Faddis: Russia Lost the War

Sam Faddis is ex-CIA.  Here's what he says on the Ukraine conflict.

...Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine with a clear vision. Russian troops would stage their own version of American “shock and awe.” Kyiv would fall within days. Ukraine would become a client state. By the time the lazy, fat Americans and their European lackeys woke up it would all be over.

It was not to be. The Red Army no longer exists. What passes for it is small, devoid of meaningful logistical capability, and armed with a lot of poorly maintained weapons and equipment. The Ukrainians held. The war turned into a slog, not a blitzkrieg.

It has gotten worse since. The Ukrainians have gone on the offensive in places. Russia has lost ground....

Faddis goes on the describe the Great Flight of draft-eligible men from Russia. 

That overall narrative is one promulgated by the US State Department and the British Foreign Office.  It's not the only narrative, of course.  There are others--credentialed others--who opine that while Russia's 'special military operation' is not gaining huge amounts of ground, Putin's forces are getting what they want and will get more as time goes on and the Ukraine military is ground into dust.

Regardless of all that, Faddis has a very serious warning for the Putin-Hate-Fixation crowd now running the US (which may or may not include Non Compos Mentis Joe):

...In Washington, the Biden administration, which seems focused primarily on how many billions of dollars it can funnel to giant defense contractors under the pretext of “saving Western civilization” seems to be ignoring all of this. It continues to double down on tough talk, and administration members who never heard a shot fired in anger now talk openly about nuclear exchanges.

Regime change may still sound enticing to those with no experience in how it usually plays out. It is not. Putin is a thug, but right now Russia is relatively stable and intact. That means among other things that its thousands of nuclear warheads remain under the control of a central authority.

We do not want a power vacuum in the heart of Eurasia. We do not want to play out our Libyan adventure on this much grander, much more dangerous scale. We want to end this war....

Victoria Nuland should, as a matter of fairness, suit up in fatigues and go there to shoot people.  She can take that tube of gelatinous fat Alex Vindman to be her military muse, too.  That should be part of the CR.