Here's the problem. We all saw the headlines:
Russian Troops Are Ordered to Fight With 'Shovels': UK Defense Intel
Russian troops 'forced to fight with shovels' as ammo shortage ...
Ukraine war: Russian reservists fighting with shovels - BBC
Putin's troops 'left to fight with shovels' as Russia suffers ...
Russian Soldiers Are Attacking Ukrainians With Shovels, UK ... - VICE
Russian military reduced to fighting with shovels in Ukraine
But what they were talking about was the MPL-50 battle shovel, 19 inches of death:
(Malaya Pekhotnaya Lopata—Small Infantry Shovel—50 centimeters)
Not only are they deadly melee weapons in the evening but the next morning you can fry your breakfast eggs on them.
Which reminds me, the convict mercenaries of Wagner Group are led by "Putin's chef", Kremlin caterer Prigozhin. Unless NATO can field someone of equal stature. perhaps Gordon Ramsay, it is difficult to see how Ukraine and the $200 billion in cash and weaponry will be able to survive until the February Spring Summer Winter counter-offensive.
See also our blog descriptor since the end of February, 2022:
In war, everything not censored is a lie
All of which brings to mind this scene from the Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Manassas) in the American Civil War:
Rebels of the 2nd Louisiana Brigade, "out of ammunition, throwing rocks."
In that fight the southerners, despite being outnumbered, inflicted casualties at the rate of 2:1 and drove the Union forces off the field, leading to the Union General being relieved of his command.
There's been a lot of lying going on, about the war and about a whole lot more, as we've seen this last week and for the last decade, but as we've stated, over the years and most recently:
Not being in government, I don't have the authoritarian type of authority so I tend toward Burkeian humble and lovable:
His unbiased opinion, his honest advice, and his best reasons."
—Edmund Burke (1791)*
