Jump to content

Bulletpoint

Members
  • Posts

    6,881
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    20

Everything posted by Bulletpoint

  1. It's really tragic. Several of the victims of Oct. 7 were peace activists and various volunteers. Some of them continue that work, even though they are struggling. I thought this story was worth reading: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-67592468 Yael heads a charity called Road to Recovery, a group of Israeli volunteers who drive sick Palestinians - mostly children - from checkpoints in the occupied West Bank and Gaza to hospital appointments in Israel. Or did. The 1,000 or so volunteers can no longer take patients from Gaza, which is governed by Hamas. And four of them are dead - murdered as Palestinian gunmen stormed through their kibbutzim in southern Israel.
  2. Images and videos of dead Palestinian children are unfortunately plentiful, so I think there would be no reason for Israel to hold anything back that could help the world to see their side of the story. Especially not when it comes to a reserved screening only for journalists, and not releasing the horrible evidence to the public.
  3. Even in the movie Israel showed to journalists, where they combined all the worst footage from Oct. 7, there is not a single child killed, and none by beheading.
  4. At first, we were surprised that Putin would actually go ahead and invade. Then we were surprised that Ukraine didn't simply collapse. Then we were surprised that the Russian Army was beaten badly and had to let go of huge areas. Then we were surprised that the Ukrainian summer offensive completely failed, despite all the Western weapons. An then now we are very surprised that the Russians are able to not just prevent collapse, but even mount a winter offensive and are taking ground. I would be surprised if this is the last surprise of this war.
  5. Yes, just like the Palestinians have grandparents who tell them what happened back in 1948. And now the next generation will have grandparents that tell them what happened in 2023.
  6. I've been trying to find this post by searching back a week ago, but didn't manage to find it.. would be interested if you could post it again please? Or just throw it in my mailbox not to repeat stuff on this thread. Thanks
  7. I do not believe this is the case. What matters is the experience level of the spotter and of the asset. And then dedicated FOs get a discount on call times (25% if I remember correctly). At least I'm pretty sure this is how it works in the WW2 games. Can't comment on the modern titles.
  8. If the last couple of years are anything to go by, the bones for 2024 will be very similar to the ones for 2023, which themselves were basically the ones for 2022.
  9. As far as I remember, this little symbol will be the same no matter which spotting unit you have selected before going to the artillery selection.
  10. It depends on the experience level of the spotter, and also of the artillery unit.
  11. You're right, I was going into the realm of speculation there, and I should have made that more clear. I don't have access to what's being said behind closed doors at high level meetings in Nato/EU/US. But I think there's much more being said in those meetings than publicly. And I think it would go a long way to explain the slow drip of weapons to Ukraine - the aim would be to prevent Ukraine from being overrun, but at the same time prevent a total Russian defeat. Now that Russia has been pushed back into territories they consider their own, the western appetite for more aid to Ukraine is not what it used to be. But if Russians manage to start making meaningful progress towards Kyiv, I think we will suddenly see a substantial increase in the supply situation.
  12. I should have added that I don't think the Russian way of doing things is "clever" or that it solves the problem of not being able to concentrate mass. I think it's just the best they can come up with given the circumstances.
  13. It might be that I'm confusing outcome and causation in this case. But when you say "again", where else did I do that? Or did you confuse me with Khalerick/Flemfire?
  14. I'm guessing the Russian answer is to spread out mass over time. So instead of attacking with 3 waves of 10,000 men, they attack with 300 waves of 100 men. New waves are constantly being formed behind the lines and sent into the grinder, but never really amassing enough troops to make a really good target for artillery, but still keeping enemy artillery working overtime, wearing it out, spending munitions, and potentially getting spotted and engaged.
  15. My comment was based on a graph in this video from the official channel of the Austrian Army: https://youtu.be/EWjMr3RZ8Ss?t=1549 It shows that since July, little aid has been pledged to Ukraine. Of course, if the US manages to agree on sending 61 billion more, despite increasing political opposition, then that will make a big diference to that graph going forward.
  16. I doubt it. The last winter showed how many missiles and drones it really takes in order to knock out a country's power supply faster than it can be repaired. And that was with Russian cruise missiles that despite not being perfect are probably still much more accurate than these Ukrainian drones.
  17. I think most people here will agree on this part. At least I do. Here is where it gets a bit controversial. I think the USA (and therefore NATO) is pretty happy about where the current frontline goes. Ukraine's independence has been saved, because there is no way Russia can take the rest of the 80 percent of the country. But on the other hand, Russia won't lose the remaining 20 percent of Ukraine that they are most interested in - large amount of Russian speakers and a vital land bridge to Crimea. This means Putin will be able to sell this war as a win, despite the cost. He feels secure he will stay in power, and no real escalation happens. This is also why Western support for Ukraine is now being dialled down. We are in a process of Ukrainian leadership and public slowly getting more and more used to the idea of not being able to win a total victory. (I should add that I would personally like Ukraine to regain everything, but I do not think this will happen).
  18. Why would they fake a civilian massacre when Israel is happy doing it all by themselves?
  19. Sorry for posting a link to Reddit - it's some crazy footage well worth watching, but didn't intend it to autoplay. And this forum won't let me delete or even edit the post so that the video is not embedded.
  20. https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/18k0reh/full_video_ukrainian_t64_destroys_disabled/?utm_source=embedv2&utm_medium=post_embed&utm_content=post_body&embed_host_url=https://community.battlefront.com/index.php
  21. I think Ukraine has much more in common with the Palestinians though. Resisting illegal invasion and occupation by a much stronger aggressor, civilians getting indiscriminately bombed and shot, being called Nazis, even animals... Actually neither Ukraine nor Palestine even really exists, according to Russia/Israel. Ukrainians are just Russians who forgot they are Russians, while Paleistinians are just Arabs who for some reason suddenly began to think they were Palestinians. In both Ukraine/Palestine, this has been called a clear case of genocide by well informed observers. The difference mainly seems to be that one side is allied with "us", and the other side with "them".
  22. International law is real in the same way money is real. As long as people trust their money works to buy stuff, it has value. But modern money has zero inherent worth. The moment people stop believing, it becomes worthless. Likewise, the UN is a very real organisation, which provides a forum for nations to discuss and publicly voice their disagreements. It also works well to coordinate peacekeeping and humanitarian aid etc. But it is also a very flawed organisation, with little ability to enforce anything. When I posted a couple of news stories about UN votes and vetos here on the forum, the aim was not to invoke some kind of mystical supernational power of the UN, but to simply use it as a bellweather of what the current diplomatic situation is. The US and Israel are increasingly isolated, and the bombings are taking a toll on America's reputation. Maybe this is where we disagree, but I believe soft power is actual power. Hearts and minds are important, and the USA has been sitting on a mountain of goodwill since WW2. They have steadily been squandering that though. And when it's gone, they will find that it's a lot harder to keep an empire going when you need to constantly use force to keep everybody down.
  23. Nice twist But the kids are safe back in the gated community that dad built with his buddies.
×
×
  • Create New...