I know the Rambo title card is a hoax.
The COTW was chosen in the wake of the aborted sequel to the attempted assassination of Trump being performed by a guy who is VERY enthusiastic about Ukraine, to the point of trying to sneak Afghan soldiers into Ukraine by setting up a house in Pakistan to house them and then further transport them. He also apparently offered to send thousands of Afghan soldiers to Haiti to help them combat gang violence. Whomst among us doesn't have the numbers of thousands of Afghan soldiers on speed-dial. Do you reckon there's a group chat?
Anyway, while there is still no official recognition of the Taliban's government by any country, China has taken a different course than the late USSR and the US - forming economic in-roads, rather than trying their own invasion. This has been a big boon for the struggling country, with various mines and oil and agriculture deals helping keep things barely afloat. A total disintegration of the social fabric of Afghanistan is not in the interest of any of the powers that border it - China, Pakistan, and Iran, with Russia not too far away - so an interesting dynamic of helping-without-official-recognition has been established. I wonder who will be the first country to fully recognize them?
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is Afghanistan! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Please check out the HexAtlas!
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
The bloomer vs doomer is a little comical and you're right, in that being unrealistically optimistic is stupid and dangerous. That's not exactly what's playing out here. The US is waning in influence in the ME and globally. Iran has become a almost totally self sufficient regional power. The entity discredits itself daily celebratingremoved, torture, murder and terrorism. While it's western patrons pile on ideological contradictions (as we're allegedly againstremoved, torture, murderand terrorism). The long term trends are not in the imperials favor as I see it. They are trying to pick a fight on their terms. A tactical victory today can also be a strategic defeat tomorrow. Imagine a producing economy in the global south utilizing this electronic terrorist attack because the imperial core imports everything, would expose such a national security risk we would have to abandon neo colonialism and do the old school occupation colonialism.
adding on also: Iran is responding you nerds how the heck do you think Yemen got those missiles? There is a massive buildup going on and the resistance is gaining more and more complex equipment. The Axis of resistance has their backer now and i believe totally with Iran's all in assistance that victory, although a hard road, is now certain.
The pager attack doesn't even have any strategic significance. It's pointless terrorism. On the other hand Hezbollah, Iran, and Yemen can strike any target they want in Israel and neither Israel nor the combined strength of the US and US-occulied Europe have the ability to stop it.
The US literally just had their Suez moment with the failure of Operation Prosperity Guardian
Okay, but people can agree with everything you just said and still get called a doomer for their opinions. So where's the line drawn? As far as I can tell, it's wherever the good vibes end.
Yes. It's obviously an arbitrary line that based on an individual's analysis. I personally try not to call others names, nor do I like to be called them. There will be disagreements, misinterpreted takes, bad faith etc. I'm probably in the minority here but I would not ban "doomerism" (nor do i make personal value judgments about people based on their take's of the damned "News" of all things) but I do try to discourage despair it if it doesn't make sense. Also, there is that point where we're simply fucked, and I hope I can admit it if/when it happens.
Then I think we're just about on the same page. My conversation today has largely been in the context of a ban, but in individual occasions where I am knowledgeable enough to speak up, I also make it a priority to discourage unwarranted despair.
I try to transform that despair by investigating the individual's expectations and disappointments. Someone earlier in this thread mentioned that the forces of change do not operate on our personal timetables, and I find that reminding people of this helps them to find more comfort in their place in the current context (in the vein of planting a tree for future generations to enjoy) - without asking them to handwave away their concerns.
It's wherever the psyop tells you it ends.