(09-23-2022, 05:38 AM)The Real Marty Wrote: Our experience in Vietnam started with widespread public support, and the administration saying everything was going swimmingly.  Then, as the war dragged on, we started drafting people, and the public support eroded away fairly quickly.  The hawks demanded escalation, and Johnson followed that course, because to admit defeat was too humiliating.  So he just pushed more troops into Vietnam, the casualties mounted, and the United States was torn apart.  We have documentary evidence, including tape recordings, that reveal that the Johnson administration knew the war was not winnable, and yet they saw no other course but to continue.  They were hoping for a miracle. 

This callup of 300,000 reservists is the first time the war in Ukraine has come home to the Russian people.  Putin is refusing the admit that the "special operation" has failed.  He needs to reform his army, but that starts with admitting reality.  These 300,000 troops he's called up will have to be trained, and equipped, and they'll have to be fed and clothed when they are in the field.  That will take months at a minimum.  And then, how do you motivate them?  And they'll go into the same command structure where no one can do anything without orders.  Those 300,000 draftees will have one goal, not to win the war in Ukraine, but to survive the war in Ukraine.  

As for the prospect of Putin using a nuclear weapon, I don't see a target for a nuclear weapon, other than a city.  Ukrainian troops are spread out; they concentrate immediately before an attack.  If the Russians use a nuclear weapon in defense of their own troops, they'll kill as many Russian troops as Ukrainian troops.