War in Ukraine

It certainly would have said more, but it would have been held more against him as a man abandoning his command while he had troops in the field, in harm’s way. The Chairman has no command. He is a political advisor to the President. When the President does not heed your advice on a matter so grave and it blows up so consequentially, then I think the President needs a new advisor. We didn’t at the time, but now we more or less know that Jake Sullivan was standing between the President and the generals on this. So who knows if the President even got the advice, just the sense of it, or completely different information that Jake Sullivan wanted the President to have. That alone should have enough to make the Chairman put his stars on the table in June. “The conditions agreed to by the President for putting the strategic reaction force back into Afghanistan have been met. CENTCOM has officially requested permission to act. Permission has been denied without comment. The White House keeps casually telling the public all is well. The National Security Advisor is telling me not to worry about it. And I can’t get in to see the President. He will see that milquetoast who has never carried anything heavier than a pencil, but he will not see while we are on the cusp of embarrassing strategic defeat. That’s it. I’m done.”

 

I think we are just disagreeing on who should be the one to resign. I can see an argument for either but I do not really think of a GCC CG having troops in the field as being a reason they cannot resign or be fired. Happened with Mattis and Fallon being fired at CENTCOM. Also happened to Wes Clark at EUCOM. The GCC's have a Deputy CG for a reason.

 

I’m also not sure if General McKenzie knew that Sullivan was gatekeeping the SECDEF and CJCS from seeing the President directly. There is no reason he would have necessarily known that. If SECDEF was telling McKenzie, “POTUS says no” without elaborating, then why should he think anything was amiss?

 

I'm assuming that McKenzie was in the tank or on the VTC with the POTUS when they were presenting options. If McKenzie was not getting face time with the POTUS as CENTCOM CG planning for the OEF pull out, that should have been a reason to resign right there.

 

Nasty …

 

Putin realizes that his sputtering economy will not support continued high levels of defense spending, and says he's ready to scale back spending.

Putin: I’m ready to scale back military spending

Surprisingly, Putin seems surprised and offended that Europe is increasing defense spending, and he accused them of preparing for aggression. (Once again, he shows a complete lack of self-awareness.)

 

He knows full well that played a role in his beloved USSR collapsing. Of course he and his apologists will spin it as a sign of " NATO aggression". NATO is a defensive alliance and has no territorial ambitions of taking over any part of mother Russia.

 

I would have assumed that the economic war footing was the only thing keeping that economy afloat.

 

The economic war footing was assisted by a stash of cash. Putin had saved billions to prepare for this war, knowing that there would be sanctions from the West. Those billions are nearly gone. The economy is running on fumes at this point.

Also, Russia has had to neglect a lot of basic services for the country in order to fund the military and supply it with manpower. Their infrastructure is starting to fall apart (more than usual). Electricity production will eventually suffer, making winters even worse. Transportation will also fall apart, especially if it is not between munitions factories and the front. Health would also be a concern.

 

Another excellent drone attack on Russian airfields today--this time targeting Russian helicopters in Crimea. This was a smaller attack than the previous one--only three helicopters destroyed and a Pantsir air defense system knocked out. Ukraine destroyed two Su-34 Fullback fighter-bomber jets in a drone attack in Russia yesterday. Two other jets may have been damaged.

Ukraine destroys Russian helicopters in latest airfield drone strikes.

 

It’s the new Ghost of Kyiv …

 

A war like no other …

 

Running out of 20th century tech, *very scary Russia* digging into the archives, bypassing the 20th century entirely, and dusting off a late 19th century classic, I see...

Na Zdorovie, comrade!

 

to be fair they launched like 500 drones at Ukraine and 60 missiles last night. It’s not like they’re using catapults.

 

Sure, but dd's post was bragging about cannon shot from a train--captioned "a war like no other"--

Seems to they shoulda finished the thought:

"...this century. Nor last, for that matter."

 

Ukraine hits a Russian fuel dump with a drone “See ? Ukraine has Russia on the ropes!”

Russia hits deep into Ukraine with 500 drones and 60 missiles *crickets*.

 

You do not get why?

 

One difference is that the Ukrainian drone hit an actual military target. The overwhelming majority of the Russian drones and missiles were targeting civilians. Putin's strategy with respect to Ukraine reminds me of the Nazis in World War II when they were bombing London during the blitz and later targeting civilians in the UK with their V1 and V2 missiles.

 

Yeah, I don't know that the Russians are targeting civilians any more than the Iranians were. They both simply lack the technology to detect and/or engage precision targets accurately, so all they have is area targets or nothing. And nothing is not really an option. If Russia or Iran could smite military targets the way their opponents have, then they would. I continue to insist that incompetence speaks to the matter more than malevolence does.