I wouldn't be surprised if like 90% of an Israeli soldier's time "fighting" inside Gaza is relatively uneventful (given how nonchalantly they are capable of massacring children) but it only takes a bad couple minutes when bombs and RPGs are involved for you to die, be traumatically injured, or at least scarred for life. Especially if your entire belief system from the day you were born has been stating "your enemy is inferior, stupid, and incapable of doing anything to you BUT they COULD, they're both strong and weak etc" which is very hard to square with reality when you're staring at the stump of your blown-off, ubermensch arm. Compare that to the average frontline town in Ukraine where the artillery and bombing and shooting is much more frequent, but obviously a much greater number and proportion of Ukrainians are straight-up dying and so are unable to shit themselves at fireworks later on
now really do be the time of monsters, fr fr
all those statements about how the US is considering blowing up the semiconductor fabs in the event that a war with China begins will mysteriously evaporate into the ether the minute that the war over Taiwan begins, just like how all the articles about how Ukraine is infested with fascists were mysteriously much harder to find once the Ukraine War revved up
they could slap it somewhere near the Poland-Ukraine border instead, it wouldn't have to be in Germany
and these kinds of plants are going to be built in western Ukraine anyway so it's not as if the miles saved can be counted in the thousands. you're trading an extra few hundred miles of transport for it being a very strikable military target if Russia finds out where it is and feels the need to destroy it.
absolutely
for example: while I do think the line of "NATO isn't a defensive alliance, it's an offensive alliance" is relatively effective and isn't strictly wrong, I do think it's a little misleading to portray NATO like that.
it's a little like being critical of US imperialism and wars in the Middle East, but framing that in terms of "we didn't invade Iraq and Afghanistan for democracy and freedom, we did it for oil/mineral wealth!" again, there might indeed have been some corporations that really wanted that oil and minerals, and framing it like the US is evil for wanting loot and plunder rather than a moral global order is more or less how US imperialism functions on the day-to-day basis of exploitation of underdeveloped countries, but like - the US already has a shitload of fossil fuels and minerals.
rather, I think it's worth stressing that NATO's primary purpose (post-USSR, at least) is to provide an exclusive market for the American military-industrial complex, and it being, y'know, an actual military alliance is really its secondary role. because flipping the primary and secondary purposes around, while sounding principled and anti-militarist and anti-imperialist, fails to really get at the heart of the engine of American imperialism and how the empire truly functions, because the US isn't at war with everybody, all the time, nor threatening to be. 98% of the time, it's just the grinding gears of exploitation and capital accumulation and striking down any reforms. the US has done an awful lot of warring over the last century or so, but the wars are not the empire. the enforced dollar currency and the debt and the capitalists backed by soft power and intelligence agencies are the empire. the wars are just what happens when a country refuses to accept that empire.
and in the "US invading the Middle East for oil" case, I similarly think it's much more complete and explanatory to frame it as "the US invaded the Middle East to disrupt any potential anti-hegemonic power forming in the region, and invaded Afghanistan especially due to its proximity to Russia and China, as well as more general military-industrial complex profiteering." but obviously the reason why libs would be unable to accept this framing is because they agree that China and Russia are bad and must be stopped by any means, but still want to be regarded as pseudo-anti-imperialists against the Bush administration. so "it wasn't freedom and democracy, it was just oil! haha funny joke about how I spilled some oil in my kitchen and now America wants to invade me!" remains the prevailing narrative to comfort the libs.
I don't see what other countries Putin would even be talking about, other than the DPRK. There are anti-Western countries here and there (Cuba, Venezuela, the Sahel states, etc) but I don't think sending weapons above and beyond what they're already doing would be a productive pressure point as a response to NATO escalations. Like, "They're allowing Ukraine to strike our territory with NATO missiles? I'll send more tanks to Burkina Faso. That'll fucking show 'em." doesn't make much sense. But strengthening anti-Western forces in the critical regions of West and East Asia would actually be pretty meaningful counters to broader US strategy.
Amal Saad, scholar of Hezbollah:
With the downing of the third Hermes 900, one of Israel's most advanced drones, Hizbullah has now eliminated 12% of Israel's reported fleet of 25 such drones. It has now downed a total of 7 Israeli drones since October, resulting in a significant financial loss for Israel. However, the true significance lies in the fact that Israel's once unchallenged aerial supremacy is now under threat. In addition to downing drones, Hizbullah has challenged this superiority by targeting Israeli jets, compelling them to retreat from Lebanese airspace on two occasions last week, infiltrating Israel with its own drones without being detected or intercepted, and even striking Israel's Iron Dome.
Coupled with how Hizbullah has turned the tables by not only creating a buffer zone inside Israel for the first time in its history, forcing tens of thousands of Israelis to flee northern settlements, but also by using the Galilee as a research and development lab to test its weapons - a reversal of Israel's long-standing tactics against Lebanon - it's clear that Israel is now facing the most significant threat in its history and is fighting a new type of enemy.
Hizbullah's current approach marks a significant shift from its previous strategy, which focused primarily on preventing an Israeli occupation and achieving victory by simply surviving. No longer content with defensive measures, Hizbullah has now taken the offensive against Israel, engaging in a protracted war of attrition. The movement’s goals have expanded far beyond mere survival and the liberation of Lebanese territory; it now seeks to compel Israel to change its behaviour and calculations by imposing unprecedented costs. Furthermore, rather than countering Israel's "complexity" with Hizbullah's "simplicity," as Nasrallah characterized the 2006 war, Hizbullah is now confronting complexity head-on with audacity and more advanced weaponry.
There was also a major ambush operation by Hamas today, where they toppled a building on top of an Israeli force. Israel is probably claiming 2 soldiers lightly grazed and -1 deaths, as in a new Israeli soldier popped out via mitosis
the more demonstrative kicks up the ass Russia gets before a potential conflict with NATO, the better. Russia seems to be much better at learning how to solve problems once they've already happened and less good at coming up with preemptive solutions, so you get one big costly failure and then it rarely happens again. seems to me that it indicates a fairly rigid military structure where advice doesn't percolate upwards quickly, but it functions well enough on the day-to-day. at least it's better than the West, which experiences a dozen big costly failures and then designs a quadrillion dollar missile which is meant to solve that problem forever and then it turns out that missile can't even get off the ground or whatever and then there's a dozen more big costly failures and then a withdrawal
some doctrines have to be written in blood
The Country of the Week is Cuba!
Feel free to post or recommend any books, essays, studies, articles, and even stories related to Cuba.
If you know a lot about the country and want to share your knowledge and opinions, here are some questions to get you started if you wish:
spoiler
- What is the general ideology of the political elite? Do they tend to be protectionist nationalists, or are they more free trade globalists? Are they compradors put there by foreign powers? Are they socialists with wide support by the population?
- What are the most important domestic political issues that make the country different from other places in the region or world? Are there any peculiar problems that have continued existing despite years or decades with different parties?
- Is the country generally stable? Are there large daily protests or are things calm on average? Is the ruling party/coalition generally harmonious or are there frequent arguments or even threats?
- Is there a particular country to which this country has a very impactful relationship over the years, for good or bad reasons? Which one, and why?
- What are the political factions in the country? What are the major parties, and what segments of the country do they attract?
- Are there any smaller parties that nonetheless have had significant influence? Are there notable separatist movements?
- How socially progressive or conservative is the country generally? To what degree is there equality between men and women, as well as different races and ethnic groups? Are LGBTQIA+ rights protected?
- Give a basic overview of the last 50 or 100 years. What's the historical trend of politics, the economy, social issues, etc - rise or decline? Were they always independent or were they once occupied, and how have things been since independence if applicable?
- If you want, go even further back in history. Were there any kingdoms or empires that once governed the area?
Check out the reading list. Our books on Cuba:
These books focus on the Cuban Revolution and largely its pre-1990 history.
- Women and the Cuban Revolution by Fidel Castro (1970).
- People's Power: Cuba's Experience with Representative Government by Peter Roman (1999).
- My Life: A Spoken Autobiography by Fidel Castro (2006).
- Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution by H. Yaffe (2009).
- A History of the Cuban Revolution by Aviva Chomsky (2010).
These books focus on Cuba after the fall of the USSR:
- Rainbow Solidarity in Defense of Cuba by Leslie Feinberg (2009).
- Cuba and Its Neighbours: Democracy in Motion by Arnold August (2013).
- Farming Cuba: Urban Agriculture From the Ground Up by Carey Clouse (2014).
- We Are Cuba!: How a Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World by Helen Yaffe (2019).
- How the Workers' Parliaments Saved the Cuban Revolution: Reviving Socialism After the Collapse of the Soviet Union by Pedro Ross (2022).
brainwashing isn't real, the piggies love rolling around in the media slop as it justifies their treats