Our October ’23 Coffee Hour: Resources and Comments
Resources from Professor Marci Shore
This is a very good, English podcast series:
https://ukraineworld.org/en/podcasts
This recent episode with a military analyst might be helpful:
https://ukraineworld.org/en/podcasts/ep-265
On the Russian opposition, Arkady Ostrovsky’s podcast, “Next Year in Moscow” is excellent:
https://www.economist.com/moscowpod
On the Russian occupation of Chernobyl:
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/09/russia-ukraine-chernobyl-disaster/675083/
Nataliya Gumenyuk is among the very best journalists.
Nataliya Gumenyuk on why the moral blackmail won’t work:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/24/ukraine-russia-war-crime-negotiations-talks-mariupol-zelensky-ultimatums/
She’s part of the team working with war crimes documentation as well:
https://www.thereckoningproject.com/
By a writer from Kharkiv, about his 10-year-old daughter in wartime:
https://www.eurozine.com/nadezhda-or-hope/
By a writer from Donetsk, on the beginning of the war in the Donbas:
https://www.eurozine.com/seven-dillweeds/
Stanislav Aseyev’s extraordinary book about his time in captivity:
https://books.huri.harvard.edu/books/the-torture-camp-on-paradise-street
Professor Shore’s own articles, shared with us:
“Writers at War: The Russian invasion recorded by the invaded.”
“Why Ukrainians Are Prepared to Fight”
“Nine Books to Read to Understand the War in Ukraine”
“The Poet Laureate of Hybrid War”
Additional resources:
The Atlantic Council’s Ukraine Alert
The Role of Civil Society in Ukrainian Reconstruction
Please share your comments with us below.
As no one wanted to address the issue in the Ukraine discussion of whether the war is winnable, I will posit that it is not. The best that Zelensky can hope for is to cede to Russia a few eastern provinces. We are not prepared to wage any large-scale war. Our munitions, our surface fleet, our troops, and our field weapons are at historic lows. Creating a woke military has done nothing for preparedness. Our DOD and senior defense officials are woefully unfocused.
We should stop throwing money at a lost cause. If Blinken is so good, then he should broker a peace, give Russia what they want, and move on.
It is now a well-known tactic of the third world to draw the USA into conflictd and try to bankrupt us by funding never-ending wars.
Definition: Fungible: being something (such as money or a commodity) of such a nature that one part or quantity may be replaced by another equal part or quantity in paying a debt or settling an account.
Liberals, especially those in the White House, don’t seem to understand the concept of fungibility. They are all saying that the funds transferred to Iran were not used to fund Hamas. Give me a break.
And now it turns out that the White House envoy to Iran was fired in June. Who knew? The rumor is that up to $80 Billion has been transferred to Iran since Biden came into office.
And that wunderkind, Jake Sullivan, goes on a talk show a few weeks ago and expresses that the Middle East has not been this quiet in 20 years. Great intelligence work.
Speaking of intelligence work, possibly the DOD, the AG, the CIA, and the FBI should focus less on noisy parents and more on international threats. It is hard to believe that all of the western intelligence agencies and Israel missed the Hamas threat.
Today a Federal Reserve official suggested that there is no need to replenish our strategic oil reserves. In what world are they living?
Marci and Jim were an excellent team. The hour and a half cleared my mind regarding Putin’s Ukraine war more than all the other reading I’ve done to date.
Bill,
Your thinking on the Uraine war would be most interesting. Could you give us a summary?
I don’t think that our esteemed Professor, Brad Westerfield, would be so feckless as to advise us to give Russia what they want and move on. The next step is to give China Taiwan and, eventually, the Phillipines and Hawaii, leaving Australia to fend for itself. Meanwhile, American Firsters can draw on the international wisdom of Charles Lindbergh, Henry Ford and the Rightish Reverend Father Coughlin. Are those your “unwoke” heroes, Ken?