Last night I viewed and listened to an interview, Glenn Diesen talking to MK Bhadrakumar former Indian Ambassador. They both are well known to have a distinct point of view on Russia/Ukraine. I felt by the end I was listening to two very shaken highly informed highly intelligent men. By the end I also was very shaken, having learned stuff I had not known.
One of the main objectives of dropping so many bombs was to pay industry for a lot of bombs, to build up the MIC. There are other channels of financial support for the MIC now.
The MIC is the enforcement arm of global (western) financial capitalism, the continuation of the British Empire.
The "square mile" of London, which commands the UK, is badly over-leveraged on losing bets in Ukraine, and needs the war to continue, in the hopes of draining Russia, for a planned NATO war against Russia, in the interests of BlackRock et al.
Trump is a nationalist, in opposition to globalists, as are Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban, and Robert Fico. The new Polish president is of that nationalist group, also. It would be good for Poland to avoid manipulation to London's ends this time around...
If the weapons systems described in this recent article in "The Hill" (https://thehill.com/opinion/5313034-china-off-switch-america-threat/) are anywhere close to accurate, China can send the US back to third world status whenever it chooses to. Without firing a shot. China's technological know-how surely dwarfs Ukraine's, and look what Ukraine was able to accomplish against Russia's bomber forces. And yet Trump wants to add to the big weapons system in the US with a first-ever "defense" budget of over a trillion dollars. Easter Island syndrome, indeed!
6: With EROEI of 6:1 since 2020, down from 12:1 in 2003, even the Americans are thinking twice about the materials cost of going to major war.
We are seeing a classic economist's case of substitution. Drones are being used more and more instead of missiles and laser guided bombs because they are cheaper in resources and energy - the individual payload of a single drone is tiny, not always sufficient to destroy a strategic bomber or tank. Whereas previously one 2000lb Paveway laser or TV guided bomb could oblitarate multiple bombers parked alongside each other. But, with declining EROEI worldwide, militaries have to adapt. To undertake that drone mission that used 3 lorries and c117 drones, a NATO style air force would have had to use a similar number of aircraft: 36 bombers carrying 144 cruise missiles, 36 fighters as escort each 6 air-air missiles, 12 SEAD fighter-bombers with 48 HARM/ALARM anti-radar missiles; 4 ECM jammer planes, 2 AWACS, and ~36 air-air refuelling tankers. And so on. And they'd probably have to do it 3 nights in a row for certainty.
We see in the daily Russian strikes - many tens of drones with a few missiles mixed in - most of the drones are shot down, a few get through causing less than 10 casualties altold. Then there is a couple of months with few or no missiles, then we see a flurry of them again. They must be using batches of them as they build batches of them.
This is not replicating Dresden or Tokyo 1000 bomber raids which kill tens of thousands overnight.
Another reason we don't see "shock and awe" anymore is because, just like strategic bombing of cities in WW2, it didn't actually work. Nobody in Iraq and Libya was overawed by "shock and awe", (other than the western media pundits) they just hid better, knowing bombers cannot occupy ground, for which you need large numbers of soft white bellies. Basically shock & awe was a pseudonem for doing war on the cheap.
In WW2 the US used 61 divisions to fight Germany in Europe. In Vietnam they attempted a bigger land mass with just 12 divisions. In Iraq and Afghanistan they attempted a similar or larger land mass with a mere 3 divisions. Work out the ratio of divisions to square miles/km of land you are attempting to conquer. Bare in mind too that since WW2 the world's population has quadrupled, so there is four times as much controlling to do if you occupy a nation.
The fact that America wouldn't dare to mobilise 60 divisions to take proper control of Vientnam, Iraq or Libya or Syria or Afghanistan or Yemen just shows the decline of empire, parallel with the decline in EROEI.
Drones, modern guided missiles and intelligence imaging are so very accurate and specific now that massive destruction is not necessary to assure target-destruction.
Footnote first... I think I mentioned this here before, I am aware my surname is the same as the abominable orchestrator (no relation however). Worth noting though how popular 'the atrocity of revenge' can become in otherwise ordinary citizens. It was noticeable in my country. Perhaps the most popular example was the Queen Mother, grandmother to the present King. The present population of Israel looks to be a contemporary version. Your assumptions about propaganda and manipulation gain ground!
There was a good article released by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists yesterday on the new drone era. The 'smart' leverage by Ukraine of existing essential infrastructure seems worth taking into account. I perhaps can add to your list of conjectures re-the West's abrupt drawing back from 'shock & awe'. Projection of 'air superiority' mostly by maritime means has been seriously constrained by development of accurate hypersonic missiles capable of delivering a meteor strike within minutes of launch. Brief pause for thought all round?
I wonder if bombing of civilians was first put to the test by the allies. I seem to remember Guernica (bombed by the Germans and Italians, who must have been aware of Douhets work), then Warsaw and Rotterdam, the last a pure terrorist and unnecessary attack. The Germans did it again in Coventry and - less successfully - London. While the allied bombing of Germany was less effective than hoped for, according to contemporary sources it still damaged factories, railways, schedules and logistics, e.g. impairing production of aircraft.
As for the successes of the Ukrainian drones I remember Napoleons saying to his adjudant Caulincourt during the retreat from Moscow: "Les Russes, je les bats toujours mais cela ne change rien" ("The Russians, I always beat them but this changes nothing"). Thats what the Germans found out too.
There was a full review of Trump's position including his 1st term and factions within the US. There was a focus on the Russian response. There was discussion of the relevance or irrelevance of India & China and similarly European NATO and Clause 5 and of other theatres of confrontation. Reference was made towards the end to the 'signal' of the drone attack on an arm of the Russian nuclear deterrent. The latter is visible under the terms of START treaties. The strategic policy of securing regime change/subordination and division of the Russian Federation, appears to have been confirmed. No retreat for Russia to a new 'redline'?
I admire the term "Easter Island Syndrome". I think it is even still intelligible to those who never read History , because they saw a TV show about the statues once and everyone except politicians is aware of the consequences of doubling down on a losing plan.
Drones are another genie that's not going back in the bottle. I will bet on bans on civilian drones coming soon. Because the powers that be can visualize a flock of them coming into their well secured mansions...
Remember the "hunter-seekers" assassin's weapon in the novel "Dune" ? A tiny drone equipped with a thermal camera and a poison payload. Coming soon, if battery tech keeps up.
Last night I viewed and listened to an interview, Glenn Diesen talking to MK Bhadrakumar former Indian Ambassador. They both are well known to have a distinct point of view on Russia/Ukraine. I felt by the end I was listening to two very shaken highly informed highly intelligent men. By the end I also was very shaken, having learned stuff I had not known.
Wat did they say?
One of the main objectives of dropping so many bombs was to pay industry for a lot of bombs, to build up the MIC. There are other channels of financial support for the MIC now.
The MIC is the enforcement arm of global (western) financial capitalism, the continuation of the British Empire.
The "square mile" of London, which commands the UK, is badly over-leveraged on losing bets in Ukraine, and needs the war to continue, in the hopes of draining Russia, for a planned NATO war against Russia, in the interests of BlackRock et al.
Trump is a nationalist, in opposition to globalists, as are Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban, and Robert Fico. The new Polish president is of that nationalist group, also. It would be good for Poland to avoid manipulation to London's ends this time around...
Gilbert Doctorow discusses that with Judge Napolitano in this transcript: https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2025/06/05/transcript-of-judging-freedom-5-june-edition/
Simplicius also has an update: https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-6525-another-pr-stunt-dies
The globalist financial empire is increasingly desperate. Finance is how the wealth of nations is drained these days.
Secure your own needs; this may last a long time, still, and get much worse for those of us who have been spared so far.
If the weapons systems described in this recent article in "The Hill" (https://thehill.com/opinion/5313034-china-off-switch-america-threat/) are anywhere close to accurate, China can send the US back to third world status whenever it chooses to. Without firing a shot. China's technological know-how surely dwarfs Ukraine's, and look what Ukraine was able to accomplish against Russia's bomber forces. And yet Trump wants to add to the big weapons system in the US with a first-ever "defense" budget of over a trillion dollars. Easter Island syndrome, indeed!
6: With EROEI of 6:1 since 2020, down from 12:1 in 2003, even the Americans are thinking twice about the materials cost of going to major war.
We are seeing a classic economist's case of substitution. Drones are being used more and more instead of missiles and laser guided bombs because they are cheaper in resources and energy - the individual payload of a single drone is tiny, not always sufficient to destroy a strategic bomber or tank. Whereas previously one 2000lb Paveway laser or TV guided bomb could oblitarate multiple bombers parked alongside each other. But, with declining EROEI worldwide, militaries have to adapt. To undertake that drone mission that used 3 lorries and c117 drones, a NATO style air force would have had to use a similar number of aircraft: 36 bombers carrying 144 cruise missiles, 36 fighters as escort each 6 air-air missiles, 12 SEAD fighter-bombers with 48 HARM/ALARM anti-radar missiles; 4 ECM jammer planes, 2 AWACS, and ~36 air-air refuelling tankers. And so on. And they'd probably have to do it 3 nights in a row for certainty.
We see in the daily Russian strikes - many tens of drones with a few missiles mixed in - most of the drones are shot down, a few get through causing less than 10 casualties altold. Then there is a couple of months with few or no missiles, then we see a flurry of them again. They must be using batches of them as they build batches of them.
This is not replicating Dresden or Tokyo 1000 bomber raids which kill tens of thousands overnight.
Another reason we don't see "shock and awe" anymore is because, just like strategic bombing of cities in WW2, it didn't actually work. Nobody in Iraq and Libya was overawed by "shock and awe", (other than the western media pundits) they just hid better, knowing bombers cannot occupy ground, for which you need large numbers of soft white bellies. Basically shock & awe was a pseudonem for doing war on the cheap.
In WW2 the US used 61 divisions to fight Germany in Europe. In Vietnam they attempted a bigger land mass with just 12 divisions. In Iraq and Afghanistan they attempted a similar or larger land mass with a mere 3 divisions. Work out the ratio of divisions to square miles/km of land you are attempting to conquer. Bare in mind too that since WW2 the world's population has quadrupled, so there is four times as much controlling to do if you occupy a nation.
The fact that America wouldn't dare to mobilise 60 divisions to take proper control of Vientnam, Iraq or Libya or Syria or Afghanistan or Yemen just shows the decline of empire, parallel with the decline in EROEI.
Drones, modern guided missiles and intelligence imaging are so very accurate and specific now that massive destruction is not necessary to assure target-destruction.
Footnote first... I think I mentioned this here before, I am aware my surname is the same as the abominable orchestrator (no relation however). Worth noting though how popular 'the atrocity of revenge' can become in otherwise ordinary citizens. It was noticeable in my country. Perhaps the most popular example was the Queen Mother, grandmother to the present King. The present population of Israel looks to be a contemporary version. Your assumptions about propaganda and manipulation gain ground!
There was a good article released by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists yesterday on the new drone era. The 'smart' leverage by Ukraine of existing essential infrastructure seems worth taking into account. I perhaps can add to your list of conjectures re-the West's abrupt drawing back from 'shock & awe'. Projection of 'air superiority' mostly by maritime means has been seriously constrained by development of accurate hypersonic missiles capable of delivering a meteor strike within minutes of launch. Brief pause for thought all round?
I wonder if bombing of civilians was first put to the test by the allies. I seem to remember Guernica (bombed by the Germans and Italians, who must have been aware of Douhets work), then Warsaw and Rotterdam, the last a pure terrorist and unnecessary attack. The Germans did it again in Coventry and - less successfully - London. While the allied bombing of Germany was less effective than hoped for, according to contemporary sources it still damaged factories, railways, schedules and logistics, e.g. impairing production of aircraft.
As for the successes of the Ukrainian drones I remember Napoleons saying to his adjudant Caulincourt during the retreat from Moscow: "Les Russes, je les bats toujours mais cela ne change rien" ("The Russians, I always beat them but this changes nothing"). Thats what the Germans found out too.
I would value your thought. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkJzpmz0OQ
There was a full review of Trump's position including his 1st term and factions within the US. There was a focus on the Russian response. There was discussion of the relevance or irrelevance of India & China and similarly European NATO and Clause 5 and of other theatres of confrontation. Reference was made towards the end to the 'signal' of the drone attack on an arm of the Russian nuclear deterrent. The latter is visible under the terms of START treaties. The strategic policy of securing regime change/subordination and division of the Russian Federation, appears to have been confirmed. No retreat for Russia to a new 'redline'?
I admire the term "Easter Island Syndrome". I think it is even still intelligible to those who never read History , because they saw a TV show about the statues once and everyone except politicians is aware of the consequences of doubling down on a losing plan.
Drones are another genie that's not going back in the bottle. I will bet on bans on civilian drones coming soon. Because the powers that be can visualize a flock of them coming into their well secured mansions...
Remember the "hunter-seekers" assassin's weapon in the novel "Dune" ? A tiny drone equipped with a thermal camera and a poison payload. Coming soon, if battery tech keeps up.