Tag Archives: Vladimir Putin

International news

Don’t turn back on Ukraine

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Memo to Kevin McCarthy: If Republicans take control of Congress after the midterm election, y’all will trifle with trouble if you resist delivering as much aid as possible to Ukraine, which is fighting — successfully — for its independence against Russian aggressors.

The U.S. House GOP leader has said Congress might keep the checkbook open as the war progresses. My own view is that McCarthy is sending a chilling message to Ukrainians and is giving a bit  of comfort to Russian thug Vladimir Putin as he continues to prosecute his immoral and illegal war against Ukraine.

It seems plausible, in a bizarre way, for the Republican congressional leader t threaten to pull back on aid to Ukraine. The GOP’s titular leader, Donald Trump, has been cold-stone silent on the Russian invasion, seeming to imply an endorsement of the action that Putin took against a sovereign nation.

Is this the kind of congressional leadership this country needs in this time of dire peril? I think not!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news, military news

Ukrainians expose Russian myth

Many of us outsiders never really saw this coming, that the Ukrainian armed forces would expose Russia’s once-vaunted military machine to be a third-rate fighting force.

It has occurred.

Now, to be sure, I did once assert as war loomed more likely between Ukraine and Russia that the Ukrainians weren’t “defenseless.” The now-sovereign nation once was part of the Soviet Union and, thus, benefited somewhat from its exposure to the Red Army’s legendary battlefield prowess.

The USSR is gone. What is left is a country, the Russian Federation, that comprises roughly half of its former population. It does maintain a significant nuclear force.

What we’re seeing played out on the field of battle in Ukraine is a case of a nation fighting desperately — and effectively — to preserve its independence while its opponent is suffering from a lack of morale, incompetent battlefield leadership and a national leader who has become a pariah among world leaders because he launched an illegal and immoral war.

What’s more, the Russians have committed war crimes with their indiscriminate attacks on women, children and other “soft targets.”

I don’t expect Russia to surrender to Ukraine. I am now beginning to believe the reports that Russian goon Vladimir Putin might be exploring a possible face-saving way to end this conflict.

Do I believe he will use tactical nukes on Ukraine? No. He knows the consequences would be catastrophic. Indeed, President Biden has dropped broad hints that the allied response to any such act of madness could produce even more economic pain on the Russians than they ever imagined.

The course of this war has simply blown my mind. It has produced at least a glimmer of hope that battlefield incompetence will succumb to a nation’s will to survive.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news, military news

Ukraine moves toward victory

I once posited on this blog that I didn’t believe Ukraine would be able to declare a battlefield victory against the rogue invaders from Russia.

Today, though, my view has changed. I cannot predict that Ukraine indeed will declare victory at the end of this immoral and illegal war. I am now of a mind that such a thing isn’t so far-fetched.

The trick, though, must be to find a way to bring Russian goon Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. Ukrainian officials are in no mood, either, to negotiate a peace agreement with Putin and the Russians.

The Russians have killed helpless civilians. They aren’t targeting military objectives. They are striking hospitals and schools. They are killing old people, children and every civilian in between.

Putin has “mobilized” the Russian population. Russians have responded by fleeing the country and protesting in the streets. He has sought to bring more Russians into the fight as Ukrainians have scored monumental battlefield victories against the invaders.

Does the Russian madman need to save face? Looks as though he needs to in a big way. I am not opposed to allowing him to pretend he is saving his mug from further embarrassment.

He also needs to be tried by the World Court for committing crimes against humanity.

Just imagine all of this occurring with Ukrainians signing a victory statement.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

military news, national news, national security

Mullen to POTUS: cool the rhetoric

Mike Mullen wore a Navy uniform for many decades; he went to war for this country and served as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

So, when a distinguished officer admonishes the commander in chief over some tough talk about “nuclear Armageddon,” I am inclined to take the admiral’s words seriously.

So should President Biden.

Mullen went on TV this weekend to offer his take on the Ukraine War and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin’s implied threat to use tactical nukes to put down the Ukrainian resistance to his illegal invasion. Biden has talked about Armageddon and said we’re closer to that catastrophe than we have been since the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

Mullen wants Biden to cool it. We need to persuade Putin to negotiate his way out of the quagmire in Ukraine. Issuing warnings about what will happen to Putin if he decides to use more dangerous weapons against Ukraine won’t work, Mullen said.

He’s right. At least I am going to presume he is right. The man knows a thing or three about warfare. Pay heed to his advice.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, International news, military news, national news

Will Putin go MAD?

Vladimir Putin fits neatly into a number of descriptive niches. He is arrogant, egotistical, power-hungry, delusional … all those sorts of things.

I do not believe the Russian goon is stupid.

Which brings me to the fundamental question of the moment: Will the former top Soviet Union spy ignore the reasons why the USSR and the United States adhered during the Cold War to a policy of Mutually Assured Destruction in avoiding the use of nuclear weapons?

Russian forces are getting their asses kicked by Ukrainians on the battlefield as Ukraine is fighting to regain territory taken by the invaders several months ago. Putin launched an illegal, immoral and unconscionable war against Ukraine. He had presumed his forces would sashay into Kyiv in a few days, toss out Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and install a government to their liking.

It ain’t working out that way.

Now we hear reports of Putin pondering the use of chemical or (worse!) tactical nukes against Ukraine. President Biden, who has led the allied effort to resist Putin’s aggression, says, “Don’t … don’t … don’t” even think about it.

That would be an act of MADness beyond belief.

Surely, the Russian thug knows better. Surely …

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, International news, military news

Ukrainians uncover more war crimes

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As the Ukrainian armed forces take back large swaths of the nation taken by invaders from Russia, the world is getting an even more graphic look at what the Russian aggressors have done to civilians caught in their initial advance.

We are seeing mass graves containing the remains of hundreds of Ukrainian civilians. Yes, women and children are included in the remains of what Ukrainian soldiers have found.

Ukrainians are collecting testimony from surviving civilians who are recounting tales of horror and torture at the hands of the soldiers who captured the territory.

It’s hard to predict how the Ukraine War will end. There might be a negotiated settlement, with Russian thug/goon/strongman Vladimir Putin seeking to save face. Although it seems difficult to imagine how Putin has any more “face” to save, given what we know about the war crimes his forces have committed on orders from the Kremlin.

That turns the discussion toward what Putin might do on the battlefield, given Ukraine’s energized counteroffensive. CBS News “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley is going to ask President Biden what he’ll do if Putin resorts to chemical weapons or tactical nukes. “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t,” Biden said, telling Pelley that such a move would “change the face of war.”

What does the president intend to do? Pelley asked. Biden responded by saying, “Do you think I’m going to tell you?”

We all are left to lament the horror of war as it is being revealed even more to us by the advancing forces seeking to reclaim the country they thought they lost to the invaders.

I have said already that Vladimir Putin has exposed himself to be a war criminal. As the Ukrainians continue their advance, the world needs to summon the courage to put Putin, a hideous tyrant, on trial for the crimes he has committed against humanity.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news, military news, national security, political news

Equipment, training pay off for Ukraine

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A little known or discussed aspect of our nation’s relationship with Ukraine is that we essentially have been training the Ukrainian army for eight years, which is about the time big, bad Russia sought to reannex the Crimean Peninsula.

Russian henchman Vladimir Putin wanted Crimea back, so he invaded it to take it from Ukraine.

It then fell to administrations led by Barack Obama, Donald Trump and then Joe Biden to continue to train the Ukrainians in using the sophisticated equipment it had shipped to them to fight the Russian aggressors.

All that training — plus President Biden’s insistence on additional equipment — is paying significant dividends as the Ukraine army is showing signs of beating back the aggressors who launched another invasion more than seven months ago.

The Russians are retreating from territory they seized.

I cannot stress this point enough, which is the amazing unity that President Biden was able to build among the nations comprising the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an alliance formed to protect Europe against potential aggression from what once was known as the Soviet Union.

Putin, therefore, helped Biden keep NATO intact by threatening the alliance if it interferes in what the Russians call an “internal dispute.” It is nothing of the sort. Ukraine is as sovereign a nation as Russia.

That unity has buoyed the Ukraine armed forces as they have fought back hard against the Russian aggressors.

With that I intend now to give Joe Biden considerable credit as he has responded with resolve and determination in assessing what is plainly obvious … that Vladimir Putin’s criminal invasion cannot be allowed to stand.

It stands to reason, too, that Ukraine is drawing strength from the immense aid that is pouring into that country as it battles a once-fearsome military power.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news, military news, political news

Ukraine scores big on the battlefield

You may count me as one cheap-seat observer who isn’t totally surprised that Ukraine’s armed forces are repelling the advance of the illegal invaders from Russia.

After all, when the Russians invaded Ukraine six months ago, I noted that the Ukrainians are far from “defenseless.”

However, I am stunned at the level of success that Ukraine has scored. We hear from the battlefield that Russian forces are in full retreat and that Ukraine intends to take back territory captured by the Russians.

Does any or all of this mean that Russia’s dictator Vladimir Putin is going to surrender? Hardly. It does open the door, though, for Putin to look for some sort of way to negotiate his way back to the Kremlin and get his forces out of danger.

We had heard from a number of key U.S. military geniuses who said at the outset of war that Russia’s conventional military force was overrated, that Russia was little more than a third-rate conventional military power. The Russians, though, do possess a substantial nuclear arsenal and there have been concerns expressed that Putin could deploy some of it to put down the Ukrainians.

He’s already a war criminal, given the casualties his forces have inflicted on civilians in Ukraine. I am not going to buy into the notion that he is utterly stupid enough to use nukes and prompt a response from Ukraine, which has a hefty nuclear arsenal of its own.

I am astounded, though, to see that U.S. and allied response in the form of military aid is paying huge dividends for the heroic Ukrainians who, after all, are fighting for the survival of their country.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, Joe Biden, national news, political news

Yeah, Donald, keep blathering

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I am going to steal a thought that appeared first on social media from a member of my family.

My cousin Jim posted an item I want to share: And he recently referred to the sitting president of the United States as the “Enemy of the people.” In Russia, one would disappear after such a comment.

Indeed, think about the idiocy of Donald Trump’s latest rant about the man who defeated him soundly in the 2020 presidential election.

He calls President Biden the “enemy” after Biden rolled up 81.2 million votes, 7 million more than Trump collected, with a 51% majority of all votes cast.

Doesn’t the ex-POTUS understand the irony of making such a hideous statement? In Russia, which is governed by his good buddy Vladimir Putin, he would have been arrested and thrown into some gulag in Siberia simply by making such a ridiculous assertion. And, no, there is no guarantee in Russia of “freedom of speech or expression.”

I know the answer to the question I posed. Trump cannot think at all beyond his own narcissistic desires. Mention the word “irony” to Trump and you might as well be speaking Martian to him.

This individual is a disgrace.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Architect of Cold War end dies

Americans have spent a lot of emotional capital over the past 30 years congratulating two U.S. presidents over their role in the demise of the Cold War and of the Soviet Union.

Yes, Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush deserve credit for their roles in ending the “original” Cold War.

However, I want to offer a tribute to a third world leader who today passed from the scene. Mikhail Gorbachev, the final premier of what we used to know as the Soviet Union, died at age 91.

He, at least as much as the two U.S. presidents, is responsible for ending the age of duck-and-cover drills and worries about nuclear-missile strikes from the Evil Empire.

Gorbachev surrendered his office when the Soviet Union evaporated. He turned it over the Boris Yeltsin, who then had the unenviable task of trying to turn an ironclad dictatorship into something that resembled a democratic society. It hasn’t worked out … yet!

The United States was able to win the Cold War of attrition by forcing the Soviets to build weapons they couldn’t afford. The Soviets bankrupted their economy by building nukes and all manner of military hardware they still like to put on parade in Red Square.

Gorbachev recognized what so many of his communist predecessors ignored.

So, when President Reagan stood at the Hindenberg Gate in Berlin and declared, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” the Soviet leader well might have actually listened on that day.

The Berlin Wall came down in 1989, thanks to Gorbachev’s acknowledging he was on the wrong side of history. Two years after that? He said goodbye to the Soviet Union.

Hey, don’t misunderstand me. I stand with those who applaud Presidents Reagan and Bush for the strength they showed in waging the Cold War with the Soviet Union. I also want to applaud Gorbachev for acting on the realization that the communist experiment in his country was a monumental failure.

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And I cannot pay tribute to Gorbachev’s wisdom without mentioning one of his descendants’ idiotic view that the Soviet demise was a “dark day” in the history of his country. Vladimir Putin is as wrong to want a return to that hideous system as he was wrong to presume that he could take over Ukraine in a matter of days.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com