Image is sourced from this Economist article.
Most of the information in this preamble is from the Cradle; notably here, here, here, and here.
The features of an effective American war (proxy or otherwise) is that it is a) against opponents with much less military power than you; b) with very low American losses; c) with victories you can visibly show off from time to time to justify involvement, and d) with a profit margin beyond merely giving money to military corporations. The war against Yemen was none of those; airplanes tumbled off aircraft carriers, and the navy complained of the hardest fighting conditions in decades. Conquering Yemen for its resources was inconceivable given the terrain, lack of good intelligence, and the strength of Ansarallah, and all that seemed to be visibly harmed were empty patches of desert and civilians.
Apparently, the ceasefire last month merely stipulated that they stop attacking merchant vessels in the Red Sea; it said nothing about attacking Israel. Therefore, Yemen is absolutely free to create a new blockade of Israel by just striking their airports and seaports, and all Israel can seem to do is try and bomb them in retaliation, a futile strategy which has failed to produce a military or political change in Yemen for the last decade when many other countries have tried it. And if America directly attacks them in response to attacks on Israel, the ceasefire is off, and expensive equipment will continue to be lost.
Across the strait from Yemen is an interesting array of countries. Egypt’s position in this war is well-known, and Somalia is under a kind of US occupation under the guise of fighting terrorism (Trump withdrew most troops, but they were then sent back under Biden). The other three are Sudan, Djibouti, and Eritrea. All three are increasingly being drawn into the anti-imperialist camp, as they cooperate with Iran, Russia, and/or China. Sudan is undergoing a civil war, but the rebels fighting the government are famously backed by the UAE. Djibouti has refused to allow themselves to be a launchpad for US strikes on Yemen.
Eritrea has a fascinating history of flip-flopping between West and East over the past few decades, but has, since 2020, sided with the East. It was one of the five countries to oppose the 2022 UN resolution condemning Russia’s war with Ukraine. Eritrea sends two thirds of its exports to China, and Iran has reportedly supplied them with military equipment. If a stronger link could be reforged, then Iran would have significantly less trouble sending military technology to Ansarallah, and to other friendly groups throughout the region.
Naturally, the lidless eye of the imperial core is shifting its gaze onto Eritrea. Meanwhile, Ethiopia - a country that has experienced frequent conflict with Eritrea - is part of BRICS+ and their economy is increasingly reliant on China (as is most countries’ economies nowadays). If a permanent resolution between the two could be created, it would be a victory for themselves and the Resistance, and a defeat for America, which thrives on conflict and destabilization.
Last week’s thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
I’m not reading that wall of text
you aren’t responding to what i said. Ukraine targeted a civilian passenger train and civilian vehicles when destroying a civilian bridge over a railway. That was this same operation, done at the same time, by the same guys. They also launched yet more drones into the Crimean bridge, a purely civilian bridge. They are doing terrorist attacks.
Look,I’m not being combative, but it’s alright,you don’t wanna read it,fine
However,when did I say the Kerch attack was justified? Did I say I’m a crypto banderite? I realize I’m talking to someone called Zposter here,but some charity would be warranted. The attack on the military bases is both on Ukraine for attacking and on Russia for not preventing it,that’s my point.
I think it’s a little unfair how even the slightest criticism of Russia is enough to brand someone as a pro Ukr,pro NATO chauvinist.
The reason I’m so up in arms is because eastern Europeans get so much unwarranted shit here and it’s been bothering me. Most of it is completely warranted,mind you,I find myself astounded at the servility of our compradors to the west and the depravity of our Russophobia.
What I don’t appreciate is us being sandpapered over because of the historical and modern day pro west lackeys that held power in our area of the world and how we have to treat Russia like it’s still the Soviet Union if we don’t want to be branded as “pro NATO”.
This area ping ponged between Russia and the west for two centuries now and even in the best of times, during the Soviet years,there was still a soft undercurrent of subordination to them.
So now we have to be completely uncritical of what they do because they saved us from fascism,even when the state that actually did that now decayed into a oligarchic semi dictatorship that stumbled ass backwards into being on the good side of history because the west got too greedy and didn’t wanna share and because of the Soviet heritage. It’s just a bit insulting to be treated as a punchline, “the reddit belt”, when voicing even the slightest negative opinion towards them.
I will never criticize the heroic efforts of the Soviet Union nor the measures it sought to implement in the liberated nations.
However,I hold no such reverence for the RF,no matter of how beneficial they are to the global south,they have a vision for this corner of the world that is fundamentally incompatible to what it would look like if it was truly liberated and I believe that is not a chauvinistic thing to believe at all.
Interesting perspective. Mostly commenting to say that I’ve read your comments. It is much to digest.
I just have no idea what any of this has to do with this conversation or why it’s relevant.
Hasan supports some terrorist attacks, I say “hey that’s chauvinist bullshit” and you decided to lore dump on me about your unrelated gripes.
Well,fair enough,but it was cooking in my mind for a while
Also,I don’t know if he said anything about the bridge attacks,all I recall was the military bases being attacked being commented on
No him and all other pro-Ukraine chauvinist talking heads don’t mention the attacks on civilian targets that happened concurrently with Operation Web. That’s the point. It just further proves my point that he talks as if it never happened
Yeah,that I think is irresponsible
Overall I still think he does more good than harm,but he’s way into “anti war-ism” on the Ukraine issue
Anti-warism is an idealist, radliberal position that poisons the brains of westerners
This isn’t true at all. Leftism is inherently anti-war. Hence, “no war but class war”.
The problem is where the anti-war stance is misrepresented. Unless it is coming from someone inside of Russia (and possibly countries positioning themselves as allied to Russia), who has a chance of possibly affecting Russia’s ability to carry out the war through direct action and other political involvement, the stance that the solution is for Russia to back down is not an anti-war position; it is the exact opposite; it is the pushing of the “de-escalation through escalation” bullshit. It is a chauvinistic “our side will never back down” death pact.
The stance of people in Ukraine, the U.S., any NATO country—anywhere that potentially has influence over the Empire, really—must be to push Ukraine to back down in order to be authentically anti-war.
There’s also the more controversial leftist argument over whether states can be authentically anti-imperialist. But that’s really going to be a matter of whether you support the position I alluded to above for people who have potential political influence over nations which some people would consider “anti-imperialist nations” (due to the intermeshing of imperialism and class conflict, and also the fact that the Empire inherently has more power over, and responsibility toward, the prosecution and ending of wars than its targets). Like, that more controversial position comes up in the rarely seem question of whether Russian leftists should be cheering on and supporting the Russian military in nationalistic zeal, or trying to get Russia to negotiate and back down with as much fervor as Western leftists try to do so with U.S./NATO/Ukraine. We should all be able to agree, at the very least, that those who have the slightest chance at influencing the Empire to back down should do so. And that 100% includes Hasan Piker, who lives, acts, and practices social punditry within the U.S.
Class war is war, so this sentence is contradictory. We are pro-class war. We are also pro-wars of decolonization and fighting imperialists. Would you go up to a PFLP fighter and tell them “stop fighting Israel, no war but class war”? Ultras do that, and ultras are the primary anti-warism idealists. That is the strain of the westoid left we are talking about.
Russia’s war against Ukraine is not imperialist, it is in fact anti-imperialist. Even those inside of Russia should not attack Russia’s capability to wage war, which is the correct position of the Communist Party of Russia. Just like those inside Syria, Iraq and Libya should not have attacked their respective (capitalist) governments while they were under siege and invasion.