I'm frustrated with how long this war is dragging out. How can monumental armies with tremendous killing machines -- artillery that can hit things from miles away, planes that can drop precise munitions of nigh-infinite firepower anywhere they want, tens of thousands of tanks which can blow up anything within sight, helicopters which can hover directly over a target and unleash a barrage of missiles, with weapons like this, how does war last more than a day or two? Presumably you could blow up everything in a country within minutes. That's the kind of firepower the modern world wields these days, and yet what do we get? The most peaceful warzone I've ever seen. Both sides report casualties that are no higher than a bad day in Chicago.
In World War I the invention of the machine gun was enough to cause tens of thousands of casualties in a single day on a single battlefield. The machine gun! Everyone has a machine gun now. We've moved well beyond the machine gun -- a tank, a navy cruiser, a helicopter, a plane, all of these weapons are infinitely more deadly -- so why aren't they killing anybody?
What we're seeing here is not a lack of firepower. I refuse to believe however poorly supplied or fueled or dispirited or whatever that the deadly weapons of today cannot kill as efficiently as the single-shot rifle bearing men at Gettysburg. It's entirely a lack of will. The Ukrainians for their part aren't willing to fight, they're just holed up in bunkers and cities, hiding in hospitals and schools, letting the Russian army encircle and pass them by one city after the next. Hence the low Russian casualties. And then on the Russian side they don't want to kill anybody except a few select 'Nazi' targets and consider this a police action. They're going to go arrest the malefactors and then everything can go back to being peaceful comity between neighbors again. Hence why they feel no need to storm cities or reduce positions to dust via artillery barrage like they did to the Chechens. Hence why the Russians haven't destroyed the civilian electric grid or any other infrastructure, which was the first thing the USA did against Serbia in our 'war of choice.'
Every day there are more ceasefires and negotiations, it's the most farcical war I've ever seen. It reminds me of the street fight in 'Yojimbo,' where the two major yakuza gangs in a city face off, but neither actually wants to fight, so when one gang advances waving their weapons (some 50 meters away) the other side retreats -- and when the other side advances the original side retreats. It's such a mockery of a fight that the actually experienced samurai who kills for a living is watching from the sidelines laughing at them. Can you call this a war? Where neither side wants to fight, neither side actually fields armies against each other, neither side shoots at each other with any of their effective weapons, and then a new ceasefire and negotiation is declared ending the afternoon's festivities in another draw?
Let's pretend Zelensky is telling the truth and only 1300 Ukrainian military have died in this war. If so that's a disgrace not to Russia, but to Ukraine. A third of Ukraine's territory -- the most heavily populated territory too, has been lost to Russian army advances, and you only put up a desultory resistance of 1300 dead defending it? Where is your army? Why aren't they fighting? Do you know how many Russian soldiers died in the battle of Stalingrad, one single city's defense? Almost 500,000.
The only reason Ukraine isn't taking any losses (not that I believe Zelensky's number but whatever) is because they aren't fighting anywhere. They just run and hide as the Russians peacefully pass by. The Chechens put up a much better fight than Ukraine despite being a tiny province with no foreign support. Ukraine is fighting with the arms and funds of the entire Western world behind them and they can't point to a single battle they've even fought in much less won.
In real war, like the battle of Kursk, huge masses of troops wielding mighty weapons of war like tanks and planes can devastate armies such that they never recover again. Pitched, decisive battles wielding the entire GDP of both sides and taking hundreds of thousands of lives can be fought in the course of a single month. Here we are three weeks in and both sides report losses that would not be out of place in a black inner city. They're both much better armed than the Germans and Soviets of World War II. So the only explanation left is this whole thing is a pantomime of a war and not an actual war. Neither side wishes to fight and thus no fighting occurs.
Russia can easily win any war it chooses to fight, but I have no clue how to win a pantomime. I suppose if Ukraine continues to offer no resistance the Russian army will eventually surround and cut off every city in the country, at which point they'll have to surrender or starve. So there is an endgame to this sort of bloodless maneuvering. But God knows how long it's going to take, with all the breaks for more 'ceasefires' and 'negotiations' everyone wants to take.
One of the goals of this war was for the West to take Russia's demands seriously in the future, instead of contemptuously crossing every red line Russia put down one after the other for the past 30 years. But no one can take Russia seriously anymore. Their military, bristling with missiles and shells and bombs of unlimited power, can't keep up with gangbangers in Chicago when it comes to actual kills. Whatever that is it isn't serious. Russia has already ceased to be feared and was never loved. This is not a good diplomatic position vis a vis the foreign world. Having power but lacking the resolve to actually use it is the same as not having the power at all. If Russia had rolled into Ukraine guns blazing and killing everyone and everything in sight, they would be hated by the world (just like they are now!), but they would also be feared by the world. It would be clear what happened when you fucked with the wrong people. The war would be long over now and all their strategic objectives would have already been achieved.
Instead we get these stupid tea parties where both sides bluster about how great things are going and then retire for another picnic. If you had no intention of actually fighting why did you invade at all???
Taking France took time -- six weeks -- but it also killed people, a distinct part of the formula lacking in this 'war.' The Germans killed 217,600 French in battle and another 350,000 French civilians. They weren't wasting their time dithering around about humanitarian corridors.
The only thing as pathetic as the Russian army right now is the Ukrainian army. At least the Republican Guard came out and fought the USA, though it didn't avail them any. In Gulf War 1 they lost 20-50k soldiers while only killing 300 of ours. That's some hopeless bravery for you. Now look at these Ukrainians, most of their population is either conquered or besieged and they report 1300 dead soldiers. Where is the rest of the army? Out for tea? Desert Storm took 42 days. Ukraine's casualties are 1/10 what you'd expect by now if they were the Iraqi army. So they have 1/10 the fighting resolve as Iraq had in its attempt to annex Kuwait, even though they're fighting for their country's continued existence. This is so utterly bizarre.
But it isn't just the Russia-Ukraine war's outcome I'm waiting for. I'm waiting for March Madness to start, so close yet so far away. I'm waiting for the Kenobi tv series to start which was announced years ago but now finally slated for May 25th. I'm waiting for the long-delayed Bleach and Utawarerumono anime to resume. I'm waiting for Final Fantasy 7 Remake part 2 (how many parts do they intend to make, 10? Based on the first part only covering Midgard. . .) So if there are ten parts and each part takes 3 years to make like their current rate of progress I guess that's 30 years before we're done? I mean, really? Seriously? That's the plan?
But that's only the tip of the iceberg. If you take my halls of fame and break it down by which of my favorite franchises are actually completed and fully translated, the direness of the situation becomes crystal clear:
A RECORD OF MY MISFORTUNES:
Only 8 of my 29 favorite light novel series have both been finished by the author satisfactorily and completely translated.
Only 33 of my favorite 75 manga series have both been finished by the author satisfactorily and completely translated.
Only 10 of my top 20 visual novel franchises have both been finished by the author satisfactorily and completely translated.
Only 75 of my top 200 anime franchises have reached a satisfactory conclusion to their tales and been completely translated.
I'm waiting on every single one of those. My lifetime isn't infinite. How about Russia, Ukraine, and Japan start taking things seriously? It doesn't take 30 years to remake Final Fantasy 7. It doesn't take 30 years to translate Aiyoku no Eustia. And it doesn't take 30 years to take Kiev. I swear, in the past, things used to happen. The Civil War was 5 years. World War I was 5 years. World War II was 7 years. Now you're lucky to get a McDonalds takeout delivery in seven years. We have wonderful new devices which can communicate instantly and transport us around the globe in less than a day. So why has everything slowed down?
When JFK announced we were going to the moon 'within this decade' we went to the moon within the decade. Guess how long it's taken to build the first Space Launch System rocket? You know, the one that's going to take us to the moon again? 12 years and counting. So much for 'progress.'
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