Sunday, June 26, 2022

Learn about the Aidar Battalion and its actions in 2014. That will give you a primer on this conflict, the real reasons behind it...

I still contend that the US doesn't have a dog in this fight.

I also contend that the simplistic idea that this is a fight between good and evil is childish.

You know about Azov (and you've made your excuses for them) but what about the Aidar Battalion?  A tidbit from Wikipedia.
In July 2014, Russia began a criminal investigation of Aidar's commander, Serhiy Melnychuk, for "organizing the killing of civilians".[26] Its volunteer pilot, Nadiya Savchenko, was captured by pro-Russian separatists near Luhansk, transported to Russia and charged with killing two Russian journalists.[27][28]

On 8 September 2014 Amnesty International claimed that the battalion had committed war crimes, including abductions, unlawful detention, ill-treatment, theft, extortion, and possible executions.[18]

On 24 December 2014, Amnesty International reported that the unit was blocking humanitarian aid from Ukraine reaching the population of the separatist-controlled areas. Over half the population in these areas depended on food aid. According to Amnesty International, the Aidar, Donbas and Dnipro-1 battalions said they are blocking the aid because they "believe food and clothing are ending up in the wrong hands and may be sold instead of being given as humanitarian aid".[29] Denis Krivosheev, acting Director of Europe and Central Asia for Amnesty International, stated that starving civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime.[30]

In April 2015, the Ukrainian government-appointed Governor of Luhansk Hennadiy Moskal stated that Aidar battalion was "terrorizing the region" and asked Ukrainian Defense Ministry to rein in its members after a series of thefts, including ambulances and the takeover of a bread factory.[31]

Is there a right and wrong here?  No.  In my opinion you have different perspectives that have led to violent confrontation.

Are the Ukrainians right?  Are the Russians?  At this point it doesn't matter.

This fight will end up killing far more people outside the borders of Europe than will die on its battlefield.

A cessation of hostilities is necessary, not continued warmongering.  The only way to win this game is to stop playing it. 


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Two must read articles...we're headed toward a very dark economic time (mainly the poorest nations & Germany). The knock on effects will be tumultuous!

 Thanks to Cogitans Iuvenis for the links!

via Financial Times.

Officials are worried that Gazprom might stop gas deliveries completely while NS1 is closed for repairs. “The supply situation is tight enough without NS1 being shut down,” said one.

Carsten Rolle of the BDI, Germany’s business confederation, said that during previous periods of scheduled maintenance on NS1 Gazprom had made up the shortfall by sending Germany more gas through Ukraine, or via the Yamal-Europe pipeline through Poland.

“But there is a concern that they will not do that this year,” he said. “Already they have cut flows through NS1 by 60 per cent and not made up for it with increased flows through other pipelines.”

Markus Krebber, chief executive of German energy company RWE, said it was “very clear” that the decision to reduce gas flows was “political”, “because it’s not only the [gas] coming via Nord Stream 1 that [is] below contracted volumes, but also via other pipelines.”

Here.

The Germans are trying to blame the Russians but the reality is ... IT'S THE SANCTIONS!  They were applied stupidly and now the chickens are coming home to roost. Quick question. What happens when the biggest economy in Europe goes belly up?

Russia continues to blame supply disruption on delays to the return of Siemens Energy turbines used at an NS1 pipeline compressor station. Siemens Energy says Canadian sanctions against Russia are preventing it from returning the vital technical equipment from a factory in Montreal.

They just didn't think it thru.  They acted like children and didn't consider the ramifications of their actions.  

Worse?

German citizens went with the mob and cheered for their own economic destruction instead of using their brain cells to think about what their leadership was clamoring for!

They deserve what they get.

If that isn't bad enough, the sanctions are also about to wreck the third world.  I repeat.  The "adults" in the room didn't think about what the knock on effects of their actions would lead to.

They failed to war game this thing.  They didn't do a simple "what if" exercise.

 As shown in FAO data, the price of basic food products has surged since the invasion of Ukraine after already having followed an upward trend since 2020 over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the past, similar surges in the price of food have led to unrest, mostly in developing countries, and even coincided with the Arab Spring in 2011, when populations in North Africa and the Middle East cornered by oppressive regimes and feeling the additional squeeze on their livelihoods due to high prices rose up and toppled several regional regimes. The current level of food prices is even surpassing the peaks observed in 2011 and 2008, when food and other prices rose dramatically, causing unrest in several African countries as well as in Bangladesh, Haiti, Indonesia and Yemen. The onset of the global financial crisis put an end to the price surge that year.

Here 

It hasn't happened yet but its coming and coming fast.  We will see several hotspots popup all over the world.

The flow of immigrants from the Middle East and N Africa into Europe will surge.  The same will happen here in the US and I would bet that Australia will see the same too.

The people that escape will be lucky.  Those that stay will probably face famine, war and sickness.  The type of conditions that will spur the type of pandemic that Biden sorta hinted at during one of his rambling press conferences.

The world is screwed up folks.  

Get your health, finances and relationships right.  Get yourself sorted out while you can.

When things pop it'll be too late.



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Well someone isn't living "rough" in the war zone...

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They continue to expose themselves...

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Open Comment Post. 26 June 22

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Bomber Task Force Lands at Andersen Air Force Base

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Caribbean Coastal Warrior Team Dives

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Saturday, June 25, 2022

They say it with such ease...

Oh that wasn't enough? Wait. Here's another!
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I guess this is the French version of the endurance course...

Anyone ever been here? I've been told its some crazy jungle...
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HUMVEE Saber Spec Sheet

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