Putin's Folly

 

Putin's Folly

 Putin's folly. He must be fuming in the several languages he speaks.  He may have learned Ukrainian, by now

 Putin must have believed the mythology built up around the invincible Russian military.

 Let’s stop and pause for a minute, and analyze the efficacy of Russia’s war machine.

 The Soviet Union was driven out of Afghanistan by a determined indigenous resistance after nine years, with heavy losses. (We can’t crow too loudly about this if we remember our own experiences in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan).

 The Soviets lost 27,000,000 dead in World War II in helping to defeat Nazi Germany.  (Some will argue that they won the war by themselves).  Truth be told, what really defeated the Nazi armies during their 1941-42 invasion of Russia, was the brutal Russian winter, just as the winter had defeated Napoleon’s “Grand Armee” 130 years earlier.

 Since the 1990’s, the Russian Federation military has had some successes in small wars to annex pieces of the Caucasus and small countries to the south of Russia proper.  They built up a reputation in popular opinion of being a modern, efficient, fighting force, particularly since they had nuclear weapons and advanced ICBM’s.

 The conventional Russian military has proven to be abysmally unprepared and inefficient in the war against a determined and well-trained enemy. (Ans particularly and enemy that the west keeps well-armed with the most up-to-date weapons).  The Ukrainians have literally run circles around the Russian military forces.  The Ukrainians have imposed more losses on the Russian military than they sustained in nine years of war in Afghanistan.

 In addition to faulty military intelligence, another big mistake that Putin made is “well, the Ukrainians are really Russians”.  The Ukrainians are fiercely independent, and say “Ми походимо з козаків”, - We are descended from Cossacks”.  The response of Ukrainian border guards to Russian warship: 'Go f--- yourself'. 

 The Ukrainians have beat the Russians back from Kyiv, and seem to have done the same at Kharkiv, way east.  They seem determined to drive Putin and the Russians entirely out of Ukraine, including Donbas and Crimea, and will likely be successful if we keep them supplied with modern arms.  $40 billion, now being passed in the senate should be enough, and though there is opposition to this amount, better to spend it to stop Putin in Ukraine, rather than in Poland or Germany, with an exchange of nukes.

 https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/may/12/how-putins-war-ukraine-has-backfired-spectacularly/

 Ray Gruszecki

May 14, 2022