Monday, March 07, 2022

No Wonder Trump Admires Putin

Is the Russian car rally likely to be any more impressive or effective than the truck convoy?

Despite massive amounts of self-aggrandizing hype and a fairly large, nearly all-white rally in Hagerstown, Maryland on Friday, the trolling truckers chickened out at the last minute when it came to actually entering Washington D.C. Instead, they're staying inside their trucks and circling around the Beltway before hiding out again in Hagerstown. The whole thing couldn't be a funnier symbol of the modern right, which likes to talk a big game about how tough they are, but in the end, are such scaredy cats that even being out of their cars in a bona fide city frightens them.

Brian Brase, a 37-year-old trucker from Ohio, said the group again will look to do two laps around the major commuter artery before again returning to its local base at a racetrack parking lot in the D.C. suburb of Hagerstown, Maryland.

He told The Washington Post that the fuel-burning posse plans to stay at the speedway until "at least" Saturday, but added "hopefully this is all over by Wednesday."

On Sunday night Brase told The Post, “I’m hopeful that we have successful dialogue with congressmen and women and senators that help get what we’re looking for pushed through in a timely fashion. If they don’t come to the table to meet with us or they ignore us, then every day it will escalate.”
How'd Sunday work out for them?

The convoy's first foray onto the usually congested roadway didn't go so well as the lineup of vehicles developed large gaps, many got lost at some particularly challenging interchanges with other roadways and some truckers decided to call it quits after making just one lap instead of the planned for two.
So what are they going to do in real traffic?  I know around me they wouldn't be noticed on the crowded highways.  As for bargaining position, who are they kidding?  Themselves?

And speaking of kidding themselves:
“At the current rate of Russian losses, which are not confirmed, but we do have indications that this operation would be unsustainable within about three weeks from the Russian perspective," Ed Arnold told Reuters.

“In which case that they would have to consolidate the gains already made and look to see a way of trying to freeze the conflict on the current lines of advance while they [mobilize] more forces from Russia.”

My understanding from other sources is that Russia doesn't really have "more forces" to mobilize; and the supply problems persist.  The 40 mile convoy, for example, is still frozen in place. And this news doesn't indicate Russia is holding on very well:

Fiona Hill thinks if Putin can’t occupy Ukraine, or at least control it, he’ll just carve it up. He has yet to show the capability to do so.  In fact, he hasn't come close yet to controlling any territory in Ukraine. Here, let me just add a bit more about the losses Russia is facing: I think we’re starting to see how this ends. And even when. On top of all that, the "current lines of advance" aren't all that advanced.

No territory controlled, no advances to show except indiscriminate destruction of population areas:  that's in keeping with Hill's thesis, but if Putin can't control Ukraine, how long can he go on destroying it as his country's economy is destroed at home? And there was this:
Russia's foreign ministry called on European Union and NATO countries on Saturday to "stop pumping weapons" to Ukraine, the Russian RIA news agency said. 
It said Moscow was particularly worried that portable anti-aerial Stinger missiles could end up in the hands of terrorists, posing a threat to airlines.
First, it doesn't look like Russia is all that interested in a nuclear war, either.  Second:  Wasn’t Russia supposed to be good at this? Or were we just so stupid it seemed they were good? Maybe it’s just that it takes two to tango, and now we see who we were dancing with. But I don't think they're going to be able to argue their emperor (lies, trolls, etc.) was never naked.

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