This is what happens when you lead with your balls instead of your brain. Putin’s strategy was simple. Attack along three assault lines, take over the three largest cities in Ukraine, especially Kyiv, decapitate the Ukrainian government, install a Putin puppet government, and get out.
But it didn’t work out that way. It didn’t work out that way because Putin is an idiot. I am not ready to draw a direct relationship between putin and Adolf Hitler. Hitler was a decorated infantry corporal in WWI who decided he was a military genius. He was a message runner. Putin was a useful cog in KGB planning that decided he was a military genius. Both were full of shit.
I have said for days now, bleeding from the eyes from staring from inches at every map I could see of Russia’s advance into the Ukraine. And basically? Putin is fucked. He’s fucked because he went into the Ukraine without a viable exit strategy as to what to do ig plna one went wrong. And that was overconfidence.
On paper, Putin should have had this stone cold. He had 190,000 troops massed on 3 borders, and more amphibious and naval support assets off the Ukraine coast. They had armored superiority, artillery superiority, and air superiority. All they had to do was to execute an intelligent battle plan. And they fucked it up. In every way. Just some highlights;
- Part of Putin’s battle plan was to establish immediate air superiority over Ukraine. After all, he had far superior air assets in terms of numbers. But they failed, miserably. I saw a report yesterday that Russia had already lost 40 fighter jets, and 39 attack helicopters in the first 11 days of the war. This is inexcusable. The fighters are bad enough, but the purpose of the attack helicopters was to fly in front of the Russian troops, softening up resistance on the Ukrainian ground troops. Putin fucked up by delaying his invasion timetable, allowing NATO to supply Ukraine with the kind of surface to air missiles to knock them from the sky, denying the Russians the air advantage. Which leaves the infantry exposed.
- Putin’s politically motivated delay in invading cost his ground troops even more dearly. As I have written previously, that delay started the spring thaw, ande heavy Russian tanks, artillery, and personnel transport vehicles became mired down in the mud. His plan for a 72 hour decapitation went by the wayside
- More important is Putin’s supply chain. And army travels on its stomach, but also on gasoline. And an army can’t shoot if it doesn’t have ammunition. But the Russians managed to fuck up even this simplest job, and one of the reasons is hysterical. It turns out that Russian manufacturing is completely incapable of producing quality tiers. As a result, Russia chose to buy cheap knockoff tires from China, which started popping like champagne corks the minute they were under stress. Which meant that the convoy stalled. And there has been reporting that Putin and his army has chosen to supply his front line troops with MRE’s so old they won’t even rip the packages open.
But that stalled 40 mile convoy is the real problem. Because the sole reason of a convoy is to get fuel, food and munitions to the front line troops. But the convoy is stalled 20 miles from Kiev, and one of the reasons is that Putin’s delay allowed the US and NATO to supply Ukraine with anti tank missiles they have used to vlog the route with burning tanks. And Russian front line tanks can’t travel 20 miles to get fuel and go back where they started, they’ll be short of fuel again. And how does the Russian infantry march 20 miles to get munitions and rancid supplies, then march 20 miles back to the front again?
Putin has no out. Even if he wanted to negotiate a face saving retreat, how does he get his troops back out of ukraine again? The land mass is a quagmire unsuitable for heavy equipment, and the roads are clogged with stalled and blown up supply train vehicles. There have been since day one reports of Russian conscripts dropping their weapons and running to Ukrainian lines to surrender, disabling their vehicles on the way out.
Putin went in, and now he’s stuck there. He sent them in, and now he has no way to get them out. He has asked Belarus for troops, and they told him no. He asked Kazakhstan for troops, and they blew him off too. And now he’s asking Syria for troops. Why? Because Putin already has 190,000 troops in Ukraine, and politically, he can’t afford to keep shipping body bags home at this rate, so he needs patsiers. This is not going to end well for Putin.
It’s my opinion the ruling kleptocracy most likely neglected the military and totally undermined their readiness. I suspect that under the soviets, the military was in better condition, but not now.
Who proofread this article before it was published? So many spelling and random errors.
Hello Jerry. Once upon a time I posted a complaint very similar to yours on a comment thread, citing the obvious misspellings and mistakes in a published article.
Then I learned the publisher of the site suffered from macular degeneration and muscle tremors. They typed very slowly with their eyes 2 inches from the screen, painfully hammering out articles one keypress at a time. Everything they did took 20 times as long as a “normal” typist, and yet they were able to present the world with valuable insights via their work.
In the future I would consider your words with more care, especially when reading free content on a site you chose to visit.
Bravo ! You can easily understand the comments without playing the pedantic little spellchecker. Pay attention to content ⁉️
When you have an eye disease, and HALF Murphy’s ability to think and write, oh wait…
I’ve been wondering why Putin, who apparently has been planning this for years, waited more than a year after his boy lost to invade. It also made no sense why he waited until after the Olympics, why not go in Jan before the games? By the time he finally pulled the trigger instead of shock and awe, it was more is that all there is. The common wisdom is that the Russian military is state of the art – weapons and training. I think this misconception was a great boon to our own military industrial complex (gotta keep up w/ the Joneses).
When I was stationed in Berlin in the mid 80s, before the wall came down, I had the opportunity to visit East Berlin (via Checkpoint Charlie). Everything was shoddy – buildings, cars, clothes. The East German military were all conscripts who looked like they were wearing 10 yr old uniforms that did not fit. I think George Carlin had a routine about the USSR and why were we all scared of them, after all they hadn’t even mastered the flush toilet. They hadn’t mastered TP either – it was like wax paper.
Nukes are the only reason we took them seriously then and now. But given how badly their military is run, one has to wonder if they have been maintained well enough to function.
Well, I think he held off till after the Olympics because his people were already in deep doo-doo (there wasn’t a “Russia” team participating; it was the “Russian Olympic Committee”). And then, of course, the team’s top figure skater got in deeper doo-doo over doping allegations (somehow getting access to some medicine of her grandfather’s but not knowing how it got into her–yeah, right) which threatened to strip the team of all their medals.
If Putin had invaded before the Olympics, I can’t see any way any Russian athlete would’ve been allowed to compete, under ANY form. (And the
Reuters also reported on March 2, that China had asked Russia to hold off with any invasion until after the Olympics (apparently, the New York Times first reported the story and Reuters was just repeating the information).
Putin got everything he wanted in 2016. A greedy moronic traitor was installed as his puppet in the USA. Then the traitor set about destroying NATO & every democratic alliance since WW2. He sidled up to every murderous dictator. He invited them to the white house while massing a police force to fire teargas & rubber bullets into peaceful protesters, (sound familiar?). He stood in front of the world and crapped on our country while praising putin. He shat on the military, the veterans, & the gold star families at every turn. Putin was ecstatic. The plan was to steal 2020 so frump would give Ukraine to putin, something his campaign manager spent years assisting. Frankly, there was good reason to believe what was successful in 2016 would work again. The gop was helping in every way. When the plan failed due to voter turnout, Trump set loose a coup. Putin was screwed the moment Biden took office. His plan for Ukraine went off the rails at that moment. Despite his 40,000 known lies, some morons think frump is strong & this would be a different scenario if he were in power. They are 100% correct. Putin would not have had to fire a shot. If Ukraine didn’t surrender their government, it would be frump threatening nuclear strikes. It would be the American military amassing on their border as Trump ordered them to amass at our border for a fake crisis. He did this during the holidays when many would have been on leave. Now the gop stands with our enemy blaming OUR president, while covering up it was THEM & DUMPY that gave Putin every reason to try the all in approach. Maybe he thought our country was ripe for his naked authoritarian murderous takeover. He was, & is wrong. Watching the Ukrainians resist at every level, has shamed us in our laziness concerning our democracy. It galvanized the world BECAUSE BIDEN brought them together. Now we need to galvanize all the voters to know if you put the gop back in power, OUR DEMOCRACY WILL BE OVER. Done without firing a shot. We need to stand up, put down our drinks & phones & remind ourselves that WE WERE HANDED THIS DEMOCRACY. Our forefathers bought it with blood & sacrifice. The Ukrainians understand that. All the men had to kiss their children goodbye while turning to fight a superior force. Is that what we want here? I think not. Prove it!
Just one question, Scott. Why aren’t you writing articles here? You are SO smart!
Azov Democrats don’t mind Nazi symbols or slogans. Silent during the last 40 years on US war crimes, what they want is money and power no matter how many people are killed. Whining about Russia while the mark of Cain is tattooed on their foreheads.
Propagandists parrot war monger talking points, leading to the death of millions.
Hilarious to listen to them claiming Putin and Russia are in trouble, neglecting that Russia is well prepared for sanctions and ready to retaliate tit for tat. Russia doesn’t need anything the West produces while the EU is totally dependent on Russian resources.
All Russia has to do is close off exports to the West and stand by as their economies collapse. Sure Russia will be hurt, that is until they find other outlets for their energy and minerals. Boeing may well have stockpiles of titanium but how long will they last? Ten years? Twenty years. Naw, maybe one year.
Someone should have listened to those who preferred integration of Russia into the West to keep them from aligning with China.
All the lies and war crimes of the US and some still believe their propaganda.
For those who say Zelenski would never join with Nazis, what about this:
Andre Biletsky was the leader of the political party National Corps and the first commander of the volunteer militia Azov Battalion and was quoted as saying in 2010 that Ukraine’s mission was to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade…against Semite-led Untermenschen.
And This :
Moderator’s Note – Link removed)
Nice try, troll. Hiding your links is also a bad tactic.
(Moderator’s Note – The links weren’t hidden by the commenter. It was a decision made regarding moderation of content on this site. People including conservatives can offer their observations and within reason opinions too. Some get pretty out there and at some point cross over into bat-shit CT territory which prompts a warning to cool it. However, links to outright propaganda (in this case pro Russia stuff) caused their removal from two of this gentleman’s posts. But to be fair he wasn’t the one who hid/removed them.)
How’s the weather in Moscow?
To listen to putie’s former bosses he was not even a useful cog.
Putin has one way out: the guy with the scythe, standing at his door.