Russia's War Against Ukraine

[Windigo]

There's always a, 'first' for everything Star Old Buddy. At least that's what Daffy Duck says. Just tonight I heard about a Bill before the Canadian Parliament supported by Trudeau that would REQUIRE all Pod Casters to register with the Federal Govt. to combat, "Mis-Information" on the Internet. There's some sort of financial limit to the legislation but the Bill would affect practically all Pod Casters in the country. We can only guess what the government would consider misinformation.

I came of age when questioning Authority was good thing. The Vietnam War, The Civil Rights Movement, the Kennedy Assassinations were all questioned extensively and the questioners were pooh-poohed by many in authority. Many who were later discovered to be complicit in causing or ignoring things that caused much tragedy. Authority should always be questioned in a Free Society. "The Truth can never be the enemy of a truly Just Cause" a very wise Fortune Cookie once told me.

As a former trial attorney, I was taught that the best way to determine the truth was from proponents and opponents of an idea to vigorously debate, in public, providing evidence and argument for their respective positions.  From this debate, a more accurate version of the truth would emerge, and society would thereby benefit from this clash of competing ideas.    Apparently, we no longer feel this is necessary, and that truth can now be established by the simple suppression, without debate, of readily identifiable "misinformation" as determined by some group of people who are somehow more knowledgeable than we.

Do you really believe that 5G wireless causes covid? Or that traffic circles cause tornados?

Do you believe that the general public have a role in determining the truthfulness of these statements?

With all due respect, social media has given the 'idiot masses' a platform where previously they had none. Their opinion does not matter in the determination of truthfullness. That is the legitimate role of subject matter experts.

Lets give technocracy and GENIOCRACY a try.

[Jarhead0331]

I've said it once...now I'm saying it twice.

Back to Ukraine.

[GDS_Starfury]

[GDS_Starfury]

the vaunted red army 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1709182299399467478

[GDS_Starfury]

supposedly this was 20kn behind the lines.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1709075569885733248

[Sir Slash]

Back to Ukraine by unanimous consent. My point's been made. And now that we ALL are in agreement regarding offensive Sig lines, mine has been corrected.

I'd like to know the thoughts of the Learned Minds here about the Russians planning to build a new Railroad Line across the southern region of Ukraine they control, Taganrog to Melitopol I think it was. Serious plan or just a head-fake? If they can do it, will it make a huge difference logistically? I'm thinking Putin will have all the help he needs. If he offers a choice between building the railroad or going to the frontlines...everybody will grab a shovel and head-out. 

[FarAway Sooner]

Hmmmm...  I thought there was already a rail line running there?  And I thought the problem was not so much that the rail line was difficult to build (or repair), as that the railroad engines and rolling stock were relatively easy targets so long as they were within range of artillery or missiles?

[JudgeDredd]

I've said it once...now I'm saying it twice.

Back to Ukraine.

Loud and clear. Sorry.

[GDS_Starfury]

the new rail line is a great waste of resources.

[Pete Dero]

Back to Ukraine.

Unless you are Russian  .

[Sir Slash]

JD, your posts are always cordial, respectful, and welcome in my book. I will try to always be the same.

Good point about the engines and rolling stock. I think only the HYMARS would be in range of the new line for right now. Unless the Ukes can grab a little more territory south or get the ATACKAMS or whatever. I think it would give Putin an excuse to claim the land really belongs to him and less likely to give it up. Maybe that's what he's had in mind all along.

[JasonPratt]

If a new rail line would be a waste of resources (which I agree, at least in this phase of wartime), I totally want Russia to do it! (Insert Shia Laboef meme here.)

However, it's wishful thinking on Russia's part that this will be outside Ukraine's reach for long. The main point to sending their defensive reserves to the front line was to keep Ukraine from advancing arty and similar assets into range of the rails into Crimea. While that's admittedly understandable (to at least some extent), they've crippled their defense doing that. So the (remaining) rails north of Azov are going away sooner or later.

Still, from an internal political perspective, that sort of makes sense: it would be a signal of political confidence that the Orks can pull out of their erosion. Not a very practical sign, but a sign.

[FarAway Sooner]

Good point about the engines and rolling stock. I think only the HYMARS would be in range of the new line for right now. Unless the Ukes can grab a little more territory south or get the ATACKAMS or whatever. I think it would give Putin an excuse to claim the land really belongs to him and less likely to give it up. Maybe that's what he's had in mind all along.

Yeah, they'll be getting the ATACMS soon, as well as the Storm Shadows and SCALPs that they already have from the UK and the French.  The bigger question, obviously, is how many of them they get in any given months. 

Trains are big targets and hard to hide.  Marshalling yards where you can unload them are even harder to hide.  It was targeting those sites--and the satellite distribution centers served by those rail yards--with the HIMARS that initially created so many logistical problems for the Russians after they showed up.

To be sure, the expensive munitions that we'd use to target those trains almost certainly cost more than the trains themselves.  But, given a NATO economy that's 40x larger than that of the Russians, I figure we can afford to spend a premium there.

[FarAway Sooner]

I take everything I read in the media with a huge grain of salt.  Most of it seems intended to titillate or terrorize (often both), which probably says something about what's generating clicks on the internet these days.  But, for the life of me, I can't figure out why, 20 months after the Russians first invaded Ukraine, NATO countries are still struggling to figure out how to increase artillery shell production.

I get why building cruise missiles or aircraft or MBTs takes a long time.  I know retooling factory lines doesn't happen overnight.  But are we really so limited that we can't build more production lines for 155mm shells, or that we can't shift to working round-the-clock shifts to produce more shells than we did historically?

Or is the problem simply that we're relying on our traditional, cumbersome contracting and procurement processes?  JarHead isn't the only one who's suggested that the profit motive in the West has been a driving factor behind the evolution of NATO policy.  But why is it so freaking hard to build 155mm shells?

[Sir Slash]

Why are the Russians so wedded to rails? Don't they have any truck drivers?