In the comments to Size Matters – On A U.S. Ground Intervention In Ukraine, Outraged who took part in Operation Desert Storm explains the time line:

Desert Storm by the way was preceded by Op Desert Shield.

The Iraqi Airforce aircraft that survived the initial start of the war were flown by raw ferry pilots to Iran, to be interned then seized. It promptly ceased to exist.

We spent almost six months battlefield preparation & shaping, destroying with impunity every piece of Iraqi Arms materiel identifiable, every bridge, every power station/transformer, ground attack on any vehicle that moved. MBTs, IFVs & Artillery, Grads, mortars were relentlessly targeted day in day out.

Multiple rotating CAP & ground attack patrol flights, free roam, on rotating station all across Iraq.

HQs units were identified & destroyed many times over.

Continue reading Time to run Operation Desert Storm in the Ukraine? at uncoy.

Abbvie has bilked the American public and medicare out of $114 billion in five years.

In “How a Drug Company Made $114 Billion by Gaming the U.S. Patent System”, Nic Antaya writes:

AbbVie and its affiliates have applied for 311 patents, of which 165 have been granted, related to Humira, according to the Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge, which tracks drug patents. A vast majority were filed after Humira was on the market.

Some of Humira’s patents covered innovations that benefited patients, like a formulation of the drug that reduced the pain from injections. But many of them simply elaborated on previous patents.

For example, an early Humira patent, which expired in 2016, claimed that the drug could treat a condition known as ankylosing spondylitis, a type of arthritis that causes inflammation in the joints, among other diseases.

Continue reading Medicine (and Patents), American style at uncoy.

While the American army is slowly leaving Afghanistan (after a surge from 2000 soldiers to 6000 soldiers one cannot really talk about a fait-accompli or a quick withdrawal), the US administration is doing everything it can to set off another civil war in Afghanistan.

While still pushing troops into Kabul, the US Treasury has frozen $9 billion of Afghani foreign reserves. For now the word is frozen, but what it really means is confiscated. Iran still has $120 billion in assets around the globe “frozen” thanks mainly to US sanctions.5

While the US State Department is making noises about peace, the US Treasury is attempting to ignite famine and dysfunction to start a new civil war in Afghanistan.

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman pointed to a statement…that called for an inclusive new government.

Continue reading How the USA seeks to provoke a new civil war in Afghanistan at uncoy.

After doing untold damage to the United States water table with fracking, Chesapeake Energy has at last filed for bankruptcy. Its former CEO Aubrey McClendon was forced to resign in disgrace in 2012 and died by driving his SUV straight into a wall in March 2016 in bright daylight in what looks a lot like a suicide.

The damage Chesapeake has done to the North American water table will take nature millions of years to undo. All of that environmental damage was done while running in the red. Accessible energy resources were easily available from Venezuela, Iran, Russia and Saudi Arabia but instead as a matter of policy, Americans chose to poison their land. Chesapeake Energy is a symbol of the cupidity, corruption and short-sightedness of US leadership.

The conversation at ZeroHedge was fascinating. Hardcharger82 strangely feels that he’s happy to be old, or in his words:

“I am glad I’m not young anymore.”

Something I have been saying a lot in the last few years.

Continue reading Generational challenges: End Winner Takes All at uncoy.

Amusingly enough I just received a newsletter with an analysis of the Vancouver real estate market. The real estate agent concludes that the problem is that Canadians are Chinese dupes:

The whole US instigated Canada vs China fight going on over the arrest of Meng Wanzhou of Huawei Technologies might have more impact on housing in Vancouver than local rules and regulations. Kelly McParland has an interesting analysis of China’s policy toward the West, how they’ve played us, and how we should accept the reality about China after what is happening to Canada right now.

The article to which she links is trashy jingoistic anti-Chinese propaganda from a guy who is basically a propaganda outlet (he’s anti-Iran, anti-China, anti-Liberal, anti-ecology, anti-Saudi Arabia now that the CIA have turned on MBS – the guy is Pavlov’s dog responding on cue).

Continue reading Misguided Canadians believe provoking China further is a good idea at uncoy.

The Admiral Grigorovich will be shadowed by submarines. Any large warship is a sitting duck at this point to a capable adversary. The displacement of the Admiral Grigorovich is just 4000 tonnes loaded in comparison to almost 9000 loaded for each of the USS Porter and USS Cole, albeit Admiral Grigorovich is a 2013 issue warship while the USS Porter and USS Cole are about fifteen years older. Even without the submarine thread or the menace of an attack by American planes from nearby Mediterranean airbases, the Admiral Grigorovich would be hard pressed to sink both the USS Porter and USS Cole at the same time.

Moreover the Admiral Grigorovich is one of just three such Russian frigates while the US has 62 Arleigh-Burke class destroyers in service. The Russians would not like to trade the Admiral Grigorovich against even three such US destroyers.

Continue reading Is the Admiral Grigorovich a threat to USS Porter and USS Cole? at uncoy.