WHEN in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary….
“Don’t cry for thee Ukrainetina, the truth is we never loved you.”
byVanderleunonApril 19, 2022
Like everything else about this war, this report is retroactively NSFW. “Report by Patrick Lancaster US Navy veteran and independent crowd-funded journalist. Over the 8 years of the Ukraine War I made more video reports in anti-Ukraine Government (Donetsk People’s Republic) controlled territory than any other western journalist. All so covered the Armenian Azerbaijan war reaching over 8 million on his youtube channel with his reports there. I show what the western media will not show you. “
The Z Man is looking at tanks designed for The Fulda Gap coming up againstThe Reality Gap where human beings are ground into paste. Turn around. Go back down. Back the way you came. . . Again.
Now that it is a hot war, the professional warfighters are organizing the ground battles against the Russians in Ukraine. According to Le Figaro senior correspondent Georges Malbrunot, who was on the ground with mercenaries in Ukraine, “Americans are directly in charge of the war on the ground.” Ever the obedient lapdog, Britain has sent SAS trainers to Kiev to train Ukrainian militants.
Now, of course, it is the job of the political class to sell the war to the public, which they have been happy to do. . .
Everyone knows that Joe Biden is a vegetable. Kamala Harris is as dumb as a goldfish. The people running American foreign policy are Antony Blinken, Victoria Nuland, and her husband, Robert Kagan. These are the people who call the shots, along with their analogs in the military-industrial complex. They are running the war and telling the politicians that it is going to plan.
If the plan was to destroy the West, then it is going to plan. If the plan was to win the war and defeat the Russians, then that is another story. It is becoming clear that NATO planners prepared the Ukrainian army to fight a totally different army from the one Russia has sent through the Donbas. Despite having numbers, home-field advantage, and access to superior equipment, the Ukrainians are being routed.
The extent of the unfolding disaster in Ukraine is being kept from the Western public, but it is still a disaster. The Russians have the Ukrainians bottled up in the east and are preparing to unleash a massive offensive to wipe out that army. By the end of April, the Russians will most likely control everything east of the Dnieper River. The part controlled by Kiev will have no ability to defend itself if Russia moves on them.
The disaster is not limited to the battlefield. Rather, the battlefield now extends far beyond Ukraine, thanks to the people running this operation. They decided to launch an economic war against Russia, believing this would topple Putin. They just assumed they could collapse the Russian economy with some financial tricks. They even sent Joe Biden out to brag about this at the State of the Union address. . . .
I’d like to be on “Our”side, but I despise what “Our” side has become. Discuss.
1. It is true that war, like poverty, will always be with us. But there are things worse than war—slavery for one. The belief that all war is evil simply because innocents get killed is called pacifism. A pacifist can exist as a free man only in a society where most men are not pacifists. He becomes what economists call a “free rider”. The pacifist gets the benefits offered by warriors without becoming one himself. In other words, while the pacifist shies away from the violence of war another man will have to fight and die in his place. This renders pacifism into what it really is, a mere boutique moral posture. Any society composed of nothing but pacifists will disappear from History—and rather rapidly.
2. What the NATO countries are doing to Russia in the Ukraine is what Russia did to the US in the Vietnam War; that is, Russia sent weapons to the Vietcong and Viet Minh so that American boys would get killed. NATO is shipping all sorts of arms into the Ukraine with the sole purpose of killing Russian soldiers. Once the war in Ukraine is over, this fact will not be lost on Russia.
3. There is no use complaining about men who make money in times of war. It has been thus since the first kings of Sumer paid for deliveries of shields, chariots and swords. Someone had to supply them. Such hand-wringing is like the angst that occurs in the wake of tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes and floods. Somebody has to provide the tools and resources to rebuild. Those who supply them will get paid to do so.
4. War clarifies things. Where we once had little idea of how the modern Russian military fights, now we have a good idea. How much of that information is understood by normal folks is unknown, since it is all shaded and twisted and perverted by propaganda. The Ukrainian army is learning firsthand how Russia fights. I doubt that it is enjoying the lesson, and every day there are fewer students.
5. There are around 6000 foreign mercenaries who went to Ukraine to fight the Russians. They breathed deeply the vaporous nonsense about this war put out by their own governments. These romantic fellows went off, Byron-like, to fight tyranny. Imagining themselves as a 21st century version of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, they too are learning how Russia fights. Few will ever see home again.
6. Chris Coons and Mitt Romney have been quite outspoken about sending US soldiers to fight in Ukraine. Between them they have 7 male children. When Romney and Coons talk about sending American boys to war against Russia, they do not mean their precious boys, but yours.
KCKApril 19, 2022, 10:37 AM
I agree that complaining about war from one’s couch is the height of sanctimony. But, it is so easy to do.
You turn yourself inside out to make nice for Russia. Who invaded whom? Who already took Eastern Europe once in the last century, and kept it? Who wants to hold the other guy’s ground? Certainly you’ll tell me it’s the globalist capitalists and evil NATO. They talked Russia into this, and Russia had no choice but to invade. It’s rich, and it’s magical thinking.
“Who wants to hold the other guy’s ground? Certainly you’ll tell me it’s the globalist capitalists and evil NATO. They talked Russia into this, and Russia had no choice but to invade.”
Please look up the “Straw Man” logical fallacy.
So your new criterion for the “bad guy” in war is now the one who invades? Then D-Day was a mistake and Germany was the “good guy”?
“Who already took Eastern Europe once in the last century…” The USSR. She has not existed for 31 years.
“…and kept it.” She didn’t keep it.
Can you list the number of peoples who occupied Eastern Europe since the Fall of the Western Empire? Nations and empires come and go. This process is called History.
Casey KlahnApril 19, 2022, 11:45 AM
A straw man is pretending that NATO brought Russia to battle.
The Soves were Russians, last time I looked.
And, finally, you go back to Classic times. I recall how it was trendy to say that Vietnam had always been at war. That was bullshit then, and your point is much the same, only fresher.
“A straw man is pretending that NATO brought Russia to battle.” I made no such claim.
“The Soves were Russians, last time I looked.” You might want to look again. The Soviet Union was comprised of 15 constituent republics, among them being:
1. Armenia
2. Azerbaijan
3. Belarus
4. Estonia
5. Georgia
6. Kazakhstan
7. Kyrgyzstan
8. Latvia
9. Lithuania
10. Moldova
11. Russia
12. Tajikistan
13. Turkmenistan
14. Ukraine
15. Uzbekistan
“I recall how it was trendy to say that Vietnam had always been at war. ” I had never heard that.
“That was bullshit then, and your point is much the same, only fresher.” Is it possible, Casey, for you to write without using the word “bullshit”?
Richard OngApril 19, 2022, 7:49 PM
The Russian Federation did not send weapons to the Viet Cong. The Soviets did.
Casey KlahnApril 19, 2022, 10:00 PM
Russia is absolved of all that happened during the Soviet Era. No guilt – scott free.
Yes they should be absolved, as should any and all living south of the Mason Dixon line of all that happened during our civil war, absolutely no guilt __ scott free.
KCKApril 19, 2022, 10:27 AM
Here are some facts from the *news* combat reporting. Imbedded with Russian troops. (Z truck in front of him in the convoy). Body burning because fuel added. Russian allied troops standing around in front of their cover, narrating the battle (accusing the Ukes of war crimes) for the camera, but claiming sniper danger is active. “People should run over there to receive…” civil affairs event. About 9:55 firing not from cover. End shows the ubiquitous and virtuous Russian soldiers bringing food to the Ukrainian civilians.
Yawn. Same plot line every time.
VanderleunApril 19, 2022, 11:00 AM
All above stipulated as “true,” “probably true,” and “possibly true.” Your milage may vary. The value is that we have here — regardless of provenance and level of trutiness — a report from the other side. A report that has (probably, possibly) all the elements of truthiness we witness in the pro-gogo reportage of West facing reporters. If you watch proUke channels and proRuski channels on Telegram (an app that I commend to you)you’ll see this sort of flip flop truthiness on either side. The value is not always just in the reporter stating what he states but in what is seen and heard in the background. Defame him as you will he’s still closer in than any others I’ve found.
I’m open to links from the other side but I don’t think a boutique page like this can add value to the thousands of CNN acolytes and Bidenettes of the West.
Casey KlahnApril 19, 2022, 11:51 AM
I for sure want to see Russia’s side. it’s good for laughs. Like: a piece of the cross went down with the Moscva. But, yes, I fully agree look at all sides. I also agree that the Uke side was a constant drumbeat of the same thing. The best thing to do is go up 10,000 miles, and look for the big picture. But, don’t sell the Russian imbeds as fair minded.
BTW, for the readers, I very much liked the Russian people I met in my short trip there. I did witness lots and lots of mind games, but there is a basic humanity to them that is undeniable. They don’t combust very well, I’ll wager. I’ll wager an almost truth that that body has gasoline on it. Probably diesel, too. If it even is a body.
VanderleunApril 19, 2022, 12:22 PM
Don’t think I’m selling them as “fair minded.” Don’t think anyone in this whole clusterfuck is “fair minded.” I will however look upon him as “differently minded” from the oozing pap out of those loving on Ukraine from studios in Brussels or New York.
KCKApril 19, 2022, 3:51 PM
Granted!
George ChristiansenApril 19, 2022, 10:39 AM
I’m a shamed to have bought into the idea that “our” side was the good guys.
Americans are often wonderful people and I love what culture is left, but our military exploits have not been us acting as the “good guys” during the lifetimes of anyone still with us.
Just a bunch of naive teenagers and malcontent adults being used by assholes with zero skin in the game.
CallmelennieApril 19, 2022, 11:26 AM
At about 7:30 on the video, a 3 minute firefight broke out. Young Patrick got pretty hopped up to say the least, but he didnt run. The Russians were apparently tried to take out a sniper so that civilians could rush to a vehicle with relief supplies. So this kid was in a position where a sniper could have targeted him
To understand our young droog, Пєтрик, you need to know hes lived with Russians in the Donbass at least since 2014. He is also married to a Русская женщина (Russian woman) and has at least one child. In spite of all this, his ear for how Russian actually sounds is pretty poor. His accent sucks. I havent studied Russian for 40 years and I sound more like a Russian than he does
Cute language note: When the civvies were rushing to the supplies, the soldier kept saying “быстро, быстро” (bistro .. fast, move, quickly) This is why French cafe are known as bistros .. When a multinational army that included Russians temporarily occupied Paris after Waterloo, the Russian troops would hustle up service at Paris cafes by yelling “Быстро, быстро” S’truth.
VanderleunApril 19, 2022, 12:20 PM
Good to know. Thanks for the insights.
Gordon ScottApril 19, 2022, 12:32 PM
We have more communication possibilities available from the battlefields than ever before in history. I know less about this war than I would have thought possible. What the hell is really going on? I have no idea. The idea that this is all some huge Russian masterplan and they’re suddenly going to sweep out of I don’t know, Mariupol, and encircle the hapless Ukes does seem to be the most wishful of wishful thinking.
OlearyApril 19, 2022, 1:09 PM
Oh boo hoo, people have lied to us, thus rendering us totally cynical and incapable of thinking and learning for ourselves! Pity us, we have no choice but to finally grasp what the Chomsky’s have long known, that we are the center of everything and therefore inevitably the cause of all that is wrong in the world. If only we would ally with the imaginary noble Russians who can help us keep the Chinese at bay, because after all they completely share our view of the world and desire the same things. Just stupid NATO and EU and MSM conspiracies prevent that wondrous world from arising.
Anybody who argues from realpolitik that NATO encroachment and mean old West forced Russia to take an uncharacteristic act of imperialism that isn’t any of our business is either deluded or ignorant.
If you don’t know Sergei Karagonov or Alexander Dugin or who Yevgeny Prighozin is, and what they do and profess, and their influence in Russia today, you can’t begin to make an assessment of Russia’s motivations and behaviors. If you think there is any comparison of the magnitude of the lies and evil of their ilk and the demented Russia polity with the weak and deceptive and degenerative elites burdening us in the West, you have serious cognitive and moral issues.
Ukraine gave up their nukes on a promise that their country could be preserved and they could develop their culture as they desired. Russia kept its nukes and not its promises, and regards as Nazis all who are not Russian, or willingly submit to Russia. The Ukraine state had a big corruption problem, but the society has been working toward improving people’s lives and producing useful products including software and automotive parts built to world standards. The Russians, not so much, as a regime or as a society. Russian brutality in war is not new, and Ukraine did not pick this fight, they have to do what they have to do to defeat invaders.
Both-side-ism is repugnant in this case. Let Ukraine defend themselves and sell them what they need.
ThisIsNotNutellaApril 19, 2022, 5:15 PM
To be sure, to be sure… Olearstein.
Next year in Tipperary, begorrah!
ghostsniperApril 19, 2022, 6:10 PM
“The Ukraine state had a big corruption problem, but the society has been working toward improving people’s lives and producing useful products including software and automotive parts built to world standards.”
…and their trains ran on time.
Go buy some new material.
=============
“Let Ukraine defend themselves and sell them what they need.”
Yes, anyone should defend themselves as they see fit.
But stealing from the american productive and giving it to someone else is criminal.
You know better than that.
james wilsonApril 19, 2022, 1:31 PM
If I were inclined to wish the Ukraine well or even support it in this war something very alarming would still gain my attention. The public figures who support the Ukes are invariably my enemies.
VanderleunApril 19, 2022, 5:13 PM
Mine too. But then again all those I used to think about as “opponents” I now think of as “enemies.”
james wilsonApril 19, 2022, 5:18 PM
There was a time, for a long time, when I had opponents. They escalated, severely.
TerryApril 19, 2022, 8:41 PM
Our enemy as Americans, has always been the enemy within. The Communists within this country are stronger than ever and few people realize the gravity of the danger. I believe that within 9 months these fools are going to be true believers.
Starvation is a horrible torture. I have read that the goons in charge are planning to essentially shut down the railroads. Think that over a bit. I do not know if this is the plan or not. But it is certainly something these creeps are capable of.
The ultimate “final solution” will come next year (2023) after a year of little harvest due to things being done right now as Hoss’s link shows. Yes, later this year food will become scarce and very expensive. The self culling will start in the urban ghetto’s. By next summer (2023) it will have already boiled over and be spreading out to everywhere. By the winter of 2023 there will not be a grain of rice or corn anywhere except in the deep larders of the “conspiracy theorists”.
By spring of 2024 the landscape of the US will look a lot different than it does today. The population will be reduced to less than half it is now. Combustible engines will be mostly useless except for those that have been converted. Urban areas will be total slums and mostly vacant except for dead bodies everywhere and desperate scavengers.
This is happening in slo-mo right now but the cacophony of disillusion and distraction is so intense it is difficult to see. Short focus and paying attention to things that directly effect you is the way forward. Playing mental games with silly things at great distances are part of the distractions that will kill.
Don’t you all understand The Us govts, the EU, ALL need a World War. It’s the only possible solution to what they have created.
World War, cleanses their sins, keeps MIC, in the game. everybody’s giving money to those with skin in the game. Trillions will be made by the RothChilds the Rockefellers, , The other American families whom also discreetly loaned money to our alleged enemies to create world wars,,,,,,longevity.
There is absolutely no way my grand children will be allowed to fight in this war caused ultimately by The United States.
ThisIsNotNutellaApril 19, 2022, 5:31 PM
May 9 is, as is every other May 9, the date of the Moscow Victory Day Parade. This as near as a holy day for them as any. Think what you will about the Soviets and their sins and/or the hindsight futility of wasting good lives on D-Day so that sexual degenerates could legally molest schoolchildren in 2022 all over the Righteous West… From the Russian perspective they faced a war of annihilation/extinction and no matter what they suffered or did to others, in the end there was no Drag Queen Story Hour in Kazan and Russians remained Russian.
In any other year, it’s been possible to watch the entire thing on YouTube and get Putin’s speech with English subtitles. Doubt our Masters will be permitting us to watch the full speech this year, just the clips that taken out of context serve their interests.
Might be on GCTN though.
Modest prediction. Putin is going to echo the November 7, 1941 Revolution Day Parade during the Battle of Moscow and have some of the parading heavy stuff units and aerial hardware head for the front afterwards for a nice bit of symbolism.
ghostsniperApril 20, 2022, 2:46 PM
What is this GCTN?
ThisIsNotNutellaApril 20, 2022, 5:01 PM
Foreign Language Service of the Evil Chinky Sons of the Yellow Emperor: They will lie to you less than your own media does.
If you filter out the advertisements for aphrodisiac Bat Soup and segments about Joyous Uighur Tractor Girl, you’ll probably be getting more truthiness than you’ll ever get from your wondrous Public Square and Marketplace of Ideas.
This goes for Internal and External Chinese reporting of Western and other foreign news. They literally don’t have time to lie. The Clown World sleaze, incompetence, and madness is such good value that there’s nothing to be gained by adding to or subtracting from the simple relating of it.
Of course they are going to heavily slant their domestic and foreign language reporting of domestic problems. Separate issue.
ghostsniperApril 20, 2022, 5:43 PM
Thanks.
I looked up what you originally wrote, GCTN, and came up with CGTN and ran it down. I’ll check it out on a regular basis.
ThisIsNotNutellaApril 20, 2022, 5:50 PM
Apologies for the CG reversal brain fart!
orcadrvrApril 20, 2022, 7:51 AM
Our government has systematically earned the contempt with which it is held by most commenters here.
However, a few unassailable facts exist:
1) Russia invaded Ukraine in an attempt to wrest territory from Ukraine. Once in 2014, and again this year.
Some wars, and preemptive strikes, are justified. For instance, had Ukraine been mobilizing troops on the border to invade Russia (they weren’t), Russia would have been justified in striking first to prevent the invasion. This invasion is a totally unnecessary and criminal enterprise by Putin, whose country was under no threat from Ukraine, or NATO for that matter.
2) There is a lot of war time propaganda by both sides in any conflict, this one included. The mass graves being discovered in Ukraine, populated by civilians executed with their hands tied behind their backs, could have been staged by the Ukrainian government to embarrass the Russians and to provoke a sympathetic reaction in the West.
However, anyone familiar with communist history will acknowledge the proclivity toward barbarity which is inherent in that philosophy (such as the Katyn forest massacre in WW2). Putin, a former KGB head, can be presumed to have a fairly unemotional reaction to reports of mass slaughter of civilians.
Applying an “Occam’s Razor” level of analysis to the facts results in a high probability that these massacres were committed by the Russians.
3) Putin has singlehandedly revitalized NATO, which was no threat to him previously. He has also “destroyed his brand” by demonstrating, conclusively, the incompetence and ineptitude of his armed forces. No one in Western Europe fears his armies anymore. Just his nukes.
4) Sending US forces to fight this war would be monumental folly. Given recent history, it would not be unreasonable to expect this government to commit an act of monumental folly.
5) We should have started to exit from NATO in 1989, when the Soviet Union collapsed, and left the Europeans to their own devices. Like all government programs, it continued to exist long after it served any purpose.
“If the plan was to destroy the West, then it is going to plan. If the plan was to win the war and defeat the Russians, then that is another story. It is becoming clear that NATO planners prepared the Ukrainian army to fight a totally different army from the one Russia has sent through the Donbas. Despite having numbers, home-field advantage, and access to superior equipment, the Ukrainians are being routed.”
Zman is so full of crap, he ought to apply for an editorial position at WaPo or the NYT.
Considering the disparity of manpower and military equipment, it’s amazing that the advance on Kiev went nowhere and the Russians still have not achieved air supremacy. Now Western donations of all sorts of weaponry are pouring in. If I were you, I would not bet money on the Orcs winning in Donbas.
VanderleunApril 20, 2022, 9:04 PM
Alas, I think the Orcs have not yet begun to decimate.
ThisIsNotNutellaApril 20, 2022, 5:10 PM
What are the diagnostic criteria for Congenital Cossackus Bubbeitus? Asking for a Friend.
On the unrelated topic of Jesuits, isn’t it funny that the Jesuits ended up stuck with a reputation for being, well, Jesuitical and engaging in esoteric obfuscatory casuistry. Plus the bit about brainwashing the young. Hardly the Prime Suspects in the Current Year.
Ukraines never going to win a blow by blow war, their only real option is to raid into Russia, to require Ukraine located troops to retreat, protect the home land. Not suggesting random killings of Russians, but killing govts within Russia. City county and state.
Then run like hell, enjoy the high mountain fishing, develop more Intel. An absolute ball buster is killing the pipe line in about four hundred places, not pipe, but pumping structure. Or underwater.
A boat, an underwater drone, and fifty pounds of C4, rinse repeat. Imagine killing the Russia/China pipe lines!!
Hell I get a woodie thinking about the ways I could fuck up DC, Errrrr I meant Russia.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Everyone knows that Joe Biden is a vegetable. Kamala Harris is as dumb as a goldfish. The people running American foreign policy are Antony Blinken, Victoria Nuland, and her husband, Robert Kagan. These are the people who call the shots, along with their analogs in the military-industrial complex. They are running the war and telling the politicians that it is going to plan.
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
1. It is true that war, like poverty, will always be with us. But there are things worse than war—slavery for one. The belief that all war is evil simply because innocents get killed is called pacifism. A pacifist can exist as a free man only in a society where most men are not pacifists. He becomes what economists call a “free rider”. The pacifist gets the benefits offered by warriors without becoming one himself. In other words, while the pacifist shies away from the violence of war another man will have to fight and die in his place. This renders pacifism into what it really is, a mere boutique moral posture. Any society composed of nothing but pacifists will disappear from History—and rather rapidly.
2. What the NATO countries are doing to Russia in the Ukraine is what Russia did to the US in the Vietnam War; that is, Russia sent weapons to the Vietcong and Viet Minh so that American boys would get killed. NATO is shipping all sorts of arms into the Ukraine with the sole purpose of killing Russian soldiers. Once the war in Ukraine is over, this fact will not be lost on Russia.
3. There is no use complaining about men who make money in times of war. It has been thus since the first kings of Sumer paid for deliveries of shields, chariots and swords. Someone had to supply them. Such hand-wringing is like the angst that occurs in the wake of tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes and floods. Somebody has to provide the tools and resources to rebuild. Those who supply them will get paid to do so.
4. War clarifies things. Where we once had little idea of how the modern Russian military fights, now we have a good idea. How much of that information is understood by normal folks is unknown, since it is all shaded and twisted and perverted by propaganda. The Ukrainian army is learning firsthand how Russia fights. I doubt that it is enjoying the lesson, and every day there are fewer students.
5. There are around 6000 foreign mercenaries who went to Ukraine to fight the Russians. They breathed deeply the vaporous nonsense about this war put out by their own governments. These romantic fellows went off, Byron-like, to fight tyranny. Imagining themselves as a 21st century version of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, they too are learning how Russia fights. Few will ever see home again.
6. Chris Coons and Mitt Romney have been quite outspoken about sending US soldiers to fight in Ukraine. Between them they have 7 male children. When Romney and Coons talk about sending American boys to war against Russia, they do not mean their precious boys, but yours.
I agree that complaining about war from one’s couch is the height of sanctimony. But, it is so easy to do.
You turn yourself inside out to make nice for Russia. Who invaded whom? Who already took Eastern Europe once in the last century, and kept it? Who wants to hold the other guy’s ground? Certainly you’ll tell me it’s the globalist capitalists and evil NATO. They talked Russia into this, and Russia had no choice but to invade. It’s rich, and it’s magical thinking.
“Who wants to hold the other guy’s ground? Certainly you’ll tell me it’s the globalist capitalists and evil NATO. They talked Russia into this, and Russia had no choice but to invade.”
Please look up the “Straw Man” logical fallacy.
So your new criterion for the “bad guy” in war is now the one who invades? Then D-Day was a mistake and Germany was the “good guy”?
“Who already took Eastern Europe once in the last century…” The USSR. She has not existed for 31 years.
“…and kept it.” She didn’t keep it.
Can you list the number of peoples who occupied Eastern Europe since the Fall of the Western Empire? Nations and empires come and go. This process is called History.
A straw man is pretending that NATO brought Russia to battle.
The Soves were Russians, last time I looked.
And, finally, you go back to Classic times. I recall how it was trendy to say that Vietnam had always been at war. That was bullshit then, and your point is much the same, only fresher.
“A straw man is pretending that NATO brought Russia to battle.” I made no such claim.
“The Soves were Russians, last time I looked.” You might want to look again. The Soviet Union was comprised of 15 constituent republics, among them being:
1. Armenia
2. Azerbaijan
3. Belarus
4. Estonia
5. Georgia
6. Kazakhstan
7. Kyrgyzstan
8. Latvia
9. Lithuania
10. Moldova
11. Russia
12. Tajikistan
13. Turkmenistan
14. Ukraine
15. Uzbekistan
“I recall how it was trendy to say that Vietnam had always been at war. ” I had never heard that.
“That was bullshit then, and your point is much the same, only fresher.” Is it possible, Casey, for you to write without using the word “bullshit”?
The Russian Federation did not send weapons to the Viet Cong. The Soviets did.
Russia is absolved of all that happened during the Soviet Era. No guilt – scott free.
Yes they should be absolved, as should any and all living south of the Mason Dixon line of all that happened during our civil war, absolutely no guilt __ scott free.
Here are some facts from the *news* combat reporting. Imbedded with Russian troops. (Z truck in front of him in the convoy). Body burning because fuel added. Russian allied troops standing around in front of their cover, narrating the battle (accusing the Ukes of war crimes) for the camera, but claiming sniper danger is active. “People should run over there to receive…” civil affairs event. About 9:55 firing not from cover. End shows the ubiquitous and virtuous Russian soldiers bringing food to the Ukrainian civilians.
Yawn. Same plot line every time.
All above stipulated as “true,” “probably true,” and “possibly true.” Your milage may vary. The value is that we have here — regardless of provenance and level of trutiness — a report from the other side. A report that has (probably, possibly) all the elements of truthiness we witness in the pro-gogo reportage of West facing reporters. If you watch proUke channels and proRuski channels on Telegram (an app that I commend to you)you’ll see this sort of flip flop truthiness on either side. The value is not always just in the reporter stating what he states but in what is seen and heard in the background. Defame him as you will he’s still closer in than any others I’ve found.
I’m open to links from the other side but I don’t think a boutique page like this can add value to the thousands of CNN acolytes and Bidenettes of the West.
I for sure want to see Russia’s side. it’s good for laughs. Like: a piece of the cross went down with the Moscva. But, yes, I fully agree look at all sides. I also agree that the Uke side was a constant drumbeat of the same thing. The best thing to do is go up 10,000 miles, and look for the big picture. But, don’t sell the Russian imbeds as fair minded.
BTW, for the readers, I very much liked the Russian people I met in my short trip there. I did witness lots and lots of mind games, but there is a basic humanity to them that is undeniable. They don’t combust very well, I’ll wager. I’ll wager an almost truth that that body has gasoline on it. Probably diesel, too. If it even is a body.
Don’t think I’m selling them as “fair minded.” Don’t think anyone in this whole clusterfuck is “fair minded.” I will however look upon him as “differently minded” from the oozing pap out of those loving on Ukraine from studios in Brussels or New York.
Granted!
I’m a shamed to have bought into the idea that “our” side was the good guys.
Americans are often wonderful people and I love what culture is left, but our military exploits have not been us acting as the “good guys” during the lifetimes of anyone still with us.
Just a bunch of naive teenagers and malcontent adults being used by assholes with zero skin in the game.
At about 7:30 on the video, a 3 minute firefight broke out. Young Patrick got pretty hopped up to say the least, but he didnt run. The Russians were apparently tried to take out a sniper so that civilians could rush to a vehicle with relief supplies. So this kid was in a position where a sniper could have targeted him
To understand our young droog, Пєтрик, you need to know hes lived with Russians in the Donbass at least since 2014. He is also married to a Русская женщина (Russian woman) and has at least one child. In spite of all this, his ear for how Russian actually sounds is pretty poor. His accent sucks. I havent studied Russian for 40 years and I sound more like a Russian than he does
Cute language note: When the civvies were rushing to the supplies, the soldier kept saying “быстро, быстро” (bistro .. fast, move, quickly) This is why French cafe are known as bistros .. When a multinational army that included Russians temporarily occupied Paris after Waterloo, the Russian troops would hustle up service at Paris cafes by yelling “Быстро, быстро” S’truth.
Good to know. Thanks for the insights.
We have more communication possibilities available from the battlefields than ever before in history. I know less about this war than I would have thought possible. What the hell is really going on? I have no idea. The idea that this is all some huge Russian masterplan and they’re suddenly going to sweep out of I don’t know, Mariupol, and encircle the hapless Ukes does seem to be the most wishful of wishful thinking.
Oh boo hoo, people have lied to us, thus rendering us totally cynical and incapable of thinking and learning for ourselves! Pity us, we have no choice but to finally grasp what the Chomsky’s have long known, that we are the center of everything and therefore inevitably the cause of all that is wrong in the world. If only we would ally with the imaginary noble Russians who can help us keep the Chinese at bay, because after all they completely share our view of the world and desire the same things. Just stupid NATO and EU and MSM conspiracies prevent that wondrous world from arising.
Anybody who argues from realpolitik that NATO encroachment and mean old West forced Russia to take an uncharacteristic act of imperialism that isn’t any of our business is either deluded or ignorant.
If you don’t know Sergei Karagonov or Alexander Dugin or who Yevgeny Prighozin is, and what they do and profess, and their influence in Russia today, you can’t begin to make an assessment of Russia’s motivations and behaviors. If you think there is any comparison of the magnitude of the lies and evil of their ilk and the demented Russia polity with the weak and deceptive and degenerative elites burdening us in the West, you have serious cognitive and moral issues.
Ukraine gave up their nukes on a promise that their country could be preserved and they could develop their culture as they desired. Russia kept its nukes and not its promises, and regards as Nazis all who are not Russian, or willingly submit to Russia. The Ukraine state had a big corruption problem, but the society has been working toward improving people’s lives and producing useful products including software and automotive parts built to world standards. The Russians, not so much, as a regime or as a society. Russian brutality in war is not new, and Ukraine did not pick this fight, they have to do what they have to do to defeat invaders.
Both-side-ism is repugnant in this case. Let Ukraine defend themselves and sell them what they need.
To be sure, to be sure… Olearstein.
Next year in Tipperary, begorrah!
“The Ukraine state had a big corruption problem, but the society has been working toward improving people’s lives and producing useful products including software and automotive parts built to world standards.”
…and their trains ran on time.
Go buy some new material.
=============
“Let Ukraine defend themselves and sell them what they need.”
Yes, anyone should defend themselves as they see fit.
But stealing from the american productive and giving it to someone else is criminal.
You know better than that.
If I were inclined to wish the Ukraine well or even support it in this war something very alarming would still gain my attention. The public figures who support the Ukes are invariably my enemies.
Mine too. But then again all those I used to think about as “opponents” I now think of as “enemies.”
There was a time, for a long time, when I had opponents. They escalated, severely.
Our enemy as Americans, has always been the enemy within. The Communists within this country are stronger than ever and few people realize the gravity of the danger. I believe that within 9 months these fools are going to be true believers.
Starvation is a horrible torture. I have read that the goons in charge are planning to essentially shut down the railroads. Think that over a bit. I do not know if this is the plan or not. But it is certainly something these creeps are capable of.
https://yournews.com/2022/04/18/2330553/cf-industries-warns-that-fertilizer-rail-shipments-are-being-halted/
The ultimate “final solution” will come next year (2023) after a year of little harvest due to things being done right now as Hoss’s link shows. Yes, later this year food will become scarce and very expensive. The self culling will start in the urban ghetto’s. By next summer (2023) it will have already boiled over and be spreading out to everywhere. By the winter of 2023 there will not be a grain of rice or corn anywhere except in the deep larders of the “conspiracy theorists”.
By spring of 2024 the landscape of the US will look a lot different than it does today. The population will be reduced to less than half it is now. Combustible engines will be mostly useless except for those that have been converted. Urban areas will be total slums and mostly vacant except for dead bodies everywhere and desperate scavengers.
This is happening in slo-mo right now but the cacophony of disillusion and distraction is so intense it is difficult to see. Short focus and paying attention to things that directly effect you is the way forward. Playing mental games with silly things at great distances are part of the distractions that will kill.
Don’t you all understand The Us govts, the EU, ALL need a World War. It’s the only possible solution to what they have created.
World War, cleanses their sins, keeps MIC, in the game. everybody’s giving money to those with skin in the game. Trillions will be made by the RothChilds the Rockefellers, , The other American families whom also discreetly loaned money to our alleged enemies to create world wars,,,,,,longevity.
There is absolutely no way my grand children will be allowed to fight in this war caused ultimately by The United States.
May 9 is, as is every other May 9, the date of the Moscow Victory Day Parade. This as near as a holy day for them as any. Think what you will about the Soviets and their sins and/or the hindsight futility of wasting good lives on D-Day so that sexual degenerates could legally molest schoolchildren in 2022 all over the Righteous West… From the Russian perspective they faced a war of annihilation/extinction and no matter what they suffered or did to others, in the end there was no Drag Queen Story Hour in Kazan and Russians remained Russian.
In any other year, it’s been possible to watch the entire thing on YouTube and get Putin’s speech with English subtitles. Doubt our Masters will be permitting us to watch the full speech this year, just the clips that taken out of context serve their interests.
Might be on GCTN though.
Modest prediction. Putin is going to echo the November 7, 1941 Revolution Day Parade during the Battle of Moscow and have some of the parading heavy stuff units and aerial hardware head for the front afterwards for a nice bit of symbolism.
What is this GCTN?
Foreign Language Service of the Evil Chinky Sons of the Yellow Emperor: They will lie to you less than your own media does.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CGTN_(TV_channel)
If you filter out the advertisements for aphrodisiac Bat Soup and segments about Joyous Uighur Tractor Girl, you’ll probably be getting more truthiness than you’ll ever get from your wondrous Public Square and Marketplace of Ideas.
This goes for Internal and External Chinese reporting of Western and other foreign news. They literally don’t have time to lie. The Clown World sleaze, incompetence, and madness is such good value that there’s nothing to be gained by adding to or subtracting from the simple relating of it.
Of course they are going to heavily slant their domestic and foreign language reporting of domestic problems. Separate issue.
Thanks.
I looked up what you originally wrote, GCTN, and came up with CGTN and ran it down. I’ll check it out on a regular basis.
Apologies for the CG reversal brain fart!
Our government has systematically earned the contempt with which it is held by most commenters here.
However, a few unassailable facts exist:
1) Russia invaded Ukraine in an attempt to wrest territory from Ukraine. Once in 2014, and again this year.
Some wars, and preemptive strikes, are justified. For instance, had Ukraine been mobilizing troops on the border to invade Russia (they weren’t), Russia would have been justified in striking first to prevent the invasion. This invasion is a totally unnecessary and criminal enterprise by Putin, whose country was under no threat from Ukraine, or NATO for that matter.
2) There is a lot of war time propaganda by both sides in any conflict, this one included. The mass graves being discovered in Ukraine, populated by civilians executed with their hands tied behind their backs, could have been staged by the Ukrainian government to embarrass the Russians and to provoke a sympathetic reaction in the West.
However, anyone familiar with communist history will acknowledge the proclivity toward barbarity which is inherent in that philosophy (such as the Katyn forest massacre in WW2). Putin, a former KGB head, can be presumed to have a fairly unemotional reaction to reports of mass slaughter of civilians.
Applying an “Occam’s Razor” level of analysis to the facts results in a high probability that these massacres were committed by the Russians.
3) Putin has singlehandedly revitalized NATO, which was no threat to him previously. He has also “destroyed his brand” by demonstrating, conclusively, the incompetence and ineptitude of his armed forces. No one in Western Europe fears his armies anymore. Just his nukes.
4) Sending US forces to fight this war would be monumental folly. Given recent history, it would not be unreasonable to expect this government to commit an act of monumental folly.
5) We should have started to exit from NATO in 1989, when the Soviet Union collapsed, and left the Europeans to their own devices. Like all government programs, it continued to exist long after it served any purpose.
I find room for argument if your first 3 points but thoroughly agree on points 4 & 5.
“If the plan was to destroy the West, then it is going to plan. If the plan was to win the war and defeat the Russians, then that is another story. It is becoming clear that NATO planners prepared the Ukrainian army to fight a totally different army from the one Russia has sent through the Donbas. Despite having numbers, home-field advantage, and access to superior equipment, the Ukrainians are being routed.”
Zman is so full of crap, he ought to apply for an editorial position at WaPo or the NYT.
“Zman is so full of crap, he ought to apply for an editorial position at WaPo or the NYT.”
Is that what you call “analysis”? Very impressive.
I suspect there’s a Jesuit or two in Zman’s educational woodpile.
His arguments are usually concise and succinct, if one accepts the premises he presents, it’s hard not to accept his conclusions.
Perhaps. But in the Donbas the Russians actually are beating the Ukes even if the Ukes are defending in a heroic fashion.
Considering the disparity of manpower and military equipment, it’s amazing that the advance on Kiev went nowhere and the Russians still have not achieved air supremacy. Now Western donations of all sorts of weaponry are pouring in. If I were you, I would not bet money on the Orcs winning in Donbas.
Alas, I think the Orcs have not yet begun to decimate.
What are the diagnostic criteria for Congenital Cossackus Bubbeitus? Asking for a Friend.
On the unrelated topic of Jesuits, isn’t it funny that the Jesuits ended up stuck with a reputation for being, well, Jesuitical and engaging in esoteric obfuscatory casuistry. Plus the bit about brainwashing the young. Hardly the Prime Suspects in the Current Year.
Ukraines never going to win a blow by blow war, their only real option is to raid into Russia, to require Ukraine located troops to retreat, protect the home land. Not suggesting random killings of Russians, but killing govts within Russia. City county and state.
Then run like hell, enjoy the high mountain fishing, develop more Intel. An absolute ball buster is killing the pipe line in about four hundred places, not pipe, but pumping structure. Or underwater.
A boat, an underwater drone, and fifty pounds of C4, rinse repeat. Imagine killing the Russia/China pipe lines!!
Hell I get a woodie thinking about the ways I could fuck up DC, Errrrr I meant Russia.