Free Republic

A former U.S. general has forecast the surrender of Russian forces in Kherson, a strategic city in Ukraine. The Kherson region has been almost entirely controlled by Russian troops since March, when it became the first major city to fall during Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian forces have launched a counteroffensive to take back the critical port city. Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling commented Monday on a Ukrainian soldier's video from the frontlines showing destroyed Russian positions in Kherson. According to Hertling's analysis on Twitter, the footage indicated "extremely poor soldier discipline" and "horrible fieldcraft/training"...

Lt. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, the now-former commander of U.S. Army Europe, quietly departed Germany last week and retired days later at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. “Lt. Gen. Hertling’s decision to retire was a matter of personal choice... "The command didn’t alert the press to, nor issue a news release on its website, where Hertling’s official biography now says he “was” USAREUR commander from March 25, 2011, through Sunday.

The suicide bombs that slaughtered dozens of people in four separate blasts within 45 minutes yesterday took terrorism in Iraq to fresh levels of sophistication and co-ordination. Brig Gen Mark Hertling of the US 1st Armoured Division was clear. "The bombings seem to have been the operations of foreign fighters," he said. "We have not seen attacks we could attribute to foreign fighters before. We have seen them today." While it would be in America's interest to portray terrorist attacks as the work of foreigners bent on undermining stability, the methods used in recent weeks certainly indicate a ruthlessness against...