David Glantz and Jonathan House did mankind a service when they delved into Soviet Army archives and produced a must read about World War Two — When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. This book is not just about the earthshaking events from 80 years ago, when the Soviets shrugged off initial devastating losses and proceeded to eviscerate the German Wehrmacht in the course of the war on the Eastern front. The book is still relevant because it provides an understanding of Russia’s approach to military planning and combined arms that is unfolding in Ukraine.
I was particularly struck by the authors’ account of the Operation Citadel aka the Battle of Kursk because of the parallels with Ukraine’s failed 2023 counter offensive. For starters, both the Soviets of 1943 and the Russians of 2023 knew that there was an impending “offensive” or “counter-offensive.” Neither the Germans of 1943 nor the Ukrainians of 2023 made any efforts to obscure their intent to launch a major offensive.
Then there is the matter of defensive entrenchments. The Soviets constructed hundreds of miles of trenches and fighting positions in depth along the expected axis of attack. The Russians erected what is commonly known as the Surovikin lines — a series of defensive structures 30 kilometers deep and spread across a hundred mile front. These Soviet and Russian entrenchments proved effective in defeating the respective Nazi and Ukrainian offensives.
The biggest take away from the Glantz/Houseman book is the difference between a Soviet “war footing” and the current Russian “Special Military Operation.” While modern day Russia is applying some of the planning and operational principles exercised by the Soviet Stavka during WW II, Russia has not fully mobilized nor has it unleashed the kind of firepower associated with Soviet attacks in WW II. This is a simple way of saying Russia has not yet fully flexed its military muscle.
I recommend you read the latest from Simplicius the Thinker, who provides an excellent summary of the panic that is sweeping over Ukrainian and Western authorities in the wake of Ukraine’s defeat at Avdeevka. One of the biggest reasons the West consistently misunderstands and misinterprets what is happening militarily in Ukraine with Russian operations is that the West projects onto Russia what it thinks the Russians should do. For example, when Russia deployed miles of tank columns north of Kiev in March 2022, the West concluded that this was a failed Russian military operation because there was no armored assault on Kiev. Western analysts concluded that Russia had inadequate logistics and could not sustain operations.
We now know that this is incorrect. Russia positioned that force north of Kiev as a bargaining chip as part of a broader diplomatic/military solution. Russia withdrew that force as a gesture of goodwill when it appeared that there was a negotiated settlement in the offing. But the United States and the U.K. sabotaged those negotiations and proceeded to erect a narrative that Russia suffered a humiliating military defeat at the hands of the Ukrainians. It was a lie but it had the desired effect of feeding the public narrative in the West.
The West keeps looking for a “big arrow” offensive — i.e., a massive build up of Russian forces in one or two areas and an ensuing armored column attack that attempts to breach the Ukrainian defensive lines. I do not think that is in the cards at all. Russia is employing a dispersed offensive that applies concentrated force at a variety of locations along the 1200 kilometer front. Without clearly signaling their next axis of attack, the Russians are able to confuse what is left of Ukraine’s army and force it to shift forces back and forth along the front. Just as a tsunami builds slowly and then suddenly overwhelms all that is in front of it, I think we are witnessing the Russians unleashing the equivalent of a military tsunami.
I have long been on record that there was no stalemate in Ukraine; that Russia has a clear and decisive advantage. Good to know that former CIA Chief and Secretary of Defense Bobby Gates agrees with me:
The Russian military has broken the stalemate in the Ukraine war, Robert Gates, former CIA director and secretary of Defense, said Wednesday, following Moscow’s successful push to take the front-line city of Avdiivka.
“It’s no longer a stalemate. The Russians have regained momentum,” Gates told The Washington Post’s David Ignatius in a streaming interview. “Everything I’m reading is that the Russians are on the offensive along the 600-mile front.”
Russia has suffered staggering losses in the war, he noted, but with Ukraine now confronting artillery shortages due to flagging U.S. support, “the Russians are feeling that the tides have turned, and while there is much to be done, the initiative has passed to them,” Gates said.
Still, Gates can’t help but peddle stupid bullshit. “Russia suffered staggering losses?” Absolute nonsense devoid of facts. It is this kind of self-deceit that prevents most Western analysts from grasping the dire predicament facing Ukraine and NATO. I suspect the Russians privately are encouraging the West to continue to indulge in such fantasies. Just makes the Russian strategic task easier to pull off.
Serendipity. I had been meaning to read “When Titans Clashed” for months. I just began reading it 2 nights ago. I usually do not mark up a book while I read it, but I am underlining almost every word in this book.
Chapter One ended with the battle of Khalkhin-Gol. It blew my mind.
It’s bullshit propaganda. Read ‘Stalin’s War.’ The German’s lost about 500 tanks to the Soviets loss of 1600. The Soviets claimed the Germans lost more than they had to send.
The Germans at Kursk were bled white, the Russians were not. All done in the name of straightening out their line. Incredible stupidity.
The Soviets had a spy cell in the German government and had the operation plans. Even with that the Germans made huge advances which ended when Hitler order Manstein to stop the battle due to the invasion of Sicily.
So I wouldn’t call it incredible stupidity.
On equal footing: equal number of men and equal equipment, Germany would have kicked Russia’s ass up and down the steppes.
Youre name has changed, but BS is still the same. Pavlovian reflex is unmistakenly triggered, and Hitlerian glands can’t stop themselves from salivating.
It looks like there are people on both sides who don’t like facts. No Pavlovian reflex or Hitlerian glands needed to support the fact that the Soviets have lost far more tanks than the Wehrmacht. They’ve stopped the Northern pincer and slowed down the Southern one though with huge sacrifices. At the same time the news came that the Allies have landed in Sicily. With no real prospect to achieve the goals of the Citadel, Hitler called off the operation and transferred troops to Italy. The Germans have not suffered a real battlefield defeat there, but being unable to stop the Soviet momentum by achieving their stated goals,they’ve suffered a strategic defeat. They were never again able to conduct large scale offensive operations in the East.
Please also read ‘Gabba Papa’ below!
The rules do not say you win on points if you lose 500 of 3300 tanks as opposed to 1600!of 7500 tanks
If you defeat the enemy and control the front you are the Victor
Read my post again s l o w l y! The point is/was that the FACT is that the Soviets lost more tanks there, than the Germans! Facts are facts! Aren’t they? It’s freaking MATH, not politics!!! The Tigers have massacred a large number of American tanks too in the West, which is also a well known fact, regardless of whom you cheer for! FACTs are Facts!!!
I wonder why people turn into unreasonable, fact-free fanboys when routing for their team?
These are facts from WHOM exactly? Why you keep repeating about Tigers when in fact Tigers were a tiny part of German tank force.
Tank losses can’t be taken as a criterion to measure the effectiveness of the Soviet military. They lost a large number of tanks during the initial year of Hitler’s invasion. They were simply unprepared.
The losses were similar on both sides once the USSR gained the initiative.
The Allies landed in Sicily, the Leibstandarte division, without the equipment it had transferred to the Viking division, was transferred to Italy. Do you notice any signs of geographic cretinism?
What I don’t understand is how people who are obviously Russian or Russophiles are big fans of Stalin and his murderous regime and war.
I’m the true proRussian (prohumanity). I hate Stalin for murdering so many Russians. Brainwashed idiots seem to think the butchery that happened was glorious because it’s wrapped in the facade of the Great Patriotic War. There is a sucker born every day and this blog is full of them.
The current war is between the White Russians, who returned with President Putin, and the Bolsheviks who control the US government.
🤣🤣🤣
Comrade Stalin was the biggest humanist of 20th century and a good actor and a bad Generalissimus, it was that horrible burocracy which strangled the bolshevism, that laid the ground for industrial warfire…..
Yes the Soviets won but is that really surprising? Stalin was being massively supplied by the US, while Germany was being bombing to ruin. The Soviets were on their own turf, while Germany had long supply lines. The loss at Stalingrad and the bad winter had decimated the German army. The Soviets out numbered the Germans had many more tanks and still they managed to lose 800,000 men while Germany lost 200,000. And we are to believe this was brilliant tactics? What hogwash!
Glantz went into the Soviet archives and recited Soviet propaganda. And this is a gift to mankind? If you’re a son of the new American revolution, I’m not having any. More like cheerleader to Stalin and his evil regime.
Stalin’s purges are exaggerated. Read books by Prof. Grover Ferr on Stalin. He’s debunked the myth that Stalin was a bloodthirsty murderer.
Western media and propagandists who masquerade as historians made Stalin an evil dictator to make him look similar to Hitler so that the US and UK would be viewed as the good guys who stood for the humanity.
Sure Stalin was a great humanitarian. That’s why he had gulags, the NKVD, murdered his own citizens for wrong think, political purges, refused to abide by the Geneva convention, brutalized his neighbors, architected the holodomor, … I guess we’ll just call that tough love.
… and I am Bugs Bunny .
“Glantz went into the Soviet archives and recited Soviet propaganda.”
Assuming it’s Soviet propaganda, why not release the information while the Soviet’s were in power, rather than Glantz having to find it after the fact?
Maybe it’s because the Soviets didn’t want people to know about information which wasn’t flattering to the Soviet narrative. Similar to how the US government and western media hide information and create a narrative about Ukraine. Only after Ukraine begins to crumble does the truth begin to seep out which refutes the narrative many would still like to believe.
Nope! It wasn’t me but I agree with John. And as to who is Pavlovian trained, who is reciting the Main Stream propaganda?
I already suspected there were 2 alex’s, or rather Dr. Jekyll and Hyde.
Has someone hijacked?
The one above just used the name when he responded. He has also used the name Stalin and others. It’s easy enough.
But I do have two icons depending on which tablet I use to post. I like the red sly guy better vs the blue diamond head with a grimace.
Tactically the Germans won Prokhorovka, they lost less tanks and remained in control of the battlefield. It did halt their advance though. The Soviets however could replace their losses, and much faster then Manstein thought was possible and had hoped for. In the end though the Soviets took a massive German strategic summer offensive head on, stopped it from breaking into their strategic rear, blunted the German panzer divisions and then took the initiative from them. I reckon the Red Army from 1944 would have done it even quicker and with less losses as it was a much better army then the Red Army from 1943.
The greatest contribution of When Titans Clashed was that it once and for all DESTROYED the old Wehraboo narrative, created and fed by German generals that the Germans were always better, but endless Soviet human and tank wave attacks and Mad Man Hitler did them in.
To “tactically” I would also add “theoretically” 🙂
Theoretically, when the Soviets raised their flag on top of the Reichstag, Germany won the war, game, set and match.
Wehraboos have faith that is indestructible.
Another Great Myth. That the German Nazis, acknowledged to not be transporting soldiers via truck and machine, were transporting troops by horse. That is horsepucks.
The typical German soldier travelled on foot.
That antiquated method of travel was solved for the Soviets by American Lendlease of thousands of Studebaker trucks shipped through Iran. That ended the mass, high-speed surrounding of Soviet Troops by the Germans, when the USA and the Soviet Union got smart and worked together, by making Soviet Troops mobile.
Too bad DC breeds such mediocrity and ignorance today. Russia could easily be a strategic partner. Instead ignorant and vicious Tribesman and women enforce a hate-on against Russia, for their own personal profit.
Putin offered to join NATO. The neocons turned him down flat
that is England and the US doing their “american century” thing.
the fools
Gotta have an enemy so that Congress/money/MIC/sales/moneyback to Congress roundabout keeps functioning/grifting/greasing the wheels. No doubt there’s bits of the process I’ve missed but you get the picture.
NATO’s creation was to defend against the Soviet’s. Kind of defeats NATO raison d’etre if the Soviet successor, the Russians, joined NATO wouldn’t you think?
NATO should have disbanded after the fall of the Soviet Union and replaced it with an economic alliance to include Russia.
England and the US have always been more concerned about their own economies, over Europe’s and other regions, hence the need for conflict and war on the European and Asian continent separate from the US and England.
NATO’s purpose was to keep the Americans in, the Russians out and the Germans down. Still checks out.
Whoopie! Counting tanks in a tactical battle, that’ll get ya a nice high score in a 5 minute video game play. But darn it, those Ruskies still managed to destroy the German army all the way back to Berlin in that ideologically inconvenient thing…the real world.
It appears that the Russia-haters can’t believe the concocted mythological Aryans got their butts kicked all the way back to Berlin.
Conveniently British and American bombers had already levelled Berlin into rubble.
Wars of attrition are won by those with the most resources and better logistics.
The US, Soviet’s and the British Empire had access to much more resources than Germany ever had. Hence the reason for Germany attacking the Soviets in attempts to reach the resources which might have provided the inputs to match Germany’s industrial output.
Failing to achieve that Germany was doomed to fail. Similar to why Ukraine is doomed to fail because Russian had more resources and easier logistics versus Ukraine which was reliant on resources and a long logistical trail from the west.
Counting words in the current Clash of Titans can be as revealing as counting tanks. This caught my attention at my sporadic slumming junket to the Daily Mail (I sometimes read the drift of the comments in articles of interest as my finger in the British wind).
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13124393/Ukraines-spy-chief-says-Alexei-Navalny-died-blood-clot.html
“Today, however, Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence service, suggested his death could be down to natural causes.
He told reporters: ‘I may disappoint you, but what we know is that he really died from a blood clot. And this is more or less confirmed. This was not taken from the Internet, but, unfortunately, a natural [death].'”
Now, why would Budanov say such a thing? It would seem thoroughly counterintuitive.
My guess: An attempt to neuter western escalation in a time when Ukraine is beginning to ponder de-escalation, or God forbid-an exit ramp? Any other options come to anyone’s mind?
All I can say is, if and when the Ukrainians begin to show more level-headedness than their Western sponsors, something major must be afoot.
One other option, unlikely as it is, springs to mind: Budanov himself managed to get to Navalny and left more tracks than is permissible, so now wants to neuter that coming accusation from the Kremlin.
Hey, all options are on the table, as they say.
Or Budanov is running after the ambulance. The Brits simply neglected to inform him. And there he thought he was their main guy. Same as for the hostage plane, Kiev was running after the ambulance. At least Truss told Blinken “it is done” with NordStream.
“Blood clot” eh . . . not one of those long white mucous like rubbery ones getting pulled out of the vaccinated “Died Suddenlies” by any chance ??
Wondered if Navalny died from the mRNA clot shot.
No, that would be a conspiracy theory kind of thing.
The USS Liberty incident was an accident and Jeff Epstein killed himself, I got it. It is all on the level.
“Russia could easily be a strategic partner. Instead ignorant and vicious Tribesman and women enforce a hate-on against Russia, for their own personal profit.”
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a much better world, thrown away by our beyond contemptible leaders. All they had to say was “yes” to Russia’s request.
—————————————————————————————
“For all sad words of tongue and pen the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.'”
https://philosiblog.com/2013/03/05/for-all-sad-words-of-tongue-and-pen-the-saddest-are-these-it-might-have-been/
Peace was never an option.
It’s not what you know but what you can demonstrate … Any link?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hUWPBvppvU&t=9s
Read General Paulus’, head of the German 6th Army, account to the battle of Stalingrad and German defeat. Paulus led the drive to Stalingrad but was cut off and surrounded in the subsequent Soviet counter-offensive. After the war he grudgingly paid high tribute to the Russians and their military strategy. The Russians paid a high price to stop the German Army. Afterward they became a juggernaut on the way to Berlin.
2000km of front regained
Stalin’s War is a great book! Yes the Soviets won but is that really surprising? Stalin was being massively supplied by the US, while Germany was being bombing to ruin. The Soviets were on their own turf, while Germany had long supply lines. The loss at Stalingrad and the bad winter had decimated the German army. The Soviets out numbered the Germans had many more tanks and still they managed to lose 800,000 men while Germany lost 200,000. And we are to believe this was brilliant tactics? What hogwash!
Glantz went into the Soviet archives and recited Soviet propaganda. And this is a gift to mankind? If you’re a son of the new American revolution, I’m not having any. More like cheerleader to Stalin and his evil regime.
“Stalin’s War” is an excellent book.
Keep reading. It is a short book, but very dense with info. It may be hard as you get into it to keep up with the amount of unit designations, formation names and such. If so, might be useful to focus on broad concentrations and movements.
Khalkin-Gol shows the brilliance of Zhukov, grounded in Svechin, Isserson, Triandafilov, Tukhachevskii. Of these, Svechin may be the most important for further study.
When you get into 1944 in the book, study ‘Operation Bagration.’ Not predicting anything, but this is what ended WWII. Along with Zhukov, pay attention to Vasilevskii
US/UK/OTAN military strategy is based on self-serving fiction by deutscher-nazi failed generals brought West after WWII (see “HalderProject”) to guide the planned next phase against the USSR, made moot by theSoviet acquisition of nuclear weapons. The utter stupidity of basing military doctrine on self-serving defeated commanders, war criminals looking to keep out of the hangman’s noose and find a comfortable retirement is mind boggling!
If you want an honest German commander, look for Gen. Hermann Balck and follow his story thru post WWII.
I think when people condemn Stalin, and for some obvious reasons, but look at the biographies’ of the famous Soviet generals who won WWII: Zhukov, a son of peasants, Konev, a son of peasants, Chuikov, a son of peasants, etc. Such men won’t be given a chance to rise to power in the Tsar’s army, and neither in the Western Europe, where military commanders came mostly from military dynasties, elites.
My point is that there were millions whom the USSR gave a chance to get education and rise in the professions/careers unimaginable, given their humble roots. Lenin’s dream was to have a public library in 10 min walk for everyone.
Whatever the USSR did wrong, it ended up with the most educated masses, and Russia now reaps the results of multiple generations given solid free education.
Yes, Soviet emphasis on education and the effort put in to literacy campaigns was remarkable. Estimates I’ve seen were that in 1914 about 25%-30% of the population in Russia was literate. At that time in Siberia the estimates were 10%-15%, and in Central Asia less than 3%. By 1940 that rose to about 90% of people between ages 16 – 50 being literate in Russian or their native languages across the whole Soviet Union.
Stalin did revamp the education system from top to bottom levels in the 1930s when he rose to power and the main structure he established lasted for decades thru the late 1950s. The strength of that structure is reflected in the industrial might that was created and harnessed to defeat the deutscher-nazis in The Great Patriotic War, and undertake the
massive rebuild of most of Soviet European lands in its aftermath, and pioneering space exploration beginning in 1950s.
Comparing education in RF today to the West shows that it is still strong in RF. There is no comparison with dumbed down, cultural destruction, demonic nonsense indoctrination in the West today that is called ‘education.’
No one is looking to go back to Soviet days, but the reality is infinitely more complex than in the crude nazi propaganda still being peddled in the West.
How can one understand, interact with in positive, peaceful ways if one knows and clings to crude lies and propaganda? It is impossible.
Well said Curious. And the majority of the population was illiterate and very poor and hence the Revolution as in FR or CI. And the last Czar, who ruled for less time than Putin and one of the fathers of modern international law, only emphasizes that the problem was a basically feudal system and not a man. And education is the biggest predictor of development and Russia today still draws dividends from one of the best education systems, namely in STEM. Who put the first man in space just 40 years after the beginning of the great literacy campaign.
When the West tries to stereotype Russia as a gas station or a shitty economy, its not ridiculing Russia but the West itself as we see today in Ukraine and the world.
But unfortunately the West never values nothing in RU, preferring to look at the USSR only as the great failure in individual rights that was also real. Because two political systems were not possible, one in Russia and the other in the Warsaw Pact. That the Russian economy didn’t suck or colonize. Quite the opposite. And as icing on the Russophobia cake, after Maidan the EU passed an infamous resolution to condemn Russia for the start of WWII. Perhaps Brussels’ Russophobia way of paying homage to the great sacrifice of millions of Russians to defeat Nazism and fascism in Europe. Which the West never honored.
The Russians are just tougher. Look at the products of our military academies. Exhibit A: Fat Boy Vindman
Compare a Russian Military recruitment ad…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqek78JXckw&t=58s
…to an American Military recruitment ad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8-Yslv4PME
I remember all the Pollack jokes from the ’70’s. Soon we’ll replace the word “Pollack” with the word “American”, as in:
“How many Americans does it take to lose a war?”
It is summed up in “What Ivan knows that Johnny Doesn’t”. A great book which in 1961 showed this.
Balck: he had the greatness of Manstein but with more honesty.
Also, Balck wasn’t a nazi party member, nor a war criminal like Manstein.
They were all war criminals, Balck included.
Merely heading a military organisation that is implementing the Barbarossa “Commissar Order” makes that leader a war criminal. The crimes against civilians were that took place on the Eastern Front defy description. The Ostheer participated in these crimes. Early in the Russian campaign a divisional/brigade commander informed higher authorities about the killing, with added moral qualms and was told to get back to work – there were very few, if any, senior officers who repeated this behaviour.
Even when not directly being involved in the perpetration of atrocities against Soviet civilians, the creation of continental-sized field fortifications led to the death of untold numbers who lived in these areas – trees were cut down and buildings rubbled to create clear fields of fire and allow observation, upto 15km deep for hundreds of miles. Each time the frontline significantly moved this process would be repeated. The civilians died in their millions – no shelter in hard conditions, being shot for being in the security zone ie where they lived and on and on. It was colonial slaughter and all higher command elements stand accused of genocide.
On my reading list.
It seems Vietnam is still relevant, also: U.S. Airman Sets Self on Fire Outside Israeli Embassy: Everything We Know So Far | TIME
Speaking of serendipity…
https://www.irishnews.com/news/uk/financier-lord-jacob-rothschild-dies-at-87-PGDDO6HBLNM3RM6KRDMFL2CFWI/
I have long been on record that there was no stalemate in Ukraine;
…
“It’s no longer a stalemate. The Russians have regained momentum,” Gates told
So where’s the agreement? No longer a stalemate means there was once one – not that much of a change of the elite narrative (which was already starting to acknowledge that things aren’t going well).
Uh, that was sarcasm. Notice he also said Bobby Gates instead of Robert Gates?
The Russian ”Retreat from Kiev” seems to have been successfully implanted as a “Russian defeat” in the minds of the western population, via propaganda by the Western Media and Governmental officials.
So here is what really happened.
In March 2022 Russia dispatched miles of tank columns directly to Kiev from Belarus 70 Km north of Kiev, and everyone (paying attention) expected a Russian assault, and the imminent fall of the Ukrainian Capitol.
And so did the Ukrainian Government, who fled to Lviv, and Zelensky started to appear on Bluescreen in Western Media.
At the same time western News reporters started to report from Lviv, as the Ukrainian Government has since been operating from Lviv instead of Kiev.
While the Russian tanks and troops stood outside the Ukrainian Capitol, Zelensky dispatched a delegation to enter into negotiations with the Russian military and an agreement were signed to start a ceasefire, and withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Donbass.
As a show of goodwill to the negotiations, Russia withdrew its strangulation forces from Kiev, 70Km back into Belarus.
However Boris Johnson were dispatch via train to Lviv (Not Kiev as was reported in Western media) and he demanded that Zelensky disregarded the agreements with Russia, and kept the war going.
Western analysts lied by claiming that Russia had inadequate logistics and could not sustain the operation, despite the fact that Kiev was largely unprotected by Ukrainian forces at the time, as all Ukrainian forced were 800 Km away from Kiev in the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine.
The NATO erected narrative in the West that Russia suffered a humiliating military defeat is was a lie feed to the Western population in order to keep the money and weapons support flowing to the NAZIs in Lviv.
That narrative is wide of the mark, too. The Russian attempt on Antonov airport was not just ‘standing outside’ Kiev. If successful, the Russians would have taken the capital, and even without a negotiated surrender, the war would have had a much different character from that moment on. It’s probable that the Russians would have taken control of the left bank of the Dnieper, isolating the fortresses and the entire line of contact in the Donbass.
The attack on Antonov was a high-risk, high-payoff adventure, but it failed. The Russian planners knew very well that that was likely, but they did not have adequate resources to ensure its success while simultaneously ensuring that critical objectives of Mariupol and Crimea were secured (along with the NPP outside of Dnieperpetrovsk).
I think it’s clear the Russians always knew they lacked ready forces sufficient for a big-arrow victory over Kiev under normal circumstances, but thought they might just possibly get lucky. The odds of Kiev actually surrendering were minimal, and of the Zelensky puppet government and the west abiding by any agreement that allowed the Zelensky government to remain in power were zero, so the primary purpose of the offensive in the Kiev agreement was to forestall the western-planned offensive into Donetsk, and to cover operations to secure Mariupol and Crimea. If that had turned into an instant surrender of the Kiev govt, the Russians would have taken the W- but only in the way they accepted Minsk- to allow more time to prepare for the inevitable conflict with the west.
The Russian deployment of troops directly to Kiev from Belarus was well planned.
The majority of Ukrainian forces were already deployed in Eastern Ukraine, and the rest had to suddenly scramble down to Kherson, to stop the Russian bridge head into Kherson on the western Bank of the Dnepr River.
The Ukrainian regime had left their Capitol unguarded for an invasion by Russia via Belarus, and during the Panic, the Ukrainian Regime started to hand out hand weapons to Civilians, as a last ditch attempt to resist the Russian invasion.
https://www.businessinsider.com/ordinary-ukrainians-take-up-arms-defend-kyiv-from-russia-2022-2?r=US&IR=T
Had Russia invaded Kiev, they would have been up against civilians in urban warfare, and that is why Russia suggested a retreat of its troops during the negotiations.
The fact is: The Ukraine regime was taken with their pants down, and could have lost the Capitol.
Last week Poland dispatched Governmental officials to Lviv in order to negotiate an agreement regarding the Polish farmer’s blockade of grain from Ukraine.
So the Ukrainian Government is still hiding in Lviv.
And by the new agreement, the railroad will be built from Spain to Lviv not Kyiv, meaning Ukraine’s capital will be Lviv not Kyiv when all is done.
No, when all is done, Lvov will be a part of Poland and there will be no capital of Ukraine, because there will be no Ukraine. The closest approximation to a capital will be in London, a fitting location for the Government in Exile of UKraine.
Putin might let them keep it if they behave. Otherwise the Ukr capital becomes Washington DC.
Interesting discussion between you and Honzo.
404 and it’s OTAN masters were surprised by the scope of RF direct intervention with the SMO. Have to think that 404 and OTAN nazis thought if there was an intervention it would quickly be dealt with and stopped by the OTAN hardened fortifications built in occupied Donbass since 2014. Didn’t anticipate the strike force toward Kiev.
Interesting to speculate if the Antonov airfield was able to be secured and held by the thin attacking force, that may have provoked the parked RF column to advance. Which would have left RF logistics vulnerable to 404 counter attack and logistics cut.
The forces committed to the SMO in Donbass weren’t enough to capitalize or counter such a move by 404/OTAHN. More RF forces would have to be shifted from reserves, and conscripts may have had to used, which was against RF law beyond the RF borders. How that may have played in the RF public, a consideration.
February 2022, RF underestimated the chances of a breakdown of the 404 wehrmacht and it has been reported expected some desertions and unit breakdown, surrenders and switching sides. Not 2014 anymore when some of that happened. 404 nazis and OTAN build a cohesive force, the largest in OTANistan (even if 404 not officially a member) with the exception of Turkey.
The RF Kiev column did serve to fix possible reinforcements and counter attacks in Donbass to screen Kiev and counter the RF column. That allowed early objectives in Donbass to be secured and a successful run to establish a land bridge with Crimea. Thinking that this was the operational goal from the beginning. And it was successful.
ISR and drones mitigated against ‘big-arrow’ WWII style pushes, unless willing to take very large losses in personnel and material with no guarantee of success and real possibilities of exceptional escalations, including nukes. The evolution of the battlefield continues.
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Yes, I agree that the land bridge was the primary goal, and the attack on Kiev was primarily to achieve that goal. It’s possible that the whole thing was maskirovka, but I think that the Antonov attack showed that they thought they had a shot at ending the SMO early. They obviously had a plan for the withdrawal all along, though, and they implemented it right away when the predictable west blocked the peace deal.
Remember that the Russians advanced all over the northeast in the first few days, making very deep penetrations on a broad front. This was obviously unsustainable if major AFU formations were in Kiev and not completely pinned down, but if the Antonov operation had succeeded, the government probably would have moved entirely to Lvov and Kiev would have been taken. At that point, all those Russian troops in the northeast would be facing isolated garrisons with no supply. I think that east of the Dnieper down to Krasny Liman or so would have been occupied, leading to the outflanking of the Donetsk fortifications, etc. So, actually taking Kiev was desirable, but unlikely, and therefore had to be done on an operational shoestring to maintain a potent reserve against NATO intervention and guarantee the taking of Mariupol. Of the two, Mariupol was critical, Kiev was desirable.
@Honzo
You are touching on one more misconception regarding the Russian threat to Kiev.
Russia is in alliance with Belarus, and has troops permanently deployed in Belarus.
In the month before the Russian invasion of Kiev, Poland sent its own and NATO troops to the Polish Belarusian Border, claiming that Belarus was trafficking migrants from the Middle East into Poland.
Belarus saw the Polish -NATO troops as a threat and Belarus + Russian started large military drill in Belarus.
When the Belarus + Russian military drill was over, the Russian forces never left Belarus but went into hiding in the forest of Belarus, just 70 Km north of Kiev, while the Ukrainian 2022 offensive raged on in South and Eastern Ukraine. The Russian forces deployed in Belarus were never activated in Southern or Eastern Ukraine.
Furthermore, Russia has never captured Kharkov Oblast of Ukraine.
So for the West to claim that Russia overran all of Kharkov oblast in Ukraine in order to reach Kiev (a distance of 800 Km) and subsequently lost all of Kharkov Oblast in the Retreat from Kiev is also a misconception.
When the Russian forces left Kiev, they just drow 70Km North into Belarus, and that is where they still are.
To this Day Kharkov Oblast is still under Ukrainian Control.
Ukraine is launching missiles into the Russian city of Belgorod from Kharkov.
Even the Ukrainian SBU intelligence agency still has its headquarter in Kharkov, and that is where Gozalo Lira were tortured and Killed.
Please Explore Google Maps.
Please stop attributing things I did not say to me. Please read more carefully.
At the start of the SMO RF was expecting some defections, surrenders, collapse of 404 wehrmacht, as happened in 2014. Had that happened, then objectives very likely would have been expanded to take advantage of the collapse. Expect that RF intel was predicting that based on 404 ‘efforts’ and ‘soundings.’
However, that didn’t happen. 404 banderista regime withdrew to Lvov, poor blue-screen videos were released, as you remembered. Point was made and 404 agreed to negotiations to guarentee Donbass rights, autonomy, and Russian language.
Then BoJo plopped in with OTAN orders to drop negotiation, pledges of OTAN support and instructions to fight-on and that ‘wunderful wunderkrappenwaffen’ were coming! A key 404 negotiator working toward agreement ‘just totally, by accident, not at all liquidated by SBU goons on likely MI-6 ordnungen’ happened to ‘tragically, ‘totally accidentally get
killed, by 1000% accident;’ and that was the end of ‘negotiations.’
Shortly, thereafter some RF generals were fired and replaced.
Agree Kiev would have been desirable, but likely more of a feint than serious effort, IMO. There were also some RF losses based on wrong assumptions of the reception they would get up just showing up in 404, again, likely based on intel that was wrong.
Had the likely RF intel about the state of 404 force loyalties been correct to any meaningful degree, 404 would have had a serious collapse of its army, Kiev may have easily fallen, and Kharkov, as well. Also, the 5 or six RF generals would have kept their jobs.
RF adopted tactics to their force structure, ramped up training, recruitment, arms, and settled in to the objectives announced to demilitarize, denazify, and prevent OTAN acquisition of 404 with increased seriousness.
Remember the capture of OTAN bio-warfare labs on the border? Things like that tend to focus resolve.
The most important outcome from that initial show of forces incursion toward Kiev was strategic…it exposed beyond all reasonable doubt that the UK/US were/are de facto calling the shots in Ukraine. In the immediate and the overall perspective, it established to both the Russian General Staff and their political class that the SMO is an existential battle against NATO. That the West continues to try to deflect from that reality will not go well for them in the history books, nor in the geopolitical end game.
Yep.
Just take a look at the faces of these Ukrainian Soldiers:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/oSqtXqYyz6c
They have been saved by being taken prisoners of war by the Russian forces.
That’s good news. I’m glad some of the ordinary Ukie Joes will outlive Zelensky and see their families again.
It’s a moving stalemate
That 2004 Tsunami was caused by a 9.3 undersea earthquake.
I heard 1 US sub was caught near it and tumbled like a toy, had to be towed back.
227,898 people in 14 countries died . AFAIK part of the problem was too many residences and hotels right on the beach front.
21st Century’s worst natural disaster.
NATO’s earthquake has killed 1.2 million so far, and the tsunami has hardly rolled in.
Putin just said the Navy was at 100% readiness (key word), & that it’s nuclear force was now 95% modernised (another key word).
Readiness is ia a state before an action. So what does ‘modernise’ mean, when the Russian nuclear arsenal was able before this ‘modernising’ phase?
I think Putin is talking about targeting each warhead, each system of delivery.
Now, he talked about the navy, and nukes, so this will include all nuke delivery systems. There are many.
Putin didn’t talk specifically about the air force, or the army. Of course, the airforce will deliver nukes and so will the army, but they are much more fluid.
My take, Putin is talking about preps for a first strike on the NWO NATO Satanic sect. I am wondering, are there analysits who hang on every word, and if they sent something along the lines that I’ve said, would anyone in the Nazi sect care?
I do not see Russia/China delivering any first strike. Why? They would still receive a devastating counter via Nuclear subs or whatever is left so why devastate most of your country so that what, you can devastate USA? Not to mention the massive ecological fallout from a nuke exchange that would have the world hate both countries when crops fail.
On a smaller scale, I have been thinking Israel could launch a first strike on Pakistan (the only Muslim country with nukes and maybe a backdoor agreement to send a tac-nuke to Turkey or SA if asked). What would the world response really be if Israel launches a pre-emptive attack with nuke subs on Pak first (removing that tac-nuke threat), before they drop one on Damascus and Terran or not cities but nuke sites or army concentrations?
The plan must be there, but what is the trigger to going ahead and what real fallout would Israel suffer? I am sure some conventional response but the Israel attack would set back their enemies for decades and if the conventional response continues they just threaten to drop more nukes.
I am with whatever side is pro-peace but can’t help my mind going to these dark what-if scenarios so just putting it out there for discussion.
Did you ever stop to think what it might be like to live in the post-apocalyptic world after they do pull the trigger? Here’s some food for thought. https://folkpotpourri.com/a-cold-and-lonely-future/
I’m not buying this nuke apocalyptic narrative.
There is a school of thought that the greatest hoax and theft of tax money is not covid but the “nuclear arms race” and all countries are in on it, maybe not the smaller ones, they might think they have the real deal.
These are “fear” weapons.
Many photos and videos from atomic explosions have now been proved to be photoshopped.
Here is “post apocalyptic” Hiroshima:
https://swisscows.com/en/images?query=hiroshima+2023+nightlife&_=1709037953114
The USA detonated 24 atomic devices on Bikini atoll, including mega “hydrogen bombs”.
Here is “post apocalyptic” Bikini atoll today:
https://swisscows.com/en/images?query=bikini+atoll
Iz ICBMs can hit DC, NY, Chicago, and almost certainly LA. You may be thinking too small…
you are aware that russia has nuclear subs and sea-launched ICBM?
Also I am not aware that ISRAEL has any nuclear submarines or sea-launched missiles so what are you talking about????
Nazi UK have had 2 consecutive failed Trident launches, and the US has 8 failed launches. There’s also great concern about the reliability of other launch systems, so maybe there’s not much to fire, and of course, the Russians have the best missile defences.
Fear mongering. Russia has always said they will not “Nuclear First Strike”.
Putin knows any minor mis-step by Russia will be used to write more misleading history, and so plays it by the book. Like not moving into the former Ukie Republics until AFTER the separation votes, the legal requests to join the RF AND ACCEPTANCE BY THE RUSSIAN DUMA. Same for Crimea.
So no nuke first strike. Only one country has and would eve do that.
But what Putin is saying: “US/ZATO and your Rothschild masters will NOT survive the response to your final first strike”.
The red line protocols for the use of nuclear weapons has been stepped over by the Nazis. There are attacks on old Russia, there’s attacks on Crimea and the Dombas by SAS Nazi forces, and then there are the international terrorist attacks.
This is not a proxy war, this is a war between Nazi NATO and Russia in UKraine. Dress it up how you like, WW3 has started, and the only muppet who’s preventing a nuclear war, is Putin.
Putin should be removed from power, and be replaced by someone who will actually use weapons the Nazis understand.
I live in London, bring it on, because someone must stop these Nazis.
“Putin should be removed from power, …”
A wet dream of many.
Never fear, the UK fleet’s ready for action, or something.
The shiny new Polaris Plop 1 is tested and ready to take out any nearby dolphins when Downing Street orders. The aircraft carriers are at the ready, tied to the dock lest they accidentally leave port.
My sources tell me a basic minesweeper reverse parking course is almost ready. Stocks of superglue and duct tape are on hand for any repairs the fleet might need.
Well, a minesweeper must be non-magnetic, but did they have to use straw?
Well since the missile test was in fact a submarine test it is a U.S. failure.
HMS Vanguard has been in for a deep re-fit and re-fuelling which lasted 4 years. To return to active service it had to go through a test cycle which involved launching a Lockheed D-5
The submarine passed but the D-5 failed which leads to questions about US quality control.
No doubt Lockheed will be paying compensation
Maybe Lockheed set a used second-hand D-5?
Muppet? Sucking AND blowing… So you refuse to acknowledge Putin and the Russian military have openly and repeatedly stated no Nuclear First Strike intention.
Retaliatory Nuke strikes are a SLIM option if the Russian Federation is subjected to some other massive existential threat, but other than nuclear, what has the US/ZATO got? They sure can’t invade, that has been proven beyond any doubt. Economic? Tried, not working. The sneaky bio-weapon play has been revealed and wouldn’t get off the ground in the EU, the wind blows back as they found out about the Depleted Uranium shells and Zelensky’s threats to use the ZNPP as a dirty-nuke bomb.
So thrashing about trying to show Putin is desperate and may use nukes first is unfounded… unless you have some inside info… post it then.
Medvedev is playing “bad cop”, but that’s his job… to show those who wet-dream about removing Putin would face far worse.
If Brits want “someone” to stop the Nazis in London, um, that’s you, British citizens. No one is riding to your rescue… unless you think the WEF is that hope… “you will be happy”.
…” Putin and the Russian military have openly and repeatedly stated no Nuclear First Strike intention.” I conditionally agree with that BUT; If there was a First Strike intention, would it be announced in advance?
I heard Putin saying that ‘If a fight is inevitable, better to deliver the first punch’! OTAN is doing its best to convince Putin that a clash is inevitable!…..
Well DUH, the US has been doing the Rothschild Class bidding to take control of Russia’s gov’t and resources for at least 100 years. Where were you after the USSR fell? What followed “just happened” to install Rothschild bankers and oligarchs. Which Putin booted out or jailed as “job one” when he won the election.
Still trying to subtly put the”aggressor” cap on Putin. Like Russia was the “aggressor” after 8 years post-Maidan, of the Ukie Nazis attacking Donetsk and Lugansk?
And then there’s this little detail:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/cia-built-12-secret-spy-bases-ukraine-waged-shadow-war-last-decade-bombshell-nyt
You miss the point. The Russian nuclear doctrine has already been satisfied on many points. The SAS even tried to nuke the Crimea bridge, and that was before the SMO was launched.
YOU miss the point.
The US only has “nukes” left in its aggression-toolbox to trigger a Russian nuclear response.
And that leads to Mutually Assured Destruction.
“Tried to nuke” the Kerch Bridge? BULLSHIT. The munitions were conventional, marginally effective and the bridge rebuilt. Another provocation handled.
Fear-mongering… you REALLY need to stop listening to the MSM or reading Epoch Times.
no Putin does not follow the rules (it is notoriously U$ANATO and its masters who apply the Order based on Rules…) but, as a careful man of the law, he respects international law (UN) and no, he does not take into account the Western press and the disinforming lies it invents; he knows very well that he cannot compete with disinformation, yet the Western press does not have the power to change factual reality.
So why disagree with me?
Putin followed the “rules” that mattered, as set out in the Ukraine and Russian Constitutions. And as agreed to in Minsk 1&2. Y’know where the populations of the AUTONOMOUS REPUBLICS could hold referenda and decide to leave the Ukraine FEDERATION. The votes were decisive, and for the one in Crimea, even the Gallop and Canadian researchers had to admit the results of over 90% were valid.
Whatever the US/ZATO is following, it isn’t rules in any rational or recognized form. It’s “do as we say or we’ll hurt you”. Calling it rules is a gross misapplication of the word. But what do you expect from a regime that can’t define a woman properly?
If Putin didn’t think he could have an impact in the US/ZATO MSM, why the interview with Carlson? Per Reuters, “Putin was last formally interviewed by a U.S. media outlet in October 2021, when CNBC’s Hadley Gamble spoke to him.”
And then there was Meghan Kelly, Oliver Stone… I stopped looking after that.
It’s not hard to be properly informed, the real info is literally at your fingertips.
I still can’t anccept all western ‘experts’ actually believe this stuff they’re peddling. Once I would have thought “there must be a catch” but now, despite everything we’ve seen re. air defence, the Trident. missile launch failure, how ineffective western weapons really are,,etc. they’re now pushing a ‘first strike, knockout blow’ in other words a nuclear war.
Either the destructive capability of nuclear weapons have always been exaggerated or now would be the time to move to the southern hemisphere.
Nevil Shute – On The Beach describes the atmosphere winds and how the whole World would be affected. Good book too.
“… now would be the time to move to the southern hemisphere.”
“On the Beach” (1959)
https://myflixtor.tv/movie/watch-on-the-beach-hd-7417
You can run, but… 🙂
Best wishes.
Already here mate 🙂 surf’s up.
MIC already dreaming about Antarctica. Better fortify Ceduna.
U.S. has military base in Antarctica. iirc it was being inspected by brass (umm…SecDef? CJCoS?) while Bush was reading kiddie stories during Sept eleventh. Took a while to get back from it…
They’re desperately clinging to power b/c they are scared sh*tless that their lies will begin to unravel. They are usurpers who have committed horrific crimes, they know that they have committed unprecedented crimes and the fear of retribution buried deep in their subconscious is digging itself out. Their behaviour can only become worse. Think Macbeth. They’d rather have the Russians nuke the hoi polloi in the West than face even the remote possibility of retribution from the hoi polloi.
Absolutely agree! Notorious Zee and his Henchmen, along with a handful of Western leaders, fear the repercussions of Ukraine surrendering or being destroyed. They fear facing a Nuremburg type war crimes trial. At best, Notorious Zee and his Henchmen will receive immunity and citizenship in a handful of countries. The public propaganda justification for that being that Russia did play well in the sandbox, and Zee and his Nazi’s should not be held responsible for their actions.
Perhaps OTANistan senses that the gig is up and their only remaining, slim chance is to try the Nuclear Avenue, instead of admitting defeat!
Perhaps the Germans will jettison the multi-variant Christian khunts of the Mike Pimpieo type in order to find a neoRapallo moment. Since most Americans are soaked in digital dementia the only way to explain their revised versions of history would be a cartoon series…are the Charlie Hebdo bitches busy?Col. Prouty(Ret)
I don’t know Larry, other than some “combat tactics”, both offensive & defensive, I’m not seeing much in the parallel your drawing.
Had this really been a “Battle of Kursk” redux, Kiev would have long been destroyed. You’re not alone in wanting to drum up romantic visions of WW2, or draw comparisons and apply a theme of WW2 attributes, but frankly, outside of some borrowed experiences & again, tactics, the “strategy” of this SMO are off the chart different.
Along with the techno-modernization of every single piece of equipment, military planning, military strategy & tactics, this “war” looks nothing like WW2—Zero.
This SMO should be singled out as the most & greatest military strategy & threat of the modern age. No more going back 70 years to an age that is completely irrelevant on the battlefield. Sure some defense lines & trenches remain the same. Other than that, you really got nothing, it’s too ridiculously different with drones, ISR the works to continue the WW2 mantras.
That simplicius link above near the end does show “parallels”. And he surely knows ISR.
He states from the gate: “fundamentally” when drawing his parallels. I stated that as well. But it’s a long way from “fundamental” to modern day practice on the ground. There are many wars, not just WW2 that we could draw “fundamental parallels”. But if folks want to keep making up WW2 stories and attribute them to any relevance now, besides NAZI’s and Facist’s … there’s not any military relevance as far as I’m concerned, except “fundamentally”…
“However, I would say the probability is fairly high that the rest of the conflict plays out not too dissimilarly from the above.”
Got a better idea – shoot.
I’m sorry, the comparison to the battle of Kursk is relevant as the same amount of armour was used in terms of offence! In terms of forces on the Ukranian side it was half! But the Russian defence was much better with far fewer losses and far fewer personal! The Ukranians outmatched the Russians in their offensive by 1.3:1, in armour by 1.5:1 in personal by 2.5;1. This is NATO)US planning and strategy! And they were defeated soundly by technology! The domain of the west or so we are led to believe
I agree to some degree with what you are writing. I believe though you have missed the facts of the basic battleground mindset and defense strategy of the past (Surovikin lines) and how that past mindset and strategy have been used today in Ukraine. As you properly noted, the equipment is much different today, more lethal, electronic, and in many cases delivered by a drone operated from several miles away.
Wars in the future will either look substantially different from past wars, meaning they will be fought ala SMO, or they will likely be outright nuclear. Russia has changed the reality of modern warfare and I imagine the West have crapped their britches over the fact they never saw it coming.
Face it, the West is embarrassed that its privately owned MIC has been totally exposed as the fraud it truly is: they produce “perfect” weapons for profit; while the Russian state-owned MIC produces merely “good” weapons for fighting wars!!!
Exhibit A = the 22-year long $1.2 trillion F-35 “Thunderturkey” fighter jet program!
Strikes me that parallels with WW1 are closer to the mark. Troops in trenches under artillery barrages, dashes across no-mans-land to storm defences.
No big arrow offences but the occasional fights for the rubble of cities and towns. Progress measured by paddocks and tree lines that sometimes take months to change hands.
Using masses of troops in futile operations against heavily defended positions. Horrendous number of casualties. Leaders desperate to divert attention away from their strategic and tactical blunders.
Other than securing the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and south coast in the first month of the military-technical solution, I don’t see anything approaching a blitzkrieg, massed tank battles or indiscriminate bombing of cities by day and by night, that were all features of WW2.
The only thing I see in common with WW2 is they both had some Nazis on one side and some Russians on the other.
ISR, drones and precision stand-off weapons add a 21st century twist.
Oh, let’s not forget the propaganda, that now spins events in near real-time thanks to the internet. Drone footage gives the newsroom geeks something interesting gore to show instead of the talking head, but it still isn’t doing much to improve the declining ratings.
RUAF will advance when the AFU won’t be able to show any form of “victory” (note the mandatory quotes) at their expense.
All the “packaging” around it is just technical gibberish for army nerds and opinions resellers …
Speaking of “Operation Citadel” which I am just learning about, only yesterday I read a long piece on TASS (the length tells you the Russians think it is significant) by Konstantin Sivkov describing the Ukrainian summer counter offensive as the equivalent of that major World War II battle that decisively turned the tide of the war. The title of the article is “Collapse Of Operation Citadel 2.0” and is available at https://tass.com/defense/1750919
Read it as well, is not light reading but gives a good insight.
Johnson’s last paragraph defines the nature of the (best) western military/political analysis.
That is, a grudging and reserved acknowledgement of negative trends and a brazen vomitive of Russia’s (decreed) disaster. Thus: “We are in trouble… but their plight is far worse” – all the while relentlessly losing territory and men by the bucket full.
It is disgusting, just like Nazi Germany’s lies about the Eastern Front; although the nazis were not so idiotically false in their empty propaganda.
Like most if not all sequels, Nazis 2.0 are much worse in capabilities & effectiveness than the original.
And more LGBT.
The west is afflicted with rampant narcisism.In everything we are the prettiest belle at the ball.Just look at all those ugly women around me!
Ha!! LOL !!! How many Western nations now have women in charge of their defense/ war-making capabilities???
Yeah, right? It’s almost a law now that a female has to be in charge of a nation’s defence. And not a strong female like Maggie Thatcher but some weak, party-girl, Woke type.
Ya, just what the world needs, more Iron Bitch Warmongers like Thatcher. And Nuland. And Haley. And Freeland. And Rice…
Be careful what you wish for…
Python’s Hell’s Grannies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_OIs49m56E
Gates was stupid about the “stalemate” thing, but other than that, he wasn’t totally wrong. Ukraine had held a string defending position, they did have enough manpower, ADs and put up a strong resistance the last couple of years throwing multi 100s of thousands into their “counter offensive”.
Being realistic, the lines moved ever so slowly the last year, and yes, the “buckling” has in fact yielded an ability for “Russia to take the initiative”, and yes, Russia does feel “the tide has turned”. So outside of “stalemate” garbage, he was reasonable.
“Staggering losses”? There’s an awful lot of downplay regarding Russian losses, and agreeably, 5 or more times less than Ukraine, still, the death count of Russian, and wounded are high, not “staggering”, but this war is coming at a high cost for Russians as well.
Russians now fully realize this is an existential fight for them, and while 50-70,000 in losses (dead/severely wounded) is significant, they know their history. 10s of millions died to defeat Hitler’s hordes.
It’s the US public that cannot tolerate even a handful of bodybags. Tower 22 anyone?
Psychological advantage.
The Russian military is prosecuting this war as they have because it works. The toadies in ZATO must be looking around and wondering why they shipped all their military capabilities off to Ukraine to be destroyed. The cupboard is bare. THEY are the ones wondering why the LOC hasn’t moved much, and now is moving in the wrong direction for them.
Psychological advantage.
“The Russian military is prosecuting this war as they have because it works. “
An outdated, simplistic way of thinking “we” have long rejected.
If you fail again and again and again, using the same methods, we firmly believe that you must keep trying again because a reverse gear is for sissies……
OK, let’s parse.
Russia is winning by re-using the best of the strategies/tactics learned in 2 WWs, and updating those to take advantage of the current situational realities and newer tech they have developed. All while inducing maximum attrition on the US/ZATO-Ukraine armies (3 so far), minimizing Russia’s attrition. What’s “outdated, simplistic” about that? The best current, sophisticated means to achieve the stated goals.
And who is “we” kemosabe (Lone Ranger old joke)? You mean US/ZATO? Particularly the Bribe’em/NeoCon contingent running this shit-show on behalf of the Rothschilds?
The USA “get Europe to weaken itself and the enemy, then we ride in at the end and claim victory” formula worked just fine in 2 WWs. Not so well following the French into Vietnam tho’. But if at first, you don’t succeed… in that you’re correct. Sorta.
As an aside, what rational reason could the US have to blow up NordStream, block other pipelines, and thereby disable most of the industrial base in Europe which supplies most non-US armaments, if the objective was to WIN in Ukraine? Makes zero sense to me, unless fatally weakening Europe was the actual plan.
The US/ZATO have been “losing” at wars since WW2 because the objective was not to “win”, it was to create maximum destruction and chaos in key “domino/containment” areas, with minimal US/ZATO casualties, while keeping the Pentagon/MIC/political money-go-’round humming. And having the FED endlessly borrowing from the Rothschild Class to have debt-money to pay to the US$ Reserve Currency Interest Piper.
No, the USA hasn’t rejected a strategy, is using a proven past strategy, but one that Russia and China are wise to and are not allowing to happen. The 20th Century USA War Machine was built without reverse, because it never needed one… until Vietnam. Even then they didn’t learn, so Afghanistan “just happened” and Iraq is in the waiting.
All wars are Bankers’ wars. It’s just not always apparent who is taking the profits.
There never were an stalemate. That was Western posturing, or better yet, an outright lie. Russia has always stated their intent, it was not to rapidly overrun Ukraine, or to bomb it into submission killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. The Russian intent from be beginning of the SMO was to operate as a slow wave of lava, moving closer and closer, encouraging Western and Ukrainian forces to deplete their equipment and manpower. That lava wave will continue to move slowly, building up more and more pressure, consuming Nazi Ukraine.
You probably think that “agreeably” means “admittedly”…
The Ukrainians did not have an adequate supply of anything to defeat Russia when the SMO began. They’ve had to rebuild their army three times with western weapons since then, and the whole country operates on western cash donations from pensions to civilian government salaries to massive bribes. Since the beginning of the SMO, the west has only contributed enough of any of these to prolong the fighting, never anywhere near what would be needed to ‘defeat’ Russia.
That should be a pretty good guide to the real war aims of DC and the Ameri-centric core of the global financial class. It was always about eliminating Germany/EU as an economic rival, and integrating their assets completely into the American system, including by deindustrializing Germany and inviting the knowhow and skilled labor to relocate to the US mainland. The war in UKraine was never designed to defeat Russia- the real string pullers understand economics, BRICS, BRI and so on, and knew it was too late for that. Some Neocon ideologues have been used to help sell the project to gullible Euro-peons and American citizens, and they probably believe in their fantasies because they don’t know anything about economic reality- they wouldn’t be as useful if they did. The PTB gets it though, and they are benefiting from the actual conduct of the this war at Europe’s expense. It’s not an accident.
There has never been any doubt among clear-thinking people that Russia cannot possibly lose this war. Despite the massive support and leadership of USNATO. The only point that surprised me personally was how militarily impotent USNATO really is. In this I was probably also a victim of Western propaganda.
I will not tire of repeating four other points.
🔸The outcome of the war is of existential importance for both Russia / China / Iran on the one hand and the USA as a world power on the other. The fate of many other nations in the world depends on the outcome of this war. This world war will end in victory or defeat.
🔸The most important war aim of the USA and its vassals is the destruction of Russia’s state existence and the subjugation of China to the domination of the US oligarchy. Both Russia and China are nuclear powers. You cannot defeat nuclear powers without dying yourself. So this war aim is unrealistic.
🔸 Armies can win battles. But victory or defeat in a war depends on raw materials, energy, production and control over supply routes.
🔸There is always a lot of talk about the fact that nobody wants a nuclear war. But there is too little concrete talk about how a nuclear war can break out through error or misjudgement or misinterpretation.
I recommend translating and reading the interview with Medvedev. You make a mistake when you declare him crazy. If he were crazy, he would no longer be in office. Of course, he doesn’t reveal state secrets either. But basically it has been openly communicated for a long time what will happen to Ukraine. Russia will prevent the territory of the still existing Ukraine from ever posing a threat to Russia in the future. Neither negotiations nor agreements will change this. If only because treaties with USNATO are worth less than used toilet paper.
https://ria.ru/20240222/medvedev-1928975798.html
The stated NATO objective is Russia regime change and then partition. They really expected this to be over by May 2022. Their algorithms are AI finance, the very same destroying the “West”.
NATO openly tweeted nations targeted as well : China, India, Brazil. They call it “decolonization” – you could not make this sh*t up!
Decolonize Russia – https://archive.md/KoF1N
Published in May 2022; gives a distorted viewpoint (“In 2022, as Putin tries to restore the Russian empire by littering corpses across Ukraine”) but also a history of US intent, including: “The West must complete the project that began in 1991. It must seek to fully decolonize Russia.”
These tweets are from NATO spokesman Fehlinger recently.
Here India.
Imperial megalomania!
“Decolonize” is a key word and tricky phrase used to galvanize political support among the “educated” gullible in the Western Empire. Sort of like Pavlov ringing his bell.
What does the decolonized US look like?
How about
I have long said, and will continue to say that if someone wants to know what Russia is doing, or where Russia is going, then listen to Medvedev and his interviews. Sergey Lavrov is another one. Putin will generally give that long range forecast, Lavrov offers the olive branch, Medvedev tells the repercussion of what happens when a country does not play well with Russia.
When Russia has finished with Nato and Ukraine, there will be a new multi-polar world that has gone from labor to birth.
If Medvedev were to say that Kiev and Odessa were targets, then it could be interpreted that this is just misdirection and propaganda. But he says that Kiev and Odessa have always been Russian cities and will continue to be in the future. Putin and representatives of the Duma also spoke about the historically Russian territories. Namely Kharkov, Kiev and Odessa. Because of this combination of these cities and RUSSIAN, I cannot imagine that the Russian leadership will say in the future that these regions are Russian, but we will leave them in a (USNATO) Ukraine.
I agree. Kharkov is already under attack per Dima’s reports.
The Donbass Twins were born in 2022 – recognized by Russia.
However NATO’s birthed twins Sweden and Finland – Erdogan done it!
The most important war aim of the USA and its vassals is the destruction of Russia’s state existence and the subjugation of China to the domination of the US oligarchy. Both Russia and China are nuclear powers. You cannot defeat nuclear powers without dying yourself. So this war aim is unrealistic.
Completely unrealistic, and therefore not a war aim. It’s American maskirovka, directed at it’s own public, but especially at Europe, to get them to cut their own throats in the sanctions war- the idea that this was supposed to topple Putin also was completely unrealistic, if you’d been paying attention to economic news regarding Russia, China and southwestern Asia. And given that the real power behind the scenes is the Americentric global finance cabal, you can bet your ass they understood that.
We forgot what made us strong. A powerful manufacturing economy. Can’t predict the exact day of its occurrence, but NATO will dissolve. I have to laugh that all those German manufacturers wanting to move their operations to North America. They’ll find no green pastures here. Our infrastructure is falling apart, and we don’t have the natural resources to feed these industries, with their specialty materials needs. Not to mention a crazy-ass litigation-loving NIMBY bourgeoisie.
I keep telling y’all: learn to love Squirrel Stew and Acorn Pancakes.
The silver lining: Those 50 million illegals will self-deport when America falls apart.
“Those 50 million…will self-deport”.
Funniest comment of the morning, thus far. It’s even better than your obtusity, revealed on another thread, about what’s implied when a prominent Rothschild* pokes an important British prince in the sternum.
* roth-schild; sounds like wrote-shildt not rawþs-child
Doubt. Weaponized illegals will be robbing the Americans. It’s a big country, rich estates – a lot to loot.
The problem German manufacturers will have here is that we in the U.S. do not have much of a pool of skilled labor. From engineers to machinists, die and tool makers, etc., completely inadequate. If the Germans were smart, they would move their manufacturing to China, Vietnam, or Indonesia.
They did
“… we in the U.S. do not have much of a pool of skilled labor.”
You have some of the best in the World. You won’t find them in the US, but you’ll find them in the ME, SE Asia and China. America has been brain drained. Those engineers and techs, mostly men, still have the one thing that truly made America great, the ” Why Not” & “Can Do” attitude.
I was there many times to witness, a group of Americans getting together, outside the logjammed group of International colleagues, to do a private “why not” brainstorming session to bring forth a successful solution.
Americans shine when innovation and creativity are required. Bring back your American Engineers because the World knows their worth and pays an expat Engineers 3 times what they pay an expat lawyer. US epat engineers net 3 times the insult they get at home. When you ask the foreigners why do you pay the engineers 3 times the lawyers, they will tell you, engineers build useful things.
The expat brain capital is with engaged with foreign women. Respectful and appreciative women, that are great to share life with. This is another factor that is never dealt with.
America’s problem is being out of balance, that’s why it wobbles. All that is needed is a balance between the few vandals and the majority.
If young Americans were smart, they would move to China, Vietnam or Indonesia or even Russia:) where they could have a bright future.
No, if they were smart they would “rise like lions after slumber in unvanquishable number” and fix their own country
Oh, we have the resources alright, but they are tied down by th’ose “crazy-ass litigation-loving NIMBY bourgeosie” Elites!!! All of which need some serious attitude adjustment, administered by rope and lampposts!
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/02/ukraine-can-no-longer-win-it-in-fact-neve-had-a-chance-in-the-first-place.html#more
However tempting it is to draw historical parallels, the Germans were a far more competent enemy than NATO.
In the first years of the war the German was, pound for pound and man for man, the greatest fighting soldier of WWII. Their training, discipline, and commanders were phenomenal.
I can’t help but wonder what Germany would be like today if Germany’s best men didn’t die by the millions in WWII. If these men, instead, had lived to father lots of German children who in turn fathered lots of German children.
Once, decades ago at a New Years Eve party in Zūrich, I had a conversation with an Austrian about our grandfathers. He told me that his had died in the war.
Luckily for this young Viennese Austrian, who was about to marry a beautiful woman, his grandfather fathered a son (who fathered him) before dying in battle.
Look at Germany today. I doubt it would have been worse if those men hadn’t been sent to die.
My point is that Germany would be so much BETTER today if WWII had never happened. The same goes for the rest of warring countries in Europe, especially if you include WWI.
It will be worse after WWIII.
It is hard to disagree with that. Imo, the first big mistake Germany made was the invasion of France. I mentioned Clausewitz in another comment: what political goal was meant to be achieved with the defeat and the open ended occupation of a country with a military so incompetent and a people still so traumatised by the horrific losses of WWI that it posed no threat whatsoever to Germany? Then Germany went on to occupy the whole of Europe. Let’s say that if we try hard, we can find a justification for May 1940, but the occupation of Yugoslavia a year later? For what purpose? Germany had legitimate grievances and totally destroyed its case with its actions.
That is exactly what the City of Dragons and the British Crown intended. They just couldn’t tolerate Germany shining.
“In the first years of the war the German was, pound for pound and man for man, the greatest fighting soldier of WWII. Their training, discipline, and commanders were phenomenal.”
Yea, right. Real ubermenshen capable of defeting all those barbarians, almost like mighty Ukrainian army two years ago.
Good point. The hero worship of the Nazi’s really does lead to today does it not? They rolled over Poland! The Tulsa Police Department could roll over the Polacks. They took Paris! Who hasn’t? The French men love it, they can get to pimping their wives and daughters. The destroyed Belgium! Three old men on a viagra weekend can damn near do that. All I know is when the Wehrmacht ran into an actual Army? They lost.
A point is “early” days, then the US entered WWII, with 10 tons for every 1 ton the Wehrmacht had, even when they were very highly trained. The Nazi economy like today’s NATOnazi economy based on ideology blinded people, even the Generals were terrified to tell the truth, as in that video posted here.
US entered WW2 in 1942 after 3 years of fighting
And WW1… So the pattern was supposed to repeat again?
Europe fights for a couple years, weakens themselves and the enemy and then the US military waltzes in at the end and pretends to have “won the war”, claims all the spoils.
I’d be thinking both Putin and Xi and their military advisers had figured that out a long while ago.
That’s what I said – early days, THEN the US entered the war with a Factory of the World economy, as Stalin put it.
I recall reading one of the American WWII correspondents’ phrase, ” Paris fell like a lady, Moscow fought like a man”
Since Laval and Petain’s Paris invited Hitler in, it fell like a Harlot.
France suffered ~60k killed and ~120k wounded in combat in 45 days in May-June 1940. The French fought valiantly but had an inept command. Half a million more French died during the occupation. French alleged cowardice is just another in the long list of WW2 myths fabricated by British and American propaganda. There were collaborators and there was a resistance movement in France just like in every other country occupied by the Germans during WW2.
But isn’t France subscribing since 1990s to the theory that both, “Germany and USSR were equally guilty of WWII?”
France’s Nazi collaborateur problem, a book and movie :
Ophuls’ : The Sorrow and the Pity
Note the eye, tear and swastika.
Something no-one wanted to talk about, published in 1969, movie banned until 1981.
Ophüls was a German Jew. The story of collaboration with the nazi occupier in France is – like “white supremacism” in the USA – overblown by Jews to advance their group interests.
It is to this day France’s Sorrow and Pity.
Patrick Lawrence saw this first hand.
Allow me a slight rework.
Paris men fell like women, Moscow women fought like men.
You can hate the ideology and yet recognise that they were a formidable foe.
Those that base their ideology on hate and superiority can never recognise that their enemies are worth of respect.
My aunt lived through the German occupation of Moldova which occupied soon after Germans invaded. She was a school teacher, and told me that all civilians were forced by the Germans to dig the trenches. She was digging slower, not used to digging, and when a German soldier came to her to force her dig harder, she showed him her hands full of bloody corns and told him she’s a teacher. She thought he’d kill her on the spot, but he asked in broken Russian, “Is Stalin good?” she answered a question with a question, ‘Is Hitler good?,” he replied “Beides ist Mist” (both are crap), and let her be. So, obviously there were Germans of different kinds and some were thinking more than others.
If your aunt lived in Moldova and was sympathetic to Stalin she was probably a Jew, wasn’t she? The locals who managed to stay there and avoid Stalin’s massive deportation followed by population replacement were not inclined to love Uncle Joe.
Indeed. Extremely formidable. Had they not had Hitler at the helm, Germany would have owned much of Europe.
Germany in fact owned much of Europe.
And until the US blew up NordStream, Germany STILL “owned” much of Europe. Just ask Greece.
Stupid is as stupid does.
Or as the kids say these days, stupid should hurt.
Germany is now hurting.
They were soldiers drugged on Pervitin
Not sure
Well-trained but Germsny had a huge Male birth rate after 1918 whereas France did not
Male birth rate is key 1914 France had 339 male under 20 per 1000 and Germany 437 but German birth rate was twice French levels
18% French Army was KIA or 1.5 Million men and the birth rate postwar collapsed
Viennese Austrians, yes, they are something else, nothing like run-of-the mill Austrians.
Genetics does not work like that. Regression to the mean in that field is a scientific fact. A good example of that is people with high IQ having less kids that people with low IQ. Despite that significant difference in fertility between both groups the percentage of people with high IQ and low IQ in the population stays the same. The same effect is found with height. You will find the same effect in nature almost everywhere; normal distribution. Organic life is a function of its environment. You might see ripples and deviations in some cases but even that is a rule in itself because randomness is also built into the process.
So yes, some Nazis died and the population recovered. Now today it looks like they want to repeat their forefather’s folly but somewhat remember the consequences. Not that dumb after all.
“Despite that significant difference in fertility between both groups the percentage of people with high IQ and low IQ in the population stays the same.”
Are you joking? Or are you defining “high IQ” and “low IQ” not absolutely, but relative to the declining average IQ?
Perhaps……however it is geography that breaks any linkage to the end of WW2.
Germany, geographically, could be “CORNERED into destruction and surrender” from east and west. US/NATO cannot be geographically cornered in the same fashion and as such they just keep doubling down on “till the end” rhetoric.
How will Russia “corner” or counter the geography to entice the west into surrender? Unlike WW2 there will be no end to this conflict where the west just runs-out-of-space-and-resources to continue.
IMHO this can only end in 2 ways – well, OK 3 maybe: 1) Economic collapse
2) Nuclear idiocy…………………….or 3) a quiet back down by the west that allows them to survive.
Their continued rhetoric is showing no sign that option 3 is on-the-cards, so we have only 2 options remaining and both will culminate in their own self destruction………except option 2 which is the threat of murder/suicide.
The scary in all of the this is the unhinged mentality of ALL western leaders – save Orban.
The inmates are running our asylum!
The West’s anchoring, confirmation, egocentric, false priors, herd mentality, continuation / loss aversion biases make option 3 unrealistic. I agree with you, it will be either 1 or 2, with the objective being to bring about 1 and avoid 2.
If push comes to shove, why do u think it will be only NATO against Russia? Di you think Russia has no allies? If it comes to that, IMO, US will run away and leave Europe to its fate!
Yes, BRICS will be there, but this is being set up so there is no place for the US to ‘run to’ …..this is about the world economic and hedgmonomic order…………….that is unless Elon has setup his Marian Utopia in secret.
When the inmates run the asylum and control the guns and money, you/we have little choice but to be fatalistic.
Yes, I think many do not realize the world economic hegemonic order, as well as neo-colonialism is in a struggle to stay in power. BRICS was likely the first, major move against that order. Members of BRICS are nations that have tired of U.S. sanctions, bullying, and a set of rules that change to suit the U.S., London, and Brussels, on a weekly basis.
I am hoping for option 3 and see it as a 30 per cent possibility. Economic failure of the West and Ukraine at a 60 per cent possibility. Nuclear at a 10 percent.
However, I am afraid that due to the impending U.S. fiasco of a Presidential race, a former President constantly in a court of law, but at the same time winning his primary State voting…that Nuclear is the probable outcome. As the U.S. continues to fall apart, legally and politically, with Europe citizens suffering at the hands of its Nazi leaders, that at some point, the West gets desperate, pulls a “stupid”, and Russia retaliates with “a big flash” that brings it all to a standstill. At that point, we get a reset, the PTB are ousted and more sane minds begin to run the west.
Modern missile tech removes the protection of the Two Oceans Fortress that the US enjoyed in WW1&2. As Larry and others have pointed out numerous times, the US is a few hypersonic minutes away from being on the battle front. Notice the belligerence towards North Korea has settled down now Kim can drop a hypersonic nuke anywhere on the continental US… one less irritant point for the Rothschilds to get the US to ignite.
And the US vaunted “power projection” of the carrier groups and 800+ bases are now massive liabilities. Sitting ducks. Even tiny Yemen’s Houthis can’t be brought to heel without Saudi Arabia doing the US’s dirty work.
But the reality is the US economy WILL be closer to collapse if that $66Billion isn’t injected via the MIC. That’s why they are beating the drum on ZATO contributions to the US MIC again, if ZATO countries don’t pay, the US has to. And even that will only get them a few months at most. They are literally buying time until after the election. It isn’t Bribe’em’s senility that worries them most.
The Rothschilds are cashing out of some significant ESG positions, have been for many months now. And what else they aren’t talking about?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2023-08-29/rothschild-says-its-time-to-dustbin-esg-video
“Even tiny Yemen’s Houthis can’t be brought to heel without Saudi Arabia doing the US’s dirty work.”
And even so they failed
Just like Ukraine is failing under US/ZATO tutelage, but at least MBS has figured out the Kissinger truism before it was too late.
“To be an enemy of the US is dangerous, to be its friend, deadly.”
Yes, the technology (missile and submarine) is there to overcome the geography of the oceans……..but any strike on North America would not be possible as ‘mission creep’ – it could only be viewed as full scale war and Option 2 above.
What I expect to see is the US/NATO (thru Ukraine) will attack the Russian mainland in an attempt at asymmetric warfare……why? …..because they can blame it on the Ukrainians – the worlds best army! ……and it will start slowly and creep east, like the slow escalation in weapons deliveries.
The US/NATO can attack Russia, but Russia CANNOT attack the US/NATO territories without launching WW3.
Asymmetry………the US/NATO will have the advantage of attack & Russia will only be able to defend.
This is going to get UGLY, uglier than Nuland herself!
Russia won’t strike the continental US unless the US is has already declared war on Russia or directly attacked Russian soil.
Russia’s ability to decapitate the US silo-based nukes, 800 bases and the carrier groups with conventional hypersonics is deterrent enough to keep the US from getting too uppity.
Even Bribe’em and his cabal of NeoCon stooges ain’t THAT stupid. And they like being alive.
Not sure that is true.
Germany was terribly inefficient but Allies were too
Germany has unreliable equipment and petrol- engined tanks with high failure rates and aircraft with peculiar yaw characteristics which killed pilots
German coordination was snd is pitiful
Maybe but you don’t achieve what the Germans achieved from 1939 to 1941 if your military are incompetent. The Wehrmacht had highly competent commanders, unlike e.g. the French army or the Soviets in the beginning. That Germans obviously forgot the teachings of their own von Clausewitz is another story.
They have acheved to awaken a sleeping giant, just like a Japanese dude said about their own achievements. That is Jackass show level of achievement.
How is it possible for people like Robert Gates to be convinced that there was a stalemate to start off with or that the Russians “suffered staggering losses”? I understand ordinary people believing in all this considering the bombardment by the MSM, but someone like Gates; that is incredible. If people like Gates believe this nonsense and he served both in the CIA and Defence then I pity the US defence and intelligence capabilities.
The second question is how many in the US military also believe this rubbish?
Because he is a part of the “system”. He will toe the line as many others have.
Meanwhile, over at CNN, the dog and pony show continues, with another byline labeled as “analysis”.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/24/europe/ukraine-war-russia-two-years-analysis-intl/index.html
(Minor but notable: the writer was apparently so eager to please his masters, in following instructions to always say “full scale invasion” in anything about the Russian military action, he said it twice! Maybe he would rationalize it by saying that readers might have forgotten that it was “full scale” over the previous few paragraphs.)
The bullshit peddlers keep cranking it out.
Yesterday, here in Portugal, the Portuguese-language CNN channel ran a segment on the two-year anniversary of the “Full Scale Invasion” of Ukraine. My Portuguese in-laws lap it all up, hanging on every word they question nothing. It drives me crazy, but they sure as hell don’t wanna hear me contradict, with facts, any part of the ridiculous CNN narrative.
When it comes to the war in Ukraine, I’ve learned that in my in-law’s house it’s best to keep my mouth shut. When CNN comes on I go upstairs.
.
and how does it go when the topic is the terrorist genocidal state?
Well, try listening to the American NPR stations. Many of their shows paint Russia as terrorists killing the innocent, invading without a reason, and on and on. They often do a big push on weather and Earth warming nonsense, and anything or any one pro Trump are the devils spawn and should be jailed for life. NPR is a farce of a news organization, entirely corrupt in my view.
Yes but for the American/Western mind Gates is correct – Russia has suffered staggering losses. Three KIA US soldiers is a staggering loss. Americans can’t cope with anything more than that. Look at the 2 decade trauma that followed Vietnam. And I thought it was the Vietnamese who lost 2 million dead!
If the US navy doesn’t lose an aircraft carrier this year it’s because the opposition chose not to sink one for fear of how unhinged we’d become.
But how the Vietnam war ended? Americans decided, ” let’s bomb the heck out of them and run away.” I don’t think this time the above “doctrine” will be allowed.
The bomb and run campaign only works on small, defenseless countries. Try that on China or Russia and whoops…that watery divide on either side of America is insignificant. America tends to leave alone the countries that have nukes, which is the only reason they are so adamant about Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Libya not having nukes. Of course, the American mindset does seem to think it is OK for Israel to have nukes. Israel having nukes should be more worrisome than North Korea having nukes.
It is very disconcerting that so many of the folks in charge of US intelligence and/or military, sound so absolutely stupid. This is not Betio Atoll in the 40´s, where to this day they really don´t tell the whole story and they can hide it. I think they do know that Russia is suffering very sustainable casualties and Ukraine is not. The ISR capabilities can easily show this.
Her is what I think: they need to face reality. So what does that mean? It means we are nothing special. On top of that leadership has big mouths, supersized egos and a bunch of other idiosyncrises which are deadly in conflict.
I went through the process of taking all the crap I was taught about the US, dumping it in the trash and then started to relearn from scratch. It freed me. They have to dump it all, all the way, or they will never get a lock on reality. For instance, accepting that other nations, civilizations do things differently and that our criticism is worthless. Like calling Palestinians terrorists where our founding fathers were considered the same by the British crown.
If we do not grow up, the pain will not stop. As for Mr. Gates, he is still in the fog. My take. Thank you Larry.
“I went through the process of taking all the crap I was taught about the US, dumping it in the trash and then started to relearn from scratch. It freed me.”
I did that years ago after giving my first morning briefing to my Commander about an event in another country. We had one story, the true story, and the press had another story. I knew then, the game was rigged.
Yep. I think there are lots of us in that boat. But it’s hard “being green.”:) Thank God for social media: someone to talk to and listen to.
The Official Soviet Army Archives, lol. If you read ‘Stalin’s War,’ you would know Hitler called off Operation Citadel 3 days after the Allied invasion of Sicily, or did you just forget to mention that? The biggest similarity is that both Hitler and Zelensky were/are drug addicts calling the shots. The Soviets were losing the fight, despite outnumbering the Germans about 3 to 1, the opposite of standard offensive strategy, until Hitler started pulling divisions west. Kursk cost the Soviets between 863,000 to 1,677,000 casualties, 5,244 guns, between 1,626 and 4108 planes, and at lest 6.064 tanks, compared to 170,000 German casualties, 760 tanks, and 524 planes. From 1 July, ’42 to 30 June ’43 Lendlease sent the Soviets more than 3,400.000 tons of material, 48,000 tons of barbed wire,, 120,000 machine guns, 120,000 submachine guns, 5,117 anti aircraft guns, 720,000 anti tank mines, 220,000 tons of petroleum, mostly aviation fuel, 5,000 tanks, when Soviet production was only replacing losses, cranes, hoists, 19,000,000 tons of leather, 3,140,000 pairs of boots,5,000 tons monthly of aluminum and armor plate each, over 1,000,000 tons refined steel products, 15,000 tons of copper, 3,000 tons nickel, whole tire factories and oil refineries, 120,330 trucks and jeeps, and 2,403 warplanes, P-39s and A-20 bombers, more A-20s than the US Army Airforce had. Interestingly, the Soviets declined mine detectors, they said they used people for that! And to this day they brag about how many casualties they took! And where do you thing Ukraine got the idea of blocking troops from? Of course the Soviets lied to their troops about where the supplies were coming from, Stalin told them they were bearing the whole burden of the war. It is hard to believe anyone, except a fellow traveling useful idiot, would take anything coming out of Soviet archives at face value. From Duranty on, the US left has consistently lied to support Soviet propaganda and cover up Soviet atrocities. Lenin and Stalin killed far more Russians than Hitler.
Youre name has changed, but BS is still the same. Pavlovian reflex is unmistakenly triggered, and Hitlerian glands can’t stop themselves from salivating.
So, Johann is the new untergruppeyfurhrer licking at ‘Dolph’s’ boots. 404 hasbara at work! Good call!
Is someone doing a Jekyll and Hyde here?
It was the NAZI race obsession that guaranteed defeat. Jews, Gypsies, Slavs could not possibly defeat NAZI’s because they were “untermenschen”.
The USSR industrial capacity was beyond NAZI ideology. Exactly as today – the Russian “untermenschen” could not possibly rout NATOstan, could not possibly laugh off sanctions.
The 1 single recording of Hitler’s normal voice is when the Generals break the news about the sheer scale of USSR capacity. At 4min here
The Only Secret Recording of Hitler’s Normal Voice | The Hitler-Mannerheim Recording
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE6mnPmztoQ
In other words Barborossa would not have started.
Repetitio est mater studiorum, and Nazis have a severe learning disability. 80 years from now, they will be saying that Putin and Medvedev killed far more Russians than Zelensky.
I always wondered why Monty Python’s Room of Arguments starts with :
“I told you once!”.
“No you did’nt!”.
“Yes I did”.
That was the £5 argument.
Too bad the Latin proverb you quote contradicts your message
Thanks for the link. OMG, Hitler’s referrals to his “fairweather armaments,” as true today as 80 years ago. I recall reading somewhere that Cesar requires serving it in white gloves. It’s like these people can’t even picture the flying dirt of the battlefields.
Made up numbers by German officer POWs to please the Allies and make themselves seem more competent then they were.
Keep believing your fairytales. Whatever helps you sleep at night
“both Hitler and Zelensky were/are drug addicts calling the shots….”
Nobody sane believes that Zelensky is “calling the shots.” Not even Zelensky. Nor that Hitler lost the war because he was … a drug addict.
So the Germans ran from Kursk but simultaneously were keeping the lists and counting every tank/gun/soldier list by the Soviets? Gimmy a break.
[…] Zdroj […]
A long confessional appearing this morning,
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/25/world/europe/the-spy-war-how-the-cia-secretly-helps-ukraine-fight-putin.html
What is striking is the depiction of the CIA interfering in Ukrainian governmental affairs in 2014 as a nothing burger while getting intelligence (cooked!) of Russian electoral influence in our 2016 presidential election.
This is a horrifying piece on so many fronts. Like the Ukrainian military collapse, so too is our moral authority boiling away. The pot is no longer simmering.
And of course, they were involved in Ukraine long before that: https://cynthiachung.substack.com/p/how-the-ukrainian-nationalist-movement-f4f
What worries me about nuclear weapon use is that Western intelligence agencies seem to have been frozen in aspic since 1995. They’ve been 180 degrees wrong about everything from Russia’s economics & finance to its technological & industrial capacity.
How much can be ascribed to intelligence failure, and how much to ideologically driven bad assumptions may be unanswerable, but the result is an avalanche of failures across all fronts in the West’s ongoing attack.
Are they similarly ignorant of Russia’s advances in nuclear weapons and delivery systems? Or in Russia’s missile defence systems? Are they aware that these are generations ahead of the West’s ancient systems? That the Minuteman and Trident platforms are long past their Sell-By dates and cannot be counted on to reach their targets, or even leave their silos?
If the kind of intelligence regarding nuclear war reaching the decision makers is as wildly off the mark as the intelligence they got regarding everything else, they may just decide they haven’t much to lose by launching in an attempt to avert the looming UA catastrophe.
During 9/11 the US went into DEFCON, silo’s opened, clearly the objective.
Putin got through to Bush and both stepped down. If Plane#4 had hit the Capitol, maybe this discussion would not be taking place.NSA Tech. Director Binney, ret. said that there further planes that did not manage to go.
The Reichstagsbrandt crowd already in 2001 were going for it. The financial system is disastrously worse now, they are going nuts. With nuclear treaties disabled. Putin has been through the 9/11 Reichstagsbrandt.
Just keep pushing everywhere, avoid high casualties when necessary, and leave no doubt about the outcome. The EU, UK, and US elites will scream and moan endlessly and it might finally wake up most Americans and western Euros to their selfishness and stupidity.
Don’t confuse what they say with what they know. What they say is spin directed at a given audience whose support they need for what they intend to do.
As to what the cabal at the top of western planning currently knows, it knows that the longer this goes on now, the more Ukraine will lose, but there is hope here, since the west is now at least as worried about what a betrayed Ukraine might do, than what advantage Russia might obtain from simply reacquiring what until recently, de facto if not de iure, it owned.
The less of Ukraine there is to do anything, especially the less of it left weaponised, the better. In this, Russian and western interests begin to fall into a serendipitous alignment. If Russia returns to NATO borders, so what?. The world was a more peaceful place back in those old cold war days. Maybe carve up western Ukraine amongst the interested western parties. Putin has already said he would be cool with that.
When the west tripped the Prigozhin trap and was publicly humiliated, it became crystal clear that Putin was not going to be toppled, and it was not going to get control of Russian resources. The more immediate nuisance value of the bird in the hand now outweighed all the fading birds in the bush. Ukraine began to look like more of potential threat than Russia.
Best give it back, eh? The only question now is how- blushes spared all round- to do just that.
Col. MacGregor was the proper perspective on this topic.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/QHiLIqaIFxjL/
I have a dimming respect for MacGregor. Once again he is critical of Putin because Putin did not go into detail about the Soviets. The same as he believes the Soviets did not win WW II, or was not integral to the taking of Berlin due to the fact, the West provided equipment to the Soviets. MacGregor has the typical “the victor writes the history” view to WW II.
He tends to overlook the abysmal treatment doled out by the U.S. military to millions across the world. Americans love him, I take him with a grain of salt.
I’m disappointed in McGregor too. He is a product of his training/environment. How long he’s expecting the massive Russian fist to do what the Americans did in Iraq? His knowledge of WWII and Soviet archives is poor. And for “John” – the Soviet archives were correct as by these data the pensions were paid to the widows of the dead soldiers, and stipends to their kids, etc. and the claims were rejected for the MIAs. I know the above from my own family lines.
The pathetic Western “perception” of that the Soviet archives were fraudulent, is the result of what we face today in the West – delusions of grande and self-poisoning propaganda.
I would have liked more detail on the Soviets too. I don’t believe MacGregor ever short-changed the Soviets in WWII.
Anyway, whatever his shortcomings, he’s the best there is in a pretty lackluster pack and the key point, he doesn’t see any need for such an adversarial stance with the Russians as well as having a realist’s view to multi-polarity.
If I’m wrong, show me where.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, but still far from all seeing.
What stalemate? They broke Avdeevka’s defensive line. Any purported stalemate was broken after Boris Johnson gave his infamous demand to continue the war.
Cracks appearing on another front:
https://www.rt.com/business/592880-rothschild-family-banks-switzerland-france/
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2024-rothschild-wealth/
Which is why , like simplicius writes, Loci are not key – “intangibles” are and Russia knows full well.
Expect earthquakes and tsunami’s here :
Jacob Rothschild croaked.
Guessing Gates knows exactly the Russian losses. When he says that they have suffered staggering losses, he is justifying to the public the huge US military investment, and framing the discussion around: Oh, look, we stopped the Russians and made them pay the price. Wasn’t it worth it? That’s one of his superpowers–lying to the public. Not so much self-deceipt as it is voter-deceipt. Remember ex-CIA chief Casey: “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” And all the Western so-called analysts play along because, you know, that’s how they advance up the media corporate ladder.
I am not sure how Gates considers Russia dead to be a staggering number. Does he know the number? Seems to be around 50K according to some sources, and I would think that is a bit high, but I am not sure. However that is comparatively less compared to Ukraine and mercenary losses. Again, it is the West building a lie, and adding more propaganda. Anything the West or Western media says, should be taken with a bucket of salt.
https://en.zona.media/article/2022/05/20/casualties_eng
Its kinda difficult to see reality clearly, walking around with your head up your arse. Seems to be a thing with blokes called Gates, but they have plenty of associates with the same world view.
Never mind Russia’s temporary success on the battlefield, Ursula’s thirteenth round of sanctions will do it for sure. Rusher’s doomed, they’re almost out of washing machines, Putler’s gonna lose the election (blame it on Hillary’s interference), Ukraine will liberate Crimea after a blitzkrieg march on Moscow any day now, Blackrock et al will make a killing out of the Ukrainian land grab and let’s not forget 10% for the Big Guy.
I always have a good laugh with some Ukrainian clown or Western pundit says Ukraine will take back Crimea. Every time these clowns issue such verdicts or mandates about how they will push Russia back, destroy Russia, wage a battle for years with Russia, it only reminds Russia that they have to remove Ukraine from the map. I expect in the end that Ukraine will look very similar to the map that was posted in RT by Medvedev.
The speed which RU changed strategy in UKR was impressive. From the the blitz to get a quick resolution, then an elastic front changing to fixed prepared positions.
To use one line to describe the SMO it would be “we go where we want”.
I’ve had a copy in my download folder for a long time. It’s one of my best downloads ever.
Narcissists are incapable of giving others respect. This lack of respect is the foundation of every miscalculation the West has made in this conflict.
Narcissism is one of the originating vices of the West, but we can foresee elements of a final solution. For example, the papacy of pride will be shattered, and its cannibalistic shamans, more than 400k of them, I’ve read, will be separated as if they were pieces of Humpty Dumpty being sold as souveniers to tourists. Rome will never be a stronghold of Trinitarianism after that.
For further insight into Hitler’s Russian offensive, I recommend Richard Tedor’s “Hitler’s Revolution” to see how the German Deep State was involved in sabotaging the German war effort.
“Russia positioned that force north of Kiev as a bargaining chip as part of a broader diplomatic/military solution”.
Or it was a a sword dangled on a horsehair to motivate a boy and his team of tools to focus on reality. Granted, this analogy, too, is imperfect.
https://www.history.com/news/what-was-the-sword-of-damocles
Victoria Nuland believes Americans producing weapons to fight Russians in Ukraine or Palestinians in Gaza is a good job for Americans . Americans are some of the most generous people in the world – this was told to me by a Korean veteran who built battle ships in Halifax . He also said never to confuse Washington with the American people .
I truly believe in the goodness of the American people and sure they may work in arms factories, but there is no guarantee that they will produce quality weapons .
That can only happen when the Americans themselves feel threatened. As I see it the only threat is to the American oligarchs and NATO . If one can’t get rid of the oligarchs through elections then that leaves politics by other “means “ . Let Putin take care of it .
As for the deplorables , who does Nuland think builds the weapons .
“Victoria Nuland believes Americans producing weapons to fight Russians in Ukraine or Palestinians in Gaza is a good job for Americans .”
“believes”? No, Nor does she care about what’s good for Americans.
I’s say rather:
Victoria Nuland has the shameless effrontery to claim that.
What?! Larry is back in Moscow? Just can’t get any decent plate of plemeny in Florida…. But what’s with the background of conversations in English?
Nice chat with Ania (Anya?).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aTcf6tfEmU
Larry said a ‘short trip’ in the interview with Ania, no further comments. It may be a international hotel bar/restaurant. Thought I heard some words in Russian in the background.
I find it difficult to believe there are not many in NATO military and
USA who see Russia as formidable. I am just an amateur historian
and it was obvious to me. I read Glantz book. among others.
Biden’s latest comments calling Putin crazy(Trumpish) and spewing threats of climate change, while somewhat dismissive of nuclear war impact is right out of Dr. Strangelove.
“You can’t impress an imbecile, he/she simply doesn’t know what to be impressed with.”
One additional reason to be looking forward to the end of the SMO and the entire Ukraine clean-up operations: no more endless comparative analyses with wars and battles of the past.”This is like Kursk. No, it isn’t like Kursk at all.” etc etc.
Whatever strategy and tactics lessons are to be drawn from the way the Russians conduct wars are completely useless to the “collective West” because none of its members is (1) a big united nation: (2) sitting on a huge territory; (3) defending itself in an existential war;
(4) self-sufficient in natural resources; (5) possessing a well-organized, highly functioning war industry that supports a well-trained military. Finally, they are not… Russians (a lot to be said about that).
Studying the Russian strategies and tactics (if they were even sufficiently educated to do that) is for them like a hunchback with furunculosis looking for tips on make up from beauty contest winners.
What I do look forward to, when Russia has complete control of the land, is a public exposure of what they found there, especially those biolabs that Nuland was so concerned Russia would gain access to, as well as evidence of organ and human (including children) trafficking. Such an exposure would finally wake up the Ukrainians who are not too indoctrinated to be saved. I believe the Russians already have such evidence and I wish they would make it public.
Russians are making the evidence of the seized labs and discovered documents public in the UN, and it falls of deaf ears.
Splash it on social media then!
I hope they include that organ price list found in Avdeyevka, assuming it’s genuine.
Russia gave the UNSC full biolab docs they found early on in the SMO.
Some info here : https://thealtworld.com/author/dilyana_gaytandzhieva
Today I saw the organ traffic pricing evidence. Link on the way….
That price list looked pretty genuine to me. $200,000 for a heart?
Heartless bastards.
Here’s an interesting video that came out last week about the German’s failure to adopt superior diesel engines. For those who know to care about logistics. Our M-1 tanks don’t have diesel’s so are not liked in Ukraine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rTO24smfB0
The M1’s are fuel hogs, like any gas turbine engine. 60gallons/hour in full operation, 10Gal/hr at idle. An idling diesel uses a tiny fraction of the fuel required for full operations.
Any decent truck mechanic can wrangle a diesel engine, a turbine, not so much.
A diesel can be quite forgiving before it totally gives out, a turbine? One bad bearing and yer done, bits trying to escape the housing at high rate of knots.
And a turbine is not very dirt tolerant… and war is… dirty. whodathunkit?
In retrospect wasn’t the failure of Ukraine (on instructions) to respect the Minsk agreements a gift to Russia? I see it as a net gain.
It cured Putin of any vestiges of naivete with respect to the West’s true intentions and it allowed Russia to continue the SMO and amplify its goals.
Seems to me that new NYT article on CIA machinations/assassinations & such even before the SMO will raise some eyebrows.
Can you imagine the CIA plotting to assassinate Hashim Thaci back in ’99 instead of Albright giving him the red carpet treatment? There’s your Baerbock 360 deg. analog.
Dirty doesn’t begin to describe the deep state.
I see a lot of comments here lining up on either the Soviets lied and couldn’t defeat Hitler, or that the Germans were idiots, incompetent, and NATO is a Nazi org…you guys go in for a lot of German/Nazi bashing, at the expense of making the USSR a great, heroic country under Stalin.
I agree Stalin’s USSR did put up a heroic fight. It was a very depressing and repressive place, but finally, when the Russians had to choose between it and Hitler’s plans for making Russia another India to be administered by Germany, they chose Stalin.
I also take much exception with some who argue Kursk was a great German semi-victory. it was called the graveyard of the Panzer. Even if Russian losses were very heavy, the Wehrmacht lost half of its armored force, and they couldn’t be replaced.
It began as an attempt to outmaneuver the Soviet and save the east, but became a head-butting exercise. Hitler didn’t withdraw troops to send to Sicily; he finally realized Operation Citadel was useless.
The conversation recorded of Hitler is telling. We see him as a screeching maniac, but really, he was a politician with a very determined program. When he admitted they simply didn’t know of Russia’s immense industrial power, it’s very sobering. Hitler’s background on Russia went back to the 1920’s…and the problem was by 1941, the USSR had industrialized.
Much like the West has outdated info that Russia “is just a gas station.”
Bonbon chides the German fighting man. It’s very narrow-minded. They did an exceptional job, but had bad leadership and policies. Nazi procurement was very poor compared to American policy. Also, Germany just didn’t have the ability to do what Hitler required of it. In 1939, Germany was a supreme power. When, in 1941, it took on the USSR and America, it dropped to a second class power.
I was stationed in Germany, and the Bundeswehr was actually pretty good. For many years, in NATO maneuvers, their units outperformed the Americans. The problem now is leadership in the EU is led by bureaucrats and a lot of women whose ignorance and ideology are dangerous to running a professional military. And they’re simply puppets for American control, whether from agreement, bribery or extortion.
A big problem is ideology. When a ruling class is determined to pursue that instead of solid, realistic goals, trouble happens. Hitler wanted a vast, endless German dominated Russia controlled by a German raj…how realistic was that? What Germans ever wanted to settle in such place?
Much like today. Again, I hear those “Missouri” commenters calling for war in Ukraine to “support democracy.” At a conservative conference, a Gordon Chang was an adored spokesman. Chang is all for going after China. “They” (China) are controlling Tiktok to destroy us. Their Chinese balloons (!) are gaining vital info. to neutralize our nuclear missile sites. China’s Fenatyl has “killed 7 million Americans.” WE’RE AT WAR WITH CHINA, he exclaims. Biden “to his credit” stopped trade to China.
He’s also big on aiding Ukraine in its fight for “freedom.”
When you have people like this peddling misinformation, it simply is deja vu to 1939.
Maybe instead of calling everything Nazi, we should say corporate.
“corporate” does not accommodate the evidence of so many policies that are killing industries and decimating businesses, which are justified by neocon ideology.
Wrong. It is capitalism run wild and left uncontrolled that has developed into monopolies and oligopolies. The problem in the US and EU is a dying capitalist system that has destroyed the political systems and can no longer sustain itself.
Perhaps the proper word is “financialization”, seeking profits without regard to actual production or serving real consumer’s needs.
It’s the rentier’s economy.
In part. That also fails to cover economy-destroying policies allegedly based on “fighting global warming,” which are the backbone of WEF ideology.
A point is “early” days, then the US entered WWII, with 10 tons for every 1 ton the Wehrmacht had, even when they were very highly trained. The Nazi economy like today’s NATOnazi economy based on ideology blinded people, even the Generals were terrified to tell the truth, as in that video posted here.
…
Problem is the Wehrmacht did not chide the unbelievable racist ideology that had gripped Germany. Some did and were eliminated, such as von Stauffenberg who made a fatal error, being an aristocrat, informing Churchill beforehand.
Gordon Chang is a totally discredited member of the Global Taiwan Institute.
What should we call the Taiwan Falun Gong annual party here, linked to the WACL , corporate?
https://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2015/11/30/153883.html
And you know that the USSR was a “pretty depressing place,” how exactly? For you information, the Soviets had a full kaleidoscope of experiences – from some, the USSR “took everything” and to some, the USSR “gave everything.”
You would know it too if you bothered to read not anti-Soviet materials but the Soviet literature of the time. Several families crammed in small apartments sharing one bathroom `and the kitchen, which brought about the necessary invention of the “pot lock”– a lock to secure pots against neighbors stealing your food. Not described critically but ‘en passant’ as facts of life. Much worse, the arrests at night for making a disparaging remark about Stalin (Solzhenitsyn got many years in Siberia for such a crime). Yes, it was depressing for sure
Great article. My only quibble is I wish you did not mix imperial and metric units in the same sentence.
May I also suggest “Russia’s War” by some guy ? Overy.
I read that in late 90’s, blew away my western dellusion.
Didn’t score me brownie points down the pub right enough when I shared the reality of the western theatre of Europe being an effective side-show.
Evil, bloated pig, Nuland explains why hundreds of thousands on men had to die.
https://www.rt.com/russia/593142-victoria-nuland-putin-defeated/
A blatant contradiction of the saying “You can’t judge a book by its cover:
Larry still keeping you around to laugh at?
Here’s one of your “contributions” to this site. Maybe, if you build up enough courage (face-to-face and the internet are two different things), you can use it on Vicky. Be careful, Vicky just might be able to take you in a slapping match.
Oy, Martin, my mocking the rabid neocon sow ‘hoit’ your feelings, now did it? Outrageously there is no “safe space” here for hasbara peddlers.
Why are you citing somebody else’s comment pretending it’s mine (although I happen to agree with the sentiment expressed in it)? Confused by your own rant?
Another rant: You wish the neocon sow would “take me” in a face-to-face encounter?!? By “slapping” me?!
No, Hasbara Breath, all she’d need to do is manage to sit on me.
My mistake ariadna, it was brussell who wrote the comment, not you. You were in the thick of the exchange, cheering brussell on, and I accidentally mistaked you for him. Sorry about that.
You, on the other hand, were in the thick of your hasbara rant, jumping like scalded rat that anyone dared to mock the neocon sow
Yeah, I had read that. Seems the West wants Russia to be like the West. Damn, I can’t blame Putin, the Duma, or any Russian for not wanting to be like the Western countries. Our moral, spiritual, social, and political values are in the crapper.
Russia designates US Sen. Lindsey Graham as “Terrorist.”
The MSM reported that when informed of the terrorist designation his reaction was to laugh because he doesn’t care.
I don’t believe it. I think he was deeply gratified.
None of his statements, no matter how deranged, brought him any of the true recognition he secretly craved: he was called a warmonger, a sold-out AIPAC asset, labels one can apply as well to Nuland or Hilary.
But when you say “terrorist,” admit it, you think “man”!
He went home, put on his tight pants with buttock cutouts (let out a few times over the years), donned his leather cap and jacket, cued the CD of his favorite song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9OO0S5w2k
stood in front the mirror, and said to himself: “You are a bad, bad MAN! The Russians see the true you: a bad MAN!”
He just needs a little correction and he’ll settle down.
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUGHAtO-b6A
maybe Nudelman can administer it– they’d both enjoy it.
She could have a full time job just slapping Pentagon fat cats into shape. And Blinken. And the rest of the State Department social climbers and pseudo intellectual diplomats. As it is they’re stuck with Nuland, so anything would be an improvement.
I left this comment on Simplicus’s article this morning.
The Ukraine is just a microcosm of the entire USSA/NATO/MIC in that it functions on corruption, lies, propaganda and hubris, while Russia functions in the real world. If the lying liars in the west would have heeded Russia’s warnings and declared intentions from the onset, many hundreds of thousands of lives would not have been lost. Russia has no choice at this point but to continue until the entire backbone of the USSA/NATO/MIC is not just broken, but shattered beyond repair.
No, the CIA told Congress and the news that Russia had inadequate logistics. All the while America and England were sabotaging the peace talks in Turkey. So intelligent people at the CIA knew all along that Kiev was a peace gambit, while they were telling you Russia ran out of gas and stalled its tanks.
There is a fundamental problem in America that the intelligence-gathering organizations have political policy preferences. Instead of a clear objective picture, outside analysts and Congress are told what the CIA wants them to hear. Then no honest discussion of the pros and cons happens. The results are fundamentally detrimental to the health of America. When folks at the CIA care about America, they will transmit clear news, instead of putting their own political spin on it.
Brilliant statement from Gates: Ukraine is confronting artillery shortages due to flagging US support. I remember after Gulf War active Army was reduced by 36% and was now full of career politicians. Then working on exercises & Plans Korea & Japan most COLs & Generals didn’t even look at OPLANS and wondered why I was always bringing in Reserves (70% of TPDDLs for Logistics). Later during Iraq as exercise contractor I would suggest CPTs, MAJs, LTCs, COLs do something in anticipation and the reply was we have to wait for Higher HQ to tell them. The officers retiring or getting out would tell me that you don’t get in trouble doing nothing but can if you do something ! 🙄
Nice word salad. The abbreviations really bring out the flavor.
You need to spell out the abbreviations for the majority of us to better understand your comment.
I’ll take a crack at it.
OPLAN operation plans
CPT- Captain
MAJ -Major
LTC – LT. Colonel
COL – Colonel
HQ – Headquarters
TPDDL – something about troop deployments, logistics?
W. Averell Harriman (Skull and Bones; Brown Brothers Harriman; Pilgrims Society) was dictator of Russia from 1942 till 1944, after Stalin’s Nervous Breakdownhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfxwWW1vDlg
History is bunk