News from Ukraine Conflict

[Nefaro]

He was always domestically focused, specifically the desires of black America.

Obama? I don't mean to be contrary here, but there is a growing story line about just how badly Obama has failed to help black Americans. IMHO some of the unrest we've seen in Baltimore and Ferguson can be attributed to cognitive dissonance within the black community - they had very high (probably unrealistic) hopes when Obama was elected. It was unlikely those hopes would have ever been met, but the reality is even worse: he's done virtually nothing to help the black community.

Byron Allen has branded President Barack Obama 'a white president in blackface'.

The comedian, who is also black, gave a rambling interview to TMZ about Obama's description of rioters in Baltimore as 'thugs', which he said was unjustified.

He accused the president of not acting 'like a black man' and of failing to 'stand up' for the African American community, which is being 'failed by the system'.

Black people, he concluded, have never been worse off, adding: 'Black America would have done much better with a white president.'

source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3095668/Black-America-better-white-president-Byron-Allen-launches-searing-attack-Obama-rambling-rant-Baltimore-race.html

It's a real shame as Obama had the chance to do some great things for American and minorities in America. He really could have strengthened us as a nation and a people. I suspect that failure may ultimately be the one he's judged harshest on, but there's good competition for his failure of foreign policy so it may have to be declared a tie.

Do you believe that story line? If so I will go with it, you have a better view of the action than me. Part of me suspects that whatever he does, they will always demand more, call him an Oreo, then be shocked checks arnt piled in their mail.

Agreed.

That was a no-win situation and the expectations of the most critical are probably off the realism scale.

[Nefaro]

I would say his biggest failing is talking down to the legislative leaders. As soon as he started that, he was doomed. Everything else followed even if they were mildly hostile from day one.

Yep.

His initial "Because I won" snobbery against a meeting of congressmen, shortly after his first election, was indicative of how things would go.  I lost any last sense of "hope" after seeing the same snotty behavior he had exhibited in his previous congressional position being carried into the White House.

Even a notable portion of his own party, and some past media shills, are critical of him nowadays.  It wasn't that difficult to see where it was headed years ago.

[Nefaro]

Anyway... as for Ukraine.

____


Russian Combat Brigades In Ukraine

by James Dunnigan
May 28, 2015

In April Ukrainian Army officials revealed that they were tracking the Russian units operating in eastern Ukraine. At that time Ukrainian intelligence had identified portions of the Russian 15th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, 8th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, 331st Airborne Regiment and the 98th Airborne Division operating inside Ukraine. It was noted that Russia moves these units in and out, rarely keeping Russian units in eastern Ukraine for more than a few months. There are some attempts to hide the fact that these Russian soldiers are Russians, but these efforts are not diligently carried out and given all the cell phone cameras around it is easier for anti-Russian civilians in rebel controlled areas to collect and pass on evidence.

NATO intelligence analysts earlier noted that the Russians have been forced to use most of their few capable combat units to support their attempt to seize portions of eastern Ukraine. Thus the Russians have sent in about twenty percent of their combat brigades, usually the most effective (Spetsnaz and airborne) and experienced (ones recently in the Caucasus). For most of the last year parts of at least three of these brigades have been detected inside eastern Ukraine at any one time. At least fifteen combat brigades have had some of their troops in Ukraine during 2014. These brigades represent the best Russia has, as the rest of the army is crippled by inexperience and shortages of personnel and equipment. Russia is still trying to replace obsolete and worn out Cold War era weapons and equipment.

In Russia the reforms of the army that began in 2008 have reduced the number of army units from over 1,800 to fewer than 200 now. Many of the disbanded units were part of the reserve or organizations that had become irrelevant but continued to exist anyway. The army strength is now about 300,000, including SOF (special operations forces, or Spetsnaz). The combat forces comprise 55 combat brigades (33 mechanized infantry and four tank, 22 Spetsnaz, airborne or air assault). These brigades are about half the size of American combat brigades and about a third of the personnel are conscripts who serve for one year. So the skill levels of troops in these brigades is much lower than for comparable troops in American or British brigades (and elite brigades in French, German and some other Western forces.) There are also 28 combat support brigades (eight armed with multi-barrel rocket launchers like the U.S. MLRS, nine with short range ballistic missiles, ten with anti-aircraft missile systems and one engineer brigade).

There are other problems. Since Russia does not admit it has troops inside Ukraine, the hundreds of Russian soldiers killed there so far have been coming back in coffins and the families are increasingly angry about the government secrecy about how their sons died and where. Despite strenuous efforts to suppress news of dead soldiers the Internet allows the news to get around and the families of dead soldiers to get in touch with each other and organize protests and unrest the government does not want. All this is another side effect of military reforms that are still under way.


http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/Russian-Combat-Brigades-In-Ukraine-5-28-2015.asp

[LongBlade]

Panzers East!

THE tiny Polish town of Swietoszow did not officially exist during the Cold War; as home to a massive but secret Soviet tank force ready to strike at the West, it was removed from all public maps and records.

Last week Nato used the base for the first big deployment of a new special force to defend eastern Europe from an increasingly expansionist Russia.

American Black Hawk helicopters thundered in the skies as German tanks rolled from across the nearby <Polish> border, along with troops and hardware from seven other nations that make up Nato's Spearhead Force, which was set up last year in response to Russia's intervention in Ukraine.

I added the bold and the descriptor.

source: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/Europe/article1568452.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2015_06_14

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

"activists who criticised Mr Putin in Europe were part of a "dirty campaign against the tsar-daddy"  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/vladimir-putin/11678629/Russian-state-TV-reporter-fired-after-criticising-Vladimir-Putin.html

The tsar-daddy. Surreal.

[Greybriar]

Swietoszow is closer to Germany than Ukraine. But I guess it's a start.

I feel for that reporter, Konstantin Goldenzweig. He may lose something a lot more important to him than his job.

[pawelj]

I think attitudes would change quickly if bullets started flying.

I wouldn't count on that Star, too much weak leadership, especially here in the US.  These aren't the days of Reagan, Thatcher, and Kohl.

I think hitler made a similar mistake in his opinions about western powers in 1939.

And vice versa. Everyone  got "smarter" after several million dead and a continent destroyed for decades.

[Boggit]

"And vice versa. Everyone  got "smarter" after several million dead and a continent destroyed for decades." Pawelj

To be fair, no one in the West in a "free" country wanted war after the Great War, and most of the people in countries in the East didn't get any say, as most were de facto dictatorships with territorial agenda of their own. In the dictatorships if you dissented you were killed, or put out of the way - Gulags, Concentration camps, or exile to Calabria to die of typhus. The dictators called the shots by their actions.

[bayonetbrant]

Russia's next target...  Texas?!

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/06/vladimir-putin-texas-secession-119288_Page2.html

[Centurion40]

Russia's next target...  Texas?!

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/06/vladimir-putin-texas-secession-119288_Page2.html

Wouldn't surprise me if Putin would try almost anything (short of sponsoring terrorism) to try to destabilize the US or any other nation that tries to block his ambitions.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Why cant the little green men be considered state sponsored terrorism?

[Centurion40]

Why cant the little green men be considered state sponsored terrorism?

One needs evidence.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Why cant the little green men be considered state sponsored terrorism?

One needs evidence.

Hundreds of units with the keys to advanced russian hardware, in another country, operating without uniform, is not evidence?

[Centurion40]

Why cant the little green men be considered state sponsored terrorism?

One needs evidence.

Hundreds of units with the keys to advanced russian hardware, in another country, operating without uniform, is not evidence?

Little green men?

[Staggerwing]

That's what the media called the cryptic military personnel seen taking over the Crimea. They had no insignia of any kind, just green uniforms.