h/t WRSA
Item One:
On Sunday, the foreign policy blogs were abuzz with the news that Scott Ritter had done “an about-face in his assessment of the war”. It appears that the ex-Marine had examined recent developments in Ukraine and concluded that it’s going to be much harder for Russia to win than he had originally thought..
O, ye gods and little fishes, if only someone, somewhere, ANYWHERE, had told you, and told you, and told you, and told you, and told you, and told you, and told you, and told you, and told you, that Putin had massively miscalculated, and that he and his assclown minions were merrily shooting themselves in the feet so many times they were running out of toes, based on report after report after video after video ad infinitum.
But wait! There's MORE!
Item Two:
Scott Ritter — “The thing that frustrates me… is that, it was my assessment that it would be very hard for Ukraine to absorb this new equipment and material (Material– the additional lethal weapons that have recently been shipped to Ukraine) but the howitzers are already operating against Russia. They are having an effect in the Kharkov region. Not all 90 of them, but they have several batteries in place that are being used.
The fact that these advanced howitzers are operating on the front lines right now, shows there’s something wrong with the Russian methodology. And–unless they alter that methodology– I think we’re in for a very long summer.”
Sweet blistering fuck! Aiyee, the humanity, O the humanity! If only someone, maybe with a tad bit of artillery experience, had told you firsthand how hard learning field artillery work IS NOT, and had then gone on to point out that such could be accomplished in days, not months.
If, If, If. If only the World's Foremost Experts had stopped listening to the sound of their own awesomeness for thirty seconds, they wouldn't fully deserve the catastrophe of Reality now cudgeling them about the head and shoulders with 20-pound iron kettlebells.
Me? I'm laughing my @$$ off right now!
Could this two-course feast of Crow possibly turn into a three-course banquet?
Item Three:
And the fighting that’s taking place right now –even though it is slaughtering Ukrainians– it isn’t cost free to the Russians. They’re losing equipment, they’re losing men, they’re losing material, and unless Putin mobilizes or transfers forces in, those aren’t being replaced. So, instead of having 200,000 online, Russia might have 180,000 men. And if you don’t think removing 20,000 men doesn’t change the options available to the Russian leadership, then you don’t know anything about war.”
Hmmmmm.
Waitwaitwait. You're saying that Russia losing substantial numbers of front-line troops - which Russia swears, cross our black hearts, hasn't happened - could seriously get their military dicks chopped off? Who knew? Who could possibly have foreseen that Russian military strength wasn't endless, and that losing the tiger's teeth and claws would relegate him to a zoo curiosity instead of a fearsome predator in mere days?
Who indeed.
blog comments that didn't age well
Maybe some folks might begin to twig to the reason why I've tagged multiple posts regarding events in the Ukraine with
Cleat Marks In Your Dick Are Hard To Heal
Clever readers, who knew this all along, will thus be in no wise shocked that this post is tagged:
18 comments:
The longer this continues, the more likely Russia becomes a Chinese Vassal State.
Because they longer this continues, the more likely that only China would deal with them- and it will be on terms that would make the Italian Legitimate Businessman's Club think that someone has gone a bit too far.
He's adjusting his assessment based on new evidence. MSM are partisan liars. Usually, by omission. Why would any sane person trust MSM about anything?
Why do you have such an emotional stake in a war with Russia anyway? Or maybe you're like this about everything?
The most surprising thing about that article is that there are apparently people that have paid attention to anything Scott Ritter has had to say for the past 20 years or so.
@Anon 2:34P,
1) The information coming out isn't solely from the MSM.
2) You figure the Russian media has a better reputation for truth-telling??
3) I have no emotional stake in this whatsoever. It's as cold-heartedly calculating as anything I've ever looked at. Putin is a murderous thug, and Russia is a terrorist state. That's the only constant about them for centuries. The emotion in this seems to be coming from the butt-hurt side of the equation, because Vlad's minions keep stepping on their dicks, and everyone who swallowed the risible hagiography about Putin keeps having reality slap them in the back of the head. With a spiked mace.
When you're beating your head against a brick wall daily for 80+ days, it feels so good to stop.
@Randy,
Blind hogs. Acorns.
Well, where do you get your information about this war? I certainly don't get mine from Russian media. I've been going to Ritter, and
Aaron Mate https://mate.substack.com/p/by-using-ukraine-to-fight-russia?s=r
Human Events: https://humanevents.com/2022/03/15/the-fog-of-information-war-in-ukraine/
MPN News: https://www.mintpressnews.com/280167-2/280167/
Oliver Stone's "Ukraine on Fire" (2016)
All clearly and factually back the idea of US meddling illegally in Ukraine and provoking Russia.
If you can rebut these articles and the documentary in a reasoned way or post some links, please do.
But but but Putin HAS to be winning!!!! Biden said Putin is bad and Biden HAS to be wrong!!1!!/ sarc
I really don't understand why some people are so bent on seeing this generation's Josef Stalin win. Yeah, Joe Biden said Putin was evil. The fact that Biden is a moron does not mean he is wrong about this one thing. It just makes his Alzheimer's self smarter than some people on the Internet, which is a sad thought.
~Rhea
What I'm finding quite amusing are the various sites that are still pushing the Russia is winning meme, such as Ann Barnyard, Uber-Catholic, Pox Night, the Smartest Man in the World and 4th rate comics publisher, and Filthy Gin, who really seems to have it in for you. There are others, but those are the 3 most amusing ones of the sites I go to daily.
All 3 of them have their days and excellent posts, which is why I check them frequently, but dear Ghod, sometimes the stoopid burns so much.
I will never understand why Putin decided to go all-in on Ukraine in the first place. He'd recognized the eastern breakaway republics, and however one might feel about that, he was in a position to play the self-determination card against the Ukrainians and the West. Hell, if he wanted to make a statement with his military, he could have advanced his best troops just far enough to "defend" the republics, hit the Ukrainians with air strikes if they moved in, and forced Zelenskyy and company to be the ones to keep up hostilities.
Whether any of that is moral, and not a violation of Ukrainian sovereignty, is another question altogether, but it seems to me like a surer path to victory than what Putin actually did. I don't get it.
I'll say it again: automatically taking a contrary position to people you don't like is textbook NPC behavior.
Likewise, Putin isn't your champion against the NWO, nor does he want to be or ever will be. He's not the Russian James Bond who did all sorts of suberbad spy stuff. He's not a supermaster 48D chess strategy genius.
Russia's multiple and super obvious strategic and tactical blunders aren't part of some plan. They didn't mean to do that. The longer people try to apologize and make excuse, the dumber they look, like those few remaining Biden apologist.
people act as if artillery is some sort of wizardry only fathomable with decades of study.
it's math. that's it. hell with a ballistics computer it isn't even math it's just punching in numbers and following instructions.
I think ukraine has a few people who are good at math. as far as maintenance goes all US army manuals are written for a 5th grade level. I think they can handle it.
@Anon 3:44P,
1) Maybe you missed it, but Ritter is the one who finally admitted he got it all wrong in the OP. So why is he suddenly untrustworthy for you?
2) Oliver Stone? What, Alyssa Milano's Strategy Blog wasn't available for comment? How about Greta Thunberg? Thanks for the comedy relief. You're 0 for 2, so far.
3) Human Events? The one that shuttered their doors in 2013? The one that picked Paul Ryan as a "conservative"? Their website is a shell of the former thing, and their article about the "fog of war" has been Overtaken By Events. That was in March. It's May. And it was an opinion piece, not news.
4) Mint Press: Shocking news: A paper in Ukraine, while it's under attack by Russia, is pro-Ukraine. Stop the presses.
5) Aaron Mate, banner quote: "Russia's invasion is an illegal and catastrophic response."
So you're throwing exactly my own position at me to try and change my mind? Srsly??
Really, I swear to you, it's a yuuuuuuuge internet. Get out and about more.
Putin is the ass in this. Just like I've told you. Just like Ritter is now admitting. Just like Aaron mate is telling you. All I'm doing is pinning the tail on his donkey.
Why some people, nominally intelligent, are wedded at the lips to Putin's genitals over this, and insist on giving his a daily tongue bath, is profoundly astonishing to me.
@Allen,
It's even easier than that. It's only math for 2-3 guys out of every 100.
The other 97 are just spinning wheels and lining up levels and crosshairs.
It's literally baboon-level warfare. "Pull string, gun go boom!" isn't just an inside joke, it's the job description. Boring as hell, and if you get it wrong, you just shift a little and repeat.
Grunt work in the infantry or armor is far more brainwork, and if you suck at it, you get immediate feedback from the other side. Generally in a terminal way.
The part that worries me is that I'm sure our fearless leaders are seeing this as validation of their social engineering projects in our military. And just all the more reason to push farther with them.
IMHO the only thing you seem to be emotional about in all this, is against all the Putin-whores who think he's doing a valorous duty in extinguishing the Nazis in Ukraine, and the people who are just out and out dolts, and absolutely sure of their position.
I still love all the people saying the push against Kiev, with attendant Soviet losses, and withdrawal was all "part of the plan."
Hard to not laugh and point at them. Yes, the Soviets have so many resources and people that they can loose thousands in a false front against Kyiv.
And it's nice to see the old Soviet doctrine of rigid top down command is showing their inadequacies, with a side effect of many leaders dying on the front lines, personally commanding their troops.
@BAP45,
I hear you, but none of the successes have been because of the Wokeist military, but because of western technology.
The 69th Intersectional Dildo Brigade is still liable to gets its own ass handed to it in a stand-up fight, and frankly, the sooner that sacred cow gets slaughtered, the better for America.
Aesop,
For all those folks that think figuring out how to launch an explosive round into the air and have it hit reasonably close to the target, then bringing it onto the target by bracketing, is a huge mental challenge, like Aesop said, it is just math. As a true airborne infantry dinosaur, I was given the exquisite opportunity (they dragged me kickin' and screamin') to attend the Infantry Mortar Platoon Leaders Course at the home for wayward boys in Georgia back in the early 80s. This was a 6 week course that made you extremely competent in predicting the fall of rounds from 60mm, 81mm, and 4.2 inch mortars, as well as launching same, even if you failed college math 3 times before passing like I did. Oh, and since today you have the mortar ballistic computer that you just plug in the data and it does it for you, like FA FDCs use sorta, it doesn't even take much math skill unless you need to do it the way we did with an aiming circle, or pins and paper for the 4.2 inch mortar. Bottom line, if they are using any kind of automated system for fire control, it is kind of like learning a new video game - and I learned to hang rounds, cut cheese charges, etc. in less than three weeks, the rest of the time was all range work dropping rounds and making corrections to round impact. So, the moral of the story is boys and girls, that if a less than bright grunt from the 80s could figure it out in less than 6 weeks (3 weeks really) on 3 different types of mortar systems, I would be surprised if it even took 3 weeks for highly motivated folks that wanted to kill Russians to figure it out. Aesop's estimation is pretty accurate, and those of you that haven't dropped a round or pulled a lanyard probably need to quit hyperventilated over his slaying of your pet dragon. Warlokke
In an odd way, I suspect that the rushed Ukrainian artillery training is still twice or more training than any of the Russians ever got.
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