Article

2022-05-30 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Hawkish Heritage Foundation Bails on Ukraine

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by M. Murcek 2022-05-30 06:18|| || Front Page|| [11127 views ] Top

#1 Given the Biden's and others in DC well documented dealings with Ukraine. America also has a right to question how much of the $40B would mysteriously find its way back to DC SWAMP pockets.

Posted by NN2N1 2022-05-30 07:58|| 2022-05-30 07:58|| Front Page Top

#2 Like I said yesterday, I hope it drives the Nuland crowd into strait jackets and padded cells.

Posted by M. Murcek 2022-05-30 08:00|| 2022-05-30 08:00|| Front Page Top

#3 I'd prefer right to the gallows.

Posted by DooDahMan 2022-05-30 08:16|| 2022-05-30 08:16|| Front Page Top

#4 America also has a right to question how much of the $40B would mysteriously find its way back to DC SWAMP pockets.

Only about $5B will actually go for weaponry and most of that will be useless or destroyed quickly by the Russians. $9B is going right back into MIC pockets, for replenishing depleted American weapons stocks.

Over $20B will disappear into the black hole of the Zelensky "government," likely for additional villas for Zelensky and his retinue in Israel and Miami and London and money laundering vehicles in Ohio and Appalachia for Zelensky's billionaire puppet master, the bandit and Azov-funder Ihor Kolomoisky.

Posted by Palmerston 2022-05-30 08:49|| 2022-05-30 08:49|| Front Page Top

#5 The Narrative shifts again. No more MoD planted bullshit about fumbling Russians; now it's all harrowing tales of "outgunned " Ukrainians and British, American and other mercenaries barely escaping death in ferocious firefights at close quarters with an enemy that actually has artillery and air support -- unlike the pisspoor ragtag third world fighters encountered previously in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Also just starting to see reality creeping into the coverage, with comparisons to the American experience in Fallujah, which took far longer for the American forces to subdue than any city that the Russians have vanquished when up against a NATO-trained and -armed entrenched enemy in Ukraine.

The Russians have been much more effective against an army that is vastly more powerful than anything the US ever faced in Iraq or Afghanistan. Every story now appearing in the Western press about US or UK mercenaries includes a lengthy discussion of how much more deadly this war is than the 3rd world expeditions in Iraq or Afghanistan. Lots of WWI comparisons ... trench warfare + drones. "Terrifyng" being used again and again.

Interesting how rapidly the Narrative shifts.

Posted by Palmerston 2022-05-30 15:12|| 2022-05-30 15:12|| Front Page Top

#6 "Yes," replied Heritage. "Saddam Hussein's regime was a major threat to American interests and the region as a whole."

They knew WMD was a lie, just like the rest of them. It was nothing but an excuse to start a war.

Major threat to American interests, yeah sure. More like a threat to Israel. If they wanted Saddam gone why didn't they get thousands of their own soldiers killed doing it?

Posted by Bertie Lumumba1577 2022-05-30 16:19|| 2022-05-30 16:19|| Front Page Top

#7 /\ They knew WMD was a lie, just like the rest of them. It was nothing but an excuse to start a war.

With respect Bertie, we've run those traps here for well over a decade. Saddam had WMD.

Posted by Besoeker 2022-05-30 16:28|| 2022-05-30 16:28|| Front Page Top

#8 /\ They knew WMD was a lie, just like the rest of them. It was nothing but an excuse to start a war.

With respect Bertie, we've run those traps here for well over a decade. Saddam had WMD.

Saddam's constant violations of the 1991 ceasefire alone, including firing on our and NATO's pilots were sufficient cause for war.

Posted by badanov 2022-05-30 16:32|| 2022-05-30 16:32|| Front Page Top

#9 Rantburg’s archives start on 11. September 2001, or 9/11/2001 in the American style. We watched — and documented — events as they happened, including the observations of Rantburgers serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere then, before, and afterward.

Rantburg’s archives document that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had war chemicals in quantity at the time of the 2003 invasion, even after unknown quantitites had been destroyed by burning in ditches in the weeks before the invasion. The archives document the Saddam Hussein regime’s research into nuclear and biological weapons; hiding airplanes in the desert sands; the Salman Pak training facility for Muslim and Arab terror cadres that provided courses in hijacking airplanes, bomb making, and a variety of other advanced skills that Al Qaeda among others attended; the looooong caravan of trucks carrying Baathist Iraqi gold and other valuables for safekeeping in the care of Bqqthist Syria, where it was subsequently used to pay the jihadis who crossed through Syria to fight the Coalition in Iraq, first signing up with Al Qaeda in Iraq, then its successor organization Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The Archive tab can be seen at the top of the Pages at the right, or search Rantburg by key word using the box over the list of most recent comments in the right margin. A search of “Iraq nuke” for instance, yields this, from 2006.

tl;dr What badanov and Besoeker said. Bertie Lumumba1577, Saddam Hussein’s ambition was to corner the Middle Eastern oil supply, and thus control the entire world. His war against Iran failed, but he neatly conquered Kuwait, and would have taken over Saudi Arabia just as neatly if America, et al had not twice directly interfered — the second time making it impossible for Iraq to repeat the effort for the foreseeable future.

Posted by trailing wife 2022-05-30 20:50|| 2022-05-30 20:50|| Front Page Top

#10

Posted by badanov 2022-05-30 22:08|| 2022-05-30 22:08|| Front Page Top

#11 NY Times, too (article posted for tomorrow).

Posted by DooDahMan 2022-05-30 22:38|| 2022-05-30 22:38|| Front Page Top

23:58 Captain Omerens3755
23:55 Slineling Chusong5031
23:45 crazyhorse
23:35 ruprecht
23:35 Jean-Paul
23:27 Jean-Paul
22:38 DooDahMan
22:37 SteveS
22:08 badanov
21:39 trailing wife
21:18 Blackbeard Throns8307
21:16 Blackbeard Throns8307
21:05 Blackbeard Throns8307
21:01 magpie
21:00 Jean-Paul
20:59 Blackbeard Throns8307
20:50 trailing wife
20:38 Nero
20:20 Frank G
20:15 Frank G
20:13 Frank G
19:45 SteveS
18:24 Palmerston
18:14 Billy Budd