I don’t mean to underestimate the destructive power of Russian forces but I think their ability to drive into NATO territory with tanks and planes is severely diminished. They can kill millions but I no longer believe they have the capability to drive into Poland or probably even the Baltic republics.
Against NATO they would not have any air dominance, it would be an ugly ugly beating they would take because they aren’t used to fighting at night when western forces are arguably at their best.
This doesn’t do any good for Ukraine but the status quo is maintained in that a war with NATO either won’t happen or it will almost certainly go Nuclear. It’s been that way since the 1950’s.
Where we are weak is still the economic side of it. Sanctions may not last long, we still buy their gas. Even the value of the Ruble has been going back up.
The Ruskies are going to break Ukrainian will one dead kid at a time. Will it work? Don’t know but when the Ukrainian fields are not planted in 2 months time, a lot of people will starve somewhere.
Ukraine has also a very long border to NATO countrys. Because the refugees are mostly women with children or elderly it seemed they are until today not succesfull in avoiding resistance fighters.
No, even with Germanys mistake to have to by Russian natural gas for at least a year, at the economic side Russia is much more than week. The EU is so much bigger in every other part of the economy than Russia aside oil, natural gas and ores.
Your point is right in that the West is far far stronger than Russia in every factor of economy. But an example: Renault announced they were resuming production in their Moscow car factories. Is this a crack in the desire to punish Russians or something else. I don’t know the answer but there have been Sanctions for years and for just as long, ways around the sanctions. The desire for profit will not be denied forever.
Back on my point of coverage vs propaganda, Chieftain posted an interesting video:
I thought about posting this as well. In my history school (the same one as The Chieftain) I learned a lot about recognising logical fallacies and “revisionism” works, as well as recognising your own bias. This are a lot harder than one would think and a difficult assignment.
In the old days it were dubious books but Chieftain did a really good job on applying this to videoclips. Also what we see is biased and we don’t know what we don’t know is a great statement.
I know it is easier to watch pure one sided edited clips of things and people blowing up than asking the right question and admitting that none of us know exactly what is happening.
What I heard is that the French government was urging the French companies not to be too hasty in pulling out of Russia but that Renault was getting to much backlash for not pulling out from the rest of the world that they now did decide to stop production in Russia
You may very well have a better take on it than me. From my experience sanctions are established and almost immediately work around begin.
For example, you may not know it but there have been shortages of ammunition here in the US. Last year the government moved to cut off certain ammunition imports from Russia. Well the same ammunition gets sold to a third party country and imported into here. I don’t feel that Sanctions seem to be changing Russian policy at all.
Sometimes it feels just like we do this to feel good about ourselves.
Today our papers are full of stories about how the Green Berets are making a difference in the war because they trained Ukrainians for this. We trained people the world over for decades. Why this news story now? Any news I read any more I suspect is to manipulate me to feel or react a particular way. Informing me is totally secondary.
That is the point. It is war, disinformation is part of war.
The history of the WW2 in the east is, outside historian circles, still dominated by Soviet propaganda and nazi generals self saving lies. In the Soviet time and in Putins Russia it was and is a crime to disagree with Soviet war time or post war time propaganda.
Very true, Scott Adams calls it the power of the news to assign opinions. As we humans are preprogrammed to think in good/bad choices as this was our survival mechanism in the old days we have to force ourselves to think of a third way.
Some devastating results which get little media attention:
Right now we have a number of volunteers for the Ukraine foreign legion returning who claim they were used as cannon fodder and that the Ukraine, while the Country we should root for, is not the “paradise” as it was portrayed. E.g. a 40 year old ex-veteran mother of 3 managed to get back but many didn’t and apparently were used as cannon fodder. Even for trained soldiers it takes time to adept to new terrain/army ettiquete.
This is a source which to me seems more reliable that the Snippets of tanks blowing up. It also ties in with Chieftain as it mentions the apparent inabilily of the Ukrain to lauch a real counter offensive due to lack of Air Superiority and one of the videos goes into the logistical challenges. The Austrian school does have a bit of a reputation to protect and don’t depend on clicks for their budget (at least I hope the Austrian Military is not in that dire shape )
It is in Austrian accented German. I guess a decent translator will pick it up.
Sadly WION was banned by youtube for a while until a huge backlash forced youtube to reinstate them. Concerning as to how much big tech can assign our opinions or e.g. by banning/punishing channels from India for posting content that Reuters/France and many other Western media can freely publish.
oh good… otherwise you would have watch other Indian news channels. If you put them and an indian soap opera side by side… you would find no difference in the amount of dramatization. English ones… High dramatization… Hindi ones… oh hoh hoh… extreme.
Another dumb question for your consideration. This week Biden was over in Europe and among his stupid statements he warned about coming food shortages this year.
Have you seen indications that the EU is taking this seriously? I can’t see anything here in the US which indicates that we are considering ways to boost food production.
Lacking this, I have to conclude that this is more propaganda or that our governments are seriously unaware of what to do. Possibly both.
Anyone Notice Biden telling our troops they were going into Ukraine? Boy we walked that one back in a hurry.
Perversely it will be high-price prosperity this year on the North American Prairies as NA wheat growers puck up the slack from Ukraine’s withdrawal from the market.
It is not propaganda, there is a war in Ukraine. Nobody knows how smaller the harvest will be, but already no ships with grain or plantoil have left Ukrainian harbours for a month. But Amercans will have no shortages.
Yes but the Indian one got banned for the exact same coverage as the Western ones which didn’t get banned.
Also is it a coincidence that WION basically exposed the role of big tech in propaganda wars and how much money they made from military contracts?
There are many examples of smaller stations suddenly getting banned for no clear reason with often devastating effects for hardworking people.
One problem is that these tech media companies can hide behind artikel 130 which gives them immunity from prosecution.
People form an opinion based upon information the one controlling the information flow theb can assign the opinion. World War 2 us a good example what can happen with for example Ed Shames who was with the 101st Airborne and in Bastogne had to fight off wave after wave of automotons who believed Germany was winning because the Nazi’s said so. The Nazi’s controlled the information flow and those following orders without question didn’t have any info on the other side.
So I think this banning of critical channels is a risk! And Wion seems to be more neutral than most.
I agree the harvest may be smaller but what is being done about it? I read the EU did not increase the amount of land being cultivated by reducing the fallow soil allotments. The US devotes massive amounts of farmland to producing ethanol which mostly goes into a semi useful fuel additive. This might be shifted into growing edible corn if the seed stocks are there.
The decisions on how harvests could be extended have to be made in the next 2 months or so. Governments warning of food shortages without talking solutions just makes them in large part responsible later for food shortages.
I’m not saying the US or Europe will starve but the higher prices will Impact the poorer countries severely and there people will starve.
The refugees are going to become resistance fighters. From a long-term perspective, Putin is not only losing this war even when he’s taking territory, but he’s compromising Russia’s ability to be any sort of global power. Since 2014, Russia has been massively expanding its global reach. This war, in only one month’s time, has changed that. Slava Ukraini!
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