Russia trumpets victory in Soledar - a name translated as ‘gift of salt'. A town
no more than a dot on a landscape that once held 10,000 residents, primarilyworking in the salt mining industry. Slightly smaller than the old ex-miningtown of Bargod in the Welsh valleys. Thousands of workers have died in a deadlyStalingrad cosplay for dust and rubble. The strategic significance is negligible.The significant consequence is disproportionate in its dramatic escalation. ----The desperate Putin military machine will accept any portrayal of victory nomatter how small, after 6 months of abject failure piled on retreat just weeksbefore the war's first anniversary. It also pilots a resurrected militaryproject of franchising out imperialist conquest to private capital in the form ofthe Wagner Group.Once a small elite of experienced military adventurers that could grace any Bondfilm, it has become a ruthless and desperate army of violent criminals promisedriches and freedom in exchange for unquestioned obedience and sacrifice. Nowtheir estimated 40,000, accounting for a quarter of effective Russian combatforces, has become a law unto itself with the political implications that go withit, like Caesar letting in the barbarians to protect it from barbarism.The value to Putin is clear, their desperate dead is not officially a Russianbody count and more than that, this paid mob are not bound by the so called‘rules of war'. Atrocity has been privatised and not a government issue. Asuccessful model of colonial expansion in the 17th-19th centuries.This onslaught, aided by an estimated $1 billion worth of 2,400 Shadad (meaning‘Witness') drones from Iran's blood-soaked Islamist regime, demonstrates theunholy nature of barrel scraping before escalation.The West has recognised Russian weakness for the opportunity it offers. Ratherthe defeat them, leaving a vengeful adversary in intact, Russia can be bled,impotently, to death. The piecemeal upgrading of Ukrainian military technology -always sufficient to avoid defeat but never enough to win - now has added tanks.No longer Soviet T72 leftovers from the Poles or the Czechs (backfilled but theUK and US with our sophisticated yet outdated upgrades) but 14 British Challenger2's. Insufficient in themselves but lifting the escalation taboo, anticipating aEurope wide tithe that could see around 300 first line (primarily the ubiquitousGerman Leopard) tanks equalising ground forces as the war grinds on. The aim isprolongation not end, though when that happens, Western capital plans to be thevictor in every sense.As the stakes are raised, crisis ridden Iran has decided to shackle itself toPutin's fate, squaring another circle for Western imperialism. Russia isbelieved to be paying with technology not just cash for this alliance, just atthe point Iran's nuclear program reaches critical mass.While it's workers revolt, the Mullah's seek to create a unifying external crisisby waving a red flag at bullish markets eying their downfall. It would be hardto imagine that Israel, so long eager for a preemptive strike and emboldened byits new nationalist government, is still being kept on as tight a leash by itsmilitary underwriter, the USA.At home we get colder and poorer, in line with our fellow workers either side ofthe war's frontiers. The war is meant to distract us from our rulers abuse asmuch as it is in Russia and Iran.Our hope lies neither in the success of millionaire Zelensky's fire sale of hiscountry's resources to western bankers than it does in mullahs or authoritariandictators. The conflict escalates towards our annihilation with every victoryand defeat on the battlefield.Our victory lies in the defeat of everyone planning their fortunes on the corpsesof our class. We keep on about the war because it is always aimed at us, bybombs or poverty they scrabble for riches from our lands and our labour, ourpicket lines are a tank trap against their plans. At home and abroad we have torefuse their call for unity in the national interest. Our interests are onlyinternationalist, against boss's greed, robbery, militarisation and crises,whatever the side of their frontiers we find ourselves. Their war is stepping up,our resistance through class war must too.Article by Dreyfushttps://anarcomuk.uk/2023/01/16/cry-havoc-and-let-slip-the-dogs-of-war/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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