Heirloom_Tomato

No I don’t think that was the point of his post.  He wasn’t calling for a direct evidence of every Israeli death.  He was highlighting that there was no evidence of Hamas’ most alleged brutal crimes.  I think his point was that over inflation of that brutality is being some used to give license to IDF potential warcrimes - which frankly are starting to stack up.
In the end I would not be surprised if Hamas did some pretty horrible stuff and the reports of 7 Oct are actually true to a greater or lesser extent.  It also does not matter.  Warcrimes do not justify more warcrimes legally or morally.  A beheaded Israeli baby is just as dead as a Palestinian one how had a JDAMs dropped on them.  And we have seen plenty of dismembered Palestinian children…hell it is with our morning coffee now.
The IDF should be held to higher standard than Hamas.  They are supposed to be the good guys.  Now we have reports of the IDF shooting aid agencies, their own people and vigilante actions against Palestinians in the West Bank.  As soon as we cannot tell who the good guys are anymore we are basically at Sudan where @sshats on both sides are waging war illegally.
This of course is a problem with sustaining international support and at some point even the US is going to draw back.  Like when pictures of starving Palestinians are flashed up on the news, or another massacre.  What is truly disturbing is that our primary democratic partner in the Middle East not only completely dropped the ball leading up to 7 Oct, they are driving the follow on operation into a crater.
We are finally hearing reports that the Israeli justice system is starting to get engaged (you know, the one Netanyahu tried to castrate).  So we may see some action. But right now Israel looks out of control and is making things so much worse.  

Agreed, that's another aspect to @Probus' argument: there's an awful lot of wiggle room in how "destroyed" and especially "damaged" is qualified. A leveled house is clearly destroyed, but how does a house count if a wall has been blown out? Does a broken down door mean that a house is counted as damaged? Etc., etc.
Another aspect is the absurdity of the refugee situation: in a normal war, Israel wouldn't have had to be concerned/made responsible for bouncing 2 million Gazans around like some kind of migrant ping pong game, because they would simply have crossed the border into Egypt and stayed in refugee camps there for a couple of months while the IDF and Hamas duked it out.
But to the Arab world, accepting the prospect of Palestinians crossing a border is basically tantamount to putting on a kippah and announcing that the country will be joining itself to Israel as a new municipality (the slew of civil wars and political assassinations which Palestinian refugees have brought with them to their Arab brethren likely doesn't help make a compelling case for accepting them either).

Today we have very loud night. At 3-00 Russians launched 10 ballistic missiles on Kyiv from Briansk oblast. It was combined strike of S-400 and Iskander-M. Our Patriot crews again were on the top and shot down all missiles. But, alas, because missiles were detectad again with delay, there were interceptions over the city itself, so fragments of them and at least two warheads fell down with detonations. 
More - 6 of theese missiles have fell in 2-3 km from my home. I heard very loud explosions and seen bright spashes in darkness through the curtain.
Objectives of Russian strike obviously were two thermal power plants and water pump station, feeding left-bank part of Kyiv (it located in 2 km from my house). This station has chlorine supplies for water disinfection, so hit of reservoir could lead to local chemical catastrophe. 
In result of attack 53 citizens were wounded (most of them by debrises of window glasses), 18 of them were hospitalized (2 kids amid them). Several multistorey houses, kindergarden and one hospital corps got damages from missile fragments, there were fragmnents impacts in tall house under construction, the warhead of shot down missile impacted and exploded on the avenue in 2 km from my home, making large crater, so the movement was closed
   



 

If a party signed onto the conventions then they apply to every conflict they will find themselves within.  This would be why even the IDF have not started using chemical weapons.  As to your list:
"Level a city that produces vicious terrorist by the 1000s"....well yes.  There are no provisions to wipe out an entire city just because it produces threats.  You can target legitimate military targets in that city but wholescale destruction is against the law.  This would be why the US did not simply carpet bomb Fallujah or any other Iraqi city in the 00's.  We also did not do the same in Afghanistan.  The law says we play be the rules even when the other side does not.  "It is a war", yes that is my point entirely.  WW2 was not a "good" example of how we wanted to fight wars.  I know we have a lot of WW2 fans on a wargaming site but the consensus at the end of that was was that things got way out of hand.  So the international community, the same one that created the state of Israel, elected to stand up the LOAC framework.
At this point if I was an IDF general I suspect I would be fired for moving far too slowly because I would be looking at very deliberate tactical operations that I could defend at The Hague.  I would remove and an all troops who could be considered emotionally compromised from a kill chain and then make damned sure I had a lawyer in the JOC for every major shoot.  I would not devolve authority for airstrikes below my level.  I would have some pretty strict interpretations on the ROEs and enforce them.  When engaged I would not simple throw HE at a problem.  I would try a scalable approach to prove I did everything I could to reduce civilian casualties.  None of this is "pie in the sky".  Hamas is not a conventional military.  It is very light and insurgency like. Hamas is not going to counter-attack.  We have been fighting insurgencies for 20 years and not once employed what we see in Gaza right now.  It is miserable and slow work but there we are.  A lot of terrorist base are also not suicidal.  So isolation and time can play.  If you take fire return it in kind.  Nothing wrong with overmatch, but it needs to be scaled.  Take fire from a floor, return it.  Even hit it with a tank round.  I may kill any civilians in the same room as the terrorist, but I do not drop the whole freakin building unless I know htere are no civilians inside.
Why I would care so much about this is because I know my country has to live in this world once this is over.  My code of ethics, beaten into me since basic, says I will be righteous in delivering violence and committing homicide on behalf of my people.  If I cannot do that, then I should not be in the job.  It may take longer and take risks.  If I have soldiers who would rather they live and 20 Palestinian children need to die to make that happen, I want them out of my outfit.  I would relentlessly pursue and kill Hamas fighters and anything supporting them, but I am not going to kill civilians indiscriminately.  It may take years of slow steady pressure.  The political crisis in Israel because the PM and cabinet completely sh#t the bed on security is not my problem.  Waging the war legally is.
Then I would be looking for the civilian agencies to support the humanitarian fight and ensure we get between the civilians and the fighters.  Again, long hard and thankless work. And it may even fail.  But that is better then waging a war of extermination on a bunch of innocent people in the long run. [Not saying that is what Israel is doing definitively, but as a senior IDF leader it would be my primary concern.]  I have fought in an insurgency war and this is the gig.  We did not slaughter people when we took casualties, we went after the bomb makers.  We went after the leadership and we tried to get in between them and the people.  We even failed in the long run (less tactics, more politics) but we came away about as righteous as we could.  I did not shame myself or my people - and we kept the bad guys busy for a few years, so saved some lives there...I will take that. 
So slow, painful and legal is the alternative.  There is no fast, painless and legal in a war like this. 

I did 20+ years in the US Army. I went to Desert Storm and did 2 tours in Iraq. You have no idea at all about our professionalism and our capabilities. You know even less about Americans and what we will or will not fight for. Drop this stupid argument, and let's get back on topic.

Well, it seems the season of mass strikes is opened. But maybe this was a "greeting" with Holodomor Memorial Day and Maidan anniversary (was three days ago)
Since 6-00 of morning Kyiv survived most mass Shakheds attack ever seen - 66 were shot down over Kyiv oblast and Kyiv city. I counted dozen explosions. Total 75 Shakheds were launched from Kursk oblast and Kuban' region. UAVs were launched in several waves more then in 20 groups. Southern groups were circling in Kyiv and Cherkasy oblasts, awaiting arrival of northern groups from Kursk, then they simultainously were attacking the city from different directions. Attack has been lasting almost 2,5 hours. 
Air Defense Command has reported about 71 from 75 shot down Shakheds, then corrected this information to 74 from 75. Also one Kh-59 missile was shot down in Dnipropetrovsk oblast

In result of attack fragments of falling Shakheds damaged power lines in central part of Kyiv, so about 200 buildings now without a power. Two subway stations, located on open surface on the left bank of Kyiv are without power too. Also power lines were damaged in Vyshhorod district of Kyiv oblast - north from Kyiv. The buildng of kindergarden was badly damaged either with Shakhed impact or his falling part, containing a warhead. Five people suffred from attacks, but got only light wounds or just high stress.   
Air Force Command claims about 40 % of destroyed Shakheds are on the count of mobile groups, armed with different machine guns, ZU-23-2 and projectors, mounted on pick-ups. I also heard work of Gepards and launches of missiles. 
But this photo shows a dangerous of such "fire show" watching near the window - the bullet of UKR AA group, falling from the sky hit the frame of appartment window. It already hadn't enough energy to penetrate the frame, but if it hit the window itself, the people behind could got injuries.
  
In this time some Shakheds were painted in dark color, maybe this is against their spotting by projectors, but maybe this is special cover for radar dispersing. Some people talk this could be newest Shakhed-238, but this UAV has jet engine, whilst this night Shakheds had a typical "moped" sound
  
Newest Shakhed-238 for comparison

Another insane clip from 3rd Assault Brigade (and excellent demonstration of the value of an APC in the assault):
 

On one fine day, I was concussed when an enemy shell exploded literally a meter from a hole into which I jumped at the last moment. Then another stone flew into my ribs and I thought with relief that now I was wounded and would go to rest.
              But it was just a stone, and all I got was a very bad headache for the next few months. When the very active phase of the assault ended, the service was established, then I finally transferred to Petrichenko's gang to fly the Mavic. How it was and what it cost is a separate story.
              It was there that we encountered the moment when the enemy left Kherson. Yes, the enemy left in November. But in my opinion, these were the first steps towards them leaving. In the next thread, I will tell how they left, how we entered the villages, how I climbed the enemy's positions and how I almost died.
              Were there any wild moments? So. Were there any problems? So. But let me tell you about them after the war. Not to go storming Pisky now.
 
 

We spread out, raised the drone. Yes, we corrected ourselves so as not to clog the radio channel with chatter. There were no conversations on the radio. A minimum and only on business. Everyone knew what to do and so on.
              We barely had time to throw a couple of mines to hit the targets, and armor and infantry rushed past us. The heart was pounding. The tanks have already finished their work and left. Our infantry was approaching enemy positions, we (mortar battery), AGS calculations, fuel... Everyone was shooting at the enemy.
But the enemy also started shooting at us. The first shell flew 100 meters from us, the guys immediately looked at me. Were they shooting at us? Maybe. But was it possible to drop everything and hide? No. I began to shout that this is not our fault, that the enemy simply missed and will now redirect.
And for everyone to immediately continue shooting. At the same time, I detected explosions and corrected them. It was clear that they would not be able to work on all our fire means at the same time. And therefore it was necessary to shoot as much as possible.
              There was complete chaos around. Everyone and everything was shooting. Projectiles were flying, everything was exploding, and the infantry reported that they were landing on enemy positions. At that moment, we were already moving to the next positions and shooting there. Ammunition consumption was crazy, but it looks like our plan worked.
The enemy threw a couple more shells at us and switched to infantry. After assessing the available ammunition, I asked the guys to bring us more. Ours secured new positions, there was a couple of minutes of rest before the next attempt. It was terribly hot.
              Later, we received a command to change our position even closer. We piled into pickup trucks and drove in the direction of the front. Our next fire was almost at the place where "zero" was literally just recently ("zero" - the closest position to the enemy).
              I was thinking only one thing while driving. F**k this platoon, f**k this army. Why am I not on the 120th mortar, which is far from the front. But I said out loud that the enemy had fallen and everything was going well for us. The people had to be encouraged
              During that day, we changed positions many times, and even then almost all of our positions were where the enemy had been before. That is, the front was moving. And we also buried the suspension on the car. Armored vests, sleeping bags, sometimes automatic weapons, RPGs, the bodies of the occupiers were lying in the forest strips...
              But at some point we could no longer move on. Everyone stayed where they were. Shells were constantly flying, during the day we took significant hits from enemy artillery a couple of times. They shot well and did not spare the projectiles at all.
              We spent the night in the forest, we were given ammunition and food. In the morning, they went to look for new firing positions and the road. It was necessary to make sure that the road was not mined. We immediately prepared our firing positions near the holes that the enemy once dug.
              We came close to Ternovi Pody. We could not go further. Why? You will understand when I write the next thread. It was the end of August, beginning of September. Then the total pressing of the enemy with artillery began. Everyone was shooting and from everything. There were days when we fired 100+ mines per day from one mortar.

Okay, to distract everyone from conspiracy theories, I’ll translate a very interesting article by a Ukrainian mortarman about his participation in the Kherson offensive. The article gives an understanding of the offensive tactics of the Ukrainian Armed Forces:
              According to my personal belief, the defense forces in our area switched to active assaults in the second half of August.
              It all started with the fact that our battalion was removed from its position and another battalion took its place. We moved a little, regrouped.
                 I was infinitely "lucky" and at that moment two commanders of the unit were dismissed from the unit. That's probably why they said to me: "Congratulations, you're the platoon commander? You'll provide people with information, you'll control it." The last thing I wanted was for someone to die under my command.
              At the briefing, everything looked optimistic and wild at the same time. I understood that it was a high bet that the enemy would run away. Considering the fact that we had both 120 and 82 mortars, I was put in command of 82. Because they have to be much closer to the contact line. And the line, in turn, will move. So the guys will have to constantly move to get to the targets. When I came and outlined to them the task that was set for me, in their eyes you could clearly read something like: "what are you, stupid!?".
           The task was as follows. While the long-range artillery was working on the enemy's artillery, the forces of the battalion and several guns of the brigade had to destroy the enemy and press them to the ground so that our infantry could storm. In particular, we had to suppress the enemy's machine gun units.
             Everything was supposed to happen like this: Our infantry loaded on the armor and went bluntly (the effect of surprise, quickly, ammunition on the armor) to the enemy positions. At that time, the artillery works against the enemy (machine guns, ATGMs, automatic grenade launchers) preventing our infantry from being destroyed.
              When it was clear from the drone that our infantrymen were approaching the nearest enemy positions, we shifted our fire to their next positions and pressed them to the ground. In order to immediately reach the planned targets, we had to drive very, very close to the contact line. So close to where they used to walk at night or run if it was daytime. At that moment, I explained to the guys that this must be done, because if we do not suppress machine guns, grenade launchers and ATGMs, then our guys in armor will simply be destroyed. Was I scared? Yes. Only fools are not afraid. I explained the work to everyone as much as possible, we determined in advance the points from which we would shoot, how, where and when to move.
              The battle began: first the artillery worked, Grad's, then a couple of tanks rolled out, they hit the enemy's position with direct fire. Since the enemy was very busy with tanks, we drove into the first line of fire almost unimpeded.

I am pretty sure that automatically makes you a Canadian citizen.

You want tactical discussions?  Try this.
https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/17301-the-story-of-a-merkava-company-co-on-october-7th/
 

It is not worthless I fear, it is bad lessons.  People will walk away with a bunch of factoids about mine breaching systems and suddenly are “experts” around the water-cooler.  From this they can draw all sorts of really bad conclusions.
The biggest reason why mine breaching systems fail is because someone kills them while they are trying to do their job.  Watching that video can easily lead someone to think “well send them better kit” - we saw this with the tanks in spades.  And then we send them better kit and it still doesn’t work.  “Well they must be doing it wrong cause the YouTube guy said…”
The entire point of putting up an information piece is to provide people with the knowledge to make better sense of phenomena.  For this one needs expertise.  We see the death of expertise in modern era.  Anyone with a channel can suddenly be an expert in anything.  For example, retired SF guys with YouTube channels talking about formation level logistics.  They never served in a J4 staff or been trained as a professional logistics officer.  But they rub SF “Ranger” patches and suddenly they know what they are talking about.
This is just misinformation and in many cases is just chasing likes and subscribes.  Problem is that it can easily slide into disinformation and outright fiction.  The worst sin are people like Macgregor who know better but keep spreading false info regardless.
I do not know what to do about it.  I am not a social media expert…but maybe if I did a YouTube channel…
I for one can only try to do the best I can in this little forum in outer rings of the information sphere.  And on this one backwater thread on a tiny wargaming companies back…we can aspire to do a bit better.  The rest of the internet will just have to sort itself out.

Be that as it may, I can say that times have changed. compared to last year. I had a development project. But because of the war, I decided that civilian projects would not benefit my country and decided to join the Ukrainian armed forces. Moreover, recently chronic diseases are not considered an obstacle to recruitment

Incredible UKR combat video here.  Video bounces between trench fighting and the drone above watching it all.  Confusion amid fighting in the trench maze, particularly on RU soldiers who seem to have less situational awareness.  Especially when they come flying out from dugouts trying to escape.  Some shooting just a couple meters apart.  From above, we get the big picture while the guys on the ground only see what's right in front of them.  
 

Steve has never felt more justified.

Umbrella of what? They have about enough material to make ONE uranium warhead nuclear weapon. They have a missile program, but really no way to mount and deliver a U weapon on a missile. They have NO capability at all of creating a Pu warhead weapon, which would be required for missile delivery. A Pu warhead is significantly smaller. Their one and only method of possibly getting Pu was the Arak reactor and that was permanently reconfigured under the terms of the JCPOA to not be a source of Pu for a weapon. They could process enough U for a weapon, do a test, then have to start processing more U for another weapon, which will take some time, although not a year as under the terms of the JCPOA. But even so, should they do so, I would expect an immediate and violent response by the US and UK at a minimum, to cripple their nuclear infrastructure. A lot is buried and it wouldn't all be destroyed but certainly would be significantly set back.
Highly, highly unlikely. Russia is a party to the JCPOA. They have no interest in having a nuclear armed Iran that close to them or their former -stans, which is a big reason they were a party to the agreement in the first place. The Bushehr power reactor in Iran is under IAEA safeguards and part of that is that Russia provides all the fuel, and they receive the spent fuel back. Iran has no capacity to reprocess fuel to extract Pu even if they held on to the spent fuel, and even if they did have that capability, Pu from spent fuel from a PWR is wholly unsuitable for nuclear weapons use. (That's why the DoD has special purpose reactors to do that). They would have needed the spent fuel from the Arak reactor and that is no longer in play. Even though the US withdrew from the JCPOA (a supremely stupid act, IMO), many of its requirements still exist. 
Dave

Act how?  Apologize for what?  “I am sorry I was not briefed?”  “As CDS I don’t do full background checks on everyone who visits Parliament?”  I call BS on that.  
We are becoming so apologist that those apologies do not mean anything anymore.  One can apologize for sins of commission or omission, yet none of these really apply in this situation.  The CDS was called to a special session of Parliament for the President of Ukraine.  Some nitwit 20-something staffer in the Parliamentary Protocol office didn’t double check on another nitwit 20-something staffer in the Speakers office - neither of whom have looked at WW2 history since high-school (and even then all we ever talk about is freakin Normandy).  The CDS stood up to honour a Ukrainian WW2 veteran, with everyone else, and then wound up wearing it when it comes to light that a 15 second Google search could have headed this whole thing off.
He has likely been ordered not to say or do anything while the Prime Minister try’s to stop the bleeding - a Liberal appointed CDS apologizing for “something” is essentially admitting culpability that Gen E is not entitled to and would be highly politicized.  So I am really not sure what the “Act” looks like in this situation.  I guess he could re-iterate that we in the CAF really don’t like Nazis?  Please do not apply for recruitment?  Nazis were really bad and WW2 was pretty big and complicated so please use Google and stop relying on Saving Private Ryan as your sole datapoint?

As much as I would love a "Let's talk aboot Canadian politics thread, eh?", a few points and then I have no doubt everyone will move on:
- If the Liberals take Trudeau as leader into the next election, they are done like dinner. Canadians resent any leader who is office for too long.
- Our conservatives are nowhere near as conservative as those in the US.  I wish I could say that extreme right did not exist in Canada but it is very much on the margins, for now.  We definitely have it in the DNA, but we are also addicted to our social programs and liberalist high ground.
- With respect to this war, it won't matter which party gets into power the support will still flow from our end.  Even the NDP (far left) would have to stay in the game at this point - they might balk at some weapon systems but...  Which political party is in power is nowhere near as critical to support to the Ukrainian war effort as it is in the US right now (and frankly I am not even sure where the US would really go).
Beyond looking like a bunch of disconnected rubes in this last gaff, we are very much a "Rules Matter" bunch and Russians invasion is just too far outside the global order for Canada to accept.

This one is just bad enough that it may get the Speaker of the House to resign - that position is nothing like the ones in the US.  Right now half of the reporters in Ottawa are digging into that old guys past like mad and if they come up with anything really nasty, like the guys unit did some dark stuff, it could push the whole thing over the edge.  Gawd, but we look like the country rubes we are this week. 

As a professional soldier who has led men and women in combat the cost of a single person to too high.  But in order to make war, let alone win one, you have to box that one up or you will be useless in a week.  The human cost of a war is something that is in the calculus but if you let it drive the agenda it will only make things worse.  This is why politicians (and the people, in democracies) need to be damn sure they understand what this thing is.  We are talking about using people as ammunition, no dressing it up, no sugar coating it.  We use them as ammunition for effects, effects to decision, decision within options, options + decisions = outcomes.  
Human cost in war should not and cannot drive the agenda (although it very often does).  We enter into the lands of vengeance and fear too deeply.  If Ukraine let the shocking human cost drive their thinking then they would have surrender on Day One.  No they understand that cost but they are spending their young people for a reason worth that cost.
Now to try and play the “blood” card in defence of tanks, well that is just poor form.  People as a military capability are a completely different set of metrics.  Cold, harsh metrics but not the same in any way to human being costs.  Muddling the two is a fast path to really bad strategy and emotional arguments, not professional military advice.

But, wouldn't that require a dress code?/s

Enough accurate, though he skipped details of street clashes before pro-UKR forces came to Trade Union House. He also didn't tell pro-Russians not only threw Molotovs from the roof of House, but shot with firearms (pistol or hunting rifle), killing and wounding several pro-UKR activsts.  
Odesa, Zaporizhzia, Mykolaiv, Kherson oblasts were saved from Donbas/Crimea scenario due to active resistanse of more organized pro-Ukrainian citizens, when police either withdrew itself from own duties under the pretext "do not escalate" or secretly or directrly like in Odesa took pro-Russian side. Though, only in Odesa all was so violent, in other cities the level of pro-Russian uprising was very minor and all ended maximum with facebeating.  
Most originally separatism was suffocated in Zaporizhzhia. A handful of vatniks who dared to came on meeting for "Zaporizhzhia People Republic" under cover of police just was surrounded by pro-UKR people and they were pelted with eggs and flours.

This humilitation of "Russian world" lasted several hours, if pro-UKR activists would have also feathers, that pro-Rusian participants would became look like Guybrush Tripwood from Monkey Island 3 "Do you have a.... MADRE DE DIOS! El Polo Diablo!!!"
This action got the name "Egg Sunday" 

"Leaked" 🤣   Well, I am an expert with 38 years of submarine construction and testing, and as a subject matter expert I can say that that submarine is truly f-ed, FUBAR, SNAFU, scrap metal. 
Aren't you glad I'm here to provide you with my expert opinions?   😀
And kudos to Ukraine. Nice shot. 
Dave

Are you sure because we expect Prigozhin romance.