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Has Ukraine ever had “momentum” throughout the entirely of this war?
They managed to regain a bunch of territory early in 2022 because Russia lacked troops to defend it and sensibly chose to pull back. This became the basis for a lot of the mythology around Ukraine’s ability to push Russia back. This likely greatly contributed to the inflated expectations for the summer offensive last year. The west expected that Russia would just give up territory without much of a fight again, then they’d back Russia in a corner and force negotiations on western terms.
Quality is necessary for opportunity but may be insufficient in itself for success. And if so, the United States may need to rethink its balance of quality and quantity in a world where permissive conditions happen sometimes but cannot be guaranteed.
I think this quote from the end of the article sums it up well. Unfortunately for the imperialist powers, they bet it all on quality over quantity over the preceding decades, and now lack the manufacturing capacity to win a war that comes down to – as modern total warfare generally does it seems – an attritional contest of the ability of the belligerents to replace their losses, a war of quantity, a war of industry.
i think they bet it all on overwhelming air superiority and terrorbombing campaigns against much weaker enemies, and they still lost every fucking war.
this emphasis on quality is just empty nazi rhetoric.
You’re probably right. “Over-engineered” definitely isn’t the same as “quality”.
i mean, the longer ww2 went on, the more the nazis wanked about superior technology and shit, while the war kept getting worse and worse for them. they had their best successes with their well tested, relatively simple, easy to repair/manufacture early war tanks.
and then what equipment actually won the war? well tested, mass produced, easy to repair shermans and t34s. these were tanks where the designers actually cared how big bridges are, and how heavy a tank can be if it still wants to be able to cross bridges. or how fast you can swap a busted transmission in a muddy field. or or or.
and now NATO is continuing the great tradition of nazi wunderwaffe worship.
Much like many of the Nazi wunderwaffles, the ones from the USA also have mostly never faced the test of large scale deployment on a real battlefield in a peer conflict either so they say whatever they want about the superiority of their equipment and doctrine and who knows, it could be true, right? Ukraine is really revealing it all to be just so much bullshit though.
I’m trying to think of western weapons that did actually face a real trial and a lot of the examples I can think of the performance was just kind of “fine”. The F-86 was bested in some important characteristics by the MiG-15/17, the F-4’s shortcomings in flight characteristics and complete reliance on unreliable missile technology was a problem, the M-16 rifle’s early history is pretty notorious, various helicopters that seem to be real good at crashing. A lot of these problems were addressed eventually resulting in a weapon system that was adequate (but hardly war-winning), but fixing a problem requires acknowledging the problem first and, at least publicly, the USA doesn’t seem to be doing that. Perhaps the weapons manufacturers behind the scenes are putting the new experiences to use, and perhaps they can produce weapons that are merely overpriced instead of overpriced and inadequate.
I mean, after WW2 a lot of those Nazis got cushy jobs in NATO and other US-controlled organizations. AFAIK they appointed one as General Secretary right after the war. Not to mention - operation Gladio and operation Paperclip is a thing.
they bet it all on quality over quantity over the preceding decades
Have they? Used to think the same, but recently I’m starting to suspect it is a part of the mythology surrounding NATO and USA specifically.
Yeah, tbh i’m not seeing the vaunted “quality” of NATO gear in Ukraine…
that’s because the slavic brainpan cannot handle the superior elvi- uh I mean, WESTERN weaponry
Namely, the quality they most strive for is “expensive”
quite and admission, they kept making fun or Russian army for two years, but all of a sudden it’s not clear that US army could take on it
Perhaps an attacker with U.S.-level skills and training could have broken through, as those who emphasize training or operational decision-making tend to imply. But a large advantage in skill and motivation is needed to breach defenses like these. Ukraine did not enjoy this in 2023, and it is unclear whether even American troops would have the skill differential sufficient for a task this difficult.
What the US has, though, is vassal states. It’s sent Ukrainians to their deaths and would have no qualms with sending kids from the next state across through the mine fields until they were depleted. Then US soldiers would walk across the bodies and loudly proclaim their superiority, ‘What was all the fuss about, this is easy for a Yankee.’
I think that’s exactly how US looks at the situation. The two practical problems here are that people in these vassal states are starting to get rowdy as evidence by all the rioting happening in Europe, and the industrial capacity is lacking for sustaining the conflict at the current levels. US simply isn’t able to produce enough ammunition to keep up with Russia. On top of that, US is now looking like it’s gonna be mired in a big war in the Middle East. I expect this is going to be a debacle of biblical proportions.
Minefields, there are minefields all the way down.
One of the most hilarious videos from this summer was when Ukrainians were being trained by the Germans and they asked what to do about minefields, and Germans was like oh you just drive around them. 😂
Defense in depth stopped the Nazis at Kursk too.
nazis never learn
“It’s gonna work this time!”
