larry johnson shows you why there's no way for the ukies to win;

Something a little different today. Retired Lt. Colonel Danny Davis did a virtual sit-down with me this afternoon (Thursday) and we discussed some of the latest Washington and Kiev delusional fantasies. That is the normal. The different is the Bill Walton podcast with Stephen Bryen and Erik Prince, who hit many of the themes that Danny and I discussed. At the start of the Russian Special Military Operation in February 2022, Stephen Bryen shared the view of most of the mainstream and initially bought-in to the narrative that Ukraine was prevailing and Russia failing.

But Stephen is not a blind ideologue. He is a thoughtful, intelligent man, and served as the Deputy Under Secretary for Defense in the George H.W. Bush Administration. Over the course of the last two years, Stephen realized that the cheerleading rhetoric emanating from Washington and Kiev was bullshit. I think you will find his analytical take worth your precious time.

Ditto for Erik Prince. His analysis is quite clear-eyed.

The key point I made with Danny Davis is that violence, in and of itself, does not ensure a successful military outcome. Consider a physical punch. If you punch a wall during a fit of passion, the most likely outcome is a broken hand. You accomplish nothing beyond possibly damaging the wall and breaking your hand. If you are walking down the street and sucker punch a stranger, you have committed a crime and harmed someone without cause. But, if you are being mugged and punch the attacker (and hopefully knock them out), you are engaged in self-defense. A punch is not “just a punch.”

Ukraine’s desperate plea to get long-range ATACM missiles in order to hit targets deeper inside Russia has nothing to do with carrying out a military strategy. Even if the West gave Ukraine all missiles in its entire inventory, those weapons are insufficient to destroy critical Russian military installations and logistics facilities. But such an attack would ignite an escalation by Russia that would further decimate Ukraine. In other words, this would be a meaningless use of force. Zelensky would be better off punching a wall...........more........