It may be a lost cause… but the alternative is for them to roll over on their bellies, prostrate themselves to the Kremlin and hope for the best. We had no hope of victory against the British in 1775. When it comes to David vs Goliath stories, and patriots defending their homeland against a stronger invader… I will ALWAYS side with the underdog. I will never apologize for it. It’s a character thing. I hate to see bullies forcing their will on a weaker neighbor. I hate totalitarians and bullies and will always root for/support the underdog in these fights, even if lost causes.
"Government at its best is a necessary evil, and at it�s worst, an intolerable one." Thomas Paine (from "Common Sense" 1776)
The globalists did not kill off enough of us with their Covid bio-weapon and their bio-weapon clot shots so they want to push Russia into starting WWIII to have a major population reduction.
The best Ukraine can hope for is peace if they let the areas that are mostly Russian Ukrainians be annexed by Russia and stay out of NATO.
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
I could care less about either side in this conflict. We should have no involvement in it.
There in lies the rub.
This war did not begin with Putin's invasion of Ukraine. It's been an ongoing conflict for over 8 years. Most Americans are oblivious to the fact that the Obama/Biden administration started it. Has everyone forgotten Hunter? The neocon/globalists implemented a coup in 2014; ousted the duly elected president of Ukraine and installed a puppet who would serve their interests. They have repeatedly violated treaties signed with Russia that guaranteed Ukrainian neutrality and now they want to bitch because Putin is pissed off.
What aggravates me is all the dumbass americans who are cheer leading Ukraine. They didn't give a shit about Ukraine until the propaganda ministry told them to. But, now they've jumped on the bandwagon demanding war with Russia to save the Ukrainians. 38% are even stupid enough to think we should nuke Russia while seemingly failing to realize that they can do the same to us.
The Ukrainian and the Russian people will suffer because of globlaist ambitions and so will Europe and America.
There will be NO winners in this.
"The time for war has not yet come, but it will come and that soon, and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." Gen. T.J. Jackson, March 1861
Having been lied into war in Iraq in 2003, the American public swore it had wised up. Sure, it went on to drop the ball by supporting the Libya intervention, itself prefaced by lies, and supported the government’s intervention in the civil war in Syria (or at least didn’t mind it), even though the US sided with the very Sunni extremists it had been fighting a few years before in Iraq. But these were admittedly obscure conflicts, made all the more so by the blatantly biased coverage of events by Western media, which parroted obvious lies about impending massacres and staged chemical weapons attacks.
But in Europe, where the US had extensive military alliance commitments under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the US population should ostensibly have been more informed and less prone to beguiling, it has been disappointing to see the American public once again so easily led down the path to supporting a war that never had to be—never would have been—but for the policies enacted by our government.
And just as with the baseless rush to war with Iraq, which every outlet of mainstream media loyally supported, those who refuse to repeat slogans of “Ukrainian democracy” or “Russian aggression” are denigrated, either as cowards or as apologists for the heinous actions of others, for which they are obviously not responsible. Besides being inaccurate, the latter accusation is particularly perfidious because it effectively makes reasoned dissent impossible.
But by pretending that history started with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the story is made simple, a clear case of right and wrong. And while it is true that Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine and so is responsible for the present war, such a Manichean telling of the story does little to further informed policy discussion. Indeed, that is precisely the point: to ignore the decades of declared Russian security interests in the orientation of states directly at its border, as well as to obscure a history of US meddling in Ukraine.
So unless you think context is irrelevant, that recent history is unimportant to understanding current crises, here are four things you aren’t supposed to say about Ukraine but that are absolutely true and that all Americans should be aware of before forming a hasty opinion regarding a deadly serious matter that until a few weeks ago most knew nothing about.
The “Revolution of Dignity” Was a US-Backed Coup
The 2014 ouster of slightly Russian-leaning Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, who drew his support primarily from the ethnic Russian–dominated eastern parts of the country, was spun by Ukrainian nationalist and Western media as a ”revolution of dignity.” It was in fact, in the words of Western security analyst George Friedman, ”the most blatant coup in history.” In case the obvious nature of events on the ground weren’t enough, this was confirmed by the leaked phone call between then assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt, then the US ambassador to Ukraine, during which they picked their favorites for the new Ukrainian leadership and plotted how to prevent the meddlesome EU from screwing it all up by moving too slowly, potentially allowing Russia a chance to interfere in the obviously illegal ouster of an elected government through a street putsch.
The proximate cause of the coup was Yanukovych’s taking of what was essentially a large Russian bribe to eschew an EU association agreement. In a country ranked 122nd in corruption, literally the most corrupt country in Europe, none of this was a surprise. But what was a surprise was the US move to sweep in and take Kyiv—something US foreign policy insiders publicly bragged about in the immediate aftermath.
There Is a Significant Neo-Nazi Problem in Ukraine
This is something that until a few years ago the mainstream media reported seriously on; of course, that was before they knew they were going to have to try and lie us into another war. Now any mention of what was taken to be an obvious problem just a year ago is decried as “Russian propaganda!”
The empowerment of far right extremists since the 2014 coup, a significant number with openly Neo-Nazi affiliations, is reflected in the dramatic rise in attacks on Jews, feminists, and the LGBTQ and Romany communities. It has further led to the banning of books that question Kyiv’s nationalist propaganda, which itself features the whitewashing of Nazi collaborators.
What are we to think when at the same time that public witch hunts for supposed white nationalists are carried out domestically with something near hysterical zeal, state-of-the-art shoulder-fired antiaircraft and antitank weaponry is shipped in great volumes to extremist white nationalists in Ukraine that would make the top of any of our own domestic terrorist watch lists?
We aren’t supposed to think about it all, at least not critically—just like we aren’t supposed to think critically about anything else.
The Russians Always Objected to NATO Expansion into Ukraine
For example, how about the fact our government always knew the Russians vigorously objected to any NATO involvement in Ukraine but downplayed or dismissed the obvious steps they were taking in that direction—downplayed it to themselves, to the American public, and tried to downplay it to the wider European community. Of course, Germany and France knew better and refused to grant a membership action plan to Ukraine despite Washington’s intense pressure. And though blocked from de jure absorbing Ukraine into the alliance, Washington was taking de facto steps to that effect—conducting joint military exercises in Ukraine at the same time that it was shipping the US-coup-installed government sophisticated heavy weaponry whose only obvious use was against Russia. Since at least 2014, when Putin ordered Russian forces to seize the Crimea to protect the only warm water port of the Russian navy after threats by Kyiv to evict them despite Moscow’s legal lease, Washington has known Putin feels particularly threatened in Ukraine. Even in the years since then, Washington has rejected repeated attempts by Moscow to establish an officially neutral Ukraine, including in the weeks leading up to the invasion.
Biden Could Have Prevented the War
Yes, even at that late date in January 2022—and all it would have taken was agreeing to Putin’s minimum terms: Ukraine could never join NATO, and new missiles could not be deployed in eastern European NATO member states. Outrageous and rightly rejected? Not according to Joe Biden, who claimed NATO membership for Ukraine was not on the table nor a serious priority at any point in the foreseeable future. Taking him at his word, why wouldn’t Biden simply agree to put it on paper and prevent what he himself repeatedly said were imminent Russian plans to invade and destroy Ukraine? What we’re told, and have been told since NATO expansion began, is that “keeping the door open” to alliance membership is a ”sacred principle.”
Perhaps it should be made public exactly how many Ukrainian lives the State Department and the Pentagon reckon this principle to be worth and how such calculations are made.
Conclusion
Really, what this looks like is a tragic combination of the brief 2008 Russo-Georgian War and the decade-long Soviet-Afghan War. In the first instance, US encouragement of actions by Tbilisi directly contrary to Russian interests led directly to a Russian military intervention; in the latter case, the leading US policy maker at the time, Zbigniew Brzezinski, admits precipitating that war on purpose: provoking the USSR into fatally overreaching in an attempt to protect an allied government from being undermined by the US—in this case by funding the proto-Taliban mujahideen in Afghanistan from bases in neighboring Pakistan.
As Poland gets set to potentially play Pakistan to Ukraine’s Afghanistan, serving as a staging area and training ground for rebel fighters slipping back and forth across the border to Ukraine, thereby further threatening war between NATO and Russia, we should recall that this all, in a sense, happened because the local governments in Donetsk and Luhansk could see the obvious: what had happened in Kyiv in 2013–14 was a coup, and they refused to recognize the new government. Further, we should remember that it was only when the Ukrainian military attempted to retake these regions by force that Russia intervened—and that since the Minsk Two peace accords failed to bring about a durable ceasefire, over 80 percent of those killed have been ethnic Russians living in the breakaway regions, and they were killed by the government in Kyiv.
With Democrats and Republicans fighting about who supports intervening in Ukraine more, and with uninformed and misled people increasingly calling for even more disastrous interventionist measures, the American public needs to be reminded that it is entirely possible for us to have a foreign policy that keeps us perfectly safe while not getting large numbers of people killed elsewhere, and further, that most of the various crises around the world that we are told the US needs to play a direct and integral part in solving are themselves the direct result of previous US interventions in those places.
I agree…. Giving a proud, stubborn, determined, dug-in enemy that thus far has shown no signs that they are deterred by odd stacked against them or by overwhelming odds such an ultimatum is bound to result in their be of two things…
1. A bloody disaster where the invaders spend so many reserves that they are unable to continue their offensive (akin ironically to General Palouse’s 6th army in Stalingrad) 2. The defenders fight to the last man in a massacre which only serves to make them into natural martyrs inspiring a national sense of identity to destroy the invaders (akin to Santa Anna’s attack on the Alamo)
"Government at its best is a necessary evil, and at it�s worst, an intolerable one." Thomas Paine (from "Common Sense" 1776)
"The time for war has not yet come, but it will come and that soon, and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." Gen. T.J. Jackson, March 1861
A Florida businessman is trying to do his part to support Ukraine by donating weapons to them. Adrian Kellgren, of the Cocao-based arms manufacturer firm KelTec, has gifted 400 guns to the Ukrainian war effort, reports the Associated Press.
"The American people want to do something," Kellgren told the A.P. "We enjoy our freedoms; we cherish those things. And when we see a group of people out there getting hammered like this, it's heartbreaking."
Nonprofits and local governments around the country have tried to ship arms and military gear to the country, but have generally been thwarted by federal export limits. But Kellgren's company was able to get an export license within a few days, thanks to help from a Ukrainian neighbor and a Ukrainian embassy official, according to the A.P.
Other would-be gun runners are now using KelTec's license to ship their own weapons to the country.
Without all the federal government's red tape on who can sell weapons to who, the private sector could be doing much more to lend Ukraine a helping handgun.
Most wars these days produce a number of bad movies, and bad songs. So, I suppose it was just a matter of time before this came along. WARNING: Juvenile language in the translation. Sorry. And apologies to Queen as well.
Quote
Don't forget: in this land You have no friends, only enemies. You bring death, you lie to everybody, You'll never take away our home!
[Refrain:] Russian, go fuck yourself! Russian, go fuck yourself!
Here is your future, remember: A bullet in the forehead and you lie down in the grove. A Ukrainian steamroller drives over the dead. The children of Mariupol are in our hearts!
[Refrain]
A legendary victory awaits us! Your last tank was taken away by grandpa Panas. Glory to the heroes! Death to enemies! Stinky occupier, only one thing I will add
In Poland there is a east bound highway leading into Belarus that is blocked at the border by hundreds of Polish protesters that have been there refusing to allow these trucks (that are largely bound for Russia) to leave the country. It is over 40 miles long. Many trucking firms are now refusing to take these jobs as they don’t want their rigs/drives stuck in this.
"Government at its best is a necessary evil, and at it�s worst, an intolerable one." Thomas Paine (from "Common Sense" 1776)
..."The psychological bar was so high that nuclear strikes came to be seen as unthinkable. Today, both Russia and the United States have nuclear arms that are much less destructive — their power just fractions of the Hiroshima bomb’s force, their use perhaps less frightening and more thinkable"...
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
The globalists through the controlled news media are pushing for the use of tactical nukes to start WW3.
As Grandpa used to say...If you play in shit you'll get it all over you.
British Fighters Triggered Deadly Missile Strike On Ukrainian Base With Their Cell Phones March 21, 2022
British volunteer fighters are suspected of triggering a deadly attack on a Ukrainian military base after their cellphones were traced in the vicinity.
When 30 Russian cruise missiles slammed into the Yavoriv site near the Polish border on March 13, at least 35 persons were killed, possibly including three British ex-special forces men.
The International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security, where Ukraine was training foreign civilian volunteers for its international brigade, is thought to have been the primary focus on the site.
In the hours leading up to the missile attack, monitoring gear in the vicinity saw about 12 to 14 phone numbers beginning with +44.
Mercenaries employed by the Wagner Group, a covert military firm with ties to the Kremlin, were suspected of acting on the field at the time, according to security sources.
It has sparked suspicions that the hired guns were prepared to intercept the numbers using their own screening technology and relay them on to Russian intelligence, which connected the information to ex British military members and authorized an assault right away.
When a gadget pings a local phone mast to link to the network so a client may place calls or send messages, the phone number can become exposed to eavesdropping technologies.
Russia is claimed to have a massive database of phone numbers related to special British forces, gathered through classified surveillance operations near British military facilities.
Several of the British men who’ve already chosen to assist the opposition to Vladimir Putin’s special military operation had already served in these forces, so their presence on a Ukrainian phone network would set off alarm signals in the Kremlin.
A source said: “As soon as Moscow got any whiff of possible British presence on the base, they would have immediately ordered a strike.”
The bombardment on the base, one of Putin’s deepest ventures west in the three-week-old war, highlights the dangers that British recruits face if they travel into the conflict zone, especially if they neglect to employ caution when using technological devices.
There is also suspicion that Russian operatives have penetrated the expanding volunteer force that reacted to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s rallying call.
“There was potentially a mole placed in the unit (on the Yavoriv base) who was seen running from the camp around 30 minutes before the attack, with a laptop and kit,” a source said.
The disorganized character of the effort to train foreign recruits frightened British volunteers who, by a strange coincidence, fled the camp barely hours before the strike, according to the Telegraph earlier this week.
Carl Walsh of Wales’ Rhondda Valley and Ollie Funnell of Eastbourne, East Sussex, claimed they had obtained guarantees from Ukrainian officials that they would be able to join the international brigade as doctors ahead of time.
However, when the soldiers landed at the base, they were told that they would be dispatched to engage in the Battle of Kyiv after only 48 hours of training – despite the fact that they had no military experience.
“They didn’t even have weapons in camp to train with,” claimed Mr Walsh, a 50-year-old veteran combat medical technician.
To avoid getting pulled into a direct battle with Russia, Britain has not sent soldiers to Ukraine, but a large number of former military veterans have traveled there to either combat or teach and assist local forces.
The British Army revealed earlier this month that a “small number” of active soldiers went absent without leave to attempt to enter the conflict.
It has heightened fears that Russia may use the capture or execution of any rebellious British servicemen to declare Britain has joined the war.
Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, has cautioned that any soldiers who go to Ukraine to participate will be prosecuted when they return.
"The time for war has not yet come, but it will come and that soon, and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." Gen. T.J. Jackson, March 1861
Russia’s communications systems are failing at higher-than-expected rates during the nearly monthlong war in Ukraine, U.S. and European officials and experts said, forcing invading troops in the field to rely on open systems that can be readily intercepted by Ukrainian forces.
U.S. officials and experts believe Russia did not prepare adequately for a grinding monthslong ground invasion of Ukraine, expecting to quickly topple Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government in Kyiv, and did not properly prepare communications to extend the length of the country, Europe’s second-largest nation by landmass.
Ukrainian units have exploited Russia’s lack of communications to jam and interfere with tactical messages—in some cases even pinpointing the location of Russian general officers for snipers that have been trained by Western militaries over the past eight years.
“They just weren’t fully prepared for operations of this intensity for this long on so many different multiple lines of attack, and so we do see them having some command-and-control difficulties,” a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to provide a battlefield update, told reporters on Monday. “We’re seeing them use a lot more unclassified communications because their classified communications capability is … for one reason or another … not as strong as it should be.”
The senior U.S. defense official said Russia has also struggled to integrate air and ground forces and make real-time decisions on the battlefield. And Russia’s problems communicating among units have also been hampered by destructive bombing and shelling. Former U.S. officials and experts told Foreign Policy that Russia’s destructive campaign also took down 3G and 4G mobile communications towers necessary to operate encrypted smartphones near Kharkiv, Ukraine, forcing the invading troops to send out sensitive information in the open.
“They didn’t intend on destroying as much of the communications infrastructure as they have,” said Gavin Wilde, a nonresident fellow at Defense Priorities and an expert on Russia and information warfare who previously served as a director for Russia, Baltic, and Caucasus affairs on the U.S. National Security Council. “I think they’re probably loath to completely destroy so much critical infrastructure because their hope was that they could swoop in and have a more or less intact Ukraine.”
Russia’s communications problems have also been compounded by the lack of an overall field commander for the monthlong fight in Ukraine. On Monday, CNN reported that U.S. officials could not identify a Russian military official in charge of the hundreds of thousands of troops fighting in Ukraine, a force that includes Russian conscripts, Chechen units, and the paramilitary Wagner Group that is mostly fighting in the Donbass region in the east, where the Kremlin hopes to encircle Ukrainian forces....
The Switchblade is a flying camera robot with an explosive inside. These all-electric machines are weapons that will help find or attack nearby enemies, not far-away ones.
Switchblades come in two sizes: the Switchblade 300 and Switchblade 600. Both can be carried by one person, though the weight difference is substantial—a 300 weighs just 5.5 pounds and can fit inside a backpack. The 600 is heavier, with the missile itself weighing 33 lbs and the components needed to transport it much heavier.
The Switchblade 300 can hit targets at a range of just over 6 miles, and can fly for a total of 15 minutes. The 600 has a range of 25 miles or a flight time of 40 minutes. The Switchblade contains cameras, and video from these sensors, as well as GPS information and image processing, is used to guide the Switchblade. The Switchblade is also designed to receive targeting information from other drones, allowing it to follow and find selected targets. That makes it one weapon among many that can be directed against a target with the targeting information provided by other drones. What kind of targets will a Switchblade be used against?
Unlike other drones that are just used for reconnaissance, the Switchblade 300 carries a small explosive payload, the kind most likely used to hit people or unprotected weapons, like a mortar launcher or exposed machine gun emplacement. For the larger Switchblade 600, the payload is an “anti-armor warhead,” making it useful against vehicles.
If the humans directing the Switchblade see that it no longer has a target, it can be called off and then recovered. The brochure for the Switchblade 600 boasts that the weapon offers a rechargeable battery.
Are Switchblades drones or missiles?
The company that makes the Switchblade, AeroVironment, describes it as a “tactical missile system,” which hints at the weird dual-roles of the machine. It is both a flying scout and an armed weapon. Formally this category is called a “loitering munition.”
While these seem like a highly modern creation, there’s historical context: The Kettering Bug, a 1918 uncrewed biplane that’s considered a predecessor to both drones and cruise missiles, flew for a time before an internal signal released its wings and it crashed its explosive payload into the ground.
Modern loitering munitions typically fly for some time, using sensors to look for targets such as anti-air missile sites and radar stations. Even at the full endurance of the Switchblade 600, the drone can only fly for 40 minutes, and the short duration of a Switchblade 300 is barely enough to qualify it as a loiterer.
When the missiles were first proposed and tested, they were commonly referred to as either “kamikaze drones” or “suicide missiles.” Popular Science, in its coverage a decade ago, referred to prototype Switchblades as a “Flying Assassin Robot” and a “Kamikaze Suicide Drones.” All of those names capture something important about the category: when one of these weapons blows up, it cannot be used again or recovered.
Is a Switchblade an autonomous weapon?
Like many drones, the Switchblade is directed by waypoint navigation, in which a human plots a path on a map and the robot, once launched, flies on its own accord.
“[Unlike] radio-controlled devices, the operator is not flying the aircraft, the operator’s simply indicating what he wants to look at, what he wants the camera to be pointing at, and the onboard computer flies the aircraft to that point and maintains on target,” Steve Gitlin, AeroVironment’s Chief Marketing Officer, told The War Zone in 2020. “We have a similar capability in our tactical unmanned aircraft systems. You could lock in on a target and the aircraft will basically maintain position on that target, autonomous.”
Other software on the Switchblade, like feature and object recognition, likely aids in its ability to find and track a target. That doesn’t make it an autonomous weapon in the strictest definition, but it is a weapon with autonomous features, which can change the ways people use them.
Focusing on whether or not it fits a strict definition of autonomous weapon is less important than understanding how, exactly, Switchblades use what autonomous features they have. “It’s therefore probably wisest to put the definitional debates aside and instead focus on the novel (as well as familiar) challenges and risks that are raised by the growing autonomy of weapon systems,” recently tweeted Arthur Holland Michel, a scholar of drones and autonomous war machines. “For example: Do the operators have sufficient situational awareness to make a decision on the use of force? Do the weapons provide a sufficient control surface for human operators to exercise precaution in attack?”
In battle, the short flight time between launch and impact for Switchblades, especially Switchblade 300s, means that the person firing the weapon is operating in a similar manner as someone firing an anti-air missile at a plane, with trust that the missile’s own targeting system will hit what it is supposed to hit.
What is different for the Switchblade, compared to other missiles, is that the human operator has the possibility of calling off the attack if something changes, like a civilian walking into the area or the cameras revealing what the operator thought was a tank to be a schoolbus instead. That’s different from something like a high-flying Reaper drone, which fires missiles that can’t be turned around.
The ability to exercise that kind of control, to in effect un-fire a missile already airborne, is one of the big promises of control systems like this for weapons. For that promise to be realized, it requires that a human, launching weapons in battle, is able and willing to watch the missile’s own video feed until it ends.
"The Ukrainian Army Has Been Defeated. What's Left Is Mop-Up"
By Mike Whitney The Unz Review
March 23, 2022
Question 1– Can you explain to me why you think Russia is winning the war in Ukraine?
Larry C. Johnson– Within the first 24 hours of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, all Ukrainian Ground Radar Intercept capabilities were wiped out. Without those radars, the Ukrainian Air Force lost its ability to do air to air intercept. In the intervening three weeks, Russia has established a de facto No Fly Zone over Ukraine. While still vulnerable to shoulder fired Surface to Air Missiles supplied by the U.S. and NATO to the Ukrainians, there is no evidence that Russia has had to curtail Combat Air Operations.
Russia’s arrival in Kiev within three days of the invasion also caught my attention. I recalled that the Nazi’s in Operation Barbarossa took seven weeks to reach Kiev and the required 7 more weeks to subdue the city. The Nazis had the advantage of not pulling punches to avoid civilian casualties and were eager to destroy critical infrastructure. Yet many so-called American military experts claimed that Russia was bogged down. When a 24 mile (or 40 mile, depends on the news source) was positioned north of Kiev for more than a week, it was clear that Ukraine’s ability to launch significant military operations had been eliminated. If their artillery was intact, then that column was easy pickings for massive destruction. That did not happen. Alternatively, if the Ukrainian’s had a viable fixed wing or rotary wing capability they should have destroyed that column from the air. That did not happen. Or, if they had a viable cruise missile capability they should have rained down hell on the supposedly stalled Russian column. That did not happen. The Ukrainians did not even mount a significant infantry ambush of the column with their newly supplied U.S. Javelins.
The scale and scope of the Russian attack is remarkable. They captured territory in three weeks that is larger than the land mass of the United Kingdom. They then proceeded to carry out targeted attacks on key cities and military installations. We have not seen a single instance of a Ukrainian regiment or brigade size unit attacking and defeating a comparable Russian unit. Instead, the Russians have split the Ukrainian Army into fragments and cut their lines of communication. The Russians are consolidating their control of Mariupol and have secured all approaches on the Black Sea. Ukraine is now cut off in the South and the North.
I would note that the U.S. had a tougher time capturing this much territory in Iraq in 2003 while fighting against a far inferior, less capable military force. If anything, this Russian operation should scare the hell out of U.S. military and political leaders.
The really big news came this week with the Russian missile strikes on what are de facto NATO bases in Yavoriv and Zhytomyr. NATO conducted cyber security training at Zhytomyr in September 2018 and described Ukraine as a “NATO partner.” Zhytomyr was destroyed with hypersonic missiles on Saturday. Yavoriv suffered a similar fate last Sunday. It was the primary training and logistics center that NATO and EUCOM used to supply fighters and weapons to Ukraine. A large number of the military and civilian personnel at that base became casualties.
Not only is Russia striking and destroying bases used by NATO regularly since 2015, but there was no air raid warning and there was no shutdown of the attacking missiles.
Question 2– Why is the media trying to convince the Ukrainian people that they can prevail in their war against Russia? If what you say is correct, then all the civilians that are being sent to fight the Russian army, are dying in a war they can’t win. I don’t understand why the media would want to mislead people on something so serious. What are your thoughts on the matter?
Larry C. Johnson– This is a combination of ignorance and laziness. Rather than do real reporting, the vast majority of the media (print and electronic) as well as Big Tech are supporting a massive propaganda campaign. I remember when George W. Bush was Hitler. I remember when Donald Trump was Hitler. And now we have a new Hitler, Vladimir Putin. This is a tired, failed playbook. Anyone who dares to raise legitimate questions about is immediately tarred as a Putin puppet or a Russia stooge. When you cannot argue facts the only recourse is name calling.
Question 3– Last week, Colonel Douglas MacGregor was a guest on the Tucker Carlson Show. His views on the war are strikingly similar to your own. Here’s what he said in the interview:
“The war is really over for the Ukrainians. They have been ground into bits, there is no question about that despite what we hear from our mainstream media. So, the real question for us at this stage is, Tucker, are we going to live with the Russian people and their government or we going to continue to pursue this sort of regime change dressed up as a Ukrainian war? Are we going to stop using Ukraine as a battering ram against Moscow, which is effectively what we’ve done.” (Tucker Carlson– MacGregor Interview)
Do you agree with MacGregor that the real purpose of goading Russia into a war in Ukraine was “regime change”?
Second, do you agree that Ukraine is being used as a staging ground for the US to carry out a proxy-war on Russia?
Larry C. Johnson– Doug is great analyst but I disagree with him—I don’t think there is anyone in the Biden Administration that is smart enough to think and plan in those strategic terms. In my view the last 7 years have been the inertia of the NATO status quo. What I mean by that is that NATO and Washington, believed they could continue to creep east on Russia’s borders without provoking a reaction. NATO and EUCOM regularly carried out exercises—including providing “offensive” training—and supplied equipment. I believe reports in the United States that the CIA was providing paramilitary training to Ukrainian units operating in the Donbass are credible. But I have trouble believing that after our debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan, we suddenly have Sun Tzu level strategists pulling the strings in Washington.
There is an air of desperation in Washington. Besides trying ban all things Russian, the Biden Administration is trying to bully China, India and Saudi Arabia. I do not see any of those countries falling into line. I believe the Biden crew made a fatal mistake by trying to demonize all things and all people Russian. If anything, this is uniting the Russian people behind Putin and they are ready to dig in for a long struggle.
I am shocked at the miscalculation in thinking economic sanctions on Russia would bring them to their knees. The opposite is true. Russia is self-sufficient and is not dependent on imports. Its exports are critical to the economic well-being of the West. If they withhold wheat, potash, gas, oil, palladium, finished nickel and other key minerals from the West, the European and U.S. economies will be savaged. And this attempt to coerce Russia with sanctions has now made it very likely that the U.S. dollar’s role as the international reserve currency will show up in the dustbin of history.
Question 4– Ever since he delivered his famous speech in Munich in 2007, Putin has been complaining about the “architecture of global security”. In Ukraine we can see how these nagging security issues can evolve into a full-blown war. As you know, in December Putin made a number of demands related to Russian security, but the Biden administration shrugged them off and never responded. Putin wanted written assurances that NATO expansion would not include Ukraine (membership) and that nuclear missile systems would not be deployed to Romania or Poland. Do you think Putin’s demands are unreasonable?
Larry C. Johnson– I think Putin’s demands are quite reasonable. The problem is that 99% of Americans have no idea of the kind of military provocation that NATO and the U.S. have carried out over the last 7 years. The public was always told the military exercises were “defensive.” That simply is not true. Now we have news that DTRA was funding biolabs in Ukraine. I guess Putin could agree to allow U.S. nuclear missile systems in Poland and Romania if Biden agrees to allow comparable Russian systems to be deployed in Cuba, Venezuela and Mexico. When we look at it in those terms we can begin to understand that Putin’s demands are not crazy nor unreasonable.
Question 5– Russian media reports that Russian “high precision, air-launched” missiles struck a facility in west Ukraine “killing more than 100 local troops and foreign mercenaries.” Apparently, the Special Operations training center was located near the town of Ovruch which is just 15 miles from the Polish border. What can you tell us about this incident? Was Russia trying to send a message to NATO?
Larry C. Johnson– Short answer—YES! Russian military strikes in Western Ukraine during the past week have shocked and alarmed NATO officials. The first blow came on Sunday, March 13 at Yavoriv, Ukraine. Russia hit the base with several missiles, some reportedly hypersonic. Over 200 personnel were killed, which included American and British military and intelligence personnel, and hundreds more wounded. Many suffered catastrophic wounds, such as amputations, and are in hospital. Yet, NATO and the western media have shown little interest in reporting on this disaster.
Yavoriv was an important forward base for NATO (see here). Until February (prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine), the U.S. 7th Army Training Command was operating from Yavoriv as late as mid-February. Russia has not stopped there. ASB Military news reports Russia hit another site, Delyatyn, which is 60 miles southeast of Yavoriv (on Thursday I believe). Yesterday, Russia hit Zytomyr, another site where NATO previously had a presence. Putin has sent a very clear message—NATO forces in Ukraine will be viewed and treated as combatants. Period.
.Question 6– Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been lionized in the western media as a “wartime leader” and a modern-day “Winston Churchill”. What the media fails to tell its readers is that Zelensky has taken a number of steps to strengthen his grip on power while damaging fragile democratic institutions in Ukraine. For example, Zelensky has “banned eleven opposition-owned news organizations” and tried to bar the head of Ukraine’s largest opposition party, Viktor Medvedchuk, from running for office on a bogus “terrorist financing” charge. This is not the behavior of a leader that is seriously committed to democracy.
What’s your take on Zelensky? Is he really the “patriotic leader” the media makes him out to be?
Larry C. Johnson– Zelensky is a comedian and an actor. Not a very good one at that in my view. The West is cynically using the fact he is Jewish as a diversion from the size-able contingent of Neo-Nazis (and I mean genuine Nazis who still celebrate the Ukrainian Waffen SS unit’s accomplishments while fighting with the Nazis in WW II). The facts are clear—he is banning opposition political parties and shutting down opposition media. I guess that is the new definition of “democracy.”
Question 7– How does this end? There’s an excellent post at the Moon of Alabama site titled “What Will Be The Geographic End State Of The War In Ukraine“. The author of the post, Bernard, seems to think that Ukraine will eventually be partitioned along the Dnieper River “and south along the coast that holds a majority ethnic Russian population.” He also says this:
“This would eliminate Ukrainian access to the Black Sea and create a land bridge towards the Moldavian breakaway Transnistria which is under Russian protection. The rest of the Ukraine would be a land confined, mostly agricultural state, disarmed and too poor to be build up to a new threat to Russia anytime soon. Politically it would be dominated by fascists from Galicia which would then become a major problem for the European Union.”
What do you think? Will Putin impose his own territorial settlement on Ukraine in order to reinforce Russian security and bring the hostilities to an end or is a different scenario more likely?
Larry C. Johnson– I agree with Moon. Putin’s primary objective is to secure Russia from foreign threats and effect a divorce with the West. Russia has the physical resources to be an independent sovereign and is in the process of making that vision come true.
Bio– Larry C Johnson is a veteran of the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism. He is the founder and managing partner of BERG Associates, which was established in 1998. Larry provided training to the US Military’s Special Operations community for 24 years. He has been vilified by the right and the left, which means he must be doing something right. His analysis and commentary can be found at his blog, https://sonar21.com/
"The time for war has not yet come, but it will come and that soon, and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." Gen. T.J. Jackson, March 1861
Has Mariupol fallen? No one really seems to know. Russian troops have reached the center of the city, and Ukraine says that Mariupol "no longer exists." But there haven't been any independent journalists in there for a couple weeks now, and fighting seems to be continuing. It seems to me that whoever finally does win the Battle for Mariupol will have a pretty pyrrhic victory.
"The time for war has not yet come, but it will come and that soon, and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." Gen. T.J. Jackson, March 1861
Boss, I can't connect to that website. Someone might be hacking it. Which wouldn't be too surprising, since I'm hearing from a few sources (like this one)that Southfront has close ties to the Russian intelligence services.
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
Re: Developing Eastern European Crises
[Re: Navarro]
#177854 03/28/202212:00 AM03/28/202212:00 AM
Enter the link into a free proxy server if you want it to work.
The globalists want the Russians to start using their nukes to start WW3. Ukraine is on the Bidens side and the Ukrainians don't have any nukes so I hope the Ukrainians to loose so then Biden will stop the sanctions against the Ruskies since the sanctions are hurting us besides the Russians. I don't like communists and I don't like Nazis either. And I sure don't like our deficit spending to help the Ukrainians or anyone.
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
Enter the link into a free proxy server if you want it to work....
No thanks, I'll pass. But here's some more war news to take with a mountain of Morton's. How can a Russian soldier get $10,000? By selling his tank to the Ukrainians.
Did this really happen? Who knows.
Quote
A RUSSIAN soldier has surrendered with a tank in return for £7,500 and Ukrainian citizenship.
The man, named only as Misha, waved the white flag and begged to switch sides after military colleagues ran away and his commander threatened to shoot him.
Viktor Andrusiv, an adviser to the head of Ukraine’s interior ministry, claimed Misha saw “no point in further fighting” and was afraid to return home.
A rendezvous point was then arranged.
An armoured vehicle rolled into view and paused while Ukraine soldiers approached.
Mr Andrusiv said: “A few days ago Misha called us. We passed the information to the military intelligence. “They marked the place and he arrived. The drone checked that he was alone.”
He will get the money reward at the end of the war. He was also given access to a TV, telephone, kitchen and shower while fighting rages on.
Ukrainian authorities have identified Russian troops' phones and have regularly been sending texts on how to surrender and hand over equipment.
It is the latest embarrassment to Moscow amid widespread dismay at the targeting of Ukraine civilians.
As the fighting takes its toll on Russian troops, stories are beginning to emerge of anger and plummeting morale.
One soldier allegedly drove his tank into his commanding officer as he protested horrific losses among his comrades.
Colonel Yuri Medvedev was hospitalised with severe leg injuries after the reported incident.
An intercepted phone call this week revealed a terrified Russian soldier told his gran he wanted to "get the f*** out" of Ukraine and expected the war to be over within two weeks.
The unnamed man said: “I don’t know how God saved me”.
“To be honest with you I would get the f** out of here right now and I don’t care.
“The main thing is to survive the hell. We thought everything would be over in two weeks. It’s been almost a month already.”
He added that Russian troops' legs and hands are frozen up from living in cold trenches.
A soldier in a separate intercepted phone call also complained of comrades getting frostbite and fierce Ukrainian resistance.
And horrific audio revealed the moment Russia' so-called "Butcher of Mariupol" demanded to know why one of his soldier's had not been mutilated for wearing the wrong uniform....
Airforce, the link opens in Firefox with no problems when I click it.
"The time for war has not yet come, but it will come and that soon, and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." Gen. T.J. Jackson, March 1861
I have McAfee and a couple other firewalls, which I'm very reluctant to bypass. I just tried it again, and I still get the "problem loading page" thing. I think Texas Resistance gave me the gist of it anyway.
Ukrainian forces have seized part of one of Russia's most advanced electronic warfare systems, which could reveal its military secrets, reports say.
The Krasukha-4 command module was found abandoned on the outskirts of Kyiv partly damaged but otherwise intact, The Times of London reported.
Photos of the unit posted on social media appear to show the container containing the module covered in tree branches, possibly in a hasty camouflage attempt by retreating Russian forces.
The system is designed to jam low-orbit satellites, drones, and missiles, but it is also believed to be able to track NATO aircraft, The Times said....
It is believed that a Krasukha-4 system was used against Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones in Syria, interfering with their control signal and causing them to crash, according to The Telegraph....
The seized unit will be examined by Western spy agencies, The Telegraph reported, adding that it would likely be taken by road to the US Air Force's Ramstein Air Base in Germany, before being flown to the US.
Examining the unit could reveal secrets of how it works, which could help Ukraine and Western allies render it useless on the battlefield.
Justin Crump, a military veteran and CEO of risk analysis consultancy Sibylline, told The Times that the seizure was among "lots of goodies that have been recovered on the battlefield."
"It shows how scattered the fighting is and the lack of communications on the Russian side," Crump told the paper.
How much of this is true, and how much is BS? The best advice is, question everything.
The link shows the neo-NAZI Azov battalion torturing Russian prisoners.
"The time for war has not yet come, but it will come and that soon, and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." Gen. T.J. Jackson, March 1861
I would not torture my worst enemy. When Ukraine looses pay back will be a bitch. Never surrender in a war. Go out in a blaze of glory if you have to.
Last edited by Texas Resistance; 03/28/202201:04 PM.
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
Damn the democrats for supporting the Ukrainians. The Democrats want world war because they know that they will loose big time in the next election without another of their fear tactics like they used with their Corona Virus Genocide and their Clot Shot Genocide. Damn the major news media for their lies.
Even Old Testament law was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Not torture and terrorizing an enemies mother.
"The rule of “an eye for an eye” was part of God’s Law given by Moses to ancient Israel and was quoted by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew 5:38, King James Version; Exodus 21:24, 25; Deuteronomy 19:21) It meant that when dealing out justice to wrongdoers, the punishment should fit the crime. The rule applied to deliberate injurious acts against another person. Regarding a willful offender, the Mosaic Law stated: “Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, the same sort of injury he inflicted should be inflicted on him.”—Leviticus 24:20."
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
I saw the video, thanks. Here's my take on it - which, like everyone else's opinion, take with a grain of salt:
Did this really happen? Very possibly. Atrocities happen in every war. The Japanese and Germans were infamous for it, but they were far from the only ones. Almost a hundred thousand Germans surrendered after Stalingrad, only a few thousand were ever returned - and that was years after the war ended. And Roosevelt put thousands of American citizens into concentration camps because they looked Japanese.
Could the Russians themselves have faked the video? Yes, they could.
What are the odds that a Ukrainian officer would allow a war crime like this to be recorded on video? Pretty small, I would say. Of course, everyone has a video camera on their phone these days, so it's also possible someone saw this happening, taped it without anyone else noticing, and sent it to a Russian news agency with close ties to the Russian intelligence services. Possible, but not too likely.
If I were a gambling man, my bet would be that it's a propaganda film. But I've lost bets before.
Personally, I take any news coming out of this or any other war with a whole lot of skepticism.
Is it real? I don't know. I tend to take reports like this with an ocean of salt., and the Ukraine propaganda force seems thus far unscathed from the war.
Quote
Dead civilians still lay scattered over the streets of the Ukrainian country town of Bucha on Saturday, three days after the invading Russian army pulled back from its abortive advance on Kyiv to the southeast.
The smell of explosives still hung in the cold, dank air, mingling with the stench of death.
Sixty-six-year-old Vasily, who gave no surname, looked at the sprawled remains of more than a dozen civilians dotted along the road outside his house, his face disfigured with grief.
Residents said they had been killed by the Russian troops during their month-long occupation.
To Vasily's left, one man lay against a grass verge next to his bicycle, his face sallow and eyes sunken. Another lay in the middle of the road, a few metres from his front door. Vasily said it was his son's godfather, a lifelong friend.
Bucha's still-unburied dead wore no uniforms. They were civilians with bikes, their stiff hands still gripping bags of shopping. Some had clearly been dead for many days, if not weeks.
For the most part, they were whole, and it was unclear whether they had been killed by shrapnel, a blast or a bullet - but one had the top of his head missing.
"The bastards!" Vasily said, weeping with rage in a thick coat and woollen hat. "I’m sorry. The tank behind me was shooting. Dogs!"
"We were sitting in the cellar for two weeks. There was food but no light, no heating to warm up. "We put the water on candles to warm it ... We slept in felt boots."
Local officials gave Reuters reporters access to the area, and a policeman led the way through streets now patrolled by Ukrainian tanks to the road where the bodies lay.
It was not clear why they had not yet been buried.
Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk said more than 300 residents of the town had been killed, and a mass grave at one church ground was still open, with hands and feet poking through the red clay heaped on top....
Russian President Vladimir Putin began his invasion of Ukraine on February 24, and the U.S. started collecting evidence of possible Russian war crimes in the first week of March. This past weekend, when Ukrainian soldiers recaptured the town of Bucha, just 36 miles from Kyiv, they found themselves in the midst of what Ukrainian authorities called a "scene from a horror movie."
Horrifying photos and videos were released of victims' corpses lining the streets with their hands tied behind their back. More than 300 bodies were found shot dead in a mass grave.
Officials in Moscow repeatedly denied that Russian troops slaughtered innocent Ukrainians. Some even suggested that the images and videos circulating around the world are hoaxes or actors pretending to be dead in a "coordinated media campaign."
Time-lapse satellite imagery and reporting from the New York Times indicate that bodies had been laying in the streets of Bucha for a few weeks, rebuking the Kremlin's claim that the bodies were added to the streets after Russian soldiers "withdrew completely from Bucha around March 30." Dark objects similar in size to human bodies appeared on the street between March 9 and March 11. Footage from April 1 shows that these presumed bodies remained untouched until Ukrainian soldiers recaptured the contested area.
"The Ukrainian city of Bucha was in the hands of [Russian] animals for several weeks. Local civilians were being executed arbitrarily, some with hands tied behind their backs, their bodies scattered in the streets of the city," Ukraine's defense ministry told reporters on Sunday. Also on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russian forces are committing genocide by "destroying and exterminating" the Ukrainian people. These atrocities committed by Russian soldiers have enraged the international community—with many countries now calling for tougher sanctions.
"I will do everything in my power to starve Putin's war machine. We are stepping up our sanctions and military support, as well as bolstering our humanitarian support package to help those in need on the ground," said England's Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stressed that "Putin and his supporters will feel the consequences." President Joe Biden said Monday that "what's happening in Bucha is outrageous." No leader has gone so far as Zelenskyy to define Russia's actions as genocide.
In a more symbolic move, the U.S. and the U.K. have called to remove Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council, with Biden calling for Putin to be put on trial for war crimes committed during the Bucha massacre.
My great uncle served under Patton and was captured in 44. He was sent east to a concentration camp. When the Russian army started getting close to the camp he said the German guards were "terrified". They said the Russians would kill them all and began marching the prisoners west to surrender to the allies. When NAZI's claim someone is brutal I have no doubt that they don't play nice.
The Russian's who live in the Donbass area have claimed the Ukrainian neo-nazi brigade has been murdering civilians for 8 years. Maybe some pissed off Russian troops are getting a little payback.
"The time for war has not yet come, but it will come and that soon, and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." Gen. T.J. Jackson, March 1861
Ukrainians have turned to Apple’s Find My device-tracking technology to follow Russian troop movements. After Russian soldiers stole Apple gear during the invasion, the devices’ Ukrainian owners can see and report on where the troops toting the gadgets are going in real time, including a recent retreat into Belarus.
Ukrainians use "Find My" to track Russian troops
Amid the carnage of an invasion, in addition to the horrific damage, displacement and loss of life, troops often take the spoils of war. Such thefts include coveted Apple products, of course.
And that’s what so easily lets Ukrainians see where their Apple devices are going. And because the device is usually on the person of the soldier who took it, Ukrainians can see where Russian troops are going, too.
“Ukrainians are locating their devices on the territory of the Homiel region, Belarus, where part of the Russian army retreated,” read a tweet from Franak Viačorka, senior adviser to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, democratic opposition leader in Belarus.
And that tweet’s replies showed how impressed people are with the tech-savvy use of the functionality in wartime.
“This reminds me of when people were discovering secret overseas military bases by watching the public data of people’s fitbits. You could usually tell where the fence lines and gate posts were too just from the track data,” one person wrote.
Another commenter called the ubiquity of tracking technology and social media reporting amid the chaotic conflict “a trip.”
And, hitting the nail on the head, another tweet put it plainly:
“When Russians steal your trackable devices, you can find those Russians by tracking those devices! Putin’s incompetence is our ally against his evil.”
When you're fighting a war you should not carry any kind of a cell phone. Both the Ukraine Nazi's and the Russian Commie's commanders should ban all cell phones. The Russians are most likely tracking the Ukraine Nazis cell phones too. This should be a good lesson for militiamen if we have to uphold the constitution. Cell phones are designed to continually track you by continually pinging the nearest cell phone tower. The camera can be turned on remotely to watch you and the micro phone can be turned to record your private conversations. The photos you take with a cell phone include geo-tracking tags in the photo that can be used against you. How stupid to carry a tracking device into combat. I hate cell phones especially smart phones. If you absolutely have to have a cell phone for your job, get the dumbest phone you can find. Woketards panic if they can't always have a cell phone. Before cell phones I used to be able to have a good fistfight for at least 3 minutes before someone could call the police and I did not have to worry about some woketard videoing me beating the crap out of some faggot. Now you can't find a pay phone anywhere. Now they have a law in Texas called assault causing injury with much more severe penalties than simple assault even when you don't use a weapon. A real man should be able to cause injury in every fight with just a few punches. The idiot woketards are obeying the fake news media and are all for getting NATO to fight the Russian Commies in Ukraine to start World War 3 which will be Nuclear.
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
Re: Developing Eastern European Crises
[Re: Navarro]
#177935 04/08/202211:56 AM04/08/202211:56 AM
...This has prompted Russian elite paratroopers to stage a mutiny after witnessing their comrades being wiped out in battle, reports claim.
The soldiers were from key airborne forces headquarters in Pskov in northern Russia.
The refusenik troops had been moved to Belarus as part of the invasion force but after their mutiny, they were sent in disgrace back to their base in Pskov.
Some have been dismissed and branded "cowards" while others are set to face the Russian equivalent of a court-martial with likely jail sentences.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu is reported to have sent one of his deputies to Pskov to handle the insubordination.
Ukraine claimed that the 60 or so troops were elite paratroopers but this is not so far confirmed, even though they are from Pskov, a key HQ of Russia’s most elite airborne forces.
Russian opposition outlet Pskovskaya Guberniya reported: "About 60 servicemen from Pskov refused to go to war on Ukrainian territory, according to our sources.
"After the first days of the war, they were first brought to the Republic of Belarus, and then they returned to their base in Pskov.
"Most of them are currently being dismissed, but some are threatened with criminal cases." ...
Onward and upward, airforce
Re: Developing Eastern European Crises
[Re: Navarro]
#177938 04/09/202201:13 AM04/09/202201:13 AM
"The time for war has not yet come, but it will come and that soon, and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." Gen. T.J. Jackson, March 1861
Re: Developing Eastern European Crises
[Re: Navarro]
#177941 04/10/202210:19 AM04/10/202210:19 AM
"The time for war has not yet come, but it will come and that soon, and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." Gen. T.J. Jackson, March 1861
Larry C Johnson; veteran of the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism, claims the Ukrainian Army has been defeated up and all that’s left is “mop-up”. The veteran who provided training to the US Military’s Special Operations community for 24 years sat down with Mike Whitney to explain why.
nterview conducted by Mike Whitney
Question 1– Can you explain to me why you think Russia is winning the war in Ukraine?
Larry C. Johnson– Within the first 24 hours of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, all Ukrainian Ground Radar Intercept capabilities were wiped out. Without those radars, the Ukrainian Air Force lost its ability to do air to air intercept. In the intervening three weeks, Russia has established a de facto No Fly Zone over Ukraine. While still vulnerable to shoulder fired Surface to Air Missiles supplied by the U.S. and NATO to the Ukrainians, there is no evidence that Russia has had to curtail Combat Air Operations.
Russia’s arrival in Kiev within three days of the invasion also caught my attention. I recalled that the Nazi’s in Operation Barbarossa took seven weeks to reach Kiev and the required 7 more weeks to subdue the city. The Nazis had the advantage of not pulling punches to avoid civilian casualties and were eager to destroy critical infrastructure. Yet many so-called American military experts claimed that Russia was bogged down. When a 24 mile (or 40 mile, depends on the news source) was positioned north of Kiev for more than a week, it was clear that Ukraine’s ability to launch significant military operations had been eliminated. If their artillery was intact, then that column was easy pickings for massive destruction. That did not happen. Alternatively, if the Ukrainian’s had a viable fixed wing or rotary wing capability they should have destroyed that column from the air. That did not happen. Or, if they had a viable cruise missile capability they should have rained down hell on the supposedly stalled Russian column. That did not happen. The Ukrainians did not even mount a significant infantry ambush of the column with their newly supplied U.S. Javelins.
The scale and scope of the Russian attack is remarkable. They captured territory in three weeks that is larger than the land mass of the United Kingdom. They then proceeded to carry out targeted attacks on key cities and military installations. We have not seen a single instance of a Ukrainian regiment or brigade size unit attacking and defeating a comparable Russian unit. Instead, the Russians have split the Ukrainian Army into fragments and cut their lines of communication. The Russians are consolidating their control of Mariupol and have secured all approaches on the Black Sea. Ukraine is now cut off in the South and the North.
I would note that the U.S. had a tougher time capturing this much territory in Iraq in 2003 while fighting against a far inferior, less capable military force. If anything, this Russian operation should scare the hell out of U.S. military and political leaders.
The really big news came this week with the Russian missile strikes on what are de facto NATO bases in Yavoriv and Zhytomyr. NATO conducted cyber security training at Zhytomyr in September 2018 and described Ukraine as a “NATO partner.” Zhytomyr was destroyed with hypersonic missiles on Saturday. Yavoriv suffered a similar fate last Sunday. It was the primary training and logistics center that NATO and EUCOM used to supply fighters and weapons to Ukraine. A large number of the military and civilian personnel at that base became casualties.
Not only is Russia striking and destroying bases used by NATO regularly since 2015, but there was no air raid warning and there was no shutdown of the attacking missiles.
Question 2– Why is the media trying to convince the Ukrainian people that they can prevail in their war against Russia? If what you say is correct, then all the civilians that are being sent to fight the Russian army, are dying in a war they can’t win. I don’t understand why the media would want to mislead people on something so serious. What are your thoughts on the matter?
Larry C. Johnson– This is a combination of ignorance and laziness. Rather than do real reporting, the vast majority of the media (print and electronic) as well as Big Tech are supporting a massive propaganda campaign. I remember when George W. Bush was Hitler. I remember when Donald Trump was Hitler. And now we have a new Hitler, Vladimir Putin. This is a tired, failed playbook. Anyone who dares to raise legitimate questions about is immediately tarred as a Putin puppet or a Russia stooge. When you cannot argue facts the only recourse is name calling.
Question 3– Last week, Colonel Douglas MacGregor was a guest on the Tucker Carlson Show. His views on the war are strikingly similar to your own. Here’s what he said in the interview:
“The war is really over for the Ukrainians. They have been ground into bits, there is no question about that despite what we hear from our mainstream media. So, the real question for us at this stage is, Tucker, are we going to live with the Russian people and their government or we going to continue to pursue this sort of regime change dressed up as a Ukrainian war? Are we going to stop using Ukraine as a battering ram against Moscow, which is effectively what we’ve done.” (Tucker Carlson– MacGregor Interview)
Do you agree with MacGregor that the real purpose of goading Russia into a war in Ukraine was “regime change”?
Second, do you agree that Ukraine is being used as a staging ground for the US to carry out a proxy-war on Russia?
Larry C. Johnson– Doug is great analyst but I disagree with him—I don’t think there is anyone in the Biden Administration that is smart enough to think and plan in those strategic terms. In my view the last 7 years have been the inertia of the NATO status quo. What I mean by that is that NATO and Washington, believed they could continue to creep east on Russia’s borders without provoking a reaction. NATO and EUCOM regularly carried out exercises—including providing “offensive” training—and supplied equipment. I believe reports in the United States that the CIA was providing paramilitary training to Ukrainian units operating in the Donbass are credible. But I have trouble believing that after our debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan, we suddenly have Sun Tzu level strategists pulling the strings in Washington.
There is an air of desperation in Washington. Besides trying ban all things Russian, the Biden Administration is trying to bully China, India and Saudi Arabia. I do not see any of those countries falling into line. I believe the Biden crew made a fatal mistake by trying to demonize all things and all people Russian. If anything, this is uniting the Russian people behind Putin and they are ready to dig in for a long struggle.
I am shocked at the miscalculation in thinking economic sanctions on Russia would bring them to their knees. The opposite is true. Russia is self-sufficient and is not dependent on imports. Its exports are critical to the economic well-being of the West. If they withhold wheat, potash, gas, oil, palladium, finished nickel and other key minerals from the West, the European and U.S. economies will be savaged. And this attempt to coerce Russia with sanctions has now made it very likely that the U.S. dollar’s role as the international reserve currency will show up in the dustbin of history.
Question 4– Ever since he delivered his famous speech in Munich in 2007, Putin has been complaining about the “architecture of global security”. In Ukraine we can see how these nagging security issues can evolve into a full-blown war. As you know, in December Putin made a number of demands related to Russian security, but the Biden administration shrugged them off and never responded. Putin wanted written assurances that NATO expansion would not include Ukraine (membership) and that nuclear missile systems would not be deployed to Romania or Poland. Do you think Putin’s demands are unreasonable?
Larry C. Johnson– I think Putin’s demands are quite reasonable. The problem is that 99% of Americans have no idea of the kind of military provocation that NATO and the U.S. have carried out over the last 7 years. The public was always told the military exercises were “defensive.” That simply is not true. Now we have news that DTRA was funding biolabs in Ukraine. I guess Putin could agree to allow U.S. nuclear missile systems in Poland and Romania if Biden agrees to allow comparable Russian systems to be deployed in Cuba, Venezuela and Mexico. When we look at it in those terms we can begin to understand that Putin’s demands are not crazy nor unreasonable.
Question 5– Russian media reports that Russian “high precision, air-launched” missiles struck a facility in west Ukraine “killing more than 100 local troops and foreign mercenaries.” Apparently, the Special Operations training center was located near the town of Ovruch which is just 15 miles from the Polish border. What can you tell us about this incident? Was Russia trying to send a message to NATO?
Larry C. Johnson– Short answer—YES! Russian military strikes in Western Ukraine during the past week have shocked and alarmed NATO officials. The first blow came on Sunday, March 13 at Yavoriv, Ukraine. Russia hit the base with several missiles, some reportedly hypersonic. Over 200 personnel were killed, which included American and British military and intelligence personnel, and hundreds more wounded. Many suffered catastrophic wounds, such as amputations, and are in hospital. Yet, NATO and the western media have shown little interest in reporting on this disaster.
Yavoriv was an important forward base for NATO (see here). Until February (prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine), the U.S. 7th Army Training Command was operating from Yavoriv as late as mid-February. Russia has not stopped there. ASB Military news reports Russia hit another site, Delyatyn, which is 60 miles southeast of Yavoriv (on Thursday I believe). Yesterday, Russia hit Zytomyr, another site where NATO previously had a presence. Putin has sent a very clear message—NATO forces in Ukraine will be viewed and treated as combatants. Period.
Question 6– Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been lionized in the western media as a “wartime leader” and a modern-day “Winston Churchill”. What the media fails to tell its readers is that Zelensky has taken a number of steps to strengthen his grip on power while damaging fragile democratic institutions in Ukraine. For example, Zelensky has “banned eleven opposition-owned news organizations” and tried to bar the head of Ukraine’s largest opposition party, Viktor Medvedchuk, from running for office on a bogus “terrorist financing” charge. This is not the behavior of a leader that is seriously committed to democracy.
What’s your take on Zelensky? Is he really the “patriotic leader” the media makes him out to be?
Larry C. Johnson– Zelensky is a comedian and an actor. Not a very good one at that in my view. The West is cynically using the fact he is Jewish as a diversion from the size-able contingent of Neo-Nazis (and I mean genuine Nazis who still celebrate the Ukrainian Waffen SS unit’s accomplishments while fighting with the Nazis in WW II). The facts are clear—he is banning opposition political parties and shutting down opposition media. I guess that is the new definition of “democracy.”
Question 7– How does this end? There’s an excellent post at the Moon of Alabama site titled “What Will Be The Geographic End State Of The War In Ukraine“. The author of the post, Bernard, seems to think that Ukraine will eventually be partitioned along the Dnieper River “and south along the coast that holds a majority ethnic Russian population.”
He also says this:
“This would eliminate Ukrainian access to the Black Sea and create a land bridge towards the Moldavian breakaway Transnistria which is under Russian protection. The rest of the Ukraine would be a land confined, mostly agricultural state, disarmed and too poor to be build up to a new threat to Russia anytime soon. Politically it would be dominated by fascists from Galicia which would then become a major problem for the European Union.”
What do you think? Will Putin impose his own territorial settlement on Ukraine in order to reinforce Russian security and bring the hostilities to an end or is a different scenario more likely?
Larry C. Johnson– I agree with Moon. Putin’s primary objective is to secure Russia from foreign threats and effect a divorce with the West. Russia has the physical resources to be an independent sovereign and is in the process of making that vision come true.
Bio– Larry C Johnson is a veteran of the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism. He is the founder and managing partner of BERG Associates, which was established in 1998. Larry provided training to the US Military’s Special Operations community for 24 years.
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
You don't give up ground you've already won unless you have to. The Ukrainians are certainly outgunned, but the Ukrainian army is fighting well with what they have. The Russian army is not. And if Boris Johnson follows through on sending Harpoon missiles to Ukraine, that could be a game changer.
U.S. Military Intelligence Official Refutes 'Russian Atrocities' Claims
Russian soldiers left the town Bucha in Ukraine on March 30. Two days later the Ukrainian Gestapo like SBU and men of the fascist Azov battalion moved in to find and remove 'traitors'. On April 2/3 video was published that showed freshly killed men laying on the streets of Bucha. Several of them had white arm bands signaling to Russian forces to see them as friendlies.
The 'west' and Ukrainian officials immediately called those dead the result of 'Russian atrocities'.
I had called it a provocation:
The Bucha 'Russian' atrocities propaganda onslaught may have worked well in the 'west' but it lacks evidence that Russia had anything to do with it.
The former Indian ambassador M.K. Bhadrakumar calls it an outright fake: ...
And a fake it was.
Thankfully there are still some sane U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency officials and William Arkin is talking with them:
Last Wednesday, Bucha Mayor Anatolii Fedoruk said that 320 people had been killed in the town of 37,000. ... "It is ugly," a senior official with the Defense Intelligence Agency tells Newsweek. "But we forget that two peer competitors fought over Bucha for 36 days, and that the town was occupied, that Russian convoys and positions inside the town were attacked by the Ukrainians and vice versa, that ground combat was intense, that the town itself was literally fought over." ... "I am not for a second excusing Russia's war crimes, nor forgetting that Russia invaded the country," says the DIA official. "But the number of actual deaths is hardly genocide. If Russia had that objective or was intentionally killing civilians, we'd see a lot more than less than .01 percent in places like Bucha."
320 of 37,000 is not .01 percent. But we do not know how many of those dead were Russian or Ukrainian soldiers. Some of the dead were so called 'civilian defenders' which were supposedly local civilians to whom the government had handed guns to 'fight the Russians'. During a war a 'civilian' with a government issued gun shooting at enemy soldiers is a combatant, not a civilian.
The DIA official continues:
"Have the Russians been indiscriminate? Absolutely. But it shouldn't too surprising. It's part and parcel of the Russian way of war, lining up their artillery guns and letting loose," the DIA official says. "But here in particular, in Bucha and the other towns around it—Irpin and Hostomel—there was intense ground fighting that involved almost 20 battalion tactical groups."
I doubt that there is really intentional 'indiscriminate' Russian artillery fire. The Russians have held back quite a lot and paid in blood for it.
One should also note that the often shown mass graves in Bucha were not from recent actions but had been dug on March 10 after heavy fighting when Russian soldiers tried to enter the town:
Maxar Technologies, which collects and publishes satellite imagery of Ukraine, said the first signs of excavation for a mass grave at the Church of St. Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints were seen on March 10.
"More recent coverage on March 31st shows the grave site with an approximately 45-foot-long trench in the southwestern section of the area near the church," Maxar said.
The DIA official clearly says the civilian casualties in Ukraine, which are quite low, get overplayed and that attributing them solely to Russia is wrong:
On Monday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it had recorded 1,793 deaths and 2,439 injuries to civilians in all of Ukraine since the war began on February 24. U.S. intelligence believes that the true number is some five times greater, as previously reported by Newsweek.
"It's bad," the DIA official says. "And I don't want to say it's not too bad. But I can't help but stress that beyond the clamor, we are not seeing the war clearly. Where there has been intense ground fighting and a standoff between Ukrainian and Russian forces, the destruction is almost total. But in terms of actual damage in Kyiv or other cities outside the battle zone, and with regard to the number of civilian casualties overall, the evidence contradicts the dominant narrative." ... The official says that it is dangerous to attribute one or even several graves and scenes of civilian disaster to Russian barbarism rather than just being realistic about the depredations of war.
The official also worries that attributing the destructiveness only to Russian conduct, rather than to war itself, creates future dangers.
"If we blame all the damage on Putin, as if he commanded it and that it is due solely to Russian war crimes, we are going to walk away from Ukraine with some illusion in our heads that modern warfare can be fought more cleanly, that the Ukraine war is an anomaly solely created by Russia's behavior. This war is just demonstrating how destructive any war on this scale would be."
One should avoid to wage war whenever possible but it also important to end wars as quickly as possible:
"Maybe it's heartless to urge that we look at Ukraine with precision, without human emotion," says the DIA official.
"But for those who think tens of thousands have died and Russia is intentionally killing civilians and pursuing genocide, I say that's even more of an argument to find a diplomatic solution to cease fighting. But nothing is going to happen in the coming days or weeks to change the reality on the battlefield. That's why stopping the fighting should be our highest priority."
Unfortunately ending the war is not a priority for the U.S. nor the EU. Their leaders are drunk on the idea that the Ukraine defeated Russia around Kiev. They seem to believe that the Ukraine can defeat Russia everywhere.
But the retreat from Kiev was ordered because the deceptive move towards it had fulfilled its purpose of keeping a large number of Ukrainian soldiers in place around Kiev while the Russian army opened the land corridor to Crimea.
The Ukraine has no chance to defeat the Russian army no matter how many old tanks or airplanes the U.S. and EU countries move to it.
Sending more weapons only prolongs the war and inevitably creates more military and civilian casualties on both sides.
"The time for war has not yet come, but it will come and that soon, and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." Gen. T.J. Jackson, March 1861
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