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streamfortyseven's avatar

MacGregor, like Carlson and the rest of that crowd (Ehret, Lira, numerous other conservo-Stalinists) seem to take their talking points directly from the Russian Foreign Ministry. Their source of funding is probably the rather large cadre of midwits whose "analysis" comes from hating whatever Biden is for - the reflexive reaction of four-year-olds - "No!" ... The bias is soon apparent. A good pretty neutral source is this guy - https://www.youtube.com/@militaryandhistory A recent example - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tKV0SLrQ0I

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Graham Seibert's avatar

Thanks for the link to militaryandhistory. Pretty level headed guy. Other readers, take note.

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Thomas Pierce's avatar

On a separate note, my god how could you have the perseverance to collect all those vides, even just the titles. I couldn't sit through one of MacGregor's diatribes.

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Graham Seibert's avatar

It made my point. The guy is unhinged. I just added something I found from February 2022. Is he wrong, or what?

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/watch-fox-reporter-scolds-col-macgregor-for-sounding-like-a-putin-apologist

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Thomas Pierce's avatar

I often disagree with Trey Gowdy, but I like him as an individual. Everybody forgets that Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and others, like Finland and Sweden this year, joined NATO voluntarily and for one reason only, because they feared Putin. The invasion of Ukraine justifies all of their actions and the actions of NATO. If Russia was a friendly nation, they would not have to fear NATO. There was once talk of Russia joining it too, but Putin is a 70s KGB type and he sees the world in those eyes, as a grand cold war conflict between Russia and the west. If Putin used carrots instead of weapons, he might have gotten what he wanted, but he knows only intimidation and force.

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HardeeHo's avatar

Another who is convinced that Russia will conquer the world with their better society is https://simplicius76.substack.com. Sadly without air power the combined arms stuff becomes less useful and in a world with instant intelligence, surprise is not easy. So finding a weak point and committing major force can be met with near immediate counter force - the war of maneuver speed is not possible. Accordingly Ukraine must defeat defense in depth by slogging it out. Their efforts to interdict supplies, "deep" attack, is hard without aircraft who act as long range artillery. But aided by solid intel Ukraine is using what longer range gear to deny Russia resupply.

MacGregor, et all, misses the morale advantage - Ukrainian troops are on home turf and fight for their families. Russians are fighting to avoid pain. I think their way of fighting via artillery declines a lot without resupply. Longer range precision weapons help Ukraine a lot but the US is dragging its feet for some reason.

Greenwald points to opinion polls that suggest more are not happy about funding Ukraine, more R's than D's. There is a need for counter propaganda to explain how well Ukraine is doing despite the lack of an apparent success of the offense that was to defeat Russia in one huge victory. We all want this war to end but appeasement had led to past world war and that needs to be pointed out to the public. The easy way out may not end the conflict. Russia must admit defeat by declaring that Nazis have been removed and they were victorious.

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Masaki Fujii's avatar

As you say, any war needs the moral advantage that most of the common people of today uphold, for the people to be in solidarity. But it can also be due to false propaganda as well as the Cov19 war. For example, in Japan, there was no WEB in the 1940s, and there were almost no telephones in Japan.Raw information from abroad was controlled by the then military government. So the justification put forward by the military was to liberate Asia from the colonies of the West. After the end of the war, it is believed that the real intention of the military was to rob colonies and to control the resources of Asia. Ironically, this liberational goal was achieved to some extent contrary to the military intentions of the time.The United States also occasionally puts up false just causes, but Putin's cause was selfish, outdated and crude. Ukraine, under attack by Putin, gathered most of its people with the morale advantage that naturally springs from the people. Countries that have reached a certain point support Ukraine, with the exception of nations and nations that are sorely behind in culture and civilization. This is because they feel that if they go back in time, they will be harmed as well. I am one of them.

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BelleStarr13's avatar

I’m scrolling down to comment and will go back and read your examples. Just here to say the first time I heard him interviewed I raised my eyebrows and dismissed him as not reliable. Thank you for validating my reaction! I sooo dismissed him, I don’t remember what he said that set off my antennae.

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Thomas Pierce's avatar

I had been following the New Zealand Doctor (also on substack) for a while, until we got into a dispute over Ukraine. He claimed at one point that I needed a good source and recommended Douglas MacGregor. I had heard the name, but not paid much attention. Then, I took a look at a couple of videos from the beginning of the war when MacGregor was predicting an easy victory for Russia and then stated that Russia should take off the gloves and really hit Ukraine hard. He claimed that the Russians were too kind to civilians, too gentle to the Ukrainian people. I thought that this guy is a madman. Of course, he appeared on RT and other objectionable programs. In retrospect, it appears that McGregor has been wrong about everything. He is definitely on Team Russia and advocates for a full blown Russian victory in the war. Hardly, objective reporting about any aspect of the war. Let it be known that I unsubscribed to the New Zealand doctor and no longer read his columns. If his source is MacGregor, then he needs to see a shrink, but wait, he is a shrink. He needs to visit another shrink who can direct him away from madness.

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SacredCowPies's avatar

"Oddly, the pro-Russian military bloggers in Russia itself are more objective. They are more inclined to call Russian setbacks in this war for what they are."

My favorite is Roloslavskiy.substack.com. The man has a passion for Russia. Goes into the weeds sometimes i.e. beyond my pay grade.

Edwardslavsquat.substack.com is also true journalism.

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Graham Seibert's avatar

Edward quotes Rolo sometimes. Yes, both are worth reading. Both are properly contemptuous of those deserving of contempt - on both sides.

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CR's avatar

https://open.substack.com/pub/roloslavskiy?r=1cz7aq&utm_medium=ios

Rolo’s writing is a different take entirely. Pro- Russian but critical of the job they are doing. He’s Ukrainian-American and younger than most other war bloggers. Check him out.

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Graham Seibert's avatar

Thanks. This post is a small reservoir of differing opinions. Always useful.

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Ulana Irène's avatar

Great commentary. You were determined to go to the N’th degree to prove your point on McGregor posts. I’ll take your word for it.

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SacredCowPies's avatar

Graham are you familiar with Brendan Lee O'connell? Israel's worldwide control over critical cyber infrastructure is his focus. He just got kicked off youtube.com recently for the nth time and only has got his patreon account. Humbly suggest googging for some his mirrored vids on bitchute or oddessy.

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Masaki Fujii's avatar

Looking at Mr. D.Macgregor's career, it seems that he was competent in tactics as a soldier. I think he thought he was competent and worthy of the top rank in the army. But he didn't. He was good at tactics, but he wasn't good at strategy? It is possible that the anthrax vaccine may also have an effect on the nervous system. Or as is usual in the United States, money may be involved.

Even so, do I have any doubts about his amazing number of posts? ? ? 🤔🤔🤔

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Thomas Pierce's avatar

In this way, MacGregor is like Putin, who was not promoted to General in the KGB because his superiors evaluated him as a bad strategist. They said specifically that he took big risks, risks that could not be justified. Enough said about these madmen.

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