Posts Tagged ‘war’

It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.

Richard Feynman

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for a long time you will know that Russia’s War in Ukraine took an unexpected turn over the last year and a half.

Ukrainian drones have hit deep into Russia wreaking havoc economically and causing hardship inside Russia proper and effecting Russians in the Crimea to the point where people who moved there are leaving.

All of this puts the elderly Putin in a bad spot because if you’re an absolute ruler (no matter what “elections” take place) you can’t seem weak. Ukraine is a big piece of the old Russian empire (It belonged to Russia for centuries) and rebuilding it has been a dream of his since the old Soviet Union broke up and frankly it’s a dream that a lot of Russians likely share.

The drone attacks have been a great morale boost as well for the Ukrainians & have encouraged them to avoid a deal that has any concessions in it. I can certainly see their point, but today a question hit me that I had not considered.

During the American Civil War Rebel raiders on land (Nathan Bedford Forest) and at sea (The CSS Alabama & Shenandoah etc) did tremendous economic damage to the Union forces and grabbed headlines all over the world. They were the talk of every schoolboy & editors devoted column after column to them. William Tecumseh Sherman himself said that Forest needed to be caught if it bankrupted the country.

But for all their success and fame neither the raiders like Forest on land nor the various raiders at sea could stop the relentless advance of the Union Army which still had every advantage over the South.

And that leads to my question, the only one that matters:

Has Ukraine’s drone warfare caused the Russians to retreat from and/or abandon positions within Ukraine they once held?

I suspect the answer is “no” because if it was “yes” we’d be hearing about it.

The Ukrainians are rightly proud of their use of drone warfare and the effect it’s had on Putin’s Russia but in all the coverage I’ve not seen any stories about the Russian forces retreating or even losing ground.

That’s the bottom line is that if it doesn’t cause the Russians to lose ground it adds up to an annoyance & an annoyance will not be enough to stop Putin no matter how big it is.

I suspect that both countries are on their last legs and would love to end the war, but neither is willing to lose face as Putin would by not acquiring any territory and as Ukraine would by ceding any.

Cutting that Gordon knot is the key to ending the war in the short term.

In the long term however it’s going to be about Russia giving up plans to rebuild their empire and who comes after Putin but that a problem for another day.

“The difference between War and what we have now is we’re not shooting back”

Philadelphia Newspaper in 1917 on Germany’s Unrestricted Submarine Warfare

I woke up to the news that we are hitting Iran and that we apparently are apparently going to finally going to take out that that regime.

Here is his speech in full:

For 40 years they sponsored terrorism all over the world. They were responsible for attacks against American troops & interests all over the world. It is because of the Ayatollah’s in Iran that the Brits, French, Canadians & others are now bowing down before Islam.

Additionally our enemies (China & Russia) have been able to use Iran as a proxy

Let’s be very blunt, I was 16 when they took our people hostages. We should have delivered an ultimatum to them on the spot and destroyed the Ayatollah’s regime at that time while it was still weak. The world paid a horrible price for our failure to do so in 1979 & you might even say that millions all over the planet might have been saved if we had. Furthermore the Iranian people would have been spared even more.

I’m sure that president from Regan to Bush 2 (who actually had Iran surrounded with armies to the east and west of the nation at one point) had reasons not to act & thought it prudent to avoid such things.

You could also make the case that the Iranian people had not yet reached the point where they had had enough. Many Marxists who cheered the fall of the Shah and the coming of Khomeini ended up against a wall as all useful idiots do. It was just 30 days ago that tens of thousands of Iranians died proving that they are ready for this regime of evil to be destroyed.

There were other presidents & administrations who decided that Iran was worthy of US tax dollars by the pallet. I have thoughts on that which we won’t go into today but fortunately that president is no longer in charge so we can wait until the intelligence files of a fallen Islamic Iran are opened to scrutiny to speculate why.

Now we have Donald Trump. We don’t have to speculate why he is doing what he’s doing. Put simply he has decided in his 2nd term to take care of all family business and Iran is one of those pieces of business that is being taken care of.:

It’s been a long time coming. I’m glad to see it in my lifetime.

I’d like to close with some tweets from a month ago that has aged rather well first this:

Apparently the amount of time is 44 days

It’s an interesting thread. I respect Dr. Shanker, he doesn’t like Trump but he’s an honest guy.

This reminds me of Longstreet who never wanted to move until he had everything ready. If Lee had listened to him we might have lost at Gettysburg.

One thing I will say, he has to finish the job, the mullahs have to fall, if not it’s a failure.

Winston Wolf: Get it straight buster – I’m not here to say please, I’m here to tell you what to do and if self-preservation is an instinct you possess you’d better fucking do it and do it quick. I’m here to help – if my help’s not appreciated then lotsa luck, gentlemen.

Pulp Fiction 1994

While I can not speak for the administration as I am not a part of it as an American who

  1. Thinks that Ukraine has a proper Casus Belli vs Russia
  2. Belives Russia should not have invaded
  3. Believes Russia’s goal was to conquer the entire state and not just protect ethnic Russians
  4. Believes it’s up to Ukraine to decide if it wants to keep fighting
  5. Believes it’s up to Ukraine to decide if it wants to make deals with the US or not

Let me say the following:

I have absolutely no problem if you wish to provide Billions of Pounds/Dollars/Euros to Ukraine to support their war to eject Russia from Ukrainian territory.

I have no problem if you wish to provide thousands or tend of thousands of troops to fight for Ukraine against Russia.

Feel free to do both or either if you wish and let me wish you and Ukraine the best of luck in this endeavor.

Israel’s utter decimation of Hezbollah in Lebanon has confirmed that they have reached the “That’s All I Can Stands I Can’t Stands no More!” stage of existence. In the absence of US leadership Bibi and company has decided to act in their own best interest and take out the trash rather than sit back and appease western governments afraid of angry Arabs.

With Tanks now at the border of Lebanon and the entire command structure of Lebanon gone suddenly the Lebanese is suggesting they will enforce UN resolutions to restrain what’s left of Hezbollah but Israel seems to have decided to take the John Wayne approach from True Grit on rats deciding to kill them rather than let them be.

If I was Iran I’d be damn scared right now.


Speaking of Israel I don’t know what is more embarrassing to me as an American.

  1. That a few days after the Houti’s attacks a group of US warships without any response from us Israel took out their entire oil and fuel reserves at Al Hudaydah port in retaliation for a ballistic Missile strike they conducted against them while they were busy in the north.
  2. That Joe Biden the president when asked about this strike into Yemen strike said this:

This is the man who just over three months ago the entire news media INSISTED was sharp as a tack and anyone who said otherwise was speaking “disinformation”


If you want to understand the difference between a champion and a good player look no further than this exchange when Tom Brady was asked about comments made by the current Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield concerning how the players wanted him to bring “the joy back to Football” lessening the strees they had during the Brady years.

Brady answered thus:

In fairness to Mayfield he has not done bad in Tampa Bay leading them to one playoff win and having a good start this year. When he manages that first Super Bowl Ring then he can talk.

Let me tell you fans in New England are learning the stress of no Super Bowl Rings these days


Some People are shocked that Hillary Clinton is demanding the MSM attack Donald Trump more which given the level they have hit him so far doesn’t seem possible.

I’m not

She is simply claiming the right to treat her slaves as she wishes.


Finally the Chicago White Sox managed to avoid the worst kind of history winning 5 of their final six to finish 41-121 with a .253 winning percentage. While they did set the record for most losses in a season at 121 which beats the 1962 Mets 160 their 41 wins means their winning percentage is .253 as opposed to the Mets .250 meaning that the Mets remain in a class by themselves.

It’s an even bigger accomplishment when you figure that by taking two of three from the Tigers they forced them into the 6th seed in the playoffs when a single win would have given them home field advantage vs the Royals so they had something to play for.

As the Monty Python crew sings, always look at the bright side of life