Somrthing like this...
...or something like this
Posted on 03/26/2022 3:20:17 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
Russian morale is rock bottom, but they are adapting. As they dig in, they resort to laying reams of mines alongside roads and around their positions. The Ukrainians, who lack mine-clearing equipment, find themselves now unable to get close enough to use some of their much-vaunted anti-tank systems. The British-made NLAW, for instance, which has done sterling work throughout the campaign so far, has an effective range of only 500 meters in the hands of a good gunner (this despite what the manuals say, since feedback from the field is just that).
Assets such as small drones, which are regarded as being de rigueur for effective small unit operations in the U.S. military, are in short supply here – and the ones that the Ukrainians possess are vulnerable to Russian interference. Ukrainian soldiers use their cell phones to communicate because they don’t have secure radios – and by doing so make themselves a target for Russian artillery. They drive their own cars to the front because official vehicles are not available. A fleet of Toyota pick-ups with cross-country capability would make all the difference, the colonel told me, assuming as so many here do that because I am an American I have easy access to such things.
Despite stories in the media that appear to indicate that the Ukrainian military is now one of the best equipped and supplied armies in the world thanks to Western largess, bureaucratic and logistic difficulties plague the equitable distribution of badly needed assets. And everything the Ukrainians need costs money – something that they simply don’t have. A friend of mine, an American who has lived in the city for some 30 years, runs one of the leading non-government organizations devoted to the defense of Ukraine, and yet has amassed a paltry $400,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at taskandpurpose.com ...
That bears repeating. Russians will eventually fight like tigers if they are fighting in Mother Russia to repel an invader; and, at that, they are slow to come around. As invaders, they generally suck (think of the Winter War against Finland).
One thing Russia did early on in Barbarossa was to remove its industry east, mostly beyond the Urals. That was a very, very smart move, and it was accomplished admirably.
They can probably take Ukraine if they want it badly enough. But they will have to destroy every city and turn it into Gronzy. Capture civilians and deport them to Siberia. So that will encourage them rest of the population to flee to the West. Mobilize reserves. Take another 100,000 to 200,000 casualties this year. It can be done but I don't think they have the stomach for it. It was different with the Nazis, they were trying to wipe out the Russian civilization. This is not the case here. Unless Putin turns into Stalin. He's a dictator and ruthless but he's not Stalin.
The simple fact is Russia was expecting this to be a cakewalk
Either Putin isn’t taking Biden seriously ‘cause he knows he’s spewing BS or Biden’s handlers have decided on war.
[Alex Christoforou at about the nine minute mark of this video breaks down how ridiculous the NATO numbers are and amount to the Ukrainian military killing a higher percentage of Russians in 28 days than the Nazi military did in 41 days in the same area in WWII:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWSdfUb7omQ
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2022/03/i- ]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/507th_Maintenance_Company#Killed_in_action
And these were American soldiers, who have the benefit of superior training and equipment maintained to American standards, rather than Russian troops having to deal with clapped-out equipment and non-existent training (because training costs money that detracts from the lavish lifestyles to which the Russian brass have become accustomed).
The Ukrainians have the advantage of concealment* and comparable ranges to Russian armor, thanks to Javelins and NLAWS, as well as the inferior Ukrainian ATGM, the Stugna-P, which, optimistically, might be effective out to a mile. Whereas the Iraqis who ambushed Jessica Lynch’s convoy were operating at point-blank range with assault rifles and RPG’s.
https://www.cnn.com/2003/US/06/17/sprj.irq.lynch.convoy/index.html
The real problem is that the Russians are too strung out and have, as a result, made themselves vulnerable. The US advance into Iraq only *looked* easy. It wasn’t, and highlights just how impressive Tommy Franks’ execution of the advance into Iraq was.
* Note that unlike the open desert of Iraq, Ukrainian hunter-killer teams have foliage behind which they can hide from Russian eyes.
[That bears repeating. Russians will eventually fight like tigers if they are fighting in Mother Russia to repel an invader]
In fact, that was also Hitler’s undoing. Instead of offering the Russian masses freedom from Soviet oppression, he offered them death, whether they fought or not. Hitler was brilliant in some respects and deeply, fatally stupid in others.
[The Russian military is an over-rated, ill-prepared, maladjusted joke. It has some big toys, but on an operations level, they pretty much suck. But, historically, they have always been that way. It is how their armed forces have been constructed for generations. Unlike the US military, which operates under a delegated authority (i.e., everyone knows the mission and its objective, and are committed to carrying it out; thus, local control of an operation is at the company and battalion level; and all NCOs have the authority to carry out the mission even if all their officers are out of the fight).]
“They can probably take Ukraine if they want it badly enough.”
Yeah, they’d have to go Grozny on Ukraine. But, Grozny was just a city, and Chechnya is nowhere near as large or formidable as Ukraine. Putin would probably have to go nuclear to lay total waste to Ukraine, and I doubt he would do that. Hell, I doubt seriously the Russian people would put up with it.
“thats the biggest media hoax so far - LOL
put down the Kool-Aid.”
Yeah, then why did he send in ill-prepared, poorly-trained, unmotivated conscripts as the bulk of his forces, especially in the west? That is not media hoax. Why doesn’t Russia have complete control of the skies? Why is Russia losing ships off the southern coast? Why is there still fighting in the east where the people were expected to welcome the Russian troops with open arms?
surely you can come up something better that that regurgitated Kool-aid?
“I don’t think it’s anywhere near as ideological as that. If they are fighting an invader who wants to kill them even if they surrender, they will, rightly, try to kill him before he kills them.”
The Russian leadership sure as hell knew the German mindset in 1941 was to destroy Russia and enslave the able-bodied Russians and kill all the rest. They knew because they had read Mein Kampf, where Hitler spelled out his plan for all to see. The lowest conscript in the Soviet army, illiterate and disinterested, might not have known; but it was no secret to Soviet Russia in general. Yet, they surrendered in the millions (5.7 million Soviet troops surrendered to the Germans in WWII, of which 3.5 million died in captivity, mostly due to maltreatment).
Riiight. Ukraine should surrender to Russia because the longer they fight against the Russians the worse their ‘deal’ will be.
Howzabout this: Russia pulls out of Ukraine and the Ukrainians stop slaughtering scumbag Russians? How’s that for a deal?
You’re special. Bless your heart.
The best thing to do is Ukraine sue for peace.
“That’s because Russians are warriors and Americans are soldiers.”
If Russians are warriors, they are a very poor example of them. Warriors excel at fighting as individuals, or with a small cadre; Russians utterly suck at that. It’s just not part of the Russian DNA, as it has been bred out of them over centuries of being told and shown they are noting but an expendable commodity to their rulers. Russians tend to see themselves not as individuals, but as a collective, exploitable and expendable. And they accepted that fate. Warriors would NEVER do that.
“surely you can come up something better that that regurgitated Kool-aid?”
And what, pray, would that be?
Moreover, a warrior would never submit to the intolerable and demeaning subjugation of communism. But Russians did, in the millions and millions.
Somrthing like this...
...or something like this
[If Russians are warriors, they are a very poor example of them. Warriors excel at fighting as individuals, or with a small cadre]
For instance, Oda Nobunaga was a warrior. He fought his way to become the Shogun of Japan. The Emperor was technically Japan’s ruler. In reality, Nobunaga ruled the land, and the Emperor was his puppet, as other Emperors had been. He was betrayed and killed by one of his retainers, Akechi Mitsuhide, another warrior. A second retainer and warrior, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, killed Mitsuhide, slaughtered Nobunaga’s family and made himself Shogun. When Hideyoshi died, his retainer and a warrior, Tokugawa Ieyasu, killed Hideyoshi’s family and became Shogun.
That’s the difference between warriors and soldiers - warriors are ultimately loyal only to themselves, whereas soldiers are loyal to someone else or some cause.
[Moreover, a warrior would never submit to the intolerable and demeaning subjugation of communism. But Russians did, in the millions and millions.]
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