The Biden administration approved the 25th round of security assistance for Ukraine on Friday. The latest package of weapons will include upgraded tanks and drones. Kiev recently requested more armored vehicles to push its offensive against Russian forces.
A Pentagon press release said it had purchased 45 refurbished T-72B tanks with advanced optics, communications, and armor. The Department of Defense claims the Netherlands will provide an additional 45 tanks and the Czech Republic will provide additional support, completing the upgrades.
Since the start of the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has requested NATO members send their tanks to Ukraine. In separate appeals, Kiev asked for NATO to transfer one percent of their tanks and for Western countries to give Ukraine 500 tanks. Washington and its partners did not fulfill Zelensky’s requests.
In September, the Washington Post reported that Kiev believed it was reaching the "tipping point" and more armored vehicles could help complete its victory. "Kiev believes the requested heavy armor – including battle tanks and personnel carriers – could help shift that turning point into a tipping point."
Germany rebuffed Ukraine when asked directly for tanks. "No country has delivered Western-built infantry fighting vehicles or main battle tanks so far. We have agreed with our partners that Germany will not take such action unilaterally," German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said.
The upgraded T-72B tanks the US and Netherlands are buying for Kiev are not NATO models but Soviet-era weapons. Poland and the Czech Republic have already sent Ukraine hundreds of these tanks. Still, Zelensky believes the tanks will aid Kiev’s offensive.
"I am thankful to [Joe Biden] and the people of the [US] for another $400 million military assistance package. For armored vehicles that will help us liberate Ukrainian land. We appreciate this continued support!" the Ukrainian president Tweeted Friday.
In addition to tanks, the 25th arms package includes 1,100 Phoenix Ghost Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems, 40 Armored Riverine Boats, tactical secure communications systems and surveillance systems.
The $400 million package was paid for through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). Most of the arms Biden provided Kiev has been authorized through the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA). Under the PDA, the president can send a foreign army weapons from America’s own stockpiles. In contrast, the USAI uses funds to buy weapons for Kiev directly from companies or foreign governments.
The latest package also includes funding to send Ukraine weapons in the future. Some funds will be used to upgrade HAWK air defense missiles from American stockpiles before shipping them to Ukraine. The Pentagon also said it would upgrade and transfer 250 M1117A armored security vehicles to Kiev.
The Department of Defense claims it has provided Kiev with over $18 billion in weapons since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Meanwhile, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy says US aid is $10 billion more than the Pentagon states. Through October 3, it calculates Americans have contributed nearly $28 billion to Kiev’s war effort.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
I wonder if it is cheaper to buy peace than it is to pay for more war…
Are you suggesting we bribe Russia to leave Ukraine?
No one has enough money for that bribe.
If the US had been willing to engage in honest negotiations for mutual security, there would be no reason for Russia to have invaded Ukraine. Since the US was not willing . . . here we are. And the US, its puppets in Kiev, and the NATO dwarf client states are paying an enormous price for their intransigence and recklessness. It’s likely going to get worse until the US stops doubling down on dumb and dangerous.
No one is paying a higher price than Ukraine, of course. Already wrecked, with more to come.
Blaming the US for Russia decision to start of war with Ukraine is like blaming the US for Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor. Just because US would not talk to Russia does not given Russia the right to start a war.
“Right” is a matter of opinion. Russia believes that it is responding to an existential threat and has every right to do so.
The US is primarily responsible for the disaster in Ukraine because it knew from the beginning of NATO expansion, in 1998, that it was creating such a threat and that Russia, ultimately, would likely respond forcefully. And the US continued the aggression relentlessly, with malice aforethought, and continues still.
It is quite clear that the US wanted this war and wants to prolong it. It is increasingly clear that the consequences won’t be what the US wanted and expected.
I doubt you have any idea what “Russia” “believes.”
The Russian regime claims that it believes it is responding to an existential threat. Maybe it actually believes that, or maybe it’s just another one of the excuses regimes (which are criminal gangs and have no “rights”) make.
Given the track record of the US and it’s allies over the last few decades, I think it’s pretty likely the Russian elites DO believe they are responding to an existential threat.
Given the track record of Russia over the last few decades, I think it’s pretty likely the Russian elites do believe they are responding to their desire to expand Russia beyond their current borders.
Pathetic. You can’t even write your own dialog.
Yeah, right, Don. Russia is desperate to expand because having the world’s largest area by far, together with what is probably the richest collection of natural resources on the planet, just isn’t enough for the crazed demons who run the place.
Don is beyond any hope or reason. Don blurts in sync with US and European media.
Yeah. The parroting of official Western talking points is depressing and annoying. And we’ve been seeing more of it around here recently. It definitely gives an idea of how successful the propaganda campaign has been.
idiotic. CNN has done a good job.
False. You just made that up. When Donbass asked to become part of Russia after the coup in Kiev in 2014, Putin repeatedly said no. It was only this year that he finally accepted this to protect the people in Donbass from Kiev’s never-ending attacks.
Unlike Ukraine where the president’s party was
destroyed and people are kidnapped and beaten and killed, and all opposition media and opposition parties are now banned, Russia is a democracy. They don’t want to take land that has people who’ll vote against them. But I guess you think it’s a game of Risk.
I don’t know what “the Russian on the street” thinks.
As for the regime, it’s all about holding together the last scraps of a declining empire for a little longer.
Pure crap. Listen to Putin on Russia, and then listen to Biden on the US, and let me know who comes across as the more coherent and rooted in actual history as opposed to Tom Mix movies.
>I don’t know what “the Russian on the street” thinks.
I do, they are overwhelmingly in favor of saving the people in Donbass. Their support has increased steadily as the war has proceeded and the shelling of the civilians in Donetsk still hasn’t stopped. You can say they are brainwashed by the media. But you can’t say that’s not what they think.
How is Russia an “empire”? People don’t vote in Russia?
“How is Russia an ’empire’? People don’t vote in Russia?”
Empire, n. an extensive group of states or countries under a single supreme authority.
People voted in the British empire at its very height; the vote doesn’t make an empire not an empire, it just (in cases where it’s not just for show) occasionally changes the composition/personnel administering the “single supreme authority.”
Prior to 1991, the Russian empire sprawled across much of eastern Europe. Now it’s down to Russia proper and a few satrapies like Belarus and Kazakhstan; it’s in decline and Putin’s trying to slow down that decline. The US empire is also in decline, but less cognizant of that fact.
America didn`t want Russian Nukes in Cuba , so why should Russia have US nukes with a fly time of 4 minutes on it`s border ? .
That was back then now the US has to live with Russian nukes less than that distance from New York and Washington – moreover Ukraine was not about to join NATO and NATO has not stationed nukes in any of the members that have joined since 1991.
“moreover Ukraine was not about to join NATO…”
And you know this – how, exactly? Did you see it on CNN? Where – exactly?
I know this because NATO does not accept members with open conflicts – moreover there is no chance that Orban would vote to include Ukraine he is still holding out on accepting Sweden and Finland though Putin has already said that them joining is no problem.
“does not accept members with open conflicts” No, they just fill them with weapons and guides their attacks with satellites and U.S. drones. There are U.S. soldiers in Ukraine right now. “no open conflicts”.
Well it did take a Russian annexation to make the US & UK take their moral obligation seriously – they did after all sign an agreement to respect the Ukrainian territorial integrity and sovereignty – so Russia invading and annexing was seen as their ‘guarantees’ being worth less than the paper it was signed upon.
But do not let the violation of international agreements change your view of why we supported Ukraine.
This is a very amusing perspective. So you actually believe the terrorist Anglo-American regime have any moral obligations?! LOL After developing bioweapons and infecting entire world? After terrorist attack on Nordstream pipelines, Crimean bridge and Sevastopol? This is hilarious. After destroying Ukraine, they will have no issue at all with complete destruction of left Europe. These pests have no issue with killing their own slaves! Since you side with these parasites, I’m going to hold you responsible for all their crimes against humanity.
No matter what government, the treaty does leave the public with a perceived moral obligation – as in if we make a treaty with among others Ukraine to give up their nuclear weapons against guarantees to respect their territorial integrity – then we have a moral obligation to support them if that integrity is in danger.
Any proof or evidence of this particular (conspiracy) theory?
More baseless assertions or do you have any actual evidence?
Getting the notion that you are beyond reason – or could you somehow present any evidence why they would engage in actions that would make themselves poorer?
I’m happy to be challenged in a court of law, if you are equally willing to be held responsible for the Russian war crimes.
Yes, that is considering it is a democratically-elected government and not a terrorist imperial corporate-oligarchy regime like in Anglo-American empire .
Interesting how your “moral obligations” do not extend to Korea, Nicaragua, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen. The was no concern for “moral obligations” ignoring guarantees not to expand North American Terrorist Occupation east. The word of a terrorist regime means nothing to the civilized world. Your barbaric empire is ending and that makes me very happy.
So you are completely ignorant of Pentagon developing bioweapons for the passed 20 years including nCov? Why am I not surprised…
Europeans left without Russian gas is a “baseless assertion”? Puppets in Kiev taking orders from Pentagon to blow up the Crimean bridge a “baseless assertion”? English-made drones and Pentagon coordination is a “baseless assertion”? Are you trying to make me laugh again?
Well, it seems to me you don’t like having your back against the wall pinned down by irrefutable facts.
Why would the terrorist empire cannibalize itself? Because it needs to remain relevant. The ruling parasites want to maintain their power.
You are a comedian, aren’t you? LOL Why would I even consider any kind of squealing coming from a terrorist regime? Your empire is the enemy of humanity. Any “laws” it makes are null and void.
???
Where do you get the idea that they do/did not?
Link the treaty where this very important guarantee was codified! And for the record NATO was not expanded against the will of nations joining, but only by the joining nations applying to join and only if these nations were democracies themselves.
I aware of them developing bioweapons, but I have yet to see proof that they spread these to the general public which was your claim as I read it.
The assertions you made was that there were: ‘…terrorist attack on Nordstream pipelines, Crimean bridge and Sevastopol?‘ – you have provided no evidence that there was a western attack on the NS pipeline, the attacks on the Crimean bridge and Sevastopol are not terrorist or is every Russian attack in Ukraine terrorist? Otherwise this is just war.
Getting the notion that you are beyond reason – or could you somehow present any evidence why they would engage in actions that would make themselves poorer?
Well, it seems to me you don’t like having your back against the wall pinned down by irrefutable facts.
Why would the terrorist empire cannibalize itself? Because it needs to remain relevant. The ruling parasites want to maintain their power.
So no basis for any sane debate with you, seeing as any law made in any actual democratic state would be null and void to you. This may go a long way to explain why the Ukrainians will fight for much longer than would otherwise be the case and why we would support them further than would otherwise be the case – I look forward to more replies of yours as they are about the best way to motivate people to resist the temptation to give in to Russian demands.
You’re having trouble understanding basic English? There is no democracy or freedom in Anglo-American empire. The ruling parasites have zero concern for their slaves. Is that clear or do I need to explain in detail the functioning of your terrorist imperial regime?
You mean useless piece of paper like that what have become of US Constitution? There was only vocal agreements and we all know how much the word of terrorist imperialists mean. Your regime scrap any treaty made especially if it hinders expansion of your terrorist empire.
You ARE a comedian! The toxic imperial propaganda, the terrorist coups. It is all “democratic will of nations” LOL!!! No clear-headed person have ever agreed to surrender national sovereignty to a terrorist occupation and become human shields for the parasitical empire. You are not going to convince anyone with such trash. You infested entire Europe and destroyed half of Mideast after Russians tried to make peace with you.
Try to keep up with the news. It’s not that hard to be informed. Overwhelming evidence of Anglo-American terrorist attack on Nordstream pipelines. Undeniable evidence of DIRECT Pentagon involvement in terrorist attack on Crimean bridge. bitchute dot com/video/1o9sQJDHAinr/
Clear evidence of Pentagon-controlled attack on Sevastopol with English-made drones. bitchute dot com/video/ofy9OHnTTZgC/
And yes, it is a war between Eurasia and Anglo-American empire. Ukraine is occupied by a terrorist Anglo-American puppet regime for the last 9 years. Russia isn’t in a war with Ukraine. Russia is Ukraine and Ukraine is Russia.
I’m not living in the US/UK – where I live we have democracy as evidenced by the frequent changes in governments – unlike e.g. in Russia.
Would not be useless if you actually could link it – as it would convince a great many people that Putin might just be a bit less evil.
A nation does not surrender national sovereignty to enter NATO, if you knew more about the organization you would know that it is an intergovernmental organization and each government is actually free to chose what to do.
Bitchute – evidence as in allegations and a video I could have made – this is perhaps evidence but at this stage it is really difficult to judge – does any Russian news source actually carry which you could link? Even if this was to be the case however it still would not be a terrorist attack just one that the Ukrainians got US approval of first – so not actual evidence that neither the US nor UK carried any out of these perfectly normal wartime attacks on high military value targets.
Tell us more they have freighted in so many Ukrainians willing to fight!?
We are very happy to live in this way, you may see it as a ‘type of propaganda’ but it is Russians fleeing Putin’s war in droves not westerners fleeing.
Oh! This is very interesting. I’ve encountered many CIA trolls who claim to be elsewhere. So what is this marvelous vassal state you live in? And since when changing imperial puppets is a democracy? LOL As for Slavic civilization and actual rule of The People, you don’t have a slightest clue.
Link to what? Promises made not to expand the terrorist occupation east made 20 years ago? LOL
I don’t need to convince anyone of your crimes against humanity. It is evident in every nation you destroyed since WWII.
Oh yeah. Killing women and children for the passed 9 years in Donbass, bombing civilians with cluster warheads Tochka-U missiles, burning people alive in Odessa, rape, pillage, using civilians as human shields in Mariupol is just regular warfare.
By the way, most of your crappy mercs and “advisers” were burned like trash in Mariupol.
9 years of war in Ukraine, completely backed and supported by the terrorist Anglo-American empire is just so difficult to judge. My, my. We going to have to think long and hard about that one… There is just not enough evidence. There need to be more dead bodies, right? But your terrorist kind will probably sign it off as SADS or Zee Climate Change.
Right. Of course. They all want to become human shields and protect parasites in Washington and London. This is what whustern’ democracy actually means, right? You defend your masters because they are so brave and courageous and ignore that Pentagon can fight Russia directly in the far east. But yeah, brave Pentagon warriors want to protect Europeans from evil Russian oil and gas. That’s, like, totally freedom and democracy. Do you work for CNN?
Us? You have multiple personalities, Mike? In that case I will tell you both that Ukrainian boys are forces to fight by same the terrorists who have been terrorizing Ukraine for 9 years. Guns at their backs, guns in front. What a glorious position to be in. Perhaps your multiple personalities would like to support Kiev puppet regime with actions? They can use all the men they can get.
Oh, I’m familiar with that silly propaganda. It’s in the same category as Ghost of Kyav and Lets go Brandon. The imperial propaganda machine is simply amusing today.
Michael says nothing about the people in Donbass and Kherson being shelled by Kiev.
“Ukraine was not about to join NATO”
Zelensky came back from a conference with top NATO heads saying he wanted to join NATO and station missiles in Ukraine. NATO was filling Ukraine with weapons to use against Russia, like they used Georgia against Russians. Ukraine kept doing its best to provoke Russia by killing thousands in Donbass.
And you say nothing about them starting an armed insurrection – Kyiv was not shelling defenseless civilians but fighting a Russian backed insurrection. Furthermore the civil war in the Donbas was quite a small affair by 2016, by far the most deaths (on both sides) happening in the first two years. Your friend Putin has more than doubled the number of men backing the Russian side killed as ill equipped conscripts fighting in this war – and about as many civilians fighting to ‘liberate’ them.
Any link to any reputable news source documenting this assertion – because all we know is that NATO has not even stationed any nuclear missiles in any of the new nations that has joined NATO since 1991 – so your claim sounds like Russian propaganda exaggerating the notion that Zelenskyy wanted to join – you know that Georgia also wanted to join and was not admitted. As for NATO filing Georgia with weapons – again any evidence to back this assertion up? I do not remember the Georgians using any of the anti tank weapons the west has sent to Ukraine, but that may be just me not having seen those articles so just link them.
We shouldn’t do that, but here is the problem if they move Russias borders westward the fly time to Russias borders actually shrink.
Yes, I know you doubt it. However, I’m confident that I do know what Russia believes about this. Anyone who has been following the issue or has researched the history can easily determine that Russia sees US-NATO behavior as existentially-threatening. Leaders speaking for Russia have made that abundantly clear for many years. There’s no reason, other than the bizarre Russophobia with which Westerners are typically programmed, to disbelieve what they say and have said.
The right-libertarian extremists’* notion (in reality, an article of religious faith) that “regimes [governments] . . . are criminal criminal gangs” by definition is, frankly, childish. Clinging to it ensures that you will always be outside, sniping ineffectually, as societies wrestle with issues of governance. And it reminds me of one of my favorite relevant quotes:
* I use the “extremist” label because right-libertarianism is a fairly broad political tendency and many (most?) right-libertarians don’t see all organized state government as actually criminal.
Russia has its share of propaganda and manufactured consent but I’ve seen the scattered Nazi flags on the floor of a Russian museum and when they say never again you can believe them. Don’t bother looking for their messing around department on this, they don’t have one, and anyone who doubts it is courting annihilation, mutual if need be. And what’s frightening is I think a lot of people in DC are simply too shallow and basically feeble minded to get this.
I’m a left-libertarian.
Not as that term has been historically used, you aren’t.
That term has been “historically used” in multiple ways.
While I was at one time affiliated with the Movement of the Libertarian Left, my libertarianism these days goes back to when libertarianism was the left — when Thomas Paine and Frederic Bastiat sat on the left in the French Assembly, and when Charles Comte and Charles Dunoyer developed the libertarian class theory from which Marx was the first major right-deviationist.
Indeed, the Left and Right concepts in politics come from the French Revolution. But who belonged to which?
When the revs took over parliament those who sat to the right of the speaker wanted a constitutional monarchy like in Britain. Those to the left wanted a whole laundry list to remake society, only starting with republic and then going from there. They killed their former comrades on the right and then killed each other.
The Left had endless ideas. They wanted a grey citizen uniform imposed on all French, like the Mao uniform later. They wanted to cut off church towers, and did so in places, because they were “undemocratically tall”. Democracy meaning egalitarianism, meaning no one must be more successful, look better, and so on. Like in Kurt Vonnegut’s short-story Harrison Bergeron.
The Germans in the occupied Elsass and Lothringen (“Alsace and Lorraine”) didn’t “speak the language of the revolution”, so there was talk about taking their children and spread them across the country, having them live with families who’d make them speak French.
But that wasn’t enough for many, who suggested slaughtering the undemocratic Germans instead, who no doubt liked the German monarch better.
There was also talk about spreading the revolution, like proto-Trotskyists thinking the commoners would welcome them and take up arms.
The Left tried to make a religion out of Reason, with a parade to Lady Reason in Paris, which ended when the main carriage was stopped and the bystanders groped the flower-throwing girls and Lady on it.
They made up a false story about the king and queen conspiring with foreign nations to invade France. This is what the king was executed for, his final words drowned out by a drumbeat. The queen was put on trial for among other things “teaching her children to masturbate”.
As this was read she said, “This is an outrage! I appeal to all the women in the room.” The audience was angered by the obvious lies, but the leftists had the guns and proceeded, so they could execute her.
They made a false glorious story about “storming the Bastille” to “free political prisoners”. There were only seven prisoners: A man sentenced for incest, a counterfeiter, and so on. The defenders were old men, who agreed to let in the mob outside. But once they did so they were killed, their heads cut off and paraded through the streets. The day after no one thought a revolution had started. Yet we still hear about the Bastille today.
(We also hear the claim that Marie-Antoinette said “let them eat cake”. This was in a newspaper printed by the left-libertarian Marat, in between urging on more violence. Until he was killed by the heroine Charlotte Corday, sacrificing herself and saying, “The monster is dead”.)
The Left put Robespierre in power, and the Terror began. To please the citizens he put a price ceiling on bread, as high prices were undemocratic. This caused a price shortage which he blamed on the greedy peasants. The bread shortage was one of the main reasons the leftist was overthrown.
The Left killed twice as many peasants and other commoners as they killed nobility. They also killed poor rural nobility who did nothing but take care of their land and protect the villagers. Their killings went unsurpassed until the U.S. bombed French cities to dust (almost as many bombs as dropped on Germany) and invaded, rahping 3,000 women, looting their homes, and turning a blind eye while the communists committed mass murder throughout the country, killing the old school teachers and store owners they hated. The revolutionary Left would be pleased.
The Left in Paris sent soldiers to rahpe women in areas that resisted them, and drowned hundreds by tying their arms and legs and putting them in leaking boats. As they marched they sang songs about it.
Finally the dissent reached a level where the people rose against the leftists. They rallied around the royalist name, and they were close to restoring some sanity to France when Napoleon stopped them. (Napoleon was a young officer who wasn’t getting anywhere, so he signed on with the Ottoman sultan. But in his final days in Paris he saw royalists storming a group of soldiers. He took control of the soldiers and used their cannons expertly to kill the lightly armed opponents. He was promoted and eventually reached the top.)
Whatever that means.
It’s funny, I was thinking about Ayn Rand’s cult today. She excluded people even for asking questions, so that the cult in New York eventually had more excluded members than remaining members.
Usually people would come starry-eyed after reading Atlas Shrugged, and then they’d be beaten down by her scoffing dogma.
One member saw two opposing claims in her beliefs, but didn’t dare ask about it. He waited in vain for years for someone else to ask and be excluded, because then Rand would give the explanation.
People were faulted for not smoking. It “symbolizes the fire of the mind”. The real reason was of course that Ayn Rand smoked. (And wasn’t symbolism “mysticism”?)
They were faulted for not listening to the same classical music as Rand. She declared some composers “mysticists” while others were good. I think Mozart was a forbidden mysticist, for example.
Unselfishness was bad. Giving was bad. You could not take what someone else gave you. Yet her husband lived off her. And she had a lover. Even though she said that a marriage should be “rational” and not based on feelings and desire. She said, “I can pair up all rational people in New York” in marriage.
Her followers moved to her apartment building and the one next to it to live near her. Even though physical proximity shouldn’t mean anything in her doctrine. Likewise her lover changing his name to “Ben Rand,” Hebrew for Son of Rand, is the kind of symbolism she decried when others did it.
Those who inherited her cult were fanatically in favor of bombing Afghanistan and Iraq, and wanted to use nukes against Iran. And bomb the Palestinians Because those were unfree people, which meant they couldn’t live real lives as freedom is the definition of life, so bombing them didn’t matter as they were dead anyway. Then something else could be built among the survivors. I read about this in 2003. Oddly, this thinking only applied to Israel’s pro-Palestinian opponents.
And she accepted Social Security and Medicare benefits.
Well at least one part of what you wrote is true. Ukraine is and has been crawling with criminal gangs disguised as militias, and with corruption not at all disguised.
All states justify their moves in the international sphere. Putin’s warnings were delivered to the Munich conference every GD year starting shortly after he took the reins. That happens to be true, as I can attest from my 8 years living in Bavaria. The west – the USA – simply discounted Russian concerns.
This is why we are in this crap. This is the only reason we are in this crap. If you want to highlight crap, start with the crap the US government feeds us about protecting democracy and freedom as it wanders around the globe looking for the next war.
Do UN observers claim that Donbass has been shelled for seven years?
They are shelling Donetsk even now, spending artillery on destroying apartment buildings. There are plenty of accounts of how this terror has affected the people in Donbass for seven years. 100,000 have been forced to flee. Kiev has also used snipers to terrorize them.
The Azov Battalion has kidnapped men in the occupied parts of Donbass, beaten them until they admitted to being “spies” and “traitors”, so the Kiev press could congratulate Azov. In Mariupol Azov said “we are behind enemy lines here” as it’s Russian, and they have used machine guns against protesters.
A French reporter in Kherson, talking to the studio, mentioned how the Ukrainian army was shelling the civilians there. The studio cut her off and claimed “we lost the feed”. That part was removed from their web version.
A search in DuckDuckGo for “French reporter cut off in Kherson” shows that at the top, as people spread the news, but not the top links in Google. So I can understand how the truth about the shellings can be unknown to some.
So Russia solution to what they see is a threat is to take other people land, bomb civilians, level cities and bomb shelters that have children. Since Russia is a big nuclear power, there was no threat by Ukraine or West on Russian existence. That idea is hogwash fed to the Russian people to justified the loss of 10,000s of their young men.
Does Russia see what’s happening as a solution to the problem? Part of preparation for a solution? I don’t know. I do know that what Russia is doing is in response to what it reasonably sees as an existential threat.
To the extent that those things are actually happening, it’s hardly surprising. Those things do happen in wars. Wars are ugly, brutal and bloody. However, it’s quite clear, except in the views of brainwashed Russophobes, that Russia is not doing those things deliberately. If those were deliberate tactics of the Russian military, parts of a strategy of all-out war, Russia would likely have fully mobilized at the beginning of hostilities and thoroughly crushed Ukraine within a few weeks. It could fairly easily have done so.
Uh-huh. What do you imagine is Russia’s motivation for invading Ukraine if it isn’t in response to a perceived existential threat?
Stalin said at the end of WW2 Russia will never be invaded again .
Yes, and Russians of all political persuasions and tendencies feel the same.
And just BTW, there is no other Russian border as sensitive in this regard as the southeastern border with Ukraine. For obvious historical reasons.
Nor have they been
Well, according to Russia, it’s Satanism! https://radiosputnik.ria.ru/20221025/gipersekta-1826713149.html
https://meduza.io/en/news/2022/11/04/dmitry-medvedev-rages-against-dying-world-of-nazi-drug-addicts-and-greedy-defectors-in-unity-day-telegram-post
I’m not going to bother translating beyond the headline and intro, but . . .
It’s easy to see how some of the religious-politico-cultural trends in Ukraine might be considered satanic by religiously-oriented opponents.
I often wonder myself, although I would use the compound adjective “batshit-crazy-satanic.”
Euromaidan: “Who doesn’t jump is a Moskal”
There are dozens of videos out there depicting this hateful lunacy, including jumping kids at Azov Battalion summer camps.
Yes people jumping up and down in the mid of winter – clearly Satanists! /s
This is not Satanism – the Russians have reacted in much the same way, and that without the provocation of having a neighbor annexing a large part of their territory.
Mind you I’m not at all blind to the fact that there were several very unsavory types around in 2014 – only by 2019 they had lost their last seat in parliament – so absolutely no justification for the SMO.
Forget the “no justification” stupidity. Humans almost always believe that what they choose to do is justified and nation states always do. And opponents and enemies usually believe the opposite.
As for the “unsavory types” no longer being an important factor, it would be difficult to be more wrong.
https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2022/03/27/msm-cover-up-of-neo-nazis-in-ukraine/
I did not say that the unsavory types were not an important factor, but that they were no longer represented in parliament – which is a fairly important factor, as it shows that these people no loner enjoyed popular support – so the idea that Russia moved in to de-Nazify Ukraine is at best a very bad idea:
1) the unsavory types were the best armed and best trained in 2014
2) because it was the Russian supported actions in the Donbas that made these people popular in 2014
3) the unsavory types are still among the best armed and best trained in 2022 and most motivated
4) because therefore Russia invading now will make these people more popular again now
As for a justification I do not as such disagree with what you say, but point out that all national governments need to find justifications for their wars – it forms part of the motivation for the people to fight – that is why it matters – Russians in Ukraine will find few Nazis and fewer Satanists.
Moskals Do Not Jump!
“that Russia is not doing those things deliberately” So it was an accident that they annex Ukraine land? How do you accidently pass a law taking others land? Please explain.
Your posts, including this one, are reminiscent of the style of argumentation characteristic of adolescents who are overly impressed with their own cleverness. Grow up.
In others words you have no answers, so you will just fire insults. Not surprising.
If Putin had not made a move , how long do you think it would be before Ukraine was in NATO and had hundreds of US nukes on it`s border aimed at Russian cities ? . as for stealing land the US / UK can give master classes on it , read some history books you may learn something , however i doubt it.
20 years, maybe 40? The conflict in the Donbas and Crimea would have kept them out. It is tough buying insurance policies when your house is actually on fire.
So you are OK with Russia taking land because US/UK did it in the past? Wow that is a great justification. If I was a defense lawyer in a murder trial, I could say, Abel killed Cane, so that was OK for my client to do it.
And Ukraine has the right to join any Alliance they want to.
Oh by the way, please supply a list of history books that you read. My library is extensive, we can compare size. And if you have read as many books as I have you would have learn that leaders that start wars always blame the other guy. Always.
Ha! I accuse you of arguing like a smartass teen and within minutes you post definitive proof of the accuracy of my diagnosis. 😏
You’re embarrassing yourself.
So again you have no answers, just insults.
I admit that I’ve concluded that answering your posts in a serious manner is pointless.
So if you can’t give a serious response you will just toss insults. That is a third grade level response.
Perhaps I wasn’t clear. I didn’t say I couldn’t, I said that I believe it to be pointless.
The poster is brimming with ignorance.
“taking land” Gotta love the propaganda. Russia didn’t even want Donbass to become part of Russia. When Donbass asked, in 2014, after the coup regime in Kiev had burned more than 40 people to death, Russia said no. When Donbass asked again later, Russia said no.
I am 100% sure you didn’t know that.
When Russia stopped the planned Ukrainian invasion of Donbass in February, their peace proposal was simply that Kiev would stop attacking Donbass. They didn’t even request for freedom for all of Donbass, only for the parts that were already free.
And they wanted water for Crimea, which the Zelensky dictator cut off.
They didn’t even ask for the old people of Donbass and Crimea to get their pensions back, which Poroshenko and then Zelensky stole from them. Instead Russia covered the cost.
Are you in kindergarten? Where did you acquire your understanding of the post war era?
Hey bear, you challenged me about nuclear power technology a couple days ago. When are you going to reply to my counter challenge? Oh by the way, please document where you required your post war era knowledge? Well at least you didn’t complain about Biden, the guy you voted for, in this post.
Voted for but not again. What challenge did you issue re nuclear power? You stated that enrichment was Iran’s path to the bomb. That statement is not true as the US has recently stipulated that Iran is not pursuing a bomb coupled with the fact that the P5+1 agreement was set up to ensure an upper bound to enrichment – not to ensure there was no enrichment allowed. So your original statement about this subject was flat out false – at best misleading.
Voted for but not again. What challenge did you issue re nuclear power? You stated that enrichment was Iran’s path to the bomb. That statement is not true as the US has recently stipulated that Iran is not pursuing a bomb coupled with the fact that the P5+1 agreement was set up to ensure an upper bound to enrichment – not to ensure there was no enrichment allowed. So your original statement about this subject was either flat out false – or at best, deliberately misleading.
“So Russia solution to what they see is a threat is to take other people land, bomb civilians,”
Ukraine has been killing 14,000 civilians over seven years and driven 100,000 from their homes. You didn’t know that, did you?
Russia DOES NOT “bomb civilians,” you are repeating propaganda. But the Kiev regime put into system to move its Washington-supplied artillery to city streets, so that when Russia fired back at them they will inevitably also hit buildings, which the Kiev regime and the media can exploit.
In Mariupol the Azov Battalion deliberately put its artillery next to bomb shelters. They wanted the people in Mariupol to die. They said “we are in enemy territory here” and they have used machine guns against protesters.
The Azovs in Mariupol had positions outside the city but withdrew all of them to inside the city, same as the Kiev regime did everywhere else, to use the people as human shields.
The Azov Battalion’s HQ was in the basement of an opera, so they packed it with civilians, hoping they would die when Russia shelled the HQ. Then they could exploit that and cheer the death of ethnic Russians.
The Azovs took the people in Mariupol as prisoners in the steel plant they occupied, using them as human shields and slaves. But the social media you use have blacked out information about this.
Ukie soldiers took up positions in an ABANDONED hospital and an abandoned school, and when Russia fired at them, the lying media said “Russia attacks a hospital! Russia attacks a school!” For you to repeat.
They claimed Russia bombed a WWII memory site, which was a lie. They claimed Russia bombed the Turkey-built mosque in Mariupol I think it was, another lie.
But Ukraine eagerly bombs civilians in Donetsk in Donbass, and in Kherson, EVEN NOW, when they should be using all their artillery for military purposes.
Comment on that?
“Existential threat” is too abstract for most people. They don’t know why.
Russia believes it is responding to the shelling of Donbass, increased from 20 times a day FOR SEVEN YEARS to 100 a day in the fall 2021, as confirmed by U.S. observers. And increased to nearly 2,000 per day in February 2022, before the amassed army’s planned invasion.
I’ve heard that Kyev was only days away from launching its own invasion of the Donbas.
I wonder if George HW Bush might have considered invading Iraq to prevent Saddam from invading Kuwait instead of waiting until after the fact.
It was. There is sufficient evidence the Kiev forces were massing for an invasion.
Certainly there’s sufficient evidence of that to make it reasonable to believe that’s what was about to happen. After all, given the history of the preceding eight years, why wouldn’t Russia and the Donbas believe it?
How does one invade there own country?
Didn’t stop the US for punishing Syria for attacking its own rebellion.
Foreign interference is nothing new in civil wars.
Conduct a seance and ask him Let us know what he says.
And you heard that where? Anyway, Bush would not have invaded Iraq to prevent an attack on Kuwait. Instead he would have reinforced Kuwait. Question, How much of Iraq’s land did the US take after the war? Oh that will be none. So why is Russia taking Ukraine land?
Why do you state as fact what HW Bush would have done?
I thought it curious that Zelensky would send 125,000 troops to the Donbas front in December 2021, instead of sending them to the borders with Russia and Belarus.
If GHW Bush had planned to reinforce Kuwait before Saddam invaded, he would have done so. It’s not like he was taken by surprise.
“W” lost interest in Iraq when their oil industry was denationalized. He got what he wanted.
Both Crimea and the Donbass seceded from Ukraine after the violent overthrow of their elected government in 2014. If they want to be part of Russia, they are entitled to do that.
The map of the 2010 election results illustrates who supported who before the coup. The people who did not want western domination of the government in Kyev then are the same people who don’t want it now.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/%D0%94%D1%80%D1%83%D0%B3%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%82%D1%83%D1%80_2010_%D0%BF%D0%BE_%D0%BE%D0%BA%D1%80%D1%83%D0%B3%D0%B0%D1%85-en.png/1280px-%D0%94%D1%80%D1%83%D0%B3%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%82%D1%83%D1%80_2010_%D0%BF%D0%BE_%D0%BE%D0%BA%D1%80%D1%83%D0%B3%D0%B0%D1%85-en.png
Yes. This^.
Indeed he could not have been surprised. And if the reports of April Glaspie’s little chat with Saddam are accurate . . .
Yes, Glaspie’s chat was forgotten like “not one inch eastward” was.
Exactly.
Teddy Roosevelt new about the attack on Pearl Harbour , by stopping all imports into Japan , the reason for this was to get the US into WW2 , most of the US Fleet set sail day`s before the attack.
Franklin, not Teddy.
Teddy Roosevelt died in 1919, so how was that possible that he knew of the attack?
Japan reacted to our blockade, which is an act of war. Russia probably should not have invaded, but the “war” began with the George W. Bush administration, with subsequent U.S. presidents taking the baton. By his act of removing us from the ABM Treaty, the wheels of war were set in motion. Clinton added his own touch.
Blockade? There was no blockade of Japan. Did we stop selling stuff to Japan, yes. That not the same as a blockade. It is not an act of war to not trade with a nation.
Clueless reply, but no surprise for someone who has no clue what has been going on in that part of the world for the past 32 years.
If it is clueless, prove it. You can’t. So you toss insults.
Look up the history of Ukraine in Wikipedia. There is an entire host of articles and references covering pages. Try to educate yourself past uttering platitudes here that anyone who watches CNN can do.
“prove it you can’t” Easy, I just wrote a post about the little inconvenient facts you choose not to read about.
It’s not an insult. It’s a fact. You are completely ignorant. Russians didn’t start a war in Ukraine. They are ending it.
Actually, it is quite feasible to do so if one is familiar with REAL historical facts.
Kenneth likes Zelensky’s bombing of Donbass, more than 100 times a day in the fall of 2021, and up to 2,000 per day in February when Zelensky’s army prepared to invade and start the slaughter. That’s when Russia stopped them.
Kenneth: “How DARE Russia! Aggression! And they hacked the 2016 election and Trump is a Russian agent! Revenge!”
Your comment is spot on , however you try telling Brits or anyone else , they just don`t want to know , the racist attitude towards Russians now beggars beliefe .
Russians are White. Like most of the leftists who hate them. Then again, leftists ARE racist against Whites, but that’s not what you meant.
“Fascists” and “racists” are not pushing for this war. The Left hates Russia for being conservative. Putin opposes mass immigration to Europe. He opposes their homosexual brainwashing of children. “Ultimately this war is about LGBTQ rights!” leftists tell us. Biden isn’t “fascist” or “racist” against Russians, he and the other leftists are out to end all opposition to their mass-immigration agenda. And they are happy to have a flood of Russians coming to Western Europe too, like Ukrainians and Iraqis and Syrians and Afghans. Anything to destroy the peoples of the West, who are the real target.
more appropriate would be for uncle sam to leave ukraine and take his bioweapon labs with him
“We” You equate the Washington government with “us”. Talk about brainwashed.
I suggest we force Zelensky to leave Ukraine. Give him a free flight to his bank account in London so he can live off his bribes that made him sell out Ukraine’s land to China and BlackRock and others in 2021, causing his poll ratings to plummet. So he started killing the people in Donbass with more than 100 shellings a day and amassed an invasion army to slaughter them, to have something to brag about before the next election.
That’s the man you love.
Citation for 100 shellings a day please.
Peace is always cheaper than war.
But that`s no good to the war mongers and the M.I.C . is it.
Almost certainly. So far if you believe the Ukrainians 70k Russians have been killed at a cost of about 30 billion. That is about 430k per dead Russian. If fewer than 70k have been killed the price is even higher.
I have to think there is a cheaper way to screw up the Russian army with $$ than just killing them. How about an all expense paid trip to Disney.
Yes, but then the American Military Offense Industry wouldn’t make their billions.
Peace Sells, But Who’s Buying
The only fuel Ukraine has for tanks is Diesel fuel stolen from American consumers.
OK. And I also heard that Ukraine is planning to steal the Golden Gate bridge and melt it down to make new tanks.
Looks like you hear a lot of things……
They might as well pile those tanks up and burn them, along with the money. At least nobody will be inside.
Maybe, but my guess is that they are going to use those tanks to kill more invading Russians. But hey what to do I know?
Not a whole lot. Sending secondhand T-72s piecemeal against state of the art Russian airpower and counter armor is throwing them away, along with the men inside. The war is nothing more than a 10+:1 blood swap and a money trough.
The Russian state of the art materials is not much better if at all to the T-72. But I do agree with you on the second had equipment. I would prefer the US send the good stuff. Train Ukraine pilots to fly F-16s and send in M1s.
State of the art tank killing is airborne PGM and the Russians have it in spades. And you need to send your wish list to the White House but if it doesn’t include nukes you might as well keep it to yourself. The F-16s and Abrams would just be missile bait.
These tanks should be the equal of what the Russians have left, improved optics alone gives a huge advantage. The RuAF seems to be largely absent in the skies of Ukraine the air defense situation makes it too dangerous to operate.
If you are talking about equipment losses those we can verify from pictures then the Russians are not losing 10+ to one but about 6 possibly 7 to one. I think the losses of men is likely to be more even, but then reliable casualty figures are very hard to get.
Assuming your kill ratio of 6:1 and a population ratio of 4:1 yields an effective 24:1 disparity.
How do you work this out? Are you assuming that every citizen in both Ukraine and Russia are fighting?
I used an approximate population ratio. The percentage of armed combatants is generally low single digits. Again, “qualitative analysis”. Another way to put it is “big country vs. little country”, though numbers are just a part of the disparity.
Thanks for the answer – I would however propose using the fielded forces as a better method – these numbers are somewhat reliably provided in open sources.
That can better explain the numbers that are observed my source being Oryx – they only list losses verified by images and analysis hereof.
None of this however should make us blind to the fact that you point out i.e. that there are a lot more Russians than there are Ukrainians – which is why I am not of the opinion that Ukraine can win this war on the battle field if the Russians are willing to fight and die for the invasion.
That is however also I believe their main weakness i.e. their lack of enthusiasm for fighting the war. Still I’m not overly confident that the Ukrainians can beat even a not very well motivated Russian army, the thing I think might even the odds is the Russian economic problem and their inability to sustain large forces in the field.
Not that I expect you to believe me – just thought I’d give you an insight to why it is that I’m much less convinced of a Russian victory on the battlefield than most of the rest of the people here.
I don’t have my finger on the pulse of the Russian army but knowing you’re going to win helps morale. And the Russians don’t have an economic problem. They have the largest country on Earth, a large proportion of the planet’s resources, and very little debt. The ruble is the strongest it’s ever been. All the numbers are in Russia’s favor, and if that’s not enough watch Stone’s Putin interviews and try to imagine Putin making a dumb move. The war needs to be ended now before any more lives are lost.
It certainly does.
The Russian insistence on including the lifting of the sanctions from the earliest negotiations with Ukraine (Ukraine had to correct Lavrov that this was not part of the negotiation) suggests that you are wrong as does the fact that the Russians are using older and older equipment.
But no longer traded freely and there are now legal requirements for Russian companies and citizens to hold rubles – so that strength is not even believed by the Russians themselves.
The sooner the war ends the better – if it ends with Russia occupying parts of Ukraine then the sanctions will have to stay on for a very long future – otherwise we will have copy cat SMO’s around the world – simply put because it will then be in the best interests of nations to grab what they can, when doing so is no longer penalized.
For this reason I believe that the Russians are actually best served by leaving Ukraine completely – also their idea about killing all Ukrainians not willing to embrace their new Russian status – does make for doubt as to the idea that they are best served by a continued Russian occupation.
The sanctions will stay in place until enough rich people lose enough money. And I’m not so sure the Russians actually want them lifted. With BRICS gaining ground and the west losing it I think the Russians might stretch things out. The big economic picture is about pie, not paper, and the Russians have a whole lot of it.
I don’t buy into domino theories. The Russians will take the rest of the territory they probably should have anyway and the world will go on, assuming it isn’t a smoke shrouded radioactive wasteland of course.
They will stay in place until enough rich/powerful people will lose less money by lifting them – and facing the consequences of very likely China taking back Taiwan if the sanctions are lifted too early – you always have to compare with the alternate costs – in this case they are potentially massive.
The BRIC’s will (except Russia) all face the option between trade with Russia or trade with the west – fairly sure they will know where the money is – and also fairly sure that this is why the Russians insist on the sanctions being part of the negotiations (as well as insisting on negotiations directly with the US)
I did not mention any domino theory – this is not about what Russia will do but about what other nations like China etc. will do – and if there are no sanctions on annexing territory from weaker nations then it is pretty clear that this is what they will do at least some of them.
Since Russians are hiding their losses from their population it is hard to say what they lost. It is not hard to say that it is a lot. And of course Ukraine has lost a lot also.
“Hard to say” is at odds with “a lot”, but Ukraine has certainly lost more than Russia and their “a lot” is a lot less. This is called “qualitative analysis”. The war is an exercise in trading Ukrainian blood for Russian, period, and the Ukrainians are going to run out long before the Russians. The outcome, other than nuclear vs. non nuclear, has never been in doubt.
How do you know that Ukraine losses have exceeded Russian losses?
Russia’s announced combat fatalities are I think 6k, which sounds plausible, and Ukrainian losses are by all accounts substantially higher, in a country with a much smaller population. It’s not sustainable. But I think the real breaking point may be the winter and the privation it brings.
6k fatalities does not sound remotely plausible given the documented losses of materiel we have – from Oryx and the leaked information also indicates much higher
https://istories.media/news/2022/10/12/istochniki-vazhnikh-istorii-bezvozvratnie-poteri-rossiiskoi-armii-v-ukraine-mogut-sostavlyat-bolee-90-tisyach-chelovek/
Alone the losses of materiel should be enough to suggest that the 6K figure is the less credible of the two sources on lost soldiers.
I clicked on the link but my Russian is limited to “nyet pictures”. Regardless, in the final analysis Ukraine is going to run out first.
Right click and choose translate that should help a lot!
OK turns out there’s an English button at the bottom. A small English button. And RT appears more credible and generally contradicts the site. It smells like it’s bought and paid for by the US. I wouldn’t go there to find anything out.
Because the Russians are the ones with the firepower and the Ukrainians are known to be taking mass casualties. I don’t get this faith in the US’s proxy armies. Didn’t work in Vietnam. Didn’t work in Afghanistan. Didn’t work in Iraq. Didn’t work in Syria.
Putin should commit all his forces and end this NATO proxy war , other wise they will try to bleed him into suing for peace .
Yes, expand the war. Nothing can go wrong with that plan.
Well possibly the idea that they could not supply their much smaller force last winter so…
What is your solution? Continue to take devastating hits from the terrorist empire?
Russians love peace. Russians always try to build peace because they are experts at war.
I think you are absolutely right that if Putin does not want to be bled to sue for peace then he needed to commit overwhelming force.
The Americans are not trying to bleed the Russians for peace. They’re trying to bleed Russia dry so the Russian federation is extinguished. Then they’ll be able to move on to destroy the Chinese, North Korean, and Iranian states.
Afterwards there will be peace on earth and everybody will live in rich very happy democracies, as long as they all do as their American benefactors advise.
Fair point – seeing as I would suggest that the Russians would not sue for peace under the terms that are likely to be on offer the two may turn out to be about the same – that is if Putin stays in power.
I respectfully suggest that the Russians have an opt out though – but I also expect that they are unlikely to take it – i.e. that they are unlikely to withdraw to the 2013 borders. I also suggest that the US is very unlikely to destroy China – as they would be content to keep the Chinese out of Taiwan and not risk nuclear war with them.
I think you have tendencies veering toward pollyanna.
I think you have a tendency to run out of actual arguments – or do you wish to formulate where it is that you think I’m veering toward pollyanna?
Well, I’d rather run out than not have any at all 😉
Truth is I find the defenders of this clusterF*ck to be repulsive, and I have to go out of my way to stay on the surface with them, as there’s really nothing substantive to their arguments apart from cheerleading the US and trashing the Russians.
The part that gets to me is that the defenders of Ukraine as the injured party ignore thirty years of history, and I have no use for people who think that history started in February 2022.
No need to answer, as I only expressed my opinion of your posts and did not do so via any arguments.
I’m not defending the SMO – you are!
I have not been trashing the Russians at all – just pointed out the bad consequences of annexing territory from weaker neighbors. I challenge you to find any place where I cheer the US wars on foreign countries – because I can’t see that I have done this any place.
Again arguing with someone else than me – I agree that this escalated to a war in 2014 when Russia occupied Crimea – at the time Ukraine had few if any western weapons and no western trained troops.
So not only am I not ignoring the history I have pointed out to you that Russia (as well as the US and UK had signed the Budapest memorandum to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty in 1994 – Russia broke that treaty in 2014 and what is your argument that they had a right to do so? So yes Ukraine is the victim!
No I have noticed that you do not use arguments a lot mostly just assertions – so please do not answer unless you have actual arguments and not just your opinion.
And weirdly the Russians seem to be going along with the plan.
Folks, the math doesn’t work out. Do you want me to believe that $400 M can buy/ship 90 tanks, 1,100 drones, 40 Armored Boats, tactical secure communications/surveillance systems, upgrade HAWK air defense missiles, upgrade and transfer 250 M1117A armored security vehicles? Does that make sense? Are we sending them toys? It also wouldn’t cover shipping costs for all that unless Amazon is shipping for free. (sarcasm) Figures lie and liars figure.
Dulce Et Decorum Est III & A Taste of Armageddon
(Or the Empire has no Clothes but a Disposition Matrix)
In due homage
to Horace, Owen & Mikhail
i humbly nod
for how sweet & glorious
it must be to kill or die
the old lie
for God & country
via pompous duty
asphyxiatingly-wrapped
within ersatz honor
bubbling babbling fools
gushing drooling
patriotic pride
so c’mon kiddies,
any up for good jingo sport?
who’s hungry & poor,
who wants to play
the hubris ‘anything for profit’ killing game?
As newspapers rah rah
pied piper patriotism
with journalistic integrity
star spangled objectivity ha ha!
as a new battle/fear lies just around the corner
& armed forces day just weeks away hooray!
rally loyal citizens
to whitewash warm innocuous blood
off disgraced musket & sullied polluted flag
strike up the marching parade
manifest destiny
down main street usa hurrah!
Awaken & open thine eyes
chauvinistic folk
come & see
xenophobic overseas deeds of nefarious brutality
You’re liable
for this appalling
tax-paid supported violence
exported to hamlets & villages
in lands you couldn’t find on a map
nor correctly pronounce
Assaulting families
who’ve never
did you any harm
clans you’ve never heard of
nor care less for
so step on up
one & all
Take a trip
to the overflowing morgues
filled with small smashed bodies
once toddlers
full of laughter & life
Deeply inhale
the rancid stench
of scorched flesh
crispy burnt
to a black bubbly mass
by phosphorus
Gaze into doll dead eyes
frozen forever
by shock & awe
renditioned
via your God blessed terror from above
Crumpled atop a cold gurney
a stiff finger of a tiny hand
amidst a mish-mosh of mangled flesh
bulls-eyed at you war supporters
Watch
as grief-stricken father’s
zombie-wander
in shattered silence
sifting through ragged debris
devastating destruction
searching
for lost sons
missing daughters
Discovering
ripped wet mangled body parts
strewn out as pieces of a human jig-saw puzzle
taking home
the ear, the hand, the foot
to be quietly buried
while 6000 miles away
blue-blooded heroes giggle and snicker
at a video screen
toe-tagging this crime against humanity
‘bugsplat’
Harken
to the heart-piercing shrieks
as soul-torn asunder mothers
wail like howling wild animals
as they find their loves buried
broken & bloody
in the rubble
of your glorious works
Then if you can
please explain
to the unresponsive moaning
neonatal orphan
why your armed forces
just murdered his parents
by accident
then wave a condolence payment
like juicy enticement in his face
Celebrate
as your special op-forces
silently efficiently & quickly
dig out bullets
from civilian bodies
to cover their tracks
from being at the wrong address
again
Declare as a national holiday
murdered women at a bridal shower
or when
4 kids are droned to smithereens
while tending sheep
rejoice
in exported evil exploits
as great american victories
for which your war crimes always are
Trust flim-flam,
the PR propaganda spin
from subjective mass media
obey leaders and church bosses
pay your taxes
which finances anglo-terrorism
through illegal & immoral aggressive violence
or listen to a blue rodeo
Raise your filthy faux flag
higher higher ever higher
to hover over the rising pile where the butchered lie
however
dear good christian citizens
no civic rag
could ever soar over
the sick slaying of the innocent
the accumulating abominations of flag-pledged atrocities
Appraise Fallujah
surrounded & caged
as the cowering cringing unarmed civilian inhabitants
are shot, burned & barbequed
like slaughtered sitting ducks
in a ‘free-fire zone’ shooting gallery
Ponder
upon your sanctimonious attack
at a school in Bajour
where 69 children are massacred by joystick
as you deceive yourself
into believing
it did not happen
washing your hands
turning as you walk away
This is Sand Creek
Wounded Knee
My Lai
Haditha
too many other mass-media
contorted & distorted great triumphs
To whit
no doubt in my mind
the next war crime called
a ‘battle’
or a ‘humanitarian bombing’
will be patriotically anointed too
sanctioned of course
by church state and school
the old lie
ta ta…
Hmm… Omg.
During the trench-warfare of WW1, the French leader Clemenceau wrote every day in his newspaper a reminder that France was NOT winning the war, namely “mais les boches sont toujours a Soissons” or “but the Krauts are still in Soissons”. Soissons is a town North of and close to Paris.
I paraphrase: “but the Russki’s are still in Mariupol and the Crimea.”
If my paraphrase means anything it means that some of our army, navy, and air force units will be needed to drive the Russians permanently out of Mariupol and the Crimea. Then the Russians will have to sign a for them devastating peace treaty in the Livadia Palace, Yalta on the Crimea, if that Palace and Yalta still stand above ground.
They’ll give Crimea up right after WWIII.
Hate to say it but we are already in WWIII.
ANewAtlas talked about this on YouTube. He is a former marine engineer, I believe, and very good at finding out the facts about all these weapons.
The T-72 is a Soviet tank from 1969. This is called “scraping the barrel”. After Russia’s overwhelming artillery and air superiority has destroyed the more modern tanks, the Pentagon has now bought some tanks from the middle of the Cold War to send.
And as ANewAtlas says, if these had made any difference you would have heard about it many times by now.