As long as Ukraine is supplied weapons, the rule of thumb is that Russia looses as many troops as the pre-war population of the city/place they are trying to take over. So they would need 38 million troops to take over Ukraine.
The comments in the article are spot on. NATO, the US, and the EU have failed at ending the war. They are way too fucking slow. They could be ramping up production like in war times and helping Ukraine, but none of that is happening. Ukrainians are dying daily and have been for 2 years, yet they lack proper support. It’s just enough to keep them going, but not more while the suits just count their money and spout platitudes.
“We must defeat Russia”. Fucking arm Ukraine to the teeth then, you dumb pigs. Sanctioning Russia is barely making a dent on the frontline.
A perspective that must be understood is they do not want a total Russian collapse that would be worse. If Russia falls apart like a total defeat would cause then you’d have migrations and far more violence than now with infighting and likely warlords picking up Putin’s remains and fighting for whatever is left.
They want a grinding war that ends up draining Russia so the people are sick of it and surrender not the government. Which is a much harder thing to do.
Blowing up Putin and the Kremlin is like blowing up a porta potty, shit everywhere. They’d rather it slowly melt away like snow.
It’d probably be bad in terms of global stability and whatnot, but it’d still get a chuckle out of me if China just went “Well, It’s free real estate” and invaded russia.
China wants Taiwan. While some land in Russia might be nice it isn’t a big deal. They like Russia getting away with attacking Ukraine because it sets a global precedent that large powers can take over weaker powers.
I mean, Russia hasn’t succeeded though, been sanctioned by many nations, and lots of nations are supplying gear to the defenders. That’s not really “getting away with it” and I’m not sure it sends the message to China that you think it does.
They dom’t have to be successful to be used to normalize taking over weaker powers. The world not actively opposing the attempt is still normalizing.
The thing is, I’m not sure whether we have troops and ammo for any sort of defensive in Ukraine. I would like to hope that with foreign help we can outlast russians, though
The US can by practical means drive Russia out of whatever Ukrainian territory they wish, anytime they wish, and covertly if they wish.
The US goal isn’t to win quickly. They’ll drag out the war to drain the resources of the enemy. It’s Afghanistan again, except:
- power disparity is greater and more transparent
- backlash similar to Afghanistan is likely avoided with NATO membership
As long as it hurts russia, I’m in. But I’d also rather not have so many of our people dead, soldiers or civilians
Inadequate.
Military-Industrial Complex
The US allocates a lot of money to defense. The spending boosts the economy. Capitalism requires increase in consumption to support mandate of economic growth. The weapons must be consumed such that more can be produced.
A proxy war allows the consumption of weapons without the publicly-objectionable consumption of American lives. A proxy war can be artificially extended for an economic boost.
Afghanistan
However, the people of the nation fighting with US weapons will eventually figure out the scam. They’ll get really fucking righteously angry and have no viable means to communicate. They send a message by running airplanes into skyscrapers. So, we consume more weapons.
Ukraine
The US will avoid the consequences of a proxy war by recruiting the victims into NATO.
Winners
The only people winning are the stockholders of US defense corporations.
“To sustain real offensive operations, we think that Russia would have to secure significant ammunition supplies from countries beyond what it is already getting from Iran and from North Korea,” the source noted, adding that a new wave of mobilization would also be necessary.
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According to the source, Ukrainian defenses have improved significantly, albeit also suffering heavy losses. It will take some time before Kyiv accumulates enough resources to launch its own counter-offensive, the official noted.
It seems like attrition might be the way to go. Offensives are expensive and risky. If the Russians keep throwing troops in to the meat grinder why not just let them
