will the US have mandatory conscription soon? it just feels like tensions are ratcheting up globally and US leaders are realizing they cant fight all these wars with a volunteer army

Edit: I have been corrected on something I misread earlier, thanks comrades!

Are the libs getting ready to cut their losses on Ukraine? Less and less journalists are Slavaing their Ukrainis and near-realist pieces are being published.

I just finished reading an article from Danish government broadcaster DR titled "War expert on Ukraine's shortage of western weapons: I can't see the Ukrainians do an offensive the next 12 months" where they interviewed a guy from the military academy who has previously made outright delusional predictions about western Wunderwaffen and the like are realising that western armaments industry can't keep up with Russian, how Ukraine's hand-me-downs are a logistical nightmare, how the promised arms shipments are getting delayed and how Ukraine is lacking soldiers.

He doesn't like it though and we get wonderful quotes like "We know that Russia can shoot around 20.000 shells a day while Ukraine is around 4.000 to 7.000. So on some points the Russians have advantages".

Although more realistic than before he is still delusional and he predicts things will begin to look up for the Ukrainians once they switch to a more defensive position.

He then goes on to be mad at the Ukrainians for not conscripting those under 27, calling it a luxury position when you are in "an existential war". This line is probably going to be one of the go-to soundbits once the libs switches to blaming the Ukrainians for losing the war.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-68402672

George Galloway is an MP again huh. A lot to say here but I just got up so just read the article bearing in mind it's the BBC.

Damn, intercept also has layoffs (according to latest pod), fucks sake, the only good liberals

Some Belarussians in Poland are auditioning for CIA/State Department/NED money

A group of Belarusian dissidents say they are planning a coup against the country’s authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko, to be executed “at the right time.”

The partisan resistance group BYPOL — which operates from Poland — has been training officers and actively sabotaging the Kremlin in its war against Ukraine, all in preparation of a coup d’état against Minsk’s regime, one senior figure said publicly.

“We have worked out a plan and will put it into effect at the right time,” former Belarusian officer Aliaksandr Azarau told Belgian media outlet VRT.

According to Azarau, ensuring Russian President Vladimir Putin’s defeat in Ukraine is necessary to weaken Lukashenko’s regime.

I came across some interesting numbers today that put China's fisheries in perspective. China contributes something like 35% of the world's fish output and from that China makes up 19.2% of the world's wild catch and 61.5% of the world's aquaculture production. In fact, 73% of China's fish output is from aquaculture, and much of the remaining 27% includes freshwater sources.

When reporting about the end the Nordstream investigation, Danish government broadcaster DR is presenting the public with two possible explanations: Ukrainians on a boat or scary Russians with submarines. The third and most likely option, ie. that the yanks who achieved several geopolitical goals by doing it also did it, is simply not mentioned.

They mention that Danish authorities refused to work with Russia on the investigation but only when prefixed with a "Russia claims that". They do not report on how the Danish regime rejected the Russian proposal of an independent international investigation under UN auspices.

Live footage of a Hermes 450 drone catching on fire as it falls from the sky after Hezbollah shot it down using a surface-to-air missile over the Iqlim al-Tuffah area - deep inside Lebanese territory: https://twitter.com/EyesOnSouth1/status/1762033111049629751

Is that picture of the kid run over by a tank real?

is Israel actually bombing Damascus right now? What's going on?

Trump reelected, storm begins, Hillary Clinton executed by firing squad, Lavrov "Genocide Joe" UN speech, Germany defaults, EU starts dissolution process

EURACTIV - West’s Ukraine strategy ‘completely failed’, says Slovak PM ahead of Paris summit [2024-02-26]

On Sunday (25 February), Fico announced he would be convening the Slovak Security Council, together with the government and coalition parties, due to the “chilling” nature of the topics to be discussed in Paris.

Several NATO and EU member countries were considering sending their soldiers to Ukraine based on their bilateral agreement, he claimed.

“Proposals for the direct physical presence of soldiers from EU and NATO member countries in the territory of Ukraine, albeit only on a bilateral level, will lead to a significant escalation of tensions if implemented,” he stated.

According to Fico, the Paris talks would be a “battle meeting” to “prevent the direct participation of Slovak soldiers in the war in Ukraine”.

Fico noted that his country will focus on civilian and non-lethal assistance, and would continue to help Ukraine with de-mining activities.

Does Israel turning against Russia and aiding Ukraine change anything significantly?

United States Dismantles Stolen Plane to Venezuela

Yvan Gil called the operation "shameful theft of the aircraft".

The United States (US) government scrapped the Venezuelan plane seized from the Cargo del Sur Transport Company (Emtrasur), a subsidiary of the state-owned Conviasa.

The plane had been retained since June 2022 by the Argentine government. The main reason for its seizure was its membership of Iranian corporation, Mahan Air, to which the US had imposed sanctions for alleged financing of terrorist groups.

Since its seizure, the US government had asked to be given the ship as part of evidence of an alleged Iranian terrorist network. In 2024 President Javier Milei unconstitutionally ceded the plane to the US.

The Bolivarian government rejected the hijacking and protested the illegitimacy of the action. Yvan Gil called the operation "shameful theft of the aircraft".

Faced with this situation, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro affirmed "Milei’s bandit stole the plane from Venezuela, Javier Milei, the hero of the extreme right of the surnames, that hero of the extreme right of the surnames stole a large plane from Venezuela".

This Wednesday, it was announced that the plane already owned by the United States, was scrapped and destroyed in North American territory.

The Venezuelan Transport Minister and President of Conviasa stated in X "In the Arizona desert, the US government maintains a cemetery of more than 5,000 planes, degrading the environment of the planet. Yesterday they tore apart the EMTRASUR plane, to demoralize the Venezuelan people and demonstrate its imperial character."

Destroying a plane to own the chavistas???

Republicans are trying to emotionally manipulate their Christo-fascist base on Franklin Graham being CANCELED by the "far left". As if Graham ever had anything of "the left".

But you know they aren't snowflakes

https://archive.is/3UosA

@Tervell@hexbear.net you're gonna love this one

The Army is standardizing how armor crews train and shoot

Armor brigades with the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia are training with a new set of qualification standards, or gunnery tables.

That's right folks, the U.S Army armored and Mechanized forces HAVE NOT had a standardized training program for their gunners for who knows for how fucking long and have completely relied upon skills of individuals - usually a mix of whatever retained passed-down knowledge in the magical game of telephone between generations and whatever personal experience each master gunner accrues in their time in service!

The Army is standardizing the way crews of Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles keep up with their combat skills.

Fucking embarrassing it took until 2024 for the clowns in the Pentagon and TRADOC to figure this out

Brigades with the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia have taken the last month to train under a new set of qualification standards, or gunnery tables, against targets set at longer distances for their M1 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles.

People think ww3s gonna happen while the fucking Army that they think will fight it is just realizing what actual modern warfare looks like and has vaguely grasped how jacked up their combat capabilities are and are in a mad scramble to fix themselves while stumbling on their shoelaces

“What we are trying to do is train our crews to be more adaptable and be more lethal as our adversaries change,” said 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team Command Sgt. Maj. Ryan Roush. “Everyone will go through the exact same validation process. Once these tables are implemented Army-wide, we could receive a new soldier from any unit in the Army and know that the training standard that the soldier has used, are the exact same across the entire Army that we have and then base our performance and expectations off of that.”

Fucking magical they've figured out standardized training is a necessity IN MOTHERFUCKING 2024!

Tank crews have to validate their skills twice a year on a unit’s gunnery tables. Under the current integrated weapons strategy there are six gunnery tables that crews must be certified in: Table I gunnery skills test; Table II simulations; Table III proficiency to train with live rounds; Table IV basic skills of the platform; Table V practice and Table VI qualification for crew to participate in live-fire exercises.

Blah blah blah they had all the shit that's needed to make a standardized system but didn't

Master gunners could previously use their own discretion to create tables with time and distance categories for targets. But with this initiative, there would be set standards that soldiers and crews have to complete, said Sgt. Daniel Blandon, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team Abrams Master Gunner.

Fucking lol

Large scale combat operations

Over the last two decades, training for Iraq and Afghanistan was focused on counterinsurgency operations “for a whole career of a soldier,” said Steve Krivitsky, chief of the weapons and gunnery branch at the Directorate of Training, Tactics and Doctrine for the Maneuver Center of Excellence. “There was a series of soldiers that never experienced the long range and then the large-scale, combat-operations-type training.”

Translation: we had a brain-drain because we spent too many years playing whack-a-mole games now we're struggling with basic concepts of war fighting

Tank crews often were tested only on skills and targets their commanders deemed essential for Iraq and Afghanistan deployments, or that could be shot within the confines of the ranges of their own base.

Translation: our training over the past 20+ years has been checkpoint guarding and occupation force intimidation tactics with the rare masterbatort larp session stateside to make our tankmen feel like they still matter

“When you look at Fort Stewart and Fort Stewart’s ranges, they made a scenario that was tailored to their facilities and their training needs of their unit based on their past performance,” Krivitsky said. “What they chose to shoot would not be exactly the same as what something at Fort Carson might shoot.”

Translation: each base, like feudal kingdoms, had their own ways of doing shit.

Soldiers at Fort Stewart, Krivitsky said, are “pushing the limits of the training ammunition and the system itself to hit targets up to 2,200 to 2,400 meters.”

Translation: we've fucked up so bad so we're scrambling to make up standards to teach everyone based off of the knowledge we've gained from the Ukraine war

The current qualification for the farthest main gun engagement is a single target at 1,800 meters. The requirements under the new tables would increase main gun engagements to seven targets between 1,800 and 2,400 meters.

Translation: Ukraine wars teaching us modern war isn't like battlefield 4 or world of tanks

The new tables also focus on multiple stationary and moving main gun engagements. Now, Tables V and VI will include an offense and defense four-target engagement.

Translation: we've fucked up on training for more basic shit, again.

With the current gunnery qualifications – for all of the different types of engagements – the average is 31 seconds to defeat a single target, Kravitsky said. But the new standard would involve four targets in a shortened time frame.

Learning how to cowboy quickdraw shooting but with a tank.

“On a four target engagement, they don’t have two minutes, they have 75 seconds. And so that 31 seconds might overlap with another target’s 31 seconds because it’s exposed,” he said. “That speed in combat, the speed at which you deliver accurate fires first, your reward is you win. So our goal is to hit first, hit fast and move on to the next one.”

Reminder that U.S tanks require a manual loader so there's a dude that's busting his ass loading 4 big ass tank rounds while huffing depleted uranium fumes in 75 seconds or less.

Fucking lol

Officials are finding new ways to use the latest sensors and optics on Bradleys and Abrams. On the M1, for example, the vehicle commander has a Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station, or CROWS system for on-the-move target acquisition and first-burst target engagement.

Fancy thingamabobs that theoretically work but aren't rigorously combat tested. Who knows, maybe it'll accidentally do some friendly fire if a war happens.

The new standards for Table IV force the tank’s gunner to run through five defensive machine gun skills rather than use the main gun, while the vehicle commander has five tests on the CROWS system.

More basic shit

“When the gunner is executing the machine gun engagements, the vehicle commander is using the commander’s independent thermal viewer to identify supplemental targets,” Krivistky said. “It speeds the process of target acquisition and target hand-off to rapidly defeat multiple targets in sequence.”

More basic shit

The Maneuver Center of Excellence looked at all of the different possible target engagements that a tank crew might see and found 3,264 different variables. With the gunnery tables, officials need to decide which types of engagements are the best use of time and show a crew’s gunnery skills.

Aka standardization of training. Fucking fluff to pad out this article

“We only have 30 engagements for live fire so we have to be really selective of which engagements have the biggest payoff to the crew’s experience because the other 3,234 would have to be done in simulations,” Krivistky said.

Lol simulations means they're making soldiers play videogames like ARMA. Unless they got one of those fancy facilities with theater screens and mock vehicles on pneumatic pads to play videogames but IRL

Once they collect all of the data from 3ID’s training, they will hand it off to the Maneuver Center of Excellence for analysis. Officials from the center will take their findings to the Armor School’s Commandant and if he approves the manual, they’ll go through the publication process which can take three to six months.

Bureaucratic shit

When a new book is published and there’s a “significant change in how we do things,” there will be an implementation period across the Army which takes about a year, Krivitsky said. The 3ID initiative “accelerates the completion of this training strategy and publication by at least nine months which in the Army system, that’s fast.”

Army isn't planning to do a cheeky ww3 this year unless someone higher than the Pentagon pencil pushers screws the pooch

Argentine Aeronautical Workers Go on Strike on Wednesday

The 24-hour strike will affect around 35,000 people who were scheduled to travel on approximately 300 flights with Aerolineas Argentinas.

The Association of Aeronautical Personnel (APA), the Airline Pilots Association (APLA), and the Union of Superior and Professional Personnel of Air Commercial Companies (UPSA) will hold a strike on Wednesday to demand a salary adjustment that compensates for the accelerated loss of purchasing power in Argentina.

"Given the intransigence adopted by Aerolineas Argentinas and Intercargo, the aviation unions APA, APLA, and UPSA communicate that we are forced to declare a total 24-hour work stoppage," aviation workers said.

Previously, Aerolineas Argentinas and Intercargo offered their workers a 12 percent salary increase starting in March. This proposal was rejected by the workers as there is currently a salary gap equivalent to 70 percent of the recorded inflation.

Since the strike begins at midnight on Tuesday, the unions have warned companies to take necessary precautions to avoid inconvenience to passengers.

However, it is estimated that the 24-hour strike will affect around 35,000 people who were scheduled to travel on approximately 300 flights with Aerolineas Argentinas.

Currently, Argentinians are experiencing a dramatic economic situation. Since far-right economist Javier Milei assumed the presidency in December 2023, the poverty rate has increased to 57 percent due to inflation that has not subsided so far.

The recovery of the purchasing power of Argentines is not in sight even in the medium term. At the beginning of February, Milei signed a decree that will allow the gradual increase in taxes on gasoline and diesel, which will encourage greater inflationary expansion.

Me and another guy tried to form a polycule, but neither of our partners were into it. Oh well, guess it'll just be double and triple dates.

Biden tries out a new line of attack on Trump: The former president’s age

From the beginning of an article I won't read the rest of:

Now in his mid-nineties, Jürgen Habermas is one of the pre-eminent philosophers and public intellectuals of our time. In Germany his generation enjoyed the mercy of being born too late. In 2004, in a speech given on receipt of the Kyoto prize in arts and philosophy, he observed that “we did not have to answer for choosing the wrong side and for political errors and their dire consequences”. He came to maturity in a society that he judged complacent and insufficiently distanced from its recent past. This experience sets the context for his academic work and political interventions.

Only took him twenty years after this to find a wrong side he could choose. ("Despite all the concern for the fate of the Palestinian population, however, the standards of judgement slip completely when genocidal intentions are attributed to Israel’s actions.")