Jump to content

DreDay

Members
  • Posts

    477
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation Activity

  1. Upvote
    DreDay got a reaction from Bydax in In another blow to transparency, Putin classifies peacetime Spetsnaz losses   
    Right. I was told by my Russian sources (who are by no means an ultimate authority on this, but do happen to have more inside information than any of us) that there are around 100 Russian active duty KIAs from that conflict. However, that number does not account for Russian volunteers (i.e. not active duty) that had traveled to Donbas either independently or as part of Russian voluntary training/deployment system. There is also an ambiguous category of Russian volunteers and advisors that were recruited from active duty personnel, but deployed to Donbas as either PMCs or volunteers independently of their organic units. Those numbers are likely to be much higher, and I am not even sure that they are fully accounted for.
  2. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to L0ckAndL0ad in European Council Of Foreign Relations - Good General Summary On Ukraine War   
    The lie is a lie.
     
    Or not? Look, they've got WMDs! Ukraininan govt and special services don't lie. They don't need no pretences to get western support, to (not indiscriminately) shell cities and start offensives, because it's their land and they can do whatever they think is necessary.
     
    http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/europe/article4514313.ece
     
    They should go to UNSC or US senate with this, to get the ball rolling. Is Powell still around?
  3. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to L0ckAndL0ad in European Council Of Foreign Relations - Good General Summary On Ukraine War   
    I don't understand what you're trying to say here, with all those Russia references. I'm talking about Ukraine. Media is just a tool. And Ukrainian government is a bunch of corrupt liars. The problem I'm pointing at here is that.. nobody cares about their lies and crimes. They've got a carte blanche. Comparing them to other entities changes nothing. Zippo. The stuff still gets into such articles, like that one from ECFR in the OP. It's a common narrative that gets repeated everywhere. I do not believe that it does not affect decision making cycle. Even simply allowing Ukraine bomb their own cities with civilians in them, is damage big enough for me. Because my close ones are there. And because my city might some day be next. You might not care about it, find it "acceptable casualties", or whatever, but I do not. This is kinda like Israeli confict. They keep killing civilians and nobody's doing anything about it. Same here. All people can do is brag about how Russia is evil and all. Blah blah blah.
  4. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to L0ckAndL0ad in European Council Of Foreign Relations - Good General Summary On Ukraine War   
    What kind of question is that? Is it a rhetorical one? All civilian lives matter, and Russia is rightfully blamed for leveling Grozny. We're talking about Ukrainians doing the same here. And they get a carte blanche.
     
     
    That's just an excuse. When terrorists capture a building with civilians, you don't just level the whole building.
     
    I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but in Ukraine, there's not a lot of such thing as "precision strikes". There's a bunch of indiscriminate shelling, frequently even in places where there are no military targets, and ordinary people get killed. And if anyone here believes when Ukrainian govt says that "those rebels shell themselves", well, I've got a surprise for you, they lie, to cover their own strikes that kill civilians.
     
    No need to go far, July 19th, they screwed up during their report briefing. First officer said that "it turned out to be true that DNR did try a provocative strike on their own territory, as we predicted", and then 7 minutes later, another officer comes and says that "they place firing positions inside living areas, so when we fire back, civilians suffer, so they need to stop putting firing positions in civilian areas". Should've gotten their story straight before doing the briefing.
     
    So they lie. And there's been quite a few accounts of shellings with no military targets nearby. By grids, on "suspicious targets", etc. Just like with Israelis, nobody's doing anything about it. And it's just the deaths I'm talking about here. There's a bunch of other crimes to talk about (human rights wise).
  5. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to Bootie in The Scenario Depot III   
    Yes good idea... I will place an FAQ on the site in the next day or so.
  6. Upvote
    DreDay got a reaction from cool breeze in News about T-90 upgrade plan   
    Again, we absolutely do not need a military confrontation to threaten Chinese energy shipments. Imagine a scenario where we decide (for right or wrong) to restrain China and low and behold - most of Chinese neighbors (not without our wise leadership of course) suddenly decide to close their maritime borders to cargo ships headed for China because… oh I don’t know... they execute dissidents, or torture pandas, or occupy Tibet, or through their weight around in South China sea… or eat cats… Sounds farfetched? Think again… Of course we would never do such a thing and China has nothing to fear; they can always take our word for it – that has always worked out well in global politics…
     
    Stalled is definitely an overstatement. It has been in negotiations for 15 years and the breakthrough was achieved when China threw Russia a huge bone by agreeing to their requested rate of $350-$400 per 1000 cubic meters of gas right after the South Stream was sabotaged by European Energy Commission. There are actually several other deals that have been signed since then. And they will certainly take many years and many trials to implement. But the official strategy by both governments is very much geared to push through these pipelines. This was most vividly reiterated by Mr. Xi Jiping last month on May 8th.
    Now I can find you dozens articles (almost all in English) telling us how it would never work, and of course they are all written by unscrupulous analysts that have nothing to do with our LNG companies that would take a massive hit if and when such pipelines are built.. We all know how unbiased our business (and not only business) media is.
     
    Again, I personally don’t care to discuss Armata till it materializes in a real combat-ready vehicle; maybe it is over-priced, or perhaps it is worth every penny… Only time will tell and for now I simply don’t know enough to care one way or another.
    Again, I simply don’t care to make any predictions about Armata right now, but if it is worth its price it would sell fine just like other Russian weapon platforms. If it is overpriced, or offers very few improvements over older models (like T-90) it would not sell well. Same logic works for all other weapon systems (politics aside); I don’t understand why you think that some unique rules apply to tanks.
     
    Lol, would you care to give me an extensive list of M1A1/2 buyers that have a real appreciation for force multipliers? Who could challenge the military organization and might of such powerhouses as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq? Perhaps weapon purchases follow a bit more complicated model than what you outlay above?
     
    Guess what Steve - they had tried just that (with extensive support and oversight from us) throughout the 90s, and we all know how it went. Wonna tell them to do it all over again? You are going to learn a lot of interesting words in Russian very quickly.
    On a side note Steve, I have studied Russian foreign and military affairs for many years in my prior life, traveled to the region over a dozen times, and still keep in touch with a couple of what you would call “power elites” there. There are plenty of things to critizes Russia for; and they are also plenty to praise them for as well. But reciting our media coverage of Russia (which is at least 90% fugazi) and then drawing conclusions that match this garbage word for word makes for a very lazy argument which, if I may say so - is below you. I would challenge you to try seeing things from a Russian perspective (amongst others), if you really want to get the full and objective picture. I am not saying that you should embrace their mentality (I personally don’t), but they do know what they want and where they are going; and that in itself is well worth trying to understand, because you will more than likely learn new things about our government and political establishment when you look at it through somebody else's prizm..
  7. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to akd in News about T-90 upgrade plan   
    Steve, how did you determine unit cost for T-14?  I've seen nothing but speculation.  Question seems irrelevant given unknowns.
  8. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to BTR in New offensive in Donbass?   
    The wrong side of this forum, that's for sure, but then again, everything these days seems to be divided by a fence. I've tried arguing the Ukrainian side on Russian forums and got the same response  . Oh well, as Kurt Vonnegut wrote it best, "and so it goes".
  9. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to BTR in New offensive in Donbass?   
    Negatory, it's like arguing the Ukrainian side on Russian forums. In terms of right and wrong, what Russia is doing in Ukraine is hard power because soft power has failed over the course of the last 25 years. I do not view my country's actions to protect it's sphere of influence as wrong. Methods - questionable in their effectiveness. Reasons? Not so much. Like I said almost immediately after joining this forum, to me, and perhaps to a lot of my countrymen, this is a natural repetition of 1653, 1919, 1939 and 1944.
  10. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to BTR in New offensive in Donbass?   
    I come to Russian military forums, it's a circle-jerk of bouncing similar opinions on a one side loop. I come to US oriented forums like this one, and it is exactly the same circle-jerk of high an mighty opinionated posting, just the other way around. Such a shame mp.net has died. It felt like the only place where two camps would actually meet and have a discussion. 
  11. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to Stagler in New offensive in Donbass?   
    Well said BTR. Also I do miss mp.net
  12. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to John Kettler in Russian Military Reform Study (2011, Moscow Think Tank)   
    DreDay,
     
    You're welcome. The deeply insightful, now retired from the Army, LT COL Grau is still at FMSO, and according to the Wiki, I'm roughly 100 articles and books shy of being current on his writings! I adore his stuff and have many times found it most useful. I first encountered his work on the First Battle of Grozny, after which I got to read all about the bizarre 240mm Tyulpan laser guided shell. In my view, he is a master of his craft. Fortunately for us!
     
    Regards,
     
    John Kettler
  13. Downvote
    DreDay reacted to panzersaurkrautwerfer in New offensive in Donbass?   
    Why would Russia be dishonest about anything?  It's not like they've ever concealed facts for their own benefit?  I imagine if that callsign or transponder code was not in service, Russia could easily show the US as lying sneakmen of green wearing nature.  
  14. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to Sgt Joch in New offensive in Donbass?   
    that is not the issue, I am not defending the Russians or even claiming they are right, simply pointing that you misread the article. As the author points out, even though flightradar24 pointed out that the aircraft had a transponder, it is not known if it was on at the time of the intercept.
     
    That intercept has also been widely covered. There have been many other follow up articles. As I understand it, most professionals see it as a non issue:
     
    http://theaviationist.com/2015/04/23/rc-135-aircraft-commander-explains/
  15. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to Sgt Joch in New offensive in Donbass?   
    Does yours?
     
    drop the personal insults, this is not the first time you have tried to slide those in.
  16. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to L0ckAndL0ad in Armata soon to be in service.   
    /me opens up article
    /me sees "2300 Armata tanks by 2020"
    /me closes article

    "Daddy, you're not even trying!"
     
     
    LOL. So CAST says, to make themselves look cool. Reality? Not sure if he even knows about their existence. Tho their latest report seemed good, I'm not sure how much people "at the top" actually notice them. They did create a lot of fuzz by bashing Navy procurement, that's for sure.
  17. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to Stagler in Future modules ideas (unofficial topic)   
    Autumn and winter aye, that would be decent.
  18. Downvote
    DreDay reacted to L0ckAndL0ad in Moscow Victory Day (70 Years) Parade   
    Re: all equally bad
     
    The only thing I'd ask people is to stop riding white horses. As Pablius have just said, talks about freedom and democracy sound hollow. Ideals and reality are two separate things.
     
    What I think is going on is a giant inequality of social evolution levels around the world. It doesn't go in sync everywhere. It doesn't take the same paths everywhere. The biggest problem to solving this inequality is the fact that you cannot forcefully "uplift" societies in a timely fashion. Evolution takes time. One of the main factors is the length of human life. Ideals often die with people that carry them. But the good news is that, as long as countries are not sealed up as North Korea, you can't stop natural social evolution from happening.
     
    I love sci-fi. There were these two great writers, Strugatsky brothers. I very much enjoyed their pure sci-fi stuff, but didn't really want to read their social-related stuff. But, when I was bored (well, this is why I never am, really), I started going through their social sci-fi. And you have no idea how cool it turned out to be. Actually, much relevant even today. Those who want something to read, keep an eye out. They go deep into social problems, and "uplifting" specifically.
  19. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to L0ckAndL0ad in Using models from other CM games in CMBS   
    Do not mistake 82 with 82A. 82 is a 12.7mm MG version, while 82A is a 30mm version. AFAIK Russian MoD never bought 82. They've got quite a few 82As already by now, and keep buying them. Existing 80 are to be upgraded to 82AM (equals freshly new factory made 82A, except for some small details), for example, for Marines.
  20. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to sbobovyc in Combat Mission: Modding tools   
    Thank you! I use the 32 bit version of python 2.7.9 that you can download from the official site https://www.python.org/downloads/. There are alternative python implementations, but I have not tested them.
  21. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to Pablius in Moscow Victory Day (70 Years) Parade   
    While I´m happy that the West won the Cold War and don´t consider myself to be anti american, I`ll take a moment to comment on this from the point of view of my corner of the world, Latin America
     
    It´s true, I think, that being in the US sphere of influence is more like having a Boss than a Big Brother, it´s more about money than soul crushing servitude, but that doesn't mean there wasn't a lot of innocent blood spilled over that
     
    The US backed/supported/tolerated some of the worst butchers in history in Latin America during the 20th Century, and that has a cost, the cost is the monumental anti american sentiment in the region
     
    There were, of course, exceptions, when those butchers sometimes turned on the US or when some US President occasionally decided to call them out on human rights abuses (Carter did it to no great effect, but at least spoke of it)
     
    Paradoxically, this is the reason why Cuba is seen as a beacon of hope for so many in Latin America, as the one country that stood against the empire, it may sound crazy, but for many at the other end of the US foreign policy it is not
     
    In my personal case I was just a kid in the 70s and 80s when all of this was still going on, but friends of my family disappeared at the hands of the State and members of my family were forced into exile
     
    I put the blame of it more on our own shortcomings than on the US or any other foreign power, but the narrative the US propagates about being about democracy and freedom sounds completely hollow for most people here, it´s just the way it is
     
    In other regions of the world it may well be the other way around, having endured the tyrants imposed by the USSR.
     
    In the end the big powers play their game, they may not be equally evil but the simple truth is that their interest come first and the lives of the people in smaller/weaker countries comes second, it`s the nature of the nation-state model, certainly in a smaller scale similar dynamics occur everywhere, smaller/weaker countries are not blameless 
     
    Sadly, after the Cold War the international community was not able to find a working status quo and today`s stage is even more complicated by the appearance of non-state actors and global economics, I don´t think the US or any other country has enough power to shape the world, and would probably be better served by using it in a targeted form that apply the notion of personal responsibility and not collective punishment or on the basis of broad regional consensus (like against ISIS) and not by large scale interventions in most cases
  22. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to Melchior in Future modules ideas (unofficial topic)   
    Cold War gone hot, 1980. 
     
    Probably would need a whole series to do that though. 
  23. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to Melchior in Role of the Baltic States   
    Not that it's undeserving, merely that we should not be the ones dolling it out. 
     
    Personally, I am not Russian, and i'm not living in Russia. So my ability to limit or influence Russian affairs is minimal. I don't really concern myself with what Putin is up to because it is far more remote than what my own leaders are up to right now. NATO, the UN, etc have given me and us very good cause to watch them closely and carefully. 
  24. Upvote
    DreDay reacted to L0ckAndL0ad in Moscow Victory Day (70 Years) Parade   
    Re: Stalin
     
    From all the people I've seen in my life, most of them praised SU times for good quality of life and overall happiness. And the only times I heard someone mention Stalin was along the lines "they didn't allow to do that kind of sh when Stalin was in charge". But when you think about it, Stalin died in 1953. 62 years ago. So actually very small amount of people still alive who lived during his times, and everyone else don't even know much about it. So saying that he is "the most popular leader" would be not true. Many just attribute his work to what came after him. Not to mention the stuff that comes out of Kremlin, including "popularity polls". That's actually a part of social engineering. Saying, "85% supports Putin", so that everyone starts believing it, following herd instinct. This is why I don't like polls.
  25. Upvote
    DreDay got a reaction from Hister in Moscow Victory Day (70 Years) Parade   
    Panzersaurkrautwerfer, you make a very good point. I completely agree that it is way too simplistic and short-sited to say that all powerful states are equally bad (or good) in their actions and that their military and geopolitical ventures should always be held to the same standard. My original point is that they all operate with intention of pushing their geo-political, military, economic, and (less so) ideological interests; but the way that they go about it is by no means universal.
    For the record - I don't believe that any of them are evil (nor righteous); and that their actions are driven by (first and foremost) the natural dynamic of foreign affairs (i.e. how much they can accomplish based on their strengths and weaknesses vs. those of their rivals).

    The tough question (that many observers, myself included) struggle with - is how do you evaluate such actions from a moral/humanitarian standpoint. My personal view is that the value of human life is the most essential standard when evaluating the actions of these states. Unfortunately we (US) do not have a good record on that end, as we have easily been directly responsible for more deaths than any of our geopolitical rivals post WW2. Again, that's not to say that our rivals have not done tons of damage as well; but there is no escaping the fact that our military ops have brought more death and suffering to civilians all around the world than those of Soviets/Russians/Chinese/Vietnamese/Iraqis/Serbs post WW2.

    An opposing view (which I don’t quite share, but still very much respect) is that the freedom of expression and speech is the ultimate virtue that is worth fighting for. On that end, we (thank God) have done a much better job than any of our rivals.

    The point that I was trying to make above though - is that all powerful and independent states strive to strengthen their national interests – that is an ultimate goal of any strong country, which is to be expected. Are they all equally bad (or good) in their actions? Absolutely not! However, the impetus for their actions is generally the same, while the execution might be quite different..
×
×
  • Create New...