Image is a map of the Western Sahara, sourced from this article in the Middle East Eye. Much of the information in the preamble also came from there, as well as this article.
November 6th marked the 50th anniversary of Morocco, under King Hassan II, beginning the invasion and occupation of much of the territory of the Western Sahara. Today, approximately 80% of the territory of the Western Sahara is controlled by Morocco, with the Polisario Front - the government of the Sahrawis - controlling the rest, hugging the border of Mauritania. Between them lies one of the longest walls and one of the largest minefields on the planet, of which construction began in the 1980s.
The legitimacy of Morocco’s control over the Western Sahara is one of those long-lasting diplomatic issues which ultimately doesn’t seem to matter very much in terms of on-the-ground realities, and reveals the eternal uselessness of the United Nations especially in regard to actually helping oppressed people. Up until about 2020, the US and certain other Western countries did not formally recognize Morocco as having sovereignty over the whole territory, but in terms of providing genuine opposition to Morocco, it seems that Algeria is the major player in the region. While American, European, and Moroccan corporations exploit the fisheries and phosphate minerals of the region, protected by their minefields (and claims of merely advancing the cause of renewable energy development, AKA greenwashing), Algeria provides what aid they can to support the displaced Sahrawi people, many of whom have been forced to live in refugee camps.
On October 31st, the US put forward a resolution in the UN Security Council which was adopted (Russia and China abstained) and provided major support to Morocco, urging the Polisario Front to adopt the 2007 “autonomy plan”, which would, despite its name, be synonymous with an end to their independence movement. Such a plan was met with much jubilation in Morocco, with King Mohammed VI remarking "From now on, there will be a before and an after October 31, 2025.” Such a date was also the catalyst for the PF intensifying their guerilla struggle against Morocco, as legal avenues for autonomy and basic human rights are running out as the imperialists grow more desperate.
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The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. 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.
The US won’t attack Venezuela until the Ukraine war has been effectively wound down, because the MIC can’t sustain Ukraine plus another war along the lines of what the US intends to do in Venezeula. Hence the push to make Ukraine take a deal.
Thoughts?
I disagree, because a lot of the munitions and assets that would be used in a Venezuela campaign are not relevant to Ukraine. It’s very likely, if it happens, going to be the same stuff that was used against Yemen earlier this year (JASSM, SLAM-ER, JDAM, JSOW, SDBs, launched from aircraft in Puerto Rico, bombers flying out of the continental USA, and the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier, and some Tomahawks from destroyers and cruisers). The US was capable of doing that against Yemen for months while Ukraine went on. The only thing in that list Ukraine use is SDBs for their F-16s. The current ground force contingent deployed is a couple thousand Marines and special forces units that can conduct an amphibious assault or limited operations to seize key territory/capture Maduro. It’s not a full on invasion force, though they could be supported by paratroopers from the continental USA.
What stretches the US MIC in Ukraine is stuff like PATRIOT interceptors, in reality they’ve not given Ukraine a ton of advanced stuff on the offensive side, they’ve given them a sizeable amount of advanced technology on the defensive end. The majority of Ukraine’s attacks on Russia use domestically produced drones and missiles right now, with the occasional Strom Shadow (Anglo French in origin) and now ATACMS. The biggest offensive contribution from US stocks was probably the 300 Bradley IFVs.
In other words, what is the Ukraine - Russia conflict primarily: an artillery and FPV drone war/slugfest with an almost static frontline, with long range strikes mixed in using one way attack drones and cruise/ballistic missiles. USA - Venezuela will not be that, because of the capabilities of both sides.
I also give the currently released Ukraine - Russia peace plan a low chance of going through. The publicly released version appears to a leak to Axios and Barak Ravid via Russian sources, with highly favourable terms towards Russia. As much as Trump is “tired” of the Ukraine war, I highly doubt other power brokers in the US and Europe let him push this through in it’s current state.
Not related, but this seems like it would be a PR disaster for the US. If they kill him, it might go like Gaddafi. If they push him out of power, it might go like Assad. If they capture him and imprison him in the US, they risk making him more like Mandela. It would just be such obvious political persecution, and because it would be ongoing it would risk staying in the news cycle for an incredibly long time / coming back into the news cycle regularly.
The US is probably using Panama as a template here, where they imprisoned Noriega after capturing him. Rubio and company likely believe it will be that easy.
Yes, but unlike Noriega, Maduro actually has supporters. The CIA had to kill Gen. Omar Torrijos bc they knew if they invaded Panama with him in power they would have to fight a long guerrilla war.
Venezuela is also massive compared with Panama.
The US also had a colony literally near the Panama Capital City
Was the assassination of Gaddafi an actual PR disaster, or is it something that only the victims of US imperialism and some leftists remember?
Yes, that’s exactly my point. He was murdered, and then it was over and out of the news cycle. They didn’t imprison him and put him on trial while Libya fell into chaos in the background over the course of months and years of news reporting.
Apologies, I read your comment backwards.
My understanding is that the US has already pulled much of its support to Ukraine for quite some time now. It’s left for Europe to take over the mess:
A lot of that European funding now is through the PURL-NATO initiative, which is the Europeans buying US weaponry for Ukraine. So yes, Europe is footing the entire bill now, but the US is still very much selling weapons to Ukraine. Just not for “free” anymore, and less than before. Same source as your graphic, Keil institute.
It also must be pointed out that as “foreign aid”, the Biden administration could vastly inflate the stated dollar value/price of the equipment they “gave” away, through scheming between the US federal government and defence companies. This is a lot more difficult to do with PURL scheme, where US defence companies have to sell directly to European nations as foreign military sales. Obviously corruption can still happen, but the Europeans are not going to pay the full “brand new” sticker price for used equipment, which the US federal government was happy to do, to inflate aid numbers for PR, and give more money to Raytheon or whoever.
Thanks for the explanation.