It seems rather strange to me that Russia which supposedly has air and artillery superiority has engaged in s WWI type trench warfare. I would have expected Russia to mass a tank army at a weak point on the front and go for a breakthrough. Why not?
Yes, exactly. What happened to a massive red wave covering Ukraine like something out of WWII. Rolo said it best. This all should have been big, quick, and decisive from the get-go. We all know Russia could have done a huge invasion. If she could not, then she wouldn't be one of the world's top military powers.
Evidently, a quick victory wasn't the plan all along. Ushering in the great reset looks to be it.
I've heard one view on this when the conflict started, by a chap called Arch Warhammer, (youtube), he thinks its due to the weapons or swords being so sharp (destructive) that the defensive capability can't match up to that so for infantry the best defense is still trenches.
Though I think Roll is referring to this conflict being a slog fest like WW1 not that it actually is like WW1
Sooner or later, ordinary Europeans are going to comprehend that this is not a military war, but a media war. One by one, they will execute their local media owners and editors, until the surviving journalists realise they must tell the truth if they want to live. Some will even kill their own editors.
Once the media is forced into reality reporting, Zelensky is cactus, and all western politicians who, after all, are the pawns of media owners like Rupert Murdoch, will rebel to save their own skins. Ukraine was a mistake. The proxy war will prove to be the anvil upon which US military power is smashed forever, especially when the Russians invest their remaining missiles as an expo of superior fire power. The US bluff will be over forever. Meanwhile, nations such as India, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, whose populations can be incredibly fickle, will turn against America, as do all henchmen when the lead bully is exposed as vulnerable.
The truth is, American power is indeed a media bluff, convincing captive populations they need America to protect them from other enemies. Suddenly, those captive populations will realise without US war mongering, they have no genuine enemies. Yankee go home.
Reading this, the missile and shell tossing back and forth between Russia and the Ukraine reminds me of the way national navies used to conduct conflicts between individual sailing ships or between sailing ship squadrons. Patrick O'Brian's historically-based Aubrey/Maturin series of novels about the British navy in the early 1800s explains that in paired ship conflict, all other things being equal, that the ship with the most cannons would reliably win a battle (and a war). On the occasions where something odd would happen (an inopportune wind speed or direction change, for example) or when the parties were evenly matched, and cannons therefore could not settle the matter, one party would eventually have to board the other ship and fight it out more personally. Sound familar? Still, applying the sailing ship model of conflict to the Ukraine-Russia disagreement, Russia certainly still has more 'cannons' than Kiev -- and the seasonal 'wind direction' is also blowing in Russia's favor, but not Kiev's. So it still seems very possible the current Russian approach could work for them and Kiev will eventually have to strike its colors (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striking_the_colors).
For two weeks now I have started writing for "Stan's two cents" and then stoped because of all the developments here in France.
All I can say at that point is that the anger is growing, that the MSM is losing in front of alternative medias. Micron's regime, with more than 30 ministers confronted with a (corrupted) judicial system, the minister of justice being the first in the ranks of the crooks is only alive because of the propaganda.
France is a powder keg ready to explode and the micron's regime is rounding weapons in the country... Will it be enough for them to escape the "Guillotine"?
I'd honestly be surprised if Ukranians have any autonomy in choosing where when and who to strike.They're run completely out of US and will sacrifice as many slavs as necessary to lose in a way that also hurts Russia.
What do I know and it may not be 5D chess, but usually what the USA acts out in its foreign policy decisions usually leads to disaster and untold unintended consequences.
What if Russia's plan is simply: Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. Russia has made and will make many mistakes, but if they just make a few less.
What makes Roger Federer the best tennis player in the world? About 1% less mistakes than his opponents.
Echoes of Cardinal Richelieu supporting the weaker side in Germany (Holy Roman Empire) to depopulate. However, Cardinal Richelieu had a free hand, but in America there is opposition to providing aid. Perhaps Biden can't send more which causes the stalemate.
I so agree with you, Rolo. I don't know if you like the comparison or not, but you're saying what Paul Craig Roberts has been saying for the past 8 years. As Machiavelli said centuries ago - War cannot be prevented. It can only be delayed to the advantage of your enemy.
The West seems to be intent on convincing the world that Russia is the bad guy.
This type of behavior would be expected to pave the way for doing major physical harm to the target of the derision. (As happened after 9/11.) Russia has totally played into this by attacking the electrical grid rather than more purely military targets. I have no idea if Russian accusations that some "war crimes" have been staged is true or not, but the West seems desperate enough to do that.
I see the Russian leaders (if not the people) at this point as being a bit suicidal. But they evidently are convinced that backing down is not the correct action at this point. There is a theory that Ukraine and Europe are not the actual target of this war, but rather the U.S. This could explain the Russian hesitancy to accomplish their "objectives" in Ukraine and instead simply drag out the conflict as long as possible. The possibility that something more global is in the works is lost on most of us, as the corporate media would never admit it and others who know or suspect this either have no voice or prefer to remain quiet.
There have been several large countries (such as Iran) in a similar position to that of Russia currently (which is to say under cultural and economic attack from the West) and they have all said, or continue to say, that they want to preserve their own culture and maintain control over their resources, and that the West threatens this control. The corporate media have for the most part totally ignored such arguments and instead have chosen to paint the leaders of these places as villians. This works in the West. But Russia has now lashed out in violence, apparently against the cultural and economic pressure. It seems uncharacteristic, somehow. Not even China has attempted such an adventure. Yet.
As I have evidence that Russian leadership has been interfered with by outside (off-Earth) groups, I really wonder what the bigger plan is and how this war fits into that plan.
Thanks for the update, Rolo. The airfield strike was barely mentioned here in the US without mention of the Russian counterstrike or even any actual details about the Engels strike (is this airfield actually named after that loser?).
So the plans for over a million Russian mobilization are just rumors? The reality is hard to determine fourth and fifth hand here in the West.
Btw glad youre back posting, Rolo, and apparently in good health!
"I’m puzzled by this tit-for-tat game that KIev and Moscow are playing. Ukraine hits a Russian target and gets hit much worse by Russia’s retaliatory strike. It keeps happening and it begs the question: why does Kiev continue to play this dangerous game? What do they gain by it?"
It's good propaganda at home, and demoralizing to the enemy (if every time you hit them you get hit back 10x as hard, how long before you tap out?).
'You know what would have been a winning move for Russia with this war? Winning quickly and decisively with overwhelming force instead of getting pulled into this bizarre war of energy-attrition and WWI-style trenches.'
Paul Craig Roberts, an American, has been saying EXACTLY this ... since ~ March 2020. His concern is that Putin's decisions are leading to WWIII.
Paul Craig Roberts is different from the other Unz Review writers because not only was he the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy but he led the Reagan economic turnaround. He was very high up in the US government.
Putin said at the outset the goal was to "Demilitarize and denazify Ukraine".
IOW, the goal is to make sure Ukraine can't pose a threat any time in the future. To do that you have to destroy the personnel and materiel. This is what they're doing.
Per Clausewitz, the best way to make sure a country cannot pose a threat in the future is to conquer it. As long as a country has territory, fresh armies can always be raised, sooner or later. And with arms support from NATO, all that is needed is meat, the economy is not even necessary.
The French also didn't have early warning radar, satellites, EM communication surveillance, drones, didn't mine the fuck out of the area preceding the Maginot Line, weren't aware of Blitzkrieg tactics, etc.
German maneuver warfare tactics didn't have anything to do with it, the Rhineland was remilitarized in 1936. The problem was that the French had no occupation force at that time to prevent the Germans from just walking back in, essentially creating a fait accompli because the French would have had to start a fresh war just to stop the Germans from stationing troops in their own land, which wasn't really politically on the table. Now, this might be a bit different with a 200KM DMZ into Ukraine, because it would cover basically half of the country, hence it could be more of a race to new combat lines if Ukraine ever tried to remilitarize the territory. But the question is, why would the Ukraine accept a 200KM DMZ when that would cover huge swaths of territory they currently control, even including their capital? And in terms of security, if the Ukrainians aren't allowed to deploy troops into that huge area, who establishes security? It can't be Ukrainian police, because if you allow the Ukrainians to handle that, there isn't much stopping them from doing security creep until they actually have a serious military/paramilitary force in the area. If nobody does the security work there, there is a good chance the area could become controlled by warlords, bandits, and criminals, just causing more security problems for the Russians. Hence, the only answer that makes sense is for the Russians to occupy the territory outright, or install a puppet regime.
Creating a demilitarized region in Ukraine fundamentally doesn't solve the security problem—it just create a new one, perhaps even worse because at the very least they would have to be constantly watching the Ukrainians to make sure they aren't making moves. And, how long would this status quo stand for? It's just a recipe for a new war.
It seems rather strange to me that Russia which supposedly has air and artillery superiority has engaged in s WWI type trench warfare. I would have expected Russia to mass a tank army at a weak point on the front and go for a breakthrough. Why not?
Yes, exactly. What happened to a massive red wave covering Ukraine like something out of WWII. Rolo said it best. This all should have been big, quick, and decisive from the get-go. We all know Russia could have done a huge invasion. If she could not, then she wouldn't be one of the world's top military powers.
Evidently, a quick victory wasn't the plan all along. Ushering in the great reset looks to be it.
Unquestionably so.
WTF is up with the ongoing bombardment of Donetsk city center?
They think we are all idiots. Lock and load.
Ukrainian cannons should have been neutralized months ago. All of DPR LPR should have been cleared months ago. 🤡 world
I've heard one view on this when the conflict started, by a chap called Arch Warhammer, (youtube), he thinks its due to the weapons or swords being so sharp (destructive) that the defensive capability can't match up to that so for infantry the best defense is still trenches.
Though I think Roll is referring to this conflict being a slog fest like WW1 not that it actually is like WW1
Sooner or later, ordinary Europeans are going to comprehend that this is not a military war, but a media war. One by one, they will execute their local media owners and editors, until the surviving journalists realise they must tell the truth if they want to live. Some will even kill their own editors.
Once the media is forced into reality reporting, Zelensky is cactus, and all western politicians who, after all, are the pawns of media owners like Rupert Murdoch, will rebel to save their own skins. Ukraine was a mistake. The proxy war will prove to be the anvil upon which US military power is smashed forever, especially when the Russians invest their remaining missiles as an expo of superior fire power. The US bluff will be over forever. Meanwhile, nations such as India, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, whose populations can be incredibly fickle, will turn against America, as do all henchmen when the lead bully is exposed as vulnerable.
The truth is, American power is indeed a media bluff, convincing captive populations they need America to protect them from other enemies. Suddenly, those captive populations will realise without US war mongering, they have no genuine enemies. Yankee go home.
(insert Sam Hyde reporter meme here https://search.brave.com/images?q=Sam%20Hyde%20reporter%20meme )
Rolo, I have a question, are you aware of the RUSI.org (Royal Universal Services Institute) in the UK?
They had an article that went over the production rates for 155mm shells the yankies make.
Reading this, the missile and shell tossing back and forth between Russia and the Ukraine reminds me of the way national navies used to conduct conflicts between individual sailing ships or between sailing ship squadrons. Patrick O'Brian's historically-based Aubrey/Maturin series of novels about the British navy in the early 1800s explains that in paired ship conflict, all other things being equal, that the ship with the most cannons would reliably win a battle (and a war). On the occasions where something odd would happen (an inopportune wind speed or direction change, for example) or when the parties were evenly matched, and cannons therefore could not settle the matter, one party would eventually have to board the other ship and fight it out more personally. Sound familar? Still, applying the sailing ship model of conflict to the Ukraine-Russia disagreement, Russia certainly still has more 'cannons' than Kiev -- and the seasonal 'wind direction' is also blowing in Russia's favor, but not Kiev's. So it still seems very possible the current Russian approach could work for them and Kiev will eventually have to strike its colors (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striking_the_colors).
Funny you use this analogy. I was just thinking the same thing the other day.
Your work is very interesting, thank you.
"What are Europeans going to do? Rise up? Please"
For two weeks now I have started writing for "Stan's two cents" and then stoped because of all the developments here in France.
All I can say at that point is that the anger is growing, that the MSM is losing in front of alternative medias. Micron's regime, with more than 30 ministers confronted with a (corrupted) judicial system, the minister of justice being the first in the ranks of the crooks is only alive because of the propaganda.
France is a powder keg ready to explode and the micron's regime is rounding weapons in the country... Will it be enough for them to escape the "Guillotine"?
I'd honestly be surprised if Ukranians have any autonomy in choosing where when and who to strike.They're run completely out of US and will sacrifice as many slavs as necessary to lose in a way that also hurts Russia.
This controlled old fashioned warfare is designed to kill as many people as possible...one of the main goals of the great reset/NWO
I was promised crabs, Rolo.
What do I know and it may not be 5D chess, but usually what the USA acts out in its foreign policy decisions usually leads to disaster and untold unintended consequences.
What if Russia's plan is simply: Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. Russia has made and will make many mistakes, but if they just make a few less.
What makes Roger Federer the best tennis player in the world? About 1% less mistakes than his opponents.
Echoes of Cardinal Richelieu supporting the weaker side in Germany (Holy Roman Empire) to depopulate. However, Cardinal Richelieu had a free hand, but in America there is opposition to providing aid. Perhaps Biden can't send more which causes the stalemate.
I so agree with you, Rolo. I don't know if you like the comparison or not, but you're saying what Paul Craig Roberts has been saying for the past 8 years. As Machiavelli said centuries ago - War cannot be prevented. It can only be delayed to the advantage of your enemy.
LOL. Sam has the right idea. He understands who is the real enemy of the people. Very observant of you, Dave. Social equations are not lost on you.
The West seems to be intent on convincing the world that Russia is the bad guy.
This type of behavior would be expected to pave the way for doing major physical harm to the target of the derision. (As happened after 9/11.) Russia has totally played into this by attacking the electrical grid rather than more purely military targets. I have no idea if Russian accusations that some "war crimes" have been staged is true or not, but the West seems desperate enough to do that.
I see the Russian leaders (if not the people) at this point as being a bit suicidal. But they evidently are convinced that backing down is not the correct action at this point. There is a theory that Ukraine and Europe are not the actual target of this war, but rather the U.S. This could explain the Russian hesitancy to accomplish their "objectives" in Ukraine and instead simply drag out the conflict as long as possible. The possibility that something more global is in the works is lost on most of us, as the corporate media would never admit it and others who know or suspect this either have no voice or prefer to remain quiet.
There have been several large countries (such as Iran) in a similar position to that of Russia currently (which is to say under cultural and economic attack from the West) and they have all said, or continue to say, that they want to preserve their own culture and maintain control over their resources, and that the West threatens this control. The corporate media have for the most part totally ignored such arguments and instead have chosen to paint the leaders of these places as villians. This works in the West. But Russia has now lashed out in violence, apparently against the cultural and economic pressure. It seems uncharacteristic, somehow. Not even China has attempted such an adventure. Yet.
As I have evidence that Russian leadership has been interfered with by outside (off-Earth) groups, I really wonder what the bigger plan is and how this war fits into that plan.
Thanks for the update, Rolo. The airfield strike was barely mentioned here in the US without mention of the Russian counterstrike or even any actual details about the Engels strike (is this airfield actually named after that loser?).
So the plans for over a million Russian mobilization are just rumors? The reality is hard to determine fourth and fifth hand here in the West.
Btw glad youre back posting, Rolo, and apparently in good health!
<(is this airfield actually named after that loser?).>
😂 Can confirm. I have a friend who lives there.
"I’m puzzled by this tit-for-tat game that KIev and Moscow are playing. Ukraine hits a Russian target and gets hit much worse by Russia’s retaliatory strike. It keeps happening and it begs the question: why does Kiev continue to play this dangerous game? What do they gain by it?"
It's good propaganda at home, and demoralizing to the enemy (if every time you hit them you get hit back 10x as hard, how long before you tap out?).
'You know what would have been a winning move for Russia with this war? Winning quickly and decisively with overwhelming force instead of getting pulled into this bizarre war of energy-attrition and WWI-style trenches.'
Paul Craig Roberts, an American, has been saying EXACTLY this ... since ~ March 2020. His concern is that Putin's decisions are leading to WWIII.
Paul Craig Roberts is different from the other Unz Review writers because not only was he the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy but he led the Reagan economic turnaround. He was very high up in the US government.
Putin said at the outset the goal was to "Demilitarize and denazify Ukraine".
IOW, the goal is to make sure Ukraine can't pose a threat any time in the future. To do that you have to destroy the personnel and materiel. This is what they're doing.
Per Clausewitz, the best way to make sure a country cannot pose a threat in the future is to conquer it. As long as a country has territory, fresh armies can always be raised, sooner or later. And with arms support from NATO, all that is needed is meat, the economy is not even necessary.
You can also establish a 200km DMZ
Well, the French did something similar to the Germans after WW1 and it didn't really work out.
The French also didn't have early warning radar, satellites, EM communication surveillance, drones, didn't mine the fuck out of the area preceding the Maginot Line, weren't aware of Blitzkrieg tactics, etc.
German maneuver warfare tactics didn't have anything to do with it, the Rhineland was remilitarized in 1936. The problem was that the French had no occupation force at that time to prevent the Germans from just walking back in, essentially creating a fait accompli because the French would have had to start a fresh war just to stop the Germans from stationing troops in their own land, which wasn't really politically on the table. Now, this might be a bit different with a 200KM DMZ into Ukraine, because it would cover basically half of the country, hence it could be more of a race to new combat lines if Ukraine ever tried to remilitarize the territory. But the question is, why would the Ukraine accept a 200KM DMZ when that would cover huge swaths of territory they currently control, even including their capital? And in terms of security, if the Ukrainians aren't allowed to deploy troops into that huge area, who establishes security? It can't be Ukrainian police, because if you allow the Ukrainians to handle that, there isn't much stopping them from doing security creep until they actually have a serious military/paramilitary force in the area. If nobody does the security work there, there is a good chance the area could become controlled by warlords, bandits, and criminals, just causing more security problems for the Russians. Hence, the only answer that makes sense is for the Russians to occupy the territory outright, or install a puppet regime.
Creating a demilitarized region in Ukraine fundamentally doesn't solve the security problem—it just create a new one, perhaps even worse because at the very least they would have to be constantly watching the Ukrainians to make sure they aren't making moves. And, how long would this status quo stand for? It's just a recipe for a new war.