3 ms·

If this war had begun under a parliamentary democracy (that in itself is not certain but let’s assume it’s the case for the sake of argument), the government wo

If this war had begun under a parliamentary democracy (that in itself is not certain but let’s assume it’s the case for the sake of argument), the government would almost certainly have been forced to find ways to pull out of it before the “partial mobilization”. There’s no way a parliamentary democracy would have survived that.

roenxi 4y ago
There is a lot of truth to that. But I do want to raise the obvious point that the War in Afghanistan [0] was almost seen buying alcohol legally. Democracies are great at sustaining long aggressive wars despite it being a really stupid thing to do (the US destroyed a lot of its own wealth & the opportunity costs were jaw dropping). There was never really a question of the US army being unable to achieve military objectives. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001-2021) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001-2021)
- remarkEon 4y ago
  I agree with most of your points in this thread, but with regard to Afghanistan the objectives of the US Army were frankly really nebulous and ill-defined to the point of total confusion. We'd waver back and forth between "destroy the enemy with no mercy" and "be nice, don't shoot unless shot at, make sure to talk about schools and democracy to the Taliban". In the same general parameters of your critique on this post, if the US had actually treated Afghanistan like an Imperial Colony I actually think the outcome would've been much more palatable to all involved. Treat the country like a colony, and make them pay taxes for administering their security, forcibly educate (meaning: re-educate) the populous, hand off administration of the government in pieces over about 50 years as the civil infrastructure and information coordination systems mature. Alas, this would've been maybe 10x more expensive than what we already paid, and for reasons that should be obvious the model we used in Japan and Germany really doesn't quite fit in that place.
- watwut 4y ago
  The war in Afghanistan has very few American deaths. Like, less then 2500 soldiers dead total over 20 years. All of them professionals, literally none of them mobilized. The impact on USA was minor to non existent. Impact of this war on Russia is massive.
  - nwellnhof 4y ago
    I wouldn't say 2.3 trillion dollars are a minor impact.
    - FrontierPsych 4y ago
      It was absolutely fine. Read "War is a Racket" by Major General Smedley Butler. https://archive.org/details/WarIsARacket https://archive.org/details/WarIsARacket (yes, yes, this is a "/s" for those who can't figure it out.)

roenxi 4y ago

There is a lot of truth to that. But I do want to raise the obvious point that the War in Afghanistan [0] was almost seen buying alcohol legally. Democracies are great at sustaining long aggressive wars despite it being a really stupid thing to do (the US destroyed a lot of its own wealth & the opportunity costs were jaw dropping). There was never really a question of the US army being unable to achieve military objectives. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001-2021) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001-2021)

remarkEon 4y ago
I agree with most of your points in this thread, but with regard to Afghanistan the objectives of the US Army were frankly really nebulous and ill-defined to the point of total confusion. We'd waver back and forth between "destroy the enemy with no mercy" and "be nice, don't shoot unless shot at, make sure to talk about schools and democracy to the Taliban". In the same general parameters of your critique on this post, if the US had actually treated Afghanistan like an Imperial Colony I actually think the outcome would've been much more palatable to all involved. Treat the country like a colony, and make them pay taxes for administering their security, forcibly educate (meaning: re-educate) the populous, hand off administration of the government in pieces over about 50 years as the civil infrastructure and information coordination systems mature. Alas, this would've been maybe 10x more expensive than what we already paid, and for reasons that should be obvious the model we used in Japan and Germany really doesn't quite fit in that place.
watwut 4y ago
The war in Afghanistan has very few American deaths. Like, less then 2500 soldiers dead total over 20 years. All of them professionals, literally none of them mobilized. The impact on USA was minor to non existent. Impact of this war on Russia is massive.
- nwellnhof 4y ago
  I wouldn't say 2.3 trillion dollars are a minor impact.
  - FrontierPsych 4y ago
    It was absolutely fine. Read "War is a Racket" by Major General Smedley Butler. https://archive.org/details/WarIsARacket https://archive.org/details/WarIsARacket (yes, yes, this is a "/s" for those who can't figure it out.)