I have taken care to stay above the fray as best I can over the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. So much so that I’m not going to call it a war.
Politicians are very excited about the “special operation”. That’s because their districts and towns get a big bump in their revenue by producing weapons of war. There’s probably more than one honest politician who thinks escalation of this proxy war is a fool’s errand, and chances are our strategists have already determined who will be victorious when the shells stop landing.
I am a Democrat. I do not number among the traitors who are rooting for Russia to win. But I’m just putting it down for posterity that it doesn’t matter anymore what we do. Russia has better cards and NATO was caught sleeping on the job as we instigated a 2014 color revolution of sorts in Ukraine. While we congratulated ourselves in saying we may have finally won The Cold War, Mother Russia and Vladimir Putin were rising in the ranks, preparing a response.
And so it was that Russia shot back. With real artillery and manpower, seven years later.
I am not an authority on war. However, there’s a guy who took over the site for mourners of the loss of Billmon, is all over every aspect of this current frightful war over at Moon Of Alabama. He’s got a lot of people hanging on his words who don’t know how to think about Ukraine and Russia, and that has included me on occasion. Sometimes he will say something so seemingly outrageous that I say “Fuck it! Bernhard is not one of my people.” Then I come back and realize I’m fucking wrong and everyone is playing catch-up with this guy.
Even Noam Chomsky is reading him.
Blogs are not dead. Good ones are getting subscriptions from Substack, and mine is for my own edification. Let me just say right now that social media could be the worst possible place to get real information. Nope. It’s still citizen journalism that is the revolution. And all “b” asks for is a bit of funding twice a year to spend the time he needs to in order to tell the truth about the lies in this conflict.
OK. Looks like I’m back to rambling before I get to a point.
Here’s the news I wanted to share: that we’re going to send old tank tech to Ukraine that would have wound up as surplus if we did need Abrams M1s somewhere.
The Pentagon is speeding up its delivery of Abrams tanks to Ukraine, opting to send a refurbished older model that can be ready faster, with the aim of getting the 70-ton battle powerhouses to the war zone by the fall, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
The original plan was to send Ukraine 31 of the newer M1A2 Abrams, which could have taken a year or two to build and ship. But officials said the decision was made to send the older M1A1 version, which can be taken from Army stocks. Officials said the M1A1 also will be easier for Ukrainian forces to learn to use and maintain as they fight the invading Russian forces.
“This is about getting this important combat capability into the hands of the Ukrainians sooner rather than later,” said Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary.
This is not a serious response to the Russian incursion. This is just Pentagon flexing, and all it does is blow up our military budget, which is higher than all nations on the planet combined. A trillion dollars a year for war in faraway lands because we’re pissed that Putin isn’t ceding any more of its sphere of influence to the EU/NATO/American axis. Again, it’s great for any local politician who has a war factory in its boundaries, but is that a good reason to feed more dead Ukrainians to a relentless Russian offensive? Oh, sure, there’s talk about both sides planning for one now that the ground has thawed, but on the other hand that kinda just sounds like mud to me, especially if you are doing close combat and trying to use tanks in it. I’m pretty sure the Russians are/were more prepared for the ice and the mud, seeing how we are still futilely trying to clothe the Ukrainian infantry. If you read the AP article, you get the sense that Ukraine ain’t even on our high priority list when it comes to us selling defense which can turn to offense.
But, talk of this should be done at Moon Of Alabama. Over to you, “b”. Gimme some linky love and I promise I’ll tip you next time you bleg.