Posted on 05/28/2022 2:40:24 PM PDT by Vlad0
The war in Ukraine is a trompe l’oeil. Behind the appearances of the unity of NATO and its consolidation by new members, several big players run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. In reality, all those who are not blinded by their own propaganda know that their side is going to lose and is already planning other enemies on other battlefields. Washington is making the best of a bad situation and using Russian pressure to close ranks.
On the front of the stage, Nato assures that it has been strengthened by “Putin’s madness”. Ukraine, powerfully armed by the West, is leading a counter-offensive and pushing back the “invader”. At the international level, the sanctions are bearing fruit. Finland and Sweden, feeling threatened, decided to join the Atlantic Alliance. Soon the Russians will overthrow the “dictator” in the Kremlin.
This magnificent narrative is contradicted by the facts: only about a third of Western weapons reach the front. But the Ukrainian army is exhausted. Almost everywhere it is retreating and a few exploits do not change the overall picture. Two-thirds of Western weapons, especially the heaviest ones, are already available on the black market in the Balkans, particularly in Kosovo and Albania, which have become the main places for trafficking in this area. Western sanctions pose a risk of famine, not in Russia, but in the rest of the world and particularly in Africa. Turkey and Croatia are opposed to the accession of new members to NATO. It is possible to convince them, but at the price of radical political changes which the West has always opposed.
Even if Russia is wise enough to not celebrate its victory too loudly, as it did in Syria, it will be seen as the failure of the greatest military force in history, NATO. A victory without appeal, since the Atlantic Alliance was physically involved in the fight, while it stood around the battlefields in Syria. Many of Washington’s vassal states will try to break free. It is likely that their civilian leaders will remain mentally oriented toward the West, while their military leaders will turn more quickly toward Moscow and Beijing. In the years to come, the cards will be reshuffled. It will not be a matter of shifting from alignment with Washington to alignment with the new victors, but of creating a multipolar world where everyone is responsible for themselves. What is at stake is not a redefinition of zones of influence, but the end of the mentality establishing a hierarchy between peoples.
From this prospective point of view, it is fascinating to observe Western rhetoric. Many experts from the old world explain that Russia wants to rebuild its empire. They claim that it has already reconquered Ossetia and Crimea and is now attacking the Donbass. They reconstruct history with falsified quotes from President Putin. Anyone who studies contemporary Russia and checks the data knows that this is not true. The accession of Crimea to the Russian Federation and the future accession of Ossetia, Donbass and Transnistria have nothing to do with an empire, but with the reconstitution of the Russian nation, which was dismembered during the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In this context, a small part of the Western leadership is beginning to challenge the choices of their American overlord. The same phenomenon took place during the last trimester at the end of the mandate of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The latter, seeing the human disaster he had contributed to provoke in Libya and his failure in Syria, agreed to negotiate a separate peace with Damascus. However, Washington, furious with his independence, organized his electoral defeat in favor of François Hollande. In the days following his accession to the Élysée Palace, the latter re-launched the Western war machine for a decade. It is precisely at this time that Russia committed itself to intervene in Syria. For two years it finished developing new weapons, then came to fight the jihadists armed by the West and directed by NATO from its Allied Land Command in Turkey.
“Hahaha show me a picture of 4 mile long line of Ukraine military tanks.”
You clearly never served in the military. Regular military forces are not all armored units; indeed, armored units are a small fraction of total military strength.
“Russia must lose! “
Good luck with that.
Good luck with that.
Anyone who knows the history of Russian Military “might”. Knows they lose more often then not.
Good luck with that.
Good luck with that.
Putin is evil & corrupt. True, Putin is sending his conscripts, an now aged citizens, as “cannon fodder” because Russian trained soldiers refuse to go to Ukraine as it is not a declared war.
“This has been a major failure in Europe’s biggest land war since 1945, and that is a big failure,” said Clifford Kupchan, chairman of the Eurasia Group, a political risk assessment firm. “I would not bet futures in Russian political stability over a five-year period.”
While Mr. Putin has publicly emphasized the security threat posed by a westward leaning Ukraine as a reason for going to war, others say his deepest concern is the possible political fallout from living next door to a boisterous democracy with decent economic prospects.
“Putin’s ultimate nightmare is a color revolution in Russia, and that is the lens through which he views people voting in Ukraine,” said Mr. Kupchan. “Because it is so close, culturally, the threat of contagion as he perceives it is even greater.”
Biden is corrupt. Zelensky should never trust Biden to send anything despite Congressional vote.
“Anyone who knows the history of Russian Military “might”.Knows they lose more often then not.”
Yeah, tell that to Napoleon and as demonstrated in WWII.
You should back off playing the fool.
The Russian were big time losers until the winter took out Napoleon and the Krauts. The Russians in ww11 fought one war on one front. Hitler put most of his armies against the US and England. We fought multiple fronts including North Africa, Italy, Normandy and so forth. Modern Russia couldn’t even beat Afghanistan. Oh remember the Crimean war and the only way they could save Sevastopol was to sink the Russian navy and keep the enemy out. I can’t believe the support for Russia that we are getting from this board. Where are your friggin minds.
So you are clueless about history.
Quit while you are still only this far behind.
everything Bush, Obama and now Biden have done has damaged the US’ reputation and now irrevocably.
____________________________________________
from the article:
“It will not be a matter of shifting from alignment with Washington to alignment with the new victors, but of creating a multipolar world where everyone is responsible for themselves. What is at stake is not a redefinition of zones of influence, but the end of the mentality establishing a hierarchy between peoples.”
The writer makes a point that sounds positive for humanity.
The reputation of the USA has been long tarnished, but history does not stop for one nation or alliance to lick its wounds and slink off the stage. History keeps on rolling and “a multipolar world where everyone is responsible for themselves” is a good thing.
Boy you are slow with English comprehension.
MAIN POINT IS superpower of the day, USA did not defeat North Vietnam. Americans hightailed from rooftops in helicopters as Saigon fell.
It then follows that Russia is doing better by occupying Dobas, and land access to Crimea, and full access to Black Sea as things stand today.
You better not be promoted to a general in the US military.
“Boy you are slow with English comprehension.
MAIN POINT IS superpower of the day, USA did not defeat North Vietnam. Americans hightailed from rooftops in helicopters as Saigon fell.”
What the hell does that have to do with your comment about “four miles of Ukrainian tanks...” (your Post #85, to which I replied in my post #101 about armor being a small part of an over-all military).
But, I’ll address your non-sequitur.
The point is, the US was NEVER defeated MILITARILY in Vietnam. American politicians lost that war, not the US military. And you insult the US military by claiming it was defeated. The US was defeated, because of the actions of its politicians; but the US military was not defeated.
Do you know what Giap (NVA general) said after Tet in 1968? He said the NVA was beaten, and that the North Vietnamese leadership concluded that the only way to prevail was to get the American people to turn against the war, and force the US government (the politicians) to throw in the towel. They and their allies in the USSR and China unleashed a massive campaign of disinformation and pressure on the US mainland. And it worked. And you know who was either a willing or unwilling collaborator? Walter Cronkite. Read some history about what the North Vietnamese said after the war about Walter Cronkite. They said they were stunned at Cronkite’s capitulation; HAPPILY stunned, but stunned nonetheless. They considered that one of the greatest — if not THE greatest — coups of the war.
As for the US high-tailing it out of Vietnam in helicopters, those were not combat troops; that was the evacuation of embassy personnel. We hadn’t had combat troops in Vietnam for two years by then.
Son, you need to learn some history.
After reading some of the back and forth here, I decided to look up and read at least part of the detailed Vietnam report at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_in_the_Vietnam_War ,
and am thinking about some of the differences between Vietnam and possible future events around Ukraine’s war.
First of all Russia will not need to flee by helicopter from rooftops as all they have to do is march back across the border to Russia, rather than ship away across thousands of miles to get back home. We had been systematically drawing down troops as a result of an agreement with N. Vietnam, kind of like what happened as a result of troop drawdowns negotiations with the Taliban over several years and 2 administrations. Ukraine war is unlikely to end that way. I have heard that oil off Vietnam was reported before the escallation of war in the latter 1960’s, so perhaps it is almost always about the resources like gas and oil.
For a while I was following the Vietnam war carefully as I was working for one of the 10 Congressmen who refused to vote for the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. As our member developed is decision he asked all staff for opinions. His older long term supporters who were representative of those who voted for him felt, that although they hated the idea, he should vote for the resolution as a negative vote could mean total lack of Administration support for anything needed in his District. We young staffers said we were not sure of how he should vote, but felt he should vote the way the people who elected him would prefer.
As a result of this period of group soul searching I read a long article on the history of Vietnam in the Encyclopedia Britanica. A significant factor not mentioned in the above Wikipedia article was the “Domino Theory”. This theory stated that Sino/Soviet communism would conquer the countries of southeast Asia one by one as the countries would fall like a line of dominos. From reading the Vietnam history I concluded that the fight between the North and the South parts of Vietnam was 700 years old, and had nothing to do with Communism or Dominoes, and therefore it made sense to leave. Apparently I was right, as Vietnam is now more friendly and reliable as a business partner than China. And the Dominoes did not fall as predicted.t is
We trickled into the Vietnam War, built to over half a million troops there at one point, and lost close to 60,000 troops over 15 or 20 years. Let’s see how Russia is doing, and what kind of home opposition develops after it has spent a few more years in this stupid war. It is suggested that they have already lost around 30,000 troops in 4 months, with a total population of less than half ours during the VW. I think the Ukraine people are as determined as were the North Vietnamese. We had a lot more public media in the 60s and 70s, but with cell phones, the people at home in Russia are getting more an more unwelcome news, especially as troops apparently are being drafted, possibly illegally, in an undeclared WAR.
I had never heard or read about the attribution of the quote’s origin specifically to Stalin.
Makes perfect sense, of course, since the Soviet Union raised over 300 divisions during WWII and developed and fielded the T-34 tank (along with other very effective, simple, and rugged aircraft and armor designs). Of course, Soviet offensive massing and employment of field artillery during WWII is legendary.
Exactly. Germany and the USA have been slow-walking deliveries and vetoing decisive systems. Even the delivered towed 155 howitzers are needed but self-propelled would be better and MLRS better still. ATACMS, 3rd generation or higher thermals, and cutting edge drone and anti-drone weapons are what our Cossacks need now.
In my opinion the T-34 was the best tank of WWII. It had unique angled sides that deflected much of the energy of an oncoming shell. It drove the Germans nuts.
The Indian wars.
In other words, the way the US Army and Volunteers USED to fight.
Today, we call it genocide.
And it was.
The only way to win a war like is to kill all the ones that will fight.
The major Nazi effort was in the East.
The Western allies fought the second and third tier Nazi’s.
The Germany army pulled all it’s effective units to the east.
Why? They were not terribly worried about the US and British over running their population centers. They were (rightly) terrified on what the Soviets would, and did, do.
Study some history. WW2 in Europe was fought in the Eastern Front. The West was a side show till Normandy, and by that time the war was lost.
Huh? You have that all wrong.
Agree 100%. Vietnam war was a huge blunder.
Attacking Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was another blunder.
Because Saddam was keeping the radical islamists in check.
When Hussein was gone, ISIS took over and the whole middle-east became a quagmire.
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