Re: Brian, read the SMH article - here it is

On Fri, 29 Nov 2024 12:07:46 -0000, He Who Sees All  
<[email protected]> wrote:

> On Thu, 28 Nov 2024 00:12:09 -0000, slider <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 23 Nov 2024 01:32:01 -0000, He Who Sees All
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/the-age-of-the-carnivores-is-upon-us-china-russia-and-their-war-machine-20241118-p5krgh.html
>>>
>>>
>>> There's no point at all in fruitlessly commenting on something before
>>> actually reading it.
>>>
>>> Here's the text:
>>>
>>>
>>> "The world is “made up of herbivores and carnivores”, French President
>>> Emmanuel Macron said in a speech this month. Europe, he said, was a
>>> plant-eater. And the meat-eaters are circling.
>>>
>>> Until now, most Western nations have been content to live peaceful
>>> lives with minimal military capability because the biggest of them has
>>> offered to protect the others by maintaining a war-like vigilance.
>>> That, of course, was the US.
>>>
>>> Under the eagle’s wing, post-war Europe and Japan became so relaxed
>>> that they adopted a pacifist stance. They relinquished any effective
>>> offensive combat capability to the point where they were declared to
>>> be the world’s first “postmodern” states, together with New Zealand,
>>> which sheltered behind Australia, in the categorisation by the British
>>> diplomat Robert Cooper. These pacifists were full herbivores.
>>>
>>> But almost all Western democracies, including Australia and Canada,
>>> also allowed themselves to stand down. Their statecraft and their
>>> defence forces operated on the assumption that war between the great
>>> powers was an artefact of history and if anything went wrong, America
>>> would deal with it. “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night
>>> only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf,”
>>> according to a quote attributed to George Orwell. America was the
>>> rough man of the West.
>>>
>>> The West’s enemies fell into a sullen survival mode. But they did not
>>> lose their appetites for the red meat of history – the urge to attack,
>>> butcher and digest the territories of their neighbours.
>>>
>>> That era is over. America’s will has wilted, and its enemies sense
>>> opportunity. When Syria’s Bashar al-Assad crossed Barack Obama’s “red
>>> line” against chemical weapons use in 2013, and Obama did nothing in
>>> response, it whetted the appetites of the four greatest predators of
>>> the international system. Russia annexed Crimea the next year and
>>> still Obama did nothing meaningful, so the annexation became merely
>>> the prelude to Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
>>>
>>> Emergency workers extinguish a fire following a Russian rocket attack
>>> in Lviv, Ukraine, on Sunday.
>>> Emergency workers extinguish a fire following a Russian rocket attack
>>> in Lviv, Ukraine, on Sunday.Credit:Ukrainian Emergency Service/AP
>>>
>>> China activated its salami-slicing encroachments to seize territories
>>> that were also claimed by half a dozen of its neighbours and launched
>>> the world’s greatest military build-up since World War II. North Korea
>>> revived its ambition to conquer Seoul. Iran’s revolution negotiated
>>> with the West over its nuclear program while continuing to arm its
>>> proxies against Israel.
>>>
>>> These four predators have been grouped under a new acronym: CRINKs,
>>> for China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. America’s Politico outlet
>>> dubbed it “the new axis of evil”.
>>>
>>> Today, 1000 days since Vladimir Putin ordered his forces to strike
>>> Kyiv, we can see clearly that history has entered a new phase. These
>>> four have come together in a war of territorial conquest. Russia’s war
>>> on Ukraine has become a carnivores’ picnic.
>>>
>>> China has become the main financier of the Russian economy by stepping
>>> up to buy 215 billion euros’ worth of its fossil fuel exports since
>>> the invasion began, according to the Finnish non-profit Centre for
>>> Research on Energy and Clean Air. China is the “decisive enabler” of
>>> Russia’s war effort, according to a NATO summit communique, by
>>> supplying industrial machinery and semiconductors and other
>>> technology.
>>>
>>> Iran has given Russia 8000 Shahed drones, each carrying a payload of
>>> 50 kilograms of explosives, and has delivered the first of hundreds of
>>> promised Fath 360 ballistic missiles, according to the Pentagon. North
>>> Korea has sent 13,000 containers of weaponry to Russia, including 8
>>> million artillery shells, missiles and anti-tank rockets, according to
>>> South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.
>>>
>>> And now North Korea has ordered at least 12,000 of its combat troops
>>> to Russia. Just over two weeks ago, on November 4, they engaged in
>>> their first firefight with Ukrainian troops, according to the US State
>>> Department. They are the first foreign combat forces to enter the war.
>>>
>>> In a speech on Friday, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, urged his
>>> troops to “go all out” in fighting Ukraine, according to Pyongyang’s
>>> news service. Over the weekend, The Financial Times published a
>>> Ukrainian intelligence report that North Korea has given Russia “some
>>> 50 domestically produced 170mm M1989 self-propelled howitzers and 20
>>> updated 240mm multiple launch rocket systems”.
>>>
>>> CRINKs is no longer just an acronym. It now describes a group of
>>> nations engaged jointly in waging a war of aggression.
>>>
>>> In an apparent response to the North Korean entry into the war, Joe
>>> Biden has released Ukraine from a key US-imposed restraint, it emerged
>>> on Monday. Until now, America supplied its HIMARS – high mobility
>>> artillery rocket system – to Ukraine on condition that it not be used
>>> against targets inside Russia. This was imposed to limit escalation.
>>> Biden now has freed Kyiv to hit Russia directly with a system capable
>>> of firing missiles up to 300 kilometres into its territory. Britain
>>> and France are expected to lift similar restraints on the missiles
>>> they supplied to Ukraine.
>>>
>>> Wesley Clark, a former US army general and commander of the NATO
>>> forces, told CNN that this newfound Ukrainian freedom is “too little,
>>> too late” materially to change the course of the war but that it would
>>> be a useful bargaining chip in any ceasefire negotiations.
>>>
>>> A central question for the global jungle is what the incoming US
>>> president will do. Will Donald Trump support the US allies – mostly
>>> herbivores – confronting aggression, or will he side with America’s
>>> traditional enemies – the carnivores?
>>>
>>> World leaders issue warning to Trump on trade, but not by name
>>> The US is increasingly an unpredictable and unreliable protector.
>>> While the CRINKs moved earlier to take advantage, the herbivores
>>> finally have got the message. In the past few years, US allies have
>>> started to sharpen their claws and bare their fangs. In Macron’s
>>> metaphor, he wants the herbivores of Europe to, at the very least,
>>> become omnivores, he said.
>>>
>>> US allies have stepped up their defence budgets and increasingly
>>> started to herd together for protection. Australia’s Northern
>>> Territory showcased the latest development in this trend at the
>>> weekend when Japanese troops joined US forces for the annual US Marine
>>> rotation. This is set to be an annual event.
>>>
>>> The meat-eaters are hunting in a pack. The eagle is no longer a
>>> reliable protector. The age of carnivores is upon us."
>>
>> ### - it's basically as i said/suggested; an article one could  
>> predictably
>> read just about anywhere out there currently via western media, the
>> emphasis on predator/carnivore being only the latest twist on the
>> good/evil paradigm everyone is otherwise jaded with hearing, all of it,
>> however, persistently emphasising the exact same picture of an 'evil
>> empire' and/or 'axis' of evil' aimed at a particular racial target in
>> people's minds, such is the very nature of propaganda and how it's
>> designed to work + keep that shit up for 70+ years and people grow up
>> believing it all!
>>
>> i.e., thus the smh should change its name to 'the daily brainwash' for  
>> all
>> the objective news it's actually reporting, it being exactly the same  
>> here
>> of course; the bbc making a really big deal out of objective, unbiased
>> reporting, whole shows dedicated to it being so, literally, and yet  
>> still
>> droning-on in the same old tone of the 'evil' russians + reinforcing  
>> such
>> ideas with examples of the damage they've reputedly done, only ukraine's
>> side of things reported (perforce all negative) and verified by the bbc  
>> to
>> have occurred, meanwhile all/any russian media or accounts of the matter
>> is totally banned here haha... don't you get it yet?
>>
>> this is why reversals often work to clarify matters, not everything and
>> not always, but propaganda is one subject wherein it nearly always works
>> to reveal more than we're being told/instructed to think/believe... all  
>> of
>> it simplified to the battle between good & evil, right & wrong, with us  
>> or
>> against us, those with god on their side and those on the side of the
>> devil: the disney version of life, the universe & everything, which, for
>> most people - let's face it - it is!
>>
>> outsiders, however (and have always considered you to be one), providing
>> they don't just go nuts that is (coz sadly many do), remain objective...
>> first by insisting on always hearing 'both' sides of any argument, and
>> then by realising that both sides are ultimately exactly the same in
>> believing their own narratives, even if/when those narratives lead to
>> war...
>>
>> unfortunately, the world is owned/run by wealthy gangsters, all  
>> determined
>> to maintain & increase that wealth before anything else and woa betide
>> anyone/anything that gets in their way, which then sets the pace for
>> everything else that happens...
>
> What entitled bloody hogwash.

### - not at all, everything above is still/remains in-context...

it's you that's throwing the context away here, you're changing the subject


> Who do you think you are?

### - just another outsider like yourself, one who arrived here by a  
different route than your own, and one who didn't just go nuts like many  
sadly do :)




> The news is -

### - the news is... and then it's filtered, censored, spun, twisted,  
mis-told, distorted, sound-bited & propagada-ised to suit various purposes  
and occasions...

i.e., they're SUPPOSED to have reporting standards they all agree to that  
the public can then trust to be 'reliable' information; 'accurate'  
reporting, 'unbiased' reporting - objective reporting!

that's never how it works out, however... right-wing papers push their own  
right-wing agendas as do the left-wing papers push left-wing ideas, each  
frowning on the opposition... iow: totally biased in-favour of their own  
ideas & beliefs!

perforce this extends to international levels too with enemy-nations  
running each other down, calling each other names, and even dropping bombs  
on each other! each side justifying their actions while a baying crowd/mob  
of supporters on either side wave their flags and shake their fists at  
each other...

thus in such a world it would be foolish to just believe everything one  
reads without applying an element of suspicion as to its content ;)





> you're nothing special mate,
> just run of the mill.

### - trying to be 'objective' doesn't make one special, but it might make  
one more wise ;)



> At least develop a reality-based response, or viewpoint, or indivudual
> Weltanschauung.  Stop the nonsense, if you'll excuse me for saying.

### - there really wasn't any nonsense + i know what went awry here: you  
just totally dropped the ball/context is all, and then in thinking i was  
changing the subject (which i wasn't and haven't) you got snippy and  
started lashing-out...

i didn't however change the subject at all or make any attempt to do so...  
if anything i only attempted to expand the debate some by way of trying  
explain something, but it was still in context...

and if you doubt any of that, then please pick-up exactly where you  
think/feel i was changing it and i'll try to explain how & why it wasn't a  
change at all, ok?

can't be fairer than that...