The war in Ukraine has reached a turning point. The Russian troops that invaded the country from the north, south, and east are now scarcely moving. They have targeted schools, hospitals, apartment buildings, and a theater sheltering children, but they are not yet in control even of the places they occupy.

And no wonder: Few Ukrainians are willing to collaborate with the occupiers. The overwhelming majority, more than 90 percent, believe they will defeat them. The Ukrainian army refuses to surrender, even in cities badly damaged by bombardment.

There must be an endgame, a moment when the conflict stops. The Ukrainians, and the democratic powers that support Ukraine, must work toward a goal.  That goal should not be a truce, or a muddle, or a decision to maintain some kind of Ukrainian resistance over the next decade. That goal should be a Ukrainian victory. Now.

[TTP veterans may recall these maps from Chinese Siberia from 2006 – which explained why Russian Siberia will be Chinese Siberia in the not-distant future.  It provides the historical background for Col. Austin Bay’s account of how Putin has accelerated the Chicom goal of making much of eastern Siberia Chinese once again.]

Before launching his war, Putin, his pals and for that matter, his pretend-allies in China, should have examined the strategic downside of both Russian "non-victory" in Ukraine and even defeat in Ukraine.

But his Chinese pretend-allies did consider these unpalatable alternatives -- and they grinned.  Shift from Europe to East Asia and Russia's military failure in Ukraine calls into question the vulnerability of the Kremlin's greatest geostrategic treasure: resource-laden Siberia.

Communist China 2022 is bitten by the same savage imperialist bug as Putin. Beijing intends to restore the Chinese empire. And Beijing covets Siberia.

[Generals Ryan and Hodges provide their professional assessment of how and why Russia is losing its military attempt to conquer and subjugate Ukraine.  Gen. Ryan gives the background to today (3/15), then Gen. Hodges explains why “the next ten days may decide this war.”]

General Ryan:

Experienced Russia observers were saying as early as 2017 that the power of the Russian military was overestimated, it was challenged by overstretch, and was technologically backward. These observers have been proved right.

Russia committed around 55% of their total regular ground forces to their invasion of Ukraine. This was not a calculated risk by the Russians; it was a gamble. A gamble that is failing badly.

As open source, as well as UK and US military briefs, note, the Russian advances in the north, east and south are grinding to a standstill. They have been outfought by the Ukrainians and have not been able to logistically sustain advances on multiple fronts.

Summing up, Russia has not achieved its key military objectives in the north, east or south. It is conducting concurrent offensives in different, disconnected parts of Ukraine. It has committed all the military forces it had for Ukraine on these missions.

The United States and its NATO allies are engaged in a proxy war with Russia. They are supplying thousands of munitions and hopefully doing much else—sharing intelligence, for example—with the intent of killing Russian soldiers.

And because fighting is, as the military theorist Carl von Clausewitz said, “a trial of moral and physical forces through the medium of the latter,” we must face a fact: To break the will of Russia and free Ukraine from conquest and subjugation, many Russian soldiers have to flee, surrender, or die, and the more and faster the better.

Yet, when the Ukrainians are willing to spill their blood, seemingly without limit, in a wholly admirable cause, American hesitation is heartbreaking. New Hampshire license plates bear the state motto Live Free or Die.  The Ukrainians are acting on that belief, which previous generations of Americans acted upon as well.

In the film, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey is able to see what the world would have been like had he never been born.

Everything changes. George wasn’t there to save his younger brother from drowning. And, that in turn, meant that his brother wasn’t there to save the lives of hundreds of men on board a U.S. military troop ship. Everything has a domino effect.

Unfortunately, we get to have a similar experience. We see how one terrible leader imposing his disastrous policies on the American people has negatively impacted every American.  We wonder wistfully what the world would look like had President Trump remained in the Oval Office instead of the blindingly incompetent and malevolent Joe Biden.