Posted on 10/10/2023 4:41:28 AM PDT by Timber Rattler
Hamas’ brutal assault against Israel came on Vladimir Putin’s birthday.
Such a catastrophic security shock in the Middle East was probably a welcome surprise for a Russian president whose strategic priority is to divert Western support and attention away from Ukraine. A massive conflagration in Israel risks doing exactly that.
The big question is how much credit to give the Kremlin for the perfect storm of mounting crises — in Israel, Kosovo, the Caucasus and Africa — that are rearing up on America and Europe. For many, it’s tempting to see Putin as a mastermind or puppetmaster, stirring up more conflicts than the West can cope with.
(snip)
“This was probably the best birthday gift for Putin. The attack against Israel will divide attention, given the natural U.S. focus on Israel,” an EU diplomat said.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.eu ...
This is Iran, not Russia. Putin’s birthday? A combination gift to Putin & distraction.
We had embedded reporters in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, Desert Storm, etc. It is unusual that given the degree of our involvement in Ukraine, there is a noticeable paucity of reporting from the frontlines of Ukraine. Other wars were just as dangerous if not more so.
It is obvious that the Ukrainians and the US want to control the narrative about the war. The Ukraine is winning narrative is just propaganda designed to keep the money and arms flowing into the country. Ukraine wants no oversight as to how the money is being used and the Biden regime agrees. The less the American people know about the war, the better. It worked for 18 years in Afghanistan.
“Classic KGB strategy of starting more wars than the West can handle at once.”
Well, you know, those things happen when you send the Neocons around the on ‘Regime Change’ projects, as not every ‘regime’, nor every neighbor of every ‘regime’ will approve of them.
The war in Ukraine is more like WW1. 70,000 artillery shells were fired daily at one point. Reporting from the front for any length of time was a death wish.
Sep 18, 2023 — Russia fired 60,000 shells a day earlier this year, while Ukraine now fires about 7,000
Don’t forget the gifts corrupt ukr’s gave hamas. As of yesterday four IDF helicopters damaged and out of service because of manpads sold (or given) to hamas by ukr. Who would have guessed that corrupt nazis would give advanced american weapons to hamas to kill jews?
Complete Russian BS denied by IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee
Russian propaganda channel RT Arabic asked the Israel's IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee about "Ukraine providing Western weaponry to Hamas" several times.
Lt. Colonel Adraee replied: "I do not comment on such fabrications and lies.”
But I thought Ukraine was winning? If reporting from the frontlines “for any length of time” is a death wish,” what about the Ukrainian troops? Is that why we have no idea as to the real number of Ukrainian casualties and the extent of the destruction? Would such knowledge change the perception of the American people on the wisdom of prolonging this war?
I served in Vietnam (1967-8). The Ukrainian war can and should be covered by our media, which has become a partisan mouthpiece for government propaganda.
And because we aren’t fighting in Ukraine, the media’s and most American’s interest has waned as the war drags on month by month. There are no spectacular breakthroughs, no shock and awe, just the drag of slow moving combat and that’s just not interesting enough for short attention span viewers.
Fortunately for those of us who are interested, we have the small number of people here on Free Republic who post about the war citing foreign media’s stories, various bloggers and video and other first hand reporting from those who are fighting.
Sometimes our “need to know” has to be considered. There is some danger due to war reporting, since it can reveal tactics, locations and other data that can be used by the Russians against Ukraine.
And it can be used to demoralize and sway public opinion against those who are fighting, as was the case in Vietnam, for one example, with the nightly new here reporting against the military and against the war.
Please provide the names of some of the current frontline US reporters in Ukraine and their affiliation. Current is the operative adjective.
US reporters don’t matter.
The rest of the world is doing a good job
Thanks for that great post up above, Bratch.
Thanks. Prayers for you and yours, also.
I believe that Hamas and other terror groups are in position in the US, as others have been talking about after the vile attacks by the rabid Hamas animals last weekend.
We had front line reporters covering the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
In case you missed it, Biden and NATO have made Ukraine the hill to die on. Biden says we will be supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes. We have provided tens of billions of dollars and weapons to Afghanistan and implemented sanctions against Russia that have returned us to a new Cold War and caused a global political realignment that is not favorable to us.
Biden has called for regime change in Russia and the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin on March 17, 2023. We didn't even do this during the the Cold War. We have made it personal.
The US continues to push for NATO membership for Ukraine, which crosses a Russian red line. NATO was warned in Autumn 2021 by Russia that NATO could avoid a war by denying membership to Ukraine. Here’s NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg admitting Russia informed NATO before the war that it could avert it by denying membership to Ukraine.
No vested or personal US interest? Are you gaslighting me? We have provided more military and economic aid to Ukraine than we have to Israel since it was founded in 1949.
We have opened a permanent US military base in Poland. We are now on the doorstep of Ukraine and possible direct involvement in Ukraine. Putin considers Crimea part of Russia as much as Moscow is. We support Ukraine's position that all the territory occupied by Russia must be returned to Ukraine. It is part of what we define as winning. There is no compromise between those two positions. Putin says he will use nuclear weapons if he has to defend Russian territory. We had a similar showdown with the Soviet Union over the stationing of missiles in Cuba. Both sides blinked but not before we were at the abyss of a nuclear confrontation.
Army establishes permanent garrison in Poland In addition to supporting the permanently assigned forces, USAG Poland will also provide direct base operations support to roughly 4,000 rotational forces and 2,500 surge or exercise personnel.
Biden blames the Ukraine war for higher gas and food prices. Americans are paying a price at home for this war. And it is far from over. Desperation drives escalation.
Sometimes our “need to know” has to be considered. There is some danger due to war reporting, since it can reveal tactics, locations and other data that can be used by the Russians against Ukraine.
Give me a break. Have you ever been involved in a war? Reporters are given the requisite security guidelines. And their access to information and battlefield information is restricted. The American people have a right to know what is going on and how their money is being spent.
And it can be used to demoralize and sway public opinion against those who are fighting, as was the case in Vietnam, for one example, with the nightly new here reporting against the military and against the war.
Initially, that was not the case. But as the war went on, the support for the war declined. The difference between then and now is that we now have a MSM that supports the war and repeats the USG/Ukraine propaganda. We now know that the USG was actively involved with social media to censor anti-war comments about Ukraine. That said, the majority of the Americans are now against an open-ended commitment to Ukraine and unlimited aid.
LOL. Can't argue with logic like that.
That’s quite a pantload of CIA crap you brought for us here today.
“starting more wars than the West can handle at once”
That is the Neocon strategy—fighting five losing wars at a time while the military industrial complex rolls in cold cash....
They must be Putin Puffers.
lol.
You barely saw any Afghanistan coverage when Americans were fighting there recently and now that we bailed from there? Nothing. Same for Syria and other places in the M.E. Rarely do they make the news here.
Such is the nature of American media. And that’s one good reason for Ukraine to not want American reporters with them at whatever battle is taking place. They just can’t trust them or their fake news. I know I don’t trust them.
Ukraine is winning every day, by not being swallowed by Putin.
But the MSM supports Biden and the war in Ukraine. They are perfectly willing to regurgitate pro-war propaganda. They don’t want to investigate the origins of this war that has been ongoing since 2014.
Is swallowing Ukraine Putin’s objective? Or does he want to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO? The Russians provided their four demands for ending the war in March 2022.
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