Notwithstanding the price manipulations, the driver of commodity...

Notwithstanding the price manipulations, the driver of commodity collapse is King Dollar.
It's relentless rise is crushing all commodities including gold.
Corporates around the world having taken out huge dollar denominated debt are now in distress.

However the dollar's rise is unsustainable as US corporates too derive a significant proportion of their earnings overseas.
In my opinion something will break in the Northern winter.
I suspect it will be capitulation in Europe.

Stalin called artillery the god of war.
Soviet massed heavy artillery was a sight to behold in its heyday.
Even outgunned a much technologically superior Wehrmacht.
If Saddam's forces had held their nerve and used their heavy artillery as their Soviet trainers had instructed them they might have won the war.
The terrain is eminently suitable for the use of artillery as is the current scenario

Also, Western economies having deindustrialised in the last twenty years have lost the capacity to produce ammo in large quantities (especially artillery shells) and stockpiles are running low.
The Russians on the other hand have maintained their Soviet era production facilities.