Bulletins and News Discussion from December 4th to December 10th, 2023 - The Legacy of Kissinger - COTW: Laos
Bulletins and News Discussion from December 4th to December 10th, 2023 - The Legacy of Kissinger - COTW: Laos
Due to American cluster bombing campaigns advised by Kissinger during the Vietnam War to damage supply lines, over 2 million tonnes of ordinance were dropped on Laos over about a decade, averaging a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes. Laos is thus the most bombed country on the planet up to this point. 80 million bombs failed to explode - the cleanup operation is expected to take centuries, and 25,000 people have been killed and injured by bombs in the last 50 years. About 50 people are killed or injured every year to this day.
After the United States withdrew from Laos, the Pathet Lao took power and abolished the monarchy. Kaysone Phomvihane became a dominant figure in Laotian politics, keeping the course on Marxism-Leninism and implementing the first Five Year Plan in 1981. The second Five Year Plan in 1986 was modelled on Lenin's NEP, and this doubled rice production and significantly increased sugar production. After the fall of the USSR, Laos allowed a small capitalist class to exist, with similar control over them as in China. Laos maintains a 48-hour work week with paid sick leave, vacation time, and maternity leave, and workers are well-represented in trade unions. They faired relatively well during coronavirus from a social standpoint due to quick and efficient action to lock down the country, experiencing ~750 deaths out of a population of over 7 million.
There is hope even after utter destruction by genocidal oppressors.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
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Business Insider writes
A Ukrainian soldier says he stopped shelling small Russian units because he is running out of US-made artillery ammo
Lol
A Ukrainian soldier said he stopped shelling small Russian units because his brigade was running out of US-provided artillery ammunition, per The Times of London.
"When it's two or three soldiers, I'm not shooting any more; only when it's a critical situation, say, ten guys close to our infantry, we will work," Sergeant Taras "Fizruk" told the newspaper.
The 31-year-old mortar gunner said that he and his comrades from the 47th Mechanized Brigade "had ten times more ammunition over the summer." per the newspaper.
Real talk, when you got guys saying they're running low on mortar rounds you definitely know they're running dry on everything bigger than a mortar too.
"American rounds come in batches of almost identical weights, which makes it easier to correct fire, with very few duds. Now we have shells from all over the world with different qualities, and we only get 15 for three days. Last week, we got a batch full of duds," said the soldier.
The lack of shells, Fizruk said, has hampered his unit's control over the northern flank of Avdviivka in eastern Ukraine and their ability to shoot at Russian troops.
"We should be controlling our sector from 4km away, so we can kill a few hundred Russian soldiers before they get to our infantry, and we only take a few wounded," he told the newspaper, adding: "But without ammunition, we can't."
The US and NATO allies have struggled to keep up with Ukraine's demands for artillery shells and ammunition, with Western ammunition stockpiles depleting.
Read: US-NATO struggle to fight a modern war against an enemy that can actually fight back
Ukrainian forces have been burning through artillery shells and ammunition at a rate of about 7,000 rounds a day, according to figures from Estonia's defense ministry.
Imagine having to rely on the Ostonians
And Western supplies are now at the "bottom of the barrel," Admiral Rob Bauer of the Netherlands, who chairs NATO's Military Committee, said at a Warsaw Security Forum meeting in October.
"We need large volumes. The just-in-time, just-enough economy we built together in 30 years in our liberal economies is fine for a lot of things — but not the armed forces when there is a war ongoing," he said, per the BBC.
Muh invisible hands of the free market is choking the war effort
The issue has been compounded by Republicans in Congress, who are threatening to withhold crucial aid to Ukraine, including ammunition, a defining element in frontline combat.
Let's go legislative gridlock!
Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential office, said that Congress' delay in providing aid to Ukraine would "very likely make it impossible to continue liberating territory and create a high risk of losing the war," per The New Voice of Ukraine.
Continuing liberating territory? What territory? Some shrubs and a few patchs of farmland doesn't constitute "territory"
Newly committed aid to Ukraine reached a "new low" between August and October, with a 90% drop compared to the same period in 2022, according to a report compiled by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
So you're saying it could be lower
The Kiel Institute, which has tracked aid promised and sent to Ukraine, said in an update on Thursday that while the new US aid package was delayed to next year, the EU's promise to supply one million rounds of ammunition has stalled.
Israel's war with Hamas could also divert tens of thousands of artillery rounds initially slated for Ukraine, Axios reported in October. Despite having German Leopard 2 tanks and American Bradley M1 fighting vehicles, Fizruk told The Times of London that his unit couldn't break through Russia's defensive lines without artillery shells.
Other than saying fuck Israel and the Israeli genocide force, I agree with Fizruk that artillery is indeed the king of the battlefield. May he reign Supreme over all other monarchs.
To make up for the shortfall, Fizruk told the newspaper that his unit is now using unarmed drones to scare Russian troops away and fundraising for weapons they can buy.
Fundraising? The fuck are they fundraising with? Bake sales? Threatening to conscript you in you don't fund the war effort?
"We should be controlling our sector from 4km away, so we can kill a few hundred Russian soldiers before they get to our infantry, and we only take a few wounded," he told the newspaper, adding: "But without ammunition, we can't."
"Yeah, usually we can just gun the Russian human waves down as the Russian commander sends thousands of unarmed soldiers running at our positions, but they've done this so many times now that we're out of ammunition. Yeah, an unfortunate situation, I know. The battlefield in front of us probably has about 50,000 Russian skeletons in it, but you know how it is."
Really? They're still doing this? This was tiresome by month 6. Now we have to endure this "actually this major L is a W if you really think about it" propaganda all over again, for every single fucking conflict for the next few decades. Oh my god, by the end of this I'm gonna be the goddamn kid at the end of The Jaunt short story.
You got dipshits in Kiev complaining about Soviet statues being removed because it's money better spent winning the war, so they can wait to remove them when they win.
Like they're straight up living in an alternative reality bubble that won't pop until the terms of surrender are signed.
Maybe the market is telling you that fighting a war isn't a good idea right now? I wish these people believed half of the shit they sold