Debatable whether he really thought that 10 months ago, but he surely doesn’t now and could likely be persuaded to settle.
Yeah, only time will tell for sure. It was pretty obvious — or should have been — that Hitler was beaten in early 1943, but he didn’t seem to get it either. Lots of theories on that, but hard to say what goes on in the minds of despots.
And now a link to a freaking substack publication where anyone can set up a manifesto. Qualified or not. Pathetic. LOL So your claim is the genius Putin invaded a superpower neighbor and believed he'd take them out with 10% in a week. ROTFLMAO. Perhaps that's why he planned on the Black Sea fleet to go underwater, have to recall materials and troops from Syria, pay Wagner mercenaries and end up providing Ukraine with about 1/2 of their war materials from captured armament ...... genius I tell you, like we've never seen. Comrade you just are not good at this convincing stuff at all.
So there you go. What an honest broker you are. You tether Russian performance with goals and numbers concocted to convey the imagery of underperformance. The platform, whether substack or Library of Congress is a red-herring.
As pathetic a human being Putin is, I still believe he’s 100 times more pragmatic than Hitler. Also still don’t think Putin has any illusions of building a 3rd Reich of sorts. He’s been in power for 20+ years and this is his first major move westward. Not to mention the obvious underlying racist component in Hitler’s motivations. Putin will likely settle if he thinks it’s a reasonable deal.
Somewhat agree. Putin is more intelligent, patient, and strategic than Hitler was. A year ago, I said he was much more so … until he brazenly invaded his neighbor with unlimited objectives. Truth is, he has revealed himself to be not much better than Hitler, and Hitler’s very worst characteristics came out once he was losing. Putin is now losing. I hope he is not as stupid and intransigent as Hitler because, unlike Hitler, Putin has nukes. We will see.
It took Putin the better part of 20 years of "re-building" the Russian armed forces before attempting something of this magnitude. The military fell apart after the collapse of the USSR (and the retreat of the USSR's troops from Afghanistan), and was in no condition to do anything for a long, long time. Putin obviously under-estimated the amount of corruption that existed within the military. And, in truth, Putin was attacking neighbors starting with 1999 (Chechnya) and 2008 (Georgia). Crimea and Ukraine are not aberrations or anomalies. Putin attacks a neighbor every 6-9 years.
Agree with most, but Chechnya was not a neighbor. It was a Russian province in rebellion. We can discuss the techniques and tactics that Russia used to suppress the rebellion, but as a rule I have no problem with countries maintaining their territorial integrity, by force if necessary. We have done it and would do it again. There is only one mitigating circumstance for rebellion, and that is winning. Chechnya didn’t.
umm..he took Crimea in 2014 and then funneled Wagner group merc's in to take part of Ukraine. Does that not count? And nothing short of return of Crimea and other Ukrainian territory, reparations for all the destruction he caused, and war crime trials for his generals and others would be a fair deal
I agree that would be fair. But I don’t think you’re going to see this thing end with “fair.” Restoration of the January 2014 borders and no nuclear warfare breaking out is the best anyone should hope for, never mind expect.
Yep, if Ukraine can get its borders restored and we skip the extinction level nuclear war thing that is a win for everyone except Vlad.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/nazi-germany-hitler-democracy-weimar/671605/ How Hitler’s Enablers Undid Democracy in Germany
