Not Waving But Droning

Steyn Online ^ | 17 Dec 2024 | Mark Steyn

[Rummyfan]

There has been a development in the Ukraine war - that is, if you trust the source:

North Korean troops have been killed fighting Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk border region, the US has said.

These would be the first reported casualties since it emerged in October that North Korea had sent around 10,000 troops to reinforce Russia's war effort.

Ukraine's military intelligence agency, the GUR, has also said at least 30 North Korean troops had been killed or wounded in fighting over the weekend.

The BBC has not independently verified the claims.

Independently verifying US claims is a tricky business, at least for the next month or so. Over the weekend, Donald J Trump tweeted out a picture of former New Jersey governor Chris Christie having multiple McDonald's take-out orders delivered by drone. Funny, although not to a media determined to learn nothing since November 5th. Actual headline from The Independent:

Trump called out for 'fat-shaming' Chris Christie with AI image of him eating McDonald's surrounded by drones

As the incoming president, 47 has presumably been briefed on the real source of the recent drone activity in the Garden State, so-called because there are drones hovering all over your garden. What I took from Trump's joke was that there is no truth to the approved rumours that "foreign actors" operating from an Iranian "mothership" are behind the phenomenon. So, whatever the eventual explanation, it is safe to do Chris Christie jokes - although it would have been funnier with Krispy Kreme take-out bags.

[ClearCase_guy]

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he’s dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

— Stevie Smith

[nathanbedford]

The war in Ukraine, like virtually every war, presents a turning point in the nature of war itself. Likely the well disciplined but likely untutored troops on North Korea have no way of defending against the new and lethal nature of drone warfare.

The question is, do we?

Are we going to continue to spend ourselves into poverty building aircraft carriers vulnerable to hypersonic missiles? Are we going to continue to build multimillion dollar tanks vulnerable to thousand dollar drones? Will we continue to be confounded by ragtag Yemeni primitives with simple rockets because we have not altered our doctrine to permit us to alter our rules of engagement so that the cost to respond is commensurate with the threat?