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birdsneedkarmatoo t1_iy42piq wrote

So, send mothers/ wives of soldiers to regions the soldier are tasked to defend? Is this how they stop Russian soldiers from retreating/ surrendering?

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Complicated-HorseAss t1_iy52fhv wrote

This is like the ancient days when Gallic and I think Germanic tribes would be bring their entire families to war, the wives would create a wall of carts and scream at their husbands to not retreat and give them emotional support. Against Caesar, it failed miserably, the soldiers tried to run, they were trapped by the carts and slaughtered in front of their families and then the families were enslaved. Moral the story, don't bring your family to a warzone.

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SuperSpread t1_iy5nr4p wrote

So I know of this and in most cases the entire tribe was migrating. The Romans refused the migration, even lost twice to one tribe before defeating them the third time. Their entire tribe completely abandoned their homeland due to overpopulation and pressure from other tribes. It happened again and again.

Ironically, the tribe just wanted to move into Cisalpine Gaul. They had completely wiped out the Roman army in the north and Rome assumed they were about to be destroyed, but the tribes weren't interested in that.

Hundreds of years later after the fall of the Western Roman empire the pattern resumed, with tribes migrating great distances, reaching as far as North Africa.

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wurrukatte t1_iy5wyuw wrote

Reminds me of the Cimbri and Teutons, who scared the Romans so bad, they coined the term "Teutonic fury" to describe their fear. They defeated the Romans completely twice (one of the times Rome fucked up an ambush and got themselves slaughtered), and on the third encounter, Rome finally defeated them but the women killed all their children and then themselves.

... So they showed up seemingly out of nowhere, wiped out two Roman armies, then all died or killed themselves, denying the Romans any sort of trophy or compensation for their (very considerable) trouble. And that was just two tribes.

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POGtastic t1_iy6rwpi wrote

This was everyone in antiquity, not just the Gauls. There's a ton of archeological evidence from Roman forts and camps of their wives and families following them, along with the fact that the #1 way for a Roman general to say "I'm being a hardass disciplinarian" was to kick as many noncombatants out of the camp as possible.

The "camp follower" was mostly done away with in the ancient before-time of the 1800s, when railroad logistics and better communications allowed the State to centralize their organization to the point where they could finally get rid of all of the women doing laundry / cooking meals / maintaining equipment while doing some hookin' and sutlering on the side.

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pocket-seeds t1_iy4rmv1 wrote

Maybe Russia is laying a trap that will trigger more anti-Ukraine sentiment?

If they move these mothers into East Ukraine and Ukraine recaptures their terroritory, these mothers will have to move.

Then Russia can say, "look how bad Ukrainians are. They throw mothers out of their own houses", even though those houses were never theirs to begin with.

... IDK... I don't know jack shit, but it's the only way that it makes sense to me.

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homer_lives t1_iy4sg8c wrote

That and they can use them as human shields and if they are killed or injured, they can claim "Look at evil Ukraine killing innocent women (who we trucked in from thousands of miles away)"

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GerryC t1_iy4z76c wrote

Yup, I guess just classify them as enemy combatants then. They're fair game as they will be providing material support for the invading army, not some innocent civilian who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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carlitospig t1_iy5lgsc wrote

Yep, if you bomb the soldiers, you bomb innocent civilians.

It’s fucking gross.

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CelerySlime t1_iy748lh wrote

How innocent are they though? Sure they believe the propaganda so they’re fools but given the correct information they’d still chose to aid Russia. Can’t feel bad for them when they chose to go to a war zone and war happens.

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carlitospig t1_iy86qxt wrote

See? The propaganda’s already working. Say they believe in their husband’s rape of civilians during wartime and suddenly bombing auntie and meemaw doesn’t sound so bad.

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CelerySlime t1_iy8wgiu wrote

Why do they think they need to supply their soldiers? Drills?

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CarlSaganComplex t1_iy4tf7t wrote

The article says the mothers and wives came up with the idea themselves

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Spadrick t1_iy4uq8g wrote

They are going to go get their men and boys and keep going east.

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nicolasbarbierz t1_iy57vwx wrote

I think you mean west?

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Spadrick t1_iy58dr8 wrote

I'd cover my ass here by saying something to the effect of "it's all east if you go far enough" but you caught me squaresies.

Yeah, going west to get their men and boys and then continuing to defect Westerly.

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kayak_enjoyer t1_iy6761s wrote

I get east and west mixed up 100% of the time. It's not intermittent - if I don't pause for a split second to make sure, I'll get them exactly backward, every time.

Once it pissed me off and I resolved to keep east and west straight instinctively, dammit. I did; and then I started to mix up drive and reverse in my car. Fine, fuck it, east/west confusion isn't particularly dangerous, I'll just go back to that. 😡😄

tl;dr: I get you.

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Truth_is_Liberal t1_iy5t77w wrote

As generations of people fleeing the stupidity of Moscow have before. It's funny but sad how much the failure of slavic states is directly tied to the drunken incompetence of Moscow-based leadership.

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HaViNgT t1_iy7sxtz wrote

I remember hearing that in WW2, Stalin would often not allow civilian evacuations to motivate the soliders to fight harder.

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