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The war in Sudan has so far been marked by a lot of incompetency and mismanagement by government forces (the SAF). After months of bitter fighting, in late 2023, the opposing Rapid Support Forces suddenly expanded their control towards the southeast of Khartoum after not a lot of resistance, most notably taking the city of Wad Madani. This led the SAF supporters and officials to panic and point fingers at each other about what the hell the army is even doing, while RSF soldiers looted the city.

These victories led to a short period in late December and early January where diplomacy and peace talks were considered, but such attempts fell apart. The leader of the RSF visited various African countries, including meeting Paul Kagame in Rwanda, to boost his legitimacy. Then, the RSF attacked into South Kordofan and consolidated their hold on other areas.

The Sudanese capital of Khartoum sits on a river which divides it from the city to its west, Omdurman (see the post image). The SAF and RSF have been fighting over this grand urban area for the whole war, with the RSF holding most of Khartoum (with an entirely cut-off SAF force holding on in the center), with a similarly cut-off SAF force also in eastern Omdurman, up against the river. For 10 months, this force has been under siege - but no longer. In perhaps the first actual W of the war for the SAF, they finally managed to break the siege a week ago, pouring supplies in. This leaves a section of the RSF now cut off, though Omdurman is still not under full SAF control (and, who knows, the whole situation could once again go badly for the SAF).

Meanwhile, the Sudanese socioeconomic situation has completely collapsed, with potentially a 20% fall in GDP and 8 million people displaced, with 2 million from Khartoum alone. 18 million Sudanese, or about a third of the population, is in acute hunger, and 20 million children are out in school. The refugees streaming out of the country are causing knock-on effects in neighorboring countries like Chad. Nobody is even really counting the dead anymore.

Red is the government forces, the SAF. Blue is the RSF opposition. Other colours are various factions.


The Country of the Week is Sudan! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

Sunday's briefing is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful. Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.


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[–] BynarsAreOk@hexbear.net 47 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Some of these points are things me and some few others, definitely a minority here, have been saying for months.

Yes its an opinion piece, but there are also quotes from relevant people including Vijay Prashad.

Palestinians call for China to step up pressure on Israel as they seek an end to ‘collective punishment’ on Gazans

A ceasefire and the two-state solution, which China has persevered with despite Israel’s rejection, are seen as largely unattainable by Palestinians. They want Beijing to be more precise and forceful in its support for their liberation, as they say it has become increasingly clear that the Western position does not align with theirs. While China cannot “resolve” the conflict, as a superpower and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, it could “do more to mitigate” it, according to Razan Shawamreh, a doctoral researcher of international relations at the Eastern Mediterranean University.

“The Palestinian sense of marginalisation and vulnerability, stemming from US policies that support Israel’s crimes, have prompted them to find potential alternatives for support and solidarity, and they find it in China,” the Cyprus-based Palestinian academic said. Beijing’s reactions signified both its support as well as its policy of not interfering or meddling in other countries’ affairs. But that should not be construed as an unwillingness to facilitate negotiations in international conflicts, Shawamreh said.

In November, President Xi Jinping called for an end to the “collective punishment against the people of Gaza” with Beijing later issuing its formal position paper on the conflict, urging a comprehensive ceasefire and the establishment of a UN conference to draw up a road map for a two-state solution. “I contend that it can engage in serious bilateral discussions with both parties, extending beyond its peace proposals, given the positive regard in which both sides of the conflict hold China, in recognition of its rising influence,” Shawamreh said. Zoon Ahmed Khan, a research fellow at the Beijing-based Centre for China and Globalisation, said the capacity for China to act positively towards a resolution was enhanced by the fact “it has historically been sympathetic towards the Palestinian cause while maintaining pragmatic relations and broadened engagement with Israel”.

Then there is some explanation that the US is using the same "You're against Ukrainian Nazis then you're a Putler bot" shit but with the geopolitical equivalent of "do you condemn Hamas". This is not as important the better part is this

US politicians’ portrayal of ceasefire demands as being Chinese or Russian-led efforts to destabilise the West may have impeded the bid for Palestinian liberation, pushing it further out of reach. A more involved Global South is the answer, according to Rula Shadeed, co-director of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, which advocates for the embattled population. Shadeed said China’s clear support for Palestine would have a “very powerful effect” on the conflict, giving a boost to smaller states that may have been concerned about the consequences of doing the same.

“China has an important role, but it definitely can do much, much, much more,” she said. “The trade relationship between China and Israel has been ongoing, for example. There has not been anything that was stopped, no calls for summoning the Israeli ambassador. There was not even mentions or threats of cutting ties [as Israeli offensives continue].”

In January, state-owned China Cosco Shipping Corporation reportedly planned to stop delivering goods into Israel because of actions by Houthi militants in the waters. Chinese ambassador Cai Run was reportedly summoned by Israel’s foreign ministry over the move. Shadeed said Beijing had to shift its position away from a two-state solution, which was an “ancient stock” that had been proven to be “merely impossible” by the pervasive system of segregation that Palestinians have faced for more than seven decades.

“I think that most Palestinians don’t care about states any more – what they care about, which is rightly important, is liberation. They want the entire killing to stop, they want their economic situation to flourish, they want to have normal lives, access to health and education, and the right of movement.” Israel has maintained its “declaratory decision” to reject any recognition of Palestinian statehood. Top-ranking minister Eli Cohen said recently that peace agreements should be given up “if the price of expanding peace agreements is a Palestinian state”, reinforcing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertion that his country needed full security control over “the entire area in the west of Jordan”.

The average daily death toll in Palestine has exceeded that of any other major conflict of recent years, according to a January report by Oxfam. But that killing could be stopped with some practical solutions, according to Vijay Prashad, historian and director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research. He said permanent members of the Security Council, including China, could bring forward proposals similar to those imposed on Libya during the civil war of 2011. “To stop the bombing, China can put forward a motion for a no-fly zone over Gaza and have Egypt monitor the flights over the area,” Prashad said. “It can also propose a full arms embargo – not even dual-use technology [goods, software and technology that can be used for both civilian and military applications] should be allowed to be shipped to Israel.”

Prashad said the fact that member states were not offering such motions was “perplexing” and “part of our colonial sensibility” that the UN’s agenda could not be set by non-Western states, who were not traditionally the decision-makers. “There are moments like when the Chinese representative to the UN [Zhang Jun] stopped the Israeli ambassador from talking in a very undignified way – so it’s not like people aren’t asserting themselves, but why not assert themselves with a resolution?”

Prashad acknowledged that the proposals would likely be vetoed by the US, making Washington appear “even more complicit in the massacre than they are right now”.

The US again blocked a ceasefire resolution on Tuesday. It was the third US veto of a draft resolution since October 7. Zhang said the US vote – the only one against – was “nothing different from giving the green light to the continued slaughter” in Gaza. The veto power has become increasingly controversial as it effectively prevents UN action against the permanent members and their allies, leading to inaction on war crimes and crimes against humanity.

China and other countries could further consider recalling their ambassadors in Israel and removing Israeli diplomats in their countries in order to “put Israel on notice diplomatically”, Prashad said. They would be “straightforward” and “non-interventionist” moves to make a palpable stance against the unceasing violence.

Last week, Brazil recalled its ambassador to Israel while summoning the Israeli ambassador for a reprimand, amid tensions deepened by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s comparison of Israel’s war on Gaza to the Holocaust.

Prashad said that among his Palestinian peers, there was “a lot of respect” for China’s infrastructure investment in the West Bank, but in response to the current Palestinian suffering, the Global South in general has been “pretty timid”.

Yes there is a lot of anti-Zionism protesting, but at the top level, as the article makes clear, there is no global stance to oppose Israel yet. Maybe when people like Prashad are out there saying China needs to do more maybe we can get a more critical stance towards China?

Just 2 simple points imo going forward:

#1 We need China to step up and actualy take an active role if we want the world to actualy get better, transactional and billateral relations will not work in a world divided by a clear anti-communist block. If China needs allies they actually need to stand up and show they'll defend these alliances beyond token gestures. Everything happening around certain BRICS countries and their relation with Palestine is also a major pain, a huge embarrassing contradiction that needs to be resolved or else China will never be global leader for any sort of leftist/communist movement.

You absolutely can't say "material conditions" on one side to justify China and Egypt/UAE/Saudi relations and then continue to have relations with these countries as they facilitate the genocide.

#2 The inherent contradictions of SCC(or just Chinese capitalism if you want) are abundantly clear in this conflict, China's hypocritical stance towards Israel is not fooling anyone in the global south actually paying attention. When you refuse to actually harm Israel even with token gestures like economic relations then you have lose credibility and people are starting to notice. People will demand real support for their cause, not just grandiose statements at the UN.

The sad part is all of this should be the common communist position, yet it is published on the South China Liberal Rag Post.

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[–] Alaskaball@hexbear.net 47 points 1 year ago (7 children)

https://archive.is/q7Ld8

The US Army is breeding a new kind of Arctic warrior by 'testing the mettle of the human' in frigid, freezing Alaska, commander says

Alternative title: The Army sends a bunch of southern hicks (that's all of you in the mainland USA, from Washington to Florida) up to Alaska to go cold-weather camping.

This shit ain't exactly new but the clowns in the Pentagon love to reinvent the wheel to show everyone how out of touch they are with reality.

In the early morning, just as the sun slowly rises up from behind the mountains, gusts of icy wind sweep across the US Army camp, whipping up snow from the ground and the trees in the surrounding forests. It's a bone-chilling cold, one felt even through any protective layers or garments.

An average day in Alaska

Soldiers come and go in and out of tents, some surprisingly wearing just t-shirts, seemingly unbothered by the conditions. One sits outside eating breakfast. The temperature of six degrees Fahrenheit is practically spring weather, they say. Just a week before, it was -40 degrees, temperatures many have never had to endure.

No joke 6 degrees Fahrenheit does feel like a warm day after you're freezing your tits off during the deep cold parts of winter. In fact when it's 0C/32F it feels so warm you get the zoomies and want to go around town in only a t-shirt and shorts

Out on the snow-covered Alaskan tundra, US Army Pacific is pushing its soldiers to prepare to fight in subzero temperatures and hostile, unpredictable environments. It is a challenge unlike anything else in the Army, top generals told Business Insider, and a relatively new training experience that tests "the mettle of the human," one brigade combat team commander said.

Basically they're saying your biggest enemy up here is nature and the moral of the dumbasses you sent to play in nature

Earlier this month, USARPAC held its annual Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center training exercise near Fairbanks, Alaska that BI was able to observe firsthand.

Folks it fucking sucks up there, take it from me.

Throughout the training, soldiers with the US Army's 11th Airborne Division and troops from over a dozen international allies and partners ran wargames in the Arctic, with one side posing as enemy forces. Troops adapt to freezing temperatures and unpredictable conditions, making adjustments to gear, kits, and equipment in real time.

God I wish I was there because the complaining and whining you'd hear from them would be a beautiful orchestra to me.

Some days, the temperature is well below zero, and snow piles feet-deep in fields and forests. Others, the weather is considerably "warmer" than usual — in the tens or twenties. Snow isn't as prevalent, but the ground remains frozen solid. Any warmer, and it's muddy, caking to boots and vehicles.

If there's one thing I've learned from my times getting lost in the wilderness during winter, it's that forests are friends and fields are foes if you don't have snow shoes. Holy shit I'm having flashbacks to my first time trying to cross a field filled with snow to bury me twice over standing up, my body hated me so much that day. No wonder why moose have those long fucking legs!

"It's a harsh environment," Maj. Gen. Brian S. Eifler told Business Insider in an in-person interview at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks. "If something happens in those conditions, you got to have a force that's ready."

Shit ain't happening if there's a war in the snow.

On the ground, soldiers echoed similar sentiments. Some told Business Insider the Arctic was the most difficult environment to fight in, while others noted it took a specific type of mindset to survive there, let alone excel.

Tormenting the soldiers so they actually like freezing their asses off to own the Russians and Chinese

"There are not a lot of forces in our Army, or really in our military, that can operate here," Col. Sean Lucas told Business Insider, calling the JPMRC training an opportunity "to experiment with how much soldiers can endure" and "test the mettle of the human."

"Operate" is doing heavy lifting here. The fuckers up in Fairbanks not only need to keep their cars plugged in so their oil pans don't freeze and their batteries don't discharge, they also keep heated blankets on their engines so they're barely warm enough to actually go through the ignition cycle. Arctic warfare would be a drone operator's playground.

JPMRC is the Army's newest combat training center, only a few years old. It conducts rotations in both Alaska and Hawaii every year, giving soldiers the chance to train for combat in both the wet, humid jungle and the icy, harsh Arctic.

They've been doing Arctic survival training for decades. The only reason this article exists is to jack off the military industrial complex for blowing another load of taxpayer dollars on more useless shit

Both environments are at the ends of the pendulum of what the Indo-Pacific region has to offer in terms of battlefield conditions, and according to Gen. Charles A. Flynn, USARPAC's commanding general, they are the "environments and conditions where our forces are most likely to operate."

Lol cope

The Pentagon has long identified China as the US' "pacing challenge" and made determined efforts to shift American military focus towards the Indo-Pacific region for a potential conflict there, but the area is also home to Russia and North Korea, presenting a host of possible threats.

Only possible threat is the U.S struggling to encroach on the region.

US Indo-Pacific Command and its forces have increased their training, particularly with allies, in order to deter enemy forces and maintain the ability to fight across the Pacific should that fail. For many in the Army, it's a major shift in focus from over two decades of counterinsurgency fighting in the Middle East.

A major shift for the army that its failing at lmak

With great power competition and possible conflict on the horizon, particularly in the Pacific, there are new investments, like JPMRC, to help ensure readiness.

jerking off motion

Difficulties of the JPMRC's Alaska rotation are constant and visible everywhere you look.

Yeah so maybe fucking stop then

Equipment breaks, troops have to be ready to combat threats to their health like hypothermia, artillery pieces have to be maneuvered across ever-changing ground conditions, paratroopers land hard on icy, snowy ground. Conditions change on a day-to-day basis, making everything tougher to anticipate. Many things are an experiment, being worked on in real time.

I can picture some artillerymen dipshits not properly digging in the feet of their artillery, only shoving it in the snow, yanking the cord to fire a round, and yeeting the artillerypiece right into some poor dipshit. Or some paratrooper trying to land on a glacier only to break through a light snow shell straight into a ravine.

One example is the new cold weather clothing gear, including several layers, or "levels." During the JPMRC exercise, troops were giving feedback on the gear, how much of it was needed on a day-to-day basis, and whether it made sense to overdress or remain "comfortably cold" so as not to wind up sweating too much in the heat of battle.

If there's a lesson for you nerds to actually learn here, it's about how to dress for the cold in a way that is relevant to your situation.

"Our soldiers here are encouraged to innovate," Command Sgt. Maj. Joseph Gaskin told Business Insider, explaining that "we don't have all the answers for this environment."

Fucking corporate words. Innovate yourself in a winter workshop to avoid quiet quitting during an ecological downturn

When the 11th Airborne Division was re-activated in 2022, Army leadership specifically tasked it with developing "innovative ways of operating in this environment," which Eifler has called the "most challenging" on the planet.

Lol throwing a new Division of dipshits straight into the freezer as a funny joke

Without a clear guide book on how best to fight in the Arctic, a region for which the Army released its new strategy only a few years ago, troops sometimes make it up as they go.

If you remember the article I posted early about tanks, here's the same fucking problem! ITS ALL FUCKING MADE UP ON THE GO! The army is relearning how to function as an army in 2024!

Soldiers develop new tactics and techniques, exploring what gear is needed or how to fortify a position when there's little snow on the ground. The latter seems to be solvable by chopping down trees and using the wood. And that's not even the half of it.

Fuck I can feel it in my bones the jackbooted mini dictators that make up the military command structure definitely made those dumbasses try and dig trenches and foxholes in the frozen dirt agony

The Arctic is tough and challenging, but Army leaders said the harsh environment and difficult training produces prepared and pioneering troops unlike any other unit. In a 2022 paper written with another Army officer called "Forging the Arctic Warrior," Eifler wrote that "it takes a special breed of Soldier to thrive in the Arctic."

It takes a special kind of person to live here, get on my level groundpounders.

Lucas said that if you can handle the Arctic, you can handle anything, telling Business Insider that "if you can lead, or you can be a soldier in the extreme cold, you can lead or be a soldier anywhere."

That's a fucking lie, I can't handle humidity for shit and I definitely can't handle humid heat. I would rather broil myself alive in Phoenix Arizona during the worst summer than spend any time in the most mildest of Floridian winters!

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[–] SoyViking@hexbear.net 46 points 1 year ago

Danish Leader Urges Military Buildup At The Expense Of Welfare

In a recent interview with oligarch-aligned newspaper Financial Times Denmark's iron-fisted supreme leader, the social democrat Mette Frederiksen, is calling for American satellite states in western Europe to increase military buildup, painting Russia as an imminent threat to the imperialist bloc, claiming that Russia will soon be able to attack a member of the American-dominated NATO pact. Russian officials has repeatedly stated that they have no such intentions.

In the interview given in the Marienborg government compound outside of Copenhagen, the supreme leader bombastically started that "the naive continent" of Europe "must not repeat the mistakes of the 1930's". She claims that western European nations within the American sphere of influence has spent too little money on military buildup over the years, instead leaving their American overlords to foot the bill.

That this is not just empty sabre rattling is demonstrated by the frenzied rearmament programme Frederiksen's regime has embarked on, raising concerns for the stability in the Baltic and Arctic regions. Numbers released by Denmark's Liberal Party-controlled ministry of defense, suggesting that the Nordic kingdom is already spending a whopping two percent of GDP on its armed forces this year, thereby fulfilling American dictates for minimum military spending.

Despite Denmark being neighboured by fellow members of the Washington-controlled NATO pact and being at no risk of an unprovoked attack, Frederiksen claims her struggling nation is in dire need of spending even more money on military posturing. In the Financial Times interview she claims that "freedom comes with a price" and that funding for social welfare must be curbed to fund the regime's grand military plans.

The supreme leader goes on to say that "if the world is changing in the direction I think it will, then you cannot spend your penny, or your dollar, or your euro, or your krone two times."

Far away from the halls of power the people of Denmark are already paying the price for their dear leader's freedom. The nation's social welfare system, once lauded as a ray of light and progress in the heart of the otherwise bleak and uncaring imperialist bloc, is buckling under the stress of decades of economic mismanagement and chronic underfunding. The people of Denmark are now looking forward to seeing their schools, hospitals and public transit system decay even further, as the regime splurges on guns and missiles.

[–] THIRD_WORLDIST@hexbear.net 46 points 1 year ago (3 children)

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/pope-francis-calls-studies-into-ugly-gender-theory-2024-03-01/

Pope Francis calls for studies into 'ugly' gender theory

I did not have pope francis coming out as against "gender ideology' on my cards for 2024

so much for the woke pope

[–] TheGamingLuddite@hexbear.net 44 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm catholic and I swear I've been seeing this exact news cycle for a decade. The pope gets praised for saying some progressive stuff and then gets chided for doing some incredibly dumb signaling against abortion or gender theory.

I think the most important takeaway is that he's basically Pope Obama; someone who puts a nice face on a pretty bad institution that he is unwilling or believes himself unable to structurally change, and there probably won't be any structural change to it without a massive shift in the societies it exists in.

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[–] Al_Sham@hexbear.net 46 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei

"The situation in Gaza is too much even for that young person who was brought up in that culture. Even his conscience was hurting.

Of course, instead of one person, a thousand people should have set themselves on fire. But being immersed in corruption doesn't allow for this.

Now one person's conscience has been awakened by chance and he set himself on fire.

Western Culture has truly exposed itself and revealed how corrupted, perverted, and cruel it is.

We hope that Almighty God will provide a complete victory to Islam, Muslims, Palestine, and especially Gaza."

Source

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[–] Xx_Aru_xX@hexbear.net 45 points 1 year ago (10 children)
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[–] star_wraith@hexbear.net 45 points 1 year ago
[–] companero@hexbear.net 45 points 1 year ago (4 children)
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[–] plinky@hexbear.net 45 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't know know when von der leyen will die,

but i'm hereby copymarking "ze end of ze leyen"

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[–] CliffordBigRedDog@hexbear.net 45 points 1 year ago (3 children)
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[–] Zrc@hexbear.net 44 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

wojak-nooo

umm actually it's not a big deal, it's an old tank (but still much better than any Russian tank!) and tanks just aren't effective in modern war so it doesn't matter, also it's not even destroyed, actually it's already been repaired again and the crew definitely survived unlike in inferior Russian tanks and Russia loses 50 tanks and planes and ships per day so I don't understand why they're celebrating

[–] plinky@hexbear.net 44 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Damn, intercept also has layoffs (according to latest pod), fucks sake, the only good liberals

[–] Torenico@hexbear.net 44 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Get in, it's time for another random turboshitlib doing an article talking about Ukraine:

This time, the article is written by some wanker called "John Carlin" (I hope he has nothing to do with our beloved George Carlin) in the Argentinian version of CNN, the multimedia liberal giant "Clarín". Original article in spanish, translation by me.

No, Russia Cannot Win The War

spoiler

According to his particular reading of history, Putin considers that Ukraine “is an artificial state” that belongs to the Russian sphere.

All states are artificial, mr. liberal.

I read article after article warning that Russia could win the war in Ukraine. It surprises me. There is no way for them to win. Yes, everyone loses. As Martha Gellhorn, a writer who lived through the Spanish Civil War with her future husband Ernest Hemingway, said, “In war there is neither victory nor defeat. There is only catastrophe.”

But Russia is not going to win in Ukraine. Not even if Vladimir Putin achieved his initial objective: conquering all Ukrainian territory and imposing a puppet government in Kiev. Because in the long run that is the worst thing that could happen.

Putin wants to take ALL of Ukraine? Is this Hearts of Iron IV? I'm sorry man but I don't think Putin wants ALL of Ukraine, just the eastern and southern parts. The western regions will be handled by Poland, however.

Imagine the mess the Russians would get into. They would have to install an occupying army in a country twice the size of Germany, most of whose citizens detest them. The resistance would consist of a militia of at least 100,000 combat veterans armed by Western governments. Military orthodoxy says that in such circumstances the occupation army troops need to outnumber the partisans by a factor of 25 to 1.

Talk about having a shit starting point. His entire base for this analysis is the idea (a fact, to him) that Putin wants to take over ALL of Ukraine, something that only warmonger liberals believe in. Political, military and economic realities say otherwise, Russia will most likely cripple Ukraine and leave it to whatever western company to dismantle what remains. Also imagine thinking a "100,000 combat veterans armed by Western governments" will pose a massive threat to the Russians in the scenario, holy fuck, the already-existing, western-supplied ukrainian army is getting annihilated as we speak right now. STOP FANTASIZING ABOUT COMPLETELY ARTIFICIAL "WESTERN SUPREMACY" lmao.

In other words, Russia would have to deploy more than two million soldiers in Ukraine sine die, all of them vulnerable to death under fire every day. The wear and tear in lives and money would be permanent; the consequences for Russian internal politics, progressively more destabilizing.

Russia is in a full blown war with Ukraine and parts of NATO right now and the so-called consequences are nowhere to be seen. If anything, Putin is more popular than ever. The guy is even liquidating weak opposition leaders lol.

Let's move on to a less unlikely scenario. That an end to the war be finally negotiated in which Ukraine gives up Crimea and a good part of the territories in the southeast of the country that the Russians control today. A defeat for Ukraine? At first glance maybe yes. But consider.

Actually, the most likely scenario suddenly becomes the most unlikely lmfao.

By far most of the gigantic cost of post-war reconstruction, of cities like Mariupol that the Russian army has reduced to rubble, would have to be paid by Moscow. The Ukrainian government would be free to invest the billions that would come from friendly countries in the development of a nation whose size would be perhaps 80 percent of what it was, but whose potential is enormous. Ukrainian fertile land is abundant; young talent in new technologies, too. The Ukrainian army would be the most formidable in Europe.

He got paid to write this shit down. Mariupol is a miniscule city and it has been largely rebuilt by Russia DURING THE WAR. Whatever costs the Russians have to pay, they can pay. However Ukraine is in deep shit, and their government would not simply "invest" money from "friendly countries" in "development" with a crippled country lmao. How he thinks the postwar ukrainian army would be "the most formidable in Europe" is beyond me, that title would actually go to the Russian one because they won lol.

Europe: here is the crux of the matter. Ukrainians would only accept the cession of territory to Russia in exchange for security guarantees and a reasonable prospect of future prosperity. A negotiated solution to end the war would have to include Ukraine's accession to the European Union, the dream of its citizens and Putin's nightmare. That is why we must continue to arm Ukraine: so that, when the time comes to negotiate, Ukraine is in the best military conditions to insist that EU membership be an inalienable part of the plan.

Hell yeah let's keep sending helpless ukrainians to their death with our weapons so that they can join the EU afterwards. Actually, I don't think Putin gives a single fuck if Ukraine goes into the EU or not, he cares about NATO. On the other hand, I don't think the EU would want a war torn Ukraine into their ranks... better keep it outside and let companies like BlackRock ravage the area.

In fact, if this were the final outcome Putin would have lost the war. Their motive for the invasion on February 24, 2022 was the desire of the Ukrainian government to join the European club and free itself from the Russian yoke. Putin, let us remember, considers the collapse of the Soviet Union to be “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.” The dictator also thinks, according to his particular reading of history, that Ukraine is “an artificial state” that belongs to the Russian sphere. It is difficult for him to think of Ukraine as an independent nation, as was seen in the grotesque interview he gave a couple of weeks ago to that parody of the journalist, the American Tucker Carlson.

Putin is right, the collapse of the USSR is the greatest catastrophe in the 20th century, could be in history even.

The interview began with a half-hour diatribe in which Putin explained that Russian sovereignty over Ukraine dates back to the 9th century. (He also explained, among other nonsense, that Poland, not Germany, caused the start of World War II...) The ultra-Trumpist Carlson had arrived in Moscow convinced, like so many more idiots on the international right and left, that Putin had invaded Ukraine to prevent NATO from invading Russia. Carlson then confessed that it came as a “shock” to him to discover that it was not true; that he had done so because of Russia's “historical claims” to Ukrainian lands.

I can tell this article is directed to argentinians because he uses the term "ultra-trumpist", which is not used in the US. The origin of the "ultra-[PERSON]" comes from Clarín calling everyone who is "bad" a "ultra-kirchnerista", due to their never-ending crusade against Kirchnerism. Also he plays the "adult in the room" card by saying that "everyone in the left and right believed Putin invaded because of NATO".

What Putin didn't tell Carlson was the other reason why he can't stand the idea of ​​Ukraine opting for the European path. He fears that such a large neighboring country, with so many cultural ties to Russia, will become a dangerous example of Western prosperity and democratic freedom for its crushed people.

Pure orientalism.

There are other possible scenarios for war in Ukraine. Let it last until Putin completes his umpteenth presidential term in 2030, or beyond. Let Russian mothers rebel, and, fed up with the carnage to which Putin subjects their children, pressure for a withdrawal of troops, as happened during the failed Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Or that there is a miracle and the Ukrainian army expels the Russian one.

Oh so Russia can't win, but neither can Ukraine.. considering their military victory is barely a "miracle".

In any case, in any imaginable or unimaginable scenario, the Russian fiasco is assured. Putin's idea was to obliterate the concept of Ukraine as a free nation and return it to its Soviet status as a submissive daughter of Mother Russia. Well no. The war has forged a nationalist sentiment never seen before in Ukraine, expressed in an infinite hatred towards the Russians.

Cool, the ukrainians embraced nazism and mr. turboliberal loves the idea.

Incidentally, far from weakening democratic Europe, a habit implanted in his brain since his days in the KGB, Putin has managed to rearm the continent and expand NATO to two more countries, Sweden and Finland. There is nothing to celebrate. Ukrainians have had to suffer a tragedy as catastrophic as it is unnecessary. But there is a prize. There is light. No one in the world - no one with half a brain - who aspires to decency and freedom will doubt from now on, and even less so after the death of the charismatic Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, that Putin and his regime represent not only the worst, but the most stupid thing in humanity.

Copium. Nobody other than six liberals care about Navalny, not even the russians themselves. On the other hand, Putin becomes more and more popular in the global south. But as always, mr. shitlib lives in a bubble called "The West".


The brain damage is real. There is another article by this man where he denies "Israel" is carrying out a genocide. I will post that one soon.

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[–] BigBoyKarlLiebknecht@hexbear.net 44 points 1 year ago (6 children)
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[–] cricbuzz@hexbear.net 43 points 1 year ago (7 children)

will the US have mandatory conscription soon? it just feels like tensions are ratcheting up globally and US leaders are realizing they cant fight all these wars with a volunteer army

[–] zed_proclaimer@hexbear.net 43 points 1 year ago

Nah we will use proxies and auxiliaries first. Ukrainians, Taiwanese, Sunni extremists, Poles, Baltic states, Albanians, Israelis, mercenary groups, compradors and criminals, etc.

America wants to be the backbone structure, the weapons and ammo provider & the intel support for their axis. They don’t want to be the frontline meat shields, that’s proxy work.

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[–] Babs@hexbear.net 43 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

Edit: I have been corrected on something I misread earlier, thanks comrades!

[–] kleeon@hexbear.net 45 points 1 year ago (3 children)

there isn't an animal on this whole planet dumber than a journalist

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[–] Alaskaball@hexbear.net 43 points 1 year ago (7 children)

https://archive.is/3UosA

@Tervell@hexbear.net you're gonna love this one

The Army is standardizing how armor crews train and shoot

Armor brigades with the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia are training with a new set of qualification standards, or gunnery tables.

That's right folks, the U.S Army armored and Mechanized forces HAVE NOT had a standardized training program for their gunners for who knows for how fucking long and have completely relied upon skills of individuals - usually a mix of whatever retained passed-down knowledge in the magical game of telephone between generations and whatever personal experience each master gunner accrues in their time in service!

The Army is standardizing the way crews of Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles keep up with their combat skills.

Fucking embarrassing it took until 2024 for the clowns in the Pentagon and TRADOC to figure this out

Brigades with the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia have taken the last month to train under a new set of qualification standards, or gunnery tables, against targets set at longer distances for their M1 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles.

People think ww3s gonna happen while the fucking Army that they think will fight it is just realizing what actual modern warfare looks like and has vaguely grasped how jacked up their combat capabilities are and are in a mad scramble to fix themselves while stumbling on their shoelaces

“What we are trying to do is train our crews to be more adaptable and be more lethal as our adversaries change,” said 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team Command Sgt. Maj. Ryan Roush. “Everyone will go through the exact same validation process. Once these tables are implemented Army-wide, we could receive a new soldier from any unit in the Army and know that the training standard that the soldier has used, are the exact same across the entire Army that we have and then base our performance and expectations off of that.”

Fucking magical they've figured out standardized training is a necessity IN MOTHERFUCKING 2024!

Tank crews have to validate their skills twice a year on a unit’s gunnery tables. Under the current integrated weapons strategy there are six gunnery tables that crews must be certified in: Table I gunnery skills test; Table II simulations; Table III proficiency to train with live rounds; Table IV basic skills of the platform; Table V practice and Table VI qualification for crew to participate in live-fire exercises.

Blah blah blah they had all the shit that's needed to make a standardized system but didn't

Master gunners could previously use their own discretion to create tables with time and distance categories for targets. But with this initiative, there would be set standards that soldiers and crews have to complete, said Sgt. Daniel Blandon, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team Abrams Master Gunner.

Fucking lol

Large scale combat operations

Over the last two decades, training for Iraq and Afghanistan was focused on counterinsurgency operations “for a whole career of a soldier,” said Steve Krivitsky, chief of the weapons and gunnery branch at the Directorate of Training, Tactics and Doctrine for the Maneuver Center of Excellence. “There was a series of soldiers that never experienced the long range and then the large-scale, combat-operations-type training.”

Translation: we had a brain-drain because we spent too many years playing whack-a-mole games now we're struggling with basic concepts of war fighting

Tank crews often were tested only on skills and targets their commanders deemed essential for Iraq and Afghanistan deployments, or that could be shot within the confines of the ranges of their own base.

Translation: our training over the past 20+ years has been checkpoint guarding and occupation force intimidation tactics with the rare masterbatort larp session stateside to make our tankmen feel like they still matter

“When you look at Fort Stewart and Fort Stewart’s ranges, they made a scenario that was tailored to their facilities and their training needs of their unit based on their past performance,” Krivitsky said. “What they chose to shoot would not be exactly the same as what something at Fort Carson might shoot.”

Translation: each base, like feudal kingdoms, had their own ways of doing shit.

Soldiers at Fort Stewart, Krivitsky said, are “pushing the limits of the training ammunition and the system itself to hit targets up to 2,200 to 2,400 meters.”

Translation: we've fucked up so bad so we're scrambling to make up standards to teach everyone based off of the knowledge we've gained from the Ukraine war

The current qualification for the farthest main gun engagement is a single target at 1,800 meters. The requirements under the new tables would increase main gun engagements to seven targets between 1,800 and 2,400 meters.

Translation: Ukraine wars teaching us modern war isn't like battlefield 4 or world of tanks

The new tables also focus on multiple stationary and moving main gun engagements. Now, Tables V and VI will include an offense and defense four-target engagement.

Translation: we've fucked up on training for more basic shit, again.

With the current gunnery qualifications – for all of the different types of engagements – the average is 31 seconds to defeat a single target, Kravitsky said. But the new standard would involve four targets in a shortened time frame.

Learning how to cowboy quickdraw shooting but with a tank.

“On a four target engagement, they don’t have two minutes, they have 75 seconds. And so that 31 seconds might overlap with another target’s 31 seconds because it’s exposed,” he said. “That speed in combat, the speed at which you deliver accurate fires first, your reward is you win. So our goal is to hit first, hit fast and move on to the next one.”

Reminder that U.S tanks require a manual loader so there's a dude that's busting his ass loading 4 big ass tank rounds while huffing depleted uranium fumes in 75 seconds or less.

Fucking lol

Officials are finding new ways to use the latest sensors and optics on Bradleys and Abrams. On the M1, for example, the vehicle commander has a Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station, or CROWS system for on-the-move target acquisition and first-burst target engagement.

Fancy thingamabobs that theoretically work but aren't rigorously combat tested. Who knows, maybe it'll accidentally do some friendly fire if a war happens.

The new standards for Table IV force the tank’s gunner to run through five defensive machine gun skills rather than use the main gun, while the vehicle commander has five tests on the CROWS system.

More basic shit

“When the gunner is executing the machine gun engagements, the vehicle commander is using the commander’s independent thermal viewer to identify supplemental targets,” Krivistky said. “It speeds the process of target acquisition and target hand-off to rapidly defeat multiple targets in sequence.”

More basic shit

The Maneuver Center of Excellence looked at all of the different possible target engagements that a tank crew might see and found 3,264 different variables. With the gunnery tables, officials need to decide which types of engagements are the best use of time and show a crew’s gunnery skills.

Aka standardization of training. Fucking fluff to pad out this article

“We only have 30 engagements for live fire so we have to be really selective of which engagements have the biggest payoff to the crew’s experience because the other 3,234 would have to be done in simulations,” Krivistky said.

Lol simulations means they're making soldiers play videogames like ARMA. Unless they got one of those fancy facilities with theater screens and mock vehicles on pneumatic pads to play videogames but IRL

Once they collect all of the data from 3ID’s training, they will hand it off to the Maneuver Center of Excellence for analysis. Officials from the center will take their findings to the Armor School’s Commandant and if he approves the manual, they’ll go through the publication process which can take three to six months.

Bureaucratic shit

When a new book is published and there’s a “significant change in how we do things,” there will be an implementation period across the Army which takes about a year, Krivitsky said. The 3ID initiative “accelerates the completion of this training strategy and publication by at least nine months which in the Army system, that’s fast.”

Army isn't planning to do a cheeky ww3 this year unless someone higher than the Pentagon pencil pushers screws the pooch

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[–] HelltakerHomosexual@hexbear.net 43 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Timothy snyder is a piece of fucking shit why do so many people swallow this 'authoritarianism' bullshit.

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[–] Al_Sham@hexbear.net 43 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Part of the charade of this "air dropped aid" into Gaza is about ripping apart the social fabric of the people. Starving people forced to fight each other, with some dying, over a few pallettes of rice.

Do you understand how evil this is?

https://al-akhbar.com/Palestine/377198/مهزلة-إسقاط-المساعدات-ما-هكذا-يغاث-الجوع

Everyone in the US Pentagon and the white house deserves to be lit on fire for their crimes.

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[–] zephyreks@hexbear.net 43 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I came across some interesting numbers today that put China's fisheries in perspective. China contributes something like 35% of the world's fish output and from that China makes up 19.2% of the world's wild catch and 61.5% of the world's aquaculture production. In fact, 73% of China's fish output is from aquaculture, and much of the remaining 27% includes freshwater sources.

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[–] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 43 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Sorry for the lack of updates today, people. My mom has gallstones and i'm taking care of her, together with my family. She will operate and after that she will be ok again.

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[–] SoyViking@hexbear.net 43 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Are the libs getting ready to cut their losses on Ukraine? Less and less journalists are Slavaing their Ukrainis and near-realist pieces are being published.

I just finished reading an article from Danish government broadcaster DR titled "War expert on Ukraine's shortage of western weapons: I can't see the Ukrainians do an offensive the next 12 months" where they interviewed a guy from the military academy who has previously made outright delusional predictions about western Wunderwaffen and the like are realising that western armaments industry can't keep up with Russian, how Ukraine's hand-me-downs are a logistical nightmare, how the promised arms shipments are getting delayed and how Ukraine is lacking soldiers.

He doesn't like it though and we get wonderful quotes like "We know that Russia can shoot around 20.000 shells a day while Ukraine is around 4.000 to 7.000. So on some points the Russians have advantages".

Although more realistic than before he is still delusional and he predicts things will begin to look up for the Ukrainians once they switch to a more defensive position.

He then goes on to be mad at the Ukrainians for not conscripting those under 27, calling it a luxury position when you are in "an existential war". This line is probably going to be one of the go-to soundbits once the libs switches to blaming the Ukrainians for losing the war.

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[–] nat_turner_overdrive@hexbear.net 43 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Some Belarussians in Poland are auditioning for CIA/State Department/NED money

A group of Belarusian dissidents say they are planning a coup against the country’s authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko, to be executed “at the right time.”

The partisan resistance group BYPOL — which operates from Poland — has been training officers and actively sabotaging the Kremlin in its war against Ukraine, all in preparation of a coup d’état against Minsk’s regime, one senior figure said publicly.

“We have worked out a plan and will put it into effect at the right time,” former Belarusian officer Aliaksandr Azarau told Belgian media outlet VRT.

According to Azarau, ensuring Russian President Vladimir Putin’s defeat in Ukraine is necessary to weaken Lukashenko’s regime.

hahaha

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[–] Frogmanfromlake@hexbear.net 42 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Does Israel turning against Russia and aiding Ukraine change anything significantly?

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