A Tradition of Defeat

Further reflections on the Russian debacle in Ukraine

"The Red Napoleon." Mikhail Tukhachevsky was executed in 1937. Colorized by u/ainsley_blyat.

By Thomas M. Gregg, Indiana

My recent article, “Tannenberg Revisited,” has attracted a lot of attention—including considerable adverse comment from those in America and Europe who serve as apologists for V. Putin and his unprovoked aggression against Ukraine. No doubt some of this criticism, however misguided, is proffered in good faith by people who take the Russian regime’s propaganda at face value. Some of it, however, bespeaks either bad faith or a willful refusal to acknowledge reality. Here’s an example:

The worst assessment I have read so far since the beginning of Russia's “de-Nazification” of Ukraine. In fact, it was so distorted and inaccurate I was only able to get about a third of the way through it.

The Chechens, the Wagner Group and Russian hard core regulars are leaving corpses of Ukrainian proxies all over the eastern battlefields of Ukraine. Meanwhile, there are rail cars of Russian military equipment heading west. Kiev is going to wake up to the sound of Iskander-M rockets.

And here’s another:

The Atlanticists, the Neocons and the entire leftist ideology infecting the US military are collectively bat shit crazy at this point.

Even Dmitry Medvedev appears to be balking at the Atlanticists. Can only imagine now even more since the US was clearly behind blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines.

People who post stuff like this are simply refusing to acknowledge an irrefutable fact: that the Russian armed forces have proved themselves far less battleworthy than was generally assumed at the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War. It’s a fact most unwelcome to those who think they see in the present war an existential conflict between robust, conservative nationalism and soulless, money-grubbing globalism. The reverses experienced by Russia on Ukrainian battlefields give the lie to this formulation, a reality check that has not been gladly received by American national conservatives and assorted isolationists. And so, after every Russian setback, we hear the same thing from the Putin pep squad: Aha! Now Vlad has them right where he wants them! Just you wait and see!