Markos is an idiot

For the first time in years, I was curious what Markos had to say. In this case it was about Ukraine and the Kherson offensive.

Seems obvious to everyone that there’s no reason for Ukraine to agree to any of the previous Russian demands. Russia has very little leverage at the moment. But what seems obvious to the rest of us—like Kherson was a transparent trap—seems to somehow elude Russian policy makers. What matters here is that Russia can’t accomplish its goals on the battlefield, so it is trying to get concessions it hasn’t earned at the negotiating table.

Put another way, a strong Russia wouldn’t be begging for sanctions to be lifted, it would sell all that gas and use it to fund its war machine, it would stage a real referendum in Kherson, it would smash Ukrainian defenses, and it would get what it wanted by force.

Ukraine is in the driver’s seat.

So Markos, with all of his infinite military wisdom and savvy, saw how Kherson was a trap when Russia could not. Don't believe him? The link is right there.
You don't have to click on the link and read his drivel, because I did for you.

If the intent was to panic the Russians into reinforcing the region, it’s been a smashing success. Russia has already moved between a quarter and a third of its total combat forces in Ukraine to the area, and according to video on Telegram, troops and equipment continue to stream in. Yesterday I wrote:

By all indications, Russia is shifting a huge number of their forces to Kherson where they are ripe for being cut off. Supplies and access to the Kherson region run through just three easy-to-cut railroads and a handful of bridges. You know how in some stupid movie, you see the heroes headed into a trap and you scream at the screen, because it’s so obvious it’s a trap?

Yeah, that

Two weeks ago I speculated the main Ukrainian counteroffensive won’t be Kherson, but south of Zaporizhzhia and southern Donbas. I’m more and convinced that’s the play. Certainly no reason to hit a mass of Russians at Kherson when it’s far easier to cut them off. And the near-daily announcements of Ukraine’s big push to Kherson has been perfect bait. (If you haven’t yet, check out how this would play out.)

In other words, if Ukraine was serious about Kherson, they would’ve kept their mouths shut, sprung the surprise on Russia. Instead they gave them months advance notice. Ukraine isn’t that dumb.

OK. Let's unpack this.
Markos has been "proven right" because Ukraine has sprung an "obvious trap" on Russian forces at Kherson, because they are attacking in the southern Donbas, rather than directly at Kherson, because Ukraine isn't dumb. Ukraine wouldn't spend months giving advanced notice that they were going to launch an offensive directly at Kherson, and allowed Russia to reinforce the region.

...Except that is exactly what has happened. Ukraine has done exactly what Markos has said they wouldn't do because Ukraine isn't dumb.
Ukraine did in fact spend months talking about how they were going to liberate Kherson, thus allowing Russia to both build up their forces there AND fortify their positions. And then Ukraine has directly attacked Russia's strongest and most defensible area, thus wasting countless Ukrainian lives.
Yet somehow this has proven Markos right.
I guess that when you own the blog you can be thick as a brick but never be wrong.

One other thing: "a strong Russia wouldn’t be begging for sanctions to be lifted, it would sell all that gas and use it to fund its war machine". Uh, has no one pointed out to Markos that Europe is engaging in absolutely massive bailouts of its energy companies, and that whole industries are shutting down? Does Markos not understand what denying your enemies badly needed commodities can do?

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It seems fitting the Rus has informed the EU until the sanctions are lifted, there will be no more
gas coming your way. Preventing the population and industries the ability to maintain their economies for political reasons is a sure-fire way of stoking a rebellion. Unfortunately, the arrogance of the
western powers will continue to act in defiance of rational solutions.

How can the dkos crowd ignore the obvious?

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but I have this recollection of who the Kossacks are. Why they liked "Kos" in their name wasn't just because it had part of "Markos" in it. Does anybody remember this history? Cause I don't think the Kossacks would be fighting on the side of Neo Nazis.

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snoopydawg's picture

He and Mark have taken people down a rabbit hole of untruths and totally made up nonsense and they think that it’s just a matter of time that Russia will limp out of Ukraine with its tail between its leg. I’ve been reading them since this unprovoked operation started hoping that someone in the comments would tell them that they are full of crap. Instead there are a ton of new folks helping them to deceive others and I fear that even if Zelensky sues for peace because there are no more people to sacrifice they won’t believe it. The propaganda they use seems to be very good and I can see why so many believe them. It’s unfortunate that they won’t read other sources that could wake them up and see how they’ve been lied to, but they all use the same sources.

Another thing kos says is that it’s just Russia propaganda that they are fighting Nazis there. Lots of Russia xenophobia added in too.

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usefewersyllables's picture

had the stomach to see how he explains away "the Russians" shelling their own forces at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant? That spin would be amusing to watch, if I could keep myself from puking while reading it...

Talk about the fog of war: one thing of which I'm convinced is that we'll never know any of the truth, thanks to our well-trained stenographers.

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

snoopydawg's picture

@usefewersyllables

From what I understand Russia took over the 2 nuclear plants to keep the Nazis from building a dirty bomb and in both places it’s Ukrainians who worked there before that are still working there now. Russia is only providing security so why would they be bombing the plants? I don’t think kos explains it except because Russia bad.

I waste a lot of time looking up when people who are anti Russia joined the site and a lot just joined this year. One thing that stands out is they have silly usernames. I question whether they are real people or bots.

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@usefewersyllables If we weren't so damn stupid, I think the ruling elites would try a bit harder.

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usefewersyllables's picture

@gjohnsit

half the people *are* below average...

They really aren't even trying anymore. Why would they? They know that the game is already over: we're just down to the denouement.

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Shahryar's picture

I went to the garbage dump today. Found garbage.

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@Shahryar
It's still possible to find useful parts. It's just that everything is busted and doesn't work.
So I found some mildly interesting junk.

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snoopydawg's picture

Russia is running out of ammunition . Funny thing is that they have been running out of it since the operation started.

I really think RU guns are about toast here and they are about out of ammunition. That it is about to be “drastic” vision Pavel Luzin made about those guns being completely fucked and out of ammunition by year end — has already started. Jesus, I think they danced themselves into a noose.

You know those Russian “precision” weapons — miss 60% of the time! Not so precise, huh? And they are running out of them. Just amazingly bad. Ukraine has and is dancing circles around them. I know our intelligence is helping them — but I think they don’t need us for that very much.

I have no idea where he got his information on the weapons, but his view ain’t new. Russia makes inferior weapons compared to ours because Russians just aren’t as smart as we are.

Kos thinks that Russia is cutting off the gas and asking for sanctions to end because they are affecting the Russian economy. Actually the sanctions are keeping Gazprom from keeping Norstream working because the parts needing maintenance can’t be done because of them. It’s really not rocket science.

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Socialprogressive's picture

Yup, that pretty much sums it up. You could have stopped right there.

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I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.

snoopydawg's picture

He loves to write about 'tankies' like Greenwald and Taibbi who point out the government’s crimes while he looks the other way when they commit those crimes. "You mustn’t criticize the democrats or the government when democrats are in control!'

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TheOtherMaven's picture

There is very good reason to suspect that DKos is a CIA front organization....

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

snoopydawg's picture

and apparently they can’t make any more.

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snoopydawg's picture

Here’s a pretty neutral interview with Jacques Baud on the conflict. I have brought his work here before as have others. One thing he points out is that America isn’t fighting the war so that Ukraine will win it, but so that Russia is defeated. And since Russia’s goals are de-militarization and de-Nazification they don’t have to conquer territory or move forward every day. Instead they can let the Ukrainians come to them and get killed.

How many knew this?

It is necessary to recall some historical facts. The cession of Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 was never formally validated by the parliaments of the USSR, Russia and Ukraine during the communist era. Moreover, the Crimean people agreed to be subject to the authority of Moscow and no longer of Kiev as early as January 1991. In other words, Crimea was independent from Kiev even before Ukraine became independent from Moscow in December 1991.

Then after the Ukraine coup in 2014 the people in Crimea once again voted to be under the authority of Russia. There are lots of interesting tidbits in this essay.

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