Row, Row, Row Your “Aircraft Carrier”
Russia’s simulacrum of an aircraft carrier will go Syria along with 2 other vessels (one of which, based on past experience, should be an ocean going tug/salvage vessel):
The vessels including the Admiral Kuznetsov, which will have eight Su-33 fighter aircraft, several new MiG-29K fighter jets and two Ka-27 naval helicopters on board, will arrive at the Mediterranean port of Tartous in the spring, the Moscow- based daily said.
In the spring? Really? Uhm, it’s not even winter yet. I didn’t know the Kuznetsov was oar propelled. But maybe this is just based on a realistic appraisal of the likelihood of breakdowns, etc. Or perhaps instead this is a purely symbolic expression of pique that the Russians hope they don’t have to follow through on.
Information Dissemination has an excellent observation regarding this deployment:
An indication that Russia continues to support the [Assad] regime, and also that any multilateral effort to conduct a no fly zone regime change would have to go through a venue other than the United Nations Security Council. Still, it’s a risky move, because if Assad falls, the new regime will likely remember the visit of the Kuznetsov for just as long as the Indians remembered the deployment of the USS Enterprise into the Bay of Bengal in 1971. You have to wonder about the decision-making procedures in the Kremlin; how much information do the Russians have about the foundations of the regime, and how much of this is generated by anti-NATO animus as opposed to an effort to engage in regional influence?
Put heavy money on option B. Especially in light of the track record, and the nationalist Putin and Medvedev speeches at the Crooks and Thieves Convention.
In honor of our gallant new jihadi…er, freedom fighters on the NATO/You Know Who payroll, here’s a ditty I composed to the tune of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus”…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1xrNaTO1bI
Your own…personal…infidel
Someone who hears your Takfiri prayers
Someone who cares
When you’re at home and all alone
Misrata AKs and bones, by the telephone
Pick up the satphone receiver
DGSE will make you a martyr…
Play second best give the jihad a test
Assad’s the little Satan now, that’s what you profess
Wave for the cameras
Al-Jazeera will deliver…
dun dun dun dun, da da da dun
someone who hears your Takfiri prayers
someone who cares
Reach out and touch death!
dun dun dun dun, da da da dun
Reach out and touch death!
Comment by Mr. X — November 28, 2011 @ 6:16 pm
Shoulda added the lines:
NATO will deliver
killed Americans? Y’know CIA’re forgivers
Comment by Mr. X — November 28, 2011 @ 6:18 pm
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/mf-global-looting-can-continue-missing-funds-and-fees-likely-go-higher-guest-post-mfgfac
And this Professor…will you compare it to a Russian ‘kangaroo court’? The MFers can go on stealing or sending the money to Cyprus…hmmm…can’t imagine what country that might suddenly bring up in your mind. Congratulations SWP, Phobie, you now LIVE in a kleptomaniac paradise increasingly modeled after 1990s Russia.
And Phobie, why haven’t I see you at Zuccotti Park? There’s free food, it might supplement your Jamestown Foundation peanuts and ramen salary.
Comment by Mr. X — November 28, 2011 @ 6:39 pm
Well, it is cheaper than meds, and sometimes amusing and informative.
Comment by Sotos — November 28, 2011 @ 8:04 pm
I’ll wrap this one up gentlemen — Andrew, I could never lose an argument to an apologist for a tie-eating maniac and drug addict who was groomed to turn his country into a globalzi (yes – globalist + socialist = globalzi, ala Nazi) client state from his days at Columbia. In fact, I’ve run circles around you this entire thread, therefore you result to childish insults, when I merely suggest that your livelihood may depend on continued massive Anglo-American taxpayer support for the Saakashvili regime.
You lost on facts above — one two three boom boom boom — 1) the Polish report says American planes did go through Russian air space after 9/11 2) The film you linked to has absolutely nothing to with the Lada-grenade launching clip from 08/08/08, and it’s clear the Russian documentary you link to was produced in response to 08/08/08 3) Israeli media has reported on the visa free travel regime for Iranians in Georgia and Misha the Tie Eater’s cozying up to an increasingly Islamist Turkish government. Not coincidentally, this took place AFTER the Israelis pulled their advisors the hell out of Georgia and started selling UAVs to the Russian side instead. Hell, even PJM’s Spengler aka Dave P. Goldman doesn’t like your Tie Eating president, though he’s had a grudge against the Turks since the flotilla thing.
4th, Phobie away after the breathtaking Russian hack against the central water works in a small Illinois town turned out to be made up by an overly ambitious or mendacious Homeland Security spokesperson. But then again, she always scuttles off whenever the names Prokofy Neva, Fitzpatrick or Jamestown Foundation come up.
And praise from some Marines for PR consumption notwithstanding, this present, client state Georgian army did not fight that well in 2008. Perhaps it was due to the reasons you gave, but’s that putting it charitably. If they fell back from Tskinval due to a cease fire (and there’s little evidence to support this assertion, not even from the books sympathetic to Georgia written after the fact), then they did so under U.S. pressure, which only underscores Georgia’s total dependency on the U.S. taxpayer for perhaps 25% of its budget. And this dependency is apparently more important than Saakshvili’s loud proclamation that S.O. and Abkhazia are allegedly sacred territories that must be reclaimed at all costs. Good luck with that Misha…
The 200,000 Georgians who fought and died in WWII fought much better (including the ones who fought to save what is today Russian territory from Nazi occupation), and I would never denigrate their sacrifices or their ancient Orthodox Christian nation or their Patriarch.
I simply don’t like globalist client states. I don’t like countries hailed as allies by brainwashed, endless war advocating Republican MIC whores when they’re actually actually client states funded with my taxpayer dollars, like the military junta of Argentina was in the 1980s when it attacked the Falklands. I don’t trust Soros, and I think he poisons everything he touches, including Georgia, and I think he ripped off the U.S. intelligence community for everything they were worth to make his spectacular bets on the pound, the bhat, and the ruble. Hell, he’s even backing Obama while making huge bets on the dollar going down and trying to buy black earth all over the world as a hedge. In return, he our siloviks a mess of pottage — those spectacularly successful Orange and Rose Revolutions. In effect, just as is commonly alleged about the Russian security services, I believe the American ones are serving private, offshore interests and have been thoroughly corrupted.
I think you are constantly apologizing for these elements not because you’re married to a Georgian or some other mundane reason, but because you work for one of those globalzi NGOs that makes the world safe for Corporatism. So in the end Andrew whether you’re an actual Englishman or just another Phobie sock puppet, I really pity you.
Comment by Mr. X — November 28, 2011 @ 10:39 pm
And rytb, how do you feel about American military power being used to put in Islamists who will force the most liberated women in the Arab Muslim world to wear burkas, and ethnically cleanse Syrian Orthodox and Iraqi Chaldean Christians from their ancestral homelands? To hell with that!
Comment by Mr. X — November 28, 2011 @ 10:40 pm
In effect, just as is commonly alleged about the Russian security services, I believe the American ones are serving private, offshore interests and have been thoroughly corrupted.
I think a more likely scenario is that American politicians, like all politicans, think they can solve anything merely by getting involved. American soldiers shouldn’t be in half the places they are, but American politicans’ noses and grubby mitts shouldn’t be in half the places they are either. It’s part of the same problem of general interference.
Comment by Tim Newman — November 29, 2011 @ 3:04 am
Putinites are celebrating today-that treasonous daughter of Stalin passed in Wisconsin.
Comment by pahoben — November 29, 2011 @ 7:42 am
Mr.X You did not run rings around anyone.
What Polish report stated that US Aircraft used Russian airspace? Why would they bother when the Pakistanis had given them overflight access and they were flying from Diego Garcia in the Indian ocean.
The film “Russian Lessons” By Andrei Neksarov was actually filmed during the war, within a few hours of it starting he was in Georgia heading north, and his partner Olga Konskaya was in South Ossetia. You have no clue what you are talking about (as usual).
And it was 330,000 Georgians who died, from 770,000 men sent to the front. The Russians made up the majority of the population of the USSR, but were a minority in the armed forces during WW2. People like the Belorussians, Georgians, Ukrainians, Chechens (who got home to find their entire population deported) Tajiks etc were used as cannon fodder. They have not forgiven this fact. Especially when the Russians claim their war dead as “Russian” a bit of an insult really.
You have never alleged anything negative about the Russian security services you retard, you are a card carrying, flag waving Putinista.
You frequently denigrate the Georgian people Mr.X, you are a racist little pig who cannot understand why they might want to be free of Russian imperialism.
Your comment that praise from Marines is only for PR is laughable at best, I guess you don’t understand the USMC very well Mr.X, not surprising since they are honorable, brave, and generally an exceptional bunch of soldiers. They do not give praise lightly Mr.X, and they do not allow their men to be put at risk by deploying sub-par units from foreign allies.
You are a nut job Mr.X, I would feel pity for you, but unfortunately my contempt is too great, you are laughable.
Comment by Andrew — November 29, 2011 @ 12:40 pm
Andy,
Misha the Tie Eater honored those 300,000 dead Georgians so much that he blew up the Soviet era monument to them, so it had to be painstakingly reconstructed by an ethnic Georgian sculptor in Moscow.
You may recall that this whole discussion started because the SWP had one of his pathologically Russophobic moments, letting the mask slip by saying he’d rather the Pentagon pay huge bribes to the corrupt, anti-American (but in this case, justifiably pissed off) Pakistanis to keep the Kyhber Pass open after NATO killed 27 of their soldiers than send more supplies through Russia/Uzbekistan. If that doesn’t fit the definition of Russophobia and Russophobic derangement — cutting off America’s nose to spite Putin’s face — then I don’t know what does.
And also I don’t know if it gets more ridiculous than a British imperialist (so proud of those Pakistani stiff upper lips slipping IEDs to the Taliban to kill Americans!) playing the race card against some other group of people. You remind me of nothing more than those La Raza trolls who periodically appear over at Pajamas Media praising Reconquista of the U.S. (the ones proclaiming that inshaAllah they Muslims will conquer Europe are more amusing). They too wallow in perpetual ethnic victimhood while ignoring the fact that their ‘race’ has and continues to victimize and brutalize others (Mexicans beating their own illegals from Central America and slaughtering each other in narcowars, Georgian violence towards Ossetians and Abkhazians). And of course, in your constant, ‘we’re all Russia’s victim’s historical revisionism, Iosef V. Dzughashvili was a pure bred Russian who happened to be born in Gori. Clearly Georgia has nothing historically to apologize for while Russians should be in sackcloth and ashes bowed down to all non-Russian nationalities of the FSU every day. The Reconquista analogy is perfect since 25% of the Georgian population chooses to live – wait for it – inside the Russian Federation! That’s more than the mere 1 out of 6 Mexicans who choose to go to El Norte, either legally or mostly illegally.
Ole’ ‘tip of the spear’ Andy missed the Polish link flatly contradicting his lie that no U.S. bombers or important aircraft transited RF airspace after 9/11 — it’s here once again just for good feeling:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:6iJywvu_Tu0J:kms1.isn.ethz.ch/serviceengine/Files/ISN/114974/ipublicationdocument_singledocument/530121eb-7a0f-4965-829c-630a7fa8cafa/en/a121-2010.pdf+post+9/11+Russian+air+space+for+Afghanistan&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjO5nRQdFHtmoUhosLNs_U6WLaMknyaVR8TiaTvXlYeHzDtpSQJmkdLv607Meziul5Bc-bvtkcRI_rn5U4DqLRip9xS5ne-EMMF8xOdYR9vLpZeRHRgrYaEGhqWSX9O8IHqf8GI&sig=AHIEtbQHOTKDIxs_G1EI-MDHHcKsdw6J5A
Andy provides no link or evidence for his statement that the video he says was shot on the scene actually was rather than being spliced together from Georgian combat footage (as the one clip he did provide a link to) appears. He wallows in perpetual Georgian and other CIS nationality victimhood while blaming Russia for everything, while ignoring the case of Latvia where Latvians who celebrate their SS forebears continue to die out, perhaps paving the way for that nation to join the 4th Reich at some point in the near future.
So goodbye Andy, I hope you have some valuable skills milking goats when the British foreign aid to Georgia stops and the rioting and police state crackdown starts in your homeland renamed globalist Airstrip One. Because of course, only insane maniacs like Aldous Huxley or George Orwell believed that a tyrannical one world government was coming upon the British Isles.
Comment by Mr. X — November 29, 2011 @ 2:59 pm
Mr.X, you are definitely loosing it. What ticked you off? Imbecile.
Comment by voroBey — November 29, 2011 @ 3:07 pm
Establishment drone rytb,
First of all, see the above.
Second, unfortunately, while Alex Jones says many fringe things about old standbys such as fluoride in the water, Manchurian candidates/mind control, and other things I don’t accept, consider the following.
If you bothered to look over Infowars.com, you’ll notice that like Drudge, it’s mostly a content aggregator. 90% of Msrs. Jones et al’s content comes from someone else. And while I wish Alex Jones were making up the fact that Bloomberg guests have has said referendums on austerity in EUrope are bad and undemocratic imposition of Government Sachs alumnus is better, alas he has not. I did look over the link you sent, and as usual with many of Mr. Jones’ detractors, I have no idea who this person is, and who paid for their content. Alex may be out on the fringe, and he may be a regular guest on the second most popular radio show in the U.S. Coast to Coast AM which discusses paranormal, and perhaps nutty things, but here are the facts:
While I wish it were Alex Jones making up the fact that Misha the Tie Eater’s best friend Senator John McCain wants to empower your former Pentagon colleagues to lock up Americans indefinitely without trial even if they’re arrested on U.S. soil (in other words, beyond the Gitmo standard), he did not. My source is the ACLU, Sen. Rand Paul, and the Washington Post. Thank God for Oath Keepers and other patriotic officers who remember that their oath is to the Constitution, not to the President and certainly not to whoever is pushing this bill (globalists, a’s buddies the ultra-rich elites) from behind the scenes.
http://www.infowars.com/rand-paul-aims-to-kill-indefinite-detention-provision-of-controversial-bill/
While I wish it were Alex Jones making up the fact that MF Global’s and formerly with Government Sachs’ Jon Corzine has stolen billions in segregated customer accounts with apparent impunity, alas he has not. And SWP is waiting for all the facts to come in. Something tells me he would not be so circumspect if his friends at the CME were not being sued, and if this were Bank of Moscow that had simply gone tits up with billions of customer accounts evaporating and a Putin crony was involved.
While I wish Alex Jones were making up the fact that Wesley Clark was told after 9/11 that several countries had been targeted for takedowns by Paul Wolfowitz and others, unfortunately you’ll have to attack Mr. Clark’s credibility yourself instead of merely shooting the messenger. And that would involve you trashing a former NATO Supreme Commander who did quite well in a proxy war against Russia’s little Slavic brother the Serbs.
While I wish it was Alex Jones that made up the fact that Misha the Tie Eater had been planning a war to reconquer S. Ossetia if not Abkhazia for months, alas my source on that was his former cabinet aide.
http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2011/11/the-us-is-hollowing-out-quickly.html
U.S. is Hollowing Out Quickly as Open Theft Goes Unpunished while Peaceful Protesters Get Gassed, Shot
http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2011/11/q-how-will-plutocrats-dominate-a-world-a-bots.html
How will Plutocrats dominate the world? Through bots
While I wish it were Alex Jones that made up claims that taser-firing drones are being designed for crowd control in the event of civil unrest across the U.S. that’s already begun, alas, that’s former USAF special ops pilot John Robb, who has a huge active duty military following on Twitter. Am I getting through to you now rytb? Do you begin to see that the fringe is now becoming mainstream and highly respected, patriotic people are beginning to ask whether the U.S. is turning into an authoritarian police state? Do you see now that the likes of Press TV and RT don’t have to make this stuff up, they merely have to repeat what others are saying?
So the question becomes: which side are you on rytb? The Oath Keepers who abide by the Constitution, or the globalist, .001% fascist super elite that want to turn your country into a police state?
Comment by Mr. X — November 29, 2011 @ 3:18 pm
vorobey, S/O has already documented your fascist tendencies, I have nothing more to add here.
Comment by Mr. X — November 29, 2011 @ 3:19 pm
Rytb,
Did you or did you not swear an oath to defend this country against ‘all enemies, foreign and domestic’ which would include plutocrat traitors (see Wikipedia under Gen. Smedley Butler, USMC), or do you only want to refight the Cold War endlessly and do what you’re told, in hopes they’ll gut your VA benefits and pension last? Unfortunately that’s the first thing on the unconstitutional super duper committee’s cross hairs, since they don’t dare cut the military bases we have in 120 countries. Only that kooky old Ron Paul is proposing to do that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler
Comment by Mr. X — November 29, 2011 @ 3:30 pm
SWP can’t rebut this stuff, so he just pretends not to see the big picture staring him in the face. The oligarchy he’s been denouncing as something uniquely Russian since On Russophobia is now taking over America and raping it for all its worth just like the same people did to Russia in the 1990s. That’s Mr. X thesis in a nutshell.
Comment by Mr. X — November 29, 2011 @ 3:36 pm
SWP has a life.
–Professor–
Perhaps you might want to consider filtering off-topic posts or scrutinizing replies for topical relevance and cogency.
It’s discouraging for potential participants in the conversation to have to slog through numerous incoherent posts to reply to the actual topic at hand. I might enjoy a spirited conversation with others on this site, but I find myself going cross eyed trying to follow the impossible trail of discussion due to the confusing overflow of bewildering ramblings of some posters.
Free speech and all is great. But random deluges of weblinks, bizarre departures, and one-sided argumentative wanderings that dominate the comments section are a hindrance to open discussion.
Just my 2 cents.
Comment by gardener1 — November 29, 2011 @ 4:07 pm
Gardener1–You mean posts or comments? If comments, I’m tempted. Heretofore my preference for free exchange, and my rather tight bandwidth limits (time, I mean) have led to take a hands off approach to the comments. But the issues you raise have become much more acute in the last six weeks or so. So I’m considering what to do. There are some efficient ways to filter the comments for yourself, you know 🙂
Nice work mr X
Sun Tzu Principles of Subversion
http://www.suntzu1.com/content/six_principles_from_the_art_of_modern_warfare/
Comment by Anders — November 29, 2011 @ 5:48 pm
NABUCCO pipeline cracker Mr. X http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bivEvWDWxlI –
Comment by Anders — November 29, 2011 @ 5:58 pm
I have one follow up to X’s comments concerning Oath Keepers. Bill O’Reilly had one of the founding members of Oath Keepers on a video interview and his last indignant question was something like-Are you telling me that you did not support seizure of firearms after Katrina? The founder answered-The Constitution says nothing about loss of Second Amendment rights after hurricanes. Bill cut him off, looked into the camera sadly shook his head, and said radical awfully radical.
I really thought that was one of the stupidest comments I ever heard from any newscaster. When people most need firearms for protection of home and family is when firearms should be seized? What a maroon.
…and now back to Georgia.
Comment by pahoben — November 29, 2011 @ 7:22 pm
“The oligarchy he’s been denouncing as something uniquely Russian since On Russophobia is now taking over America and raping it for all its worth just like the same people did to Russia in the 1990s.”
Well, Mr. X, since Our rebellious servant Vladimir refuses to give Us ownership of Russia’s energy sector, We must extract Our due somewhere…
We do appreciate the good Professor’s assistance for Our pursuit of Our First Principle:
All for Ourselves and nothing for other people!
Comment by a — November 29, 2011 @ 7:25 pm
Syria is a priceless opportunity to call a Putin bluff. I look down and see bullets as the hole cards and that joker (not in a card sense) is raising. Call the darn bluff.
Comment by pahoben — November 29, 2011 @ 7:33 pm
Ya ya ya-the old energy straw man. Viet Nam was because of oil, Iraq-oil, Libya-oil, opposed to Putin-oil, Afghanistan-rare earths or something. The US energy situation did not benefit from any of these. It never was about oil but if it would have been then the US would be in darn good shape now with ample reserves from Iraq and Libya anyway.
Comment by pahoben — November 29, 2011 @ 7:39 pm
Well, since Mr. X , servant of Tsar -Vladimir refuses to give the energy sector i former Soviet colonies, right to export whiteout a cut to the Tsar and his Boyars.
I do appreciate the good Boyars assistance for their pursuit of Our First Principle:
All for the Tsar and Boyars and nothing for other people!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et-3Lp5K5tM
Comment by Anders — November 29, 2011 @ 7:48 pm
Excellent observation Anders.
Comment by pahoben — November 29, 2011 @ 7:59 pm
Fu Manchu — U.S. so stupid, so desperate to fight Russia, it print money to lend to bankrupt Europeans so they think they get gas. We take the gas instead. Just wike U.S. take China money to invade Iraq — to keep China out of Iraq! U.S. take China money — to keep China out of Libya! We areddy back in Libya! So stupid round eyes. And we put 10,000 troops in Pakistan, stupid America puts in 50,000 — to keep worthress Pakistan and Afgharnistan out of Our hands. Ha ha ha.
Anders, what that name? Nor-way? We buy Nor-way soon.
Comment by Fu Manchu PLA — November 29, 2011 @ 8:30 pm
Euro need money to buy Russian gas. But they have no money unless you print. Why you print? Then money worthwess. America spend all money on miwitawy, what Fox News tell wem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmANxHJ6s9M
We take over Russia too someday, but we use Amerika first! You stupid American want to take over everyone so fast, we keep making for you dumb American to buy on black Fwiday! Ha ha ha! Fat American fight each other with pepwa spway!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxJdEqaCcGc&feature=related
Comment by Fu Manchu PLA — November 29, 2011 @ 8:35 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7wsBNqM8AQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7wsBNqM8AQ&feature=related
Professor — in China when trader no delivah, we shoot him. Sell organs much profit. In Amwica you stupid state Illinwuw give him tax break. In China official stupid won get cut stealwin, we shoot him. Smart wun buy much real estate in Wancouver.
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20111128/BLOGS02/111129874/illinois-house-panel-oks-tax-breaks-for-cme-cboe-sears
In Amwica, you make him secretary of Twesuwy, he steal money, and give mo money, then Hillawy denounce China CCTV channel. Fwunny no?
Anders — not China fault Amwica spend all money on weapons and trying to fight Wussia for oil, why we just buy from Afwica and take over Africa, no war necessary.
Comment by Fu Manchu PLA — November 29, 2011 @ 8:44 pm
Its ok, Z. Beezinski say we take ovuh Siberia. He promise China much profit once Russians dead fwum much Afwan heroin. In China we fight wah when British try to get our people addict. Russia no fight. Russia done.
Comment by Fu Manchu PLA — November 29, 2011 @ 8:46 pm
Uhm, Mr. X–your IP is showing.
And another thing. The only reason I have edited or deleted comments is for racist content. You are pushing it X with the Fu Manchu crap. And your obsessive, Johnny One-Note, off-topic comments under your own name (Ha!) are bugging folks. One person has registered his annoyance in the comments, and I have also received complaints off-line. Keep it up and you will become the inaugural ban-ee. It’s against my nature, but even I have my limits.
Uhm, Mr. X– drinking to much vodka on duty . Tsar Vladimir send Mr. X to Siberia reorganizing FSB , GRU and KGB ?
Tsar Vladimir draws his support from the spooks, but he also wants efficiency and obedience. The GRU often duplicated the work of the SVR and instead he wants it to concentrate on what it is best at: true military espionage, work in Central Asia and the Caucasus and, one may suspect, occasional assassinations of enemies abroad.
Tsar Vladimir was once a spook; he believes in them and draws many of his closest allies from their ranks. But he also knows that left to their own devices they will tend to be distracted by futile turf wars. They also get too big for their own boots and from time to time need reminding who’s boss. In this respect, the GRU is simply the sacrificial victim of the hour. The FSB and SVR [Foreign Intelligence Service], though, are expected to learn the lesson.
Comment by Anders — November 29, 2011 @ 11:03 pm
Mr.X, I am sorry you are so simple, but here is the description of “Russian Lessons”
http://www.russianlessons.org/#/english/film/about
“The film starts as a journey by the two directors-protagonists, Andrei and Olga, one on each side of the front line during the 2008 Russian – Georgian war…..”
and
http://sundance.bside.com/2010/films/russianlessons_sundance2010
“Andrei Nekrasov, with directing partner Olga Konskaya, returns to Sundance with a formidable documentary that energetically delves into the violent and bewildering conflicts in the Caucasus, with Russia pitted against the former Soviet state of Georgia, and involving Georgia’s troubled regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Boldly visiting conflict zones rarely filmed, the codirectors uncover damning evidence of Russian violence, incidents whose few recorded images are often reprocessed in mass-media reports as evidence of other people’s crimes (often, supposedly, residents of Georgia).
Parsing the complex history of the region, as well as oversimplified cultural assumptions about internecine ethnic conflicts, Nekrasov and Konskaya construct a portrait of a cynical Russia willing to engage in secret wars and manufacture conflicts and media reports simply to consolidate power. With immediacy and passion, but also with a commanding mastery of film form, their documentary dignifies the struggles of powerless people and holds a sobering mirror up to a superpower and its media.”
As for “Georgian violence against Abkhazians and Ossetians” well Mr.X, I suggest you learn some history, the overwhelming majority of violence in both conflicts has been by separatists against Georgian civilians, egged on, facilitated, and led by Russia. Standard Imperial divide and rule policy don’t you know?
I do love the way Mr.X supports Assad, Gaddafi, Putin etc, people who routinely massacre their own subjects, methinks he is a bit deluded.
BTW, your link to the “polish article” does not work Mr.X, and Mr.X, they did use Ukrainian and Bulgarian airspace for supply missions, but not Russian.
Military planners at US Central Command initially calculated that it might take as long as five months before conditions would be ripe for an offensive against Kabul. After only 20 days of airstrikes, Northern Alliance forces began their march on the capital, and captured it 24 hours later.
A total of 211 US Air Force planes used Ukraine’s air corridors between 9 October and 7 November 2001, according to the Ukrainian Defence Ministry. During this period, 78 C-17 transport planes, five C-130 and 128 KC-135 tanker aircraft used the Ukrainian corridors, mainly over the neutral waters of the Black Sea where aircraft were refueled. In November and December 2001, US tanker aircraft based in Bulgaria flew about six missions a day to refuel warplanes in the Afghan theater. A Bulgarian military airport in the Black Sea became a de facto US base, with about 200 Americans stationed there. Twenty US military flights to or from Afghanistan crossed Romania each day.
As of 23 October 2001 Air Force B-2, B-1 and B-52 bombers from the 28th Air Expeditionary Wing, Diego Garcia had expended more than 80 percent of the tonnage dropped on combat missions over Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. The Air Force had flown more than 600 sorties including strike missions against al Qaeda and Taliban targets in Afghanistan. These targets included early warning radars, ground forces, command and control facilities, al Qaeda infrastructure, airfields and aircraft.
On 20 November 2001 senior officials said that more than 10,000 bombs or missiles had been dropped or fired into Afghanistan during the war, of which over 60 percent were precision-guided munitions. By the end of November 2001, the eight B-1s and ten B-52s operating from Diego Garcia had reportedly dropped most of the 4,700 tons of munitions delivered by the Air Force, comprising 72 percent of the war’s total by that time. The B-1 force was generating four sorties per day, while five B-52s were flying daily. Bomber crews who flew strike missions over Afghanistan from Diego Garcia atoll had quite a drive to get to and from their targets. Each round trip sortie, flown mostly over the vast Indian Ocean, could last from 12 to 15 hours, could involve extended stays over the country, and could be more than 5,500 miles. Including mission planning, each strike was at least a 24-hour affair. Planning was done mostly at night and would often take hours. Before a strike, aircrews studied flight plans. Most people memorized the bomb run. At Diego Garcia, the support team that kept the bombers flying worked nonstop. As the air campaign entered its fifth week, the members of the 332nd Air Expeditionary Group Munitions Maintenance Squadron were working at a breakneck pace building bombs.
By the end of November 2001, the US Air Force had flown more than 15 percent of the combat missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Aircraft employed included the B-1, B-2, B-52, F-15E, F-16 and AC-130H/U. These aircraft had dropped about 10,000 tons of munitions, amounting to more than 75 percent of the Operation Enduring Freedom total. More than 75 percent of the munitions expended were precision guided. By the end of November 2001, a total of 600 cluster bombs had been dropped, consisting of 450 BLU-103 and 150 BLU-87 munitions. By the end of November 2001 Air Force support aircraft, UAVs, RC-135, U-2, E-3, and EC-130E/H, had flown more than 325 missions.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/enduring-freedom-ops-air.htm
Nothing about Russian airspace in the whole article, surprise, surprise…..
And
The initial attack involved 15 American bombers, including heavy B-1 and B-52 bombers, also based on Diego Garcia. There were also 25 F-14’s and F/A-18’s from the aircraft carriers Carl Vinson and Enterprise, both in the Arabian Sea, and scores of aerial refuelers and reconnaissance aircraft, both American and British, operating from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/08/world/nation-challenged-pentagon-deploying-stealthy-b-2-s-military-promises-day-night.html
Comment by Andrew — November 29, 2011 @ 11:42 pm
Vodka?
Oh_Hell_yes.
I have a fresh botilka of Roosky Standart on chill in the freezer as we speak.
By golly if there’s one things the Russians do right, it’s vodka. On duty or off.
Comment by gardener1 — November 30, 2011 @ 1:26 am
Polish Vodka is generally better, as is Absolut from Finland, though Mamut from Siberia is a good drop I must say.
Comment by Andrew — November 30, 2011 @ 1:35 am
Absolut is rotgut. It can’t be swilled down without the copious addition of orange juice–or the addition of something, anything.
And yes I’ve met some pretty tasty Polish vodka too. And Ukranian.
Roosky Standart still my all time favorite. Good for all ocassions.
Comment by gardener1 — November 30, 2011 @ 1:46 am
Prof, for what it’s worth… I’ve also stopped posting because I can’t stand the nutcases hogging the space with increasingly crazy, insulting, off-topic, one-note ranting. I get enough of that here in Moscow:)
Comment by mossy — November 30, 2011 @ 5:28 am