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They always say "follow the money" after the fact. So mark my words, after the Uke's give up, we'll find out none or very little of the funds we gave them was spent on fighting Russians. I believe Putin, Chi and Zelenski will end up with a lot of it and the rest will be funneled back to the socialists who started this whole mess.
If the right wins in November, I hope the right weaponizes the FBI, takes them all, starting with crazy eyes Shiff, and throws them in the same cells where the J6 people are being held as terrorists. Not to see family, lawyers, or the light of day for the rest of their lives. And also claw back every penny they ever got legally or illegally.
There is little doubt that the Ukrainians are the superior strategists and soldiers. The chances of Putin winning this are so slim that even Russian soldiers aren't betting on it.
Despite spirited recruitment drives, Russia is running out of soldiers who won't drop their weapons and run from the Ukrainians. Who can blame them, really? Some of the toughest men on this planet have been gearing up for this final battle.
Russian soldiers have been withdrawing in such a rush, they've left behind quantities of useable Russian vehicles, weapons, ammunition, etc. So much so, that the Ukrainians are referring to this the “Russian Lend Lease.”
Europe is busy lining up alternate sources of energy. Not only will they make it through the threatened "dark, cold winter," but are unlikely to ever get in this same situation again.
Right now, the Ukrainians are chasing the Russians to Crimea where they will be fish in a truly horrible barrel.
So Putin is in a pickle.
He can't win this war, and he can't quit.
Last edited by GotHereQuickAsICould; 09-15-2022 at 10:10 AM..
They always say "follow the money" after the fact. So mark my words, after the Uke's give up, we'll find out none or very little of the funds we gave them was spent on fighting Russians.
I'm pretty sure the surviving Russian soldiers that hauled ass out of Kharkiv would disagree with your assumption that Ukrainians will give up.
Where is Johnny Horton now that we need him to write a good song?.....
Well, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles, They ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go, Ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em...
....down the Mississippi to the gulf of Mexico....wow haven't heard that one in 40 years.
They are using a song called run rabbit run in videos which is apparently some british equivalency.
Tech is the least of their problems. Their command structure is fundamentally broken in a way that is characteristic of authoritarian states where all power is centralized and the citizens (read soldiers as well) aren't trusted. Their command is centralized and rigidly hierarchical. When things go south in the field as they always do and comms may be interrupted then brigade commanders become immobilized. Without new orders or a big picture of the objective and no empowerment to improvise then unit operations grind to a halt. By contrast the US M.O. is to empower commanders down the chain. Give them higher level objectives and empower them to achieve the mission objective above all else. Units that find themselves cut off from comms with higher command or find their original plans are out the window are encouraged to use their initiative to achieve the objective by whatever means they see available to them without fear of punishment from above. Free armies do this because they trust the motivation and ingenuity of their troops. Slave armies don't.
Russia got its ass handed to it during the battle for Kyiv and then retrenched in the East where it fell back on its brutish tactic of indiscriminately smashing everything in front of it with artillery. During this time I think a lot of people thought they were learning and adjusting to mistakes made but that has been proven false. Their war fighting system is irretrievably broken. They can't fix these problems without a total tear-down of their military model.
Another systemic failing is that for whatever reason they have not been able to master the German Blitzkrieg invention of combined arms. Their close air support has been pathetic given the vaunted on-paper capability of their air force. They still have not been able to clear the sky of the tiny Ukrainian forces. By contrast US/NATO air power would have neutralized an opponent of Ukraine's scale in less than a week (generously). There's very poor unit synergy. They go into combat with disparate units that have no experience fighting beside one another. That's a very important intangible that a rookie military overlooks. Combined arms is a ballet. The synergy has to be there and it has to be practiced. They are clearly not practiced.
They can't fix broke at these levels. For Russia this whole thing has inescapable failure stamped on it as if it were freakin foretold in the scrolls.
I agree with you totally. I was more commenting from a perspective of the here and now in terms of things that despite their other shortcomings were somewhat preventable without just burning everything down to the ground and starting over.
I agree with you totally. I was more commenting from a perspective of the here and now in terms of things that despite their other shortcomings were somewhat preventable without just burning everything down to the ground and starting over.
Yeah they are just so F-d from soup to nuts that I don't know where they start trying to pull it in. Artillery was their forte there in the East where they made slow advances for a few months but artillery kills artillery and HIMARS and other such tools has whittled down their advantage. Without air power and without effective armor you have an artillery duel and WWI. I have some non-zero concern about battlefield nukes. If Putin begins to feel sufficiently squeezed politically then his steroid and blood cancer addled brain might just decide that's a viable stalemate breaker.
This is the thing with being a tyrant - there's no retirement home option. The mouthpieces on Russian TV are already calling for scorched earth in Ukraine - if it can't be Russian soil, it must be destroyed.
OTOH, I have no doubt that there has been communications to high-ranking Russian officials that if Putin decides to go nuclear or chemical, the response will be fast and not to Russia's liking.
That's somewhat contradictory to the first idea that of Ukraine falling into carefully engineered flank trap, isn't it?
Which did zilch, militarily, except demonstrate Russian weaponry's ability to hit large, stationary targets.
That would be remarkably stupid. Polish aircraft would do barrel rolls over Red Square one week later.
They have a hard enough time supplying what is already in Ukraine. A draft might have been useful in March. Not so much now.
What makes you so sure Polish aircraft would make it all the way to Moscow, to do that? Russia's always been very good at shooting down aircraft that venture a wing across its airspace, and the US found out, when Russia shot down a spy plane that got too adventurous. Russia doesn't waste any time addressing such incursions.
Though I agree with you about the absurdity of the idea that Russia would declare war on NATO.
I think my biggest question is WTH is the Russian airforce?
On paper they're second only to the US.
Is it lack of training, planes not actually being able to be used due to maintenance and readiness issues? What?
Good question. I think it's all of that plus I even heard one analyst (Jack Keane) say he thought there was also a component of cowardice. The pilots being too afraid to get in close to neutralize the Ukrainian SAMs and dodge the MANPADs.
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