Above illustration: Putin thought that his soldiers would be greeted by Ukrainian citizens throwing flowers in their paths grateful to be liberated from the heinous NAZI regime that controlled their country and brutalized their citizens. No doubt he thought he could sell his own citizens on this egregious lie when in fact he was overseeing war crimes. He thought that his rapid victory would actually make him as popular as the polls said he was. Of course he knows that the Russian polls are meant for public consumption and since nobody who values their freedom and even their life would answer a poll with a negative opinion of the Moscow murderer.
If Putin thought invading Ukraine would be a bare-chested ride through the famous Ukrainian sunflowers, this is what he got:
Horse to Putin: I’m ain’t go’n anywhere, little man.”
I learned about how the Scots successfully drove the Romans out of their country when we visited there in 2007. For those of you not familiar with this piece of history here are some excerpts from “Did the Romans conquer Scotland” published by the BBC:
By the end of the first century AD, Rome had most of southern Britain under its control. However, it was a different story in Scotland - this was a much wilder place. It was still controlled by fierce warrior tribes, who refused to bow to the Roman Empire.
Scotland had valuable natural resources, like lead, silver and gold. The Romans could also get rich by charging the people they conquered taxes and forcing them to become enslaved. But the tribes weren't about to give up their lands without a fight.
The Romans came for ‘the glory of Rome’ too. They wanted to conquer new lands and make their empire even bigger and better.
What happened to the Romans in Scotland?
Even though some historians think the Romans marched as far north as Cawdor, near Inverness, the Romans never really settled in the north. Their main concern was to protect Roman Britain from attack.
In the 3rd century AD there was more fighting along Hadrian's Wall. Emperor Septimius Severus had to come to Britain to fight the invading tribes. This was the last major Roman campaign in Scotland. Although his soldiers won the battles, he got sick and died at York in AD211.
Attacks increased in the 4th century and the Roman army finally packed up and left in AD410. Barbarian tribes were attacking the city of Rome.
Here’s another article:
While there are certainly major differences between Ukraines effort to turn the tables on Putin’s military to how the Scots beat back the Romans, a couple of similarities jump out as to why he is failing.
- He failed to recognize the extents to which those living in the county he wanted to take over would go to in order to fight back and the ability they had to do so with lethal effect.
- He didn’t appreciate the perils to his military of fighting in another country with terrain like mud of Ukraine which, in its way, was similar to the craggy hills of the Scottish Highlands.
Meanwhile,related to the subject of my diary from the other day, Putin is also demonstrating how his ambitions are leading him to drastically overestimate his chances of success should he decide to target Finland with an invasion if he decides to follow though on this threat to punish them if they join NATO:
The Poll...
is based on speculation that Putin has become irrational and as a consequence is making decisions that will ultimately cost many thousands of Russians to die or be grievously wounded, will destroy his economy, and might lead to his being ousted from power. This would assume that he has lapsed into some kind of physical or mental pathology which impairs his judgment. Could, for whatever reason, has he gone beyond not having anyone he trusts willing to tell him the truth, or could he have become delusional?
See, for example: “There is plenty of speculation about Putin's state of mind” from CNN.
