Irish times headline will have something to link sinn fein with Russia
Incredible footage - NSFW obviously.
Tank is born again hard
Seems crazy to state that Russia was winning the War? Would you concur with his opinion?
Seems to have a real checkered history too by quick search of available info online.
One fairly level headed comment online in relation to him reads,
“ He was once highly respected and helped with decommissioning Iraq’s WMD programs from 1991–1998. However, since 2011 he has twice been convicted of attempted sexual assault of a minor and gone to prison for it. Since his release he has been a regular contributer for RT (Russia Today). Now I don’t have any proof he’s being paid by the Russian government but at least here in the United States because of his convictions, and especially the type of offense, he would find it very hard to find employment. So make of that what you will… “
Another valid point about his views here……
“ How accurate and trustworthy is Scott Ritter (former US military analyst) and his professional opinions about the Ukrainian crisis?
There are three separate questions in this question each can be answered with a relatively accurate degree of certainty.
Accurate-
Trustworthy-
Professional Opinion-
Accurate- on the general political and military issues at the Operational level, probably more accurate than a civilian, but not incredibly accurate, at the Strategic and Tactical level, about as accurate as anyone that served in the military and got out 30 years ago. He left military service in 1991, to serve as a UN Weapons inspector, from 1992–98. Since then, he has been a guest lecturer and political writer and analyst. Any inside knowledge of military capabilities and leaders of the area is most likely out of date and partially inaccurate.
Trustworthy- He has strong opinions, of military, and his writings are interesting, he has insights that have proved to have been correct. I don’t think trustworthiness is a problem. I think in his case bias may be. In his writings you get the sensation that he is one of those people that thinks he is right in every case and if you don’t agree with him, it is because he is more intelligent than you are (you tend to see this a lot in the intelligence field). I personally think he is trustworthy, whether you agree with him or not.
Professional Opinion-Personally I generally have a lot of problems with “professional expert class”. Most of these people have great, impressive, credentials, but they have been out of the game for 10, 20, or 30 years. The Operational, Strategic, and Tactical realities they experienced, may no longer exist. What was cutting edge thought when they were active, may be common or even been proven ineffective. Much of the information training, experience, people, equipment that they used, experienced, isn’t being used or has been so modified it has completely different capabilities. So, in my opinion his professional opinion is as useful as mine.
I have never met or worked with Scott Ritter in my life, I have nothing for him or against him. He is probably a really honest, intelligent person.
My background information, I retired out of the US Army in 2003, my last assignment was with CENTCOM. In 2001 I was part of the advance party sent to Riyadh after the 9/11 attack. I was also part of the planning group for the invasion of Afghanistan. If you asked me 1-2 years after I got out about Afghanistan, I could give you a fair assessment of what I thought was going on (I still knew people that were on staff or still in the Army), 5 years, an assessment of the situation (fewer people are still in the military), and 10 years (everybody I knew is retired and playing golf) what I read in the paper.
That is my problem with the “professional expert class” reality they have as much inside information that you do. Thier contacts get old, move to brighter and better things. So they don’t know, the players, the equipment, the operational, strategic realities but they will get on the news and act like they do. That is the problem. “
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Putin has announced a 36 hour ceasefire
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That’s when folk should really worry.
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It’s Christmas sure
6th of January is traditionally when the Ukranians would celebrate their Christmas but apparently they are after rejecting the calls for the ceasefire.
Percentage of the Ukrainian population that speak Ukrainian.
It’s going to be hard hold onto those eastern regions, no matter what.
Zelensky’s first language is Russian.
Plus he’s jewish. Don’t forget about the other simplistic slogans that dullards placate themselves with
just on that, a census from 22 years ago. in 2001, it was just 20 years since they declared independence from the USSR. So logic would say that the more years in between would see the growth of speaking Ukrainian as the first language. Many can speak both, regardless of their ethnicity or background.
Thats also not to dismiss the sizable Russian ethnic background of many in the east region. But it also doesnt mean that they are the majority there either.
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It also doesn’t mean they are loyal to Russia. Especially after recent events.
It’s something I never had to live with and wouldn’t understand.
You’d go to the local shop that speaks your language, same for the church. You’d send your children to your chosen school. The community becomes divided.
Sure we speak English
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