Vladimir Putin is a thug. He runs Russia like an organized crime operation and is blackmailing Ukraine, Europe, NATO, and the United States by threatening to invade Ukraine. He may actually do it.
“Screw you, Big Red Car.”
The Dread Pirate Putin, The Thug
The Dread Pirate Putin is quick to go from diplomacy to warfare as evidenced by:
1. The Russian attack — a “peace enforcement action” — on Georgia in August 2008 in the Transcaucasia region of the Republic of Georgia.
This was a complicated political situation, but the Russians initiated an air, sea, land battle with extensive use of cyberwarfare and ethnic cleansing. Modern tanks in the streets of modern cities in the 21st century.
2. The Russian seizure of the Transnistria region of Moldova in 1990-92 and the formal recognition of Russian influence in 2012.
This region is effectively a Russian province carved out of Moldova, a country on the west side of Ukraine with a strategic perch on the Danube River.
3. The Russian seizure of Crimea under the guise of a bogus uprising and referendum in 2014.
This was an act of naked aggression during the Obama administration that went unpunished and has encouraged Putin to believe the west will do nothing as he gobbles up Ukraine.
4. The Russian attack on the Donbas region of Ukraine — resulting in 14,000 KIA and more than 25,000 wounded — and the continuing war under the guise of separatists, but actually Russian regular troops in mufti.
Despite negotiations and agreements to withdraw, this fighting continues with regular exchanges of artillery fire. [While the US has been distracted with small unit asymmetrical warfare in the Middle East and A’stan, the Russians, who already had a good reputation for artillery, have been building systems that have the accuracy of sniper fire. Advantage — Russia.
Next time you go out for groceries imagine a couple of these babies lobbing artillery rounds into the parking lot from 20 miles away. That’s what’s going on in the Donbas region of Ukraine.
5. The current events on the border of Ukraine in which Russia has positioned the equivalent of twelve divisions of soldiers and equipment — the World War II equivalent of an Army composed of four Corps of three Divisions each, a formidable force — along the Ukraine-Russia borders and the Ukraine-Belarus borders.
These units are combat units and are deployed in depth and with the type of support — as an example field hospitals, maintenance units, ammunition dumps — that is indicative of an invasion.
STOP: What kind of a country threatens their neighbors in this fashion? Hitler did it.
6. Russia has taken to flying nuclear capable bombers — Tu-22M3 strategic strike bombers — over Belarus in a display of naked intent. Nuclear capable bombers!
7. Russia, in a demonstration of its ability to add additional air support on the fly, flew squadrons of Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets from the Far East of Russia through eleven time zones to conduct drills with Belarus on the borders of Poland and Lithuania and Ukraine.
8. The Russians deployed two S-400 anti-aircraft missile battalions via train from Russia’s Far East to Belarus.
Why, Big Red Car? What’s the beef? Why Ukraine?
Ahhh, dear reader, when you fail to effectively counter aggression, you will get more aggression.
1. The Thug Putin has made no bones about his sorrow at the dismemberment of the USSR and his desire to rebuild it.
One has only to look at Putin’s actions in Georgia, Crimea, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, and Belarus to see his plan unfolding.
[The Thug Putin in his former KGB days was stationed as a counterintel goon, not a spy runner, in Germany before the fall of the Wall. He takes it quite personal.]
The bare chested Thug Putin out for a ride to sun his nipples. This is the guy causing all the trouble, but we haven’t acted to contain him.
2. The Thug Putin believes Ukraine is part of Russia and when you see its size, location, and potential it is a worthy prize.
Ukraine was part of the USSR, but now it is clearly looking to the west and the Thug Putin fears it will drift into the arms of NATO and become a literal thorn in his side.
Putin, on this score, is right.
Look at Ukraine, its size, its location, and its strategic importance to Russia.
Russia is in cahoots with Belarus. The combination of Belarus and Ukraine pushes the Russian sphere of influence and zone of safety far to the west which is The Thug Putin’s desire.
Note also how close Kyiv is to Belarus and the fact that the Russian and Belarus armies are on joint maneuvers as we speak. I think the Russians seize Kyiv with an attack from the north.
3. The Thug Putin wants an assurance from NATO that it will not admit Ukraine or other former USSR satellite countries to the alliance.
4. The Thug Putin wants existing NATO countries to move their troops further to the west.
5. The Thug Putin wants to fracture NATO and is making good progress on that score with Germany acting in accordance with Russian aims by failing to meet their NATO obligations, refusing to allow military support to be transported to Ukraine through their territory and making their economy completely dependent upon Russian energy to the tune of 50% of natural gas and 33% of crude oil.
Germany is undermining the cohesion and solidarity of NATO and giving The Thug Putin aid and succor.
6. The Thug Putin wants the US to get the Hell out of Europe.
7. The Thug Putin wants to return to the grandeur of the USSR and Catharine the Great.
Grandeur is always a bad play.
NATO is, of course, not going to do any of these things, so The Thug Putin is using NATO’s refusal to bend to his DEMANDS as the justification for invading Ukraine. That’s the whole tortured logic The Thug Putin is using.
That makes no sense, Big Red Car
Well, it does and it doesn’t. Let’s try to look into The Thug Putin’s head, shall we.
1. The Thug Putin has had a free hand in starting wars and seizing things. He is not going to stop until somebody bloodies his nose.
2. Ukraine is an odd place for NATO and the US to draw a line as it has zero national security impact on the US and it is not a member of NATO.
3. Ukraine is a corrupt country and it has a historic tie with Russia, so therefore The Thug Putin thinks he can have it.
4. The Thug Putin is testing President Biden. From the first day Joe Biden took over, I predicted it would happen and here it is.
Unfortunately, there is no evidence that President Biden is equal to the task. Afghanistan?
5. The Thug Putin studied our disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan with tears in his eyes — from laughing.
6. NATO and the US are very late to the party. We have improved the nature of the support we are funneling to Ukraine from the blankets and body bags of the Obama admin to Javelin missiles.
But we’ll sanction The Thug Putin, right?
Ahhh, dear Easter Bunny, Russia is already under “massive” sanctions from their seizure of Crimea. Russia and its Ruling Thug don’t care about sanctions and treaties.
Here is a list of treaties that Russia has entered into pertaining to aggression, security, and the use of force, and subsequently broken:
UN Charter (1945);
Helsinki Final Act (1975);
Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the UN Charter (1970);
UN GA Resolution 3314 “Definition of Aggression” (1974);
Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention in the Domestic Affairs of States and the Protection of Their Independence and Sovereignty (1965);
Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention and Interference in the Internal Affairs of States (1981);
Declaration on the Enhancement of the Effectiveness of the Principle of Refraining from the Threat or Use of Force in International Relations (1987).
Russia had also violated number of bilateral and multilateral agreements, namely:
Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances related to the Ukraine’s accession to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (1994);
Agreement on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation (1997);
Agreement between Ukraine and the Russian Federation on the Ukrainian-Russian state border (2003);
Agreement between Ukraine and the Russian Federation on cooperation in use of the Azov Sea and Kerch Strait (2003);
Agreement between Ukraine and the Russian Federation on the status and conditions of Russian Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine (1999).
Bottom line it, Big Red Car
I am sad to say that I think we are headed for this:
This is a Russian T-90 main battle tank armed with a 125mm smoothbore main gun, thermal sights, steel/composite armor, explosive-reactive armor, and is capable of jamming incoming anti-tank missiles. You may expect to see these weapons in the streets of Kyiv.
In the Year of the Lord 2022, we are watching the most evil blackmail from a despot, The Thug Putin, the Evil Pirate Putin. We are going to see modern tanks in a modern city with high rise buildings making war on a sovereign nation because The Thug Puting wants that nation. God help us all.
This is what happens when peaceful nations fail to band together to oppose despotism. This is what happens when the Nation is led by incompetent, weak leadership.
Rest easy though because our Army knows its pronouns and is vaccinated.
[Serious thought: The US needs to double the size of its Army and Marine Corps because this isn’t going away.]
“Rats. What am I going to do?”