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WNU Editor: There were a lot of things said by the former CIA Director in the above clip that made me mad. 

When former CIA Director Petraeus said that Russia cannot outsuffer Ukraine, NATO, and the U.S. in the above clip, I just shook my head and said “are you kidding me”. You are talking about a country that suffered +20 million deaths in the Second World War. That suffered under Stalin and Communist rule and deprivation for decades. That had to endure the chaos and suffering throughout the 1990s after the breakup of the Soviet Union, and international sanctions since 2014. Petraeus of all people must know that the people in Russia have a long history of knowing what suffering is all about, and more importantly, knowing how to handle and endure it. And as to who can outsuffer the most. The contrast of Moscow filled with people shopping for Christmas in stores packed with goods among blazing lights to the darken streets of Kyiv or the dimming of lights for many European capitals while their citizens have to make a decision over having heat or food cannot be more different than now. 

Former CIA Director Petraeus’ remarks that Russia has suffered more casualties in this war over ten months than it did over 8 years in Afghanistan was something that I did not expect from him. Of course Russia has suffered more casualties in this war than it did in Afghanistan. Both wars are different. Afghanistan was a low intensity war. The Russia – Ukraine war is a full intensity war. If the US military was to engage in this war right now, I can say with 100% confidence that the US will suffer more casualties in a week than it did over 20 years in Iraq/Afghanistan/and the war against global terrorism. 

His glee that the US has already spent tens of billions in this war (and will spend tens if not hundreds of billions more) is also telling what many in the US military and intelligence community feel right now. That this war is a seminal moment for the US, and that the defeat of Russia in Ukraine is essential if the US wants to maintain its dominance in the world.