Miscellaneous News

Janiz said:

You're pretty ignorant when it comes to those matters for sure.

EU can do better or worse without Russia - some countries will lose some money for sure but it won't be dangerous for them. Russia for sure can't do without Europe - I mean without natural resources (gas) export to EU for sure. They tried to play with embargos on things from EU in the past against some countries and it bite them in the ass more than anyone else. So now they leveraged their only true trump card in their hand - oil and gas prices which Russia intentionally raised just before the winter in Europe and emptied their reserves in EU countries recently. Once EU and Russia will agree on something else the border crisis will be ended. The only loser here will be of course Belarus because they will have to deal with the blowback (sanctions and thousands of illegal immigrants from Middle East countries). The EU eastern border's control will be even tighter than ever before with money and resources invested finally in those matters and Russia will happily resume gas export through Poland/Belarus and the new Nord Stream pipe for a hefty sum of money.

That's how it works. Russia won't start a war in Baltic countries or against Poland unless it's put against a wall - similar to Japan-US relation in the early 40's though the gas exporter roles are reverted.

Putin already lost one satellite state - Ukraine and we all knew that he won't let that happen to Belarus no matter what. It will take some decades but there's no going back for Ukraine - the EU countries opened more for Ukrainians and now they see difference between their fellows like Czech Republic/Slovakia/Poland/Romania that was made in the past 30 years. Same goes for Belarus - if people were allowed to chose they of course would take closer ties with EU over Russia.

And Baltic states/Poland aren't pushovers. Though Baltics are rather small they have healthy economies and Poland is growing stronger every year.

Would I call this Russia's success in politics over last 20-25 years? It depends probably on how you define success but I would say no.

And I think that Putin et all are really skilled politicians but and they make do really good with their resources.

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Crang said:

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Special forces hid evidence of Afghan killings​

By Hannah O'Grady
BBC Panorama

Senior military officers buried evidence that British troops were executing detainees in Afghanistan, the High Court has been told.
Ministry of Defence documents reveal UK Special Forces officers suspected their men were killing unarmed Afghans who posed no threat.
They also show the allegations were kept secret and not reported to the Royal Military Police (RMP).
The MoD says the evidence is not new and has already been investigated.
The court case follows

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that raised allegations of unlawful killings by special forces during the war in Afghanistan.
The High Court is considering whether the allegations were investigated properly by the armed forces.
The man bringing the case, Saifullah, claims four members of his family were assassinated in the early hours of 16 February 2011.
His lawyers were asking the court to order the defence secretary to release more documents before a full judicial review hearing.
Documents already disclosed were presented to the court. They showed nine Afghan men were killed in a raid on 7 February 2011 and eight more were killed by the same special forces assault team two days later.
More than a dozen detainees were killed after they were taken back into buildings to help search them. British troops claimed they were forced to shoot them after they reached for hidden weapons.
The documents show that in one email, a British lieutenant colonel expressed disbelief at the official accounts.
He said it was "quite incredible" the number of prisoners who decided to grab weapons after being sent back into a building.
A fellow officer replied: "I find it depressing it has come to this. Ultimately a massive failure of leadership."
A week later, the four members of Saifullah's family were shot dead in similar circumstances by the same special forces assault team.
The documents show the killings were described as "astonishing" by a senior officer.

Another senior officer later dismissed a soldiers' description of events, saying "the layers of implausibilities" made the official account "especially surprising and logic defying".
The court heard a British officer provided a written statement to a commanding officer after a member of the special forces told him all fighting-age males were being killed regardless of the threat they posed.
The officer said: "It was also indicated that fighting-age males were being executed on target inside compounds, using a variety of methods after they had been restrained. In one case it was mentioned a pillow was put over the head of an individual being killed with a pistol."
All the anecdotal reports of unlawful killings were locked away in a top secret "controlled-access security compartment", the court heard.
The court documents show the allegations were raised with a "very senior officer" at UK Special Forces headquarters.
The special forces leadership did not notify the RMP. Instead, the high-ranking officer ordered an internal review.
It examined 11 raids where the special forces unit had killed people in similar circumstances in the previous six months.
They had all been taken back inside buildings to help with the search after surrendering.
The final report was written by the commanding officer of the special forces unit accused of carrying out the executions. He accepted the version of events given in the official accounts of the raids.

Operation Northmoor​

In 2014, the RMP started investigating the alleged executions after receiving reports from Afghan families and whistleblowers from the British military.
Its investigation, called Operation Northmoor, was closed in 2019 without resulting in any prosecutions.
The MoD claimed at the time the RMP had "found no evidence of criminal behaviour by the armed forces in Afghanistan".
But the documents quoted in court suggest there were serious weaknesses in the investigation.
A summary of Operation Northmoor states it only investigated three of the original 11 incidents in detail and two senior officers identified as suspects were later dropped without being interviewed.
The summary also shows a decision was taken not to view video footage of special forces raids.
The MoD maintains the four members of Saifullah's family were killed by British troops in self-defence.
It has previously said: "These documents were considered as part of the independent investigations, which concluded there was insufficient evidence to refer the case for prosecution.
"The Service Police and the Service Prosecuting Authority of course remain open to considering allegations should new evidence, intelligence or information come to light."
Mr Justice Swift ordered the defence secretary to release additional documents related to the allegations.
The MoD had argued the defence secretary had adopted a duty of candour and that requests for documents should be proportionate.

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emblem21 said:

Europe right now isn't looking so hot in the near future given all the issues they have right now. I wouldn't say that the EU can do much better without capital/resources from Russia and China given how the EU have been pushing both nations around a lot at the USA's behest. Belarus is in a hard place given the current situation but given how the EU isn't helping out with the situation and is in fact making the situation worse but sanctioning Belarus, they are driving Belarus into the arms of Russia which given the current situation of geo politics, may not be a wise move. Europe right now needs the gas and the resources from Russia while Russia does have more options available in multiple other nations around the area (given that Russia lacks the colonialist past that many European nations have and is currently causing them trouble to the point that France 'tried' to acknowledge what they did in Africa is wrong but really, its only because they fear losing their grip on African resources that they plundering over the centuries). Right now, Putin doesn't need to push or pull anyone and simply needs to keep on doing what he is doing now while the EU needs to stop planning identity politics and pretending they are the good guys and realize that maybe, pissing off the Russia when they are ok with trading in Gas and such to the EU at a reasonable price is a very stupid idea and the only real reason why they are having these gas shortages right now is because the EU simply cannot shut up about their values even in the face of subjecting their citizens to a harsh winter that has the potential to kill millions. I understand the Baltic states and Poland having issues with Russia but really, in the face of life and death in the coming years, is diplomacy really impossible or has the western media destroyed common sense to the point where no negotiations are possible because 'Russia bad, EU good' is here to stay

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plawolf said:

Western respect for law and order and justice.

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Bellum_Romanum said:

Which is supported by an increasingly deranged and unhinged national security aparatchiks like this senile who penned a laughably ignorant essay on China and his desires to collapse China's economy so that the U.S. can feel like a man again.

The United States Can Shape China’s Collapse

Read the article in it's entirety for some head scratching fictional history. In this person's senility, he tried to make China as this imperialistic and barbaric country/civilization that countries like Korea, India, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines have a 1000 year grievances from China's malevolent actions.

Here's Woke man's coup de grâce:
"China is surrounded by nations with thousand-year memories of

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and imperialism. American support to strengthen nations like Japan, Vietnam, India, Korea, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, Malaysia, and the Philippines would weaken Beijing."

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Bellum_Romanum said:

But hey, don't you know Hollywood is already in full court press in making movies about the heroics or their Special Forces personell in their most recent Mission Accomplished mission in Afghanistan. There are apparently 4 movies in the works with actors like Channing Tatum, Tom Hardy, the lead actor from 300 and then Jake Gylenhal...The real truth and criminal actions they perpetrated in Afghanistan and elsewhere will never be acknowledged, let alone will they ever be held responsible for the crimes committed.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1458265734690209795

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horse said:

Rambo, again!

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Bellum_Romanum said:

But hey, don't you know Hollywood is already in full court press in making movies about the heroics or their Special Forces personell in their most recent Mission Accomplished mission in Afghanistan. There are apparently 4 movies in the works with actors like Channing Tatum, Tom Hardy, the lead actor from 300 and then Jake Gylenhal...The real truth and criminal actions they perpetrated in Afghanistan and elsewhere will never be acknowledged, let alone will they ever be held responsible for the crimes committed.

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emblem21 said:

I understand the Baltic states and Poland having issues with Russia but really, in the face of life and death in the coming years, is diplomacy really impossible or has the western media destroyed common sense to the point where no negotiations are possible because 'Russia bad, EU good' is here to stay

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