I am tired of novice or inexperienced journalists reporting on subjects they know little about and didn’t take the time to do some research. The latest is how cluster bombs are going to reap havoc on civilians when the Ukraine artillery fire them at the Russian invaders.

            The Russians have been using cluster bombs from aircraft, from cruise missiles, and artillery on towns and cities far from the front. The Ukrainians will use the weapons on the trenches and troop concentrations where that type of munitions is best used.

            Since the bomblets are going to be used on Ukrainian land, they will record the location for future inspection and demolition of any unexplored ordinance. The Russians use it as a terror weapon against civilians and the more bomblets that didn’t explode on contact the better for the terror effect.

            For those novice reporters to use in their future reporting, more soldiers were killed in World War I and II by artillery than guns. The same is probably true of Viet Nam and the current war. Both sides are firing thousands of rounds each day.

            The reason why the cluster shells from the rockets and artillery is needed is to blow holes through the extensive Russian mine fields and trench defenses.

            We need to do everything we can short of putting troops into the Ukraine during the war. It serves our National Security against our “Enemies” now and in the future. Those who think their disruptions in Congress and Senate will benefit them at the expense of America’s security should be shunned.          

America is becoming divided over a simple question. Do we support the people of Ukraine who were invaded by Russia so Vladimir Putin’s dream of a Russian Empire is fulfilled or do we side with Putin and stop supporting a nation trying to exist? There is no middle ground.

      We know Past-President Donald Trump is a supporter of Vladimir Putin as a tyrant and in control of his country and President Xi Jinping of China. Trump openly said he admired Kim Jong Un’s control over North Korea. Some Republican’s are openly saying we should not be helping Ukraine or shouldn’t be spending as much money on aid and weapons as President Joe Biden has promised. When talking heads on right wing networks start to influence their viewers it empowers Putin to keep killing Ukrainians in the trenches and in their homes.

      There is only one phrase that such behavior warrants and that is being called a “Putin Supporter.” If these people can’t support a people’s freedom then, they should leave this freedom loving country. If they are just doing this to gain some political advantage then, they should be condemned and scoriated by all Americans.

      Make your voice heard because if Putin can’t be stopped now, where might he invade later and perhaps cause a larger war. If he is able to get away with this invasion will Xi decide he can take Taiwan and Nepal? Will Putin’s example allow some other country to invade their neighbor? This behavior must be stopped Here! And Now!

        As a student of military tactics, strategy and history my thoughts of why we should be supporting Ukraine go back to 1937, 1938, and 1939. European countries could easily have stopped Hitler’s dream of dominating Europe but they sat back and gave him the Rhineland when he had next to no military. They gave away Austria’s Sudetenland if he stopped there. Next he took the rest of Austria. France and England declared war when Hitler invaded Poland September 1, 1939. If they had done what was tactically and strategically right they would have rolled into Berlin because all his military was engaged in Poland. Seven months later he rolled through Europe with a well-trained, experienced, and well equipped army.

            Russian President Vladimir Putin has been following that plan of success. Putin suppressed Chechnya by leveling the towns and cities. Then he chopped off a fifth of Georgia. He put 1,500 troops into Moldavia and effectively took control of a chunk of Eastern Moldavia. Putin’s plan is to annex it into Russia using the same tactics of selective voters as he did in Crimea. He caused a rebellion of Eastern Ukraine and sent “volunteers” in to fight the Ukrainian army. His “volunteers” shot down the KLM airliner.

            We did little, NATO did nothing, and now we are faced with a full scale attack on Ukraine. If he won the Ukraine would he then go after the former USSR countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania or some of the other former Soviet States? The Baltic countries are in NATO which means a real NATO war. No, we should have been giving Ukraine weapons earlier. Now we need to give Ukraine all they need or its 1939 again!

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(Please re-post! We need to stop Putin’s quest for a new USSR with him as Dictator!)

        I don’t know how old I was when I first heard someone ask why didn’t France or England stop Hitler when his little army marched into the Sudetenland or when a little bigger army marched into Bohemia and Moravia then pieces of Czechoslovakia. Why did they talk and talk to him instead of stopping him? When he invaded Poland and war was declared he only had a few units west of Berlin. They could have ended it in a day or two. Look what happened because of talking and inaction.

            Today we have watched Russia destroy Chechnya’s cities and towns. Vladimir Putin has chopped off a piece of Georgia, stationed troops on part of Moldavia, put “volunteers” into two Eastern Provinces of Ukraine, and annexed the Crimea. Putin has been threatening the Baltic States and Finland before attacking Ukraine. Look at all he did before the major fighting in Ukraine. Why didn’t Western NATO start sanctions years ago? Why didn’t we put equipment into Ukraine when Putin first started to threatened it? Why are we and NATO piecemealing supplies and equipment to Ukraine?

            We must swamp the Ukraine with everything they want before the spring offensives. If Putin isn’t stopped here this year, where will he go next? If he is defeated will he be purged from power by those people he has befriended by making them and himself rich and all-powerful?

        Putin made a statement somewhere last month that he would win the war in the Ukraine when the United States stopped supporting Ukraine. Why would he even think that was possible? He has a good reason to continue the fight because some in the House and Senate are publicly questioning spending money on Ukraine.

            When we are not a solid block behind Ukraine and against Russia’s invasion of a neutral non-aligned country we give Putin a brighter light of hope. I consider anyone protesting in Congress or on Fox News a pawn of Putin and a traitor to Democracy and Freedom!

           The war in the Ukraine should and probably will be taught in every military school around the world. As a student of military history and the weapons used, I was surprised at how effective the Ukrainians used the new high tech ones to destroy a 1990’s army.

            The European theater in World War II thought US tanks without infantry support were sitting ducks. Today’s shoulder-fired anti-tank weapons have a range outside normal infantry support. In previous wars thicker armor overcame the anti-tank weapons but not today.

            Today drones can do damage that aircraft and artillery would have done a few years ago. The suicide drone is a man-carried weapon that can be guided to a tank, artillery, or a depot from miles away. Larger drones carry missiles hundreds of miles away and then orbit an area until a target is identified.

            Explosives have gotten more powerful so they can be used in smaller weapons. One hole in Kyiv caused by a Russian missile must have been fifty feet across and twenty feet deep. A World War II 1,000 pound bomb wouldn’t have made a hole that big.

            Military intelligence has always been the butt of jokes but in today’s world it has the ability to physically locate an enemy and their communications network. The Ukrainian snipers have killed eleven Russian Generals whose communication was hacked.

            Fixed wing and rotating aircraft have become much more efficient in their jobs. Many of the weapons the Ukrainians are using are the old Soviet ones that are being piloted by well trained people. If they had some of our most advanced craft their successes would be even greater. A squadron of five 35s costs more than the GOP of many countries.