Main Edition
US
FR
Muhammed Enes Yildirim/Anadolu Agency/Getty
In “continental warfare”, each side strives to retain and, if possible, increase its “operational reserve” — the sum total of trained and equipped combat units that are not in combat. It is only with an operational reserve that strategic choices can be made: whether to keep forces ready to counter an expected enemy offensive, or to launch an offensive to drive back the enemy, or, better still, to penetrate the enemy front, roll out and encircle enemy forces. It was by a succession of such offensive “envelopments” that the Red Army drove back the Germans from Stalingrad all the way to Berlin. The Allies did the same on a much smaller scale after the 1944 Normandy landings.
Of course, until an operational reserve is built up and offensives can be launched, frontal forces are absolutely necessary, whether to resist an advancing enemy or to keep attacking the enemy, so that it cannot withdraw its frontal forces to build up its own operational reserve. But frontal forces can only fight by attrition, First World War-style, to kill and wound enemy troops in front of them. And an entire war fought by attrition alone must last for years, killing and maiming troops on both sides until one side or the other gives up because of sheer exhaustion.
That is what happened on November 11, 1918, when Germany surrendered, even though not one Allied soldier had entered German territory, which remained almost undamaged in spite of the British and French air raids that hit a few buildings here and there. It was because Germany was neither devastated nor occupied after its surrender that it could go to war again just 20 years later, with catastrophic consequences. In other words, attrition is not only costly in lives, but it is also inconclusive, for it does not exhaust the will to fight.
Why is this relevant? Ever since the failure of the Russian air assault at the Antonov airfield on the first night of its invasion, which was supposed to open the way for the conquest of Kyiv and the country’s surrender, Ukraine has been fighting a war of attrition. At the cost of mounting casualties, Ukrainian frontal warfare has been successful enough to induce the Russians to withdraw from Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, to prevent the seemingly inevitable Russian conquest of Odesa, the country’s premier port, and to limit Russian advances in the most contested Donetsk and Luhansk regions, lately by holding Bakhmut in a house-by-house, street-by-street fight, in spite of relentless attacks by Russia’s Wagner mercenaries.
But the greatest success of Ukraine’s frontal resistance has occurred behind the front, with the gradual build-up of an increasing large, well-trained, and well-armed operational reserve of combat units that could be held back from combat because the frontal forces proved sufficiently strong to stop Russian advances without need of large reinforcements. It means that, for the first time since the start of the war, Ukraine’s war leaders can now take the initiative, instead of just repelling one Russian attack after another in different sectors of the very long front.
They can therefore choose a course of action from within a spectrum of risks and possible gains: from remaining on the defensive overall while launching successive attacks to drive back the Russians in one sector after another, each a limited-risk effort; to the boldest option of concentrating all available forces for a deep-penetration offensive to scythe across the roads and rail lines that sustain Russia’s forces within an entire region. The peculiar geography of the war, dominated by the curve of the great Dnipro river, offers several choices for such a bold move, including the most ambitious: an all-out offensive from Zaporizhzhia all the way to the Black Sea at Berdyans’k, or even at Mariupol, only 40 miles from the Russian border.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
SubscribeDoesn’t look very plausible to me.
The great Ukrainian counter-offensive came on the back of Russian tactical withdrawals after the original gambit failed. Since that sugar hit the Ukrainian Army has not moved forward anywhere for almost 12 months and have been suffering catastrophic losses in Bakhmut, to which they seem to be drawn as a moth to a flame.
NATO only offers Ukraine enough to keep themselves under the grindstone and shows no interest in an expansion that might enable Ukraine to succeed. Maybe that is all that they can do, having believed their own rhetoric that Russia is an gas station masquerading as a country and they didn’t think they needed to try too hard to bring it down.
Meanwhile the Russians have been building fortifications that make the Maginot Line look like a fence, yet the Ukrainian Army is supposed to smash through this without air-cover and 180 tanks. They used to have several thousand tanks and didn’t achieve very much with them. At least the Germans could advance around the Maginot Line and take it from the rear but that possibility is not available here.
Call me a skeptic.
By the way, how do these people get to have such cushy jobs as Strategic Analysts when they seem to know jack shit?
Even with all the weapons and troops available it took the U.S. 7 months to prepare and execute the 2nd Iraq war. What “catastrophic losses in Bahkmut”? Losses yes, but I haven’t seen anything one would call catastrophic. Also, as the author points out, the only thing that matters is the line is held until a reserve fighting force can be properly trained and equipped.
The Maginot Line didn’t ultimately work, as you point out, and can fail for the Russians in the same way if Ukraine were able to get behind Russian lines in the North and work their way down.
This seems like motivated reasoning. The Russians have performed poorly, but they have a shit ton of Soviet artillery and rounds for it. The defensive works can’t be outflanked unless Ukraine wants to expand the war to Belarus, which would be a disaster for the smaller force. All of this ignores the most important aspect of American conventional warfare dominance, Air power. We took 7 months to prepare and execute Iraq so that we could take the country in 22 days and show the world how we can cut through the fourth largest army in the world with less than 200 dead. That’s because of air power. I want Ukraine to return to previous borders and have peace but it doesn’t change the fact that the west is only in this as long as it remains convenient, Russia will continue until exhausted, it’s too close to home for them.
Air power isn’t a factor for either side. If either flies over the other’s territory, they go down in flames. Been that way since almost the beginning of the war.
Russia is already exhausted.
The tragedy is that Putin still doesn’t realize it.
True that air power is not a factor for the most part, but you cannot create or sustain breakthroughs in modern combined arms warfare without air power and a lot of armor/troop carriers. If they push their limited mechanized assets into Russian lines they will get torn up by Kornets and other AT weapons with no close air to suppress those AT teams. Similar to what happened to the overextended Russians at the outbreak. We now have a horrific attritional war that will bleed both nations white; both combatants are poor and unsophisticated, but only Russia can sustain the war without outside intervention. The moment that UKR loses massive western support they are gone, no industrial base of their own to produce the materiel. The West is betting it all on Russia falling apart but that’s an easy bet to make when it’s not your son fighting.
UH, in armoured warfare, it’s something called “infantry” that suppress AT teams. Not air power. No jet is going to find a pair of guys hiding in a treeline.
Ukraine has plenty of infantry, and plenty of AFVs, both western and Soviet era.
A10s can and do.
Type in “A10 treeline” on YT.
Given the rate of losses today, no worries over Russian air power. 2 Helos and 2 jets.
They won’t venture anywhere near the front lines.
If they do, they die.
Given the rate of losses today, no worries over Russian air power. 2 Helos and 2 jets.
They won’t venture anywhere near the front lines.
If they do, they die.
A10s can and do.
Type in “A10 treeline” on YT.
UH, in armoured warfare, it’s something called “infantry” that suppress AT teams. Not air power. No jet is going to find a pair of guys hiding in a treeline.
Ukraine has plenty of infantry, and plenty of AFVs, both western and Soviet era.
True that air power is not a factor for the most part, but you cannot create or sustain breakthroughs in modern combined arms warfare without air power and a lot of armor/troop carriers. If they push their limited mechanized assets into Russian lines they will get torn up by Kornets and other AT weapons with no close air to suppress those AT teams. Similar to what happened to the overextended Russians at the outbreak. We now have a horrific attritional war that will bleed both nations white; both combatants are poor and unsophisticated, but only Russia can sustain the war without outside intervention. The moment that UKR loses massive western support they are gone, no industrial base of their own to produce the materiel. The West is betting it all on Russia falling apart but that’s an easy bet to make when it’s not your son fighting.
Air power isn’t a factor for either side. If either flies over the other’s territory, they go down in flames. Been that way since almost the beginning of the war.
Russia is already exhausted.
The tragedy is that Putin still doesn’t realize it.
Ukrainian losses in Bahkmut and elsewhere have indeed been near-catastrophic, if the recent ‘pentagon papers’ leak is accurate (and no one claims it’s not.) 5 or 6-to-1 loss ratio for Ukraine vs Russia? A counteroffensive is fantasy if those numbers are even close to true.
As you well know, the original figures of 3 Rusisans for every Ukrainian were doctored to reflect that.
You really learn a lot–if you stay away from sites like Scott Ritter’s.
BTW, did you get to attend his book launch in St P? Could have got there via Turkey.
As you well know, the original figures of 3 Rusisans for every Ukrainian were doctored to reflect that.
You really learn a lot–if you stay away from sites like Scott Ritter’s.
BTW, did you get to attend his book launch in St P? Could have got there via Turkey.
Ukraine’s line has not held. What a difference a week (since this article was written) and battle maps published in the 5.21.23 Financial Times make. We’ve been had. https://www.ft.com/content/5950d5d5-26b4-4b8b-a4c6-9dfbd62e9a99
This seems like motivated reasoning. The Russians have performed poorly, but they have a shit ton of Soviet artillery and rounds for it. The defensive works can’t be outflanked unless Ukraine wants to expand the war to Belarus, which would be a disaster for the smaller force. All of this ignores the most important aspect of American conventional warfare dominance, Air power. We took 7 months to prepare and execute Iraq so that we could take the country in 22 days and show the world how we can cut through the fourth largest army in the world with less than 200 dead. That’s because of air power. I want Ukraine to return to previous borders and have peace but it doesn’t change the fact that the west is only in this as long as it remains convenient, Russia will continue until exhausted, it’s too close to home for them.
Ukrainian losses in Bahkmut and elsewhere have indeed been near-catastrophic, if the recent ‘pentagon papers’ leak is accurate (and no one claims it’s not.) 5 or 6-to-1 loss ratio for Ukraine vs Russia? A counteroffensive is fantasy if those numbers are even close to true.
Ukraine’s line has not held. What a difference a week (since this article was written) and battle maps published in the 5.21.23 Financial Times make. We’ve been had. https://www.ft.com/content/5950d5d5-26b4-4b8b-a4c6-9dfbd62e9a99
I must say that I agree with this.
I notice that the main thread from both our Government and the Media seems far more black and white, not to mention upbeat about Ukraine, with this continual assault on “Putin” who is now so propagandised that it is hard to credit. He is clearly neither Hitler nor Stalin, but you wouldn’t guess it from the streams we get.
To deal with these things it is necessary to be fully vertebrate and to stand up and look at the deeds of the adversaries.
If a fully vertebrate person, capable of putting his predispositions on side for a moment, looked at things objectively and purely so – or, indeed, the proverbial Martian came down for a dekko – he or she would note the histrionic stream against Putin coming from the West.
What he or she would do then would be to look dispassionately at the deeds of both sides.
A big problem would arise at that point for us, because he or she will notice that Putin’s accusers were unapologetically involved in inexplicable invasions and mass destructions of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya (what was that about?), Syria, Yemen, Somalia etc. accounting for perhaps 2m lives.
It is at this point that he would realise that even if this very guilty coalition; guilty considering the huge volumes of US war crimes revealed by Chelsea Manning through Wikileaks, and those of British Troops with criminal Govt. coverup shown by BBC Panorama in Oct ’19: was absolutely honest in its accusations against Putin then he is still a pathetic amateur in the Mass-Murder stakes compared to us according to the honest hard evidence.
Accordingly, we are not in the traditional world of good leaders fighting evil leaders, that’s just propaganda – a fairy tale. We are actually in the world of “Which of these is the less-worse horse in this glue factory?”
The worst one – by a street – just pointed its blood covered hoof at another bad, but lesser, one and cried “Get Putin – he’s a dangerous madman, a Hitler, not like us!” and all the evils of which the former has been guilty – including the vicious punishment of the Publisher Assange for daring to publish the truth – simply melt away and we howl to the dog-whistle at the lesser horse.
The Martian would not hesitate in the condemnation of the West these 60 years- if we go back to Vietnam – and throw our case out unless and until we volunteer for a thorough impartial investigation into our own war activity and accept punishment of any found Guilty of war crimes including Prime ministers and intelligence officers – otherwise honesty cannot be ascribed to our accusations.
At least Russia has a reason to fight in Ukraine if one uses our own standards to justify that statement.
It is the same reason that America used when the USSR sought to interfere on its borders and that the US would repeat today if Russia funded and worked up a militant anti-US split on its borders – say in Mexico.
I know it is hard but if we let our rulers press our buttons so that we stop thinking about what they have done we will be taken for a ride, in fact we really have.
Stop this US Proxy War.
When was Crimea honestly part of a Ukrainian Nation and why should Russophone Donbas. Luhansk and Odessa be denied autonomy given the Nazi led coup d’etat facilitated by the US at the end of Maidan.
I used to laugh at the dumbness of the Soviet people swallowing all the rot they got, but according to this evidence we are no better.
Wake up and take control of your thinking equipment so to stop the uncritical swallowing of all this bullshit coming from our profoundly dishonest rulers.
What is being done to our brains?
An excellent post.
Sadly you are inebriated by your own verbosity!
Try being a little more concise.
It’s only a couple of screens worth Charlie.. go and have a nap and come back to it!
It’s only a couple of screens worth Charlie.. go and have a nap and come back to it!
The Proxy War seems to be working quite well.
Just hope most Russians can get out of Crimea before it’s too late.
Which proxy war is going well? Not this one surely, at least not for NATO.. getting on for an investment of $200 billion and sfa to show for it, so far.. $200 billion from countries that are more or less bankrupt or will be in 9 months time.
Russia’s GDP growth is outstripping the UK’s – maybe you meant the war is going well for Russia? Ah, yes.. that makes more sense!
Which proxy war is going well? Not this one surely, at least not for NATO.. getting on for an investment of $200 billion and sfa to show for it, so far.. $200 billion from countries that are more or less bankrupt or will be in 9 months time.
Russia’s GDP growth is outstripping the UK’s – maybe you meant the war is going well for Russia? Ah, yes.. that makes more sense!
Problem is your whole argument is based on blatant lie.
In Ukrainian Independence referendum in 1991 both Donbass and Luhansk voted 83% for independence.
Even Crimea voted 54% for it.
So your supposed Rusophone regions of Ukraine are nothing of the sort.
War can be stopped when Russian looters, rapists and murderers leave territory of Ukraine.
Crimea is Russian, as are the people living there.
Not if they can make it over the bridge in time.
If they can’t, it’s going to get mighty ugly.
The Ukrainians are not in a forgiving mood, and the Russians are just about to crack.
Can you give an approx date for the crack, for the craic.. because I’ll be back to either commend or ridicule your forecast whichever occurs.
Can you give an approx date for the crack, for the craic.. because I’ll be back to either commend or ridicule your forecast whichever occurs.
Not if they can make it over the bridge in time.
If they can’t, it’s going to get mighty ugly.
The Ukrainians are not in a forgiving mood, and the Russians are just about to crack.
..now your just being silly!
Crimea is Russian, as are the people living there.
..now your just being silly!
Well put.. the case you make is unassailable and yet, seemingly intelligent people fall for this crap all the time.. I find it amazing that they don’t learn any lessons even when they see evidence with their own eyes, coming directly from the liars/propagandists themselves!
Like you say, something has happened to their brains.. has the water been tainted? Oh yes, I almost forgot, it’s full of crap as well!
An excellent post.
Sadly you are inebriated by your own verbosity!
Try being a little more concise.
The Proxy War seems to be working quite well.
Just hope most Russians can get out of Crimea before it’s too late.
Problem is your whole argument is based on blatant lie.
In Ukrainian Independence referendum in 1991 both Donbass and Luhansk voted 83% for independence.
Even Crimea voted 54% for it.
So your supposed Rusophone regions of Ukraine are nothing of the sort.
War can be stopped when Russian looters, rapists and murderers leave territory of Ukraine.
Well put.. the case you make is unassailable and yet, seemingly intelligent people fall for this crap all the time.. I find it amazing that they don’t learn any lessons even when they see evidence with their own eyes, coming directly from the liars/propagandists themselves!
Like you say, something has happened to their brains.. has the water been tainted? Oh yes, I almost forgot, it’s full of crap as well!
Pls cite the “catastrophic losses” you speak of–outside of that single doctored image on line.
Moreover, since neither side dares to fly over the other’s territory, air power isn’t a factor.
And thankfully, you know nothing of the allied crossing of the similarly “well-defended” Siegfried line some years later.
Also nice to see the 250 Km range UK missiles that are shortly to arrive. Every part of Russian held-Ukraine is now under direct threat.
Fact is, Kyiv has lulled Putin into a false sense of security for many months–while comprehensively destroying the morale of his army.
He’s about to get unlulled.
…and your forecasted date for the unlulling is? Approximate will do.. I’ll get back to you to congratulate or ridicule you as appropriate.
…and your forecasted date for the unlulling is? Approximate will do.. I’ll get back to you to congratulate or ridicule you as appropriate.
Even with all the weapons and troops available it took the U.S. 7 months to prepare and execute the 2nd Iraq war. What “catastrophic losses in Bahkmut”? Losses yes, but I haven’t seen anything one would call catastrophic. Also, as the author points out, the only thing that matters is the line is held until a reserve fighting force can be properly trained and equipped.
The Maginot Line didn’t ultimately work, as you point out, and can fail for the Russians in the same way if Ukraine were able to get behind Russian lines in the North and work their way down.
I must say that I agree with this.
I notice that the main thread from both our Government and the Media seems far more black and white, not to mention upbeat about Ukraine, with this continual assault on “Putin” who is now so propagandised that it is hard to credit. He is clearly neither Hitler nor Stalin, but you wouldn’t guess it from the streams we get.
To deal with these things it is necessary to be fully vertebrate and to stand up and look at the deeds of the adversaries.
If a fully vertebrate person, capable of putting his predispositions on side for a moment, looked at things objectively and purely so – or, indeed, the proverbial Martian came down for a dekko – he or she would note the histrionic stream against Putin coming from the West.
What he or she would do then would be to look dispassionately at the deeds of both sides.
A big problem would arise at that point for us, because he or she will notice that Putin’s accusers were unapologetically involved in inexplicable invasions and mass destructions of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya (what was that about?), Syria, Yemen, Somalia etc. accounting for perhaps 2m lives.
It is at this point that he would realise that even if this very guilty coalition; guilty considering the huge volumes of US war crimes revealed by Chelsea Manning through Wikileaks, and those of British Troops with criminal Govt. coverup shown by BBC Panorama in Oct ’19: was absolutely honest in its accusations against Putin then he is still a pathetic amateur in the Mass-Murder stakes compared to us according to the honest hard evidence.
Accordingly, we are not in the traditional world of good leaders fighting evil leaders, that’s just propaganda – a fairy tale. We are actually in the world of “Which of these is the less-worse horse in this glue factory?”
The worst one – by a street – just pointed its blood covered hoof at another bad, but lesser, one and cried “Get Putin – he’s a dangerous madman, a Hitler, not like us!” and all the evils of which the former has been guilty – including the vicious punishment of the Publisher Assange for daring to publish the truth – simply melt away and we howl to the dog-whistle at the lesser horse.
The Martian would not hesitate in the condemnation of the West these 60 years- if we go back to Vietnam – and throw our case out unless and until we volunteer for a thorough impartial investigation into our own war activity and accept punishment of any found Guilty of war crimes including Prime ministers and intelligence officers – otherwise honesty cannot be ascribed to our accusations.
At least Russia has a reason to fight in Ukraine if one uses our own standards to justify that statement.
It is the same reason that America used when the USSR sought to interfere on its borders and that the US would repeat today if Russia funded and worked up a militant anti-US split on its borders – say in Mexico.
I know it is hard but if we let our rulers press our buttons so that we stop thinking about what they have done we will be taken for a ride, in fact we really have.
Stop this US Proxy War.
When was Crimea honestly part of a Ukrainian Nation and why should Russophone Donbas. Luhansk and Odessa be denied autonomy given the Nazi led coup d’etat facilitated by the US at the end of Maidan.
I used to laugh at the dumbness of the Soviet people swallowing all the rot they got, but according to this evidence we are no better.
Wake up and take control of your thinking equipment so to stop the uncritical swallowing of all this bullshit coming from our profoundly dishonest rulers.
What is being done to our brains?
Pls cite the “catastrophic losses” you speak of–outside of that single doctored image on line.
Moreover, since neither side dares to fly over the other’s territory, air power isn’t a factor.
And thankfully, you know nothing of the allied crossing of the similarly “well-defended” Siegfried line some years later.
Also nice to see the 250 Km range UK missiles that are shortly to arrive. Every part of Russian held-Ukraine is now under direct threat.
Fact is, Kyiv has lulled Putin into a false sense of security for many months–while comprehensively destroying the morale of his army.
He’s about to get unlulled.
Doesn’t look very plausible to me.
The great Ukrainian counter-offensive came on the back of Russian tactical withdrawals after the original gambit failed. Since that sugar hit the Ukrainian Army has not moved forward anywhere for almost 12 months and have been suffering catastrophic losses in Bakhmut, to which they seem to be drawn as a moth to a flame.
NATO only offers Ukraine enough to keep themselves under the grindstone and shows no interest in an expansion that might enable Ukraine to succeed. Maybe that is all that they can do, having believed their own rhetoric that Russia is an gas station masquerading as a country and they didn’t think they needed to try too hard to bring it down.
Meanwhile the Russians have been building fortifications that make the Maginot Line look like a fence, yet the Ukrainian Army is supposed to smash through this without air-cover and 180 tanks. They used to have several thousand tanks and didn’t achieve very much with them. At least the Germans could advance around the Maginot Line and take it from the rear but that possibility is not available here.
Call me a skeptic.
By the way, how do these people get to have such cushy jobs as Strategic Analysts when they seem to know jack shit?
An interesting article. One thing the author doesn’t mention is the possibility of Putin using nuclear weapons to stop a massive Ukrainian offensive that the Russians cannot otherwise stop. It now seems fashionable to sneer at the possibility of Putin using nukes. I’m not so sure.
Russian troops aren’t equipped to fight on a nuclear battlefield. ll that would achieve is to turn the entire world against Russia. Xi has told Putin repeatedly to no use nukes
Russian troops aren’t equipped to fight on any battefield, but that hasn’t deterred Putin. I can cheer on the Ukrainian people whilst sharing J Bryant’s sense of foreboding.This is war, not a morality tale where the good guys inevitably win.
Russia gains absolutely nothing by using nukes. They invite NATO intervention, lose support from China and India, and become complete pariahs.
Why would the Russian military/FSB even obey? These are highly successful men with wives, children, friends, and hefty overseas bank accounts. If they’re given the choice of potentially starting WW3 or shooting Putin, the latter is by far the safer path.
We didn’t fall for nuclear buffs from Stalin, or Khrushchev, or Brezhnev. Why would we worry now?
Maybe, maybe not. Well – push hard enough and we will find out, won’t we? You are close to arguing that MAD was a flawed concept all along. To repeat myself, maybe, maybe not.
we?
Yes – we
..yes, you. You’re about to send nuclear weapons to Ukraine aren’t you? Depleated Uranium shells? Putin has named these nuclear weapons.. is he wrong?
Yes – we
..yes, you. You’re about to send nuclear weapons to Ukraine aren’t you? Depleated Uranium shells? Putin has named these nuclear weapons.. is he wrong?
we?
The ‘Jupiter’ missile crisis came very close to Armageddon.
and it was the US response that was extreme, after all the Russians simply shipped missiles to Cuba just as the US had shipped missiles to Turkey. History is important here, and the Ukraine are NOT the good guys anymore than Putin is the bad guy. This is basically a war over Soviet drawn borders in a post Soviet world, with Russia supporting the secessionists in the Ukraine, as NATO/US supported the secessionists in the other dangerous post Soviet border wars in the Balkans. We should have no part in it at all.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the first phase in the collapse of the Russian Empire.
This war is just the final phase.
Empires are obsolete, as both Britain and France discovered half a century ago.
It’s coalitions like the one which supports Ukraine that will win any future conflicts.
It’s the US Empire that’s in decline.. Russia, with BRICS+ is in the ascendancy.. Surely that’s clear? $31 trillion in debt, the US dollar in serious decline, no gold, no industrial base apart from the war industry.. near civil war, a senile leader governed by oligarchs.. how many more signs do you need??
It’s the US Empire that’s in decline.. Russia, with BRICS+ is in the ascendancy.. Surely that’s clear? $31 trillion in debt, the US dollar in serious decline, no gold, no industrial base apart from the war industry.. near civil war, a senile leader governed by oligarchs.. how many more signs do you need??
Quite right.. the charge of the Light brigade was ages ago. Move on!
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the first phase in the collapse of the Russian Empire.
This war is just the final phase.
Empires are obsolete, as both Britain and France discovered half a century ago.
It’s coalitions like the one which supports Ukraine that will win any future conflicts.
Quite right.. the charge of the Light brigade was ages ago. Move on!
and it was the US response that was extreme, after all the Russians simply shipped missiles to Cuba just as the US had shipped missiles to Turkey. History is important here, and the Ukraine are NOT the good guys anymore than Putin is the bad guy. This is basically a war over Soviet drawn borders in a post Soviet world, with Russia supporting the secessionists in the Ukraine, as NATO/US supported the secessionists in the other dangerous post Soviet border wars in the Balkans. We should have no part in it at all.
That applies if Putin uses nukes first.. It’s more like the crazy US warhawks will shoot first from their armchairs in DC and Langley and then quick retire to their bunkers on Bill Gates’ ranch!
Since the UK is about to deliver nuclear weapons to Ukraine, ie deplete Uranium shells, Putin will say he’s justified in using small tactical nuclear weapons.. he has already hinted at this.
Maybe, maybe not. Well – push hard enough and we will find out, won’t we? You are close to arguing that MAD was a flawed concept all along. To repeat myself, maybe, maybe not.
The ‘Jupiter’ missile crisis came very close to Armageddon.
That applies if Putin uses nukes first.. It’s more like the crazy US warhawks will shoot first from their armchairs in DC and Langley and then quick retire to their bunkers on Bill Gates’ ranch!
Since the UK is about to deliver nuclear weapons to Ukraine, ie deplete Uranium shells, Putin will say he’s justified in using small tactical nuclear weapons.. he has already hinted at this.
It’s not just that the good guys might not win. There aren’t any good guys in this war.
But there are competent and wealthy guys.
They ALWAYS win wars.
Wealthy yes, competent no.
Wealthy yes, competent no.
You got that right!
But there are competent and wealthy guys.
They ALWAYS win wars.
You got that right!
The assumption that Ukr is the “good guy” is rather swingeing. There is no black-and-white here, only shades of grey.
Well, who invaded whom? Someone was, at the very least, the better guy!
….and who has been ‘liberating’ Ukraine by bombing blocks of flats, hospitals and schools?
Russia, of course.
He meant between 2014 and 2022!
He meant between 2014 and 2022!
Russia, of course.
Who was the good guy in 2014, when the democratically-elected government was overthrown?
Who was the good guy in the years that followed, when the Ukrainian government shelled their own citizens in separatist areas?
The number of civilians killed in Donbas (by both sides) was one or two dozen in the last few years.
Most “ingeniously” conflate the total losses in teh war with the handful of civilian deaths afterward–on both sides.
Propagandist garbage..
Propagandist garbage..
The number of civilians killed in Donbas (by both sides) was one or two dozen in the last few years.
Most “ingeniously” conflate the total losses in teh war with the handful of civilian deaths afterward–on both sides.
Try least worse! I bet you still get it wrong..
….and who has been ‘liberating’ Ukraine by bombing blocks of flats, hospitals and schools?
Who was the good guy in 2014, when the democratically-elected government was overthrown?
Who was the good guy in the years that followed, when the Ukrainian government shelled their own citizens in separatist areas?
Try least worse! I bet you still get it wrong..
Well, who invaded whom? Someone was, at the very least, the better guy!
Who exactly are the good guys?
Russia gains absolutely nothing by using nukes. They invite NATO intervention, lose support from China and India, and become complete pariahs.
Why would the Russian military/FSB even obey? These are highly successful men with wives, children, friends, and hefty overseas bank accounts. If they’re given the choice of potentially starting WW3 or shooting Putin, the latter is by far the safer path.
We didn’t fall for nuclear buffs from Stalin, or Khrushchev, or Brezhnev. Why would we worry now?
It’s not just that the good guys might not win. There aren’t any good guys in this war.
The assumption that Ukr is the “good guy” is rather swingeing. There is no black-and-white here, only shades of grey.
Who exactly are the good guys?
“Xi has told Putin repeatedly to no use nukes”.
And you know this because…?
Public statements by Xi saying “Nuclear wars must not be fought”. Who do you think the target audience was?
Public statements by Xi saying “Nuclear wars must not be fought”. Who do you think the target audience was?
Russian troops aren’t equipped to fight on any battefield, but that hasn’t deterred Putin. I can cheer on the Ukrainian people whilst sharing J Bryant’s sense of foreboding.This is war, not a morality tale where the good guys inevitably win.
“Xi has told Putin repeatedly to no use nukes”.
And you know this because…?
The only ones willing to set off a nuke where the wind would blow the fallout right over Russia or over Europe would be the same ones behind the blowing up of the pipeline.
Rather depends on whether you go for “air bursts” or “ground bursts”.
ps:Does anyone understand the difference?
pps: Obviously not!
Would they be the guys who ALREADY dropped atomic bombs on the defenseless populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? and used Agent Orange in Vietnam? and came very close to using nukes in Korea? and carpet bombed Iraq killing half a million children (but it was worth it, they said).
Those guys?
Rather depends on whether you go for “air bursts” or “ground bursts”.
ps:Does anyone understand the difference?
pps: Obviously not!
Would they be the guys who ALREADY dropped atomic bombs on the defenseless populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? and used Agent Orange in Vietnam? and came very close to using nukes in Korea? and carpet bombed Iraq killing half a million children (but it was worth it, they said).
Those guys?
The MAD mantra has always been nonsense, at least from the US standpoint.
In any major nuclear exchange from say 1950 onwards, the US would have undoubtedly triumphed.
However that it not to say that victory would been cost free. For a start Europe is/was indefensible and would have been vaporised.
Additionally, and it would have needed considerable luck it must be said, the ‘Soviets’ may well have been able to accomplish a couple of ‘strikes’ on the continental US itself.
However the damage inflicted would have been an acceptable price for a victory that would have seen the annihilation of the Soviet Union.
So start digging Europe!
From what source do you conclude that the soviets may have achieved only a couple of continental US strikes? It’s estimated they had >1,100 ICBM warheads at peak and prior to Reagan’s star wars initiative such a low hit rate would require >95% failure rate, even high for the soviets.
https://armscontrolcenter.org/fact-sheet-russias-nuclear-inventory/
I am assuming a US ‘first strike’ and thus the complete neutralisation of the Soviet ICBM capability.
However their submarines, useless as most were, might have achieved something, but it would hardly have been decisive.
To comply with the Marquis of Queensbury rules the Ruskies would have sat there to see the US nukes striking before they responded would they?
To comply with the Marquis of Queensbury rules the Ruskies would have sat there to see the US nukes striking before they responded would they?
I am assuming a US ‘first strike’ and thus the complete neutralisation of the Soviet ICBM capability.
However their submarines, useless as most were, might have achieved something, but it would hardly have been decisive.
Indeed.
And a first strike by the Soviets would have done similar damage–unless they knew that parts of the Triad would still survive.
US strategy was to convince the USSR that it could never win a nuclear war.
It succeeded. And now there is no more USSR, just as soon there will be no more Russia.
An excellent synopsis, thank you.
I bet you €100 Russia lasts longer than the US! ..put your money where your mouth is..
Russia will not simply cease to exist, however, with a population of under 140 million, they no longer have the one battlefield advantage they relied on to win the Eastern front in WWII…numbers. Their strategy has always and as we can still see, been to overwhelm the enemy forces through sheer numerical superiority. Yes, they have this superiority over the population of Ukraine, they do not have it over Western Europe.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia lost the Baltics, the Balkans, the Visegrad, and the Central Asian States. They can no longer draw on the East German engineering. Russia is not what it was during the Soviet times.
And the Russian military technologies are proving to be inadequate. Look at the toll the Soviet on Soviet battles in Eastern Ukraine have had on Russian armor. How many turrets have played the Jack in the Box game?
Russia will limp along, but I truly believe a Putin has accelerated its demise and marginalization on the global scene. It is not impossible that the Russian Federation could be facing the same future that the Ottoman Empire faced following WWI.
Russia will not simply cease to exist, however, with a population of under 140 million, they no longer have the one battlefield advantage they relied on to win the Eastern front in WWII…numbers. Their strategy has always and as we can still see, been to overwhelm the enemy forces through sheer numerical superiority. Yes, they have this superiority over the population of Ukraine, they do not have it over Western Europe.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia lost the Baltics, the Balkans, the Visegrad, and the Central Asian States. They can no longer draw on the East German engineering. Russia is not what it was during the Soviet times.
And the Russian military technologies are proving to be inadequate. Look at the toll the Soviet on Soviet battles in Eastern Ukraine have had on Russian armor. How many turrets have played the Jack in the Box game?
Russia will limp along, but I truly believe a Putin has accelerated its demise and marginalization on the global scene. It is not impossible that the Russian Federation could be facing the same future that the Ottoman Empire faced following WWI.
An excellent synopsis, thank you.
I bet you €100 Russia lasts longer than the US! ..put your money where your mouth is..
“Acceptable” like MADalene Albright said when the US killed half a million children in Iraq. I bet Charlie you have your bunker and baked beans to the ready? I’m told rats and cockroaches will survive? You’ll probably be okay.
From what source do you conclude that the soviets may have achieved only a couple of continental US strikes? It’s estimated they had >1,100 ICBM warheads at peak and prior to Reagan’s star wars initiative such a low hit rate would require >95% failure rate, even high for the soviets.
https://armscontrolcenter.org/fact-sheet-russias-nuclear-inventory/
Indeed.
And a first strike by the Soviets would have done similar damage–unless they knew that parts of the Triad would still survive.
US strategy was to convince the USSR that it could never win a nuclear war.
It succeeded. And now there is no more USSR, just as soon there will be no more Russia.
“Acceptable” like MADalene Albright said when the US killed half a million children in Iraq. I bet Charlie you have your bunker and baked beans to the ready? I’m told rats and cockroaches will survive? You’ll probably be okay.
They don’t need nukes as they are winning as it is. If nukes come it will be a NATO false flag
Winning? Suffering 2.5:1 losses, and losing territory for the past 12 months is winning?
Even our own leaked Pentagon papers say that it’s about a 6 to 1 loss for Ukraine. Many say it’s much worse than that.
That’s the doctored evidence that originally said 3:1 in Ukraine’s favour.
Russians may not want to fight in Ukraine. But they sure do it on line.
As the up/down votes on here seem to confirm.
And as the Ukrainian offensive will refute rather painfully.
Just thank the Lord you aren’t a Russian.
You’d be fleeing your nation next year.
And as the Ukrainian offensive will refute rather painfully.
Just thank the Lord you aren’t a Russian.
You’d be fleeing your nation next year.
As the up/down votes on here seem to confirm.
That’s the doctored evidence that originally said 3:1 in Ukraine’s favour.
Russians may not want to fight in Ukraine. But they sure do it on line.
Shhh.
Let him continue to live in his pleasant little world…
Russia has lost territory? I didn’t know that! Which parts??
Even our own leaked Pentagon papers say that it’s about a 6 to 1 loss for Ukraine. Many say it’s much worse than that.
Shhh.
Let him continue to live in his pleasant little world…
Russia has lost territory? I didn’t know that! Which parts??
Winning? Suffering 2.5:1 losses, and losing territory for the past 12 months is winning?
Yes these kind of offensive tactics, to try and embarrass putin, are basically just calling his bluff.
Putin is not a man I’d like to play poker with!
Putin is not a man I’d like to play poker with!
Russian troops aren’t equipped to fight on a nuclear battlefield. ll that would achieve is to turn the entire world against Russia. Xi has told Putin repeatedly to no use nukes
The only ones willing to set off a nuke where the wind would blow the fallout right over Russia or over Europe would be the same ones behind the blowing up of the pipeline.
The MAD mantra has always been nonsense, at least from the US standpoint.
In any major nuclear exchange from say 1950 onwards, the US would have undoubtedly triumphed.
However that it not to say that victory would been cost free. For a start Europe is/was indefensible and would have been vaporised.
Additionally, and it would have needed considerable luck it must be said, the ‘Soviets’ may well have been able to accomplish a couple of ‘strikes’ on the continental US itself.
However the damage inflicted would have been an acceptable price for a victory that would have seen the annihilation of the Soviet Union.
So start digging Europe!
They don’t need nukes as they are winning as it is. If nukes come it will be a NATO false flag
Yes these kind of offensive tactics, to try and embarrass putin, are basically just calling his bluff.
An interesting article. One thing the author doesn’t mention is the possibility of Putin using nuclear weapons to stop a massive Ukrainian offensive that the Russians cannot otherwise stop. It now seems fashionable to sneer at the possibility of Putin using nukes. I’m not so sure.
The person who wrote this was paid to do so. He is now sitting behind a computer in a reasonable, quiet house, trying to earn more money. He has studied history. What does he KNOW? UnHerd contributors are reading articles in magazines and journals. Great.
Russia is a huge country which has concentrated all its efforts and industry on armaments. The same for the USA. Neither will just give up without first causing real devastation. Maybe nobody will win. It is just practice for the generals.
He knows more than you, it is clear. And I suspect that if you knew more, you would have a higher regard for him.
I’d say that’s close.. it’s gotta be easier to do in your own back yard though? ..doing it from thousands of miles away and losing 30-70% of your stuff on the black market makes the fight a bit one-sided. Also, Russia is fighting for its very survival.. that’s usually a good morale booster. My money is on the Ruskies!
He knows more than you, it is clear. And I suspect that if you knew more, you would have a higher regard for him.
I’d say that’s close.. it’s gotta be easier to do in your own back yard though? ..doing it from thousands of miles away and losing 30-70% of your stuff on the black market makes the fight a bit one-sided. Also, Russia is fighting for its very survival.. that’s usually a good morale booster. My money is on the Ruskies!
The person who wrote this was paid to do so. He is now sitting behind a computer in a reasonable, quiet house, trying to earn more money. He has studied history. What does he KNOW? UnHerd contributors are reading articles in magazines and journals. Great.
Russia is a huge country which has concentrated all its efforts and industry on armaments. The same for the USA. Neither will just give up without first causing real devastation. Maybe nobody will win. It is just practice for the generals.
Fantasy.
I think Hitler had the same idea! ..and he was nearly right too! Napoleon also had that idea.. I forget how it worked out for them.. do you remember?
I think Hitler had the same idea! ..and he was nearly right too! Napoleon also had that idea.. I forget how it worked out for them.. do you remember?
Fantasy.
Come on…..
”the result of an all-out offensive could be a spectacular Russian defeat, complete with an unprecedented number of prisoners.”
Sure it will – then Ukrainian tanks in Red Square.
Ukraine loses 7 men for every Russian lost. The medical system Ukraine has for injured is a fraction of the Russian so their disabled are disproportionate on top of that. This is not the war of drones and missiles all expected – it is WWI and the grinding of men into an artillery barrage meat grinder from ranges nothing else can reach. Russia is expert at this – the Great Western thinkers planned otherwise and called it wrong.
This is a wicked, evil, corrupt Political Proxy War which was none of our business – and by pumping in $200 Billion, and Intel, and training and arming Ukraine for this very war the last 15 years –
We used that poor nation as the chess board and pawns to play a globalist war game on – resulting in the collateral damage of destroying the People, Infrastructure, and nation of Ukraine its self. It has about destroyed Europe, wrecked the global economy, caused BRICS+++++++ to form an alliance against the West. It has Saddled USA with vast debt that really is disastrous just now fallowing the Great Plandemic.
Now Blackrock and Vanguard have officially been given Ukraine as their property to rebuild by sucking endlessly more Western Tax Dollars into the money pit. They will own Ukraine for ever.
You Globalist, Warmongering Lefty-Neo-Con Vampires have killed and destroyed your way around the globe for 80 years – Exactly, Exactly as Ike said you would.
Dwight Eisenhower:
”American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. . . . This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. . . .Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. . . . In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
Lie after lie after lie.
The Ukrainians are not losing seven to every one Russian. This is an old piece of nonsense spread about by Col Douglas McGregor, who made a number of very precise and falsifiable predictions about the war which turned out to be incorrect (for example, that Ukrainian military would have collapsed before the first patriot missile system was active in the country).
Aside from that whopper, the Russian combat medical system is inferior, not superior, to Ukraine’s. The war is not simply a new WW1, drones and tanks do play a significant role in combat. We have only seriously been training Ukraine for the last 9 years, since the first Russian invasion. The BRICS and associated countries have not formed an alliance against the West. The West’s debt is almost entirely the result of lockdowns, the military spending has made negligible difference in comparison.
Russia does not, despite what Putin says, have a god-given right to a friendly and submissive neighbour (we in the UK don’t expect that, and we certainly don’t get it, from ROI). Ukraine should be free to choose it’s own path, and if Russia had a less corrupt, malevolent government, and had shown at least some remorse for Stalin’s actions, it might have been more attractive at least to southern and eastern Ukrainians.
You can be skeptical about the military-industrial complex, globalism, and “the latest thing” without parroting the Russian mafia-state’s blatant falsehoods.
The US expects it and responds appropriately IF it doesn’t think they have it. Try reading more widely.
You can also be sceptical about the Russian mafia-state and “the latest thing” without parroting the blatant falsehoods of the military-industrial complex and globalism.
Comparing the relations between the straightforward Bandera-obsessed Ukrainian mafia-state and the Russian mafia-state with the relations of ROI with UK tells everything about your current level of blindness and ignorance.
Well let’s have some more “Lie after lie after lie” then, just to bring your comparison into some balance.
Let’s imagine that ROI not just organises camps with expressed nazi signs, slogans and curriculum for tens of thousands of children for years after years with the declared aim to kill “British orks”, but also that its leaders demand nuclear weapons from China “for security” against the “British threat” long before any actual military activity of London, but after ever-growing conventional “military aid” from China and visible military build-up in the ROI for almost a decade. All this in addition to decade-long systematic oppression, terror and killing of hundreds (if not thousands) of local Englishmen – especially in NI. Then, after a badly planned/organized eventual intervention by London, ROI unleashes a global hysteria over the “illegal, unprovoked, appalling aggression” and over the (NI-included) “territorial integrity” of ROI, all of which becoming such an unquestionable mantra that it is worth hundreds of thousands killed, millions physically and mentally damaged without the slightest consideration of negotiations “with the aggressor”. Now let’s imagine that ROI, however ruled by the sickest oligarchs and being in fact the most corrupt playgroud in Europe, now cherished as the cornerstone of democracy. Having been freely aligned to (acquired by) the most prominent corporate and political powers of China, it is now receiving hundreds of billions worth of ammunition against the British aggressors. China does not even hide that it seeks “regime change” in the UK: total cleansing of current “authoritarian” political and business establishment and replacement with “freedom-fighter” opposition powers and “economic freedom”. The aim is, and has ever been, to “share democratic values and the same level of commitment to human rights” as in China (not that China and its allies could control anything that used to be controlled by the UK, however it might lead to the very same outcome). Also accidently, all major “independent” Chinese media outlets, business and public figures unanimously echo the exact same view with the exact same words, mocking and smearing immediately anyone with any kind of understanding towards the UK or the British people, even banning and retrospectively cancelling the most comprehensive, persistent sources that “spread disinformation and the UK-narrative.” Consequently, the Chinese society is extremely pro-ROI, intellectuals and business leaders are even more than common people.
They are truly convinced that the UK must (and will) face and admit the humiliating conventional defeat, during the cheering victory of the considerably smaller but heavenly heroic ROI, because it is what the UK deserves after its dumb aggression against the “whole” civilised world. The dog’s bark is worse than its bite: the blood-sucking, children-raping, genocidal, terrorist, defeated UK dictator will shamefully be chicken (maybe he will even transfer the nukes to the hero museum in Dublin or directly to China), while overseeing the collapse of its state and kissing its culture a final goodbye flushing down the toilet of history.
Bright future. Great odds. We are the brightest good guys for sure, and nothing else matters.
You can also be sceptical about the Russian mafia-state and “the latest thing” without parroting the blatant falsehoods of the military-industrial complex and globalism.
Comparing the relations between the straightforward Bandera-obsessed Ukrainian mafia-state and the Russian mafia-state with the relations between ROI and UK tells everything about your current level of blindness and ignorance.
Well let’s have some more “Lie after lie after lie” then, just to bring your comparison into some balance.
Let’s imagine that ROI not just organises camps with expressed nazi signs, slogans and curriculum for tens of thousands of children for years after years with the declared aim to kill “British orks”, but also that its leaders demand nuclear weapons from China “for security” against the “British threat” long before any actual military activity of London, but after ever-growing conventional “military aid” from China and visible military build-up in the ROI for almost a decade. All this in addition to decade-long systematic oppression, terror and killing of hundreds (if not thousands) of local Englishmen – especially in NI. Then, after a badly planned/organized eventual intervention by London, ROI unleashes a global hysteria over the “illegal, unprovoked, appalling aggression” and over the (NI-included) “territorial integrity” of ROI, all of which becoming such an unquestionable mantra that it is worth hundreds of thousands killed, millions physically and mentally damaged without the slightest consideration of negotiations “with the aggressor”. Now let’s imagine that ROI, however ruled by the sickest oligarchs and being in fact the most corrupt playgroud in Europe, now cherished as the cornerstone of democracy. Having been freely aligned to (acquired by) the most prominent corporate and political powers of China, it is now receiving hundreds of billions worth of ammunition against the British aggressors. China does not even hide that it seeks “regime change” in the UK: total cleansing of current “authoritarian” political and business establishment and replacement with “freedom-fighter” opposition powers and “economic freedom”. The aim is, and has ever been, to “share democratic values and the same level of commitment to human rights” as in China (not that China and its allies could control anything that used to be controlled by the UK, however it might lead to the very same outcome). Also accidently, all major “independent” Chinese media outlets, business and public figures unanimously echo the exact same view with the exact same words, mocking and smearing immediately anyone with any kind of understanding towards the UK or the British people, even banning and retrospectively cancelling the most comprehensive, persistent sources that “spread disinformation and the UK-narrative.” Consequently, the Chinese society is extremely pro-ROI, intellectuals and business leaders are even more than common people.
They are truly convinced that the UK must (and will) face and admit the humiliating conventional defeat, during the cheering victory of the considerably smaller but heavenly heroic ROI, because it is what the UK deserves after its dumb aggression against the “whole” civilised world. The dog’s bark is worse than its bite: the blood-sucking, children-raping, genocidal, terrorist, defeated UK dictator will shamefully be chicken (maybe he will even transfer the nukes to the hero museum in Dublin or directly to China), while overseeing the collapse of its state and kissing its culture a final goodbye flushing down the toilet of history.
Bright future. Great odds. We are the brightest good guys for sure, and nothing else matters.
What utter arse gravy! I live in the ROI and I don’t remember us attacking and murdering all the (pro) English people remaining here in 1922+ unlike Ukraine which murdered 14,000 (pro) Russians that tried to secede after the Maidan coup; and vicious anti Russian attacks in Kyev, Odessa and especially the Donbas+ .. and that despite England exporting Irish food to England at gunpoint while a million Irishmen starved to death and a million and a half were forced to emigrate in ‘coffin’ ships a mere 70 years before. On the contrary, all were treated more than fairly and discrimination was entirely positive in favour of the English/protestant minority. NI under British control did the opposite! Gross discrimination against the Catholic minority for 75 years!
The US expects it and responds appropriately IF it doesn’t think they have it. Try reading more widely.
You can also be sceptical about the Russian mafia-state and “the latest thing” without parroting the blatant falsehoods of the military-industrial complex and globalism.
Comparing the relations between the straightforward Bandera-obsessed Ukrainian mafia-state and the Russian mafia-state with the relations of ROI with UK tells everything about your current level of blindness and ignorance.
Well let’s have some more “Lie after lie after lie” then, just to bring your comparison into some balance.
Let’s imagine that ROI not just organises camps with expressed nazi signs, slogans and curriculum for tens of thousands of children for years after years with the declared aim to kill “British orks”, but also that its leaders demand nuclear weapons from China “for security” against the “British threat” long before any actual military activity of London, but after ever-growing conventional “military aid” from China and visible military build-up in the ROI for almost a decade. All this in addition to decade-long systematic oppression, terror and killing of hundreds (if not thousands) of local Englishmen – especially in NI. Then, after a badly planned/organized eventual intervention by London, ROI unleashes a global hysteria over the “illegal, unprovoked, appalling aggression” and over the (NI-included) “territorial integrity” of ROI, all of which becoming such an unquestionable mantra that it is worth hundreds of thousands killed, millions physically and mentally damaged without the slightest consideration of negotiations “with the aggressor”. Now let’s imagine that ROI, however ruled by the sickest oligarchs and being in fact the most corrupt playgroud in Europe, now cherished as the cornerstone of democracy. Having been freely aligned to (acquired by) the most prominent corporate and political powers of China, it is now receiving hundreds of billions worth of ammunition against the British aggressors. China does not even hide that it seeks “regime change” in the UK: total cleansing of current “authoritarian” political and business establishment and replacement with “freedom-fighter” opposition powers and “economic freedom”. The aim is, and has ever been, to “share democratic values and the same level of commitment to human rights” as in China (not that China and its allies could control anything that used to be controlled by the UK, however it might lead to the very same outcome). Also accidently, all major “independent” Chinese media outlets, business and public figures unanimously echo the exact same view with the exact same words, mocking and smearing immediately anyone with any kind of understanding towards the UK or the British people, even banning and retrospectively cancelling the most comprehensive, persistent sources that “spread disinformation and the UK-narrative.” Consequently, the Chinese society is extremely pro-ROI, intellectuals and business leaders are even more than common people.
They are truly convinced that the UK must (and will) face and admit the humiliating conventional defeat, during the cheering victory of the considerably smaller but heavenly heroic ROI, because it is what the UK deserves after its dumb aggression against the “whole” civilised world. The dog’s bark is worse than its bite: the blood-sucking, children-raping, genocidal, terrorist, defeated UK dictator will shamefully be chicken (maybe he will even transfer the nukes to the hero museum in Dublin or directly to China), while overseeing the collapse of its state and kissing its culture a final goodbye flushing down the toilet of history.
Bright future. Great odds. We are the brightest good guys for sure, and nothing else matters.
You can also be sceptical about the Russian mafia-state and “the latest thing” without parroting the blatant falsehoods of the military-industrial complex and globalism.
Comparing the relations between the straightforward Bandera-obsessed Ukrainian mafia-state and the Russian mafia-state with the relations between ROI and UK tells everything about your current level of blindness and ignorance.
Well let’s have some more “Lie after lie after lie” then, just to bring your comparison into some balance.
Let’s imagine that ROI not just organises camps with expressed nazi signs, slogans and curriculum for tens of thousands of children for years after years with the declared aim to kill “British orks”, but also that its leaders demand nuclear weapons from China “for security” against the “British threat” long before any actual military activity of London, but after ever-growing conventional “military aid” from China and visible military build-up in the ROI for almost a decade. All this in addition to decade-long systematic oppression, terror and killing of hundreds (if not thousands) of local Englishmen – especially in NI. Then, after a badly planned/organized eventual intervention by London, ROI unleashes a global hysteria over the “illegal, unprovoked, appalling aggression” and over the (NI-included) “territorial integrity” of ROI, all of which becoming such an unquestionable mantra that it is worth hundreds of thousands killed, millions physically and mentally damaged without the slightest consideration of negotiations “with the aggressor”. Now let’s imagine that ROI, however ruled by the sickest oligarchs and being in fact the most corrupt playgroud in Europe, now cherished as the cornerstone of democracy. Having been freely aligned to (acquired by) the most prominent corporate and political powers of China, it is now receiving hundreds of billions worth of ammunition against the British aggressors. China does not even hide that it seeks “regime change” in the UK: total cleansing of current “authoritarian” political and business establishment and replacement with “freedom-fighter” opposition powers and “economic freedom”. The aim is, and has ever been, to “share democratic values and the same level of commitment to human rights” as in China (not that China and its allies could control anything that used to be controlled by the UK, however it might lead to the very same outcome). Also accidently, all major “independent” Chinese media outlets, business and public figures unanimously echo the exact same view with the exact same words, mocking and smearing immediately anyone with any kind of understanding towards the UK or the British people, even banning and retrospectively cancelling the most comprehensive, persistent sources that “spread disinformation and the UK-narrative.” Consequently, the Chinese society is extremely pro-ROI, intellectuals and business leaders are even more than common people.
They are truly convinced that the UK must (and will) face and admit the humiliating conventional defeat, during the cheering victory of the considerably smaller but heavenly heroic ROI, because it is what the UK deserves after its dumb aggression against the “whole” civilised world. The dog’s bark is worse than its bite: the blood-sucking, children-raping, genocidal, terrorist, defeated UK dictator will shamefully be chicken (maybe he will even transfer the nukes to the hero museum in Dublin or directly to China), while overseeing the collapse of its state and kissing its culture a final goodbye flushing down the toilet of history.
Bright future. Great odds. We are the brightest good guys for sure, and nothing else matters.
What utter arse gravy! I live in the ROI and I don’t remember us attacking and murdering all the (pro) English people remaining here in 1922+ unlike Ukraine which murdered 14,000 (pro) Russians that tried to secede after the Maidan coup; and vicious anti Russian attacks in Kyev, Odessa and especially the Donbas+ .. and that despite England exporting Irish food to England at gunpoint while a million Irishmen starved to death and a million and a half were forced to emigrate in ‘coffin’ ships a mere 70 years before. On the contrary, all were treated more than fairly and discrimination was entirely positive in favour of the English/protestant minority. NI under British control did the opposite! Gross discrimination against the Catholic minority for 75 years!
The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” Read Putin. So Ukraine should go cap in hand to Moscow and relinquish its people and its territory until Putin says: “Thanks” Your alarmism is nothing more than appeasement and we know how that will end for eastern Europe and the Baltics.
The alternative is emotionally unsatisfying and involves lots of people dying because that’s the nature of war. Your claim of 7:1 Ukrainian to Russian dead is unsupported because its untrue. The Ukrainians never sought war and they deserve the aid, weapons, and political support the West can provide until they have driven every last occupier from their land — or until they’ve had enough and are prepared to cut a deal. But that is their decision, not ours. After 15 months of war and more than 150,000 casualties, they’ve earned the right to make it. After all, we would want the same, if we were in their shoes. And like them, we’d want our friends to do the right thing.
Good versus evil; right versus wrong. Its really is that simple. And you will be reminded of that when this is over
Very well said.
It’s astonishing that people are still posting the sort of garbage and lies that you had to reply to.
Ah! – from the man that struggles to know the difference between fish and CHIPS and microchips.
This is what most thinking Americans think of the West:
“How much evidence is required before it is clear that Western Civilization is empty of integrity, judgment, reason, morality, empathy, compassion, self-awareness, truth, empty of everything that Western Civilization once respected?
All that is left of the West is insouciance and unrestrained evil.”
~Dr Paul Craig Roberts, former Undersecretary Of Treasury, Reagan Administration
Can’t you be a bit more original Branagan?
You keep on quoting Roberts and it is becoming rather tedious.
That about sums it up alright.. but in the immortal words of Sam Golwin “include us (Irish) out”.. We’ll ‘none it. Not our circus, not our monkey even. If the UK is smart it’ll go for a little humility and brown nosing to the new Empire, the BRICS+ Empire.. if not it’ll go down the toilet (even further) with the end of empire, rotten to the core, declining US.
Can’t you be a bit more original Branagan?
You keep on quoting Roberts and it is becoming rather tedious.
That about sums it up alright.. but in the immortal words of Sam Golwin “include us (Irish) out”.. We’ll ‘none it. Not our circus, not our monkey even. If the UK is smart it’ll go for a little humility and brown nosing to the new Empire, the BRICS+ Empire.. if not it’ll go down the toilet (even further) with the end of empire, rotten to the core, declining US.
What have you done to ‘wind up’ Branagan?
Ah! – from the man that struggles to know the difference between fish and CHIPS and microchips.
This is what most thinking Americans think of the West:
“How much evidence is required before it is clear that Western Civilization is empty of integrity, judgment, reason, morality, empathy, compassion, self-awareness, truth, empty of everything that Western Civilization once respected?
All that is left of the West is insouciance and unrestrained evil.”
~Dr Paul Craig Roberts, former Undersecretary Of Treasury, Reagan Administration
What have you done to ‘wind up’ Branagan?
True, the current US/EU sympathetic Ukrainians thought that the ethnic Russian enclaves would simply accept the US/NATO/EU backed overthrow of a Russian leaning President.
They did accept the overthrow.
It took the Russian Army to stop the Ukrainians at Ilovaisk.
That they also shot down an airliner with a Buk (secretly smuggled in-country) was an unfortunate minor detail.
Looks like Shakhtar is returning to Donetsk…
They did accept the overthrow.
It took the Russian Army to stop the Ukrainians at Ilovaisk.
That they also shot down an airliner with a Buk (secretly smuggled in-country) was an unfortunate minor detail.
Looks like Shakhtar is returning to Donetsk…
Why would the 7:1 claim be untrue? Didn’t the recent pentagon papers leak show close to that?
Putin’s invasion is inexcusable but the fighting in the Donbass since 2014 and refusal to implement the Minsk accords were contributing factors.
As to it being ‘[Ukraine’s] decision’ on when to end this, it absolutely is not– the US and Nato are propping things up in Ukraine and if they decide to pull the plug for whatever reason (cost, rising unpopularity at home) then Ukraine will have to accept it. This is a proxy war with Ukrainian lives (and Russian ones) used as pawns.
Good versus evil; right versus wrong. Its really is that simple. And you will be reminded of that when this is over.
I always admire people who are simple enough to believe that things are that simple.
The war is not 15 months old, it is 8 years and 15 months old!
Very well said.
It’s astonishing that people are still posting the sort of garbage and lies that you had to reply to.
True, the current US/EU sympathetic Ukrainians thought that the ethnic Russian enclaves would simply accept the US/NATO/EU backed overthrow of a Russian leaning President.
Why would the 7:1 claim be untrue? Didn’t the recent pentagon papers leak show close to that?
Putin’s invasion is inexcusable but the fighting in the Donbass since 2014 and refusal to implement the Minsk accords were contributing factors.
As to it being ‘[Ukraine’s] decision’ on when to end this, it absolutely is not– the US and Nato are propping things up in Ukraine and if they decide to pull the plug for whatever reason (cost, rising unpopularity at home) then Ukraine will have to accept it. This is a proxy war with Ukrainian lives (and Russian ones) used as pawns.
Good versus evil; right versus wrong. Its really is that simple. And you will be reminded of that when this is over.
I always admire people who are simple enough to believe that things are that simple.
The war is not 15 months old, it is 8 years and 15 months old!
I don’t agree with your calling the neocons running the shit show in the US leftists but the rest of it is pretty much spot on.
Why would any leftist help Blackrock and Vanguard loot the planet much less Ukraine?
It seems extreme right-wing warhawks are now leftist; and liberal means ending free speech; and Conservative means leav8ng nothing for 90% of people; and news is fake; and propaganda is news; black’s white today, day’s night today and so goes the song..
It seems extreme right-wing warhawks are now leftist; and liberal means ending free speech; and Conservative means leav8ng nothing for 90% of people; and news is fake; and propaganda is news; black’s white today, day’s night today and so goes the song..
I personally think you are right as are pundits such as Col McGregor. Any way the offensive is going to take place in next three or four weeks so we should have a definitive answer before long. Interesting to see who is right.
I’m betting big bucks there’ll be no major counter-offensive.. maybe a few show charges/retreats to keep the money flow alive and the propagandists, warhawks and military industrial complex in business.
It’ll grind away, ever do slow ..but ever so sure in Russia’s favour, for years..
I’m betting big bucks there’ll be no major counter-offensive.. maybe a few show charges/retreats to keep the money flow alive and the propagandists, warhawks and military industrial complex in business.
It’ll grind away, ever do slow ..but ever so sure in Russia’s favour, for years..
The Biden’s have done well out of the Ukraine I expect, pity the US MSM didn’t decide to look more closely at the ‘skills’ Biden Jnr had that paid so well in Ukraine’s fossil fuel industry when they had that laptop hard drive data.
Indeed.
Doubtless Biden colluded with Putin to invade.
Indeed.
Doubtless Biden colluded with Putin to invade.
He certainly got that right. The US MIC is now an out of control monster that forments war all over the planet in order to feed its voracious appetite..
But the rapidly growing BRICS+, crippling debt, senile/lunatic leaders, virtual civil war and above all de-dollarisation will spell the end of the murderous US evil empire. If the UK is smart it’ll switch its allegiance to BRICS+
Lie after lie after lie.
The Ukrainians are not losing seven to every one Russian. This is an old piece of nonsense spread about by Col Douglas McGregor, who made a number of very precise and falsifiable predictions about the war which turned out to be incorrect (for example, that Ukrainian military would have collapsed before the first patriot missile system was active in the country).
Aside from that whopper, the Russian combat medical system is inferior, not superior, to Ukraine’s. The war is not simply a new WW1, drones and tanks do play a significant role in combat. We have only seriously been training Ukraine for the last 9 years, since the first Russian invasion. The BRICS and associated countries have not formed an alliance against the West. The West’s debt is almost entirely the result of lockdowns, the military spending has made negligible difference in comparison.
Russia does not, despite what Putin says, have a god-given right to a friendly and submissive neighbour (we in the UK don’t expect that, and we certainly don’t get it, from ROI). Ukraine should be free to choose it’s own path, and if Russia had a less corrupt, malevolent government, and had shown at least some remorse for Stalin’s actions, it might have been more attractive at least to southern and eastern Ukrainians.
You can be skeptical about the military-industrial complex, globalism, and “the latest thing” without parroting the Russian mafia-state’s blatant falsehoods.
The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” Read Putin. So Ukraine should go cap in hand to Moscow and relinquish its people and its territory until Putin says: “Thanks” Your alarmism is nothing more than appeasement and we know how that will end for eastern Europe and the Baltics.
The alternative is emotionally unsatisfying and involves lots of people dying because that’s the nature of war. Your claim of 7:1 Ukrainian to Russian dead is unsupported because its untrue. The Ukrainians never sought war and they deserve the aid, weapons, and political support the West can provide until they have driven every last occupier from their land — or until they’ve had enough and are prepared to cut a deal. But that is their decision, not ours. After 15 months of war and more than 150,000 casualties, they’ve earned the right to make it. After all, we would want the same, if we were in their shoes. And like them, we’d want our friends to do the right thing.
Good versus evil; right versus wrong. Its really is that simple. And you will be reminded of that when this is over
I don’t agree with your calling the neocons running the shit show in the US leftists but the rest of it is pretty much spot on.
Why would any leftist help Blackrock and Vanguard loot the planet much less Ukraine?
I personally think you are right as are pundits such as Col McGregor. Any way the offensive is going to take place in next three or four weeks so we should have a definitive answer before long. Interesting to see who is right.
The Biden’s have done well out of the Ukraine I expect, pity the US MSM didn’t decide to look more closely at the ‘skills’ Biden Jnr had that paid so well in Ukraine’s fossil fuel industry when they had that laptop hard drive data.
He certainly got that right. The US MIC is now an out of control monster that forments war all over the planet in order to feed its voracious appetite..
But the rapidly growing BRICS+, crippling debt, senile/lunatic leaders, virtual civil war and above all de-dollarisation will spell the end of the murderous US evil empire. If the UK is smart it’ll switch its allegiance to BRICS+
Come on…..
”the result of an all-out offensive could be a spectacular Russian defeat, complete with an unprecedented number of prisoners.”
Sure it will – then Ukrainian tanks in Red Square.
Ukraine loses 7 men for every Russian lost. The medical system Ukraine has for injured is a fraction of the Russian so their disabled are disproportionate on top of that. This is not the war of drones and missiles all expected – it is WWI and the grinding of men into an artillery barrage meat grinder from ranges nothing else can reach. Russia is expert at this – the Great Western thinkers planned otherwise and called it wrong.
This is a wicked, evil, corrupt Political Proxy War which was none of our business – and by pumping in $200 Billion, and Intel, and training and arming Ukraine for this very war the last 15 years –
We used that poor nation as the chess board and pawns to play a globalist war game on – resulting in the collateral damage of destroying the People, Infrastructure, and nation of Ukraine its self. It has about destroyed Europe, wrecked the global economy, caused BRICS+++++++ to form an alliance against the West. It has Saddled USA with vast debt that really is disastrous just now fallowing the Great Plandemic.
Now Blackrock and Vanguard have officially been given Ukraine as their property to rebuild by sucking endlessly more Western Tax Dollars into the money pit. They will own Ukraine for ever.
You Globalist, Warmongering Lefty-Neo-Con Vampires have killed and destroyed your way around the globe for 80 years – Exactly, Exactly as Ike said you would.
Dwight Eisenhower:
”American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. . . . This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. . . .Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. . . . In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
“It was because Germany was neither devastated nor occupied after its surrender”.
It was in fact partially occupied by allied troops (mainly French and Belgian). Ruhr to 1925, Rhineland to 1930. Saarland to 1935. Large major industrial areas. Apparently we (Britain) were in and around Cologne until 1929. Alsace-Lorraine was also recovered by France.
Germany was also near starvation in 1918. About to collapse.
“Germany was also near starvation in 1918”
The Ukrainian harvest of 1918 would have taken care of that if ‘they’ hadn’t been so overconfident..
ps. Come on, who seriously denies this?
Fine, but they still were being pushed back so much that the front would never have held.
Germany had already exhausted its eastern forces, whereas the US was still sending in fresh forces. They had no alternative but surrender in 1918.
If they had gone on the defensive on the Western front in March 1918, they could probably have slaughtered a million Americans and put ‘Black Jack’ Pershing back in his box where he rightly deserved to be.
So In Operation Michael they essentially did what the Russians have done in the last few months?
I’m reminded of an old aphorism.
“There are no “ifs” in war.”
Hardly!
They had already ‘won’ at Brest-Litovsk and should have sought a compromise peace in the West.
“A bird in the hand etc”……
Yeah, “shudda”.
Like Putin “shudda” stayed in Russia.
Yeah, “shudda”.
Like Putin “shudda” stayed in Russia.
Hardly!
They had already ‘won’ at Brest-Litovsk and should have sought a compromise peace in the West.
“A bird in the hand etc”……
So In Operation Michael they essentially did what the Russians have done in the last few months?
I’m reminded of an old aphorism.
“There are no “ifs” in war.”
If they had gone on the defensive on the Western front in March 1918, they could probably have slaughtered a million Americans and put ‘Black Jack’ Pershing back in his box where he rightly deserved to be.
Fine, but they still were being pushed back so much that the front would never have held.
Germany had already exhausted its eastern forces, whereas the US was still sending in fresh forces. They had no alternative but surrender in 1918.
They were also discovering the new method of ‘combined arms’ warfare that that Britain pioneered on the introduction of the Tank was something they couldn’t handle and were losing ground at rates not seen since the very early days of the war prior to the trench lines.
Only AFTER the ‘Kaiserschlacht’ had failed (just).
ps.Who seriously denies this? Branagan perhaps?
The point is, it failed, and there were no further reserves.
Didn’t I say it failed?
Unfortunately the Cavalry, nearly 1 million of them were in the East, controlling the new post Brest-Litovsk acquisitions, when otherwise they could have broken through at Amiens, n’est pas?
Since Russia has neither a million men in the east, nor has it refrained from suicidal attacks all winter, I am at a loss as to what your analogy is supposed to mean.
We seem to be talking at cross-purposes!
We seem to be talking at cross-purposes!
Since Russia has neither a million men in the east, nor has it refrained from suicidal attacks all winter, I am at a loss as to what your analogy is supposed to mean.
Didn’t I say it failed?
Unfortunately the Cavalry, nearly 1 million of them were in the East, controlling the new post Brest-Litovsk acquisitions, when otherwise they could have broken through at Amiens, n’est pas?
The point is, it failed, and there were no further reserves.
Only AFTER the ‘Kaiserschlacht’ had failed (just).
ps.Who seriously denies this? Branagan perhaps?
The point he is making is that the infrastructure behind the German border remained intact, and civilian losses were insignificant.Contrast that with Belgium in 1918 – no infrastructure to speak of near the battlefields and a massive ex-pat refugee population.
For (gallant little) Belgium, substitute Ukraine; for Germany substitute Russia – the parallels aren’t perfect, but an unmarred Russia is a Russia that could pick up the cudgel more easily. And the question has to be how Russia can be persuaded to give up the cudgel and the ambitions that encourages them to wield it.
As earlier posters have noted, by 1918 Germany was starving and the Kaiserschlacht (a series of German offensives launched in the spring and summer of 1918 using tactical innovations that succeeded in breaking the stalemate of the trenches) had failed (just). Its economy was suffering the cumulative effect of the British naval blockade and the overall expense of the war. It was also facing political instability at home and serious battlefield reverses after American troops arrived in force on the Western Front. I’m afraid Russia will have to find itself in a similar condition before Putin – or whoever succeeds him – will have no choice but to end his war because Russia simply cannot afford to continue it. To achieve that, those of us who are supporting Ukraine must break the Russian economy. I don’t mean permanently. Post-war economic recovery will be needed for Russia to pay its reparations bills. But, anyway, we’re not doing it.
But I think we are (“doing it”). Of course, Putin and his cronies are doing most of the grunt work trashing Russia by themeselves. We’re just doing a little extra with sanctions to help push it over the edge.
The bottom line is that a corrupt kleptocracy with a huge secret police organisation (FSB) and censored media cannot run and maintain a sophisticated modern economy over the long term. Russia relied massively on foreign technology and technical support for much of its oil and gas industry (doing the really difficult stuff) as well as advanced weapons. They simply don’t have the technology, people or management to do these things properly.
Doubtless Putin’s ego and delusion are so great that he’ll blame the Russian people for being unworthy when it all collapses around him. Just as that German dictator (corrupt kleptocracy, secret police state, all critics liquidated) did in 1945.
Russia is now so broken that a catastrophic collapse is the only way things will ever break out of their self-destructive mould. Until they root out the KGB/FSB, nothing will change.
But I think we are (“doing it”). Of course, Putin and his cronies are doing most of the grunt work trashing Russia by themeselves. We’re just doing a little extra with sanctions to help push it over the edge.
The bottom line is that a corrupt kleptocracy with a huge secret police organisation (FSB) and censored media cannot run and maintain a sophisticated modern economy over the long term. Russia relied massively on foreign technology and technical support for much of its oil and gas industry (doing the really difficult stuff) as well as advanced weapons. They simply don’t have the technology, people or management to do these things properly.
Doubtless Putin’s ego and delusion are so great that he’ll blame the Russian people for being unworthy when it all collapses around him. Just as that German dictator (corrupt kleptocracy, secret police state, all critics liquidated) did in 1945.
Russia is now so broken that a catastrophic collapse is the only way things will ever break out of their self-destructive mould. Until they root out the KGB/FSB, nothing will change.
Spot on… for saying that’s what the article is pointing out, and spot on to the writer for saying it. It is the interpretation that best fits the facts, at least to my mind.
As earlier posters have noted, by 1918 Germany was starving and the Kaiserschlacht (a series of German offensives launched in the spring and summer of 1918 using tactical innovations that succeeded in breaking the stalemate of the trenches) had failed (just). Its economy was suffering the cumulative effect of the British naval blockade and the overall expense of the war. It was also facing political instability at home and serious battlefield reverses after American troops arrived in force on the Western Front. I’m afraid Russia will have to find itself in a similar condition before Putin – or whoever succeeds him – will have no choice but to end his war because Russia simply cannot afford to continue it. To achieve that, those of us who are supporting Ukraine must break the Russian economy. I don’t mean permanently. Post-war economic recovery will be needed for Russia to pay its reparations bills. But, anyway, we’re not doing it.
Spot on… for saying that’s what the article is pointing out, and spot on to the writer for saying it. It is the interpretation that best fits the facts, at least to my mind.
“Ruhr to 1925, Rhineland to 1930. Saarland to 1935.”
Which only makes it harder to explain how Germany so quickly became strong enough to take on the whole of civilization and nearly win.
Practice.
ps: The unpalatable fact is that the German Army, whether the Kaiser’s or the Wehrmacht was the finest army the Western World has ever seen since the Roman Legions.
Finest “single army.”
A coalition always beats the best of armies, as Felipe II, Louis XIV, Napoleon, Hitler and now Putin discovered.
IOW, good statecraft beats militarism every time.
Rome destroyed countless ‘coalitions’.
And Rome wasn’t in modern Europe.
Hegemons always lose in Europe. The safest bet there is.
As Putin is finding to his cost.
“And Rome wasn’t in modern Europe”.
Who said it was? But it did ‘create’ Europe, even giving ‘us’ the poisoned chalice of christianity.
However Louis XIV defeated the allies in the War of the Spanish Succession and achieved his primary aim of placing a Bourbon on the Spanish Throne, did he not?
Had Napoleon NOT attacked Russia would he have been defeated?
Felipe II managed to retain half of the Netherlands, defeat France and dominate much of Europe, and later an exhausted England dropped out of the contest under James I.
I imagine you would call Charlemagne a hegemon?
And Philippe Auguste, didn’t he comprehensively defeat the coalition of John and the German ‘Emperor’ at Bouvines?
Well, simply point out a power that has ever dominated Europe in the modern period.
You can’t.
And the ones who tried the most to attain supreme power fell the hardest.
You’re just going to have to get over your sentimental attachment to Russia.
Putin has wrecked it permanently.
Well, simply point out a power that has ever dominated Europe in the modern period.
You can’t.
And the ones who tried the most to attain supreme power fell the hardest.
You’re just going to have to get over your sentimental attachment to Russia.
Putin has wrecked it permanently.
“And Rome wasn’t in modern Europe”.
Who said it was? But it did ‘create’ Europe, even giving ‘us’ the poisoned chalice of christianity.
However Louis XIV defeated the allies in the War of the Spanish Succession and achieved his primary aim of placing a Bourbon on the Spanish Throne, did he not?
Had Napoleon NOT attacked Russia would he have been defeated?
Felipe II managed to retain half of the Netherlands, defeat France and dominate much of Europe, and later an exhausted England dropped out of the contest under James I.
I imagine you would call Charlemagne a hegemon?
And Philippe Auguste, didn’t he comprehensively defeat the coalition of John and the German ‘Emperor’ at Bouvines?
And Rome wasn’t in modern Europe.
Hegemons always lose in Europe. The safest bet there is.
As Putin is finding to his cost.
Rome destroyed countless ‘coalitions’.
Finest “single army.”
A coalition always beats the best of armies, as Felipe II, Louis XIV, Napoleon, Hitler and now Putin discovered.
IOW, good statecraft beats militarism every time.
Practice.
ps: The unpalatable fact is that the German Army, whether the Kaiser’s or the Wehrmacht was the finest army the Western World has ever seen since the Roman Legions.
“Germany was also near starvation in 1918”
The Ukrainian harvest of 1918 would have taken care of that if ‘they’ hadn’t been so overconfident..
ps. Come on, who seriously denies this?
They were also discovering the new method of ‘combined arms’ warfare that that Britain pioneered on the introduction of the Tank was something they couldn’t handle and were losing ground at rates not seen since the very early days of the war prior to the trench lines.
The point he is making is that the infrastructure behind the German border remained intact, and civilian losses were insignificant.Contrast that with Belgium in 1918 – no infrastructure to speak of near the battlefields and a massive ex-pat refugee population.
For (gallant little) Belgium, substitute Ukraine; for Germany substitute Russia – the parallels aren’t perfect, but an unmarred Russia is a Russia that could pick up the cudgel more easily. And the question has to be how Russia can be persuaded to give up the cudgel and the ambitions that encourages them to wield it.
“Ruhr to 1925, Rhineland to 1930. Saarland to 1935.”
Which only makes it harder to explain how Germany so quickly became strong enough to take on the whole of civilization and nearly win.
“It was because Germany was neither devastated nor occupied after its surrender”.
It was in fact partially occupied by allied troops (mainly French and Belgian). Ruhr to 1925, Rhineland to 1930. Saarland to 1935. Large major industrial areas. Apparently we (Britain) were in and around Cologne until 1929. Alsace-Lorraine was also recovered by France.
Germany was also near starvation in 1918. About to collapse.
After 14 months of war there seems to be a few points of common agreement. The invasion was wrong. Russia’s plan for a quick win failed. The BRICS + union has been strengthened. Rising fuel prices have hurt western economies. There’s been a huge amount of destruction and suffering that must end.
Most of what we hear from the Kremlin is certainly propaganda but I’m reluctant to take that to mean that most of what we hear from the West is not propaganda. Support for Ukraine is to be expected by any reasonable standard but asking questions is not indicative of lack of support or Putin apologetics nor is cynicism or lack of confidence that anybody knows what’s going on.
Why was Russia allowed to cross the border in the first place? The forces were gathered at the border so was there any “Don’t even think about it” message from the West? The same western leaders (backed by The Science) that made a balls-up of the pandemic response have been telling us (backed by The Experts) for over a year that Russian defeat is imminent and inevitable. We were told that Russia had one chance. Strike quickly. If they didn’t win in less than a month they were finished. Russia failed to secure a quick win yet here we are.
As events dragged on Zelenskyy’s Zoom World Tour drummed up support. He understood the danger of the war dropping off the news cycle. First he pleaded for money. Then artillery and shells. Then tanks. Then aircraft. The West (mostly the US) has responded to those pleas to varying degrees. (Canada’s response evoked Python’s Cheese Shop – “Do you have any 155mm shells?” – “Not as such”) Still the war continues. What’s next? Tactical nukes? Troops?.
Russia’s economic collapse was assured yet they ship as much or more oil, grain and fertilizer than ever while Ukraine struggles to ship grain and its neighbours are having to implement protections to save their own farmers.
As a Canadian I have no illusions about my own government’s systemic cluelessness but is there any western leader that qualifies as the smartest guy in the room? The latest news has it that Ukraine’s Spring Offensive will end it yet this morning I see where Ukraine says they’re not ready yet. Other “experts” claim that this stalemate will last for years.
No, the Western leadership is dumb as dogshit and are high on their own flatulence.
The Ukraine offensive is not likely to happen as the forces they now have are much smaller than what they had originally and currently they can’t amass without being observed and hammered.
Ukraine has more tanks than it knows what to do with.
Most come from those left by Russia on the battlefield. A similar situation prevailed in the western desert, when the victor policed up all the equpt after a successful offensive.
..also they have a very long front line to man. It’s gotta take 100,000 to do that alone, surely. And if Ukraine commits to a major offensive at point A leaving points B, C, D and E without adequate defenders what’s to stop Russia doing likewise at any one if those points?
You’re right it’ll drag on for years until the West gets tired.. they’ll pull out then and let the Ukrainians be annihilated.. though I’m hoping Russians are better than that..
Ukraine has more tanks than it knows what to do with.
Most come from those left by Russia on the battlefield. A similar situation prevailed in the western desert, when the victor policed up all the equpt after a successful offensive.
..also they have a very long front line to man. It’s gotta take 100,000 to do that alone, surely. And if Ukraine commits to a major offensive at point A leaving points B, C, D and E without adequate defenders what’s to stop Russia doing likewise at any one if those points?
You’re right it’ll drag on for years until the West gets tired.. they’ll pull out then and let the Ukrainians be annihilated.. though I’m hoping Russians are better than that..
Why would Ukraine announce to the world that they are ready? I don’t believe they would be that stupid.
It follows a pattern, maybe ?
It follows a pattern, maybe ?
I agree, mostly.. a few points you use the word ‘troops’ as if Ukrainian and Russians don’t qualify? If Ukraine wants to mount a Spring offensive it has 2 weeks before Spring ends! By some measures Spring ended 17 days ago!
What’s important to know is that if a Ukrainian offensive does ever come the poor devils will be slaughtered like flies.. it will make the current level of slaughter look mild! Attackers, against well prepared defences will die at 4 times the rate Russians defenders die.. They have already lost 250,000-500,000 depending on whose propaganda you’re listening to.. maybe twice as many or more in seriously injured.. It is appalling.
No, the Western leadership is dumb as dogshit and are high on their own flatulence.
The Ukraine offensive is not likely to happen as the forces they now have are much smaller than what they had originally and currently they can’t amass without being observed and hammered.
Why would Ukraine announce to the world that they are ready? I don’t believe they would be that stupid.
I agree, mostly.. a few points you use the word ‘troops’ as if Ukrainian and Russians don’t qualify? If Ukraine wants to mount a Spring offensive it has 2 weeks before Spring ends! By some measures Spring ended 17 days ago!
What’s important to know is that if a Ukrainian offensive does ever come the poor devils will be slaughtered like flies.. it will make the current level of slaughter look mild! Attackers, against well prepared defences will die at 4 times the rate Russians defenders die.. They have already lost 250,000-500,000 depending on whose propaganda you’re listening to.. maybe twice as many or more in seriously injured.. It is appalling.
After 14 months of war there seems to be a few points of common agreement. The invasion was wrong. Russia’s plan for a quick win failed. The BRICS + union has been strengthened. Rising fuel prices have hurt western economies. There’s been a huge amount of destruction and suffering that must end.
Most of what we hear from the Kremlin is certainly propaganda but I’m reluctant to take that to mean that most of what we hear from the West is not propaganda. Support for Ukraine is to be expected by any reasonable standard but asking questions is not indicative of lack of support or Putin apologetics nor is cynicism or lack of confidence that anybody knows what’s going on.
Why was Russia allowed to cross the border in the first place? The forces were gathered at the border so was there any “Don’t even think about it” message from the West? The same western leaders (backed by The Science) that made a balls-up of the pandemic response have been telling us (backed by The Experts) for over a year that Russian defeat is imminent and inevitable. We were told that Russia had one chance. Strike quickly. If they didn’t win in less than a month they were finished. Russia failed to secure a quick win yet here we are.
As events dragged on Zelenskyy’s Zoom World Tour drummed up support. He understood the danger of the war dropping off the news cycle. First he pleaded for money. Then artillery and shells. Then tanks. Then aircraft. The West (mostly the US) has responded to those pleas to varying degrees. (Canada’s response evoked Python’s Cheese Shop – “Do you have any 155mm shells?” – “Not as such”) Still the war continues. What’s next? Tactical nukes? Troops?.
Russia’s economic collapse was assured yet they ship as much or more oil, grain and fertilizer than ever while Ukraine struggles to ship grain and its neighbours are having to implement protections to save their own farmers.
As a Canadian I have no illusions about my own government’s systemic cluelessness but is there any western leader that qualifies as the smartest guy in the room? The latest news has it that Ukraine’s Spring Offensive will end it yet this morning I see where Ukraine says they’re not ready yet. Other “experts” claim that this stalemate will last for years.
Please folks. It is one thing to have your patriotism boosted, and there is the reality of Russian power predominance over Ukraine and the probable horror of escalation. Plus the ghost of western “moral” justification of “defending” (non)democratic (non)values.
Yeah.. kill ’em all de bastaaads..!
Excuse my manners. It just feels so desperate some times watching this power game..
You are correct.. let us not forget that decent, ordinary young men (and now boys and old men) are being slaughtered on both sides.. they are dying horribly and grotesquely maimed. These are sons and fathers.. and civilians too. Thos3 while thing is utterly ghastly and there are many guilty parties on all sides, prolonging and escalating this carnage to make huge profits.. It is Satanically evil and Hell isn’t hot enough for those bustards!
You are correct.. let us not forget that decent, ordinary young men (and now boys and old men) are being slaughtered on both sides.. they are dying horribly and grotesquely maimed. These are sons and fathers.. and civilians too. Thos3 while thing is utterly ghastly and there are many guilty parties on all sides, prolonging and escalating this carnage to make huge profits.. It is Satanically evil and Hell isn’t hot enough for those bustards!
Please folks. It is one thing to have your patriotism boosted, and there is the reality of Russian power predominance over Ukraine and the probable horror of escalation. Plus the ghost of western “moral” justification of “defending” (non)democratic (non)values.
Yeah.. kill ’em all de bastaaads..!
Excuse my manners. It just feels so desperate some times watching this power game..
I’ve heard the Ukrainians are slaughtering the Russians 5:1. I’ve heard the Russians are slaughtering the Ukrainians 5:1. Can somebody please tell me which is correct (if either)? I must say tho, that if the Russians were wiping out the Ukrainians at that rate, then the war should have been over long ago for the simple fact that Russia is so much bigger — simple 5:1 attrition would have ended it after a few months.
If you want to know what going on in Ukraine,
find Scott Ritter and Colonel Douglas McGregor on YouTube.
So whoever marked this post down, doesn’t want to know what is really going on.
Closed minds are dangerous.
Not nearly as dangerous as Patriots.
2 Russian helos and 2 Russian jets down just today.
This will be over by Sept.
Except for the 5 or 10 million dead in the impending Russian Civil War.
Not nearly as dangerous as Patriots.
2 Russian helos and 2 Russian jets down just today.
This will be over by Sept.
Except for the 5 or 10 million dead in the impending Russian Civil War.
..but don’t rely solely on those..
So whoever marked this post down, doesn’t want to know what is really going on.
Closed minds are dangerous.
..but don’t rely solely on those..
It’s generally 3:1 in favour of defenders.
‘makes sense; they’re dug in behind defences. If you’re attacking you’re a sitting duck by comparison.. hence the virtual stalemate.
Most casualties are from artillery we’re told. If that’s true and Russia is using 3 times as much as Ukraine the 3:1 in favour or Russia seems more likely.. At least some of the Russian ‘retreats’ were really withdrawals to more easily defended positions so many of those glorious Ukrainian advances were nothing of the sort.
If you want to know what going on in Ukraine,
find Scott Ritter and Colonel Douglas McGregor on YouTube.
It’s generally 3:1 in favour of defenders.
‘makes sense; they’re dug in behind defences. If you’re attacking you’re a sitting duck by comparison.. hence the virtual stalemate.
Most casualties are from artillery we’re told. If that’s true and Russia is using 3 times as much as Ukraine the 3:1 in favour or Russia seems more likely.. At least some of the Russian ‘retreats’ were really withdrawals to more easily defended positions so many of those glorious Ukrainian advances were nothing of the sort.
I’ve heard the Ukrainians are slaughtering the Russians 5:1. I’ve heard the Russians are slaughtering the Ukrainians 5:1. Can somebody please tell me which is correct (if either)? I must say tho, that if the Russians were wiping out the Ukrainians at that rate, then the war should have been over long ago for the simple fact that Russia is so much bigger — simple 5:1 attrition would have ended it after a few months.
” the result of an all-out offensive could be a spectacular Russian defeat, complete with an unprecedented number of prisoners. It might even finally provoke challenges to Putin’s direction of the war, and hence his entire leadership.”
Or he could use tactical nuclear weapons and start WWIII.
” the result of an all-out offensive could be a spectacular Russian defeat, complete with an unprecedented number of prisoners. It might even finally provoke challenges to Putin’s direction of the war, and hence his entire leadership.”
Or he could use tactical nuclear weapons and start WWIII.
Lots of False Dmitry takes here below..
Lots of False Dmitry takes here below..
Sounds like pie in the sky to me but whado I kno? We keep hearing the army is almost annihilated and never has near enough weapons so it’s hard to know what to think, isn’t it? The Spring offensive never came, that’s clear as mud so now we wait for a Summer offensive and also to see which if any (or both) oblige. However we must never forget (as the author fails to mention) the appalling tradegy this whole dreadful bloody war is.. horrible, agonising death, injury, destruction and mental anguish on both sides; and for what? No one seems to know for sure!
Sounds like pie in the sky to me but whado I kno? We keep hearing the army is almost annihilated and never has near enough weapons so it’s hard to know what to think, isn’t it? The Spring offensive never came, that’s clear as mud so now we wait for a Summer offensive and also to see which if any (or both) oblige. However we must never forget (as the author fails to mention) the appalling tradegy this whole dreadful bloody war is.. horrible, agonising death, injury, destruction and mental anguish on both sides; and for what? No one seems to know for sure!
I can’t help but feel that we are being lulled into a feeling of superiority over the Russians and by extension, the Chinese. Once they feel that the West is no longer captured by this conflict, that the real forces will enter the fray and hit hard not just in the Ukraine, but Taiwan and beyond as well.
I can’t help but feel that we are being lulled into a feeling of superiority over the Russians and by extension, the Chinese. Once they feel that the West is no longer captured by this conflict, that the real forces will enter the fray and hit hard not just in the Ukraine, but Taiwan and beyond as well.
Some below have been reading Scott Ritter a little too much, it seems.
The Leopards are just the tip of a very long spear.
As in the Western Desert, nearly all of the damaged or inoperable tanks in this war have fallen into Ukrainian hands. So if anything, Ukraine has a superabundance of tanks, while Russia is shipping T-55s to the front. (They’re older than me!). The thousands of Ukrainian T-72s are old–but can still easily handle a T-55.
More importantly, the one thing the Ukrainians have been provided in abundance is landmine clearing and bridging equpt. So just as the allies penetrated the Siegfried line with relative ease, the same may go for the “Putin Line.”
Finally, any defence is only as good as its defenders. Every credible source speaks of Russian morale that is through the floor. And no wonder. Attacking the same area for half a year with zero success will sap the will of any army.
No one can predict the future. But only the Ukrainians can lose this war.
Russia gave up any chance of winning months ago.
As Genghis Khan said ” It is not the height of the wall that matters or the numbers of soldiers on it but their figthing spirit”.
It is remarkable the diversity of opinions on this war which is exactly what Orwell said about the military experts in WW2. Basically one can choose any expert one wants to support one’s beliefs.
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”*
(*Mike Tyson.)
Has anyone EVER seen an example of high Russian morale in this war?
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”*
(*Mike Tyson.)
Has anyone EVER seen an example of high Russian morale in this war?
Scott Ritter knows what he is talking about. You don’t.
Scott Ritter’s take on the war is not free from propaganda.. no one’s take on this war is free from propaganda! So we gotta filter everything we hear and assume the truth lies in between. However, some people need to be largely ignored because any truth they include in their gross exaggerations and lies is just too hard to find.. but hey, we listen anyway.
It’s just silly to say Ritter got a prediction wrong.. who didn’t?
Scott Ritter’s take on the war is not free from propaganda.. no one’s take on this war is free from propaganda! So we gotta filter everything we hear and assume the truth lies in between. However, some people need to be largely ignored because any truth they include in their gross exaggerations and lies is just too hard to find.. but hey, we listen anyway.
It’s just silly to say Ritter got a prediction wrong.. who didn’t?
Is that why Zelenskyy is on his knees begging for tanks? He says hes lost the 800 he started the war with.. is he lying?
As Genghis Khan said ” It is not the height of the wall that matters or the numbers of soldiers on it but their figthing spirit”.
It is remarkable the diversity of opinions on this war which is exactly what Orwell said about the military experts in WW2. Basically one can choose any expert one wants to support one’s beliefs.
Scott Ritter knows what he is talking about. You don’t.
Is that why Zelenskyy is on his knees begging for tanks? He says hes lost the 800 he started the war with.. is he lying?
Some below have been reading Scott Ritter a little too much, it seems.
The Leopards are just the tip of a very long spear.
As in the Western Desert, nearly all of the damaged or inoperable tanks in this war have fallen into Ukrainian hands. So if anything, Ukraine has a superabundance of tanks, while Russia is shipping T-55s to the front. (They’re older than me!). The thousands of Ukrainian T-72s are old–but can still easily handle a T-55.
More importantly, the one thing the Ukrainians have been provided in abundance is landmine clearing and bridging equpt. So just as the allies penetrated the Siegfried line with relative ease, the same may go for the “Putin Line.”
Finally, any defence is only as good as its defenders. Every credible source speaks of Russian morale that is through the floor. And no wonder. Attacking the same area for half a year with zero success will sap the will of any army.
No one can predict the future. But only the Ukrainians can lose this war.
Russia gave up any chance of winning months ago.
Professor Luttwak seems unaware of the numerous Russian attacks well outside Bahmut, such as Vuhledar, etc.
Russia has been attacking all along the line for the last four months, with zero success. Whereas it SHOULD have been conserving its forces to meet the inevitable Ukrainian counter attack. Putin & Co gave up on taking more than parts of Donbas months ago.
The genius of the Ukrainian defence was in convincing every Russian, both military and civilian, that their own army was dysfunctional, and incapable of launching coherent offensive action.
When the attack comes, it’s more than likely the Russian army will go the way of the Iraqi.
Professor Luttwak seems unaware of the numerous Russian attacks well outside Bahmut, such as Vuhledar, etc.
Russia has been attacking all along the line for the last four months, with zero success. Whereas it SHOULD have been conserving its forces to meet the inevitable Ukrainian counter attack. Putin & Co gave up on taking more than parts of Donbas months ago.
The genius of the Ukrainian defence was in convincing every Russian, both military and civilian, that their own army was dysfunctional, and incapable of launching coherent offensive action.
When the attack comes, it’s more than likely the Russian army will go the way of the Iraqi.
What’s cruelly ironic is that Russia could have been a quite wealthy and influential state–IF it had stayed within its own borders.
A modicum of Rule of Law and a genuine political culture could then have created something quite interesting.
If Russian commerce and industry had paralleled anything like what we saw in S. Korea, Japan, and eastern Europe, they could have attracted many of the nations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia to a more conservative way of thinking. That in turn could have created the very interesting intellectual atmosphere of pre-Soviet Russia.
But Putin chose force, because, in a corrupt kleptocracy, that’s all there is.
Putin had to remain dictator for life, because, in a kleptocracy, losing power means losing everything. He had to weaken his own army, because overcharging for armaments was the easiest way for crooks to make money. He had to make the Church into a branch of the FSB, because that was the best way to keep rural Russia passive and obedient. He had to throttle Russian culture, because any opposition is usually fatal to a corrupt regime.
Finally, Putin had to invade Ukraine and threaten every other former Warsaw Pace and Soviet nation with conquest–because that’s what “empires” do.
The end of the Russian Empire–and probably Russia itself.
Good points. S Korea in 1953 was very poor. If Russia had shown the the same determination to develop industry and improve living standards it could be very affluent by now.
Good points. S Korea in 1953 was very poor. If Russia had shown the the same determination to develop industry and improve living standards it could be very affluent by now.
What’s cruelly ironic is that Russia could have been a quite wealthy and influential state–IF it had stayed within its own borders.
A modicum of Rule of Law and a genuine political culture could then have created something quite interesting.
If Russian commerce and industry had paralleled anything like what we saw in S. Korea, Japan, and eastern Europe, they could have attracted many of the nations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia to a more conservative way of thinking. That in turn could have created the very interesting intellectual atmosphere of pre-Soviet Russia.
But Putin chose force, because, in a corrupt kleptocracy, that’s all there is.
Putin had to remain dictator for life, because, in a kleptocracy, losing power means losing everything. He had to weaken his own army, because overcharging for armaments was the easiest way for crooks to make money. He had to make the Church into a branch of the FSB, because that was the best way to keep rural Russia passive and obedient. He had to throttle Russian culture, because any opposition is usually fatal to a corrupt regime.
Finally, Putin had to invade Ukraine and threaten every other former Warsaw Pace and Soviet nation with conquest–because that’s what “empires” do.
The end of the Russian Empire–and probably Russia itself.
Nearly all of Russia’s “elite” forces (Desantniki, Morskhoy pekhoty, etc) have been obliterated in Gerasimov’s pointless winter attacks, while the conscripts haven’t had enough time to train up into viable military units.
This may well end far sooner than anyone suspects.
Poor Russia!
The very epitome of a Failed Culture.
Fascinating dialogue here.Some facts to consider, not apparently mentioned:
1 The Russian economy is doing well despite sanctions.
See the IMF report which admits their forecast of a large fall in GDP for 2022 was wrong and forecasts a better result in 2023, in fact better eg than the UK
2 All the commentators overlook the provocation that the Russian had to invade: 20 years of telling the US and Nato that an extension Eastwards towards Russian borders of Nato would be an “existential” threat to Russia…..
3 Commentators should read the Mary Sarotte book…”Not one inch” the commitment given to Russia in 1991 (I think) that Nato (then 7 members) would not expand Eastwards
Yes.
Unfortunately some people just cannot handle the truth and will not listen to reason.
Yes.
Unfortunately some people just cannot handle the truth and will not listen to reason.
You have it back to front.
Bakhmut is a killing field for Ukrainian conscripts.
Russia doesn’t even need airpower to destroy what is left of the Ukrainian army, such is their overwhelming superior artillery.
Wake up.
You DO know that artillery barrels wear out eventually, and become wildly inaccurate?
Most Russian rounds never hit their intended targets.
Sure.
That’s why Prigozhin is complaining about his lack of artillery.
And why the Russians are retreating in Bakhmut. Coldn’t make it by 9 May, so all their morale is gone.
YOU are making it up. You are full of it.
I’ll be looking out for your posts when this thing is over. Which of us will be eating humble pie….?
Never mind the humble pie.. what is the bet and what odds are given (generous U hope given the certainty?)?
Never mind the humble pie.. what is the bet and what odds are given (generous U hope given the certainty?)?
I’ll be looking out for your posts when this thing is over. Which of us will be eating humble pie….?
The Wagner group has 90% of Bahkmut.. no point in taking 100% as that would stop the frightful 6:1 Ukr: Ru murder rate.. Bahkmut is just a ‘killing field’ ..appalling.
YOU are making it up. You are full of it.
The Wagner group has 90% of Bahkmut.. no point in taking 100% as that would stop the frightful 6:1 Ukr: Ru murder rate.. Bahkmut is just a ‘killing field’ ..appalling.
You DO know that artillery barrels wear out eventually, and become wildly inaccurate?
Most Russian rounds never hit their intended targets.
Sure.
That’s why Prigozhin is complaining about his lack of artillery.
And why the Russians are retreating in Bakhmut. Coldn’t make it by 9 May, so all their morale is gone.
The very epitome of a Failed Culture.
Russia had the worst form of monarchy, followed by the worst form of communism, followed by the worst form of capitalism. Their main contributions to world culture post WWII are: advances in population manipulation – ‘political correctness’ enforced by violence, and Newspeak style propaganda (Fox news owes its success to those dark arts), and some great literature inspired by all that dysfunction and pain (where it could be smuggled out of the country).
We will see.. what’s your bet and what odds are you giving (in line with your certainty)?
Fascinating dialogue here.Some facts to consider, not apparently mentioned:
1 The Russian economy is doing well despite sanctions.
See the IMF report which admits their forecast of a large fall in GDP for 2022 was wrong and forecasts a better result in 2023, in fact better eg than the UK
2 All the commentators overlook the provocation that the Russian had to invade: 20 years of telling the US and Nato that an extension Eastwards towards Russian borders of Nato would be an “existential” threat to Russia…..
3 Commentators should read the Mary Sarotte book…”Not one inch” the commitment given to Russia in 1991 (I think) that Nato (then 7 members) would not expand Eastwards
You have it back to front.
Bakhmut is a killing field for Ukrainian conscripts.
Russia doesn’t even need airpower to destroy what is left of the Ukrainian army, such is their overwhelming superior artillery.
Wake up.
The very epitome of a Failed Culture.
Russia had the worst form of monarchy, followed by the worst form of communism, followed by the worst form of capitalism. Their main contributions to world culture post WWII are: advances in population manipulation – ‘political correctness’ enforced by violence, and Newspeak style propaganda (Fox news owes its success to those dark arts), and some great literature inspired by all that dysfunction and pain (where it could be smuggled out of the country).
We will see.. what’s your bet and what odds are you giving (in line with your certainty)?
Nearly all of Russia’s “elite” forces (Desantniki, Morskhoy pekhoty, etc) have been obliterated in Gerasimov’s pointless winter attacks, while the conscripts haven’t had enough time to train up into viable military units.
This may well end far sooner than anyone suspects.
Poor Russia!
The very epitome of a Failed Culture.
My, my!
Two Russian helos and 2 jets downed in one day.
Looks like it won’t be long now before what’s left of teh Russian army cracks. And when it does, there goes any prospect of holding the country together. Without a leader, every Russian politician will be fighting every other.
Just be glad you don’t live in Russia.
Pretty soon we’ll see Sledgehammer Executions on Red Square.
You are a delusional war-monger.
We don’t really know if these aircraft were destroyed or not. There has been so much propaganda coming out of Ukraine.
What motivates people like you ?
In the late 1980s, my father knew several high level Russian military/diplomats – he used to tease them about the imminent demise of the USSR, and was amazed that none of them had any idea of what was about to happen to the USSR, or the true state of things in the USSR. Contrast this with Western countries, in which there is perennial criticism and predictions of imminent demise, from within and without the country….and yet it never happens. Join the dots.
Except that the Russians confirm them.
And the Pro-war Milbloggers are hopping mad.
The End of Russia…
In the late 1980s, my father knew several high level Russian military/diplomats – he used to tease them about the imminent demise of the USSR, and was amazed that none of them had any idea of what was about to happen to the USSR, or the true state of things in the USSR. Contrast this with Western countries, in which there is perennial criticism and predictions of imminent demise, from within and without the country….and yet it never happens. Join the dots.
Except that the Russians confirm them.
And the Pro-war Milbloggers are hopping mad.
The End of Russia…
You are a delusional war-monger.
We don’t really know if these aircraft were destroyed or not. There has been so much propaganda coming out of Ukraine.
What motivates people like you ?
My, my!
Two Russian helos and 2 jets downed in one day.
Looks like it won’t be long now before what’s left of teh Russian army cracks. And when it does, there goes any prospect of holding the country together. Without a leader, every Russian politician will be fighting every other.
Just be glad you don’t live in Russia.
Pretty soon we’ll see Sledgehammer Executions on Red Square.
Like many, I have received many downvotes on my comment. Is Unherd required reading for every supporter of the Putin regime? That’s quite an accomplishment 😉
Those us who critise the West’s meddling in this conflict are not supporters of Putin’s regime.
The west instigated the conflict and the western media have been lying since the president was deposed by the CIA, et al.
We want a cease fire and negotiations.
Ben Wallace has no right to give away expensive
military hardware to a corrupt Ukraine led by a chancer and a crook.
But how else can we destroy Putin’s Russia?
This war will cost at least 5 million Russians. Maybe more, if we are generous.
Can’t think of a better bargain.
You really are a very sick individual.
Just have to accept that, as in 1917, Russia has embarked on a disastrous war, and must pay the consequences.
Just have to accept that, as in 1917, Russia has embarked on a disastrous war, and must pay the consequences.
You’re a nasty piece of work Logan and I can see you fit in snugly with the Bandera n¤z¡ lot in the Azov..
You really are a very sick individual.
You’re a nasty piece of work Logan and I can see you fit in snugly with the Bandera n¤z¡ lot in the Azov..
But how else can we destroy Putin’s Russia?
This war will cost at least 5 million Russians. Maybe more, if we are generous.
Can’t think of a better bargain.
A certain unHerd commenter once wrote:
“It’s very telling that those that speak the truth on this thread are receiving down votes. It proves that most people are brainwashed sheep, there is no hope for them.”
I trust he has reverse ferreted.
This is literally what every delusional, self-absorbed, awkward loser says sobbing the way out of their funny X Factor audition when everyone else is either laughing out loud or silently giggling with second-hand embarrassment.
Joke aside, this sense of “truth”, “brainwashed”, and the connection between them (“proof”) is truly amazing. Both the observation and the logic are rock solid, indeed. The “truth”, I am sure, is the essence of what the wise, “not brainwashed” people speak after consuming the WaPo, the NYT, The Guardian, Politico, Atlantic Council, ISW, the British Defence Intelligence Updates, the US State Department press releases and the Kyiv Post, and of course the “anonymous source” from the Pentagon / White House / Bankova that the above sacred sources cite, in addition to the trustworthy words from the lips of the frontline crusaders of truth such as Ursula, Joe, Tony, Rishi, Liz, Boris, Volodymyr, Jans, Kaja, Sanna etc., and every other actor of the Order who share the same “democratic values”, which is in total compliance with this thoughtful conclusion. Or…?
Or is Donald Trump’s downvoting also a proof that most people is brainwashed sheep? Or… in his case only (and in a couple of others according to your taste), we should not apply this rule?..
Wait, is there a glitch in the matrix?
Even a busted clock tells the right time occasionally!
This is literally what every delusional, self-absorbed, awkward loser says sobbing the way out of their funny X Factor audition when everyone else is either laughing out loud or silently giggling with second-hand embarrassment.
Joke aside, this sense of “truth”, “brainwashed”, and the connection between them (“proof”) is truly amazing. Both the observation and the logic are rock solid, indeed. The “truth”, I am sure, is the essence of what the wise, “not brainwashed” people speak after consuming the WaPo, the NYT, The Guardian, Politico, Atlantic Council, ISW, the British Defence Intelligence Updates, the US State Department press releases and the Kyiv Post, and of course the “anonymous source” from the Pentagon / White House / Bankova that the above sacred sources cite, in addition to the trustworthy words from the lips of the frontline crusaders of truth such as Ursula, Joe, Tony, Rishi, Liz, Boris, Volodymyr, Jans, Kaja, Sanna etc., and every other actor of the Order who share the same “democratic values”, which is in total compliance with this thoughtful conclusion. Or…?
Or is Donald Trump’s downvoting also a proof that most people is brainwashed sheep? Or… in his case only (and in a couple of others according to your taste), we should not apply this rule?..
Wait, is there a glitch in the matrix?
Even a busted clock tells the right time occasionally!
Is there a term I can use if I’m not a Putin supporter but a mere observer? Calling anyone unwilling or not stup8d enough to see through Western propaganda (despite the leaks!!) a Putin supporter is really juvenile. You’ll have to stop that rubbish if you want anyone to take you seriously.
Those us who critise the West’s meddling in this conflict are not supporters of Putin’s regime.
The west instigated the conflict and the western media have been lying since the president was deposed by the CIA, et al.
We want a cease fire and negotiations.
Ben Wallace has no right to give away expensive
military hardware to a corrupt Ukraine led by a chancer and a crook.
A certain unHerd commenter once wrote:
“It’s very telling that those that speak the truth on this thread are receiving down votes. It proves that most people are brainwashed sheep, there is no hope for them.”
I trust he has reverse ferreted.
Is there a term I can use if I’m not a Putin supporter but a mere observer? Calling anyone unwilling or not stup8d enough to see through Western propaganda (despite the leaks!!) a Putin supporter is really juvenile. You’ll have to stop that rubbish if you want anyone to take you seriously.
Like many, I have received many downvotes on my comment. Is Unherd required reading for every supporter of the Putin regime? That’s quite an accomplishment 😉