Moon of Alabama – June 3, 2023
Erik Kramer and Paul Schneider are two former U.S. special operations soldiers who have been in Ukraine since 2022 to train Ukrainian troops.
At War on the Rocks they paint a dark picture of the state of the Ukrainian military. Their intent is to get money for more training, thus the real picture may be less dark than they describe. But even if one takes that into account it is still a sad state for an army that has been at war for more than a year. Some excerpts:
Based on our nine months of training with all services of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, to include the Ground Forces (Army), Border Guard Service, National Guard, Naval Infantry (Marines), Special Operations Forces, and Territorial Defense Forces, we have observed a series of common trends: lack of mission command, effective training, and combined arms operations; ad hoc logistics and maintenance; and improper use of special operations forces. These trends have undermined Ukraine’s resistance and could hinder the success of the ongoing offensive.
What ongoing offensive?
Under mission command, the German Auftragstaktik, the leader disseminates his intent (“to attack through the northern woods to take town x”) and authority to subunits that is passed down with the mission to empower subordinates at all levels. Each subunits can make its plans to coordinate and execute the mission as best as possible. The contrast is an order command where every detail of execution is ordered from the top down. Both have advantages but to have a mixed system, as Ukraine currently has, is the worst of all places.
More disinformation.
“lack of mission command, effective training”.
NATO has been running the UKraine military since the SMO, and before. NATO has been training the Nazi UKraine military since 2014.
The facts, many young fighting age men fled UKraine. Most UKrainians don’t want to fight, especially Russia, and the Russians are just too good.
A new batch of Nazi military are just finishing their training in remote Nazi states. We are led to believe they’re UKraine, but there’s no evidence for this. Who are they, boys? Or maybe they’re over 45??? Thing is, those between 18 and 45 are already in the military, or they’re dead, or so injured, that they can’t fight.
I think there’s 80,000 to 120,000 mercenaries in UKraine, and I include at least 30,000 Poles in that count. How many from other NATO countries, and I include Israel, hard to say, but just remember, these mercenaries are what Nazi states would call up for official wars.
We hear about NATO Nazi depletion of arms and projectiles, which I don’t believe, because NATO has been planning this war for a very long time, so don’t believe this propaganda. All they’ve done is send they oldest most out of date crap.
We hear nothing about the depletion of fighting age rams?
History tells us the West, and especially the UK Nazi state, likes to come from behind. They simply love this idea that from the canvas, they rose to knockout the 7ft giant, and of course, WW2 was scripted this way. This time it’s different, because the new free world is fighting for their sovereignty and freedom from Nazi tyranny.
What can be said that has not been said?
Phoney compassion generated by the MSM and the BBC via Song Contests does not stop young Ukrainian men being killed in large numbers.
There IS a ‘Stop the War’ coalition that does a great job – and God Bless those on the Political Left doing that- but the small cadre of MPs supporting that were silenced by Keir Starmer and none have the guts or integrity to follow through.
https://www.stopwar.org.uk/article/brian-eno-why-we-need-stop-the-war/
Dammit, Bryan Ferry should back President Brian Eno and we will have a Roxy Music Coalition of Right and Left.
Everybody around me is talking about the approaching Glastonbury Festival and the BBC won’t give over promoting its coverage of it.
In the 1980s it was indivisible from the CND –
Where is the anti-War sentiment now?
Zelensky must be a busted flush – he hasn’t been invited to talk there.
The Yooks are not expected to have a good military, they are expected to die, but “You all saw him, he had a gun!” (Bill Hicks sketch)
A commenter on another site says that while Ukraine is gloating that disaffected anti-Putin Russians are amongst those launching terror raids around Belgorod across the Russian border, these so-called Russian patriots are Polish-speakers.
I must say, this source has a good comments section.
From one of the source’scomments –
‘The bullshit that Russian military equipment was no good, that its troops were worse than NATO’s, that Russian society and its economy would collapse at the imposition of sanctions all reflect the inner corruption of NATO and most especially its #1 the Outlaw US Empire–The Worst Military Money Can Buy. And that military-political structure wants to take on 1.4 Billion Chinese!’
Thought of the Day :-
‘DFoth, Chester, United Kingdom, 2 days ago
If Putin killed this kid, does it mean that every civilian that dies in a war is personally killed by a countries leader? What a weird headline.’
Grandmother’s agony as Putin kills her daughter and granddaughter https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12147197/Grandmothers-agony-Putin-kills-daughter-11-year-old-granddaughter.html?ito=native_share_article-nativemenubutton
More from the comments section on the source –
‘Fanto @ 34:
I recall seeing an article that (I think) Andrei Martyanov may have reposted or at least linked to on his blog, which stated that in the early days of its SMO, Russia invaded Ukraine from the north, east and south of the latter country to confuse the Ukrainians and their NATO advisors and confound their plans and strategies.
Ukraine and NATO may have been counting on a swift and massive, brutal attack and conquest by Russia from the east (Donbass), after which Kiev would start a long-term guerrilla or insurgency war that could be portrayed in Western MSM outlets as a fight for freedom and independence. Being attacked from three sides by Russia threw Ukrainian / NATO plans into confusion. The Russians were then able to attack and seize or destroy as many of the 40+ military biolabs in Ukraine as they could: that attack was one of the aims of the SMO. Having achieved this aim, the Russians did not need to hang onto Kiev or other cities and withdrew to the areas where their forces were most needed. Thus the expectation of a swift blitzkrieg war of invasion overwhelming Ukraine, against which the Ukrainians would fight back with guerrilla tactics, was dashed.
The Russians know the terrain well in Ukraine, having fought there in World War II, and they have figured that the most effective war to be fought there is one of attrition in which the enemy is encouraged to throw forces, equipment and ammunition into one giant sucking hole while the Russians themselves do no more than play whack-a-mole with the enemy. Of course, British fighting strategies unchanged since the Allied disaster at Gallipoli in 1915 help give the Russians additional advantages of time and in conserving their own troops and equipment.
It is likely also that the goals of Russia’s SMO have changed over time but the Russians are not likely to advertise these changes, any more than they are likely to blare out new moves or counter-moves the way the Ukrainians do.
Posted by: Refinnejenna | Jun 3 2023 21:39 utc | 94
Oooh, another good one –
‘«In every case, Russia is an imperialist aggressor led by a madman bent on world domination and therefore deserving of every possible curse. Russia is strong but weak. Rich but poor. Winning but losing. On schedule, way behind schedule. Brutally and unilaterally attacking and destroying Ukrainian capabilities but also comically inept and teetering on the verge of total defeat.»
It is a standard operating procedure, described at least since 2001 (or since the roman concept of “justum bellum” arguably):
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2009/1/12/683319/-
«In 2001 (before 9/11), Belgian historian Anne Morelli published a book analyzing the basic principles of war propaganda. Unfortunately and as far as I can tell, it was never translated to English (only in German). She credits the work of Lord Ponsonby, an amazing and unfortunately somewhat forgotten character. He stood, largely alone, in the Commons opposing WWI before it started, predicting not just the massacre it was going to be, but more interestingly for our purpose, how it was going to be sold to the masses. Morelli enumerates it as the following principles:
1. We don’t want war, we are only defending ourselves
2. The other guy is the sole responsible for this war
3. Our adversary’s leader is evil and looks evil
4. We are defending a noble purpose, not special interests
5. The enemy is purposefully causing atrocities; we only commit mistakes
6. The enemy is using unlawful weapons
7. We have very little losses, the enemy is losing big
8. Intellectuals and artists support our cause
9. Our cause is sacred
10. Those who doubt our propaganda are traitors»
Posted by: Blissex | Jun 3 2023 22:14 utc | 98