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2022-06-08 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

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Posted by badanov 2022-06-08 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11127 views ] Top

#1 As I suspected the Bear plods on.

Posted by Dale 2022-06-08 03:58|| 2022-06-08 03:58|| Front Page Top

#2 This is the culmination of an absolutely foolish strategy by the Ukrainian general staff. Instead of withdrawing from the Donbas to consolidate and regroup in more defensible positions to the west, or « reculer pour mieux sauter ».

Instead, the Ukrainians are losing not just what was always going to be lost (the Donbas), but also their best troops and huge numbers of the heavy weaponry supplied by the West.

There are now said to be discussions of a cease-fire between Zelensky and Putin. All the pressure on Putin is coming from his own general staff: they insist that Russia NOT negotiate, rather, to continue winning, to push on and seize even more land, to take Odesa. Hard to disagree with their logic.

Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-06-08 12:10|| 2022-06-08 12:10|| Front Page Top

#3 One wonders whether Lloyd Austin is advising the Ukrainians. The worse their fate, the more weapons the US defense industry including Raytheon can get Congress to pay for and send to Ukraine.

Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-06-08 12:12|| 2022-06-08 12:12|| Front Page Top

#4 Raytheon moving HQ to Northern Virginia.

Posted by M. Murcek 2022-06-08 12:50|| 2022-06-08 12:50|| Front Page Top

#5 All the American and British media blather about heroic resistance and "taking back Severodonetsk" was just more information-war bullshit.

Even The Guardian is now admitting that the Ukrainian dead-enders have evacuated the city and that resistance in Svyatogorak has also collapsed.

2h ago
"Ukraine now only controls outskirts of Sievierodonetsk, says governor: Ukrainian forces have been pushed back by a Russian bombardment in the frontline eastern city of Sievierodonetsk and now only control its outskirts, according to the governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Haidai."

Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-06-08 13:31|| 2022-06-08 13:31|| Front Page Top

#6 And I care, why?

Posted by Seeking Cure For Ignorance 2022-06-08 17:12|| 2022-06-08 17:12|| Front Page Top

#7 Total shitshow. NOW they tell us -- the Ukrainian jokers are lying even to Austin and Milley.

Big NY Times article today quoting Haines and other US Intelligence Community officials to the effect that they know next to nothing about "the state of Ukraine’s military forces and strategy in the Donbas."

As a result, we don't know what the fuck these assholes are doing, why they're doing it, and therefore whether or not they're about to be encircled and annihilated in the Donbas.

Here's The NY Times today, finally spilling the beans: "The United States provides regular, near real-time intelligence updates to Ukraine about the location of Russian forces, information that the Ukrainians use to plan operations and strikes and strengthen their defenses.

"But even in high level conversations with Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or Lloyd J. Austin III, the secretary of defense, Ukrainian officials share only their strategic goals, not their detailed operational plans.

"Ukraine’s secrecy has forced U.S. military and intelligence officials to try and learn what they can from other countries operating in Ukraine, training sessions with Ukrainians and Mr. Zelensky’s public comments, American officials said.

"Ukraine, the officials said, wants to present an image of strength, both to the public and to its close partners. The government does not want to share information that could suggest a weakening of resolve, or give the impression that they might not win.

"In essence, Ukrainian officials do not want to present information that might encourage the United States and its other Western partners to slow the flow of arms."

Posted by Billy Budd 2022-06-08 20:29|| 2022-06-08 20:29|| Front Page Top

#8 Christ. FFS, how many times have we been down this path?

A corrupt little client state full of grifters who tell our military and intel community a bunch of lies in order to scam billions in aid.

The "Army of the Republic of Vietnam" and its bright aging lies.
The "Iraqi National Congress" and their ridiculous scams.
The Afghan Army, Karzai, the whole fucking shitshow that conned us out of hundreds of billions.

And now the Brave Ukrainians, refusing to even tell us what the hell they intend to do with aid that in three months dwarfs what we sent to the other grifters. All so they can get their asses kicked and lose over 20 percent of their territory.

When will our Swamp creatures take off the Kick Me sticker plastered to their backs? Sweet Jesus, what idiocy

Posted by Billy Budd 2022-06-08 20:36|| 2022-06-08 20:36|| Front Page Top

#9 When will our Swamp creatures take off the Kick Me sticker plastered to their backs?

You don't think the swamp critters are making money off this mess? Does the name Biden ring a bell? I bet Nancy Pelosi has some interesting stock trades lately.

Posted by SteveS 2022-06-08 20:51|| 2022-06-08 20:51|| Front Page Top

#10 Well, this has been obvious from the beginning. The picture presented to the American and British public about Ukraine's battlefield success has always been full of lies and exaggerations. The German and Austrian press has presented plenty of examples of stunning Ukrainian failures, but none of this has been given to the US. It's quite astonishing that this information was withheld from Austin and Milley and the Biden people.

The New York Times is clearly preparing their readers for the inevitable: "another intelligence failure"

This woman is saying aloud what we in Europe already knew:

" 'How much do we really know about how Ukraine is doing?' said Beth Sanner, a former senior intelligence official. 'Can you find a person who will tell you with confidence how many troops has Ukraine lost, how many pieces of equipment has Ukraine lost?' "

"...the public information about Ukrainian casualties, equipment losses and morale is incomplete. There may be a potential cost if the intelligence community cannot present a fuller picture to the public or Congress about Ukraine’s military prospects, Ms. Sanner said.

"If Russia advances further, the failure to understand the state of the Ukrainian military could open the intelligence community to accusations that it failed to deliver a full picture of Ukraine’s prospects in the war to policymakers.

“ 'Everything is about Russia’s goals and Russia’s prospects for meeting their goals,' Ms. Sanner said. 'We do not talk about whether Ukraine might be able to defeat them. And to me, I feel that we are setting ourselves up for another intel failure by not talking about that publicly.' "

Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-06-08 20:56|| 2022-06-08 20:56|| Front Page Top

#11 Fuck. "Another intel failure." From the folks who brought you the Iraq shitshow and the Afghan debacle

Send these incompetent bastards to prison. Enough of this garbage. Fuck Zelensky and those other lying bastards in the ass with a shit covered punji stick

Posted by Billy Budd 2022-06-08 21:00|| 2022-06-08 21:00|| Front Page Top

#12 ^ Your (understandable) outrage is better directed at Austin and Biden, I think. Zelensky is no better than he ought to be, as they say.

He and the Ukrainians are merely doing what's done by every ambitious third-world mountebank with a grudge against American neo-conservatives' latest bête noire. He presented himself as an heroic champion of 'freedom' and 'democracy,' made theatrical appeals as another Holocaust-style victim in Washington and Hollywood to Congress and to Jewish media executives and Wall Street money men, and asked for billions in American military supplies. It's an old routine, and a supremely lucrative one.

As always, the money is squandered or stolen, the neo-partisans are defeated on the battlefield and abandon their weapons, and the little man who cried wolf absconds with hundreds of millions to a safe offshore haven, never to be heard from again.

All of it is completely predictable.

Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-06-08 21:14|| 2022-06-08 21:14|| Front Page Top

#13 It's like a conversation between Yoda and Miss Piggy in here.

Posted by Rob Crawford 2022-06-08 22:40|| 2022-06-08 22:40|| Front Page Top

#14 Yes, they're getting us ready for the eventual collapse. Getting out front of the mass panic story to come.The Narrative has changed, no turning back. The Ukrainians are being completely routed.

Some more tales of Ukrainian military desperation and devastation in the New York Times.
From the Graveside to the Front, Ukrainians Tell of Grim Endurance
Ukraine’s casualties in the war against Russia are a closely guarded secret. But those who have been in the trenches along the front line know how relentless the fight has become

Posted by Billy Budd 2022-06-08 22:41|| 2022-06-08 22:41|| Front Page Top

#15 We’ve seen what the Obama administration did when Israel informed them about plans for Iran, and no doubt other things. And the Biden administration copies Obama’s methods slavishly, the Obama who promised Russia that after his reelection he would be free to act instead of pleasing the electorate.

Given that, would you trust the Biden team with your abilities and plans? I certainly would not.

As for the New York Times, cher Jean-Paul, if they reported the sky was blue I would check for myself from several different vantage points. They combine all that is Pravda and Izvestia in one well-written, fabricated package. Anyone who believes what appears in their pages without checking other sources is a naive.

One must ask, though, what makes Jewish media executives different than non-Jewish media executives? Do you know many personally, or is this the kind of general knowledge absorbed from the atmosphere? In order to judge the validity of your claims, we must understand from whence comes your knowledge.

Posted by trailing wife 2022-06-08 22:48|| 2022-06-08 22:48|| Front Page Top

#16 @RobCrawford - I assume you are American. If so, could you please tell me or us how you feel about being lied to repeatedly by your leaders about this war?

From what we've seen, you (like many others) have consistently mocked one side and swallowed every lie, half-truth and fable promoted in the press by the American and British military and intelligence establishments.

Now those same press outlets are admitting that most of what they printed was false.

How do you feel about being duped?
Was it your fault, or theirs?
Or both?

Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-06-08 22:55|| 2022-06-08 22:55|| Front Page Top

#17 how you feel about being lied to repeatedly by your leaders about this war?

"In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies." - Winston Churchill

Why should this war be different than any other war? Did de Gaulle always tell the exact truth during the war and after, when he was president? Did he never keep silent, misdirect, or speak outright untruths?

Posted by trailing wife 2022-06-08 23:02|| 2022-06-08 23:02|| Front Page Top

#18 The German and Austrian military and intelligence analysts, and publications like Die Welt and Der Spiegel, have reported objectively and without efforts to push a slanted narrative. The French outlets also, and same for Chinese and Arab media. All have noted when Russians were defeated, and have also noted the many colossal defeats which the Ukrainians have suffered.

Only the American and British press outlets have consistently -- until the last few days -- pushed a relentlessly, absurdly one-sided view of the actual progress of events on the battlefield.

Now we understand why. US intelligence is being deceived and kept in the dark by their Ukrainian client -- just as they were by Ahmed Chalabi, Hamid Karzai, and the South Vietnamese leaders Diem and later, Thieu.

Again and again, America embraces mountebanks and little third world Napoleons who lead America into foolish overseas adventures that end in disaster. Plus ça change...

Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-06-08 23:17|| 2022-06-08 23:17|| Front Page Top

#19 The German and Austrian military and intelligence analysts, and publications like Die Welt and Der Spiegel, have reported objectively and without efforts to push a slanted narrative.

The Austrians are neutral. The postwar Germans keep their distance from America and know better than to push war propaganda.

Posted by Der Blau Reiter 2022-06-08 23:21|| 2022-06-08 23:21|| Front Page Top

#20 Jewish media executives in the US have pushed the absurd notion that Zelensky is a kind of Warsaw Ghetto resistance figure up against Russian Nazis. Zelensky made outrageous slurs against Kissinger, whose family actually did escape the Nazis, while hiding behind his own sordid history of supporting the notorious neo-Nazi brigades and the Ujraunuans' beloved Nazi, Stepan Bandera.

Zelensky has tried again and again to exploit the Holocaust. Here is a summary by a Times of Israel writer:

"...both sides are guilty of inappropriately invoking the Holocaust. Already early on, Zelensky compared Ukraine, to Ukraine has shared images of Putin as Hitler. Using images of the Holocaust to establish victimhood is never a sound strategy.

...Putin is not an antisemite. His affinity for Jews and the Jewish people is well known. Stories about his Jewish childhood friends, neighbours, and teachers are countless. Like the time he visited Israel and bought his 93-year-old former teacher an apartment in Tel Aviv. Putin has spoken publicly about the elderly Jewish couple who helped raise him, and the Jewish judo coach who was a major influence on his life. Putin maintains close ties with the Chabad movement. It could be argued that Putin’s public embrace of the Jews has contributed to the decline in antisemitism in Russia in recent years. Of course, none of this makes his war Kosher.

"Many of Ukraine’s national heroes, from Stepan Bandera to Bogdan Khmelnitsky are drenched in Jewish blood. But these butchers aren’t consigned to history. As Ukrainian nationalism rises, they are celebrated in today’s Ukraine, with dozens of statues, parades, street signs and even a bank note. The neo-Nazi Azov brigades form part of the Ukrainian National Guard.

"It’s Zelensky, married to a Christian and who reportedly had his children baptized, who has repeatedly attempted to make this a Jewish issue. Zelensky told Jewish leaders that Russia bombed the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial, a claim later revealed to be untrue. He made a similar dubious claim about the Jewish pilgrimage site of Uman.

"Ukraine’s President has attempted to drag Israel into the conflict on numerous occasions, and lashed out with a special venom reserved for Israel when it hasn’t gone his way. He accused Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet of ‘not being wrapped in our flag’. That’s the same religiously observant Bennet, who broke Shabbat flying to Russia attempting to negotiate peace.

"Zelensky demanded to speak at Yad Vashem. When this was rebuffed, a Ukrainian official called it a corrupt institution. Zelensky did speak to the Israeli Knesset, though some Arab MKs boycotted his speech. He again compared Ukraine’s situation to the Holocaust and urged Israelis to help Ukraine in the same way the Ukrainian nation helped Jews during World War II. Needless to say, his Holocaust revisionism did not go down well in Israel...."

Posted by Der Blau Reiter 2022-06-08 23:39|| 2022-06-08 23:39|| Front Page Top

#21 This neutral Der Spiegel, which clasped Claas Relotius so firmly to its collective bosom for all those years?

German Magazine Under Fire For Promoting Anti-Jewish Conspiracy

Jew-hate and America-hate are a large part of Der Spiegel’s raison d’être. They wouldn’t know objective, unslanted reported if it dropped a steaming pile of fresh horse apples onto their collective shoes.

War propaganda they may avoid, Herr Reiter, but anti-war propaganda sends happy shivers up and down their spines, having, in my observation, learnt all the wrong things from losing their last two.

Posted by trailing wife 2022-06-08 23:42|| 2022-06-08 23:42|| Front Page Top

#22 No their reporting on Ukraine has in general been balanced and objective, with expert military analysis. The American and British press by comparison (as Jean-Paul points out) has been a comical pastiche of lies and fables.

The notion of Zelensky, husband to a shiksa, as a Jewish Resistance fighter is so absurd it makes one think of the stories concocted by the National Enquirer.

Posted by Der Blau Reiter 2022-06-08 23:48|| 2022-06-08 23:48|| Front Page Top

#23 Given his patron's financial support for the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion and his homage to Stepan Bandera, Zelensky's attempts to exploit the Holocaust are really obscene.

Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-06-08 23:52|| 2022-06-08 23:52|| Front Page Top

#24 It is this constant effort to conflate the jews' history with that of Ukraine which is so absurd. Ukraine and Ukrainians were and are the most anti-Semitic nation in Europe. Only the Hollywood- and New York-based descendants of Holocaust victims fall for this nonsense.

Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-06-08 23:56|| 2022-06-08 23:56|| Front Page Top

#25 The notion of Zelensky, husband to a shiksa,

Mr. Wife is not Jewish. That does not make my Jewishness or Zionism any less. In fact have my mother’s relatives back in Hildesheim before the war were Christian, which did not prevent them from suffering from the connection under the Nazis.

Posted by trailing wife 2022-06-08 23:59|| 2022-06-08 23:59|| Front Page Top

23:59 trailing wife
23:56 Jean-Paul
23:52 Jean-Paul
23:48 Der Blau Reiter
23:44 Silentbrick
23:42 trailing wife
23:39 Der Blau Reiter
23:21 Der Blau Reiter
23:17 Jean-Paul
23:02 trailing wife
22:55 trailing wife
22:55 Jean-Paul
22:48 trailing wife
22:41 Billy Budd
22:40 Rob Crawford
22:15 ruprecht
22:13 Silentbrick
21:14 Jean-Paul
21:00 Billy Budd
20:56 Jean-Paul
20:51 SteveS
20:36 Billy Budd
20:32 SteveS
20:31 SteveS