(June 14, 2024 at 7:02 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote:(June 13, 2024 at 9:25 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: Right, but comparing the UK from 100 years ago or America from 60 years ago to modern-day Russia is not apt. We're not talking about the past; we're talking about the here-and-now. That's why I used the term "nowadays".
It's apples and oranges. Dragging up a tu quoque from decades ago has a point, I'm sure, but I'm not sure what it is.
The point was that using convicted criminals as ersatz soldiers is nothing new. It’s a deplorable practice no matter who does it or when they did it.
Boru
Of course it's deplorable no matter when. So were press-gangs, so were slavery expeditions, and so on. My point, in turn, is that the fact that Russia is still doing this today marks them as 60 or 100 years behind what other nations see as fit or just.
They're reaping those rewards in that when these convicts return back to civilian life in Russia with their pardons, they're returning to the life of crime which not only put them behind bars, but also made their behavior in Ukraine more contemptable.
It may also have something to do with the lesser fighting efficiency of troops, either fetched up from gulags or dragooned from North Korea or India, which is just as shitty in a different manner.
