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Bulletins and News Discussion from February 26th to March 3rd, 2024 - Breaking The Siege Of Omdurman - COTW: Sudan

The war in Sudan has so far been marked by a lot of incompetency and mismanagement by government forces (the SAF). After months of bitter fighting, in late 2023, the opposing Rapid Support Forces suddenly expanded their control towards the southeast of Khartoum after not a lot of resistance, most notably taking the city of Wad Madani. This led the SAF supporters and officials to panic and point fingers at each other about what the hell the army is even doing, while RSF soldiers looted the city.

These victories led to a short period in late December and early January where diplomacy and peace talks were considered, but such attempts fell apart. The leader of the RSF visited various African countries, including meeting Paul Kagame in Rwanda, to boost his legitimacy. Then, the RSF attacked into South Kordofan and consolidated their hold on other areas.

The Sudanese capital of Khartoum sits on a river which divides it from the city to its west, Omdurman (see the post image). The SAF and RSF have been fighting over this grand urban area for the whole war, with the RSF holding most of Khartoum (with an entirely cut-off SAF force holding on in the center), with a similarly cut-off SAF force also in eastern Omdurman, up against the river. For 10 months, this force has been under siege - but no longer. In perhaps the first actual W of the war for the SAF, they finally managed to break the siege a week ago, pouring supplies in. This leaves a section of the RSF now cut off, though Omdurman is still not under full SAF control (and, who knows, the whole situation could once again go badly for the SAF).

Meanwhile, the Sudanese socioeconomic situation has completely collapsed, with potentially a 20% fall in GDP and 8 million people displaced, with 2 million from Khartoum alone. 18 million Sudanese, or about a third of the population, is in acute hunger, and 20 million children are out in school. The refugees streaming out of the country are causing knock-on effects in neighorboring countries like Chad. Nobody is even really counting the dead anymore.

Red is the government forces, the SAF. Blue is the RSF opposition. Other colours are various factions.


The Country of the Week is Sudan! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

Sunday's briefing is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

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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  • https://archive.is/q7Ld8

    The US Army is breeding a new kind of Arctic warrior by 'testing the mettle of the human' in frigid, freezing Alaska, commander says

    Alternative title: The Army sends a bunch of southern hicks (that's all of you in the mainland USA, from Washington to Florida) up to Alaska to go cold-weather camping.

    This shit ain't exactly new but the clowns in the Pentagon love to reinvent the wheel to show everyone how out of touch they are with reality.

    In the early morning, just as the sun slowly rises up from behind the mountains, gusts of icy wind sweep across the US Army camp, whipping up snow from the ground and the trees in the surrounding forests. It's a bone-chilling cold, one felt even through any protective layers or garments.

    An average day in Alaska

    Soldiers come and go in and out of tents, some surprisingly wearing just t-shirts, seemingly unbothered by the conditions. One sits outside eating breakfast. The temperature of six degrees Fahrenheit is practically spring weather, they say. Just a week before, it was -40 degrees, temperatures many have never had to endure.

    No joke 6 degrees Fahrenheit does feel like a warm day after you're freezing your tits off during the deep cold parts of winter. In fact when it's 0C/32F it feels so warm you get the zoomies and want to go around town in only a t-shirt and shorts

    Out on the snow-covered Alaskan tundra, US Army Pacific is pushing its soldiers to prepare to fight in subzero temperatures and hostile, unpredictable environments. It is a challenge unlike anything else in the Army, top generals told Business Insider, and a relatively new training experience that tests "the mettle of the human," one brigade combat team commander said.

    Basically they're saying your biggest enemy up here is nature and the moral of the dumbasses you sent to play in nature

    Earlier this month, USARPAC held its annual Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center training exercise near Fairbanks, Alaska that BI was able to observe firsthand.

    Folks it fucking sucks up there, take it from me.

    Throughout the training, soldiers with the US Army's 11th Airborne Division and troops from over a dozen international allies and partners ran wargames in the Arctic, with one side posing as enemy forces. Troops adapt to freezing temperatures and unpredictable conditions, making adjustments to gear, kits, and equipment in real time.

    God I wish I was there because the complaining and whining you'd hear from them would be a beautiful orchestra to me.

    Some days, the temperature is well below zero, and snow piles feet-deep in fields and forests. Others, the weather is considerably "warmer" than usual — in the tens or twenties. Snow isn't as prevalent, but the ground remains frozen solid. Any warmer, and it's muddy, caking to boots and vehicles.

    If there's one thing I've learned from my times getting lost in the wilderness during winter, it's that forests are friends and fields are foes if you don't have snow shoes. Holy shit I'm having flashbacks to my first time trying to cross a field filled with snow to bury me twice over standing up, my body hated me so much that day. No wonder why moose have those long fucking legs!

    "It's a harsh environment," Maj. Gen. Brian S. Eifler told Business Insider in an in-person interview at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks. "If something happens in those conditions, you got to have a force that's ready."

    Shit ain't happening if there's a war in the snow.

    On the ground, soldiers echoed similar sentiments. Some told Business Insider the Arctic was the most difficult environment to fight in, while others noted it took a specific type of mindset to survive there, let alone excel.

    Tormenting the soldiers so they actually like freezing their asses off to own the Russians and Chinese

    "There are not a lot of forces in our Army, or really in our military, that can operate here," Col. Sean Lucas told Business Insider, calling the JPMRC training an opportunity "to experiment with how much soldiers can endure" and "test the mettle of the human."

    "Operate" is doing heavy lifting here. The fuckers up in Fairbanks not only need to keep their cars plugged in so their oil pans don't freeze and their batteries don't discharge, they also keep heated blankets on their engines so they're barely warm enough to actually go through the ignition cycle. Arctic warfare would be a drone operator's playground.

    JPMRC is the Army's newest combat training center, only a few years old. It conducts rotations in both Alaska and Hawaii every year, giving soldiers the chance to train for combat in both the wet, humid jungle and the icy, harsh Arctic.

    They've been doing Arctic survival training for decades. The only reason this article exists is to jack off the military industrial complex for blowing another load of taxpayer dollars on more useless shit

    Both environments are at the ends of the pendulum of what the Indo-Pacific region has to offer in terms of battlefield conditions, and according to Gen. Charles A. Flynn, USARPAC's commanding general, they are the "environments and conditions where our forces are most likely to operate."

    Lol cope

    The Pentagon has long identified China as the US' "pacing challenge" and made determined efforts to shift American military focus towards the Indo-Pacific region for a potential conflict there, but the area is also home to Russia and North Korea, presenting a host of possible threats.

    Only possible threat is the U.S struggling to encroach on the region.

    US Indo-Pacific Command and its forces have increased their training, particularly with allies, in order to deter enemy forces and maintain the ability to fight across the Pacific should that fail. For many in the Army, it's a major shift in focus from over two decades of counterinsurgency fighting in the Middle East.

    A major shift for the army that its failing at lmak

    With great power competition and possible conflict on the horizon, particularly in the Pacific, there are new investments, like JPMRC, to help ensure readiness.

    jerking off motion

    Difficulties of the JPMRC's Alaska rotation are constant and visible everywhere you look.

    Yeah so maybe fucking stop then

    Equipment breaks, troops have to be ready to combat threats to their health like hypothermia, artillery pieces have to be maneuvered across ever-changing ground conditions, paratroopers land hard on icy, snowy ground. Conditions change on a day-to-day basis, making everything tougher to anticipate. Many things are an experiment, being worked on in real time.

    I can picture some artillerymen dipshits not properly digging in the feet of their artillery, only shoving it in the snow, yanking the cord to fire a round, and yeeting the artillerypiece right into some poor dipshit. Or some paratrooper trying to land on a glacier only to break through a light snow shell straight into a ravine.

    One example is the new cold weather clothing gear, including several layers, or "levels." During the JPMRC exercise, troops were giving feedback on the gear, how much of it was needed on a day-to-day basis, and whether it made sense to overdress or remain "comfortably cold" so as not to wind up sweating too much in the heat of battle.

    If there's a lesson for you nerds to actually learn here, it's about how to dress for the cold in a way that is relevant to your situation.

    "Our soldiers here are encouraged to innovate," Command Sgt. Maj. Joseph Gaskin told Business Insider, explaining that "we don't have all the answers for this environment."

    Fucking corporate words. Innovate yourself in a winter workshop to avoid quiet quitting during an ecological downturn

    When the 11th Airborne Division was re-activated in 2022, Army leadership specifically tasked it with developing "innovative ways of operating in this environment," which Eifler has called the "most challenging" on the planet.

    Lol throwing a new Division of dipshits straight into the freezer as a funny joke

    Without a clear guide book on how best to fight in the Arctic, a region for which the Army released its new strategy only a few years ago, troops sometimes make it up as they go.

    If you remember the article I posted early about tanks, here's the same fucking problem! ITS ALL FUCKING MADE UP ON THE GO! The army is relearning how to function as an army in 2024!

    Soldiers develop new tactics and techniques, exploring what gear is needed or how to fortify a position when there's little snow on the ground. The latter seems to be solvable by chopping down trees and using the wood. And that's not even the half of it.

    Fuck I can feel it in my bones the jackbooted mini dictators that make up the military command structure definitely made those dumbasses try and dig trenches and foxholes in the frozen dirt agony

    The Arctic is tough and challenging, but Army leaders said the harsh environment and difficult training produces prepared and pioneering troops unlike any other unit. In a 2022 paper written with another Army officer called "Forging the Arctic Warrior," Eifler wrote that "it takes a special breed of Soldier to thrive in the Arctic."

    It takes a special kind of person to live here, get on my level groundpounders.

    Lucas said that if you can handle the Arctic, you can handle anything, telling Business Insider that "if you can lead, or you can be a soldier in the extreme cold, you can lead or be a soldier anywhere."

    That's a fucking lie, I can't handle humidity for shit and I definitely can't handle humid heat. I would rather broil myself alive in Phoenix Arizona during the worst summer than spend any time in the most mildest of Floridian winters!

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