NamEndedAllen
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Posts posted by NamEndedAllen
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However many entities these documents passed through from the original to those that crudely altered some of the entries, the materials are much broader than it originally seemed.
The materials also reference highly classified sources and methods that the United States uses to collect such information, alarming U.S. national security officials who have seen them. —
include highly sensitive U.S. analyses about China and other nations. —
It was unclear who may have posted the materials online, this person said, adding that hundreds — if not thousands — of people had access to them. The source of the leak, the official said, “could be anyone.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/07/pentagon-leak-ukraine-documents/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert.
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5 hours ago, Jiggathebauce said:
Centrism is an inherently flawed idea. …The "center" does not apply to many issues unless you're privileged enough to not be personally affected.Respectfully, this misses the point. The three way “toggle” notion, pigeonholing all of us into one of three positions is not reality. The left/right categorization is simply not the actual lived experience of most people. Insisting that one or the other MUST be the only truth is poisoning societies. We all have a mixed bag of opinions and beliefs. We resent being categorized as a far right winger, or far lefty, or this or that or the other thing. Real people are not constrained to a single dot in the center or one end or the other. It’s a big spectrum! But there ARE those who align themselves with a single, narrow set of extreme ideas, assertions, & policies. They deny all other viewpoints. THAT has become more dangerous these days. Witness Russia and its statements about the nature of Ukrainians and the satanic baby-eating West etc etc.
The point about the center is this. The center, the middle is the acknowledgment and acceptance that *I* can’t always be right about everything, I can’t have everything MY way. The entire idea of politics is based upon the art of compromise. Not scorched earth. With that attitude, not even the marriage of two people can survive, without into a descent into darkness. Marriages depend on both of us being willing to compromise in some matters because we are two different people. Even just two people are not going to see everything the same way. How much more must that apply to society? In nations of millions, there can be no striving for fairness, mutual respect, domestic tranquility when some insist that everyone else must be wrong. And will not be tolerated. It should be as obvious as the fact that ice cream comes in more than one flavor! In no way does this mean that there are not real problems to solve. But they will not ALL be solved by the assertions and opinions of either extreme. Good ideas come from all across the spectrum. And across the world.
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2 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:
The problem we have in society isn't the ideas of the left and the right, it's there's not enough good people in the middle to make sure neither of them screw things up too badly.
Steve
Amen.
That’s where the balance point is. Because no one is always right, all the time. But the extremes think they and only they are. All the time, about everything. And that turns into thinking what a great idea it would be to just get rid of everyone else. After all, they are always wrong. At best, put them in re-education camps. At worst…
‘But I don’t believe the majority of people are at the far extremes. However sometimes, just as in lots of other species, people get mesmerized by a charismatic silver-tongued dude with all the answers, and go headlong for the cliff.
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1 hour ago, Beleg85 said:
1. Those deemed leaders of Ukrainian nationalism who were specified for physical
liquidation on a high-priority target list, or for capture to enable show trials.
2. Those suspected of intending to support acts of resistance who needed to be recruited
or suppressed including anyone associated with Ukrainian law enforcement, local
government, the military or related to officials that were not actively collaborating.
3. Those who were deemed apathetic.
4. Those actively collaborating with Russian forces.
5. Individuals who were necessary for running critical national infrastructure and had to
be controlled.691 hour ago, Beleg85 said:Perhaps in this context an excerpt from latest RUSI report about Russian plan of subduing Ukraine can serve us what we could expect if Putin and his NeoMongols managed to do it:
This is all the proof any rational person needs showing how the USA was behind it all from the start. And further, that the USA was completely controlled by Great Britain, who masterminded everything. As they do.
BTW, the article didn't include one of the secret codicils laying out the means and methods the USA used to setup the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand so it could intervene in a foreign war.
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Speaking of Finland: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/finland-buys-israels-davids-sling-for-huge-air-defense-upgrade
NATO’s newest member, Finland, announced Wednesday it will procure the David’s Sling medium-range air defense system from Israel. This is the first export customer for the system. The system, which fires the unique “dolphin”-nosed Stunner interceptor, is a joint venture between Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Raytheon. The Stunner interceptor, which became operational in 2017, can be used to shoot down short-range ballistic missiles, aircraft, drones, cruise missiles and large artillery rockets. It is the mid-to-long-range part of Israel’s layered air defense system, slotting in between the Iron Dome anti-rocket and artillery system and the Arrow ballistic missile defense system, with the Patriot system sitting somewhere in between. Each launcher can carry up to 12 interceptors, which are launched in a vertical orientation.
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1 hour ago, The_Capt said:
Here is a crazy thought for all the Russian apologists, isolationist, Cro-Magnon-adventists who try and frame this war as anything than it is: Some wars are worth fighting, and this is one of them.
Bravo! Nominate the last sentence as the revised name of this thread.
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14 hours ago, Butschi said:
I agree. In order to retain western support Ukraine needs provide a clear perspective that winning in the near future is possible.
and it is clear to me that continued support for Ukraine requires them to prove they can end this in closer to 1-2 years than 10-20.
In addition they need to prove that after all the fuzz the Leopard 2s can make a change and not just evaporate if they want more tanks or even talk about aircraft.
My brother in law just died a needlessly horrible drawn out death, today. He fought for decades in a variety of ways to defend the USA. One person was directly responsible for how it went down. My sister is heartbroken, and enraged at what happened. I am in more than a foul mood. So my thoughts right now are colored in a certain way by this tragedy. Not particularly with distance, nuance and diplomacy. What happens when you are inside the box, not outside. My apologies if you don’t like them. I don’t either.
Lot of talk lately about Ukraine has GOT to produce big battlefield wins, now. Trying to put myself within Ukraine’s box:
1. Your country was suddenly invaded by one of the largest monsters in the world, ravaging your cities, raping and killing civilians. That is awful. We condemn it. You will collapse in three days.
2. We are NATO. We are a hugely powerful military alliance designed to defend ourselves against that very same horrible monster. Because we all fear trying to do so alone. Like you. Too bad you aren’t in NATO.
3. There won’t be any cavalry coming to your rescue, on land, sea, or air. But good luck, we support you brave people. Here are a lot of supplies and defensive short range weapons. You go fight the monster. We’ll cheer you on.
4. OK, you have been doing a great job! Well done. Even with most of your cities and power grid regularly under missile and drone attack in the winter, thousands of casualties, and smashed into rubble cities, you are still standing! Great job! Here are some more weapons, and one with a little longer range. It works really well so you can continue to not only survive but make some progress. Not too much progress though. Might be dangerous. So, no to your other requests for planes and long range weapons. We can’t risk getting attacked by the monster.. But we will open war crimes investigations into the massacres, rapes and civilian killings and targetings.
5. Hey, you haven’t won yet! We don’t think you can win although the monster has obviously already lost. You have really fracked up his army good. By the way, our patience is growing thin and you haven’t defeated one of the world’s largest military powers yet. After a whole year. We are the richest group of countries ever on Earth. We have awesome military capabilities beyond belief. And lots of nuclear weapons. If we lose interest and get tired, you probably will have to negotiate away big chunks of your country you fought and died for. If you only achieve a stalemate against the monster. Unless you defeat that monster, real soon now. Here’s a few older tanks we made a long time ago. And a handful of rusty old Soviet/Russian jets, some don’t work though. Please don’t complain. It’s ungrateful.
6. Oh, hey. Go out there as soon as the ground is firmed up and really tear apart the monster, the monster we are definitely not wanting to get any madder at us. No pressure, but if you don’t defeat the monster right now, you are pretty much up a creek because we’re tired and have real problems here in our nice undamaged, heated homes. By the way, we are worried about you defeating the monster. What will happen to the him? He might hurt us. But don’t forget, the monster has already lost.
7. I mean, yeah, the monster just threw a few hundred thousand troops at you and you survived and all. Well, most of you. But hey, they weren’t well-trained. And we all know the monster has already lost (as far as threatening us over here in NATO - yay). So you better defeat this monster by yourself, Right now. We gave you a LOT of equipment so you should be able to do this on your own. We can’t get involved. But here are a few more old jets. Don’t work so good right now, but…
8. We just got Finland into NATO! Mostly thanks to you!). Now we are even stronger, and NATO makes sure none of us have to try to defeat the monster on our own. Like you. Because we don’t think we could. We can’t give you more powerful offensive weapons because it would have taken you all last year to learn how to use them. And then you might have defeated the monster. And we are really really worried because that might be bad. For us. You understand. So go out there NOW and defeat the monster. Or we will probably have to reduce our support for you. Like, if things get really bad for you. Not winning. We might not be there. As much. Or something. Hard to tell. But go win. Now. OK?
PS. I really am pleased at how the West has helped out. I just don’t think it’s been soon enough with enough of the right stuff to end it before the political rot sets in. So I’m ventilating how it might feel. While I am grieving. -
1 hour ago, Vet 0369 said:
The U.S. originally specified that only white men, age 21 or older, who owned property, were allowed to vote for their Representatives.
True! But that wasn’t the point or structure of the Constitution, which was built to be amended. The point was and is that citizens get to not only vote but to *be* those who are voted on - to do the governing. Not a king or queen. Not a dictator. And whoever is governing gets kicked out periodically. Then they must again earn the privilege, if they wish to govern for another term. A self-governing society of equals, where the membership -voters- has been repeatedly enlarged. Imperfect, sure. But afaik, people stream to these sorts of Democratic societies and away from those like Russia, North Korea.
One of the strong points of this system has been the hard won recognition that neither the color of one’s pigmentation, nor one’s gender, nor ethnicity, nor one’s wealth is the determinant of one’s worthiness to be a citizen, to be included in “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” However painful and long that recognition has been taking,
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27 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:
Unfortunately, this is all a very real threat. Not to mention what can be done with a drone to public infrastructure.
Steve
I realize we are a bit off topic but it is related to the near ubiquitous spread of news and videos of all sorts of drones repeatedly obliterating all sorts of targets. A few days after 9/11 I was sitting at a bar in DC after a grueling day of board meetings with my CEO, of a large national broadcast network. Soaking up dry martinis as was our wont after these things. Except this time it was all about “When and where is the next one?” He had overseen operations in Munich and Prague, and earlier, in Moscow. He said, “Backpack. Medium-sized city, maybe in the Midwest. No one suspecting it. Then another one…” Well, he was wrong. Not even sure the Boston Marathon counts. But his point was that things were coming that we could not predict or defend against. We owe a lot to the men and women who work their tails off every day every week every month every year to prevent hostile foreign powers doing this. Unfortunately, we excel at doing it to ourselves, and indeed have not been able to defend ourselves. So today, he might say, “Commercial drone. Small or medium-sized city, weekend Farmers’ Market or other outdoor gathering. Then another one nearby, at a Courthouse or FBI building.”
I sincerely hope he would be wrong.
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3 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:
As Cpl Steiner has been around on this forum for 20+ years, I feel the need to respond directly:
I live in a country that is founded on rejecting external authority (in particular, the authority of your predecessors as it happens). I also live in a part of the country that started the revolution and still idolizes it. This same part of the country also goes through bouts of "the rest of the country is dragging us down, let them go". Our country CONSTANTLY debates about the balance of powers between local, state, and national levels of governance. I think it is both understandable and healthy to have these sorts of beliefs and debates. Therefore, I don't think you were stupid or irrational for exploring Brexit.
Pro-Brexit voters are not necessarily stupid, irrational, or influenced by Russian propaganda. Not all pro-Brexit voters are racist either. However, it is highly probable that 1.9% of Britons who voted for Brexit fit into one or more of those categories. Russia just had to help convince them to show up and vote for Brexit for whatever reason. As I said, there is no way to know how much Russia helped make it happen, but they clearly put in the effort and reaped the reward.
Steve
This is so well expressed. I’d like to add one more thing implied but often left unsaid. Russia clearly did not have either Britain’s, the EU’s, or the USA’s best interests in mind. In politics *these* days this is a hard fact for sone to swallow, despite how obvious it is. But debates like Brexit, or the vexing cultural debates in the USA are quite complex. They contain numerous separate issues and questions. When we uncover, or refuse to see, or discover later that a hostile foreign power is striving to push the decision in one direction, to cast doubt on the entire process…that too needs to be included when weighing the pros and cons.
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1 minute ago, Lethaface said:
Or Soleimani. The west has been assassinating people using drones for quite a while lol.
1 minute ago, Lethaface said:Or Soleimani. The west has been assassinating people using drones for quite a while lol.
Yeah. And earlier, the OP of previous OP, or was it the OP before that
was asking how long before every day non-state terrorists or heck: disgruntled domestic extremists pick up on proven techniques for the repurposed small commercial drones in Ukraine, and try them out instead of AR-15s and trucks driven into crowds? It’s off topic, but I have a bad feeling…
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13 hours ago, Holien said:
It will happen.
I am watching a TV series on BBC about key military tech advances and yesterday detailed the advent of handguns and the use in political assassination.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b087xksp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assassinations_by_firearm
Drones will be used, just humans being humans.
My Bet it will be in 2023 and then we will end up with a Wiki page like the one above....
Remember this?
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/hellfire-r9x-drone-strike-al-zawahiri/
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1 hour ago, Kinophile said:
1500 Lbs sent 40km,,accurately. Seems like a winner.
Saw interesting details on this fully autonomous Blackhawk used as a drone mentioned within reporting on an exercise last year: https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2022/10/militarys-network-warfare-experiment-scaled-year/378790/
The experiment featured an autonomous Black Hawk delivering more than 3,000 lbs of cargo in support of conventional and special operations forces. That demonstration caps eight-plus years of development and experimentationby DARPA, the Army, and Black Hawk-maker Sikorsky to fly a fully autonomous Black Hawk in an actual exercise. Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville emphasized that artificial intelligence was used not only for autonomous flight, but also for predicting maintenance and resupply of troops.
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3 hours ago, dan/california said:
two sort of equally matched technically competent militaries in conflict are going to strive to project mostly unmanned ISR bubbles.
This. Plus lots of recent posts involving electronics and electronically-guided assets of every ilk reacting with extreme quickness and accuracy suggest a paradigm shift is near. The final replacement of speed and sensory-limited meat puppet biology by electronic devices, AI linked with machines unfettered by meat puppet biology physical limitations. The emergence of AI able to learn from its access to any and all databases and internet sources will be incorporated into the sensor-analysis-decision-action chain. Un-impeded by the soon-to-be fatal human-imposed delays of biological processes. Currently in development semi-autonomous projects are one small step from full autonomy kill chains. There is no worldwide veto ability. All it will take to open the floodgates is one player, large or small, that takes the step and unmistakably prevails in a significant operation. Follow suit or perish. Think there is no one who wouldn’t flip the switch to save their unit? Their installation? Their city? The technology is simply advancing too quickly and effectively in wartime to never ever come to pass. The only remaining question will be how long it takes for each successive level of lethality, the dominoes to fall.
We’ve read the science fiction exploring a myriad of variations on this theme. Looks as if we are going to be around to see its dawn. If we haven’t already.
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Life imitating art, in war time:
"Attention. Air raid alert. Proceed to the nearest shelter," says Hamill over Air Alert, an app linked to Ukraine's air defense system. When the threat has passed, Hamill signs off with "The alert is over. May the Force be with you."
https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/23/03/30/0351247/mark-hamill-voices-air-raid-warnings-in-ukraine-as-luke-skywalker -
It’s happening!
BRUSSELS — Turkey’s parliament has voted to approve Finland’s NATO membership bid, paving the way for the Nordic country to join the security alliance.
The decision only applies to Finland, not Sweden, its neighbor and fellow membership hopeful. Both countries applied on the same day last year, having made the decision to join the alliance after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Thursday’s vote was the last hurdle in Finland’s quest to join the military organization. Its eventual accession would remake European security, doubling NATO’s land border with Russia and bringing the full force of the alliance to Europe’s far north.
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4 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:
. If Xi becomes convinced that the West is willing to engage in a Russian level trade war with China over Taiwan, I don't see an invasion happening no matter what the military calculation is.
Steve, as always these are armor-plated observations. I was pleased you included Xi’s likely perception that China is much more powerful and perhaps more self aware than Russia. You’ve put your thumb right on the key question: the perception of the West’s willingness to engage in an unprecedented trade war with China. I think Xi is attempting to calculate the proverbial Goldilocks’ porridge temperature. When is “The Time” not too cold…not too hot…but just right.
If this question could be about a separate world where the Ukraine War didn’t exist, or had ended with a resounding Russia military defeat, economic implosion, and overthrow of leadership, I’d feel much more confident about Xi’s risk calculations. But…
In the current world, we don’t see unambiguous clear signs that the war will soon be over. Apart from hopes for a successful major Ukrainian offensive, the timeline is hugely unclear for how and when the dust will finally settle. In this world, how do we gauge the willingness of Europe and the USA, Canada to launch *another* simultaneous massive trade war, and with the largest or second largest economic power on the planet? And with weapon stocks significantly depleted? Budgets and production already straining? The realistic military window for a Chinese invasion is limited according to several analyses. Xi’s calculations must take into account his best military timing opportunity within the world’s economic picture, and that arguably is within five years or so. Not ten or 15. Will the Western economies be robust again? Much turns on the perceptions and mood of the citizens in the Western democracies, let alone of their respective elected political leadership. We can only guess. But China is yet another important reason for the West to ensure Ukraine has wha it needs now to inflict a severe, unrecoverable military defeat on Russia.
We all hope Xi’s porridge is never “just right”.
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23 hours ago, AstroCat said:
Look at my perfectly tuned system in the specs. 10700k, 32GB, 4090
“Perfectly tuned” means, specifically? I ask because my system is much less powerful than yours. A very old first Generation i7 and a 3060ti, Win 10 with CMBN running from a Barracuda HD, not SSD. However I’ve tuned mine by shutting down and/or uninstalling all unnecessary background programs and services as a rule. First by using programs for tuning PCs (such as System Mechanic), then manually reviewing what’s still trying to run at startup. I also use 37mm’s All In One Mod Pack. Machine has no slowdowns anything like what you’re getting, which must be incredibly frustrating on such a powerful PC. I’d be brains falling out angry!
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13 minutes ago, MHW said:
Miro is an online whiteboard, which affords visual notetaking, sticky notes, and marking up screenshots. Free for basic use. I use it (and similar tools) in my classes, and it's been a great help.
Maybe create a form on it. Or try and reproduce some of these ideas in a Word doc or other tool.
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57 minutes ago, Sojourner said:
Might not be quite what you're looking for, but in case you haven't stumbled across it yet, Bil put together an intriguing concept of Command Friction and a Battle Log spreadsheet. Intended more for immersion and simulating C3, it could also be useful for tracking OOB and unit tasking,
Thanks for this lead. Definitely along the lines I’m hunting, although it looks like a lot to chew off at first. Hoping for something, like Combatintman’s form up top, to start with. Begin to jot down most critical things in an organized way. He didn’t have a link to a blank version - that I saw.
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30 minutes ago, chuckdyke said:
Mind mapping with military Icons. I use a designer program you can screenshot a map and place my library of Icons anywhere.
Thanks! Good idea.
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Unlike most guys here, I have a damaged memory module that prevents me from remembering all the details from the initial planning stages, from the OOBs to details of the terrain, multiple sight lines, all the squad assignments and important weapons some are given/have, timing…even everything I SHOULD plan. Heck, I’ve even forgotten our wedding anniversary a couple times in my defense, we have had quite a lot of them, so…). While reading through some of the excellent planning posts here like Combatintman’s, and on Bil’s superb detailed Battle Drill site, It occurred to me that there might be some printable planning forms useful for CM.
Here is one example but I’ve seen others:Combatintman’s Form, filled out: http://community.battlefront.com/uploads/monthly_08_2015/post-63534-0-32262000-1440492607.jpg
Thanks for any leads!
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5 hours ago, Seminole said:
I think we have to hope for him to just die, 'cause he ain't going away.
I knew his favorability ratings were upside down, but I didn't realize until looking at 538 this morning that they essentially mirror Biden's.
But he is predictably winning the race for the Republican nomination, where his ratings are on the rise. DeSantis is plunging. No one else moves the needle. So we are looking at a 2024 race between two candidates with similarly (un) favorable numbers. Suggesting another near even race. Bottom line is that it is far too early to make absolute predictions. Lots of time tor unforeseen circumstances to occur, along with the solidly entrenched political divide.This underscores the critical need for the West to stop any further twiddling and handwringing on delivering everything needed now for the decisive knockout punch to Russia. Not to mention the complicated aftermath following that defeat. Because broad uncertainty about the USA will only increase as 2024 approaches. Uncertainty that will give Europeans pause. Win now, on the battlefield.
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Not much on the sort of drone challenge discussions here, but doubling down on their new term “spectral warfare” and “spectral dominance”:
Concepts described as "spectral warfare" and "spectral dominance," and related technologies, are emerging as key factors in work related to the U.S. Air Force's multi-faceted Next-Generation Air Dominance program, or NGAD.
Budget documents point to a central goal for the service to be able to 'dominate' in a future aerial warfare battlespace defined on all sides by things like infrared search and track systems and missiles with multi-mode seekers, as well as advanced radars and electronic warfare systems. This is already having impacts on the design of a future sixth-generation stealthy crewed combat jet and that of advanced drones called Collaborative Combat Aircraftall being developed under NGAD.
How Hot is Ukraine Gonna Get?
in Combat Mission Black Sea
Posted
In some quarters, in some cases, each copy of some classified documents is uniquely identifiable. If two or three such unique copies are among those released, access will be immediately narrowed even further. The overlap/ Venn Diagram could be quite revealing.