War is expensive, I once read that for what it cost to kill a Vietnamese soldier, we could have bought each one of them a 3-bedroom house and a car, or something like that. We might have been able to buy the whole country. It’s not unthinkable, Zionist volunteers bought Israel lot by lot, house by house. A Wagner mercenary is paid twice what a Russian soldier earns. In other words, they fight, suffer and maybe die for less than $600 a month, with no pension or other benefits except what they can steal.
War is expensive, I once read that for what it cost to kill a Vietnamese soldier, we could have bought each one of them a 3-bedroom house and a car, or something like that. We might have been able to buy the whole country. It’s not unthinkable, Zionist volunteers bought Israel lot by lot, house by house. A Wagner mercenary is paid twice what a Russian soldier earns. In other words, they fight, suffer and maybe die for less than $600 a month, with no pension or other benefits except what they can steal.
America throws billions at the Ukraine defense, almost two thirds of the total. The Wagner group are mercenaries, soldiers for hire, by almost anyone who pays them. They are not fighting for a cause, just money and adventure. They just demonstrated that their loyalty to Russia is not as strong as Putin would like to believe. Loyalty not to Putin, but only to the idea of Russia. Would it be possible for us to spend some of our billions on retaining the Wagner group or individual soldiers to remove them from the battle against Ukraine.
This could take several forms. Maybe individual soldiers would be content to fight on the Ukraine side, for $1000 a month, alongside Ukrainian volunteers, under Ukrainian command, and perhaps earn Ukrainian citizenship.
We could offer to pay individuals to defect, maybe $10,000 and free passage to a country that would have them. They would probably not be able to go back to Russia but then who would want to? Every rifle taken from the Russian side saves a Ukrainian life or more. If they surrender a big Howitzer or an armored vehicle, maybe add a $100,000 bounty. A 155 Howitzer is worth at least $2 million, a main battle tank over $10 million. The locals already know how to use and maintain Russian ordnance. A $100,000 goes a long way in the third world, even $1,000 would be more money than many third world people ever see in a lifetime. Some Russian soldiers might even take that offer.
Another option could be, like the French Foreign Legion, enlisted mercenaries under Ukrainian senior officers. Prigozhin himself might be flipped for a couple of million, American. He can bring his command and control with him, but would have to depend on allied logistics. That’s not a big problem, Russia has not given reliable support to his troops.. It might be simpler to just pension them all off. In any case many options should be considered. Fewer Ukrainians would have to die if the Russian force was drastically reduced. There is more than one way to skin a battalion.
If I can think of this, I hope committees in the Pentagon, or State Department have already analyzed it and for all I know, prepared a presentation for the President or Congress. It is time for some original thinking, but neither department is well known for creative thinking. State is mired in tradition and military officers study past wars. Maybe the generals are still only prepared to fight the last war.
The Free World cannot afford to let this killing machine continue until Russia goes broke or Ukraine ceases to exist. Then we would have to rebuild Ukraine, and Russia. This is beginning to look like World War One, where two armies faced off over the same field for two years, the line of battle barely moved 200 yards. Twenty million died and nothing was settled. The bitter feeling prepared the ground for overthrow of the Tsar, the rise of the SovietUnion and World War Two where another 80 million died.
The UN was supposed to prevent this sort of conflict but is seriously flawed, Russia cadged the permanent seat dedicated to the USSR, with veto power that cannot be overridden by the General Assembly or anyone. In a Republic no member has that much power. This situation is a good argument for a new UN charter with checks and balances like our Constitution.
Ken Obenski is a forensic engineer, now safety and freedom advocate in South Kona. He writes a biweekly column for West Hawaii Today. Send feedback to obenskik@gmail.com
