Russia Invades Ukraine. Again by captaincrunch

Absolutely nobody cares.

--------------------------------------------------

Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.

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Monday, August 12, 2024 11:33 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:

Ukrainian forces have captured around 1,000 square kilometers of Russian land in a week. That is almost as much territory as Russia has seized in Ukraine this year.

By Jake Epstein | Aug 12, 2024, 2:25 PM CDT

https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-captured-hundreds-square-miles
-russian-territory-general-2024-8

I know, it's too funny.

T

Putin Is Afraid Of Ukrainian Troops Advancing! The Chief Of General Staff is Replaced With KGB Boss

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Tuesday, August 13, 2024 12:37 AM

Ted just eating up all the clickbait.

--------------------------------------------------

Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.

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Tuesday, August 13, 2024 12:44 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

There were some ridiculous deep fakes posted via Simplicius the Thinker

Quote:
every single step of the ‘offensive’ thus far has been fraught with various deep-fakes and psyops, like today’s phony deep-faked video of Konashenkov announcing that Chechen Akhmat forces ‘ran away’ [video]
In fact, no such thing happened, as Chechen forces even released a video from the Kursk region showing their liquidation of a Ukrainian unit: [video]

And this even more laughable deep-fake of Zakharova saying Russia is ready to give up the ZNPP in exchange for captured Russian territories in Kursk:
[video]

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-81124-desperate-for-escalat
ion

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

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Tuesday, August 13, 2024 5:36 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Report: The war in Ukraine is transforming the character of warfare.

This conflict has become the first major war to witness several technological phenomena that will undoubtedly characterize future warfare:

• Air and missile defense systems used at scale against massive and repeated drone, cruise, and ballistic missile salvos;

• Mass use of reconnaissance and strike unmanned aerial systems (UAVs or drones), and first-person view (FPV) loitering munitions by both sides;

• Rapid, dynamic evolution of electronic warfare (EW) measures and countermeasures, including GPS jamming at scale and counter-drone EW;

• Use of maritime drones to destroy major surface combatants in port and at sea;

• Use of drones and cruise missiles to destroy advanced layered air defense systems.

These technological phenomena are just the most salient features of the current conflict likely to be central to any future major war—there are many other examples of contemporary systems and techniques being used for the first time at scale against a peer adversary with similar capabilities.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/ukraine-and-problem-rest
oring-maneuver-contemporary-war

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, August 13, 2024 6:35 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Kremlin calls Ukraine's self-defense 'terrorism,' as Russian strikes keep targeting Ukrainian civilians

Russian Claim: "The Ukrainian actions are an evident terrorist action. No one hides the fact that American weapons have become a murder weapon of ordinary Russians. Attacks on schools, hospitals, ambulances and residential buildings in Russia cannot be recognized as a right of self-defense."

Fact check by Voice of America: False

The United Nations General Assembly resolution in March 2022 condemned "in the strongest words possible" Russia's "aggression against Ukraine" and demanded that Moscow halt "its unlawful use of force against Ukraine."

Later that month, the U.N.'s top court rejected Russia's pretext for invading Ukraine, and likewise called on Russia "to immediately halt all military actions in Ukraine."

Russia ignored international demands, carrying on with its war that inflicted devastation and profound human suffering in Ukraine.

https://www.voanews.com/a/kremlin-calls-ukraine-s-self-defense-terrori
sm-as-russian-strikes-keep-targeting-ukrainian-civilians-/7739818.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, August 13, 2024 8:57 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
T
here were some ridiculous deep fakes posted via Simplicius the Thinker

Quote:
every single step of the ‘offensive’ thus far has been fraught with various deep-fakes and psyops, like today’s phony deep-faked video of Konashenkov announcing that Chechen Akhmat forces ‘ran away’ [video]
In fact, no such thing happened, as Chechen forces even released a video from the Kursk region showing their liquidation of a Ukrainian unit: [video]

And this even more laughable deep-fake of Zakharova saying Russia is ready to give up the ZNPP in exchange for captured Russian territories in Kursk:
[video]

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-81124-desperate-for-escalat
ion

Putin assigns former bodyguard Dyumin to oversee Kursk defense

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/putin-assigns-former-bodyguard-dy
umin-to-oversee-kursk-defense/ar-AA1oIzM7?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=e8b734fcdfff4c72b94934a76cb3f19c&ei=292

Really, out of his entire army he doesn't have one competent general?

T

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Tuesday, August 13, 2024 9:02 PM

Absolutely not one single person cares.

--------------------------------------------------

Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.

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Tuesday, August 13, 2024 10:22 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Absolutely not one single person cares.

--------------------------------------------------

Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.

Ted cares

He cares vastly.

You'd think he was Russian.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

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Tuesday, August 13, 2024 11:15 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Absolutely not one single person cares.

--------------------------------------------------

Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.
Ted cares

He cares vastly.

You'd think he was Russian.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

Ted-Bot and Wetware aren't people, so they don't count.

They're poorly programmed AI. Just mindless NPCs that repeat the lines they're given to repeat every day. And when they aren't given lines, they don't have anything to say at all. We've already seen that happen in the last month.

--------------------------------------------------

Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.

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Wednesday, August 14, 2024 5:43 AM

JAYNEZTOWN

Moscow stunned by first foreign military incursion on Russian soil since 1945

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/08/13/moscow-stun
ned-by-first-foreign-military-incursion-on-russian-soil-since-1945_6714489_4.html

Exclusive: Russia Withdraws Some Forces From Ukraine in Response to Kursk Invasion

https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/russia-withdraws-some-forces-from-ukr
aine-in-response-to-kursk-invasion-c0a11eee

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Wednesday, August 14, 2024 5:57 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Retail Killing at Wholesale Scale

Most drones on the Ukrainian battlefield are independently operated by individual operators rather than functioning as parts of drone swarms — groups of drones working together and directed by a single overarching controller, whether human or algorithmic. Western military literature has long considered the challenges of drone swarms, which can in principle overwhelm anti-drone systems and do massive damage against individual targets. The Ukraine war will likely see the emergence of drone swarms, to be sure, but the current approach to drone operations prioritizes radical decentralization allowing thousands of drones and their users to identify and attack individual targets on their own. This approach suffers from numerous bottlenecks that slow down the functioning of the kill-chain and limit the number of discrete targets that can be engaged, as we will discuss below. It is likely, therefore, a stage in the development of drone-based tactical engagements rather than their final form. But this approach, radical decentralization, is likely to be the basis on which that final form emerges and to replace the pre-war ideations of algorithmically-controlled drone swarms with battle-tested approaches to coordinating vast numbers of reconnaissance and attack drones against many individual targets.

https://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/Ukraine%20and%20t
he%20Problem%20of%20Restoring%20Maneuver%20in%20Contemporary%20War_final.pdf

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, August 14, 2024 6:56 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Why is Russia far outpacing US/Nato in weapons production?

No forward thinking and a defense industry that only thinks of profits, are a bad mix

By Mike Fredenburg | Aug 14, 2024

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/russia-ammunition-ukraine/

Russia is outproducing all of NATO and the U.S in terms of ammunition, rockets, and tanks, despite having a 2023 defense budget of just $100 billion and a GDP of $2 trillion. Compare this to the combined US/NATO defense budget of $1.47 trillion and a combined GDP of about $45 trillion.

How can this be?

In short, the United States and NATO allies are prosecuting a war they would like to win, while Russia is prosecuting a war it believes that it has to win — an existential war. Consequently, for the Pentagon and American defense contractors it is largely business as usual with profits and revenues being the primary concern. Sure, some contracts were/are being expedited so that the money can begin to flow more quickly. However, with no real defense reform there is no reason to believe that defense contractors won't continue their long run of delivering weapon systems like the F-35, the Ford Class Carrier, and the Sentinel ICBM behind schedule and for billions more than originally promised.

But it's not just the big complex programs that come in late and over budget. Even something as relatively simple as producing unguided artillery shells come in late and over budget.

Going into 2022 there was little doubt that the U.S. Army no longer believed artillery to be as central to the battlefield as it once was. Demonstrating this mindset, on May 21, 2021, just about eight months before Russia invaded Ukraine, the Army requested permission to cut back annual spending on its 155mm rounds by half, reducing annual production to 75,357 rounds per year, about 6,200 per month.

But the story doesn’t end there. It turns out that the Army had presided over the decline of the entire U.S. artillery ammunition supply chain. Just how severe the decline is revealed in an excellent investigative piece by Reuters in which we learn that for years, U.S. production of 155mm rounds had been crippled by manufacturing defects and safety issues.

Furthermore, plans to replace the antiquated U.S. artillery production facility in Virginia with a modern, much higher capacity facility had fallen a decade behind schedule while nearly doubling its cost. In other words, very late and way over budget.

However, the most disturbing aspect of just how poorly the U.S. Army and Congress maintained our artillery shell supply chain was revealed by an internal U.S. Army document from 2021 detailing “foreign dependencies” on at least a dozen chemicals critical to manufacturing artillery shells that sourced from China and India, countries with close trade ties to Russia, according to the Reuters investigation.

All of the above adds up to an artillery ammunition supply chain in very bad shape, especially when compared to the 438,000 rounds per month U.S. ammunition plants could produce in 1980.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, August 15, 2024 4:26 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

How Ukraine Caught Putin’s Forces Off Guard in Kursk — And Why

The attack on a portion of the Russian region represents the largest seizure of the country’s land since WWII

By Michael Weiss, contributing editor at New Lines magazine, and
James Rushton, security and foreign policy analyst based in Ukraine
| August 14, 2024

https://newlinesmag.com/spotlight/how-ukraine-caught-putins-forces-off
-guard-in-kursk-and-why/

“Russia’s borders do not end anywhere” ran Vladimir Putin’s electoral slogan in January 2024, in seeming justification of a war of conquest in Ukraine meant to be over shortly after it began. But in a surprise turn two and a half years after the full-scale invasion, Ukraine decided to make good on Putin’s loose definition of sovereignty by invading the Kursk region in southern Russia on Aug. 6, in what has become the largest seizure of Russian land since World War II.

Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, says his forces have captured about 400 square miles of the region, which is opposite the northeastern Ukrainian region of Sumy.

“The situation is stable and in our favor,” he said during a broadcast meeting chaired by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukrainian border raids into Russia are nothing new, although none has been undertaken with this type of forethought and ambition.

If true, in under a week Ukraine has taken more of Russia than its adversary has taken of Ukraine so far in 2024. Even if Syrskyi exaggerated, it wasn’t by much. Geolocated footage of Ukrainian troops and armor — much of it Western-provided — suggests Ukraine’s near-total control of the town of Sudzha. Footage published on social media showed a Ukrainian military unit driving through the area in an American Humvee. “This is the central square of Sudzha,” one Ukrainian soldier can be heard saying.

A subsequent video from the same military unit shows another standing in a deserted street in another part of Sudzha. A dead Russian soldier lies on the ground. No gunfire or artillery can be heard in the distance, indicating the town is uncontestedly in Ukrainian hands. In notable contrast to settlements seized by Russian forces in Ukraine, the buildings of Sudzha seem almost completely undamaged. Much of this likely owes to the little resistance Ukrainians faced in their blitzkrieg.

A Ukrainian source close to the military with firsthand knowledge of the operation told New Lines that the invading troops were shocked by how many prisoners of war they were able to capture on the Russian side and at the initial ease of their breakthrough across the border.

All of Russia’s legal national boundaries are controlled by the FSB Border Guard, officers of which vanished during the assault. Russian troops — almost all of them conscripts — had no idea their enemy was on the march, according to a senior Western diplomat. “Many just laid down their arms and fled,” said the diplomat, who spoke to New Lines on condition of anonymity. “The initial incursion was mounted with a strike force of only 2,000 or so. They wiped out 20 Russian trucks coming to the rescue.”

At least 120,000 inhabitants of Kursk Oblast have left their homes and an additional 60,000 are subject to evacuation, Kursk’s acting governor, Alexei Smirnov, told Putin in a televised remote meeting on Aug. 12. Smirnov clarified that Ukraine controls 28 settlements in the region. (The reliable pro-Ukrainian conflict mappers Deep State claimed it was actually 44 settlements.)

Even official channels in Moscow offer oblique hints of just how far Kyiv has pressed. On Aug. 12, for instance, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed it was engaging Ukrainian forces near the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez, an acknowledgment that the latter had advanced almost 19 miles into Russia.

Ukraine’s first tactical victory was silence: Not since its successful counteroffensive in Kharkiv in 2022 had it been able to maintain total operational security, abetted by Russian obliviousness. A person close to the Kremlin told Bloomberg that Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov “dismissed” warnings from the country’s intelligence services that the Ukrainians were mustering forces near the border by Kursk as early as “two weeks” before the invasion. Putin, moreover, was said to be uninformed about that intelligence, an oversight that typically carries heavy consequences in Moscow.

Andriy Zagorodnyuk, Ukraine’s former defense minister, told New Lines that “most likely, the Russians decided we were congregating troops around the area to prevent a Russian attack on Sumy,” a contingency that the current attack in the opposite direction might well have forestalled. “The disaster of the counteroffensive last summer,” Zagorodnyuk said, referring to Ukraine’s much-touted but failed effort to sever Russia’s direct line of communication in southern Ukraine, “was to a great extent with its advance warning and publicity — half a year of discussion and preparations, everybody talking about it. Ukraine can learn a valuable lesson here: This was a total surprise to everybody, even a lot of people in the Ukrainian government were kept in the dark about it.”

Much more at https://newlinesmag.com/spotlight/how-ukraine-caught-putins-forces-off
-guard-in-kursk-and-why/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, August 15, 2024 2:25 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Even the Kremlin’s Paid Liars Are Begging Putin to End the Lies

The staggering military defeat inflicted by Ukraine has Russians reeling.

By Julia Davis | Aug. 15, 2024 11:27AM EDT

https://www.thedailybeast.com/even-the-kremlins-paid-liars-are-begging
-putin-to-end-the-lies

"Constant lies are coming from our side: about the weakness of the Ukrainian army and all that it’s lacking..."

"The most repugnant thing is that we overestimate our strength and underestimate the enemy. I think, this is very important, because people are certainly asking, ‘How could this have happened?’"

Fedorov noted that Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate had allegedly named the Kursk operation ‘The Sinking of Kursk.’ There are inescapable parallels between the catastrophic loss of the Kursk submarine in 2000, in the first year of Vladimir Putin’s presidency, and the humiliating disaster that may mark the final chapter of his grip on power. Fedorov noted: “This is a combination of a military and a psychological attack. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to fully withstand it.”

Russian Media Monitor -- Pundits urge Russians to prepare for the worst-case scenario

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, August 15, 2024 4:20 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Absolutely not one single person cares.

--------------------------------------------------

Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.
Ted cares

He cares vastly.

You'd think he was Russian.

Nope, I'm not Russia, but you sure are.

T

Even the Kremlin’s Paid Liars Are Begging Putin to End the Lies

Moscow is reeling from Ukraine’s bold counter-invasion of Russia, which caught many people off guard—including some of the Kremlin’s most prominent propagandists, whose lies are now blowing up in their faces. The blowback is so severe that even pundits whose unspoken job description includes the ability to lie with abandon are now calling on Russia’s mainstream media to start reporting “a bit more truth.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/even-the-kremlin-s-paid-liars-are
-begging-putin-to-end-the-lies/ar-AA1oRh7X?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=2f00bfd6816949a8955d0dac2d644761&ei=116

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Thursday, August 15, 2024 5:54 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Like Russia's military convoy to Kiev, it will probably take several months to suss out why it happened the way it did.

The invasion probably has multiple purposes. First and foremost, is the capture of the Kursk NPP as a bargaining chip. That failed. Kiev's drone attack on the ZNPP reinforces the thought that nuclear power plants were to be bargaining chips

Another is to draw Russian troops away from Pokrovsk*. Apparently that failed too.

Another would be to destabilize Russia. Fourth is an attempt to drag western attention away from Israel and back to Ukraine. ISW and major media outlets claim to be puzzled by the incursion, altho it's possible they're just washing their hands of an operation that will most likely fail.

Some speculate that the MOD was caught napping. Others think Kiev represented to China and India that they wouldn't attack NPPs, and so Putin believed there was a gentleman's agreement on the Kursk border. According to this thought, the MOD wasn't entirely convinced the Kiev would honor their agreement, and dispatched as many troops as they could without authorization, and put them in "sniping" positions along the most probable UAF routes. Seems a bit farfetched, except the extremely angry response from both China and Putin fits in.

If the Russian MOD really was caught napping, heads will roll ... when Ukraine is wrapped up.

Putin tends not to make big changes in the middle of a situation, which is why he waited until recently to move Shoigu out and put Belaousov in, who is sacking people left and right for corruption.

Russian MOD Purges Hit Fever Pitch, as Belousov Scythes Corruption
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/russian-mod-purges-hit-fever-pitch

Whatever happens, I think Kursk is a sideshow, bc unless they capture the NPP there is nothing strategic about that bit of border. But supposedly Kiev withdrew troops from critical border areas* and sacrificed a lot of crack troops (80th and 82nd Airborne IIRC)

*****

* On to Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine.

Ppl have been saying for weeks that it is critical to Kiev's defense on the Donbas, but until I got to see a roadway and railway map I didn't see why.
It sits on a major roadway that runs northeast to Kramstorsk, which is a large city, and southwest to Zaparozhiy. Five rail lines meet there and radiate out in all directions. People say that it is THE major supply and transportation hub for Kiev in the Donbas, and Russian troops are making fast progress in that direction.

So the war goes on, but may come to a close this year. Before November, even

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

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Thursday, August 15, 2024 6:38 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

So the war goes on, but may come to a close this year. Before November, even

-----------

Where did that prediction come from? Who is predicted to win?

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, August 15, 2024 6:40 PM

Remember how comrade signyms' signature said America is run by Oligarchs in a way that was insulting. Yet she has for years defended Russia. A country that is completely run by a dictator and mafia, that consists of Russia's Oligarchs.

And because she adamantly tells us Russia is a democracy, that should be a red flag pointing to her dishonesty towards us, and loyalty to Putin.

T

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Thursday, August 15, 2024 8:27 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Remember how comrade signyms' signature said America is run by Oligarchs in a way that was insulting. Yet she has for years defended Russia. A country that is completely run by a dictator and mafia, that consists of Russia's Oligarchs.

And because she adamantly tells us Russia is a democracy, that should be a red flag pointing to her dishonesty towards us, and loyalty to Putin.

Russia is a democracy, and if you think otherwise you're stupid.

And yes, American is run by oligarchs, and if that doesn't concern you more than the state of democracy in Russia, you're not American.

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Thursday, August 15, 2024 8:29 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

So the war goes on, but may come to a close this year. Before November, even

SECOND: Where did that prediction come from? Who is predicted to win?

A) It's not a prediction, it's a guess.

B) I would have thought it would be obvious where it came from. But if you don't know, I'll leave you guessing.

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Thursday, August 15, 2024 8:37 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Remember how comrade signyms' signature said America is run by Oligarchs in a way that was insulting. Yet she has for years defended Russia. A country that is completely run by a dictator and mafia, that consists of Russia's Oligarchs.

And because she adamantly tells us Russia is a democracy, that should be a red flag pointing to her dishonesty towards us, and loyalty to Putin.

T

Signym's signature is proof that Signyn's opinions and "facts" can't be trusted. Did Henry Kissinger really say "it may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal"? Signym's signature claims Kissinger did. Kissinger did NOT. Signym has been told that the signature is wrong, but Signym won't correct it.

Did Henry Kissinger say "it may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal"?
https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/56470/did-henry-kissinger
-say-it-may-be-dangerous-to-be-americas-enemy-but-to-be-am

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, August 16, 2024 6:06 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

The delayed establishment of a complicated Russian command and control (C2) structure in Kursk Oblast continues to highlight the fact that the Kremlin failed to plan for the possibility of a significant Ukrainian incursion into Russia. The Kremlin and the Russian military command have treated the Russian border with northeastern Ukraine as a dormant sector of the front since Fall 2022 and likely did not sufficiently plan contingencies for defending Russian territory.[33] The Kremlin and the Russian military command would likely have established a more cohesive and clearer C2 structure more quickly if they had standing plans for defending against a Ukrainian incursion. Putin's continued reluctance to declare martial law and acknowledge that Russia is in a state of war — as opposed to the "special military operation" he declared when he launched the full-scale invasion in February 2022 and has maintained in the subsequent two and a half years — has likely heavily shaped the contingencies that the Kremlin and the Russian military command assess Russia must plan for and what types of activities in Ukraine and Russia the Kremlin is willing to publicly acknowledge.[34] The Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast will likely expand the Kremlin's consideration for what type of Ukrainian operations are possible along the border and highlight that Putin and the Kremlin have suffered from a strategic failure of imagination.[35]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-august-15-2024

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, August 16, 2024 9:08 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

Remember how comrade signyms' signature said America is run by Oligarchs in a way that was insulting. Yet she has for years defended Russia. A country that is completely run by a dictator and mafia, that consists of Russia's Oligarchs.

And because she adamantly tells us Russia is a democracy, that should be a red flag pointing to her dishonesty towards us, and loyalty to Putin.
Russia is a democracy, and if you think otherwise you're stupid.

And yes, American is run by oligarchs, and if that doesn't concern you more than the state of democracy in Russia, you're not American.

Russia is a dictatorship built around one man, President Vladimir Putin, who has been the leader of the Russian Federation since the year 2000.

T

Russian Army SURROUNDED In Kursk, Key Bridge DESTROYED

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Friday, August 16, 2024 9:57 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

Remember how comrade signyms' signature said America is run by Oligarchs in a way that was insulting. Yet she has for years defended Russia. A country that is completely run by a dictator and mafia, that consists of Russia's Oligarchs.
And because she adamantly tells us Russia is a democracy, that should be a red flag pointing to her dishonesty towards us, and loyalty to Putin.

SIGNY: Russia is a democracy, and if you think otherwise you're stupid.
And yes, American is run by oligarchs, and if that doesn't concern you more than the state of democracy in Russia, you're not American.

THUGR: Russia is a dictatorship

Wrong. It's been quite a few decades since the Communist Party selected the Presidential candidate. Here, we let the DNC do that.

Quote:
THUGR: ... built around one man, President Vladimir Putin, who has been the leader of the Russian Federation since the year 2000.
Also wrong. Medvedev was President for a term.

But why do you care so much??
Why?
Why?
Why?

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

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Saturday, August 17, 2024 6:13 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko said in an interview with a Russian TV channel that "Belarus will use nuclear weapons if the enemy crosses the border of the Union state. There will be no red lines, the answer will be instant."

During an interview, hosted by Rossiya TV channel, Lukashenko was questioned on the security of "the Union State" between Russia and Belarus, and the context of the war in Ukraine.

https://www.newsweek.com/putin-ally-nuke-warning-red-line-belarus-alex
ander-lukashenko-1940406

Why hasn’t Putin nuked Ukraine? Belarus would (its leader said) if Ukraine crossed the international border. Ukraine crossed a border into Russia, but still no nukes from Russia.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Saturday, August 17, 2024 6:24 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Funny/strange story out of Russia about how they think/solve problems:

Russian milbloggers claimed on August 16 that Russian drone operators are limiting their use of Mavic drones amid claims that Russian commanders are forcing operators to either personally pay to replace drones lost outside of combat or risk being sent to an infantry assault unit as punishment for losing a drone. Russian milbloggers claimed that one Mavic drone costs 400,000 rubles (about $4,475) to replace and that Russian commanders are particularly concerned about losing Mavic drones compared to other equipment due to frontline drone shortages.[78] Russian milbloggers noted that losing drones is unavoidable but recommended that Russian drone operators do everything within their power – from writing their name on the drone to equipping the drone with a separate GPS beacon – to find their drones and avoid punishment.[79]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-august-16-2024

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Saturday, August 17, 2024 5:05 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Russian Media Claims Ukraine Preparing 'Dirty Nuke' Attack; Kiev "Refutes These False Reports"

Saturday, Aug 17, 2024 - 08:05 AM

Russian state media outlets are sounding the alarm in the overnight hours, alleging that Ukrainian forces are preparing to strike the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in Enerhodar, Ukraine, and the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) in Russia with radioactive warheads, all in an attempt to create a false flag and blame Moscow. Conversely, the Kyiv Independent quickly brushed off these claims as totally baseless. The situation unfolding in Eastern Europe underlines the growing uncertainty and chaos, thickening the 'fog of war' as tensions escalate.

Concerns over a 'nuclear catastrophe' have soared in the last week after Russia and Ukraine traded blame for a drone strike on ZNPP that sparked a fire in the nuclear power plant's cooling tower. The Russia-Ukraine conflict is entering a new phase, with Ukraine invading Russian territory for the first time.

Now, several Russian state-controlled media outlets, including Russia Today, citing 'intelligence received by Russia,' warned on Friday night that "Ukrainian forces have begun preparations to target nuclear waste storage sites at a Russian power plant with radioactive warheads and to then blame Moscow."

...

On the other hand, the Kyiv Independent has quickly rejected Russia's claims about planned dirty bomb attacks on nuclear power plants.

As I posted earlier, Russia has no need to use nukes in Ukraine, unless the west uses nukes or nuclear disaster first.

The goal of the Kursk incursion CLEARLY was the Kursk NPP, and when that failed they attacked Zaparozhiy NPP with drones. (And then floated the story that Russia burned tired to make it LOOK like there was a drone attack. Nobody believes Kiev.)

*****

Meanwhile, in the ground war...

Quote:
Ukraine Destroys Key Bridge In Kursk Region Using US-Supplied HIMARS

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-destroys-key-bridge-kur
sk-region-using-us-supplied-himars

But...Russia quickly builds pontoon bridge(s), and destroys five Patriot launchers and two radars, one Iris-T, and one SU-27

Ukraine blew a chance at negotiationing mutual cease fire on infrastructure attacks. And reports of even more Patriot and other losses

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/08/ukraine-sitrep-kursk-attack-dera
iled-partitial-ceasefire-deal.html#more

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

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Sunday, August 18, 2024 6:10 AM

I deal in facts comrade.

T

ELITE RUSSIAN FORCES BROKEN IN KURSK, UKRAINE ADVANCES!

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Sunday, August 18, 2024 7:13 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

The Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast and Russian offensive operations in eastern Ukraine are not in themselves decisive military operations that will win the war. Both Russian and Ukrainian forces lack the capability to conduct individual decisive war-winning operations and must instead conduct multiple successive operations with limited operational objectives that are far short of victory, but that in aggregate can achieve strategic objectives. It is too early to assess the outcomes and operational significance of the Ukrainian incursion into Russia and the ongoing Russian offensive effort in eastern Ukraine. The significance of these operations will not emerge in isolation, moreover, but they will matter in so far as they relate to a series of subsequent Russian and Ukrainian campaigns over time.

The scale of the war in Ukraine prevents either side from resolving the war in a single decisive campaign. ISW recently published "Ukraine and the Problem of Restoring Maneuver in Contemporary War," wherein Dr. Frederick W. Kagan and Dr. Kimberly Kagan noted that Ukraine and Russia both have the ability to establish deep defensive positions and reserves that will prevent any single campaign from achieving strategic war aims before it culminates.[1] Russia's and Ukraine's ability to generate enough combat power to man continuous defensive positions with no open flanks and establish tactical depth at significant points along the frontline has forced both sides to attempt penetration battles that are so costly that subsequent exploitation is often not feasible.[2] (Ukraine, in fact, took advantage of a flank the Russians had left open in Kursk Oblast, but Russia has enough combat power to cover its frontiers if it so chooses at the cost of pursuing other objectives). Russia and Ukraine can usually establish defensive positions at some distance in the rear and sufficiently stabilize the frontline even in the event of a successful penetration and exploitation.[3] Effective Ukrainian and Russian campaign design therefore requires forethought and planning for multiple successive operations that each set conditions for the subsequent operation.[4] Rarely has either side been able to conduct successive operations without interruption, however, since operational pauses or decreased operational tempo have offered the other belligerent the opportunity to contest and seize the initiative.[5]

Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian military command likely view maintaining the theater-wide initiative as a strategic imperative to win a war of attrition against Ukraine, and both the Ukrainian incursion in Kursk Oblast and the Russian offensive effort in eastern Ukraine will impact whether Russian forces can retain the initiative in the short-term.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-august-17-2024

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, August 18, 2024 7:24 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
As I posted earlier, Russia has no need to use nukes in Ukraine, unless the west uses nukes or nuclear disaster first.

Signym, that is NOT the message Putin is sending to Europe. This is Putin's real message:

WW3 fears mount as Vladimir Putin deploys 'nuclear ready' bombers over Europe in message to NATO

Russia has sent two Tu-95MS strategic bombers to the Barents and Norwegian Seas, which border several NATO countries, and two Tu-22M3 long-range bombers to the Baltic Sea, which has been dubbed "NATO lake"

By John O'sullivan & Liam Doyle | 09:22 ET, AUG 17 2024

https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/putin-russia-nuclear-bomb-nato-
33483772

These bombers, relics of the Cold War era, were designed for nuclear strikes and one notably dropped the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, August 18, 2024 10:52 AM

Nobody cares.

--------------------------------------------------

Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.

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Sunday, August 18, 2024 12:58 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Nobody cares.

--------------------------------------------------

Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.

6ix, you are contemplating suicide ("reset" in your parlance) so shut up and kill your self as soon as possible. Perhaps this week put your death on the calendar:
http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=65350&mid=11987
84#1198784
I have a suggestion for a hard "reset". Russian Roulette would be apropos.

Kremlin response to Kursk incursion shows how Putin freezes in a crisis

By Robyn Dixon | August 18, 2024

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/08/18/vladimir-putin-kursk-c
risis-reponse/

Faced with crisis, Vladimir Putin tends to freeze.

Moscow’s slow, fumbling military response to Ukraine’s surprise occupation of parts of the western Kursk region is the latest example of the Kremlin chief failing to respond with quick, decisive action to match his bellicose rhetoric.

The Kursk incursion is the fourth major blow to Putin’s authority since his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and highlights the weaknesses of a top-down autocracy that operates largely on fear and punishment.

In each case — after Russia’s failure to topple the Ukrainian government at the start of the invasion, after the Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeniy Prigozhin led a rebellion against the regular Russia military command and after Islamist extremists struck the popular Crocus City Hall concert venue — the Kremlin’s response has been halting, with Putin waiting 24 hours or more to offer any public comment.

“It’s always the same style. Putin likes to keep everything secret. When he appears publicly, he doesn’t say much. He prefers not to be alarmist,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of France-based analytical group R. Politik.

Top officials, meanwhile, often dissemble to hide their failures rather than risk displeasing the president. Immediately after Ukraine’s attack on Kursk last week, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff, who personally wields operational command over the war in Ukraine, insisted — falsely — that the Ukrainian assault had been stopped.

During a televised meeting of security officials on Monday, Putin appeared more rattled than usual as he read remarks from a thick notepad of scrawled black handwriting. He also irritably cut off Kursk’s acting governor, Andrei Smirnov, when he dared to openly disclose the scale of the incursion: 28 villages captured and at least 2,000 Russians missing in territory taken by Ukraine.

“Even then, he did his usual thing of more or less saying, ‘Just sort it out,’ and not actually providing any meaningful leadership or strategy for how to do that,” said Mark Galeotti, a Russian security expert with the London-based Royal United Services Institute. “Once again, it shows Putin in classic form, hiding from a crisis.”

Putin ordered the officials to drive Ukrainian forces out — then reverted to scheduled meetings, including talks with regional governors and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the days that followed, without publicly mentioning the crisis. Putin held a regular meeting with his Security Council on Friday to “talk about new technical solutions” for the Ukraine war, before announcing plans to jet off to Azerbaijan as if there was nothing amiss at home.

“This is Putin expecting other people to do all the hard work, and he’ll claim the credit for anything that goes well, and likewise, he’ll blame people for anything that goes badly,” Galeotti said.

Four days after Putin tasked Russia’s military with driving out Ukrainian forces, it was clear that an attack initially seen as a short-term nuisance — a “provocation” in Putin’s words — was increasingly likely to take Russian forces weeks or months to address.

“The Kursk offensive in the last two weeks exposed the Putin regime’s true nature: a system built on lies, indifference, and self-preservation at the expense of its citizens’ lives and safety,” said Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an exiled Russian tycoon and opposition figure jailed by Putin for 10 years, in a post Friday on X.

Eleven days into the stunning cross-border operation, Kyiv claims to occupy around 386 square miles, with more than 180,000 Russians ordered to evacuate from their homes. Ukraine has sought to expand the fighting into the adjacent Belgorod region, but progress slowed after Russia deployed reserves and stepped up its resistance.

Gerasimov and the commander of the Akhmat Special Forces in the region, Apti Alaudoniv, have repeatedly asserted that the Ukrainian advance had been halted, and by Friday the defense ministry claimed to have wiped out more than 2,800 Ukrainian soldiers.

But defense ministry reports are dismissed as lies even on the Russian side, with nationalist military bloggers expressing outrage at ministry’s claims and publishing their own reports confirming Ukrainian advances. Defense ministry video of supposed Russian attacks on Ukrainians in Kursk turned out to be false, having been filmed in Ukraine earlier in the summer, The Insider discovered.

But the continued damage to Putin’s authority after a catastrophic war and repeated shocks does not translate to an internal threat to his power. Nor is there a risk his regime might collapse in the foreseeable future, according to analysts.

Stanovaya said that many Russians, particularly members of the elite, had come to expect the worst in the war but realized that there was no alternative to Putin in Russia’s repressive political system.

“They are so used to shocking events. They're so used to living in a very unpredictable situation, so it's very difficult to surprise them. And they are also used to the feeling that they don't have the power to affect anything, and they are helpless,” she said.

The crisis, she continued, had certainly undermined Putin’s authority — without necessarily undermining his grip on power.

The Kursk incursion has humiliated Russia’s military and demonstrated Ukraine’s resilience, but has not altered the fundamental situation in a long, grinding war of attrition.

Ukraine is under increasing pressure to negotiate a deal potentially giving up land for peace, after last summer’s failed counteroffensive, problems with personnel, doubts about future Western weapons deliveries, and fears that if Donald Trump becomes president, he will force a peace deal favorable to Russia.

Russia has pounded eastern Ukraine with glide bombs weighing as much as three tons, while Kyiv struggles with deliveries of just enough advanced Western weapons to hang on but not to win. Meanwhile it is barred from using Western weapons to strike military targets deep in Russia.

As some of Ukraine’s most battle-hardened forces gain ground in Kursk, Russia has advanced on the town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, with reports that Ukrainian forces could be forced to abandon the town soon to avoid encirclement.

Putin’s response to the Kursk crisis has been to rule out any new compromise, and he appeared at the meeting Monday to dismiss the prospect of peace talks with Ukraine.

He said Kyiv’s attack seemed designed to improve its position in negotiations, “But what kind of negotiations?” he scoffed. “How do we even talk with people who indiscriminately strike at civilians, at civilian infrastructure and try to create threats to nuclear energy? What can we even talk about with them?”

Stanovaya said Putin has not retreated from the maximalist position he staked out about possible peace talks in June, when he said Ukraine would have to surrender even more territory to Russia and give up joining NATO as a condition for peace.

“When he talked previously about a peace proposal by Russia, it was an ultimatum. It was not a real proposal, and the terms and conditions of these talks are absolutely unacceptable for Ukraine, and he knows it,” she said. Now, she continued, “it will become much harder for him to promote this idea of a peace ultimatum because in the current circumstances you can’t talk about peace.”

Polling by Levada Center independent polling agency in July indicates that even as Russian state media has trumpeted Russian gains in eastern Ukraine, 58 percent of Russians now support an end to the war, compared with only 34 percent who want to go on fighting.

Those in favor of continuing to fight fell by nine percentage points between June and July, from 43 percent to 34 percent.

“These are the lowest figures for support of the opinion on the need to continue military action over the entire observation period,” the Levada Center said in a statement about the poll. Women, young people, people who had barely enough money for food and residents of small cities and towns were more likely to support a move to peace talks — about two thirds of them in each case. But most Russians — 76 percent in the June Levada poll — oppose concessions to Ukraine for peace.

Some pro-Kremlin commentators on state media in recent days have bemoaned propaganda from officials and others claiming Russian supremacy over Ukraine, given the shocking incursion into Kursk.

“We could lose if such blunders continue,” said nationalist commentator Karen Shakhnazarov, a regular fixture on state television talk shows about the war, speaking on Rossiya 1 state television. “This isn’t defeatism. This isn’t scaremongering. It’s just an absolute understanding of the price that we and our motherland will have to pay.”

Russia needs a jolt, such as realizing that defeat is a real possibility, he said, “so that in our heads the situation forms as to what will happen if we lose and what will happen to us.”

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, August 19, 2024 6:26 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Assessing the Significance of the Current Russian and Ukrainian Operations on the Course of the War
Aug 18, 2024

The Russian offensive operation to seize Pokrovsk is emblematic of the Russian approach to the war in Ukraine that embraces positional warfare for gradual creeping advances and seeks to win a war of attrition. The Russian military command tasked the Central Grouping of Forces with identifying and exploiting weaknesses in Ukraine's defensive line following the Russian seizure of Avdiivka in mid-February 2024.[24] Mechanized elements of the Central Grouping of Forces achieved a notable tactical breakthrough northwest of Avdiivka in mid-April 2024 by exploiting exhausted and poorly equipped Ukrainian forces, and the Russian military command continued to invest additional manpower from Russia's operational reserves to prevent offensive operations east of Pokrovsk from culminating for several months.[25] Russian forces applied consistently intense offensive pressure all along the front east and southeast of Pokrovsk and opportunistically exploited weaknesses in Ukraine's defenses to advance in this direction, and the Russian military command has tolerated significant manpower losses in exchange for advancing roughly two square kilometers per day (roughly 406 square kilometers in total) in Pokrovsk Raion over the last six months. Russian forces in the Pokrovsk direction have focused on frontal infantry assaults from small village to small village in their gradual advance to Pokrovsk and have spent weeks at times trying to seize small villages in the area without attempting advance by maneuver.

The Russian military command appears to have abandoned its efforts to make rapid tactical gains in the Pokrovsk direction and embraced positional warfare.[26] Putin's calculus that Russia can continue gradual creeping advances indefinitely during a prolonged state of positional warfare is predicated on Russia's manpower and materiel advantage.[27] Russia's ongoing force generation rates have allowed Russian forces to sustain their current tempo of offensive operations throughout the frontline by generating roughly as many new forces as the Russian military loses in a given period.[28] Russia's defense industry is reportedly capable of producing or refurbishing enough armored vehicles to sustain Russia's current rate of armored vehicle losses in Ukraine for at least two or three years.[29] Putin's theory of victory rests on the assumption that Ukrainian forces cannot acquire and sustain the manpower and material required to prevent indefinite, gradual Russian advances or contest the initiative, and Ukrainian forces appear to be actively challenging this assumption in Kursk Oblast.[30]

Ukraine's incursion into Kursk Oblast illustrates how Ukrainian forces can use maneuver warfare to offset Russian manpower and materiel advantages. Russian forces have overall occupied 1,175 square kilometers of territory throughout the entire Ukrainian theater in the seven months from January and July 2024, as ISW recently assessed.[31] In stark contrast, ISW has observed claims that Ukraine's operation in Kursk Oblast advanced roughly 800 square kilometers over six days from August 6 to 12 and advanced roughly 28 kilometers deep as of August 17.[32] Again, the size of the area seized by Ukrainian forces is not an indicator of the success of that operation--it is offered here to show that restoring maneuver can produce much more rapid advances than positional warfare. The initial Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast attacked largely unprepared, unequipped, and unmanned Russian defensive positions along the border, but Ukraine has continued to leverage maneuver to make rapid advances in Kursk Oblast following the deployment of Russian reinforcements to the area.[33] Ukraine's use of maneuver in Kursk Oblast serves as an example of how Ukrainian maneuver, coupled with operational surprise, can result in comparably sized gains in significantly shorter periods of time with less manpower and materiel. Prolonged positional warfare, in contrast, will only make Ukraine's resource disadvantages more pronounced and protracted war will increase the costs to Ukraine and its partners.[34] Drs. Frederick and Kimberly Kagan noted that the challenge of restoring operational maneuver to the war remains the central problem for both sides at the operational level of war, and Ukraine's ability to achieve rapid maneuver in Kursk Oblast suggests that Ukrainian forces have internalized lessons from the past months of positional warfare that may help Ukraine leverage maneuver warfare in the future.[35]

It is simply too early to draw dispositive conclusions about the lasting effects that the two very different Russian and Ukrainian efforts will have on the course of the war.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/assessing-significance-c
urrent-russian-and-ukrainian-operations-course-war

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, August 19, 2024 10:16 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Nobody cares.

--------------------------------------------------

Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.
6ix, you are contemplating suicide ("reset" in your parlance) so shut up and kill your self as soon as possible.

Why on earth would I do that?

--------------------------------------------------

Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.

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Tuesday, August 20, 2024 2:05 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Encouraging suicide, SECOND?

Wow, you have gone over a moral edge, haven't you? Of course, we know you've been putrid inside for years.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

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Tuesday, August 20, 2024 8:05 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Encouraging suicide, SECOND?

Wow, you have gone over a moral edge, haven't you? Of course, we know you've been putrid inside for years.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

6ix needs to schedule an appointment with the local Sigmund Freud to discuss his feelings of living a meaningless and purposeless life that can only be redeemed by his personal savior, Donald J. Trump, becoming President. So too with the Russians. How did murdering Ukrainians become part of normalcy for Russians? Their personal savior, Vladimir V. Putin, told them it was so. The Russians ought to find their own Sigmund Freud to persuade them that what Russia is doing is not healthy for Russians, despite what Putin claims.

6ixStringJack revealed too much on Wednesday, August 7, 2024 10:04 PM at
http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=65350&mid=11987
84#1198784

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I imagine your interactions don't have much to do with introversion as much as how "up" you are for it on any particular day.

I think it probably was introversion when I was younger and I cared far more about what other people thought of me than anybody ever should.

I just don't have the energy or desire to care too much about other people's opinions about anything more often than not. I think dumping that project is going to help open up some of those stores a bit. Although, during the handoff I mentioned just a few days ago I've unfortunately found one part in particular I cared about more than any other that I'm not going to be able to handoff immediately. And now I've done what I didn't want to do and I've gotten back in over my head trying to get it "perfect" before the hand off. It's the same as it ever was, the more I get done the more I find needs to be done.

So instead of mowing the lawn like I wanted to today, I've been sitting in front of my computer slaving away for the fifth out of five straight days in what might be the fifth of the next fifty days on something that really would be better to be working on during the winter when it's too cold to do anything else, or would have been better to be working on when it was oppressively hot and humid out rather than at the end of summer when it's going to start cooling down and I could be doing things that are more beneficial to my real-world self.

I just always have too many things to do and to think about to ever really be present in relationships, whether it be stuff like this project, or the million and one things I need to do to get this house into a proper home.

And that's on my good days when I'm super active. Can't forget about the times where I just waste weeks or months at a time doing practically nothing.

My buddy is always trying to get me to micro-dose on mushrooms. He thinks I need a "reset" and that it could be the cure for what ails me here. I dunno. It's super expensive, but he's offered to pay for it all for me. You know I don't like lab-created behavioral modification crap, but I'm pretty much on the fence about stuff like this too no matter how many times people like Joe Rogan say it's a good idea.

I did mushrooms twice in my mid 20's and tripped balls on them and neither time was a pleasant experience that I look back on fondly. Quite the opposite, actually. But my buddy says micro-dosing is nothing like that and if I even felt anything at all it would be pleasant.

A reset does sound nice though. Wouldn't it be nice to just wave a magic wand and all of the sudden have all the things that should be priority come into focus while being able to just let all the stuff that doesn't really matter go completely?

It would be sad thinking about what that might mean regarding my time spent here in the future. As many hours as I've wasted doing various inconsequential things in my life, I'm sure I've wasted a few thousands of hours on FFF.net over the last 18 years. If magic mushrooms "fixed" me, I might never feel the need to come here anymore other than saying my goodbyes to you and Brenda and Jaynez. Even to JSF too.

Hell... I'd even say goodbye to Wetware and Ted-Bot, although that would be like saying goodbye to my air-fryer and my microwave before I go out to run some errands.

At least my dad is coming over tomorrow. That was a spur of the moment decision at the end of our phone call today. He seemed like he could use it as much as I probably do, so I asked if he wanted to come over this week and he said tomorrow works for him. I probably still won't mow the lawn tomorrow but at least that will be a little break from my project and all the online bullshit. Maybe if I'm really lucky my buddy won't have a super busy day at work and we can hang out tomorrow night after dad leaves. A whole freakin' month has flown by since the 4th of July and I haven't seen my friends since then. Had plenty of opportunity to so while I was deep in my funk, but once I crawled out of it everyone seems to be so busy and doesn't have time to hang out.

--------------------------------------------------

Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, August 20, 2024 8:07 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

In Russia, Ukraine's Invasion Pops Putin's Propaganda Bubble

By Alexey Kovalev | August 19, 2024, 1:03 PM

https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/08/19/kursk-russia-ukraine-putin-war-es
calation-propaganda-nato/?tpcc=recirc_latest062921

In the TV talk shows, prominent pundits have been tearing at the propaganda edifice. One proposed “sacrificing” Russia’s border regions to Ukraine—hardly a vision of strength. Another called on the leadership to stop the lies and be more honest about military setbacks, while a third wanted strict censorship to shield the populace from embarrassments. For a Kremlin-controlled media apparatus, the cacophony was a refreshing absence of the usual coordinated messaging. On Telegram channels, where Kremlin control doesn’t reach as far, there has been even more candor.

Third, by taking the war to Russian territory, Ukraine has popped the bubble of the Kremlin threats to escalate the war, based on the idea that Russia’s existence—rather than Ukraine’s—was somehow at stake. The supposed threat from NATO is no longer a talking point. Russia has not called on its own defense alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, as one would expect if its existence were at stake. And there has been surprisingly little screaming about German-built tanks advancing in Kursk, where the largest tank battle of World War II took place.

In 2016, Putin infamously claimed that Russia’s borders don’t end anywhere. Today, it turns out that they don’t begin at any particular point, either. This is perhaps the most significant result of Ukraine’s incursion into Russian territory. So far, each of Putin’s threats, including nuclear ones, have turned out to be hollow—not even Russia’s actual border seems to be a “red line.” Thus, another bubble Kursk has popped is the Western theory of escalation and red lines that make Russia look much stronger and more resolute than it really is.

Finally, the invasion punctures the notion that Russians collectively support the war, just because government-sponsored polls say so. It appears that most just take their cue from Putin: In case of trouble, just ignore it and hope it goes away.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, August 20, 2024 11:51 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Encouraging suicide, SECOND?

Wow, you have gone over a moral edge, haven't you? Of course, we know you've been putrid inside for years.

6ix needs to schedule an appointment with the local Sigmund Freud to discuss his feelings of living a meaningless and purposeless life that can only be redeemed by his personal savior, Donald J. Trump, becoming President. So too with the Russians. How did murdering Ukrainians become part of normalcy for Russians? Their personal savior, Vladimir V. Putin, told them it was so. The Russians ought to find their own Sigmund Freud to persuade them that what Russia is doing is not healthy for Russians, despite what Putin claims.

6ixStringJack revealed too much on Wednesday, August 7, 2024 10:04 PM at
http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=65350&mid=11987
84#1198784
Quote:

Yep, the post in the provided link shows Jack is miserable and looking for an out.

Which explains why he lashes out hatefully at everything and everyone. Jack, don't listen to the guy who is trying to get you high. See a professional.

T

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Tuesday, August 20, 2024 2:42 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Kalibrated, by Scott: "Massive [Ukrainian] Retreat" 01:02 -15:00
Summary with maps

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Wednesday, August 21, 2024 6:17 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

A New Joke From Kursk

Putin is at a loss with his armies getting stomped in Kursk, and in desperation he summons the ghost of Stalin.

Stalin: Why have you summoned me?

Putin: Help - the Nazis have returned to Kursk and my armies are getting crushed! What can I do?

Stalin: Do what I did in 1943. Send the best Ukrainian troops to Kursk and ask the US for weapons.

https://x.com/JeffFisch/status/1824667092521472078

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, August 21, 2024 12:20 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Biden Approved Secret Nuclear War Strategy Focused On Simultaneous Conflict
Wednesday, Aug 21, 2024 - 08:25 AM

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

President Biden approved in March a new nuclear strategic plan that includes preparations for a simultaneous nuclear war with Russia, China, and North Korea, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The US nuclear strategy is updated about every four years or so and is highly classified. The Times described the new strategy as the "first to examine in detail whether the United States is prepared to respond to nuclear crises that break out simultaneously or sequentially, with a combination of nuclear and nonnuclear weapons."

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Wednesday, August 21, 2024 6:16 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:

A New Joke From Kursk

Putin is at a loss with his armies getting stomped in Kursk, and in desperation he summons the ghost of Stalin.

Stalin: Why have you summoned me?

Putin: Help - the Nazis have returned to Kursk and my armies are getting crushed! What can I do?

Stalin: Do what I did in 1943. Send the best Ukrainian troops to Kursk and ask the US for weapons.

https://x.com/JeffFisch/status/1824667092521472078

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Yup, funny and how quickly they forget.

T

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Wednesday, August 21, 2024 6:27 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Wow.

You're gonna face such a ginormous climb down, you'll never manage.

Only way for you to not break, mentally, is to stay in your fantasy world.

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Thursday, August 22, 2024 12:08 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Biden Approved Secret Nuclear War Strategy Focused On Simultaneous Conflict
Wednesday, Aug 21, 2024 - 08:25 AM

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

President Biden approved in March a new nuclear strategic plan that includes preparations for a simultaneous nuclear war with Russia, China, and North Korea, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The US nuclear strategy is updated about every four years or so and is highly classified. The Times described the new strategy as the "first to examine in detail whether the United States is prepared to respond to nuclear crises that break out simultaneously or sequentially, with a combination of nuclear and nonnuclear weapons."

Although Russian officials and allies have hinted at a nuclear strike if Russia faces a severe attack, such rhetoric has noticeably lessened following the Kursk offensive. Sources suggest that, since the first year of the conflict, the Biden administration has become more open about its warnings to Russia. This means that even a single tactical nuclear strike by Putin could lead to a powerful conventional US counter-attack on Russian military assets.

https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/putin-worst-nightmare-russia-uk
raine-33514003

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, August 22, 2024 1:57 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Wow.

You're gonna face such a ginormous climb down, you'll never manage.

Only way for you to not break, mentally, is to stay in your fantasy world.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

Most Democrat sycophants choose to bury their heads in the sand.

Ted's got his head so far up his ass he wears his colon as a helmet.

--------------------------------------------------

Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.

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Thursday, August 22, 2024 8:19 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Western Policy Masks Russian Weakness

Aug 14, 2024

https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/putin-vulnerable-western-pol
icy-masks-russian-weakness

Russia has vulnerabilities that the West has simply not been exploiting. On the contrary, US incrementalism has helped the Kremlin offset and mask its weaknesses. The Kremlin’s weaknesses include its inability to rapidly pivot, dependence on others for Russia’s capability to sustain the war, and years of risk accumulation that Russian President Vladimir Putin is yet to reckon with. The Kremlin is vulnerable to an adversary who can generate momentum against Russia and deny the Kremlin opportunities to regroup and adapt. A serious US strategy on Ukraine would prioritize achieving such momentum. It would include removing Western-granted safe havens for Russia’s war machine. It would also include not only imposing multiple dilemmas on the Kremlin but the most painful ones, such as helping Ukraine make Russia fail on the battlefield faster and dismantling Russian narratives in the West. While it is premature to draw conclusions about Ukraine’s offensive in Kursk Oblast, the operation clearly has the potential to generate momentum. If it does, the United States should help Ukraine build on rather than dampen this momentum to regain control over the tempo of the war.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, August 23, 2024 5:33 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Are the Russians Realists?

A new book attempts to push back against psychological, Putin-centric explanations for Russian behavior and restore realism to the discussion.

By Matthew Bryant | August 22, 2024

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/are-russians-realists-212422

Sumantra Maitra. The Sources of Russian Aggression: Is Russia a Realist Power? (Lanham, Lexington Books) 234 pp., $110.00, Hardcover. $45.00, Ebook.

Ten years ago, the borders of Eastern Europe shifted for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Euromaidan Revolution in Ukraine saw its pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, ousted from power, shortly followed by the takeover of Crimea by the Russian Federation. These events also started the war in the Donbas, which, in February 2022, escalated into an all-out war on Ukraine.

In the United States, this slow-burn regional escalation characterized Russian president Vladimir Putin as a latter-day Adolf Hitler who was attempting to reunite all of the exclave Russian populations under one banner. Dr. Sumantra Maitra’s The Sources of Russian Aggression: Is Russia a Realist Power? offers better causal explanations than allowing politicians to relive fantasies of WWII.

In the weeks following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, President Biden declared, “For God’s sake [Putin] cannot remain in power.” There is a certain comfort in believing that Russian foreign policy is predicated on the psychology of one individual. No doubt Putin has immense control over foreign policy, but to suggest that a different Russian leader would change Russian key strategic interests is contradicted by history. In 2008, diplomat William Burns, in an email to Condoleezza Rice, stated that “Ukraine in NATO remains the ‘brightest of all red lines.’” Despite the deterioration of U.S.-Russian relations throughout the 2010s, Ukraine’s entrance into NATO was still being promoted, even as pressure built. Ten years later, hundreds of thousands are dead, millions more have been displaced, and the threat of nuclear war grows with each new expansion of the war in Ukraine.

Maitra’s book challenges analyses that explain Russian behavior by infantilizing the Russian people and ignoring the concerns of successive occupants of the Kremlin. His balanced and compelling look into recent Russian history investigates when aggression is used by Russia, under which circumstances, and to what ends.

Much analysis of the origins of the Ukraine War boils down to optimism about international law as a tool for peace. In this view, Russia has nothing to fear from the Western liberal world order and hence should not worry about NATO and the European Union expansion on its doorstep. Maitra takes a more pessimistic view of the international world order. Realists argue that the world is devoid of order, and military power establishes the only genuine guarantee of present and future security. The Sources of Russian Aggression demonstrates that Russia’s behavior is explained by Russia’s national interests. However, the fantasy of Vladimir Putin as a senseless madman leader seems to be an intoxicating trope that the mainstream media will not abandon.

Even critics of the mainstream media, like Tucker Carlson, fall into this trap. His interview with the Russian potentate ended up dwelling on Putin’s thoughts about 8th-century Slavic history. Such statements reinforce the case that Putin cannot be reasoned with. Realists don’t conduct foreign policy by psychological profile. Realists understand that Russia cannot afford to take NATO’s “defensive mandate” at face value. Realists understand that Russia, like the United States and every other country, faces an anarchic world devoid of overarching authority.

The 2014 annexation of Crimea instilled a sense of dread and fear in a world that believed history had ended with the Cold War. Russia took Crimea with barely a shot fired and forced Ukraine into a perpetual counterinsurgency operation in the Donbas. Russia’s inability to force Ukraine to the negotiating table in February of 2022 was a blow to its image as a military superpower. Russia has had to recalibrate its strategy and is now geared up for the long haul. As Barack Obama famously said, Russia possesses “escalation dominance” in the region. Now that the wheels are in motion, we see just how far Russia is willing to go to secure its interests. Russia’s desire to double down in Ukraine rather than retreat despite high casualty rates shows that its interest in this region vastly exceeds America’s own.

Maitra makes an important case about Russian intentions through a rigorous analysis of its aggression in Ukraine in 2014 and Georgia in 2008. Maitra rejects attempts to explain these events in terms of Putin’s domestic popularity as some scholars attempt to propagate. He points out that there is no reliable correlation between falling poll numbers and an increase in Russian aggression. Putin did not need Crimea to help win an election or “shore up” support at home.

Realists argue that motivations are external to states, not internal. The Sources of Russian Aggression supports the superior explanation that the path to the current war is better explained through the timeline of America’s insistence that Ukraine will someday join NATO. At the 2008 NATO summit, leaders presented Georgia and Ukraine’s accession as inevitable. At the time, Russia relied on an increasingly reluctant Ukraine for cooperation on their lease of the naval base at Sevastopol. If Kyiv were admitted into NATO, the vital Black Sea Fleet would assuredly be sent packing. Taking this off the geopolitical chessboard would have disastrous consequences for Russian interests not only in the Black Sea but also in the Middle East and beyond.

Georgia is where the dynamic of overt power-balancing is even more apparent. One of the pervasive myths around Georgia in 2008 is that had it not been for U.S. threats, Putin would have gobbled up the whole country. However, as Maitra argues, from the beginning, it appears that Russia had neither the will nor the local firepower necessary for a full annexation. Russia gained de facto independence for Russian exclave regions and created a situation in which Georgia would be unable to join NATO. Russia gained what it wanted in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, leaving Georgia to contend with adversaries in its backyard and stunting NATO ambitions in the Caucasus region.

Through the examples of 2008 in Georgia and 2014 in Ukraine, Maitra argues that Russia was deadly serious about threats tied to neighboring countries—a realist demand, not an ideological crusade. Georgian or Ukrainian accession into NATO would strain Russia’s military posture across the entire Rostov Oblast, much in the same way that the Suwalski Gap puts NATO forces at a perceived disadvantage against the Russians.

However, one problem with the book that sticks out is how it deals with the counterarguments to Russian aggression. This is the common objection of whether a different leader in Russia would have reacted in the same way given U.S. actions in Ukraine and Eastern Europe, more broadly. This is a point of criticism that Maitra briefly touches on, but it would have been helpful to give it more space, as it is one of the primary objections to the realist framing of this conflict. Maitra doesn’t address this because it falls under a disagreement on first principles. Realists do not put much weight on the contingencies and personalities of leadership in foreign policy.

Maitra’s book shows that Russia’s actions on the world stage, much like some of America’s own, have motives extending from rational calculations of interest. Analysts of Russia need not conjure up the specter of World War II but rather that of nineteenth-century Europe. Then, the central concern was balancing the strategic interests of the great powers in Europe. To any reader who wants to get a deeper understanding of Russian aggression, its causes, and its consequences, this is the place to start.

Matthew Bryant graduated with a B.A. in Global Affairs from George Mason University. He has also studied as a joint Graduate student at the University of Trento & the Higher School of Economics. He researches and writes about the post-Soviet area as well as United States-Russia relations. He has been published in Law and Liberty, The National Interest, and The Realist Review. Follow him on X @Realmofmatt.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, August 23, 2024 6:15 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Are the Russians Realists?

A new book attempts to push back against psychological, Putin-centric explanations for Russian behavior and restore realism to the discussion.

By Matthew Bryant | August 22, 2024

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/are-russians-realists-212422

Sumantra Maitra. The Sources of Russian Aggression: Is Russia a Realist Power? (Lanham, Lexington Books) 234 pp., $110.00, Hardcover. $45.00, Ebook.

Ten years ago, the borders of Eastern Europe shifted for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Euromaidan Revolution in Ukraine saw its pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, ousted from power, shortly followed by the takeover of Crimea by the Russian Federation. These events also started the war in the Donbas, which, in February 2022, escalated into an all-out war on Ukraine.

In the United States, this slow-burn regional escalation characterized Russian president Vladimir Putin as a latter-day Adolf Hitler

Stalin/ imperial tsar/ (fill in the blank)

Quote:
who was attempting to reunite all of the exclave Russian populations under one banner. Dr. Sumantra Maitra’s The Sources of Russian Aggression: Is Russia a Realist Power? offers better causal explanations than allowing politicians to relive fantasies of WWII.

In the weeks following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, President Biden declared, “For God’s sake [Putin] cannot remain in power.” There is a certain comfort in believing that Russian foreign policy is predicated on the psychology of one individual. No doubt Putin has immense control over foreign policy, but to suggest that a different Russian leader would change Russian key strategic interests is contradicted by history. In 2008, diplomat William Burns,

and current head of the CIA

Quote:
in an email to Condoleezza Rice, stated that “Ukraine in NATO remains the ‘brightest of all red lines.’” ...

Maitra takes a more pessimistic view of the international world order. Realists argue that the world is devoid of order, and military power establishes the

current "rules based order", in which thd USA is exempt from international law

Quote:
The Sources of Russian Aggression demonstrates that Russia’s behavior is explained by Russia’s national interests. However, the fantasy of Vladimir Putin as a senseless madman leader seems to be an intoxicating trope that the mainstream media will not abandon.

I hope you realize that you just contradicted everything you've ever posted about Russia. And BTW agreed with me.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

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Friday, August 23, 2024 8:18 AM