Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Not Exactly the Best Sales Pitch for the Russian Army

Russian soldiers who die in the line of duty in Ukraine have all of their sins forgiven, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church proclaimed in a sermon, comparing their sacrificial death to that of Jesus.

The assertion, made on Sunday, ratchets up Moscow Patriarch Kirill’s already staunch support for Russia’s war on Ukraine since its beginning in February.

More Christianist bullshit. I'm not aware of anything in the Scriptures to support the notion of Jesus taking up arms, let alone committing war crimes, but the Russians must have their own holy books that condone rape, murder and looting.

The U.S. State Department expressed concern Wednesday that Americans with dual citizenship with Russia could be conscripted by Moscow to help fight its war against Ukraine.

“Russia may refuse to acknowledge dual nationals’ U.S. citizenship, deny their access to U.S. consular assistance, prevent their departure from Russia, and conscript dual nationals for military service,” the State Department said in a statement.

Well, no fucking shit. Those dual nationals are still Russian citizens and they are subjected to being drafted.

I've seen reports that the Ukrainians are already claiming to have Russian POWs who were mobilized under Putin's orders of last week. Some received a day's worth of training. Putin is denying requests for orderly withdrawls in places where the alternative is a Russian collapse (and the Ukrainians getting more equipment). Some of the Russian booty has been near state-of-the-Russian-art AAW and EW gear, much of which has made its way westward into NATO hands as thank-you presents for NATO equipment.

Meanwhile, the Germans seem to be trying to stick to the middle of the road, by prolaiming that they support Ukraine but, on the other hand, not providing much in the way of meaningful support, compared to other European NATO nations. Sometimes, in war, being in the middle-of-the-road means that, like paved roads, one has a wide yellow streak.

This reminds me of a long-deceased friend of my mother's. She was a teenager in Denmark during the war. She didn't like the Germans very much, for obvious reasons, but she really detested the Swedes. She said that they were quislings.

ETA this, per Jon Jones's comment:

12 comments:

  1. The beautiful thing about the Ukrainians getting Russian armor is it works better against the Russians than for the Russians. The Russian tanks are vulnerable to top attack munitions, due to the multiple rounds held by the auto loader and the thinner top armor on the turret. Thus, NATO AT munitions are designed with a top attack option…Russian AT munitions lack a top attack option, and thus have to fight through the regular side armor, which is pretty decent on Russian tanks.

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  2. Perhaps, you missed this brief
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ9GiRMGpEw

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  3. This false patriarch Kyrillos might as well be some corrupt government puppet,like some of those Imams in Iran. I thought everyone knew that by now. Whatever, this corrupt old sinner has no place talking about sins and forgiveness.

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  4. The Old Testament is full of incidents where God condones rape, murder, and looting by his favored hordes. During one of the Crusades the pope proclaimed that anyone who went to fight would have his sins forgiven. Kirill may well have been inspired by that.

    There is nothing, not even war, so bad that religion can't make it even worse.

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  5. That was the pitch for the early Holy Roman "crusades" ~ abolition of sin.

    Things didn't turn out so well for the Holy Romans ...

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  6. Maybe they could bring in Steven Seagal and let him lead the way. Just like his movies, a Chop-Chop here and Hee-Yah there and the war would be over before your popcorn got cold. If that doesn't win the war then bring in his brother Steven Seagull to for some bomb runs. Putin's problem solved.

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  7. Jon, what's the synopsis of that? I'm not inclined to watch hour-long briefings, I'd rather just read stuff.

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  8. https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/ukrainian-fighters-share-graphic-video-28110737

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  9. You know how back in the day people would cook up the most absurd, the most incredible, most not-credible conspiracy theories to ... holistically discredit conspiracy theories in general so as to discredit one (or more) specific conspiracy theory? Yea, that's what Seagal did to martial arts [lower-case] movies. Bigger paper tiger than Chuck ...

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  10. The short answer is read the Economist, however they talk more candidly than they do in print.

    This is my physics manual when it comes to politics https://www.amazon.com/Summary-dictators-Handbook-Behavior-Politics/dp/1792925603/ref=sr_1_5?crid=1SWUVSD77Z4QJ&keywords=dictators+handbook&qid=1664492801&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIyLjE1IiwicXNhIjoiMS40OCIsInFzcCI6IjEuODMifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=dictators%2Caps%2C116&sr=8-5

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DON-aM2tze4

    The brief covers all of my bases in this domain.

    1. I'm happy with the EU game state
    2. Germany is holding up their end of log, tell me if you differ.
    3. A level set on a number of training and logistics issues from the Western point of view.

    It's given me an inkle and maybe a betting opportunity. https://twitter.com/pilotmsv/status/1513131559834079234

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  11. And I'm getting familiar with Russian ballet
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rJoB7y6Ncs

    a little at a time.

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  12. Minor correction: yellow *streak*, not 'steak', although that may be what they are eating.

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