The Issue Of Scale.

 Mr. Stoltenberg is an exhibit A of why Western "economics" education is primarily a fraud. Don't look at me, an authority on economics orders of magnitude greater than me, Michael Hudson, also thinks so.

Ukraine is consuming an “enormous amount” of ammunition, and the West needs to boost production to keep up, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Monday. Stoltenberg also called on the bloc’s members to increase their intelligence efforts, accusing China and Russia of spying on them with balloons. “The war in Ukraine is consuming an enormous amount of ammunition,” he said ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. “This puts our defense industries under strain,” he continued, adding that “we need to ramp up production and invest in our production capacities.” Stoltenberg then pledged, as he has repeatedly since Russia’s military operation in Ukraine began, that “NATO stands with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

Remarkably, Jens Stoltenberg's thesis title (from Oslo University) was, drum roll: Makroøkonomisk planlegging under usikkerhet. En empirisk analyse ("Macroeconomic planning under uncertainty. An empirical analysis"). One cannot make this shit up even if one tries. So, this "economics" graduate wrote a thesis on something that cannot be accomplished in the modern West because "macroeconomic planning" and the modern West are irreconcilable things. SMO exposed all superficiality and chaos of West's economies dramatically. 

Remarkably, Stoltenberg, complaining about VSU using "enormous amount" of ammunition, forgets a simple fact of life that Russian Armed Forces use ORDER OF MAGNITUDE than whatever is left of VSU-NATO cabal more, and Russia is not just feeling fine, but dramatically expands the production of every single military materiel and technology she needs. That's real macroeconomic planning under uncertainty. But it is too late for Stoltenberg, and NATO in general, to learn now anything of substance about REAL war and REAL war economy. So, the only thing which is left is to spew propaganda which is increasingly detached, if not completely already, from economic and military realities on the ground. They DID miscalculate that badly, they ARE that ignorant--because the failure is systemic, across all institutions of the combined West, military included. 

Well, USA Today begins to suspect things:

'Little by little they are winning': Tide turns in key Ukraine city. Live updates as Russian offensive begins.

Western main-stream journalism is a combination of pathological lying and ignorance. Because what happens in effect now in 404 is not just "little by little" but a complete, industrial scale, annihilation of 404 and NATO's mobilization potentials. Will the West resort to the only thing it can do--terrorism? Possible. As US Embassy in Moscow urged US citizens to leave Russia, the chair of State Duma Committee On Investigation of Interference Into Internal Affair of Russia, Vasily Piskarev, citing SVR's data, explained that the US assets in Russia are getting ready to conduct terrorist actions (in Russian). Nothing new, really. Well, after NS2 terrorist act it is obvious that this is the extent of the current US military "capability" when dealing with serious adversaries. Could also be yet another primitive hack psyop against the background of obvious military-industrial failure. I warned about it for years--nobody listened. 

Meanwhile, Russia pushes ahead with completion of the newest plant for manufacturing satellites (including SMOTR class--part of SFERA program). Here is report in Russian. 

The plant, which goes into operation this year will be able to manufacture and test simultaneously 4 heavy satellites and 100 light ones. So, that adds to explanation of Musk's sudden "maneuvers" with Starlink.

They Don't Get It, As Always.

Reuters posts the news of the US trying to support Al-Qae..hm, sorry, Turkey by giving it "ammunition" and immediately runs into problems of a cognitive character.

The United States weighed in Tuesday (March 3) on a deepening standoff between Turkey and Russia in northwestern Syria. Saying it was ready to give Turkey the ammunition and military equipment it needs in the fight for Idlib, the last swathe of rebel-held territory. Russia, which supports Bashar al-Assad's forces, and Turkey, which supports the rebels, both say they hope to avoid a direct clash.

First, let's be very clear on that: Western media do support Islamic terrorism and people who they call "rebels" are the most radical jihadists and it takes a person of the scale of Tulsi Gabbard to call it as it is:

The corporate media needs to stop referring to Al-Qaeda and their affiliated groups in Idlib as ‘rebels’ in a deceptive effort to make them seem like freedom fighters. I and thousands of Americans enlisted after Al-Qaeda’s attack on 9/11. The media and the Trump administration’s continued labelling of these terrorists as ‘rebels’ is a disgrace and dishonor for all our men and women in uniform and our entire country.

Yes, Tulsi, I agree, but where did you see people of honor in, say, Department of State? Not to mention US MSM media whores. Sorry, actual whores, for insulting you by comparing you to journous. Here are some views from the insider in the so called Intelligence Community in the US--a rather grim picture. But this is not my point here, US always loved its jihadist SOBs and after formalization of a humiliating American defeat in Afghanistan, some big honchos, such as Mr. Jeffery, have an increasing urge, caused by acute butt-hurt, and military ignorance (what's new) to do anything at all to get back at those nasty Russkies. And here IS the point: Turkey and Russia are NOT in standoff. Not at all. Because if there would have been a standoff, a real one, between Russia and Turkey, the picture would look very differently. Obviously, so called ambassador Jeffrey doesn't understand those details and peculiarities of such a standoff, should it realistically exist, after all, he wanted desperately to supply Turkey with Patriot complexes, and one would expect sheer lunacy from petulant childish ignoramuses populating contemporary US establishment, but not to such a degree of ignorance. 

If there would have been a real standoff between Turkey and Russia, the first thing Turkey would learn almost immediately would be about appearance of some "new" formations on the front-lines and those formations would be those of Kurds. After Turkey would have closed straits, allegedly after declaring war on Russia--legal matter, nothing more--there would be immediately some very serious repercussions for Turkey starting from shutting down the construction of nuclear power station in Akkuyu, shutting down of all exports to Russia, immediate loss in excess of $3.5 billion in tourism and who knows what Russia would define as force majeure for Turkstream. You know, war and shit. Obviously Russians would have to start hauling their military cargo from St.Peterburg, around Europe, but one has got to do what one has got to do. But it would be military field where this standoff would have some interesting consequences. Let's start with what turned out to be already a very revealing fact. While, should SAA have been left alone to face Turkey,  Turkish Army probably would have won eventually, it turned out that they are not THAT good. I mean, of course, Turkish Army is large and all, and it has some shiny toys but dirty business of the combined arms operations, especially large operations, requires a little bit more than that, especially when SAA has Russians (and Iran) on its side. 

1. Evidently only since yesterday Turkey started to experience effects of ECM (EW--Electronic Warfare) with its drones dropping like flies, when not shot down by SAA AD. Do Turks even understand that in case of real standoff ALL their communications will be shut down? Unlike this Jeffery-dude, I think they do, actually, and as Semyon Bagdasarov stated couple of days ago "are terrified of war with Russia". No, not publicly, of course, but among people in Turkey who actually understand that casualties they sustained last week in Idlib could go up one order of magnitude.

2. A "trip wire" event similar to treacherous shooting down of SU-24 in 2015, this time around may mean shutting down any signal emitting equipment INSIDE Turkey thus rendering its C3 blind and deaf. Will it initiate Article 4 protocol? I don't think so.

3. First salvo of Russian stand-off weapons would be enough to incapacitate any Turkish Command and Control structure WITHIN Syria (say Idlib) and WILL disrupt operations not only of some brigade-size units but more on the corps level. 

4. In the end, it will be a free hunt of Russian VKS inside Syria for whatever Turkey will move there. Whatever Turkey will move there will be without air cover, because anything that enters Syria's air space will be shot down. 

Of course, these simple truths are beyond comprehension of most Turks who simply do not care about these details but people in Turkey who need to know, they know. Behind cringe-worthy boasting, bordering on lunacy (yes, 5, no 10 thousand SAA personnel and 3 million tanks have been annihilated) lies a torturous facing of the reality of Turkish Army sustaining heavy casualties and loss of equipment which is the main reason why Erdogan flies to Moscow trying to arrange whatever he will be able to arrange there. Mr. Jeffrey knows this and it hurts, badly. Especially since there is no actual standoff between Turkey and Russia, only between Syria and Turkey and even that didn't go well for Sultan Erdogan. The rest are merely details. This is not to mention this whole NATO "business", which, at this stage is not even of the main concern. Military facts on the ground are simple, no matter how much Turkey's leadership boasts of its military successes, it is plainly clear that Syria's territory is a forbidden zone for Turkey and there will be no compromises anymore on the so loved by the US establishment (and Turkey) Al-Qaeda derivative (I lost count of their titles) "humanitarian jihadists" who either give up or must be, and will be, annihilated together with their handlers, no matter their nationality or political affiliations. In related news, Taliban is set to "clear" Afghanistan, one way or another, from American "stooges" and who knows where it will all go after that.