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> WMD-fevor took the US and led it down a long road of apathy as well To be fair the conventional part of the Iraq war was an overwhelming victory and even if
by qwytw 3y ago
> WMD-fevor took the US and led it down a long road of apathy as well
To be fair the conventional part of the Iraq war was an overwhelming victory and even if we look at the entire period between 2003 and 2011 less than 10x American soldiers died than just Russians alone in the first year of the war in Ukraine. The number of casualties on both sides just seems inconceivable high compared to any war any(?) western power fought in since Korea.
Less Americans died during the entire 15 or so years in Vietnam. During the Afghanistan war (which supposedly had a significant role in bringing the USSR down) the Soviets suffered at most half as many losses as just in a year now...
Considering all of this I find the general apathy of most Russians extremely bizarre... If Russia really suffered over 250k casualties there must be several millions of people whose family members or close friends were killed during the war yet nobody seems to care that much.
- dragonwriter 3y ago> If Russia really suffered over 250k casualties there must be several millions of people whose family members or close friends were killed during the war yet nobody seems to care that much. The internal attacks on military and recruiting facilities before and especially since the mobilization order last year suggest some people care very much.
- qwytw 3y agoIs there significant widescale resistance to mobilization in Russia? (not a rhetorical question, I really don't understand what's actually happening inside the country)
- jacquesm 3y agoLots of people have fled Russia ahead of the mobilization waves. It's not the same as active resistance but the effects are much the same.
- qwytw 3y agoI'm not sure. I mean the USSR didn't allow people to leave that easily so by the late 80s there were plenty of those who were happy to see it go or even worked actively to dismantle it. A million or so educated/young/possibly most productive people leaving is terrible for Russia long-term but it seems that it just strengthens the regime by removing a significant source of internal opposition.