E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

The Myth Of The Chess Master
[Running Iron] For years a mythology has accreted around Vladimir Putin. Both admirers and detractors in the West have seen him as a calculating genius, playing three-dimensional chess while everyone else was playing checkers. RIR never bought that analysis. We did see Putin as a cunning opportunist, parlaying strategic ambiguity and incremental bites at the periphery of the West into success in a long game of asymetric warfare — which, it must be remembered, is how the weak battle the strong. All the advantages that accrued to the spider in the Kremlin through that approach went out the window with the all-out invasion of Ukraine.

In testimony before Congress, CIA Director Bill Burns and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines concurred in the assessment that Putin grossly miscalculated both Russia’s capacity and the response of Ukraine and the West. He thought he had sanction-proofed his economy; it’s reeling. He thought he had reformed his army to allow for a quick decapitation campaign; it’s bogged down, battered and suffering from poor morale. He thought the West was weak and riven by divisions and would not respond in a unified matter; so far, the West has shown a remarkably united front. And the most fundamental miscalculation of all: He thought Ukraine would fold up, roll over and die. Instead, they have put up a fierce, profoundly inspiring resistance. He forgot what real military thinkers — and sports coaches, for that matter — never forget: Your opponent has a say.


Posted by: Besoeker 2022-03-20
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=627983