The Achaemenid Empire turned out to have clay feet, when it couldn't resist Alexander's invasion. Somehow they didn't realize enough that armor and drilling troops made a difference in the battlefield, even though they employed mercenary Greek phalanxes. The great diversity of peoples in the empire made it difficult to kit and drill troops consistently.

The Soviet Empire had clay feet. which cracked at the end of the 20th century, and down it came.

Why did anyone imagine that the Russian Federation' feet were stronger than clay is a good question. They blew the budget on a couple of hypersonic rockets, it seems, and that's it. Is their nuclear arsenal also a fraction of what it seems? Probably.

Pootin, succeeded in making us believe that he had a serious overhaul of the Russian military and arsenal, until he committed the Ukrainian indiscretion and the curtain on the whole truth lifted.

The New York times on the front page has recordings of Russian units in Ukraine talking operations on unencrypted radio, would you believe?

"Jets are coming in ten minutes." You hear one say. Hackers' voices mix with the military talk... A hacker says: "Become a deserter, it's better than becoming fertilizer." In other recordings, Russians ask for fuel, water, and food.

So much for the Russian Bear. it's more like a ferret, I'd say, or a weasel. Good to know.

So the reputation of a cunning and astute dictator is in tatters, as well as that of the Russian military. It took years to build, and only weeks to shatter.

Pootin's dilemma is the Devil's alternative, whether to lose soon and big or late and bigger.

Whichever... before he turns tail, he'll break all the crockery and return home a rubble king, where he can reign over more broken stuff as the Ruble King.

And... Trump called Pootin a 'genius' only days ago. How is Truth Social going, Donald? His blog, "From the Desk of D.J. Trump" lasted 29 days. shutdown because of low traffic.

Still, the American justice system is finding it hard to dish to Donald his just desserts. I am not confident this will work.

On Trump, I am like DeNiro in The Untouchables: "I want him dead, I want his family dead, I want his house burned down.'" I am almost ashamed of hating him so much. It's not good to hate anyone or anything, because it's like carrying a bag of rocks around. It doesn't matter, hating Trump feels great, because he is no ordinary asshole.

What concerns me more than poor Ukraine is all the inconvenience these Russian oligarchs must be having. What good is to be filthy rich if it can't buy you respectability? They will need more comfort food... to compensate, I hope Macron won't cut their foie gras supply... God forbid.

War aficionados are witnessing the demise of the tank. Yep, unless it gets equipped with better countermeasures, the tank gig is over. All that massive armor is useless, as anti-tank weapons now rise near the target and hit it from above. It must suck to be in a Russian tank crew. It's a gory death..

Just like weakened Achaemenid kings, enfeebled Russian dictators never last long. I give Vlad another month.

On Thu, 24 Mar 2022 12:09:09 -0700 (PDT), Tiglath wrote:

> The Achaemenid Empire turned out to have clay feet, when it couldn't resist Alexander's invasion. Somehow they didn't realize enough that armor and drilling troops made a difference in the battlefield, even though they employed mercenary Greek phalanxes. The great diversity of peoples in the empire made it difficult to kit and drill troops consistently.
>
> The Soviet Empire had clay feet. which cracked at the end of the 20th century, and down it came.
>
> Why did anyone imagine that the Russian Federation' feet were stronger than clay is a good question. They blew the budget on a couple of hypersonic rockets, it seems, and that's it. Is their nuclear arsenal also a fraction of what it seems? Probably.
>
> Pootin, succeeded in making us believe that he had a serious overhaul of the Russian military and arsenal, until he committed the Ukrainian indiscretion and the curtain on the whole truth lifted.
>
> The New York times on the front page has recordings of Russian units in Ukraine talking operations on unencrypted radio, would you believe?
>
> "Jets are coming in ten minutes." You hear one say. Hackers' voices mix with the military talk... A hacker says: "Become a deserter, it's better than becoming fertilizer." In other recordings, Russians ask for fuel, water, and food.
>
> So much for the Russian Bear. it's more like a ferret, I'd say, or a weasel. Good to know.
>
> So the reputation of a cunning and astute dictator is in tatters, as well as that of the Russian military. It took years to build, and only weeks to shatter.
>
> Pootin's dilemma is the Devil's alternative, whether to lose soon and big or late and bigger.
>
> Whichever... before he turns tail, he'll break all the crockery and return home a rubble king, where he can reign over more broken stuff as the Ruble King.
>
> And... Trump called Pootin a 'genius' only days ago. How is Truth Social going, Donald? His blog, "From the Desk of D.J. Trump" lasted 29 days. shutdown because of low traffic.
>
> Still, the American justice system is finding it hard to dish to Donald his just desserts. I am not confident this will work.
>
> On Trump, I am like DeNiro in The Untouchables: "I want him dead, I want his family dead, I want his house burned down.'" I am almost ashamed of hating him so much. It's not good to hate anyone or anything, because it's like carrying a bag of rocks around. It doesn't matter, hating Trump feels great, because he is no ordinary asshole.

As insane as Trump can be, you would have to agree that this disaster would
not have happened under him.

>
> What concerns me more than poor Ukraine is all the inconvenience these Russian oligarchs must be having. What good is to be filthy rich if it can't buy you respectability? They will need more comfort food... to compensate, I hope Macron won't cut their foie gras supply... God forbid.

I doubt they had anything to do with it.

>
> War aficionados are witnessing the demise of the tank. Yep, unless it gets equipped with better countermeasures, the tank gig is over. All that massive armor is useless, as anti-tank weapons now rise near the target and hit it from above. It must suck to be in a Russian tank crew. It's a gory death.
>
> Just like weakened Achaemenid kings, enfeebled Russian dictators never last long. I give Vlad another month.
>

Currently I would say its to early in the war to say, here are some good
youtubes on the subject

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9pVEP0AzZ4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Igq2fqa7RY4