billbindc

The_Capt, I think that's really spot on. Another 'odd' issue is the clear reluctance of Russian air assets to engage in ground attack. Part of that may be simply that they don't trust their AA ground assets to not shoot at them...which is a pretty bad commentary on their readiness. Another reason may be that their pilots are averaging under 100 hours/year in the seat and they don't trust them to be able to accomplish the mission. You would think that they'd have trained up for invading a country of 40 million people but apparently not.

Folks...billbindc here...who you may remember from the benighted days of dosomefink. Been talking to a lot of folks and I'd say the "Putin has lost it" thing is over rated and on some level the Russians trying to benefit from madman theory. Putin has been a Russian imperialist forever. It's been his idee fixe since the fall of the USSR. In one "near abroad" country after another, he's either coerced them back into the fold (Chechenia), enforced informal hegemony (Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine) or attacked them outright (Ukraine, Georgia). He has also constantly tested the limits from corrupt influence to outright assassination (Salisbury anyone?). What he's doing now isn't new, it is simply a reflection of the greater abilities he believes he possesses. At no time has he behaved suicidally. He will rattle sabers and he will do what he thinks he can get away with. The smart thing for us to do is remain cool, stay out of direct conflict and give every boot/5.56 round/Javelin/MRE to the Ukrainians we can lay our hands on.