User:Conservative/military

U.S. soldier

Top 10 militaries by strength: USA ranked the strongest in the world

See also: The United States will be the leading power in the world for the foreseeable future

See: The USA's military is ranked the strongest in the world

Russian military weaknesses

• Russian military weaknesses
• Russian military weaknesses

Global power website

• Global Firepower website

Better demographics and a country being a stronger power

• Political Demography: How Population Changes Are Reshaping International Security and National Politics
• With Great Demographics Comes Great Power, Foreign Affairs, July/August 2019
• Demography, geopolitics and great power: A lesson from the past, Aim Press, 2023
• The Geopolitical Importance of Demographic Power, 2018

USA and demographics and it being favorable to other major powers

• The United States Has a Keen Demographic Edge, May 13, 2024
• Demographics in the US are a source of power, Polytechnique Insights, Paris

Europe/West and a conventional land war

Indian defense website: "Europe and the US have now set in motion plans to revive their defense industries. While it may take them around a decade to increase production, swell their military hardware, and reorient themselves towards conventional war, after being out of touch with the habit since the 1990s, they will nevertheless meet the need for mass."[1]

Military, wars, mass murder and expense

WWII photo montage

"The level of war in the world seems to have risen to 1989 (post-WWII) peak levels and holding, ending the pacific 1989-2006 era. Does this contradict the Decline of Violence (Pinker) / End of History (Fukuyama) theses, or is it just a blip?". - Professor Eric Kaufmann, Twitter/X.[2], See: War and Peace.

War, debt and the collapse of empires

• War Debt & Collapse of the Empire, 2018

• Comparing how empires fall, Khan Academy

• Empires Fall, Khan Academy

How long do wars last?

Wars start out as wars of maneuver. If a war a war of maneuver doesn't achieve victory in 6 months, then it most cases it turns into a war of attrition (Wars of attrition are more common than insurgencies after a war).[3]

Wars are ended by removing an enemies will to fight and/or ability to fight (Productive capacity)[4]

• "Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting." - Sun Tzu

• "What is essential in war is victory, not prolonged operations." - Sun Tzu

• "There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare." - Sun Tzu

How long do post WWII wars last? Some statistics:

Georgetown University's Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization & think tank analyzing global issues.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies article How Does It End? What Past Wars Tell Us about How to Save Ukraine

“

Analyzing data compiled by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) on conflict termination since 1946, 26 percent of interstate wars like Ukraine end in less than 30 days and another 25 percent end in less than a year. Wars that end within a month last on average eight days, and 44 percent end in a ceasefire or peace agreement. Of wars that last over a month but less than a year, only 24 percent end in a ceasefire. When interstate wars last longer than a year, they extend to over a decade on average, resulting in sporadic clashes.

”

Georgetown University's Center for Strategic and International Studies indicates that most wars lasting over a year extend to over a decade on average, resulting in sporadic clashes.

Just war vs. realist view of war

• War and International Politics , John Mearsheimer (He discusses realist view of war vs. Just War doctrine of war)

Winning the peace vs. winning a war

• How Not to Win the War, but the Peace - Stephen Kotkin

• Stephen Kotkin: Winning the peace vs. winning a war - short version

Military

• US Army fails to meet annual recruitment target, again
• US Military's Biggest Recruiting Crisis Is Here

Wars and warlike natures

Studies:

• Democracies More Prone to Start Wars – Except When They're Not

Democratic peace theory and related matters

• Democratic peace theory

Mass murder

• Atheism and mass murder

• Godless leftists with utopian visons are more mass murder prone than godless libertarians

Right-wing death squads vs. Left-wing murderous regimes

• Do they want right-wing death squads

Military concepts

Carl von Clausewitz

• Sun Tzu
• Sun Tzu quotes
• Political warfare
• Fifth-generation warfare
• Asymmetric warfare
• Irregular warfare
• Lawfare
• Carl von Clausewitz
• Antoine-Henri Jomini
• List of military strategies and concepts
• Fourth generation warfare

Military competence and incompetence

• Task and purpose (Chris Cappy is a former US Army infantryman and Iraq Veteran. I cover geopolitics, history, weapon systems and all things military related — I do this from a veteran's perspective.).

Military competence

• Deliberate Discomfort: How U.S. Special Operations Forces Overcome Fear and Dare to Win by Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable by Jason B.A. Van Camp and Andy Symonds. Ballast Books (February 18, 2020)

Military incompetence

• On the Psychology of Military Incompetence by Norman F Dixon. Basic Books; Illustrated edition (May 31, 2016)

• Military Incompetence: Why the American Military Doesn't Win (American Century) by Richard A. Gabriel. Hill & Wang Pub; First Edition (January 1, 1985)

Are we headed towards WW3? It's not likely - at least not yet

• Are We Heading For World War III? Texas A&M Experts Say It’s Unlikely: "While recent wars have sparked speculation about an ensuing global conflict, military scholars say comparisons to past world wars are largely overblown."

• Are we heading for World War Three? Experts give their verdicts
• We are not headed towards WW3 - at least not yet
• "If I remember correctly, the last anxiety about world war in international public opinion appeared during the Cold War in the 1960s and 1970s... It is both thought-provoking and alarming that talk of world war has become heated and part of official discourse once again after half a century. Looking around, however, it seems that no one is really making plans to start a such a war."[5]

Victories in war are not necessarily won by winning battles. Wars can be won by eliminating the enemies will to fight which is a critical factor in winning wars

"Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."- Sun Tzu

In the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese consistently lost the bigger battles and the U.S. General Westmoreland was obsessed about body counts that showed the USA was "winning". However, although the Tet Offensive was not ultimately not a successful operation militarily, it did win on the propaganda front because it showed the American public that the Vietcong were not on their last legs. Specifically, the Tiet Offensive showed that the Vietmanese still had power to oppose the USA via a large operation and as a result of this the American public soured on the war. One does not win wars solely by winning battles. Breaking the will of the enemy is a key component as far as how wars are won (And wars are generally governed by politics[6]). Near the end of the Vietnam War at the peace negotiations, the American officer Harry Summers said to a Vietcong colonel that the USA won on the battlefield and the Vietcong did not. The Vietcong colonel replied back, that's true, but it is also irrelevant.[7] It was the political context that was more important in the Vietnam War than the military context. But ultimately the the USA won the peace in Vietnam as evidenced by all the Coca Cola now being sold in Vietnam and the current cordial relations between the USA and Vietnam.

One of the things the Russians may face in Ukraine if they win a pyrrhic victory is a Ukrainian insurgency that wears down the Russians. Most insurgencies are not successful and last about 10 years.[8][9] However, The Troubles insurgency in Northern Ireland lasted about 30 years and perhaps the same could happen in Ukraine due to the bitterness of the conflict and due to the intensity of Ukrainian nationalism. This may come into play because of two factors: First, Russia defector reveals 'majority' of people inside Kremlin unhappy with war in Ukraine, ABC News video, July 2023. This shows that some of the will to fight in the Kremlin may have been diminished (But Putin likely calls the shots so this issue is not a definitive point). Secondly, as far as the Kursk invasion, the inability of the Russian state to protect its borders shows this: Russia has failed as a state, Modern Diplomacy, 2023 and Almost half of global strategists think Russia could become a failed state within the next 10 years, Fortune magazine, January 23, 2023 and Will Russia become a failed state within 10 years? Is Russia currently a failed state? Will Russia eventually become a failed state?

"Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting." - Sun Tzu

Heritage Foundation view wanting the USA to be the policeman of the world rather than a more isolationist view. Interventionalist view

Preface:

• Why wars and hyper-militarism often make a country weaker

• Isolationalism is growing in the United States. Is this a good thing?

• Essay: Business is more powerful than military might. All REAL Americans know this!

Heritage resources:

• U.S. Military Strength - 2024, Heritage Foundation (The only non-governmental and only annual assessment of U.S. Military Strength)

Video:

• Flourish or Fail: How Strong is the United States? |Heritage Foundation - 2024 Index of Military Strength

International relations and politics

• International relations and politics