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To: buwaya

Ukraine refuses to release the number of Ukrainians that have been injured or killed in this pointless war. Makes the propaganda easier to swallow that way.


32 posted on 08/28/2023 4:37:05 PM PDT by Prince of Space (Trump 2024!)
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To: Prince of Space

So does Russia. So have most governments at war, to one degree or another. Why give your enemies such information?

We who are looking at this from the outside are not in the loop, and we shouldn’t be, from the POV of the combatants.

The US has released such information, in the course of its post-1945 wars, but that is because of the unique character of the US political situation, and the low-stakes nature of its “wars of choice”. Arguably that information, usually the obsessive focus of political conflict at the time, was significantly detrimental to the success of US efforts.

As I am currently poking around in Thucydides (though his account ends before this) consider the case of the casualty reports from the battle of Arginousae (or Arginousai). This was notorious, and widely commented on in antiquity. Well covered in Kagan’s “Pelopponesian War”, so you don’t have to chase all over ancient literature.


33 posted on 08/28/2023 5:04:40 PM PDT by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
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