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 ...
And the eventual destruction of the country which used to be Germany. Had Paris been wiser in 1918, it would have maintained (at least to a certain degree) the autonomy Alsace-Lorraine had been granted seven years before by Berlin.
Still, taking the present-day problems of the erstwhile victors of the World Wars into account, it seems as if they were having their share of bad luck, too. Race relations, wokeism, the whole enchilada of evil which neo-Bolshevism is flinging at the Western world.
And I’m saying this with no satisfaction at all, but with utter sadness, since the victims of this won’t be the power elites, but - as nearly always in history - the unlucky average Toms, Dicks and Harrys.
Thanks for posting!
And how do you know that? Wishcasting much?
If the Russians thought there was one damned good thing in Russia, they’d worry about bettering Russia, it’s economy and its people.
So how well are the Russians faring on that?
It is the dumbest thing I have read in the last 10 minutes. Wait until this evening. The Zeepers will post many bigger dumbs every 5 minutes.
That’s a pretty danged good analogy!
Russia appears to be doing quite well. We are the ones destroying our people and our culture as we watch the economy tank. We have people shooting up dope and crapping in the streets in cities all over America. A crumbling infrastructure that we have paid trillions to supposedly “fix” in fraud bills our Congress has passed with nothing to show for it.
And we worry about Ukraine? And we think our way is just great?
Our sovereignty is gone and we have 3rd world elections and trillions in debt.
Perhaps some people need to take at look at themselves before they criticize others countries.
Good article
Putin is EXACTLY like Hitler ...
- micro-managing the war
- refuses to visit the front
- blaming minorities for his own failures
- paranoid and hates people
- delusions of his own greatness
- addicted to warmongering, can’t stop even when it would benefit his country
... and he’ll probably wind up like Hitler too ...
Yet, Putin has dragged the dynamic Russian people into the comparisons of economic powerhouse Iran. Makes alliance with Iran and needs Iranian mercs and weapons to fight Ukraine.
Nothing to see in Russia...all is well.
Change the subject instead of actually responding. I wasn’t talking about Russian foreign policy and neither was your post I responded to.
Actually, the subject of the thread is that Putin’s egregious actions could drag us into WWIII. So, who changed the subject?
You did. Then you state Russia is doing well. It’s not.
Meanwhile, Putin, who outlaws any sharing of faith by anyone others than the RO and what it says, and is a dictator over a country which itself abounds with corruption, abortion, alcoholism etc. with very low church attendance, hardly makes a moral case for invading Ukraine, but both need to reject Western liberalism, which is a greater threat to both.
Wow. They are fighting a war based on medieval grudges?
Interesting. It sees you have to kill people over there to rule. Saddam did in Iraq. Is the US any different? We’re on a slippery slope.
The only time I heard about the Ukrainians ignoring US advice was the advance into Kherson. It appears they understood the facts on the ground better than we did.
Depends on the ratio. If Ukraine kills about 5 Russian soldiers for every 1 Ukrainian, they win. Since Russia keeps using poorly trained troops against mined, fortified Ukrainian positions that are also zeroed in by Ukrainian artillery, it not hard to reach & even surpass that ratio.
No problem at all. The arithmetic remains the same. Despite the defense put up by the Finns they were eventually overwhelmed by fatigue and numbers. Only in this present scenario it may take a little longer.
I have no sympathy for either side but I do admire the Ukrainians spirited defense.
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