No, no one is doing anything differently. These won’t be hapless Arab irregulars this time. Did you throw the 80 year accepted truths about the Russian Army out the window when overnight they became a paper bear? There is no opposing opinion. Where are the legit pacifists, the anti war college crowd, the Hollywood contingent, religious objectors? Total silence, no one is even considering touching the brakes. Remember “The Day After”? This eyeball to eyeball confrontation, 300 miles from Moscow, is much more provocative than intermediate range nukes in West Germany. “The Day After” in prime time as in 1983 would gut support for this lunacy overnight. I have been making the same points about the escalatory process for three weeks now. From day one, 90% here have denounced me as a Putin stooge. The fact is, we are already four or five rungs up the escalatory ladder from three weeks ago. If NATO goes in and the conflict goes American/Russian you might want to dust off those contingency plans for Armageddon we both thought were obsolete. God, I hope I’m just a crazy old scared crank. I love my grandchildren very, very much.
IMO < and there are plenty of folks who disagree, Russia made
their situation much worse by attempting to do what they are
doing. On a global scale, they just proved to the world that
their military is in serious disrepair. China must be looking
at this and thinking that Taiwan is not as ripe as this new
plumb.
Russia has essentially played all his less than face cards,
and now can only play his Kings, Queens, and Aces.
His standing military has been thoroughly routed. Look folks,
I still think Russia may pull it off, but let’s be honest
with ourselves. The Ukraine had a rag-tag army at best.
Now if China or Europe or anyone else wanted to take
Russia on, Putin’s choices would be nukes and nukes. Is
that a good situation?
In all honesty, I don’t seen anyone prepping to take
Russia on. The Ukraine isn’t building forces, or least
wasn’t. None of Russia’s other neighbors wanted to
confront it.
To me this seems like Putin wanting to relive the old glory
days, and if his troops took the Ukraine in 3 or 4 days,
he would be seen as a tested leader of the nation when it
came to military matters.
I think a lot of his people see it that way. I don’t think
he is too popular right now.
I know three or four of his generals won’t be supporting
him any longer. Some of them at home are probably very
leery of him right now. He must be in a terrible state
of mind. That doesn’t bode well either.
I’d like to think two months from now Putin will have
pulled whatever he can out of the Ukraine, and will make
a pact with himself to never try this again.