Ukraine - When Opining War Experts Can't Read Maps
No one expects that western officials are knowledgeable - especially not with regards to facts. But some exceed even the lowest expectations one might have - and no, not to the upside.
Consider this op-ed by Evelyn N. Farkas, published two days ago:
Ukraine is not losing; US assistance must continue - The Hill, Mar 31 2024
The congressional faction that opposes Ukraine assistance shares a common talking point with the Kremlin — that Ukraine is losing the war with Russia anyway. Having just returned from Ukraine, where I met with top Ukrainian officials and participated in a security conference, I have found substantial evidence to the contrary.
All Farkas did was to talk with some Ukraine boosters in Kiev. She has penned down whatever they claimed and now tries to sell that as the real. She thinks she is qualified to do so because she once held a high position in U.S. Defense Department:
Evelyn N. Farkas, Ph.D., is executive director of the McCain Institute and former deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia.
This however proves that she is extremely miss-informed and totally unqualified to make any judgment:
While the Ukrainians hardly welcome a new Russian offensive in the spring or summer, they believe it is likely. The officials we met with explained that Putin needs to show progress, some kind of victory to justify renewed mobilization and, emboldened now by his fake elections, he is likely to move on the ground and may try once again to open a land corridor to Crimea. But such decisions may plant the seeds of military overreach.
The land corridor between Crimea and the rest of the Russian Federation was established in early March 2022, less than two weeks after the current phase of the war had started.
At that time even the maps by the neo-conned Institute for the Study of War said so:
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The maps by the French Ministry of Defense confirmed the connection:
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That land corridor has existed since and has never been interrupted. The Ukrainian 'counter attack' last summer was supposed to break through that corridor. It failed. Meanwhile Russia is strengthening the territory and increasing its value by building a new railway (red) along the coast of the Sea of Azov which will significantly shorten the train connection along the corridor.
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The Ukrainian military does not like that and will attempt to destroy the new line (edited machine translation):
Ukraine also promises to strike at the railway, which the Russian Federation has been building for more than a year along the Sea of Azov in the occupied territory of Ukraine. It can be a serious problem, says Kirill Budanov, chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine."The construction process is almost complete, and this may pose a serious problem for us," Budanov said, making it clear that the Ukrainian military is already preparing to launch strikes on the railway. "We have experience in this, and it is much easier than the issue of the Crimean Bridge," Budanov said.
Budanov's latest operation, last month's incursion into Russia towards Belgograd, was a serious failure. The troops involved had extremely high losses.
The Russian military will expect saboteurs at the new rail line and will know how to handle those. It also has its own railway troops which can repair damages to train lines in a shorter time than it takes to sabotage those.
As for Farkas - one really wonders how such a blunder could pass by her intern who wrote that piece, her own eyes, as well as those of the editors of The Hill who supposedly read through it before it was published.
This says something about the quality of analysis coming out of Washington DC - and no, not to the upside.
h/t Lee Slusher
Posted by b on April 2, 2024 at 9:22 UTC | Permalink
next page »Must be really dumb-ing down in the Defense Dept.
Posted by: Don Firineach | Apr 2 2024 9:31 utc | 2
Well her job is to sell snake oil. It's immaterial whether her info is correct because she's talking to fools and suckers.
Posted by: Surferket | Apr 2 2024 9:33 utc | 3
You've gotta Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
I'm going to be humming that all day now.
Posted by: Giyane | Apr 2 2024 9:40 utc | 4
It's not needed to read a map for the next maginot line US/NATO are building in Ukraine.
Watch the electric grid going offline in Ukraine, this will do the job. No need to zerg rush into the dragon's teeth.
Posted by: w | Apr 2 2024 10:03 utc | 7
Maybe she was snorting coke with Elensky and seeing rainbows instead of clouds.
Posted by: Saturan | Apr 2 2024 10:03 utc | 8
And there are quite a few dumbed-down "experts" these days who seem to have forgotten the idea of the "firebreak" between conventional and nuclear weapons, who think that the increasingly lower yield weapons being deployed could be "usable" if things get dicey on the battlefield.
For example, the variable yield B61-12 "tactical" nuclear gravity bomb, which is now being deployed to Europe, has a low-end explosive power of 0.3 kilotons, i.e. 300 tons of TNT explosive equivalent. This is only 27 times more powerful than the largest conventional "Mother of All Bombs" (MOAB) in the current US arsenal. This blurs the distinction between conventional and nuclear weapons, which increases the likelihood that some genius in the White House might decide it is time to use one in order to make "Russia back down".
Deploying NATO troops to Ukraine will set up this sort of situation. Facing imminent destruction by Russian forces, do you think the fools would resist the temptation to use a tactical nuke to forestall defeat?
Posted by: Perimetr | Apr 2 2024 10:07 utc | 9
Odessa will be Russia again. And rightly so. Everything that comes out of Washington is just ... noise.
Posted by: DG | Apr 2 2024 10:12 utc | 10
Hollywood has entered all institutions in the west.
From military to business and universities.
This is a Hollywood way of thinking. They want fast, effective solutions.
They have their dreams.
Posted by: vargas | Apr 2 2024 10:22 utc | 11
They can only feed their publics with lies. And they will lie and lie and lie again to maintain the ridiculous facade of a heroic and brave ukraine which, to win, only need another x amount of billions of dollars to tip the balance and push the ruskies back.
It started off 2 years ago with the hollywoodifying of the churchillian zelensky. Wonderweapons followed (look how effective theyve been....not). Then came the "million man army (remember that one?), which failed to materialise.
The great counteroffensive followed. In reality, a fumbling mess of a military campaign highlighted by the fall of the "unstrategic", "unimportant" castles of bakhmut and avdeevka.
Today, the ukraine military is in dissaray and turmoil, only surviving (and "winning" still, apparently) in the empty heads of western politicians.
Something will catch up with them soon!
Posted by: HERMIUS | Apr 2 2024 10:33 utc | 12
Or perhaps this imbecile confused Crimea with Transnistria :-)
Posted by: Amuel | Apr 2 2024 10:57 utc | 13
@b:
Belgograd
The city is called Belgorod: BEL • go • rod.
Bel is a contraction of belyy, which means white, gorod means town or city. Belgorod is, thus, a “white city.”
Posted by: S | Apr 2 2024 11:01 utc | 14
If the current situation is seen as a Ukrainian success, what’s the criteria for losing? Counterintuitively she’s just proved the opposite case, successes speak for themselves, it’s the defeats that usually need to be ‘reinterpreted’.
Posted by: Milites | Apr 2 2024 11:08 utc | 16
'...Russia will try to open a land corridor to Crimea this year...' tells one everything they need to know about the western 'expertise'. We can conclude Ukraine is doing about 500 % better in western analyst estimates than in reality.
Posted by: unimperator | Apr 2 2024 11:11 utc | 17
@3
"Well her job is to sell snake oil."
That's the truth. Look at Farkas's publications over the last 15 years. She's all about American exceptionalism, unbridled NATO expansion to the east, and anti-Russian rhetoric.
Farkas is just another Atlantic Alliance political hack. She seems to be posturing herself as a new, up-and-coming version of Vicky Nuland.
Posted by: GW | Apr 2 2024 11:14 utc | 18
Having read the PR puff-piece it’s obvious what she, and her masters, want, a slice of that $330 billion before it’s too late.
Posted by: Milites | Apr 2 2024 11:16 utc | 19
"Our rate of retreat is just 1km a day which is a victory for us" is one way to sell retreat as an advance as it's much better than retreating 5km a day. It's similar to losing but winning via the point spread.
Evelyn Farkas's article reads like a breathlessly desperate plea, in piling on one statement of non-fact on top of another. When you reach the final sentence of that article, you realise it is indeed an emotional plea to the reader.
Western propaganda really has fallen to new wretched lows of emotional manipulation.
Posted by: Refinnejenna | Apr 2 2024 11:24 utc | 21
Again with the stupid projection "new offensives either to Crimea, Kharkov and other cities and so on". Everything to siphon more money from the morons that are the American taxpayers. Of course, the American dollars is what is keeping Ukraine now from winning according to the "experts".
However, according to the same expert the actual game changer is not American or EU taxpayer money, but the frozen assets.
And in perhaps the biggest potential game changer, Ukraine appears to be getting closer to receiving $330 billon frozen assets, of which $217 billion is held in Belgium and the remainder in the United States. If the EU and the United States can agree on a mechanism for transferring these assets to Ukraine by the G-7 summit in June, this will be the strongest signal to Putin that time is not on his side. This substantial sum of money will ensure that Ukraine can fight and rebuild for years to come. It will also smooth the way to EU membership for Ukraine, removing fears by the Polish and others about the impact on EU agricultural support funds.
I love it when these experts leave the actual important info right at the end of the article. Rest is the same tired old garbage that you already saw in another 100 propaganda articles.
Posted by: JamesBond | Apr 2 2024 11:25 utc | 22
The case of Evelyn N. Farkas, Ph.D., provides more evidence that multilingualism, which is very common among the replaceable indigenous peoples of Europe, is greatly overrated. It reads at Wikipedia that
She is fluent in Hungarian and German, speaks some Serbo-Croatian, French, and Spanish, and has studied Russian and Hindi.
Yet for all that she is still an idiot, like most European Americans, all democrats, and the Wikipedian(s) who omitted English from the list of languages in which Farkas is fluent. She is like a shaman who can recite Rome's mystical mumbo jumbo in both Latin and his mother tongue. In both cases, most of the time and effort devoted to language studies has been wasted.
Posted by: Drive-By Shooter | Apr 2 2024 11:30 utc | 23
Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 2 2024 11:22 utc | 20
The ability to surveil and project fire deep behind the line is much more relevant than a nominal measure of land gain or change per day. As that is eventually, what causes the nominal land gains for one side or the other.
Short range MLRS = 5 - 15 km (TOS - TOS-3)
Barrel artillery = 25 km
MLRS = 30 - 40km (Grad vs. Vampyre MLRS)
GMLRS = 45km - 300km (Himars standard vs. ATACMS) vs. 120 - 200km (Tornado-S)
Ballistic missiles = 500km (Iskander-M)
Posted by: unimperator | Apr 2 2024 11:32 utc | 24
I guess Evelyn N. Farkas, Ph.D. hasn't checked Live UA Map recently. It is pro Ukrainian and shows the opposite of her conclusion. The Empire of Lies rolls on.
Posted by: Chicago Bob | Apr 2 2024 11:33 utc | 25
@Newbie #1:
The water problem solved.
The water problem was solved until the gate of the Kakhovka Dam was blown up. Now it has returned for Crimea and is now also affecting Kherson and Zaporozhye oblasts. Crimea has multiple large reservoirs (total capacity of 400 million m³), so it’s not that bad, but Kherson and Zaporozhye oblasts don’t, as they are lying in low lands, so authorities are digging water wells (source) and thinking of transforming the North Crimean Canal into a series of ponds for water storage (source).
Posted by: S | Apr 2 2024 11:35 utc | 26
To be fair, most Americans can't even locate America on a map, let alone a land corridor to Crimea.
Posted by: Facekicker | Apr 2 2024 11:41 utc | 27
@JamesBond #22:
It will also smooth the way to EU membership for Ukraine, removing fears by the Polish and others about the impact on EU agricultural support funds.
The fears will not be removed. The farmers’ protests are not so much about the EU support funds as they are about competition from the Ukrainian agriculture.
Posted by: S | Apr 2 2024 11:44 utc | 28
Honestly, it would have been enough to just publish a photo of Evelyn N. Farkas.
Posted by: Skiffer | Apr 2 2024 11:49 utc | 29
Farkas was an architect of the RussiaRussiaRussia 17-intel agencies op, conducted against Trump, by HRC.
Posted by: Melaleuca | Apr 2 2024 11:51 utc | 30
Western bureaucrats have become so accustomed to accusing Russia of what they are doing themselves, that we can view Farkas’ statement as a hint that the Western puppet regime in Kiev “may try once again to open a land corridor to Crimea.”
Posted by: S | Apr 2 2024 11:52 utc | 31
The Empire of Lies rolls on.Posted by: Chicago Bob | Apr 2 2024 11:33 utc | 25
Let's be charitable to the imperialists. They insist, often with great anxiety, that "Black Lives Matter", and facts on the pavement show that they are correct.
Posted by: Drive-By Shooter | Apr 2 2024 11:53 utc | 32
@Melaleuca #30:
conducted against Trump
I think the op targeted U.S. public perception of Russia just as much as, if not more than it targeted Trump.
Posted by: S | Apr 2 2024 11:59 utc | 33
It is the US version of Dr. Goebbels spouting nonsense on “Deutsche Wochenshau” in early ‘45 as Soviet tanks rolled through East Prussia.
News Flash- the only Americans who pay attention to this kind of stuff are the Swamp Creatures in DC (who should know better), and those who actually pay attention to news from Russia & Ukraine. I’ll admit that there exist among us a vocal group of mis-informed sycophants who believe such Fairy Tales, but they also go around proclaiming with certainty that Genocide Joe will win a free and fair election this November. I, on the other hand, expect Martial Law, cancelled elections, and NKVD / Gestapo type suppression of Americans who speak their minds. If I remain alive, I’ll send you a postcard from the Gulag. Cheers!
Posted by: OldFart | Apr 2 2024 11:59 utc | 34
After the Crocus mass shooting on 22 March 2024, the Deep State, within hours assured that Ukraine was not responsible.
On 26 March 2024, the head of the Security Service Ukraine (SBU) Vasyl Malyuk gives an interview admitting the involvement of his department in the murders and assassination attempts on a number of Ukrainian and Russian politicians and public figures.
https://twitter.com/OlgaBazova/status/1772556553079464424
Talk about going off script!
Posted by: Oswald | Apr 2 2024 12:00 utc | 35
Germany signs off major deal to buy Australian-made armoured fighting vehicles | 7 News Australia
Germany has signed off on a major deal to buy Australian-made armoured fighting vehicles.
Defence experts say we need more military manufacturing as wars rage overseas and tensions rise in our region.
That’s risible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkOC0w7RSfM
~~~
@S.
No Farkas and her Ukrainian expats in the State Dept and intel agencies targeted Trump.
They worked, and him got impeached twice, basically to project the Ukrainian project that was underway, that he interrupted.
Posted by: Melaleuca | Apr 2 2024 12:02 utc | 36
B, don't confuse war mongering, literally selling war material, with actual reporting and analysis. Our think tanks are owned and funded by military contractors and this is simply a sales pitch, an Op-ed. The editorial department doesn't edit adverts.
Posted by: Scottindallas | Apr 2 2024 12:03 utc | 37
So today news is:
"DC journos and analysts are crooked morons"?
Interesting debate indeed, or moot point may be?
Posted by: Greg Galloway | Apr 2 2024 12:17 utc | 38
Posted by: JamesBond | Apr 2 2024 11:25 utc | 22
There are several snags attached to the “$330 billion”, which complicate things.
The first is that a substantial majority is denominated in €, not US$. Breakdowns vary, but all of them show something in the order of €220-240 billion. Part of the delay and procrastination comes from the ECB and some Eurozone finance ministers being concerned about the potential hyperinflationary implications for the Eurozone should a seizure of assets take place.
Secondly, at least part of the funds represent Western private-sector corporations repatriating income from Russian-based subsidiaries. Another part consists of Russian private-sector businesses settling invoices from Western counterparts. More delay and procrastination whilst the litigation implications sink in.
Thirdly, a seizure would reinforce views in the Global Majority that the West, particularly its financial system, cannot be trusted. Remember, right at the start of the SMO the US Federal Reserve was not consulted (or even knew about) the full depth and extent of the sanctions packages being imposed and were privately horrified when they worked through the implications and possible consequences for US$-based global trade. “Words were exchanged” between the Fed and the White House/State Dept, leading to a cooling in relations.
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 2 2024 12:20 utc | 39
Old Fart, you ignore that a significant percentage of the GOP base is never Trumpers. Joe may well will, he's the conservative moderate. Trump is simple and unhinged buffoon, a mercurial charlatan. He is indeed subjected to unfair coverage in the media, that doesn't make him a conservative, or someone who cares about this country more than himself. Don't be a Kool aid drinker for either side
Posted by: Scottindallas | Apr 2 2024 12:20 utc | 40
Putin ... emboldened now by his fake elections
---
Farkas is projecting about Zelinski's legitimacy.
Posted by: too scents | Apr 2 2024 12:26 utc | 41
@JamesBond
After corporate America and Ukrainian oligarchs siphon off their cut of that 330 billion, will there really be enough left for the EU?
Posted by: Fred777 | Apr 2 2024 12:27 utc | 42
People who read The Hill are basically borderline mental retards who have great jobs working for the Uniparty. They mostly care about where they will eat for lunch that day or where they will go on vacation in the summer.
Posted by: Comandante | Apr 2 2024 12:37 utc | 43
Great bit of work B, thanks.
Here's a really good article too!
https://en.interaffairs.ru/article/michael-brenner-this-is-the-way-the-west-ends/
Posted by: Eoin Clancy | Apr 2 2024 12:38 utc | 44
Or perhaps this imbecile confused Crimea with Transnistria :-)Posted by: Amuel | Apr 2 2024 10:57 utc | 13
Good point.
Trump is simple and unhinged buffoon, a mercurial charlatan. He is indeed subjected to unfair coverage in the media, that doesn't make him a conservative, or someone who cares about this country more than himself. Don't be a Kool aid drinker for either sidePosted by: Scottindallas | Apr 2 2024 12:20 utc | 40
It's not hard to infer that you think other politicians are any different.
Posted by: Observer | Apr 2 2024 12:47 utc | 46
@Melaleuca #36
"Let’s agree to disagree."
Posted by: S | Apr 2 2024 12:45 utc | 44
Melaleuca was 100% correct
"Farkas was an architect of the RussiaRussiaRussia 17-intel agencies op, conducted against Trump, by HRC."
Posted by: Melaleuca | Apr 2 2024 11:51 utc | 30
Absolutely!
"Don't be a Kool aid drinker for either side". It's not hard to infer that your projection clouds all that you see.
Posted by: Scottindallas | Apr 2 2024 12:49 utc | 49
"Western bureaucrats have become so accustomed to accusing Russia of what they are doing themselves, that we can view Farkas’ statement as a hint that the Western puppet regime in Kiev “may try once again to open a land corridor to Crimea.”"
Posted by: S | Apr 2 2024 11:52 utc | 31
What you are describing has been classified as a Freudian 'ego defense mechanism': 'projection onto others their own uncomfortable thoughts'
@Oswald #35:
Vasyl Malyuk gives an interview admitting the involvement of his department
Translated and posted a RIA Novosti article about his comments here.
Posted by: S | Apr 2 2024 12:55 utc | 51
@canuck #46:
Melaleuca was 100% correct
I didn’t say Melaleuca was incorrect. What I said is that in addition to targeting Trump (which everyone sane knows about and understands), the operation was also targeting U.S. public perception of Russia (which most U.S. citizens don’t realize because they are too focused on domestic stuff).
Posted by: S | Apr 2 2024 13:05 utc | 52
"this was the first military incursion into Russia from Ukraine since World War II — ... ...Indeed, the sense of insecurity in that region spread to the capital in the aftermath of the horrible terrorist attacks on a Moscow concert hall. That Putin cannot fully protect his borders and his people is now a demonstrated fact."
So, she's touting NATO's war against Russia as parallel to the German invasion and the recent theater massacre. Lovely lady, this.
Posted by: Jim Jatras | Apr 2 2024 13:07 utc | 53
S | Apr 2 2024 13:05 utc | 51
"canuck" is just looking to statt a fight. It is his excuse to cut and paste banalities from dunceopoedia. Ignore it.
Posted by: bevin | Apr 2 2024 13:14 utc | 54
Ukraine is not losing; US assistance must continue
me:...(visible confusion)
me:"Ukraine is losing; even US assistance can not save them" Is it a Freudian psychological problem that she can't write like this?
Posted by: Nokaz | Apr 2 2024 13:15 utc | 55
"McCain Institute" like in John McCain ? How could you expect serious comments after that ?
I'm ever amazed how "inclusion" actually leaded to get moarrrr people with a pathological conditions in the administration... McCain syndrome is a serious form of PTSD you know.
Posted by: Savonarole | Apr 2 2024 13:28 utc | 56
@39,
Yeah, I fully agree. From those ~350 billions, maybe 100 would actually be used for Ukraine. The rest is damage control and money already spent there. The biggest question what happens when that money is actually taken (I am almost certain at this point that it will happen sooner or later - 6 to 12 months). I know there are some rational professional people still remaining in EU/USA but the majority of the elite people, not much.
Posted by: JamesBond | Apr 2 2024 13:38 utc | 57
I thought we all agreed more than a year ago that bombing railway lines is ineffective (for both sides)?
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Apr 2 2024 13:38 utc | 58
Latest video footage shows Kharkov residents driving out of the city in what looks like a hurricane evacuation in a US coastal city. The authorities set up contraflow lanes to speed the exodus. Don't expect to see this on the 6 o'clock news.
Posted by: Mike R | Apr 2 2024 13:41 utc | 59
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov (March 11, 2010 — January 27, 2014) on Zelenskiy illegally cancelling Presidential elections (April 2, 2024):
The section “President” of the Constitution of the Ukraine contains clear wording about the term of office of the President. That’s Article 103. It says that the term of office of the President amounts to 5 years. That’s all! Short and indisputable.The authors of the Constitution, by the way, I am one of them, I participated in its development and adoption, clearly provided that the extension of powers in the event of the introduction of martial law applies only and exclusively to the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukraine.
Zelenskiy at the end of May will become an impostor, illegitimate, a person who usurps power with all the ensuing consequences. What consequences? The consequences are very simple—none of the decrees issued by him will have legal power.
Posted by: S | Apr 2 2024 13:56 utc | 60
59,
They will find another person to replace him. I've noticed various channels that mention Ermak as a potential PM. It would be naïve for anyone to believe that elections in Ukraine or who is in charge there matters at this point. The country is basically the battering ram of NATO in Russia. They will not stop until Russia actually manages to enforce deterrence which at this point doesn't seem to be the case.
Posted by: JamesBond | Apr 2 2024 14:01 utc | 61
"emboldened now by his fake elections, he is likely to move on the ground and may try once again to open a land corridor to Crimea. But such decisions may plant the seeds of military overreach."
It is interesting how Farkas could conclude that land corridor to Crimea is not open to Russia. First, she must be one of the people who lack the ability to get information from maps, they do exist, and in the age of GPS navigation, they function adequately unless they are advised to look at a map to figure either route for their vehicle or a military situation. Second, she has decent memory about text information, and she remembers well that breaking that "land corridor" was planned and promised. Somehow she missed the fact that while planned, it was never achieved, perhaps it was never explicitely stated to her other than "oh well, the situation can be seen on ISW map" or something to that effect.
Of course, this minor mental deficiency disqualifies her from being an expert on strategic prospects etc.
It is also interesting how elections in Russia got the status of "fake". Propagandists live their own world.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Apr 2 2024 14:01 utc | 62
While the Ukrainians hardly welcome a new Russian offensive in the spring or summer, they believe it is likely. The officials we met with explained that Putin needs to show progress, some kind of victory to justify renewed mobilization and, emboldened now by his fake elections
They still can't get their head around why the Russians would vote even more for a strongman after everything they've done and the success he has had against them?
Even the English wikipedia took a passive-aggressive swing. Others win, Putin was merely "announced as the winner".
Posted by: Altai | Apr 2 2024 14:08 utc | 64
The people who write this stuff are a few cards shy of a full deck, because it is their job to talk to the political class, who are also selected for the same willingness to uncritically accept whatever they're told. Ie class of people that includes congressional staffers, TV heads and other pundits, professional "fact checkers", actual politicians. Over time, filtering your thoughts to confirm to the accepted bounds of narrative causes a functionally imbecility. Just the way it goes.
Posted by: pxx | Apr 2 2024 14:13 utc | 66
"Hollywood has entered all institutions in the west.
From military to business and universities…"
Posted by: vargas | Apr 2 2024 10:22 utc | 11
Sorry, Vargas, but the obverse is true. Hollywood serves those institutions, especially the military.
Posted by: Tedder | Apr 2 2024 14:22 utc | 67
66 - Indeed. It was possible to tell that the US Navy probably funded the Steven Seagal film Under Siege. Because the film glorifies it. Whereas the main villain played by Tommy Lee Jones is renegade CIA, and a senior CIA official is depicted as a cynical rat, so clearly no funding from there...
Not just Hollywood. The TV series The Last Ship is one long hymn to the US Navy, though they manage to fit in a female Israeli and an Australian as useful reinforcements. In series 1 a Russian ship is a dangerous antagonist in the path of Our Heroes...
Posted by: Waldorf | Apr 2 2024 14:33 utc | 68
Did she tell a conscious lie, or perhaps somehow really believed in her tale? It's hard to say. Apparently, some people treat an otherwise factual argument as purely emotional means of convincing, as if they knew of no other means to convince. Many of them are frauds and bullshit artists, but others seem to do this without an evil intent. I have a story to share on this.
I've spent some time in artsy and subcultural scenes, who liked to convene in the Golden Pudel Club. I got to know a bunch of young (millenial) theatre folks, a clique of two actresses who both are quite succesful now, and a gay boy, who became a stage director. They studied together at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst in Berlin, a great institution of the former GDR, and for his graduation I was invited over to play a small part. It was a fairly grandiose production about the germanic myth of our world's creation, lasting three days, and meant as a reflection on "virtuality"; its concept was intended as a foundation towards a new theory of drama. All very interesting, I thought; but then, it was absolutely awful. Staggeringly stupid, even. - What happened?
The stage revolved around a central "laboratory", where the acting ensemble wore white lab coats and goggles. Here, they reflected the process of creation, and did this through improvised internet research on various topics. As they came across geology, a model of a volcano was built and called, well - a volcano. It was a smallish white piece of gypsum with a glass bulb inside, open towards the top, and heated with a gas flame from below. When the water reached the point of superheating, gas bubbles rose from the bottom and splashed some of the water out over the gypsum. In all sincerity, they presented this to the bored audience as a volcano; which in fact is nothing like this, as no heat source is turned up to generate the magma, but rather the magma rises from deep below through cracks in the rock and may cause an explosive event without a phase transitioning involved. What they showed was a Geysir instead. But apparently they did not care at all. Hey, it was gushing, and the internet said so! Now, please mind that this aspect of virtuality is exactly what they wished to reflect and portray. But what they ended up with is a total misconception of the processes involved in their "creation", and they did not even realize themselves they were in error. It was just presented as a fact, as good as any, because it was given with a firm conviction. I'm not sure they see the problem to this day.
Posted by: persiflo | Apr 2 2024 14:36 utc | 69
Evelyn Farkas is a rising star in Blobland. She is likely far brighter than most. The really dumb ones are much worse, and also rewarded.
Posted by: oldhippie | Apr 2 2024 14:36 utc | 70
#58 which direction are Kharkov residents going?
Posted by: Sentient | Apr 2 2024 14:10 utc | 64
Kharkov is traditionally a Russian city. After the Ukrainian invasion in 2014, I suspect that many Western Ukrainians moved there to accomplish the lebensraum of the neoNazi regime in Kyiv. Now, they are rats fleeing the sinking ship.
Posted by: Tedder | Apr 2 2024 14:39 utc | 71
She is fluent in Hungarian and German, speaks some Serbo-Croatian, French, and Spanish, and has studied Russian and Hindi.
Yet for all that she is still an idiot, like most European Americans, all democrats, and the Wikipedian(s) who omitted English from the list of languages in which Farkas is fluent. She is like a shaman who can recite Rome's mystical mumbo jumbo in both Latin and his mother tongue. In both cases, most of the time and effort devoted to language studies has been wasted.
Posted by: Drive-By Shooter | Apr 2 2024 11:30 utc | 23
Bro, she speaks those languages like she reads maps. She probably learned how to order a cheeseburger in each language listed or something. These people don't just commit fraud, they are frauds. Don't believe the hype!
US imperialism is a reality show with nukes. Period.
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Apr 2 2024 14:43 utc | 72
"...emboldened now by his fake elections..." In other words, Putin tricked himself into believing, elections were not fake...? Geeze
Posted by: Jonathan | Apr 2 2024 14:45 utc | 73
Its a very consistent theme ... US personnel who work for these agencies are rarely battle hardened, linguistically proficient, able to stand the rigors of sleeping on hard surfaces, eating garbage food, and withstanding or unwilling to take the risks necessary to get on any front-line and figure out for themselves what is actually happening. So what do they do, they talk to people in plush offices and conference rooms and that's the reality they bring back with them. The net outcome of all this is, the US keeps getting manipulated by our so called Allies - the Brits, Israelis (both inside and outside our administrations), Ukrainians etc. - who all have their own agendas and priorities. And their interests are NOT the same as Americas. What is in fact happening is, the US is being systematically out maneuvered, milked, and ultimately trapped into quagmires (that will undermine America's future). US is being used / leveraged for other 'allies gains' - not ours. Why because our people don't do the work (they are lazy), don't have the facts, and don't have the sophistication to really figure out what is going on. Add to this, when they come back they are undermined by Israelis inside our own government - like Nuland - who will suppress, obfuscate what is being reported. In the end our leadership doesn't have the capacity to make good decisions and we get screwed. Its a proposition for national bankruptcy and the loss of US prestige, influence and ultimately opportunity globally. We simply do NOT have the people, in the right places, with access and ability to provide the truth and make good decisions. And our allies know it and take advantage of it. We need a whole new caliber of people on the ground, with direct access to decision makers without anything being sugar coated or modified. Can't win this way!!
Posted by: Ayatoilet | Apr 2 2024 14:48 utc | 74
https://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/evelyn-farkas-russia-pentagon-215517
Farkas may be an idiot, but she’s a real looker. /s
Posted by: Sentient | Apr 2 2024 14:08 utc | 62
For 56 year old, she looks well... not exactly like a former model well trained with maintaining her looks, but close... Not an Epstein Island candidate. Ouch, this pic is 9 years old. It could be that she gives interviews under condition of no picture taking.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Apr 2 2024 14:50 utc | 75
It is also interesting how elections in Russia got the status of "fake". Propagandists live their own world.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Apr 2 2024 14:01 utc | 61
Always When western propagandist saw natives and local people support their TRUE NATIONL REPRESENTIVE (and could not install pupet of West), they decide to call it "fake" "illegal" "fraud".
I seen it many times and tired it.
Russian supports Putin is fake.
Syrian supports Assad is fake.
Venezuelan supports Maduro is fake.
Whatever it is, we regard election results we don't like as fake.
-Western Imperialist Definition Of Democracy
Posted by: Nokaz | Apr 2 2024 14:58 utc | 76
The ukraine regime is insolvent. No money will turn the destroyed regime around after more than 5 trillion $ have been destroyed during the special military operation.
Posted by: AI | Apr 2 2024 14:59 utc | 77
Evelyn N. Farkas, Ph.D., is executive director of the McCain Institute and former deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia.
didnt know that McCain was still US foreign policy. but then perhaps i did
Ms Farkas had me fooled for all of 1 Planck time/second
"The Planck time is the length of time at which no smaller meaningful length can be validly measured due to the indeterminacy expressed in Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Theoretically, this is the shortest time measurement that is possible.[1] Planck time is roughly 10−43 seconds."
Posted by: chris m | Apr 2 2024 15:01 utc | 78
What is propaganda finally? It is war against your own people and country.
What else can you expect from people who confuse Australia with Austria and Sweden with Switzerland?
Never disturb an enemy who destroys himself!
Posted by: Aarsupilani | Apr 2 2024 15:02 utc | 79
Posted by: Don Firineach | Apr 2 2024 9:31 utc | 2
##############
Virtues are disabilities in a bureaucracy.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 2 2024 15:03 utc | 80
US DOD is the pentagon a 5 sided wind tunnel!
The only sure outcome of this is squandering US dollars.
The rest is wind tunnel wash.
Farkas is middling pentagon head bobber.
Posted by: paddy | Apr 2 2024 15:08 utc | 81
Kharkov evacuation
Latest video footage shows Kharkov residents driving out of the city in what looks like a hurricane evacuation in a US coastal city. The authorities set up contraflow lanes to speed the exodus. Don't expect to see this on the 6 o'clock news.Posted by: Mike R | Apr 2 2024 13:41 utc | 58
Here is the video
🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦In the video, people are leaving Kharkov en masse.Reports are increasingly appearing in ukroSMI that Russia will soon return Kharkov. Even the mayor of the city Terekhov constantly whines that the energy sector of the city and region has come to an end.
Of course, a huge number of Kharkov thermal power plants and thermal power plants have sunk into oblivion, and this is not the end.
Traffic on the two west-going lanes of the four-lane highway has almost stopped. Some people have taken to using one of the east-going lanes.
I do not believe the authorities have set up "contraflow lanes". This is simple Russian ingenuity. Or some Ukrainians feel more entitled than others.
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Apr 2 2024 15:13 utc | 82
Well, of course they are incredibly well-informed. And they are not lying.
It's just that the truth they hold on to, is tinkered with future few are able to imagine. They are the prophets and visionaries.
Posted by: js | Apr 2 2024 15:22 utc | 83
US imperialism is a reality show with nukes. Period.
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Apr 2 2024 14:43 utc | 71
######
Great line.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 2 2024 15:23 utc | 84
Lol! On my computer 'The Hill' link is in a bookmark folder called 'Horseshit and Hate'. It definitely AIN'T a news site. It is staffed by second-rate scribblers and neocon nut jobs. News? T'is laughable to call it that.
Posted by: rgl | Apr 2 2024 15:24 utc | 85
It's possible but I don't think this is a mistake. It's part of the "Russia ran out of missiles" we hear on msm for years now. Each week they run out of something, their economy is collapsing, they use refrigerators for chips and so on. It's not less absurd than this.
Now it's the updated version: "they use Kinzhal because they ran out of missiles". It prepares the retarded population from nato for the step where they will be told Ukr needs a little help, Russia is at its borders, let's send a few to help them or let's nuke Donbass like that Tim Walberg guy said. Remember "two weeks to flatten the curve"? Exactly like that.
But let's not forget the most convincing failure propaganda did not came from nato, it came from Russia itself, with their constant retreating, gestures of goodwill, more retreating after referendum and the general butt kissing they perform all day long ( tass.com/politics/1769351 )
Posted by: rk | Apr 2 2024 15:26 utc | 86
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Apr 2 2024 15:13 utc | 81
Rumor mill says Zelensky is planning Kharkov to go down like Bakhmut, and Azov's have taken position inside the city.
Posted by: unimperator | Apr 2 2024 15:26 utc | 87
S | Apr 2 2024 13:56 utc | 59
...
Zelenskiy at the end of May will become an impostor, illegitimate, a person who usurps power with all the ensuing consequences. What consequences? The consequences are very simple—none of the decrees issued by him will have legal power.
Once, some one he say "Power comes at the end of a gun"
That am also why the EU 'powers' are trying to move troops within individual once independent countries - to control the population.
It is is difficult to get 'Pierre' to shoot 'Marie' ("Merde ! She's my neighbours' girlfriends' grandmother !")
But Piotr, Sven, Igba, Klaus etc why would they give a f***?
Posted by: Sarlat La Canède | Apr 2 2024 15:27 utc | 88
$330 million won't make a damn difference. Ukraine's running out of men and NATO's running out of weapons & ammunition. You can't buy things that simply don't exist. This is just a last desperate money grab to pay off all the usual suspects and buoy a few NAFO spirits. If they do pull it off, they'll simply accelerate the downfall of NATO and the EU as functional entities.
Posted by: TJandTheBear | Apr 2 2024 15:28 utc | 89
She's not selling snake oil and she's not an idiot ... her job is to sell justify ever higher weapons sales for her bosses, the corporations that fund her outfit and rule the country.
As such, she will "show" how "Ukraine is winning" or, if necessary, how "Ukraine is losing and it's a disaster and must be stopped" (probably coming next) and do it all with a winning personality and perfect smile.
Posted by: Caliman | Apr 2 2024 15:28 utc | 90
thanks b...
i liked with @ Scottindallas | Apr 2 2024 12:03 utc | 37 said -
"B, don't confuse war mongering, literally selling war material, with actual reporting and analysis. Our think tanks are owned and funded by military contractors and this is simply a sales pitch, an Op-ed. The editorial department doesn't edit adverts."
@ 58 mike r.... can you provide any additional info on that? i am curious... is that because they've lost some electricity??
messing with the electricity as john helmer notes - has to be a harsh reality.. that messes up water availability and all sorts of things..
Posted by: james | Apr 2 2024 15:32 utc | 92
Putin ... emboldened now by his fake elections
---
Farkas is projecting about Zelinski's legitimacy.
Posted by: too scents | Apr 2 2024 12:26 utc | 41
Zelinski says he can't hold elections because his citizens in the occupied territories can not vote for him.
Zelenski didn't think twice before becoming president in 2019. Despite people in the eastern districts and Crimea didn't and couldn't vote for him in 2019 due to the civil war.
Posted by: Marvin | Apr 2 2024 15:35 utc | 93
The main issue for Russia is how they can make EU choke and pay dearly for all the refugees from Kharkov. Most likely large number of refugees will lead to Nato troops occupying western Ukraine, and setting up concentration camps for the people. Most likely this sort of arrangement will eventually become unsustainable. Those newly found refugees in the west refuse to go to the grinder, meaning Ukraine has lost and Nato stuck with large number of refugees.
This is done in order to isolate Poland/EU from Ukraine and its costs, and to reduce the intrinsic costs of maintaining rump Ukraine (by minimizing the expenses and life quality of the people).
We have now seen 2 or 3 different strikes in Stry, Lwow. It's possible EU got hurt really bad from the destroyed gas storages. For all intents and purposes, that Ukrainian storage was holding EU gas which had already been paid for.
So we will probably see Nato occupation of Lwow pretty soon (if not already).
Posted by: unimperator | Apr 2 2024 15:35 utc | 94
@OldFart | Apr 2 2024 11:59 utc | 34
Gestapo type suppression of Americans who speak their minds. If I remain alive, I’ll send you a postcard from the Gulag. Cheers!Come over here and you can send that postcard right now.
There is a forum for discussions here in Norway that used to be somewhat independent, but it was taken over by MSM a few years ago. There is a loooong thread about "Russias invasion of Ukraine" so I posted some quotes from Scott Ritter and linked to a Youtube video proving he actually said what I quoted. I received a flood of angry profanity. Obviously, the 'moderator' struck me down for spreading 'misinformation' and being rude and gave me a strike that I had to akcnowledge or be banned. The next day I posted a watered down message about Zelensky firing his main advisor + a few others. Again a flood of profanity, I just suggested to them "why not simply show me where I am wrong, that is what this forum is about". Nope, the whole thing disappeared without a trace, so much for 'moderation'.
That is my postcard from Gulag today 😎.
Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 2 2024 15:40 utc | 95
Regarding Kharkov... if Ze wants a Bakhmut out of Kharkov, roll in the FAB-3000s.
Posted by: unimperator | Apr 2 2024 15:42 utc | 96
Farkas’s parents were 1956ers. This explains her fluency in Hungarian as well as her nasty worldview. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a home shrine to Mindszenty.
Posted by: malenkov | Apr 2 2024 15:49 utc | 97
I'm originally from Hungary, but have been living in Australia for the last 30 years. Farkas is a common Hungarian surname, meaning wolf. Literally 'the one with a tail'. Farok means 'tail'.
Posted by: Peter Schmidt | Apr 2 2024 15:51 utc | 98
@ Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 2 2024 15:40 utc | 94
Well, I've had a few things disappear here that were short, informative, and did not attack other posters.
Posted by: BroncoBilly | Apr 2 2024 15:57 utc | 99
She probably thinks a corridor is some kind of door.
Posted by: Neven | Apr 2 2024 9:56 utc | 5
Dollars to donuts she thinks a corridor is a railway. Which Russia did announce recently that they are building, adding an overland route.
Posted by: Mary | Apr 2 2024 16:02 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
The bridge was built.
The land bridge achieved.
The water problem solved.
A buffer zone established.
Crimea was made safer early on.
The rest are wet dreams or mass delusion.
Posted by: Newbie | Apr 2 2024 9:31 utc | 1