Surovikin’s Difficult Choice
"In January, 1944, the newly reconstituted German Sixth Army found itself in an operationally cataclysmic situation in the southern bend of the Dnieper River, in the area of Krivoi Rog and Nikopol. The Germans occupied a dangerous salient, jutting out precariously into the Red Army’s lines. Vulnerable on two awkward flanks, and facing an enemy with superiority in manpower and firepower, any general worth his salt would have sought to withdraw as soon as possible. In this case, however, Hitler insisted that the Wehrmacht hold the salient, because the region was Germany’s last remaining source of manganese - a mineral crucial for making high quality steel.
A year prior, in the opening weeks of 1943, Hitler had intervened in another, more famous battle, forbidding the previous incarnation of the Sixth Army from breaking out of a pocket forming around it at Stalingrad. Prohibited from withdrawing, the Sixth was annihilated wholesale."
https://bigserge.substack.com/p/surovkins-difficult-choice
"In January, 1944, the newly reconstituted German Sixth Army found itself in an operationally cataclysmic situation in the southern bend of the Dnieper River, in the area of Krivoi Rog and Nikopol. The Germans occupied a dangerous salient, jutting out precariously into the Red Army’s lines. Vulnerable on two awkward flanks, and facing an enemy with superiority in manpower and firepower, any general worth his salt would have sought to withdraw as soon as possible. In this case, however, Hitler insisted that the Wehrmacht hold the salient, because the region was Germany’s last remaining source of manganese - a mineral crucial for making high quality steel.
A year prior, in the opening weeks of 1943, Hitler had intervened in another, more famous battle, forbidding the previous incarnation of the Sixth Army from breaking out of a pocket forming around it at Stalingrad. Prohibited from withdrawing, the Sixth was annihilated wholesale."
https://bigserge.substack.com/p/surovkins-difficult-choice
Substack
Surovikin’s Difficult Choice
Russia Abandons Kherson
Forwarded from Intel Slava
🇨🇳🇺🇦❗China will vote against the Ukrainian draft resolution of the UN General Assembly on "reparations" to Kiev from Russia - Permanent Representative of China to the UN.
Forwarded from Diary of an Underground Ronin
"Impossible is a word found only in the dictionary of fools."
— Napoleon
— Napoleon
Tentative Schedule for next readings.
December - Cyropaedia by Xenophon
January - The Franco-German War of 1870-71 by Moltke
February - Sweating Blood by Bloy
December - Cyropaedia by Xenophon
January - The Franco-German War of 1870-71 by Moltke
February - Sweating Blood by Bloy
Forwarded from Slavyangrad | Tréjàvu (Anya✨)
A senior U.S. intelligence official says Russian missiles crossed into NATO member Poland, killing two people.
Polish government spokesman Piotr Mueller did not immediately confirm the information, but said top leaders were holding an emergency meeting due to a "crisis situation".
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Polish government spokesman Piotr Mueller did not immediately confirm the information, but said top leaders were holding an emergency meeting due to a "crisis situation".
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Forwarded from Maple Chronicles 🇨🇦
🇨🇳Trudeau complained to Xi Jinping about China's meddling in Canadian internal affairs
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed "grave concern" about alleged Chinese interference in domestic affairs in his first meeting in more than three years with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.
The mentioned "interference" is probably a reference to a November 7 Canadian media report that quoted Canadian intelligence officials as saying that they suspected China had interfered in the Canadian election. Also last Monday, Canadian police arrested and charged an employee of the largest local power producer on charges of trying to steal trade secrets for the benefit of China.
#China
@maplechronicles
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed "grave concern" about alleged Chinese interference in domestic affairs in his first meeting in more than three years with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.
The mentioned "interference" is probably a reference to a November 7 Canadian media report that quoted Canadian intelligence officials as saying that they suspected China had interfered in the Canadian election. Also last Monday, Canadian police arrested and charged an employee of the largest local power producer on charges of trying to steal trade secrets for the benefit of China.
#China
@maplechronicles
Forwarded from /CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global (FRANCISCVS)
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🇨🇳 ❌️ 🇨🇦 Xi Jinping scolding Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau during the G20 conference: "Everything we discussed has leaked to the newspaper, that's not appropriate. That's not how we do things."
Forwarded from Halls of the Hyperboreads
"Now arms, however beautiful, are instruments of evil omen, hateful, it may be said, to all creatures. Therefore, they who have the Tao do not like to employ them.
The superior man ordinarily considers the left hand the most honorable place, but in time of war the right hand. Those sharp weapons are instruments of evil omen, and not the instruments of the superior man—he uses them only on the compulsion of necessity. Calm and repose are what he prizes; victory by force of arms is to him undesirable. To consider this desirable would be to delight in the slaughter of men; and he who delights in the slaughter of men cannot get his will in the kingdom.
On occasions of festivity, to be on the left hand is the prized position; on occasions of mourning, the right hand. The second in command of the army has his place on the left; the general commanding in chief has his on the right; his place, that is, is assigned to him as in the rites of mourning. He who has killed multitudes of men should weep for them with the bitterest grief; and the victor in battle has his place rightly according to those rites."
- Lao Tzŭ, The Tao Te Ching
The superior man ordinarily considers the left hand the most honorable place, but in time of war the right hand. Those sharp weapons are instruments of evil omen, and not the instruments of the superior man—he uses them only on the compulsion of necessity. Calm and repose are what he prizes; victory by force of arms is to him undesirable. To consider this desirable would be to delight in the slaughter of men; and he who delights in the slaughter of men cannot get his will in the kingdom.
On occasions of festivity, to be on the left hand is the prized position; on occasions of mourning, the right hand. The second in command of the army has his place on the left; the general commanding in chief has his on the right; his place, that is, is assigned to him as in the rites of mourning. He who has killed multitudes of men should weep for them with the bitterest grief; and the victor in battle has his place rightly according to those rites."
- Lao Tzŭ, The Tao Te Ching
Forwarded from Halls of the Hyperboreads
This profoundly connects military leadership and rites of mourning, but also leadership in general with a willingness to use peaceful means. The man who is responsible for many lives must be cautious to protect them from danger, or, as it is said, he will not rule over them for long. When the time comes, the man who is responsible for taking lives must mourn their loss, or he himself will not live long.
Forwarded from Halls of the Hyperboreads
The tragedy of the great man then, to extrapolate this proposition, is that his continued greatness depends upon states of anxiety or concern and grief. This would certainly seem a miserable and tragic condition, but clearly the great man, the man of the Tao, is not such at all. What causes man to worry on behalf of others? What causes man to grieve at the loss of life?
Love—of others, of one's self, of Life, of God. The great leader's concern is not crippling anxiety if he walks lightly with love for the lives he rules over, as a father is not burdened by his children but uplifted by them. The great warrior's grief is not a terrible despair if he loves life as the pious man does, who knows that fate always comes for us all, yet also that death is not the end for the soul.
Love—of others, of one's self, of Life, of God. The great leader's concern is not crippling anxiety if he walks lightly with love for the lives he rules over, as a father is not burdened by his children but uplifted by them. The great warrior's grief is not a terrible despair if he loves life as the pious man does, who knows that fate always comes for us all, yet also that death is not the end for the soul.
Forwarded from Intel Slava
🇺🇦 In the Odessa region, unknown people blew up the railway tracks. Traffic on the Berezovka-Raukhovka line has been stopped.
Who exactly committed the sabotage is still unclear.
Who exactly committed the sabotage is still unclear.
Forwarded from Lazarus Symposium
Referring to Erich Remarque, Junger declared he appreciated that 'All Quiet' was a "camouflage" in that it created the opinion that Germany was dominated by internationalism & pacifism. "My book however, was written to make it clear that we combatants are not so awfully unhappy".
Forwarded from Der Schattige Wald 🇬🇱
"The fact that in the war of nations rules can be preserved which civil war overturns as burdensome barriers must be due to the fact that two different strata of man are called upon which differ in the laws. The civil war leads deeper and allows more terrible images to rise. They are present in the crypts, and this explains the strange phenomenon that after long periods of silence they shine forth in their prehistoric splendour, as on the walls of a cave which is opened after thousands of years.
How is it that soldiers who fought on the battlefield fail in these conflicts? One would think that the same life has to be dared here as there. And yet the situation is as different as day and night. The difference in horror points to this.
We may also assume here the connection in which the war between nations also becomes more terrible. There is no mistaking that we have fallen into decay in relation to the 18th and 19th centuries. The world wars, seemingly beginning as national wars, revealed themselves in their course and during their pauses as armed acts in the far wider framework of the world civil war that framed them. It brought with it its ethos, which attacked the soldierly traditions and allowed them to wither away. Above all, they levelled the distinction between the armed and the defenceless.
In general, the question that forces itself on the mind is why the fate of nations must always lose itself in this abyss. Of course, we also see it emerge again and again. The revolutions reach deeper and set more powerful stations than the national wars. In this respect, we can say that we have approached the field we are cultivating today with three mighty steps: with the Reformation, the French Revolution of 1789, and the Russian Revolution of 1917, which is still ongoing. The wars are prominences of inner, more important processes."
~ Ernst Jünger
How is it that soldiers who fought on the battlefield fail in these conflicts? One would think that the same life has to be dared here as there. And yet the situation is as different as day and night. The difference in horror points to this.
We may also assume here the connection in which the war between nations also becomes more terrible. There is no mistaking that we have fallen into decay in relation to the 18th and 19th centuries. The world wars, seemingly beginning as national wars, revealed themselves in their course and during their pauses as armed acts in the far wider framework of the world civil war that framed them. It brought with it its ethos, which attacked the soldierly traditions and allowed them to wither away. Above all, they levelled the distinction between the armed and the defenceless.
In general, the question that forces itself on the mind is why the fate of nations must always lose itself in this abyss. Of course, we also see it emerge again and again. The revolutions reach deeper and set more powerful stations than the national wars. In this respect, we can say that we have approached the field we are cultivating today with three mighty steps: with the Reformation, the French Revolution of 1789, and the Russian Revolution of 1917, which is still ongoing. The wars are prominences of inner, more important processes."
~ Ernst Jünger
👍1
John Mearsheimer on Putin’s Ambitions After Nine Months of War
The realist political scientist explains why Russia’s move to annex four Ukrainian provinces isn’t imperialism.
Back in February, a few days after Russia launched its war in Ukraine, I spoke with the political scientist John Mearsheimer. A longtime observer of U.S. foreign policy—on which he has tended to cast a skeptical eye—Mearsheimer largely blamed Putin’s invasion on the West, arguing that, by expanding nato, the West had cornered Russia, and made a conflict with Ukraine much more likely. Mearsheimer, a dedicated realist, had been making a version of this argument for some time. In 2014, when Putin annexed Crimea and offered support to separatists in Eastern Ukraine, Mearsheimer said that it was predominantly the fault of Europe and the United States. This June, a couple of months after our first conversation, against the backdrop of a war that was dragging on with increasing brutality, Mearsheimer said in a speech, “The United States is principally responsible for causing the Ukraine crisis.”
Recently, Mearsheimer and I spoke by phone again. He had just returned from a trip to Hungary, where he met with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an ally of Putin. (Mearsheimer is the author of multiple books, perhaps most famously “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” which he co-wrote with Stephen Walt.) During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed why he thinks Putin told the truth about his motives for invading Ukraine, why he doesn’t believe Putin is trying to recreate the Russian imperial era, and why he doesn’t want to discuss his meeting with Orbán.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/john-mearsheimer-on-putins-ambitions-after-nine-months-of-war
The realist political scientist explains why Russia’s move to annex four Ukrainian provinces isn’t imperialism.
Back in February, a few days after Russia launched its war in Ukraine, I spoke with the political scientist John Mearsheimer. A longtime observer of U.S. foreign policy—on which he has tended to cast a skeptical eye—Mearsheimer largely blamed Putin’s invasion on the West, arguing that, by expanding nato, the West had cornered Russia, and made a conflict with Ukraine much more likely. Mearsheimer, a dedicated realist, had been making a version of this argument for some time. In 2014, when Putin annexed Crimea and offered support to separatists in Eastern Ukraine, Mearsheimer said that it was predominantly the fault of Europe and the United States. This June, a couple of months after our first conversation, against the backdrop of a war that was dragging on with increasing brutality, Mearsheimer said in a speech, “The United States is principally responsible for causing the Ukraine crisis.”
Recently, Mearsheimer and I spoke by phone again. He had just returned from a trip to Hungary, where he met with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an ally of Putin. (Mearsheimer is the author of multiple books, perhaps most famously “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” which he co-wrote with Stephen Walt.) During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed why he thinks Putin told the truth about his motives for invading Ukraine, why he doesn’t believe Putin is trying to recreate the Russian imperial era, and why he doesn’t want to discuss his meeting with Orbán.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/john-mearsheimer-on-putins-ambitions-after-nine-months-of-war
The New Yorker
John Mearsheimer on Putin’s Ambitions After Nine Months of War
The realist political scientist explains why Russia’s move to annex four Ukrainian provinces isn’t imperialism.
Forwarded from IROP
🚨 | Just IN: China has suggested expansion of BRICS, looks forward to Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia being part of BRICS. 🇨🇳➡️🇵🇰🇹🇷🇲🇾🇮🇩
Chinese foreign minister has stressed upon the need of including more emerging economies into the fold of BRICS. 🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦
Chinese foreign minister has stressed upon the need of including more emerging economies into the fold of BRICS. 🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦
Forwarded from Рыбарь
Media is too big
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❗️🇷🇺🇺🇦 Highlights of Russian Military Operation in Ukraine on November 18, 2022
▪️Ukrainian units continue to shell the border areas of Belgorod Region.
An elderly man was killed in the village of Ustinka as a result of mortar shelling.
▪️ In Svatove Sector, Russian Armed Forces repelled another Ukrainian attack on Novoselivka and Kuzemivka.
The advancing AFU units suffered heavy losses in personnel and armored vehicles.
▪️After a brief pause, fighting resumed near Chervonopopivka with the enemy continuing its attempts to reach the Svatovе-Kreminna road.
Despite the reserves deployed, another AFU attack was halted by the units of Russian Armed Forces’ 20th Army.
▪️Southwards on the other bank of the Siverskyi Donets, heavy fighting for Bilohorivka continues.
Russian artillery strikes Ukrainian firing positions in Serebryanka.
▪️West of Horlivka, DPR People's Militia units are attacking Maiorsk.
Over the past few days Russian troops managed to take over several enemy strongholds in this area.
▪️Russian Command claimed to have established full control over Opytne, which had been mopped up for several days.
Fighters of the DPR Sparta Reconnaissance Battalion played a key role in fighting for the settlement.
▪️In Kherson, mass "cleansing" continues among the civilians suspected of collaborating with the Russian authorities.
Tsunami Nationalist Battalion is deployed to the city to carry out punitive actions.
#digest #Russia #Ukraine #video
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▪️Ukrainian units continue to shell the border areas of Belgorod Region.
An elderly man was killed in the village of Ustinka as a result of mortar shelling.
▪️ In Svatove Sector, Russian Armed Forces repelled another Ukrainian attack on Novoselivka and Kuzemivka.
The advancing AFU units suffered heavy losses in personnel and armored vehicles.
▪️After a brief pause, fighting resumed near Chervonopopivka with the enemy continuing its attempts to reach the Svatovе-Kreminna road.
Despite the reserves deployed, another AFU attack was halted by the units of Russian Armed Forces’ 20th Army.
▪️Southwards on the other bank of the Siverskyi Donets, heavy fighting for Bilohorivka continues.
Russian artillery strikes Ukrainian firing positions in Serebryanka.
▪️West of Horlivka, DPR People's Militia units are attacking Maiorsk.
Over the past few days Russian troops managed to take over several enemy strongholds in this area.
▪️Russian Command claimed to have established full control over Opytne, which had been mopped up for several days.
Fighters of the DPR Sparta Reconnaissance Battalion played a key role in fighting for the settlement.
▪️In Kherson, mass "cleansing" continues among the civilians suspected of collaborating with the Russian authorities.
Tsunami Nationalist Battalion is deployed to the city to carry out punitive actions.
#digest #Russia #Ukraine #video
@rybar
*Support us:
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