If you are still wondering why the United States failed to prevail in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially Afghanistan, all you need to do is watch today’s press conference of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels, Belgium. What a veritable clown show! The remarks by Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley revealed two guys with an iron grip on delusion and a total lack of self-awareness.
The audacity of these two failed military leaders to pretend they are qualified to offer advice to Ukraine on how to fight a first world military when their own dismal military records show they failed to defeat a bunch of goat herders and tribesmen that had no combat air, no helicopters and no artillery is the definition of chutzpah. It would be funny were it not for the slaughter underway in Ukraine.
Here are some of the lowlights from Austin’s opening remarks:
He accuses Russia of deliberating targeting civilians (a lie) and ignores the last eight years of Ukraine killing its own civilians in the Donbas.
He accuses Putin of causing world chaos, even though the shortages of food and oil along with collapsing economies in Europe were self-inflicted wounds by NATO. NATO did that, not Putin.
Austin pledges to support Ukraine for the long haul by PROMISING more HIMARS ammo, heavy machine guns, 181 MRAPs and 2000 Anti-Tank Guided Missiles plus an additional $1.75 billion for air defense systems. He failed to mention that none of that materiel will be arriving any time soon because U.S. and European stockpiles are almost depleted.
Along with providing more Cow Bell, Austin insists that the Contact Group will be synchronizing donations into an integrated training plan. Oh yeah, almost forgot, Ukraine will be getting more tanks and air defense systems (which will not arrive for months). He skipped over the tiny, insignificant detail of the lack of logistics support for these systems and the months of training required for Ukrainian troops to be minimally proficient with those systems.
Good speech, Lloyd.
Next up, General Milley. At least he did not mis-pronoun anyone:
NATO and this Coalition has never been stronger and Russia is now a global pariah.
I am surprised no one laughed at this blatantly ridiculous claim. Poland is carping at Germany. Turkey told Sweden no deal on entering NATO. Hungary is expressing grave reservations. Meanwhile, Putin has forged closer ties with China, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Brazil. Time for the Princess Bride:
Russia has lost, they’ve lost strategically operationally and tactically and they are paying an enormous price on the battlefield.
Hey Mark. Losing is when you abandon Afghanistan with desperate souls hanging on to the wheels and wings of departing U.S. aircraft and falling to their deaths. Losing is when the army you trained failed to hold against the Taliban. Losing is when you abandon Afghan allies who put their trust in you. Russia swept the Ukrainians from Mariupol and is in the process of doing the same thing in the Donbas. Exactly how is Russia losing strategically, operationally and tactically? Just because you say it does not make it true.
The nation of Ukraine is united for one single purpose — to expel the Russian forces from their territory and to defend themselves.
At the outset of the Special Military Operation Ukraine had a larger army in the field than Russia. That is no longer the case. Russia destroyed Ukraine’s tank brigades and now Ukraine is begging desperately for replacements. Ukraine’s Army has been decimated by the Russian tactic of using artillery to attack and destroy fixed entrenchments. Even if NATO decided to mobilize and send its own troops to reinforce Ukraine, that would not be enough to “expel” Russian forces. Russia is fighting for its homeland.
The Russian military has paid tremendous costs in their war of aggression and now they’ve resorted to sending conscripts and prisoners to imminent death.
It would appear that Milley got confused about the briefing he received on Ukrainian casualties. Russia’s so-called “conscripts” are military reservists, plus an estimated 100,000 volunteers who signed up. Ukraine, by contrast, is kidnapping 16 year old boys and 60 year old men off the streets in places like Kiev and Odessa. I find it hard to believe that Milley really believes the crap he is spewing. If he does then the United States military is in grave danger with a moron like that in charge.
Countries have pledged tanks 22 have pledged infantry Fighting Vehicle, 16 pledged artillery and Munitions and nine more pledged Air Defense Artillery. The group is focused focused on delivering the capabilities committed and efficiently providing the training the spare parts the sustainment logistics necessary for the Full Employment of these systems. Training, maintaining and sustaining Ukraine remains key for Ukraine to prevail.
It is guys like Milley that are the bread and butter of casinos around the world. He keeps doubling down and betting money he does not have in hopes of turning up a Royal Flush. A man with his experience should understand that even if the West can pony up the new weapons and vehicles and tanks, Ukraine is many months away from being able to use them effectively on the battlefield. Ukraine does not have the luxury of time.
Russia by contrast is waging a very costly war of attrition while Ukraine is effectively leveraging their asymmetric advantages in order to defend itself and the most important asymmetric Advantage they have is courage, resilience and tactical skill.
This is a real head scratch-er. Apparently Milley believes the Ukrainians have the same magical military skills of the Taliban and will be able, somehow, to defeat the Russian military just as the U.S. was vanquished from Afghanistan. Russia enjoys advantages in personnel, tanks, artillery, ammunition, electronic warfare, combat aircraft, helicopters and hyper sonic missiles. There is zero evidence that Ukraine has more courage, resilience or tactical skill than the Russians. In fact, the real asymmetry is that Russia has more trained soldiers than Ukraine by a vast margin.
It’s to uphold the rules-based international order in order that rejects the idea that big strong powerful Nations can attack other smaller countries that borders shall not change.
Hypocrisy, thy name is Milley. This is the quintessential pot calling the kettle black moment from this presser. The list of small countries that the United States and NATO have attacked is long — Afghanistan, Iraq (twice), Syria, Libya, the Balkans, Panama, Dominican Republic, Vietnam, etc. Since 1990, Russia has fought Georgia and now Ukraine. Their military operations in Syria came at the request of the recognized government. I wish that NATO would live up to the ideal of a “rules-based international order.” But the rules that Milley has in mind are house rules. It is a crooked casino.
We’re going to continue to work with Ukraine to address Ukraine’s most pressing needs again you know they’re contemplating an offensive in uh in the spring and that’s just weeks away and so we have a lot to get done so if you think about the numbers of systems that we’re bringing together: Bradley’s Strikers Marders CB 90s, 113s yeah artillery in the list goes on and on. It’s a Monumental task to bring a those systems together, get the troops trained on those platforms and make sure we have sustainment for that for for all of those systems and get those systems into the fight. So that’s that’s really the focus of our our of our conversation today.
Von Clausewitz he ain’t. What General worth a cup of warm spit announces in advance when a “contemplated” offensive will take place. How about keeping your cards close to your vest and not tipping off your opponent what you are going to do?
Looks like NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Mark Milley are not on the same page. Jens made this uncomfortable (but truthful) admission yesterday:
“It is clear that we are in a race of logistics,” he said. “The war in Ukraine is consuming an enormous amount of munitions and depleting allied stockpiles.”
Mr. Stoltenberg said Ukrainian troops are expending ammo at “many times higher” than the current rate of production for NATO members. The situation is putting pressure on allied defense industries.
He said the waiting time for large caliber ammunition — such as shells for the 155mm howitzers sent by the U.S. — has increased from 12 to 28 months, on average.
“Orders placed today would only be delivered 2½ years later. So we need to ramp up production and invest in our production capacity,” Mr. Stoltenberg told reporters at NATO headquarters.
Ukraine, with the help of the West, is sleep walking into the slaughterhouse. Ukraine and NATO’s refusal to wake up and grasp the reality of what is happening is likely to lead to the destruction of both.
What did Milley get all those rows of ribbons for?
By the way, his left sleeve chevrons are in the exact colours of the blueyellow Ukranazi rag. It’s that a coincidence, anyone know?
The ribbons? Take a look at the brown stain on his nose.
As for the blue and yellow chevrons. That is not the US military copying the Ukrainians — it is the Ukrainians copying the US military.
Snarks aside, Larry is pointing to the high level of institutional incompetency in the US military hierarchy – and indeed to most, if not all American institutional bureaucracies.
The Ukraine is a slave state. Actually, less than that. It is a lifestock state. The cows are herded into the slaughterhouse. Happily. The same can be said for most of Europe and also Japan where I am. Moo. Moo. America=McDonalds. Cheap burgers to cull the masses.
I do voiceovers for SouthFront. My last one sourced a WSJ article, which noted that US Defense Industries lack the resources to replenish the dwindling supplies of US weapons. The industrial base has been hollowed out. Of course, the “defense” companies were howling for more funding but I note from own research that their profitability has remained constant over decade and increased despite slow production. And stock prices are up!
Yet, should the Chinese cut off rare earths, the US defense industry would no longer be to produce anything. Of course, the US is desperately looking for other sources–so far unsuccessfully–the Chinese dominate the market.
So, naturally — what does the US do?
a.) lie about their losing ways against Russia
b.) lie about their losing ways against China
c.) lie about the competence of the Biden admin
d.) invent a war on balloons and UFOs
Next war? The Little Green Men from outerspace. Now, however, the US is saying that the Chinese balloon flew over the US accidentally — as weather balloon are want to. So spend a couple of millions shooting down balloons. Don’t buy your kid a balloon. You and he/she/it might get zapped by HIMARS.
https://julianmacfarlane.substack.com/p/the-war-on-balloons
The biggest lies are those we tell ourselves. It takes the fervour of religious faith and ideological self-blinding to believe it. This is not going to end well for the IS and NATO.
*US and NATO.
The intended audience for all this nonsense is, and has always been, the poor rubes in the ranks of the Ukr army.
It’s designed to give them hope so they hang on until they are killed and do not surrender or mutiny
I don’t reckon the Ukie frontline soldiers would be watching any television. Especially with English speaking talking heads.
The intended audience is us, the brain dead telly watching citizens of the “West”.
They want to give hope so we don’t complain about the billions being squandered on the MIC while our infrastructure fails and our taxes rise.
Telly Watching,
T.V. watching….
How old are you ?
No, I don’t reckon any Ukrainian soldiers would be watching T.V.
Aren’t you Grrr or is that Hmmm ?
I already posted message but I can’t edit this what I meant to say.
These lunatics are going to kill us all. Russia has already won. And I for one am happy they have.
Yeah, but it’ll have to be on guard from these freaks for decades.
You’d think Austin at least would have been able to add a dance to that song.
Take that however you want, but White Men Can’t Dance wasn’t just a movie. Exceptions of course there are, like me
mr. Johnson – these 2 gentlemen if yu can call them that remind me of these arrogant officers in the babylon 5 orgin movie. it is quite telling. this is my favourite sci-fi series of all time. made it through 20 minutes of their vid and it was enough.
Babylon 5 – Londo: “Arrogance and Stupidity”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF27OtzAslY
As far as our capabilities for industrial war production; we are know in the same position reversed as japan was to the usa going into ww2. When yu look at the link below the usa-eu are know japan and russia-china are know the usa.
http://www.combinedfleet.com/economic.htm
we are also in the same position i believe to effectively intervene with us – nato forces in the ukraine as the japanese were in a position to invade hawai which is essentially very low odds in our favor.
http://www.combinedfleet.com/pearlops.htm
regards,
ralph
Wow, Larry. Another grand slam home run. As always, thank you so much for your amazing, always fact-based insights and work. (Astounding you know more about what’s really happening in Ukraine than all of those Zelensky-applauding, D.C. clapping clowns put together.)
Yep.
And yet the great unwashed believe this crap.Now the US and EU are telling their citizens to leave Russia and Belaruss so they won’t be picked on just like the US did to the ethnic Japanese during WW2. Hypocrisy writ large.
What the Us did to the Japanese was far kinder than what the Japanese would have done to Americans.
Japanese spies in Pearl.
Japanese spies and collaborators from 7 December 1941 along the British Malay peninsular.
Japanese with blood on their bayonets from civilians.
Not for no reason are the Japanese the most hated (yes, hated) of WW2.
Maybe the one needing a great wash is….. You !!!
Hypocrisy writ large …. You !
You’re confusing Japanese soldiers with ethnic Japanese US citizens and residents. They were unfairly targeted by US govt. and imprisoned for the duration of the war due to their ethnicity. Germans weren’t, Italians weren’t.
The Japanese military brutalised their soldiers and they then in turn became acted brutally to civilians (even their own).
Japanese civilians did not and do not have those traits.
Thank you sir for such astute analysis.
Wrong Larry! According to Forbes latest article Russia has lost 270,000 men and Ukraine, 90,000!
Amazing! The Russians have lost more 180,000 than the original 190,000 put in! The Ghost of Kiev must be working overtime!
“Ukraine, with the help of the West, is sleep walking into the slaughterhouse. Ukraine and NATO’s refusal to wake up and grasp the reality of what is happening is likely to lead to the destruction of both.”
A well thought out referral of the western mindset.
It likely will not happen fast enough to save hundreds of thousands.
Blessed be the scappers.
Borrowing parts of a comment I made on the “Hersh Speaks” thread…
For Milley, “the world” consists of an echo chamber containing the USA, its satraps and a few hangers-on. In that world, US/NATO’s success is undeniable.
The US now owns Europe outright, the Germans no longer run it, and the possibility of Russia’s joining have been dashed forever. The US’ “Global Hegemony” dreams may have been reduced to ruling supreme over the ashes of the West, but maybe that’s as good as it gets.
The 80% that comprise the rest of the world are background noise that might as well be coming from the interstellar ether.
Audacity and hypocrisy be damned !
Until there is accountability for these lowlifes nothing will change.
.
Larry’s list: “The list of small countries that the United States and NATO have attacked is long — Afghanistan, Iraq (twice), Syria, Libya, the Balkans, Panama, Dominican Republic, Vietnam”
The only conflict US leaders have been held to account for by its people is the last, Vietnam, fifty years ago.
It takes a lot for the inward looking US populace to take an interest in overseas affairs, viz. WW1 and WW2.
Ukraine ? Not very sexy, at least Vietnam had palm trees.
The appropriate movie reference is “Downfall”, Bruno Ganz was brilliant in his portrayal of der Fuehrer in the bunker. All the delusion from leaders of the “collective west” warrant a study of this film.
I can’t believe that these men don’t understand the truth of the situation. The head scratcher is what they hope to accomplish by lying through their teeth. Of course, they know that no matter what, there won’t be any consequences for them.
They also know that the vast majority of Americans don’t even know where is Ukraine, or give a crap about it. They’re too busy trying to find a dozen eggs that cost less that $10.
More $ for the MIC. That’s the whole plan in a nutshell, just like it’s always been.
As Major General Smedley Butler observed, “War is a Racket”.
….The head scratcher is what they hope to accomplish by lying through their teeth. Of course, they know that no matter what, there won’t be any consequences for them……
The War Party has been telling outrageous lies for at least 30 years, why would the War Party believe this time is different ?
Reflect on the Afghanistan debacle – did anyone responsible resign ? did anyone get fired ? Has anyone decided to retire to his farm and STFU ?
That’s the most illuminating tell we have
Facts explained in unambiguous black and white terms. Can’t be more focussed than that!
These two clowns know that they are spouting bullshit. My question is who do they think the intended audience is? It sure the hell isn’t me.
JK- I think Milley knows for sure, look at the bags under his eyes – they’re are getting bigger and bigger, I bet he’s drinking much later. He did try, remember his, ” Ukraine has gone as far as it could and now it’s time for settlement?” But Austin is a true useful idiot, I really think he’s slow witted, remember how he was blurting, ” we want to bleed Russia.” Between the two of them, Milley is smarter even if the bar set so low.
Larry, I’m not sure that “rules based international order” are any better than casino rules. Remember that these are like rules a mafia boss imposes on his domain, not compatible to UN ones that are agreed to by everyone for common benefit.
We’ll just wait until the Russians are at the gates of Kiev. Let’s see what they have to say at that point.
YouTube pushed a CNN video down my throat today. The CNN YouTube channel has over 17 million subscribers. Those subscribers would eat up what Milley says.
There is nothing “untied” about current Ukraine. There is Zelensky’s Nazi junta which subjugated any kind of dissent by brutal force, purges and cleanings. Why do you think in Mykolaev, the purgerers were going door to door with searchers, scrutinizing the residents’ cellphones, only a ding can’t see that if such en masse measures taken, it means the locals are against the regime and fight by all means available, at the expense of own life and safety. 70+% of Ukrainians elected this Judas Zelensky on his peace in Donbas platform. I pray Zelensky, Austin, Milley and the rest of the Politburo of Evil burn in Hell for their lies, crimes and for what they did to Ukraine.
I don’t think it is incompetence. I think CoG (Continuity of Government) has taken the real government underground and this explains the “incompetence” and rapid deterioration of the US military.
Note: The male Naval aviators were swapped out for female pilots who did a fly over at the Super Bowl 57 professional football entertainment show. Somebody explain to me how female pilots would possibly endure Russian missiles fired at them over Ukrainian territory if it ever came down to that?
It’s all Hollywood show.
Everything reminds me of the German propaganda Goebbels in 1945. The Russian was already at the Oder and the radios told about “miracle weapons” and “final victory”. Quite a few people in Germany believed that. But what can be behind all the propaganda today? Surely mankind can’t believe that Mordor would be finished so quickly? I am a little perplexed.
Who governs in reality? Surely not politicians and the military? Is it not the Rothschild’s, Rockefeller’s & Co? Are these powerful people as stupid as their politicians and other errand boys, or is their agenda failing because of incompetent degenerate personnel? I am at a loss.
I am very concerned that the use of biological and/or nuclear weapons may occur after all. Be it out of desperation or calculation. No matter.
I would like to put the question here to the experts. What is the probability of this?
“Ukraine and NATO’s refusal to wake up and grasp the reality of what is happening is likely to lead to the destruction of both”
There’s plenty to like right there.
Long winded, obfuscating, reeking with false confidence, undertones of doubt, rationalizations galore, even a sprinkling of feeble lie attempts as to who is winning and losses. Thats all I heard here. This didn’t sound like the strength, or problem solving you would here from someone who knows how to make a course correction. It didn’t sound like confidence at all. It sounded like someone making excuses for a massive miscalculation, but disguising their excuses under a veil of all the great things they are gonna do, in the near future. As though those efforts are not too late at all. Everybody in that room is just wishing. When a general “wishes” he has to cover it up with a big pile of stuff he’s doing or gonna do. Like long lists of this and that equipment followed by the word ‘etcetera’ of course at the end of the sentences just so everybody knows he’s really on top of it. And of course between each list of what he’ll do, he has to add “this is very very hard to do”. Deep down these guys know they are gonna lose this conventional battle. They know so much backfired, talking a generals talk now seems pathetic. Deep down they no longer are even in denial of the outcome, thats why you can see right through all their long winded talk at a press conference, its no longer genuine.
‘Ukraine and NATO’s refusal to wake up and grasp the reality of what is happening is likely to lead to the destruction of both”
There’s plenty to like right there.
What terrifies me is the prospect that trained U.S. and NATO personnel will man these systems and maintain them, bringing WWIII closer.
Would be interested in peoples’ thoughts in that regard.
It hurts my body seeing the uncalled by god lost of life on the Ukrainian (and Russian) side.
The young people dying in the mud hole for what? So, Soros and his ilk will make another billion. He’s 93-year old for god sake. ( Hope hell has a special place fro people like him )
Nobody gives a shit about the common people from that region. Most of them are generations of miners, tough hardworking men who are now dying in crap and mud for a coke user. They are miners not good in debating, but exceptional workers if you don’t make fun of them
As fast Russia gets this nightmare away, the better
These guys are real Sararimen as Japanese way of saying salarymen. Receive extra bonuses too when they talk the way big bankers would like to hear. It’s good for their overall business scheme.
Since before Jesus times, (which BTW they were washed out ideas of Buddha who lived roughly 500 years before Jesus – but that is another story for another time) the ‘bankers’ learned to lend money to both side of the front line, because people with money are stupid.
The 100,000+ European castles with all the three knights each and ten peasants were the perfect pray for small dicks with a vision. So everybody got a loan, small or big.
Nothing changed since Jesus times. Just the size of the loans.
You can’t blame the lenders for the shinny knights stupidity, can you?
Now, our shinny knights have bet everything, their armor, sword, and the protected underwear, PLUS they bet your and you kids too (and their kids)
But don’t worry they’ ll get back (someone sold the a scheme that can’t fail)
This was in year 23, 1023, and is the same in 2023
This time will be real fun, because the bet is countries .
As I wrote elsewhere, when you dispose of meritocracy, Kolmogorov kicks in and you get nepotism -> mediocracy -> idiocracy -> implosion. I’m really curious to see how the West will manage to avoid implosion, unless of course in order to avoid implosion, it causes a nuclear explosion.
From an Empire of Lies to an Empire of Ashes. That’s where this is headed. What an absolute clusterf**k from a government in mental absentia.
Larry, great analysis. I am old enough to say that there has never been so much lies and propaganda in the history of any conflict. I’m trying to imagine how unhappy Goebbels must have been that he didn’t have today’s MSM. To make matters more incredible, the users of Goebbels propaganda had nowhere to find out the truth, while today’s lies of the MSM and the deep state can be debunked with a few clicks on the internet. So why are they lying? I think the reason is the dumbing down of people around the world who accept whatever is served to them.
I just watched an interesting movie, ‘Margin Call’, about an investment bank in 2008 that realized far too late that they had crossed the line of acceptable risk and their books were filled with crappy MBS, prompting their decision to unload all of it on their unsuspecting Wall Street colleagues before they figured out that the crash was upon them. Sure, there were going to be a lot of people who once trusted them who would lose everything and hate them for it, but in the end, it’s just business.
This is the kind of decision Austin/Milley are making. These guys are selling what they know are worthless assets before everyone else figures out it’s all going down the toilet. The unsuspecting buyers – Ukraine and Europe – are the ones who’ll be left holding the bag.
~~~~~
John Tuld: “So, what you’re telling me is that the music is about to stop, and we’re going to be left holding the biggest bag of odorous excrement ever assembled in the history of capitalism.”
~~~~~
Peter Sullivan: “Look at these people. Wandering around with absolutely no idea what’s about to happen.”
I suspect the true purpose of those speeches was for the Russian soldiers in the Ukraine to laugh themselves to death.