Is Anthony Fauci in charge of counting the noses of all the Russian troops massing at the Ukrainian border? All I hear now is that 100,000 Russians are ready to invade.
But just a few short weeks ago, the number was 175,000. Well, I guess the only real question is if all those mean Russkies are wearing one mask or two?
Anyhow, ranging from hard-core anti-Trumper Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, US Army (Ret), to hard-core pro-Trumper Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX, RAdm, USN Medical Corps, Ret), I can’t but notice that all across the political spectrum, more than a few are trying their level best to convince us that Ukraine is about to completely and totally be militarily crushed by the Russians.
As seen in the two videos below, both Vindman and Jackson paint quite the scary picture for the very near-future.
In regard to the retired Lt. Col. who thinks he’s a 4-star, he stated, “We’re about to have the largest war in Europe since World War II.” Hmmm… after 75+ years of Pax Americana in Europe, that’s not saying much. With the exception of a rather brief Soviet and Warsaw Pact crushing Hungarian freedom in 1956, soccer hooligans rate higher on the Violence-O-Meter than any nation-against-nation war on the European continent.
Then the overreaction of Rep. Jackson. As he stated of the Ukrainians, “They are literally surrounded right now.” No, they aren’t.
To the Northwest, West and Southwest, Ukraine shares borders with four (count ’em… four) NATO countries. That hardly qualifies as “literally surrounded.”
Fear and panic-mongering aside for a moment, let’s take a look at the numbers in a side-by-side comparison between the two.
But I do ask you to keep in mind that “security contractors” in Russia are actually mercenaries. Yet they are still answerable to Moscow’s Ministry of Defence.
Anyhow, as noted by GlobalFirepower.com, the Russian military is a whopping 1.35 million troops. That’s active, reserve and paramilitary (border troops, contractors, etc).
Of course, Putin will never throw over a million troops at Ukraine. He’s still scared to death of the Baltic, Polish and American troops in Eastern Europe. And just between you and me, I don’t think he really trusts the Chinese all that much.
Now let’s look at the Ukrainian armed forces; GlobalFirepower.com cited them at a solid half-million troops.
I don’t want to get all that wonky, but whenever to equal forces face-off, those on the defensive automatically have a three-to-one superiority. A lot of criteria go into that formula, but it essentially comes down to logistics, the difficulty of attacking fortified defensive positions, those on the offense being exposed in the open more than those in the defense, etc.
If and when the Russians do invade Ukraine, one doesn’t have to be a military genius to figure out that the military presence by the Ukrainian forces in the western part of the nation will be minimal, whereas troops deployed in the east will easily be well over 450,000 at least.
Let’s not sell Ukraine out as somehow already defeated. If Putin were really that stupid to attack, I have the funny feeling Kiev would give him quite the bloody drubbing.