I repeat–you cannot explain to 99.99% of people within the Beltway what real war is, how military strategy is subordinated to the strategy of the state (meaning geopolitics in a larger sense). Lastly, you cannot explain it to the average US MSM journo or “analysts” (or “expert”) which is a euphemism for the general lack of culture and ignorance.
Hal Brands, read my lips–the United States can not do “strategy”, it never could after WW II. It took SMO to expose utter incompetence of the US “elites” with all their military, diplomatic and academic institutions. It is a parade of the ambitious amateurs who are no good for any serious task of statesmanship, despite all their hefty fraudulent degrees. US “diplomacy” is a butt of jokes among the rest of the world, US military cannot fight a serious combined arms conflict with peer, without sustaining catastrophic losses, and now even NYT–this propaganda sewer is forced to admit:
KYIV, Ukraine — Andrew Milburn, a former American Marine colonel and leader of the Mozart Group, stood in a chilly meeting room on the second floor of an apartment building in Kyiv about to deliver some bad news. In front of him sat half a dozen men who had traveled to Ukraine on their own dime to work for him.
“Guys, I’m gutted,” he said. “The Mozart Group is dead.”
The men stared back at him with blank faces.
One asked as he walked toward the door, “What should I do with my helmet?”
The Mozart Group, one of the most prominent, private American military organizations in Ukraine, has collapsed under a cloud of accusations ranging from financial improprieties to alcohol-addled misjudgments. Its struggles provide a revealing window into the world of foreign volunteer groups that have flocked to Ukraine with noble intentions only to be tripped up by the stresses of managing a complicated enterprise in a war zone.
Aw, what a drama. Did anybody tell those guys high on kicking doors of the Iraqi and Afghani villagers’ houses that their “skills” and “experiences” are not applicable in the REAL war combat zone, against the enemy which is armed to the hilt and, quoiting ZZ Top, “knows how to use it.” In fact is very good at fighting at any tactical and operational levels, while in terms of strategy… That is really something else when speaking on the 80th Anniversary of the conclusion of the Stalingrad Battle.
There is a famous Lenin’s slogan: Study warfare in the most genuine way (Учиться военному делу настоящим образом). They never learned shit, evidently, in Washington.
Via http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2023/02/what-load-of-contrived-bs.html?m=1