Theory. Much of the discussion, if you can call it that, surrounding the current situation in Ukraine has involved rehashing NATO expansion in the post-Soviet era. This is a narrative being pushed assiduously by Russia, and believe it or not, by the likes of Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, among others on the Right, and it seems to take the side of Vladimir Putin in a twist understandable to MAGA followers of Donald Trump, the biggest Putin fan of them all, but not so much by the rest of us. This theory more or less parrots the Putin-pushed narrative that Russia has so-called “legitimate interests” in “securing its borders to the west,” as well as rumblings about its so-called “sphere of influence.”
You should take days off more often, this was as powerful as anything I've read from your newsletter. I witnessed the devastation of war first hand, watched one woman, my mother, struggle to gather the pieces after my father was killed at The Bulge. She never recovered, she survived, she picked up the bricks that made up the balance of her life, put them in the correct piles, but she never recovered. There are no good wars.
Feb 16, 2022·edited Feb 16, 2022Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
As I've read, wars are started by rich old men to be fought by poor young men.
It's all hubris and saber rattling for those who play the games; death and destruction for those who survive them.
Putin is merely flexing his muscles-not only because he knows Ukraine will fight, but he wants the West to pay attention to his military and also his economic power-he supplies Europe with 80% of their gas for energy, and he knows that if he cuts them off, they'll be scrambling mightily for replacement energy sources.
He's making sure they know who holds the key to their future, and by doing so, he's defanged most of the EU (who also are in NATO) into toothless fools. They can't afford to go to war with him, and everyone knows it.
Putin should remember that Biden isn't Trump and won't be bullied into submission. Biden does have some economic sanctions that he hasn't used yet, but only because he's been holding them in abeyance until he needs them.
Putin will back down once he understands that Biden isn't playing the same game he is, and he should stop thinking Biden is a old senile fool. It's better for him to back down before he gets humiliated.
One of your best, Lucian. I have not been able to pay attention to this subject. Every time it comes up, I have to move past it. Thank you for your eloquent explanation. I was completely engulfed and mesmerized by your words.
The “Theory” portion of this excellent and I do mean *excellent* essay sounds like Putin Dictatorship talking points, which of course are echoed on Fox Noise and in the halls of Congress by people taking money from Putin and his kleptocrats.
Notice I did not say “Russian talking points.“
These dirtbags are not taking money from “Russia.“ The Russian people are not behind this action. The Russian people have more pressing and urgent concerns, like survival and living comfortably.
What do you call it when a criminal uses the threat of force and violence, coercion, to get something for nothing? Old Soviet-era negotiating tactic, according to people wiser than me.
My father, recently called up with the active reserve, was stationed at Camp Roberts in mid-coastal California. We nuclear three were spending Sunday with friends who lived at the beach. The radio was on. FDR spoke of a day that will live in infamy. We packed to go home so my father could return to base. Life as we had known it was over. Again. ... Will it never end? I'm exhausted. Anyone else?
I remember you and Rob Leslie's wife Mary Jo, and the wife of one of the other lieutenants in my company standing outside the gate of Fort Benning on Moratorium Day with your signs protesting the war in VN. That was in 1969. I talked to Sam Brown yesterday. He was Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and knew Bill Taylor back then we he was at the State Department. He was present at those meetings with Yeltsin when NATO expansion was on the table. Both Bill and Sam talked about those expanding NATO days as a mistake, but Irene reminded me it was the Eastern European states who asked to join NATO as a hedge against exactly what we're seeing in Ukraine. It's a complicated world run by men who make it even more complicated simply because they're running it, and it never ends. I can't believe that more than 50 years later, I'm talking to the guy who ran the Moratorium about these current events, and talking to the guy who was my high school class president about the same thing. I never in all my days saw this coming, my linking up with these two old friends about something going on in the world that is so dangerous. I don't think we thought things like protesting against the VN war were simple back then...it certainly took courage to stand outside the gates of a U.S. military installation in the state of Georgia!...but I had to get a LOT older to begin to understand the folly of it all.
Yup, we've had a lot to live and plenty to learn. In my lifelong bubble I've always expected my world to wind down in a typical happy ending. Cue "Bilbao Song." Idiotic. I could never have imagined having to outwit an Ian Fleming villain like Putin or American dimwits suicidally worshipping a windup comic book character. As for that day at the Fort Benning gate, I knew who had my back and you knew who put me out there with MPs, the DIA, FBI, Muscogee county sheriff, and god knows who else evil-eyeing us, trying to figure out how to squelch Benning's first-ever protest. Mary Jo's stroller was what undid them. But had any of us not been white? ...
My parents were born and raised in the 1930s and 1940s in Germany. The scars never heal, and the children inherit some part of the war survivor trauma. Never throw away even a scrap of food, your plate must be completely empty, always. Recycle and reuse everything, nothing must be wasted. Even in my 60s, last month it was hard for me to throw away a pair of work boots even when the one boot is coming completely apart. How many times has my dad told me the story of when he ate an apple and threw away the core, and his mother made him pick up the core, wash it, and eat it.
My mother went through unspeakable trauma that includes disappearing Jewish friends in class, molestation, rape, having her train evacuated and strafed by Allied fighters (friend got killed) as she was heading to the French border while with the Bund Deutscher Mädel (all-female counterpart to all-male Hitler Jugend, part of the war effort, a blend of Girl Scouts and National Guard).
Feb 16, 2022·edited Feb 16, 2022Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
Thank you Professor Truscott. You taught me a great deal I can only learn this way. And I LOVE Bill Taylor. I heard him say he didn’t believe Putin would invade, and gave a sigh of relief. I trust him more than any of the others on TV. He’s the true expert…..
Reading this, I am reliving the cold chill of the year I spent in Europe 1963 -- 1964, principally in Germany. My co-workers at the Deutsche Dunlop tire factory were mostly war veterans, local women from the Hanau area, and Croats from Yugoslavia.Three of us were Americans, me,and two former American soldiers who took European discharges, had married local girls, and were living on the German economy. There was a real sense of tension in the air as East--West relations were at a real low point. In fact, I was discouraged from visiting Berlin. On the various maps I would be seeing, what drew my attention was what was known as the Fulda Gap, a mountain pass through which an invading Soviet army would have to pass through in order to reach the Rhine River and the Industrial Ruhr. Fulda was, I'm guessing, well within 100 kilometers of Hanau, by way of the Kinzig River. As a civilian, I could go where I pleased, but I found myself staying close to American military installations. I wasn't about to wait for the war to come to me. My plan was to enlist right then and there.
Years ago (and I mean that literally - YEARS), I heard (or was told) that wars occur at a somewhat "regular" and predictable pace and that it is nature's way of thinning out all that testosterone. I have no idea who came up with that "theory," but it does give one pause.
Brilliant analysis. Everyone should read The March of Folly by Barbara Tuckman. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_March_of_Folly The multigenerational trauma of war is real. My maternal grandmother lived through WW I in what is now Belarus. She endured the Russian Revolution and Civil War plus pogroms. She rejoined her husband with her six year old daughter in 1921 and rebuilt her life having two more children. The last being my mother. I’ve always wondered why we continue to stockpile food and supplies 100 years after her immigration. Your essays cogently present the follies of war and I’m glad President Biden apparently realizes this. His son possibly was a delayed war casualty due to burn pit caused cancer Keep writing these essays.
PS I think Clinton and W Bush poked the bear too much. Let’s remember how the Libyan bombing and two Middle East wars affected a greatly traumatized Russian consciousness. Bullies when feeling cornered react disproportionately. Call it paranoid or see it through the lens of multigenerational trauma. Two 20th century invasions (the first one my grandmother and her family suffered through) had a profound effect on the Russian consciousness. Russians will never forget the Siege of Stalingrad and Leningrad and 27 MILLION deaths and untold physically and mentally wounded. Entire cities destroyed. We may disagree and be repelled by Putin but let’s have some understanding of the Russian experience.
Additionally Ukrainian democracy is an existential threat to Czar Vladimir’s petro-oligarchy. Russians can easilyy see an alternative democratic paradigm just next door.
Wow, a powerful piece indeed and very informative. I get the impression Putin wants to reconstruct the old USSR. But maybe he'll be decide too high a price to pay and settle for the Eastern part of Ukraine, trying negotiation first then by force if necessary. A full blown invasion would be catastrophic with a obviously great deal of destruction and human suffering. Maybe if he had to leads his troops into battle like the kings of old he might have second thoughts, I wish he would just take a moment to visualize a bomb falling or a missile crashing into an apartment complex and see screaming babies and toddlers with limbs blown off and blackened skin burned to the bone he'd have second thoughts/ But he seems suchy an ice cold individual I don't know if he can feel compassion.,,He supported the Syrians using chemical weapons on civilians.
Sad, terrible. Great commentary. Let's hope there's a person in Moscow who will whisper into Putin's ear, "In war, there are no winners, just ruin, and widows."
You should take days off more often, this was as powerful as anything I've read from your newsletter. I witnessed the devastation of war first hand, watched one woman, my mother, struggle to gather the pieces after my father was killed at The Bulge. She never recovered, she survived, she picked up the bricks that made up the balance of her life, put them in the correct piles, but she never recovered. There are no good wars.
Was just thinking exactly the same thing: this belongs in LKTIV's top 3 for sure.
Wow. Thank you for writing this. I'm going to read it a few more times.
Most of us don't know about war. In a few hundred words, you showed us the folly and the horror of war. Great writing, Lucian.
As I've read, wars are started by rich old men to be fought by poor young men.
It's all hubris and saber rattling for those who play the games; death and destruction for those who survive them.
Putin is merely flexing his muscles-not only because he knows Ukraine will fight, but he wants the West to pay attention to his military and also his economic power-he supplies Europe with 80% of their gas for energy, and he knows that if he cuts them off, they'll be scrambling mightily for replacement energy sources.
He's making sure they know who holds the key to their future, and by doing so, he's defanged most of the EU (who also are in NATO) into toothless fools. They can't afford to go to war with him, and everyone knows it.
Putin should remember that Biden isn't Trump and won't be bullied into submission. Biden does have some economic sanctions that he hasn't used yet, but only because he's been holding them in abeyance until he needs them.
Putin will back down once he understands that Biden isn't playing the same game he is, and he should stop thinking Biden is a old senile fool. It's better for him to back down before he gets humiliated.
One of your best, Lucian. I have not been able to pay attention to this subject. Every time it comes up, I have to move past it. Thank you for your eloquent explanation. I was completely engulfed and mesmerized by your words.
Yes, deeply disturbing subject
The “Theory” portion of this excellent and I do mean *excellent* essay sounds like Putin Dictatorship talking points, which of course are echoed on Fox Noise and in the halls of Congress by people taking money from Putin and his kleptocrats.
Notice I did not say “Russian talking points.“
These dirtbags are not taking money from “Russia.“ The Russian people are not behind this action. The Russian people have more pressing and urgent concerns, like survival and living comfortably.
What do you call it when a criminal uses the threat of force and violence, coercion, to get something for nothing? Old Soviet-era negotiating tactic, according to people wiser than me.
It’s called armed robbery.
Thank you, I learned new things and I affirmed my feelings about my country’s folly 2001 - 2008
My father, recently called up with the active reserve, was stationed at Camp Roberts in mid-coastal California. We nuclear three were spending Sunday with friends who lived at the beach. The radio was on. FDR spoke of a day that will live in infamy. We packed to go home so my father could return to base. Life as we had known it was over. Again. ... Will it never end? I'm exhausted. Anyone else?
————————
I remember you and Rob Leslie's wife Mary Jo, and the wife of one of the other lieutenants in my company standing outside the gate of Fort Benning on Moratorium Day with your signs protesting the war in VN. That was in 1969. I talked to Sam Brown yesterday. He was Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and knew Bill Taylor back then we he was at the State Department. He was present at those meetings with Yeltsin when NATO expansion was on the table. Both Bill and Sam talked about those expanding NATO days as a mistake, but Irene reminded me it was the Eastern European states who asked to join NATO as a hedge against exactly what we're seeing in Ukraine. It's a complicated world run by men who make it even more complicated simply because they're running it, and it never ends. I can't believe that more than 50 years later, I'm talking to the guy who ran the Moratorium about these current events, and talking to the guy who was my high school class president about the same thing. I never in all my days saw this coming, my linking up with these two old friends about something going on in the world that is so dangerous. I don't think we thought things like protesting against the VN war were simple back then...it certainly took courage to stand outside the gates of a U.S. military installation in the state of Georgia!...but I had to get a LOT older to begin to understand the folly of it all.
Yup, we've had a lot to live and plenty to learn. In my lifelong bubble I've always expected my world to wind down in a typical happy ending. Cue "Bilbao Song." Idiotic. I could never have imagined having to outwit an Ian Fleming villain like Putin or American dimwits suicidally worshipping a windup comic book character. As for that day at the Fort Benning gate, I knew who had my back and you knew who put me out there with MPs, the DIA, FBI, Muscogee county sheriff, and god knows who else evil-eyeing us, trying to figure out how to squelch Benning's first-ever protest. Mary Jo's stroller was what undid them. But had any of us not been white? ...
————————
My parents were born and raised in the 1930s and 1940s in Germany. The scars never heal, and the children inherit some part of the war survivor trauma. Never throw away even a scrap of food, your plate must be completely empty, always. Recycle and reuse everything, nothing must be wasted. Even in my 60s, last month it was hard for me to throw away a pair of work boots even when the one boot is coming completely apart. How many times has my dad told me the story of when he ate an apple and threw away the core, and his mother made him pick up the core, wash it, and eat it.
My mother went through unspeakable trauma that includes disappearing Jewish friends in class, molestation, rape, having her train evacuated and strafed by Allied fighters (friend got killed) as she was heading to the French border while with the Bund Deutscher Mädel (all-female counterpart to all-male Hitler Jugend, part of the war effort, a blend of Girl Scouts and National Guard).
It never ends. This world is a very hard place.
That means more to me than I would want to say in a forum, Roland. Your brief account of your father's and mother's ordeals bring tears.
You’re very sweet, Di Fi, thank you
Thank you Professor Truscott. You taught me a great deal I can only learn this way. And I LOVE Bill Taylor. I heard him say he didn’t believe Putin would invade, and gave a sigh of relief. I trust him more than any of the others on TV. He’s the true expert…..
Well done, Lucian. I often wonder what Bill thinks/knows about Trump’s first impeachment that the rest of us do not know.
Reading this, I am reliving the cold chill of the year I spent in Europe 1963 -- 1964, principally in Germany. My co-workers at the Deutsche Dunlop tire factory were mostly war veterans, local women from the Hanau area, and Croats from Yugoslavia.Three of us were Americans, me,and two former American soldiers who took European discharges, had married local girls, and were living on the German economy. There was a real sense of tension in the air as East--West relations were at a real low point. In fact, I was discouraged from visiting Berlin. On the various maps I would be seeing, what drew my attention was what was known as the Fulda Gap, a mountain pass through which an invading Soviet army would have to pass through in order to reach the Rhine River and the Industrial Ruhr. Fulda was, I'm guessing, well within 100 kilometers of Hanau, by way of the Kinzig River. As a civilian, I could go where I pleased, but I found myself staying close to American military installations. I wasn't about to wait for the war to come to me. My plan was to enlist right then and there.
Never met too many females who were bullies.
Ask other women about that.
I’m sure there are cat fights throughout all layers of society but the widespread resulting damage is not the same. Estrogen < Testosterone
Years ago (and I mean that literally - YEARS), I heard (or was told) that wars occur at a somewhat "regular" and predictable pace and that it is nature's way of thinning out all that testosterone. I have no idea who came up with that "theory," but it does give one pause.
Beautiful. Thanks Mr. T
Mr. T played a great character on a show I still love to watch, The A Team.
Brilliant analysis. Everyone should read The March of Folly by Barbara Tuckman. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_March_of_Folly The multigenerational trauma of war is real. My maternal grandmother lived through WW I in what is now Belarus. She endured the Russian Revolution and Civil War plus pogroms. She rejoined her husband with her six year old daughter in 1921 and rebuilt her life having two more children. The last being my mother. I’ve always wondered why we continue to stockpile food and supplies 100 years after her immigration. Your essays cogently present the follies of war and I’m glad President Biden apparently realizes this. His son possibly was a delayed war casualty due to burn pit caused cancer Keep writing these essays.
PS I think Clinton and W Bush poked the bear too much. Let’s remember how the Libyan bombing and two Middle East wars affected a greatly traumatized Russian consciousness. Bullies when feeling cornered react disproportionately. Call it paranoid or see it through the lens of multigenerational trauma. Two 20th century invasions (the first one my grandmother and her family suffered through) had a profound effect on the Russian consciousness. Russians will never forget the Siege of Stalingrad and Leningrad and 27 MILLION deaths and untold physically and mentally wounded. Entire cities destroyed. We may disagree and be repelled by Putin but let’s have some understanding of the Russian experience.
Additionally Ukrainian democracy is an existential threat to Czar Vladimir’s petro-oligarchy. Russians can easilyy see an alternative democratic paradigm just next door.
Wow, a powerful piece indeed and very informative. I get the impression Putin wants to reconstruct the old USSR. But maybe he'll be decide too high a price to pay and settle for the Eastern part of Ukraine, trying negotiation first then by force if necessary. A full blown invasion would be catastrophic with a obviously great deal of destruction and human suffering. Maybe if he had to leads his troops into battle like the kings of old he might have second thoughts, I wish he would just take a moment to visualize a bomb falling or a missile crashing into an apartment complex and see screaming babies and toddlers with limbs blown off and blackened skin burned to the bone he'd have second thoughts/ But he seems suchy an ice cold individual I don't know if he can feel compassion.,,He supported the Syrians using chemical weapons on civilians.
This is why I subscribe to you Lucian. Thank you so much. 🙏🙏
I had already seen the news about General Ivashov, but not the in-country Ukraine report from Bill Taylor.
THANK YOU SO MUCH
Sad, terrible. Great commentary. Let's hope there's a person in Moscow who will whisper into Putin's ear, "In war, there are no winners, just ruin, and widows."