Posted on 10/29/2022 6:45:05 AM PDT by fugazi
“Quantity is a quality all its own.” This quote is attributed to Joseph Stalin, and considering Soviet military performance during World War II it certainly fits. But can we apply the same view to modern conflict?
Consider Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: Russia could certainly win if they deployed massive numbers of troops. But that isn’t realistic. Stalin isn’t in charge for one, and Russia created this war.
Motivation
Once Germany invaded, Stalin mobilized millions of people who wanted to defend their homeland from an army that was killing, raping, and burning their way through the motherland. Those who survived Stalin’s famines now faced a German starvation campaign. Adolf Hitler wanted not only to defeat the communists, but to subjugate and eliminate the Slavic race. Soviets feared Stalin and, prosperity-wise, had little to live for relative to today’s Russians. Marching into Stalingrad with little training, equipped with a uniform and bullets but not enough rifles to go around was still preferable to the alternative.
Now, it is the Ukrainians whose back is against the wall, and they are still fighting like hell. If Vladimir Putin wants to remain in power he has to conscript as many citizens as possible without turning the population against him and inviting a coup. Russians don’t seem all that threatened by their Ukrainian neighbors. If they were, Putin would be enlisting volunteers and not recruiting prisoners. People do not want to fight and die in a country that isn’t a threat. Leadership
Stalin didn’t wait for the Germans to invade; he imprisoned or killed much of his military talent in purges. Communism crushes
(Excerpt) Read more at untothebreach.net ...
blah blah blah
In many past wars the invaders and defenders had vastly different cultures and languages.
Information was difficult to obtain.
Information was more easily controlled by the commanders of both sides, and/or their masters.
In the digital age, this task is much more difficult.
Russia has to keep a strong control over information to keep their population in strong support of the war.
It appears they have mostly succeeded, but there are many gaps. Information of the war going badly is filtering back to the Russian population. It is unknown what effect this will have, or how soon. It is unlikely to be a good effect for the Russian effort.
On the other hand, Ukraine appears to need little to boost their own people. As the invaded, the act speaks for itself.
Ukraines major task has been to convince the West they can win, and to maintain the flow of Western aid.
So far, they have succeeded. It is unknown if they will maintain that effectiveness.
The “war” would have been over in fifteen minutes without the US hundred billion dollar slush fund and materiel and “advisors.”
This is a proxy war between Hillary Clinton and Russia, and now our state department is moving nuclear missiles to the border and admitting they would be open to a nuclear first strike.
If you can build them faster than they can destroy them you will ultimately win.
Even in WW2, the Soviet quantity were getting demolished by the German quality until they significantly improved their leadership and logistics. Another good example of that was the Iraq-Iran war. At least initially, the Iraqi Army had superior quality, and the Iranians could stop it only with what amounted to human wave defensive tactics. But even the fanatical Iranians found that that was not sustainable, and had to begin reprofessionalizing their military to stop hemorrhaging men. Once they came close to evening the quality, the quantity did win out.
The problem the Russians have in the current war is that their quality is continuing to degrade rather than improve. So while the Russian army in WW2 kept receiving increasing quantities of ever improving tanks, etc., with which to arm those masses of new troops, the Russian army is sending in more poorly armed, equipped, and trained troops, with no realistic prospect of that trend being reversed.
What quality? They would lose without help.
Indeed.....
This is delusional.
U.S. supplies and support didn't even begin arriving in Ukraine until weeks after the war began - long after the Russians were supposed to have concluded their special operation. In fact, it was the unanticipated Ukrainian success in resisting the Russians that eventually convince the United States and its NATO allies that Ukraine had enough of a chance to be worthy of support.
I’m well aware of the quality vs quantity argument.
I’m not aware what it has to do with my post.
Far superior doctrine and training.
Yours is a most interesting citation from a website domain which until now was unknown to me. A "whois.com" query returns the information that it was created in July of this year, and interestingly is being offered for sale by hugedomains.com on Denver, Colorado..
The registrant and admin contact is identified as "Domain Admin / This Domain is For Sale."
Odd, one might think, for news and opinion about the Ukraine / Russia war. One may read about the author of the op-ed at "https://www.untothebreach.net/about-contact/."
Reporting from the front lines -- in Denver, Colorado. "Please buy this site...."
Your post asked that exact question:
Can Russian quantity defeat US weapons, money, and training?
And I gave my answer to that question, which is no - quantity with inferior and still degrading quality will lose.
No, my post was correcting the title.
—> On the other hand, Ukraine appears to need little to boost their own people
Yet ukraine (I read) hired +20 PR agencies to put out their narrative 24/7
Yet ukraine makes up stories to influence their public (ie Ghost of Kiev) support.
I think the biggest shock of this war is that the huge stockpiles of reserve equipment the Russians supposed had left over from the Soviet era didn't really exist. They degraded from time, theft, and a lack of maintenance into just a fraction of what they allegedly were.
And still asked a question, did it not?
It’s in the title.
You know it, quit being an ass.
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