Doomstead

Back in the day when War meant fielding large armies and trying to take physical control, attacking more countries at this point wouldn't be a very good idea.  Today however, when it's more about destroying the energy infrastructure and economic engine of your adversary, it's not such a bad strategy.  The other NATO countries are providing the support the Ukies need to keep fighting, and by punishing them for providing that support it makes it more economically and politically costly.

Focusing the attacks on Germany as the most economically powerful sends a message that Vlad intends to make them pay for  their support, so now they will try to further sanction Russia.  Except they've already sanctioned them about as much as possible, and as long as the Chinese continue to align with Russia and provide a market, that allows Russia to survive economic sanctions.

This could be the beginning of the war expanding to the rest of Europe and a fusion  with the Iran war.  Amerikan bases in Germany and Poland are likely targets.  How it progresses from there is anybody's guess, but the prognosis isn't good no matter how you cut it.

RE

No worries.  I'm sure they'll stick to just Tactical Nukes. 😒


RE

I'd go a step further and say I wouldn't be surprised if it was the Banks & Oil companies themselves who are sponsoring the various Sabotage claims being attributed to the Ruskies.  Cui Bono?  The more of Ruskie Oil export they can take offline, the higher the price they can get for high priced unconventionl Oil plays here, enough to keep it profitable.  Inspire the rest of Europe to send missiles at Ruskie Oil production infrastructure makes perfect sense.  Of course, the brilliant strategy could backfire if the conflict goes Nuke. 🙄

RE

This image clarifies the murk a bit.


Like the man who has everything in the Dos Equis commercials. --- I don't drink much, but when I do...

So it is with the NY Times.  The Times shamelessly shrink wraps the most rancid government propaganda in respectable authoritarian credentials.  Known for accuracy, when they lie they do it well.  Unsurpassed skill at providing America with the most professional lies (in moderation) that you can find.  Fuck them.

How do they plan for a quick conflict?  I suppose they could just surrender right away.  They can't win fast, even using Nukes.

You can see them using the fear mongering and propaaganda to soften up the public for cuts to social welfare programs.

They said this had left ministers locked in an unenviable task of persuading unprepared voters to cut welfare spending to fund defence.

Also using the tried & true tactic of wildly exaggerating numbers to raise the perception of threat:

In Ukraine, 200,000 drones are being built each month, with the goal of producing more than 7m in 2026. To support this growth, 500 small and medium-sized companies have sprung up, assembling drones even in small workshops, using mostly Chinese components.

200K drones a MONTH?  That would mean the Ukies are buzzing Mother Russia with ~7000 Drones EVERY DAY.  Come On!  Even if most of them were just spy drones they wouldn't need that many.  Maybe they're selling a lot of them?  Doubt they could compete with the Chinese on price.  Just ridiculous.

They will probably get their war though, and it might even be short.  Mainly because they'll run out of Ammo.



RE

The MSM is all abuzz about the Ruskie Boogeyman's "Hybrid Warfare" against the EU & NATO.  The instigation of all this Fear Mongering is over 3 Drones supposedly packed with explosives which did NOT detonate in the Leipzig airport.  They were conveniently found and nobody knows if they were really supposed to explode or not, nor is there any evidence actually linking them to Russia.

According to the reports "everybody" in Europe is worried about this new escalation of Ruskie belligerence, except the thing is nobody would even know about it if every media outlet wasn't plastering the headlines on every website.  Nobody got killed, no skyscrapers collapsed and the water supply hasn't been poisoned.  If they weren't broadcastring this horror, the only people who would actually be worried are the Pols and security services.

The  theory  being promoted is Vlad is doing this to "test" Europe to see how they would react to an actual attack.  As tests go, it's pretty pathetic, since with nobody dead and no critical infrastructure damage, you still have no idea how they would react to a REAL attack.  The current reaction is to add more Sanctions for Russia to ignore or evade.

So who's really doing the testing and to what end?  The only thing that makes sense is they are testing the public to see how much support they'll get for ramping up military spending and cutting their social welfare budgets.   What they want is more money to spend on war toys.  They wanna do it without actually killing anyone, because that might backfire and force them into a real confrontation they don't want.

Far as Vlad goes, he doesn't have to do anything to sow more dissention and bickering between EuroPols.  They are doing fine floundering on their own.

RE