WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by Ravenlocke (here)
https://twitter.com/MarkSleboda1/sta...55981615796226

Updates, please... very important (and IMO, deserving of celebration) if true.

This may be reliable news, copied from a couple of comments on The Saker's latest personal update.

1) Mariupol taken at least east bank. City hall taken by Chechen who hoisted flag upon it.
Seems that most Azov-Nazis eliminated very few prisoners taken.
Lots of vids on Telegram.
https://t.me/intelslava/23432
https://t.me/donbassinsider/6051
https://t.me/intelslava/23433
https://t.me/intelslava/23419
Mariupol people happy:
https://t.me/donbassinsider/6047
https://t.me/donbassinsider/6063

2) Gleb Bazov is reporting that DNR forces have secured the City Administration in Mariupol and raised the DNR flag above it. Also, the City Council was taken.

[norman]

Which is it Bill? . . .this is getting silly.

Posted by norman (here)

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

We'll not do anything yet, but my personal view is that a "one-stop-shop" thread is still best at the moment so that members (and our many guests) know exactly where to go each morning to find out what the heck has just happened overnight.

That's precisely why I felt a need for another thread Bill.

You're saying two very different things in one post here.

You want a one stop shop, AND you want to moderate it's narrow focus to what, I agree, should be a thread where people can pop in to see what's happened over night etc.

Then there's differing views and approaches to what the dynamics in play really are, which also becomes a part of the 'energetics' we manifest, which we're not all on the same page with, I know that all too well, and I'm sure you do too.

When Science and Spirituality ( and intuition ) meet, all in one thread, there's a strong chance a mod will pop in with one of those red coloured posts

Maybe I left out vanishing posts.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/MarkAmesExiled/s...20110078771204

https://twitter.com/BruceTh48823876/...33910605778947

https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1506979146643083267

https://twitter.com/vicktop55/status...64658741579781

https://twitter.com/A__Alimov/status...59536787615748

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Z_Marconie/statu...36662815580170

https://twitter.com/WithyGrove/statu...01665777074181

On March 19 this,

https://twitter.com/Russ_Warrior/sta...29871915868160

[kfm27917]

Some military interventions, at least according to mainstream Western narratives, are justified and some are simply illegal.

Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine is interpreted almost universally in the West as clear aggression against a sovereign state, while NATO’s bombing of Serbia in 1999 is still viewed in retrospect as morally justifiable. So why does this binary thinking still prevail in the Western public discourse?

On March 24, 1999, NATO launched its “justified” aggression on Serbia. At the time, it was widely portrayed as a “humanitarian intervention” prompted by alleged Serbian “ethnic cleansing” of Albanians in Serbia’s southern province of Kosovo.

https://asiatimes.com/2022/03/natos-...t-for-ukraine/

[shaberon]

Translated from Cyrillic:


Mariupol “resistance” is history, Chechen brothers are now having a parade with trucks, raising flags, praying and thanking Allah for the victory. More Chechens are coming to Ukraine to join the frey. Overall, excellent day, great news, great videos for us to share in the happiness. There is still work to do, but the nazi spine is broken, victory is at the gates.

Subhanallah! Alhamdulillah! La illaha illah la! Allahu Aqbar!


In Mariupol for today separately: “The defense of Azov in Mariupol HAS COLLAPSED! Today the regiment suffered the greatest losses in its history – the houses are LITTERED with their corpses…” (2022).

[Johnnycomelately]

Posted by shaberon (here)
Translated from Cyrillic:


Mariupol “resistance” is history, Chechen brothers are now having a parade with trucks, raising flags, praying and thanking Allah for the victory. More Chechens are coming to Ukraine to join the frey. Overall, excellent day, great news, great videos for us to share in the happiness. There is still work to do, but the nazi spine is broken, victory is at the gates.

Subhanallah! Alhamdulillah! La illaha illah la! Allahu Aqbar!


In Mariupol for today separately: “The defense of Azov in Mariupol HAS COLLAPSED! Today the regiment suffered the greatest losses in its history – the houses are LITTERED with their corpses…” (2022).

Hi Shaberon. Would you please explain what this passage/excerpt means to you? I did not click on your link, and the middle para needs translation.

[shaberon]

Posted by Johnnycomelately (here)
Subhanallah! Alhamdulillah! La illaha illah la! Allahu Aqbar!


Hi Shaberon. Would you please explain what this passage/excerpt means to you? I did not click on your link, and the middle para needs translation.

This is a common Arabic phrase in a weird accent.

I understand the first part as wus'subhantu allah; I am a Muslim or servant of the will of Allah; la illaha illa allah, there are not any other illahas other than Allah, Akbar=Great, Allahu=to Allah, victory slogan. If you say this, you have converted to Islam.


Just so we are aware that an area where large numbers of Greek Christians were persecuted has just been recovered by Muslims (at least in part).

[shaberon]

Here is something creepy and mysterious that is an award for a whole two week training course:






VOLNOVAKHA, Donetsk Region (Sputnik) - The Royal Tank Regiment of the United Kingdom, the oldest tank unit in the world, took part in training of Ukrainian soldiers who fought in Donbass, according to a document obtained by Sputnik.

A Sputnik correspondent found a cache of documents in the liberated city of Volnovakha in the Donetsk Region, among which was a certificate confirming that Ukrainian serviceman Borys Kazarian had completed junior sergeant training courses with the participation of British instructors. The certificate was issued by the Royal Tank Regiment and signed by signed by Col. M. Evans.
The documents also revealed that UK instructors trained Ukrainian military in the use of weapons in 2018 when the parties to the Minsk process were trying to resolve the conflict peacefully, and London had not yet announced the supply of NLAW anti-tank grenade launchers.

The certificate signed by Col. M. Evans said that the training was from 17 October 2018 to 2 November 2018. According to the certificate, the training consisted of four modules: "weapons training", "navigation", "medical training" and "pairs movement." At the same time, London announced the supply of NLAW anti-tank grenade launchers to Ukraine only at the beginning of 2022.



Is there any United Kingdomish-speaking person that can help me figure out what is going on here?

Does that really represent something a Colonel would take as perfectly valid?? I would think of it as a way of sending cannon fodder to death, except, this is what is supposed to be guarding Her Majesty's interests right there?? Welp, souvenir from the Volnovakha cache.

I strongly suspect NED is involved somewhere in the corresponding large pile of information that we were not shown. They are going to have so many facts, not even an army could keep up with all the facts. Will the DoD through Newsqueak manage to subvert the Neocons at the State Department? Zionists of this caste are fanatically anti-Russia, which makes it almost the first thing in the world you cannot blame on Israel somehow.



I saw a survey posted suggesting that a minority, less than forty percent, of westerners, pay attention to traditional outlets like CNN. I guess that is why this seems so far less screamy in my face than Afghanistan did.

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

1) Mariupol taken at least east bank. City hall taken by Chechen who hoisted flag upon it.
Seems that most Azov-Nazis eliminated very few prisoners taken.
Lots of vids on Telegram.
https://t.me/intelslava/23432
https://t.me/donbassinsider/6051
https://t.me/intelslava/23433
https://t.me/intelslava/23419
Mariupol people happy:
https://t.me/donbassinsider/6047
https://t.me/donbassinsider/6063

2) Gleb Bazov is reporting that DNR forces have secured the City Administration in Mariupol and raised the DNR flag above it. Also, the City Council was taken.

From Pepe Escobar, posted by The Saker, written on Wednesday night — before Mariupol was confirmed as taken and now controlled by Russian forces. The title is satirical, of course.

• http://thesaker.is/make-nazism-great-again

Make Nazism Great Again

The supreme target is regime change in Russia, Ukraine is just a pawn in the game – or worse, mere cannon fodder.



All eyes are on Mariupol. As of Wednesday night, over 70% of residential areas were under control of Donetsk and Russian forces, while Russian Marines, Donetsk’s 107th batallion and Chechen Spetsnaz, led by the charismatic Adam Delimkhanov, had entered the Azov-Stal plant – the HQ of the neo-Nazi Azov batallion.

Azov was sent a last ultimatum: surrender until midnight – or else, as in a take no prisoners highway to hell.

That implies a major game-changer in the Ukrainian battlefield; Mariupol is finally about to be thoroughly denazified – as the Azov contingent long entrenched in the city and using civilians as human shields were their most hardened fighting force.

Meanwhile, echoes from the Empire of Lies all but gave the whole game away. There’s no intention whatsoever in Washington to facilitate a peace plan in Ukraine – and that explains Comedian Zelensky’s non-stop stalling tactics. The supreme target is regime change in Russia, and for that Totalen Krieg against Russia and all things Russian is warranted. Ukraine is just a pawn in the game – or worse, mere cannon fodder.

This also means that the 14,000 deaths in Donbass for the past 8 years should be directly attributed to the Exceptionalists. As for Ukrainian neo-Nazis of all stripes, they are as expendable as “moderate rebels” in Syria, be they al-Qaeda or Daesh-linked. Those that may eventually survive can always join the budding CIA-sponsored Neo-Nazi Inc. – the tawdry remix of the 1980s Jihad Inc. in Afghanistan. They will be properly “Kalibrated”.

A quick neo-Nazi recap

By now only the brain dead across NATOstan – and there are hordes – are not aware of Maidan in 2014. Yet few know that it was then Ukrainian Minister of Interior Arsen Avakov, a former governor of Kharkov, who gave the green light for a 12,000 paramilitary outfit to materialize out of Sect 82 soccer hooligans who supported Dynamo Kiev. That was the birth of the Azov batallion, in May 2014, led by Andriy Biletsky, a.k.a. the White Fuhrer, and former leader of the neo-nazi gang Patriots of Ukraine.

Together with NATO stay-behind agent Dmitro Yarosh, Biletsky founded Pravy Sektor, financed by Ukrainian mafia godfather and Jewish billionaire Ihor Kolomoysky (later the benefactor of the meta-conversion of Zelensky from mediocre comedian to mediocre President.)

Pravy Sektor happened to be rabidly anti-EU – tell that to Ursula von der Lugen – and politically obsessed with linking Central Europe and the Baltics in a new, tawdry Intermarium. Crucially, Pravy Sektor and other nazi gangs were duly trained by NATO instructors.

Biletsky and Yarosh are of course disciples of notorious WWII-era Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, for whom pure Ukrainians are proto-Germanic or Scandinavian, and Slavs are untermenschen.

Azov ended up absorbing nearly all neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine and were dispatched to fight against Donbass – with their acolytes making more money than regular soldiers. Biletsky and another neo-Nazi leader, Oleh Petrenko, were elected to the Rada. The White Führer stood on his own. Petrenko decided to support then President Poroshenko. Soon the Azov battalion was incorporated as the Azov Regiment to the Ukrainian National Guard.

They went on a foreign mercenary recruiting drive – with people coming from Western Europe, Scandinavia and even South America.

That was strictly forbidden by the Minsk Agreements guaranteed by France and Germany (and now de facto defunct). Azov set up training camps for teenagers and soon reached 10,000 members. Erik “Blackwater” Prince, in 2020, struck a deal with the Ukrainian military that would enable his renamed outfit, Academi, to supervise Azov.

It was none other than sinister Maidan cookie distributor Vicky “F**k the EU” Nuland who suggested to Zelensky – both of them, by the way, Ukrainian Jews – to appoint avowed Nazi Yarosh as an adviser to the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi. The target: organize a blitzkrieg on Donbass and Crimea – the same blitzkrieg that SVR, Russian foreign intel, concluded would be launched on February 22, thus propelling the launch of Operation Z.

All of the above, in fact just a quick recap, shows that in Ukraine there’s no difference whatsoever between white neo-Nazis and brown-colored al-Qaeda/ISIS/Daesh, as much as neo-Nazis are just as “Christian” as takfiri Salafi-jihadis are “Muslim”.

When Putin denounced a “bunch of neo-Nazis” in power in Kiev, the Comedian replied that it was impossible because he was Jewish. Nonsense. Zelensky and his patron Kolomoysky, for all practical purposes, are Zio-Nazis.

Even as branches of the United States government admitted to neo-Nazis entrenched in the Kiev apparatus, the Exceptionalist machine made the daily shelling of Donbass for 8 years simply disappear. These thousands of civilian victims never existed.

U.S. mainstream media even ventured the odd piece or report on Azov and Aidar neo-Nazis. But then a neo-Orwellian narrative was set in stone: there are no Nazis in Ukraine. CIA offshoot NED even started deleting records about training members of Aidar. Recently a crappy news network duly promoted a video of a NATO-trained and weaponized Azov commander – complete with Nazi iconography.

Why “denazification” makes sense

The Banderastan ideology harks back to when this part of Ukraine was in fact controlled by the Austro-Hungarian empire, the Russian empire and Poland. Stepan Bandera was born in Austro-Hungary in 1909, near Ivano-Frankovsk, in the – then autonomous – Kingdom of Galicia.

WWI dismembered European empires into frequently non-viable small entities. In western Ukraine – an imperial intersection – that inevitably led to the proliferation of extremely intolerant ideologies.

Banderastan ideologues profited from the Nazi arrival in 1941 to try to proclaim an independent territory. But Berlin not only blocked it but sent them to concentration camps. In 1944 though the Nazis changed tactics: they liberated the Banderanistas and manipulated them into anti-Russian hate, thus creating a destabilization force in the Ukrainian USSR.

So Nazism is not exactly the same as Banderastan fanatics: they are in fact competing ideologies. What happened since Maidan is that the CIA kept a laser focus on inciting Russian hatred by whatever fringe groups it could instrumentalize. So Ukraine is not a case of “white nationalism” – to put it mildly – but of anti-Russian Ukrainian nationalism, for all practical purposes manifested via Nazi-style salutes and Nazi-style symbols.

So when Putin and the Russian leadership refer to Ukrainian Nazism, that may not be 100% correct, conceptually, but it strikes a chord with every Russian.

Russians viscerally reject Nazism – considering that virtually every Russian family has at least one ancestor killed during the Great Patriotic War. From the perspective of wartime psychology, it makes total sense to talk of “Ukro-nazism” or, straight to the point, a “denazification” campaign.

How the Anglos loved the Nazis

The United States government openly cheerleading neo-Nazis in Ukraine is hardly a novelty, considering how it supported Hitler alongside England in 1933 for balance of power reasons.

In 1933, Roosevelt lent Hitler one billion gold dollars while England lent him two billion gold dollars. That should be multiplied 200 times to arrive at today’s fiat dollars. The Anglo-Americans wanted to build up Germany as a bulwark against Russia. In 1941 Roosevelt wrote to Hitler that if he invaded Russia the U.S. would side with Russia, and wrote Stalin that if Stalin invaded Germany the U.S. would back Germany. Talk about a graphic illustration of Mackinderesque balance of power.

The Brits had become very concerned with the rise of Russian power under Stalin while observing that Germany was on its knees with 50% unemployment in 1933, if one counted unregistered itinerant Germans.

Even Lloyd George had misgivings about the Versailles Treaty, unbearably weakening Germany after its surrender in WWI. The purpose of WWI, in Lloyd George’s worldview, was to destroy Russia and Germany together. Germany was threatening England with the Kaiser building a fleet to take over the oceans, while the Tsar was too close to India for comfort. For a while Britannia won – and continued to rule the waves.

Then building up Germany to fight Russia became the number one priority – complete with rewriting of History. The uniting of Austrian Germans and Sudetenland Germans with Germany, for instance, was totally approved by the Brits.

But then came the Polish problem. When Germany invaded Poland, France and Britain stood on the sidelines. That placed Germany on the border of Russia, and Germany and Russia divided up Poland. That’s exactly what Britain and France wanted. Britain and France had promised Poland that they would invade Germany from the west while Poland fought Germany from the east.

In the end, the Poles were double-crossed. Churchill even praised Russia for invading Poland. Hitler was advised by MI6 that England and France would not invade Poland – as part of their plan for a German-Russian war. Hitler had been supported financially since the 1920s by MI6 for his favorable words about England in Mein Kampf. MI6 de facto encouraged Hitler to invade Russia.

Fast forward to 2022, and here we go again – as farce, with the Anglo-Americans “encouraging” Germany under feeble Scholz to put itself back together militarily, with 100 billion euros (that the Germans don’t have), and setting up in thesis a revamped European force to later go to war against Russia.

Cue to the Russophobic hysteria in Anglo-American media about the Russia-China strategic partnership. The mortal Anglo-American fear is Mackinder/Mahan/Spykman/Kissinger/Brzezinski all rolled into one: Russia-China as peer competitor twins take over the Eurasian land mass – the Belt and Road Initiative meets the Greater Eurasia Partnership – and thus rule the planet, with the U.S. relegated to inconsequential island status, as much as the previous “Rule Britannia”.

England, France and later the Americans had prevented it when Germany aspired to do the same, controlling Eurasia side by side with Japan, from the English Channel to the Pacific. Now it’s a completely different ball game.

So Ukraine, with its pathetic neo-Nazi gangs, is just an – expendable – pawn in the desperate drive to stop something that is beyond anathema, from Washington’s perspective: a totally peaceful German-Russian-Chinese New Silk Road.

Russophobia, massively imprinted in the West’s DNA, never really went away. Cultivated by the Brits since Catherine the Great – and then with The Great Game. By the French since Napoleon. By the Germans because the Red Army liberated Berlin. By the Americans because Stalin forced to them the mapping of Europe – and then it went on and on and on throughout the Cold War.

We are at just the early stages of the final push by the dying Empire to attempt arresting the flow of History. They are being outsmarted, they are already outgunned by the top military power in the world, and they will be checkmated. Existentially, they are not equipped to kill the Bear – and that hurts. Cosmically.

[Ravenlocke]

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...e-war-march-25

Here Are All The Latest News And Developments From The Ukraine War: March 25


With newsflow out of Ukraine nothing less than a firehose (of often fake news), with market moving headlines firing every other minute on average, traders can be forgiven if they have just given up following the narrative. To help out, here is a snapshot of all the latest market-moving news out of Ukraine from the last few hours courtesy of Newsquawk:

Defense/Military

"There is progress in ceasefire negotiations with Russia", according to Ukrainian President Advisor cited by Sky News Arabia; expresses "cautious optimism" about talks with Russia; There is a possibility of a diplomatic breakthrough in talks with Russia

Turkey President Erdogan says Russia and Ukraine can reach compromise on four of six issues discussed, but territorial disputes remain.

Russian military will submit a proposal to Russian President Putin on how best to respond to NATO beefing up its Eastern flank, according to the Kremlin

US Pentagon senior official said Russia is running out of precision-guided munitions for the war in Ukraine and that the Ukraine war makes Russia a strategic burden for China.

US Pentagon's new strategy will describe Russia as an acute threat but one that cannot pose a long-term systemic challenge, while Russia will emerge from the Ukrainian war weaker militarily and politically.

Energy/Economic Sanctions

EU joint statement noted the EU demands that Russia stop committing war crimes in Ukraine and EU is prepared to close loopholes in Russian sanctions.

US President Biden said US, EU coming together to reduce the bloc's dependency on Russian energy; we should not subsidise Russia President Putin's attack on Ukraine

Australia announced new sanctions on Russia and Belarus including Belarusian President Lukashenko and members of his family.

Russia is mulling selling its oil and gas for Bitcoin as sanctions intensify, according to CNBC.

US DoJ charged four Russian government workers over hacking campaigns that targeted the global energy sector, according to FT.

Dedollarization

Indian Government is expected to formally announce a INR-RUB payment arrangement next week which would allow the bypassing of US sanctions, according to Sputnik.

Other

North Korea confirmed Thursday's launch was a 'new-type' Hwasong-17 and that its leader Kim directly guided the ICBM test, while Kim sees the new ICBM as an important deterrent against nuclear war. Kim also stated the new weapon shows the might and modernity of North Korea's strategic force and that they are preparing for a long confrontation with US imperialism. Furthermore, he said North Korea's strategic force is ready to check and contain any military attempt by the US, while he warned whoever attempts to infringe on North Korea's security will pay dearly.

US imposed sanctions on five entities and individuals in Russia, North Korea and China for weapons proliferation, according to the State Department.

Indian Foreign Minister said military talks with China have made progress, but issues are not sorted out, according to Reuters.

Update:

Russia Facing "Total War" From West, Lavrov Says, Stressing 'We Still Have Many Friends'

Update(10:18ET): Coming the day after the emergency NATO summit in Brussels, where Jens Stoltenberg vowed that Russia will pay "severe costs" for "years to come" over its Ukraine invasion, and with Joe Biden now visiting Poland to highlight the refugee crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday hit back at US and Western sanctions, calling them tantamount to an act of "total war" on Russia.

He called the sum total of isolation measures against Russia being pushed under US leadership "a real hybrid war" and said that "total war was declared on us," according to the The Associated Press.

As The Hill writes further of the fresh remarks, "The international sanctions have clearly hurt the Russian economy, though Lavrov emphasized that many states will decline to join that effort."

Lavrov said: "We have many friends, allies, partners in the world, a huge number of associations in which Russia is working with countries of all continents, and we will continue to do so" - which at the very least includes China, India, Brazil and others - which make up an outsized portion of the global economy.

* * *
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...e-war-march-25

[Gwin Ru]

...

... short update from the Saker:

Quick update on the war in the Ukraine

March 24, 2022 232 Comments

The Ukrainians fired a Tochka-U missile at a port where three large landing ship were offloading their freight, the Tochka-U was intercepted by Russian air defenses, but its parts did enough to start a major fire on one of the ships whom the Russians decided to sink in the port to avoid a detonation of the ammo it carried. This is the first Ukrainian strike which we can consider as a major success of the Ukie military.

Other than that, the major development of the day is the fallout of Putin’s announcement that Russia would only sell energy to hostile countries in Rubles. Biden is in Europe now to discuss energy and the Polish idea of invade the western Ukraine.

Oh, and China backing Russia and really pissing off Uncle Shmuel has been a daily ritual and the Eurolemmings are very upset: https://www.rt.com/news/552565-nato-...ation-ukraine/

Here is a pretty decent map of the current situation as found on Telegram:

See you later!
Andrei

[Mike Gorman]

Just as a personal note: I find the Russian "Z" motif to be familiar and friendly, I don't know why but this inspires confidence, and looks like something I have seen before, I know this is hardly a deeply analytical comment when compared to the large swathes of well thought out text above; I just want to express there is something about the "Z" that seems congruent with righteousness, maybe a dream I have had that I remember on some level!

[mountain_jim]

https://twitter.com/Spruce_gum/statu...6Nxbhc7Rv-cbmQ

[Gwin Ru]

Posted by Mike Gorman (here)
Just as a personal note: I find the Russian "Z" motif to be familiar and friendly, I don't know why but this inspires confidence, and looks like something I have seen before, I know this is hardly a deeply analytical comment when compared to the large swathes of well thought out text above; I just want to express there is something about the "Z" that seems congruent with righteousness, maybe a dream I have had that I remember on some level!

... Z (1969 film) ???

fr.wikipedia.org › wiki › Z_(film,_1969) « Ζ » (zêta) est l'initiale du mot grec ancien « ζῇ / zi », qui signifie « il vit » ou « il est vivant ». Les opposants inscrivaient cette lettre sur les murs pour protester contre l'assassinat de Grigóris Lambrákis.

["Ζ" (zeta) is the initial of the ancient Greek word "ζῇ / zi", which means "he lives" or "he is alive". Opponents wrote this letter on the walls to protest the assassination of Grigóris Lambrákis. ]

[ExomatrixTV]

• Candace Owens: They Don't Want You Looking Into This

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=VeUVrVkrP8w

[Gwin Ru]

...

...Gonzalo's live streaming:

LIVE Now playing

Why The Western Elites Are Foolish and Amoral

[bodosa]

[ExomatrixTV]

source

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealScottRitter/...84323791593492

https://twitter.com/RealScottRitter/...27791406231553

Why spies and veterans want to do more for Ukraine

The war in Ukraine has garnered extraordinary emotions among many veterans of the U.S. intelligence and military communities.

It is the classic David vs. Goliath, good vs. evil, struggle absent from our two decades of nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan. The absence of moral clarity in those conflicts has troubled and haunted many of us who served in them — many of us who saw our friends maimed or killed and who still have trouble processing the worth of the sacrifices made. I have struggled more with my service in Iraq, a war that rested on false premises that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, than with my service in Afghanistan, where I remain intensely proud of the work we did to degrade al Qaeda but where we lost our way and likely stayed too long. Make no mistake, the last two decades have been messy. Many seen and unseen scars remain for those who served.

Yet, in large part, this is why you now see so many U.S. military veterans wanting to travel to Ukraine to fight. For full disclosure, I don’t believe it is wise to make that journey outside of government authority. The risk is that Americans' capture by Russian forces would put an extra burden on other U.S. personnel who would have to focus on recovering those captured and relegating the priority mission of helping Ukraine. But I do understand the deep emotional attachment the Ukraine fight offers.

It resonates especially strong for those former members of the intelligence and special operations communities who have spent years helping to train, nurture, and fight with indigenous forces or newly established militaries. We live alongside our foreign partners, in small numbers, reliant on them for protection and in some cases for food and shelter. In turn, we bring unique capabilities to our common fight. The key point is that when it comes to practicing unconventional warfare around the world, it so often comes down to personal relationships with our foreign friends: Iraqis, Afghans, Syrians, Somalis, the list goes on. But we did not "win" in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, or Somalia. Is Ukraine going to be different?

Many of us think so.

This is a conflict in which we can help our friends prevail. There is a great sense of joined moral clarity and military purpose. Ukrainians fight fiercely, defending their homeland. They are subject to horrific atrocities but never take a knee. Their leader, President Volodymyr Zelensky, is now a Winston Churchill-like figure, inspiring from the front. His phrase "I don’t need a ride, I need ammo" was brilliant on so many levels. It inspired Ukraine. It inspired the world. It inspired Americans. It made us think of Ukraine as Texas and Mariupol as the Alamo. I speak with many of my retired colleagues on a daily basis. As one of my closest friends told me recently, "We are all Ukrainians now." And we want to be with them.

I wish I was a young CIA case officer, getting ready to head to Europe. As a former CIA operations chief overseeing all of Europe and Eurasia, I used to tell our new officers that they had a chance to both witness and sometimes shape history. I imagine our officers today have this precise feeling of responsibility and opportunity. But imagine you have spent the past few years advising counterparts in the Ukrainian national security establishment. Your friends are now in the fight for their and their family members' lives. You want to be with them.

We believe in their righteous cause.

We know that our Ukrainian brothers and sisters need us now more than ever. It feels immoral not to be on the front lines with them. So we hope that policymakers take more action in Ukraine's support. Let us send more weapons, provide more training, provide tactical intelligence. Basically, let's do what we have been doing but increase the scale of that activity exponentially. We must not become paralyzed by the fear of escalation as the civilian carnage grows. Most of all, we want to be sent back inside Ukraine. After all that we have been through ever the last 20 years, let us finally win a clearly righteous fight for freedom.

Marc Polymeropoulos is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. A former CIA senior operations officer, he retired in 2019 after a 26-year career serving in the Near East and South Asia. His book Clarity in Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the CIA was published in June 2021 by Harper

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/r...re-for-ukraine