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Ukraine Taking My Advice
When the Russians were pushed from Kharkiv back in September, I wrote an unpopular post advocating that Ukraine attack inside Russia. Here it is.
I just wanted to point out that Ukraine is now routinely doing this with the drones they have — Sunday night they hit a major Russian air base (Engels) some 300 km from the Ukrainian border. They are following Sun-Tzu: attack where the enemy is not defending. Leapfrog the guys on the ground, and make Russia pay where they are not expecting an attack. This is the way to force Putin to sue for peace. Ukraine should keep doing it with every tool available. The end of evil dictators is something we should very much desire.
I went back and read the comments. The things predicted by the naysayers on that post (loss of Western support, Russia escalating to nukes, etc.) have all NOT happened. Admittedly, I advocated attacking on the ground (not realizing Ukraine had the aerial reach to pull off these attacks), but the principle remains. And so does the result.
Sometimes, a guy just has to point out when he wuz right.
Published in General
That’s one way to put it, I guess. Now, if the Russians can only manage to “gain” their own border, they can really claim a great victory. Not a natural barrier, I admit, but sometimes a political barrier is even better. And they can shorten their lines to nothing – no lines at all. Very easy to defend. That’s the kind of outside-the-box thinking that wins wars.
Even if Russia somehow raises an army of 1,000,000 men AND takes Ukraine or most likely just part of Ukraine…
Trump-era COVID deaths at Election Day 2020 — 230,000.
3.78 times as many deaths during the vaccine, Biden, and less-deadly variant era.
…
Number of US military deaths in Afghanistan between August 2020 and July 2021 — ZERO.
Number of US military deaths in Afghanistan between August 2014 and July 2021
— 109, or about 1.3 deaths a month.
Number of US military deaths by accidents and suicide, 2006-2021: 11,128, or about 62 a month.
(And this number does not include undetermined or pending death investigations.)
Biden, Trump, and many Americans wanted the US to surrender, so the US surrendered. Possibly President Trump, Mike Pompeo, and others would have made the situation a bit better somehow by leaving in the non-fighting winter season and would have gained a few concessions, but I guess we will never know.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_in_the_War_in_Afghanistan
https://sgp.fas.org/crs/natsec/IF10899.pdf
These are some pretty impressive claims. Hope these turn out to be more accurate than the war in Serbia back in the 1990’s. We never could find those thousands of tanks we thought we had bombed.
Yeah, who knows what is exactly true.
One expert recently said that Russia has never surrendered in a war with losing at least 500,000 men.
I guess he does not include the Soviet–Afghan War where they lost between 14,453 and 26,000 men
The First Chechen War where they lost 14,000+
The Polish–Soviet War where they lost about 60,000 men with 80,000-85,000 taken prisoner
The Russo-Japanese War where they lost about 34,000–52,623 men with 74,369 taken prisoner, etc.
If the Russians aren’t surrendering until they lose 500,000 men, that means that this war could easily go on for another 5 or 10 years until Putin is 75 or 80 years old.
Average life expectancy for men in Russia is 66.49 years while the world average life expectancy for men is 70.57 years, so I just kind of assume that the war will continue until Putin is dead.
Biden picked up the most imbecilic Trump objective, and rather than bagging it like he did controlling our borders or maintaining our oil production, he implemented it on an accelerated basis just to get a 20 second sound bite for the twentieth anniversary of 9/11.
The Boy from Scranton has coal for brains.
The enemy of my enemy is still my enemy.
Putin is trying to intimidate or to go to war against Kazakhstan too.
Kazakhstan may have half the population of Ukraine, but it has about 4 1/2 times as much land as Ukraine.
All of Putin’s neighbors except for his puppet in Belarus seem to be really tired of the threats and intimidation.
The people in Belarus seem to be getting tired of Putin’s puppet in Belarus.
Who is the man in speaking in this video?
As I predicted back in April:
And I need to learn logic?
I was skeptical of your earlier call to flank the Russians by invading Russia itself. I still am. However, if the reports on Ukrainian drone strikes are accurate, that’s a good development. The important thing for me is that Ukraine should only hit military and logistical targets. It cannot hit civilians.
I’m glad Ukraine is taking the fight to the Russians and I hope that they can hold out through the winter.
Clearly.
For photo verified losses (which obviously undercounts the actual losses) try:
https://www.oryxspioenkop.com/2022/02/attack-on-europe-documenting-equipment.html
they note-
1577 Russian tanks lost
735 AFVs lost
1849 IFVs lost
etc
Come on man! The Kyiv Independent wouldn’t lie to you!
The Russians say that they’ve suffered 10,000 KIA. The Ukrainians say it’s 100,000. The UK MoD estimates 96,000.
They could all be lying.
Yes. And we promised Russia that we wouldn’t expand NATO eastward. Then we did, twice. Then, in 2008, we said that we were going to expand NATO eastward a third time, to Ukraine and Georgia. Then, when Ukraine had a pro-Russian government, we backed a pro-NATO, pro-EU coup in 2014. That led Russia to seize Crimea, and to support the breakaway Donbas regions.
There were two peace deals negotiated regarding the Donbas regions, which broke down, and the Ukrainians shelled civilian targets, as I understand it.
I also suspect that Putin had a tacit understanding with Trump about leaving the status quo alone, but when Biden took office, we announced — again — plans to make Ukraine a part of NATO. Russia made it clear that this was unacceptable, and we ignored their warning.
So, unsurprisingly, they attacked. Just as we probably would have done in Cuba had Khrushchev not backed down during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
No, it’s exactly the same thing. It’s about Russia preventing NATO and the EU from controlling Ukraine.
Also, in practice, the Monroe Doctrine has led to quite a bit of US domination and control over Central and South America.
A good reason not to let Russia control Ukraine if Ukraine doesn’t want it, no?
There is no treaty agreement saying we wouldn’t let NATO expand eastward, is there?
And the Ukrainians acted when they saw President Yanukovich carrying out a pro- Russia, anti-Ukraine coup in 2013. It’s good that we at least offered moral support. We shouldn’t support the aggressors, should we?
Anyone who can use the phrase “NATO domination” with a straight face hasn’t been paying attention. Last I heard, Germany still owes the alliance another armored brigade.
Michigan and Ohio State are not alike.
Please. If I wanted to hear about Ohio I’d be listening to Hugh Hewitt.
1)NATO “controlling“ Ukraine is a farcical notion. It isn’t analogous to the Warsaw Pact.
2) Nobody thought Ukraine was near NATO membership until after Russia lost the Battle of Kyiv. It is simply Russian propaganda.
The Cold War wasn’t faught by NATO or the Warsaw Pact – these were tools wielded by the combatants.
So I agree with you – Ukraine isn’t controlled by NATO or the EU, it’s controlled by the US (which also controls NATO and the EU).
But thinking (ahem) “geostrategically” involves planning for decades, not just the next few years, and working consistently to achieve goals (in Russia’s case ensuring that Ukraine never joins NATO, in the US’ case ensuring that this at least remains a possibility if not a reality).
Zafar, the only reason Russia has for objecting to NATO membership for Ukraine is so they can invade again.
Why is Russia not invading Kazakhstan?
Because Kazakhstan isn’t any more “independent” than Belorussia?
Oh, and the Russians are already overextended.
That’s right.
They sure are. But we might be too.
It might be a little more independent than Belorussia. At least it is making some symbolic moves in that direction, even as Russia has been trying to exert greater control over it.
But Ukraine really is a special case for Russia. For some reason Russia can’t stand another eastern Slav country that isn’t under their thumb. Also, it’s Ukraine’s history that Russians have stolen for themselves, not Kazhakstan’s. If they can control Ukraine and eliminate any sense of separate cultural and national identity in Ukraine, then they don’t have a rival inheritor of that history. Otherwise they will have to go back to seeing themselves as still living in the Moscow swamp and mud when Ukraine was already an established and advanced society (relatively speaking).