Something quite normal but nicely laid out is the use of regular radio frequencies by Russian troops to communicate. It is my experience that it is quite common for fighters to tell each other to fuck off when they get bored. No secret coms tech here:
https://twitter.com/sbreakintl/status/1498619303717142529
It is pretty normal for countries like Russia to try to control the narrative through censorship. That's why the BBC and RFEL shortwave service and the internet via cel data is so important. Troops use their phones incessantly. hrw.org/news/2022/02/2…
There is so much cel phone usage that the clusters of signals act as perfect targeting tools. Here is me on the front lines in Libya trying to convince kid fighters to turn their damn phones off... and then boom. dpxgear.com/blogs/news/20t…
The use of various spectrum tracking tools makes it ridiculously simple to target groups or individuals. Normally drones or surgical airstrikes would follow. Russia uses dumb rocket batteries for most of their destruction. breakingdefense.com/2018/07/bustin…
What you are seeing are literally "Weapons of Mass Destruction" being used against civilians. Designed to take out troop or mass enemy formations. Russia loves to pulverize cities with these things. characterisationexplosiveweapons.org/studies/annex-…
like cheap radios, Grads are "dumb tech" something that is cheap. Grads are used to terrify civilians and push them away from the coming battle. I used to sleep soundly listening to them walking over our positions. Like the footsteps of giants. theguardian.com/world/2022/feb…
Despite my irrational approach to total annihilation, the statistical probability of death increases with each barrage. So people move or go underground. Citizens also become numb to the threat. Chechen rebel fighters had dance contests during barrages. A very strange side effect
The goal here is to fatigue and terrify the population, not the troops. Making the Russians saviors. Like beating children to make the father capitulate. Yes Putin is an evil little shit. He will kill Russians just as quickly as Ukrainians to get his way. aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/28…
Back to the radio intercepts. Russians are crying for their dead sons. The sound of anguish is so loud you don't need technology to hear what Putin is doing to his own country. Maybe he wants to out-evil Stalin. kyivindependent.com/national/exclu…
Anyone who assumes that high or even catastrophic Russian casualties will affect the conflict don't know the history of Russia. The Russian army is crap but it is large and like sandblasting it will wear the population down. nytimes.com/2022/03/01/us/…
The West has a hard time believing the absolute predictability of Putin. How will "we" save Ukraine when there is no Ukraine left to save? The population stripped, infrastructure destroyed and occupied by murderous goons killing dissenters? That is the endstate that needs a plan
The end state of the "New World Order" (UAE, KSA, Russia, China) if you want to call it that is...permanent crippling of democracy, ongoing destruction to divert and managing levels of intentional chaos. A space that the West can't operate or manage intelligently and quickly.
Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, CAR, DRC, Mozambique and many more Russian/UAE infected nations constantly battle Neo-colonial injected chaos. Ukraine and other European countries are next. China is smiling.
How can the West survive this Machiavellian fuckery? First of all stop identifying war in Post WW2 terms. Secondly remove sovereign state protections for dictatorships. Thirdly, abuse our power to shift the balance Bullies on the playgrounds are mental midgets with dark designs.
These vilolent petrodictatorships intend to use our own respect of law and sense of fairness against us. The best metaphor is Alexander and the Gordian knot. There is one swift sharp solution when the rules are too complex. history.com/news/what-was-…
There is another terrible analogy in recent history. The decision by the U.S. to murder millions of civilians to stop unhinged dictators from murdering more people. Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki..I am not advocating....just putting forth ugly history. ushistory.org/us/51g.asp
President Biden would have only been 2 or 3. years old when 80,000 Japanese were killed. But he would respect the ability of the U.S. to annihilate enemies. That terrible power has reined us back in many conflicts allowing "hybrid" warfare to undermine our influence worldwide 
Fear of the U.S unleashing total violence (the Cold War), taught Russia to get away with crap just under the threshold of being militarily bitch slapped. Putin has carefully calculated that we are committed to responding at a level of predictable measured moral outrage.
But this war is a union between archaic dictatorships who see their dependence on selling oil (and investment to escape that trap) as threatened by US financial systems. We don't see the dagger at our throat. But we will. Our economy will suffer too.
The British empire knew they needed control of oil to fuel their warships when they transitioned from coal. They reshaped the world accordingly. We haven't hit that teachable moment yet. The insidious creep of Russia and their new alliance is not just Europe but Africa and Asia.
The Japanese attacked America at Pearl Harbor because we blocked their access to oil. Oil is the blood that pumps the industrial heart. Putin is enabled by it. the UAE and KSA as well. All have massive war chests. We need to see the greater threat that lays ahead.
I propose that it is time to identify those who are insidiously destroying democracy vs those who are building democracy and act accordingly...and with longe range impact. The list of democracies who will survive is very small....and shrinking.
Truman called dropping the bomb a "Rain of Ruin". I think it's time for America to propose this policy in a hybrid format to any dictatorship or autocracy that intends to undermine our system of government, individual freedoms, economic pursuits or democratic sense of purpose.
Which of course... is using WW2 terms to define the current modern complex multilevel hybrid war for survival. But it is time for a global reset, whether we want it or not. It's happening. millercenter.org/the-presidency…
Why did I start this thread with soldier's radio conversation? Because most of us engage and identify at the individual emotional level of war. We rarely have the time and cold clinical ambition to upscale our emotional and intellectual concern to the global level.
But the collective trauma, terror and impact that Putin is delivering to Ukraine and the global population is very real. At a global level is worse than bin Laden's deeds because he and his henchmen will get away with mass murder under sovereign protection and worse inaction.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
