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Everything posted by beautifulthailand99
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You will have to take that up with Politico that made the comparison. Sadly I can't link the Prizoghin talk to prisonsers in a Russian jail where he outlines the deal in brutal terms so no convict was unware of what they were getting into. They were volunteers as well - Russian jails like Thai ones are terrible, terrible places. It was you do 6 months and you will probably die but if you live you will get your freedom. Oh here is an accpetable source but not the 6 minute one with translations which is a fascinating piece of source material.
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https://www.politico.eu/article/ukrainian-parliament-approves-voluntary-mobilization-of-convicts-for-war-ukraine-russia/ Desperate for recruits after a six-month delay in declaring mobilization, Ukraine’s MPs took a page straight from the book of Russia's Wagner Group mercenary force — which also allows convicts to reduce their jail terms through military service. The lawmakers hope a regulated, voluntary process will allow Kyiv to mobilize up to 10,000 convicts for the war. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy must sign the bill before it can take effect.
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The 50,000 strong force being committed to Kharkiv doesn’t look like it has much intentions beyond harassing Ukrainian defences. From the RU perspective it would probably be wise to hold off pushing for Kharkiv city until the situation deteriorates for AFU. The manpower required to take it would just be too significant otherwise,so he's probably right. They have pretty much got all the land they wanted now. From hereonin, they just need Ukraine to either collapse or agree to a peace deal. So the General is right if my informed hunches are correct and most probably a ploy to divert resources and keep Ukraine guessing. So far, the forces that Russia has committed to Kharkiv, up to 30,000 from Belgorod, rising to 50,000 if nearby forces are included, are nowhere near enough to threaten a city the size of Kharkiv, Barros said.The battle is not a territorial struggle for Ukraine’s second city, but more likely a combination of a diversionary attack to weaken defensive lines in the Donbas and an attempt to use bombardment to turn Kharkiv into a ghost town. https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/16/ukraines-defences-thin-on-ground-as-russia-advances-on-kharkiv
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They were used to build the impenetrable Surovikin lIne - how they laughed but as Bob Monkhouse said of his critics when they laughed at him wanting to be a comedian. Well they are not laughing now. We can add washing machines, toilets, prisoners being conscripted (Ukraine now|!) , endless wunderwafffe - Leopards, Challengers, M1 Abrams and now the coming F15s , Putin's dying , will be deposed in a coup, body doubles, the much vaunted counteroffensive that went nowhere, economy imploding, sanctions biting, corruption banished, and many more jingo narratives fed to the poulations to make this war seem trivial and we are winning - just a matter of time - victory is assured. Whereas the western military industrial complex charges eye watering amounts for tech that seems oudated in the modern era of conflict and £5 billion UK Ajax tanks that still don't work and aircraft carriers that look like sitting ducks - the Russians stick glide bomb kits onto tens of thousand of dumb bombs to make deadly accurate FAB bombs, go to the scrapyard to make Turtle Tanks to combat FPV drones and developed the deadly Lancet's in abandoned shopping malls that are fired by catapults at $20k a pop and refurb junkyard tanks that almost run on anything that burns. And that's before we get to a woke army more focused on politcal correctness in ther ranks and mental health of their troops than fighting bloody battles with an enemy not afraid to die or endure misery and suffering. Don't poke the bear has been a mantra down the ages and with good reason - just ask Napoleon and Hitler who found out what exactly that means.
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Max Hastings in The Times telling it like it is. Jingoists take note. Almost nobody is telling it like it is. Jingo newspapers bear as much blame for parroting government deceits about Ukraine’s prospects as our ministers themselves, who feel obliged to keep promising victory. Optimists should also abandon the oft-repeated assertion that the Russians are mere bunglers. They are getting steadily better, especially in the field of electronic warfare, and they have far more munitions. Drones are key. Kyiv estimates that Russia is producing or procuring 100,000 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) a month, while Ukraine can achieve only half that number. Iranian-made Shahed drones cost far less than the western missiles deployed to shoot them down. Russia has doubled its tank production to an estimated 200 a year. https://archive.ph/WOzZ3
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And that's the gospel truth , the Chinese like to work,work , work and the Confucian philsophy baked into the culture is social harmony and respect for your family and ancestors. Mao was an aberation in that 3000 year old history and they are back on track. I wouldn't like to live like one but I'm sure glad they make most of the stuff I use and make it cheap enough for Joe Blow and his dog. You're right they don't like wars unless they are forced upon them - often by colonial powers like the Britsih shoving opiates down their throat and nicking their land or the Japanese genocided them. The West has punished Putin who has gone running to Xi who has embraced him with don't worry we can help - now we want this,this and this. Ukraine is your Tibet - don't mind we undersatnd but we have your back on tech and filling the holes the fleeing westerners have left behind. Let bygones be bygones and are border problems - well lets forgive and forget in Harbin of all places which is a very poignant symbol of how the 2 powers have cemented their friendship in a place they once fought over. This is the new world order unveiling rapidly before our eyes - well done for choosing Thailand as your safe haven - you chose well, I may even have to join you before too long if it get's too hot in Europe for too long. Settled, corrupt army dictatorships with sham democracies and a compliant well trained poulation makes for social order and cheap prices. And amongst other things the West's support for Israel's rage in Gaza took the wind out of the sails of western lecturing on the moral certainties of the world and gave Putin the perfect opportunity to say - see are we really that bad - we fellow destroyers of cities ? For me the real crime was when Boris was sent to persuade Zelenskiy to fight on and not settle for a peace deal which would have been Ukraine accepting neutrality and a tacit acceptance of Russia as a peer neighbor with valid geopolitical interests brokered by Erdogan and the Israeli PM. But the violent uber nationalist Ukrainian patriots boxed him in and they were the ones with guns and paramilitaries and battle hardened by years of war with Russia on the borders emboldened by US support, all part of the Nuland plan to wrest the country away from the Russian sphere. Then to compound that to only give them enough to fight on and not win with stuff we shook down from behind our sofas in essence. That US/NATO would cut and run should have been obvious to anyone with an understanding of history and increasingly Zelenskiy is cursing his partners whilst sacking some of his inner circle who contradict him - the sucession struggle when Z goes is going to be brutal and in reality has already begun. General Zalunhy being a glaring case in point hugely popelar with the army and didn't want to go. Up till now NATO had easy adversaries with little military manufacturing or capabilities and low grade allies in the world. Don't pick fights you can't win and certainly not with a world power with nukes, that's lesson one in elementray diplomacy. Ukraine is out of men,money and ammo and the world just doesn't have enough to satisfy Ukarine's needs , besides which it needs to rearm themselves and at pace. And to those willing on the brave defenders and crying the usual refrains then you are on a path to world war and one in which no-one wins we have a short window to pause and reflect before the real darkness descends. Time to talk , wind egos in and let the healing begin. It has to start somewhere. https://archive.ph/CRQCN
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Over on Reddit, where I spend most of my time now, he and Colonel Richard Kemp are widely derided for their sensationalist about-faces. The problem for the West is that they cellectively haven't been telling the truth to their people, and the rapidly developing alliance of friendship between China and Russia is unprecedented and an epoch-defining event. It is the world's largest country and source of mineral reserves aligned with the world's largest manufacturing base, with whom the West is freezing itself out. I hope and pray our leaders don't see endless war as the solution to our problems as the Chinese have nearly infinite patience and Russia an almost infinite capacity to take pain. Do I like this no , I am a child of a liberal well funded western era when it was glorious to be alive and during this boom it was the best place to be. But the tanks have been running on empty for quite a while now, and we have an increasingly frightened and restless population assailed by declining wealth, social welfare, healthcare, housing, and pensions, among others problems, and waves of migration often coming from countries we have helped to destroy. Try selling guns, not butter, to them. Chinese culture will not replace Western culture as Russians’ main reference point any time soon. But a profound change has taken place. From the other side of the Iron Curtain, Europe was seen as a beacon of human rights, prosperity and technological development, a space that many Soviet citizens aspired to be part of. Now a growing number of educated Russians, on top of feeling bitterness toward Europe for its punitive sanctions, see China as a technologically advanced and economically superior power to which Russia is ever more connected. With no easy way back to normal ties with the West, that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. https://archive.ph/YTurB
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Hi giys, hope you are all well. I've had a bit of a break, but I've decided to come back and help with information and insight. I've never seen anything like this throughout the war: multiple and repeated Western mainstream media (MSM) articles starting to admit defeat. The ultimate question is: will the West accept this, or will they try and escalate the NATO response with boots on the ground? I realize that this will come as a shock to some who have taken their news from a limited set of sources, but the writing has been on the wall for a considerable period of time. The Telegraph, in particular, but not alone, has become very defeatist.I think we are very much in the sunk cost double or quits territory. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." - Mike Tyson Gaps in defences are always designed to be covered by overlapping positions, with defences in depth to create a broad and deep defensive line. 30,000 Russians is no gap in any defence. There are now serious questions as to whether a defence was even properly constructed. If so, this is deep professional negligence of the highest order, and risks raising the ugly spectre of corruption within the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Having personally met with many wounded Ukrainian veterans, I profoundly hope that this is not the case. https://archive.ph/ZW2IL And another from Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon who is former commanding officer of the 1st Royal Tank Regiment and a regular Telegraph commentator. Putin could now defeat Ukraine within months This is no longer a threat that the West can ignore. We must act now to prevent the outbreak of another world war https://archive.ph/DrAoc This video highlights many of the things I pointed out in a long post a couple of months ago. I think it's very important to separate propaganda from the truth. To do that with any reliability, it's important to view a wide array of sources, both mainstream and otherwise, and make a judgment on the balance of probabilities.
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Well it is and the scandal of Boris Johnson disgracefully giving a peerage to his son still rages on. That said, the same claims are appearing across a wide range of Western MSM now - such as WAPO here. Tusk and Macrons call to arms are a reflection of the new reality. This is the author ; Robert Fox, Journalist and broadcaster, Defence Correspondent for The Evening Standard and Senior Associate Fellow, Centre for Defence Studies, King's College London. https://archive.is/gm41Z “We are trying to find some way not to retreat,” Zelensky continued. After the Russian capture of Avdiivka in February, he said, “we have stabilized the situation because of smart steps by our military.” If the front remains stable, he said, Ukraine can arm and train new brigades in the rear to conduct a new counteroffensive later this year. Zelensky summed up the zero-sum reality of this conflict: “If you are not taking steps forward to prepare another counteroffensive, Russia will take them. That’s what we learned in this war: If you don’t do it, Russia will do it.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/30/ukraine-war-briefing-us-aid-delays-could-force-ukrainian-troops-to-retreat-step-by-step-zelenskiy-warns
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Picture of Israeli soldier holding Thai flag causes a stir
beautifulthailand99 replied to webfact's topic in Thailand News
And those claims about the Vikings and the Romans are 1000 years later than Israeli biblical claims on the Holy Land. It doesn't work like that, historic grudges poison politics for generations, that just the way it is. -
Picture of Israeli soldier holding Thai flag causes a stir
beautifulthailand99 replied to webfact's topic in Thailand News
Precisely - the point is you belong there and why should interlopers kick you out of your houses and land. 700k Palestinian Arabs were kicked out at the birth of Israel from their historic lands. Some still have the title deeds for their lands now having Israeli settlers living on then. Just imagine that happened to you - how would you react ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakba -
Picture of Israeli soldier holding Thai flag causes a stir
beautifulthailand99 replied to webfact's topic in Thailand News
If we kicked out the scousers from Liverpool and sent most of them back to Ireland from whence they came and gave their houses and land to Pakistani and Indian immigrants within a generation I confidently predict Liverpool would be humming with commerce and industry. Add the Hong Kong Chinese to the mix and we could have Singapore on Mersey. Can you see any problems with this policy ? Might not get the Beatles though, but on the plus side we would lose Ken Dodd. -
Israel is at War - General discussion (pt3)
beautifulthailand99 replied to Social Media's topic in The War in Israel
2 shock takeaways from this current conflict is that the much vaunted Mossad turned out to have feet of clay, and Israeli propaganda is so crude in many instances it is laughable. Previously I had always bought into the Munich, Eichmann Mossad had superpowers ability and could reach anywhere, anytime. Maybe the post-war generation of leaders forged in WW2 in various ways had it, but later generations have lost it. Not just Israel, to be fair. -
Picture of Israeli soldier holding Thai flag causes a stir
beautifulthailand99 replied to webfact's topic in Thailand News
Very well said Hummin and outside the echo chamber of the World News thread very interesting to see the fulsome support for your post from the wider membership. -
Picture of Israeli soldier holding Thai flag causes a stir
beautifulthailand99 replied to webfact's topic in Thailand News
Thailand never takes sides and there is no bad money only money if you continue to live there then that is tacit acceptance of this doctrine.