Tag: war

Drone Attacks in Russia

These drone attacks deep inside Russia are not going to convince the Russians that they don’t need significant buffer space between NATO and the Russian border.

A Ukrainian drone strike on two Russian airbases in the Ryazan and Saratov regions has resulted in the deaths of three service members and minor damage to two airplanes, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday.

A number of “Soviet-made” jet drones, flying at low altitude, targeted the long-range strategic aviation assets at the Dyagilevo airfield in Ryazan Region and Engels airfield in Saratov Region, according to the ministry. While they were detected and shot down by air defenses, the debris impacted the airfields, “slightly” damaging two aircraft.

Three service members were “fatally injured” while four more were taken to military hospitals for treatment.

Ukrainian drones have previously attacked the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol and targeted the Russian navy in Crimea, but Monday’s attack reached deep inside Russia. The Dyagilevo airfield is more than 500 km from Ukrainian-controlled territory, while Engels is about 700 km away.

Nor were these two attacks the only ones. A third attack was made on an airbase in Kursk.

An airfield in the city of Kursk has been targeted in a drone attack, according to the governor of the southwestern Russian region. The strike comes the day after two bases, in Ryazan and Saratov Regions, were targeted with similar weapons. “As a result of a drone attack, an oil storage tank caught fire in the area of the Kursk airfield. The fire is being localized. All emergency agencies are on site,” Kursk Region Governor Roman Starovoyt said in a Telegram post on Tuesday morning around 7:20am local time.

However, the drone attacks are not significant, are reported to have done very little damage, and do not appear to be much more than desperate attempts to forestall a coming Russian air campaign, presumably in support of a large-scale offensive, given the fact that they targeted air bases known to be host to heavy bombers.

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Brazil Wins

The military appears to be rolling into action:

In an unusual step for the military, the Army has invaded favelas of Rio de Janeiro and killed top leaders of the Comando Vermelho (Red Command) drug cartel, which supports the Communist criminal Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Observers take this to indicate the beginning of a federal military intervention. The drug gangs were the only ones to celebrate the alleged election victory by criminal Lula Oct. 30, firing automatic weapons in the air in the favelas. President Bolsonaro cracked down hard on the Brazilian drug gangs.

Also, the national team steamrolled South Korea 4-1, and could have easily made it 10-1.

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Freedom or Foreigners

Forget the Danegeld. Once you permit the Dane to become a citizen, you will never get rid of the Dane.

Machiavelli observes in Discourses that Sparta was able to obtain and then maintain its liberty for centuries, eight centuries in fact, without any serious disturbances. This is a remarkable achievement, and something that modern nations like the United States and Australia are already displaying that they cannot sustain, because, especially in regards to the United States, no one can say that they have maintained their liberty for centuries without disturbance. Most astute observers would note that the US Republic ended in all but name when the Northern States conquered the Confederate states in the late 1800’s. And Australia reverted to a prison colony because of fears about a virus. Whereas Sparta was able to maintain its liberty for eight hundred years, without a similar disturbance.

How were they able to maintain this liberty for such an extended period? Well he explains, in large part, it was because they heavily restricted immigration:

“Sparta, as I have said, being governed by a king and a limited senate, could maintain itself also for a long time, because there were but few inhabitants, and strangers were not permitted to come in; besides, the laws of Lycurgus had obtained such influence that their observance prevented even the slightest pretext for trouble. It was also the easier for the citizens to live in union, as Lycurgus had established equality in fortunes and inequality in conditions; for an equal poverty prevailed there, and the people were the less ambitious, as the offices of the government were given but to a few citizens, the people being excluded from them; and the nobles in the exercise of their functions did not treat the people sufficiently ill to excite in them the desire of exercising them themselves. This last advantage was due to the kings of Sparta; for being placed in this government, as it were, between two orders, and living in the midst of the nobility, they had not better means of maintaining their authority than to protect the people against all injustice; when these neither feared nor desired authority, and consequently there was no motive for any difference between them and the noble, nor any cause for disturbances between them and the nobles, nor any cause for disturbances’ and this they could live for a long time united. Two principle causes, however, cemented this union: first, the inhabitants of Sparta, were few in number, and therefore could be governed by a few; and the other was, that, by not permitting strangers to establish themselves in the republic, they had neither opportunity of becoming corrupt, nor of increasing their population to such a degree that the burden of government became difficult to the few who were charged with it.”

By maintaining their original population, their historical laws, and by not allowing strangers or foreigners (which includes other Greeks in this context) a foothold they were able to maintain a stable Spartan society for centuries. Spartans ruled Spartans, and because they had commonly agreed laws and customs, this rule was not resented.

Indeed, Machiavelli notes the Spartan kings ensured their position, by defending their people: “This last advantage was due to the kings of Sparta; for being placed in this government, as it were, between two orders, and living in the midst of the nobility, they had not better means of maintaining their authority than to protect the people against all injustice…” Despite popular assumptions to the contrary, there is a common trend in history of kings being the champions of their people. The Spartan kings are another example of that.

Machiavelli notes that the modern (in his day in the 15th century) state of Venice achieved the same kind of stability by granting all of its citizens who were there at its founding the right to participate in government, and by denying this right to foreigners coming in. This protected it from foreign interference which could twist the government to foreign purposes and against the will of the Venetians, at least in this era.

This is an incredibly wise rule, and is consistent with the biblical proscription on allowing foreigners to rule over your nation (Deut. 17:15). It is also consistent with the Biblical laws that forbid recent immigrants from having full rights of citizenship and immigrants from certain places from ever having them (Deut 23:3-8). The Spartans, Venetians, Machiavelli and the Bible all recognised how allowing foreign leadership in your nation undermines its liberty and identity, and made laws to forbid it.

Not only will you not get rid of the Dane, but the Dane will fundamentally alter your society, amend it in order to make it more to his liking, and as Machiavelli observed, eventually rule over you. Which is why, as the great Israeli historian Martin van Creveld has pointed out, immigration is war and war is immigration.

Although, as William the Conqueror demonstrated, it is possible to extinguish the Dane through extraordinary means.

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EVs Are Not the Answer

Switzerland contemplates banning electric vehicles this winter.

Switzerland may become the first country to limit the use of electric vehicles (EVs) in a bid to ensure energy security this winter, German daily Der Spiegel reported on Thursday. Under the proposed action plan, which is yet to be adopted, the use of EVs in the country could be banned except in cases of “absolutely necessary journeys.” The government also plans a stricter speed limit on the highways. The harsh restrictions are being discussed as the government fears a power shortage in the coming months, due to the country’s high dependence on imports.

And for good reason. Electric vehicles already cost more to operate than internal combustion engines, even though gasoline is heavily taxed in Europe and electric vehicles are subsidized.

“Due to rising energy prices, in some cases, refueling an electric car is more expensive than a traditional one. And if you are recharging not at home but at a public rapid station, the prices would be even higher,” the report stated.

Experts have calculated that the previous cost of charging an electric car in the country was 50-70% lower than for refueling gasoline or diesel models. Now, a full battery of a ‘green car’ can cost more than a full tank of petrol.

The study highlighted that, for small B-segment cars, gasoline for a mileage of 1,000 kilometers would cost the owner €83 ($83). For a diesel car, the cost would be €71 ($71). Meanwhile, with an electric motor, it would cost €85 ($85) to drive the same distance, even though it was only €33 ($33) just a year ago.

It’s time for Europe to surrender to Russia. This is an economic war the EU cannot win.

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That Which Did Not Kill Them

Col Douglas Macgregor observes the way in which the neoclowns’ foolish Ukraine puppetry has accomplished the opposite of their primary goal, which was to weaken Russia and render it incapable of resistance to Clown World:

The opening phase of the SMO was a limited operation with a narrow purpose and restricted goals. The critical point is that Moscow never intended to do more than persuade Kiev and Washington that Moscow would fight to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO, as well as the further mistreatment of Russians in Ukraine. The SMO was, however, based on invalid assumptions and was terminated. As it turned out, the limited nature of the SMO achieved the opposite of the outcome that Moscow desired, conveying the impression of weakness, rather than strength.

After concluding that the underpinning assumptions regarding Washington’s readiness to negotiate and compromise were invalid, Putin directed the STAVKA to develop new operational plans with new goals: first, to crush the Ukrainian enemy; second, to remove any doubt in Washington and European capitols that Russia will establish victory on its own terms; and, third, to create a new territorial status quo commensurate with Russia’s national security needs.

Once the new plan was submitted and approved, President Putin agreed to an economy of force operation to defend Russian territorial gains with minimal forces until the required resources, capabilities, and manpower were assembled for decisive operations. Putin also appointed a new theater commander, General Sergei Surovikin, a senior officer who understands the mission and possesses the mindset to deliver success.

The coming offensive phase of the conflict will provide a glimpse of the new Russian force that is emerging and its future capabilities. At this writing, 540,000 Russian combat forces are assembled in Southern Ukraine, Western Russia, and Belarus. The numbers continue to grow, but the numbers already include 1,000 rocket artillery systems, thousands of tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones, plus 5,000 armored fighting vehicles, including at least 1,500 tanks, hundreds of manned fixed-wing attack aircraft, helicopters, and bombers. This new force has little in common with the Russian army that intervened 9 months ago on February 24, 2022.

It is now possible to project that the new Russian armed forces that will evolve from the crucible of war in Ukraine will be designed to execute strategically decisive operations. The resulting Russian force will likely take its inspiration from the force design and operational framework recommended in Colonel General Makhmut Gareev’s work, If War Comes Tomorrow? The Contours of Future Armed Conflict. The new military establishment will consist of much larger forces-in-being that can conduct decisive operations on relatively short notice with minimal reinforcement and preparation.

Put differently, by the time the conflict ends, it appears Washington will have prompted the Russian State to build up its military power, the very opposite of the fatal weakening that Washington intended when it embarked on its course of military confrontation with Moscow.

Washington’s Carthaginian Peace Collides With Reality, Col Douglas Macgregor, 29 November 2022

With more than three times the number of troops that were utilized in the initial Special Military Operation already mobilized, it is apparent that Russia feels it is ready to finish off the NATO forces that have been opposing it for at least the last six months in the coming winter offensive. And this is a reminder to never again pay any attention to all of the military analysts and experts who told you that Russia had utilized all of its forces, was running out of ammunition in a matter of weeks, and that Ukraine was winning the war.

Think about how few people told you what was actually happening. The less attention you pay to the mainstream news – and I literally NEVER watch CNN, Fox News, Sky, or the BBC – the more accurate your perceptions and observations are likely to be. Because you simply can’t expect to account for either the quantity or the extent of their lies and misrepresentations, as evidenced when an authority inadvertently reveals the truth.

I do not believe that von der Leyen misspoke nor did she fabricate the number… If the 100,000 dead number is true, then that means Ukraine’s total casualties — i.e., killed and wounded — is approximately 400,000. In other words, Ukraine has suffered almost 40% casualties since the start of the fighting. During the 20th Century, this type of modern warfare normally saw 3 wounded soldiers for every man killed. Using that ratio we get the 400,000 number for total casualties. When the war kicked off in February, Ukraine’s total manpower for ground forces was 1,125,000.

HAS UKRAINE’S ARMY BEEN REDUCED BY ALMOST 50%? 30 November 2022

And remember, in addition to quad-decimating the Ukrainian military and forcing NATO to replace it with its own forces disguised as mercenaries, Russia hasn’t even begun to call on its allies. Imagine if North Korea and China began supplying the Russian military with manpower. The result would make the historical Mongol hordes look like a small raiding party.

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The Long, Slow Defeat

Germany is actively disproving the neocon axiom that “freedom is always good for the economy”.

One in four German companies is considering moving production to other countries amid the energy crisis, Tanja Gönner, CEO of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), told Die Welt am Sonntag news outlet.

“The high energy prices and the weakening economy are hitting the German economy with full force and are placing a great burden on our companies compared to other international locations. The German business model is under enormous stress…Every fourth German company is thinking about relocating production abroad,” Gönner stated.

Germany’s energy-intensive chemical industry is particularly affected by the crisis, Wolfgang Grosse Entrup, CEO of the German chemical industry association (VCI), told the news outlet.

“The brutal energy prices are knocking us out…Without a functioning price brake, the government is willfully accepting deindustrialization,” he warned, adding that if the chemical industry fails, other industries will follow, which “could be the knockout for Germany as a business location.”

The report says German companies are suffering a variety of problems, including high energy prices, disrupted supply chains, and even the aftershocks from China’s rigid crackdown on the Covid-19 pandemic.

In very-related news, the reason why Russia has been engaging in low-intensity attrition warfare is finally becoming to obvious to ignore, even for the globalist media.

Western weapon stockpiles have become strained after countless arms transfers to Ukraine, making it increasingly difficult for NATO militaries to keep up with politicians’ pledges to continue supporting Kiev with whatever it needs for as long as it takes, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

“Smaller countries have exhausted their potential,” and according to one NATO official, at least 20 of the alliance’s 30 members are “pretty tapped out,” the newspaper wrote. Only “larger allies,” including France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, have enough stockpiles to continues or potentially increase their weapon shipments to Ukraine.

Since the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine in late February, the US and its Western allies have been providing Kiev with billions of dollars in security assistance, to the tune of nearly $40 billion, now comparable to the entire annual defense budget of France. Moscow has repeatedly warned that the weapon shipments will only prolong the conflict and increase the risk of a direct conflict between Russia and NATO.

As Ukraine continues to call for more weapons, EU stockpiles are running low, with Germany already “reaching its limit” as of early September. Meanwhile, Lithuania, which does not have any more weapons to donate, has urged the allies to give Ukraine “everything we have.”

US President Joe Biden has vowed to keep the arms pipeline open for “as long as it takes,” but even American military stockpiles have taken a toll after repeated shipments to Kiev. As early as March, just weeks after the conflict in Ukraine kicked off, the US Defense Department was already scrambling to replenish thousands of shoulder-fired missiles supplied to Kiev. By August, US stockpiles of 155mm artillery ammunition were “uncomfortably low,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

The US think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) previously pointed out that the American military is “not structured to fight or support an extended conflict,” while the defense industry is “sized for peacetime production rates,” and expanding capabilities would take years.

Putin has stated, from the start, that the objective was to demilitarize his enemies. Now the USA is being defeated and Europe is paying the initial price. It’s not over, but the trend is clear and on the verge of becoming inexorable. The sooner that the neoclown imperialists give up their global ambitions, the better off they will be, but because the seeds of failure are sown in the field of past success, they are very unlikely to assess the situation correctly and make intelligent decisions based on accurate information.

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An Easy Decision

Big Serge game-theories the Russian Kherson withdrawal and reaches the obvious conclusion:

Kherson was becoming an inefficient front for Russia because of the logistical strain of supplying forces across the river with limited bridge and road capacity. Russia demonstrated that it was capable of shouldering this sustainment burden (keeping troops supplied all through Ukraine’s summer offensives), but the question becomes 1) to what purpose, and 2) for how long.

Ideally, the bridgehead becomes the launching point for offensive action against Nikolayev, but launching an offensive would require strengthening the force grouping in Kherson, which correspondingly raises the logistical burden of projecting force across the river. With a very long front to play with, Kherson is clearly one of the most logistically intensive axes. My guess is that Surovikin took charge and almost immediately decided he did not want to increase the sustainment burden by trying to push on Nikolayev.

Therefore, if an offensive is not going to be launched from the Kherson position, the question becomes – why hold the position at all? Politically, it is important to defend a regional capital, but militarily the position becomes meaningless if one is not going to go on the offensive in the south.

Let’s be even more explicit: unless an offensive towards Nikolayev is planned, the Kherson bridgehead is militarily counterproductive… In the broader operational sense, Surovikin seems to be declining battle in the south while preparing in the north and in the Donbas. It is clear that he made this decision shortly after taking command of the operation – he has been hinting at it for weeks, and the speed and cleanliness of the withdrawal suggests that it was well planned , long in advance. Withdrawing across the river increases the combat effectiveness of the army significantly and decreases the logistical burden, freeing resources for other sectors.

This isn’t that hard. And it wasn’t a difficult decision, at least not from a military perspective, because any other decision by General Surovikin would have been not only incorrect, but reprehensibly stupid. War is not a game of Risk. A general does not win a battle, much less a war, by simply moving his forces forward blindly and drawing new lines on the map. It’s entirely normal for generals to try advancing one way, decide that the terrain is not favorable, then withdraw in favor of advancing somewhere else. This is particularly true of so-called maneuver warfare, hence the term.

The optics that so concern the media are part of politics, not war-making. The only time optics matter is with regards to prospective allies deciding to enter or abandon the war, and Russia’s prospective allies could not care less how the Russians manage their lines on the Ukraine battlefield. China’s decision to move against Taiwan and Turkey’s decision to move against Greece will not depend upon whether Russia loses Kherson or takes Odessa. No matter what Russia does, Iran is unlikely to move against Israel unless Israel attacks first, although it would have moved against Azerbaijan if the NATO ally had attacked Armenia.

Moreover, the fact that NATO and the Ukrainians are so obsessed with optics while the Russians are almost entirely focused on genuine military issues is a good reason to surmise that Russia will ultimately win its war with NATO.

The Allies didn’t lose World War II because Operation Market Garden failed and they withdrew from Arnhem. And the Russians aren’t going to lose the NATO-Russian war because they withdrew from Kherson either.

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Bolsonero Crosses the Rubicon

Brazil shows Americans what actual resistance to electoral fraud looks like:

The people of Brazil have risen up against alleged voter fraud in the nation’s recent presidential election, with millions flooding the streets in protest.

During Tuesday’s national Republican Day, an estimated 3 million citizens took to the streets across the country and demanded the election be annulled.

Incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro and his party have responded by moving to annul the election.

Bolsonaro’s conservative Partido Liberal (PL) party presented its report and announced it will apply for the election’s annulment since the results could not be validated.

Since the massive fraud during the runoff election on October 30th in Brazil, millions of Brazilians have been protesting on the streets every day.

The election was “won” by Bolsonaro’s far-left socialist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Whether this Brazilian revolt against fake democracy is successful or not, it demonstrates why the Second Amendment has become irrelevant. Weapons are of no use to a people who are unwilling to use them. Since Americans wouldn’t use their God-given gun rights to a) defend their borders against foreign immigration or b) to prevent at least two successive fraudulent governments from ruling over them when they had those rights, history indicates they are probably going to eventually lose them.

I understand the natural reaction to protest “we didn’t know” or “people weren’t ready” or “there is nothing we could have done”. But the cold reality of history is that a people have a limited window of opportunity in which successful self-defense is possible. Once the Pilgrims have established themselves, the Visigoths have crossed the Rhine, or the Lombards have crossed the Alps, it’s already too late to turn back time.

That’s why, at this point, the collapse of the United States is probably the optimal outcome for the American posterity.

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False Flag #237

The Russians are invading Poland now and murdering Poles! Because we can totally trust “a senior US intelligence offical”, right?

Two people have been killed in Poland after explosions hit a farm near the border with Ukraine in what is thought to be a botched Russian missile attack. Twin explosions rang out this afternoon in Przewodów, a rural village located five miles from the Ukrainian border in south western Poland.

A senior US intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the fatal blasts were caused by a pair of wayward Russian missiles – though the blast site sits more than 10 miles from the nearest Ukrainian urban settlement of note, Chervonohrad.

It follows a report by Polish Radio ZET which also claimed two stray missiles hit Polish soil, without providing more details. The blasts came as Moscow launched fresh missile attacks across Ukraine today in what Kyiv said was the heaviest wave of missile strikes in nearly nine months of war.

I’m mostly interested that they’re repeatedly trying to sell such small “provocations” as a potential casus belli. I mean, do they really think anyone other than the Boomers gives one hair on an airborne rodent’s posterior about NATO or its oft-misrepresented Article 5, which commits absolutely no one to doing anything.

UPDATE: The British are vowing “WE WILL DEFEND POLAND”.

They seem to have forgotten that the last time they promised to defend Poland, the Russians ended up with all of Poland, all of Eastern Europe, and most of Central Europe.

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The Irrelevance of Optics

Nora Hoppe makes some astute observations concerning the NATO-Russian war in Ukraine and the very poor level of analyses on both sides of the conflict, especially in light of the Russian withdrawal from Kherson:

When people speak of the “optics not looking good“… a film set immediately comes to my mind (I have worked in the film world for many years). And that immediately tells me how some people view this operation – as spectators: it has to have a good catchy script, suspense, uninterrupted action and – heaven forbid – no lulls! It has to ultimately supply a dopamine release. It has to have a “Dirty Harry Catharsis”.

This reminds me of similar reactions to the prisoner exchange in mid-September, where some saw it as a sign of weakness to even think of releasing Azov prisoners… or when the Chinese government did not deliver a dramatic retort when Pelosi went to do her skit in Taiwan.

What is at the base of these kinds of reactions? Why such impatience? Why such concern with “appearances”? Why such a need to satiate one’s own personal sense of justice and retribution? Does it have something to do with consuming? Especially in the western world one has become an addicted consumer of not only things but “experiences” that can be lived indirectly… We have become spectators… and our world has become a spectacle.

In his powerful masterpiece, “War and Peace”, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy depicts the Battle of Borodino as the greatest example of Russian patriotism… The collective engagement of all those involved in the Battle of Borodino is what ultimately attained the end result: despite all their losses and the sacrificial need to evacuate Moscow and burn its resources – in order to save the army and Russia, the Russians, achieved a moral victory in this battle… which ultimately led to the comprehensive victory of the Russian army and the entire campaign.

“Several tens of thousands of the slain lay in diverse postures and various uniforms on the fields and meadows belonging to the Davýdov family and to the crown serfs—those fields and meadows where for hundreds of years the peasants of Borodinó, Górki, Shevárdino, and Semënovsk had reaped their harvests and pastured their cattle. At the dressing stations the grass and earth were soaked with blood for a space of some three acres around. Crowds of men of various arms, wounded and unwounded, with frightened faces, dragged themselves back to Mozháysk from the one army and back to Valúevo from the other. Other crowds, exhausted and hungry, went forward led by their officers. Others held their ground and continued to fire.” [“War and Peace” – book 10; chapter 39]

General-in-chief Mikhail I. Kutuzov’s motto of “patience and time” allowed the Russian army to be victorious when he was able to embrace, as opposed to trying to know, the contingencies of war and prepare his soldiers as best he could for such battle. He knew that, by fighting the pitched battle and adopting the strategy of attrition warfare, he could now retreat with the Russian army still intact, lead its recovery, and force the weakened French forces to move even further from their bases of supply.

Retreat is not defeat. It can be the result of a defeat, or, as in the case of Kherson, where no significant combat even took place, it can be strategic maneuver. Or, as in the case of Borodino, it can be both.

Optics are an illusion. They are transient, easily manipulated, and are not reflective of the underlying reality. Those who concern themselves first and foremost and solely with optics are inevitably media creatures whose opinions are reliably wrong and assuredly irrelevant.

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