Meat Grinder Tactics

Its reported that Russia has now  put 40 % of its economy in war footing ....

Nothing Changes In Russia But The Enemy.

.... The highest percentage since the end of the Second World War and the start of  the Cold War. So Russia spends 6% of GDP on weapons and the military, which is more than twice what most European states are spending.

European countries spend at best half that percentage, and some only a third of that. The British Army is now basically a home defence force, and is at its smallest size since the end of the Napoleonic wars. It should never have dropped below a 100,000 fighting army (with Navy, Air force, Logistical and Technical support etc on top). Its believed that it could fight for as little as 2 weeks, before running out of missiles, ammunition and artillery.

This is a state of affairs that is sadly repeated, as generation after generation of politicians, ignore the Realpolitik of power, and run the armed forces down .... see after Napoleons defeat, and after the First World War.. Every time we do this, we find that we are rudely awakened by the rise of despots ... The Kaiser, Hitler (and Stalin) and Putin, so we then scramble to re-arm before disaster strikes. Will we ever learn? I doubt it.

We and the Europeans rather lazily relied on the American shield, to allow us to reap the 'peace benefit' and spend money on other things. Well America is almost certainly not going to defend Europe in the case of Russia attacking, under Trump (and very possibly under his successor, if it's JD Vance). Once America withdraws, its doubtful that they will come back, even under the Democrats. History shows that the US were reluctant to enter WWI and WWII, and so wars in Europe will likely simply evoke shrugs and thoughts that its a European mess, let them clear it up.

Meanwhile, in the Ukraine, Russian war tactics are little changed from before WWI ... they simply send wave after wave of infantry at the opposition, only these days, that includes waves of drones and missiles on both military targets and civilians in terror attacks (reminding us of the battle for Berlin in 1945 where there was no distinction between the two),

After all, as Stalin famously said " Quantity has a certain quality." So Russian generals just turn battlefields into meat grinder struggles, knowing that they can simply overwhelm defenders by numbers and reckless attacks, so that the defenders, who can't take casualties on that sort of scale, retreat or surrender. 

Russia has 5,000 nuclear missiles, whilst without US nuclear support, France and Britain can barely muster 500 nuclear missiles ... in theory enough to provide a firm deterrence, but with Putin's stated apocalyptic nuclear vision, who knows? 

Europe is going to have to urgently up its game on defence spending, and in particular, the three traditionally martial races of Europe, Britain, France and the recently semi pacifist Germany, are going to have to up the size of their armies to at least a combined 300,000 (Germany will have to provide the largest number, with France and Britain providing the other half).  

The rest of Europe will need to make up another 250,000 - 300,000 between them. If not the Russians will take more of the Ukraine, or the Baltic states, as President Putin attempts to rebuild the Russian Empire or Soviet Union.

We live in dangerous times ....