Correct. The Russian invasion is the ultimate Wrong here. Were they to simply go home, this would all be over. You spend far too much time handwringing over the horrors of war instead of focusing on the obvious resolution: the murderous aggressors give up and go home.
It's really that simple. No need to pretend it's more complicated.
Murderous aggression = bad. Agree?
Russia to "go home?" What? Did Russia quit & go home at the Stalingrad when they took a beating from the onset? No...5 months later & suffering over 1 million causalities, Russia destroy Germany's 6th army - Hitler's best & most proudest army corps. This defeat gave Hitler a nervous breakdown & he was never the same the rest of the war.
Field Marshal Konstatin Rokossovsky, a Polish-Russian, was one of the hero's of Stalingrad motivating & inspiring his troops when things looked very bad initially. I imagine there's a "Rokossovsky" among the Russian army capable of inspiring the troops.
Anybody that knows a little something about warfare realizes Russia will eventually overpower Ukraine & win the war. Since NATO & the U.S. will not directly enter the conflict (they're terrified of Russia's superior nuclear arsenal), Russia will eventually wear down the Ukrainian forces forcing an unconditional surrender, I believe, sometime this summer.
You have no clue as to how to interpret history in this case. In 1942, the USSR was the one being INVADED. This gives incredible strength of morale as one is defending one's own homeland, family, etc.... In 2022, Ukraine is the INVADED, and as the commentator on Russia's own state TV admitted to all of his nation a few days ago, this gives the Ukrainians tremendous advantage in terms of morale and willingness to fight to the death on an individual basis. Meanwhile, the Russian conscripts, poorly trained and who were told this was a mere training exercise, are falling apart at the seams as they surrender, die or drunkenly walk away from the battlefield with the fruits of their looting and raping, much as the German 6th Army and all of it's Romanian, Hungarian and Italian allies did in '42. or Napolean's army in 1812. Basically they are saying "F*** THIS! I am not going home in a body bag like Igor or Ilya!".
As far as your "imaginary" Rokossovsky...Putin can't even come up with a Timoshenko or Konev, much less a Zhukov or Roko. He is losing a general a week thanks to Ukrainian targeting of command posts (due largely to Russian incompetence of communications and logistics). His piss poor command structure is biting him hard in the a$$. Not to mention the ridiculous economic situation.
While Stalin learned to trust his top guys and lean back a bit, Hitler doubled down on intervention and micromanaging until the Wagnerian-apocalyptic "Downfall". Every evidence is that Putin is doing the latter, including his disastrous affair at the Severskydonetsk river crossing last weekend. He is showing every sign of a man dwelling under the shadow of death and losing his nerve. "Putler" indeed.
In this case, Putin's forces are the euivalent to the Axis invaders, and Ukraine are the home defenders, even supported by Western lend-lease, just like the Soviets in WWII, but without the authoritarian thug at the helm. And the Ukes have the advantage of fighting for a cause that no Soviet ever had: freedom and independence.
That is a death rate that can be tolerated for longer than you and B.B.C. believe. B.B.C. have an agenda and they are simply estimating. Reminder. I have stated more than once, U.S. military personnel and U.S. civilians suffered a worse death total on or near Island of Iwo Jima, WW2 than did Japanese civilian and military personnel on Island of Iwo Jima, WW2. Fighting against U.S. weapons is not easy. Fighting against U.S. intelligence is not easy.
You might want to check the history books and get back to us?
Calm down.
You differed with me not in regard to Russia sustaining one of three k.i.a.
In regard to Japanese deaths, Iwo Jima. Do we count massive Japanese suicides as K.I.A.s? I didn't. If you want to count suicides as K.I.A., go ahead and count them.
Anyone know if Putin has gotten everything he wanted yet? It's been a couple months now.
Not yet. You can send a few billion more from your tax money, then it will take even longer. Also, you could pay tripple for gas, so Putin gets what he wants a few months later!
Hey, Kyiv said, mission in Mariupol complete, all AZOV soldiers are "evacuated" to Russia-controlled regions, where they're facing 20 years to death penalty.
I guess one really could say, "mission complete". LOL. Wonder what that will do to morale of the remaining Ukrainian soldiers...
These countries (and eventually some others) see an opportunity to sell their votes for something of interest. Do you see where this is going and what chances are that Finnland and Sweden will never become NATO members?
Defenders of #Azovstal being taken from the plant to Russian-controlled territory. According to Reuters, seven buses carrying Ukrainian soldiers arrived at a penal colony near occupied Donetsk on May 17.
Hey, Kyiv said, mission in Mariupol complete, all AZOV soldiers are "evacuated" to Russia-controlled regions, where they're facing 20 years to death penalty.
I guess one really could say, "mission complete". LOL. Wonder what that will do to morale of the remaining Ukrainian soldiers...
I would think after 3 months of war the Ukrainian soldiers by know what kind of enemy they're facing and surrender is not an option. It's a hard thing to say, but sometimes fighting to death is more humane for the soldier than putting your life in the hands of an enemy that doesn't have a good track record with captured/occupied people. There are worse things than death.
I worked with a man who was captured by the Red Chinese during the Korean War. Was turned over shortly there after to the North Korean Army. Was a prisoner for 11 months before the war ended. Looked 15/20 years older than his actual age. And the stories he told made me think I'd fight to the death before surrendering.
Any history buff knows that historically Americas enemy's are the most brutal people on the planet. The few exceptions are/were the Italian Army and the German Luftwaffe during WWII.
Even during the Civil War, the rebel pow camps treated Northern Soldiers worse than the Nazis did. And that's a high bar to cross.
Hey, Kyiv said, mission in Mariupol complete, all AZOV soldiers are "evacuated" to Russia-controlled regions, where they're facing 20 years to death penalty.
I guess one really could say, "mission complete". LOL. Wonder what that will do to morale of the remaining Ukrainian soldiers...
I would think after 3 months of war the Ukrainian soldiers by know what kind of enemy they're facing and surrender is not an option. It's a hard thing to say, but sometimes fighting to death is more humane for the soldier than putting your life in the hands of an enemy that doesn't have a good track record with captured/occupied people. There are worse things than death.
I worked with a man who was captured by the Red Chinese during the Korean War. Was turned over shortly there after to the North Korean Army. Was a prisoner for 11 months before the war ended. Looked 15/20 years older than his actual age. And the stories he told made me think I'd fight to the death before surrendering.
Any history buff knows that historically Americas enemy's are the most brutal people on the planet. The few exceptions are/were the Italian Army and the German Luftwaffe during WWII.
Even during the Civil War, the rebel pow camps treated Northern Soldiers worse than the Nazis did. And that's a high bar to cross.
POWs in WWII would rather have been held by the Germans than the Japanese. Or the Soviets for that matter.
I would think after 3 months of war the Ukrainian soldiers by know what kind of enemy they're facing and surrender is not an option. It's a hard thing to say, but sometimes fighting to death is more humane for the soldier than putting your life in the hands of an enemy that doesn't have a good track record with captured/occupied people. There are worse things than death.
I worked with a man who was captured by the Red Chinese during the Korean War. Was turned over shortly there after to the North Korean Army. Was a prisoner for 11 months before the war ended. Looked 15/20 years older than his actual age. And the stories he told made me think I'd fight to the death before surrendering.
Any history buff knows that historically Americas enemy's are the most brutal people on the planet. The few exceptions are/were the Italian Army and the German Luftwaffe during WWII.
Even during the Civil War, the rebel pow camps treated Northern Soldiers worse than the Nazis did. And that's a high bar to cross.
POWs in WWII would rather have been held by the Germans than the Japanese. Or the Soviets for that matter.
Not even close
relatedly, I'm always a bit amazed that decades NASA was run by ex-Nazis. I mean...it's a tribute to how well enemies thought we'd treat them because Von Braun brought his team to America and not USSR or UK....but man. Nazis. Actual Nazis.
I would think after 3 months of war the Ukrainian soldiers by know what kind of enemy they're facing and surrender is not an option. It's a hard thing to say, but sometimes fighting to death is more humane for the soldier than putting your life in the hands of an enemy that doesn't have a good track record with captured/occupied people. There are worse things than death.
I worked with a man who was captured by the Red Chinese during the Korean War. Was turned over shortly there after to the North Korean Army. Was a prisoner for 11 months before the war ended. Looked 15/20 years older than his actual age. And the stories he told made me think I'd fight to the death before surrendering.
Any history buff knows that historically Americas enemy's are the most brutal people on the planet. The few exceptions are/were the Italian Army and the German Luftwaffe during WWII.
Even during the Civil War, the rebel pow camps treated Northern Soldiers worse than the Nazis did. And that's a high bar to cross.
POWs in WWII would rather have been held by the Germans than the Japanese. Or the Soviets for that matter.
Not even close
During WWII the Allies did not surrender to the SS, because they would take them behind the barn and shoot them. Note the The Allied airmen were instructed to, if shot down, to try to find the nearest Luftwaffe base because they were know to treat Allied airmen well. The Malmedy massacre was a turning point during the war. After that the Wehrmacht soldiers were fair game for Allied repercussions as well as SS troops. General Eisenhower passed an order that any German sniper who surrendered after expending all of their bullets should be shot on site. And shot they were.
This is pretty much how things are right now according to well everyone iwho has been following this...
Nor would mobilization necessarily produce the kind of fighting force Putin currently needs. An army full of conscripts and reservists with limited military training would be no match for Ukraine’s battle hardened and highly motivated troops armed with superior Western weapons.
Putin’s predicament is likely to worsen in the coming months, making his invasion of Ukraine even more untenable. Western sanctions will begin to have a greater impact from the end of the summer season onward as Russia’s inability to replace Western imports becomes impossible to disguise and as the savings of ordinary Russians begin to run out. Unemployment figures will likely reach record highs and economic forecasts will deteriorate as the costs of international isolation continue to mount.
Growing public awareness of the grim military situation in Ukraine will add to the gloomy mood. Based on the current rate of attrition, the Russian army will suffer 50,000 combat deaths by September. Such losses are completely unprecedented for a major power in modern warfare and cannot be entirely explained away or otherwise disguised by the Kremlin propaganda machine.
Curious how Russia gets out of this mess. And......is that army not a total joke?