just_a_gals_art
Sad days ahead
Well, it looks like Western efforts to deter Putin have been unable to stop him. As such, tens of thousands of innocent people are likely to die in the coming days.
The Russians do not attempt to minimize civilian casualties and therefore the death toll will be quite large. The lethality of modern weapons is much greater than those of WWII, the last time there was combat on this scale in Europe.
The next few weeks (after the start) are going to be a blood bath on the scale the world hasn’t seen in decades. I suspect the Ukraine will be defeated as a military force in rather short order, as the Russians have huge advantages on a large, modern and mobile battle field.
Expect Russian Spetsnaz, to carry out political/opposition assassinations of Ukrainians to create chaos and undermine the current Ukrainian government.
However, the occupation of Ukraine is likely to be a long and bloody affair for both the Russians and the remaining Ukraine people. We could see more than a million killed there over the next few years.
The West can never recognize this occupation, if democracy means anything to them and the rest of the world and so we are likely to enter a long cold war like period in Europe and the “Western style” democracies. Putin will not live forever, but once started, I don’t see things changing until he is dead or has been removed from power in Russia.
It is going to be a dangerous and unstable period because of that, as he will have no option but to escalate things to stay in power, when things get bogged down.
It is a very sad state of affairs when the current Putin leaning GOP can’t be troubled to say anything but supportive things about Putin. (Trump, Tucker Carlson and former Sec of State Pompeo all could only say positive things and praise for Putin in these last few days. Really sickening.)
I personally don’t support the idea of sending US troops to fight in the Ukraine, but we do need to stand against this kind of aggression by Putin against his neighbors. It reminds me a lot of the situation in Europe in the late 1930 before WWII, when Hitler used his locally superior military power to swallow up, the Ruhr land, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland, finally leading to WWII.
Regardless of what Putin chooses to do in the Ukraine, he must be stopped here.
Closer to home, things are getting much better around here in the SF Bay Area, I expect the COVID in door mask mandates to be lifted in the next few weeks and with over 90% of the local folks vaccinated and tens of thousands of “unvaccinated but recently recovered” folks COVID will not have an easy time spreading here.
We are down below our highs of the delta variant surge last fall and so I expect March and the coming spring will look pretty good here locally.
Lets hope we will have a world worth enjoying it in.
Sad days ahead
Well, it looks like Western efforts to deter Putin have been unable to stop him. As such, tens of thousands of innocent people are likely to die in the coming days.
The Russians do not attempt to minimize civilian casualties and therefore the death toll will be quite large. The lethality of modern weapons is much greater than those of WWII, the last time there was combat on this scale in Europe.
The next few weeks (after the start) are going to be a blood bath on the scale the world hasn’t seen in decades. I suspect the Ukraine will be defeated as a military force in rather short order, as the Russians have huge advantages on a large, modern and mobile battle field.
Expect Russian Spetsnaz, to carry out political/opposition assassinations of Ukrainians to create chaos and undermine the current Ukrainian government.
However, the occupation of Ukraine is likely to be a long and bloody affair for both the Russians and the remaining Ukraine people. We could see more than a million killed there over the next few years.
The West can never recognize this occupation, if democracy means anything to them and the rest of the world and so we are likely to enter a long cold war like period in Europe and the “Western style” democracies. Putin will not live forever, but once started, I don’t see things changing until he is dead or has been removed from power in Russia.
It is going to be a dangerous and unstable period because of that, as he will have no option but to escalate things to stay in power, when things get bogged down.
It is a very sad state of affairs when the current Putin leaning GOP can’t be troubled to say anything but supportive things about Putin. (Trump, Tucker Carlson and former Sec of State Pompeo all could only say positive things and praise for Putin in these last few days. Really sickening.)
I personally don’t support the idea of sending US troops to fight in the Ukraine, but we do need to stand against this kind of aggression by Putin against his neighbors. It reminds me a lot of the situation in Europe in the late 1930 before WWII, when Hitler used his locally superior military power to swallow up, the Ruhr land, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland, finally leading to WWII.
Regardless of what Putin chooses to do in the Ukraine, he must be stopped here.
Closer to home, things are getting much better around here in the SF Bay Area, I expect the COVID in door mask mandates to be lifted in the next few weeks and with over 90% of the local folks vaccinated and tens of thousands of “unvaccinated but recently recovered” folks COVID will not have an easy time spreading here.
We are down below our highs of the delta variant surge last fall and so I expect March and the coming spring will look pretty good here locally.
Lets hope we will have a world worth enjoying it in.