Hans van Zijst

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

Professional nerd and grammar nazi, writes in Dutch and English. Can read some German, French and Spanish too. Learning русский.

Location:: Netherlands

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 18:23:32 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

Holy crap, what a loser! Biggest country in the world, huge modern army, invaded Ukraine from several sides and still needs help from his buddies in Belarus, Chechnya, Syria and China.

How low can you go?

The Guardian wrote the following post Fri, 18 Mar 2022 18:20:03 +0100

Syrians join Russian ranks in Ukraine as Putin calls in Assad’s debt

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/18/syrians-join-russian-ranks-in-ukraine-as-putin-calls-in-assads-debt

#TheGuardian #RSS #News #Bot #MiddleEastandnorthAfrica #Basharal-Assad #VladimirPutin #Worldnews #Ukraine #Russia #Europe #Syria

show all 20 comments

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 18:31:31 +0100

Adam Hunt

gander22h@diasp.org

Yeah the Russians were doing much better in 1944-45.

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 19:11:37 +0100

Adam Hunt

gander22h@diasp.org

Yes, it was the Soviet Union, but under Russian leadership and using mostly Russian troops. The current Russian government still claims the battle honours from The Great Patriotic War, though, so what is your point?

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 20:58:24 +0100

Doc Edward Morbius

dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com

Seen earlier:

We were told that Russia had the 2nd best army in the world.

We've learned it has the 2nd best army in Ukraine.

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 21:03:54 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

@Doc Edward Morbius We've learned that we have grossly overestimated the Russian army. They're an unorganized bunch of losers.

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 21:06:11 +0100

Hans

hans@federate.hopto.org

Or the Russians underestimated the Ukraine resistance like the US did in most of their wars.

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 21:28:40 +0100

isaackuo@diaspora.glasswings.com

"We’ve learned that we have grossly overestimated the Russian army."

"Or the Russians underestimated the Ukraine resistance like the US did in most of their wars."

Both are true and consistent with each other.

The West in general, and US intelligence in particular, began systemically overestimating Soviet capabilities due to the defeat in Vietnam. The Vietcong, of course, used Soviet equipment. The psychological shock from losing the Vietnam War was such that the US military became obsessed with doing everything and anything to prevent another Vietnam.

This resulted in vastly overestimating the strength of Saddam Hussein's army when he invaded Kuwait. The US built up a humongous coalition that turned out to be massive overkill for the mission.

Unfortunately, a small group of self described "Neo-Conservatives" thought that this meant the entire Middle East would be a pushover to invade, and a decade later they'd insist on proving it by ignoring and overriding the military and intelligence community telling them otherwise ... but anyways ...

Desert Storm did not actually alter the US military and intelligence community's habit of overestimating the Russian military capabilities. Everyone was so shocked at how quickly Saddam's army collapsed, we all assumed it was because the Soviets had supplied Saddam with inferior export quality hardware, and the Iraqi troops weren't up to the same training standard as the Russians.

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 21:33:16 +0100

Hans

hans@federate.hopto.org

Imho it could be known if you look at the history. Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, etc....

Was there any success besides getting the Nazi's on their knees in the past?

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 21:45:26 +0100

isaackuo@diaspora.glasswings.com

Huh? What about Korea or Kuwait are you trying to say or suggest?

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 21:45:46 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

That too, but that's one part of the screw-up. If they had been well organized, they would have crushed Ukraine by now. But they fucked up everything they could, they even managed to turn their numerical advantage into a disadvantage.

Taking out the very 3G that you need for your own communication, really? How stupid can you get? Sending inexperienced recruits to fight a friendly nation without even telling them they're going to fight? Of course morale will be very low then.

Putin fucked up, big time. And I'm glad he did :-D

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 11:07:47 +0100

Martijn Vos

mcv@pluspora.com

I think the real issue is probably morale. Defensive armies can have a massive morale advantage, and much of the Russian army simply doesn't want this war. "What are we even doing here?" is probably also what Americans in Vietnam asked themselves.

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 12:53:43 +0100

Martijn Vos

mcv@pluspora.com

It's kinda odd that Russia can apparently call foreign soldiers to help them, but Ukraine can't, because Russia has nukes. It's a very uneven and deeply unfair war on many levels. Which makes it all the more amazing that Ukraine is doing so well.

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 13:18:40 +0100

Adam Hunt

gander22h@diasp.org

It is not like a bunch of the Syrians there have called for will be decisive.

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 13:36:15 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

I can imagine Asad really wants Putin to remain in power, because if Putin falls, Asad will follow.

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 13:41:41 +0100

Adam Hunt

gander22h@diasp.org

Well then hopefully Bashar al-Assad will show up to fight in Ukraine in person to help out.

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 14:11:09 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

Would be nice if both Asad and Kadyrov would be blown to pieces by the Ukrainian defenders :innocent:

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 14:23:42 +0100

Adam Hunt

gander22h@diasp.org

Well you are probably right on that count, it is unlikely that Assad will be replaced by a democracy.

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 23:45:06 +0100

Martijn Vos

mcv@pluspora.com

@Farhad A No need to get hostile about it. I'm aware that intel and weapons are shared with Ukraine. But we can't send jets, sink their ships, or bomb their artillery.

Of course if we could, that would matter a lot more than a bunch of mercenaries from Syria or Africa. But still, it's odd that NATO troops are banned, while Syrian and African troops aren't.

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 00:11:44 +0100

Martijn Vos

mcv@pluspora.com

@Farhad A Could you please fuck off with that toxic attitude? You clearly know nothing about me, but love patting yourself on the back with your successful straw man attack.

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 00:52:51 +0100

Adam Hunt

gander22h@diasp.org

Yeah, in general being hostile to everyone and attacking people doesn't further whatever cause you are looking for backing for.

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 01:23:40 +0100

Martijn Vos

mcv@pluspora.com

@Farhad A I don't care for your love of hypocrisy, and you're going out of your way to expose yourself as a terrible human being. Go troll somewhere else if you're not interested in a meaningful conversation.

Or, if you actually think you do have a point, just make that point, instead of flinging misguided incriminations around.