Putin is not observing any rules of war, attacking civilians and civilian targets with gusto. His plan now seems to be to break the will of the people. Pound them until they beg for peace – on his terms of course. He is, however, creating a new hatred for Russians among the Ukrainians. Any occupation of the Ukraine will undoubtedly be fraught with guerrilla warfare and unrest. Additionally, Putin has managed to unite NATO as they have not been since the end of the Cold War. To add to his troubles, most of the nations (except for the usual dictatorships) are repulsed by what he’s doing. Russia will be a pariah nation for quite some time.

The UN was set up to try to stop the ancient practice of nations invading one another. Good intentions, but not much ability to enforce the rules of the game. Good intentions meet reality. 🙁

Ethnicity and religion can help us understand a lot about attitudes involving war, foreign policy and domestic voting preferences.

I’m not convinced that ethnic Russians have a history which shows that they are relatively uncaring about high casualties in offensive wars beyond the motherland.

The original point was about the willingness of the Russian people to tolerate high casualties. History might be deemed to show that there are differences in their performance militarily and their morale depending on whether the action is defensive or offensive. Defense of the motherland isn’t the same as attacks beyond the motherland.

As an intellectual exercise, imagine the differences in attitudes about military action (and differences due to offense vs. defense) among some regions and ethnic backgrounds in the USA. Political science types of the Kevin Phillips variety have pointed that these differences in attitudes have had enormous impacts on voting behavior. E.g. compare the Scandinavians in the upper midwest to the Jacksonian Scotch-Irish in Appalachia and the South. Difference!

And just like that Vlad’s grand plan strengthens NATO, a genius, your man.

https://redstate.com/streiff/2022/03/23/nato-increases-assistance-to-ukraine-and-troop-presence-in-eastern-europe-hints-that-permanent-basing-may-be-on-the-table-n539931

Curious logic indeed, for manpads, anti-tank missiles, small arms are justification for a Vlad boy to nuke you and I, and anyone else.

Curious logic two, if you aren’t a veteran shut up. I only worked at Hanford during the early 1980s when we were still making plutonium for our weapons. I’m pretty sure Vlad’s boys had multiple devices assigned to my workplace and the town I lived in. I’m assuming he still does. We are no longer making plutonioum, but all those (177) tanks with radioactive waste would add some extra magic (contamination) to the fallout for you. I’ll just be mist in those clouds.

Any more reasons to roll over for your man Vlad?

We’re not just one generation removed from WWII, but many.

Agreed, but:
1 — they have that much more fatalist attitude than we do
2 — again, no merdia going “Death toll !! Get yer Today’s DEATH TOLL!!” on an endless loop.
3 — addressing your observation, yes, “in a few weeks”
To provide contrast — some Americans-killed-only examples:
1 — Bellau Wood (WWI) — 1,811
2 — Antietam — 2,100
3 — Anzio — 7,000

By comparison, also, the battle of Stalingrad averaged 3000 a day for 160 days.

Would there be grumbing? I’m sure.

Or contrast to WWI Russia, part of which caused the Russian revolution —

1,700,000 total, or about 1230 a day — but that went on for YEARS, not a couple weeks.

I’m not saying this cannot become a problem, I’m saying that Putin is not dealing with a merdia which is out to tear him down at all costs. Putin is dealing with a much more fatalistic and accepting people with regards to bad government, including bad military decisions.

So, No, I don’t think that 10k deaths in a few weeks is going to matter that much to Putin’s standing. I would say this failure could go on for as much as six months before he would need to worry much about it on the home front. Whether the Ukraine can hold out that long is an interesting question.

And yes, the Ukraine could easily become another Afghanistan, with constant violence — especially with plenty of outside help from other states. It could be their Iraq, much as Afghanistan was their Vietnam.

Modern weapons and guerrilla tactics make pacifying a conquered state a lot harder than it was 3 centuries ago.

(1) Climate and energy oligarch leaves Russia in a hurry, objects to war on Ukraine.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10643837/Top-Putin-envoy-Anatoly-Chubais-QUITS-leaves-country-protest-Ukraine-invasion.html

The economist was one of the principal architects of Boris Yeltsin’s economic reforms of the 1990s and many Russians blame him for allowing a small group of tycoons to develop vast fortunes amid the mass privatisation of state-owned assets, while millions of regular citizens were left in poverty.

But Chubais was also a key figure behind Russia’s cultivation of a market economy and also helped to modernise the nation’s energy sector.

In recent years he continued to call for economic reform and was one of the most high-profile liberals associated with the Russian government, holding senior business and political roles under Putin.

He was appointed as a special envoy in 2020, charged with ‘achieving goals of sustainable development’, days after resigning as the head of state technology firm RUSNANO which he had run since 2008.

[missed that the first time, so I referenced The Guardian also]

(2) Energy traders panicking over loss of liquidity (h/t Barry Meislin & Zerohedge); observation of interest:

Fast forward to today, when in a follow up to its report from last week, the FT writes that according to Christophe Salmon, Trafigura’s chief financial officer, the crisis in global energy markets will force some smaller commodity traders out of business and unleash a wave of consolidation in the sector.

Salmon warned that the spike in capital needed to keep commodities flowing around the world since Russia invaded Ukraine would squeeze smaller trading houses out of the market.

(3) Environmental groups/activist/lobbyists know their priorities.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy-environment/biden-urged-to-unleash-defense-production-act-to-expand-green-energy-rather-than-oil-production?utm_campaign=article_rail&utm_source=internal&utm_medium=article_rail

Green energy groups want President Joe Biden to invoke the Defense Production Act and build more renewable energy technologies in response to strained energy markets, intensifying liberal pressure on the White House to avoid endorsing fossil fuels as a solution to high prices.

(4) George Soros knows about climate change too: he’s against it, to the tune of billions of other peoples’ money.
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/financing-the-fight-against-climate-change-2009-12

Dec 10, 2009
GEORGE SOROS
In September 2009, the IMF distributed to its members $283 billion worth of Special Drawing Rights, with more than $150 billion going to the 15 largest developed countries. These countries should band together and lend $100 billion of their SDR allocations, which currently sit idle in their reserve accounts, to help developing countries fight the impact of climate change.

(5) Putin, despite making some recent conciliatory moves toward the Climatistas, is not a true believer – and doesn’t act like one, in supplying vast amounts of the demonized fossil fuels for cold cash.
https://www.dw.com/en/russias-vladimir-putin-doubts-man-made-climate-change-backs-trump/a-51736903
(Deutsche Welle, to put the last paragraph in context; their about us page “Germany’s international broadcaster and one of the most successful and relevant international media outlets”)

Putin cast doubt on the man-made origins of global warming, saying “nobody knows the origins of global climate change.”

“We know that in the history of our Earth there have been periods of warming and cooling and it could depend on processes in the universe,” Putin said. “A small angle in the axis in the rotation of the Earth or its orbit around the Sun could push the planet into serious climate changes.”

Tens of thousands of scientists have collated overwhelming amounts of data pointing to the man-made destabilization of Earth’s climate system and the importance of limiting current and future greenhouse gas emissions.

(6) George Soros demands we stop Russia in Ukraine, and asserted the same in an op-ed as well as on Twitter, per this post.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/03/george-soros-united-states-european-union-must-remove-putin-xi-power-can-destroy-civilization/

After Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Soros urged the U.S. to “do whatever is in their power” to back Ukraine in a series of tweets.

Is anyone else seeing a pattern here?

However, I still support Ukraine against Russia, even if that puts me on the same side as Soros this time around.
Will have to channel Churchill on this one, even though his pacts with Stalin had horrible outcomes in the end.
“If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.”

Of course, all three of them are chumming it up in the Nether Regions today.
No idea where Sir Winston ended up.