Posted on 12/08/2022 2:34:59 PM PST by Cathi
Russian President Vladimir Putin waited only six months before switching from a special military operation to full scale war against Ukraine. Putin's initial assault was limited to barely 150,000 troops. He expected a quick victory followed by negotiations on his principal concerns: Russian control of Crimea, Ukrainian neutrality, and autonomy for the Russian population in the Donbas, but he was wrong. Putin had not counted on Ukraine's stiff resistance or the West's massive military and economic intervention. Faced with a new situation, Putin changed his strategy. Now he is about to unleash his own General Sherman and make Ukraine howl.
Russia has now put its economy on a war footing, called up the reserves, and assembled hundreds of thousands of troops, including both conscripts and volunteers. This army is equipped with Russia's most sophisticated weapons, and contrary to much Western reporting, is far from demoralized. Ukraine on the other hand has exhausted its armories and is totally dependent on Western military support to continue the war. As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley noted last week, Ukraine has done about all it can.
Once Ukraine's rich black soil has firmly frozen, a massive Russian onslaught will commence. In fact, it has already begun at the important transportation hub of Bakhmut, which has become something of a Ukrainian Verdun. We expect Bakhmut to fall and predict that without much more Western support, Russia will recapture Kharkov, Kherson, and the remainder of the Donbas by next summer.
(more at https://www.newsweek.com/lessons-us-civil-war-show-why-ukraine-cant-win-opinion-1764992)
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Ukraine doesn’t need to win this war. They just need to stop Russia from winning and that is what they’re doing.
Ukraine is still Ukraine. Therefore, they’ve won for now. The only way Putin can win long term is for other countries to withdraw support to Ukraine.
So you will see the Kremlin’s fan club spin furiously while demanding we allow fascist Russia to rape it’s smaller neighbors in any manner it choses. Allowing that would go against the core values of conservatism that Reagan taught us. Sadly, some American conservatives are so beaten down and defeated they now look to KGB Vlad and Kremlin for their salvation.
As his fuel supplies are pushed further back into Mother Russia…Putin will need a shitload of tanker trucks.
Ukraine Daily Losing Battalion in Bakhmut, Ex US Officials Ukraine Cannot Win, Putin Russian Buildup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbXYQPleZDM
Putin's autocracy is built on even worse systematic corruption than the Soviet Union in its dying days. The theft and lies stretch all the way from the platoon stealing explosives from their reactive armor and electronic components all the way to the top. It weakens every unit in the Russian army and ensures the chain of command has no idea of the state of the units under their command or even how many men are really present or where they are.
Putin will be able to marshal additional units, but they will be even worse trained and equipped than his current army. He may be able to cobble a few brigades of decently trained and equipped troops but they will still lack the ability to fight combined arms and take advantage of any breakthroughs achieved.
Even now, the Ukrainians are able to hold Bakhmut with far fewer losses than against the summer Russian Donbas offensive and with more and more accurate Western artillery are inflicting punishing losses on the Russian army. Meanwhile, Poland just received a few hundred South Korean tanks and self-propelled artillery. The upgraded T72s and artillery they replace will be going to Ukraine, and Germany is getting pushed to deliver Leopards.
If the Ukrainians are losing that many (certainly possible) it is likely the Russians are losing about the same number.
In attrition wars, the side with more to lose usually wins.
This is, a "cabinet war" for Russia.
It is a war for survival for Ukraine.
Sherman or no Sherman, the North would have lost.
Zelensky could have stopped all this death and destruction by agreeing to this back in February. Some day he will.
Putin is a Communist. He’s going to do “what’s needed” if he takes Ukraine, just like Stalin did 100 years ago. And it doesn’t bode well for freedom loving Ukrainians and anti Communists there.
Do you think the Russians will retake Kherson, or keep going backwards like they have across the front lines for 9 months?
If they wanted to win, that’s what they could of done, but Lee had seen enough death and did the honorable thing and surrendered.
Nor is it mandatory for the United States to take sides between 2 non-free countries at war with each other, in a distant armpit-of-the-world that most Americans can't find on a map. But if you criticize Biden & the Dems borrowing $100 billion for Ukraine (with reports of millions of dollars laundered back to Dem politicians), you're called a "Russian fan". Go figure...
I have no opinion on that. Why? Because I do not support either party to the conflict and I don’t believe the US should be either.
I don’t want our money going there, or any place else.
Stupid analogy that does not work.
It seems pretty obvious the Russian plan now is to destroy Bakhmut and declare victory. Never mind the humiliating defeats of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson and elsewhere. Never mind the clownish buffoonery of Putin “annexing” cities they he never controlled. But I suppose happiness is being a true believing Putinist and never having to admit defeat.
How is Zelensky going to make Putin believe Ukraine has a right to exist? He can’t. Putin has said many times Ukraine is an illegitimate nation. We should believe Putin when he says that. He means it.
It’s such a classically Putinist tactic to put the onus on Russia’s victims. It’s always their fault. No, only Putin can stop his mass murdering delusions and neo imperial fantasies. Frankly, it’s madness. Hundreds of thousands are now dead because Putin is butt hurt over the collapse of the Soviet empire. How pathetic is that?
I want to kick Russian corruption and influence out of Europe. I want good American jobs supplying Europe instead. Or we can Make Russia Great Again. Decisions, decisions.
The most powerful player within a sphere of influence always calls the shots.
CSA didn’t stand a chance against USA because of this. Whether or not UK intervened the result would have been the same.
Same with UK and Scotland; whether or not France had intervened the result(s) would have always been the same.
Vietnam should have taught the Kissingers etc. of the world this, but the MIC apparently has limitless funds to continue attempting to prove history wrong.
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