Bringing the war to @Dave_Perkins’ balls.
You’re right, that’s a good point. But it’s hard to see a comprehensive hearts/minds concept when they’re attacking civilian traffic, and seemingly fine killing everybody using artillery and airpower.
Maybe they’re just scared of the cameras?
Grifman
6318
The mayor there has said a couple of times that they inflected heavy losses on the Russians there so this would correspond with that.
Here is that footage:
Grifman
6320
Belorussian general reported resigns as troops refuse orders:
Grifman
6321
Putin is upping the stakes. The only question I have is whether this is just further justification for the current war or for broader moves against the West?
Thanks for the improved translation and impressions. Karatel is also the name of the service knife provided to the FSB; in that context, it sounds like a euphemism for killing trouble-makers/suppression, which is a bit more in line with “death squads.”
This report about Belarusian general is fake.
The literal translation for “karatel” is Punisher. In Russian context it’s associated with SS squads who murdered civilians (usually burning villages with the inhabitants) in retaliation to partisan activity. It’s not something you call soldiers, it’s evil murderous police force.
Thanks for the clarification, and agreed.
Apparently US citizens have been advised to leave Russia immediately.
Honestly, US citizens who are still in Russia at this point, and aren’t there working on behalf of the US government, and who can actually leave but haven’t, must be dumber than a whole box of rocks.
Well indeed. And I’m sure you get why I posted. It’s not a great sign when a Govt issues an official notice like this.
Aceris
6330
I really could not give a flying fuck what Daniel Denvir thinks.
I have no great love for Jacobin nonsense either, but that paragraph is amazing. It somehow reads like the back of a novel with shirtless Fabio on the cover.
My in house translator says this letter says:
We cannot form any battle groups as the efforts to persuade the soldiers has been ineffective.
The soldiers refuse to go. The commanders are unable to force them.
Changing the leaders won’t help.
Therefore I tender my resignation.
It doesn’t say he doesn’t support the war, just that he is unable to carry out the orders issued.
Aceris
6333
I think the poker analogy is taken too far, but I think this deserves more thought (emphasis mine):
However, it seems that European leaders were genuinely only willing to engage in negotiations rather than deterrence. Negotiations were however a completely inappropriate strategy as they only work when the adversary has legitimate grievances which can be solved via some sort of optimal compromise. This assumption clearly never applied to a sociopathic bully like Putin. Because we adopted this suboptimal negotiation ploy which was perceived as indicating a lack of resolve and poor coordination within the Western bloc, this engendered a further suboptimal play from Putin, the highly aggressive post-flop raise, when he was facing an opponent actually holding the nuts.
At the time I thought it was obvious that seriously military action in Ukraine would attract a severe response from the West, but I can see why from Putin’s perspective this was not the case. I’m less convinced by the idea that more coordinated deterrance - short of military committment to Ukraine, would have changed Putin’s plans though.
Which really shows the extent that the “Putin understanders” were not actually understanding Putin, but rather using their fantasy of him to justify their own policy positions.
Aceris
6334
Not sure if we’re invited to read the paragraph or Denvir’s take on it. Problem with quoting tweets without commentary.
This is starting to feel like one of those “if the black box is indestructible then why don’t they make the entire plane like that” questions.
