Tag Archives: Ukraine war

science news

Why not respond in kind?

My perch in the cheap seats as I watch the Ukraine War play out way over there gives me a chance to wonder about something: If we are so fearful of Russian cyberattacks, why don’t we threaten to unleash our own cyber weapons against them?

The U.S.-Russia cold war might be taking a new form to replace the one that formerly featured nuclear weapons pointed at each other back in the days of the Evil Empire, when Russia was called The Soviet Union.

I don’t want my retirement account to be sucked dry by some cyber spook hunkered in some Moscow bunker. However, we live in the world’s most technically sophisticated nation. We have uber-geeks prepared to do all kinds of harm if given the lawful order from on high to do so.

It seems we are capable of crafting a cyber policy that we could make public — without revealing, of course, the tactical aspects of what we intend to do. Tell the Russians what kind of damage we can do to their cyber system and then — as we did during the other Cold War — dare them to launch an attack on us.

It would be a form of Mutually Assured Destruction 2.0.

It therefore would be equally MAD for the Russians to perform any funny stuff if we are ready to respond in kind.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news, military news

Impossible to endorse these actions

My ability to comprehend the depravity being brought to Ukrainians is being taxed to the max. Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin invaded a sovereign nation intent on occupying its capital city within three days.

His supposedly vaunted Russian military machine has failed in its mission. That has not stopped Putin from violating what appears to be every standard of decency established by the Geneva Convention in his effort to subdue Ukraine.

He has bombed and shelled hospitals, schools, churches, apartment buildings and has killed thousands of civilians. The scenes of destruction brought against Ukraine belie another truth about this war, which is that Ukraine is putting up one hell of a fight to fend off the invaders. Hence, the failed mission to march into Kyiv.

What happens next is anyone’s guess. The two sides supposedly are “negotiating” a possible end to the hostilities and yet the Russians also are reportedly gathering in eastern Ukraine and preparing for another all-out assault.

What remains arguably the most confusing element in all of this is how Putin can function day to day realizing that virtually the entire planet is aligned against him. The destruction and the visual images of the casualties his troops have left behind have turned this man into an international pariah.

There can be no coming back from the depths to which this individual has taken his nation.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Politics turned on its ear

Our crazy, nutty political world has become a topsy-turvy mix that bears little resemblance to the world many of us once knew.

There once was a time when Democrats were seen as being “soft” on Russia, which once was known as the Soviet Union, an empire cobbled together by the communists who took over the Russian government after World War I. Republicans became known as the anti-communist party. The nation was divided along a line that defined the two major political parties over their relative antipathy toward Russia/Soviet Union.

Do you remember when Ronald W. Reagan defined the Soviets as the Evil Empire?

Reagan is gone. So is the Soviet Union. Russia emerged from the rubble of the Cold War. These days Russia is governed by a tyrant — Vladimir Putin — who two months ago decided to invade Ukraine, one of the former Soviet republics that has functioned nicely as a sovereign state since USSR collapsed in 1991.

Who among the American political movement is now lined up (more or less) in Russia’s camp? It’s those Republican descendants of Ronald Reagan, but whose allegiance now rests with the Russian tyrant’s pal who once served as president of the United States.

We hear Democrats, for crying out loud, now speaking of Russia with language that Republicans used to speak when condemning the Russians. We hear occasional rants from right-wingers — the former commie haters — wondering about why Americans are all worked up over what the Russians have done.

We also hear from the occasional Republican politician uttering outrageous statements about who’s to blame for the atrocities we see revealed as Russians retreat from captured territory.

I’m confused beyond my ability to comprehend matters over the flip-flop we are witnessing. Someone will have to explain it to me.

But … wait! I think I know. It’s that former POTUS, Putin’s pal, who continues to call the tune to which Republican pols and their media pals are marching.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

What do we call this war?

The Russian invasion of Ukraine devolved immediately into a full-scale war between two sovereign nations, which begs a question that rattles around in my occasionally empty skull: What do we call this conflict?

I am henceforth going to refer to it as the Ukraine War.

I don’t want to give the Russians, led by strongman/tyrant/despot Vladimir Putin any more recognition than they deserve. We know who the “other principal” is in this conflict. It’s the Russians.

The Ukraine War seeks to remind the entire world of the heroes who populate the Ukrainian armed forces and the Ukrainian civilian population, many of whom have volunteered to fight the Russians.

I realize fully that a chump blogger can’t control how history is going to categorize this war. I just intend to satisfy my own interest in this horrifying conflict by attaching a title to it.

Thus, we have the Ukraine War.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Biden says it clearly: Putin committed war crimes

President Biden has said it clearly and without equivocation: The world has seen with its eyes the depravity and destruction that Russian armed forces have brought to Ukraine, that they have committed crimes against humanity and that the man who rules Russia, Vladimir Putin, needs to be held accountable for those atrocities.

Russian forces have withdrawn from many areas, repositioning in the eastern parts of Ukraine. They have left behind unmistakable evidence of executions committed by those soldiers against civilians. Ukrainian forces have uncovered mass graves containing the bodies of victims shot to death with single bullets in the back of their heads.

Putin’s forces did that. The man who commands them, therefore, must be held to account for what those forces have done.

The withdrawal of Russians also has revealed the immense destruction brought to Ukraine by the bombs, artillery shells and rockets sent against civilian targets. We look at those pictures and are aghast at the devastation of entire blocks of buildings. Apartment complexes are blown to bits. So are hospitals, schools and houses of worship, for God’s sake!

Those who have a hint of an understanding of how the Russian military is set up should have no illusion of the independence of the field commanders. They don’t have it. They act on orders from the top of the chain of command.

The man at the top? Vladimir Putin.

He has committed war crimes.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Putin is a war criminal!

Vladimir Putin is a war criminal who needs to be arrested, shackled and sent to jail where he would await trial before an international court that will decide whether he has committed crimes against humanity.

The Russian tyrant has ordered bombs, artillery shells and rockets to destroy hospitals in Ukraine. His orders have resulted in the deaths of children, expectant mothers and countless other civilians. Putin has committed “the original war crime” specified by the Geneva Convention of 1864, according to “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley.

Can there be any more reason, therefore, to arrest Vladimir Putin and charge him with the most heinous crime imaginable? I think not!

Ukrainian fighting forces have beaten back the Russian invaders, forcing them to abandon their strategic goal of capturing Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine. The Russians are retreating at this moment toward the east, possibly to reassemble and seek other targets to attack.

Putin’s attack on Ukraine was thought when it began to focus on military targets. Wow! Many of us were dead wrong about that assumption. The videos we see of the carnage throughout Ukraine are shocking and horrifying in the extreme.

The outrage around the world is mounting as these images make their way into people’s homes.

***

That said, allow me this brief segue toward the thoughts expressed by the current U.S. president and his predecessors. Five living former presidents have been watching these crimes unfold along with the rest of the world. Four of them have condemned Putin’s actions with passion and righteous anger. The most recent former president — you know to whom I refer — has talked of Putin’s “genius” and how “savvy” he was to attack Ukraine; moreover, he has asked Putin to dig up dirt on President Biden in the midst of this bloody war.

Vladimir Putin is a war criminal. He must be held accountable for his unspeakable cruelty.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, International news, military news

Putin: war criminal?

This would be an incredibly difficult case to prove in an international court of law, but there could be evidence mounting that Russian thug/tyrant/despot Vladimir Putin has committed war crimes in his so-far-unsuccessful effort to subjugate Ukraine under the alleged might of his armed forces.

Russian troops are withdrawing from previously held territory in Ukraine and are leaving behind mass graves with the corpses of hundreds of civilians killed shot to death with single bullets in the back of their heads. They appear to have been executed by the Russian invaders.

Then comes the question: Were they acting on orders from the Kremlin?

Accordingly, I suppose one could ask whether there could be rogue commanders in the field acting on their own. Whatever the case, it all — or most of it, at least — falls on the lap of the former KGB spy master who now runs Russia as its commander in chief.

The despicable level of violence is being revealed now as Russian forces pull back from Kyiv and other key Ukrainian cities. Whether they merely are repositioning themselves for a new round of attacks remains to be determined. Whatever the intent, it is clear the Ukrainians are waging one hell of a fight against a force believed at the beginning of this conflict to be so powerful that it would steamroll its way into Kyiv.

They ain’t steamrolling anything.

The Russians, though, appear to have engaged in egregious crimes against humanity. Someone at the top of the Russian chain of command needs to be held accountable.

Let’s see. I believe that would be Vladimir Putin.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news, military news

Cakewalk becomes struggle

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Russia’s expected breezy stroll into Kyiv — Ukraine’s capital city — has run into something, well, that looks more like a mortal struggle, a fight to the death.

The fight has taken its toll on Russians as well as Ukrainians, so much so that media are now reporting a possible draft peace treaty might be in the works as Ukraine struggles to fend off the invaders from Russia.

It is impossible to predict whether this so-called “draft treaty” will end up with signatures from the warring sides and that the fighting will cease. Or that there ever will be any semblance of stability in a region dominated by the thug who runs the Russian government, Vladimir Putin.

My cheap-seat perch in North Texas only allows me to speculate that (a) the Russians are not dedicated to the mission they were sent to complete, (b) the Kremlin misjudged Ukraine’s resolve to defend itself, (c) the Russians’ command and control is a collection of incompetent boobs who cannot find their rear ends with both hands.

It is a strange feeling that overwhelms me as I actually find myself rooting for the Ukrainians to defeat the Russians on the battlefield. I realize fully that the Russians aren’t likely to wave a white flag of surrender and then allow Ukraine to declare victory on the field of battle. The war won’t end that way.

It well might end the way the media are reporting, that both sides might be able to negotiate a settlement. Ukraine might be persuaded to declare its neutrality vis a vis Russia and the Russians might be persuaded to end its assault on helpless civilians in an effort to subdue Ukraine.

My prayers are flowing. They are continuous. I want the Russians to continue to struggle for as long as this conflict drags on and, yes, I will continue to root for Ukraine.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Trump has gone bonkers!

Donald J. Trump is out of his godforsaken mind! He is certifiably crazy as a loon, nuttier than a Snickers bar.

While his buddy Vladimir Putin is in the middle of trying to conquer a sovereign nation, Ukraine, Trump has decided he wants Vlad to dig up dirt on President Biden and his son, Hunter. Yes, while Putin is counting the number of dead and wounded Russian soldiers coming home from the battlefield, The Donald believes Putin can take time away from the ass-kicking his forces are getting to find something on which to hang the president, the guy who defeated him in the 2020 election.

I don’t quite know how to react to this revelation, other than to scream (if that’s the correct verb, given that I am writing these words from my keyboard at home) about what a moron the ex-POTUS is showing himself to be.

I just came home from the grocery store, where I noticed a customer wearing a “Trump 2024” shirt. When I see that sort of apparel on folks I have to resist the notion to ask them: Do you really want this guy back in the White House, the same idiot who blathered recently about painting U.S. jets with China’s insignia so the Russians can say “China did it” after our jets bomb the (expletive) out of Russian targets?

Yes. He does … I guess. Which tells me a whole lot about the ignoramuses who continue to show support for an ex-POTUS who well could be indicted for criminal activity.

They’re as nuts as The Donald!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news

SPR stands by as a weapon

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve came into being at a time when the United States was being held hostage to the whims of oil-producing nations that sought to deprive this country of the fossil fuels it needs to function as the world’s most advanced nation.

We dug huge caverns and filled them with petroleum to hold in case we faced existential threats.

Well, we are facing them now with Russia going to war with Ukraine and with the price of energy skyrocketing to levels never before seen. President Biden has announced a plan to release 1 million barrels of oil each day into the marketplace for the next six months to help Americans fight the rising cost of energy.

I believe the time is right for such a move, even though in the past I have been skeptical of plans to use the SPR as an inflation-fighting weapon.

Those of us depend on fossil fuels to power our vehicles are feeling an incredible squeeze on household budgets. Will the SPR release make a huge difference? Probably not immediately. My own sense always has been with energy price spikes is that fuel prices zoom upward only to creep ever-so-slowly back down. Oil companies seek to boost profits quickly and are reluctant to let go of them even after they rake in the cash caused by the excessive costs they pass on to customers.

The Russians do produce a lot of oil. That supply is being jeopardized by the U.S.-led economic sanctions enacted after Russia invaded Ukraine. Thus, if we have the Strategic Petroleum Reserve standing by to use in case of emergency, then by all means we ought to use it.

To that end, President Biden is seeking to deploy a powerful weapon at his disposal.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com