> You seem to have mistaken me for an invasion supporter. No I didn't think that. But it did seem to me that you thought this invasion wasn't a mistake on Russ

> You seem to have mistaken me for an invasion supporter. No I didn't think that. But it did seem to me that you thought this invasion wasn't a mistake on Russia's end. > My view is that Russia, mainly at Putin's instigation, has perpetrated a catastrophic mistake. So I wrongly interpreted your previous post. We basically agree on this one. So I don't consider you an idiot ;). > I think it's plausible to claim that Putin's ministers and generals are afraid to tell him anything he doesn't want to hear. That doesn't make him stupid or mad. I think it's here were we differ. He should know better as to how reliable the info is that he gets. If he punishes bad news, he should be smart enough to know that people will not tell him bad news. I call that idiotic. > making accurate predictions about what might happen next, are much improved I agree with you on this one. Maybe my "lunatic" was not well chosen, and should be replaced with "psychopath". Because only a psychopath kills or poisons political opposition. But it's perfectly doable to predict an idiot's actions. For the most part I think we actually agree with each other, it's just the wording that might differ. It seems Putin was living in his own fantasy land for quite a while. And now that he's getting hit with reality, I sure hope he's sane enough to understand certain consequences.