Mr Putin, What Are You Like? - revisited

After one week of the war in Ukraine,  we posted this: 

Putin is guilty of Adolf-style micro-managing the military (the ever-tempting sin I’ve frequently lauded George Bush Snr for avoiding)

Well, even then some BTLers were objecting to an earlier citing of the Sudetenland as a parallel (I could never see why), and many still don’t consider these WW2 analogies appropriate.  

OK.  The whole point about analogies / parallels / similes is not that they are in some sense exact: no discursive account in any sphere except the mathematical is ever 100% exact.  The relevant question is:  do we find it useful? **  

It seems to me, and indeed to Mr BQ from time to time, that WW2 often provides extremely useful case studies – as you know, I cited Finland 1939-40 before this all kicked off, and nobody was being compared to Adolf in that one: it’s Uncle Joe all the way.  And yes, of course, it breaks down as a parallel with current events because no other nations came to Finland’s aid in anything like the way countries have done for Ukraine.  But the point was, I expected – giving reasons – the Ukrainians to fight, against several people who said they’d fold; that Finland and Ukraine are both big countries with plenty of space into which a defender can fall back; and that the Winter War was an example that seemed pretty apposite.  No?

So: back to the headline.  Yep, in that one I made the dreaded comparison with Adolf.  Not just him, of course: Lyndon Johnson was another inveterate military meddler.  And was it right?  As far as the parallel goes, well, from just this week … 

Russian failures fuelled by Vladimir Putin’s meddling 

Why Vladimir Putin’s Meddling May Be The Reason Behind The Russian Army’s Poor Show In Ukraine 

Prof Sir Lawrence Freedman from King’s College London, said he judged the military statement about Putin’s level of involvement to be plausible

… others now seem to think so, too.  None of us knows for certain.  Maybe it’s just a confection of western psyops, designed to make ordinary Russians turn on their man, or annoy Putin to distraction.  Maybe somebody has a full explanation as to why the Russian forces, heirs to the mighty Red Army, have thus far been screwing things up quite as comprehensively as they have, but which doesn’t involve inept decision-making by Putin.  Do let us know. 

But amateurish micro-managing in Moscow surely does seem to be a useful thing to consider.

ND

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**Obviously, if suggesting a particular parallel fundamentally pisses off ones interlocutor, it ain’t gonna move the discussion forward.  If I’ve misjudged the readership, well, there you go – have a refund, Russian warship …