[Kiev, 2/13/16] For about two years, my blog had a reader who commented often, but nearly always with slogans, cliches or cartoony logic. When I pointed out that Europe’s problem with Muslim refugees would be solved if the Jewjerked West would stop destroying Muslim countries, she indignantly replied, “In any war, the men must stay and fight, and the women must stay to help them!”
Hello everybody, just a quick note to say I appreciate all your comments. I do read them all. OK, time to think about the next article. I just read about Russian cats being banned from competitions by the Fédération Internationale Féline, and Russian athletics being kicked out of the Paralympics. We're sinking deeper and deeper into madness. Shooed from lame olympics, Russian cripples hobble home.--Linh
Very excellent observation. Ah, the numbers game! The numbers don't add up. We still do not understand war. That's only recently been discovered, of course, because now we can use computer simulations. So if we type in 55,000 bullets fired and only 404 casualties, the computer model shows that most soldiers couldn't aim. Or they were too afraid to kill. We don't know.
Case in point, if we simulate a clash of 1000 English knights against 1000 Scottish clansmen, the spook is over in 5 minutes. In the simulation!
Yet such battles in reality took the entire day. This suggests that in real battle, man against man, something else happens that we were not shown by Hollywood movies. There was a lot of posturing and wrestling, running and hiding, taking breaks and so on.
Also, the typical 'rampage' as depicted in movies, were the hero kills ten opponents sideways while looking for the boss fight... is completely insane. This never happens.
A single physical fight is so exhausting that the body literally collapses and needs serious rest. In historic battles, there were often many advances and retreats. And when fire weapons came along, battles could last for days and weeks.
There is so much more discoveries. For example, the commanders stay in the back, right? But why? Because if they would lead, nobody would follow. NOBODY. So, the commanders must stay in the back and shoot everybody who deserts or retreats.
If you don't have such control mechanisms, like in chaotic Vietnam, you literally send out soldiers into the jungle who pretended to fight and shoot the bamboo and returned to base, exhausted, later that night. Meanwhile, the real enemy casualties resulted from strategic bombing and airstrikes and chemical weapons.
Also interesting. If men are generally reluctant to kill a fellow human being, 1% - 5% are psychopaths who don't care. And this is what researchers found. About 50% of all soldiers never saw the enemy. 35% had enemy contact, but no kill. Only a minority of 15% actually reported to have shot someone (they thought, many just lied or bragged). Of those, at most 5% were real killers of man, and they accounted for most of enemy casualties.
By the way, no soldier could ever outperform a tank or jet fighter when it comes to body count. But we never hear about them in the movies. It's not romantic.
What is missing in all of this is the historical role of psychotropic drugs in warfare calculated to dull one's sensibility and fear of death. A few cameos: In WWI, British women's auxiliaries would send cocaine and heroin packets to the boys in the trenches to help them endure their time in the trenches. In WWII, the Germans were able to execute a "blitzkrieg" against the French and British because their troops were high on methamphetamines. They could go days without sleep, which is the perfect formula for a "blitzkrieg". The British and Americans copied the German "secret weapon". The British troops at El Alamein were high on methamphetamines, especially the "beserks" who broke through the German lines and cut off their logistics. The Americans who hit the beaches in North Africa landed with packets of methamphetamines in their kits on the expressed order of General Dwight Eisenhower. The Soviet Siberian troops who relieved Moscow from the Germans where high on "magic mushrooms" that had emboldened warriors since Genghis Khan. Long-range bomber pilots from WWII through today deploy with chemical versions of amphetamines to keep them awake for excruciatingly long hours. The ISIS and Al-Qaeda warriors likewise fought while high on versions of amphetamines that made them fearless; American soldiers noted that bullets won't stop them. Finally, the Russians relate that they have found "amphetamine labs" supporting the Azov Battalion in their attacks in the Donbass. Where does this end?
The lesson appears to be that societies have universally discovered the need to desensitize their warriors with psychotropic drugs to enable them to randomly and vicariously kill their fellow human beings. Does this affect them? I had a friend in the 1970s ... a "fucked up" marine who had recently returned from Vietnam. He had shrapnel marks up his arms and told the story of strangling a North Vietnamese soldier to death with his bare hands. He wasn't normal. He found relief in marijuana and LSD. My take is that he would never be normal again.
The selective outrage from the liberals is astounding. For the past eight years the Donbass region has been under military attack killing untold thousands and sending many more fleeing for safety all of which was “Fine And Dandy!” under the guise of “Democracy!”
Now that someone is attempting to put a stop to it the outrage is off the charts. “Boo Hoo Putin is evil” is the battle cry.
"Indeed, the history of warfare can be seen as a history of increasingly more effective mechanisms for enabling and conditioning men to overcome their innate resistance to killing their fellow human beings."
This has reached its peak in the US Army with the current remotely controlled drones, transforming war into a videogame. A transgender soldier in Arizona can just push a button and explode a marriage ceremony in Afghanistan, totally removed from the action or its consequences.
For common people, war -- even if it is a just or an unavoidable war -- is almost always bad. But why would anyone fight for the current corrupt Ukrainian government, unless he was forced? It just makes no sense. Best to lay low, or leave the country for a while.
I didn't know that during battles most of the infantry are shooting the sky. It makes sense though, if you are not a sociopath. I reckon in the new techno world they can build a rifle that squeals to the commander rather than fires when pointed at the sky. Since rifle manufacturers only care about selling rifles their fix wouldn't consider the repercussions of forcing those reluctant to kill, to kill.
Just think what the sociopaths would think of a sky shooter. One can then imagine sky shooters having a rifle pointed at them incase they shoot the sky. It reminds me of a cartoon where an Australian prisoner is being whipped by a guy, who is whipped by guy, who is being whipped by yet another guy to insure that everyone not just the first guy is whipping in earnest! I thought it was kind of funny when I saw it, but now, I see it is the world we have become. Follow the leader. If you don't, guess what is going to happen to you?
This is the pressure that doctors are living under. This is the pressure the employed are under. Heck, this is the pressure (some) politicians are under. Take this, do this, or else! Yet it seems the majority can't see it as such. Following the leader is ingrained. Thinking otherwise does not occur.
Authority is wise. They got there due to hard work. All I have to do is the same and I will be rewarded and recognized.
But you won't get rewarded unless you can unflinchingly screw your fellow blue-pilled peers out of their livelihood. Then sir, you have 'made' it! Congratulations!
About 6 years ago I told my wife that there would be war in the Ukraine, I would mention it every now and again during that time. Well, about a week or so before it started she told me that, "you are always saying there would be war and it never happens". I replied, "it will". She smirked at me, lol. Now, I know why Putin went to war (he's almost too patient, no?) but, my wife has no idea and up until recently couldn't have cared less. The propaganda is such that my wife has decided that Putin/Russia is the big bully and she's rooting for the poor Ukrainians. I've now told her that WWIII is coming down the pike fast, she doesn't think so, I hope she's right but I know she's not. She's not the only one like this sadly. I read today that approximately 2000 Thais have signed up to fight for Ukraine. Now, this is totally insane but the power of propaganda is simply amazing, it will work on just about anyone who isn't up to speed with reality. It's starting to remind me of the Spanish civil war, we'll see. Thanks Linh, I appreciate all you do. My Best
Congratulations and thanks for this superb piece. As a military historian, I want to point out that your writing style (which I enjoy tremendously) turns out to be very appropriate for this topic.
We all know Russian cats are "commie" cats & cannot be allowed to infiltrate and poison the minds of other cats. Oh yeah, it's crazy out there.
The propaganda here in the States is astounding. CNN, Fox and MSNBC are unwatchable.
I read David Hackworth's autobiography & he spent a lot of time in Vietnam with S.L.A.(Slam) Marshall. I think some characters in "Apocalypse Now" were based on Hackworth.
Steve Sailer came up with a hypothesis that one can discern the race of a (criminal/street) shooter by comparing the ratio of bullets fired to wounds or kills resulting. Having watched lots of (the site formerly known as) hoodsite and liveleak and other gorelike videos, I think a lot of the issue with firing guns in a firefight has to do with managing fear and that adrenaline response. Having been trained in shooting firearms, I had to overcome my own reflex —anticipation of the recoil causing upward drifting of the barrel as my hand and forearm tightened down on the firearm. It's actually a common enough issue ("It happens to a lot of men their first couple times") I think there's a lot of factors at work for why people shoot above their intended targets, in addition to a latent human fear of killing another human being. So I am not sure, if we take into consideration these facts about shooting in wars, that Sailer is right with his hypothesis.
All that said, it's true that the snuff films are already here. People share gore stories on Twitter faster than the algorithm can take them down —but, of course, it leaves them on long enough if it's the right snuff. And, of course, there's always 4 chan and so on for the young at heart.
Kevin Barrett's response to this article on Unz is weird. As far as I can tell, it's not a real criticism, but an exercise in trolling irony intended to be humorous...
but Barrett just ain't funny, and so the whole thing is just awkward, clumsy and tone-deaf...even giving it the benefit of the doubt. The "joke" seems to be he is ironically "fact-checking" LD's poetical hyperbole, but there's no comedic effect achieved. He adds nothing.
I wonder if he ran by the idea with LD before posting it to make sure it's not mistaken as real hostility, but really he's trolling this NewsGuard journalist who is attacking him.
If Barrett did not clear this with LD in advance, then it seems totally bizarre and uncalled-for that he would drag LD into his tiff with NewsGuard. Even to me, who's pretty familiar with both Barrett and LD, the whole thing is baffling and off-the-wall.
"We were now given so much weaponry, not because as some say "West is helping us," not because they want the best for us, but because we perform the tasks set by the West. Because we are the only ones who are ready to do them."
Linh I've missed you.I've been looking on Unz where I always read your work but just thought you were taking a while.I have so many things to do I didn't think to search Linh Dinh articles like I just did.What prompted me was some dummy named Kevin Barrett writing some dumbass article about you(or maybe it was in jest).Glad he did because good things came out of it,I now have the articles I've missed.I enjoy your stories and many photos,they and you are a blessing.God bless you friend.Take care.
I watched a documentary years ago, I disrember which, wherein a German veteran of Hitler's army, spoke of his experience killing the troops who stormed the beach at Normandy. "Why do you come to us, we want you not", was what he said he was thinking, as he fired upon them.
Hello everybody, just a quick note to say I appreciate all your comments. I do read them all. OK, time to think about the next article. I just read about Russian cats being banned from competitions by the Fédération Internationale Féline, and Russian athletics being kicked out of the Paralympics. We're sinking deeper and deeper into madness. Shooed from lame olympics, Russian cripples hobble home.--Linh
Very excellent observation. Ah, the numbers game! The numbers don't add up. We still do not understand war. That's only recently been discovered, of course, because now we can use computer simulations. So if we type in 55,000 bullets fired and only 404 casualties, the computer model shows that most soldiers couldn't aim. Or they were too afraid to kill. We don't know.
Case in point, if we simulate a clash of 1000 English knights against 1000 Scottish clansmen, the spook is over in 5 minutes. In the simulation!
Yet such battles in reality took the entire day. This suggests that in real battle, man against man, something else happens that we were not shown by Hollywood movies. There was a lot of posturing and wrestling, running and hiding, taking breaks and so on.
Also, the typical 'rampage' as depicted in movies, were the hero kills ten opponents sideways while looking for the boss fight... is completely insane. This never happens.
A single physical fight is so exhausting that the body literally collapses and needs serious rest. In historic battles, there were often many advances and retreats. And when fire weapons came along, battles could last for days and weeks.
There is so much more discoveries. For example, the commanders stay in the back, right? But why? Because if they would lead, nobody would follow. NOBODY. So, the commanders must stay in the back and shoot everybody who deserts or retreats.
If you don't have such control mechanisms, like in chaotic Vietnam, you literally send out soldiers into the jungle who pretended to fight and shoot the bamboo and returned to base, exhausted, later that night. Meanwhile, the real enemy casualties resulted from strategic bombing and airstrikes and chemical weapons.
Also interesting. If men are generally reluctant to kill a fellow human being, 1% - 5% are psychopaths who don't care. And this is what researchers found. About 50% of all soldiers never saw the enemy. 35% had enemy contact, but no kill. Only a minority of 15% actually reported to have shot someone (they thought, many just lied or bragged). Of those, at most 5% were real killers of man, and they accounted for most of enemy casualties.
By the way, no soldier could ever outperform a tank or jet fighter when it comes to body count. But we never hear about them in the movies. It's not romantic.
Every war movie we see is probably a lie.
What is missing in all of this is the historical role of psychotropic drugs in warfare calculated to dull one's sensibility and fear of death. A few cameos: In WWI, British women's auxiliaries would send cocaine and heroin packets to the boys in the trenches to help them endure their time in the trenches. In WWII, the Germans were able to execute a "blitzkrieg" against the French and British because their troops were high on methamphetamines. They could go days without sleep, which is the perfect formula for a "blitzkrieg". The British and Americans copied the German "secret weapon". The British troops at El Alamein were high on methamphetamines, especially the "beserks" who broke through the German lines and cut off their logistics. The Americans who hit the beaches in North Africa landed with packets of methamphetamines in their kits on the expressed order of General Dwight Eisenhower. The Soviet Siberian troops who relieved Moscow from the Germans where high on "magic mushrooms" that had emboldened warriors since Genghis Khan. Long-range bomber pilots from WWII through today deploy with chemical versions of amphetamines to keep them awake for excruciatingly long hours. The ISIS and Al-Qaeda warriors likewise fought while high on versions of amphetamines that made them fearless; American soldiers noted that bullets won't stop them. Finally, the Russians relate that they have found "amphetamine labs" supporting the Azov Battalion in their attacks in the Donbass. Where does this end?
The lesson appears to be that societies have universally discovered the need to desensitize their warriors with psychotropic drugs to enable them to randomly and vicariously kill their fellow human beings. Does this affect them? I had a friend in the 1970s ... a "fucked up" marine who had recently returned from Vietnam. He had shrapnel marks up his arms and told the story of strangling a North Vietnamese soldier to death with his bare hands. He wasn't normal. He found relief in marijuana and LSD. My take is that he would never be normal again.
The selective outrage from the liberals is astounding. For the past eight years the Donbass region has been under military attack killing untold thousands and sending many more fleeing for safety all of which was “Fine And Dandy!” under the guise of “Democracy!”
Now that someone is attempting to put a stop to it the outrage is off the charts. “Boo Hoo Putin is evil” is the battle cry.
"Indeed, the history of warfare can be seen as a history of increasingly more effective mechanisms for enabling and conditioning men to overcome their innate resistance to killing their fellow human beings."
This has reached its peak in the US Army with the current remotely controlled drones, transforming war into a videogame. A transgender soldier in Arizona can just push a button and explode a marriage ceremony in Afghanistan, totally removed from the action or its consequences.
For common people, war -- even if it is a just or an unavoidable war -- is almost always bad. But why would anyone fight for the current corrupt Ukrainian government, unless he was forced? It just makes no sense. Best to lay low, or leave the country for a while.
I didn't know that during battles most of the infantry are shooting the sky. It makes sense though, if you are not a sociopath. I reckon in the new techno world they can build a rifle that squeals to the commander rather than fires when pointed at the sky. Since rifle manufacturers only care about selling rifles their fix wouldn't consider the repercussions of forcing those reluctant to kill, to kill.
Just think what the sociopaths would think of a sky shooter. One can then imagine sky shooters having a rifle pointed at them incase they shoot the sky. It reminds me of a cartoon where an Australian prisoner is being whipped by a guy, who is whipped by guy, who is being whipped by yet another guy to insure that everyone not just the first guy is whipping in earnest! I thought it was kind of funny when I saw it, but now, I see it is the world we have become. Follow the leader. If you don't, guess what is going to happen to you?
This is the pressure that doctors are living under. This is the pressure the employed are under. Heck, this is the pressure (some) politicians are under. Take this, do this, or else! Yet it seems the majority can't see it as such. Following the leader is ingrained. Thinking otherwise does not occur.
Authority is wise. They got there due to hard work. All I have to do is the same and I will be rewarded and recognized.
But you won't get rewarded unless you can unflinchingly screw your fellow blue-pilled peers out of their livelihood. Then sir, you have 'made' it! Congratulations!
Welcome to Planet Earth. Enjoy being rode.
About 6 years ago I told my wife that there would be war in the Ukraine, I would mention it every now and again during that time. Well, about a week or so before it started she told me that, "you are always saying there would be war and it never happens". I replied, "it will". She smirked at me, lol. Now, I know why Putin went to war (he's almost too patient, no?) but, my wife has no idea and up until recently couldn't have cared less. The propaganda is such that my wife has decided that Putin/Russia is the big bully and she's rooting for the poor Ukrainians. I've now told her that WWIII is coming down the pike fast, she doesn't think so, I hope she's right but I know she's not. She's not the only one like this sadly. I read today that approximately 2000 Thais have signed up to fight for Ukraine. Now, this is totally insane but the power of propaganda is simply amazing, it will work on just about anyone who isn't up to speed with reality. It's starting to remind me of the Spanish civil war, we'll see. Thanks Linh, I appreciate all you do. My Best
Congratulations and thanks for this superb piece. As a military historian, I want to point out that your writing style (which I enjoy tremendously) turns out to be very appropriate for this topic.
Linh
We all know Russian cats are "commie" cats & cannot be allowed to infiltrate and poison the minds of other cats. Oh yeah, it's crazy out there.
The propaganda here in the States is astounding. CNN, Fox and MSNBC are unwatchable.
I read David Hackworth's autobiography & he spent a lot of time in Vietnam with S.L.A.(Slam) Marshall. I think some characters in "Apocalypse Now" were based on Hackworth.
Thanks for the heads up on David Grossman.
Bill
Steve Sailer came up with a hypothesis that one can discern the race of a (criminal/street) shooter by comparing the ratio of bullets fired to wounds or kills resulting. Having watched lots of (the site formerly known as) hoodsite and liveleak and other gorelike videos, I think a lot of the issue with firing guns in a firefight has to do with managing fear and that adrenaline response. Having been trained in shooting firearms, I had to overcome my own reflex —anticipation of the recoil causing upward drifting of the barrel as my hand and forearm tightened down on the firearm. It's actually a common enough issue ("It happens to a lot of men their first couple times") I think there's a lot of factors at work for why people shoot above their intended targets, in addition to a latent human fear of killing another human being. So I am not sure, if we take into consideration these facts about shooting in wars, that Sailer is right with his hypothesis.
All that said, it's true that the snuff films are already here. People share gore stories on Twitter faster than the algorithm can take them down —but, of course, it leaves them on long enough if it's the right snuff. And, of course, there's always 4 chan and so on for the young at heart.
Kevin Barrett's response to this article on Unz is weird. As far as I can tell, it's not a real criticism, but an exercise in trolling irony intended to be humorous...
but Barrett just ain't funny, and so the whole thing is just awkward, clumsy and tone-deaf...even giving it the benefit of the doubt. The "joke" seems to be he is ironically "fact-checking" LD's poetical hyperbole, but there's no comedic effect achieved. He adds nothing.
I wonder if he ran by the idea with LD before posting it to make sure it's not mistaken as real hostility, but really he's trolling this NewsGuard journalist who is attacking him.
If Barrett did not clear this with LD in advance, then it seems totally bizarre and uncalled-for that he would drag LD into his tiff with NewsGuard. Even to me, who's pretty familiar with both Barrett and LD, the whole thing is baffling and off-the-wall.
On Vanessa Beeley's channel
Yevhen Karas, leader of Ukraine's neo-Nazi gang C14 https://youtu.be/4Ox7Pqkg1-8
"We were now given so much weaponry, not because as some say "West is helping us," not because they want the best for us, but because we perform the tasks set by the West. Because we are the only ones who are ready to do them."
Ukrainian civilian describes Nazi pogroms https://youtu.be/y8fbs9cW8-s
Linh I've missed you.I've been looking on Unz where I always read your work but just thought you were taking a while.I have so many things to do I didn't think to search Linh Dinh articles like I just did.What prompted me was some dummy named Kevin Barrett writing some dumbass article about you(or maybe it was in jest).Glad he did because good things came out of it,I now have the articles I've missed.I enjoy your stories and many photos,they and you are a blessing.God bless you friend.Take care.
If the enemy were soldiers of globo-homo cabal, I'd kill em real good.
I watched a documentary years ago, I disrember which, wherein a German veteran of Hitler's army, spoke of his experience killing the troops who stormed the beach at Normandy. "Why do you come to us, we want you not", was what he said he was thinking, as he fired upon them.
Thanks for the clarification. Look forward to your next essay!