the watcher

The American rollover of Iraqi forces was only the first battle. They moved on to Afghanistan and became mired in two wars without an exit plan, and slunk out of Afghanistan defeated. They are still taking casualties in Iraq and remain bunkered in their fortresses, paying out billions to mercenaries to fight their battles. Ukraine is far from defeated, at least at this point. 

Putin's mindset will not allow him to countenance any defeat. If he or his generals decide that Ukraine is not worth the price they are paying, and decide to withdraw, the probability is that he will try to cripple it on his way out. This will involve destroying as much of the infrastructure and military as possible. There have been overt attacks on civilian targets already, so Russia has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity already. The scenario is different, but resistance in both Viet Nam and Afghanistan defeated much larger forces, and Russia was driven out of Afghanistan as well. The reasons for the US and Russian defeats were: the support of the great majority of inhabitants for the resistance and foreign supply of weapons to the local fighters. 

Putin bet the farm on the rest of the world not caring and Ukraine just rolling over. Now that those things haven't happened I wonder just how crazy he actually is... will he slink away with his tail tucked or double down on a mistake...

Surrender would mean the end of Ukraine for decades and a strengthening of Putin's power in Europe and Asia. Putin wants nothing less than a complete dissolution of Ukrainian self-government and the killing or imprisonment of all opposition there. This is essentially a replay of the Spanish "civil war" where a massively equipped, Nazi-backed force took on democratic inferior forces supported by the international community. The lack of strong response by democratic nations fueled Nazi confidence and led directly to World War 2.
 

What chance did Britain have against Germany after the fall of Europe ? What chance did Vietnam have against the might of the USA ? What chance did the Afghans have against Russia ? What chance did the Taliban have against the combined force they faced. It has happened many , many times. It takes good leadership and a good battle plan. The Ukraine is already winning the non battlefield war. In today's small world that is extremely important. 
If the Ukraine surrenders it will be the end of the Ukraine for the foreseeable future.

What chance did Britain have against Germany after the fall of Europe ? What chance did Vietnam have against the might of the USA ? What chance did the Afghans have against Russia ? What chance did the Taliban have against the combined force they faced. It has happened many , many times. It takes good leadership and a good battle plan. The Ukraine is already winning the non battlefield war. In today's small world that is extremely important. 
If the Ukraine surrenders it will be the end of the Ukraine for the foreseeable future.

What chance did Britain have against Germany after the fall of Europe ? What chance did Vietnam have against the might of the USA ? What chance did the Afghans have against Russia ? What chance did the Taliban have against the combined force they faced. It has happened many , many times. It takes good leadership and a good battle plan. The Ukraine is already winning the non battlefield war. In today's small world that is extremely important. 
If the Ukraine surrenders it will be the end of the Ukraine for the foreseeable future.

What chance did Britain have against Germany after the fall of Europe ? What chance did Vietnam have against the might of the USA ? What chance did the Afghans have against Russia ? What chance did the Taliban have against the combined force they faced. It has happened many , many times. It takes good leadership and a good battle plan. The Ukraine is already winning the non battlefield war. In today's small world that is extremely important. 
If the Ukraine surrenders it will be the end of the Ukraine for the foreseeable future.

It has been speculated by many international political observers that Trump has been owned by the Russians for some 20 years due to all the money he has borrowed from their banks. There is no way that Ukraine will surrender- the Russians have apparently planned to decapitate the Ukrainian government by capturing or killing every one of them. The Russian army is being shown up as having outdated, poorly maintained equipment, and many of the Russian soldiers are very poorly trained and completely unaware of their mission goals. Putin fits all the criteria for a psychopath, and is at best a sociopath. He will serve himself above all other ends. I would not put it above him to institute a "scorched Earth policy" if forced to retreat out of Ukraine.

In case you missed the World can thank Trump for keeping NATO around and the Ukraine's can thank Trump for the bigly bombs that go boom, all according to the greatest person alive according to himself.

Your opinion that Ukraine should just surrender. It's patently absurd and entirely ignorant not only of what's taking place but also what's at stake.

FTFY

Not all is rosy on the Russian side of things...
The Rouble has dropped 32 percent in 2 days, against the dollar and the Euro. To try and stop a this run on the rouble, The Bank of Russia - is hiking interest rates from 9.5 per cent to 20 per cent this morning. The Russian finance ministry also ordered exporting companies to sell 80 per cent of their foreign currency revenues on the market to try to support the rouble - the value of which continued to collapse on the Moscow Stock Exchange, today.
The Russian economy has plummeted an estimated 30 per cent overnight as the West's sanctions over the Ukraine war are starting to squeeze the economy.  So there is that......

Apparently you can be trained in 1 hour on how to use Javelins and Stingers. If they can access enough of them and with the ground swell of resistance happening that could be a game changer.

Apparently you can be trained in 1 hour on how to use Javelins and Stingers. If they can access enough of them and with the ground swell of resistance happening that could be a game changer.

Apparently you can be trained in 1 hour on how to use Javelins and Stingers. If they can access enough of them and with the ground swell of resistance happening that could be a game changer.

Apparently you can be trained in 1 hour on how to use Javelins and Stingers. If they can access enough of them and with the ground swell of resistance happening that could be a game changer.

The world needs to make sure they are well armed and have supplies, javelins and stingers are causing major damage to the Russian convoys but heavy armament in coming

This is real life not like the meal team six members and their cosplay pretend tired old act
 

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-kyiv-business-europe-moscow-2e4e1cf784f22b6afbe5a2f936725550
He's lost his ******* mind.
Slava Ukraini!

Outstanding article.
I have read two novels by Vladimir Sorokin..... Brilliant author.  Read them start to finish without stopping.

Day of the Oprichnik: 
 
"Day of the Oprichnik, translated into English by Jamey Gambrell, is no earnest retread of Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, even though Sorokin, a talented mimic of his fellow Russian authors, clearly intends the ironic echo. On the contrary, this short and savage offering puts the “dys” in dystopian in a way few novels bearing that label can claim. It’s an outrageous, salacious, over-the-top tragicomic depiction of an utterly depraved social order whose absolute monarch (referred to only as “His Majesty”) is a blatant conflation of the country’s current president with its ferocious 16th-century absolute monarch known as Ivan Grozny."
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/his-majesty-on-vladimir-sorokins-day-of-the-oprichnik/
 

An opinion piece on Putin
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/27/vladimir-putin-russia-ukraine-power

An opinion piece on Putin
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/27/vladimir-putin-russia-ukraine-power

An opinion piece on Putin
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/27/vladimir-putin-russia-ukraine-power