Kasparov: The Time For Half-Measures Is Over If The War Is To End
[guest post by Dana]
As Germany refuses to provide Ukraine with much-needed battle tanks, Garry Kasparov warns that this is not the time for half-measures or concessions, rather this is a time for nothing less than decisive action:
It’s time again to talk about goals of the war. To say loud and clear that Ukraine’s territory must be 100% liberated of Russian invaders. That there can be no way back to normalcy for Russia with Putin the war criminal still in charge.
Russians are resisting Putin’s desperate mobilization and Ukraine is winning. It’s time to finish the job, to give Ukraine everything and Putin nothing. But Western allies are still holding back despite Russia’s open transformation into a fascist dictatorship.
The winds of freedom are drifting across the globe. Iran, Dagestan, people are inspired directly and indirectly. If Ukraine can defeat Putin, dictators aren’t invincible. Even Serbia won’t recognize Putin’s illegal annexations, not wanting to back a loser.
Putin’s loyalty for benefits contract with the Russian people has been broken on the rock of Ukraine’s resistance. What’s the point of his domestic violence, his foreign terror now? There’s no payoff for the bureaucracy & siloviki anymore, just escape or isolation.
Putin is escalating as always, hoping to bluff out of a lost situation. Concessions will encourage more aggression. Ukraine must get everything it needs to press the advantage, now. That’s my message here in Germany, that half-measures are over if the war is to end.
Of course, it wasn’t a coincidence that Kasparov made his comments from Germany:
Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany gets right to the point when asked why his country will not send battle tanks to Ukraine: It is “a very dangerous war,” he said.
[…]
“We are supporting Ukraine…We are doing it in a way that is not escalating to where it is becoming a war between Russia and NATO because this would be a catastrophe.”
[…]
Mr. Scholz has refused to provide Ukraine with Leopard battle tanks or Marder infantry fighting vehicles, which Ukrainian officials have repeatedly asked for. As they pivot from a defensive posture to an offensive one in the south, Ukrainian forces need tanks to break through defensive lines and recapture more territory before winter and, as Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, put it, “liberate people and save them from genocide.”
Mr. Scholz’s refusal — which goes against the will of many even inside his own governing coalition — has earned him noisy and near-unanimous criticism among Germany’s Eastern European neighbors, not least in Ukraine. Commanders along the front say the Germans’ reluctance to provide battle tanks points to a policy of seeking a negotiated settlement along existing lines, rather than a Ukrainian success in pushing out the Russians.
As a reminder, back in January, when Russia amassed 100,000 troops along its border with Ukraine and fears of an invasion peaked, Germany offered to send…5,000 helmets.
Anyway, it’s ironic that it is Germany that refuses to send badly needed battle tanks which could actually help prevent the genocide of Ukrainians. This despite the announcement of a dramatic change in Germany’s foreign/security policies in February 2022 (Zeitenwende).
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (1225fc) — 9/26/2022 @ 11:24 amhttps://patterico.com/2022/09/23/weekend-open-thread-149/#comment-2636041
Colonel Haiku (17b3b0) — 9/26/2022 @ 11:59 amIn 1984 when Kasparov became a member of the Communist Party. [A full-fledged part of what Reagan labeled, ‘the EWvil Empire.’] He has been participating in politics since then and a member of the opposition in the Russian government and wanted to take in the presidential race in 2008 but was disqualified as he lacked the minimum number of supporters. He is currently active in politics and is the chairman of the Human Right Federation and is the chairman of Renew Democracy Initiative.
As of September 2022, Garry Kasparov has an estimated net worth of around $6 million. He acquired his high level of wealth from being a successful chess player and holding the world championship for a long time. He also owns several businesses which are run by his wife, the Kasparov International management. He also joints politics after he retired from playing chess, which has increased his net worth.
“It’s time” for Kasparov to put up— oh, say $6 million, ‘camo-up’… or shut up.
DCSCA (acb3da) — 9/26/2022 @ 12:29 pmFrankly, Kasparov is too timid. I see the over/under on “NATO enters the war” at about 6 months.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/26/2022 @ 12:29 pmI’ve got nothing nice to say about Germany’s ridiculous energy policy and their tacit support of Putin by slow-walking weapons to Ukraine. Good golly.
Paul Montagu (753b42) — 9/26/2022 @ 12:30 pmIn 1984, a Russian was either a member of the Communist Party, or “little people.”
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/26/2022 @ 12:32 pm@5: That Germany uses eminent domain to dig more coal mines then lectures everyone on global warming is risible. That they shutter nuclear plants while being threatened by Russian gas shutoffs means that every death next winter is the government’s fault.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/26/2022 @ 12:34 pmAs does the United States.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/26/2022 @ 12:53 pmGermany to Keep Last Three Nuclear-Power Plants Running in Policy U-Turn
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/26/2022 @ 12:54 pm@6. He’s been seeing ‘red’ all his life- he was a full-fledged ‘Reagan Evil Empire Communist’ joining the party by choice and been bitter- especially after he lost his bid for elected office…
His beef is personal w/Putin:'[In] September 2007, Kasparov entered the Russian presidential race, receiving 379 of 498 votes at a congress held in Moscow by The Other Russia. In October 2007, Kasparov announced his intention of standing for the Russian presidency as the candidate of the “Other Russia” coalition and vowed to fight for a “democratic and just Russia”. Later that month he traveled to the United States, where he appeared on several popular television programs, which were hosted by Stephen Colbert, Wolf Blitzer, Bill Maher, and Chris Matthews.
In November 2007, Kasparov and other protesters were detained by police at an Other Russia rally in Moscow, which drew 3,000 demonstrators to protest election rigging. Following an attempt by about 100 protesters to march through police lines to the electoral commission, which had barred Other Russia candidates from parliamentary elections, arrests were made. The Russian authorities stated a rally had been approved but not any marches, resulting in several detained demonstrators. He was subsequently charged with resisting arrest and organizing an unauthorized protest and given a jail sentence of five days. Kasparov appealed the charges, citing that he had been following orders given by the police, although it was denied. He was released from jail on November 29. Putin criticized Kasparov at the rally for his use of English when speaking rather than Russian.’ -source, wikibio.checkmatekingtwothisiswhiterook.over.com.
Ex-pats like K and Boot wield grudge baggage; we saw this from the Iraq/Iran ex-pats testifying before Congress back in the day, pushing Americans to finance ‘kinetic’ retribution action as well. They’d have more street-cred if they liquidated assets, left the armchair safety behind, camoed up and went full Rick Blaine.
“Welcome back to the fight. This time I know our side will win.” – Victor Laszlo [Paul Heinreid] ‘Casablanca’ 1942
DCSCA (acb3da) — 9/26/2022 @ 12:55 pmDCSCA,
I note with interest your thoughts on Mr. Kasparov not having done enough for his POV on Putin. (I think he’s done enough to avoid standing around windows and carrying a geiger counter for personal security).
Next time I see you posting about the need to storm the castle, I ‘ll consider your thoughts deeply. And wonder what steps you are planning for the populist revolution.
Appalled (03f53c) — 9/26/2022 @ 2:34 pm@12. =yawn= Chess players are strategic opportunists. They will play against either side, black or white.
DCSCA (87a63a) — 9/26/2022 @ 2:42 pmThose are some persuasive points, Colonel
lurker (cd7cd4) — 9/26/2022 @ 2:45 pmLindberghHaiku. Every American should be ashamed of our merciless bullying of that poor, cruelly maligned Mr. Putin. Have you thought about starting an organization around it? You could call it… just spitballing here… America First?(Oops. Wrong thread, though fortuitously on topic. I’ll repost in the Weekend Tread where CH made the comment to which it responds.)
lurker (cd7cd4) — 9/26/2022 @ 2:46 pmRussia does have its own problems with Nazis, it appears.
Paul Montagu (753b42) — 9/26/2022 @ 3:13 pmAll yer nuclear war is ours!, cries teh lurker
Colonel Haiku (17b3b0) — 9/26/2022 @ 3:38 pm@12. A Royalist Lament; it puts folks in good company, Appalled;
Storm the castle:
I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Thomas Jefferson, 1787
https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/a-little-rebellionquotation/
DCSCA (b37c1a) — 9/26/2022 @ 3:43 pmSure, CH. Wanting to help Ukraine defend itself from Putin’s genocidal predations makes one a warmonger. In other news, up is down and black is white.
You may want to review Lindbergh’s opposition to our standing behind the victims of Hitler’s project of European subjugation. The resonance is stark.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 9/26/2022 @ 5:34 pmI have a hard time understanding this. We have given the Ukraine 60 billion dollars. Or is itm more? Why can’t the USA send them American tanks? Its been six months.
Further, the UFA tankcrews would have to learn how to operate the American/German Tanks, and they’d have to get their mechanics up to speed on how to fix/maintain them. And there’s also the issue of ammunition compatability. Its not like this German/american tanks can go into the battle the day they get there.
I guess some poeple just like to bash the germans.
rcocean (fd8511) — 9/26/2022 @ 6:29 pm#19 lurker – Three things that are not well-known about that era: Lindbergh had three German families, as well as his American family.
German agents were paying some American congressmen to spread propaganda, before we entered WW II.
JFK was sent to the South Pacific in part to get him away from an affair he was having with a Danish woman, who it was feared was a Nazi agent.
(It wasn’t just the Soviets who were trying to undermine our democracy, then.)
Jim Miller (85fd03) — 9/26/2022 @ 6:48 pmI agree that it would take too long to train Ukrainian tank crews to be immediately effective. It would be much easier to just send US Army armored brigade combat teams.
Oh wait, they are already there.
Just kidding.
Rip Murdock (5192cb) — 9/26/2022 @ 6:55 pm@19. America First orgins are to a policy stance in the United States that generally emphasizes nationalism and non-interventionism. The term was coined by president Woodrow Wilson in his 1916 campaign that pledged to keep America neutral in World War I.
That went well =sarc=. Can’t imagine why post WW1 Americans would seek to avoid any involvement in another European conflict after the massive and costly slaughterfest of the First World War. America ain’t the world’s policeman.
And lest you forget- once Japan attacked, Charles Lindbergh attempted to join the military and eventually flew combat missions, via the contractors in the Pacific, and taught American pilots how to extend the range of their planes and conserve fuel. But what did he know about flying long distances w/limited fuel, right? See ‘The Wartime Journals of Charles Lindbergh’ for detail; an excellent and vividly detailed chronicle.
_________
@21. Actually, knowledge of Lindy’s “secret families” surfaced after ‘that era’ and after his death.
DCSCA (b37c1a) — 9/26/2022 @ 7:30 pmThe Russians and Germans double-crossed each other in the WWII years. Russia has hated on Germany ever since, even though a fair minded person might think they deserve each other.
steveg (d3a788) — 9/26/2022 @ 9:47 pmThat long seated animus would make Germany #1 target in the Russian dept. of rectifying old griefs. It is my opinion that Moscow would much rather nuke Germans than Americans
Putin is not stalin. He is al capone. His loyalty comes from his fellow crime family members who benefit from his power. Their is no communist party members blindly following party orders. As we can see everyone is acting in their own self interest. If they can the crime family will eliminate him if he lets down his guard. Hit attempts have already been made.
asset (5ec7ec) — 9/27/2022 @ 1:17 am#26
I would look bak at Russian history to try to figure out Putin — not US Crime history. Putin probably looks more to the Tsars for his model than Soviet history. Unless you are an expert — I would not try to put him into a US box.
Appalled (3ef453) — 9/27/2022 @ 8:11 am@26. Yep. A territory fight between corrupt gangs; w/ Zelinsky in the role of Bugs Moran. And the Feds are furnishing tommy guns.
DCSCA (24bea3) — 9/27/2022 @ 10:04 am19… you should give some thought to the need for the administration to do all it can to bring them both to the table, talk of and promote peace, friend.
Colonel Haiku (0416b6) — 9/27/2022 @ 11:10 am29, if you truly didn’t forget the /sarc sign-off, that’s far more profound a sentiment than “.Camo Up”.
urbanleftbehind (f8327d) — 9/27/2022 @ 12:01 pmKasparov might appreciate this possible US chess move.
Paul Montagu (753b42) — 9/27/2022 @ 12:22 pmScroll down Shellenberger’s thread and you’ll see Sikorski (husband of Anne Applebaum) saying “Thank you, USA.”
Maybe Biden is sending a “f-ck you” to Putin for his nuclear threats and war crimes, and a “f-ck you” to Scholz for his stupid nuclear energy policy, for continuing to buy Russian fossil fuels and for sending d-ck to Ukraine in military aid.
Even though blowing up both Nord pipelines would hurt Putin economically, I still wouldn’t rule out Russian skulduggery. They have the ability and the cussedness.
Peace is preferable… I don’t think this sleepwalk into WWIII is a smart play.
But I have family and friends I care about… and precious grandchildren. Others’ MMV.
Colonel Haiku (f3172c) — 9/27/2022 @ 12:23 pmI agree, Haiku.
Paul Montagu (753b42) — 9/27/2022 @ 12:27 pmAll Putin has to do is stop his war of aggression and withdraw, and war’s over. Why is a warmonger like the Russian ruler sabre-rattling for WWIII?
Sounds good. And when a psychopath rampages through your home, murdering, raping and stealing, you’ll be glad to know we’re negotiating how much of your remaining family and possessions he’ll take to go back to his own house.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 9/27/2022 @ 12:42 pmVladimir Bluffin:
When a nuclear detonation occurs, people, plants, and animals can be exposed to the fallout in several ways. Livestock may eat contaminated plants or drink contaminated water. People who then eat this livestock will then still experience internal contamination, in which radioactive material ends up inside of our bodies, despite not consuming contaminated plants or water directly.
Radionuclides that are inhaled or ingested are not blocked by an external shield. These radionuclides interact with internal cells and tissues, which increases the risk of harmful health effects. When radionuclides are ingested, they can change the structure of cells, which is one of the ways people can develop cancer. The health risks from fallout have been described in many studies. One example is the Federal Radiation Council’s 1962 report, Health Implications of Fallout from Nuclear Weapons Testing through 1961. This is one of the reasons why radiation protection professionals work hard to protect people from unnecessary exposure to radiation.
The radioactive dust that settles on the environment around us is an example of potential external exposure. Radionuclides that emit alpha and beta particles would pose a lower external exposure threat because they do not travel very far in the atmosphere and are not as penetrating as more energetic radiation. Shielding, one of the three principles of radiation protection, prevents some external exposure because alpha particles are blocked by the dead skin cells that sit on the surface of our bodies. Gamma rays, however, travel much farther in the atmosphere, and are higher energy rays that can only be blocked by heavy shielding, like a concrete wall or a lead apron. These rays pose a higher external exposure risk. – source, https://www.epa.gov/radtown/radioactive-fallout-nuclear-weapons-testing
DCSCA (153426) — 9/27/2022 @ 12:58 pm33… you miss the point. This ain’t a movie. You’ve got a disturbed leader in the Kremlin who has reportedly removed any roadblocks/gates between himself and the nukes. Time to show some leadership and cut the bullsh*t.
Promote retreat by Russians and movement toward cessation of hostilities and peace in the region.
Colonel Haiku (0416b6) — 9/27/2022 @ 2:15 pmNot at all. I’m speaking a basic truth, that the USA–with a defense budget an order of magnitude larger that Putin’s–should never be intimidated or cowed by a bully. He operated in the Cold War era and he knows MAD as well as anyone. If you want to be cowed and appeasing to a blustery aggressor, your business, but I’m not going along, nor should anyone else.
Paul Montagu (753b42) — 9/27/2022 @ 3:05 pmAlso, Putin’s the one who started this war and he’s the one who has the power to end it, so let’s put the blame where it actually belongs.
Since Putin has orchestrated sham elections to incorporate the occupied territories, the time for negotiations has passed.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/27/2022 @ 3:15 pmPutin is the one who has closed the door to negotiations by conducting the sham elections and territorial incorporation. There is nothing for Ukraine to negotiate, unless Russia is willing to forgo incorporating Ukraine territory into their own. Funny, the borders still remain the same-but now it’s a Ukraine that has more of a national identity and is heavily armed by the West, and Russia even more surrounded by a larger NATO and isolated.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/27/2022 @ 3:20 pmIt may be too late……
Just like the myriad denials that Russia had any intention of invading Ukraine.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/27/2022 @ 3:32 pm37… raving and the blustering by the administration is not leadership. Show leadership and promote peace while there’s a chance and before it gets to the point of no return.
I hope and pray the guy realizes he has three possible choices:
Retreat to previous borders, good faith negotiations
Colonel Haiku (0416b6) — 9/27/2022 @ 3:41 pmTake himself out
Take himself and all the rest of humanity with him
@40. Pfft.
Vladimir Bluffin:
CHERNOBYL.
DCSCA (48ea1c) — 9/27/2022 @ 3:55 pmMaybe Biden is sending a “f-ck you” to Putin
ROFLMAOPIP X 10 to the 23rd power:
Putin knows, if I am president of the United States, his days of tyranny and trying to intimidate the United States and those in Eastern Europe are over… I’m going to stand up to him; he’s a bully… Vladimir Putin doesn’t want me to be President. He doesn’t want me to be our nominee. If you’re wondering why — it’s because I’m the only person in this field who’s ever gone toe-to-toe with him.” – Squinty McStumblebum, 2019
That 80 year old jackass can’t even complete a sentence nor walk up a flight of stairs.
All Dummy has done is pour billions of American taxpayer dollars, charged to Uncle Sam’s credit card, down Bug Moran’s corrupt rat hole regime which won’t let men between the ages of 18 and 60 leave. Hell, even Vlad’s Russians can make a run for the border to avoid conscription.
Vlad is Xi’s b-tch now. You wanna end this– have President Susan Rice do a deal w/China; then pressure allies, NATO and non-NATO, to stop doing business w/Russia and financing the game.
DCSCA (48ea1c) — 9/27/2022 @ 4:10 pmI agree, Haiku. There’s been way too much “raving and blustering” from the Putin administration. Just look at his Kremlin-approved version of FoxNews.
I also agree that Putin “should show leadership and promote peace” by stopping his war of aggression and withdraw from Ukraine, all of it.
Paul Montagu (753b42) — 9/27/2022 @ 6:44 pmAll he has to do is pick up the phone and order his battlefield commanders to stop fighting, and war’s over, peace has broken out.
I’m glad to hear we’re, like, totes in synch.
More from Mr. Applebaum…
This strike does appear highly calculated. The location of the explosions is barely in international waters, at a moment when oil prices have dropped steadily for almost three months, hitting one pipeline that isn’t even operational. It hurts Russia-Germany because it cost ’em $20 billion to build.
Paul Montagu (753b42) — 9/27/2022 @ 7:19 pmOther nations are motivated to kill the pipelines, including Poland, Norway and the Baltic states, but this looks well planned and well timed and well executed by highly skilled professionals. Also, pipelines are underwater and we have really good submarines (although it may have happened another way).
If you want to be cowed and appeasing to a blustery aggressor, your business, but I’m not going along, nor should anyone else.
Can’t call the play by play unless you know the players in the game on the field:
‘Today, nuclear weapons have retained not only their pride of place but an actual role in Russian military planning. Unlike the Americans, who see little use for nuclear weapons in the absence of the Soviet threat, the Russians—wisely or not—continue to think about nuclear arms as though they are useful in military conflicts, even the smallest.‘ – https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/inside-russia%E2%80%99s-nuclear-weapons-strategy-revealed-172112
The fact that it enters any Russian rhetoric is just reiterating policy posturing. It’s not a signal of escalation. They’d be the first to remind the United States that it was America that actually nuclear weapons- twice- in 1945; and it was a Russian naval officer aboard a submarine off Cuba who did not in 1962, pulling back the world from the nuclear brink. A dead zone of Chernobyls isn’t of much value to Mother Russia.
DCSCA (c1145f) — 9/27/2022 @ 7:32 pmBlasts precede Baltic pipeline leaks, sabotage seen likely
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Denmark said Tuesday it believed “deliberate actions” by unknown perpetrators were behind big leaks, which seismologists said followed powerful explosions, in two natural gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.
European leaders and experts pointed to possible sabotage amid the energy standoff with Russia provoked by the war in Ukraine. Although filled with gas, neither pipeline is currently supplying it to Europe. “It is the authorities’ clear assessment that these are deliberate actions -– not accidents,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said.
But she added that “there is no information indicating who could be behind it.” Frederiksen also rejected the suggestion that the incident was an attack on Denmark, saying the leaks occurred in international waters. The incident overshadowed the inauguration of a long-awaited pipeline that will bring Norwegian gas to Poland to bolster the continent’s energy independence from Moscow. – AP.com
Hmmmmm. So what has President Rice been up to? Back in the day, in ’69, the U.S. government offered up “assets” to a select group of U.S. oil executive meeting in London for an operation to take out Libya’s then new leader, Kaddafi, after he came to power, seized control of and nationalized the rich, LSC oil fields the firms were running– which, at the time, were providing vital crude for refining and use to fuel the Vietnam war. After a tense meeting, the execs voted to either kill him or leave him in place- reasoning they’d not know who’d replace him. T’was the president of Standard Oil’s persuasive pitch that saved his Libyan ass. My late father asked, what would the Russians do– and voted w/t minority to kill him.
If U.S. covert ops did this deed, even through a third party– and someday we’ll know; it’s an act of war by Joey’s government– but then, tyhose days of right and wrong, rule of law and so forth are long gone.
DCSCA (c1145f) — 9/27/2022 @ 7:40 pmWow, this exchange is way better than anything I’ve seen on The View.
Paul Montagu (753b42) — 9/27/2022 @ 7:51 pmHoly Schnikeys.
Or it could be Putin who did it. Can’t rule him out.
Paul Montagu (753b42) — 9/28/2022 @ 12:04 amBTW, my link at #48 had fake English subtitles, and Julia Davis would know.
Paul Montagu (753b42) — 9/28/2022 @ 12:59 amIt’s still funnier than sh-t for its entertainment value alone.
Putin is still hoping he can end this war quickly on terms satisfactory to him, which includes getting rid of most of the new (2922) sanctions.
He does want to “finish” the war.
What he doesn’t want to do is “end” it.
Zelensky used the wrong English word on “Face the Nation” Sunday, when he said that Putin doesn’t want to “finish” the war. He’s not that fluent in English.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 9/28/2022 @ 9:52 am