Thread of Threads. I like to share threads about history (usually military/geopolitical in nature), so I will index them here. I am not a “historian” just a guy who reads a lot.

Hitler used diplomacy, so you should never ever negotiate. The only way out is to fight to the bitter end no matter how bad it gets, just like… oh no… oh no no no no.

I read this book a couple of years ago and *really* liked it. Fully endorse this summary/review as well. The book comprehensively addresses the apparent paradox of western gunnery advantages relative to China, which nominally invented gunpowder. Nice write up from Bazaar of War.

DeepState is showing a 15km Russian breakthrough to the north of Pokrovsk this morning. Russians working into a seam of severely undermanned Ukrainian positions.

Beautiful reminder that the obese are not so dissimilar from us.

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“Ceasefire as a precondition for negotiation” is one of the biggest gulfs between Russia and the Ukrainian/Euro faction, on a very fundamental level. Russia sees negotiations existing on a continuum with operations, because the battlefield is constantly strengthening their.

If Russia comes out of this with Donetsk and Lugansk but not the other two annexed oblasts, I don’t see how you can construe that as anything but a pyrrhic Russian victory.

If Ukraine does submit to giving up the remainder of Donetsk and Lugansk, that would go down as a limited victory for Russia, and definitely less than they hoped for. There’s a good chance Ukraine won’t go for it, in which case Trump blames Kiev for ruining his big beautiful

Looks like the pressure campaign is not working.

UNCLE SASHA

When I first heard the phrase “women’s suffrage” in like middle school civics I thought the term meant that expanding the vote caused widespread suffering.

Felix Steiner when you order him to counterattack a Soviet Army Group with three infantry battalions.

Quotes from the article:. “Because the balance of power decisively favors Moscow, Washington would have to send large amounts of equipment for Ukraine’s army to have a fighting chance.”. “Crimea, a casualty of the West’s attempt to march NATO and the European Union up to Russia’s.

Once again we have a fat man and little boy bringing huge booms

80 years ago.

Welcome back, General Franz Conrad von H��tzendorf!.

Thought this was Angela Merkel for a second.

Even in WW1 when it was most continent to count forces with a simple division inventory, the 3:1 ratio doesn’t hold up. Ypres, Brusilov Offensive, Bug–Narew Offensive, lots of other examples where attackers had success at near parity.

The 3:1 ratio is probably a useful rule of thumb in war gaming and exercises because it creates a framework for thinking about force concentration, but it doesn’t tell you much about what’s happening in places like Pokrovsk.

Bottom line, there is no “rule” about the force requirements for successfully attacking or defending on a modern battlefield, and there’s definitely no universal pattern of casualties that you can extrapolate.

Today, such ratio rules are even less applicable because of the wide range of fires (tube artillery, drones, aircraft, and rocketry) and the need for enablers (combat engineering, mine clearing, etc) at scale. These are more decisive than simple infantry headcounts.