https://archive.is/1lPVh

Ankle-biting dipshits lecture Russian military for not winning hard enough

The Russian Army may have defeated Ukraine — if it had followed its own manual

The US Army's new manual on Russian tactics is an impressive-looking document. It's 280 pages packed with details and diagrams of how Russian soldiers are supposed to fight. It is also evidence of a major reason why Russian troops have often fought poorly in the Ukraine war: they are not following their own playbook.

It's actually just a most recently updated version of what TRADOC has already put out for years.

Also fuck you dude for saying the Russians aren't massacring the Ukrainians hard enough. Fly yourself over there and go die in a flooded trench if you think you know better.

"A lot of the basic elements of that doctrine are sound enough that they could form a basis for successful operations," Scott Boston, a Russia military expert for the RAND Corp. think tank, told Business Insider. "But you do have to follow them."

No shit it's made by communists

To be clear, the US Army's manual — ATP7-100.1, "Russian Tactics" — specifies that it "is not meant to represent how the Russians are currently fighting in Ukraine." Nonetheless, armies try to fight according to their doctrine, or the fundamental principles that are intended to guide military operations.

I swear to God it's like they want more Ukrainians to die.

For example, when a Russian division or brigade conducts an assault, units are supposed to advance in multiple echelons — or waves — of troops and tanks, tightly synchronized with reconnaissance, flank protection, engineering, artillery and air defense elements. The goal is to hit hard, move fast, breach the defenses and advance deep into the enemy rear. To minimize the resistance they face, assault troops should concentrate into multiple columns to "spread the attacking units in both width and depth to disperse and reduce the effects of nuclear or precision fires," according to the ATP7-100.1 manual.

That maneuver is supposed to be deployed on an actual front in coordination with an operational plan, not something you do willy-nilly, you jackass.

But when Russia tried to seize Kyiv with a lightning advance in the opening days of the war, armored columns were sent down narrow, congested roads. Bottled up by roadblocks and ambushes, they were decimated by Ukrainian artillery, drones and anti-tank missiles. Nor does the manual describe how the Russian Army is fighting today. Instead of rapid and well-coordinated maneuver with its once-vaunted Aerospace Forces, attacks rely on obliterating Ukrainian defenses with artillery or glide bombs, or swamping them with large numbers of freed convicts and other "disposable infantry."

The cost has been enormous: an estimated 450,000 Russian casualties and 3,000 tanks destroyed. Moscow's best pre-war units have been decimated, and its best tanks and other equipment wrecked.

feels like I'm gonna be using this emoji alot today.

"Doctrinally sound attacks can still fail," Boston pointed out. "But a lot of their mistakes were failures to follow doctrinal guidance that is there for good reason. Like, have a guard force out in front so your main body doesn't blunder into combat and become decisively engaged. Don't try to send your entire force down too few roads. Don't leave your support troops unprotected. These were pretty basic things.

Assessing current Russian doctrine is difficult. Much of it is derived from the Soviet era of rigidly controlled mass armies. "The commander directs the fight, is responsible for the main elements of the plan, and generally does not expect initiative or flexibility to nearly the same degree from his subordinates, compared with a good US commander," Boston explained.

This is has some truth, Soviet and post-soviet war doctrine hasn't been tested in decades because unlike America the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation don't race around the world invading anything with a pulse.

Yet military reforms enacted after 2008 were supposed to create smaller and more agile Western-style forces. "When that system failed for them in the initial months after February 2022, they reverted to older, more traditional approaches that eventually included much more emphasis on mass," said Boston, a former US Army artillery officer.

Cost-saving measures that mirrors observations made on the u.s military's expeditions into massacring civilians.

However, the problem may not have been Russian doctrine as much as the overall strategy of the Ukraine war. Soviet plans to invade Western Europe were based on fielding millions of Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops supported by huge stockpiles of weapons and supplies. With an initial assault force of just 180,000 soldiers attacking across a 600-mile-wide front against a smaller but still substantial Ukrainian army, Russia couldn't generate the overwhelming mass that its doctrine counted on. Russian leaders also expected — as did many Western experts — that Ukrainian resistance would collapse and the country would be swiftly occupied. Assault units weren't even briefed about the attack until just before the war began.

And they would've if the goddamn British didn't string zelensky along like a quail following a line of seeds into a hole trap

"It's not impossible to win battles with an inflexible army, but in order to have a reasonable chance of doing so it helps a lot to have a good plan," Boston said. He pointed to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003: commanders hoped that Iraqi forces wouldn't offer strong resistance, but the invasion plan assumed they might. "It would have been irresponsible for the US military to do otherwise. But Russia's plan was that level of irresponsible. Units were directed to move into Ukraine and seize key locations on aggressive timetables and without meaningful warning or time to plan for things to go wrong. Doctrine and training can only do so much when you're sent to do the wrong thing with the wrong tools for the job."

It also helps to not having fucking Bojo lie about having the full support of NATO behind the ukraine

To be fair, some areas of Russian doctrine have proven quite sound, especially on the defense, where Russia stopped Ukraine's counteroffensive last summer. "There are plenty of aspects to their defense that are entirely consistent with their historical practice and doctrine," Boston said. "And in some cases, they've improved on their doctrine such as by increasing the depth and density of minefields."

Costing tens of thousands of lives of Ukraine conscripts for a summer "offensive" that died on the planning table but was sent out anyways.

One question will tantalize historians for years to come: could Russia have seized Kyiv — and probably won the war — in the first days of the invasion? "This is a tricky counterfactual," said Boston. "If Russia had made more adequate preparations, Ukraine could have noticed and reacted differently. But Russia had some substantial advantages that they squandered with the initial plan and with their slow adaptation over time. If Russia had tried a better plan, things would have gone much worse for Ukraine much more quickly."

Easy answer, build a heart attack gun that can send its magic bullets back in time and shoot bojo then see what happens.

Ironically, Boston feels maligning Russian military prowess does a disservice to Ukrainian skill. If the Russian military was that bad, then maybe the Ukrainian military wasn't that good? "We underrate how much damage the Ukrainians did against real Russian military capability if we think that that the Russians were all just terrible," Boston said. "I don't think they were terrible. I think they were terribly wrong-footed by their leadership."

un.org: Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General - 10 May 2024 - various interesting back n forths in here about palestine. Here is one about the UNRWA arsons vs shredding UN charter.

Is there a Zionist ideology against the UN, or is it just a practical conclusion they are reaching?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zQLrSL-tKc

Weeb has been predicting this offensive for the last couple months, said it would be mid-May. He's covering it in detail here.

Good little 4min summary of the rejected Hamas/Israel peace deal implications and the questions surrounding Israel's ability to take Rafah and achieve their goals. Nitter link to video

It likely won't be new to a lot of people here, but it's succinct, simple, from the respected MiddleEastEye, and probably good for sharing with the libs in your life.

Aaron mate on the saga of America's project ukraine

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2024/04/30/what_10_years_of_us_meddling_in_ukraine_have_wrought_spoiler_alert_it_wasnt_democracy_1027411.html

This is an extensive article that is probably familiar to most here. The section on specific ukrainian links to "russian interference" in the 2016 election was new to me though.

this resistance hype video is dope, Abu Obeida narrates

https://twitter.com/BIG__Brother7/status/1789387827148427433

Shoigu gang it's so over: Vladimir Putin set to transfer Sergei Shoigu from Russian defence ministry

In today's edition of wtf is Jacob Zuma doing

https://mg.co.za/politics/2024-05-07-mk-party-founder-suspends-jacob-zuma-asks-iec-to-remove-him-from-its-list/

uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party founder Jabulani Khumalo has placed Jacob Zuma on precautionary suspension and wants the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to remove the former president from its parliamentary list.

The move by Khumalo comes despite his expulsion from the party by Zuma late last month for “ill-discipline” — and takes place days before the constitutional court will hear an appeal by the IEC against an electoral court ruling allowing Zuma to be on the ballot.

The latest drama involving the newest breakaway party from the ANC kicked off on Sunday, when Khumalo — referring to himself as party president — wrote to Zuma and told him that he was being placed on suspension.

In the letter, Khumalo said Zuma had committed “several acts of misconduct in relation to the activities of the MKP”

The IEC released a statement on Tuesday afternoon confirming that it had received the letter by the MK party founder. It however said that it does not involve itself in political party affairs.

“Addditionally the commission only acts on instruction of the registered leader of the party. In the present case, Mr Jacob Zuma is the registered leader of the MK party,” the commission said.

Looks like a power struggle between the founders of the party and Zuma, and Zuma is winning. You have to acknowledge his political instincts, Zuma knows how to obtain power.

Also important to note:

Khumalo also claimed that the leader of another opposition party was preparing to take over the MK party leadership after elections and that was among reasons that Zuma’s daughter, Duduzile, had “publicly disgraced my name”.

Perhaps a deal struck between the MK Party and the EFF?