Quote (Thebarba @ 3 Nov 2024 22:01)
If this is all true, this should be seen as the Biden/Harris admin's greatest failure. The sacrifices made to try and prevent it were staggering. Most notably to me, the devaluing of the USD through over-weaponizing of the currency, and the loss of a major source of raw resources as a trading partner. And Russia, while losing shit loads of men and material, gained a generation's worth of battle experience, and the most valuable and productive territory in Ukraine, leaving the rest as a rump state that dare not join NATO. We just fed our enemy so much XP, and for nothing. Only because the Western media is so controlled this won't be talked about as Biden/Harris's grand failure 50 years from now.
I disagree on some of these points, but even if all of this were true, you're missing one crucial point: the emergence of drone warfare is a total game changer and invalidates a lot military technology (battletanks, conventional missile defense systems, helicopters, perhaps even fighter jets). Much of NATO's military supremacy is based on technology which gets countered, either outright or cost-benefit-wise, by drones. The "Moscow-Beijing-Teheran neo-Axis" realy caught the West with its pants down in this regard.
It is extremely valuabe from a Western point of view that the neo-Axis wasted this moment of surprise on a target which is ultimately dispensable. Now, we know what we're dealing with and have gained valuable time to prepare ourselves for the challenge cheap drones pose.
Just imagine for a second that there had been no war in Ukraine, then China one day launches the long-anticipated invasion of Taiwan, the US fleet approaches, and the Chinese all of a sudden start overwhelming their anti-air with swarms of cheap drones. Instead of Ukraine, we would have lost several multi-billion aircraft carriers plus access to the world's most advanced chip foundries. And after the US Navy lost multiple carriers and was pushed away, what would stop China from teaming up with North Korea to invade South Korea from land and sea at the same time? All of a sudden, China is ahead in the race for technological leadership and AI while the West is faced with a huge chip shortage.
The neo-Axis could have used the moment of surprise to gain a gigantic advantage on the economic and technological battlefield of the 21st century cold war. Instead, they wasted it to seize some outdated factories in the Donbass and a bit of coal and natural gas.
This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Nov 4 2024 07:18am