wasn't it 'peace with honor' in the words of tricky dick?
perhaps the arms pushers are getting the idea that the
big pay-back ain't gonna happen already

so the propaganda machine is working on a new meme
to mesh with the coming china war

try 'noble sacrifice' or 'saving the soul of democracy'

or maybe, they have flogged the ukrainian BS to death
covering their loss of the 'upper hand' in the affair?

about Ukraine. I don't really know. I don't watch television, and the so-called "mainstream media" threw in the towel on truth, for all to see, in the 2003 run-up to the Iraq war.

I tend to think nothing has changed since the publication of Susan Watkins' NLR editorial "Five Wars In One," appearing in the September/ October issue of last year. As Watkins points out, US aid hasn't given Ukraine a "knock-out advantage" (14) in the war. The Powers That Be in this country seem largely interested in dragging it out as a for-profit war. It's a replacement for the pointlessness of twenty years of Afghanistan war.

Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure make one wonder what their motive is. What will be left to win in the end? Are they now about "if we can't have it then nobody can"?

I really don't know what motivates rank-and-file Ukraine supporters. The government currently in power in Ukraine is clearly a gang of late-capitalist bourgeois neoliberal kleptocrats. I suppose all of the bandying-about of terms like "Nazi" and "fascist" is to keep people motivated. But to all appearances, the only principle left, the only principle that really commands the attentions of elites in an era of intensifying abrupt climate change, is "grab what you can while there's still something to grab."

Have you ever played poker with a novice? I am talking about the person who does not understand the concept of a poker face. The rookie is dealt a hand of five card stud and breaks into a wide grin accompanied by a face flushed red as he or she gazes on at a full house. Only one teeny problem — the poker master on the other side of the table is holding four aces.

That is what happened today as Ukraine and the West reacted to news, confirmed by Russia’s own Ministry of Defense, that a U.S. Himars hit an improvised barracks of Russian soldiers and killed at least 63. Why the big deal? We have been told repeatedly over the last 8 months that Russia is suffering catastrophic casualties. What makes this so special and deserving of so much attention?

The answer is simple — this is the first time since the war started in February 2022 that Russia has suffered more than 50 casualties in one engagement in one day. How do I know? Because the Russian telegram channels lit up immediately when this happened. This is the first time I have seen that kind of reaction from the Russian side in the last 10 months.

The reaction to this missile attack highlights the stark contrast between Russia and Ukraine. The spokesman for the Russian MOD freely and frankly admitted to the “success” of the Ukrainian strike while the Ukrainian military — which is losing at least 200 men every day — covers up their losses and insists they are beating the hell out of Russia. The Ukrainians have told so many lies over the course of the last 10 months — e.g. the Ghost of Kiev, capturing a Russian border outpost, shooting down all Russian cruise missiles, driving the Russians out of Kherson, etc. — that this successful missile strike finally gave them something real they could celebrate.

But this attack is a lie. It was not carried out by highly trained Ukrainian troops sitting on an ample supply of Himars. This was done with Western supplied intelligence that identified the troop concentration and provided the coordinates for launching a precision strike. Moreover, it is highly likely that NATO troops were helping operate the Himar system. This attack actually is a sign of Ukrainian and Western desperation. It changes nothing in terms of the strategic picture.

The Saker beat me to it in making the correct observation that there is more to this Himars attack than the destruction of a company of Russian troops:

Shitlibs rejoiced with glee when they got news of the attack on the Russians. Except they said that it was 600 Russian orcs that got dead. They are so ghoulish when anything happens to Russians. It’s too bad that they missed Ukrainians celebrating Bandera’s 114th birthday. You might know him as the Nazi who was so insane that Germany stuck his buttocks in prison for most of the war.

There can be "no nuances" when it comes to the glorification of WWII Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera in Ukraine, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a press conference on Monday. Warsaw would not show any leniency to those who "do not want" to recognize "terrible crimes" committed by Ukrainian nationalists against Poles during WWII, he added.

"We are extremely critical, very, very negative towards any glorification or even reminders of Bandera," Morawiecki said, commenting on a Twitter post by the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovnaya Rada, celebrating what would have been the 114th birthday of the head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), an ultranationalist group that existed during WWII and had its own paramilitary wing, known as the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).

In the post, which was later deleted amid outcries from Poland, Israel and the US, the Ukrainian parliament cited Bandera as having said that "the complete and supreme victory of Ukrainian nationalism will be when the Russian Empire ceases to exist." The Rada then said that the modern Ukrainian Armed Forces chief, General Valery Zaluzhny, is "well aware" of Bandera’s "instructions." The general himself was featured in another tweet, pictured with a large Bandera portrait in the background.

The world once fought a war to wipe out the Nazis, but now a lot of the same players are once again supporting them just like they did before they fought them. Oye…will humans EVER learn?

than Russia has almost spent in the last 2 years on the military

more money.....meaningless, except for the grifters

https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2023/01/debt-rattle-january-3-2023/

Seems the Polish leadership is insane. They are basically mobilization up to 200K soldiers. Not big enough to directly take on the Russians in Eastern Ukraine but big enough to stay far away in the Western part of the country.

I think they will definitely go in before the 2024 American election to make Biden/democrats look like the war president/party much like the gop after 9/11.

war in Ukraine and it isn't altruistic.

https://www.globalvillagespace.com/us-weapons-sales-to-nato-states-nearl....

US weapons sales to NATO states nearly doubled in number and value in 2022, Foreign Policy magazine reported on Thursday. With the conflict in Ukraine draining European military stockpiles, the top US arms merchants have all seen their share prices skyrocket.

The US government approved 14 major US weapons sales to NATO members in 2021, totalling around $15.5 billion, the magazine stated, citing an analysis of Pentagon figures. By the end of 2022, it had approved 24 sales worth roughly $28 billion.

While some of these deals were negotiated years beforehand, Russia’s military operation in Ukraine sent NATO’s European members scrambling to bump up their military spending, and to replenish vehicles, weapons, and ammunition donated to the Ukrainian military.

Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia have all ordered HIMARS Multiple-Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), the same systems the US has given dozens of to Ukraine. Earlier this month, the US State Department authorized the sale of 116 M1A1 Abrams tanks to Poland, after Warsaw sent its Soviet-era T-72 and domestically-made PT-91 tanks to Kiev’s forces.

Amid the rush to arm Ukraine, European and American arms stockpiles are running low, according to media reports and admissions by top officials.

In addition to the arms sold to its allies, the US has also allocated more than $110 billion in military and economic aid to Kiev since February, with approximately $21 billion worth of weapons transported to Ukraine as of December 21.

The US’ four largest defense contractors are all ending the year with their stock at or near all-time highs. Lockheed Martin’s share price is currently up 37% from this time last year. Boeing’s stock, which had taken a hammering since the Coronavirus pandemic grounded flights worldwide, has been buoyed by the conflict in Ukraine and now sits roughly where it did a year ago.

Raytheon has seen its share price rise by 17% this year, while General Dynamics has increased in value by 18%.

The success of these companies is so intertwined with the demand for weapons in Ukraine that Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Pratt & Whitney, and Lockheed Martin all sponsored a reception at the Ukrainian embassy in Washington, DC earlier this month, causing controversy when they emblazoned their logos on the invitations.