Monday, April 18, 2022

Scott and Larry Make Their (Professional) Points.

First, Scott Ritter does a very simple (operational) arithmetic about Javelins, or rather mythology surrounding them:

As I repeat ad nauseam: numbers, when taken in an appropriate context, do not lie. 

Then Larry Johnson makes a very good case about propaganda BS in Western MSM (full piece is behind the link) and debunks accusations of spreading Russian propaganda:

Read the whole thing. Meanwhile I am also accused of being Russian propagandist, especially considering my background. But above are two American (real patriotic) senior cadre officers of both solid intelligence and USMC pedigree, who say pretty much the same things I say all the time. As Larry correctly states: "show me the money", show the real, not fake, columns of Russian POWs or fields littered with Russian armor. Where are those hundreds of shot down Russian combat aircraft. If one excludes dubiously framed by Ukrainian side and still unclear events with RKR Moskva, as Larry, or Douglas Macgregor, or Scott or many others, yours truly included, correctly say all the time--most Ukrainian "victories" are fakes which are debunked usually within 48 to 72 hours, even US MSM sometimes are forced to admit those fakes. 

But there is one other aspect here of which Scott talks about and I wrote books: US weapons, traditionally grossly overpriced, are not that good as they are portrayed. It is no secret that utterly incompetent performance of Arab armies in Middle Eastern wars against Israel created a good excuse in the West to trash Soviet Weaponry, their "monkey-models" operated by often barely literate Egyptian and Syrian soldiers in 1960s and 1970s. But the reality, especially against the background of a competent use of Soviet weaponry by Vietnam in the same time of Arab-Israeli wars, was telling the other story. Today, everything changed. Syrian Air Defense is one of the most engaged and combat experienced, with excellent combat record to its credit, air defense forces in the world. Arabs are learning the ways of combined arms warfare and they are certainly not Arab military of 1960s. Same goes for Iranian forces in Syria--these guys are not pushovers anymore. As you may have guessed it--all of them use Soviet/Russian weaponry. 

But unlike it was for the Soviet Union in Arab-Israeli wars, annihilation of the VSU, which was thought to be by the US an exhibit A of the glory of American strategic planning, C3 and battlefield weapons provided for the largest European army, is turning out to be a reputational catastrophe. Even fanatical and well-armed Ukie Nazis are no match for Russian forces. That creates a mood bordering on hysteria among D.C. "elites" overwhelming majority of who bought their own military propaganda, which is easy when practically none of them has any serious military pedigree. If I would have been today a senior American officer with proper military combat background, I would have been disturbed and embarrassed by the US "military experts" on all major US news networks who parade themselves as military amateurs, despite many of them having general and colonel ranks. Most of their "analysis" is cringe worthy. 

But their state was described long time ago in a relation to a man (Napoleon), who, unlike their pathetic selves, was and is considered one of the greatest military leaders in history even by his enemies:

In former battles he had only considered the possibilities of success, but now innumerable unlucky chances presented themselves, and he expected them all. Yes, it was like a dream in which a man fancies that a ruffian is coming to attack him, and raises his arm to strike that ruffian a terrible blow which he knows should annihilate him, but then feels that his arm drops powerless and limp like a rag, and the horror of unavoidable destruction seizes him in his helplessness"

Leo Tolstoy, War And Peace, Book 10, Chapter XXXIV. 
It goes without saying--there are NO Napoleons in D.C. Not even close, and experiencing a severe cognitive dissonance does drive people to madness. After all, in accordance to Ben Hodges, Russian Army was on the brink of collapse already in mid-March and American weapons were supposed to make all the difference. That's him on March 14. 
What a strategist (s/). It was him in 2015.
Right, fighting Afghans or Iraqis is not the same as fighting Russians and not in 2015, primarily LDNR militias, but in 2022 and actual Russian Armed Forces. Judging by the latest eye-witnesses accounts from Donetsk, today, Russian Armed Forces, evidently because they ran out of ammo and are low on morale, unleashed hell. Some people say that even veterans of the last 8 years and those who fought in Syria never saw anything like this. We'll see once first real verified reports start trickling in shortly.

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