20541

I hardly ever read WaPo columnist Henry Olsen, he is a Trump apologist and not a very good writer.
But he really lavished praise on Joe Biden’s handling of Russia yesterday. Who knows maybe a green shoot of sanity returning to the Republican party.

https://wapo.st/3Au7ALp

20542

Could’ve sworn I read something about how the Post is making a play to become a better-respected paper, maybe take back the spot that the NYT lost. Edit: or maybe I heard that about the NY Post, not WaPo
NYP is a straight tabloid isn’t it?

20543

Pretty close to it, with a general right lean

20544

The NYP is a hair above The National Enquirer or Weekly World News.

20545

This photo has been making the rounds it’s pretty iconic and I don’t think I’ve seen it posted here.

20546
20547

During WWII the Red Army distinguished itself - despite the political environment and the pre-war purges - as an organisation that would continuously learn and change in order to win.

The modern Russian army:

image
image1234×1386 160 KB

20548

Brilliant.

20549

Time to figure out how to deny them those drones methinks.

EDIT: One other thing, though. This sort of reporting does provide a needed antidote to the constant stream of (mostly true it seems) reporting showing Russian ineptitude. Clearly there are some on their side who do know what end of the AK to point where, and these folks are slowly trying to change disaster into competency. Which, over time, will inevitably happen on some scale. That’s not a good thing for the Ukrainians, even though at this point there seems little likelihood such change will come fast enough or be widespread enough to matter.

20550

What happened yesterday?

20551

I don’t think anything specific happened yesteday, he (Olsen) just commented yesterday.

20552
20553

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/19/ukraine-confronts-tougher-fight-push-extend-battlefield-wins/

These authors agrees with my assessment that it is going to get harder from here on out. Both the Kharkiv and Kherson victories took advantage of situations that no longer exist.

At the beginning of those offensives, the Russians were down to about 90k troops - they have since added 100k, with another 200k on the way. Yes, the quality will be pretty poor, but the same could be said of many of the UA Territorial units at the beginning of the war. Those troops that survive the few few weeks will become veterans.

In addition, those increased troops are now defending a shorter line after the Kherson withdrawal, and as the article notes, that line has been hardened and deepened, now that the Russians have moved to the defensive.

As I have said before, without air and artillery superiority I think Ukraine is going to find it extremely difficult to create a breakthrough. Just saying they did it in the past and they can do it again ignores the unique situations they took advantage of previously and doesn’t argue for how they can do it again. I hope they can prove me wrong.

20554

I still think their ability to create a breakthrough depends entirely on the depth of Russian defense. And I suspect Russia has not created and will not managed to create a deep defensive line across the whole front. Even in WW1 a single trench line was far from impregnable, it was defense in depth with several trench lines that kept the stalemate. I’d guess Ukraine keeps biding their time hitting targets of opportunity via long range artillery while waiting for the Russians to mess up in a way they feel they can exploit.

20555

I mean, the bonkers thing with trying trench defence and all that in this day of high mobility is all you need is one strong breakin and it all goes to shit, your units are all dug in the wrong places and you get rolled over.

20556

I suspect this will all come down to how much support Ukraine gets in keeping its forces supplied and equipped effectively, and how Russia’s morale fares. The latter is perhaps the key thing–if for whatever reason Russia is able to stabilize and create enough of a breather for its forces to regain composure, things could become dicey for any hope of a Ukrainian battlefield victory. OTOH, if even with the adjustment of the lines they’ve managed the Russians continue to spiral down into a slough of despond, as it were, nothing much will help them.

20557

For those unfamiliar with Patron, he’s a Ukrainian mine and explosive detecting dog.

20558

A fine discussion to be having on the 105th anniversary of The Battle of Cambrai. Unreliable engines and a 4mph maximum speed probably didn’t help the British exploit the breakthrough, hopefully something that won’t happen to the Ukrainians.

20559

Love driving those in Battlefield 1.

20560

And people call the A-10 ugly.