“Battle therefore … is essentially a moral conflict. It requires … a mutual and sustained act of will by two contending parties and, if it is to result in a decision, the moral collapse of one of them” ~ John Keegan
Or perhaps, he just likes the movies?
“You wanna get Capone? Here’s how you get him. He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue! ~ Jim Malone (The Untouchables)
Whatever the case, there will clearly be no Guantanamos in Russia.
and by extension the west lost the war in the Mid-East before it really started. The moment we pulled in our horns and failed to give 100% to the cause of winning we lost that higher moral ground.
Cjunk, I think you are the one who rightly called this another Vietnam, or was it someone else.
I’m starting to think this more so with a war going on, one can’t leave safe haven zones for the enemy.
I was floored when Billy Graham’s son said at the national church service for 9/11 that the US should go in and make Afganistan’s mountain hide aways a glass parking lot.
The Japanese Imperial Army was holding China with barely a token force by the end of WW2
but no one outside the garrisons was really privy to that secret. Any opposition or small attacks
mounted against them early in the occupation without any forewarning from the Chinese
populace at large in an area resulted in widespread atrocities and slaughter on a huge scale
by the Japanese. Once the pattern was made clear, the populace betrayed most fighters
who showed up in their areas and hunkered down in survival mode hoping to remain
alive without drawing any attention to themselves until the war was over.
No doubt the Russians and the ordinary people in the area which is most involved in this present
conflict look forward hopefully to less extreme measures eliminating the ongoing violence.
Similarly to Caledonia DCE, where OPP went against the victims – it’s a monopoly on law enforcement.
V. Putin has probably read Keegan. There probably isn’t much historical writing on warfare in Russian. The subject would interest him, and he is fluent in English.
It is a mistake to compare him with the Mafioso.
V. Putin has undoubtedly read about Peter the Great, who put down internal revolts (notably that of the Streltsy) with great ruthlessness, and ended Turkish incursions.
Peter the Great was a hands-on kind of guy –
when there was torturing to be done he pitched in and did his share along with his police.
“You wanna play it easy, we play it easy.
You wanna play it hard, ok, we play hard.”
— The 5th Element
As one Russian acquaintance put it, Russians are ruled by force. Putin does everything by force. It’s one thing to wipe out jihadists; it’s quite another to suppress grassroots political opposition.
Too bad propping up corrupt and thuggist local leaders like this group has not at all succeeded in pacifying the caucuses and indeed has made it worse. Ah, but I forgot, this about indulging anti-Islamist bloodthirst. Whether it works or not is irrelevant.
Ah, but I forgot, this about indulging anti-Islamist bloodthirst. Whether it works or not is irrelevant.
Works for me.
I’m still bloodthirsty, though, and I’ll stop thirsting for their blood when the Mohammedans stop thirsting for mine first.
libertariansaresmarter said: Ah, but I forgot, this about indulging anti-Islamist bloodthirst.
This post passes no judgement, nor promotes any particular view … you’re letting your bigotry colour your perceptions.
Cjunk gets points for irony and nothing else.