Big Serge, in another clever analytical article, writes about the fact that wars have a sort of last stages, when they are effectively decided. It’s clear that one side no longer has the resources to counter the other. Both sides know how it will turn out. They are still fighting. For each of the soldiers, it is thrilling until the last minute, because they may just be killed.
Big Serge writes about WWII operations in the fall of 1944, but the same could be applied to the NATO-Russia war in Ukraine as early as the fall of 2022, when it became clear that the West was exhausted and its military and industrial capacity could not keep up with Russia. Yet the propaganda continued to proclaim victory and the senseless war continued for another year. For Ukraine, this means more than 100,000 more dead. On the Russian side, by all accounts, only a fraction of that number has fallen, but it is still thousands of senseless deaths.
The senselessness stands out especially when compared to the old days. For example, in the Prusso-Austrian war in 1866, the Austrian command sent a despatch to the Kaiser after only a few days of fighting that it was unwinnable and that he should therefore start negotiations with the Prussian king as soon as possible. After all, even in the First World War the fighting was not fought to the very end. When it was clear who had the upper hand, the war was over. That’s the difference between the age of strategists and diplomats and the age of fanatical idiots.