It could be. He was accused of being a double agent so you probably are right. I think I am thinking too much. But it is interesting how the Russian president has often been portrayed when he could be a dud? Not as smart and strategic? Just thinking out loud so don't mind me hey haha...
I can't just can't fathom how a man so smart as he is often portrayed - with b*s and feared is head to head with the Ukrainian president. Did everyone get him wrong for years? Hmm...
Yes, it is indeed a simple game. I do agree with everything you have said and I am very familiar with those thanks. I am too addicted to history. Let me ask you this.
Why hasn't Putin been successful with all his experience? Did he overplay his hand?
I have only taken a couple graduate-level classes on military power. The answer to your questions is so detail-rich that for me to presume to know if would be the pretense of knowledge.
Would you still like my underinformed speculation?
Ukrainian resistance has been supported by Western intelligence and weapons
Putin's day 1 plan was to seize most of the airfields and assassinate the president. These were attempted by trained forces and could have worked. The Ukrainians managed to stop them all. I'm sure these included cyber attacks we haven't heard about.
After that the Ukrainians have had remarkable success in targeting Russian logistics efforts.
Few people were expecting such a fierce Ukrainian resistance. That is by far Putin's biggest miscalculations. Even had things gone his way, it's clear now he'd be in for a long insurgency that he wasn't anticipating.
Putin has made many poor decisions and should have been able to overcome them by force to meet many of his objectives. But, the Ukrainians have had the intelligence and tools to amplify his mistakes into the clusterfuck we're seeing.
I'm sure Russian morale is low and there were some poor logistics, but it seems exaggerated in the news.
Putin still has most of his combat forces available and estimates I've heard are he can sustain the attack for several more weeks.
Yes men and fearful underlings lied about the real state of affairs regarding preparedness, quality of equipment, training, enthusiasm, expenditures, etc.
And
Russia is corrupt to the core. Funding for training, equipment, maintenance, planning: stolen.
That seems to be contributing, but the puzzling thing is the lack of those problems in recent Russian conflicts in Syria, Crimea, etc...
How did their preparedness degrade so much in only a few years with no indication of Russian military bureaucratic breakdown from the outside?
I'd like to see satellite images of the Russian troop buildup on the border and in Belarus and see if there's any signs of the incompetence and lack of coordination we're seeing in the field.
A little cheat here, a little theft there, grow it like the parable of grains of rice on a checkerboard.
Next thing you know, the cheap seals in the bearings of your wheels leak because someone who was supposed to ensure QA was being applied to incoming parts pocketed the money instead. And your soldiers are freezing because someone else didn’t get them winter kit.
The corrupt leader has a dozen corrupt ministers who have a dozen corrupt public servants each managing a dozen corrupt upper management… until eventually Wade in Procurement pockets a few thousand dollarydoos by not paying employee Enum to test the seals for Quality Standard X… and ditto for the other dozen(s) under Wade’s department.
As the corruption grows, it becomes more blatant. The Wades trust one another less. Start watching their back. Become more siloed. Underlings start noticing the corruption from above. It starts to infect the workplace… right down to the guy who installs the seals and notices they’re not as beefy as the previous shipment, but doesn’t say anything to his manager because he’ll just catch shit. The guy who was runs the Personal Deploy Kit checklist ordered heavy mittens, got wool fingered gloves. It’s career-limiting to get that corrected. Boys aren’t invading anyway, it’s just exercises.
Unchecked criminality grows exponentially as it goes downchain.
Putin seems to be growing increasingly paranoid. Even if not paranoid, he has a history of imprisoning or assassinating those who politically oppose him.
Such leaders tend to hear more and more what people think they want to hear, and less and less reality. Mistakes in judgment follow almost inevitably.
Putin very much overplayed his hand... but he may have had a flawed understanding of what his hand was.
Perhaps, you are forgetting his grandfather was an immigrant himself from the kingdom of Bavaria. If his grandfather was not let in, he wouldn't be Potus today.
I like to learn new things. Please tell me where his grandfather is from then if you don't mind. Also, just because one disagrees does not mean I [ WE] have been brainwashed by the liberal media as you stated. That is judgmental and for you to just accept the actions of one without foreseeing the consequences in the future is what I'd categorize as not thinking deeply and independently but rather in the moment.
Apart from banning people from these countries, have you thought about its effects on the U.S military people stationed in these countries trying to work and protect the United States? Or does that not matter?
What are the consequences if he decides to ignore the courts ruling? Can someone elaborate please? Thank you. As an immigrant, America changed my life and people should be afforded the same privilege regardless of religion, country etc. This is just ridiculous.
Well that's the tricky part. The branches all sort of rock paper scissor each other to keep everyone in check. I guess a judge could order CBP to not enforce the order, and if they do enforce it he could potentially hold someone very senior from that department in contempt of court. Additionally previous administrations would be afraid of impeachment by congress. Which is another remedy, but it seems unlikely with the republican majority in the house and senate.
But there is a twist, since the executive branch runs all the prisons, if the executive branch at the federal level is ignoring the rules it is unlikely that they will hold someone in custody for contempt.
And that is why people think it could become a constitutional crisis.
It's complicated. The President has broad authority in many matters; however the real brake on what he can do is the threat of impeachment, which here is zero. He has no control over the court system which would likely force others to follow their orders. If it were brought to the supreme court, it's hard to say what would happen, I suspect even with the split they would rule against him.
I believe a common reason for this is that they don't want to announce it until they're completely sure the breach is gone and that they have control of things again. Announcing that it happened and that it's ongoing forces them to either cease operations or face liability.
Yeah, that sucks because I have my business stuff with them (I know, I know). On the bright side I didn't receive an email so maybe they didn't get the biz accounts. Changed my pw anyway.
And something's changed with their biz accounts anyway- it's been sold/rebranded or something and I'm not sure where the future lays... :[
The California law, for example, just says it needs to be "expedient" without defining time limits. It isn't clear that they violated that law at all. They are disclosing a very large breach and I would assume that if they do see suits here, they will be civil suits.
I'm going to keep posting this topic on HN - partially because I think the answers will be interesting
I hope this doesn't sound harsh but you have asked this question seven times in the last fourteen days and have received minimal response. Why keep asking? What makes you think people are going to be responsive in the near future?
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is ....
I can't just can't fathom how a man so smart as he is often portrayed - with b*s and feared is head to head with the Ukrainian president. Did everyone get him wrong for years? Hmm...