If you listen closely while assessing Russia’s performance in Ukraine 15 months after invading the country, you may hear lyrics from Jim Croce’s 1973 hit “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.” Like “tough guy” Brown, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s army, along with his mercenary force known as the Wagner Group – recruited out of prisons whose volunteers are promised pardons if they survive six months on the battlefield – had reputations as bad boys in a fight. However, both have proven to be tactically and operationally incompetent, although Moscow did, after a lengthy 10-month assault, finally just capture the city of Bakhmut. But, in invading Ukraine, as Brown experienced in the song, he bit off more than he could chew, having started a bar fight with someone tougher. Croce’s description of Brown at fight’s end is not too dissimilar to that of Putin’s military today – looking “like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone.” At least Brown’s fight is over; Putin’s is still ongoing.
Several examples reflect just some of the “pieces gone” Russia has suffered as it continues taking on a tough Ukrainian army – some representing acts of desperation by Russia:
Putin, who came to power in 2000 as a democratically elected president, has manipulated the government machinery to basically establish an autocracy. In 2020, the country’s constitution was manipulated to keep him in power until 2036. There is no way the Russian people will tolerate this should the war in Ukraine not end soon.
The conflict now boils down to an unbending Ukrainian resolve and a tyrant’s ego. Absent a major battlefield change – such as Putin pressuring Belarus to open a new front in Ukraine – or Ukraine’s weapons suppliers withdrawing, a gambling man would bet Putin’s days are numbered. Similar to Russia’s last czar, Nicholas II, who violently learned the hard way over a century earlier, not listening to your people comes at a very high price.
This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
This post originally appeared on WND News Center.