The Ukraine Question

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I don't think that the Russians expected there to be much opposition.

Of course, the Ukrainians are very lucky that the Russian troops are so fucking stupid.

This is a microcosm of what I've frequently observed. Namely, how and why "proxy wars" go as far as they do. I mean let's be honest, after a certain and painfully obvious point if you're the proxy you must realize that you are exactly that, a proxy. Your "ally" sees you as but a mere resource. A thing to be burned at no real consequence to themselves to the final drop.

The Ukranian people are, sadly, a proxy for the current "Western" order. The current Status Quo is perfectly willing and able to fight whatever "Russia" represents down to the last Ukrainian merely because it can.

I don't know what else to add other than state that this is most certainly not how I'd handle all this if I was somehow given a significant rank in the military of any party currently involved...

I'm more than able to be way more subtle after all. Well, unless I had so hard and/or overwhelming of a trump card that my opponents had clearly failed to realize was even possible that is. After all, if you're literally holding a "Royal Flush" in your hand in any kind of Poker game your best play shifts from bluffing to "Oh please dear God Almighty guide me in riding the line between confidence and horror such that everyone at the table refuses to fold".

A Royal Flush is a guaranteed victory in games that involve it. What that implies depends on your ideal end to this conflict but Putin's Russia holds that hand. The only question after that is wheter or not the current PTB think they can realistically escape a "Dying Earth" as it were...