This megathread exists for in-depth discussion of 'WWIII', related events, and geopolitics and wars in general. Keep in mind that we have eliminated the rule that all non-major WWIII content must be posted here, and we encourage you to submit WWIII-related content to the main sub.

Again— all rules still apply. No racism, xenophobia, nationalism, etc. No promotion of hate or violence. Violators will be banned.

Remain civil, engage in good faith, report suspected bot accounts, and do not abuse the report system to flag the people you disagree with.

If you wish to contribute, please try to focus on where WWIII intersects with themes of this sub: Identity Politics, Capitalism, and Marxist perspectives.

Always put a NSFW warning on links that contain explicit content.

Non-WWIII chatter belongs in the town square.

Previous Megathreads:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | *25 | 26 | *27 | 28* | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34

To be clear this thread is for all Ukraine/Russia, Israel/Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, India/Pakistan, Sudan, Myanmar, or other related content.

  • Would anyone like to spitball about why, presumably intentionally and without a shred of irony, those lemmings call themselves "the coalition of the willing". Whats the angle in reminding people of Iraq? Or is it so far in the past the broadsheet reading boomers just think its based?

    parent

  • Are the people cheering the possible damage to a Russian submarine in port aware that Ukraine is close to not having a functioning energy grid?

    It's like doing a choreographed touchdown dance when you're down 42 to 7 at the 2-minute warning in the second half.

    parent

    both can be true. Letting this happen to a Nuclear submarine in port is absolutely clownish.

    parent root

    At the same time, UUVs are essentially new, I'm not sure how one would counter them once launched

    parent root

    They have been pulling this shit for literally years. Port defense is nothing new ,they had boom chains since Roman times, Submarine nets since WW1. Really indefensible.

    parent root

    Yes but how do we know UUVs aren't small or maneuverable enough to defeat common port defense, that's the point

    parent root

    Why would any country at war for three years, where the back field is being consistently attacked be relying on common port defenses (in the video i see fuck all but whatever).

    Drones are a major, possibly the major instrument of attack in this war. The ability to develop countermeasures is such an obvious and basic step but they consistently refuse. Awacs, strategic bombers, now nuclear submarines. The cost of this is literally in the billions.

    Why wait for what is now inevitable, and spend a tiny fraction of this spent on fairly obvious common sense defenses? I'm not archimedes or anything ,but I think a covered submarine pen with a solid gate would negate this entirely, how much could that cost? . Why is it tied up on a pier like a fucking fishing trawler

    parent root

    Why is it tied up on a pier like a fucking fishing trawler

    😂

    parent root

    Its just the sheer carelessness of it that is triggering for me, it's like coming out of the shop and finding your bike stolen because you didn't lock it right. Independent of war or politics, the waste is appalling.

    parent root

  • Here's a luridly entertaining article that completely misses the point.

    Israel’s Gaza proxy strategy is collapsing

    This implosion captures a profound truth about Israel’s proxy experiment in Gaza: by outsourcing its occupation of a besieged population to the most violent and opportunistic collaborators, Israel will not produce a stable alternative to Hamas’ governance. Rather, such a strategy only fosters a miniature warlord economy, setting the stage for endless cycles of retributive violence.

    parent
    parent root
  • parent

    (I have not yet read the analysis).

    Hilarious. The collective "west" has been crowing about critical minerals for over a decade and yet all they can muster is yet another summit, another declaration, another piece of paper signed to do anything but actually step in and coerce or fund their own industries (notably of the signatories only the U.S. and Aus. would have any resources to speak of [lol Israel, Singapore]). Unless these states nut up and actually somehow raise hundreds of billions in funding -- or otherwise develop muscular interventionist economic policies -- it's all just talk. China has such a strangle hold on key pricing mechanisms their own domestic industries are allergic to actually investing and developing homegrown capacity. And it's only getting more dire year-over-year. Tragedy of the commons but for millionaires and billionaires.

    parent root

    Hilarious.

    That was his conclusion.

    parent root
    parent root
  • parent

    Why?

    parent root

    It's a good game. Net positive utils.

    parent root

    To play the wads

    parent root
    parent root

  • EU sanctions individuals and firms backing Russia’s shadow oil fleet - TheNewVoiceOfUkraine

    In addition, the EU imposed sanctions on 12 individuals and two entities linked to Russia’s hybrid operations and cyberattacks against the EU and its partners. [...] The list further includes French national Xavier Moreau and Swiss national Jacques Baud, who have provided pro-Russian commentary to Kremlin-aligned media

    I think, I occassionally linked Baud's articles. Anyway, I'm so sad about America's authoritarian turn. Because now the EU is truly the last beacon of freedom and liberalism.

    Edit: there's also this >>> Estonian court sentences pro-Russian politician to 14 years in prison for treason - Estonian Public Broadcasting

    parent

    God willing soon enough there won't be an EU.

    parent root
    parent root

  • https://voennoedelo.com/en/posts/id7243-ukraine-plans-to-disband-all-international-legions

    The party is over for our brave volunteers, clubhouse being disbanded, privileges revoked.

    I presume most of them will be given the opportunity to leave freely before being sent to the assualt unit meatgrinders.You'd also have to imagine that almost all will take it as there's just not the same cachet in actually manning a soggy trench as mere infantry, compared to whatever these clowns have been doing for three years.

    parent

    rates of sexual assaults about to nosedive now

    parent root

    Not totally unexpected given that the number of foreign fighters has dropped off significantly as the war drags on. What you have left can be separated into the diehards / those seeking an escape (the westerners) and those who are clearly in it for the money and experience (most of the South Americans).

    It would mostly be the westerners who would be affected by this change as the South Americans have their own recruitment pipeline outside of the legion, but anyone who signs on at this point should know how grim the prospects are on the frontline.

    parent root
    parent root

  • Well, I think that's enough Reddit for me for a while. I'll still lurk here and there so if the war finally kicks off and I feel like I have something to contribute I'll recreate an account (hell, if they bomb this deep I might even post footage of my own), but otherwise it's sayonara until I get the itch again. Farewell, my comrades.

    Edit: And apologies to the dear jannies for posting this here but it's only because this was where I grilled the most. You are very much the heroes we do not deserve and who ought to be paid at least double.

    parent

    This would hit a lot harder if I knew who it was

    parent root
    parent root

    Rip he was having some matza ball soup just a day ago. Hopefully left bc reddit sucks, and not because redditors suck

    parent root

    The last Phoenician.

    parent root
  • parent
    parent root
  • parent

    Even without the formal membership he still wants an Article 5 esque guarantee and a situation akin to what Ukraine already had in 2022 where they were being treated as a quasi-member while openly hosting NATO training missions.

    With all the blood that has been shed, it is hard to see the Russians agreeing to something that still leads to an outcome they don't want.

    parent root
    parent root

    he's too gaked out to really care, his brain probably looks like a beehive 

    parent root
    parent root

    Ah, great - it only took the destruction of half the country, the loss of almost a quarter of their territory, and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of men to come to the same position that would have initially prevented the war in the first place, and indeed, there was never any need for Ukraine to join NATO in the first place - the entire premise was an exercise in narrative construction by the insane US foreign policy establishment, alongside their expansionist hawk counterparts in the EU who were happy to sign minsk in bad faith while continuing to arm and train the Ukrainian mitlitary, while working hand-in-hand with the deeply corrupt bureaucracy in the Ukraine to sabotage any chance for peace, as said Ukrainian bureaucrats felt that risking war with Russia was worth the opportunity to line their pockets - and indeed, it was, as obviously none of them ever got sent to the battlefield.

    parent root

    MIC made billions (of Western taxpayer's money), Ukrainian oligarchs embezzled hundreds of millions (of Western taxpayer's money), Blackrock et. al. hoovered up Ukrainian state assets for pennies on the dollar. It's really hard to imagine things going any better (for the 1%).

    parent root

    It’s called heckin’ self-determination, sweaty. And in this case, the elites determined (by themselves) that throwing proles into the maw of the meatgrinder was worth the try.

    parent root

    Well-said. I'm afraid the establishment will not bear responsibility, as occurred upon many interventions the world over. Then again the British Empire looked infallible until it was not.

    parent root

    Then again the British Empire looked infallible until it was not.

    More like the British Empire looked infallible until it lost control of the narrative.

    Its fallibility is legendary, in retrospect.

    parent root
    parent root
  • parent

    Bush himself was freakishly closely aligned with them, but from what I've read, his administration was a lot more skeptical and willing to hold Israel's feet to the fire when necessary. 

    It really is a weird comparison to think about. Bush famously had some Palestinians visit the white house and they told the media Bush claimed God told him he needed to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. What's crazier, that claim or the idea of someone like Bush or Trump inviting Palestinians to the white house (Trump actually did have the PA visit in early 2017 but never again after that)?

    parent root

  • Mass shooting at Bondi beach in Sydney, Australia.

    Two (possibly three) gunmen, profile not yet known. It'll either be ISIS, Nazis or sovereign citizens.

    Up to 10 12 dead, plus 12 29 injured. One gunman shot dead at scene by police, the other was tackled and disarmed by a member of the public.

    There's footage of the dickhead being tackled — NSFW for dead bodies.

    I've already seen speculation on twitter that the gunmen were targeting Jews, although I don't know how attacking the most famous beach in the nation is singling out any specific group. I'll note a recent story where Australian police uncovered a plot by individuals linked to Israel to instigate some anti-Semitic hate crimes. This is obviously a step further than that and AFAIK absolutely nothing is known about motive yet.

    ETA: There's images circulating on social media of what is claimed to be one of the shooter's drivers licence and indicating he was a member of a hunting club, which suggests the weapons used (a bolt action rifle and lever action shotgun) were more than likely legally owned and obtained.

    I've noticed a lot of rather sensationalist coverage, such as that calling the attack anti-Semitic, originates from Indian media.

    parent

    Chanukah by the Sea was the event that was underway at the time of the shooting and the gunmen appeared (from what I've read so far) to be targeting it. Fucking grim, looks like there was loads of families with kids there.

    parent root
    parent root

    Sounds like the two shooters were Pakistani, the hero Lebanese.

    parent root

    A Syrian from Idlib, not Lebanese 

    parent root

    Arr Lebanese claimed him too quickly.

    parent root

    I don't know how attacking the most famous beach in the nation is singling out any specific group

    Supposedly there was some kind of Jewish event/fest occurring which, if true, would likely suggest there's something to that. 

    parent root

    Wow that man is absolutely incredible for doing that, and the self control to not unload the whole magazine into the terrorist afterwards.

    The news here in Europe report that the attack was targeted at Jews because there was a celebration of Hanukkah in a park behind the beach. The park is fenced up so they were shot at from the bridge like fish in a barrel.

    parent root

    The all Australian hero who took down the guy has been identified as a Ahmed Al Ahmad, which should spike the the predictable narrative somewhat.

    parent root

    Good to know there's an actual reason for the "anti-Semitism" narrative. If I seem kneejerk cynical it's because we've had a ludicrous media discourse in Australia on this issue, largely pushed by the rightwing Murdoch media.

    I think the hero did try and shoot him, but couldn't work out the lever action mechanism (I've heard he apparently tackled the gunman as he was reloading, but personally I don't think the footage looks like that happened, making the guy even braver). I'm glad he had the presence of mind to put the gun down, it would have been a true tragedy if the police had shot him — multiple police were shot, so they would have been trigger happy. I also think in such a situation, where another gunman was still shooting, it would be very psychologically hard to relinquish the gun, even if you struggled to operate it or knew it was empty — or, at least, that's how I think I would react.

    I think this might be the first instance of this sort of terrorism we've ever had in Australia, unless you count the Lindt cafe siege, which I personally regard as more of a mass shooting than terrorism, even though the guy had an ISIS flag (it was more a schizo thing).

    parent root
  • parent

    Weird "reasoning" if you can call it that. China is leaning hard into AI, therefore we should lean away from AI?

    parent root

    These people are dumber than a bag of nails

    parent root

    I know Republicans are pushing crypto because related parts of the US tech oligarchy went red. But what percentage of their electoral base (as opposed to their donor base) is actually enthusiastic about that crap? Why are they doing it so loudly?

    parent root

    The crypto """industry""" donated heavily to both sides in the 2024 election so I think part of this is just their investments paying off.

    parent root

    The Libertarians and small time investors/weekend traders love cryptocrap, and they tend to be Independant Voters rather than true Red MAGAs

    parent root
  • parent

    Venezuala "even purchased security materials from Israel"

    I guess they got sick of him coming into the house unannounced, and eventually asked him to give back the keys. Maybe they even changed the locks.

    parent root

    I wouldn't be too quick the accept this. Israel likes to imagine it is the most important nation in the world, and so for a certain Israeli reader, they find it flattering to be told that everything that happens, particularly in the US, is because Israel wills it. We'll probably see an increase in that sort of article as the country becomes increasingly isolated.

    parent root

    everything that happens, particularly in the US, is because Israel wills it

    cool it

    parent root

    The neocon faction of the GOP has been salivating over Venezuela since Maduro came onto the scene. I doubt anything Bibi had to say even moves the needle.

    parent root

    neocon faction of the GOP has been salivating over Venezuela since Maduro 

    it goes much further back, Bush did a coup attempt against Chavez in 02

    parent root

  • A strong economy is Starmer’s best defence against Putin - Independent, 12 Dec 2025

    In the end, my view is that the best protection against a wider war in Europe is economic strength, or what might be seen as “potential defence spending”. Russia’s annual GDP, the size of its economy, is $2.5 trillion. The UK alone is $4 trillion. The UK plus the EU is $25 trillion, 10 times the size of the Russian economy. That is not a war that Putin can win.

    ☝️🤓

    parent

    I love how anything and everything is the reason he absolutely must do the thing he always planned to do, the only thing he ever had any interest in doing. (That thing is "nothing – the markets are self guided".)

    parent root

    I half-expected this to be Zizek.

    parent root

    Actually selling futures on the African sorghum harvest will allow the UK to train, equip and deploy 500,000 troops in a uhhhhhhhhhhhh ummmmmm

    parent root

    I've long felt that the best way to convert GDP to battlefield effectiveness would be to fly overhead and drop big bags of pennies on the foe.

    parent root

    UK using its GDP on the battlefield by human wave attacks consisting of bankers and insurance parasites people would be a victory for UK workers.

    parent root

    No, no, let him cook. Improving the economy is 'actually' defense spending, build more railroads, schools and hospitals.

    If they really can't stop themselves being lib they could pay down debt, I guess it is less bad than throwing it on tax breaks for the wealthy. Also nothing scares Russia more than a low debt to GDP ratio.

    The better the economy is the better the -potential- military spending is, gotta optimise to win here.

    parent root

    All Europe has to do is legalize all hard drugs and prostitution (where that's not the case yet). That way those commercial activities would count towards our GDP number. According to my math, the resulting surge should be just big enough to force Russia back behind the pre2014 borders.

    parent root

    I hate to break it to you but illegal production is already accounted for in GDP estimation in the EU.

    parent root

    Goddamn if that isn't the most technocratic reason to legalize drugs

    parent root

    Turning the Eurozone into one giant Berghain is a defense strategy I can get behind, provided I am properly lubed.

    parent root

    one giant Berghain

    That was Röhm's original vision for Welthauptstadt Germania. But then he died and Speer took over.

    parent root

    The spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongy & bruised!

    parent root
    parent root

  • Protests have erupted in Norway in rejection of Maria Corina Machado receiving Nobel Peace Prize

    parent

    Rare W for any of the Nordics when it comes to recent times, kudos to them.

    parent root

  • So, Sweden have begun contemplating restarting its nuclear program with a cost sharing agreement with the nordics, together we're ofcourse more than capable of funding the thing (about the same economic size as Italy or Canada or one third smaller than UK/France but far healthier debt wise) but once more than one country is sharing the same nuclear program it becomes a bit of a question of how many countries should be sharing it? The more middle men you add between you being attacked with nukes and your retaliation the less credible the retaliation is gonna be, obviously we think we'd be ready to destroy our own countries for the sake of Greenland or Svalbard until it comes down to brass tacks.

    Hypothetically as I see it discussed it has come down to roughly two options.

    Option 1: Nordic States +/- Finland

    Option 2: Nordic States + Finland and Baltics

    One of those options seems very different from the other (all the money comes from option 1 and all the risk from option 2) and although, for practical reasons, baltics is often considered the theoretical responsibility of the nordics for logistics I don't know if handing the baltics direct access to a nuclear arsenal would be very responsible.

    Anyway, I know nuclear weapons have their place in the world and that isn't changing but I'd generally prefer there's just less of them, even if its risky to my own countries defense our interest should be in the survival of civilisation, what are the thoughts here on nuclear proliferation?

    parent

    Including the Baltics into this agreement would be suicidal, I even have my doubts about letting Finland in.

    parent root

    Would Denmark risk nuclear annihilation for Finland? Would Iceland?

    parent root

    They'll tell you they'll face nuclear destruction for our ally Estonia, don't bother asking about Finland, a country considered as our cultural cousins.

    I dont know if most Danes would even want the risk for Denmark itself if push comes to shove, hopefully we'll never have to find out.

    parent root

    One of the interesting side effects of having nukes is it precludes the use of missiles when attacking a nuclear-armed neighbour.

    MAD would be back, but perhaps also détente.

    parent root

    Does it? From what I know you can't strap strategic nuclear weapon on ballistic missles (they are too big) and tactical weapons aren't dangerous enough to cause an initial deadly blow. So unless you shoot ICBMs at someone there isn't really a reason to freak the fuck out if someone shoots ballistic missles (well beyond the damage ballistic missles could cause)

    parent root

    A bomb of 100kg is enough to destroy a city.

    It's not difficult, so long as you have the warhead.

    parent root

    There's also the MIRV/multiple-re-enter component that helps to complicate things, and now here we are back to 1970s nuclear strategic discourse. Too bad the West lacks a Nixon, and I'm not ironic/sarcastic about it.

    parent root
  • parent
    parent root

  • Feels like i posted "limanbros..." o megathread 3 just yesterday

    parent

    mfw I learned there are tens or hundreds of Limans in Slavicstans because it's a geographical feature.

    parent root

    covod just fucked all perception of time

    parent root
  • parent

    This Post from @RT_com has been withheld in United Kingdom, European Union in response to a legal demand. Learn more

    Got to love the democracy here in the EU.

    parent root

    This article says Iran does it regularly

    Iran has seized an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, Iranian media said overnight Friday to Saturday, adding that 18 crew members from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were on board ...

    Iranian forces regularly announce the interception of ships it says are illegally transporting fuel in the Gulf.

    parent root
    parent root
    parent root
  • parent

    This alongside the LCS and Constellation cancellations... is the U.S. Navy just getting completely bent over a barrel or what?

    parent root
    parent root
  • parent

    People who bet on such things deserve to be scammed.

    parent root
    parent root
  • parent
    parent root
  • parent

    EU plans to treat Belgium like Hungary if it doesn’t back Ukraine loan

    Belgium or Hungary might be the only govts willing to speak out, but none of the big national governments really wants this, for several reasons (apart from the fact there's a real chance of causing 2008 again on a much bigger level). EU-backed debt is fucking verboten and it's always been. At the end it will be "oh, we really really tried, it's a real shame".

    Since 2022 these people have had more visibility, but one should not forget the EU has always been political exile for the pariah.

    parent root
    parent root
  • parent

    The demonstrations, organised by the opposition group Change Continues–Democratic Bulgaria, initially opposed controversial 2026 budget proposals, including increases in social security contributions and taxes on dividends. But the protests encompassed broader frustration with corruption, entrenched graft and government inefficiency.

    Hmmmmmm

    parent root

    They've also just started some anti-corruption protests here in neighboring Romania, but because the local compradors attending those protests didn't have one thing to say about inflation, higher taxes and generally speaking about normal life being expensive as shit it means that most of us, those not influenced by NED-adjacent NGOs, have chosen not to attend them so that the compradors don't have the numbers on their side just yet.

    parent root

    Anti-corruption protests are a waste of time under capitalism, but there is growing frustration and there are smaller groups protesting from time to time against austerity as well, even in Romania.

    I'm saying they are a waste of time because there is no such thing as non-corrupt capitalism. There might be very ordered capitalism, like the one in Scandinavia or UK or the Netherlands, which assures more social mobility and more fairness towards what the working class and middle class could get in life. But these are still highly corrupt at the top, morally or not even just morally. Manipulation of the public into believing comfort politics and comfort economics still involves lies. It is an ordered capitalism based on acceptance of lies and contradictions, which ultimately results in societies still manipulated by elites, who control 80% of the economy and its direction.

    parent root

    to time against austerity as well

    The thing is that none of them (of the people attending the protests) did say anything about the austerity thing, nor about life having gotten expensive as hell, none of that stuff. It's like the people there (they're in fact protesting only 3 tram stations away from where I'm writing this comment) live in their own world, one where the price of eggs hasn't doubled (and more) in a matter of just 2-3 years (one egg is around 1.3-1.4 ron, compared to about 0.6 ron 3-4 years ago, absolute madness, and don't make me start complaining about the price of vegetables or fruits). It's like a parallel Romania.

    parent root

    Yeah, I know, I also have friends on Instagram who are working for corporations and who repost Ursula von der Leyen, who were at that protest you are talking about, so I know very well the situation.

    What I was referring to is different initiatives, usually smaller and unnoticed.

    Regarding the prices, there are more reasons. They increased partially because the wages and pensions increased. But the government is also incompetent with their solutions for government deficit by higher VAT.

    What is interesting is that this price growth is for the whole region. Estonia has food prices 15% higher than the Netherlands (which is on EU average), according to Eurostat. Hungary is 3% above the Netherlands. Romania is still 15% lower, but it used to be 35-40% lower 10 yrs ago (and there were price hikes in the West as well). The problem is that most of the salary growth is being taken away by price hikes, which mainly shows one thing: the income in Eastern Europes is now worth more on an international scale (for instance if you go to most Asian countries or South America, you will find food or services much cheaper than you would have found them 20 years ago as Eastern European), but money have more or less the same value on a local scale (maybe higher value if you buy things imported from Asia like clothing or gasoline, which has a similar price worldwide + tax, but that is it)

    There is only one thing in Romania which is still helping the economy a lot and that is relatively cheap housing, I know many people might not agree, but we are nowhere near the prices in Warsaw or Prague or even worse, Lisbon (which has Bucharest salaries and Amsterdam house prices). But I dont know how much this will stay like this, the trend is already bad and it is not like the government cares. I dont want to imagine how the situation in the country will look like if the housing market also goes out of control.

    parent root

    There is only one thing in Romania which is still helping the economy a lot and that is relatively cheap housing

    Yes, you're correct on that, and that's I was (and still am) very vocal against the NIMBY shitheads from USR and not only. May long that continue, because otherwise this whole house of cards called "democracy in Romania" will fall like there's no tomorrow (it already lives on very shaky grounds as it is).

    parent root
    parent root
  • parent

    Rajji has repeatedly blamed Hezbollah for Israeli attacks on Lebanon in the past.

    With an FM like that, no wonder “Israel” doesn’t negotiate, violates the ceasefire daily, and is preparing for war. What a worm.

    parent root
    parent root

  • In previous posts, I have described briefly the general dislocation of the US Navy, losing massive amounts of combat power and canceling its only frigate program (leaving the entire service with -quite shockingly-, zero frigates). Now, CBO is reporting that even maintaining the Arleigh Burke destroyers (most numerous combat ship in the USN), is becoming a severe problem, to quote the CBO report

    The 2012 class plans for [Arleigh Burke] destroyers indicated that the ships should spend 12 percent of their life in shipyard maintenance. [...] Actual experience indicates that DDG-51s are spending a much larger fraction of their service life in maintenance at shipyards. Using data on different ships in different parts of their lives, CBO projected what the DDG-51 fleet’s maintenance experience is likely to be over its service life. CBO projects that DDG-51 destroyers will spend more than nine years (or 27 percent of their planned service life) in maintenance...

    TLDR: The older Arleigh Burke class is probably going to spend twice as much time, and more than a quarter of its service life in maintenance. This applies primarily to the older versions, and not to the most recent iteration, of which there is only one in service.

    This is actually all quite inevitable, the older ABs are cold war relics and contemporaries of the Ticonderoga class (which I already pointed out are generally being decommissioned), the oldest will have seen 30+ years of service by now and are likely at the limits of their life time. Add to that naval manpower and recruitment problems, and the service in general is going through a bad time.

    In other naval news, Uncle Sam's Nimrods take a backseat to the Royal Numptys

    Telegraph

    "Britain is “no longer capable” of running a nuclear submarine program after “catastrophic” failures pushed it to the brink, a former Navy chief has said."

    Similarly to Uncle Sam's Nimrods, the Royal Numptys have not had a good start to the 3rd Millennium AD, nearly all of its new ship classes have been plagued with problem after problem. The Type 45 destroyers have problematic electrical generators which can apparently cause the ship to simply lose power, the Astute attack submarines were badly constructed and are barely operational due to leaking and corrosion, and the QE carriers of course are barely functional with a slew of mechanical problems. The only really functional ships are the cold war-era Vanguard ballistic missile submarines and the Type 23 frigates, both of whom are of course, aging and due for retirement.

    As if none of this was enough, the Numptys are going ahead with a replacement to the vanguard-class with the planned dreadnought-class with a projected cost of 31 billion pounds.

    The key problem is that unlike Uncle Sam's Nimrods, charged with protecting the empire and becoming overstretched to the point of total exhaustion, the problem with the Royal Numptys is that they lack a broader purpose other than to sometimes play as America's cheerleader. The only real purpose of a carrier is power projection, quite who the UK planned on projecting power to is a question often heard, but rarely answered. Rather than admit that times have changed, downsize the Navy and wave goodbye to the past, the UK appears to want to continue to go all in on trying to square up as Uncle Sam's little brother with "blue-water" power projection. On a sidenote, telegraph also reported that the Royal Numptys are preparing to scale back their training in the Indo-pacific region.

    Please keep all this in mind the next time anyone talks about going to war with the big bad dragon.

    parent

    I'll give the brits a slight pass on their Navy cargo cult though. Sea power has saved their ass so many times over their history you'd forgive them a slightly religious belief in it.

    This romantic attachment to the Navy was never going to survive the deeply asocietal modern Britain. When the idea of a national maritime culture impacts with 45 years of Neoliberalism, it results in a hollow vainglorious sentimentality that lends itself to the ridiculous. A navy built for BBC news segments.

    parent root

    A navy built for BBC news segments.

    Beautifully put, this should be inserted as a motto to any re-issue of Corbett's books/any books written about him (and I quite like the guy, it's not about that). Quite a fall from the highs of the Empire for the Brits.

    parent root
  • parent
    parent root
  • parent

    I had been wondering for a while how come no one had tried fielding one, it's one thing Space invaders taught us already back in '78!

    parent root
    parent root

  • Seversk, Pokrosvsk/Mirnograd and Liman are liberated. GG Donbass campaign? 

    parent

    Which mappers are you getting this from? Lyman is not under Russia's control.

    This is from Suriyak's.. AMK's is almost identical too.

    Plus, it's wrong to say the Donbass campaign is over when Slavyanka and Kramatorsk are still under Ukraine's control.

    https://i.imgur.com/dgsl5Tn.jpeg

    parent root

    Fuck off frog bitch 

    parent root

  • [deleted]

    parent
    parent root
  • parent

    He’s Dutch, none of his grandparents and great-grandparents ever went to war in WW1 nor in WW2. And I don’t think he was counting that colonial war where the Dutch soldiers were mutilating Indonesians just after WW2 had ended.

    parent root

    You and what army, bitch?

    parent root

    You and what army, bitch?

    Let's call Pentagon and ask- huh, it just goes to speaker.

    parent root

    "I'm sorry but the person you called has a voice mailbox that has not been set up yet. Please try your call again later."

    parent root
    parent root

  • So looks like piracy is back on the menu for the Anglos in the Caribbean. Interesting times for us, naval simps, that's the least I can say. MSM source for this

    parent

    I wonder who will be the Dashing Pirate captain character of romantic tales from the bygone 21s century age of piracy.

    parent root
    parent root
  • parent

    I've said it before: when it comes to rapists and people smugglers, game recognises game. Trump's just looking after an up-and-comer who shares his extra-curricular appetites.

    I mean honestly, what other possible explanation could there be? Wouldn't be surprised to find out in 20 years that the chinless wonder has been set up as the next Epstein, and also as the next eventual fall guy, once that's required.

    parent root
    parent root

  • According to Rybar, they and their director have been sanctioned by the UK for 'Undermining Ukrainian Sovereignty,' and accused of being an official sanctioned arm of the Russian Government.

    rybar_in_english/26196 https://x.com/i/status/1999124514123518002

    For the unaware Rybar is the source of "ground attack mode S300s," and everyone thinking that Sevirsk fell for like a week three years ago.

    I guess other mappers will be next.

    parent

    They've also added Dugin and what I supposed it's his geo-political institute to the list, big lol.

    parent root
    parent root
  • parent

    Imagine if Belgium got pissed off enough to block the HQ of the eurocommission 🤭

    parent root

    Ambassadors will go line by line through Belgium's requests, figure out the biggest concerns and seek to address them.

    "We'll have to go through it line by line to see whats causing the hangup"

    'Guarantee we wont be on the hook for over a hundred billion alone'

    "We'll have to figure out whatever Belgiums concern is"

    What is this game of pretend where they are just blatantly ignoring the elephant in the room?

    That leaves a Plan C: for some countries to dig into their own treasuries to keep Ukraine afloat.

    Germany, the Nordics and the Baltics are seen as the most likely participants.

    Didn't the baltics just ask for a bailout recently that was rejected? Just say Germany and Nordics.

    parent root

    The way that this issue has played out is fascinating, if only because it seems like the EU leadership is still desperately trying to avoid answering the question of just how much they are willing to commit to Ukraine.

    It seems like any admission that there are limits to the support imposed by national and economic interests is seen as far more of a threat than maintaining the facade of total support.

    parent root
    parent root

  • From Oracle to Starlink: Lebanon’s security sovereignty in the wind

    In the space of a few weeks, [Lebanon] entrusted its public-sector data to Oracle, a CIO structurally tied to the Israeli military and technological complex, and cleared the path for Starlink, a U.S.-controlled satellite system capable of circumventing every Lebanese security and regulatory body.

    These moves, adored as “advancement” and “innovation,” expose the country’s core infrastructure at a time of escalating Israeli aggression.

    The first shock arrived with the memorandum of understanding between Minister of State for Technology Kamil Chahada and Oracle, ceremonially signed under the eyes of the U.S. ambassador.

    What was marketed as a patriotic leap into digital transformation, training 50,000 civil servants in cloud and AI tools, masks a far darker reality: Lebanon is placing its administrative nervous system in the hands of a corporation that is an integral pillar of the Israeli military apparatus.

    parent

    I think that hezbollah’s strategy of remaining cowed in the face of the government not instituting a united front will destroy them. And I’m not saying this is entirely their fault. They are in a no-win situation unless one of more of their imperial attackers self implodes.

    Given the advancement in satellite image tech, and the power that U.S. and JudeoNazi interests have over most of it, Lebanon would have to use Chinese or Russian alternatives to maintain sovereignty. Yet, chaos favors the incumbent power, so Lebanon’s disjointed existence will always favor official adherence to the imperial line. Under these conditions, they cannot stand up to the JudeoNazis.

    However, they also cannot foment a revolution to consolidate a unified state power with their ideology. They provide para-state services to a quarter of the population and have strong support there. Yet, if they were to enact a coup in lieu of a revolution, they’d be bogged down with an inevitable civil war with those numbers. That’s also a loss for them.

    As always, these religious parties can only maintain holding patterns against the tides of history. They must either adopt a proletarian ideology or be subjugated in the long run.

    parent root
    parent root

  • Machado arrived in Oslo tonight to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. The Journey was planned for two months and included a dramatic escape with wigs and camouflage past 10 military guard posts to a fishing village where she took a fishing boat across open ocean to the island Curaçao where the US has an army base.

    She told the newspaper here in Norway that she is secretive about the travel, because she doesn't want to put her helpers in danger. The operation was carried out by a network that previously have helped people escape Venezuela. The American military was notified about who was aboard the fishing boat.

    "So that they wouldn't blow the boat up in the air", says a person near the operation.

    I thought the US only targeted drug cartel boats? Why the need to notify the American military that it was her aboard the boat? She apparently doesn't mind that her fellow country men are being executed without trial, but of course she doesn't want to be herself. Venezuela’s Peace Prize-winning opposition leader backs Trump’s boat strikes

    parent

    Very curious indeed...

    parent root

    She's so vile, and the consent manufacturing has never been more brazen, you wonder why they bother? Unless... Trump actually is going to do the full boots-on-the-ground invasion-and-nation-building combo and he knows his base won't support it unless they get their collective dick sucked first.

    Feels like we're about to witness yet another country doing the one thing no one thought they were actually stupid enough to do. Becoming pretty common.

    parent root
    parent root
  • parent

    This is why you never accept a favor from the Mafia.

    parent root

    blackmail

    Actually, what's shocking about this isn't the coercion but that the CIA continues to use problematic language. Does the C stand for Chud or what? 💅

    parent root
    parent root
  • parent

    His show is really a program of contrasts. A few serious people in between the most idiotic lunatics you have ever seen. One show about demons where he said a demon attacked him (his dog scratched him), one with a palestinian christian nun, one with a literal holocaust denier, then one with Prof. Mearsheimer, then something about fucking chemtrails and stay tuned for next week a scholar on international law.

    Somehow the crazy ones he usually gets less pushback for. Well except for one crazy person.

    parent root

    A few serious people in between the most idiotic lunatics you have ever seen.

    Have you ever listened through an entire conference with speeches by Queen Ursula, N*TO secretary general (Rutte, Stoltenberg), EU Foreign Policy chief (Borrell, Kallas), Starmer or one of his hundred or so predecessors in recent years, Merz, and Macron? Any one of those conferences, seems it's weekly thing for the past few years.

    parent root

    You may not like it, but this is the ideal talk show experience 

    parent root

    Unironically similar to Rogan in that way. One week some abject moron who claims coffee enemas are the secret to long life, next week a post doc researcher on some random ass topic, wrapped up by Alex Jones, etc.

    parent root

  • Realistically Disney will never, ever have the balls to go there, but I’m not the only one who read Zootopia 2 as a Gaza allegory, right?

    parent

    It's americabrained, it's about gentrification, reptiles priced out of a place they founded are African Americans, just like how in the first the meateaters who were framed as responsible for crimes were African Americans.

    They just did the Zootopia 1 racism plot again, disney don't take risks, also don't look too deeply into it because if you remember the first one the allegory for African American (rich) are chasing out the allegory for African American (poor) which is not the message you're supposed to take away, because the story isn't built on the first one, all you need to remember from the first one is the bunny and fox are friends and cops.

    parent root

    jesus fucking christ man its a movie for 9 year olds not everything has a political allegory

    parent root

    Strangely enough, it is often in these were you will find political allegory the most because most adults tend to think children are brainless morons, so they tend to revise the work a lot less aside from making sure there is no explicit violence and nudity.

    parent root
  • parent
    parent root

  • The West’s century-long war against Russia — part four

    I argue that West’s post-Cold War hostility towards Russia cannot be explained by geopolitics alone: since the eighteenth century, Russia has been viewed by Western powers not only as a strategic rival but as a civilisational threat; after 1991, Russia’s “civilisational autonomy” was seen as the most serious threat, from a cultural-ideological standpoint, to the US’s unipolar project — and for this reason had to be weakened and marginalised.

    parent

    Europe's biggest blunder was not going for a more integrated EU, moving towards an EU army to replace NATO, and make moves to normalize relations and integrate Russia rather than the wholesale looting that happened.

    If they played their cards right, Europe could have come into the 21st century on the path to being an actual Global Super Power rather than the cucked ass politics we saw actually play out.

    parent root

    It will still get some shadenfreude by watching China do to the US what the US did to Europe.

    parent root

    "Since the eighteenth century" - Oh, it's been going on much longer than that. Europe's psycho-historico-cultural obsession with both the slavic mongrels and asiatic hordes coming out of the mountains and steppes to conquer and destroy the garden goes back at least a millennia. Much of their modern fixation is pure projection - it is, after all, Europe that has engaged in multiple total-war-style invasions of russia with the clear intent to conquer everything in just the last couple centuries - if anything, it is the russians who have historically had something to fear from europe, not the other way around - considering the current economic and geopolitical situation broadly, the reality is that european powers are terrified that the time may have finally come for them to pay the piper, and suffer the consequences of their millennia+ history of nonstop warfare and violence, directed both towards each other and their continental civilizational neighbours (to say nothing of their centuries-long raping and pillaging of the global south).

    parent root

    It's really the same tired old patterns and Ukraine fits into this just as much. To the West there loomed a perpetual civilisational threat too (they were the borderlands and once inhabited by "asiatic" nomads, after all), but were still tempting as a gigantic plantation and hapless cannon fodder. After the teutonic expeditions came Kaiser Wilhelm, after him came the White Army, after him came the Nazis, after him the western EU states.

    parent root

    You forgot Napoleon

    parent root
    parent root
  • parent
    parent root
  • parent