Historic Ukrainian cathedral badly damaged in Russian strikes
The Russian Ministry of Defense denied targeting the cathedral and said it carried out attacks on where “terrorist acts” were being prepared. “All targets scheduled for attack were destroyed,” a statement added.
Historic Ukrainian cathedral badly damaged in Russian strikes
Related:
South Africa’s support for Russia after its invasion of Ukraine has incensed some in Washington.
Inside the Desperate Diplomatic Efforts to Salvage U.S.-South Africa Ties
A bunch of current headlines are scary:
Much Ado About Nothing
A new investigation reveals the extent of the CIA’s involvement in the war in Ukraine, where the agency operates clandestinely in what, under a formal declaration of war, would be the domain of the military. We’re joined on the show by the author of the investigation, William Arkin, a national security reporter and senior editor at Newsweek, who says that the CIA has “got its hand in a little bit of everything” in Ukraine. According to various sources, the CIA is shuttling weapons into Ukraine using a “gray fleet” of commercial aircraft that crisscrosses Central and Eastern Europe, sending personnel into Ukraine on secret missions and assisting Ukrainians with new weapons and systems, all while using Poland as its clandestine hub to coordinate its operations inside the country. At the same time, the U.S.’s
William Arkin: CIA Is Playing “Outsize Role” in Ukraine Despite Biden Pledge Not to Send U.S. Forcesnonalignedstatus appears to place a limit on its intelligence, keeping it in the dark on both Zelensky and Putin’s next moves.
Related:
The CIA’s Blind Spot about the Ukraine War
My takeaways:
By giving Ukraine cluster bombs, the US is admitting that it’s OK to kill civilians
The estimated dud rate is disputable. According to the Congressional Research Service, “There appear to be significant discrepancies among failure rate estimates. Some manufacturers claim a submunition failure rate of 2% to 5%, whereas mine clearance specialists have frequently reported failure rates of 10% to 30%. A number of factors influence submunition reliability. These include delivery technique, age of the submunition, air temperature, landing in soft or muddy ground, getting caught in trees and vegetation, and submunitions being damaged after dispersal, or landing in such a manner that their impact fuzes fail to initiate.”
The United States has a huge stockpile of cluster munitions — 4.7 million containing hundreds of millions of bomblets — that it is dusting off to deliver to Ukraine after a “difficult decision” by President Joe Biden.
The U.S. last used these munitions in its military excursion in Afghanistan. Trouble was that the little bombs resembled in color and shape the humanitarian aid packets that the U.S. dropped from planes. This confusion, which obviously left many civilians maimed or dead, led to the curtailment of cluster bombs for our next military adventure.
This did not stop Israel from using cluster bombs in its 2006 campaign against Hezbollah forces in Lebanon. According to a March 2022 Congressional Research Service report, Israel used them in the “last 3 days of the 34-day war after a U.N. cease-fire deal had been agreed to — resulting in almost 1 million unexploded cluster bomblets to which the U.N. attributed 14 deaths during the conflict.” Israel’s use of the bombs “supposedly affected 26% of southern Lebanon’s arable land and contaminated about 13 square miles with unexploded submunitions. One report states that there was a failure rate of upward of 70% of Israel’s cluster weapons,” the agency said.
Related:
Li Tang “Henry” Liang, a hotel worker active in his Boston local union, was suspended from his job after being indicted on federal charges
Chinese-American worker and activist arrested for advocating for peace between US and China
“My country, the U.S., is unrecognizable. I’m not sure who runs the country. I do not believe it is the president.”, says Jeffrey Sachs in a speech at a Saving Humanity and Planet Earth (SHAPE) seminar, Melbourne, Australia. “U.S. actions are putting us on a path to war with China in the same way that U.S. actions did in Ukraine.”
An Asia-Pacific NATO: Fanning the Flames of War
Related:
YouTube: An Asia Pacific NATO: Fanning the Flames of War
The US should be very careful about what it promises to do for Ukraine
- US shouldn’t support or extend a security guarantee — through NATO or bilaterally — to Ukraine.
- Doing so would endanger US national security and increase the odds of a direct clash with Russia.
- Daniel L. Davis is a senior fellow at Defense Priorities and a retired US Army lieutenant colonel.
Related:
Why NATO Won’t Back Automatic Membership For Ukraine
It is understandable that Zelensky passionately desires to join NATO. But the alliance is composed of 31 current members and their individual and collective needs must be considered in equal amounts to the desires of the Ukrainian president. The harsh truth is that there is no viable path to a military victory for Ukraine, now or in the foreseeable future, regardless of how many planes, tanks, and missiles the West may contribute.
The Ukraine conflict is empowering the Alliance.
The NATO mindset leads to war
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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