Met Winter 2021 - 2022 Banter

[PowderBeard]

6 hours ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

@PowderBeard, a good piece on cluster munitions being used by the Russians:

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2022/02/27/ukraine-conflict-tracking-use-of-cluster-munitions-in-civilian-areas/

 

Thanks, some wild footage in there. I saw the video of the person driving around explosions previously and was curious if it was cluster. 

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

1 hour ago, PowderBeard said:

Thanks, some wild footage in there. I saw the video of the person driving around explosions previously and was curious if it was cluster. 

Would you consider it to be dirty warfare?

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

This is boss:

 

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

57 minutes ago, BrianW said:

A friend of mine who was in the special forces and did multiple tours in Afghanistan/Iraq told me on Saturday that tons of really elite guy's from the US/UK/Israel and other countries were going in or already there to fight as volunteers.

Sure enough I just saw buzzfeed has an article on it this morning. It also seems many countries are openly posting now that's its ok for their citizens to volunteer with Latvia even voting to change its law to allow people to volunteer.

My buddy said its going to get interesting there soon especially with all the donated weapons coming in. 

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/christopherm51/american-nato-military-veterans-fight-russia-with-ukraine

Good. Especially if the intelligence is true that Belarus is joining the Russians.

[Typhoon Tip]

2 hours ago, BrianW said:

A friend of mine who was in the special forces and did multiple tours in Afghanistan/Iraq told me on Saturday that tons of really elite guy's from the US/UK/Israel and other countries were going in or already there to fight as volunteers.

Sure enough I just saw buzzfeed has an article on it this morning. It also seems many countries are openly posting now that's its ok for their citizens to volunteer with Latvia even voting to change its law to allow people to volunteer.

My buddy said its going to get interesting there soon especially with all the donated weapons coming in. 

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/christopherm51/american-nato-military-veterans-fight-russia-with-ukraine

The problem the west has in this crisis isn't so much solidarity behind a common motif ...clearly.

The problem the west has in handling this, is that this form of artillery backed invasion could wind up being prelude to an absolute scaled event - that renders said solidarity...irrelevant. 

I hate to quote cinema, but in too many ways, following seems too apropos to me to ignore...  It is an exchange between Denzel Washington's character, "Ron Hunter," and "Capt. Ramsey," played by Gene Hackman,  in the submarine classic, "Crimson Tide." Eerily, where we are at in this state of affairs:

Capt. Ramsey: "War is a continuation of politics by other means." Von Clausewitz.
Hunter: I think, sir, that what he was actually trying to say was a little more...
Capt. Ramsey: Complicated?
[Men Laughing]
Hunter: Yes the purpose of war is to serve a political end but the true nature of war is to serve itself.
Capt. Ramsey: [laughing] I'm very impressed. In other words, the sailor most likely to win the war is the one most willing to part company with the politicians and ignore everything except the destruction of the enemy. You'd agree with that.
Hunter: I'd agree that, um, that's what Clausewitz was trying to say.
Capt. Ramsey: But you wouldn't agree with it?
Hunter: No, sir, I do not. No, I just think that in the nuclear world the true enemy can't be destroyed.
Capt. Ramsey: [chuckling, tapping glass] Attention on deck. Von Clausewitz will now tell us exactly who the real enemy is.
[laughing]
Capt. Ramsey: Von?
[Men Laughing]
Hunter: In my humble opinion, in the nuclear world, the true enemy is war itself 

That is what the west's problem is - that last highlighted Hunterism.

This particular enemy of the West may be worse than merely intractable. Then, consider a madman borne a psychotic vengeance for the West, one who's insidious intelligence was entirely created during a Cold War era Soviet Union in a stalemate with the West, by stock-piling Nuclear arsenal? 

Take that man, and rise him to power, by essentially the same means that all demagogues of history had.

There was a veritable political vacuum ... or in the least, vulnerability to ideologue rhetoric by conning manipulators, when the integrity rank and file was left gaping after the Union fell.  It is a historical leitmotif since the invention of civilization - which we have to get into Anthropology to understand, humans tend to anarchistic entropy without sensing strength in the hierarchical social structure. That lends to fear, fear lowers judgement - they yearn for a sense of direction to ameliorate the anxiety, in walks the Demon to save the day. Stalin, Edi Amine, ... The Taliban in Afghanistan... they were all agencies of darkness ceasing positions of authority, where they could exert their nefarious influence over a large population, because that population had no sense of direction at the time.   

This Putin ... it's the modern variant of the Hitler rein.  It may not be as repugnant - the specter less gruesome...  ahem, so far.   But do not delude one's self as to its capabilities to operate only by it's singular impression of right vs wrong, one that has also already played the daunting nuclear ace-of-spade card?  

With a somber soup-con in the tenor of their warning that unmistakably songs like cornered desperation, 'What's the point of peace if there is no Russia in it,'  no less.

Needless to say, this is not just dealing with a tyrant in the old sense.  This is a post-modern Military delicate situation that may require an artful solution.  The Clausewitzian motif is outmoded by the absolute power of God that is prescribed by the atomic fission of elementary cosmology. There is no afterlife via that form of absolution.  

Meanwhile ... in the poker game of brinkmanship, the ultimate ace of spade is already showing in the flop. 

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

Yea, it’s a super delicate situation if nato or usa puts troops on the ground in ukraine or issues a no fly zone with our aicrafts. That would set off a global war against an unhinged russian regime with north korea and china lurking to the east. Nobody wants that so the folks asking for usa and nato to add military personnel in ukraine are short sighted.

[PowderBeard]

2 hours ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Would you consider it to be dirty warfare?

I think lobbing anything, especially older weapons that are not guided with super high accuracy, into civilian areas is. Obviously, if it is similar to a Israel/Palestine situation and rockets are specifically put into hospitals and civilian areas, then it gets a lot more complex. Sorry to be so on the fence, it's the philosophy degree in me.

Speaking of a notoriously inaccurate weapon firing into a civilian area. This morning it looks like lots of GRAD fire into Kharkov.  

[mreaves]

The New York Times is reporting that the Swiss have frozen Russian assets.  I haven't found another source for that story, though Reuters reported that as probable earlier .  Pretty telling as the Swiss are very protective of their neutrality.

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

New update:

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned that Russia may attempt an attack from Belarus down the inside of Ukraine's western border to block the country off with Poland, saying "we must act quickly" to deliver humanitarian aid.

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

Severodonetsk:

[ROOSTA]

Will the Next Generation of Weapons be used?
Technologies of today render conventional warfare obsolete.
Biological, Cyber, EMP's, Neutron Bombs. Battles can be won without a bullet being fired.
Top Secret "stuff" things unimaginable. 
First-time witnessing the B2 at the Esplanade 4th of July Celebration I thought to myself as my hair stood on end.
"THERE IS FLYING DEATH"      

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

Sources are indicating the Russian Wagner group could be involved (makes sense). Those that don’t know, they are a private Russian military group (basically hitmen with military backgrounds) that have taken part in previous conflicts/wars. They’re mostly of Russian decent but they have some Ukrainian members, which increases the likelihood the militia will know their way around Ukraine as well as posing as pro-Ukrainians only to extract info on resistance whereabouts. They’re savages…they rape, torture, and kill and have been known to be the covert operators behind several high profile coups and assassinations. 

[BrianW]

19 minutes ago, ROOSTA said:

Will the Next Generation of Weapons be used?
Technologies of today render conventional warfare obsolete.
Biological, Cyber, EMP's, Neutron Bombs. Battles can be won without a bullet being fired.
Top Secret "stuff" things unimaginable. 
First-time witnessing the B2 at the Esplanade 4th of July Celebration I thought to myself as my hair stood on end.
"THERE IS FLYING DEATH"      

Drones are going to play a big role. The Ukrainian's have been posting tons of videos using their Turkish Bayraktar TB2 with devastating effects against the Russian's. They supposedly wiped out out an entire column of Chechen fighters in one of the videos and have been hitting high value targets with it left and right. 

The guy who designed and its named after Selçuk Bayraktar went to MIT.

 

 

[PowderBeard]

6 minutes ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Sources are indicating the Russian Wagner group could be involved (makes sense). Those that don’t know, they are a private Russian military group (basically hitmen with military backgrounds) that have taken part in previous conflicts/wars. They’re mostly of Russian decent but they have some Ukrainian members, which increases the likelihood the militia will know their way around Ukraine as well as posing as pro-Ukrainians only to extract info on resistance whereabouts. They’re savages…they rape, torture, and kill and have been known to be the covert operators behind several high profile coups and assassinations. 

I wonder if they had anything to do with Medvedchuk's escape. 

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

2 minutes ago, PowderBeard said:

I wonder if they had anything to do with Medvedchuk's escape. 

I think so. That’s the type of mission they are likely to carry out. While the militaries are preoccupied with each other, these guys sneak around and pull Putin’s strings. As much as they say Putin is unhinging, he’s also KGB. Smart, tactical, and thinks several steps ahead of his foes. 

[Typhoon Tip]

26 minutes ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Sources are indicating the Russian Wagner group could be involved (makes sense). Those that don’t know, they are a private Russian military group (basically hitmen with military backgrounds) that have taken part in previous conflicts/wars. They’re mostly of Russian decent but they have some Ukrainian members, which increases the likelihood the militia will know their way around Ukraine as well as posing as pro-Ukrainians only to extract info on resistance whereabouts. They’re savages…they rape, torture, and kill and have been known to be the covert operators behind several high profile coups and assassinations. 

Those bold elements are a coded message, and perhaps might suffice at least partial in what I was meaning when I said, "artful solution" 

Comes with risks too - but... courses offering lesser possible regrets, if they are available, the World needs to take them in this particular engagement.

[weathafella]

At what point will someone close to Putin pull the plug on him?   Russian higher ups are really nervous about nukes.   Everyone is nervous about nukes but only one person is threatening….

[mreaves]

Shockingly, FIFA comes to the correct conclusion.  Not without some pressure though

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/60560567

[PowderBeard]

51 minutes ago, BrianW said:

Drones are going to play a big role. The Ukrainian's have been posting tons of videos using their Turkish Bayraktar TB2 with devastating effects against the Russian's. They supposedly wiped out out an entire column of Chechen fighters in one of the videos and have been hitting high value targets with it left and right. 

The guy who designed and its named after Selçuk Bayraktar went to MIT.

 

 

Those videos are wild, the fuel truck convoy one Saturday especially. Starting to see some targeting BUK and GRADs today.  

[Sugarloaf1989]

1 hour ago, mreaves said:

The New York Times is reporting that the Swiss have frozen Russian assets.  I haven't found another source for that story, though Reuters reported that as probable earlier .  Pretty telling as the Swiss are very protective of their neutrality.

The Swedes sent arms and Ikea furniture yesterday.  They are super neutral. 

[Sugarloaf1989]

1 hour ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Severodonetsk:

Looks surgical. 

[HIPPYVALLEY]

2 hours ago, ROOSTA said:

Will the Next Generation of Weapons be used?
Technologies of today render conventional warfare obsolete.
Biological, Cyber, EMP's, Neutron Bombs. Battles can be won without a bullet being fired.
Top Secret "stuff" things unimaginable. 
First-time witnessing the B2 at the Esplanade 4th of July Celebration I thought to myself as my hair stood on end.
"THERE IS FLYING DEATH"      

One thing that is easy to forget about war, is that long after the shooting and bombing is over, there is a toxic, environmental disaster, left behind.

[ROOSTA]

4 minutes ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

One thing that is easy to forget about war, is that long after the shooting and bombing is over, there is a toxic, environmental disaster, left behind.

What a world we live in. At least with war and the battles fought, it's swift. The climate is slowly getting to a tipping point. We be only stewards, so briefly here and it's ruined with implications still to be determined. We know there is a better way. Might be too late though. 
The planet has become a very small place. The greatest resource and how precious and unique the habitant's (human beings) are.
There is no place for dictators of old. Leaders that Suppress, control their citizens should be expunged. A free open society is the solution. Geopolitical differences will always exist, diplomacy and sound leaders can find a mutual agreement. GIVE PEACE A CHANCE... and live as one.     

[Sugarloaf1989]

34 minutes ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

One thing that is easy to forget about war, is that long after the shooting and bombing is over, there is a toxic, environmental disaster, left behind.

There's a nuclear power plant controlled by the Russians.  I've heard it if he gets desperate, Putin may order a attack on it.

[PowderBeard]

51 minutes ago, Sugarloaf1989 said:

There's a nuclear power plant controlled by the Russians.  I've heard it if he gets desperate, Putin may order a attack on it.

All the traffic that went through the Chernobyl area kicked up enough dust that radiation levels rose slightly. 

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/volodymyr-zelensky-russian-mercenaries-ordered-to-kill-ukraine-president-cvcksh79d

[CoastalWx]

Yeah, while everyone is cheering about the mishaps and half ass approach to this battle that Russia has taken...deep down I'm concerned there's other stuff brewing. I find it hard to believe that approach will continue.

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

7 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Yeah, while everyone is cheering about the mishaps and half ass approach to this battle that Russia has taken...deep down I'm concerned there's other stuff brewing. I find it hard to believe that approach will continue.

I have a strong suspicion the first leg of the invasion was with the weakest soldiers and oldest equipment, on purpose, as a dry run. Minimal costs and if they got lucky, great. It also gave Ukraine and the world false hope and made it look like the Kremlin is struggling, which is the type of misinformation they love to exhibit. Look weak in poker when you have the nuts…

[CoastalWx]

1 minute ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

I have a strong suspicion the first leg of the invasion was with the weakest soldiers and oldest equipment, on purpose, as a dry run. Minimal costs and if they got lucky, great. It also gave Ukraine and the world false hope and made it look like the Kremlin is struggling, which is the type of misinformation they love to exhibit. Look weak in poker when you have the nuts…

Right? I mean they can’t be this bad.

[mreaves]

1 minute ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

I have a strong suspicion the first leg of the invasion was with the weakest soldiers and oldest equipment, on purpose, as a dry run. Minimal costs and if they got lucky, great. It also gave Ukraine and the world false hope and made it look like the Kremlin is struggling, which is the type of misinformation they love to exhibit. Look weak in poker when you have the nuts…

I'm sort of thinking along those lines as well but, I'm not sure they were expecting the response they've received from the rest of the world.  It's unified a lot of previously fractured parties.