What Now, Ukraine?
American Greatness,
by
Victor Davis Hanson
Original Article
Posted By: DW626,
5/30/2022 11:36:53 AM
It was supposed to be a clear-cut, unambiguous invasion. Vladimir Putin’s much larger, richer, and more bellicose Russia staged a shock-and-awe attack on a much smaller, poorer Ukraine. He intended to decapitate the government in Kyiv. Then he would annex the eastern half of the country, and quickly consolidate his easy wins in preparation to ratchet up pressure to force western Ukraine into the Russian Federation.
The rest is history. The Russian military proved ill-equipped and ill-supplied. It was poorly led, with a high percentage of low-morale, conscript troops. Russia had no viable strategic plan to capture, much less hold, the Ukrainian capital.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Quigley 5/30/2022 11:52:22 AM (No. 1170385)
What a mess. The bidet family looting Ukraine. Ukraine agents impeaching a US president. Bidet and Europe setting precedent and structure for putin to act as he did.
We have hideous leadership. They are squandering our past successes, selling us out.
37 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 5/30/2022 12:06:40 PM (No. 1170396)
No matter how the current conflict ends, Russia will still be sitting there breathing down Ukraine's neck. They are not going away. In the long run Ukraine may lose some territory like Crimea but prepare to make any future incursions intolerable.
8 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
DVC 5/30/2022 12:06:49 PM (No. 1170397)
Not a lot of good routes....because "the enemy always gets a vote", in this case Russia. I cannot predict where this goes. I think it may hinge on how long Putin is in power - which might hinge on his health which is credibly reported as not good, but that is in no way a hard fact. How long will the other power players in Russia let him damage the country's economy and reputation? I have no idea, and I don't think anyone else does, either.
Interesting times, and I don't think any of the "leaders" in the USA are either competent, or have the best interests of the USA in mind. We have idiots on our side, and they WANT to hurt the USA, so what do we get? Nothing good that I can see.
26 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Mofongo 5/30/2022 12:14:22 PM (No. 1170412)
Hanson has become the predictable voice of the establishment. So much of this is so wrong.
10 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
berigan 5/30/2022 12:25:17 PM (No. 1170429)
#4, hardly! Just because he doesn't say every single thing you think is true, doesn't make him...part of the establishment.
28 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 5/30/2022 1:05:25 PM (No. 1170473)
No sign the Russia-Ukraine war will end anytime soon. Quite the opposite, Russia is desperately looking for a way to win it. By now, everyone has taken a measure of the Russian military and knows its weaknesses.
Wonder if Russia regrets starting this war. They invaded Ukraine, not the other way around.
Russia is probably hoping Ukraine starts attacking targets in Russia. It would give Russia the excuse they need to nuke Kyiv. Would the west retaliate? If not, Russia wins.
5 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
mc squared 5/30/2022 1:28:50 PM (No. 1170494)
FTA: Why Putin did not invade between 2017 and 2020 apparently cannot be mentioned in polite company. But his good behavior in those years is silently acknowledged as due to fear of an unpredictable U.S. presidential response.
29 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
ussjimmycarter 5/30/2022 2:19:37 PM (No. 1170545)
It’s been alike a week! Gawd! What is Brandon waiting for? Another 50 Billion vote this week…strike that…50 Trillion! If you disagree you are a Vlad Puppet!
4 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
DVC 5/30/2022 2:40:27 PM (No. 1170574)
Someone's tinfoil hat is on a bit too tight, it would seem. When you think VDH is establishment is when you need to check your mirror for someone off course, badly.
19 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Kate318 5/30/2022 3:59:14 PM (No. 1170633)
With all due respect, Mr. Hanson, how do you know what Putin’s goal in the Ukraine was or is? The only articles I have ever read have told me what the author thinks it is.
6 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Gruntmedic 5/30/2022 4:39:50 PM (No. 1170668)
Yes they are so bad , they are about to destroy the Ukraine military
2 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
MDConservative 5/30/2022 5:04:05 PM (No. 1170678)
What a tangled web has been woven over the decades...and coming to light today.
1) Russia (and as the Soviet Union) was never a superpower, unable to project power around the globe except via ICBMs. It could menace Western Europe, and did for five decades.
2) NATO is now the offspring of classic Euro politics, typified by a "you-and-him-fight" strategy to weaken various players along the way. NATO, including the US ("Leader of the Free World" tm) is feeding the beast while decrying the violence. Putin is to the EU and NATO what PDT is to the US and globalist UIPARTY.
3) Anyone paying attention will note that of the $40 billion given Ukraine by the US recently, will see that the package includes almost $15 billion for defense operations and maintenance, which includes $6 billion for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (for additional training, equipment, and advisory services largely paid US suppliers) and $8.7 billion to REPLENISH STOCKS of US materiel sent to Ukraine. It authorizes $11 billion in Presidential Drawdown Authority regarding the transfer of articles and services from U.S. stocks without congressional approval in response to an emergency (whatever that is). One assumes that $11 billion will be in truth an extension of the replenishment funds...coming back to American suppliers. But we don't talk about such things - although it involves more than half these funds many whine are giveaways, and we really don't want to see where the money eventually flows.
Keep up the good fight, Ukes. You, too, Vlad. Gosh, this is just terrible...
3 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
swarfer 5/30/2022 8:00:02 PM (No. 1170792)
I always enjoy Hanson’s take on both current affairs and the past. However, I disagree on several points. No one, including the Russians expected the Ukrainian government to use its citizens as human shields. If Ukraine pulled back it’s forces and negotiated, i.e., no NATO, this would be over with little loss of life and property. The clearly demonstrated deadliness of NATO weaponry is the precise reason Russia could not accept NATO on their southern flank as well as a corrupt, hostile, heavily armed and financed Ukraine. Russia would never be ready, but Biden and NATO bureaucrats forced the issue. Russia is willing to fight for its interests, the West is happy to fight a proxy war reliving the Cold War. The West had no thought of the global political and economic consequences from leveraging Ukraine into war. Russia has vast developed energy resources which completely changes the geopolitical dynamics from the Cold War era. Russia has already won regardless as a result of its alignment with China against the US and their ability manipulate the global food and energy economy.
1 person likes this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Island Life 5/30/2022 8:15:28 PM (No. 1170798)
Putin is not long for the trash heap. NOW is the time for all Western countries to act. Flood the skies with pamphlets showing pictures and articles of what Putin's Russian military have been doing, killing, murdering Ukrainians. The young and middle aged will not back this murderous regime. NOW is the time.
1 person likes this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
DVC 5/31/2022 1:40:56 AM (No. 1170988)
Baloney 13.
1 person likes this.
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