An interesting article about the training that U.S. special forces was giving Ukraine during the 2016 conflict with Russia: Exclusive: Key U.S. military report revealed Ukrainian defense weaknesses, weapons needs Apparently, the Ukrainians got a lot of sniper training. That should make the battles for the cities a little more difficult.
Probably more useful than some Western equipment since the ex-Soviet militaries often use different caliber shells e.g. 152mm vs. 155mm howitzers, 125mm vs. 120mm tank guns, and 14.5mm vs. 12.7mm heavy machine guns.
Any Russian scientist is welcome to leave their evil country and find a new home in the west. Any who stays has made their choice. Those who are held against their will by force or by holding their family members is a casualty of their evil government.
The first stage of getting hopelessly bogged down short of their objective Kyiv. Ukrainian forces have retaken Russian gains. Their fighting spirit is what the Russians lack. Yeah Phase 1 is a great success.
The genius of US is in rejecting nationalism. We are unique in that regard. Nationalism is a guaranteed death spiral. It is for small minds that know they can run out their own puny clock.
Interesting read, thx. “Asked by the U.S. team whether there was any difference in the quality of the training by the various NATO countries participating in the program, a Ukrainian soldier responded that while “Americans are a little better,” Canadians “try to be friendlier” but were “more boring.”
Putin now employing “cancel culture” rhetoric his trolls push here and (I’ll assume) US pols unwittingly parrot. FTR, the very term “useful idiot” was also a Russian psy-op import. It is so successful that the UI’s actually use it to further Russian interests.
It has been a few pages. I flip-flopped early, settled on All In. A month in, here are my thoughts: This is about the very idea of “The Free World.” All these ideas about land bridges and resource grabs are clearly absurd. A country hoping to hijack resources wouldn’t literally rubble it. That would be an idiotic strategy. Destroy infrastructure, clear it, then rebuild it? Russia has never had the resources to do that. It is about worldview and nothing else. And Ukranians have showed the way. They are taking literal slaughter and won’t give in. The Putin way is to make life literally unviable. Putin is essentially a barbarian. I cannot imagine worse. That includes Adolph. After seeing the hospital and shelters targeted, how far is the leap to camps and ovens? The leap is logistics. He’d do that today if he could. He’d start with The Gay. But a person who can’t handle that can’t handle a hundred other things. He’ll find a way to not be able to find you worthy of breathing too. Us, here, prolly way too mouthy. And that includes all you Putin-adjacent closet fascists. You are wrong about thinking you are teamies. You NEVER have a friend in a tyrant. You’re either a threat or a fluffer. There is no gray area with this dynamic. Biden is uniquely suited for this, as he has been dealing with the scourge of Putin from the start. We got lucky that he is the person on watch (others my say providence, but that’s not my jam.) He appears to truly be long-playing this for narrow US wins. That is his job. Since it isn’t mine, I’m free to be bolder. I’m no Biden fan. Then again I’m no fan of a person at all. It’s a stupid concept. I’m a fan of actions and behaviors. Build a statue to an action, spare me the phony savior who we all know is a scoundrel in some other regard. Lucky for us all I have yet to get my first POTUS vote, because I’d have us all bringing the extra 30 forks you know you have to the local recycle plant to turn them into weapons the 82 and 101 would use to save the world, again.
Interesting thread on the brutal hazing of Russian conscripts and how that too may have affected defections, etc. Edit - she does get the names mixed up of the guy run over & the one killed but the main info of the hazing history is still enlightening.
Anonymous releases document batches from Central Bank of Russia. Apparently links are around in the thread & they've been posted throughout the web...so (a) interesting if true, (b) HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, (c) how many agencies around the world are batch scanning docs now ASAP to see who had what where from different countries including the US?
He has an audience he appeals to here. Interference in US politics and shifting values here to his point of view is a major tool in the Russian arsenal.
