Russia and China relationship, going down ?

[Ninurta]

"With all due respect" - you tend to say that every time that you are about to kick me in the nuts! LOL

Sorry 'bout that - I'll try and change my approach to something more like "look out!" 

You have a very firm view on certain topics Nin, and that's a good thing.
But, in the past, when I've offered a point that you don't accept/agree with, you've said that you'll admit to being "educated and corrected" if I provide you with the evidence to prove my case, e.g. with the Doxxing thread/comments (in Hinges are Broken?).
I did so, at your request (providing a link to evidence of doxxing by the other side of the argument)... but am still waiting for your response to the evidence I provided.

Valid point. That's a long, twisted read, and I'm still wading through it and attempting to sort it out.

I know. I'm slack sometimes.

FYI - In this instance, I wasn't commenting on the info itself.
I was commenting on the biased interpretation of the info:
Zerohedge, with their far right history, dodgy operating practices (psedoanonymity?) and illegal goings-on, putting their own spin on the contents of the video to suit their own agenda.

Also a valid point. I try to look past the propaganda and "spin", into information presented, because everywhere we turn these days, there is some "spin", "interpretation", or propaganda there.

Getting the right info out of bad'uns via interrogation (or other means) has nothing whatsoever to do with propagandists like Zerohedge putting their own spin on the information in their own article, which they are presenting as fact.

G

Fair enough, but I wasn't referring to interrogations, I was referring to working with the folks closest to working the streets. Not all information gathering involves sand filled rubber hoses. Matter of fact, the best info doesn't. If one has to beat it out of them, sometimes he beats out bullshit just to get the beatings to stop.

PS - My God?? NOT MY God! LOL

My bad. I didn't mean "you" specifically, I meant it more in a generic "humanity wide" sense. I don't know who your god is, or even if you subscribe to one, and certainly didn't mean to disparage your particular religion, or lack of. People in general seem to have some strange gods who demand things of people that a god ought to be able to handle itself. Mine, for example, wouldn't require me to stop dodging bullets for a quiet little word.

BTW - We all (even you!) layer our own interpretations of what is going on in any given topic, dependent on our background, upbringing and perspective.
It's human nature.

Another valid point - you're on a roll!

e.g. In this video:
How do you know it's an active operation and not just a squad taking a break during a training exercise?
What explosions??? There weren't any explosions anywhere near this discussion or in the video...

Your comments are bang on IF it's an active operation... but... is it?

I've no idea if it is intended to portray an active operation or a training exercise, but the old adage does ring true that "you fight like you train", so I don't think, from my perspective, that it makes a difference which it is supposed to be.

We all layer our own interpretations onto what we see, but it shouldn't be presented as fact (like zerohedge have done) without very good corroborating evidence IMHO.

True, on both counts. The only corroborating evidence in this case, I think, is whether it is an actual British Army recruiting commercial, or if it was produced solely as right-wing propaganda, independent of the British military. If it is in fact an actual recruiting commercial, then Zero Hedge spin means nothing to me. If it's NOT, then Zero Hedge has some 'splainin' to do. I want to sort out which it is.

In this case, zerohedge stated (among many other things):

...The Army’s new priority was to show off how woke they are, and to make new recruits feel safe and happy… as opposed to building a lethal, highly effective fighting force.

Is that FACT or their OPINION?

It is opinion, regardless of the source of the commercial. I don't place the opinion of Zero Hedge - or Fox News, or CNN, ad infinitum, as being any more valid than mine, or yours. Opinions are like assholes - everybody has one, and they tend to stink. That is why it's important whether the commercial is real or not - it speaks for itself, and no other opinions are necessary once that gets sorted out. We can then form our own opinions of it.

One of the best examples of this ad campaign shows British soldiers on a combat patrol, ostensibly in the mountains of Afghanistan.

But suddenly the mission stops… because one of the soldiers is Muslim and needs to pray.

Are they on Combat Patrol? Is it Afghanistan?
Did they really STOP the mission because the Muslim soldier needed to pray?
Or is that THEIR interpretation of what was happening?

The ad shows the rest of the unit happily and patiently waiting. At one point, the radio squawks (which is usually because the command headquarters or another nearby unit needs to communicate with your squad.)
But one of the soldiers shushes the radio operator. So we not only need to stop the entire freaking war, but we have to cut ourselves off from potentially critical communication, just so this guy can continue to pray without being disturbed...

Did we REALLY STOP the ENTIRE FREAKING WAR like they state? or could it have simply been during a break in a training run?
Perspective, interpretation and spin IMHO, but they present it as fact!

To be fair, most media outlets do this to some degree nowadays, but it doesn't make it right correct! LOL

G

I see what ya did there, gordi! 

I only have two comments to offer to you points here - we fight like we train, and every war is a long series of itty bitty mini-wars fought on individual levels. The grandest strategy boils down to two fine young men energetically trying to kill one another, one of which may well die (thus ending the entire war - for him), and that action is just rubber-stamped across the entire theater of a war to make up a "strategic plan". So stopping that operation - training or not - IS "stopping the entire war" It may well have been during a break in training, but if so, that does not explain why the radio operator needed to be silenced. I'm not familiar enough with British army operations - is it common practice there to halt communications because one is taking a breather?


In all candor, if it was a operation out in Indian Country, the radio operator should have been using headphones or an ear piece or the like, to avoid broadcasting the location of the patrol to every Bad Guy within 200 yards of them every time the radio crackles, so a case can be made for bad practices on several levels I think.

So, IF it was an actual recruitment commercial, then the only two messages I personally can get out of it is "look at us - see how woke we are?" OR "British Army - be all that you can be, until you get as dead as you can get". Neither seems a good recruiting strategy, which is why I have to wonder whether it is an actual recruiting commercial.

Your mileage may vary - and I bet it does!

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