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Mark Wauck's avatar

He spoke simply and directly.

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CBus Mike's avatar

There will be no "frozen line" stop to this war. It's unconditional surrender only, probably following military collapse & coup. They're going to stop being fed into meat grinder at some point.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

That's it. Neocons are scrambling, but Putin doesn't care. This afternoon Mercouris pointed to one particular thing that Putin said--that he wouldn't interfere with the generals. They have a free hand to prosecute the war. That was an acknowledgement that his attempt to negotiate at the beginning had been a mistake that cost lives. No more.

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AmericanCardigan's avatar

US/UK/Ukraine need General Norman Schwarzkopf ticket.

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Jun 14, 2023
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Mark Wauck's avatar

Total must watch--which I did. My only disappointment is that he didn't mention Barr. But very powerful.

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T. Paine Redux's avatar

A couple of observations. Anyone who reads my babbling posts here knows that I love World War Two history, in particular the Eastern Front. Russia appears to be practicing both their own tactics and German tactics used in that war. As I mentioned in a previous post, Kursk-redux 2023 addition - layered defense in depth, channeling attacking forces into kill zones, etc. Also, the Germans used to pull out of front lines prior to Russian assaults. Russian artillery would hit dirt and save German lives, at least temporarily.

As an Army MP in Germany circa 1992-1995 we would often play OPFOR (opposing forces) for local infantry units looking for training partners. On the occasions when grunts would practice an assault against fixed positions their "casualty rates" would exceed 70% and that was in the 1990s. No drones, etc. Just trenches with rifles and machine guns against MPs. One can only imagine the real carnage now.

As an aside - though I was an MP, I was one of the approximately 80% of them that rarely work patrol duties. We were glorified grunts with the exception that we drove everywhere while real grunts humped rucksacks. The former infantry guys here will know what I mean. God Bless em :)

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Steghorn21's avatar

You can just imagine all the idiots at the State Dept and CIA googling "Kursk". These people are fools.

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Jun 13, 2023
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AmericanCardigan's avatar

Russia’s version of Yalta conf. Ironically held in Crimea 1945.

Reminds me of Yogi Berra’s saying. “It’s like deja vu all over again!”

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Bruce-PNW's avatar

Hi Anna - are the Ukraine grain-belts throughout Ukraine, or localized? If localized, part of the 'return to Russia' assessments?

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AmericanCardigan's avatar

Donbas region.

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Jun 13, 2023
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Bruce-PNW's avatar

Found a good map/grain-type source (https://ipad.fas.usda.gov/rssiws/al/up_cropprod.aspx)

Appears most of Ukraine is fertile (71% of land area), and distribution is throughout most regions of Ukraine, although the South-East is definitely agriculturally important.

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T. Paine Redux's avatar

The DR rounds will drop the desirability of that land for sure.

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NFO's avatar

Interesting...beyond Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, is there significant Russian media talk of other oblasts being in play? The "rump Ukraine/frozen conflict" option doesn't seem like a very viable alternative.

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Jun 13, 2023
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chuck99z28's avatar

They won’t be either. DOJ is too corrupt

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