143
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net

Image is of one of Ireland's only manned navy ships, the Samuel Beckett. Image sourced from this BBC article.


Putler has been HUMILIATED by the Kursk offensive and this proves that Russia's army is in tatters and unable even to defend its own territory. However, it is simultaneously true that Russia poses an existential threat to countries thousands of miles away, as this recent Politico article demonstrates. Ireland - a country that immediately springs to mind as one surrounded by enemies - is being bullied due to its lack of military.

Despite bearing responsibility for 16 percent of the EU’s territorial waters, and the fact that 75 percent of transatlantic undersea cables pass through or near Irish waters, Ireland is totally defenseless. And I mean completely unable to protect critical infrastructure, or even pretend to secure its own borders. [...] Ireland’s “navy” of six patrol vessels is currently operating with one operational ship due to chronic staff shortages. [...] Ireland simply has no undersea capabilities. How could it, when it barely spends 0.2 percent of GDP on security and defense? And it has, in effect, abdicated responsibility for protecting the Europe’s northwestern borders.

For all we know, the dreaded sea-people from the Bronze Age Collapse could soon emerge from the North Atlantic.

Unfortunately, things are even worse up in the skies. Ireland has no combat jets, and it’s the only country in Europe that can’t monitor its own airspace due to the lack of primary radar systems. Instead, the country has outsourced its security to Britain in a technically secret agreement between Dublin and London, which effectively cedes control over Irish air space to the Royal Air Force. This must be the luck of the Irish — smile and get someone else to protect you for free.

While this is very silly, rearmament has long been a part of US imperial strategy on an economic level. Desai, discussing the US imperial strategy in the WW2 period:

By 1947 [...] the domestic postwar consumer boom was nearing its end. While financing exports became more urgent, the 1946 elections returned a Congress unlikely to approve further loans. Now the Truman Administration concocted the ‘red menace’ to ‘scare the hell out of the country’, enunciated the Truman Doctrine of US support for armed resistance to ‘subjugation’ which launched the cold war, and Congress granted $400 million to prevent left-wing triumphs in Greece and Turkey in 1947.

One reading of history states that the US was so intimidated by the USSR that this forced a policy of massive arms production even outside of official wartime. Why this arms production is not occurring today can be puzzling, and (very reasonably) explained by neoliberals exporting industrial production overseas. However, a different historical reading can explain both the first Cold War, and the ongoing situation in which American weaponry is being almost purposefully given in insufficient numbers to give Ukraine a chance of victory and thus only prolonging their suffering (while generating massive profit for the military-industrial complex):

In this sense the Cold War was not the cause of US imperial policy but its effect. It combined financing exports with fighting combined development by national capitalisms as well as communism. When such ‘totalitarian regimes’ threatened ‘free peoples’, ‘America’s world economic responsibilities’ included aid to countries battling them.

By selling massively expensive weapons to Europe, America could simultaneously guarantee export markets for its industries, trap Europe into reliance on American industries at the expense of their own, and divert European funds away from constructing factories which could compete with American ones. Providing a way to defend against Soviet communism (and now Russian "imperialism") is merely a happy side-effect, and so the lack of effectiveness of American weaponry is causing no great panic among the military-industrial complex, nor an urgent plan to quintuple artillery shell production or Patriot missile production - the deals for F-35s and such are still there, and they are what matter.


The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Country of the Week is Ireland! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful. Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.


you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 75 points 4 months ago

There is sabotage occurring openly in Ukraine now. They're playing it off as "kids are being paid" but I strongly question that explanation.

NAFO car burned: https://xcancel.com/frontlinekit/status/1824559984425783470

[-] Flaps@hexbear.net 53 points 4 months ago

Nafo dumbfucks wanting to lynch kids because of a torched bazinga mobile checks out

[-] PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net 51 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I don't think any kid is stupid enough to do this for the promise of $200 in Fortnite skins. They're doing it because their fathers, uncles, brothers, and school teachers are getting slaughtered pointlessly to preserve the government of a guy who is too much of a coward to even hold elections. They're doing this because when Kyiv inevitably lowers the draft age, it will be them getting ushered into no man's land by Banderite psycopaths.

They have no future. Having no future is just about the only thing which will turn people against such militarized institutions. Even if Ukraine stuns the world and achieves an overwhelming victory, reclaims all their territory, and reaps an indemnity from Russia, it is not going to bring back all the emigres, all of the dead, or all of the destroyed infrastructure. The country will live under debt peonage to its Western sponsors for the better part of a century, and it will be the current regime which people are bleeding and dying for which ensures that all those indemnity payments are spent recuperating the cost of the tanks, missiles, and planes instead of rebuilding the dams, the power plants, and the industrial capacity.

[-] WeedReference420@hexbear.net 35 points 4 months ago

Yeah, it shows the massive hubris and complete lack of self awareness of NAFO types that they can never acknowledge that Ukrainians might just be getting tired of the war and have to act like everything is a spooky Russian conspiracy.

[-] GlueBear@hexbear.net 34 points 4 months ago

friend-visitor-1 so people in Ukraine are burning cars, it's probably because they're unhappy-

friend-visitor-2 Russian trolls

friend-visitor-3

friend-visitor-4

[-] SoyViking@hexbear.net 14 points 4 months ago

Anyone not screaming for total war is a Russian troll

[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 35 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I think "kids" here could be being used to apply to anyone below the 27 year old conscription age.

[-] ElChapoDeChapo@hexbear.net 23 points 4 months ago

Yeah but the pictures posted of kids they arrested looked young, like between 11 and 15

[-] Commiejones@hexbear.net 15 points 4 months ago

Just old enough to be angry that their father was taken away by the fascists to die on the front line.

[-] companero@hexbear.net 26 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they are getting paid. But they wouldn't be doing it if their country wasn't treating them like shit. The guys doing it are probably military-aged men who are forced to stay at home or risk being sent to the meat grinder.

Burning cars would actually be a reasonably low-risk way to make money for them. If they get caught, they will probably just end up being sent to the front line anyway, so... why not?

[-] EmoThugInMyPhase@hexbear.net 25 points 4 months ago

There are anecdotes from US soldiers about random villagers being paid by the Taliban or al Qaeda to fire off a couple shots at the soldiers and run away just so the US can waste its time and munitions on razing an empty spot in the field

[-] EmoThugInMyPhase@hexbear.net 50 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Imagine being a Ukrainian soldier deep in the trenches in Donbas, shells falling 2 feet away from you as your comrade’s lifeless body is the only thing keeping you warm until backup arrives

You later find out the backup is some british think tank employee driving a car with doge decals on it and he got set on fire by a middle schooler because he went to go take a piss without locking the doors

[-] ziggurter@hexbear.net 32 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Holy shit. I thought you were lathe-of-heavening. And then I followed the link.

I just...picard

[-] MrPiss@hexbear.net 45 points 4 months ago

I love the follow up tweet asking for money to replace everything. Like the cringe fascism will be crowdsourced. Just ask your handlers for more money like a normal proxy force.

[-] EmoThugInMyPhase@hexbear.net 37 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Liberals were donating consumer boxes of ammunition and optics with their 9-to-5 paychecks to individual soldiers while the government was sending them billions in military aid lol

[-] SeekTheDeletion@hexbear.net 30 points 4 months ago

Talk about a domesticated people. Giving out of their own paycheck to fund grassroots imperialism is beyond cucked.

[-] jackmarxist@hexbear.net 27 points 4 months ago

I used to hear a lot about scam rackets done by Ukrainians and people pretending to be Ukrainians lol.

[-] ElChapoDeChapo@hexbear.net 25 points 4 months ago

I honestly wish I had gotten in on that

[-] Commiejones@hexbear.net 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Next time we will be ready. We'll organize it adjacent to hexbear and we'll launder it through the mutual aid comm.

[-] RyanGosling@hexbear.net 14 points 4 months ago

I think there was some redditor who was soliciting donations for “his volunteer unit” and even advertising signed bombs as a reward. They got a few thousand dollars before people realized he was an irish teenager and his pictures were his airsoft buddies lol

[-] kleeon@hexbear.net 43 points 4 months ago

noooo they burnt out our Military Fella car boohoo

[-] EmoThugInMyPhase@hexbear.net 31 points 4 months ago
[-] VHS@hexbear.net 25 points 4 months ago

Why did they need to transport civilian SUVs 2500km to Ukraine? Surely there are cars within the country? Does the army need hand-me-down Volvo XC90s?

[-] VILenin@hexbear.net 15 points 4 months ago

Savior complex and virtue signaling, the material usefulness of their actions is beside the point

[-] VHS@hexbear.net 13 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I looked at their Twitters and they said the cars are being used by frontline Western volunteers in the Donbass. If I was using a civilian car for military stuff I'd want a Toyota or some kind of utilitarian pickup truck. The XC90 of that generation has the most cramped interior I have ever seen in an SUV and is prone to some truly bizarre electrical issues. You couldn't really get in and out with vests and rifles.

[-] SeekTheDeletion@hexbear.net 42 points 4 months ago

It’s been happening for quite some time already. Not everyone in Ukraine supports the Nazis going around beating and kidnapping their friends and family

[-] Alaskaball@hexbear.net 20 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

There's already been a few anti-state and anti-fascist resistance groups running around Ukraine for a few years now from my recollection.

[-] Azarova@hexbear.net 37 points 4 months ago

NAFO car

what-the-hell did not expect what I just saw

[-] kittin@hexbear.net 30 points 4 months ago

So russians have gotten a hold of the Ukrainian youth 😢

https://xcancel.com/fella_niceJ/status/1824590606741491747#m

Ukraine is Hamas

[-] WeedReference420@hexbear.net 28 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I read the sentence "🤬🤬🤬 They burnt out our Military Fella car, fucking scum" and my brain shut down to preserve itself

[-] jackmarxist@hexbear.net 28 points 4 months ago

Kids are the Prime suspect because all the adults are either on the Frontline, in hiding or dead.

[-] TheLastHero@hexbear.net 27 points 4 months ago

of course the Isn'trael flag is in there saying they have "to catch the culprits in these cases and make an example of them." Glad Ukraine is getting advice from the world's preeminent experts on torturing children

this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
143 points (98.6% liked)

news

23640 readers
584 users here now

Welcome to c/news! Please read the Hexbear Code of Conduct and remember... we're all comrades here.

Rules:

-- PLEASE KEEP POST TITLES INFORMATIVE --

-- Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed. --

-- All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. --

-- If you are citing a twitter post as news please include not just the twitter.com in your links but also nitter.net (or another Nitter instance). There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/libredirect/ or archive them as you would any other reactionary source using e.g. https://archive.today . Twitter screenshots still need to be sourced or they will be removed --

-- Mass tagging comm moderators across multiple posts like a broken markov chain bot will result in a comm ban--

-- Repeated consecutive posting of reactionary sources, fake news, misleading / outdated news, false alarms over ghoul deaths, and/or shitposts will result in a comm ban.--

-- Neglecting to use content warnings or NSFW when dealing with disturbing content will be removed until in compliance. Users who are consecutively reported due to failing to use content warnings or NSFW tags when commenting on or posting disturbing content will result in the user being banned. --

-- Using April 1st as an excuse to post fake headlines, like the resurrection of Kissinger while he is still fortunately dead, will result in the poster being thrown in the gamer gulag and be sentenced to play and beat trashy mobile games like 'Raid: Shadow Legends' in order to be rehabilitated back into general society. --

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS