that is so deeply embedded ever since Austrians killed off their entire monarchy, nobility, and elite few hundreds of years ago.
Also, not to generalize, as different Polish regions are also different in their inclination towards their neighbours.
Ask the average German what they think about Poland asking, and very often trillions of Euros for alleged ‘war reparations’.
Nobody would like to see Poland going against Russia as they stand no chance there and there would be fear in East Europe that they might be fed to the Russian artillery next in line after Poland.
Some people naturally have bad feeling about the Soviet Union times, but it is silly to claim that Putin has ideas and ambitions on re-establishing it, and therefore they prefer Ukraine.
Do not forget that anti-Russ propaganda offensive was strong and each and every country in EU got its “5 minutes of hate”.
What governments and their officials do is definitely not connected with what ordinary people on the street think.
Sometimes they would just tell you what is the trend and not what they really think.
Also, many older East Europeans have good sense for and a long memory of being under observation from the previous ideological mono-party regimes and their secret police.
I guess that feeling is still present, as the same ideological obedience is required from an average EU citizen – West or East – it doesn’t matter.
Most open and totally convinced that Russians are right and correct in what they are doing were East Germans from my experience.
Posted by: whirlX | Apr 18 2023 21:48 utc | 283
John Marks @ 268
Strongest faction in Chicago Police Department has long been the Latin Kings, otherwise known as a Puerto Rican street gang. I have friends of 50 years in The Kings, they say they are giving up on Chicago. 60,000 members worldwide and plenty of opportunity, none on home turf. They have no idea which “side” of the street they should be working.
Yes, the place has gone psychotic
Posted by: oldhippie | Apr 18 2023 21:53 utc | 284
Re: the supposed Politico messages (which I assume means some sort of op-ed or article) to Zelensky about his corruption (the “Chinese Warning”) referenced in the Telegram links posted by Down South and others, I am unable to find a source at Politico for this. Does anyone else have better luck?
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 18 2023 21:56 utc | 285
Macgregor is spot on this time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uTsH8-RT9s&t=43s [64 mins.]
Posted by: John Marks | Apr 18 2023 22:06 utc | 286
Australia was for the convicts and Europe dumped it’s religious nuts on the US, still shows to this day.
Posted by: SwissArmyMan | Apr 18 2023 14:34 utc | 237
Yup. For a good rundown of this I’m always happy to re-recommend this series of articles from Larry Romanoff, who occasionally wrote for The Saker, but also maintains his own blog.
https://thesaker.is/nations-built-on-lies-how-the-us-became-rich/
Some relevant excerpts regarding our resident Christian nutcases and their forebears:
Good mental health was not a prerequisite for European settlers emigrating to the New World. We are fond of reminding ourselves that Australia was (and mostly still is) populated primarily with murderers, thieves and sexual perverts, but the immigrants to America were not noticeably better. Indeed, the inscription on the Statue of Liberty got the words more or less correct in referring to “the wretched refuse of your teeming shore”. While the Australians had their serial killers and muggers, the Europeans went one better with their Christian extremists who spent their weekdays burning witches and killing Indians, and their Sundays in church thanking God for the opportunity. The Australians have marginally improved their habits over the centuries while the Americans have not.
America is widely accepted, and indeed even prides itself, on being a deeply Christian country, with 65% or more of the population declaring religion important in their lives. This would be supported by history, since the major migrations to the New World consisted of a long list of flaky religious sects whose primary goal in emigration was the opportunity to build a society entirely based on those isolationist and extremist heresies. It is probably safe to say that Salem witchcraft was the seedbed in which the peculiarly American version of Christian theology sprouted and flourished, and which also served as a practical introduction to mass hysteria which would later be so usefully applied to the concepts of patriotism and democracy. The enduring echoes of this religious ancestry have been highly influential in all of subsequent American history.
The Preamble to the American Declaration of Independence (“The most famous words in the English language”, if you’re American; just another Hello Kitty greeting card, if you’re not), states: “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all White Men were created superior and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, the most important of which is slavery”. In the recent history of the modern world, only two nations of people have so thoroughly embraced slavery as to have practiced it on an immense scale for hundreds of years: the Christians in America and the Dalai Lamas in Tibet. And only these two groups so cherished slavery in their hearts they fought a civil war over the right to maintain it. It is hardly a moral selling point that both sets of racist bigots lost the war and, while Mao cleaned up Tibet, the racism and bigotry persisted in America, often violently, for another 200 years and is still widely in evidence today. Christian virtue does not die easily.
Internationally, the American government and its leaders function with an absolute amorality, driven primarily by their commercial Darwinism, their law-of-the-jungle, might-makes-right philosophy. Yet individually most Americans accept all this as somehow being righteous and pleasing in the eyes of their god. The vast network of torture prisons, the numerous governments overthrown, the countless brutal dictatorships installed and supported, the commercial and military enslavement of so many populations, the 10 to 20 million civilians massacred, the constant meddling in the internal affairs of other nations, the so-frequent destabilisation of governments, the plundering of the resources of so many nations. All of these are excused, justified, forgiven, often praised, then quickly forgotten by these moral Christians. Americans may be comfortable with all this cognitive dissonance, but as Jiddu Krishnamurti aptly wrote, “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”.
and on the American conception of “democracy”, “free enterprise” and “freedom”:
With most other nations, if all their historical and political lies were fully exposed with all truths openly documented, they would still survive. But for Americans, the existential threat would be unbearable and I do not believe the US could survive as a nation if all its historical truths were unveiled and confirmed, in a manner by which Americans were compelled to confront them as fact, where denial was not an option.
As two minor examples, we have the now well-documented fact that the US government abandoned several thousand prisoners of war in Vietnam, men held back by the Vietnamese pending the American payment of the agreed war reparations of several billions of dollars. The US government had no intention of paying the money and so walked away from the table, leaving the men behind. Many veterans attempted to bring this to public attention, even testifying before Congress; many had unshakable proof of their claims, but the government – and the media – ignored them until recently when all the factual details emerged in second-tier internet news sites and could no longer be avoided. A much greater existential threat lies in the truth of Pearl Harbor, where it is no longer a secret, except to Americans, that Roosevelt knew not only of the impending Japanese attack (which he had carefully and deliberately provoked), but that he knew precisely the location and course of the Japanese fleet and the date and time of the attack. Roosevelt and his aides held back this information from their own high-level military at Pearl Harbor, sacrificing those lives for the greater objective of a “justified” entry into both theaters of the Second World War.
I believe there are almost no Americans with the emotional capacity to face this brutal truth, either philosophically or emotionally, and yet similar evidence virtually floods the available information sources. I would repeat here David Edwards’ words that “we will become angry with them for telling us these terrible things about our society and insist that this simply ‘can’t be true’.” Yet these things have always been true about the American government. It wasn’t so long ago that declassified documents revealed Operation Northwoods, where the CIA proposed to shoot down a planeload of American college students and a US space shuttle launch, using those as justification to invade Cuba and remove Castro. The US government has both proposed and executed dozens of these atrocities over the years, all hidden from the American mind and heart with the compliance of the media. Pearl Harbor was by no means the worst of these, but few Americans will be able to deal with these truths of their nation.
Many other events are perhaps less brutal but no less breathtaking in their dishonesty. All the tales of how the US became rich, the jingoistic mantras of ingenuity and innovation, of wealth resulting from freedom and democracy, hard work and fair play, are entirely false, and repugnantly so. America became rich through a program of organised violence encompassing hundreds of years, through centuries of unpaid slave labor, military invasions, and the bullying and plundering of weaker nations. The propaganda of the benefits of American-style capitalism follows this same pattern, but Americans are fed this pulp from birth and no longer have the intelligence to see the truth. The US government statistics on items like inflation, unemployment, GDP and more, are the most misleading and dishonest of all nations today. The propaganda machine tells us otherwise, but one need only look at the facts. The US has for the last century been the largest perpetrator of espionage in the world, this activity provably including commercial espionage on a grand scale for more than a century, but the propaganda machine lays this accusation on other nations while claiming a desire to collect only information on terrorists. An enormous lie of a magnitude almost too large to comprehend or refute.
Thomas Edison, revered in American history books as one of the most prolific inventors of all time, never invented anything. The stories about him are fabricated historical myths, as are the cherished legends of the Wright Brothers making the first powered flight or Alexander Graham Bell inventing the telephone. Coca-Cola was a world-famous Spanish product stolen and patented by US pharmacist John Pemberton, with the US government refusing to recognise the prior patents. Tales of American inventiveness and IP are almost 180 degrees from the truth, with solidly documented proof that the US stole more IP from more countries than did any other nation, by orders of magnitude, paying $20,000 to $50,000 to anyone who could accomplish such a theft, at a time when even $20,000 was a lifetime salary for an average person. This pattern is consistent in every area and every field of endeavor in American society. The entire history of the US, as described in the history books and repeated incessantly by everyone from Hollywood to various Presidents, is almost all false, and the parts not false are almost always misrepresented. The nation of America and all of its people, are truly living a lie.
The entire thread of “Democracy” and “democratic values” is one of the greatest serial lies ever told. American history books, and American minds, are filled with tales of the US “making the world safe for democracy” by battling tyranny everywhere and installing democratic governments, but this has never happened even one time. While the propaganda machine was flooding the imaginary world with tales of democracies, the US was flooding the real world with brutal military dictators that would permit US multinationals and banks to pillage their countries. All the theory of the US’ fabled democracy, the government by the people, the checks and balances, is false, with the truth in the open but Americans so indoctrinated nobody seems able to see. Furthermore, the US government has made it illegal to teach many of these truths in America’s public schools.
All the propaganda of moral superiority, of concern for human rights, are, as we will see, lies in their entirety. The US is not only not morally superior, but has the worst human rights record of all nations excepting one, in recent centuries. Americans have many tales – almost all false – of other nations committing wartime atrocities while their own government and military were committing far worse and heavily censoring the media to prevent that knowledge from escaping custody. Almost no Americans know of the vast massacres committed by their military in the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, Germany and Iraq. Human rights atrocities began from the first days of the white settlers landing in North America, and have never ceased. Ever since the US outsourced to other countries its human rights atrocities, it has boasted to the world of its moral righteousness in human rights leadership, but all was based on lies, deception and marketing. The world’s only “torture university” – the infamous School of the Americas, the decades of cruel and even savage atrocities inflicted on so many of the world’s nations, have been lost in the American propaganda of goodness.
Before I leave, I wanted to point out that I’ve made my own experiences with the Christian religion known here several times. I’m not some outsider looking in and choosing easy targets. I was raised in it and have seen it first hand. This isn’t to say that I hold all Christians in low regard; there are many Sky God believers that do good deeds and truly abide by the (alleged) teachings of the Christ Character told in the fables known as the New Testament. I have no beef with them. But when you keep voting in pols that want to enforce their version of Christianity on me, my family and my community – often times when you don’t even live near me – I begin to have problems.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 18 2023 22:12 utc | 287
“The U.S. pushes Kiev into a suicidal military counteroffensive as the country scrambles to launch its vital grain-growing season” By Dmitriy Kovalevich.
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/the-u-s-pushes-kiev-into-a-suicidal-military-counteroffensive-as-the-country-scrambles-to-launch-its-vital-grain-growing-season/
Posted by: bevin | Apr 18 2023 22:40 utc | 288
@ whirlX #283
Thanks so much for your input. Iam from Canada and I attended a session at a college in Shandong in the spring of 2012. My roommate, Andrei, was from Ukraine. And there was a tall girl from Odessa. They were always together speaking Russian with other classmates who came from Belarus and Kazakhstan.
I could have learhed a lot from them if I had spoken Russian. Unfortunately I was so much concentrated on the task of learning Mandarin and becoming Chinese myself that I didn’t learn anything from Ukraine other that they didn’t have much money but they are very well educated. Andrei wished to move definitively to China. So I am very anxious of what happened to them since I liked them very much.
I am also a bit outraged that the countries from where came my classmates were all, except South-Korea and Japan, the targets of color revolutions: Belarus, Ukraibe, Kasakhstan and Thailand.
Posted by: Richard L | Apr 18 2023 22:54 utc | 289
Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 18 2023 22:12 utc | 287
Thanks Tom. That is a very sobering read. I thought that it was bad but not as bad as that. Thank you for the enlightenment.
Posted by: ZimZum | Apr 18 2023 23:10 utc | 290
unimperator | Apr 18 2023 15:05 utc | 245
Re “We must convince Putin that he has lost”: I recall long ago telling my high school girlfriend I’d like to resume dating around. She was quite adamant that no one would ever love me like she did.
I did not find that line of reasoning to be compelling.
Posted by: Boris Badenov | Apr 18 2023 23:33 utc | 291
In need of a great rant? Here’s Declan Hayes latest, “Western Bloc 1943-2023: From Judenfrei to Russenfrei”, where I must admit it’s hard to choose an excerpt. I’ll go with Hayes’s introduction to his rantessay, which is inline with a comment I made upthread asking why the Ukies aren’t guilty of Cultural Genocide:
This article expands upon elements of Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova’s recent comment that “the Germans are rewarding the non-Nazi Zelensky for the fratricidal massacre, the abolition of everything Russian, the demolition of monuments to the winners of the Third Reich, the glorification of Nazi collaborators, the annihilation of Orthodoxy, the implementation of the thousand-year-old drang – the liberation of living space in the East [to build] a new Europe – not Judenfrei, but Russenfrei. And this concept includes all nationalities of multinational Russia”.
IMO, it’s important to be reminded from time-to-time why Russia’s doing what it’s doing along with a reminder of what constitutes the West’s soul.
I think the entire ruling class of the West has gone totally insane. I’ve never seen anything like it in all my life.
Posted by: JulianJ | Apr 18 2023 15:14 utc | 248
I share the feeling but I refuse to believe it is insanity. It might but it feels like a cheap copout.
The West is clearly in decline but even so, not all relevant factions (=excluding the people) will agree with the crazy “no step back / all guns blazing” approach. There must be groups who are willing to save what’s salvageable. I am secretly hoping for a rift within the system, the contradictions must be ridiculous by now. It’s obvious that some factions benefit from the current mode of decay but many don’t… Put another way: I always thought the 1945 German & Japanese die-hard approach to losing (=hopelessly) was an exception rather than the norm.
For those of you who can read German: Über Moskau nach Peking by Wolf Wetzel in Overton Magazin where he convincingly goes through the war preparations we can observe right now. A war were Ukraine is only one battle. As one example: Stoltenberg calling for *massive* ammunition production ramp-up (“Kriegswirtschaft”). I can easily believe this is not for Ukraine (too late) but for the war after that. Seen from this angle, I can answer my question above: somebody still believes they can win that fight. I don’t think so.
Posted by: Konami | Apr 19 2023 0:50 utc | 293
Apr 18 2023 23:58 utc | 292
russians see themselves as the last hope for Christianity!
and they have not called out the cultural marxism/post modernism that is running usa!
Posted by: paddy | Apr 19 2023 1:24 utc | 294
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 18 2023 22:12 utc | 287
Excellent essay. Americans simply cannot confront the reality of US criminality. They’ve always lived in a make believe universe of Horatio Alger fantasies and belief in US ‘honor.’ It explains the rampant phony self-righteous outrage over Russia’s actions in Ukraine, as a mind trick to divert one’s guilty conscience away from crimes perpetrated by their own country. A way to avoid taking responsibility as they search for the fainting couch.
Posted by: Mike R | Apr 19 2023 2:00 utc | 295
The current situation with Ukraine
https://twitter.com/Spriter99880/status/1648456519456034818
Posted by: nathan in WA US | Apr 19 2023 2:07 utc | 296
Question
If Ukraine fired 9,612 GMLRS rockets with a CEP of 10m, how come they haven’t decisively won the war?
Posted by: mantendo | Apr 19 2023 3:21 utc | 297
⚡️🇷🇺🇺🇦⚔️ #Chronicle of the Special Military Operation for 18 Apr 2023⚡️
🔹#Bryansk Region:
▪️ In Starodub district, the AFU terrorists shelled the border village of #Kurkovichi, one residential building was damaged, there were no civilian casualties.
🔹#Starobelsk (#Svatovo) Direction:
▪️ In this direction, the situation on the front has not changed significantly, with both sides engaged in mutual reconnaissance and artillery duels.
🔹#Soledar (#Bakhmut) Direction:
▪️ In the northern outskirts of #Bakhmut, the fighters of the Wagner PMC have begun storming the enemy’s fortifications on Tolbukhin Street after occupying the former building of the City Hospital No. 2.
▪️ In the central part of the city, the Wagner fighters bypassed the AFU positions in the area of the Railway Elevator and advanced along Kraynyaya Street. The fighting is taking place behind the Garage Cooperative.
▪️ In the southern outskirts, the enemy continues to hold a strategically important defensive junction on the approaches to the #Bakhmut – #Konstantinovka road, at the cost of high casualties.
🔹#Donetsk Direction (MAP):
▪️ The Ukrainian terrorist formations continue shelling the #Donetsk agglomeration. Residential buildings in the DPR capital have been hit, killing three people and injuring one more man.
▪️ In the #Avdeyevka sector, Russian forces continue to fight west of #Novobakhmutovka.
➖ To the south(west), Russian artillery is targeting AFU strongholds north of #Vodyanoye.
▪️ In #Maryinka, Russian units continue to fight positional battles in the area of Druzhba Avenue. Artillery and tanks are providing fire support to the advancing forces.
▪️ In the #Ugledar section, the Ukrainian command moved additional forces to the frontline after the unsuccessful attacks.
➖ Along the entire frontline, the AFU is deploying small-sized UAVs to search for fire positions of the RF Armed Forces.
🔹#Zaporozhye Direction (MAP):
▪️ In the #Orekhov section, the enemy is transferring additional units and military equipment to the frontline, and spreading false information about the alleged start of the AFU offensive on #Lobkovoye and #Rabotino.
🔹#Kherson Direction on #SouthFront:
▪️ Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Kherson region and the LPR, where he spoke to the commanders of Russian troop groups and supported the troops involved in the fighting.
▪️ Russian troops hit AFU facilities in and around #Kherson, while the enemy terrorists shelled settlements on the left bank of the #Dnieper River.
🔸Political and other Events:
▪️ Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky visited Ukrainian militants in #Avdeyevka, which is in close proximity to the advanced positions of the RF Armed Forces.
▪️ Polish authorities have announced that they will lift a recent ban on the transit of Ukrainian grain through their territory, but will still not allow it to be imported into their domestic market due to farmers’ protests and falling prices for agricultural raw materials.
Posted by: Down South | Apr 19 2023 3:37 utc | 298
The General Staff is considering the option of a distracting strike on Russian territories in preparation for a counteroffensive, Belgorod, which is located closest to the border with Ukraine, is considered a priority option.
The United States opposes any attacks on Russian territory, but Britain, on the contrary, supports these plans, as this will help in the implementation of a psychological operation that should cause panic in the ranks of the enemy and provoke the Kremlin into sharp retaliatory steps.
https://t.me/rezident_ua/17337
Posted by: Down South | Apr 19 2023 3:40 utc | 299
Everything happens the way we inside. Attitude towards the wounded soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as decommissioned illiquid assets, which is no longer necessary for the state, but only a burden. Another such fact was published by a soldier.
He resented the provision of medical care at a local hospital, where he was sent for rehabilitation after being injured, where he was met by a drunken surgeon.
There is no need to talk about the very quality of local hospitals. It is in appalling conditions. The authorities do not allocate money for the medical sector, believing that it is cheaper to “recruit new soldiers” than to treat the already wounded.
Posted by: Down South | Apr 19 2023 3:42 utc | 300