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A war of annihilation. The other common expression, now reduced to cliché and platitude, that doesn’t convey the horror is “scorched earth.”

Putin‘s military, the Russian military, kills civilians in cold blood at train stations and refugee centers and in apartment buildings and everywhere else. Any group of civilians, refugees or otherwise, that make the news immediately become targets. I saw a video of a Russian tank target and destroy a car containing harmless Ukrainians. In Ukraine, if it’s human and if it moves, the Russian army will shoot it.

This trail of grease, this POS, finally showed his true colors. His true self is in full view now. Before Lucian started here, over on Greg Olear everyone was fully informed how corrupt, heartless, and ruthless this cretin is. Now the whole world gets to see it.

Putin is our version of Hitler. The comparison is perfect. And he hates the comparison, because he began his KGB career in eastern Germany, where he was able to study closely the WWII German culture that invaded his country.

Putin is Hitler. He became what he studied. Machtpolitik. Using brutality to get what you want. The worst of the worst.

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Nice read Lucian. A couple of thoughts. Russia does not like leaders who end up in positions of weakness. Ultimately, the military will turn on him and it will be over for him. He will either mysteriously die of one of the supposed inflictions he is suffering from, or he will be deposed and sent off to exile in one of his vacation homes. The other problem is the Russian economy. It is in a condition that it might not recover from for a decade. The west will not give in on the sanctions until the economy crumbles. The best Russian talent is leaving or has left Russia to work in other countries. They probably will not return. I worked for a Russian company in New York for a number of years. I never heard a single one of the Russians employed there say, "This sucks, I think I will go back to Russia now". I think Russia as a world power might be done. This time, perhaps we will be smart enough to take their nuclear weapons away from them. Oh, and by the way anyone who thinks the US and Europe (NATO) is not in a war with Russia is fooling themselves. The US is 10 billion in at this point and if NATO doesn't have advisors on the ground I would be really shocked.

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Excellent column, Lucian. Here's hoping that history repeats itself.

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"winter is coming..."

You love to see it. Putin is no student of history, apparently.

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I'd like to see some clear-eyed analysis about how the Ukrainian forces are holding up in the face of their relentless casualties, too. The Kyiv government has been very cagey about supplying details of its own losses, which must also be reaching critical levels. Can these be sustained? Which country will face exhaustion first? NATO may be shipping weapons enough to keep the Ukrainian army in the field and be successful, but it can't replace manpower.

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I think Napoleon had the same problem, not a good place to wage war,

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The problem with a war of annihilation, or a war of attrition, is that your side suffers heavily as well as the side upon whom you are waging war. I saw the other day that Russia has lost up to 40% of its GDP. Usually Russian leaders who are deemed guilty of "adventurism" get removed when their forays have failed. Kruschev paid for the Cuban Missile Crisis, and eventually Gorbachev withdrew the USSR from Afghanistan, a result partially from discussions among senior Russian officials in the late 80s as optimism over Afghanistan faded.

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founding

I'm curious about what's in the pipeline. How long is Russia willing to bleed just to keep this war going. How long can they resupply their forward units. At what point does the Russian army simply hunker down and dig in. I'm recalling the siege warfare in Korea from the spring of 1951 until July 1953, where we had complete air and naval superiority, and we were locked into a virtual stalemate on the ground. By 1952, the Truman administration was desperate to leave Korea, and we were the world's superpower.

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It's not called the 1812 Overture

for nothing. Read War and Peace. Same thing happened to Napoleon. The French reached Moscow, but only because the Russians abandoned it, then burnt it down.

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Putin and Hitler share a common trait or two including arranging mass murder of unarmed people.

He is also putting Russia's military a decade further behind the West and NATO.

Maybe democracy will be seen as preferable by Russians to the Oligarchs and thugs who now rule them.... It does limit one man from declaring war for the hell of it...

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We were warned about Putin, and with the same phrase Lucian has used in this incisive analysis of what's next:

www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/garry-kasparov/winter-is-coming-putin/

I can also highly recommend former world champion Kasparov's series My Great Predecessors, for the chess fiends, anyway.

But this book, published in 2015,really takes apart Putin's pretensions, explains why Putin was briefly accepted as a stop-gap in the 1990s after the bungling Yeltsin, and shows why Putin is such a threat to the Russian people's hopes for a better life, to the region, and a menace to the world.

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I think you’re right.

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Great piece and good to compare with the WWII Operation Barbarossa and the harshness of their winters. But it will be as harsh on the Ukrainians whose cities, homes and infrastructure have been obliterated by the Russians. And, as long as Russia still has the resources, they can continue to lob missiles into Ukraine from their home territories. It may very well be a longer, harsher winter for Ukraine than Russia. Maybe it is time to start lobbing missiles back.

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Let’s hope the result is the same. Vlad needs his comeuppance sooner rather than later.

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founding

If only my smart, successful brother had a clue about history and wasn’t relying on Tass for information about Ukraine.

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But - isn't the Russian army kinda used to the conditions in that part of the world? Hell yes, the "rasputitsa" will hurt them, but, maybe not as bad as it did Hitler...?

Either way, I stand with Ukraine!

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