Funny, I mentioned specifically that Russia defeated invasions by Hitler and Napoleon.
But, since you don’t want to read that Russia was defeated in border wars with Japan in 1904, Poland in 1921, etc., you misread what I said about Russia defeating invaders.
Let’s get to the heart of the matter: the U.S. is enormous. We have 11 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and a bunch of lesser aircraft carriers we call amphibious assault ships. We could lose several and still win a war. Russia, contrariwise, has one aircraft carrier, and it’s been in dry dock for years. Let’s face it, Russia doesn’t have a blue water navy.
Russia cannot project power beyond its immediate frontier. And, even 100 miles from its border, Russia’s logistics breaks down. Hence, Russia wasn’t able to take Kyiv or Odessa in its invasion of Ukraine. Russia is now in a war of attrition with Ukraine with no way to back out other than collapse. Putin is sacking all persons suspected of being disloyal within his government and there are no dissenting voices outside of government.
One of the strengths of a democracy is being able to withdraw from a non-existential war (by reason of change of government). Accordingly, democratic governments can survive losing individual wars. We (the U.S.) lost the Viet Nam war, for example, but won the Cold War of which it was a part. Having won the Cold War, we (as part of NATO) went from rough parity with the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact in population and military strength, to ten times the size in population and four times the military strength.
” U.S. is enormous. We have 11 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and a bunch of lesser aircraft carriers we call amphibious assault ships. “
Yes, the USA has borrowed and spent huge amounts of money on what now appear to be obsolete and irrelevant weapons systems.
A terrorist group is currently conducting a naval blockade of the Gulf of Aden, Red Sea and Suez Canal.
And all 11 carrier battle groups don’t seem to be able to do anything about it.
It doesn’t take much imagination to extrapolate what a country with 10,000 times the resources of the Houthis will be able to do with a naval blockade of Taiwan.
Meanwhile, the USA has the huge ongoing operational costs of 11 carrier groups, but can’t produce artillery shells, can’t produce drones in quantity, doesn’t have hypersonic weapons (N. Korea now does), and has generally turned into a trillion dollar a year military industrial complex ripoff and joke.
Sure. And where are you going to get the immediate replacements for those where they are needed in the world, in order to continue to wage a prolonged war? And then there's the possibility, that even more of your Navy is destroyed before being able to re-supply what has already been lost. What companies today are going to be able to, or even want to quickly re-tool their factories to produce the fighting machines that will be needed for a major world war? We could use the billions of dollars of military equipment that Biden left for the Taliban, not to mention leaving the blood of the 12 Marines he murdered.
Proxy wars are so much more desirable for those who invest in them, because you don't have to actually win, you can have endless war by simply supplying another country to fight for you. You've got no blood in the fight, and can focus on simply looking at the rise in your investment portfolio, while people are dying to make you richer than you already are.