The recent battle for the town of Avdiivka in Donetsk region was one of the bloodiest since the war began: for months, Russian commanders did not hesitate to send squad after squad into the meat grinder so that Vladimir Putin would have something to present to his electorate before the elections.
According to the UK estimates, in February this year the daily figures reached the maximum values since the beginning of the war. Thus, the Russian army was losing an average of 983 people killed and wounded per day.
For historical context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet–Afghan_War Russia likely didn’t loose more than 100,000 in Afghanistan
For personal context: I was a kid during the Iraqi invasion under dubya, and I remember being shocked when we reported 20 casualties in the daily npr report
Yeah that’s the difference between Russia’s total war and US’s full spectrum doctorines. Russia just mashes bodies and equipment at the enemy in hopes to starve the enemy out. The US will not act until it’s confident it can rapidly secure all aspects of the warzone - air, sea, cyber, land. Once they’re setup to commit though, they tend to shock and awe from combined arms to seize key land and assets really quickly forcing the enemy to react or most often surrender to the overwhelming force.
The US one is contingent on minimal loss of its force unlike the Russian one where it’s a feature not a bug. So seeing 20 dead for us is pretty shocking where the Russians may lose 400 in the same timeframe.
Thank you, Mr. Wiggin, for enlightening the class.
I was an adult during W’s follies following 9/11, and as someone who remembered Desert Storm as a kid, you were right to be shocked.
What Russia is doing is starting to look more and more like total war. May our times become less interesting, not more.
Russia’s been engaged in total war for over a year. Ever city they’ve ‘taken’ has been a blasted out skeleton where shell craters and collapsed city blocks replaced the civilization that was there before. Their only tactical achievements have been made under the rain of enormous amounts of artillery. And the US’s fucking coward right wing fuckstick shitstains in congress are letting it happen unanswered. We could be helping Ukraine win this war and instead the GOP is playing games with ukrainian existence. It’s ridiculous and disgraceful, which I guess is the GOP way but still makes me sick.
@mojofrododojo @andyburke
I can tell you that we in Europe think the US has lost the plot. They don’t seem to have anything working, and can’t make decisions. A whole generation of politicians need to die out and be replaced, before much will get better.
I don’t blame you for that feeling, I feel we’ve lost the plot too. I despise trump, of course, but the mewling shitkids he’s got in the house - people like Mungry Taylor Green who are exactly the kind of isolationist assholes who tried to keep the US out of WW2 when it was obviously going to happen. They’re apologists for strongmen and traitors to democracy.