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Holding Ground, Losing War
The American Conservative ^ | 9/23/22 | Douglas Macgregor

Posted on 09/23/2022 1:29:24 PM PDT by EnderWiggin1970

At the end of 1942, when the Wehrmacht could advance no further east, Hitler switched German ground forces from an “enemy force-oriented” strategy to a “ground-holding” strategy. Hitler demanded that his armies defend vast, largely empty and irrelevant stretches of Soviet territory.

“Holding ground” not only robbed the German military of its ability to exercise operational discretion, and, above all, to outmaneuver the slow, methodical Soviet opponent; holding ground also pushed German logistics to the breaking point. When holding ground was combined with endless counterattacks to retake useless territory, the Wehrmacht was sentenced to slow, grinding destruction.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, (presumably with the advice of his U.S. and British military advisors), has also adopted a strategy of holding ground in Eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian forces immobilized themselves inside urban areas, and prepared defenses. As a result, Ukrainian forces turned urban centers into fortifications for what became “last stands.” Sensible withdrawals from cities like Mariupol that might have saved many of Ukraine’s best troops were forbidden. Russian forces responded by methodically isolating and crushing the defenders left with no possibility of either escape or rescue by other Ukrainian forces.

Moscow’s determination to destroy Ukrainian forces at the least cost to Russian lives prevailed. Ukrainian casualties were always heavier than reported from the moment Russian troops crossed into Eastern Ukraine, but now, thanks to the recent failure of Ukrainian counterattacks in the Kherson region, they’ve reached horrific levels that are impossible to conceal. Casualty rates have reached 20,000 killed or wounded a month.

(Excerpt) Read more at theamericanconservative.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: accordingtoplan; bloggers; douglasmacgregor; intothegunsdearukies; macgregor; nato; nonorussiaislosing; nyuknyuknyuk; poofbot; russia; temporarilyoccupied; territorytouts; thepoofbot; thezerobot; tisbutascratch; tothelastukie; tothelastukrainian; ukraine; war; winning; yourarmsoff; zerobot
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Rather different from the triumphalist happy-talk of the propaganda media. We'll see whose right.
1 posted on 09/23/2022 1:29:24 PM PDT by EnderWiggin1970
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To: EnderWiggin1970

Different perspectives are good.

A mostly one-sided set of talking points or narratives perspective is just bad and problematic on so many levels.


2 posted on 09/23/2022 1:34:58 PM PDT by cranked
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To: EnderWiggin1970
Casualty rates have reached 20,000 killed or wounded a month.

Tis but a scratch.

3 posted on 09/23/2022 1:34:59 PM PDT by kiryandil (China Joe and Paycheck Hunter - the Chink in America's defenses)
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To: EnderWiggin1970

....”We’ll see whose [who’s] right.”....could not agree more....although many on the so-called conservative right vilify him, including unfortunately a number of my fellow FReepeers, retired LTC Douglas Macgregor tells it like it is... he has said almost from the beginning that Ukraine is gonna get crushed by a numerically superior Russian military; all of the billions and billions of U.S. taxpayors’ dollars have been mis-spent, from the get-go.....


4 posted on 09/23/2022 1:36:00 PM PDT by TokarevM57
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To: EnderWiggin1970
Just a different propaganda machine, one in Russia's favor.

With the headline, and comparison, I first thought they were comparing Russian aggression to Hitler's aggression.

Mariupol could just as easily have been compared to Stalingrad, where Hitler insisted on attacking the city, at great cost.

5 posted on 09/23/2022 1:36:03 PM PDT by marktwain
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To: EnderWiggin1970

Macgregor has been pro-Russia for years. He is extremely bitter that he was passed over three times for a general’s star. The reason? He was considered a hot head, and unreliable.

Hell hath no fury like a colonel scorned.


6 posted on 09/23/2022 1:36:38 PM PDT by ought-six (Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule. )
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To: EnderWiggin1970

Ukraine is willing to absorb heavy casualties to defend their homeland. Russia is attempting to conquer their neighbor. So their tolerance for casualties is less than Ukraine.


7 posted on 09/23/2022 1:37:08 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: kiryandil

During WWI you easily had 20,000 killed a day.


8 posted on 09/23/2022 1:37:54 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: EnderWiggin1970; cranked; JonPreston; Kazan
It's actually a brilliant plan by the Western neocons.

Hide the dead Ukrainians until there's only a handful left - and when the pitiful remnant realizes that they and their brave, dead comrades have been used as cannon fodder for Western adventurism, there will be too few to take revenge for the betrayal.


9 posted on 09/23/2022 1:39:49 PM PDT by kiryandil (China Joe and Paycheck Hunter - the Chink in America's defenses)
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To: dfwgator
During WWI you easily had 20,000 killed a day.

The flower of European youth.

In Flanders fields...

10 posted on 09/23/2022 1:41:04 PM PDT by kiryandil (China Joe and Paycheck Hunter - the Chink in America's defenses)
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To: MinorityRepublican
Casualty figures are generally minimized for the side you favor and maximized for the side you oppose.

They are difficult to verify.

On the other hand, destroyed, abandoned, or captured armored vehicles are more easily counted.

Major ships sunk are hard to ignore.

11 posted on 09/23/2022 1:43:07 PM PDT by marktwain
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To: kiryandil

I heard my friend cry, and he sank to his knees,
Coughing blood as he screamed for his mother,
And I fell by his side, and that’s how we died,
Clinging like kids to each other,
And I lay in the mud and the guts and the blood,
And I wept as his body grew colder,

And I called for my mother and she never came,
Though it wasn’t my fault and I wasn’t to blame,
The day not half over and ten thousand slain,
And now there’s nobody remembers our names
And that’s how it is for a soldier

-Lemmy Kilmister


12 posted on 09/23/2022 1:43:26 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: ought-six

He has been predicting a Russian victory since the war broke out. Didn’t he predict that Kyiv would fall within a week?


13 posted on 09/23/2022 1:44:37 PM PDT by Truthsearcher
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To: EnderWiggin1970

Yrah. I really loved this. Thanks for posting it.


14 posted on 09/23/2022 1:47:42 PM PDT by MarMema (No bugs for consumption)
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To: kiryandil

ROFL!


15 posted on 09/23/2022 1:48:08 PM PDT by MarMema (No bugs for consumption)
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To: marktwain

This author was a defense advisor under Trump.

Most conservatives elsewhere, and on that site, are refuting Biden.

But here, for some reason, Biden gets support.


16 posted on 09/23/2022 1:50:55 PM PDT by MarMema (No bugs for consumption)
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To: EnderWiggin1970

I think everybody — Ukies, Russians and Americans — assumed that the Russian armored forces would have been more successful at break-thru and encirclement than events later proved. Everybody was wrong about how the war has turned out thus far.


17 posted on 09/23/2022 1:52:08 PM PDT by Tallguy
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To: TokarevM57
One thing that has bugged me about propaganda claims that Russia is the one suffering heavy casualties is that it flies in the face of Lanchester's Square Law.
18 posted on 09/23/2022 1:52:36 PM PDT by EnderWiggin1970
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To: EnderWiggin1970

the recent failure of Ukrainian counterattacks in the Kherson region,


That’s not so - more Russian propaganda - the Russian troops are slowly being pushed back and are running out of supplies. The only failure is that the best Russian troops are either dead or like the 7th AD and 98th AD in danger of starvation and encirclement.


19 posted on 09/23/2022 1:56:53 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: EnderWiggin1970

Macgregor is a low ranking media hound who’s only claim to fame is helping the Butcher of Belgrade, Weaselly Clark, plan the butchery during the Kosovo War.


20 posted on 09/23/2022 1:59:07 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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