I figured from the title that this was gonna be about the House of Representatives. Well, I'm sure it will be soon enough. Keep it handy. Maybe set it up as a macro...
I remember LBJ and the warhawks with their rhetoric of beating the commies by building up our military presence in Vietnam otherwise the countries in SE Asia would fall like “dominoes” to the evil Commies, etc. Of course it was all bullshit or as one of my professors in college told us, all the Vietnamese wanted was their country back and were willing to pay the price in blood to get it. Turns out he was right. If Putin was ever a student of history, he would learn from our mistakes in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan as well as his own country’s fiascos in Afghanistan and Chechnya, but his ego will be his undoing. LBJ wanted guns and butter and blew it all away in Vietnam…could the same fate be waiting for Putin? Is it just a matter of time? In the meantime, the death toll keeps rising…
"Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan" -exactly what I was thinking. I never did understand Viet Nam. No riches or other treasures there to plunder, ruled by a corrupt government disliked by its own people. Washington said it was because North Vietnam was "communist". Whatever.
Iraq was simply a war of plunder gone wrong. The Bush administration was top heavy with American oil oligarchs, and Saddam had lots oil. At first they named our offensive "Operation Iraqi Liberation" - "OIL", get it? Ha ha ha.
Afghanistan was our attempt to one-up the Russians, who had recently failed at occupying Afghanistan and had withdrawn ignominiously. 'Here,' we said, 'step aside Russia, and let Uncle Sam show you how to get this is done.'
We paid a terrible price to understand why Afghanistan is called "The Graveyard of Empires".
Citizens who live in a smaller weaker country do well against bigger stronger invaders because the citizens who live there have no other place to go. The invaders, on the other hand, can simply go home.
Remember during the very first days of the invasion during February last year in Henichesk, the port city on the Sea of Asov in the Kherson region?
“You’re occupants, you’re fascists! What the fuck are you doing on our land with all these guns? Take these seeds and put them in your pockets, so at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here.”
It must be humiliating to Russia's rump army to be losing to Ukraine's superior forces, and to be cast as second fiddle to Prigozhin's mercenary army of convicts and thugs. Despite their ineptness and corruption I suspect at least some Russian soldiers remember the heroism and achievement of individual predecessors in the Red Army long ago, so the descent to second place, and loser, in Putin's nonsensical war against a real European nation, must smart.
Same thing for Surovikin; a butcher, yes, but sort of a real Russian soldier, now being demoted in the field to deputy to Gerasimov, mostly a parade general lately and under sanctions by most civilized countries.
Well, the Soviet military didn't do so well in Afghanistan either but (1) that was pre-Putin, and (2) no other outsiders have done very well in Afghanistan either, so that whole "refusing to learn from history" thing definitely applies. "Ford, ford, ford o' Kabul River / ford o' Kabul River in the dark . . ."
Who better to read for a take on the invasion of Ukraine than the namesake of Generals and Colonels,
a graduate of West Point, and a celebrated author on the subject of the Vietnam War? Until this newsletter I had not made the Vietnam connection wherein, unfortunately, the US played the part Putin is playing now. Even war correspondents seldom weave in history. Already disturbed by what has happened in Ukraine, I await Mr. T.'s further thoughts and insights into one of the most unnecessary modern conflagrations that come to mind.
Thanks, Lucian, for making the parallels between Vietnam and Ukraine so clear. Vietnam was a crime and unwinable for us, and Ukraine is a crime and unwinable for Putin, unless the maniacs who have taken over the House manage to curtail our support of Ukraine. I hope that doesn’t happen, much as I want it to end. We finally gave up in Vietnam when public opposition became overwhelming, and Nixon blundered into Watergate. A Russian rebellion still seems unlikely no matter how many of their young men are fed into the meat grinder. More likely a total collapse of the Russian economy will be needed to end the war. Of course there is still the nuke threat, so this needless slaughter is going to drag on while Ukraine is totally destroyed physically. Vietnam didn’t destroy us physically, but the political and moral damage it did to our psyche lingers. The veterans of that misbegotten war are beginning to age out, and I know many of them . They are still damaged, as are all veterans of war, some more obviously than others. They will be damaged to their dying day, as was my father from WWI. There doesn’t seem to be any durable mechanism to prevent these horrible atrocities, or monsters like Putin from perpetrating them. Perhaps there never will be. It may be the fatal flaw for humankind in the end. This war, as did Vietnam, makes me sad everyday.
Terrific write-up. Thank you. The strategically pointless Russian assaults continue to remind me of Verdun as well as the endless battles on the Isonzo during WW1, and also Hitler’s insistence in seizing every block of Stalingrad in 1942. The Russian strategy in Ukraine was bankrupt from the start, having monumentally misread the situation prior to their invasion, but now it’s all about moral victories and attempting to swamp the Ukrainians with poorly trained mobis and Wagner penal forces.
An army of freedom fighters defending their homeland vs an ill-equipped and poorly led army of reluctant conscripts and mercenaries. My money is on the freedom fighters. Send more cool stuff to Ukraine, Biden and NATO!
The legacy of the war in Ukraine might be a warning for the 21st century, "Even Superpowers can be defeated"
The Russian military finally convinced Gorbachev that the war in Afghanistan was a loss. Someone will finally tell Putin to wrap it up, and he will not be able to ignore the truth anymore. Some say Pat Nixon told her husband that the war was pointless slaughter. Maybe, Putin's sweetheart will do the same?
Go to Google Streets and look at Bakhmut, Raion, Luhansk Oblast before the war. A pretty, modern small city. Now, it is in ruins.
The US does this shit over and over again, from Khe Sanh to Outpost Keating. Stupid lines in there sand drawn by men who risk nothing but their supposed reputations. "I'm not gonna have no goddamned Dien Bien Phu" said LBJ, and McChrystal likewise doubled down on Keating. Both were useless, indefensible positions that were soon abandoned and bulldozed. Putin is acting like the American military, from what I see.
Lucian, thanks again for bringing up this new, brutal phase of the war (call it what it is) in Ukraine from your knowledgeable perspective.
It is so easy, from so far away, to to become fatigued to the tedium. I know for the people of Ukraine, and indeed the Russian conscripts, it is anything but tedious.
It important that we continue to support Ukraine's efforts.
Yes, it is madness. But here is a question which I would like for someone who has an understanding of what is going on might answer. If these small towns have little strategic value why are the Ukrainians so all in on them at such a high cost?
To date Ukraine has bested the Russians with a combination of superior battlefield tactics, smart weaponry and far better military intelligence. Ukrainian morale is as you post far higher because they are defending their homeland and they have so far inflicted infinitely more casualties and destroyed far more equipment than they have lost. They have to in order to fend off a much larger and if not better equipped than , at least, more massively equipped opponent. So, why has Zalensky and his generals decided to fight for this particular Hamburger Hill?
I am all in and totally support our giving Ukraine all the smart weaponry and long range missiles and artillery they need to reach out and touch the Russians across the border in their sanctuary enclaves. But, it seems to me this particular battle has assumed some mythic value to the Ukrainians . Why?
Individually, the towns don't have strategic value, but together, in a line, they form the front line of the conflict. If you let one of them go, that creates a so-called "bulge" in the line. Not good. We named an entire campaign over such a bulge in WW II. Also, the Ukrainians don't just want to hold the line, they want to push it back. The Russians are paranoid that's what they are preparing to do right now.
Thanks , Lucian. Maybe the Ukrainians should let the Russians take these villages , get settled in the bunkers and then let loose some HAMARs onto these troops. I get the context of a bulge but as we saw in WWII what eventually happened to Hitler's bulge is it became a trap. Let's give the Ukrainians the weaponry to do what the P-47s did in WWII. Too bad we can't lend them some Warthogs for a couple weeks.
At last, you clear the news of this insane war and make sense of sheer madness, all the creation of a man even crazier than Donald Trump. Thank you for doing this, and doing it again and again. If you have my data, just renew my subscription for another year. I think it's due.
I think it renews automatically. You can go into your account and check to see if you're on auto renew. Anyway, thanks for the compliment, old friend. One of these days I'm going to write about artillery in the war.
Great analysis. Thank you for the insights. Vietnam cost LBJ the presidency; when will Ukraine cost Pootie his presidency? Can't come soon enough. The Russian military should save their army by sending Putin to live with his mistress and money in Switzerland -- which will be oh so happy to have him.
I figured from the title that this was gonna be about the House of Representatives. Well, I'm sure it will be soon enough. Keep it handy. Maybe set it up as a macro...
As did I.
I remember LBJ and the warhawks with their rhetoric of beating the commies by building up our military presence in Vietnam otherwise the countries in SE Asia would fall like “dominoes” to the evil Commies, etc. Of course it was all bullshit or as one of my professors in college told us, all the Vietnamese wanted was their country back and were willing to pay the price in blood to get it. Turns out he was right. If Putin was ever a student of history, he would learn from our mistakes in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan as well as his own country’s fiascos in Afghanistan and Chechnya, but his ego will be his undoing. LBJ wanted guns and butter and blew it all away in Vietnam…could the same fate be waiting for Putin? Is it just a matter of time? In the meantime, the death toll keeps rising…
"Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan" -exactly what I was thinking. I never did understand Viet Nam. No riches or other treasures there to plunder, ruled by a corrupt government disliked by its own people. Washington said it was because North Vietnam was "communist". Whatever.
Iraq was simply a war of plunder gone wrong. The Bush administration was top heavy with American oil oligarchs, and Saddam had lots oil. At first they named our offensive "Operation Iraqi Liberation" - "OIL", get it? Ha ha ha.
Afghanistan was our attempt to one-up the Russians, who had recently failed at occupying Afghanistan and had withdrawn ignominiously. 'Here,' we said, 'step aside Russia, and let Uncle Sam show you how to get this is done.'
We paid a terrible price to understand why Afghanistan is called "The Graveyard of Empires".
Citizens who live in a smaller weaker country do well against bigger stronger invaders because the citizens who live there have no other place to go. The invaders, on the other hand, can simply go home.
If they survive, the Russian invaders go home and get to be kicked around and disrespected like the Vietnam vets in America.
Not many headed home, sadly.
History shows that no modern army has ever defeated a guerilla force that has the support of the local population.....
Remember during the very first days of the invasion during February last year in Henichesk, the port city on the Sea of Asov in the Kherson region?
“You’re occupants, you’re fascists! What the fuck are you doing on our land with all these guns? Take these seeds and put them in your pockets, so at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here.”
https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1496866811110834176
Ignore wise old women at your peril. They may be witches who place very powerful curses upon you.
It must be humiliating to Russia's rump army to be losing to Ukraine's superior forces, and to be cast as second fiddle to Prigozhin's mercenary army of convicts and thugs. Despite their ineptness and corruption I suspect at least some Russian soldiers remember the heroism and achievement of individual predecessors in the Red Army long ago, so the descent to second place, and loser, in Putin's nonsensical war against a real European nation, must smart.
Same thing for Surovikin; a butcher, yes, but sort of a real Russian soldier, now being demoted in the field to deputy to Gerasimov, mostly a parade general lately and under sanctions by most civilized countries.
What a morale-sapping mess for Russia.
Well, the Soviet military didn't do so well in Afghanistan either but (1) that was pre-Putin, and (2) no other outsiders have done very well in Afghanistan either, so that whole "refusing to learn from history" thing definitely applies. "Ford, ford, ford o' Kabul River / ford o' Kabul River in the dark . . ."
Who better to read for a take on the invasion of Ukraine than the namesake of Generals and Colonels,
a graduate of West Point, and a celebrated author on the subject of the Vietnam War? Until this newsletter I had not made the Vietnam connection wherein, unfortunately, the US played the part Putin is playing now. Even war correspondents seldom weave in history. Already disturbed by what has happened in Ukraine, I await Mr. T.'s further thoughts and insights into one of the most unnecessary modern conflagrations that come to mind.
Thanks, Lucian, for making the parallels between Vietnam and Ukraine so clear. Vietnam was a crime and unwinable for us, and Ukraine is a crime and unwinable for Putin, unless the maniacs who have taken over the House manage to curtail our support of Ukraine. I hope that doesn’t happen, much as I want it to end. We finally gave up in Vietnam when public opposition became overwhelming, and Nixon blundered into Watergate. A Russian rebellion still seems unlikely no matter how many of their young men are fed into the meat grinder. More likely a total collapse of the Russian economy will be needed to end the war. Of course there is still the nuke threat, so this needless slaughter is going to drag on while Ukraine is totally destroyed physically. Vietnam didn’t destroy us physically, but the political and moral damage it did to our psyche lingers. The veterans of that misbegotten war are beginning to age out, and I know many of them . They are still damaged, as are all veterans of war, some more obviously than others. They will be damaged to their dying day, as was my father from WWI. There doesn’t seem to be any durable mechanism to prevent these horrible atrocities, or monsters like Putin from perpetrating them. Perhaps there never will be. It may be the fatal flaw for humankind in the end. This war, as did Vietnam, makes me sad everyday.
Terrific write-up. Thank you. The strategically pointless Russian assaults continue to remind me of Verdun as well as the endless battles on the Isonzo during WW1, and also Hitler’s insistence in seizing every block of Stalingrad in 1942. The Russian strategy in Ukraine was bankrupt from the start, having monumentally misread the situation prior to their invasion, but now it’s all about moral victories and attempting to swamp the Ukrainians with poorly trained mobis and Wagner penal forces.
An army of freedom fighters defending their homeland vs an ill-equipped and poorly led army of reluctant conscripts and mercenaries. My money is on the freedom fighters. Send more cool stuff to Ukraine, Biden and NATO!
The legacy of the war in Ukraine might be a warning for the 21st century, "Even Superpowers can be defeated"
The Russian military finally convinced Gorbachev that the war in Afghanistan was a loss. Someone will finally tell Putin to wrap it up, and he will not be able to ignore the truth anymore. Some say Pat Nixon told her husband that the war was pointless slaughter. Maybe, Putin's sweetheart will do the same?
Go to Google Streets and look at Bakhmut, Raion, Luhansk Oblast before the war. A pretty, modern small city. Now, it is in ruins.
The US does this shit over and over again, from Khe Sanh to Outpost Keating. Stupid lines in there sand drawn by men who risk nothing but their supposed reputations. "I'm not gonna have no goddamned Dien Bien Phu" said LBJ, and McChrystal likewise doubled down on Keating. Both were useless, indefensible positions that were soon abandoned and bulldozed. Putin is acting like the American military, from what I see.
The American military at their worst, yes.
Blessed Be the Peacemakers. And Hi Mar artillery.
Apparently "never again" doesn't mean what I though it means. At least it seems Putin has given up the idea of nukes.
Lucian, thanks again for bringing up this new, brutal phase of the war (call it what it is) in Ukraine from your knowledgeable perspective.
It is so easy, from so far away, to to become fatigued to the tedium. I know for the people of Ukraine, and indeed the Russian conscripts, it is anything but tedious.
It important that we continue to support Ukraine's efforts.
Yes, it is madness. But here is a question which I would like for someone who has an understanding of what is going on might answer. If these small towns have little strategic value why are the Ukrainians so all in on them at such a high cost?
To date Ukraine has bested the Russians with a combination of superior battlefield tactics, smart weaponry and far better military intelligence. Ukrainian morale is as you post far higher because they are defending their homeland and they have so far inflicted infinitely more casualties and destroyed far more equipment than they have lost. They have to in order to fend off a much larger and if not better equipped than , at least, more massively equipped opponent. So, why has Zalensky and his generals decided to fight for this particular Hamburger Hill?
I am all in and totally support our giving Ukraine all the smart weaponry and long range missiles and artillery they need to reach out and touch the Russians across the border in their sanctuary enclaves. But, it seems to me this particular battle has assumed some mythic value to the Ukrainians . Why?
Individually, the towns don't have strategic value, but together, in a line, they form the front line of the conflict. If you let one of them go, that creates a so-called "bulge" in the line. Not good. We named an entire campaign over such a bulge in WW II. Also, the Ukrainians don't just want to hold the line, they want to push it back. The Russians are paranoid that's what they are preparing to do right now.
Thanks , Lucian. Maybe the Ukrainians should let the Russians take these villages , get settled in the bunkers and then let loose some HAMARs onto these troops. I get the context of a bulge but as we saw in WWII what eventually happened to Hitler's bulge is it became a trap. Let's give the Ukrainians the weaponry to do what the P-47s did in WWII. Too bad we can't lend them some Warthogs for a couple weeks.
At last, you clear the news of this insane war and make sense of sheer madness, all the creation of a man even crazier than Donald Trump. Thank you for doing this, and doing it again and again. If you have my data, just renew my subscription for another year. I think it's due.
I think it renews automatically. You can go into your account and check to see if you're on auto renew. Anyway, thanks for the compliment, old friend. One of these days I'm going to write about artillery in the war.
Great analysis. Thank you for the insights. Vietnam cost LBJ the presidency; when will Ukraine cost Pootie his presidency? Can't come soon enough. The Russian military should save their army by sending Putin to live with his mistress and money in Switzerland -- which will be oh so happy to have him.