Gen.(Ret) Mark Hertling has the background and chops to comment on the differences between the Russian and Ukrainian armies. For those who believe that the Russian army can’t be defeated by the Ukrainian army, here is some personal observations form one who has been there, done that.
Some Interesting Insight
Published by Adam Green
A 24 year Navy vet, cancer survivor, father, grandfather, assistant caregiver for my live-in mother-in-law. Enjoys golf, football (real and fantasy), being the best grandfather I can, supporting the endeavors of my children (both involved in the education of our younger generations) and tormenting my wife of 34 years. Also prefer bourbon over scotch, but will drink both, just not at the same time. Discovering craft beers and trying trying hard to get to a consistent golf swing. View all posts by Adam Green
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Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
RE: “For those who believe that the Russian army can’t be defeated by the Ukrainian army, here is some personal obGeservations form one who has been there, done that.”
Gen. Hertling’s observations are at least 10 years old. Today, the Ukrainian army is enduring casualties at five times the rate of Russian forces casualties, or 20,000 per month (June estimate).
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/10/ukraine-casualty-rate-russia-war-tipping-point
It is impossible for Ukraine to defeat Russia for a host of reasons — economic, military and political.
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Gen Hertling’s observations are a lot more relevant and telling that any of the pjmedia, zerohedge, pro-Putin lackey crap you have posted. He’s got the been there done that street cred.
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RE: “He’s got the been there done that street cred.”
So do other military professionals who don’t share his outdated opinions.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/holding-ground-losing-war/
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McGregor is a pro-Putin hack. His commentary has been blown out of the wataer by factuality.
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Everyone of them has been touting the pro-Putin line from the jump. They are NOT believable. Yet you continue to believe your own propaganda.
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How convenient for you. Attacking the source means you never have to deal with the content.
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I also find it amusing that you deny that the recent attempted call up of reservists in Russia has caused the birders to be overrun with those attempting to leave the country and flights out of Moscow that don’t require visa’ have gone form around $350 one way to over $2,700.
Yeah. He’s winning all right. Just like TFG “won” in 2020.
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Why should I believe propaganda?
https://sonar21.com/the-anti-russian-propaganda-campaign-kicks-into-high-gear/
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You accuse ME of spreading propaganda when all you post is pro-Putin malarkey?
Not ONE mention of the exodus from Russia. Just economic gobbledygook.
Are you denying the material facts of what I said?
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Yes. I deny that your material facts are real.
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Then you are lying to yourself.
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RE: “Then you are lying to yourself.”
No. I am reading different sources than you. I challenge you to address them on a substantive basis — as I did with your Bulwark source — rather than just preen and strut.
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Your sources have debunked and called out for the BS that they are too may times to even consider them. But I have read them and I have weighed and measured them and found them wanting.
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From the first day of the invasion, the Russians fell short of expectations. Meanwhile, the Ukrainians exceeded expectations every day.
It was easy to extrapolate months ahead. Without some radical improvement in their performance, the Russians would lose the war.
There were two other factors that made me question the pervasive optimism about Russian plans. (As you may remember, all the experts agreed, “It’ll be over in a week.” I knew that Ukraine was a very large country, bigger than France for example, and you don’t just walk into France and occupy it. Secondly, almost every discussion I had seen about computer coding mentioned that Ukraine was the de facto center of hacking in Europe and perhaps the world. These people were smart. Almost as soon as the war began, Ukrainians introduced a new kind of warfare, fought with drones and GPS targeting. The Ukrainians, probably teenagers in many cases, could drop small missiles into tank turrets. The supremacy of tanks was over.
Which reminds me of the single most startling revelation. Putin, the KGB chief reputed to know all the secrets of the planet, did not know his own army (corrupt and poorly trained) or his enemy (highly trained and highly motivated).
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300,000 Russian soldiers. 100,000 rifles. They’ve tried this before.
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“It is impossible for Ukraine to defeat Russia for a host of reasons — economic, military and political.”
Impossible? Only in your mind. And I wonder why that is. Why are you so insistent that Russia will win? Have you so committed your soul to the Trump/Putin combination that the thought of both losing is overwhelming to you? I can almost understand why you are in denial about Trump, but PUTIN? Putin is the KGB bad guy Ronald Reagan warned you about. He never “wins.” He just kills anybody who disagrees with him. It seems like you think that’s “winning.” Why?
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RE: “Why are you so insistent that Russia will win?”
Because I grew up in a military household. My dad was an operations analyst and I spent 30 years as a civilian employee in the defense industry working for some of the biggest contractors. As a result of that experience I developed some familiarity with military operations and based on that it is obvious to me that Ukraine cannot prevail against Russia.
Military operations are not at all what armchair generals imagine them to be. A couple of months ago I compiled a series of videos here in the Forum That try to explain how war actually works:
Once you understand how wars are fought by competent military professionals it doesn’t matter anymore whether you like or don’t like Putin.
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….” by competent military professionals”….
Russians do not meet the standard.
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RE: “Russians do not meet the standard.”
And yet the Russian army defeated both Napoleon and Hitler. And they are defeating Ukraine which is being supplied and advised by the US/Nato.
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Napoleon in the 19th century and Hitler in the 20th. In the 21st Century, their competence has been proven to be lacking and yet here you are touting their historical wins.
Toady’s Russian Army is NOT that of the 19th or 20th Century. If you want to believe that, you are entitled. I am also entitled to disagree with you and your “pundits” and listen to those I trust.
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RE: “In the 21st Century, their competence has been proven to be lacking and yet here you are touting their historical wins.”
Russia’s historical wins are a key source of their military doctrine, which in Ukraine today is proving effective. As I noted above: “Today, the Ukrainian army is enduring casualties at five times the rate of Russian forces casualties, or 20,000 per month (June estimate).”
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“Russia’s historical wins are a key source of their military doctrine”…
Having a doctrine and being able to execute it are two VERY different things. You can have the best game plan in the history of warfare,but if commanders and soldiers on the ground are too incompetent to execute it, then all you have is a really good read.
Your self-proclaimed military expertise is laid to waste by the fact you cannot bring yourself to admit that the Russian Army is a M-E-S-S.
You keep going to casualty counts on the Ukrainian side. Based on your tunnel vision you clearly see that Russia is taking casualties, and quote possibly desertions, and they are completely unable to destroy the Ukrainian army or its spirit.
And I wonder how many of the casualties that you noted today were actually CIVILIAN victims of Russian War Crimes?
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RE: “You keep going to casualty counts on the Ukrainian side.”
Yes, I do. Casualty counts are a fair metric for tactical and strategic effectiveness. You should read some of the sources I give to justify my commentary, because the casualty counts I have given are from Ukraine itself.
An army that looses five times the personnel than its enemy in battle cannot by any reasonable measure be described as winning the war.
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Territorial setbacks by the Russians tell a lot more than casualty counts.
Also, how many of those Ukrainians deaths are actually CIVILIANS, NOT soldiers?
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Well, I was an Army wife for 20 years, including through Vietnam. I’ve also worked in tactical and training units everywhere from Germany to Fort Gordon. The Russians are not “competent military professionals.” A competent professional does not invade a country by driving a 40-mile long convoy down an open highway. A competent professional does not bivouac troops inside the red zone at Chernobyl. Competent troops do not clear city streets by wandering aimlessly down the sidewalks, sticking their heads inside buildings to see if they have been cleared. And those are just a few of the blatant mistakes that made the headlines. The fact that a country the size of Russia has been unable to subdue a smaller country, on its own border, in over six months of fighting speaks for the quality of their “military professionals.”
All the Russians have left is biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. And, given their demonstrated level of competence so far, they’re more likely to nuke themselves than Ukraine. (In fact, there have been reports of unexplained explosions and radioactive fallout in the past that left people suspicious they did just that.)
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RE: “The fact that a country the size of Russia has been unable to subdue a smaller country, on its own border, in over six months of fighting speaks for the quality of their ‘military professionals.'”
Why do you assume Russia’s purpose has been to “subdue a smaller country”? Russia’s stated purpose was to “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine, which it has accomplished to a large degree.
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Here is the big issue. You BELIEVE that stated purpose. You believe EVERYTHING that comes out of Putin and his media cronies in the West collective mouth’s.
The demilitarize myth is blown away. If they had been demilitarized, how are they running a VERY effective counter-offensive? Are they using bows and arrows, javelins and slingshots?
As far as denazifying goes, that lie was laid to waste so long ago. But like the Big Election lie of 2020, you keep going back to it like a gospel singer on Sunday.
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RE: “If they had been demilitarized, how are they running a VERY effective counter-offensive?”
They aren’t. According to Ukraine’s own reports, Ukraine suffered five times more casualties than Russia as the result of the counteroffensive. That qualifies as “demilitarization” in my book.
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” That qualifies as “demilitarization” in my book.”
Then YOUR book is fiction.
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John, you never cease to amaze me! First of all, let’s be clear about this — Ukraine is NOT a Nazi country! It’s President is a Jew! Second of all, if their goal was to “demilitarize” Ukraine, that mission has failed spectacularly. Every country in the West and half the countries in the East are sending arms to Ukraine.
And, about Russia’s “victories” against Nazi Germany —
Russia started the war on Germany’s side. If Hitler had not turned on Russia, they would have gone down with the rest of the Axis powers when the Allies kicked their butts. And, as for Russia’s “victories” in WWII, without the Allies’ help, I’m pretty sure they’d all be speaking German right now.
The Germans, the real NAZIS, were what Russia wanted to be, what Russians admired when they joined the Axis, what Putin and his KGB still admires. They have been pretending otherwise since WWII. But, the Nazis lost so now they claim anyone who is their enemy is a Nazi because “Nazis are losers.” Projecting, just like Trump. Unable to look in a mirror and see what they really are — Nazis — losers.
And just like their Nazi role models, the Russians look down on Ukrainians as “an inferior race” and think it is their duty to wipe them from the face of the earth. They want a Ukrainian genocide just like Hitler wanted a Jewish genocide. And, as occupied territories are being recovered, evidence of those crimes is beginning to come forth. A special UN team is currently on the ground in Ukraine, investigating Russian war crimes. They are finding mass burial sites of people, with their hands tied behind their backs and a bullet through their heads. Guess they didn’t have time to build gas chambers.
So no! Don’t even try to tell me about “brilliant Russian military commanders.” It won’t fly! Rommel was a brilliant military commander — and he lost — and he’s dead — and I’m glad.
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You go, GIRL!!!
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RE: “John, you never cease to amaze me!”
Ms. Radford, you never cease to amaze me! You accuse me of believing things I have never said I believe, and you don’t pay attention to things I have said I believe. Responding to your criticisms of my commentary is like sparring with an hallucination.
Here’s something that might help our conversation. If you want to criticize me, quote the statement of mine you want to address. That way I can either clarify the thought I was trying to convey, or admit that I was wrong, somehow.
Respectfully,
Todd
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John, yes I have noticed for a long time that you consider facts to be hallucinations. And since you asked, here’s some simple questions you can clarify:
Do believe the Russians have demilitarized Ukraine? Yes/No
(Definition of demilitarize from the Oxford Dictionary: remove ALL military forces from an area.)
I have lots more questions, but let’s start with the original questions in this thread.
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Funny. Two days and still no answer to two VERY simple questions. Must be looking for the propaganda to back up what he says.
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