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Why big countries shouldn’t go to war
Lucian K. Truscott IV I am a writer who has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist and screenwriter.
Trump and Hegseth sure do like the word, “lethal.” But it’s a meaningless word in the context of the modern world. How did U.S. lethality work out in Iraq and Afghanistan? Did all our warships and our stealthy fighters and bombers and our highly trained soldiers win us anything even marginally resembling a victory in those two countries? The four-year anniversary of Russia’s war against its much, much smaller neighbor, Ukraine, is fast approaching. How’s that working out for you, Vlad? Scheduled your victory parade for Red Square yet?
What the hell is happening over there in Ukraine? What the hell happened to us in Iraq and Afghanistan? With all our wealth, all our technological superiority, all the weapons systems we have spent decades building and equipping our army and air force and navy and marines with, why weren’t we able to roll into Afghanistan in 2001 after 9-11 and kick ass and take names and get our revenge and declare victory and get out of there? Why was “shock and awe” in Iraq such a dud?
Russian losses have been staggering. Politico reported last week in a story titled, “Russia bleeds troops for microscopic frontline gains,” that Russia has lost “281,550 soldiers in Ukraine in the first eight months of this year, according to a document that Ukrainian intelligence says contained leaked Russian data.” Based on Western intelligence estimates, The Economist estimates that there have between 1 million and 1.5 million Russians killed or wounded since February of 2022. The British Ministry of Defense estimates that about 250,000 Russian soldiers have been killed.
Then, Putin attacks his neighboring country, and with itchy fingers and visions of camouflaged sugarplums in his head and nothing else to do, Donald Trump goes to war against his own citizens. He commits tens, maybe hundreds, of millions of dollars and his uniformed and armed soldiers to the streets of his own country.
That is what our military is doing today. Its soldiers are bopping down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. in a cartoon version of a parade. Its generals are flying to a theater somewhere in Virginia so they can be lectured to by two cartoon characters in ill-fitting suits babbling about beards and haircuts and pushups and winning elections that were not won. Its soldiers are picking up garbage and raking leaves in its nation’s capital.
This is why big countries should not go to war. They will lose because the leaders of their armies are delusional ignorant fuckwits with too many gold bathroom fixtures and too much desperately unearned self-importance. It’s a recipe for disaster, a gigantic display of powerlessness by the powerful, and it’s happening right now in Ukraine and in the streets of the United States of America.