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And logistics is how you keep that stomach full.
But, as Stalin once said, "Black humor is like food. Not everyone gets it."
That's because the Russians are bad at logistics.
A paraphrase from a German field marshal, "They've destroyed our rail system, how do the Americans plan on supplying their troops if they manage to invade?" And a bit later, "Who put that road there and where did all these fucking trucks come from?"
There won't be a redball express from Russia because they can't.
Things keep getting more and more interesting and I'm sick of living in interesting times.
The Russians used to be able to use trucks effectively, but appear to have forgotten how. In 1939 at Khalkin Ghol Zhukov was able to flummox the Japanese by operating much further from railheads than they expected by using a then huge number of trucks. Apparently Zhukov's heirs lost the recipe
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't understood before this how weak Russia has gotten; their military has been hampered by decades of low budgets, massive corruption, population loss, political and bureaucratic interference, etc, etc.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the number of troops and equipment reported to be massed on the Ukraine border seemed awfully small to me; for example, 150,000 troops to subdue a nation of 40 million?!? We had more than that in Iraq in the Surge!
I don't know if they didn't plan to invade and were caught off guard by new orders, or if there is so much falsification of reports that the higher ups thought they were more ready than they were, but this is becoming a massive screwup for Russia.
And of course, Putin's position is precarious, so he can't (yet) punish them for their mistakes/ corruption/ etc...