Getting Real About Alleged Russo-Ukrainian War “Realism”

JD Vance and Pete Hegseth keep claiming that what is “realistic” is appeasing whatever the genocidal, imperialist, and irrational Russian regime demands while what is “unrealistic” is standing strong with Ukraine to secure a just peace, no less achieving victory.[1] This view is not just dangerously wrong, but historically ridiculous. To illustrate the point, we will apply the kind of “realism” endorsed by Vance and Hegseth to the American War of Independence, the Western Allies’ Liberation of Europe with Operation Overlord in WWII, Israel’s War of Independence, and the Korean War.

America’s War of Independence

Let’s go back to the beginning. It’s 1776, Vance and Hegseth are looking at General Washington’s string of defeats, the sorry state of his citizen-soldiers, and the incredible might of the British Empire’s professional army and navy.

Nine months into the war, which started when American Minutemen (militia) opened fire on a superior British force at Lexington and Concord,[3] the colonies were “nearly destitute of gunpowder” and the American army had been reduced to “a bedraggled pack of 30,000. It was said that they might soon enough scare the British away by their very nakedness. And that wretched band was not only barefoot and hungry but without munitions,” according to Stacy Schiff, author of A Great Improvisation.[4]

Benjamin Franklin revealed a government secret kept from the American people to the French: there weren’t five rounds to a soldier. “‘The world wondered that we so seldom fired a cannon. We could not afford it,’” explained Franklin, who also speculated on the utility of bows and arrows as replacements for guns.[5] The US, as a colony, had been kept weak, unable to produce or trade for weapons, and was devoid of “a single man… [with] engineering expertise.”[6]

There was “no path to victory”. Americans may have had some “cards,” but no gunpowder. The British were winning lopsided victory upon victory. At the Battle of Brooklyn in August of that year, the British Army outnumbered the Americans 2 to 1 and inflicted approximately 2,000 American casualties to their 388.[7] While Washington lost the strategic port of New York City for the duration of the war, his army lived to fight another day. By December, the Continental Congress decamped Philadelphia for Baltimore, where they held “sessions in a deserted tavern.”[8] Vance and Hegseth undoubtedly would have invoked Thomas Paine’s observation that “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered” so it’s best not to try. The crisis stirring patriot souls was preventing them from getting down to the business of surrender.

In what was our first “forever war,” however, American Patriots fought on for another seven years to secure their independence from the British Empire, but would have failed without the foreign aid of France in the form of the equivalent of billions of dollars in cash and arms. At the Battle of Saratoga “the majority of the [American] guns fired on the British… were French.”[9] France, moreover, committed boots on the ground, sacrificing 2,112 soldiers for the cause of American liberty.[10] There were more French than American troops at the pivotal Battle of Yorktown—and all the warships protecting them were French.

Even during Ukraine’s darkest hour in February 2022 fighting back Russia’s full-scale invasion in its capital, Kyiv, Ukraine was never as beleaguered as America in its War of Independence. Ukraine has not been as dependent on foreign military assistance and Ukraine has also not had the benefit of a foreign professional army sharing the burden of its fight. Last year, for example, Ukraine produced 40% of its own weapons, including over one million drones or over 96% of those used in combat.[11] This exceeded President’s Zelensky’s goal for 2024, a testament to his government’s efficiency. Ukraine has similarly been remarkably efficient denying air superiority to the the vastly larger Russian air force,[12] forcing Russia’s Black Sea Fleet to withdrawal after inflicting significant losses (such as the sinking of the flagship Moskva) despite not having a single warship of its own,[13] and Ukraine has held its own against lopsided spending and artillery ratios.[14] Unlike Britain, which after 1812 became the best of friends with its former territorial possession, Russia has remained an implacable enemy of Ukraine, seeking constantly to corrupt, manipulate, control, and now outright conquer its former colony.

The Western Allied Liberation of Europe

Now, imagine if Vance and Hegseth had been advising the Allies in WWII. I know this is far-fetched given Vance’s and Musk’s bizarre embrace of the anti-American/pro-Putin/pro-CCP as well as Nazi and Stassi adjacent AfD, but bear with me. Operation Overlord, they would say, is far too risky and success is so “unrealistic”. After all, the Axis is too strong to fight and already controls most of Europe, including Austria, the Baltic States, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Yugoslavia. Sure, the Nazis are committing war crimes and the Holocaust, but, as Trump says now about Russia, think of how many invaders died conquering Europe! The Wehrmacht suffered 156,492 casualties (including 27,074 killed) to take France.[16] Why waste time with the governments-in-exile moralizing and talking tough about liberating their homelands from the Nazis when there are plenty of puppets each “worshipping Authority so fervently that he would have paid for the privilege of selling himself.”[17] The Antonescus, Nedićs, Petains, and Szálasis of that era have been replaced by the Ficos, Georgescus, Ivanishvilis, Orbans, Le Pens, and Weidels of now. Also think of the business deals to be made with the Reich (some companies, then and now, have no problem collaborating with our enemies). 

Instead of being deterred by Nazi propaganda about the alleged impregnability of ”Fortress Europa,“ the Western Allies pressed forward. Operation Overlord’s D-Day proved to be the beginning of the end of Nazi rule in Europe, especially once General George Patton was put in command of the US Third Army.

Unlike France in 1942, which was 100% run by Nazis or Nazi collaborators prior to liberation by the Western Allies, Russia has at its worst in March 2022 occupied at most approximately 27% or 63,000 sq miles of Ukraine. Smart, determined, and courageous Ukrainians fighting for their very lives and freedom in the face of Russian mass murderers and rapists (see Bucha)[18] have since pushed the horde back, forcing Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to postpone his three-day victory parade by three years and counting. 

Ukraine has liberated Kyiv and the north of the country, expelled the invaders from Khrakiv province, Kherson, and much else, reducing the Russian controlled percentage of the country to approximately 18% or 42,000 sq miles of Ukraine.

After 11 years of fighting that is all the “master strategist” Putin has achieved. Since February 24, 2022, there have been 885,130 Russian casualties and staggering equipment losses, including “10,274 tanks, 21,360 armored fighting vehicles, 39,933 vehicles and fuel tanks, 24,206 artillery systems, 1,310 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,101 air defense systems, 370 airplanes, 331 helicopters, 28,362 drones, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine.”[21] Putin has expressed less care and concern for the waste of Russian lives than US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly conflated and morally equated the lives of Russian invaders with Ukrainian defenders or even civilians. Trump is oddly incapable of understanding that Putin could end the war immediately simply by withdrawing to Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders. Indeed, the borders Putin himself is treaty bound to protect and has on numerous times admitted are real.

Instead, even during these Yalta-style one-sided concession fests mistakenly called “negotiations”, Putin is showing his disdain for President Donald Trump’s weakness by increasing murderous attacks on Ukrainian civilians with hundreds of missiles and Iranian Shahed drones.

Israel’s War of Independence

Had Vance and Hegseth been advising David Ben-Gurion in 1947, they would have nixed announcing Israel’s re-birth due to how “unrealistic” it would be for Jewish forces to defend themselves from invasion by combined Arab forces that were vastly superior numerically and equipped with better and more numerous weapons. Overestimation of the invaders strength is seen today with unalloyed propaganda about Russia’s supposed superiority being taken for granted. Hegseth, moreover, says “Values are important but you can’t shoot values.”[24] Real warriors like Ben-Gurion and Zelensky have proven that values are sometimes the only thing you can shoot. Israel’s invaders had planes and tanks but not their survival at stake. The same is true of Ukraine’s invaders whose medieval mission is one of rape, pillage, and glory for the tsar. Ukrainian civilians and citizen-soldiers have the same tenacity as Israeli civilians and citizen-soldiers, who held onto parts of Jerusalem and fought to defend every kibbutz and village despite being outnumbered, outgunned, surrounded, and starved. Even when forced to surrender or overrun, these heroes managed to buy time for their compatriots elsewhere, just as has been seen in the courageous Ukrainian defenses of Kyiv, Khrakiv, Mariupol, Avdiivka, and Bakhmut. Ukrainians and Israelis know that the cost of failure isn’t “peace” but annihilation.

What both Ukrainians and Israelis have lacked in numbers and weapons, they have made up for with creativity and bravery. An Arab victory parade in Tel Aviv was planned two weeks after the start of the war.[26] Two weeks is far longer than the 72 hours that President Joe Biden’s administration estimated Ukraine could resist Russia’s escalation into full-scale invasion in 2022.[27] Israel ended the war with approximately 60% more territory than allocated by the UN Partition Plan. On the eve of the full-scale invasion, the so-called “Special Military Operation” that Putin’s regime and its apologists denied would happen,[28] Zelensky spoke to Russians in the Russian language, seeking to reason with and reassure them that war was not the answer, but if Putin did commit this crime Ukrainians will “defend ourselves. You’ll see our faces, not backs.”[29]

President Zelensky, thankfully, was not killed or captured, not for want of Putin trying. Zelensky famously did not accept Biden’s ride into exile. Instead, Zelensky demonstrated true and effective leadership under fire, which is why Russia wants the “bad Jew”[30] replaced and even more importantly the Ukrainian army demobilized. 

Maybe Putin will request Trump to send former President Barak Obama to disarm the Ukrainians again, as he did when a Senator, to make sure Ptuin’s victims are easier to kill next time. Trump is exceeding even Obama’s weakness by denying Ukraine intelligence on Russian missile and drone attacks on civilians. This is helping Putin maximize Ukrainian casualties, including with more “double tap” strikes. Russia infamously bombed Syrian civilians and then bombed the first responders who came to rescue them.[32]

Saving the Republic of Korea

Had Vance and Hegseth overseen the American-led United Nations Forces in Korea, there would be no South Korea today. They would have lectured the Koreans, just like they lecture the Ukrainians, on how it is “not realistic” to liberate their land much beyond the Pusan Perimeter. This “realism” would have left 95% of South Korea in the hands of the Russian and Chinese Communist-backed North Koreans. 

Instead, South Koreans had Douglas MacArthur, who executed the surprise amphibious assault on Inchon, which led to the rapid liberation of the country. Six months ago, Ukraine launched a similarly brilliant operation in Kursk.[35] Taking a page from the Korean War and Israel (in the Yom Kippur War), Ukraine went behind enemy lines to establish a beachhead in Russia.

In the process of securing this salient, Ukraine shattered illusions about the Russian military’s strength and the seriousness of Russia’s red lines. No nukes have been fired. Putin has been unable to dislodge the Ukrainians from Sudzha by his ever-changing deadlines despite taking massive casualties, including at least 4,000 North Koreans. Why North Koreans? Because Russia, contrary to Vance and Hegseth, doesn’t have an unlimited supply of meat for the grinder. Russia is a poor country with an older, inebriated, unmotivated, and sickly population.[36] Even Putin’s once unlimited supply of Soviet weapons is running low.[37] Museums are being raided and “combat” jackasses and camels deployed to the front.[38]

President Zelensky is sensibly proposing exchanging Russian territory held by Ukraine for the liberation of Ukrainian territory stolen by Russia. Unfortunately, Putin prefers Ukrainian land to his own country, and he has so far refused to negotiate, at least with Ukraine. His negotiations with Donald Trump have been rewarding him ignoble advantages against the Ukrainians that he failed to achieve on the battlefield.[39]

Just as “realists” refuse to take Al Qaeda, the Ayatollah regime in Iran, and Hamas at their word when discussing why these are self-declared enemies, these same “realists” refuse to take the recidivism and racism of Russia into account when analyzing the Russo-Ukrainian War. Watch regime-controlled Russian television via the Russian Media Monitor, which just like the Palestinian Media Monitor and MEMRI, provides a glimpse of the warped “reality” believed by our enemies, including constant nuclear threats in street protests to mainstream, state-sanctioned “news” discussion programs, and regime statements.[40]

This is what needs to be reckoned with because, as Churchill noted, fanatics can’t change their minds and won’t change the subject. Seeking to pander, appease, or partner with such fanatical enemies as Putin, Xi, and Khamenei is about as realistic as having dinner with a cannibal and expecting not to get eaten.[41]

REFERENCES

1. Maryna Shashkova, “EXPLAINED: Zelensky’s 10-Point Peace Plan,” Kyiv Post, 14 November 2023: https://www.kyivpost.com/post/20469; “Summit on Peace in Ukraine: Joint Communiqué on a Peace Framework,” Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), 16 June 2024: https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/fdfa/fdfa/aktuell/dossiers/konferenz-zum-frieden-ukraine/Summit-on-Peace-in-ukraine-joint-communique-on-a-peace-framework.html.
2. “Waterloo Campaign Medal, 1815.” National Army Museum Collection, https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1959-11-302-1.
3. Ibid.
4. Stacy Schiff, A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America. (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2005), p. 19
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. “Battle of Brooklyn,” American Battlefield Trust:, https://www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/brooklyn.
8. Schiff, A Great Improvisation, p. 24
9. Ibid., p. 5
10. Daniel P. Rignault, MD, The History of the French Military Medical Corps (Paris: Service de Santé des Armées, 2004), p. 20: http://www.archive.org/details/101659674.nlm.nih.gov.
11. Tim Zadorozhnyy, “Zelensky Says Ukraine Produces 40% of Its Battlefield Weapons; U.S. Provides 30%,” The Kyiv Independent, 5 February 2025, https://kyivindependent.com/zelensky-says-ukraine-produces-40-of-its-battlefield-weapons-us-provides-30/; Abbey Fenbert, “Ukrainian Drones Made up over 96% of UAVs Military Used in 2024, Defense Minister Says,” The Kyiv Independent, 28 December 2024, https://kyivindependent.com/ukrainian-drones-made-up-over-96-of-uavs-military-used-in-2024-defense-minister-says/.
12. Maria Varenikova and Andrew E. Kramer, “How Ukraine’s Outgunned Air Force Is Fighting Back Against Russian Jets,” New York Times, 22 March 2022: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/22/world/europe/ukraine-air-force-russia.html;
    David Brennan, “Russia’s Failure to Dominate Skies Over Ukraine Called ‘Surprising’ by Experts,” Newsweek, 25 February 2022: https://www.newsweek.com/russias-failure-dominate-skies-over-ukraine-called-surprising-1683918; Justin Bronk, “The Mysterious Case of the Missing Russian Air Force,” Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), 28 February 2022: https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/mysterious-case-missing-russian-air-force.
13. Brian Glyn Williams, “How the Ukrainians with No Navy Defeated Russia’s Black Sea Fleet,” The Conversation, 19 July 2024: https://theconversation.com/how-the-ukrainians-with-no-navy-defeated-russias-black-sea-fleet-234259.
14. Yevheniia Martyniuk, “Ukraine Cut Russia’s Artillery Advantage from 10:1 to 2:1, Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi Says,” Euromaidan Press, 9 February 2025: https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/02/09/ukraine-cut-russias-artillery-advantage-from-101-to-21-commander-in-chief-syrskyi-says/.
15. “Building the Atlantic Wall.” Warfare History Network, https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/building-the-atlantic-wall/.
16. “Over 1,000 Companies Have Curtailed Operations in Russia—But Some Remain.” Yale School of Management, 2022. https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain; Dada Lyndell and Ekaterina Mereminskaya, “Making a Killing: The Western Companies That Gained the Most by Staying in Russia After the Invasion of Ukraine,” The Insider, 8 March 2025: https://theins.ru/en/economics/279460.
17. Gustave Flaubert, Sentimental Education, Book II Chapter XVII.
18. Lori Hinnant, Vasilisa Stepanenko, and Evgeniy Maloletka, “How Russian Soldiers Ran a ‘Cleansing’ Operation in Bucha,” Associated Press, 19 May 2022: https://apnews.com/article/bucha-ukraine-war-cleansing-investigation-43e5a9538e9ba68a035756b05028b8b4.
19. “Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, March 23, 2024.” Institute for the Study of War, 23 March 2024. https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-23.
20. “Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, March 6, 2025.” Institute for the Study of War, 6 March 2025. https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-6-2025.
21. “Putin Reveals Secrets of Russia’s Crimea Takeover Plot.” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), 9 April 2015. https://www.rferl.org/a/putin-crimea-ukraine/26942862.html.
22. “Diplomatic Standoff Over Georgia Heads To Kyiv, Dushanbe.” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), 27 August 2008: https://www.rferl.org/a/Diplomatic_Standoff_Over_Georgia_Heads_To_Kyiv_Dushanbe/1194230.html.
23. Conservative Political Action Conference (@CPAC), “We have a Shahed Drone on display here at CPAC. The Shahed Drone has been used against and killed U.S. troops in the Middle East in addition to causing countless civilian casualties,” 23 February 2025: https://x.com/CPAC/status/1893132649289425315.
24. Pete Hegseth, “Press Conference Following NATO Ministers of Defense Meeting in Brussels, Belgium,” U.S. Department of Defense, 13 February 2025: https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/4066734/secretary-of-defense-pete-hegseth-press-conference-following-nato-ministers-of/.
25. “Fire Sweeps Ghetto As Arabs Attack in Modern Jerusalem,” Associated Press, 29 May 1948. Available from: https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-escanaba-daily-press-bonifas-estate/9990382/.
26. Benny Morris, 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), p. 185.
27. See the “Timeline of Biden’s Deadly Delays in Sending Weapons to Ukraine” in Representatives Michael McCaul, Mike Rogers, and Mike Turner, “Proposed Plan for Victory in Ukraine,” House Foreign Affairs Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, November 2023: https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Proposed-Plan-for-Victory-in-Ukraine.pdf.
28. A Martínez , Greg Myre , Jenna McLaughlin, “In high-stakes meeting, Russia tells U.S. it isn’t planning to invade Ukraine,” NPR, 10 January 2022: https://www.npr.org/2022/01/10/1071766987/u-s-russia-dicuss-ukraine-can-diplomacy-help-avoid-a-military-confrontation.
29. “Full Transcript of Zelenskyy’s Emotional Appeal to Russians.” NBC News/Reuters, 23 February 2022: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/full-transcript-zelenskyys-emotional-appeal-russians-rcna17485.
30. See: https://www.therussianthreat.com/; Itamar Eichner, “Netanyahu: ‘We Will Strike at Our Enemies and Demand a Price From Them’,” Ynet News, 6 March 2024: https://www.ynetnews.com/article/s1h8dp3r2; Cathy Young, “Putin’s Useful Idiots: Right-Wingers Lose It Over Zelensky’s Visit,” The Bulwark, 22 December 2022: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/putins-useful-idiots-right-wingers-lose-it-over-zelensky-visit; “To Vilify Ukraine, the Kremlin Resorts to Antisemitism,” U.S. Department of State, 14 March 2024: Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240314150310/https://www.state.gov/disarming-disinformation/to-vilify-ukraine-the-kremlin-resorts-to-antisemitism/ [Note this article was deleted by the Trump Administration]; David May, “Israel Needs to Speak Out and Hold Putin Accountable for His Crimes and Lies,” Algemeiner, 20 July 2022: https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/07/20/israel-needs-to-speak-out-and-hold-putin-accountable-for-his-crimes-and-lies/; Ben Cohen, “Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism Thrive in Russia: Is Putin on a Collision Course With Israel?,” Algemeiner, 6 June 2024: https://www.algemeiner.com/2024/06/06/antisemitism-and-anti-zionism-thrive-in-russia-is-putin-on-a-collision-course-with-israel/.
31. James Nye, “Flashback: Senator Obama Pushed for the Destruction of 15,000 TONS of Ammunition, 400,000 Small Arms, 1,000 Anti-Aircraft Missiles in Ukraine,” Daily Mail, 7 March 2014, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2573557.
32. Volodymyr Zelenskyy (@ZelenskyyUa),”Last night, the Russian army struck the center of Dobropillya in the Donetsk region,” 7 March 2025, https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1898307787542999432; Kareem Rifai (@KareemRifai), “The attack in Odesa yesterday was a signature Russian strategy practiced in Syria: a double-tap strike,” 16 March 2024: https://x.com/KareemRifai/status/1769021554023649456.
33. James Nye, “Flashback: Senator Obama Pushed for the Destruction of 15,000 TONS of Ammunition, 400,000 Small Arms, 1,000 Anti-Aircraft Missiles in Ukraine,” Daily Mail, 5 March 2014. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2573557.
34. “United States Marines Arrive at Pusan During Korean War,” Harry S. Truman Library & Museum, 2 August 1950: https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/photograph-records/2007-725.
35. Julia Davis, “Putin’s Face Betrays Russian Panic Over Ukrainian Invasion Shock.” The Daily Beast, 9 August 2024: https://www.thedailybeast.com/putins-face-betrays-russian-panic-over-ukrainian-invasion-shock/; Angelica Evans, “Ukraine’s Kursk Incursion: Six-Month Assessment,” Institute for the Study of War, 6 February 2025: https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/ukraine%E2%80%99s-kursk-incursion-six-month-assessment.
36. Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes, “Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Is a War of Demography.” Foreign Policy, 6 December 2024: https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/12/06/russia-ukraine-war-demography/.
37. Pavel Luzin, “Russia’s Year of Truth: The Missing Military Hardware,” Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), 22 January 2025: https://cepa.org/article/russias-year-of-truth-the-missing-military-hardware/.
38. Maya Mehrara, “Russia Deploys Donkeys, Camels in Ukraine Amid Resupply Struggles,” Newsweek, 27 February 2025, https://www.newsweek.com/russia-deploys-donkeys-camels-ukraine-amid-resupply-struggles-2037097.
39. Grace Mappes, “Russia has Failed to Break Ukraine,” Institute for the Study of War, 24 February 2025: https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russia-has-failed-break-ukraine; See: https://www.youtube.com/@russianmediamonitor, https://www.memri.org/, and https://palwatch.org/.
40. Mandy Taheri, “Russia Protests U.S. Nuclear Weapons in Europe,” Newsweek, 16 June 2024, https://www.newsweek.com/russia-protest-nuclear-weapons-us-1912997.
41. Anna Mahjar-Barducci, “Anti-Liberal Forces Are Preparing for the ‘Final Battle’ Against the West,” MEMRI, 1 July 2024: https://www.memri.org/reports/anti-liberal-forces-are-preparing-final-battle-against-west; Andrew Chakhoyan, “How to Sleepwalk into World War 3: The Manual,” Euromaidan Press, 7 March 2025: https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/03/07/how-to-sleepwalk-into-world-war-3-the-manual/.