This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

It is a disaster of the highest order, rivaling Gallipoli or Russia’s misadventure in Finland. This will be taught and studied over in the war colleges around the world. Under some title such as, “Logistics and YOU!” Or why they took Putin out back and gave him two in the back of the head.

In less than one week, Vladimir Putin has alienated the entire world against Russia. Almost completely cut them out of all international commerce, sport, aviation, or art. Bankrupted the domestic economy, with a Ruble being worth about twelve cents. If you could find someone with twelve cents. If you could find someone who would exchange their twelve cents for your printed pieces of worthless paper.

Russian tanks are being found along the roadside in Ukraine. Out of gas and their crews left bewildered, lost in a foreign land. This was supposed be over by now. They didn’t plan on it taking this long or all the petrol stations along the road being closed. One Ukrainian even taunted the Russian troops, by offering to tow their tank back to Russia for them. The Russians didn’t bring enough fuel. If they didn’t bring along enough fuel, what else did they probably not bring along enough of? My first guess would be food, followed by water and ammunition, most definitely ammunition!

Captured Russians (Reservists mainly) report they were told that they were going on maneuvers. Nothing to worry about, no big deal. Some didn’t even know they were in Ukraine. They reported that their officers had abandoned them and basically told them, “Will meet you In Kyiv.”

Why would an officer behave so, unless he or she suspected their doom was waiting on the road to Kyiv? Perhaps support for Putin’s plan wasn’t near unanimous or popular among the officers? Every general fights the last war. Shoulder fired missiles have made a hundred-million-dollar jet planes vulnerable, and made armored vehicles almost coffins on wheels. The crossbow eliminated the armored suit; the tank eliminated the Calvary, and the shoulder fired rocket is the ultimate in equalizers.

The media has shown aerial photos of a three mile long convoy of Russian vehicles, thirty miles outside Kyiv. My wager is that convoy is sitting there, because it’s out gas. The Russians have been on a combat footing for six days now, and are also out of gas. It’s a fiasco of poor planning and incompetence. Six days in and the Russian have yet to reach their day one objectives.

The draftee meets the dedicated freedom fighter, in the new tales of Khe Sanh. “Boy, these maneuvers sure are lifelike, it’s like they’re really shooting at us!” Bad planning, poor leadership, and a dedicated resistance. And if you think it’s bad for the Russians now, wait a couple of weeks. They have caught their pants going over a barbed wire fence and are now caught, like Roman legions trapped in a deep dark  forest. Any increased Russian offensive will only harden the resolve of the world against them. While any offense against them, will be cheered by the world.

And that is not egg on their Russian faces. Humbled and embarrassed and now…trapped. When Fidel went ashore in Cuba with twenty-six men, he offered in retrospect. That he would have been better off with twelve good men. Numbers aren’t always in your favor.

Tanks take X amount of fuel per mile, times a three-mile-long convoy. Then the fuel convoy becomes as essential as the convoy itself, requiring the equal protection of the fuel convoy to the original convoy. And because you brought all your fuel trucks with you, you must now divide your force and send them all the way back to Russia for refilling. “You guys sit just here and be vulnerable, until we get back in a few days.”

The roads were supposed to be frozen in Ukraine this time of year, but global climate change strikes again. Stranding many heavy Russian vehicles in the mud. I wonder if the Russians thought to bring along any of their heavy tow vehicles with them. I’d wager not. This will be quick; we won’t need any of that.

Even if the world turned a blind eye to Ukraine, this is fatal to the Russian leadership. “We’re taking care of the squirrels! Many, many squirrels being shot in Kremlin courtyard! But only squirrels!” With reports of Russians soldiers abandoning their uniforms. Either unwilling to fight or unwilling to explain to the motor pool sergeant, why they don’t have that multi-million-dollar tank with them anymore.

As we speak, Poland is about to hand over Jet fighters. Sweden, Finland, and Germany are sending thousands of anti-tank and anti-aircraft rockets and grenade launchers. Very soon, the Russians won’t have full control of the air space anymore. And then, that convoy (take your pick either one) becomes a big fat juicy target. This is the reason Vladimir Putin is already talking about using nuclear weapons. An international brigade is forming in Ukraine, made up of thousands of trained mercenaries. Many possibly former Russians soldiers, and only the finest in CIA civilian operatives available. Vladimir Putin is fucked, and he knows it.

He’s fucked if he goes forward, and he’s fucked if he’s going back. And he’s still fucked, even if he just sits still.

The situation is untenable, Putin can’t just leave 70% of his armed forces with their dicks hanging out waiting for gasoline and blowing a hole in a budget that is no longer sustainable. Meanwhile, AWACS planes flying overhead in Poland will start suppling targeting information to the new Ukrainian Air Force. Putin is stuck in Ukraine while he finds himself at war with the whole world.

And every hour only makes it worse, and clock ticks. The Russian plan has failed, the Russian Generals have failed, the Russian military has failed, and the Russian hardware has failed. And it just doesn’t get any worse for a leader than this! Putin is more dangerous now than ever before because he is mortally wounded. And as the clock ticks, he knows that his hours will soon grow too short.

“Confront them with annihilation, and they will then survive; plunge them into a deadly situation, and they will then live. When people fall into danger, they are then able to strive for victory.”
― Sun Tzu