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[KingBacon]

Is it me or does this whole series of events seem like the plot of a Tom Clancy novel?

Also, isn't it also weird that Russia is intervening militarily so close to the Olympics again?

[Pnx]

Might be part of some attempt to draw attention away from the crazy corruption maybe?

[Knit tie]

Is it me or does this whole series of events seem like the plot of a Tom Clancy novel?

Also, isn't it also weird that Russia is intervening militarily so close to the Olympics again?

You know, the funny thing about conspiracy theorists is that they assume that all malevolent rulers are hypercompetent, while they clearly aren't. Here's one example of a blunder on a dictator's behalf - by invading Ukraine right after the olympics, Putin has made everyone forget about them and thus utterly destroyed any positive PR he might've gotten from the event.

[mainiac]

Is it me or does this whole series of events seem like the plot of a Tom Clancy novel?

Not really, the domestic politics of Ukraine aren't one dimensional and the personalities of the world leaders aren't national stereotypes.

[smirk]

Two minutes past, by my watch, and no nukes yet. Any sea change over there?

[Knit tie]

Is it me or does this whole series of events seem like the plot of a Tom Clancy novel?

Also, isn't it also weird that Russia is intervening militarily so close to the Olympics again?

You know, the funny thing about conspiracy theorists is that they assume that all malevolent rulers are hypercompetent, while they clearly aren't. Here's one example of a blunder on a dictator's behalf - by invading Ukraine right after the olympics, Putin has made everyone forget about them and thus utterly destroyed any positive PR he might've gotten from the event.

Stalin frequently overruled his general's commands so he could play commander. Badly.

To give ol' Moustachio credit, he got better during the course of the Great Patriotic War, learning to trust his command staff more. As opposed to Hitler, who went in the opposite direction - from supervising to micromanaging. We all know how it ended.

[mainiac]

To give ol' Moustachio credit, he got better during the course of the Great Patriotic War, learning to trust his command staff more. As opposed to Hitler, who went in the opposite direction - from supervising to micromanaging. We all know how it ended.

Or maybe Hitler was just an idiot all along but he was a lucky idiot at the start?  He made a number of reckless moves.  Look at North Africa.  Logistically it was an utter impossibility to win and holding a strip of desert in Libya had no economic value.  So why send 10% of your trucks there when they are needed in Russia?

[ibot66]

If they had taken the Suez Canal that would have been strategically useful. Also, if panzer general is to be believed, invading Russia via the caucuses.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

To give ol' Moustachio credit, he got better during the course of the Great Patriotic War, learning to trust his command staff more. As opposed to Hitler, who went in the opposite direction - from supervising to micromanaging. We all know how it ended.

Or maybe Hitler was just an idiot all along but he was a lucky idiot at the start?  He made a number of reckless moves.  Look at North Africa.  Logistically it was an utter impossibility to win and holding a strip of desert in Libya had no economic value.  So why send 10% of your trucks there when they are needed in Russia?

On the bright side, it highlights Rommel's prowess as a commander even more.

[nenjin]

If Hitler had put down the meth and slowed his roll he wouldn't have lost his entire Eastern army to the Russian winter.

[mainiac]

If they had taken the Suez Canal that would have been strategically useful. Also, if panzer general is to be believed, invading Russia via the caucuses.

So if Rommel had just magically found an engine that ran on desert sand?

Rommel was being supplied by Sirte and no other port could handle more then a fraction of his supply unless he overran the british naval bases in central egypt.  That's a distance of around 1500km through desert.  Rommel simply could not supply enough of an attack to dislodge the British in Egypt.  The British on the other hand could supply by water and build rails.  Tactics win medals, logistics win wars.

There was hope of taking egypt before the Italian fleet was decimated and they lost any hope of forward supply.  But by the time Rommel got there it was just wasting trucks and gas in the desert.

[smirk]

Welp, at this point it looks like we're past any sort of deadline-inspired crisis. Hopefully tensions will ratchet down a little bit without the manufactured pressure.

Of course, in the words of a much better person than myself, we're still just waiting for the hammer to fall.

[Sheb]

And what if Putin was just reacting, not planning. Seeing his side loose in the protests in Kiev, and knowing that any new government might be hostile and rescind the 2010 Khark(o/i)v deal, he invaded to keep Sevastopol? Or maybe he started to believe his own rhetoric about the Nazis in Maidan.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/putin-orders-russian-troops-in-military-exercise-close-to-ukraine-border-back-to-base/article17264183/

While it means that troops amassed on our borders will move away it doesn't mean that Crimean crisis is over

[Sheb]

Maybe he is disappointed that the Ukrainian didn't give him a provocation?