Russian Tensions
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Well, when Dave was a member of the socialist party he raised serious critiques against her, and now she has been exposed
https://english.pravda.ru/news/russia/156941-surovikin_arrested/
Surovikin arrested
Apologies if this has already been posted. Hattip to hallblithe.
‘Well over one hundred years ago, the Scottish socialist John Maclean famously opposed the First World War, saying that a bayonet is a weapon with a worker on both ends. Nothing has changed in this respect over the last century.’
Working-class people only stand to lose from imperialist war, and we should neither support Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine nor Nato’s cynical proxy war against Russia in the name of Ukrainian self-determination.
‘While we should of course stand in solidarity with ordinary Ukrainians suffering from a war of aggression, we should not believe that pouring Western arms into that country will do anything but fuel the fighting and risk escalation. Worse, we should be aware that the UK is being consistently more aggressive and cavalier than even the US in terms of arming Ukraine.’
‘The human toll of the war has been huge. Leaked US documents in April indicated that 354,000 Ukrainian and Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded so far. That number will certainly have risen since then as the Russian military completed its gruesome capture of Bakhmut, and can only rise again with a Western-supplied Ukrainian counter-offensive imminent. Moreover, the economic costs of the war are staggering. According to World Bank estimates in April, the costs for Ukraine alone have reached $411 billion. Unsurprisingly, the costs to the world economy are also growing, with the OECD estimating last autumn that it would amount to $2.8 trillion in lost output by the end of 2023:’That’s a very good article, Dave.
I wonder if the author, Vladimir Unkovski-Korica, who I see works in Glasgow could be contacted by Glasgow branch – maybe invited to give a talk?
I think that’s an excellent idea. And if he could be persuaded to talk to us elsewhere that would be bostin as we say. Or perhaps someone could conduct an interview with him by whatever means because I don’t know but I don’t think he goes as far as us because he calls for trades union action.
Counterfire is a breakaway Trotskyist group from the SWP. If he’s one of them I don’t suppose he’d be interested in us or, for that matter, us in him.
Even so it can’t be a bad thing that sone Trotskyist groups are not taking sides. Trotskyy was of course a Ukrainian by today’s standards. Not that Ukrainian nationalists have claimed him as one of theirs. They prefer Stepan Bandera.
Trotskyists have always being divided in small sects, and they have supported all kind of movements and dictators, the Argentinian Trotskyists supported the dictator Fulgencio Batista when he was the president of Cuba because he was an anti-imperialist, and the real reason was that the USA wanted to overthrow several dictators in Latin America including Rafael L Trujillo, to change their international image, and they did it.
That situation created a large division among them.
In the case of Ukraine there are groups who are supporting NATO, and other are supporting Russia, and a small group is not supporting anyone of them. They kicked out the wife of Trotsky from the Fourth International, at the end she became a friend of Raya Dunayeskaya and she accepted that the Soviet Union was a state capitalist economy, they do not mention her any more, they have mentioned his grandson
She is now completely discredited and has turned into a common or garden politician.
Is she getting a new car ?
What’s wrong with these people? Maximilian Rubel used to argue that the leaders of the nuclear-armed states must be psychopaths to even contemplate using them.
Most states have banned the use of cluster bombs, including leading NATO states like Britain, Germany and France because of the consequences especially on children after a war is over. but not the US (nor, for that matter Russia). Now the US is to supply them to the desperate politicians in charge of the Ukraine state who nobody knows what they will do if threatened with defeat.
Here’s the Uk government (under Borys) condemning Russia for using cluster bombs in Ukraine and declaring:
“The United Kingdom calls upon all those that continue to use such weapons to cease immediately, and calls upon all states that have not yet done so to join the Convention without delay.”
Let’s see if the UK government condemns “any use of cluster munitions by any actor” and calls on the US and Ukraine to“cease immediately” using them. Fat chances of that, exposing their hypocrisy and the Convention on Cluster Munitions as yet another scrap of paper. If they don’t they will be complicit in their use and in “the humanitarian consequences of these weapons, which have had a devastating impact on civilians in many conflict areas.”
Joe Biden is the lesser evil that was been sold by the darlings of the left. Now they are pedaling back and raising up the flag of anti imperialism, the same old thing. We had one in this forum calling us: Champagne socialists, probably we have boxes of Dom Perignon at the head office
These two reports are taken from RT. Accepting the obvious bias both nevertheless seem quite straightforward.
The statement from the US SecDef that ‘Kiev had promised not to use cluster munitions in civilian-populated urban areas and to keep records of where the weapons are deployed to make future de-mining efforts easier’.
My reaction to that is LMAO.
“Cluster munition deliveries to Ukraine could result in civilian casualties, a senior Pentagon official acknowledged on Friday, while stating that fears of Russian success on the battlefield outweigh these concerns.
Speaking to reporters, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl defended the White House’s decision to approve another $800 million security assistance package for Ukraine, which includes cluster munitions – which are banned in more than 100 countries because when they detonate, they release many small bomblets over a wide area, and the unexploded elements pose severe risks to civilians for years after the fighting ends.
When asked whether the Pentagon has assured its allies that these munitions will not cause excessive civilian harm, Kahl replied: “I’m as concerned about the humanitarian circumstance as anybody, but the worst thing for civilians in Ukraine is for Russia to win the war. And so it’s important that they don’t.”
He added that Kiev had promised not to use cluster munitions in civilian-populated urban areas and to keep records of where the weapons are deployed to make future de-mining efforts easier. The official also portrayed the deliveries as a stop-gap measure until Kiev’s Western backers can ramp up production of conventional shells.
In an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, US President Joe Biden described the decision to supply the controversial shells to Ukraine as “difficult.” He said that it was in part motivated by the fact that both Kiev and Washington are feeling a deficit of ordinary ammunition, adding that Ukraine “needed” cluster munitions to prevent Russia from stopping its ongoing counteroffensive.
Commenting on the announcement, Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the US, called the move “a gesture of desperation,” adding that the West does not want to admit that Ukraine’s counteroffensive is faltering.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reacted by posting a clip of former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki from late February 2022, days after the start of the Ukraine conflict, saying that the use of cluster munitions could potentially be regarded as a war crime.”UN condemns cluster munitions
“They were banned by an international convention, the world body’s secretary-general has pointed out
A spokesman for the UN secretary-general called out the use of cluster munitions on Friday, as the US prepared to announce supplying artillery shells of that type to Ukraine.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “supports the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which, as you know, was adopted 15 years ago. And he wants countries to abide by the terms of that convention,” his spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.
“And so as a result, of course, he does not want there to be continued use of cluster munitions on the battlefield,” Haq concluded.
The White House has confirmed that cluster munitions will be included in the latest batch of military supplies for Ukraine. Kiev has hailed the delivery as having an “extraordinary psycho-emotional impact” on Russian troops, which the Ukrainian army has not been able to push back in a month of heavy fighting.
One of the reasons the Pentagon cited for providing the dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM) was that the US was running short of conventional 155mm artillery rounds to send to Ukraine.
Human Rights Watch and other groups have objected to the plan, noting that cluster bombs have a high rate of unexploded ordnance that continues to kill and maim civilians for years afterward.
The Convention on Cluster Munitions came into effect in August 2010, with signatories pledging to “never under any circumstances” use, develop, produce, or transfer the banned munitions, or assist, encourage and induce anyone else to do so. It has been ratified by 111 states so far – including most NATO members – though not by the US, Ukraine, or Russia.”
This is a link to the transcript of the press conference in question.
The SecDef was at pains to point out the positive failure rate of their cluster bombs to explode compared to the Russia ones.
It puts another slant on the cry, ‘won’t somebody think of the children’ and don’t lets forget civilians. Personal view, I found the press conference quite chilling.When cluster bombs are dropped they can kill anybody without any discrimination Oliver north and Collin Powell planted military mines in Nicaragua to kill Sandinista soldiers and they killed more civilians than soldiers and still they continue killing children and peasants and both criminals were declared as heroes by the U.S. congress
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-66142554.amp
When I heard this item on the bbc radio news just now I was ready to send a post admitting that I had been wrong to say that Britain wouldn’t criticise the US decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine.
Then I listened to the small print and saw that what he actually said was that Britain would not be sending any as it was a signatory to a convention that discourages their use in general. Nothing about Britain condemning the US decision. After all, you wouldn’t expect a poodle — or even an attack dog — to criticise its master.
For those who don’t follow Twitter, this was posted by Alexander Boris de Pfeffel, 8 July. A quick scan of comments show that most respondents think he’s wrong. (Being polite so not to incur wrath of moderator).
There’s a phrase used on social media, “stunning and brave” to signify the delusional stance being taken.‘Joe Biden has taken a difficult but brave decision to supply cluster munitions to Ukraine. He is right. These are terrible weapons. But they have been used by Putin for over a year in his programme of indiscriminate slaughter of an entirely innocent people. The faster we help the Ukrainians to win, the more lives we will save all round. And never forget – it is the Ukrainians who will use these weapons on their own soil, and to protect themselves.’
Tell me your at war without telling me you’re at war.
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