Grim 🥹
And they wonder why Ukraine will fight them for every inch of dirt.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/fcb44c76-a54d-4f12-84f9-1a900de09364
Documentary on the UK led training courses turning ordinary Ukrainians into soldiers. BBC3 tonight 9pm or iPlayer.
Got a bit dusty watching that…..
Stacy Dooley is an amazing presenter - really showed the personal side of it.
Documentary on the UK led training courses turning ordinary Ukrainians into soldiers. BBC3 tonight 9pm or iPlayer.
Well that was a powerful bit of TV.
And they wonder why Ukraine will fight them for every inch of dirt.
One explanation for it (recording it and publishing it on Social Media seems very deliberate) is that it puts into the minds of the Russian soldiers that they can expect poor/appalling treatment from Ukrainians if they are captured because of what other Russians have done. In a twisted way trying to improve their will to fight.
The whole thing is beyond my comprehension so I have no idea how close to the mark that is.
There is a very graphic video of a Ukrainian soldier getting beheaded,..and his head put on a spike in Bakhmut.
Not even sure I have the words.
When you staff your army with the worst human scum found lingering in the dark corners of Russian prisons its hardly surprising when this sort of things happens.
The Russian Army now have the same level of credibility as ISIS.
One explanation for it (recording it and publishing it on Social Media seems very deliberate) is that it puts into the minds of the Russian soldiers that they can expect poor/appalling treatment from Ukrainians if they are captured because of what other Russians have done.
More likely that the Russian soldiers have been brutalized themselves and get a kick out of being sadistic so they want to share it with their mates.
When you staff your army with the worst human scum found lingering in the dark corners of Russian prisons its hardly surprising when this sort of things happens.
Word. War is inhumane as a standing point, what keeps it loosely within the boundaries are well-trained, motivated troops keeping (or being kept) in line with LOAC and their individual morals and unit/service ethos.
Russian military doctrine, training and manning takes a big dirty shit on all of that. There will be more, some of it won't see the light of day yet, but we will be hearing about atrocities commited for years to come.
I'm still quite suspicious that this was a deliberate leak disguised as a disgruntled employee.
https://twitter.com/svdate/status/1646341323585101827
Bellingcat seem to have drawn a similar conclusion as to the leak's source.
Sadly I suspect the leaked stuff is real , amazing how many Americans have access to top secret info!
https://twitter.com/OAlexanderDK/status/1646553521968250884?t=i8vQg1UatVrDOcptaT9AcA&s=19
The assessment that USA doesn't think Ukraine will be able to take much back in a counteroffensive I do hope is wrong, but I fear they don't have the armaments they need, eh tanks & planes
So the assessment was Ukraine wouldn’t be able to mount an offensive, so what are the west doing about it? 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️
futonrivercrossing +1
Many other countries have a *lot* to lose now and in the future to see Russia win or even just take some succour from the situation.
I kind of want NATO to just decide enough is enough and just end this war within a week....but I guess the nuclear fear is the reason why.
I kind of want NATO to just decide enough is enough and just end this war within a week….but I guess the nuclear fear is the reason why.
NATO have wanted to put peacekeepers in for a long time, or speedily push Ukraines membership, but the reality is that there's just too much risk of escalation, Russia and Putin are not showing any reasoning for what they are doing and why, you start pushing Western troops in and it will get even more messy, remember it's not just Russia you have to worry about, there are several nations who sit on the fence, or back Russia behind closed doors.
It's just a huge mess that went past the point of madness a while back, and the options for any resolution are getting slimmer and slimmer.
As for the US leaker, just read he's a 21 year old national guard, what an absolute idiot, this is no Snowden, he will not get any backers i guess and could see his life being all but over at 21, it's mental to think that.
As for the US leaker, just read he’s a 21 year old national guard, what an absolute idiot
There have been several cases of documents being leaked in order to prove that "someone is wrong on the internet".
There is one online tank simulator game that actually has to have an official policy of "no the devs wont look at classified documents proving tank x has a turret turning speed of x" because its had several cases of people posting classified documents to prove the tanks they want to use (since its their daily drive) are better than the sim says they are.
I’m not suggesting NATO boots on the ground, 500 Leopard 2 tanks, and 200 challengers would be a start. 🤷♂️ we are self deterring, Russias nuclear blackmail cannot be seen to work, it’s all been hot air anyway 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️
I’m not suggesting NATO boots on the ground, 500 Leopard 2 tanks, and 200 challengers would be a start. 🤷♂️ we are self deterring, Russias nuclear blackmail cannot be seen to work, it’s all been hot air anyway 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️
200 CR2's would be our entire operational stock, 500 Leopard 2's would be at least two nations entire operational stocks, and i mean the top two owners of L2's. The support package for that would be even more complicated, with spares, ammunition, support vehicles and so on.
From the sounds of it there's a lot more to focus on than tanks at the moment, a lot of NATO countries are trying their best to balance out support against pushing Russia too far.
As for the US leaker, just read he’s a 21 year old national guard, what an absolute idiot
Thing is, if it was a deliberate leak to throw Russia off, this would be a brilliant way to do it. Or, it could be exactly what the U.S. is saying it is - a guy with mental health issues. Either way, Russia doesn't know how seriously to take the documents. Some of them will be genuine, but it's impossible to know how many aren't.
As for the US leaker, just read he’s a 21 year old national guard, what an absolute idiot
Personally I hope they throw the book at him and he spends the next 25-life in the clink. Young guy, but spouts racism, antisemitic views and is in league with that type of far right hate groups. Where does he get that from, not personal experience i should think.
So fk him.
Young guy, but spouts racism, antisemitic views and is in league with that type of far right hate groups
Also in trouble ought to be whoever allowed him access to that kind of information, or designed the system that allowed it.
Agreed Greybeard - that's a huge institutional issue to be addressed. Probably, like guns, there will be a shrug and a 'well, what can you do?' response.
Where does he get that from, not personal experience i should think.
Its good to see after that came out some of the right wing nutjobs are getting behind him as a "whistleblower".
Which seems to be stretching the term a bit.
beeb has an interesting article on his background. Sounds like his father was in the same intelligence unit
Probably, like guns, there will be a shrug and a ‘well, what can you do?’ response.
Or a campaign to promote him as the victim of an unjust prosecution. (Keep in mind there's someone else that MTG thinks is being unfairly investigated for illegal possession of classified documents. See if you can guess who I mean.)
https://twitter.com/RepMTG/status/1646615867285708802
Its good to see after that came out some of the right wing nutjobs are getting behind him as a “whistleblower”.
Which seems to be stretching the term a bit.
Just can't see it ending well for him, he won't have any real backing, he made the US look bad, his leak only really benefited the Russians, he's not going to be making many friends with the right wingers, as this failure revolves around the US military, rather than the democrats or any left wing backers.
I'm just amazed it's a 21 year old lad with a lot of bad press coming out about him, having dealt with the US they're pretty hot on this, can see a lot of people being a bit twitchy about this leak other than the lad in custody!
Marjorie Green Greene is so far right that her own party keep clear of her, i think even Trump avoided backing her as she's just seen as political poison.
He won't have any real backing when it comes to the crunch, he's going to prison for a long time, military justice system doesn't screw around in the US.
However, for the Republican politicians who have been trying to undermine the US support for Ukraine for almost a decade, he's a useful idiot for their cause right now. They want large swathes of Ukraine handed to Russia. If Trump had been president last year, very little US support would have been forthcoming, in fact, he'd probably have threatened to pull out of NATO to stop the rest of its allies from pitching in.
he’s
notgoing to be making many friends with the right wingers, as this failure revolves around theUS military, rather than the democrats or any left wing backerswoke deep state who have hijacked the greatest military on earth to further their socialist agenda of letting men dress up in ladies clothes and cuddle in public, etc.FTFY
Also in trouble ought to be whoever allowed him access to that kind of information, or designed the system that allowed it.
I'm sure I read somewhere the other day that 1.25 million people in the US have access to classified stuff. If that's true, or even a tenth of that number, it's not super surprising that stuff like this happens.
Also in trouble ought to be whoever allowed him access to that kind of information, or designed the system that allowed it.
Remember that it's not just the system, it's how people use it. As far as I remember Chelsea Manning didn't normally have access to the stuff that was released to Wikileaks but the logins were written on notes under the terminals. People are always the biggeset issue 🙁
I suspect many of the MAGA crowd are rushing to this knucklehead's defense primarily because of the parallels between this and a certain other classified documents case that's going on right now.
The US public has just had a very public demonstration of what happens to you if you retain classified docs whilst not being fortunate enough to be a former POTUS. Makes somewhat of mockery of all Trumps whining when he's clearly been treated with kid gloves.
The stuff that was supposedly found in the raid at Mar E lago is reported to have also been several levels spicier than the documents in this case.
Of all the legal cases facing Trump, this remains the most dangerous to him IMHO.
not just the system, it’s how people use it
Yes, sorry, we're using different definitions of 'system'. I meant the whole thing including the people, culture, supervision, etc.
One of the big data breaches in the U.S. a few years ago came from the HVAC contractor. Logging in to the HVAC system gave access to the entire network, which wasn't very well secured. The hackers gained access to the HVAC company, got into the retailer's network, escalated to admin privileges, then they had full access to all the customer credit card data. The U.S. military must have tens of thousands of I.T. technicians who already have some admin privileges and are basically just trusted to not do anything malicious.
If that’s true, or even a tenth of that number, it’s not super surprising that stuff like this happens.
Id say if thats the case its a dead cert China & others have access as well
Of all the legal cases facing Trump, this remains the most dangerous to him IMHO.
Can't see them doing much to an ex-president over this, if anything it was his departmental security team that are at fault, if Mar E Lago had this information, then they should have created a SCIF and secured it appropriately, same as this young lads scenario, if he's got classified documents via a SCIF then there's even bigger questions to be answered by a lot more people.
Can’t see them doing much to an ex-president over this, if anything it was his departmental security team that are at fault, if Mar E Lago had this information, then they should have created a SCIF and secured it appropriately, same as this young lads scenario, if he’s got classified documents via a SCIF then there’s even bigger questions to be answered by a lot more people.
You clearly aren't up on the facts of the case. Trump literally has his fingerprints all over this. He took the documents. The U.S. government asked for them back. Trump and his people stalled and lied. They returned some and said they'd returned them all. Trump is apparently on security camera footage visiting the storage room, presumably to remove documents he wanted to keep. Eventually, after months of polite requests, the FBI got a search warrant and found hundreds of missing documents. This was not a bit of laziness on the part of Trump's staff, it was him right at the center taking documents, refusing to return them, and then lying about it.
There have been many other cases, Biden for example, of people having classified documents, usually through just not realizing they're classified. In those cases, the documents were returned immediately and the people who had them gave honest answers about everything. Those cases are rarely prosecuted because they are just cases of someone making a simple mistake, without any malicious intent. Trump is different because it was deliberate and he has been utterly dishonest about it right from the very start. I think that is will end up being the strongest case against Trump and the DOJ will prosecute him to the maximum.
+1 to what Thols2 said, the Trump documents case has a whole load of extra angles to it that make it a much, much bigger deal, with more coming out all the time.
It's a vastly more serious case than anything regarding Stormy Daniels and in theory much easier to prove a felony on than the cases regarding Jan 6th and the Georgia phone call.
It's not surprising that Trump's acolytes are now trying to make excuses for Jack Teixeira as a way to muddy the waters for when the pretty inevitable indictment lands in Trump's case.
As expected some captured Russian kit is ending up in the USA.
Although I would assume the really good stuff would get transported by the US military and not via commercial freight.
I do love how its got a label like you get on a normal package stuck on the barrel.
Unless someone is really bored and dedicated to practical jokes.
Unless someone is really bored and dedicated to practical jokes.
You pretty much described the avergage squaddie in a nutshell there.
It's all getting a little obvious that China is itching for Russia to try out it's new weapons in Ukraine.
Oh yeah, why's that?
Article today and the guardian which states that a growing number of Chinese made components are being found in Russian weapons.
I seem to following Pet Shop Boys for news these days…
https://twitter.com/petshopboys/status/1639970538356457474?s=21
https://twitter.com/petshopboys/status/1646784845425569792?s=21
https://twitter.com/petshopboys/status/1647933051194802178?s=21