The situation in Syria

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

Hello Everyone,

Thought I’d offer some more info on the Ukraine war for anyone interested. My (amateur armchair) assessment, which I believe has already been touched on in previous posts, is that neither Ukraine nor Russia are currently ‘winning’.

The only party that could legitimately be seen as winning (at current) would be the US/NATO. Ukraine lies in ruins and many tens of thousands (possibly already over 100,000, if the full truth would be known about military and civilian casualties) of Ukrainians have already been killed, while it would appear that, at current, 10,000-20,000 Russians and their allies have been killed since hostilities began in late February this year.

The US/NATO, meanwhile, has suffered virtually zero casualties (besides some mercenaries, special forces types, etc) in its proxy war against Russia. So, Ukraine is in ruins, Russian forces are bogged down, but clearly have been on the backfoot for the last couple of months, while NATO-led Ukrainian forces are clearly ascendant, winning back cities and territory.

One could argue that this means that Ukraine is currently ‘winning’ but, as mentioned, the land is in ruins and countless of its people are dead, while 15-20% of the country is still occupied by Russian forces. I would call neither the Russian position, nor the Ukrainian position, as a winning one at current. It’s the military-industrial complex (Washington, NATO, etc) that is clearly winning at this stage.

I’ve never been to war, nor even in the military, but I saw a very sobering war movie recently that I encourage you to watch. It’s the new film ‘All quiet on the western front’, produced by Netflix, which details the battle between German and French forces in WWI. I believe it is based on a novel written by a German survivor of the war.

Unlike most other Netflix content, there are no ‘woke’ agendas pushed in the film, and the experience of watching the film is not ruined by the illusion-killing appearance of famous movie stars pretending to be soldiers. The actors are all unknowns, it’s filmed from the German perspective and it comes across as very raw/real. It’s just a basic movie tip for you, and if you have Netflix, and two or three spare hours, I recommend that you watch it, in its original German-language audio with English subtitles.

Back to the topic of the Ukraine war; I am generally not a fan of the news site, ‘1945’, which largely comes across as a pro-war mouthpiece of the military-industrial complex. That aside, the odd balanced article can be found there, and I’ve recently come across several good contributions from a writer called Daniel Davis.

He has recently written a sequence of articles on the current situation in the war, with predictions about the near-and-medium term future. Amid all of the recent Russian setbacks on the battlefield, and talk of Putin’s partial mobilization of Russian reserve troops to send to the front, there has been a lot of chatter about a coming Winter offensive, in which Russian forces would try to regain the ascendency and reverse their recent setbacks.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has continued to talk up its own (NATO-backed) plans to expand its offensive against the Russians. I don’t know how this war is going to pan out. Yes, Russia and Ukraine are both currently losing big-time, but it also has to be remembered that the US has not had a good track record of winning wars since the end of the second world war.

It would be a brave or unwise person, at this point, who would claim to have a good idea of how this war is going to pan out. I will provide links to three of the aforementioned articles below, in order of their release:

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/11/put ... o-ukraine/

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/11/put ... -downfall/

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/11/put ... f-weapons/

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

Hi again,

I came across a good article on Sky News about the current situation re: the Ukraine war. Sky News is establishment media (albeit with a conservative tilt) and is usually pro-war/pro-military industrial complex.

However, this is a fair and balanced article, titled, 'The West simply cannot supply the astronomocial military aid Ukraine needs to seure a decisive victory over Putin's Russia'.

It generally assesses the current situation in Ukraine along the lines of the same way I see it, but with more specific insight and details than I would be able to offer you.

In short, the extensive struggles and setbacks of Russian forces are outlined, before the struggles and setbacks of Ukrainian forces are also outlined in detail.

While the West is currently crowing about its (until-now) relatively successful war (via its Ukrainian proxy cannon fodder) against the Russians, the article outlines how long-term western support for its puppet Ukrainian government is not a guaranteed given, and could indeed become increasingly precarious.

It's a balanced anaylsis and I encourage anyone interested to read the article. Link below:

https://www.skynews.com.au/insights-and ... ac0b105653

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

Hi again,

I have an interesting little case study to show you with reference to establishment media propaganda.

Since the start of the Ukraine War, as documented in this forum, there has been a relentless propaganda war with western countries/Ukraine on one side, and Russia on the other. A focal point of this war has been on casualty figures, with both sides routinely exaggerating enemy losses, while covering up their own.

For the first few months of the war, Ukraine/western media portrayed Ukrainian soldiers as virtually invincible butt- kickers, while the Russians were useless clowns who could barely wipe their own noses, and generally die like flies.

The Ukrainian state has continued on with this crude approach, followed mindlessly by much of western media, although some parts of the corporate media, presumably sensing that the Ukrainian propaganda is simply too ridiculous to report with a straight face, have started to take a less-insane approach to coverage of war casualties.

For example, the BBC, which is usually quite awful, has at least taken an apparently methodical approach to tallying Russian battlefield casualties, with a recent study estimating Russian losses to be at least 9,000-plus, but as many as double that (or even more).

Indeed, as of current, a Russian (and its allies) death toll of 10,000-20,000 is very believable: a far cry from the stark-raving bonkers figure of 100,000 Russian KIA which has recently been put out there by the notoriously dishonest Ukrainian government.

For its part, the most-recent Russian government admission of 6,000-plus of its own servicement KIA is almost certainly an understatement, i.e. also a lie. In my own estimation, the BBC estimate is probably accurate.

The Russian government has also put out a figure of approximately 60,000 Ukrainian forces (and their allies) KIA. In my opinion, this is possibly a little high, although the Russian government is more subtle with its lies than the Ukrainian government.

Further to this, a high-up US general (I think his surname is Milley) recently admitted that Ukraine had suffered 100,000 military casualties (a mix of killed and wounded, with presumably roughly a quarter or so of these casualties being of the fatal variety). He also said that, in his opinion, Russia had suffered similar losses.

In my opinion, and I am only an armchair observer from afar, the BBC estimate on Russian losses is one which I could choose to take at face value. BBC, of course, has not done any such estimation of Ukrainian losses, as I believe that the evidence shows that they would be much higher than the Russian losses, maybe even double or more.

Thus, my best guess, and it's only a guess, is that Russia and its allies have likely suffered roughly 15,000 KIA, with several times that wounded, while Ukrainian forces (and their allies) have likely suffered roughly 30,000- 40,000 KIA, with several times that wounded.

Here's where it gets interesting, however. There was recently a rather weird incident at the top levels of human power. It was either an accidental admission, or a mistake. In any event, it was quickly walked back by mainstream media, which, if you look into it, you will realize is neither free nor truth-focussed. Of course, needless to say, all mainstream media is ultimately controlled by the intelligence agencies, and thus, the state.

EU President Ursula Von der Leyen recently made an official speech, in which she said that over 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been KIA (!) She also said that 20,000 Ukrainian civilians had been killed which, to be sure, is quite believable, and evidence of huge war crimes committed by both Russian and NATO-backed forces (but that's an issue for another post).

The speech of this high-up globalist politician, including the reference to 100,000 killed Ukrainian soldiers, was even published on the official website of the European Commission. Part of it was also posted to Twitter... But not for long...

This collossal figure obviously flew in the face of the intense Ukrainian/western government propaganda- since the start of this war- of minimal Ukrainian casualties, and massive Russian casualties by comparison.

And this is where you can see the control of the state/intelligence agencies kick into gear when a message is accidentally put out which... really shouldn't have been 'put out' to start with.

Within a day or two, the speech was taken down from both Twitter and the European Commission website. The speech was then put back up at Twitter and the EC website, but with a notable redaction- the reference to the part about the 100,000 Ukrainian KIA had been completely edited out.

To be honest, the figure of 100,000 Ukrainian KIA could be true. I would not be surprised. But equally likely is that she was referring to the same arbitrary figure as the US general (mentioned before), and she mixed up 'Killed' with overall 'Casualties'. Either way, there is a massive cover-up of Ukrainian military casualties, and occasionally, one way or another, the scale of the losses seems to slip out of the bag, before it's slipped back in.

I wish to post two articles on this apparent slip-up from the EU President- one from a mainstream media source, and another from an independent source (there is the odd typo to be found in the latter, but it's still worth a read).

If you are interested in this, I suggest you read both, then make your own mind up, or even keep an open mind (keeping an open mind on such things is a good approach, in my opnion, if it's impossible to know the truth).

Links below:

https://news.yahoo.com/von-der-leyen-st ... rQWgPwvp_s

https://tfiglobalnews.com/2022/12/01/10 ... -military/

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

Hi All,

I would like to post a couple of things about the Ukraine/Russia war in the coming days. But I felt the need first to make a little post today.

A Bible verse that has been on my mind of late, particularly with regard to geo-politics and western nations in particular, is Isaiah 3:4- ‘I will give children to be their princes, and babes will rule over them’.

Let me first state that my own interpretation on this verse is by no means the definitive one, but (from what I understand) it means that, once nations/societies abandon God altogether, He will abandon them to their own folly. Part of this is that mere children will become their rulers. Some (including myself) interpret this to mean not necessarily literal children, but anyone with the immature mind of an ‘unadult’. This could include (but is not limited to) mentally deficient, perverse, small-minded, utterly vain adults.

All of the world, but especially western countries are utterly godless in my own estimation. And it’s not to put oneself on a pedestal- we are all a part of this filthy civilization (and every one of us is thus in dire need of a proper relationship with Jesus). In my own estimation, we are already being ruled over by ‘babes’ who are childish, self-worshipping, immature, not overly bright, and very much narrow-minded. I would struggle to find a western politician who is not all of the above.

Let me differentiate by saying that not all evil regimes have been necessarily so childish. But I believe that our evil western civilization exhibits a rare breed of small-minded, perverse immaturity- it seems that there are few real adults around anywhere to be seen within the ‘establishment’ in the west.

Now, to bring my point here to the issue of the NATO v Russia war in the Ukraine. I maintain my position here that both NATO nations and Russia (as well as the Ukraine) are all ruled by evil people. But I believe that it is the nations of NATO that are generally the most immature, narrow-minded and unadult.

My exhibit for the day is a recent prisoner swap between the USA and Russia, in which the USA got back a celebrity LGBT-icon convicted of drugs charges while Russia got back a notorious arms dealer in exchange. While both would appear to be unsavoury characters (not judging here, as, without the atonement of our sins provided by Jesus’ sacrifice, we are all unsavoury in the eyes of God), there would appear to be a wide disparity between the motives of the USA and Russia.

This disparity would appear to be even wider when one considers that US citizens such as intelligence agents remain in Russian prisons (not a part of the exchange deal), with US priority clearly the release of its celebrity LGBT-icon drug offender, with Russian priority more focussed on the release of its infamous arms dealer.

Thus, in my own humble opinion, while Russia is ruled by evil adults, the USA (and all the west) is ruled by evil ‘babes’. Just my two cents worth, if they would be worth anything at all.

I’m not going to link to an article about this prisoner exchange today but if you are interested, a quick word search would find you reports on this topic. Needless to say, corporate, mainstream media reports will portray it as a ‘win’ for the USA- USA is good and honest while Russia is bad and dishonest, etc.

But if you come across a news item from a libertarian source, free of establishment media connections, you may well find that the coverage is justifiably more sceptical and critical of the American side in this prisoner exchange.

All the best, and until next time.

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

Hi Everyone,

I believe that there is a new phase of the Ukraine War coming. I believe that I may have touched on this in a previous post or two.

The first phase was largely comprised of the failed Russian move on Kiev, which saw Russia take a lot of territory in the south-east, but get rolled back around the capital (and the north-east area in general, too).

The second phase was largely made up of Russian consolidation in the south-east, particularly in the coveted Donbass region, with a grinding offensive and large-scale artillery duels which Russia generally dominated.

The third phase was marked by counter-offensives by NATO/Ukrainian forces, which culminated in the Russian withdrawal from Kherson and Ukrainian victory in that theatre.

Now, with a partial mobilization of Russian forces well underway, the front has largely stabilized and we await what will come next.

Most of the fighting at current is around the mid-sized city of Bakhmut, which I believe is in the Donesk region of the Donbass. Both sides are claiming that they are inflicting heavy casualties on each other. There would be an element of truth to this, however, both sides would as usual be putting out unreliable figures to understate own losses and overstate enemy losses.

Across the broader warzone, my best guess is that several Ukrainian soldiers are getting killed for every Russian soldier. I have commented on general casualty estimates in previous posts.

The Russian forces in Ukraine are apparently now under the command of a new general, who is taking a more wholistic approach to the war. Maybe I will post more on this another time.

The Russian operation had, until recently, been rather limited, with the apparent aim of limiting both civilian casualties and damage to/destruction of civilian infrastructure.

There are increasing reports that, under this general, the Russian approach is taking an approach more akin to total war, with no regard for huge civilian casualties and wholesale destruction to civilian infrastructure.

This is obviously nasty, hideous and evil. But who has ever won a war without being nasty, hideous and evil? I’m not joking by asking this question, nor am I making light of Russia’s behaviour.

With this in mind, I point out a basic fact- this nasty, hideous and evil approach being undertaken by Russian forces in Ukraine is exactly the same strategy (neither better nor worse) which has already been applied by US forces/western forces/NATO in Iraq (twice), Serbia and Libya, etc.

Both sides are evil and poorly-intentioned, and the Ukrainian government is a deeply corrupt puppet of the west, while the Ukrainian population and Ukrainian soldiers/Russian soldiers are the unfortunate people who are bearing the brunt.

I will post you a couple of articles on the current fighting in and around Bakhmut. Neither of the articles are what I would call outstandingly unbiased, but they’re not all bad.

Links below, and I hope to post something again soon:

https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/why-i ... -war-63519

https://www.newsweek.com/bakhmut-brink- ... ts-1767357

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

Hi Everyone,

Heading overseas for about 5 weeks (going home) so I may or may not post in that time. If there is something significant which takes place, especially re: NATO/Ukraine v Russia (or vice versa) then I will probably find the time to post something before my return.

But before I head off, I wish to share with you a timely new article. It is about the Christmas Truce of 1914, which saw German troops and British troops, already many months into the mutual genocide known as World War One, initiated an unofficial ceasefire on Christmas, which may have even threatened the evil plans of their respective governments, who wanted nothing more than to use their own men as cannon fodder for years on end.

There is an article which I will post now, and I recommend that you read it. It’s titled, ‘The story of the Christmas Truce of 1914- and it’s eternal message’.

I’ll give you a really quick summary. The pope of the time apparently prompted the gesture earlier that month with a call for peace, if only at the time of Christmas itself. The governments on all sides, of course, were disinterested in peace.

One thing led to another when Christmas came around (as detailed in the article) and the troops, upon the initial promptings from the German side, climbed out of their trenches, and greeted each other in a spirit of brotherhood, and did what they could to celebrate Christmas together (I don’t think anyone knows how widespread this was, but it was certainly significant enough to worry the warmongering war criminals in charge of all countries involved in the conflict).

The article also provides some very thoughtful opining, which could be briefly summed up as follows: waging wars is a central factor of government in general. War is a natural flow-on from the existence of human government. And it is generally those who make up government, or are closely associated with government, who do very well out of war, while the average people on the street are those that do very badly out of war. Moreover, those directly responsible for inciting, provoking or starting a war are generally not the same people that have to risk spilling their blood in the prosecution of war.

With regard to the Ukraine (not mentioned in the article), we can clearly see this. Russia is using its own men as cannon fodder, as is the Ukraine. Civilians and soldiers are dying en masse in the Ukraine because of the politicians/media etc in Russia, the Ukraine, the USA, etc.

While the USA has the luxury of sparing its own people, instead using its Ukrainian proxies as cannon fodder, there are still drawbacks to the USA and other nations as a result of their warmongering imperial games in the Ukraine. On the home front, skyrocketing energy prices and looming food shortages are two things that spring to mind. And countless billions of dollars worth of military hardware are being constantly poured into the war theatre, courtesy of the taxpayers in the USA, and its NATO allies.

Moreover, in the Ukraine, scores of Russian soldiers and also civilians in pro-Russian areas are getting killed by Ukrainian artillery and shelling, much of which is being done with western-supplied weapons.
While one could argue that Russia is the party with most blood on its hands in Ukraine (a fair assessment, I believe), there is still plenty of blood on the hands of the USA, and the Ukrainian government which it quite clearly controls.

Link to the aforementioned article in below:

https://fee.org/articles/the-story-of-t ... l-message/

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

Hello again,

I'm typing on a device, so will keep this really short.

This is just to refer you to a recent opinion piece in Sky News, which I would usually consider as pro-war, establishment media.

However, this article offers you an unemotional, largely unbiased analysis/judgement on the current situation in the war, and where it has the potential to lead to in 2023.

Link below:

https://www.skynews.com.au/insights-and ... 71a8a577df

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

Hi again,

I wish to share with you a news source which I recently came across, but was previously unaware of.

It's called www.meduza.io, and is based in Latvia. It offers news in both Russian and English. It is not a perfect news site (does such a thing even exist?), but I think it is better than corporate western media.

I would describe www.meduza.io, with regard to its coverage of the Ukraine war, as generally somewhat balanced despite its rather pro- Ukraine/pro-western perspective.

Below is a link to a recent report from the site, which is focussing on the battle over the town of Soledar, a town in the Donbass known for its salt mines:

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/01/14/after-soledar

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

Hello again friends,

I'm again on a device and will only make a quick post.

I refer to a report from News Week, which is an establishment media source and is predictably pro-Ukraine/pro-west.

Despite its biased perspective, the article (or rather, the writer) attempts to present a relatively balanced perspective on the war, particularly the current ongoing battles around the eastern city of Bakhmut.

As expressed in the article, there is a war of attrition going on. Both sides are doing it tough, and experiencing big losses.

Link below :

https://www.newsweek.com/battle-bakhmut ... ns-1774816

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

Hello Everyone,

As with my recent posts, I will write very little while referring you to a new article.

It's from debkafile, which has generally posted very little on the Ukraine war one way or the other.

In this report several topics are touched on. These include NATO armament of Ukraine, political moves of US figures and the current plight of Ukrainian troops around Bakhmut and elsewhere.

This report (in my opinion) comes across as balanced and is therefore worth a read.

Link below:

https://www.debka.com/us-signals-urge-t ... s-held-up/

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

Greetings again,

This article is a few days old, but it's very readable. It's from Sky News and is titled, 'The war in Ukraine is a lucrative cash cow for the US 'merchants of death' - history shows us why we should expect little else'.

In short, it outlines how the military-industrial complex based in Washington is swimming in profits as a direct result of the Ukraine-Russia war. In particular, the defence and energy sectors in the USA are doing particularly well through weapons and energy sales, and would obviously have no interest in the war ending any time soon.

Meanwhile, Europe, in large part a puppet of the military-industrial complex, is not doing so well at all.

While geo-politics (namely the New World Order) has been a major reason as to why NATO is supporting Ukraine, we should not underestimate good old money making as a key reason for why NATO is doing what it is doing with regard to Ukraine and Russia.

The article even touches on the role played by weapons dealers in the USA to convince its president of the time to enter World War One. Woodrow Wilson, in true politician style, had initially pledged to keep the US out of unnecessary wars, conveniently 'changing his mind' after winning re-election during the war.

Towards the end of the article there is an interesting reference to outgoing president Dwight Eisenhower, who in 1961 warned against what we now call the military-industrial complex. Interesting context is provided in the final part of the article.

Link below:

https://www.skynews.com.au/insights-and ... hare-tools

[TrueAndMagneticNorth]

And hello again,

This is my second post in a day, but there's something I wish to share with you.

Firstly, the hottest theatre of the war continues to be around the city of Bakhmut, with Russian and pro-Russian forces slowly and methodically grinding their way further around and into the city, while the NATO/Ukrainian resitance remains fierce. I may post you some stuff on this if developments permit it, and if the stuff is of at least a reasonable quality.

Today, I wish to refer you again to a piece about the propaganda war, much of which is focussed on the release of (deliberately false and misleading) casualty figures. The item I post today is from the Asia Times. It's a fresh article, titled, 'Ukraine: casualty count lies as a fog of war'. The caption under the title is, 'Both Russia and Ukraine are blatantly miscounting war dead to gain a psychological edge and maintain public support for the war'.

It's a good article. In short, Russia is downplaying its own losses, while exaggerating Ukrainian losses, i.e. lying. NATO is downplaying Ukrainian losses, while exaggerating Russian losses, i.e. lying. Ukraine is obviously doing what NATO is doing, but with even less subtlety.

The article I'm posting today will break it all down for you, with plenty of facts/figures and links for you to cross-reference the info. Moreover, this systematic (tug-of-war) lying by all sides is not only limited to the overall picture, but even to specific incidents within the broader war. Tit-for-tat lying about battlefield losses/victories and also alleged atrocities is obviously part of this propaganda war as well.

Forced conscription, which both sides have been guilty of in this war, is also touched on, as well as the overall cost for whoever might emerge 'victorious' (although, as mentioned in previous posts, NATO has had the luxury so far of using Ukrainians as cannon fodder, and thus not suffering a high cost in blood thus far).

You will read various casualty/KIA counts in this article, and I have read many others as well. Maybe you have, too. I don't claim to have any clear picture of the death toll thus far, but my latest estimations would be thus: Approximately 50,000-100,000 Ukrainian soldiers KIA... Approximately 30,000-40,000 Russian and pro-Russian forces KIA... Approximately 20,000-30,000 civilians KIA (most of these killed due to Russian actions, but a sizeable minority killed by NATO/Ukrainian actions).

As to how many have been wounded, are missing, have died due to indirect causes of the war, etc, I wouldn't even dare to have a guess.

Link to the report is below:

https://asiatimes.com/2023/02/ukraine-c ... og-of-war/