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Each day, President Zelenskiy reads my book on military history. I hope he heeds these warnings - The signs are good. Ukraine’s leader is avoiding the mistakes of the second world war – while Putin shows every sign of repeating them
The Guardian ^ | 10 February 2023 | Laurence Rees

Posted on 02/10/2023 10:07:23 PM PST by Cronos

...consciously or unconsciously, Zelenskiy has already learned much of what this history has to offer, whereas Vladimir Putin has demonstrably not.

1. leave strategy to your most talented generals. This is a warning Joseph Stalin did not heed. At the start of 1942, and despite having no military training, he ordered a major offensive against the German army around Kharkiv in Ukraine. More than 250,000 Red Army soldiers were lost as a result of the disastrous Kharkov operation. It was a defeat that was all the more humiliating because the Red Army had outnumbered the Germans on the battlefield.

Putin, a year ago, was similarly overconfident when the Russians invaded Ukraine. Zelenskiy has left the military decisions to his generals.

2. overpromising in war can have catastrophic consequences. In September 1942, Adolf Hitler made a speech in which he “assured” the German people that “no one can take us away” from Stalingrad. Putin is in a similar position. He keeps reassuring the Russian population that the Ukrainians are about to be crushed. But does anyone now believe him? Zelenskiy has taken the opposite approach. If anything, he downplays Ukrainian successes and sets no specific timetable for military action.

3. make sure you are clear just what constitutes victory. Hitler failed to do this. He never said how much territory his army had to conquer in the Soviet Union before “victory” was won. The result was that German soldiers were always unsure what goal they had to achieve in order to bring the war to an end.

Putin is just as vague about what victory looks like for the Russian army in the current conflict. Is it simply holding on to the territory they’ve seized so far? Is it overthrowing the current Ukrainian regime? Who can tell?

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Russia
KEYWORDS: atruecasusbelli; demilitarizingnafo; demilitarizingnato; foreigner; joewantsaworldwar; laurencerees; natodemilitarized; polishneocon; pushuntilthenukesfly; thegrauniad; theliarsofthewest; ukrainedemilitarized; zelviswantsaworldwar
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And Putin's casus belli is the same false reasoning given by Hitler in 1938. The difference is that in 1938 the west acquiesced while today they are helping Ukraine to fight the invaders
1 posted on 02/10/2023 10:07:23 PM PST by Cronos
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To: Cronos; 05 Mustang GT Rocks; Ad Orientam; alex; antonius; aposiopetic; arielguard; bad company; ...
I see it differently.

Kyev and the Crimea are the homeland of the Rus.

Yes, they relocated to the forests of Moscow but it is was in Kyev that Vladimir was Enlightened.

This Orthodox fratricide is an abomination before God!

2 posted on 02/10/2023 10:21:56 PM PST by lightman (I am a binary Trinitarian. Deal with it!)
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To: Cronos

Putin is just as vague about what victory looks like for the Russian army in the current conflict.==

He said what is a victory many times already. It is a denazification and demilitarization of ukies.


3 posted on 02/10/2023 10:43:05 PM PST by nickfrost1
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Zelensky has rejected consistent advice from the Pentagon and others to pull back to preserve troops. He needs the optics of constant attack as if he were in that sort of ‘upper hand’ position even though he’s burning through soldiers he can’t afford to lose. There’s nothing wise about Zelensky- he’s a puppet doing what he’s told, working to keep the false optics going, the money flowing, as he tries to start WWIII.


4 posted on 02/10/2023 10:53:45 PM PST by ransomnote (IN GOD WE TRUST)
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To: Cronos

My book! Me me me! (is it Kharkiv or Kharkov?)


5 posted on 02/10/2023 10:56:05 PM PST by webheart
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To: Cronos

Lol


6 posted on 02/10/2023 10:58:32 PM PST by wardaddy (Truth is treason in the Empire of lies)
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To: lightman

Kyiv may have been the homeland of the old Rus’, but that is as relevant to the later Russians as Rome being the homeland of the ancient Romans is to their Romanian descendants.

Also, Crimea is the homeland of the Tartars. The ethnic Russian majority in Crimea only dates back to 1944 when Stalin deported the Tartars and replaced them with more politically reliable Russian colonists.


7 posted on 02/10/2023 10:59:27 PM PST by Salohcin
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To: ransomnote

“Burning through soldiers...” My God, what a picture!

“How many guys do we have just standing around holding their pants up? Well shit, give them guns and send them to Kharkiv. Or Kharkov, wherever. Kherson. I don’t know, send them.”

We can send them weapons all day long, but eventually they are going to run out of people to fire the weapons. If attrition is the name of the game, Russia can produce more dead bodies than Ukraine can.


8 posted on 02/10/2023 11:01:58 PM PST by webheart
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To: Salohcin

There are probably only a few hectacres of Europe which have been the sole territory of any single ethnicity through recorded history.

Why has the Alsace-Lorraine been able to work out a coexistence unknown to the Kyev/Crimea?


9 posted on 02/10/2023 11:12:07 PM PST by lightman (I am a binary Trinitarian. Deal with it!)
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To: Cronos

This is the dumbest thing I have read in a long time.


10 posted on 02/10/2023 11:14:48 PM PST by nwrep
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To: nwrep

yes

Bidenbots


11 posted on 02/10/2023 11:19:28 PM PST by Firehath
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To: lightman

It took a World War and an unconditional surrender for Germany to give up its rapacious ambitions over Alsace-Lorraine and other neighboring territories. I pray to God that it won’t take the same for Russia to give up its rapaciousness.


12 posted on 02/10/2023 11:22:47 PM PST by Salohcin
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To: Cronos

Proudly on the wrong side. You all are stuck on stupid.


13 posted on 02/10/2023 11:41:13 PM PST by MileHi ((Liberalism is an ideology of parasites, hypocrites, grievance mongers, victims, and control freaks.)
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To: Cronos

Amateurs think on strategy and tactics. Professionals think logistics.


14 posted on 02/11/2023 12:10:55 AM PST by Chad C. Mulligan (eleutheromaniac)
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To: lightman; Salohcin
Why has the Alsace-Lorraine been able to work out a coexistence unknown to the Kyev/Crimea?

Umm, what part of Salohcin's comment about Crimea being the homeland of the Tartars, and Stalin deporting them en masse, didn't you understand?

If some krauts resembling Putin and his criminal ilk were now in power in Berlin, we'd currently be talking about having to cede Alsace-Lorraine to Germany in order to avoid nuclear war.

Regards,

15 posted on 02/11/2023 12:26:14 AM PST by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: Cronos

History repeats itself. Look at “The Winter War” between Finland and the Soviet Union ‘39-’40.


16 posted on 02/11/2023 12:26:58 AM PST by gdzla (Tyrannis Seditio, Obsequium Deo)
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To: gdzla

The population of the Soviet Union in 1939 was about 170 million vs. Finland of about 4 million, a ratio of 42.5 to 1.

The population of Russia today is 144 million vs. Ukraine of 42 million, a ratio of 3.4 to 1.

Do you see the problem with your analogy?


17 posted on 02/11/2023 12:50:51 AM PST by Salohcin
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To: Cronos

What a crock.


18 posted on 02/11/2023 12:52:47 AM PST by GrumpyOldGuy
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To: lightman

The orthodox fratricide first started when Putin and co attempted the assassination of Yanukovych’s political rival, then scaled up when Russia invaded Georgia.

A full six years of destabilising both Ukraine and Georgia followed.

Fratricide between Ukraine and Russia is an interesting analogy.

It’s a bit like having a real toxic bully of an older brother who keeps whaling on you while claiming he’s the best friend you’ll ever have.. who eventually pushes you to the point where you snap and hit back. And he is outraged that you did it, and whines to everyone else that he’s the victim.

Eventually you end up choosing between cutting off all ties with him, or being his punchbag for the rest of your life.

That’s where Ukraine was in 2014-15. But I think a better analogy is of a long suffering battered wife and kids, who’s husband is treated like a paragon of virtue and Good Old Fashioned Family Values by those who never see him whaling on his wife and kids.

The ones on Russia’s side in the Donbas were like the battered wife thinking it’s her kids’ fault her husband talks to them with his fists.

The ones in the middle are the equivalent of a battered wife wanting the violence to end rationalising reasons not to leave him, and reminding everyone that he used to be such a nice guy before he turned into a violent drunk, and she still loves and longs for the guy she met to come back.

A few million of them just fled, taking the kids with them. They lost everything but at least can sleep easier knowing he can’t hit them.

The vast majority of people in Europe are thinking, it’s not the wife and kids who should be leaving, it’s him who should be forced to leave and should face consequences... It’s his behavior in the marriage that brought the pain, not theirs.

Azov Nazi types are thinking, he needs to be given the John Wayne Bobbitt treatment and dragged thru the streets in sackcloth and ashes as a reminder to all assholes like him, that they’re not untouchable.

American views opposing Deep State involvement are like cops dismissing every kid’s black eye and every battered wife’s hospital stay as “a domestic matter” and then wondering why they eventually get dragged out to a murder scene. If only someone had done something... If only she’d shut up and obeyed, if only the kids hadn’t been so yappy, if only he hadn’t drunk so much...


19 posted on 02/11/2023 2:01:10 AM PST by MalPearce ("You see, but you do not observe". https://www.thefabulous.co/s/2uHEJdj)
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To: nickfrost1; Cronos

Don’t mind Cronos... posting this kind of crap is < insert pronoun here > actual job. Feel pity for him or her or the transsexual they are or work for.


20 posted on 02/11/2023 2:48:11 AM PST by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget (I am a lesbian trapped in a man's body... gives me more rights. )
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