The Russian "Filtration" Activities sound a lot like the old NKVD Round them up, give them a trial and execute or exile to Siberia. The Russians are also holding the surrendered Mariopul Defenders for "Trials."
29. The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more. No less
and there are also these...
52. The army you've got is never the army you want. 53. The intel you've got is never the intel you want. 54. It's only too many troops if you can't pay them. 55. It's only too many weapons if they're pointing in the wrong direction. 56. Infantry exists to paint targets for people with real guns. 57. Artillery exists to launch large chunks of budget at an enemy it cannot actually see
But in regard to masses of Russian men with uniforms, well, "what does the wolf care about how many sheep there are?" A large amount of poorly trained men with guns are just a mob, not troops.
Instead of taking sides like a football game, the wise stance is to wait and see. There isn't enough reliable info to make a call either way. Be wary of propaganda from both sides.
I haven't posted propaganda, much to the annoyance of certain parties; I've posted analysis of actual events, over and over.
Reality upsets fanboys from one side, so again and again they've started butthurt Bitching/Moaning/Whining, tried baseless gainsaying, or stuck their fingers in their ears to drown out the sound of reality, and avoid having to confront it.
Reality doesn't give a damn, and neither do I.
It would be a shame if the Russian minions started to pull their heads out and achieve their master's aims in this, and given the original balance of forces on paper, not terribly surprising. But as it's turned out in real life, the Russians are under-trained, under-equipped, and under-capable, and it's flat-out hilarious watching their entire Keystone Kops military do faceplant after faceplant on the international stage.
So you believe the confirmed bias with your eyes and ears with things on the internet. I saw you did not post my last comment. Hedge is wrong, I now come back for the comedic environment in the comments just like zero hedge but there are some smart people commenting. Who I do want to hear from. No doubt this comment will be memory holed as well.
1) I don't know what you're talking about. 2) Everything is biased. Period. If you want unbiased sources, you won't find them in this universe. 3) Tanks exploding aren't biased. They're tanks. They're exploding. QED 4) Trying to argue they were made by the Underpants Gnome, from sugarplum fairy dust, and it was all CGI, requires more evidence than mere gainsaying from biased self-interest. 4) I offer explanations that fit the facts at hand. Claiming agnosticism in regard to facts is asinine. 5) Other people spin their Putin hagiography out of their asses, based on zero rationale.
You're free to choose which method of explaining reality is more reliable, and whether waiting until everything is over (as if that's even a viable option) to settle a question is of more utility than looking at what's available from the whole spectrum of sources in real time, and shaving them with Occam's Razor.
The most unbiased way to judge present events is through the lens of history. Culture is a thing very, very slow to change, and people tend to do like their grandparents did- even us.
What was Russia in the centuries past? A corrupt, inefficient, paranoid 3rd world hellhole. What has the Russian Army been in centuries past? Corrupt, inefficient, poorly trained, worse equipped, badly led.
Didn't matter if the man in charge was a Tsar, or a Premier, or whatever Putin calls himself. Didn't matter if they were under Autocrats, Party Nomenklatura, or Oligarchs.
I don't support either side. But putting my anti-Russian bias aside it looks like they've chewed off a pretty big chunk of Ukraine. They are hardly a fist world professional army but neither are the the Ukrainians.
And the thing I can never forgive Russia for is taking American soldiers prisoner at the end of WW2 and letting them rot in the Gulags. Holding them as bargaining chips I guess. Poor bastards at the end of the war thinking they'll be going home soon and then ending up prisoners of our gallant Soviet allies. Years, decades without hope. Can't think of strong enough words to curse Ivan.
Putin permanently banned Biden, Soros and Zuckerberg from entering Russia. He can't be all bad.
ReplyDeleteThe Enemy of my Enemy is my Enemy's Enemy.
ReplyDeleteThat is all; Nothing More or Nothing Less.
-/s/ Someone smarter than me.
RD
Schlock Mercenary, Maxim Number 29.
DeleteThe others are worth reading too!
https://schlockmercenary.fandom.com/wiki/The_Seventy_Maxims_of_Maximally_Effective_Mercenaries
It sure doesn't sound like Russia is on the verge of victory. Neither is Ukraine.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-may-23
The Russian "Filtration" Activities sound a lot like the old NKVD Round them up, give them a trial and execute or exile to Siberia. The Russians are also holding the surrendered Mariopul Defenders for "Trials."
RD
Even Boris Badenov is defecting.
ReplyDeletehttps://althouse.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-aggressive-war-unleashed-by-putin.html
Will Natasha Fatale soon follow? /jk
Read the comments. The commenters are as divided as Aesop's too.
RD
@RD
ReplyDeletehttps://schlockmercenary.fandom.com/wiki/The_Seventy_Maxims_of_Maximally_Effective_Mercenaries
29. The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more. No less
and there are also these...
52. The army you've got is never the army you want.
53. The intel you've got is never the intel you want.
54. It's only too many troops if you can't pay them.
55. It's only too many weapons if they're pointing in the wrong direction.
56. Infantry exists to paint targets for people with real guns.
57. Artillery exists to launch large chunks of budget at an enemy it cannot actually see
But in regard to masses of Russian men with uniforms, well, "what does the wolf care about how many sheep there are?" A large amount of poorly trained men with guns are just a mob, not troops.
ReplyDeleteThis blog is dying a slow painful death.
ReplyDeleteRD said it well. Joe Biden breathes air, doesn't make me anti-air. I like air.
ReplyDelete@Hedge,
ReplyDeleteAt between 5K and 10K hits/day, depending on whether I post nothing, or have a more productive day, it's nothing like dying. More like thriving.
But your concern is touching.
Instead of taking sides like a football game, the wise stance is to wait and see. There isn't enough reliable info to make a call either way. Be wary of propaganda from both sides.
ReplyDeleteAllen,
ReplyDeleteThank you. Like I said, someone smarter than me.
I used to follow Schlock for quite a while. I should do so again?
RD
===============
Aesop makes me think. Sometimes I think Aesop is a genius; sometimes an idiot.
Keep it up.
RD
Same here, and he puts actually thinking and logic into his posts, unlike 99% of other.
DeleteI may not like some of his rough edges, but the content makes putting up with them worth while.
@Anon 01:52,
ReplyDeleteI haven't posted propaganda, much to the annoyance of certain parties; I've posted analysis of actual events, over and over.
Reality upsets fanboys from one side, so again and again they've started butthurt Bitching/Moaning/Whining, tried baseless gainsaying, or stuck their fingers in their ears to drown out the sound of reality, and avoid having to confront it.
Reality doesn't give a damn, and neither do I.
It would be a shame if the Russian minions started to pull their heads out and achieve their master's aims in this, and given the original balance of forces on paper, not terribly surprising. But as it's turned out in real life, the Russians are under-trained, under-equipped, and under-capable, and it's flat-out hilarious watching their entire Keystone Kops military do faceplant after faceplant on the international stage.
So you believe the confirmed bias with your eyes and ears with things on the internet. I saw you did not post my last comment. Hedge is wrong, I now come back for the comedic environment in the comments just like zero hedge but there are some smart people commenting. Who I do want to hear from. No doubt this comment will be memory holed as well.
ReplyDeleteBCCL,
ReplyDelete1) I don't know what you're talking about.
2) Everything is biased. Period. If you want unbiased sources, you won't find them in this universe.
3) Tanks exploding aren't biased. They're tanks. They're exploding. QED
4) Trying to argue they were made by the Underpants Gnome, from sugarplum fairy dust, and it was all CGI, requires more evidence than mere gainsaying from biased self-interest.
4) I offer explanations that fit the facts at hand. Claiming agnosticism in regard to facts is asinine.
5) Other people spin their Putin hagiography out of their asses, based on zero rationale.
You're free to choose which method of explaining reality is more reliable, and whether waiting until everything is over (as if that's even a viable option) to settle a question is of more utility than looking at what's available from the whole spectrum of sources in real time, and shaving them with Occam's Razor.
The most unbiased way to judge present events is through the lens of history.
ReplyDeleteCulture is a thing very, very slow to change, and people tend to do like their grandparents did- even us.
What was Russia in the centuries past? A corrupt, inefficient, paranoid 3rd world hellhole. What has the Russian Army been in centuries past? Corrupt, inefficient, poorly trained, worse equipped, badly led.
Didn't matter if the man in charge was a Tsar, or a Premier, or whatever Putin calls himself. Didn't matter if they were under Autocrats, Party Nomenklatura, or Oligarchs.
I don't support either side. But putting my anti-Russian bias aside it looks like they've chewed off a pretty big chunk of Ukraine. They are hardly a fist world professional army but neither are the the Ukrainians.
ReplyDeleteAnd the thing I can never forgive Russia for is taking American soldiers prisoner at the end of WW2 and letting them rot in the Gulags. Holding them as bargaining chips I guess. Poor bastards at the end of the war thinking they'll be going home soon and then ending up prisoners of our gallant Soviet allies. Years, decades without hope. Can't think of strong enough words to curse Ivan.