Re: Fwd: : DAVID MCR ****Leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France Plan New Minsk Peace Talks
"'[email protected]' [email protected] [marxist]" <[email protected]> Tue, 10 Feb 2015 06:10:58 -0500
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----------MB_8D2133961FE72DC_1424_8AC2F_webmail-va211.sysops.aol.com Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" As I receive this message from David, I am in Kyiv, Ukraine, and have been = recently in Odessa. I will be writing this up in some detail later. But for now, I just want to report that much of what the left press says ab= out the Ukrainian situation is as inaccurate as what much of the mainstream= media says about it. I have been talking with people who were very deeply= involved in Maidan movement. It was truly a mass movement with mass suppor= t. All discussion of it as a "coup" is absurd--except perhaps in one sense= . AS IN ALL mass movements of this kind, whether Tahrir Square, or Russia i= n 1917, or France in 1848, the first government to come out of a revolution= (and that is the term some Kyiv participants use) is a conservative one. = In this case, many foreign governments also had some role. So it could be = seen as a coup against the revolution--but NOT against the former President= from the Party of the Regions. He was ousted by a mass movement. David's invocation of history is important, but it is also very much just a= piece of the story. In my travels in Ukraine since 2010, I have been very= much impressed by the extent to which Ukrainians view Russia as an imperia= l power. They remember the struggles in 1918 and after as mixed struggles = for independence and for socialism (and I would add that Lenin at least som= etimes agreed with them). They remember the early 1930s as a great starvat= ion imposed on them by the Russians.=20=20 When David discusses the horrors that WWII brought to Russia, he should add= that these same horrors took place in Ukraine. As did the alcoholism, dru= g use, AIDS etc. then resulted after the ruling bureaucracy fell apart in t= he late 1980s and early 1990s. Indeed, that is why I have been spending so= much time here (and some in Russia)--to help them cope with drug use, HIV,= hepatitis C and so forth. (I might add that the Russian take-over of Crim= ea led to a draconian cut-off of methadone and other programs, and this has= now spread to the fighting zones of the east. Many people have died of ov= erdose as a result--in part because drugs from Russia are getting there--an= d much suffering has occurred. This is not as dramatic as the fighting, bu= t should not be ignored--nor should the implications for gays and lesbians = in these locations. In terms of Putin and his actions, I think that invocations of the Russian = fears of attacks are certainly germane. But so are the Ukrainian similar fe= ars. But I think that the key issue for Putin has been his fear of the rev= olution spreading to Russia. His tactics, including keeping a limited thou= gh horrible war going in East Ukraine, have so far prevented the radicaliza= tion of the revolution that the IMF and European and US austerity demands m= ight otherwise have provoked. I will write more on all of this later. In writing this, I in no way want = to express anything but a friendly disagreement with David. He is a great = man indeed. And he has a proper respect for cats. best sam =20 =20 =20 -----Original Message----- From: 'Hunter Gray' [email protected] [marxist] <marxist@yahoogr= oups.com> To: bearwithoutborders <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, Feb 10, 2015 5:36 am Subject: [marxist] Fwd: : DAVID MCR ****Leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany= and France Plan New Minsk Peace Talks =20 =20=20 =20=20=20=20 =20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20 =20 =20 RE SENT =20 -----Original Message----- From: David McReynolds [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2015 01:14 AM To: 'lee' Subject: Re: ****Leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France Plan New Mi= nsk Peace Talks Lee, one reflection I want to send this, hastily as it is written on my par= t, to my "Edgeleft" list. Many of whom may have gotten it already from an e= arlier posting tonight. The situation in Ukraine is too tragic not to speak= out while there is time. My cats are fine - thanks for asking. David On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 3:04 AM, David McReynolds <[email protected]= om> wrote: I don't mind at all and will add some comments of my own. Much of the Ameri= can media (and many us in general) see the Ukraine in terms of the old Sovi= et Union, either leaping to a defense of Russia or to total hostility to it= (as if we are refighting the Cold War). There is no sense of history. Not even a longer range sense of European his= tory in which at one time Sweden had an empire and Russia was a minor power= (some of the spices used in Swedish cooking reflect the old trade routes f= rom Asia, across Africa, to Sweden), or the times when Poland occupied much= of what is now Ukraine and Russia. We have simply ignored the fact that long before Stalin, Napoleon burned Mo= scow, that there are no natural barriers of mountains or broad rivers that = protect Russia. We generally forget or never knew that the Soviet Union los= t 27 million people in World War II and had every city and village, every d= am, airfield, railroad station, and factory destroyed on a line from Lening= rad in the North through the outskirts of Moscow (if you fly in, I suspect = you will still see the anti-tank emplacements between the airport and Mosco= w) to Stalingrad in the South. Stalin no doubt wanted to bring his version of "socialism" to Eastern Europ= e but he also wanted buffer zones. We have forgotten that Finland, which wa= s allied with Hitler, and had troop in the field against the Soviets, was l= et alone after the war (though Stalin took some important bits of Finnish t= erritory) because it was truly neutral, that the Soviets left Austria (whic= h had been under four power post-war rule) once it was agreed Austria would= be truly neutral. We have forgotten (or never knew) that Stalin did not in= corporate East Germany into the Soviet Bloc until the West rejected the Soviet effort to unite Ger= many as a neutral, demilitarized state. And it is abundantly clear that US and British commentators have no sense o= f the desolation of the former Soviet Union after the collapse of the USSR.= The spread of AIDS, the appalling rate of alcoholism, the loss of national= identity, the demoralization of the veterans from the Afghan War. If Putin= is popular it is because he has given Russians some sense of pride. There is much about Russia which I deplore - often bitterly. The homophobia= of Putin, the corruption of the government, the rule by oligarchs (not so = different from here or Britain), the lack of a vital and democratic civil s= ociety. But to see in Putin a man who is trying to rebuild the old Soviet "empire" = is worse than folly. To fail to grasp the fear Russia has of NATO (why in G= od's name didn't we dissolve NATO when the USSR collapsed?) - all of this d= rives me nuts. To hear, day after day, the distortions by our commentators,= the failure even to remember something as simple and basic as the fact the= party which was ousted in the coup (a corrupt party - both main parties we= re and are) had its voter strength precisely in the Eastern part of Ukraine= . We must not give up - there are no "good guys" in this bloody mess which ha= s taken over 5,000 lives. But in God's name let us realize that Germany and= France want to achieve a settlement (as I think Putin does) but the US war= party seems determined to see more dead and dying. Peace, David McReynolds New York former chair, War Resisters International (and on this matter expressing my= own views, not those of any organization)=20 On Mon, Feb 9, 2015 at 6:03 PM, lee <[email protected]> wrote: Hi David, Hope you don't mind my occasional nitpicking. BBC reporting ain't what it used to be. Here are a couple of gems I picked up out of this potpourri : From amidst the analysis of Jonathan Marcus, BBC Diplomatic correspondent i= n Munich : "The level of frustration many Western countries feel against Russia's poli= cies has been palpable. Mr. Hammond (UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond) f= or example branded President Vladimir Putin as "some kind of 20th Century t= yrant."=20 Doesn't seem to fit with other reporting today as in Tyler Durdin.....the q= uotes by Germany's SP party leader Gabriel, M. Sarkozy in France, etc. End box contained some remarkable statements : "More than a million Ukrainians have fled their homes since April 2014, wh= en the rebels seized a big swathe of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions follo= wing Russia's annexation of Crimea." More correctly, those millions fled mainly due to continuous shelling by ro= ckets and missiles of their cities and towns on the part of the Ukrainian m= ilitary -- not as seems implied by rebels seizing land. Land which in any c= ase was not seized but defended by it's inhabitants. Additional reasons fo= r flight might have been lack of food and water in some areas, cutting off = of administrative support (like pensions) by Kiev government, sudden homele= ssness due to shelling, fear on part of women and children whose husbands h= ad gone off to join the militias.=20 Finally..... "Much of the recent fighting has been focused on the strategic town of Deb= altseve. The Ukrainian military said on Sunday that rebels had made "numer= ous attempts" to storm government positions in the area over the past 24 h= ours, having subjected them to "massive shelling". "It said rebels had sustained heavy losses, though the claim could not be = verified. The past day of fighting also claimed the lives of 12 Ukrainian = soldiers and 12 civilians, according to Ukrainian and rebel sources." The above is another way of saying the the rebels have pretty well surround= ed the Ukrainian troops in another indefensible situation. Whatever the los= ses of the rebels may have been, the army will sustain much greater losses = even though some will manage to get out and save their skins, something tha= t the rebels let or even encourage the ordinary recruit do pretty easily. Meanwhile, there's the Tribune de Gen=C3=A8ve -- which my neighbor kindly = puts on my door knob each morning. Forces me to realise how a "normal" -- a= nd rather conservative -- Swiss paper reports things. It's been very consis= tant. This morning brought a large photo of Porochenko in Munich, holding = half a dozen "passports of Russian soldiers killed in the Donbass". Russia= n passports must be fairly easily found in Ukraine, and yes, Russians fight= ers have been killed there. Many, often of Ukrainian background, have come = and joined up. So -- until someone finally manages to get a photo of those = reported thousands of Russian troops and their equipment, half a dozen pass= ports will have to do. Also -- in the accompanying TdG article this morning, for the first time I = noted Angela being described as an "ex-East German". We may be seeing that= more often...... And so it goes. How are your cats? Peace, Lee =20=20=20=20 =20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20 =20=20 ----------MB_8D2133961FE72DC_1424_8AC2F_webmail-va211.sysops.aol.com Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <head> <style type=3D"text/css"> <!-- /* start of attachment style */ .ygrp-photo-title{ clear: both; font-size: smaller; height: 15px; overflow: hidden; text-align: center; width: 75px; } div.ygrp-photo{ background-position: center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-color: white; border: 1px solid black; height: 62px; width: 62px; } div.photo-title=20 a, div.photo-title a:active, div.photo-title a:hover, div.photo-title a:visited { text-decoration: none;=20 } div.attach-table div.attach-row { clear: both; } div.attach-table div.attach-row div { float: left; /* margin: 2px;*/ } p { clear: both; padding: 15px 0 3px 0; overflow: hidden; } div.ygrp-file { width: 30px; valign: middle; } div.attach-table div.attach-row div div a { text-decoration: none; } div.attach-table div.attach-row div div span { font-weight: normal; } div.ygrp-file-title { font-weight: bold; } /* end of attachment style */ --> </style> </head> <html> <head> <style type=3D"text/css"> <!-- #ygrp-mkp { border: 1px solid #d8d8d8; font-family: Arial; margin: 10px 0; padding: 0 10px; } #ygrp-mkp hr { border: 1px solid #d8d8d8; } #ygrp-mkp #hd { color: #628c2a; font-size: 85%; font-weight: 700; line-height: 122%; margin: 10px 0; } #ygrp-mkp #ads { margin-bottom: 10px; } #ygrp-mkp .ad { padding: 0 0; } #ygrp-mkp .ad p { margin: 0; } #ygrp-mkp .ad a { color: #0000ff; text-decoration: none; } --> </style> </head> <body> <font color=3D'black' size=3D'2' face=3D'arial'><font size=3D"2">As I recei= ve this message from David, I am in Kyiv, Ukraine, and have been recently i= n Odessa.<br> <br> I will be writing this up in some detail later.<br> <br> But for now, I just want to report that much of what the left press says ab= out the Ukrainian situation is as inaccurate as what much of the mainstream= media says about it. I have been talking with people who were very d= eeply involved in Maidan movement. It was truly a mass movement with mass s= upport. All discussion of it as a "coup" is absurd--except perhaps in= one sense. AS IN ALL mass movements of this kind, whether Tahrir Square, o= r Russia in 1917, or France in 1848, the first government to come out of a = revolution (and that is the term some Kyiv participants use) is a conservat= ive one. In this case, many foreign governments also had some role.&n= bsp; So it could be seen as a coup against the revolution--but NOT against = the former President from the Party of the Regions. He was ousted by = a mass movement.<br> <br> David's invocation of history is important, but it is also very much just a= piece of the story. In my travels in Ukraine since 2010, I have been= very much impressed by the extent to which Ukrainians view Russia as an im= perial power. They remember the struggles in 1918 and after as mixed = struggles for independence and for socialism (and I would add that Lenin at= least sometimes agreed with them). They remember the early 1930s as = a great starvation imposed on them by the Russians. <br> <br> When David discusses the horrors that WWII brought to Russia, he should add= that these same horrors took place in Ukraine. As did the alcoholism= , drug use, AIDS etc. then resulted after the ruling bureaucracy fell apart= in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Indeed, that is why I have been s= pending so much time here (and some in Russia)--to help them cope with drug= use, HIV, hepatitis C and so forth. (I might add that the Russian ta= ke-over of Crimea led to a draconian cut-off of methadone and other program= s, and this has now spread to the fighting zones of the east. Many pe= ople have died of overdose as a result--in part because drugs from Russia a= re getting there--and much suffering has occurred. This is not as dra= matic as the fighting, but should not be ignored--nor should the implicatio= ns for gays and lesbians in these locations.<br> <br> In terms of Putin and his actions, I think that invocations of the Russian = fears of attacks are certainly germane. But so are the Ukrainian similar fe= ars. <b>But I think that the key issue for Putin has been his fear of= the revolution spreading to Russia</b>. His tactics, including keepi= ng a limited though horrible war going in East Ukraine, have so far prevent= ed the radicalization of the revolution that the IMF and European and US au= sterity demands might otherwise have provoked.<br> <br> I will write more on all of this later. In writing this, I in no way = want to express anything but a friendly disagreement with David. He i= s a great man indeed. And he has a proper respect for cats.<br> <br> best<br> sam<br> </font> <div> <br> </div> <div> <br> </div> <div> <br> </div> <div style=3D"font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black">-----= Original Message-----<br> From: 'Hunter Gray' [email protected] [marxist] <marxist@yaho= ogroups.com><br> To: bearwithoutborders <[email protected]><br> Sent: Tue, Feb 10, 2015 5:36 am<br> Subject: [marxist] Fwd: : DAVID MCR ****Leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany= and France Plan New Minsk Peace Talks<br> <br> <div id=3D"AOLMsgPart_1_6d50aed4-6c94-49d3-bbba-fe6329a269ae"> =20 <div class=3D"aolReplacedBody" style=3D"background-color: #fff;"> <span style=3D"display:none"> </span> <div id=3D"ygrp-mlmsg" style=3D"position:relative;"> =20=20 <div id=3D"ygrp-msg" style=3D"z-index: 1;"> =20=20=20=20 <div id=3D"ygrp-text"> =20=20=20=20=20=20 =20=20=20=20=20=20 =20=20=20=20=20=20 <div></div> <div><font size=3D"2" face=3D"Verdana"> </font></div> <div> <br> </div> <div><font color=3D"#0000ff" size=3D"2" face=3D"Verdana"></font> </div= > <div><br> </div> <div>RE SENT</div> <div><br> </div> <div><font color=3D"#0000ff" size=3D"2" face=3D"Verdana"></font> </div= > -----Original Message-----<br> <b>From:</b> David McReynolds [<a href=3D"mailto:[email protected]= ?">mailto:[email protected]</a>]<br> <b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, February 10, 2015 01:14 AM<br> <b>To:</b> 'lee'<br> <b>Subject:</b> Re: ****Leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France Plan= New Minsk Peace Talks<br> <br> <div dir=3D"ltr"><font color=3D"#0b5394"><font face=3D"trebuchet ms,sans-se= rif"><b>Lee, one reflection I want to send this, hastily as it is written o= n my part, to my "Edgeleft" list. Many of whom may have gotten it already f= rom an earlier posting tonight. The situation in Ukraine is too tragic not = to speak out while there is time. My cats are fine - thanks for asking.<br> <br> David<br> </b></font></font> <div class=3D"gmail_extra"><br> <div class=3D"gmail_quote">On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 3:04 AM, David McReynold= s <span dir=3D"ltr"><<a href=3D"mailto:[email protected]">david= [email protected]</a>></span> wrote:<br> <blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border= -left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204);border-left-width: 1px;border-left-style: s= olid;"> <div dir=3D"ltr"> <div><font color=3D"#0b5394"><b><font face=3D"trebuchet ms,sans-serif">I do= n't mind at all and will add some comments of my own. Much of the American = media (and many us in general) see the Ukraine in terms of the old Soviet U= nion, either leaping to a defense of Russia or to total hostility to it (as= if we are <span>refighting</span> the Cold War)</font></b></font>.<br> <br> </div> <div><font color=3D"#0b5394"><b><font face=3D"trebuchet ms,sans-serif">Ther= e is no sense of history. Not <span>ev</span>en a longer range sense of Eur= opean history in which at one time Sweden had an empire and Russia was a mi= nor power (some of the <span>sp</span>ices used in Swedish co<span>oking</s= pan> reflect the old trade routes from Asia, across Africa, to Sweden), or = the times when Poland occupied much of what is now Ukraine and Russia.<br> <br> </font></b></font></div> <div><font color=3D"#0b5394"><b><font face=3D"trebuchet ms,sans-serif">We h= ave simply ignored the fact that long before St<span>alin</span>, Napoleon = burned Moscow, that there are no natural b<span>arriers</span> of mountains= or broad rivers that protect Russia. We gen<span>erally</span> forget or n= ever knew <span>th</span>at the Soviet Union lost 27 million people in Worl= d War II and had every city and village, every dam, <span>ai</span><span>rf= ield</span>, <span>ra</span><span>ilroad</span> st<span>ation</span>, and f= actory destroyed on a line from Leningrad in the N<span>orth</span> through= the outskirts of Moscow (if you fly in, I suspect y<span>ou</span> will st= ill see the a<span>nti</span>-tank emplacements between the airport and Mos= cow) to St<span>alingrad</span> in the South.<br> <br> </font></b></font></div> <div><font color=3D"#0b5394"><b><font face=3D"trebuchet ms,sans-serif">Stal= in no doubt wanted to bring his version of "socialism" to Eastern Europe bu= t he also wanted buffer zones. We have forgotten that Finland, which was al= lied with Hitler, and had <span>troo</span>p in <span>th</span>e field agai= nst the Soviets, was <span>le</span>t alone after the war (though St<span>a= lin</span> took some importa<span>nt</span> bits of Finnish <span>te</span>= <span>rritory</span>) because it was <span>tru</span><span>ly</span> neutra= l, that the Soviets left Austria (which had been under four power post-war = rule) once it was agreed Austria would be truly neutral. We have forgotten = (or never knew) that Stalin did not <span>incorpor</span>ate East Germany<b= r> </font></b></font></div> <div><font color=3D"#0b5394"><b><font face=3D"trebuchet ms,sans-serif">into= the Soviet Bloc until the West rejected the Soviet effort to unite Germany= as a <span>neutr</span>al, demilitarized state.<br> <br> </font></b></font></div> <div><font color=3D"#0b5394"><b><font face=3D"trebuchet ms,sans-serif">And = it is abundantly clear that US and British commentat<span>ors</span> have n= o sense of the desolation of the former Soviet Union after the collapse of = the USSR. The spread of AIDS, the appalling rate of alcoholism, the loss of= national identity, the demoralization of the veterans from the Afghan War.= If Putin is popular it is because he has given Russians some sense of prid= e.<br> <br> </font></b></font></div> <div><font color=3D"#0b5394"><b><font face=3D"trebuchet ms,sans-serif">Ther= e is much about Russia which I deplore - often bitterly. The homophobia of = Putin, the corruption of the government, the rule by oligarchs (not so diff= erent from here or Britain), the lack of a vital and democratic civil socie= ty.<br> <br> </font></b></font></div> <div><font color=3D"#0b5394"><b><font face=3D"trebuchet ms,sans-serif">But = to see in Putin a man who is trying to rebuild the old Soviet "empire" is w= orse than folly. To fail to grasp the fear Russia has of NATO (why in God's= name didn't we dissolve NATO when the USSR collapsed?) - all of this drive= s me nuts. To hear, day after day, the distortions by our commentators, the= failure even to remember something as simple and basic as the fact the par= ty which was ousted in the coup (a corrupt party - both main parties were a= nd are) had its voter strength precisely in the Eastern part of Ukraine.<br= > <br> </font></b></font></div> <div><font color=3D"#0b5394"><b><font face=3D"trebuchet ms,sans-serif">We m= ust not give up - there are no "good guys" in this bloody mess which has ta= ken over 5,000 lives. But in God's name let us realize that Germany and Fra= nce want to achieve a settlement (as I think Putin does) but the US war par= ty seems determined to see more dead and dying.<br> <br> </font></b></font></div> <div><font color=3D"#0b5394"><b><font face=3D"trebuchet ms,sans-serif">Peac= e,<br> </font></b></font></div> <div><font color=3D"#0b5394"><b><font face=3D"trebuchet ms,sans-serif">Davi= d McReynolds<br> New York<br> former chair, War Resisters International (and on this matter expressing my= own views, not those of any organization) <br> </font></b></font></div> </div> <div class=3D"HOEnZb"> <div class=3D"h5"> <div class=3D"gmail_extra"><br> <div class=3D"gmail_quote">On Mon, Feb 9, 2015 at 6:03 PM, lee <span dir=3D= "ltr"><<a href=3D"mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>></span> wrote= :<br> <blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border= -left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204);border-left-width: 1px;border-left-style: s= olid;"> <div><span style=3D"font-size: large;">Hi David,</span></div> <div><span style=3D"font-size: large;">Hope you don't mind my occasional ni= tpicking.</span></div> <div><span style=3D"font-size: large;">BBC reporting ain't what it used to = be.</span></div> <div><span style=3D"font-size: large;">Here are a couple of gems I picked u= p out of this potpourri :</span></div> <div><span style=3D"font-size: large;">From amidst the analysis of Jonathan= Marcus, BBC Diplomatic correspondent in Munich :</span></div> <div><span style=3D"font-size: large;"><i>"The level of frustration many We= stern countries feel against Russia's policies has been palpable. Mr. Hammo= nd (UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond) for example branded President Vlad= imir Putin as "some kind of 20th Century tyrant." </i></span></div> <div><span style=3D"font-size: large;">Doesn't seem to fit with other repor= ting today as in Tyler Durdin.....the quotes by Germany's SP party leader G= abriel, M. Sarkozy in France, etc.</span></div> <div><span style=3D"font-size: large;">End box contained some remarkable st= atements :</span></div> <div><span style=3D"font-size: large;"><i>"More than a million Ukrainians h= ave fled their homes since April 2014, when the rebels seized a big swathe= of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions following Russia's annexation of Crime= a."</i></span></div> <div><span style=3D"font-size: large;">More correctly, those millions fled = mainly due to continuous shelling by rockets and missiles of their cities a= nd towns on the part of the Ukrainian military<i> -- </i>not as seems impli= ed by rebels seizing land<i>. </i>Land which in any case was not seized but= defended by it's inhabitants<i>. </i>Additional reasons for flight m= ight have been lack of food and water in some areas, cutting off of adminis= trative support (like pensions) by Kiev government, sudden homelessness due= to shelling, fear on part of women and children whose husbands had gone of= f to join the militias. <i></i></span></div> <div><span style=3D"font-size: large;">Finally.....<i><br> </i></span></div> <div><span style=3D"font-size: large;"><i>"Much of the recent fighting has = been focused on the strategic town of Debaltseve. The Ukrainian military s= aid on Sunday that rebels had made "numerous attempts" to storm government= positions in the area over the past 24 hours, having subjected them to "m= assive shelling".</i></span></div> <div><span style=3D"font-size: large;"><i>"It said rebels had sustained hea= vy losses, though the claim could not be verified. The past day of fightin= g also claimed the lives of 12 Ukrainian soldiers and 12 civilians, accord= ing to Ukrainian and rebel sources."</i></span></div> <div><span style=3D"font-size: large;">The above is another way of saying t= he the rebels have pretty well surrounded the Ukrainian troops in another i= ndefensible situation. Whatever the losses of the rebels may have been, the= army will sustain <b>much </b>greater losses even though some will manage = to get out and save their skins, something that the rebels let or even enco= urage the ordinary recruit do pretty easily.</span></div> <div><span style=3D"font-size: large;">Meanwhile, there's the Tribune de Ge= n=C3=A8ve -- which my neighbor kindly puts on my door knob each morni= ng. Forces me to realise how a "normal" -- and rather conservative -- Swiss= paper reports things. It's been very consistant. This morning brough= t a large photo of Porochenko in Munich, holding half a dozen "passports of= Russian soldiers killed in the Donbass". Russian passports must be f= airly easily found in Ukraine, and yes, Russians fighters have been killed = there. Many, often of Ukrainian background, have come and joined up. So -- = until someone finally manages to get a photo of those reported thousands of= Russian troops and their equipment, half a dozen passports will have to do= .</span></div> <div><span style=3D"font-size: large;">Also -- in the accompanying TdG arti= cle this morning, for the first time I noted Angela being described as an "= ex-East German". We may be seeing that more often......</span></div> <div><span style=3D"font-size: large;">And so it goes. How are your cats?</= span></div> <div><span style=3D"font-size: large;">Peace, Lee</span></div> </blockquote></div> <br> </div> </div> </div> </blockquote></div> <br> </div> </div> <div></div> </div> =20=20=20=20=20 =20=20=20=20 =20=20=20=20 <div style=3D"color: #fff; height: 0;"></div> </div> =20=20 </div> </div> </font> <!-- |**|begin egp html banner|**| --> <br> <br> <!-- |**|end egp html banner|**| --> <div width=3D"1" style=3D"color: white; clear: both;"/>__._,_.___</div> =20=20=20=20=20=20 =20=20 =20=20=20=20 <div id=3D"fromDMARC" style=3D"clear:both; margin-top: 10px;"> <hr style=3D"height:2px ; border-width:0; color:#E3E3E3; backgroun= d-color:#E3E3E3;"> Posted by: "[email protected]" <[email protected]= > <hr style=3D"height:2px ; border-width:0; color:#E3E3E3; backg= round-color:#E3E3E3;"> </div> <!-- Start Recommendations --> <!-- End Recommendations --> <!-- |**|begin egp html banner|**| --> <br><br> <tt> "[C]apital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blo= od and dirt."<BR> --Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 31<BR> <BR> </body> </html> ----------MB_8D2133961FE72DC_1424_8AC2F_webmail-va211.sysops.aol.com--