The Southern Front of Ukraine Favors Tank Armies that Ukraine Lacks!
Putin is now redeploying his beaten tank army that was fighting the wrong style of conflict in an area that favors guerrilla-style tactics. Subsequently resorting to pre-planned brute measures. It made me think of the atrocities of the German army in Belgium in 1914. They were also told to behave like the Huns by their Keiser. This also came about in the same way akin to the Franc Tireur atrocities in the war of 1870. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francs-tireurs.
Yet Putin has surpassed that and is on par with what the Nazis also in modern times did in WW2. History repeating itself. Also in the sense that it keeps on getting worse. Even the ancient Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans knew how to play this brutish war game.
The brutal logic is that a leader fighting this style of war needs to sow hatred to get humans to start killing each other. BTW the most brutish wars and even simple murder cases with extreme violence are strong indicators that the murderer and the victim knew each other. There are a lot of close ties between the Ukrainians and Russians so it’s more of a civil war in that sense. Yet, that in no way make it one people, as Putin claims.
(Quote) “Paulmichl said the quote was likely a manipulated excerpt from the 1947 book “Nuremberg Diary” by Gustave M. Gilbert (here), a psychologist who had access to the prisoners during the trials.
In the book, Gilbert describes a discussion with Goering on how a government may force people to go to war, to which Goering responded: “…It is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.”
Reminded by Gilbert that “in a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives,” Goering told him that “voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.” https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-goering-falsequote-idUSL1N2LM23W
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO GET NATO OFF THEIR ARSES?
Hoping to pay off our just feelings of guilt and shame by aiding refugees, sending manpads, anti-tank missiles, in the hope it all will somehow work out for the best.
Inspired by Churchill in adapting his quote towards Chamberlain I let it resound in the Hooglandse church in Leyden on March 12th during a symposium on Ukraine towards the former Secretary General of NATO Jaap de Hoop Scheffer:
“We had to choose between dishonour and war, we chose dishonour, we’ll have war!”
When you are afraid of war you will get war. Only when you can restrain those fears can you act and threaten war in a way any mobster like Hitler, Stalin, or Putin can understand. That prevents war.
All this diddering by NATO has taken so long that it’s nigh certainly already too bloody late. Even when we start sending Russian-style fighter planes, tanks, and artillery like the Czechs are now doing. Types on which most Ukrainian soldiers have trained. That is the reason why Zelensky has justly been screaming all the time begging for these sorts of weapons. For he knew that this type of fighting would sooner or later ensue. Unless of course, NATO intervenes. The time required to form that stuff into a tank army that can go head to head with Russia’s tank army takes months. However, the ground is getting softer and muddier so that might buy just enough time.
Mariupol probably can’t hold out much longer for it is cut off from supply. The Ukrainian forces are probably already cut into three. This could end any moment now. Freeing more troops for Putin to attack elsewhere. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Mariupol#Mariupol_surrounded
The Russians will de-Nazify the city, by simply killing all combatants and most civilians that haven’t been able to flee. Putin wants a Russian city a.s.a.p. Well, the Nazi way to do that he has shown not to shy away from.
The fortunes of war are however inherently unpredictable! The gains of Putin feeling weak can quickly change into Putin feeling strong again in tunnel vision that this time he’ll show how great his army really is. Well, honestly I don’t want to know. Neither should you!
The psychological problem this poses is that the price to regain a good bargain will go up. For instance, he won’t want to give Crimea or Mariupol back. Having his glorious army fought so brilliant a battle. In truth just bombing everything to smithereens. And by terror rape and pillaging grasping what he wants.
Whatever. NATO must stop this war today. It has the power to do so and is in everybody’s interest.
Alas, something is clearly wrong also in our democracies. In a 50% + one vote system the type of leadership of a Churchill or Zelensky that is required to stop a Hitler or Putin in a timely fashion always becomes more and more political suicide.
Most politicians that want to remain in power for a long time such as Angela Merkel and Mark Rutte simply follow what the statistics show that the herd wants. Well, the herd is easily scared of nukes and war. So they will follow any leader that says that standing up to a mobster is too dangerous. The press and military leaders follow that naraitive.
Appeasement is the word stating that nukes make it a game-changer.
This is simply untrue seeing the Russian de-escalating first strike scenario whereas we in NATO think that it’s only MAD. MAD is mutually assured destruction that will in our NATO mind automatically ensue. The latter however opened up the possibility for Putin to wage war hoping to scare NATO off. Well, indeed to a degree that has indeed worked. Yet slowly public opinion will start to shift. Then when NATO finally shows its teeth Putin will believe that they are bluffing, when they are not.
Well, that goes on and on, until we reach our Poland 1939 scenario. We know that Hitler was distraught for days when war was declared. Up until that point still in tunnel vision convinced to be the greatest diplomat. Not grasping that the only reason that he got away with it every time was that no one could believe the audacity of the literally insane risks Hitler was taking.
For Putin probably opening up Kaliningrad and Lithuania will be the trigger for WW3 to erupt.
Maybe the way the West joined in on the hefty economic sanctions has deterred Xi to go on with his plans toward Taiwan.