Edward Snowden

[Josh]

He is of draft age. I hope he is ready to strap on a rifle and go fight in Ukraine:

As opposed to being drafted in America?

Russia is currently conscripting men up to nearly 60 years of age and sending them to the front without training or equipment.

How many years ago and how many wars ago was the last American draft?

If America keeps doing what it’s doing, we’re going to end up with a giant military draft too.

[Falco Underhill]

He is of draft age. I hope he is ready to strap on a rifle and go fight in Ukraine:

As opposed to being drafted in America?

Russia is currently conscripting men up to nearly 60 years of age and sending them to the front without training or equipment.

The New York Times and others confirms Putin in beefing up the military with up to 1 million more soldiers via conscription. The ages of conscription I've seen so far is 18-27, so not sure what your source is concerning the ages being up to 60.

Does anyone else find it curious that after Russia had to retreat because they were surrounded by NATO forces, they are now beefing up the military?

Doesn't sound to me like Putin is backing down. He's not building up because he's losing in Ukraine. (Methinks that's Western propaganda.) He's getting ready to call NATO's bluff back. Buckle your seat-belts!

[JimFoxvog]

Do you see any issue with referring to Mr Manning by his female name?

I don't think people can change their sex, but people have been legally able to change their names for a long time.

[temporal1]

How did Bradley Manning get caught?
After serving in Iraq since October 2009, Manning was arrested in May 2010 after Adrian Lamo, a computer hacker in the United States, indirectly informed the Army's Criminal Investigation Command that Manning had acknowledged passing classified material to the whistleblower website, WikiLeaks.

i’m not sure, but, it seems the “name change” and that side-drama followed his arrest.
i hope this topic doesn’t morph into focus on the side-drama. the cabal is self-absorbed, it doesn’t rest.

[Ken]

Russia is currently conscripting men up to nearly 60 years of age and sending them to the front without training or equipment.


The New York Times and others confirms Putin in beefing up the military with up to 1 million more soldiers via conscription. The ages of conscription I've seen so far is 18-27, so not sure what your source is concerning the ages being up to 60.

Does anyone else find it curious that after Russia had to retreat because they were surrounded by NATO forces, they are now beefing up the military?

Doesn't sound to me like Putin is backing down. He's not building up because he's losing in Ukraine. (Methinks that's Western propaganda.) He's getting ready to call NATO's bluff back. Buckle your seat-belts!

There are reports all over the media of men into their 50s being conscripted at gunpoint all across Russia, especially in the poorer and more remote parts of the Russian empire. Russia has also prohibited men between the ages of 18 and 65 from traveling overseas. So in practice Russian mobilization means much more than just ages 18-27 even if that is what the decree might say on paper. Regional authorities apparently have a LOT of discretion. And older Army veterans are also subject to call up. which is actually most of the male population since so many older men did some sort of mandatory military service in the past. Here is an article about conscription ages: https://www.businessinsider.com/russian ... say-2022-9

Russia is drafting up obviously unsuitable candidates in a scramble to bulk up its army in Ukraine, according to multiple reports.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilization on Wednesday, pledging to call up 300,000 people, but only from Russia's existing pool of military reservists.

Conscripts and students would not be drafted and the new decree would affect only those with previous combat experience, Russian officials added.

However, evidence is emerging that these standards are being ignored in practice.

A 26-year-old PhD student and lecturer at a prominent Russian university told the BBC this week that two men turned up at his house to draft him, despite his student status.

The student, identified only as Sergei, told the BBC he was confused by the call-up because he has no military experience.

A 63-year-old man from the Volgograd region was also drafted as part of the mobilization, the independent Russian news site The Insider reported. (The outlet has no relation to Insider.)

The man, identified only as Yermolaev, has second-degree diabetes and a brain condition known as cerebral ischemia, The Insider reported. Yermolaev had previously served in the army is retired.

. . .

"People say a lot of men are being taken away, regardless of the criteria. There are 400 people in our village, and they took 20 men," the man, who was not named, told The Insider.

A video shared on social media showed one such recruitment drive in an unnamed location in Russia. In it, a recruiting officer yells at a room full of men that they now belong to the military, and will be sent to fight after only two weeks of training.

etc....

As for being surrounded by NATO? I'm not sure what war you are watching. Ukraine is not a part of NATO. They may be using NATO-supplied weapons, but they aren't NATO troops. In point of fact, the only places where Russia actually has a border with NATO is the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia, and now more recently Finland and Sweden. Russia is actually pulling troops and equipment away from its NATO borders to the north with those countries and sending it south to fight against a non-NATO foe. So this isn't actually about NATO. It is the opposite. If Ukraine was actually a part of NATO this war would never have happened. NATO is a defensive alliance. It doesn't invade its non-NATO neighbors.

In any event, reports are that Russia is sending conscripts to the front with little or no actual training. That is not a winning recipe. That is Battle of Stalingrad or Battle of the Somme stuff. At Stalingrad the USSR lost 1.1 million men over the course of a 5-month battle. And the only reason they won is because Germany had hugely over-extended supply lines and the USSR managed to encircle the German 6th Army. The situation is the opposite in Ukraine where it is the Russians who have the longer supply lines. This is not an infantry war, it is a highly mechanized combined arms war with drones, electronic warfare, and missiles. What are untrained conscripts going to do? Stand in a trench and get run over by Ukrainian armor or shelled by Ukrainian artillery?

[ohio jones]

In point of fact, the only places where Russia actually has a border with NATO is the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia, and now more recently Finland and Sweden.

Sweden does not border Russia.

[Falco Underhill]

As for being surrounded by NATO? I'm not sure what war you are watching. Ukraine is not a part of NATO. They may be using NATO-supplied weapons, but they aren't NATO troops.

Whether or not you believe it, the point is Russia believes those troops were trained and led by NATO using high tech weapons that were operated by US and UK military. Thus, in Russia's eyes, NATO has effectively declared war on Russia even if not on officially on paper.

Of course the US will deny this.

Russia is convinced otherwise, however, and is very possibly preparing for war with NATO.

[Ken]

In point of fact, the only places where Russia actually has a border with NATO is the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia, and now more recently Finland and Sweden.

Sweden does not border Russia.

No land borders. But warships transiting in and out of Russian harbors like St. Petersburg have to transit Swedish waters or take a very narrow path to avoid it. So by joining NATO, Sweden has the effect encircling the Russian Navy and there are lots of increased potential for maritime boundary conflicts between Sweden/NATO and Russia now that Sweden as joined NATO.

Sweden joining NATO basically turns the Baltic into a NATO lake encircling Russian ports.

[Ken]

Fresh conscripts reporting for duty in occupied Crimea and getting blessed by the Orthodox priest before getting sent to the front lines. How many look like they are between 18 and 27?

[Josh]

My advice for Western European powers is to refrain from getting into a land war with Russia in winter, but what do I know? Listen to the experts in strategic planning like Napoleon and Hitler instead.