Back Story Newsletter
Good morning,
Texas Shooting
A few things of note on this agonizing story in which a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
The police waited an hour before entering the school and confronting the 18 yr old killing kids with assault rifles. One hour? I mean…what on earth were they thinking?
And as parents demanded to go and save their children, a mother was pepper sprayed, another handcuffed, and some police reportedly entered the school to remove their own children but didn’t confront the gunman.
Ok it’s a small town. They didn’t have gun teams ready and were waiting. But there are some basic rules on how to handle an active shooter.
-if he has wounded people or killed there is no waiting. Confront him before he kills more and before wounded bleed out. That’s basic anti terror 101 - stop him from killing and confront him right away.
-the old rules of waiting, contacting the hostage taker, negotiating or discussing were thrown away long ago once he has been firing a weapon. Go go go.
The idea an 18 yr old can buy an AR-15 assault rifle is beyond absurd. The calibre of ammo is not more than many handguns but bullets leave the gun at three times the speed. They essentially tumble shattering bone and ripping flesh. Everything about the rifle is designed to kill people.
But America loves guns.
So the most powerful gun lobby in American will press on with its convention this weekend in Houston. The star guest will be Donald Trump, and we can only imagine what this former ‘imbecile in chief’ will say to a nation in mourning. But you can bet it be acidic and divisive just when the nation needs to come together and deal with gun laws.
Ukraine War
Despite the positive reports of a David and Goliath scenario, where Ukraine is waging a successful campaign against the bully on the block Russia, there are battle field assessments in the eastern Ukraine that paint a different picture.
Huge artillery duels that are leaving scorched earth in the Donbas area are underway. President Zelenskiy has accused Russia of genocide -
“They want to burn Popasna, Bakhmut, Lyman, Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk to ashes. Like Volnovakha, like Mariupol. In cities and communities closer to the Russian border, in Donetsk and Luhansk, they gather everyone they can to fill the place of those killed and wounded in the occupation contingent.All this, including the deportation of our people and the mass killings of civilians, is an obvious policy of genocide pursued by Russia.”
Russian forces out number Ukraines, and progress to seize a large swath of the country are advancing. Will it turn somehow as Ukraine gains a larger western arsenal of weapons? Some of those arms are already in place and the seesaw battle can’t be predicted.
But as I have said before, Russian President Putin has shown in the past in Syria and Chechnya, he doesn’t care about killing civilians. And he won’t stop.
Russia may escape defaulting on its debt on Friday, but the tightening noose of western sanctions is drawing the nation towards a default.
A $71m payment due Friday may have already been made before US authorities removed an exception that allowed Russia to pay its debts in dollars using currency it held outside US financial institutions.
This soon this will be the first case of a country that unwillingly defaults because of international sanctions rather than not having the money to pay.
The White House said it expects minimal impact on the US and global economy.
Black Sea Blockade
On this Back Story podcast - you've heard a lot about the land war in Ukraine, but soon there may be international efforts to break the Russian Black Sea Naval blockade.
The World's food supply may count on it. Russia is holding back commercial vessels that need to set sail for Asia and Africa with Ukraines massive harvest of grain.
Host Dana Lewis talks to Sir Lawrence David Freedman Professor of war Studies at King's College London who says a UN coalition of the willing could free up sea lanes.
And (Ret) Lt. General Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. Army Europe who says the Russian navy needs to be forced back from naval corridors so food can be exported.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/10687812
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Dana Lewis