RIP Gonzalo Lira... I loved his piece on Victorta Nuland, it was an eye opener for me. His weekly updates whilst he made coffee and joked about life in Karkiv, made his reporting on the war interesting... I miss him and and very sad he's longer longer here with us...
I agree 100% with your comments on how Gonzalo was and his unique value. I am so sad he died in such a horrendous and hopeless fashion. May justice be done on the Biden Administration and the Chief Murderer Budanov and Puppet Zelensky. Please, God, make it happen.
Everyone can tell collective west is just aimelessly going through the motions due to institutional momentum. Since the end of the cold war, nobody in US wanted to change how things were conducted, and here we are. Same for middle east policy.
If I understood you well, even after the passing of Mr. Lira, did the weapon's inspector continue his fantasy story? I don't follow that guy deliberately, but we all wanted to take him seriously at some point. He does have an option to ask him questions. Which I did. About his methodology. He very proudly stated that he worked from preconceptions, like existing military doctrine, consequently looked at the facts and tried to fit them in (and ignoring those who don't). I call that fantasy land. An analyst would work the other way around. Try to get as much good data points as possible and throw anything at them to make a synthesis that could work somewhat. It's painful to see/hear this guy on Sputnik/RT. Military Summary Channel did tell us about his interactions with Mr. Lira, and his thesis is plausible. First arrest (and torture + extortion), release to watch him and use him as bait, and than arrest again (+ torture to extort him of all money he might have had). Personally, I don't think they released him out of own volition the first time, as Mr. Lira told us they actually did succeed in extorting some money from him (... and as long as they deemed there to be potential for more ...). Actually, the reporting Mr. Lira did on his first stay at the prison, and how they applied torture (and who they used for it) is something that now feels very valuable, is a very unique testimony. There was the work of a french journalist who spent a year in Ukraine prior to the SMO, about how locals were seized and tortured, and often used as hostages for prisoner swaps, but I just noticed YT removed those videos/channel. Maybe if possible, repost those last video's, just before his border crossing attempt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jUa45UcOvE, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuvY9l0ShhA, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW274f8s-ws). At some point his channel is going to be removed as well. (In hindsight, telling in the video that he wasn't poor might have turned him into a primary torture target.) What other way to honor him than to let his last testimonies be heard by as many as possible?
As for the rest, I hope the Raven of Moscow and his Crimean princess are well and can occasionally grasp their moment of happiness.
No one should be treated in the way Gonzalo was. Yet, at least for part of his life, Gonzalo was a major apologist for the ultra fascist Pinochet regime. Thousands were killed, tortured and/or “disappeared “ by Pinochet and Gonzalo was largely silent saving most of his attacks for the victims (I.e. people just like he became to be in Ukraine) who dared oppose the monster. In fairness, he was just growing up during the worst years of the regime so he didn’t directly experience its depravity and, perhaps, later in life, he could have renounced his earlier views.
RIP Gonzalo Lira... I loved his piece on Victorta Nuland, it was an eye opener for me. His weekly updates whilst he made coffee and joked about life in Karkiv, made his reporting on the war interesting... I miss him and and very sad he's longer longer here with us...
I agree 100% with your comments on how Gonzalo was and his unique value. I am so sad he died in such a horrendous and hopeless fashion. May justice be done on the Biden Administration and the Chief Murderer Budanov and Puppet Zelensky. Please, God, make it happen.
Gonzalo Lira USA RIP.
Media would have castigated Biden had he saved Gonzalo Lira.
Everyone can tell collective west is just aimelessly going through the motions due to institutional momentum. Since the end of the cold war, nobody in US wanted to change how things were conducted, and here we are. Same for middle east policy.
If I understood you well, even after the passing of Mr. Lira, did the weapon's inspector continue his fantasy story? I don't follow that guy deliberately, but we all wanted to take him seriously at some point. He does have an option to ask him questions. Which I did. About his methodology. He very proudly stated that he worked from preconceptions, like existing military doctrine, consequently looked at the facts and tried to fit them in (and ignoring those who don't). I call that fantasy land. An analyst would work the other way around. Try to get as much good data points as possible and throw anything at them to make a synthesis that could work somewhat. It's painful to see/hear this guy on Sputnik/RT. Military Summary Channel did tell us about his interactions with Mr. Lira, and his thesis is plausible. First arrest (and torture + extortion), release to watch him and use him as bait, and than arrest again (+ torture to extort him of all money he might have had). Personally, I don't think they released him out of own volition the first time, as Mr. Lira told us they actually did succeed in extorting some money from him (... and as long as they deemed there to be potential for more ...). Actually, the reporting Mr. Lira did on his first stay at the prison, and how they applied torture (and who they used for it) is something that now feels very valuable, is a very unique testimony. There was the work of a french journalist who spent a year in Ukraine prior to the SMO, about how locals were seized and tortured, and often used as hostages for prisoner swaps, but I just noticed YT removed those videos/channel. Maybe if possible, repost those last video's, just before his border crossing attempt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jUa45UcOvE, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuvY9l0ShhA, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW274f8s-ws). At some point his channel is going to be removed as well. (In hindsight, telling in the video that he wasn't poor might have turned him into a primary torture target.) What other way to honor him than to let his last testimonies be heard by as many as possible?
As for the rest, I hope the Raven of Moscow and his Crimean princess are well and can occasionally grasp their moment of happiness.
Take care and good luck.
I too enjoyed his comments and roundtables. I was hoping he would eventually reappear. Sadly, this is not the case. He will be missed.
No one should be treated in the way Gonzalo was. Yet, at least for part of his life, Gonzalo was a major apologist for the ultra fascist Pinochet regime. Thousands were killed, tortured and/or “disappeared “ by Pinochet and Gonzalo was largely silent saving most of his attacks for the victims (I.e. people just like he became to be in Ukraine) who dared oppose the monster. In fairness, he was just growing up during the worst years of the regime so he didn’t directly experience its depravity and, perhaps, later in life, he could have renounced his earlier views.
RIP Gonzalo Lira