Sequoia

Out of curiosity, the US did make a good 8" gun, the M110. I see it was retired by the US in 1994 according to Wikipedia. Any particular reason it would no longer be worthy of first line units?

The first rule of White Club is don't talk about White Club.

I'm stealing this post from someone else on another forum as I thought it was excellent. If the person from the other forum is also here (though I don't recognize the name) I hope you don't mind the theft. Just my opinion, but, imagine being the one honest general in a corrupt army. You live on your pay rather than looting supplies (and your pay scale was determined by people who assumed you’d be looting your supplies and your men’s pay). You try hard to force your subordinates to do the same to the extent that you can. Then the auditors come in, every other general has plenty of money to bribe the auditors, you don’t. Every other general has hand picked subordinates whose gravy train depends on the general helping to claim everything is in order. Your subordinates know that you are the main reason they’re actually having to try to live on inadequate army pay…. After the audit, the army no longer has one honest general, instead it has zero. Audits work when almost everyone is honest, and you’re trying to root out a few bad apples before they rot the entire barrel. I’m not sure what works when almost everyone is rotten and you’re trying to find and promote the handful of capable people. Public accountability has a small chance, but needs to start a the local level (so people are close enough to know who’s doing their job) and needs generations to build, and isn’t something a dictator wants.

@LongLeftFlank Sorry, but if the cat tweet was an answer to my question about JasonC, it went over my head.

Yeah late for the party on this, as I'm having trouble keeping up with this thread, but that's a joke, right? From what I recall of Jason, that doesn't sound like something he would say.

Still much too good for you. You will be subjected to watching Eurovision contests over and over again.

I don't understand how Slavs can become Neo Nazis given the Nazi view of Slavs as Untermenschen.

Regarding Battlefront possibly doing a game about this. I can already anticipate Steve getting an ulcer coming up with all the Ukrainian TO&E.

I agree it was a blunder but I think the blunder was caused in large part in that no one really expected the enormously greater blunder Putin made in going for a full invasion. Even if his fantasy of a short war came about, there was no way Ukraine wouldn't have been a gigantic suck on Russia until they gave up just like both the Soviets and the West did in Afghanistan.

Hi Steve, Re: This post from Friday (which is ancient history on this thread I know), I don't suppose you could recommend some good reading material on the US's (etc) failures at COIN this century that is anywhere near as good as the analysis on the current war I 've been reading in this thread? Thanks

I'm thinking it wouldn't have been a bad strategy if you weren't aware you were dealing with a guy obsessed with thoughts of some grand destiny of his, and cutoff from reality by his own doing. Just like old Adolph it sounds.

Mikey didn't get a chance to get around to it in time.

And though I'm no expert in International relations, but not saying if NATO troops would be sent or not would be a hollow ambiguity. No one would really expect NATO troops to be sent, so being ambiguous about it and not really ever have the intention of doing it, would make future ambiguities less credible if you follow.

I think you'd agree though, that quality is hardly exclusive to Russians. I heard a phrase "Once an Empire, Always an Empire" IIRC Iranians feel themselves to be inheritors of the Persian Empire and feel they are disrespected by not being treated as a great power. The UK seems to have better adjusted to no longer being an Empire than the French. Perhaps The Commonwealth preserves the appearances of an empire. And I will certainly not leave out the USA. While technically never an empire, it certainly has been the leader of a hegemony for about 80 years. How many Americans does it take to change a light bulb? Just one. He holds up the light bulb, and the World turns around him to screw it in.

I thought it might be useful to post what is known as the Rome Statute addition to the Geneva Convention. Under international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute, the death of civilians during an armed conflict, no matter how grave and regrettable, does not in itself constitute a war crime. International humanitarian law and the Rome Statute permit belligerents to carry out proportionate attacks against military objectives,[25] even when it is known that some civilian deaths or injuries will occur. A crime occurs if there is an intentional attack directed against civilians (principle of distinction) (Article 8(2)(b)(i)) or an attack is launched on a military objective in the knowledge that the incidental civilian injuries would be clearly excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage (principle of proportionality) (Article 8(2)(b)(iv). Article 8(2)(b)(iv) criminalizes intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term, and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated. Article 8(2)(b)(iv) draws on the principles in Article 51(5)(b) of the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, but restricts the criminal prohibition to cases that are "clearly" excessive. The application of Article 8(2)(b)(iv) requires, inter alia, an assessment of:

@G.I. Joe Welcome to the forums, but I thought I'd let you know that avatar has been in use by an esteemed forum member and former BFC employee, so you have big shoes to fill.

Sorry Elvis. I thought it pertinent in that former accolades may not equate with current expertise. I'll be more restrained going forward.

Think again.

Keas66. This may interest you. Note this is from 2012. Nobel laureate joins anti-vaccination crowd at Autism One (forbes.com)

I hope this thread gets back more to military analysis. We're better at that.

Link to a podcast about Ukraine's former possession of nukes. I don't know enough about the subject to review the right and wrong in the podcast. Deterrence in Ukraine (armscontrolwonk.com)

Take it outside guys.