Posted on 03/20/2023 4:14:42 AM PDT by FarCenter
A gloomy assessment of Ukraine’s prospects for victory against Russia emerged from a recent private gathering of former top US soldiers, intelligence officials and scholars with resumes reaching from the Reagan to the Trump administrations.
Short of trained personnel and ammunition, one speaker argued, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky might consider a Chinese peace plan, especially after Beijing’s successful mediation of the Iran-Saudi dispute.
The several dozen attendees, many of whom had held cabinet or sub-cabinet positions, met under Chatham House rules, which forbid identification of individual participants but allow the content itself to be presented.
Overwhelmingly, the sentiment of participants leaned towards escalation in the form of providing additional weapons to Ukraine. One prominent analyst proposed the formation of a “foreign legion” of fighters from other countries to supplement Ukraine’s shrinking pool of trained manpower.
The great majority of participants favored risking everything for absolute victory over Russia. None of the attendees mentioned the qualms that former president Donald Trump voiced on May 17 about the risk of nuclear escalation in Ukraine.
The question of how the Russia-Ukraine war might escalate into a broader conflict received no attention. Their frustration, rather, was that Ukraine seems less likely to defeat Russia, even if the West makes the maximum effort and risks escalation.
We should not be surprised, one of the lead presenters said at the end of the conclave, if Ukraine’s President Zelensky takes up China’s peace plan. No one in the West anticipated that China would mediate between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Although Washington has dismissed China’s peace plan for Ukraine, Zelensky has not. Russia would keep the Sea of Azov and most of the Donbas, a settlement that might be forced on Ukraine as it runs out of manpower and ammunition. America’s view of China is “primitive,” the expert added, and tends to underestimate Chinese sophistication.
A spokesman for the National Security Council dismissed the Chinese initiative, which calls for an immediate ceasefire, noting that a ceasefire would allow Russia to remain in place on territory it seized from Ukraine.
Ukraine has sustained two-thirds as many casualties as Russia, but with a third to a quarter of Russia’s population, is far less able to sustain them, according to one expert who spent many months on the ground in Ukraine.
The entire army that NATO trained between 2014 and 2022 in preparation for a Russian attack is dead, and recruits are being thrown into battle lines with three weeks of training.
Well, let’s see how this sits with UMCRevMom. LOL
Tens of thousands of lives? More likely over 100 thousand lives destroyed. Why? Because Biden is Zelensky’s puppet?
Too bad the DeepState does not care about defending the borders of the USA to any meaningful degree.
The US has broken it’s promise to forego NATO expansion and Merkel admitted that the US and European Union never had any intention of adhering to the Minsk agreements.
What treaty said that? It doesn't exist.
Merkel admitted that the US and European Union never had any intention of adhering to the Minsk agreements.
First of all, Merkel didn't sign the Minsk Agreement. Second of all, her quote is deceptively edited. Third, if the plan was to arm Ukraine for war starting in 2014(Minsk) why did countries including Obama's US refuse to send Ukraine lethal weaponry for two years until Trump sent the first weapons to Ukraine-Javelins?
Update on Russian military operations for March 20, 2023:
- Russian forces are not only encircling the fortified city of Bakhmut, but now also apparently Avdiivka;
- Both cities are heavily fortified positions along Ukraine’s main defense line in the Donbass region and their encirclement will compromise the entire defense line;
- Western media continues admitting critical shortages of Ukrainian manpower, weapons, and ammunition;
- As Ukraine is preparing for its spring offensive, the US and its allies are likely utilizing emergency stockpiles to surge the amount of artillery and rocket ammunition to Ukraine in amounts much higher than have recently been transferred;
- his surge is a one-time possibility after which Western stockpiles will be exhausted and future shipments will depend mainly on monthly ammunition production which and will be for several years unable to match or exceed Russian ammunition supplies;
- Ukraine is being forced to organize a massive offensive using poorly trained troops operating equipment they are unfamiliar with against Russian forces who have been preparing to meet this offensive months in advance; - Ukrainian forces could once again compel Russian forces into withdrawals but will suffer immense losses before facing counteroffensives comprised of 350k Russian reservists;
You asked about promises. Obviously, a promise isn’t a treaty.
And, yes, 0bama DID send arms to the Ukraine. Trump sent more.
Merkel DID sign the Minsk Agreement. There is no “deceptive” editing.
Are you an SBU troll?
No, Obama sent only non-lethal military aid.
Merkel DID sign the Minsk Agreement
Easy enough to verify. Signers of Minsk 2 Agreement: Separatist's leaders Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky, Swiss diplomat and OSCE representative Heidi Tagliavini, Former president of Ukraine and Ukrainian representative Leonid Kuchma, Russian Ambassador to Ukraine and Russian representative Mikhail Zurabov
While the Trump administration was the first willing to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine, the Obama administration did provide defense and military equipment.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/16/politics/us-ukraine-aid-fact-check/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsk_agreements
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