Shortly after President Biden announced Ukraine would be getting the Western-made tanks it sought, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was demanding fighter jets and longer-range missiles.
Ukrainian officials have been lobbying for months to receive F-15 or F-16 fighter jets from the US and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACAMS), munitions with a range of up to 190 miles.
The US has held off on providing such arms due to concerns they could be used to target Russian territory. But the US has previously ruled out other equipment that it eventually sent to Ukraine, including the M1 Abrams tanks that Biden just announced the US would be supplying.
Yury Sak, an advisor to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, told Reuters that he’s confident Ukraine will get everything it wants. “They didn’t want to give us heavy artillery, then they did. They didn’t want to give us HIMARS systems, then they did. They didn’t want to give us tanks, now they’re giving us tanks. Apart from nuclear weapons, there is nothing left that we will not get,” he said.
Sak said that the next “big hurdle” would be getting fighter jets. “If we get them, the advantages on the battlefield will be just immense… It’s not just F-16s: fourth generation aircraft, this is what we want,” he said.
POLITICO reported Thursday that conversations between Western military officials on supplying Ukraine with advanced aircraft are already underway. Lockheed Martin has said that it’s ready to supply F-16s when Western countries choose to send them to Ukraine and that it plans to ramp up production of the aircraft.
Russia continues to warn against escalations of military aid, and the Kremlin said Thursday that it views the provision of tanks as the West’s growing direct involvement in the conflict. The New York Times acknowledged on Wednesday that by sending tanks, the US is inching closer to a direct clash with Russia.
It is starting to look like a war.
Good observation Donna 😉
How much can they cut SS benefits in order to fund the war and the corrupt government in Ukraine?
Apparently not at all, given that this year Social Security benefits had their largest Cost of Living Allowance increase in decades rather than a cut.
But that’s just for this year, Thomas. We’ll see what happens in the aftermath of our mass weapons giveaway.
It was half the inflation rate, it amounted to a cut of about 5% net benefits. There was less than half of of actual COLA , this time they did not dare to increase Medicare. Fact is our politicians are corrupt and not trustworthy, they are liars and greedy, only naïve people trust them.
True Thomas, but not nearly enough to cover the effects of inflation.
Being as how we are already 32 trillion dollars in debt, it’s not hard to see how the next step will be for the USA to default on all of its debt, including to the Social Security Trust Fund. That can only happen with a catastrophic “national emergency” and martial law declared, ending the charade that we have a democracy in the first place.
Not being entirely opposed to conspiracy theorizing, I gave due consideration to the “COVID-19 is an intentionally released bioweapon, and the culprit is the US government” hypothesis.
My conclusion was that the obvious reason for releasing a virus that killed a LOT more old people than young people would have been to reduce the number of people collecting Social Security and Medicare benefits.
And then there’s this from the Atlantic, February of 2019,”The moment the president declares a “national emergency”—a decision that is entirely within his discretion—he is able to set aside many of the legal limits on his authority”
Oh, I totally agree with you about the bioweapon, COVID-19.
EXACTLY!!!!
Cue the air raid sirens.
This horrible war will be over in about an hour. Air-raid sirens are so 20th Century.
Forgive my use of an iconic metaphor. But you’re right, I’m sure our wonderful government won’t warn us at all.
The only reason they are able to sustain bases around the world and fight wars as well is because of the status of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Take away that privelege and they wouldn’t be able to continue with their agendas. I don’t believe for a minute that this war isn’t about keeping the dollar as the W.R.C. as we are seeing many nations wanting to get out from under the control of the U.S. dollar based system and the U.S. will go to war to sustain it. Just look at Iraq and Libya as examples.
It is Joe Biden’s war, what does he sacrifice for the war, what about higher taxes for our millionaire warmongers in congress they vote to fund the war, they should pay, besides they are the war profiteer class. They get the lucrative board and lobbying positions, they use the revolving doors with the industry and the jobs in MSM and finance. Our government is as corrupt as the Zelensky team in Kiev. They make the laws, so they made it all legal.
Well said and true.
Stop giving unlimited arms and weapons to a corrupt to the core Nazi regime!
Certainly Russia will have brought this stage of the war to an ugly conclusion by the time any of these weapons reach the front lines in Ukraine. They will have destroyed what is left of the Ukrainian military and cut off all of NATO’s resupply lines through Poland. The next shoe to drop will be a catastrophic war with Russia that will go nuclear within hours. May heaven preserve us all from the wrath of the neocons.
They haven’t even been able to secure Donetsk after 11 months. What miraculous technology is going to teleport them to the Polish border?
Wait and see, Thomas, wait and see.
I’ve been waiting and seeing for 11 months now while people like you crowed every two weeks that Ukraine would be defeated next week.
Yes, if your only source of information is our illustrious MSM, that would indeed be the case.
Is it your claim that Ukraine has been beaten and that it is only on account of the MSM that we do not know that Kyiv is occupied etc.?
Actually Ukraine has been “beaten” since last spring when Russia destroyed much of their military. It is only now that Russia will begin its “winter offensive”, a pincer movement that will destroy what is left of Ukraine military and. cut off supply routes from Poland. The Saker explains how this will happen.
…but not NATO.
Not sure what that’s even supposed to mean.
Facebook, Twitter Instagram. All are maned and controlled by retired members of Unit 8200.Also antiwar .com
In your imagination, perhaps. In reality, Antiwar.com is “maned and controlled” by antiwar people.
Exclusions are there If I name you will remove the post. So much for your “Antiwar”
In other words, we’re not antiwar unless we provide you with a free playground for your hobby of vomiting a gravy of ethnic slurs over every topic. Strange definition.
We’re fully capable of violating your strange definition of “antiwar” without being active or retired employees of an Israeli intelligence unit
Yes I know what you mean by “WE”. And you are capable of protecting the biggest war mongers. You are doing it pewrfectly well
LOL. Well said.
If I were in Putin’s shoes, I would announce that tanks from Poland approaching Ukraine would be subject to attack before they enter Ukrainian territory.
It’s been a very weird war. Russia does not appear to be fighting with their “real” army; they seem to have been using a collection of Ukrainian separatist militia, “volunteers” including Chechens, and mercenaries like the Wagner Group, while shooting immense quantities of what are likely old Cold War munitions stocks. IF (Big IF) that’s really the case, then Russia can keep this war going as long as it wants, and it’s surely costing the West, and Ukraine, far more than it’s costing Russia, which is hardly suffering from sanctions – as the world’s greatest source of raw materials, adjacent to the world’s greatest source of manufactured goods (China) it’s hard to see how western sanctions “could” hurt Russia, as long as China (and other partners) want to trade and are willing to work to overcome the banking and insurance issues, which so far, they have.
That scenario, IF (again, big IF) true, would explain to a large extent why Russia’s military performance has been so erratic.
And, cynically; Russia’s big “fear” was of a powerful Ukraine as part of NATO hosting western forces on its border; well, what’s going to be left of Ukraine after the fighting ends will be an economic and demographic basket case that far from “strengthening” NATO will be a burden on the west for decades to come. Maybe that’s a “win” for Russia?
You seem pretty knowledgeable, is it that Ukraine is fighting Russia to a standstill, or is Russia also just fighting lower intensity to let our own sanctions hurt Europe?
This war is weird, and some parts of it don’t make sense. The casualties are too low for this to be total war. We are calling it genocide, but so far civilian deaths are in the 4-digit range after a year. That’s a fraction of the Iraq war and an order of magnitude or two lower than Vietnam. They aren’t carpet bombing, and they have the bombers and presumably the bombs.
It’s all a guessing game.
When the Russians invaded, nearly all western analysts believed it would be a quick thing, a la Georgia in 2008. They’d come in, secure the independence (possibly, but not necessarily, with annexation) Donetsk, Luhansk, and probably a land corridor connecting those two oblasts to Crimea, then let Ukraine know to stop f*cking around if it didn’t want more of the same. The Russian regime seems to have expected that as well, or else it wouldn’t have attacked with as few troops as it did.
Why did it not work out that way? That’s not down to US/NATO assistance, which naturally took time to arrive. I suppose it might be down to fierce Ukrainian resistance.
My own theory is that Russian logistics and inventory, which hadn’t been put to the test in such a big way in decades, broke down. Their rail-heavy system had trouble getting beans, bullets, gas, etc. where they were needed in a timely manner, and because the Russian regime is apparently fairly corrupt (in the same league as Ukraine), it may be that a lot of the beans, bullets, gas, etc. that had supposedly been procured and stored were missing because of rake-offs at every level.
Ffor example, the regime says “we need 1 million truck tires,” and an oligarch who got the plum job of being put in charge of that particular function “ordered” 1 million tires, but got a kickback for 20% of the purchase price, and only 800k were actually delivered. Then some disappeared from supply depots onto the black market. Then when it got down to motor pool level, a unit that had 20 trucks and needed 12 tires per6-by truck or whatever, put four new tires on each truck, sold two to friends, and let two balding tires stay on the axles.
That stuff happens in EVERY army. Go into any town near a US military base and you’ll find all sorts of stuff that was purchased by the US government, issued to units, and somehow found its way out to the marketplace.
Even if Russia isn’t more corrupt than the US, there’s a major difference: Russia is frugal. It runs a lean military budget. The US throws money at the matter incessantly, and even it gets caught with its pants down, literally — when my unit mobilized for Desert Storm, they were only able to come up with one set of desert utilities for each man, and no desert boots, despite supposedly having millions of extra stockpiled. But you could find them at the surplus stores out in town all day long.
I think the Russian regime over-estimated its logistics capabilities and under-estimated both the extent of US/NATO/EU aid and how fast that aid would get there to somewhat stabilize things if they didn’t get the job done ASAP.
I don’t see any reason to suppose the Russian regime and armed forces are any more, or any less, morally inclined than other regimes and armies. They’re presumably not “carpet-bombing,” etc., for one or both of two reasons:
1) They can’t — Ukraine’s air defenses are of sufficiently high quality to make manned, fixed-wing aircraft into death traps. So they’re sticking with missiles and drone swarms.
2) They don’t think doing so will be useful in achieving their goals.
But all of that is just my theorizing. I think I have a reasonably good record where predictions are concerned — and that includes, in recent months, cautioning that “Ukrainian advances” likely don’t have anything like the real value that the associated propaganda imputes to them — but I could end up being completely wrong.
I don’t think Ukraine is “winning” the war. But neither do I think that the Russians expected the war to be “un-won,” by any reasonable standard, nearly a year after it started.
Ukraine has won the war but it will take some time for Russia to get a leadership that can recognize that Putin’s war has been a disaster for Russia politically and strategically.
In asymmetric wars of national resistance the critical determinant is which side wins the hearts and minds of the indigenous people. After the Russian debacle on the road to Kyiv and the Pyrrhic victory where Russia destroyed Russian speaking Mariupol, it became obvious that Ukrainians were resisting the Russians.
Putin is a Russian chauvinist who truly believes Ukrainians are “Little Russians”, backward people who need to be ruled by their Russian big brothers for their own good, The Czars and the Soviets believed that Russia needed to be firm, even ruthless, with to keep Ukraine in line. But in the end the Russians believed that Ukrainians would ultimately understand that they were better off being ruled by Russia than being on their own. Like most imperial rulers, Putin underestimated the potential resistance of the imperial subjects.
After Mariupol it was obvious that Russia was caught in a negative feedback loop. The resistance provokes escalation and harsh countermeasures that strengthen the resistance. By destroying the city of Mariupol, Russia made the controversial Azov Battalion national heroes and made it impossible to establish any civil administration there.
As it all falls apart for Putin, his response is becoming irrational and desperate. He no longer has a plan or a clear objective. But is just trying trial and error hoping to find something that works. He has replaced his top generals at twice. In September Putin organized phony referendums and claimed to annex territories where the referendum was not even held. In Kherson he forcibly evacuated much of the population, eventually surrendered the city and is now destroying Kherson and civilian infrastructure throughout Ukraine. Like Hitler, LBJ and Nixon, Putin apparently is hoping that a harsh winter, adversity, martial law and deportations will break Ukraine’s will to resist.History has shown that these measures only increase resentment of the invaders and make the resistance stronger.
For 60 years I watched this negative feedback loop wreck imperial invasions in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau.
The September offensive was the death knell for the Russian invasion, much like the Tet offensive marked the inevitable defeat of the US in Vietnam. Wars of national resistance are determined by hearts and minds. Russia has lost on that front.Even if Russia destroys Ukraine, as Nixon was tempted to destroy Vietnam, the invasion undermined Russia’s credibility as a great power, revitalized NATO and a left Russia isolated politically.
In asymmetric wars of national resistance where the resistance has widespread popular support the invader has to dominate, seize territory, occupy the territory, administer the territory and eliminate the resistance. The indigenous resistance does not need to win territory. The resistance needs to survive and continue to resist. Usually this is a guerrilla resistance that bleeds the occupation and eventually erodes the morale of the,invading troops and destroys the political will of the citizens of the invading country. Retreat is not an option for the indigenous defender fighting on its home soil. But eventually the will of the invader breaks and the invader leaves.
This war has been unusual. I expected the Russian military to drive the Ukrainian resistance underground by the end of March. But the Russian army has been so inept that the Ukrainians have been able to fight effectively with their conventional army. US NATO weapons help. But what is decisive is the will of the Ukrainians to resist. Their army is fighting with motivation and a sense of purpose that the Russians don’t have.
I am sure corruption plays a role in the poor performance of the Russian
army. But Ukraine had a lot of corruption too. Again, the determinant is hearts and minds. I suspect some of the US aid has found its way to the black market. But the Ukrainian oligarchs apparently make sure that
enough aid gets through to keep the Ukrainian army an effective fighting force. Or maybe it is that the Ukrainians make the best of what theyhave and the Russians are looking for excuses.
It is possible that the Russians will eventually wear down the Ukrainian army and drive the resistance underground. If that happens, the Russians will be unable to pacify any part of the Ukraine and will be an occupying force governing a resentful population under martial law until the Russian political landscape changes and the Russians leave.
The great danger now is that Putin’s system doesn’t have the checks and balances that restrained Nixon’s escalation. He may continue toescalate until some general proposes a final solution to the Ukrainian
problem. Putin’s enemy is the Ukrainian people, not Ukrainian fascists.
This thing can get very ugly unless someone in the Kremlin or in the Russian street speaks up and steps up to talk Putin down or take the reins of power away from him.
Russian snafus like using cell phones to paint themselves to the Ukrainians are symptoms of low morale and an unmotivated army.
To summarize, the Ukrainian resistance has a popular base. The Russian invasion is almost universally resented and the war is increasing the resentment of the Russians. A year of war has shown that Russia cannot liberate or pacify any part of Ukraine. The only future for Russia in Ukraine (except possibly Crimea) is to conquer, occupy and dominate. Eventually the Russians will have to choose between dedicating their nation’s wealth to a forever war or leaving Ukraine.
Writing a book?
You seem pretty knowledgeable, is it that Ukraine is fighting Russia to a standstill, or is Russia also just fighting lower intensity to let our own sanctions hurt Europe?
This war is weird, and some parts of it don’t make sense. The casualties are too low for this to be total war. We are calling it genocide, but so far civilian deaths are in the 4-digit range after a year. That’s a fraction of the Iraq war and an order of magnitude or two lower than Vietnam. They aren’t carpet bombing, and they have the bombers and presumably the bombs.
And neolibs as well, Thomas.
Yes, indeed. they are both the same when it comes to furthering the deindustrialization of the USA in the 1980s and 90s and Germany today.
(Neocons plus neolibs equal fascism.)
Failing empires like the U.S. will go to extremes to try and hold on to their status as sole Superpower. It has been shown that seldom do failing empires manage to sustain their dominance but will likely take us to World War if they can’t come to some accomodation with the ascending powers.
After getting tanks, Ukraine wants fighter jets and longer-range missiles
remember when israel tried to sell nukes to south africa
“Ukraine Expects to Get All the Western Weapons It WantsAfter getting tanks, Ukraine wants fighter jets and longer-range missiles”
In England there was a very weak incompetent king named Henry the 6th. “Henry is described as timid, shy, passive, well-intentioned and averse
to warfare and violence; he was also at times mentally unstable.”
In America there is a very weak incompetent President named Joey Biden. He is senile angry incompetent truculent vacuous and a puppet of NEOCONs and the military industrial complex.
That article is very depressing. Only 1 tank factory and it can only produce 12 tanks a month???
Thomas Knapp, is this even remotely true??? This has to be some fairly sophisticated misdirection. It DOES mention that another company has a stock of basic tank platforms that they can add any version of software / accessories to, which could very well be much more than just 12 a month.
At one point, the factor (the Lima Army Tank Plant) was producing 30 tanks a month, so presumably it could hire more people and reactivate machinery and assembly lines to speed that up.
The plan had actually been to close the plant entirely in 2016, once enough M1s had been produced for both active use and mothballing to see the M1 through to the end of its expected utility. But naturally the Army and General Dynamics lobbyists fought hard to keep it open.
Presumably the calculations for this war amount to “if we invest a bunch of money in increasing tank production, will that investment pay off — or will the war be over before we’d get the tanks built and then we’re left holding a bunch of tanks that we may not be able to sell after all?”
Thank you for that information.
I am thinking that by September I might have a reasonably accurate idea of how many tanks we deploy to Ukraine for the summer events there.
Actually, we no longer produce “new” M1 tanks; we have a storehouse, of several thousand “blanks”; essentially M1 chassis and turrets, stripped of special armor and electronics, that can be fitted out according to whichever model is desired, but even that takes time. It’s a pretty sad state of affairs.
Sounds good from where I’m sitting…the slower the better, far as I’m concerned.
The pro-Russia side seems to be preparing as if this were flat out deception.
They seem to be expecting about a thousand tanks coming in from Romania, a thousand from Poland, and a thousand from Lviv. More or less.
So basically winter and early spring would be the Russian offensive, with a US-Russian clash in the cards for late spring or early summer. Of course, if we really DO send just 131 or so tanks to Ukraine, then Russia will gain quite a bit of land.
How long is your bucket list?
Actually, I have done, or at least tried, most everything I have wanted to try. Some successes, some failures, some in between. My wife tolerated most, and supported many. I really appreciate this 🙂
She is 15 years older than me, and is in the standard slow decline phase of her life. Now my goal is to try to repay her for her huge contribution to my life.
Deception?
Russia cannot prepare for anything right now.
They lost this war in all aspects long time ago. Even the very gas price cap you ridiculed is working.
I checked out some sites where people share your point of view. You are not the only one totally deluded. The US will pay a huge price for making decisions based on false assumptions.
One reason I think that Russia is slow walking the conflict is that the US internally is in a state of serious decline. Your comments on this site is just one of many confirming events.
For what it’s worth, if it IS total deception, with a decent sized offensive coming up and a LOT more than 131 tanks, then at least the US is running this conflict with competence. Presumably a decent sized mass of troops aimed at pretty much any point of the long front line should make some hefty US advances for quite a while
If we are trying to assert that 131 tanks is some kind of game changer, than we are lost and our best bet is to negotiate for Russia to keep the areas that used to be in Ukraine that have 70+ percent pro-Russian populations.
Biden’s head is clearly stuffed with straw. Zelensky’s poodle is far too kind a description.
He’s a premier “walking” advertisement for an age limit on presidential and congressional candidates.
Zelenski is an actor. He is teading his lines. Ask yourself, who is writing them? Who? Biden? He ha problems reading his own lines. Austen, tge titular head of Defence? Not his style or pay grade? Then who? Time to have a list of those who write tge svriot as they are taking liberty with our lives. And head-bobbing politicians? They know where their bread is comming from. They know. And have to obay. What a mess!
I see open hostility and actual combat between NATO and Russia this year, most likely starting with Poland, where the inmates are itching for a open war – providing they have US backing, of course!
Looking for any evidence of intelligent restraint from the US re such a scenario would be a completely useless exercise. Biden can barely tie his shoes, much less direct a coalition.
And he needs written instructions to do even that.
An interview with Scott Ritter.
Near the interview’s end, Riiter named the country’s sending the tanks to Ukraine most likely to feel Russia’s subsequent military wrath. He conspicuously left out the United States.
A major tactical strike on the United States or a US territory might pass as the coup de grace if combined with a Washington-induced domestic economic collapse.
Two dozen Republican Senators recently told Biden that the debt ceiling will not be increased unless he can come up with meaningful spending cuts. If only he could think of somewhere to cut that wouldn’t be painful to the people who pay taxes in this country.
Expectation and reality do not necessarily occupy the same space little fella.
German foreign minister just declared war on Russia……German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stated that Western allies are fighting a war against Russia. Is it just me that thinks seeing German tanks on the Russian border is a disgrace.
The Nazi’s in Europe are preparing for a massive offensive in spring 2023. It is for this operation that NATO countries are now sending main battle tanks and other military equipment. Ukrainian men are being drafted by force. Men of all ages are being kidnapped from the streets of Ukrainian cities and villages. This is how NATO recruits for a war people dont want.
Ukrainian men are murdered if they run. And once on the frontline the NATO anti-retreat forces murder all those who refuse to fight.
Nice long way of saying “Ukraine is acting just like Russia.”
My take away is that the media blitz about 131 tanks is pure deception.
From what I can tell, Russia is expecting a full fledged US (with a bit of support from Europe) offensive in spring or summer.
So both sides seem to be massively mobilizing. We will have to read both sides, and hope that at least half the stories that they agree on are true.
Additional comment: one advantage of the deception is that has made this more SMO like and less Shock and Awe War like. I choose being lied to and living to hearing this as a truth – “15 Russian nuclear weapons will be landing in and around your city in 15 minutes.”
And how exactly do you know that, Thomas?
The bottom line is – do you really have to embarrass yourself with such beyond absolutely baseless, not mention shameless comparisons?
Or are you modelling your “views” on the “opinions” of bandera lads and lasses who habitually project the kyiv regime’s beyond heinous crimes on the Russian state and army AND believe their lies with passion?
I model my views on a couple of centuries of anarchist observation which tells me that a regime is a regime is a regime.
Well, based on all and without exception genuinely independent observations of the post-Maidan events in kyiv, “regime is a regime is a regime” certainly applies to the ukro-nazzi regime To suggest that the Russian Federation can be summed up in the same or similar manner, amounts to nothing less than purposefully misleading nonsense which has no base in reality whatsoever.
Final thought related to “couple of centuries anarchist observation” or any other ideological smokescreen:
“The language of priorities is the religion of Socialism … The argument is about power … because only by the possession of power can you get the priorities correct.”
Aneurin Bevan (1897 – 1960) from the speech at Labour Party Conference, Blackpool, 8 June 1949
Your preferred regime isn’t special.
It’s just another gang of thugs like all the others.
That’s a fact.
You don’t have to like the fact that it’s a fact.
It’s a fact whether you like the fact that it’s a fact or not.
In other words, it is a fact because you say it is.
How very original of you.
In reality, it is precisely the opposite of a fact.
It is, at best, speculation.
And you don’t have to generalise or make it personal.
In one way or another, every country in the world is special.
And this one – https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Rogue_State/oBM8UiDYz1MC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover has to be stopped.
Whatever it takes.
For a brief introduction to strictly factual reasons why you may try the table of contents: https://williamblum.org/books/killing-hope
Can you cite anything that indicates that the call for a conscription in Russia is the same thing as threatening people with death if they don’t suit up and head for the front? The latter I have seen reported about Ukraine, though I obviously have no idea if those reports can be verified.
This said, I haven’t seen any credible reports that Russians were killed if they refused the recent call up of the 300,000 (they may well have been prosecuted and jailed for refusing, of course).
Anyway, if you have seen any, I’d appreciate a cite.
Conscription is threatening people with death if they don’t suit up and head for the front. What, you think they ask nicely and go away if you say you’re too busy washing your socks that day?
Nope. It depends on the legal system. Avoiding conscription during the Vietnam years did not result in death when people were caught. Not here at least. I suspect the same in Russia. You’d either be sent for basic training or you would end up in jail, but killed? Nah.
I think the death part happens when you suit up and head to the front.
The implicit basis for all laws is the threat of death.
If you don’t believe me, break a law in the presence of a cop and then resist arrest.
Russia has not conscripted anyone in Ukraine that has not volunteered. But hey who cares about truth with bigoted nonsense like yours right? You just hate Russians so much, but not racist at all.
All Russian mobilised forces in the former Ukraine are contracted to fight.
For the record conscription in Russia is a 12-month draft, which is mandatory for all male citizens ages 18–27. Russian law does not allow conscripted soldiers to be posted abroad unless they volunteer to do so.
Continue to fantasize that I “hate Russians” if it helps you keep the Kool-Aid down instead of vomiting it back up.
You can even fantasize that I’m a self-hating Russian — according to one of those mail-in DNA tests, a good deal of my ancestry is Russian — if it makes it easier for you to believe what you want to believe because it’s what you want to believe.
I hate regimes. All of them.
“I hate regimes. All of them.”
Don’t we all.
Ukrainian men are murdered if they run. And once on the frontline the NATO anti-retreat forces murder all those who refuse to fight.
What the empire looses in the Ukraine, they loose for the final Russian attack on NATO.
The west aren’t Nazis. That epithet is thrown around too much
The USA has worked far too hard for far too long building a worldwide system of debt peonage based on fossil fuel markets, crafting a constant, unsurmountable wall of corporate media, exporting guns and bombs and state corporatism across the world – we have actually perfected fascism to the point those with our boots on their necks are begging for more, and you liken that to clumsy and ugly Nazis, fumbling around with death camps and world war killing mere millions, uniting the world against them?
We’ve crushed the humanity and decency of humanity almost globally, and our excesses in the name of entrenched wealth and corporate power now threatens to kill billions of humans; either through nuclear war or climate change.
So please, call us fascist, or monsters, or maybe Super Fascists or media savvy fascists; but not Nazis.
Why don’t you criticize Russia’s war mongering?
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2023/01/28/why-dont-you-ever-criticize-russias-warmongering/
The Russian MOD is fighting a very successful war of attrition disarming NATO (Ukraine was disarmed in March), tank by tank, artillery by artillery, air defense by air defense.
NATO overall has accumulated the following equipment losses;
380 Aircraft, 204 helicopters, 2967 UAV’s, 402 Anti Aircraft systems, 7644 tanks inc. APC’s, 991 multiple rocket launchers, 3932 rocket launchers and 8191 military automotive equipment.
What the empire looses in the Ukraine, they loose for the final Russian attack on NATO. Remember Russia attacked Ukraine just as NATO was about to unleash in the Donbass. Russia has shown they will pre-emptively attack to defend the Motherland from Europe and America when the time is dictated by events on the ground.
Apropos of nothing: my wife and I were just discussing the situation in Europe and the dreams of empire of the idiot in the WH, and we decided that if there were another planet we could move to, we’d say good bye to this hell hole and move – happily – with no regrets.
Bear, you ain’t leaving without the rest of us! 😉
You could look around for a long time before finding a planet as nice as this one. Just look: there’s hardly any place on earth that does not support some form of life! I am very grateful to have lived here. Peace and Joy to all of you.
History repeats itself, first time as tragedy, second time as farce…..Karl Marx. Ukraine is what class warfare looks like.
The Russian people openly call Germans Nazi scum and demand war. You have all been warned.
The enemy is not each other, its the elites who brazenly lie and send us to our deaths.
Thomas Knapp is raising an important question, asking where is this much predicted Russian crushing offensive. However, he asks it in terms that accepts more than he seems to realize of the opposing propoganda.
I seek to understand events. This is in stark contrast to many who provide “information” but are only trying to prove their policy choices are correct, and so they’ll tell any lies that serve.
I also have policy preferences, but I try to put those aside when seeking understanding — to avoid just “believing my own bullshit.” As a lawyer, I’ve made that mistake, and learned the hard lesson, and watched many others do it again and again without ever seeming to learn.
Example: even such extreme advocates of Ukraine War as Boris Johnson have admitted that they expected an almost immediate collapse, followed by an insurgency they’d been preparing. They were surprised by Ukraine’s government staying, fighting, and being competent enough to pull that off.
The Russians had expected the same thing as Boris Johnson, a quick collapse of Ukraine’s government as they did what President Ghani did in Afghanistan — run to where they’d hidden their stolen money. Therefore the Russians did the same move they’d done in their rush to Pristina Airport in the Balkan confrontation, speed over force and logistics, just get there with a fast unit, more to follow. So they did not “fail” in a real military effort to “take Kiev” by a serious fight, they failed in their attempt to rush quickly into a power vacuum. It did work out that way for them in taking Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the initial move into Afghanistan, so this was no fantasy. It just did not work this time. That does not prove they can’t do a serious offensive, just that they did not try.
Putin tried to do this on the cheap. When it did not work, he was left over-extended. Not only did his rushing offense fail, some very lightly held territory gained that way had to be given up as he consolidated to a more serious effort.
Now what will happen with that more serious effort? Both sides talk a lot about their big plans, and make a big deal out of anything that happens. So far though, the Russians have fired a lot of ammo while they piled up units for future moves. We have not yet seen those oft-predicted moves.
So Knapp asks where is this big move. Correct. Where is it? When? What will we see?
At least we need to ask those questions without blinders on about “failures” that were not, nor success that took massive casualites against artillery fire rather than serious maneuver warfare between direct-fire units.
I have no policy preference as to outcomes where the gains or losses of the various regimes are concerned. I’d prefer to see all the involved regimes overthrown, and I’d prefer not to see the world end in nuclear holocaust. But between those two extremes, I don’t particularly care which overgrown street gang ends up with the others acknowledging e.g. Zaporizhia oblast as part of its turf and only hope for as few non-combatant deaths, maimings, and displacements as possible.
In Moscow they can afford to fiddle while Europe Burns. The coming Winter offensive was always a western construct, not Russian. While the NATO Nazi’s keep throwing themselves headlong into the Donbass meatgrinder there really is no need for a Russian offensive at all.
Moscow never expected a quick collapse. Moscow was well aware of the 8 years that NATO had built up defenses in the former Ukraine for war against Russia. Moscow has done everything they can to avoid this war. NATO has done everything they can to ensure this war happens.
Its still currently a SMO with the objectives of Disarm and De-Nazify (i am absolutely stunned by how many people justify Nazism). The Russian reserves that were called up are there for when NATO attacks.
Russia has just changed its economy to a war footing. 30% of its GDP is to support the war that NATO has declared on Russia. Moscow is continuing to mobilise with a new target of 2.5 million under arms.
There are already 127 comments so I doubt that this one will be seen. However, this is a serious question for supporters of Russia. Why has Russia not been able to cut off the flow of these weapons into Ukraine? From what I understand, Ukraine no longer has an air force which would imply that Russian jets can fly freely over that territory. Why aren’t trucks and trains coming in from Poland, Slovakia and Romania being bombed?
Because Ukrainian S300 have not been depleted these are very effective for taking down non very low level flying planes, and because of various MANPADS that are very ubiquitous.
Militaristic mumbo jumbo. May I suggest Political Wire as an appropriate forum for you. People there get positively giddy discussing weapons systems focused on the most efficient ways to kill people.
If you have a better answer for @ReinhardvonSiegfriedson:disqus then provide it, rather than wasting your time trying to silence others.
There doesn’t seem to be much of a manned, fixed-wing air war going on now, presumably because both sides have effective air defense systems. To the extent that there’s war by air, it’s missiles and drone swarms (as opposed to single, heavy UAVs doing the same kind of active patrolling manned aircraft would do, leaving them similarly vulnerable).
That doesn’t mean e.g. convoys carrying armaments can’t be targeted, but it takes longer when you don’t have aircraft in the area to either pounce on obvious targets they find themselves, or move in ASAP when they get told about it from satellite surveillance, agents on the ground, etc.
The best way to target such things without a constant manned air presence is probably to watch, figure out where depots and assembly areas are, and hit them when they seem to have maximum stuff there that can be destroyed in one missile or drone strike.
There ended up being a small Russian winter offensive. A combination of Ukrainian and NATO troops seriously slowed Russua down in Aoledar and Bakhmut.
Both Russian and Ukrainian sources agree that Russian artillery outnumber Ukrainian artillery by a substantial amount, leading to the strong possibility that Ukrainian casualties have been much higher than Russian casualties.
There have been no US or NATO or Ukrainian offensives. Russian missiles have fired off a lot more missiles than the US has, damaging the NATO energy and transportation grids.
For spring, the US claims that NATO MIGHT send as many as 131 tanks to the Ukrainian front lines. Russian sources are expecting 800 – 3000 NATO and newly repaired Ukrainian tanks and a serious NATO offensive on multiple fronts in a well coordinated attack. Russian sources claim that they are mobilizing to defend against the expected offensive, or to launch a strong offensive of their own if no NATO offensive is forthcoming.
The part I wrote about the winter campaign seems accurate from what I can tell. Anything about the spring is mostly propaganda. What I DO like is that discussions seem to be moving towards keeping this conflict conventional.
Z is a black hole, sucking in everything on its event horizon.