Russia Surrounded

[droid]

It will be argued that all civilians were legitimate targets in the coming massacres. We do it all the time.

 

[Mr. Tea]

It will be argued that all civilians were legitimate targets in the coming massacres. We do it all the time.

Will it make any real difference if they were going to be massacred anyway? On the basis that Russia clearly DGAF about international law, and has a veto in the UNSC anyway.

 

[Clinamenic]

Will it make any real difference if they were going to be massacred anyway? On the basis that Russia clearly DGAF about international law, and has a veto in the UNSC anyway.

Apparently there are efforts to remove Russia from the council, or at least put another nation's representative in charge. The Ukrainian rep Kyslytsya called for the Russian rep to resign, but I don't know what kind of traction those efforts have.

 

[droid]

Will it make any real difference if they were going to be massacred anyway? On the basis that Russia clearly DGAF about international law, and has a veto in the UNSC anyway.

The argument America and its allies have been (successfully) making for the last 20 years is that the Geneva Conventions simply do not apply to illegal/unlawful combatants, so they will not only be subject to massacre, but also detainment, denial of POW status, kidnapping, imprisonment without trial, summary assassination, torture, execution.

 

[shakahislop]

Publicly arming the civilian population may turn out to have been a really bad idea.

this is what i thought when they started doing it. but it remains to be seen how it goes down. it's hard to predict.

 

[Leo]

The argument America and its allies have been (successfully) making for the last 20 years is that the Geneva Conventions simply do not apply to illegal/unlawful combatants, so they will not only be subject to massacre, but also detainment, denial of POW status, kidnapping, imprisonment without trial, summary assassination, torture, execution.

yeah, a terrible situation. in a just world, there would be a clear understanding that an enemy combatant -- someone who proactively looks to kill and maim innocent citizens -- is not someone who's defending their country from invaders. but it's not a just world.

 

[...]

I don’t think it’s totally beyond the realms of possibility that Twitter could cause a nuclear war.

 

[luka]

Twitter has an innately escalatory logic as William Burroughs explained

 

[Leo]

This is a genuinely terrifying day.

because of Russia and nukes, or all the avatars?

 

[Mr. Tea]

I don’t think it’s totally beyond the realms of possibility that Twitter could cause a nuclear war.

We should have seen this coming a mile off.

AOL = Little Boy.
Facebook = Tsar Bomba.
Twitter = ICBM with eight MIRV'd 475 kT warheads.

 

[DannyL]

My feeling atm is they're going to unleash the full might of their airforce on Kiev as part revenge for the humiliation they've suffered so far. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Clinamenic]

My feeling atm is they're going to unleash the full might of their airforce on Kiev as part revenge for the humiliation they've suffered so far. I hope I'm wrong.

Yeah do you (or does anyone here) know whether or not the western sanction agenda can get much worse, i.e. how much unused leverage the western alliance still has over Russia?

 

[version]

I don’t think it’s totally beyond the realms of possibility that Twitter could cause a nuclear war.

I was just thinking about how far tech's pulled the general public into a given war effort. Anyone with a device is a potential foot soldier in the information war and people do it of their own volition.

 

[Leo]

things look grim. then there are small signs like this

Some Russian troops are surrendering or sabotaging vehicles rather than fight, a Pentagon official says.

WASHINGTON — Plagued by poor morale as well as fuel and food shortages, some Russian troops in Ukraine have surrendered en masse or sabotaged their own vehicles to avoid fighting, a senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday.

Some entire Russian units have laid down their arms without a fight after confronting surprisingly stiff Ukrainian defense, the official said. A significant number of the Russian troops are young conscripts who are poorly trained and ill-prepared for the all-out assault. And in some cases, Russian troops have deliberately punched holes in their vehicles’ gas tanks, presumably to avoid combat, the official said.

The Pentagon official declined to say how the military made these assessments — presumably a mosaic of intelligence including statements from captured Russian soldiers and communications intercepts — or how widespread these setbacks may be across the sprawling battlefield.

But taken together, these factors may help explain why Russian forces, including an ominous 40-mile convoy of tanks and armored vehicles near Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, have come to a near crawl in the past day or two, U.S. officials said.

Besides dealing with shortages of fuel, food and spare parts, the Pentagon official said, Russian commanders leading that armored column toward Kyiv may also be “regrouping and rethinking” their battle plans, making adjustments on the fly to gain momentum for what U.S. intelligence and military officials say is an inevitable push in the next several days to encircle and ultimately capture the capital.

“They have a lot of power available to them,” said the Pentagon official, adding that 80 percent of the more than 150,000 Russian troops amassed on Ukraine’s borders have now joined the fight.

But U.S. analysts have been struck by the “risk-averse behavior” of such a large force, the Pentagon official said. Russia launched an amphibious landing to seize Mariupol, a pivotal port city on the Sea of Azov, but landed forces around 40 miles from the city. That allowed the Russians extra time and space to mount an invasion, but also gave the city’s defenders time to prepare.

Russia’s vaunted air force has yet to gain air superiority over Ukraine, with Russian warplanes thwarted by Ukrainian fighter jets and a surprisingly resilient and potent array of air defenses, from shoulder-fired Stinger antiaircraft missiles to much larger surface-to-air weapons, the Pentagon official said.

 

[Clinamenic]

I was just thinking about how far tech's pulled the general public into a given war effort. Anyone with a device is a potential foot soldier in the information war and people do it of their own volition.

Especially with OSINT and hacking. Anyone with the know-how can directly participate in matters of intelligence and/or IT infrastructure compromising. Apparently Anonymous launched (and may still be maintaining) an attack on some Russian state website, according to a video essay I just watched (Good Times Bad Times).

 

[Clinamenic]

But yeah even before OSINT and hacking, just being a conduit for information makes you a part of this.

 

[version]

Especially with OSINT and hacking. Anyone with the know-how can directly participate in matters of intelligence and/or IT infrastructure compromising. Apparently Anonymous launched (and may still be maintaining) an attack on some Russian state website, according to a video essay I just watched (Good Times Bad Times).

Yeah, I also saw a thread on Reddit the other day with people trying to get involved with a DDoS attack, perhaps the Anonymous one.

 

[version]

I've never seen it verified, but there have been claims floating around for years that some people on 4chan managed to call in an airstrike.

 

[Clinamenic]

Re: OSINT, Bellingcat put out some report that confirmed the whole kindergarten destruction thing (haven't looked into it myself, so I don't know the details).This sort of thing can be done with basic techniques like geolocation, chronolocation by shadow measurement, etc.

 

[Clinamenic]

I've never seen it verified, but there have been claims floating around for years that some people on 4chan managed to call in an airstrike.

I haven't heard of that, but I wouldn't necessarily put it past them. All it takes is one unscrupulous officer exhibiting a lack of precaution or internet street smarts, and their administrative capabilities can be compromised.