@dave equipment/troop losses and explanations of underperformance

I’ve been looking for a good resource that explains the various issues (corruption leading to equipment that wasn’t maintained, absolute shit logistics that led to a 60km-long convoy stalled outside of Kiev for months, conscripts fighting when they weren’t supposed to be, unsecured comms, absolutely failing to do combined arms correctly, etc.) because I really, really don’t want to do my own thread on this. It would take me at least an hour to do properly, and almost no one would read it. Feel free to ping me if I don’t give you a good link or thread in the next day or two.

I find it hard to believe there are credible and accurate sources covering the war that aren't biased on either side. The only ones who know, are there, and they are biased. Same as it ever was..


"General facts may indeed be collected from them, such as that Europe is now at war, that Bonaparte has been a successful warrior, that he has subjected a great portion of Europe to his will, &c., &c.; but no details can be relied on. I will add, that the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false."


Thomas Jefferson

@threalist @dave @skells The only one I found remotely interesting was Patrick Lancaster. He started out embedded with the Ukrainians and last I checked he was embedded with the Russians. He's followed several generals who have defected to Russia.

He's obviously biased, but as everyone else has started, so is everyone. I imagine it would be difficult not to be as the real journalists living in that day to day watch everything unfold. I still would trust them over whatever garbage CNN/BBC/Fox puts out there.

From a legal perspective, Robert Barnes has done some amazing analysis just from an international law perspective.

Dude, you’re quoting a guy that lived in a time when electronics didn’t exist, and information took months to transit. This has no bearing on 2022 when people are uploading footage of strikes on targets mere minutes after they happened.

Journalists lied then and they lie now. Nothing has changed.

..or should we ask the Ghost of Kiev what he thinks of it?

@threalist @dave the Ghost of Kiev scares the shit out of me tbh, wouldn't want to be putter rn

@dave @threalist how do you guarantee that the strikes are happening at that time and that the metadata isn't being changed?

when I searched osint the main page I found read like a CIA clearing house of propaganda pieces

more information =\= more knowledge

I dont think Jefferson was upset at the speed of information travel as much as he was frustrated at the clear biases and narrative building done by journos. Much the same as today many of us feel there is a particular narrative we are supposed to accept and straying from that narrative leads you to be ostracized.

@thatguyoverthere @dave @threalist
one can credit large scale map painting when everyone agrees (Russia controls Donbas etc.) and read between the lines to interpret a certain degree of strategy - the narrative one tries to communicate reveals intention

beyond that I don't believe a word of either side

I agree. Neither side is trustworthy. One thing that is telling is that speaking about Ukraine with any negative connotation seems to mark you as a Putin supporter in many people's eyes.

Very similar to the way that speaking against biden labels a person as a trumptard in some people's minds actually. We are only allowed to exist in predefined opinion camps and if you stray someone is going to push you into one or the other (at least in their own minds).

@thatguyoverthere @dave @skells @threalist I have noticed this too. A large portion of the population has devolved to be only capable of shallow binary thought. Its like a mental handicap.

@yogthos I'll check out out thanks