I was reading an article in the New York Times, or the Atlantic – I can’t remember exactly where – about how grim things are for Ukrainian soldiers serving on the front lines of Ukraine’s war against the Russian military that has invaded their country and seized a swath of territory in Ukraine’s east, all the way from the Russian border in the north to the east bank of the Dnipro River in the south. Many Ukrainian soldiers have been fighting with only occasional pauses for R & R trips back to their hometowns – that is, if their hometowns aren’t in the portion of Ukraine that has been taken or destroyed by Russia – for more than 22 straight months since the war began on February 24, 2022, 644 days in all. By anyone’s measure, that is a long, long time to be in combat. By comparison, the 32
Vivid. Brutal. Talked with a Ukrainian-American nurse last night. Family came here thirteen years ago. A childhood friend was here for medical treatment. He’d lost his left arm in the fighting there. Just left to go back to rejoin its military. She’s following him next month.
While the soldiers on both sides endure this miserable existence Putin is nice and warm and comfortable, eating gourmet meals served by his personal chef washed down no doubt with expensive wine. perhaps while on his $50 million yacht apparently not that concerned about their miserable conditions, or the daily toll of casualties.
The Times article talked about sleep deprivation from Russian drones that set off security alarms in Ukrainian cities in middle of the night, sending the residents scrambling to the shelters even if no bombs are dropped. If that isn’t psychological warfare l don’t know what is.
Interrupted sleep is a technique used in Soviet prisons to screw up
dissidents and political prisoners. With Ukraine is being held hostage by Putin’s Regime, what better way to destabilize those who haven’t been killed or fled, then bring back psychological torture?
That was some explanation of what it means to be on the ground. I was bummed just reading about it. I suspect most people never think about what it must be like to be a fighting man or woman. If you were enervated just writing about it, that is understandable. And intended or not, you make an excellent case for robotic soldiers. But maybe losing blood and treasure is required. And speaking of war ... Superkraut died tonight.
"And speaking of war ... Superkraut died tonight."
Spotted that headlined in the Guardian last night and kept right on past it to this*, as a kind of ongoing antidote-in-advance to overdosing on "too much chaos and war" news, but meaning to circle back to see if mass spontaneous celebrations broke out in Santiago, Chile, and elsewhere across South America** or SE Asia - these double asterisk affixed BEFORE I search for those - who knows how some of the prime victims H.K. and ITT and Dita Beard and (Etc. etc.) have reacted?
No monetary damages, no reparations of that kind can undo war crimes on that level, indeed, of any kind of needless, avoidable, genocidal (in SE Asia at least, maybe in S.A. politics overrode everything else) policies of waging death and destruction.
** Too tricky for me to locate material FROM Chile etc. (and likely it's en Espanol, quien sabe, Senora Margo?!) but there's of course this, in Newsweek:
"Others were quick to condemn the legacy of the 100-year-old in the wake of his death, and some people openly celebrated.
A crowd of Free Palestine protesters in New York City erupted in cheers on Wednesday night as the news broke, according to video posted to social media.
In a post on X, the left-wing media company The International posted the "many crimes of Henry Kissinger" while detailing tallies of deaths in countries such as Cambodia, Chile, Argentina and Vietnam.
Author and journalist Andrea Pitzer added: "When I went to Chile for my concentration camp book, I talked to so many who held Kissinger responsible for destroying their country & their lives. They were tortured in horrific ways, detained in heinous conditions, then often exiled for years. May they sleep peacefully tonight."
CodePink, the anti-war feminist activist group, called Kissinger a "ruthless war criminal" following his death.
"From Chile and Argentina to East Timor, Vietnam, Cambodia, and beyond, Kissinger leaves a shameful legacy of terror, torture, and mass killing," the group said. "May his passing bring us closer to peace & liberation."
Chris Hazzard, a Sinn Fein politician who represents South Down in Northern Ireland, posted on X: "Henry Kissinger is dead He was undoubtedly one of the worst war criminals of the 21st century. An imperial exceptionalist, he was responsible for the torture & death of millions of civilians in Latin America & Asia."
Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies
The infamy of Nixon's foreign-policy architect sits, eternally, beside that of history's worst mass murderers. A deeper shame attaches to the country that celebrates him..."
"Criticism of Kissinger, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in negotiating a cease-fire in Vietnam in 1973, was especially strong on social media, where many posted celebratory videos in reaction to his death.
A Rolling Stone magazine headline said, “Henry Kissinger, war criminal beloved by America’s ruling class, finally dies.”
“Henry Kissinger’s bombing campaign likely killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians — and set (a) path for the ravages of the Khmer Rouge,” Sophal Ear, a scholar at Arizona State University who studies Cambodia’s political economy, wrote on The Conversation.
“The cluster bombs dropped on Cambodia under Kissinger’s watch continue to destroy the lives of any man, woman or child who happens across them,” Sophal Ear wrote. "
You are quite the scholar/researcher, Sir. My compliments. Just to be clear, let us certify that The Guardian did not refer to the newly deceased as "Superkraut." It was I.
LOL, only in a rare Guardian Op-Ed not sub-titled "The Guardian's View on...," and then only in the context of assessing pros and cons of wildly unmoderated social media rhetoric, and then probably citing that kind of example as "colorful, clearly meant as sarcasm" and not the really grotesquely scurrilous and scatological invective they find over the line, rightly, in my opinion - then we might see it!
I firmly believe that when Hillary met with Superkraut before the elections it killed her credibility with many Dems. At that point many really did feel there was no difference between her & thump.
On some key aspects (like AVOIDING NEEDLESS "WARS OF CHOICE"!) hell yes!
That elementary fairness and the sheer scale of Trump's subversive, neo-fascist anti-American skullduggery, mandates adding a host of caveats about extending the comparisons too far into domestic politics, or even too far with respect to foreign diplomacy and war policies, is also true.
Superkraut, love it. Can't wait for Lucian to, uh, memorialize him. Will be a whole lot more interesting than the yawnfest of Wapo and the Grey Lady doing "balance".
Your granular description of life in a combat zone where your survival is on the line constantly, and there are no creature comforts to mitigate the stress, is a must read for everyone, but especially the armchair generals who revel in war porn, as I call it. There is no glory in war for the combat soldier. There are no toilets, showers, or regular clean clothes, and definitely no joy in eating. Then there’s the never ending carnage that might blow your buddy to bits in front of your eyes, and all the dead bodies of the enemy or civilians left to rot around you. That’s why anyone who has ever seen combat, no matter for how long, never forgets it, and never gets over it. Superimpose winter on the combat zone, subfreezing temperatures , snow, and mud, and you have to wonder why the desertion rate isn’t 100%. Ukrainians are fighting to save their homeland, and deserve all the support, moral and material, they can be given. The reluctance of the disgusting Rethugs in Washington to provide our considerable resources to the Ukrainians who are now caught in a stalemate is an unspeakable obscenity. Traitorous supporters of Putin or ideologues looking to score points for their side on the backs of all those guys in the trenches makes me want to vomit.
This vividly described column is like a matching bookend to your recent “dribs and drabs” column. They, and all the others you have written on Ukraine go to the heart of the matter - a half-hearted support of Ukraine is a miserable way to support its heroic efforts to preserve its country against the megalomaniacal Putin. The western nations should go all in - give Ukraine everything and anything it needs to win, and show Putin for once and for all that he can’t just invade another country because he feels like it. Ukrainians are doing the fighting, bleeding and dying that the rest of the West might face if Putin gets his way. Let’s support Ukraine to the hilt. I am sick of the half-assed support received from all the western nations. Time to ensure that Ukraine wins and rids its territory of Russian invaders.
Pretty hard for any politician to do when so many hard working Americans are sleeping in tents, or forced to couch surf. I know a few. Not saying it's not a legitimate cause but looking at the many facets of this ongoing nightmare, I can see the moral and financial quandary it represents.
Your description has the same devastating emotional impact as the frontline scenes in the novel "All Quiet on the Western Front." Guard duty! I pulled it one winter night at Fort Sill when the temperature was below 20 and there was a steady north wind of some 15 mph. About two hours in (wearing every bit of winter clothing issued), there was an engine noise. Another trainee and I lumbered out from whatever we were hiding behind to shield us from the wind. We fund ourselves challenging a bird colonel, the garrison commander, who was there to make sure we weren't actually walking the perimeter of those rows of obsolete 75 mm cannons. "You're no good to us if you freeze to death. Stay safe *and* alert," he said. "Yes, *Sir," we shouted, saluting, and found our place of shelter as the colonel continued his inspection.
Reading this, and thinking back on how American soldiers handled the adversity of standing watch under comparable conditions: Korea, Chosin Reservoir, December 1950; Belgium, Battle of the Bulge, December 1944; Hurtigenwald, North Rhineland-Westphalia, September – December, 1944, which was a German tactical victory inflicting between 33,000 and 55,000 American casualties, KIA, wounded, or MIA, with limited gains for the First United States Army. Rugged terrain, inhospitable cold, wet weather, and constant overcast, which limited the United States 9th Air Force's ability to deliver close air support, and the dense forest land which limited the attacking force's ability to maneuver and envelop defendant positions, or to resupply and replenish war matériel, limited the effectiveness of American armor and armed reconnaissance; and bringing with it, as the Germans would have it, General Mud, that slowed and disorganize the attacking force, exposing it to sudden sharp and effective counterattacks. This was the precise opposite of the freewheeling, hell-for-leather advance that made Lieutenant General George Patton's 3rd United States Army's thrust across northern France the previous July and August.
Two years earlier, in Tunisia, North Africa, the American expeditionary force endured the ignominy of defeat at the hands of Germany's Afrika Korps, culminating in the route at Kasserine , in February 1943. It was a sudden, and deadly reckoning that the United States First Infantry Division suffered with 3300 soldiers killed or wounded, together with 616 vehicles, and 208 artillery pieces lost. Aside from the casualties in matériel losses, all of which could be made good in short order, the sheer embarrassment of the fiasco resulted in the Army instituted sweeping changes in unit organization and tactics, and with a number of unit commanders being relieved and replaced with more competent officers. No amount of pre-commitment training can teach an army how to behave under the stress of battle, but more importantly, how to coordinated its constituent units to function as an organic whole. More than anything else, Kasserine Pass was a failure of leadership. The battle itself was short-lived, but the process of toughening up the Army, and especially its officer corps, took quite a bit longer. Ultimately, it was the allies ability to starve the Afrika Korps of supplies, ammunition, replacements, and material through seapower and establishing air superiority in the narrow seas between Tunisia and Sicily that eventually carried the day. Nonetheless, the Army that left Tunisia in July 1943 to invade Sicily was not the one that got its ears boxed the previous February. The common soldiers learn quickly; regrettably, their officers develop their competencies over a somewhat longer period of time. By the time Operation Avalanche (the landings at Salerno) occurred on 9 September 1943, the combined Anglo-American force was sufficiently toughened to be able to withstand a fullbore counterattack by Wehrmacht General Albert Kesselring. The German counterattacks almost succeeded in defeating the landings, but Allied superiority in naval bombardment, combined with Anglo-American air supremacy managed to inflict sufficient damage on Wehrmacht frontline formations that the beachhead held, but just barely. The lesson here was severe. Not only must armies be well trained and capable, and be well armed sufficiently to accomplish their mission, but conducting operations under a divided command must be avoided at all costs. Fortunately, Ukraine does not have that problem of dealing with fractious allies that have a way of going their preferred ways, even though they are pursuing a common objective.
Beyond that, we Americans look back to the terrible winter of 1777 – 1778, when George Washington's ragged, ill clothed Army hunker down at Valley Forge, garnering strength for the spring offensive that they hoped would drive the British redcoats out of the city of Philadelphia. By a stroke of extreme good fortune, they are able to acquire the services of a former Prussian officer, Baron von Steuben, who spent the winter devising a training regimen that turn raw militiamen into competent, confident soldiers. Without von Steuben's efforts, Washington's army might've dissolved. It was the character of George Washington, and the steely resolve that Baron von Steuben imbued into that Army that allowed them to regain their self-respect and confidence in the training that they received that winter.
This time, America's ally, Ukraine, occupies, if not the 'high ground', certainly defensible terrain against Russian thrusts by mechanized units, and ordinary infantry units. Ukraine's ground offensive early in this year achieved less than stellar results, and now they are in the position of having to hunker down in bunkers, trenches, and fortified positions, fending off Russian thrusts, while rebuilding their logistical train to include long-range rockets, and other weaponry that will effectively counter Russian superiority in numbers of armor and manpower. Ukraine has the inestimable advantage of a savage willpower to survive the mauling that Russian artillery has been able to inflict on their frontline units. Still, the effort to stay awake and alert in the face of the mental fog of fatigue and stress is a terrible burden to have to carry, day in, day out. That inner voice that they hear, loud and insistent, that they must stay awake, and stay focused, despite the cold, the wet, ice, snow, wind driven gales of freezing droplets in their faces, knowing that however uncomfortable they are now, there standing up against Russian tyranny. This hatred of everything Russian in their institutionalized cruelty and brutality, is a powerful incentive to go to any lengths to stay alert, and looking toward the day when they can repay Vladimir Putin and his stooges in kind. Ukraine's Army has been in constant combat since 24 February 2022, without let up or distraction of competing national objectives, such as the kind that allies have in pursuing a common political-military objective, but undeniable differences in how that objectives can be achieved. Their leaders speak with one voice. They suffer severe losses, but that only seems to strengthen their resolve. On the detriment side, their receipt of foreign assistance is uneven, with their noncombatant allies diffident and their eyes on their own budgetary spreadsheets. Ukraine's staunchest ally, the United States, is beset with Republican would-be-quislings. We should remember that in 1940, Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian politician, became a German collaborator, and head of government of occupied Norway in 1942. He was executed by firing squad in October 1945. Quislings name became a byword for betrayal and treason both during the war and afterward. So far, Ukraine has been spared the appearance of a comparable political figure since Valodimir Zelenski became president of Ukraine in 2019, after the former president, Petro Poroshenko, a Putin ally, was driven from office in the initial balloting and run off in March and April 2019, when he received just under 25 percent of the second round balloting. Following his loss of the polls, Poroshenko sought exile in Moscow under the protection of Vladimir Putin. Petro Poroshenko proved to be as corrupt as any Ukrainian politician in recent memory, and it is to Valodimir for Zelenski's credit that his anticorruption program is intertwined with his defense of Ukraine's independence and boundary with Russia as they existed in 2014, before Russia began this program of encroachment through subversion by promoting insurrection, and later full-blown military assault. In a very real sense, this is the same kind of righteous indignation and commitment to a moral purpose that sustain the Allied armies during the Second World War. An army can survive hardship and defeat, but it cannot survive a sense that its leaders are guilty of betraying the cause for which the Army is giving it's all. I doubt if anyone went to his death thinking of the Four Freedoms articulated by Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in their announcement of the Atlantic Charter, composed by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill as their statement of Allied war aims issued on 14 August 1941, 5 months before the United States entered World War II; but those war aims permeated everything about the way the world was being conducted, and as the moral foundation for soldiers and civilians alike to endure unimaginable hardships to see the efforts through to the end. It is said that in combat, soldiers do not fight for cause, but rather that they fight for each other. At the unit level, that is true, but it is not the whole story. Soldiers who fight for a discredited cause can be persuaded to become passive, or even to change sides. That is what would happen in Italy, in September 1943, when disillusioned Italians disgusted with Benito Mussolini's grotesque posturing basically quit the war, mostly in the South were Allied armies had ensconced themselves. In the North it was a different story, but Italy was never seen as a secure and loyal ally of Nazi Germany. Sadly enough, here in United States, feckless politicians and ambitious generals squandered that reservoir of moral courage that President Zielinski and his courageous countrymen have rekindled in today's world. Only time will tell whether we have the courage to follow their example.
This another excellent article Lucian. And I second that. God Damn the Republican Party.
You want a third?
Or a fourth?
Vivid. Brutal. Talked with a Ukrainian-American nurse last night. Family came here thirteen years ago. A childhood friend was here for medical treatment. He’d lost his left arm in the fighting there. Just left to go back to rejoin its military. She’s following him next month.
Wow! ❤️
While the soldiers on both sides endure this miserable existence Putin is nice and warm and comfortable, eating gourmet meals served by his personal chef washed down no doubt with expensive wine. perhaps while on his $50 million yacht apparently not that concerned about their miserable conditions, or the daily toll of casualties.
"God damn the Republican Party that has made Ukraine’s war against Putin’s aggression" exactly.
The Times article talked about sleep deprivation from Russian drones that set off security alarms in Ukrainian cities in middle of the night, sending the residents scrambling to the shelters even if no bombs are dropped. If that isn’t psychological warfare l don’t know what is.
Interrupted sleep is a technique used in Soviet prisons to screw up
dissidents and political prisoners. With Ukraine is being held hostage by Putin’s Regime, what better way to destabilize those who haven’t been killed or fled, then bring back psychological torture?
Your lived experience shines in your discussion of the current winter war. Thank you
That was some explanation of what it means to be on the ground. I was bummed just reading about it. I suspect most people never think about what it must be like to be a fighting man or woman. If you were enervated just writing about it, that is understandable. And intended or not, you make an excellent case for robotic soldiers. But maybe losing blood and treasure is required. And speaking of war ... Superkraut died tonight.
"And speaking of war ... Superkraut died tonight."
Spotted that headlined in the Guardian last night and kept right on past it to this*, as a kind of ongoing antidote-in-advance to overdosing on "too much chaos and war" news, but meaning to circle back to see if mass spontaneous celebrations broke out in Santiago, Chile, and elsewhere across South America** or SE Asia - these double asterisk affixed BEFORE I search for those - who knows how some of the prime victims H.K. and ITT and Dita Beard and (Etc. etc.) have reacted?
No monetary damages, no reparations of that kind can undo war crimes on that level, indeed, of any kind of needless, avoidable, genocidal (in SE Asia at least, maybe in S.A. politics overrode everything else) policies of waging death and destruction.
First, that antidote:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2023/nov/29/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-peoples-choice-2023
*
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2023/nov/29/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-peoples-choice-2023#img-25
** Too tricky for me to locate material FROM Chile etc. (and likely it's en Espanol, quien sabe, Senora Margo?!) but there's of course this, in Newsweek:
"Others were quick to condemn the legacy of the 100-year-old in the wake of his death, and some people openly celebrated.
A crowd of Free Palestine protesters in New York City erupted in cheers on Wednesday night as the news broke, according to video posted to social media.
In a post on X, the left-wing media company The International posted the "many crimes of Henry Kissinger" while detailing tallies of deaths in countries such as Cambodia, Chile, Argentina and Vietnam.
Author and journalist Andrea Pitzer added: "When I went to Chile for my concentration camp book, I talked to so many who held Kissinger responsible for destroying their country & their lives. They were tortured in horrific ways, detained in heinous conditions, then often exiled for years. May they sleep peacefully tonight."
CodePink, the anti-war feminist activist group, called Kissinger a "ruthless war criminal" following his death.
"From Chile and Argentina to East Timor, Vietnam, Cambodia, and beyond, Kissinger leaves a shameful legacy of terror, torture, and mass killing," the group said. "May his passing bring us closer to peace & liberation."
Chris Hazzard, a Sinn Fein politician who represents South Down in Northern Ireland, posted on X: "Henry Kissinger is dead He was undoubtedly one of the worst war criminals of the 21st century. An imperial exceptionalist, he was responsible for the torture & death of millions of civilians in Latin America & Asia."
https://www.newsweek.com/henry-kissinger-dead-tributes-cambodia-vietnam-1848236
*****
"Good Riddance
Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies
The infamy of Nixon's foreign-policy architect sits, eternally, beside that of history's worst mass murderers. A deeper shame attaches to the country that celebrates him..."
^^^^^^
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/henry-kissinger-war-criminal-dead-1234804748/
https://apnews.com/article/kissinger-death-global-reaction-4e98e88ae257d21603924651c75a383d
"Criticism of Kissinger, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in negotiating a cease-fire in Vietnam in 1973, was especially strong on social media, where many posted celebratory videos in reaction to his death.
A Rolling Stone magazine headline said, “Henry Kissinger, war criminal beloved by America’s ruling class, finally dies.”
“Henry Kissinger’s bombing campaign likely killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians — and set (a) path for the ravages of the Khmer Rouge,” Sophal Ear, a scholar at Arizona State University who studies Cambodia’s political economy, wrote on The Conversation.
“The cluster bombs dropped on Cambodia under Kissinger’s watch continue to destroy the lives of any man, woman or child who happens across them,” Sophal Ear wrote. "
You are quite the scholar/researcher, Sir. My compliments. Just to be clear, let us certify that The Guardian did not refer to the newly deceased as "Superkraut." It was I.
LOL, only in a rare Guardian Op-Ed not sub-titled "The Guardian's View on...," and then only in the context of assessing pros and cons of wildly unmoderated social media rhetoric, and then probably citing that kind of example as "colorful, clearly meant as sarcasm" and not the really grotesquely scurrilous and scatological invective they find over the line, rightly, in my opinion - then we might see it!
I firmly believe that when Hillary met with Superkraut before the elections it killed her credibility with many Dems. At that point many really did feel there was no difference between her & thump.
On some key aspects (like AVOIDING NEEDLESS "WARS OF CHOICE"!) hell yes!
That elementary fairness and the sheer scale of Trump's subversive, neo-fascist anti-American skullduggery, mandates adding a host of caveats about extending the comparisons too far into domestic politics, or even too far with respect to foreign diplomacy and war policies, is also true.
I refer to her as Hildebeest.
Superkraut, love it. Can't wait for Lucian to, uh, memorialize him. Will be a whole lot more interesting than the yawnfest of Wapo and the Grey Lady doing "balance".
Superkraut... 🤣
Good job, Lucian. I shivered, heard the whispers in the night. I think I never did have what it takes to do that.
Your granular description of life in a combat zone where your survival is on the line constantly, and there are no creature comforts to mitigate the stress, is a must read for everyone, but especially the armchair generals who revel in war porn, as I call it. There is no glory in war for the combat soldier. There are no toilets, showers, or regular clean clothes, and definitely no joy in eating. Then there’s the never ending carnage that might blow your buddy to bits in front of your eyes, and all the dead bodies of the enemy or civilians left to rot around you. That’s why anyone who has ever seen combat, no matter for how long, never forgets it, and never gets over it. Superimpose winter on the combat zone, subfreezing temperatures , snow, and mud, and you have to wonder why the desertion rate isn’t 100%. Ukrainians are fighting to save their homeland, and deserve all the support, moral and material, they can be given. The reluctance of the disgusting Rethugs in Washington to provide our considerable resources to the Ukrainians who are now caught in a stalemate is an unspeakable obscenity. Traitorous supporters of Putin or ideologues looking to score points for their side on the backs of all those guys in the trenches makes me want to vomit.
And Putin is not going to stop until he reconstitutes the old Soviet Union with him as its Supreme Leader.
More than that...he wants Empire.
This vividly described column is like a matching bookend to your recent “dribs and drabs” column. They, and all the others you have written on Ukraine go to the heart of the matter - a half-hearted support of Ukraine is a miserable way to support its heroic efforts to preserve its country against the megalomaniacal Putin. The western nations should go all in - give Ukraine everything and anything it needs to win, and show Putin for once and for all that he can’t just invade another country because he feels like it. Ukrainians are doing the fighting, bleeding and dying that the rest of the West might face if Putin gets his way. Let’s support Ukraine to the hilt. I am sick of the half-assed support received from all the western nations. Time to ensure that Ukraine wins and rids its territory of Russian invaders.
Pretty hard for any politician to do when so many hard working Americans are sleeping in tents, or forced to couch surf. I know a few. Not saying it's not a legitimate cause but looking at the many facets of this ongoing nightmare, I can see the moral and financial quandary it represents.
Your description has the same devastating emotional impact as the frontline scenes in the novel "All Quiet on the Western Front." Guard duty! I pulled it one winter night at Fort Sill when the temperature was below 20 and there was a steady north wind of some 15 mph. About two hours in (wearing every bit of winter clothing issued), there was an engine noise. Another trainee and I lumbered out from whatever we were hiding behind to shield us from the wind. We fund ourselves challenging a bird colonel, the garrison commander, who was there to make sure we weren't actually walking the perimeter of those rows of obsolete 75 mm cannons. "You're no good to us if you freeze to death. Stay safe *and* alert," he said. "Yes, *Sir," we shouted, saluting, and found our place of shelter as the colonel continued his inspection.
Tragic.so unfair and horrible the lives of those soldiers.Thank you for reminding us of their sacrifice.
This should be slipped into the morning read of every GOP law maker.
Like they would care.
❗
You really blow hard when you get wind in your sails!
Thank you Lucian for staying on the Ukrainian resistance effort. This was excellent writing. Bless you.
Those poor people. Your writing brings it alive like nothing else I’ve read.
I’m currently in France. WW2 memories are still strong here (although less so among the younger generation & more recent arrivals.)
Timothy Snyder also has a newsletter discussing Ukrainian history, the war & how we can contribute individually:
https://snyder.substack.com/p/safe-skies
Reading this, and thinking back on how American soldiers handled the adversity of standing watch under comparable conditions: Korea, Chosin Reservoir, December 1950; Belgium, Battle of the Bulge, December 1944; Hurtigenwald, North Rhineland-Westphalia, September – December, 1944, which was a German tactical victory inflicting between 33,000 and 55,000 American casualties, KIA, wounded, or MIA, with limited gains for the First United States Army. Rugged terrain, inhospitable cold, wet weather, and constant overcast, which limited the United States 9th Air Force's ability to deliver close air support, and the dense forest land which limited the attacking force's ability to maneuver and envelop defendant positions, or to resupply and replenish war matériel, limited the effectiveness of American armor and armed reconnaissance; and bringing with it, as the Germans would have it, General Mud, that slowed and disorganize the attacking force, exposing it to sudden sharp and effective counterattacks. This was the precise opposite of the freewheeling, hell-for-leather advance that made Lieutenant General George Patton's 3rd United States Army's thrust across northern France the previous July and August.
Two years earlier, in Tunisia, North Africa, the American expeditionary force endured the ignominy of defeat at the hands of Germany's Afrika Korps, culminating in the route at Kasserine , in February 1943. It was a sudden, and deadly reckoning that the United States First Infantry Division suffered with 3300 soldiers killed or wounded, together with 616 vehicles, and 208 artillery pieces lost. Aside from the casualties in matériel losses, all of which could be made good in short order, the sheer embarrassment of the fiasco resulted in the Army instituted sweeping changes in unit organization and tactics, and with a number of unit commanders being relieved and replaced with more competent officers. No amount of pre-commitment training can teach an army how to behave under the stress of battle, but more importantly, how to coordinated its constituent units to function as an organic whole. More than anything else, Kasserine Pass was a failure of leadership. The battle itself was short-lived, but the process of toughening up the Army, and especially its officer corps, took quite a bit longer. Ultimately, it was the allies ability to starve the Afrika Korps of supplies, ammunition, replacements, and material through seapower and establishing air superiority in the narrow seas between Tunisia and Sicily that eventually carried the day. Nonetheless, the Army that left Tunisia in July 1943 to invade Sicily was not the one that got its ears boxed the previous February. The common soldiers learn quickly; regrettably, their officers develop their competencies over a somewhat longer period of time. By the time Operation Avalanche (the landings at Salerno) occurred on 9 September 1943, the combined Anglo-American force was sufficiently toughened to be able to withstand a fullbore counterattack by Wehrmacht General Albert Kesselring. The German counterattacks almost succeeded in defeating the landings, but Allied superiority in naval bombardment, combined with Anglo-American air supremacy managed to inflict sufficient damage on Wehrmacht frontline formations that the beachhead held, but just barely. The lesson here was severe. Not only must armies be well trained and capable, and be well armed sufficiently to accomplish their mission, but conducting operations under a divided command must be avoided at all costs. Fortunately, Ukraine does not have that problem of dealing with fractious allies that have a way of going their preferred ways, even though they are pursuing a common objective.
Beyond that, we Americans look back to the terrible winter of 1777 – 1778, when George Washington's ragged, ill clothed Army hunker down at Valley Forge, garnering strength for the spring offensive that they hoped would drive the British redcoats out of the city of Philadelphia. By a stroke of extreme good fortune, they are able to acquire the services of a former Prussian officer, Baron von Steuben, who spent the winter devising a training regimen that turn raw militiamen into competent, confident soldiers. Without von Steuben's efforts, Washington's army might've dissolved. It was the character of George Washington, and the steely resolve that Baron von Steuben imbued into that Army that allowed them to regain their self-respect and confidence in the training that they received that winter.
This time, America's ally, Ukraine, occupies, if not the 'high ground', certainly defensible terrain against Russian thrusts by mechanized units, and ordinary infantry units. Ukraine's ground offensive early in this year achieved less than stellar results, and now they are in the position of having to hunker down in bunkers, trenches, and fortified positions, fending off Russian thrusts, while rebuilding their logistical train to include long-range rockets, and other weaponry that will effectively counter Russian superiority in numbers of armor and manpower. Ukraine has the inestimable advantage of a savage willpower to survive the mauling that Russian artillery has been able to inflict on their frontline units. Still, the effort to stay awake and alert in the face of the mental fog of fatigue and stress is a terrible burden to have to carry, day in, day out. That inner voice that they hear, loud and insistent, that they must stay awake, and stay focused, despite the cold, the wet, ice, snow, wind driven gales of freezing droplets in their faces, knowing that however uncomfortable they are now, there standing up against Russian tyranny. This hatred of everything Russian in their institutionalized cruelty and brutality, is a powerful incentive to go to any lengths to stay alert, and looking toward the day when they can repay Vladimir Putin and his stooges in kind. Ukraine's Army has been in constant combat since 24 February 2022, without let up or distraction of competing national objectives, such as the kind that allies have in pursuing a common political-military objective, but undeniable differences in how that objectives can be achieved. Their leaders speak with one voice. They suffer severe losses, but that only seems to strengthen their resolve. On the detriment side, their receipt of foreign assistance is uneven, with their noncombatant allies diffident and their eyes on their own budgetary spreadsheets. Ukraine's staunchest ally, the United States, is beset with Republican would-be-quislings. We should remember that in 1940, Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian politician, became a German collaborator, and head of government of occupied Norway in 1942. He was executed by firing squad in October 1945. Quislings name became a byword for betrayal and treason both during the war and afterward. So far, Ukraine has been spared the appearance of a comparable political figure since Valodimir Zelenski became president of Ukraine in 2019, after the former president, Petro Poroshenko, a Putin ally, was driven from office in the initial balloting and run off in March and April 2019, when he received just under 25 percent of the second round balloting. Following his loss of the polls, Poroshenko sought exile in Moscow under the protection of Vladimir Putin. Petro Poroshenko proved to be as corrupt as any Ukrainian politician in recent memory, and it is to Valodimir for Zelenski's credit that his anticorruption program is intertwined with his defense of Ukraine's independence and boundary with Russia as they existed in 2014, before Russia began this program of encroachment through subversion by promoting insurrection, and later full-blown military assault. In a very real sense, this is the same kind of righteous indignation and commitment to a moral purpose that sustain the Allied armies during the Second World War. An army can survive hardship and defeat, but it cannot survive a sense that its leaders are guilty of betraying the cause for which the Army is giving it's all. I doubt if anyone went to his death thinking of the Four Freedoms articulated by Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in their announcement of the Atlantic Charter, composed by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill as their statement of Allied war aims issued on 14 August 1941, 5 months before the United States entered World War II; but those war aims permeated everything about the way the world was being conducted, and as the moral foundation for soldiers and civilians alike to endure unimaginable hardships to see the efforts through to the end. It is said that in combat, soldiers do not fight for cause, but rather that they fight for each other. At the unit level, that is true, but it is not the whole story. Soldiers who fight for a discredited cause can be persuaded to become passive, or even to change sides. That is what would happen in Italy, in September 1943, when disillusioned Italians disgusted with Benito Mussolini's grotesque posturing basically quit the war, mostly in the South were Allied armies had ensconced themselves. In the North it was a different story, but Italy was never seen as a secure and loyal ally of Nazi Germany. Sadly enough, here in United States, feckless politicians and ambitious generals squandered that reservoir of moral courage that President Zielinski and his courageous countrymen have rekindled in today's world. Only time will tell whether we have the courage to follow their example.
God damned indeed. Heartless, gutless cowards.