Why It Might Be Over...

... sooner than we think. My friend Marat Khairullin gave yesterday a superb sitrep (sadly only in Russian): 

He describes in detail a sorry state of VSU, which is corroborated by other reliable sources, but goes further and describes occasions on which frontline VSU units have been actually... cooperating with Russian Army. The statistics of even regiment-brigade level sniper groups (number of those groups varies, but it is more than a few) is altogether terrifying since it is pretty normal for one of each such groups to kill between 20 to 30 VSU personnel in a single night. That gives a good perspective on a scale of VSU losses and also confirms my constant point that Russian MoD is very conservative in stating VSU losses. 

But even these "conservative" estimates are terrifying. Here is butcher's bill for today from Russian MoD. 

In 7 days--almost 5,000 KIAs. No wonder then that it is reported now that many VSU soldiers simply refuse to attack and prefer to sit in trenches without moving--totally understandable. Which brings us to Larry's excellent piece yesterday, which I also discuss today in my new video which will be up shortly. 

A friend still involved in the day-to-day operations sent me the following video. He said this is making the rounds among the Company Grade Officers (i.e., 2d Lt, 1 Lt, and Captains) and enlisted personnel. A majority of the American military actually believes this stuff, especially the Zoomers. Reddit, the main social media app of today’s youth, is chock full of this garbage. 

Although the video is a lame attempt at humor, the narrative/meme is not a joke. Many younger officers genuinely believe that we have Russia over a barrel and can take out Putin at will. It is one thing for the average guy or gal on the street to believe such nonsense, but it is terrifying to learn that many U.S. military officers, both junior and senior (including Flag Officers, i.e. Generals), are so deluded.

This is not surprising at all--average modern US Army company level officer, especially "taught" military history on the examples of Patton's "exploits" and the "yardstick" of turkey shoot in the Gulf, wouldn't take seriously nowadays the history of Operation Zitadel (started on July 5, 1943) 80 years ago and the scale of events US Army simply has no experience of dealing with. Yes, July 5-July 12, 1943--Zitadelle, after that--Kursk Offensive Operation. 

This scale is beyond the experiences of the US Armed Forces, as is Stalingrad, Operation Bagration, Liberation of Balkans and many other things and they simply cannot take it. And so is SMO. Only one American historian of note--David Eisenhower, the grandson--had enough courage to point to the 800 pound gorilla in the room which was and remains a professional envy. Considering the fact that America's resurgence and superpowerdom originated in WW II, acknowledging military and geopolitical realities of the last 85 years on a political level in the US would mean undermining America's mythology not just militarily, but on a national level and would represent in itself a Koschei The Immortal proverbial tip of a needle, which, when broken, kills him. But it merely reinforces my position for many years, decades really, that the US never realized itself as true continental power because this realization comes only through continental warfare of scale. One simply cannot buy itself a military history no matter how one tries.