Fucking hell what a man, hope he pulls through. Just horrible times we live in.
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I wouldn’t feel too sorry for the passenger.
Allegedly.
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Take care guys
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How the fuck did the driver avoid sustaining serious injury?!
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Yeah, released from the hospital already, so that’s the best news. I wish all suicide bombers were exactly as successful as this one was. Kill themself and harm no one else. #betterworld.
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My wife knew this guy, Enzo, from the cathedral. He and another young guy “converted” to Christianity on a course she was involved with. She says he was quite shy but very smiley and pleasant. I remember at the time questioning their motives…
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The police have urged people who knew anything of him, no matter how small, to come forward.
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He truly deserves your country’s highest civilian award ! I often feel Great Britain throws around honours to privileged rich people who simply do charity work, as if it is mere candy, so it goes inflation in them, making it less meaningful than they should ideally be. But this, this is remarkable and deserving of only the loftiest of honours. I also hope he gets a very real economic compensation and further economic support. He must have expected to die…
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I am not alarmed. The danger of war was higher in April. Russia had more troops on Ukraine’s border then. There are also other factors making war less likely now, such as Nordstream 2 just opening. I doubt Russia wants to antagonise Germany during the period of the opening of Nordstream 2, since this would humiliate Germany and prove it’s detractors in NATO right. That would be silly geopolitical play and Putin isn’t silly.
I view the build up primarily as intimidation, to discourage any possible Ukrainian offensive against the separatists enclave. It is well known, that Ukraine wants to attack (for good reasons), they have built up offensive forces the last few months. It is then the Russian reaction to move forces large enough to crush such an offensive to the Ukrainian border, but I am quite sure these will only be activated in an offensive manner if Ukraine goes on the offensive in Donbas. Uncle Vladimir is a master of intimidation and “foul play”, but Kreml thinks these things through and don’t act without having a good plan.
But maybe I am wrong of course.
Edit: I guess Russia also may attack if substantial NATO forces move into Ukraine and Russia thinks there may be a risk that they could be there for the long term unless they act aggressively and “discourages” such deployments. That is a red line for Kreml, and they would maybe calculate that to humiliate NATO in Ukraine may have more positives than negatives in the long term for Russia. But that requires further provocative American moves. I think they know what is at risk, or I hope so at least. Status Quo in Ukraine is the best we can hope for realistically. (at current anyway).
Bastards.
Two nights ago they used strobe lights and lasers as shown here :
https://twitter.com/Den_2042/status/1459438760370884611
Playing the escalation game to escape sanctions, coordinated with Uncle Vladimir.
Edit: not calling the individual Belarussian soldiers bastards. They do as ordered and they can’t really disobey in any case.
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No, you were correct with your original description.
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German guards of the camps in Poland during WW2: bastards, or did they follow orders? Should they be absolved because of it? I’m in no way condemning people randomly as a whole, but there is a moment in which each individual’s conscience must play its role when given inhuman orders. This here looks more and more like scenes taken out of the worst possible concentration camps. Where is the limit?
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It is perfectly reasonable to refuse an order that would result in the inhumane treatment of the “enemy”. I am pretty sure part of the Geneva Convention refers to this. Soldiers can refuse orders if they feel they cross the line.
An order to commit a crime is unlawful. An order to perform a military duty, no matter how dangerous, is lawful as long as it doesn’t involve the commission of a crime.
Attacking unarmed civilians should and could be considered a crime.
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It’s not really possible in authoritarian regimes and I don’t judge individuals that low on the power pyramid without very good reason. This isn’t good enough reason imo and not really comparable to extermination camps and so on.
Because for us, it is so easy to sit and judge. If you grew up in Belarus, with state propaganda and nationalism, it is hard to say if you would go to prison for disobeying orders I think. Because your mind would have been shaped by living there and growing up there. Besides, the Belarus army is mainly conscripted by 18-20 year old. What 18 year old, having grown up in such a country, would really go to prison to avoid being conscripted ? I think we cannot judge such people as we judge ourselves, and certainly not judge them as if they had grown up in the West, where you can be a conscious objector and so on. And deny the direct orders of the KBG as an 18 year old surrounded by his own age group, group pressure also then comes into effect.
I will certainly not judge them, I judge the bastards higher up in the power pyramid a lot though.
Perspective is very important, I guess that is what I am trying to say.
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You are of course right, I don’t condemn these soldiers either. It was more of a reflection that for some of them, there must be a huge inner conflict. It’s not that long ago after all that there were hundreds of thousands in the streets to protest against that dictator ©°~†. Many must have been family and friends of these soldiers. And now they are asked to perform inhumane actions in the name of this abject regime.
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The dictatorship in Azerbadjan has launched an invasion of undisputed territories inside Armenia proper after an artillery barrage. Many Armenian soldiers are dead, some taken prisoner. Armenia has officially asked Russia for military assistance as a CTO power. I imagine Uncle Vladimir is disappointed with Alliev.
But I got to run now, will return to post some updates on this. I hope Russia militarily intervenes to crush the Azeri offensive and send them packing back to Baku, but I am not very hopeful this will be the case since Azerbadjan is a Russian “customer”.
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(this is no longer true, if it ever was, as the Azeris have advanced and killed several soldiers)
https://twitter.com/Caucasuswar/status/1460581849265319938 (this is an opening for NATO, unless Russia intervenes).
I fervently hope they won’t be butchered like many of the prisoners taken in the previous flare up were (many of them were filmed while being tortured, beheaded and etc., and one wonders what happened to those not “protected” by being filmed).
Please mr. Putin, do some good for once and crush the Azeri offensive.
Russia will likely do nothing though:
https://twitter.com/NeilPHauer/status/1460622826696814593 (will be butchered by well equipped Azeri army).
https://twitter.com/NeilPHauer/status/1460639201540595733 (little will come from such discussion, if that is all, Azerbadjan can do as they will).