BTW, it's America who is ill prepared to confront either China or Russia:
“For the same reason, the war in Ukraine is a sobering preview of the problems the U.S. itself would face in a conflict against Russia or China. If forced to go to war in Eastern Europe or the Western Pacific, Washington would spend down its stockpiles of missiles, precision-guided munitions and other critical capabilities in days or weeks. It would probably suffer severe losses of tanks, planes, ships and other assets that are sophisticated, costly and hard to replace.”
Interesting! So it was actually the U.S. all along that had no stocks for war, not Russia.
In fact the Pentagon and MSM lied all along. Russia is by far the largest producer of armaments, shells, ammunition on earth, more than all NATO countries combined. The lie we were fed about Russia running out of fuel, ammo, food, etc., was laughable and seen through by any analyst with a brain from the beginning.
But more shocking revelations abound:
“In the world wars of the last century, America’s unmatched manufacturing base ultimately powered it to victory. But today, replenishing the free world’s arsenal might not be so easy.
American economic leadership is no longer based primarily on manufacturing. Shortages of machine tools, skilled labor and spare production capacity could slow a wartime rearmament effort. The U.S. can’t quickly scale up production of Stinger missiles for Ukraine, for example, because the workforce needed to do so no longer exists.”- Anonymous
9 comments:
Russia's Ruble is Global Best Performing Currency in March; 1st Qtr Current Account Surplus Soars to Record High
Russian President Vladimir Putin said defiantly on Monday that Western sanctions have proved to be “ineffective” in meeting their objective. In his words, “They (US and EU) expected these sanctions to rapidly produce a devastating effect on Russia’s finances and economy, sow panic in the markets, bring about a collapse in the banking system and create major shortages of goods in shops.”
“However, we can already say in all confidence that this policy has failed in Russia. The strategy of unleashing an economic blitzkrieg has been ineffective. Moreover, the sanctions affected those who initiated them. I am referring to higher inflation and unemployment and the worsening economic outlook for the United States and European countries, as well as the declining living standards of Europeans and the depreciation of their savings.”
All indications are that the contingency planning that Russia had worked out to pull through a severe sanctions regime is paying off. The ruble’s recovery has been absolutely astounding. The US President Biden had boastfully redacted that he’d turn ruble into “rubble” but the exact opposite happened. In the immediate aftermath of sanctions, the Russian currency plunged to 121.5 ruble per dollar and things looked dire enough. But it has since surged all the way back to where it was before Russia’s special operation in Ukraine began — around 80 ruble per USD in mid-April. Ironically, ruble turned out to be the best performing currency in March!
Putin noted that consumer prices have “grown considerably in Russia over the past six weeks, by 9.4 percent,” and people have “felt the impact on their family incomes.” He announced a decision “to adjust all social benefits, pensions and wages in the public sector, in accordance with inflation.” Russia can afford it, as in the first quarter of this year, “we are witnessing a record level of budget surplus.”
In comparison, it is a dismal scene in the US with inflation touching a 40-year high — 8.54% for March — that is going to get only worse if the conflict in Ukraine continues. Worse still, this scenario may upset Biden’s green energy plan. As for Germany, the largest EU economy, this year’s inflation is expected to touch double figures.
Interestingly, Russia is enjoying a “robust trade surplus” and in the first quarter of the year, current account surplus exceeded $58 billion, “setting a historical high. Foreign cash is returning to the banking sector and household deposits are growing.” Indeed, the factors behind the ruble roaring back are self-evident.
It seems the EU has sensed that Russia is putting back together amazingly well the pieces of life in an environment of extreme isolation from the West. The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has admitted publicly that “With regard to financial sanctions, of course, you can always go further, but we have already reached the limits of what we can do. We did everything we could.”
Yes, you have done everything you could, yet you have failed miserably.
That shows your political policies are only self-defeating if the "others" are able to find an alternative way to by-pass your self-imposed self-beneficiary system.
That, in total, means that your system is not good at all.
"In fact the Pentagon and MSM lied all along. Russia is by far the largest producer of armaments, shells, ammunition on earth, more than all NATO countries combined.
The lie we were fed about Russia running out of fuel, ammo, food, etc., was laughable and seen through by any analyst with a brain from the beginning."
American economic leadership is no longer based primarily on manufacturing. Shortages of machine tools, skilled labor and spare production capacity could slow a wartime rearmament effort. The U.S. can’t quickly scale up production of Stinger missiles for Ukraine, for example, because the workforce needed to do so no longer exists.
It's obvious that Anonymous has never worked in a manufacturing environment or worked with human resources. High tech factories (not speaking iphones and consumer goods) cannot be scaled up on short notice. Many of the thousands of parts are custom made individual, and you need to order them up to 6 months in advance because your supplier doesn't keep them lying in stock waiting for a war, and neither can you walk into a hardware store to get them. Defence weapons are built to specified quantities, and then when the manufacturer finishes production, the workers are assigned to build something else. If they can go back and build previous model Stingers, that means they were sitting around doing nothing, or they have to set aside manufacturing something else which has more value and possibly incur penalties for late deliveries.
Actually both of you are saying the same thing.
Not really. "Bungling" in the title and the criticism in the article makes it sound like there is incompetence or that the situation could be avoided.
Most manufacturers nowadays try to operate LEAN manufacturing plants which are highly organized and efficient. They have minimal parts or finished inventories, fewer suppliers who are integrated into the production process, zero idle workers and fully utilized capacity space, all planned months ahead for customers who are already waiting for the current production. You cannot walk in and say "I want you to stop this production, and give me 500 units of the 2007 model because I expended my entire stock last week".
Even old assembly line equipmment needs to be unpacked (if they were not disposed), re-assembled, checked for missing/damaged parts, manufacture those parts, re-calibrated everything to within mm, retested multiple times, have their production samples produced to within thousands of mm, before you can even begin production. All this takes at least 6 months, not to mention where are you even going to put this equipment or get new workers if your factory is already at full capacity with current equipment and production.
That's why I said he doesn't understand manufacturing.
20 Apr 2022:
Antonio Guterres, the secretary-general of the United Nations, has appealed for a four-day truce during the Orthodox Holy Week to allow for civilian evacuations and the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the UN chief noted that the Orthodox Easter is coming amid an intensifying Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine, making the need for a ceasefire all the more urgent.
“Humanitarian needs are dire. People do not have food, water, supplies to treat the sick or wounded or simply to live day-to-day,” Guterres said in New York.
“Inspired by the Holy Week, I urge all parties, and all champions of peace around the world, to join my Easter appeal.
He suggested the pause begin on Thursday, which is Holy Thursday for Orthodox Christians, and continue until Sunday when Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter.
“Instead of celebration of a new life, this Easter coincides with a Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine. The intense concentration of forces and firepower makes this battle inevitably more violent, bloody and destructive,” he noted.
“The onslaught and terrible toll on civilians we have seen so far could pale in comparison to the horror that lies ahead.”
Guterres said the goal of the four-day truce is to open “humanitarian corridors” so civilians can escape embattled areas and more humanitarian convoys can get in, particularly to Donetsk, Luhansk and Mariupol in the eastern region known as the Donbas – the focus of Russia’s current offensive – and Kherson in the south.
More than 4 million people in those areas, and 12 million nationwide, need food, water, medicine or other assistance.
‘Sceptical’
Ukraine immediately called on Russia to heed Guterres’s call, but an envoy from Moscow said he was “a bit sceptical” about the idea.
“I really don’t know what’s the point of entering in the game with Ukrainians on such issues,” said Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN.
He claimed that Russia had offered to create humanitarian corridors but that Ukraine did not use them or had misused them.
Ukraine has also repeatedly accused Russia of hindering efforts to create such safe routes and of ceasefire violations that prevent their implementation.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian forces on Tuesday of “blocking any attempts to organise a humanitarian corridor and save people” in the besieged port city of Mariupol.
Guterres said the UN’s humanitarian envoy, Martin Griffiths, has broached the idea of a truce over Orthodox Easter with the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations, an interfaith group.
“The four-day Easter period should be a moment to unite around saving lives and furthering dialogue to end the suffering in Ukraine,” the UN chief said.
His proposal came after the UN recently helped to foster a two-month truce in Yemen’s civil war. The truce took effect as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began.
The UN let Russia and Ukraine know before Guterres went public with his appeal on Tuesday, Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
But “no pile of blankets, no sum of cash, no amount of medicine, is going to halt the death and destruction,” said Kelly Clements, the UN’s deputy high commissioner for refugees.
“So while we will continue our job to deliver aid, we need this council to do its job, too,” she said, calling on members “to put aside your differences and find a way to end this horrific and senseless war”.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
She must be very desperate, so desperate that she has to pull out this stance.
However, it will never do, when dealing with the Professionals.
Half-baked political hacks trying to pull wool over the Russians!
The truce is to allow the European and American big shots holed in the Steel Plant to escape being captured or killed by the Russian attack.
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