Merry Christmas, Again And Why...

... Iron Dome is not going to help. No, this is not because of this:

Israel is unlikely to support Ukraine with its Iron Dome air defense system over fears that the act could trigger a tough response from Russia, the nation’s former acting national security adviser, Brigadier General Jacob Nagel, said in an op-ed published by The National Interest on Friday. Commenting on Washington’s recent decision to provide Ukraine with its top-notch Patriot air-defense platform, Nagel noted that the move “also puts a spotlight on Israel,” which has consistently refused to send air-defense weaponry to Kiev. The general named several reasons for the refusal. First of all, Israel has “legitimate fears” that if any of its weapons were to be deployed in Ukraine, they eventually could be captured by Russia and would be “all but guaranteed” to be sent to Iran for analysis, Nagel believes. This could help Tehran, Tel Aviv’s archrival for many decades, to find a way to counter the systems, he said.

But because of Iron Dome being nothing but short to very short-range system designed specifically to fight slow ballistic "dumb" projectiles from Palestinian "Katyushas" and is not designed to operate in the modern battlefield. But political factor is understandable and Israel is in geostrategic pickle because she can see how her main sponsor and "defender", meaning enabler, the United States is teetering on the edge of political and economic catastrophe and the only country which can mitigate Israel's "regional issues" is Russia. But purely militarily Iron Dome doesn't make any sense in 404 and will not live longer than promised to 404 Patriot air defense battery. 

In related news, somebody tell Mr. Lukyanov to abstain from commenting on military issues, especially making such risible statements without understanding what force structure and required force, among many other crucial things requiring professional military education, are. 

Ukraine is forming a powerful and capable armed force, actively assisted by the West, primarily the US, so its formal status – whether it’s a member of NATO or not – no longer matters. It is America's de facto, if not de jure, military ally, in addition to having unique practical experience in a direct large-scale confrontation with Russia. One might add: it is motivated to pursue it.  

Those military platitudes from people whose only claim to any expertise is their belonging to Moscow' s political beau monde and ability to collect opinions of those who do have one, is becoming really tiresome. The whole point of SMO is, as stated by President of Russia, demilitarization of 404 and this task is carried out with great effect and efficiency, by definition denying 404 any kind of "forming a powerful and capable armed force". Lukyanov should concentrate of expressing himself on matters of "diplomacy" and discussing geopolitical generalities spewed by increasingly senile and detached from... everything Henry Kissinger. Learning about US (and NATO) Military-Industrial capacity would have been a great start but it is a vain hope on my part. 

Speaking of which. Solovyov did show the training of combat cohesion of T-14 Armata tank battalion (in Russian), evidently getting ready for something, wink, wink. And the same as now constantly involved in combat mission and being serially produced Su-57, which naturally was described in the West as merely a show-piece, Armata is also beginning to arrive to the front line units and... don't expect all those "experts" from Russia and the West to eat their hats. They will just move on onto something new. 

Back to Christmas, Larry speaks about religious element of SMO. 

If you ask anyone in America, “When do you celebrate Christmas?” the person will look at you cross-eyed and wonder if you were mentally deficient or in the early stages of dementia (I live in Florida and there are a lot of old people. I’m now one of them!). December 25th, of course! The majority do not realize that the members of the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrate Christmas on January 7th. The differences between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church (which includes Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox) is one of the dynamics at play in Ukraine. 

It is at play in 404 and West's attack on Russia is a Crusade. Nothing new here. I, being only superficially informed about issues of religious doctrine, defer here to Andrei Raevsky who wrote extensively on religious aspect of West's actions and its hatred towards Russia for spiritual reasons. But make no mistake, Russians are aware of the underlying historical and religious reasons for unprecedented geopolitical shift driven by insane and suicidal actions by the West. So, here is you Christmas Day primer and keep in mind that you should always take things in perspective and that on the historic timeline even 1-2 years are just fleeting instances. Merry Christmas again.