Harry Litman - Can Ukraine Survive?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

During his 4+ years as President, Donald Trump perpetrated a countless series of regular (or so they became) outrages, along with a few dozen instances of Hall-of-Fame wickedness. But for sheer gut-wrenching, repulsive, run-for-the-exits putrescence, Trump’s Oval Office lambasting of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky feels like perhaps the single most repugnant Trump moment we have ever witnessed.

The tape will be studied by generations of historians for its classic Trump cocktail of vanity, grievance, mendacity, and flat-out surrealism. And it will be lampooned within hours. I’m looking forward to SNL’s Mikey Day playing Zelensky, growing increasingly incredulous at Trump’s nasty patter and little by little letting his bafflement and contempt show.

But as an ambushed Zelensky burst out when Trump tried to bully him by telling him he had “no cards,” “I’m not playing cards. I’m very serious, Mr. President.”

In a fireworks-like 10-minute display of socio- and psycho-pathologies, Trump brought shame on the country and made the world less stable.

https://harrylitman.substack.com/p/can-ukraine-survive

[lees1975]

1. Good question and interesting follow up.

Europe has made a long, long journey, from being ravaged by World War 2, through several lengthy eras of demilitarization and peace, and then relaxed somewhat when the biggest menace to its existence and peace, the Soviet Union, collapsed. Instability, inherent dangers involved with that, along with some relaxing as the remains, mainly Russia, turned out not to be nearly as powerful, and some of the former soviet Republics, very appreciative of freedom they'd never enjoyed in their history, including Ukraine, felt their way through political upheaval, growth, and then the old Russian insecurities leading to attempts to re-assert its power by blowing up its smaller neighbors.

It's population, double that of Russia, and its political unity, a new thing, something Joe Biden helped revive when it seemed to be fading, is coming to grips with the reality of not having to depend on the United States, and of possibly not needing the United States. They have a very realistic view of the leadership vacuum that has been created by our impossibly stupid re-electing of a burned out, demented, psychotic shell of a human being. They'll figure out how not to take him seriously, and they'll be able to ensure a peace in Ukraine satisfactory to the Ukrainian people, and develop an agreement to secure it.

One thing we know, from observing the war. Russia does not have the power or ability to invade Europe. The countries on its western border, except Belarus, are in NATO, and if it took three years to pick apart three Ukrainian provinces, they have no hope in Europe, and they fear nuclear holocaust just as much as the rest of us do. In fact, a crazy, insane, demented Trump is a bigger danger in that regard, by far, than a blustering Putin.

[SheltieLover]

2. Yet, for all slobby's mouthiness & bullying, SLOBBY FAILED TO DELIVER FOR POOTIN

Pootin is likely furious with the slob!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

3. Ukraine has shown amazing survival skills

Everyone was expecting them to fall in three days. Zelenskyy was offered refuge and he responded, "I don't need a ride, I need ammo."

Now Ukraine occupies the Kursk region of Russia.

Trump's pathetic fawning over Putin and other dictators is un-American.

[SheltieLover]

4. Yes! Ukranians are smart, resilient, & fuerce warriors!

All things neither slobby or pootin can accurately attest to.

[Igel]

5. They didn't fall in 3 days for a few reasons.

One was combined arms training, courtesy of NATO--meaning largely the US. It started before Jan. 2021.

A second was the anti-tank weapons that had been sent to Ukraine---that was the subject of one of the Trump impeachments. It's facile to say that Trump was holding up payments that would lead to a shipment of Javelins and other lethal armaments. (It's unpleasant to admit, but sending lethal weapons to Ukraine started as the result of an executive decision made after Obama was months out of office.)

This was combined with a couple of screw-ups on Putin's military's side.

First, they had crappy combined-arms capability. They'd send in armored vehicles undefended for extermination by Javelins and leave troops unprotected. This wasn't due to errors and flaws in the military's training but because they simply didn't train their soldiers. Not their approach (at least at the time).

Second, they forgot that Mother Nature is always present in every conflict.

Third, the corruption in the military had led to poorly maintained equipment and poorly trained troops.

It helped that Bulgaria, I believe it was, quickly and surreptitiously sent Ukraine munitions.

But, yes, since then Ukraine's shown a capacity to innovate even as a lot of their young men see no reason to fight for their country. As in the US, the less familiarity you are with an evil, the less concerned you are with living under it; and the less convinced you are that your country is worth defending the more willing you are to just abandon it.