As posted by Turcopolier (Col. Lang), The WSJ has painted a less than rosy picture of the life of Russian conscripts fighting in Ukraine (https://turcopolier.com/russians-expand-donbas-assault). Well, The Washington Post has also weighed in with an article describing the travails of Ukrainian militia – guess what? They aren’t happy with their leadership either;
“DRUZHKIVKA, Ukraine — Stuck in their trenches, the Ukrainian volunteers lived off a potato per day as Russian forces pounded them with artillery and Grad rockets on a key eastern front line. Outnumbered, untrained and clutching only light weapons, the men prayed for the barrage to end — and for their own tanks to stop targeting the Russians.
“They [Russians] already know where we are, and when the Ukrainian tank shoots from our side it gives away our position,” said Serhi Lapko, their company commander, recalling the recent battle. “And they start firing back with everything — Grads, mortars. “And you just pray to survive.”…
…………Ukraine, like Russia, has provided scant information about deaths, injuries or losses of military equipment. But after three months of war, this company of 120 men is down to 54 because of deaths, injuries and desertions.
The volunteers were civilians before Russia invaded on Feb. 24, and they never expected to be dispatched to one of the most dangerous front lines in eastern Ukraine. They quickly found themselves in the crosshairs of war, feeling abandoned by their military superiors and struggling to survive.
“Our command takes no responsibility,” Lapko said. “They only take credit for our achievements. They give us no support.”
…..
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/26/ukraine-frontline-russia-military-severodonetsk/
Comment: The rest of the article describes the less than stellar Ukrainian leadership and the use of militias, not to defend their homes, but as cannon fodder in battles in Donbass – trying to destroy Donbass homes defended by Donbass militias.
The only comment: ”War is hell”.
Nobody is ever happy with the man immediately above him in sustained combat.
Amen
A good question:
I don’t expect to get accurate numbers of losses on either side at this point, but certainly more disinfo inside RU and I’m wondering how this plays out…. A diminishing population with lower birth rates and less of that demographic (20’s-30s) with the stomach for this fight… I’ve read a lot of guys “fleeing” to Turkey, etc… So do these satellite regions and the 50 y/o provide enough manpower to create an offensive? My point is, even if the RU war machine could keep the military production going (unlikely) how does this war play out? I just see an old KGB operative trying to impose his narrative on the world at the expense of his younger gen…. How are they going to man those old tanks?
Srw.Thats an interesting question.How are they going to man those tanks.
Here is your answer.
There are those,who in times of plenty, make sacrifices to the corn god.
these are the good years filled with the first and second rains.
the rains cease and hunger and despair demand the sacrifices of human hearts to the god of blood and gold.
then there are those who look to the skies and choose to follow the rains as they move across the earth.they make no sacrifices to the gods.they have no need for them.
The question is not how are they going to man those old tanks, but why did they man the tanks. And they manned the tanks, because this was an existential fight for them, in which ,,they” means all the Russians (from Putin to the tank crew). If they were to let the Azov, Aidar and regular Ukrainian army units attack Donetsk, probably more civilians in Donetsk would have died by now, than Russian soldiers in the spec op/invasion up to today. Losing Donetsk would badly hurt Russia, probably destroying it.
This doesn’t mean that Russia doesn’t have low birth rates, that young Russian soldiers aren’t dying, that some Russian servicemen haven’t quit the army in order not to go Ukraine, that some Russian citizens haven’t ,,fled” to Turkey and West at the beginning of the conflict. It just means that the majority of Russians perceive this war as defensive (in terms of int. law this is an aggression), they believe in their cause (denazification) and their soldiers will man the tanks.
It is alleged that the T62s will be used to provide stationary (canned?)fire support at a network of road checkpoints in occupied territory. They supposedly will not be required to maneuver or engage in tank vs. tank contests. Partisans with an RPG or better, a Javelin, are another matter.
Russia is a big, big place and many aren´t Russians at all. Muscovites and young men from Petersburg are like Westeners: glued to their screens with heavy withdrawal syndroms once the device is taken away. I should know, before Covid I ran an outdoors business in Mongolia and I did crossborder trips into Siberia. My Russian counterparts told me the exact same stories about their young big city clients that I told them about mine. Young men from Siberia and from the Muslim areas are different. The families are bigger, they don´t have a room of their own and in the countryside they have to do a lot of walking, hunting and fishing. They are also instinctively patriotic whereas the kids of my friends in Moscow have all made to Georgia, Armenia and even Turkey.
It is the kids from the rural areas doing the fighting and killing in Ukraine. They might be Buddhist Kalmycks, Tuvans and Buryats or Muslims from the Caucasus. Certainly the commanding language is Russian and probably the majority is still ethnic Russian. But they are as far away from your Moscow teenager as a kid from rural Alabama is from a kid from New York.
For the above reasons Putin can´t and won´t decree a general mobilisation. Russia has superior weaponry and she will slowly
reduce the Ukrainian positions to rubble without losing to many soldiers. The times are over when NKVD brigades where positioned behind the advancing troops to shoot anybody who didn´t advance into German machine gun fire.
Those are good questions and I would add that Russia’s main problem, going back generations, is that a large segment of the male population is drunk by 11 am. The move to increase the age limit for enlistment seems to be a sign of desperation. Between the brain drain and the vodka problem, it would appear that time is not on Russia’s side. As has been shown by many with military experience, morale problems is also impacting their fighting capabilities. As pointed out, sacrificing a younger generation will have negative long term effects. Both Ukraine and the US and EU will have some tough decisions to make, but they are faced with the prospect of Russia winning and that will only bring even more wars to Europe along it’s eastern side and for the foreseeable future. Their main problem will be to maintain the policy, which will have costs, but those costs will increase if Russia is not stopped now.
Speaking of less than stellar leadership in a related context to War, here is my takeaway from the Texas Elementary school shooting which killed 19 children who were doing nothing improper other than attending school. I’m going to go far out on a limb and say it most likely was not an organ harvesting ring who framed a patsy and bribed or otherwise cowed the police and marshalls (for example by taking family members of police officials hostage, out of sight earlier) so that they had plenty of time to remove the kids organs till they gave a signal to then enter and shoot the alleged shooter.
No. I’m going with something else that has been discussed elsewhere. I’m positing that the cops figured out what type of weapon ammo he had and therefore: They were simply too frightened to proceed with physical countermoves and thus waited till 19 kids had been slaughtered. And my takeaway ends like this: The guns available for easy purchase by any meathead are simply too powerful. Too powerful to a degree thst makes enforcing the law impossible under most situations. No one aside from the Green Lantern or Batman could or would do anything in the Texas situation.
Conclusion – rule of law has broken down completely in the United States. Laws cannot be enforced. This kid, assuming it were not the body-snatchers in cahootz with transgender vampires, this kid was nobody with zero understanding of crime or armed battle other than to grasp that yes, two AR submachine guns with 1,000 rounds of ammunition beats a room full of unarmed 8. 9 and 10 year olds. Sooner or later an Al Capone or a Professor Moriarty or a Napoleon of crime will make an entry and the country will be even more ruined than it is now. Irretrievably at this rate.
I don’t understand why assault rifles and the like cannot be banned ?
If you need to protect your house you can use a taser, a handgun and/or shotgun.
Also, what use is an assault rifle if a parent armed with it cannot enter the school and protect his child for a mentally ill person on a killing spree ?
I find it ludicrous that my shotguns can have only three rounds in the magazine (federal law so I don’t shoot too many ducks at one time?) but if I have an assault type of weapon I can have a 30 round magazine or as many as technically possible. Crazy!
They’re only being fair. Because it’s more difficult to shoot birds on the fly with an assault rifle than with a shotgun. (humor).
I feel much better now that you’ve given me the list of approved weapons whereby I can both protect me and mine and avoid scaring anyone to ignorant to know better . Now I’ll go grab some of those and know to wait patiently for the police to arrive and save me…
The fact that you use the imbecilic phrase “assault weapon” is rather annoying. Newsflash: Every weapon is an “assault” weapon, in fact one of the very things that makes it a weapon is it’s ability to assault. The handgun you found so reasonable a few minutes ago kills more people (more than 8000 last year) then the AR15. The same for shotguns (which somehow won your home defense expert seal of approval) and knives.
Having said that…
If I want to own anything that I’m legally allowed to own, I don’t have to justify to you or anyone else why I want to own it.
Using your logic, such as it is, after the tragedy in Waukesha last Christmas every time you want to buy an SUV you should have to explain to the government and (random knuckle-headed internet commentators) why you need it (and not, say, a compact Honda Civic) and more importantly why you should be allowed to own it?
I get that it’s hard to understand if you’re not a US citizen, and quite frankly half the citizens here fail to grasp this basic concept, but the Constitution is and always should be inviolate.
The erosion of one particular right is the beginning of the erosion off them all…
GF
I said assault rifles (eg AR15) not assault weapons. How many mass shootings in schools have been perpetrated with handguns ?
You are correct, I’m not a US citizen and cannot understand why you need to own a weapon like an AR15. Most people around the world cannot understand this. We also don’t get school massacres every so often, and gun violence in general is a miniscule fraction of what you have.
Again, why didn’t all those parents assembled at the school grounds break out their gear (ARs, Glocks, grenades and howitzers) and went into the school to take care of business ?
The parents were barred from entering the school, with one mother being handcuffed by the police to stop her. Ditto the border patrol agents who arrived.
As to your point Howitzers, and I believe grenades are already illegal. As such only criminals intent on harming innocent people have access to them.
So you say we outlaw the AR15 and it’ll stop bad guys from having them. Inn that case let’s outlaw crime while you’re at it and I guess we’ll stop that as well. Why, from the outside looking in you could even end the opioid crisis with just one bill thru Congress. Who knew?
Or maybe, just maybe, most bad guys intent on killing a lot of people don’t give a rat’s ass about your genius AR15 ban. Yeah, let’s go with that one.
As for those cops in Texas, and I say this as someone who worked 25 years in law-enforcement and put myself in harms way on more than one occasion, the unfortunate thing about doing that is you don’t really know who can and who can’t until shit hits the fan.
In this case every single cop there that you would have us cede our safety to, couldn’t, and to a man stood down because they were afraid of being killed. So if the cops, who on a good day, are minutes away when every second counts, can’t be responsible for our safety then who if not ourselves? At the very least you can’t completely outsource your safety and your protection to a third-party, even if the third-party is government sanctioned. Those poor kids and all those families made that mistake…
GF
By banning such weaponry you make it much more difficult for a kid with mental issues to acquire them, either from a gun shop or his parents.
It is more of a band-aid than a solution because the problem is much deeper but something has to be done.
borko what you, and perhaps many non US citizens don’t understand, is the purpose of the 2nd. It was not included in the BOR to allow settlers to protect them selves against those pesky injuns. Nor was it put there to allow frontiersman to go a’huntin. It’s not there to provide citizens protection from assault on the streets of our cities. It is in our constitution to provide citizens violent redress against a government that threatens the liberties in the constitution. It is not simple numerology that the 2nd follows the first.
Borko you said “but something must be done”. Etvas muss getan, Noooo, the right thing must be done. I have explained to you the purpose of the 2nd amendment. Destroying that right is not the right thing. Hideous perhaps, but I am for immediate, brutal, and public execution of mass murderers.
Bill Roche
you already have the most extensive arsenal on the planet. Who is operating all those tanks and airplanes if not the citizens of the US ?
Or do you expect that hypothetical conflict to be against your own army, your own sons and daughters. AR15s wielding militia against professional army wielding M1A2s and F35s ?
My guess is, if it god forbid comes to such a conflict it would not be a militia against the government, but another civil war and lack of assault rifles will not be your problem at all.
The most powerful weapon today is mass media, and you can’t buy that in a gun shop.
Borko? European? Well you can/will never understand American’s and their history.
Good wishes on Memorial Day.
Mind if I jump in here Mr. Roche?
“The most powerful weapon today is mass media, and you can’t buy that in a gun shop.”
True that.
That same mass media who insisted to us these recent past twenty years – and Biden most recently: “We’ve got tanks and F-16s” – against which a bunch of Neolithic goatherds wielding 19th Century captured British arms and AKs, “The war strategy is going along swimmingly, Home by Christmas”?
That mass media Borko?
JK/AR
Yes, that media. They can turn any person into an angel or the devil. They can spin, and omit, and misrepresent and redirect and lie. They can make you focus on Trump, or Biden or Covid or Ukraine and millions of Americans are soaking it all up.
Bill Roche
A European, yes. I cannot claim that I understand Americans and your history, but when it comes to questions like stricter gun control it seems that half the US population shares my views. Does that mean they don’t understand US history and constitution either.
Good wishes to you as well, on Memorial day and all others.
borko
It means that we are not really one country and another division approaches.
borko,
“…stricter gun control…. ”
naw, it means the leadership of the left is going to double down on disarmament to push its continued control. (Just look at what Justin is doing in Canada.) If half of America believed in gun control 25 states would not have enacted constitutional carry nor would the number of first time gun buyers have set a record in the first year Biden was in office. The number of background checks is up, too. There were 3 million NICS firearm background checks in March alone.
https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/nics_firearm_checks_-_day_month_year.pdf/view
Bill….
I Agree with Public Executions..Hang Em High…Right After They come across Our Southern Border With another Load of Poison in Drug Form..To Murder The People of the United States..
I think.. .also..These Killers..Could Then Be Tagged…Bagged…and Flown back into Mexico by
Use of A Catapult..To Land in a Cartel Courtyard..
Most Mass Murders in The USA…Were also Druggers.
Anti Social..Programmed to Kill By Heavy Metal..Death Bands..or Anarchist Bands From Europe..Coming Here
With Thier Concerts.
RED..WHITE and BLACK..
How many haave ever Listened to or Read the Lyrics..?
This generation has been programmed to Murder..
And The Wokes..Use Our Constitution..To Demand The Free Expression..And Will…To Kill..In the Womb..In The Schools..On The Streets..Those are The Wokes Hunting Grounds..Thats Their Sport..
Its Part of The Overall Culture Revolution..To Destroy the United States of America..As a Civilized Society.
JT
..
Fourth and Long,
” The guns available for easy purchase by any meathead are simply too powerful.” He passed the legally required background check to buy them.
He could have just as easily killed them all with an SUV when they were waiting for the bus, or marching in a parade like the terrorist did in Waukesha. But that killing did not warrant a visit from Joe Biden for some reason.
Might I also suggest that, absent scary sticks that go boom, the ingenuity of the common criminal should not be overlooked.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/stabbing-deaths-by-country
SUV vehicles are not used as weapons in an ongoing neverending mass murder epidemic. In 145 days of this year alone so far there have been 215 mass shootings, defined as shootings involving 4 or more victims. Maybe it’s like the old gladiator games of Rome. Maybe a large number of ” Americans” enjoy the killings and gore. I have begun to think so. They must ache and yearn for the days when they could take a seat to watch captives fed alive to starving lions and other beasts of prey. And burning people alive in public with spectators from miles around gathering eagerly? Unfortunately they are not allowed such pleasures and have to make do with mass murders of little children attending elementary school or watching videos of shoppers in Buffalo being massacred on a “live stream.” Life isn’t particularly fair, is it?
Criminals commit crimes. There is no “they” making do with mass murders of little children anywhere.
My point, before we got distracted, was that the gun thing in this present spacetime configuration in these here you knighted states is simply asking for real big serious troubles which can’t be easily or affordably counteracted. Luckily we have drums and electric guitars so not every teenager or young adult goes postal.
Fourth and Long,
Fixing the traditional family would fix a lot of those problems.
I am no longer religious, I’m agnostic. But there is so much in Handel’s Messiah if you listen to it. “Everyone to his own way, everyone to his own way.” The traditional family kept society in check. But every single day it’s under attack. Chasing after guns is a fool’s errand. Fix the family and you fix society.
“Something” is different.
Got out of high school in ’72. Like the majority of my peers – and a sizeable fraction of the faculty – we frequently had occupants in our pickup’s rear window racks. Sometimes the principal would come out and engage in a discussion of the particular merits of some particular occupant. Our shop teacher taught marksmanship – Tuesdays mostly – to all who were interested. If the principal during one of his jaunts among the parked vehicles wanted to “see for himself” usually he’d just ask one if one minded him trying it out. I can only remember a single solitary instance of a refusal (a girl sophomore – we only had two genders then – whose Grandpa had instructed her to “be the only one.” … However the next Tuesday rolled around, “somehow” communication between the parties had occurred and the girl handed the principal her Grandpa’s “Springfield” Model of 1917 in 30.06.
During deer season (usually coincident to Thanksgiving) our school hosted a ‘Turkey Shoot’ – One of my fondest memories is lining up alongside our “local” state trooper, the county sheriff, and the city police chief and winning that turkey – especially memorable that year because there was a semi-trailer containing live birds! And the furthest off the bullseye during the round had to “get the bird” – We laughed for years about the time “our” state trooper’s uniform was festooned with feathers and birdshit.
Nowadays though “our” state guy is known as a School Resource Officer and the school hasn’t hosted a Turkey Shoot since I don’t know when. And people seem just generally kinda fearful now – whether “the new rules” contributes to that I don’t know, I’m not a psychiatrist.
https://www.k12academics.com/school-shootings/history-school-shootings-united-states
JK/AR –
I grew up hunting also. But those were kinder & gentler times. I recollect that there were no AR-15s around then. They weren’t sold to the general public until the late 80s or early 90s. Maybe a few gun collectors had them or had AK-47s or other hi-capacity military weapons.
I would not own one, as they are nothing but ugly plastic crap as far as I can see. They are damned hideous compared to a good elk or deer rifle. To each his own I guess. I’ve got nothing against any non-criminal and sane person that wants to own one. But the liability and expense of the damage they have done to our schoolchildren is largely endured by the general public and the family of victims. Why not transfer the financial burden onto manufacturers, dealers, owners? Why should you and I pay for fortifying our nations school buildings? Let communities, counties or states tax these weapons appropriately. If we pay annual fees on cars to the local DMV perhaps it is time to pay annual fees on this type of weapons to the local school board?
Or… If you and I or our communities are absolutely averse to taxes, then let the insurance companies in on the action. Why should LaPierre and the NRA and the bought politicians get all the big bucks from the gun industry? Make liability insurance on guns obligatory just like liability insurance on cars. I’m sure the actuaries of the insurance companies can assess the risk of a gun buyer better than a federal bureaucrat. Would it make an AR-15 or a 9mm pistol with a large magazine more expensive than a shotgun or a revolver? Yes, I’m sure it would. So what?
Several things come to mind Leith
“But the liability and expense of the damage they have done to our schoolchildren is largely endured by the general public and the family of victims.”
Ironic isn’t it Leith you employ the word “they” have done – tho I’d suppose correctly speaking it was actually a “they” who committed the acts. Just like the drunk drove the Ford truck (and many many other makes and models) who careered into my sister, among many others, killing them it would be appropriate from this point forward to recover from the automobile industry when one of “their” vehicles is involved in a fatal vehicle crash? (Leaving aside that “our” insurance rates would surely all rise?)
Are you familiar with the Remington Model 552 .22 [LR] which tubular magazine holds – if memory serves (tho’ Dad always advised, to save the spring, less) 15 cartridges, 16 if there’s a cartridge chambered. 552s have been around since at least when I turned 14. … Oh and as I recall too, a 552 utilizing .22 shorts, a significantly larger capacity – and no less lethal in such situations?
“Make liability insurance on guns obligatory just like liability insurance on cars.”
Actually many law abiding gun owners already have that coverage – though, to my knowledge I’m unaware of a single criminal [shooting] murderer to have had such a coverage card with ’em at the scene of the [already] criminal action.
So to avoid aching my arthritic fingers typing overly:
https://areaocho.com/my-thoughts-on-uvalde/
https://areaocho.com/timeline/
I don’t mean to Leith, sound like I’m taking what happened in this latest glibly but I for one sure would be happy to know how that unemployed teenager came to be carrying around near $8000+ in shooting gear and who knows how much $ worths of automobile (adequately insured I’m sure) he drove to get there.
Make my trips to the gas station and grocery store less onerous I can tell you.
But getting back to serious Leith – in my first comment I began “Something” is different.”
Let’s suppose for a moment our experts – I nominate Fauci – figure out what that “something” is and then ban that.
JK/AR –
Not familiar with your model 552. As a boy I learned to shoot with an Stevens 22/410 over/under. An old breech loader, older than me and I hope to see 80 this year. If I didn’t hit that squirrel with the first shot, I’d have to wait hours before I saw him or another one again. So why would I need 14 more preloaded rounds? Wish I still had it.
So if you don’t like to tax guns, and you don’t like obligatory liability insurance for all, here is another idea pulled out of my backside: A mandatory co-signer. Like in the loan business, or in the bail/bond business. Never mind. That’ll never fly. I can already hear your areaocho guy screaming at me.
Leith,
“So if you don’t like to tax guns, and you don’t like obligatory liability insurance for all”
I wasn’t clear apparently. All of those near me – excepting the one inherited – were taxed. It’s admittedly true I didn’t especially “like” the tax (seeing as the income was taxed in the first place, the classes for the licensing likewise, the gas tax to get to the classes, my truck’s tags [renewed yearly + property tax] But Yippee! as I’m sufficiently into my government decreed “golden years” the *contribution toward the general revenue fund for the privilege of license renewal, that tax was waived, Tho’ I’m near certain I’ve skipped some other tax itemizing but life and blog-commenting are fleeting).
Up above I described the Uvalde murderer [murdering: there’s a law against that] as ‘unemployed’ turns out the kid flipped burgers at a fast food joint – Still I do remain curious that fast food places pay so good as to allow an individual intent on breaking so many existing laws could nevertheless, acquire $8000+ worth of kit for his criminal [and there’s existing laws prohibiting er, ‘criminalship’ too] career.
Didn’t that murderer know he was gonna be breaking a whole bunch of existing laws?!!! Why the gall of that murderer! (Maybe they should pass a law against having such gall too – I’m confident a law against gall will deter where so many other ‘law[s] against ______’ have so miserably failed to deter).
So far as the “obligatory insurance” goes, as I’m pretty sure I already mentioned there’s companies offering such packages – which one must presume since the companies are, there must be purchasers of the offered policies.
(The media/authorities haven’t yet released which company covered the murdering SOB so I guess we’ll just needs be patienter to find out what the murderer’s premiums were.)
“[A]nother idea pulled out of my backside: A mandatory co-signer. Like in the loan business, or in the bail/bond business.”
Now that Leith, I’d be interested in hearing [reading] you expand on – Maybe *we could resurrect Bear Stearnes and have them get their experts – in consultation with the proper committees of course – to come up with some more laws that finally, criminals will obey.
JK/AR –
I’ll pass on expounding that thought. As I said it won’t go anywhere. As for criminals and murderers you are right. But despite that, it ain’t about them, it’s about our kids.
But you are arguing with the wrong guy. I don’t want to ban AR-15s and other weapons like that. I just want to make it harder to get for bozos and murderers that Wayne LaPierre in his $5000 suits seems OK with. As far as I’m concerned any sane and law abiding citizen stupid enough to buy one can have all he wants. I wouldn’t take a free one. I still have a case of red arse against McNamara for saddling us with that “failure-to-extract” M16 piece of crap that caused too many good GIs and Jarheads to go home in body bags.
Excellent idea for liability insurance for guns. Those Meal Team 6 guys that want to play soldier can fork up the dough and unbalanced 18 year olds won’t have the cash for the insurance.
Speaking of SRW, those Meal Team Six guys “soldiering on” there’re events coming onto the scene even as we speak. For instance, run this discussion (Viva Frei a Canadian lawyer and Robert Barnes, US lawyer – Barnes represented that Nick Sandmann of the Covington Kids Saga: beat the dickens outta CNN WaPo et al)
Anyway run this up to the 1:03:21 timestamp and proceed from there, I’d recommend headphones:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc1S0PGGA6k
(If one is interested, Barnes is also representing a fellow suing Pfizer over some … oh “whoppers” I suppose we could charitably call ’em and that discussion immediately precedes the firearms discussion. I didn’t though, bother to check the exact time that airtime began as it isn’t the subject to hand.)
The power to tax, and mandatory insurance is such (we’ll have to get a clarification on this from Roberts though), is the power to destroy. The gov’t has no authority to destroy a constitutional right that belongs to you. I have a simpler idea. After an unnecessarily expensive public trial take this little bastard out to a public square and scalp him, pull his flesh off bit by bit, and toast his remains while alive. Do this again and again to those who kill others regardless of the instruments they use. This would have a significant moderating affect on the minds of potential murderers. That is all.
“This would have a significant moderating affect on the minds of potential murderers.”
No, that would not, it is not the harshness of the punishment which is a deterrent, it is the certainty of it.
This has been seriously, statistically studied, and medieval quartering wasn’t much dissuasive, was it?
JLD,
“This has been seriously, statistically studied, and medieval quartering wasn’t much dissuasive, was it?”
However statistically the studies were studied I, personally would posit that, a “quartered [individual]” would be highly unlikely to’ve been charged with the same “offense”? And, probably, that so quartered to’ve been “dissuaded” to have repeated whatever got that [individual] quartered in the first place?
I mean – even though I’m from Arkansas (ignorant though we may be) There’s individuals “we” hold up as exemplars:
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/carlos-norman-gunny-hathcock-ii-2630/
(I was personally acquainted with Carlos incidentally – my cousin’s VN serving USMC husband having “come of age in the same neighborhood” – coaching me how to o the same damn thing. … ‘Leith’ above “schooling me” which I reckon I can handle – Leith being “senior” to myself …
At any rate, Carlos was particularly admiring of Remington’s Model 552.
Perhaps I’ve mis-placed this blog-comment offering but then again, the “answer” contended some really abusive stuff.
(Leith above pointing out “If I missed” which Leith doesn’t really – if there was, obviously, a chance of missing, the .410 if [reasonably certain] the .22.)
“The Reasoning” for all that stuff is beyond mine. I suppose “they” suppose they’re God-Like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=452XjnaHr1A
Which I suppose, all in all, winds up exactly as it does wind up.
But happy Memorial Day anyway.
It could’ve, though it didn’t wind up, Happy Decoration Day.
“Happy” notwithstanding.
Got out of H.S. in ’64. They had guns back then. My uncle always took my brother and cousin hunting. Every year it seemed, I was still too little. I never got to go. Inanimate objects, the guns have not changed. People have. I too am not a psychiatrist but I have my opinions on what has changed. My best friend tells me the problem w/me is I am stuck in ’59. I tell him “thanks.”
Fourteen short years ago.
Sergeant First Class David Nunez, 3rd Bn, 7th SFG(A).
KIA in Shewan, Farah Province, Afghanistan 29 May 2008.
The fighting had started in Kanesk on the morning of 28 May, southwest on the highway from Shewan, and lasted over 24 hours. As the hours passed, more Taliban had arrived to the battle, ordered to reinforce their comrades fighting in Kanesk.
The last time I saw Dave Nunez alive was shortly before his death, in Kanesk. His element went northeast on the highway, mine went southwest. I would see him again when I recovered his fallen remains in the darkness hours later.
Captain Garrett “Tubes” Lawton, 2nd MSOB, USMC, was wounded at the time of Dave’s death, trying to vain to reach Dave. Tubes was killed in the same manner as Dave a little over two months later, a bit to the north in the Zerikoh Valley.
Master Sergeant Aaron “T” Torian was also in that little battle of 28-29 May 2008. T was KIA in 2014 in Afghanistan.
I will never forget these men, and the honor that is mine to have served alongside them. It is all I have left of that war other than my scars.
De Oppresso Liber and Semper Fidelis.
That is all.
Dear JMG..
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about your brothers-in-arms, KIA in a foreign country that is mainly unknown by your fellow citizens.
I sincerely hope that you treasure your memories of them and that this brings some hope into your heart as your retelling of them bring hope into my heart even though I do not know you or them.
Thanks..
RobW
Tomorrow morning my town will have its Memorial Day Parade. Knees are gone, so I can’t march. I’ll ride in the old guys convertible and say a silent prayer for all vets, from Lexington onward who gave their lives up for American independence.
From a recent speech by Lavrov: https://mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/1815032/
At the last meeting, the cultural diplomacy of the regions was discussed. The adopted recommendations made it possible to give a new impetus to international humanitarian relations of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, to expand the geography and circle of partners (our republics, regions and territories). However, since then the situation has changed: the West has declared total war on us, and on the entire Russian world. This is no longer hidden by anyone. The “cancellation culture” of Russia and everything connected with our country comes to the point of absurdity. Under the ban of the classics: P.I. Tchaikovsky, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, A.S. Pushkin. Workers of national culture are also persecuted
and the arts that represent our culture today.
It is safe to say that this situation will be with us for a long time. We must be prepared for the fact that it has revealed the true attitude of the West to those beautiful slogans put forward thirty years ago after the end of the Cold War about universal values, about the need to “build” a united Europe as a “common home” from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Now we see what the price of these phrases is.
Leith,
I don’t relish arguing with fellows I, for the most part think, I’m basically in agreement with.
I’ve had this same experience – blog-commenting – over on a UK blogger’s site through some years past. Interestingly perhaps (for you Friend Leith) the most unpleasant ‘backs and forths’ weren’t with the [former] Para host but rather a fellow [US] countryman who only, as it turned out – “happened to make acquaintance” with his ‘across the street neighbor’ who, as luck would have it, turned out to be a retired Indiana State Trooper …
To tell you the God’s Truth Leith I for one don’t much think these “blog-comment-arguments” are .. or likely can be .. productive. (That’s why and hereon especially as it’s Walrus posted this! I abandoned ship arguing whatever “merits” there was or, were ever gonna be, over the ‘Covid Debate’ … such as it was.
If one tended to, however it manifested, argue “For!” – Whatever those opining “Against!” the opinions/beliefs appeared, at least to me, set in stone – With the result that this community suffered unnecessarily unproductive.
And, it seems to me, Colonel Lang isn’t one to host for, unproductive.
(Of course this is, inarguably, undeniably – debate off-limits – Colonel Lang’s “home” and we all visitors must agree to his ‘house rules’ – however we frequent visitors see there’s … uhm … ‘leeway’ in what’s beyond the pale? (Getting banned in other words.)
Not arguing at all Leith Debate itself isn’t useful, enlightening, productive &c, it’s just that blog-commenting can only go so far. And in the end, ‘We either is Friends or We Ain’t.’
Better I think We is. (But that’s a debate for another day.)
So. In the immediate I think (though I’m betting the vested interests; pols of every stripe of course, lobbyists, pension-waiting-bureaucrats definitely disagreeing) Debate on this ‘Firearms Stuff’ is doomed to be unproductive.
Man Overboard!
(Don’t bother fellows, he’s left the CO2 cartridges on his rack and taken three days bread and water. Over & Out.)
JK/AR –
We is! As far as I’m concerned anyway.