From today’s Washington Post: “Russian families bade tearful farewells on Thursday to thousands of sons and husbands abruptly summoned for military duty as part of President Vladimir Putin’s new mobilization, while pro-war Russian nationalists raged over the release of Ukrainian commanders in a secretive prisoner exchange.
This is the Putin equivalent to Stalins purges. The press ganged soldiers are intended to be killed. Ethnic cleansing of problematic minorities, removal of anyone who might fight back against the system. No deportations, gulags, or bullets to the back of the head. They will also serve to keep up the pretense of war while the destruction of civilians and infrastructure continues
Let me guess. If of those million reservists, 20 or 30 percent decide, when they meet the wild eyed, trained, terrifying Ukraine men and women, this is the time to make new friends rather than raise their Ak-47 to their shoulders, what do we think is going to happen? Surrender their arms and little used equipment to the Ukrainians and maybe even join the winning team? Too bad they won't have much intelligence to share in exchange for getting captured, but a few hundred thousand riffles, ammo, rocket launchers, uniforms, supplies, etc., it'd be like getting delivery of material from the Red Santa. Maybe President Zelensky should establish recruitment posts along the front line and offer signup bonuses for the, say, 900,000 men under the age of 45 to switch sides offering, say, a pathway to citizenship and training in a tech area of their choice. Maybe those new "recruits" could be peaceful noncombatants backfilling open jobs in Ukrainian agriculture and civil reconstruction of bombed and decimated towns and industries in exchange for this offer to realign with the good folks of Ukraine. Surely, I fantasize.
We are one people. I feel it like our students sitting in college class are pulled away from their young lives and studies and thrust into a war to be killed. I feel it like immigrants seeking asylum and finally in safe harbor after a treacherous journey rounded up and “sent somewhere”. I feel it like authoritarian dictators worldwide sacrificing people like cattle going to the slaughterhouse. I feel it like a lying, treacherous former president caught in a corner and debasing himself so his cult followers will sacrifice themselves for him.
I am incredibly sad. There will be so much work needed to be done to bring humanity to the surface of all things. While burying so many.
A steep price. I pray not more steep than forgiveness.
In 15 DAYS???!!! TC laid out the reasons that Putin’s war is going to end well for Ukraine.
‘Does anyone think these million men who will have been shanghaied into the Russian Army against their will, to fight in a war where they are not the defenders of their country against an invading enemy, but are rather the invading enemy, will be a motivated army?’ (TC)
TC didn’t stop there. I smelled the 2nd Russian Revolution on way.
‘When the sons of the cops start coming home in body bags, assuming their comrades don’t leave their corpses to rot on the battlefield as they have done with so many others since February 24, Putin’s final line of defense will be gone.’ (TC)
And those million men who were shanghaied into the Russian Army, the mothers, wives, sisters, brothers, and fathers of Russia will be marching against Putin. TC has begun his prehistory depiction of RUSSIA’S 2nd REVOLUTION. It’s gonna be something.
Is this going to be like the beginning of the movie “Enemy at the Gates” where Soviet soldiers are ordered to charge at the German lines where one soldier has a rifle and the next guy in line has the bullet for the rifle? And NKVD officers behind the horde to execute stragglers and deserters? Will the Russians of today accept their slaughter dumbly like their counterparts in the Great Patriotic War? For Putin’s Great Idiotic War?
"15 days isn’t long enough to learn how to use an AK-47..." Yet, they're legal here with no checks?
And "sent into battle in the winter, with a support system that can’t get food, medicine or gasoline to those in the front lines." A gory bloodbath by xmas. I keep thinking of Sting's "The Russians Love Their Children, Too"
Fifteen days…no way, Jose…in fact, are there training centers for these raw recruits, DI’s and NCO’s to train them, doctors to examine them, basics like uniforms, boots, weapons, trucks and buses to move them, and even food to feed them? This is insane…and won’t end well.
This will be a national personal tragedy for Russia - this could be Stalingrad all over again, many thousands of casualties and deaths..... Russia likely does not have enough body bags to handle what is all too likely to happen. 15 days of "training" will prepare them mainly how to die in formation.....this is a military catastrophe in the making. These untrained troops will be more of a hindrance on the battlefield than useful troops - their main function will be to use up Ukraine's ammunition.....
Both HIMARS and MLRS can fire GMLRS-AW rockets that have a 200 lb. fragmentation warhead that can devastate the local target area. The effect of seeing several dozen comrades killed or injured from one barrage or rocket will pretty much finish the new "troops" as a fighting force. They should be grateful the US stopped using the old MLRS and TACMS missiles with cluster warheads - up to 900+ submunitions per warhead depending on model.....
you pretty much said it yourself, Tom. 15 days is perfectly adequate training to be cannon fodder. I typed this last night and failed to "save" it.
right now I'm typing with some serious pain, having broken some ribs after a "routine" fall when my bad knee buckled. fortunately, it happened on the semi-shag rugs covering my long hallway.
Yes, TC; it's a going to be good for Ukraine as long as Putin isn't desperate enough to use the nuclear bomb, and from the tone of your report, he sounds desperate.
This is the Putin equivalent to Stalins purges. The press ganged soldiers are intended to be killed. Ethnic cleansing of problematic minorities, removal of anyone who might fight back against the system. No deportations, gulags, or bullets to the back of the head. They will also serve to keep up the pretense of war while the destruction of civilians and infrastructure continues
Let me guess. If of those million reservists, 20 or 30 percent decide, when they meet the wild eyed, trained, terrifying Ukraine men and women, this is the time to make new friends rather than raise their Ak-47 to their shoulders, what do we think is going to happen? Surrender their arms and little used equipment to the Ukrainians and maybe even join the winning team? Too bad they won't have much intelligence to share in exchange for getting captured, but a few hundred thousand riffles, ammo, rocket launchers, uniforms, supplies, etc., it'd be like getting delivery of material from the Red Santa. Maybe President Zelensky should establish recruitment posts along the front line and offer signup bonuses for the, say, 900,000 men under the age of 45 to switch sides offering, say, a pathway to citizenship and training in a tech area of their choice. Maybe those new "recruits" could be peaceful noncombatants backfilling open jobs in Ukrainian agriculture and civil reconstruction of bombed and decimated towns and industries in exchange for this offer to realign with the good folks of Ukraine. Surely, I fantasize.
We are one people. I feel it like our students sitting in college class are pulled away from their young lives and studies and thrust into a war to be killed. I feel it like immigrants seeking asylum and finally in safe harbor after a treacherous journey rounded up and “sent somewhere”. I feel it like authoritarian dictators worldwide sacrificing people like cattle going to the slaughterhouse. I feel it like a lying, treacherous former president caught in a corner and debasing himself so his cult followers will sacrifice themselves for him.
I am incredibly sad. There will be so much work needed to be done to bring humanity to the surface of all things. While burying so many.
A steep price. I pray not more steep than forgiveness.
🗽
In 15 DAYS???!!! TC laid out the reasons that Putin’s war is going to end well for Ukraine.
‘Does anyone think these million men who will have been shanghaied into the Russian Army against their will, to fight in a war where they are not the defenders of their country against an invading enemy, but are rather the invading enemy, will be a motivated army?’ (TC)
TC didn’t stop there. I smelled the 2nd Russian Revolution on way.
‘When the sons of the cops start coming home in body bags, assuming their comrades don’t leave their corpses to rot on the battlefield as they have done with so many others since February 24, Putin’s final line of defense will be gone.’ (TC)
And those million men who were shanghaied into the Russian Army, the mothers, wives, sisters, brothers, and fathers of Russia will be marching against Putin. TC has begun his prehistory depiction of RUSSIA’S 2nd REVOLUTION. It’s gonna be something.
Is this going to be like the beginning of the movie “Enemy at the Gates” where Soviet soldiers are ordered to charge at the German lines where one soldier has a rifle and the next guy in line has the bullet for the rifle? And NKVD officers behind the horde to execute stragglers and deserters? Will the Russians of today accept their slaughter dumbly like their counterparts in the Great Patriotic War? For Putin’s Great Idiotic War?
"15 days isn’t long enough to learn how to use an AK-47..." Yet, they're legal here with no checks?
And "sent into battle in the winter, with a support system that can’t get food, medicine or gasoline to those in the front lines." A gory bloodbath by xmas. I keep thinking of Sting's "The Russians Love Their Children, Too"
Fifteen days…no way, Jose…in fact, are there training centers for these raw recruits, DI’s and NCO’s to train them, doctors to examine them, basics like uniforms, boots, weapons, trucks and buses to move them, and even food to feed them? This is insane…and won’t end well.
This will be a national personal tragedy for Russia - this could be Stalingrad all over again, many thousands of casualties and deaths..... Russia likely does not have enough body bags to handle what is all too likely to happen. 15 days of "training" will prepare them mainly how to die in formation.....this is a military catastrophe in the making. These untrained troops will be more of a hindrance on the battlefield than useful troops - their main function will be to use up Ukraine's ammunition.....
Both HIMARS and MLRS can fire GMLRS-AW rockets that have a 200 lb. fragmentation warhead that can devastate the local target area. The effect of seeing several dozen comrades killed or injured from one barrage or rocket will pretty much finish the new "troops" as a fighting force. They should be grateful the US stopped using the old MLRS and TACMS missiles with cluster warheads - up to 900+ submunitions per warhead depending on model.....
Worth every dollar. Thanks, TC.
TC, for a future post, when relevant, I’d be curious about your views on the response to the detonation is a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine.
you pretty much said it yourself, Tom. 15 days is perfectly adequate training to be cannon fodder. I typed this last night and failed to "save" it.
right now I'm typing with some serious pain, having broken some ribs after a "routine" fall when my bad knee buckled. fortunately, it happened on the semi-shag rugs covering my long hallway.
oy. and ow.
Yes, TC; it's a going to be good for Ukraine as long as Putin isn't desperate enough to use the nuclear bomb, and from the tone of your report, he sounds desperate.