Ray ....... @reineke is talking about Putin being - this mass murderer and warmonger and Trump's descrtiption of him as a "Genius"and "extremely clever"?@reineke - Just when I thought people from Germany were smart- "mass murderer and warmonger" REALLY?? and "Genius and extremely clever"? Appears someone has been at the DemonRat KoolAid. I'd consider writing a rebuttal but it would just be pearls before swine.
No I think it has to do more with their command structure than anything else. Their superiors tell them you must take route X to get to objective Y. If you deviate from the plan you are in a big trouble. Even if route X is mined. Its quite shocking how in the Russian army the generals are involved in strategic, tactical and operational planning. That probably explains why so many Russian generals have been killed. They are right there behind the front lines directing their troops and micromanaging everything. Its pretty surprising tbh... You would think the people in charge of operational planning would be NCOs and the people actually in the field but no everything comes from higher up and the soldiers in the field are pawns who cannot deviate from the plan...
I believe we discussed something similar a number of pages back, Westphalian nation states and their armies. Such just doesn't exist outside of western Europe, the US, Canada, and Oz. The only thing the old USSR had going for it was numbers. That worked against the NAZIs from 1943 onwards, but Puller demonstrated the potential folly of that line of thinking at Chosin Reservoir Having numerical superiority is great and all, but not definitive. Putin doesn't even have that advantage..That is quite accurate. The Western way of war is through the issuance of mission orders. Subordinate leadership is given great discretion in what actions to take at the tactical level to achieve the commander's intent with respect to the operational objective. Time line and desired end state are the primary guard rails.
The largest scale operation in which I ever participated was VII Corps envelopment of the Republican Guard divisions during Desert Storm. Swarzkopf's "hail Mary" as he referred to the attack. It provides a good example.
Over a two-day period, approximately five days from the attack, General Freddie Franks went to every brigade headquarters in the Corps and briefed his commander's intent for the attack to the brigade commander, battalion commanders and staff. As an artillery brigade, we had two primary missions. One was to be the counterfire headquarters and provide general support reinforcing fires for 1st Infantry Division during breaching operations, and then the second involved a race north to link up with 1st Armored Division to do the same for it during the main battle with Republican Guard. In consultation with both division commanders we were given a priority of fires for both divisions and likely time table for destruction of the regular army Iraqi forces in front of 1st ID and probable contact time and location for the meeting engagement with the Republican Guard. The brigade then backwards planned from that eventual end state.
In other words the how we were to accomplish our primary missions, both as planning effort, and more importantly, during actual execution, was left to my brigade commander and myself as the brigade S3. We further provided mission orders to each of our three subordinate battalions that allowed them as much flexibility as possible in executing our resulting operations orders. At battalion and company level that flexibility is extended all the way through fire teams due to the existence of a professional NCO Corps. That hands on leadership, is in the West's view, essential. Such a professional cadre doesn't even exist conceptually in the Russian Army. That sort of flexibility regularly puts US forces inside the decision cycle of an opponent.
Such delegation is not even possible in the Russian command structure. A major advantage that Ukraine has is for its leadership to have spent the last eight years in a concentrated effort to learn NATO battle command. They have participated in every NATO exercise, and deployed officers to support NATO and US commands during the Afghanistan campaign.
A good friend of mine survived that operation and every Christmas he wears the "Christmas Star" in remembrance of the sky clearing and allowing for air support.Puller demonstrated the potential folly of that line of thinking at Chosin Reservoir
It was a USA and NORAD decision to shoot down the cylindrical object, so reported by Canadian media.Trudeau couldn’t pull off an intelligent thought let alone permission to shoot down his idol’s balloon. He is busy running off for another well deserved vacation in the Caribbean!Trudeau pulls the trigger and gives okay to shoot down balloon over Canada. US jet fighters, splash 3
With that many balloons so close together and hordes of Chinese pouring over the southern border could balloons be a diversion of something in the works?Splash 4
February 12, 2023, 9:29 PM
A US F-16 fighter jet shot down an unidentified object over Lake Huron in Michigan on Sunday, the fourth time in eight days a high-flying balloon or other craft has been brought down over the US or Canada.