The post you were just responding to was very much “sound and fury signifying nothing”. I can see it was yet another waste to expect something of substance from asking him what he thinks should be done.
The smart choice at this point would be for the western leaders to come to their senses and realize that it is time for them to cut their losses. They have already caused enough damage by unnecessarily provoking the Russians in a way that their leaders have warned for years was not acceptable and that was certain to result in a severe response if it was not stopped. The strategic reality is that Ukraine is strategically essential from the perspective of the Russians, but not strategically critical for us at all. If they were, we and the Europeans would have already sent troops in in response to this invasion. We do not value Ukraine or its people that highly. To answer your question, it would be wise to punish the leaders of Russia, including Putin, with economic sanctions, which has already been done. But "Russia" should not be punished, unless we want to get into an increasingly escalating exchange of retaliatory measures with them. The Russians are not going to stand down on this, while we and the Europeans effectively already have. The western view that we rule the world and that balance of power politics, wars, etc., are a relic of history is just flat wrong. Step one to getting out of this mess is for the political leaders of the west to realize and accept that. Despite the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russians are still a world power to be reckoned with, certainly at least along their geographic boundaries with historically strategic nations like Ukraine and Belarus. Joe Biden is a dangerous embarrassment to our country and the EU leaders are for the most part not very much more impressive. They need to somehow find a way to exercise some humility and some self awareness and come to grips with a realistic view of the world. Their current imagination of how the geopolitical world works is just a naïve fantasy. Short of that, we are in big trouble as long as these people are in office. The answer in that case is obviously to replace them with people who are competent and realistic as soon as possible.
Looks like some of the Russian soldiers don't want to be there either. Just block Mojoman he isn't worth the time - just a young kid living in his parents basement without a thought of his own. DD
Thank you for giving a thought out answer with only a little ranting. What your post boils down to is we should just let Putin have Ukraine.
some of y'all won't click on this because its NRO, but there's good info here, if you're interested in military tactics, for why the Russians are struggling: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/why-the-russians-are-struggling/
The time to pull back is not when things are going the way you want, you press the pedal to the metal and then pull back when the other party is just about beaten, and offer an olive branch - that is swayed NATO's way. Putin may not even survive this, it looks like he may have severely underestimated people fighting for their homeland, he should have red Russia's WW2 history a little more closely. The Russian soldiers seem to not want to be there, supplies reportedly are running low the rest of the world is saying ENOUGH.......Putin may be seeking a way out - we shall see. DD
...and if you've been at all in logistics during the pandemic, this article on Russian military logistics challenges is an excellent read. Particularly this bit: "Russian forces are tied to railroad from factory to army depot and to combined arms army and, where possible, to the division/brigade level. No other European nation uses railroads to the extent that the Russian army does." You may have seen the Ukrainian MOD say today that they have destroyed all rail linkages from Russian/Belarus into Ukraine.
Your view of recent events and history is flawed. The west hasn't been provoking Russia with any kind of intent. It's been Russia who has been launching cyber warfare and influence campaigns all around the world - including in the US. This is a fact that you may deny but that your own GOP senate accepted as the truth. Obama in fact made many overtures to Putin to increase ties through a "reset" in relations, this included abandoning building a missile defense that Russia was vehemently opposed to in Poland and the Czech Republic. You guys were very upset with this but Obama didn't push as he wanted to build a better relationship with Russia and get to a post-Cold war status. Still despite this, Putin returned the gift by taking Crimea. And yet you can stand there straight faced and say we provoked Russia???? You just have no clue what you are talking about here.
Isn’t Chechnyans split into two…. Eg, half are supporting the Russians the other half not. I need to find the link.
