Understanding the Nature of War – The Clash of Wills

War is the collision of one will against another.

Putin engages in the war for a single reason:

He seeks to impose his will upon us.

The specific content of his desires at this level is not so significant.

It’s a mere fact.

In the Russian concept of power, the ability to impose one’s will is the ultimate dominion, the highest moral imperative.

The number of victims and crimes along this path knows no bounds.

Just yesterday, they struck at a hotel in Zaporizhia, where a center for children aged 6-13 operates.

Only calculation restrains Putin – calculating how specific actions may hinder achieving the ultimate goal – imposing his will.

For Putin, imposing his will is not a result.

It’s a process.

He derives physiological pleasure from this process, and the number of victims only intensifies his delight – he revels in his ability to bend and break resistance, feeling like the Sword of History, where the number of children killed only emphasizes his “…iron strength,” directed towards achieving higher goals, with the capacity to stand firm even in the face of mercy.

This type of thinking, gripping leaders, was precisely captured by Shakespeare:

“Merciless beast is not a stranger. I’m a stranger – thus, I’m not a beast.”

I fear that we and the Americans need to comprehend what we are dealing with entirely.

Americans believe in rationality:

“Show Putin causes and consequences, and he will stop.“

We believe in our moral and technical superiority:

“We are elves; they are orcs; our drones are better than their drones.”

I am striving for a correct understanding of war.

No dreams, ideas, or half-measures will solve anything and, in principle, lead to defeat.

Putin is entering a new wave of mobilization – read the winter campaign.

Attempting to persuade him this fall, as is hoped in the West, seems utterly disconnected from reality. However, there is a slight possibility of a scenario where he agrees to a brief ceasefire to better prepare for the next round.

To triumph in war, intelligence and determination are essential.

There are no other ways to defeat Putin except by directly shattering his will, stripping away his resistance –by breaking bones with a snap, with psychological breakdowns, with suicide, or by removing power from him, driven mad by the cost of his surroundings.

The Putin formula for victory, which they discovered during this war under these specific conditions:

Mass infantry + mass drones + economic blockade + strikes on infrastructure + creating hybrid troubles for the West and involving them in negotiations to weaken support for Ukraine.

Our formula for victory:

Disrupting the systemic infrastructure within Russia at speeds several times (!) faster, maritime blockade of Russian ports, halting navigation, defeating them on the battlefield several times faster, achieving stricter sanctions, and shutting down gray contraband schemes.

No matter how much you talk about orcs and warriors of light, drones, and missiles that will reach 3000 km away, they will not suddenly appear.

War of attrition is mathematics.

Russia has 29 oil refineries.

When twenty of them burn, we can return to discussions about moral superiority.

The determination to break the opponent must be coupled with the determination to organize oneself to gain superiority.

In the struggle of who will break whom, the victor is the one who can impose productive will, primarily on themselves.

Will, not illusions of moral superiority.

It’s difficult to win while imposing upon oneself a sea of nonsense instead of mathematical victory, elevated to the status of societal norms.

The mathematics of war is far removed from the mathematics of civil well-being – a lesson we, as a society, refuse to internalize.

Everything must be calculated coldly, down to the sentiments of a resident in a single village in the Perm Krai.

Calculate and act.

Only then will genuine superiority emerge.

Including moral superiority – people who can act realistically (!) more effectively than the enemy.

Achieving our goals.

Imposing our will.

Civilization is the ability to organize oneself primarily.