Quote (ofthevoid @ Sep 16 2024 12:03pm)

It's near impossible to know but we've beat this horse to death with some well known facts:

-Vast majority of deaths in this war are due to artillery/drones.
-Russia has between 5-10 to 1 artillery advantage. Maybe Ukraine had a drone advantage for a few months early on but that's largely gone now, both sides use drones extensively.
-Russia, unlike Ukraine regularly carries out rear/logistic attacks well beyond just the front lines. There's monthly strikes on hotels, training centers & other target rich places. Strikes on the training center killing hundreds few weeks back have been happening for many months. Obviously not all are as impactful though.
-Russia is and has been advancing much more than Ukraine, typically the attacker will suffer more losses defenders will be entrenched and ready.
-Russia has an extensive spy network in Ukraine. There's a lot of friendly's in places like Odessa, Kharkov, across the Donbass, that easily and regularly give away high value coordinates.
-Ukraine has troop issues. Average age of soldiers is well over 40, and troops aren't rotated regularly from front lines. That leads to poor morale, fatigue and dissatisfaction with leadership. Russia uses contract soldiers, most of which are volunteers that were paid and so far have been more than enough to replenish numbers. They objectively have the numbers advantage.

All in all, i think between the higher fire power and regularly hitting the rear balances out pushing forward. It's really difficult to see how Ukraine would be mustering higher losses on Russia with all these things considered.

Quote (ofthevoid @ Sep 16 2024 07:41pm)

Iraq and Afghanistan are some of the worst geopolitical decisions ever for this nation. Literally spent like 10 trillion dollars (if you throw Syria in there too) to only end up with the Taliban still in charge and an Iraqi government that's mostly pro-Iran. Oh, and hundreds of thousands flooding into Europe for our 'allies' to take care off on the backs of their social safety nets. If this war ends soon and Russia ends up with all this land, at least they'll have something to show for their war. Wtf do we got, debt and "mission accomplished" as more habibis want death to America more than ever before?

Quote (Prox1m1ty @ Sep 16 2024 02:39pm)

You seem bothered.

Quote (Prox1m1ty @ Sep 16 2024 02:51pm)

In 2001 US GDP was around 10 trillion per year. In 2024 it is around 25 trillion per year.
So, with nothing else considered, a 2.5x increase in GDP.

An average of 15 trillion a year over 20 years is about 300 trillion GDP gross. 10 trillion, which is about 2 trillion above estimates but thats ballpark.
That is around 3 percent of GDP spent on the war on terror.

The US has the largest GDP in the world, by far. The largest, most experienced and most capable armed forces. Not to mention,
https://i.imgur.com/0h9LUhf.png
And it cost all of 3% of overall GDP over 2 decades.

I am seeing figures that suggest the Ukraine war costing Russia anywhere from 500million-1billion usd a DAY; With potentially 35% of government spending being allocated to defence.

Yikes.

Quote (Goomshill @ Sep 16 2024 02:46pm)

A big point you missed is the reported gigantic gap in Russian vs Ukrainian combat engineering
Pretty much every report from the front lines and especially where Russia has advanced harps on how Russian fortifications have been extensive, layered, professionally contracted and built, but Ukrainian fortifications have been slapdash. Ukrainian soldiers report how rear defensive lines... don't even exist, while front lines tend to be shallow trenches. I mean, on satellite imagery you can plainly see how Russian construction eclipsed Ukrainian defenses many times over.

The attacker disadvantage is kind of subject to the ability to field competent defensive lines, and when we're talking about long stalemated artillery/drone exchanges in a war of attrition, the side with proper bunkers and trenches takes a lot less casualties

Quote (Prox1m1ty @ Sep 16 2024 08:51pm)

In 2001 US GDP was around 10 trillion per year. In 2024 it is around 25 trillion per year.
So, with nothing else considered, a 2.5x increase in GDP.

An average of 15 trillion a year over 20 years is about 300 trillion GDP gross. 10 trillion, which is about 2 trillion above estimates but thats ballpark.
That is around 3 percent of GDP spent on the war on terror.

The US has the largest GDP in the world, by far. The largest, most experienced and most capable armed forces. Not to mention,
https://i.imgur.com/0h9LUhf.png
And it cost all of 3% of overall GDP over 2 decades.

I am seeing figures that suggest the Ukraine war costing Russia anywhere from 500million-1billion usd a DAY; With potentially 35% of government spending being allocated to defence.

Yikes.

Quote (Prox1m1ty @ Sep 16 2024 09:19pm)

Throwing out suggestions and hoping the United States somehow catches an L, without a basic understanding of how fiscal debt and GDP actually functions.

The best entertainment.

Quote (Black XistenZ @ Sep 16 2024 11:14am)

And it took Russia 2.5 years to add less than 10% of Ukraine's territory (on top of what they already controlled pre-invasion), while NATO had conquered all of Afghanistan within 9 weeks. :rolleyes: