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2023-02-16 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Moment a Russian thermobaric missile launcher is destroyed in huge fireball explosions amid brutal trench warfare as Kremlin claims frontline advances - while cremating their dead 'around the clock'
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Posted by Skidmark 2023-02-16 05:47|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [11125 views ]  Top

#1 To the daily mirror fans club in Rantburg, today an European army officer presented a commentary piece . This officer is currently serving in a NATO military unit and wish to offer his opinion in the context of the increasing tensions we face in the world today.

____

Hello , I am an Armored officer of the French Army.

If I write to you today, it is to tell you exactly what it is like to be an officer in a Western European army in 2023. Plus the constant lies and propaganda seeded in our population. Our government do not represent our country interests and is continuously lying.
In concrete terms, we are constantly being told about "high-intensity warfare" and "the return of modern warfare". We, specifically, are told about the importance of our role as armored officers, because "tanks will play a major role against our enemies". We are constantly being fed a pro-war arguments, very anti-Russian, very pro-NATO discourses (no surprise there). In other words, we are in an era like in 1872, when France had just lost against Germany, and the whole country was in propaganda mode to prepare the "revenge" (we call this "revanchisme" in France).
That's kind of the feeling I get (even if I don't really see the revenge we would have to take on the Russians, Lol).

But this bellicose speech is a facade, like a cat growling at a bear hoping to scare it. In reality our army is in tatters. We are unable to maintain our Leclerc tanks for example: only fifty of them are functional, a shame for "the first army in Europe"... A shame for an armored cavalry officer like me who is from ESM Saint Cyr and Saumur. It is not better in other sectors of the army, we have for example almost no more CAESAR (thanks Ukraine!). In other words, we have neither tanks nor guns.

The French like to make fun of China, which they say is a "paper tiger". The paper tiger is us. Our army was unable to eliminate 500 terrorists in Africa, it would not last 2 days in a real modern war.

But the most ridiculous thing is what? It is that our army is wallowing in this mediocrity. Like an old man who contemplates his reflection in the mirror, dreaming of his past glory. I'm thinking of a specific episode that happened recently and that justified my writing to you: an evaluation for my officer class that we just passed consisted in "eating properly" and "knowing how to set a table in a noble way", to respect the tradition of armored cavalry officers (supposed to be particularly noble)... Funny if it was just some tradition. Except no: it was decisive. Those who misaligned knives and forks got very bad marks, which would be reflected in their career and choice of regiment. The French army breaks the ambitions of young people who have been preparing for 6 years to lead tanks, for a story of forks...

This army is ridiculous, it is only a shadow of its former self. It disgusts all the sincere French patriots: most of my comrades consider leaving the army as soon as they can. For this reason in particular, because the army brings nothing. But also because they do not want, for some of them, to be the minions of NATO while they enlisted to serve France...

TL;DR: you don't have to worry about Western European countries, our arrogance is theater.

I give you my greetings, take care of yourselves and let's pray (whatever our obedience) that this conflict will stop and that Europe will find again a peaceful and multipolar balance
Posted by ACA JOE 2023-02-16 12:27||   2023-02-16 12:27|| Front Page Top

#2 /\ Any link available Joe ?
Posted by Besoeker 2023-02-16 12:36||   2023-02-16 12:36|| Front Page Top

#3 Thank you for this

Really great quote: The French army breaks the ambitions of young people who have been preparing for 6 years to lead tanks, for a story of forks...
Posted by mossomo 2023-02-16 12:46||   2023-02-16 12:46|| Front Page Top

#4  /\ Any link available Joe ?

The French Theatrical Army in their Own Words

A second derivative published from Intel Slava, a Putin Pub.
Posted by Skidmark 2023-02-16 13:06||   2023-02-16 13:06|| Front Page Top

#5 A good find, Aca Joe. Thank goodness someone over there found the courage to say publicly what we Americans have been saying for decades… though the bit about table settings is new. To be sure, having formal as well as informal manners is important for those who will assuredly find themselves in a variety of situations, but even the great himself Napoleon reputedly left the niceties of formal table manners to the ladies.

Separately, I found that piece as a Twitter thread, starting here:

Posted by trailing wife 2023-02-16 13:12||   2023-02-16 13:12|| Front Page Top

#6 Not surprising. Both the French and Germans have let their military rot (bit less so w/ France who have colonies to expoilt protect). The Geramns don't have 50 Leopards in combat ready condition. Let those uncouth eastern Euros and Americans handle the Russians. Besides, we're the Russians best customers.

But with a little work and money, they can be combat ready quickly. Like the Leopards the Germans will send at end of March.
Posted by Thruter Gloluger6393 2023-02-16 13:17||   2023-02-16 13:17|| Front Page Top

#7 Lots of minds here think alike!

published from Intel Slava, a Putin Pub.

I had just started wondering about that. So, dear Rantburgers, what odds this is a genuine cris de coeur versus a pretty piece of propaganda?
Posted by trailing wife 2023-02-16 13:28||   2023-02-16 13:28|| Front Page Top

#8 cris de coeur

...or CHATgpt
I interviewed ChatGPT as if it was a human; here's what it had to say that gave me chills

Posted by Skidmark 2023-02-16 14:05||   2023-02-16 14:05|| Front Page Top

23:58 Trofim Denisovich Lysenko
23:57 Skidmark
23:37 Anomalous Sources
23:25 Anomalous Sources
23:23 Anomalous Sources
23:18 Anomalous Sources
23:12 Omolutle tse Tung5247
22:14 Omolutle tse Tung5247
21:32 Super Hose
21:29 Deacon Blues
21:20 Old Patriot
21:10 Super Hose
21:01 Super Hose
20:58 Deacon Blues
20:52 Super Hose
20:45 DooDahMan
20:37 Omolutle tse Tung5247
20:37 Frank G
20:18 Omolutle tse Tung5247
20:04 ACA JOE
19:03 Frank G
18:50 M. Murcek
18:47 M. Murcek
18:16 Jack Salami
Merry-Go-Blog










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