Unit2Sucks said:

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Mark Hertling on why he's not surprised by yet another failure for Russia in Vuhledar.

I've not provided battlefield comments for some time because both forces are fighting hard, surviving the winter, and prep for respective offensives.

Right now, there's a race between mobilization (RU) and the preparation for planned offensives (UA). 2/https://t.co/m4LMXuNu4d

— MarkHertling (@MarkHertling) February 16, 2023

RU have been physically moved to "training locations," given shoddy equipment, seen the same poor leadership, & sent to the front without an understanding of what they were to do.

In western language, "their recruiters lied to them!" 4/https://t.co/A9RXPodFSv

— MarkHertling (@MarkHertling) February 16, 2023

While ordering this, Putin prepares more missile strikes from what he has - planes & ships - to force Ukraine to do two things: fight on the front, and defend the population with air defense.

Putin is also now attacking from N &S with these strikes. 6/ https://t.co/tVGkKqicE8

— MarkHertling (@MarkHertling) February 16, 2023

IPB: Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield.

Reconnaissance. Looking for weak spots. Planning operations directed at key locations. Interdicting enemy supplies. Using SOF to hit targets behind the lines. Preparing logistics.

Smart operations. 8/https://t.co/LhZcpvqfVo

— MarkHertling (@MarkHertling) February 16, 2023

As I said: It is now a race between RU mobilization and UKR force preparedness and transformation.

The next few weeks will see tough fights, some back and forth, false declarations by RU of "victory."

But a Ukrainian spring is coming. 9/9

— MarkHertling (@MarkHertling) February 16, 2023

Here are some excerpts from the NYT article he is responding to - it just reiterates what everyone who can see through the Russian propaganda has been saying. It doesn't mean Russia won't continue to devote heavy resources and sacrifice everything to win this war, but it's been one failure after another and Russia's only hope is to smother Ukraine with artillery and dead Russian soldiers.

Quote:

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KYIV, Ukraine As Moscow steps up its offensive in eastern Ukraine, weeks of failed attacks on a Ukrainian stronghold have left two Russian brigades in tatters, raised questions about Russia's military tactics and renewed doubts about its ability to maintain sustained, large-scale ground assaults.

The battle for the city of Vuhledar, which has been viewed as an opening move in an expected Russian spring offensive, has been playing out since the last week of January, but the scale of Moscow's losses there is only now beginning to come into focus.

Accounts from Ukrainian and Western officials, Ukrainian soldiers, captured Russian soldiers and Russian military bloggers, as well as video and satellite images, paint a picture of a faltering Russian campaign that continues to be plagued by battlefield dysfunction.
...
He said the attacks on Vuhledar had been no surprise the Russians even warned the Ukrainians of the coming assault through social media channels, in an apparent attempt to scare them. "It was announced and spread," Colonel Dmytrashkivskyi said. "It was done to diminish the morale of the fighters."

As they have done throughout the war, the Russian commanders made some basic mistakes, in this case failing to take into account the terrain open fields littered with antitank mines or the strength of the Ukrainian forces, Colonel Dmytrashkivskyi said. Two of Russia's most elite brigades the 155th and 40th Naval Infantry Brigades were decimated in Vuhledar, he said.

In one week alone in the Vuhledar clash, the Ukrainian General Staff estimates, Russia lost at least 130 armored vehicles, including 36 tanks. That estimate has been supported by drone footage reviewed by independent military analysts and by accounts from Russian military bloggers, who are ardent supporters of the war but sharp critics of its conduct by top Russian commanders.
...
The Grey Zone, a Telegram channel that is affiliated with Wagner, has been scathing about the Russian military's efforts in Vuhledar, and called for Russian commanders responsible for the losses to be held accountable in public trials. "Impunity always breeds permissiveness," a recent post said.

After Russia's November attack on Vuhledar, which was also reported to have ended with enormous losses, Moscow turned to newly mobilized recruits to replenish its ranks. But those troops had just a bare minimum of training, military analysts say, and probably not enough to mount a serious, organized offensive.

The Russians faced another problem in Vuhledar from Ukraine's deployment of American-made HIMARS missiles that forced commanders to position large concentrations of forces more than 50 miles from the front. That made it hard to attack with either speed or surprise.


A Russian marine who fought in Vuhledar told the Russian media outlet 7x7, which is based in the Komi region of Russia, that those who survived the battle were considered deserters. The marine, whose identity the news outlet did not disclose, citing the need to protect his safety, said he was part of the third company of the 155th brigade. After the failed assault, he said, only eight soldiers from his company were left alive.

"It would have been better if I had been captured and never returned," he said.

Despite the setbacks, Moscow has continued to insist that all is going according to plan. On Sunday, Mr. Putin said that the "marine infantry is working as it should. Right now. Fighting heroically."

---

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Thank you and could you also please forward this to every Russian mother (probably with Russian translation)? I heard somewhere that Russian regimes end when the babushkas decide they have had enough.

crazy, absolutely senseless war

How does your algorithm work on NATO (USA) running out of ammo?

(FTR, Ritter claims this AM Israel may release up to 250,000 rounds to Ukraine from its stockpile, but that won't last long.)

"Russia has publicly claimed that it was not a party to or bound by Minsk"

Sources????

movielover said:

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How does your algorithm work on NATO (USA) running out of ammo?

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This isn't news or controversial. It's been known for quite some time that this was is burning through NATO artillery stockpiles and that NATO production will need to be significantly stepped up. It's also been known that there will be a lag before that production can have an impact. Ukraine is fighting for its very existence.

The bad news for fans of Russia like yourself is that Russia is very bad at war. As Petraeus pointed out (see below), they are failing across just about every metric other than bombing the everloving sh(t out of the land they are pretending to liberate. Despite the glee with which you report every piece of propaganda from your compromised sources (like Ritter - the convicted pedophile who you attempt to help monetize by posting links to his videos), it's clear that Russia has failed to achieve any publicly stated objective they may have had for this war.

Quote:

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The list is long, including poor campaign design; wholly inadequate training (what were they doing for all those months they were deployed on the northern, eastern, and southern borders of Ukraine?); poor command, control, and communications; inadequate discipline (and a culture that condones war crimes and abuse of local populations); poor equipment (exemplified by turrets blowing off of tanks when fires ignite in them); insufficient logistic capabilities; inability to achieve combined arms effects (to employ all ground and air capabilities effectively together); inadequate organizational architecture; lack of a professional noncommissioned officer corps; a top-down command system that does not promote initiative at lower levels and pervasive corruption that undermines every aspect of their military and the supporting military-industrial complex.

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movielover said:

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"Russia has publicly claimed that it was not a party to or bound by Minsk"

Sources????

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Before we get to the sources (which are official public statements from Russia that you could easily find if you tried), I think it's fair to have you tell us what your position is.

Do you agree that Minsk is irrelevant if Russia maintained that it was never a party to the agreements and was never bound by them? Will you stop raising Minsk if I share the evidence? To be clear, I'm not denying in any way that Ukraine leveraged Minsk for its own purposes. I'm just claiming that all sides did that and that blaming Ukraine for the failure of Minsk is disingenuous when Russia denies that Minsk even applied to it.

My positions are:

1. Immediate peace talks with no preconditions

2. The West needs to revisit their obsession with installing NATO in Ukraine, which has been a well-known hot button since the day the USSR and Warsaw ended.

3. The West / USA needs to explain their obsession with Putin, since it isn't even a top three American priority. All the while, China is ignored by the Biden Administration while our southern border is porous, leading to skyrocketing drug deaths, surging drug cartels, gangs running wild, and numerous other societal ills.

Americans don't want another State Dept / MIC / CIA war. Ukrainians didn't want war. Zelensky didn't want war. But Victoria Nuland, Sullivan, dim Blinken, and the White House apparently did.

Biden, Blinken & Crew allegedly also blew up ND 1 and 2, an act of war. It's now been covered in a German independent news outlet. Would Germany ever pull out of NATO, if they've been attacked by an ally?

Russia Calls UNSC Meeting on Nord Stream Explosions for Feb. 22

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/Russia-Calls-UNSC-Meeting-on-Nord-Stream-Explosions-for-Feb.-22-20230215-0013.html

movielover said:

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My positions are:

1. Immediate peace talks with no preconditions

2. The West needs to revisit their obsession with installing NATO in Ukraine, which has been a well-known hot button since the day the USSR and Warsaw ended.

3. The West / USA needs to explain their obsession with Putin, since it isn't even a top three American priority. All the while, China is ignored by the Biden Administration while our southern border is porous, leading to skyrocketing drug deaths, surging drug cartels, gangs running wild, and numerous other societal ills.

Americans don't want another State Dept / MIC / CIA war. Ukrainians didn't want war. Zelensky didn't want war. But Victoria Nuland, Sullivan, dim Blinken, and the White House apparently did.

Biden, Blinken & Crew allegedly also blew up ND 1 and 2, an act of war. It's now been covered in a German independent news outlet. Would Germany ever pull out of NATO, if they've been attacked by an ally?

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What does any of this have to do with Minsk - which is one of the things you frequently raise as a precursor to the war?

As for the "obsession" with Putin - you are one of his biggest cheerleaders. You amplify all of the propaganda that he wants the useful idiots to adopt. You continually justify his war and then pretend as if having a "position" of peace talks with no preconditions is meaningful.

What the grownups are aware of is that Putin is not interested in a lasting peace on terms that would be acceptable to Ukraine. Pretending like "peace talks" would be productive ignores that Putin's starting point is the destruction of Ukraine. He would claim (as he did with Minsk) that Russia isn't bound by any peace treaty anyway so Ukraine would be foolish to strike another deal that it can't defend militarily. It learned that lesson with the Budapest memo.

As to your last point, I haven't seen anything conclusive. It's also a bit funny because the Federalist (one of your favorite sources if I recall correctly) among numerous others (here's Tom Cotton's take) attacked Biden for reversing Trump's sanctions on NS 2 and now you're attacking Biden because you believe he stopped NS 2. All this shows is that regardless of what Biden does, conservatives like you will criticize him.

If Biden were responsible for NS 2, I doubt he would have publicly called it a "deliberate act of sabotage" although maybe I'm not giving Dark Brandon enough credit for his shrewdness. Where were you when Trump sanctioned NS 2 by the way? Oh right, you hadn't been activated by Putin's propaganda yet and had no reason to take the positions that you are now taking.

Interesting. Source Mark Hertling is a regular CNN hack, and has degrees in physical education and business. Personally, I want my warriors to be experts in war, not hopscotch. The General also has a 'purple heart', but couldn't find much info on that. He decried the suspicious IEDs around the Capitol as an insurgency.

American support for supplying weapons & money to Ukraine is declining, new survey suggests: 48% support providing weapons to Kyiv, 29% oppose & 22% have no opinion. In May, 60% of Americans supported supplying weapons to Ukraine. https://t.co/wNlr41eAEB

— Max Abrahms (@MaxAbrahms) February 16, 2023

movielover said:

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Interesting. Source Mark Hertling is a regular CNN hack, and has degrees in physical education and business. Personally, I want my warriors to be experts in war, not hopscotch. The General also has a 'purple heart', but couldn't find much info on that. He decried the suspicious IEDs around the Capitol as an insurgency.

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It would appear that your preferred expert, the convicted pedophile, may be more interested in hopscotch than you realize.

So while you espouse the views of a jr military officer and pedophile who fits your pro-Putin agenda, you disregard Hertling who was the commanding general of the US Army Europe and the Seventh Army and who commanded the 1st Armored Division during the surge in Iraq.

You criticize Hertling, who successfully commanded an army, for his experience but seem to love McGregor who Hertling significantly outranked (there are 100 colonels for every general). If we are going by resume, it's indisputable that Hertling's experience and service outrank anyone you have relied on to inform you. Petraeus, (who I recently referenced) was a 4 star general and CIA director, among his many other accolades but you also disregard his opinion entirely because he doesn't amplify Russian propaganda.

And as long as we are going down the rabbit hole of "experts" you rely on to confirm your bias, you also have mentioned "Doctor" Jordan Peterson (whose claim to fame is telling losers to clean their room) as an expert worthy of mind share with regard to Russia. As far as I can tell his sole experience in Russia is being placed in a medically induced coma due to his benzos addiction - making him another stellar example of the character you seem to think we should listen to. I think he also recently told everyone he dreamed about his grandmother's sexual organs. You really do know how to pick them!

I will admit that it's refreshing that you are so obviously driven to support Putin's propaganda that you are willing to show your work. We still don't quite know why you've adopted Putin's world view but I suspect it's not ideologically driven and just a byproduct of your consumption of fringe right wing conservative agitprop which has become both violently anti-American as it has become more and more coopted by foreign actors. This is another win for Prigozhin who bragged about this type of work recently.

Do you have a mancrush on Scott Ritter along with a case of Tourette Syndrome?

https://images.app.goo.gl/GPaxzabnH75X8S6P7

movielover said:

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Do you have a mancrush on Scott Ritter along with a case of Tourette Syndrome?

https://images.app.goo.gl/GPaxzabnH75X8S6P7

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Before you professed your admiration for Ritter, I had never heard of him. I did spend 5 seconds googling him and learned that he was a convicted pedophile who had been caught multiple times trying to lure teenagers into sexual encounters. You have mentioned him numerous times and have even excused his abhorrent behavior, but there is no need for you to be jealous, you will remain his biggest fan.

I promise you this, if you continue to rely on (and funnel ad dollars to) a convicted pedophile, I will continue to clown you for your poor judgment.

Unit2Sucks said:

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movielover said:

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Do you have a mancrush on Scott Ritter along with a case of Tourette Syndrome?

https://images.app.goo.gl/GPaxzabnH75X8S6P7

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Before you professed your admiration for Ritter, I had never heard of him. I did spend 5 seconds googling him and learned that he was a convicted pedophile who had been caught multiple times trying to lure teenagers into sexual encounters. You have mentioned him numerous times and have even excused his abhorrent behavior, but there is no need for you to be jealous, you will remain his biggest fan.

I promise you this, if you continue to rely on (and funnel ad dollars to) a convicted pedophile, I will continue to clown you for your poor judgment.

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Should people who repeat the talking points of Bill Kristol's various pro-war organizations really be casting stones at other people's sources?

At least this time, when he says that Ukraine has weapons of mass destruction, he'll be right.

sycasey said:

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Hasn't Ukraine already had success beyond one city? And in a way that Ritter previously predicted they would not?

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That's just it. Putin has already lost this war. I mean, even if he conquers all of Ukraine (not likely, as Russia has only lost ground so far) he has still shown his army is a humiliation and a comedy of errors. As far as the West is concerned, this war has already been won. It's just a matter of how much humiliation remains to be revealed.

dajo9 said:

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sycasey said:

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Hasn't Ukraine already had success beyond one city? And in a way that Ritter previously predicted they would not?

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That's just it. Putin has already lost this war. I mean, even if he conquers all of Ukraine (not likely, as Russia has only lost ground so far) he has still shown his army is a humiliation and a comedy of errors. As far as the West is concerned, this war has already been won. It's just a matter of how much humiliation remains to be revealed.

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Before the war began Ukraine had a population of 44 million people. If we assume half are sympathetic to Russia that still leaves 20 million people in revolt against Russian rule. There is no way Russia can subjugate that many people. They should have continued to do what they were doing which was to influence elections and fund separatist groups.

Open warfare against Ukraine was destined to fail from the start. If Russia captures Kyiv tomorrow and kills Zelenskyy they will STILL lose this war. There is no hope of victory. They can't occupy any part of Ukraine where they are not welcome. This is a pointless exercise in futility.

Has this thread really descended to the point that the pro-Russia posters are defending a pedophile (Ritter) for being the "victim" of a "honeypot" operation and disparaging the 38 year military career of Herting? That is your best argument?

Ritter was arrested TWICE - eight years apart - for targeting underage girls. That's your victim? Maybe find a different source?

Movie and Cal88 - you can do better than that. Use your brains. Don't mindlessly repeat what "MacGregor says" and assume he's got it right. He's been wrong A LOT. Maybe he's right this time - but you can't just assume that because it fits your preferred narrative.

And maybe leave Ritter out of this? He's a disgusting individual and I can't imagine EVER citing a guy like that as support for an argument. I would be embarrassed.

BearGoggles said:

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Maybe find a different source?

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They can't. That's why they keep going back to these guys.

Cal88 said:

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BearGoggles said:

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Has this thread really descended to the point that the pro-Russia posters are defending a pedophile (Ritter) for being the "victim" of a "honeypot" operation and disparaging the 38 year military career of Herting? That is your best argument?

Ritter was arrested TWICE - eight years apart - for targeting underage girls. That's your victim? Maybe find a different source?

Movie and Cal88 - you can do better than that. Use your brains. Don't mindlessly repeat what "MacGregor says" and assume he's got it right. He's been wrong A LOT. Maybe he's right this time - but you can't just assume that because it fits your preferred narrative.

And maybe leave Ritter out of this? He's a disgusting individual and I can't imagine EVER citing a guy like that as support for an argument. I would be embarrassed.

---

Wikipedia:

"Ritter was the subject of two law enforcement sting operations in 2001. He was charged in June 2001 with trying to set up a meeting with an undercover police officer posing as a 16-year-old girl. He was charged with a misdemeanor crime of "attempted endangerment of the welfare of a child". The charge was dismissed and the record was sealed after he completed six months of pre-trial probation. After this information was made public in early 2003, Ritter said that the timing of the leak was politically motivated in order to silence his opposition to the Bush administration's push toward war with Iraq.

Ritter was arrested again in November 2009 over communications with a police decoy he met on an Internet chat site. Police said that he exposed himself, via a web camera, after the officer repeatedly identified himself as a 15-year-old girl,"

So yes, Scott Ritter has been targeted by a sting operation. He was a UN weapons inspector who came out and stated that the Iraq WMD allegations were false, meant to be used as a pretext to invade Iraq. That was the reason he was targeted twice in sting operations.

MacGregor`s assessments of the Ukrainian situation have been far more accurate than Herting's, it's just that the latter happens to push the mainstream narrative that you believe in on outlets like CNN.

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Ritter exposes himself online to what he thought was a 15 year old girl

Cal88 - It's not his fault because it was actually a cop

dajo9 said:

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Cal88 said:

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BearGoggles said:

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Has this thread really descended to the point that the pro-Russia posters are defending a pedophile (Ritter) for being the "victim" of a "honeypot" operation and disparaging the 38 year military career of Herting? That is your best argument?

Ritter was arrested TWICE - eight years apart - for targeting underage girls. That's your victim? Maybe find a different source?

Movie and Cal88 - you can do better than that. Use your brains. Don't mindlessly repeat what "MacGregor says" and assume he's got it right. He's been wrong A LOT. Maybe he's right this time - but you can't just assume that because it fits your preferred narrative.

And maybe leave Ritter out of this? He's a disgusting individual and I can't imagine EVER citing a guy like that as support for an argument. I would be embarrassed.

---

Wikipedia:

"Ritter was the subject of two law enforcement sting operations in 2001. He was charged in June 2001 with trying to set up a meeting with an undercover police officer posing as a 16-year-old girl. He was charged with a misdemeanor crime of "attempted endangerment of the welfare of a child". The charge was dismissed and the record was sealed after he completed six months of pre-trial probation. After this information was made public in early 2003, Ritter said that the timing of the leak was politically motivated in order to silence his opposition to the Bush administration's push toward war with Iraq.

Ritter was arrested again in November 2009 over communications with a police decoy he met on an Internet chat site. Police said that he exposed himself, via a web camera, after the officer repeatedly identified himself as a 15-year-old girl,"

So yes, Scott Ritter has been targeted by a sting operation. He was a UN weapons inspector who came out and stated that the Iraq WMD allegations were false, meant to be used as a pretext to invade Iraq. That was the reason he was targeted twice in sting operations.

MacGregor`s assessments of the Ukrainian situation have been far more accurate than Herting's, it's just that the latter happens to push the mainstream narrative that you believe in on outlets like CNN.

---

Ritter exposes himself online to what he thought was a 15 year old girl

Cal88 - It's not his fault because it was actually a cop

---

Actually, I heard Ritter recently explain what he did was beyond dumb, it was an over-18 chat room, and he believed an adult woman was acting out her teenage fantasy.

He had respect for General Colin Powell until "he came out with his pack of lies about WMDs in Iraq".

Given the widespread corruption including prostitution, trafficking, and sexual assualts by NATO and UN officials in Haiti, Africa, Kosova and elsewhere, the attention Ritter received is curious. Wikipedia: "As early as 2004, Amnesty International reported that underage girls were being kidnapped, tortured and forced into prostitution in Kosovo with UN and NATO personnel being the customers driving the demand for the sex slaves."

Ukrainian Nazis doing a Nazi salute.

To anyone who denies that the Ukraine army isn’t rife with Nazism, show them this video.

They’re nothing more than a bunch of extremists who are only good at begging for money pic.twitter.com/X0VzvWbJzh

— LogKa (@LogKa11) February 16, 2023

dajo9 said:

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Cal88 said:

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BearGoggles said:

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Has this thread really descended to the point that the pro-Russia posters are defending a pedophile (Ritter) for being the "victim" of a "honeypot" operation and disparaging the 38 year military career of Herting? That is your best argument?

Ritter was arrested TWICE - eight years apart - for targeting underage girls. That's your victim? Maybe find a different source?

Movie and Cal88 - you can do better than that. Use your brains. Don't mindlessly repeat what "MacGregor says" and assume he's got it right. He's been wrong A LOT. Maybe he's right this time - but you can't just assume that because it fits your preferred narrative.

And maybe leave Ritter out of this? He's a disgusting individual and I can't imagine EVER citing a guy like that as support for an argument. I would be embarrassed.

---

Wikipedia:

"Ritter was the subject of two law enforcement sting operations in 2001. He was charged in June 2001 with trying to set up a meeting with an undercover police officer posing as a 16-year-old girl. He was charged with a misdemeanor crime of "attempted endangerment of the welfare of a child". The charge was dismissed and the record was sealed after he completed six months of pre-trial probation. After this information was made public in early 2003, Ritter said that the timing of the leak was politically motivated in order to silence his opposition to the Bush administration's push toward war with Iraq.

Ritter was arrested again in November 2009 over communications with a police decoy he met on an Internet chat site. Police said that he exposed himself, via a web camera, after the officer repeatedly identified himself as a 15-year-old girl,"

So yes, Scott Ritter has been targeted by a sting operation. He was a UN weapons inspector who came out and stated that the Iraq WMD allegations were false, meant to be used as a pretext to invade Iraq. That was the reason he was targeted twice in sting operations.

MacGregor`s assessments of the Ukrainian situation have been far more accurate than Herting's, it's just that the latter happens to push the mainstream narrative that you believe in on outlets like CNN.

---

Ritter exposes himself online to what he thought was a 15 year old girl

Cal88 - It's not his fault because it was actually a cop

---

I made two points which were pretty clear that you are obviously ignoring:

-Ritter was targeted as an enemy of the state, in the runup to the Iraq invasion, he was the highest profile figure to call out the WMD lie, being an American UN weapons inspector, he carried a lot of credibility. He was a big thorn in the Bush neocon administration. So they've profiled him, found a weakness, and went after him in a classic honeypot jailbait sting operation.

-Ritter has clearly displayed personal weaknesses and likely a base predilection for jailbait. This however does not preclude that his professional expert opinion on military and geopolitical aspects of this war is invalid.

Roman Polanski and Woody Allen are bona fide pederasts, this does not preclude that their professional work, in which they are very highly regarded, should be off-limits for serious movie appreciators.

movielover said:

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dajo9 said:

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Cal88 said:

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BearGoggles said:

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Has this thread really descended to the point that the pro-Russia posters are defending a pedophile (Ritter) for being the "victim" of a "honeypot" operation and disparaging the 38 year military career of Herting? That is your best argument?

Ritter was arrested TWICE - eight years apart - for targeting underage girls. That's your victim? Maybe find a different source?

Movie and Cal88 - you can do better than that. Use your brains. Don't mindlessly repeat what "MacGregor says" and assume he's got it right. He's been wrong A LOT. Maybe he's right this time - but you can't just assume that because it fits your preferred narrative.

And maybe leave Ritter out of this? He's a disgusting individual and I can't imagine EVER citing a guy like that as support for an argument. I would be embarrassed.

---

Wikipedia:

"Ritter was the subject of two law enforcement sting operations in 2001. He was charged in June 2001 with trying to set up a meeting with an undercover police officer posing as a 16-year-old girl. He was charged with a misdemeanor crime of "attempted endangerment of the welfare of a child". The charge was dismissed and the record was sealed after he completed six months of pre-trial probation. After this information was made public in early 2003, Ritter said that the timing of the leak was politically motivated in order to silence his opposition to the Bush administration's push toward war with Iraq.

Ritter was arrested again in November 2009 over communications with a police decoy he met on an Internet chat site. Police said that he exposed himself, via a web camera, after the officer repeatedly identified himself as a 15-year-old girl,"

So yes, Scott Ritter has been targeted by a sting operation. He was a UN weapons inspector who came out and stated that the Iraq WMD allegations were false, meant to be used as a pretext to invade Iraq. That was the reason he was targeted twice in sting operations.

MacGregor`s assessments of the Ukrainian situation have been far more accurate than Herting's, it's just that the latter happens to push the mainstream narrative that you believe in on outlets like CNN.

---

Ritter exposes himself online to what he thought was a 15 year old girl

Cal88 - It's not his fault because it was actually a cop

---

Actually, I heard Ritter recently explain what he did was beyond dumb, it was an over-18 chat room, and he believed an adult woman was acting out her teenage fantasy.

He had respect for General Colin Powell until "he came out with his pack of lies about WMDs in Iraq".

Given the widespread corruption including prostitution, trafficking, and sexual assualts by NATO and UN officials in Haiti, Africa, Kosova and elsewhere, the attention Ritter received is curious. Wikipedia: "As early as 2004, Amnesty International reported that underage girls were being kidnapped, tortured and forced into prostitution in Kosovo with UN and NATO personnel being the customers driving the demand for the sex slaves."

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This is f'n amazing. So let's assume the first time he was in a chat room and was truly entrapped (he wasn't, but I'll play along). W-T-F is he doing 8 years later putting himself in the exact same position where he's chasing another fake underage girl? That's the guy whose judgement and opinion you trust and value?

Cal88 said:

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dajo9 said:

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Cal88 said:

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BearGoggles said:

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Has this thread really descended to the point that the pro-Russia posters are defending a pedophile (Ritter) for being the "victim" of a "honeypot" operation and disparaging the 38 year military career of Herting? That is your best argument?

Ritter was arrested TWICE - eight years apart - for targeting underage girls. That's your victim? Maybe find a different source?

Movie and Cal88 - you can do better than that. Use your brains. Don't mindlessly repeat what "MacGregor says" and assume he's got it right. He's been wrong A LOT. Maybe he's right this time - but you can't just assume that because it fits your preferred narrative.

And maybe leave Ritter out of this? He's a disgusting individual and I can't imagine EVER citing a guy like that as support for an argument. I would be embarrassed.

---

Wikipedia:

"Ritter was the subject of two law enforcement sting operations in 2001. He was charged in June 2001 with trying to set up a meeting with an undercover police officer posing as a 16-year-old girl. He was charged with a misdemeanor crime of "attempted endangerment of the welfare of a child". The charge was dismissed and the record was sealed after he completed six months of pre-trial probation. After this information was made public in early 2003, Ritter said that the timing of the leak was politically motivated in order to silence his opposition to the Bush administration's push toward war with Iraq.

Ritter was arrested again in November 2009 over communications with a police decoy he met on an Internet chat site. Police said that he exposed himself, via a web camera, after the officer repeatedly identified himself as a 15-year-old girl,"

So yes, Scott Ritter has been targeted by a sting operation. He was a UN weapons inspector who came out and stated that the Iraq WMD allegations were false, meant to be used as a pretext to invade Iraq. That was the reason he was targeted twice in sting operations.

MacGregor`s assessments of the Ukrainian situation have been far more accurate than Herting's, it's just that the latter happens to push the mainstream narrative that you believe in on outlets like CNN.

---

Ritter exposes himself online to what he thought was a 15 year old girl

Cal88 - It's not his fault because it was actually a cop

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I made two points which were pretty clear that you are obviously ignoring:

-Ritter was targeted as an enemy of the state, in the runup to the Iraq invasion, he was the highest profile figure to call out the WMD lie, being an American UN weapons inspector, he carried a lot of credibility. He was a big thorn in the Bush neocon administration. So they've profiled him, found a weakness, and went after him in a classic honeypot jailbait sting operation.

-Ritter has clearly displayed personal weaknesses and likely a base predilection for jailbait. This however does not preclude that his professional expert opinion on military and geopolitical aspects of this war is invalid.

Roman Polanski and Woody Allen are bona fide pederasts, this does not preclude that their professional work, in which they are very highly regarded, should be off-limits for serious movie appreciators.

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Actually being a convicted pedophile does bear on a person's judgment as to all matters.

And I think Roman Polanski and Woody Allen are also disgusting (though arguably Allen is a different category of disgusting). I wouldn't watch or support any of their professional work. But even if you value their movie making/professional work, that is a very different thing that saying "that a person whose opinion and judgment I trust" - which is exactly what you're doing with Ritter.

Every criminal arrested in a sting thinks they're entrapped/singled out. The fact remains Ritter did it. Even if he was targeted, that doesn't change the fact that he's not a guy you should be citing for reasoned opinions. Please.

BearGoggles said:

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Every criminal arrested in a sting thinks they're entrapped/singled out. The fact remains Ritter did it. Even if he was targeted, that doesn't change the fact that he's not a guy you should be citing for reasoned opinions. Please.

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Bad faith on two counts:

-The Bush administration went after Ritter, he was not some random pedo or "every criminal". He was near the top of the enemy of the state list, right up there with Assange, who btw was also targeted by intel agencies for alleged sexcrimes.

-"Ritter did it" - what did he do exactly, he never actually interacted with a minor. You can bet that in this type of jailbait operation, the cops will slap the likeness to a well-developed mature for her age very attractive young woman onto that fake 15 or 16 year old persona they have build in order to entrap him.

I get that people can be turned off by Ritter`s behavior, but you can`t use your pearl-clutching outrage to dismiss the circumstances surrounding his entrapment.

Good analysis of Putin's gambit by Harvard prof Stephen Walt in Foreign Policy magazine:

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/02/15/putin-right-ukraine-war/

excerpts:

The Biden administration hoped that the threat of "unprecedented sanctions" would deter Putin from invading and then hoped that imposing these sanctions would strangle his war machine, trigger popular discontent, and force him to reverse course. Putin went to war convinced that Russia could ride out any sanctions we might impose, and he's been proved right up till now. There is still sufficient appetite for Russian raw materials (including energy) to keep its economy going with only a slight decline in GDP. The long-term consequences may be more severe, but he was right to assume that sanctions alone would not determine the outcome of the conflict for quite a while.

Second, Putin correctly judged that the Russian people would tolerate high costs and that military setbacks were not going to lead to his ouster. He may have begun the war hoping it would be quick and cheap, but his decision to keep going after the initial setbacksand eventually to mobilize reserves and fight onreflected his belief that the bulk of the Russian people would go along with his decision and that he could suppress any opposition that did emerge. The mobilization of additional troops may have been shambolic by our standards, but Russia has been able to keep large forces in the field despite enormous losses and without jeopardizing Putin's hold on power. That could change, of course, but so far, he's been proved right on this issue, too.

Third, Putin understood that other states would follow their own interests and that he would not be universally condemned for his actions. Europe, the United States, and some others have reacted sharply and strongly, but key members of the global south and some other prominent countries (such as Saudi Arabia and Israel) have not. The war hasn't helped Russia's global image (as lopsided votes condemning the war in the U.N. General Assembly have shown), but more tangible opposition has been limited to a subset of the world's nations.

Most important of all: Putin understood that Ukraine's fate was more important to Russia than it was to the West. Please note: It is by no means more important to Russia than it is to Ukrainians, who are making enormous sacrifices to defend their country. But Putin has the advantage over Ukraine's principal supporters when it comes to being willing to bear costs and run risks. He has an advantage not because Western leaders are weak, pusillanimous, or craven, but because the political alignment of a large country right next door to Russia was always bound to matter more to Moscow than it was going to matter to people farther away, and especially to individuals living in a wealthy and secure country on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

This fundamental asymmetry of interest and motivation is why the United States, Germany, and much of the rest of NATO have calibrated their responses so carefully, and why U.S. President Joe Biden ruled out sending U.S. troops from the get-go. He understood (correctly) that Putin might think Ukraine's fate was worth sending several hundred thousand troops to fight and possibly die, but Americans didn't and wouldn't feel the same way about sending their sons and daughters to oppose them. It might be worth sending billions of dollars of aid to help Ukrainians defend their country, but that objective was not important enough for the United States to put its own troops in harm's way or to run a significant risk of a nuclear war.

BearGoggles said:

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movielover said:

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dajo9 said:

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Cal88 said:

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BearGoggles said:

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Has this thread really descended to the point that the pro-Russia posters are defending a pedophile (Ritter) for being the "victim" of a "honeypot" operation and disparaging the 38 year military career of Herting? That is your best argument?

Ritter was arrested TWICE - eight years apart - for targeting underage girls. That's your victim? Maybe find a different source?

Movie and Cal88 - you can do better than that. Use your brains. Don't mindlessly repeat what "MacGregor says" and assume he's got it right. He's been wrong A LOT. Maybe he's right this time - but you can't just assume that because it fits your preferred narrative.

And maybe leave Ritter out of this? He's a disgusting individual and I can't imagine EVER citing a guy like that as support for an argument. I would be embarrassed.

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Wikipedia:

"Ritter was the subject of two law enforcement sting operations in 2001. He was charged in June 2001 with trying to set up a meeting with an undercover police officer posing as a 16-year-old girl. He was charged with a misdemeanor crime of "attempted endangerment of the welfare of a child". The charge was dismissed and the record was sealed after he completed six months of pre-trial probation. After this information was made public in early 2003, Ritter said that the timing of the leak was politically motivated in order to silence his opposition to the Bush administration's push toward war with Iraq.

Ritter was arrested again in November 2009 over communications with a police decoy he met on an Internet chat site. Police said that he exposed himself, via a web camera, after the officer repeatedly identified himself as a 15-year-old girl,"

So yes, Scott Ritter has been targeted by a sting operation. He was a UN weapons inspector who came out and stated that the Iraq WMD allegations were false, meant to be used as a pretext to invade Iraq. That was the reason he was targeted twice in sting operations.

MacGregor`s assessments of the Ukrainian situation have been far more accurate than Herting's, it's just that the latter happens to push the mainstream narrative that you believe in on outlets like CNN.

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Ritter exposes himself online to what he thought was a 15 year old girl

Cal88 - It's not his fault because it was actually a cop

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Actually, I heard Ritter recently explain what he did was beyond dumb, it was an over-18 chat room, and he believed an adult woman was acting out her teenage fantasy.

He had respect for General Colin Powell until "he came out with his pack of lies about WMDs in Iraq".

Given the widespread corruption including prostitution, trafficking, and sexual assualts by NATO and UN officials in Haiti, Africa, Kosova and elsewhere, the attention Ritter received is curious. Wikipedia: "As early as 2004, Amnesty International reported that underage girls were being kidnapped, tortured and forced into prostitution in Kosovo with UN and NATO personnel being the customers driving the demand for the sex slaves."

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This is f'n amazing. So let's assume the first time he was in a chat room and was truly entrapped (he wasn't, but I'll play along). W-T-F is he doing 8 years later putting himself in the exact same position where he's chasing another fake underage girl? That's the guy whose judgement and opinion you trust and value?

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I've cited dozens of sources. You're just cherry picking one for ad hominem attacks.

And what did CNNs Mark Hartling get his Purple Heart for?

Cal88 said:

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BearGoggles said:

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Every criminal arrested in a sting thinks they're entrapped/singled out. The fact remains Ritter did it. Even if he was targeted, that doesn't change the fact that he's not a guy you should be citing for reasoned opinions. Please.

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Bad faith on two counts:

-The Bush administration went after Ritter, he was not some random pedo or "every criminal". He was near the top of the enemy of the state list, right up there with Assange, who btw was also targeted by intel agencies for alleged sexcrimes.

-"Ritter did it" - what did he do exactly, he never actually interacted with a minor. You can bet that in this type of jailbait operation, the cops will slap the likeness to a well-developed mature for her age very attractive young woman onto that fake 15 or 16 year old persona they have build in order to entrap him.

I get that people can be turned off by Ritter`s behavior, but you can`t use your pearl-clutching outrage to dismiss the circumstances surrounding his entrapment.

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Whether he actually interacted with a girl is irrelevant, both legally and morally.

This is your guy:

CNN re 2001 incidents (there were two): http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/01/22/ritter.arrest/

"Ritter had arranged in an Internet chat room to meet with the girl at a Burger King in Colonie, a suburb of Albany, so she could witness him masturbating. The source said Ritter was charged with "attempted endangerment of the welfare of a child," a Class B misdemeanor.

The source also said Ritter was confronted by police in April 2001 after communicating with an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old."

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sex-ritter-idUKTRE73B7PG20110412

In 2009, he sent a nude video of himself to what he thought was a 15 year old girl.

"Prosecutors said Ritter's online chat with 15-year-old "Emily" in February 2009 was actually the third such encounter since he quit his job as chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq in 1998 and became a vocal critic of the Bush administration's war in Iraq.

In 2001, Ritter was involved in two other similar sex sting cases, prosecutor Michael Rakaczewski said in his opening statement."

He was not entrapped. There is literally no evidence of that. And on top of that, you'd have to believe that, remarkably, he was wrongfully induced in the same illegal behavior three times.

And even if he was entrapped, certainly that would be enough to embitter a person to perhaps create bias against those who allegedly entrapped him. Either way, just a terrible source that no one seeking credibility should cite.

movielover said:

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BearGoggles said:

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movielover said:

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dajo9 said:

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Cal88 said:

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BearGoggles said:

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Has this thread really descended to the point that the pro-Russia posters are defending a pedophile (Ritter) for being the "victim" of a "honeypot" operation and disparaging the 38 year military career of Herting? That is your best argument?

Ritter was arrested TWICE - eight years apart - for targeting underage girls. That's your victim? Maybe find a different source?

Movie and Cal88 - you can do better than that. Use your brains. Don't mindlessly repeat what "MacGregor says" and assume he's got it right. He's been wrong A LOT. Maybe he's right this time - but you can't just assume that because it fits your preferred narrative.

And maybe leave Ritter out of this? He's a disgusting individual and I can't imagine EVER citing a guy like that as support for an argument. I would be embarrassed.

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Wikipedia:

"Ritter was the subject of two law enforcement sting operations in 2001. He was charged in June 2001 with trying to set up a meeting with an undercover police officer posing as a 16-year-old girl. He was charged with a misdemeanor crime of "attempted endangerment of the welfare of a child". The charge was dismissed and the record was sealed after he completed six months of pre-trial probation. After this information was made public in early 2003, Ritter said that the timing of the leak was politically motivated in order to silence his opposition to the Bush administration's push toward war with Iraq.

Ritter was arrested again in November 2009 over communications with a police decoy he met on an Internet chat site. Police said that he exposed himself, via a web camera, after the officer repeatedly identified himself as a 15-year-old girl,"

So yes, Scott Ritter has been targeted by a sting operation. He was a UN weapons inspector who came out and stated that the Iraq WMD allegations were false, meant to be used as a pretext to invade Iraq. That was the reason he was targeted twice in sting operations.

MacGregor`s assessments of the Ukrainian situation have been far more accurate than Herting's, it's just that the latter happens to push the mainstream narrative that you believe in on outlets like CNN.

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Ritter exposes himself online to what he thought was a 15 year old girl

Cal88 - It's not his fault because it was actually a cop

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Actually, I heard Ritter recently explain what he did was beyond dumb, it was an over-18 chat room, and he believed an adult woman was acting out her teenage fantasy.

He had respect for General Colin Powell until "he came out with his pack of lies about WMDs in Iraq".

Given the widespread corruption including prostitution, trafficking, and sexual assualts by NATO and UN officials in Haiti, Africa, Kosova and elsewhere, the attention Ritter received is curious. Wikipedia: "As early as 2004, Amnesty International reported that underage girls were being kidnapped, tortured and forced into prostitution in Kosovo with UN and NATO personnel being the customers driving the demand for the sex slaves."

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This is f'n amazing. So let's assume the first time he was in a chat room and was truly entrapped (he wasn't, but I'll play along). W-T-F is he doing 8 years later putting himself in the exact same position where he's chasing another fake underage girl? That's the guy whose judgement and opinion you trust and value?

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I've cited dozens of sources. You're just cherry picking one for ad hominem attacks.

And what did CNNs Mark Hartling get his Purple Heart for?

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No - I'm not cherry picking. I'm saying stop citing a clearly flawed source (Ritter) and adopting without question everything that MacGregor says. Whatever other sources you cite (and I haven't seen many, if any, that are reliable) will stand on their own.

I'm sure you'll respond with "General MacGregor says . . ." and then assume that we should all just agree with you because some guy - who has been objectively wrong on many things related to Ukraine - said it.