No. of Recommendations: 11
There has been speculation that Russia is a "has been" as a military force and no match for the US and/or NATO. That may be the case, but despite their dubious military tactics, they have succeeded in throwing millions of personnel and vast amounts of munitions and equipment into the Ukraine conflict over the past two years.
I wouldn't call that a success. On the other board we had a ongoing Ukraine thread before CMFMints closed it. I wish she hadn't because there was an excellent example of this playing out in real time. Way back in summer of 2024, the Russians began advancing towards an obvious objective, the village of Pokrovsk which is a minor transportation hub, a mere ten or so miles from Russian front lines at the time. Most analysts concluded that based on Russia's superior manpower (roughly 8:1 advantage in that area) and equipment advantage the Pokrovsk would fall in at most a matter of months if not weeks.
Turns out that was not quite the case. The advance was slowed by the Kursk incursion (which most analysists seemed to object to at the time) and Russia is just now entering the town, which is now a completely lifeless bombed out hulk. Outmanned and outgunned Ukraine fought Russia to a near stand-still for over year. When Russia finally captures the town they will have captured only a few dozen square miles and some worthless ruins.
I mention that because although we all have complaints about the military-industrial complex, the US military itself is good at learning and adapting. Running low on certain types of munitions might not be ideal, but IMO it won't really make much difference operationally.
The lesson here is the Congress and our leaders need to be more mindful of application of US power. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were designed to fail. I don't know the final financial costs, but surely it is in the trillions. Air strikes on Houthi mud huts costs us hundreds of millions. An effort which is also designed to fail. At the same time our leaders are telling us we don't have money for medical research, national parks, or feeding our hungry. This is a clear and terrible misapplication of resources. Our leaders have failed the military and failed us as well.
