Seasons Greetings from the Great White North!
I woke up this morning to a centimeter or two of snow, our first snowfall of the
season. We often get snow right around General Conference time (but then it can warm
up a little for a few weeks).
Napolean started with his Grande Armee towards Russia with about 500,000 men. The
10,000 that barely survived escaped Russia in early December. So 80,000 Russian
losses were not so bad, all things considered. Napolean got his just desserts.
(BTW, there's the significant difference between the French and the Germans. The
Germans abhor Hitler, the French adore Napolean.)
Modern wargamers would of course plan for early, hard and lengthy winters in Canada.
Modern equipment would keep survival rates way above Napolean's army. So I don't use
an example like Napolean or even Hitler as base scenarios.
Look at Afghanistan. Russia got badly pounded but the US crushed the Taliban. Some
Russians thought that the US would get a shellacking in Afghanistan and were probably
astounded at the speed and ease with which the US toppled the Taliban. They of course
were not taking everything into account, particularly two things: 1.) Russia was not
supporting the Taliban this time whereas the US did support them in the Russian war.
2.) The US's military is decades ahead of the Russian military both in equipment and
in tactics.
Russians have always fought wars by attrition. Americans don't like to fight that way
and they haven't since WWI. But Russians and others have always underestimated the
Americans by supposing that the American public won't accept large numbers of American
casualties. They think that Americans are too soft to fight a "real" war. Even if
it's true (and it wouldn't be if the US was in true jeopardy), it is irrelevant. The
Gulf war, Bosnia and Afhanistan should have shown the world by now just how advanced
the US military is. So advanced that they do not need to fight by attrition. Indeed,
it would probably be counterproductive for them to do so.
How many dead soldiers have been shipped back to the US in this latest Afghan war?
========= Mark Gregson [EMAIL PROTECTED] =========
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