Image is from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ recent article on Kashmir.
It looks like the spat between India and Pakistan could be dying down, due to a new ceasefire. As of the time of me writing this paragraph, it seems both sides want to maintain it (despite some reports of violations here and there).
Both sides have declared victory, which is completely expected given their mutual political parties and nationalist histories. It’s a little harder to say which side has actually won, as both sides seem to have managed to shoot down aircraft and hit military bases. India has, in my opinion, had the more embarrassing moments, but international conflicts aren’t cringe compilations. I feel no good-will towards Pakistan’s comprador government, but it is at least nice to see Modi knocked down a few pegs. Regardless of the final technical victor, it’s obvious that - if the ceasefire is maintained - who won are the hundreds of millions of people who won’t have to live in fear of dying in nuclear hellfire.
This conflict is a good example of what multipolarity will truly entail. Countries that have been previously limited in their nationalist ambitions by American pressure will now take opportunities to revolt, sometimes against America itself, and sometimes against other countries in their regional neighbourhood. It’s also why, as communists, our goals do not stop at multipolarity; it is merely the establishing act of a new era of agitation against peripheral and semi-peripheral capitalist countries that are forming powerful national bourgeoisie classes as the international American capitalists are forced away.
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.
Lmfao the first F-35 going down to a hilux-launched R-60, or better yet a Chinese-made MANPADS wouldve had Boeing going for Trump’s scalp before we stopped laughing about it
Yemeni ground based air defences are more advanced than Hilux launched R-60s. When I say it’s rudimentary, I mean that Yemen lacks the high level specialised systems like Bavar-373/Patriot/S-300, and the latest mobile point defence systems like Tor and Pantsir, which countries like Ukraine and Iran have, not that the air defence network is bad, they still have many systems. Many of Yemen’s air defence systems are quite similar to the “frankenSAMs” that Ukraine uses. I’ll provide images below:
Yemen has Thaqib-1, a ground launched R-73 system, equivalent to the ground launched ASRAAM Raven system in Ukraine:
Raven system:
Thaqib-1:
Yemen has Thaqib-2, a ground launched R-27, equivalent to Gravehawk systems in Ukraine armed with AIM-9L or R-27s (Gravehawk is mainly used with R-73s).
Indian Samar-2, very similar to Gravehawk:
Thaqib-2:
Yemen also has Thaqib-3, a ground launched R-77, equivalent to the NASAMS system in Ukraine armed with AIM-120s.
NASAMS:
Thaqib-3:
Good article compiling most available information
When this is combined with passive ground based infrared search and track systems (Sephyr 14 for example) for cueing the infrared seekers on the R-27 and R-73, and the active radar seeker on the R-77, you can get a potent short range air defence system (SHORAD) that’s mostly passive, relying on minimal radar inputs to tell you where to focus your infrared searching. This is how a Ukrainian unmanned surface vessel shot down a Russian Su-30 with an AIM-9.
While Yemen were not able to shoot down any US aircraft directly, they were able to force them into uncomfortable positions.
Insane thing to throw in at the end there. “Hey Saudi Arabia, our massive bombing campaign isn’t doing shit, can you go boots on the ground?”
W Omani officials
Would’ve helped if they actually targeted Houthi infrastructure instead of civilian infrastructure.
Bombing a cement factory, a migrant detention facility, and a civilian airport: “why aren’t the militants’ capabilities degraded???”
The US sure showed Yemen why they don’t have free healthcare (because they are a decaying empire that doesn’t care about it’s people).
Congrats on the Yemeni people’s second victory, and I hope they are preparing for the inevitable third.