(09-23-2022, 10:01 AM)p_rushing Wrote:

(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.

What makes you say the special operation has failed?

The MSM is/has been saying it failed but it doesn't appear to have failed per the goals the Russians have been saying all long. You can't solely look at things through the narrative that you know they will shape to whatever they want it to be.

If the referendums fail, then the operation was not successful. It won't be a complete failure as they have disposed of 1,000s of terrible human beings who constantly attacked innocent civilians in Eastern Ukraine. Russia also meet it's goal of stopping the NATO advancement and keeping nukes out of Ukraine. They had the added bonus of the West sinking billions of dollars and weapons into a failed country with no results. Then those same countries are about to have riots and overthrow their governments when they can't pay for gas and are starving and freezing.

If you remove yourself from the feelings and trying to decide who is right or wrong, this has not been a failure for Russia.

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What planet are you on?  Do you actually believe what you just wrote?  

Firing your own generals, calling up 300,000 reservists and threatening nuclear war is not a sign of success.  All they've accomplished is to show the world how much the Russian army sucks.  At a price of billions in lost and abandoned equipment and thousands of dead soldiers.  

As for stopping NATO, did you not notice that Sweden and Finland have applied for NATO membership since this war started?  

But actually, I hope Putin believes what you said.  Then maybe he can declare victory and stop this madness.

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