Deadly Contemplations

My schedule for today may not permit me time for a long post, or a detailed post. I would like to call my readers’ attention, first, to the situation in Kursk and Sumy which looks more serious for Russia than seemed to be the case yesterday. UkrIne may have penetrated and may still be holding an area approximately 15 kilometers x 10 kilometers in Kursk, representing a break in Russian fortifications that seemed until now to have been preparing for an invasion of Sumy. This may all be designed, as Dima argued yesterday, as a “distraction” for Russia but it is a pretty big one. A few dozen Russian soldiers have been captured. A meeting called by Putin earlier today may already have determined a response.

While the world awaits Iran’s retaliation against Israel we may already be witnessing a major development in the Ukraine conflict. As for Israel I will limit myself to repeating a point made by Doctorow in the last few days reminding us that Israel has contemplated use of a nuclear device on Gaza and may be doing so again, encouraged by ironclad US support. It is a worry, I agree, although I think the prospect of a literal “blow-back” may be a deterrent in the same way that Russia might be deterred by radiation and fire blow-back into Russia from use of a nuclear device east of Kiev.