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The Battle for Bakhmut
The battle for Bakhmut has lasted for about nine months. It is the bloodiest and most intense fight in Europe since WWII. Advances and retreats are measured in two to six kilometers increments.
Thousands of Russian and Ukrainian forces have been killed in this battle as Russian forces try to encircle the city, and Ukrainian forces try to prevent the taking of the city.
Once again, the following video shows the grunts in the field. I’m not interested in the policy wonk views in the West, nor the Kremlin’s perpetual aggrievement of losing the old Soviet Empire. This fight has become like WWI trench warfare with newer and more deadly weapons.
My opinion is that this war is not going to end anytime soon. Regardless of the past history between Russia and Ukraine, it should be obvious that Ukrainians are fighting for hearth and home.
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Published in Military
Minefields not covered by observation and fires are like the buzzing of flies to Vigo.
My completely unfounded suspicion is our mothballed tank fleet has more in common with Russian war stocks. Alternatively, this is a way to keep the Lima tank plant operating at a higher production rate.
The Donbas and Crimea were never part of historic Ukraine. Crimea was a Byzantine outpost long before there was a Ukraine. The Donbas was largely settled in the late 1800’s by immigrants, many of them from Russia with the Soviets importing millions more ethnic Russians to the area during their rule. Those areas repeatedly in plebiscites since the 90’s have opted to align with Russia, because millions of ethnic Russians live in those areas and they have been abused repeatedly by the Ukrainian government. Much of the problem goes back to early WWII when thousands of ethnic Russians in those areas were rounded up and taken to German prison camps in Germany. There is very bad blood on both sides, and a strong Neo-Nazi element to the present Ukrainian regime which doesn’t help.
An insurgency against Russia in those areas is thus very unlikely. There was an insurgency against Ukraine and a low level war brewing in those areas since 2014 following the Maiden Coup. The rest of Ukraine is a completely different story. It is historic Ukraine and inhabited in large part by ethnic Ukrainians who have a different culture than the Russians. Btw, Zelensky ran as a “peace” candidate several years ago promising to resolve the differences between the two factions and the fighting in the Donbas, but once elected became a “war” President who purposely inflamed the problem, prior to the Russia invasion.
The cost of this war to America is far, far greater in many magnitudes greater than the $100 Billion in spending or so that we have thrown at it so far. It is effectively in the many, many trillions.
The energy and food supply chain of the world has perhaps been permanently altered to the great and very expensive detriment to the American consumer and to the rest of the world. People will starve in great numbers. There is already a world wide rice crisis.
We are no longer considered a trustworthy ally by much of the world outside the G7 because of our illegal sanctions, our sponsorship of terrorist attacks against Russian assets, and our reckless lack of concern for the consequences of this war. Our ability to broker diplomatic deals worldwide has been severely constrained. Nations outside the G7 are abandoning the Dollar as the World Reserve Currency like crazy, which will eventually bring great inflation from a diminished dollar value and will eventually severely limit our ability to fund our gigantic debt.
This war was orchestrated by the Biden Adminstration and other WEF friendly governments in Europe to create another crisis wrecking our and Europe’s economies leaving them prostrate along with the other manufactured crisis like the COVID pandemic for a WEF Great Reset takeover.
Lot’s of interesting comments, so thank you everyone for commenting. As I said in my post:
Radio Free Europe gives their readers a good look at the grunts on the front line in Ukraine. Bill Mauldin, the great cartoonist in WWII sums up what has always been true.
Well, I can’t speak for anyone else, but my reason is to demonstrate, as often as necessary, just how wrong people who continue to disagree with me are.
Or shoot them.
The left doesn’t really care about foreign women, same as they don’t really care about environmental despoliation in countries that produce batteries for their electric cars.
Russia may not care what the Ukrainian people think about whose “sphere of influence” they should be in, but we should, and do.
Namely, because Russia crossed the line from attempting to influence its neighbor (usually to their detriment, but that’s another debate) into attempting to subjugate it. That was their choice, not something imposed upon them by the United States promoting its interests (which in this case was an independent Ukraine exploiting their own energy resources). The equivalent would have been the United States attempting to militarily subjugate Ukraine in response to significantly more heavy-handed Russian attempts at influence, not merely ‘inserting’ themselves into Ukrainian politics.
And promoting a sphere of influence in any particular place is not necessarily within the interest of powerful countries, as it could lead to things like ‘imperial overreach’, ‘chain-ganging’ or (when perceived as unreasonable or illegitimate) crises of legitimacy affecting both domestic cohesion as well as international relations and alliances. We are still experiencing the after-effects of the first, the second contributed to the outbreak of World War 1, and Russia is experiencing the last right now. Hence my question about why our general policies toward Ukraine could be considered unreasonable, illegitimate, or contrary to our interests….or put another way, what alternative policies would have been wiser, based on realistic analysis rather than wishful thinking (i.e. ‘Russia would be our friends if we had let them have their way, that one statement about possibly joining NATO that was never backed up with any patterns of behavior totally proves it!’).
If your point was simply that Russia is not an inherent monster and has legitimate interests and grievances of their own, I agree with you in principle, if not necessarily in details. People are coming at this issue from all directions, frequently mistaking the basis of others’ positions.
As opposed to a Russian Satellite state? Yes.
I wouldn’t be surprised, what good is maintaining tanks in the fight against climate change and ‘white supremacy’?
Especially since they’re not electric!
No- every region in Ukraine supported independence in the referendum- every single region. Russia manufactured the 2014 revolts just like it did elsewhere in the former Soviet Union so as to create excuses to intervene- like Georgia, Armenia, Moldova etc. In the Donbas >80% voted for independence.
https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1991-2/the-end-of-the-soviet-union/the-end-of-the-soviet-union-texts/ukrainian-independence-declaration/
Just because Biden et al may not be thinking that way, doesn’t mean the American People aren’t.
Germany to supply Ukraine with its largest aid package yet, worth nearly 3 billion.
Ukraine war: Germany to supply Ukraine with largest aid package yet | CNN
Slovakia joins Poland in agreeing to give fighter jets to Ukraine.
Slovakia joins Poland in agreeing to give fighter jets to Ukraine | PBS NewsHour
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says the European Union should hurry up and let Ukraine into the European Union.
Meloni: EU should hurry up and let Ukraine in – POLITICO
Zelensky meeting with Meloni in Rome today to discuss Italy’s role in helping Ukraine win the war with Russia.
Japan confirms pledge to deliver 1 trillion Yen in aid to Ukraine.
Japan confirms pledge to deliver ¥1 trillion promised aid to Ukraine | The Japan Times
The American people don’t formulate and execute foreign policy, and there’s scant evidence that their opinions factor into the decision making process of the people who do.
That’s not the point. If the American People think Ukraine should be assisted, they might not care if Biden is doing it to line his own pockets.
Whether America’s foreign policy has anything to do with what the American people want or don’t want, care about or don’t care about at any given time, IS the point. And the answer to that is: No, it doesn’t really. Never has, except once in a blue moon, as a result of extraordinary events (e.g. Pearl Harbor, 9/11, etc.).
U.S. foreign policy decisions are made by the people who make them in accordance with whatever criteria they choose to use in their infinite wisdom, then a skillfully crafted narrative in support of it is presented to the American people, and … voila!
The Ukraine war (as well as what led up to it) is no different. When it comes time for it to end, the main geopolitical players (Russia, the U.S., U.K.) will meet behind closed doors and agree on terms (in “consultation” with Ukraine, of course), then the Ukrainian, American, Russian, etc. people will be presented by their respective governments with a … skillfully crafted narrative that will be good enough for them to be able to pivot relatively seamlessly back to focusing on their and their families’ daily lives and livelihoods.
Until the next foreign policy topic of interest to the people who are in charge of foreign policy pops up. Like, … Taiwan?
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Not sure Russia will qualify as a “main geopolitical player” in about 12 months….
You are confusing Russian policy with Ukrainian.
Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko checked into a hospital near Minsk, according to Belarusian publication Euroradio and watchdog Belarusian Hajun.
They reported that Lukashenko’s convoy arrived to the hospital at around 7 p.m., during which time access to the clinic was closed off and the roads to it were guarded by armed enforcers.
Lukashenko was publicly seen in Moscow celebrating Victory Day with Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States countries, where his apparent physical weakness drew attention.
Unlike the other leaders, he had to be driven around the small perimeter where the event took place. He also missed an official lunch with Putin.
Reuters noted that Lukashenko looked “tired and a little unsteady on his feet, and a bandage was visible on his right hand… though he otherwise showed no obvious signs of being unwell.”
Later the same day, Lukashenko attended the Victory Day ceremony in Minsk. However, he broke from tradition and wore a suit instead of his military uniform and did not make a speech. Lukashenko has also attended very few events in the past two weeks.
Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko’s swift departure from the Red Square Victory Day events sparks rumors about the dictator’s health.
It is amazing that a borderline (or more) demented old man like Biden is such a genius that he orchestrated the war by getting Putin to launch an idiotic invasion that lead to the decimation of the regular Russian army. It was the worst planned military operation since Old Jo’s withdrawal from Afghanistan- but at least the US casualties from the withdrawal were small. Next you are going to tell me that Hunter Biden was hired by all those firms b/c he is also a genius…..
Afghanistan is a crappy land far from D.C. and Moscow. Eastern Ukraine is literally attached to the heartland of Russia that has been part of “Rus” in the past. The logistics and motivation cannot be compared with Afghanistan. Nope. That said, Russia has shown no ability to take and hold any land not already occupied by Russian-language speakers.
I heard reports today that China is stepping up diplomatic efforts with Russia and Ukraine. China has money and influence to make something happen. Perhaps with a long-term payoff for their Belt-and-Road project.
I need to defend Granholm here. The term “fleet” in the auto industry refers to bulk sales of production passenger cars. When the military switches the fleet vehicles to electric, that refers to the Fords and Chevys used to drive around domestic bases.
Dunno man, that’s actually how a lot of them became Russian speakers.
courtesy wiki:
Some of this they lost post-Soviet Union, but a lot of it they kept. There are still a lot of languages that are not Russian which are spoken in the Russian Federation today.
And Russian remains the link language for Central Asia (just like English does for the Commonwealth).