Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 01/08/2026 8:05:11 PM PST by SeekAndFind
In the wake of the United States’ capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, some observers and U.S. officials have warned that this may have given Moscow and Beijing a green light to pursue similar operations in Ukraine and Taiwan.
Just as the United States does not recognize the legitimacy of Maduro’s rule in Venezuela, Russia and China do not recognize the legitimacy of Ukraine’s and Taiwan’s respective independence. If China, for instance, were to seize Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, or if Russia were to capture Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, on what grounds could the United States reasonably object?
[SNIP]
Russia and China refrain from conducting similar missions not because of a supposed norm against extracting leaders they consider illegitimate. They refrain because they lack the capability to do so.
In the opening days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow attempted precisely this sort of operation and failed. Russian agents infiltrated Kyiv with orders to seize Zelensky and hold him until airborne forces landing in nearby Hostomel could reinforce them. Neither objective was achieved: Russian airborne units suffered heavy casualties both in the air and on the ground, and the network of Russian agents in Kyiv was dismantled. Having failed with the scalpel, Russia is now relying on brute force, not special operations, to break Ukraine.
China’s military, while arguably more technologically advanced than Russia’s, faces a different constraint: a near-total absence of combat experience. China’s last major military engagement, the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War, was almost 50 years ago. Personnel turnover in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is high, and the PLA has struggled to retain experienced noncommissioned officers. As such, unlike the United States, China lacks a cadre of veterans with real-world combat experience to train the next generation in conducting complex special operations.
(Excerpt) Read more at foreignpolicy.com ...
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
China practices, but they have no combat experience in their institutional memory. Our most recent combat experience stretches all the way back to last saturday.
CC
No plan lasts past first contact. 😏
Also, China probably realizes, with this president, any such action would be the end of China’s lucrative trade with the United States.
We Are Warriors
Americans Love A Good Fight
.
We are SPARTA !
Despite all the hundreds of thousands now deceased on both sides. I’ve often wondered why Putin hasn’t directly targeted Zelenskyy. Having hyper-sonic missiles, presumably it would only need a definite location for success.
The entire Ukraine conflict has many oddities IMO.
As the article mentions Putin did used to target Zelensky but they couldn’t get him, as far as missiles and such, Kiev has vast underground Cold War nuclear facilities and shelters that I imagine are utilized by much of the leadership and command structure, and that is always available.
“They refrain because they lack the capability to do so.”
True!
And that capability includes secrecy.
Congress had better pull in their frickin’ idiot horns.
The CANNOT know everything before it happens.
“The entire Ukraine conflict has many oddities IMO.”
Once you realize it’s an international money laundering operation stealing hundreds of billions from U.S. taxpayers, it makes perfect sense.
All the Ukrainian bureaucrats rolling around Dubai in Rolls Royce and Bentley autos tells the story.
Living high on the hog!
It isn't just a lack of military experience. It is a fundamental flaw that they cannot overcome: Their leadership in the Officer Corps and Non-Commissioned Officer Corps is steeped in the ideology and training from childhood and are indoctrinated in how to behave in a totalitarian collective society to follow orders to the letter.
They lack the initiative to take action on their own. It is inbred by their society. You follow orders and do not deviate, even if it means your mission will fail.
In their view, the people who get shot because they deviated from their doctrine far outnumber those who get a bullet in the neck because they followed their orders to the letter and still lost.
That does not mean they will not cause damage to their opponents or even that they will lose an engagement. It means they will be unable to reach their full combat potential, and in a peer-to-peer conflict with an opponent from a country that does account for personal initiative, they will not fare as well as they might otherwise have.
I see then as brutally effective at a distance in the first blitz and falling apart as a team when it comes to real war. Whether we will still retain the capability to take advantage of that weakness is the real question.
BUT, do not underestimate their determination. In the war against Chiang Kai Shek, many of Mao's troops fought barefoot with hand tools.
China’s last major military engagement, the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War, was almost 50 years ago>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The article fails to mention that the Vietnamese Army kicked the living sh*t out of the PLA 50 years ago.
China’s armed forces have the tech, and the discipline, but almost zero combat experience.That means that their command structure and ability to deal with the fog of war are likely below the necessary competency in order to be able to conduct a raid to arrest a head of state.
“Russia and China do not recognize the legitimacy of Ukraine’s and Taiwan’s respective independence.”
This is false. Taiwan has never declared independence.
And Taiwan won’t declare independence in the near future regardless of which party is in power.
Both sides know that it is in the interest of both parties to maintain the status quo.
I would be shocked if there weren’t covert PLA units operating in the Ukraine war on Russia’s behalf.
They would not be mistaken for Koreans.
Unless they had great plastic surgeons, Chinese agents would stick out like sore thumbs in Ukraine.
Speaking of Russia in the context of the Venezuela raid;
Venezuela’s air defense systems were/are Russian equipment.
Decker Eveleth is an associate research analyst at CNA, a nonprofit research and analysis organization based in Washington. He studies foreign nuclear postures utilizing satellite imagery. He holds a master’s degree from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a bachelor’s degree from Reed College.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.