Russia’s year-long onslaught against Ukraine proves, yet again, that the fundamental nature of war never changes even though no war is precisely like another.
That ought to give future aggressors—looking at you, Xi Jinping—pause. Even the best-scripted war plan can go awry, with fateful consequences for the aggressor as well as the aggrieved. And Russia’s plan merits few superlatives in the annals of military history. Few would rate it among the best.
Neglect of the nature of war is a major reason why.
After all, countless factors could knock a military campaign off script. As the martial sage Carl von Clausewitz describes the climate of war, a multitude of factors commonly combines to send a campaign careening off on wild tangents. Impersonal forces like danger, fickle chance, complexity, and combustible passions are prominent among them.
But the enemy shapes the climate of war as well. A wily and stubborn foe like Ukraine refuses to play the part for which the script-writers—a.k.a. the designers and executors of Russian strategy—have cast it. Such an opponent tries to ruin the production, deliberately compounding the problem of winning speedily and decisively. Small wonder Russian strongman Vladimir Putin hasn’t gotten his way.
Not in full, anyway. The final outcome remains in doubt, with Russia supposedly poised to wrest the offensive from Ukraine this spring.
You know what they say about assumptions: they make an ass out of you and me. Going into the war last February, Putin and his lieutenants seem to have assumed the Russian Army would make short work of its apparently overmatched opponent. In the wake of its battlefield triumph, Russia would unseat the government in Kyiv and replace the regime with something more to Moscow’s liking.
Russian arms have not delivered on this vision. This should come as little surprise. Even an outclassed combatant gets a vote in war—and invariably tries to veto its antagonist’s designs. Warfare takes on a fractal quality as human will collides with human will.
Many imperishable features of war have been on display in Russia’s war on Ukraine. Three stand out to me. One, the war reminds us that military strength is a multiple of armed might and political resolve. It is not just widgets, explosives, or other objects that intelligence folk can tally up. Not everything that counts can be counted, as physicist Albert Einstein once observed, while not everything that can be counted counts.
Intangibles are harder to gauge than physical objects but no less crucial for all that.
Willpower thus constitutes half of strength, alongside physical capability and the skill to wield it. The halves may be unequal, and again, the relationship between them is multiplicative: if either is zero, so is strength. The brawniest contender accomplishes little without the gusto to use its brawn, while the most willful contender accomplishes little if unarmed. Victors abound in both capability and determination.
On the macro level, the people are the chief locus of passion within a society. They have to want the political leadership’s goals and feel the importance of those goals in their guts to justify the outlays of lives, treasure, and military hardware that making war demands.
If the populace doesn’t care that much about the aims set by political leaders, chances are the war effort will falter. The bottom line is, popular sentiment is the propellant for any war-making enterprise. If the tanks are full, the effort rumbles toward its destination. If fuel runs short, the effort sputters—leaving statesmen the option of trying to refuel the tanks, summoning up new resolve, or striking the best compromise they can to get out of the fighting.
In a sense the two combatants in Ukraine are inverses of each other. Russia boasts the bulk of the material resources but shows scant passion for the endeavor. Meanwhile, Ukraine is short on material resources but—staring national death in the face—is lashed on by fiery passion. Which combination of capability and desire will prevail—if either—remains to be seen.
Passion also plays a central part on the micro level, where operations and tactics unspool. Clausewitz notes that the field general must possess a penetrating “inward eye” to see through the fog of war, but he also opines that the commander must have the “inward fire” to rally the troops to carry on amid setbacks and sheer weariness. Here too, Ukraine seems to possess the advantage. Its military overseers have played a weak hand well, while the Russian armed forces have played a strong hand feebly.
Two, the home team has the advantage. Defenders bestriding home ground know that ground better than any outsider is likely to, and they understand how to put physical terrain to use to make things tough on aggressors. They’re closer to their bases, simplifying logistical challenges; they’re closer to likely battlegrounds, making it easier to mass forces for tactical and operational gain; they enjoy interior lines for moving forces from place to place to meet enemy advances.
And they know the human terrain—the demographics, language, and local culture—better than any probable aggressor. In warfare as in football, in short, the home-team advantage biases the surroundings in favor of the defender. For Ukraine, it annuls Russia’s material advantages at least in part.
And three, the rhythm of the battlefield tends to slosh back and forth as combatants overextend themselves and find themselves thrown back. Clausewitz terms this the “culminating point of the attack,” the crossover point where the military balance flips to favor the formerly weaker combatant against an adversary that has pushed its offensive too far. To borrow from the strategist Edward Luttwak, “ironic” reversals of fortune can plague both sides if commanders and their political masters fail to exercise sound judgment.
The Russian Army seems to have overshot its culminating point of the attack last spring, preparing the way for Ukrainian counteroffensives last fall. We will see whether the much-heralded Russian spring offensive comes to pass, and whether it will rejuvenate Russia’s prospects for victory.
Will Russia win? It could. The campaign is an abject failure if Putin’s paramount and only goal was to conquer Ukraine in its entirety. That now seems out of reach. But if his larger goal was to weaken or break NATO and reinstate the bareknuckles principle that international borders can be adjusted by force of arms, then he could well succeed.
In fact, I would say the odds are with him if that’s his quest. It’s as hard to imagine Ukraine expelling the Russian Army from eastern Ukraine and Crimea entirely—and restoring its pre-2014 frontiers—as it is to imagine Russian legions rampaging across all of Ukraine. Which leaves Europe and the world with a mess.
Ruining your predatory rival’s script may be a good thing, and in this case it is. But that’s no guarantee your own production will be a critical success.
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Author Expertise and Experience
A 19FortyFive Contributing Editor, Dr. James Holmes is J. C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the Naval War College and a Nonresident Fellow at the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation & Future Warfare, Marine Corps University. The views voiced here are his alone.
pagar
February 23, 2023 at 6:18 pm
Ukros didn’t ruin anything, except maybe, their own country.
The current mudslogging by russia’s military is just a setback, or more importantly, a WAKE-UP call.
It is very similar to anyone just minimally knowledgeable about the yom kippur war which was a harsh or rude wake up call for the israeli air force.
Ukros have made their own bed and now have to lie on it.
In 2014, they smashed & pulverised the russian-speaking natives of donbass left right and center, and until russian army volunteeers waded in, were on the verge of a very famous victory.
Like the wehrmacht at the gates of Leningrad in nov 1941. Total victory within grasp, but…..but….but fate (destiny or K-A-R-M-A) dictated for another way.
Right now, the situation OPENS widely the nuclear path for russia. But will russia dare to go where only the bold or the victorious dares to push ahead.
US can’t use nukes in ukraine (donbass) unless it wants to fry the ukros or its foot soldiers as well.
Nukes against moscow then. A big No, because that would end up frying the loyal minions in europe.
Nukes against east asian nuke powers. Highly possible, but again, it could end up frying loyal vassals like japan to a crisp.
Thus, it is just a setback, a compulsion to go back to the drawing board, to go back to do remedial work, to prepare for the ultimate countdown or showdown, the fight at high noon.
Walker
February 23, 2023 at 7:10 pm
Pretty good article. Mostly agree. But not so confident with your end. I agree that Ukraine is unlikely to be able to physically push Russia all the way out of Ukraine. Russia has held areas of Donbas and Crimea since 2014. Those areas are no longer hometown as you used the term in the article. But what I think is that you forget another truism. War is just politics with weapons. So you forget the non-war politics affecting the situation.
Putin put in political capital to pull off this war. The war must pay that capital back. That means that Putin needs successes in the war in order to sustain it. One of the things that leads me to almost hate the Russian people is their willingness to adopt this evil war. Maybe I shouldn’t be so harsh on them. It is after all human nature. But it is hard to forgive. Anyway, my point is that right now the Russian people are buying into Putin’s lies not because they really believe the lies, but because they want to. This can’t last forever. They will need to see successes for the lives they invest. I always wonder about the Soviet war In Afghanistan and why it failed versus Ukraine. I think the answer is two fold. Afghanistan is far off to Russians and of no intrinsic value. The Afghanistan war also lasted for a few years before the Soviet Union gave up. So even though Russia has already lost way more lives than Afghanistan, the truth just hasn’t caught up with them yet. Time isn’t on Russia’s side no more than it is on Ukraine’s. The coming spring offensive is devastatingly important to both. Which ever one is able to make the best of it is likely to increase its political capital to continue the war and the less successful is likely to lose a lot of that political capital making continuing more difficult. I put my money on Ukraine. Russian offensive is already a bust but Ukraines is still a couple months off. If Ukraine can take those new weapons and use them well, they can take a big chunk of land back and that will get them the next big concessions from US and NATO. Reversely, if that happens, the people of Russia will not want its children going off to die in a war they are losing. And then Putin’s political power is weakened and the sharks will be out for him. It is important to remember this part as Putin’s first. Replacement will not be what we will want. That group will probably be bad for Ukraine and Russia. But only when the heat inside Russia gets up high enough to activate the Russian people will Russia ever be able to progress towards real democracy. So it will only get worse before it gets better.
That is my prediction. But I don’t see any happy days any time soon.
Gary Jacobs
February 23, 2023 at 7:44 pm
Pagar,
LoL…watching you desperately flail around searching for a reason to hope Russia might win makes me laugh.
Seeing you spew about nukes for precisely zero valid reason also makes me laugh. There is zero consideration for using nukes coming from anyone in the west. None. Zip. Zero.
Only Russian losers who cant stand to see how badly their army is performing have been hyperventilating about using nukes.
Much like a spoiled child who is trying to steal from other kids would rather break the toy that isnt theirs instead of allowing the rightful owner [Ukraine] to live with their property and families in peace.
Grow up. Take the L, then go home and get your own country together instead of trying to steal from other people who want nothing to do with you.
Jim
February 23, 2023 at 11:09 pm
One year down, how many to go?
A peace proposal, at the time it’s given, calls for no further military action, in the field.
So far, out of both camps, only war aims have been declared.
That’s disappointing for people who hope for peace.
Given what I’m hearing, it’s not going to be easy.
War is a hard thing.
Mike Brown
February 24, 2023 at 6:32 am
Putin invaded Crimea and Syria during President Obama time in office. He took 4 years off while President Trump was in office and then as soon as President Biden came into office he invades Ukraine. Putin knows the Left is weak! Putin knows that Gen M, Y, & Z are completely sold out to the Left Woke ideology. Putin knows that every year the U.S. military becomes weaker and weaker. Xi knows this too. Xi will allow the Chinese military complex to rearm Putin’s military. India and China are making a killing off of the Russian oil that they are buying and reselling. From a numbers perspective over 3 billion Indian’s and Chinese could care less about the U.S. and the West. I think the West is done! President Clinton sold us out to the Chinese on May 27, 1994!
Yrral
February 24, 2023 at 6:38 am
Walker,you are most likely to win,the Powerball and Megamillion on consecutive day drawing than the corrupt government in Ukraine expelling Russian,when had the with all it did any successful military campaign without be humiliated,do not be naive ,you have no basis knowledge of Ukraine,the law of probability never lies, educate your self before making naive remarks,you can start by educating yourself better Google Ukrinform Google New Voice Of Ukraine
Gary Jacobs
February 24, 2023 at 9:48 am
Jim,
There is a very simple peace proposal that has been available the entire time: Russia leaves Ukraine. And just like that, there will be peace.
You just cant seem to wrap your head around Russia’s centuries of imperialism, and you are desperate to blame anyone but Russia for Russia’s naked aggression.
Speaking of which, it has come to my attention that you have gotten yet another of your core complaints completely wrong.
After a deep dive into the full transcript of the Victoria Nuland call you claim confirms a coup in 2014, it turns out the exact opposite is true.
Victoria Nuland did not “choose” Ukraine’s leader or otherwise orchestrate a coup during the Euromaidan.
She was floating candidates for PM, not President, and only because Yanukovych *asked* the West to help mediate a deal with the opposition.
Nuland & Pyatt are discussing who should become PM alongside Yanukovych, NOT who should replace him as president. With the President retaining the greater power of the two positions.
Therefore, per the transcript itself [the full transcript is available online through various sources], a Nuland led plot obviously did *NOT* exist.
When Pyatt suggests outreach to Yanukovich, does Nuland reply “No, actually, Yanukovich must be replaced?”
NO, she agrees and says “yeah, let’s bring Biden in on that.”
Nor was Nuland trying to force this arrangement on an unwilling Ukraine. It was Yanukovych himself who, on Jan. 25th, 2014, originally put forth the idea.
That’s the proposal Nuland & Pyatt are discussing.
Furthermore, in a three hour meeting with his opponents, Yanukovych offered the deputy prime minister’s job to Vitali Klitschko, the head of the UDAR party. But Klitschko announced afterward to the crowd on the Maidan that there was no deal. The two sides need to keep talking.
Yanukovych’s stated willingness to amend the laws passed Jan. 16, 2014 restricting freedom of speech and assembly wasnt sufficient according to Klitschko, and he called for their full repeal instead.
You can go do some homework on this yourself with a
WaPo article:
Will Englund January 25, 2014
Title: Ukraine president says he’ll name rival as prime minister, but opposition demands more
And WaPo contributor/PhD. Neil Abrams recently unleashed a twitter thread about this. Abrams also has some very interesting polling of Crimea and east Ukraine before Russia’s 2014 invasion, and there is far less support for Russia than most Putin apologists claim.
As well, try actually reading the entire transcript of the Nuland call in question that your faux notion of smarts relies on so heavily.
Have a liberating day.
Yrral
February 24, 2023 at 12:32 pm
Your pals in Israel are no different from Putin,killing innocent Palestinian,why are you outrage about this
Jim
February 24, 2023 at 3:16 pm
Gary, nobody takes you seriously about who supported the 2014 coup against the duly elected president… give it a rest.
As for the rest… you want victory, not peace… and you don’t care how much death & destruction it takes to get your precious victory… fight to the last Ukrainian… with U. S. taxpayer Dollars.
You should give up trying to dismiss the importance Victoria Nuland, she sits at the center of Ukraine policy and everybody knows it except apparently you.
Actually, you do know Nuland’s importance, but you deny it because she is such an obvious neoconservative… and you know that is a drag on your desire to keep the Ukraine policy going when an Associated Press poll shows Americans are tiring of this open-ended conflict.
Most Americans don’t identify with or agree with the neoconservative goal of ruling the world.
Americans want Peace & Prosperity, not forever war, which is what neoconservatives are selling.
Again, you want the U. S. to act based on over a century old vendettas, from your sense of perceived wrongs It’s stupid and no way to run a modern foreign policy… it’s equivalent to wanting to punish Britain, today, for actions taken in the 19th Century against American interests (of which there were a few).
You are helplessly tied up in your grievances against Russia… America can’t run a foreign policy that way.
Your kind of thinking and the actions you support will lead to America’s downfall… your thinking is dangerous to the America People.
You hate Russia more than you love America… shame on you.
5am
February 24, 2023 at 6:00 pm
such looong replies????
the pro palestine dbag?????
the comments are almost as good as the articles here. love me some 1945!
Walker
February 24, 2023 at 7:14 pm
Yrral,
I get that Russian is probably your first language, but still your reading comprehension is pretty poor. I stated clearly that I think Ukraine is unlikely to be able to push Russia physically out. If Ukraine wins, that isn’t how they do it. All they need is to break Russia. To do that, all they need is to hold Russia back from any major wins, just like they are doing, and make major gains themselves, like they did last summer. So you say the odds on that are next to impossible, when I show you they have already done it, they just need to continue. It makes you look pretty stupid.
Jim,
Only one type of person complains about Nuland. That is a paid Russian Troll. It has been this way all the way since Russia couldn’t find any real reason to invade in 2014 but was just upset that Ukrainians demanded real democracy, not that fake crap you Russians have with Putin. Since you have nothing but envy, you make crap up like calling all Ukrainians nazis. This is how you convinced your drunken soldiers it is Ok to kill children. Russians are true scum.
Gary Jacobs
February 25, 2023 at 12:07 pm
Jim,
LoL, clearly the truth hurts you. I have another dose of reality for you to stew on:
It has also come to my attention that your phony claims about the $5 Billion Nuland mentioned in her speech were actually funds given to Ukraine over the course of the *20+ YEARS* since the fall of the USSR to try and help Ukraine build democratic institutions.
You pretending that money was all spent under the direction of Nuland to orchestrate the coup that never was… is another false claim of yours that does not hold up under basic scrutiny.
It took me a total of 45 minutes of concentrated research to completely debunk false claims of yours that you have likely believed for years.
Rest assured you will never hear the end of this from me.
Basic research. Get some.
Jim
February 25, 2023 at 12:19 pm
Walker, I don’t call all Ukrainians neo-Nazi, but there is a faction who call Stephan Bandera a hero, name streets after him, Ukraine’s parliament tweets out a happy birthday on Jan. 1st to Bandera. There’s video of soldiers sitting on an armored fighting vehicle raising the classic one armed salute in response to an officer’s prompting.
Stephan Bandera was a neo-Nazi whose ideology was to murder Russians, Poles, and Jews, if that’s what it took to get an independent Ukraine. That’s a fact.
Walker, your problem is you’re a warmongering fool who wants World War Three… damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead… damn Europe, damn Ukraine, damn everybody if that’s what it takes to get victory.
Did you get a head injury during your service… it sure seems like it.
Yrral
February 25, 2023 at 12:24 pm
Walker I am fluent speaking American, born and raised in America,I know American like you could not probably find Ukraine on a map, even the the top three NATO leaders,have told Zelensky they will not defeat Russia,and he should enter into negotiation,you are
one these American that bought into Zelensky delusional vision of defeating Russia Google Scholtz, Macron Sunak Zelensky Negotiate
Corvus
February 25, 2023 at 5:45 pm
Jim, there was no “coup” im Ukraine – in 2014, the PEOPLE rose up and protested. You know, protesting – something all people living in democratic countries are ENTITLED to. And how were these protests met? With snipers – the so-called “duly elected president” as you call him sent snipers and ordered them to shoot at unarmed civilians.
When a government starts murdering its own people, it loses all legitimacy. Yanukovich was a dictator and he was swept away by the will of the PEOPLE. This was not a “coup” but a healing – a restoration of democracy.
As for “you want victory, not peace” – there is good peace and there’s bad peace. The peace after WW1 was a bad one – it led straight into WW2. The peace after the 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea was also a very bad one – as it led into the current war. Do you really want another bad peace to be established, only to be shattered 1, 3, 5, or 10 years from now? What’s the point – to save Putin’s skin?
No, dear, peace is not an option, not right now at least. The war can only conclude one way – with total victory for Ukraine. This is how we ensure there won’t be another war.
Gary Jacobs
February 25, 2023 at 8:50 pm
Jim,
LoL, your are playing your broken Bandera record again. It’s still broken.
I have thoroughly debunked the notion that Ukraine’s Nazi collaborator past has any significant relevance to what is going on right now.
Your schtick gets older and more stale every time you try to trot out the same silly excuses for Russian brutality. Still an epic fail.
Especially when you are trying to tell this Jew you know more than I do about which country is worse for the Jews, Russia or Ukraine. It’s Russia by a long shot.
Of course the Soviets also collaborated with the Nazis with the Von Ribbentrop Pact…and Putin’s Russia is extolling the virtues of the same Soviets all the time. But you dont want to talk about any of that because it obliterates your faux notion of smarts.
ATM
February 26, 2023 at 3:25 pm
The assumption in the western press was that Russia would win in a few days or months. We do not know what Russian leadership believed at the time.
dave
February 27, 2023 at 12:22 am
The author missed some key arguments. Russia is fighting NATO, and Ukraine. Lots of mercenaries, contractors, etc. on the ground.Over 2000 poles killed so far. NATO provided weapons!! Russia didn`t come in like USA with shock, and awe. Zelensky had a peace deal with Putin in April 2022. Boris Johnson flew in and stopped that.Does anyone seriously think this wouldn`t have been over last year if we just knocked out all utilities, and leveled cities like we do? NATO destroyed Ukraine, and they could care less.
Ramon
February 27, 2023 at 5:06 am
Jim & Gary,
I genuinely enjoy and appreciate your discussions, which are essentially blueprints how not to eye each other’s arguments. Jim wishes to overview the big picture, while Gary tries to stuff details upon Jim, knowing that he’s not strong on them.
Please, don’t stop. You’re the Bert n’ Ernie of this site and I love it.
Have a liberating day ????
Ramon
February 27, 2023 at 5:08 am
Postscript:
The ???? marks appeared where I inserted a smiley.
Jacksonian Libertarian
February 27, 2023 at 8:01 am
“It’s as hard to imagine Ukraine expelling the Russian Army from eastern Ukraine and Crimea entirely—and restoring its pre-2014 frontiers—as it is to imagine Russian legions rampaging across all of Ukraine.”
Remember the predictions that Russia would win the war in 3 days, based solely on their 3 to 1 advantage in Industrial Age dumb weapons? Remember that after Russia’s initial invasion success, it was thrown first from Kyiv, then Kharkiv, and then Kherson? While its offensive on Bakhmut has seen 50k dead in the last 2 months for little gain. This begs the question: Why is it hard to imagine Ukraine throwing Russia off all its territory?
The “Fog of War” is penetrated by the position of the Frontlines. By this measure, the Russian Conquest is being defeated handily. There is a rule of investing in the competitive marketplace called “The trend is your friend”. This means the probability of things continuing as they have been is high.
There are several reasons to believe that Ukraine will achieve victory.
1. Logistical – Ukraine is being supplied by the deep pockets West with both hand me downs, and Information Age smart weapons.
2. Morale – Ukraine is fighting for its freedom, with a Western style “Field Army” (designed to defeat other Field Armies), against an Authoritarian style “Regime Protection Army” (designed to enforce loyalty to the Regime).
3. Weapons Evolution – Warfare has taken a hard turn from Industrial Age dumb weapons to Information Age smart weapons. “Combat Power rule of thumb: 1 smart weapon = 500 dumb weapons”
4. And finally, the frontlines have been moving hard in Ukraine’s favor since shortly after the initial invasion. This is the “Market Price” of the competition.
Serhio
February 27, 2023 at 9:18 pm
Corvus
“Jim, there was no “coup” im Ukraine – in 2014, the PEOPLE rose up and protested. You know, protesting – something all people living in democratic countries are ENTITLED to. And how were these protests met? With snipers – the so-called “duly elected president” as you call him sent snipers and ordered them to shoot at unarmed civilians.”
According to the report of the International Advisory Group established by the Council of Europe and Ukraine to monitor the investigation of the events on the Maidan, some of the protesters on the Maidan were shot from the hotel “Ukraine” (which was controlled by the protesters).
Some of them were shot by employees of the Berkut special unit defending the barricades after “peaceful” protesters with weapons stormed the barricades.
If in 2014, President of Ukraine Yanukovych had sent snipers to shoot peaceful protesters, then after the overthrow of Yanukovych, it would be logical to expect an investigation and trial of the perpetrators and Yanukovych. However, the trials took place only over the Berkut employees who defended the barricades. Neither Yanukovych nor other high-ranking law enforcement officials were presented with ads. Moreover, the representatives of the illegal government of Ukraine who came to power made heroic efforts to divert any discussion of this issue away from accusations that the sniper shooting was organized by the protesters themselves. The fact that only a convenient version of Yanukovych’s involvement in the shootings of peaceful protesters was broadcast in the Western press suggests that there are no independent media in the West.
Serhio
February 27, 2023 at 9:56 pm
Gary Jacobs
“LoL, your are playing your broken Bandera record again. It’s still broken.
I have thoroughly debunked the notion that Ukraine’s Nazi collaborator past has any significant relevance to what is going on right now.”
You are trying to justify the modern Ukrain-Nazis using the fact that Bandera was imprisoned by the German invaders and did not take a direct part in the murders. This is a naive argument. However, Bandera is only one of the current “heroes” of Ukraine. There they glorify other Nazis, some of whom were ideological inspirers, and some of them have their hands up to the elbows in the blood of peaceful Russians, Poles, Jews, Hungarians and many others: Shukhevich, Melnik, Hasevich, Pavlenko, Konovalets and many others. Streets, squares, and parks are named after them. It is very symbolic that the Israeli Cultural Center is now located on Konovalets Street, but the synagogue turned out to be on Shukhevych Avenue. These ghouls have done a lot to ensure that there are no Jews left in Ukraine.
Ambrose
February 28, 2023 at 12:30 pm
Excellent and insightful article. Thank you for writing.
DNTate
March 1, 2023 at 9:38 am
Yes. The Ukraine is a de-facto member of the NATO alliance. The United States, European Union, and NATO are providing full financial and logistical support to the Ukraine. Essentially, the Russians are engaged in combat with the most powerful military alliance on Earth. US, EU, NATO, and Ukrainians have a number of “war aims.” These include, primarily, “regime change” in Moscow through either coup-de-tat, civil war, or revolution. The second war aim is to eliminate the Russian military through attrition. An implied war aim is the dissolution of the Russian Federation into its constituent parts. This helps explain the US Secretary of State visit to Kyrgyzstan this week. This will provide Brussels with economic and military control of the European continent to the Ural Mountains. It will also open Central Asia to US, European Union, and NATO future potential interventions. Finally, it will isolate Communist China and allow the United States and Europe to dominate the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
from Russia with love
March 2, 2023 at 4:55 am
the author of the article is an ordinary American idiot who passes off his inflamed fantasies as “Putin’s plans.” Russia has never (!!!) announced a plan to take over Ukraine. Russia has never announced plans to take any city to any specific date. But what did Russia really say? Russia officially, by Putin himself, announced a plan for the demilitarization of Ukraine and the denazification of Ukraine. The first point of the plan was completed last year. Ukraine has been fighting with Western weapons for half a year now. the demilitarization plan expanded from Ukraine to NATO-wide. given Western claims of depletion, NATO’s demilitarization is also progressing well. the plan for the denazification of Ukraine is also being successfully implemented. Considering that the billionaire Zelensky is no longer asking only for American tanks and planes, but also for the American military, Russia’s plan to denazify Ukraine is also being successfully implemented. Ukrainians are running out. a voros arises, what kind of “failure of plans” does the author write about? he writes that his personal fantasies about what Russia planned did not come true? then you need to change the title of the article to “Ukraine destroyed the James Holmes war plan.” 🙂
David Chang
March 2, 2023 at 6:39 am
God bless people in the world.
But people in Ukraine could not do better in socialism warfare.
Because one of reasons
“Bombs and explosions can cause unique patterns of injury seldom seen outside combat.
• The predominant post explosion injuries among survivors involve standard penetrating and blunt trauma. Blast lung is the most common fatal injury among initial survivors.
Blast lung presents soon after exposure. It can be confirmed by finding a “butterfly” pattern on chest X-ray. Prophylactic chest tubes (thoracostomy) are recommended prior to general anesthesia and/or air transport.”
Because of other reason
“Representations of Shell Shock in the USA During and After the First World War”
“This article examines representations of shell shock in American culture during and after the First World War. It draws on the large historiography of First World War-era shell shock in Europe where shell shock came to represent the incurable wounds of the soldier and nation. Examining medical discussions, popular films, works of literature, magazines, and newspapers from 1915-40, this article asserts that in contrast to Europeans, Americans saw shell shock as a temporary, curable injury of war. This understanding uniquely framed the way Americans viewed not only returning veterans, but also US global positioning and responsibility immediately after the war. During the 1920s in the USA, the figure of the uncured shell-shocked veteran took on new meanings, as the wound of shell shock became part of larger debates over the nature of mental illness and the government’s responsibility to care for its veterans. Specifically after the stock market crash of 1929, the term helped to create a new language deployed in connection with global economic hardship and governmental economic assistance.”
God bless America.
ZaSu
March 3, 2023 at 12:25 am
Did Putin actually say he was going to take the whole of Ukraine or is that claim just US propoganda? The auther shares if it wasn’t his goal (what? “If”? So we don’t have him declairing what we keep hearing 😉 will we be told next that he has been beaten back from taking it all and those regions he HAS spoke of and looks like he will take/hold will be what he has to settle for of which the auther begrudgingly shares it looks like he will at the end of this.
Nonothing
March 6, 2023 at 11:52 am
Please, Jimmy. Try harder. Do better. The war is going EXACTLY the way Russia wants. Demilitarizing Ukraine. Demilitarizing NATO. Demilitarizing (and humiliating) the USA. Wake up and smell the coffee. The era American UniPolar power has passed. A new MultiPolar world is being birthed. And America is falling to pieces.
ki wa
March 20, 2023 at 3:46 am
On the side could the election of Zelenskyy as president not belonging to preexisting clans, families, families, partiesparties etc my have helped unite Ukraine more then an avatar of any of the corrupt factions may have.
A comedian is making a clown out of the spy of Muscovy, Suzerainty of the East.
Fred Leander
March 20, 2023 at 9:06 am
Gary, you wrote: “There is a very simple peace proposal that has been available the entire time: Russia leaves Ukraine. And just like that, there will be peace.”
Russia’s (Putin’s) problem is exactly that there shall be no peace if Russia leaves Ukraine. The US of A – with its NATO errand boys – have been at war with Russia since WW2 – sanctions and embargos are war – much like USA forced Japan into war in 1941. Not a war for Chinese “democracy or freedom” but to have the control of the Chinese market and resources to themselves, like what the British worked for in centuries before that.
Gary – you wrote: “You just cant seem to wrap your head around Russia’s centuries of imperialism, and you are desperate to blame anyone but Russia for Russia’s naked aggression”.
This is a blatant example of history turned on its head. Russia has been what it is for centuries. Britain, and now the US, are the “Imperialists” which through history have gone bananas when they have not been able to control the world economy – with it that of Russia and China. The US and British neo-imperialists want it all, pure and simple. The Russian “Empire” has constantly shrinked in the last hundred years and more.
And Gary – please try not to get personal all the time. It’s not nice.