Ukraine 2

[Cyber Liberty]

@mountaineer

I met a guy back in the late 70's from a small country town where he had lived all his life,and he had been drafted into the army during the VN,sent to VN,and assigned to a Graves Registration Unit. I might have the title wrong,but his job,as an 18 year old away from home for the first time in his life,was to go over battlefields after a fight and police up the bodies,and the parts of bodies of American troops and then try to match the parts with the bodies,and bring them back to the Graves Registration Unit he was assigned to.

The VN bodies were just pushed into a big hole using a bulldozer,and covered  up.

This was maybe the saddest,quietest,man I have ever met. Didn't even date or get married until his 30's and even then it was a widow wanting a good husband that snatched him up and basically told him to marry her.

Probably the best thing that ever happened to him. He was already married to her when I met him,but she gave him a safe place to stay and seemed to be very protective of him. Even to the point where she would sometimes answer questions for him when he was in one of his "moods",and would just stare at the floor.

Worked for both of them,and I am glad they found each other.

Still,I can get a little depressed even today just thinking about the horrors this innocent young boy had to face against his will.

AND....,the army being the army,I met a guy at Bragg after coming back from VN who was a 3rd Generation undertaker from a family in Ohio. He also got drafted during the VN war,and the freaking army made HIM a radio operator!

Sometimes there just ain't no rhyme or reason for stuff.

After reading that, it seems to me the job of Body Policing should be strictly voluntary....

[sneakypete]

After reading that, it seems to me the job of Body Policing should be strictly voluntary....

@Cyber Liberty

If that were the case,most would be left to rot in the open.

I honestly don't think anyone under 30 should be assigned a job like that,though. It is just too traumatic for the typical teen to deal with.

[Cyber Liberty]

@Cyber Liberty

If that were the case,most would be left to rot in the open.

I honestly don't think anyone under  should be assigned a job like that,though. It is just too traumatic for the typical teen to deal with.

Sticking him with the detail because he's "the new guy" is what it was.

[Hoodat]

200 bodies found inside Mariupol basement as Russian troops intensify efforts to encircle Severodonetsk

A Ukrainian official said the bodies were decomposing and a "stench" was covering the area. It is the latest horror to come to light in the key port city, which has been a key target for Vladimir Putin since the war began.

Jess Sharp  |  24 May 2022  |  20:19, UK

The bodies of 200 people have been discovered inside a basement in Mariupol, local authorities have said.



Workers digging through the rubble of an apartment building made the grim discovery, with the number of victims found making it one of the deadliest attacks of the war.

An adviser to the region's mayor, Petro Adryushchenko said the bodies were decomposing and a "stench" covered the surrounding area.

"The city has turned into a continuous cemetery," he said in an online post, adding that a "makeshift morgue" had been set up to deal with "a large number of corpses".

It is the latest horror to come to light in the key port city, which has been an important target for Russian forces since their invasion started three months ago.  .  .

https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-200-bodies-found-inside-mariupol-basement-as-russian-troops-intensify-efforts-to-encircle-severodonetsk-12620614

[240B]

It comes amid a new claim that young naval sailors were 'left to drown' while 'officers fled the ship like rats'.

'Fled' to where!? They certainly did not go back to Russia. It would be better to drown.
Reporting back to Putin to tell him that you just lost his so called 'flagship' would not be a wise decision.
Wherever they went, I'm sure it was in the opposite direction of anywhere close to Russia.

[240B]

A former neighbor of ours, now deceased, served in WWII and Korea. I interviewed him many years ago for an article marking the 50th anniversary of the Korean war. His sole job in Korea was unloading bloodied corpses that were brought in from the battlefield - day after day. 

Knew a guy who was a 'mortician' in Iraq. Same job. It made him crazy. The guy was as loony as the mad-hatter. Eventually he flipped out and started beating the shit out of anyone around him, just for no reason. Anyone he could reach he attacked. Pure luck he was not armed. He would have shot us all. Or we would have shot him.

Restrained, handcuffed, and put on the bus to somewhere. The last I saw him he was looking out the bus window at me while being hauled away. Fighting his handcuffs, hate in his eyes and foaming at the mouth.

Sometimes people question whether PTSD, Shell Shock, Combat Neurosis ... all that, is a real thing. I saw it. And yes, it is very real. When it builds to a trigger point, it happens in a flash out of nowhere.

[sneakypete]

Sticking him with the detail because he's "the new guy" is what it was.

@Partially true. He was a "new guy",as well as a Private E-2 when he got there. There are few creatures in the world with fewer "rights" than a E-2 in the military. E-2's have no experience doing anything,and have zero experience,so it is natural that they always get the "Bush Jobs".

The fact that he came from a very rural area and was pretty much ignorant of the world as well as being painfully shy didn't help his cause.

If he had of had any experience in the army,he would have immediately started screwing up everything he touched in order to force them into giving him a different job. After all,what the hell did a draftee E-2 in VN have to lose? The most they could do would be to send him back to the US and kick him out of the army,and he never wanted to be in the army to start with.

IIRC,his nightmares were related to him worrying about putting the wrong body parts in the body bag with the body. One HELL of a thing for an innocent 18 year old to have to deal with that had never left his mama before being drafted.

[sneakypete]

'Fled' to where!? They certainly did not go back to Russia. It would be better to drown.
Reporting back to Putin to tell him that you just lost his so called 'flagship' would not be a wise decision.
Wherever they went, I'm sure it was in the opposite direction of anywhere close to Russia.

@240B

I am guessing the lower-ranked enlisted swine had very little to worry about because in the "classless society of Communism",peasants/enlisted swine are not expected to do much other than follow orders without question.

The officers are another story. Any that aren't related to someone important that was rescued is most likely in deep doo-doo.

Other than the high-ranking officers,of course. Important officials are almost never punished in "classless societies".  Mostly because they are related to someone very important,or they would have never gotten any important positions.

Odd how "classless societies" work in real life,ain't it?

[berdie]

@Cyber Liberty

If that were the case,most would be left to rot in the open.

I honestly don't think anyone under 30 should be assigned a job like that,though. It is just too traumatic for the typical teen to deal with.

My FIL had the "clean up" detail during WWII. He was a young guy.

Don't get me wrong, I adored the guy but he was a little bit "teched in the head". My MIL told me about his stint in the clean up that caused it.

[sneakypete]

My FIL had the "clean up" detail during WWII. He was a young guy.

Don't get me wrong, I adored the guy but he was a little bit "teched in the head". My MIL told me about his stint in the clean up that caused it.

@berdie

I have a hard time believing any teen,fresh from the bosom of his mama would be able to handle a job like that without suffering serious psychological damage.

Some things are just too brutal for youths inexperienced with the realities of war to deal with,and this implies no fault that can be laid at their feet.

[Hoodat]

UK Backs Plan to Escort Grain Ships Past Russia’s Naval Blockade of Ukraine

OLIVER JJ LANE  |  24 May 202

The United Kingdom supports a proposal by Lithuania to recruit an international fleet of naval warships to break the Russian blockade of Ukraine which is preventing the export of huge amounts of grain to the rest of the world.

Millions of tons of grain are stuck inside Ukraine and without it, levels of world hunger are considered highly likely to rise and may even trigger another migrant crisis. Such is the background to the suggestion by Lithuania that a so-called “coalition of the willing” of warships outside the structures of NATO could work together on getting food out of Ukraine’s seaports.

The remarks of Lithuanian foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, proposing the plan to build a naval coalition were reported Monday by The Guardian, which recorded him as saying: “Time is very very short. We are closing in on a new harvest and there is no other practical way of exporting the grain except through the Black Sea port of Odesa… There is no way of storing this grain and no other adequate alternative route.”  .  .  .

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/05/24/uk-backs-plan-to-escort-grain-ships-past-russias-naval-blockade-of-ukraine/

[Hoodat]

Russia loses its highest-ranking pilot yet in Ukraine as former Air Force Major, 63, comes out of retirement… and is blasted out of the skies

Russian media confirms:  https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-61559430

[Hoodat]

Russia now sending mothballed T-62s out of storage to Ukraine.

[Kamaji]

Russia now sending mothballed T-62s out of storage to Ukraine.

I’m sure those will be in tip-top shape!

[240B]

[240B]

Russia is burying their Honored Dead Heroes in produce crates instead of expensive coffins.
Does Western Europe really fear a country this poor?

[catfish1957]

Russia is burying their Honored Dead Heroes in produce crates instead of expensive coffins.
Does Western Europe really fear a country this poor?

Last data point of Debt to GDP ratio (2021)

Russia- 17.2%

USA- 137.2%

An argument could be made who is really is the poorer country.  Ours is the one who can spend carelessly as the owner of the world reference currency. WITH NO CHECKS OR BALANCES.   

This is basically the same analogy of comparing two people...  One driving fine cars, nice house, and hopelessly in debt.  Versus one who looks dirt poor, living pay check to paycheck, but has little or no debt.

[sneakypete]

I’m sure those will be in tip-top shape!

@Kamaji

I wonder how long it will be before they run out of parts to service and repair them,and just leave them abandoned in roads somewhere?

[bilo]

Russia is burying their Honored Dead Heroes in produce crates instead of expensive coffins.
Does Western Europe really fear a country this poor?

They would be dumb not to.

Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear bombs in the world. As they are defeated in conventional warfare the possibility increases that they will use "tactical" nuclear weapons to escalate the conflict in order to negotiate a de-escalation to their benefit. It's why we need to avoid a direct conflict between NATO and Russia. NATO would destroy Russia's conventional forces pretty quickly. Ukraine is a rare opportunity. In Ukraine the war will end when Russia leaves, or is forced out of Ukraine. If a NATO member is attacked the war will probably escalate so quickly Russia will see tactical nuclear weapons as their only option.

Ukraine is not asking for NATO soldiers to do the fighting. They only want the weapons to defeat the invader, Russia. If we supply the means, Ukraine can stop Russia and NATO does not become involved. Also, Russia is in the process of becoming a third world country. As that process takes hold if their military can be neutralized they will cease to be a serious threat.

[bilo]

Last data point of Debt to GDP ratio (2021)

Russia- 17.2%

USA- 137.2%

An argument could be made who is really is the poorer country.  Ours is the one who can spend carelessly as the owner of the world reference currency. WITH NO CHECKS OR BALANCES.   

This is basically the same analogy of comparing two people...  One driving fine cars, nice house, and hopelessly in debt.  Versus one who looks dirt poor, living pay check to paycheck, but has little or no debt.

Let me know when all the seniors in the USA are ready to stop getting social security and medicare and I will take this argument more seriously.

If you really want the federal govt. to get it's spending under control. You need to outlaw the Federal Reserve buying US Treasuries.

[sneakypete]

They would be dumb not to.

Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear bombs in the world. As they are defeated in conventional warfare the possibility increases that they will use "tactical" nuclear weapons to escalate the conflict in order to negotiate a de-escalation to their benefit. It's why we need to avoid a direct conflict between NATO and Russia. NATO would destroy Russia's conventional forces pretty quickly. Ukraine is a rare opportunity. In Ukraine the war will end when Russia leaves, or is forced out of Ukraine. If a NATO member is attacked the war will probably escalate so quickly Russia will see tactical nuclear weapons as their only option.

Ukraine is not asking for NATO soldiers to do the fighting. They only want the weapons to defeat the invader, Russia. If we supply the means, Ukraine can stop Russia and NATO does not become involved. Also, Russia is in the process of becoming a third world country. As that process takes hold if their military can be neutralized they will cease to be a serious threat.

@bilo 

Good post!

I will add that the US and Other NATO nations need to make DAMN SURE the Ukrainians do NOT invade Russia by trying to follow the retreating Russians back home.

Ukraine knows Russia far better than I do,but no matter how unlikely such an event may be,it still needs to be mentioned and monitored.

[catfish1957]

Let me know when all the seniors in the USA are ready to stop getting social security and medicare and I will take this argument more seriously.

If you really want the federal govt. to get it's spending under control. You need to outlaw the Federal Reserve buying US Treasuries.

The cure is beyond any of our ability of any common citizen.. The perpetual kicking the can down the road will end when foreign entities lose faith in those treasuries, and the Chicoms, et.al go to a different, and likely universal currency.  The $USD will be forced to float to it, and not vice versa. When the dust settles, think Zimbawe or Weimar Republic.

When that occurs, life in Russia will look luxurious versus what will be in store here.  It will be governmental default.  The rest of the world, and predominately the Chicoms will own us.  We will really get to see what poor means.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Let me know when all the seniors in the USA are ready to stop getting social security and medicare and I will take this argument more seriously.

Is there no American citizen you will not sacrifice at the altar of Zelensky?

[Hoodat]

Let me know when all the seniors in the USA are ready to stop getting social security and medicare and I will take this argument more seriously.

I have been ready for that my entire life.  For 40 years, I have been paying into a giant ponzi scheme at the point of a gun - a ponzi scheme of which I have wanted no part.  And still don't.

[Hoodat]

Is there no American citizen you will not sacrifice at the altar of Zelensky?

What does Zelensky have to do with this?

(See logical fallacies:  Red herring)