holoween

☝️
To give a rl example of an incident that happened early this year in a simulator exercise.
a company of l2a6 is defending. the far left platoon starts getting targets at 3500m and engages. suddenly one tank turns its turret and puts five rounds into a tank of the center platoon only barely being stopped before also shooting the company commanders tank.
The tc had seen a thermal signature and immediately brought the gun over without checking what he was looking at and the gunner didnt realize he was looking at a leo2 and fired even though he knew there were friendlies there, the tank was pointing and engaging in the wrong direction, only 1000m away and was in the open easily identifiable.
If this happened to anyone in cm theyd riot yet it happened irl.
So while cm has issues with the spotting model rl can be much weirder.

☝️
To give a rl example of an incident that happened early this year in a simulator exercise.
a company of l2a6 is defending. the far left platoon starts getting targets at 3500m and engages. suddenly one tank turns its turret and puts five rounds into a tank of the center platoon only barely being stopped before also shooting the company commanders tank.
The tc had seen a thermal signature and immediately brought the gun over without checking what he was looking at and the gunner didnt realize he was looking at a leo2 and fired even though he knew there were friendlies there, the tank was pointing and engaging in the wrong direction, only 1000m away and was in the open easily identifiable.
If this happened to anyone in cm theyd riot yet it happened irl.
So while cm has issues with the spotting model rl can be much weirder.

☝️
To give a rl example of an incident that happened early this year in a simulator exercise.
a company of l2a6 is defending. the far left platoon starts getting targets at 3500m and engages. suddenly one tank turns its turret and puts five rounds into a tank of the center platoon only barely being stopped before also shooting the company commanders tank.
The tc had seen a thermal signature and immediately brought the gun over without checking what he was looking at and the gunner didnt realize he was looking at a leo2 and fired even though he knew there were friendlies there, the tank was pointing and engaging in the wrong direction, only 1000m away and was in the open easily identifiable.
If this happened to anyone in cm theyd riot yet it happened irl.
So while cm has issues with the spotting model rl can be much weirder.

arms races are caused by tensions in the relation of great powers. those are also what causes the wars not the arms race.

I did not say "cause".
Politicians, fears, nationalism, idealism and even economics and a lot of other reasons cause armsraces, yes. But buying/producing more weapons usually urges the "other side" to do the same, and then someone, somewhere, somehow sees or fears that there will be a disadvantageous imbalance, and decides "to strike now, before it is too late".
Chicken and egg conundrum, probably.   

Hey - 2 of the last 3 wars were declared by the French! And don't ask about the time before that...
Germany always gets the blame... 😪

Or maybe you guys could stop gatekeeping and telling people what may be discussed and what may not? Sorry, I don't mean to be (overly) snarky but this is an important topic and fresh new findings elevate it a little above just "absense of actual new information". EDIT: And what's more important, very prominent reporting, not just some wierd aging journalist.
Also, currently we are discussion mostly about rumors, anyway, and when I asked that we should discuss less about rumors because this is the internet and there are rumors about everything, I was lectured about what a rumor is and generally called unwise, so don't look to me for support here. 😉
 

I don't think it's a thing of the past at all. Whether someone ends up a convicted war criminal or a decorated war hero depends entirely on which side wins.

I won't get involved in this discussion further as it is leaning towards whataboutism. But to be fair: The US did wage quite a few wars that violated international law. By your own admission, this would make all US soldiers who fought in one of those war criminals. I have zero problem with criticizing the US for their wars but calling each and every soldier a war criminal just for fighting in it is indeed absurd, I think. You are right, blindly following orders and getting away with it is a thing of the past, as it should be. But a judge will always weigh the severity of the what a soldier did under orders against possible consequences of refusing said order, meaning there is no automatism here.

Im sorry what?
What exactly gave you that idea? Germany being unwilling to defend eastern europe doesnt mesh with the fact there are literally german troops in Lituania to defend them.
And germany stopped their gas imports from russia 100% while poland is still buying oil from them.

Im sorry what?
What exactly gave you that idea? Germany being unwilling to defend eastern europe doesnt mesh with the fact there are literally german troops in Lituania to defend them.
And germany stopped their gas imports from russia 100% while poland is still buying oil from them.

Im sorry what?
What exactly gave you that idea? Germany being unwilling to defend eastern europe doesnt mesh with the fact there are literally german troops in Lituania to defend them.
And germany stopped their gas imports from russia 100% while poland is still buying oil from them.

Im sorry what?
What exactly gave you that idea? Germany being unwilling to defend eastern europe doesnt mesh with the fact there are literally german troops in Lituania to defend them.
And germany stopped their gas imports from russia 100% while poland is still buying oil from them.

Im sorry what?
What exactly gave you that idea? Germany being unwilling to defend eastern europe doesnt mesh with the fact there are literally german troops in Lituania to defend them.
And germany stopped their gas imports from russia 100% while poland is still buying oil from them.

Im sorry what?
What exactly gave you that idea? Germany being unwilling to defend eastern europe doesnt mesh with the fact there are literally german troops in Lituania to defend them.
And germany stopped their gas imports from russia 100% while poland is still buying oil from them.

Im sorry what?
What exactly gave you that idea? Germany being unwilling to defend eastern europe doesnt mesh with the fact there are literally german troops in Lituania to defend them.
And germany stopped their gas imports from russia 100% while poland is still buying oil from them.

Im sorry what?
What exactly gave you that idea? Germany being unwilling to defend eastern europe doesnt mesh with the fact there are literally german troops in Lituania to defend them.
And germany stopped their gas imports from russia 100% while poland is still buying oil from them.

Im sorry what?
What exactly gave you that idea? Germany being unwilling to defend eastern europe doesnt mesh with the fact there are literally german troops in Lituania to defend them.
And germany stopped their gas imports from russia 100% while poland is still buying oil from them.

Well, it tells us that the rest of the world doesn't buy our pretty Sunday speeches, and rightly so. Our precious western values apply mostly to ourselves and definitely only extend to other regions of the world as far as they don't interfere with our interests. Which usually means we don't give a f*** about autocrats as long they are "our" autocrats and we don't care about human rights when cheap resources and workforce are better accessible without them.
That's why it means nothing to quite a few countries that we are democracies and China and Russia are not. For them it matters how they are treated and as a matter of fact, so far we have a worse track record.
What we should learn from that is that we shouldn't take it for granted that we are seen as the good guys and everyone gathers under our banner. If this is to become a clash of systems then we better make sure to win the hearts and minds of the rest of the world through deeds not words.

1 year of the war is passed. From the start of the invasion and to the huge count of air and missile strikes. One of my friends has been killed by wagner artillery in Bohorodichne village near Bakhumt. My father-in-law has been killed by storming the defensive enemy positions in the Kherson region 1st of October. I gave 3 of my salaries (all what I have)on the first day of the war on the military budget. Thanks to all of you, thanks for your help. Taking carry of our refugees, helping our soldiers to destroy enemy forces with AT weapons, artillery, APS, AFV, and Tanks, peoples who served in foreign legions. Thank you for giving billions of money to support our economy. Special thanks to battlefront for small support for me, when I asked about a discount, they gave me 2 games with all DLCs for free - I didn't expect this. Some of my relatives were in Kherson in occupation, and all high-value electronic and expensive things were looted from them by Russian forces. And now we don't fear rocket strikes (10 times they exploded 700-1000m from my house) we don't fear nuclear threat, we don't fear the second army in the world and you shouldnt. Sorry for we English would that what I want to say for all of you, I can tell you many things about the war but first i will try to improve my language knowlages.

Sorry, but I think this will be appreciated here...

Well, there goes pretty much every book in 18th and 19th century literature in every tradition folks...

Guys - look you probably have  plenty of examples  of bad things in past literature - Its the nature of  things . I enjoy  Literature and Non fiction from times when   people of color  were clearly being  treated as less than human in literature of the times . Do I think such Books need to be purged from  our Libraries ? Well - personally no  . And I'll happily keep what Russian Literature I have as well - safe on my bookshelves . When you start targeting the Literature /Books of a Culture for reasons of the moment  -  you are heading down a troublesome path that I have no interest in going down .

This seriously gets ridiculous. So now everyone who isn't firmly in the "Russia sux, lol, Ukraine has already won" camp is pro Putin? Really?

The big conversion is a4 to a5.