This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

Another time, another place, another crazy mad dictator. Another young generation thrown into this generation, of poorly constructed Russian tanks and pushed across the border to kill their neighbors. Of all of Russia’s losses, none is greater than her prestige.

The Russians sent cargo planes loaded with paratroopers, their very best, unprotected into the sky. “Oh, they wouldn’t dare!” But they did, and Russia suffered an incalculable and inescapable and unrepairable loss. Putin can hide his losses from the domestic audience, but he cannot hide them from the military itself.

Imagine you show up for National Guard camp. And the next thing you know, people are really shooting at you. You’re suddenly in the middle of a war, and you had promised your boss. That you’d be back at your job at the tractor factory, by next Tuesday.

The Russian’s plan was audaciously simple. They will stick their hand right up inside that beehive. Then, provided the bees don’t sting us, we can get the honey. No, don’t pull your hand out now! Show those bees we mean business and are serious, about taking over this hive! As the video makes the rounds of Russian soldiers, literally raiding a chicken coup. Some said, perhaps they’re Russian deserters, and that’s a possibility. Those hundreds of vehicles abandoned along the roadway, didn’t drive themselves out to Ukraine.

But bosses are the same the world over. If you leave with a piece of expensive equipment, and then come back without it, uninjured. They will invariably begin to give you a hard time about it. Plus, the added terror of losing your big iron box, lost in a foreign land. Where the locals all want to kill you on sight. But come Willie or Jane; they are really, really, hungry. Hungry enough to try and catch live chickens and strangle them with their bare hands. That kind of hungry.

Another set of Russian ambulances were captured and found to be carrying ammunition. Extremely inefficient, and a clear and simple war crime. But never mind what the enemy does, listen to what they are telling you about their situation. So short of supplies, they will use anything with wheels, in a desperate attempt to keep up the pressure and keep the guns firing. But what vehicles do the wounded now ride in? Where are all the captured enemy food convoys? We have seen the ammo and the fuel convoys destroyed, but where are their groceries?

Putting aside all the preconceived Hollywood notions of the evil Russian commanders. Will they haul ammo in ambulances and forgo food? Do you suppose the Russian soldiers asked for permission to stop and get out of their vehicles, and sack a grocery store? “Comrade Captain sir, permission to forage sir! I will bring you back a box of Little Ludmilla’s Snack Cakes. An important part of a balanced diet!” Snack cakes, snickers bars, cheese crackers and hamburger buns, aren’t going to get you where you want to go.

The Maxim gun changed the battlefield. The airplane changed the sky. The Russians come pouring across the border, ala Joe Stalin. In their 20^th Century iron tanks, but you just can’t do that anymore. Just as foolish as charging machine guns with Calvary, and as completely obsolete as charging with a lance on horseback in a tin suit.

A three-man team with missiles and a half hour’s training, can destroy the best Iron box you got. I saw a video footage of a destroyed Russian tank, one of their “good” ones. The turret had been blown off and sat on the ground ten feet away. The projectile had continued through the vehicle, blowing the engine block out the back of the tank.

Not content with that level of destruction. The crankshaft had been blown completely out of the engine, complete with pistons and rods still attached. The engine block and the three-man crew turned to vapor. Will commanders who shell hospitals, apartment buildings and evacuation routes, starve their own men? I’m gonna go with, probably. I’m going to guess the Russians are getting desperate at this point, as it wasn’t supposed to be anything at all, like this.

The Russians left home with more than enough tanks and vehicles. But breakdowns, abandonments and losses to the enemy, call into question any further combat readiness. The Russians have lost no less than six major anti-aircraft components. They didn’t bring any extras with them. So now, they must do without. Blind in the woods, “who’s there?”

In even more Russian hubris, they sent their four-year-old “Stealth” remember that part, “Stealth” patrol boat too close to shore. The Ukrainians using several truck mounted mobile rocket launchers, predicted the path of the multi-million dollar, crew of eighty patrol boat. Then fired a volley of missiles to all strike the same spot, at the time. The old push the snow off the roof on them when they ring the doorbell. The patrol boat was abandoned almost immediately and sank a few hours later. If that didn’t stop a naval invasion, it sure gave them second thoughts about having one. “Holy Shit Vladimir, that could have been a troop ship!”

Two US destroyers with 180 cruise missiles, entered the Baltic. US Destroyers and Cruisers have entered the Mediterranean.  The US conducts Arctic exercises in Norway. French assault troops have reached their forward positions. The F35s circle overhead, as the AWAC plane forwards all the information. Strangling the Russian economy is most definitely an act of war. And flying third party combat aircraft, into a combat zone, is also a clear act of war. We are building towards an ultimatum.

Once the Western world has its forces in order and the Russians are about running on empty, there will be an ultimatum. The Russian generals see and hear now, the sound of Saddam Hussein ringing in their ears. Putin has now levied sanctions against Australia. Try and hang on Australia, we’re all pulling for you!

The Kremlin leadership will be faced with two distinct possibilities. Either, they will get rid of Vladimir Putin or are preparing to fight a world war, against the overwhelming might of the Western world. A war that the Russians can’t possibly win all by themselves.  A war that will reduce Russia to rubble and set the country back economically, a century or two.

The crossbow did away with the suit of armor. The radio did away with the carrier pigeon.  The machine gun ended mass formations of infantry. There was a time when that big iron box was the safest place on the battlefield, but not anymore.  Now, it’s a nothing more than coffin with wheels.

Maybe that’s the only redeeming quality in all of this. To show the world, that you can’t fight a war like this anymore.  All those expensive tanks and planes and fancy radar systems, just become juicy soft targets. Butter! For one man with a missile.

Float like a butterfly, and sting like a bee – Muhammad Ali