Ukraine

[Mortblanc]

I have to agree with CH on every point he has made.

Secondly, I am hesitant to speculate due to not believing any of the reported "facts" from the conflict since I have noted that much of the footage broadcast is old stock footage from other conflicts and computer generated imagery.

There has also been some of the stupidest reporting and reporters I have ever witnessed on the screen, asking some of the stupidest questions, then basing their summaries on emotion rather than facts one can use to form a valid opinion. I don't care how "heroically defiant" someone in a rear area in is in front of a camera, I want to see them standing over dead bodies.

I have been utterly astounded at the inefficiency and lack of organization of the Russian forces.

My observations of the combat footage I trust, and some of the regular news footage that I don't, is that both sides are engaged in some very amateurish tactics. In the 1970s we would have been relieved of command and court martialed, down to the squad level, for some of the things I have seen both sides do, if the footage is real.

That may be the reason why so many high ranking Russian officers have been killed. They are trying to go forward and kick some butt due to the lack of battalion, company and platoon grade leadership, thus exposing themselves to sniper and adjusted indirect fire. But they might as well die in battle, the Russians do not tolerate failure.

That extends to Putin. No Russian leader since Stalin has been allowed to fail this badly and retain power. I remember tanks rolling down the streets of Moscow and blowing holes in the Parliament building once upon a time.

That is the one and single important point to observe in all of this. Even if he retains power Putin has discovered that his army can not fight on equal terms with any opponent that is properly trained and armed. To dominate the modern geopolitical scene he must use NBC munitions of some form.

As for the defeat of the Ukraine being inevitable??? The myth of the undefeatable Russian State died in 1989 when the Afghans handed the Russians their butts on a platter using the same tools the Ukrainians are using.

They know what will be done to them if they lose this battle.
The Ukrainians know what the Russians did to them in the 1930s. The Russians starved to death more Ukrainians than all the people Hitler killed in the Holocaust. Then they moved ethnic Russians into the vacant lands they now claim as "culturally Russian", the exact lands they are claiming to "liberate" now.