Posted on 04/14/2023 7:00:13 AM PDT by Meet the New Boss
I'm pretty sure that isn't true.
Classified information remains classified until it is unclassified. When the Wikileaks thing happened classified material appeared in newspapers and on TV. The federal government notified employees with an active clearance that they were not allowed to read anything from Wikileaks unless they had a real Need To Know. This was fairly silly since it all all just "out there". But the policy is that classified material remains classified until it isn't classified and you don't access such stuff unless you have a Need to Know.
Of course it's a game, and the Powers That Be simply choose not to prosecute newspapers because it's bad publicity. But that doesn't mean the newspapers aren't breaking the law.
America has the right to know disinformation.
This image is part of the leaked classified material that was circulated in a Discord chatroom and obtained by The Washington Post. The Post informed the Pentagon that this imagery would be published with this story. The document shows satellite images of the 22nd Separate Spetsnaz Brigade’s motor pool in southwestern Russia. The images were captured, from left to right, in November 2021 and November 2022, showing a depleted force following its return from Ukraine last summer.
When this conflict began last year there were many things that could not be faked that I viewed at length. Russian units abandoning their “new” equipment en masse on roadways for maintenance problems that almost any US soldier could diagnose and fix. The number of trucks in columns full of equipment with blown tires due to dry-rot was staggering. Inexcusable for anyone who ever sniffed a motor pool in the US.
Ukrainian farmers were fixing million dollar plus tanks with hand tools on the road and driving them off. Captured Russian soldiers spoke of advancing to assigned spots for resupply and when they arrived there was no logistical support there because of a lack of coordination and the same equipment problems above. The same Ukrainian farmers were using diesel from jerry cans to drive off the same equipment.
The Russians have a huge advantage in artillery but their attack last year was so disjointed that artillery barely played a role in the first few months. The same for close-air support. The Russians got the worst end of it by far last year.
However, as I have said here before, the Russians wisely withdrew and consolidated along lines in the east forcing the Ukrainians into combat that favors the bear. Fixed positions on both sides has allowed the Russians to use their artillery with simplified logistics and little coordination required and its tragically become a meat grinder. On top of that, the Ukrainians are not facing the 1941 Russian anymore. The Russians learned some hard lessons and even though they still have problems they are more like the 1943 Russian now - capable of much better performance.
I don’t buy the 7:1 ratio for the fighting last year and am certain the Russians got the worst of it, but it is undeniable that the Ukrainians are now being crushed in a style of warfare that they cannot win. The Ukrainians should have focused on force preservation instead of digging in to fixed positions across from the Russians who were not really trying to advance. They have paid a huge price for this miscalculation and I think the current exchange might be at 7:1 because there is not much fighting outside of Bahkmut.
Now it appears to be mostly artillery fire along trench lines more like WWI. To make matters worse, the Russians have finally figured out how to conduct counter-battery fire and use their drones to direct fire and they are wiping out the Ukrainian artillery forces and inflicting lots of casualties on trench lines.
If I were Putin I would maintain the status quo because I am winning. It does not make me happy to write that and I feel sorry for those guys getting shell shocked in trenches for no real reason. I want the war to end - period. I suspect Russia is sitting on the ground they feel they must have and I don’t believe the Ukrainians are capable of dislodging them along such a massive front no matter how much money we send them.
The Ukrainians biggest problem is that any “defeat” portrayed in Western media is a threat to support from the West so they are forced to sacrifice massive amounts of men and material to avoid this when the smartest move would be to withdraw and preserve their forces and push for a peaceful resolution, but things may have gone too far for that now on both sides.
The old axiom I learned as a young officer was that trench warfare favors the side with more artillery. It was true 100 years ago and its still true today. Despite the ridiculous media coverage and propaganda from both sides the current war favors Russia and I think this is why they have not really tried to advance outside of Bahkmut (the biggest meat grinder).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7NWp3qD7No
Question: at what point do we, the American people, have the right to know? Question two: can we trust the establishment to be honest with us and tell us the truth? Question three: what interest is it in the United States to be in a proxy war with Russia? Or is it just another Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam.... where we waste our resources and American lives for, in the end, nothing.
Our military secrets and the handling of those secrets are as safe and effective as the clot shot!
If Spetsnaz are "elite" and have been decimated, the Ukrainians are either some really bad dudes, or this is propaganda.
“This information isn’t from the Discourse intelligence...”
Then where is it from? And how do you know?
He can say whatever he wants, but he can’t stop them from reporting it. That would violate the 1st Amendment’s restriction against prior restraint.
Are you sure? How would we know?
“I’m pretty sure that isn’t true.”
Of course it is true. Did any journalist get successfully prosecuted for publishing the Pentagon papers? The Snowden leak? The Assange leaks from the Iraq war? Nope, because they are protected by the 1st Amendment.
Read the relevant Supreme Court decision for yourself:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/403/713
“Classified information remains classified until it is unclassified.”
Perhaps, but once that information is made public its classification status is quite irrelevant as it pertains to whether any private citizen can read it, share it, or publish it. That doesn’t mean the government won’t try to punish government employees for doing the same, but they can’t do a thing to private citizens, and especially not to journalists.
Well, that’s what the article says. I dunno, maybe I’m the only one who bothered to read it.
I read it. I just don’t believe it. I do not believe a whole lot that the NYT or Washington Post write because they are the paid arms of the Intelligence community and tools of the Deep State Military/Industrial Complex.
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