344 Comments

I am not usually current in my readings. But articles/essays I've appreciated are as folloiws:

The Ukrainian Tragedy, Amercan Mind web site, 6/28/23

Have We Foregotten the Russian Way of War? by VDH, American Greatness web site, 7/16/23

Hopefully, you will be able to access the comments section to American Greatness. A very sharp poster opened a discussion on this essay, and received some very canny replies from people who had at least some past experience in Russia. Very interesting. You should be able to find the comments under AG+. Open Comment Section for VDH's - Have We Forgotren the Russian Way of War?

Expand full comment

It's been over two weeks since this essay was published. I see that your request for readers to post articles and opinions they've found pertinent has gone unheeded. We are apparently way too interested in pursuing our own theories. Frankly, I doubt I've read anything as deep as the articles you've cited. Thank you for the well-thought out analysis of the total confusion of what is happening inside Russia. Has anyone ever been able to answer that question!

Expand full comment

The Wall Street Journal had an excellent documentary on Wagner Group posted on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/EMXnJMCoFYI

Expand full comment

Am I the only one who hopes they somehow get rid of Putin? For everyone's sake?

Expand full comment

What exactly does the FP expect to receive from it's commentariat other than we couldn't care less about that Jewnazi and his corrupt Ukrainian outfit, what do we care if Putin annexes that country and the Baltics next, and at least Putin isn't queer and we've learned all we need to know from Tucker Goebbels. We're poor in this country and can't afford to get involved because we can't tax our billionaires, who have syphoned off the wealth we produce. In fact, we just sent a $50 check to one of them for his legal defense fund because our own Jewnazis from the DOJ are persecuting him. That's your feedback, in case you're paying attention, so don't.

Expand full comment

Ijnteresting article but have to disagree with last suggestion - to get the Penguin Classics Machiavelli. At least don't buy it new! Penguin and all its group are big supporters of sensitivity readers and all that rubbish so expect Machiavelli has been butchered in latest versions!

Expand full comment

Read Seymour Hersh’s latest article on Substack.

Expand full comment

In a perfect world, they would kill each other off. Sum zero.

Expand full comment

I think one of the first issues is we called it a coup. Was it? It feels the same as calling Jan 6 a coup or insurrection vs. a bumbling weirdness where all of the people accused of trying to overthrow the government walked out on their own and never made a claim of trying to foment a coup (either Jan 6 or Russia)

Expand full comment

Even worse is this from the article: "In what universe does a person who sacks a Russian city"

Met with flowers, left with not a shot..... and did not sack anything

sacked; sacking; sacks

transitive verb

1: to plunder (a place, such as a town) especially after capture

2: to strip of valuables : LOOT

Expand full comment
founding

I have no idea what is going on in Ukraine. It's the first war since WW1 where we have no real information on how it's going. We also have no idea how much US tax money and weapons is getting to the front. That's my main beef with supporting this war. Seems like Europe could have handled this and if they could not then they need to start increasing their defense budgets. US is going broke being the world police. We need a new power grid here if we are actually going to go with renewables. Well, we need a new power grid anyway and roads and bridges need upkeep. You know the one thing congress is supposed to be doing but never does even after a couple trillion dollars in supposed infrastructure spending.

Expand full comment

Good to know that the Free Press is one of the last places I’ll look for insight into our foreign and strategic policy imperatives - the lack of understanding and imagination is startling -

I’m a Reagan independent and proud of his accomplishments in freeing us from the dogma and shackles of defeatism.

Expand full comment

Here's a question: Is a Bari Weiss a neocon? Of course, she is. Relative to this issue Bari try as she may to be a bit coy is absolutely aligned with the neocons. She trashed RFKj and insists the Atlantic mag (like this bunch) will set your minds right on the war. Bari to what should be the horror of us all is morphing into a composite of Anne Applebaum and Jennifer Rubin. How tragic!

Expand full comment

Thank you. Very useful piece.

Expand full comment
Jun 29, 2023·edited Jun 29, 2023

No one beside Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Alexander Lukashenko, and maybe CIA director William J. Burns or director of national intelligence Avril Haines, actually knows.

Great reporting Free Press!

Tanks in the streets with an armed mercenary group making its way towards the national capital may not be a "rebellion" but... if a bunch of angry crowd-goers break into the United States Capitol building to steal a podium and cause a bit of mayhem on January 6... it becomes the greatest threat to sovereignty the United States has ever seen!

Maybe Joe Biden was hoping to get the CIA to push this coup so that he could install his son Hunter as the new leader of Russia...

Hunter Biden is the smartest person the president knows, so...

Expand full comment
founding

Comparing Wagner Group to Blackwater is ignorant, try learning something about the organizations before making this kind of comparison. That might be what the authors think, but it is not the truth.

Expand full comment