Kansas Crimson

peace comes when vlad goes home and stops picking fights

it really is as simple as that

(please spare us the tired rebuttal)

sigh.

Sigh indeed. Anniversary of Russia shooting down Flight MH-17 today.

U.S. Cluster Munitions Arrive in Ukraine, but Impact on Battlefield Remains Unclear

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/14/us/p ... tions.html

U.S. officials and military analysts warn that American-made cluster munitions probably will not immediately help Ukraine in its flagging counteroffensive against Russian defenses as hundreds of thousands of the weapons arrived in the country from U.S. military depots in Europe, according to Pentagon officials.
...
U.S. officials in recent weeks had privately expressed frustration that some Ukrainian commanders, exasperated at the slow pace of the initial assault and fearing increased casualties among their ranks, had reverted to old habits — decades of Soviet-style training in artillery barrages — rather than sticking with the Western tactics and pressing harder to breach the Russian defenses.

When asked about the American criticism, Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former Ukrainian defense minister who advises the government, said in an email: “Why don’t they come and do it themselves?”

ousdahl wrote: ↑Tue Jul 18, 2023 1:37 pm Ah.

I was mostly just inquiring.

But yea, if there WAS any success to the Ukrainian counter-offensive, you gotta figure we’d be hearing all about it from the western war machine media, who would likely be cheering on such success.

But instead, all I recall hearing about it lately is, Ukraine blew up a bridge to Crimea (again)

Ukraine is taking out 24 artillery pieces a day. Logistics and ammo too. The have already taken back more land in the last month than Russia gained in its whole winter offensive. The Russians have sown thousands of mines which must be dealt with carefully, and Russia has adopted a berzerk strategy of trying to hold the front lines rather than defend in depth. But they are cracking. Their impressed child army is not trained. They are trying to launch a desperate assault near Kremina that may very destroy all of their reserve armor. Russia has about lost its modern army, shockingly. T-54/55s are about the last numerical force left. The shame of it is that regular Russians are mostly clueless and bought in. A reckoning coming though. Ukraine has fought very intelligently against a very large force. The offensive will be steady, slow and then fast. And the NYT and WaPo have been just terrible in covering the war. Flagging. WTF?

right?

my first thought was - no way NYT is not a credible source of objective journalism, they're just parroting Putin again!

NYT is lazy and prone to ask the same regular guys in restaurants why Trump is so great. The WAPO led the cluster shell articles with direct quotes from Putin. He said they would consider using them now that Ukraine was. Except they have used them from day one, including on a maternity hospital. The MSM is both sides enough to make Joni Mitchell wretch.

I dunno who your sources are, Sparko, but they sound a helluva lot more fun than Qusdahl’s

In other news…


https://apnews.com/article/strait-hormu ... 34026d443f

For real tho you guys.

Why would Iran just start attacking oil tankers?

(I was also gonna ask about the nuances of US versus Russian/other military fighting strategies the NYT mentions, if anyone’s familiar…)

ousdahl wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 2:00 pm For real tho you guys.

Why would Iran just start attacking oil tankers?

(I was also gonna ask about the nuances of US versus Russian/other military fighting strategies the NYT mentions, if anyone’s familiar…)

If Iran isn't allowed to sell Iranian oil then maybe they think they can steal some other country's oil and be allowed to sell it? Or maybe they have a contract to sell some oil to some shady people and don't have enough to cover the contract? I don't know why some shady people do some shady shit.

Yea.

I’ll prob get shit for this, but I’m trying to understand Iran’s motivations, I kinda wondered if their narrative would be something like, “we’re trying to regain control of oil illegally taken by the US/NATO/“the west” from us/our middle eastern allies”

But that also presupposes the US militancy against and occupation of middle eastern countries is about anything but freedom and democracy.

illegally

lol

ousdahl wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 3:16 pm Yea.

I’ll prob get shit for this, but I’m trying to understand Iran’s motivations, I kinda wondered if their narrative would be something like, “we’re trying to regain control of oil illegally taken by the US/NATO/“the west” from us/our middle eastern allies”

But that also presupposes the US militancy against and occupation of middle eastern countries is about anything but freedom and democracy.

It's not that hard to understand. "We want more money" is the motivation behind a huge percentage of crimes committed worldwide. Sometimes things just aren't very complicated.

Well yea, in that sense this just isn’t very complicated.

But what I do find a wee bit hard to understand is - did you direct that comment at Iran, or the United States?

KUTradition wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 3:54 pm illegally

lol

So do you mean to suggest, say, Syria approves of the dozen or so US military bases in Syria, and the US control of the majority of Syrian oil?

KUTradition wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 6:44 pm https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/ ... 75615.html

Thanks.

I'd guess I'm not the only one who knows close to 100% more about that now, than I did before.

that article, and the multiple western sources it cites, report U.S. companies striking oil deals in some disputed separatist region or Syria.

that/the other articles report there is a U.S. military occupation in Syria, acting to secure control of the oil fields.

So I guess all the fuss was over the semantics of "illegal."

but for real, one country's military being the muscle for private companies that teamed up with some separatists in some other country to score oil - just dunno how legit that all sounds.

it’s not semantics

it’s throwing around “gotchas” without apparently really knowing the story

it’s very obviously not a simple as “US stealing Syria’s oil”, which was why i even engaged (i should know better)

https://www.voanews.com/a/middle-east_u ... d%20Monday.

do you know anything about assad and his relationship with russia and china?