My belief is that the mindset is the really important part.
Look at the US — we have 350 million people. That’s a lot. By the numbers, we could play the Meat Grinder game for quite a while. But you know we really can’t. When we get into a war and lose 3000 people our politicians start to panic.
Russia has the mindset. They beat the Mongols. They beat Napoleon. They beat Hitler. They may not have a huge number of people, but they believe sacrifice is how you win.
China and India definitely have the numbers. And they may also have the mindset. But I don’t remember a lot of examples of 10 million of them dying on the battlefield. They may not really be into that. And by the way, I believe the “young men with no hope for a family” are mostly in their 40s now. Younger generations are more or less 50/50 male and female.
Agree - good points.