🧵 This brilliant NYT report on Putin's cascading catastrofuck in Ukraine is a must-read.
Nothing we didn't know before in some sense, but puts it all in one place and adds a lot of meat to the bones. nytimes.com/interactive/20…
As I and others have consistently pointed out, nothing that has happened to date has changed Putin's imperial goals, and no amount of losses or sanctions will have an impact in the future:
Secondly, the NYT report yet again underlines that Putin believes all his own propaganda, including about Ukrainian Nazis, and ranted about it to then-Israeli PM Bennett in Oct. 2021:
Putin truly believes the West will blink first and will stop supporting Ukraine, so none of his political-military fuckups matter in the long run. It's a game of chicken and he's willing to lose a million Russians and destroy Russia until that happens:
"According to a U.N. report seen by New Lines, at least two meetings between the Houthis and al-Shabab were held in July and September 2024." newlinesmag.com/spotlight/a-pa…
If India and Pakistan can avoid a nuclear exchange, anyone can, and North Korea, e.g., will nuke South Korea (and use biological and chemical weapons) in the event of conflict regardless of the South's possession of nukes.
Nukes aren't a magical answer, but if you've got the infrastructure, know-how, and money, unclear to me why you wouldn't at least become a nuclear threshold state as a theoretical deterrent to nuclear coercion/threats.
Rules are different for nuclear powers, and everybody knows it [Pakistan has been treated with kid gloves for decades despite its behaviour, partially for this reason].
Seems the "Georgian Legion" that basically kicked off what became NAFO was a scam, one I promoted and to which I donated and got my friends to donate significant amounts of money.
Al-Qaeda (Al-Shabaab) has reversed all Somali military gains in central Somalia over the last 2 years and is working with the IRGC (Houthis) to enhance capabilities.
"Ahmed said the Houthis...aim to establish a new front in the Indian Ocean where al-Shabaab can receive advanced missiles and drones. He said the Houthis have already sent three engineers to al-Shabaab...to help build sophisticated weapons and bombs."
.@jonathanchait: "They are treating apologias for Hamas as a factually or logically flawed application of left-wing ideals. I believe...that Hamas defenders are applying their own principles correctly. The problem is the principles themselves." nymag.com/intelligencer/…
@jonathanchait: "The illiberal left believes treating everybody equally...merely serves to maintain existing structures of power. It follows...that the legitimacy of a tactic can only be assessed with reference to whether it is being used by the oppressor or the oppressed."
@jonathanchait: '“Decolonization”...has a model of the world in which conflicts are analyzed as a struggle pitting settler-colonist-Europeans, who are evil, against native/indigenous/BIPOC people...[It] does not leave room to judge the morality of any methods.'