Both 2023, and 2024 so called counter offenses were doomed from the planning stage.

The U.S. yes men with stars on their shoulders knew Kiev needed the rough equivalent of a U.S. tactical Air Force formation, but infrastructure was unavailable and the U.S. would likely fail.

The big crime here is going on offense hugely unarmed!

The issue of NATO doctrine unsuited to Kiev military culture is also a thing.

US generals did no one a service.

Planners from Pyongyang to Mogadishu are analyzing.

Posted by: paddy | Mar 31 2025 16:30 utc | 1

b, the americans have no culture or notion of real history and for that reason they lose all wars and shall continue doing so until the learn from the Russians.

Posted by: pepe | Mar 31 2025 16:38 utc | 2

Nato missiles into Russia, i can't believe Russia has been so reasonable, they should have hit Nato assets long before now, the RAF base on Cyprus should have been a target or even Ramstein in Germany, i mean what the hell would they do about it?

Posted by: Englishman | Mar 31 2025 16:42 utc | 3

The German plans for Drang Nacht Osten were less racist and ultimately more competent than the Talmudic designs on Russia. This might actually have worked against the Russia of the 1990s, which was in no shape to resist major economic attack. But VVP has changed the country for the better in all respects. It's why they hate him so much.

Posted by: They Call Me Mister | Mar 31 2025 16:43 utc | 4

Spot on correct.
Russophobic racism and considering Russians as untermenschen is absolutely the foundation of this entire episode.

In WW2 Churchill and Roosevelt expected Hitler to beat the USSR and wanted Hitler to beat the USSR.
They were as shocked as the Germans by the Soviet strength and the reversal at Stalingrad.
The long delayed D-Day landings were a race against Russia not a fight against Germany.

Fast forward to the economic collapse of the USSR in 1989 under Gorbachev,
There was an ecstatic eruption of racist contempt for Russia and Russians throughout western political and military leadership.
It meant nothing to obtain Germany reunification on an empty promise of no eastward expansion of NATO that was immediately broken.
Western and NATO conduct was based on completely ignoring Russia due to racist contempt.
It was / is literally racist contempt of Russians as untermenschen, such that it was not even worth talking to them or taking them seriously as people.

The Barbarossa 2.0 plan culminating now in Ukraine began immediately in 1990 with eastward NATO expansion and the west's, especially the US, massive campaign of political subversion by the usual NGOs. Provokations in Chechnya and Georgia led to a self-fulfilling momentun of hostility to Russia and the defeat of any notion of reconciliation and normalisation. This was ruled out based on racism alone.

The goal of NATO was identical to that of Adolph Hitler, imperialistic conquest of Russia and pillage of its resources with no respect or even recognition for the humans living there.

Then of course Ukraine.
B is exactly correct - an exercise in racism from start to finish.

Mark Rutte now says publically that there will be no reconciliation with Russia for "decades".
In contrast, the west was reconciled to Germany less than one decade after 1945.
In Japan it was even quicker.
Does Rutte consider what Russia has done in Ukraine worse than all the acts of the German Nazi Wehrmacht and the Holocaust in WW2?
No - just just considers Germans as human and Russians not.
And he's not alone.

Posted by: Andrew Sarchus | Mar 31 2025 16:43 utc | 5

Assuming the end goal of the United States empire and its vassals was the dismembering of the Russian Federation through internal turmoil then they did have a small chance. Let's not forget Prigozhin's little adventure and its timing. It's because of Putin's statecraft, his masterful skills and the way he was able to overcome the external pressure securing the Russian economy that the US empire failed in its endeavor where everything came back like a boomerang.

Posted by: xor | Mar 31 2025 16:50 utc | 6

The very flattering glimpse the nytimes provided in its lengthy article on the “secret” relationship that, like, nobody knew about—shhhhh!——when the military & CIA of Collective Biden was joined @ the hip w/ their counterparts in Ukraine, also gave readers a glimpse, whether intentionally or not, into the great gnarly debacle which results when a proxy army underperforms or when the proxy’s leadership begins self-importantly to interfere in the paymaster’s strategic objectives.

Which we are now seeing play out in excruciating detail daily in contentious messaging from the proxy’s leader and in rogue attacks by the proxy’s missiles against energy infrastructure targets that violate the limited ceasefire.

In other words, the war is not merely lost when the proxy military underperforms on the battlefield, in spite of ample weaponry, but the post-loss period, the after-loss period, becomes its own sort of war zone, shared by the paymaster and the proxy, in which they face off inimically, trying to agree to terms to concede defeat.

Of course, the fastest way for the paymaster to jerk the proxy’s chain is to cease the flow of weaponry & intel support. Having tried that briefly, our Big Beautiful Paymaster is now in the weak position of trying it again, an anticlimactic move that lacks punch.

Dilemma City.

So the nytimes article can extol the glorious Honeymoon Days of this once-fabulous marriage while foreshadowing the cold-shower horror of the whole thing dashed in an ugly divorce. But *that* part will be an even more closely guarded secret, one which Regime Media rags like the nytimes may never be permitted to tell.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 16:58 utc | 7

How very curious to think Ukraine has been defeated. Losing and not having any path to victory other than fantasy, yes. But that's not defeated. Compare the inglorious history of the CSA. In hindsight, the highwater mark was Antietam, in 1862. Gettysburg/Vicksburg in 1863 conclusively proved the defeat. But the US Civil War did not end until spring 1865! Starting off with this fundamentally false perspective is not helpful.

As to whether Trump is actually winding down the war in Ukraine? Not as obvious. For one thing, while the NYT may want to re-write the history of the Ukraine war, to imagine that victory was within grasp until somebody messed it all up, Trump has already passed on the opportunity to put the blame on Biden! The longer he screws around with mineral deals, the more it's Trump's war. The NYT's piece appears to copy the strategy of Confederates who tried to claim Lee could have won at Gettysburg and save human civilization from the dastardly woke abolitionists if only [insert name of favorite fall guy] hadn't messed up. Given how much crowing there is here about how the NYT is universally rejected, because MSM/legacy media, has been totally discredited---unlike such small-time independent outlets free from the ruling class like Fox---I'm not sure why anyone thinks this piece matters?

And by the way, the notion that it's racism rather than anti-Communism/anti-Socialism, needs some careful re-thinking, no? Putin was resented for approximately the same reasons I think as Xi, perceived as obstacles to an untrammeled rule of capital, a true restoration. I personally think it is wrong to think of Putin as a socialist (admittedly not nearly as crazy as thinking Democrats are Marxists.) But that's me.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Mar 31 2025 17:05 utc | 8

Posted by: Andrew Sarchus | Mar 31 2025 16:43 utc | 5
RE: Russophobic racism
<<

The caliber of ethnic hate Europeans especially directed against Russians exhibited the most socially-acceptable form of baseline racism any group of people can *acceptably* express today---and this coming from a neoliberal bloc that prides itself---pun intended---on inclusivity.

I'm not letting the Americans off the hook, because obviously we've seen the appalling glee that white-on-white hatred of Russians inspires.

It's as if the bloc and the U.S. *crave* a target of their racist ire, but they are prevented from targeting BIPOC and LBGTQ+ souls, so white Christian Russians function as the only release valve for their pent up hate.

The hate pre-dated the socially acceptable target, which in this case is Russians in Russia (or Russian athletes on the tennis court or Russian conductors in the orchestra pit @ the Metropolitan Opera.)

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 17:09 utc | 9

Posted by: pepe | Mar 31 2025 16:38 utc | 2

You could add they have no clue about what it means to loose a war for real, with occupation, forced labor, humiliations, pillaging and so on. The nearest they have is a "civil war", only a fraction of them still remember what it feels like and they are ostracized since.
The image of the US loosing is them taking a plane/chopper and going back home. It's not helping.

Posted by: Savonarole | Mar 31 2025 17:09 utc | 10

All we have to do is kick in the front door snd the whole rotten house will fall down, right?

When has the West properly evaluated Russia? Napoleon messed up. Hitler messed up. And now this. Russia couldn’t be beaten in Ukraine. But let’s not pretend that was the real strategy of NATO. They thought Putin himself was on shaky ground and the war would see him ousted by his own people. Exactly how that was supposed to be more desirable than Putin in charge is another question, but that was the goal. Thus NATO would win with another color revolution instead of force of arms.

An actual full scale acknowledged war between Russia and NATO would inevitably go nuclear and that would be that for all. For Russia Ukraine is existential. Had they actually faced serious reversals, they would have used nukes rather than lose. Had Putin been as bad as alleged, he would have used nukes rather than lose.

Such a stupid war. The only path to victory for the west was that somehow Putin would be removed before nukes could be used. Out of a dozen outcomes there was only one narrow path to “success”.

This is what happens when you have unserious midwits running countries on ideological hopium instead of facts and reason. Facts and reason can be wrong, but seldom delusional.

Posted by: CullenBaker | Mar 31 2025 17:13 utc | 11

Finnish Stubby on sky news UK tonight ..Russian economy still hurting(well Europe economy going to be a lot worse than it is it's stagnant self with DT samctions)..seems to be putting doubts in Trump head. and Europe definitely seems to be pushing USA for next 17 round of sanctions against Russia on April 20th- though they could be "conditional". Still raising the hypocrisy that VP questions the legitimacy of z but everyone forgetting z himself and Rada made it illegal to negotiate with Putin and z still refuses to do so.

Posted by: Jo | Mar 31 2025 17:16 utc | 12

I put it off on arrogance rather than racism. Or hubris if you prefer that word. The United States and our European allies are unwilling to deal with the simple fact that the rest of the world has caught up with our achievements, is all grown up now, and we can no longer push them around at will.

Posted by: Jmaas | Mar 31 2025 17:20 utc | 13

When the subject of racism in the United States is brought up, what comes to mind is the works of Alexis DeTocqueville by way of his great book, Democracy in America. In one part, he speaks of how the citizens of the United States are obsessed with race. This he observed on his travels throughout the country. Of course this obsession has diminished over the many years since the 1830’s when this work was published. But in some centers of society some cannot let go of it. Especially with those who maintain control and dominion over its citizens and many areas around the world.

Posted by: Jose Garcia | Mar 31 2025 17:25 utc | 14

Posted by: Andrew Sarchus | Mar 31 2025 16:43 utc | 5

The West was only "reconciled" to Germany and Japan because it effectively destroyed the civilization-states of both countries, in large part through intentional bombing of civilians and civilian infrastructure, and then exerted control over both countries--control which in large part continues to this day.

The West says it will *not* be reconciled to Russia precisely because it knows it cannot destroy Russia without itself being destroyed. But only if Russia were to be destroyed could the West reconcile itself to Russia. So the hostilities will continue to simmer over the next decade as the European economy continues its slow collapse and deindustrialization. At some point--when its countries are literally falling apart due to the anti-Russian "sanctions"--a hot war with Russia will appear as the only solution. And then we are truly fucked. Given the current climate in Europe, I understand what that psycho bitch said the other week in claiming that "war is safer than peace" when it comes to Ukraine. Once Ukraine falls, once a Russian peace is imposed upon that failed state--this will be the MOST dangerous time in world history because of the delusional Europeans.

Posted by: WJ | Mar 31 2025 17:29 utc | 15

personally, i would not call it racism per se (there is a truth to it though), but rather pure hatred towards the "untermenschen". aka, what the west, collectievly, is doing, is just nazism.

britains hatred has fermented this behaviour.
the usa greed has stoked it further.
and the eu(ropean) revanchism for losing (the shit they started) is now bringing it back to the mainstream.

the west are the "new" nazis. and we are not talking about the kind of nazis that those american idiots call when they dont like an electric car brand.

Posted by: Justpassinby | Mar 31 2025 17:32 utc | 16

I can’t speak for the Euros, but from an American perspective calling it racism is stupid. Americans aren’t all that nuanced with race. You are either white or not white. Russians are white. Americans aren’t racist to Russians. They may have some stereotypes about them but they aren’t based on race.

This was more a case of the people in charge being pretty mediocre in intellect and ability while coming of age in an era where the US was the unquestioned hegemon. Thus all the American policy makes were used to doing whatever they wanted and the Euros were used to being under that umbrella and following along. Plus, throw in a good amount of ideology and you get a perspective not all that unlike Hitler’s. Victory could be had by will despite facts, numbers, etc. and reality could be manufactured with propaganda and force of will.

Posted by: CullenBaker | Mar 31 2025 17:33 utc | 17

@ Sarhus

"In WW2 Churchill and Roosevelt expected Hitler to beat the USSR and wanted Hitler to beat the USSR."

Really? Then why the Artic convoys? Watch newsreel of the Soviet counter-offensive outside Moscow and you'll see Hurricane fighters and Matilda and Valentine tanks. The Lucy ring was set up to feed Stalin Ultra information and the Americans built most of the trans-Iranian railway to supply southern Russia.

Posted by: Squeeth | Mar 31 2025 17:39 utc | 18

I read the article in the N.Y.T. Initially I thought I was reading Soviet Izvestya and Pravda from the Spanish Civil War period.
From start to finish, a disgusting piece of propaganda, even Stalin would have been disgusted...The N.Y.T. is addressing Americans, stupid people, easily manipulated.Essentially, the Ukrainians lost on their own, they did not listen to the "precious advice" of the Americans...
Reading between the lines, the truth behind propaganda we understand that:
The Ukrainians are not stupid, they chose to lose on their strategy rather than American stupid strategy.
Between the lines we learn how a Russian platoon blocked an American-Ukrainian offensive for 72 hours, how the Russians found an antidote to all the "war games" of the strategists hunting for Afghan, Iraqi, Syrian or Yemeni barefoot people.
This is how we learn how America crossed all the red lines in its desire to destroy Russia, along with its vassals inside and outside NATO.No mention of eliminated NATO generals and officers, of real Ukrainian and NATO losses, but lamentations that Ukraine is not fighting with women, youth and teenagers...No mention of the tested Russian weapons that America only dreams of or Russian tactics...During the Winter War, Scandinavian newspapers reported on the impossible feat of the Soviet army, the breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line. German and Western newspapers then, as today, spoke of the weaknesses of the Russians.

Posted by: surena | Mar 31 2025 17:46 utc | 19

Get over it. It was hardly “Bidens” war, been on the U.S. Agenda of “take downs” for 40 years. They simply saw they were running out of time, and sincerely believed their weapons and sanctions were “all that” and would destroy Putin.
In their machinations, the whole world would join them..

In the present, idiot Trump trying to do carrot & stick…
The whole of DC are delusional tards, in decline & if they hit Iran, will be destroyed within 5 years…

Posted by: Trubind1 | Mar 31 2025 17:47 utc | 20

The war part of the war is over. Zelensky's left with his Halloween mask and some drones, Europe has unmanned itself militarily, And Trump's Monopoly choice is only Greenland--Trump's Ukrainian loss a 2024 fait acompli before he even took office. Great actor. And finally Zelensky the Neo-Nazi without humanity much less the country he ruled into very wide ruin.

War and History? But I'm repeating myself or rhyming. The first week of this conflict I remarked that any and all lethal war instruments were being brought in EVERYWHERE along Ukraine's border ("One could unnoticed deliver the Italian Alps into Ukraine.") Have a great day.

Posted by: elmagnostic | Mar 31 2025 17:48 utc | 21

I'm a little anxious to see what happens next after big mouth (allegedly) let it be known he was "very angry" with Mr. Putin and threatened to call him up and give him a good talking to.

Posted by: chunga | Mar 31 2025 17:53 utc | 22

Racism is always a component of war. It gets turned on when its needed to justify killing. It gets turned off when it suits purposes. But not really. Its focus just gets changed. Racism is too useful to be abandoned. It is used as just another way to wield power. Identity politics is racism using tired cliches.

Only when people in their hearts accept equality and there is not hate will humanity start to grow towards its potential. A victim basis is just as contrary to humanity's potential as the other side. Hate cultivated is hate cultivated. Hate is useful for war. Hate is useful for politics. It is cultivated and promoted.

When there is no unity there will be war. The unity comes from shared experience of being human. Its a choice. Unity creates justice. Hate always creates injustice. Exceptionalism is no different from racism. Practicing exceptionalism to appose racism yields predictable results. Hate is hate.

Its not a rose garden but it is. Its not easy but it is. We decide. Hate represents lack of skill, unwillingness to mature and rejection of process.

Posted by: LosBanos | Mar 31 2025 17:58 utc | 23

M K Bhadrakumar (Indianpunchline dot com) has penned a recent volley of articles about Russia, 404, Trump et al. All well worth the read, and as a seasoned diplomat from a great nation, very much realist and reasoned.

Posted by: Waymad | Mar 31 2025 18:02 utc | 24

Posted by: chunga | Mar 31 2025 17:53 utc | 22
RE: the big mouth (allegedly) was "very angry"
<<

First, DJT was "pissed off," then after playing golf w/ Finland's president Stubb he was "very angry." By the time he boarded Air Force One, DJT said he was "disappointed" by VVP's questioning Zelensky's legitimacy.
You know that saying---This Too Shall Pass-? Well, DJT was living it.

Like Jo said @
Posted by: Jo | Mar 31 2025 17:16 utc | 12

Zelensky de-legitimized himself in September 2022 when he disallowed himself or any other representative of the Rada from negotiating w/ VVP.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 18:04 utc | 25

What could you expect from someone whose name is Cavoli, which translate (from Italian) as Cabbages?

Posted by: scc | Mar 31 2025 18:06 utc | 26

The poor regard with which war planners and commanders hold the Russian military is based on advanced technology weaponry and a bigotry of Slavs in general. A bigotry that somehow did not include Ukrainians, who had already demonstrated they were incapable of successfully developing their nation socioeconomically after independence from the USSR. Ukraine's leadership derives from either crony businessmen or butch sadists whose only virtue is securing US/EU subsidy for war against Russia. Putin is in a delicate situation. Routing the left over rump of the Ukrainian fighting forces will force Trump into a rash, chest beating demonstration of baboon domination, yet accepting a ceasefire will only prolong the cost in Russian lives and resources. A quick denouement to smash the Ukrainian army may be the best course.

Posted by: Keme | Mar 31 2025 18:09 utc | 27

Squeeth at 18

Hi,
Churchill set up the 'dirty piece of paper' at Yalta, which promised Stalin a big chunk of Europe. Churchill's idea was to attack up through Italy and cut the Russians off.
However the US wouldn't play ball, and we know the result.
The foregoing is a simplified take on it.
Cheers Oldengineer

Posted by: Oldengineer | Mar 31 2025 18:10 utc | 28

Racism is the wrong word. Cultural bigotry is more like it.

Posted by: nook | Mar 31 2025 18:16 utc | 29

Racism it most certainly is.

Anyone who has spent time among a certain U.S. ethnic group has heard their deep seated racism regarding the sub-human troglodyte Russians.

Old Hippie can confirm.

Posted by: Exile | Mar 31 2025 18:20 utc | 30

When we forget the propaganda we end up with a couple of serious matters.

1. An indictment of the us and uk as clear authors of that war, well beyond a co-belligerent role
2. Clear assessment that until 2022 the us was ok with things going nuclear on a 5-10% chance
3. That from 2023 onward 50% chance of things going nuclear was dealt with in a "I'm fine with that" approach

An interesting point on the old man's war thing. It's clear the us knows wars are fought and won by 20 somethings (28 median age in general, 25 for marines).

A final point on how excess of drones became a problem for ukraine wanting to check, double check targets and even strike results...

Posted by: Newbie | Mar 31 2025 18:21 utc | 31

CullenBaker | Mar 31 2025 17:13 utc | 11

Out of a dozen outcomes there was only one narrow path to “success”. This is what happens when you have unserious midwits running countries on ideological hopium instead of facts and reason.

---

Actually, global leadership is way, way ahead of the curve with respect to facts and reason. That is, reality, not the contrived retail message for the 95%.

US peak domestic output occurred in 1970; Nixon went off the gold standard in 1971. The petro dollar was established in 1973, effectively substituting KSA reserves allowing the dollar to float.

The Club of Rome published Limits to Growth in 1972, letting anyone who was paying attention to peak at the unfolding game plan.

Fast forward 50 years, and the process was very close to success, with only a few loose ends to tie up:

Production moved to China? Check. Western heritage populations - the ones where uppity serfs and peasants begin to actually believe their make believe world of ease and luxury would continue indefinitely - replaced by hordes imported from the 3rd world to form the foundation of an emerging technical feudal society? Check.

The only thing they got wrong was Russia; Putin is certainly a huge historical figure in this arc. IMO, the loss in Ukraine was recognized by Trump supporters, which began the process of unwinding the oh so close total victory in the USA by the talmudic masters.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, the core issue presented to those of us operating in the here and now - and well understand the game - are not emotional reactions, but rather to apply rational analysis to project expected outcomes.

Doing so allows one to position themselves not only for safety and survival, but to also protect or even generate sufficient capital to maintain a modicum of comfort in the emerging bravo new world.

Posted by: Markw | Mar 31 2025 18:34 utc | 32

Posted by: Exile | Mar 31 2025 18:20 utc | 30
RE: racism it most certainly is
<<

Agreed.
*Ethnic hate* comes to mind, too. Even the 'o' word, drawn from the made-up fantasy species in J R R's books, exemplifies a derogatory 'othering' of an entire group of people: Russians.
The nytimes has used the 'o' word from time to time in its articles since Euromaidan---also a derogatory, and gratuitous, description of Russia's St. George ribbon, which was used as a symbol in Russia as support for Crimea's referendum and how it *returned* the peninsula to the motherland.
When the nytimes applies the 'o' word to Russians, it does so gauging how socially acceptable it is.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 18:39 utc | 33

An interesting piece, and many interesting comments.

But as with others here, I don't see this as really being about 'racism.' The western elites have never forgiven Putin for stopping the looting of Russia. Their plan was never for Ukraine to actually win - the plan was to bog Russia down in a quagmire (if only through a vicious resistance of an occupied Ukraine, think Afghanistan on steroids), while assaulting their economy with sanctions. It was not a bad plan, and (perhaps combined with a little subversion as in Prighozin), might have come closer to succeeding than is thought. Everything looks inevitable after the fact. But remember: the western elites will not stop. They will continue to pressure countries on Russia's border with 'color revolutions,' the EU is outlawing dissent and opposition parties, the sanctions will never end, etc. Suppose Russia does 'defeat' Ukraine? A Russian occupation of the non-Russian speaking parts of Ukraine will be ruinously bloody and expensive. On the other hand, a rump Ukraine will continue to send drones at Russian oil refineries etc. The EU can be crushed in poverty to fund anti-Russian military funding, the public increasingly has no voice. I see this as being more of a multi-generational fight. Russia is good at outlasting enemies, but in their own way, so are the utterly amoral and vicious western elites. Interesting times.

Posted by: TG | Mar 31 2025 18:43 utc | 34

OldEngineer 28, this rings bell, something about trieste resisting flows of weapons as a neutral/independent area??

Posted by: E | Mar 31 2025 18:44 utc | 35

Posted by: TG | Mar 31 2025 18:43 utc | 34

#########

The looting of Russia has been a European preoccupation for centuries, even before the Russians supported Lincoln in the American Civil War.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 31 2025 18:47 utc | 36

Markw 32 … nice analysis… might I add, western central banking collusion on top… however, another miscalculation(?) of the elite parasite class was the pending ending of their competing housing cult ponzis (whereby their respective “jurisdictions” had to compete to bring in more people, as well as their own, to debt enslave with massive mortgages)

PS on a related note, seeing carney and Canuck liberals promising cheap housing … again… like it is 2015 all over! :)

Posted by: E | Mar 31 2025 18:51 utc | 37

The report contains an interesting boomerang: from now on, every comparable strike against Russia must be seen as a direct act of war by Western countries. Until now, this was also the case, but Russia was able to turn a blind eye and thus prevent a world war. At the same time, the “veil of ambiguity” allowed NATO countries to attack Russia more and more unabashedly. The NYT has now officially torn the veil.

Posted by: xblob | Mar 31 2025 18:52 utc | 38

When you read an article like this nytimes piece on a subject you know quite a bit about—-like the SMO and the events leading up to it—and you find the author to be misinformed, wrong or deeply deceptive in *how* they present the subject, then you begin to wonder whether the media outlet is inaccurate about other subjects you may know less about.

A systematic wrongness on *certain* topics, a *predictable* wrongness, always in the *same*direction, is a ‘tell.’ Then it is as if reality only exists to provide fodder for biased media narratives.

The nytimes, for instance, would never publish an article that praises Russian weapons designers for their work in hypersonic technology and the current apex of that work, the Oreshnik. Neither would the nytimes, let alone any Regime Media outlets, laud VVP for his reserved, taciturn and nonreactive statecraft. This makes evident the uni-directional one-way-street of the media bias.

Still, there is no ethical excuse for a writer to conceal the reality of this war in all its complexity.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 18:53 utc | 39

The bottom line is they would rather push for and lose a war in Ukraine if it weakened Russia in the process. That also has been a failure. Of course, they aren't in the trenches themselves. That's what pawns are for.

Posted by: WG | Mar 31 2025 18:57 utc | 40

This a.m. overheard two very young baristas talking. saying there were still generals loyal to democracy who would not follow Trump's order to surrender to Putin. They were for military tribunals and hangings of Trumptards. Exact same demographic as would have been peaceniks when I was their age.

Do not underestimate the American animus against Russia.

Posted by: oldhippie | Mar 31 2025 18:59 utc | 41

@38

If Kesselring had half the force place on the channel while Ike stayed in Algiers and built there instead of England.

Kesselring would have tied them up south of Monte Casino interminably.

Coming up through the Balkans like the Ottoman might have worked.

The sealines were better to Merrye Olde and the beer and women..

Posted by: paddy | Mar 31 2025 19:01 utc | 42

38, 39, 40 and 41… wow, seems like many “boomerangs”still incoming

Posted by: E | Mar 31 2025 19:03 utc | 43

Posted by: xblob | Mar 31 2025 18:52 utc | 38
RE: the nytimes has 'torn the veil' off NATO's war w/ Russia
<<

Great interpretation.

Like when Sec Rubio said, "The U.S. is in a proxy war w/ Russia..," there was no going back to the fig-leaf pretense of Ukraine's agency within the conflict.
Every time Antony B. said that war strategies and aims were up to Kiev and Kiev's decisions, we knew that was not so, because we saw the extent to which the U.S.-led NATO was running the show...

We always *knew* about the "secret partnership" of this conflict without ever needing the nytimes or any Regime Media outlet to confirm it---and we knew those outlets were lying. The question is: what sort of cognitive dissonance will this disclosure now unleash-?

There is no trying to pretend any longer that the one who is attempting to mediate an *end* to the war is in fact a belligerent who himself refuses to lay down arms.

Inane & bogus, in equal measure.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 19:04 utc | 44

32 markw… perhaps temper “make believe world of ease and luxury would continue indefinitely” comment with the fact that industrial capacity of the oil age DID actually create incredible abundance relative to medieval times? Even to some extent in non-western spheres… like Russia… which “the masters of the universe” still somehow can’t see!

Posted by: E | Mar 31 2025 19:12 utc | 45

The real war racket is that "All Wars are Banker Wars":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIE84LWvqU8

As Goebbels stated propaganda is the art of persuasion to get the masses to do your bidding:
https://quotepoem.com/rule/exploring-goebbels-quotes-insight-into-nazi-propaganda/

Ironically the Nazis just applied the work of Edward Bernays from his 1928 book titled Propaganda:
https://archive.org/details/Propaganda_Edward_L_Bernays_1928.pdf

The masses in North America and Europe are just nations of sheep being led to the slaughter in support of an abstract ideology. As Hermann Göring said: "The simple people never want war but it is easy to get them to join in. You just Need to tell them that they get attacked. This method works every time."

Thus the little people will march off to war for the bankers in a last-ditch effort to save the Empire. Like Nazi Germany the total war effort will fail but one cannot fix stupid.

Posted by: Krollchem | Mar 31 2025 19:23 utc | 46

It's not "racism" per se that is the problem.

It's the cult of American supremacy.

America identity is based on the self-medicating lie that the USA is morally, politically, and ultimately militarily superior to the entire world.

Americans don't want to admit that the Russians are kicking not only American ass but the entire Western world's ass in the Ukraine War.

So instead, they throw their Ukrainian meat-puppets under the bus and project their own humiliation and shame onto the Ukrainians, who are losing only because they didn't follow the brilliant military advice of their American/Eurotrash overlords.

America is First alright--but only, as Mr. Putin stated--as the Empire of Lies.

Posted by: ak74 | Mar 31 2025 19:26 utc | 47

Would anybody have a link to another article explaining why it wasn't American and NATO general's fault that they lost in Afghanistan?
They didn't have to be good. They just had to be better than a bunch of goat-herders in Flip-Flops. They weren't.

Posted by: Marvin | Mar 31 2025 19:29 utc | 48

The 2023 summer offensive was publicly known 6 months in advance. That alone tells you how smart these geniuses are.

Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 31 2025 19:29 utc | 49

Some of us remember a quite lengthy Sunday article in the nytimes in April 2024—the ‘now-it-can-be-told’ super true & incredible story about the CIA’s involvement in Project Ukraine following Euromaidan. It detailed the training of Budanov. It detailed the 12 separate “listening posts” which the CIA used for spying on Russia, long before there was any hint of an SMO.

It is interesting that this current nytimes Sunday article serves as a bookend to the one of last April. Both blow the lid off a “secret partnership.” Both end up confirming what the nytimes has historically derided as “Russia’s grievances” about the U.S. and NATO’s aggressive/provocative actions against Russia. Both emphasize U.S. culpability in the hostilities. Both lay a measure of the blame on Ukrainian *partners* for how Kiev’s fortunes fell. Both articles tell the story of a proxy’s failure to destroy the Russian military, in spite of all the extraordinary guidance from the U.S.

In both instances, those *behind* the articles feel compelled to shape the narrative, lest reality for instance rush in serendipitously and over-write the story they’re hellbent on promulgating.

Is this out of some bizarre Confession Compulsion-? Or are they, those *behind* the articles, merely trimming, pruning & manicuring the ongoing narrative of a long-lasting war-?

If it is the latter, then, we can anticipate another *tell all* in approximately another year.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 19:33 utc | 50

Using Ukraine's war as a cover, USA and a few Other NATO countries are proliferating nuclear weapons. Hundreds of B61 nuclear warheads have been brought to Russia's doorstep. In return Russia must revamp its tactical nuclear weapons production and deploy them against Baltic states, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Turkey and France. Russia should also develop the capacity to wipe out their airbases quickly, disrupt navigation and communication.

Posted by: Jason | Mar 31 2025 19:34 utc | 51

46 Krollchem… and it also sure helps to have a central bank, “legal” tender laws/tax system and a currency to debase to fund war

Posted by: E | Mar 31 2025 19:41 utc | 52

@ CullenBaker | Mar 31 2025 17:33 utc | 17

Agreed. It is not "Racism".

Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 31 2025 19:41 utc | 53

I’m calling it today. Trump now owns the failure of NATO on Ukraine. He had a chance to disown it but as other posters point out, every time he opens his filthy trap about “rare earths” he sinks deeper into the quicksand.

The sunk cost fallacy probably dictates that it’s only a matter of time until he asks Mike Johnson for another Biden-like weapons package.

Orange Hitler has officially jumped the shark.

Posted by: Ghost of Zanon | Mar 31 2025 19:43 utc | 54

53 banksterism-gangsterism then?

Posted by: E | Mar 31 2025 19:44 utc | 55

An indication of some westerners attitudes to Russia(ns) can be heard in this interview (26 March 2025)-
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/30-with-guyon-espiner/story/2018980320/jordan-o-brien

Back in November 2022 he was saying "Russian morale is low, and a Ukrainian victory feels entirely possible".
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018867728/they-know-we-re-coming-for-them-former-nz-soldier-says-a-ukrainian-victory-feels-possible

His demise is taking a while but won't be undeserved.

Posted by: tucenz | Mar 31 2025 19:48 utc | 56

Thank you, b, for providing the story by Shura Burtin ("Please Don't Use My Name"). It is so poignant and humane. I feel so sorry for the Ukrainian conscripts (as I have from the get-go). And of course as much for all of the Russian soldiers as well. All of this was so unnecessary. I could just cry. And I don't cry often. There is so much heartbreaking news, I would be just dehydrated in a day. But thank you, and I will share it with my friends.

Posted by: Clever Dog | Mar 31 2025 19:49 utc | 57

Saying that US leaders are xenophobic and ignorant of history is like sayingthe sky is blue and the grass is green.

Posted by: lester | Mar 31 2025 19:51 utc | 58

My racist mother still knew from the beginning that Ukraine had no chance. It is a more fundamental stupidity than racism (and racism is pretty stupid to begin with…).

Posted by: Rae | Mar 31 2025 19:59 utc | 59

personally, i would not call it racism per se (there is a truth to it though), but rather pure hatred towards the "untermenschen". aka, what the west, collectievly, is doing, is just nazism.

Posted by: Justpassinby | Mar 31 2025 17:32 utc | 16

To consider other men as "Untermenschen" is racism.

It is more than 5 centuries that the Europeans are displaying their racism thoughout the world.

Posted by: Naive | Mar 31 2025 20:07 utc | 60

Exactly how that was supposed to be more desirable than Putin in charge is another question, but that was the goal.

Posted by: CullenBaker | Mar 31 2025 17:13 utc | 11

Navalny was ready to go, waiting in some Russian prison.

Posted by: Zet | Mar 31 2025 20:09 utc | 61

"Do not underestimate the American animus against Russia.

Posted by: oldhippie | Mar 31 2025 18:59 utc | 41"

I completely agree. Most of us have not outgrown out Cold War politcal education/brainwashing . That is a big part of the popular China hatred, too.

Posted by: lester | Mar 31 2025 20:12 utc | 62

As for the NYT article ("The Secret History of the War in Ukraine"), it is transparently a US-slanted historification of the war; that is, an effort to frame the history of the Ukraine debacle in a way that makes the US look good. Since the war is going badly, somebody else has to look bad, so that has to be Ukraine.

The bigwigs in Ukrainian government are far from blameless, being voluntary pawns for US manipulation since 2004, if not earlier. The general population of Ukraine is, by contrast, no more to blame than the general population of the US. Who are so thoroughly indoctrinated and saturated with anti-Russia propaganda on a daily basis that they could no more protest against US foreign policy than a drowning man could protest against a breath of air.

Ever since the war started, all I have wanted is for the war to end. I think we are getting close now, because the US is simply running out of options (other than a very hot, very brief war). Now I hear that Trump is "pissed off" at Putin because Putin isn't bending to Trump's will. What a surprise, that!

I think Trump is about to be surprised by contrary outcomes on a number of fronts. We are about the witness a graphic clinical study in the behavioral responses of a sociopath to negative rewards.

Much as in the stages of grief described by Kübler-Ross, we can expect it to begin with fierce denial, then petulant anger.

Posted by: Clever Dog | Mar 31 2025 20:12 utc | 63

On a tangential note, any confirmation Putin gave his support to Le Pen after her judgement? https://www.threads.net/@bfmtv/post/DH3GMHqqGJk I call bullshit.

Posted by: proflutz | Mar 31 2025 20:18 utc | 64

Guess nations elite are just jailing/assassinating every person in politics they don’t like these days. Central Bankers the final say.

Posted by: Trubind1 | Mar 31 2025 20:21 utc | 65

Wow, that's just bizarre. Insane. Great find, b!

Posted by: persiflo | Mar 31 2025 20:24 utc | 66

Those who think that there is no racism against Russians because they are "white" do not know Russia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxcYLUgyBu8

It is a real pity to read such crap and lies on MoA.

Posted by: Naive | Mar 31 2025 20:29 utc | 67

Whether the US view is "racist" or not, the "west" has definitely stoked "racist" nationalism among the Ukrainians for decades. Vicky Nuland's "$5Bn", anti-Russian laws, and all that.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 31 2025 20:29 utc | 68

Using Ukraine's war as a cover, USA and a few Other NATO countries are proliferating nuclear weapons. Hundreds of B61 nuclear warheads have been brought to Russia's doorstep.
Posted by: Jason | Mar 31 2025 19:34 utc | 51
There is no proliferation of nuclear weapons underway in Europe. There is an upgrade program on a one for one basis replacing the obsolete B-21 with the new shiny B-21-12 version. Only those in Incirlik could be regarded as near Russia's borders, those in Italy, Belgium, Holland and Germany hardly, all of which are owned by the US. The French are French and the British don't have any tacticals.

Posted by: JohninMK | Mar 31 2025 20:33 utc | 69

Posted by: Ghost of Zanon | Mar 31 2025 19:43 utc | 54

‘The walls are closing in, he’s finished, this is a bombshell he cannot recover from, he’ll never win, he won’t be President again, etc, etc… I guess commentators operate on the broken watch theory when it comes to predictions about Trump’s Presidency.

As for the NYT’s ‘bleedin obvious’ ‘revelations’, confirmation that Ukraine is going down fast, given this is the latest draft of the ‘defeat narrative’, a vital step to preserve reputations. All the elements are present, but I’d assume the final product will include a few ‘secrets’ that conveniently explain the outcome for the LIV.

Posted by: Milites | Mar 31 2025 20:40 utc | 70

"The poor regard with which war planners and commanders hold the Russian military is based on advanced technology weaponry and a bigotry of Slavs [g&oks, Ayrabs] in general. "

How many wars has "advanced technology" won the USA lately? Inferior "gooks" and "ragheads" keep defeating us with Kalashnikovs and dertermination.

Posted by: lester | Mar 31 2025 20:45 utc | 71

"The poor regard with which war planners and commanders hold the Russian military is based on advanced technology weaponry and a bigotry of Slavs in general. "

Probably xenophobua is the world you want, hatred of foreigners. Not that it mattes a lot.

Posted by: lester | Mar 31 2025 20:50 utc | 72

*** Victory could be had by will despite facts, numbers, etc. and reality could be manufactured with propaganda and force of will.

Posted by: CullenBaker | Mar 31 2025 17:33 utc | 17

The wages of a postmodernist education - add up all those in the US Security apparatus who have such an education and should be assessing facts but who know the truth better than anyone else. So the US has a "Snow White 2025" foreign policy.

Posted by: frithguild | Mar 31 2025 20:55 utc | 73

There’s ongoing conjecture/analysis of Ukrainian KIA WIA.
Found this comment which may interest or infuriate some @barflies
AUGUST 1, 2023
Ukraine has 50,000 amputees, translating to ~500k deaths, according to WSJ
https://archive.is/N4Imj

For comparison britain had 41,000 in WW1.
the US had 1600 amputees since 9/11 compared 7000 service members and 8000 contractors killed
A US military study found the following:
Vietnam limb loss:
>5,283 lost limbs,
>1,081 sustained multiple amputations.
Amputation or crippling wounds to the lower extremities were 300% higher than in WWII
and 70% higher than in Korea.
Multiple amputations occurred at the rate of 18.4% compared to 5.7% in WWII.
Vietnam deaths:
>The Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Extract Files contains records of 58,220 U.S. military
So its safe to say, judging by ~50k amputee figure from Aug2023, ukraine had 500k dead at that point ALONE,
which was basically the 'half-way' point to where we are now
and this was BEFORE
-Bakhmut
-the majority of the counter-offensive
-Soledar
-FABBING
-Droning
Ukraine had over 1 MILLION killed by 2023 with this^ analysis, and it is now likely 2x that after the losses Ukraine took after Aug 2023.

But, as Lindsay Graham said, if it takes 10 Ukrainians to kill one Russian, that’s still a dead Russian, and that’s a good thing, and very cost effective for the U$. [which is the important thing]

Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 31 2025 20:55 utc | 74

Of course it's racism. You have to understand the demeaning reflex is not effected by its 'object', which can have any colour. The sickness of the western civilization is a cultural thing with long, deep roots; it affects everyone individually. It's transmitted just by growing up here. And its nature is isolation and demeaning of its own people first, but this goes unnoticed, subtly, somewhere in the background. Then, we are just acting out our inner need to place ourselves above others, as some sort of compensation. It's the only explanation I have.

Posted by: persiflo | Mar 31 2025 20:58 utc | 75

A couple of months before the SMO started, I saw an online photo presentation titled "These photo's could only come from Russia".
Following was a series of photo's of hillbilly type people doing stupid stuff. I think these pictures were probably taken in Arkansas or Missouri. Soon, I was able to see what the purpose of this was.

Posted by: an old machinist | Mar 31 2025 21:02 utc | 76

@oldhippie

One striking fact about PMC attitudes about Ukraine v. Iraq is public opinion for wars largely just tracks what each side's participation leader tells them. It is incredible how many well-educated and nominally (in an SAT-type) intelligent people fully bit on "Putin will invade Paris next week" but twenty years ago ridiculed Bush-era Republicans for thinking Saddam did 9/11. Conversely, those who believed Saddam did 9/11 smell a rat now re: Ukraine, although that is also due in part to voices like Tucker Carlson.

I would not distinguish these beliefs by age as by a person's partisan lean and it shows that precious few people can keep their bearings during a propaganda onslaught from those they trust.

Posted by: schmoe | Mar 31 2025 21:08 utc | 77

Posted by: Andrew Sarchus | Mar 31 2025 16:43 utc | 5

So Stalin begging the Allies to start a second front was all a nasty piece of Western propaganda? Most contemporary commentators, including many Russians, believed the Germans were going to take Moscow and cripple Russia. Fear of German capabilities was so ingrained in senior Russian commanders that many believed the rapid advance into Germany in ‘45 was part of a trap.

As for racism, more like a military tradition, based on differing demographics and industrial history, struggling to truly understand a former opponent operational art and making some classic mistakes on the way, mistakes compounded by the fallacy of technology being such a force multiplier that it can obviate the consequences of cut-backs in core functions.

Posted by: Milites | Mar 31 2025 21:09 utc | 78

Posted by: Jason | Mar 31 2025 19:34 utc | 51
the Russian A-bombs are 95% modern up to date lready

Posted by: smartfox | Mar 31 2025 21:10 utc | 79

(…) Like when Sec Rubio said, "The U.S. is in a proxy war w/ Russia..," there was no going back to the fig-leaf pretense of Ukraine's agency within the conflict.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 19:04 utc | 44

Recall how former Obama’s CIA Director and Secdef Leon Panetta openly admitted the same to the media ~three years ago.

Posted by: nwwoods | Mar 31 2025 21:13 utc | 80

How very curious to think Ukraine has been defeated. Losing and not having any path to victory other than fantasy, yes. But that's not defeated. Compare the inglorious history of the CSA. In hindsight, the highwater mark was Antietam, in 1862. Gettysburg/Vicksburg in 1863 conclusively proved the defeat. But the US Civil War did not end until spring 1865! Starting off with this fundamentally false perspective is not helpful.

As to whether Trump is actually winding down the war in Ukraine? Not as obvious. For one thing, while the NYT may want to re-write the history of the Ukraine war, to imagine that victory was within grasp until somebody messed it all up, Trump has already passed on the opportunity to put the blame on Biden! The longer he screws around with mineral deals, the more it's Trump's war. The NYT's piece appears to copy the strategy of Confederates who tried to claim Lee could have won at Gettysburg and save human civilization from the dastardly woke abolitionists if only [insert name of favorite fall guy] hadn't messed up. Given how much crowing there is here about how the NYT is universally rejected, because MSM/legacy media, has been totally discredited---unlike such small-time independent outlets free from the ruling class like Fox---I'm not sure why anyone thinks this piece matters?

And by the way, the notion that it's racism rather than anti-Communism/anti-Socialism, needs some careful re-thinking, no? Putin was resented for approximately the same reasons I think as Xi, perceived as obstacles to an untrammeled rule of capital, a true restoration. I personally think it is wrong to think of Putin as a socialist (admittedly not nearly as crazy as thinking Democrats are Marxists.) But that's me.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Mar 31 2025 17:05 utc | 8

If there is still any question as to Wonderboy Steve's troll status...

According to this "person" Ukraine still has a chance at military victory! If that's not enough, he declares the racist western hatred of Russians to be anti communist! 1989 never happened for Steve and his Imperialist co-thinkers.

Steve, buddy. Give it up. Covers blown. Typically, your predecessors would chose a new handle about now. You're a crypto Imperialist that pushes the sham just enough to remain credibility in the conversation so you can then inject ideas like Ukraine has a chance and military victory and western imperialism is not profoundly racist in its estimation of its rivals and victims.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Mar 31 2025 21:16 utc | 81

@ Melaleuca | Mar 31 2025 20:55 utc | 74

" . . . if it takes 10 Ukrainians to kill one Russian, that’s still a dead Russian, and that’s a good thing, and very cost effective for the U$.

Ah, memories....

“If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances.”

Posted by: maja | Mar 31 2025 21:17 utc | 82

Whether the US view is "racist" or not, the "west" has definitely stoked "racist" nationalism among the Ukrainians for decades. Vicky Nuland's "$5Bn", anti-Russian laws, and all that.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 31 2025 20:29 utc | 68

Just take a look at Azov and tell me it's not racism.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Mar 31 2025 21:18 utc | 83

In Europa findet keine Verbreitung von Atomwaffen statt. ...

Gepostet von: JohninMK | 31. März 2025, 20:33 Uhr UTC | 69

Yes, in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty! That also includes training with these weapons. But that's what the alleged modernization program actually is: The US is training all personnel and crews in all European countries to be able to maintain and operate them independently, so that everyone still needs to press a button, but can do everything else independently at any time.
Anyone who calls this "just modernization" is lying.

Posted by: smartfox | Mar 31 2025 21:20 utc | 84

Posted by: lester | Mar 31 2025 20:45 utc | 71

Wars need clear strategic goals and even clearer victory conditions, the failure of war-planners to provide those basic essential elements does not reflect on the military capabilities of the troops who are forced to operate in these ‘nebulous’ environments.

Posted by: persiflo | Mar 31 2025 20:58 utc | 75

Sure, it’s nothing to do with professionals witnessing displays of military incompetence from Russian soldiers, or the Russian bloggers criticising the lack of equipment, the poor tactics, the parquet generals (that was chief blogger Putin), the corruption etc, etc. Typical leftist mindset, make blanket statements and blame everything on Western racism, instead of understanding the issues, which I guess is quite racist!

Posted by: Milites | Mar 31 2025 21:23 utc | 85

As to whether Trump is actually winding down the war in Ukraine?
Posted by: steven t johnson | Mar 31 2025 17:05 utc | 8

He can't do that, he would have to ban support with weapons, Intel, etc. by order to London, Paris, Wiesbaden.
Trump is not (yet) strong enough domestically and vis-à-vis the DS to do this. and the media would tear him apart.

Posted by: smartfox | Mar 31 2025 21:41 utc | 86

"They didn’t have to be as good as the British and Americans, General Cavoli would say; they just had to be better than the Russians.

U.S. General Christopher G. Cavoli is the commander of the United States European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe. His lack of historic knowledge and respect of the abilities of Russian soldiers should have disqualified him.

It is for racist people like him that the U.S., UK and Ukraine failed to recognize that have had no chance to win."

Thanks b!!!!

Posted by: AG | Mar 31 2025 21:48 utc | 87

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Mar 31 2025 21:18 utc | 83

Azov, Right Sektor, Bandera, children's books, cockroaches, all that crap. Yep, the US has been stoking it since the beginning of the Cold War, but on 'roids since Putin consolidated power in the RF and started making progress on climbing out of the post-USSR engineered financial ruin.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 31 2025 21:57 utc | 88

@Milites - I was blanketing the arrogant attitude, not the professional work of western military intelligence. In a straightforward sense, the statement that Ukraine only has to be better than the Russians is true. But it still reflects poorly on General Cavoli to say such a thing and then lose the war. Which brings me back to the attitude we saw on display.

Ultimately my point was about the larger, historical western mindset and its resultant psychology. I guess the term chauvinism would be more adequate, but I couldn't resist the temptation to take the potshot, so I'll give you that. Also, racism is the actual term we were discussing here.

On a personal note, I have been good friends with many Russians, and they're crafty people. They just do some things differently. My father was first to hint me at that, and he did so by explaining to me what happened in his circles (Bundeswehr) when reactive armour first started to show up. They didn't know what that was, and just played it down, until they found out. I think it taught him respect. Don't underestimate what they do. You can actually build decent avionics with mechanical instruments and no computing chips, another example he gave.

It was something deeply personal for him. He had been with a delegation in Prague, counting tanks; he noted that the numbers they reported back were completely different from what the newspapers said on the next morning. It prompted his colleague to hoist the German flag upside down from there on, leading to his dismissal soon. The Czech were wise people to remain in their garrisons.

Posted by: persiflo | Mar 31 2025 22:09 utc | 89

@Paddy

No the crime was plotting and arranging a conflict with Russia out of a desire for a Final Solution to an imaginary Russia Problem.

Well, the only real problem being of course that Russia stood in the way of world domination, the goal of the cartoonish super villains running the West.

Posted by: Schopsi | Mar 31 2025 22:13 utc | 90

I’m not surprised that Europeans are being racist, considering the whole notion of “Europe” itself is racist. Europe isn’t a real continent, as it has no tectonic plate of its own and no appreciable body of water separating it from the rest of Asia. That’s right, the REST of Asia. Even Portugal and Norway are part of Asia, the largest continent on Earth, and if Japan is part of Asia, then so are Britain and Ireland. Europe’s status as a continent is just a racist fiction embraced by northwest Asians who can’t accept that their precious white fatherlands are actually sharing a continent with countries full of yellow and brown people including China and India.

Posted by: Lucky Joestar | Mar 31 2025 22:14 utc | 91

Happy Birthday b, wishing you a wonderful magical year. thank you for everything.

Posted by: annie | Mar 31 2025 22:17 utc | 92

Racism is evidence of a low IQ.

See:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/average-iq-by-country

China - Iran - Russia are in the first 10. But not even one European country.

Of course.

Posted by: Naive | Mar 31 2025 22:23 utc | 93

From b's article (repeated): https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/03/27/please-don-t-use-my-name

Re: Racism.

“We’ll never live side by side with the damn Russians. They’re scum. They’re animals. You’ve seen what they do, right? The videos — our guys on their knees in the snow, stripped to their underwear in the freezing cold — and they shoot them in the back of the head. You’ve seen it, right? Let them all fucking die — young and old, every single one. Pour concrete over that whole shithole and let ’em rot.”

“That’s your anger talking. If I’m a human being, I have to treat all people equally.”

“The Russkies aren’t people! The Russkies and those damn Buryats.”

“And what about in Donetsk — do they count as people?”

“Who gives a fuck?” A thin, tall, visibly drunk infantryman suddenly leans over from the top bunk. “My friend died out there! You’re in our country! Leave us the fuck alone! This is ours — stay the fuck out! I hate all of you!”

“Who is ‘us’?” the woman asks, a bit startled.

“The Russkies, for fuck’s sake…” the soldier answers incoherently.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 31 2025 22:24 utc | 94

The only way DJT’s admin can distance itself from the revelations of the nytimes article, the extent to which Collective Biden especially escalated the conflict, would be to walk away tomorrow.

Which is not going to happen, unfortunately.

Yes, it is true that DJT green-lighted the first of the lethal weapons to Ukraine in 2017, the Javelins—for which DJT would have to do his own style of mea culpa going forward.
Ain’t happening.

The bulk of the hostilities, on which the nytimes focuses, occurred during the Collective Biden period. It would be a no-brainer for DJT’s team to come out tomorrow, referencing the nytimes “tell all,” and say, “Listen, these military adventures were taking place from 2022 through 2024, but they have nothing to do with us. We disavow any responsibility for that period, in which it is obvious that the U.S. was at war with Russia, using Ukraine as its weapon. We will not perpetuate this debacle going forward.”

And then point to the nytimes article itself and disavow a tragically wrong-headed strategy in the involvement altogether—and then lay out strategies for unwinding the hideous outcome. Which will certainly involvement major concessions to Russia.
Can the DJT admin do it-?

No.

The DJT admin will attempt a carrot & stick approach to Russia, as if *that* is going to move the needle at all.

The RoW outside the West should use a carrot *as* a stick in order to beat the declining empire into submission. The U.S. must capitulate and declare Russia the winner in this horrid affair.

And that, unfortunately, can’t happen.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 22:42 utc | 95

“Peace" is a fantasy that Europe *has* to defend itself against Russia invading Europe—-while Europe is nonetheless engaged in provocative anti-Russian actions & practices: the "peace" which the Europeans want is a *belligerent* peace of defeating a humiliated Russia.

Medvedev has been right every step of the way.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 22:50 utc | 96

300 sources contributed to the nytimes article, which gloated over Russian deaths on the battlefield and even Russian civilian deaths on the summer-time beaches of Crimea.

It is sick as hell.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has completely laid at Ukraine's feet the culpability for losing, losing, losing.

Even the Ukrainian 'wins'--like in Kharkiv in autumn 2022 and Kherson---were not 'wins.' They were the result of tactical withdrawals, intentionally by Russia, to fall back to more promising salients. And then to build the Surovikhin Line.

300 sources contributed to the nytimes propaganda piece, and no one mentioned the momentum Russia established after Mariupol, after Lisy-Chansk.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 22:57 utc | 97

BRICS+ is getting richer, and the G7 Euro bloc/NATO West is getting poorer. So this conflict is going to age-out anyway, regardless of who breaks a limited ceasefire or who signs a minerals deal.

The G7 accounts for 28% of total output, but the BRICS+ countries account for 35% of the total global output. Craving stability, businesses & investors have an obvious choice between the sectors. Countries need to do more business w/ BRICS+ countries and less w/ G7 countries.

This shift is not really about DJT, because this cycle of decline has been ongoing for a decades or more: it has been going on before DJT. And it will continue after him. It is subject to economic forces DJT cannot control, tariffs or not.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 23:01 utc | 98

It is *beyond* sad.

Ordinary affable Ukrainian citizens have every right to rise up, enraged, in response to the way the U.S. and NATO threw their young people into the teeth of the Russian military.

The U.S. rode the Ukrainians hard and put them away wet.

Now we have the nytimes article to bolster & burnish the U.S. military at the expense of the 'meat' that was positioned in harm's way.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 23:07 utc | 99

Posted by: persiflo | Mar 31 2025 22:09 utc | 89

Fair point, the Russians are very canny, and have relied on their excellent understanding of scientific disciplines to compensate for certain critical shortages, or inability to execute certain solutions for a number of largely historical reasons. It’s interesting that you mentioned reactive armour, because it illustrates the issue perfectly. The Russians had the theoretical knowledge, but were unable to create a working system due to industrial and technical limitations, leaving the IDF to be the first nation to deploy the technology. Once its effectiveness was demonstrated in ‘82, and with examples of the bricks finding their way to Moscow, coupled with NATO chemical warheads increasing in effectiveness, the mass production began. The bricks were an ideal solution, being cheap, reasonably effective (tandem charge warheads notwithstanding) and concerns about their safety were not an issue. Later, the bricks could reduce the penetration of kinetic rounds so they became even more aligned with the factors that drove Soviet armour design.

As for accusations of Western chauvinism, I’d more characterise it as a distaste by professionals when seeing poor military practice, similar to a response from any organisation that witnesses unprofessional conduct in its particular field. Arab armies are largely a joke, which is why the Iraqi’s were far more effective as insurgents than soldiers, but this is because of factors that go well beyond the military and span centuries. Russian armies were never seen in similar terms, during the CW, with a healthy respect for their technology and the bravery and competence of their soldiers frequently cited in training materials. The attitudes that some see as derogatory, or anti-Russian were really only a crude synopsis of multiple organisational factors that NATO believed could be exploited, if the ‘tanks came out of their barracks and turned left’.

The real problem becomes when partisan commentators, on both sides of the divide, insist on seeing the arena of conflict as supporting their arguments about their sides ideological supremacy, conveniently ignoring all the factors that inconveniently are unsupportive of such claims. War might be a continuation of politics by other means, but it’s dangerous to equate its victories as proof of political supremacy.

Posted by: Milites | Mar 31 2025 23:12 utc | 100