Ukraine has already lost the war

[UnseenParticipant]

What’s the real meaning behind the Wagner Group rebellion?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZoS9fVX20I

In case you see Macgregor as a military nobody, his military resume is hard to question:

Douglas Abbott Macgregor is a retired U.S. Army colonel, government official, author, consultant, and television commentator. He played a significant role on the battlefield in the Gulf War and the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.0 Macgregor was the “squadron operations officer who essentially directed the Battle of 73 Easting” during the Gulf War, where U.S. troops with 10 tanks and 13 Bradley fighting vehicles destroyed almost 70 Iraqi armored vehicles with no U.S. casualties in a 23-minute span of the battle. Macgregor is also a senior fellow with The American Conservative and a former advisor to the Secretary of Defense in the Trump administration.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Unseen.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Unseen.

[UnseenParticipant]

Dr. Mearsheimer is a world renowned expert on Russia and Eastern Europe. He thinks if this war isn’t ended, Ukraine will be ruined.

Things have changed and the balance has shifted toward the Russians because they have an advantage in terms of manpower and artillery. This will go on and on because the Russians will not give up Crimea and the tarritory they’ve gained. It’s already part of Russia. It’s been successfully annexed.

The Ukrainians are hesitant to launch a major offensive because the casualty imbalance, which greatly favors the Russians, will get worse if they expose themselves to the Russians’ far superior firepower.

Ask yourself, if Ukraine were to fall under Russia’s umbrella and lived lives similar to Russians, would that be so bad? We count more oppressive regimes as allies, don’t we? Russians live well enough to be counted as a First World country. They own cars, shop in well-stocked supermarkets travel outside the country on vacation. Their standard of living is higher than that of countries like Romania, Greece, and most other countries in the Americas we count as friendly.

[UnseenParticipant]

THE CHRIS HEDGE REPORT 7/2/23

The playbook the pimps of war use to lure us into one military fiasco after another, including Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and now Ukraine, does not change. Freedom and democracy are threatened. Evil must be vanquished. Human rights must be protected. The fate of Europe and NATO, along with a “rules based international order” is at stake. Victory is assured.

The results are also the same. The justifications and narratives are exposed as lies. The cheery prognosis is false. Those on whose behalf we are supposedly fighting are as venal as those we are fighting against. 

The Russian invasion of Ukraine was a war crime, although one that was provoked by NATO expansion and by the United States backing of the 2014 “Maidan” coup which ousted the democratically elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych wanted economic integration with the European Union, but not at the expense of economic and political ties with Russia. The war will only be solved through negotiations that allow ethnic Russians in Ukraine to have autonomy and Moscow’s protection, as well as Ukrainian neutrality, which means the country cannot join NATO. The longer these negotiations are delayed the more Ukrainians will suffer and die. Their cities and infrastructure will continue to be pounded into rubble.

But this proxy war in Ukraine is designed to serve U.S. interests. It enriches the weapons manufacturers, weakens the Russian military and isolates Russia from Europe. What happens to Ukraine is irrelevant. 

“First, equipping our friends on the front lines to defend themselves is a far cheaper way — in both dollars and American lives — to degrade Russia’s ability to threaten the United States,” admitted Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. 

“Second, Ukraine’s effective defense of its territory is teaching us lessons about how to improve the defenses of partners who are threatened by China. It is no surprise that senior officials from Taiwan are so supportive of efforts to help Ukraine defeat Russia. Third, most of the money that’s been appropriated for Ukraine security assistance doesn’t actually go to Ukraine. It gets invested in American defense manufacturing. It funds new weapons and munitions for the U.S. armed forces to replace the older material we have provided to Ukraine. Let me be clear: this assistance means more jobs for American workers and newer weapons for American servicemembers.”

Once the truth about these endless wars seeps into public consciousness, the media, which slavishly promotes these conflicts, drastically reduces coverage. The military debacles, as in Iraq and Afghanistan, continue largely out of view. By the time the U.S. concedes defeat, most barely remember that these wars are being fought. 

The article continues here.

 

 

[PopeBeanieModerator]

Unseen wrote [quoted]:

Freedom and democracy are threatened. Evil must be vanquished. Human rights must be protected.

Those reasons to go to war are sometimes reasonable. Other reasons often aren’t. Putin is clearly an evil actor, even having to lie to his own people while throwing their lives into this war that he blames others for. He did not expect the cost to Russia be so high, and yet he must continue to pursue “victory” for his own sake and/or for the sake of expansion of Russia, This is a zero-sum game for him and his fellow oligarchs, economics-wise, as Ukraine is rich with an array of physical resources.

I’m not a great student of history, but I have to wonder how closely the arguments you constantly push are like the arguments that kept USA from fighting the threat of Hitler. How is Putin different, here? While the list of countries with powerful autocratic and theocratic rulers is still large, I admit that the big picture wrt the good causes we pursue, as in the first partial quote that’s quoted above in this post, is bleak. The only certainty I have wrt having credibility when it comes to furthering those causes is to constantly self-examine ourselves, self-correct ourselves, and realize how important it is to set a good example, clearly visible to the world at large.

The next villain is CCP. Notice I’m not villainizing the Chinese people, or the Russian people, or Muslims in general who are born into iron-fisted theocracies.

How can humanity evolve beyond our self-serving autocrats and autocracies and theocracies? How can we immunize ourselves from them, before they infect us, as it seems (to me) that the best solution is to prevent the diseases before they can spread? Until then, do we always have to just say “let it spread”?

[UnseenParticipant]

Was the war in Ukraine instigated by NATO? Eastern Europe scholar John Meersheimer insists that this is so. But he’s not alone. There is a case to be made. By the way, WION is a leading world news source.

[UnseenParticipant]

WHO IS THIS COL. DOUGLAS MACGREGOR? WHY LISTEN TO HIM?

Macgregor was the “squadron operations officer who essentially directed the Battle of 73 Easting” during the Gulf War.[1] Facing an Iraqi Republican Guard opponent, U.S. troops with 10 tanks and 13 Bradley fighting vehicles destroyed almost 70 Iraqi armored vehicles with no U.S. casualties in a 23-minute span of the battle. (read the rest here)

Hear the truth about cluster munitions and how and why to get out of this war.

[UnseenParticipant]

DOD Inspector General Report: Weapons Sent to Ukraine Go to the Black Market

A new report from the Inspector General shows that many of the weapons that the U.S. sends to Ukraine are in fact ending up on the black market.

The report also says that the legally required monitoring of the weapons is not happening.

[UnseenParticipant]

You know those stories in the news about the family whose relative has all but died but they refuse to pull the plug? Yeah, only in those cases the family enjoys no monetary benefit from keeping their patient going. Ain’t capitalism great?

[UnseenParticipant]

The strange case of missing statistics was highlighted by Riddle this: How many casualties are there, truly, on both sides of Ukraine war? in Responsible Statecraft. A quote which should have us wondering if one side’s hand is on the scale. A relevant quote:

A Google News search of Russian-Ukrainian casualties today will result in the top eight article headlines all speculating on why Russian fatalities and injuries are so high. While there is an acknowledgment that “military casualties on both sides of the war are difficult to establish and verify; the warring sides often estimate rival losses, and are understood to downplay their own,” nearly every top story includes some effort by independent organizations and/or government source to size up the numbers — on the Russian side.

“(The) coverage invariably foregrounds and heavily publicizes Russian losses, while largely de-emphasizing Ukraine’s similar and arguably more devastating ones,” noted writer Branko Marcetic, in a RS article trying to make sense of the carousel of estimates in March.

This strange imbalance in information includes recent tracking from Mediazone, working with BBC, that hit all the headlines this week with an estimate of more than 27,000 Russian deaths based on publicly available information. Another, Meduza, also working with Mediazone and with publicly sourced info, pegs it at closer to 50,000 fatalities. Neither report focuses at all on Ukrainian casualties.

But these estimates are still lower than what’s been out there, including by U.S. officials over the last six months. According to the May Discord Leaks, in February, U.S. officials believed that between 15,500 and 17,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed, with an additional 106,500 to 110,500 wounded. The same assessment said that between 35,000 and 42,500 Russian soldiers had already been killed and 150,500 to 177,000 had been wounded. 

Now, doesn’t it stand to reason that our side would have a better handle on Ukrainian casualties than Russian casualties.

Maybe because we’d know how well the war is really going if we were told the truth(?).

[UnseenParticipant]

Ukraine’s counteroffensive is going so well that Biden wants to print $24,000,000,000 to cover more “help” including rebuilding Ukraine’s infrastructure.

Meanwhile, when it comes to helping Americans (including, ironically, fixing America’s decrepit infrastructure), that must wait till WW3 starts in Ukraine.

BTW, $24B is about $70 for every man, woman, and child. But not every man, woman, or child pays Federal taxes. It’s said that about 61% of Americans (meaning, I assume, Americans eligible to pay taxes) pay no Federal tax. So every taxpayer is paying a helluva lot more than $70 just in this latest proposal. Probably $200+.

Why are Americans taking a back seat to Ukrainians, many of whom don’t care enough to fight this war to join or allow themselves to be conscripted? Many Ukrainians don’t want to be cannon fodder, because that’s all a Ukrainian in uniform is right now. They are untrained, poorly led in the field, and underequipped. I think many have figured out that America doesn’t really give a flying fuck about their lives and that they are pawns in a giant proxy war.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by  Unseen.

[_Robert_Participant]

A quarter million hapless dead Ruzzian wannabe murderers and they are just starting to get it. Starting to figure out they are constantly being lied to and their great leader is an idiot.

70 bucks? LOL. That was lunch yesterday. Sad thing is that Russia will probably end up with someone worse that Putler.

[UnseenParticipant]

Who’s more honest in their assessment? Orban in this video or what we’re told by the Biden Admin’s PR machine?

[UnseenParticipant]

Ukraine has been kidnapping their own citizens to feed the maw of the war god (Washington D.C.) and while Russia has been doing the same, Ukraine’s going to run out of cannon fodder long before Russia and the Ukrainians know it and just want the war to stop.

Right now, propping up Netanyahu’s genocidal apartheid regime is a higher priority. As soon as Washington decides that the Ukraine war needs a negotiated end, the NATO puppets will agree, and that seems to be what’s happening.

So, it looks like the Jimmy Dore everyone seems to hate was right two years ago.

The U.S. can end this war very easily by reinstituting the draft and I think we know that ain’t a gonna happen.

[UnseenParticipant]

Ukraine is waking up to reality

From the article:

Ukraine won the war of 2022. That was the year of Ukraine’s victory. Putin’s troops had to withdraw from Kyiv and Kherson, and they ran from Kharkiv. 

But the year 2023 has not been so good. Russian generals have learned from their mistakes, and the learning curve was quite steep. All while engaging Ukraine in a bloody war of attrition at Bakhmut, Russia erected impregnable defenses in the south. They laid minefields. Not minefields but minefields — hundreds of miles long.

What’s more, Russia fooled the satellites. The Ukrainian south is basically a steppe crisscrossed by strips of forest planted to prevent erosion. They are called exactly that: lesopolosa, “forest strip.” Turns out that every forest strip was fortified by Russia. Dug inside out, stuffed with troops and strongholds. The Ukrainians, relying on the expected digital transparency of the battlefield, missed the preparations.  

Still, Ukrainian troops advanced. They carved out a bridgehead, crushed through the first line of Russian defenses and closed in on a major railway hub of Tokmak. Russians counterattacked, trying at all costs to regain lost ground, smashing their reserves against the new frontline.

Ukraine had never seen the likes of it during the whole war. It was hand-to-hand combat in trenches, with enormous losses to Russia and every tactical advantage on the Ukrainian side; the Ukrainians were gutting Russian reserves. But the attacks were not futile: while Putin was spending his best troops, in the rear new formidable defense lines were created, new mines were sown. The current attack on Avdiivka is following the same pattern; it’s leading to incredible Russian losses, but it stopped Ukrainian hopes of taking Tokmak. 

Russia started to properly use electronic countermeasures and new precision Lancet drones. Russian choppers are now staying out of range of Ukrainian air defenses, using an analog of the famous Israeli Spike NLOS (non-line of sight) missile with a nine-mile range. Putin has an enormous stock of obsolete non-guided air bombs. These were once useless; Russia only had total air superiority in Mariupol, which Russian planes bombed mercilessly.

Not anymore — nowadays these bombs are fitted with primitive guidance systems, and planes launch them from a safe distance of 30 miles. It’s cheap and primitive, but in war, if it works and it’s simple, it’s the best solution. Not exactly regained air superiority, but close.

The war is a bloody stalemate that can hardly be budged. Were Putin to achieve some success, it would be immediately countered by a new cache of U.S. weapons: e.g. ATACMS have recently taken out a dozen Russian choppers right on the airfield. Were Ukrainians to advance substantially, Putin would mobilize more troops. 

But it is not just the front lines. The situation is much more serious.

Western sanctions did not destroy Russia’s economy — rather, they repositioned it. Oil once sold to Europe now goes to China and India via a fleet of “ghost tankers.” In September, Russia got $18 billion in oil revenues. Putin is planning to spend around $110 billion on war in 2024, and that’s just the open part of the budget. Ukraine will be lucky if it gets $60 billion from all its allies combined.

What’s even more amazing, the Russian economy is rebounding. The Western-oriented creative class in big cities is hard up, but almost every other stratum of Russian society is better off. Poor people from destitute Russian regions are, for the first time ever, earning good money by enlisting to serve. If they are killed, their families are getting money they never dreamt of. Salaries at military factories are up, and regular salaries are up too because of the shortage of labor. It is a sort of military Keynesianism.

(go to the article to read the rest)

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by  Unseen.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Fellow Unbelievers,

Notice the date of the first post on this topic. Nearly a year sure is a long “already.”

But then again, consider the morally-inverted deranged source of the topic.

[Author]

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