Re: The situation in Syria
Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2022 6:31 am
Hello Friends,
I wish to post about the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, and I may stay on this topic for quite a while. As stated in my previous post, I fully supported the Russian intervention in the Syrian Civil War (to stop ISIS, al-queda, etc) but I simply DO NOT support this invasion of the Ukraine.
That said, it’s hard not to be moved by what is happening, and hard not to be interested in developments as they take place. One might also wonder whether there is any special relevance in relation to end times Bible prophecy. I have my suspicions, based on Bible prophecy, that Russia may well be a great power in the end times, and (along with China, and others) it may well be part of the 200-million-man army (spoken of in Revelation 9: 16-18) which will march against the European armies of the anti-Christ, and possibly clash somewhere around the Middle-East. But I don’t know for sure, and I have no doubt that some of you reading this know more about Bible prophecy than myself.
Given that I did not believe that this invasion would actually happen at all, I am not really in a credible position to tell you how I think it will pan out. But I can certainly give you my impressions on the current state of play. Here goes:
- The endgame of Putin is hard to read. He may only want to get to the Dnieper River (which essentially cuts Ukraine in two, from top to bottom). This would allow him to take Kiev, and take control of only the eastern section of Ukraine, which has far more pro-Russian people in it than the bigger section on the other side of the river. After the heavy fighting is done, holding onto this part of the country would be far more manageable than trying to conquer the entire country.
- In my honest opinion, a lot of the widespread, mentally ill hysteria surrounding Covid-19 has been diverted into war fervour, and anti-Russian hatred. While it is perfectly justifiable to be against this war, the reactions across the world, particularly in the west, have been hysterical, and open xenophobia against ethnic Russians has quickly become ‘morally acceptable’ to many in society. Russia has been blocked off from the world in a large number of ways, from banning them, cancelling them out, vilifying them, persecuting them, etc, in any way possible. Moreover, knowing what I now know about human nature, this has not been done out of compassion, but out of mentally ill hysteria driven by the government/media complex. Also, many of those now openly racist against Russians are the same types of people who claim to ‘hate racism’. But God can see through all of us, and will not be fooled by hypocrisy in anyone. As Christians, we have to keep our heads, and be driven by God, not by the mob-based mentally which is prevalent here on earth.
- It is very, very hard to get accurate info on the war. Russian media, which would no doubt be putting out pro-Russian propaganda, has largely been banned in the west. Meanwhile, western media, which is pumping out non-stop pro-Ukraine propaganda, is virtually unchallenged. You might ask yourself, ‘What is wrong with being pro-Ukraine?’ This is a fair question. The problem is not being ‘pro-Ukraine’ per se. The problem is the colossal amount of lies being put out by western media to further the narrative. Remember, this is not about compassion at all. It is about control, power, and victory (both for the Russians, and the west, with Ukraine caught in the middle)
- Western media have put out the narrative that Ukrainian forces are absolutely kicking butt, Russia is getting nowhere, west is best, etc. Both sides are playing down the casualty figures of their own side, while exaggerating the casualties of the other side. The fog of war is so thick at the moment, but my best estimation of the situation is thus: the Ukrainians have fought hard and inflicted losses on the Russians, but the Russians have still taken a lot of ground, albeit not yet the major population centres. Plan A for Putin was apparently to minimise destruction, allow capitulation, and take over. But if that doesn’t work, he will go to Plan B, which is essentially scorched earth. Thus, the question must be asked: is bravely fighting against the Russian invasion actually the smartest thing to do, or would a quick capitulation save a lot of death and destruction? I’m just asking the question. After all, I am currently in the safety of my residence, where everything is still peaceful, and I don’t want to be one of those people who cheers on as others spill their blood in another country, while I sit in safety.
- Based on everything I have read, my estimation of casualties, through the very thick fog of war, would be the following: Approximately 1,000-3,000 dead Russian soldiers up to this point, and a similar number of dead Ukrainian soldiers. In addition, also based on all of the estimates I have read, and then estimating how much I think the figures are exaggerated for propaganda purposes, I guess that about 500-2,000 Ukrainian civilians have died. Moreover, the numbers of killed combatants and civilians will possibly climb even faster as Putin slowly transitions from Plan A to Plan B.
- History has shown us that the Russian military can become rather brutal in pursuit of victory (then again, there’s no such thing as a non-brutal fighting force, but I think you know what I mean). The brutality of Hitler’s armies was certainly matched by Stalin’s Red Army in World War Two, for example. And the brutality of the Islamist Chechen Rebels (in both Chechen wars) was also matched by the brutality of the Russian forces. In both of those conflicts, the Russians ultimately prevailed with scorched earth tactics and I fear that the Ukrainians could be next.
I don’t think that any compassionate person wanted any of this. It would have been much better if Ukraine was left alone, that its sovereignty would be respected by both the western nations, and Russia. But neither side was ever going to respect the sovereignty of Ukraine. Both sides would have been willing to commit all kinds of war crimes to get control of Ukraine (indeed, both sides have been committing war crimes there since 2014 or so, in the ongoing civil war that preceded the Russian invasion).
But now, Russia had made its move, and has, in my opinion, ‘Out-wested the west’, if you know what I mean. And this is a very dubious honour.
Lastly, it’s very hard to find unemotional, fact-based reporting on Ukraine. So few are interested in telling the truth. But I find that good information on this war can be found from debkafile, and I link you to the site, where you can check out the dispatched for yourself. Link below:
https://www.debka.com
I wish to post about the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, and I may stay on this topic for quite a while. As stated in my previous post, I fully supported the Russian intervention in the Syrian Civil War (to stop ISIS, al-queda, etc) but I simply DO NOT support this invasion of the Ukraine.
That said, it’s hard not to be moved by what is happening, and hard not to be interested in developments as they take place. One might also wonder whether there is any special relevance in relation to end times Bible prophecy. I have my suspicions, based on Bible prophecy, that Russia may well be a great power in the end times, and (along with China, and others) it may well be part of the 200-million-man army (spoken of in Revelation 9: 16-18) which will march against the European armies of the anti-Christ, and possibly clash somewhere around the Middle-East. But I don’t know for sure, and I have no doubt that some of you reading this know more about Bible prophecy than myself.
Given that I did not believe that this invasion would actually happen at all, I am not really in a credible position to tell you how I think it will pan out. But I can certainly give you my impressions on the current state of play. Here goes:
- The endgame of Putin is hard to read. He may only want to get to the Dnieper River (which essentially cuts Ukraine in two, from top to bottom). This would allow him to take Kiev, and take control of only the eastern section of Ukraine, which has far more pro-Russian people in it than the bigger section on the other side of the river. After the heavy fighting is done, holding onto this part of the country would be far more manageable than trying to conquer the entire country.
- In my honest opinion, a lot of the widespread, mentally ill hysteria surrounding Covid-19 has been diverted into war fervour, and anti-Russian hatred. While it is perfectly justifiable to be against this war, the reactions across the world, particularly in the west, have been hysterical, and open xenophobia against ethnic Russians has quickly become ‘morally acceptable’ to many in society. Russia has been blocked off from the world in a large number of ways, from banning them, cancelling them out, vilifying them, persecuting them, etc, in any way possible. Moreover, knowing what I now know about human nature, this has not been done out of compassion, but out of mentally ill hysteria driven by the government/media complex. Also, many of those now openly racist against Russians are the same types of people who claim to ‘hate racism’. But God can see through all of us, and will not be fooled by hypocrisy in anyone. As Christians, we have to keep our heads, and be driven by God, not by the mob-based mentally which is prevalent here on earth.
- It is very, very hard to get accurate info on the war. Russian media, which would no doubt be putting out pro-Russian propaganda, has largely been banned in the west. Meanwhile, western media, which is pumping out non-stop pro-Ukraine propaganda, is virtually unchallenged. You might ask yourself, ‘What is wrong with being pro-Ukraine?’ This is a fair question. The problem is not being ‘pro-Ukraine’ per se. The problem is the colossal amount of lies being put out by western media to further the narrative. Remember, this is not about compassion at all. It is about control, power, and victory (both for the Russians, and the west, with Ukraine caught in the middle)
- Western media have put out the narrative that Ukrainian forces are absolutely kicking butt, Russia is getting nowhere, west is best, etc. Both sides are playing down the casualty figures of their own side, while exaggerating the casualties of the other side. The fog of war is so thick at the moment, but my best estimation of the situation is thus: the Ukrainians have fought hard and inflicted losses on the Russians, but the Russians have still taken a lot of ground, albeit not yet the major population centres. Plan A for Putin was apparently to minimise destruction, allow capitulation, and take over. But if that doesn’t work, he will go to Plan B, which is essentially scorched earth. Thus, the question must be asked: is bravely fighting against the Russian invasion actually the smartest thing to do, or would a quick capitulation save a lot of death and destruction? I’m just asking the question. After all, I am currently in the safety of my residence, where everything is still peaceful, and I don’t want to be one of those people who cheers on as others spill their blood in another country, while I sit in safety.
- Based on everything I have read, my estimation of casualties, through the very thick fog of war, would be the following: Approximately 1,000-3,000 dead Russian soldiers up to this point, and a similar number of dead Ukrainian soldiers. In addition, also based on all of the estimates I have read, and then estimating how much I think the figures are exaggerated for propaganda purposes, I guess that about 500-2,000 Ukrainian civilians have died. Moreover, the numbers of killed combatants and civilians will possibly climb even faster as Putin slowly transitions from Plan A to Plan B.
- History has shown us that the Russian military can become rather brutal in pursuit of victory (then again, there’s no such thing as a non-brutal fighting force, but I think you know what I mean). The brutality of Hitler’s armies was certainly matched by Stalin’s Red Army in World War Two, for example. And the brutality of the Islamist Chechen Rebels (in both Chechen wars) was also matched by the brutality of the Russian forces. In both of those conflicts, the Russians ultimately prevailed with scorched earth tactics and I fear that the Ukrainians could be next.
I don’t think that any compassionate person wanted any of this. It would have been much better if Ukraine was left alone, that its sovereignty would be respected by both the western nations, and Russia. But neither side was ever going to respect the sovereignty of Ukraine. Both sides would have been willing to commit all kinds of war crimes to get control of Ukraine (indeed, both sides have been committing war crimes there since 2014 or so, in the ongoing civil war that preceded the Russian invasion).
But now, Russia had made its move, and has, in my opinion, ‘Out-wested the west’, if you know what I mean. And this is a very dubious honour.
Lastly, it’s very hard to find unemotional, fact-based reporting on Ukraine. So few are interested in telling the truth. But I find that good information on this war can be found from debkafile, and I link you to the site, where you can check out the dispatched for yourself. Link below:
https://www.debka.com