I Warned About It Since 2014.

Colonel Macgregor, with the exception of his statement on Solzhenitsyn, basically confirms what I was preaching for many years.  No, not that Washington is incompetent--this has been a  fait accompli for decades now--but that the US is incapable to take on Russia militarily. 

But even the title by Judge Napolitano is somewhat misleading: U.S. Not Prepared to take on Russia. The US is not just "not prepared", it cannot physically fight Russia without sustaining catastrophic defeat even if it spends next 30 years preparing for that fight. For starters, the US de-industrialization and societal ills permanently removed it from the largely self-proclaimed status of hegemon. The US will remain an important and influential country if it manages to keep itself intact (if), but, as I already stated, culturally the United States is not a continental military power. I deliberately used the all encompassing, history too, term "culturally", because military affairs of the nation are rooted in culture. 

A short, in historic terms, departure of Russia from her position as a conventional military superpower in 1990s and 2000s was not due to America's military power which defeated Russians at the battlefield, it was largely due to self-inflicted wound and corruption of CPSU ruling elite, who fast refashioned itself into "liberal" democrats and formed anti-national oligarchy. This time has long since passed. Now, that the military-industrial might of Russia is being increasingly revealed, I have to go along with Colonel's assessment that Washington is simply preparing an excuse that "we did all we could". There is nothing the United States can send to 404, short of transferring US nuclear deterrent to Kiev regime, that can make any difference in the outcome of SMO. So, listen to Colonel and Judge and enjoy, if you will.

You Think Tank Formations Are Complex?

You can bet your ass on that--they are. Modern tank force, not some assorted variety of subpar vehicles, is very complex in terms of forming, training and fighting. Netcentricity, comms, targeting distribution, objectives' updates (re-designation), night vision, FLIRS and things of this nature. That is why, as an example, Russia has dedicated tank academies, such as Kazan Tank Red Banner Higher Command College (Academy) and used to have the Armour War College, which was converted into the Combined Arms War College. Russians teach their future tank formation commanders really seriously and the full course is 5 years 6 days a week long study. One of the graduates of Kazan College is all known to all of us Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov. 

Now, imagine what it takes to shake down a modern... submarine. Modern submarine is a deadly epitome of modern advanced technology and scientific and industrial prowess of the nation. It takes the highest level of military and scientific expertise to operate these advanced machines. Well, but that doesn't intimidate Ukrainian politicians. 

But even larger and more sophisticated weapons than long-range missiles, main battle tanks, and jet fighters are apparently on Ukraine’s shopping list. Deputy Foreign Minister Andrij Melnyk, who hit the headlines this week for instantly demanding jets even as the ink on the tank deal was still drying, has been turning his attention to naval power. Speaking of Ukraine’s ambition to kick Russia out of the black sea, the diplomat pointed to Germany’s class of six 212A diesel-electric attack submarines, asking for one of them, and a German frigate, the Lübeck which was taken out of service last month. The 212A submarines are regarded as small and stealthy craft, using hydrogen fuel cells powering an electric motor for silent running underwater. “Why not to send one to Ukraine?”, Melnyk posited.

Obviously, Melnyk's prowess in anti-submarine warfare at the Black Sea Theater of Operations is impressive, wink, wink, but something tells me that whatever the submarine--let's imagine for a second a fantastic scenario--or submarines will be transferred to whatever passes in 404 for the navy, will last only as long as it takes for 3M14 Kalibr to fly to the base where this subs(s) will be "parked". Obviously, one shouldn't discount a rather impressive ASW component Russian Black Sea Fleet can bring to bear, ranging from the newest pr. 636 SSKs to surface and air based ASW component, but there is a larger problem here. 

Ukraine simply has no competent naval commanders to run a fucking inflatable boat, let alone modern submarine, not to mention a crew whose training and then shake down will take... years. 

It will take a separate book to describe all travails of a training of a decent, forget about very good, naval officer with focus on submarine service. And here, my friends, we are talking about advanced submarine with AIP. Granted, it is German (and Italian) and has pretty conventional torpedo armament. Can you imagine what it takes to run SSK of Russian Navy armed with state-of-the-art weapon systems, let alone being integrated in the network. But what do I know, Washington is desperate and... utterly incompetent. 

Meanwhile, some German cuck, namely Friedrich Merz, the head of CDU (another collection of cucks), passionately conveys in Focus this message: 

 Wir im Krieg mit Russland? Nein, Frau Baerbock!

Translation: We are at war with Russia? No, Frau Baerbock!

And then he proceeds to complain that Baerbock's statement about being at war with Russia gives... ammo to Kremlin's "propaganda". Well, Herr Merz, Baerbock, actually, unwittingly, of course, because she is uneducated ignorant bimbo--the only type allowed in German politics--she stated the truth. Germany IS at war with Russia and if this CDU big honcho didn't know that, then, naturally, he is full of shit and is as a lowlife liar as his former boss Frau Merkel. The creep doesn't even understand that the procedure for Russian diplomat still remaining in Germany of using serious disinfectant and possibly a course of antibiotics should be established after any pro-forma handshake with most of German politicians. Russia is done with Germany, finally. There is nobody to talk to there. Thank you, Analena Baerbock for being truthful when it mattered.     

Larry's Double Whammy Today.

First, Tom Lipscomb, who knows a thing or two about commanding armor units, provides us with excellent elaboration on all those tank "deliveries", starting with reminding some history:

Within sight of the Stadium Albert Speer built for Hitler’s 1936 Olympics there looms a high hill above the fashionable Grunewald district. A rare sight in flat Berlin, it once had a ski jump on it and is still used by skiers in the winter. It is capped by a deserted NATO listening station used during the Cold War to eavesdrop on Russian forces  and their Warsaw Pact allies. But there is nothing natural about it. It is called “Teufelsberg,” the Devil’s Mountain, for good reason. And it is made of the rubble from the tens of thousands of ruined buildings removed from Hitler’s Berlin as the city was painfully rebuilt. That was a consequence of the last time Germany sent tanks into Ukraine. And the Russians left a conspicuous reminder across the street from the burn- out Wilhelmine Reichstag building. It holds the functioning German parliament now called the Bundestag, which Olaf Scholz runs as its current Chancellor. Close by stands the massive Russian War Memorial surmounted by two of the T 34 tanks the Soviet Army had driven from Russia to smash into the heart of Germany in 1945.

Then Tom proceeds, in virtuoso vernacular, to expose utter military incompetence in the US today. 

Then Larry, you know, another professional with both CIA and State Department, explains some diplomatic (and battlefield) realities:

Biden and Blinken do not realize that the relationship with Russia is broken. Traditional diplomatic tactics no longer apply. Russia learned, to its chagrin, that agreements with the West can no longer be trusted. Thanks to Macron and Merkle, Putin learned that Minsk I and Minsk II were shams to buy time. Then you have the intemperate talk by Baerbock in Germany, who said that Europe is at war with Russia, and a couple of Polish legislators who talked openly about plundering Russia and breaking it up. Would you be willing to entertain a deal with people making those kind of blatant threats?

As Pepe earlier today encapsulated the whole desperation and feeble attempts on diplomacy in NATO: ‘Please don’t go on the offensive.’ Well, it is too late. Enjoy at Larry's blog.

The Saker's Blog. Pepe Penned An Excellent Piece.

The article is posted at The Saker's Blog, which we, sadly, will not have soon. I understand Andrei's position being a guest of the United States and difficulties he may experience with expressing his honest opinions on the state of the affair inside the US. In the end, people must take care of themselves and their families first, and Andrei's decision, however difficult, is fully justified, especially against the background of the unfolding existential struggle between shrinking, in every sense of the word, combined West and the rest of the world. But that relates directly to Pepe's piece in which he nails down the "mood" of the deep state and it is panic. 

A panicked Empire tries to make Russia an ‘offer it can’t refuse’

I deliberately do not introduce a snippet here in order to not misrepresent the main thrust of Pepe's excellent piece, so read it in full. It also preserves this piece's thunder with excellent conclusion.

Per this. 

Allegations that Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson with a missile strike are “a lie,” Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. Johnson’s accusations have emerged in a new BBC documentary about the crisis in Ukraine. Recalling a telephone call with Putin on February 2, 2022, just over three weeks before tensions over Ukraine escalated into full military action, Johnson claimed the Russian leader “threatened me at one point.” “He said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you but, with a missile, it would only take a minute’ or something like that… jolly,” the former PM told the British broadcaster. “There were no missile threats,” Peskov told reporters on Monday. “When he explained challenges to the security of the Russian Federation, President Putin remarked that if Ukraine joins NATO, the potential deployment of NATO or American missiles at our borders would mean that any missile could reach Moscow in mere minutes.”

Modern British "elites" are nothing more than a tawdry tabloid trash with no class, no ethics and no morals. BoJo is a perfect representation of a complete degeneracy in London. Lying is an official Bachelor of Arts program in elite UK universities, who "prepare" British "elite". People deserve government they elect. Simple as that.

Open Thread...

 I am a bit busy right now, so here is open thread.

No, It Didn't.

But WaPo continues to spread lame 6th grade level stratagems... pardon, I mean BS. 

The US devised a plan to commit M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine in order to provide “cover” for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was reluctant to send the country’s own tanks to help Kiev, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing more than a dozen people familiar with the matter. Relying on sources “on both sides of the Atlantic,” the report details how the White House struggled to win over Scholz who initially resisted delivering the Leopard 2 tanks to fight Russian forces in Ukraine unless the US agreed to commit the Abrams. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the Pentagon reportedly were against sending American main battle tanks that they believed would be too difficult for Ukrainians to operate and maintain.

LOL, the US cannot devise a plan how to run anything anymore, let alone come up with at least believable excuse. There was no any "cover" for anything BUT:

1. By announcing the delivery of Abrams tanks, naturally by means of promising them in the "future" and with "sensitive" equipment removed, the US pursued the aim of deploying German Leo-2s.

2. The "promise" made on the Hodja Nasreddin's principle that either the king will die or the donkey, after Nasreddin promised to teach donkey to talk (famous tale The Guarantee). 

3. There was no "cover" also because Germany is run by cowards headed by liver sausage Scholtz, so convincing looked liked this: do or else...

4. This proverbial "else" happens anyway because Germany will send Leo-2s to 404, they all will be annihilated, together with grossly overblown German engineering reputation and that... drum roll...

5. Will allow the US to penetrate Germany's arms market with "much better" Abrams tanks, which by then have avoided being burned in industrial quantities in what remains of 404, and that will mark the end of large portion of Germany's military-industrial complex.  

So, in essence the US did provide "cover" for Germany if one views it as a cover for the coffin of a huge chunk of German industry. 

If you go 6 years back in this blog, you may recall this piece I wrote, it has a symptomatic title: Follie De Grandeur Or Why Bundeswehr Will Remain A Joke. 

But in the end, with all my deep respect to German people and for their massive accomplishments, some of which I admire myself, it has to be understood that modern economy and modern war is not what German journo hacks think they are. All those indices and wet-dreams fly out of the window once one has to face a very cruel reality in which Germany remains and will remain a large economy and military-political midget, who will never again make any trouble in Europe big time. But by far the most important thing those German media imbeciles have to understand that Russia has no plans whatsoever to "attack" any NATO country, let alone Germany whom Russia can obliterate by purely conventional means, let alone, if, God forbids, push comes to shove, by nuclear means. But the way things are happening now, Germans themselves do a hell of a job turning their country into a third world shithole and they, maybe, are already pass the point of no return. In this case they will have to try to "equal" something more of their own size.  

Remember? And it is now too late for Germans to recognize that they are nothing more than a lunch. But, they made their own choice and it is Germany's only, time to lay at the altar has come. In related news, Russia gladly receives back many Russian Germans and even German Germans--Russia loves decent and hardworking people. Remember great late Meat Loaf? 

In the land of the pigs the butcher is king:

Look at them now
What do they want?
And what do they do now?
Nothing at all!

What do they know?
What do they think?
And who do they tell?
Well, no one at all!

Lives are truly meaningless
And we are busy being blessed

With that we can take and pocket
No one needs to know
We're is the plug and they're the socket
Give us the juice and we'll go

Can't you hear the choir now?
Listen to the animals sing!
Can't you hear the slaughterhouse bells?
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!

How do they sleep?
Their lives are so tart
Bring me the trash collectors
'Cause they're nothing but trash

What do you expect?
They've got no standards
So we lower the bar
'Cause they're waiting for us

We'll open up Pandora's Box
Pandora gave her keys and locks

They're the big dogs waiting for their mother
Come to the confessional
So I can tell you all to bugger off
There's no time like now!

Can't you hear the choir now?
Listen to the animals sing!
Can't you hear the slaughterhouse bells?
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!

Can't you hear the choir now?
Listen to the market-place sing!
Can't you hear the slaughterhouse bells?
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king...

And we'll do it our way
It's our time to play
We know what to say
They stand in our way
Don't stand in our way
No time like today

Can't you hear the choir now?
Listen to the anthems we sing!
Can't you hear the slaughterhouse bells?
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!

Can't you hear the choir now?
Listen to the animals sing!
Can't you hear the slaughterhouse bells?
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!

Can't you hear the choir now?
Listen to the chosen ones sing!
Can't you hear the slaughterhouse bells?
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!

Can't you hear the slaughterhouse bells? Prophetic, eh? It's TIME!

My Talking Head (Sort Of)...

 ... today on Kalibrated Podcast (Donbass Devushka TG). 

On the nature of Western Elites (Spotify) 

Me answering questions and commenting.  Also on Locals. Enjoy, if you will.

Across The Net.

First, serious. Brian Berletic wrote a very good piece on tanks and crews' training and explains the whole fantasy about NATO tanks at New Eastern Outlook. 

The idea that the West transferring their main battle tanks to Ukraine will be a “game changer” is rooted in the myth of Western main battle tanks being “superior” to their Russian counterparts. In turn, this myth is owed to their performance in Iraq in 1991 and again during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 where modern US and British main battle tanks went up against Soviet-era export versions of the T-72. Not only do several experienced US military officers warn against this misconception, the performance of Western main battle tanks in recent conflicts tells a much different story.

Considering Brian's Marine background, he provides some excellent insights into the combat training requirements for tank formations' operations and explains the primarily PR nature of the whole (another phase of NATO wunerwaffen) issue. 

Meanwhile, Omsk's massive Military-Industrial sector is short 2,000 people. It is in Russian:

The gist: need for everyone, from lower laborers, to welders, tool and die makers, operators of lathes and mills, CNC Operators, Software Engineers etc. Salaries for Software Engineers--R 170,000, for CNC operators, tool and die makers, machining centers operators--starting from R 100,000, all include hefty benefits package. It is a hint on the massive expansion of weapons production and this is, mind you, when all kinds of trolls will try to make a point--NOT Moscow or region. Speaking of which. 

Russia's favorite Aussies go to Barnaul (the capital of Altai Region, essentially) and show how Russia "suffers" from sanctions. 

And if you ask me, who the toughest people in the United States are today, my answer will be--the boards of directors of Burger King and KFC. Russians love them those chicken nuggets. Just watch the video and enjoy.

Helmholtz Smith Strikes Again...

 ... at Larry's blog and it is about strategy. 

I’ve been thinking about why this is so and I have come to the following conclusions. By now everybody who is paying attention knows that the Ukraine battlefield is part of a world war in which those who control the US empire are trying to hold onto their dominance. For those outside the NATO propaganda bubble there is general agreement that

1. Russia is winning both in the Ukraine battlefield and the wider theater.
2. Time is on Russia’s side.

First the Ukraine battlefield. The first aim in war is to destroy the enemy’s power and that Russia is doing, especially in the Bakhmut slaughterhouse. Kiev is determined to stand and fight here and the Russians are quite happy to let them do so – “artillery conquers and infantry occupies” – and that is what we see here. Slowly slowly the Russian forces advance over mountains of Ukrainian bodies. In the last week or so Russian forces have begun to advance on other fronts too. This grinding away can continue until Ukraine collapses because it is easier for the Russians to let the enemy come to them than go after them. Meanwhile Russian missiles destroy the infrastructure Kiev needs to continue the war. Time and developments favor Russia and there is no incentive to make “big arrow” movements.

Read the whole thing. I love this "big arrow movement"--brilliant. I also want to address this nagging issue of "brothers". Contemporary Ukrainian political nation is NOT any "brother" to Russia and Russians. Nobody gives a flying fuck in Russia about commonality of the blood. General Vlalsov was as Russian as they come. We need to stop this frivolous throwing around of this term "brothers". Modern Ukraine is not. Majority of those Ukrainians who are real brothers are already in Russia. Today, in Russian, the term "Ukrainian" has become a euphemism for Nazism and treason.

My Talking Head On A Long War...

 ... and why those ignoramuses from RAND now spin the "Long War" issue. The issue itself is valid, actually. 

We are talking here about a complete epistemic closure in the US. The level of incompetence is shocking.

Look At The Treasure I Found...

... on UTube about sealing off the massive gas torch at Urta-bulak in Uzbekistan in 1966 by... 30 kT nuclear underground explosion. 

The video is in Russian but has English CC. A very Russian approach to solving issues--first artillery, then--nuclear weapon;))

I Remember San Remo Differently. Friday.

Now, they even got this schmuck and war criminal there.  

Tens of thousands of Italians have signed a petition protesting Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s planned address at a Eurovision-style song contest. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini told reporters that the event “should remain the festival of Italian song and nothing else.” The petition, which blames the Ukrainian conflict on NATO and on Kiev’s “brutal repression” of Russian-speakers in Donbass, has gained around 33,000 signatures, Reuters reported on Friday morning.

Yes, it used to be the festival of Italian song which we in USSR loved so much. 

Yes, they used to sing about happiness (Felicita). And you knew immediately that these were Italians singing (well, Romina was not exactly Italian). They shot the music video to this wonderful tune... in Leningrad. In six months after this magical San Remo 82, Azzuri will win World Cup 82, eliminating every single greatest national team in history against all odds resulting in... massive Felicita in Italy and among many millions of fans of Italy's national team. It was a magnificent year in Europe. It is Friday.

OK, Babylon Bee...

... are funny. I mean it.  

U.S. Tanks In Ukraine Already Destroyed After Being Easily Recognized By Their Rainbow Camouflage "These tanks are state of the art, boasting the latest and greatest in firepower, mobility, and of course LGBTQ-affirming camouflage," said Biden's Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

Like this:

OK, jokes aside. But many people do get anxious about the situation and the anxiety is strategic, not tactical. 80 or 81 promised tanks for 404 will change absolutely nothing but many naturally are worried about real WW III which evolves into the full blown nuclear exchange. Even Irina Alksnis, writing about the West getting caught in its own trap, notes:

На что пойдет Запад, чтобы удержать, продлить привычный статус-кво? Есть подозрение, что на все.Он выбрал инструментом своего спасения военную победу над Россией. Сейчас Запад катится по выбранной колее и все сильнее нервничает, потому что события разворачиваются не так, как он ждал, планировал и хотел. Уже в скором времени ему придется отвечать на вопрос, готов ли он к встрече лицом к лицу на украинском поле боя вермахта, то есть, простите, бундесвера, и других вооруженных сил НАТО с российской армией.

Translation: What will the West do to keep and prolong the usual status quo? There is a suspicion that everything. It chose a military victory over Russia as an instrument of its salvation. Now the West is rolling along the chosen track and is getting more and more nervous, because events are not unfolding the way they expected, planned and wanted. Soon he will have to answer the question of whether he is ready for a face-to-face meeting on the Ukrainian battlefield of the Wehrmacht, that is, excuse me, the Bundeswehr, and other NATO armed forces with the Russian army.

 

I have the answer, which I spelled out for many months now--NATO doesn't have a required force to go in and fight Russia conventionally without sustaining catastrophic losses and, thus, defeat. The challenges of even assembling such a force are so immense that the only tool the US (the rest of NATO are merely lapdogs) has left at its disposal is nuclear arsenal. But we discussed this before, but even most possessed hawks in the US have a desire to live. Is there serious "underground" in the US among military, intel and other relevant communities who keep an eye on those homicidal maniacs, just in case? I don't know, but at least some people in Pentagon have an idea, unlike ti is the case with civilian "strategists" abusing their sinecures in State Department, think-tankdom and other decision making and "influencer" orgs. 

 

As the intermediate results of SMO and 404 debacle for the combined West have shown, we can now confidently state that West and its military cannot do serious strategic and operational planning. Evidently, explaining to many graduates of the USMA at West Point a colossal difference in terms of scale, scope and severity between Patton's 3rd Army Lorraine Campaign and, say, tank battles on the Eastern Front is a tall order. But I spoke on the issue of military schools of thought and how they are formed on very many occasions. We also can confidently state that Western intelligence on a strategic level is simply inadequate, to put it mildly. After all, it is manned by people who are products of primarily humanities field of higher education in the West and we all know what an academic disaster and fraud it is today. So, no wonder we are talking about the same level of miscalculation as was done by Napoleon, Hitler and his planners and now, naturally, the same song sang into the ears of uncultured and unsophisticated US "specialists" by Kiev Regime's propagandists, such as this, from Jamestown Foundation.

Colossus With Feet of Clay

So, when looking at all this today and taking it all in, ine begins to suspect that even the brightest of the brightest from the West's "intellectual" class, including very many from the top brass have no clue about the meaning of the big words they use. Evidently, the meaning of strategy, operational art, operational planning, combined arms, echeloning, calculation of required force, political and military objectives et al, are things most in the West simply have no grasp of. It is a terrifying discovery until one gets everything into proper perspective. Recall this again:

Washington Post in a rare, albeit politically sanctioned, feat of actual journalism provided us with an astonishing insight into military, diplomatic, intelligence and economic incompetence of Washington.

The Lessons Learned interviews contradict years of public statements by presidents, generals and diplomats. The interviews make clear that officials issued rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hid unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable. Several of those interviewed described explicit efforts by the U.S. government to deliberately mislead the public and a culture of willful ignorance, where bad news and critiques were unwelcome.  

We are talking about the country stuck in the middle ages and its mujaheddin armed with AK-47s, RPG-7s and IEDs. How these losers in Washington thought they can take on the nuclear, military and economic superpower defies imagination. Washington is afflicted with learning disability, forget plain simple incompetence across the board. Does this sound familiar?

Dozens of U.S. and Afghan officials told interviewers that many of the U.S. policies and initiatives — from training Afghan forces to fighting the thriving opium trade — were destined to fail because they were based on flawed assumptions about a country they didn’t understand. 

Washington doesn't have government and academic mechanisms for understanding. Those, always subpar, have been completely hollowed out in the last 20 years by shysters from Military-Industrial Complex, think-tanks and grievance industry. We see the results today. It is not that Washington operates in the Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) paradigm, while the model is correct. Nope, the model itself is garbage because is built around the only thing Western elites are capable of and that is PR. You know, in layman's lingo--bullshit.

Larry Beat Me To It...

 ... on how history is being rewritten as you read this. 

When I heard the initial report that the Auschwitz Museum in Poland banned Russia from participating in the 78th anniversary of the camp’s liberation by Soviet troops, it was presented as a spiteful act on the part of the descendants of the Jews who survived the Holocaust. But then I read the story:

“Given the aggression against a free and independent Ukraine, representatives of the Russian Federation have not been invited to attend this year’s commemoration,” Piotr Sawicki, spokesman for the museum at the site of the former camp, told AFP.

Friday is the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp built by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland — a date that has become Holocaust Memorial Day.

Until now, Russia has always taken part in the commemoration held every year on January 27, with its delegate speaking at the main ceremony.

Museum director Piotr Cywinski said it was obvious that he could “sign no letter to the Russian ambassador having an inviting tone” in the current context.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/auschwitz-museum-russia-not-invited-to-event-marking-camps-liberation-by-red-army/

Piotr Sawicki is a Polack. Probably Catholic. And has never been a fan of acknowledging what the Russian troops did in January 1945 because the vast majority of inmates at Birkenau and Auschwitz were Jewish, not Polish. Polish animus towards Russia goes back centuries and the leaders of the Auschwitz Museum used Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a timely pretext to exclude Russia from the ceremony tomorrow (January 27).

Read the whole thing at Larry's blog. Moscow, of course, reacted pro-forma through Zakharova. But Larry is correct--you cannot reason with these people. No point.

The Difference.

This video of the work of BMPT Terminator and Russian tank against VSU armor assets within dense forest is everything you need to know about irrelevance of the US Army experiences in Iraq, let alone Afghanistan to modern continental warfare. 

It also shows, effectively, different doctrinal and procurement universes Russia and the US exist in when it comes to war. Terrain alone speaks volumes about this war and how Russians approach it. No PR "shock and awe" from Pentagon's fantasies, just steady, tedious combat work. That what REAL war is. 

In related news, Germany, naturally was left out to dry and now Vicki "Fuck the EU" Nuland goes on record (in Russian) and states that Abrams tanks will not arrive to 404 in Spring, when they expect 404 to launch "counter-offensive". The whole thing is so ridiculous, including this Spring "counter-offensive", that I can only scratch my head. So, yes, Germany must die, which she will, while the US will try (they think they can) to reap the "benefits" of such situation. But then again, let's not forget Morgenthau Plan for Germany after 1945 for Germans "to tend the beet fields". Germans as a nation are finally ripe for this and this should, pretty much, bury all those myths about  German industrial and engineering prowess, which since long ago is primarily a myth. 

My wonderful publisher Clarity Press even provided a book on:

But Germans shouldn't despair, the US is doing this trick on itself pretty well too, not to mention this teeny-weeny problem of US Dollar dying out. This is combined West's (terminal) illness and no amount of tanks and other weapons will change the outcome which is pretty evident now. Now they lament:

A new documentary, “Nuclear Now,” by Oliver Stone, explores the detrimental effect that environmentalists worldwide had on nuclear power development over the past decades. Stone suggests that actions taken by the environmental movement to derail nuclear power were wrong and contributed to the acceleration of the climate crisis. Stone stated, “We had the solution [nuclear power] … and the environmental movement, to be honest, just derailed it. I think the environmental movement did a lot of good, a lot of good ... [I’m] not knocking it, but in this one major matter, it was wrong. It was wrong.”  He added, “And what they did was so destructive, because by now we would have 10,000 nuclear reactors built around the world and we would have set an example like France set for us, but no one … followed France, or Sweden for that matter.” Oliver Stone is just the latest public figure to slam environmentalists for halting the development of nuclear power, which he believes could have provided clean, safe energy to replace the fossil fuels that continue to pollute the world. 

Oliver Stone is a wonderful director, but he really needs to check his data on the reasons for climate change NOT among US academe. He knows Vladimir Putin personally and he can give him a call and Putin will put Stone in touch with real climatologists, especially specialist in Arctic and who operate Arktika satellite constellation which, let put it this way, surprised many in the West with the data which kinda contradicts their perceptions. Other than that, Stone's premise is valid and, yes, environmentalists sabotaged humanity in many respect. Recall my statement repeated for years--the nation which keeps Grune party as a serious and influential political force has psychological, if not psychiatric, issues. Germany is an Exhibit A of that. They are paying the price, and the price just went up many fold.

Just A Reminder...

 ... This is Kazachya Bay Brigade company of Marines (Naval Infantry) of the Black Sea Fleet Naval Infantry Brigade marching in Greece about 10 years ago, including anthem of Sevastopol (in the end) called Legendary Sevastopol. 

It is in the past now, today these guys fight NATO Nazis in 404. I, who went through this training can tell a lot about what NATO people face, but I will not, not to mention the fact of Saturn Battalion being some tough SOBs, especially in hand-to-hand combat. But... what do I know;)) 

P.S. And if I will tell you what was across Kazachya Bay--you wouldn't believe me, but I was there and those people were our good friends. I'll give you a hint--search a great Hollywood movie The Day of the Dolphin (with George C. Scott), wink, wink.

Behind PR...

 ... truly tectonic changes are taking place in Russia. While United Russia people quarrel about (long overdue) removal of Solzhenitsyn's buckets of excrement he poured over his (not really) nation, the return of greatest Soviet/Russian literary masterpieces has been approved to Russian schools. 

«Молодую гвардию» и «Горячий снег» вернут в школьную программу. Школьники будут читать произведения Фадеева, Шолохова, Бондарева, Симонова, Смирнова и Алексея Толстого. В школьную программу вернут «Молодую гвардию», «Как закалялась сталь», «Горячий снег» и «Тихий Дон». Об этом сообщил министр просвещения Сергей Кравцов, передает ТАСС. Также школьники будут читать рассказ «Русский характер» Алексея Толстого и повесть «Брестская крепость» Сергея Смирнова. Ранее на встрече с ветеранами и жителями блокадного Ленинграда Владимир Путин сказал, что надо рассмотреть вопрос о возвращении в обязательную школьную программу ряда произведений советских классиков, включая Александра Фадеева, Константина Симонова и других.Кравцов назвал включение этих произведений в ФООП (федеральные основные общеобразовательные программы) правильным.

Translation: "Young Guard" and "Hot Snow" will be returned to the school curriculum. Schoolchildren will read the works of Fadeev, Sholokhov, Bondarev, Simonov, Smirnov and Alexei Tolstoy. “Young Guard”, “How the Steel Was Tempered”, “Hot Snow” and “Quiet Flows the Don” will be returned to the school curriculum. This was announced by the Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov, reports TASS. Also, schoolchildren will read the story "Russian Character" by Alexei Tolstoy and the story "Brest Fortress" by Sergei Smirnov. Earlier, at a meeting with veterans and residents of besieged Leningrad, Vladimir Putin said that it was necessary to consider the return to the compulsory school curriculum of a number of works by Soviet classics, including Alexander Fadeev, Konstantin Simonov and others. Kravtsov called the inclusion of these works in the FOOP (federal basic educational programs) correct.

This is the greatest repudiation of a degenerate culture of Vlasovites, crypto-Nazis and globalists who tried to impose it on Russia, especially Russian youth. Finally, this happened! It is now officially in Russian schools' curriculum--the tradition of friendship, sacrifice, love and honor. I never thought I would see that, but SMO changed it all. 

This is the Hot Snow... Is there anybody alive there...

Trying To Get Meaning...

 ... into meaningless. My talking head about some basic tactical geometry and what all this PR action with tanks means. 

I do not even elaborate on the issue of tactical aviation which will feast on any VSU "counter-offensive" in a matter of a few days, until mop-up cavalry arrives, but it gives an idea on the issue of what I define as 100 APCs (such as Bradley) and 50 tanks such as mix of Leo-2 and Abrams, if they even get to the front-line. Never forget this thing:

Or things similar to it which can turn in one salvo, and they will not have issues with precise targeting, a few square kilometers into a glass parking lot with everything what was there, super-duper tanks included. I agree with Macgregor that now Washington wants to merely somehow prolong a bloodshed, because it is in a strategic dead-end due to incompetence and ignorance of Pentagon, "intel" community and court economists--all of them are professional failures. Meanwhile, Russian naval infantry is already fighting within Ugledar.

Excellent Piece From Andrei Raevsky.

It is titled:Tactics without Strategy is the Noise Before Defeat. Andrei notes:

The title of this article is a quote by the famous Chinese general, strategist, philosopher, and writer Sun Tzu who lived 2500 years ago.  And while it is true that warfare has dramatically changed over the past millennia (for example, operational art was added as an intermediate level between tactics and strategy), the fundamental logic of Sun Tzu still applies.  To grossly oversimplify this issue, you could say that tactics are the means towards an end which has to be defined and the definition of that end goal is strategy.  Again, this is ridiculously oversimplified, but for our purposes that is good enough.

Then he arrives to this conclusion:

So what can the US/NATO bring to the table?

• A world class C4ISR (very useful, but also potentially very vulnerable)
• A world class submarine force (useful only to fire cruise missiles)
• A large amount of subsonic and mostly outdated cruise missiles
• A comparatively small ground force (with no real air defenses)
• Air forces which have no experience operating in a *very* dangerous environment.
• A very robust nuclear triad

Since we know from Sun Tzu that “tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat” we can immediately see that none of these capabilities has any chance to avoid a NATO defeat.  In other words, US commanders will soon have to face an even worse choice: defeat or nuclear war. I submit that the West currently has neither (real, meaningful) tactics nor any strategy. None. All I see is magical thinking, narcissistic delusions, a mindset shaped by centuries of relative impunity and an over-arching, blind, hatred of Russia and everything Russian. Hardly the ingredients for a victory (under any definition thereof) against the most powerful continental warfare military on the planet.

Difficult to disagree.

They Still Don't Understand.

I mean those who planned this shit for Kiev regime. 

Washington CNN  — US and Western officials are urging Ukraine to shift its focus from the brutal, months-long fight in the eastern city of Bakhmut and prioritize instead a potential offensive in the south, using a different style of fighting that takes advantage of the billions of dollars in new military hardware recently committed by Western allies, US and Ukrainian officials tell CNN.For nearly six months, Ukrainian forces have been going toe-to-toe with the Russians over roughly 36 miles of territory in Bakhmut, which lies between the separatist-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. Heavy shelling has left the city almost completely destroyed.“It is a brutal and grinding fight,” a senior Western intelligence official said last week, with each side exchanging anywhere from 100-400 meters of land per day and exchanging several thousands of artillery rounds almost daily. “[Bakhmut] is less attractive militarily, in terms of any sort of infrastructure, than it might have been if it had not been this destroyed.” Now, ahead of what is widely expected to be a brutal spring of fighting, there is a tactical opening, US and Western officials say. In recent weeks they have begun suggesting that Ukrainian forces cut their losses in Bakhmut, which they argue has little strategic significance for Ukraine, and focus instead on planning an offensive in the south.That was part of a message delivered by three top Biden officials who traveled to Kyiv last week. 

Generally speaking, the Kiev and London-Washington axis is a binary system of mutual BS, which, in layman's lingo, is known as an echo-chamber. One side BSes another that it is doing great on the battlefield, another side believes it because it has so much riding on other side's "success". The first giveaway, of course, is that London military "advisers", are even more incompetent than US generals from Washington think-tanks, and they can spell the word "strategy", but do not know what it is. They simply do not know what modern combined arms operations of scale are. A huge portion of what they teach in the elite military institutions in the West is simply a pseudo military academic fodder, designed to spin utter military failures into success.  

 

Now, that the smell of hundreds of thousands corpses of VSU cannot be spun into operational level use of air-freshener, the tension grows and they need "to do something". I spoke with my friends yesterday and we concluded that Germany, naturally, will be put into the pose of a running deer and will start sending Leopard tanks to 404. Upon elimination and capture of those by Russian forces, the US will enter German weapons market based on a single premise that German technology sucks (actually, there is a certain grain of truth in this) and it is about time Germany started buying US Abrams tanks (and whatever follows them), even despite the fact that Russians salivate anticipating 10 promised Abrams appearing on the battlefield. Nothing personal, folks, just business. 

 

Irina Alksnis wrote today an excellent piece for Ria (in Russian): Germany Made Her Choice, And We Have No Pity For Her. Difficult to disagree with her main point and, I am sure, Russian historic memory has something to do with that. You know, German tanks in Russia. Reminds me something. I just cannot put my finger on exactly what it reminds me of. Nah, I am screwing with you. Alksnis is correct that Germany's elites across the board are Russophobic and still cannot forgive Russia for those two T-34 monuments in Berlin Red Army left there just as a reminder. Meanwhile, Russian MoD reports advancements along the whole front line and, of course, people in General Staff read in amusement those "suggestions" from the US media and their military "advisers", who lost every war they ever fought, for 404 to get ready for "offensive". But I repeat myself, they do not know what modern combined arms operations are.

Well, It Is The Daily Beast...

 ... after all. In general, very few normal people work in Western media and especially ones which are tabloids. Most Western MSM today are tabloids. Larry takes a note. 

And the Western media train ride to crazy town continues to hurtle down the tracks and does not realize the bridge over the River Dnieper has vanished. That is the best poetic imagery I could conjure up tonight to try to capture that pathology of so-called journalists to publish nonsense. A new meme emerged today — the Wagner Group is being wiped out.  

He then proceeds to show some real facts on the ground and that tells us everything we need to know about Western media--people with skills and ethics need not apply. 

I also speak a little bit today about the travails of West's economics (or whatever passes for it) and warfare field. 

I am on record--most of the world-view forming, primarily humanities, academic field in the combined West is an academic fraud. The model as a whole sucks across the board. And naturally, when subjected to a real test by reality it crumbles. Now imbeciles from NYT worry about this:

A Hit French Novel Tries to Explain Putin. Too Well, Some Critics Say.

Two things come to mind:

1. French writing about Putin and Russia, LOL.

2. The success has illustrated the continued power of literature in France, where novels have long shaped public debate. Élisabeth Borne, the prime minister, said through a spokesman that she “really enjoyed his book, which mixes fiction and reality and echoes international current events and the war in Ukraine.”

LOL))) French already made a choice and it is a mix "of fiction and reality". Well, fiction primarily. Why don't French "public debate" shape itself on the issues of what used to be Europe and Western Civilization. But I doubt France will ever wake up for that--too late. 

For Shits And Giggles.

No comments are necessary. 

Yes, they are incompetent buffoons.
 

Open Thread.

 Whatever fits.

How To Put It More Politely?

Teach the real war in the US, not this Hollywood BS. And I mean not just USMA at West Point which is not a real military academy anymore but an indoctrination institution with mostly made-up military "history" and zero academics. 

Ukraine will struggle to make good on its promise to drive Russian forces out of its former territory, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley stated on Friday. While civilian officials in Washington insist that Kiev must keep fighting, Milley has repeatedly questioned the chances of success. “President Biden, President Zelensky, and most of the leaders of Europe have said this war is likely to end in a negotiation,” Milley said during a meeting of the US-led Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. “From a military standpoint, this is a very, very difficult fight,” he added.

Are there any real military historians in the USMA or the US Army War College left? I doubt it, when one's military "science" is built around Hollywood that is what you get. Considering the level of the US public school graduates, USMA is basically a vocational school now, as long as it meets its quota on "diversity". Now, imagine some "graduates" from the US "strategic studies" experts. Idiocracy is upon us. 

My Talking Head...

... on Russian Navy and what Staff Officers do.  

It is also about MRA (Naval Missile-Carrying Aviation) and Admiral Nakhimov nuclear cruiser. 

P.S. If rumors about the use of Gremlins in 404 are confirmed, we need to rethink geopolitics completely.  Plus upgraded version of 3M22 Zircons with the range of around 2,500 kilometers.

It Is Friday...

 ... and a bit on the lighter side of Valery and his virtuoso friends. 

Have a go at it.
 

Andrei Raevsky's Superb Take...

 ... on the "competence" of current "elite". It is superb not because Andrei validates a lot what I write about, but because he is insider. Here is an excerpt from a great article:

I decided to chime in, because I know from the inside what Martyanov describes from the outside, so I want to share with you my own observations on this topic. I studied in the USA for five years, from 1986 to 1991 and I got two degrees in this time period: one BA in International Relations from the School of International Service (SIS) at the American University and a MA in Strategic Studies from the Paul H. Nitze School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the Johns Hopkins University. During these same years I also worked for several (very conservative) think tanks.  The following is a summary of observations I made during this time period and after. First, and I think that this is crucial, I would argue that a generational change took place in the late 80s, but it all truly began with Ronald Reagan’s Presidency.  Let me explain.

Read the whole thing and it will also help to understand why I long for American "elite" of the past with who you could have a dialogue and even handshake agreements, and why today what passes for "elite" in US is a combination of amoral, uneducated and incompetent fanatics.

Please, Get Them Back To The 6th Grade.

To repeat middle school course on basic math, fractions, percentages and shit like that. Come to think about it--basic calculations course from the first grade may be even a better proposition. 

WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Senior U.S. officials are advising Ukraine to hold off on launching a major offensive against Russian forces until the latest supply of U.S. weaponry is in place and training has been provided, a senior Biden administration official said on Friday. The official, speaking to a small group of reporters on condition of anonymity, said the United States was holding fast to its decision not to provide Abrams tanks to Ukraine at this time, amid a controversy with Germany over tanks. U.S. talks with Ukraine about any counter-offensive have been in the context of ensuring the Ukrainians devote enough time first to training on the latest weaponry provided by the United States, the official said.

A pop-corn time))  Of course, the "official" is anonymous--a feature, not a bug. It is fascinating, really, to see how long a brigade worth of Strykers and Bradleys will last during such an "offensive". Ahh, the zugzwang time--no matter what they do, it all ends up with embarrassment, a euphemism for clusterfuck. They cannot even lie convincingly anymore. Peskov nonchalantly stated yesterday:

If the US and its allies supply Ukraine with heavy tanks, the consequences for Kiev will only be negative, while it will not seriously impact Russia’s military operation in the country, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed on Friday.   

And this was about tanks, mind you. The fate of the light armor, such as Bradleys, Strykers or what have you is unenviable on the modern battlefield. I stress it--BATTLEFIELD--like in the theater-wide clash of the regular standing armies, not calling CAS on the AK-47 and RPG armed goat-herders while on platoon-size patrols in the mountains. There is a difference, believe me. 

But this news is indicative, together with calls from the American side on Kiev regime to withdraw from Artemovsk, because "it impedes the preparation to Spring offensive" (in Russian). The Washington is delusional and desperate because everything they can do there is optics and nothing more. There are documented facts now of very young kids and old men being thrown by regime into the meat-grinder. Zelensky, who is controlled by sore losers from London, who wouldn't be able to field a full combat-ready brigade of anything and continue to wreck their aircraft carriers due to low level of general command and navigational competence, is a dead man walking, because he will be offed by either British or US side, because he knows too much. Both in terms of money laundering and sheer incompetence of NATO military "advisers".  My only question, of course, remains unanswered--where ARE the numbers for anything in the de facto corpses of both 404 and its main sugar daddy-- combined West? That is why they need to go back to school and learn basic calculations. 

In related news. California's attempts to reinvent Physics based on degrees in public relations, political science and Queer studies, and other pseudo academic and magical thinking "degrees", evidently failed. 

As California goes, so goes the nation, or so they say. If that rings true, the nation is set for a reversal of some of its strictest renewable energy plans, after the Huntington Beach City Council voted to dump its plan for 100% renewable energy. Huntington Beach, California, is changing the plan it had in place with the Orange County Power Authority (OCPA)—a nonprofit offering clean energy. But its recent history in a rather unfavorable media limelight has given the city council pause.And Huntington Beach wasn’t the first municipality to pull out—Orange County bailed on the green power authority, citing transparency concerns and a series of ugly audits, and allegations that the authority failed to inform the public that their electricity bills were increasing. Orange County was set to begin receiving green power from the authority by the end of this year. The cost of having the county pull out is estimated to be around $65 million.

Damn you Carnot, Boltzmann and others for inventing Thermodynamics. It is a totalitarian science and it hurts feelings, well... and budgets too.