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Today’s podcast ranges unusually from the coming release of the last hours of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things—and its welcome embrace of anti-Communism—to the expansion of NATO in the wake of the war in Ukraine and why Joe Biden can’t figure out how to take political advantage of the one thing he’s actually done well. Give a listen.
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Only the Commentary Neocons would think Biden has handled Nato and Ukraine well. Res ipsa loquitur. What an absurd assertion.
pointing out that Russia is running out of soldiers to fight in this concocted war goes the same for Ukraine. If the Ukrainian people saw Russians as an existential enemy they could drive them out of the country. Obviously Russia cannot sustain more combat losses. So if Ukraine could muster forces to attack the Russians would have to withdraw. But that is not happening. Kind of like the people on the ground, on both sides, do not want any part of this fight.
Republicans should make this the democrat war. The more democrats continue to send weapons to the Ukrainian oligarchs, the longer the people of Ukraine and Russia will suffer and be killed. Even the demonization of Russia – make that a democrat party policy choice. Vote democrat and we get a continued division of Russia and the West.
Define “running out.” Russia has a 1-year mandatory service. They have a million on active duty but they have 2 million in reserve. Their problem is the 1-year length of service. By the time their soldiers are semi-proficient they’re out of the service. There is very little professionalism outside of their special forces contingents.
“If the Ukrainian people saw Russians as an existential enemy they could drive them out of the country.” What an odd thing to say: “In 1940, if the French people saw Germans as an existential enemy they could drive them out of the country.” Except for the insignificant detail that the Germans had better weapons and better leadership!
The Ukrainians are far more patriotic and willing to fight than I thought they would be, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Russians have a huge advantage in artillery.
bad example, I think. The Germans were not cruel to the Western European countries they occupied. Nothing compared to what they did to the Polish people. There was not much resistance to German rule in the West.
I am responding to what was said in the podcast. They said the Russians are having trouble getting troops to serve in Ukraine. Which indicates to me that if Ukraine was counter attacking, things like mortar attacks at night on Russian bases, they could inflict significant damage on the demoralized Russian troops.
But things seem kind of quiet. As in, commanders on both sides are having difficulty getting the soldiers to fight.
here is news of a working class republican being tormented by the democrat government.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/doj-has-va-suspend-all-benefits-jan-6-prisoner
“… Kenneth is currently being held in the Correctional Treatment Facility in southeast Washington and has been incarcerated, without a trial and without being convicted of any crime, for over 475 days. …”
Ricochet, commentary, WSJ, … the entire republican establishment is not concerned. Where is Andy McCarthy when he is needed? Of yeah, he thinks Trump committed indictable offenses by encouraging people to attend the Jan 6 protest.
In the podcast at the 20:20 mark, Christine says Russians are having difficulty getting soldiers to serve. She says they may “run out of soldiers”.
“The Germans were not cruel to the Western European countries they occupied”? Holy smokes! See Wikipedia, “German military administration in occupied France during World War II”. “Not much resistance”: see “French Resistance”.
I used France as an example instead of Poland because it seemed too laughably absurd to suggest that the Poles could have driven out both Nazi Germany, invading from the west, and the Soviet Union, invading from the east, if only they tried harder!
“But things seem kind of quiet [in Ukraine]”: Between 100 and 500 Ukrainian soldiers are being killed every day, according to Wikipedia and elsewhere. Not surprisingly, Ukrainian soldiers defending their homes have better morale than Russian soldiers unwillingly plunged into a war of imperialist aggression; which is the point Christine Rosen was making.
also, lookup Vichy France.
My NY Times print edition subscription must be missing the pages which report Ukraine battle deaths. For sure, there are terrible killings from artillery fire. But, based on reporting I read in NY Time, WSJ, FT, not much in terms of battles between soldiers on each side. What I take from that is the people on the front lines, both sides, are not much interested in fighting.
The NY Times is bulky; you probably just overlooked the battle death numbers.
The Russians tried blitzkrieg methods early in the war but they failed miserably. So now they’re engaged in a slow war of attrition, simply pulverizing Ukrainian positions with artillery fire — which the Ukrainians can’t answer — before moving forward incrementally.
By now, I take it that you are aware that you were completely wrong when you said “The Germans were not cruel to the Western European countries they occupied”. Where did you get such a bizarre idea? (If you said “less cruel”, that might be more plausible.)
And what is the reference to Vichy France supposed to mean? I’m sure there were fewer atrocities there than in German-occupied France, where whole villages were exterminated, but that doesn’t change what happened in occupied France.