McGregor remained a colonel, but Ritter was mustered out, unable to get the key promotion to major. He appears to have worked as a civilian consultant to the military, but I don't see this as vouching for his expertise. He knows more than me, but that's not saying much.
Ritter is speaking with absolute certainty. Does he really possess this confidence? I doubt it. How come he didn't predict the recent Wagner insurrection? Or was this insurrection overblown in the western press?
There's no one to truly trust. Either they are largely in the dark, as likely Ritter and McGregor are, or they are lying to the public about what they know is really happening there, and what is going to happen.
Ritter is an articulate commentator and a person of broad experience in the military sphere. I find his comments of interest, but as for the future, he don't know nuthin for certain and that's for sure.
As to the credibility of Ritter versus MacGregor, neither is clairvoyant, but MacGregor has certainly been repeatedly wrong. Russia was going to march West when the ground freezes, except apparently the ground didn't freeze. Then Russia was going to march West when the ground dries, but the ground is now dry but they haven't. But on at least one important occasion -- as UN Weapons inspector --Ritter was right: Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, notwithstanding that George Warmonger Bush's Secretary of State, Colin Powell was pitching total lies about Saddam's supposed biological warfare capability to the United Nations General Assembly. So I don't think Ritter's judgement can so easily be dismissed.
Concerning what Russia will do, I believe they will do essentially nothing. They now have Donbas, and adjacent territory which is home to the majority of Unkraine's ethnically Russian population -- the six million former Ukraine PM Julia Tymoshenko said should be nuked. With that territory, Russia has most of Ukraine's economy separated by a wide belt of sparsely inhabited farmland from NATO-backed Nazified Ukraine. Russia, I blieve, will declare that territory between its new Donbas front line and the Dneiper river a demilitarized zone and will use tactical nukes to prevent any Nazified Nato/Ukraine military build up there.
Further, I think it probably that Russia will incorporate Belarus with the Donbas in a unified Russian state.
Who in the world has the stature to stop this dangerous idiocy?
I'm a bit rough on Ritter, but where he seems dubious to me doesn't matter much. It's trivial. He and McGregor are completely clear with the overall important point this conflict is playing with fire, with no motivation for playing with fire, even for fun.
The world is on auto-pilot.
The war is escalating, surreptitiously, in terms of the deadliness of the technology being deployed.
"The long-range British cruise missile Ukraine has been using to smash Russian military operations was created a generation ago to hit Saddam Hussein in his bathroom.
For several months, Ukraine has been using Storm Shadow—which can hit targets more than 150 miles away with pinpoint accuracy—to blow up Russian military supplies and infrastructure that until recently were out of Kyiv’s reach. The missile is so precise that in its first use, during the 2003 Gulf War, one Storm Shadow punched a hole in the side of a building and then another one followed through the same hole.
Now, Kyiv could be set to receive U.S. long-range missiles, as officials in Washington seek approval at the highest levels to send an American system to Ukraine and bolster its continuing offensive. The system, the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, has a range of about 190 miles. Washington has so far not sent it for fear that Ukraine could use the truck-launched rocket to strike Russian territory and escalate the conflict into a wider war." --Today's WSJ, by Alistair McDonald and Daniel Michaels.
The US seeks escalation of the war. The ultimate aim is to have Russia flatten Kharkiv and Kiev. That would be the basis to force NATO, Germany especially, to wage all out war on Russia.
But Putin ain't buying it. If Russia hits back it is as likely to target the Palace of Westminster in London, as hit anything in Kiev. Kiev was the birthplace of the Russian state. Kiev was the where the Russian Orthodox Church was founded.
Russia's special military operation in Ukraine had as its specific objective the protection of ethnic Russians in Ukraine and the denazification of the regime in Kiev. The first objective has been achieved with the assimilation of the Donbas. The second objective has been achieved at least in part by the slaughter of several hundred thousand Ukrainian fighters, many of them tatooed with Nazi symbols.
McGregor remained a colonel, but Ritter was mustered out, unable to get the key promotion to major. He appears to have worked as a civilian consultant to the military, but I don't see this as vouching for his expertise. He knows more than me, but that's not saying much.
ReplyDeleteRitter is speaking with absolute certainty. Does he really possess this confidence? I doubt it. How come he didn't predict the recent Wagner insurrection? Or was this insurrection overblown in the western press?
There's no one to truly trust. Either they are largely in the dark, as likely Ritter and McGregor are, or they are lying to the public about what they know is really happening there, and what is going to happen.
Ritter is an articulate commentator and a person of broad experience in the military sphere. I find his comments of interest, but as for the future, he don't know nuthin for certain and that's for sure.
DeleteAs to the credibility of Ritter versus MacGregor, neither is clairvoyant, but MacGregor has certainly been repeatedly wrong. Russia was going to march West when the ground freezes, except apparently the ground didn't freeze. Then Russia was going to march West when the ground dries, but the ground is now dry but they haven't. But on at least one important occasion -- as UN Weapons inspector --Ritter was right: Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, notwithstanding that George Warmonger Bush's Secretary of State, Colin Powell was pitching total lies about Saddam's supposed biological warfare capability to the United Nations General Assembly. So I don't think Ritter's judgement can so easily be dismissed.
DeleteConcerning what Russia will do, I believe they will do essentially nothing. They now have Donbas, and adjacent territory which is home to the majority of Unkraine's ethnically Russian population -- the six million former Ukraine PM Julia Tymoshenko said should be nuked. With that territory, Russia has most of Ukraine's economy separated by a wide belt of sparsely inhabited farmland from NATO-backed Nazified Ukraine. Russia, I blieve, will declare that territory between its new Donbas front line and the Dneiper river a demilitarized zone and will use tactical nukes to prevent any Nazified Nato/Ukraine military build up there.
Further, I think it probably that Russia will incorporate Belarus with the Donbas in a unified Russian state.
Who in the world has the stature to stop this dangerous idiocy?
DeleteI'm a bit rough on Ritter, but where he seems dubious to me doesn't matter much. It's trivial. He and McGregor are completely clear with the overall important point this conflict is playing with fire, with no motivation for playing with fire, even for fun.
The world is on auto-pilot.
The war is escalating, surreptitiously, in terms of the deadliness of the technology being deployed.
"The long-range British cruise missile Ukraine has been using to smash Russian military operations was created a generation ago to hit Saddam Hussein in his bathroom.
For several months, Ukraine has been using Storm Shadow—which can hit targets more than 150 miles away with pinpoint accuracy—to blow up Russian military supplies and infrastructure that until recently were out of Kyiv’s reach. The missile is so precise that in its first use, during the 2003 Gulf War, one Storm Shadow punched a hole in the side of a building and then another one followed through the same hole.
Now, Kyiv could be set to receive U.S. long-range missiles, as officials in Washington seek approval at the highest levels to send an American system to Ukraine and bolster its continuing offensive. The system, the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, has a range of about 190 miles. Washington has so far not sent it for fear that Ukraine could use the truck-launched rocket to strike Russian territory and escalate the conflict into a wider war." --Today's WSJ, by Alistair McDonald and Daniel Michaels.
The US seeks escalation of the war. The ultimate aim is to have Russia flatten Kharkiv and Kiev. That would be the basis to force NATO, Germany especially, to wage all out war on Russia.
DeleteBut Putin ain't buying it. If Russia hits back it is as likely to target the Palace of Westminster in London, as hit anything in Kiev. Kiev was the birthplace of the Russian state. Kiev was the where the Russian Orthodox Church was founded.
Russia's special military operation in Ukraine had as its specific objective the protection of ethnic Russians in Ukraine and the denazification of the regime in Kiev. The first objective has been achieved with the assimilation of the Donbas. The second objective has been achieved at least in part by the slaughter of several hundred thousand Ukrainian fighters, many of them tatooed with Nazi symbols.