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He's high on his Dugin-inspired fantasy of a glorious new empire stretching from Ireland to India, and he's playing with toy soldiers towards that goal. It's more of a LARP based on a Dugin's Geopolitics than a real campaign for him.
As for what the West should do - No Fly signs are too weakly defensive while simultaneously being too confrontational. It's probably too late for this, but sneaking them some conventional cruise missiles across one of the Southern borders and Ukraine ("Look what we had in reserve!") using them to halt his Epic Show Convoy would very possibly do the job.
Morale and organisation are terrible, and most of the Russian army very much doesn't want to be there. It's all very fragile, and a good counterpush might be all it takes to pry it apart.
Of course the West shouldn't have done Iraq etc. And certainly been more defensive about Russian mafia money and info-ops.
Now we have monkey see, monkey do, and a mad dictator with atrocity envy saying "If you can, why can't I?"
Wiki
Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning, no particular cultural import or universal significance, no geographic uniqueness, no ethnic exclusiveness, its certain territorial ambitions represents an enormous danger for all of Eurasia and, without resolving the Ukrainian problem, it is in general senseless to speak about continental politics". Ukraine should not be allowed to remain independent, unless it is cordon sanitaire, which would be inadmissible.[9]
I particularly liked its description of the UK as "an "extraterritorial floating base of the U.S." [which] "should be cut off from Europe". The Tory Brexiteers, like Trump, seem to be Putin's greatest allies. Index of Frank's Diaries
Absolutely bonkers, all of it, but impossible without Russian info-logistics and local collaboration.
I do think the various powers that be are right to reject the no-fly zone. Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.
Turkish made Ukrainian Bayraktar TB2 drones are probably one of the most effective weapons the Ukrainian army currently deploys against the Russian aggressors. They have already eliminated numerous Russian tanks and Ukraine has only 20 of them. Turkey has more than 200. 🇹🇷🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/s02yvDpwA5— Belisarius🇺🇦 (@herzogg96) February 28, 2022
Turkish made Ukrainian Bayraktar TB2 drones are probably one of the most effective weapons the Ukrainian army currently deploys against the Russian aggressors. They have already eliminated numerous Russian tanks and Ukraine has only 20 of them. Turkey has more than 200. 🇹🇷🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/s02yvDpwA5
Also, I understand that Javelin anti-tank shoulder mounted missiles have been used to destroy a number of Russian tanks. Not independently verified, of course, fog of war and all that.
pic.twitter.com/R2mwfv91OJ— Maitre Eolas (@Maitre_Eolas) March 9, 2022
pic.twitter.com/R2mwfv91OJ
At 1'40, we learn that the "Centre national de sécurité et de maintien de la paix" which is 30 km from Poland and was targeted early today is in fact a huge military basis where US special forces have been training very intensively some Ukrainian units since 2015.
When someone I respect reaches diametrically different conclusions to my own, I try to understand why; and it's not unknown that I change my view (it's all part of growing up / not growing old)
You appear to respect Tass more. Bonne route, camarade. It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
In reality, there is no such thing as a reliable source. Every source is pushing its own interests to some degree. A fundamental problem is that people are not trained in critical thinking from an early age; it's a fundamental requirement if a society is to move in the direction of effective democracy.
In the "old days" (I'm taking France as an example, as the "media market" I best understand), people who wished to be informed would choose a newspaper and stick to it (they were generally aware of the political orientation of the paper, which informed their choice). In the TV age, people got standard government-sanctioned information. Then private TV broadened (arguably) the offering, but subjected information to commercial interests (those of the owners and/or advertisers).
In the internet age, people in general without critical thinking skills quickly fall into tribal or herd behaviour, ready to believe anything if they believe it comes from their tribe...
To come back to Maître Eolas and Tass...
I'm not sure what to make of your Tass link : meeting of Soviet-bloc countries (which the current war is intended by its author to enlarge to include the Ukraine) in order to form a special unit for defense against chemical and biological weapons. It's undoubtedly factual, but lacks the context and interpretation to be useful.
It seems that there are biolabs in Ukraine, US funded, which it is claimed are researching biological warfare. I won't look for factual information about this on Tass (nor in the NY times); I am at a loss to find an informed view of the subject.
As for Eolas, he expresses opinions on a range of subjects outside his domain of competence (notably, about this weekend's rugby). If you intend to boycott him in the future, that's your call. It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
As to the biolabs, I think that Oui has posted a whole shelf of literature in the past days.
We could also do a lot of good by getting every bus we can lay our hands on in there and getting as many civilians out as possible ahead of the seige. Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.
So we're back to where we were a week ago : what's the endgame? It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
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