Why Are the Ukrainians Stopping the Russians?

One of my favorite quotes of all time is this one from Napoleon Bonaparte: “In war, the moral is to the physical as three is to one.” This, then, is the advantage that the Ukrainians have. They are defending their homeland. They care more about their freedom than just sitting around watching the Kardashians on television.

Much has been written about why the Russians have not been able to sweep through Ukraine like a hot knife through butter (even I have been impressed). Some reasons given include:

• The majority of the Russian soldiers are conscripts, which means they were drafted and are not battle-tested soldiers with a strong will to fight.
• I also read that the exercises that the soldiers went through before the attack wore them out — they are tired.
• The other reason, which I put more stock in, is the logistics tail of the Russian army is not able to keep up with their advancing troops. They have run out of fuel and food.

All of the above may be true, but give me the guys at the Alamo and you can hold off 5,000 with just a couple hundred — for a period of time. The friendlies also need fuel, food and, most importantly, ammunition. You can have plenty of “targets of opportunity,” but if you have no ammo, it does you little good.

As I’ve written before, if Ukraine decides to defend a city in depth, it will do much more than give the Russians a bloody nose. They will “bleed out” in that type of conflict. They may still win, but at what cost?

The days of battle so far have proven Napoleon correct. It also is a warning to Russia and President Vladimir Putin about what a determined resistance will be like should they “win” the general war and then lose the occupation as partisans fight on, in the fields and in the streets.

For the record, my other favorite Napoleon quote is “You can do anything with a bayonet, except sit on it.”