Category: Putin

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I admit I haven’t been paying much attention to the news lately but U.S. troops took over a Venezuelan oil tanker today. I am so confused.

So Putin can invade the Ukraine and act like an all around asshole, killing Ukrainian civilians this way and that, and this isn’t worth one American life while the Venezuela government, who, at worst, may be complicit in the illegal drug trade, is getting direct American military intervention.

There simply is no sense of proportion here. Putin, a nuclear armed, political opponent murdering, kleptocrat supreme, war mongering dictator has to be given at least a small bit of the country he invaded unsuccessfully to whet his appetite while Venezuela can’t even ship a legal product, oil, because it is propping up a Latin American dictatorship who, as far as I know, has made no threats against the United States or any other country for the matter.

And people in the news are talking about a shooting war with Venezuela. A fucking war with Venezuela. Over illegal drug shipments? The world’s foremost military power is going to go toe-to-toe with a military lightweight over little more than a nuisance.

I am pretty certain the reason Trump is taking action against Venezuelan oil tankers is he thinks he can win. Taking on a much weaker nation doesn’t make you look like a tough guy (see Putin and the Ukraine for further information about this). It does make you look like a bully. And it runs the risk, particularly if things don’t go according to plan, of making the U.S.A. military look bad or ineffective (see Putin and the Ukraine).

The thing is you don’t risk your reputation on something that doesn’t really matter and I’m pretty sure the Venezuelan drug trade is secondary, at best, to U.S.A.’s larger interests. But, yeah, ok, let’s invade Venezuela. Go get them boys. I certainly feel a lot safer.

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Karl Marx is purported to have said “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” I have been thinking about this quote since I heard that Putin is drafting more Russians to fight in the Ukrainian war. I am no military expert but is seems like a pretty bone headed move.

Putin plans to draft 300,000 thousand very unhappy men, some of who are fleeing the country to avoid the draft or protesting against the war, and then sending these less than enthusiastic solders to the front where they will be greeted by an already demoralized Russian army who have been floundering in the Ukraine since February. This seems like a mighty desperate roll of the die.

He is betting that any warm body given a gun and pointed in the right direction is enough soldiering required to win a war. If it works, Putin is a genius and I will take it all back. But if his best trained professional troops aren’t able to beat the Ukrainians, why would adding a large group of badly trained draftees be more successful? And, if Putin is wrong, and his disaster in the Ukraine keepings getting worse, he has a large group of angry men with loaded weapons directly on the Russian border facing an already weakened Russian military.

Perhaps this would be a good time for Putin to review the history of the Russian Revolution. The first revolution in February of 1917 was started by mutineers in the Russian army — unhappy with their defeat at the front and unwilling to fight a losing war any longer. The Bolsheviks came later in the year. For some reason, I keep thinking that this farce is about to get worse. Yes, I admit, it might be amusing to watch the evil fuck Putin take a fall but I do fear what might come next.