Erk wrote: ATLASCUB wrote:Biggest giveaway Russia wasn't serious about removing the regime was when, fully capable in the first week window, failed or to correctly phrase it, didn't push to take over Kiev to decapitate the political resistance.
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Biggest giveaway was that on day 1 of the special operation, Putin clearly stated the objectives publicly, and regime change was not one of them.
Good for him for sticking to that?
So you go into Ukraine on a "special operation" to voice your displeasure with a leadership that has turned Russian against Russian, and slowly, with the aid of the West, has turbo-charged a social engineering experiment to bury blood ties, cultural ties, and historical ties to selfishly serve a corrupt/greedy comprador elite who dreams of skimming billions in EU budget money like the Polish leadership and other Eastern former Warsaw pact states. This is obviously what happens when you give the wrong persons "independence" and the keys to a home (aka "Ukraine"). You find out quick how much that independence can go sideways, and make you regret you ever made that stupid decision in the first place. But anyway instead of removing those that are fully responsible for this mess you merely attempt to destroy the disposable pawns of this leadership (the rank and file) as if it's somehow a true solution or the root cause (when they're anything but), and then negotiate with this elite hoping for an attitude adjustment ala the Georgians.
The same Georgia still applying for EU membership, still flirting with NATO, and for all intent and purposes, a state with a hostile elite aka an enemy state on Russia's border.
The definition of insanity .... keep doing the same thing over and over yet expect different results.
Hoping this elite will be intimidated knowing they'll for sure live another day on a weak power display? That's not how it works. I mean, its become sort of a sport to "show up to Putin". If you can't be loved then you better be ______ .
The root cause of the problem is not the Ukranian army, or your normal everyday citizenry, not your middle managers etc. It's the elite, practically almost all of them, all well known to the Kremlin. What is the price they're paying? Losing money? Losing their pawns and toys? Is that their punishment? Reminds me of the Cuban revolution and what Castro and his cadre had to do to gain true independence. Remove and destroy the cancerous elite to its absolute. It worked.
Sometimes the simple solution is the best solution. It's when you try to get funny with it, when you try to reinvent the wheel, when you try to please "everyone", try to outsmart everyone, try to out virtue everyone... it's then that you find out you're just a dumbass with too much power, deeply fearful of how you may be perceived, unsure and hesitant of your moves, with an infinite amount of hubris, on top of ignorance... of basic human nature established over centuries when it comes to wars of conquests and conflicts. The means change, technology changes.... but concepts and practical solutions do not.
The "political solution" can't come any sooner. We trust that his "eminence" Lavrov is "on the case"
. The spin will be something to truly marvel at.