#Army Civilian Recruitment 2023

[freejobalert1]

Indian Army Civilian Recruitment 2023

Indian Army Civilian Recruitment 2023 : Army HQ 21 Movement Control Group Recruitment 2023 Notification For Civilian Various Posts इंडियन आर्मी हेड क्वार्टर ग्रुप रिक्रूटमेंट 2023 का नोटिफिकेशन जारी कर दिया गया है l इंडियन आर्मी हेड क्वार्टर 21 कंट्रोल ग्रुप भर्ती के तहत 93 सिविलियन पदों के लिए जारी किया गया है l Indian Army Civilian Recruitment 2023 के लिए योग्य एवं इच्छुक अभ्यर्थी ऑफलाइन मोड…

[matan4il]

Proportionality in war does not mean what so many of you seem to think it means.

Proportionality in war doesn't mean that an army fighting another military force is standing with their hand on a stopper, counting the dead and waiting for the moment when the number on both sides is equal. Not a single war in history has been fought like that, and it is an insane double standard, that people talk about Israel as if this is how it's meant to fight. In WWII, there were way more German civilian fatalities than there were American or British ones, and NO ONE says the Americans and British carried out a genocide of the Germans, just because the impact on the civilian populations was dissimilar. No one looks at that war and says, "The allies should have totally stopped before defeating the Nazis, once the number of German civilians killed was bigger than their own."

(and all this holds true whether we're talking about a regular army fighting another, such as in most wars, or whether it's this case, where we see Israel facing in this war in Gaza a terrorist organization, that is made up of tens of thousands of armed fighters, with proper military training, backed by tens of thousands of rockets, using even more people as human shields, booby trapping entire residential areas, digging an entire underground network of tunnels and bunkers stretching for miles, dedicated solely to terrorism, and having collaborators from other terrorist organizations in that territory and outside it fighting with them, plus members of that terrorist organization attacking from outside the war zone)

Proportionality in war means that an army's impact must be proportionate to the size of the threat. Not to the number of casualties, to the size of the threat.

Just like when we talk about the allies' response to the Nazis in WWII, we do take into account more than just how many people actually died in the war the Germans started, we take into account what would have happened, had Nazi Germany been successful in conquering even more countries, or reaching even more Jews to exterminate, as the Nazis planned to (demonstrated by, among other examples, their special death squad geared to kill the Jews in Israel had they managed to occupy it, the pressure they placed on the Japanese to get rid of the Jews living in East Asia under Japanese rule, and the lists of Jews to be arrested first in places the Nazis were planning to occupy, but thankfully failed to, including the UK, the US and Canada).

Since Hamas is an extremist terrorist organization, that has repeatedly stated it targets all Israelis and Jews, and has acted accordingly, that means that when Israel is fighting to dismantle Hamas, the threat it's trying to remove is the one posed to:

9.8 million (as of Dec 2023) people threatened in Israel, Jewish and non-Jewish alike (as demonstrated in action on Oct 7, when Hamas murdered Israeli Muslim Arabs as well, for being affiliated with the Jewish state)

about 8.4 million Jews living outside of Israel and targeted by Hamas (as demonstrated in action when Hamas terrorists were arrested last month for intending to carry out terrorist attacks on Jewish targets in at least 3 European countries)

Every single Gazan who might be killed due to Hamas. As Hamas has gotten Gazan kids killed building its terror tunnels, killed Palestinian kids by recruiting teenagers as terrorists, killed Gazan civilians when using them as human shields, killed Palestinian women and Palestinian queers by allowing (even condoning) "honor killings," killed Gazan protestors, killed Gazans affiliated with opposing political parties, and as Hamas is seemingly hellbent on waging this war to the last Gazan, when they didn't have to start it by attacking Israel on Oct 7, and they could have saved so many of their people by surrendering and ending it, all 2.1 million Gazans can be seen as endangered by Hamas

In total, this would mean that there are currently 20.3 million people in the world directly threatened by the very existence of Hamas.

By fighting Hamas in Gaza, Israel is currently actively defending 20.3 million people!

(obviously, minus the 30,000 Hamas terrorists)

That's before we start counting Palestinians outside of Gaza (because yes, Hamas exists and operates in other areas as well, as I mentioned above, and if it's seen as victorious in Gaza, that will strengthen Hamas outside it, too), or what it would mean for the entire Middle East region, or even for the whole world, if the moderate countries in this area see that the extremist terrorist tactics of Hamas are successful at stopping a democratic state from protecting its people.

THAT is the size of the threat. And THAT is what Israel's war impact is in proportion to.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[humanrightsupdates]

Myanmar: New Atrocities against Rohingya

Escalating Fighting amid 7 Years of Desperation

(Bangkok) – Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar are facing the gravest threats since 2017, when the Myanmar military carried out a sweeping campaign of massacres, rape, and arson in northern Rakhine State, Human Rights Watch said today. August 25, 2024, marks the seventh anniversary since the start of the military’s crimes against humanity and acts of genocide that forced more than 750,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh.

In recent months, the Myanmar military and the ethnic Arakan Army have committed mass killings, arson, and unlawful recruitment against Rohingya communities in Rakhine State. On August 5, nearly 200 people were reportedly killed following drone strikes and shelling on civilians fleeing fighting in Maungdaw town near the Bangladesh border, according to Rohingya witnesses. About 630,000 Rohingya remain in Myanmar under a system of apartheid that leaves them exceptionally vulnerable to renewed fighting.

“Rohingya in Rakhine State are enduring abuses tragically reminiscent of the military’s atrocities in 2017,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Once again, armed forces are driving thousands of Rohingya from their homes with killings and arson, leaving them nowhere safe to turn.”

Rohingya have been caught in the middle of the fighting since hostilities resumed in November 2023, ending a year-long unofficial ceasefire. As the Arakan Army has rapidly expanded its control across Rakhine State, the military has responded with indiscriminate attacks on civilians using helicopter gunships, artillery, and ground assaults. In late April, Arakan Army forces began attacking Rohingya villages in Buthidaung, culminating in their May 17 capture of the town, during which they shelled, looted, and burned Rohingya neighborhoods.

Armed clashes have since moved west to Maungdaw, spurring further abuses and displacement, including arson and looting. Four videos from the August 5 attacks shared on X, formerly Twitter, on August 6 show dozens of bodies of men, women, and children. Geoconfirmed identified the location, which Human Rights Watch corroborated, at the western edge of Maungdaw town. Rohingya witnesses told Human Rights Watch they believed the Arakan Army was responsible. The junta and Arakan Army have blamed each other for the attacks.

[asongwritersjourney]

This songwriter was in some views always a military child who never knew parts of her life would definitely open up even after having children as a civilian. I was never attempting to join even the Honolulu Police Department as a law enforcement officer for the purposes of protection in the process of producing music and songwriting and building business. However, some stories made it appear to be so. As an Army recruit, I am excited to grow as a leader as I serve the country and my family which includes my three children, Nanea Haiola, Liana Haiola, and Isaac Haiola. My heart with the Navy and with all battleships was at the heart of my being a world peace advocate and producing music under my own record label, even as LayDNix and Chleodeitess both in the studio and as a Hawaii State Licensed Teacher. It is the purpose of my plans for LayDNix events and a concert to be planned in Hawaii. Although my children are not with me, I am very happy to be able to find other solutions that may have been missed. My journey as a woman in music is the same journey that started when I was young and a young poet and author in elementary. It is the same journey no matter my employment. The only difference is my growth and my perspective. That view means that all other plans are my in thing and will be applied as I produce a world peace album for distribution world wide. With hopes of later joining the HPD force later at home in Hawaii to continue my love for service officially even after COVID-19, this is my heart as a woman who does want my second marriage to work for life.

I love all. I love you.

Stacey KA Runnels

January 6, 2023

LayDNix

Chleodeitess

NaniSKelii

StaceyKeliiRunnels

Jizabella/BellaJ

HMPM-Home Meditative Pulse Music

Liliana Lark

ShayLee

And all other names under myself and my record label for my use, both current and future names for the music industry and education field.

11:23am Nashville, TN 7:23amHI

[mariacallous]

According to recent U.S. government estimates, approximately 315,000 Russian soldiers have either been killed or wounded in the ongoing war in Ukraine. In comparison, Kyiv has lost a smaller number of troops than that on the battlefield—as many as 200,000—but has probably suffered just as many overall losses when civilian casualties from Russia’s indiscriminate bombardments and shellings are taken into account. The pace of the bloodshed in 2023 appears, by the best unclassified estimates, to have been similar to that of 2022.

For some, these numbers would suggest that Ukraine, with only about 1/4 the population of Russia within its borders today, cannot achieve victory or even sustain this conflict much longer. As a BBC journalist put it flatly, “time is not on Ukraine’s side.” Reports of corruption within military recruiting commands have intensified concerns, prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to replace many of his senior military recruiters this past year in response. By November 2023, after 20 months of fighting, the average age of a Ukrainian soldier had risen to around 43 years old—a stark shift from the average age of 30 to 35 years old just one month into the conflict in March 2022.

Ukraine is now considering lowering its minimum draft age from 27 to 25 and whether it should try to grow its nearly million-strong military by an additional 50%. Ideally, the proposed mobilization could break the current military stalemate in 2024 or 2025, while also allowing some of those who have been on the frontlines over the last two years, to get a break or finally conclude their service and return home to their families.

Our reading of the demographics and of military history suggests that Ukraine does indeed have a serious problem on its hands. Demographic trends aren’t in Ukraine’s favor and wavering Western support casts a huge cloud. Yet, despite these challenges, Ukraine is not facing an acute and immediate manpower crisis and is not at short-to-medium-term risk of losing the war due to a hollowed-out army.

It’s crucial to acknowledge that troops and society-as-a-whole, are exhibiting signs of fatigue. Yet tiredness must not be misconstrued as readiness to surrender, nor should lower morale be mistaken for irresoluteness. This is not the moment to make Ukraine’s projected long-term challenges a self-fulfilling prophecy of defeat.

Consider some analogies from past wars. By summer 1864, Union troops in the American Civil War were due to reach the end of their three-year enlistments en masse. General Sherman had yet to take Atlanta; Generals Meade and Grant were losing battles to General Lee on a regular basis. Relative to Ukraine’s current plight, Union forces represented twice as large a share of the nation’s population and were suffering fatalities at roughly five times the annual rate per capita. As historian Bruce Catton wrote of the nation’s military manpower system, “Once it brought in the country’s best men, and now it brought in the worst.” Yet the Union prevailed.

In World War I, a conflict of which the current Ukraine war evokes memories for many, loss rates for each of the major parties were several hundred thousand fatalities a year—roughly ten times greater than in the current catastrophe. Yet no major military started to break until three years into the struggle. No one is wishing a similar fate upon Ukrainians or even Russians today. Nevertheless, the capacity for human resolve in the face of immense suffering should not be underestimated, especially when the cause is just, and national survival is at stake.

Kyiv does not disclose official troop or casualty numbers, but Ukraine is believed to have raised nearly one million troops out of a population of about 37 million (excluding refugees who have left the country) by relying on volunteer fighters and a draft that includes healthy men between the ages of 27 and 60. Meanwhile, it has been losing about 100,000 troops per year as casualties. Sustaining the force at its current size—or even enlarging it—will likely not be possible absent a change in policy.

Approximately 215,000 Ukrainian men will turn 27 this upcoming year. However, many of the most qualified individuals have already volunteered, while many others have health issues or nationally required professional specialties that preclude service. And yes, some will try to game the system to avoid service, as we have seen in most of America’s wars, too (even the most righteous, like the Revolution and Civil War). Considering these factors, Ukraine will most likely struggle to find 50,000 recruits this upcoming year, based on past trends.

But the situation is a far cry from the prospect of imminent defeat. Kiev has options. Lower the draft age to 25, as officially proposed in a draft bill by the Ukrainian cabinet. This change could potentially render up to 395,000 men turning 25 and 26 this coming year eligible to be conscripted, in addition to the approximately 215,000 Ukrainian men turning 27. Lowering the draft age to 21 would make approximately 685,000 more men potentially eligible and lowering it to 18 another 490,000. Create more incentives for women to join. Address claims of mistreatment of soldiers. And, if Western aid will support it, pay troops better so as to increase the proclivity to serve (we do not consider it inappropriate to employ such tools within America’s own military, nor should the Ukrainians). With such steps, Ukraine could, if necessary, sustain the current fight through the decade.

None of this is to suggest Ukraine should fight this war indefinitely, of course, and at some point, Ukrainians may decide that an imperfect peace (if negotiable with Russia) is preferable to more carnage. But in a fight for Ukrainian national survival, we should be reticent to make that judgment for them just yet. And nothing about core demographic fundamentals suggests they should feel forced to reach it themselves anytime soon.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Erec Smith

Published: Jan 31, 2024

The historic Supreme Court ruling to end affirmative action in college admissions was one of the biggest events of 2023, but few acknowledged the ruling's inapplicability to military academies and, by extension, military recruitment strategies. Unlike public civilian institutions, military academies still face scrutiny for imposing quotas and skirting merit as a primary factor in admissions and recruiting. But affirmative action is only part of the problem.

As with other institutions, DEI—Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion—is a volatile point of contention in the military. In fact, prominent figures in and around the military insist that DEI threatens national security. The issue is bigger than unequal admissions and recruitment. DEI writ large is eroding the integrity of the U.S. Armed Forces from the inside out.

Before I go any further, I need to clarify that I am not against diversity, equity, or inclusion in their original meanings. As a black man whose father has shared stories about racism in the Army during his 22 years of service (including two tours in Vietnam), I would like nothing more than to improve race relations in the military.

But the words "diversity," "equity," and "inclusion" have gone from obvious American virtues to vices in recent years, not because Americans have soured on racial equality, but because those words have taken on meanings that actually oppose their common interpretations. This new DEI, backed by an ideology of critical social justice, is the very opposite of the social justice values espoused by the civil rights movement.

To be clear, the ideology of critical social justice is not Martin Luther King's civil rights. King highlighted character, open-mindedness, and equality. Sadly, the critical social justice variety of DEI (Let's call it "CSJ-DEI") is about the primacy of skin color, intolerance of opposing viewpoints, and the inherent inequality between white people (fundamentally considered oppressors) and non-white people (fundamentally considered oppressed).

Former King speechwriter Clarence Jones agrees, insisting this ideology "would violate everything that Martin King and I worked for." In fact, because of the divisive and meritless nature of CSJ-DEI, the 93-year-old has said, "I am damn sure, at this time in my life, I'm not going to turn my back. This time is more urgent than ever."

[ WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 12: U.S. Sailors with the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Color Guard present the colors during a ceremonial wreath laying at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on January 12, 2024 in Washington, DC. The ceremony is being held ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, January 15, 2024, to honor the civil rights leader on the anniversary of his birthday. ]

Righting the wrongs of the past does not necessitate new wrongs in the present. The systemically discriminatory U.S. Army of the past is gone, but contemporary DEI initiatives could do more to reintroduce differential treatment than end it for good.

CSJ-DEI is bad for everyone, especially in the military. It is notoriously divisive; but what is a national military without unity? It demonizes the virtues a well-functioning military cannot do without: hard work, action orientation, rational thinking, discipline, etc. Why? They are considered "aspects of whiteness."

So where do we go from here? How can we protect our military from CSJ-DEI while still embracing traditional civil rights? That is, how do we make sure DEI initiatives in the military are the kind that promote equality, merit, free speech, and, of course, unity?

Fortunately, members of Congress are starting to listen, and some are taking action. Senator Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) included an amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act to put a hiring freeze on CSJ-DEI initiatives in the military so that the Government Accountability Office can conduct an audit of federal DEI-related employees to ensure that any initiative to improve race relations is done productively.

Sen. Schmitt's plan is simple: look and see for ourselves. "Every branch of our military has a duty to promote and exemplify cohesiveness within a unit, branch, and fighting force as a whole," Schmitt told the Washington Examiner. "Driving wedges between soldiers with DEI initiatives undermines the military's main purpose: ensuring the United States remain ready to confront adversaries with overwhelming force wherever they may arise."

Senator Schmitt is onto something. Sunlight is the best disinfectant; an audit could help determine which initiatives are or are not good for the overall functioning of the U.S. Armed Forces. No one is against diversity, equity, and inclusion in the original senses of those terms, but it looks like contemporary DEI training flies in the face of American values like merit, unity, and, most ironically, equality.

Erec Smith is a Research Fellow at the Cato Institute and Associate Professor of Rhetoric at York College of Pennsylvania.

[doorhine]

"As they hold their machine guns, an image of the Nusseibeh Sisters comes to mind. They were the first Sudanese female fighting battalion formed in 1990 by former military dictator Omar al Bashir's ruling Islamist party - only around a year after his coup ended the four years of democracy that followed the 1985 revolution.

Their tasks were limited to support of the army during the civil war against South Sudan that eventually tore the country in two. The deja vu is far from imaginary.

The Nusseibeh Sisters' name and memory was invoked at the opening of the first training camp for women and girls in the River Nile state in August 2023.

The camp was set up by the Karama Association - established after the war with government funding - and has been linked to Islamist remnants of Omar al Bashir's regime.

But even as more civilians join the training, feminist groups continue to decry the militarisation of vulnerable women.

Khadija, a 23-year-old volunteer, activist, and leading member of the Women's Commission of the Red Sea, understands the drive behind recruitment but fundamentally rejects the military state - whether it is the army or the RSF.

"They feel like this can be a safety net for them and the only option that can save them from the conditions of the country," she says.

"I personally don't believe that this is the only solution or something that can give grant full safety.

"Not all options have been explored. There should be workshops, meetings and forums to discuss solutions - discussions we haven't been able to have since the start of the war because of the security environment.""

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Steve Brodner, Full Court Press

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 12, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

DEC 13, 2023

Last night, Special Counsel Jack Smith asked the Supreme Court to decide Trump’s claim that he is immune from any and all criminal prosecution for anything he did while in office. That claim is central to Trump’s defense; he has requested the charges against him be dismissed because of that immunity. 

When Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing the case in which Trump is charged with trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election, dismissed this claim, Trump’s lawyers appealed and asked for the case to be frozen while the appeal worked its way up through the courts. By going straight to the Supreme Court, Smith appears to be trying to stop Trump from delaying the trial until after the 2024 election.  

The Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether it will hear the case. So far, Justice Clarence Thomas refuses to recuse himself, even though his wife Ginni was deeply involved in the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election. His refusal suggests that the Supreme Court’s new ethics rules are as toothless as their opponents charged.

In another filing last night, Smith revealed that the government expects to introduce the testimony of three experts who will speak to the use of cell phones by Trump and one other person after the 2020 election, including on January 6, a revelation that Los Angeles Times legal analyst Harry Litman suggested must “have the Trump camp totally freaked out.”

Inflation slowed again in November, dropping to 0.1% as gasoline prices fell, so that the annual inflation over the past year has dropped to 3.1%. 

Fallout continues from the Texas Supreme Court’s decision that a woman carrying a fetus with a fatal condition cannot abort that fetus even though it threatens her own health and future fertility. President Joe Biden promised today to continue to fight to protect access to reproductive health care, saying: “No woman should be forced to go to court or flee her home state just to receive the health care she needs. But that is exactly what happened in Texas thanks to Republican elected officials, and it is simply outrageous. This should never happen in America, period.”

But for all the importance of these major stories, the outstanding story of the day is that the Republican Party appears to have decided to undermine financial support for Ukraine’s war against Russia’s invasion. 

This is simply an astonishing decision. Majorities in both the House and the Senate want to pass supplemental aid to Ukraine, which both protects North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries and provides jobs in the United States, but an extremist minority in Congress is stopping passage of a measure that would provide more weapons to Ukraine.

There is no doubt previous funding has been effective. A newly declassified intelligence memo shows that Russia had an army of 360,000 before the war and that thanks to the Ukraine resistance it has lost 315,000 troops—87% of its army—forcing it to squeeze more recruits out of its civilian population. It has also lost 2,200 out of 3,500 tanks, forcing it to turn to Soviet-era equipment. 

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky, who was in Washington, D.C., today to try to convince Republicans to pass such a measure, noted that Ukraine has regained half the land Russia seized in the February 2022 invasion, forced Russian warships out of Ukrainian territorial waters, and opened export corridors to get Ukrainian grain to countries that desperately need it. At the same time, he said, Ukraine’s economy is growing at a 5% rate, suggesting it will be less dependent on foreign aid going forward. 

In The Atlantic, David Frum, who has criticized Democrats on immigration policy, pointed out that Biden and the Democrats have made a real effort to negotiate with extremist Republicans but the Republicans are simply refusing to engage. Frum concluded that Republicans do not want to make a deal. Either they want to perform a ritual in which Republicans demand and Democrats comply, or they want to keep the border as a campaign issue, or they actually oppose aid to Ukraine. And yet, Frum reiterates, majorities in both the House and the Senate want the supplemental aid package to pass.  

Republicans appear to want to keep the issue of immigration front and center in 2024, hoping that people will focus on it rather than on abortion, especially in states like Texas.

Poland’s newly elected prime minister Donald Tusk today vowed that he would “loudly and decisively demand the full mobilization of the free world, the Western world, to help Ukraine in this war,” but Russia expert Fiona Hill told Politico’s Maura Reynolds that U.S. funding will be key to determining whether Ukraine wins back control of its territory. That decision, she says, is really about our own future.

Permitting Putin to win in Ukraine, she says, would create a world in which the standing of the U.S. in the world would be diminished, Iran and North Korea would be strengthened, China would dominate the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East would be more unstable, and nuclear weapons would proliferate. 

“Ukraine has become a battlefield now for America and America’s own future—whether we see it or not—for our own defensive posture and preparedness, for our reputation and our leadership,” Hill told Reynolds. “For Putin, Ukraine is a proxy war against the United States, to remove the United States from the world stage.”

“The problem is that many members of Congress don’t want to see President Biden win on any front,” Hill said. “People are incapable now of separating off ‘giving Biden a win’ from actually allowing Ukraine to win. They are thinking less about U.S. national security, European security, international security and foreign policy, and much more about how they can humiliate Biden. In that regard,” she said, “whether they like it or not, members of Congress are doing exactly the same thing as Vladimir Putin. They hate that. They want to refute that. But Vladimir Putin wants Biden to lose, and they want Biden to be seen to lose as well.”

Today, Biden noted that Russian media outlets have been cheering on the Republicans. "If you're being celebrated by Russian propagandists, it might be time to rethink what you're doing,” he said. “History will judge harshly those who turned their back on freedom's cause."

Congress is set to leave for the holiday break on Thursday, returning in the second week of January. Biden urged Congress “to pass the supplemental funding for Ukraine before they break for the holiday recess—before they give Putin the greatest Christmas gift they could possibly give him.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[intheshadowofwar]

1 July 2023

Les Canadiens

Lille 1 July 2023

It would be remiss of me, even though we were not in that sector of the front today, not to mention the events that occurred 107 years ago today.

With the French pressured at Verdun, the British Army had been forced to take on the leading role in the Allies long-planned summer offensive. This was one of a series of major attacks agreed upon at an inter-Allied conference at the end of 1915; the Italians will attack (again) along the Isonzo, while the Russians prepare a massive thrust into Galicia. The western attack will fall on a hitherto quiet sector of the line - the region around the Somme River. For five days, one of the heaviest bombardments of the war so far had pounded the German lines. The ‘New Army,’ the name for the tens of thousands of recruits enlisted in 1914, was about to enter its first major engagement on the Western Front (excepting a few battalions used at Loos last September.) The expectation was that the artillery will have smashed the German positions to such an extent that the men could simply walk in to occupy them.

What the Allies didn’t know was that most of the German troops were not in trenches, but in dugouts deep underground, beyond the reach of the shells. After a hellish week under fire, the Germans emerged when the shelling stopped on the morning of 1 July 1916, reoccupying their positions and waiting for an attack they knew was coming.

There were some local successes, but the result along most of the line was catastrophic. Whole battalions were nearly wiped out in the killing fields of No Man’s Land - most infamously the Newfoundlanders and the 10th West Yorkshires, who suffered 90% casualties. Communications trenches were flooded with dead, dying and wounded, forcing reserves to go over from the rear trenches, where they were cut down before they could even leave their lines. Over 58,000 men became casualties, and nearly 20,000 were killed. It remains the worst day in the history of the British Army.

All of this is irrelevant to today’s events as we went to the Arras sector, but I figured it would be wrong not to mention it.

We had a later start today, as some students got the opportunity to discuss internships. We departed the hotel at 9.45 and walked to the Lille War Memorial, where we met our guide for the morning, Annette Becker. She guided us around the city and it’s memorials, including that to the civilians shot by the Germans during the war, the fortress built by Vauban in the late 17th Century, and the memorial to General and President Charles de Gaulle, who was born in Lille. We ended at a memorial to a massive munitions explosion in the 18 Bridges district, which killed about 200 and injured thousands.

This is one of the few times in this tour that we’ve really been able to talk about the role of civilians in war. Lille suffered more than most French cities during the Great War - it was occupied in 1914, and much of the population was deported. Some were shot for refusing to kill their pet carrier pidgeons, as ordered by the German authorities to prevent their use by spies. We were actually told, and I was surprised to hear this, that Lille’s occupation by Imperial Germany was actually worse than its occupation by Nazi Germany, the experience of the Jewish population notwithstanding. (There’s always been a sense of romanticism for the Kaiser’s Germany online. I think it stems from the social unacceptability of admiring the Nazis.)

We parted with Annette at midday and drove for Vimy - we didn’t go to Arras, that had to be bumped off because of the internship meetings. This country isn’t terribly pretty, but it’s strategic importance is clear from the landscape - the great slag heaps and chimneys that can be seen for miles around demonstrate that it was and is a nexus of coal and steel production.

Vimy Ridge is the first ridge worthy of being called such I’ve seen since arriving in Western Europe - unlike Passchendaele or Aubers, it’s visible to the naked eye, and indeed is quite a commanding position. It’s here that one can find the towering Canadian National Memorial. It was here that, in April 1917, four divisions of Canadian troops, fighting together for the first time, captured the Vimy Ridge from the Germans, a position that had been considered unassailable. There are some caveats here, of course - the Canadian Corps commander was the British General Sir Julian Byng, and a British division also took part - but it was nevertheless quite the achievement. (Arthur Currie, who is sometimes erroneously called the commander of the Canadian Corps at this time, hadn’t been promoted to that position yet but was in command of the 1st Canadian Division.)

The Canadian Memorial is truly monumental, the pillars towering above it almost forming a ‘V’ shape - V for Victory, Vimy or Valour, I could not tell you. The names of Canada’s missing, save for those on the Menin Gate, are listed around the base, while the names of the CEF’s battles from 1915 to 1918 are etched on the pillars. On the side facing Arras is a crucified man and a grieving woman, and various other figures of valour or grief adorn the structure. At the bottom of the memorial, again facing Arras, is the marble form of a coffin, a discarded sword and a Brodie helmet laid on top - a final funerial touch to what one of my comrades described as a supersized CWGC headstone. I’m not certain of the resemblance myself, but I can see where she was coming from.

About a mile’s walk from the memorial is the information centre. To get there, one has the pass the largely undisturbed site of the battle, pockmarked with craters, old trenches and the occasional chasm created by a mine. These areas are roped off, as unexploded munitions remain in the fields - although farmers allow their sheep to graze there. One hopes they are lightfooted.

The information centre is staffed by Canadian students, one of whom was nice enough to lead us on a tour of the site. The area around the information centre includes a recreated section of trench and a restored tunnel - the Canadians used these tunnels for cover before they advanced on the 9th of April 1917. The tunnel we visited had been expanded and strengthened for visitors, but an unaltered section juts off to the left, giving visitors a view of the conditions in the tunnel on the day of the attack. The trenches are recreated in an artistic way - the sandbags are made of stone, and the trench is shallower and wider than it ought to be - but they give a good impression of a Western Front trench.

After Vimy, we headed a little way down the road, past WWII memorials to the Poles and Czechs, to Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. This is a concentration cemetery for the French dead of the battles around Arras and Artois, and includes both a graveyard and a church. The scale is prodigious - it reminds us that while the war tore a gaping hole in Australia, Britain and Canada, from France it stole a whole generation. The endless crosses are stark enough, but it was the names of the missing inside the church, etched onto the walls, that caught by breath. They’re etched onto the walls like wallpaper - there are names on every wall in every direction. When you sit in the pews here, you are surrounded by the lost legions of France.

There is a foolish idea that French soldiers are cowards, or are bad at war. I’ve seen all the old jokes - ‘French rifle, never fired, once dropped’ and ‘there are trees on the Champs-Elyesses so that the Germans can march in the shade.’ I urge people who believe this to come here, to see the countless crosses and read the countless names, and then see if they can dare accuse them of cowardice.

A more recent installation at Notre-Dame-de-Lorette is an enormous ring. Here are listed the names of the dead of the Arras and Artois battles. It disregards country and rank, naming every single person in alphabetical order. One walks around the inside the ring and sees name after name after name. When you reach a common surname, you see a wall of Smiths or Schmitts or Singhs, as if they are the bereaved of some massive family. This was a centenary initiative, put into place by pacifists and historians determined to promote peace and to provide equality in death. It is created with the most noble of intentions in mind.

I utterly despise it.

In my mind, this isn’t equality, this is obliteration. This is the annihilation of the human within a faceless mass. At least at the Menin Gate or at Theipval, the men have a sense of community, even if that community is within battalions and regiments. At least they get the basic dignity of being a part of something. I’m sure to the people who made this memorial, the idea of being identified by a cap badge would be horrifying, and I respect that opinion - but those cap badges meant something beyond military administration; they tied them to homes far away. If you were a 1st Battalion man, you were from New South Wales. If you were from the East Lancashires, you probably came from the west of England. You had a community, a history, some form of distinction. Here you are nothing. Remember how I said Langemarck was obscene? So is this, but it’s worse for me, because at least at Langemarck they got to be Germans. These names don’t even really get to be humans.

I’ve read Siegfried Sassoon’s poem on the Menin Gate - those ‘intolerably nameless names’ - but today I think I get it. These people are deprived of all identity, all personality, all story. You may as well as listed episodes of Seinfeld, or types of compost mixture. I know I’m probably going to make my professor very upset by saying this, because I think he really likes it - as is his right, and I think no less of him for it. But this ring is one of the ugliest things I have ever seen. And I think of the money that went into this - we could have spent it on exhuming and digitising records, telling these stories, giving these men life. Is that not a far better memorial? If you want to make a pacifist statement, tell me who these people were, tell the world of these lives cut short. Show us their faces.

Wilfred Owen said these men died ‘as cattle.’ Why should they be remembered as cattle?

We headed back to Lille after that - our last night here. We head on tomorrow, via Bullecourt and the museum at Peronne, to Amiens. Paris, god help us, looms ahead, but there’s still plenty of frontline to get through first.

[rainsmediaradio]

Nigeria's Worsening Security Situation

Nigeria's Worsening Security Situation

Nigeria's Worsening Security Situation by Dr Kenny Odugbemi

The Multidimensional poverty ravaging 133m of Nigeria citizenship manifesting in form of hunger, anger, oppression have now metamorphosed into terrorism from instance of Boko Haram, kidnapping, killing and many held hostage whilst collecting heavy ransom, from credible intelligence the kidnappers use cellphone with NIN, and letter of attack to forward the community before the real attack, yet they still sustain thier operation, because of internal conniviance of miscreant s across various communities, make the terrorist more audacious in thier demand leveraging on thier own local intelligence sponsored by faceless cabals who remain undercover, yet we have National intelligence and State intelligence managed by diverse ethnic groups wrongly posted with good knowledge of environment, culture and language of host communities SM Morgan intelligence- African focused research group has reported that more than 3,620 Nigerians were kidnapped for ransom from July 2023 till date SM intelligence stated Nigerian has paid more N302m, the kidnappers at present demanding for N100m from a victim calling on their daughter to show serious ness as the victim's father struggles to pay ransom. Typical question Why is NIN not effective in tracking kidnappers demand Why is the security interface and intelligence not respond at nick of time to deactivate this nuisance? Why are we not tracking the kidnappers Why does the security interface not collaborate with Air force if their is a collaboration to aid the rescue mission Critical gaps Non-critical of Security audit by third parties other than the existing security interface who tend to cover their gaps and inadequacies State Police formation frustrated by Governors, with complaint of paucity of funds to give room for continuous impunity for looting in form of security vote Kidnappers, terrorists communicate thier demand, no tracker to monitor the movement vin hilly mountain that are not motorable, so why not use the same drone bomb that kills people in spurious ways? Police formation not well tooled to go after terrorist and kidnappers Over reliance on Army Forms,not well remunerated,poor welfare structure, and low fire power Investigation team and state intelligence are overwhelmed Police formation who are insufficient with poor welfare,lack of sophisticated new AK 47 weaponry comparable to attackers in all form do not have well trained, hence police officer and Military died helplessly during combat operation Military formation suffers internal attrition, is simply overwhelmed, under resource and under trained Delay in Military attention due to incoherent Security intelligence network, because of lack of clarity, Military tends to exhibit restraints Army formation were wrong use, for civil intervention instead of maintaining external aggression as the Military are trained to kill, not to be killed in urban confrontation Recruitment is carried out without consideration for a clear understanding of culture, language that is why there is no accountability Undue interference, when terrorist are captured and later released as claimed by the Chief of Defence, this is highly frustrating and keeping moral level at extremely low levels, not minding resources to train soldiers who often die regularly at every combat operation. Conclusion Civilians suffer the highest mortality of kidnapping-75% of death in kidnap cases were civilians,out of 570 death were civilians,122 kidnappers and 19; Secure agent Unrecorded deaths of Army officers in every combat It is time for present administration to stop politicking and politicizing issues of Security It is time to restructure the security armforces to facilitate emergence of State police formation separated from Federal security formation Read the full article

[worldofwardcraft]

Maybe the few should be fewer.

December 18, 2023

According to PolitiFact, the military in 2022 had one of the worst recruiting years since the all-volunteer force began in 1973. And as the 2023 fiscal year ended in September, the three main branches reported they've fallen short of their recruitment goals yet again. The Navy was at 80% of its target number; the Army was at 77%, and the Air Force at 89%. Only the Marine Corps and Space Force — the two smallest branches — met their recruitment goals.

Republicans kibitzing from their culture war foxholes think they know why. “We are so woke in the military we are losing recruits right and left,” Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville opined on Faux News. Florida governor and doomed presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has similarly characterized “wokeness” as a key obstacle to recruitment. At a campaign stop in August, he declared,

As commander in chief, on Day One, we are going to eliminate all the politicization from the military, all the woke, all the social experimentation. We’re restoring it to its proper function, and you will see the recruiting surge as a result.

Meanwhile, in the real world, it's clear that drag shows, diversity training and health care coverage for transgender service members are not what's pulling down recruitment numbers. According to the Defense Department's own survey of young adults in the fall of 2022, the most common reason given for not joining was concern over physical or psychological injury. Another factor often cited was the "perceived incompatibility of military service with their desired life or career paths."

Other reasons for low enrollments include competition from the civilian labor market, the lingering effects of COVID-era restrictions (which limited access to high school students), and a decline in the number of young people who meet physical standards.

But while the military is taking steps to boost recruiting with programs such as referral awards, larger bonuses and improved contract options, more recruits may not be what our national security needs. Observes the Cato Institute's Benjamin Friedman, “The general concept of readiness often happens without a conversation about what the forces are for." And an analysis by West Point's Modern War Institute adds:

As the Army rightly embraces new capabilities, like the security force assistance brigades and expansion of cyber operations, it may be time to reconsider the way it conceptualizes military capability, and the role that troop numbers play in that framework.

In other words, instead of being overly concerned about raw numbers of troops, perhaps our military should focus more on attracting specifically qualified ones.

[t-jfh]

These men were among nearly 200 inmates who left a high-security Russian prison to join the war in Ukraine.

The majority were convicted drug sellers or murderers, seeking redemption, money or a path to freedom.

But their ’second chance’ as military combatants has proved very costly, with many of them being killed or maimed in battle.

They are among tens of thousands of convicts being used to power the Kremlin’s war machine, in what has become the largest military prison recruitment program since World War II.

A Prison at War: The Convicts Sustaining Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine

The New York Times obtained exclusive documents providing the fullest picture yet of Russia’s secretive prison recruiting effort, which Vladimir Putin’s regime is using to replenish the Russian army in its war against Ukraine.

By Anatoly Kurmanaev, Ekaterina Bodyagina, Alina Lobzina and Oleg Matsnev

Produced by Gray Beltran

The New York Times- December 4, 2023

•

•

Members of Ukraine's National Guard Omega Special Purpose unit fire a mortar toward Russian troops in the front line town of Avdiivka, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine November 8, 2023.

(Photo: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/Serhii Nuzhnenko via Reuters/File Photo)

U.S. intelligence assesses Ukraine war has cost Russia 315,000 casualties - source

A declassified U.S. intelligence report assessed that the Ukraine war has cost Russia 315,000 dead and injured troops, or nearly 90% of the personnel it had when the conflict began, a source familiar with the intelligence said on Tuesday.

The source said those losses are the reason Russia has been forced to loosen recruitment standards and draft convicts and older civilians to deploy in Ukraine.

The report also assessed that Moscow's losses in personnel and armored vehicles to Ukraine's military have set back Russia’s military modernization by 18 years, the source said.

By Jonathan Landay

Reuters - December 12, 2023

•

[humanrightsupdates]

An ethnic armed group in northern Myanmar has abducted and forcibly recruited civilians fleeing fighting in Shan State, Human Rights Watch said today. Myanmar’s military also has a long record of using adults for forced labor and recruiting children, but getting recent information about unlawful practices in junta-controlled areas is difficult.

The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), an ethnic Kokang armed group, should immediately end its abusive practices against civilians, and take all available measures to protect them during hostilities against Myanmar’s armed forces and pro-junta militias.

“The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army is violating the laws of war by abducting and forcibly recruiting civilians, putting them at grave risk,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Civilians should be able to seek safety from fighting without fearing that the Myanmar military or ethnic armed groups will force them into their armies.”

On October 27, 2023, the Three Brotherhood Alliance – a coalition of the Arakan Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, and Ta’ang National Liberation Army – began Operation 1027, an offensive targeting Myanmar military outposts in northern Shan State. The offensive triggered attacks by opposition armed groups elsewhere in the country. Since late October, fighting between opposition forces and the military has displaced more than 600,000 people, including almost 100,000 in Shan State.

[ultrajaphunter]

The RuZZian Authorities are Expanding Military Recruitment to Cover Migrants, Debtors, Former Mercenaries, Private Security Guards, the Unemployed, Convicted Criminals, Ex-Convicts and Those Under Investigation for Crimes.

“Volunteers” for war: migrants, bankrupts, debtors and the unemployed“Important Stories” found out which categories of the population the office of the presidential envoy in the Central Federal District instructed the regional authorities to recruit for the war in the first placeDATE2 NOV 2023AUTHOR

IRINA DOLININA

The office of the presidential envoy in the Central Federal District (CFD) has established a plan for regional authorities to recruit for military contracts among migrants, bankrupts, debtors, the unemployed and other vulnerable social segments of society, “Important Stories” found out. 

The editors have at their disposal a letter of instruction and a special form with 22 categories of the population whom the Russian authorities want to send to the war with Ukraine first. 

And a military man working at a contract reception center told how the employees responsible for recruitment offer money, cry and persuade them to accept their candidates so that they can improve their statistics.  

“Important Stories” tell how the recruitment of “volunteers” for contract service is currently organized.  

“This is a mousetrap - contracts cannot be terminated now”

Vladimir Putin ordered a significant increase in the number of personnel in the Russian army back in August 2022. 

However, by relying on contract recruitment, the authorities did not achieve the desired result. 

“They were unable to persuade, coerce or seduce the required number of civilians with money. 

Therefore, the authorities announced mobilization,” says the head of the public movement “Citizen. Army. Right” Sergei Krivenko. — It was controversial, there were raids and unrest, the authorities decided not to announce a second wave yet. 

And since January of this year, even more active contract recruitment has begun. 

They hung advertisements and banners everywhere, tempting us with big money.”

Regional authorities also got involved in the recruitment, and “Important Stories” found out. 

The editors have at their disposal a letter from the federal inspector for the Tver region of the office of the Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative in the Central Federal District, Sergei Svitin, to the head of the regional department of the Russian Guard, Alexander Plyaskin (we do not disclose the name and position of the person who gave the letter to the editors, for security reasons). 

Svitin informs Plyaskin that the Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Central Federal District, Igor Shchegolev, “has been instructed to provide weekly information on the work of the territorial bodies of the federal and regional authorities of the constituent entities of the Central Federal District to attract citizens to conclude contracts for military service in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation from March 1, 2023 in the prescribed form” . 

Information must be entered taking into account a strict breakdown of citizens into 22 categories. We present them in full, preserving the highlights (the full table is here ):

1- citizens of the Russian Federation who are in the reserves, including those demobilized in 2022 and 2023;

2- citizens undergoing military service;

3- citizens subject to conscription for military service;

4- citizens who submitted an application through the EPGU ;

5- persons who have committed crimes of minor or moderate gravity, in respect of whom a preliminary investigation is being carried out, who have the right to enter into a contract in accordance with Federal Law No. 270 of June 24, 2023 (Ministry of Internal Affairs) ;

6- citizens released from places of imprisonment and having an outstanding or unexpunged criminal record, in respect of whom internal affairs bodies carry out administrative supervision, who have the right to enter into a contract in accordance with Federal Law No. 270 of June 24, 2023 (Ministry of Internal Affairs ) ;

7- persons who are on preventive registration with the local police commissioner (MVD) ;

8- convicted citizens of the Russian Federation held in correctional institutions; convicted citizens of the Russian Federation, in respect of whom the pre-trial detention center of the penal system performs the functions of a correctional institution; convicted citizens of the Russian Federation, registered with penal inspections and correctional centers, who have the right to enter into a contract in accordance with Federal Law No. 270 of June 24, 2023 (FSIN) ;

9- persons who previously took part in hostilities as part of a private military company (PMC) ;

10- persons with significant (significant) debt in enforcement proceedings (FSSP) ;

11- persons declared insolvent (bankrupt), or in respect of whom the procedure for declaring insolvent (bankrupt) is being carried out (Federal Tax Service) ;

12- persons who do not officially receive income and do not make tax deductions during 2022, as well as for the past period of 2023 (Federal Tax Service) ;

13- persons registered with the employment service (PES) ;

14- persons from among the visitors of multifunctional centers for the provision of public services who applied for admission to military service under a contract (MFC) ;

15- persons who have acquired Russian citizenship (“new” citizens) (Ministry of Internal Affairs) ;

16- foreign citizens, including those who have applied for Russian citizenship (Ministry of Internal Affairs) ;

17- foreign citizens subject to expulsion or deportation (Ministry of Internal Affairs) ;

18- persons from among the employees of enterprises and organizations that have established additional social and labor guarantees for employees participating in the SVO, and/or quotas for the employment of citizens who have entered into a contract;

19- persons from among the employees of enterprises and organizations, including small and medium-sized businesses, affiliated with representatives of national and cultural autonomies (diasporas);

20- persons from among the employees of private security companies (PSC) ;

21- persons who came to the POVSK/military registration and enlistment office on their own initiative;

22- other persons (specify in the note).

“We can conclude that the Ministry of Defense alone again cannot recruit the required number. 

Therefore, the executive branch has been given a strict task to connect to this recruitment and purposefully conduct it among the disadvantaged layers of migrants, debtors, that is, those who can somehow be pinned down. 

Signing a contract is still voluntary, but you can persuade or set some conditions, or make life unbearable, says Sergei Krivenko. —

For example, migration legislation is very unclear and complex. 

People could come and submit documents, but nothing has been done to them yet. 

Or the deadlines were missed. 

And you can either expel this person, his family, or say that we will quickly register you, we will give citizenship to your family, and you will go to fight. 

That is, they began to put a lot of pressure on such vulnerable categories of people.” 

According to Krivenko, the authorities are resorting to such measures in order to somehow force people to go to war, because there are not many people willing to do this truly voluntarily. 

“This is a mousetrap - contracts cannot be terminated now. 

And even if they lie there, that this is for a year, for several months, but after Putin’s decree, from September 1 last year, all military personnel are indefinite,” the expert emphasizes.

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The fact that “military” raids on migrants are taking place in Russia has been known since at least the summer of 2023. 

Police regularly conduct raids on markets, houses of worship and other gathering places for people from regions where Islam is considered the main religion, and take them to military registration and enlistment offices, where they are asked to sign contracts for military service. 

The media also drew attention to the fact that migrants with an outstanding criminal record or under investigation, stateless people and those who have recently received a RuZZian passport are actively being recruited as “volunteers” for the war with Ukraine.

On October 31, a resident of Krasnoyarsk reported that the bailiffs offered her to serve under a contract in order to pay off her debt to the bank. 

The woman took money to renovate the apartment in which she now lives with her two children.

 She has neither a military ID nor a medical education.

“The feeling that they are getting rid of a marginal layer of society”

A RuZZian military man working at a contract reception center in a military unit not in the Central Federal District told “Important Stories” that government officials bring to them “people who are drunk in the trash, homeless people [people without a fixed place of residence],

people with obvious developmental delays, drug addicts who have just been released from prison” (we do not disclose the region in question for the safety of the interlocutor). 

“There is a feeling that they are getting rid of a marginal layer of society.

 They absolutely do not care what quality the army will be. 

“They will dig trenches,” they say. 

They don’t care what happens to the families [of those recruited] after they send them there, but, of course, they promise them mountains of gold,” says the publication’s interlocutor. 

“There was only one migrant who barely even spoke Russian. 

When I ask them if they came voluntarily, they all say yes. 

Although I see that this representative of the administration, who brought the person, shows with his facial expressions that he should speak like that.” 

According to the military man, government officials offered him and his colleagues money so that they could include in their statistics people who came to the military unit to sign a contract. 

“There are such fights over people, in the sense of verbal altercations on the mats, between representatives of district committees and the city administration. 

For example, a person lived in one district, they persuaded him there, they brought him here [to a military unit], but it turns out that he has a residence permit from another district. 

The representative of that district begins to attack him: “You stole a person from us!” 

Some are outright crying that they will be fired if the plan is not fulfilled, and they have mortgages and children. 

Or that if they don’t find people on time, they will have to give up their employees or go themselves.” 

“In order to stay at their feeding trough, they are ready to push a lot of people into the firebox”  

In the city where the military man serves, all government bodies are now involved in recruiting citizens for contracts: from ministries to state media, the military man is sure. 

Their representatives also travel around the city and visit apartments. 

“If a person comes here on his own for a contract, but his military ID has been lost or his registration is not local, they fly in, pick him up for an hour, and he is already registered in some hostel, with a military member in his arms - they do everything very quickly.

 If a person is about to be deported, for example, he is quickly included in some program for the resettlement of peoples. 

For bankrupt people, representatives of banks sit in the military unit and decide how they can open an account so that it is not immediately arrested. 

When their career is on the line, they know how to work quickly. 

And in order to stay at their feeding trough, they are ready to push a lot of people into the firebox.

 These government officials are now in such fear and treat people [who are recruited for contracts] as a means of survival,” says the interlocutor. 

The military man notes that approximately equal numbers of people who come to their military unit are those who want to sign a contract and those who are brought by government officials. 

At the same time, based on the plans put down from above in his region, this number is clearly not enough. Head of the public movement “Citizen. Army. Right” Sergei Krivenko also notes that the figure of 305 thousand new contract soldiers, given by Dmitry Medvedev, who is responsible for recruiting into the army, is “very crafty.” 

“One of the channels for replenishing the army is conscripts. 

While in the barracks, they are subjected to intense pressure. 

Many are deceived and a contract is signed for them. 

Before the war, this was the main channel for recruiting contract soldiers,” explains Krivenko. —

I think that about a third of this figure that Medvedev named are just conscripts. 

The second point is that people from PMCs and “LDPR” formations were transferred under the control of the Ministry of Defense, and they were also forced to sign contracts. 

And they recruited in civilian life, maybe several tens of thousands - perhaps 50-70 thousand. 

If everything was so good, and the people agreed to the contract themselves, there would be no need for all these tricks and efforts of the regional authorities, and to monitor this, and to kick the regional authorities.”

Krivenko admits that if the authorities cannot recruit the required number of people for the contract, they may conduct a second wave of mobilization in the spring. 

According to a RuZZian military officer, government officials responsible for recruitment repeat: “Only mobilization will save us [from dismissal].” 

“Important Stories” sent a request to the office of the Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative in the Central Federal District with a request to comment on the order received by the editors. If we receive meaningful answers, we will publish them.

Editor - Alesya Marokhovskaya

[mariacallous]

More and more women are joining Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion, but while they can now take on the same roles as men, the challenges they face are very different.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, more than 11,000 women have voluntarily joined the ranks of Ukraine’s armed forces.

“From the first day of the war, women along with men stood in queues at territorial recruitment centres to join the defence of our Motherland,” Lieutenant General Serhii Naev, commander of the United Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said on June 22 this year.

Some of them have taken on the most dangerous assignments, becoming machine gunners, snipers and tank gunners, firing grenade launchers and mortars.

As of early 2023, at least 600 women had expressed their desire to join eight new assault brigades – the Offensive Guard – tasked with pushing Russian troops out of occupied parts of Ukraine.

‘No right to make a mistake’

Armed conflict in eastern Ukraine broke out in early 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Back then, a total of 49,926 women were employed within the Ukrainian armed forces, of which 16,557 were military personnel and 33,369 civilian. By March 1 this year, a year into the full-scale invasion, the total had climbed to 60,538, including 42,898 military personnel. That’s a 2.5-fold increase in military personnel since 2014. The number of female officers is now six times higher, at 7,416.

As of publication of this article, 106 female soldiers have died in combat since February 24, 2022.

More women will be need for the war effort, but they will continue to face different challenges to their male colleagues.

Ukrainian society and military servicemen have been slow to accept women fighters.

“As a woman, you have no right to make a mistake; you always have to prove yourself more than men. The attitude towards you, as a woman, is ‘It’s just a girl’,” said Sharlotta Khmelnytska.

Aged 26, Khmelnytska holds a BA in political science and a Master’s degree in public administration. She is also a senior lieutenant in the army, an example of the changing nature of military service in Ukraine and the transition of women into combat roles traditionally reserved for men.

Major reform of 2018

Women have served in the armed forces of Ukraine since independence in 1991, but usually as the wives and daughters who followed their husbands and fathers to new military posts.

Ukraine kept with the Soviet tradition of military rotation in which the family members of officers would rotate with them; wives and daughters would typically work in the military compound where their husbands or fathers were stationed, as administrative staff, secretaries or other civilian personnel.

Over time, the number of female military personnel steadily increased, particularly within the officer corps: between 2001 and 2006, the proportion of female officers rose from 0.7 per cent to 2.25 per cent. The hostility displayed by some toward female officers was largely due to the fact that military men did not want to hold lower-paid positions.

In 1994, women could apply for a limited range of positions. Social stigma forced women to occupy more typical ‘female’ posts such as medics, administrators or logistical support.

There was also a shortage of women trained to perform highly-skilled jobs. In the Soviet era, most of those studying IT, technology, or science were men, while women traditionally enrolled in more ‘feminine’ fields such as pedagogy, light industry, medicine, and cooking.

Consequently, the majority of women in the army typically occupied low paid, ‘feminine’ roles.

By June 2016, 62 combat positions were open to women, and on September 6, 2018, military laws were amended to bring radical change to the rights of women in military service.

Law 2523 introduced six amendments to the Statute of the Internal Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Law of Ukraine titled ‘On Military Duty and Military Service’.

Women became eligible for all military positions and ranks, with the same duties and opportunities as their male colleagues: the age limit on women serving in the military was raised from 40 to 60; servicewomen who reach the age limit are now transferred to the 1st category reserve, as opposed to the 2nd, meaning an increase in their pension pot and the chance to be mobilised first if needed.

As Ukrainian society pushed for greater gender equality, more women than ever began to join the army. In 2018, 53 per cent of Ukrainians supported the idea of gender equality between women and men in the army; in 2023, that number stands at 80 per cent.

The sharp rise in the number of women joining the armed forces reflects the army’s increased recognition of women, and the need felt by women to contribute to the war effort.

“Once I realised that a full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation into the territory of Ukraine was inevitable and that the enemy would try to occupy my hometown, Berdiansk, I could not sit by,” said Khmelnytska. “I had to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine – so I did.”

Currently, 24,797 servicewomen perform different tasks in the army, from combat engagements and special operations, to admin and logistical support.

More than 16,000 serve in the Ground Forces, at least 7,000 in the Air Force, over 3,000 in the Territorial Defence Forces, around 2,000 in the navy, and approximately 1,000 in the Airborne Assault Forces. The rest serve across other departments of the armed forces.

Women as prisoners of war

Women who join the military effort in Ukraine are in double jeopardy: they risk death or imprisonment by Russian forces, and sexual harassment within their own forces.

While there is no publicly available data on the total number of female prisoners of war, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War believes that several hundred women may have been taken prisoner.

Since February 24, 2022, there have been several prisoner exchanges involving women. One of the biggest occurred on October 17 that year, when 108 women were exchanged.

Maryana Mamonova, a female Ukrainian military doctor who was pregnant at time of her detention, was held captive by the Russian army for six months. According to Mamonova, Russian soldiers told her that she would give a birth to “a Nazi/Banderite” and that the child would be better off raised by a Russian family.

Fortunately, the media coverage of her case led to her release in the ninth month of her pregnancy.

When asked to describe their imprisonment, female servicewomen report systematic violations of the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war by Russia – including torture, psychological abuse, the refusal to provide medical care, and a lack of food and water.

Many say that in Russian prisons they are not only denied hygiene products but often denied any opportunity to wash themselves at all. Detained Ukrainian women report being tortured during interrogations, shaved, and forced to undress. Some were sexually abused by Russian soldiers.

Ukrainian military women are also sometimes at risk from their male colleagues. The results of a 2011 study by the Research Centre for Humanitarian Issues of the Armed Forces of Ukraine revealed that every tenth woman faced sexual harassment in the army. “A woman has a harder time in the army than a man,” said Khmelnytska.

“When we did military training we faced sexism. Dealing with it was draining on my nerves, my energy, and my emotions. At times it was terrible. For example, you could be punished or reprimanded because you were a woman and the brigade commander didn’t like it.”

Sexual harassment in the army remains a taboo topic in the Ukrainian army.

In 2021, Olga Derkach became one of the first to speak out publicly about sexual harassment in the military when she accused Colonel Oleksandr Krivoruchko of harassment that she said began in 2016.

According to Olena Shevchenko, head of the Ukrainian human rights NGO ‘Insight’, complaints of sexual harassment are often submitted to Insight by the friends and acquaintances of the victims, rather than the victims themselves. Insight has received more than a dozen in recent years.

“According to women who complained to us, the commander harasses the woman, demands sexual favours and her loyalty,” said Shevchenko.

The head of the NGO ‘Association of Women Lawyers of Ukraine’ also reported receiving similar complaints. “Complaints are not coming from the frontline,” said Khrystyna Kit. “Women combatants are less likely to be sexually harassed than admin staff who work away from the battlefield.”

But even when women are willing to testify about harassment, it is often difficult to bring such cases to court. “Women have no witnesses to the harassment and, apart from her own testimony, there is no one who could confirm her claims,” said Kit. “Holding the perpetrator criminally accountable is a difficult and traumatic endeavour for a female victim.”

Social stigma

Ukrainian women serving in the army still fight to be recognised by society as equal to male soldiers.

The traditional view of the army as an exclusively masculine environment prevails, and women – so the argument goes – have no place in this environment.

Debate has raged on social media in response to comments on women who have decided to join the army, especially those who have children. As more and more women volunteer for the frontline, the more heated the debates become.

Some express full support for women and mothers; others argue they should think first about their children, who could become orphans at any moment. Such debates do not happen when it comes to men.

Despite their increasing involvement in the armed forces, society still believes that women have no place in the army. As a consequence, women’s experience of war remains neglected by the media. We have seen changes in public perception, but not as rapidly as one would expect in response to the rapid changes caused by war.

From the start of full-scale hostilities to the end of 2022, 350 military servicewomen have been awarded for bravery. The highest award, Hero of Ukraine, was bestowed posthumously on two women. Recently, Forbes-Ukraine magazine added ten women from the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to its list of the 50 most influential women in Ukraine.

In preparation for future waves of military mobilisation, women of certain professions are now legally obliged to register for the military. While full scale mobilisation is not expected before 2026, women can serve under contract. The list of professions from which women can be called up for military service has also expanded. According to the new law, women with any type of science or medical background must register.

Once registered, women will be subject to general mobilisation to the same degree as men.

At present, only women with medical backgrounds are legally obliged to be drafted into the war effort and this is due to the constant shortage of military medics. With the potential for a prolonged conflict, the change will be necessary to maintain strength and numbers on the battlefield, meaning that women could fall subject to general mobilisation.

[nityarawal]

7/21/2023

King Isha's Birthday xo

Morning Songs

Just A Scribe 

For Mommies

Who Don't Lie

Just A Hoover

For England

We Need A Scribe

For The Globes A Prize

And It's Demise

Is Detrimental

To You And Me

We Got Lawyered

The King Caught

With His Pants Down

But Why Should Ukraine 

#FreeBritney Or I

Tehrangeles 

My Loves

Pay For These Idiots

Downfall

Laughing Stocks

Officers

Banging On Bathroom

Doors

For A Peek

Suffering

Broken Ankles

One More

Scaredy Cat

Chubby Cops

You Got Your Weapons

On Your Ankles

But You Got No 

Pride

For Civilians

Tribes

You Broke Our Vows

With Cambridge Spies

You Broke Our Laws

With Domestic Bribes

You Broke Our Laws

With Fake Scandals

On A Britney Economy

We Say "No Wars

No More"

You Broke Our Laws

Real Estate Bribes

Probate Insurance

Federal Banking 

Fraud

You Broke Our Laws

Big Brother Lied

From PNC Bank

To BBVA

You Broke Our Laws

At Airbnbs

Dirty Waters

Bugs

Ticks

Militia Slum-lorders

Got Me

You Broke The Law

Breeders

You Labeled Us

And Attacked

Our Families

Gay Bigots

Not Just Breeders 

Not Just Birthers

Lovers; Water Mammas

Brought You Into

The World

They Might Say

I'm Pretty

Not Believe Me

Glowing Skin

When I Suffered

Gave Birth 40 Hours

To You

Thai Sages

Buddha Babies

On Full Moons

To New Shiva Moon

Slivers Of Light

They Might Not

Believe Me

Say I'm No Mamma

They Might Drug Me

And Pull EncinitasBeachHome.com

Off The Market

Terminators

Hacked Off The Internet

They Might Be Terminating

Deleting My Best Articles

Coding

Down -

An Enlightenment Editor

No Relief 

With A Mid-Atlantic 

Accent From North 

Carolina Enlightenment  To

Relief In New Hampshire And

Hawaii Maharishi Magazines

They Might Say I'm

A "Nobody" - "Nitya- Who?"

Where'd Your Brains Go?

'Metropolitan' State Hospital Drugs

Got Best Of You

Night You Were Roofied

By God Only Knows What Miscellaneous Drugs

Pouring Black From Veins

Night You Were Beat

Frontal Cortex opened

Thank The Lord

Day You Testified 

To The Dozen Rapes

Calls From Big Brother

"Listen To The Cops

Do What They Say,"

My Nanny Brother

Advised

"Don't Be Spoiled

Don't Act Up

Don't Be A Target

For Their Victim Stuff,"

Toilette Like Brushes

Scouring Up Our Noses 

Every Week

Covid 19 Disciplines

No Dr's To Speak Of

Caged In A Gym

Walking In Circles

Restless Leg Syndrome

For 18 Months

Would've Liked

To Watch You Lady Gaga

One Last Time

With Tony Bennett

But We Were All Tired

Patients

Like Zombies

Asleep by 7pm

Hard To Smile

Laugh

Dance

From Forced Court Drugs

Walking In Circles

Restless Leg Syndrome

Our Po Has Seen

Far Too Many

Covid State Showers

Maimed 6 Months

A Jail Guard

Walking With A Cane

Not Good Karma

My Loves

To Work With Brokers

Of Mammas Caged

Not Good Karma

My Little Brothers

Camp Eternal Love

Will Retrain Your

Pirates

Vows

Drunken Ships

Imaginations Heal

For Parents

With "Mommy Juice"

Jungle Gardens

You're Safe

Children Camp

In Camp Suites With Us

Moroccan Tent Villages

Persian Carpets

Camp California

One Last July

Of Last 12 Year

Rain

Before Radio Stations

Ration Our

Showers

With Communist Ads

Police 

Recruitment

And DJs Guilt Message

To Cut

Our Water Orgasms 

Down

From Their Draught

Cops Blocked

Beef Eating Cannibals

Say Thankyou

Grascious Madres

Say Thankyou

Grascious Padres

Even If It's Only

For A Name

Say Thankyou

We Stand By Our

Kings

Pahlavis

Moezzis

Qajars

Isha Kyan June

Huntley Rawal

We Stand By Our Persian

Kings

Loyal Sisters

Emancipating

For Big Brothers

New Tehrangeles

Half Persians

Royal Matriarchal

Army With

Princess Meghan

And King Harry

Until Little

Lisbhet Knows What

To Do

Little Loyal Sisters

Watching

Always Muses

Pure Hearted

Anjali

Thankyou

Gracias Sisters

Camp Bros

Aunties

Uncles

Madres

Padres

For What 

You Do.

(PS Song)

Might Be A Walrus 

Might Be A Scarab

Might Be A Pink Glow

Worm

Residual

From Paul McCartney's 

Birthday

Don't Jump On Me

Like A Cougar

Might Be A Knight

Not A Granite

Spotted Rock Tree Frog

Might Be Britney

Divine

Not A B

Or A B***

But 

A $$$ Billionaire!!!

Peace & Namaste,

Nitya Nella Davigo Azam Moezzi Huntley Rawal