With the exception of battlefield executions for prisoner/soldier deserters, Russia’s situation described in this excellent reporting is prescient and applicable to the US military. (Note: I’m excluding Blackwater/Xe and only focusing on disciplined, uniformed troops in the DoD.)  The same summary about the Kremlin counting on people going along with things when they are objectively terrible due to lack of proper prior planning applies to the US as well.  Objectively, (1) the US has not won a war since World War II, (2) no US service member is on active duty who has fought against an enemy with an Air Force or valid surface-to-air capability, (3) despite a trillion dollars, US air superiority and the highest technological weaponry, the US could not overthrow in twenty years an enemy who, in the initial stages of the war on terror, rode in to combat on mules and horseback with old Soviet rifles (amazing juxtaposition of technology captured in photos back in 2001-2003 time frame).  My hope is that commanders in the US military are taking note of the war in Ukraine while they plan for a war against China. War game models, as reported in the NYT and other open source journals, have shown a consistent massive loss of US personnel and materiel in the initial phases of combat even when variables are altered in favor of the US. And with only a minority of US citizens medically fit to serve, a draft will not be the solution nor will singing “I’m Proud to be an American.”

With the exception of battlefield executions for prisoner/soldier deserters, Russia’s situation described in this excellent reporting is prescient and applicable to the US military. (Note: I’m excluding Blackwater/Xe and only focusing on disciplined, uniformed troops in the DoD.)  The same summary about the Kremlin counting on people going along with things when they are objectively terrible due to lack of proper prior planning applies to the US as well.  Objectively, (1) the US has not won a war since World War II, (2) no US service member is on active duty who has fought against an enemy with an Air Force or valid surface-to-air capability, (3) despite a trillion dollars, US air superiority and the highest technological weaponry, the US could not overthrow in twenty years an enemy who, in the initial stages of the war on terror, rode in to combat on mules and horseback with old Soviet rifles (amazing juxtaposition of technology captured in photos back in 2001-2003 time frame).  My hope is that commanders in the US military are taking note of the war in Ukraine while they plan for a war against China. War game models, as reported in the NYT and other open source journals, have shown a consistent massive loss of US personnel and materiel in the initial phases of combat even when variables are altered in favor of the US. And with only a minority of US citizens medically fit to serve, a draft will not be the solution nor will singing “I’m Proud to be an American.”

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