Ukraine Always Get What You Want

"I'm on a boat, mother- ... Oh, wait, no I'm not."

 

Who was the dude here who insisted time after time that US troops needed to be involved in this conflict?

 

I don't know if it should be the Nobel Peace Prize, but the world needs to bestow some kind of year-end honor on Zelensky as a straight up fuck you to Putin.
I'm certainly thinking Time Man of the Year, but it needs to be more than that, too.

 

Glory to Ukraine.

This brilliant countermanoeuvre "will be studied, and puzzled over, and followed ... forever"

 

Is there a war that more people on all sides got more wrong? Nobody had any idea what they were talking about on this one. Nobody.

 

Without Western intervention, this could easily have slid the other way. I think the reason prognosticators got it so wrong 1) they severely overestimated the Russian fighting ability and 2) the flood of supplies and money really gave the Ukrainians something to back up their grit and genuine resolve in this.

But it isn't like the Russians haven't faltered badly to FCS opponents before.

 

Robert McNamara and Dean Rusk say, "hold our beers."

 

You can also probably compare this to something like Vietnam, in that - If you're not fighting a defensive war, you better make sure your troops are capital-M motivated to fight. The people you're fighting against are not going to be fucking around. Despotic fear only goes so far when it comes to motivating troops.

 

We've always overestimated the Russians. Always. They were a poor country when they were Soviet Union and they're poor now and their flirtation with democracy was brutally ended by Putin who grabbed the power. I said early on and I still believe that there was never any way Russia was going to win this. Has it gone on longer than anticipated? Yes. But I also think that behind the scenes Ukraine got aid from us and from the West in general that we will not know about for years. Then throw in the x factor which is Zelensky. He has been an amazing leader for his people. And then you throw in the fact that the people didn't want to f****** be Russians again.

 

I’m on Team Ukraine, but it’s not over.

 

I think it’s this, and I think we’ve been overestimating the Russians for maybe 70 years.

As it turns out: Their logistics have probably always been shit. Their maintenance training and activities have always been shit.

And Russian top-down doctrine, where NCOs and low-level officers are told to not act except when they are told what to do has especially always been shit.