The US is rearming not to fight Russia but to fight the next big bad China. They have managed to come up with a new nuclear bomber B21, new nuclear missile submarine class Columbia and are proposing to replace our 400 minutemen 3 nuclear missiles but that is only on paper so far. It is enough money to make a lot of politicians rich but do we really need that much nuclear force?
So we are all arming in our own ways. There is no way Russia can match this expenditure but we give Ukraine enough to keep fighting. If Russia wins they will end up with 20% of a destroyed Ukraine and a shattered army and battered economy. I am becoming more worried Russia might become unstable and I have no idea what happens then.
Interesting analysis. They estimate as of May this year Russia had around 47k. Soldiers KIA.
There was an interview with Colonel Douglass Mcgregor by Tucker Carlson. It paints a picture of Ukraine having lost about 400k soldiers and Ukrainian units surrendering because they could not care for their wounded and Russians took good care of them. He made the claim that Russia was overrunning Ukraine in the direction of Kharkiv, the Ukrainian army was going to melt away and in months Russia would have a million troops on the Polish border. I would have been depressed until I realized that he has been saying stuff like this for over a year and hasnāt been right yet. Mostly Iām just embarrassed to listen to such a shill and realize he used to be in the US army.
There seem to be extremist on all sides who claim to have magic access to information. Also a lot of sides are publishing drone videos which were released by some side and make a great footage for bloggers to use. Are these real, can we fake āgeolocatingā. Early on even DCS combat simulator was used for propaganda. McGregor is a really good very strong presenter with experience and I am not sure he believes himself and whether it is confirmation bias. He keeps repeating the same with different allusions.
Also he has lots of Desert Storm experience but war like playing chess on multiple chessboards with multiple players BUT where the Rules are changing, new pieces with new capabilities enter the board and now and then a Wookiee which throws over one of the boards.
Finally like any speaker McGregor likes to use analogies to history from Bismarck to Desert Storm. Desert Storm with their A-10s looks almost as archaic as the Sopwith Camel. Wars are unpredictable and as a trained historian it teaches me we canāt predict a lot AND it is hard to criticize players in the past for making false predictions. (Historians are great in telling characters what they SHOULD have done from their study in the attic!)
I agree totally and Iām no expert but I can read a map. If he was right then the Ruskies would be advancing somewhere and an 8 to 1 kill ratio? You canāt say that without backing it up,
A million Russians on the Polish border in 6 months seems about as viable as thinking the Russian campaign in 1941 would last about 3 months
Sad, 2 L-39 ZA have crashed/collided (the 2-seater trainer light attack craft) Appearantly the ghost of Kiev was among those killed. Personally I do have time on an L-39 and it is a great trainer but seems to be hopeless when being used for real military missions Eyewitnesses Describe Ukrainian Military Air Crash (rferl.org)
Hey are you from Ukraine, well welcome to the Forum. Sadly flying even subsonic jets like the fantastic L-39ZA is dangerous by nature (Cruise has one too). If you fly them it is an accepted risk, formation flying is risky and even the best pilots run a risk. Actually i heard in the USA that getting engines is a problem as these were made in Russia and revised in the Ukraine.
Awesome review. I definitely subscribed to this channel. Iām not sure what you mean by piece of art as it could equally refer to the art of analysis or misinformation. But point by point he very gently puts large holes in the arguments made. I could have accepted the interview if only they gave equal time for the other side of the story but as is it was an awful piece of work. I spent several hours trying to fact check this garbage lol. Thank you for the help!
Lots to think about. Although I disagree with maybe 1/2 of it, he does clearly explain his points. I have a feeling interpretations in Europe might be different from here and I have little idea how to interpret that.
Also understand that domestic US audience means maybe 1/3 of Americans. 1/3 think Tucker is evil, 1/3 could care less about the news and 1/3 might watch all or part of it. That makes Tucker one of the most influential journalist because journalists are even less respected than congressmen.
Like many others here Iāve been following the Ukrainian war with interest. One of the problems with an active war between two modern nations is the flow of information and its accuracy. In the west we imbed journalists with frontline troops to get a sense of what is really going on and often itās uncensored as it is real time reporting.
This war pitās authoritarian rule against democratic rule and there are two very different narratives. On the one hand Ukraine has been fairly open and honest with many things and have allowed journalistic freedom and because there is so much invested by western nations to Ukraine there is a demand for accountability which for the most part Ukraine has been open about especially in Equipment losses. However with that being said the losses of those killed and wounded have been deliberately hidden to maintain morale amongst the populace so a true accounting may not be known for years if ever.
On the other side is authoritarianism is the rule of the day where journalistic freedom is not allowed and the narrative is dictated by Moscow and no other reporting is allowed. Even propagandists must toe the line and even if they know itās not true must report it as directed by Moscow. We may never know the true amount of deaths and wounded that have occurred as in addition to mobile crematoriums the Russian military has taken to digging mass graves up to 50 feet deep and tossing the dead in and burying the evidence in hopes it will never be found.
What is known however is Ukraine has excellent morale and has well trained and well armed troops with more being trained every day and equipping more and more western tech, armour and vehicles. Add to that Ukraine has novel approaches to using drones, artillery and tanks that the west never even dreamed about.
On the Russian side you have poor morale, poor leadership coupled with lack of trained and equipped personnel(lots of evidence to support that claim) and reports of Russia pulling 1950s era equipment out of storage, refurbishing and sending off to the front lines.(tanks, artillery, APCs and IFVs)
Nobody knows how much longer the war will go on and whether it will expand to other nations or will one side or the other finally say Uncle and negotiate an end to the war.
Woah! That one made me hit the research thank you.
Westbrook Pegler had a long career but during his peak he had a reach probably more than any journalist today. Tucker, an avowed Populist comes to mind and like Pegler has a varied career with evolving viewpoints. I donāt know in Todayās world he has the same reach. Pegler was in 144 newspapers but I would still say many could go without seeing him.
You also need to consider other mediums now. Would a Joe Rogan qualify? Maybe Ben Shapiro but I donāt consider Shapiro a populist. Tucker is my favorite man of the people journalist even though he will come up with some poor interviews he does not shrink from controversy.
Todays world seems like everything is a niche and the old mass media has lost its power to convince. How would you evaluate the reach of media today versus 1944? Has Tik tok become the major news media of today?
Thatās the power of the internet, though the powers that be have been and are trying harder neutering it.
The media has only itself to blame for their increasing irrelevance over the years, especially lately. Their standards have fallen so low itās pathetic. Thatās not even mentioning the utter contempt they have for the public at large and the lack of integrity. And no, Tiktok isnāt much better either.
P.S. I donāt think the media was much better in 1944, even though it had more influence. Certainly had more integrity, but even then, the media threw it away sometimes (see coverage of the Holodomor and the Katyn massacre for examples)
