+ Reply to Thread
Page 199 of 715 FirstFirst 1 99 149 189 199 209 249 299 699 715 LastLast
Results 3,961 to 3,980 of 14291

Thread: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

  1. Link to Post #3961
    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
    Join Date
    7th February 2010
    Location
    Ecuador
    Posts
    34,396
    Thanks
    211,117
    Thanked 459,415 times in 32,917 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    A very long and detailed summary of the SMO by The Saker (himself). For anyone reading this who might not be fully up to date, this is all the highest quality analysis.
    Five months into the Special Military Operation – a summary

    Five months ago, on February 24th, Russia began what she called a “special military operation” (SMO). In very simple terms, this is what Russia has achieved so far: Ukraine has lost about 20% of its territory, about 3 thousand towns and villages, half of the gross national product, and a third of coal production. It completely lost access to the Sea of Azov, and traffic through the Black Sea ports froze due to fighting and mining of waterways. The number of refugees has reached 7 million.

    But these factoids don’t even begin to tell the full story. There would be many ways that this story could be told, but to begin I want to list a few elements of the official western narrative which have now faceplanted and nobody sane would take seriously. I will present a few them in no specific order (and I will ignore the most idiotic ones, including that Putin is dying of cancer or very sick (check here for 50 headlines about this!) – he is not, to the great chagrin of the CIA – or that Shoigu wants to overthrow him).

    “Russia is losing the war, was defeated by the Ukronazis near Kiev, she is running out of ammunition and supplies and is about to collapse”.

    First, if you look at the size of the Russian force which took the Antonov airport near Kiev (one airborne regiment) and the size of the force which moved by land towards that airport, you can easily convince yourself that this force was not intended to attack or invade Kiev.

    This force did exactly what it was intended to do, it forces the Ukronazis to move forces to protect Kiev and, thereby, it pinned them down just long enough to establish air superiority, attack and cut off the forces near and in the Donbass, destroy the Ukrainian C4I and almost the entire Ukrainian air force.

    This took just a few days and once that mission was completed, these forces withdrew as they had literally nothing to gain by staying in place. If anything it is the Ukrainian side which is running out of weapons, supplies and soldiers (more about that later). The Russians have all the firepower they need for many years ahead.

    “Russia had to change her plans and tactics because of the heavy losses suffered by the Russian military early in the operation”

    Actually, there is a grain of truth here, but not the correct explanation. As I have mentioned several times, the special military operation is “special” because it is an operation which is not a regular combined arms operation. The Russians began the SMO with fewer soldiers than the opposing side, and they privileged maneuver and long range strikes over the taking and holding of towns and cities.

    Most crucially, the Russians very deliberately tried all they could to minimize Ukrainian casualties and to preserve the Ukrainian civilian infrastructure (unlike the “democratic” countries out there who first destroy power plants, bridges, water stations, etc. to inflict the maximum of “shock and awe” on the civilian population!). The Russians could have easily turned, say, Kiev into Baghdad or Belgrade under US/NATO bombs, but they deliberately chose to save as many lives and civilian infrastructure as possible, even at the cost of lives of Russian soldiers).
    [Sidebar: a prefect example is the small town of Avdeevka, near Donetsk, which is heavily fortified and from which the Ukronazis shell not only Donetsk, but also other towns such as Makeevka killing people and destroying the civilian infrastructure every day. The Russians could use their TOS-1A “Solntsepyok”, airborne FAE, FAB-3000 bombs, heavy mortars and plenty of other weapons to simply turn all of Avdeevka into a lifeless desert. But here is the problem: Avdeevka is full of civilians, including relatives of LDNR combatants. Furthermore, if Russia used such weapons, it would only feed the Anglo-Zionist propaganda to create a “victastar” city à la Sarajevo or even accuse the Russians of a Srebrenica-like “genocide”. The precedent of Bucha is something which limits the Russians in two major ways: first, it makes it almost impossible to retreat, now that we know that the Ukronazis will massacre all the “collaborators” in the area left by Russian forces and, second, it means that any major strike, no matter how militarily justified, will be turned into a “massacre” just like in Bosnia, Kosovo or Syria.
    What apparently did take the Russians by surprise is the willingness of the Ukrainian forces in some towns to attack the Russian columns even though the local authorities seemed to have indicated to the Russians that, like in, say, Kherson, their city would not resist. Simply put, they chose the Mariupol model rather than the Kherson model. This choice was mainly dictated by the very powerful Nazi death squads who would at best arrest anybody negotiating with Russia and, at worst, simply shoot them on the spot. The Russians found plenty of bodies of executed Ukrainian soldiers.

    But this does not tell the full story either.

    The truth is that by the laws of warfare the Ukraine lost the war in less than a week.

    What is my evidence for such an apparently outlandish and over-the-top statement? Simple: since the beginning of the SMO, the Ukrainians failed to execute a single operational level attack or counter-attack. At most they were able to execute small, tactical level attacks, the vast majority of which almost instantly failed, a few were defeated in a few days, and, crucially, not a single one gave the Ukrainian side the operational initiative. Not once.

    So what happened?

    If Kiev had any agency and if the Ukrainian leadership cared about their country and people, they would have immediately sued for peace. But Kiev never had any agency and the buffoons in power do not give a damn about the Ukrainian people.

    Instead, it was the US that told the Ukrainians to never surrender or pull back, even if that meant huge losses in both manpower and firepower. The West, which despises and hates the Ukrainians almost as much as it hates the Russians were delighted to see the hated Ukrainians and the hated Russians killing each other (well, mostly Russians doing the killing).

    Furthermore, being military incompetent, the leaders of the West apparently believed that supplying weapons, money, instructors, and special forces to the Ukrainians could, if not turn the tide, slow down Russia enough to create fear, uncertainty, and doubts in the Russian public opinion. That plan also spectacularly failed, Putin is as popular as ever, the 5th column and the 6th columns in Russia are in despair (many emigrate) and the SMO has the full support of the Russian nation.

    As for the much talked about “Russian plans”, which nobody has seen, they are not like the plan for a building. They are not fixed, but highly flexible and reactive and, in fact, they are constantly adjusted and refined in response to the developments on the ground. So while the Russians did have hopes that much/most of the eastern Ukraine would follow the “Kherson model” they were quick to adapt to the reality that the US and its Nazi agents in the Ukrainian military would force the eastern Ukraine to follow the “Mariupol model”.

    So yes, operational plans are like water in a stream, depending on the obstacles encountered, they can go left or they can go right to bypass that obstacle, but in either case, they are going down towards the ocean. The fact that armchair strategists declared that Russia “changed plans” simply proves that they don’t understand how operational planning works.
    [Sidebar: most people in the West think of military operations as something similar to US football: there are “lines/fronts” which are defended and most forces are facing each other along these lines. This is not so. Modern warfare is much more similar to European soccer, where each player is “attached” to an opposing player and these players constantly maneuver and regularly engage each other. For example, modern warfare does not really have a “front” and a “rear” as we can see from the Russian strikes deep inside the western Ukraine. Finally, modern warfare deeply relies on coordinated actions. That is to say that even if side A has, say, five subunits (say companies) you cannot add them up and count them as a regiment or brigade because they lack the ability for coordinated operations (nevermind joint or combined ones). Think of your hand, it has five fingers, but these five fingers only become a powerful fist if the five fingers act in unison and become one fist. So when somebody write about, say, 60’000 Ukrainian soldiers in the eastern Ukraine, this describes a X number of platoons, companies, regiments or even “brigades” (I put quotation marks because these are not real brigades with a full table of organization and equipment), these subunits are not capable of coordinating their actions like the Russian military does. There is a lot of talk about “network centric warfare” which is nothing but combined arms operations on steroids, where the level of integration includes a full fusion of all C4ISR data into one common real time picture of the battlefield and a full coordination of all military forces/means. By the way, only Russia has fully developed such a capability (though the US has also made some serious progress in this field)].
    Now let’s address two smaller but nonetheless crucial lies told by some about Russia:

    “There are no Atlantic Integrationists or Eurasian Sovereignists in Russia”

    If anything, this war has resulted in a major shakeup of the Russian society where some folks suddenly showed their true feelings. Examples range from Russian journalists standing with an anti-war sign behind a newscaster to those Russians abroad who either agreed to condemn Putin and the SMO or accepted to participate in various events under a neutral or foreign flag, to Dmitri Medvedev now changing his tune 180 degrees and rebranding himself as an ultra-patriot.

    I listed those examples because they are known in the West, but inside Russia, there are many more such examples, including amongst business executives and elected officials. Finally, even Putin himself mentioned the existence of such internal enemies of Russia. The fact that Russia has now expanded the definition of “treason” means that pro-US agents in Russia now face a major risk for their activities. Some 5th columnists have already been sentenced to jail. As for the 6th columnists, they still hate Putin with a passion and are still chanting their “all is lost” mantra, but (almost) nobody takes them seriously anymore.

    The irony is that the US wanted to create a crisis to overthrow Putin but, instead, this crisis gave him yet another boost in popularity, in spite of some very real problems (automotive sector, civilian airliners, etc.).

    Next,

    “Putin is an Israeli stooge, he works hand in glove with the Israelis”

    In reality, it is pretty obvious that the most vociferous Russophobes in the West are overwhelmingly Jews, both inside and outside Israel. Usually, the invoked excuse is that there were anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia. Yet, in reality, all those pogroms happened in what is today the Ukraine, and yet it is pretty clear that Zionist and Jewish organizations are overwhelmingly siding with Kiev (in spite of the regime in power being undeniably Nazi), and only very few individuals side with Russia (but they exist and should never be overlooked).

    As for the Kremlin, it is getting fed up with the Israeli arrogance in Syria (even if the Israeli airstrikes are ineffective and make no difference for the reality on the ground) and the Russians are now demanding that the Israelis cease their attacks on Syria. The Israelis cannot stop, for internal political and even psychotherapeutic reasons, but one of two things are likely to happen: the Israeli attacks will become even more useless and symbolic, or Russia will shoot down an Israeli aircraft.

    But enough about Israel here, this is only a small part of the Anglo-Zionist Empire run by the USA. Now let’s turn to the West’s actions over the past 5 months.

    So what about the US/NATO/EU in all this?

    First, I want to make it clear that I strongly believe that the Anglo-Zionist Empire died on January 8th, 2020 when it allowed Iran to bomb CENTCOM bases without even a single bullet being fired back. That day the Empire showed the world that it did not even have what it takes to attack Iran. As for the USA, they died on January 6th, 2021.

    However, remember my example above contrasting 5 fingers with a fist? While the Empire as we knew it and the USA as we knew it did die, that does not mean that its composing parts all vanished in thin air. Countries and Empires have momentum, just like the Titanic, when they have been mortally wounded. Simply put, the final process of sinking takes time. The Russian Empire died in February of 1917, yet the civil war lasted until 1923 (and I would even argue until WWII).

    Second, there are two totally different planes in which the West (well, really the USA) decided to fight Russia:
    • First, it declared total proxy war on Russia, but only total short of a direct war military confrontation with Russia
    • Second, a total #cancelRussia in the PR/propaganda virtual reality. These infantile actions (latest example here) show how frustrated and powerless the West really is.
    For years now I have stated many, many times that Russia and the Empire were locked into an existential war from which only one side would walk away. I usually added that this total war was about 80% informational, 15% economic and only 5% kinetic. I hesitate to provide numbers here, but I would say that after a very strong success in the first 2-3 months of the SMO, the informational war initially won by the West is now fizzling out.

    The economic war massively grew, as did the kinetic one (albeit still by proxy). I am very reluctant to provide numbers here, but very tentatively I would score the current war as maybe 10% informational, 50% economic and maybe 40% kinetic. Again, please don’t focus on these very tentative figures, the key thing is this: as per President “Biden”, the goal of the USA is to inflict a strategic failure on Russia. The same stuff was also spoken by the EU, UK politicians and pretty much everybody in the West.

    As for the demented Poles, one of their former Presidents and Nobel Prize winner declared that he wants to reduce the population of Russia down to 50 million. Then there are the Brits, who still want to be “Great” or, at least, relevant, and who speak about “leading the free world” against Russia with such stellar allies as Poland, the 3B statelets and Banderastan.

    And yet, let’s look at the outcomes on three levels:
    • Military: the best proxy the USA had in history (the Ukrainian armed forces) is being slowly and inexorably destroyed by about only 8-10 percent of the Russian armed forces.
    • Economic: while some sectors in Russia did suffer from the so-called “sanctions” (they are not sanctions, but acts of war and crude robbery, only the UNSC can impose legal sanctions), all in all, Russia did great, and seems to be set on a path for economic success due to the fact that a) most countries have refused to obey Washington’s demands and b) the Russian economy is powerful and real, not virtual like the western economies. It will take a couple of years for Russia to adapt, but now that this process has begun, it is unstoppable.
    • Propaganda: here the image is pretty clear: on one hand we have the USA and its colonies, then a few countries with comprador elites that are hated by most people, and countries that openly defy Washington. This is best expressed by this map from the Chinese foreign ministry:


    One key characteristic of the countries shown in red on the bottom (realistic) map is that all these countries have two crucial factors in common: a) they (mostly) lack real resources (since their civilizations were always built on imperialism, colonialism and plain robbery) b) they hate Russia so much that they are willing to take measures which hurt themselves much more than they hurt Russia.

    This type of hate-saturated insanity reminds me of an old Soviet joke: “in a small village, a local discovers a bottle and when he opens it, a genie comes out and says: since you have liberated me, I will grant you one wish, the only condition is that your next door neighbor will get double of what you will. Then the man thought for a while and replied: please poke one of my eyes out!”. This is the current mental state of western “leaders”…

    That is the core “philosophy” of the USA: fight Russia to the last Ukrainian, prolong the war as long as possible, get as much of the civilian infrastructure of the Ukraine destroyed, subvert the status of the dollar, crash the world economy, let the EU crash and burn economically, socially, and politically, shove the Woke agenda down everyone’s throats, even if that makes them gag and throw up and, last but not least, totally and comprehensively stick your head in the sand and deny reality in all its aspects.

    Yes, the West is so soaked in rabid hatred and fear of Russia that it prefers to commit collective suicide rather than accept any type of coexistence with a sovereign Russia.

    Hitler’s comparatively vague/ambiguous/oblique slogan of “Drang nach Osten” has now been replaced by a much more candid and unambiguous #cancelRussia slogan. Same idea, just much more “in your face”.

    Truth be told, most of the so-called “West” is really run by these three groups, in order of influence:
    1. The US Neocons
    2. The Anglo imperialists
    3. The EU comprador ruling elites
    This reminds me very much of an album by Roger Waters called “Animals” in which he separates our modern societies into three archetypes: dogs, pigs and sheep. Needless to say, the dogs and pigs will run the sheep, but as soon as a (Russian) bear shows up, they are powerless against him.



    This small image tells the true story about the Ruble “turning into rubble” as “Biden” promised.

    This is what we see now and which will probably continue well into 2023. The fact that the economic warfare waged against Russia or the promise of Wunderwaffen has totally failed will never be admitted by these deeply psychopathic and terminally delusional people. And if they cannot double down ad infinitum in their actions, they sure will continue to double down in their rhetoric, just as the orchestra continued to play while the “unsinkable” Titanic was sinking.

    Still, at least some of the regular folks in the West are smelling the roses, hence the dismal rating of ALL the western political leaders. The hostility of many US Americans even results in polls that suggest that many of them would want to secede from the other states, in this case Trump voters. Considering that Trump voters are, as a rule, far more patriotic than Woke-soaked US “liberals”, this is very telling. But also ironic: the USA wants to break up Russia and ends up breaking up itself. Karma?

    Not only. Let’s look at the map which shows which countries did and did not impose “sanctions” on Russia:



    Notice that pretty much the entire green zone is composed of countries that the West has invaded, robbed, devastated, enslaved, subverted, forcibly converted, bombed, economically “sanctioned” with blockades and blackmail (by means so-called “secondary sanctions” which is a euphemism for blackmail and extortion) and, more recently, upon which the full satanic insanity of Wokeness has been imposed (hence the US embassies flying “homopride” flags).

    The population of these green countries, which I call “Zone B”, knows the true score and they mostly hate and despise the West. And that places all their comprador ruling elites in a very tricky situation: their US masters want them to declare total war on Russia while their population is mostly sympathetic to Russia. In the past, this would have been a no-brainer, Uncle Shmuel with his CIA-run death squads, aircraft carriers and seemingly infinite money printing capability was much more vital to these comprador elites than their own population.

    But now that death squads have been largely replaced with woked-out fairies which are only good at shooting unarmed civilians, now that US aircraft carriers don’t really frighten even countries like Iran, the DPRK or Venezuela and now that the entire Western-built international economic and financial system is collapsing, these comprador elites have to become much, much more careful lest they end up like the US stooges in Bolivia: out of power and in jail. Even Colombia seems to be slowly slipping away, as does Brazil. And I won’t even mention the absolute lack of utility of the likes of Guaido, Tikhanovskaia or the “friends of Syria” gang (Maduro, Lukashenko and Assad or all doing great, thank you!).

    The writing is on the wall, and only those who deliberately shut their eyes fail to see it.

    This leaves us with the issue of the US Neocons.

    What about the western ruling classes, what impact, if any, did the SMO have on them?

    First, let’s define our categories. In the EU we don’t really have any real “ruling class”, we only have frontmen (sorry! I meant “frontpersons” of course), puppets, pretend-rulers with no agency whatsoever (Olaf Scholz and Josep Borrell are perfect examples) . There is no European “defense policy” or any other meaningful evidence of agency on any level. The EU is dead, clueless and totally in the control of the US Neocons.

    Second, in the USA, Neocons rule supreme, having total control of both major parties in the US. And while the GOP base is very different from the Dem’s base, their leaders are mostly interchangeable. So I will consider them as one.



    Their mindset and worldview are pretty clear: they are messianic supremacists and sincerely consider themselves racially superior to the rest of mankind. The fusion of Anglo imperialism and Jewish supremacism has yielded the monster we now know as “Neocons”. These folks excel in the art of accumulating power, by hook or by crook. They like to claim that they have superior intelligence, but in reality, what separates these people is not brainpower, but two key aspects of their worldview: a) tribalism and b) drive. Simply put, most other people do not have this tribal “us against them” mindset, and only a subsection of regular people are truly driven to power and influence. Hence, while being a numerically small minority, the US Neocons are in full control of the USA.

    Their psychological profile is narcissistic at best, and fully psychopathic in most cases. That also gives them an advantage, especially when dealing with weak, ignorant and easily influenceable people. But when they meet a determined pushback, be it by Russia, Iran, the DPRK or even Hezbollah, they quickly become clueless and helpless. Check the expression of Blinken on the photo above – that is the face of a coward and a loser. He might have become a decent tailor, instead, he was asked to run the foreign policy of the (now former) superpower. No wonder all he ever produced was disasters and abject failures!



    Initially, feeling buoyant from their total control over Eltsin and the Russian liberals, the US Neocons celebrated victory. Then something went very wrong and suddenly they were faced with a radically different kind of leader, one with the massive support of the Russian people. Remember here that Putin was an intelligence officer specializing in the West, thus a man who had a very good understanding of his enemies. Furthermore, Putin was patient enough to realize that in the early years of the confrontation with the West, Russia was in no condition to openly defy the West, let alone fight it militarily.

    This is why he stopped the LDNR forces from moving any further westwards in 2014-2015 even though the Ukrainian military was in disarray. While he knew that during the time the Ukrainians were in a panic and disorganized, he also knew that Russia could not take on the consolidated West. So between 2014 and 2018 Russia made a gigantic effort to develop the kind of capabilities needed to be able to take on all of NATO and win. By the time of the Russian ultimatum to the West last Fall, Russia was finally ready.

    Notice that the Russian ultimatum was not an ultimatum to Kiev as much as it was a direct challenge to the US and NATO. The Neocons, drunk on their bravado and sense of racial superiority, basically told Russia to screw herself and doubled down in their rhetoric. And when Russia moved in, they truly freaked out, hence their suicidal policies towards Russia ever since. These folks mistakenly assumed that while Russia might (maybe!) prevail over the Ukrainian forces, they were confident that Putin would not dare openly defy the consolidated West. And when Putin did just that, they went into full panic mode, hence the nonsense we hear from the western capitals on a daily basis.

    But it got even worse. Far from being deterred by western promises of fire and brimstone, the Russian then proceeded to methodically destroy the Ukrainian armed forces. In spite of the Ukrainian military being the best proxy force in US history, in spite of BILLIONS given to the Nazi regime each month, in spite of all sorts of super-dooper Wunderwaffen deliveries, in spite of economic warfare, Russia is now pounding the Ukie+western forces in the Ukraine day after day after day and while the US is ordering the Ukrainians to fight to the end and never withdraw, the many waves of Volkssturm reinforcements have had no impact on Russian warfighting capabilities.

    The US also ordered its vassal states in eastern Europe to send their large supplies of Soviet era weapons to the Ukraine (over 300 tanks just from Poland!), and Ukrainian-branded Mi-24s, Su-25s and MiG-29s still are seen in the Ukrainian skies almost daily in spite of the fact that almost the entire Ukrainian air force was destroyed in the first 3 days of the war. Helicopters are easy to hide, “Ukrainian” aircraft take off from bases in Poland and Romania, and yet they don’t seem to make a difference: for most of them, it is a one-way mission and they know it. But it is good PR, even if it costs lives (at least that is what Uncle Shmuel thinks). But now that the already low credibility of the legacy corporate media is in freefall, even such PR “victories” yield very little traction:



    It is outright comical to hear western countries (Germany, Italy and even the USA) whining about their weapons stores getting depleted while all these truly huge deliveries have not made any difference at all on the ground since the beginning of combat operations.
    [Sidebar: does Russia have air superiority over the Ukraine? Yes, absolutely. A few helicopters or fixed wing aircraft on one way missions make no difference here. In fact, a much bigger threat to the Russian Aerospace Forces are the Ukrainian air defenses which, while old, have often been modernized and have the full support of US C4ISR (Command, Control, Communication, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) including surveillance drone, AWACS, satellites, SIGNIT, etc. etc. etc. and yet the Russians have adapted: the close air support aircraft fly low, while their SEAD (suppression of enemy air defenses) fly high with long range anti-radiation missiles on the ready. A quick reminder, while the USAF/USN has often achieved air supremacy over countries without a modern air force or any modern air defenses, it failed to knock out the Serbian air defenses during the Anglo-Zionist wars against the Serbian nation. In fact, the USAF/USN *never* operated in an environment as dangerous as the one currently created over the Ukraine, but the comparatively much smaller Russian Aerospace Force did achieve and maintain air superiority over this huge country. As for air supremacy (as oppose to superiority), it is only achievable against a very poorly armed adversary: air superiority is the best one can hope to achieve, even theoretically, over any country with serious air defenses]
    And yet, the (comparatively small, but more modern) Russian aerospace forces have achieved and maintained air superiority throughout the past 5 months of combat operations. This is an extremely alarming sign for the US and NATO forces. Just imagine what the full might of the Russian armed forces would do to NATO if it was unleashed!

    But it gets even worse (for the Empire, that is): there are all the signs and even clear messages that Putin is not “bluffing” at all and that Russia has full escalation dominance over the West. but it is now becoming quite evident that the Kremlin will not stop under any circumstances short of a total victory, and if that means nuclear war, so be it. And the Russian people are overwhelmingly supportive of this stance.

    Why?



    Because the Russian people have now FINALLY seen the true face of the West, they now understand that this is nothing else but a continuation of WWII and that the very existence and sovereignty of the Russian people are at stake.

    Again, Putin said it clearly: “if someone makes a decision to destroy Russia, we have every right to fight back. Yes, it would be a global disaster for humanity and for the world, but being a Russian citizen and head of Russia, I want to ask a question, “What’s the point of the world without Russia?“. If these were just empty words, like what Biden reads (with difficulty) from his teleprompter, that would be one thing, but these words need to be remembered in the context of the deployment of Avangards, Poseidons, S-500 and all the other weapons and tactics developed by Russia while the Neocons, drunk with arrogance, slept at the wheel.

    So no, while Putin rarely makes threats, he never bluffs.

    Bottom line is this: anybody who sincerely believes that Russia will not wipe out the entire West if she is seriously threatened is terminally delusional, knows nothing about history, and does not understand the Russian mindset. They would do so at their own peril.

    If there is one message I want to convey to anybody willing to listen it is this: Putin is not bluffing, the West cannot win, and the only variable here is what price the West is willing to pay for its defeat.

    By the way, the Chinese are also getting mighty fed up with the crazies in DC, just check out their latest statements.

    Will somebody actually take action against the Neocons? I doubt it. If anything, the entire Trump debacle has proven beyond any reasonable doubt that US anti-Neocons are either fakes, or that they have the willpower of a case of jello (that also goes for Tulsi Gabbard, by the way). Will the Neocons realize that if they persist in doubling down, they will personally and physically die? Maybe. At the end of the day, the US can afford to have a comprehensively destroyed Ukraine and a not less comprehensively destroyed EU. Now that the UK has left the EU, the Anglos couldn’t care less, and triggering wars in Europe is a time-honored British tradition anyway.



    The real blowback from the Neocons’ arrogance and ignorance is that far from dealing with Russia first and with China as an end goal, they have greatly contributed to a major strengthening of the Russian, Chinese and Indian alliance.

    The Neocons could decide to let Europe burn, while they remain in control of the USA which, unlike the EU, has plenty of natural resources and will remain, if not a world hegemon, then at least a powerful nation. In that case, their plan is simple: to continue to push for a maximum confrontation and war in Europe, but short of involving the USA in a nuclear exchange with Russia. The Brits on their island might have similar plans, just on a smaller scale and with the vital need to fully rely on the support of the USA. In the “best” of cases (for them), the UK would be in charge of managing the chaos in Europe on behalf of the USA.

    I don’t think that the Neocons give a damn about Israel and the Israeli people either, by the way. Nor do the Anglo ruling “elites” give a damn about the people of the USA or the UK. If there is one lesson we must take from the horror of 9/11 is that these people won’t hesitate to murder thousands of “their own” because, in reality, for all the patriotic or Zionist flag-waving, they only care about themselves and their power.

    NATO is a joke, and sooner or later, Russia will denazify all of the EU, either politically and economically, or, if no other option is left, militarily. First, the Ukraine, then the 3B+P crazies will have to be denazified. Next will be the turn of the EU/NATO beginning with Germany. By then, the US will have suffered a massive economic, social and cultural disaster which will probably reformat the current US polity. Where will the Neocons go next? I don’t know and, frankly, I don’t care. The Neocons are only dangerous just like a parasite that invades the brain of a much larger host. Once the host is down, the parasite might as well leave ditch it and find a new host. By itself, this parasite is weak and universally disliked.

    In the meantime, the stupidified Woke-sheep can keep themselves busy wondering if men can give birth or deciding whether a “twerking” senator will solve the USA’s many problems.

    So where do we go from here?

    Well, at least so far, the leaders of the USA are still in full “double down forever” mode, along with their volunteer slaves in eastern Europe. Their plan for Russia is best visualized with this map: (source)



    These wet dreams even include the infamous “Idel Ural” which was denounced by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his articles against the equally infamous “captive nations law”. In fact, this “law” has its origins from the CIA and Nazi Germany. So we can say that this is nothing but “same old, same old again”. Although not quite, some things have changed.

    During WWII the Russian people quickly understood that Hitler was no “liberator”, no more than Napoleon before him, and that he only used that kind of language to try to achieve victory. Then, during the Cold War, it was easy to believe that the enemy of the West was Communism and its idea of universal liberation from the capitalist yoke. Surely, if Russia got rid of the CPSU the West would embrace such a free Russia?

    Nope, the exact opposite happened: in spite the “all you can eat” “freedoms” of bluejeans, fast foods, crime and pornography, Russia was plundered and came very very close to totally breaking up (only the 2nd Chechen war with Putin as the Commander in Chief prevented that from happening). Instead of the promised “democratic heaven” Russia got deeply immersed in the worst kind of capitalist hell imaginable.

    Furthermore, the combination of a rather inept Soviet propaganda machine and a much more effective western propaganda gave many Russians the illusion that the West was a group of free and prosperous nations only wanting the best for Russia. The Western-run nightmare of the 90s opened the eyes of some, but not all. As did the apocalypse in the so-called “independent Ukraine”. But the kind of open, direct and absolute hatred for Russia, Putin and everything Russian we all see know has convinced the vast majority of Russians that what the West erally wants is a “final solution” to the “Russian problem” not unlike what the Papist regime of Pavelic during WWII wanted for the Serbs: kill 1/3, expel another 1/3 and “convert” the remaining 1/3.

    Some things never change, especially not in the West. The Muslim are all spot on when they speak of the “modern Crusaders”!
    So far, Russia has only been observing with some amazement, and even amusement, how the EU was committing economic, political and social suicide without even trying to improve its fate. For the people of Europe, there is only one thing more important than their imperialistic and racist mindset: their wallets. And that wallet has been hurting pretty badly since the self-defeating “sanctions” against Russia were implemented.

    In Russia that attitude is referred to as a “kid freezing his own ears to piss off his granny”: infantile, self-defeating and simply stupid. That being said: how many regimes (by that I mean political systems, as opposed to governments which are specific people; for example, if Truss replaces Johnson in the UK, this will be a government change, but not a regime change) are threatened by popular discontent in the EU?

    The sad reality is that none. Oh sure, they are immensely unpopular, just like “Biden” is in the USA, but changing the puppet figureheads will do nothing to change the regimes in power (basically US-controlled colonial occupation regimes).

    It is therefore likely that Russia will have to turn up the pain dial quite a few notches up before the sheep in the EU or the US come to their senses. Primarily, I think of economic measures, but if the crazies from the 3B+PU do something really stupid Russia will not hesitate to use military power if/when needed. The bottom line is this:

    Russia needs to denazify all of the European continent, and the more countries are told to join NATO, the more candidates for denazification Russia will have.

    It is impossible to predict the future, there are simply too many variables at this point, but I would offer the following tentative suggested steps towards escalation:
    • Russia could gradually either refuse to sell her resources to Europe, not only gas and oil, of course, but everything else which Russia has been selling to the EU in the past for very good prices and which was a key to the wealth of the EU nations. So that would be a full-scale economic counter-attack from Russia against the EU. As an initial step, Russia could also demand to only be paid in Rubles for any and all exports to the EU.
    • Russia is already killing scores of Polish, British and other mercenaries (excuse me, “advisors” and “volunteers”) in the Ukraine, but most of these are low-level grunts. Russia could decide to target higher ranks involved in the war against Russia, including targets in Kiev and elsewhere. So far Russia has unleashed only a tiny fraction of her real firepower, but if the US/NATO weapon deliveries and deployment of mercenaries increase, Russia will have little choice but to further turn up the pain dial. And if the Poles, or the Baltic statelets go “full crazy” strikes against targets in these countries will become inevitable (Putin has already warned against that when he mentioned striking the “decision making centers”).
    • Finally, if Russia decides that enough is enough, the first targets of a Russian military response to the US/NATO proxy war would be to attack the US/NATO C4ISR capabilities, including AWACS/JSTARS aircraft, SIGINT centers and satellites.
    Right now, these US/NATO aircraft are only flying along the Ukrainian airspace and remain based outside the Ukraine. But if, say, the US/NATO does actively participate in a strike against Crimea or the Crimean Bridge, then all bets will be off and S-400s and various standoff weapons will do the talking.

    Imagine for a second that Russia shoots down a US AWACS/JSTARS, what will be the West’s reaction? And I don’t mean expressions of outrage and hatred, they are already at max and really have no effect on Russians. Would the US/NATO try to shoot down a Russian aircraft? And what would the Russian response to that be?

    The truth is that the US/NATO simply don’t have the means to wage a land war against Russia. They literally lack everything needed to do that. Oh sure, they have many (mostly old and subsonic) cruise missiles which they could fire at Russia, but here again, this would pose a dilemma for the West: if the strikes are unsuccessful (as they were in Syria), what to do next? And if these strikes are successful, what would the Russians do next? Use their own conventional strategic deterrence capabilities to strike at targets all over Europe and possibly even the USA? And then what?
    [Sidebar: airpower and cruise missiles are vastly overrated in the US propaganda. One of my teachers in college was a retired USAF Colonel who worked for the YF-23 program and who taught us a very good course in force planning. One day he said in class “what good does it do to you if you bomb all your targets, shoot down enemy aircraft if by the time you get back your officer’s club is filled with enemy soldiers?!” He was joking, of course, but what he knew is that only “boots on the ground” can win a war. And “boots on the ground” is exactly what neither the US, nor NATO (nor Israel or the KSA by the way) can deploy, especially against a military which has the biggest experience of land warfare on the planet, and by a huge margin!]
    The truth is that the choice for the Neocons is binary: either accept defeat in Europe and keep the USA as their prize and host, or die in a major nuclear confrontation that will wipe out millions (which they don’t care about at all), including the Neocons themselves (which they care a lot about).

    Try to reason with or convince messianic, narcissistic and delusional racist maniacs is a dangerous and mostly futile task. This is why Russia is turning the pain dial up very very slowly. Right now, most of the efforts of the Kremlin are not even directed at the West, but at forging the core of the future multilateral world, the BRICS countries and BRICS candidates (possibly including Iran, Argentina, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Mexico, Lebanon and Indonesia in the near future). Russia is also expanding her ties to Africa and Latin America. Last, but not least, Russia, China and India are constantly expanding their ties and even collaboration, especially with China.

    In this respect, I would strongly recommend to the Neocons and their puppet regimes to carefully consider the implications of Putin’s words that “We haven’t really started yet anything in earnest yet” (мы ещё всерьёз и не начинали). That is not a threat, but a statement of fact. Whether the West will continue to pretend that Russia is about to collapse, or that Putin is bluffing, will determine what will happen next.

    Right now, and exactly as I predicted would happen, Russia has basically totally given up on any form of dialog with the West, since the West has basically severed all its diplomatic ties with Russia. Put differently, Russia is now acting unilaterally without giving the moaning and threats from the West any consideration whatsoever.

    In fact, the stark reality is that Russia has no need, or use, for the West, especially a West trying to commit collective suicide by a million cuts. Right now, the West is mostly dialing up the pain dial on itself, with little or no Russian assistance. But that does not mean that Russia won’t proactively turn up that dial if/when needed. And if the sheep in the West prefer athletic events or chess tournaments without Russian participation, by all means, let them do it and, in the process, make these events meaningless.

    The same goes for all the #cancelRussia insanity out there, including the destruction of statues and monuments or sanctioning of Russian musicians. The putatively proud and freedom-loving East Europeans seem to especially relish their “glorious victories” against old Soviet statues and monuments. I say – let them, it just shown their impotence and utter irrelevance. If they have no respect for themselves, why should anybody else?

    As the saying goes, “go woke, go broke”. A fitting epitaph on the West’s gravestone.

    As for Russia, her real future lies in the South, East and North. She has no need or use for the West. Almost one thousand years of western imperialism are coming to a shameful and self-inflicted death, one way or another. As I have written many times, that system was neither viable nor reformable. It will either die of its own internal contradictions, or Russia and China will have to cull it. They most definitely has the means to, but won’t act directly unless provoked.

    But that, should it happen, is still further down the road. For the time being, we are entering a long phase (many months probably) of gradual pain dial increase. Russia will continue to grind down the NATO forces in the Ukraine and let the economic realities sink into the awareness of the European sheep.

    As many observe in Russia: “now russophobia will come at a steep price”.

    I couldn’t agree more.

  2. The Following 26 Users Say Thank You to Bill Ryan For This Post:

    9ideon (24th July 2022), Ba-ba-Ra (24th July 2022), Blastolabs (24th July 2022), David Trd1 (25th July 2022), ExomatrixTV (24th July 2022), Gwin Ru (24th July 2022), Ivanhoe (24th July 2022), justntime2learn (26th July 2022), kfm27917 (24th July 2022), Kindred (24th July 2022), kudzy (24th July 2022), Michel Leclerc (24th July 2022), Mike Gorman (26th July 2022), mountain_jim (25th July 2022), Oxygen (24th July 2022), pounamuknight (24th July 2022), Ravenlocke (25th July 2022), Reinhard (24th July 2022), Rizotto (25th July 2022), Snoweagle (25th July 2022), sunflower (27th July 2022), The KMan (25th July 2022), Tintin (24th July 2022), Vicus (24th July 2022), XelNaga (25th July 2022), Yoda (24th July 2022)

  3. Link to Post #3962
    Avalon Member Kindred's Avatar
    Join Date
    4th February 2011
    Location
    At Peace, within the Noise
    Age
    68
    Posts
    1,110
    Thanks
    2,101
    Thanked 5,323 times in 995 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    I've always found 'the' Saker to be spot-on in many of his analyses... great reporting. Thanks!
    “A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.”
    - Gandalf (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring)

  4. The Following 14 Users Say Thank You to Kindred For This Post:

    Ba-ba-Ra (24th July 2022), Bill Ryan (24th July 2022), Blastolabs (24th July 2022), ExomatrixTV (24th July 2022), Gwin Ru (24th July 2022), kfm27917 (24th July 2022), pounamuknight (24th July 2022), Ravenlocke (25th July 2022), Reinhard (24th July 2022), Rizotto (25th July 2022), Snoweagle (25th July 2022), The KMan (25th July 2022), Tintin (24th July 2022), Yoda (24th July 2022)

  5. Link to Post #3963
    Netherlands Avalon Member ExomatrixTV's Avatar
    Join Date
    23rd September 2011
    Location
    Netherlands
    Language
    English, Dutch, German, Limburgs
    Age
    57
    Posts
    22,991
    Thanks
    31,364
    Thanked 127,206 times in 21,084 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    No need to follow anyone, only consider broadening (y)our horizon of possibilities ...

  6. The Following 11 Users Say Thank You to ExomatrixTV For This Post:

    Bill Ryan (24th July 2022), Gwin Ru (25th July 2022), Ivanhoe (25th July 2022), kfm27917 (24th July 2022), pounamuknight (24th July 2022), Reinhard (25th July 2022), Rizotto (24th July 2022), sunflower (26th July 2022), The KMan (25th July 2022), Tintin (24th July 2022), Vicus (25th July 2022)

  7. Link to Post #3964
    Canada Avalon Member
    Join Date
    16th December 2020
    Language
    English
    Posts
    513
    Thanks
    16,733
    Thanked 5,604 times in 511 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    The author of the piece in Veterans Today was probably referring to the case of 2 British and 1 Moroccan mercenaries captured in the Mariupol area of Ukraine in the spring of 2022. Once captured, they were put on trial by the Donetsk People Republic (not Russia), found guilty, and sentenced to death. Their trial and sentence was very much publicized through international media. Here is a July 8 RT article about it:

    DPR takes step towards executing British mercenaries
    https://www.rt.com/russia/558653-dpr...on-moratorium/

    If it’s true that these 3 mercenaries were finally executed on July 22, it means that their appeals were rejected by the Donetsk court. As expected.

    I agree with you Bill about your assessment of Veterans Today. I read their articles with a bowl of salt nearby, but they’ve come up with accurate reports too.

    My main interest here is the high-ranking Canadian military (Cadieux) rumored to have been captured by the Russians. As a Canadian I’m absolutely disgusted by the Turdeau regime (with Chrystia Freeland who’s even worse than Turdeau), their obsession with bizarre covax mandates and their allowing big pharma to gut our health care system, their subservience to the Biden regime etc. I’m inclined to think there might be some truth to rumors that this high-ranking Canadian military Cadieux was involved in the USA bio-labs in Ukraine at the time he was captured by the Russians. Very interested to find out more about this.

  8. The Following 12 Users Say Thank You to Rizotto For This Post:

    9ideon (24th July 2022), Bill Ryan (24th July 2022), Gwin Ru (25th July 2022), kfm27917 (24th July 2022), pounamuknight (24th July 2022), Ravenlocke (25th July 2022), Reinhard (25th July 2022), sunflower (26th July 2022), The KMan (25th July 2022), Tintin (24th July 2022), Vicus (25th July 2022), XelNaga (25th July 2022)

  9. Link to Post #3965
    Netherlands Avalon Member ExomatrixTV's Avatar
    Join Date
    23rd September 2011
    Location
    Netherlands
    Language
    English, Dutch, German, Limburgs
    Age
    57
    Posts
    22,991
    Thanks
    31,364
    Thanked 127,206 times in 21,084 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    • Russia: They Ain't Gonna Take It Anymore!!!


    Several of you have taken the time to point out excellent articles that I missed when they first came out and that are worthy of a revisit, writes Larry Johnson.

    To begin with, a prescient piece by Patrick Armstrong. A good friend reminded me of this piece, which is 6 years old and still relevant. That is the real sign of brilliant writing and analysis. Here are his opening paragraphs ( click here to do the full check ):

    Let me start by saying I don't know why the US Establishment is so obsessed with Russia. I can't think of any good reason why that would be. All Russia wants is a quiet life so that it can rebuild things – as Putin himself said, even before he was president:
    That has not been said by someone whose primary aim is to recreate the USSR or the Russian Empire; it is someone who wants to rebuild the flawed “economic and social situation” of his country. And that requires rest and peace. In the real world, Russia is not a threat to the US at all. And, one would think, when the " Terror threat looms over the world " it is a useful and necessary ally.

    I do know, and this is evident from my collection of quotes , that hostility towards Russia never ceased – or even moderated – after the USSR collapsed. Even in 1990, there were

    those who insisted that nothing real was going on, because Russia was in essence expansionist, dictatorial and hostile to “our values”. All the so-called changes were mere illusions, calculated to deceive the simple minds. The only possible Russia was an Enemy Russia: all that Russians in terms of Russians – let alone the absence of the temporary Soviet armor – imagined, thought about, dreamed of was enmity against Us and against Our Values.

    As I noted above. Six years old and maturing like a fine bottle of wine, tribute to Brother Armstrong for his keen foresight.
    Next up, Professor Michael Brenner. He gives an equally captivating look at why Russia is doing its thing in response to Western provocations of the last thirty years, using a few entertaining mafia quotes.

    The mafia is not known for its creative language beyond terms like “hit man,” “go to the mattresses,” “live with the fish” and the like. However, there are a few pithy sayings that carry an enduring wisdom. One involves honor and revenge: "If you're going to humiliate someone in public in a really gross way, make sure he doesn't survive to take his inevitable revenge." Violation thereof is at your own risk.
    That enduring truth has been demonstrated by Russia's actions in Ukraine, which is in large part the culmination of the numerous humiliations inflicted on the West, under American instigation, on Russian rulers and the country as a whole over the past 30 years.

    They have been treated as a sinner, condemned to assume the role of penitent, who, clad in sackcloth, marked with ashes, is expected to appear among the nations with bowed head forever. No right to have his own interests, his own security interests or even his own opinion.
    It seems that Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are now in touch with their inner Twisted Sister. I'm not sure what the Russian expression is for “WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT”, but I'm sure some subscribers to this blog will come up with the correct translation.

    This video from forty years ago is a great metaphor for the present. Think of angry Dad as the collective leaders of the west (of course, Joe Biden would sell his right testicle to be so coherent). They have devoted themselves for the last thirty years to humiliating and bullying Russia. Well, guess what? Russia is no longer taking it.
    And the Russian resistance is beginning to bear fruit. Do you remember Lithuania's audacity a few weeks ago when it stopped supplying Kaliningrad by land? Lithuania last Friday (July 22) backed down and lifted the ban on rail transport of sanctioned goods in and out of Russia's Kaliningrad area. The leaders of Western Europe – Germany, France and Italy in particular – are staring in the face of an economic disaster. The sanctions they thought would bring Putin to his knees are doing just the opposite – the sanctions are ravaging Europe:

    Europe is melting under the heat of 40C. But it also faces a winter economic collapse as gas and electricity prices explode. And that could mean the end of his union.
    “Some energy companies in France and Germany are already bankrupt; rescue operations are imminent. Next up will be rationing-affected industrial companies,” warns Edward Lucas, senior fellow of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) . “Germany protects its consumers at market prices, but it cannot protect their jobs.”
    Playing with the taps of pipelines that transport fossil fuel from Siberia to Europe has done more damage to the economies of its enemies than a cruise missile attack.

    The madness of the sad economic picture is underlined by the fact that Europe continues to insist that their suffering is due to some evil act of Vlad the Impaler Putin, when the opposite is true - Europe and the United States have imposed the sanctions caused the gas/energy shortages. They remind me of the teenage girl who slits her wrists and then blames the parents for the bloody mess.
    While the West persists in its refusal to reflect on its irrational hatred of Russia, the Russians have a long list of grievances that explain Russia's mistrust, if not hatred, of the West. They Ain't Gonna Take It Anymore!
    • article (Dutch 🇳🇱 + Multi-Language Options). 🦜🦋🌳


    ¤=[Post Update]=¤

    Why Does the American Establishment Hate Russia So Much?

    On May 17, 2016 By Patrick ArmstrongIn ACCUSATIONS, PROPAGANDA, LIES AND NONSENSE, WAR ON RUSSIA
    https://gianalytics.org/869-why-does...russia-so-much
    JRL/2016/83/5


    First of all, let me start by saying I don’t know why the American Establishment is so obsessed about Russia. I can’t think of any good reason why it should be. All Russia wants is a quiet life so that it can rebuild things – as Putin himself said, back before he was President:
    That was not said by someone whose principal purpose is to re-create the USSR or the Russian Empire; it’s someone who wants to re-construct the defective “economic and social situation” of his country. And that requires peace and quiet. In the real world, Russia isn’t any kind of threat whatsoever to the USA. And, one would think, when the “Terror threat looms across the world” it’s a useful and necessary ally.
    I do know, and my quotations collection shows, that hostility to Russia never stopped – or even moderated – after the USSR collapsed. Even in 1990 there were people insisting that nothing was real was happening because Russia, in its very essence, was expansionist, dictatorial and hostile to “our values”. Any so-called changes were only illusions calculated to gull the simple-minded. The only possible Russia was an Enemy Russia: all Russians qua Russians – never mind the absence of the temporary Soviet carapace – imagined, thought about, dreamed of, was enmity to Us and to Our Values. Russophobes – not Russia-fearers really, but Russia-haters – had little audience as long as it seemed that Russia was sinking into insignificance. With the revival of Russia’s prospects this century the Russia-haters have come to dominate the discussion.
    We hear that Russia is an “existential threat” to the USA. That charge, at least, is true: Russia’s nuclear weaponry could obliterate the USA and render it uninhabitable for decades or centuries. (At the same cost to itself, of course). But the UK, France or China could cause unacceptable damage, if not outright obliteration, too. But Washington doesn’t worry about the first two and is not obsessed about the third. And one would think that Russia’s nuclear might should have been a reason to treat it with circumspection. Apparently not.


    To any objective viewer Russia is not the aggressor. Those who believe that “Putin wants a new Russian empire” should – but never do – explain why it missed the chance to put Georgia into the bag in 2008. Those who believe Russia has invaded Ukraine, never explain why why the invader still hasn’t managed to get past the Donetsk Airport. A strange reluctance to take the full mouthful: a reluctance that cries out for an explanation. But no explanation is ever presented: in their vision Russia is forever reaching but never grasping, powerful but impotent, determined but indecisive.
    It’s not Russia that expanded its military alliance up to the “doorstep” of the USA. It’s not Russia that has fomented, or tried to foment, “colour revolutions” in Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, Guatemala or the USA itself. Russian military bases do not surround the USA. Its media is not full of stories about Obama’s mistresses, offshore accounts, “information war“, “hybrid war“, troll factories, thuggish propensities, hatred of homosexuals, determination to conquer neighbours, bare chested macho posing, persecution of rock groups, murder of opponents.

    So, why this bizarre fixation with Russia? As I said, I don’t know: there remains something deeply irrational about it; something buried deep in the dark that can’t quite be seen.


    But, forthwith, I put forth a list of possible reasons.
    1. American lefties dislike Russia because it rejected socialism; indeed the Soviet experience stands as an indictment against the whole scheme.
    2. Righties dislike Russia because, communist or not (and how many think it still is?) it’s still Russia.
    3. Americans have to have a rival, an opponent, a counter, an enemy even. It’s geopolitical chiaroscuro: the City on The Hill must shine in the Darkness.
    4. Russia is the right size of opponent. To be obsessed with Venezuela (“national security threat” though it is declared) would be unworthy for such a “great” and “winning” country. China is too big and, because it owns so much of the US economy, too dangerous, to provoke. Russia is of sufficient size to be a worthy target.
    5. Russia is a safe target (or so Obama thought a year ago). US-Russia trade is small and there is little cost to being sanctimonious against Russia: bashing Russia gives a pleasing sense of moral superiority without uncomfortable consequences.
    6. Maybe Russia is an ungrateful child? In the 1990s there was much talk about US aid and advice reforming Russia, the “end of history” and all that. Russia was, evidently, on the edge of becoming “just like us”. But it didn’t and such back-sliding cannot be forgiven.
    7. Russia is a convenient palimpsest on which to write the presumptions you brought. Martin Malia wrote a fascinating book showing how Westerners from Voltaire onwards found Russia to be the perfect exemplar of whatever it was that they wished it to be. So, in Russia you can find whatever you’re looking for: a “geostrategic foe”, for example.
    8. Given that today “human rights” have been reduced to little more than applauding sexual preferences, (Watch this Ukrainian video on why the Dutch should have voted Yes, if you think I’m overstating things) Russia is so old-fashioned that all can hate it.
    9. They’re just trapped in it – they’ve been crying wolf so long and so loudly, they can’t stop.
    10. The people who actually run the USA (the White-House-and-Congress/the-Deep-State: your choice) know that the USA is losing the industrial production capacity that made it Number One. Their solution, so the theory goes (Pepe Escobar’s Empire of Chaos theory), is that the only way to keep the USA (relatively) on the top is to depress the others. Chaos and instability on its borders will bog Russia down. Europe can be bogged down by using the Russian threat – in this respect, the sanctions against and by Russia are hurting Europe more than anyone. At the end, the USA will still be king of the hill even if the hill is smaller.
    11. For some reason – it’s observable, even if it’s not explicable – Americans personalise everything. And, out there, visible everywhere, is Vladimir Vladimirovich. On Wednesday the Panama Papers are about him, on Thursday they are by him. Putin Derangement Syndrome sells papers and animates talk shows. Just in the month of April, for example, we have been told that Putin is going out with Murdoch’s ex-wife; we have seen both versions of the Panama Papers story; told that Dutch voters were thought-controlled by him, that he has a secret army in Europe and an army of “spy dolphins“. Putin Derangement Syndrome is getting crazier and crazier.
    12. We cannot forget sheer profitability. Billions spent on an F-35 fighter, a Littoral Combat Ship, unending tank production, trillion-dollar nuclear weapons program and billions and billions more cannot be substantiated by fighting a handful of “terrorists” equipped with small arms, road-side bombs and suicide vests. Without a serious enemy, justifying big contracts, how can generals hope to get a second high-paid job in retirement? The enormous US military sector needs a capable and convincing enemy. And, other than Russia (or China – remember the pivot to Asia?), what is there?
    13. There is the argument that NATO is one of the principal ways that Washington maintains its dominance over Europe and the EU. The easiest and simplest justification for NATO is a return to its earliest purpose, as Lord Ismay wittily put it, “To keep the Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down”. The director of Stratfor has opined that the “primordial interest” of the USA has been preventing any sort of condominium between Germany and Russia. The Russia-the-eternal-enemy position provides both a justification for the continuation of NATO and a prophylactic against a Berlin-Moscow axis. It ensures a Europe that cannot stand on its own.
    14. Sheer laziness. The 24/7 news cycle needs material and it’s always easiest to stick with what you have. Because Russia filled some time yesterday, it should do so again today. There’s always someone available to tell you that Putin is corrupt, or Russia is about to invade some country, or Russia is about to collapse, or Russians are hungry or some other click-bait headline. Better than celebrities and their drug or marital problems because it gives that soupçon of gravity that makes the audience feel it’s not wasting its time. The steady diet has its effect and so Russia-the-eternal-enemy comes to be casually accepted.
    15. It’s clear that Putin’s team is serious and so many Western leaders are not. Also, and this cannot be denied, the team is successful. This minor country that makes nothing, where no one wants to live and which is dying is setting the course. Meanwhile, in the West…… This must infuriate the Western Establishment and that is a motive for the unceasing attempts to demean Putin & Co. It is “magical thinking“: if they repeat the charm loudly and often, maybe Russia will go away and no Western population will have to contemplate the possibility that national governments might actually do what they are paid to do.
    16. The state of mind in the Obama Administration is not made better by million-view YouTube videos comparing his work-out style with Putin’s. Nor pages of sneering cartoons contrasting a macho image with a feeb. Nor pages of “Putin beats Obama”. It has been some time since people gushed over Obama’s “glistening pecs“. It would also go some distance to explain outbursts like “White House criticizes Vladimir Putin’s posture” or flippant – and self-deceiving – dismissals like “regional power acting out of weakness” or “Russia is the outlier“.
    17. A subset of the above is the realisation that the Putin team has out-manoeuvred Washington at every step in the past few years. Washington was not able to overthrow Assad in Syria. The US Navy will not have a base in Sevastopol. Ukraine is a failing nightmare and its chances of joining NATO are probably lower than they were ten years ago. The sanctions regime against Russia has backfired. Russia survives low oil prices. The Moscow-Beijing axis is stronger than ever. Russia is not “isolated”. The Western Alliance is surely weaker than before. And this returns us to the “magical thinking” that we see manifested in Washington’s confused and contradictory utterances.
    So abusing Russia satisfies many needs for the American Establishment: a safe opponent to swagger over; a contrast that can be painted as dark as you like; an object of feel-good moral righteousness; a sullen teenager who won’t listen to Daddy; a blank slate on which to write; a pretend enemy we can make a fortune out of; a useful bogeyman to frighten allies into obedience; gossip for pseudo-intellectuals. Many things at once.


    But, the cost is rising.

    What has changed is the conviction that Russia is a low-cost opponent. It’s very interesting to read things like this “If Russia Started a War in the Baltics, NATO Would Lose — Quickly” and “I am very concerned about the increasing risk of loss of U.S. military technological superiority” from the US defence establishment. Perhaps it’s just an attempt to screw more money out of Congress but these are certainly not things that could have been said in 2000.
    No need to follow anyone, only consider broadening (y)our horizon of possibilities ...

  10. The Following 14 Users Say Thank You to ExomatrixTV For This Post:

    Bill Ryan (25th July 2022), Ivanhoe (25th July 2022), kfm27917 (25th July 2022), Michel Leclerc (26th July 2022), mountain_jim (25th July 2022), pounamuknight (25th July 2022), Reinhard (25th July 2022), Rizotto (25th July 2022), Snoweagle (25th July 2022), sunflower (27th July 2022), The KMan (25th July 2022), Tintin (25th July 2022), Vicus (25th July 2022), Yoda (25th July 2022)

  11. Link to Post #3966
    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
    Join Date
    7th February 2010
    Location
    Ecuador
    Posts
    34,396
    Thanks
    211,117
    Thanked 459,415 times in 32,917 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    In several recent videos (The Duran, Gonzalo Lira, et al), a new interview with Col. Douglas Macgregor was mentioned.

    I tracked it down, and for all those who appreciate his integrity, clarity and logic, here it is. He's scathingly critical of wokeness in the US military, which weakens everything, and states (as he has before) that NATO is currently very ill-equipped to fight anyone anywhere.



    A significant article that he wrote last week was referenced several times, and here that is too. (It's excellent, as one might expect.)
    Worshipping Dead Horses

    Europeans see a collision with Russia is a growing probability. That does not seem to have occurred to President Biden.
    Last edited by Bill Ryan; 25th July 2022 at 13:42.

  12. The Following 22 Users Say Thank You to Bill Ryan For This Post:

    Alecs (25th July 2022), aoibhghaire (25th July 2022), ExomatrixTV (25th July 2022), gini (26th July 2022), Gwin Ru (25th July 2022), Ivanhoe (25th July 2022), kfm27917 (25th July 2022), Kindred (21st July 2023), Kryztian (25th July 2022), kudzy (25th July 2022), Michel Leclerc (26th July 2022), Mike (25th July 2022), pounamuknight (25th July 2022), Ravenlocke (25th July 2022), Reinhard (25th July 2022), Rizotto (26th July 2022), Snoweagle (25th July 2022), sunflower (27th July 2022), The KMan (25th July 2022), Tintin (26th July 2022), Vicus (25th July 2022), Yoda (25th July 2022)

  13. Link to Post #3967
    Avalon Member Ravenlocke's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th September 2011
    Posts
    9,951
    Thanks
    7,515
    Thanked 102,140 times in 9,946 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    https://twitter.com/spriteer_774400/...68732295684097


    https://twitter.com/spriteer_774400/...68734967529472


    https://twitter.com/spriteer_774400/...68736708075520
    "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all."
    - - - - Emily Elizabeth Dickinson. 🪶💜

  14. The Following 14 Users Say Thank You to Ravenlocke For This Post:

    Bill Ryan (25th July 2022), Gwin Ru (25th July 2022), kfm27917 (25th July 2022), Kindred (21st July 2023), Michel Leclerc (26th July 2022), mountain_jim (25th July 2022), pounamuknight (25th July 2022), Reinhard (25th July 2022), Rizotto (26th July 2022), Snoweagle (25th July 2022), The KMan (25th July 2022), Tintin (27th July 2022), Vicus (25th July 2022), XelNaga (26th July 2022)

  15. Link to Post #3968
    Avalon Member Ravenlocke's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th September 2011
    Posts
    9,951
    Thanks
    7,515
    Thanked 102,140 times in 9,946 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    July 1

    https://twitter.com/theintercept/sta...79895365705728


    How the Pentagon Uses a Secretive Program to Wage Proxy Wars

    Exclusive documents and interviews reveal the sweeping scope of classified 127e operations.

    Small teams of U.S. Special Operations forces are involved in a low-profile proxy war program on a far greater scale than previously known, according to exclusive documents and interviews with more than a dozen current and former government officials.

    While The Intercept and other outlets have previously reported on the Pentagon’s use of the secretive 127e authority in multiple African countries, a new document obtained through the Freedom of Information Act offers the first official confirmation that at least 14 127e programs were also active in the greater Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region as recently as 2020. In total, between 2017 and 2020, U.S. commandos conducted at least 23 separate 127e programs across the world.

    Separately, Joseph Votel, a retired four-star Army general who headed both Special Operations Command and Central Command, which oversees U.S. military efforts in the Middle East, confirmed the existence of previously unrevealed 127e “counterterrorism” efforts in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.

    Another former senior defense official, who requested anonymity to discuss a classified program, confirmed that an earlier version of the 127e program had also been in place in Iraq. A 127e program in Tunisia, code-named Obsidian Tower, which has never been acknowledged by the Pentagon or previously identified as a use of the 127e authority, resulted in combat by U.S. forces alongside local surrogates in 2017, according to another set of documents obtained by The Intercept. A third document, a secret memo that was redacted and declassified for release to The Intercept, sheds light on hallmarks of the program, including use of the authority to provide access to areas of the world otherwise inaccessible even to the most elite U.S. troops.

    The documents and interviews provide the most detailed picture yet of an obscure funding authority that allows American commandos to conduct counterterrorism operations “by, with, and through” foreign and irregular partner forces around the world. Basic information about these missions — where they are conducted, their frequency and targets, and the foreign forces the U.S. relies on to carry them out — are unknown even to most members of relevant congressional committees and key State Department personnel.

    “If someone were to call a 127-echo program a proxy operation, it would be hard to argue with them.”
    Through 127e, the U.S. arms, trains, and provides intelligence to foreign forces. But unlike traditional foreign assistance programs, which are primarily intended to build local capacity, 127e partners are then dispatched on U.S.-directed missions, targeting U.S. enemies to achieve U.S. aims. “The foreign participants in a 127-echo program are filling gaps that we don’t have enough Americans to fill,” a former senior defense official involved with the program told The Intercept. “If someone were to call a 127-echo program a proxy operation, it would be hard to argue with them.”

    Retired generals with intimate knowledge of the 127e program — known in military parlance as “127-echo” — say that it is extremely effective in targeting militant groups while reducing risk to U.S. forces. But experts told The Intercept that use of the little-known authority raises grave accountability and oversight concerns and potentially violates the U.S. Constitution.

    One of the documents obtained by The Intercept puts the cost of 127e operations between 2017 and 2020 at $310 million, a fraction of U.S. military spending over that time period but a significant increase from the $25 million budget allocated to the program when it was first authorized, under a different name, in 2005.


    The rest here:

    https://theintercept.com/2022/07/01/..._medium=social
    Last edited by Ravenlocke; 25th July 2022 at 15:50.
    "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all."
    - - - - Emily Elizabeth Dickinson. 🪶💜

  16. The Following 13 Users Say Thank You to Ravenlocke For This Post:

    avid (25th July 2022), Bill Ryan (25th July 2022), Gwin Ru (25th July 2022), kfm27917 (25th July 2022), Kindred (21st July 2023), Michel Leclerc (26th July 2022), mountain_jim (25th July 2022), pounamuknight (25th July 2022), Reinhard (25th July 2022), Rizotto (26th July 2022), Snoweagle (25th July 2022), The KMan (25th July 2022), Tintin (27th July 2022)

  17. Link to Post #3969
    Avalon Member Ravenlocke's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th September 2011
    Posts
    9,951
    Thanks
    7,515
    Thanked 102,140 times in 9,946 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    https://twitter.com/PLnewstoday/stat...09637639307264
    "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all."
    - - - - Emily Elizabeth Dickinson. 🪶💜

  18. The Following 15 Users Say Thank You to Ravenlocke For This Post:

    AlaBil (27th July 2022), avid (25th July 2022), Bill Ryan (25th July 2022), Gwin Ru (25th July 2022), kfm27917 (25th July 2022), Kindred (21st July 2023), Michel Leclerc (26th July 2022), mountain_jim (25th July 2022), pounamuknight (25th July 2022), Reinhard (25th July 2022), Rizotto (26th July 2022), Snoweagle (25th July 2022), The KMan (25th July 2022), Tintin (27th July 2022), XelNaga (26th July 2022)

  19. Link to Post #3970
    Avalon Member Ravenlocke's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th September 2011
    Posts
    9,951
    Thanks
    7,515
    Thanked 102,140 times in 9,946 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    https://twitter.com/spriteer_774400/...72917652832257


    https://twitter.com/coope125/status/1551475706336509952


    https://twitter.com/TobiAyodele/stat...53116603809792


    https://twitter.com/BrothersTechno1/...62202875400193
    "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all."
    - - - - Emily Elizabeth Dickinson. 🪶💜

  20. The Following 13 Users Say Thank You to Ravenlocke For This Post:

    avid (25th July 2022), Bill Ryan (25th July 2022), Gwin Ru (25th July 2022), kfm27917 (25th July 2022), Michel Leclerc (26th July 2022), pounamuknight (25th July 2022), Reinhard (25th July 2022), Rizotto (26th July 2022), Snoweagle (25th July 2022), The KMan (25th July 2022), Tintin (27th July 2022), Vicus (25th July 2022), XelNaga (26th July 2022)

  21. Link to Post #3971
    Avalon Member Ravenlocke's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th September 2011
    Posts
    9,951
    Thanks
    7,515
    Thanked 102,140 times in 9,946 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/...27976759504896
    "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all."
    - - - - Emily Elizabeth Dickinson. 🪶💜

  22. The Following 13 Users Say Thank You to Ravenlocke For This Post:

    avid (25th July 2022), Bill Ryan (25th July 2022), Gwin Ru (25th July 2022), kfm27917 (25th July 2022), Michel Leclerc (26th July 2022), pounamuknight (25th July 2022), Reinhard (25th July 2022), Rizotto (26th July 2022), Snoweagle (25th July 2022), The KMan (25th July 2022), Tintin (27th July 2022), Vicus (25th July 2022), XelNaga (26th July 2022)

  23. Link to Post #3972
    Avalon Member Ravenlocke's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th September 2011
    Posts
    9,951
    Thanks
    7,515
    Thanked 102,140 times in 9,946 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/...53436940124162


    https://twitter.com/republic/status/1551566990950768641


    Russian MoD says strike on Odessa port struck only military targets, not grain shipments

    It remains unclear how the strike will impact the passage of the Ukrainian grain via the three Ukrainian Black Sea ports: Odesa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny.

    Russian defence officials on July 24 said that the airstrike it launched on the Ukrainian port of Odesa had struck only the military targets. The attack came just shortly after Ukraine signed an agreement to resume the grain shipments with Moscow, with mediation efforts of Turkey and the UN. “In the seaport in the city of Odesa, on the territory of a shipyard, sea-based high-precision long-range missiles destroyed a docked Ukrainian warship and a warehouse with Harpoon anti-ship missiles supplied by the US to the Kyiv regime,” ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said at a daily briefing.

    Zelenskyy says attack 'destroys very possibility of dialogue' with Russia

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the attack during his nightly televised address Saturday evening. He stressed that Russian military's strike on the Odesa port “destroyed the very possibility” of dialogue with the neighbouring country. Moscow attacked Odesa’s sea port with at least four cruise missiles, two of which had been shot down by Ukrainian air defence, according to AP. Command spokeswoman Nataliya Humenyuk iterated that there was no grain storage facilities that were targetted as being alleged by Ukraine. Turkey’s defence minister, however, said that Ukrainian authorities say that one missile struck a grain silo and one other landed near Odesa’s docks.

    It remains unclear how the strike will impact the passage of the Ukrainian grain via the three Ukrainian Black Sea ports: Odesa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny. Both Kyiv and Moscow had agreed to refraine from strikes on the three Black Sea ports, according to the agreement seen by Associated Press. The strike came as Russian forces strengthened assault in eastern Donbass. The governor in the Donetsk region in Ukraine’s industrial heartland of the Donbass informed that that two civilians had been killed and several others were injured over the previous 24 hours from Russia's attacks.

    The rest is here:
    https://www.republicworld.com/world-...ticleshow.html


    https://twitter.com/spriteer_774400/...94746048286721


    https://twitter.com/NST_Online/statu...88837058494467
    Last edited by Ravenlocke; 25th July 2022 at 15:45.
    "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all."
    - - - - Emily Elizabeth Dickinson. 🪶💜

  24. The Following 14 Users Say Thank You to Ravenlocke For This Post:

    avid (25th July 2022), Bill Ryan (25th July 2022), Gwin Ru (25th July 2022), kfm27917 (25th July 2022), Michel Leclerc (26th July 2022), pounamuknight (25th July 2022), Reinhard (25th July 2022), Rizotto (26th July 2022), Snoweagle (25th July 2022), Spiral (25th July 2022), The KMan (25th July 2022), Tintin (27th July 2022), Vicus (25th July 2022), XelNaga (26th July 2022)

  25. Link to Post #3973
    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
    Join Date
    7th February 2010
    Location
    Ecuador
    Posts
    34,396
    Thanks
    211,117
    Thanked 459,415 times in 32,917 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    An interesting, unexpected, and potentially critical new development, as of a couple of hours ago. Gazprom continues its game of poker (it seems!!) and has just announced that on 27 July, two days from now, it will halt another Nord Stream turbine, thereby reducing gas supplies to Germany from 40% to a mere 20%.

    Reaction has been instant:

    https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/statu...77574463225859

    Translation: (from the new Zero Hedge article all about this)

    Unless Putin changes his mind, Germany is facing not just a freezing winter, but a bitter recession.
    Last edited by Bill Ryan; 25th July 2022 at 16:43.

  26. The Following 23 Users Say Thank You to Bill Ryan For This Post:

    Alecs (25th July 2022), avid (25th July 2022), Ba-ba-Ra (25th July 2022), Dennis Leahy (25th July 2022), ExomatrixTV (25th July 2022), gini (26th July 2022), Gwin Ru (25th July 2022), Johnnycomelately (25th July 2022), kfm27917 (25th July 2022), Kryztian (25th July 2022), Michel Leclerc (26th July 2022), Mike Gorman (26th July 2022), mountain_jim (25th July 2022), pounamuknight (25th July 2022), Reinhard (25th July 2022), Rizotto (26th July 2022), Snoweagle (25th July 2022), The KMan (25th July 2022), Tintin (26th July 2022), Vicus (25th July 2022), Violet3 (26th July 2022), XelNaga (26th July 2022), Yoda (25th July 2022)

  27. Link to Post #3974
    Avalon Member mountain_jim's Avatar
    Join Date
    8th December 2010
    Posts
    8,823
    Thanks
    59,712
    Thanked 78,289 times in 8,660 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    Well I am behind, and have not read all of the Saker's article here, but

    Quote So what about the US/NATO/EU in all this?

    First, I want to make it clear that I strongly believe that the Anglo-Zionist Empire died on January 8th, 2020 when it allowed Iran to bomb CENTCOM bases without even a single bullet being fired back. That day the Empire showed the world that it did not even have what it takes to attack Iran. As for the USA, they died on January 6th, 2021.
    This is incorrect, and not very deep, in my view. The US died well before that, with the stolen election one of the death throes.

    To not realize that the Jan 6th was an open-the-doors and entrap operation does not help his credibility in my eyes, in regard to US political happenings in last 6 years.
    Last edited by mountain_jim; 25th July 2022 at 17:30.
    I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions. - Robert Anton Wilson

    The present as you think of it, and in practical working terms, is that point at which you select your physical experience from all those events that could be materialized. - Seth (The Nature of Personal Reality - Session 656, Page 293)

    (avatar image: Brocken spectre, a wonderful phenomenon of nature I have experienced and a symbol for my aspirations.)

  28. The Following 13 Users Say Thank You to mountain_jim For This Post:

    avid (26th July 2022), Bill Ryan (25th July 2022), gini (26th July 2022), Gwin Ru (26th July 2022), kfm27917 (25th July 2022), Michel Leclerc (26th July 2022), Mike Gorman (26th July 2022), pounamuknight (25th July 2022), Reinhard (25th July 2022), Rizotto (26th July 2022), The KMan (25th July 2022), Tintin (26th July 2022), Vicus (26th July 2022)

  29. Link to Post #3975
    England Avalon Member Spiral's Avatar
    Join Date
    20th July 2012
    Location
    Clown World, NE Quadrant
    Language
    English
    Age
    57
    Posts
    1,460
    Thanks
    11,950
    Thanked 10,651 times in 1,409 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia


  30. The Following 15 Users Say Thank You to Spiral For This Post:

    9ideon (25th July 2022), avid (25th July 2022), Bill Ryan (25th July 2022), Dennis Leahy (25th July 2022), gini (26th July 2022), kfm27917 (25th July 2022), Kryztian (25th July 2022), Michel Leclerc (26th July 2022), mountain_jim (25th July 2022), pounamuknight (25th July 2022), Reinhard (25th July 2022), Rizotto (26th July 2022), Spirithorse (25th July 2022), The KMan (25th July 2022), Tintin (27th July 2022)

  31. Link to Post #3976
    Belgium Avalon Member
    Join Date
    6th April 2014
    Location
    France
    Language
    Dutch, French
    Age
    74
    Posts
    777
    Thanks
    10,709
    Thanked 6,346 times in 761 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    Quote Posted by ExomatrixTV (here)
    The US Government's “Nuclear Primacy” Meta -strategy says there are “acceptable” levels of America's destruction in a nuclear war against Russia and/or China, as long as America ultimately “wins” globally, writes Paul Craig Roberts .

    (...)

    The other risky assumption is that Russia will stay out of it. Given the confusion in the Kremlin, the Russian government's inability to give up hope of peaceful cooperation with the West, and the Kremlin's inability to see the neoconservative doctrine of US hegemony over the world as something else beyond a utopia and certainly not as an operational doctrine, it is possible that the Kremlin will sit idly by as a war breaks out between the US and China.

    (...)
    Although Craig Roberts’s viewpoints deserve respect and careful reading, I have come to the provisional conclusion that he considers Russia’s ability to build and execute a superior strategy improbable or inexistent, allegedly because the “Kremlin” does not have either brains or guts to carry it through.

    In all major intellectual games (chess, Go) as well as in all higher-level intellectual endeavours (science on one hand, artistic creativity on the other) it is typical of the lesser-endowed party to think that it is only they themselves who have a strategy, and that the superior party haven’t.

    Lee Sedol’s heroic defeat by Alphago was in part the result of the fact that he could not recognise Alphago’s playing as being based on a strategy – or, assuming that it had one, he could not understand it.Top scientists face the same situation: the great mathematicians of last century (Srinivasa Ramanujan, Alexandre Grothendieck) were confronted with people incapable of understanding their presuppositions. When Beethoven’s symphonies were executed in the beginning of the 19th century, imitators came and failed, because they were unable to grasp their underlying structures.

    Craig Roberts’ lack of understanding the possibility of a Russian superior strategy (of which evidence is noticeable elsewhere, there are plenty of statements pointing it out on this very Forum) is therefore gnawing at his credibility for me – and I am even wondering whether his position is not some form of "controlled criticism" of the US strategy.

  32. The Following 16 Users Say Thank You to Michel Leclerc For This Post:

    9ideon (25th July 2022), avid (25th July 2022), Ba-ba-Ra (25th July 2022), Bill Ryan (25th July 2022), chrifri (25th July 2022), Gwin Ru (25th July 2022), kfm27917 (25th July 2022), mountain_jim (25th July 2022), pounamuknight (25th July 2022), Reinhard (25th July 2022), Rizotto (26th July 2022), Snoweagle (25th July 2022), The KMan (25th July 2022), Tintin (27th July 2022), Vicus (26th July 2022), XelNaga (26th July 2022)

  33. Link to Post #3977
    Argentina Avalon Member Vicus's Avatar
    Join Date
    6th October 2020
    Location
    Europa
    Language
    Spanish
    Posts
    1,737
    Thanks
    14,970
    Thanked 16,852 times in 1,720 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    Russia says it wants to end Ukraine’s `unacceptable regime’

    KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s top diplomat said Moscow’s overarching goal in Ukraine is to free its people from its “unacceptable regime,” expressing the Kremlin’s war aims in some of the bluntest terms yet as its forces pummel the country with artillery barrages and airstrikes.

    The remark from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov comes amid Ukraine’s efforts to resume grain exports from its Black Sea ports —something that would help ease global food shortages — under a new deal tested by a Russian strike on Odesa over the weekend.

    “We are determined to help the people of eastern Ukraine to liberate themselves from the burden of this absolutely unacceptable regime,” Lavrov said at an Arab League summit in Cairo late Sunday, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy’s government.

    Apparently suggesting that Moscow’s war aims extend beyond Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region in the east, Lavrov said: “We will certainly help the Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical.”

    Lavrov’s comments followed his warning last week that Russia plans to retain control over broader areas beyond eastern Ukraine, including the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south, and will make more gains elsewhere.


    His remarks contrasted with the Kremlin’s line early in the war, when it repeatedly emphasized that Russia wasn’t seeking to overthrow Zelenskyy’s government, even as Moscow’s troops closed in on Kyiv. Russia later retreated from around the capital and turned its attention to capturing the Donbas. The war is now in its sixth month.

    Last week, Russia and Ukraine signed agreements aimed at clearing the way for the shipment of millions of tons of desperately needed Ukrainian grain, as well as the export of Russian grain and fertilizer.

    Ukraine’s deputy infrastructure minister, Yury Vaskov, said the first shipment of grain is planned for this week.

    While Russia faced accusations that the weekend attack on the port of Odesa amounted to reneging on the deal, Moscow insisted the strike would not affect grain deliveries.

    During a visit to the Republic of Congo on Monday, Lavrov repeated the Russian claim that the attack targeted a Ukrainian naval vessel and a depot containing Western-supplied anti-ship missiles. He said the grain agreements do not prevent Russia from attacking military targets.

    In other developments:

    — Russia’s gas giant Gazprom said it would further reduce the flow of natural gas through a major pipeline to Europe to 20% of capacity, citing equipment repairs. The move heightened fears that Russia is trying to pressure and divide Europe over its support for Ukraine at a time when countries are trying to build up their supplies of gas for the winter.

    Zelenskyy accused Moscow of “gas blackmail,” saying, “All this is done by Russia deliberately to make it as difficult as possible for Europeans to prepare for winter.”

    — Ukraine’s presidential office said Monday at least two civilians were killed and 10 wounded in Russian shelling over the preceding 24 hours. In the Kharkiv region, workers searched for people believed trapped under the rubble after 12 rockets hit the town of Chuhuiv before dawn, damaging a cultural center, school and other infrastructure, authorities said.

    Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Sinyehubov said: “It looks like a deadly lottery when no one knows where the next strike will come.”

    — Ukraine charged two former cabinet ministers with high treason over their role in extending Moscow’s lease on a navy base in Crimea in 2010. Prosecutors said Oleksandr Lavrynovych and Kostyantyn Hryshchenko conspired with then-President Viktor Yanukovych to rush a treaty through parliament granting Moscow a 25-year extension, leaving Crimea vulnerable to Russian aggression.

    — Russia said it thwarted an attempt by Ukrainian intelligence to bribe Russian military pilots to turn their planes over to Ukraine. In a video released by Russia’s main security agency, a man purported to be a Ukrainian intelligence officer offered a pilot $2 million to surrender his plane during a mission over Ukraine. The Russian claims couldn’t be independently verified.


    https://apnews.com/article/russia-uk...ef6b407e113339

  34. The Following 10 Users Say Thank You to Vicus For This Post:

    Bill Ryan (26th July 2022), Gwin Ru (26th July 2022), kfm27917 (26th July 2022), Michel Leclerc (26th July 2022), Mike Gorman (26th July 2022), pounamuknight (26th July 2022), Reinhard (26th July 2022), Rizotto (26th July 2022), Snoweagle (27th July 2022), Tintin (27th July 2022)

  35. Link to Post #3978
    Argentina Avalon Member Vicus's Avatar
    Join Date
    6th October 2020
    Location
    Europa
    Language
    Spanish
    Posts
    1,737
    Thanks
    14,970
    Thanked 16,852 times in 1,720 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    Ukrainian troops don’t let people leave for Russia-controlled territory in Kharkov region

    According to Vitaly Ganchev, all attempts to leave the zone of combat operations and move toward territories controlled by Russian forces and to the Russian border are stopped, up to the use of physical violence

    MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/. Ukrainian troops don’t let civilians leave Kiev-controlled territories in the Kharkov region, with cases of physical violence being reported against people trying to flee, Vitaly Ganchev, chief of the Kharkov region military-civilian administration, said on Monday.

    "It is deliberate killing of people. They (Ukrainian troops - TASS) don’t let people leave Kiev-controlled territories in the Kharkov region. All attempts to leave the zone of combat operations and move toward territories controlled by our forces and to the Russian border are stopped, up to the use of physical violence. We have concrete facts when whole families with children were shot at from submachine guns. People moving toward Russia are enemies for the Ukrainian authorities. The Ukrainian side is attempting to attack along the entire contact line, but so far they are failing. Our forces are repelling these attacks," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.

    According to Ganchev, Ukrainian troops planned a provocation at the dike of the Pechenezhskoye dam lake, where a humanitarian corridor was organized. "The provocation was meant to bar people from leaving the Ukraine-controlled territory," he said. "It was planned to blow up this dike along with people and picture it as a bombardment by Russian forces."

    A number of districts of the Kharkov region are controlled by Russian troops and forces of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR).


    https://tass.com/politics/1484689

  36. The Following 10 Users Say Thank You to Vicus For This Post:

    Bill Ryan (26th July 2022), Gwin Ru (26th July 2022), kfm27917 (26th July 2022), Michel Leclerc (26th July 2022), mountain_jim (26th July 2022), pounamuknight (26th July 2022), Reinhard (26th July 2022), Rizotto (26th July 2022), Snoweagle (27th July 2022), Tintin (27th July 2022)

  37. Link to Post #3979
    Argentina Avalon Member Vicus's Avatar
    Join Date
    6th October 2020
    Location
    Europa
    Language
    Spanish
    Posts
    1,737
    Thanks
    14,970
    Thanked 16,852 times in 1,720 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    Russia accuses Ukrainian troops of war crimes

    Charges have already been filed against 92 commanders and soldiers, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee says

    Preliminary probes have found that more than 200 members of the Ukrainian military have been involved in “crimes against the peace and security of mankind,” the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee said on Monday.

    A total of 92 commanders and subordinates have already been charged with the offenses, he revealed.

    More than 1,300 criminal cases, involving over 400 individuals, have been launched over violations committed by the Ukrainian side since the start of Russia’s military operation on February 24, Alexander Bastrykin told newspape

    According to the Investigative Committee chief, it had already been established that more than 220 suspects, “including representatives of the high command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and commanders of military units which fired at civilians, had been involved in crimes against the peace and security of mankind, which don’t have a statute of limitations.”

    Charges have been filed against 92 Ukrainian commanders and subordinates to date, with 96 suspects being placed on the wanted list, he added.

    “There can be no justification for the use of force by the Ukrainian nationalists,” Bastrykin insisted. “They are intensively shelling the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. They brutally and cynically target peaceful citizens, civilian infrastructure, including children’s institutions.”

    He also accused the Ukrainian forces of having struck their own territory “in order to blame the Russian military for this.”

    During the conflict, Moscow has insisted that its troops never target civilians, only striking Ukrainian forces and military infrastructure.

    More than 7,000 civilian facilities have been destroyed in attacks by the Ukrainian side, including homes, schools and kindergartens, with over 91,000 people being designated as victims, the Investigative Committee chief said.

    Сriminal cases have also been launched against citizens of the UK, the US, Canada, Georgia and the Netherlands for their involvement in the conflict as mercenaries, while Ukrainian nationalist units have been accused of torturing Russian POWs, attacking Russian embassies in foreign countries, and other acts, he said.

    “It’s paramount to keep objectively informing the international community about what has been happening [in Ukraine] in recent months,” Bastrykin insisted.


    https://www.rt.com/russia/559591-ukr...ykin-shelling/

  38. The Following 12 Users Say Thank You to Vicus For This Post:

    avid (26th July 2022), Bill Ryan (26th July 2022), Gwin Ru (26th July 2022), jaybee (26th July 2022), kfm27917 (26th July 2022), Michel Leclerc (26th July 2022), mountain_jim (26th July 2022), pounamuknight (26th July 2022), Reinhard (26th July 2022), Rizotto (26th July 2022), Snoweagle (27th July 2022), Tintin (27th July 2022)

  39. Link to Post #3980
    Avalon Member jaybee's Avatar
    Join Date
    17th March 2010
    Location
    Midlands England
    Posts
    2,636
    Thanks
    8,404
    Thanked 16,013 times in 2,209 posts

    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    Zelensky / Ukraine ... in other words the Globalist Elite (WEF/UN/NATO et al).... demand certain Americans are blacklisted for being Russian Propagandists - Tulsi Gabbard is one of them and what an absolute shame the Democrat Party is completely ruled by the Globalists and she wasn't allowed to be a candidate in the previous election for president - instead Biden was installed to do their bidding after the election (including the Democrat Primaries) was rigged + stolen -

    Of course all the 'blacklisted' are just exercising their right to speak about and analyze the political situation and the realities of what's happening in Ukraine and questioning the wisdom of pouring weapons and money into the country....




    Journalist Glenn Greenwald and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard react to Ukraine labeling them 'propagandists' on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'
    Last edited by jaybee; 26th July 2022 at 08:51.

  40. The Following 11 Users Say Thank You to jaybee For This Post:

    Bill Ryan (26th July 2022), gini (26th July 2022), Gwin Ru (26th July 2022), Ivanhoe (26th July 2022), kfm27917 (26th July 2022), Michel Leclerc (26th July 2022), mountain_jim (26th July 2022), pounamuknight (26th July 2022), Reinhard (26th July 2022), Rizotto (26th July 2022), Tintin (27th July 2022)

+ Reply to Thread
Page 199 of 715 FirstFirst 1 99 149 189 199 209 249 299 699 715 LastLast

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts