Subject: Re: Let’s See If This Pans Out for Putin
I agree - and the running clock favors Ukraine, rather than Russia.

That's exactly backwards. There are more Russians than Ukrainians, and Putin has zero qualms about throwing more people away.

The militaries and economies of the combined NATO powers absolutely dwarf those of Russia.

I'll ask again: Are you willing to commit NATO to the fight? Otherwise the "combined power" statement means very little. Don't get any mileage out of a car you leave in the garage. So which is it?

Ummmm, no.

Ummm, yes.
History is replete with examples of large powers that invaded smaller ones and "possessed" large portions of them....and then couldn't hold them.

Sure. And people study history, and circumstances change. This "small countries win in the end thing" ignores the even more ample history of bigger countries kicking the crap out of little ones. What you and the other guy aren't getting by repeating this example is that you're both citing the *exceptions*, not the rule.

Not very much, no. Like all those other times, Russia appears to have assumed that since it had the overwhelming conventional forces of a much larger army (and a much larger country than Ukraine backing them up) that it would be a relatively simple matter to win just by invading. They don't appear to have learned any of the lessons of asymmetric warfare.

Uh, huh. Your statement is both true and false.
It's true in the sense that Putin thought he could roll in there and overwhelm Kyiv in 2-3 days but what he forgot is that the Ukrainians are very skilled in intelligence and they had many things sniffed out. He also discounted the initial lethality of Zelensky's forces, lethality earned after years of training by NATO countries - notably, us. The reason they still have an Air Force at all is because of us.

Your statement is false in that Putin doesn't need to conquer the entire country to "win". A "win" is keeping what he has. He's well on the path to doing that.

In fact, they seem to have completely repeated the mistakes we made in Iraq.
LOL. You haven't answered my question.

You and 1pg seem to be under the impression that the Russians are going to sit around and allow an Iraq-style insurgency to spring up. You're a dad in Mariupol and the Russians kicked in your door and took away your kids. They told you that if you thought about getting froggy you'd never see them again.

So. You going to head to the hills and shout WOLVERINES! from the cliff?