(May 4, 2022 at 10:55 am)The Grand Nudger Wrote: Probably an effect of officer attrition.  By random chance, some grifter died and left a competent underling at links in the coc.

more likely there is a systematic process improvement program and performance based assignment and promotion that is weeding out incompetent officers and trialing new doctrines. 

Dynamic, competent officers willing to take responsibility are the ones who tend to go up to the front line to personally take charge of serious and critical situations where they can get killed.   Grifters would find a way to be far away from where things might get gnarly, and head for  some place safe, and preferably where they can play act in public eye,  instead.

So officer attrition through casualty might be expected to do the opposite by killing more competent officers abs leaving a higher percentage of grifters.

Yeah, sure, and if they're as good at that as they are at combat...they need all the help from ukranian snipers and artillery they can get. I think you're looking at it the wrong way though, about attrition. In a hub a spokes model none of the spokes are aware of each other. The list of politically and militarily dispensable officers -thus fit for combat duty- and the list of indispensible officers to the grift probably have overlap. Alot of it.

No one is going to be able to get you all those stripped parts better than the guy running the unit. Your e-1s are the most enthusiastic profiteers.

(May 4, 2022 at 12:10 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: Yeah, sure, and if they're as good at that as they are at combat...they need all the help from ukranian snipers and artillery they can get.  I think you're looking at it the wrong way though, about attrition.  In a hub a spokes model none of the spokes are aware of each other.  The list of politically and militarily dispensable officers -thus fit for combat duty- and the list of indispensible officers to the grift probably have overlap.  Alot of it.

No one is going to be able to get you all those stripped parts better than the guy running the unit.  Your e-1s are the most enthusiastic profiteers.

the classical stalinist approach to military reform is to make sure no small fry has any choices besides performing or being killed.     if they fail to perform and manage to avoid being killed, they will be placed in penal battalions to perform such duties as walking through mine fields to clear land mines for other troops to correct the oversight.    If this kind of pressure adversely affect the performance of troops, just let the troops rape all the women they want, and pillaging any spoils they want, when they succeed in taking territory to blow off steam.

(May 4, 2022 at 12:59 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote: the classical stalinist approach to military reform is to make sure no small fry has any choices besides performing and dying.    If this kind of pressure has adversely affect the performance of troops, just let the troops rape all the women they want when they succeed in taking territory to blow off steam.

It's not a Stalinist approach. As I repeatedly said, the Russian army has a long tradition of treating their conscripts like shit. In Napoleonic times, an indentured servant could gain liberty by serving 20 or 25 years in the army. I'm not exactly sure, how long it was. That meant in most cases, leaving their families for good. The Russian or formerly soviet army was also infamous for having one of the highest suicide rate of any armed force. Because of constant bullying by superiors as well as longer serving conscripts.

As rape goes, that has been an issue in every war on every side. It was less of a problem in Western armies, but it was an issue. In the soviet army, when they captured Germany, it also depended on the superiors. There were officers, who shot soldiers, who raped women. But there also were the ones, who allowed and encouraged it.

On the American side, there's a memorable quote by general Patton:

Quote:General Patton's writings about the second world war in his book War As I Knew It reflect the "inevitability" of rape in times of war. Patton remembers that in spite of his most diligent efforts, "there would unquestionably be some raping".

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/mar/03/gender.uk

indeed, while soviet rape of german women towards the end of WWII has been played up in western press, while german army (as oppose to the Waffen SS) were depicted as having acted with more or less propriety,  to serve the needs of cold war ever since the beginning of the cold war,  post cold war research suggests the German armed forces raped at least 11 million women i  occupied soviet territory.    The german army probably beat the soviet army by the metric of number of women raped per soldier while in occupied territory.

This is some serious 'fuck you' energy right here:

Ukrainian Victory Parade

Quote:Ukraine's government mocked Russia's celebration of "Victory Day" by holding what it said was a "parade" of tanks that Ukrainian forces captured from Russian troops amid Moscow's war with the eastern European country. 

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a tweet on Wednesday that the Ukrainian military's 93rd Mechanized Brigade "held a parade of trophy Russian tanks, ruining the holiday for the occupiers," in reference to Victory Day. 

Boru

This is some high level trolling

Since Russia and Ukraine use largely the same set of tanks and other heavy equipment, neither the authenticity nor the impact of such a parade might be what might be hoped.

(May 10, 2022 at 9:52 am)Anomalocaris Wrote: Since Russia and Ukraine use largely the same set of tanks and other heavy equipment, neither the authenticity nor the impact of such a parade might be what might be hoped.

The authenticity is immaterial. The impact, given the already low morale of Russian troops and Putin’s obvious frustration, can scarcely be doubted.

Boru

(May 10, 2022 at 9:52 am)Anomalocaris Wrote: Since Russia and Ukraine use largely the same set of tanks and other heavy equipment, neither the authenticity nor the impact of such a parade might be what might be hoped.

"Since Russia had  a large set of tanks and other heavy equipment that the Ukrainin's can now parade in front of every one in the Ukrainian capital seemingly with impunity from retalitory air strikes.... "

Hmmmmm......


Not at work.