This "war", which was never a war, was an exercise in strategic lunacy from the beginning. The American Empire, an atherosclerotic and moribund zombie, stupidly mounted an effort, with the contemptible clown whore Zelensky at the helm, to "degrade" Russian power, which it was clearly laughably incapable of doing. It has bankrolled this Idiot's Blood Circus that has destroyed Ukraine and its people to no purpose and has vigorously trampled on its own dick in the ludicrous process.
Oh, man! It's raining tonight here in Savannah, but now I have 20+ pages of Big Serge Thought to read, so I don't feel so bad about staying inside. Yahoo!
A topic that is not widely discussed is that at the core of the West's inability to produce is the lack of raw materials, including energy. For example, making ammonia for explosives is done usually by Haber-Bosch process which requires lots of energy. No Nord Stream means Rheinmetal will have to increase prices. And by the way, it's not that easy and cheap to build and maintain such facilities - Australia for example, a mining and energy giant, imports a large share of its mining explosives from Russia, despite having abundance of raw materials to produce their own.
Same with ammunition for small arms - before the Unkraine war, ".....roughly 40 percent of the ammunition sold in the U.S. originates from Russian sources. Gun owners have become reliant on the ability of companies such as Wolf, Tula and Barnaul to provide reasonably-priced ammunition to the marketplace"
I don't have much time to spend on this, but I'm pretty sure the same applies for artillery systems (they need lots of special steel and alloys produced in Russia), various combat vehicles and aviation equipment (titanium is mostly produced in Russia). I'm also certain that if there's war in the Pacific, the US won't be able to replace the lost ships as it closes its shipyards and buys most ships it needs from China and Korea.
That's what happens when you allow Harward educated shills, who only care about share prices, to run your economy.
Anyone assigned to draw up a battle plan for Avdivka would be court martialed if they came up with anything other than “seize the high ground at the start of the campaign, interdict the supply routes, choke out the defenders.” But I read in Forbes, from a guy who doesn’t otherwise sound like a complete idiot, that there is no Russian strategy, it’s just human waves of conscripts for no reason.
This American arrogance is based on nothing. We’ve not won a war since 1945. I don’t think we’d last for a month if we were actually attacked by a real army with guns and not just colorful flags.
I'm not sure that the underdog theory mentioned at the beginning hits the nail on the head. I also have a soft spot for underdogs. But that is precisely the reason why my sympathies were with Russia right from the start. In geostrategic terms, Russia has been the underdog over the past 30 years, treated as a schoolboy by the West, bullied and marginalised. And yes, it is simply satisfying to see how the supposed underdog asserts itself and manages to present the bully to the world public with its trousers sawed off. Something that is necessary and good for the global community and probably even for the bully himself.
I distinctly remember the western commentariat promoting the hypothesis that Russian forces would flee at the first sight of Leopard 2s and Bradleys. That seems to have been the operative assumption of the "counteroffensive".
I believe Prigozhin's little pride parade was meant to coincide with the hypothetical Russian retreat in the face of "superior western armor" and create regime change in Russia.
This think tank strategy was supposed to be the highly technical maneuver that would defeat the much stronger opponent. Clearly, it has failed spectacularly, and the US is left trying to salvage as much as possible as the logic of industrial warfare plays out inexorably towards Russian victory and a strategic defeat of NATO.
Saying this war is the work of "Joe Biden" is like saying Ronald McDonald makes hamburgers. Whoever is actually in the back cooking up the delusional but sadistic policies of NATO and the US needs to answer for the barbarous butchery on display here.
Reading this inevitable denouement of Joe Biden’s signature foreign policy initiative just raises the unfortunate question of whether he, or Sullivan, or Kirby, or Blinken or Winkin or Nod have any kind of Plan B. Unfortunately, as the Magic 8 Ball is prone to say, “All signs point to No”. Fly over and give Z a big hug and hope it cheers him up?
For three decades, we pursued a policy of confronting Russia, of pushing NATO up to their border, of waving what we assumed was the biggest dick in the world around like a magic wand.
Turns out, as often happens, it wasn’t quite as big as we thought it was. So, now what? We were going to be killing Russians on the cheap, for pennies on the dollar, with this proxy war. Now we’ve exhausted the West’s stockpiles, poked the bear and riled it up, and now it is angry and looking bemusedly at our troubles in meeting recruitment quotas for our woke armies.
I watched a movie as a kid set in the Crimean war (Charge of the Light Brigade, of course). I remember the animated opening sequence where a lion is sleeping while a bear walks over and starts molesting a turkey. The Lion awakes and roars....
I think the bear is well set up to return the favor....
This "war", which was never a war, was an exercise in strategic lunacy from the beginning. The American Empire, an atherosclerotic and moribund zombie, stupidly mounted an effort, with the contemptible clown whore Zelensky at the helm, to "degrade" Russian power, which it was clearly laughably incapable of doing. It has bankrolled this Idiot's Blood Circus that has destroyed Ukraine and its people to no purpose and has vigorously trampled on its own dick in the ludicrous process.
Oh, man! It's raining tonight here in Savannah, but now I have 20+ pages of Big Serge Thought to read, so I don't feel so bad about staying inside. Yahoo!
You and Simplicius. The only actual analysis out here in the fake news world. Excellent job sir!
A topic that is not widely discussed is that at the core of the West's inability to produce is the lack of raw materials, including energy. For example, making ammonia for explosives is done usually by Haber-Bosch process which requires lots of energy. No Nord Stream means Rheinmetal will have to increase prices. And by the way, it's not that easy and cheap to build and maintain such facilities - Australia for example, a mining and energy giant, imports a large share of its mining explosives from Russia, despite having abundance of raw materials to produce their own.
Same with ammunition for small arms - before the Unkraine war, ".....roughly 40 percent of the ammunition sold in the U.S. originates from Russian sources. Gun owners have become reliant on the ability of companies such as Wolf, Tula and Barnaul to provide reasonably-priced ammunition to the marketplace"
Source: https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/russian-ammo-imports-banned-halted/424581
I don't have much time to spend on this, but I'm pretty sure the same applies for artillery systems (they need lots of special steel and alloys produced in Russia), various combat vehicles and aviation equipment (titanium is mostly produced in Russia). I'm also certain that if there's war in the Pacific, the US won't be able to replace the lost ships as it closes its shipyards and buys most ships it needs from China and Korea.
That's what happens when you allow Harward educated shills, who only care about share prices, to run your economy.
There's something in the Bible about what the enemy intended for evil being turned into good by God.
Russia has grown stronger and more independent of the West, the opposite result of what was intended.
You are my favourite commentator/author on this war.
At the end of the day, the best way to defeat propaganda is to just let the truth of the matter speak for itself.
That is good communication - and the troops that communicate most effectively, almost always prevail on the field of battle.
Odessa beckons.
Now imagine if Newsweek or Time were running articles of this quality...wouldn't the world be a different place?
Anyone assigned to draw up a battle plan for Avdivka would be court martialed if they came up with anything other than “seize the high ground at the start of the campaign, interdict the supply routes, choke out the defenders.” But I read in Forbes, from a guy who doesn’t otherwise sound like a complete idiot, that there is no Russian strategy, it’s just human waves of conscripts for no reason.
This American arrogance is based on nothing. We’ve not won a war since 1945. I don’t think we’d last for a month if we were actually attacked by a real army with guns and not just colorful flags.
I'm not sure that the underdog theory mentioned at the beginning hits the nail on the head. I also have a soft spot for underdogs. But that is precisely the reason why my sympathies were with Russia right from the start. In geostrategic terms, Russia has been the underdog over the past 30 years, treated as a schoolboy by the West, bullied and marginalised. And yes, it is simply satisfying to see how the supposed underdog asserts itself and manages to present the bully to the world public with its trousers sawed off. Something that is necessary and good for the global community and probably even for the bully himself.
Surely, this is the definitive article on the topic.
Excellent. Intelligent, incredibly informed, logical, wise. Congratulations Big Serge.
I distinctly remember the western commentariat promoting the hypothesis that Russian forces would flee at the first sight of Leopard 2s and Bradleys. That seems to have been the operative assumption of the "counteroffensive".
I believe Prigozhin's little pride parade was meant to coincide with the hypothetical Russian retreat in the face of "superior western armor" and create regime change in Russia.
This think tank strategy was supposed to be the highly technical maneuver that would defeat the much stronger opponent. Clearly, it has failed spectacularly, and the US is left trying to salvage as much as possible as the logic of industrial warfare plays out inexorably towards Russian victory and a strategic defeat of NATO.
I've only read the first paragraph so far, but I just had to stop and say how much I appreciate a correct use of the word "immanence".
Saying this war is the work of "Joe Biden" is like saying Ronald McDonald makes hamburgers. Whoever is actually in the back cooking up the delusional but sadistic policies of NATO and the US needs to answer for the barbarous butchery on display here.
Reading this inevitable denouement of Joe Biden’s signature foreign policy initiative just raises the unfortunate question of whether he, or Sullivan, or Kirby, or Blinken or Winkin or Nod have any kind of Plan B. Unfortunately, as the Magic 8 Ball is prone to say, “All signs point to No”. Fly over and give Z a big hug and hope it cheers him up?
For three decades, we pursued a policy of confronting Russia, of pushing NATO up to their border, of waving what we assumed was the biggest dick in the world around like a magic wand.
Turns out, as often happens, it wasn’t quite as big as we thought it was. So, now what? We were going to be killing Russians on the cheap, for pennies on the dollar, with this proxy war. Now we’ve exhausted the West’s stockpiles, poked the bear and riled it up, and now it is angry and looking bemusedly at our troubles in meeting recruitment quotas for our woke armies.
I watched a movie as a kid set in the Crimean war (Charge of the Light Brigade, of course). I remember the animated opening sequence where a lion is sleeping while a bear walks over and starts molesting a turkey. The Lion awakes and roars....
I think the bear is well set up to return the favor....