We have consistently reported in the days since Russia’s violent invasion and attack against Ukraine that, according to numerous analyses from experts in the field, Russian dictatorial President Vladimir Putin is simply not experiencing the easy, straightforward war he had undoubtedly hoped for.
While we certainly can’t read Putin’s mind (and I honestly don’t know that we’d want to if we could) we trust the theories and analyzations of the top experts on the topic, pretty much all of which have theorized, through a thorough examination of reporting out of Ukraine coupled with their own extensive knowledge, that Putin was highly unprepared for Ukraine’s fierceness and resistance, the resounding isolation from the West, and the pushback from not only his own people, but his own military forces that are reportedly growing cold, tired, hungry, and impatient with the Russian dictator as many of them fight a fight they never wanted to be involved with in the first place.
Now, yet another expert has thrown their hat into the analysis ring, with their own theories and explanations regarding how badly the Russian army is performing in their invasion of and attempt to occupy and subjugate the country of Ukraine — and he says the blame for this failure is split pretty equally between Putin himself and the Russian military leaders who are heading the invasion.
Retired four-star General Barry McCaffrey appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe this morning, where he theorized that Russian generals are likely currently coping with the fear and belief that if they are not successful in the missions that have been assigned to them with regard to the Ukrainian invasion, Putin will ultimately have them shot and killed, especially as the unhinged dictator gets backed further and further into a corner.
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“You know, this entire Ukrainian intervention has called into question the capabilities of the Russian armed forces, which I do not underestimate,” McCaffrey began on the MSNBC segment today. “They’re still a large, reasonably well-equipped fighting force. They took on an operation they didn’t understand, they had bad assumptions, their command and control has broken down but they’re still a threat.”
“These people are over a barrel,” he went on to add. “Putin is a truck with ten forward gears and no reverse gear; he can’t back out of this thing, so the danger deepens.”
Host Scarborough expressed his agreement, stating, “The danger does deepen,” before going on to ask, “I’m curious, what is the impact of the morale for those generals who are around Vladimir Putin when they keep getting reports of generals getting killed on the front lines, colonels getting killed on the front line?”
“Well, I think the generals have lost control of this massive formation,” the military expert responded before briefly laughing, “This is bizarre behavior, abandoned vehicles, no vehicle track recovery units, very little, apparently, effective use of airpower in coordination with ground power. They’re going back to being an artillery army, pounding and encircling cities and trying some starve them out. So I think the generals are getting desperate.”
“They’re getting up to the front areas of the battle, but a lot of them are probably saying to themselves saying, if we don’t unscrew this mess, Putin is going to shoot us,” McCaffery went on to add. “Again, I’m really surprised that the thing has so far unraveled on them, but there’s a lot artillery, a lot of helicopters. This fight isn’t over. Zelenskyy’s courage and time and Russian casualties could change the political calculus in Russia on the viability of this war.”
You can watch the MSNBC clip here:
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/The Presidential Press and Information Office, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
