"The 1980's are calling to ask for their foreign policy back."

The Houthis are supported by Iran, North Korea, Hezbollah and Syria. There are very few "Good Guys", in this conflict, unfortunately.

Zelenskyy visits Turkey for first time since Russia's invasion, says Erdogan told him Ukraine "has earned right to" NATO candidacy. Erdogan reiterates call for peace talks w/Russia & says he spoke about additional prisoner swaps with Putin who will visit Turkey in next month

https://twitter.com/aylajean/status/1677431492899741696

Oh shit! If accurate this is big.

Now Orban… :/

IMO Ukraine is in an existential conflict right now, so the issue of UXO should probably take a back seat to actually having the land to clear once the war is over.

Also, when I saw today that we're sending them, I had the thought that since Ukraine will be the ones using the weapons (instead of having them used on them), if they can keep records of where they were expended it would help in any postwar cleanup. I mean, they should know the grid squares where they were fired/dropped which would be a good start for checking for UXO.

I appear to have been wrong about this.

I don't think we can count on any particular weapon we send to Ukraine only being used in Ukraine. At some point, they might have to take Belgorod or Rostov-on-Don to trade if they can't seize Crimea by force.

Ukraine could still record the targeting location in case they felt like helping out once the war is over. If not,

We could ask them to trade notes after. Ukraine tell the Muscovites every place they used cluster munitions and the Muscovites do the same.

I mean I doubt Russia will do that, but sure, that could work on Ukraine's side. The longer this war goes on the less likely it is by the end of it that a government that knows where the bombs were dropped ends up in charge in Russia.

Oh FFS. Is it more than a few months since the US and NATO were referring Russias use of cluster munitions to war crimes investigations? Another one for the memory hole. Or is this more whataboutery?

Fuck Orbán

At this point that is just a given.

See, Rick, in wars people try to win, the first casualty is truth, and when the other side has been using cluster bombs specifically to attack your civilian population and routinely fires unguided missiles into your cities you respond the best you are capable of.

The invaders escalated using cluster bombs at least 16 times to strew Ukrainian villages and cities with bombs, killing over 250 civilians to this point, per the UN.

What's more, neither the Ukrainians, Russians, or Americans have signed off on the cluster bomb ban.

And international law in a time of warfare has always been a joke. If Ireland wants to go over and throw Putin in jail for his many, many crimes be my guest. Ireland won't, and the Ukrainians will keep on dying until they throw Russia out of their country.

Use of cluster munitions against civilian populations is a war crime. Using them on military targets is not.

Russia is doing the former. Ukraine will be doing the latter.

Putin and his generals will certainly be glad to hear that. If that's the position the maybe we should stop the investigations into what they've been doing.

No, bureaucrats need jobs, too. Though having the ICC in Europe after 500 years of colonial ravages is also a joke. A bad one.

Regardless, Putin and his cronies won't be able to be actually tried unless the Russian government itself collapses, and certainly not while the war is going on.

So yes, during wartime, it's a joke. It can't happen until the war is resolved.

In the meantime, I credit Ukraine responding to Russia's invasion, genocide, and use of cluster munitions in quite a different category than Russia's involvement. Trying to equate the two is assinine.

https://twitter.com/euromaidanpr/status/1677660805926383616?s=46&t=iYW3foyqIA6Tn8VWwn3nwQ

Piece about the nuke plant the Russians are threatening to blow up. The short of it is that because of steps taken shortly after the war started, if the Russians do blow the place up, it won't be good, but it won't be nearly as bad as Chornobyl.

https://twitter.com/tatarigami_ua/status/1677747805325017088?s=46&t=iYW3foyqIA6Tn8VWwn3nwQ

On the 500th day of the war, Zelenskyy traveled to Snake Island.

https://twitter.com/zelenskyyua/status/1677576286598823936?s=46&t=iYW3foyqIA6Tn8VWwn3nwQ

Putin's $74M Private Train 'Sacrificed' Security For Luxury Trimmings

If they're releasing this publicly, they're trying to box Putin in. Doesn't matter if their info about his train is correct or not, he knows that we're talking about it. He's already said to be paranoid as fuck, and as ex-KGB, he knows that we've got a reason to be talking about it. The question is what? And if the stuff published in that article isn't merely accurate, but could have only come from someone very close to Putin, what then?

Ukraine gets some Polish helicopters.

https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1677947973768998913?s=46&t=iYW3foyqIA6Tn8VWwn3nwQ

Fucking surreal to see Pixar’s Cars in that context.

https://twitter.com/thomasvlinge/status/1678014640079482881?s=46&t=iYW3foyqIA6Tn8VWwn3nwQ

It wasn't that many posts back that people were clearly explaining that the biggest issue with cluster munitions is high failure rate, and that the US made munitions have a much, much lower failure rate than the ones Russia has been using. Not to mention Russia intentionally launching them into civilian populated areas, while Ukraine would be targeting the Russian military.

But I guess it's easier to ignore the differences if it gives you a chance to say "America/Americas allies are bad," right?

Who’s good at memeing?



Can someone edit this to be Rick’s avatar and not the slavers flag and the text to say: Who were they using cluster munitions on?

Is it difficult to keep track of your rationalisations? It also isn't many posts back that you (lauded by the others now commending the restraint with which cluster munitions will now be used) were actually advocating the intentional mass murder of civilians. I'm sure you're very keen on holding people to account here.

But never mind that most of your allies are against it. Anything goes in war, lies are the truth and none of this matters other than as a means to achieve your aims.

That's another oversimplification. Not all bad things are the same, you know.

I was actually somewhat concerned when I saw the headlines, but the information provided by folks here that know more than either of us put those concerns to rest.

You mean the Ukrainian people not getting genocided by Russia? How dare those beet eating assholes not sit down and let themselves to exterminated in an orderly fashion. So inconsiderate.

On today’s GPS Biden tells Fareed that the Dud Rate of the cluster munitions we are sending to Ukraine is 1.5% and will only be used on military targets.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fareed-zakaria-gps/id377785090

Compare to the >35% Dud Rate of Russian cluster munitions. Which they are using on civilian population centers.

Because if Biden says it, it must be true.

https://www.businessinsider.com/cluster-bombs-us-ukraine-fail-30-percent-of-the-time-2023-7

Did you read the article or just the headline?

Because it is quoting a 23 year old report that was using even older data and older munitions.

The Dud Rate of what we dropped on Laos HALF A CENTURY AGO which the article references isn’t really that useful.

It quotes numerous reports, including one that's a year old. None of them support Biden's claim.