Odd how you only post videos that are pro Russia since you claim to not be choosing sides….as if anyone not Russian hasn’t chosen the side of freedom and democracy over attempted expansionist genocide.

Everything you post about the war is pure Russian propaganda, every single thing you post tries to make the case that Russia has a legitimate reason for the war and is winning the war and will crush Ukraine soon….hasn’t changed since day one. It’s never been true, which has been obvious since week 1. Your claims to not be taking sides are as transparent as your claims to not be racist.

Like mentioned before, if you feel like going toe to toe on videos of military action, there’s 4 advanced aircraft filmed shot down over Russia, two oil refineries (one in Crimea, one in Russia), a command depot, and dozens of videos the Russian retreat from Bakhmut in just the last few days.
I could provide new videos daily of Russian tank columns being destroyed, trenches bombed, hideouts shelled, territory recaptured, and lately Russia burning…but why? The only one who doesn’t know what’s happening there is you, and you just ignore any evidence you don’t like.
Edit: My bad, it’s now 5 advanced aircraft over Russia….3 Mi-8 helicopters, 1 su 34 and one su 35. All crew died.



Russia hit an ammo depot, I’m assuming they got lucky with a missile/drone.
Ok. Cheer if you like.

Ukraine has hit so many ammo dumps Russians are out of ammunition on many fronts, Ukraine has more ammo than ever in their ramp up for the counter offensive. More, better weapons and ammo than ever, and more trained troops, while Russia is using WW2 weapons and is losing all their advanced equipment rapidly.

Again, you only post pro Russia videos by choice, there’s more than enough pro Ukraine videos to post, especially since Ukraine is crushing it at rates of 5-1 casualties and retaking territory fast before the awaited counter offensive, how do you convince yourself you aren’t on Russia’s side? You have to try really hard to even find propaganda indicating Russia isn’t failing miserably at every turn.

Looks to me like Tele Truth, where you got this pro Russia propaganda, is nothing but Russian propaganda, every video there is pro Russia propaganda from claimed successful military conflicts to Putin’s speeches in their entirety…couldn’t be more pro Russian. Is that who told you Russia held 85% of Bakhmut and wasn’t going to stop? 😂

BTW, 17 of 21 drones were shot down. The other 4 managed to injure 30, sending 2 to the hospital. No deaths. Edit: A bit odd if that was an active ammo dump don’t you think?

@newtboy

I do think the 'arab world' has legitimate complaints

Gonna stop you there, I never said anything about validity or number of complaints or grievances anyone had. In a better world things like that would matter, in a military conflict though they don't change the outcome.

I see no chance for a single state (where non Jews are sub-citizens with no vote or power) or an Israeli designed two state...

You misunderstand me. I said nothing about the chances of those outcomes working for Palestinians or even being better for them. I stated that whether we like it or not, Israel has more than the required military might to do so and whichever moment they decide the cost of implementing one of those options is better than the status quo they are gonna do it. Do you really see 'no chance' of that happening?

I don't think propaganda is that important to them that they actually prefer their allies suffering to reasonable resolutions, but I don't think that any reasonable resolutions are being offered or even discussed.

Then on this we vehemently disagree. Israel wasn't the only one that expanded their borders in the war in 1948. The Arab Palestinians allies snatched up parcels of land as well. They haven't even considered ceding that land back to facilitate a Palestinian state. In fact, Israel's very existence is pretty widely accepted as being due to the fact that each neighbouring Arab state went to war with the intent of securing sections of Palestine fro themselves and thus each fought independently giving Israel a chance to survive facing off against each of them rather than facing a united coalition in a co-ordinated strike. That they all mobilized their forces and sent them in the second they could to try and get the most land allowed Israel to fight them, with the exception of Jordan whom Israel cut a deal with by agreeing to not fight for the land Jordan wanted so jordan just silently took that part of Palestine for themselves.

In short, the neighbouring Arab states are not true allies to Arab Palestinians.

@newtboy
i like the 'failing liver" analogy.
appropriate and easily understood.

and i can understand where milkmandan is coming from,but my perspective is more aligned with yours newt.

what consistently baffles me,is how so many people are willing to simply accept this short term strategy from our politicians.

there is no surprise when corporations push for this,they are just focusing on their own interests and bottom line,which is short term profit.

or the politicians who bow to their neoliberal masters to receive those tasty campaign contributions.

or even the banks,who again focus on their short term gains.

these players are all behaving as they always have:for their own self interest.so there should be no shock or surprise when they act exactly as they have always acted.

but when i see everyday,normal people defend the behavior and actions of oliticians,financial institutions and multi-national corporations.it baffles me as to why they would choose to do such a thing.

we can understand why those players seek to retain a system which benefits them,their shareholders and their bottom line,but that system no longer serves the interests of the people,community and society as a whole.

so why make arguments defending it?

it is,quite frankly,killing us slowly as a species.

look at germany.
that country has slowly been recruiting,educating and now poised to corner the market in:new energy,renewable energy and are leading the world in breakthrough technologies in all energy fields.

germany has long played the long game.
they now dominate the entire EU in finance,and are now focusing on dominating the globe with new energy technology.

and what are we doing here in america?
pushing through more and more neoliberal policies that immiserate the working poor,both here and abroad.desperately continuing our destruction of entire ecosystems to exploit our natural resources for:oil and gas.military conflicts,which only make this country less safe,all to exploit other nations and extract THEIR oil and gas,and the cost in human lives is absolutely indefensible.

all of it.
every single bit of it for short term gains for an extremely small minority.

and here we are,with trump opening the flood gates to further exploit and destroy our natural resources with no thought or plan for the future.no investment in our communities,nor our society as a whole.

and for those who wish to make an argument that hillary would be better.i will only concede that on a domestic level this may have been true,but hillary is a neoliberal corporatist,and she would have pushed for even MORE military intervention in the middle east.MORE sanctions against countries unwilling to play ball,in order to politically squeeze them out,and even MORE of this countries policy of "regime change" to exploit and extract from those countries their precious resources.

i strongly suspect Iran would have been next on her agenda.

so when are some of these people going to step up,and realize that both trump AND clinton are (or would have been) disasterous for us as a community,a nation and as a species?

because they both only offer short term solutions to long term problems.and those short term solutions only benefit a minority of the population.

we could turn this ship around TODAY,right now,if we so choose.
we need more politicians like elizabeth warren and tulsi gabbard.we need more integrity in our media and journalists willing to do their job and criticize power,not bow to it just for access.we need the people to become engaged and confront their representatives,and make them uncomfortable,not treat them as celebrities.

and we need to reject the system where rich people choose who we get to vote for,and begin to dismantle this two party duopoly.

because trump vs hillary?
this election cycle has just revealed that both these candidates are not the disease,but rather the symptom of a very broken,and dysfunctional political system.

we need to begin to invest in the future.
and reject the status quo as no longer being viable for the continued existence of the human species.

and with the newly energized american public,who are growing in numbers daily,and is a direct response to the unmitigated disaster that is trump.there may be hope for us yet.

because if we stay on this trajectory,we are fucking doomed.

As I understand it, China's biggest fear in the event of a military conflict with the U.S. is a sea blockade. These islands are meant to allow China's navel forces early warning for potential attacks (they are building long-range radar stations on some of the islands) and quick-strike capability in the event of an attempted blockade since the islands are being equipped with port facilities and will likely serve as refueling/rearming stations. They also are an attempt by China to "control" the traffic (both sea and air) moving through the area. They aren't designed to stop a full-scale invasion of the mainland and would likely just be bypassed if something like that ever came to pass.

EDIT: See here for a more detailed explanation about China's overall military strategy.

@enoch,

I think were we differ is the context from which we are looking at the conflict. You state a desire to see a political solution. Virtually every human on the planet would share that desire. You state a fear and desire to avoid military conflict, once again virtually all of us are agreed with you.

The trouble is I look at Syria, and the political solution was approached the most honestly, and productively while the opposition was mounting peaceful protests across the country. That effort towards a political resolution was ended alas by Assad's soldiers with military action. Pretty much exactly like his Father had before him. This time though it didn't end with a quick massacre pacifying the opposition but instead has escalated and progressed into the ongoing civil war.

From that context, I hear your call for a political resolution, and I feel it is at best wishful thinking and at worst cynical front to prevent any foreign protection of Assad's citizens from his armed forces. I hear your fears of military actions and the consequences they bring, but I see an existing and ongoing civil war already, and one which has in all probability seen the deployment of chemical weapons on civilian targets.

I can understand the fear of making things worse by getting involved, but just how many war crimes are you comfortable watching occur with NO reaction by the global community but talk? If we want to consider the expected actions of any world leader, from Obama through Putin through Assad, we can rest assured they will act in their own and/or their nations self interests. In Obama's case, he has an empowered public that can make his life difficult if he ignores them. That is not the position Assad is in. If Assad believes that chemical weapons will help him gain the edge in his conflict it is guaranteed he will use them. I deem it highly probable this recent attack was a test of what the world is willing to do in response, and if he doesn't think anyone will step up I fully expect him to continue.

Sorry brother, that's how it comes off. As for Friedman, you should check out Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine". There is a very dark side to your market fundamentalism that you are either not aware of or in denial of. Most of the post WW2 and Cold War American military conflicts have been in the name of market capitalism. You always change the subject when I bring up Freidman's thugery. Perhaps it's time for you to do some research on the history of your belief system.

(Chomsky writes about it too, since you've recently become a fan.)

Eisenhower, when he was leaving the Presidental office, back in '69 mention this, in his farewell address: (and I think its just as important now, as it was then)

"We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose and insidious in method..." He was refering to the growth of communistic threads, as the Cold War was raging at the time.

In addition, he warned against unjustified goverment spending on proposals with the military in mind:

"we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex... Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military-industrial_complex

Mr. Obama and his team, are going up against one of the most entrenched lobbying groups in America. It holds a virtual strangle hold on America, because, as they argue, without them, the USA, wouldn't exist. As such, we must put hundreds of billions towards the defense and military. The USA, spends $560 billion on its defense & military, far larger then the next largest military spending country in the world, which is Russia & Europe with $320 billion. (source: http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending).

Which is kind of amusing, if you think about it. Republicans are/were all angry at the amount of money being spent for Health Care (costing just under $1 trillion over 10 years), but neglect to mention, the first six years of the Iraq war costing the USA Taxpayer $3 trillion dollars.

If Americans want out of the Iraq war, they merely have to contact their elected represenatives, and senators, and say so. Its much easier to complain and do nothing, then to do something about the very reason for the complaining. Until that happens, the USA, will stay in Iraq and Afghanistan. I would imagine, it makes the Iranian military uneased when its leaders talk about blowing up countries and making nuclear technology that is suspected to be for a WMD. Why? The USA has 200,000+ troops on Iran's west and east sides, with deep logistical trains of support, that could unleash HEll, in the event of a military conflict.

>> ^chilaxe:
Nordlich, it's easy to tear down the trials of others, saying the military conflicts of the last 60 years weren't up to your personal standards, but these conflicts have been quite serious for the millions of folks involved, both on the front lines and in staff positions.


I know that, and it is exactly the reaction I was expecting. You are telling me that all these little wars we have seen could not be solved with diplomacy?

Why must we resort to violence at every turn? Why should we so readily react that way?

Roughly 7 Million Years of Evolution and the Hominini Tribe has not evolved out of violence.

Nordlich, it's easy to tear down the trials of others, saying the military conflicts of the last 60 years weren't up to your personal standards, but these conflicts have been quite serious for the millions of folks involved, both on the front lines and in staff positions.

I don't particularly understand the lashing out at 9/11 truthers. I don't think at this time they have evidence to back up their claims, but unlike the UFO believers, there's nothing particularly outlandish that they're suggesting.

They lied about WMD and links to Al Qaeda to get us into Iraq, why not lie about the specifics of 9/11 itself?

Given the way the Bushies lapped up the aftermath, it wouldn't surprise me if 9/11 turned out to be done with American help -- possibly even with the President or Vice President's knowledge, or on their order, or on their boss's order (call 'em whatever secret society name ya like).

Nothing in any of that seems impossible to me, and now, 7 years past that event, I find myself much more inclined to believe those outlandish claims than I did 9/12/01.

That said, nothing in this video seems particularly damning to me. The "second Pearl Harbor" comment being said by "some Senators" is no surprise, the entire Republican party gets talking points fed to them on every topic, and PNAC had people embedded in the press (William Kristol), and the White House (Donald Rumsfeld) that were eager to frame the attack in that way: a surprise attack that leads to a long, globally scoped military conflict.

Music to the Military-Industrial complex's ears.

^Russia and the NATO countries play geopolitical games, as we're seeing here, but even the hawks in these governments would go to enormous lengths to avoid an actual military conflict.

On Russia's side, the Russian capitalist elites want prosperity and to continue enjoying their time abroad, and Russia can't fight the whole world. The NATO nations together have about 15 x Russia's GDP (30 trillion vs. 2 trillion USD), or almost half of humankind's total GDP).

On NATO's side, they would certainly ensure Georgia doesn't do anything stupid and stays on the straight path of democratic development.

>> ^chilaxe:
Irishman, it's an injustice to the complexity of the situation to continually describe one side of this conflict as 100% correct.
It's easy to say from a distance that it'd be fine to live under the domination of a larger military power, but the countries that actually have to do that feel quite differently, which is why Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine have all rallied behind Georgia.
Military conflicts are always stupid.


Hear hear. Always stupid.

But I am in Lithuania, I can tell you the "support for georgia" is almost entirely an opportunity to express anti-russian anger and vengeance, rather than a call for peace. After a "peace" demonstration they sang old traditional lithuanian war hymns about "get on your horse and go to battle". wtf.

The connection between "russkies go home" and "yankees go home" is entirely lost on the majority people here. They are blinded by the opportunity to go on and on about russian aggression, while their own troops are in Iraq "installing democracy" with the USA.

The delivery of a tiny amount of aid to georgia by the us administration was CHEERED here. No irony detected. And support seems to be for the flag and state of georgia, not so much her people. Forget the fact that the government of georgia is fucked up, let's support it because it's not russia!!

And in my city, the town hall has a plaque on it quoting GWB from his speech in Lithuania: "Anyone who would choose Lithuania as an enemy, has made an enemy of the United States".

The clever thing about the "new empires" is they just stopped using the word "empire" and now everyone's fucking happy.

Irishman, it's an injustice to the complexity of the situation to continually describe one side of this conflict as 100% correct.

It's easy to say from a distance that it'd be fine to live under the domination of a larger military power, but the countries that actually have to do that feel quite differently, which is why Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine have all rallied behind Georgia.

Military conflicts are always stupid.