03-30-2022, 03:23 PM
I have no idea how this will turn out. My only strong opinion is the U.S. could be doing more to help militarily with an urgency to save lives by forcing Putin to negotiations. I don’t think financial sanctions will have too much impact on Putin’s objectives even while they destroy the Russian economy.
Back during the Clinton administration Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic attacked Bosnia. There was a different approach by Clinton toward ending the war. There were some cease-fires that partially held. To get to the cease-fires took some massive bombing of Milosevic’s forces.
My company was supplying a complex component to Boeing for converting dumb bombs into smart bombs. Steering fins and a guidance system were added to the bombs to control their flight. They were called JDAM (the military is really into acronyms) kits. $40,000 to retrofit a dumb bomb versus $700,000 for a Tomahawk Cruise missile. There was a full-court press by the Pentagon to use these bombs in the war arena.
At one point our component became a gating item. We got a visit from a four star commander making a trip out west to suppliers with issues. He turned out to be nice guy. He gave us a pep talk to do everything we could to get the product out the door. There was much more urgency from the Clinton administration back in those days to end the conflict on the battlefield than what I see today in helping Ukraine. Naturally there are differences between dealing with Milosevic and with Putin. At the moment I don’t see Putin giving in until he has exhausted his military options. How many dead Ukrainians is that going to result in?
FWIW from a historical perspective Milosevic was voted out of power, thrown in jail, and eventually convicted of war crimes. He died in prison. I don’t see this scenario playing out with Putin unless Russian military commanders get fed up with him. IMO that’s very unlikely.
Back during the Clinton administration Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic attacked Bosnia. There was a different approach by Clinton toward ending the war. There were some cease-fires that partially held. To get to the cease-fires took some massive bombing of Milosevic’s forces.
My company was supplying a complex component to Boeing for converting dumb bombs into smart bombs. Steering fins and a guidance system were added to the bombs to control their flight. They were called JDAM (the military is really into acronyms) kits. $40,000 to retrofit a dumb bomb versus $700,000 for a Tomahawk Cruise missile. There was a full-court press by the Pentagon to use these bombs in the war arena.
At one point our component became a gating item. We got a visit from a four star commander making a trip out west to suppliers with issues. He turned out to be nice guy. He gave us a pep talk to do everything we could to get the product out the door. There was much more urgency from the Clinton administration back in those days to end the conflict on the battlefield than what I see today in helping Ukraine. Naturally there are differences between dealing with Milosevic and with Putin. At the moment I don’t see Putin giving in until he has exhausted his military options. How many dead Ukrainians is that going to result in?
FWIW from a historical perspective Milosevic was voted out of power, thrown in jail, and eventually convicted of war crimes. He died in prison. I don’t see this scenario playing out with Putin unless Russian military commanders get fed up with him. IMO that’s very unlikely.