Originally Posted by
SASless
A deep strike into Russia could be counter-productive by giving the Russian People cause to support the illegal War kicked off by Putin and his cronies.
They did not care much for the Russian affair in Afghanistan....so why risk alienating any popular opinion for little military gain?
Mothers are seeing their Sons head off to Ukraine and coming home in Caskets....or not coming home at all.
Learn a lesson from other Nations that have conducted unpopular Wars....say.....like maybe the Falklands were the Argies thought they could do something similar to what is going on in the Ukraine.
How did that turnout for that Regime?
I take your points, and if I had seen any evidence that the Russian people view this as
Putin's rather than
their war, I'd fully agree with you. Sadly, all the evidence so far is that the general Russian population has a long standing antipathy to the Ukrainians, whom they now appear to despise for the crime of not wanting to be Russian (I don't think the same was true with Afghanistan). I think Putin can play to that gallery for as long as the Russian people themselves are not subjected to any real pain (and I have no joy saying that - like many people no doubt on this forum, I have Russian friends).
I'm not sure that the Falklands analogy really holds up to Ukraine, but in terms of how that turned out the Argentineans still claim the islands to be theirs, 40 years after the end of the war. We can't allow that to happen with Ukraine - the Russians must be militarily defeated, and seen to be militarily defeated. If not, this conflict could last for generations.