How not to assault from a trench

[farmall]

Russians stacked and bunched in an assault trench with no overhead cover getting smoked in Ukraine. Vets can count the fuckups. Obvious Uke win because they were able to police up Russian weapons and gear.

https://streamable.com/bl48gy

Fuck Russia for helping kill and directly killing some American troops since WWII (Poltava getting shwacked by the Luftwaffe counts because deliberate inaction).

Dead Soviets of any vintage make me smile. Their casualties aren't even close to Korea and Nam but this war ain't over yet.

[Grantman]

I'm still of the mind of "the only good Russian soldier is one that needs to be buried before they start smelling worse."

[rockman96]

It's Harry's fault. He should have left MacArthur alone to do what he wanted. We could have avoided decades of BS.

[datadavid]

Not sure why, but streaming video from small shit streaming sites rarely works for me on any device.

[farmall]

It's Harry's fault. He should have left MacArthur alone to do what he wanted. We could have avoided decades of BS.

Myth for many reasons but appeals because of Dugout Doug's carefully crafted self-aggrandizing image.

People forget the ChiComs pushed UN forces back to the middle of Korea not least because he thought they couldn't and wouldn't, and that the theater was completely secondary to Europe in strategic importance therefore expanding the war especially with the weak ground forces of the era would have been a disaster. His previous fuckups included bothering with the Philippines (expected to be captured by War Plan Orange and not necessary to control the Pacific but he made their invasion politically necessary).

Great job at governing Japan and landing at Inchon in Korea though.

Not sure why, but streaming video from small shit streaming sites rarely works for me on any device.

There are ways to direct download videos like yt-dlp for playing after you have the complete file.

yt-dlp confirmed working for the streamable link I posted and of course Youtube and many other sites.

[FMC1]

Anyone know what the Vegas Line is on this war?
Seems everyone is cheering for Ukraine, but I don't see any scenario where they win so I'm thinking I can get some pretty good odds.

[DoomBuggy]

... but I don't see any scenario where they win...

As heard in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, just to name a fewl

[FMC1]

Ukraine lost this war the day the US and our NATO butt-buddies started it back in 2014

[farmall]

Quick victories by either side ain't happening but Ukraine hasn't lost anything it requires for survival and still has ample maneuvering room/strategic depth.

Russia may bite off the east and get away with a long frozen conflict but meantime the world is learning not to need Russia. The Russian Federation cannot carry the old Soviet Union's jockstrap (except in the imagination of its propagandists and the usual contrarians who forgot why the Cold War happened or are too young/ignorant to have a clue), It's GDP is less than California's and refusal to mobilize forces the Kremlin to rely on a "partial" force which was to serve as cadre for mass mobilization which would provide numbers of conscripts who could be trained quickly to fill basic infantry roles. Much of that cadre was expended (wasting VDV as spearhead troops using BRDM because as airborne they have no heavy armor) and troops who don't exist cannot train conscripts. Russia isn't coming off US-style constabulary operations and never invested in US levels of readiness (palaces and yachts were more fun).

A competent Russia would have fully prepared, fully mobilized then kerb stomped Ukraine but Russian culture ensured that would not happen. A competent military is a threat to despots (Saddam is another example of ruling by killing off competent officer corps). Russia should have learned from the USSRs costly 1930s officer purges but didn't because its leadership were chosen without regard to actual competence.

The best thing about this war is the longer it lasts the more damage it does to the Russian threat to civilization which predates the 1917 revolution (triggered because Tsars naturally objected to democracy). Blasting Chechnya flat was fine because no one cares about Muslims. Ukraine has stronger and strengthening links to Europe which Putin just proved needs a buffer to protect the Baltics and Poland. Dead Russians and Russian sympathizers are great news and the more the better. Arming Ukraine is just using the same weapons meant to fight off Russia to do the deed further east. That's pure good news since it's better to fight proxy wars like Russia did so many times against the US.

The implosion of the Soviet Union (also economically incompetent and corrupt) took a long time because the conquered territories forming the Warsaw Pact provided economic power and resources. Ukraine was at least as important for armaments production. Imploding the Russian Federation may be easier because it's weak, poor, militarily inept, poorly equipped by choice, failed to maintain its war reserves and it's entire military model (like having NO effective Western style NCO corps) is poorly designed for the war it's called to fight. The wars it was designed for no longer exist.

Russian expectations of territorial gain keep scaling back and while it can flatten cities those are paid for in blood. Having to compensate with cannon fodder and ancient tube arty/inaccurate and few PGMs is a tough row to hoe. There is little element of surprise under modern surveillance.

Meanwhile NATO rebuilds what it lazily ignored after the Wall fell while the US (already eager to upgrade and rebuild forces previously adapted to constabulary wars) gets an excuse to field test older gen weapons against the best Russia has. The old weapons kill vatniks and break their shit while US units get new gear.

It was about time the Cold War resumed fully and this version is great fun. Russia takes major economic losses while reviving NATO and adding two new members (de facto or de jure) in Finland and Sweden. If Ukraine fully loses things are no worse than when it was Soviet ruled before (i.e. horrible for remaining Ukrainians but a snoozer for outsiders). Bonus, Europe gains Ukrainian refugees who hate Russia and need jobs while being better educated than previous generations of guest workers and wanting traditional European culture (vs. wanting to turn it into Eurabia).

[DoomBuggy]

Back in '74 when I was stationed in Germany we had all the left overs from Vietnam. Most of the tanks at least ran and a fair number of them could still fire off rounds. However a surprising number where there for the count more than anything. Waiting for the Russian hoard to invade was sometimes tense.

Then one of the NCOs told us how on the Russian side they were lucky to have 1 in 3 tanks fully functional. That made us feel a little better anyhow. Berlin was a trip and an in your face look at what a repressive, authoritarian regime was like.